Egolf resigns from PRC committee, avoiding ethics hearing

Dec. 5—The State Ethics Commission has found grounds to hold a public hearing on a lawmaker's complaint about the outgoing House speaker appointing himself to the Public Regulation Commission Nominating Committee.

However, Speaker Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe, resigned from the committee Friday, which, according to the Ethics Commission's letter, means there won't be a hearing.

Rep. Miguel García, D-Albuquerque, filed his complaint about four months ago, arguing Egolf had violated the law and the state Constitution with his self-appointment. On Friday, ethics commission Executive Director Jeremy Farris wrote to Egolf to tell him the commission's general counsel "has determined that probable cause supports allegations asserted by the complainant [García] ... that you violated the Governmental Conduct Act."

Farris wrote that Egolf could "correct the violation" by resigning from the nominating committee in 10 days. Otherwise, he wrote, Hearing Officer Alan Torgenson would preside over a public hearing "to determine whether a preponderance of the evidence establishes a violation of the Governmental Conduct Act."

However, Egolf's decision to leave the committee Friday means that hearing will not occur, said House Democratic spokeswoman Camille Ward.

"It has been my plan for some time to step aside after the Committee completed its first round of work and to leave the position that I currently hold on the Committee open to be filled by the next Speaker of the House," Egolf wrote in his resignation letter.

The PRC is transitioning, in accordance with a constitutional amendment approved by voters in 2020, from a five-member elected body to a three-member one whose commissioners will be appointed by the governor and confirmed by the state Senate. The nominating committee announced its nine picks for Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to choose from on Friday — the same day as Farris' letter to Egolf.

Egolf said in July, when he announced the appointment, that he saw himself as the right person for the job, citing his "role in the legislation that brought needed modernizations to the PRC," and attributed the ethics complaint to the bad relationship between himself and García.

"I am confident the New Mexico State Ethics Commission will see this complaint for what it is — an attempt by Representative Miguel García to use the Commission to drum up publicity for himself and further his petty personal vendetta against me," Egolf said in a statement at the time.

García said in a statement Saturday that he was "overcome with emotion" at the commission's findings and that his previous doubts about the impartiality of the process had been transformed into trust.

"By being immersed in the State Ethics Commission complaint process, I can attest to the fact that it is everything that we legislators envisioned it to be when we codified it into law," he said. "That it would be an independent entity to professionally investigate ethical breaches by powerful and not so powerful politicians; and by powerful and not so powerful government employees. And if these violations broke with the rule of law, corrective actions would prevail."