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By HAROLD F. COBIN
Hour Correspondent

NORWALK -- Mayor Richard A. Moccia announced Tuesday that he signed a contract with City Carting & Recycling, Inc., of Stamford on Monday to handle Norwalk's solid-waste disposal for the next five years.

Under the $13-million contract, City Carting, currently Norwalk's recycling hauler, will operate the Crescent Street transfer station starting Jan. 1, 2009.

The signing concludes weeks of controversy over whether to incorporate the Meadow Street transfer station into the contract -- it is not included -- and if the city could have gotten a better deal with Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority, the current trash hauler.

The city's contract with CRRA ends Dec. 31.

Moccia, a Republican, used the announcement of the contract to criticize Councilwoman Amanda M. Brown, D-At Large, and state Rep. Bruce V. Morris, D-140, for allegedly interfering in the bidding process and mishandling confidential documents prepared solely for review by Common Council members.

Moccia was particularly critical of Morris.

"I know Mr. Morris is going to claim that he is a citizen and taxpayer of Norwalk and he has a right," Moccia said. "Well, you're a state representative, and you cannot separate yourself and become an individual."

Brown had said she had in writing from CRRA a fee for accepting the city's garbage that was lower than City Carting's. However, CRRA never bid for the successor contract.

Neither Brown nor Morris were immediately available to respond.

At the Ward B Democrats monthly meeting Monday night, Morris and other Democrats urged Councilman Michael K. Geake to bring return the City Carting contract to the council floor for a re-vote. Geake, as one of seven council members who voted not to return the proposed contract to the Public Works Committee at the July 22 council meeting, was eligible to move for its reconsideration -- provided Moccia hadn't signed it.

"If the mayor signs the contract this week, it would no longer be eligible," Morris said. But "if this was legally possible, would you move to have this matter reconsidered? You need a two-thirds vote and it must be initiated by one of the persons who voted it up."

Republicans charged that Brown had inappropriate communications with CRRA, and circumvented the city's procurement guidelines, after she cited a May 15 letter from CRRA to Moccia at the July 22 council meeting. The Republican Town Committee requested all correspondence between Brown and CRRA. Those documents, provided by Brown last Thursday, show correspondence between Morris and CRRA President Thomas D. Kirk.

"It's clearly outside the guidelines of the procurement process," said Art Scialabba, Republican Town Committee chairman, on Monday.

Morris, speaking to Ward B Democrats Monday night, however, described the CRRA letter as "an overture to the city" rather than a bid. The bidding period for the solid-waste contract closed Nov. 30, 2007.

"It was not illegal, because it was not a solicitation," Morris said. "They weren't bidding to the city, they were letting you know this window of opportunity is still open."

With the contract signed, City Carting may now negotiate with burn plants for disposal agreements. The state Department of Environmental Protection still must transfer the permit to operate the Crescent Street transfer station from CRRA to the city of Norwalk, according to Harold F. Alvord, the city's director of public works.

"We'll have that well before the first of the year," Alvord said.

The permit allows the facility to take 460 tons of municipal solid waste a day, Alvord said.

City Carting was one of three firms that bid for the new solid-waste disposal contract. The city hired the engineering firm Malcolm Pirnie and the law firm Holland & Knight LLP to review the bids.

The preferred contract, according to Moccia and Alvord, was to hire City Carting to operate both the Crescent Street and Meadow Street transfer station. That plan would have saved the city at least $1 million annually, according to Alvord. South Norwalk residents, however, charged the plan would increase odor, noise and traffic in the Meadow Street neighborhood. The council rejected the two-location plan unanimously on July 22.

-- Hour Staff Writer Robert Koch contributed to this story