The Santa Fe Police Department drove to Albuquerque on Wednesday to confiscate two laptop computers from the home of a county employee who told The New Mexican before the seizure that he thought his superiors were trying to find a reason to fire him because he had raised procurement and spending questions about a vendor.

Acting County Manager Penny Ellis-Green and County Attorney Stephen Ross said Eddie Garcia had never reported his concerns to his supervisors to their knowledge and that they didn't know enough about the facts to comment on his allegations.

Ellis-Green said county officials had recently reported four laptop computers missing — three from the Growth Management department and one from the manager's office — and that two of those computers were returned to the county by police after the raid on Garcia's home.

Eddie Garcia, an energy specialist for the county, first contacted The New Mexican via e-mail July 23, six days before police entered his home without a search warrant to seize the computers he says he had permission to bring home.

He wrote in an e-mail to The New Mexican that he could document the misuse of funds "concerning a certain vendor and Santa Fe County." At the time of the e-mail, Garcia asked to remain anonymous for fear of being harassed at the county. Since the police seizure, he has since agreed to go public with his allegations.

In an interview Monday, Garcia said he had been asked to look into the details surrounding the county's dealings with an Albuquerque-based heating and air conditioning vendor who was the sole provider for all heating and cooling installations and repairs in county buildings.

Garcia said his supervisor asked him to look into the matter in July 2009 because it was during a time of budget scrutiny and the amount of money being paid out to the vendor seemed like a possible "red flag."

Garcia said when he began to gather documentation, it was "difficult." He said the county finance department seemed to be reluctant to give him purchase orders and itemized statements related to the vendor.

He eventually gained access to a "pay-out sheet" showing all the jobs the contractor had done for the county since 2005. Garcia produced this document — which listed various jobs ranging from a "heat pump repair" for $292 to "HVAC system install" for $12,656.

The total amount of payments made to the vendor over a six-year period appeared to be about $600,000, Garcia said.

Garcia also said he noticed what appeared to be duplicate payments on the roster, such as a payment for air and heating units for $59,668.

Garcia noted a $7,460 payment to the company for "office supplies," which struck him as odd.

Garcia said some irregularities in the documents prompted him to further investigate. He requested access to a county database so he could research each purchase order, but was denied.

Garcia said his supervisor — one of four he's had at the county in his 15 months of employment there — told him to "bag it" and assigned him to work on another project.

He said the issue with the vendor came up again in April 2010 because he was working on reports about the energy efficiency of each of the county's buildings as part of a federal grant.

Garcia said he was required to document all of the HVAC installations and upgrades on each building for the past three to five years. Upon doing site inspections, Garcia said it appeared the items listed on the pay-out sheet had never been delivered or installed.

"Again, it was difficult trying to obtain information," Garcia wrote to The New Mexican. "It was a tug and pull, we kept going round and round."

Garcia said someone in the county finance department finally agreed to give him details on 10 of the purchase orders.

Garcia's suspicions continued when some of the amounts on the itemized purchase orders did not match the amounts listed on the vendor sheet. So he contacted the state Construction Industries Division, part of the Regulation and Licensing Department, to check out whether permits and inspection reports had been filed for the work.

One of those he eventually contacted was a former Construction Industries investigator, who encouraged Garcia to go public and talk to the media.

"Yes I believe you have uncovered potential corruption," the former investigator wrote in one e-mail made available to The New Mexican.

In an interview Friday, the former investigator said that almost all heating and cooling work — including installations and service — requires a state permit so it can be inspected for safety.

Garcia said he began to feel he was being retaliated against for pressing the issue with the vendor. He said his previously approved work schedule, which allowed him to take care of issues related to his special-needs son, had been changed and he felt he was being sabotaged in other ways, such as being told on extremely short notice about reports he was responsible for completing.


Garcia's wife, Amy Garcia, said that around 5 p.m. Thursday, the day after her husband met with The New Mexican, two plainclothes detectives from the Santa Fe Police Department showed up to the couple's home in northwest Albuquerque.

Amy Garcia said she was alone with their five children when she heard the doorbell ring.

"My son said, 'There are two strange men at the door,' " Amy Garcia said. "Being home alone with five children, I don't answer the door."

Amy Garcia said she took the children upstairs and tried to call her husband while the detectives continued to pound on her door. She said they were shouting but she couldn't hear what they were saying. Eventually the detectives went into her neighbors yard and were looking at her house, she said. Feeling that the fence between the two houses afforded her some safety, Amy Garcia said, she went out the back door and asked them what they wanted.

Garcia said one of the officers then told her he was from the city of Santa Fe, and to open the door.

She said it wasn't until she opened the door that one of the men identified himself as a law enforcement officer. She then noticed three Albuquerque police cars and several uniformed officers from APD who had arrived at the house.

She said the officers did not have a search warrant. She said they told her she would have to sign a form acknowledging that she had voluntarily given them permission to search her home or they would get a search warrant, but she would not be permitted to leave her home while they waited for the warrant.

Amy Garcia said she had an appointment to return her three eldest children to her ex-mother-in-law about an hour later, which was part of a court-ordered custody arrangement, and she was worried she would get in trouble if she missed the appointment. So she reluctantly agreed.

"I asked 'Are you just going to be looking around or are you going to be going through my belongings?' " Amy Garcia said. "He said they were just going to casually look around."

Amy Garcia said the Santa Fe detective told her they were looking for stolen laptops and asked to see any computers the couple had in their home. As she showed the officer upstairs to where the family computer was connected, Amy Garcia said the other officers began to open drawers, look in closets and take cushions off her couch.

Garcia said one of the officers also intimidated her by telling her that if she wasn't being truthful about the missing laptops, they could get a warrant for her arrest and her children would be taken from her.

Amy Garcia said she told one of the officers about her appointment and asked to be able call her mother in law, but she was instructed not to touch her cell phone and asked to write down her children's names and dates of birth.

After locating two laptop computers in her garage that she did not know were there, Amy Garcia said, the police presented her with a list of the items they were taking. She said one of the officers told her the serial numbers on the computers did not match the serial numbers of the computers that had been reported stolen by the county, but that they still had to take them because they had Santa Fe County labels on them.

Eddie Garcia said he had two county laptops at his home but that he had authorization from his boss to use them, and had in fact been working to try to get a power cord for one and to update the operating system on another so he could have a laptop for work. He said he had been using his own laptop for work until then. Garcia produced e-mail exchanges between himself and his supervisor — including one about his search for a proper power cord for the machine — that appear to corroborate his story.

County Attorney Ross said Friday that the laptops returned to the county by the police are indeed the ones that were reported stolen. But the three serial numbers acting County Manager Penny Ellis-Green provided as belonging to the stolen computers do not match the serial numbers listed on a copy of the police evidence tag provided by Garcia.

Santa Fe police Sgt. Louis Carlos said on Thursday that the police could not release much information because the case was still pending. Carlos said all they could say was that the property crimes unit had recovered some laptops. "I don't know who they belong to; I don't know how they were obtained," Carlos said.

Carlos said he might have more information Friday, but he did not return telephone messages seeking further details.

No charges have been filed against Eddie Garcia; the county placed him on paid administrative leave Friday.

Contact Phaedra Haywood at 986-3068 or phaywood@sfnewmexican.com.