El Paso County leaders say they’ll stick with Camino Real RMA for now

El Paso County will be continuing to work with the Camino Real Regional Mobility Authority for the foreseeable future, despite a recent scam involving the diversion of millions from a city of El Paso project.

The county is working with the RMA on tens of millions of dollars in road and transportation projects, mostly in the far eastern parts of the county, all funded by a $10 vehicle registration fee. Commissioners haven’t had any major concerns about the RMA’s performance on completing those projects before this point. They’re satisfied with how their projects have been worked on for now, but still wary of future problems or changes, particularly to control of the RMA.

Commissioners discussed the status of the Camino Real RMA and the investigation into the scam involving the trolley project behind closed doors at the county courthouse downtown Monday. City officials have given out more details in the past week about how more than $3 million was scammed from the downtown streetcar project being handled by the CRRMA, which has only one employee, Executive Director Raymond Telles. The RMA controlling board voted on changes he was instructed to make in the wake of the scandal, and he is still in place. The city acts as financial agent, executing all transactions. The money was diverted to different accounts that the scammer then withdrew from.

County Judge Veronica Escobar (D) said that the county has its own robust financial protections, such as not allowing funds to be transferred outside the country, that have even defeated other phishing scams not involving the RMA.

“It was either August or September where my email address was spoofed,” Escobar said. “So an email actually went to the auditor asking that an invoice be paid. And it was from my email address. And so that was caught and obviously not paid and thankfully we were good to go. But it’s always good for organizations to go back and review.”

Escobar said that there have been thorough reviews of all related county policies once the scam on the city project came to light.

There are still concerns about the governance of the RMA for commissioners. Some members of city council have previously suggested taking over the board. County commissioners will also be getting another update next week from attorneys that are out of town this week on what impacts such changes could have in the future.