{"id":14363,"date":"2010-03-11T18:45:29","date_gmt":"2010-03-12T01:45:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=14363"},"modified":"2010-03-12T11:05:04","modified_gmt":"2010-03-12T18:05:04","slug":"herrera-says-salazar-resigned-because-she-denied-leave-request","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/03\/herrera-says-salazar-resigned-because-she-denied-leave-request\/","title":{"rendered":"Herrera says Salazar resigned because she denied leave request"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Secretary of State Mary Herrera<\/p><\/div>\n

Secretary of State Mary Herrera<\/a> is alleging that former Elections Director A.J. Salazar resigned not because of ethical concerns about the way she runs the office but because he wanted time off from work that she didn\u2019t allow.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a charge Salazar says is ridiculous and doesn\u2019t address any of the serious concerns he has raised publicly and to the Attorney General\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

The allegation from Herrera came through her personal attorney, Sam Bregman of Albuquerque. He also provided a copy of an e-mail exchange<\/a> between Herrera and Salazar from the night of Feb. 25 \u2013 the day before Salazar resigned.<\/p>\n

In the e-mails, Herrera denied Salazar\u2019s request for time off, then Salazar told Herrera he wanted to meet with her to tender his resignation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason that A.J. Salazar resigned from the Secretary of State\u2019s Office was not because of some alleged ethical issues going on in the office,\u201d Bregman said. \u201cTo the contrary, the reason he left the office was because he wanted Spring Break off and he didn\u2019t want to go to work, and those e-mails prove that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd for some unfortunate, unknown reason, he decides to make all these allegations against Mary that are just not true,\u201d Bregman said.<\/p>\n

Salazar\u2019s resignation came in a scathing letter<\/a> in which he accused Herrera of violating the Governmental Conduct Act<\/a> and election laws. Among his allegations is that Herrera ordered exempt employees to collect signatures for her re-election bid at a meeting held during work hours, that she was improperly soliciting donations from contractors doing business with the office to help fund a training, and that she retaliated against him after he tried to stop those potentially illegal actions.<\/p>\n

Salazar said in an interview that he viewed Herrera\u2019s denial of his leave request as retaliation. That was the last straw, he said, which is why he resigned the next day.<\/p>\n

Salazar said he stands by the allegations he made in his resignation letter and said the fact that Bregman didn\u2019t directly address any of them \u201cspeaks volumes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s completely off the mark because it doesn\u2019t respond to anything that I have raised and, in true Sam Bregman fashion, he\u2019s trying to use smoke and mirrors to deflect what the real issues are here,\u201d Salazar said.<\/p>\n

Personnel issues<\/h3>\n

Bregman said he is releasing the e-mails and speaking publicly today because Salazar\u2019s resignation letter became public today when it was published along with an article<\/a> in the Rio Grande Sun. Herrera\u2019s office has, thus far, rejected requests from NMPolitics.net and others for a copy of the letter.<\/p>\n

The attorney general and New Mexico Foundation for Open Government contend that the letter is a public document. Bregman said Herrera has wanted to release the letter to the public all along but state government attorneys have halted that action because of concerns about personnel issues. Salazar names some current and former employees in his letter.<\/p>\n

Bregman said Herrera \u201cabsolutely\u201d intends to release the letter next week, though parts of it may be redacted.<\/p>\n

Speaking of personnel issues, Salazar said Bregman showed little concern for his.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very disturbed by Mr. Bregman discussing what is a personnel matter between myself and the secretary,\u201d Salazar said. \u201cI haven\u2019t waived any of my constitutional rights or substantive rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

Salazar noted that he has retained an attorney because of this situation surrounding his resignation.<\/p>\n

The e-mails<\/h3>\n

In the initial e-mail in the Feb. 25 exchange provided by Bregman, Salazar requested an hour off the following day and several days off in March, most of them so that he could \u201ccare for my children during spring break.\u201d He wrote that his portion of preparation for an election training being held this month would be completed in spite of the time off.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thank you in advance for approval of this time as I have plenty of Annual Leave in reserve and because I do need this time,\u201d Salazar wrote.<\/p>\n

Herrera responded by saying she was \u201cgetting concerned\u201d because of upcoming election-related events.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am not expecting you to work late hours but these tasks are crucial for a successful Primary Election. I cannot approve all of those days, sorry,\u201d Herrera wrote.<\/p>\n

Salazar responded briefly.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlright Ma\u2019am. I am not a good fit for this position in your office,\u201d he wrote. \u201cI would like to meet with you tomorrow afternoon to tender my resignation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Secretary of State Mary Herrera is alleging that former Elections Director A.J. Salazar resigned not because of ethical concerns about the way she runs the office but because he wanted time off from work that she didn\u2019t allow. It\u2019s a charge Salazar says is ridiculous and doesn\u2019t address the serious concerns he has raised.<\/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":[108,169,107],"class_list":["post-14363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-2010-election","tag-mary-herrera","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14363","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=14363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14363\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}