City Rep. Larry Romero says he’ll return city salary if other city reps follow suit

After accepting a reprimand from the ethics commission last night, we asked City Rep. Larry Romero why he’s not returning the city pay he’s received since resigning.

Romero says he suffered a stroke in December and has been out of city hall since. He resigned in late february yet he continues to be paid because he technically occupies the office until a successor is elected. When ABC-7 stopped by his tax preparation business on Thursday, he was working and seeing customers.

Since resigning in late February, Romero has been paid $3,941 dollars. City Representatives are paid an annual salary of about $29,000. Romero is not required to accept the pay. Romero’s son earlier this month posted pictures of the city rep. at the Masters Golf Tournament in Augusta, Georgia.

Romero refused an on camera interview on Thursday. He said that mayor and other city reps. returned their pay for meetings they missed, he would too.
ABC-7 told it’s not the same if a city rep. misses a meeting here and there than it is to resign and still accept a public paycheck. But Romero said he wouldn’t be returning the money and the city is forced to pay him because of state law.

“The law is set up so that they continue to work until their replacement is there which kind of defeats the purpose of having them resign,” said City Rep. Michiel Noe on Thursday.

“The minute he resigned, regardless of the state holdover provisions, he should have stopped accepting a paycheck. The minute he resigned, regardless of the state holdover provisions, he should have stopped accepting a paycheck.,” said City Rep. Lily Limon. She, Claudia Ordaz, Emma Acosta and Cortney Niland all said on Thursday that Romero should return the city pay.

“Because Mr. Romero resigned for medical reasons and could no longer fulfill the obligations of his office, then the pay should be discontinued. Mr. Romero should not accept the pay of a representative and should instead return those funds to the City of El Paso; It is his moral and ethical responsibility to the constituents that elected him,” Acosta wrote in a statement.

“When he resigned, he made it clear he had no intention of returning back to work, so yes i believe he should have done the right thing and not accept the pay. It’s not right he continues to receive a paycheck when the seat for Central El Paso residents has been left vacant,” said Ordaz in a text message.

City Representatives Peter Svarzbein, Michiel Noe and Carl Robinson had a more nuanced answer. “There are policy and processes in palce in regards toward holdover provision. It’s ultimately up to Mr. Romero what he wants to do, but returning the money would be something he should consider.”

Noe said it was hard to tell when Romero recovered from the stroke he suffered in December but said Romero should definitely consider returning the pay since resigning. “It’s a valid question.”

Robinson said Romero had a moral decision to make. Robinson said he would return the money if he was in Romero’s position. Romero said even though he’s not going to the council meetings, he speaks to his assistant about twice a week, and gives her direction on constituent’s concerns and issues related to his district.//