{"id":20846,"date":"2010-08-24T07:52:55","date_gmt":"2010-08-24T13:52:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=20846"},"modified":"2010-08-25T07:31:00","modified_gmt":"2010-08-25T13:31:00","slug":"denish-says-she%e2%80%99ll-comply-with-aircraft-regulation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/08\/denish-says-she%e2%80%99ll-comply-with-aircraft-regulation\/","title":{"rendered":"Denish says she\u2019ll comply with aircraft regulation"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_10230\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignright\" style=\"max-width: 270px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10230 \" title=\"Denish2\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/12\/Denish2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"270\" height=\"221\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lt. Gov. Diane Denish (Photo by Heath Haussamen)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Lt. Gov. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ltgovernor.state.nm.us\/\">Diane Denish<\/a> says she and her office will comply in the future with a state regulation requiring three or more official passengers on a flight, or prior authorization to fly with fewer passengers, even though she\u2019s been advised that the regulation doesn\u2019t apply to her.<\/p>\n<p>Denish\u2019s use of state aircraft has been under scrutiny since KRQE-TV\u2019s Larry Barker <a href=\"http:\/\/www.krqe.com\/dpp\/news\/larry_barker\/taxpayer-tab-sky-high-for-state-flights\">reported last month<\/a> that the lieutenant governor had flown on state planes 39 times since 2006 in violation of the regulation requiring cost-efficient use of the aircraft. A spokesman was quoted by Barker as saying Denish was unaware of the regulation. Denish wouldn\u2019t talk with Barker.<\/p>\n<p>But her <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dianedenish.com\/\">gubernatorial campaign<\/a> provided a statement to NMPolitics.net about the situation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Office of Lieutenant Governor only recently became aware that the occupancy provision existed,\u201d campaign spokesman Chris Cervini said. \u201cUpon learning of it, the lieutenant governor immediately directed her staff to obtain guidance from (the state\u2019s General Services Department). Staff was informed by GSD that the provision did not apply to the office. Despite this GSD guidance, and upon learning of the provision, the lieutenant governor has directed staff that the office will comply with the occupancy provision in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to Barker, Denish hasn\u2019t flown on a state plane since January.<\/p>\n<h3>What the regulations say<\/h3>\n<p>According to Barker, it\u2019s the position of Art Jaramillo, GSD secretary, that the lieutenant governor is exempt from the aircraft regulations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe lieutenant governor is not a governmental agency board or commission,\u201d Barker quoted Jaramillo as saying. \u201cWe don\u2019t have the authority to require her to comply with these requirements.\u201d<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>But not having the authority to require an official to comply with a regulation isn\u2019t the same as an official being exempt from a regulation. So NMPolitics.net obtained <a href=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/Documents\/AviationRegulation.pdf\">a copy of the aviation regulations<\/a> to see what they say.<\/p>\n<p>The regulations don\u2019t explicitly exempt the lieutenant governor or any other state elected officials. In fact, the definition of an \u201cauthorized passenger\u201d includes \u201celected or appointed state government officials.\u201d The regulations state that use of the state aircraft is for \u201cauthorized persons only.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s even a provision that says \u201cthe governor and other state elected officials\u201d \u2013 which would include the lieutenant governor \u2013 \u201cshall have priority in the use of state aircraft.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The regulation about occupancy states that \u201ca minimum of three official passengers shall be on any flight unless appropriate written justification is submitted to and approved by the secretary.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>\u2018GSD does not have enforcement authority\u2019<\/h3>\n<p>So I asked GSD spokesman Alex Cuellar to elaborate on Jaramillo\u2019s comments. I told him in an e-mail that I didn\u2019t see anything in the regulations that exempts the lieutenant governor but did see a provision that seemed to at least imply that state elected officials are subject to the regulations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe question has been asked of and answered by Secretary Jaramillo,\u201d Cuellar wrote in response. \u201cGSD does not have the authority to require the lieutenant governor to comply with the regulations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Does that mean the regulations do apply to the lieutenant governor, I asked? If so, does anyone have the authority to require the lieutenant governor to comply?<\/p>\n<p>Cuellar responded by pointing me to a \u201cdirective\u201d Gov. <a href=\"http:\/\/governor.state.nm.us\/\">Bill Richardson<\/a> issued in March 2009 on <a href=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/Documents\/AircraftUseGuidelines.pdf\">guidelines for using the state aircraft<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThose guidelines are directed at \u2018state agencies,\u2019\u201d Cuellar wrote. \u201cIt is Secretary Jaramillo\u2019s opinion that the guidelines are not applicable to either the Governor\u2019s Office or the Lieutenant Governor\u2019s Office.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But regulations trump guidelines. What about my second question: Does anyone have the authority to require the lieutenant governor to comply with the regulations?<\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u2026all I can tell you is that GSD does not have enforcement authority,\u201d Cuellar wrote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lt. Gov. Diane Denish says she and her office will comply in the future with a state regulation requiring three or more official passengers on a flight, or prior authorization to fly with fewer passengers, even though she\u2019s been advised that the regulation doesn\u2019t apply to her.<\/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],"class_list":["post-20846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-2010-election","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20846","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=20846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20846\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}