• Kevin Reid of Titan Development Ltd. Co., an industrial real estate company, and chief executive officer of Reid & Associates Design/Builders
• Denise Baker, a director the New Mexico Associated Builders & Contractors and National Association of Independent Office Properties
• Jim Giannelli, president of RMCI, a general construction and engineering company
• Dale Dekker, an architect and planner, serves on the executive board of the Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce and as a member of the Economic Forum, Albuquerque Economic Development and NAIOP. He was appointed by Governor Richardson to the Construction Industries Commission.
• Randy Crowder, president of the New Mexico Home Builders Association and a Clovis Commissioner
• Darryl Ackley, of the Institute for Complex Additive Systems Analysis (ICASA) at New Mexico Tech
• Steve Beffort, GSD secretary under Gary Johnson
• James Hall, chief information officer for Gary Johnson.

Gov. Bill Richardson (Photo by Heath Haussamen)

Several state lawmakers are targeting a perk of being governor: hiring people for political jobs.

By some estimates, Gov. Bill Richardson has 500 political hires across state government, from cabinet secretaries and state investment officers to office secretaries and special assistants.

Then there are the political appointees you wouldn’t think of.

The chef at the governor’s residence, a political appointee, for example, earns $91,821, according to a list compiled last month by the state Department of Finance and Administration.

The manager of the governor’s residence makes $79,640.

An assistant to First Lady Barbara Richardson, meanwhile, earns $105,000, according to the list.

According to some legislators, with the state facing a $650 million budgetary shortfall this year, it’s time for Richardson to trim back the number of political hires, and the eye-popping salaries some of them command.

“I’m not going after the governor,” said Rep. Nate Cote, D-Las Cruces, author of one of the bills limiting the governor’s authority to fill political jobs. “We believe the number of political jobs is larger than ever before. We have to take some steps to reduce that number.”

Cote did not advocate cutting any specific jobs in an interview with the Independent, other than to explain that his bill targets individuals earning higher salaries. Some of the governor’s political appointees earn as low as $20,000.

“I don’t think we should go after classified positions who are providing services,” Cote said of the vast majority of workers in state government, who must compete for their jobs. “Here we have is this large group of political jobs – some of them earning $90, $100,000 a year and from what I hear don’t have much of a job.”

This small group of state workers — the governor’s political appointees — has drawn scrutiny for years. But now an outsized, bi-partisan group of state lawmakers are looking again at appointees as they confront what one legislative staff member has described as a budgetary shortfall of “biblical proportions.”

“It’s unbelievable,” said Albuquerque Republican Sen. John Ryan, who filed another bill targeting the governor’s authority to make political hires. “I got 15 Democrats to sign on.”

Ryan’s bill would limit to 220 the number of the governor’s political appointees — 200 across state government and 20 in his governor’s office, Ryan said. If that passed, it would mean Richardson would have to eliminate more than 200 exempt positions by Jan. 30, 2010.

Ryan estimated his bill could save millions of dollars.

A spokesman for the governor did not return the Independent’s call or respond to an e-mail asking for a response.

It is commonplace for governors in states across the nation to have the authority to fill a limited number of jobs with political appointees. And many do good work, officials say.

But some political hires earn high salaries for doing not much of anything, say Cote, Ryan and other state lawmakers who have learned of workers in high-paying jobs who fit that description.

Some of the governor’s political appointees also have connections to the Legislature.

A few state lawmakers Cote approached to sign his bill said they couldn’t because they had family members or friends who were the governor’s political appointees.

Varying estimates to number of exempt employees

A definitive number of the governor’s political hires seemed hard to come by this week.

Ryan sparred with Richardson’s budget chief, Katherine Miller on the Senate floor Monday over how many of the governor’s political hires are sprinkled across state government.

Ryan said that the number was somewhere over 500. Miller responded that it was around 450.

Ryan said the number of political hires under Richardson’s predecessor, Republican Gary Johnson, was fewer than 170 positions. Miller responded that the number under Johnson was over 300, a figure that Ryan questioned.

“Some offices are 100 percent exempt, and that is not the case with the executive agency,” Miller said at one point in the debate with Ryan. “I don’t see anyone talking about that.”

For example, the state’s constitutional offices, which are not under the governor’s authority, are full of exempt positions. The Office of the Attorney General has 175 exempt positions, while the Secretary of State, a relatively small state agency, has nine, according to the DFA list.

But it is the governor’s political hires that have galvanized the Legislature.

The governor’s political hires make up the vast majority of the DFA list, which runs 21 pages and shows a total of 750 posts.

One of the highest earners is Gary Bland, the director of the State Investment Council, who earns $301,000. Bland’s agency has been tarred by investment scandals recently.

Another high earner is Steve Landeen, the director of the Spaceport Authority. Landeen makes $155,000, nearly $100,000 more than the agency’s general counsel, who earns $57,000, according to the list.

Many of the highest earners among the governor’s political appointees are his cabinet secretaries, the vast majority of whom earn more than $100,000.

Other salaries raise eyebrows, too, in comparison to jobs in the private sector.

According to the list, one community legislative liaison at EXPO New Mexico makes $63,000, while the agency’s two executive assistants make $64,000 and $58,000, respectively.

Meanwhile, an administrative assistant to the Gaming Control Board’s executive director pulls down $62,000. And a secretary at the General Services Department earns $54,000, more than one of the department’s three senior litigation attorneys.

DFA Exempt List

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