Guv: ‘Very little public interest’ in open-meetings bill

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Gov. Bill Richardson’s office says there has been “very little public interest” beyond that shown by the media in a bill that would open conference committees and many other legislative meetings to the public. The comment from Deputy Chief of Staff Gilbert Gallegos came today in response to a recent column in which I questioned the motive behind Richardson’s backpedaling on a previous pledge to sign the bill. Richardson now says he doesn’t know whether he will sign it. I wrote that it may take “a great deal of public pressure” to convince the governor to sign the bill. “By the way, the governor told me to let you know that if you really think a ‘great deal of public pressure’ is needed for him to sign the bill, this bill is in real trouble,” Gallegos wrote in an e-mail. Continue Reading

Wall Street’s paper highlights DC’s staff bonuses

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Did you know that it’s fairly common for members of Congress to give their staffers bonuses, courtesy of your tax dollars? It’s true. The Wall Street Journal is reporting on it today in an article that definitely has a tone. The article points out that, “while Congress has been flaying companies for giving out bonuses while on the government dole,” more than 200 House members of both parties gave bonuses totaling $9.1 million to more than 2,000 staffers last year. If my math is correct, that’s an average of roughly $4,500 per staffer. Continue Reading

Las Cruces Sun-News eliminates more jobs

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Parent company is moving the newspaper’s copy desk to the El Paso Times in May Apparently, three layoffs and weeklong, unpaid furloughs for all employees weren’t enough. The company that owns the Las Cruces Sun-News now plans to move the newspaper’s copy desk to the El Paso Times in Texas, eliminating two jobs in the process. The move, announced to Sun-News employees on Tuesday, is the latest sign of the struggles the newspaper industry faces in New Mexico and across the country. The first Sun-News layoffs came earlier this month, and the company-wide furloughs were designed to make ends meet in the first quarter for the Denver-based MediaNews Group, which is the owner or majority stakeholder in nine New Mexico papers, including the Sun-News. It’s also the majority stakeholder in the El Paso paper. Continue Reading

Agency takes issue with attack on investment

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Foundation’s report wrongly characterizes $9 million investment as a loan, State Investment Council spokesman says A spokesman for the State Investment Council (SIC) takes issue with a libertarian-leaning foundation’s report trashing a $9 million investment made in a company whose use of the cash didn’t work out as planned. The most egregious inaccuracy in the Rio Grande Foundation’s report about the $9 million investment in Earthstone International is that it repeatedly characterizes the investment as a loan, said SIC spokesman Charles Wollmann. He provided a copy of a 2004 news release to back up the assertion that this was an investment. There’s a big difference between an investment and a loan, he said. The latter has to be repaid, while the first gives the state a stake in the company and is never expected to be repaid. Continue Reading

Guv signs housing authority overhaul bill

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Gov. Bill Richardson signed today a bill that will reform the state’s scandal-plagued affordable housing system. There was no ceremony to celebrate the signing of Senate Bill 20, sponsored by Mary Kay Papen, D-Las Cruces. It was listed in a news release along with a number of other bills the governor signed today. Among the reforms in the bill are the consolidation of the seven regional authorities into three, the designation of an oversight agency to oversee regional operations, the strengthening of conflict-of-interest language, the permanent elimination of the authorities’ ability to issue bonds and the requirement that transactions of over $100,000 be reviewed and approved by the mortgage finance authority. That builds on reforms approved in 2007 that included temporarily stripping the housing authorities’ bonding authority and giving the Department of Finance and Administration and state treasurer roles in administering the agencies’ finances. Continue Reading

Big loan for Santa Teresa plant went elsewhere

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The Rio Grande Foundation has published a report detailing $9 million the state loaned to a company that said it planned to create 200 jobs by building a new plant in southern Doña Ana County but has instead “exported jobs to Mexico.” “Not one dime” of the loan has been repaid, the foundation’s investigative journalist, Jim Scarantino, writes on the foundation’s blog, New Mexico Liberty. Oh, and you probably guessed this already, but the company’s founder is a big-time Democrat who has given money to Gov. Bill Richardson and others. Some details: According to Scarantino’s report, Andrew Ungerleider’s Earthstone International secured the loan from the State Investment Council (SIC) at the urging of Richardson. Ungerleider pledged at the time to use the money to locate a facility for Earthstone — which uses recycled glass to make an abrasive compound for cleaning and sanding — in Santa Teresa. Earthstone also planned to open a research and development facility in Las Cruces. Continue Reading

