Local Democrats are discussing whether to ask Doña Ana County Clerk Rita Torres to resign because of concerns about her health and ongoing problems with elections.
I found none who would go on the record, but several confirmed that it’s being talked about.
As the county commission’s elections task force begins its work, the job Torres is doing needs to be discussed publicly, because it’s beyond the scope of the task force’s investigation and arguably the biggest problem with the elections bureau.
Torres, 76 and a Democrat, was the county clerk from 1992 to 2000. She was replaced by Ruben Ceballos, who resigned after being convicted of five felonies for mismanaging the 2002 primary election.
The commission appointed Torres to replace Ceballos in March 2004, and she was elected by voters later that year.
Health problems have prevented Torres from working full days since she was appointed. Most days she only works a few hours. Some days she doesn’t work at all.
That’s not illegal. State law only requires Torres, who is paid $56,950 this year, to be in the office one day each month.
But that’s not the sort of attendance record I want from the clerk paid with my tax dollars.
She misses many commission meetings, and has appeared to fall asleep at others. She is often hard to understand when reading the list of tort claims received by the county.
She usually refers questions from commissioners, reporters and others to staffers in her office. She has often responded to my questions about elections by saying she doesn’t know the answers and telling me to ask the elections bureau supervisor.
Contrast that with the county’s other elected officials, Democrat and Republican, who all speak with authority about what’s going on in their offices and the laws that govern them.
Torres doesn’t use a computer. I haven’t been to her office since she moved to the new governmental complex on Motel Boulevard last month, but in her old office, she had a calendar taped to the front of her computer monitor.
If there weren’t problems in the clerk’s office, Torres’ attendance and computer use would not be issues.
But the 2004 special audit of the county revealed that, for most of that year, the commission violated the Open Meetings Act by not preparing minutes of meetings in the time required by law. That’s a task assigned to the clerk’s office.
The problem continued through much of 2005, until the county manager hired extra workers to help Torres and her office catch up.
Granted, the problem was the result of an overworked staffer, but it’s Torres’ job to recognize such problems and reassign tasks or ask the commission and manager for help.
There have also been widespread problems with elections. I’m not going to detail them here, but I will say that, as far back as Torres’ first term as clerk, the office has been plagued by elections controversy. The 2000 and 2004 elections were disastrous.
The primary election earlier this month had fewer problems. It appeared that the additional staffers the commission added to that office’s budget in 2004 were making a difference, and former Elections Bureau Supervisor Mari Langford was finally getting things in order.
But there were still problems with polling places and workers, and Langford was apparently fired earlier this week. That wouldn’t have happened without approval of her boss Torres, even if it was pushed by county administration, because Torres is the elected official in charge of that office.
Is Langford, then, to be Torres’ scapegoat because some in her own party are pushing for her to step down?
I’m not defending Langford. I am arguing that getting rid of her won’t solve the problem. There’s a lack of leadership at the top.
Without Langford, the upcoming general election is probably going to be another mess, unless the county hires an excellent elections supervisor quickly so that office has time to adjust. The legislature and governor are constantly changing election laws, and the switch to paper ballots is certain to cause problems.
At Tuesday’s commission meeting, at which commissioners appointed members to the elections task force, Torres made several comments I think were intended to assert her office’s independence.
Her comments didn’t come across that way.
Instead, Torres was difficult to understand, because her words were hard to hear and her statements seemed random and off point. Some in attendance were baffled. Others weren’t surprised because it’s what they’ve come to expect.
We need a clerk who has the health and stamina to run elections and perform all the other duties expected of the clerk in the second largest county in the state.
I don’t raise this issue to be mean. I think the situation is very sad. But the power Torres holds is too important for the problems remain unaddressed. Republicans have been vocally saying Torres is incompetent since she was appointed in 2004. Many Democrats have been saying the same, though in private, for the past two years.
I’m not calling for Torres to resign, or for voters to send her home in two years. I’m asking for an honest debate on what should be done. Democrats and Republicans on the commission have indicated that they are fed up with the problems in the clerk’s office and want to know what can be done to address them.
Their task force will find some procedural problems and will likely make valuable suggestions for change.
But there’s something to be said for good leadership. Without it, additional policies and procedures won’t help.
In a posting earlier this week about the proposal to pay legislators, I complained that some lawmakers attend committee meetings just to give quick speeches, collect per diem and leave. 
