{"id":89588,"date":"2015-10-07T01:00:09","date_gmt":"2015-10-07T07:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=89588"},"modified":"2015-10-07T10:47:42","modified_gmt":"2015-10-07T16:47:42","slug":"tax-and-rev-secretary-has-a-lot-of-explaining-to-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2015\/10\/tax-and-rev-secretary-has-a-lot-of-explaining-to-do\/","title":{"rendered":"Tax and Rev secretary has a lot of explaining to do"},"content":{"rendered":"

COMMENTARY:<\/strong> Taxation and Revenue Secretary Demesia Padilla, who\u2019s accused of pressuring her employees to give special treatment to her former client, has a lot of explaining to do.<\/p>\n

\"Heath<\/a>

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

Padilla tried to inappropriately influence a Taxation and Revenue Department (TRD) audit of Harold\u2019s Grading and Trucking, the business she used to work for, an investigation<\/a> recently concluded.<\/p>\n

Padilla has \u201cflatly\u201d denied<\/a> the allegations. Martinez administration officials have accused State Auditor Tim Keller, who hired the firm that conducted the investigation, of playing politics<\/a>.\u00a0But public records raise serious questions about Padilla\u2019s actions that TRD is refusing to answer.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve done my share of criticizing<\/a> Keller<\/a> in recent<\/a> weeks<\/a>. And I\u2019ve been investigating the allegations against Padilla. Refusing to explain makes it appear that Padilla is hiding something.<\/p>\n

The evidence against Padilla includes interviews with TRD employees and hours of audio recordings of meetings, Keller says. That evidence has been turned over to Attorney General Hector Balderas for investigation and remains secret.<\/p>\n

The tax department did release a 2014 email<\/a> in which Kevin Sourisseau, then the Audit & Compliance Division deputy director, stated that the audit of Harold\u2019s Trucking \u201chas not received any special consideration from the audit staff.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you for your support with this difficult and uncomfortable issue,\u201d he wrote to\u00a0Lizzy Vedamanikam, then director of the department\u2019s administrative services division. Sourisseau talked with Padilla the day before, but \u201cNo changes have been made to the audit,\u201d his email states.<\/p>\n

Both employees have since left TRD. Sourisseau now works for Keller\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

Sourisseau\u2019s statement that no changes were made might indicate that Padilla didn\u2019t try to influence the audit. Or it could mean she tried, but staff beat back her attempts. I can\u2019t say which. Ben Cloutier, TRD\u2019s spokesman, has ignored my questions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Seeking understanding, I filed a request in July under the state\u2019s Inspection of Public Records Act for all documents related to the audit. About two months later, TRD gave me 192 pages of emails and other records<\/a>.<\/p>\n

They show that Padilla fought a penalty her office leveled against Harold\u2019s Trucking. The department rejected the company\u2019s protest in spite of Padilla\u2019s pushback.<\/p>\n

In one email<\/a> Sourisseau documents Padilla visiting his office and saying \u201cshe believed the discussion and issue has been blown out of proportion.\u201d Sourisseau wrote that Padilla told him she was \u201conly\u201d trying to address the penalty against Harold\u2019s Trucking.<\/p>\n

Was Padilla speaking on behalf of Harold\u2019s Trucking or as Sourisseau\u2019s boss? It\u2019s difficult to imagine Sourisseau not feeling pressured during that conversation.<\/p>\n

Why did Padilla jump into a situation that created a conflict of interest instead of avoiding it? Couldn\u2019t someone else have done the work on behalf of her former client?<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t know. Because TRD isn\u2019t answering questions. Cloutier wouldn\u2019t answer any questions I asked about the 192 pages of records<\/a> TRD gave me.<\/p>\n

Padilla should stay away from audits of former clients. There\u2019s no other way to insulate her staff from feeling inappropriately pressured in such situations.<\/p>\n

If there are special circumstances that meant Padilla couldn\u2019t avoid a conflict in this instance, TRD needs to explain why, and tell us how Padilla and her staff navigated the situation.<\/p>\n

TRD\u2019s refusal to explain adds to the appearance of impropriety. As long as TRD refuses to answer substantive questions and deflects by lobbing bombs at Keller, I\u2019m inclined to believe the allegations against Padilla.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m glad Balderas is reviewing Keller\u2019s investigation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As long as Tax and Rev refuses to answer substantive questions and deflects by lobbing bombs at the state auditor, I\u2019m inclined to believe allegations that Secretary Demesia Padilla pressured her employees to give special treatment to her former client.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":55852,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,10],"tags":[142,107,706],"class_list":["post-89588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-haussamen-columns","tag-crime","tag-roundhouse","tag-transparency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89588","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=89588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}