The recent launch of an AI App that was erroneously framed by the El Paso Inc. as a City of El Paso project has led to questions about privacy issues with using the App and an apparent lack of transparency for the adoption of the project.
Although framed by both the marketing department of the developers behind the App and by the El Paso Inc., the fact is that the App is just using publicly available city data to answer users’ questions. The App developers signed a Letter of Intent allowing the App to access public data off the city’s website. This is information that is readily available to everyone already.
The city has not signed an exclusive arrangement with the developers and the information processed by the App is processed through City-owned computers. The services the App purports to offer is information already available to people accessing the city’s website directly, including 311 services. Questions over whether the information processed within the App will continue to be accessible through open records and how privacy will be handled were raised by people concerned with the use of the App.
The spokesperson for SuperCity AI, the company behind the App told the El Paso Herald Post that privacy and access to information through open records remain unchanged as the App only pushes information though city-owned computer equipment like the information submitted to the city directly through its website.
But privacy wasn’t the only thing about the App that was raising eyebrows in El Paso.
Two El Pasoans listed on the company’s “trusted advisors” tab on its About page had people asking if they had a hand in what was believed to be an exclusive deal made behind the scenes. They are Carmen Arrieta-Candelaria and Joyce Wilson.
Carmen Arrieta-Candelaria
Carmen Arrieta-Candelaria was appointed as the county’s newest Director of Budget and Finance last month. Before returning to El Paso after working as the Chief Financial Officer for the Fort Worth Independent School District, she was the city’s controversial Comptroller that oversaw the destruction of the city hall to make way for the baseball stadium where the Chihuahua’s baseball team play. It was Joyce Wilson who spearheaded the destruction of city hall as the city’s first city manager.
Arrieta-Candelaria was hired by the El Paso Independent School District (EPISD) to oversee the finance and operations of the district in 2016. She was placed on administrative leave by the school district in 2021. She later resigned from the school district. While at the city, Arrieta-Candelaria worked closely with Joyce Wilson on several controversial projects that cost more than the projections she offered city officials at the time.
Joyce Wilson
In 2004, the City of El Paso switched from a strong mayor form of government to a city manager. Later that year, the city council appointed Joyce Wilson as the city’s first city manager. On October 10, 2013, she announced her resignation.
Several controversies erupted throughout her tenure as the city’s first city manager with many of them revolving around her push to fund extravagant projects through property taxes. One of the most controversial was the stadium where the Chihuahua’s baseball team plays because the city had to destroy its building to make way for the stadium and the costs overran the projections calculated by Arrieta-Candelaria’s department.
The final piece to the El Pasoans behind the SuperCity App is the company’s CEO, Miguel Gamiño
Miguel Gamiño, Jr.
In 2001, after graduating from the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) Gamiño went to work for JDW Insurance as the company’s comptroller and information technology manager, then under the leadership of Dee Margo. While still employed with JDW Insurance, Gamiño launched Evolution Technology Group in 2003 selling internet wireless services. Among the five partners of the company included Gamiño and Dee Margo. By 2006 Evolution had become Varay Systems. According to a lawsuit Gamiño filed the following year, Gamiño was “was escorted from the building and his private materials were confiscated” on February 26, 2007, effectively firing him from Varay.
Gamiño sued Varay in 2007 alleging that Varay company officials had imposed a back-dated employment agreement on him that prohibited Gamiño from establishing a business competing against Varay. Subsequently, Gamiño launched a second business, Sonisa, selling computer networking and website services after being removed from Varay.
In 2011, Gamiño was appointed the city’s Information Technology Director. He worked under the city’s first city manager, Joyce Wilson until he left the city in 2013 to work for the San Francisco city government.
Disclosure: The author served on the El Paso Information Technology Advisory Board with Gamiño in 2003.
What could go wrong?