The Honorable The Honorable Mary Kay Papen Speaker of the House President Pro Tempore New Mexico House of Representatives

The Honorable Sheryl Williams Stapleton The Honorable Peter Wirth House Majority Floor Leader Senate Majority Floor Leader

The Honorable Nate Gentry The Honorable Stuart Ingle House Minority Floor Leader Senate Minority Floor Leader

November 29, 2017

Dear Speaker Egolf, House Majority Leader Stapleton, House Minority Leader Gentry, Senate President Pro Tempore Papen, Senate Majority Leader Wirth, and Senate Minority Leader Ingle:

Last Friday, Rep. Kelly Fajardo sent a letter to you with her concerns about deficiencies in the Legislature’s current No Harassment policy. While I share her concerns about the policy, I would like to raise a specific matter regarding the planned mandatory training for legislators, especially as it relates to what I experienced during recent past legislative sessions.

During last year’s special session, on October 1, 2016, then Rep. Conrad James and I presented a bill, legislation to expand Baby Brianna’s Law, on the floor of the House of Representatives.[1] At the conclusion of my opening statement, another representative charged over to me, then verbally attacked me using profane and threatening language and violently slammed his fist down on my desk.

I was taken aback at the time, and I felt targeted. The House heard a handful of crime bills that week, and while this same representative raised objections to all of them, to my knowledge, I was the only bill sponsor or representative he chose to confront in a very aggressive way. He did not try to directly engage the bill’s other co-sponsor, Rep. James, in a similar way, even though Rep. James was standing directly in front of the representative’s desk.

Another representative, Rep. , whose desk was located behind mine, witnessed the entire incident. Rep. Montoya came over to me, asked if I was okay, and then voiced his concern about the other representative’s inappropriate and threatening conduct. Rep. Montoya later approached the offending representative and told him to never treat any legislator in the same disrespectful manner again.[2] The representative expressed contrition, and I did not press the matter further.

Then, during this year’s regular session, I presented the same bill to the House Appropriations and Finance Committee (HAFC). Although this bill had previously passed the House multiple times with near unanimous support, this time the committee decided to table the bill on a party-line vote. An Albuquerque television reporter asked to interview me about the committee’s action, and I agreed to the interview, during which I expressed my disappointment on the bill being tabled and the party-line vote.[3]

The next day, while another bill was being presented in HAFC, the same representative who had previously aggressively confronted me on the floor of the House, excoriated and demeaned me for having talked to this television station. [4]

In response to this extraordinary breach of decorum, all of the Republican members on the committee, including me, walked out of the hearing. I quickly returned to state for the committee’s record my outrage that another representative would publicly address a colleague in such an unprofessional and demeaning manner. The chair of the committee adjourned the hearing shortly afterward.

The same day, I attended a private meeting with the offending representative and the committee chair. During the meeting, the representative agreed to publicly apologize to me. When the HAFC committee reconvened the next day, he apologized to the committee as a whole, and the staff, but not to me. [5] To this day, he has yet to publicly apologize to me personally for his inappropriate conduct towards me.

I wish I could end the story there, but unfortunately, there is more you must know. The offending representative and I serve together on another committee. As you know, the committee chair makes the seating assignments, and up until the HAFC events, he had me sitting next to the offending representative on the committee dais. After the representative’s repeated harassment toward me and the HAFC events, I no longer felt comfortable being in close proximity to him because I feared he might become more physically and verbally aggressive toward me. Therefore, I requested that the offending representative be moved so I would not be forced to sit next to him in committee.

When I arrived at the next committee meeting,[6] I was shocked when I saw that I had been moved instead of the offending representative. I felt singled out and re-victimized. I did nothing wrong, yet I was the only one who was moved. It unfairly put a spotlight on me, especially as my original seat was empty and I was now sitting toward the end of the dais. I was extremely saddened and overwhelmed. I felt punished for making my request, and I eventually left the hearing.

