Governor Bill Richardson’s office has claimed that it has no written-down records of the 59 exempt employees who were laid off.

“It seems implausible that your office would make a formal announcement when it had no set of records to support its numerical assertion,” Chief Deputy Attorney General Albert Lama and Assistant Attorney General Zachary Shandler wrote in the April 12 letter. “It creates the impression that some staff member in Governor’s Office possesses, contrary to your response letter’s assertions, records pertaining to the 59 exempt employees requested by Ms. Welsh.”

That’s Sarah Welsh, the executive director of NM-FOG.

“The AG’s office is essentially echoing the public’s gut reaction, which was – seriously? You can’t really expect us to believe that you don’t have any documents and you don’t know who does,” Welsh said in a statement. “The attorneys are much more diplomatic than that, certainly, but the upshot is that the Governor’s staff isn’t telling the truth and is illegally stonewalling the public. This information should have been released six months ago.”

The governor’s office disputed the claims by NM-FOG and the Attorney General’s office in a statement on Friday afternoon.

“We respectfully, but strongly disagree with the opinion,” said Gilbert Gallegos, the Governor’s deputy chief of staff, in a statement. “The Governor’s Office complied with the law and the Attorney General’s Compliance Guide when it turned over 98 pages of responsive records. The fact that the requestor was not satisfied with those records doesn’t mean the Governor’s Office must create new records or act as a clearinghouse for all of state government.”

The press has attempted to identify the 59 exempt employees who were laid off, but so far only a handful have been identified.

Here is the letter from the Attorney General’s office:

AGO Determination Letter

But Colleen Heild of the Albuquerque Journal may have identified one of the “exempt” employees – political appointees — who lost her job: Janice Spence.

Heild tells us that Spence was the only exempt employee at the Department of Cultural Affairs in January. But within two weeks, Spence landed a classified job at the same agency. She took a $33,000 pay cut, but she gained security. An exempt employee serves at the pleasure of the governor. But a classified employee has protections of the state personnel system. One of those protections: they can’t get fired without cause.

State officials refused to say whether Spence was one of the 59 exempt employees who lost their jobs last month. But the timing of events gives one pause.

Here’s an excerpt from Heild’s story:

Cultural Affairs spokesman Doug Svetnicka wouldn’t say Tuesday whether Spence was one of the 59 exempt or appointed employees whose jobs were to be eliminated effective Jan. 8.

His office did produce a personnel action form, in response to a Journal records request, that shows Spence’s exempt job as special assistant to Ashman was to be discontinued Jan. 9 — the day after the effective date for layoffs announced by Richardson’s office.

“I’m not going to say that she’s one of the 59. I’ll let that document speak for itself,” Svetnicka said.

So far the Richardson administration so far has said it does not have a list of the 59 appointees who were let go despite being asked by numerous media outlets.

That means that names of those let go likely will continue to dribble out over the next several months, and I’m betting there will be similar revelations for some of those employees: once a political appointee, they’re now in a classified position.

That will create a drumbeat of bad press for the governor.

KRQE investigative reporter Larry Barker, meanwhile, took a swipe at the governor today, quoting unidentified sources as saying the Richardson administration puts “inexperienced appointees” into agencies and pays them big bucks.

Barker also quoted Senators John Ryan and John Arthur Smith as saying the practice hurts state agencies.

Among the appointees Barker profiles is former Richardson spokesman Pahl Shipley, who makes $95,000. He is head of media relations for the New Mexico Film Office.

It now goes to the House.

The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Sander Rue, R-Albuquerque, played the first line of the song “My Girl” by the Temptations to kick off debate. “I’ve got sunshine on a cloudy day,” his laptop played while he held his microphone near the speakers.

The bill was amended by Sen. John Ryan, R-Albuquerque, to include language that would require the names of exempt employees to be disclosed. Previously, the legislation only required a directory of all employee positions, “including exempt employee positions, by state agency, showing each position’s title and salary.”

“This is a work in progress,” Rue said when asked by Sen. John Sapien, D-Corrales, about the cost of creating a comprehensive Web site. “Over time, it will evolve.”

