State Auditor orders probe of Doña Ana County and sheriff

LAS CRUCES — Long-running disputes between Doña Ana County’s elected sheriff, commissioners and administration have drawn the attention of New Mexico State Auditor Joseph Maestas.

The office informed the county Monday afternoon that it was ordering a special audit of the county and the sheriff’s office after receiving requests separately from Sheriff Kim Stewart and the county commissioners in March.

On Tuesday, the office announced an independent auditor approved by the State Auditor’s Office would examine questions pertaining to “controversial commissioning practices for deputies … accusations of governance failures, rampant mismanagement, and deep-seated interdepartmental dysfunction.”

A spokesperson for the sheriff declined to comment. The office of County Manager Scott Andrews did not respond to a query from the Journal.

County Chairman Christopher Schaljo-Hernandez broached the possibility of an outside audit at a February meeting, and the commissioners formally voted to pursue an audit at a later session.

This followed a dispute in which Sheriff Stewart suggested she would cease commissioning deputies because the county had prevented her from stripping commissions from two officers under her command. The county said it had intervened because deputies are government employees under a merit-based system.

The county attorney presented email communications to commissioners showing the sheriff had refused to meet with county management to mediate the dispute. Stewart ultimately commissioned a new class of cadets and issued a statement welcoming an audit, provided it included the county’s human resources and legal departments.

“We’re not in the blame game here,” Maestas told the Journal in an interview, promising a nonpartisan review complying with New Mexico law and the state’s audit rule. “Friction between elected officials should never compromise safety, transparency or service to the public. This audit aims to really kind of reset that balance and establish greater cooperation and interdepartmental operations.”

The deputies Stewart had sought to decommission have pending lawsuits against her and the county commissioners, alleging they were punished in retaliation for raising concerns about Stewart’s leadership to the county manager. Three former deputies of the department have taken the county to court as well, and the district attorney’s office sued Stewart twice in 2022, alleging she had refused to serve subpoenas. A 2022 lawsuit, still pending, alleges Stewart’s office violated the state’s public records law.

The OSA letter designating the audit raised concerns about other potential litigation, as well, arising from possible waste or abuse of taxpayer money or noncompliance with the law.

“It was apparent to me that we’re dealing with an impasse here, a deep distrust that’s getting in the way of resolving some of these long-standing, simmering issues,” Maestas said. “You could call it a power struggle that is tinged with historic patterns of litigation and public disputes. We want to make sure that the line between legal compliance and administrative autonomy are not blurred.”

As an initial step, Maestas said the county and the OSA are to meet by April 21 for a meeting to discuss the scope of the audit. The county will be required to procure the services of an independent public accountant, from a list of candidates approved by the OSA, to perform the work and submit its report.