City allegedly misused anniversary event money

A Calexico economic commissioner said the city used funds collected for the city’s 110th anniversary in April for other events not part of the celebration.

Commissioner Ben Horton said, “Financed the Mayor’s Summit which ran up to about $3,638 which the public was not aware of this, which the public was not permitted to be involved with.”

A Calexico city official who didn’t want to be named admits some money donated for the anniversary was used for the mayor’s conference. An event closed to the public, but he said it was approved by the sponsor who donated the funds. He showed us an email as proof.

Horton questions why the community was not informed of that.

“The public was under the impression that this money was going to be used exclusively for the 110th anniversary.”

The city official also said no city employees worked on the event. Horton disagrees with that statement.

“And then, I find out that city employees were used to work on the event, which originally the 100th event was supposed to be no cost to the city, which there was cost to the city and hours or comp times

Horton questions why the expense list was not made public sooner.

“I would say the public was misled, and they were misled to the point that the money was used for other activities that they were not aware of,” Horton said.

The report that shows how the money was spent item by item is freely available to the public at Calexico City Hall.