The Grift That Keeps on Grifting
From KVIA.com:
El Paso Chief Internal Auditor Edmundo Calderon has filed a lawsuit against the city, claiming it and some of its former and current staff members harassed and intimidated him following a gasoline card audit done by his office. That audit found “excessive” use of two city representatives’ taxpayer-funded gasoline cards.
Calderon is seeking between $250,000 and $1 million dollars in damages, according to the lawsuit obtained by ABC-7.
The suit, which is demanding a jury trial, names several people, including former El Paso City Manager Tommy Gonzalez, El Paso City Attorney Karla Nieman, El Paso Assistant City Attorney Juan Gonzalez, El Paso City Representative Cassandra Hernandez and Hernandez’s husband Jeremy Jordan, and El Paso resident Deborah Paz.
According to the lawsuit, Tommy Gonzalez and City Attorney Karla Nieman tried to discredit Chief Internal Auditor Edmundo Calderon’s work following a gasoline card audit that his office did earlier this year.
According to the lawsuit, Calderon says he faced retaliation as a result of his findings.
“The comments and attempts to discredit Calderon by Tommy Gonzalez and City Attorney Nieman were in retaliation for Calderon choosing to conduct the audit and not telling them sooner, so they could notify their allies who were stealing gas from the citizens of El Paso,” Calderon’s lawsuit read. “Tommy Gonzalez and City Attorney Karla Nieman were upset that Calderon did not tell them sooner and involved the police department in the investigation. This is because Cassandra Hernandez was their ally and the person that had been chosen to run for Mayor. Tommy Gonzalez hoped that if the votes on the El Paso City Council changed, he would be able to get his job back. City Attorney Karla Nieman also wanted Cassandra Hernandez to not have this stain, so she could keep the votes and not worry about losing her job.
Bravo, Edmundo (Mundo!) Calderon.
But the taxpayers are the ones who are going to pay.
Everyone named in the lawsuit, except Cassandra Hernandez and her husband Jeremy Jordan and their lackey friend Deborah Paz, are protected from lawsuits by a kind of “qualified immunity” built into their contracts.
(Here’s a good one: If the City files a lawsuit against Tommy Gonzalez, the City has to pay for Mr. Gonzalez’ defense and any judgement against him. That clause was included in his contract renewal back when the Honorable Dee “Hold the Line on Taxes” Margo was mayor. They say Mr. Margo is a nice guy, but no one every accused him of being the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree.*)
It’s too bad we can’t fire Mr. Gonzalez again.
The prudent thing to do would be to pay Mr. Calderon his money and then conduct an administrative review of the conduct of the of the City employees named in the suit. If the charges are sustained, then the employees named should be fired and subsequently run out of town on a rail.
Metaphorically speaking.
*Holiday reference
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