New councilor questions legality of meeting

By Zsombor Peter
Staff Writer

GALLUP — The new city administration has apparently wasted little time violating the state's Open Meetings Act.

The act requires the city council to take all votes in public. And while it makes allowances for some issues — land purchases, personnel matters or union relationships, to name a few — to be discussed away from the public, it insists that the council at least give the public some general idea of what it plans to talk about.

But when the council voted to retire to more private chambers at the end of Tuesday's public meeting to discuss the fates of Economic Development Director Glen Benefield and City Clerk Patty Holland, the evening's agenda made no mention of personnel issues — as it should have.

"It was clearly a violation of the act," said Bob Johnson, executive director of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government.

City Attorney George Kozeliski, the council's chief legal advisor, took the blame.

Kozeliski said he wasn't feeling well that day, and hadn't taken a good look at the items on the agenda listed for discussion in the closed session. So when personnel matters came up, he didn't think to advice the council to stop.

"I screwed up," he said. "I didn't look at the agenda close enough."

Serving in only their third meeting as councilors, Allan Landavazo and John Azua may not have known any better, but not the rest of the council. Councilman Bill Nechero has been in his seat for the past six years, Councilman Pat Butler for 16. Harry Mendoza, though chairing his first meeting as mayor Tuesday, has served on both the City Council and McKinley County Commission in the past. Eric Honeyfield, Gallup's city manager for the past four years, also attended the closed session.

For all the experience in the room, it's Landavazo who's now questioning what the council did.

The day after the meeting, Landavazo sent Kozeliski a letter asking the city attorney for his opinion on whether the council is allowed to discuss an issue in closed session that's not on the agenda. He asked for an answer by Monday. Kozeliski, who has been out of town on business since, said Thursday afternoon that he hadn't yet seen the letter.

Allowed or not, when Tuesday's closed session adjourned, it was decided that Benefield and Holland would have to go.

By the city's charter, the job of hiring and firing the economic development director and city clerk is left to the city manager alone. And Honeyfield did indeed give Benefield and Holland the news Wednesday afternoon. But according to closed session attendees, speaking on condition of anonymity, he got his marching orders from the council.

According to both sources, Mendoza prompted the councilors for their opinions on whether Benefield and Holland should stay or go. Butler and Landavazo reportedly spoke in favor of keeping them on, while Azua, Mendoza and Nechero thought they ought to be let go. With a clear, if narrow, majority, the sources said, Honeyfield was asked to execute.

The city manager could have refused. Then again, he can be removed by a majority of the council.

Mendoza, on his way to a meeting Thursday morning, told The Independent he had no time to meet at that moment. A message left for him at City Hall early that afternoon was not returned.

All Honeyfield would say was that personnel issues were discussed during the closed session. He declined to comment on who the personnel were, let alone what, if any, decisions the council made about them.

Landavazo's letter to Kozeliski doesn't mention any names of specific decisions, either. But it does back up at least part of what the anonymous sources said. Landavazo's second question to the city attorney asks: "Do the mayor and council have the authority to make personnel decisions for employees other that (sic) the city manager under the City of Gallup Charter and NM law?"

The Independent will not press the AG for any ruling on the legality of the session.

As at-will employees, Benefield and Holland need not be given any reason for their termination. Holland said she was given none. Benefield declined to comment.