State Auditor Brian Colón Foolish Saying His Audit On APD Overtime Abuse Will Result In 100% Compliance; 160 Police Union Members Made Between $110,000 To $200,000 In 2019 And 2020 Because Of Overtime; Abolish All APD Overtime And Implement Salary Structure With Steps

On Friday, August 6, 2021, the New Mexico State Auditor’s long-awaited special audit report on overtime abuse by the Albuquerque Police Department (APD) was released. The 64-page audit was performed by the Albuquerque accounting firm Porch & Associates LLC. The audit covers the time period of January 1, 2018 to June 30, 2020. The link to the entire 64-page audit report is here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sIsbWAGpIC2mDFs8bsbQ1BhYDOSXH8Ig/view

According to the newly released audit, it is the 7th audit performed on APD overtime practices since 2014. The audit includes the second term of previous Republican Richard Berry and the first 2 ½ years of Democrat Mayor Tim Keller’s 4-year term. The 6 prior audits resulted in 17 findings and recommendation made. There was an absolute failure by APD command staff to carry out and implement the changes needed to solve the overtime problem. The released audit identified that certain APD police union contract terms and conditions are in violations of the Federal Labor Fair Standards act and that the police union contract has contributed significantly to the overtime pay abuse by rank-and-file police officers.

The links to quoted news source material are here:

https://www.krqe.com/news/politics-government/audit-makes-recommendations-for-apd-overtime-policies-practices/

https://www.koat.com/article/albuquerque-police-department-audited-for-overtime-pay-for-7th-time/37248257

https://www.kob.com/albuquerque-news/audit-apd-continues-to-abuse-overtime/6199260/?cat=500

CITY RESPONSE

When the Porch & Associates Audit Report was released on August 6, the Keller Administration, including Mayor Tim Keller, Chief Harold Medina and APD Spokesperson Gilbert Gallegos, placed all the blame on former Chief of Police Michael Geier for failure to address the overtime abuse and giving preferential treatment to a select few. the Keller Administration issued a harsh statement blaming Mayor Tim Keller’s appointed former APD Police Chief Michael Geier for all the overtime abuse problems. The statement said in part:

“The former chief knowingly covered up overtime abuses and helped his favored employees’ game the system to enrich themselves. … The report makes it clear that the ‘tone at the top’ of APD was a major driver of the abuse and the failure to make needed changes. We didn’t hesitate to take bold action to remove the top cop and get the department back on track.”

Chief Geier for his part issued a press release denying the accusation saying he came up with a plan to prevent the overtime abuse, including a 25 hour weekly overtime cap, and saying it was Mayor Tim Keller who interfered with him making changes to the overtime.

Chief Harold Medina had this to say:

“The overtime problems with APD have occurred since I can remember coming on this department. … So there’s been a lot of people who could have taken action quicker than they did … I do know that it was a priority of ours. We did make the decision to put up a special order as quickly as possible. And we’re also working on auditing ourselves and creating a system where we try to catch things earlier. We encourage that type of oversight within the department.”

The link to the quoted source material is here:

https://www.abqjournal.com/2419877/seventh-audit-cites-apd-overtime-problems.html

STATE AUDITOR COLÓN

In an interview, State Auditor Colón said he thinks his offices latest audit will make a difference. He said an annual audit for the city will look at this issue next year and added:

“I think the city has articulated that they’re committed to addressing these findings and to embracing these recommendations … I’ve met with the chief of police, and he has indicated that some of these 22 recommendations have already been implemented. We’re optimistic that as we continue to keep the pressure on we’ll get into a situation where we have 100% compliance.”

The link to the quoted source material is here:

https://www.abqjournal.com/2419877/seventh-audit-cites-apd-overtime-problems.html

7th SPECIAL AUDIT REPORT HIGHLIGHTS FAILURES TO DEAL WITH OVERTIME ABUSE

The Porch & Associates Audit identifies the major failures of APD dealing with overtime abuse. Those failures are:

1. The failure of APD supervisors to properly monitor and pre-approve officer overtime. There is a lack of internal controls for leave requests. The special audit specifically named now-former police officer and APD Spokesman Simon Drobik. Last year a separate APD Internal Affairs investigation found he had committed rampant fraud.

2. As examples of fraud committed, the review of leave requests found that there was no record of leave request forms for one officer. In another instance an APD employee utilized system software to approve their own time resulting in over $8,000 dollars in overtime. Whether the time claimed was actually worked is unknown. In another instance, an officer submitted and was compensated for being “On call Status” 581 times in 2018. During those 51 weeks the officer worked 207 Chief’s Overtime Assignments. This is in direct violation of APD policy. Yet the officer knowing and repeatedly violated the policy to enrich himself. Despite the lack of supervision from the department, an officer’s moral code of ethics does not allow an officer to continually violate policy, especially for their own gains. The investigative report also found the officer submitted for 56 hours of compensation for 28 occasions on which he ran with the recruits at the Police Academy.

3. The overtime practice where officers who are on vacation or paid time off can use those hours as the basis for claiming overtime pay. The audit was clear that “parts of the APOA collective bargaining agreement (CBA) that allow for excess overtime compensation” are not allowed and violate the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. In particular, there is a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) called a “12 Hour MOU” that deals with overtime, compensation time, work shift designation policy and what is referred to as a “comp time bucket”. According to one audit, the MOU is “scarcely followed”. Additionally, there is no clear indication or definition of the Department’s minimum staffing levels for shifts worked.

4. APD standard operating procedures are not being updated to in include changing and conflicting overtime policies. Several Department policies, including Standard Operating Procedures for overtime, compensatory time, and work shift designations, have not been reviewed or updated since March 10, 2016. Many rank and file officers as well as their supervisors, which are the Lieutenants and Sergeants who approve overtime, are confused as to what the overtime policies actually are and what they mean. Instead of getting any clarification or definitive answers from the Human Resources Department, they simply developed their own interpretations and allowed questionable overtime pay.

5. APD Officers are allowed to work “Chief’s Overtime”, which is working for a private company paying for security at the same time they are on on-call status with APD. The practice is a clear violation of APD personnel rules and regulations. The SOP policies are simply ignored and the overtime is allowed by supervisors to happen. The Porch & Associates Audit found a lack of internal controls and deficiencies for Chief’s Overtime. The Department’s policy does not list or define the eligibility requirements for officers working Chief’s Overtime. Although supervisory approval is required for other types of overtime, it is not required for Chief’s Overtime. Sworn police officers are allowed to cancel their regular shifts in order to work Chief’s Overtime which is more lucrative for the officer.

6. There is automatic award of two-hour overtime award, which pays time and a half per hour, for officers who have to appear in court for Driving While Intoxicating (DWI) arraignment and trials and traffic ticket violations they write. Even though a court appearance may take only 15 minutes, the officer is allowed to claim and be paid a full 2 hours of overtime at time and a half pay as mandated by the union contract. The system encourages officers to settle cases quickly so they can go home and collect 2 hours of overtime and not work the hours of overtime paid.

7. APD doesn’t monitor officer overtime for irregular activity. The Department does not have a policy or procedure in place that prevents and detects overlapping or incorrect reported time. APD does not reconcile its overtime transactions between its timekeeping and payroll systems thereby contributing to inappropriate and prohibited overtime pay at time and a half.

SUMMARY OF 5 RECOMMENDATIONS MADE IN PORCH & ASSOCIATES AUDIT

The newly released Porch & Associates Audit makes the following 5 major recommendations:

1. “It is recommended that the City negotiate with APOA to remove the guaranteed overtime and replace it with actual time. Actual time would start when the officer leaves their home, or work assignment if after a normal shift, through the time they get home.”

2. Establishing a memorandum of understanding with Metro Court and the District Court for scheduling APD Officers’ court appearances to limit officer court appearances and optimize scheduling of officer court appearances

3. “APD should consider working with the court system to implementing night court for cases that do not require a jury.”

4. “APD needs to work with the court system to use video appearances for officers going forward, and to eliminate in person appearances where possible.”

5. The Porch & Associates Audit found that people who supervise officers have developed procedures, which they then provide to other officers via on-the-job training. The audit report recommends that these informal policies and procedures be documented and included in the next version of the APD Standard Operating Procedures.

CITY HALL SALARIES WITH APD POLICE PAY HIGHEST

There are 6,966 Albuquerque City employee according to personnel record. As of July 24, 2021, APD has 940 sworn police according to city personnel records A person’s annual salary is calculated based upon the hourly wage paid to an employee times 2,080 hours worked representing a 40-hour work week for 52 weeks in a year.

The average employee salary for the city of Albuquerque in 2020 was $44,475 or $21.38 an hour. This is 27.8% lower than the national average for government employees and 34.7% lower than other cities.

https://openpayrolls.com/city/albuquerque-nm#:~:text=The%20average%20employee%20salary%20for,records%20for%20Albuquerque%2C%20New%20Mexico.

Hourly pay for an APD Police Officer is between $29 an hour right out of the APD Academy, or $60,320 yearly, and $31.50 an hour or $65,520 yearly, depending on the accumulated years of service.

The hourly pay rate for APD Sergeants is $35 an hour, or $72,800.

The hourly pay rate for APD Lieutenants is $40.00 an hour or $83,200.

2019 AND 2020 LISTS OF 250 HIGHEST PAID CITY HALL WAGE EARNERS INCLUDES 160 SWORN POLICE EACH YEAR

At the beginning of each calendar year, City Hall releases the top 250 wage earners for the previous year. The list of 250 top city hall wages earners is what is paid for the full calendar year of January 1, to December 31 of any given year.

The Porch & Associates Audit failed to delve into the pervasive problem of overtime within APD involving more than just a few. The 2019 and the 2020 city hall 250 highest paid wage earnings shows the extent of excessive overtime paid to APD sworn police. For both the years of 2019 and 2020, 160 of 250 top paid city hall employees were police who were paid between $107,885.47 to $199,666.40.

To repeat for emphasis, APD rank and file sworn police officer hourly pay rates are between $29 an hour or $60,320 yearly and $31.50 an hour or $65,520 yearly depending upon years of experience. Hourly pay for APD Sergeants is $35 an hour, or $72,800 a year. Hourly pay rate for APD Lieutenants is $40.00 an hour or $83,200 a year.

In 2019, there were 70 APD patrol officers in the list of 250 top paid employees earning pay ranging from $108,167 to $188,844. There were 32 APD lieutenants and 32 APD sergeants in the list of 250 top paid employees earning pay ranging from $108,031 to $164,722 because of overtime.

In 2020, there were 69 patrol officers paid between $110,680 to $176,709, 28 APD Lieutenants and 32 APD Sergeants who were paid between $110,698 to $199,001 in the list of the 250 top paid city hall employees paid between.

You can find the list of the 250 top city hall wage for 2020 at the link under the caption “Information About City Employees”, “Learn who are the 250 Highest-Paid City Employees”:

https://www.cabq.gov/abq-view

EDITORS NOTE: In the 2020 list of 250 highest paid city hall wage earners, 160 were employed by APD, 42 were employed by the Albuquerque Fire and Rescue Department, 12 were employed by “City Support” services. The number of the top 250 paid city hall employees nose dives thereafter with 4 employed each in the Finance Department and Municipal Affairs Department, 3 were employed each for the Legal Department and IT Department, 2 were employed each for the City Council, Environmental Health Department, Cultural Services Department, and the Chief Administrative Officer, and 1 employed for each of the 12 remaining departments (Aviation Department, Planning Department, Human Resources Department, City Clerk, Transit Department, Office of Inspector General, Economic Development Department, Police Oversight Commission, Mayor’s Office, Parks and Recreation Department, Solid Waste Department and Family Community Services Department.)

When you read all 7 audits, it’s obvious the police union contract has contributed significantly to the overtime abuse. Sergeants and lieutenants, although management, are in the police union bargaining unit along with all those below them they supervise and command. Overtime pay abuse was never curtailed in 2019 nor in 2020 when the Chief’s Office and Deputies, including then Deputy Chief Harold Medina, were ordered by Mayor Tim Keller to reduce overtime abuse. For both the years of 2019 and 2020, there were 160 of 250 top paid city hall employees who were sworn police paid between $107,885 to $199,666 and includes patrol officers, sergeants and lieutenants, all whose base salary is between $60,000 a year and $83,000 a year.

The postscript to this article contains the names, ranks and pay of the 15 top wage earners at APD in the ranks of patrol officers, sergeants and lieutenants for the years 2019 and 2020.

POLICE UNION CONTRACT VIOLATES FEDERAL AND STATE LABOR LAWS

One of the most dramatic findings in the Porch & Associates Audit is that the APD police union contract violates the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Specifically, the Fair Labor Standards Act provides:

“Paid leave is not considered time worked for the purposes of computing overtime”.

The audit goes as far as saying terms of the union contract need to be negotiated and that the City can save thousands of dollars in overtime by insisting that the APOA police union and APD follow the Fair Labor Standards Act. The audit also said the City should not bargain away what is established by law.

The audit recommends that the City negotiate with the police union to remove the guaranteed overtime and replace it with actual time. Actual time would start when the officer leaves their home, or work assignment if after a normal shift, through the time they get home.

NO MENTION OF UNION CONTRACT VIOLATING STATE LAW

The Porch & Associates Audit downplays and essentially ignores the role of the APD Union membership of Sergeants and Lieutenants and the union contract in the entire overtime abuse scandal.

The New Mexico Public Employees Bargaining Act, Sections 10-7E-1 to 10-7E-26 H (NMSA 1978), governs the enforcement of the city’s collective bargaining agreement with the APD police union. Section 10-7E-5 provides for the rights of public employees and states in part

“Public employees, other than management employees and confidential employees, may form, join or assist a labor organization for the purpose of collective bargaining … .”

The link to the statute is here:

https://www.pelrb.state.nm.us/statute.php

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

Police officers earning excessive overtime is nothing new. It has been going on for years. During the last 10 years, the Albuquerque Police Department has consistently gone over its overtime budgets by millions. In fiscal year 2016, APD was funded for $9 million for over time but APD actually spent $13 million. A March, 2017 city internal audit of APD’s overtime spending found police officers “gaming the system” that allows them to accumulate excessive overtime at the expense of other city departments. A city internal audit report released in March, 2017 revealed that the Albuquerque Police Department spent over $3.9 million over its $9 million “overtime” budget.

https://www.petedinelli.com/2018/03/30/apd-overtime-pay-abuse-and-recruitment-tool/

The 6-figure compensation being paid to sworn police can be attributed directly to excessive “overtime” paid. There are nearly a dozen different types of overtime programs within APD. The categories where APD Officers can earn overtime include holiday work, tac-plan initiatives, training, call outs, calls for service, special events, administrative work, investigations, and court appearances. DWI check points and special events like the Balloon Fiesta and security detail for high profile dignitary visits are all events that require an extensive amount of overtime. The police union contract entitles a police officer to be paid “time and a half” when overtime is worked on any given day or week and has a mandatory 2-hour minimum overtime charge for court appearances even if a court appearance last 15 minutes, such as a DWI arraignment and much less than 2 hours time is worked.