Sen. Dede Feldman, D-Albuquerque, echoed Rue, saying, “This is a step by step process and we are first going to link together the things that we have out there.”

As The Independent reported earlier in the session, the bill comes at a time when state government is under extra scrutiny following several scandals that have rocked the state’s political class. Those scandals include several federal and state criminal investigations into deals involving various state agencies and several elected officials.

“The Sunshine Portal is an idea whose time has come.” Lt. Gov. Denish said in a statement after the bill passed. “This type of openness and transparency is a major step forward for New Mexico.”

Gov. Richardson has come under fire for increasing the number of exempt employees, who serve at his pleasure and who often earn significantly more than their non-political colleagues.

Senate Bill 127 specifically says the governor could hire those exempt employees who are identified in state statute (Ryan says that’s about 400 positions) than they would have discretion for another 167. “It’s clear this Legislature thinks there’s too many (exempt employees),” Ryan said, adding that the idea is to not allow future Governors to use the amount of exempts hired in the past as a benchmark for themselves.

Ryan said that when Governor Gary Johnson was in office he had 176 exempt employees and compared that to the 580 or so under Governor Richardson (according to Ryan).

Senator Ryan also pointed to the lack of disclosure over the 59 employees said to have been cut by the administration. Since names and positions aren’t provided its hard to verify how many, if any, of those positions have been eliminated.

Ryan’s bill was ruled germane by the Senate Committee on Committees by a unanimous vote. It now heads to the Senate Public Affairs Committee.

Supervisors notified 59 exempt, or appointed, state employees that their positions are being eliminated, effective Jan. 8, in an effort to save about $8.3 million dollars and help balance the state budget, according to a news release that went out just after noon.

That brings to 106 the number of vacant exempt positions, “which is about 20 percent of the exempt positions under the control of the Governor,” the release said.

The release quoted spokesman Gilbert Gallegos as saying “While the Governor has worked hard to cut spending with minimum impact to state employees, the reality is that we have to trim the number of exempt employees. We value and appreciate the public service these employees provided to the State of New Mexico.”

The release didn’t list exempt employees who were notified that they were losing their jobs. But the Santa Fe New Mexican, citing an e-mail it had received, ran a story Wednesday about one political appointee who might be out of a job.

The governor is responsible for around 500 political appointees across state government. State lawmakers made the governor’s political appointees a rallying cry during the October special session as they groped for ways to save money.

File photo

Gov. Bill Richardson on Thursday pledged to axe 1,000 vacant state jobs, ordered nearly 20,000 state workers to take five furlough days and cut state agencies.

Those actions, along with the promise to eliminate at least 84 state jobs held by political appointees, represented the governor’s answer to New Mexico’s worsening financial situation.

“I won’t pretend that these actions will solve all our budget problems, but it’s a start,” Richardson said at a midday news conference at the state Capitol.

As painful as the decisions were, state lawmakers said Thursday that they would have been less painful had the governor not delayed them for months while hoping for an economic rebound powered by federal stimulus dollars.

“They were forewarned in July,” state Sen. John Arthur Smith, a Democrat from Deming, said in reference to the Richardson administration. “There was a group of us that envisioned where we were headed and it was going to be painful. The governor would have done well to start looking at the expenditure side in July rather than waiting until November.”

Richardson, who has repeatedly said his administration has saved millions of dollars through a hiring freeze this year, reiterated that point Thursday.

A hiring freeze he ordered earlier in the year has resulted in 2,900 vacancies across state government, Richardson said defiantly.

The governor and state lawmakers’ sharp words are coming as they attempt to plug most of a $650 million budgetary shortfall this year even as more ominous financial clouds darken the horizon: A projected $1 billion shortfall already predicted for next year’s budget.

Richardson acted Thursday on a budgetary fix the Legislature approved during an October special legislative session. But the governor used his line-item veto authority to sidestep much of the Legislature’s bill, striking out a major provision that had ordered him to make 7.6 percent cuts at agencies under his control.

To make up for the cost savings he vetoed in the Legislature’s bill, Richardson issued an executive order requiring state agencies to cut spending. The cuts varied in severity, department to department, depending on a mix of factors, including how they might affect public safety, education or health care.

