Heath Haussamen
Sunland Park officials are like children: They’ve been allowed to break the rules, so they keep doing it. Let’s hope this time law enforcement and state officials clean up this mess.
Sunland Park Mayor Martin Resendiz decided to take his ball and go home months ago after negative publicity tainted his political career. He hasn’t been at work since October, even though he’s still getting paid.
Two of three candidates vying to replace him in the March 6 election are caught up in a circus performance that includes a secretly recorded video of one of them getting a lap dance that has aired on El Paso television.
Meanwhile, the city’s finances are a mess. Here’s how State Auditor Hector Balderas characterized the situation in a letter he sent to city officials Thursday notifying them his staffers are coming to town to conduct a special audit:
“The City’s audit reports for fiscal years ended June 30, 2008 through June 30, 2010, indicate that the city is in a state of financial disarray. … Because the City has a significant amount of missing financial records, it is impossible to gain any certainty or reliability about the sources and uses of the City’s public funds. … The City’s lack of fiscal transparency creates extreme risks for fraud and misappropriation of taxpayer funds.”
In all the media coverage of the Sunland Park strippergate and other things going on, that’s the key point: It’s clear the city’s finances are a mess, but auditors haven’t been able to determine the degree of the mess because there are so many missing records.
Hmm… What do you do if you’re committing crimes, malfeasance or shenanigans and don’t want to get caught? Destroy records, of course. Or simply don’t keep records to begin with.
No evidence, no crime. Sunland Park is a textbook example of why transparency laws are critical but useless if they’re not enforced.
Children need structure
You can read the three audits Balderas referred to for fiscal years 2008-2010 here, here and here. The auditor noted that the city hasn’t yet submitted its fiscal year 2011 audit. As it did with the other three, the city has ignored the required deadline.
Why shouldn’t Sunland Park operate this way? It’s done it before, been caught doing it, and avoided consequences. In 2003, the State Auditor’s Office released a damning report that included findings of fiscal mismanagement surrounding a $2 million loan and violations of the state Open Meetings Act, procurement code, and nepotism laws. Then-State Auditor Domingo Martinez recommended that the Department of Finance and Administration suspend elected officials and temporarily take over the city.
But an investigation that began before Bill Richardson took office instead went away quietly during Richardson’s first year as governor.
You see, in Sunland Park they’re masters of political theater – as evidenced by strippergate and other recent incidents. A town full of Hispanic Democrats opposed Richardson’s involvement in its battle with Doña Ana County over water. Led by the mayor, residents burned Richardson campaign T-shirts in front of El Paso TV cameras.
And – surprise! – the special audit went away, and Richardson and Sunland Park officials became friends again. Martinez was appalled, but also powerless.
I’m oversimplifying the way it went down, but the reality is that Richardson had the evidence to justify stepping in and the authority to clean up this mess, but he chose not to do it.
So why wouldn’t Sunland Park officials continue operating this way? They’re like children. They’ve been allowed to break the rules, so they keep doing it.
They need enforcement of the rules. They need structure.
Let’s hope things are different this time
Thank goodness the FBI is investigating Sunland Park’s dealings. Thank goodness state police and the district attorney are doing the same. This will be one of new DA Amy Orlando’s first big tests. But as the Sunland Park city manager pointed out earlier this week, police have seized records from city hall before, and “the DA never does anything.”
That’s why Balderas’ involvement is so critical. He’s taken on government agencies that needed taking on repeatedly during his tenure. He knows how to do this, though I suspect his auditors have never seen anything quite as messy as what they’re about to wade into. Hopefully his fiscal experts can help investigators and prosecutors sort through the mess to find the truth.
To improve things in Sunland Park, Orlando and Balderas are going to need the support of Gov. Susana Martinez’s administration. State Rep. Mary Helen Garcia called for a state takeover of Sunland Park months ago. At the time, DFA said only a special audit could trigger that.
The audit is likely to begin next week.
If crimes have been committed, let’s hope investigators find the evidence and pursue charges. If the state needs to take over, let’s hope the governor has the will to do it.
It’s time to teach these children to behave.