{"id":1783,"date":"2007-05-29T08:07:00","date_gmt":"2007-05-29T14:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/05\/richardson-needs-to-take-lfc-audit-seriously\/"},"modified":"2007-05-29T08:07:00","modified_gmt":"2007-05-29T14:07:00","slug":"richardson-needs-to-take-lfc-audit-seriously","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/05\/richardson-needs-to-take-lfc-audit-seriously\/","title":{"rendered":"Richardson needs to take LFC audit seriously"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>When a new report finds nepotism and other problems with a state agency, I\u2019d expect an ethical governor, or one who wants to be viewed as a reformer, to express concern and vow to implement change. <\/p>\n

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

Instead, Gov. Bill Richardson<\/a> on Friday accused the Legislative Finance Committee<\/a>, which conducted the audit of the state Personnel Office<\/a>, of \u201cnitpicking.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

His response gives lawmakers another excuse to ignore his calls for ethics reform.<\/p>\n

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

The LFC on Thursday released an audit that said the Personnel Office deviated from hiring practices for several months in 2005 and 2006, practiced nepotism and violated the state procurement code and travel rules, according to the Albuquerque Journal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

Serious findings. I\u2019ve written recently<\/a> about the weight a procurement code violation can carry.<\/p>\n

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

Not in Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s view, apparently.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cIt struck me as posturing by the LFC by pointing out three minor problems,\u201d Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> said at a Friday news conference, according to the Journal. \u201cAs you know, the leadership of the LFC likes to sometimes embarrass the administration and the staff.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

He\u2019s accusing the lawmakers of politics?<\/p>\n

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

Nepotism is not a minor problem. Procurement code and travel rule violations are not minor problems. These issues, which have at times been and may still be rampant in state government, form the basis of the culture of corruption that leads to larger abuses like those uncovered by the plea bargains in the Bernalillo County Metro Courthouse scandal.<\/p>\n

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

Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> is intelligent. He understands this. He also had to understand that calling for limits on campaign contributions last year while he was accepting huge sums of money for his re-election campaign could be viewed as hypocritical.<\/p>\n

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

So why does he do it? Why does he, instead of taking a serious audit seriously, accuse the LFC of politics?<\/p>\n

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

\u201cWhat do you expect from someone running for president? He wants to be untainted,\u201d Rep. Luciano \u201cLucky\u201d Varela<\/a>, D-Santa Fe and the LFC vice chairman, told the Journal.<\/p>\n

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

Bingo. Richardson<\/st1:city><\/st1:place> has charged his reconvened ethics task force with examining the reasons behind the resistance in the Legislature to ethics reform. As I\u2019ve written before, his hypocrisy gives lawmakers an excuse to ignore his calls for reform.<\/p>\n

\n

Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:City> must lead by example<\/span><\/p>\n

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

But it\u2019s not the only reason a number of lawmakers aren\u2019t open to Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s reform proposals. They have no problem pointing a finger at the executive branch, as they\u2019re doing in the latest audit, but, as a group, they aren\u2019t looking honestly at themselves. I\u2019ve written recently<\/a> about the controversy involving state Rep. Richard Vigil<\/a>, D-Ribera, and capital outlay money he secured that his wife is accused of abusing.<\/p>\n

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

A bipartisan group of senators said repeatedly during this year\u2019s regular session that the executive may need ethics reform, but there\u2019s no evidence that anything improper has been done by a lawmaker. Since then, former Senate President Manny Aragon has been indicted. Vigil was already under a cloud before the session started.<\/p>\n

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

Where are the calls for an investigation into whether Vigil did anything improper?<\/p>\n

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

The Legislature\u2019s unwillingness to hold its own members accountable smacks of the same sleaze that characterizes Richardson<\/st1:city><\/st1:place>\u2019s actions and words. The executive and legislators need to start taking more seriously their duties to ensure their own branches of government are running ethically.<\/p>\n

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

But the burden here really falls on Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> to lead by example. He\u2019s the king of the mountain. He\u2019s the one calling for reform. A leader who sets the example is one who is usually followed. One who tells others to do the opposite of what he\u2019s doing usually gets nowhere.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When a new report finds nepotism and other problems with a state agency, I\u2019d expect an ethical governor, or one who wants to be viewed as a reformer, to express concern and vow to implement change. Instead, Gov. Bill Richardson on Friday accused the Legislative Finance Committee, which conducted the audit of the state Personnel […]<\/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-1783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1783","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=1783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1783\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}