City of El Paso Ethics Commission grills Representative for hours
UPDATE - Both George Zavala and City Representative for District 3 Cassandra Hernandez faced questioning and shared their testimony to the Ethics Commission.
Wednesday's evening meeting lasted over six hours, and was still on going by the publishing of this article.
Members of the Ethics Commission have discussed potentially readjorning the meeting on Thursday, July 20th.
When asked if she has committed any ethical violations, Representative Hernandez responded, "Any unintended use was not intentional. There is a lot of coordination that takes to do my work. All expenses on my fuel card are to my knowledge, authorized."
The questioning of the District 3 city representative began around 9:45 and kept going past 11:30 p.m.
Representative Hernandez discussed the lack of policy, training and requirements of the fuel cards members of council are issued.
George Zavala, the District 3 resident who filed the complaint, faced questioning on the evidence he presented to the commission. That questioning led to this back and forth with Casey Williams, the Chairman of the City's Ethics Commission;
"Who do you believe issued the gas card to Ms. Hernandez?" asked the chairman.
"The City of El Paso," Zavala replied
"Do you know whether or not the city of El Paso gave Ms. Hernandez permission to share that card with anybody else?" questioned Williams.
"No, sir. I don't," said Zavala
"I don't have any further questions." Williams said as he completed his line of questioning with the complainant.
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- El Paso's Ethics Commission held a meeting on Wednesday, July 19th, to discuss and hear the ethics complaint against District Three City Representative Cassandra Hernandez.
The complaint was filed back on May 26th, 2023 by District 3 resident George Zavala. Zavala claimed that the City Rep. violated the City of El Paso's ethics ordinance.
The complaint stemmed from the audit and findings into fuel card use by city council and the mayor. The audit found that Hernandez spent far more during the year 2022 than her fellow council members.
City Representative Cassandra Hernandez is in attendance for the meeting, as well as George Zavala.
