HELP: Property management company incurred maintenance costs without my approval. (Bakersfield, CA)

[Iris Luo]

I am currently in a tricky situation with one of my investment properties in bakersfield, CA. The previous tenant moved out, and my property manager sent me a list of items that the tenant is disputing (i.e. they want to get back their deposit). It added up to about 500 bucks. I OKed the request to fix it out of my pocket. However, 1 month later, the PM manager charged me 1600+ bucks for the total repair & maintenance bill!!!! There wasn't an itemized receipt from the contractor. He later sent me a list of the total items, which contained an item called "Heavy touch up " which cost 900 bucks. Is this normal??? 

I have been trying to get in touch with the PM but he is not very responsive. I have following questions that would need your advice:

- Any way I can dispute this with the PM? He's not responsive right now. Can I take this to a small court that handles this? Not the best way to handle it, but the property manager's lack of response is very annoying. 

- I am thinking about switching to a new property management company as soon as possible. Please let me know if you know any good property management company in Bakersfield, CA.

- Any things I should take consideration of when switching property management companies?