City to hire firm to look into financial adviser controversy

whether to hire a firm for an independent investigation into the financial advisor controversy. let’s go straight to abc-7’s reporer maria garcia leading our coverage. maria? remember – the mayor had asked for two separate reports – from the city manager and from the internal auditor. and he said he’d only be willing to spend taxpayer dollars on hiring an outside firm for an independent investigation, if the two internal reports were not suffidient or didn’t answer all the questions. remember this controversy surrounding city rep. larry romero. that’s because romero brought up the city hiring his former business partner as its financial advisor. but romero didn’t disclose his ties to noe hinojosa. the city manager stopped the process but the city started looking for a new financial advisor in may – without the knowledge of the entire city council. the mayor wants to know how that happened. the bidding documents show estrada hinojosa – the company owned by romero’s former partner – came in first place. a completely different picture than when they competed for the job in 2012. back then- they were a far second to he company they were slated to beat this time around. rember -romero said he didn’t disclose his ties with hinojosa because he didn’t think it was relevant since he worked with them more than 12 years ago: 06:30 you all have me as the most powerful person here at city hall. you all think that i can go to purchasing and i can say ‘hire this person.’ i can go to streets and say ‘do these streets.’ that’s not my job. the city manager runs the city. he’s the one who makes the decision. and yet you all keep coming on me like i’m the one who keeps doing everything two other big developments this afternoon: community activist and former political opponent of romero, jim tolbert has filed an ethics complaint against him – for allegedly violating the city code in the financial advisor process. and romero has confirmed he will come on abc-7 xtra this sunday night to answer questions about the allegations made against him. so stay tuned sunday night at 10-35. joel garcia will not be back in jail as he awaits his trial. this