MEDINA IGNORES HIS FAILURE OVER THE 3 YEARS AS DEPUTY OF FIELD SERVICES TO REDUCE OVERTIME ABUSE

When APD Chief Harold Medina says “The overtime problems with APD have occurred since I can remember coming on this department. … So there’s been a lot of people who could have taken action quicker than they did” he must think people are stupid enough to believe he was not one of those people. Medina for 3 years prior to becoming Chief was the Deputy Chief for Field Service. As Field Services Deputy, he knew or should have known what was happening with the overtime abuse and he did nothing. As Deputy Chief of Field services, he was ultimately responsible for reigning in the overtime abuse by his field officers. He did not.

It is truly amazing that State Auditor Brian Colón would actually say:

“I think the city has articulated that they’re committed to addressing these findings and to embracing these recommendations. … I’ve met with the chief of police, and he has indicated that some of these 22 recommendations have already been implemented.”

Are you kidding? After 7 special audits finding APD overtime abuse? If Colón truly believes that Mayor Tim Keller and Chief Medina are committed to addressing the overtime scandal, he is a fool. Mayor Keller and APD Chief Medina for the past 4 years have said the same damn thing about implementing the Department of Justice Consent Decree (DOJ) reforms and recommendations, even blaming former APD Chief Michael Geier for failing to implement the DOJ reforms. APD is still failing miserably and nowhere closer to implementing the DOJ reforms as to compliance, yet Colón believes Medina and APD when they say they will implement all the audit recommendations. When Colón says Medina “has indicated that some of these 22 recommendations have already been implemented”, that is “Medina Speak” without proof to deflect his failures as Deputy Chief of Field services for a full 3 years.

State Auditor Brian Colón has already announced he is running for New Mexico Attorney General. To that end, it is strongly recommended that Colón learn and understand what white collar crime and time card fraud is as well as learn how to figure out if and when he is being lied to by anyone, especially by a Mayor and a Chief of Police more concerned about finding a scapegoat in an election year.

Absent from Colón was any recommendations as to what needs to be done other than what is in the audits, which is extremely disappointing. After 7 Audit’s, it is painfully obvious APD incapable of implementing all the recommendations and overseeing itself, something it has failed to do even when it comes to the DOJ reforms and the Court Approved Settlement Agreement (CASA).

NEGOTIATE NEW POLICE UNION CONTRACT TERMS

The two-year police union contract negotiated by the Keller Administration in 2018 expired on July 1, 2020. Negotiations on a new contract have been suspended predominately as a result of the Corona Virus pandemic. When a union contract expires, the terms of the expired contract continue until a new contract is negotiated. Therefore the 2018 contract terms have been extended for over a year.

The Keller Administration needs to demand that the police union contract negotiations be commenced immediately. Among the terms that need to be negotiated are:

1. Remove Lieutenants and Sergeants from the police bargaining unit and make them at will employees in order to conform with state law and federal law that prohibits management from joining the union. When the Porch & Associates Audits says that there is a failure of APD supervisors to properly monitor and pre-approve officer overtime, what it fails to disclose is those supervisors are the management positions of lieutenants and sergeants who are allowed to join the APD police union despite being management. Instead of enforcing limitations on overtime and preventing the overtime abuse, many sergeants and lieutenants simply participate in excessive overtime pay practices themselves and likely approve all overtime submitted by their subordinates to keep them happy and to maintain a working relationship with them and to garner favor with them.

2. Negotiate a term that makes it clear that “paid leave is not considered time worked for the purposes of computing overtime” in order to comply with the Federal Fair Labor Standard Act (FLSA).

3. Negotiate a term that whenever it is determined that overtime was paid in violation of APD standard operating procedures and overtime policy, the overtime pay must be refunded to the city either in single lump sum or garnishment of wages.

4. The Albuquerque City Council needs to enact as part of the city’s personnel rules and regulations prohibitions to remove the guaranteed overtime and replace it with actual time. Actual time would start when the officer leaves their home, or work assignment if after a normal shift, through the time they get home.

INITIATE CIVIL ACTION FOR FRAUD TO RECOVER FRAUDULENT OVERTIME PAID

One or more of the audits have identified just a few of the most egregious false fraudulent overtime claims paid by APD employees. It is commonly referred to as “time card” fraud and the city has been successful in the past in making a recovery. The city does have grounds for a civil cause of action to recover the fraudulent overtime pay. To that end, the City Attorney should make immediate demand for repayment of all fraudulent overtime pay and if refused by the employee, terminate them and immediately file a civil collection claim against the employee.

ABOLISH OVERTIME, IMPLEMENT SALARY STRUCTURE

Mayor Keller, Chief Medina and the Police Union President all proclaim that the shortage of APD sworn police is a major culprit in APD busting its overtime budget time and time again. The truth is when APD was fully staffed at 1,100 full time police over 10 years ago and even when the department dropped to as few of 830 sworn police and now at 930 police, the department always busted it overtime budgets. When that happens, it affects other departments because the money must come from somewhere. The point is that as long as overtime is offered, there will be more than a few that will “game the system” which is now proven by the list of 250 top wage earners for the years 2019 and 2020.

One guaranteed way of stopping anyone within APD from gaming the system when it comes to overtime is to simply abolish the existing system of overtime pay and bonus pay. Sooner rather than later, the city and the APD union need to recognize that being a police officer is not trade work justifying hourly wages, but a learned profession that requires employees to work whatever time is necessary to get a day’s work done that may arise in that day. APD police can be compensated with a decent salary and not merely paid hourly wages.

A complete restructuring of the existing APD 40-hour work week and hourly wage system needs to be implemented. As an alternative to paying overtime and longevity bonus pay to APD officers, the city needs do away with APD hourly wages and time-and-a-half for overtime and implement a salary structure based strictly on steps and years of service.

A base salary system for all sworn police officers should be implemented with step increases for length of service. The longevity bonus pay would be eliminated and built into the salary structure. Mandatory shift time to work would remain the same. If more time is needed to complete a workload or assignments for the day, the salaried police officer would work it for the same salary with no overtime paid and a modification of shift times for court appearances. Officers would have control over time worked.

APD Patrol Officers First Class who handle DWI during nighttime shifts should be required to change their shift times to daytime shifts when the arraignments and trials occur to prevent overtime pay. As an alternative to DWI arraignments, the City Attorney’s Office should explore the possibility of expanding or modifying the Metro Traffic Arraignment Program with the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s Office assisting to include not just traffic citations but DWI arraignments to eliminate the need for APD officers to appear.

Until the APD salary structure is changed, APD will always have Patrol Officers First Class making 2, 3 and even 4 times their base salary, and emotional burnout will be the norm, not the exception endangering public safety. Until the APD salary structure is changed, you will also have more than a few employees “gaming the system.”

When APD exceeds its overtime budget, it is always to the detriment of other city departments and other city employees, many who work just as hard as a police officer, but that does not matter to police. Their attitude is that they take their life’s into their hands every day and for that reason alone are entitled to be paid overtime as they see fit and anytime they want it.

Overtime pay abuse is just one example of the attitude of self-entitlement by APD, its command staff and rank and file. The mayor, APD management and City Council are being foolish if they do not realize that when APD exceeds its overtime budget, it causes morale issues and resentment within other city departments and employees who are not paid overtime.

CONCLUSION

You would think that APD and its management over the years, would have learned its lesson after all the prior audits, but they did not and greed once again got the better part of Albuquerque’s finest. The fact that APD management did not learn anything from prior audits is a reflection of “self-entitlement” that seems to be ingrained in APD’s DNA at all levels, management and rank and file alike.

The city and the APD union need to return to the bargaining table to negotiate a new contract immediately. Unless action is now taken by the City based on the audit, it will have been a total waste of time and taxpayer money. The audit will be relegated to collecting dust on some government shelf destined to be place into some government records archive until an 8th audit is performed on APD’s overtime and the process of overtime abuse by APD continues as New Mexico State Auditor Colón moves on to his next campaign.

_______________

POSCRIPT

In the interest of relevant disclosure, following are the names and salaries of the top 15 sworn police officers, sergeants and lieutenant in the years 2019 and 2020:

2019 TOP PAID SWORN POLICE OFFICERS

APD LIEUTENANTS:

There were 32 APD Lieutenants in the list of 250 top paid employees in 2019 earning pay ranging from $108,031 to $164,722. Hourly pay rates for APD Lieutenants is $40.00 an hour or $83,200 yearly. The 5 highest paid APD Lieutenants for 2019 were:

1. Languit, Luke C Lieutenant $164,722.80
2. Patterson, Christopher Lieutenant $138,606.30
3. Jones, Aaron M. PD-Police Lieutenant $136,824.53
4. Bell Garcia, Jennifer L Lieutenant $134,492.33
5. Bassett, Jeremy D Lieutenant $132,599.17

APD Sergeants:

There were 32 APD Sergeants in the list of 250 top paid employees in 2019 earning pay ranging from $109,292 to $193,666. Hourly pay rates for APD Sergeants is $35 an hour, or $72,800 a year.

The 5 highest paid Sergeants in 2019 were:

1. Hernandez, Michael F Police Sergeant $193,666.40
2. Pholphiboun, Phetamphone B Police Sergeant $166,813.86
3. Lopez, Daniel J Sergeant $154,969.57
4. Martinez, Dominic P Sergeant $149,152.48
5. Hunt, Justin R Sergeant $140,961.94

APD Patrol Officers:

There were 70 APD patrol officers in the list of 250 top paid employees in 2019 earning pay ranging from $108,167 to $188,844. Hourly pay rates for Patrol Officers is $29.00 an hour to $31.50 an hour depending upon years of experience. The 5 highest paid Patrol Officers in 2019 were:

1. Johnson, Brian, Senior Police Officer 1C $188,884.04
2. Drobik, Simon Master Police Officer 1C $166,484.67
3. Pearson, Nicholas R Master Police Officer 1C $149,157.79
4. McCarson, Timothy W Senior Police Officer 1C $147,207.30
5. Hollier, Jeremy B Senior Police Officer 1C $143,229.86

2020 TOP PAID SWORN POLICE OFFICERS

On January 28, 2020 , the 2020 listing of the top 250 wage earners was posted on the city web. It reflects for a second time that of the 250 top wage earners 160 sworn police officers are making between $110,648 to $199,001 a year. The breakdown by rank and wage is as follows:

28 APD Lieutenants earned pay ranging from $111,382 to $186,944 a year

32 APD APD Sergeants earned between $110,698 to $199,001 a year

65 sworn police (Master police, Senior Police, Patrol Officer) earned between $110,680 to $144,255

The top 15 of sworn police officers, their titles and what they earned in 2020 are as follows:

Hernanadez, Michael F., Sergeant, $199,001
Edison Jim A., Lieutenant, $186,944
Johnson, Brian A., Senior Patrol Officer, $176,709
Pearson, Nicholas R, Master Police Officer, $172,709
Hunt, Justin R., Sergeant, $163,372
Pholphilbourn, Phetaphone, Sergeant , $162,390
Richard, Joshua, Sergeant, $150,652
Champine, Daniel J., Master Police Officer, $150, 264
Lopez, Daniel, Sergeant, $149,281
Economy III, Byron G., Sergeant, $149,098
Rico, Michael K ., Senior Police Officer, $148,938
Del Geco, Raymond E., Lieutenant, $148,028
Mc Carson, Timothy W., Senior Police Officer, $148,938
Jones, Aaron M, Senior Police Officer, $147,843
Price, Bryan H., Lieutenant, $144,796
Solis. Brenda M. Senior Patrol Officer, $144,796
Lehocky, Andrew T., Master Police Officer, $144,255
Schmidt, Mathew T., Sergeant, $143,542
Hernanadez, Armando F., Sergeant $140,329
Taylor, William H., Sergeant, $139,935

Only In ABQ: A Violent Cop With Nefarious Past Becomes “Progressive” City Councilor And “The Paper” Publisher

Below is a guest opinion column written by Rudolfo Carrillo submitted for publication on this blog.

Rudolfo Carrillo is a native New Mexican and was the news and music editor at Weekly Alibi from August 2015 until March 2020, where he used the pen name “August March” to write about Albuquerque culture, history and politics. He is a graduate of the University of New Mexico’s fine arts program. His award-winning writing and analysis have been featured at international academic conferences, in notable literary journals as well as in local media outlets like the Albuquerque Journal. His latest work can be read at Infinity Report with the link here:

http://infinityreport.blogspot.com/

EDITOR’S DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed in this article are those of Rudolfo Carrillo and do not necessarily reflect those of the political blog www.petedinelli.com. Notwithstanding, the headline was authored by the editor. Rudolfo Carrillo was not compensated for the guest column. The postscript contains links to other relevant and published Dinelli blog articles.

DAVIS TO THE RESCUE: A HEARTY HI-HO SILVER OR JUST MORE BABY FOOD

You’d think that a dude who has access to the mechanisms of municipal governance and a staff full of competent writers would be a natural choice to create and maintain an informed, intelligent local news outlet that focuses on issues that citizens of Albuquerque find important.

But those conceits are clearly far from the mind and operating policy of Albuquerque City Councilor Pat Davis and his so-called community newspaper, The Paper.

While the publication has tried its best to meet expectations—and the quickly flowing, easy-to-drown-in river known hereabouts as la politica—this week, the newspaper descended into a muck of unsourced reporting and fringy, cringe-inducing feature stories.

It’s important for this city to have a reputable, civic-involved press corps, especially at the level of community and alternative publications. Citizens need to be informed, to have a credible source of reference and potentially even an advocate for local issues. Providing informational pabulum, à la Showbiz Cheat Sheet, is simply not enough, and, in fact, represents a detriment to the community.

Many of the big issues and scandals that have come to light over the past year, including the Sheryl Williams Stapleton education debacle, might have been ameliorated—or even preemptively discovered—by a dutiful, efficient news department focused on issues that affect the community. Instead, after the rise of The Paper, readers have been asked to follow along as Davis and company ignore much of that local news, water down what they don’t outright ignore and then turn to tabloid journalism to drive readership.

The lack of comprehensive coverage of the local stadium controversy by Davis’ publication, when considered in concert with media photo ops of the Councilor waving and smiling—next to New Mexico United owner Peter Trevisani and local sportsball champion Mayor Tim Keller—say much about the true direction of the Davis’ media mogul efforts. It’s a vanity project.