Guv should sign conference committee bill

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There’s no good reason for Richardson to veto the legislation — if the public’s interest is his motive Gov. Bill Richardson has every reason in the world to sign a bill that would open conference committees and many other legislative meetings to the public, and no reason to veto it — if the public’s interest is his motive. If he has ulterior motives — such as using a public-policy proposal he has endorsed for years as a bargaining chip with powerful lawmakers who would like to see it die — that’s a different story. The fact that he is backpedaling on his pledge to sign a bill that would open the meetings to the public now that it’s finally made it to his desk suggests that the second, more sinister motive is the one in Richardson’s head and heart. And that’s a huge disappointment. The issue is simple: Lawmakers have historically closed the doors and hid from the public when they have to convene conference committees — meetings of a handful of House and Senate members appointed to hash out disputes over differences between versions of bills that have passed both chambers. Continue Reading

Obama signs land-protection omnibus bill

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State’s delegation praises legislation that includes a number of new conservation efforts in New MexicoPresident Barack Obama signed an omnibus bill today that would enact a number of new land-preservation measures in New Mexico, including creation of a national monument in the Robledo Mountains in Doña Ana County and a new wilderness area in San Miguel County.In signing the bill, carried in the Senate by Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., Obama called it “among the most important in decades to protect, preserve and pass down our nation’s most treasured landscapes to future generations.” The bill designated an additional 2 million acres across the nation as wilderness — the highest protection allowed under federal law.Included in the bill is Bingaman’s measure to protect fossilized prehistoric trackways in the Robledo Mountains that are 290 million years old. The bill does that by establishing a new, 5,367-acre national monument around the trackways. “Doña Ana County has gained an important national monument that will be protected for generations to come,” Bingaman said in a news release.U.S. Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., touted the establishment of the 16,000-acre Sabinoso wilderness area in San Miguel County in his news release. As a former House member, Udall authored the legislation creating that wilderness area.“The Sabinoso Wilderness is the product of years of work by the entire community, including local leaders, sportsmen, land owners and ranchers,” Udall said in a release. “The preservation of this incredible landscape will now remain for the permanent benefit and enjoyment of current and future generations.”House members also praise signing of billMembers of the U.S. House from New Mexico also praised the president’s signing of the bill.“From the Snowy River Cave in Lincoln County to the prehistoric trackways in the Robledo Mountains in Doña Ana, this package of bills provides important protections for some of the natural treasures we have throughout southern New Mexico,” said Rep. Harry Teague, D-N.M.“In the West, we know the value of water and the value of the places where we hunt, fish and recreate with our families,” said Rep. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M. “This law will help us maintain these places and the cultures that they support.”“By protecting and enhancing the natural and cultural resources which are integral to the identity of New Mexico and America, this bill ensures the prolonged existence and availability of forest lands and natural resources for future generations,” said Rep. Ben R. Luján, D-N.M. Continue Reading

Can we have an ethics commission now?

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Lujan’s billboard snafu is the latest situation to prove the need for creation of an independent ethics commission Here’s the latest example of a smelly situation involving public officials that probably won’t get the proper investigation it deserves because New Mexico doesn’t have an independent state ethics commission: Did House Speaker Ben Lujan get special treatment when top officials with the state Department of Transportation searched for ways to let him keep an illegal billboard up or at least retroactively legalize it so he could be compensated for its removal? We don’t know. And there’s a good chance we won’t know. That’s because there’s not really an agency in place to investigate such fishy situations, except the attorney general, whose focus is on criminal activity. While lots of unethical behavior is criminal, plenty is not. Continue Reading

