Judge rules in favor of Air Board, granting injunction

SANTA FE — A state district judge approved an injunction Thursday that will allow the Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Air Quality Control Board to continue its work.

Judge Francis Mathew also remarked that the board is likely to win a lawsuit it filed against the city of Albuquerque after its City Council passed legislation halting the board’s operations.

“The board is likely to prevail ultimately on this,” Mathew said moments after approving the board’s request for a preliminary injunction.

The injunction will remain in place until Mathew rules on the merits of the board’s lawsuit, which argues that the Albuquerque City Council violated state law when it effectively halted operations of the Air Quality Control Board.

“I do have concerns about allowing a situation to proceed that may be unlawful, so the injunction will be in place until the hearing on the merits,” Mathew said.

No further hearings were scheduled in the case on Thursday.

The injunction suspends both an ordinance and a resolution approved by the City Council in December that pulled the four Albuquerque-appointed members of the board and stayed board hearings until February.

Mathew made the ruling following a one-hour, 20-minute hearing in 1st Judicial District Court.

The ruling came in a lawsuit filed against the city of Albuquerque by board attorney Antoinette Sedillo Lopez, who argued Thursday that two pieces of legislation passed in December by the City Council effectively left the board unable to act.

“The board can do nothing,” Sedillo Lopez told the judge. “The emergency here is that there is no board today.”

After the hearing, Sedillo Lopez said the injunction will allow the seven-member city-county board to resume its work until the lawsuit is resolved.

Randy Autio, an attorney for the city of Albuquerque, argued Thursday the city has the authority under law to make changes to the board in ways envisioned by the City Council’s legislation.

“We didn’t remove members,” Autio told the judge. “We repealed the act and replaced it with a new act. We as an authority have the choice to continue to participate in this arrangement, if we choose, and under what conditions, or not.”

Bernalillo County has joined the lawsuit on behalf of the board. The county’s attorney, Ken Martinez, argued Thursday in agreement that the City Council ordinance was improper and urged the judge to approve the injunction.

Of the board’s seven members, three are appointed by the county and four by the city. Martinez argued that without the city-appointed members, the board lacks a quorum that has rendered it inoperable.

The board became a focus of controversy last year after a citizen group, the Mountain View Coalition, drafted an environmental justice regulation known as the Health, Environment and Equity Impacts rule. The rule was intended to protect overburdened communities — areas that are already impacted by high levels of pollution — from additional industrial emissions.

The rule attracted criticism from a variety of industries, including Sandia National Laboratories and other major employers, for its potential impact on business and the local economy.