Behind closed doors
Advocate: Agenda listing of city’s executive session ‘too vague’

By Zsombor Peter
Staff Writer

GALLUP — The City Council held a closed meeting this morning, but they’re not saying much about what’s on the agenda.

The council called a closed meeting for 8:30 this morning to discuss “pending litigation.” The state’s Open Meetings Act, however, calls for more.

City Attorney George Kozeliski did add that the council would be discussing three cases, all filed in New Mexico’s 11th District Court, and that one was its settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice over employment discrimination.
But according to Bob Johnson, director of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government, that’s still not enough.

According to the Open Meetings Act, “the authority for the closure and the subject to be discussed shall be stated with reasonable specificity.” In the case of a lawsuit, Johnson said, “reasonable specificity” should at the very least mean the case number.

Though public bodies, city councils get the same attorney-client privileges as private parties from the Open Meetings Act. It lets them meet behind closed doors to discuss pending — or threatened — litigation because discussing them publicly could jeopardize their case. But because the cases in question have already been filed, Johnson said, simply disclosing the names of the cases to be discussed should jeopardize nothing.

Kozeliski turned down The Independent’s request for the names of all three cases over the phone Tuesday. He has yet to respond to a written request dropped off at his office Wednesday morning.

The one case Kozeliski did identify, United States of America v. City of Gallup, was filed in 2004. Rather than fight the Justice Department’s charges that it had discriminated against American Indian job applicants, the last administration settled for $300,000.

The city and Justice Department held their last hearing in the case last summer. But the agreement includes other provisions about staff training and proper record keeping. With so much turnover these days among City Hall’s department directors, Kozeliski said, the Justice Department called today’s meeting to make sure the city was still complying with all the settlement’s details.

Ironically, that same turnover is threatening to get the city in yet another spot of legal trouble over employment discrimination. Two candidates for the city manager’s position, both Navajo, are accusing the council of unfairly passing them over in favor of a friend and political ally of Mayor Harry Mendoza. Both men, Skip Curley and Irvin Harrison, have filed complaints with the New Mexico Human Rights Division. The state is still investigating.