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Guv’s administration targeted using bill he signed

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Fraud Against Taxpayers Act allows lawsuit alleging schoolteachers and taxpayers lost $90 million in investment deals made in exchange for contributions to Richardson’s presidential campaign When he signed the Fraud Against Taxpayers Act into law in 2007, Gov. Bill Richardson said it “sends a strong message to those who would try to cheat the taxpayers and the state of their money.” “Crime doesn’t pay,” Richardson said at the March 15, 2007 bill-signing ceremony in his office. On Wednesday, the public learned that the very law Richardson said would help fight corruption was being used to file a lawsuit on behalf of the state alleging that schoolteachers and taxpayers lost $90 million in investment deals made in exchange for contributions to Richardson’s presidential campaign. Richardson, whose office says the allegations are baseless, hasn’t been publicly named as a defendant in that lawsuit, but the names of dozens of defendants remain sealed, and it’s possible the governor’s is among them. The act, which was unanimously approved by the Legislature in 2007, was sponsored by state Rep. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, who said in an interview that he proposed it in response to the scandal in the treasurer’s office that led to the previous two state treasurers serving time in federal prison for felony crimes. “The act is designed to weed out corruption in state government by providing a bounty for whistleblowers to come forward with knowledge of wrongdoing,” Cervantes said. Continue Reading

Housing authorities were ‘a colossal failure’

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Lawmakers wanted the state auditor to determine whether there were widespread problems with the state’s affordable housing system. The auditor’s answer is a resounding ‘Yes.’ When the Legislature was discussing comprehensive reform of the state’s scandal-plagued regional housing authorities two years ago, Rep. Jose Campos, a leading skeptic of a State Investment Council report that found widespread misuse of bond money, said he wanted independent audits to determine whether reform was necessary. “Before we start condemning anybody, let’s get all the information out,” he said at the time. “Let’s not commit a political hack job.” Several lawmakers sided with Campos, and out of that was born a compromise: Some changes to the housing authority system were approved in 2007, but a bill that would have enacted comprehensive reform was gutted. Instead, the Legislature appropriated money to empower State Auditor Hector Balderas to determine the extent of the problems with the system. Continue Reading

Legislator’s ‘oops’ creates appearance of impropriety

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A state representative who says she doesn’t review her campaign finance reports before they’re filed is blaming poor bookkeeping for several egregious items on her reports that create a distasteful appearance.As reported by the Albuquerque Journal’s Thom Cole, Rep. Jane Powdrell-Culbert, R-Corrales, used more than $2,000 from her campaign account in 2006, 2007 and 2008 to pay for costs of attending out-of-state government conferences. Then she was reimbursed by the state, but there’s no record that she ever paid that money back to her campaign account. That’s an eyebrow-raising situation, to say the least. But it gets worse. She reported spending campaign money to pay for lodging and meals on those trips even though she received per diem from the state to cover those costs. Continue Reading

AG isn’t saying pay-to-play lawsuit lacks merit

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When a former state employee unsealed on Wednesday his lawsuit alleging that the state lost $90 million in investment deals made in exchange for contributions to Gov. Bill Richardson’s presidential campaign, the governor’s office was quick to point out that the attorney general had already reviewed and declined to prosecute the allegations.Under the state law that allows former New Mexico Educational Retirement Board Chief Investment Officer Frank Foy to sue on behalf of the state, Foy had to first take his case to the AG and give that office the option to prosecute. The AG declined to get involved. In pointing that out on Wednesday, Richardson spokesman Gilbert Gallegos was using that fact as supporting evidence of his assertion that the lawsuit lacks merit. But an AG spokesman says his office’s decision to stay out of the case isn’t an indicator of the case’s merit — or lack thereof.“Under the Fraud Against Tax Payers Act, the AG can intervene or not intervene, but the decision has no impact on the merits of the case,” said Phil Sisneros, spokesman for Attorney General Gary King. “In this case, we believe the plaintiff is capable of pursuing his claims and that we can assure the state’s interests are protected.” Continue Reading

