By BEN NEARY
NMWF Conservation Director
The New Mexico Wildlife Federation is deeply disappointed that NM Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham failed to sign HB184, legislation that would have reformed the State Game Commission. The governor’s failure to act on the bill by last Friday’s deadline effectively killed it.
The bill had enjoyed bipartisan support in the New Mexico State Legislature. It also was endorsed by a wide spectrum of groups that commonly have business before the game commission.
Supporters agreed that the high turnover and dysfunction that have characterized commission operations through Lujan Grisham’s tenure in the governor’s office have hurt wildlife management in the state.
“Game commission reform wasn’t a partisan issue; it was a practical necessity,” said Jesse Deubel, executive director of the NMWF. “The only purpose served by Gov. Lujan Grisham killing this bill is to keep more power in her own hands.”
The bill was sponsored by Rep. Matthew McQueen, (D-Galisteo) and Sen. Crystal R. Diamond, (R-Elephant Butte). Both sponsors have said that years of turmoil at the game commission under Lujan Grisham prompted them to seek commission reform.
Under existing law, governors appoint all seven game commissioners and may remove them at will. Lujan Grisham has taken advantage of the law, removing some commissioners while also being painfully slow to fill several commission vacancies.
HB184 would have required the Legislative Council to appoint four of the seven game commissioners. The governor would have appointed three.
The bill also would have specified that commissioners could only be removed in the New Mexico Supreme Court for cause. Currently, game commissioners serve at the pleasure of the governor.
Joanna Prukop, former commission chair, and former Vice Chair Jeremy Vesbach have said Lujan Grisham forced them out during her first term. Both said they were removed after they refused to support the commission’s “Non-Navigable Rule.”
Under the rule, enacted late in former Gov. Susanna Martinez’s administration, the game commission had granted applications from five landowners to certify that rivers and streams that crossed their private property were “non-navigable” and accordingly private water, closed to the public.
Prukop had imposed a moratorium on the commission acting on pending applications from landowners seeking more such certifications. Lujan Grisham removed Prukop from the commission in late 2019.
After Prukop’s removal, Vesbach led the commission in voting down other pending landowner applications in 2021. The governor later forced him out. Lujan Grisham has accepted campaign contributions from landowners who had pending “non-navigable” certificate applications before the commission.
The New Mexico Supreme Court last year ruled that the non-navigable rule and all certificates issued under it were unconstitutional and void. The court ruling came in response to a legal challenge filed by the New Mexico Wildlife Federation and other conservation groups. The Supreme Court of the United States in February declined to hear landowners’ legal challenge to the state court ruling.
In addition to the forced departures of Prukop and Vesbach, the game commission under Lujan Grisham has been plagued by several other commissioner departures.
This year, former Commission Chair Deanna Archuleta resigned less than two weeks after being elected chair. She said he needed to spend more time on her job with a Washington, D.C. lobbying firm.
Archuleta’s resignation left the seven-seat commission with only three members, not enough to make the necessary quorum to hold meetings. The commission is now back to five members following the governor’s recent appointments of biologist Fernando Clemente, Jr., and Edward Garcia, who works in his family’s multi-state car dealership business.
The reform bill has garnered support from a range of organizations that are often on opposite sides of issues before the game commission.
In addition to support from the NMWF and other conservation organizations, Kerrie Romero, with the New Mexico Council of Outfitters and Guides, has spoken in favor of the bill. She has said her organization has had a front-row seat to watch the dysfunction at the commission over the past few years. She has said it’s clear that the reform bill would make things better.
The NMWF was instrumental in establishing New Mexico’s game commission system of wildlife management over a century ago. Deubel said the federation will continue to press for reforms of the current broken system.
“This bill was sponsored by a Republican and a Democrat,” Deubel said. “It had support from hunters, conservationists and other wildlife advocates ranging from the Sierra Club to the outfitters and guides. Our current system is broken, and everybody knows it. The New Mexico Wildlife Federation remains committed to fixing it.”