{"id":5625,"date":"2009-08-31T00:20:19","date_gmt":"2009-08-31T06:20:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=5625"},"modified":"2009-08-31T00:30:42","modified_gmt":"2009-08-31T06:30:42","slug":"three-ethics-reforms-new-mexico-needs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/08\/three-ethics-reforms-new-mexico-needs\/","title":{"rendered":"Three ethics reforms New Mexico needs"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_5633\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignright\" style=\"max-width: 120px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/Ortiz-y-Pino-Gerald1.jpg\" alt=\"Jerry Ortiz y Pino\" title=\"Ortiz y Pino, Gerald\" width=\"120\" height=\"160\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5633\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jerry Ortiz y Pino<\/p><\/div>\n<p>I think everyone is breathing a sigh of relief over <a href=\"..\/2009\/08\/report-guv-others-won%e2%80%99t-be-charged-in-gripgate-probe\/\">the outcome<\/a> of the grand jury that was investigating allegations of pay to play in the Richardson administration, but it in no way should that outcome cause us to waver in the long-overdue campaign for serious ethics reform in New Mexico.<\/p>\n<p>There should be a legal bright line between contributors to political campaigns\u00a0and the state\u2019s contracting and procurement processes &#8212; an absolute prohibition\u00a0against contributions from anyone or any corporation\u00a0under consideration for\u00a0the state\u2019s business.<\/p>\n<p>Then we need\u00a0a whistleblower protection bill to make sure no retaliation can be taken against a public\u00a0employee or any private citizen who comes forward with information about unethical contracting practices or hidden contributions.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-115\" title=\"Guest column\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/Guest-column.jpg\" alt=\"Guest column\" width=\"120\" height=\"60\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Finally, we need an ethics commission &#8212; a place for the whistleblowers to take information about attempts at evading the\u00a0ethics law.\u00a0I think that commission ought to be small (five to seven members, tops) and made up of men and women appointed to staggered terms by the governor and confirmed by the Senate.<\/p>\n<p>Its membership ought to be men and women widely recognized for their\u00a0integrity, experience and objectivity. Retired judges, former deans of law schools or ex-university presidents or academics, professional ethicists, active or retired clerics, civic leaders with long records of public service &#8212; these might be examples of where\u00a0persons nominated for the commission might be found.<\/p>\n<p>True ethics reform is necessary if public confidence in state government is to be restored.\u00a0And all three pieces are necessary for it to be considered \u201ctrue:\u201d contribution\/contracting prohibition, whistleblower protection and an ethics commission with teeth.<\/p>\n<p>If any one of the three is missing, we will have evaded the fullness of reform that is called for.<\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"http:\/\/legis.state.nm.us\/LCS\/legdetails.aspx?SPONCODE=SORTI\">Ortiz y Pino<\/a> is a Democratic state senator for Albuquerque and a candidate for lieutenant governor.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>True ethics reform is necessary if public confidence in state government is to be restored. Here&#8217;s what I think needs to happen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,16],"tags":[108,107],"class_list":["post-5625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","category-guest-columns","tag-2010-election","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5625","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\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5625\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}