City manager says he never promised to reimburse judges’ legal fees

Las Cruces City Manager Terrence Moore disputed a claim by the attorney for the city’s two municipal judges that he promised to pay the cost of their legal defense against an ethical complaint, which the city is now refusing to pay.

Melissa J. Reeves, attorney for municipal judges Melissa Miller-Byrnes and Jim T. Locatelli, said during Friday morning’s court hearing that “the city manager originally told the judges their defense would be paid … and then he reneged on that.”

Moore said that’s untrue.

“I’ve never made that type of commitment,” he said. “I don’t have the authority to do so.”

The city manager can spend up to $35,000 without council approval. The judges are seeking more than $100,000.

In addition, Moore said, “the questionable nature of the expenditure” is another reason he would not have made such a commitment.

A Feb. 21 letter from the judges’ previous attorney, Jack Brandt of Albuquerque, references the fact that the city’s attorney in the matter, Matthew Holt of Las Cruces, advised the city to not reimburse the judges’ legal fees.

But Brandt’s letter also goes on to state that Moore told Brandt the city had not yet decided whether it would reimburse the judges, and thanked Moore for an opportunity to argue for the reimbursement.

The letter then goes on to do that.

“That’s the only commitment I’ve ever made, and they confirmed it in writing,” Moore said.

The city later decided to take Holt’s advice.

The complaint against the judges was filed with the Judicial Standards Commission by the city attorney’s office as part of an ongoing dispute about operations at the city’s municipal court. For more on today’s hearing and the dispute, read the next posting.