{"id":690,"date":"2006-10-09T17:11:00","date_gmt":"2006-10-09T23:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/10\/report-confirms-impropriety-in-housing-authorities\/"},"modified":"2006-10-09T17:11:00","modified_gmt":"2006-10-09T23:11:00","slug":"report-confirms-impropriety-in-housing-authorities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/10\/report-confirms-impropriety-in-housing-authorities\/","title":{"rendered":"Report confirms impropriety in housing authorities"},"content":{"rendered":"

The State Investment Council has released its final, damning report on the operations of the state\u2019s regional housing authorities.<\/p>\n

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The report reveals widespread misuse of $5 million in bonds sold to the state, including almost $900,000 that went to former Region III Housing Authority Director Vincent \u201cSmiley\u201d Gallegos as salary, benefits and a loan. You can read the entire report by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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The state\u2019s housing authorities have been plagued by scandal in recent months that has ultimately resulted in the closing of housing authorities in Las Cruces<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> and elsewhere and a probable restructuring of the entire system. You can read more about it by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Perhaps the most intriguing misuse of money revealed in the investment council report was a $300,000 loan the housing authority made to a private company owned by Gallegos under the guise of purchasing more than 30 lots in Las Cruces<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>. According to the report, the Region III authority, based in Albuquerque<\/st1:city>, purchased the Las Cruces<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> properties on Oct. 8, 2004 for $138,678.<\/p>\n

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But on Jan. 10, 2005, Region III loaned its construction company, Housing Enterprises, Inc., $300,000 and referenced the purchase of the lots in Las Cruces<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>, though they had already been paid for. Housing Enterprises then sent the money to U.S. Title for the purchase of the Las Cruces<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> properties. The title company then wrote a check to \u201cV. Gallegos\u201d for $300,000.<\/p>\n

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

The next day, the report states, the HEI board approved the loan, according to minutes that \u201ccryptically state that just prior to adjournment, \u2018Mr. Gallegos discussed a loan agreement on personal property which was approved by the board.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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

The loan was repaid, with 6.25 percent interest, on July 31 of this year, as the housing authorities came crashing down around Gallegos. That was the day before the Legislative Finance Committee discussed problems with the housing authorities \u2013 the same day Gallegos resigned.<\/p>\n

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The investment council report also found \u201ca disproportionate amount of contributions to employee plans going specifically to Vincent \u2018Smiley\u2019 Gallegos, Dennis Kennedy and Denise Padilla.\u201d The housing authority was matching Gallegos\u2019 contributions to a retirement fund at a 7-1 rate in 2005 and 2006, and matching those of Padilla at a 3-1 rate. In addition, Gallegos and Kennedy had other plans, and the housing authority contributed almost $18,000 to Kennedy\u2019s and more than $23,000 to that of Gallegos.<\/p>\n

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The report found that the Region III authority filed \u201chighly inaccurate and misleading\u201d expenditure reports with the investment council, and that it was repeatedly selling homes to people who didn\u2019t meet low-income requirements. The properties in Las Cruces<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> were under contract to be sold to an investor who was to resell them and split the profits with the housing authority.<\/p>\n

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The attorney general\u2019s office is investigating, according to the report, so it can take \u201cappropriate enforcement action, including securing repayment of the bonds as well as any other remedies that may be available.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

The report identifies properties worth about $1.2 million, including the lots in Las Cruces<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>, which could be sold to help repay the debt owed to the state. The responsibility for the remainder of the $5 million may be left to New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> taxpayers.<\/p>\n

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The report was presented to the State Investment Council on Friday, according to a weekend article in the Albuquerque Journal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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At the meeting, according to the newspaper, State Investment Officer Gary Bland said he couldn\u2019t say whether the problems were intentional or criminal, but said, \u201cThere\u2019s a question of culpability and stupidity here.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

State Land Commissioner Patrick Lyons, a member of the council, was quoted by the Journal as saying Gallegos \u201cknew exactly what he was doing. It wasn\u2019t stupidity. \u2026 I just believe he\u2019s hurt a lot of good people.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Gallegos is a former legislator from Clovis<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> who has repeatedly denied misusing the money. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The State Investment Council has released its final, damning report on the operations of the state\u2019s regional housing authorities. The report reveals widespread misuse of $5 million in bonds sold to the state, including almost $900,000 that went to former Region III Housing Authority Director Vincent \u201cSmiley\u201d Gallegos as salary, benefits and a loan. You […]<\/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-690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690","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=690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}