Throw in an overabundance of reprinted material from the Associated Press and Searchlight New Mexico and a couple rehashed feature stories about odd laws and urban legends of the region, and you get a good picture of a publication that is adrift, even as important local news continuously breaks on the horizon.

POLICE OFFICER PAT DAVIS NEFARIOUS PAST

First let’s take a look at how Davis—a one-time bad cop from the nation’s capital who moved to Albuquerque and continued to make controversial (some say unethical) decisions as a member of the University of New Mexico’s police force—came to hold such high leadership positions in this city, as a member of the City Council and the publisher of a weekly newspaper that touts progressive causes when it’s not busy musing about ghosts and UFOs.

Long story short, the entire city has probably heard about the Black man that Davis shot while on patrol in Washington, D.C.; they probably also know about the raft of lawsuits that the Councilor faced after being involved in some less-than-transparent university police actions.

“New Mexico official called on to resign over police shooting”, by Russell Contreras, APNews.com, June 25, 2020:

https://apnews.com/article/1047f17cc155000c460152e23f32c2d7

One incident even happened off campus, at the home of a university employee, where Davis and others “went to the home of Brook Bender looking for a person named Richard Hughes and telling Bender they needed to search her home.” According to the complaint, the officers did not identify themselves until Bender noticed a UNM police badge. The complaint alleges that Davis and the defendants told Plaintiff Bender that they knew she worked for UNM because they found her UNM employee ID in her car next to some contraband and that she needed to “work with them” or they would inform UNM officials about the contraband they allegedly found. According to Bender’s allegations, she responded to those threats by allowing Davis and the other defendants into her home where she asked to see a “search warrant.” They told Bender they did not have a search warrant, but they could easily obtain one. If she insisted on a search warrant, they would “rat her out” to her employer, UNM.

After settling with the citizens in question for thousands of dollars, UNM—as is their modus operandi in such cases—moved on without reform. Davis, meanwhile, moved on to an unsuccessful Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office campaign that was accused of having racist undertones, because Davis apparently used his campaign website to discuss his cop job at UNM and “seeking out people that don’t belong” as well as for allegedly targeting members of the community for low-level cannabis possession crimes.

June 26, 2020, “Pat Davis Shooting A Black Man As DC Cop Only Part of Story; Davis Engaged In Pattern of Civil Rights Violations As A UNM COP, Costing Taxpayers Thousands”:

https://www.petedinelli.com/2020/06/26/pat-davis-shooting-a-black-man-as-dc-cop-only-part-of-story-davis-engaged-in-pattern-of-civil-rights-violations-as-a-unm-cop-costing-taxpayers-thousands/

RESIGNATIONS DEMANDED

Davis was, notably, also the founder of progressive think-tank Progress Now New Mexico, an organization which spawned the venerable news site, NM Political Report. Ironically, the same organization sent out a passionate call for Davis’ resignation—mostly based on the revelations mentioned above—in late June of 2020.

Here’s some of what Marianna Anaya at ProgressNow New Mexico wrote:

“As a self-proclaimed “progressive” Davis is not exempt from accountability. Davis’ sustained pattern of racist actions over a long period of years has led us to call for Davis to step down from his positions of authority, including the Bernalillo County Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, the Judicial Selection Committee, Governor Lujan Grisham’s Marijuana Legalization Task Force, and his seat on City Council. Surely, our community does not need someone who routinely targets and criminalizes Black and Brown people to be serving on committees that select judges, decide the future of marijuana legalization in our state, or pass policies and make financial decisions for the City of Albuquerque.

There are calls for justice across the nation—some are met with hostility, and others with grace. We hope Davis chooses the later, steps down from his positions and reflects on how his actions are contributing to a larger system of institutional racism.”

Following this initial action, two other respected progressive organizations joined with ProgressNow New Mexico and also called for Davis’ resignation.

“ProgressNow New Mexico Statement on Councilor Davis ‘Shooting of a Black Man and Pattern of Upholding Racist Institutions; Calls for His Multiple Resignations”, June 25, 2020:

https://www.petedinelli.com/2020/06/25/progressnow-new-mexico-statement-on-councilor-davis-shooting-of-a-black-man-and-pattern-of-upholding-racist-institutions-calls-for-multiple-resignations/

After learning those facts, I simply can’t imagine Davis in a Sheriff’s uniform, much less wearing a publisher’s hat. It seems ironic, too, that someone who has made a career of being supportive of the carceral state has now positioned himself within the apparent bastion of its opposite.

“What is the Carceral State?”: ARCGis StoryMaps, May, 2020:

https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/7ab5f5c3fbca46c38f0b2496bcaa5ab0

Remember when Davis ran for Congress a few years ago and dropped the F-Bomb against the NRA and gun laws? It didn’t seem quite right, did it? That Shakespearean trope about protesting too much comes to mind.

Pat Davis: Fuck the NRA, youtube.com, May 11, 2018:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nu_7m–Ozrs

And it should. That is because this is the same fellow who shot a Black man twice during a traffic stop for a faulty taillight. This is the man who used intimidation tactics to illegally search an off-campus home while on duty as a campus policeman. And now he owns a progressive newspaper.

“THE NEWSPAPER”

But it really isn’t a newspaper, at least not this week. In what is surely the most visible misstep yet in his storied career (well, at least, since the gun-cussing thing), Davis’ newspaper printed an edition this week that owes more to websites like Only in Your State and Legends of America while completely ignoring important civic developments like citizen opposition to the Mayor’s stadium proposal, worsening homelessness, the intransigent City Council or the sportsball-loving Mayor’s quest for redemption.

While it’s true that the inclusion of work from Searchlight New Mexico adds some credibility to Davis’ site, the plain truth is that such writ is available at any number of other, more reputable sites, like the good old Santa Fe New Mexican.

The Paper’s overwhelming inclusion of AP wire stories looks plain awkward and speaks to the shallow depth of the editorial pond surrounding Davis and company. This crime against journalism is compounded by the fact that the paper’s original content largely lacks insight, originality and depth.

When said material is unsourced or when the sources themselves are questionable, it only makes the whole situation over there seem more desperate and untethered.

Besides being rambling and faux-authoritative, The Paper’s feature on urban legends of Albuquerque is basically unsourced or, alternatively, sourced very questionably. Anonymous sources, anonymous Facebook users (really?!) explain their paranormal experiences to a reporter who subsequently frames the whole schmear within his own proclivity for fantasy. It certainly makes for some awkward critical thinking and cognitive dissonance while reading.

The related report on weird laws of New Mexico could easily have come from any number of high-volume listicle trivia websites that inhabit the current incarnation of the interwebz. The author of this legal piece doesn’t even bother to mention sources; readers are simply told that such things were “found.” At the end of the column, the writer refers blithely and passingly to the terrific, heartbreaking homicide rate in this town; those ham-fisted final two paragraphs join the failure to reputably source law reporting, rendering the whole proceeding shockingly out of touch with the news that is needed by the average resident of this town.

And, now, we consider the coverage that really counts: “UFOs Over Burque.” While this feature is exhaustively, if questionably, sourced, the subject matter itself seems to defy gravity. There’s so much real news going on in Albuquerque that putting UFOs and the paranormal up front seems an affront to citizens who are rightly scared of violent crime, struggling to find meaningful work, still trying to avoid or recover from COVID-19 and its delta variant or are just looking for some locus of accountability and transparency that was once joyously and effectively within the ken of journalistic institutions like The Paper.

“I READ THE NEWS TODAY, OH BOY”

Davis, however, is not completely irredeemable, at least by Albuquerque political standards. Despite having a reputation for being a bad cop and having the distinction of being city councilor for the most violent district in a small city with big violence problem—in 2018 Searchlight New Mexico’s (remember them they’re one of the biggest contributing writers at Davis’ community newspaper) Leslie Linthicum called the International District “one of Albuquerque’s toughest neighborhoods,” something that reporter refers to as a “grim situation.”

February 18, 2018: “This Is home: Stories from Albuquerque’s Toughest Neighborhoods”, by Leslie Linthicum, Searchlight New Mexico in the Las Cruces Sun-News:

https://www.lcsun-news.com/story/news/local/new-mexico/2018/02/18/albuquerque-tough-neighborhood-central-penn-new-mexico/339824002/

The thing is, if Davis wants to remain electable in the next election cycle—his second term as a city councilor comes up review in 2024—he needs to demonstrate that he really did turn over a new leaf when he put his badge and 10-gallon hat down and rode into the local political rodeo without guns blazing, sort of like that superhero of weird Western lore, the Lone Ranger.

Davis can start by using his superpowers as a newspaper publisher to cover what’s important while dispensing with the sophomoric distractions like this week’s issue of The Paper. Then he might want to consider not spending so much time on photo-ops that reflect an allegiance to ideas and personalities that probably won’t help his political career along anyway. Finally, he should concentrate on improving basic things like safety and health in a City Council district that is suffering grievously post-pandemic.

“New Mexico Disparate Vaccine Rates”, by Marisa DeMarco, KUNM.org, April 19, 2021:

https://www.kunm.org/post/new-mexico-working-solve-disparate-vaccine-rates

In that scenario, the city’s economic condition improves as violence wanes, the newspaper that Davis champions grows huevos, and grateful citizens get to remark joyously about the kindly man on a white horse who saved their village from doom and gloom—or something like that.

Links to related Dinelli blog articles are here:

“Forward Together Action” Calls For Pat Davis To Resign; Third Progressive Organization Demanding Davis Resignation; Link To Court Documents; Davis Act Of Brutality Against Bell After Shooting Him

OLÉ, New Mexico Calls For Pat Davis To Resign City Council; Joins ProgressNow; Silence By NAACP And “Black Lives Matter” Tacit Approval Of Pat Davis Nefarious Conduct As Police Officer

ProgressNow New Mexico Statement on Councilor Davis’ Shooting of a Black Man and Pattern of Upholding Racist Institutions; Calls For His Multiple Resignations

Garbage In, Garbage Out, When It Comes To Senator Mimi Stewart and Representative Debbie Sarinana Defense Of City Councilor Pat Davis; This Is No Carnival Game

David Montoya Announces Candidacy For New Mexico House Of Representatives, District 19; Seeks Selection By Bernalillo County Commission To Replace Sheryl Williams Stapleton; Guest Column Reveals He Is More Than Qualified And Should Be Selected

On Friday July 30, New Mexico House Majority Floor Leader Representative Sheryl Williams Stapleton, District 19, abruptly resigned from the New Mexico House of Representatives ending a 27-year rise to power. Williams Stapleton stands accused of fraud, racketeering, money laundering, receiving illegal kickbacks and violations of the state’s Governmental Conduct Act. The allegations involve a kickback scheme with an Albuquerque Public Schools (APS) vendor that was paid more than $5 million for over a decade . According to news reports, bank records reveal businesses, including a restaurant, and charities Stapleton either owns or had close ties to received more than $950,000. She is also being investigated by the Justice Department on the monies she administered in federal grants to APS.

It is now the responsibility of the Bernalillo County Commission to fill the vacancy in the New Mexico House of Representatives with a simple majority vote of the 5-member commission. Who is ever selected by the County Commission will be sworn immediately, will serve in the New Mexico legislature during the upcoming 2022 legislative session. That person must stand for election in 2022.

On August 11, David Montoya announced that he is a candidate to fill the District 19 house vacancy. Mr. Montoya has submitted the following guest column for consideration by the Bernalillo County Commission and the voters of New Mexico House District 19.

EDITOR’S DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed in this guest column article are those of David Montoya and do not necessarily reflect those of the political blog www.petedinelli.com. The blog was not compensated for the guest column and neither was Mr. Montoya. The guest column is being published as a public service to the community and to the Bernalillo County Commission.

DAVID MONTOYA GUEST COLUMN AND CANDIDATE FOR HOUSE DISTRICT 19

“We all woke up a few weeks ago, shocked to see our State Representative’s house being raided by the state attorney general’s office. While we await her day in court, the resignation she handed in will help us all turn the page and move forward. At this critical moment it is my belief we must move quickly to fill the vacancy with experienced, honest, and boldly progressive leadership.

As an Air Force combat Veteran who proudly served my country for 7 years, and as an intelligence officer, the concepts of leadership and integrity guide my life. As a Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Obama Administration, and a senior staffer for U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman, I am ready to bring the best of what I learned in Washington D.C. home, to benefit District 19.

As the son of civil rights leaders, I know the commitment it takes to represent communities of color and bring about impactful and meaningful change. I am a 13th generation New Mexican, born and raised in Santa Fe. House District 19 has been my home for four years and I want to give back and help my community.

To give back to my community, I serve on the executive committee of the New Mexico Democratic Veterans Caucus. Also, I have held leadership positions with the New Mexico Democratic Party as a precinct chair, a ward chair, and a county chair. Most recently I was elected to serve as the CD-1 Vice Chair of the state Democratic party.
Leadership is perhaps the most sacred responsibility one can be fortunate enough to experience. Good leadership is contagious. As the House Representative for District 19, I believe in and support the following:

Healthcare is a fundamental human right and I support and will advocate for Medicare for all.

Love is Love! I believe that the LBGTQ rights are civil rights that must be protected.

A woman has a right to choose what she does with her body and no one has any right to interfere with a woman’s right to choose.

No child should go to bed hungry and I support the funding of state programs that address child hunger, child wellbeing and child education.

We must address the mental health crisis in our veteran’s community where we lose 20 veterans a day to suicide.

White supremacists and racism must never be tolerated in any of our institutions in the country, including our legislative institutions, courts, government agencies and military and law enforcement community.

Law enforcement plays a critical role in building a better community and I support community policing, body cameras, police accountability and civilian oversight. I support and will vote for reasonable gun control legislation and believe that the founding fathers weren’t talking about assault rifles or high-capacity magazines when they wrote the 2nd Amendment and the right to bear arms.

I believe in unions. They protect workers and are fundamental to protecting the safety and welfare of those who are organized and unorganized.

I will support and vote for a living wage of $15.00 an hour. Large companies can afford it and government should help small business meet this goal.

I support comprehensive immigration reform and believe this is a county of immigrants who have built this country with hard work, innovation and who have brought new ideas to our nation.

Immigrants deserve a path to citizenship and that is why a support comprehensive immigration reform that leads to a path to full citizenship.

House District 19 has the most diverse collective of people in our state, and I am fully committed to help them to the best of my ability. In the days to come our team will share more on how we will restore experienced, honest, and boldly progressive leadership to the district. In this fight with me is my campaign team, my four children, three dogs, two cats, and my wonderful wife and best friend, Soleille Lopez-Montoya.

Join the fight with us at www.DavidForNM.com

Your support would be greatly appreciated!

