Residents of the Richard Lee subdivision in the Mission Valley this morning filed an ethics complaint against City Rep. Eddie Holguin.

Assistant City Attorney Elaine Hengen said her office has 45 days to determine if the complaint raises issues that are germane to the city’s ethics ordinance and whether it should be forwarded to the city’s Ethics Review Board for consideration.

Before filing the complaint, five of the complaining residents took part in a press conference in front of City Hall at which they distributed copies of the complaint and six sworn affidavits to back it up.

The three-page complaint statement by the residents begins, “We … are filing this ethics complaint against City Representative Eddie Holguin because we believe that he has betrayed the trust of us; not disclosed the conflict of interest he had with respect to a landowner in our neighborhood; prevented and obstructed our right to complain about violations of city ordinances; and assisted or at least gave the impression that he is assisting his family member in our neighborhood in obtaining special treatment by the city of El Paso.”

The dispute began early last summer after William E. “Bill” Dempsey married Guadalupe De La O, the mother of Holguin’s wife, Illiana. He began moving 18-wheeler trucks and trailers onto the couple's three-to-five acre property in the Richard Lee subdivision, in apparent violation of zoning regulations. [Holguin sat on complaints about in-laws, residents allege, Sept. 29, 2008]

In addition to failing to disclose the family relationship, the residents accuse Holguin of telling the Dempseys about their complaints and who complained, leading to threats and intimidation by both Dempseys.

Bill Dempsey has denied threatening anyone, and Holguin said he did not divulge anyone’s identity to the Dempseys.

While residents say they complained repeatedly to Holguin directly, he denies having received any telephone calls or complaints that came to him personally.

Holguin said, however, that he was made aware of the problem by an October 2007 e-mail that Richard Lee resident Dale Manning sent to Mark Alvarado in the city’s Neighborhood Services Department.

Attached to Manning’s affidavit are other e-mail letters that Manning sent Alvarado starting in May 2007.

Dempsey, she said, told her before moving in that he intended to start a trucking business there and that Holguin was his son-in-law. He bought the property and moved there in June 2007.

“I am writing you on behalf of the home owners with the El Paso Neighborhood Association, Little Bit of Country,” Manning wrote in her May 29, 2007 e-mail to Alvarado. “The home and land at 9650 Farrell (house and approx 3 acres) is being sold to a Bill Dempsey, Sr. He verbally told me he is bringing in eleven (11) eighteen wheelers and making the place a trucking company (Horseshoe Enterprises). …

“He says his trucks haul hospital equipment and that he will also have cattle trucks and this will be a 'cattle rest'. He has very brazen told me and my husband that he can file as a 'Farm' and his trucks will be part of his 'farm'. Also, he told me our City Representative is Mr. Eddie Holguin is his son-in-law.
Mr. Dempsey wife (Lupe) is w/ Home Land Security here in El Paso ( I'm not sure which department).

“I feel and so does the rest of my neighbors that 'strings' might be pulled and the 'rug pulled out from under us' - our homes will be RUINED. We live here, it is not COMMERCIAL and we have fought to remain Ranch and Farm in the El Paso city limits. We are asking for (advice) and help.”

Although Manning knew of that family relationship, another member of the community, John Godinez, said she did not report it to other residents, who didn’t learn that the Dempseys were Holguin’s in-laws for several months.

In her affidavit, Manning states, “On July 6, 2007, I called Eddie Holguin’s office to request assistance, because I thought that this was the appropriate place to go for help on an issue like this.”

She said she spoke to Holguin who “listened to me and told me he was not familiar with the area, but that he would look into it. Within an hour, I saw Mr. Holguin in the neighborhood, driving around with Mr. Dempsey.”

Both Holguin and Dempsey vehemently deny ever driving around the neighborhood together, but other residents say they too have seen Holguin in Dempsey’s pick-up and regarded it as a purposeful effort by Dempsey to intimidate them.

Manning said she reported what she saw in an Aug. 15, 2007 e-mail to Alvarado and that she later called the police to report “the trucks that were being hauled into the neighborhood.”

“I never saw any action taken to remedy the problem. Instead, I found out that Mr. Holguin and Mr. and Mrs. Dempsey (knew) that I was complaining about the trucking business,” Manning states in her affidavit. “I was subjected to verbal abuse and attacks from Mrs. Dempsey, who told me that she knew I had called the city on them.

“Mr. Dempsey threatened to kill my pet cats in retaliation for my calls to the city. I was told by my neighbor that Mr. Dempsey made a comment about shooting me, the way he had shot a snake in the neighborhood.

“It might have been a joke, but I didn’t think it was funny and I was very, very scared and filed a police report about the incident.”

In addition to Manning, Nancy Rodriguez Stoltz signed an affidavit saying she complained directly to Holguin, which he denies.

“I called Mr. Holguin’s office approximately twice a month and spoke to Mr. Holguin several times,” Nancy Stoltz states in her affidavit. “Every time I talked to him, he acted like he would seek assistance from city inspectors and help us address the numerous violations Mr. Dempsey was committing. …

“Mr. Holguin never told me that the business in question was his mother-in-law’s business, even though I spoke to him about this several times. He never told me that he’d been here already on numerous occasion(s) … . I found out that it was his family’s business only when I spoke to a (Holguin) staff person who told me she attended the Dempseys wedding at their home on Farrell.”

She said Holguin “pretended that he was addressing my concerns, really never did anything except try to stop my complaints.”

Stoltz, who lives next door to the Dempseys with three small children and her sister-in-law while her husband was in Iraq, said she expected that her complaints to be kept confidential.

“I later found out that Mr. Holguin told the Dempseys that I was complaining about them,” she states. “Mr. Holguin betrayed my confidence as a constituent, and violated my right to remain anonymous. As a result, myself and other neighbors have been subjected to a great deal of hostility from Mr. Dempsey.”

As with the other affidavits, hers concludes, “I swear under penalty of perjury that all the statements in this affidavit are true and correct to the best of my knowledge.”

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To reach David Crowder, write to dcrowder@newspapertree.com or call (915) 351-0605