City attorney dismisses ethics complaint filed against city Rep. Ordaz

An ethics complaint filed against city Rep. Claudia Ordaz has been dismissed, ABC-7 confirmed Tuesday.

“It did not allege anything that was within the purview of the Ethics Review Commission,” said City Attorney Sylvia Borunda-Firth, who dismissed the complaint. “The Ethics Review Commission can only review violations of the ethic ordinance.”

El Paso resident and former Republican Congressional Candidate Barbara Carrasco filed the ethics complaint, which stemmed from text messages from Ordaz’s private phone she voluntarily turned over last year following an open records request. Ordaz purchased data retrieving software to find the deleted text messages and publicly release them.

Carrasco accused Ordaz of breaking the law by disclosing economic development negotiation issues discussed during a council executive session.

Borunda-Firth said Carrasco was alleging a Class B misdemeanor, which is why she could not review it.

“From the very beginning, I knew it was a frivolous complaint,” Ordaz said Tuesday. “When it comes to the allegations that this individual is making, it was relating to Class B misdemeanors, and Class B misdemeanors are not covered by the Ethics Review Commission.”

Carrasco had referred to a text message conversation between Ordaz and El Paso County Judge Veronica Escobar. In late May of last year, Escobar sent text messages to Ordaz asking her about financial incentives for private health facilities.

“Wondering about those incentives for medical facilities on the east and west side that are on your agenda…. No private health care company in EP should ever get tax breaks. I bet they do zero charity/unfunded care,” Escobar texted Ordaz.

A couple of days after that, on Monday, June 1, 2015, Ordaz wrote to Escobar: “Hospital item dead 🙂 sold the idea about not offering charity / unfunded care and council agreed. Also Noe compared these like casinos.”

Carrasco argued that executive sessions are for the council and the mayor and whatever happened in executive session should be kept within the confines of that meeting.

“Class B misdemeanors are handled by our district attorney. So, it was in the wrong venue,” Ordaz said. “(Carrasco) really had no supportive documents either. But it’s her obligation if she feels that there was a violation that had occurred, it’s her obligation to file it with correct officials, which would be a law enforcement agency.”

Carrasco said she was disappointed by the dismissal of the ethics complaint.

“I think the interpretation was not how it should be,” Carrasco said Tuesday. “Right now I am waiting for the next step and exploring avenues that are available to me.”