Councilor Wilkins faces second censure vote
Accused of dishonest report on AG’s probe
City Councilor Shelby Smith wants to censure fellow Councilor Chuck Wilkins for the second time in four months, accusing Wilkins of dishonesty, an allegation Wilkins denies.
The agenda for the Rio Rancho Governing Body meeting Wednesday includes a vote on the censure. The meeting is set for 6:30 p.m. at City Hall.
A censure has no legal ramifications. It expresses a lack of confidence in a member of the Governing Body.
The censure alleges that Wilkins dishonestly claimed a representative of the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office informed him of a determination that conflictof-interest accusations against him were unfounded, even though he knew the investigation was not complete.
The document also says Wilkins wouldn’t give the name of the representative and the Attorney General’s Office couldn’t provide city staff with a record of such a conversation.
“Councilor Wilkins has compromised the integrity of the governing body, and it is the priority of the governing body to restore and maintain the integrity of the governing body and protect the public trust,” the censure says.
Wilkins provided a recording of a voice message from a man identifying himself as Greg Stover from the AG’s office and saying he saw no conflict of interest.
“Councilor Smith has this history of bullying and intimidating, and this is just another example,” Wilkins said.
Smith said the message was unofficial and improper, and it was a “gross misrepresentation” for Wilkins to say the investigation was closed. He said Wilkins wasted city
staff’s time and taxpayers’ money by referring questions about the attorney general’s representative to his lawyer instead of providing the name.
“What I hope to accomplish (with the censure) is he stops his hypocrisy and playing games,” Smith said.
Asked about a personality conflict, Smith said that was the issue because he believed in compromise and wouldn’t waste taxpayer money or play games, whereas Wilkins was the opposite.
“We can confirm the Office of the Attorney General has received a public referral and this matter is under review,” said AG spokesman James Hallinan. “We will inform the public of the disposition of this referral once that determination has been made.”
In December, a majority of the Governing Body passed the first censure of Wilkins, based on accusations that he engaged in a conflict of interest when he proposed and voted on a failed motion to include paving Westside Boulevard through Unit 10 among the city’s legislative funding priorities, without formally disclosing that he owned a residential lot on Vargas Road in Unit 10. Smith sponsored that censure as well.
Wilkins has said he didn’t have a conflict of interest because he’d publicly mentioned his lot and he wouldn’t benefit from the paving more than any other property owner in the area.
Shortly before the Governing Body approved the censure, most of the local legislative delegation sent a request to the attorney general’s office asking for an investigation into whether Wilkins violated state law in the matter.
Wilkins has stated in public meetings that he received a call from the Attorney General’s Office saying there was no conflict of interest and the investigator recommended closing the case.
In the Dec. 26 recording, Greg Stover refers to the issue over Wilkins’ property.
“I looked at the various issues, and I don’t think there’s anything there as far as this office is concerned, and I made a recommendation to just close our inquiry,” Stover said in the message.
However, Stover said he was one of 40 people new Attorney General Hector Balderas let go, so the office might revisit the issue in January.
Smith said he provided a copy of an email dated Jan. 7 from AG records custodian Richard Russell to Wilkins. In it, Russell wrote that the conflict-of-interest question was under review and there was no report.
Smith said he brought up the censure now because it had taken this long to obtain documentation from the Attorney General’s Office.