El Paso City Manager Joyce Wilson is Sued

I write about this to further illustrate what goes on in our city unchecked and to give you information that will allow you to come to your own conclusions as to where the real thieving is happening. It is also an additional piece in the Rachel Quintana story. While El Paso City Manager Joyce Wilson is reporting Rachel Quintana to her pet Police Chief on the matter of a $75.00 discount and possible forgery resulting in Rachel being publicly arrested (and mind you, in the beginning, Fed Ex was NOT complaining) we have Joyce Wilson "allegedly" altering/amending/extending contracts to the tune of a million dollars WITHOUT council's approval. When an employee, Rozanna Mendoza complained that this cannot be done, Wilson FIRED her and then sent out an e-mail telling everyone Mendoza was "unstable." Ms. Mendoza filed a slander suit against Wilson on Monday, December 10, 2007 which was reported today in the El Diario of El Paso.

The City entered into a three year contract with First Transit Inc. to come in and "clean up Sun Metro." By the end of the first year, the company, through its representative, Timothy Omick, had spent a million dollars over what it should have. Omick then went to Joyce Wilson with the matter. According to reports, Wilson told Omick she would take care of it and to go ahead and hire whom he wanted and to keep on trucking. Wilson then told employee Rozanna Mendoza to go find money to continue with the contract. According to reports, Wilson did this without city council approval. When this came to light, Wilson said that she had informed council. When members of council said, no she hadn't, she then had a mea culpa. She is now saying "OOPS, I should have informed council."

In the meantime, some members of council came to Wilson's rescue on this no small matter, and voted to extend the contract AFTER the fact and make it all better. What this means in regular parlance is that we, the People, were only supposed to have paid this company a million dollars the first year and we ended up paying them a million more, because Joyce Wilson, our overpaid, over-glorified, power-grabbing, secretary SAID so without our elected officials' vote and consent and even knowledge up front.

It's just a million dollars. What does our District Attorney, Jaime Esparza, have to say about a city manager playing around with accounts and doling out money she does not have the authority to do? What does Wilson's pet police Chief, Wiles, say about that as well? So while Joyce Wilson is siccing the dogs on Rachel Quintana for what amounts to a few dollars from a PRIVATE COMPANY, compare that to the extra million OF PUBLIC MONEY she signed over to Mr. Omick and company.

It will be interesting to see what attorney for Mendoza, Doris Sipes, is going to do with Ms. Wilson. Sipes is well known for taking no prisoners and having no friends amongst the establishment. I like Doris Sipes. Sipes will be asking Ms. Wilson some very interesting questions in deposition. According to some observers, Ms. Wilson does not do to well on the witness stand (she was recently in court regarding the municipal court judges-she is trying to usurp their independence) and her performance was shockingly bad; apparently Wilson does not understand that raw displays of arrogance on the witness stand do not help her. That transcript is being prepared as we speak. Now Ms. Wilson, through this lawsuit can then tell us ALL about how she came to approve the expenditure of a million extra dollars without council approval, BEFOREHAND. This slander lawsuit will be very interesting indeed. My bet is that she settles up real fast.

So you see what goes on around here? What do you think should be done with Joyce Wilson? What do you think about that million dollars you just gave away?

Comments

Posted by lpasopooch  
on December 13, 2007, 11:06 am
Where and when the outrage? Who will shout louder than you? Who will say enough is enough? In addition to these kinds of major abuses of power, there have been thousands of smaller incidents which have demoralized individual citizens. Lives have been changed because of the layers of protection afforded public officials. The average person has little recourse. I even have a small tale to tell. I'm disgusted. Sure I'll vote. I'll contribute. I'll bring as many people to the poll as I can. BUT to what end? What for? The PEOPLE have said, "Oh, that's okay." We have had our taxes raised. We have had our city council members bullied. We have been told we are not progressive because we don't want our city to look like Portland, Oregon or San Francisco. I'd be intersted in hearing from other ordinary citizens like me on these matters you have revealed....not just lawyers. Today, after reading your piece, TC, I'm sick to my stomach.

AJ

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Posted by Toad  
on December 13, 2007, 5:48 pm
How is it that Ms. Wilson got so powerfull? I have had two separate in different city departments comment that she has a very very strong friend inEl paso city gov. Any truth to this? Is that how she got her job? I read the El Paso Times short article regarding her comments that she had advised the city reps yet the paper said 5 of 7 city reps contacted she she had NOT talked to them. This city is being ruined in my mind by the large scale corruption. I even hear now that the FBI probe seems to be getting swept under the rug.. That WAS my hope that they would not dro pit but a friend in city and county gov said he thought it was getting less and less attention and maybe trying to be dropped .. lets hope not

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Posted by Toad  
on December 13, 2007, 7:48 pm
one other comment Thersa you are a great looking gal especially for being 97 years old (your profile DOB) new to your blog good luck with the election.. be nice to get rid of much of our current dead wood

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Posted by theresa  
on December 13, 2007, 9:31 pm
Dear Ipasopooch, Toad and other disgusted citizens,

I hear you loud and clear, even over my own shouting. I had a call today from another outraged, really outraged citizen on this and the matter of the increased water bills for "DRAINAGE." Mayor Cook, who sits on the PSB/water board, is hoping that we have forgotten that we passed a major bond issue not to mention millions in Certificates of Obligation for what? FLOOD CONTROL! What happened to all that money and the debt we incurrred and the higher property taxes we are paying to repay the debt?

This is what happens when we allow ourselves to be led around by the nose by Dionicio Flores at the Times. The issues and the candidates trying to expose issues are not covered in the Times and we keep voting for the same bad lot sometimes with different names and different faces but it's all the same. Where is the investigative reporting probing the elected officials on how and where the other money for flood control was spent? Where are the articles exposing how we spent millions for the same flood control?--Don't hold your breath. They are not coming from the Times, a paper that depends on millions annually in advertising revenue from the CITY!

Most importantly, where is DA Jaime Esparza on all this and the corruption involved in the FBI probe? He is the DA and charged with prosecuting people who steal, even those in power.

The people who stand for real change are battened down by the paper and Dionicio Flores. See how little coverage I have gotten from the Times and see how most of it is negative. This is by design. There are so many other examples of the bad information being put out by the Times.

Know who is coming from where. Please e-mail my blogs to your friends and tell everyone to vote for me on March 4, 2008 in the Demo primary. This is truly how I will win this race.

Thank you and keep coming back.

TC

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