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.
Criminal charges against one Public Regulation Commission (PRC) commissioner, the conviction earlier this month of another on two felony charges, a costly sexual harassment lawsuit, the hiring of a convicted embezzler, and repeated violations of the Open Meetings Act notwithstanding, Commissioner Sandy Jones blames the media for the PRC’s poor public image.
Asked how the PRC could improve its public image, Jones told The Independent the media could start reporting on the PRC’s achievements. The public doesn’t know about the PRC’s successes and hard work because the media does not report on them, Jones said.
A PRC press release Tuesday aired similar complaints, taking exception with an Albuquerque Journal Business Outlook story’s “vague” accusations against the PRC, particularly the article’s description of the PRC’s decisions as “inconsistent.”
That adjective prompted Jones to call Journal reporter Winthrop Quigley to demand an explanation.
“What I find to be particularly troubling is the fact that when I called the reporter and asked him to identify or elaborate on the accusations he leveled in his story, he was unable to cite a specific example and said he would have to do some research,” Jones is quoted as saying in the press release.
The PRC press release did not refer to The Independent’s coverage of violations of the state’s Open Meetings Act. Nor did PRC officials respond to The Independent’s requests last week and earlier this week for comment on those violations.
“Day in and day out, the (PRC) strives to make sound decisions that provide the greatest benefit for consumer and corporate interests within the state,” the press release states, adding that the PRC makes hundreds of decisions a year. “The (PRC) makes its collective decisions with the added challenge of consistently being in the proverbial crosshairs.”
Jones, who really was in somebody’s crosshairs when he was shot at last Friday near Clines Corners, is running for state land commissioner.
PRC commissioners embroiled in ethical, legal troubles
His complaints are not entirely unfair. Many PRC decisions, resulting from months of work groups and bargaining, do not receive much press.
But that does not make the media responsible for the PRC’s bad public image.
Jones made headlines last year for hiring convicted embezzler Elizabeth Martin as his assistant at $72,000 a year.
The PRC has repeatedly violated the Open Meetings Act.
Commissioner Carol Sloan was found guilty of felony battery and burglary charges April 8 — though she will be allowed to keep her seat as she appeals her conviction, a PRC official told The Independent.
Commissioner Jerome Block Jr. and his father — a former PRC commissioner — both face charges for misusing taxpayer election funds.
A sexual harassment lawsuit against Commissioner David King cost taxpayers $840,000.
And while King’s part ownership of Estancia Basin Water Supply, which sells water to two PRC-regulated water utilities, did not rise to the level of a criminal violation, it nevertheless appears to be a conflict of interest. (District Attorney Angela Pacheco cleared King of violating a state law against accepting “anything of value from a regulated entity” in January.)
King does recuse himself from votes on rate increases for the companies to which his firm sells water, PRC Spokesman Gerald Garner told The Independent.
With the hiring of new interim chief of staff Johnny Montoya, the PRC could potentially improve its public image through improved transparency. One reason reporters don’t regularly cover the hard work of PRC staffers is that those staffers have not been allowed to speak to reporters. Montoya could change that policy with a memo.
