FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 
July 30, 2021

Contact: Kathleen Sabo, Executive Director, 505-274-2442 or ksabo@nmethicswatch.org
 
Corruption Allegations Lay Bare the Need for Long-Overdue Ethics Reform
 
For the past five years, New Mexico Ethics Watch (NMEW) has been digging into the murky, flimsy world of public officials’ financial disclosure statements as required to be filed under the Financial Disclosure Act.
In multiple reports, we have pointed out both the deficiencies in the law and in filed disclosure statements – pushing for more stringent requirements, more stringent and meaningful auditing, and setting out a path to reform either through rulemaking by the Secretary of State or legislative reform of scant, outmoded requirements.
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With the news of a search warrant being executed against the House Majority Leader, Sheryl Williams Stapleton, for alleged corruption, financial disclosure statements are once again in the news. A quick look at Rep. Williams Stapleton’s 2020 financial disclosure statement reveals that although she listed her husband’s employment as the manager of a restaurant – which we now know was Albuquerque’s A Taste of the Caribbean – she did not report his employment as an income source, as required for any source of gross income of more than $5,000 in a calendar year. If his earnings were above that in 2020, not reporting them is a clear violation of the Financial Disclosure Act.

As a nonprofit organization, not a state agency, NMEW has used discretion in deciding which financial disclosure statements to examine. We have looked at candidate disclosures to make sure they have been timely filed as required by the Act and, when they have not been found in online public records, we have notified the Secretary of State’s Office and they have performed an audit. We have examined the disclosure of Senate-appointed board and commission members required to file by law under the Act, and found that many had either not been filed or filed late. We have also examined all legislators’ and cabinet members’ disclosures and found and detailed woeful deficiencies in reporting and in the Financial Disclosure Act itself. (All of our reports regarding financial disclosure statements and the Financial Disclosure Act can be found on our website at www.nmethicswatch.org.)

Just recently, as a tangent to research we were undertaking to determine whether any legislators were using capital outlay funds to funnel to businesses or entities from whom they would receive kickbacks – yes, the VERY issue that demanded a search warrant be executed upon Rep. Williams Stapleton – we discovered several financial disclosure statements where legislators did not report ANY income, not even the per diem income they receive from the state for service in the legislature!

We’ve found plenty of smoke, but we just haven’t been able to expose any real fire, perhaps fueled by New Mexico’s stubborn insistence on continuing to have an outmoded “citizen legislature” whose members do not receive a salary, but merely expenses.

Thanks to the actions of APS Superintendent Scott Elder in reporting what he found to be suspicious behaviors and transactions of Rep. Williams Stapleton, the full investigative and enforcement power of the Attorney General’s Office has found what looks like a long-smoldering fire – one that allegedly has bilked potentially millions from New Mexico taxpayers and once again besmirched New Mexico’s public servants and its legislature.

This alleged corruption could have been prevented had New Mexico had stronger laws on its books – that required more detailed financial disclosure, that required more stringent auditing of financial disclosure statements and capital outlay requests and disbursements, and that provided transparency to the public in where the capital outlay funds were actually going.
Although we and other good government groups can talk and write until we are blue in the face about the need for more transparency, more disclosure, and ethics reforms, generally, we currently must depend upon the fortitude and courage of upright, ethical legislators and public servants to enact these reforms.
Today, we challenge these legislators to come forth and work with Ethics Watch and others to enact meaningful reform of ethics laws, so that citizens and taxpayers can have faith that those who choose to serve the public are in fact doing just that and not serving themselves.

On top of that, it would behoove the legislature to make all proceedings related to the alleged ethics violation open to the public and recorded. If the rules currently do not allow for public proceedings, then those rules – and other House and Senate rules governing legislative ethics concerns and proceedings – need to also be on the list for immediate reform.

​The Citizens Redistricting Committee is decidedly NOT diverse -- Do we need a do-over?

​For ethics' sake, we must redo the state redistricting commission" by Kathleen Sabo

- Albuquerque Journal - 06/18/2021

​THE 2021 NMEW ESSAY CONTEST THEME: HOW HAVE ETHICAL PRINCIPLES INFLUENCED YOUR BEHAVIOR AND ACTIONS DURING THE PANDEMIC?​DEADLINE: 11:59pm MST – FRIDAY MAY 21st, 2021
General Guidelines

• An entrant must be a Freshman, Sophomore, Junior or Senior at a New Mexico high school
• All entries must be received by the contest deadline to be considered. The deadline for the 2020 NMEW Essay Contest is 11:59pm MST on Friday, May 21st, 2021.
• Entries must follow the contest guidelines in terms of length, adherence to theme and topic.
• All entries must be the original work of the entrant.
• Essays become the property of NMEW and may be used in print, digital and web-based promotional materials by NMEW.
• Cash prizes will be awarded for the top three essays in the following amounts:

• • 1st place $500
  • 2nd place $250
  • 3rd place $150
  • Honorable Mention (2) $50
• Winners will be notified by early summer. NMEW requests that winners attend an in-person, or video conference ceremony that will be held during the summer of 2021, where they will be presented with their prize and a certificate.  
• The judging and selection process will be at the sole discretion of New Mexico Ethics Watch, and the judging committee(s) chosen for such purpose. Submissions may be disqualified if submission rules are not followed.  Decisions of the judges are final and binding.
• Entrants are responsible for complying with these guidelines.
• Open to New Mexico residents only.
• Please submit final materials to essays@nmethicswatch.org
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Submission Information
Each essay contest entry must be between 500-1000 words and must adhere to the theme: How have ethical principles influenced your behavior and actions during the pandemic? All essays must be submitted by May 21st, 2021 to essays@nmethicswatch.org
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All submissions must include a cover page that contains the following information:

• Entrant’s full name
• Entrant’s age
• First and last name of the entrant’s parent/guardian (if under 18)
• Entrant’s mailing address
• Name of the high school attended
• High school city and state
• Entrant’s telephone number
• Entrant’s email address

​​Personal information should only be entered onto the cover sheet, as all essays will be judged blindly.
Any submissions that include personal information in the body of the essay will be automatically disqualified.  
All essays will be judged using the following criteria: relevance to theme, clarity, creativity, and grammar/spelling.

The year 2020 will forever be synonymous with misery. Besides killing nearly 3,200 people in New Mexico, the COVID-19 pandemic forced the economy to shut down, causing tens of thousands to lose their jobs in this state in 2020. But according to a new report by New Mexico Ethics Watch, money from oil and gas interests to New Mexico politicians and political organizations continued to flow, with almost $3.3 million from the industry going to political causes during this past election cycle.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 12, 2020
Contact: Kathleen Sabo, Executive Director, 505-274-2442 or ksabo@nmethicswatch.org

​WATCH: Full interview with Kathleen Sabo, executive director of New Mexico Ethics Watch

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 2, 2020
Contact: Kathleen Sabo, Executive Director, 505-274-2442 or ksabo@nmethicswatch.org

In 1945, the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan, bringing a swift end to WWII. This action, however, came at a cost: many thousands of Japanese citizens died from the explosion, and many more died from radiation poisoning. Today, we are still left with the questions, “Was that the right move? Were the means justified by the end?”. Regardless of any answer, there is no way to judge without a standard by which to make that judgement. If we are to determine means that truly justify the end, we must gather all information on the subject, define who or what defines correct ethics, and conclude what a true end looks like.