Commissioner Leticia Duarte-Benavidez
Doña Ana County Commissioner Leticia Duarte-Benavidez stands accused of interfering in county personnel matters involving a family member and her campaign treasurer, and her colleagues are being asked to censure her.
County management investigated the allegations against Duarte-Benavidez and made them public today in a censuring resolution commissioners will consider at their meeting on Tuesday. Read the resolution here.
The resolution, which was released this afternoon, alleges that Duarte-Benavidez violated the county code of conduct and human resources policies.
Among the situations detailed in the resolution:
• In January and February 2010, Duarte-Benavidez contacted a county employee seeking information on how to assist one of her family members, who is a county employee, with an employment qualification issue.
The county employee she contacted was not one who would normally deal with such questions, but is someone with whom Duarte-Benavidez had served on a committee. The resolution alleges that the commissioner “used her relationship” with that employee to “secure assistance” for her family member.
• Duarte-Benavidez’s campaign treasurer, another county employee, was being investigated in April 2010 for “work-related misconduct,” the resolution states. The commissioner contacted the internal affairs investigator handling the investigation and asked about it. The investigator notified Duarte-Benavidez that it would be inappropriate to discuss the ongoing investigation.
County management told Duarte-Benavidez that contact with the investigator was not appropriate. She denied talking with the investigator and then, shortly thereafter, called the investigator again and left a message asking for a return call, the resolution states.
• Last month, according to the resolution, Duarte-Benavidez told a county employee that her campaign treasurer had been “set up” to be fired by others in the department where the treasurer works and had been fired for “sharing inappropriate jokes and the exchanging of novelty gifts.”
Her comments made their way back to two county employees who were witnesses during the personnel hearing against Duarte-Benavidez’s campaign treasurer. One of those witnesses reported the commissioner’s comments to county management, stating that they “made me sick to my stomach because that situation was already dealt with and put behind us,” the resolution states.
Employee names are left out of the resolution. The county didn’t make any details about the situation available beyond what is detailed in the resolution.
Duarte-Benavidez could not immediately be reached for comment. Before the resolution – and the allegations against her – were made public today, she was quoted by the Las Cruces Sun-News as saying she didn’t know what the proposed censure was about.
“I’m about as baffled as everybody else,” Duarte-Benavidez was quoted as saying.