Petition aims to remove Canutillo ISD board President Armando Rodriguez over DWI arrests

A group of El Paso County residents filed a petition to have Canutillo Independent School District board President Armando “Mando” Rodriguez removed from office over a series of arrests dating back to 2013 for allegedly driving while intoxicated.

The petition, filed to the 120th District Court by Carol Cassady, Canutillo business owner Christoper Stewart and former Canutillo ISD trustee and administrator Annette Brigham, claims Rodriguez has been arrested three times in 2013, 2015 and 2021, and is requesting he be ousted from his position based on a statute that allows removal of public officials for being drunk in public.

The statute was previously used in a petition requesting to remove El Paso District Attorney Yvonne Rosales, who resigned a day before a hearing. She was accused of incompetency and official misconduct.

Rodriguez told El Paso Matters that he has been arrested for DWI twice – in 2013 and 2021 – and has been upfront with voters about his criminal record. He said the charges related to the 2013 arrest were dropped and his record was expunged, and those from the 2021 incident are still pending.

The claim for the 2015 arrest stems from an ABC-7 report about the 2013 arrest which was incorrectly dated, according to an editor’s note on the article updated Thursday.

Rodriguez has served on the Canutillo ISD school board since 2005 and is up for re-election in November.

The petition comes amid turbulent times for the district as it grapples with an ongoing deficit and is preparing to start working on a $387 million bond proposal approved by voters during the May 4 election.

More: Canutillo ISD faces layoffs, school closures amid $6 million deficit

Rodriguez said Canutillo ISD Trustee Breanne Barnes, who was the only trustee to vote against the bond when it was brought to the board in February, was involved in filing the petition.

Barnes is Stewart’s employee at his Canutillo-based furniture business Fox Den Decor. In the 2022 election, Barnes received nearly $1,000 in campaign contributions from Stewart’s wife and co-owner of Fox Den Decor, Jami Stewart.

Barnes told El Paso Matters she had no involvement in the petition.

“His statement is accusatory, baseless, and pure assumptions. My connections with Chris Stewart only involve work. My focus has been and will continue to be on our district’s students and staff,” she said in a statement.

Christopher Stewart told El Paso Matters he filed the petition because he felt someone with DWI charges should no longer hold office in public schools.

“That shows a constant disregard for the rules and the safety of your entire community,” Stewart said about the arrests. “Somebody who’s getting that drunk all the time should not be in charge of the kids or should take a hiatus from wanting to be in the public life.”

Christopher Stewart told El Paso Matters that Max Grossman, a University of Texas at El Paso professor who lives outside the Canutillo ISD district, has “been a catalyst in all of it,” and gave his wife advice on the removal effort.

Grossman, a frequent critic of government taxation who publicly opposed the 2024 bond, said he had no involvement in filing the petition.

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Petition aims to remove Canutillo ISD board president from office