{"id":37309,"date":"2012-02-28T08:16:42","date_gmt":"2012-02-28T15:16:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=37309"},"modified":"2012-02-28T17:25:12","modified_gmt":"2012-02-29T00:25:12","slug":"state-officials-working-to-address-sunland-park-disarray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2012\/02\/state-officials-working-to-address-sunland-park-disarray\/","title":{"rendered":"State officials working to address Sunland Park \u2018disarray\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Sunland<\/a>

Heath Haussamen \/ NMPolitics.net<\/p>

Sunland Park City Hall (Photo by Heath Haussamen)<\/p><\/div>\n

The March 6 election will go on as planned, and mayoral candidate Daniel Salinas will remain on the ballot. State and federal officials and investigators are working to ensure the integrity of the election and city government.<\/h4>\n
\n
\n
\"State<\/a><\/dt>\n

\u201cThe arrests of the city\u2019s top management are certain to plunge the city\u2019s financial situation into a state of further disarray.\u201d – State Auditor Hector Balderas<\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

Following the arrests of the Sunland Park mayor pro tem and city manager, the state auditor plans to speed up his probe of city finances, the governor says she\u2019s prepared to intervene, and the secretary of state has traveled south to look into election complaints.<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s March 6 election will go on as planned in spite of the arrests<\/a> of Mayor Pro Tem Daniel Salinas, one of three mayoral candidates, and City Manager Jaime Aguilera, who both remain jailed<\/a> on extortion charges stemming from allegations that they used a lap-dance video to try to force one of Salinas\u2019 opponents to drop out of the mayoral race.<\/p>\n

Secretary of State Dianna Duran<\/a>, who will be in Sunland Park today, was quoted by the Las Cruces Sun-News as saying she\u2019s \u201cvery concerned\u201d<\/a> about the election but doesn\u2019t have the authority to cancel it.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, State Auditor Hector Balderas<\/a>, who announced last week that his office would conduct a special audit<\/a> of the city\u2019s finances, says he\u2019ll speed things up. State law allows the Department of Finance and Administration (DFA) to temporarily suspend city officials and take control, but only if a special audit justifies it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe arrests of the city\u2019s top management are certain to plunge the city\u2019s financial situation into a state of further disarray,\u201d Balderas told NMPolitics.net. \u201cI\u2019m extremely concerned by these developments, and my auditors will move with increased speed to address the significant risks to taxpayer dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gov. Susana Martinez<\/a>\u00a0\u201cis very concerned about the apparent lack of stable and viable leadership in Sunland Park, and she supports efforts by the auditor\u2019s office to provide a swift, preliminary understanding of whether taxpayer dollars are being appropriately spent,\u201d spokesman Scott Darnell said.<\/p>\n

He said if the auditor finds \u201cfraudulent misappropriation or embezzlement of public money or another statutory basis for suspension,\u201d then the governor can \u2013 \u201cand will\u201d \u2013 direct DFA to suspend certain officials and \u201cassign state personnel to perform the suspended officials\u2019 duties.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s incredibly unfortunate that this course of action must be pursued, but it\u2019s a direct result of the serious pattern of alleged misconduct by certain individuals holding positions of public trust in Sunland Park,\u201d Darnell said.<\/p>\n

City officials work to hold things together<\/h3>\n

<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, city officials who aren\u2019t in jail are working to hold things together. The Albuquerque Journal quoted City Clerk Liz Gamez as saying municipal operations and services continue as normal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur department heads are here, so city business continues, the elections continue,\u201d the Journal quoted Gamez as saying.<\/p>\n

Mayor Martin Resendiz showed up for work on Monday for the first time since October, the Sun-News<\/a> and KTSM-TV in El Paso<\/a> reported. Resendiz, who will leave office in a few weeks, \u201cwanted to make sure the city was still working for its people,\u201d KTSM reported.<\/p>\n

The election does continue, but the charges against Salinas create uncertainty \u2013 beyond that of a normal election \u2013 about who will be running the city in a few weeks. Salinas will remain on the ballot and voters will decide whether to elect him, but convicted felons can\u2019t hold office in New Mexico. If elected and then convicted, he would be removed from office.<\/p>\n

Even before the criminal case is resolved, once Balderas completes his audit it may be possible for DFA to remove Salinas from office, if he\u2019s elected mayor.<\/p>\n

Secretary of State Chief of Staff Ken Ortiz said the office is watching closely and investigating the situation. The office is also looking into several other election-related complaints, but he didn\u2019t provide details.<\/p>\n

More to come?<\/h3>\n

There may be more to come. Two other city employees have already been charged in the extortion case \u2013 Public Works Director Jesus Dario Hernandez and Martah Alondra Lozano, an assistant temporary human resources employee \u2013 but have not yet been arrested. Law enforcement continues to look for them.<\/p>\n

District Attorney Amy Orlando has said the arrests of Salinas and Aguilera have led to additional tips about potential crimes, and law enforcement is following up. The next step in the case against the four already charged is for Orlando\u2019s office to present the evidence to a grand jury.<\/p>\n

And the FBI is still investigating city contracts, but details about what they\u2019re looking for remain secret.<\/p>\n

For now, the most immediate steps are Duran\u2019s work to ensure the integrity of the election and Balderas\u2019 special audit. Duran plans to have staff in Sunland Park on March 6 to monitor the election.<\/p>\n

In addition to sharing information with DFA, Balderas said he will \u201cfully brief and assist federal, state and local law enforcement and oversight agencies as our audit progresses.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following the arrests of the Sunland Park mayor pro tem and city manager, the state auditor plans to speed up his probe of city finances, the governor says she\u2019s prepared to intervene, and the secretary of state has traveled south to look into election complaints.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[142,114,107,167],"class_list":["post-37309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-crime","tag-public-corruption","tag-roundhouse","tag-sunland-park"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37309","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=37309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37309\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}