Investigation of Teacher Email Episode Goes On

State Attorney General Gary King will never be accused of being fleet of foot. Then again, who wants a trigger-happy attorney general?

Still, it’s been seven months since King was asked to investigate whether the administration of Gov. Susana Martinez used public resources for political purposes in violation of the state Governmental Conduct Act.

“Nothing new. Investigation ongoing,” is all King’s spokesman will say.

The investigation centers on two lists of teacher email addresses provided by the Public Education Department in May to Martinez political adviser Jay McCleskey. He allegedly made a verbal request, which is allowed under the state Inspection of Public Records Act, for publicly available teacher contact information.

The first list contained publicly available email addresses for about 9,350 teachers statewide, both nonunion and union. The PED says the list was created before McCleskey made his request.

The second list provided by the PED contained email addresses for only nonunion teachers. Department spokesman Larry Behrens says he created the list after McCleskey made his request.

Using a personal email account, Behrens sent both lists to McCleskey and to personal email accounts for Martinez chief of staff Keith Gardner, PED Secretary-designate Hanna Skandera and two other officials. Skandera forwarded the lists to a campaign email address for Martinez, but the administration says the address was no longer in use.

The anti-Martinez group Independent Source PAC disclosed the Behrens email in June, saying it came from a source who had access to the Martinez campaign email account. Shortly afterward, Sen. Linda Lopez and Rep. Rick Miera, both D-Albuquerque, asked King to investigate whether the Governmental Conduct Act was violated. Miera has since been elected House majority leader.

The governor says the campaign emails were illegally obtained, and federal authorities have been investigating. Independent Source PAC says the emails were legally obtained after the domain for the campaign’s website expired.

As for King’s investigation of the teacher email address lists provided by the PED to McCleskey, there are both civil and criminal penalties under the Governmental Conduct Act, which prohibits the use of government resources for unauthorized purposes.

The administration has denied any wrongdoing.

McCleskey said he wanted teacher contact information to seek support among teachers for the governor’s proposed education reforms, many of which have been opposed by educator unions.

McCleskey, who has said he wanted to contact educators privately, has said the email address lists weren’t what he was looking for and that he didn’t use them. The PED later denied a written request from a McCleskey associate for the home addresses of teachers, saying the information was confidential.

You might recall that the disclosure that administration officials used personal email accounts to communicate about the lists provided to McCleskey set off a public debate about use of personal email to discuss government business.

Martinez ordered those in her administration to stop the use of personal email when doing official business.

Eye for eye?

Reform New Mexico Now, a political action committee run by McCleskey, was active in several races for the Legislature last year, including the defeat of Senate President Pro Tem Tim Jennings, a Roswell Democrat who had served 34 years.

The PAC also tried to take out Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez, D-Belen.

I’m not sure the Senate believes in an eye for an eye, but it could move to even the score with McCleskey and Martinez by taking out Skandera, the governor’s public education secretary.

Although Skandera was appointed when Martinez took office in 2011, her appointment hasn’t been voted on by the Senate.

Another Martinez appointee who hasn’t been confirmed by the Senate is Daniel Tanaka, the head of the Securities Division and the overzealous investigator into a fake audit at the New Mexico Finance Authority.

Jennings’ replacement as Senate president pro tem, Las Cruces Democrat Mary Kay Papen, who has chaired the Legislature’s oversight committee for the Finance Authority, is among those who have questioned Tanaka’s conduct.

You might recall that Tanaka had John Duff, who was then the authority’s chief operating officer, taken into custody in handcuffs. A grand jury later rejected a request by the Securities Division to charge Duff with a crime.

The grand jury did indict Greg Campbell, former controller at the Finance Authority, who said he acted alone in creating the fake audit. He pleaded guilty and got probation.

The board of the Finance Authority fired the agency’s CEO, Rick May, and Duff left after being threatened with termination.

UpFront is a daily front-page news and opinion column. Comment directly to Thom Cole at tcole@abqjournal.com or 505-992-6280 in Santa Fe. Go to www.abqjournal.com/letters/new to submit a letter to the editor.
— This article appeared on page A1 of the Albuquerque Journal