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News Article
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Drusina is new IBWC chief
By David Crowder
El Pasoan Ed Drusina, a civil engineer who served under former Mayor Joe Wardy, is the new commissioner of the International Boundary and Water Commission.
But since he was sworn in Jan. 19, Drusina hasn’t seen much of his new desk at the IBWC offices on North Mesa near Executive Center.
“I’m at the airport now,” he said at the beginning of an interview with El Paso Inc. “It’s been a mad house since I was sworn in – pretty tough.”
Drusina, 58, heads the one-of-a-kind, binational agency headquartered in El Paso that oversees the U.S.-Mexico border, water treaties and flood levees on the Rio Grande through El Paso into New Mexico.
Drusina will have his hands full trying to address accountability problems and stabilizing an agency that has seen the tragic loss of two former commissioners and two others embroiled in controversy since 2002.
A civil engineer who was the city’s public works director under Wardy in 2003, Drusina is the sixth IBWC commissioner since 2000.
In the 45 years before that, the agency had five commissioners. Asked what it will take to settle things down, he said, “I think a big part of it is improving communication within all the parts of the agency.”
It will also mean improving communication and relationships outside IBWC with states along both sides of the 1,954-mile-long border and with officials at the local, state and national levels, he said.
“It’s not that often you get the opportunity to serve your country, and this is a good way to do that,” he said.
On the levees
One of the biggest tasks facing the boundary commission is restoring the river levees protecting the U.S. side of the border. After years of poor maintenance, some failed to meet standards set by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
FEMA drew new preliminary flood maps that effectively removed the levees as a flood protection and put vast areas of the city and county in flood zones.
Tens of thousands of property owners would have had to buy flood insurance for the first time had FEMA not withdrawn the maps, giving IBWC time to make repairs and improvements.
To help, the agency received $220 million in American Reinvestment and Recovery Act funds.
“We’re well on our way with getting compliant with the FEMA overview of the stormwater flood-zone issues,” Drusina said. “Of the $220 million in Recovery Act funds, we have under $144 million under contract right now. We expect to have everything under contract before the end of the year.”
Sam Rodriguez, the city’s engineering division manager, said the new flood insurance rate maps were expected out this month, but FEMA delayed their release until March.
Blowing the whistle
Drusina replaces interim Commissioner Bill Ruth, who left in December after firing IBWC’s general counsel, Robert McCarthy.
McCarthy’s firing came three days after he lodged allegations of waste, fraud and abuse against Ruth and the agency last July.
McCarthy said the problems arose when the agency’s budget soared from $30 million to close to $300 million to address major flood and levee projects from El Paso and New Mexico to Presidio and Hidalgo County.
It was, he said, too much too fast.
“I tried to help Commissioner Ruth stop fraud, waste and abuse I found at IBWC,” McCarthy said. “Many of the problems I reported were due to a misguided effort to fast-track Recovery Act projects by ignoring legal requirements, resulting in misspent funds and substandard levees.”
The State Department’s Office of Inspector General has opened an investigation into McCarthy’s allegations, and he has appealed his termination to the U.S. Merit System Protection Board.
An administrative judge is scheduled to hear that case in El Paso next week.
“It looks like we are going to proceed, but we are looking into mediation and a settlement,” said Christine Erickson with a nonprofit group, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, that is representing McCarthy. “Ideally, he would just like to win his case and be reinstated at the commission.”
Even if the case is settled, McCarthy has raised serious issues about the agency that Drusina could be called upon to address.
“PEER trusts that Mr. Drusina will take a close look at several of the questionable decisions by the former commissioner – including the McCarthy fiasco – with fresh eyes,” PEER’s director, Jeff Ruch, said.
McCarthy said he likes El Paso and hopes to remain here working with IBWC.
“I feel optimistic that Drusina will want to mend fences,” McCarthy said, noting that there are still projects that need to be corrected. “With my depth of knowledge of the issues that have been raised, I think I could be helpful.”
David Crowder can be reached at (915) 587-6622 or by e-mail at david_crowder@sbcglobal.net.
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| Kenna Ramirez - posted: 2/6/2010 12:01:09 AM
David,
I would like to first congratulate the President on the appointment, ;Mr Drusina is a great choice, but I would like to remind you that he was one of my late husbands Carlos Ramirez first appointments at the City, he brought him from Fort Bliss and he was very proud of Mr Drusina. | |
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