{"id":168076,"date":"2016-07-12T11:59:58","date_gmt":"2016-07-12T17:59:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=168076"},"modified":"2016-07-12T22:29:18","modified_gmt":"2016-07-13T04:29:18","slug":"griego-case-reveals-culture-of-secrecy-tolerance-for-conflicts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2016\/07\/griego-case-reveals-culture-of-secrecy-tolerance-for-conflicts\/","title":{"rendered":"Griego case reveals culture of secrecy, tolerance for conflicts"},"content":{"rendered":"

COMMENTARY:<\/strong>\u00a0Several high-ranking government officials \u201cknew or may have known\u201d about former state Sen. Phil Griego\u2019s financial stake in the sale of a state-owned building \u2013 and, in spite of the conflict, \u201cdid nothing to stop it,\u201d The Santa Fe New Mexican is reporting<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Heath

Heath Haussamen<\/p><\/div>\n

The revelation came during a preliminary hearing in the criminal case against Griego last week. The Democrat from San Jose is facing bribery, fraud, forgery and other charges for his role in the sale of the building in Santa Fe, which earned him a $50,000 commission.<\/p>\n

That others knew and didn\u2019t act isn\u2019t surprising, unfortunately. State government is plagued by conflicts and secrecy that hampers efforts to improve the lives of New Mexicans. We need structural reforms to make our government more transparent, ethical and accountable<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Griego helped push a joint resolution<\/a> through the Legislature to authorize the building sale in early 2014. He didn\u2019t disclose<\/a> his financial interest in the sale to lawmakers, the attorney general alleges<\/a>. It wasn\u2019t until journalist Peter St. Cyr reported on the situation in July 2014<\/a> that the public learned about Griego\u2019s egregious conflict.<\/p>\n

But then-House Speaker Ken Martinez, D-Grants, testified last week that he learned about Griego\u2019s role months earlier, in April 2014. The Legislature had already approved the sale, but the Capitol Building Planning Commission still needed to give the final OK.<\/p>\n

The commission didn\u2019t vote on the sale at its April 2014 meeting. Griego asked Martinez to call the commission back for a vote that day. \u201cI guess he indicated he had a personal stake in it,\u201d Martinez testified last week, according to The New Mexican. \u201cI don\u2019t know if he disclosed it. It was apparent in his conversation he wanted this done quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martinez didn\u2019t call the commission back that day and was the only member voting against the sale when the commission approved it in June 2014. Minutes from that meeting don\u2019t indicate that Martinez raised concerns about Griego\u2019s involvement.<\/p>\n

Martinez also testified last week that he discussed Griego\u2019s interest in the sale with Senate President Pro Tem Mary Kay Papen, D-Las Cruces, another member of the commission. General Services Department Secretary Ed Burckle testified that Griego disclosed his interest in the sale to department officials in March 2014. Testimony revealed that others may have known too.<\/p>\n

Perhaps even more revealing than who knew about Griego\u2019s conflict was the testimony of a lawmaker who says he didn\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

Rep. Jim Trujillo, D-Santa Fe, who sponsored the resolution authorizing the building sale at Griego\u2019s request, testified that he wouldn\u2019t have voted against the legislation even if he had known about the conflict.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose arrangements are his business, not my business,\u201d The New Mexican quoted Trujillo as saying. \u201cI\u2019m not a judge of conduct.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some lawmakers have rejected structural reforms like the creation of an independent ethics commission by arguing that they can police themselves. How many others join Trujillo in believing self-policing is not their role?<\/p>\n

New Mexicans should be grateful for the work St. Cyr did to out Griego\u2019s misdeeds. His tenacious reporting forced lawmakers to address the situation. Facing possible sanctions, Griego resigned from the Senate in 2015. St. Cyr\u2019s work also led to the criminal charges Griego faces today.<\/p>\n

And it has revealed the tolerance in state government for conflicts and secrets. Which raises other questions: Who else is unethically and possibly illegally benefiting from secret deals? And who else is looking the other way while it happens?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Who else is unethically and possibly illegally benefiting from secret deals? And who else is looking the other way while it happens?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":55852,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,10],"tags":[142,109,114,107,706],"class_list":["post-168076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-haussamen-columns","tag-crime","tag-ethics-reform","tag-public-corruption","tag-roundhouse","tag-transparency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168076","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=168076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}