The former head of an advocacy group for communities around the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico said Tuesday she has repaid $800 in questioned expenses in an effort to resolve a public dispute that marred the end of her tenure.
The contract between Andrea Romero Consulting and the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities (RCLC) was not renewed when it expired Feb. 28, after New Mexico newspapers drew attention to more than $2,100 in expenses for which Romero was reimbursed in her position as the group’s executive director.
Expenses included a meal for a group of stakeholders and taking several people to a baseball game in Washington, D.C. Romero said the expenses had been approved in advance through the usual RCLC channels. which included the organization’s board and Los Alamos County. Speaking to Weapons Complex Monitor, Romero said she hoped repaying $800 and submitting additional information on other questioned expenses would resolve the matter.
It was not clear exactly which expenses were being reimbursed.
The coalition’s Board of Directors was scheduled to meet today, and one of the top items on the agenda was approval of a draft solicitation for a new executive director, Los Alamos County Manager Harry Burgess said by telephone earlier this week. He said by email Friday that the meeting meeting had been postponed to April 27 due to lack of a board quorum. Los Alamos County has been providing administrative support for RCLC while it is without an executive director.
If the draft is approved by the RCLC board, an advertisement will likely be posted for a permanent executive director. “No one has said anything about an interim director yet,” Burgess said.
When asked if the reimbursement dispute was resolved, Burgess replied: “Yes, to a large degree.” The Los Alamos County official said he didn’t recall the final figure paid by Romero, but it was less than the original amount in dispute. Burgess said it was also possible Romero might be owed some additional reimbursement.
The coalition, which gets some DOE financial backing, was established in 2011 as a voice for the region on LANL matters including jobs, funding, and nuclear cleanup. Romero had been as the group’s executive director since January 2015.
Romero said she is concentrating on the last two months of her Democratic Party primary challenge to state Rep. Carl Trujillo.
