The city of Española’s new finance manager has a story his resume doesn’t tell.
On paper, Andrew J. Perkins, 50, apparently spent about two years at each of four jobs he has held over the past 10 years. And that alone raised some red flags before he was hired last month to fill a long-vacant opening.
“You always worry a little when you see a long list with brief stints of a year here, a year there,” Acting City Manager Veronica Albin said.
What his resume doesn’t show but personnel files and interviews with former employers revealed was that he spent fewer than six months at each of his last three jobs — one of which he failed to list on his resume — and he was fired from at least the two most recent of those.
City officials had no idea.
Albin said that before hiring Perkins, she and Human Resources Director Jeanie Brito conducted background checks on Perkins and called his references and previous employers.
“Nothing came up,” Albin said. “That’s the problem, there’s only so much (other agencies) can tell you when it’s a personnel issue.”
When interviewed the week the city hired him, Perkins had said he left each of those jobs voluntarily, because they were “not challenging enough” for him. He acknowledged Tuesday he was fired from one job, but maintained he left the others on his own.
Brief stints
The most recent job Perkins listed on his resume is a stint from 2007 to 2008 as a director for the state Homeland Security and Emergency Management’s Administrative Services Division, a position appointed by Gov. Bill Richardson.
Perkins was appointed in November 2007 at a $68,000 annual salary. He lasted six months.
On May 7, 2007, an e-mail from Tim Manning, the Department’s state director, called for Perkins to be put on two weeks of paid administrative leave. Documents show he was subsequently terminated for “personal reasons.”
“Technically, they fired me, but I already had another contract lined up, so I was going to leave anyway,” Perkins said. “The governor appointed me. If he didn’t want me to serve as administrative services director, then that’s fine.”
That other contract was the job Perkins did not list on his resume, a two-month tenure as the village of Angel Fire’s finance director.
Angel Fire Human Resources Director Patricia Galliher said the village hired Perkins June 4, 2008, and Mayor Larry Leahy terminated him two months later, “almost to the day.”
“He came to work, he spent a month here, and we decided it wasn’t a good fit so everybody moved on,” Leahy said.
Leahy declined to say why he fired Perkins.
“I can’t get into that without raising some serious issues for our community,” he said.
Perkins said he quit before Leahy fired him, citing irregularities in the village’s accounting.
“I quit, there was some b.s. with personnel stuff, then the mayor called me into his office and told me I was fired,” he said. “They were cooking their books. I reported to the state auditor they had $300,000 in expenditures they didn’t report to the state.”
Leahy called that statement “untrue.”
“I have absolutely no idea what he’s talking about,” Leahy said. “He never came to me and offer to resign before we terminated his contract, nor did he make me aware of any concerns of the nature you just described.”
State Auditor Hector Balderas was not able to provide any information related to this situation prior to Wednesday (5/8) morning.
Perkins’ stint as chief financial officer for the state General Services Department was also brief, according to personnel documents.
That agency hired him in December 2003. By April 2004, the state payroll system showed Perkins as “terminated,” listing “job problems” as the reason. State Personnel Office executive assistant Sheila Zamora said that could indicate Perkins was terminated, but could also mean he resigned and has simply been removed from the Department payroll.
Perkins said David Chavez, his supervisor in that Department, could corroborate that Perkins had left that job voluntarily. Chavez declined to comment when contacted by phone Tuesday night.
Another short-term job Perkins left off his resume was with Rep. Ben Ray Lujan’s (D-NM) congressional campaign last year. Campaign manager Carlos Trujillo praised Perkins’ work for the campaign but declined to provide specifics, citing a confidentiality agreement. Lujan’s campaign paid more than $50,000 in 2008 payroll taxes it had failed to pay last year, according to Secretary of State records.
One item on Perkins’ resume stands out for its longevity. He has operated a private accounting firm since 1999, and said he continues to see tax customers. But that enterprise has also had at least one problem.
Until last year, the firm had been listed on the State Auditor’s list of accounting firms authorized to conduct audits of government entities. It has since been removed. Balderas said he could not immediately comment on the matter.
In Politics
When he accepted the city’s job offer, Perkins cited his friendship with Mayor Joseph Maestas as a reason for applying. Maestas said he knows Perkins from “Santa Fe politics,” in which Perkins has been active for years.
Perkins was the Santa Fe County Democratic Party treasurer for six years, from 2003 to this past April, according to Secretary of State records. He also ran, unsuccessfully, to become the state Democratic Party’s treasurer in 2005.
“Andrew’s pretty active in Santa Fe politics, he’s a good guy,” said Eli Senna, who managed Santa Fe County Commissioner Harry Montoya’s election campaign and became friends with Perkins during County and state Democratic events. “He also ran against (Rep. Luciano “Lucky” Varela (D-Santa Fe)) in 2006. He’ll do well for the city.”
That year, Varela announced he planned to run to become state treasurer, leaving his seat empty. Perkins said he filed to replace him, but Varela in the end decided to seek re-election for his legislative seat.
“So in a sense, Lucky ran against me,” Perkins said.
Election results show Perkins gathered 243 votes in that primary election, compared to 2,304 for Varela and 1,084 for a third opponent, Ouida McGregor. Campaign finance reports show Perkins left the race with at least $7,129 in debt, mostly from loans he made to his own campaign. Perkins raised a grand total of $3,160 in outside contributions to his campaign, including a $300 in-kind donation from a corporation that shares a street address with the Cheeks strip club in Santa Fe. Perkins said that was a monetary donation from the wife of the night club’s owner.
“Is there anything wrong with that?” he asked.
Maestas, who lives in Santa Fe County and ran last year for a state Public Regulation Commission seat, was quick to point out Perkins was hired on his own merits and received no favorable treatment from him.
“There’s a lot of people who can say they know me,” Maestas said. “But that’s not an appointed position. I didn’t get involved (in the hiring process) until the two finalists were selected.”
Maestas said it was Albin and Brito’s responsibility to check Perkins’ background.
“We had noticed he had these short stints at these different positions,” Maestas said. “He interviewed really well. As a friend, I had no idea about his professional background.”