Tempers flare between City Council president and mayor over Trump's visit, records show

Former President Donald Trump will be in Albuquerque for the fourth time in eight years but not at the venue he wanted, which has ignited a rift between City Council President Dan Lewis and Mayor Tim Keller.

The Trump campaign was denied use of the Albuquerque Convention Center by ASM Global, which manages the building through a contract with the city.

ASM Global General Manager for the Convention Center Ray Roa told the Journal the campaign can’t use the center because of a water line repair scheduled from Wednesday through Friday.

Trump’s visit is scheduled for Thursday.

The Journal obtained text messages from Friday and Saturday between Lewis and Keller through an Inspection of Public Records Act request.

Both accuse the other of partisanship — despite their positions both being technically nonpartisan — in the texts without mentioning the maintenance issue.

The messages show that Lewis reached out first, asking Keller on Friday evening if the mayor can talk to the Trump campaign directly about renting the Convention Center.

Keller didn’t respond immediately and Lewis followed up by mentioning that the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, Douglas Emhoff, visited in April and used city resources such as the Albuquerque Police Department.

Keller spokeswoman Staci Drangmeister told the Journal on Wednesday that there was “no bill for Doug Emhoff’s recent official visit to the Sunport” because the city “typically” does not “bill dignitaries or elected leaders who are visiting in an official capacity.”

Lewis then told Keller that he “bet(s) the city gets sued and all this will come out,” according to the messages. Keller told Lewis the next morning that the Trump campaign is welcome to call his administration about paying the nearly $500,000 bill from a 2019 visit.

Trump’s outstanding bill, posted on the city’s financial portal, was updated Monday night to reflect the compounded interest over the past five years, which more than doubled.

Drangmeister said the update was done because Trump is returning to town.

During Trump’s last visit to Albuquerque as president in 2019, when campaigning for reelection, he racked up $211,175 in unpaid fees, mainly related to APD overtime and barricades. His rally took place at the events center in neighboring Rio Rancho, which did not seek reimbursement for the event.

During a Wednesday virtual news conference, Keller said the Convention Center was “not available,” an apparent reference to the planned maintenance work.

But Keller also raised the issue of the $444,986 the city maintains Trump owes for expenditures related to his 2019 rally in Rio Rancho. The city says the amount has more than doubled with interest from five years ago.

That initial $211,175 includes expenditures for police services and employee pay after Trump’s stay at an Albuquerque hotel prompted the temporary closure of City Hall.

“If you pay your bills, we can have a political discussion,” Keller said in response to a question during the virtual news conference. “But if you’re not going to pay your bills, we’re just not going to entertain you using city facilities, and that’s the way it should be.”

In the text messages between Keller and Lewis, the mayor concluded by telling Lewis to “refrain from using (yo)ur position to pressure staff that does not report to you for yo(ur) personal, partisan or political efforts.”

Lewis replied by calling it “BS” and said that Keller is “way out of line.”

In a statement to the Journal, Drangmeister said Lewis “repeatedly called multiple city staff and the Chief of Police, who he does not supervise, demanding they interfere with Convention Center operations and halt needed construction work. He went so far as to call the contractor, telling them the sewer work was canceled.”

Lewis denied this and called it a lie.

Dale Armstrong, TLC’s owner and founder, said that Lewis never attempted to cancel the project. Armstrong also said the work being done could have been delayed and that TLC has been in conversation with the Convention Center about the project for several months.

However, Kelley Gibson, department manager for TLC’s sewer and drain department, said she would advise against delaying the maintenance.

“Personally demanding that law enforcement, staff and a construction firm do his partisan bidding for Trump is not just unethical, it’s a blatant abuse of power. He may not like it, but I will rightly demand that anyone who owes our city half a million dollars pay up,” Keller said in a statement to the Journal Wednesday.

But Lewis doesn’t believe the city would have charged another candidate campaigning in the city.

Drangmeister said the city has “has billed campaigns that require extra time and equipment in the past,” but did not provide any examples of billed campaigns.

“In my capacity as an Albuquerque City Councilor, I asked the administration some reasonable questions and helped provide an opportunity for the Mayor to bring a resolution,” Lewis said in a statement Wednesday. “Unfortunately, the Mayor took a political position. There’s no doubt the outcome would have been different if we were dealing with a different presidential candidate.”

In an email Wednesday to Lewis obtained by the Journal, Kevin Sourisseau, the chief financial officer for the Keller administration, said the city has never billed a president.

“We have reviewed our records and have not found instances of overnight presidential visits that required the closure of city hall, the overnight barricading of roads and police presence. As such, we have no billing records for campaign visits except for the 2019 campaign visit by President Trump which was unprecedented and costly to taxpayers,” Sourisseau said.