{"id":314128,"date":"2017-03-27T13:37:20","date_gmt":"2017-03-27T19:37:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=314128"},"modified":"2017-03-28T12:08:42","modified_gmt":"2017-03-28T18:08:42","slug":"hobbs-mayors-undisclosed-conflicts-erode-public-confidence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2017\/03\/hobbs-mayors-undisclosed-conflicts-erode-public-confidence\/","title":{"rendered":"Hobbs mayor\u2019s undisclosed conflicts erode public confidence"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"City

Courtesy photo<\/p>

City Hall in Hobbs, N.M.<\/p><\/div>\n

COMMENTARY:<\/strong> My friend and fellow City Hall watcher, Wanda Bell, wisely says, \u201cIf you don\u2019t stand for something, you\u2019ll fall for anything.\u201d And not much gets by Wanda. In 2014, she saw through a scheme that amounted to a $600,000 bailout of the private, members-only Hobbs Country Club by the City of Hobbs. In explaining the ploy in a guest column<\/a> to the Hobbs News-Sun, Wanda presented the many years of net losses shown on the country club\u2019s tax returns<\/a>, many of which also show that the mayor of Hobbs, Sam Cobb, has been a longtime board member<\/a> of the country club.<\/p>\n

\"Nick

Courtesy photo<\/p>

Nick Maxwell<\/p><\/div>\n

The very next day, on March 3, 2014<\/a>, City Commissioner Joseph Calderon<\/a> defended the city\u2019s actions and lashed out at Wanda by saying, \u201cIn the old days, we\u2019d probably go do a duel, go to a fist fight \u2026 what she did to criticize us \u2026 and if she ever comes around, she and I are going to have a talk.\u201d Listen to the audio<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Wanda sat in the front row as he said those menacing words from the rostrum. She has attended the majority of commission meetings since then. She not only stands for something, she stands her ground.<\/p>\n

Wanda illuminated the mayor\u2019s undeniable conflict of interest and his end run to appropriate hundreds of thousands of dollars for his beloved, exclusive social club in financial crisis. Wanda may have been the first to criticize the mayor for an obvious conflict, but she wasn\u2019t the last.<\/p>\n

State auditor: Mayor\u2019s $60,000 loan to city manager an undisclosed conflict<\/h3>\n

Recently, the Office of the State Auditor admonished Mayor Cobb for being the registered agent and board member of a family business, Cobb Family Limited Partnership<\/a>, which provided Hobbs City Manager John J. \u201cJ.J.\u201d Murphy with a $60,000 loan. See the mortgage<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On its face, such a thing should not have happened. But since it did, the mayor was obligated to disclose his financial relationship, according to a Jan. 30 letter<\/a> from the Auditor\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

Addressing Mayor Cobb and Hobbs city commissioners, Deputy State Auditor Sanjay Bhakta wrote:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Mayor participated in employment matters involving Mr. Murphy while also serving as the Vice President and board member of a business holding a loan with Mr. Murphy. However, nothing in the Commission\u2019s meeting minutes pertaining to the discussion and approval of Mr. Murphy\u2019s compensation or other terms of employment indicate that the Mayor disclosed the Business\u2019 interests with Mr. Murphy.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Bhakta further wrote that, aside from Mayor Cobb\u2019s duty to disclose his financial interest during public meetings on matters that pose a conflict, \u201cCity officials, including the Mayor and Commissioners, are required to file annual financial disclosures that include a listing of business interests.\u201d Bhakta wrote that the Hobbs City Clerk said the city possessed no such records on file going back to 2013. \u201cAs such,\u201d Bhakta wrote, \u201cit does not appear that City officials are complying with the annual disclosure requirements provided for in the City\u2019s Code of Ethics.\u201d As of March 20, according to an email from the City Clerk<\/a>, the City of Hobbs is still missing such disclosures.<\/p>\n

Bhakta\u2019s January letter impugning Mayor Cobb came just months after another letter<\/a> affirmed my concerns<\/a> that city contracts championed by Murphy \u201cwere handled in a manner that raises significant uncertainty as to whether the City received competitive prices \u2026 and raises the appearance that the contracts may not have been at arm\u2019s length.\u201d<\/p>\n

An Associated Press article about Mayor Cobb\u2019s loan to Murphy was picked up by media throughout the state, including the Albuquerque Journal, which gave the story the headline, \u201cAuditors: Hobbs officials fail to follow ethics ordinance.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

The State Auditor\u2019s letter to the city about the loan was the result of a complaint I filed in November<\/a>. I obtained a copy of the mortgage in a separate investigation, and, recognizing the significance of the inherent conflict of interest, I handed over the mortgage and other supporting documents<\/a> in a \u201cshort and sweet\u201d tip to the Hobbs News-Sun\u2019s publisher, editor and managing editor on Oct. 31:<\/p>\n

