Ledes from the Land of Enchantment

Ethics committee reprimanded Gonzales and fined him $ 2,000

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Sheriff Manuel Gonzales announced earlier this month that he would end his fight to fund public campaigns and fund his run with private donations. (Adolphe Pierre-Louis / )

A councilor on Friday hit Bernalillo County Sheriff Manuel Gonzales with a $ 2,000 fine and public reprimand, finding that his mayoral campaign had submitted 16 fake documents in his bid for public funding.

The city’s committee of ethics and campaigning practices 5-0 result underscores an unsuccessful month-long search by Gonzales for more than $ 600,000 in campaign funding in his race against Mayor Tim Keller and Eddy Aragon.

These efforts failed because of two ethical complaints filed against Gonzales by Keller’s campaign manager Neri Holguin.

“The fact that they issued a reprimand matters,” said Lauren Keefe, Holguin’s attorney. While there are no practical ramifications, a reprimand is recognition that the board has found evidence of wrongdoing, Keefe said.

“The reprimand can be more serious than the fine,” she said. Gonzales attorneys pointed out that the finding of 16 violations is far fewer than the 176 violations alleged in the Keller campaign’s ethics complaints.

Daniel Gallegos, one of Gonzales’ attorneys, said the $ 2,000 fine was “likely appropriate” because the campaign had submitted fake qualified submissions in “some discreet cases”.

Gonzales testified on Friday that he only became aware of the forged signatures after the public funding period had expired.

The Gonzales campaign said in a written statement Friday that the board’s decision showed Keller’s allegations were exaggerated.

“After spending months alleging ‘widespread’ fraud related to the Gonzales Campaign’s qualifying contributions of $ 5, the Keller campaign proved only 16 violations against the Ethics Council,” the statement said .

“The Gonzales Campaign has submitted over 4,000 qualifying entries, which is well above the threshold required for a candidate to qualify for public funding,” it said.

The Keller campaign said the fine and reprimand were further evidence that the district’s chief justice officer “committed and orchestrated widespread fraud.”

The campaign also found that board members limited their presentation to one hour.

“This judgment, constrained by procedural restrictions, represents a small fraction of the 300 plus additional forgeries estimated in the Independent Inspector General’s report,” the statement said.

Albuquerque’s Office of Inspector General – an accountability office independent from the mayor – investigated the allegations last month and interviewed voters identified on a random sample of 239 qualified Gonzales campaign donation receipts. Nearly 16% of the sample told investigators that they neither signed the receipt nor donated $ 5, or that they signed the receipt but did not contribute $ 5.

Keefe has presented 36 statements from voters who said they failed to pay the $ 5 qualifying fee or signed the receipt presented to the Gonzales Campaign town clerk Ethan Watson’s office.

The board members did not explain why they found only 16 violations of the city’s ethical laws.

The board also heard from a woman who testified that her mother’s name had been forged on one of the qualifying contribution receipts.

Jan Wright testified that her mother, Dorothy Wright, suffered a massive heart attack on May 25th and could not have signed the qualifying donation receipt on June 1st, the date stated on the receipt.

“I was at my mother’s house all day setting up home nursing for her,” Wright said on June 1. No one came into the house or raised $ 5 with the Gonzales campaign, she testified.

Wright’s testimony prompted board members to pay Gonzales a $ 500 fine. The board justified the remaining $ 1,500 fine on 15 other violations presented as evidence during the hearing.

Gonzales’ campaign rep who signed Dorothy Wright’s receipt was Megan McMillan, who identified Gonzales as a temporary campaign manager who subsequently resigned from the campaign.

McMillan was one of two campaign workers summoned to testify at the hearing. McMillan came to the hearing but was never called to testify.

Keefe said after the hearing that the board’s one-hour limit on her presentation left no time to call McMillan to testify.

Last week, a state judge dealt a blow when he ruled City Clerk Watson had acted appropriately in refusing to fund Gonzales taxpayers.

Gonzales then announced that he would be reaching out to private donors and giving up his search for public campaign funding.

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