Palmview officials probed after credit card abuse alleged
Tuesday, October 19, 2010 by sms
Palmview officials probed after credit card abuse alleged
By Martha L. Hernández
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PALMVIEW – Palmview officials denied any wrongdoing — any credit card abuse, in particular — after the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office announced a criminal investigation of elected officials and other Palmview city employees.
The Sheriff’s Public Integrity Unit initiated the probe after receiving public complaints on alleged credit card abuse “for personal consumption rather than city business.”
The city manager is cooperating fully, providing financial records, Sheriff Lupe Treviño said.
The sheriff plans to present his findings to a state grand jury, but if in the course of the investigation it is detected that federal funds have been used, “I may call in the federal agencies, like I did with Sylvia Handy,” Treviño said.
According to a news release from the city of Palmview, the complaint originated from losing candidates of the May 2010 city election, pointing to an open records request presented by Rita Garza-Uresti, the former La Joya school board president. Garza-Uresti did not return calls Monday evening.
The sheriff said he did not want to name the targets of the investigation, nor who filed the complaint.
“I want to make sure there is evidence before I identify targets, so I am being very fair,” Treviño said.
“The City would like to reiterate that at no point during the current administration has mayor Jorge Garcia, any member of the city commission, or the city manager John Alaniz used, signed or possessed any city credit card for personal business,” the news release says.
The Palmview city manager is on vacation to participate in La Joya Independent School District’s election and all media calls were referred to the police Chief Robert Barrera.
The Monitor obtained a Capitol One credit card statement showing American Airlines plane tickets to Orlando, Fla., were bought in June 2009 for Barrera’s wife and three children. In a previous statement for the same year, there were purchased reservations and tickets for Walt Disney World.
Barrera confirmed that the city bought the tickets.
“It was a life-saver conference and the city allows us to go with our family,” he said, “so they go ahead and they purchase everything and they turn around and … (deduct) from our paycheck until (it’s) a hundred percent paid for.”
“They (the city) pay for me and I have to pay for my family,” Barrera said, adding that all the officers have the same benefit when they attend a conference.
As for the expenses seen in other credit card statements for tickets for Six Flags and Schiltterbahn, Barrera said the city was footing the bill for members of the Boys & Girls Club.
“Everything already went through auditors and everything,” Barrera said.
Barrera said the investigation is politically motivated, noting that the news was released on the first day of early voting in Hidalgo County — and in the La Joya School District.
“The individuals did all this politically,” Barrera said. “Of course (the sheriff) is obligated to do an investigation based on the allegations.”
The sheriff agreed this was coincidental.
“I think that everybody that knows me knows that I am fair, I’m a just person, I do nothing for political reasons,” Treviño said. “I am going to do a very thorough, unbiased independent investigation.”
The investigation is looking back at least four years on the documents investigated. The sheriff will hire an accounting forensic analyst unless he gets help from the Department of Public Safety or the FBI.
“It all depends on the volume of work that we have to do,” Treviño said.
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