I have given much thought to determine why this individual seemingly has chosen to target me. It could be that he hates this particular bill and is taking his displeasure out on me, the bill’s sponsor. However, he never approached the bill’s previous co-sponsor, so one must suspect his aggressive behavior might be attributable to some other reason. Also, these two instances were not the only times I have experienced this type of contemptuous and threatening behavior from this representative. There have been other occasions where he has been aggressive toward me in private, but these are the only two incidents which occurred in public and were recorded by cameras.

You will note that I have not identified my antagonist in this letter. I am not interested in settling scores. I share my story now because I believe it raises important issues about how matters of harassment are handled in Legislature. Since you have announced that you plan to review the Legislature’s No Harassment policy and require sexual harassment training for all legislators, I ask that you make every effort to ensure both the policy and the training are as comprehensive as possible.

Much attention at the moment is being paid to sexual harassment, but physical and verbal harassment as well as attempts to intimidate are also harmful and pervasive. This representative physically confronted me on the floor of the House, yet a majority in the chamber, looked the other way. I insist that the mandatory training provided to legislators cover the topics of physical and verbal harassment as well as abusive conduct in addition to sexual harassment. I also ask that you consider these topics when making revisions to the Legislature’s No Harassment policy.

I would like to prevent others from experiencing the situations I encountered, especially the feeling of re-victimization I suffered when I asked to not be forced to sit next to the antagonizing representative. This representative did not suffer any consequences for his actions, but yet I felt punished for making a reasonable request. I do not believe that the committee chair intended to make me feel excluded and isolated, but it happened nonetheless.

Committee and floor leaders need additional training on handling these situations quickly and effectively to prevent continuing or escalating hostile acts. I firmly believe that the committee chairs I dealt with wanted to do the right thing, but they did not have the adequate training, knowledge, or resources to help guide them.

These two incidences took place in open forums, in full view of legislators and the public. If such behavior can happen so openly without acknowledgment or censure, one can only imagine what takes place out of the public eye. It disheartens me that a person could brazenly mock and intimidate a colleague, a co-equal elected official, and get away with it free from reprimand or rebuke. It is insulting to me, to the institution, and to the people of New Mexico who elected me to represent them in the Legislature.

As legislative leaders, you have a responsibility to ensure policies and procedures are properly implemented and enforced for the protection of everyone who walks the halls of the Roundhouse. Although I wish we, as a governing body, would have dealt with these issues of harassment earlier, I feel we have a chance now to make things better for those who will follow us. We owe it to the current generation, as well as future generations, to improve working conditions in New Mexico’s Capitol by emphasizing that respect and civility are key elements of our great democracy.

Sincerely,

Sarah Maestas Barnes State Representative-District 15

1. House Floor Session, October 1, 2016. Bill presentation begins at 29:00, incident occurs at 42:56. http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/91833618 2. House Floor Session, October 1, 2016. Maestas and Montoya talk at 7:43. http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/91835402 3. KRQE, “Baby Brianna Child Abuse Expansion Bill Dies in House Committee, February 28, 2017. http://krqe.com/2017/02/28/baby-brianna-child-abuse-expansion-bill- http://krqe.com/2017/02/28/baby-brianna-child-abuse-expansion-bill-dies-in-house- committee/dies-in-house-committee/ 4. House Appropriations and Finance Committee, March 1, 2017. Maestas begins remarks at 2:41:17 P.M. http://sg001- harmony.sliq.net/00293/Harmony/en/PowerBrowser/PowerBrowserV2/20170301/-1/32461 KRQE, “Baby Brianna Expansion Bill Revived After Heated Exchange Between Lawmakers”, March 2, 2017. http://krqe.com/2017/03/02/baby-brianna-expansion-bill-revived-after-heated- exchange-between-lawmakers/ 5. House Appropriations and Finance Committee, March 2, 2017, 2:17:10 to 2:17:33 P.M. http://sg001- harmony.sliq.net/00293/Harmony/en/PowerBrowser/PowerBrowserV2/20170302/-1/32475 6. House Transportation and Public Works Committee Meeting, March 2, 2017, 8:45:30 to 8:55:20 A.M. http://sg001- harmony.sliq.net/00293/Harmony/en/PowerBrowser/PowerBrowserV2/20170302/-1/32470