Sincerely yours,

David Montoya

MAYOR’s RACE SPOILER ALERT: Der Führer Trump Radio Shock Jock Eddy Aragon Makes Ballot To Run For Mayor

Now there are 3 candidates for Mayor!

On July 26, Eddy Aragon registered with the City Clerk to run as a privately finance candidate for Mayor. Privately Finance Candidates for Mayor are required to gather 3,000 signatures from registered voters within the City. The time for privately financed candidates for Mayor to collect 3,000 signatures was from June 8 to August 10, 2021.

On August 10, the Albuquerque City Clerk certified the signatures on Aragon’s nominating potions and posted the following petition verified signature counts:

Required Petition Signatures: 3,000
Verified Petition Signatures: 3,305
Rejected Petition Signatures: -0-
Remaining Petition Signatures Needed: – 0 –
Percentage of Verified Petition Signatures Met: 100%

The link to the city clerk’s petition signature tally is here:

https://www.cabq.gov/vote/candidate-information/2021-candidates

ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY

There is no doubt that Eddy Aragon is an extremely late entry into the race. A few months ago, he toyed with the idea only to decide against the race saying he was too busy to rum for office.

At first blush, many political pundits will question the verification of 100% of the 3,305 petition signatures submitted with -0-rejected. Another issue that will be raised is how could that many verified petition signatures be gathered in just 14 days.

The reality is that both the shortness in time to collect signatures and the method easily explains what happened.

Four years ago self-financed candidate Ricardo Chaves, who is said to be a very wealthy businessman, entered the race with just about the same amount of time and he too was successful in getting on the ballot. He did it by hiring a person and paid upwards of $10,000 to get it done. Gathering signatures is very easy if you know what you are doing and target the right voters and know what events to attend with canvassers. Voters are far more willing to sign a petition to get someone on the ballot, as opposed to donating, realizing they could decide simply to vote for another candidate.

Another major difference this election year is that because of the covid pandemic, candidates were allowed to use an on line program made available by the city clerk to solicit and secure signatures on line. It is likely all of Aragon’s signatures are indeed valid in that the city clerk used a computer to screen and verify the signatures. No doubt an attempt will be made to have more than a few nominating signatures thrown out on the grounds that a voter signed more than one nominating petition which would be grounds for the city clerk to disqualify the signature. You can only sign one nominating petition. Aragon gathered 10% more signatures than required and that should be enough of a “cushion” to withstand any legal challenges to the signatures gathered.

With this election cycle, gone was the exclusive requirement of in-person solicitation and the use of paper petitions. Aragon also had the huge advantage of using his radio talk show to solicit the required signatures on line. The use of his station and the radio time will likely be required to be declared an in-kind donation, but it’s his radio station and as a privately financed candidate he has every right to do it and even come up with a value.

SPOILER ALERT

Now that Aragon has qualified for the ballot, the race for Mayor has change dramatically. Aragon is a staunch supporter of Der Führer and former President Donald Trump. Aragon with his talk show is on the same level as FOX News and the likes of Sean Hannity. Aragon enjoys badgering and taking issue with anyone who is Democrat or he considers progressive. There is no doubt that the Republican voters who voted for Der Führer Trump in the city will be far more likely to vote now in the Mayor’s race and vote for Aragon.

The candidacy of Sheriff Manny Gonzales will suffer immensely as a result of Aragon on the ballot. It’s no secret that Manny Gonzales was attempting to build a coalition of conservative democrats, traditional Republicans and include Der Führer Trump Republicans. After Gonzales traveled to the White House last summer to appear with Der Führer and after working and appearing with former Republican Attorney General William Barr, Gonzales became “persona non gratis” within the Democratic Party to the point some within the party demanded he resign. He is now considered a Democrat In Name Only (DINO). Gonzales appearing on FOX News to oppose Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s public health orders also alienated many Democrats.

RADIO TALK SHOW HOST EDDY ARAGON

It was in April that Eddy Aragon submitted his candidate registration paperwork to run for Mayor the first time this year. On April 27, it was reported that Eddy Aragon had decide not to run for Mayor and said then:

“I don’t have the motivation to run. I have a business to attend to but I will continue to point out the wrong direction the [New Mexico] GOP is taking including the role of Steve Pearce and Jay McCleskey. Republicans are backing Democrat Gonzales and that is traitorous. Not to mention that the current crime wave has happened under Gonzales’ watch.”

Aragon’s statements regarding Republican Steve Pearce and political operative Jay McCleskey makes clear a motivating factor to change his mind and run for Mayor. Aragón has nothing to lose and everything to gain, including increasing business to his radio station.

Least anyone forget, McCleskey managed the two successful campaigns for former Republican Mayor Richard Berry and the two campaigns of former Republican Governor “She Who Must Not Be Named”. Once they were elected, he exerted great influence over both the Mayor and Governor even to the point of having an office adjacent to the Republican Governor when he was not even a government employee. McClesky has made a very lucrative living as the go to guy to run Republican negative and nasty campaigns to get his candidates elected at all costs, regardless of how unqualified and incompetent his candidates were. McClesky has a history of getting involved in many local races including for Albuquerque City Council and the state legislature, charging top dollar. This year is probably the first and only time McClesky has work on the campaign for a registered democrat as he is a paid consultant for Sheriff Manny Gonzales’ run for Mayor.

Aragon ran against State Republican Party Chairman Steve Pearce proclaiming the party needed a new generation of leader. Aragon is even more extreme than Steve Pierce and he has total praise for Der Führer Trump, much like Pearce, but only on steroids. No one should be surprised if Aragon makes a trip to Florida to get and endorsement from Der Führer that he can use to motivate his base in Albuquerque. Aragon is known for his sharp tongue approach on his radio programs that alienates both friends and foes alike. Aragon has essentially bought into the Sean Hannity approach to promoting right wing conservatism. Aragon is proclaiming to be THE Republican candidate for Mayor even going so far as saying Manny Gonzales needs to drop out of the race now that a Republican is running.

Mayor Tim Keller no doubt thinks his election for a second term is almost assured now that Aragon is in the race and that he will act as a spoiler to Gonzales. There is no guarantee that will happen. Aragon has been extremely critical of Mayor Tim Keller and Keller’s progressive agenda at the city and the city still has a somewhat conservative steak in it. There is no doubt that Aragon will increase his attacks on Keller and things will get worse on a daily basis as he does his radio program. Because of his daily radio program, Aragon will not likely need to raise that much in campaign finance and just show up to events, including debates, presuming Keller will agree to debate.

If none of the 3 win the election with a simple majority of 50% outright, a runoff will be held between the two top vote getters. If Aragon makes it into the run off, it will not be the first time that a media personality has been a serous contender. Gordon Sanders was the news director at KOB-TV from 1971-1979 and Editorialist at KGGM for several years. He ran for Mayor of Albuquerque in both 1981 and 1985 and also hosted his own talk show on KZIA Radio for several years. Sanders ran as a populist, as is Aragon, got into a run off, but lost to Mayor Harry Kinney.

Tim Keller goes into the election with the clear financial advantage having secured $661,000 in public finance and his core Democrat progressive vote. Keller’s challenge now will be to do his very best not to be brought down by relentless attacks on him. What overshadows Keller’s chances for a second term is his total inability to deal with the city’s historic violent crime and murder rates. A common remark you hear about Keller from Democrats is that he has been a disappointment and he has not brought the sweeping change he promised and in fact has continued many of the same policies of his Republican predecessor, including the disastrous ART Bus project. Another problem Keller has is the ongoing meltdown of APD and the shortage of police officers to patrol the streets and Keller’s failure with Community Base policing he promised.

Elections for Mayor tend to be somewhat fluid and incumbents have lost on silly issues, just ask former Mayor David Rusk when he lost for not cutting the weeds. Then there is the matter of APD and the real possibility a major tragedy will happen and Keller and his inept Chief of Police will fail in dealing with it turning the public against Keller. Aragon will zero in on all this as will Manny Gonzales. Like it or not, negative campaigns do work.

If progressive voters are fed up and disappointed with how little Mayor Tim Keller has done and what little he has actually accomplished during his term, they may just decide not to show up and vote. Its been proven time and again that municipal elections have some of the lowest voter turnouts. In 2013, a pathetic 19% of registered voters actually voted, making it the lowest voter turnout in the history of municipal elections. In 2013, Democrats stayed home and the Republican incumbent Mayor won by a landslide because Republicans out voted Democrats. When Democrat’s do not vote, Republicans win, which is why there just may be a Mayor Gonzales or Mayor Aragon come November.

Things are about to heat up, and its not something we can look forward to, especially with Der Führer Trump still looming large within the New Mexico Republican Party.

Links related blog articles are here:

Measured Finance Committees File 5th Campaign Finance Reports; Gonzales MFCs Raised $172,993 With Gonzales Denied Public Finance; Candidates’ For Mayor Campaign Finance Reports Filed

Another Candidate For Mayor, Maybe Two; 5 More Candidates For City Council; One Measured Finance Committee For Keller

Measured Finance Committees File 5th Campaign Finance Reports; Gonzales MFCs Raised $172,993 With Gonzales Denied Public Finance; Candidates’ For Mayor Campaign Finance Reports Filed

Eight measured finance committees (MFC) have been formed and are raising donations for the 2021 Municipal Election. Two have been formed to promote Sheriff Manny Gonzales for Mayor, 1 to promote Mayor Tim Keller for a second term, 1 by the City local firefighter’s union to support candidates who firefighter and public safety issues, 1 to promote 2 Republican candidates for City Council, 1 to support candidates that support women’s reproductive healthcare and oppose those that do not, and 1 to support the bond issue to build a city owned multipurpose soccer stadium.

The City Clerk link to the listing of all 8 measured finance committees and the finance reports where all the below information has been gleaned from is here:

https://www.cabq.gov/vote/candidate-information/2021-candidates

Measure finance committees are not bound by the individual contribution limits and business bans like candidates. No Measure Finance Committee is supposed to coordinate their activities with the individual candidates running for office, but this is a very gray area as to what constitutes coordination of activities and it is difficult to enforce. The MFCs are required to file with the Albuquerque City Clerk a total of 11 financial statements, one statement per month, identifying donors, contributions and expenditures.

FIFTH CAMPAIGN FINANCE REPORTS FILED

On August 9, the MFCs filed their 5th Financial Fundraising reports covering the reporting period of July 6 to August 2 reporting what they have raised, major donors and major expenditures.

1. SAVE OUR CITY

PURPOSE: To address the serious crime and leadership problem in Albuquerque
EDITOR’S NOTE: The Chairperson of this MFC is Sam Vigil, the widower of Jackie Vigil who was shot and killed in her driveway in the early morning hours as she was going to the gym. Sam Vigil has been highly critcal of Mayor Keller and known to support Manny Gonzales for Mayor.
CASH BALANCE FROM LAST REPORT: $84,968.90
TOTAL MONETARY CONTRIBUTION THIS REPORTING PERIOD $75,855.00
TOTAL EXPENDITURES THIS REPORTING PERIOD: $39,552.09
CLOSING BALANCE THIS REPORTING PERIOD: $121,271.81

MAJOR DONORS

MICHELLE MAESTAS, General Business, $10,000

$5,000 CONTRIBUTORS

PAUL BLANCHARD, BLANCHARD CONSTRUCTION (Editors note: Alb. Downs Casino Interest Owner)
COBA REAL ESTATE GROUP, LLC, (JAMES M. CURRY)
ZACHARY SNYDER. Construction Engineer
MICHAEL A SISNEROS, Business Owner

$2,500 TO $3,000 DONORS

E2 CONSULTING INVESTMENTS LLC, ERIC G ECKLES CONSULTING AND INVESTMENTS, $3,500
COMPASS ENGINEERING & CONSTRUCTION, LLC, MARK OTERO, $3,000
ICS E-PARTS, LLC, RAYMOND GONZALES, $2,500

$2,000 DONORS

MECHANICAL CONTROL SOLUTIONS, LLC, RAYMOND GONZALES
RAYMOND GONZALES, , INTEGRATED AND CONTROL SYSTEMS INC
JPR DECORATIVE GRAVEL, INC, RAQUEL VILLEGAS
ROADRUNNER REDI-MIX, INC, JULIE VILLEGAS
ANCHOR BUILT, Construction, RAY AND ROBERTA ZAMORA
STEVEN CHAVEZ, INTEGRATED AND CONTROL SYSTEMS INC
JOHN P WILGER JR, Construction/Engineering, WILGER ENTERPRISES

$1,000 DONORS

NATHAN CORN, Private Businessman (Contributed $1,500)
STEVEN CHAVEZ, INTEGRATED AND CONTROL SYSTEMS INC
DENNIS R BURT, General Business
MIKE AND KATHLEEN MECHENBIER, General Business
TEDDY DEAKIN, Real Estate
VISTA ENCANTADA REALTORS,
KURSTIN JOHNSON
GILBERT BLEA, Self Employed
BLUE STONE SOLUTIONS, LLC, MICHAEL FLIBECK, General Business
DENNIS R BURT, General Business
GEORGE DASKALOS, General Business
FIDEL, PERNER & MICHNOVICZ, JOHN PERNER, ACCOUNTING SERVICES
TIMOTHY GORMAN, BODE AVIATION
JACLYN HAKEEN, Real Estate
KEITH AND SANDRA MALLOR, Business Owner
DAVID AND SHERRIE WILLIAMS, Retired

$500 DONORS

MICHAEL STEVENS, Merril Lynch Financial Investment
JANIE DANIELS, Real Estate
JEFFERY MADISON, Government Employee
KATHERINE MESLEY, Real Estate

$250 TO $300 DONORS

JEANETTE RAVER, Real Estate, $300
CARRI PHILLIS Business Owner, $250
RUBEN AND JEAN DURAN, self-employed, $250
GERALD MAESE, Retired, $250

$200 DONORS

RICHARD RANDALS, Self Employed
MEGAN ENGLAND, Real Estate
SHERRY FOWLER, Real Estate
SUE AND FRENCHY GUENETTE
JAMES AND MARIJO MYERS
LOUIS RAEL, Retired

MAJOR IN-KIND DONATIONS ( TOTAL $4,795.76)

PATRICK J. ROGERS, Attorney At Law, $1,885.64
K & R ENTERPRISES, KEITH MILLER PRINTING AND MAILING, $979.51
JIMMY DASKALOS, Real Estate, $500.00
CHRIS PACHECO, Construction/Engineering PLUMA CONTRUCTION, $636.00
NEIL AND JULIE JACKSON, Real Estate, $264.87
CATHY AND BRIAN COLVIN, Real Estate, $264.87

MAJOR EXPENDITURES ( Total Expenditures 0f $39,552.09)

PURPLE STRATEGIES, JAMES HALLINAN, CAMPAIGN CONSULTING AND STRATEGIES, $20,453.12
PURPLE STRATEGIES, JAMES HALLINAN , Expense Reimbursement, $553.60
FULL COMPLIANCE CONSULTING, LLC P.O., BOBBI SHEARER, CONSULTING, $5,335.28
CUMULUS RADIO CORPORATION, Radio Advertising, $2,103.56
GABRIELLE RAEL, Fundraising Activities, $1,800.00
JESSICA PEREZ, Expense Reimbursement, $758.90

2. RETIRED LAW ENFORCEMENT FOR A BETTER ALBUQUERQUE

PURPOSE: Support Albuquerque mayoral candidate who will improve the quality of life for it’s citizens as well as oppose candidates that are detrimental to the future growth and safety of Albuquerque.

