Staff Report

Attorney A. Blair Dunn has asked the First Judicial District Court for permission to file an amended complaint against the Los Alamos County Council on behalf of Sheriff Marco Lucero.

The original complaint was filed Aug. 29 as an emergency petition for writ of mandamus and complaint for declaratory judgment.

The motion to amend the complaint, filed Oct. 11, states that Dunn “consulted in good faith” with the Council’s counsel regarding the proposed amendment, which he claims seeks to rectify potential errors raised by the Council in its answer to Lucero’s original complaint.

The proposed amended complaint asks the Court to direct the Council to fulfill “their statutory responsibility” to pass the necessary budget measures to adequately fund the Office of the Sheriff that are “conducive to the welfare of the municipality” and appropriate adequate to allow the Sheriff to perform “all acts required for the general welfare of the municipality as directed by state statute”. It alleges that unless the Court acts immediately, Lucero will be unable to meet his statutorily required duties.

The amended complaint alleges that if the Court does not mandate the Council to adequately fund the Office of the Sheriff and prohibit the Council from “violating the law”, the public will be harmed by being “deprived the services of a duly elected sheriff and the Sheriff himself will be placed in jeopardy of being determined to have violated the law himself”.

Dunn’s amended complaint petitions the court to immediately require the Council to appropriate the minimum funds determined to be necessary to allow the Sheriff to fund salaries for his undersheriff and executive secretary and to fulfill his statutory obligations. It also asks the Court to restrain the Council from taking any further actions contrary to the law establishing the Office of County Sheriff or his statutory obligations.