City of El Paso loses nearly $1 million in federal funding for road project

City leaders learned Tuesday the city lost nearly one million dollars in federal funding for a roundabout project in Far East El Paso because city employees didn’t follow the rules.

The city competes with other local governments on the Metropolitan Planning Organization for federal transportation funding. The intersection at Edgemere and R.C. Poe was supposed to get a roundabout funded by federal dollars.

City employees bought the land instead of finishing an environmental survey required by the federal government. Because the city jumped the gun, the project was disqualified from getting $900,000 for the project.

Mayor Oscar Leeser and City Representative Cortney Niland were visibly disappointed with City Manager Tommy Gonzalez.

“We’re going to give the impression -once again – that we don’t know how to follow the rules,” said Niland. “That is unacceptable, Mr. Gonzalez. Unacceptable.”

Gonzalez argued he’s trying to fix problems that existed before his hiring. He also said he warned council in November 2015 the roundabout project could be in danger of losing its funding.

Mayor Leeser reminded Gonzalez he has been on the job for 20 months and this is not the first time this has happened. “We talked about how this wouldn’t happen again,” said Leeser, who said the city even hired a consulting firm to help it apply for federal transportation funding.

Gonzalez has said in the past he inherited an engineering department in disarray. Tuesday, he told council this is another example of how the city used to do things.

“Projects were being accelerated. They were not ready and they were still being presented to the MPO,” said Gonzalez. “We are trying to untangle all of these projects that weren’t ready.”

City employees proposed paying for the roundabout with money borrowed by the city to pay for street re-surfacing, a proposal that angered Niland. “When we screw up on the state or federal level, we’re just going to pull from that pool and say things are okay. Unacceptable,” said Niland.