Conflict between the governor and the Legislature this year isn’t limited to public policy and government spending.
There’s also a fight over what pictures can hang from the Roundhouse walls.
Gov. Susana Martinez in December requested the building’s managers, the Legislative Council Service, to hang portraits of New Mexico foster children seeking adoptive parents in legislative areas of the building.
The photographs, now hanging in a public area of the Governor’s Office on the Capitol’s Fourth Floor, were put together by the Heart Gallery of New Mexico Foundation. The governor wants to display them in other parts of the Capitol.
Legislative Council Service Director Raúl Burciaga denied the request.
A decision to allow photos to be hung in Roundhouse hallways outside the Governor’s Office would force him to approve similar requests from other nonprofit groups – requests that might be more controversial than the one from Martinez, Burciaga said.
Roundhouse hallways are hung with artwork now, but it is all from a Capitol Art Foundation collection of New Mexico artists.
In an interview with the Journal editorial board on Friday, Martinez expressed frustration over Burciaga’s explanation, saying an effort to find homes for children in state custody warrants an exception to the council service policy.
“These are kids who are in foster care, through CYFD (the Children, Youth and Families Department), a state agency, and we want to find them homes. It’s different,” Martinez said.
The governor said she thought for a while that she might have changed Burciaga’s mind. But Burciaga said Friday that he has no plans to hang the photographs.
“There’s nothing wrong with those pictures,” Burciaga said. “I don’t have anything against that particular program. … The issue is simply that we have always done our best to keep any kind of cause, if you will, from being featured at the Capitol. …
“As soon as we do that, then we start getting things that are little more questionable,” he said.
Martinez spokesman Scott Darnell said the governor is disappointed.
“It’s just a shame that that is not an initiative that they want to partner in,” Darnell said. “The governor will continue to raise the issue with lawmakers and Mr. Burciaga whenever they talk.”
In other comments Friday, Martinez:
♦ Criticized a request from school superintendents to put new money intended to improve student reading into general school budgets. “It’s just going to get blended in to this enormous budget of where we can’t track the results of that reform. … I think all (Albuquerque Public Schools Superintendent Winston Brooks) will do is hire more bureaucrats and it’s not going to go into the classroom, hire a new PIO instead of a reading coach.”
♦ Vowed to veto legislation that would allow illegal immigrants to continue to receive driver’s licenses while imposing a six-month minimum residency and requiring renewal every two years. Martinez called the measure offered by House Majority Leader Ken Martinez, D-Grants, a “sham” bill. “If you have a fraudulent document, it will tell you whatever you want it to say,” she said.
♦ Commented on protesters who disrupted a legislative dinner at a Santa Fe hotel on Wednesday night. Some legislators attending thought protesters might have been targeting the governor, who was ill and not present. The governor’s only comment on the possible threat, had she been there, was: “It wouldn’t have turned out well.”
— This article appeared on page A4 of the Albuquerque Journal
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