City counselors says their nominees were nixed by mayor.
The city's Ethics and Campaign Review Committee is off to an ethically questionable start-and it hasn't even formed yet.
Birthed out of the tumult of the March, 2004 city elections-in which last-minute, anonymous attack ads galvanized calls for campaign reform-the citizen committee was intended to provide an impartial means for the city to monitor future political campaigns.
As reported last week, the committee's genesis has been painfully slow-2006 mayoral and City Council campaigns have already kicked off and the committee has yet to take shape [Outtakes, Sept 21:
].
Now SFR has learned that alleged backroom maneuvering around the committee's appointments is causing a stir among some city councilors and raising eyebrows in the process.
According to City Councilor Miguel Chavez, Mayor Larry Delgado called him Sept. 21 and asked Chavez to withdraw his nominee for the committee: Fred Flatt. According to Chavez, Delgado was "uncomfortable" with Flatt. Delgado could not be reached for comment for this story.
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Flatt, a frequent speaker at City Council meetings, at times has opposed Delgado's decisions during public comment. For example, last summer Flatt asked Delgado to recuse himself from weighing in on a proposed project from developer Richard "Dickie" Montoya, Jr. because Delgado had appointed Montoya, Jr. and his wife to the city's Historic Design Review Board and Planning Commission respectively. Delgado refused.
"It seems to be kind of personal," Chavez says of Delgado's request. "Fred's criticism has not necessarily been directed at the mayor himself, but he has been critical of some of the mayor's decisions when it comes to planning issues. Fred is one of those residents who takes positions on issues."
Flatt says he thinks the bad blood between him and Delgado stems from a police chase which traversed his home six years ago. Shortly after the chase, Flatt requested a meeting with Delgado to discuss safer ways to conduct such chases, but the mayor never showed, he says. But Flatt says that shouldn't give Delgado the right to kill his nomination to a city committee.
Says Flatt: "I'm wondering what it is the mayor has to hide from a citizen activist."
Chavez says he agreed to drop Flatt's name, but only if Delgado ensured that City Councilor Rebecca Wurzburger's nominee, Fred Rowe, also was withdrawn.
Rowe, a retired lawyer and neighborhood activist, served on an interim campaign reform commission last year. Chavez says he wants the new ethics committee to be entirely comprised of
new members.
"I just felt like we need fresh blood on the Ethics and Campaign Review Committee," Chavez says. "I figured I could fight the mayor's request, or I could compromise. It's an awkward situation."
It quickly became awkward for Councilor Wurzburger. She says she was asked by Delgado on Sept. 22 to withdraw Rowe's name and was told by Delgado that he wanted people who hadn't yet served on previous city ethics committees. "The mayor told me he would not appoint Fred [Rowe]," she says. "I thought Fred would be a wonderful addition. The situation is unfortunate because of his integrity and knowledge of the law."
Rowe declined to comment for this story.
Wurzburger says Delgado did not inform her of his conversation with Chavez, and termed that revelation "disappointing news."
Delgado's involvement in these appointments may extend beyond the realm of "disappointing." A May 11 ordinance allows each city councilor an appointment to the committee, unlike other committees in which Delgado has total power over appointments.
"We don't know the facts yet, and the mayor has the right to make suggestions, but he should not be asking councilors to withdraw their nominees," Jim Harrington, a member of the state governing council of political watchdog group Common Cause of New Mexico, which helped draft the ordinance creating the committee, says. "It would be a terrible tragedy, and a lot of effort would be wasted, if pressure was brought to appoint certain people and withdraw others."
Meanwhile, Chavez and Wurzburger are unsure who they'll put forward to replace Flatt and Rowe.
"I'm not sure who I'm going to nominate," Chavez says. "But time is running out and we have to move fast on this committee."