\u201cThis would present a conflict of interest, right? If Mayor Cobb would like to have the loan repaid — not for more than $120,000, according to the mortgage — then wouldn’t he have a financial interest in seeing Murphy employed and well-compensated? Wouldn’t it even seem that he would have a financial interest in seeing Murphy receive a new contract that pays him as a consultant through mid-2018?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The response I received<\/a>, however, sent chills through me:<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not sure Nick. It could, but it appears if the loan is unpaid then the house is foreclosed and the sale price will be used to pay Cobb back, so in that regard I think it wouldn\u2019t matter if JJ stayed employed or not.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s alarming that the News-Sun\u2019s editorial staff so naturally explains away tips concerning the community\u2019s most powerful officials. Is that the job of a newspaper or a public-relations agency?<\/p>\n

When it became clear the News-Sun would not be covering the Cobb-Murphy mortgage, I decided I had to self-publish my own investigative piece on my transparency website, WeTheFourth.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In Hobbs, we can\u2019t go to the newspaper with a tip and a prayer that reporters will root out truth fairly and objectively on behalf of the public\u2019s interest. We have to go straight to state-level investigative offices to get an independent, third-party opinion.<\/p>\n

The News-Sun\u2019s leadership might be operating on the philosophy that the newspaper\u2019s job is not to prosecute city officials, but its job should neither be to protect them. What the News-Sun\u2019s leadership doesn\u2019t understand is that reporting on credible tips alleging impropriety puts the concerns in the public record for the public to discuss, which, for many, would satisfy the desire for scrutiny and accountability of public bodies. But, because of the News-Sun\u2019s refusal to scrutinize public officials\u2019 questionable actions, I have had to go to the state auditor or attorney general to have questions answered, and doing so has resulted in more formal and more serious rebukes.<\/p>\n

The kinds of things brought to light by one private citizen and then confirmed by the state officials should be a major wake-up call to Hobbs taxpayers. These things earned Mayor Cobb and Murphy the \u201chonor\u201d of being finalists for the 2016 Black Hole Award<\/a>, a national recognition presented by the Society of Professional Journalists, which \u201chighlight[s] the most heinous violations of the public’s right to know \u2026 to educate members of the public about their rights and call attention to those who would interfere with openness and transparency.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bhakta cautioned that, since \u201cthe Commission may not have acted with respect to recusals or disqualifications that may have been appropriate under the circumstances, there may be other areas of noncompliance.\u201d There might very well be, and I have one possible conflict that has gone largely unnoticed, but has certainly gone undisclosed by Mayor Cobb and un-vetted by the commission.<\/p>\n

Does high number of Hobbs police officers benefit mayor\u2019s house-arrest monitoring business?<\/h3>\n

In late 2016, the City of Hobbs made an appearance in the New York Times<\/a>, which provided the widest coverage to date of the months-long crisis in the state Law Offices of the Public Defender. In October, the Hobbs public defender\u2019s office filed a notice of unavailability, citing inadequate resources to provide attorneys to represent adult defendants in magistrate-court criminal cases.<\/p>\n

The Santa Fe New Mexican quoted Chief Public Defender Ben Baur that his decision to file the motion was \u201cbecause of the high caseloads and the lack of staff to handle the increased caseloads in Hobbs right now.\u201d The motion led to the public defender\u2019s office being found in contempt<\/a> for not providing lawyers for indigent defendants.<\/p>\n

Leave it to someone on the outside looking in to see the contributing factors to the crisis in the Hobbs public defender\u2019s office. \u201cMo\u2019 money, mo\u2019 problems\u201d might be one way to summarize the root cause. Fernanda Santos, the New York Times\u2019 Phoenix bureau chief, very deftly noted that<\/a>, \u201cduring the flush times\u201d of Hobbs\u2019 oil-based economy, the City of Hobbs used its extra money to \u201chire new police officers, which has led to additional strain on the state-run courts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead of looking deeper into the issue brought to light by the New York Times story, the star-struck News-Sun simply reported, \u201cThe New York Times came to town recently.\u201d<\/a> Since the News-Sun either fails to or refuses to see how we got here, let me help.<\/p>\n

As soon as Hobbs City Manager Murphy arrived in Hobbs, he began lobbying the city commission to allow him to implement his first big idea \u2013 to increase the police force \u201cto at least 90 officers.\u201d<\/a> Since 2012, according to the r\u00e9sum\u00e9<\/a> Murphy has recently submitted to a number of out-of-state communities, he far exceeded that number and \u201c[i]ncreased police force by over 60% (62 to 107 sworn).\u201d That is, in fact, more than 72 percent.<\/p>\n

