Contractor Cited by County Is Awarded Road Repair Job

Contractor Tom Staben--who was repeatedly accused by Ventura County of breaking environmental laws--was awarded a $98,856 road repair job Tuesday by county supervisors.

This contract marks the first time that the county has hired Staben’s company since it launched a probe last year into alleged illegal dumping violations on his Somis property.

After investigating the matter, county officials determined that Staben had violated county zoning laws by having an excess amount of open storage on his property. But the violations were not severe enough to deny this job to Staben, who was the lowest bidder, Supervisor Judy Mikels said after Tuesday’s meeting.

“Most of the citations have already been cleared,” Mikels said. “Now that the dust has settled, quite frankly, it wasn’t that bad. They were strictly zoning violations; that’s all they were. He wasn’t an environmental scourge.”

Staben’s contract calls for his company to repair 1,165 feet of bridge along Torrey Road, where it crosses the Santa Clara River south of Piru. The bridge was badly damaged during last year’s El Nino storms, officials said.

Over the past five years, the county had awarded Staben nine contracts totaling about $2.4 million. However, Staben was cited 22 times during the past nine years for violations on some of the 10 or so parcels he owns countywide.

In April, when county code enforcement officials inspected his 67-acre Somis property, they found a collection of about 30 old tractors, trucks, appliances and farming equipment parked and stored there.

The discovery sparked a debate among supervisors over whether the county Public Works Agency should continue to hire Staben for clean-out, slide-removal and road-repair projects. In November, supervisors decided against awarding him a $142,000 public works project, although he had submitted the lowest of six bids.

Supervisors said at the time that they wanted county officials to complete their investigation into all of Staben’s outstanding violations before considering him for further contract work.

“[Public Works Agency Director] Art Goulet tells me that he’s complied with all of the zoning laws, so legally we have no choice” but to award the contract, said Supervisor John K. Flynn, who has been one of Staben’s harshest critics.

Flynn added that he wants the county to pursue developing guidelines for rating contractors and punishing those who do not adhere to the standards. But he was waiting to see whether an Assembly bill that would give counties such authority is passed this year.

That bill--AB 574--was introduced earlier this month by Assemblyman Bob Hertzberg (D-Sherman Oaks).

“The legislation would put us on safer ground to put together the guidelines,” Flynn said. “Legally, it puts us in a better position.”

But Staben, who in December filed a claim against the county alleging that officials falsely accused him of breaking environmental laws, said Tuesday that he was not satisfied with simply winning the contract.

He said he wants supervisors to issue him a public apology. Now that his claim was recently denied, Staben said he may file a lawsuit against the county.

As a result of the false allegations, Staben said, he has suffered substantial monetary damage, emotional distress and lost his reputation as a responsible contractor.

“To me, this is no victory,” Staben said of being awarded the contract. “I didn’t do anything wrong. To me, the victory would be for the county to come out and say publicly that I’m not an environmental polluter. The money is not the issue here.”