New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez's Corruption, Cronyism......

Whistleblower Suit Alleges Corruption, Cronyism, and Affairs in Gov. Susana Martinez's Administration

Two former appointees of the governor's level a series of explosive allegations against a Martinez appointee and his deputy.

—By Andy Kroll

| Thu May 8, 2014

 

 

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez. Pat Vasquez-Cunningham/Albuquerque Journal/ZUMAPRESS.com

 

A recently unsealed whistleblower lawsuit filed in New Mexico state court makes a series of explosive allegations against appointees of rising GOP star Gov. Susana Martinez, accusing high-ranking officials in her administration of public corruption, mismanagement, and intimidation. It claims that officials at the state's economic development agency engaged in extramarital affairs that could expose the state to sexual harassment charges and that officials tried to silence employees who reported contracting violations and other wrongdoing.

The 22-page complaint—filed February 10 on behalf of two former state employees—claims that a company co-founded by Martinez appointee Jon Barela, secretary of the New Mexico Economic Development Department, secretly benefited from a state tax credit program. The complaint also alleges that aides to Martinez instructed a state employee to use his personal email for sensitive government work to avoid being subject to public records requests; that Barela and his deputy, Barbara Brazil, ignored waste and mismanagement at the state's Spaceport project in southern New Mexico; and that Brazil ran several Dairy Queen franchises she had an interest in "while simultaneously being paid by the State of New Mexico."

 

The whistleblowers are Kurt Saenz, the former chief financial officer at the New Mexico Economic Development Department, and Brent Eastwood, a former Army infantry officer and RAND Corporation analyst who ran the department's international trade and business advocacy divisions.

Both men are Republicans and were appointed by Martinez. Eastwood's wife, Melanie Sanchez-Eastwood, worked as a scheduler on Martinez's 2010 gubernatorial campaign. A source familiar with the case says the FBI has interviewed Saenz and Eastwood about their allegations. Eastwood also anonymously reported his allegations to the state attorney general and the state auditor. (Saenz and Eastwood declined to comment for this story.)

In a response filed on March 14, an attorney for Barela, Brazil, and the Economic Development Department denied all the allegations contained in the whistleblower suit. Barela, Brazil, and spokespeople for Martinez and the Economic Development Department did not respond to requests for comment.

The lawsuit comes at an inopportune time for Martinez. For months, she and Barela have mounted a public campaign to encourage Tesla, the electric car company, to select New Mexico as the site for a new $5 billion car-battery factory. Tesla's "gigafactory" would be the largest lithium-ion battery plant in the world, covering 10 million square feet and employing as many as 6,500 people.

In February, Tesla selected New Mexico as one of four finalists for the factory. Throughout this courtship, Barela has been front and center touting the benefits of doing business in New Mexico.

While campaigning for governor in 2010, Martinez pledged to bring jobs to New Mexico by rooting out the kind of corruption in state government that the whistleblower suit alleges. "We must get rid of [corruption] completely," she said then.

"Requested By The Governor"

Kurt Saenz was hired in April 2011 as the Economic Development Department's CFO and the director of its administrative services division. It wasn't long, he asserts, before he spotted trouble.

That summer, his suit alleges, Saenz discovered the department was paying a web developer more than $30,000 to build its new website without a contract—a violation of state procurement code. The company, Real Time Solutions, employed a web architect who was the wife of an Albuquerque lawyer and former Republican National Committeeman, Pat Rogers. Rogers has worked for Martinez's gubernatorial campaign and is close to her administration. When Saenz alerted Barela to the contracting problem, Barela, the complaint says, dismissed Saenz's concerns. Hiring Real Time Solutions, Barela told Saenz, was "requested by the governor," according to the complaint.

The complaint states that Barela and Brazil, his deputy, pressured Saenz to keep quiet about possible contracting irregularities, telling him not to use the words "procurement code violation" around his colleagues or in emails and ordering him never to discuss the workings of the department with other state agencies. The complaint accuses Brazil of "engaging in a cover-up" and trying to "silence Saenz regarding the procurement code violations and his whistleblowing."

