Luna County settles procurement violation

DEMING — A Luna County commissioner who is also a contractor for the county agreed last week to pay a civil fine to settle violations investigated by the New Mexico State Ethics Commission.

Christie Ann Harvey was hired as the county’s community and economic development director, a staff position, in 2021. The following year, she resigned and founded the Luna County Economic Opportunity Council, a nonprofit for which she serves as executive director. She then continued working for the county under a no-bid contract.

That violated the state’s procurement code, the SEC alleges. Its investigation found that Harvey participated “directly or indirectly” in the bidding for her services while she was an employee. Moreover, working for the county through the council within one year of her departure as an employee, including contract negotiations, violated the state Governmental Conduct Act, the complaint alleges.

Harvey told the Journal the noncompliance was “a horrible mistake and a learning experience.”

In the settlement, she agreed to pay a $500 penalty to the state without admitting any wrongdoing, and for the council to pay $1,000 to Luna County. The county agreed to cancel the council’s current $125,000 contract and launch a bidding process, with county officials to undergo training in the state procurement code.

The ethics commission found that the county awarded four contracts to Harvey’s organization, totaling $412,328, without issuing a request for proposals or reviewing competitive bids. Procurement code requires contracts for such services to go out for bid if they exceed $20,000.

The most recent of these contract awards was on July 1, 2024, four months before Harvey, a Republican, was elected to Luna County’s three-member board of commissioners last November. Harvey is also a board member of the New Mexico Border Authority, appointed by Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham in 2022.

County Manager Chris Brice told the Journal his office cooperated fully with the SEC investigation: “We went in with the attitude, ‘If we screwed up, you tell us where, and we’ll fix it.’ We’re not hiding anything.”

Brice said the prospect of working with Harvey as a contractor for economic development initiatives came about after she resigned as a county employee. The arrangement made sense, he said, because “she does a lot of stuff outside the realm of what a normal employee would do.”

Now that Harvey is an elected commissioner, Brice said she must recuse herself from votes having to do with the council and its contract. This potentially presents an obstacle, because the county has just three commissioners and no provision for breaking a tie vote.

Harvey said she enjoyed serving on the county board and the Border Authority, and that she “may or may not” bid for a new contract.