MILAN, N.M. - Not all the Village of Milan Police Department promotions’ policies were included in the article published in the Cibola Citizen, Jan. 13 edition, “Making a lieutenant; Ongoing questions of impropriety.”
In that story, questions of impropriety were mentioned concerning newly named Lieutenant Gilbert Gonzalez, who has also applied for the vacant position of Milan Police Chief.
The Cibola Citizen printed the promotion policies for the Milan Police Department in the story that published on January 13.
“Ten (10) or more years continuous experience with the Village of Milan Police Dept.
“Two (2) or more years’ experience (sic.) as a Sergeant with the Village of Milan Police Dept.
“Successful completion of a mid-management course (may be waived for one year after promotion) in addition to first line supervisor and instructor development.” (sic.)
This comes from Village of Milan policy on promotions for the Milan Police Department.
However, in the section for Lieutenant promotion, under section 227.01 it states, Experience requirements and employment with the police department may be reduced or eliminated should no police department employee(s) make application for the vacancy or applying police department employee(s) fail to meet promotion criteria of a scorer of seventy (70%) or higher in evaluation.
Also, under section 227.04 item F, it states, the chief of police may elect to eliminate any part of the promotion criteria due to limited applicants or other conditions that would justify such elimination.
Based on what was not published in the first story, the Village of Milan nor the former police chief violated the promotions policy; Officer Gonzales was properly promoted to the position of Lieutenant.
The January 13 story also mentioned an impropriety about the promotion based on Gonzales’ relationship as the domestic partner of Mayor Felix Gonzales’ daughter.
However, according to Village Manager Sara Austin, the chain of command for the police chief is under the manager’s watch, not that of the mayor.
“The mayor will give the trustees a name of a candidate for the position of the chief. The trustees will then vote on whether or not to hire said candidate,” Austin said. “Once the chief is hired, he works under the supervision of the village manager, not the mayor, and the rest of the police department works under the chief’s supervision.”
Austin said that having Officer Gonzales promoted to Lieutenant and even for him to apply for the chief position is all in accordance with the promotions policy and the chain of command at the village.