THE RISE AND FALL OF PHIL GRIEGO
How a homegrown politician rose to power and then became a convicted felon
He grew up in an established Santa Fe family, the son of a small grocery store owner and politician. It was a time in which Santa Fe was still a small town, and his family was one in which public service was a badge of honor.
Like his father, Phil Griego gravitated toward politics, starting out on the local Planning Commission. He followed his dad’s footsteps to the City Council, then jumped to the state Senate, where he became a powerful committee chairman and earned a reputation as someone who could get things done for constituents.
But last week, Griego, once a promising young politico, became a convicted felon. At the end of a three-week trial, a jury found him guilty of five crimes, including bribery and fraud, in a case that revolved around a $50,000 broker’s fee he collected after helping facilitate legislation that authorized the sale of state property to a downtown Santa Fe hotel.
“It’s heartbreaking,” said former state Sen. Roman Maes, a Santa Fe Democrat who served with Griego and now lives in Southern California. “He’s 69 years old. He’s not a healthy man. … Phil is not a criminal. He may have made mistakes, but he’s not a criminal.”
Griego was one of three children of the late Tito Griego, who was born in 1917 in San José in rural San Miguel County and was educated at St. Michael’s High School in Santa Fe. After World War II, the elder Griego opened Tito’s Market on Acequia Madre. Later, he moved the store to the corner of Acequia Madre and Garcia Street, where it was renamed Tito’s Food Line. It was a popular spot for decades, especially for the east-side residents Tito Griego would greet by name as they walked in.
The elder Griego was appointed to the City Council in 1971 by then-Mayor George Gonzales — father of current Mayor Javier Gonzales. The next year, Tito Griego ran for mayor on a probusiness slate called United Santa Fe for Action (USA) but lost to Joe Valdes.
Sam Pick, who was elected to the City Council in 1970, said he first met Phil Griego during these years.
“I served with his dad on the council, but we were on opposite sides back then,” Pick recalled in an interview Friday. “In those days, we ran on slates for City Council. Tito was on a slate with George Gonzales, and I was on one with Joe Valdes. But I met Phil back then. We always got along.”
In those days, both Tito and Phil Griego were Republicans. The elder Griego would serve as chairman of the Santa Fe County Republican Party.
Like his father, Phil Griego graduated from St. Michael’s High School. He went on to graduate from the College of Santa Fe. He managed a new family enterprise, Tito’s Food Line No. 2 on Cerrillos Road, before moving to Washington, D.C., to attend the Antioch School of Law. He earned his law degree and worked in the office of Republican U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici. Even after Griego switched parties, he still described Domenici as “the best thing that ever happened to New Mexico.”
After returning to Santa Fe, Griego opened a title insurance company in 1983 called Lawyer’s Title. Around this time, then-Mayor Louis Montaño appointed him to the Planning Commission.
In late 1984, there was a vacancy on the City Council, and Montaño tapped Griego to complete the unfinished term — though he let it be known that Griego was his second choice, chosen only after his first choice declined the position.
Griego won his first election to the City Council in March 1986. He went on to win re-election to the council twice, squeaking by with a 73-vote margin in 1988 but by a landslide in 1992.
After Pick was elected mayor in 1986, he and Griego forged a strong political partnership and personal friendship.
“He was a very effective city councilor,” Pick said of the man who would serve in the mainly ceremonial position of mayor pro tem under him. “We were very close. Our wives were very close. We’d take trips together.”
Pick said he spoke with Griego’s wife, Janie Griego, on the day the verdict came in.
The former mayor laughed when he recalled a time in which there was a move by the council to lower the maximum blood-alcohol concentration to legally drive within the city limits. Both he and Griego opposed the move, and Pick hoped he would be able to break a tie vote on the council and kill the measure. But when it came to a vote, Griego was the only councilor to vote against it.
“Someone in the media asked him why he voted against it, and Phil said, ‘Because it wasn’t strong enough,’ ” Pick recalled. “That was thinking on his feet.” Shortly after that, an anti-DWI group hailed Griego as a hero and asked him to read a proclamation calling for tougher DWI laws at a public ceremony, Pick said.
In 1988, shortly after the city election, Griego switched his voter his registration from Republican to Democrat. He said he had his father’s blessing.
In city government, Griego earned a reputation as a pro-business, pro-development councilor. This would be an issue in all his council elections.
Griego acknowledged this as a problem when running for re-election in 1992. “People have looked on me as someone who has forgotten Santa Fe and whose only concern is for the development community,” he told The New Mexican in a 1992 interview.
But, he added, “I’ve learned a lot during my years on the council. I’ve learned from my mistakes. I’ve cast some votes that I wouldn’t cast now. I feel I’ve learned to listen harder to constituents.”
There was one case in which Griego was accused of a specific conflict of interest.
While he was not accused of criminal wrongdoing in this case, Griego had to testify in court in the early ’90s about being paid $50,000-plus for work on a government project.
