City Council puts HR department in charge of finding new chief internal auditor

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- El Paso City Council is taking the next step in finding a replacement for Edmundo Calderon, the city's former chief internal auditor. Calderon announced his retirement last month, and his retirement took effect on August 1, 2025. Just a week later, City Council voted to not name an interim chief internal auditor. Now, council is putting the city's Human Resources Department in charge of the search for the next auditor.

During today's meeting, council voted eight to zero in favor of directing HR to advertise the position and recruit the new auditor. Mary Wiggins, who works in the city's HR Department, recommended the search be handled internally, and recommended the city contract with outside counsel Lea Ream as a recruitment facilitator. Ream is already on retainer at a rate of $275/hour. Wiggins said that has been Ream's rate for several years and that she expects the consultation to take approximately 20 hours.

Alternatively, Wiggins estimated that contracting an outside recruitment firm would cost about 30% of what the new auditor would make the first year on the job.

Watch the full meeting above.

Earlier this month, District 2 Rep. Josh Acevedo put forth a discussion and motion to hold off on naming anyone interim chief internal auditor until a permanent replacement is found. At that time, City Council voted six to one to approve an amended motion "to not name an interim chief internal auditor at this time and move administrative/operational functions to the city manager and keep governance intact with the FOAC until a new chief internal auditor is named."