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Jerome Block Jr.
Public Regulation Commissioner Jerome Block, Jr. has struggled to pay more than $2,000 in debts over the past year, including one to a fellow commissioner and another to a youth group on whose board of directors he sits. Those debts are just the latest headache for Block, who said he has already paid $400,000 in legal fees to defend himself against criminal charges stemming his handling of public campaign funds.
Block received an advance for travel expenses, some of which were then paid by another commissioner
Before flying to Chicago for a work-related conference in November 2009, Block requested an advance from the state to cover his travel expenses. But once in Chicago, PRC Chair David King paid nearly $1,500 for Block’s room and meals with his own credit card. Later, Block requested further reimbursement from the state—based on the payment made by King. Block, who insisted the whole thing was a mixup, finished repaying the debt only last week.
Upon checking into the downtown Chicago Marriott for the Nov. 2009 annual meeting of the National Association of Regulatory Commissioners (NARUC), Block told King that he had misplaced his credit card and asked King to temporarily put Block’s room on King’s card. The plan was that Block would bring his card down to the desk after he unpacked and have it straightened out, both men told The Independent in separate interviews.
“He assured me he’d gotten it (the hotel room) put on his card,” King told The Independent. “Later we realized that hadn’t happened.”
As is standard practice for out-of-state travel by commissioners, Block had been advanced 80 percent of an anticipated $1,564 in trip expenses prior to the trip. That advance came in the form of a check for $1,259 that was issued Nov. 13—the day both men flew to Chicago from Albuquerque—but it was not picked up until Dec. 13, after Block’s return, records show.
After the trip was over, Block submitted a hotel invoice listing King’s credit card number in his own expense report, seeking reimbursement for the rest of the trip’s costs. (Receipts from the trip were missing from PRC expense reports inspected by The Independent, but at The Independent’s request, PRC officials obtained copies of the receipts from the state Department of Finance Administration.)
But that meant King couldn’t get reimbursed for his own expenses—because Block had already done so, a memo and e-mails show.
“The hotel expenses were a private matter between the commissioners,” PRC Chief Financial Officer Matthew Lovato told The Independent. “Block had the records. Any debt to another commissioner did not involve the state.”
Lovato said much the same thing to King in a July 2 e-mail, prompting an angry memo from King.
“When I first met with you regarding the payment I made for services for the PRC regarding Commissioner Block’s stay in Chicago, you and he assured me that it would be taken care of but now you state the new standard now (sic) to show proof of the stay with no proof of payment is acceptable,” King’s memo states.
Despite reimbursement from the state, Block took a year to repay King in full
Block said he attempted to pay King in January by leaving a check on King’s desk when he wasn’t in his office but King said he never found such a check.
At a PRC meeting soon after, minutes confirm, Block told fellow commissioners that the hotel in Chicago had “mixed up” the bills for his and King’s rooms, and that his effort to repay King had led to an “allegation” by an unnamed individual at the PRC that he had paid King to nominate him as PRC vice chairman.
Block would not elaborate—during the meeting or afterward—on what allegations had prompted that statement.
“I can’t believe he said something like that in a public meeting,” King told The Independent when asked about the Block’s comments. “I was pretty taken aback by that.”
Later, King’s executive assistant, Jim Williamson, set up a PayPal account and suggested Block repay his debt in installments. But despite Block’s assurances in June and July that the debt would be paid, no money was deposited in the PayPal account, Williamson said and PayPal account activity records show.
Block began repaying King in August, about nine months after the Chicago trip—and after The Independent began its investigation into Block’s travel expenses.
As of late October, Block had paid $1,200 of the $1,492 he owed; the last payment came during the first week of November, Williamson told The Independent Monday.
Boys and Girls Club awaits $1,000 in pledges
Adding to Block’s woes is the $1,000 he pledged to the Boys and Girls Club of Santa Fe during a March 2010 fundraiser, director Al Padilla confirmed. Block is on the organization’s board of directors.
Block also made a pledge for the 2009 fundraiser, but Block and Padilla could not recall how much he pledged at that time.
“Jerome grew up with us,” Padilla told The Independent. “He’s slow to pay but he always comes through in the end.”
Block said he has been unable to pay the promised donations because they were based on pledges of support he had secured from family and friends, he said – pledges his donors have yet to make good on.
“One person did give me a (donation) check but I misplaced that,” Block told The Independent.
Fellow commissioners say Block has done good work
Despite his financial woes, Block has done some good work at the PRC, two fellow commissioner said.
“Does he have the ability to do this job?” said King. “Yeah, he does. And his dad was a commissioner and knows this stuff very well.”
“Jerome has been excellent on some things…” fellow Commissioner Jason Marks said. “On the Blue Cross rate increase, he convinced the rest of us to ask the Superintendent to hold the (Aug. 2010) hearing.”
Looming criminal charges spell financial challenges
The debts were unwelcome headaches, following on the heels of criminal charges Block and his father, Jerome Block Sr., face after his 2008 campaign for the PRC, which was made with public financing.
Block reported paying $2,500 from his taxpayer-funded campaign fund to pay San Miguel County Clerk Paul Maez’s country-western band “Wyld Country” for a campaign concert that both men later admitted had never occurred. Maez returned $1,700 Block had paid the band, and was granted immunity from prosecution in the embezzlement case.
As county clerk, Maez oversaw the election in which Block emerged victoriously from a crowded six-candidate Democratic field.
Block and his father were indicted on 12 criminal counts last year, including embezzlement. But in February, District Judge Michael Vigil dismissed six charges against Block and his father, including election law violations and conspiracy, ruling that the charges represented double jeopardy because Secretary of State Mary Herrera had already fined Block $11,700 for misusing public campaign funds.
“I have paid $400,000 in legal fees,” Block told The Independent.
But he was quick to say legal fees had not left him unable to pay his other debts.
“My family has food on the table,” he said.
The Blocks still face embezzlement and evidence tampering charges, but their prosecution has been put on hold until the Supreme Court rules on the Attorney General’s appeal of Judge Vigil’s ruling, AG Gary King told The Independent.
