Board hearing to decide if commissioner violated county code by editing job description

The Bernalillo County Code of Conduct Review Board will bring in witnesses to decide whether Commissioner Adriann Barboa violated county code by helping write a job description.

Fellow Commissioner Steven Michael Quezada brought the complaint after a May County Commission meeting, when com missioners voted in favor of a resolution making Barboa a liaison to the county manager to make suggestions and review the job description for the deputy county manager for behavioral health.

The job was posted locally on the BernCo Job Board. It is currently closed, although nobody was hired and a national search to fill the $190,000-per-year role continues with the help of a recruiting firm.

Quezada voted against the resolution, citing “major concerns” about responsibilities he felt were outside the purview of a county commissioner. In his complaint, he raised an ordinance which states “no county commissioner shall make, participate in making or in any way attempt to use his or her position to influence any hiring decision.”

“I am begging this commission not to go down this road,” Quezada said at the May meeting. “Trust the county manager, trust the staff, who have been working in behavioral health for many, many years.”

At a preliminary hearing on Wednesday, Barboa said County Manager Julie Morgas Baca asked for her suggestions on the job description because Barboa was highly invested in the county’s behavioral health initiatives. The May 23 vote, Barboa said, merely formalized her role as a liaison. Barboa said she consulted with County Attorney Ken Martinez about serving as a liaison; documents show that the legal department completed a review earlier in May.

The behavioral health role was created in the county’s last budget session, Barboa said at the Wednesday preliminary hearing, out of a need to manage the county’s behavioral tax dollars.

“All of this is taxpayer dollars that people gave out of their own pockets for the Behavioral Health Initiative,” Barboa told the Journal. “They believe that we should be doing right by our families and the behavioral health needs of the streets. So I believe that I will continue to fight this. ... I appreciate the Ethics Commission and will follow the process and participate fully — but I also will continue to fight for the behavioral health our families deserve.”

On Wednesday, Quezada presented emails sent ahead of the May 23 meeting between the county manager, Barboa and other county staff which referenced “the commissioner’s edits” to an attached job description, although at the meeting Barboa said, “I have not, to this point, been involved at all in the job description.”

Board members representing the five Bernalillo County districts voted unanimously to schedule an evidentiary hearing, during which witnesses will be asked questions and the board will ultimately decide if the complaint merits a sanction like a fine or public censure. Barboa she would be “cooperative” throughout the hearing process.

At the May meeting, Barboa responded to Quezada’s concerns, noting that commissioners have in the past served as liaisons to Metropolitan Detention Center contracts. Her main reason for bringing the resolution, Barboa said, was to increase transparency with her fellow commissioners.

“This is not new,” Barboa said. “...And actually, county manager welcomed me, said I didn’t even need to bring it for a vote, that she would welcome me on to talking and being a part of this.”

On Wednesday, Quezada responded that he felt neither Barboa nor the county manager could “supersede” any ordinance.

“The rules are the rules — we have to abide by them,” Quezada said.

Baca could not immediately be reached for comment.

This is the third ethics complaint Quezada has made against a colleague this year. In January, Quezada filed two complaints: one against Barboa, and one against former county commissioner Debbie O’Malley. The January complaint against Barboa alleged she had not disclosed her status as a registered New Mexico lobbyist and had a “substantial financial interest” in appointing someone who “will benefit her clients’ interests.”

Barboa voted, along with two others, to appoint Yanira Gurrola to fill Antonio “Moe” Maestas’ vacated House of Representatives seat. The complaint was dismissed in March after the county code of conduct review board found “insufficient allegations.”

Quezada filed a complaint against O’Malley after a heated meeting where the then-county commissioner called then-colleague and then-county commissioner Charlene Pyskoty a “bitch,” according to the complaint. In February, the review board dismissed charges that O’Malley’s language towards Pyskoty violated code, but formally censured O’Malley for telling Pyskoty’s assistant, Joe Noriega, to “shut up.”