CASH BALANCE FROM LAST REPORT $10,550.00
TOTAL MONETARY CONTRIBUTION THIS REPORTING PERIOD $1,620.00
TOTAL EXPENDITURES THIS REPORTING PERIOD $1,050.00
CLOSING BALANCE THIS REPORTING PERIOD: $11,120.00

MAJOR DONORS (TOTAL DONATIONS: $1,620.00)

FREDERICK REED, Business owner, $750.00
RON AND BETH PAIZ, Business Owners, (Editor’s note: Retired APD and BCS0) $600.00
RON PAIZ, , Business Owners, (Editor’s note: Retired APD and BCSO), $250

MAJOR EXPENDITURES

SAVANNAH ZAVELA, CONTRACTED TRANSPORTATION Services, $400.00
SAVANNAH ZAVELA, Fuel Costs for transportation, $150.00
DOMONIQUE LIMON, General Business CONTRACTED, NOTARY SERVICES, $250
CARLOS MCMAHON General Business, CONTRACTED INVESTIGATIVE SERVICES, $250

3. BUILD BACK ‘BURQUE

PURPOSE: Support Mayor Tim Keller’s re-election to a second term for the City of Albuquerque

CASH BALANCE FROM LAST REPORT $17,884.69
TOTAL MONETARY CONTRIBUTION THIS REPORTING PERIOD: $20,663.00
TOTAL EXPENDITURES THIS REPORTING PERIOD: $12,721.25
CLOSING BALANCE THIS REPORTING PERIOD: $25,826.44

MAJOR DONORS ( Total Donations $20,663.00)

CORTAZAR LABORATORIES LLC, ALFREDO CORTAZAR, $5,000

$1,000 DONORS

PENELOPE REMBE, (Los Ranchos De Alb.), Not Employed
RICHARD KUHN, Media/Public Relations RK VENTURE
RICHARD KUHN, , Media/Public Relations RK VENTURE (Second donation)
RICHARD GUAY, General Business (Editor’s note: lobbyist

$500 DONORS

DIANE DENISH, former New Mexico Lt. Governor
HERB DENISH, NOT EMPLOYED (Editors note: former lobbyist)
DAVID DUHIGG, Attorney at Law
TONI MARTORELLI, Not Employed, (Editor’s note: wife of Attorney David Duhigg
ROBERT MCNEILL, Attorney at Law
ANNA SANCHEZ, EMPLOYER: CITY OF ALBUQERQUE
SARA SCHREIBER, EMPLOYER: AMERICA VOTES
BETSEY SWAN, NOT EMPLOYED
TIMOTHY ALLISON-HATCH, RETIRED

$250 DONORS

KATHLEEN WINSLOW, NOT EMPLOYED
KELLY O’DONNELL, Teacher/Education
KRISTIN REIDY, Santa Fe, EMPLOYER: EYE ASSOCIATES
WHEATON BYERS, EMPLOYER: Science/Technology VERUS RESEARCH
BERRIN VENER, Financial/Investment, HINKLE + LANDERS
CHARLES CALL, EMPLOYER: Science/Technology BIOFLYTE INC

$100 DONORS

JIM BACA, former Albuquerque Mayor
CHARLES WELLBORN, NOT EMPLOYED (Editor’s note: Retired Attorney at Law)
LAURO GUADERRAM, NOT EMPLOYED
CHARLES PURVIANCE, NOT EMPLOYED
SUSAN DICKENs, NOT EMPLOYED
MARGARET OBENAUF, NOT EMPLOYED
FRANK SPRING, Office and Administrative
BRUCE MADDEN, NOT EMPLOYED
LINDA ZIPP, NOT EMPLOYED
SHARON BRUCE, NOT EMPLOYED
MICHAEL HEN, NOT EMPLOYED
RAYMOND GRIFFIN, NOT EMPLOYED
MOLLY LUETHI, General Business, KEI & MOLLY TEXTILES

MAJOR EXPENDITURES (Total expenditures: $12,721.25)

STANFORD CAMPAIGN, AUSTIN, TX, ROB EBERHARDT CAMPAIGN RESEARCH, $4,000
NEW BLUE INTERACTIV, BETHESDA, MD, TARYN ROSENKRANZ DIGITAL FUNDRAISING, $3,500
ELECTIONS IN MOTION, SHAKER HEIGHTS, OHIO, SEAN MARCUS POLITICAL CONSULTING, $2,696.88
ROBERT LARA, Attorney at Law (Editor’s Note: Lara is the Treasurer of the MFC) $850
ROBERT LARA, Attorney at Law for Compliance Services, $800.00
SAUCEDO & CHAVEZ, P.C. MO CHAVEZ Attorney at Law, $585.22

4. ALBUQUERQUE AHEAD (City Council MFC)

PURPOSE: To support those candidates for city council who will move Albuquerque ahead and oppose those who will not.

EDITOR’S NOTE: When you examine the campaign finance reportS filed by Albuquerque Ahead, it is clear it is essentially a measured finance committee established by the Bernalillo County Republican Party to promote 2 Republican candidates for City Council. The two Republican candidates are former Republican City Councilor. Republican Dan Lewis is running in District 5against incumbent Democrat Cynthia Borrego. Republican Renee Grout is running for the District 9 City Council seat being vacated by long time serving, unknown, ineffective and unaccomplished Republican Don Harris.

CASH BALANCE FROM LAST REPORT $7,278.15
TOTAL MONETARY CONTRIBUTION THIS REPORTING PERIOD: $12,500.00
TOTAL EXPENDITURES THIS REPORTING PERIOD: $1,924.73
CLOSING BALANCE THIS REPORTING PERIOD: $17,853.42

MAJOR DONORS

REPUBLICAN PARTY OF BERN COUNTY, To SUPPORT DAN LEWIS and RENEE GROUT, $9,000.00

MOHAMMAD TAHAT, self employed, Construction/Engineering, To SUPPORT DAN LEWIS, $1,000

VICTOR JURY, EMPLOYER; SUMMIT COMPANIES, to promote Republican Dan Lewis, $500
VICTOR JURY, EMPLOYER: SUMMIT COMPANIES, to promote Republican Dan Lewis, $500, Second

JULIE WRIGHT, : Manufacturing, SELF Employed, SUPPORT DAN LEWIS and RENEE GROUT, $300
DANIEL CONKLIN, RETIRED, to promote Republican Dan Lewis, $250
MARY JANE HICKS, RETIRED, to promote Republican Dan Lewis, $200

$100 DONORS

MICKEY BARNETT, Attorney, (former Republican State Senator), to promote Dan Lewis
JULIE SILVERMAN, RETIRED, To SUPPORT DAN LEWIS and RENEE GROUT
DARLENE EVAN, RETIRED, to promote Republican RENEE GROUT
D’NETTE WOOD, RETIRED, To SUPPORT DAN LEWIS and RENEE GROUT
SCOTT APPLEMAN , RAINBOW RYDERS HOT AIR BALLOON CO

IN-KIND DONATIONS

JIMMY DASKALOS, Food Services, Food and Drink at event to support DAN LEWIS and RENEE GROUT $1,200.00

EL PATRON, JIMMY DASKALOS, Staff for fundraising, $300

MAJOR EXPENDITURES (Total $1,924.73)
AUTUMN INTEGRITY LLC, AUTUMN INTEGRITY, SET UP WEBSITE, FILING, REPORT, EMAILS, MANAGEMENT, $731.37
AGT LAWYER, LAWYER COMPLIANCE FILING, $269.69

5. ABQ FIREPAC

PURPOSE: Support candidates who support public safety & fire fighter issues.

CASH BALANCE FROM LAST REPORT: -$0-
TOTAL MONETARY CONTRIBUTION THIS REPORTING PERIOD:$500.00
TOTAL EXPENDITURES THIS REPORTING PERIOD $350.00
CLOSING BALANCE THIS REPORTING PERIOD: $150.00

MAJOR DONORS

ABQ AREA LOCAL PAC, JUSTIN CHENEY, $500
MAJOR EXPENDITURES
JUST YARD SIGNS, ORLANDO, FL, ALAN LEE PRINTING, $350.00

6. PLANNED PARENTHOOD VOTES ALBUQUERQUE

Purpose: Support candidates that support women’s reproductive healthcare and oppose those that don’t.

CASH BALANCE FROM LAST REPORT -$0-
TOTAL MONETARY CONTRIBUTION THIS REPORTING PERIOD: -$0-
TOTAL EXPENDITURES THIS REPORTING PERIOD: – $0-
CLOSING BALANCE THIS REPORTING PERIOD: -$0-

There have been no major donors nor expenditures.

7. NM FOR ART & SPORT

PURPOSE: SUPPORT BOND ISSUE

Designated Chairperson: David M Carl
Designated Treasurer: Desiree Kim

On August 5, this measured finance committee filed its registration with the City Clerk. There have been no donors nor expenditures. Ostensibly, the measured finance committee has been formed to raise donations to promote the $50 Million bond issue for a multipurpose sports stadium with the New Mexico United Professional Soccer team to be the primary tenant of the city owned facility. To date, no financial disclosure statements have been filed.

MAYOR CANDIDATES’ FINANCIAL REPORTS FILED

Both Mayor Tim Keller and Sheiff Manny Gonzales have filed their 5th Campaign finance reports.

TIM KELLER 5TH CAMPAIGN FINANCE REPORT

Incumbent Mayor Tim Keller is the only candidate for Mayor that qualified for Public Finance and given $634,179.05 by the city. On August 9, the Keller Campaign filed the 5TH Campaign Finance report:

CASH BALANCE FROM LAST REPORT $562.92
TOTAL MONETARY CONTRIBUTION THIS REPORTING PERIOD $632,044.05
TOTAL EXPENDITURES THIS REPORTING PERIOD $30,022.41
CLOSING BALANCE THIS REPORTING PERIOD: $602,584.56

MAJOR DONORS (Total Monetary Contributions: $632,044.05)

CITY OF ALBUQUERQUE TREASURY DEPT, Public Financing, $634,179.05
CITY OF ALBUQUERQUE TREASURY DEPT, Returned Contribution, ($2,135.00)

IN KIND DONATIONS (Total $19,555)

KEEFE LAW FIRM, LAUREN KEEFE for LEGAL SERVICES, $14,555.00
CURTIS & CO. LAW FIRM, LISA CURTIS, LEGAL SERVICES, $2,500.00
CURTIS & CO. LAW FIRM, LISA CURTIS, LEGAL SERVICES, $2,500.00

MAJOR EXPENDITURES (Total: $30,022.41)

HOLGUIN CONSULTING INC., NERI HOLGUIN CAMPAIGN CONSULTING, $23,732.50
BIOGEOCREATIONS LLC, MICHAEL SCISCO DIGITAL DESIGN SERVICES, $2,696.88
USLI, THOMAS P. NERNEY INSURANCE COMPANY, $836.00
CITY OF ALBUQUERQUE, COPIES OF CAMPAIGN EXHIBITS, $405.70

MANNY GONZALES 5TH CAMPAIGN FINANCE REPORT

The City has qualified Bernalillo County Sheriff Manny Gonzales to appear on the November municipal ballot finding he gathered the 3,000 qualifying signatures. However, the City has denied Manny Gonzales $660,000 in public financing finding impropriety in the collection of qualifying $5. Gonzales is continuing as a privately finance candidate.

CASH BALANCE FROM LAST REPORT: $9,028.56
TOTAL MONETARY CONTRIBUTION THIS REPORTING PERIOD: $20,430.00 3
TOTAL EXPENDITURES THIS REPORTING PERIOD: $2,790.90
CLOSING BALANCE THIS REPORTING PERIOD $26,667.66

MAJOR DONORS (Total $20,430.00)

$250 DONORS

GLORIA WENGERT, Retired
JOHN CHAVEZ, SELF EMPLOYED
Andrea Day, Techer
ROSE JEAN DURAN, Real Estate Professional
LARRY DAVIS, Retired
ELLIOTT FOUCAR, Retired
CHARLES HARMON, Business Owner, COOL BREEZE CONSTRUCTION
ANTHONY REEVE, Medical SELF EMPLOYED
CHRISTOPHER ROVETO, Healthcare/Medical SELF EMPLOYED
THERESA SIELER, General Business ESPHERA
PHYLIS THORSON, Retired
LISA VERES, Retired
SHARON WELLS, Retired
LOUIE GAMBOA, BOB’S BURGER’S
RON SHETTLESWORTH, Retired
LINDA ANDREOLI, Retired
RON SHETTLESWORTH, Retired
JIMMY SANCHEZ, Retired
Julia Sanchez, Retired
MICHAEL NIEMAN, Retired
ANDRES SALAZAR, Retired
CARLA SANCHEZ, EMPLOYER: Teacher/Education Aps
DANIEL SANCHEZ, EMPLOYER: General Business UPS
AUSTREBERTHA VIGIL, Retired
PAUL MAESTAS, EMPLOYER: Insurance Industry, SELF EMPLOYED
STEVE TAYLOR, Retired
JERRY CALDWELL, Retired

$200 DONORS

ROBERT VICK JR, Vick’s Vittles
THERESA ARAGON, Retired
JOHN LUNCERO, Retired
DANIEL COLLINS, Retired
DANIEL COLLINS, Retired
CHARLES EVANS, Retired
DEBBIE KING, Retired
LINDA TERRY, Retired
DOUGLAS WEIGLE, , Retired

$150 DONORS

MATTHEW CORDOVA, Retired
VIRGINIA GROSJEAN, Retired
PHILLIP GRASSHAM, Retired
PHILLIP GRASSHAM, Retired
JAY MILLER, RETIRED
MARY OLSON, RETIRED

