GONZALES - City officials say the State Licensing Board for Contractors referred criminal charges in a case involving Liberty Fence.

Officials with the Licensing Board said the city first hired Liberty Fence in 2010, a company owned by James Saizan. In March 2025, Mayor Tim Riley and his administration asked the agency to take a look at Liberty Fence, the main contractor for several of the city's public works projects.

"[Saizan] was doing concrete, he was doing plumbing, he was doing electric, taking down trees. He was doing everything," Gonzales Chief of Staff Wade Petite said. "Not one bid, not one scrap of paper did he ever produce to the city of Gonzales, except when he claimed a job was done, he submitted an invoice."

Documents provided by the State Licensing Board show that several projects were broken into multiple invoices. Officials say the projects also lacked proper bid procedure. The projects included sidewalk, water and electrical work at Gonzales' Municipal, Tee Joe and Jambalaya parks.

"It violates state law if you break up a project and the result is the avoidance of licensure," SLBC Deputy Executive Director of Enforcement Sean Beavers said. "If you are breaking up an invoice, or breaking up work to avoid going out to a public bid, then that is a violation."

Back in November, Saizan went before the commercial board, charged with six different violations. Beavers said the city of Gonzales paid Liberty Fence $426,000 for the projects investigated by the board. The Licensing Board fined Saizan $4,000 and ordered him to also pay $6,000 in administrative costs.

"As was revealed in the board hearing, Liberty Fence did not perform any work. They actually subbed the work out to other individuals and other companies," Beavers said.

Beavers added that those subcontractors did not have the correct licenses then either.

"An unlicensed company was a passthrough to other unlicensed companies. Especially with some of the work being electrical, that's concerning," Beavers said.

According to Petite, the mayor has yet to make a decision on whether or not to present this matter regarding criminal charges to the city council.

WBRZ reached out to Liberty Fence by email and phone; a member of the company said the matter involving work with the city is over.