By MILAN SIMONICH
The Santa Fe New Mexican
Bathed in scandal and soaked by greed, Western New Mexico University lost its chance to land an excellent administrator.
Former state Sen. Siah Correa Hemphill, D-Silver City, told me she turned down an offer from the governor to be a regent of WNMU. Litigation regarding irresponsible spending by the previous board shaped her decision.
“After a lot of thought about the reality of being on the board of regents, I declined. The attorney general said new board members will be the ones who most likely will be sued ‘in their capacity,’ so I’m sure it will be a lot of time and stress for whomever is appointed,” Correa Hemphill wrote in a text message.
While a member of the Senate last year, she was courageous in speaking out about excesses in spending by then-Western President Joseph Shepard. He and the board of regents authorized 47 international trips in one five-year stretch, excursions that took Shepard and favored insiders to 12 foreign countries.
Western in that period had between 11 and 66 international students. Most of them were from nearby Mexico. The school’s total enrollment was about 3,500.
State Auditor Joseph Maestas in November said Western’s administration broke university rules on more than $360,000 in expenditures for travel and merchandise. One violation was Shepard’s wife, former congressional candidate Valerie Plame, using a university credit card, even though she was not a state employee.
Shepard announced his resignation a month later in exchange for a $1.9 million payout authorized by the board of regents. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who appointed all five regents, asked them to step down on New Year’s Eve.
Four did taxpayers a favor by quitting. The student regent, treasurer of the board, has stayed on to authorize paychecks and other financial transactions.
State Attorney General Raúl Torrez sued Shepard and the regents in an attempt to recover the lump-sum payment. After state and federal tax deductions, Shepard collected $1.14 million for not working. Torrez said he hopes to regain the full $1.9 million payout, possibly by seizing Shepard’s assets.
New regents will inherit the mess at Western. A spokesperson for Lujan Grisham said the governor is working to fill the vacant seats.
The governor bears much of the blame for the fiasco at Western. She appointed the five regents who padded Shepard’s bank account at the expense of students, faculty members and taxpayers.
Lujan Grisham also dawdled before forcing out her inept appointees. She waited 11 days after the $1.9 million payout to Shepard became public knowledge to call for the regents’ resignations. Lujan Grisham could have moved against the regents much earlier, before any deal-making with Shepard could occur.
Losing Correa Hemphill as a regent is a setback. She called for fiscal sanity while two Republican lawmakers, Rep. Luis Terrazas and Sen. Crystal Brantley, defended Shepard and his obliging regents.
Mark Donnell, a retired physician from Silver City, would be a good choice to fill the seat that would have gone to Correa Hemphill. He’s been the unofficial campus watchdog, gathering public records about expenditures and publicly flaying regents who kowtowed to Shepard.
There’s also a reformer’s spirit at the state Capitol. Several legislators have teamed up to introduce a bill and a proposed constitutional amendment to improve financial controls at universities and block sweetheart severance contracts like the one the regents handed to Shepard. Sen. George Muñoz, D-Gallup, and House Speaker Javier Martínez, D-Albuquerque, are leading those efforts.
The scandal at Western also has inspired superficial legislation from Sen. Jeff Steinborn, D-Las Cruces. His Senate Bill 19 would encourage new university regents and members of college boards to receive 10 hours of training on matters such as finances and ethics.
Many lawmakers have applauded Steinborn for introducing a measure that can be skirted or ignored. Gushing is the norm in the clubby confines of the Capitol. Ideas that would be laughed out of the corner saloon are treated as groundbreaking work.
“Thank you for bringing this very important bill,” Sen. Martin Hickey, D-Albuquerque, told Steinborn during a recent committee hearing.
Hickey went on and on about what he says are the ingredients of an effective panel of supervisors — expertise and unity.
“At the end of the day, the board speaks with one voice,” Hickey said.
That’s exactly what the five regents did at Western. There they were — three Ph.D.s, an attorney, and a student — united as one in rewarding Shepard with a windfall.
The regents exhibited plenty of self-discipline. Not a one mentioned money during their public meeting. Only afterward did the public learn Shepard was paid $1.9 million and, on top of that, he received from the regents a $200,000-a-year professorship, the highest faculty salary at Western.
They were a board that spoke as one before collectively clamming up. But they really should accept everything that goes with closing ranks.
The regents drowned out the voiceless, who are left to pay the bills.
Editor’s Note: Ringside Seat is an opinion column about people, politics and news. Contact Milan Simonich at msimonich@sfnewmexican.com or 505.986.3080.