Former New Mexico Archaeology Official Sues State Over Firing, Claiming Discrimination

Originally posted on Quora May 21, 2023

The following is taken from a local news article about a white state employee charged with preserving historical artifacts who had his employment terminated without notice or due process presumably in retaliation for his actions as a whistleblower last year though there are undercurrents of anti-white bigotry in their decision.

Source: Santa Fe New Mexican

Eric Blinman, former director of the state Office of Archaeological Studies whose termination in February drew pushback from hundreds of his supporters, filed a federal lawsuit late Thursday accusing New Mexico Cultural Affairs Secretary Debra Garcia y Griego of illegally firing him because he is an older white man who dared to complain he wasn’t given the resources to do his job effectively.

Blinman also claims he faced retaliation because he had told a human resources official he believed the Cabinet secretary was having an affair with a subordinate.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham supported Garcia y Griego’s mistreatment of him, his lawsuit alleges, because the two women are close friends.

Blinman’s complaint names nine individuals and entities — including Garcia y Griego, Cultural Affairs Human Resources Director Ken Lucero, Lujan Grisham and “yet-to-be-identified co-conspirators” — as defendants.

It accuses the defendants of 16 statutory violations — including age, gender and race discrimination, violation of the New Mexico Whistleblower Protection Act, due process violations, defamation, wrongful termination and intentional infliction of emotional distress — and seeks an unspecified amount of compensatory and punitive damages including back pay and legal costs.

“These allegations against Cabinet Secretary Garcia y Griego are both untrue and unfounded,” Daniel Zillmann, spokesman for the Department of Cultural Affairs, said in an email. “I will reiterate what has been stated on multiple occasions and remains relevant: while no reason was required by the statute for dismissal of at-will employees, there was sound and carefully considered reasoning behind the termination of Dr. Blinman.

It should be noted that the governor's office failed to provide this reasoning in a request for comment.

Blinman, 69, joined the state’s archaeology program in 1988 and became director of the Office of Archaeological Studies 17 years ago. He was a strong proponent of Native issues and projects, and a highly respected scientist, according to his lawsuit.

Beginning in 2021, he says in his complaint he began asking Garcia y Griego for permission to personally interview, vet and hire employees who would report to him.

She did not respond to any of his requests, Blinman says in his complaint, which speculates she intended to “deprive him [of] the competent employees and necessary tools to enable him to effectively perform his job duties,” which would “provide her with the pretext she wanted, and needed” to fire him.

Blinman’s lawsuit says this issue prompted him to file a whistleblower complaint in 2022, in which he reported to Lucero, the human resources director, he believed Garcia y Griego’s actions were unlawful and improper and designed to undercut his authority and hinder him from doing his job.

Blinman’s second act of whistleblowing also came in 2022, when he reported “in confidence” to Lucero he’d heard a rumor Garcia y Griego was having an affair with a subordinate, the lawsuit says.

Lucero told Garcia y Griego about his report, the suit says, and she responded by initiating a “performance development plan” that accused Blinman of “slandering, ridiculing, or maligning” her and “her paramour.”

Garcia y Griego’s final act of retaliation for against him came Feb. 13, Blinman alleges. While he was working on a project “beneath the floorboards of the Palace of the Governors,” he was fired without notice and banned from his office “in the same state building … which he had raised the funds to build.”

Neither Garcia y Griego nor Lujan Grisham provided a “good-faith legitimate reason” for his dismissal, Blinman’s complaint says, “not withstanding the public outcry and wide display of unequivocal support for [him] and his many years of valuable public service to the citizens of our state.”

Lujan Grisham’s spokeswoman instead issued a statement in support of Garcia y Griego’s “leadership abilities.” Blinman’s complaint says this implied the governor supported his firing in retaliation for his complaints and “because he was an older, Caucasian male who was not entitled to any due process.”