Lawsuit accuses county clerk of deleting critical Facebook comments
May 17—Santa Fe County Clerk Katharine Clark is being sued by a onetime election worker who accuses her of violating his right to free speech by deleting comments he made on her official government Facebook page.
Plaintiff Joseph Sanchez Jr. was a temporary worker in County Clerk's Office during the 2022 election, according to a county spokeswoman.
His lawsuit also names Santa Fe County as a defendant and seeks a court order prohibiting Clark from deleting comments based on the viewpoint expressed and an unspecified amount in compensatory and punitive damages.
Clark did not respond to calls seeking comment.
Sanchez claims in his civil lawsuit filed Wednesday in state District Court he was "investigating possible nepotism" in the clerk's office when he noticed a May 13 post on the clerk's Facebook page that included a photograph featuring two family members of an official in the clerk's office.
He wrote two comments, including one which highlighted state Personnel Office rules regarding nepotism.
Sanchez also wrote: "It is indeed concerning to learn of nepotism with the Santa Fe County Clerk's office. I recall, during my tenure as a temporary election worker, holding the belief that family members are prohibited from working under management ..."
The entire post is not visible in the screenshot included in the lawsuit.
According to the lawsuit, Sanchez's comments and the photograph he'd commented under were deleted. The page's setting was changed so only people who had followed the page for 24 hours could comment, preventing him from immediately commenting again.
"Defendants deleted Plaintiff's comments solely because Plaintiff expressed a viewpoint that was critical of defendants," the lawsuit says.
Sanchez's attorney, Ken Stalter, wrote in an email his client believes a deputy clerk employed her father and brother as election staff workers and gave them more hours and overtime than other workers, prompting the online comment.
County spokeswoman Olivia Romo called the allegation "inaccurate" Friday, writing in an email the deputy clerk's relatives were election workers but were supervised by another employee, in accordance with polices "which do not prohibit employment of immediate relatives in the same office, but rather the direct supervision of immediate relatives."
Sanchez and his father, Joseph Sanchez Sr., who worked as a warehouse manager for the county from 2016 until he resigned in mid March, are supporters of former county clerk Geraldine Salazar, who is running against Clark, according to the Facebook accounts.
Stalter said Friday there was no connection between the June primary election and the timing of the lawsuit.
Stalter has secured nearly $80,000 in settlements for three other plaintiffs who made similar claims against other government officials in recent years. He said in a phone interview Thursday he was surprised the issue would arise in a county office again after the recent cases and because a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling "gave pretty clear guidance on when a government official page is a public forum and has to honor free speech rights."
In that decision Stalter said, the court ruled when an official has authority to speak on behalf of the government and exercises that authority on a social media platform, "then it's a public forum."
Romo wrote in an email the county recently adopted a resolution which amended the employee handbook and "established a team responsible for determining how to manage County social media" and plans to begin conducting regular trainings on the issue for staff who manage social media pages.
"The policy revisions are intended to improve consistency and decrease liability associated with social media use on behalf of the County," Romo wrote. "Although the policy governs all County employees, this social media policy does not govern the social media sites of elected officials or the use of social media by elected officials."
