Gov. Bill Richardson won’t allow discussion during the current legislative session on four ethics bills being jointly proposed by Attorney General Gary King and state Rep. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for the governor said
King and Cervantes jointly asked the governor to allow deliberation on four bills:
• A wide-ranging proposal that would increase the criminal penalties for public corruption crimes, campaign reporting violations and other violations related to ethics in government.
• A bill that would amend the Inspection of Public Records Act to make clear that e-mail and fax are valid, written methods of requesting public records.
• A bill that would create criminal penalties for violations of the public records act equal to the penalties for violations of the Open Meetings Act. Under the proposal, a violation would be a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $500.
• A bill that would require a person bidding on a contract with a state public institution of higher education to disclose whether he or she has donated money to the institution through its non-profit charitable foundations.
The last three proposals stem in part from a controversy last year involving the use of private donor money at New Mexico State University to help boost the compensation of the president and former basketball coach, and the university’s response to attempts by me and a newspaper reporter to obtain records related to the situation.
“As you know, the governor wanted to narrow the focus of this session to allow legislators time to concentrate on health care and the budget,” Gallegos said. “These other ethics issues can be considered in the 60-day session (in 2009).”
Phil Sisneros, spokesman for the attorney general, said the office’s “ethics legislation package isn’t going away. If it cannot be advanced this session we will bring it back next session.”
The King/Cervantes bills aren’t the only pieces of proposed ethics legislation that Richardson, who controls the agenda in 30-day sessions, has rejected. You can read about
Opening conference committees
The House approved Cervantes’ proposal to open conference committees in 2007, but the Senate twice killed bills that would open conference committees by one vote, and the proposal died. In addition to Cervantes’ request to allow discussion on his bill this year, the governor has yet to decide whether he will allow deliberation on a similar bill already introduced by Sen. Joe Carraro, R-Albuquerque.
Though it has been introduced, that bill also can’t be considered unless the governor allows it.
Gallegos said the governor is meeting with the New Mexico Press Association, a vocal proponent of the proposal to open conference committees, next week, and will decide after that whether to allow consideration of the proposal.
“While the press association has been vocal, it has not been able to convince legislators to support the idea,” Gallegos said. “…The governor has told its members in the past that they need to help convince legislators to move on this.”
Cervantes noted that the proposal was endorsed by
“The task force endorsed this initiative, and it’s something I’ve been working on for several sessions,” Cervantes said. “I hope the press association will be persuasive.”