Confidential city of Albuquerque watchdog reports remain in limbo

City officials continue to keep at least six controversial investigative reports into alleged malfeasance at City Hall under wraps, despite months of delay and a $30,000 quality assurance review by an outside contractor.

The investigative reports from the city’s independent, nonpartisan Office of Inspector General, have been finished for months, but an oversight committee appointed by the mayor and City Council has yet to formally review and release them.

The director of the independent watchdog agency, Peter Pacheco, told the Journal Tuesday that he hoped at least several of the investigations, some of which were finished nearly a year ago, would be ready for release prior to the city’s Nov. 4 general election.

Back in June, city officials said the reports could be approved when the city’s Accountability in Government Oversight Committee met in late July. But that didn’t happen.

City Council President Brook Bassan told the Journal Tuesday that she isn’t concerned that the reports have yet to be made public.

“I don’t think up to this point there has been any shenanigans going on,” Bassan told the Journal. With the continued delays and the confidentiality involved in the approval process, she acknowledged, “It has the potential to look suspicious.”

But Bassan, who sits as a non-voting, ex-officio member of the AGO, said she hopes the reports, or at least some of them, will be ready for release before the election.

The Albuquerque firm, REDW, was hired under a $30,200 contract to evaluate the six reports, though Bassan said she couldn’t say in detail what the firm recommended other than there were “changes that needed to be made.”

But she said there will be no alterations of the original reports, just footnotes or separate statements issued.

Under city ordinance, the reports can’t be released until reviewed by the oversight committee, which doesn’t hold public meetings. The committee can either approve or disapprove the findings, but the reports are released either way.

In an “Update to Citizens of Albuquerque” posted in late March on the OIG website, then-city Inspector General Melissa R. Santistevan wrote that the pending reports “deal with fraud, waste, or abuse that impact our City. Some of these reports have been completed for months without citizen awareness.”

In a Journal interview, she wouldn’t disclose the topics.

In a written response, AGO committee chair Victor Griego stated the committee had “multiple concerns” about the quality of the reports and the underlying investigations.

Within weeks, the AGO put Santistevan on paid leave, and decided not to renew her contract. Based on AGO recommendations for a new OIG, City Council voted June 13 to hire William Hoffman, owner of a workplace investigations firm in San Diego. But because of pay issues, Hoffman later declined to take the job, Bassan said.

Hoffman couldn’t be reached by the Journal for comment.

The city is now advertising for new applicants for the OIG post, which pays between $116,396 to $141,981 a year.

Bassan said the delays in releasing the reports aren’t related to the vacancy created when Hoffman turned down the OIG job.

Santistevan’s attorney, J. Edward Hollington, sent Bassan and Griego, an Albuquerque accountant, a letter last week contending her removal was “improper and illegal.” Hollington contended that the AGO had no authority to appoint an interim OIG, and that Santistevan “should immediately be reinstated to her position as Inspector General.”

He also said the city violated the OIG ordinance by failing to take a vote on whether she should have been reconfirmed before appointing Hoffman.

The current vacancy “offers the opportunity to the City Council and the AGO to reverse the blatant violations of City Ordinance...as Ms. Santistevan remains the only duly appointed IG for the City,” his letter states. Bassan disagreed, defending the process used.

She said the AGO, which also oversees the city’s Internal Audit office, has previously appointed interim directors.