During the Albuquerque City Council’s regular meeting this week councilors met behind closed doors with little explanation other than they were discussing potential litigation.
The executive session was noted on the agenda as “subject to attorney-client privilege pertaining to threatened or pending litigation.” Executive or closed sessions are allowed by state law as long as members do not make any final decisions.
Melanie Majors, executive director of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government, told City Desk ABQ she thinks the City Council may have violated the state’s Open Meetings Act (OMA) — which is a state law that ensures public business is open to the public.
“The attorney general in the past has always been quite clear that the agenda must be specific and it must contain a list of specific items,” Majors said.
According to Majors, the litigation section in OMA states that an executive session must be discussing actual litigation and the meeting agenda has to include some specificity about what the potential litigation is related to.
“The closed discussion must involve communication between the public body and its attorney, not possible or potential litigation and the only way to assure that is what is actually happening is to actually name what they are discussing,” Majors said.
It’s still unclear exactly what the possible litigation the council was discussing. A spokesperson for Mayor Tim Keller’s office, Staci Drangmeister, said the City Attorney Lauren Keefe, could not comment about the pending litigation. However, Vince Higgins, a spokesperson for the City Council confirmed the discussion was “related to the Albuquerque-Bernalillo Air Quality Control Board litigation.” Higgins did not respond to a request for comment about the allegation that the City Council violated state law.
Council President Dan Lewis recused himself from the executive session but did not specify why. Lewis is the executive director for the Asphalt Pavement Association of New Mexico and under a pre-litigation settlement agreement with the State Ethics Commission, he agreed to recuse himself from all matters relating to the Albuquerque-Bernalillo Air Quality Control Board and the association while he serves on the council and is employed by the association.
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