$100 DONORS

FRANCES JEAN DEWENT, Retired
ABSOLUTE MECHANICA, PATRICK WHEELER HEATING, AIR CONDITIONING, AND PLUMBING
WESLEY BARNES, Law Enforcement BERNALILLO COUNTY
Melba Baum, Retired
BEN BERG, Retired
KATHRYN BODE, Retired
ANGELA BYRE, Retired
JULIA C DE BACA, Retired
ANITA COLLINS, Retired
AARON SCHWARTZ, EMPLOYER: Law Enforcement BCSO
THE HALPER COMPANY, JEMEZ SPRINGS, JOHN HALPER CONSTRUCTION
TROY GRIMES, MESA DETECTION AGENCY
MICHAEL GUTHRIE, Bernalillo County
CHRISTOPHER RUI, RICH FORD
THOMAS TOLBERT, EMPLOYER: Teacher/Education
JAMES TOLEDO, SANDIA NATIONAL LABORATORIES
FRANKLIN WALDORF, Retired
TIMOTHY WARNE, UTILITY BLOCK COMPANY
KEITH BREWER, Not employed
NANCY CARESS, Retail Sales RICOH USA
THOMAS KIST, Retired
CHRISTOPHER ROYBAL, Healthcare/Medical, CNM
ALBERT ZEMAN, Retired
HELEN MULLANE, Retired
JAMES MCCRORY, Self Employed
BLADE RUNNER FABRICATION, DOUG JENKINS
KATHLEEN SHERIFF, Retired
RITA GIANNINI, Retired
ESTHER MONTANO, Retired
BILL PROFFER, Owner ALBUQUERQUE FOREIGN AUTO PART
CASEY PROFFER, Owner ALBUQUERQUE FOREIGN AUTO PARTS
TYRA PROFFER, Owner ALBUQUERQUE FOREIGN AUTO PARTS
RICHARD BRYANT, Retired
CARL CHAVEZ, EMPLOYER: General Business TRIAD
CHARLES HALVERSON, Retired
LESLIE T HUFFMAN JR, Retired
NANCY SAUNDERS, Retired
GEORGE VANDEGRIFT, Retired
RON LEHMAN, Retired
EVERETT FARR, Retired
DAVID CONRADY, EMPLOYER: General Business JLL
RICHARD KAIN, Retired

MAJOR EXPENDITURE

HALO BRANDED, DANIEL BAZAN SCREEN PRINTING & EMBROIDERY, $1,935.00
ANEDOT, NEW ORLEANS, LA, PAUL DIETZEL DONATION PLATFORM, $550.90

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

Mayor Tim Keller has qualified for public financing and his campaign has $602,584.56 in cash on hand, more than enough to run an effective media campaign. So far, the Keller Campaign’s biggest expense is money spent on campaign manager Neri Olguin. BUILD BACK ‘BURQUE, the measured finance committee formed to promote Keller has another $25,826.44, cash on hand with the notable donors being former Mayor and big spender Jim Baca donating $100 and former Lt. Governor DIANE DENISH and her husband each donating $500 for a total of $1,000.

It was on July 9, Albuquerque City Clerk Ethan Watson notified Bernalillo County Sheriff Manuel Gonzales’ that the city was denying his campaign $661,00 in public financing citing misconduct in the qualifying process and forgery of signatures on $5 qualifying donations. On Monday July 19, city hearing officer Ripley Harwood issued his written ruling on Manny Gonzales’ appeal of the City Clerks denial of public finance and found Manny Gonzales had failed to prove that Clerk Ethan Watson had acted inappropriately in denying him the public financing. Harwood specifically found that it was Gonzales’ responsibility to keep fraud and forgery in the gathering of the qualifying donations. Gonzales has filed an appeal to State District Court and the appeal has been delayed. All the District Court Judges have recused themselves and the New Mexico Supreme Court has not yet appointed a Judge to hear the case.

Gonzales is at a clear disadvantage as a result of the denial of public finance. At this point in time, he is left to fend for himself and he is not doing at all well raising money for his campaign. With less than 3 months left in the campaign, the $26,667.66 he has raised on his own is very inadequate to run a viable campaign. However, the two measured finance committees promoting Gonzales have made some progress and combined have raise an impressive $172,993, meaning if they continue to raise that kind of money and go negative on Keller with media buys, Gonzales has a chance to prevail The donors to SAVE OUR CITY are very notable and reflect that there is a large reliance on the construction industry and the real estate industry. The $10,000 donation from MICHELLE MAESTAS and the $5,000 donations each from, PAUL BLANCHARD, BLANCHARD CONSTRUCTION and Alb. Downs Casino Interest Owner, COBA REAL ESTATE GROUP, LLC, (JAMES M. CURRY), ZACHARY SNYDER, Construction Engineer, MICHAEL A SISNEROS, Business Owner, will likely surprise more than a few people.

Complicating things for Manny Gonzales is the fact the Conservative Republican talk show host Eddy Aragon is running for Mayor and there is a major chance he will make the ballot, and if he does, his candidacy will in all likely draw more votes from Gonzales than Keller. Aragon will be a spoiler in the race. Stay tuned.

APD Overtime Audit Reveals 7 Years Of Abuse; Keller Makes Geier Election Year Scapegoat; Negotiate New Police Union Contract Terms; Remove Sergeants and Lieutenants From Police Union; AG Or DA Need To File Criminal Charges

On Monday July 13, 2020 New Mexico State Auditor Brian Colon said his office was ordering a special audit of APD’s overtime payment policies to APD Police Officers. On the very same day, APD announced that longtime APD spokesman Sgt. Simon Drobik abruptly retired from the department and that APD’s Internal Affairs was in the process of completing an investigation into the large amounts of overtime Drobik had claimed.

In 2018, Drobik was paid $192,973 as a result of massive amounts of overtime claimed and he was continuing his pace of overtime pay in 2020 before he retired. For a number of years, payroll records show that Albuquerque officers who collect overtime pay are among the 250 highest paid city employees earning 2, 3 and even 4 times their base pay because of overtime.

Auditor Colón ordered a special audit of all APD overtime policies after he said his office found enough red flags related to overtime practices and internal controls at APD. According to the June 24, 2020 letter to Mayor Tim Keller, the Office of the State Auditor designated the City for a special audit “in order to examine the City’s compliance with applicable laws, regulations, policies, and procedures.” The special audit had to be paid for by the city with a selection of a firm from a list of firms authorized to do financial audits under a state contract with the State Auditor’s Office.

NM AUDITOR ASKS NM ATTORNEY GENERAL TO JOIN PROBE OF APD OVERTIME ABUSE

On July 15, 2020 State Auditor Brian Colón asked the New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas to join him with the probe into APD’s overtime practices. Colón said at the time:

“Together, we intend to determine what is really happening at the Albuquerque Police Department. … We will collaborate, bringing our respective strengths and skills to this investigation, to ensure no stone is left unturned.”

Colón asked the Attorney General Hector Balderas to assign special agents to work with his office’s auditors on its Albuquerque Police Department examination. Balderas for his part had this to say in a written statement:

“We have received the Auditor’s request and have assigned law enforcement to assist in this matter.”

https://www.abqjournal.com/1476402/ags-office-joins-investigation-into-apds-overtime-practices-ex-apd-says-its-conducting-an-internal-affairs-inquiry.html

FINAL SPECIAL AUDIT REPORT RELEASED

On Friday, August 6, 2021, the New Mexico State Auditor’s long-awaited special audit report on overtime abuse by the Albuquerque Police Department (APD) was released. The 64 page audit was performed by the Albuquerque accounting firm Porch & Associates LLC. The audit covers the time period of January 1, 2018 to June 30, 2020. The link to the entire 64 page audit report is here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sIsbWAGpIC2mDFs8bsbQ1BhYDOSXH8Ig/view

According to the newly released audit, it is the 7th audit performed on APD overtime practices since 2014. The audit includes the second term of previous Republican Richard Berry and the first two and a half years of Democrat Mayor Tim Keller’s 4-year term. The prior 6 audits resulted in 17 findings and recommendation made. The audit reports there was an absolute failure to carry out and implement the changes needed to solve the overtime problem. The audits further identify that certain APD police union contract terms and conditions are in violations of the Federal Labor Fair Standards act and that the union contract has contributed significantly to the overtime pay abuse by rank-and-file police officers.

State Auditor Brain Colón had this to say in part about the audit release:

“Six prior audits or investigations had been performed regarding APD overtime. Five of those reports have been reviewed as part of this report. This report is the seventh regarding APD overtime since the first report in May of 2014. Each of the reports had detailed findings and recommendations that were not implemented. … The 2014 and 2017 reports had all of the findings and recommendations necessary to fix and prevent the issues reported on in the 2018, 2019, and the 2020 reports. The findings were clear, as were the recommendations. However, the recommendations were not implemented.”

“There has been inadequate oversight by both the City and APD. The systemic cause is that the City did not have a procedure to ensure all open audit reports and unresolved findings were accumulated and worked on until resolved. … Continued failure to provide oversight, monitoring and accountability has resulted in abuse and contributed to the public’s mistrust. … The City and APD must not waste any time in implementing the identified opportunities for improvement.”

State Auditor Brian Colón said the audit found “a severe breakdown” and “lack of internal control” at the police department, which has resulted in a “damaged organizational culture.” The audit said the city and the police department repeatedly failed to fix the payroll system in place.

Colón in on-camera interviews with local news stations said:

“What we know in this case is that time and time again, leadership at APD clearly ignored the findings that were presented. … These are the kind of findings that lead to continued waste and abuse and ultimately fraud.”

“The most troubling thing is that we have had findings in the past that were ignored by [the APD] administration, and that is just going to be wholly unacceptable every single time.”

“It’s completely inappropriate to, you know, years later still not having policies and procedures in place to protect the citizens of Albuquerque when it comes to expenditures at APD.”

The links to quoted news source material are here:

https://www.krqe.com/news/politics-government/audit-makes-recommendations-for-apd-overtime-policies-practices/

https://www.koat.com/article/albuquerque-police-department-audited-for-overtime-pay-for-7th-time/37248257

https://www.kob.com/albuquerque-news/audit-apd-continues-to-abuse-overtime/6199260/?cat=500

SPECIAL AUDIT REPORT IDENTIFIES PROBLEMS

The Porch & Associates Audit identifies the major failures of APD dealing with overtime abuse. Those failures are:

1. The failure of APD supervisors to properly monitor and pre-approve officer overtime. There is a lack of internal controls for leave requests. The special audit specifically named now-former police officer and APD Spokesman Simon Drobik. Last year a separate APD Internal Affairs investigation found Drobik had committed rampant fraud.

2. As examples of fraud committed, the review of leave requests found that there was no record of leave request forms for one officer. In another instance an APD employee utilized system software to approve their own time resulting in over $8,000 dollars in overtime. Whether the time claimed was actually worked is unknown. In another instance, an officer submitted and was compensated for being “On call Status” 581 times in 2018. During those 51 weeks the officer worked 207 Chief’s Overtime Assignments. This is in direct violation of APD policy. Yet the officer knowing and repeatedly violated the policy to enrich himself. Despite the lack of supervision from the department, an officer’s moral code of ethics does not allow an officer to continually violate policy, especially for their own gains. The investigative report also found the officer submitted for 56 hours of compensation for 28 occasions on which he ran with the recruits at the Police Academy.

3. The overtime practice where officers who are on vacation or paid time off can use those hours as the basis for claiming overtime pay. The audit was clear that “parts of the APOA collective bargaining agreement (CBA) that allow for excess overtime compensation” are not allowed and violate the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. In particular, there is a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) called a “12 Hour MOU” that deals with overtime, compensation time, work shift designation policy and what is referred to as a “comp time bucket”. According to one audit, the MOU is “scarcely followed”. Additionally, there is no clear indication or definition of the Department’s minimum staffing levels for shifts worked.

4. APD standard operating procedures are not being updated to in include changing and conflicting overtime policies. Several Department policies, including Standard Operating Procedures for overtime, compensatory time, and work shift designations, have not been reviewed or updated since March 10, 2016. Many rank and file officers as well as their supervisors, which are the Lieutenants and Sergeants who approve overtime, are confused as to what the overtime policies actually are and what they mean. Instead of getting any clarification or definitive answers from the Human Resources Department, they simply developed their own interpretations and allowed questionable overtime pay.

5. APD Officers are allowed to work “Chief’s Overtime”, which is working for a private company paying for security at the same time they are on on-call status with APD. The practice is a clear violation of APD personnel rules and regulations. The SOP policies are simply ignored and the overtime is allowed by supervisors to happen. The Porch & Associates Audit found a lack of internal controls and deficiencies for Chief’s Overtime. The Department’s policy does not list or define the eligibility requirements for officers working Chief’s Overtime. Although supervisory approval is required for other types of overtime, it is not required for Chief’s Overtime. Sworn police officers are allowed to cancel their regular shifts in order to work Chief’s Overtime which is more lucrative for the officer.

6. There is automatic award of two-hour overtime award, which pays time and a half per hour, for officers who have to appear in court for Driving While Intoxicating (DWI) arraignment and trials and traffic ticket violations they write. Even though a court appearance may take only 15 minutes, the officer is allowed to claim and be paid a full 2 hours of overtime at time and a half pay as mandated by the union contract. The system encourages officers to settle cases quickly so they can go home and collect 2 hours of overtime and not work the hours of overtime paid.

7. APD doesn’t monitor officer overtime for irregular activity. The Department does not have a policy or procedure in place that prevents and detects overlapping or incorrect reported time. APD does not reconcile its overtime transactions between its timekeeping and payroll systems thereby contributing to inappropriate and prohibited overtime pay at time and a half.

SUMMARY OF 5 RECOMMENDATIONS MADE IN PORCH & ASSOCIATES AUDIT

The newly released Porch & Associates Audit makes the following 5 major recommendations:

RECOMMENDATION #1:

It is recommended that the City negotiate with APOA to remove the guaranteed overtime and replace it with actual time. Actual time would start when the officer leaves their home, or work assignment if after a normal shift, through the time they get home.

RECOMMENDATION #2:

EDITOR’S NOTE: This recommendation reiterates the findings made in the prior reports, with those findings listed in the postscript to this blog article. Included in the recommendations are:

Establishing a memorandum of understanding with Metro Court for scheduling APD Officers’ court appearances to limit officer court appearances and optimize scheduling of officer court appearances

RECOMMENDATION #3

APD should consider working with the court system to implementing night court for cases that do not require a jury.

RECOMMENDATION #4

APD needs to work with the court system to use video appearances for officers going forward, and to eliminate in person appearances where possible.

RECOMMENDATION #5

The Porch & Associates Audit found that people who supervise officers have developed procedures, which they then provide to other officers via on-the-job training. The audit report recommends that these informal policies and procedures be documented and included in the next version of the APD Standard Operating Procedures.

KELLER ADMINISTRATION RESPONDS TO AUDIT

In its response to the audit findings, the Keller Administration issued a harsh statement blaming Mayor Tim Keller’s appointed former APD Police Chief Michael Geier for all the overtime abuse problems. The statement said in part:

“The former chief knowingly covered up overtime abuses and helped his favored employees’ game the system to enrich themselves. … The report makes it clear that the ‘tone at the top’ of APD was a major driver of the abuse and the failure to make needed changes. We didn’t hesitate to take bold action to remove the top cop and get the department back on track.”

