Ed Adams, bulletproof?

Ed Adams was promoted to Chief Administrative Officer by Mayor Marty Chavez. This despite overwhelming evidence that as the head of the Department of Municipal Development, he failed to create or maintain a system that actually protected taxpayers interests in the management of contracts between the city and independent contractors working for the city.

There is one contract in particular, between the city and Chavez' crony's nephew's landscaping company, where taxpayers got ripped off big time. An investigation was done following a complaint made to the City of Albuquerque's Office of Internal Audit and Investigations. Their report is posted online, link.

To my knowledge, Ed Adams was never asked to explain how a contract could have been so badly managed by his subordinates.

Instead, he was given a bonus; a contract agreement between Adams and the city, was entered into by the then Chief Administrative Officer Bruce Perlman.

The Journal reports, link, City Attorney Bob White, asked to investigate the one of a kind contract, found the contract legal and binding. This despite the fact that according to White, "... the Perlman memo had never been sent to city attorneys "pursuant to the normal contract review process."Again, from the Journal report, the Perlman memo included the following;"In addition, it is clear that (Adams') service to the City as an unclassified employee has been exemplary."That "exemplary service" included of course, the failure to see that contracts were managed in the public best interests, by city employees subordinate to Adams in the DMD.

Neither Adams nor Perlman has responded to the Journal's questions directly; the Journal reports that Perlman did not return a phone call and Adams referred them to the Mayor's Office.

The expectation that Ed Adams should have explain his abject failure as the Director of the Department of Municipal Development to see that the contract with Mountain West Golfscapes, Inc,was managed in the public best interests, is legitimate.

But he will not have to explain anything at all.

Business as usual, the good ol' boys give each other sweet deals, and when asked legitimate questions about the public interests or about their public service, rather than a candid, forthright and honest response, we get referred to someone else or, blown off entirely.




photos Mark Bralley