Editor:
I must respond to the flawed April 2 front page article entitled “$2.5 Million Investment Backfires on City.” The investment was $2.5 million placed in the Local Government Investment Pool managed through the New Mexico state treasurer’s office. I personally contacted the state treasurer’s office regarding this issue. The error in your article is that $84,596 of the city’s investment fund is frozen, not $600,000 as you reported.
The assertion in the article’s second headline that “no one at the wheel in City’s Finance Department…” led to this situation is ridiculous. Having a finance director in place at the time the Pool was going bad would not have changed the outcome of this particular investment. According to the treasurer’s office, only two of the 145 total participants in the Pool removed their money from the fund prior to the collapse of the fund’s credit rating. It was the much-publicized collapse and bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in mid-September 2008 that set off the unfortunate chain of events that led to this situation.
This article was the product of your rushed, “gotcha” style of reporting. It was downright sloppy.
Joseph M. Maestas
City of Española mayor
(Editor’s note: the number in question was obtained from interim assistant investment officer for local government in the state treasurers office, Scott Newman. He said a press release cleared up all the numbers in question. Newman agreed later it did not. It maintained the $600,000 figure. Two city hall department heads were asked weeks earlier, if they knew how much was frozen and they both said they did not know what the status was.)