The Albuquerque Journal had a stellar, two-part report this weekend about a top manager at the state Department of Transportation.
To get you interested, here are the first few paragraphs of Part 1 of the report:
“Lawrence Barreras is supervising 150 employees, cutting right-of-way land deals and earning nearly $88,000 a year as a top manager at the state Department of Transportation.
“Not bad for a guy who was fired from the state Corrections Department for alleged financial wrongdoing and landed a classified DOT position only after the job description was changed.
“In fact, Barreras has led something of a charmed life in the Richardson administration, where his responsibilities continue to grow despite revelations about his outside consulting work, his 15 percent pay raise during a salary freeze, his use of a state car to commute and employee complaints about his management style.
“And about that firing?
“You won’t find any record of it in his state personnel files. That’s all been cleaned up so that the files show only that he resigned in good standing.
“Welcome to the world of state government and Lawrence Barreras.”
The report is definitely worth a read. Click here for Part 1 and here for Part 2.