To bring you up to speed Mark Shepherd was an APD officer assigned to protect Mayor Marty from... well something or someone, and drive him from appointment to appointment. Following his retirement from APD, he applied for and was awarded his current job as Security Manager for the Department of Municipal Development. In essence, he became the top man in the agency that is tasked with keeping an eye on all of the city owned facilities.So far, nothing seems amiss. However, after being awarded the job no less than two complaints were filed with the City of Albuquerque Employee Equity Office alleging that Mr. Shepherd was hired for the position of DMD Secrity Manager even though he was not qualified for the position. The allegations triggered an investigation into the claims.
The investigation found that Mr. Shepherd had not "truthfully represent his work experience," and that "city officials should have scrutinized Mr. Shepherd's statements regarding his work experience more carefully." The investigation also found irregularities in the interview process. Apparently Mr. Shepherd listed Deputy Administrator Nick Bakas as a reference on his application. Turns out Mr. Bakas was also on the interview team. The investigative report found that "at best, this could be considered to have the appearance of impropriety. At worst, it appears more than likely that one of the interviewers was predisposed to hire Mr. Shepherd."The report concluded:
1.) Mr. Shepherd "knowingly made false statements in his application," a violation of the City of Albuquerque Personnel Rules and Regulations which states that "applicants aare ineligible for City employment for reasons including, but not limited to... any fraudulent for false statement on an application."
2.) "City officials improperly accepted Mr. Shepherd's improbable representations of work experience and did not properly evaluate his work and supervisor experience."
3.) "An individual named as a reference improperly served as a member of the interview panel."
4.) "Interview benchmarks do not support the choice of Mr. Shepherd over [redacted]"
Further, the investigator found that they "must conclude that the irregularities in this hiring process support" the allegations made by the claimants.
The real question here is given this information, what did the city do? Our Eyes tell us that the city settled the claims with terms undisclosed and Mr. Shepherd is still serving as Security Manager. Looks an awful lot like a break to us... just not for the Mayor's mother.
