Text Messages Between El Paso City Council Members Could Prove Breach Of Ethics In Downtown Arena Fight

Text messages released by NewsChannel 9 earlier this week showed that four City reps and Mayor Oscar Leeser may have violated the Open Meetings Act when they held what is called a rolling quorum in mid-December regarding the downtown arena.

One of the texts released says "If you want to be a part of the meeting, I will step out. I just didn't want there to have any questions regarding quorum."

That text seems to point out that there was knowledge that the meeting that took place at the Mayor’s office was a rolling quorum.

The text was reportedly written by City rep Lily Limon, but her office is saying that it was written by Mayor Oscar Leeser.

News Channel 9 went to City Hall to speak with Limon about the text.

Earlier in the morning Limon's assistant told Channel 9 that Limon was eager to speak to them, but instead her assistant showed up in the lobby of City Hall with a written statement that said does not want "public comments to obstruct or alter the view of an ethics complaint" that has been filed against her.

The statement went on to say that Limon would not discuss the charges until an investigation was completed by the Ethics Commission.

City Rep Jim Tolbert who was on the other side of the text in question said that he welcomes an investigation by the Ethics Commission into the incident because it will show that they did nothing wrong.