Bernalillo County commissioners offer competing visions for how to hire a county manager

Bernalillo County needs to hire a new county manager, but how to do so has become a contentious issue among commissioners.

County Manager Julie Morgas Baca, who oversees the day-to-day operations of the county, is retiring at the end of June.

Commission Chair Barbara Baca outlined a proposed process for finding Morgas Baca’s replacement in a news release Thursday. The commissioners will be able to vote on the proposal at their Tuesday meeting.

Baca is proposing a search committee to vet potential candidates, conduct two public meetings for community feedback and develop a stakeholder survey. The qualified candidates’ résumés and names would be available on the bernco.gov website.

The Board of County Commissioners would interview the top five candidates and decide who should get the job.

The proposed search committee would include former county manager Juan Vigil, former county commissioners Tim Cummins and Maggie Hart Stebbins, former Albuquerque Public Schools board president Yolanda Cordova-Montoya and Community Health Worker Initiatives Program Operations Director Venice Caballos.

“Much of the input I received from fellow commissioners has been incorporated into this proposed search process and the associated desired skills and abilities for our next county manager,” Baca said in a statement.

Commissioners Steven Michael Quezada and Walt Benson issued their own release Friday, criticizing the proposal. The pair have drafted a hiring process proposal that would let the commissioners each appoint a member to the search committee, which they also plan to bring to the Tuesday commission meeting.

“The lack of consultation, particularly regarding the formation of the local search committee, raises serious doubts about the transparency and fairness of this crucial hiring process,” Quezada said in a statement.

Baca said she believes the county needs to do a national search with local input, and a professional search committee familiar with the county and its issues seemed like the best way to do that.

“I hope that the commission can come together and work toward finding the best candidate for this very important job ... and I think that the process I proposed will allow for that good, robust debate in conversation,” Baca said.