The National Hispanic Cultural Center (NHCC)’s private fundraising foundation has paid a $5,000 fine ordered by Secretary of State Dianna J. Duran, state Bureau of Elections Director Bobbi Shearer confirmed Tuesday.

The NHCC Foundation will not contest the fine for violations of the state lobbying law, and “will endeavor to meet all requirements of the Lobbyist Regulation Act in the future,” attorney Brad L. Hays told Duran in a July 14 letter accompanying a $5,000 check.

The Foundation has also now registered as a lobbying entity for 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2011, Hays wrote, and will follow up “in a timely manner” with the required lobbying expenditures and political contributions forms for each of those years.

“We appreciate that the Foundation acknowledged its responsibility under the law and is complying with the Lobbyist Regulation Act,” Sec. Duran said Tuesday. “The Secretary of State’s office will continue to work to insure full compliance with the Act.”

Hays asked for Sec. Duran to provide lobbyist act compliance training for the Foundation’s board of directors.

Hays had contended in a previous letter to Duran that Foundation officials did not believe they were lobbying state lawmakers, from whom they secured $812,500 in state appropriations in 2006 and 2007 for the completion of a 45-foot tall fresco of New Mexico history by master muralist Frederico Vigil.

But Foundation President Clara R. Apodaca’s Dec. 3, 2010 expense report to the Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA), obtained early this year by Veritas New Mexico, states the Foundation spent $154,000 on salaries and meals between 2006 and 2008, as part of its lobbying of approximately 70 lawmakers in Santa Fe.

The Foundation reimbursed itself for those expenses from state fresco funds. Apodaca has acknowledged the fresco exhibit still lacks lighting and visitor seating, and requires roof repairs and floor work.

It remains unclear whether or not the fresco is insured against water damage or other harm. Veritas NM requested proof of insurance from DCA May 3, but DCA has yet to disclose the requested documents.

Cultural Affairs Cabinet Secretary Veronica Gonzales has ordered an independent audit of the Foundation’s use of state fresco funds, and the return of more than $379,000 of those funds, which Gonzales contends were misused by the Foundation.

That audit was originally scheduled to be completed by late May, but has not yet been released, according to officials at DCA and the Office of the State Auditor.

The Foundation recently agreed to start paying rent for its office and storage space at the state-owned NHCC campus in Albuquerque. The Foundation has been consistently late in paying its rent for the NHCC La Fonda cafe, state officials have said.

Three Foundation chief financial officers have quit in the past two years.

The Foundation’s letter and check for the fine were received Monday by Sec. Duran’s office.

Apodaca has not responded to numerous requests for comment by Veritas NM.

Veritas NM first reported the Foundation’s violations of the state lobbying law.

Photo: Bill Hammond