Edmundo Calderon has served as Chief Internal Auditor of the City of El Paso for more than 20 years and in that time has not only worked hard to keep our municipal government accountable, but has repeatedly exposed corruption and financial malfeasance.
He informed the City this past Friday that he will retire August 1 but use his accrued vacation time through October 10, which will technically be his final day of work.
You are not going to read about his achievements in the City’s bland press release, which includes disingenuous praise from the current Chair of the Financial Oversight & Audit Committee, City Rep. Josh Acevedo, who couldn’t wait to get rid of him.
This is the Auditor who exposed the gas card and P-card scandals, leading to the reprimands of Cassandra Hernandez and Claudia Lizette Rodriguez. He audited the 380 agreements between the City and developers and showed widespread abuse. He went after the hotels that refused to remit the Hotel Occupancy Tax. He investigated City car allowances. He revealed how much money the waterparks are losing. We could go on and on.
Calderon has carried out his duties with courage and integrity. He has been so good at his job that he ran afoul of certain colleagues, who allegedly abused and mistreated him, so much so that he attained whistleblower status and filed a lawsuit against the City.
To anyone who has observed FOAC these last few years, the true reason Calderon is retiring is no mystery.
Until January 2024, the committee was chaired by Rep. Brian Kennedy and the other members were Reps. Annello, Molinar, and Fierro. All four were committed to correcting abuse and uprooting corruption and they kept Calderon very busy.
Then Josh Acevedo, who holds a “D. Ed” degree but has the financial acumen of a panda, replaced Annello on the committee the following April.
In the November general election, the Oligarchy candidates seized control of City Council, so Acevedo was promptly appointed Chair of FOAC and joined by Reps. Alejandra Chavez, Ivan Nino, and Deanna Maldonado-Rocha (who had all just been elected).
So we went from a highly productive FOAC that worked closely with Calderon, who published a series of highly impactful audits, to a feckless FOAC that is run by four Oligarchy surrogates who have no interest in investigating any department or issue that could harm or embarrass their donors.
We can only imagine how exasperated Calderon must feel reporting to Acevedo, who has one-tenth his talent, has no idea what he is doing, and babbles incessantly.
We will miss Mundo and are very sorry to see him go.
Do not expect his replacement to be as effective.