Mayor's critics take aim at his friends.
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Larry Delgado has his share of friends and enemies. But it's the mayor's choice of friends-namely the members of Los Amigos del Alcalde Club Desayuno ("Friends of the Mayor Breakfast Club") that has once again sparked the ire of his opponents as the incumbent contemplates a re-election bid.
The nonprofit Amigos-which provides Delgado with "entertainment" funds and whose members meet with the mayor for a bimonthly breakfast/bullshit session at the Eldorado Hotel-is no stranger to controversy. Amigos last came under fire in 2002 before Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez was reprimanded by that city's ethics committee for accepting similar funds from ABQPAC, a political action committee formed for his benefit.
Amigos and ABQPAC are both back in the spotlight as the March 2006 Santa Fe mayoral election heats up and the Albuquerque race comes down to its Oct. 4 wire. Albuquerque City Councilor Brad Winter-who is battling Chavez in the mayoral race-has hammered on Chavez's purported lack of ethics (personified by the ABQPAC controversy) in his campaign while Amigos became a point of contention at the first Santa Fe mayoral debate on Sept. 12.
City Councilor David Coss and realtor Karen Walker-the only announced mayoral candidates-came down on opposite sides of the issue. Coss said he would do away with Amigos. Walker was open to keeping it. Delgado-who did not return multiple phone and e-mail messages seeking comment for this story- has remained tight-lipped about his candidacy for a third term. Following revisions in the city's ethics code, the point may be moot, according to Jim Harrington, an attorney for Common Cause, a nonpartisan government watchdog group.
"When we looked at the Santa Fe ethics code, the gift ban was full of loopholes," Harrington says. "Which rendered what Mayor Delgado was doing perfectly legal. Everyone conceded that as shady as it looked, it was legal." What the mayor was doing was using Amigos funds-supplied by the $100 per person annual membership fee-to fund diplomatic trips, purchase gifts for visiting dignitaries and to host banquets. Harrington and Common Cause worked laboriously with the Santa Fe City Council to refine the language of the city ethics code.
"The revisions to the ethics code have effectively rendered this club illegal to the extent that any of its members expect any pecuniary gain from their membership," Harrington says.
Amigos President Al Lucero balks at any revisions to the city's ethics code that would target his organization.
Lucero owns Maria's New Mexican Kitchen and has served with the New Mexico Gaming Commission, Santa Fe Economic Development Incorporated, the Santa Fe Occupancy Tax Advisory Board and is a past president of the Santa Fe Restaurant Association. "There is absolutely nothing corrupt about [Amigos]," Lucero says. "Anybody who thinks we can buy the mayor's influence for $100 is naïve and ignorant."
As for the new code, Lucero says, "The last time we checked with the city attorney, there was nothing wrong with Amigos."
Indeed, according to City Attorney Bruce Thompson, Amigos' legality won't be decided until the ethics and campaign review committee is established (see Outtakes, page 10). And despite Harrington's assertions, Amigos could potentially continue to operate even with the ethics code revisions because, Thompson says, "A lot of what the code does is disclosure, not prohibition." Lucero also takes offense to the comparison between Delgado's Amigos and Chavez's ABQPAC, which the Albuquerque mayor used to finance trips, gifts and his wife's cell-phone bills.
"We are not a political action committee," Lucero says. "This fund exists solely to provide entertainment funds for the mayor. He is the ambassador of Santa Fe. We have a lot of visitors who come to this town and I think it's only logical that we show them the best that Santa Fe has to offer. There is no money in the city budget for this…and I think the mayor deserves some help for putting up with all those city councilors. I know I wouldn't do that for all the tea in China."
China, you say? It's just one of the locales Delgado has visited on official business since he took office in 1998. Japan, Brazil, Italy, Spain and Washington, DC are others. Amigos contributed only a portion to trips like those; the city picked up the rest of the tab. In fact, earlier this year Delgado reported the highest amount of travel expenses out of any municipal employee. But Harrington says the privately funded trips and gifts are superfluous to a mayor's official duties.
"They never use these gifts for fixing potholes," Harrington says. "They use them for these lavish banquets and sister city junkets. But it doesn't matter what [these funds] are used for, the corrupting effect comes when they're being used for personal pleasure. If these things were genuinely for the well-being of the city, then the city would pay for it."
Councilor and mayoral candidate Coss agrees: "I'm not sure that traveling to Spain or South America represents a genuine city interest," Coss says. "If it's that important, it should be paid for by the taxpayers. In my role as mayor, if I really need to travel somewhere, the city will pay for it. If I want to go on vacation, my wife and I will pay for it."
If Coss is elected mayor, he might not have a choice. Lucero says Amigos will likely continue if Delgado decides to run for re-election and wins or in another incarnation if Walker wins. "This isn't a club that's officially sanctioned by the city," Lucero says. "It depends completely on a person's supporters and if [Coss] became the mayor I don't know that anybody would even offer. I know I wouldn't."