Read the housing authority audits right here

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Want to find the interesting points in the audits of the regional housing authorities that were released today? With all that’s been going on today (the release of the audits and the unsealing of a lawsuit alleging pay to play in the governor’s administration) I haven’t had the time, yet, to actually read through the audits of five regional housing authorities released by State Auditor Hector Balderas. Together, they include more than 200 pages. So I’m going to read them this evening and tomorrow morning, and I plan to write a comprehensive article on their findings tomorrow. In the meantime, here are the audits: • For the Region I audit, click here. Continue Reading

Guv’s administration faces new pay-to-play allegations

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Lawsuit alleges that state invested with company in exchange for contributions to Richardson’s presidential campaign; guv says state did nothing inappropriateThis article has been updated. Gov. Bill Richardson’s administration was hit with its second pay-to-play controversy today with the unsealing of a lawsuit alleging that the state lost $90 million in investment deals made in exchange for contributions to Richardson’s presidential campaign. The lawsuit, which you can read by clicking here, was filed in July and unsealed today by Frank Foy, the former chief investment officer for the New Mexico Educational Retirement Board. The educational board invested $40 million and the State Investment Council invested $50 million with Vanderbilt Financial and affiliated companies. Foy alleges that the investments were directly tied to more than $15,000 that Vanderbilt employees and family members gave to the governor’s campaign. Continue Reading

Balderas refers housing audit to prosecutors

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State Auditor Hector Balderas has completed and is asking prosecutors to take a look at a long-awaited special audit of the state’s scandal-plagued regional housing authority system. Balderas is also releasing the special audit and other reports to the public today. The move follows a two-year investigation that began when the state Legislature asked him to take a look at the state’s affordable housing system in early 2007. Balderas says his work confirms previous reports detailing widespread problems with the system. “In my opinion, the five regional housing authorities audited by my office were plagued by weak internal controls and a lack of adequate oversight,” Balderas said today in a news release. Continue Reading

Acting like ‘Dictator Bush’

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Gov. Bill Richardson’s current troubles have me thinking back on my first real experience with him. Here’s a story about the time he tried to bully a 22-year-old single mother — and lost.Gov. Bill Richardson’s current troubles have me thinking back on past allegations that he was playing loose with the rules and bullying people. And that inevitably brings me back to my first real experience with the governor, during which I once compared him in a column to “Dictator Bush.” Richardson’s egregious actions actually inspired me to, for the first time, take advantage of my constitutional right to petition my government. First the context: In July 2003, Richardson summoned New Mexico State University Student Regent Felicia Ybarra to his office. On three key votes, the college student had disregarded the wishes of the governor who appointed her and who held her already signed but undated resignation letter in his hand, and he wanted an in-person meeting, on his turf. Continue Reading

Senator pressures guv on background checks

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Tension between the Senate and governor is already spewing into the public view even before the 60-day legislative session kicks off on Tuesday.Yesterday, Sen. Linda Lopez, D-Albuquerque and chair of the Senate Rules Committee, requested that Gov. Bill Richardson reconsider his refusal to allow the Department of Public Safety to conduct background checks for the committee on Richardson’s high-level appointees that are subject to confirmation. “The committee has an obligation to act responsibly. … If state, school and local government employers perform background checks on corrections personnel, school custodians and accountants, there is all the more reason to do the same thing for these high-level positions,” Lopez said in a news release. “I am hopeful the governor will agree it is time to have a more meaningful confirmation process.” Lopez said if the committee “is unable to obtain good background information, it will have difficulty in moving forward with any confirmations.” The new pressure from Lopez comes as Richardson is under heavy scrutiny because of a federal grand jury investigation into allegations of pay-to-play in his administration. Media attention on the probe has helped give new energy to a move for ethics reform in Santa Fe. Continue Reading

State Rep. Dub Williams retires

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State Rep. Dub Williams, R-Glenco, announced Tuesday that health reasons are forcing him to retire days before a 60-day session begins next week.According to the Alamogordo Daily News, Williams’ wife has been sick, and the two are unable to travel to Santa Fe for the session. Williams has asked commissioners in Otero and Lincoln counties to consider nominating Zack Cook, a Ruidoso lawyer and village attorney in Capitan, for the position. Gov. Bill Richardson will choose a replacement from among candidates recommended by the two counties’ commissions. Williams, who has served in the Legislature since 1995, recently won re-election. “It has been a great honor for me to serve Lincoln County in the state legislature the past 14 years,” Williams wrote Lincoln County Commission Chairman Tom Battin, according to the Alamogordo paper. Continue Reading

