Procurement controversies -- Espanola, New Mexico

City Manager Draws Heat for Stucco Project

A construction company hired to re-stucco Española City Hall in violation of state and city procurement rules allegedly performed work on City Manager James Lujan’s La Mesilla home prior to working for the city, according to two former city finance officials.

Former administrative services director Ron Archuleta, who worked for the city from March 2010 until resigning in May, said Lujan told him Española-based Lebo Construction worked on Lujan’s home.

Lujan later bypassed procurement rules to hire Lebo to re-plaster the west side of City Hall even though the company didn’t provide the lowest price for one of the two phases of the project, city documents show.

Both state and city rules also state a project can’t be artificially divided in order to constitute a small purchase.

City vendor documents show the re-plastering project was split into five parts between two phases. The total cost was $10,357.

Lujan denied having any influence over the award to Lebo Concrete stating he simply told his staff to get the job done.

This explanation conflicts with a letter dated April 7 from Archuleta to Lujan. Archuleta, a former auditor for the federal government and an ally of Lujan’s until his resignation, said he wrote the letter to leave a paper trail.

Black Ridge Construction owner Juan Garcia, who submitted the highest bid for the phase of the re-plastering project in question at $8,477, said he’ll likely stop submitting bids on city projects.

“What’s the point now that we know that (Lujan is) going to pick whoever he wants it to go to?” Garcia said.

Before coming to the city, Lujan was fired from his job as Santa Fe County’s public works director in spring 2010 shortly after the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Department named Lujan as a suspect in an investigation into several County paving projects he oversaw, many of which involved the company Advantage Asphalt and Seal Coating. Among the allegations were that Lujan’s department had used County equipment and materials to pave a private church parking lot in Nambé at the request of state House Speaker Ben Lujan (D-Nambé), and then billed the County for the materials, according to previous statements from former sheriff Greg Solano.

Emails between James Lujan and former Santa Fe County commissioner Harry Montoya also suggest such construction occurred. “We were asked by House Speaker Lujan to place milling in the parking lot of the church.” James Lujan wrote to Montoya. “You were in agreement so I had the crew schedule it.”