Earl Trapp Responds to Claims of Nepotism

On Monday, Deputy Mayor Matthew Preston accused Mayor Earl Trapp of nepotism, claiming that the head of the municipal government has hired his relatives for key offices within the San Ignacio Town Council.  Mayor Trapp’s response is that the persons who are employed by the town board are persons who are willing to go above and beyond in accomplishing the work of the council.

Matthew Preston

Matthew Preston, Deputy Mayor, San Ignacio/ Santa Elena Town Council

“You have the son, a procurement officer, niece as a cashier, the nephew; we told, we explained to the mayor that we want to hire an operations manager.  He says he will appoint his nephew as a temporary operations manager, and like we said, they submitted a budget for 2022 to 2023 without us knowing.  We wanted to put a position for operations manager, so now you control procurement, you control finances and receivables.  So you see what we’re saying, nepotism, where’s the transparency in that?”

Earl Trapp

Earl Trapp, Mayor, San Ignacio/ Santa Elena Town Council

“We have so many people that work out here and, you know what, when you employ people and give people an opportunity to work on weekends, those are the people that give their all.  You don’t want to employ people to come and do overtime and when they come, they work one hour, two hours and talk about wanting to sit down or go home.  You employ or invite people to come that want to give their all, that’s one of the reasons why I said to my council, why do you believe San Ignacio and Santa Elena looks the way it looks today?  It’s because we have been pushing all the works.  If you want to go back to a filthy town then I can retract the workers from working weekend but as a responsible mayor, I will do all I can to ensure our community to be the shining star on top of the hill.”