Ex-NNMC director wins $400K+ settlement
Suit claimed retaliation and discrimination
SANTA FE — A Santa Fe jury on Thursday awarded the former director of Northern New Mexico College’s El Rito campus more than $400,000 in a whistleblower lawsuit claiming discrimination and retaliation.
Melissa Velasquez first filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2014. She said then that she had been disciplined for the same offenses that male employees had not been disciplined for and that when she filed a grievance with the college she was retaliated against.
The jury awarded her $289,451 for lost wages and benefits since she was fired, as well as $180,000 for emotional distress for a total of $419,451.
It is the fourth whistleblower case charging discrimination and retaliation brought against the college in recent years, but the only one that went to trial.
Last year, the college settled two such complaints with settlements totalling $540,000. A third was settled earlier this year, but the amount of the settlement won’t become public record for another few months.
The state’s Risk Management Division paid $222,5000 of the settlements for former assistant professor Jim Biggs and ex-Information Technology director Angelo Jacquez, leaving the college on the hook for $317,500. It’s unclear whether Risk Management will pay anything in the case decided Thursday.
NNMC President Rick Bailey Jr., who has only been at the college since October, said in a phone interview that the college disagreed with the decision and would consider an appeal.
Asked how the jury’s award would effect the already finan-
cially strapped college, Bailey said, “These are incredibly challenging fiscal times, not just for Northern, but all education institutions in the state. That said, this case is independent of that and we will have to look at this case on its own merits and that’s how we’ll deal with it.”
Velasquez claimed that Provost Anthony Sena had transferred her from her position as director at El Rito to a staff position at the Española campus and used the college’s budget problems as an excuse. She said she had received two letters of reprimand from Sena before she was eventually fired on June 30, 2014.
The first letter claimed she had made an agreement with the U.S. Forest Service to do a project at El Rito without getting prior approval, that she allowed college employees to live on campus without rental agreements, and that she failed to attend meetings and communicate with her superiors. She was also cited for insubordination because the college claimed that after it did not meet her request to provide additional staff at the campus kitchen, she cancelled events and left it to the college president and financial director explain why.
Another letter of reprimand written after she was transferred to the Española campus claimed she took five days of leave without permission. Velasquez said she needed the time to move her belongings from one campus to the other.
Velasquez and her attorney, Christopher Moody, could not be reached for comment Thursday evening.
Last month, the state Auditor’s Office announced that it was investigating whether former Northern president Nancy “Rusty” Barceló might have taken 744 hours of “potential” non-approved leave time that year, at a cost to the college of $87,000. Among other problems found in the audit were no-bid contracts for $148,000 for services related to the STEM Program, and $84,700 for housing and a $10,000 contract for legal services that ballooned to more than $72,000 with change orders.
State Auditor Tim Keller also recently announced that Henrietta Trujillo, until late February Northern’s financial services director, stole more than $200,000 in cash and checks. She admitted the thefts to auditors.