{"id":10105,"date":"2009-12-09T13:39:57","date_gmt":"2009-12-09T20:39:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=10105"},"modified":"2009-12-09T13:39:57","modified_gmt":"2009-12-09T20:39:57","slug":"another-day-another-eyebrow-raising-story-about-the-richardson-administration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/12\/another-day-another-eyebrow-raising-story-about-the-richardson-administration\/","title":{"rendered":"Another day, another eyebrow-raising story about the Richardson administration"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Gov.

Gov. Bill Richardson (Photo by Heath Haussamen)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cSoft landings\u201d is how the Albuquerque Journal characterizes the contracts Gov. Bill Richardson\u2019s<\/a> administration gave to two members of his cabinet after they left those public jobs.<\/p>\n

The contracts \u2013 which some might characterize as \u201cthank-yous\u201d \u2013 given to former Information Technology Secretary Roy Soto and former Workforce Solutions Secretary Betty Sparrow Doris after they quit were funded, of course, by taxpayers.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the Journal\u2019s Thomas J. Cole who wrote about the situation today. From his article<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cRLR Resources, the consulting company of former Information Technology Secretary Roy Soto, received a six-month, $49,500 contract from Soto\u2019s old department.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a no-bid contract, of course.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd former Workforce Solutions Secretary Betty Sparrow Doris received a $100-an-hour, $49,200 contract with her old agency shortly after she left the Cabinet, saying she wanted to spend more time with her family.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo-bid, too.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 Under the state Procurement Act, departments can award contracts of up to $50,000 for professional services without seeking competitive proposals.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlso, state officials can lawfully enter into contracts with their former agencies as long as they didn’t take any actions while in office that led to the contracts.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Republican gubernatorial candidate Susana Martinez<\/a> is the only one who\u2019s put out a statement about Cole\u2019s article this far.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis administration is preparing to raise taxes on families and businesses during a historic recession to make up for the waste, fraud and abuse that has bankrupted our state,\u201d Martinez said. \u201cInstead of cutting off the spigot, Richardson and\u00a0Denish\u00a0continue to perpetuate a corrupt system that rewards friends while stealing from taxpayers.\u201d<\/p>\n

FYI, the Santa Fe New Mexican\u2019s Kate Nash was the first<\/a> to write about Doris\u2019 situation.<\/p>\n

Because of Martinez\u2019s statement, I\u2019d be reckless if I didn\u2019t point out that the Cole and Nash articles say nothing about Lt. Gov. Diane Denish<\/a> \u2013 the likely Democratic nominee for governor next year \u2013 having any role in the contracts given to Soto and Doris. As lieutenant governor, it\u2019s not likely that she did. Trying to tie Denish to this one may be a bit of a stretch.<\/p>\n

And, for the record, the two former employees say they didn\u2019t do anything wrong.<\/p>\n

Regardless, I sure get tired of publishing articles about these suspicious situations. Do you get tired of reading about them?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cSoft landings\u201d is how the Albuquerque Journal characterizes the contracts Gov. Bill Richardson\u2019s administration gave to two members of his cabinet after they left those public jobs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[112,107],"class_list":["post-10105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-bill-richardson","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10105\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}