El Paso City Council approves City Attorney’s Office entering into settlement negotiations in chief internal auditor lawsuit

Update (September 9, 2024): El Paso City Council voted today to allow the City Attorney's Office to enter into settlement negotiations with Calderon.

The vote passed seven to zero. Rep. Hernandez was not present for the vote.

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- ABC-7 is providing Xtra depth on the lawsuit the El Paso chief internal auditor has filed against his employer, the City of El Paso. ABC-7 has learned two people have been dropped from the lawsuit.

The lawsuit was filed by Chief Auditor Edmundo Calderon, who is in charge of investigating how city government funds are spent.

In the lawsuit, he says leaders intimidated him and tried to discredit his work while he was investigating the use of tax-payer funded gas card in the possession of city council representatives.

Calderon's investigation determined two city representatives had excessive purchases: current rep. Cassandra Hernandez and former Rep. Claudia Rodriguez.

Calderon's lawsuit names several people, including former City Manager Tommy Gonzalez, City Attorney Karla Nieman, Assistant City Attorney Juan Gonzalez, Cassandra Hernandez and her husband Jeremy Jordan, and El Paso resident Deborah Paz.

ABC-7 learned Jeremy Jordan and Deborah Paz were just dropped from the lawsuit.

Jordan was caught on a gas station security camera video that ABC-7 obtained. He allegedly put premium fuel in his pickup truck using the tax-payer funded gas card of his wife.

Paz is an El Paso resident who filed an ethics complaint against Calderon.

The lawsuit states the complaint contained information that could only have been obtained from Gonzalez or Nieman.

According to the lawsuit, Calderon is seeking between $250,000 and $1 million in damages.