State Ethics Commission initiates an investigation into WNMU spending

The State Ethics Commission announced Wednesday it is investigating Western New Mexico University following the state auditor’s findings that the institution’s president and members of its governing board wastefully spent tens of thousands of dollars over five years.

The commission’s probe will center around WNMU President Joseph Shepard and members of the Board of Regents, who racked up more than $363,000 for 402 instances of what the auditor described as “extravagant” travel and 91 purchases related to “high-end custom furnishings” for the president’s official residence.

The university, located in Silver City, also provided expense accounts and purchasing cards to someone not a WNMU employee, the auditor and the university both said.

The noncompliant spending and actions occurred between July 1, 2018, and June 30, 2023, according to the auditor’s office letter and news release.

Now that the State Ethics Commission has received information from the auditor’s office, it will treat the information as an informal complaint, which could result in a civil lawsuit in state court or a referral to other enforcement agencies for their review, commission spokesperson Amelia Bierle wrote to in a letter on Wednesday to State Auditor John Maestas.

Not all informal complaints result in those two outcomes, she said, and whether to do so is determined based on the “statutory limits of the Commission’s authority and the size and resources of the Commission’s staff,” Bierle’s letter said.

The commission’s investigation, with no apparent deadline, could involve public records requests or contacting witnesses who may have information, she said.

Bierle concluded her letter by telling Maestas that the commission “(takes) all allegations seriously and can assure you that we are doing what is within the agency’s authority and ability to remedy violations of New Mexico’s ethics laws.”

Reached by phone on Thursday, Bierle said she could not comment on the alleged violations, citing nondisclosure provisions of the State Ethics Commission Act. She could not even disclose whether officials in her office have begun working on the informal complaint.

The commission’s probe is the latest development in the WNMU controversy. Maestas’ earlier “letter of concern” to Board of Regents President Mary Hotvedt copied the commission, but the auditor was careful in an interview with the Journal this week not to explicitly say the commission was going to pick up the investigation.

Hotvedt on Tuesday issued a prepared statement thanking the auditor’s office for its work and noted that a special audit started by the university is ongoing. Mario Sanchez, WNMU assistant vice president of marketing and communications, told the Journal on Thursday that the university stands by the board president’s statement even in light of the ethics commission’s announcement.

The State Ethics Commission inquiry and the special audit are not the only avenues for investigation into WNMU’s spending. The New Mexico Higher Education Department is also conducting independent audit of WNMU.

Jodi McGinnis-Porter, a spokesperson for Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, wrote in an email to the Journal on Thursday that the Governor’s Office finds the state auditor’s findings “deeply concerning” and will work with HED to address these issues with the Board of Regents.

Shepard, who has served as WNMU president since 2011, came under scrutiny for his spending late last year when the news organization Searchlight New Mexico reviewed the university’s financial records. The expenses included trips abroad to court international students and lavish furnishings for the president’s residence, including Indian dhurrie rugs and antique Tibetan chests.

He conceded in the interview with Searchlight that the university never conducted a cost-benefit analysis to review such spending, but it did so after the allegations came to light.