County appoints 3 to volunteer ethics board
Santa Fe County commissioners on Tuesday approved three new appointments to the county’s volunteer ethics board after further discussions about the role of the watchdog body.
That role has been uncertain since the County Commission created the board in 2010 in the wake of a bribery scandal.
The five-member ethics board has never considered an ethics case, nor has it recommended changes to the county’s code of conduct, as was expected.
Deputy County Manager Tony Flores told commissioners that the ethics board, with the new appointments, will be able to address some of those issues in a meeting March 6.
It will be the board’s first meeting in months.
Bill Heimbach, whose term did not expire until February 2018, resigned from the board, Flores said. That left his position and two other vacancies left by outgoing members to be filled.
Commissioners unanimously approved the appointments of Peter Dodds, Linda Ramos and Michael Rosanbalm to the ethics board.
Rosanbalm said in an application letter that he is a retired Air Force officer.
Dodds, a consultant, listed a career in banking. Ramos said she is a development specialist for the New Mexico Department of Transportation with no ties to county government or politics.
Commissioners briefly discussed issues raised in recent coverage by The Santa Fe New Mexican, which reported the ethics board has never considered a case and that it has ceased holding regular meetings.
Commissioner Anna Hamilton said she was approached by someone who questioned why the ethics board has no authority over the county’s hundreds of employees.
Flores said the ethics board has authority only over elected officials, appointed officials and volunteers.
County Clerk Geraldine Salazar said that, as an elected official who oversees a staff of employees, it’s her opinion that county employees should not be subject to the ethics board because they must follow a clear set of human resources standards.
But as an elected official, Salazar added, the county’s ethics ordinance, which created the ethics board, has been a helpful tool for her to point to and tell people, “I do not make deals and I do not make promises.”
Commissioner Anna Hansen said the ethics board should review the county’s code of conduct to make ethics rules clearer, particularly county rules that do not match state law on how a political campaign should be properly closed.
Flores told county commissioners he selected the three new members of the ethics board from the largest pool of applicants the county has ever received to fill the unpaid, two-year positions.