A Harford County trash hauler “likely committed fraud” by playing fast and loose with landfill dumping rules and fees, costing Baltimore County at least $25,000 between 2022 and 2024, according to a report released today.

Baltimore County Inspector General Kelly Madigan said she is uncertain how much the hauler pocketed in the tipping fee scheme because the company has refused to comply with a June subpoena to produce records that include customer invoices. After a judge asked for a more specific subpoena and the company still did not comply, Madigan said she had no choice but to make a rough estimate of the suspected fraud.

“We’re losing money,” Madigan said of the county. “And it’s crazy we can’t say how much. This is a company. They said they don’t have invoices. How do they not have invoices?”

Madigan’s report also recommends that the county immediately stop doing business with the company.

But County Administrative Officer D’Andrea Walker said that, while the behavior is “suspicious,” the county would not revoke the company’s dumping privileges.

“The Subject Hauler has not fully complied with the office’s subpoena,” Walker wrote in a response to Madigan’s report. “As such, there may be pertinent and relevant information that speaks to the issue that has not yet been provided to your office.”

Walker said that when the county has more information, officials can “revisit” whether to bar the hauler.

Madigan’s report does not name the hauler. But court records indicate that Bumblejunk II, a Bel Air trash company, declined to cooperate with the office’s subpoenas.

Such resistance is rare, Madigan said, and has only happened once before; the other company that declined to cooperate with her subpoena is a roofer that was the subject of a previous report.

BumbleJunk II’s attorney, James Quinn, said his company has complied with all of Madigan’s subpoenas.

“BumbleJunk II vehemently denies any allegations of fraud,” he said.

Madigan’s office began investigating in 2023 after receiving a complaint. Trash haulers are allowed to dump general commercial waste from Harford County at the Eastern Sanitary Landfill in White Marsh under an agreement that’s been in place since 2016.

Commercial haulers are not allowed to comingle waste from the two counties. The landfill charges different fees under the arrangement depending on whether the waste originated in Baltimore County or Harford County. It is in the difference between these two fees that Madigan’s office says the fraud occurred, with the company pocketing that difference.

In 2022, Baltimore County charged $72 per ton for Harford County waste and $100 for Baltimore County’s waste. The subject of Madigan’s report claimed that all the waste it was dumping came from its home county. In July 2023, Harford raised its tipping fee to $117. Then that same company reported all of its trash came from Baltimore County.

Madigan’s office compared the company‘s record to six other companies. It stood out as the only one with a complete shift in county-of-origin reporting, with almost its entire customer load flipping locations.

“The data showed that the Subject Hauler has virtually all clients in Harford County in fiscal year 2023 prior to the rate increase and then almost all Baltimore County clients in fiscal year 2024 after the rate increase, which seemed implausible and an indication that the Subject Hauler committed fraud against the county,” the report said.

Madigan’s report stresses that the “opportunity to commit fraud” still may be present, and is turning to other judicial remedies to view the invoices, customer addresses and other information her office demanded. In the meantime, she said she believes the company should no longer be allowed to do business in Baltimore County .

Walker did agree to Madigan’s recommendation that haulers complete a ticket that specifies where the refuse came from and also to assess penalties to haulers who violate the rules.

Asked to elaborate about the county’s decision not to bar the company, Baltimore County spokesperson Erica Palmisano said: “The Administration will await findings from the Office of the Inspector General’s ongoing subpoena requests about the origin of the commercial trash prior to making a final determination on dumping privileges in Baltimore County for the hauler.”

Madigan’s report not only shows that the county lost money on its tipping fees, but it also harms the county in terms of planning. The landfills project how much trash they will receive and from where; with no way to confirm where the trash came from, predicting future needs becomes difficult.

“The office can’t force the county to bar a contractor,” Madigan said. “But it seems based on the data received and the failure to comply with the documents requested, there is a reasonable basis to do so.”