Last Month Doña Ana County settled a sexual harassment lawsuit with a former county employee, after Doña Ana County Treasurer David Gutierrez was accused of offering the employee $1,000 to have sex with him during a personnel investigation.
Since the sexual harassment allegations came out there have been calls for his resignation, and Gutierrez has refused. The County Commission has now followed up on their August 2014 censure.
The Doña Ana County Commission voted unanimously to follow up on their censure of Dona Ana County Treasurer David Gutierrez, along with additional measures to limit his use of county resources. County Commissioner Ben Rawson says it’s important for the public to see the commission takes this seriously.
“I did that primarily because the lawsuit is now settled,” Rawson said. “The county has paid out $68,000 with our insurance company to the victim in this case. And it’s time for us to reiterate how important this is to the county commissioner, and that David Gutierrez needs to resign.”
I went to the treasurer’s office for comment, and a staff member gave me a letter from Treasurer Gutierrez in which he says he doesn’t think the county commissioners have a legal authority to censure county elected officials. The letter states,
“I worry about the turmoil this censure provision will create throughout the state if other commissions start adopting it. I also worry about how much more intrusive county managers will become on elected official offices with such a political stick to threaten those officials with the humiliation of public censures.”
The new censure resolution included the provisions that Gutierrez was not permitted to drive a county vehicle, go on out of town travel for the county, or be in the county building outside of business hours without first receiving permission from the county commission.
Commissioner Rawson says the commission wanted to make the censure resolution stronger.
“I wanted some teeth in there because as ahs been discussed,” Rawson said. “The censure really has no teeth at all. So, given that this was an activity that David Gutierrez did in a county vehicle it seemed reasonable to say no we don’t want you in a county vehicle because we already know what you’re doing in a county vehicle. The out of town travel, I don’t want the county paying for a hotel room for who knows what, when it comes to being in the office after hours, I don’t see that there is any need for that, and we’ll take the little teeth that we can get, and make a point here.”
The new resolution also requested county staff look into getting the $68,000 for the sexual harassment settlement from Treasurer Gutierrez. Commissioner Billy Garret says it’s important to show the treasurer the commission is taking the matter seriously.
“I just don’t think that the public should be paying money for a willful action by an elected official,” Garrett said. “That was at a minimum unethical, and skirts the law in terms of sexual harassment.”
Garrett says he hopes that Gutierrez will reconsider his decision not to resign.
“We need to be very, very clear we’re going as far as we can,” Garrett said. “To protect the employees here, to protect the public trust, and to ask Mr. Gutierrez to do what’s right, and that is he violated public trust in his office, and he should go.”
Gutierrez will leave office this November after a new county treasurer is elected; Gutierrez is term-limited and cannot seek re-election.
