On March 31, 2023, the Albuquerque Journal published the following news report with a bold, top of the fold banner headline “Public safety chief to be paid $187,000 yearly. The article was written by the Journal investigative reporter Colleen Heild
“The city of Albuquerque will pay incoming public safety executive director Raul Bujanda $187,000 a year, a spokesman confirmed Monday.
Bujanda, whose appointment by Mayor Tim Keller will go before the City Council next month, retired from the FBI in April 2025 after 23 years.
Bujanda served as special agent in charge of the Albuquerque field office from 2021 to 2025, leaving federal law enforcement just months after President Donald Trump assumed office and named Kash Patel as FBI director in February 2025.
Prior to joining the FBI in 2002, Bujanda was a special agent in the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service and previously worked as a fifth grade teacher.
The INS was the federal agency that handled immigration, border patrol and naturalization until 2003, when its functions were transferred to the Department of Homeland Security.
Bujanda will be earning about $32,800 more a year than Keller, whose annual salary is $154,211, according to a city spokesman. He will report to Chief Administrative Officer Samantha Sengel.
Bujanda, who will be a full-time city employee, and newly appointed Albuquerque Police Department Chief Cecily Barker still need to be confirmed by the City Council.
Barker is required to have a contract under a new city ordinance. She will be negotiating a contract, including a salary, with the Keller administration, said APD spokesman Gilbert Gallegos.
Bujanda will oversee the APD, Albuquerque Fire Rescue and Albuquerque Community Safety. Their department heads, including Barker, will report to Bujanda.
[APD Spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said] Bujanda’s office will be in the Mayor’s Office. He will not have staff, other than a shared executive assistant with other executive staff in the Mayor’s Office.
Gallegos said there were no other candidates for the public safety chief job.
The position, similar to a deputy CAO, existed under Keller’s predecessor, Mayor Richard Berry, who appointed former Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White to the job in 2009. During his stints in office in the 1990s and 2000s, Mayor Martin J. Chavez filled the position with veteran APD commander Nicholas Bakas, and former city councilor Pete Dinelli.
Up until Bujanda retired last year, Keller didn’t have a candidate he thought would be a good fit, Gallegos said.
During Bujanda’s FBI career, he served as a section chief in the Criminal Investigative Division at FBI Headquarters in Washington. After stints in Portland, Oregon, and El Paso, Texas, he was promoted in 2016 to assistant special agent in charge of the National Security Branch in the Oklahoma City Field Office. He later served as the assistant special agent in charge of Oklahoma City’s Criminal Branch of the FBI.
Bujanda was named section chief of the Criminal Investigative Division’s National Covert Operations Section in 2019. He managed and oversaw all criminal and national security undercover operations for the FBI.
The link to review the full unedited Albuquerque Journal article with photo is here:
https://www.abqjournal.com/news/public-safety-chief-to-be-paid-187000-yearly/3013275
COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS
EDITORS NOTE: In the interest full full disclosure, from 2002 to 2009, I worked for the City of Albuquerque and held two jobs at the same time with and office on the 4th floor and an office on the 11th floor in the Mayor’s Office. For 8 years I was a Deputy City Attorney who was the Director of the Safe City Strike Force and a trial attorney, who organized the Strike Force and worked with APD sworn, the Fire Department sworn and Planning Department code enforcement initiating civil nuisance abatement actions and going to court. I was appointed by Mayor Martin Chavez as the Chief Public Safety Officer to oversee APD and the Fire Department and held that position for a year and a half from 2007 to 2009 while also being Director of the Strike Force as a Deputy City Attorney. I served as the Interim Director of the 911 Emergency Operations Center dealing with APD and Fire and was the former Bernalillo County Chief Deputy District Attorney which gave insight to law enforcement practices. I retired on November 16, 2009 after almost 28 years of public service.
Absent from the Albuquerque Journal article is the fact that Raul Bujanda was the Special Agent In Charge is the DWI bribery and dismissal corruption scandal involving corruption within the APD, the New Mexico State Police and the Bernalillo County Sherriff officers. A total of nineteen (19) law enforcement officers have resigned, retired, been terminated or federally charged or indicted or plead guilty to charges. 16 APD officers have been implicated, charged or plead guilty to federal charges. Nine APD sworn officers, including a Lieutenant, and one Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office Deputy have plead guilty to federal charges of taking bribes. No one has been sentenced for the crimes they have plead guilty to, including two attorneys. The FBI investigation is continuing.
According to a March 26 KOB 4 TV report, Raul Bujanda said that after he retired from the FBI, he reached out to then Chief Harold Medina who then introduced him to Mayor Tim Keller before last years election to discuss how he could assist the city on law enforcement issues and other matters affecting the city. Bujanda has not disclosed if the DWI corruption case was discussed in detail with Medina or Keller as he sought employment with Keller. The conversations eventually led to Mayor Keller deciding to offer the position of Public Safety Executive Director to Bujanda.
Simply put, Raul Bujanda’s interview with KOB 4 was as simplistic and as evasive as it gets. He effectively sidestepped answering the question of conflicts by saying no one has questioned if there is a conflict with him taking the $187,000 city job. He did not say whether or not his appointment presents ethical conflicts or the appearance of impropriety to appoint an individual who investigated APD for government corruption and bribery for dismissal of DWI cases and to now be in charge of overseeing APD as well as the City Fire and Rescue Department and the Albuquerque Community Safety Division.
The link to view the full and more detailed KOB news report is here:
https://www.kob.com/new-mexico/meet-albuquerques-new-public-safety-executive-director/
It’s unknown if the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), which the FBI is a part of, was a reference for Bujanda, or if the FBI or DOJ were conferred with by the city regarding the Bujunda appointment and if the appointment presents any conflicts or jeopardizes the continuing FBI investigations of other officers involved in the DWI scandal. Bujanda could disclose any and all information he may have to APD Chief Cecily Barker or Mayor Tim Keller on other corrupt APD Officers, but that likely is strictly prohibited by his FBI oath of office or the oath to keep evidence presented to a grand jury strictly confidential.
Another problematic area is if Mayor Keller or others will be asking Bujanda to run interference for the city with the FBI or the United States Attorney on the APD corruption scandal or any other cases of government corruption. Bujanda essentially admitted he will run interference when he said to KOB 4 “… I want to continue to do that collaboration we have, not only with the FBI, but any entity that is looking to see what we’re doing inside or internally.”
APD Public Information Spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said there were no other candidates for the public safety chief job. Mayor Keller said he wanted to create the position since the beginning of when he took office over 8 years ago and he wanted a person with a background in law enforcement. Keller said he could not find anyone qualified for the job. Both APD Spokesman Gilbert Gallegos and Mayor Keller’s explanations are laughable and disingenuous. The position of Public Safety Executive Director was not advertised by the city nor were other applications solicited nor accepted. A national search was not done as was the case for APD Chief.
There is no need for the position of Public Safety Executive Director that pays $187,000 to oversee APD, the Fire Department and the Albuquerque Community Safety Department whose primary duties will be public relations and community outreach which is already done by the Chief of Police, the Fire Chief and the Director of the Community and Safety Division. The City Council has the obligation to determine if the position of Public Safety Executive Director that pays $187,000 a year to perform public relations and community outreach is really needed. It is not.
The City Council should reject and vote no to confirm the position.
The link to a related article is here: