State searching for new broadband office director after personnel shake-up

SANTA FE — The acting director of New Mexico’s central broadband office recently returned to his previous position with the agency after Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s office decided to go in a “different direction” in its search for a permanent director.

A Lujan Grisham spokeswoman said Drew Lovelace had resumed his duties as operations manager with the Office of Broadband Access and Expansion.

While a search for his successor is carried out, Department of Information Technology Secretary Manny Barreras is temporarily serving as the office’s acting director, according to the Governor’s Office.

“It’s an at-will position and the administration is going in a different direction,” said Lujan Grisham spokeswoman Jodi McGinnis Porter, who did not provide any further explanation about the change.

The shake-up comes after lawmakers did not grant the office’s $70 million budget request during this year’s 60-day legislative session for satellite technology to provide high-speed internet to about 95,000 New Mexico households that currently lack such service.

Lovelace told members of a legislative panel in November that state-provided vouchers and subsidies for satellite high-speed internet services could specifically help households that aren’t eligible for federal broadband programs.

“With New Mexico coffers flush with record revenues, now is the time to invest in the broadband New Mexicans deserve and desperately need,” he also said in a January letter to the Journal.

But the only company likely able to provide such satellite internet services is Starlink, a subsidiary of SpaceX that is owned by Elon Musk, who has drawn both praise and criticism for his role in President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

New Mexico’s Office of Broadband Access and Expansion was established in 2021 and is tasked with working with other state agencies to expand internet access across the state.

Despite a recent infusion of state and federal funds, New Mexico still has slower average download speeds and more limited access to broadband than many others states, according to some national reviews.

But the state broadband office has issued millions of dollars in grant funds in recent years in an attempt to improve access and reduce the estimated 15% of the state’s population that does not have broadband internet.

In addition, lawmakers did pass legislation during this year’s session, making changes to how public school broadband projects can be funded.