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.
Gov. Bill Richardson on Wednesday reappointed David Harris and named Catherine A. Allen (of the Santa Fe Group) and Doug Brown (of UNM’s Anderson School of Management) to the State Investment Council (SIC), complying with a new law that re-organizes…
Whistleblower Frank Foy plans to go to court to try and stop the state from defending a former State Investment Officer and at least one public official, his attorney said Tuesday.
“We’re waiting to get hearings,” Victor Marshall said,…
“The Richardson administration pulled out all the stops to keep Gary Bland on the SIC,” Foy’s attorney, Victor Marshall, said at a small news conference Tuesday. But four SIC members said they never felt pressure from the Richardson in the days before the former state investment officer resigned.
While a number of high-profile ethics and transparency measures died as the clock expired on the regular session last week, the New Mexico Legislature also sent a number of significant proposals to the governor for action.
“I’m very disappointed they failed to reach an agreement,” Gov. Bill Richardson said half an hour after the end of the session. “They were very close. It was nip and tuck.”
The state Legislature on Thursday morning passed a bill that would reform the State Investment Council. The Governor has said he will sign the bill.
Gov. Bill Richardson (Photo by Heath Haussamen)
Gov. Bill Richardson came out in favor of one of two State Investment Council reform bills Tuesday, saying he prefers House Speaker Ben Lujan’s version. That comes as no real surprise; Lujan’s version keeps Richardson on the State Investment Council, while the Senate bill gives him the boot.
“The speaker has a very good bill that has more balance in representation,” Richardson said at a mid-day news conference in his fourth-floor Capitol office.
When asked if he’d veto the Senate bill if it got to his desk, Richardson said he hadn’t seen it.
Over the past three weeks, the Senate bill worked its way through that chamber with multiple hearings before Senators passed it unanimously last week. Lujan’s bill, on the other hand, materialized as if by magic Sunday while lawmakers were on the House floor. Using a floor substitute, Lujan turned a five-page bill specifying who sits on the SIC board into a 20-page piece of legislation that substantially alters how the agency is governed. The House voted 68-0 in favor.
It was all over within minutes. The altered bill didn’t go through a single House committee.
Lujan’s bill, now in the Senate, has one committee referral – Senate Finance Committee – compared to the two House committees the Senate bill received.
A single committee referral often signals an easier path to passage than multiple committee referrals.
The House’s action Sunday increased the potential for back-room maneuvering and haggling to see who gets credit for reforming an agency at the center of an ongoing scandal.
The state investment agency is at the center of a growing investment scandal with ties to New York and California. It also is the subject of a federal Securities and Exchange Commission probe and a federal criminal investigation into pay-to-play allegations.
In many ways, the amended House legislation appears to mirror the Senate’s reform bill. It would de-centralize authority at the SIC, removing power from the State Investment Officer and giving it to the State Investment Council.
But there are differences.
While the Senate version removes the governor from the State Investment Council, the governor remains on the board in Lujan’s version.
And where the Senate version requires a certain level of investment expertise among some SIC members, the House version doesn’t include that requirement, according to a quick read of the 20-page bill.
The two bills appear in agreement in several areas, however. Both the Senate and House bills:
The move to take authority away from the State Investment Officer came after revelations that former State Investment Officer Gary Bland made decisions on advisers and outside managers without informing the State Investment Council.
Bland, the former State Investment Officer, resigned in October after New Mexico’s former investment adviser pleaded guilty to securities fraud in New York. As part of the plea deal, Saul Meyer of Aldus Equity admitted to pushing certain deals to New Mexico’s two investment agencies — the SIC and Educational Retirement Board —because politically connected individuals here recommended them.
A special prosecutor hired by the New Mexico Attorney General would investigate and recover any money lost from state investment funds due to fraud under legislation that unanimously passed the Senate floor Tuesday afternoon. “I believe personally that we…
The House passed its own stab at reforming the State Investment Council (SIC) Sunday. The 68 to 0 vote occurred quickly and without much fanfare on the House floor, and follows by two days the Senate’s passage of its own more aggressive reform bill.
The House’s action now sets up a scenario where the Legislature has dueling SIC reform bills and increases the potential for back-room maneuvering and haggling to see who gets credit for reforming an agency at the center of an ongoing scandal.
Gov. Bill Richardson will lose control of the State Investment Council while the State Investment Officer no longer could hire and fire fund managers under legislation that cleared the Senate on Friday evening. Senators voted unanimously after a short debate to dramatically re-structure how the Council (SIC) is governed.
Senator Steven Neville, R-Aztec is appealing directly to House Speaker Ben Lujan, D-Santa Fe, to hear his bill in the House. The measure, which would restructure the State Investment Council, passed the Roundhouse last year but was vetoed by Governor Richardson. In the second time in as many days the Senate voted to override a veto, sending Neville’s bill back to the House. Speaker Lujan told the Independent after the Senate’s first veto override that it likely wouldn’t get a hearing in the House. More …
Senators on Tuesday voted 33-4 to overturn Gov. Bill Richardson’s 2009 veto of a bill that would have given the Legislature more say over who sits on the State Investment Council. It was the state Senate’s second veto override vote in as many days.
After consolidating three bills into one, the Senate Rules Committee made a few more big changes to a bill designed to reform the State Investment Council.
“Blending these three bill together we finally have true reform,”…
State senators weren’t agreed Friday about how to reform a state agency at the center of an investment scandal. But one thing’s for sure: they’re spoiling for a fight with Gov. Bill Richardson over who should control the State Investment Council. Three reform bills are being combined into one that could be heard on Monday in the Senate Rules Committee.
A bill that would transfer oversight of the State Investment Council from the executive branch to the state Attorney General‘s office cleared a powerful Senate Committee on Thursday morning. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Tim Keller,…
The governor would no longer sit on the state Investment Council if a bill sponsored by Sen. Cisco McSorley, D-Albuquerque, succeeds.
The bill is one of three in the Senate aimed at reforming at a state agency at the…
A bill before the Legislature would focus more eyes on State Investment Council’s (SIC) cash register at a time the state agency already has attracted plenty of federal eyeballs.
Changes envisioned in the legislation include a lessening of the governor’s authority over the State Investment Council and a reduction in the portfolio of the agency’s top staff member — the State Investment Officer.
Since June 2009, a San Francisco law firm has racked up $3.5 million in attorneys’ fees for advising and cataloging documents for a state agency at the center of two federal probes, state lawmakers learned Monday.
The cost outraged some…
New Mexico state lawmakers wanted to know Thursday why thousands of documents requested by whistleblower Frank Foy and his attorney haven’t been turned over by two agencies he says engaged in corrupt investment practices.
On Thursday, Gov. Bill Richardson gave the nod to a bill that sponsor Sen. Tim Keller said would be “the most sweeping investment fund reform in state history.” The bill incorporates more than 20 recommendations made by…
