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Thursday, April 30, 2009

Motto Should Reflect State Reality

By Jim Scarantino

      “You have to pay to play. This is how business is done.” I nominate those phrases for our state motto, especially since our current slogan — “crescit eundo: it goes as it grows” — makes zero sense.
       Our motto was selected in 1882, long before statehood. It is drawn from a poem written in 50 B.C. and reflects a misconception about the dynamics of lightning. For a state with two national laboratories, a motto based on scientific error simply won't do.
       My nominee rings truer. It comes straight out of testimony in the corruption trial of a state investment officer. In 1984, Phillip Troutman, Gov. Toney Anaya's appointee to manage the state permanent funds, and Deputy State Treasurer Kenneth Johnson attempted to force a bank to buy tickets to a Democratic Party fundraising event as a precondition of doing business with the state. The bank balked. Johnson impatiently lectured the obtuse financiers that in New Mexico, “You have to pay to play. This is how business is done.”
       Troutman complained to one banker that his failure to play ball made Troutman “look bad to Governor Anaya.” Johnson was caught on tape saying he “was afraid Governor Anaya would be angry” that he had not been able to collect from the bank.
       Though Troutman and Johnson invoked his name, Anaya denied any involvement in or knowledge of their scheme. He did not return my calls asking for a recent comment on the case.
       By notifying law enforcement the bank demonstrated how very little it appreciated New Mexico's political culture. Bankers wearing hidden recorders subsequently captured Troutman and Johnson incriminating themselves. Both were convicted. Anaya was never charged or accused of criminal wrongdoing.
       A few years later, state Rep. Ron Olguin was caught on tape demanding a bribe in exchange for introducing legislation to appropriate state funds. Not long afterward, Valencia County Attorney Thomas Esquibel was recorded soliciting a bribe in exchange for instructing the County Commission to obey an order of the Court of Appeals.
       We heard variations on Johnson's by now famous pay-to-play phrase repeated in testimony during prosecutions of former State Treasurers Michael Montoya and Robert Vigil. Almost weekly we read local and national reports of federal probes into state investment business being awarded to firms and individuals who have helped lubricate various cogs of Bill Richardson's political machinery.
       The confessions of Manny Aragon and his partners in crime revealed a long-running scheme to steer contracts to corrupt contractors who, in turn, kicked back to Aragon and other officials part of what they looted.
       Until recently, public corruption in New Mexico was small potatoes. Troutman and Johnson traded offices in the Roundhouse for prison cells by trying to extort a paltry $2,000.
       Esquibel sold out for a mere five grand. Olguin disgraced himself for a bribe of $15,000.
       As public corruption keeps going, the numbers keep growing. We're seeing runaway inflation in the price of public servants' souls. Montoya, Aragon and Vigil are responsible for millions of dollars in bribes and theft.
       Colossal numbers are surfacing in the Richardson controversies. One grand jury investigation is examining whether CDR Financial paid Richardson's PACs over $100,000 in a quid pro quo for $1.48 million in fees on $1.6 billion in bond work.
       New information shows Marc Correra, the son of an important Richardson supporter, shared in at least $11.5 million as a “third-party placement agent” securing state investments.
       A whistleblower lawsuit claims the state lost $90 million in flaky investments with Vanderbilt Financial, which donated $15,100 to Richardson's presidential bid. Vanderbilt paid $1.9 million in financial and advisory fees to seal the deal.
       Online translators provide conflicting Latin versions of “pay to play.” Is it “merces tenum lascivio” or “persolvo ludo” or something else entirely? Maybe we can get by with our current state motto if we consider it a statement about political rot instead of airborne electricity. “Crescit eundo: it grows as it goes.” Now it makes sense.
       Jim Scarantino spent 25 years practicing law, including time as a prosecutor in Philadelphia and New Mexico. He concluded his legal career as the ACLU-New Mexico's lawyer of the year in 2006. Scarantino also served as executive director of the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance and Republicans for Environmental Protection. He currently writes a monthly report for the Rio Grande Foundation. E-mail: jimscarantino@gmail.com.
       

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