R P E N M
Retired Public Employees of New Mexico
Fabian Chavez Article
Ex-Sen. OK With Room As Honor
The following is a letter that was printed in the Albuquerque Journal on September 9, 2007.
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Ex-Sen. OK With Room As Honor
By David Roybal
For the Journal
Showing up to witness a major building named in your honor isn't supposed to be controversial, particularly if your reputation is nearly as solid as the granite that crowns the Rockies.
Tell that to Fabian Chavez Jr., of Santa Fe, referred to as New Mexico's "damn-near governor" after narrowly losing to incumbent David Cargo in 1968.
The 83-year-old Chavez arrived at a meeting last week to hear this read from a formal resolution: "The new PERA building ... shall be dedicated to and named after Senator Fabian Chavez, patriot, elder statesman, loyal public servant, dedicated fiduciary and trusted friend of the Public Employees Retirement Association of New Mexico."
But the former lawmaker hit the brakes at a meeting of the PERA board in Santa Fe where the resolution was to have been adopted. Chavez was moved but said nonetheless that he didn't want the organization's planned new building, scheduled for completion in 2009, to carry his name. The building will serve thousands of public employees, active and retired, and it should honor them, not any single person, he said, adding: PERA Building sounds just fine.
"I told them that if they wanted to recognize me, I would be honored if they named the new building's board room after me," Chavez said later. "I said if anyone asked years from now who Fabian Chavez, Jr., was, they could say he was the guy who asked during his service to PERA that very important text be posted in the room where the board meets."
That's apparently what set things off at the board's recent meeting.
The PERA was founded in 1947 and 60 years later oversees a retirement fund of $13 billion. Except for public educators, the organization serves current or former employees of New Mexico's state, county and city governments— 72,000 people in all. (Public educators have their own retirement fund.)
Members contribute portions of their paychecks to the PERA fund, which is continuously invested, largely through Wall Street and other avenues. Those members elect representatives to the 12-person PERA board, which oversees investments.
Chavez at the tail end of his public service was elected to the PERA board in 1999 and served until his resignation in 2003.
The text that he asked be posted in the board's current meeting room are words of the U.S. Supreme Court. It is a rule against divided loyalties at public pension funds that says "... a trustee bears an unwavering duty of complete loyalty to the beneficiary of the trust, to the exclusion of the interests of all other parties." It says the rule must be enforced with "uncompromising rigidity."
Chavez is concerned that the big public employees union, AFSCME, is out to gain control of the PERA board and its handsome fund. Without mentioning the union, he warned at the meeting where he was to be honored against groups seeking undue influence. "There is no question that AFSCME wants such influence over the board," Chavez told me later.
Three of the current PERA board members were elected with AFSCME's support, including Loretta Naranjo-Lopez of Albuquerque, who rather heatedly took exception to Chavez's suggestions at the meeting. Union spokesman, Carter Bundy, told me Chavez's assertions are "ridiculous."
The union supported most of the candidates who won seats in the state Legislature in 2006 but it doesn't mean that AFSCME controls the Roundhouse, Bundy said. Of PERA, he said, "Our one and only interest is to protect and grow that fund and make sure our members have solid retirement."
As part of that mission, Bundy acknowledged, the union wants to increasingly direct PERA investments away from companies whose managers might be more concerned about themselves than investors. AFSCME literature says the union wants to "rein in runaway corporate executive pay" at companies that draw PERA investments.
AFSCME supports a candidate for each of the three PERA board posts currently up for election. If the board's 2004 election is any indication, the union will pump substantial money into the campaigns. AFSCME's national office spent more than $50,000 on PERA campaigns three years ago. Other candidates feel they're at a disadvantage, said PERA Executive Director Terry Slattery, who said he doesn't question the union's motives.
But Chavez does.
"Why spend that kind of money to be elected to a board that has no salary?" he asked. "PERA board members supported by AFSCME are going to have the union's interests in mind, and that defies the Supreme Court's directive.
"My record in the Legislature was more than 90-percent pro-labor. I'm a charter member of AFSCME and was supported by the union ($5,283) when I ran for a position on the PERA board. But my experience has shown that individuals can get greedy; organizations can get greedy and a fund of $13 billion is a magnet for greed."
Naranjo-Lopez, who reported more than $25,000 in AFSCME support for her election to the PERA board in 2004, departed the recent meeting as the board was voting to name its new assembly room in Chavez's honor. Her departure left the panel without a quorum so it is not clear whether the motion, which passed, is valid.
