Former WNMU employee files complaints against president for wasteful spending

A former Western New Mexico University employee filed ethics complaints Thursday against the Silver City institution’s president, Joe Shepard, alleging he has reimbursed himself over $220,000 from the WNMU foundation since 2015 and tried to cover up a university purchase for his daughter’s wedding in 2023.

But Shepard denied the accusations, saying in a prepared statement that he independently paid for all the expenses related to his daughter’s wedding, and that processes are in place for university employees to submit expenses and get reimbursed.

Jay Hemphill, who resigned from his position as photographer and videographer on Oct. 15, submitted the complaints against Shepard to the State Ethics Commission, which already is investigating the university president and WNMU’s Board of Regents for wasteful spending. Previously, the state auditor found that Shepard and board members racked up more than $363,000 for 402 instances of extravagant travel and 91 instances of purchasing related to high-end custom furnishings for the president’s official residence.

The spending set off numerous investigations by the state, not all of which are complete. A university-initiated special audit also is ongoing.

Hemphill, who had worked for WNMU since 2012, once considered himself a friend of Shepard and lives not far from the president’s residence with his wife, former state Sen. Siah Correa Hemphill, who did not run for reeelection in 2024. She questioned Shepard about the spending when she was a lawmaker. The Hemphills also dined with Shepard at his residence numerous times.

In one of the ethics complaints, which Jay Hemphill shared with the Journal, he attached a WNMU Foundation spending report for the 2021-22 academic year in which Shepard’s name appears 15 times. The report states which checks were made out to Shepard and for how much, but it does not say detail the nature of the reimbursements.

“It sure seems sketchy,” Hemphill wrote in an email to the Journal. “There’s no or very little transparency on how the funds are used by him.”

But in a prepared statement, Jodi C. Edens-Crocker, executive director of the university foundation, said Shepard has an account that reimburses him for qualifying personal expenses related to entertaining, such as flowers. Shepard uses his own personal credit card and submits expenses/receipts for reimbursement, Edens-Crocker said. All expenses and reimbursements must be reviewed and approved with oversight from the foundation board independent of WNMU and separate audits, which “have not turned up any findings related to the serious claims being made in (Hemphill’s) complaint.”

Shepard independently paid for use of the Light Hall patio garden for the wedding, a reception at the WNMU Museum and covered all the related costs for dining, entertainment and staffing, according to Kelley Riddle, vice president of business affairs at WNMU.

Riddle added that the university did purchase flowers, as is customary, in advance of and for graduation ceremonies that occurred on May 5, 2023, but university funds were not used for the wedding that occurred more than a week later, on May 13.

Hemphill’s second ethics complaint discusses a dinner he had with Shepard and another university employee in March 2023. The employee allegedly told Shepard they submitted a purchase order for flowers for his daughter’s wedding — which was scheduled to take place partially at the president’s residence and the WNMU museum — and the purchase order was denied by the university purchasing office because WNMU funds cannot be used for personal events, according to Hemphill’s complaint.

Shepard then allegedly told the employee to resubmit the purchase order by stating that the flowers were for graduation, the complaint said. Shepard, paraphrased in the complaint, said that the wedding is “close enough to graduation that nobody will ask any questions,” Hemphill wrote.

Hemphill also wrote in his complaint that in the weeks leading up to the wedding, Shepard had “all hands on deck around campus preparing a courtyard for her wedding” and held daily meetings with university employees to get updates on the planning for the event.

In an interview on Tuesday, Hemphill said the dinner was the “most solid” recollection of Shepard’s conduct that he has.

But Chala Werber, the university horticulturalist, who was named as a witness in Hemphill’s complaint, said parts of the former university employee’s story are inaccurate. For one, Werber said she is not a florist, so she never dealt with flowers.

She said that at the dinner, she told Shepard, who is passionate about campus beautification, that she was going to be landscaping but could not buy anything for the wedding. According to Werber, Shepard then responded, “Well, you’re going to make the campus look good for graduation anyway, aren’t you?”

Werber said she checked university records after reviewing Hemphill’s complaint and did not see any communications saying she was denied a purchase order.

Werber defended her boss, saying his comments have the potential to be misinterpreted due to his personality, which can either be “flamboyant” or “get on people’s nerves.”

Werber said WNMU is better than it was before Shepard took office in 2011.

Hemphill, on the other hand, said he started to feel “slimy” fulfilling his job to promote the university due to the conduct of leadership.

“Here I am perpetuating this administration, making this administration look good by the work that I do,” he said.

Hemphill called the university spending “a shame” and believes further oversight will reveal much more money was wastefully spent by Shepard and the board.

Werber said being a university employee and watching institutional budgeting can be “frustrating,” but Shepard “is not the problem.”