EP ethics board delays action on complaints filed against mayor, city reps

The City of El Paso’s Ethics Review Commission met Wednesday night to discuss three different ethics complaints filed against Mayor Oscar Leeser and four City Council representatives.

The board took no action because the city attorney’s office is asking for more time to investigate the complaints. The board will take us the issue again at its next meeting on Jan. 24.

If the complaints are brought before the ethics commission, five members will have to recuse themselves because they were appointed by the mayor or the city representatives in question.

“I was appointed by the mayor, and as a consequence I cannot sit on the commission that determines potential sanctions that against the mayor,” said Stuart Schwartz, chairman of the board.

El Paso resident Jud Burgess filed the ethics complaint against Leeser and City Reps. Cortney Niland, Jim Tolbert, Peter Svarzbein and Lily Limon.

The complaint takes issue with their participation in a closed door meeting with some of those opposed to the original proposed Duranguito location of the Downtown arena.

In his complaint, Burgess stated, “I believe the Mayor and four City Council members named in this complaint intentionally conspired to avoid quorum by gaming The Texas Open Meetings Act and participating in a rolling quorum, which allowed them to conduct closed-door meetings without public notice.”

According to the complaint, Limon, Tolbert and Svarzbein met in the mayor’s office privately before 10 a.m. Friday with local citizens. Tolbert left the closed door meeting just before Leeser and Niland arrived to continue the meeting with local citizens, the complaint stated.

The complaint also states, “City Council members and the Mayor cannot rotate members in the meeting over small periods of time to avoid meeting the number that constitutes a quorum for the purpose of avoiding giving public notice.”

At about 10: 30 a.m., Svarzbein left the closed door meeting, the complaint stated. That was reportedly followed by the re-arrival of Tolbert at 10:45 a.m.

Burgess further stated in the complaint, “Outside parties, such as the citizens who participated in the meeting, are not allowed to attend executive sessions as in this case.”

David Rodriguez also filed an ethics complaint against the mayor and the same council reps. for the same reason.

“It’s something that is secret government at work. You have half the council,and a tie breaking vote, so you have a majority. Are they just going to start getting together every breakfast and decide how to run this city and no one is going to hear about it. Are we not going to know why they do it what emotions drive them. Are they financially motivated?” said Rodriguez.

When asked about the possibility the Council violated the Open Meetings Act, Niland said, “No. No. No. No. We never were at a position where it was a quorum and we are always very cognizant of the open meetings act. The mayor and I were not participants in the first meeting and we were at the metropolitan organization meeting. We would never jeopardize putting anyone in that situation.”

Burgess told ABC-7 penalties range from a $500 fine to six months in jail for those guilty of violating the Open Meetings Act in Texas. “The penalty I’m seeking is just to put them out in the public eye so people can see how they are going about without the public’s involvement and without the public’s approval,” Burgess said.

A second ethics complaint against the mayor and the same representatives was filed by El Paso resident David Aviles.

His complaint stated “The five city representatives acted through loopholes to circumvent the Texas Open Meetings law. They met without notice to the public in the mayor’s office. A member of this group stood outside to circumvent law violation. “

The City of El Paso’s Ethics Review Commission will also review an ethics complaint filed by former City Rep. Ann Morgan Lilly against Leeser.

“I am formally filing a complaint under the city code against Mayor Oscar Leeser for abuse of office and power and misuse of public police resources,” Ann Morgan Lilly stated in the complaint.

On Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2016, Ann Morgan Lilly and her husband, Rutledge Lilly, were having dinner at Thyme Matters on North Mesa. Ann Morgan Lilly said the mayor and his wife approached her table to ask her how she felt about the decision to take the historic Duranguito Neighborhood off the list of possible sites for the Downtown arena.

According to the ethics complaint, Ann Morgan Lilly said she was surprised the mayor approached her because “he seldom spoke to me in public forums while I was in office.”

Ann Morgan Lilly further stated the mayor “didn’t like the answer I gave him and became agitated. He said I didn’t understand poor people because I was rich. He then said to my husband, ‘It must be nice to be a rich boy and it must be nice to take people’s homes.'”

As the Lillys were leaving, Leeser allegedly pointed his cell phone at the couple. Rutledge Lilly walked up to him and told him, “You’re a wimp,” the complaint stated. Rutledge Lilly goes on to state, “Leeser got up and his wife then stood up between them.”

Ann Morgan Lilly said she and her husband walked away and left the restaurant. “The police came to our house about 30 or 40 minutes later and asked what had happened.”

Ann Morgan Lilly says she believes El Paso police have enough to do and there was no reason for police to have been called. “When I was in office, I got calls that the police didn’t get to places on time for real crimes and then the police would say we don’t have enough officers,” she said. “That was a back and forth for 10 years and then for the police to be called on this little thing and to have it called an assault is beyond my comprehension.”

Leeser told ABC-7 Rutledge Lilly pushed his wife. A police report filed by Leesa Leeser stated she was not in pain, but the contact was “offensive.” Oscar Leeser was not available for comment on Lilly’s ethics complaint.