May 8, 2013 The Honorable Gary King Attorney General of New Mexico 111 Lomas NW, Ste 300

Albuquerque, NM 87102 HAND DELIVERED RE: Violation of Governmental Conduct Act Attorney General King:

As you know, in 2011 certain provisions of the states Governmental Conduct Act were extended to officers and employees of political subdivisions of the state. Among a number of important good government practices required by the act, prohibitions against using public resources for political purposes and coercing public employees to contribute anything of value to a political candidate or campaign are among the most important elements of the act. Through public records requests, our organization has obtained a number of emails which we believe show that public officials and employees of the City of Albuquerque violated these provisions by engaging in political activity with public resources, to include staff time, office space, computers and emails, in support of the 2011 Bond Committee Measured Finance Committee during the 2011 Albuquerque municipal election. The 2011 Governmental Conduct Act Compliance Guide provided by your office, specifically section VI on political activity and using public property for political activity (p. 36-39), speaks to these points.
(http://www.nmag.gov/consumer/publications/inspectionofpublicrecordsactcomplianceguide2009/the-governmental-conduct-act-compliance-guide, p. 36)

Specifically: On or about September 21, 2011 Linda Rumpf, a city employee, engaged by email with a private vendor to design and price a social media campaign to be used by the MFC. Ms. Rumpf then emailed MFC member Del Archuleta and copied city employees Lansing Adams and Amber Terrasas telling the MFC member that they had worked with a private vendor to design a social media campaign, complete with a $2,250 budget, for use by the MFC. Rumpf directed the MFC member to use MFC funding to implement the plan. On or about September 23, 2011 Linda Rumpf, a city employee, engaged in ongoing emails with members of the 2011 Bond Committee MFC, Mayor Berry and other city employees regarding artistic renderings and fact sheets to be used by the MFC in mail pieces. Ms. Rumpf did research and provided numerous examples of renderings and fact sheets, prepared by city staff, which were to be used by the MFC. On or about September 30, 2011, Mayor RJ Berry engaged in private emails with MFC staff about using city resources to send city emails only to targeted city email subscribers, with the purpose of having those voters support the measure and vote. The MFC staff then directed city staff, via email, to send those emails to targeted voters. In total, we have identified more than two-dozen emails between city staff and members of the political MFC discussing strategy, public outreach, get out the vote tactics and general political campaign operations.

ProgressNowNM.org | PO Box 4683 Albuquerque, NM 87196 | 505.312.8509 | FB & Twitter @ProgressNowNM

Based on our reading of these emails, we conclude that the Measured Finance Committee, organized to support a specific ballot question, was operated from the Office of the Mayor using city staff, resources and time and that these actions constitute in-kind contributions to the committee which were not reported. Further, city officials and employees encouraged and coerced other employees to perform these political acts. We are attaching copies of the emails referenced and are happy to make the full IPRA response available to you at your request. I respectfully request that your office review these activities and take appropriate action. Of course, I will make myself available to you any time to discuss this matter in greater detail.

Respectfully,

Patrick Davis Executive Director

Encl: Excerpts of emails in pdf format