The author is a former board member of the Region VII Housing Authority in Las Cruces and is the whistleblower responsible for revealing the corruption that led to the downfall of the state’s housing authority system.
By Frances F. Williams
I am a proud Democrat who has carried lots of water for the party since 1988. I cannot understand how any legislator we voted for would keep Ben Lujan, the current speaker of the House, in that leadership position, which controls much of New Mexico’s destiny.
Vincent “Smiley” Gallegos is a close friend and confidant of the speaker. Lujan appointed Gallegos to the Housing Trust Council, which has oversight of affordable housing funding. This was clearly a conflict of interest, because at the time Gallegos was also executive director of the Region III Housing Authority, one of the entities vying for affordable housing funds.
Gallegos and the Region III authority were funding the other housing authorities in
Gallegos used the money instead to fund overhead and administrative costs, in violation of the purpose of the bonds. Region III defaulted on these bonds, costing the taxpayers millions of dollars.
The speaker personally carried funding requests for Gallegos, who was a lobbyist for companies seeking approval and funding – clearly another conflict of interest. It is well known that the speaker and Gallegos are tight with each other. It can be confirmed by any legislator.
Two studies conducted on the regional housing authorities have shown that, under Gallegos, they violated state statutes. Gallegos may also have run a fraudulent non-profit construction company as part of the housing authority structure, according to the attorney general’s office.
Under Gallegos the housing authority also violated the terms of the bonds, which were intended for affordable housing, by instead selling houses to investors, who then resold them for a profit to individuals who did not qualify under the statute for affordable housing.
The authority also provided a rent-free home to a high-ranking staffer in Lujan’s office, and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay Gallegos an exorbitant salary, matches to his retirement fund and other benefits.
The speaker has not denounced Gallegos and demanded that action be taken against him. How can our elected officials, knowing all this, vote for Lujan to continue as speaker of the House? I know that Lujan has done a Tom DeLay in the New Mexico Legislature by making substantial donations to candidates for office. I know people are afraid to cross him, because if he prevails as the speaker, they will find their offices in the basement, they won’t get their bills to the floor, and they won’t get the committee assignments they want. And we will all suffer for that.
But when will it be time for our elected officials to stand up and be counted? Can we afford to let this corruption of our system continue? Is
State Rep. Joseph Cervantes stood up to the speaker by proposing at a legislative hearing a whistleblower law and legislation on ethics in government. The speaker was not happy. Cervantes could lose his chairmanship of the Judiciary Committee if Lujan is retained as speaker.
Cervantes took the chance because of his core values and the importance of doing the right thing. The rest of our legislators could take a page out of his book and follow him. We need to rise up and get rid of those individuals who will let graft, corruption, intimidation, waste and abuse be a way of life in
Your vote against the speaker will show us that you are not afraid to protect the interests of your constituents, who trusted you enough to send you to
Editor’s note: I’ll be happy to publish any comments by legislators about who should be the next speaker, regardless of whether they favor Ben Lujan or Ken Martinez, as long as they aren’t libelous. I’ll consider publishing others’ responses, also regardless of who they support, as long as they meet the criteria in this site’s comments policy. E-mail your comments to heath@haussamen.com. Thus far, Williams’ is the only response I’ve received.