Some weeks ago, Claudia Lizette Rodriguez filed an ethics complaint against Rep. Art Fierro alleging he violated the City Charter because he took his oath of office with an outstanding balance owed to the city for traffic violations. In December she had lost her reelection campaign to Fierro by a double-digit margin. Do you suppose her complaint was in retaliation for her defeat? No, of course not… 🤣
In addition, Chris Yost, who works as a firearms instructor, filed a complaint against Reps. Fierro and Kennedy for the exactly the same reason.
The City Attorney referred the two complaints to Frank Garza, an outside attorney based in San Antonio, for review.
Elida S. Perez of El Paso Matters reports that Garza dismissed the complaint filed by Rodriguez because her “allegations do not show a violation of the city’s code of ethics standards of conduct for which the Ethics Commission has purview over [sic].”
Likewise, Garza dismissed Yost’s complaint “because the allegations do not show a violation of the city’s code of ethics standards of conduct [sic].”
Of course, Perez’s headline omits the dismissal of these two complaints even though she previously published major reports, on January 4 and January 6, impugning Fierro and Kennedy for their unpaid traffic tickets. She relegates the news of the dismissals to paragraphs 15 and 16 of her text!
Perez’s current report, titled “Complaint against Rep. Brian Kennedy to get further review,” primarily focuses on a second ethics complaint against Kennedy that is equally baseless.
This complaint was filed by Dora Oaxaca, wife of Rep. Henry Rivera of District 7, who is enraged that City Council voted to save Duranguito from demolition. It will go before the city’s Ethics Review Commission “to determine whether [Kennedy’s] consulting work with a sports and entertainment promotion company violated ethics laws.”
You will see that complaint vanish into the ash heap of history as well since there is zero conflict of interest and everybody knows it.
Bob Moore, the President and CEO of El Paso Matters, would have us believe that his reporter is doing her diligence by shining a light on what they perceive as the unseemly conduct of a city council representative.
Read Perez’s reports on Kennedy and decide for yourself.
Max