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.
Rocked by recent scandals, resignations and controversies, the state Public Regulation Commission (PRC) began staff ethics training Tuesday.
Former chief of staff Dan Mayfield‘s prohibition on PRC employees speaking to journalists was still in effect, staffers have told The Independent as recently as Tuesday.
Former interim chief of staff Johnny Montoya, who has been promoting ethics and transparency reform at the PRC, has said he is unaware of such a policy. But that came as a surprise to employees approached by The Independent.
“Headline: PRC employees denied their protected free speech rights,” quipped one employee.
Montoya is searching through Mayfield’s policy memos to clarify the situation, spokesman Gerald Garner said late Wednesday morning.
Montoya has called for an ethics and transparency overhaul at the PRC, but incoming chief of staff Michael A. Rivera did not mention ethics or transparency in a prepared statement released by the PRC Tuesday.
Ethics training session first of several
Tuesday’s ethics “train the trainers” session was the first of three to be conducted by UNM Institute of Public Law Director Paul Biderman, PRC spokesman Gerald Garner said.
PRC commissioners themselves will receive ethics training June 29.
Tuesday’s training session covered “nuts and bolts, the foundational laws governing ethics” and going through the PRC’s staff ethics survey responses, Garner told The Independent.
After a series of well-publicized scandals at the powerful regulatory body, a staff ethics survey was commissioned last year. Employee responses revealed low staff morale and allegations of unethical and illegal conduct by commissioners.
Two more “train the trainers” sessions will be held later this month, at which “values-based decision making” will be discussed and the PRC will establish protocols for handling ethical issues, Garner said.
Garner and seven other PRC employees are undergoing the training, and will then conduct training for the rest of the staff of more than 270 employees, he said.
