LF: Mayor of city being sued over $1m contracts admits he was DRUNK when he signed them

Title: Mayor of city being sued over $1m contracts admits he was DRUNK when he signed them
Source: Daily Mail Online
URL Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art ... -admits-DRUNK-signed-them.html
Published: Aug 4, 2011
Author: Laurie Whiwell
Post Date: 2011-08-04 18:54:00 by Sebastian
Keywords: None
Views: 900

The mayor of a Mexican border town being sued for $1million by a firm over non-payment has admitted to signing contracts in the deal when drunk.

Martin Resendiz, the mayor of Sunland Park, a community of around 15,000 people near Las Cruces, New Mexico, said he only put pen to paper after drinking for several hours at a local restaurant.

The nine contracts, with San Diego-based parking design firm Synthesis+, totalled more than $1million and now the company is suing the city for non-payment.

Mayor Resendiz, a potential congressional candidate, says the contracts were never valid since the City Council did not approve them.

'The day I signed, I had way too much to drink,' he admitted in a deposition in the case. 'It was after 5pm and I signed it (the contracts) and I didn't know what I was signing.'

'Way too much to drink': Mayor Resendiz said he was so intoxicated the day he signed the deals his sister had to pick him up

The lawsuit claims the company is owed $1million for work performed under the nine contracts, according to a report in the Albuquerque Journal.

Resendiz, a former El Paso, Texas, police officer and Sunland Park municipal judge.

He has been mayor since March 2008 and has said he plans to seek the Democratic nomination to challenge Republican U.S. Representative Steve Pearce.

Several hours of drinking: Mayor Resendiz said he did not know the papers he signed at Ardovino's Crossing, a local Italian restaurant, were official documents

According to a transcript of Resendiz's June 2010 deposition by attorney Victor Poulos, Resendiz acknowledged signing the documents in May or June 2008 after several hours of drinking with Sythesis+ executives at Ardovino's Crossing, an Italian restaurant in Sunland Park.

'Again, this was after two or three hours of us drinking, not exactly the best time to do business, not exactly the best time to read over legal documents, which he (Soltero) did not portray at any time to be legal documents,' Resendiz said according to a transcript of the deposition.

City Councillor Daniel Salinas, who was also deposed, said under oath he was at the restaurant meeting and was also inebriated.

Synthesis+ officials said the mayor signed the documents in July 2008 at the Sunland Park city hall and that the mayor was sober.

Poulos said it was the first time in his 33 years of practising law that someone had acknowledged signing a contract while drunk.

Speaking about his congressional bid in May, Mayor Resendiz said: 'I feel the public's been neglected.'

On his Facebook page, he says he likes as Two and a Half Men, Lady Gaga and Frank Sinatra.