This was a massive $16 million road project that would have extended Richards Avenue north across the Santa Fe River to West Alameda Street, which would have been widened to handle more traffic. Griego’s title company was paid $52,000 by the state for work on the road project.
In 1987, Griego excused himself from a council vote on the project after his work was made public. But in 1991, the council voted to allow Griego to vote on the project. He voted in favor. Then-City Councilor Debbie Jaramillo, a longtime opponent of the project, sued Griego and the city over that vote.
But a state district judge tossed out the case, ruling that there was no conflict of interest.
Pick, who supported the Richards Avenue project — which never was built — said last week he agreed with the judge that Griego didn’t have a conflict.
“My guess is that Phil’s title business did pretty good while he was on the council,” Pick said. “But there was no quid pro quo. It was like my laundry business. We got a lot of linen business when I was in office. But that’s just how small towns are.”
Pick left office in 1994, and Griego spent much of the next year and a half publicly quarrelling with Jaramillo, who had been elected mayor. In October 1995, he resigned from the council to launch a challenge to incumbent state Sen. Liz Stefanics, who represented the sprawling mostly rural Senate District 39. He moved to his ranch on his family’s property in San Jose. He beat Stefanics in the 1996 election — though she came back to win the seat again last year after Griego resigned from the Senate.
Ex-Sen. Maes called Griego “an effective legislator who did well for his people.”
But Griego had troubles during his Roundhouse years even before the property deal that killed his political career.
He had been known as something of a Good Time Charlie when he was on the City Council. Jaramillo once accused him of showing up drunk to a council meeting, which he denied.
But Griego has admitted his drinking became a problem after he got to the Legislature.
During the 2000 session, Griego was arrested on charges of drunken driving and careless driving after police found his truck stuck in a ditch near his family property on Acequia Madre. Griego didn’t dispute that he had been drinking — his blood-alcohol level registered at 0.19, more than twice the legal limit. But he claimed that a legislative aide had been driving him. A judge didn’t believe him and found him guilty.
A little more than a year later, in the summer of 2001, Griego was arrested a second time for drunken driving. This time, he didn’t fight the charge. He admitted he had a drinking problem, pleaded guilty and entered a 12-step program.
The next year, Griego became a leading advocate of requiring installation of ignition interlock devices on vehicles belonging to drunken-driving offenders. He testified at legislative hearings that such a device had helped keep him sober.
Griego also became known as an advocate for issues dear to the gay community. In 2005, he voted against a proposed state law that would make samesex marriage illegal. In an emotional speech on the Senate floor, he invoked the memory of his brother Billy Griego, who died of AIDS complications in 1987.
“My brother and his partner, Jim, were a great couple,” Griego said. “They involved themselves in the community, they helped the family. They went to church with the family and took Holy Communion. At family gatherings, we always expected them to be there, because they were a couple. … When Billy was dying, Jim was there to change him, to bathe him, to feed him. He died in Jim’s arms. Nobody on this floor can tell me that relationship was immoral or illegal. I would rather have seen Billy and Jim raise 10 kids than some heterosexual couples.”
That same year, Griego successfully sponsored what he called “The Billy Griego Act,” which required that HIV/ AIDS education, prevention and treatment services be provided by the state Department of Health. It was signed into law by Gov. Bill Richardson.
His power continued to rise in the Senate. He chaired the Conservation Committee, then in 2009 became chairman of the Senate Corporations and Transportation Committee.
His last re-election was a tough one, however, at least in the 2012 Democratic primary. He faced a serious challenge from former Santa Fe County Commissioner Jack Sullivan. During that primary, Sullivan filed a complaint with the Secretary of State’s Office, accusing Griego of misusing or failing to properly account for campaign money.
But then-Secretary of State Dianna Duran cleared him of any wrongdoing.
Griego was aided in that primary by a political action committee associated with Gov. Susana Martinez. The governor and her advisers did not want to see the more liberal Sullivan in the Senate. But this angered Griego’s Republican opponent, Aubrey Dunn Jr. — now state land commissioner — who publicly complained that the governor’s organization didn’t help him in the general election.
That would be the last election Griego had to worry about.
As told by several witnesses in his recent trial, Griego in 2013 he came in contact with Inn of the Five Graces owner Ira Seret, who talked to him about buying a state-owned building on De Vargas Street across from his hotel. The family already had a long-term lease on the property. Griego wasted little time in arranging for necessary legislation to be drafted and recruiting someone to sponsor it.
Several legislators who testified at the trial said Griego never told them about his role in the sale, at least not while it was being considered in the 2014 legislative session.
After a Senate ethics investigation, Griego resigned shortly before the end of the 2016 session. The attorney general filed criminal charges last year.
“The problem is, we’re a citizen Legislature,” Maes said. “We all have to make a living. There’s no clear guidelines as to what’s a conflict of interest.”
Griego’s lawyer made similar arguments during the trial. But the attorney general and, more importantly, 12 jurors disagreed.
In the next three months, state District Judge Brett Loveless will decide how much, if any, prison time Griego will have to serve. His convictions carry a maximum sentence of 17½ years.