Judge removes county clerk from election ballot

A district court judge has ordered a candidate be removed from the race for a local elected board.

Valencia County Clerk Mike Milam’s name will be removed from the list of candidates for the Valencia Soil and Water Conservation District’s Board of Supervisors on the November ballot.

The stipulated order, issued by 13th Judicial District Court Judge James Lawrence Sanchez, was filed shortly before 8 a.m., on Tuesday, Sept. 9, after a hearing on Monday. The order also stipulates that neither party will appeal.

The district court hearing was in response to a petition filed by VSWCD Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Teresa Smith de Cherif, who is running for re-election, board candidate Sharon Hagaman and Michael Candelaria, former chairman of the Valencia County Republican Party.

Smith de Cherif, who has served on the VSWCD board for 17 1/2 years, called the stipulated order a “huge victory. I am very happy for the people of the district, which includes five counties and two pueblos. They can make a choice that’s a true choice. This is a victory for people standing up for what they believe in.”

Even though the deadline for a candidate to remove their name from the ballot has passed, Antoinette Sedillo Lopez, the attorney for the petitioners, said both the Valencia County clerk and the New Mexico secretary of state have to comply with the court order and remove Milam’s name from the list of candidates.

The central argument of the petition was Milam’s position as county clerk was incompatible with the office of district supervisor and therefore he was not qualified to hold a position on the VSWCD board.

Initially, the petitioners didn’t prevail in their arguments on Monday.

After more than two hours of debate and testimony, Sanchez denied the request to remove Milam from the ballot, saying the petitioners hadn’t provided evidence to his satisfaction that the clerk wasn’t qualified to run.

“The issues raised about incompatibility are speculative and only ripe if he wins and takes the oath office,” Sanchez said. “I do want him to know, I think there is a real risk a court will say, ‘You can’t do both,’ and make the decision for you.”

During the hearing, several times Sanchez raised the very real possibility of a court removing Milam from his position as county clerk should he win the seat on the board of supervisors.

“I agree there will be a conflict but I don’t see anything disqualifying him from running, but it disqualifies him from holding (his current) office,” the judge said. “That’s a big risk. If the court decides there’s a conflict, he loses the clerk’s position. He doesn’t get to decide. I think that’s a big problem for him.”

The county clerk’s elected position is a paid position of about $85,000 per year, as per Milam’s testimony on Monday, compared to the supervisor’s position, which can be paid $45 per meeting or $90 for a meeting longer than four hours.

On Tuesday, Milam told the News-Bulletin running for the VSWCD Board of Supervisors “wasn’t worth jeopardizing my position as county clerk. My foremost obligation is to complete the term I was elected to for a second time.”

He said his motivation for wanting to serve on the soil and water board was to do something beneficial for the community, which has given back to him, and to “do what’s best for the taxpayer dollars, to make sure things were on the up-and-up and the way it should be.”

During Monday’s hearing, while on the stand and under oath, Sanchez asked Milam if he had to chose between the two positions, which he would select.

“I don’t know,” Milam answered.

Given Milam’s answer, Lopez argued leaving Milam’s name on the ballot would present voters with a “false candidate” who may or may not ultimately fill the seat he was elected to. Sanchez seemed to take a dim view on the possibility of Milam “playing games with the election” by running for a seat he didn’t intend to hold.

“... I don’t like it if he’s playing games with the electorate, presenting that he’s going to serve on the board, but then ‘Psyche, just kidding,’” Sanchez said, asking Milam’s attorney Daniel Ivey-Soto whether his client would like to take the stand for questioning by Lopez or stipulate to the fact that Milam would take the oath of office if he won a seat on the board of supervisors.

“Is there a possibility he’s playing fast and loose with the voters of this county? I think we’re at the point where the public has a right to know.”

Saying “people don’t like it when someone hides behind their lawyer,” Ivey-Soto indicated his client would take the stand.

Other dual office possibilities

Milam wasn’t the only candidate this year who wanted to hold more than one office at a time.

James Fischer is running to be re-elected to the Valencia Soil and Water Conservation District and also running for the District 5 seat on the Los Lunas Board of Education.

Charles Schick is running for both the Valencia County Arroyo Flood Control District board and the University of New Mexico-Valencia Advisory Board.

When asked about possible conflicts and whether the “incompatibility of offices” doctrine applied to these candidates, BC Nguyen, the elections outreach coordinator for the New Mexico Secretary of State, there is a narrow limitation on a person filing for more than one office but it only applies to a position in the same local government.

The statute says a candidate shall file for only one position in the same local government, but may file for a position in more than one local government on the same filing day.

For instance, a candidate couldn’t run for a city council seat and mayoral position in a municipality, but could potentially run for the council seat and a position on a local board of education.

In regards to the incompatibility of offices doctrine, Nguyen said there has to be an “affirmative inquire” into the nature and duties of the offices — such as the petition filed in regards to Milam — and a finding that the two offices are so interrelated or one is subordinate to the other that “one person holding both offices is detrimental to the public interest. It is not a doctrine that is automatically applied just because one person seeks or holds two offices.”