Voters in poll say AG not tough enough on corruption

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The majority of those who voted in last week’s non-scientific poll on this site said Attorney General Gary King has not been tough enough on public corruption. Of 458 voters, 403, or 88 percent, said the AG isn’t doing enough, while 36, or 8 percent, said he is, and 19, or 4 percent, said they don’t know. Don’t forget to vote in this week’s poll, located at the top of the right column on this page. Continue Reading

What about the Region VII Housing Authority records?

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Why were they abandoned in the agency’s former office for almost two years? What information do they contain? When the Las Cruces-based Region VII Housing Authority shut down in August 2006, board members said the agency’s records would be sent to Region III in Albuquerque. So why did the government records remain essentially abandoned in a privately owned office building in Las Cruces until almost two years later, when they were finally picked up by Brian Colón, a private attorney working on the State Investment Council’s (SIC) lawsuit that’s attempting to recover money lost when Region III defaulted in 2006 on $5 million in bonds it owed the state? Good question. Continue Reading

Is Colón’s work on housing authority lawsuit a conflict?

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Whistleblower says Democratic Party chairman’s dual roles create ‘the perception of conflict of interest;’ Colón says there is no conflict The chairman of the Democratic Party of New Mexico traveled to Las Cruces on May 14, 2008 to pick up documents left behind when the Region VII Housing Authority shut down in August 2006. But Brian Colón wasn’t acting in his role as party chair. Colón is an attorney, and his law firm is suing two defendants on behalf of the State Investment Council (SIC) to try to recover money lost when the Albuquerque-based Region III Housing Authority defaulted in 2006 on $5 million in bonds it owed the state. With a subpoena in hand, Colón met with Edgar Lopez, who had been Region VII’s landlord, filled his car with boxes of government records and headed north on Interstate 25. Colón confirmed in an interview that his work on the case includes investigation, research and communicating with the SIC on behalf of his law firm, Robles, Rael & Anaya. Continue Reading