{"id":31155,"date":"2011-08-17T08:07:45","date_gmt":"2011-08-17T14:07:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=31155"},"modified":"2011-10-10T11:25:42","modified_gmt":"2011-10-10T17:25:42","slug":"the-prc-needs-more-public-scrutiny-not-less","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2011\/08\/the-prc-needs-more-public-scrutiny-not-less\/","title":{"rendered":"The PRC needs more public scrutiny, not less"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Heath Haussamen<\/p><\/div>\n

Public Regulation Commissioner Ben Hall says the media\u2019s coverage of the scandal surrounding Jerome Block Jr. has been inappropriate. Contrary to what Hall thinks, the PRC needs more public scrutiny, not less \u2013 and the lack of examination of Hall\u2019s background during last year\u2019s election proves it.<\/h4>\n

Public Regulation Commissioner Ben Hall<\/a> recently blasted the media for its coverage<\/a> of the scandal surrounding one of his colleagues, Jerome Block Jr.<\/a><\/p>\n

Hall criticized the media for not covering \u201cgood news\u201d about the PRC and said Block \u201chas not been charged with one thing at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, there\u2019s a lot of allegations. In this country you\u2019re supposed to be presumed innocent until you\u2019re proven guilty, but the press wants to prove you\u2019re guilty first, and you\u2019ve got to prove yourself innocent, and I don\u2019t appreciate that,\u201d Hall said, according to the Santa Fe Reporter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not really surprising that Hall, who\u2019s had his own problems in the past and managed to dodge scrutiny during last year\u2019s campaign, would apparently think the media shouldn\u2019t report on potential abuses of taxpayer money and other issues at the scandal-plagued PRC. But it\u2019s still disappointing.<\/p>\n

Let me remind Hall of my 2009 column illustrating the reality that the PRC is a microcosm of New Mexico\u2019s corrupt political system (read it here<\/a>). More recently, the Albuquerque Journal put it this way on Tuesday in an editorial<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cBlock is innocent until proven guilty, sure enough. Unfortunately, he\u2019s just the latest in a long list of commissioners whose behavior has ranged from merely dubious to astonishingly criminal. One commissioner hired a convicted embezzler as his executive assistant. Another stuck taxpayers with an $840,000 settlement in a sexual harassment lawsuit. Still another got caught at a local airport carrying marijuana. And yet another bashed her husband\u2019s alleged mistress over the head with a rock.<\/p>\n

\u201cHall would do well to remember that many of these commissioners apparently saw nothing wrong with their behavior. The one with the embezzler on staff defended his hiring choice. The one carrying pot refused to resign. Even the one convicted of aggravated assault didn\u2019t see any reason why she should step down from a job that pays $90,000 a year plus free gas and a car. It took the Supreme Court to toss her off the commission.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hall\u2019s past problems<\/h3>\n

One could argue that Hall might need to be added to the list of commissioners who have engaged in problematic behavior. A news release from his Democratic opponent in last year\u2019s election, Bill McCamley (which was posted by someone else in a comment on this site<\/a>), highlighted those issues:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2022 From 1983-1998 there were 14 tax liens placed on Mr. Hall and his construction company totaling $356,233.89.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2022 10 of these liens were for failure to pay Federal taxes, and 4 liens were for failure to pay State taxes.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 \u2022 From 1983-1998, there were 7 liens placed on Mr. Hall by individuals, subcontractors, and the Ruidoso State Bank totaling $112,681.59 for failure to pay for completed contracted services.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2022 Mr. Hall was sued multiple times from 1987-2009, including once for \u2018Unpaid Labor,\u2019 twice for \u2018Breech of Contract\u2019 and three times for \u2018Debt and Money Due.\u2019\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As McCamley pointed out, judgments came down against Hall in at least two cases, and he had to pay money to plaintiffs.<\/p>\n

McCamley also made an interesting conflict-of-interest claim: Hall, a former legislator, voted in 1989 against a bill that implemented \u201cmisdemeanor and felony charges for contractors who accepted payment for construction and failed to pay owed money to suppliers.\u201d Charges that might have applied to Hall\u2019s own actions if the bill had become law?<\/p>\n

I intended to ask Hall about those issues when I profiled his candidacy during the election, but he did not respond to my requests for an interview. Maybe I should have pushed the issue further, but I backed away from covering this race as aggressively as I do others because of a personal conflict: McCamley is my friend.<\/p>\n

As a result, I didn\u2019t scrutinize Hall\u2019s past as much as I probably should have. And Hall\u2019s past got almost no attention from any other media outlet.<\/p>\n

Hall was essentially elected without public scrutiny. While two other candidates publicly attacked each other<\/a> in the GOP primary, he cruised under the radar to victory. Then, in the general election, Hall refused to debate McCamley<\/a> and refused to show up for a joint appearance at an editorial board meeting with the Las Cruces Sun-News.<\/p>\n

A step up?<\/h3>\n

My point is that, contrary to what Hall appears to claim, the PRC needs even more public scrutiny, not less, and the lack of examination of Hall\u2019s background during last year\u2019s election proves it. The PRC has been and remains a cesspool. That doesn\u2019t mean there aren\u2019t any good elected officials and employees at the PRC (there are), but it means the agency has a culture of corruption. That may have once been acceptable in New Mexico, but it is no longer.<\/p>\n

The Journal ended Tuesday\u2019s editorial with this:<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Commissioner Hall isn\u2019t happy with the news, maybe he should take a careful look at what\u2019s going on around him and get out in front of a campaign to clean up his shop.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That\u2019s probably not going to happen. Here\u2019s what Hall told The New Mexico Independent<\/a> last year about reforming the PRC:<\/p>\n

\u201cBut Hall, a retired Ruidoso general contractor and former Republican state legislator, expressed skepticism that structural changes or training could correct a commissioner\u2019s ethical lapses.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead, commissioners must lead by example, he said.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Oh yeah, there\u2019s a great record of that on the PRC. Hall himself is off to a pretty awful start with his dodging of public debate and scrutiny during the election and his criticism of the media for doing its job now. In fact, he\u2019s building a record of opposing transparency and accountability rather than welcoming it.<\/p>\n

That, coupled with Hall\u2019s past issues with taxes and lawsuits, should concern voters.<\/p>\n

Some will say Hall is a step up from PRC members like Block, Carol Sloan<\/a> and David King<\/a>. Maybe that in and of itself illustrates how bad things are at the PRC.<\/p>\n

Haussamen bio<\/a>\u00a0\u2502\u00a0Commentary page<\/a>\u00a0\u2502\u00a0Feed<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Public Regulation Commissioner Ben Hall says the media\u2019s coverage of the scandal surrounding Jerome Block Jr. has been inappropriate. Contrary to what Hall thinks, the PRC needs more public scrutiny, not less \u2013 and the lack of examination of Hall\u2019s background during last year\u2019s election proves it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,10],"tags":[108,142,111,217,114,107],"class_list":["post-31155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","category-haussamen-columns","tag-2010-election","tag-crime","tag-open-government","tag-prc","tag-public-corruption","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31155","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=31155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31155\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}