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.
Cumbre Construction, the company that Albuquerque mayoral candidate R.J. Berry describes as a “family-owned business,” but is actually owned by his wife, Maria Berry, has secured almost $50 million dollars in federal construction contracts from 2000 to 2008, contracts facilitated by the company’s ability to access government sole-source contracts due to its status as a woman- and minority-owned business.
In his stump speech and campaign materials, Albuquerque mayoral candidate Berry refers to his family business, and says he’ll run the city “more like a business and less like a political machine.”
But his family business itself illustrates that government objectives often differ from business objectives.
One of Berry’s opponents, incumbent mayor Martin Chavez, has gone after Berry’s business experience in ads stating that Berry doesn’t actually own his own business. Chavez’s ads are pure politics, because Chavez surely knows that Berry’s “family business” is Cumbre Construction.
Cumbre Construction is described as “Hispanic owned” in a list of the 500 largest Hispanic owned companies in the nation. For many years, it was ranked in New Mexico Woman magazine’s list of Top 25 Woman-owned businesses in New Mexico.
Maria Berry explained in a 2004 New Mexico Business Weekly article profiling her how the minority-owned status of Cumbre helped the company get a leg-up:
Berry says with the company’s acceptance into the minority-and women-owned Small Business Administration’s (SBA) 8(a) Business Development programs, her company has been able to land those large and lucrative contracts. SBA’s 8(a) Business Development programs are intended to help small businesses be successful through government contracts, access to capital, management, and technical and export assistance.
SBA program goals include revitalizing neighborhoods, creating jobs and encouraging economic growth. The SBA uses a number of tools, ranging from contract support to low-interest loans for site acquisition, construction and the purchase of new or upgraded equipment.
Those government contracts made up the majority of the business in 2004:
Berry, who started her company in a rented basement in a building on Eubank and Central Avenue, figures that about 70 percent of her contracts are government projects, which have elevated her revenues substantially. …
Berry says her experience working for a government agency, combined with her husband’s experience of running a construction company, has helped the firm find its niche and grow….
For eight years, while simultaneously working at her government job, Berry worked part time tiling, painting and doing a little capentry with her husband’s construction business, R.J. Berry Enterprises. With that experience, she was able to obtain her general contractors license.
Soon after, her husband closed his business and joined forces with his wife.
It’s unclear if the article got it wrong, or if R.J. Berry has simply re-opened his own business since then. He listed R.J. Berry Enterprises this year as a current source of income on a candidate financial disclosure report he had to file with the Albuquerque City Clerk.
Berry has not responded to the Independent’s inquiries for clarification, although his campaign manager, Dana Feldman, told NMI they are putting together financial information to release to the press.
The Small Business Administration’s (SBA) 8(a) Business Development programs help small businesses that are considered socially and economically disadvantaged due to minority ownership. The businesses are eligible to receive sole-source–also known as, “no-bid”–government contracts. Additionally, they’re provided with trainings, mentoring and other kinds of professional development assistance.
In this way, they’re affirmative action programs that intervene in the market to increase minority participation in the economy.
“The overall program goal is to graduate firms that will go on to thrive in a competitive business environment,” the SBA program website states.
To move companies in that direction, the program requires that government contracts are only one part of a company’s portfolio. In the 2004 Biz Weekly article, Maria Berry said her company pursues private sector work as well, and apparently has been quite successful at it:
Berry says her construction company can’t rely solely on government contracts, but admits that the projects Cumbre has tackled from its government affiliations have bolstered the company’s resume.
“We love working with the government, but we also have to spread it out because you never know what’s going to happen and that’s why we have to develop relationships with the private sector as well.”
It’s done well there, too. Cumbre Construction’s private sector projects include a new building for Beck Office Systems on Menaul Boulevard and a Garduno’s restaurant in Las Cruces.
