Gateway Hotel scandal prompts hard questions for El Paso city representatives
KFOX14 questioned city representatives about the closure of the Gateway Hotel and how the city failed to regulate the business has the appropriate permits.
A week after the Gateway Hotel was forced to shut down due to a laundry list of alleged criminal activity, gang activity, and the lack of the proper permits, KFOX14 continues to press the city of El Paso for answers as to why this situation happened in the first place.
City representatives Brian Kennedy, Josh Acevedo, and Joe Molinar, each shared their insight on why the city might have allowed this to happen.
"We can talk about it or we can fix it," said Brian Kennedy, District 1 city representative for West El Paso.
"I don't think I've heard about this at any other place within the city of El Paso. But now that we know about it, we have to accept responsibility for it," said Joe Molinar, District 4 city representative for Northeast El Paso.
The Gateway Hotel currently has multiple no trespassing signs posted in the windows of the building as well as a padlock on the front door.
A week after the hotel's closure and a press conference on Monday from Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who condemns the alleged criminal activity with the Gateway Hotel and described the gang Tren De Aragua as a terroristic group, reports of the hotel and gang's presence made national headlines.
So, KFOX14 asked Kennedy if he believed this situation made El Paso look bad nationally, and this is what he said.
"I don't think it's our best foot forward. I don't think it's our best image, but I think how we deal with it will show how we deal with problems," said Kennedy.
In previous KFOX14 reports, there have been close to 700 calls to law enforcement about alleged criminal activity happening at the Gateway Hotel, something that Molinar said law enforcement should have been alerted of.
"700 calls for service. How many man-hours does that translate to? How many units were dispatched, whether they were on foot, on bicycle, in a motorcycle, in a patrol vehicle, they're spending time there investigating what the problems are," said Molinar.
Acevedo also agrees that the city should have done the proper enforcement and regulated the hotel's permits.
"We have a lot of ordinances across the city and sometimes we're not implementing them. I am looking to see how this hotel was operating without a license for so long and really implementing the policies that we already have on board," said Acevedo.
However, after our questions to these city representatives, one question remains unanswered; why did the city let this happen for so long?
Kennedy said the city council needs to gather more information before any action is made to move forward from this situation.
"There's a diligent effort in this building to make sure we find out what happened and how it doesn't happen again. When we have all the information then we'll bring it forward and we'll start talking about it," said Kennedy.
KFOX14 continues to request interviews from other city officials, including city manager Dionne Mack, deputy city manager Mario D'Agostino, and the El Paso Chief of Police, however, they fail to either reply to our requests or have answers to provide.
