https://www.abqjournal.com/1210368/lanl-coalition-is-whats-toxic-in-our-governments.html
It’s time for the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities to go away. The organization – with an annual budget of $200,000 – was always something of an odd duck.
It is made up of cities, counties and pueblos located near Los Alamos National Laboratory, and says it has two goals: to push for promoting local economic development from the lab and advocate for federal money for cleanup of long-term radioactive and hazardous waste at LANL.
The big question about the coalition has always been: What does it do that New Mexico’s congressional delegation doesn’t when it comes to pushing for waste cleanup and local economic benefits from the lab? There’s no empirical evidence to show having local politicos lobby Washington for cleanup dollars has made a difference.
Romero, as director of the RCLC, is appropriately a target in this mess. But remember, she was being reimbursed for using her private credit card to pay for elected officials like Española and Santa Fe mayors and Los Alamos County councilors. They’re culpable, too.
The county-commissioned audit, done by a law firm, raised another issue. It says efforts were made by Los Alamos County personnel, after-the-fact, to “recharacterize” or “remedy” questionable spending and which “may constitute efforts to intentionally mislead others and/or conceal misconduct.” Romero says changes were being considered to get the coalition’s act together going forward. OK, but going back to change the rules instead of the bad behavior is not the way to move forward with accountability. And, yes, some of the audit findings may have a political tinge – State Auditor Wayne Johnson is a Republican and Democrat Romero is the target.
But there’s not much doubt the coalition’s financial controls were a mess, policy and law were ignored and people were spending money they shouldn’t have been.
The coalition is trying to regroup and hired another director on a six-figure contract. But somebody should pull the plug on the enterprise, which seems to exist as a redundant and small-time DOE effort to placate locals. Rather than delivering tangible, positive outcomes, it is eroding confidence in our government leaders.
2 comments:
Could not agree more. Why is taxpayers’ money being used by public servants to lobby public servants? This corrupt idea has very predictably attracted corruption, apparently in the form of sending public servants to expensive restaurants to wine and dine themselves and the public servants they are supposed to be lobbying. Politicians have proven time and again that they will do anything possible to self-deal at the publics’ expense and here we have another example. It’s the classic self-licking ice cream cone. Paid for by you and me.
No tangible benefits to this bankrupt farce can be observed. Taxpayers should demand this farce be ended promptly. I am!
Get rid of the GRT, it will solve a lot of problems.
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