{"id":1776,"date":"2007-05-24T16:21:00","date_gmt":"2007-05-24T22:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/05\/housing-authority-bond-default-could-lead-to-lawsuit\/"},"modified":"2007-05-24T16:21:00","modified_gmt":"2007-05-24T22:21:00","slug":"housing-authority-bond-default-could-lead-to-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/05\/housing-authority-bond-default-could-lead-to-lawsuit\/","title":{"rendered":"Housing authority bond default could lead to lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"

The State Investment Council<\/a> has hired a law firm in preparation for a potential lawsuit to try to recover some or all of the $5 million in bond money lost when the Region III Housing Authority defaulted on payment last year.<\/p>\n

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

The council signed a contract Wednesday with Robles, Rael and Anaya, which partnered with the firm Brownstein, Hyatt, Farber and Schreck to do the work, according to the Associated Press<\/a>. In its request for proposals<\/a>, the council sought a firm to review the actions that led to the default and also determine whether a lawsuit should be filed and who should be sued.<\/p>\n

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

Charles Wollmann, spokesman for the investment council, said the firms will \u201cidentify what potential claims we might have and who the defendants might be.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\u201cWe\u2019re looking at all the principles who were involved one way or another with the default,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re going to look at the facts, and we\u2019ll make a decision then.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

He said that would happen in the next few months.<\/p>\n

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

The rates the state will pay the firms vary, according to the Associated Press, from $45 per hour for a paralegal to $175 per hour for a partner in the Robles firm and $250 an hour for a partner in the Brownstein firm.<\/p>\n

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

The Legislature approved and Lt. Gov. Diane Denish<\/a> signed into law earlier this year a bill that keeps the regional housing authorities in existence, but puts in place extensive oversight: Bonding and eminent domain authority now belong to the New Mexico Mortgage Finance Authority<\/a>; the Department of Finance and Administration and state treasurer have roles in administering finances; and the authorities are required to submit quarterly audits \u2013 most agencies have to submit them annually \u2013 to the DFA.<\/p>\n

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

The bill also appropriates $200,000 to the state auditor to fund an audit that will determine the extent of mismanagement that led to some of the authorities shutting down amid scandal last year. The Region III bonds were to be spent on affordable housing projects, but almost $900,000 went to former Region III Director Vincent \u201cSmiley\u201d Gallegos as salary, benefits and a questionable loan. Some $700,000 was loaned to the Las Cruces<\/st1:city><\/st1:place> authority for administrative costs.<\/p>\n

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

Wollmann said he could not speculate on whether Gallegos or anyone else might be named in a potential lawsuit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The State Investment Council has hired a law firm in preparation for a potential lawsuit to try to recover some or all of the $5 million in bond money lost when the Region III Housing Authority defaulted on payment last year. The council signed a contract Wednesday with Robles, Rael and Anaya, which partnered with […]<\/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-1776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1776","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=1776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1776\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}