Eastwood, the other whistleblower, makes similar charges. According to the complaint, two aides to Martinez—spokesman Scott Darnell and deputy chief of staff Ryan Cangiolosi—instructed Eastwood to use his personal email to discuss "sensitive information" in order to circumvent the state's public records law. (Cangiolosi and a Martinez spokesman did not respond to requests for comment.)

The Martinez administration has previously been criticized for doing state business using personal email accounts. In response to a public records request, the Santa Fe Reporter obtained hundreds of emails showing government staff communicating with lobbyists, donors, and other members of the public about state business using Yahoo and Gmail accounts—not their official state email accounts. In June 2012, Martinez instructed state employees not to use private email for state business.

The complaint also accuses Barela and Wade Jackson, the department's general counsel and human resources director, of each engaging in extramarital affairs with subordinates in the department. Saenz says he told Barela that these affairs could expose the department to potential sexual harassment lawsuits. (Jackson did not respond to a request for comment.)

The "Slush Fund" and Tax Credits on the Sly

In March 2012, according to the lawsuit, Saenz and a colleague at the Economic Development Department gave Eastwood an internal spreadsheet containing details about the department's Angel Investment Tax Credit, which rewarded investors in New Mexico tech and research companies with tax breaks. Eastwood, the complaint notes, reviewed the spreadsheet and one name popped out:

Cerelink, a local high-tech company that specialized in cloud computing. Barela was its co-founder and a part owner when he was tapped in December 2010 to head the Economic Development Department. Saenz and his EDD colleague could find no mention of Cerelink in the department's records, creating the appearance that the firm's investors has received off-the-books tax breaks.

Eastwood did some digging. According to the complaint, he found that in 2011 Barela sought investments to boost Cerelink, which was struggling to stay afloat. So, the lawsuit claims, Barela dangled the state's angel investment credit in front of prospective investors to entice them into financing Cerelink. The complaint claims that four people who eventually invested in Cerelink received $34,000 in tax credits; several of those investors, the complaint says, were donors to Barela's failed 2010 congressional campaign. (The investors' names are not listed in the suit.)

Around the time Eastwood says he discovered the Cerelink tax credits, Barela and Brazil, he alleges, gave him an unusual assignment: Drive south to Chihuahua, Mexico, and solicit money from businesses to pay for efforts to market the economic benefits of the border region. The suit says that Barela and Brazil called this a "slush fund." Eastwood notes that he told the pair he thought such a fund was illegal and feared being kidnapped or killed by Mexican drug cartels operating on the border.

The lawsuit contains other allegations of mismanagement and dysfunction. Eastwood claims to have witnessed Brazil "working three (3) Dairy Queen franchises which she had a personal interest in while simultaneously being paid by the State of New Mexico." Barela and Brazil also allegedly moved the Economic Development Department's Albuquerque office to a location next to one of Brazil's Dairy Queens "in order for Brazil to be able to work at the business while being paid by the State of New Mexico." Eastwood also alleges costly overruns and mismanagement at the Spaceport, the state-funded launch site used by Virgin Galactic, the commercial space travel company.

Eastwood, according to the lawsuit, told his bosses in December 2011 that he planned to blow the whistle, and Saenz and Eastwood claim their whistleblowing led to their eventual dismissal. On April 11, 2012, the complaint says, Barela confronted Eastwood in Eastwood's office, pointing a finger at him and saying, "Come and get me." Then, the lawsuit alleges, Barela grabbed an American flag and slammed it onto Eastwood's desk in what the complaint calls "an attempt to bait Eastwood into a physical confrontation."

Barela fired Eastwood that day, and state troopers were called to oversee his departure. Saenz was fired the following August.

