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.
A bill that would transfer oversight of the State Investment Council from the executive branch to the state Attorney General‘s office cleared a powerful Senate Committee on Thursday morning. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Tim Keller, D-Albuquerque, would take oversight and enforcement of the State Investment Council from the securities division of the state Regulation & Licensing Department.
The Senate Committee on Committees ruled the legislation (SB19) germane Thursday morning, meaning it’s relevant to the legislative business at hand and should be debated.
New Mexico in recent months has emerged as a hot spot in an ever-widening investment scandal with ties to New York state and California.
As a result, the federal Securities and Exchange Commission is conducting an inquiry into the State Investment Council.
The SEC inquiry, meanwhile, coincides with an ongoing criminal investigation that began earlier this year in New York. New Mexico’s former investment adviser, Saul Meyer of Aldus Equity, pleaded guilty there to securities violations. Meyer admitted to pushing certain deals to New Mexico’s two investment agencies — the SIC and Educational Retirement Board —because politically connected individuals here recommended them. Meyer didn’t name names.
Shortly after that, former State Investment Officer Gary Bland resigned in October prior to a scheduled no-confidence vote by council members.
The Senate Committee on Committee also ruled germane a different bill related to troubles at the State Investment Council: SB 220, sponsored by Sen. John Ryan, R-Albuquerque.
That bill would stop the state from having to pay to defend state employees who have been sued for fraud or other government wrongdoing on the job “when it is the state that is also involved in pressing the charges,” according to a news release.
Ryan’s bill comes in response to the high-profile Foy v. Vanderbilt case, which includes several current and former state officials, including former State Investment Officer Gary Bland.
New Mexico so far has doled out hundreds of thousands of dollars in attorneys fees defending the agencies and current and former state officials named as defendants in the lawsuit.
The Senate Committee on Committees reversed itself on both bills. Earlier in the session the committee ruled against both bills, saying they were not germane.
It was unclear why the committee changed course Thursday.
