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APS board advances new, weakened code of conduct for itself
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Modified
The Albuquerque Public Schools board on Monday greenlit rules on how to govern the district, including a code of conduct outlining the do’s and don’ts of school board member ethics.
But before approving the code of conduct, which still requires a final vote before it can go into effect, the board first pulled some of its teeth.
Originally, the code of conduct would have required members to disclose campaign contributions from people involved in issues the board is voting on and, if those contributions total up to over $1,000, recuse themselves from those votes.
But before Monday’s meeting, policy committee Chair Danielle Gonzales told the Journal she expected that language to be a point of contention and that it would fail. That proved true. While revising the code of conduct, and before an official vote, a majority of members said they supported cutting the language requiring them to recuse themselves.
“I agree with recusing myself … and I think any board member would definitely do that,” President Yolanda Montoya-Cordova, one of the four members who approved of cutting the language, said after the meeting. “But simply having a statement that says that we must? I don’t know that that’s any different from us signing our disclosure form, and signing a code of conduct, and also taking an oath of office.”
While she accepted the revision, Gonzales did so begrudgingly.
“(I‘m) frankly flabbergasted that any one of us would not want to recuse ourselves,” she said. “This seems so common sense that basic ethical standards … say that, as a public official, ‘I will recuse myself from something if I’ve received a campaign contribution that appears to influence me.’”
The code of conduct was just one section of a broader “governance manual,” which in large part consolidates policies and practices already in place but also sought to add new ones, laying out in one place the guidelines for how APS should be run.
In addition to the board’s own code of conduct, the manual also lays out procedures for how the board should create policies, delegate to the superintendent, and manage the superintendent.
The code of conduct includes requirements for board members to disclose gifts over $250, abide by the state Governmental Conduct Act, and disclose potential conflicts of interest related to things like district contracts.
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During a discussion over the recusal language, board Secretary Courtney Jackson argued it was the second of a two-pronged approach to establishing trust with the public.
“It’s about ethics. It’s about holding ourselves to a higher standard than is required by law, because we are educating kids,” she said.
Gonzales and other board members gave several examples of situations in which board members would have to recuse themselves before that language died. For instance, if a construction company made a $5,000 contribution to a member, then was recommended to the board for a contract, that member would be recused from any vote on that contract.
But Gonzales, citing a legal review of the language, said if the Albuquerque Teachers Federation made a contribution to a board member, that member wouldn’t have to be recused from a vote on the union contract, because it’s the ATF’s political arm, which doesn’t bargain on behalf of educators, that makes campaign contributions.
But board Vice President Peggy Muller-Aragón, another of the members who supported cutting the recusal language, said she didn’t approve of that, and added that forcing board members to recuse themselves from votes could ultimately preclude them from many important decisions.
“If you have a contributor who bids, obviously, on a construction project, architectural engineering, etc., and they gave you a contribution, well, then you could recuse from voting on that often, because we have a lot of the same people, and I don’t think that’s fair,” she said.
