The El Paso Matters January 4 report on the traffic fines that Reps. Kennedy and Fierro neglected to pay before they were sworn in not only failed to hold Rep. Salcido equally accountable but omitted that Claudia Lizette Rodriguez also had an unpaid traffic fine at the time of her swearing in.
El Paso Matters since published a follow-up story without, however, correcting their initial story, even though it is a digital publication, and without citing Rodriguez’s violation.
According to the follow-up report, “City officials said all three paid their fines Wednesday after being alerted of the outstanding debts and after El Paso Matters raised questions about the issue.”
Actually, El Paso Matters had nothing to do with the payment of the fines.
Again, City Clerk Laura Prine informed Reps. Kennedy, Salcido and Fierro on Tuesday at about 9:30pm that they had outstanding traffic fines and all three paid their balances on Wednesday.
It is obvious that none of the three would have intentionally left a small fine unpaid. There is zero question of malfeasance here.
HYPOCRITE CLAUDIA LIZETTE RODRIGUEZ
Recently Former District 6 rep Claudia Lizette Rodriguez filed an ethics complaint against Rep. Fierro, alleging perjury for swearing that he did not owe the City money when he took his oath of office.
But it turns out that she also had an unpaid fine when she took her oath of office in February 2020! Her ticket had been issued March 3, 2014 under the name “Claudia Rivera” and as of her swearing in was not yet been paid.
In fact, as of January 5, 2023 it still has not been paid!
The citation number is PK-2014-36263 (P4155162) and turned up in a recent open records request.
EL PASO MATTERS
El Paso Matters should have researched more carefully before impugning two City Council representatives and should have corrected their initial report when they had better information. That initial report is flawed and is still online.
It is not a question of “This is the information we had at the time we published our report.” They have a responsibility to be fair and accurate when shining a light on the missteps of elected leaders and should have taken as much time as they needed to get their facts straight.
As it turns out, the issue is a nothingburger.
In the future the City Clerk should inform candidates for office of their outstanding balances before they are sworn in, as was standard practice for a long time.