It looks like Attorney General Gary King will be weighing in on the legality of the plan to have two state universities help pay members of Gov. Bill Richardson’s administration.
Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming and chair of the Legislative Finance Committee, asked King in a Friday letter to investigate, saying he “and other LFC members have serious concerns about the legality and propriety of these compensation agreements,” the Albuquerque Journal reported.
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UNM will also pay $60,000 of the $175,000 annual salary for new Health Secretary Alfredo Vigil, and New Mexico State University will pay the entire $220,000 salary for Deputy Higher Education Secretary Bill Flores, who left his job as the school’s provost and executive vice president earlier this year to take the state job.
Dasenbrock had to be fired by UNM to qualify for a sabbatical; then UNM agreed to chip in the money for his new job instead of granting the sabbatical. Vigil, for UNM’s part of his salary, will become a faculty member at its medical school.
Flores technically remains on staff at NMSU as an assistant to the executive vice president and provost who deals with the Higher Education Department, but he holds the state title and reports to the department’s secretary in
Smith asked in his letter for King to consider whether a public officer can “serve two masters,” the newspaper reported.
The administration and universities defend the agreements as legal. The administration says the employees know their duty is to the department for which they work, and they won’t show favoritism to the schools that help pay them – a question that’s especially relevant in the cases of Dasenbrock and Flores.
The administration also says the higher pay is necessary to attract top candidates.
The attorney general’s spokesman told the newspaper his office had not yet received Smith’s letter, but said the office will look into the situation and issue a formal opinion.
Update, 3 p.m.
You can read Smith’s letter by clicking here.