{"id":11849,"date":"2010-01-22T08:56:51","date_gmt":"2010-01-22T15:56:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=11849"},"modified":"2010-01-24T21:47:32","modified_gmt":"2010-01-25T04:47:32","slug":"las-cruces-manager-had-city-staffer-babysit-kids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/01\/las-cruces-manager-had-city-staffer-babysit-kids\/","title":{"rendered":"Las Cruces manager had city staffer babysit kids"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Las Cruces City Manager Terrence Moore (Photo by Heath Haussamen)<\/p><\/div>\n

Mayor says Terrence Moore\u2019s actions were inappropriate; Moore apologizes for disruption kids caused during city council meeting<\/h4>\n

Las Cruces City Manager Terrence Moore<\/a> had his administrative assistant babysit his children on Dec. 21 \u2013 while she was on the clock and being paid with public money \u2013 so he could attend a city council meeting.<\/p>\n

Mayor Ken Miyagishima<\/a> says that wasn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor some people that was regarded as a distraction, and all I can offer\u2026 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,\u201d Moore said.<\/p>\n

Moore hasn\u2019t 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<\/a> he took last year after questions were raised about whether they were appropriate expenditures of public money.<\/p>\n

Asked about the babysitting, Phil Sisneros, spokesman for Attorney General Gary King<\/a>, said King\u2019s office \u201cwould be concerned with the use of public funds for non-public use,\u201d but he said a local-government case like this might be more appropriately directed first to the district attorney. Do\u00f1a Ana County District Attorney Susana Martinez<\/a> could not be reached for comment.<\/p>\n

The city council meeting began at 1 p.m. on Dec. 21. Nevarez\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

A Dec. 21 e-mail exchange<\/a> between Moore and Nevarez leaves no doubt about the reason Nevarez worked late:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t 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\u2019m not sure how much the tickets are though,\u201d Nevarez wrote Moore at 4:44 p.m.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat 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!\u201d Moore replied at 4:47 p.m.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo problem \u2013 just checking \u2013 as long as I can get out of here by 6:30 I\u2019ll be okay,\u201d Nevarez replied at 4:49 p.m.<\/p>\n

Complaints filed<\/h3>\n

Over the next two weeks, two anonymous complaints<\/a> 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\u2019s Inspection of Public Records Act, Moore voluntarily released them, as he did recently with another complaint<\/a> related to the trip he took to Chicago in November.<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s Hotline Review Committee wrote in its report on the babysitting incident<\/a> that staffers were \u201cuncomfortable with the children present as they were disruptive.\u201d Employees also \u201cfelt it was not appropriate for staff to babysit during work hours,\u201d the report states.<\/p>\n

And, according to the report, some staffers were concerned about a \u201crisk of important documents being defaced\u201d after Moore\u2019s youngest son retrieved an official document from his father\u2019s desk for a game he was going to play with a staff member who was trying to \u201centertain\u201d him.<\/p>\n

Miyagishima said in an interview that Moore won\u2019t have Nevarez babysit his children while she\u2019s on the clock in the future because it\u2019s not an appropriate use of city money.<\/p>\n

\u201cI suggested in the future that he not do that. He needs to either take that time off and leave\u2026 or make other arrangements,\u201d Miyagishima said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s what he\u2019s agreed to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moore calls incident \u2018a purely innocent thing\u2019<\/h3>\n

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\u2019 mother are divorced, and the boys were in his care that week.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a really informal arrangement in which that portion of that one day I decided I should be there for those two events,\u201d Moore said. \u201c\u2026 I just brought (the children) along with me \u2013 a purely innocent thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miyagishima said it\u2019s not uncommon to see Moore\u2019s 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\u2019t tell him in advance that he was going to have Nevarez watch them.<\/p>\n

Miyagishima said Moore wasn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Las Cruces City Manager Terrence Moore had his administrative assistant babysit his children on Dec. 21 \u2013 while she was on the clock and being paid with public money \u2013 so he could attend a city council meeting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[145],"class_list":["post-11849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-las-cruces"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11849\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}