More streets added without council vote to repaving projects list
The controversy over street paving in El Paso continues. District 2 City Rep. Larry Romero is taking criticism for allegedly changing the master list of projects to have more improvements made in his district. But now ABC-7 is learning that there were other projects added as well.
The original list was voted on by the El Paso City Council back in 2012. But the city Capital Improvements Department said it has worked on about a dozen projects this year that weren’t on that first list.
“It wasn’t until I got the call from (ABC-7) actually that I was able to go out and find that list,” District 7 City Rep. Lily Limon said Wednesday.
Limon said that before this she had no idea that streets were being repaved this year that weren’t on the original list made in 2012.
The issue is complex. The original list of projects approved by city council includes Zion Street in northeast El Paso, a major thoroughfare for the neighborhood. But also getting worked on but not in the original list is Yosemite Place, a block-long street just off of Zion.
One of the other streets not on the original 2012 list is Polk Avenue in north-central El Paso. That also happens to be where Romero lives. He couldn’t be reached for comment Wednesday, but did respond to questions about his involvement in the street project process on Tuesday.
“After doing a tour of our district, we told (city staff) OK, well we think these are the streets that you should be concentrating on first,” Romero said. “Whether it was because they were in worse shape than others, or whether strategically for our district that we have good access.”
Romero said city staff asked for his input and toured the district with him. And Limon and Robinson said the same thing happened in their districts.
“I have no knowledge as to how that happened,” District 4 City Rep. Carl Robinson said, in response to how the streets not on the list ended up getting worked on.
Robinson and Limon said that after the district tours, they were then waiting to hear what would happen with their input.
“You go out and see the street and say OK, this street is worse off than another that has a higher priority,” Robinson said. “Yes, I have asked that. But in no way, in no time have I directed anyone to do anything.”
“I’m still waiting,” Limon said. “That just never happened even those these are critical streets.”
Capital Improvement Department Director Monica Lombraa said in a statement it’s unclear how the other streets got onto the list. She has halted work on those extra streets while she works out policies to prevent this from happening in the future.