APD spokesperson Gilbert Gallegos added that there will be a review of the top 20 overtime earners every quarter and said:

“There is no room for favoritism when it comes to protecting public funds. … It shouldn’t have taken multiple audits to fix APD’s overtime system. The problems and the solutions have been obvious for years. … We have a whole new chief, new deputy chiefs, the commanders of a new mayoral administration, city finance. So my assumption is they just didn’t know about these previous audits. … Under Chief Medina’s new leadership, he took quick action to implement those solutions and ensure there is an ongoing review of overtime so employees are held accountable.”

APD claims it started instituting policy changes last October. Under new policy, a 25-hour-a-week overtime cap is established and can only be waived when there is a staffing shortage.

APD Chief Harold Medina for his part said changes are already happening to create more oversight and said:

“We just notified commanders of their top 20 overtime earners for the department and we’re going to ask commanders to make sure that the surface and everything looks good and that there’s no issues, and in the near future we’re going to add an audit to that. ”

Links to the quoted source material are here:

https://www.krqe.com/news/politics-government/audit-makes-recommendations-for-apd-overtime-policies-practices/

https://www.abqreport.com/single-post/ot-audit-reveals-epic-failure-at-apd-city

FORMER APD CHIEF MIKE GEIER REACTS

On Friday, August 6, former APD Chief Mike Geier released the following statement in part through his attorney:

“I’ve reviewed the report by Porch & Associates. … To allege that I was inattentive or failed to take action regarding these issues is utterly false and not supported by the record of my actions which show, frankly, the Mayor’s interference with my efforts.

Following my review of the January 18, 2019, Albuquerque Police Department Overtime Evaluation report by the City, I prepared a summary regarding the recommendations and started a plan to address the issues raised in that report. … This plan, which was to be accomplished over 2019 and 2020 was presented and addressed to Mayor Keller’s executive team, including CAO Sarita Nair. … [T]his plan was promoted by my office in a April 27, 2019, media press release … a special order was [drafted] in 2019 but approval of that special order was withheld by the Mayor’s office.

… [I]n May of 2020, I initiated an APD IA investigation into the allegations concerning various APD personnel involved in approving Ofc. Drobik’s overtime earnings and from that investigation over eight persons were found to sustained findings of SOP violations.

If anybody was proactive in taking action to address the public’s concerns about APD overtime expenses, it was me and certainly not the Mayor or CAO Nair as the Porch Report shows.”

https://www.krqe.com/news/politics-government/audit-makes-recommendations-for-apd-overtime-policies-practices/

PORCH & ASSOCIATES AUDIT DEFICIENT WITH SPECIFICS

Police officers earning excessive overtime is nothing new. It has been going on for years. During the last 9 years, the Albuquerque Police Department has consistently gone over its overtime budget by millions. In fiscal year 2016, APD was funded for $9 million for over time but APD actually spent $13 million. A March, 2017 city internal audit of APD’s overtime spending found police officers gaming a system that allows them to accumulate excessive overtime at the expense of other city departments. A city internal audit report released in March, 2017 revealed that the Albuquerque Police Department spent over $3.9 million over its $9 million “overtime” budget.

https://www.petedinelli.com/2018/03/30/apd-overtime-pay-abuse-and-recruitment-tool/

The 6-figure compensation being paid to sworn police can be attributed directly to “overtime” paid. There are nearly a dozen different types of overtime programs within APD. The categories where APD Officers can earn overtime include holiday work, tac-plan initiatives, training, call outs, calls for service, special events, administrative work, investigations, and court appearances. DWI check points and special events like the Balloon Fiesta and security detail for high profile dignitary visits are all events that require an extensive amount of overtime. The police union contract entitles a police officer to be paid “time and a half” when overtime is worked on any given day or week and has a mandatory 2 hour minimum overtime charge for court appearances even if less time is worked.

2019 AND 2020 LISTS OF 250 HIGHEST PAID CITY HALL WAGE EARNERS INCLUDES 160 SWORN POLICE EACH YEAR

The Porch & Associates Audit fails to delve into with any great detail the pervasive problem of overtime within APD involving more than just a few. For that reason, the 2019 and the 2020 city hall 250 highest paid wage earnings is offered as an indication of the extent of excessive overtime pay.

At the end of each calendar year, City Hall releases the top 250 wage earners. The list of 250 top city hall wages earners is what is paid for the full calendar year of January 1, to December 31 of any given year. For both the years of 2019 and 2020, 160 Of 250 top paid city hall employees were police who were paid between $107,885.47 to $199,666.40. The link to an in depth blog article is here:

https://www.petedinelli.com/2020/05/28/9864/

APD LIEUTENANTS:

There were 32 APD Lieutenants in the list of 250 top paid employees in 2019 earning pay ranging from $108,031 to $164,722. Hourly pay rates for APD Lieutenants is $40.00 an hour or $83,200 yearly. The 5 highest paid APD Lieutenants for 2019 were:

1. Languit, Luke C Lieutenant $164,722.80
2. Patterson, Christopher Lieutenant $138,606.30
3. Jones, Aaron M. PD-Police Lieutenant $136,824.53
4. Bell Garcia, Jennifer L Lieutenant $134,492.33
5. Bassett, Jeremy D Lieutenant $132,599.17

APD Sergeants:

There were 32 APD Sergeants in the list of 250 top paid employees in 2019 earning pay ranging from $109,292 to $193,666. Hourly pay rates for APD Sergeants is $35 an hour, or $72,800 a year.

The 5 highest paid Sergeants in 2019 were:

1. Hernandez, Michael F Police Sergeant $193,666.40
2. Pholphiboun, Phetamphone B Police Sergeant $166,813.86
3. Lopez, Daniel J Sergeant $154,969.57
4. Martinez, Dominic P Sergeant $149,152.48
5. Hunt, Justin R Sergeant $140,961.94

APD Patrol Officers:

There were 70 APD patrol officers in the list of 250 top paid employees in 2019 earning pay ranging from $108,167 to $188,844. Hourly pay rates for Patrol Officers is $29.00 an hour to $31.50 an hour depending upon years of experience. The 5 highest paid Patrol Officers in 2019 were:

1. Johnson, Brian, Senior Police Officer 1C $188,884.04
2. Drobik, Simon Master Police Officer 1C $166,484.67
3. Pearson, Nicholas R Master Police Officer 1C $149,157.79
4. McCarson, Timothy W Senior Police Officer 1C $147,207.30
5. Hollier, Jeremy B Senior Police Officer 1C $143,229.86

160 OF TOP 250 CITY WAGE EARNERS FOR 2020 WERE SWORN POLICE

On January 28, 2020 , the 2020 listing of the top 250 wage earners was posted on the city web and it reflects that of the 250 top wage earners 160 sworn police officers are making between $110,648 to $199,001 a year. The top 15 of sworn police officers, their titles and what they earned in 2020 are as follows:

Hernanadez, Michael F., Sergeant, $199,001
Edison Jim A., Lieutenant, $186,944
Johnson, Brian A., Senior Patrol Officer, $176,709
Pearson, Nicholas R, Master Police Officer, $172,709
Hunt, Justin R., Sergeant, $163,372
Pholphilbourn, Phetaphone, Sergeant , $162,390
Richard, Joshua, Sergeant, $150,652
Champine, Daniel J., Master Police Officer, $150, 264
Lopez, Daniel, Sergeant, $149,281
Economy III, Byron G., Sergeant, $149,098
Rico, Michael K ., Senior Police Officer, $148,938
Del Geco, Raymond E., Lieutenant, $148,028
Mc Carson, Timothy W., Senior Police Officer, $148,938
Jones, Aaron M, Senior Police Officer, $147,843
Price, Bryan H., Lieutenant, $144,796

The link to the top paid 160 sworn police officers in 2020 is here:

https://publicreports.cabq.gov/ibmcognos/bi/?perspective=classicviewer&pathRef=.public_folders%2FTransparency%2FTop%2BEarners%2Bof%2Bthe%2BCity%2Bof%2BAlbuquerque_Department_Drillthrough&id=i77E31F34B06341588C6E000823376BA1&objRef=i77E31F34B06341588C6E000823376BA1&action=run&format=HTML&cmPropStr=%7B%22id%22%3A%22i77E31F34B06341588C6E000823376BA1%22%2C%22type%22%3A%22report%22%2C%22defaultName%22%3A%22Top%20Earners%20of%20the%20City%20of%20Albuquerque_Department_Drillthrough%22%2C%22permissions%22%3A%5B%22execute%22%2C%22traverse%22%5D%7D

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

When you look at the entire pile of excrement that is the APD abuse of overtime scandal, there is no doubt who are truly responsible and who need to be held accountable. It is absolutely sickening and just plain wrong for Mayor Tim Keller, APD Chief Harold Medina and APD Spokesperson Gilbert Gallegos to lay any and all blame for the APD police overtime scandal and abuse on former APD Chief Michael Geier. What they are doing is making former APD Chief Michael Geier a scapegoat in an election year. All 3 are not above lying to do just that in order to protect Tim Keller’s chances for a second term. For a related article see: “Geier: Keller’s a liar” published on ABQ Reports

https://www.abqreport.com/single-post/geier-keller-s-a-liar

MAYOR TIM KELLER

Former Chief Michael Geier was Mayor Tim Keller’s first appointed Interim Chief then appointing him permanent. Confidential sources have said that in 2017 then Rio Rancho Chief of Police Michael Geier met with State Auditor and candidate for Mayor Tim Keller back before Keller announced for Mayor in January, 2017 and before Geier retired as Chief of the Rio Rancho Police Department on February 18, 2017. The very same sources have said that it was during the 2017 election Keller made the commitment in private to appoint Geier Interim chief and see how he performed before he was made permanent. Keller supposedly also gave Geier a full 4-year commitment to keep Geier during Keller’s entire first term.

Keller supposedly conducted a national search, but many believed the search was a sham. When Keller appointed Geier, he said he was the right man at the right time who was committed to all the APD reforms. Geier served loyally for close to 3 years until Deputy Chief Harold Medina ingratiated himself to Keller and CAO Sarita Nair and convinced them that Geier was a problem and should be removed.

When then State Auditor Tim Keller was running for Mayor in 2017, he was swept into office riding on a wave of popularity he orchestrated as State Auditor for a mere one year and six months of his 4-year term in office combating “waste, fraud and abuse” in government and boldly promising “transparency”. During his successful 2017 campaign for Mayor, Keller promised sweeping changes with APD. Keller promised a national search for a new APD Chief and a return to Community based policing and increasing the size of APD. He proclaimed he was uniquely qualified to be Mayor because of his background.

Absent from Mayor Tim Keller is any real acknowledgement of what happened on his watch and under his handpicked appointed Chiefs of Geier and Medina when it comes to the overtime abuses and the scandal. There is no press conference Keller is known for to announce what he intends to do now that the audit is out. There has been no transparency promised on Keller’s part, just a smile on his face and a grin in his voice. There are no statements nor even a commitment by Keller to adopt and implement all the recommendations made by the audits to prevent waste, fraud and abuse of police overtime. This coming from former State Auditor Tim Keller who made his reputation of being a “white knight” who combated “waste, fraud and abuse” and was swept into office in part because of that reputation. All we get is Mayor Tim Keller who is a middle aged man who likes to run around like some high school football jock who is elected student council president who announces on twitter the return of heavy metal concerts and who wants the public to pay for a $60 million dollar soccer stadium that he can romp around in reliving his high school glory days. Keller has always acted more like he is a celebrity as opposed to acting like the chief executive of a major city as he constantly seeks and thrives on attention.

APD CHIEF HAROLD MEDINA

Then you have the inept APD Chief Harold Medina who was First Deputy Chief in charge of Field Services for a full 3 years before Keller made him APD Chief. It was Chief Geier that recruited Harold Medina to return to APD and Medina proceeded to act like Judas undercutting all Geier was attempting to accomplish to the point Geier wanted to terminate Medina for insubordination for failure to implement a policy to bring down violent crime. The mistake Geier made was not to act before Medina went to CAO Sarita Nair and ran interference to get Geier fired first. Keller appointed Medina Chief despite Medina’s nefarious past and personal involvement with 2 police officer involved shootings with Medina actually saying the shootings made him qualified to implement the DOJ reforms.

As Deputy Chief of Field Services, Harold Medina must have known, or at very least should have known, of the overtime abuse that was going on, especially by field officers such as the DWI unit, that was under his command and control, yet Medina did absolutely nothing to curb the overtime abuse. Medina even says that the overtime abuse has been going on for some time and there are plenty others to blame over the years. As the Deputy Chief in charge of field services for a full 3 years, Medina no doubt knew what was going on in the field yet he did nothing to make sure the field Sergeants and Lieutenants under his command were following overtime practices.

APD SPOKESMAN GILBERT GALLEGOS

The comments of APD Spokesman Gilbert Gallegos when he says “there is no room for favoritism when it comes to protecting public funds” he thinks the public is stupid enough to think that he did not actually witnessed what was going on when it came to his APD Spokesman colleague Sgt. Simon Dolbeck who was paid thousands in fraudulent overtime. To what extent Gallegos himself has been given “favoritism” in overtime claimed and paid is totally unknown.

APD Spokesman Gilbert Gallegos has a reputation of being less than forthcoming and has issued false statements in the past when it comes to APD Police Chief Harold Medina as reflected in a blog article with the link here:

https://www.petedinelli.com/2020/09/21/apd-chief-medina-says-in-2010-interview-he-authorized-use-of-deadly-force-in-shooting-of-mentally-ill-ken-ellis-interview-reveals-medina-is-part-of-the-problem-apd-spokesman-gallegos-issues-fal/

POLICE UNION CONTRACT VIOLATES FEDERAL AND STATE LABOR LAWS

One of the most dramatic findings in the Porch & Associates Audit is that the APD police union contract violates the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act. Specifically, the Fair Labor Standards Act provides:

“paid leave is not considered time worked for the purposes of computing overtime”.

The audit goes as far as saying terms of the union contract need to be negotiated and that the City can save thousands of dollars in overtime by insisting that the APOA police union and APD follow the Fair Labor Standards Act. The audit also said the City should not bargain away what is established by law.

The audit recommends that the City negotiate with the police union to remove the guaranteed overtime and replace it with actual time. Actual time would start when the officer leaves their home, or work assignment if after a normal shift, through the time they get home.

NO MENTION OF UNION CONTRACT VIOLATING STATE LAW

The Porch & Associates Audit downplays and essentially ignores the role of the APD Union membership of Sergeants and Lieutenants and the union contract in the entire overtime scandal.

