I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
Gov. Bill Richardson refused Tuesday to answer whether he or anyone in his office knew that his brother-in-law had applied to become deputy director of the New Mexico Retiree Health Care Authority.
The agency hired Richardson’s brother-in-law Bill Walsh last fall to a post that pays $85,000.
When asked, the governor threw up his hands and remained silent as he exited a press conference held in his Cabinet room at the Capitol.
The governor has begun to use that gesture quite a lot these days. On Friday he refused to answer whether his administration had sent the message out for state agencies to hire Albuquerque-based Meyners + Company to do auditing work.
The Independent reported last week that state records showed that the auditing firm, whose principals include Education Retirement Board Chairman Bruce Malott, has grown from a bit player to a powerhouse in New Mexico government while Richardson has been governor.
The governor threw up his hands, shrugged and said nothing on Friday when the Independent asked him twice about Meyners + Company. Malott served as Richardson’s treasurer in the 2002 gubernatorial primary. Another principal at the company served as treasurer for his 2002 and 2006 gubernatorial campaigns, as well as for his presidential campaign.
Malott also sits on the retiree health care authority board.
Walsh was selected over four other finalists to win the job of deputy director at the New Mexico Retiree Health Care Authority, said the agency’s executive director, who was involved in the hiring.
Director Wayne Propst said the agency went through a competitive hiring process before hiring Walsh.
Propst and the other agency official involved in the hiring, Retiree Health Care Authority board Chairman Alfredo Santistevan, said Monday they had felt no pressure or fielded no communication from administration officials to hire Walsh.
Attempts to reach Walsh on Monday were unsuccessful. The governor’s office did not respond to two e-mails seeking a response to the Independent’s questions Monday.
This is not the first time that Walsh’s employment has had a Richardson connection.
Walsh also worked at Peregrine Systems Inc., a software company, from 2000 to 2002. That overlaps with the time that Richardson sat on the company’s board of directors, from February 2001 to June 2002, and before Richardson won that year’s election to become New Mexico governor.
Peregrine was engulfed in a scandal earlier this decade for what the Securities and Exchange Commission called a “massive fraud.” Another Richardson brother-in-law and former Peregrine CEO, Stephen Parker Gardner, was sentenced in December to more than eight years in federal prison for participating in a scheme at Peregrine to defraud investors from 1999 to 2002.
Walsh is married to a sister of New Mexico First Lady Barbara Richardson.
Walsh was hired to the state retiree health care agency as an exempt employee, meaning that he works at the pleasure of the governor. That differs from an employee in a classified position. Rules for classified positions require a competitive hiring process and give an employee additional protections to guard against wrongful termination.
Five of the retiree health care agency’s 24 employees are exempt, Propst said.
