Faced with local news coverage raising questions about her expense account, and in the middle of a state legislative campaign, Andrea Romero acknowledged Friday her days at the helm of an advocacy group for communities near the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico are likely over.
“It would be hard for me to continue that work” in the current atmosphere, Romero said in a telephone interview with Weapons Complex Monitor.
The contract between Andrea Romero Consulting and the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities (RCLC) expired Feb. 28. Romero, a 2009 Stanford University graduate who has served as the group’s executive director since January 2015, had expected her contract to be renewed for another year.
But the Albuquerque Journal reported just before the contract expired that a Los Alamos County audit found Romero owed the coalition for more than $2,000 in expenses, including about $1,800 for one mean for a large group in Washington, D.C. It also included a bill for more than $300 in tickets for a group to attend a Major League Baseball game. The audit said the expenses did not conform with organization policy.
The RCLC Board of Directors, consisting of officials from communities near the Los Alamos lab, allowed Romero’s contract to expire without renewal.
The board will meet March 16 to review a draft a request for proposals for services and take any necessary next steps in its leadership search, Los Alamos County Manager Harry Burgess said by email Thursday. “I cannot speak for Ms. Romero but I understand that she is eligible to propose under any advertised RFP.”
Los Alamos County is assisting with management of the coalition until a new director is in place. No specific person has been appointed in an interim capacity, added Burgess, who is currently serving as the group’s point of contact, according to the RCLC website.
The expense account issue surfaced publicly while Romero is running in a Democratic Party primary against incumbent state Rep. Carl Trujillo.
“The questions that were made were politically motivated” and “raised right around my performance review,” Romero said Friday. She said the disclosure was timed to give her minimum time to defend herself prior to expiration of the contract.
“We were working harmoniously as a group until I decided to run for office,” said Romero, adding that she would continue her political campaign: “At this point I clearly have nothing to lose.”
Romero also said any allegation that she personally profited from her work with the coalition is “completely unfounded.”
The now-former coalition executive director said the expenses in question had all initially been approved through the organization’s standard review channels — which included approval by the RCLC board and Los Alamos County.
The baseball outing with some local and federal stakeholders had been “approved in advance,” Romero said, describing it as an opportunity for roughly 12 people to visit in an informal setting, Romero said. If the RCLC board now believes the expenses were improperly filed it could have simply asked Romero and possibly other individuals to reimburse the money, she said.
The regional coalition, which does get some DOE funding, was founded in 2011 as a voice for the region in the operations of the nuclear-weapon lab on matters including funding, employment, and cleanup of nuclear contamination. It serves as an advocate for the region before DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, which handles cleanup at Los Alamos; the agency’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees the lab; and contractors.
Every year, RCLC representatives go to Capitol Hill to lobby for more funding and an increased scope of work for LANL, Romero said.
The RCLC chief contract has been reported by the Santa Fe New Mexican to be $140,000 per year, which Romero said did not go solely to her. “I have a staff,” which provides various services including web hosting, she said.
As a contractor, Romero said she was not a full-time employee and did not receive retirement or other benefits.
