Commentary: Our choice between Steve Fischmann and Ben Hall for the Public Regulation Commission is clear.
Fischmann is a smart former state senator who's spent years working for the public good on regulatory matters and fighting usurious interest charged by payday loan companies.
Hall, 82, has “good ol' boy” charm and a welcome bluntness.
Fischmann understands our desperate need to use more renewables and for a functioning utility system that's fair to both the public and businesses – and considers environmental consequences.
Hall agrees we should move toward more renewables, but he's not so sure human activities have much to do with climate change.
Fischmann has a positive record as citizen, legislator, and businessman.
Hall's record is so full of financial and legal trouble that it won't all fit here. (Today's blog post has more details.)
Hall has littered his life with bankruptcies (one personal, and a business he denies he controls), liens (more than a dozen state and federal tax liens, and others filed by subcontractors or other creditors), and judgments. In 2015, Hall's ex-son-in-law won a $53,916.83 judgment against Hall, charging Hall never repaid a loan. Hall immediately declared bankruptcy. (Hall says the man lied, there was no loan, and Hall went bankrupt “so he wouldn't get a damned dime.”)
In 2013, the PRC paid $200,000 to Jocyln Gonzales, who in 2011 was standing by her car and was hit by a PRC vehicle Hall was driving. He admitted fault but said he was driving slowly.
Hall says the tax liens were forty years ago (despite significant liens in 1998 and 1999, and one in 2007 against Sierra Blanca Construction). He says Sierra Blanca Construction wasn't his company. (His wife and daughter were President and Secretary.) He added no one could be a contractor for forty years and not have some disputes.
His 2014 PRC campaign apparently paid him and his lady friend. He reportedly claimed the Secretary of State had okayed paying himself. Secretary of State Dianna Duran wrote him that Hall's campaign couldn't legally pay Hall. In October 2014 Hall told the Albuquerque Journal he paid Maria Cottom and himself $25 per hour, but paid himself only for campaign work after 5 or on weekends. To me, he said, “I didn't pay her any money, I didn't pay me any money,” and “I never paid anyone $25 per hour in my life, so I don't know where he got that.” The reporter stands by his stories, adding that Hall never sought or obtained a correction.
Hall claims his initial campaign reports were wrong because “the girl who filled out my forms” was inexperienced. He says that once he filed amended reports omitting the self-payments, Durbin cleared him of wrongdoing.
I also asked Hall if it was true that he gambles a lot at Casino Apache Travel Center. He replied, “I don't know as it's a lot,” adding, “I used my own money.”
Hall's extraordinary history of financial and legal difficulties doesn't qualify him to handle a bunch of our money, or make important public decisions. If he's “a thief and a liar” as one former adversary called him, that's a problem. If he's thoroughly honest but mismanages money, that's a problem. If it's all just bad luck, I'd still worry that his bad luck could affect the PRC.
Fischmann's a strong candidate. Someone we need, as our climate changes. Hall's problems only make our choice even clearer.