The double billing committed earlier this year by Española Chamber of Commerce Director and Mayor Pro Tem Alice Lucero — in which she billed both city and state taxpayers for the same services — wasn’t the first such occurrence.
According to city and state documents, the Chamber requested and received a similar double reimbursement in the summer of 2007, for printing an Española Valley Visitor’s Guide. In June 2007 the state Tourism Department paid the Chamber $4,000 in grant money to offset the cost of the Guide along with several less expensive promotional ads and giveaways. One month later, Lucero requested and received $12,700 from the city of Española as reimbursement for the full cost of printing the Guide.
Outgoing city attorney Spence Pacheco outlined the newly discovered double-billing in a Nov. 17 letter to Chamber President Celso Archuleta.
“It is concerning that the Chamber continues to experience difficulties with their billing procedures,” Pacheco wrote. “These types of errors cast a negative light upon the good work that the Chamber has strived to accomplish for many years in the valley.”
The Chamber came $350 short of breaking even on the deal — it spent over $17,000 on advertising and took in just $16,700 from the two funding sources. In a written response to her fellow city councilors, Lucero said the Chamber applies for multiple grants because it’s a non-profit without an advertising budget. The Chamber used the two funding sources as complementary matching funds — a practice used by the city itself, Lucero wrote.
However, the reimbursement request was not presented to the city as matching funds for a range of advertising services. It was justified as a payment for the full amount of the Guide, a specific expenditure that had been approved by the City Council and the Lodger’s Tax Board.
By the time Pacheco sent her Nov. 17 letter, the matter was already making waves at City Hall due to Lucero’s dual role as a city official and recipient of city funds. Pacheco had first raised the issue in October, when she objected to a pending Chamber reimbursement request that would have resulted in an overpayment because Lucero had already billed the Department for the advertising services in question. The Chamber reduced that request from about $13,900 to $10,400, and eventually received just over $6,000.
While that $6,000 payment was being processed, Deputy City Clerk Lucas Gauthier wrote an e-mail Nov. 13 to Mayor Joseph Maestas and the City Council, asking to be relieved of any duties involving the Lodger’s Tax Board. Gauthier wrote that he’d had “an unpleasant telephone conversation” with Lucero and that the Chamber’s billing issues were creating a “hostile work environment.”
“Mayor Pro Tem Lucero is a member of the Governing Body and I consider her to be one of my supervisors, and as an employee I feel that I am in an unfair position when I have to deal with a member of the Governing Body whose personal life conflicts with our ability to maintain a professional relationship,” Gauthier wrote.
Lucero’s letter to the Council states that she has not interfered with city employees in any way, and she notes that Gauthier has his own conflict of interest — he rents a living space from Art Martinez, the father of Acting City Manager Veronica Albin and Lodger’s Tax Board Chairman Art Martinez Jr.
Lucero calls all of the allegations “personal” and says it is Pacheco and Art Martinez Jr. who have brought on a “clouding of issues.”
But Councilor Chayo Garcia said Lucero’s position does exert pressure on staff.
“I do think that Alice has got a conflict of interest,” Garcia said. “I think somebody else from the Chamber has to ask (for money). Anybody except her.”
Maestas said he would like to see protocols established to eliminate conflicts such as this. Both staff and Lucero say they’re being treated unfairly, Maestas said.
“We’re facing a situation where we’re putting the city at risk, legally, by both sides,” Maestas said.
Councilor Danielle Duran said the solution depends largely on Lucero. Perhaps the billing problems truly were an oversight, but it’s difficult for staff to separate Lucero’s two roles when she’s inquiring about billing matters, Duran said.
“Day in and day out she’s going to have conflicts and problems,” Duran said. “If she’s willing to acknowledge that, then maybe the steps are very simple.”
Duran said Lucero’s fellow councilors are hesitant to ask anyone to give up their job outright even if it’s creating a conflict — after all, councilors are only paid $6,000 a year.
The Lodger’s Tax Board is considering its own methods for addressing the situation. At a meeting Nov. 19, the Board considered recommending a moratorium on all spending from the tax until audits can be completed on the tax’s revenues and expenditures.
The resolution was tabled until December.
Despite Pacheco’s letter, the growing tensions at City Hall and a potential spending freeze, the Board voted Nov. 19 to grant the Chamber an additional $13,000 for advertising aimed at attracting visitors to the city. That amount was far less than the $34,320 the Chamber had requested.