Officials request ethics inquiry
Issue concerns alleged financial irregularities at Regional Coalition of LANL Communities
Two Los Alamos County councilors are calling for an ethics investigation stemming from alleged financial irregularities at the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities, a little-known public agency that has come under fire amid revelations it violated its own travel policies with the purchase of alcohol, professional baseball tickets and other spending.
“The communications that have been forwarded to the full County Council by [county] officials in emails have been misleading or incomplete,” Councilors James Chrobocinski and Susan O’Leary wrote to the county’s human resources manager Wednesday in their request for an ethics investigation.
“The full County Council and the citizens of Los Alamos County should not have to learn about this situation piecemeal, through the media,” they wrote.
The New Mexican reported Sunday that an audit conducted by Los Alamos County found “issues” with all of the coalition’s travel reimbursement requests in the current and prior fiscal years. The audit also found a lack of itemized receipts that made it impossible to determine “whether they were direct violations or not.”
In one instance, coalition members ran up a dinner bill of $1,850 at a restaurant in Washington, D.C. The portion of that tab for alcohol was $380, even though liquor is not a permissible expense under the coalition’s rules.
Los Alamos County is one of nine cities, counties and pueblos surrounding Los Alamos National Laboratory that make up the coalition, which describes itself as a conduit for Northern New
Mexico communities to have a say-so in government decisionmaking around regional economic development and nuclear cleanup at the lab.
But under a joint powers agreement that established the coalition, Los Alamos County has more responsibility, serving as the agency’s fiscal agent. For at least the past three years, Los Alamos County has contributed $60,000 to the coalition, more than any other member.
Los Alamos County officials have acknowledged that the county was simply approving the coalition’s reimbursement requests rather than reviewing them beforehand.
The coalition’s executive director, Andrea Romero, whose contract expired Wednesday, told The New Mexican last week that she relied on the county “to be the check and balance of all of the submissions of requests for reimbursements.”
Romero’s proposed $140,000-a-year contract, which includes salary and other operational costs, is on hold pending a legal review to determine whether the coalition even has the authority to enter into contracts.
In the meantime, Chrobocinski and O’Leary are demanding accountability.
“Because the officials associated with the failures alleged in the audit are senior elected and appointed officials of Los Alamos County, an independent investigation is appropriate to fully, fairly, and impartially determine the nature and extent of any misconduct, with transparent visibility for full County Council and the citizens of Los Alamos County,” they wrote in their request.
In an email Thursday, O’Leary said the situation not only raises issues for the regional coalition but also for the local governments involved in it.
“For Los Alamos County, I’m interested in understanding the the role of Los Alamos County elected and appointed officials in this situation. I’d also like to understand why the entire Los Alamos County Council and the public were not quickly apprised after the audit was completed. I learned about the severity of it when reading last Sunday’s newspaper. This is a very serious issue and we all deserve more transparency on it. That’s what we’ll get with an independent investigation.”