BOULDER, Colo. — A former Boulder city employee who faces embezzlement charges was accused of purchasing tools for his own personal use over a period of several years, an arrest affidavit says.
Trent Fallica, 57, faces one count of embezzlement of public property, which is a felony. The City of Boulder said he had worked for the city in various roles for nearly 20 years. Most recently, he was a traffic signal maintenance supervisor.
The city said that on Aug. 17, someone reported that a Transportation and Mobility Department employee was using his city credit card to buy equipment for personal use. Police investigated and issued an arrest warrant for Fallica. He turned himself into the jail on Sunday, the city said.
In August, an employee reported that he found a receipt on a copier and a statement showing that a drill had been purchased for Truck 3729 by Fallica. That was the on-call truck and had been driven by the employee who found the receipt. He asked Fallica about the drill the next day, and Fallica told him there was no drill for Truck 3729, the affidavit says.
The employee felt that was "strange," so he and other employees reviewed expense reports for the past few years, which were kept on a shared drive. He said they noticed items on the reports that they didn't use or had never seen in the shop.
The purchases in question appeared to date back to 2017. In one example, the employee noted that multiple Ryobi tools were purchased but all of the tools in the shops were DeWalt tools.
The employee also noticed that several Klein tools, which are used for electrical work, were purchased in March. The employee said they don't have any Klein brand tools in the shop and the tools were purchased around the same time that Fallica was doing electrical work at his home, the affidavit says.
Fallica was aware of an anonymous complaint about tools that were purchased by him but were not in the shop. When he spoke with investigators, he said they were all accounted for and said he had pictures.
He explained that many of them had been in a toolbox in the shop but he had removed them from those locations to photograph them, the affidavit says.
The investigators asked for photos of where the items were before he moved them to take photographs. When those photos were shown to other employees, none of them recalled seeing the items in the locations depicted.
"Clearly, this employee is entitled to all the rights afforded by our legal system; however, these allegations are extremely troubling,” said City Manager Nuria Rivera-Vandermyde in a news release. “One of our core values is integrity. All city employees, and especially those who have access to resources, have a responsibility to be good stewards both of taxpayer dollars and our community’s trust. As soon as we became aware of this possible violation, we referred the case to police for a thorough investigation.”
The city said Fallica was placed on administrative leave and subsequently resigned.
His next court appearance is set for Sept. 26.
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