County commissioners disagree about process for hiring county manager

Who will be the next Bernalillo County manager is far from decided, and commissioners are already at odds about the process for hiring a new one.

Current County Manager Julie Morgas Baca is retiring at the end of the fiscal year in June, departing the chief administrative position that oversees the county’s day-to-day operations. The five elected county commissioners hire the county manager.

Commissioner Steven Michael Quezada is pushing for the county to use a new process for hiring the manager: a series of town halls — one in each district — and hiring a recruitment firm. Quezada wanted to introduce a resolution setting in place those practices and a hiring timeline.

In a 3- 2 vote Tuesday, the commissioners decided to defer Quezada’s resolution to their next regular meeting.

“Delaying and deferring the selection process for a new county manager is disappointing, undermines transparency, and deprives the community of the opportunity for adequate discussion and consideration of candidates,” Quezada said in a statement afterward.

Commission Chair Barbara Baca said the timeline set out in Quezada’s resolution might not be attainable and thinks setting firm deadlines may pressure the commissioners into a hasty decision. She’s also concerned that the proposed town halls could be poorly attended and ineffective.

“I think that we want it to be transparent and engage the community,” Baca said. “Five town halls, I think, is not the best way to hire a top executive.”

Baca said the process of gathering bids for a recruitment firm could slow down the hiring process. She is more interested in creating a local search committee.

Commissioner Eric Olivas also took issue with the timeline and is concerned that a recruitment firm could be an unnecessary expense. In past years, the county has sometimes used a recruitment firm and sometimes used citizen search committees, Olivas said. He thinks the county human resources department could also help vet candidates and advertise the position.

“(Quezada)’s advocating for this collaborative, transparent and public process. But it didn’t start with that,” Olivas said. “This is something that his office drafted and cooked up on an island by themselves. There was no input from other commissioners, from our human resources staff, from our legal staff. That is not how you start a collaborative process.”

Quezada took issue with that characterization on Wednesday, providing emails to the Journal that appear to show he sent his proposal on the selection process to Baca on March 1 and a draft of the resolution to the county manager and the chief operations officer on March 6.

“It is clear that Commissioner Baca wants to make this important decision in a back room without adequate feedback and transparency to the public,” Quezada said in a statement. “Commissioners Baca and Olivas have clearly made their mind up on who they want to hire and don’t care about what the public has to think or say.”