Rio Arriba County Emergency Manager Mateo DeVargas has yet to find more than $130,000 worth of County radios and other emergency communication equipment purchased in fiscal years 2004 and 2005, a County document shows.
“I have no clue where some of these might be,” DeVargas said. “I’ll just keep pushing with the volunteer fire departments and maybe somebody will come forward and confess they have ‘em.”
The missing equipment was purchased with state Homeland Security Department grants or under the presumption that the Department would reimburse the County during the tenure of former Emergency manager Dwayne “Bubba” Merritt, DeVargas said.
“There was poor record keeping throughout (Merritt’s) files system,” DeVargas said last week. “Some equipment was totally unaccounted for. Other items were property-tagged but not inventoried.”
Department officials demanded to know earlier this year where the equipment had gone, DeVargas had said March 10. Since then, he has been in regular communication with those officials as he searches for the missing equipment, DeVargas said.
DeVargas has met repeatedly with Department auditors to discuss his progress in locating the missing equipment, he said.
“The fiscal year 2004 equipment was purchased by the (Department) and given to the County,” DeVargas said. “The 2005 purchases were made with County money and then the County filed for reimbursement from the (Department).”
The County may have to pay back the state more than $4,000 for the missing equipment bought by the Department in 2004 purchases, and the County may not be reimbursed by the state for up to $134,182 in missing equipment it purchased in 2005, DeVargas and Rio Arriba County Commission Chairman Elias Coriz said.
DeVargas has recovered or located more than $300,000 worth of equipment since taking over as director in October 2008, a County document shows.
Merritt resigned Sept. 26, 2008, after it was discovered he purchased equipment with Department funds without securing prior Department approval. The County’s 2006 audit noted the lack of documentation for reimbursement requests Merritt submitted to the state. The audit also found Merritt had not submitted spending reports to the County Finance Department. Some of the missing equipment, such as batteries and pagers, were found stuffed in County Emergency Department desks and filing cabinets, DeVargas said. Other equipment turned out to be where it should be, but had never been properly tagged or entered into the County’s inventory database.
For example, a hazardous materials emergency response trailer worth $2,978 turned out to be on loan to the Española Fire Department, DeVargas said.
“It’s location wasn’t documented but the County has a mutual aid agreement identifying the city as the County (hazardous materials) team,” DeVargas said.
Merritt is now the emergency manager for Torrance County. He did not return phone calls for comment.
No criminal charges have been discussed, DeVargas said.
“The last conversation we had with Merritt was March 10,” DeVargas said. “He said he would try to remember where it all went, and he’d get back to us in one month. (Merritt) said he’d given (Rio Arriba County Sheriff’s) Lt. (Marcos) Armijo the (car-mounted repeater) equipment.”
The County paid a total of $65,247 for the car-mounted radio repeaters, which extend the range of handheld radios — but County officials don’t know exactly how many of them the County purchased, DeVargas said.
“I’ve never found the quantity of those,” DeVargas said. “There was not a purchase order.”
Since manufacturers’ price quotes change through time, it’s not easy matter to determine how much was paid for each piece of equipment when paperwork has been lost, DeVargas said. But the total for the undetermined number of car-mounted units is definitely $65,247, DeVargas said and documents show.
Merritt gave three of the car-mounted repeaters to the Brazos Canyon Fire Department shortly after a gas leak-related explosion destroyed the Department’s fire station and killed its former fire chief, Michael Hayes.
DeVargas believes the rest of the car-mounted units — however many that may be — are probably with the Sheriff’s Department, he said.
Repeated calls and emails to Armijo have gone unanswered, DeVargas said.
“He didn’t respond,” DeVargas said. “I’m still waiting on Sheriff’s office counts and serial numbers.”
The Sheriff’s Department has only received 11 of the repeaters, Armijo said last week.
“(Merritt) supposedly gave me 25, but I got 11,” Armijo said. “We put them in new cars.” Blame for the missing equipment rests squarely with Merritt, Coriz said.
“We thought he knew what he was doing,” Coriz said. “It was poor management record keeping. This gentleman (Merritt) was seen as a good EMS director but sometimes he was not a good manager. He lacked that fiscal expertise. Sometimes when you don’t stay on top of a director, things go astray.”