{"id":21374,"date":"2010-09-09T09:37:05","date_gmt":"2010-09-09T15:37:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=21374"},"modified":"2010-09-10T08:25:39","modified_gmt":"2010-09-10T14:25:39","slug":"martinez%e2%80%99s-office-had-deals-with-staffer%e2%80%99s-husband","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/09\/martinez%e2%80%99s-office-had-deals-with-staffer%e2%80%99s-husband\/","title":{"rendered":"Martinez\u2019s office had deals with staffer\u2019s husband"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Susana Martinez (Photo by Heath Haussamen)<\/p><\/div>\n

District court had a similar arrangement to provide after-school services for juveniles; Martinez says it made sense to use the same company<\/h4>\n

District Attorney Susana Martinez\u2019s<\/a> office paid companies owned by an employee\u2019s husband for several years to mentor juveniles in an after-school martial arts program.<\/p>\n

The Third Judicial District Court<\/a> in Las Cruces entered into a similar arrangement with one of the companies. Martinez\u2019s gubernatorial campaign<\/a> and Kelly Kuenstler, who was the office manager in Martinez\u2019s office while her husband\u2019s companies were being paid for the services, said it made sense to put the juveniles from the DA\u2019s pre-prosecution diversion program (PPD) in the already existing class for juveniles in the court\u2019s drug court program.<\/p>\n

Most of the payments to the companies \u2013 Steel Dragon, which was co-owned by Kuenstler\u2019s husband Abe G. Martinez, and Dragon\u2019s Den, which Abe Martinez owned by himself, were made before changes to the state\u2019s Governmental Conduct Act in 2007 that may outlaw such deals. (Susana Martinez and Abe Martinez are not related.)<\/p>\n

However, the last payment to Abe Martinez\u2019s Dragon\u2019s Den was for services rendered in July 2007. The new provisions in the Governmental Conduct Act took effect July 1, 2007.<\/p>\n

According to documents provided by Susana Martinez\u2019s campaign, the martial arts classes were scheduled in three-month blocks. It\u2019s not clear whether the July 2007 classes were scheduled before the changes to the act took effect.<\/p>\n

Susana Martinez\u2019s campaign says a disclosure form related to the Abe Martinez\/Kelly Kuenstler situation was voluntarily filed with the Secretary of State\u2019s Office, but it could not produce a copy of the form. The campaign said the form is \u201cno longer available in the DA\u2019s office,\u201d but it referred to an audit document<\/a> that says the disclosure was filed in fiscal year 2004.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the same response Martinez gave when asked about her office doing business with another employee\u2019s company, Janetta Hicks\u2019 Titan Office Supply. You can read about the Titan situation from the Albuquerque Journal here<\/a>, here<\/a> and here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Details of the Steel Dragon and Dragon\u2019s Den arrangements<\/h3>\n

The arrangement between Susana Martinez\u2019s office and Steel Dragon, which was co-owned by Abe Martinez and Steven Estrada, started in December 2003 and continued through September 2004, according to invoices and payment vouchers<\/a> obtained by NMPolitics.net. Later, Abe Martinez formed Dragon\u2019s Den, through which he was paid by Susana Martinez\u2019s office for services in 2007, invoices and payment vouchers<\/a> indicate.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Abe Martinez, center, with employees of the DA\u2019s pre-prosecution division, which he now heads.<\/p><\/div>\n

The total paid to the two companies \u2013 $3,557.95, according to the documents obtained by NMPolitics.net \u2013 is much smaller than the $60,000 in office supplies and law enforcement equipment Susana Martinez\u2019s office bought from the company owned by Hicks, who at the time was one of the top prosecutors in the office.<\/p>\n

Abe Martinez began working at the DA\u2019s office about the same time the deal with Dragon\u2019s Den stopped. Susana Martinez\u2019s campaign said he became director of the DA\u2019s pre-prosecution division<\/a> on July 27, 2007. It\u2019s a job he still holds today.<\/p>\n

District court records<\/a> provided by Martinez\u2019s gubernatorial campaign show that at least as early as February 2004 Steel Dragon entered into a contract with the court \u2013 separate from its deal with Susana Martinez\u2019s office \u2013 for individuals in the juvenile drug court program. The contracts with district court that were provided by Susana Martinez\u2019s campaign extended through June 30, 2005.<\/p>\n

The district court contracts provided by the campaign took effect three months after the DA\u2019s office started paying Steel Dragon, but Kuenstler and the campaign said the court had a deal with Steel Dragon first. Steel Dragon\u2019s proposal to district court is dated April 3, 2003.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe\u00a0contracts stemmed from the Juvenile Drug Court in District Court,\u201d Kuenstler wrote in an e-mail. \u201cThe DA\u2019s\u00a0Office just basically \u2018piggy backed\u2019 off of that contract so that the Juvenile\u00a0Pre-Prosecution Diversion kids had the same curriculum as the Juvenile Drug\u00a0Court kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Kelly Kuenstler<\/p><\/div>\n

