Hank Hughes, the executive director of the New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness and former director of St Elizabeth’s Shelter in Santa Fe, has announced his campaign for Public Regulation Commission (Dist. 4). SFReeper caught him on a snowy Friday to talk about alternative energy, homelessness in New Mexico and joining a scandal-ridden state commission.

First, the obvious question: Why are you running?

The behavior of the current [Public Regulation] Commission is [not] very ethical, and I think it needs a lot of improvement in that area. I’m also very interested in renewable energy, and I think the PRC needs to play a role in promoting alternative energy so New Mexico can be a leader in that area.

Don’t you feel like you’re stepping into an ethical minefield here?

A lot of the ideas are already out there, like having an ethics commission. People are pretty aware of the ethical issues, so it’s a pretty good time to work on that, and I think there’d be a lot of public support for it. Obviously it’s not going to be easy…

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As promised, here’s the good stuff:

The preceding page began:

“The Commissioners must lead by example————”

The PRC let reporters in to view super-thick binders with copies of a couple hundred survey ethics survey, like this one. Most were not redacted. Indeed, most responders didn’t bother to offer suggestions at all. Nearly half of the employees who got surveys didn’t fill them out, for whatever reason.

According to the PRC’s new spokesman Gerald Garner Jr:

Of the 265 surveys distributed, 127 were completed…Approximately 30 of the completed questionnaires contain redacted items. The redactions were made because they contained anonymous personal criticisms of individuals at the NMPRC.

Judging by the tone and content of many handwritten responses, some of the harshest criticisms were likely directed at high-level managers and the PRC’s elected commissioners. That’s not much of a surprise, but specific allegations of unethical conduct are what’s of public interest here—and those are precisely what the PRC has chosen not to disclose.

Some series, if vague charges did make it past the PRC’s black pen.

Assault, embezzlement, sexual harassment, campaign law violations—is that all you got?

I’ll post more after the cut. Keep refreshing!

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In a pre-coffee, pre-email check Twitter post this AM, I gave props to the Santa Fe New Mexican’s “bombshell” on the results of the Public Regulation Commission’s internal ethics survey. Turns out the PRC sent the survey results to reporters around the state last night. Anyway, the New Mex should still be commended for putting up a fight over the agency’s ridiculous excuse for not releasing the full survey responses.

NMFOG executive director Sarah Welsh got it exactly right:

“Sure, some of the responses may be embarrassing and they may include wild accusations that are unfounded or deliberately false. But there is no exception in (the state’s Inspection of Public Records Act) that allows agencies to withhold information on those grounds,” she said. “The remedy for spurious information is true information, not censorship. Let the accusations come out so the public can engage in an informed dialogue about solutions.”

Oh, it’s sure to be embarrassing. Turns out what PRC employees are most worried about is cronyism.

Perhaps some names were named in the full responses.

With its email announcement, the PRC sent along a spreadsheet with the basic findings of its questionnaire. We’ve posted an image of that file after the cut, or right-click this link to download. Enjoy.

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The Journal is reporting this morning that the Public Regulation Commission is promoting Larry Lujan–an employee caught using PRC resources to campaign for Commissioner Jerome Block Jr–to transportation division director, a job with an almost $80,000 salary.

Commissioner Jason Marks, who may be the only commish currently un-embroiled in scandal, told the Journal: “Mr. Lujan is an extremely knowledgeable individual with respect to the area of transportation. However, coming at a time when the public has a lot of questions about our agency, I think it sends the wrong message.”

The Lujan thread was Journal’s Raam Wong contribution to Blockgate throughout the 2008 campaign; Wong pointed out that Block had used public campaign dollars to pay Lujan, a full-time PRC employee, and then revealed that Lujan had used his work cell phone on work time to campaign for Block.

Considering that the Journal owned this piece of the puzzle, I can’t help but wonder why the story included this line:

PRC officials investigated the calls after they were reported by the Journal and determined Lujan inappropriately used his phone, though the agency didn’t disclose whether Lujan was disciplined.

That may be true, technically, but PRC did disclose to us back in April that Lujan had been ordered to reimburse the state:

PRC Administrative Services Director Juan Rios tells SFR Lujan repaid the PRC $38.34 for the “personal calls” and gave up 10.6 hours of vacation time.

At his new salary rate, that would’ve been a little more than $2,300 Lujan would’ve returned for campaigning on the job. Block paid him $2,000.

Assistant Attorney General Jennifer Saavedra has filed a copy of the witness list from the March 25 and April 8 Grand Jury hearings, which culminated in the indictment of PRC Commissioner Jerome Block Jr and his father Jerome Block. Here’s the list (parenthesis is based on SFR research):

Special Agent Don Jochem (private investigator)

Don Francisco Trujillo (deputy secretary of state)

David Guiliani (editor, Las Vegas Optic)

Paul Maez (former San Miguel County Clerk, Wyld Country band member, Block campaign worker)

Jacob Martinez (Block campaign committee treasurer)

Briana Garcia

Isaac Jaramillo

Larry Lujan (PRC employee)

Tracey Littrell (ethics administrator, SOS)

Simon Balkey (Wyld Country band member)

Paul Smith

Jonathan Valdez (Block’s press secretary)