Johnny F. Luévano Jr.
The recent signing of the “Sunshine Portal” by the lieutenant governor is a good, transparent step forward in the pursuit of good government. I am sure it will have its naysayers and technical bugs to be worked out, but the concept has the potential to become a transparent self-reporting mechanism for state agencies to report their financial expenditures to the public.
The lieutenant governor, Senator Rue, Representative Cote and all others involved should be commended for their efforts – one gold star awarded. Now the tough work begins, because I am sure it will be difficult to get this thing going with an over-priced contractor and constant push-back from other reluctant state agencies that will purposely drag their heels.
My suggestion is to keep it simple in the beginning and build upon those early successes.
One of my steps discussed in a previous article, “Taking Back New Mexico in the next decade,” listed the importance of capping the number of exempt state employees that the governor can appoint. I am glad to award the lieutenant governor another gold star for taking the initiative to cut the number of political appointees to pre-2003 numbers.
But now is the time to maintain the momentum in the pursuit of good government, and I would ask the lieutenant governor and other GOP gubernatorial candidates to pledge to ensure that all political appointees fall under the same merit-based system of all other state employees.
This includes pay, leave, retirement plan and basic qualifications for the position to be appointed. The only difference should be the hiring process: An elected executive deserves to hire his or her staff. But it is not fair to other government employees who work their way up through the merit system in terms of experience, training and sacrificing countless family hours to attend after-hours education to be bypassed in favor of the hobnobbing, under-qualified politico patronage system.
The leadership of government is supposed to set the example for other government employees to emulate, and this is difficult to accomplish when the leader of a government agency is less qualified in terms of experience, training and education.
The lieutenant governor also said, “I would consolidate inspectors general throughout government into one, independent Office of Government Accountability, which would investigate and root out waste, inefficiency and fraud and abuse in government.” Maybe I am mistaken, which could be the case, but to us old-fashioned regular folks this sounds like the job of our state auditor.
Regardless of whether you agree with the lieutenant governor, she must be given credit for proposing her substantive ideas, and I truly believe we can all respect those efforts. Holding our candidates accountable for providing specific and substantive policy ideas before an election can help shift the political paradigm from the all-important, constant fundraising tally to a more substantive debate.
Only then we will begin to see more qualified and competent elected officials who can truly deliver on the pursuit of limited, efficient, effective, responsive, transparent, equitable and honorable government.
P.S. Has anyone seen a detailed and substantive FY11 or FY12 budget proposals from our gubernatorial candidates? If so, please point me in the right direction, because I need something to read.
Luévano, a registered independent, is a Marine Corps officer with 18 years of active-duty service and an Artesia native. He graduated from the University of New Mexico in 2001 with a bachelor’s in political science and economics and from the University of Kansas in 2008 with a master’s in public administration. The views expressed are those of the individual only and not those of the Department of Defense. You can reach him at jfluevano@gmail.com.
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