Cultural Foundation spent state fresco money on salaries, lobbying
“Totally false.”
That’s how National Hispanic Cultural Center Foundation President Clara Apodaca responded last November to allegations by a former Center board member that the Foundation had misappropriated state funds intended for completion of a fresco painting at the Center’s Torreon Building in Albuquerque.
Apodaca flatly denied Matt Martinez’s Nov. 18 allegations that the Foundation had paid salaries and other operational expenses from the $812,500 lawmakers appropriated in 2007 and 2008 solely for work on the fresco.
The nonprofit Foundation’s mission is to raise money for the Center, which is run by the N.M. Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA). The state fresco appropriations were sent directly to the Foundation to manage, rather than to the DCA or Center, records show.
Apodaca told reporters in November that the Foundation had used state fresco money for production of the painting, just as intended by lawmakers.
But Foundation and DCA documents obtained by Veritas New Mexico suggest that between 20 and 25 percent of the state fresco money actually went toward Foundation salaries – including Apodaca’s own.
Apodaca would not speak or schedule an interview with Veritas Wednesday. Apodaca had canceled previously scheduled interviews.
But in a Dec. 3 report to Stuart Ashman, who was then the DCA cabinet secretary, Apodaca appeared to acknowledge that money from the appropriations was used to reimburse the Foundation for lobbying, meals and Foundation salary expenses incurred between 2006 and 2008.
The two-page report’s cover letter indicates that $162,500 (or 20 percent) of the state money went to reimburse those expenses.
But the report’s second page, a set of tables summarizing those expenses, actually totals much more: $211,000, or more than 25 percent of the state’s fresco appropriations — including $90,000 for Apodaca’s time lobbying lawmakers, attending fundraising meetings and talking to national travel journalists.
The report also summarizes $25,000 in “hard costs,” including $12,000 in breakfasts and lunches with elected officials, travel journalists and “potential funders.”
No explanation for overdue audits
Santa Fe muralist Frederico Vigil recently completed the fresco after nearly a decade of work on the 4,000 square-foot interior walls of the Center’s cylindrical Torreon. But the building still needs lighting and visitor seating, Romero confirmed.
According to the Foundation’s IRS tax filings, Apodaca was paid $120,750 as Foundation chief executive officer and president in 2008, the latest year for which Foundation tax filings have been provided to the IRS.
Asked Wednesday for the Foundation’s tax returns for 2009 and 2010, Foundation Director of Development Kim Moss told Veritas extensions had been filed with the IRS pending completion of the Foundation’s annual audits.
No explanation was offered for the audit delays.
Nor has the Foundation explained the audit and tax filing delays to Center officials, according to interim Center director Gary P. Romero.
The Foundation’s support for the Center has waned sharply over the past year, since Martinez and Center officials began voicing concerns about the management of state grants for the Torreon fresco.
The current fiscal year’s support from the Foundation has been between $52,000 and $78,000 in grant money, Romero said Wednesday.
“Those are the numbers they’re reporting to us when we’ve tried to get them to tell us what’s going on,” Romero said.
Director of Finance Patricia O’Brien is the most recent of four Foundation financial officers to serve over the past year and a half, Romero confirmed.
Apodaca dismissed Martinez’s allegations in November as bitter grapes.
Martinez made his first public allegations about the Foundation’s financial mismanagement Nov. 18, but had been raising similar concerns for more than a year before he was removed from the Center board by then-governor Bill Richardson, he told Veritas.
Martinez had served on the board for 14 years.
“He’s angry he was taken off the board,”Apodaca told reporters Nov. 18, while denying she had any involvement with Martinez’s removal from the board.
But in a Dec. 13 e-mail to Ashman, Apodaca suggested Richardson may have removed Martinez from the board as a favor to her.
“I think this guy (Matt) has had his 15 minutes of fame,” Apodaca wrote. “Nobody seems to know him but the Governor did tell someone just recently that he removed Matt for me (ouch).”
The Torreon Building is open to the public Sundays from noon to 4 p.m., Romero said.
Photo by Peter St. Cyr.
Documents cited in this story
Dec 3, 2010 Foundation accounting report on use of state fresco funds for lobbying
National Hispanic Cultural Center Foundation 2008 IRS tax filing
Apodaca’s Dec. 13, 2010 e-mail to Ashman
Excellent investigative reporting! Good to see Mr. Furlow’s reporting back in circulation. His examination and analysis is in-depth and thorough.
This story needs to be disseminated to legislators, the attorney general and state auditor, however don’t expect much action from them. They’ll only cover for Apodaca and her cronies. And where is the Legislative Finance Committee and Department of Finance and Administration? They should be conducting a forensic audit of the foundations books. It clearly seems that the state’s procurement code and state laws have been egregious violated.
