{"id":1772,"date":"2007-05-24T12:15:00","date_gmt":"2007-05-24T18:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/05\/vigil-situation-proves-the-need-for-ethics-commission\/"},"modified":"2007-05-24T12:15:00","modified_gmt":"2007-05-24T18:15:00","slug":"vigil-situation-proves-the-need-for-ethics-commission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/05\/vigil-situation-proves-the-need-for-ethics-commission\/","title":{"rendered":"Vigil situation proves the need for ethics commission"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I\u2019d like to thank a West Las Vegas School District<\/a> employee and her lawmaker husband for making the case for creation of a state ethics commission. <\/p>\n

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

We already knew that, last year, Roberta Vigil spent almost $10,000 in taxpayer money secured with the help of her husband, Rep. Rep. Richard Vigil<\/a>, D-Ribera, on a private, invitation-only party billed as a workshop for employees of the district\u2019s bilingual education program, which she directed at the time. In addition, Richard Vigil got his wife more than $40,000 to buy furniture, a refrigerator, a big-screen television and other items for her office.<\/p>\n

\n

\n

Roberta Vigil has been demoted to an elementary teacher since the allegations surfaced.<\/p>\n

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

An article in today\u2019s Albuquerque Journal<\/a> gives us more information. The state Public Education Department<\/a> gave Roberta Vigil notice on May 10 that it\u2019s considering suspending or revoking her license because she spent more than $200,000 on private parties and items including furniture and appliances.<\/p>\n

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

According to the notice, she also hired unqualified employees, falsified data and committed other misdeeds that amounted to \u201cmoral turpitude\u201d and fraud, the Journal reported.<\/p>\n

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

According to the Journal, Roberta Vigil disputes the charges.<\/p>\n

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

I\u2019m not going to judge one way or another whether she did anything wrong. But these are serious allegations of abuse of the capital outlay process and public money by a public employee and, potentially, her lawmaker husband. Though the extent of the allegations wasn\u2019t known until this month, the allegations have been known publicly for more than a year.<\/p>\n

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

What has the legislative committee charged with investigating such potential abuses by one of its own done to determine the truth? Nothing.<\/p>\n

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

Its members have done a disservice to the public by failing to do a duty that protects taxpayers. They\u2019ve done a disservice to Richard Vigil by failing to investigate allegations that taint his reputation, and investigation that could potentially clear his name.<\/p>\n

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

That\u2019s called dereliction of duty.<\/p>\n

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

You know why they won\u2019t do it? It\u2019s the same reason Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives won\u2019t initiate an investigation of U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson\u2019s<\/a> role in the U.S. attorney scandal. Democrats and Republicans there have a long-standing truce \u2013 you leave us alone and we\u2019ll leave you alone. It\u2019s not about finding the truth. It\u2019s about playing the political game.<\/p>\n

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

That\u2019s a disservice to Wilson and the citizens she represents.<\/p>\n

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

A commission would do the job lawmakers won\u2019t<\/font><\/p>\n

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

I actually had a Republican state lawmaker tell me recently he wouldn\u2019t initiate an investigation of Richard Vigil because he\u2019s a colleague. He told me a complaint would have to come from elsewhere.<\/p>\n

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

Well, I\u2019m one of a number of people outside the Legislature who have complained about this situation, and it hasn\u2019t triggered a legislative investigation. What will?<\/p>\n

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

According to the Journal, Roberta Vigil is also accused of lacking a license for her position, hiring an assistant who wasn\u2019t qualified because she lacked a high-school diploma, taking a test on that assistant\u2019s behalf with the help of others, making false allegations against another district employee, falsifying data submitted to the state to justify an increase in funding for her program, and giving an unlicensed teacher a bilingual teaching job.<\/p>\n

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

Serious, serious allegations against a woman who is married to the state lawmaker who got her the capital outlay money in question. It stinks. Richard Vigil\u2019s role needs to be adequately investigated and, right now, the body charged with doing it refuses.<\/p>\n

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

Which leads to the ethics commission. The unwillingness of lawmakers to police themselves proves the need for an independent, nonpartisan commission tasked with investigating allegations of abuse. Ultimately, unless criminal activity is found, the commission\u2019s recommendations for action would likely be handed to the legislative committee that currently refuses to act, but the results would also be made public. That would pressure lawmakers to do their duty.<\/p>\n

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

Under the current system, there is no accountability. Roberta Vigil is in danger of losing her job, but what\u2019s going to happen to Richard Vigil?<\/p>\n

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

What should happen to him? We don\u2019t know, because the legislative committee in charge of looking into it isn\u2019t. Should his name be cleared? Should he be in trouble?<\/p>\n

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

While these questions linger, a cloud hangs over his head.<\/p>\n

\n

A prior version of this article failed to state that Roberta Vigil had been demoted since the allegations surfaced.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019d like to thank a West Las Vegas School District employee and her lawmaker husband for making the case for creation of a state ethics commission. We already knew that, last year, Roberta Vigil spent almost $10,000 in taxpayer money secured with the help of her husband, Rep. Rep. Richard Vigil, D-Ribera, on a private, […]<\/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-1772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1772","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=1772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1772\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}