Jun. 14—The Bernalillo County Commission violated New Mexico’s Open Meetings Act in its process for seeking a new county manager and is being asked to take corrective action by the New Mexico Department of Justice — something the commission plans on doing next week.

On Thursday, the DOJ sent a corrective action letter to Commission Chair Barbara Baca.

“I acknowledge receipt of the Department of Justice determination on the open meeting investigation,” Baca said in a statement. “We appreciate that the Department of Justice thanks us for our cooperation during the investigation, and we will expeditiously implement the DOJ’s recommended curative actions.”

The DOJ found that a rolling quorum — when a majority of a board discusses public business in a series of phone calls or email conversations — occurred prior to the passage of an April 9 resolution that outlined the process for hiring a new county manager, including the members of a hiring search committee.

The rolling quorum “deprived the public of a meaningful opportunity to participate in or even witness the deliberations on a question of profound public importance,” the DOJ decision states.

Because of the violation, the county manager selection process can be legally challenged unless the county commission takes immediate corrective action. If the commission does not take corrective action, any decision it makes about selecting a new county manager will be nullified.

Commissioners Walt Benson and Steven Michael Quezada strongly, and at times dramatically, objected to the hiring process because they said the other three commissioners had cut them out of the process by together deciding before the public meeting who the county manager search committee members would be.

More recently, the commissioners seem to have come together on county manager hiring. The four commissioners present at the body’s Tuesday meeting voted unanimously to narrow the county manager candidates down to three finalists. The plan is to hire one of those candidates by the end of the month, when the current county manager will retire.

The Bernalillo County Commission will hold a special meeting at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday to address the DOJ investigation by voting on the hiring process resolution from April in public, according to a news release from the county communications director. If the resolution is ratified, the search for a new county manager can continue as planned.

Alternatively, the commission could take corrective action by summarizing the discussions and comments made outside of the public meeting that violated the Open Meetings Act and ratifying the actions by a public vote of the majority of the commissioners. Benson and Quezada highlighted that option in a separate news release Friday.

“Our main concern is the well-being of county employees and the quality of the work they provide to our residents each day,” the pair said in a statement. “This meeting will provide an opportunity to steady the leadership that guides county government.

“We look forward to Commissioners Baca, (Eric) Olivas and (Adriann) Barboa’s full disclosure of events that occurred in the selection of the county manager search committee and, with a public vote, we can continue with the selection of the next county manager.”

The Open Meetings Act violation was investigated after two complaints. One was filed by the nonprofit government watchdog group the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government and the other by a county employee.

NMFOG applauded the DOJ opinion.

“This DOJ’s opinion points out not only did members of the commission break the law, but their actions violated the goodwill of the citizens of the county,” NMFOG Director Melanie Majors said. “Sunshine laws exist to ensure lawmakers, city councils and school board members, county commissioners and other public bodies debate, deliberate and vote within the public’s view. Compliance with the OMA is basic to good government.”