City Councilor Dan Lewis says an ethics complaint filed just one month before the Nov. 4 election is “a frivolous stunt” designed to rehash old news.
Former state legislator and attorney Daymon Ely filed the complaint with the State Ethics Commission on Sept. 25, claiming Lewis improperly discussed Air Quality Control Board matters during a May 8 budget meeting in violation of an agreement with the commission to avoid matters relating to the board while holding outside employment with a trade association whose members fall under its jurisdiction.
According to a meeting transcript, Lewis asked about board meeting costs and county funding contributions. He did not specifically discuss air quality regulations.
Ely told City Desk he does not work for the campaign of Lewis’ opponent for city council elections in November, Athena Allen, though persons connected with Allen did distribute a the complaint and a press release about it to the media.
Lewis’s May 2024 ethics settlement required him to recuse from all City Council matters “relating to” the Air Quality Control Board while working for the Asphalt Pavement Association of New Mexico.
In announcing the settlement, the commission wrote “there was reason to believe that City Council President Dan Lewis’s official acts to dissolve the AQCB would directly impact his employment as APANM’s executive director and, therefore, in the Commission’s view, City Council President Lewis’s negotiating and acquisition of employment with APANM violated… the Government Conduct Act.”
Speaking to City Desk about the new complaint, Lewis denied any violation, calling his remarks “routine Council budget oversight” and the complaint “another frivolous stunt.” He said city attorneys approved his comments.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated and condensed to correct earlier inaccuracies. Councilor Dan Lewis introduced Air Quality Control Board legislation in October 2023. He applied for the executive director position with the Asphalt Pavement Association of New Mexico in late November 2023, after the legislation was introduced and vetoed. In December 2023, while negotiating employment, he voted to override the mayor’s veto. The earlier version also misstated the resolution’s effect: it imposed a moratorium on the board’s rulemaking authority, not a halt to its operations.