County Landfills Possible Wrongdoing

Mike Giancola, the Director of the Waste & Recycling for Orange County has recently been accused of illegal operations at the county landfills. A former human resources manager for the county has filed the lawsuit against Giancola and has made such allegations after working under Giancola for quite some time. At this point in time, officials from the county have refused to provide commentary on the ongoing lawsuit that was originally filed by Kathy Tahilramani. She claims that she was harassed and disrespected by Giancola because she made reports of his activities. Several other allegations were listed within the lawsuit as well. Documents show that Tahilramani said that she told the county officials about the activities because she found out that Giancola was involved in an illegal salvaging operation. She also claims to have been sexually harassed. Documents also show that she complained that the county officials never referred the allegations she made over to the District Attorney and chose to do an internal investigation, which actually involved Giancola.

Tahilramani first made the report at the end of August in 2010. The report was made in writing and was handed over to Marc Gallonio, who was the Team Manager for the Human Resources Services at that point. She had provided Gallonio with all of the information, including the allegations that had been made. Court document state that Tahilramani said the allegation had to do with theft and for that reason; it should have been referred over to the District Attorney. However, it seems as though officials within the human resources department decided to work with Giancola to avoid the possibility of an investigation. In a memo provided to Karen Davis from the Managers Association in Orange County, Tahilramani said, “The taxpayer withdrew his complaint after telling Marc Gallonio he was going to meet with Mike Giancola at Mike’s house.”

Court records provided insight on the reports made against Giancola by Tahilramani. She claims to have reported him for his poor management practices on a number of different occasions. She also has made it clear that he has constantly used his position to play favoritism with certain employees. Tahilramani claim to have had such concerns since 2009, also stating that she provided him with warnings that never seemed to have been heard. In court documents, Tahilramani said, “Since August 26, 2010, Mike refuses to meet with me to conduct HR business, refuses to schedule or conference on business issues, will not speak to me in public or on the phone, ignores me in hallways.”