Denish Says Government Has To Earn Back Public Trust

"A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both."

-- Dwight D. Eisenhower

Guest Commentary by Lieutenant Governor Diane Denish:

There may be those who believe that New Mexico state government has come close to losing both. There is no doubt that we have seen instances where some elected officials and state employees have valued privileges above principles in the past few years. It must stop. These individuals have weakened the public trust and that is unacceptable. The question is what's to be done?

Photo: MG Bralley
There is no doubt that some New Mexicans have lost faith in their state government and the burden is on all of us in elected office to earn it back. We must create in Santa Fe a culture of duty, a culture of transparency. A culture of responsibility.

First, we must establish a Governmental Standards Commission. This will be an independent commission, similar to the judiciary's Judicial Standards Commission. The Governmental Standards Commission will have the authority to investigate ethics complaints and will be armed with subpoena power to get straight answers from government officials. It will have the authority to impose stiff penalties on those found guilty of wrongdoing.

But in addition to investigating complaints and punishing those who abuse the public's trust, we must also make sure that everyone who works on the taxpayers' dime understands the responsibility they assume as a public servant. New Mexico state employees must agree not only to always obey the law – but to always conduct themselves in an open, honest and transparent manner. In order to earn the trust of the people they serve, public employees must be held to the highest standard.

Second, this Governmental Standards Commission will be responsible for establishing a Uniform Code of Governmental Standards that will apply to all state officials, state employees and appointees. The Commission will develop a mandatory training programs on the Governmental Standards so all state employees understand these ethical standards.

The great majority of people in government want to do the right thing but there may be times when they are unsure of what is the right thing. Education and training can help provide the foundation needed to deal with difficult situations.

The New Mexico Supreme Court will nominate a pool of candidates from which members of the Commission will be selected by the Executive and Legislative branches. This non-partisan pool of candidates, selected by the Court, will help take politics out of the selection process – and eliminate some the problems confronted by establishing such a commission in the past.

The third step in the process is to establish a state Sunshine Portal, an online command center to ensure that state government is open and transparent. The Sunshine Portal will:


* Allow the press and public to see how tax dollars are spent by agencies;
* Track capital outlay projects from appropriation to expenditure;
* List all scheduled open meetings;
* Include an accessible contractor database;
* Allow the press and public to review all state issued contracts;
* Include a Statebook networking site where all state employees with decision making capacity will have a page including their responsibilities and contact information;
* Include a salary database for exempt employee salary database;
* Include a section for constituents to voice opinions.


Justice Lewis Brandeis said Sunshine is the best disinfectant and I believe we need to take that statement to heart and apply it here in the land of enchantment.

Like most New Mexico families, our state government is experiencing challenging economic times, and some may say now is not the time to consider such new initiatives. But in order for the Government to effectively create new jobs, reduce the cost of health care, strengthen our education system – or provide any of the services we count on government to provide – it must have the trust of New Mexicans.

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Denish Pushes A New Era of Strong Ethics Laws

Updated to include audio from an interview with Lt. Gov. Denish

Lieutenant Governor Diane Denish with UNM Law School Ethics Professor
Antoinette Sedillo Lopez outside the

NM Mexico Supreme Court Building in Santa Fe.

On-going scandals, grand jury investigations, and indictments of state government officials prompted Lieutenant Governor Diane Denish to call for stronger ethics laws. On Thursday, Denish (who is acting governor during Gov. Bill Richardson's vacation) told reporters she wants lawmakers to consider her new proposals during the next legislative session. Denish says she'll renew the push for a state ethics commission and other reforms.

Denish told 770KKOB News Director Pat Allen in this telephone interview, "What I want people to say about New Mexico is that we have a culture of responsibility, not a culture of corruption."

Denish told 770KKOB she'll create an independent state ethics commission. She wants the NM Supreme Court to nominate the commissioners. The seven-member panel would be approved by the legislature and the governor.

Denish also said she wants to establish an online sunshine portal. She said it would shed light on how state tax dollars are spent and create more transparency.

The proposals come just days after Republican Party Chairman Harvey Yates criticized Denish in an Albuquerque Journal guest column for not speaking out on alleged ethics problems in the state.

Yates' commentary was quickly refuted by Denish's campaign committee chair Ted Martinez on Wednesday. In his rebuttal, Martinez says Denish has been a champion of accountability in state government.

Photo credit: MG Bralley

Senate Rules Chair Defends Incremental Ethic Reforms.

Senate Rules Chair Linda Lopez (D-ABQ) says ethics reform "won't happen overnight" in New Mexico.

Lopez, who announced, in April, that she's running for Lieutenant Governor, made the remarks Thursday evening at a Bernalillo County Democratic Party meeting at UNM Law School.



About 50 people attended the meeting and listened to several 2010 candidates, including two of Lopez' announced opponents, Santa Fe County Sheriff Greg Solano and Senator Gerald Ortiz y Pino.

Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez, who is exploring a run against current Lt. Governor Diane Denise, for Governor in 2010, also spoke the the crowd. Denish, who's on vacation, sent her daughter, Sara Schreiber, to speak for her.

