“You have your committee of volunteers, and he volunteered to do my IT (industrial technology) work,” Salzman said in a telephone interview Thursday. “We gave him a small payment back in August or September because we realized he had done a lot of work.
“At the beginning of this month he gave me one of those ‘Pay up or else’ (ultimatums) and I said, ‘Excuse me?’ So we’ve been kind of dickering for the last month, actually since Dec. 2. He said, ‘If you don’t pay in 30 days, I’m taking down the web site.’ So I said, ‘I don’t appreciate being extorted. Do what you have to do.
“Putting out that kind of information is not only unprofessional but it’s pretty darn low.”
Contacted by telephone, Hines simply said, “We have no comment” and disconnected the call.
The Salzman campaign was informed by the campaign of an opponent, Todd Hathorne, about the situation. Hathorne said Hines contacted him about the situation and suggested ways that Hathorne could use the information to advance his campaign.
“This is an unfortunate set of events,” Hathorne said. “I am looking forward to a robust public discourse with the current councilor and to the opportunity to spar with her using every form of communication available, including a web site.”
Hathorne said his web site will be launched “soon.”
Salzman said she appreciated the approach taken by Hathorne.
“Word has filtered back to me,” Salzman said. “As soon as I get off the phone with you I am going to contact Todd and thank him for letting us know. It was a gentlemanly thing to do.”
Hathorne campaign manager Richard Faulkner said, “We’re trying to keep this election clean and above-board. We’d like to think if the same kind of thing happened to us that Marilyn would call us, too.”
“I would, and they know I would,” Salzman said.
Salzman said Hines “used my web site for my reelection to promote his business. When a volunteer who I’ve known for six years like family …
“Fortunately or unfortunately, my honesty is my undoing. If that’s the tact he wants to take, I may have to go on a counterattack.”
HCS is a member of the Rio Rancho Regional Chamber of Commerce. Among the 16 groups it lists on its web site as having “contributed to the success of our business” are the Chamber, the Salzman campaign and Abby West Office Services, a private business owned by Salzman.
Salzman said her private business does not have a web site.
Debbi Moore, president and CEO of the RRRCC, said she would investigate any formal written complaint made against a Chamber member.
“I handle all complaints, regardless whether it’s ethics or anything like that,” Moore said. “We ask that all complaints be submitted in writing. We don’t do anything by hearsay. We wait for a formal complaint. Then I take it before the executive committee that makes a recommendation whether to continue or terminate membership, and that goes to the whole board for ratification.”
Kathy Colley, a third candidate in the District 6 race, said she had not been contacted by Hines or anyone else in the Salzman campaign about the matter.
The councilor’s new web location is http://www.electsalzman.com.