Ryan Cangiolosi, Susana Martinez\u2019s campaign manager, said there was no contract or bidding process. He said none was required, \u201cnor was it practical as this program was designed to be consistent with an existing contract with district court for juveniles in drug court. The juveniles in the district court were in the same drug court class as the juveniles in the PPD program.\u201d<\/p>\n

Susana Martinez authored a letter to the state\u2019s Department of Finance and Administration (DFA) in January 2004 justifying the deal with Steel Dragon.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe clients we work with in our program are at risk, first time offender juveniles who we are trying to divert from the criminal justice system,\u201d the letter states. \u201cThe after school program we are placing them in offers after school tutoring, mentorship, drug, gang & alcohol related courses and self defense through the martial arts.\u201d<\/p>\n

The letter doesn\u2019t mention Abe Martinez or his relationship to Kelly Kuenstler, who is now the director of the New Mexico District Attorney\u2019s Association<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Changes to the Governmental Conduct Act<\/h3>\n

There\u2019s only one payment from the DA\u2019s office to Dragon\u2019s Den \u2013 $192.83 for services rendered in July 2007 \u2013 to which the July 1, 2007 changes to New Mexico\u2019s Governmental Conduct Act<\/a> might apply. Under those changes, the act states that an agency can\u2019t enter into a contract for services with a family member of an employee, if the employee has a substantial interest, without public disclosure, and it can\u2019t enter into a sole-source or small-purchase contract in that scenario under any circumstances.<\/p>\n

But the DA\u2019s office had no contract with Dragon\u2019s Den; Kuenstler and Susana Martinez\u2019s campaign say none was required.<\/p>\n

Another provision in the Governmental Conduct Act that took effect July 1, 2007 states that a public employee can\u2019t sell services \u2013 \u201cdirectly or indirectly, through the public officer\u2019s or employee\u2019s family or a business in which the public officer or employee has a substantial interest\u201d \u2013 to the agency where the employee works.<\/p>\n

I asked Susana Martinez\u2019s campaign a number of questions for this article via e-mail, including whether the district attorney believes the deals with Steel Dragon and Dragon\u2019s Den would be illegal today under the changes to the act, and whether she believes such deals \u2013 in which employees of the office have a financial interest \u2013 should be legal and allowable.<\/p>\n

Cangiolosi\u2019s responses to my list of questions ignored those about the Governmental Conduct Act and whether such deals should be legal today.<\/p>\n

Martinez was quoted several weeks ago by the Journal, about the deal with Titan Office Supply, as saying she would do it again as governor \u201cso long as there was transparency in that transaction\u201d and it saved money.<\/p>\n

The procurement process<\/h3>\n

It\u2019s illegal under the state\u2019s Procurement Code<\/a> for employees to participate \u201cdirectly or indirectly\u201d in a procurement process when they know that they or any member of their immediate family has a financial interest in a business seeking the contract.<\/p>\n

Again, there was no contract in the deals with Steel Dragon and Dragon\u2019s Den. Regardless, though Kuenstler was normally involved in the office\u2019s procurement process, Kuenstler and Susana Martinez\u2019s campaign said Kuenstler had no role in the decisions to enter into the agreements with Steel Dragon and Dragon\u2019s Den.<\/p>\n

Kuenstler said the decision was Susana Martinez\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was not\u00a0allowed to participate in this decision,\u201d she said. \u201cNormally, I was involved in the\u00a0agency\u2019s procurement process, but not in the case of Steel Dragon or Dragon\u2019s\u00a0Den.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cangiolosi said the same, adding that the decision to enter into the deals with Abe Martinez\u2019s companies had nothing to do with the fact Kuenstler is Abe Martinez\u2019s wife. Cangiolosi also said, \u201cBefore beginning the program, approval was sought and granted by DFA.\u201d<\/p>\n

Susana Martinez\u2019s Jan. 14, 2004 letter to DFA justifying the program came after Steel Dragon\u2019s first invoice to the DA\u2019s office on Dec. 2, 2003. Susana Martinez\u2019s campaign provided no other documents related to her office seeking approval from DFA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

District Attorney Susana Martinez\u2019s office paid companies owned by an employee\u2019s husband for several years to mentor juveniles in an after-school martial arts program. The District Court in Las Cruces entered into a similar arrangement with one of the companies. Martinez says it made sense to use the same company.<\/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":[108,115,107],"class_list":["post-21374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-2010-election","tag-dona-ana-county","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21374","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=21374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21374\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}