Judge gives go ahead to LCPS recall effort; school board vows to appeal

A district judge on Tuesday cleared the way for a recall effort aimed at removing several members of the Las Cruces Public Schools Board of Education — but the school district vowed to appeal his decision to the New Mexico Supreme Court.

The judge approved recall petitions submitted by a community group alleging board members Terrie Dallman, Maria Flores and Ray Jaramillo violated the state Open Meetings Act and the Inspection of Public Records Act.

Judge James T. Martin found there were “sufficient facts and evidence” to believe that both acts were violated, which he wrote “constitutes malfeasance in office” in violation of their oaths and qualifies for the removal effort under the state’s Recall Act.

The school district initially said it need time to review the decision, but late Tuesday night issued a statement saying it would immediately appeal — a move it said would place the recall effort on hold.

The statement expressed disappointment in Martin’s ruling, suggesting that it was unfair because recall supporters did not have to prove their allegations were true.

“Instead, they only had to show that the allegations might be true, in a proceeding where the rules of evidence or proof did not apply and where the Board Members did not even know until the ruling came out what standards the judge would apply,” the district’s statement said.

School officials have maintained there is no evidence they violated state law, a contention the judge rejected in finding probable cause to allow the recall effort to move ahead.

If the ruling is upheld by the state’s high court, the county clerk would be required to set a date for the recall election.

Once that happens, the group that petitioned for the recall will have 90 days to gather signatures representing 33 percent of the number of votes for each district from the last school board election. If they successfully do that, the recall will appear on the ballot.

The school district’s statement said, “If this continues to a recall election, then the voters from the district must decide ultimately whether they believe the allegations and whether the Board member in that district should be recalled on that basis.”

The recall effort is being led by a group made up of 20 former educators and school advocates that calls itself “Enough.”

ABC-7 was the only news station to provide coverage of the two-day court hearing last month that led up to Tuesday’s ruling.

In December 2018, former principal Kathy Norris submitted an IPRA request asking for the number of school board employees placed on paid administrative leave. Because her request was “burdensome and broad,” the district said it would take 18 months to fulfill the request.

ABC-7 made a similar request that was fulfilled within two weeks.

“In court today, we understand that Channel 7 had asked the same thing and actually got a list of the number of people put on administrative leave for the past three years,” Norris said. “That was a surprise to me.”