By Connor Currier
A Moriarty City Councilor is denying allegations of government corruption made by the former city clerk/treasurer, attributing the claims to a disgruntled employee.
Councilor Steve Anaya says he doesn’t believe former City Clerk/Treasurer Deborah Liu’s accusations of government corruption.
“I don’t believe that, and I believe those comments are from a disgruntled employee who has just quit her job,” said Anaya.
Liu, who recently resigned, alluded to governmental corruption that was based on the lack of financial transparency by the city council as her reason.
“The corruption runs rampant in small municipalities like Moriarty,” said Liu. “I am disgusted that the council is more concerned about protecting their family and friends working for the city than taking seriously the incompetence and non-compliance of city activities, state and federal reports.”
During Liu’s tenure, she had disclosed an IRS document to NM.news, which documented fines levied against the city for payroll tax discrepancies. An NM.news review of annual audits found that city officials had been warned by outside auditors of systemic failures in the city’s process for accounting for and spending funds, sometimes without an approved budget and often without receipts or purchase orders to justify the expenses. State Auditor Joseph Maestas later sent state auditors to review city documents and assist in improving processes.
When the former clerk also mentioned that the city could owe employees $18,000 in back pay and thousands in IRS fines, Anaya said he waited for more information to come out before he responded to her accusations.
“At that time, we hadn’t even gotten all of the facts, and so I just like to make sure on any issue you get all the facts, and then you can have a grand discussion.”
Anaya also took time to respond to claims made in an NM.news article pertaining to how the city overspent its budget by millions of dollars while violating a state law, according to its audit partner.
“I think the whole city is responsible. Obviously, the mayor is in charge of administering the city and the staff,” said Anaya. “So the council sets the budget and policy, the mayor oversees the city, and the staff then implements those issues.”
When asked about the responsibility he bears from his involvement during the audit reviews, he said he was the only one at the time who could attend the audit review meetings.
“Part of the reason I was at the audit reviews is I was the only one in town. The mayor was not in town, so they needed a counselor and I just happened to be here,” Anaya said.
Councilor Anaya also emphasized the City of Moriarty is not experiencing any financial issues, but instead is dealing with mismanaged financial recordkeeping.
