LANL group delays decisions amid questions on meetings rule

ESPAÑOLA — A meeting of the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities, a public agency that has been in the spotlight since an audit turned up taxpayer-funded excesses that included Major League Baseball tickets and lavish dinners with alcohol, took an unexpected turn Monday amid concerns the agenda failed to comply with the state’s Open Meetings Act.

The board held off on any decision-making, including a vote on a proposed contract with its embattled executive director.

One member said this would cripple the organization and potentially leave it in limbo for six months to a year.

“We were blindsided last week. We’re being blindsided once again for the third time,” said Española Mayor Alice Lucero, who pushed for the meeting to proceed under the agenda that was publicly posted last week.

“I think business needs to continue,” added Lucero, whose term on the board expires this week. “We have an obligation to the communities. We have an obligation to our executive director and her staff. I am convinced that this is truly and totally politically motivated.”

But the board is considering changes to a joint powers agreement that Santa Fe County Manager Katherine Miller said last week doesn’t give it the authority to enter into contracts.

The delay is the latest setback for the coalition, an advo-

cacy organization composed of nine cities, counties and pueblos surrounding Los Alamos National Laboratory, as well as its former executive director, Andrea Romero, a Democratic candidate for the state Legislature.

Romero’s contract with the coalition expired last week. The board plans to issue a request for proposals for executive director services, and Romero said Monday she doesn’t know whether she will bid for the contract.

“I believed we were in compliance with established policy and protocol,” an emotional Romero told the board. “It was the practice of the organization, prior to me joining, to pay for board meals, including alcohol. I did not know that alcohol was prohibited, and for that I apologize.”

Monday’s meeting got off to a rocky start even before it was called to order with a tense exchange between Lucero and Los Alamos County Councilor Chris Chandler.

“I just follow the law, Alice. I’m sorry,” Chandler told Lucero as they debated whether the agenda complied with the law.

During the meeting, Chandler said she had received a text message from Los Alamos County Attorney J. Alvin Leaphart questioning whether Monday’s meeting was a continuation of last week’s board meeting.

“He said, ‘If so, are they attempting to consider matters not appearing on the agenda of the original meeting?’ Apparently, he views this in derogation of the Open Meetings Act because, under the Open Meetings Act, you cannot add new items to a continued meeting,” Chandler said.

Chandler said a public body must specify the date, time and place for the continuation of a meeting, which it did not do.

“If we accept the law on its face, we did not indicate the place because we did not know where we would have a place to meet,” she said. “I am concerned that we follow the letter of the Open Meetings Act, particularly given some of the issues that have been raised by members of the public in terms of strictly adhering to the rules of order, transparency, etcetera.”

Though the board took no action, it received a legal opinion on its authority from Santa Fe County Attorney Bruce Frederick, who said the joint powers agreement that established the coalition is ambiguous.

“I would recommend that parties work together to amend the agreement to resolve the ambiguities,” he said. “But I need to clarify that the ambiguities in the agreements, in the bylaws, in no way authorizes or excuses the kind of abuses recently reported in the newspapers. There may be more to the story — there usually is — but nothing in … the coalition bylaws or the coalition policies authorizes public funds to be spent for alcohol or entertainment or lavish meals. In fact, the travel policy would appear to expressly prohibit those types of expenditures.”