{"id":185300,"date":"2016-09-13T13:18:21","date_gmt":"2016-09-13T19:18:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=185300"},"modified":"2016-09-14T12:13:39","modified_gmt":"2016-09-14T18:13:39","slug":"an-apology-and-an-example-of-doing-it-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2016\/09\/an-apology-and-an-example-of-doing-it-right\/","title":{"rendered":"An apology, and an example of doing it right"},"content":{"rendered":"

COMMENTARY:<\/strong> I’ve written a lot in the past about public employees inappropriately<\/a> using government resources<\/a> for campaigning<\/a> and other private business<\/a>. On Monday, I came across a example of someone doing it right that I wanted to share.<\/p>\n

\"Heath

Heath Haussamen<\/p><\/div>\n

The example starts with me making a mistake. I wanted to ask Las Cruces’ interim city manager, David Dollahon, if he was still interested in being considered for that job on a more permanent basis.<\/p>\n

Dollahon\u00a0submitted an application for the job<\/a> months ago to the city’s contract search firm, The Mercer Group. The mayor wants him to be included among finalists<\/a> for the job.<\/p>\n

I called Dollahon’s\u00a0government office and left a message. I also sent an email asking the question — to his government email account.<\/p>\n

His emailed response from the\u00a0government account was right on:<\/p>\n

Mr. Haussamen:<\/p>\n

I will not respond to these type of questions on the City\u2019s e-mail, as it represents use of City equipment on something that provides me with a personal benefit.\u00a0\u00a0 You are welcome to contact me via my email listed on my resume\/cover letter that was submitted to the Mercer Group.<\/p>\n

Thanks.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yes!<\/p>\n

First, let me share publicly the apology I emailed back to Dollahon: I should have sent my request for comment to his private email account, not his city address. I apologize to him for putting him in that position, and to the city’s residents for opening the door to a possible inappropriate use of public email by a government official. I know better.<\/p>\n

Second, I want to thank Dollahon for responding to my email with such integrity. Government is a sacred trust. Even using an email account to send one message that arguably has very little financial cost is a violation, and it opens the door to more. Using public money for personal or political\u00a0benefit is a slippery slope.<\/p>\n

We need more folks in government who take that sacred trust so seriously. I’m glad\u00a0to know Dollahon is doing just that.<\/p>\n

And by the way: No, this isn’t an endorsement of Dollahon for city manager. That decision is the Las Cruces City Council’s. I don’t know Dollahon or the candidates the Council interviewed last week<\/a>. I’m just taking the opportunity to hold up an example of someone\u00a0in government acting ethically.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I emailed Las Cruces’ interim city manager on Monday, using his government email address, to ask if he was still interested in being considered for that job on a more permanent basis. His response was right on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":55852,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,10],"tags":[109,145,3295],"class_list":["post-185300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-haussamen-columns","tag-ethics-reform","tag-las-cruces","tag-las-cruces-city-manager-search"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185300","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=185300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}