El Paso Sports Commission approached county leaders last week <\/a>seeking a 30-year contract. The commission, which currently manages the Coliseum and oversees sports tourism for the county, submitted an unsolicited proposal after learning that officials were in talks with the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) about potentially managing the Coliseum.<\/p>\nABC-7’s open records request sought communications with various county and University of Texas at El Paso leaders. These leaders included El Paso County Chief Administrator Betsy Keller, all county commissioners and the county judge, as well as University of Texas at El Paso President Heather Wilson. <\/p>\n
In a letter to ABC-7, the County Attorney\u2019s Office said the commissioners, the judge and Keller had no responsive records for the request.<\/p>\n
The released records show Carrillo initiated contact with Vasquez on Sept. 18, 2025, via email, proposing a \u201cpossible collaboration between UTEP and the County.\u201d Vasquez responded the following day, agreeing to meet. <\/p>\n
According to El Paso County\u2019s website, County Operations \u201coversees Communications, Contracts, Government Affairs, Enterprise Justice, and Volunteer Services.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Sept. 24, 2025, Vasquez texted Carrillo to confirm she had his cell number for a potential meeting. <\/p>\n
Carrillo suggested a meeting the week of Oct. 4, 2025, which Vasquez confirmed worked for him. <\/p>\n
Vasquez responded, stating he was \u201cLooking forward to meeting with you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vasquez again tried to connect on Oct. 27, 2025, asking Carrillo to call him. Carrillo informed him she was in Tampa for a conference. Vasquez pressed for a quick call to address minor questions, stating, \u201cIt\u2019s nothing super in depth for now.\u201d Carrillo agreed to call during a break. <\/p>\n
Carrillo reconnected with Vasquez on Dec. 4, 2025, saying, \u201cI want to check in and let you know I\u2019m planning on my end.\u201d They scheduled a lunch meeting and finalized plans to meet at Cafe Central on Dec. 12, 2025.<\/p>\n
After lunch, Carrillo thanked Vasquez and apologized for rushing. She suggested they \u201cstay in touch over the next few months.\u201d Vasquez replied, \u201cIt was great seeing you and catching up. Yes, let\u2019s communicate as you work through this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vasquez followed up on Jan. 15, 2026, requesting \u201cthe current contract to take a look and finalize the report on my side.\u201d <\/p>\n
“Happy New Year! I hope you were able to take at least a bit of a break. I wanted to follow up on our last conversation. Would you be able to send me the current contract so I can review it and finalize the report on my side? Thank you, my friend,” Vasquez wrote in a text message.<\/p>\n
Carrillo responded on Jan. 21, 2026, agreeing to send \u201ccurrent contracts on the facilities and sports tourism\u201d and proposed another lunch in February.<\/p>\n
On Jan. 23, 2026, Carrillo informed Vasquez that her assistant would send the contracts and a lunch invitation for mid-February.<\/p>\n
Carrillo also alerted Vasquez that the sports commission would present its monthly report to Commissioners Court on Feb. 9, 2026, and recommended that he watch it on YouTube.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn 2\/9, the sports commission will be presenting their monthly report to the court. The meeting is on YouTube. You may want to tune in and see\u2026,\u201d Carrillo wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cReally? \ud83e\udd14 Ok, I\u2019ll add it to my reminders. What time?\u201d Vasquez asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe meeting starts at 9:30, but depending on where the court is on their agenda, the timing can vary when they get to that item. For now, plan on around 10:30. I\u2019ll text you to keep you updated so you\u2019ll know when they\u2019re up,\u201d Carrillo responded.<\/p>\n
Carrillo and Vasquez confirmed their lunch plans for Feb. 18, 2026, at Mesa Street.<\/p>\n
Vasquez made multiple attempts to contact Carrillo in April 2026, texting her on April 8 and again on April 13, before emailing her that same day to request a call.<\/p>\n
ABC-7 has reached out to the County and UTEP requesting interviews regarding the discussions between Carrillo and Vasquez.<\/p>\n
UTEP Assistant Director of Media Relations Victor Arreola said Vasquez would not be available for an interview and referred back to a statement the university provided last week<\/a>. <\/p>\nArreola also provided an additional comment, which read: \u201cWe are currently unaware of any published Request for Proposal (RFP) from the County regarding the El Paso County Coliseum. If an RFP is published that aligns with UTEP\u2019s mission, we will evaluate whether submitting a proposal makes sense for UTEP and make a decision at that time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) —\u00a0El Paso County has released records detailing communications over a seven-month period between a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280047,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[138,140,139],"class_list":["post-288557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}