County votes to question vendors on bribes, investigations

07/17/2007

By Erica Molina Johnson / El Paso Times

County commissioners on Monday agreed to require vendors who want to be the county's financial adviser to answer a series of questions that go to the heart of a current FBI investigation of public corruption that has involved bribes of officials.

The commissioners voted 3-1 to require vendors to disclose if they are targets of an FBI investigation; whether they or employees have given or offered bribes to officials or if they have offered anything of value to any member of Commissioners Court or their families; and reveal campaign contributions. Commissioners also agreed to create a committee to review financial adviser candidates.

The moves are the first official act the county has taken to tighten the way it deals with vendors since the FBI raided county offices and two county officials pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges involving public corruption.

The requirement that vendors answer the questions when making a bid was added on the recommendation of County Attorney José Rodríguez.

"If somebody discloses to you they have been involved in soliciting bribes or their employees have been involved in soliciting bribes, that is an important consideration for Commissioners Court to take into account," Rodríguez said after the meeting.

The court also voted Monday to turn over initial screening of the financial adviser applicants to a committee that will analyze the proposals and make recommendations to the court.

The committee will be made up of members of the county auditor's office, purchasing office, county attorney's office and accountants from departments such as the Juvenile Probation Department, the Sheriff's Office and the probate courts.

In forming the committee, the court also canceled a special meeting Wednesday to interview prospective companies to become the county's financial adviser.

Both items passed on votes of3-1, with Commissioner Dan Haggerty voting against them. County Judge Anthony Cobos was not present.

Commissioner Veronica Escobar asked for the committee item to be considered because of the current FBI investigations and the guilty pleas of former Commissioner Betti Flores and former county chief of staff John Travis Ketner to charges of conspiracy to commit mail fraud, wire fraud or bribery. Both guilty pleas included accounts of improprieties involving financial advisers.

"There's an opportunity to build public trust and I think we should seize it," Escobar said during the meeting.

Commissioner Miguel Terán told the court such a committee is the traditional way the financial adviser bid is handled.

"This is nothing new, but I do take offense in anybody suggesting because you are listed on a list a felon put together, (something) is wrong," he said.

"We cannot afford to be waiting on this thing forever," he added .

Two of the bidders to become the county's financial adviser, First Southwest and RBC Capital Markets, have withdrawn their bids in the last week.

Terán and Commissioner Luis Sariñana are thought to be among the unnamed co-conspirators Ketner said he conspired with to strip the financial adviser contract from First Southwest because the company declined to pay a bribe to keep the contract. Commissioners Court voted in April to fire First Southwest on a vote of 3-2, with Escobar and Sariñana voting against the contract termination.

Flores pleaded guilty July 6 to six counts of conspiracy to commit mail or wire fraud, describing instances where she traded her vote for money.

In count two of Flores' plea, she admitted to receiving cash bribes for her vote on "part of the underwriting contract for a bond initiative for Thomason General Hospital, an underwriting contract for bond issues at the County of El Paso, and to award financial advisory contracts at the County of El Paso and for the Thomason bond initiative."

In May, the offices of Cobos, Terán and Sariñana were among those raided by the FBI as part of its investigation.

The committee that was formed Monday will review written proposals and the answers to the additional questions from financial adviser candidates. The committee will not meet with candidates. Commissioners Court will then interview the top candidates.

Rodríguez said the additional information will offer protection for the court. This may include serving as a basis to terminate a contract with a vendor if they state they are not targets of an FBI investigation, but it is later found that they were.

Terán said he was concerned the requested information would unfairly rule out some bidders.

"By virtue of being listed by someone of questionable integrity, a felon, excludes them from doing business," he said.

He also objected to the media's continued coverage of the Ketner and Flores documents.

"I don't want to give any additional value to the trash being thrown out by the FBI," he said.

Commissioner Haggerty argued that the court should be able to make the decision on the financial adviser on its own and did not need the committee's input.

"This business with Commissioner Flores, we can't let that affect the way we make decisions," he said.

He said after the meeting that a private committee that will not necessarily be open to the public may not be the best route.

"I think the five of us need to sit down with the five of them and listen to their presentations," Haggerty said. "We need to feel very comfortable with the guy or gal we hire."