Las Cruces City Manager Terrence Moore (Photo by Heath Haussamen)
Mayor says Terrence Moore’s actions were inappropriate; Moore apologizes for disruption kids caused during city council meeting
Las Cruces City Manager Terrence Moore had his administrative assistant babysit his children on Dec. 21 – while she was on the clock and being paid with public money – so he could attend a city council meeting.
Mayor Ken Miyagishima says that wasn’t appropriate. In an interview, Moore apologized for the distraction his children caused for several hours in a conference room high-level city staffers usually use to watch council meetings.
“For some people that was regarded as a distraction, and all I can offer… is if having Parker and Grant with me at city hall during the afternoon of the 21st was a disruption or an inconvenience, I apologize,” Moore said.
Moore hasn’t reimbursed the city for the cost of the almost 5.5 hours his assistant, Barbi Nevarez, spent babysitting his two young boys. By contrast, Moore did reimburse the city for some of the costs associated with two business trips he took last year after questions were raised about whether they were appropriate expenditures of public money.
Asked about the babysitting, Phil Sisneros, spokesman for Attorney General Gary King, said King’s office “would be concerned with the use of public funds for non-public use,” but he said a local-government case like this might be more appropriately directed first to the district attorney. Doña Ana County District Attorney Susana Martinez could not be reached for comment.
The city council meeting began at 1 p.m. on Dec. 21. Nevarez’s time sheet reveals that she stayed at work until 6:20 p.m., well past the time her normal workday ends at 5 p.m. She left work early two days later to make up for the time.
A Dec. 21 e-mail exchange between Moore and Nevarez leaves no doubt about the reason Nevarez worked late:
“It doesn’t look like the meeting is going to end by 5 p.m. There is an Aggie game tonight. Do you want me to take the boys? I’m not sure how much the tickets are though,” Nevarez wrote Moore at 4:44 p.m.
“What time is the Aggie Game? If you have to run home, I could meet you there ASAP (Mayor is now trying to end the meeting by 5:30 pm). Sooooo sorry!” Moore replied at 4:47 p.m.
“No problem – just checking – as long as I can get out of here by 6:30 I’ll be okay,” Nevarez replied at 4:49 p.m.
Complaints filed
Over the next two weeks, two anonymous complaints were filed with the city through its fraud, waste and abuse hotline. Though those complaints and the report issued by the committee are exempt from release under the state’s Inspection of Public Records Act, Moore voluntarily released them, as he did recently with another complaint related to the trip he took to Chicago in November.
The city’s Hotline Review Committee wrote in its report on the babysitting incident that staffers were “uncomfortable with the children present as they were disruptive.” Employees also “felt it was not appropriate for staff to babysit during work hours,” the report states.
And, according to the report, some staffers were concerned about a “risk of important documents being defaced” after Moore’s youngest son retrieved an official document from his father’s desk for a game he was going to play with a staff member who was trying to “entertain” him.
Miyagishima said in an interview that Moore won’t have Nevarez babysit his children while she’s on the clock in the future because it’s not an appropriate use of city money.
“I suggested in the future that he not do that. He needs to either take that time off and leave… or make other arrangements,” Miyagishima said. “And that’s what he’s agreed to do.”
Moore calls incident ‘a purely innocent thing’
Moore told the hotline committee that the mayor approved in advance him bringing his children with him to the council meeting. Moore and the boys’ mother are divorced, and the boys were in his care that week.
The city manager said in an interview that he had already received approval from Miyagishima to take off that entire week, but he decided he needed to be at work on Dec. 21 to attend a ceremony for retiring Police Chief Harry Romero and Fire Chief Adolf Zubia and for city council deliberations on an important mid-year budget adjustment.
“It was a really informal arrangement in which that portion of that one day I decided I should be there for those two events,” Moore said. “… I just brought (the children) along with me – a purely innocent thing.”
Miyagishima said it’s not uncommon to see Moore’s children at city hall, particularly on weekends. And while Moore told him he would be bringing his children with him to work on Dec. 21, Miyagishima said Moore didn’t tell him in advance that he was going to have Nevarez watch them.
Miyagishima said Moore wasn’t required to be at work on Dec. 21. The mayor said he told Moore in the middle of the council meeting that he could leave, but Moore insisted on staying.