A former Mesilla Valley Regional Dispatch Authority employee is suing the agency, claming she was fired for complaining about political campaigning by the agency’s former director.
Sylvia Smith was placed on leave a year ago and fired in March. In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in December, she said she was fired after employees complained about her management. Her firing notice cited her admission in 2003 to using marijuana, according to the Las Cruces Sun-News.
But Smith contends she was fired because she complained to the agency board about former Director Sam Palm using MVRDA time and manpower to campaign for a legislative seat. Palm, a Republican, ran against current state Rep. Joni Gutierrez, D-Las Cruces, in 2004.
Palm resigned in April 2004 – ostensibly to run for office – and was replaced by Smith. Smith claims employees loyal to Palm forced her out, the Sun-News reported.
Palm told the newspaper he didn’t use work time to campaign, but said he “might have worked on it during my lunch hour.”
The lawsuit documents reveal publicly for the first time a scandal that rocked the agency several years ago when allegations of drug use surfaced against several employees, though Smith is the first to be named publicly. Palm’s resignation came several months after the start of that scandal.
According to the lawsuit documents, two other male employees were sent firing notices because of alleged drug and alcohol use, but appealed their firings and weren’t terminated. Palm was not one of the men alleged to have used drugs.
Smith contends the agency board knew of her drug use before appointing her as interim director and did that anyway, and says that is evidence her firing was motivated by other factors.
The lawsuit is pending.