Documents show city attorney’s retirement initially labeled resignation

Documents obtained by ABC-7 show Sylvia Borunda Firth’s retirement was initially labeled a resignation.

The City of El Paso announced Borunda Firth resigned from her position, effective May 31st. A reasoning for her resignation was not been made available. An initial press release obtained by ABC-7 dated on April 26th, is titled “Sylvia Borunda Firth resigns as City Attorney,” but the word ‘resigns’ is then crossed out in the draft and replaced with ‘retires.’

ABC-7 also requested the city attorney’s latest performance evaluation following her sudden resignation in April. Per an open records request, the city sent ABC-7 Borunda Firth’s performance evaluation completed in December of 2016 and signed by Borunda Firth in January of 2017. City council then included Mayor Oscar Leeser, Peter Svarzbein, Jim Tolbert, Emma Acosta, Carl Robinson, Michiel Noe, Claudia Ordaz, Lily Limón and Cortney Niland.

She was evaluated on her relationship with city council, management skills and abilities and professional attributes. She scored a rating of 3 or 4 in all categories.

According to her contract, the city is required to evaluate her performance annually in advance of the adoption of the operating budget. The mayor, with input from city council and the city manager, must complete the evaluation. As part of the December 2016 evaluation, open-ended questions were also listed. The documents do not indicate who is providing comment.

What specific recommendations do you have for the city attorney to improve performance? Comments included:

“There are times when Council as a whole has taken hits from the public and the media. Ms. Firth needs to be more assertive in not only advising council but the fallout or consequences that will follow should council choose to go in a certain direction.” “Follow up on council requests for information in a timely, professional manner. Give legitimate consideration to council recommendations and eliminate bias, if even only perceived in her decisions.”

What should be the priorities for the city attorney over the next year? Comments included:

“Establish a better working relationship with all 8 members of council and the mayor.” “Ms. Firth serves at the pleasure of Mayor and Council. There is a perception that she is not always fair and equal to all council members. It appears that she is working for the City Manager and not the Council.” “The arena is going to take up a great portion of her job. I want her to focus on making the families good. I never agreed that this was the best location and were given incorrect information, but that was not her fault.”

What is your major criticism of the City Attorney’s performance?

“Bias in the handling of the ethics complaint, unresponsive to requests from council to the point that representatives have to file an open records request as the only way of getting information.”

The evaluation also asked, what impressed you most about the City Attorney’s performance during the past year and in what areas has the city attorney been exceptional? Comments included:

“She figures out a way to get things done instead of immediately saying it cannot be accomplished.” “CA ability to minimize legal exposure of Council’s decision making.” “She is always on. No matter what topic comes up, she is ready with a response or statement that says she will look into the topic and will bring us full information.”

The evaluation was signed by Borunda Firth January 9th 2017. An evaluation completed in 2018 has not been made available.