And thanks to Murphy\u2019s big idea to hire so many more officers, the public defender\u2019s crisis in Hobbs is not going away any time soon. It\u2019s very plausible this crisis will last at least four more years. Over the course of two November 2016 commission meetings, the commission debated and ultimately chose to accept a grant award from the U.S. Justice Department Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS)<\/a> to hire more officers, with the stipulation that the Hobbs Police Department shall not reduce its force at least one year after the three-year grant period has ended.<\/p>\n

In minutes of the Nov. 7 meeting<\/a>, Murphy said that, as a result of accepting the $625,000 grant, which required a $751,165 match from the City of Hobbs, the police department \u201cwill not be able to reduce its number of positions below 108.\u201d<\/p>\n

Can a community have too many police officers? Hobbs, population 36,000, must budget for at least 108 officers on its force for four years. To compare, the number of certified officers in Clovis is, at most, 64, with a population of about 40,000; Las Cruces, 200, population 100,000; and Roswell, 94, population 50,000.<\/p>\n

At the Nov. 7 meeting, several commissioners expressed concerns about the requirement to maintain the police force at 108 officers, particularly amid Hobbs\u2019 economic downturn and the city\u2019s diminished revenues. Layoffs might have to come from other departments, they worried, since the police force could not be cut. Commissioner Pat Taylor called the situation a \u201cquagmire.\u201d Former police chief and Commissioner Marshall Newman made the motion to table the acceptance of the grant, and the commission unanimously agreed.<\/p>\n

At the subsequent Nov. 21 meeting<\/a>, a majority of the commissioners relented to accept the grant, but the former police chief still could not reconcile \u201cthe hard time\u201d he had with the related staffing mandates; he alone voted against it.<\/p>\n

For all the concerns expressed, missing from the discussion at both November meetings was another disclosure by Mayor Sam Cobb of a potential conflict of interest. According to a business registration with the New Mexico Secretary of State<\/a>, since 2015 Mayor Cobb has been affiliated with a business, Southwest Monitoring LLC<\/a>, that furnishes and monitors court-mandated ankle bracelets for persons on house arrest<\/a>. State records list Mayor Cobb as the \u201corganizer\u201d of the business, and one of his sons lists himself as Southwest Monitoring LLC\u2019s operations manager. The registered address of Southwest Monitoring LLC is the same as that of RMS Foods Inc., of which Mayor Cobb is president, and the Cobb Family Limited Partnership, of which Mayor Cobb is an officer and board member.<\/p>\n

If the mayor had erred on the side of disclosure, would that have affected any other commissioners’ votes? Is it important for the public to know that the mayor has a vested business interest in “law enforcement, the courts, and the probation\/parole services?\u201d<\/a> With more cops on the streets, more arrests will be made for crimes both minor (the majority) and major. More arrests in a strained system almost certainly translates to increased imposition of house arrests. How convenient!<\/p>\n

Could Southwest Monitoring LLC, and thereby Mayor Cobb, profit from the current crisis in Lea County\u2019s courts, particularly the public defender\u2019s office? The mayor has voted on the hiring \u2013 arguably over-hiring \u2013 of police officers, 25 of whom received a housing bonus<\/a> of up to $50,000 since 2013, totaling about $890,000<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The question Hobbs taxpayers should be asking themselves is this: Why do we need so many officers on the street in a city our size? If the answer is \u201cWe don\u2019t,\u201d then Mr. Murphy and the mayor have some serious explaining to do.<\/p>\n

Quoting from the City of Hobbs\u2019 own Code of Ethics<\/a>, Deputy Auditor Bhakta reminded Mayor Cobb and Hobbs commissioners in his Jan. 30 letter that even \u201can indirect interest may result in disqualification based on the majority vote of the Commission or through voluntary recusal.\u201d Commissioners deserved the opportunity to decide whether the mayor\u2019s dealings posed yet another conflict of interest in a matter pending before the commission, but the mayor chose not to disclose the interest.<\/p>\n

So long as there are conflicts of interest \u2013 potential, perceived or proven \u2013 we need sunshine, lots of it. I would like to encourage my fellow citizens to resolve to support quality journalism that you trust, like NMPolitics.net<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And if where you are there is not a trustworthy press in your community to shine a light on government, then resolve to be the Fourth Estate your community needs. That is precisely why I created WeTheFourth.org<\/a>. We deserve ethical leadership and transparent financial dealings in government. Until I’m convinced we have those elements in place in Hobbs, I will keep digging. I hope more citizens will take up this work as well.<\/p>\n

Nick Maxwell is a technology consultant, writer, and analyst. Maxwell advocates for government transparency and operates the watchdog website wethefourth.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We deserve ethical leadership and transparent financial dealings in government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":200378,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,16],"tags":[142,885,705],"class_list":["post-314128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-guest-columns","tag-crime","tag-hobbs","tag-money-in-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314128","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=314128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}