Since their firings, Saenz and Eastwood's complaint states, "each had their characters and professional reputations defamed, each was 'black-listed' and/or refused employment for positions within the state of New Mexico and outside governmental agencies that they were fully qualified to perform." The defendants in the case have requested a jury trial.

READ THE COMPLAINT: HERE

Andy Kroll

Senior Reporter

Andy Kroll is a senior reporter at Mother Jones. For more of his stories, click here. Email him with tips and insights at akroll (at) motherjones (dot) com. Follow him on Twitter here. RSS | Twitter

 

 

 

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/05/susana-martinez-new-mexico-whistleblower-suit-jon-barela

 

....stop hiding Big Coal and Big Oil's lies.....

Please join with others and support CLEAN ENERGY!

 

It is time to wake up, to stop hiding Big Coal and Big Oil's lies and to hear the warnings of scientists, economists, insurers, businesses, national security advisors, and religious leaders. They all say something needs to be done -- and fast -- to stave off the harm of carbon pollution and mitigate the damaging effects of climate change.
 

Today, I'm happy to say something at last is being done. During his State of the Union address, President Obama pointed out that "our energy policy is creating jobs and leading to a cleaner, safer planet. Over the past eight years, the United States has reduced our total carbon pollution more than any other nation on Earth."
 

Despite this progress, we are already hearing familiar refrains of the deniers, the paid-for skeptics, and the buddies of the big polluters, to try to scare us into protecting the status quo. Furthermore, many in Congress do not think we could, or should, do anything about it. But I think they're wrong.

That's why I'm teaming up with some of my colleagues to urge Congress to take action to protect our environment, grow our economy, and create jobs in our communities. Will you join us?

Join me and Senators Ben Cardin, Martin Heinrich, and Tom Udall to call for bold action for climate change in Washington today.

One of my Republican colleagues exclaimed that a carbon fee "slows down our ability to compete" and another declared, "The cost of nearly everything built in America would go up."

This simply is not true.

According to the World Wildlife Fund and the CDP, investments to reduce carbon pollution can yield greater financial returns for companies than their overall capital investments. In addition to the environmental benefits, cutting back on greenhouse gas emissions by just three percent each year would save U.S. businesses up to $190 billion a year by 2020, or $780 billion over 10 years. And that supports American leadership in new clean energy technologies -- powering our economy.

It's time for us to wake up and meet our solemn responsibility to our country and to its leadership role in the world. We cannot afford to ignore this growing menace any longer.

Will you join me and Senators Cardin, Heinrich, and Udall today? Urge Congress to take bold action on climate change now.

Thanks for joining me in this fight. We can only win if we all work together.

Sincerely,

Sheldon Whitehouse
U.S. Senator

TAKE ACTION »

LIKE SHELDON WHITEHOUSE ON FACEBOOK

FOLLOW SHELDON WHITEHOUSE ON TWITTER

 

 

Impressive success in Varese Ligure!

Varese Ligure, Italy. (photo: Shutterstock)

How Renewable Energy and Organic Farming Helped Revitalize a Small Italian Town

By Laurie Guevara-Stone, EcoWatch

09 January 14

trip to Varese Ligure, Italy, will bring you face to face with a charming town of pastel-colored houses and a plethora of restaurants serving dishes with organic porcini mushrooms and chestnuts.

Stop at the bustling markets and you will see Italians who have traveled from far and wide to purchase the locally produced organic meats, cheeses, and honey. It's a far cry from just 20 years ago, when this town in the Liguria region of northwest Italy was fading away due to a lack of jobs, no industry, decaying properties, and a lack of essential services.

At the end of the '80s, Varese Ligure, a small town (pop: 2,400) located in the Vara valley in the province of La Spezia, had gone from a population of 6,000 to 2,250. However, the mayor at the time, Maurizio Caranza, refused to give up hope for his dying town. He decided to take what others thought of as Varese Ligure's weaknesses-geographical isolation, lack of modern industry, antiquated farming practices-and turn them into strengths. He realized the valley's clean air and unspoiled land were assets and opportunities. What better way to capitalize on those attributes than by becoming a sustainable tourist destination through renewable energy and organic farming?

