On Monday, Mayor Leeser published an open letter explaining why City Manager Gonzalez was fired “without cause” and pushing back against former mayor Dee Margo for his harsh criticism of the 5-4 vote. See yesterday’s report by Adam Powell.
Margo fails to grasp that one cannot state a cause when firing an employee without cause.
The two new City Council reps, Brian Kennedy and Art Fierro, who voted to fire Gonzalez made very clear in their electoral campaigns why they are unhappy with him, and their reasons are sound.
On March 2, Dee Margo co-wrote an obnoxious op-ed in the El Paso Times with his wife declaring that Kennedy and Fierro need to be recalled because they voted to fire Gonzalez.
This comes from a man who won only 20.46% of the vote in his bid for reelection in December 2020.
Since his humiliating defeat, Margo has been giving competing press conferences with the City and participating in meetings with state-level officials in an effort to steal the limelight and promote his agenda. As Mayor Leeser suggests in his letter, Margo’s behavior was especially inappropriate during the height of the COVID-19 crisis, and even dangerous.
MAYOR LEESER DOES NOT REPRESENT ANY “GOOD OLD BOY NETWORK”
The Mayor emphasized that he “was elected to represent all the citizens of this community, not any special interest group, association, or good old boy network.”
He claims that certain former elected officials (e.g. Dee Margo) strive “to retain the status quo, remain relevant, and respond to the elite in this community that move them,” but that he “will continue acting in the best interest of ALL the citizens of El Paso.”
Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for your public clarification!
Max