Former senator confirmed as board member to scandal-plagued WNMU

Western New Mexico University came one step closer to a fully functioning institution in the midst of an ethics scandal Friday, when it earned one new member of its governing board.

Former Republican state Sen. Steven Neville of Aztec was confirmed by the Senate 32-0 following his hearing before the Senate Rules Committee. He became a regent immediately upon the vote. A constitutional prohibition against legislators being appointed to certain other offices within a year after leaving office does not apply to Neville, according to Sen. Katy Duhigg, D-Albuquerque, who chairs the committee.

Neville, who served in the Senate from 2005 through the end of last year, called his confirmation “gratifying” in an interview with the Journal.

“I had certainly hoped that I wouldn’t have any opposition, but you never know,” said Neville, who was also a San Juan County commissioner from 1997 to 2004.

Sen. Pete Campos, D-Las Vegas, called his former colleague “the individual that is going to bring stability to Western New Mexico University.”

Campos was referring to a sprawling ethics scandal that first involved the former WNMU regents, the institution’s president, Joe Shepard, and his wife, Valerie Plame, who allegedly spent more than $360,000 of public funds on furniture for the president’s Silver City residence and foreign business trips from 2018-23, according to State Auditor Joseph M. Maestas. All but one member, student Trent Jones, resigned from the board at the insistence of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, and Shepard resigned Jan. 15, but not before the board approved a $1.9 million payout to him. Shepard and the former board members have denied wrongdoing and are currently fighting a lawsuit from Raúl Torrez. The university, since the beginning of the year, has had an acting president.

In an interview, Neville said the board, once all members have been appointed, has to assure the public that WNMU is “in good hands (and) the finances are in order.” He said he was aware of other audits performed on WNMU, but that the new board would have to verify them.

“Maybe we need to do a forensic audit,” Neville said, before adding it was too early to say exactly what the new board would do first.

He added that soon after forming, the board will have to search for a new president.

“We’ve got to get the captain of the ship back in place,” Neville said.

An alumnus of New Mexico State University, Neville said that he wanted to be a member of his alma mater’s governing board — until he got a phone call from Lujan Grisham.

“She says, ‘I need you at Western worse,’ so I agreed to do it,” Neville said.

But some senators also joked about Neville’s lack of ties to the university based in Silver City.

Senate Minority Leader William Sharer, R-Farmington, said, “I’m not sure he knows where Western is, so you might have to give him a map.”

Senate confirmation hearings on the three other WNMU regent appointees are expected to take place on Monday. They include John Wertheim, a former New Mexico Democratic Party chairman; J. Dean Reed, a national sales director and trainer; and Keana Huerta, a WNMU student and Hurley town councilor.

A fifth regent has not yet been named by Lujan Grisham’s office is “continuing diligent review of all letters of interest and résumés that have been submitted,” said Jodi McGinnis Porter, a spokesperson for the governor.