Recording Raises Concerns About Socorro City Rep Colon-Villalobos

Fraire (L) Colon-Viallobos (Top R) Reyes (Bottom R)

Socorro City Rep Yvonne Colon-Villalobos is the subject of an official complaint from the City Manager of the City of Socorro. The complaint makes several allegations but a recording of a meeting between the representative, the City Manager, and the City Attorney, recording by Colon Villalobos herself, reveals that Rep Colon-Villalobos was warned 7 different times during the two-hour long conversation that the attorney was prohibited from providing advice on something that has potential criminal consequences for Colon-Villalobos.

The recording also contains a conversation in which Colon-Villalobos sounds like she's implying that the City Manager didn't earn her position on her qualifications, something which the City Attorney also warns her about.

The agenda item (along with the rather extensive back-up) can be seen here, and will be heard at the next meeting of Socorro City Council which will take place on Thursday at 6pm. Lately Colon-Villalobos and Maria Reyes have been missing city council meetings in what some in Socorro say is a deliberate attempt to bust quorum so that city business can't be heard.

Last night the new mayor and city representative were sworn into office. Predictably City Reps Colon-Villalobos and Reyes were not in attendance, though their attendance wasn't necessary to swear in Mayor Elia Garcia and Councilman Ralph Duran. As a result the absence of Reps Colon-Villalobos and Reyes will no longer result in a lack of quorum.

Colon-Villalobos has cited scheduling conflicts for several of her absences and Reyes has said that she's been ill however just yesterday a voter in Socorro told me she knocked on his door yesterday asking for his vote in the November election.

The rambling and often heated discussion went on for about 2 hours and centered around several complaints Colon-Villalobos had about issues that she felt made her look bad. The first issue and what appeared to bother Colon-Villalobos the most was the fact that city administration received letters of complaint about Colon-Villalobos and her political ally City Rep Maria Reyes from County Election Staff regarding their behavior during the last election.

That behavior led to the City of Socorro incurring an additional cost of employing County Sheriff Deputies for extra security to maintain order.

Because those complaints alleged criminal behavior the City's attorney Jim Martinez warns her a total of 7 different times that he cannot give her advice about the issue, going so far to saw that the City can't spend resources on an attorney giving her advice on issues that involve criminal allegations and that it is the same issue in which Colon-Villalobos and Reyes used to kick out former Mayor Gloria Rodriguez.



Colon-Villalobos also took issue with the fact that during the recent floods Rep Reyes didn't attend any meetings with constituents about the flooding and they were angry. YCV felt that it was the City Manager's job to not let Reyes look bad and tell the constituents that Reyes wasn't invited to the meeting. The City Manager explained that everyone knows that it floods when Socorro gets a lot of rain and that Reyes asked her to keep her informed. The City Manager says she gave City Rep Reyes an update but hasn't received any communication from Reyes since then inquiring about flood damage, recovery, or the condition of her constituents.

Perhaps the most uncomfortable part of the conversation is when the City Manager responds to a statement made by YCV that she felt implied the City Manager didn't get the job because of her qualifications. That drew a pretty diplomatic warning from City Manager Jim Martinez who throughout the recording showed a level of diplomacy worth of the State Department.

Well maybe not in this administration, but in a good one.



City Rep Yvonne Colon-Villalobos admits her campaign involvement against the now-Mayor of Socorro Elia Garcia and also alludes to a collective effort with Lorenza Fraire, although she also says of Fraire at one point, "I'm not trying to cover up for anybody, I'm not trying to be a Ms. Fraire".

Here is the entirety of the recording so that you can hear the entire conversation and the context.