Lobbyist played dual role in Richardson’s world

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Bloomberg.com continues to lead the way in uncovering the story behind a federal investigation into allegations of pay-to-play in Gov. Bill Richardson’s administration with a new report highlighting the dual role of a man who served as a director for one of the governor’s political action committees while also reportedly working to help a bank that gave money to the PAC win a state bond contract.Fred DuVal is a Phoenix lobbyist who worked as a consultant for UBS AG. His firm was credited by the bank with helping win “an assignment to sell a portion of $1.1 billion of bonds for the New Mexico Finance Authority in April 2004,” the news organization reported today in an article you can read by clicking here. That came two months after DuVal was named as a director of Si Se Puede! Boston 2004 Inc., one of two Richardson PACs at the center of the federal investigation that caused Richardson to withdraw his nomination to be commerce secretary a little more than a week ago. The PAC received $75,000 from CDR Financial Products around the same time in 2004 that it won a finance authority bond contract related to the UBS contract that ended up paying CDR almost $1.5 million. Continue Reading

State Senate won’t start webcasting this year

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I’ve written several times about the need to broadcast legislative proceedings online. Though there was a chance it was going to happen in the New Mexico Senate for the first time this year, it now appears it won’t happen.Santa Fe New Mexican reporter Steve Terrell reports on his blog that he saw Roundhouse maintenance workers taking down the cameras in the Senate gallery today. The cameras were installed after the Senate voted last year to spend $30,000 to start webcasting but, last month, Senate leaders decided not to start webcasting, even though the system is in place to easily do it. They blamed the budget crunch. New Mexico is one of six states that doesn’t webcast at least some legislative proceedings, Terrell wrote. Continue Reading

Guv to be in Las Cruces on Wednesday

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Gov. Bill Richardson will be in Las Cruces on Wednesday as part of a statewide tour to promote his legislative agenda in advance of the 60-day session that starts next week.Richardson will detail some of his public safety initiatives at a news conference at his satellite office, located at 505 S. Main Street, at 12:30 p.m., according to a news release. Richardson will also be in Farmington and Roswell on Wednesday. He will make public appearances in Hobbs, Clovis and Tucumcari on Thursday. Continue Reading

A new delegation, a new chance for wilderness

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Democrats Bingaman, Udall and Teague work toward permanent protection of land in Doña Ana County A bill U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman sponsored on Sunday that would set aside land in nine states as wilderness doesn’t include the Organ Mountains or other land in Doña Ana County, but the senator’s office says he plans to introduce legislation to extend wilderness protection to land in the county in the coming months. In the meantime, the bill the New Mexico Democrat sponsored over the weekend does include one proposal sought by many in the Las Cruces area: the creation of a 5,367-acre national monument in the Robledo Mountains to protect fossilized prehistoric animal tracks there. That proposed monument is important to conservation groups in the area, but it’s only a part of the larger battle over how to protect land in Doña Ana County — and how much land should be protected — that has raged for years as a coalition led by the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance has sparred with a group led by some ranchers and four-wheeling enthusiasts. The wilderness coalition wants to designate about 300,000 acres in the county as wilderness and another 96,000 as a national conservation area. The ranchers’ group wants no wilderness at all and proposes new, less-restrictive designations for the land, in addition to requiring the sale of 65,000 acres of the land owned by the Bureau of Land Management. Continue Reading

Stray cats and dogs deserve humane euthanization

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By Ken W. MartinezEvery legislative session, I have the daunting task of deciding what issues I will focus on and what causes I will support. Being from Grants, I understand the challenges our rural communities face and, having the responsibility of being the New Mexico House majority leader, I understand how those issues intersect with the broader needs of our state. Unfortunately, animal-rights issues have taken center stage in New Mexico the past few years, and this year is no different. It has often been said that how our community treats our animal population is a commentary on how we truly are as a society. From cases of horse cruelty in Albuquerque to animal hoarding in Española and Los Lunas to dog-fighting rings in Las Cruces, we still have a lot of work to do to ensure that we treat animals humanely. Continue Reading