City could lose millions in project reimbursements

not claiming. but the city says that number is wrong … and el paso should only be reimbursed about nine million dollars for certain projects. open the story is developing now with abc-7’s darren hunt. rick, estela … the city is calling it a ‘reporting error.” but txdot officials say the amount of money is not the issue. it’s that the city isn’t invoicing txdot on a regular basis. “we very recently became awar that a report had been generated and put out by txdot, representing city projects and how much had been billed and how much was left to be billed … ” tha report claimed 10 city transportation projects, totalling more than 28-million dollars, had more than 21 million outstanding. among the biggest were the 14-point-7 million dollar country club road project … and the 4-point-1 million dollar mesa rapid transit project. “so we got to looking at th schedule itself and found out that in some cases they were using just construction monies and sometimes it was construction plus the city match … it was just a mixture that needed to be sorted out.” txdot district engineer bob bielek says the numbers txdot has are estimates before the project went under construction. he says the city numbers are based on what they actually paid contractors and the difference is not the real issue. “it’s that the city has not been invoicing txdot regularly on a timely basis for reimbursements. if we were getting regular invoices, we’d know what they paid. we have not been getting regular invoices.” in order to remedy the situation, city manager tommy gonzalez has added to the duties of airport aviation director. monica lombrana will now also serve as director of the city’s capital improvements department. “we certainly know that we need to make improvements in terms of how we utilize our resources including our personnel and overseeing the projects to make sure they are getting completed on time and on budget.” bielek said txdot will now ask for documentation every month, to better keep track. he added txdot will get with city employees to better explain the requirements going forward. darren hunt live tonight in our newsroom, thank you. and this debate continues sunday night at 10:35 for abc-seven xtra. the director of city development, mathew mcelroy … and district six city rep. claudia ordaz … join our maria garcia to talk about the road funding issues here in el paso. the children’s hospital is defending