AG, auditor engage in a ‘legal food fight’

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In what the Albuquerque Journal characterizes as a “legal food fight,” the state auditor and attorney general are fighting over a subpoena the auditor calls a “hyper-aggressive” fishing expedition by the AG. The backdrop: State-government scandals that are currently consuming headlines and, of course, politics. The Saturday Journal article details what began with an AG probe into complaints about State Auditor Hector Balderas received by a fraud hotline set up by his own office. It’s a probe that apparently has expanded to include a request for a host of documents from the auditor’s office, including all tips sent to the fraud hotline, personnel files and “copies of all electronic communications” including e-mails, text messages, faxes, attachments and embedded files, the Journal article quotes the subpoena as stating. The subpoena was released by the auditor’s office in response to a public records request, along with the auditor’s response to it. Continue Reading

Guv’s approval stays below 50 percent

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The newest SurveyUSA poll has Gov. Bill Richardson’s approval rating at 42 percent. The survey of 600 New Mexicans, released Saturday, has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.1 percentage points. That matches a New Mexico State University poll released earlier this month that had Richardson’s approval rating at 43 percent and the February SurveyUSA poll that had his approval at 41 percent. In the new poll, 54 percent said they disapprove of the job Richardson is doing, and 4 percent said they don’t know whether they approve of his performance. Richardson’s approval dropped below 50 percent for the first time in January as became dogged by a controversy involving the ongoing federal grand jury investigation into allegations of pay to play in his administration. Continue Reading

Auto failures: The next big economic crisis?

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I’ve shared more than once in the last few months, most recently in this column, my doubts about the attempts by the Bush and now Obama administrations to fix this economic mess with big-dollar bailouts. Regardless, I’m cringing tonight seeing the headlines: The White House has determined that neither Chrysler nor General Motors is viable, and neither deserves anymore bailout cash, at least as currently structured. Check it out from The Politico and The Associated Press. What does this have to do with New Mexico politics? It’s becoming increasingly likely that at least one major automaker — maybe more than one — is heading for bankruptcy, soon. Continue Reading

Repeal of death penalty wins this site’s weekly poll

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The repeal of the death penalty received the most votes in last week’s non-scientific poll on this site asking what event from the legislative session was most significant. Of 177 voters, 56, or 32 percent, picked the death-penalty repeal. Meanwhile, 31 voters, or 18 percent, picked the defeat of domestic partner benefits, and another 31 picked the approval of open conference committees. Some 22, or 12 percent, picked the approval of campaign contribution limits, and another 22 picked the approval of the state budget. Fifteen, or 8 percent, picked the approval of webcasting. Continue Reading

Whistleblower says housing audits are flawed

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In a new report, woman who revealed housing authority problems to the public takes issue with Balderas’ audits of the system The woman who first blew the whistle on the scandal in New Mexico’s housing authority system says the state auditor’s reports on the matter are seriously flawed, not going far enough to reveal what she calls “the fundamental corruption that goes down to the very base of our public entities.” Las Crucen Frances Williams, in a document she authored at the request of two state senators, writes that State Auditor Hector Balderas’ special audits of the affordable housing system are “confusing, contradictory, inconsistent, inconclusive and misleading.” The document has been circulating among lawmakers and others. It was Williams, complaining to newspaper reporters and others in 2006, who first revealed the problems in the system to the public. At the time, she was a board member of the Las Cruces-based Region VII authority. Some of Williams’ complaints in the new report appear relatively minor. For example, Williams writes that her “first clue about the quality of the audit” of Region VII was the fact that it does not contain a full list of its board members, including her. Continue Reading

Teague unveils new Web site

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Harry Teague, the Democratic congressman from southern New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District, is the first of the freshman members of the state delegation to finish his new congressional Web site. Check it out by clicking here. The simple design makes it easy to find what you’re looking for. Personally, I think it’s great. The other new members of the state’s delegation have temporary, generic Web sites that their staffs put up in January when they took office, but have not yet unveiled their custom-made, personal sites. Continue Reading