The El Paso City Council is set to evaluate three high-profile City Hall professionals.
The eight-member City Council will meet with attorney Lea Ream in executive session to discuss the “employment, evaluation process and duties for city manager, city attorney and chief internal auditor, as City Council appointed employees” at its upcoming work session on Monday, June 23.
There is little to glean from the work session agenda and nothing to indicate that any of the three employees are at threat of losing their jobs. It will be the first time new council members weigh in on these key employees’ performance following the 2024 election.
The city manager and city attorney have always been hired and evaluated by the City Council, but this will be the body’s first time evaluating the city auditor after voters gave the City Council control over the office in May 2023.
City Manager Dionne Mack was appointed to her post by a 6-2 vote in August 2024 after a lengthy and sometimes disjointed search process. Mack is El Paso’s third city manager, taking on the city’s top administrative position after former City Manager Tommy Gonzalez was fired without cause in February 2023.
City Attorney Karla Nieman took on the full-time post with the city in October 2018 after being named the interim city attorney that June.
Chief Internal Auditor Edmundo Calderon has been with the city since 2005 but has not had an employment contract since the city charter amendment was approved two years ago. Calderon has had a fraught relationship with the city in recent years stemming from a whistleblower complaint alleging intimidation following his report on city gas card spending.
If the City Council decides to take any action on any of the employees’ status or compensation in executive session, it will have to be done before the public in an open council session.
El Paso Electric rate increase
The City Council also appears poised to deny the requested rate increase from El Paso Electric during its regular meeting on Tuesday, June 24.
In January, EPE approached the city in search of a $93 million rate increase to be broken down into two components: an $85.7-million increase for general rates and an additional $7.3-million increase for a retiring plant rider. The increase would see the average customer paying an additional $22.39 a month, a 23% increase.
In February, the city suspended the rate increase for 90 days. In April, EPE sent a letter to the city extending the effective date for the increase, giving the city until July 1 to take action.
A draft resolution attached to Tuesday’s agenda states that “the rate increase, rate class changes, and rate design changes identified in the Application of El Paso Electric Company to Change Rates filed Jan. 27, 2025, is in all things denied.”
Adam Powell covers government and politics for the El Paso Times and can be reached via email at apowell@elpasotimes.com.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: El Paso City Council to evaluate top officials, deny El Paso Electric rate hike
Reporting by Adam Powell, El Paso Times / El Paso Times
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