Time to clean house at ERB, SIC
Richardson appointees remain eight years after he left
The Albuquerque Journal recently reported on the New Mexico Educational Retirement Board (ERB), the agency that oversees New Mexico’s pension system for teachers, professors and other educators. The ERB wanted to give its top executives pay raises that would have averaged 28 percent — enough to push the two top earners above $240,000 a year.
The Journal also reported that Gov. Susana Martinez’s administration refused to carry out the raises, calling them “highly inappropriate”. Ultimately the ERB withdrew its plans. Thank goodness Gov. Martinez took this position.
I worked for years as chief investment officer at the ERB, so I can tell you that the ERB needs a shake-up in top management, not a bunch of fat raises. The executive director at the ERB — salary $164,588 — was selected by Gov. Bill Richardson before he left office at the end of 2010. Richardson also chose the current chief investment officer, who makes $237,543 per year.
The same problem exists at the State Investment Council, which manages funds that support public schools and government operations. Richardson’s people are still running the SIC, eight years after he left office. Richardson selected the current state investment officer, who makes $260,075 per year. When Richardson picked him to be state investment officer, he had no professional investment experience, but he was a Richardson fundraiser.
Richardson also installed the current deputy state investment officer, who makes $250,000 a year. And the SIC’s legal counsel, who makes $135,000.
When you look at the Richardson holdovers who are still running the ERB and the SIC, you might ask yourself a couple of questions:
1. Is it likely that Bill Richardson would pick people who would actually get to the bottom of the pay-to-play scandals during his administration?
2. Why are these Richardson people still in office, drawing fat salaries, when Gov. Martinez promised to clean house after Richardson?
Ten years ago, in July 2008, I filed the whistleblower lawsuit that exposed the pay-to-play scandals at the SIC and ERB. As a countermove, Richardson installed people who would pretend to investigate these bribery and kickback schemes while ... the real wrongdoing stays covered up.
... Anyway, there will be a new administration in January, so that’s a good time to clean house at the ERB and SIC. Let’s hope that the new governor takes charge, whoever she or he is.
It’s time for a housecleaning at the ERB and SIC.