{"id":2011,"date":"2007-07-24T11:41:00","date_gmt":"2007-07-24T17:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/07\/nmsu-prez-to-live-in-home-paid-for-by-secret-donor\/"},"modified":"2007-07-24T11:41:00","modified_gmt":"2007-07-24T17:41:00","slug":"nmsu-prez-to-live-in-home-paid-for-by-secret-donor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/07\/nmsu-prez-to-live-in-home-paid-for-by-secret-donor\/","title":{"rendered":"NMSU prez to live in home paid for by secret donor"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>New Mexico State University President Michael Martin<\/a> and his wife will take advantage of a $6,000-per-month gift from a secret donor to move out of the university-owned president\u2019s residence and into a private home. <\/p>\n

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

The home is being built near Mesilla on Union Avenue<\/st1:address><\/st1:street>, according to the Las Cruces Bulletin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

\n

I\u2019ve written a lot lately<\/a> about the university stepping into controversy by using money from anonymous contributors to beef up the compensation of its president and (now former) basketball coach, so I\u2019ll only rehash the issues here briefly:<\/p>\n

\n

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

The Board of Regents raised Martin\u2019s annual salary in May from $294,000 to $335,000. His deferred compensation \u2013 which he only receives if he stays through 2012 \u2013 was increased from $50,000 to $100,000, and 70 percent will be paid by secret contributors. In addition, the $6,000-per-month housing allowance is being contributed by the private sector and funneled through the NMSU Foundation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

The University of New Mexico Foundation<\/a> does keep its donor list secret, but UNM doesn\u2019t use any of that money for employee compensation, except in the case of those employees who do foundation work.<\/p>\n

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

Whether university foundations can keep donor lists secret has been a question across the nation, and, in many states, legal challenges have resulted in the opening of such records. The university denied my request for information about who is contributing to Martin\u2019s compensation.<\/p>\n

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

The concern is that Martin and his wife will soon be living in a home paid for by someone who might be a good citizen who wants to help the university and has no ulterior motive, but might be someone who wants something in return. Are pay-to-play politics taking hold at NMSU?<\/p>\n

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

We don\u2019t get to know. That\u2019s the problem. Martin is a public employee, but the public doesn\u2019t get to know about the donor who could influence his decisions. We\u2019re left to simply trust Martin to be honest and incorruptible.<\/p>\n

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

Why are Martin and his wife moving? For good reason. According to the Bulletin, the home is aging and always in need of repair, and it\u2019s isolated.<\/p>\n

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

The regents should give Martin a housing allowance so he has the option to move off campus. It\u2019s fine that they sought a private donor to pay for it. It\u2019s wrong that there\u2019s no public disclosure of information about the donor. Whoever is giving the money has, at least, the gratitude of the regents for helping keep Martin in Las Cruces, and of Martin and his wife for putting them in what is likely to be a luxurious home.<\/p>\n

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

If there\u2019s nothing fishy going on, releasing information about the donor would assure the public and increase confidence in the university.<\/p>\n

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

Thus far, no lawmaker has asked the attorney general for an opinion on whether the NMSU Foundation can legally keep its donor list secret. Will any step up to the plate?<\/p>\n

\n

A prior version of this posting incorrectly stated that NMSU is the first school in the state to use private donor money to boost the compensation of high-ranking employees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Mexico State University President Michael Martin and his wife will take advantage of a $6,000-per-month gift from a secret donor to move out of the university-owned president\u2019s residence and into a private home. The home is being built near Mesilla on Union Avenue, according to the Las Cruces Bulletin. I\u2019ve written a lot lately […]<\/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-2011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2011","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=2011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2011\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}