City panel dismisses ethics complaint against mayor

A city board Tuesday found complaints of ethics and campaign violations against Mayor Alan Webber didn’t hold up and dismissed them.

The dismissal of one of the complaints passed by a narrow 3-2 vote, and the discussion before the vote was taken included questions about when an elected official such as Webber is performing official duties and when he is campaigning for reelection.

Some members of the city Ethics and Campaign Review Board said the ethics code and campaign code may need to be clarified to address situations like this. At issue was an email Webber’s campaign sent out for two events in July in which firetrucks would be available for inspection and hoses would be used to cool off kids in the summer heat. The Webber campaign had invited many people by email to attend.

The three complaints, two of which were unanimously dismissed, were filed by Santa Fe residents and Webber critics Virgil Vigil and Gilbert Romero.

The board talked about the complaints for close to 90 minutes, much of which was consumed by whether the email and cool-down events amounted to use of city resources for Webber’s campaign.

Judith Amer of the board said when invitations are sent by email under the campaign’s heading, it’s clearly part of the campaign. To suggest it isn’t “doesn’t ring true in my ears, at least,” Amer said.

Amer argued for more information and said there was probable cause to move the issue to another hearing rather than dismiss it.

Vigil said: “The mayor used this as a campaign event, and he was campaigning.”

Webber’s attorney in the case, Kate Ferlic, said it’s in the public interest for people to be informed of such events, and that’s all the email did.

Board member Paul Biderman agreed the email merely encouraged people to attend a public event.

“We just don’t have evidence” the mayor attended for any reason other than that he is chief executive of the city, Biderman said.

Amer said the mayor didn’t just show up at an event. His campaign touted his upcoming appearance there, she said, adding it would be good to have additional facts about the matter, she said.

As it was, she said, it appeared the mayor used city resources and city personnel to promote his campaign.

Board member Ruth Kovnat said that just because Webber attended an event that was put on as a public benefit didn’t mean he was campaigning. And if you prevent a mayor from doing the job of presiding over public events, that’s not right, she said.

Ultimately, Biderman, Kovnat and Justin Miller voted to dismiss the complaint.

State Rep. Tara Lujan, the board member who agreed with Amer there was probable cause for further review, said an elected official needs to differentiate between two roles.

The language of the ethics code doesn’t clearly distinguish this, Lujan said.

“You can promote public events, and that’s fine,” Lujan said. But when a mayor uses both his role as a campaigner and his position as chief executive, that’s a precarious balance, she added.

“You are the mayor and you are the candidate,” she said. “It’s the candidate who’s also the official.”

Two other complaints filed by Vigil and Romero were denied in a unanimous decision. One was a claim that Webber and others in his campaign had bullied city employees. The other was Webber’s hiring of the firm for which Ethics and Campaign Review Board member Kristina Martinez works. Martinez recused herself and the board said there was no problem.

Previous ethics complaints filed by Webber and by mayoral rival Alexis Martinez Johnson were dismissed this summer by the board. Martinez Johnson’s complaint included the contention Webber used the cool down events to promote his own campaign.

Webber’s complaints against the Hispanic fraternal organization Union Protectíva de Santa Fé, American Legion Post 1 and a VFW Post 2951 suggested those organizations worked against his campaign without registering as political action committees.

The Webber campaign said by text Tuesday evening Vigil’s complaint was frivolous. Vigil is head of Union Protectíva, and the campaign’s text accused Vigil and the organization of trying to “further divide our city. We know that Santa Feans want unity, not more division.”

Biderman said at the end of the session Tuesday that Vigil and others should consult an attorney in these cases so their complaints adequately address the ethics code and match the facts of the case to it.

Vigil said after the meeting it was odd for Biderman to tell a citizen he needed to hire an attorney to file a complaint with the city.

Not everyone has that kind of money, Vigil said.

He said the lesson seemed to be: “If you have money, you’re going to win.”