Concern grows for local City Hall investigation
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Calexico Economic Commissioners are upset that an internal investigation is going on at city hall and the city has not come out publicly about it.
Calexico Vice-Chairman Economic Commissioner said, “The citizens of Calexico have all the right to know what’s going on our city. We should be transparent. The councilmen or the lady mayor should come out front and explain to the community what’s going on.”
Commissioner David Romero said, “It’s better just to be transparent and to tell the people what’s really going on and what’s happening because the truth will now come out.”
City Manager David Dale confirmed they’re investigating whether an employee did something wrong, but gave very little information about it.
“We have a complaint that led to an investigation for fact finding,” Dale said.
He denied allegations of missing city funds.
“To my knowledge there is no money missing yet, and we have to investigate it,” Dale said.
We asked about documents allegedly being taken out of city hall. He gave no explanation about it.
“It’s an internal investigation. It’s a personnel issue I can’t discuss,” Dale said.
Police confirm that documents were recovered from an employee’s car on Wednesday afternoon. We asked Dale if the employee was put on administrative leave. He only responded that he could not discuss it.
The lack of information made public is what concerns the commissioners.
“This has not been handled properly. We should’ve been informed immediately. But that hasn’t happened. I haven’t heard anything from our mayor neither of the councilmen,” Lopez said.
Commissioner Ben Horton said, “This is why I’m looking to move forward to do a very thorough look at the finances and see how we improve them.”
“They should really step up give an answer to the City of Calexico on what’s going on,” Romero said.
If the investigation turns up wrongdoing, the commissioners want justice.
“People, whoever is involved, should go to jail, should be prosecuted, to the fullest extent of the law,” Lopez said.
