Oversight for Hearings Office?

City Councilor Dan Lewis is sponsoring a bill to be introduced on Monday that would do away with the enabling ordinance for the office and move it under the city clerk.

The proposal follows a two-week city administrative investigation after city Chief Administrative Officer Rob Perry began looking into the work practices of chief independent hearing officer Roberto Albertorio and Anita Reina, another hearing officer.

The two resigned last month amid allegations Albertorio was running a private law practice out of his city office on city time, and Reina was essentially doing the same with her job as a tribal judge.

The office handles hearings for red light or speeding violations, vehicle seizures, zoning special exceptions, and appeals involving handicap parking, public housing and other matters involving appeals.

The city created it to try to ensure impartiality of hearing officers and give the city hearing officer “autonomy” in the performance of duties. The office, according to the ordinance, “is neither part of the city’s executive or legislative branches.”

Because of the structure of the ordinance, Perry and Lewis said, the hearing officers weren’t accountable to anyone.

“The proposal is to have this city function not as far away from the people,” Lewis said.

The proposed bill would scrap the ordinance and remove the zoning appeals from the hearing officers’ workload, Perry said. The city is considering moving most zoning appeals to the Planning Department, which oversaw them prior to the creation of the Independent Office of Hearings, and hiring a contractor to handle the more complex cases.

The office’s budget was slashed from about $800,000 to about $450,000 after voters did away with the red light camera program last year, which eliminated a large portion of its workload, Perry said.

Under the proposal, he said, the city would likely employ one full-time hearing officer instead of three they’ve traditionally had in the office. That employee would oversee part-time contract hearing officers.

The proposal also would prohibit hearing officers from engaging in outside employment or representation of clients without approval from the mayor.

Officials chose the City Clerk’s Office because it would still provide for the hearing officer a level of independence from the mayor’s office, Perry said.
— This article appeared on page C2 of the Albuquerque Journal