{"id":1296,"date":"2007-02-22T15:38:00","date_gmt":"2007-02-22T21:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/02\/rawson-threatens-county-over-censure-of-treasurer\/"},"modified":"2007-02-22T15:38:00","modified_gmt":"2007-02-22T21:38:00","slug":"rawson-threatens-county-over-censure-of-treasurer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/02\/rawson-threatens-county-over-censure-of-treasurer\/","title":{"rendered":"Rawson threatens county over censure of treasurer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>State Sen. Leonard Lee Rawson<\/a>, R-Las Cruces, contends the Do\u00f1a Ana County Board of Commissioners didn\u2019t have the authority to censure the treasurer earlier this month, and is apparently threatening that he won\u2019t seek capital outlay funds for the county unless it rescinds the vote. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Rawson made the comments to Republican Commissioner Kent Evans<\/a> and the Las Cruces Sun-News<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The county says Rawson is wrong, but the senator, according to the newspaper, cites a 1987 attorney general opinion that says county commissioners don\u2019t have general oversight of the county\u2019s other elected officials, with a few exceptions.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Rawson said since the commission doesn\u2019t have authority to censure, the act is \u201ca malicious attack.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>County<\/st1:placetype> Treasurer<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place> Jim Schoonover<\/a> and his deputy were censured by commissioners, with only Evans voting in opposition, on Feb. 5 for a laundry list of complaints that includes misusing county staffers and equipment to benefit the Elks Lodge. The commission also demanded that Schoonover reimburse the county $1,500 for the work done for the Elks Lodge at taxpayer expense.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

County Attorney John Caldwell told the newspaper that he is familiar with the attorney general opinion and said Rawson is misinterpreting it, the newspaper reported. He said a censure is simply the commission expressing its displeasure, and is not an act of oversight.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Rawson cautioned that he isn\u2019t taking a position on whether Schoonover did anything wrong.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Evans told the Sun-News that Rawson threatened to not seek funding for the county in the current legislative session unless the censure is rescinded. Evans said he thinks it is wrong of Rawson to do that.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Rawson wouldn\u2019t confirm for the newspaper that he specifically made a threat, but said he mistrusts the commission because of the censure and the problems it\u2019s had in the past with spending appropriated money correctly.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Democratic and Republican lawmakers have complained about that in the past. It\u2019s something the county has worked hard in the past couple of years to improve.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

It\u2019s also notable that Gov. Bill Richardson vetoed many of Rawson\u2019s capital outlay appropriations for the county last year.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Evans told the newspaper he might ask for a new attorney general opinion on whether the commission had the authority to issue the censure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

State Sen. Leonard Lee Rawson, R-Las Cruces, contends the Do\u00f1a Ana County Board of Commissioners didn\u2019t have the authority to censure the treasurer earlier this month, and is apparently threatening that he won\u2019t seek capital outlay funds for the county unless it rescinds the vote. Rawson made the comments to Republican Commissioner Kent Evans and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1296","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=1296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1296\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}