During the meeting, Diogenes' Six blogger Ched MacQuigg asked each candidate about their plans to "end the culture of corruption in state government." Read the interesting responses he got on his morning blog post.

NM Senator Jumps into 2010 Race for Lt. Governor.

On Saturday, we were the first to report the chair of the NM Senate Rules Committee Chair Linda Lopez (D-11) had announced her intention to run for Lt. Governor in 2010.

Lopez told members of the Democratic Party of New Mexico's Central Steering Committee this weekend as they met in the Kiva Auditorium.

If she and current Lt. Governor Diane Denish, who's running for Governor, are both elected it will be the state's first all female executive branch.

We spoke to Senator Lopez on Saturday.

Listen to our interview here.



Lopez told us she's ready to move up.

First elected to the Senate 13 years ago, Lopez believes she has the experience necessary to take the helm of the Senate, develop budgets and told us she'll focus on economic development in the state, and improving access to health care and behavioral health.

Lopez says one issue, near and dear to her heart, is education. If her campaign is successful she said she'll work on improving educational outcomes for Latino students, who make up the majority of student populations in New Mexico.

Lopez also told us that she's pleased some ethics measures passed her committee this year and said she believe ethics measures will continue to work their way through the legislative process for the next few years.

We learned, Lopez submitted her resume to Denish and interviewed for the Lt. Gov's job when it appeared Governor Richardson was headed to the U.S. Commerce Department.

Later, we spoke with Lopez at a local restaurant where she joined the families of missing and murdered Albuquerque women who had gathered to watch John Walsh tell there story to the nation on America's Most Wanted.

Lopez says community leadership needs to take ownership of the problems that led to missing women being found murdered and buried on the a West Mesa.

Listen to her comments on the tragedy and what she's recommending to prevent it from happening again here.



Lopez says she'll work with Quantum [Optum Behavioral Health] to develop statewide programs to help drug addicts get out of the cycle of substance abuse. She says people incarcerated on drug charges shouldn't just be "dropped back into the wild," that they need to be in a treatment process for months and sometimes years.

Lopez says she's working with Lt. Governor Denish to implement new notification procedures including an adult amber alert system.

She said America's Most Wanted did a decent job of recognizing the murdered women as humans and hopes it generates leads to aid police and hopes a suspect is identified.

Lopez photo: MG Bralley

NM Senate Schedules Floor Debate on Health Care Reform.

HEATHCARE TRANSPERANCY BILL EXPECTED TO BE DEBATED ON SENATE FLOOR TODAY.

from Sen. Tim Keller:

Santa Fe , NM – SB259 offers a free market solution to help consumers and business make better decisions with their medical insurance.

“It is clear purchases of medical insurance would benefit from more information about how their premiums are being spent, this is about helping consumer decision making and fostering more competition in the healthcare system,” said bill sponsor Senator Tim Keller (D-Bernalillo-17).

SB259 would require insurance providers to disclose the medical loss ration, historical premiums and any third party commissions when consumers and small business request a medical insurance quote. “I believe true healthcare reform has to connect the cost of services and to the fees we pay, without allowing supply and demand to set an accurate price the public will never get a fair shake and healthy competition in the industry won’t occur,” said Keller after the bill passed out of the corporations committee.

A 2007 study of healthcare financing conducted by UNM’s Institute for Public Health reported a need for greater transparency about information that would help consumers evaluate the costs and performance histories across the various medical insurance plans; including the percent of premium that actually goes to pay for medical services and broker commission and fees.

The survey voiced skepticism around the accuracy information that typically was made available and reported difficulty in comparing competing plans because lack of clear, interpretable information on costs and performance.

While medical insurance providers and brokers have remained neutral on the bill, strong opposition from national home & life insurance brokers who are concerned the bill could eventually open the door for similar rules in there industry. The Public Regulatory Commission, members of the small business community and executive departments have come out in support of the bill.

Journalists to Attempt Webcasting Ethics Reform Hearing in Santa Fe

Online journalist extraordinaire Heath Haussamen just gave us some good news.

Haussamen is reporting on his blog that the New Mexico Independent, an online news portal, will attempt to webcast (video & audio) from the Senate Rules Committee's hearing on ethics reform on Friday.

The hearing is scheduled in Santa Fe at 8am.

This is a must watch hearing because critical reforms in campaign finance laws, for one, are needed in the state.

Just look at all the pay-to-play investigations and grand jury investigations underway in the state and federal systems involving leaders who may be taking advantage of big money donations and giving access and contracts to friends, family and companies that support their campaigns.

Haussemen has been reporting on ethics reform for years. This morning, he wrote a summary on many of the pending reform measures here.

The omnibus bill he outlines is downright scary. Read why leaders may be able to kill most ethics bill in one clean sweep. Haussamen makes it easy to find and read the actual bills with multiple links in this morning's story.

Everyone has been hopeful during this year's 60-day session lawmakers would adopt drastic changes and pass new ethics laws.

Tomorrow's your chance to monitor the webcast to see if Senators kill the bills to protect their own interests.

For more information on tomorrow's planned webcast read the New Mexico Independent online here, and plan to tune to the webcast here on Friday morning at 8am.