The Jemez Mountains Electric Cooperative’s executive committee decided to suspend General Manager Jerry Mascareñas for three days last month because his secretary spent $34 on personal expenses.
Mascareñas said he was suspended July 8 through July 10 without pay after a written reprimand he gave an employee was not sufficient for the committee.
The issue of credit card security within the Co-op was the subject of a discussion of the Board of Trustees June 27. The Board met in executive session during a general meeting to confer, and action was not taken against Mascareñas until a July meeting of the executive committee.
Meeting minutes from the executive session indicate two unauthorized purchases got the attention of the Board of Trustees. Mascareñas’s assistant, Darlene Armijo, possesses a Co-op credit card to arrange for travel and make day-to-day office purchases. On May 2, 2007, Armijo used the card to buy $23 worth of items including cashews, orange juice and cranberries from Trader Joe’s in Santa Fe, a receipt shows. On Dec. 30, 2007, she spent $11 at Lowe’s in Española, Co-op documents state.
Mascareñas said he is convinced Armijo mistakenly used the Co-op card when she meant to use her own. He said she told Mascareñas about the first charge right away, and the second was brought to her attention by the Co-op’s bookkeepers. Co-op Finance Director Ernesto Gonzales said she repaid the Co-op as soon as she realized what she had done.
During the June 27 executive session, Board members questioned Mascareñas about why Armijo took the card out of the office with her and why he had not punished her when the expenses were brought to his attention. According to minutes from the meeting, Board member Leroy Ortiz was especially adamant, saying one instance can be dismissed as an accident, but the second time it is no longer an honest mistake. He said Armijo should be reprimanded.
The minutes show Co-op attorney Ernest Valdez was also pressing for a reprimand, saying the Board has made it clear it wants something done, and it is up to the general manager to do it.
“Mister manager, what have you done about it, or what do you propose to do now?” the minutes show Valdez asked.
Board members Dennis Martinez and Lucas Cordova said it was a question of fairness. If people learned Mascareñas did not reprimand his own assistant, Cordova said it could cause a “major mess” with other Co-op employees.
When Mascareñas asked if every mistake made at the Co-op should be brought to the Board’s attention, Valdez said credit card issues are in a different league, and the Board is especially sensitive to them.
Between the June 27 Board meeting and the July meeting of the executive committee, Mascareñas said he investigated the matter and became further convinced Armijo had simply made a mistake on both occasions. He said he did give her a written warning and detailed instructions on how to prevent such an accident from happening again.
“That was my final answer back to the committee,” Mascareñas said.
Mascareñas said the executive committee responded by suspending him after deliberations he was not allowed to witness.