I’m not surprised at Ms. Apodaca’s visceral and parochial response to the serious allegations. She is a ruling member of New Mexico’s High-spanic oligarchy and flaunts behind the skirt of hubris.
I look forward to the additional investigative reports to come.
In the December 2010 memo from Apodaca to Sec. Ashman she indicates that she and her staff were paid lobbyists, yet, if you check the NM Secretary of States website at http://ethics.sos.state.nm.us/LOBBY/LOB.HTM, Apodaca, her staff nor the Foundation are registered as lobbyists. Is this another violation of law?
I’m not sure if I’m more insulted by the mispelling of my name or the title I was given but I’m listed as one of the foundation employees paid with the $162,500 of Fresco funds. (I’m referring to the document from Clara to Stuart Ashman dated 12/3/2010)
This information is false. First I’ve never been a NHCC Foundation employee, and second I never worked on the Fresco in the capacities outlined in this document. During 2006-2008 I never worked on the Fresco in any capacity. I was a contracted graphic designer doing work for the National Hispanic Cultural Center, not the Foundation. While the Foundation may have paid for some of my services on the Center’s behalf (the typical function of a foundation) those funds should have come from other sources. Not the Fresco funds.
I can’t speak to why my name is listed here, but it’s very concerning to me.
Michele Carter
Thank you, Michele. We’ve asked the Foundation a few times for Ms. Apodaca’s response to your comments.
Looks like Clara is finally getting entangled in her own web of deception. It seems we’re only beginning to see the tip of the iceberg.
The fact that Apodaca hasn’t met with Mr. Furlow for an interview speaks volumes. She has publicly provoked the press to review the foundations “documentation” and now the veil is being lifted to reveal schemes, lies and cover up.
Ms. Apodaca’s evasive technique of blaming the Department of Cultural Affairs and the Department of Finance Administration for misspent funds are transparent and ridiculous. Her ignorance about capital funds is hard to believe given that was she the First Lady of New Mexico AND she also served as the Cultural Affairs Officer for the State of New Mexico from 1985-1987. Clearly, she has significant, direct and applicable experience with the rules and laws of state agencies and funds. There are definitely problems with how and why these funds went to the NHCC Foundation rather than the state agency (the National Hispanic Cultural Center). Former Secretary Stuart Ashman is probably the only one that can explain why he approved that unusual flow of capital outlay.
Sadly, this proves once again that too often people in positions of authority and influence – like Ms. Apodaca and Mr. Ashman – immerse themselves in the power of the position with an air of entitlement and arrogance. In reality, too few leaders understand or accept that with great authority comes even greater responsibility and accountability.
There are state regulations to protect against everything that has gone wrong here – and 95% of state workers abide by those rules. Seems like many at the top continue to believe the rules do not apply to them.
The problems that have surfaced within the NHCCF are symptomatic of two major errors in the structure of that institution. First, the NHCCF has never been a professionally run foundation. Instead, moneyed, and arrogant old-guard interests have controlled the foundation by installing as its figurehead, socialites with no experience or training in the actual discipline of formal fundraising. Instead, the prevailing “method” of fundraising has consisted of the arm-twisting at a cocktail party variety of anachronistic cronyism–which truly, cannot be the basis of the modern fundraising institution the NHCC deserves.
Second, the NHCCF has constantly revealed its ignorance of the role it plays at for the NHCC. Leaders past and present have meddled in the functioning of the NHCC. True professionals have been forced away from their employment at the NHCC because the old-guard at the foundation did not like the direction these professionals were taking the center. As an example, Dr. Estevan Rael-Galvez, one of the finest and most qualified Directors the NHCC has had, was forced out because of disagreements with the power structure of the Foundation over programmatic issues! These disagreements were over initiatives that the Foundation has no expertise in nor business dictating. Yet, because they are part of the ruling elite they are allowed to dictate how the NHCC will operate.
Governor Richardson was complicit in this mess, let us see how Governor Martinez handles it–especially since one of the biggest puppet masters of the Foundation is a very prominent Republican.
One hopes that after this mess is a memory, the NHCCF will be run by a professional fundraising team that understands and relishes its important role of supporting the
professionals employed at the National Hispanic Cultural Center to best serve the taxpayer/owner of this wonderful institution.
Dave the Rave makes an excellent point. It seems that all the blame is going to Clara Apodaca, when, in reality, there is plenty of blame to go around. The problems run way deeper than the things already outlined here.
it’s about time! i’d been sharing that that place needed a whistle-blower years ago. what’s most tragic is that this is so typical and just like on wall street these folks will walk away without being held accountable.
it’s not the nhcc that deserves better, it’s the displaced people of barelas, their neighbors in east san jose and in the south valley that deserve more from that lame taj majal that took over their barrio.
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