From ABQjournal.com, a service of the Albuquerque Journal
Ex-Sen. OK With Room As Honor
By David Roybal
For the Journal
Showing up to witness a major building named in your honor isn't supposed to be controversial, particularly if your reputation is nearly as solid as the granite that crowns the Rockies.
Tell that to Fabian Chavez Jr., of Santa Fe, referred to as New Mexico's "damn-near governor" after narrowly losing to incumbent David Cargo in 1968.
The 83-year-old Chavez arrived at a meeting last week to hear this read from a formal resolution: "The new PERA building ... shall be dedicated to and named after Senator Fabian Chavez, patriot, elder statesman, loyal public servant, dedicated fiduciary and trusted friend of the Public Employees Retirement Association of New Mexico."
But the former lawmaker hit the brakes at a meeting of the PERA board in Santa Fe where the resolution was to have been adopted. Chavez was moved but said nonetheless that he didn't want the organization's planned new building, scheduled for completion in 2009, to carry his name. The building will serve thousands of public employees, active and retired, and it should honor them, not any single person, he said, adding: PERA Building sounds just fine.
"I told them that if they wanted to recognize me, I would be honored if they named the new building's board room after me," Chavez said later. "I said if anyone asked years from now who Fabian Chavez, Jr., was, they could say he was the guy who asked during his service to PERA that very important text be posted in the room where the board meets."
That's apparently what set things off at the board's recent meeting.
The PERA was founded in 1947 and 60 years later oversees a retirement fund of $13 billion. Except for public educators, the organization serves current or former employees of New Mexico's state, county and city governments— 72,000 people in all. (Public educators have their own retirement fund.)
Members contribute portions of their paychecks to the PERA fund, which is continuously invested, largely through Wall Street and other avenues. Those members elect representatives to the 12-person PERA board, which oversees investments.
Chavez at the tail end of his public service was elected to the PERA board in 1999 and served until his resignation in 2003.
The text that he asked be posted in the board's current meeting room are words of the U.S. Supreme Court. It is a rule against divided loyalties at public pension funds that says "... a trustee bears an unwavering duty of complete loyalty to the beneficiary of the trust, to the exclusion of the interests of all other parties." It says the rule must be enforced with "uncompromising rigidity."
Chavez is concerned that the big public employees union, AFSCME, is out to gain control of the PERA board and its handsome fund. Without mentioning the union, he warned at the meeting where he was to be honored against groups seeking undue influence. "There is no question that AFSCME wants such influence over the board," Chavez told me later.
Three of the current PERA board members were elected with AFSCME's support, including Loretta Naranjo-Lopez of Albuquerque, who rather heatedly took exception to Chavez's suggestions at the meeting. Union spokesman, Carter Bundy, told me Chavez's assertions are "ridiculous."
The union supported most of the candidates who won seats in the state Legislature in 2006 but it doesn't mean that AFSCME controls the Roundhouse, Bundy said. Of PERA, he said, "Our one and only interest is to protect and grow that fund and make sure our members have solid retirement."
As part of that mission, Bundy acknowledged, the union wants to increasingly direct PERA investments away from companies whose managers might be more concerned about themselves than investors. AFSCME literature says the union wants to "rein in runaway corporate executive pay" at companies that draw PERA investments.
AFSCME supports a candidate for each of the three PERA board posts currently up for election. If the board's 2004 election is any indication, the union will pump substantial money into the campaigns. AFSCME's national office spent more than $50,000 on PERA campaigns three years ago. Other candidates feel they're at a disadvantage, said PERA Executive Director Terry Slattery, who said he doesn't question the union's motives.
But Chavez does.
"Why spend that kind of money to be elected to a board that has no salary?" he asked. "PERA board members supported by AFSCME are going to have the union's interests in mind, and that defies the Supreme Court's directive.
"My record in the Legislature was more than 90-percent pro-labor. I'm a charter member of AFSCME and was supported by the union ($5,283) when I ran for a position on the PERA board. But my experience has shown that individuals can get greedy; organizations can get greedy and a fund of $13 billion is a magnet for greed."
Naranjo-Lopez, who reported more than $25,000 in AFSCME support for her election to the PERA board in 2004, departed the recent meeting as the board was voting to name its new assembly room in Chavez's honor. Her departure left the panel without a quorum so it is not clear whether the motion, which passed, is valid.
From ABQjournal.com, a service of the Albuquerque Journal