FBI agents visited the home of a St. Helena council member, the document says

The FBI visited the home of St. Helena councilman Eric Hall on Aug. 7, according to a document obtained by The Press Democrat.

The visit occurred the same day federal agents executed a search warrant at the Upper Valley Disposal Service facility at 1285 Whitehall Lane.

Hall is married to former Upper Valley Disposal Service COO Christy Pestoni.

Neither was immediately available for comment.

The day before the FBI visit, Hall had announced that he would not seek re-election.

The document obtained by The Press Democrat is a “call for service” by the Napa County Sheriff’s Office, recorded around 6:30 a.m. on August 7, based on the communication of FBI agent Anne Hawkins.

Hawkins did not respond to requests for comment, and questions sent to the FBI press office were not immediately returned.

The FBI is conducting an extensive investigation in Napa County that has targeted some of the county’s elite and powerful names.

The Upper Valley Waste Management Agency, a quasi-governmental agency that oversees waste services in upper Napa County, was targeted by federal subpoenas received by Napa County in December 2023. But the investigation remained quiet until August 7 in recent months.

The service call document states that “a search warrant will be executed” at the Whitehall Lane location and that a second address, on Stockton Street, on the west side of St. Helena, will also be visited.

The listed address is Hall’s primary residence. Pestoni is listed as the owner according to online property records.

Workers at Upper Valley Waste Disposal previously told The Press Democrat about the search on Whitehall Lane, saying investigators arrived in about a half-dozen cars and removed boxes from the floor of the site for about an hour and a half.

Upper Valley Disposal Service operated the Clover Flat and Whitehall Lane Upper Valley Disposal Service landfills until recently.

It was founded and owned by the Pestoni family, who in 2022 sold the warehouses to Waste Connections, one of the largest waste management companies in the United States. Christy Pestoni is now the director of government affairs for Waste Connections’ local operations team.

The sale to Waste Connections hasn’t stopped environmental advocates, neighbors and former employees from repeatedly voicing concerns and filing complaints with state officials about the Clover Flat landfill over contamination, fires and unsafe working conditions.

On August 14, a coalition of environmental groups asked local regulators to decommission the landfills, asking that the operations be moved “to a safer, less environmentally sensitive location than the current high-intensity area of the CalFire fire in the headwaters of the Napa River watershed. .”

Hall was first elected to the St. Helena City Council in 2020 and ranked first among the candidates with 1,215 votes.

In 2022, he lost a two-year mayoral bid by 204 votes. Incumbent Paul Dohring, who is running to retain his seat, received 1,275 votes, while Hall received 1,071.

Hall announced in an Aug. 6 letter to the editor of the St. Helena Star that she will not run for re-election, “vacating my seat to allow another committed candidate to serve in my place.”

You can reach writer Edward Booth at 707-521-5281 or [email protected].