The head of Albuquerque’s oversight committee is pushing back against accusations that it violated city law by delaying Inspector General reports.
Victor Griego, who chairs the Accountability in Government Oversight Committee (AGOC), said the group acted within its authority to make sure the reports were solid. In a Sept. 17 response to District 5 Councilor Dan Lewis, who accused the committee of violating the ordinance, Griego denied any wrongdoing. He defended the decision to hold back six fraud reports for an outside quality review.
“Contrary to the assertions in your September 3, 2025, letter and the City Council meeting on September 15, 2025, the AGOC has not, and will not, act in violation of the Ordinance or the City Charter,” Griego wrote in the letter.
The dispute centers on nine Inspector General reports on fraud, waste and abuse that have sat unpublished for months. Lewis said the committee blew past legal deadlines, while Council President Brook Bassan said the hold-up was needed to make sure the reports were accurate.
Council confrontation
The letter followed a Sept. 15 council meeting where Lewis questioned whether the committee had missed the 15-day deadline in city law for releasing reports after review.
“There are investigations that the committee’s had for a good amount of time, for several meetings,” Lewis said. “So are some of those to your understanding, beyond that, 15 days from the last meeting that they were discussed?”
City Attorney Lauren Keefe pushed back, saying “there has not been a violation of any ordinance.” She said the committee can defer reports for one meeting and bring in outside consultants for reviews.
Bassan, a non-voting committee member, defended the committee forcefully. She called accusations that members were “hiding” reports from the public “insulting.”
“It’s aggravating, because there’s hard-working members of the committee who are also deeply offended,” Bassan said. “I think that it is insulting to insinuate that we are sitting here and we’re trying to hide things from the public, which we are not.”
Lewis defended his public questioning of the committee during the meeting, saying the public had raised concerns about the delayed reports.
“These are folks that we’ve appointed, so there’s no spokesperson for them, and the chair hasn’t commented on these, and yet, we wrote the ordinance,” Lewis said. “The public has raised concerns and questions about it, and so, I mean, this is council business.”
Two days later, Griego broke his silence with the detailed response letter.
Committee’s timeline
In his response, Griego laid out a timeline pushing back on Lewis’s claims.
He said the former Inspector General submitted nine reports to the committee on March 20. The committee postponed its March 26 meeting to April 9 to give members more time to review.
At that meeting, members approved three reports and deferred six, citing “serious concerns” about their quality and credibility.
The committee then hired accounting firm REDW to conduct an outside review, which was finished Aug. 15. After being briefed, the Interim Inspector General agreed to rework the six reports “at a rate of two reports a month.”
Griego said no new or deferred reports have come before the committee since April 9. He added the next meeting is set for Oct. 29, nearly a month later than the Oct. 1 deadline Lewis demanded.
Legal dispute over timeline
The heart of the legal dispute hinges on how to interpret the city ordinance Lewis cited at the council meeting, which says reports must be released “no sooner than 15 days from the date of the committee’s last review or consideration.”
Both sides agree on the ordinance language but disagree on when the 15-day countdown began.
Lewis argues the clock started after the committee’s July 30 meeting, making the reports overdue by his Sept. 3 letter. But Griego and city attorneys contend the clock never started because the committee deferred the reports in April and hasn’t reconsidered them since.
“As mandated by City Ordinance, the OIG cannot make these reports public until fifteen (15) days from the date of the AGOC’s last review or consideration,” Griego wrote. “The OIG has not presented
the reports back to the AGOC, and the AGOC has not reviewed or considered the reports since deferral. Therefore, the reports cannot be made public at this time.”
Election Stakes
The dispute comes as the mayor’s race heats up, with transparency front and center. Seven candidates are on the Nov. 4 ballot — incumbent Tim Keller, former U.S. Attorney Alex Uballez, former Sheriff Darren White, City Councilor Louie Sanchez, retired Fire Chief Eddie Varela, entrepreneur Daniel Chavez and Navy veteran Mayling Armijo.
On Sept. 5, Uballez said the mayor’s office refused to release any information from nine public records requests he filed about the Keller administration. The City Clerk called the requests “overly broad and burdensome.”
The records dispute adds to broader transparency concerns shaping the campaign. Lewis referred the COVID funds case detailed in the Inspector General reports to federal prosecutors in January. The case involves alleged misuse of federal money meant for child care workers.
The committee’s Oct. 29 timeline means some fraud reports could land before the election, giving voters a closer look at alleged misconduct in Keller’s administration. With seven candidates in the race and a runoff likely, transparency and accountability could be key factors.
Background on reports
Former Inspector General Melissa Santistevan said in March that the delayed reports “deal with fraud, waste or abuse that impact our City.”
Other reports released this year documented $374,299 in alleged fraud and questionable spending. Santistevan’s office had also investigated special leave payouts to outgoing city officials and misuse of federal COVID funds.
In April, the National Association of Inspectors General criticized the delays as “a clear breach of the City of Albuquerque’s promise to its residents for transparency” and urged the committee to meet more often to avoid publication barriers.
Griego said the committee “will meet or exceed its required meeting schedule of four meetings per year.” He pledged to release not only the final reports but also REDW’s quality review and recommendations, as well as the original reports, “so the public will be able to see not only the full reports, but also the extensive work the AGOC has undertaken to ensure all OIG reports are accurate and reliable, and conform to every professional standard required by City Ordinance.”