Courtesy Santa Fe Chamber of Commerce
The allegation landed with a sizzle, jolting the audience at the Lensic Performing Arts Center who, by then, had been listening to Santa Fe mayoral candidates debate the city’s housing troubles for two hours during a recent public forum.
Gasps from the assembled could even be heard on the livestreamed video.
City Councilor JoAnne Vigil Coppler, one of three hopefuls for the job, recounted what she described as a troubling interaction two years prior with incumbent Mayor Alan Webber in his office at City Hall.
“Don’t get your panties in a twist,’’ Webber said to her in 2019, according to Vigil Coppler’s telling.
The charge came less than a month before the election, drawing questions of its timing from the mayor and others watching the race. Writing to SFR, Webber says he “does not remember saying anything like that at all” but he did suggest she contact the city attorney “if she would like to make a complaint.”
Vigil Coppler’s allegation arrived in the wake of the #MeToo movement, when even progressive leaders who tout their forward stance on issues of gender inequality have come under scrutiny for sexism and sexual misconduct.
Despite the alleged comment’s shadow, many of Webber’s progressive supporters appear to have not abandoned him.
SFR inquired about any other complaints of sexual misconduct or harassment against the mayor to the city attorney’s office, the human resources department and Webber’s campaign—all say there are none.
State Rep. Linda Serrato, D-Santa Fe, tells SFR her support for Webber hasn’t wavered.
“What I appreciated about what happened in that process was that he immediately took responsibility,” Serrato says. “Then he offered her a route to file her grievances and her concerns.”
Another top endorser of the mayor, Rep. Andrea Romero, also a progressive Santa Fe Democrat, writes to SFR in an email, “I’ve known Alan for years and I have the utmost respect for him. He has always treated me, and those around me, with nothing but support, dignity and warmth.”
As for the alleged harassment, she emphasizes her faith in the government to take all harassment claims seriously and thoroughly investigate.
Romero also notes that Vigil Coppler supported her opponent, Carl Trujillo, a former representative who lost the House District 46 seat amid sexual harassment claims, citing a May 2018 social media post from the councilor. Romero derides Vigil Coppler’s “double standard.”
Meanwhile, two of the mayor’s progressive allies and endorsers on the City Council—Carol Romero-Wirth and Jamie Cassutt—did not respond to requests for an interview about Webber’s alleged misogynist remark.
Vigil Coppler tells SFR she approached the city attorney for direction on how to proceed—the human resources department doesn’t have authority over elected officials.
Webber explains that he apologized to Vigil Coppler for something he said that she found “appalling,” several months after the incident, following her communications with the city attorney.
But over almost a year of back and forth with the city’s legal office, Vigil Coppler says she received little guidance. In emails exchanged over an 11-month period between Vigil Coppler and City Attorney Erin McSherry, the councilor inquired about what legal coverage the city could afford in the case of a sexual harassment allegation.
“I do know that the biggest thing that you need to do when something comes to your attention, post haste, is you need to investigate it,” she tells SFR. Citing her experience conducting sexual harassment trainings, Vigil Coppler says Title VII of the Civil Rights Act states that once a claim of sexual harassment comes to light, an investigation must take place.
McSherry explains that as the City of Santa Fe’s attorney, she reviews complaints filed against the municipality, but does not provide legal guidance to anyone beyond her jurisdiction—including the councilor in this instance.
“That is why I was advising the councilor, if she has a complaint against someone in their city capacity, she needed to talk to private counsel,” McSherry tells SFR.
McSherry emphasizes that Vigil Coppler never filed a complaint against the mayor and, therefore, there was no investigation.
As elected officials, McSherry says, governing body members are subject to penalties imposed by the Ethics Campaign Review Board.
“Anyone who wants to file a complaint against someone in their official capacity hires their own lawyer,” McSherry says, which would include elected officials filing a complaint against another governing body member. McSherry notes that while the city’s Ethics Code included direction for municipal employees making a complaint against elected officials, it doesn’t provide the same guidance for a governing body member to file a similar grievance against an elected peer.
The mayoral race’s third candidate, Alexis Martinez Johnson, tells SFR that Vigil Coppler’s allegation and Webber’s public responses have done little more than further dismay voters.
“The incumbent and the councilwoman, their rhetoric has created an increase in distrust in this community,” says Martinez Johnson.
She says the timing of Vigil Coppler’s claims is suspicious, noting, “In politics, anything is game. For a lot of candidates they can make these kinds of assertions, but in my view if you’re going to make an allegation...you have to have some type of evidence for that.”
Asked directly about the timing of the public allegation, Vigil Coppler did not offer an explanation: “This was something that happened to me.”
Julie Ann Grimm contributed reporting.
