Auditor gears up for whistleblower complaint alleging City Hall intimidation over gas card report

El Paso city. Rep. Cassandra Hernandez, along with her husband Jeremy Jordan and former City Manager Tommy Gonzalez, are all being named as "co-conspirators" in a whistleblower complaint to be filed by Chief Internal Auditor Edmundo Calderon over intimidation he experienced in the wake of his report on city fuel card use earlier this year.

In a July letter to City Attorney Karla Nieman, Calderon's attorney, Laura Enriquez, listed several instances of intimidation and retaliation, which she said "affected (Calderon's) compensation, promotion, demotion and performance evaluation."

More: El Paso City Council continues investigation into members' 'excessive' fuel card use

"The city of El Paso must support transparent and inclusive government and should not permit any person to retaliate against employees," Enriquez states in the letter. "Retaliatory actions create a 'chilling effect' that discourage or suppress the willingness of people to speak out and report possible crimes by elected officials. This is particularly true in a case that involves the auditor whose responsibility is to guard against misuse of taxpayer funds."

The letter gives notice that Calderon will file a state whistleblower complaint within 60 days of the letter. With the letter submitted on July 21, a formal whistleblower complaint is expected before the end of September.

"Mr. Calderon requests pursuing the grievance process for this workplace complaint and gives notice of a claim for violation of the whistleblower statute," the letter states.

The letter was sent to Mayor Oscar Leeser and City Attorney Karla Nieman. The city did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Enriquez, in a brief interview Tuesday night, confirmed that the letter was sent on July 21. She and Calderon declined to provide additional comment on the letter.

In a written statement, Hernandez criticized Calderon for an "inherently deficient" audit and called his letter announcing the whistleblower complaint "yet another instance of his unwarranted singling out and undue distress imposed upon both myself and my family."

She likewise blasted his use of the word "excessive" to describe the $6,700 in city funds she used to gas up multiple vehicles last year, saying the "reckless and arbitrary use of the term ... has fueled many of the false narratives surrounding these events."

"Now, seemingly in a bid to divert public attention, the auditor appears to be making unfounded claims, perhaps to distract from an audit he cannot justifiably defend," Hernandez wrote. "No city employee, contract worker, or uniformed officer has approached me regarding this flawed administrative review. I have not lodged any complaints against Mr. Calderon, and his allegations remain unsupported and inaccurate."

How did the fuel card review start?

The investigation into city fuel card use by the mayor and El Paso City Council kicked off after Calderon received an anonymous tip alleging that former city Rep. Claudia Rodriguez was using her city-issued fuel card to fill up campaign workers' vehicles. The audit department began obtaining data on fuel card usage in December 2022 and requesting video footage from the El Paso Police Department in March 2023.

During this search, Calderon discovered that Hernandez's fuel card had been used while she was in Vancouver, Canada.

More: 'We're the watchdogs': Oversight and audit committee looks to hold City Hall accountable

Calderon met with EPPD Det. Jerome Hinojos on April 6, 2023, to review 2022 Purchase Activity Reports and Hinojos intimated that he would work to secure as much relevant video footage as possible. That afternoon, Interim El Paso Police Chief Peter Pacillas told Calderon that the EPPD needed to start a criminal investigation "due to possible credit card abuse and/or misapplication of fiduciary property," the letter states.

That night, Calderon spoke with Nieman and city CFO Robert Cortinas but was unsuccessful in his attempt to reach Gonzalez.

Letter alleges Tommy Gonzalez, Cassandra Hernandez conspired against auditor

On April 27, Assistant City Attorney Juan Gonzalez "demanded" to see a draft of the audit findings, which had not yet been released, before approving the May 4 council agenda. Calderon reluctantly provided the document in a format that could not be changed and the findings were made public May 1.

On May 18, after the findings had been presented to the council and a further investigation had been launched into misuse of city gas cards, Calderon attended a budget meeting for the Internal Audit Office alongside Cortinas, City Clerk Nicole Cote and Tommy Gonzalez.

More: Ethics Commission dismisses city Rep. Cassandra Hernandez's request for reconsideration

The letter states that during the meeting, Gonzalez "was intimidating (Calderon), trying to influence his work and impede his independence," the letter states, and making reference to Calderon's request for additional funding to support cybersecurity work.

That afternoon, Gonzalez attended a budget meeting with the Streets Department and "said that the audit was flawed and not done correctly, disparaging (Calderon's) work," the letter states.

On June 9, Calderon was notified that his budget request, in part, had been denied.

On June 21, Deborah Paz, whose Women's Voices for Political Reform PAC shares an address with Jordan's RallyPoint Public Affairs, filed an ethics complaint against Calderon "with the help of co-conspirators Cassandra Hernandez, Jeremy Jordan," the letter states.

More: Rep. Cassandra Hernandez's husband files bar complaint against Ethics Commission chairman

"The city attorney's office refused to hire an attorney for (Calderon), even though the allegations occurred while he was acting in his official capacity and resulted in him reporting a potential crime by an elected official to the police," Enriquez wrote. "In this complaint, they attack (Calderon's) ethics, professionalism, claim he misused his position, and accuse him of election tampering. Particularly, the complaint refers to my client's employment prospects which amount to intimidation."

The complaint, identical to a complaint filed earlier by Paz against city Rep. Brian Kennedy, was ultimately dismissed.

Shortly after, on July 5, Hernandez voted against hiring Calderon as the auditor and refused to recuse herself from the vote. Despite a May 6 election moving the auditor's office to report directly to City Council, Calderon has still not been given a contract.

"My client has endured intimidation and harassment described (in the letter) as well as other instances of abuse since his report," the letter states. "These actions all took place within the last 90 days. Under the (whistleblower) statute, the burden of proof will be on the city based on the timing of the retaliation."

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: El Paso Auditor Edmundo Calderon alleges whistleblower violation