 

"We realized the only thing to do to prevent the village from dying was to protect the environment and rehabilitate the agriculture sector," Caranza told Italian news agency Adnkronos International.

The forward-thinking mayor hit on a gold mine. This was in the early 1990s, before climate change and mad cow disease became household words. Little did he know that in the following decades the organic and environmental movements would mushroom (pun intended).

 

Now, 20 years later, four wind turbines produce 8 gigawatt-hours of electricity per year, generating three times more electricity than the town uses. The town hall and secondary school are covered with solar photovoltaic panels, producing on site 98 percent and 62 percent of their electricity needs, respectively. The wastewater treatment plant has a 4 kW PV system and the town swimming pool is heated with solar panels. There is also a small 8 kW hydroelectric system.

 

The electricity from the renewable energy systems is fed into the local grid managed by ACAM, the electric utility company in La Spezia. While ACAM manages and maintains the wind turbines, the ACAM utility and the municipality jointly own them. ACAM pays Varese Ligure about $30,000 each year for the excess electricity and also provides the town with various services as part of its payment for the electricity, such as sorted waste and landfill site management.

 

To rebuild the town, Caranza asked the residents if they would be willing to repair and renovate their ancient stone houses-an image of which sits juxtaposed against a modern wind turbine on the municipality's website-if the public administration got funding to redo the roads, sewers, aqueducts, and street lighting. Though some people were resistant at first, Caranza finally won them over, and home renovations began. While some of the funding for renovations came from the European Union, the majority of it came from the citizens themselves. A psychological factor was at work, Caranza told travel journalist Giovanna Dunmall. "If you go to someone's house and it's much nicer and cleaner than yours, then when you go back to your home you realize that you want to improve it, too."

 

There was also a lot of education about organic farming practices, and a push for farmers to stop using chemical fertilizers. Most farmers actually couldn't afford chemical fertilizers, so were farming organically out of necessity already, but weren't officially certified. To get these conservative farmers to become organic certified, Caranza explained that organic products could be sold at higher prices and helped farmers get EU grants for organic farms. Now 108 organic farms supply 98 percent of town's produce, meat, and dairy products. The Vara valley, now known as the "Organic Valley," became Europe's first valley to be certified ISO 14001, the international benchmark for environmental management.

 

One important program they started in the town in 1996 was the Environmental Education Center (CEA), which educates children of the region about organic agriculture, renewable energy, and sustainability. The CEA takes schoolchildren on tours of organic farms, dairy cooperatives, and bee keeping operations; it offers educational courses on small wind turbines, solar panels, and solar cookers; and it educates youth about energy consumption and climate change.

 

Varese Ligure is currently rated one of the best small towns in Italy by the Touring Club Italiano, even receiving the organization's orange flag, awarded to small towns for excellency in tourism, hospitality, and the environment. There has been a 500-percent increase in tourists since the late 1990s, an additional $514,000 in annual tax revenues, 140 new jobs, and a stable population.

 

Caranza is proud of what has become of his town. "Tourism is an important sector for six months a year, local farmers produce an abundance of organic fruit and vegetables, meat and dairy products, and the village now recycles 25 percent of its refuse," he reported to Adnkronos International.

 "Because the political will existed, we succeeded in arresting Varese Ligure's decline." And more than arresting decline, with a mixture of clean energy and sustainable agriculture, they have truly transformed the community.

