{"id":2437,"date":"2007-10-26T18:26:00","date_gmt":"2007-10-27T00:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/10\/frietze-asks-for-dismissal-of-ethics-complaint\/"},"modified":"2007-10-26T18:26:00","modified_gmt":"2007-10-27T00:26:00","slug":"frietze-asks-for-dismissal-of-ethics-complaint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/10\/frietze-asks-for-dismissal-of-ethics-complaint\/","title":{"rendered":"Frietze asks for dismissal of ethics complaint"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Las Cruces City Councilor Jose Frietze<\/a> filed a motion today asking for the dismissal of an ethics complaint against him, alleging that \u201cit raises unfounded, unsubstantiated and frivolous charges\u201d that amount to \u201cwillful misuse of the entire process for publicity and political gain.\u201d <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not immediately clear how the motion will be handled. The city\u2019s code of ethics requires that complaints remain confidential unless there\u2019s a determination that something improper was done, but this complaint was made public soon after it was filed.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

That\u2019s part of the reason the complaint must be dismissed, Frietze\u2019s attorney, Joseph Holmes of Las Cruces<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>, wrote in his motion.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cThe code of ethics specifically states that the purpose of the code and the complaint procedures is to protect \u2018against the raising of unfounded, unsubstantiated or frivolous charges on unethical behavior,\u2019\u201d Holmes\u2019 motion states. \u201c\u2026 The failure to dismiss the complaint immediately will facilitate and encourage the filing of future frivolous charges or lead to other instances of \u2018dirty pool\u2019 politics.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Las Crucen Jackye Meinecke filed the complaint<\/a> on Oct. 17 alleging that Frietze violated the city ethics code by failing to disclose land transactions between his non-profit and a Las Cruces<\/st1:city><\/st1:place> developer during council meetings at which he voted to approve that developer\u2019s projects. Later that day, Meinecke provided a copy of the complaint to the Las Cruces Sun-News<\/a>, Holmes alleges.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The complaint comes as the Nov. 6 election approaches, and Frietze is facing three challengers. The developer who gave land to Frietze\u2019s non-profit, Philip Philippou, is a controversial topic in the election because the council approved in May a 6,000-acre Philippou development that could add 30,000 homes to Las Cruces<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>. Galvanized citizens who believe the project was approved without careful consideration and adequate citizen input are working to defeat Frietze and some other incumbents who are champions of the city\u2019s growth.<\/p>\n

\n

Complainant says there\u2019s no political motivation<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Meinecke could not immediately be reached for comment. In an interview last week, she said she does believe the city\u2019s growth is out of control, but said her motive isn\u2019t political. She said she filed the complaint as soon as she learned that Frietze had failed to disclose several land transactions between his non-profit and Philippou that have occurred since 2005, a time in which the council voted on several Philippou developments.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cFor other people, it probably is exactly about (the election), but for me, it is about this whole idea that he should have disclosed this,\u201d Meinecke said last week. \u201cAll he had to do was disclose it. We\u2019re not saying that it was wrong, or he couldn\u2019t do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

At issue are two provisions in the city\u2019s ethics code. The first states that a conflict of interest exists when an official\u2019s personal interests conflict with public duties or \u201cwhen, to a reasonable person, it would appear that the actions of a public official are partial, biased or otherwise compromised due to the public official\u2019s private interests or personal gain being in conflict with the public interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The second provision states that an official should disclose any situation that could be a conflict of interest, \u201cbe it real, potential, perceived or alleged,\u201d during a pubic meeting of the city council. It\u2019s then up to the council to decide whether the official can participate in discussion or a vote on the agenda item in question.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Attorney says there is no ethics violation<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

But Holmes wrote that there is no violation of the ethics code and that the complaint fails to even allege \u201cthat Councilor Frietze has personally benefited or profited from any of the transactions reported.\u201d In addition, he wrote, \u201cthere is no surreptitious or secretive plan. All of the transactions complained of are recorded in the public records of Do\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place>.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Holmes alleges that the timing of the complaint was calculated by Meinecke and others so that \u201cdismissal of the unfounded allegations will likely take place after the election.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The code of ethics requires that complaints, once filed, be considered by an independent attorney. If that attorney finds grounds to proceed, a board will be formed to consider the complaint. Only that board finds a violation and asks the city council to consider it does the code state that the complaint should become public.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Frietze said in an interview that the process is intended to screen out complaints that have no basis so they can\u2019t be used as political weapons. He called Meinecke\u2019s complaint and her alleged release of it to the newspaper \u201can unethical use of the ethics code.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cI found out a complaint had been filed from the Sun-News,\u201d Frietze said. \u201cI\u2019m being tried in the media. I\u2019m being judged in the media, and I haven\u2019t had a chance to present my side of the story.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Frietze also said people are \u201csmart enough to see through this\u201d and it \u201chas encouraged the people who are helping me on my campaign, so it may have backfired.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

If the complaint isn\u2019t dismissed, Holmes\u2019 motion requests that the city require an immediate deposition, under oath, for Meinecke, and an order that she preserve all documents, phone records and electronic communications related to the complaint. Frietze said that would prove the political motives behind the complaint.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

What happens next is unclear. Frietze provided me a copy of the motion after the clerk\u2019s office had closed for the day, so I couldn\u2019t seek comment. In addition, because of the confidentiality provision, it\u2019s not clear that the clerk would speak publicly about the situation even if I had been able to reach her for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Las Cruces City Councilor Jose Frietze filed a motion today asking for the dismissal of an ethics complaint against him, alleging that \u201cit raises unfounded, unsubstantiated and frivolous charges\u201d that amount to \u201cwillful misuse of the entire process for publicity and political gain.\u201d It\u2019s not immediately clear how the motion will be handled. The city\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2437","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=2437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2437\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}