Hicks defends DA deals
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Roswell’s district attorney is defending her private business sales to her former boss and current Republican candidate for governor, Susana Martinez, that sparked controversy late last week.
Janetta Hicks says that the more than $60,000 in office supplies and equipment sales to her former employer was “perfectly appropriate” and that Martinez wasn’t her only client. Her business, Titan Office Supply, sold products to the gubernatorial hopeful between 2003 and 2005, while Hicks worked for the Doña Ana County DA as one of her top deputies.
The sales were recently called into question by a former state official.
“I could offer products to the DA’s office at a cheaper price,” said Hicks, who was elected in 2008 to the 5th Judicial District that encompasses Chaves, Eddy and Lea counties.
“When I had the cheapest price, they bought from me. When I didn’t, they didn’t, and that’s kind of the bottom line,” she said, describing Titan as “something on the ... side.”
The sales legitimacy were called into question by Domingo Martinez, who was the state auditor during that time period.
Martinez, no relation to the gubernatorial candidate, told the Albuquerque Journal late last week that there may have been “some issues” with the transactions.
The former auditor and chairman of the Santa Fe County Democratic Party wasn’t available for comment, Friday. He currently works as the county assessor in Santa Fe.
Questions of legitimacy arose because the sales were made without any contracts or bidding process. However, rules making it illegal for state employees to knowingly “sell or be a party to a transaction to sell goods ... or items of tangible property” with their employers wasn’t established until 2007, according to state’s Governmental Conduct Act.
At the time of the sales, purchases costing more than $10,000 were required to go to bid, but the gubernatorial hopeful told the Albuquerque Journal that no single purchase cost that amount.
Repeated attempts to contact Susana Martinez for comment were unsuccessful.
However, according to Hicks, state-mandated audits made explicit mention of the sales. The reports were ultimately approved by Domingo Martinez, who called the transactions into question. Hicks said they confirm that no laws were broken and procedure was properly followed.
“It was a perfectly legitimate business,” Hicks said. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”
Hicks also says that her former boss wasn’t her only client and that she sold supplies to others, primarily other DA offices.
“I had some other clients as well,” she said. “I just worked with district attorney offices.”
She declined to disclose who her other customers included, saying, “There’s been too much tension and I don’t want to name other clients.”
Hicks showed the Roswell Daily Record two business licenses issued by the city of Las Cruces for Titan Office Supply, named after Hicks’ former pet. The licenses were issued beginning March 2003 and expired around the same time Hicks says she stopped doing business with Martinez.
Although officials with the city of Las Cruces said they are unable to locate the certificates, a spokesman with the state Taxation and Revenue Department, S.U. Mahesh, said Titan Office Supply was registered with the state from 2003 to 2004.
Hicks said she stopped selling to the Doña Ana DA when the state began issuing purchase cards and agencies could shop in cheaper retail stores. The Roswell DA said it’s just a coincidence that she pulled the plug on her home business around the same time.
“How many businesses are open for just a couple of years? That’s not unusual,” Hicks said. “I did business as long as it made sense. When it quit making sense (and) I couldn’t put the amount of time I needed to make it bigger ... I shut it down.”
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