If you Google “bad to worse,” you’ll find a picture of former New Mexico Labor Department secretary Bill McCamley with an ‘X’ over his face and a bright new picture of our own Ricky Serna.
That’s right, the guy who almost single-handedly sank Northern New Mexico College, is now running that nightmare of a Department. You’ve got to hand it to Ricky, his past doesn’t slow his slithering.
Forget about professionalism, wouldn’t you expect the governor’s office to do a perfunctory background check? Just Google Ricky? We don’t expect her or her flacks to read the Rio Grande SUN weekly but there’s plenty of good reading about the Teflon Don.
Here’s a very light sampling:
At a May 22, 2014 Board of Regents meeting students complained about “favorite instructors” being let go because of budget concerns.
“In some instances, some institutional departments would see upwards of $190,000 to $200,000 in federal dollars, in addition to their additional allocations for addressing these needs,” Serna said.
Fortunately, Board members raised the issue that some grants are restricted and cannot be used to provide for equipment or salaries.
Ask former student Samuel LeDoux about his fight with Serna over two campus “guidelines,” Serna tried to get past regents, that LeDoux found overreaching and counter to the first amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Ask Angelo Jacquez about the conspiracies to move money around at will, violating grant requirements, state statute and federal law. While Serna wasn’t the target of Jacquez’s several hundred thousand dollar settlement with the College, Serna was a large part of the problem and did nothing to address the problem.
Read any audit from 2012 to 2015, when Serna left. They’re horrendous. One states $40 million in assets and $4 million in liabilities, with no equity. Accounting 101 tells you that doesn’t work and Serna brushed off the simple question put to him by a Rio Grande SUN reporter by not answering questions and pointing that getting caught up on audits was a good thing.
There are many more.
Since his departure from Rio Arriba County Serna has hung his hat at Luna Community College and Higher Education. Then he snagged the number two post at the labor department. He’s McCamley’s replacement with an “interim” in front of his name.
Ask folks in Albuquerque how long Police Chief Harold Medina had an “interim” in front of his name. Albuquerque Public Schools Superintendent Scott Elder can tell the same story.
The governor needs to take a look at Serna. Yes, he’s smooth and talks a good game. He belongs in public relations where you could ask him what time the sun came up and he could tell you about a safety report on a Jeep Wrangler.
The labor department is responsible for an unknown number of people receiving benefits when they should not have and probably many more on the opposite side not receiving benefits when they should have.
This position requires someone with a background in human resources and an ability to hire and properly train and supervise a large workforce. It also calls for a computer mastermind to figure out a way to answer, deliberate and respond to the thousands of unanswered calls and website communication.
Serna is none of the above.