Why hasn’t this city councilor disclosed his assets yet?

All of Albuquerque’s city councilors have filled out their annual asset and liability reports except for one.

The holdout is freshman Councilor Dan Champine, and he didn’t just happen to forget the July 1 deadline.

“I haven’t filled it out based on working with my attorney and getting advice from him on how to fill it out properly,” Champine said. ”I understand and I agree with transparency. I get the checks and balances in the sense that we want to make sure that our elected officials aren’t being bribed or bought for a vote.”

City code states that “all elected officials shall file with the City Clerk an annual disclosure statement listing all of the changes or additions to the disclosure information provided by the elected official at the time of filing his or her declaration of candidacy” and “the annual disclosure statement for all elected officials shall include the following information for the preceding calendar year.”

“It does not appear we have received a 2023 annual disclosure form from Councilor Champine although we did receive the biannual disclosure form from him for 2024,” Cristobal Rocha, spokesperson for the city clerk, said in a statement.

While the annual disclosure asks for a detailed inventory of income, possessions and employment of family members, the biannual disclosures ask for campaign contributions and expenditures. Champine has filled those out.

But Champine takes issue with the clerk wanting his 2023 asset disclosures.

“They’re requesting the 2023 disclosures, and I wasn’t an elected official in 2023, so that’s where there’s a bit of clarification that I’m trying to figure out and why they’re asking for 2023 but they don’t have one for me because, again, I was sworn in January of ‘24,” Champine said.

It’s unclear what the ramifications may be for Champine not turning in his report.

“We have reached out to him to request it again. As this matter could come before the Board of Ethics, which our office staffs, we are unable to comment further,” Rocha said.

In addition to his confusion on why the clerk needs his 2023 report, Champine thinks the annual disclosure asks for too much information, and he is concerned about his safety and that of his family.

“Right now, if you want to find out everything … you can find out a lot of stuff, not only about me, but my wife, my son. You pay nine bucks and you get all that information,” Champine said.

An Inspection of Public Records Act request for the documents would be free digitally, $8.79 for a flash drive and $6.75 for a CD with the disclosures.

The annual disclosure reports take down information such as the address of the city councilor, all properties they own, their employer, their spouse’s employer, additional sources of income, memberships with organizations, gifts given to or received by the councilor, their children or their spouse and any liabilities over $50,000 owned by the councilor or their family members.

“Look at the amount of people and the amount of things going on. Two years ago, there were drive-by shootings of elected officials, the UnitedHealthcare guy was just killed based on the fact that somebody who didn’t like health care learned of his whereabouts, followed him, figured out his schedule and then murdered him,” Champine said.

The Journal reviewed the eight City Council disclosures and the mayor’s provided by the city clerk’s office. While most sensitive information was hidden, one councilor’s primary residence address was listed and the addresses for two councilors’ rental properties were found.

“I have never shied away from the fact that I own rental properties, right? I do. I’m concerned about that. … I had put the addresses of those down,” Champine said.

He said he owns four properties, including his primary residence.

Champine did not provide the name of the attorney he was working with or additional details on their conversations as “it is a private discussion.”