The rest from RSN:

 

Charles Pierce | Chris Christie Is Not Doomed

Charles Pierce, Esquire
Pierce writes: "Steve M is convinced that Chris Christie has fired a shot below his own water line by signing New Jersey's version of the DREAM Act, and then by promoting what he'd done as a good thing for his state and for the nation. He argues - and not entirely unreasonably - that what Big Chicken did will doom him with Republican primary voters in places like, say, Iowa and South Carolina. I am less sure about that."
READ MORE

Gabrielle Giffords Completes Skydive on Shooting Anniversary
Brian Skoloff and Terry Tang, Arizona Daily Star
Skoloff and Tang report: "Gabrielle Giffords marked the three-year anniversary of an attack that left her severely wounded and forced her to resign from Congress by skydiving Wednesday in a feat that highlights her ongoing recovery after having to learn how to walk and talk again."
READ MORE

Utah Will Not Recognize Same-Sex Marriages Performed Before Court Ban
Reuters
Excerpt: "Utah will not recognize, at least for now, the marriages of gay couples who rushed to wed after a federal judge's ruling briefly rendered gay unions legal in the conservative, predominantly Mormon state, the governor's office said on Wednesday."
READ MORE

Barbra Streisand | Why the Health Care Law Will Make Our Nation More Secure
Barbra Streisand, Reader Supported News
Streisand writes: "My interest in health care policy was spurred by researching women's health care issues and discovering more women than men die from heart disease. Heart research, however, was primarily conducted on men."
READ MORE

Dana Milbank | The GOP's War on the War on Poverty
Dana Milbank, The Washington Post
Milbank writes: "Well, yes, 10 million more Americans are in poverty now than there were in 1963 - but the overall population has increased by 125 million. If you include all of the financial assistance from anti-poverty programs, the poverty rate dips to below 8 percent today. And people who are poor suffer less because they receive health care through Medicaid and nutrition through food stamps."
READ MORE

Food for thought.....

NationofChange

A stable supply of affordable electricity is a prerequisite for economic development.

 

Power to the Poorest

nationofchange.org

An estimated 1.2 billion people worldwide, including 550 million in Africa and 400 million in India, have no access to electricity. Most live in rural areas where the population is sparse and incomes

 

 

 

Bill Moyers

In American lore, the United States is the City on the Hill, a beacon of freedom and democracy that sheds its light into every shadowy corner on Earth. But according to a report this week in the NYT, the US is exporting extreme inequality to Europe leading to falling economic security for working people there…

 

 

The US Is Exporting Its Extreme Inequality Abroad

 

 

 

Daily Kos

Thanks to Liberal America for the image (via the Teamsters).

 

 

 

 

 

Ya wanna talk economic development?

Nothing makes greater sense!

350.org

This is cool. Paul Krugman, Nobel Prize Winning Economist just said this about the fossil fuel industry.

Pretty good endorsement, after the President's mention the other day. Click LIKE if you think college Presidents should take Mr. Krugman's advice and ditch fossil fuels.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/28/opinion/krugman-invest-divest-and-prosper.html

NH's Economic Development

One of the false arguments used to support Predatory Gambling is the revenue flowing across state borders, ignoring all other revenues flowing for other reasons, such as airport development.

In Massachusetts, many are flocking across the border because Boston-centric politicians have allowed Logan to become an inaccessible disaster.

Lebanon is offering a great deal that will provide a foundation for their economic development.

Cape Air lowers flights to Boston and New York to $12

 

Cape Air is the only airline flying out of the Lebanon NH Municipal airport

Helps a small regional airport to get a million dollar grant

But the $12 flights to Boston and New York are not from Cape Cod, but from small regional, Lebanon Airport in New Hampshire where Cape Air is the only airline service available.


Click above image to see the Cape Air offerlarger.The efforts and price chop is aimed at helping the NH airport qualify for a million dollar grant.

The promotion is in time for a little post-Christmas shopping in two big cities. Cape Air and the airport in New Hampshire are promoting flights to Boston and New York for $12.

It's an attempt to qualify for federal grant money by flying out at least 10,000 passengers this year, the airport and Cape Air is helping by offering holiday travelers the last-minute steal of a deal - $12 each way.

Yahoo News reports that the Cape Air promotion was introduced on Christmas Eve, and it is an attempt to reach 10,o00 enplanements - the number of passengers boarding an airplane.

