City Reps Revenge?

City Rep Maria Reyes

Today is Election Day in Socorro. Instead of focusing on the flood problems in Socorro, the community has an even bigger problem on their hands - the on-going antics of two of their city representatives, Yvonne Colon-Villalobos and Maria Reyes. 

Here is the latest from the dynamic duo. It appears the two may have intentionally missed a special meeting of Socorro City Council in order to avoid having an item appear on the November ballot of their Charter Amendment. 

And some in Socorro are saying that it is intentional and meant as a "payback" to the city manager. 

On August 21st of this month there was a meeting of council. If you click this link you will see agenda item 29. You may recall a previous post I did on this issue. The agenda item was for a formal complaint from the City Manager against District 4 City Rep Yvonne Colon-Villalobos, which the item specifically saying in part, "...and to discuss several concerns City Manager has regarding District 4 Representative's behavior/actions."

Having a city manager level a formal complaint against a City Representative is a serious situation. 
When you have an allegation leveled against a City Rep that rises to the level that it needs to be on an agenda, the community has a vested interest in ensuring that the issue is vetted publicly and thoroughly.

I have a feeling that whatever it is, its pretty explosive. The City Manager has a background in HR, so I'm betting she wouldn't take the step she took of making a formal complaint if she thought there was another way to deal with whatever the situation was.

But yet again, City Rep Maria Reyes appears to have led another effort to thwart due process in a similar fashion to the ouster of former Mayor Gloria Rodriguez. As I have previously mentioned City Rep Maria Reyes is a close political ally of the subject of the complaint, Yvonne Colon-Villalobos. Reyes had that item deleted, so there was never a public discussion of the issue. Here is confirmation that Representative Reyes was the person who deleted the item.

This is where things get interesting. And by interesting, I mean Socorro sad.

The following meeting was set because there were several items that Socorro City Council needed to put on a ballot for the people of Socorro to vote on because Socorro's City Charter was apparently written by idiots.

If you click this link you can see the agenda and back-up times for the meeting that was supposed to be held. There were a few amendments to the Socorro City Charter. But the one that people in Socorro say is the item that triggered the alleged retaliatory no-show from Colon-Villabos and Reyes was the item that changed the cap of the length of time that a City Manager can serve in Socorro. It is called Proposition C.

Currently the cap is 24 months. The issue that was meant to be put before the voters on the charter election was changing the maximum time someone can serve as City Manager from 24 months to 48 months. Essentially going from a 2 year term to a 4 year term.

So rather than show up to the meeting and allowing the Council to approve the measures to be taken to the voters, many in Socorro say that Representatives Colon-Villalobos, the two who just happen to be involved in the issue raised by the City Manager, both coincidentally couldn't attend the meeting scheduled last night to approve the items on the November ballot.

It is said that it was their "payback" to the City Manager for putting the Formal Complaint item on an agenda.

Here's is the last minute public notice that the meeting was canceled and oh look, check out the names of the two city reps who just coincidentally can't attend!

¿Que casualidad, verdad?

Well remember, Lorenza Fraire is in the one calling the shots. She wants her job back as City Manager and has been trying to reassure people that she doesn't have an ulterior motive by saying that she signed a document that says she can never work for the City of Socorro again. The problem is that the document can be undone by a majority of votes on council.

Why do you think she's been trying to get a majority on council?

Interestingly she goes to my church for mass occasionally. I guess her hypocrisy knows no bounds. 

Also noteworthy, City Rep Maria Reyes is on the November ballot for reelection.