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.
The Public Regulation Commission (PRC) will refer allegations of perjury and witness intimidation against Picacho Hills Utility Company owner and real estate developer Stephen Blanco to the Attorney General’s office, according to PRC records and commissioners.
The findings, which the PRC will vote to refer to the attorney general’s office by Aug. 12, resulted from an agency review of Blanco’s company.
The PRC also plans to ask a state district court judge to place Blanco’s company into receivership, replacing him with a court-ordered trustee, and order Blanco to return approximately $215,000 in unauthorized transfers he allegedly made from the company’s bank account, commissioners have said.
Blanco flatly denied the perjury allegations this week but acknowledged accosting a PRC bureau chief in February — one of two incidents on which the PRC has based allegations of witness intimidation.
Blanco told The Independent on Wednesday that he welcomes the referral of charges to the AG’s office.
“I have nothing to hide,” the utility owner said.
Witness intimidation alleged in water utility rate case
Blanco accosted two PRC staffers Feb. 16, prior to their testimony in a Picacho Hills water rate case, the report states. PRC Utilities Division Bureau Chief Steven Schwebke reported that Blanco confronted him in the PRC restroom, pushing Schwebke against a sink and calling him a “lying son of a bitch.”
PRC accountant Dwight Lamberson reported being confronted by Blanco the same day, according to the report. Blanco repeatedly called Lamberson “a (expletive) liar,” the report states.
“Mr. Blanco’s tone was hostile and Mr. Lamberson felt threatened,” the report states. “Mr. Blanco’s actions constitute the crime of witness intimidation, which is a third-degree felony.”
Blanco confirmed the confrontation with Schwebke, but not Lamberson, Thursday, in an e-mail to The Independent.
“During the February Hearing I called him a (expletive) liar in the men’s room, and gave him a shove,” Blanco wrote. “(Schwebke) was visibly shaken, as he knew he was committing perjury, he said he was calling security.”
But Blanco said he never intended to intimidate Schwebke into changing his testimony.
“The last fight I got into was in 8th grade,” Blanco e-mailed. “I attack with my brain. In 20 years of dealing with him why is this the first act of intimidation I would use on anyone at the PRC.”
Nor did he accost Lamberson, Blanco said.
“I never spoke directly to Lamberson at the hearing,” Blanco said.
Perjury alleged over bank loan testimony
The PRC report also alleges that Blanco offered false testimony to the Public Regulation Commission about his utility company’s bank loans. Blanco testified he had been unable to obtain bank financing to extend a waste water line to the Rio Grande — when in fact he had already cosigned a $1.37 million loan to the utility, according to the report.
Staffers believed that was an attempt to exaggerate the utility’s need for a rate increase on customers, the report states.
“The statements appear to represent knowing attempts to influence the Commission … regarding the construction of the sewage discharge line, its financing and (the company’s) need for additional rate relief with false testimony,” the report states.
“I deny making that statement,” Blanco told The Independent. “I gave them a commitment letter from the Bank of the Rio Grande. The bank’s letter of commitment stated I’d borrow $1.5 million if the PRC gave adequate rates to support the repayments. I told them (the Commission) I had a commitment for $1.5 million subject to them granting me adequate cash flow to service the debt (by approving a rate increase). The PRC staff’s incompetent in matters of commercial lending practices.”
Unauthorized money transfers
Separately, commissioners will order Blanco to repay his company money it believes he inappropriately transferred to other accounts, including $205,000 in utility money used to pay business loans by a separate business, Blanco Development, and $9,000 in utility money that bank records indicate Blanco used to make payments on his personal credit card.
The money was unrelated to the unauthorized loans secured by Blanco, according to the report.
“Mr. Blanco will be directed to pay back the money as part of this,” Commissioner Jason Marks said Wednesday.
“I’m not going to pay it,” Blanco told The Independent, adding that he intends to take the case to the state Supreme Court.
Asked about allegations of co-mingled funds, Blanco said he was singled out by the PRC for business practices that are widespread in the water utilities industry.
