Late application OK
New city attorney applied for job after closing date, but Mayor’s Office says that’s not a violation
Esteban Aguilar Jr., whom Mayor Tim Keller announced Saturday had been selected as the new city attorney, submitted his résumé and application for the job well after the published closing date for applying for the position.
But a spokeswoman for the mayor’s office said Monday that does not violate city Human Resources Department policy.
An online job posting from the city of Albuquerque listed the opening date for submitting applications as Nov. 29, 2017, and the closing date as Dec. 20. The same job posting was listed in the Dec. 13 edition of the State of New Mexico Bar Bulletin.
City spokeswoman Alicia Manzano said Monday that Aguilar didn’t submit his résumé until Feb. 16.
On Saturday, Aguilar told the Journal that it was Keller’s office that reached out to him in early February — after the application process had been closed — to see if he was interested in applying for the position.
The city provided the names of 19 people who had submitted applications for city attorney in response to the Journal’s Inspection of Public Records Act request filed on Jan. 29. Those names and a brief description of the applicants were presented in a story published in Friday’s Journal.
Aguilar’s name was not on that list supplied to the Journal by the city’s Human Resources Department because “we hadn’t received a résumé from Mr. Aguilar as of the date the (IPRA) request was received,” Manzano told the Journal in an emailed statement.
The Journal discussed the job search with the city as late as Thursday.
The city charter states that the city attorney “shall be selected and appointed through an open and competitive hiring process conducted by the Mayor with the advice and consent of two-thirds of the entire membership of the Council.”
In an email response to questions, Manzano said: “The City employed an open and competitive process that resulted in the selection of a highly-qualified City Attorney. The position was posted publicly on the City’s website and the local legal bulletin. The position was first advertised in late November 2017 and the process closed with the selection of Mr. Aguilar, who will be subject to confirmation by the City Council.”
She further explained that because the city attorney position is an “unclassified” position, “there is no prohibition on asking if individuals are interested in applying.”
“There is no violation of any Human Resources Department policy by accepting applications past the posted deadline for an unclassified position,” she said, though she did not know if city ordinances specifically address that issue.
City Councilor Brad Winter expressed concern over the process during Monday’s council meeting and whether it was “open and competitive.”
“The city attorney is probably one of the most important positions ... because it is a position that represents both the administration and the City Council,” Winter said.
Albuquerque Chief Administrative Officer Sarita Nair reinforced Manzano’s comments, saying the list printed in the Journal was accurate at the time of the IPRA request.