Wirth takes stand in Griego corruption trial

S.F. senator says he would have delayed deal if he had been aware of Griego’s role

State Sen. Peter Wirth testified Thursday that he would have moved to halt the sale of a state building to a Santa Fe hotel owner had he known that Senate colleague Phil Griego had a financial stake in the deal.

Wirth, a Santa Fe Democrat, testified Thursday during the third day of Griego’s corruption trial. Answering a question from Assistant Attorney General Clara Moran, Wirth said that had he known in 2014 about Griego’s involvement — and that he had received incorrect information from a senator who Griego asked to present legislation authorizing the sale — he would have tried to delay any vote.

“That would have caused me to ask more questions and to try to understand what exactly was going on, because, again, it would have indicated there was a different set of relationships at play,” said Wirth, who since has become Senate majority leader. “I was under the impression that this was an arm’s length transaction. … I would have asked more questions with the goal of just slowing it down so that we could get all the information before taking a vote.”

The Senate vote occurred on the last day of the Legis-

lature’s 2014 session, so delaying action on the proposal would have effectively blocked the sale for at least a year.

Griego, a Democrat from San Jose who once served on the Santa Fe City Council, received a $50,000 commission from Galisteo Street Inc., the corporation that owns the Inn of the Five Graces across De Vargas Street from the state property — a fact he did not disclose for nearly a year after the sale. That led to Griego’s resignation in 2015 as well as criminal charges for which convictions would carry the potential for a lengthy prison sentence. Galisteo Street Inc. is owned by the Seret family in Santa Fe.

During the Senate floor debate in 2014, Wirth was one of only two senators who asked any questions about the transaction. Prosecutors with the state Attorney General’s Office played for the jury a video of the Senate discussion.

“I was asking questions related to the historic nature of this property,” said Wirth, a Santa Fe lawyer who has a background in historic preservation. The old adobe building on the property, which between the early 1960s and mid ’80s was the headquarters for the State Parks Division, is “an amazing, historic building,” Wirth said.

Wirth said in many ways the old building is better off in private hands because state-owned buildings in Santa Fe’s historic districts aren’t subject to city architectural controls.

He told Griego’s lawyer, Tom Clark, on Thursday that had he known the correct information at the time, he probably still would have voted to authorize the sale.

During the 2014 Senate hearing, Wirth asked Sen. Carlos Cisneros, D-Taos, who was presenting the bill at Griego’s request, about the cost to the state of maintaining the building. Cisneros answered that the state was spending more on that than the revenue it was receiving from a lease agreement.

Wirth then asked whether the state would put the sale of the property out for competitive bids. Cisneros said yes, anyone could bid on it. Both answers were untrue. Cisneros obtained at least some of his faulty information from a fiscal impact report compiled by the Legislative Finance Committee.

Prosecutor Moran noted that during the floor debate, Griego was standing relatively close to Cisneros but did not attempt to correct the misinformation. She asked Wirth whether senators have a duty to correct bad information if they are aware what is said isn’t true.

“We take an oath of office to ethically follow the highest level of responsibility,” Wirth said. “When there’s a misrepresentation on the floor, I think it’s incumbent on the other members, if you’re aware of it, to ask those questions and try to figure out exactly what’s happening. We certainly do not want members on the floor misrepresenting things.”

Since the state had begun leasing the property to the Inn of the Five Graces in late 2012, the state had not spent any money on maintenance. And according to the lease agreement, the hotel owners had first purchase rights, which means there could be no competitive bidding.

Moran stressed several times that Griego never disclosed his possible conflict of interest before the Senate vote. His role in the sale became public knowledge a few months later in news stories, which prompted an ethics investigation by a Senate committee.

Clark repeatedly has said Griego didn’t actually start work on the sale until he signed his broker’s contract with the Serets about a month after the 2014 Legislature adjourned.

But shortly before his resignation from the Senate in 2015, Griego signed a statement saying, “In the months before the [2014] Legislature convened, Sen. Griego agreed to assist Galisteo Street Inc. in a proposed purchase of certain improved property owned by the State of New Mexico through the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department.”

In the statement, Griego admitted he had violated a provision of the state constitution that prohibits a legislator from having an interest in a contract with the state that was authorized by any law passed during the legislator’s term. The statement says Griego was unaware of that prohibition when he agreed to help the Serets.