State to take over Sunland Park finances; millions allegedly misspent, including money for hookers and campaign video



Sunland Park mayor Daniel Salinas left  KVIA-TV photo

 From Capitol Report New Mexico.com - New Mexico state auditor Hector Balderas says fraud is so severe in the border town of Sunland Park that the state should take over and run things for now and New Mexico’s secretary for the Department of Finance and Administration has suspended two Sunland Park employees, charging them with mismanagement of public funds. Late Monday afternoon (May 14), Balderas released a statement announcing that after looking over the results of a special audit, ”I strongly recommend that the Secretary of Finance and Administration take aggressive action to restore the confidence of the city’s citizens in its financial operations.” Moments later, DFA Secretary Tom Clifford announced the suspensions of the city’s finance director Helen Gonzalez and purchasing agent Neryza Rivera and said that “in accordance with New Mexico statute, DFA will assume the duties of those two officials.” In a brief interview with Balderas, the state auditor told Capitol Report New Mexico, “I believe they’ll [DFA] take these findings very seriously” and said he could not say for sure when a state agency had to take over running the fiscal responsibilities of a New Mexico municipality. “We are not here to make long-term policy decisions for the community,” Clifford said in a news release. “Our goal is to establish a properly functioning system of checks and balances to prevent future waste, abuse and mismanagement of public funds.” Balderas said he’s “deeply troubled by the severity of the audit’s findings,” which confirmed that former mayor pro tem Daniel Salinas spent more than $42,000 from the city’s Border Crossing Fund to “pay for prostitutes for Salinas and the City’s former Public Information Officer, Arturo Alba, during a trip to Mexico” as well as paying for a Salinas campaign video and paying a private investigator who made a videotape that Balderas’ office says was used to extort Salinas’ opponent in the town’s mayoral election in March. Read more

State to take over Sunland Park finances; millions allegedly misspent, including money for hookers and campaign video