The New Mexico Public Employees Bargaining Act, Sections 10-7E-1 to 10-7E-26 H (NMSA 1978), governs the enforcement of the city’s collective bargaining agreement with the APD police union. Section 10-7E-5 provides for the rights of public employees and states in part

“Public employees, other than management employees and confidential employees, may form, join or assist a labor organization for the purpose of collective bargaining … .

The link to the statute is here:

https://www.pelrb.state.nm.us/statute.php

Simply put, under the law, APD Sargeants and Luietentants are public management employees and are prohibited from joining a union. When the Porch & Associates Audits says that there is a failure of APD supervisors to properly monitor and pre-approve officer overtime, what it fails to disclose is those supervisors are the management positions of Lieutenants and Sergeants who are allowed to join the APD police union despite being management. Its Labor Law 101 that federal law prohibits management from joining unions. Simply put the police union contract violates state law when it allows the management positions of Lieutenants and Sergeants to be part of the union. Instead of enforcing limitations on overtime and preventing the overtime abuse, many sergeants and lieutenants simply participated in excessive overtime pay practices themselves and likely approved all overtime submitted by their subordinates to keep them happy and to maintain a working relationship with them and to garner favor with them.

APD Lieutenants and Sergeants are on the front-line management that oversee those officers who serve under their command. APD Lieutenants and Sergeants are primarily responsible for making sure that all Standard Operating Procedures (SOP’s) are followed and further it is they that must review and approve overtime. The excessive overtime paid over the years to rank and file police is a reflection of Lieutenants and Sergeants not doing their jobs of oversight and prevention of overtime abuse.

APD Lieutenants and Sergeants, and Patrol Officers are all are “classified” positions and can only be terminated for cause. APD Lieutenants and Sergeants are included in the police collective bargaining unit. Any and all disciplinary actions taken against APD Lieutenants and Sergeants, Patrol Officers are governed by the union contract. They have due process rights including progressive disciplinary actions and rights of appeal.

APD Lieutenants and Sergeants need to be removed from the collective bargaining unit and made at will employees so that they can be held accountable for failure to act and failure to oversee those they are responsible for and not become part of the problem.

NEGOTIATE NEW POLICE UNION CONTRACT TERMS

The two-year police union contract negotiated by the Keller Administration in 2018 expired on July 1, 2020. Negotiations on a new contract have been suspended predominately as a result of the Corona Virus pandemic. When a union contract expires, the terms of the expired contract continue until a new contract is negotiated. Therefore the 2018 contract terms have been extended for over a year.

The Keller Administration needs to demand that the police union contract negotiations be commenced immediately. Among the terms that need to be negated are:

1. Remove Lieutenants and Sergeants from the police bargaining unit and make them at will employees in order to conform with state law and federal law that prohibits management from joining a union.

2. Negotiate a term that makes it clear that “paid leave is not considered time worked for the purposes of computing overtime” in order to comply with the Federal Fair Labor Standard Act (FLSA).

3. Remove the guaranteed payment of overtime at time and a half and replace it with actual hourly paid to an officer.

4. Negotiate a term that whenever it is determined that overtime was paid in violation of APD standard operating procedures and overtime policy, the overtime pay must be refunded to the city either in single lump sum or garnishment of wages.

5. The Albuquerque City Council needs to enact as part of the city’s personnel rules and regulations prohibitions to remove the guaranteed overtime and replace it with actual time. Actual time would start when the officer leaves their home, or work assignment if after a normal shift, through the time they get home.

INITIATE CIVIL ACTION FOR FRAUD TO RECOVER FRAUDULENT OVERTIME PAID

One or more of the audits have identified just a few of the most egregious false fraudulent overtime claims paid by APD employees. It is commonly referred to as “time card” fraud and the city has been successful in the past in making a recovery. The city does have grounds for a civil cause of action to recover the fraudulent overtime pay. To that end, the City Attorney should make immediate demand for repayment of all fraudulent overtime pay and if refused by the employee, terminate them and immediately file a civil collection claim against the employee.

NEW MEXICO ATTORNEY GENERAL HECTOR BALDERAS

On August 8, it was reported that the FBI and Homeland Security investigators are looking into alleged overtime cheating in the Lordsburg Police Department. The targets of the ongoing investigation are two brothers who at one time served as the No. 1 and No. 2 police officers in the small southwestern New Mexico city. No criminal charges have been filed, but a series of search warrant affidavits filed in U.S. District Court in New Mexico allege the brothers have been paid for “many” hours of overtime for federal border security work they didn’t perform. Such an investigation has already been accomplished with 7 audits of APD overtime abuses.

https://www.abqjournal.com/2417719/fbi-probes-ot-issues-in-lordsburg-police-force.html

It has been confirmed that New Mexico State Auditor Brian Colon has forwarded the Porch & Associates Audit on APD overtime abuse to New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas for his review and possible criminal prosecution by his office. No doubt Balderas is preoccupied with the ongoing investigation of former New Mexico House Majority Floor Leader Representative Sheryl Williams Stapleton for fraud, racketeering, money laundering, receiving illegal kickbacks and violations of the state’s Governmental Conduct Act.

The allegations against Stapleton involve a kickback scheme with an Albuquerque Public Schools (APS) vendor that was paid more than $5 million for over a decade . According to news reports, bank records show that businesses, including a restaurant, and charities Stapleton either owns or had close ties to received more than $950,000. Stapleton is also being investigated by the Justice Department on the monies she administered in federal grants to APS.

The allegations against Sheryl Williams Stapleton are really child’s play in comparison to the overtime fraud that has been uncovered by all 7 of the audits of APD. Instead of the fraud involving upwards of $6 Million over a 10-year period by Stapleton, the police overtime involves between $3 and $5 million a year for 7 years in overtime abuse and perhaps millions of fraudulent overtime paid to law enforcement who have taken and oath to serve and protect the public and who cannot be above the law. The collective action of those who engaged in time card fraud is far more serious that the actions of a disgraced elected official we have become accustomed to in New Mexico politics.

Attorney General Hector Balderas needs to announce sooner rather than latter what he intends to do with the APD overtime scandal and announce if indictments will be sought. As an alternative to any criminal charges, the Attorney General should initiate a civil cause of action to recover any documented and fraudulent overtime pay.

If Balderas is reluctant to act because he is too busy and preoccupied, he needs to refer the matter to District Attorney Raul Torrez to pick up the case to prosecute for government corruption within the largest law enforcement agency in New Mexico. It should be noted that the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s Office has in the past used a State Auditor’s report to convene a grand jury to investigate criminal conduct at city hall and did so to investigate the airport observation deck scandal that occurred under the Mayor Chavez Administration.

CONCLUSION

New Mexico State Auditor Brian Colón has done his job in ordering the audit and releasing it to the public and forwarding the audit to the New Mexico Attorney General. The fact that the State Auditor can only audit and has absolutely no prosecution authority was reason for asking Attorney General Hector Balderas to join in the probe.

Unless action is now taken by the City and the New Mexico Attorney General based on the audit, it will have been a total waste of time and taxpayer money. The audit will be relegated to collecting dust on some government shelf destined to be place into some government records archive until an 8th audit is performed on APD’s overtime and the process of overtime abuse by APD continues.
__________________________

POSTSCRIPT

PRIOR FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS IN AUDITS

EDITOR’S NOTE: Although the following have been identified as “prior findings” in the audits, they are essentially recommendations that need to be implemented. The findings have been edited to remove language that the city and APD “should” or “should consider” or “needs to” or “something may be happening” and substitutes language that is more definitive as to what needs to be done to correct problems identified.

The audit reiterates 17 findings and 22 related recommendations reported in the prior reports.

The prior findings and prior recommendations are as follows:

PRIOR FINDINGS

Prior Finding #1:

APD should establish a memorandum of understanding with the Metropolitan Court for scheduling APD Officers’ court appearances.

Prior Finding #2:

APD should work closely with the City’s Department of Finance and Administrative Services – Information Technology Services Division (ITSD) to Implement a new timekeeping system to ensure that officer overtime data is accurately collected and efficiently managed.

Prior Finding #3:

APD should internally track officer court attendance in order to address instances of officer “failure to appear” (FTA) at court hearings.

Prior Finding #4:

APD should enforce standard operating procedures regarding court overtime slips to ensure that information is properly documented.

Prior Finding #5 Finding:

APD should retain overtime supporting documentation with payroll timesheets to ensure efficient and complete record retention.

Prior Finding #6:

APD Should Ensure that Protocol is Followed for the Preapproval and Recording of Overtime. APD personnel do not consistently follow Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for pre-approving and recording overtime transactions including the pre-approval and compliance for grant funded overtime. The SOPs have specific requirements that must be followed when pre-approving and recording overtime transactions. Unauthorized overtime is being paid for transactions that are not preapproved.

Prior Finding #7:

APD needs to monitor officer overtime for irregular activity. APD does not monitor officer overtime for irregular activity to identify potential issues that would otherwise be undetected. When overtime is not monitored for irregular activity, potential issues such as collusion might not be identified, and unauthorized overtime transactions might be paid.

Prior Finding # 8:

APD needs to reconcile overtime transactions between the timekeeping and payroll systems. APD’s Fiscal Division does not reconcile between the timekeeping and payroll systems. If actual overtime paid is not reconciled to what was uploaded from the timekeeping system, changes made to the payroll system after the upload may not be valid or authorized. Changes to the payroll system can be made after the upload from the timekeeping system, which may contain unauthorized overtime changes that would remain undetected.

Prior Finding #9:

The City of Albuquerque needs to insist that the Fair Labor Standards Act language which states “paid leave is not considered time worked for the purposes of computing overtime” be in the new negotiated contract. The City of Albuquerque can save thousands of dollars in overtime by insisting that the APOA police union and APD follow the Fair Labor Standards Act. The City should not bargain away what is established by law.

Prior Finding #10:

The City of Albuquerque need to insist on language that mandates that all “comp time” earned must be utilized within 180 days of accrual. If the comp time is not used the balance must be paid to the employee on the next regularly scheduled payroll. Without this language, APD officers have no incentive to ever reduce their comp time balances and the City is forced to pay thousands of dollars out of APD’s overtime budget when overtime pay may not be warranted.

Prior Finding #11:

Pursuant to the City Office of Internal Audit Performance Audit regarding Officer Overtime Audit #16-107 dated March 17, 2017, the City needs to insist that APD follow the recommendations of the City Auditor as APD agreed to do. Another Audit of APD Overtime needs to be done of the Chief’s Overtime Program. The audit should explore the actual cost to the City of the Chief’s Overtime program versus what the Chief’s Overtime Program brings in. The Audit should cover how many officers take time off from their regularly scheduled duties to go work a Chief’s overtime during those same hours. The audit needs explore whether or not another officer had to be called in on overtime to handle the off-duty officer’s duties on that shift on that day because the staffing level was below the 70 percent threshold. Lastly, the Audit should determine whether or not the Chief’s Overtime Program violates the Anti-Donation Clause of the State Constitution.

Prior Finding #12:

APD should immediately revise its policy on overtime. Officers should be limited to working no more than 25 hours per week of overtime and that is inclusive of all overtime. The policy should prohibit officers from taking comp time or vacation from their regularly assigned duties for the sole purpose of working a Chief’s Overtime assignment. APD supervisors, prior to approving a leave request, should be required to check with the Chief’s Overtime Program to make sure that the officer is not signed up for Chief’s Overtime and/or they are not taking leave to go work a Chief’s Overtime Assignment during the very same hours they are scheduled to work their assigned shift. Officers should be prohibited from working Chief’s Overtime if they are in an “on-call” status. The policy should reflect any recommendations that were made by the City Auditor. Lastly, the policy should be vigorously enforced and adhered to by all APD personnel.

Prior Finding #13:

Twenty five prior recommendations are listed below in this blog article postscript.

Prior Finding #14:

APD needs to seek repayment from officers, if upon research by the department, it is determined that the employee was overpaid. APD needs to begin conducting periodic spot-checks of officers’ time to verify that the time reported in TeleStaff is accurately supported by the time reflected in the officers’ Computer Aided Dispatch reports. This review could be conducted internally by management or by Internal Affairs or the Office of Internal Audit.

Prior Finding #15:

APD must continue its efforts to update Standard Operating Procedure 3-20 Overtime, Compensatory Time and Work Shift Designation (SOP 3-20) to reflect current payroll and overtime practices and to include procedures surrounding time approvals and monitoring of total overtime by supervisors. APD should review payroll and timekeeping systems for possible system improvements and require that supervisors successfully complete TeleStaff Supervisor Training in order to approve subordinates’ time.

Prior Finding #16:

APD should negotiate changes in its Collective Bargaining Agreement with the APD union so that overtime is calculated based on the number of hours actually worked each week, which is consistent with the requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act. APD should expand compensatory and overtime polices so that using other forms of paid time off, to work overtime, including Chief’s Overtime, is no longer permitted.

Prior Finding #17:

Communicate to staff the City and the department’s policies prohibiting employees from lending their password or username to anyone.

PRIOR RECOMMENDATIONS MADE IN AUDITS

The 25 recommendations made in prior audits are as follows:

1. Begin budgeting for overtime at the Department ID level.

2. Provide Commanders with data about overtime usage and hold them
accountable for managing overtime.

3. Encourage direct supervisors to adjust work hours when appropriate.

4. Centrally review overtime usage each pay period and hold Commanders
accountable.

5. Take Holiday Pay overtime into consideration when evaluating schedule
changes.

6. Adopt plan for filling specialized unit and patrol positions.

7. Calculate minimum manning levels at the area command (rather than team)
level.

8. Update minimum manning levels based on demand and a proactive policing
service standard.

9. Ensure adopted shift schedule is the most efficient and effective deployment
approach.

10. Develop training plan that maximizes amount of training completed during
normal duty hours and minimizes training completed on overtime.

11. Begin more accurately tracking the full impact of training on overtime by
adding additional overtime codes.

12. Establish and enforce training attendance guidelines.

13. Review training management systems currently in place throughout the City for
opportunities to more efficiently and effectively manage training.

14. Adopt minimum number of years for specialized positions.

15. Explore opportunities to minimize the amount of non-grant funded tact plan
activities completed on overtime.

16. Conduct preliminary assessments to minimize the amount of unnecessary call
out overtime.

17. Evaluate opportunities to provide the Investigative Services Bureau with
additional administrative support.

18. Work with Metro and District Court to limit officer court appearances.

19. Work with Metro and District Court to optimize scheduling of officer court
appearances.

20. Implement an early notification system to ensure officers do not show up to
court unnecessarily.

21. Stop approving administrative overtime and community meeting overtime.