Former cabinet secretary awarded over $100,000 in contracts. State says no wrongdoing.

Less than one year after stepping down from her Cabinet-level position in Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s administration, Jen Paul Schroer secured consulting contracts with three state agencies, which combined are worth more than a $100,000.

Both the Governor’s Office and Schroer say state procurement and ethics laws were followed in the handling of the contracts, which did not require a competitive bidding process since they each fell under a $60,000 threshold in state law.

“Good to know the rules so you can go around them,” Senate GOP floor leader William Sharer of Farmington said when notified of the contracts.

Those contracts include $24,000 paid from the state’s Public Education Department, $64,911 from the Children, Youth, and Family Services Department, and $16,228 from the Department of Cultural Affairs, according to the state’s sunshine portal.

Her firm was awarded another roughly $64,000 for the 2026 fiscal year by PED, according to an Inspection of Public Records Act request. She also has a pending contract with CYFD for $64,000, according to the state’s general services department.

All told, if the FY2026 contracts are paid out, her firm will have made more than $232,000 from government contracts since launching less than a year ago.

Under New Mexico’s procurement code, contracts worth more than $60,000 are required to be issued after a competitive bidding process, barring emergency situations. Smaller contracts are not subject to that requirement.

In the case of Schroer’s firm’s contract with PED, the contract came in under the $60,000 threshold before gross receipts tax was added, in compliance with state law.

“The contracts fell under the threshold of $60,000, then GRT was added for a total of $64,000,” Joe Vigil, spokesperson for the General Services Department, said.

Schroer was one of the original Cabinet secretaries with the Lujan Grisham administration, heading the state’s tourism department.

According to previous Journal reporting, Schroer had an annual salary of $196,000 in July 2023 while heading the tourism department — just a month before being shuffled to the Aging and Long-Term Services Department.

Schroer stepped down from her post leading the Aging and Long-Term Services Department in September 2024. Just over two months later, she was awarded the contract with CYFD, according to invoices obtained through an Inspection of Public Records Act request.

“As I launched my new business, JJS & Associates, I sought private legal counsel to understand limitations on accepting work. The contracts with state agencies went through a rigorous procurement process, with multiple layers of oversight, including the NM Department of Justice, and were approved at every step,” Schroer said in an email Thursday.

A spokesperson for the state’s Department of Justice could not be reached Friday to confirm the department’s involvement with the procurement process.

For CYFD, Schroer said she did work that “exceeded national benchmarks in foster family recruitment, attracted over 1,200 candidates for critical CYFD child welfare roles.”

As for her work with PED, Schroer said she aligned “communications with program goals to benefit students statewide.”

“There is nothing inappropriate about former Secretary Schroer having contracts with state agencies. She is only prohibited from having a contract that is the result of one of her actions as secretary, and even then, that prohibition only lasts for one year pursuant to the New Mexico Governmental Conduct Act,” Jodi McGinnis Porter, a spokesperson for the governor, said.

PED and CYFD similarly defended the contracts.

“JJS & Associates (former Sec. Schroer’s firm) was contracted for specialized foster parent recruitment services, including assessment of our application process, development of targeted recruitment metrics, multimedia marketing strategy, and stakeholder engagement,” CYFD spokesperson Jessica Preston said in a statement.

An assistant to PED Secretary Mariana Padilla did not return a call seeking comment. But the department said in a statement, “PED routinely contracts for additional services as necessary. In all such circumstances, PED follows the procurement code and any other relevant rules and regulations.”

PED did not answer follow-up questions sent by the Journal.

Unlike his colleague across the aisle, Sen. George Muñoz, D-Gallup, took no issue with the contracts awarded to Schroer’s firm and added that JJS & Associates is responsible for paying the roughly $4,000 GRT taxes.

“If that’s the best they can find, or they know her work, I would say maybe it’s good,” Muñoz said. “I don’t have anything bad to say about her when she was a Cabinet secretary. I think she did her work; she pestered me to death.”