Sunland Park City Hall
When we last left the city council of Sunland Park, its mayor was making national news (and getting made fun of by comedian George Lopez) for admitting he was dead drunk when he signed city contracts.
Oh, wait a minute.
We forgot about state Rep. Mary Helen Garcia (D-Las Cruces) telling us five months ago how appalled she was after sitting in on a council meeting that deteriorated into catcalls and name-calling, leaving some to fear the dysfunction could threaten the go-ahead for a major rail project in southern New Mexico.
Now, another item has placed Sunland Park back in the news for all the wrong reasons.
From KTSM-TV out of the neighboring city of El Paso:
Sunland Park resident Cecilia Rodriguez told News Channel 9 there were videos sent to different employees depicting a mayoral candidate having sex in the parking lot. The District Attorney’s office or State Police have not been able to confirm that.
But it has been confirmed that state police executed a search warrant late Tuesday (Feb. 21) and asked everyone to vacate city hall in the town of 14,000 in Doña Ana County while officers conducted an investigation that ended about 9:30 p.m.
The Las Cruces Sun-News quoted an assistant district attorney saying the details of the investigation are confidential. “Basically the city hall is in lockdown,” one city council member was quoted as saying.
[City Manager] Jaime Aguilera said the investigation may be related to complaints by supporters of one of the mayoral candidates against the opposing faction.
He was referring to candidates Gerardo Hernandez and Daniel Salinas, the current mayor pro-tem, who are running for mayor. Jose Luis Hernandez is the third candidate.
“We’ve had these kinds of things before, where investigators come and go and take records, and the DA (district attorney) never does anything,” Aguilera said.
Maybe the folks at TMZ should take a trip to Sunland Park. They might get enough material to last through the rest of February sweeps.
Update 2/23: It only gets better.
Gerardo Hernandez, Sunland Park mayoral candidate
From Associated Press:
A mayoral candidate in a New Mexico border town says video of a topless woman dancing in his office is a setup orchestrated by political rivals who wanted to force him out of the race.
Gerardo Hernandez’s claims of dirty politics are the latest scandals to rock Sunland Park, a city seen as so tainted that a House representative has called for the state to takeover.
Hernandez told KVIA-TV (http://bit.ly/whuI4T) this week that he was in his office with his campaign manager and a job applicant when an unidentified woman began to dance for the three of them, topless.
You can read the entire AP story by clicking here.
And the ABC affiliate in El Paso has an interview with the mayoral candidate and one of his opponents. Click here to see the story — and hey, TMZers! There’s some video of the dancer in action!