Council appoints temporary city manager, City Rep. criticizes Tommy Gonzalez

As El Paso City Council on Monday discussed a temporary replacement for City Manager Tommy Gonzalez, the city representatives had some harsh words for him and for each other.

Gonzalez on Thursday sent council an email designating Economic Development Managing Director Cary Westin as the acting city manager in Gonzalez’s absence.

Because Gonzalez is slated to return from his out of town trip on Wednesday afternoon and Westin was scheduled for a holiday trip that same afternoon, Gonzalez had designated Bryan Crowe to fill in for a couple hours on Wednesday if necessary.

Crowe is the Quality of Life Managing Director for the City.

It’s customary for the City Manager to leave someone else in charge when he leaves town and the council has not interfered with his designations before. But this time is different, according to some city representatives.

Because an investigator is reviewing Gonzalez’s actions revolving around the search for a new financial adviser, the Council wanted to ensure no one directly involved with the investigation was named as the temporary replacement for Gonzalez.

Government watchdog Lisa Turner objected to Crowe’s designation, pointing out he is not a city employee.

“Why has a contractor been appointed an active city manager? I don’t care if it’s for five minutes. I don’t think it’s legal,” she told Council.

City Attorney Sylvia Firth confirmed Crowe is an employee of SMG Events, a private contractor that does work for the City.

“There’s an issue because the charter says the active city manager must be an employee of the city and Mr. Crowe is not an employee of the city,” Firth said in an interview after the meeting.

City Rep. Cortney Niland took issue with Gonzalez’s choosing of Crowe, saying Crowe does great work for the City but Gonzalez had once again left the city in an unfavorable position.

“Mr. Gonzalez has once again left us very vulnerable because he’s chosen individuals that are part of his executive team and are managing directors and put them in precarious situations where it can back this body into a wall – where we have no other choice because legally it wasn’t the right thing to do yet he’s put not only Mr. Crowe in the situation but us in the situation,” she said.

“I blame Mr. Gonzalez for putting us there so I don’t want today’s news story of us questioning Mr. Crowe’s qualificiation but more so this is further indication that we do not have proper leadership in the absence of Mr. Gonzalez,” Niland added. She and other city representatives have been openly critical of Gonzalez’s decision to eliminate deputy city manager positions and instead create “managing directors” by adding to the workload of department heads, such as Westin and Crowe.

City Rep. Carl Robinson expressed frustration after Niland spoke and implied some on council are taking action for show.

“Right now there’s a lot of question marks in my mind. and I’m not very clear on the motivation of why we’re doing what we’re doing. We need to get off the soap opera and the drama and get down to business but it seems like every day there’s a new saga another drama issue that we as a council have to deal with and i feel that some of it is more personal than professional,” he said.

City Rep. Michiel Noe, who rarely votes on the same side as Robinson agreed with his assessment. “Instead of letting the process run it’s course, we have to make statements as fact repeatedly other than if you say it enough times the public will believe it. I would really like it if we allowed the process to play out before we make any definitive statements about anything right now. just let it take it’s course and be fair to everyone,” Noe said.

Council ultimately stuck with Westin as the temporary replacement but voted to have Capital Improvements Director Monica Lomrana, instead of Crowe, step in in case there was a gap between when Westin has to leave and Gonzalez coming back to town. City Represntatives Lily Limon and Claudia Ordaz voted against Lombrana’s appointment.

“Personally I wouldn’t feel comfortable having someone on the executive team fill in,” said Ordaz, citing she’d want someone more removed from Gonzalez. She had made a motion to appoint Environmental Services Director Ellen Smyth but did not gain support from the rest of council.

Niland abstained from the vote, saying she was making a statement against Gonzalez for putting council in that position.

“This is a horrible situation that we’ve been put in and the fact that we have to even comment on capabilities on our employees and the fact that the city manager has put us in this position I’m sending a message,” she said on the dais for the record.

Council last week hired Ethics attorney Ross Fischer to review if Gonzalez acted appropriately when he authorized the search for a new financial adviser without a vote of direction from the city council. Council also last week requested City Rep. Larry Romero resign from his role as Mayor Pro Tem and from the Financial Oversight and Audit Commission, which he chairs. Romero has not said whether he will resign or not. He was not at Monday’s meeting.