Bernalillo County compliance officer asks commissioners to withdraw hiring process

Although the Bernalillo County Commission has officially decided how to hire the next county manager, the hiring process again became the subject of debate at Tuesday’s commission meeting.

Commissioners Walt Benson and Steven Michael Quezada tried to reopen the discussion on hiring the future county manager by bringing back a failed motion to establish a different hiring process. The motion failed to be added to the agenda in a 3-2 vote.

County Manager Julie Morgas Baca plans to retire at the end of the fiscal year in June.

The commission approved a hiring process by a 3-1 vote at its previous regular meeting. The search committee created by that vote is scheduled to meet for the first time on Thursday. The search committee will recommend five county manager candidates for the commissioners to vote on.

Benson also wanted a discussion of the Bernalillo County code of conduct added to the agenda, based on a letter sent by the county’s Chief Compliance Officer Rocky Gutierrez.

The letter asked the board to withdraw the approved hiring process and reconvene to initiate the hiring process “with a full understanding of the procedural guidelines and the Code of Ordinances.”

The letter says that informal and anonymous allegations have been brought to the county compliance office’s attention and that “recent occurrences” warrant discussion of: alleged retaliation in the form of alteration of job roles; alleged directing of staff to override the will of the Board of County Commission outside of a public meeting; actions potentially bypassing county rules and procedures, including rules for board appointments; and alleged unauthorized direct communication, sidestepping hierarchy by directing and instructing nonreporting personnel.

Commission Chair Barbara Baca said that, historically, even the county’s code of conduct board does not take anonymous complaints, and she does not think the board meeting is the right place to take up personnel or code of conduct issues. Adding the discussion to the agenda failed on a 3-2 vote.

Earlier this month, the nonprofit New Mexico Foundation for Open Government asked the New Mexico Department of Justice to investigate an alleged Open Meetings Act violation related to the approved hiring process. The DOJ received the complaint and assigned it to an attorney, so the matter is under review, according to DOJ Director of Communications Lauren Rodriguez.