{"id":2150,"date":"2007-08-24T16:51:00","date_gmt":"2007-08-24T22:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/08\/one-charged-four-on-leave-in-nmsu-facilities-probe\/"},"modified":"2007-08-24T16:51:00","modified_gmt":"2007-08-24T22:51:00","slug":"one-charged-four-on-leave-in-nmsu-facilities-probe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/08\/one-charged-four-on-leave-in-nmsu-facilities-probe\/","title":{"rendered":"One charged, four on leave in NMSU facilities probe"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>One employee is facing two misdemeanor charges and four were placed on leave this week as a result of a New Mexico State University<\/a> investigation that has identified a number of problems in the Office of Facilities and Services<\/a>. <\/p>\n

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

In addition, authority over OFS has been moved from a senior vice president to a team led by an administrator who works directly for the president as the university begins to address the problems.<\/p>\n

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

The action taken this week follows the completion of an audit and a months-long investigation by the university police department into a host of complaints about abuse at the department. Christina Chavez Kelley, the senior assistant to President Michael Martin<\/a> who was placed in charge of OFS this week, confirmed that the audit and an internal review revealed problems including \u201cunauthorized use of NMSU property and equipment, time card accuracy, excessive use of overtime, control of inventory, use of petty cash and conflicts of interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

The criminal investigation, in which the NMSU police were assisted by the sheriff\u2019s department and FBI, quickly narrowed in May to focus on allegations that a few employees used university equipment, funds and resources for construction projects at their homes.<\/p>\n

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

That investigation is complete, District Attorney Susana Martinez said, and her office is currently reviewing it to determine whether further criminal charges are warranted. The misdemeanor charges already brought against roofer Rene Quezada were filed by the NMSU police, not the district attorney, Police Chief Jaime Chavez confirmed.<\/p>\n

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

Quezada is charged with misdemeanor larceny and embezzlement. I was not immediately able to get information about his employment status, but he is not listed as an employee in NMSU\u2019s online phone directory<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

In an e-mail, Kelley did not answer a question about whether employees were placed on leave this week, but multiple sources confirmed that four have been placed on leave, though I don\u2019t know their identities.<\/p>\n

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

In May, the university placed five employees, including Associate Vice President Richard MacRorie, on leave. At least one, former roofing and construction division supervisor John Salopek, was fired after he admitted to using a university dump truck without permission.<\/p>\n

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

The university said at the time that MacRorie was placed on leave not because he was accused of wrongdoing, but \u201cto ensure the investigation would be as effective as possible.\u201d He returned to work after a few days.<\/p>\n

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

The university released no information in May about the other employees who were placed on leave at that time.<\/p>\n

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

Review is ongoing<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Martin\u2019s decision to place OFS under Kelley moves the office out from under Ben Woods, senior vice president for planning, physical resources and university relations. The university police department also reported to Woods when its investigation began several months ago, but Martin decided early on that police would report directly to him on this investigation to ensure its integrity.<\/p>\n

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

Woods said the most recent move was appropriate.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cIt indicates that New Mexico State University, under Mike Martin, if they have any suspicion of wrongdoing, they\u2019re going to go in and look at it,\u201d he said, adding that, by \u201cisolating any of those of us that have touched that,\u201d the university is \u201cdoing exactly the right thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Asked if the changes are permanent, Woods said that will \u201cdepend on what they find over there.\u201d Kelley said some changes are temporary.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cOnce our review is completed, we will determine what changes should be made permanently,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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

Kelley said she is in charge of a \u201ctemporary transition team\u201d created to implement the university\u2019s \u201cplan of action to address the issues raised\u201d by the audit and the internal review. In addition, the university has given the business office control over all \u201cbusiness and system functions\u201d at OFS. The team will also consider whether to hire a consultant \u201cto assist in developing and evaluating controls, systems and procedures at OFS.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Woods said the review is necessary.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cIt\u2019s evident that there are a few people over there who have done some things that weren\u2019t right,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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

Hundreds of people work for OFS, and Woods said the vast majority of them \u201care good folks who work really hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI\u2019m proud of what we\u2019ve done,\u201d he said. \u201cObviously, I\u2019m not proud of the events that are happening right now\u2026 but we\u2019ll come out of this a stronger organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

A prior version of this posting misspelled Quezada\u2019s name.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One employee is facing two misdemeanor charges and four were placed on leave this week as a result of a New Mexico State University investigation that has identified a number of problems in the Office of Facilities and Services. In addition, authority over OFS has been moved from a senior vice president to a team […]<\/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-2150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2150","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=2150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2150\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}