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Doña Ana County Commission Indefinitely Postpones Voting On County Manager Campaign Donations

http://youtu.be/KWLiRX_plNE

  Over the past 3 months, questions have been raised about a campaign donation given to County Commissioner Ben Rawson from County Manager Julia Brown. The County Commission was set to vote on a proposal that would have limited the County Manager’s ability to make donations, but the measure was indefinitely postponed.

At a county commission meeting earlier this month, Commissioner Billy Garrett suggested that a measure that would limit the County Manager’s campaign contributions be written and voted on. But when the measure came up at the latest commission meeting, he recommended that it be indefinitely postponed.

“We have processes in place to deal with this,” Garrett said. “And I think that’s why we felt we could just postpone this indefinitely.  Because what we rely on is for people to be open, and if a question comes up we’ll talk about it. And that’s the right way to do it, while still allowing for the manager to do as she sees fit in terms of being in love with county elections.”

Commissioner Ben Rawson, who accepted the donation that brought up the question said that there are already laws and measures in place that prevent wrongdoing.

“That’s exactly why we have sunshine laws,” Rawson said. “The importance is letting people see what’s happening, so they are aware of what’s going on and they can make an educated decision off of that. And that’s the importance that came up on this one. You know, it was a campaign donation that was made to me, it was reported correctly, and people were able to see who had contributed to my campaign.”

He says he is happy with the debate that took place at the commission.

“I think that it’s an important debate to have,” Rawson said. “It’s an important debate that’s often been had in other venues as well. I think the action that we took today is very appropriate, and matches what other counties and cities in New Mexico have done.”

Commissioner Garrett says the primary issue was public trust, and that the discussion itself solved most of those problems.

“It’s primarily an ethics issue,” Garrett said. “Because of the principle of conflict of interest. The County Manager is in a very, very tough position. Because, in this case it’s a she but it could be anybody, really needs to be able to work with the commissioners as well as the other county elected officials in a way that can be seen as totally impartial.”

Garrett says that if an issue like this were to come up again it can be solved with another discussion. 

Samantha Sonner was a multimedia reporter for KRWG- TV/FM.