Fresno councilmember under scrutiny for private jet travel with executive

Fresno City Councilmember Miguel Arias is under investigation by the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission following an anonymous complaint over a private flight he accepted from a commercial trash contractor who does business with the city.

The complaint, sent in October to the FPPC – California’s political watchdog agency – alleges that Arias accepted a free flight from Joseph Kalpakoff, the president of Mid Valley Disposal, to return from a weekend trip in March to Las Vegas and did not report it on financial disclosure forms. The complaint also asserts that in September, when Mid Valley Disposal and another company had contract amendments coming before the Fresno City Council, Arias sought to influence the content of the contract and did not formally recuse himself from voting on the issue.

The FPPC confirmed late last week that it has opened an investigation.

Arias told The Fresno Bee in November that he had traveled to Las Vegas for a trip with friends for “March Madness,” the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, booking a round-trip ticket on Southwest Airlines for March 15 with plans to return to Fresno on March 18. An unforeseen emergency caused Arias to cut the trip short. He said he encountered Mid Valley’s Kalpakoff in Las Vegas during the trip and mentioned that he needed to try to rebook his return flight, and Kalpakoff offered to let Arias hitch a ride back to Fresno with him on his airplane on March 17.

“I did not utilize free travel; it was fully paid for by myself,” Arias told The Bee. Arias stated that he asked Kalpakoff to bill him for the full cost of the flight, and after receiving an invoice for $1,976.44 from the company wrote a check for the cost from his personal bank account.

Arias added that at the Sept. 14 meeting at which the contract amendments were voted upon for Mid Valley Disposal and Republic Services – companies that provide commercial trash collection services in the city – he was absent because he was with his son at a local hospital for an injury.

Documents provided by Arias to the FPPC in November and shown to The Bee include a copy of the invoice dated June 14 from Kalpakoff’s company for the $1,976.44 cost of the flight, as well as details from Arias’ bank showing his personal check written in August for the invoiced amount and indicating that the check posted to Arias’ account on Sept. 13, a day before the council meeting at which the disputed contracts were approved in Arias’ absence.

Arias acknowledged that the reimbursement for the flight was delayed by more than the statutory 30 days in state law because the invoice was originally sent to the office of Arias’ former campaign treasurer and was not forwarded to him until later.

Arias said he was told by the FPPC that “if you do not pay for something immediately, then you have to report that it was a gift for whatever amount of time it took you from receiving (the gift) to payment.”

“If I had reimbursed the guy within 30 days, it would never appear as a gift,” he added.

FPPC agrees to investigate

In November, FPPC spokesperson Jay Wierenga told The Bee that “all complaints are taken under review” by the agency. A review, he added, “determines whether the complaint warrants an investigation or not.”

The FPPC notified Arias in early November that it had received the complaint and asked the councilmember to respond with information and documentation about the circumstances surrounding the flight provided by Kalpakoff. Arias subsequently submitted more than 230 pages of information to the FPPC.

In a Dec. 11 letter to Arias, the FPPC’s enforcement chief James M. Lindsay stated that the agency “has commenced a commission-initiated investigation regarding your potential violations … of the Political Reform Act.” In particular, the investigation focuses on conflict-of-interest and economic-disclosure provisions of the state law.

“At this time, we have not made any determination about the possible violations,” Lindsay wrote.

How long an investigation may take depends on a number of factors, Wierenga said. “So there’s no timetable. Complicated cases take longer, simple cases are quicker,” he said. “And … things that may look difficult or easy on the outside may be just the opposite in the details of any investigation.

Arias denies that he had any involvement in the contract language before the council’s meeting. He said the agenda for the Sept. 14 council meeting was published six days earlier, and that he and other council members were briefed on the item on Sept. 12.

“In this case, I did not develop the contract; it was developed by city staff,” Arias said. “I did not participate in the meeting; I did not participate in the vote. And (the flight) was not a gift because it was fully paid for by personal funds, so the conflict doesn’t exist.”

The council’s minutes show that the contract amendments were approved on a 6-0 vote with Arias absent from the meeting. Arias told The Bee that if he had been in attendance, he would have voted against the amendments “because it would depend on us raising rates” for trash collection under the franchise agreements with the two companies.

Arias said he believes the anonymous complaint may be politically motivated because he is running for a seat on the Fresno County Board of Supervisors in the March 2024 primary election.

The FPPC previously opened a case examining Arias in late 2017 for a complaint of not reporting a statement of economic interest. That case was closed in about about four months later, in April 2018, finding no violations by Arias.

“I am very particular about gifts, to the point that every year I make my staff walk back the gift that the Chamber (or Commerce) gives us every year, the fruits and the wine,” Arias told The Bee. “I don’t like to report gifts, so I don’t accept them.”

Depending on what the FPPC finds, Arias said he expects to have to file an amended financial disclosure noting the flight and the delayed repayment of the cost. “If anything, my next forms are due in April of next year, and would have to indicate that I was on private travel and I fully paid for it,” he said. “It’s a footnote.”