By Rodd Cayton
State investigators determined the Bernalillo County Board of Commissioners did not violate a state open-meeting law when conducting closed sessions to discuss an ethics matter involving the hiring of an assistant treasurer.
The New Mexico Department of Justice says commissioners properly placed discussion of the matter on their agenda.
The New Mexico Foundation for Open Government filed a complaint with the NMDOJ in January, alleging the commission failed to adequately specify the reason for the closed meetings.
The state’s Open Meetings Act requires local government bodies to conduct their business in public and provide sufficient advance notice of the items scheduled to be discussed. The law lists “attorney-client privileged communication pertaining to threatened or pending litigation” among items that can be discussed behind closed doors.
FOG’s legal director, Amanda Lavin, told City Desk ABQ the agenda didn’t go into enough detail to provide information on the nature of the privileged communication.
Lavin said commissioners failed to name the legal counsel with whom they would be meeting and to adequately identify the possible litigation.
The NMDOJ’s Government Counsel and Accountability Bureau reviewed the matter and found the meeting lawful. An announcement of the finding states an exception citing “attorney-client privilege pertaining to threatened or pending litigation in which the public body is or may become a participant,” as supporting the decision to meet in closed session.
“It has been confirmed that threatened litigation existed at the time the meetings were held,” Rebecca M. Guay, acting deputy director of Government Counsel & Accountability, wrote in a letter to Commission Chair Eric Olivas.
Olivas said Monday he’s glad to see the decision.
“It validates that the commission was acting lawfully,” he said. “It affirms that we have open and honest government in Bernalillo County.”
Olivas said he appreciates FOG’s efforts to hold local governments accountable.
“I don’t disagree with them checking us and making sure we’re doing things above board,” he said.
The matter began when County Treasurer Tim Eichenberg hired former County Clerk Linda Stover as his deputy, despite commissioners’ decision in December to keep in place a one-year “cooling-off period” in the county’s code of conduct for former elected officials before they can accept employment or consulting work with the county.
Eichenberg contends state law permits him to hire whomever he wants as his deputy, and that this supersedes a county ordinance.
Commissioners last week voted to send a complaint against Stover to the Bernalillo County Code of Conduct Review Board.
Olivas, in voting to retain the cooling-off period, expressed concerns about the appearance of impropriety. He said the NMDOJ decision supports the type of atmosphere he’s been seeking.
“It was a transparency issue raised in investigating a transparency issue,” he said. “It brings us full circle.”