2018 New Mexico Statutes
Chapter 10 - Public Officers and Employees
Article 7F - Hazardous Duty Officers' Employer-Employee Relations
Section 10-7F-9 - Political activity.
A hazardous duty officer shall not be prohibited by an employer from engaging in any political activity when the officer is off duty, except as otherwise provided by law.
History: Laws 2010, ch. 62, § 9.
Effective dates. — Laws 2010, ch. 62, § 10 made the Hazardous Duty Officers' Employer-Employee Relations Act effective July 1, 2010.
Preemption analysis of municipal ordinance prohibiting employees from seeking elective office. — Municipalities that adopt home rule charters may exercise all legislative powers and perform all functions not expressly denied by general law or charter. To determine whether a state statute denies a home rule municipality certain authority, it must first be determined whether the statute is a general law, that is, whether the law applies generally throughout the state and is of statewide concern as contrasted to local or municipal law, and then it must be determined whether the provision expressly denies a home rule municipality the authority to prohibit its employees from seeking elective office. Kane v. City of Albuquerque, 2015-NMSC-027.
Where the city of Albuquerque's charter and personnel rules prohibit employees of the city from being a candidate for, or from holding elective office of, the state of New Mexico or any of its political subdivisions, petitioner, a city firefighter, claimed that the city charter was not a valid exercise of the city's municipal powers because it was preempted by 10-7F-9 NMSA 1978. The New Mexico supreme court held that 10-7F-9 NMSA 1978 did not preempt the city's charter, because the regulation of government employees' activities under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution touches upon issues of local, not statewide, concern, and therefore this section is not a general law. Moreover, the city's home rule charter falls within this section's "except as otherwise provided by law" exception, such that this section does not preempt municipal employment regulations as applied to hazardous duty officers. Kane v. City of Albuquerque, 2015-NMSC-027.