“For whatever reason the Legislature made a hasty decision during the special session, particularly when it forced a blanket cut of 7.6 percent on top of previous cuts on most state agencies,” Richardson said. “They did not take into account the impact these cuts would have on critical services.”

In a series of news releases leading up the decision, the Richardson administration said the Legislature’s budget bill would force the state to slash Medicaid (the government’s low-income health insurance program), shutter two prisons, release hundreds of non-violent offenders and close state parks.

Richardson made sure to drill home to the media Thursday that his actions averted the closure of state parks and prisons. And Medicaid, estimated to lose $150 million under the Legislature’s budget fix according to the Richardson administration, would lose only $28 million.

Furloughs and elimination of jobs

Meanwhile, Richardson said, he chose the furloughs — in which state workers take days off without pay — and the elimination of vacant jobs instead of laying off state workers. The state is projected to save nearly $11 million with the furloughs, which will work out to the rough equivalent of a 2 percent salary cut for state workers. It is unclear when furloughs will begin, Katherine Miller, Richardson’s budget chief, said.

It also was unclear how much the state could save by doing away with 1,000 state jobs.

“I don’t want layoffs. I don’t want people to lose their jobs. We are not at that stage,” Richardson said.

Richardson’s explanation didn’t inoculate the governor against criticism from state employee unions.

“It is very unfortunate that they’re balancing the budget on the backs of 20,000 hard-working middle class people,” Carter Bundy of American Federation of State, County, Municipal Employees, Council 18, said Thursday. ASFSCME represents about 6,500 classified state workers in New Mexico.

A balanced approach

Bundy and some state lawmakers said on Thursday that the governor could have avoided furloughs had the Legislature been able to consider tax increases during the special legislative session. With a narrowly worded proclamation, Richardson effectively prohibited state lawmakers from considering any tax increases.

“It is unfortunate that the Legislature and governor could not take a more balanced approach to solving this fiscal crisis, by raising some revenues to minimize the amount of cuts to critical public services,” said Democratic Sen. Eric Griego of Albuquerque.

Richardson has since said the Legislature must raise taxes during the January legislative session. The state’s projected $1 billion shortfall for next year is too large to close through cuts alones.

In everyday terms, that $1 billion shortfall represents nearly $1 out of every $5 the state spends on services, meaning state lawmakers have a big challenge ahead. Many lawmakers acknowledge that closing that shortfall will require a mix of tax increases and spending cuts.

State lawmakers challenged Richardson not only on his overall approach to fixing this year’s budget, but on individual actions as well.

Anger over Medicaid cuts

One sore point with some lawmakers was Richardson’s decision to cut Medicaid. In recent weeks several lawmakers have said their budget protected Medicaid and never intended to cut the program despite the Richardson administration’s pronouncements to the contrary.

“They were already being underfunded as it is,” state Rep. Jose Campos, D-Santa Rosa, said of Medicaid. “Taking out another 1 percent is just going to be creating more harm than good.”

Richardson cut $5 million in state funding from the program, but because of the quirks of Medicaid funding, that resulted in an additional loss of $23 million in federal matching dollars. The state and federal governments jointly fund Medicaid, but the federal government is the senior partner, providing a 4 to 1 match for every New Mexico dollar that is spent on Medicaid (counting federal stimulus dollars).

Political appointees

Richardson said he was prepared to sacrifice like all New Mexicans, and pointed to his decision to eliminate 84 jobs usually held by his political appointees.

“A lot of individuals will lose their jobs,” Richardson said of his political appointees.

But Rep. Nate Cote, D-Las Cruces, didn’t buy that answer. He noted that more than 60 of those jobs are already vacant, a statement Richardson disputed Thursday afternoon.

“So really, he’s getting rid of very few,” said Cote, who was one of the first to propose cuts to the governor’s political appointees during the special session. “Personally, I don’t think it’s enough. … He probably has 20 people that are occupying those positions that are leaving anyway.”

“I don’t think he’s sacrificing much by doing this,” Cote said. “Meanwhile, I think he’s sacrificing some of the hard-working state employees with furloughs.”