Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 5, 1994 TAG: 9402050090
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KAREN BARNES STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BEDFORD LENGTH: Medium
Leonard J. Bays, head of L.J. Bays Inc., is accused of offering Bedford County Administrator William Rolfe a $5,000 bribe to award his company a contract to run the county's new landfill.
Bays, 69, faces two to 10 years in prison if convicted.
His company has done business with the county for more than 25 years and still is under contract to collect recyclables and empty trash bins.
According to testimony at Thursday's preliminary hearing, Rolfe said he met with Bays around noon Sept. 3 to discuss Bays' $800,000 bid.
Bays, saying it was a deal between the two of them if the landfill contract could be resolved that day, placed a note on Rolfe's desk, Rolfe said.
The note said "$5,000 in bills," he testified.
Bays' lawyers, Drew Davis and Bill Davis, argued that their client only asked Rolfe for a resolution to the landfill contract process, which took longer than the county usually takes to award bids. Bays made no promises of financial reward to Rolfe in exchange for a favorable resolution.
On Aug. 4, L.J. Bays Inc. submitted the only bid to run the county's new landfill. The county, with only $300,000 budgeted for landfill operations, decided to search for other, less costly options than Bays' $800,000 estimate.
In 1991, the Board of Supervisors voted to renegotiate Bays' landfill contract and not take competitive bids from other companies to close the old landfill.
The resulting contract gave Bays a 10 percent increase over the previous agreement and assured that the company would operate the landfill through closure and the opening of the new dump.
The county closed its old landfill Oct. 9 in compliance with state and federal regulations.
Under a contract signed in March 1992, L.J. Bays Inc. was paid $250,500 for the first year of a multiyear contract for hauling trash and managing the old landfill.
Although Bays lost the contract to run the new landfill, which is being run by the county, the company picks up recyclables. Under terms of the contract, L.J. Bays Inc. is paid $79 for each leased recycling container, plus $60 in disposal fees for each. The contract expires June 30.
by CNB