{"id":17752,"date":"2010-05-25T12:22:36","date_gmt":"2010-05-25T18:22:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=17752"},"modified":"2010-05-25T12:22:37","modified_gmt":"2010-05-25T18:22:37","slug":"house-speaker-county-commissioner-tied-to-church-paving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/05\/house-speaker-county-commissioner-tied-to-church-paving\/","title":{"rendered":"House speaker, county commissioner tied to church paving"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_7235\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignright\" style=\"max-width: 120px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-7235\" title=\"Lujan, Ben\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/Lujan-Ben.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"120\" height=\"160\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ben Luj\u00e1n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>House Speaker <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nmlegis.gov\/lcs\/legdetails.aspx?SPONCODE=HLUJA\">Ben Luj\u00e1n<\/a> and Santa Fe County Commissioner <a href=\"http:\/\/www.santafecounty.org\/county_commissioners\/harry_montoya\">Harry Montoya<\/a> pushed for the use of public money to pave a church parking lot near Lujan\u2019s home in Namb\u00e9, according to an e-mail from the county\u2019s public works director.<\/p>\n<p>A week ago that public works director, James Lujan, was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.santafenewmexican.com\/LocalNews\/Public-Works-director-put-on-leave\">placed on leave<\/a> pending a law enforcement investigation into allegations of misuse of public money and materials that includes the paving of the Sacred Heart Catholic Church parking lot.<\/p>\n<p>Today, The Santa Fe New Mexican reported on e-mails that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.santafenewmexican.com\/LocalNews\/E-mails-tie-House-speaker-to-church-paving\">implicate the speaker and Montoya<\/a> \u2013 who\u2019s also a Democratic candidate for land commissioner.<\/p>\n<p>In response to an e-mail from Montoya asking about the paving of the parking lot \u2013 Montoya had received an inquiry from a constituent \u2013 James Lujan wrote this:<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_15637\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignright\" style=\"max-width: 120px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15637\" title=\"Montoya, Harry\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/Montoya-Harry1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"120\" height=\"160\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Harry Montoya<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\u201cIf you recall at the ribbon cutting for the low water crossing on CR-84, we were asked by House Speaker Ben Lujan to place millings in the parking lot of the church. You were in agreement so I had the crew schedule it. I understand the they (sic) got to in the few working days. I believe the work is complete.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Montoya told the newspaper the e-mail is accurate, saying the speaker \u201cmade the request\u201d and he relies on staff to determine whether such a request is legal.<\/p>\n<p>The newspaper reported that Ben Luj\u00e1n initially said he did not ask the county to pave the church lot, but he changed his story after being confronted with the e-mails.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI saw them doing the job last week, and I thought it was very nice of the county. That is the extent of what I know. I did not ask them to go pave that parking lot at all,\u201d The New Mexican reported the speaker as initially saying.<\/p>\n<p>But after the e-mails came to light, Ben Luj\u00e1n said he had told someone to \u201clook into maybe putting some (millings) in to that Namb\u00e9 Church,\u201d and he said he thought he had mentioned that to the newspaper the first time he was asked about the situation.<\/p>\n<p>Ben Luj\u00e1n has been involved in local scandals like this <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/03\/can-we-have-an-ethics-commission-now\/\">before<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>House Speaker Ben Luj\u00e1n and Santa Fe County Commissioner Harry Montoya pushed for the use of public money to pave a church parking lot near Lujan\u2019s home in Namb\u00e9, according to an e-mail from the county\u2019s public works director.<\/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":[108,107,179],"class_list":["post-17752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-2010-election","tag-roundhouse","tag-santa-fe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17752","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=17752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17752\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}