politics

"I Hope She Has a Good Lawyer"

by Sito Negron

NPT presents emails related to the Lisa Elizondo EEOC complaint, mostly notices of meetings and other routine matters that shed light on the chronology of events following the complaint, and Mayor John Cook comments.

Posted on July 24, 2006

Former City Attorney Lisa Elizondo filed a discrimination charge in December, 2005, against the city, which fired her on a 7-1 vote June 21, 2005. The EEOC began an investigation, and according to sources gave Elizondo a “right-to-sue” letter earlier this month. She now has 90 days to decide whether to sue.

Elizondo could not be reached for comment.

Mayor John Cook appears to be a main target of the complaint, as he was the first person the EEOC asked to interview. Cook led the charge to fire Elizondo and replace her with current City Attorney Charlie McNabb, who previously had served as city attorney.

When asked what he thought of the possibility of Elizondo suing the city, Cook said, “I hope she has a good lawyer. ... Anything is better then her.”

Newspaper Tree filed an request for public information to review correspondence --emails, memos, letter -- held by the city in regards to the Lisa Elizondo EEOC complaint. The request yielded a series of emails that outline the chronology of the complaint and the city response. However, the city is seeking to withhold certain information and has requested an Attorney General’s opinion. The city states in its request, sent July 20, that some of the records it wants to withhold “are directly related to the pending litigation in this matter or are protected by the attorney client-privilege or constitute core attorney work product.”

NPT presents excerpts from the material delivered by the city:

On Dec. 30, 2005, Assistant City Attorney Elaine Hengen sent an e-mail to several city officials informing them that Elizondo had filed an EEOC complaint. “She alleges discrimination based on sex and national origin,” Hengen wrote. [link]
On Jan. 4, 2006, city Risk Manager Irene Y. Morales sent the Rogers and Belding insurance agency a letter “putting the carrier on notice of a claim.” Attached to the letter was a copy of the “Notice of Charge of Discrimination from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission dated December 24, 2005 concerning Lisa Elizondo.” [link]
On Jan. 5, 2006, Hengen sent her assistant an email asking for a copy of the city’s “standard outside counsel retention letter agreement” to be sent to Kemp Smith’s Michael D. McQueen. [link]
On. Jan. 8, 2006, EEOC supervisor Ernesto Escobedo sends a letter to the city explaining that the EEOC “is unable to schedule mediation for this charge because not all parties agreed to mediate.” [link]
On Jan. 13, 2006, city insurance carrier AIG sent the city a letter saying that “we are in the process of evaluating coverage.” [link]
On Jan. 23, the city wrote a letter to the EEOC asking for a two-week extension to the requirement that the city send the EEOC unspecified information related to Elizondo’s charge; on Feb. 2, the city asked for another two-week extension. [link]
On March 7, AIG sent the city a letter explaining that it would not assign a law firm since a lawsuit has not been filed. The letter also reminded the city it had a $100,000 deductible. [link]
There was a series of email correspondence in April as the EEOC investigator attempted to set dates to interview Mayor John Cook. In addition, the EEOC investigator asked for contact information for Delia Cortinas, Adrian Ocegueda, and Laura Urribari, who all worked former Mayor Joe Wardy, who hired Elizondo as city attorney. In May, the investigator asked for appointments with City Council members, and appointments were set for June.