{"id":96731,"date":"2015-11-04T01:00:47","date_gmt":"2015-11-04T08:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=96731"},"modified":"2015-11-04T08:38:04","modified_gmt":"2015-11-04T15:38:04","slug":"pension-stripping-law-needs-fixed-do-officials-want-to-fix-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2015\/11\/pension-stripping-law-needs-fixed-do-officials-want-to-fix-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Pension-stripping law needs fixed. Do officials want to fix it?"},"content":{"rendered":"

COMMENTARY:<\/strong> It was all bipartisan smiles and back-patting<\/a> in 2012 when Gov. Susana Martinez signed a law they said would combat corruption with a threat of losing your government pension.<\/p>\n

\"Heath<\/a>

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

Martinez said the law<\/a> \u201csends a strong statement that corruption in New Mexico will not stand.\u201d The bill\u2019s primary sponsor, Republican Sen. Bill Payne, said it would \u201chold public officials accountable.\u201d Democratic Rep. Ken Martinez said it would be a deterrent.<\/p>\n

It turns out the law may not do any of that.<\/p>\n

The pending plea agreement<\/a> between former Secretary of State Dianna Duran and the Attorney General\u2019s Office was the first chance to apply the law. Many thought Duran might lose her pension.<\/p>\n

But neither side in that case thinks the law can be applied.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe public was misled that lawmakers had passed an aggressive statute intended to properly take away pensions from corrupt officials,\u201d said James Hallinan, spokesman for Attorney General Hector Balderas.<\/p>\n

The law, Hallinan said, \u201cdoesn\u2019t even mention the word pension and would result in costly litigation for taxpayers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Is anyone surprised? The Legislature has a history of resisting reform. Sometimes it has passed bills that are about making officials look like they\u2019re transparent, accountable, and tough on corruption rather than actually being any of those things.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve convicted several government officials in the last decade. Most recently, Duran has pleaded guilty to two felonies and four misdemeanors<\/a> for stealing money from her campaign bank accounts.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, reform has been incremental, often piddly, and always hard-fought.<\/p>\n

The flaws in the pension law<\/a> are apparently many. Duran\u2019s attorney, Erlinda Ocampo Johnson, argues that it doesn\u2019t apply to Duran because it requires \u201cthat the felony conviction and the conduct underlying it be related directly to the defendant’s duties as a public official.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stealing money from a government office would relate to a government employee\u2019s duties as a public official, Johnson told me. But stealing from her campaign donors means Duran committed crimes in her capacity as a candidate.<\/p>\n

In addition, the law vaguely \u2013 and conveniently \u2013 mentions \u201cfringe benefits,\u201d not a \u201cpension.\u201d It uses the word \u201cpaid\u201d to describe benefits that can be taken away, which could be read in the past-tense and not about payments a person receives going forward. There are no guidelines for calculating the \u201cadditional fine\u201d a judge can impose.<\/p>\n

But we knew this. Even when officials touted the law in 2012, publicly-accessible information cast doubt on whether it was enforceable.<\/p>\n

At the time the AG\u2019s Office called language in the bill \u201cunclear\u201d and said such \u201cambiguity creates a potential constitutional problem.\u201d The AG recommended listing the crimes that were subject to the enhanced penalty.<\/p>\n

The State Personnel Office questioned the meaning of the language \u201csalaries and fringe benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s all in the analysis<\/a> legislative staffers did before lawmakers approved the bill and the governor signed it.<\/p>\n

Maybe policymakers didn\u2019t know about the problems. Maybe some wanted to look tough on corruption without actually being tough on corruption.<\/p>\n

Whatever the case, there\u2019s an opportunity to fix this mess in January. The AG\u2019s spokesman, Hallinan, told me Rep. Martinez is \u201csupportive of furthering the conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n

New Mexicans want tough anti-corruption laws. Hallinan said judges and prosecutors \u201cneed the proper tools to withhold a state pension.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Legislature meets in January. The governor decides what\u2019s on the agenda for that session. Time will tell how interested our leaders are in fixing this issue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A law enacted in 2012 was touted as an anti-corruption measure that could cause misbehaving public officials to lose their pensions. But neither side in the case of former Secretary of State Dianna Duran thinks the law applies.<\/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":[142,1191,109,107],"class_list":["post-96731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-haussamen-columns","tag-crime","tag-dianna-duran","tag-ethics-reform","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96731","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=96731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96731\/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=96731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}