Former City leaders critical of proposed Multipurpose Center at Union Depot site

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- Two letters were sent to Mayor Oscar Leeser and current members of El Paso City Council. One was written by former City Manager Joyce Wilson, another written by former mayor John Cook, alongside former City Councilman Steve Ortega.

Both letters critical of the smaller venue proposed at the Union Depot site, which was addressed by City Council on Tuesday, February 13th. Council decided to postpone the vote to March 12th.

Wilson stating her disappointment by writing, "This latest idea for a performance center is a joke and represents the small pea-brain vision of recent El Paso leadership. This is total waste of money."

ABC-7 spoke with Mayor Oscar Leeser about the comments by former leaders and he said, "To say that we're going to build something that was never a reality is really not the right statement. And to be disrespectful and act that way is even more disrespectful to the community."

Wilson also extremely critical of how Downtown El Paso hotels would be affected and wrote, "All the new hotels in downtown weren’t looking for a rinkydink outdoor facility on the railroad. They were looking at a signature project to bring in major attractions and heads in beds."

"If you look at the hotel occupancy in El Paso, , one of the highest in the state of Texas and the City of El Paso stepped up and was able to help them build this," replied Mayor Leeser.

ABC-7 also sat down with John Cook, who was Mayor of El Paso when the 2012 Bond was approved by voters.

He shared what he believed the vision to be twelve years ago, "We told them that it was going to be an annex to the convention center. We told them that it was necessary in order to bring major concerts in."

Mayor Leeser shot down any suggestion of the City asking the taxpayers for more money in another during the upcoming 2024 election cycle.