New Highlands administrator worked with regent president in the '90s.
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New Mexico Highlands University's new interim vice president served as Santa Fe county manager during a time of financial tumult.
Domingo Sánchez III, hired as Highland's interim vice president for finance and administrative services earlier this month, was county manager from 1995 to 1998, during which time a highly critical audit of the county's finances was released.
The audit, conducted by Barraclough & Associates, P.C. in Santa Fe and issued in November 1995, took the county to task for a litany of serious financial deficiencies, including shoddy accounting, billing problems and inaccurate record keeping.
Among the vast number of problems identified, the audit found the county kept incorrect budget information, was out of compliance with its own personnel regulations and failed to correctly record financial statements.
"The County's prior year financial statements had not been prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles," a Nov. 15 letter from Barraclough & Associates, included in the audit, stated.
The audit, which covered the fiscal year beginning June 30, 1994 to June 30, 1995, notes that new county management, of which Sánchez was a part, was working on
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remedying the concerns. Indeed, some of the problems preceded Sánchez' tenure.
SFR also examined subsequent audits that indicate that the county did make some important improvements, but it also struggled to right basic problems. A 1996 audit found, among other items, inaccuracies with employee reimbursement and budget expenditures. An audit in 1997 identified problems with a new county computer system that was incorrectly recording transactions and accounting records. In 1998, Sánchez' final year as county manager, an audit revealed an over-distribution of property taxes.
Current Deputy Finance Director Teresa Martinez says the audits from 1995, 1996 and 1997 were all qualified, meaning there were issues of concern that needed to be addressed. The 1998 audit was considered unqualified, which meant the problems by and large had been resolved.
"Those are definitely some significant issues that you want to fix as quickly as possible," Martinez says. "At the same time, those were also some huge tasks to deal with, so I would understand if it took some time to resolve them."
Sánchez tells SFR many of the problems identified in the initial audit were due to the financial struggles of the Santa Fe County Housing Authority, which was under scrutiny from the federal government. He notes that his administration ordered a more expansive audit so that all of the county's financial problems could be uncovered and dealt with.
"When we came in, we had quite a bit if issues we were dealing with and a lot of different arrows flying at us at the same time," Sánchez, owner of Mpower Administrative Consultants in Santa Fe, says. "We significantly changed the budgeting process at the county so it was more formalized and conducted a number of internal changes as well. Problems surfaced, and we did our best to fix them. It's not easy. Government is a big animal."
Sánchez was hired earlier this month at Highlands after the departure of vice president Manu Patel and is slated to start work on Sept. 11. The interim appointment comes on the heels of an administrative shake-up following the departure of former president Manny Aragon in July.
Interim Highlands President Manuel Pacheco says Board of Regents President Javier Gonzales suggested Sánchez to him but did not speak to his credentials.
Gonzales was a Santa Fe County commissioner during the time Sánchez was county manager.
Pacheco says that while he reviewed Sánchez' resumé and spoke to individuals who knew Sánchez, he did not know of the audits. Pacheco says he considered a few other people for the interim post but ultimately decided Sánchez was the appropriate fit.
"I think there are some basic skills he has that the situation requires," Pacheco says. "He has a basic and broad knowledge of accounting and is well acquainted with personnel and human resources issues."
According to Pacheco, Sánchez will earn $120,000 a year until a permanent vice president is hired. Pacheco says Highlands will advertise the position until Oct. 1, at which point a review of the candidates will take place.
Gonzales, who served as a county commissioner for two terms in 1994 and 1998, says his suggestion of Sánchez was "more of an introduction" with the understanding that the hire was Pacheco's call.
Gonzales says he only recalls one critical audit of the county, which discussed a conversion to a new accounting system (presumably from 1997), and not the wide breadth of problems identified in those audits examined by SFR. He also cautions against using audits as a barometer to reflect job performance.
"Every good auditor will look at problems that need to be fixed, and they should," Gonzales notes.
Gonzales does acknowledge, however, that Sánchez was county manager during a turbulent time.
"I was satisfied with the job he did during a time when there were a lot of problems in the accounting and finance area," Gonzales says.
Former county commissioner Richard Anaya says he has no recollection of the audits and declined to comment further on the matter.
"You should try Javier," Anaya told SFR.
Current State Sen. Nancy Rodriguez, D-Santa Fe, also a county commissioner at the time, could not be reached for comment.
Says Manuel Pacheco: "Obviously, [the audits] will be something I need to look at and see what kind of substance there is to those concerns."
