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HUMAN

SERVICES
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OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL

MEMORANDUM OF INVESTIGATIVE ACTIVITY
On May 12, 2016, Special Agent (SA) Eloy C. Montoya, and Stacie Abeita, New Mexico
Human Services Department (HSD), Office of Inspector General (OIG), received an electronic
message (E-mail) with a pdf attachment titled "letter to johnna padilla" from HSD/ISD
employee
, who is a FAA I at the Taos County ISD Office.
MV
The letter is dated May 04, 2016 and addressed to Johnna Padilla, Office of Human
Resources Director, 37 Plaza la Prensa, P.O. Box 2348, Santa Fe, NM
EF
875045-2348. The letter reference County Director
and Line Managers
DJ
DM
,
and
Taos County ISD. The letter
VH
was Cc to Dustin Acklin, Employee Relations Manager Office of Human Resources,
Justin Horwath, Santa Fe New Mexican,
, County Director, Taos County,
EF
,
Line
Manager,
Taos
County,
, Line Manager, Taos
DJ
VH
County, and Anthony Barajas, AFSCME, Taos Representative. The letter was signed by
twelve ( 12) FAA employees from the Taos County ISD Office. The letter indicates that
it is written regarding an article that was published in the Santa Fe New Mexican entitled
"State workers testify agency fudged numbers to deny food aid to poor".

Agent's Note: Taos County !SD Office FAA employees as a group write the letter to address
issues stated in the article published in the Santa Fe New Mexican Newspaper.

The electronic mail (E-mail) received by SA Montoya and MA Abeita on May 12, 2016, from
ISD FAA employee
also contains an email message send from Justin
MV
Horwath, Reporter with the New Mexican Newspaper to Miles D. Conway, AFSCME employee.
The message from Horwath informs Conway of the letter received at the New Mexican
Newspaper. Horwath requested a comment from the AFSCME and also a meeting with
MV
.

TITLE: E-mail & Letter from FAA

c;~

MV

NAME: SA Elcy C. Montoya I MA Stacie Abeita

ACTIVITY DATE: May 12, 2016

CASE NUMBER: 16-PSI-27396

This document contains neither recommendations or conclusions of HSD/OIG. It is the property of HSD and neither
the document or its contents should be disseminated without prior OIG authorization.
Rev 9.24.15

, HSD
<
@gmail.com>
MV
Thursday, May 12, 2016 2:55 PM
HSD;
@sate.nm.us
Fwd: request for comment HSD doc falsification
letter to johnna padilla.pdf

From:

Sent:
To:

Subject:
Attachments:

This is the letter

and

From: Justin Horwath <jhorwath@sfnewmexican.com>

Date: May 5, 2016 at 10:54:59 AM MDT
To: "Miles D. Conway" <miles@afscmenewmexico.org>
Subject: request for comment HSD doc falsification

Hey MilesYesterday I got the attached letter, in which a handful of the ISD workers in Taos County say
.
that they do no agree with the testimony last week by their colleague,
MV
I think we'll write a story about this for tomorrow's paper. Does AFSCME have a comment on
the letter? And do you think you could connect me with
today?
MV
many thanks-

Justin Horwath
Reporter
The Santa Fe New Mexican
Office: sos-986-3017
Cell:
Fax: 505-986-9147

Twitter: @justinhorwath
Web: www.santafenewmexican.com

TAOS COUNTY ISO

145 Roy Road
Taos, New- Mexico 87571
575-758-8804

May4, 2016
Johnna Padilla
Office of Human Resources Director
37 Plaza la Prensa
PO Box 2348
Santa Fe New Mexico 87504-2348

Re: County Director

EF

and Line Managers

DJ

VH

and

DM

Taos County ISO

Dear Ms. Padilla:
We are writing to you today regarding the article that was posted in the Santa Fe New Mexican entitled
"State workers testify agency fudged numbers to deny food aid to poor". This letter is a rebuttal to that

article in defense of the supervisory staff listed above at the Taos County ISO office. We are writing to
you as a group as we all feel the same way and instead of sending numerous correspondence we choose
to address these issues in that article as a group. The article addresses five (5) employees who testified
in Federal Court stating Human Service Department Officials falsified income information on emergency
applications for low income persons needing assistance. In this article an employee from our county
testified. We feel that her testimony is intended to smear the reputation of our supervisory staff. Her
specific testimony noted in the article that upsets us most is "She and other employees said

management with the department's Income Support Division pressured them in April 2015 to make
sure the state's data on emergency food requests did not reflect that the department was failing to
fulfill the requests within seven days. n We the undersigned do not agree with this allegation.
There are also a few other matters that need to come into play with this employee.

She calls herself a

whistleblower and she feels retaliation? Since this article has aired there are employees that have
caused our working environment to be less than unstable by attempting to coax us to bring similar
allegations against the management staff. They have used threating text messages. Their stance is that
they are speaking on behalf of the union. Emails have been sent to a select few of the staff specifically
those who are being coerced is called "Today we push back!".

CQ

of our staff spoke to

Anthony Barajas on 5/3/16 and expressed the types of behavior that was being addressed in the office
and he stated "the union does not work this way". He asked for an email regarding the situation and to
date has not responded.

There is a saying that one bad apple spoils the bunch and between this article and other employees
whose behavior is noted above, we are the ones who feel threatened and harassed.

The employee

named in the article does not speak for us. We feel that the quote from the article leads the reader to
believe that she speaks for the staff. We have never felt intimidated, threatened or pressured. We feel
right the opposite. Our Supervisor staff is the most supportive. They made sure the transition of the
new software was a smooth one. They have stayed late nights and sought for our office to have
trainings and seek the advice of the training staff to help get all the problems we have resolved on a
daily basis.

The County Director and Line Managers have worked diligently and in a most timely and

professional manner make sure the impoverished of Taos County and the State get the benefits they are
entitled to, and through their tutelage we feel lucky to have their support.
Of course there are disgruntled employees in every office, not only the State of New Mexico, but in any
work place. Our only response to this is employee supervisor communications should stay confidential
and is none of our business. We are not in high school anymore and trying to ruin the reputation of
good women, who are working to make the Taos County ISD office the best it can be, is childish and the
recent behavior we have endured is not professional. We stand behind the County Director and Line
Managers 100%.
Sincerely,

Cc:

Dustin Acklin, Employee Relations Manager Office of Human Resources

Justin Horwath, Santa Fe New Mexican

EF

, County Director, Taos County

DJ

, Line Manager, Taos County

VH

, Line Manager, Taos County

Anthony Barajas, AFSCME, Taos Representative