EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — El Pasoan George Zavala said Friday he’s filing an ethics complaint against City Council Rep. Cassandra Hernandez.
This comes after an internal audit found that Hernandez spent more money on her tax-payer-funded city gas card than other council members.
According to the report in 2022, Hernandez spent about $6,700 on her city gas card which was 35% of what all of the council and the mayor spent that year.
The audit showed that Hernandez used the gas card on back-to-back days multiple times.
Hernandez has said she would repay the $6,700 she spent in 2022.
However, Zavala thinks more needs to be done.
“Taking advantage of her privileges and her willingness to be a City Council member,” he said. “But more importantly, she did what she did. But we need to teach her why she did it. What gave her the right in her mind that she said, ‘I’ll get away with it.’ That’s what we really need to think about. And that’s a culture we have in City Council.”
Zavala said he believes Hernandez should step down or be removed from her position.
“So when you have someone using that much fuel in one year, plus is shown in evidence in the audit. Well, she was in consecutive days. And then you have video evidence of her husband using it, allegedly. So to me, that’s taking advantage of her privileges and her willingness to be in the City Council member,” Zavala said.
Hernandez wasn’t the only one found to have an excessive amount on their gas card. Former City Rep. Claudia Rodriguez spent about $5,300 in 2022, according to the audit.
Rodriguez lost her seat to current City Council Rep. Art Fierro during the November city election.
