Jaramillo: Who approved out-of-state travel?
February 09, 2010
Belen City Councilor Rudy Jaramillo wants to know who approved a trip taken by four city officials to Washington, DC, that was in part paid for by taxpayer dollars.
During last night’s city council meeting, Jaramillo asked whether or not the city council needed to approve the out-of-state trip, like most governments do, because it involved public funds.
He also wondered why he wasn’t invited to go along and why he found out about the trip after the fact.
Mayor Ronnie Torres, councilors Terese Ulivarri and Wayne Gallegos, and City Manager Sally Garley took the trip to lobby Congress for funding for Belen projects.
“I’m sure they had a nice time,” Jaramillo said, adding that the trips can be productive.
Even before Jaramillo spoke up, Mayor Ronnie Torres said he needed to “formally apologize” for not inviting Jaramillo to participate in the trip.
“I failed to tell Rudy. Rudy was not informed about this trip. If I had told him, he probably would have gone and paid his own way,” Torres said.
Jaramillo said he gladly would have paid his way had he known about the trip.
“I felt I should have been given the opportunity, because I would’ve been there,” he said.
Jaramillo said citizens come to him with needs, and one way for him to address those needs is to request funding from the congressional delegation.
Beyond lobbying for money, the purpose of the trip was to show Gallegos how to lobby Congress for money, according to Torres.
Torres and Ulivarri paid their own way to Washington.
“Some of us paid our own way. We realize the city is in a crunch and we don’t want to tap into those monies. If I can pay it myself, I do,” Ulivarri said.
Gallegos and Garley used taxpayer dollars.
Roseann Peralta, a city finance clerk, said today that the city doesn’t have the total expenses incurred by Gallegos and Garley because the city hasn’t yet received the credit card bill.
The four city officials met with United States senators Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall and United States Rep. Harry Teague.
The city asked for funding to replace the Eagle water tank near Belen High School, which has a leak and doesn’t store water at full capacity. They also requested money for Camino del Llano, which needs ponding on recently purchased land. Another request was for construction of a multipurpose building and crosswind runway at Belen Alexander Airport.
“We went to beg for money as we always do. It was very positive,” Ulivarri said.
City officials were expected to lobby for Signet Solar, a solar manufacturer wanting to build a plant in Belen, which could bring 600 jobs; however, they made no mention of Signet Solar last night when describing what they lobbied for while in Washington.
When asked today, Gallegos said the city held no meetings with the United States Department of Energy, the federal department that recently denied Signet Solar a loan guarantee that would’ve moved forward construction of the plant.