Political activist files ethics complaint against City Rep. Ordaz

City Representative Claudia Ordaz faces an ethics complaint stemming from text messages from her private phone she voluntarily turned over last year.

Government watchdog Barbara Carrasco filed the complaint Monday morning. In it, she accuses Ordaz of breaking the law by disclosing economic development negotiation issues discussed during a council executive session.

“Executive sessions are for the council and the mayor and whatever happened in executive session should be kept within the confines of that meeting,” Carrasco said in an interview on Tuesday.

Carrasco refers 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.”

A separate text states: “We spoke about the exec items in agenda review today.”

The City Council has an open meeting most Mondays, in which they review the agenda for the next day’s regular city council meeting.

In an interview late Wednesday, Ordaz told ABC-7 the complaint was “absolutely frivolous and absolutely without merit.”

She also said, “This individual is alleging that a criminal violation of state law occurred. If there were any truth to her allegation, she should file a complaint with a law enforcement agency, not the Ethics Commission which neither investigates nor prosecutes criminal matters.”

“She and I interpret that government code differently, then,” said Carrasco. “In my view, when she texts the status of anything that goes on in executive session, that’s breaking the law. It’s not frivolous. Political officials are held to a higher standard,” she said.

Ordaz said Carrasco’s allegation that she released a “certified agenda” of an executive session is false. She explained “certified agenda” refers to the minutes of the meeting, but the city uses taped recordings. She denied releasing that material.

Ordaz also said the fact that Carrasco is disseminating the complaint to media and blogs is further grounds for dismissal, citing the city’s criteria for determining whether a complaint is valid, which states the legal department shall review “the nature and type of any publicity surrounding the filing of the sworn complaint, and the degree of participation by the complainant in publicizing the fact that a sworn complaint was filed.”

Carrasco said she had not disseminated the complaint to any media except one blog.

Carrasco is a precinct chair for the El Paso Republican Party, but said she filed the complaint as a private citizen. She said she has no desire to run for local office.

Ordaz voluntarily handed over the text messages from her private phone following an open records request last year. She said she purchased data retrieving software to access the deleted text messages.

“I was the only city council representative to release all of my messages pertaining to public business on my personal cell phone,” she said as she questioned Carrasco’s motives.

“My opinion is that she’s doing this as a public spectacle,” Ordaz said.

Ordaz told ABC-7 the city attorney will review the complaint on her own and make a recommendation on what the next steps should be. If the city’s legal department determines the complaint is valid, it’ll go to the ethics commission.

“I’m confident this is easily going to be dismissed,” Ordaz said.