Once the airport hits the 10,000 mark, the FAA will give $1 million in grant money to help fund projects for the community airport.

Read the Yahoo News story here.

http://www.capecodtoday.com/news/EXTRA/2012/12/30/blind-oceanographer-sails-away

Cape Wind Moves Closer!

Bids out for $100M terminal for Cape Wind

12/14/12 · 7:42 am :: posted by CCToday in Cape & Islands News

Bids requested for Marine Commerce Terminal in New Bedford

Project could cost up to $100 million

Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) CEO Alicia Barton McDevitt announced the release of the construction bid for the New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal.

"We'll continue to watch very closely and we wish them every success developing this project, which I think is going to be a real boon for New Bedford for decades to come". - Mark Rodgers, Cape Wind The announcement closely follows the project’s environmental approval on Nov. 19 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

 

Cape Wind spokesman Mark Rodgers said "We'll continue to watch very closely and we wish them every success developing this project, which I think is going to be a real boon for New Bedford for decades to come".

The Marine Commerce Terminal project could cost as much as $100 million, and it is on an accelerated timetable, with for New Bedford to finish the site so they will beat out a similar project in Rhode Island. The terminal planned as a staging area for Cape Wind.

First in nation support off-shore wind projects

Once constructed, the New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal will be the first facility in the nation designed to support the construction, assembly, and deployment of offshore wind projects. The terminal will also be able to handle high-volume bulk and container shipping, as well as large specialty marine cargo.

As part of construction, the project includes the dredging and removal of 244,600 cubic yards of contaminated sediment caused by industrial waste generated during the 1930s and 1940s, a significant environmental benefit to the City of New Bedford. The first of its kind in North America, the terminal has been engineered to sustain mobile crane and storage loads that rival the highest capacity ports in the world.

Bids are due by Jan. 23, 2013. Construction is expected to commence in the first quarter of 2013 and be completed in 2014.

“The development of an offshore wind industry in Massachusetts will not only create jobs but provide an abundant local source of clean and reliable energy,” said Barton McDevitt. “This is another significant step toward the construction of a first-in-the-nation facility, which will establish Massachusetts as the hub for offshore wind development along the East Coast.”

“Today’s announcement is further demonstration of why New Bedford will be the birthplace of offshore wind energy in North America,” said New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell. “No other port enjoys the same competitive advantages: proximity to the natural resource, a deep-water harbor, a major state financial commitment, federal regulatory approvals, strong community support and a qualified labor force with two-hundred years seafaring experience.”

The terminal, which will be located inside New Bedford Harbor and protected by the hurricane barrier, will be in close proximity to offshore wind planning areas along the East Coast that are under consideration for development. The federal government is leading an offshore wind permitting and leasing process in nine states, including Massachusetts, along the Atlantic Coast. That process is expected to lead to the construction of multiple projects, many of which could make use of this first-in-the-nation facility.

Learn about the specific construction elements of the project.

Offshore wind is the largest potential source of clean energy for Massachusetts, and its development can create a significant new industry here in the Commonwealth. The U.S. Department of Energy projects 43,000 clean energy jobs will be created in the offshore wind industry nationally by 2020.

The Patrick-Murray Administration set the ambitious goal of reaching 2,000 megawatts of wind energy in Massachusetts by 2020. This goal is part of Governor Patrick’s nation-leading support for clean energy policies aimed at reducing reliance on foreign sources of energy, cutting energy costs and use, while cutting harmful greenhouse gas emissions.

The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center requests that companies seeking to bid or have inquiries regarding the bid process to contact Apex Companies, LLC attention Christopher Morris, PE; 125 Broad Street, 5th Floor; Boston, MA 02110 or by telephone at (617) 728-0070 or via e-mail at
cmorris@apexcos.com.
Courtesy of MassCEC.

 

http://www.capecodtoday.com/news/all/