Caglia Environmental owner Richard Caglia says his company followed all rules and procedures that were set by the City of Fresno in regards to how much he billed the city for providing garbage services.
Caglia is accused of overbilling the city by over $3.3 million from 2018 to 2022.
The backstory: Gregory Wallis, Chair of the Central Valley Tax Protection Group, announced in a press release that he filed a complaint with the Fresno County District Attorney’s Office Public Integrity Unit claiming Caglia overbilled the city.
- Emails obtained through a Public Records Act request show that the city discovered an issue with the invoices Caglia Environmental’s subsidiary Orange Avenue Disposal Company, Inc. was sending in and disputed them for a number of months.
- Caglia Environmental has had a contract with the city since 2004 for the transfer, processing and disposal of municipal solid waste. A 2018 amendment to the contract raised the rates for Caglia Environmental.
- But the city never held a hearing under Proposition 218, and per the contract, the amendment should have been considered invalid.
Caglia’s response: Caglia spoke to GV Wire in a story published on Friday, saying his company followed the rules laid out by the city.
- “Cedar Avenue Recycling and Transfer Station made a request due to increased operational costs,” Caglia told the publication. “After a due diligence process with City staff, our issue was publicly noticed and brought to the Fresno City Council with a recommended approval for the rate increase. We followed all policies and procedures set forth by the City of Fresno.”
- Cedar Avenue Recycling and Transfer Station is another subsidiary of Caglia Environmental.
Go deeper: As GV Wire pointed out in the article, The Central Valley Tax Protection Group does not have a website, phone number or online presence.
- Councilman Mike Karbassi called into question how the group learned some of the information that it included in its complaint to the Public Integrity Unit.
- “Some of the information included in that letter and that went out includes information from closed session,” Karbassi told GV Wire. “So I can’t comment any further, but I want us to internally look into that and see who the leak was from.”
