Executive

Waste of the Day: Local Mayor Bills Taxpayers For Vengeful Lawsuit

Published

2 weeks ago

May 7, 2024

Sunset in a national park near Anthony, New Mexico

Topline: No politician relishes the idea of being criticized in public, but most accept it as a basic part of free speech.

But a mayor in New Mexico recently banned the public from speaking at her City Council meetings — and then used $24,000 of taxpayer funds to sue her political rival for questioning the decision.

New Mexico mayor cancels open meetings

Key facts: Mayor Diana Murillo of Anthony, New Mexico changed the city’s Open Meetings Act last summer to stop the public from participating in council meetings. She said she would allow public comments again once “law and order” were restored, but, she says, that has yet to happen.

Waste of the Day: Local Mayor Bills Taxpayers For Vengeful Lawsuit — Waste of the Day 5.7.24 by Open the Books

Mayor Pro-Tempore Gabriel Holguin blasted Murillo’s decision as an attempt to “silence” her critics and helped inspire a lawsuit from 15 members of the public to try and remove her from office.

Murillo retaliated by suing Holguin for abusing his power and causing “chaos” at the city. She also alleged that Holguin used city funds on printing and diesel fuel, though Holguin said he doesn’t drive a diesel vehicle.

Murillo filed the lawsuit through the city and paid for it with taxpayer money. But the city’s Board of Trustees voted 3 to 1 to make her repay the expenses.

Supporting quote: As of March, Murillo still disagreed that she should have to pay her own legal fees.

She told KFOX14 that “whatever was spent on that was not my decision. It’s the city and I’m not going to pay something that doesn’t belong to me, it’s nothing to do with me but that’s what was told and it’s regarding the city of Anthony against Mr. Holguin.”

No-confidence vote

Critical quote: This January, the city board unanimously passed a nonbinding “no confidence” vote on Murillo’s leadership. They agreed in a resolution that the mayor’s administration is “a detriment to the well-being of the city, its residents and city employees” that is “utilizing city funds in an unethical matter” by suing Holguin.

Summary: It seems as though Anthony’s politicians should handle their office drama behind closed doors, without putting thousands of taxpayer dollars at stake.

The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com.

This article was originally published by RealClearInvestigations and made available via RealClearWire.

Adam Andrzejewski

CEO at OpenTheBooks.com | Website | + posts

Adam Andrzejewski (say: Angie-eff-ski) is the CEO/founder of OpenTheBooks.com. Before dedicating his life to public service, Adam co-founded HomePages Directories, a $20 million publishing company (1997-2007). His works have been featured on the BBC, Good Morning America, ABC World News Tonight, C-SPAN, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, FOX News, CNN, National Public Radio (NPR), Forbes, Newsweek, and many other national media.

Today, OpenTheBooks.com is the largest private repository of U.S. public-sector spending. Mission: post "every dime, online, in real time." In 2022, OpenTheBooks.com captured nearly all public expenditures in the country, including nearly all disclosed federal government spending; 50 of 50 state checkbooks; and 25 million public employee salary and pension records from 50,000 public bodies across America.

The group's aggressive transparency and forensic auditing of government spending has led to the assembly of grand juries, indictments, and successful prosecutions; congressional briefings, hearings, and subpoenas; Government Accountability Office (GAO) audits; Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports; federal legislation; and much more.

Our Honorary Chairman - In Memoriam is U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, MD.

Andrzejewski's federal oversight work was included in the President's Budget To Congress FY2021. The budget cited his organization by name, bullet-pointed their findings, and footnoted/hyperlinked to their report.

Posted on YouTube, Andrzejewski's presentation, The Depth of the Swamp, at the Hillsdale College National Leadership Seminar 2020 in Naples, Florida received 3.8 million views.

Andrzejewski has spoken at the Columbia School of Journalism, Harvard Law School and the law schools at Georgetown and George Washington regarding big data journalism. As a senior policy contributor at Forbes, Adam had nearly 20 million pageviews on 206 published investigations. In 2022, investigative fact-finding on Dr. Fauci's finances led to his cancellation at Forbes.

In 2022, Andrzejewski did 473 live television and radio interviews across broadcast, major cable platforms, and radio shows. Andrzejewski is the author of The Waste of the Day column at Real Clear Policy. The column is syndicated by Sinclair Broadcast Group, owners of nearly 200 ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX affiliates across USA.

Andrzejewski lives in Hinsdale, Illinois with his wife Kerry and three daughters. He is a lector at St. Isaac Jogues Catholic Church and has finished the Chicago Marathon eight times (PR 3:58.49 in 2022).