2023 New Mexico Statutes › Chapter 10 - Public Officers and Employees › Article 16 - Governmental Conduct › Section 10-16-7 - Contracts involving public officers or employees.

A. A state agency shall not enter into a contract with a public officer or employee of the state, with the family of the public officer or employee or with a business in which the public officer or employee or the family of the public officer or employee has a substantial interest unless the public officer or employee has disclosed through public notice the public officer's or employee's substantial interest and unless the contract is awarded pursuant to a competitive process; provided that this section does not apply to a contract of official employment with the state. A person negotiating or executing a contract on behalf of a state agency shall exercise due diligence to ensure compliance with the provisions of this section.
B. Unless a public officer or employee has disclosed the public officer's or employee's substantial interest through public notice and unless a contract is awarded pursuant to a competitive process, a local government agency shall not enter into a contract with a public officer or employee of that local government agency, with the family of the public officer or employee or with a business in which the public officer or employee or the family of the public officer or employee has a substantial interest.
C. Subsection B of this section does not apply to a contract of official employment with a political subdivision. A person negotiating or executing a contract on behalf of a local government agency shall exercise due diligence to ensure compliance with the provisions of this section.
History:
1953 Comp., § 5-12-7, enacted by Laws 1967, ch. 306, § 7; 1983, ch. 90, § 1; 1989, ch. 264, § 26; 1993, ch. 46, § 31; 2007, ch. 362, § 5; 2009, ch. 66, § 11; 2011, ch. 138, § 8.
ANNOTATIONS
The 2011 amendment,
effective July 1, 2011, in Subsection A, required public notice of a public officer's or employee's substantial interest in a contract with a state agency and eliminated the exemption for contracts made under the University Research and Economic Development Act and the New Mexico Research Applications Act; added Subsection B to prohibit local government agencies from entering into a contract with a public officer or employee or their family unless the officer or employee has disclosed their substantial interest in the contract and the contract is awarded through competitive bidding; and added Subsection C to exempt contracts of official employment with political subdivisions from the prohibition of Subsection B.
The 2009 amendment,
effective April 2, 2009, added "and Economic Development Act" after "University Research Park" and added "or the New Mexico Research Applications Act".
The 2007 amendment,
effective July 1, 2007, prohibited contracts with the family of a public officer or employee or with a business in which the family of a public officer or employee has a substantial interest unless the interest has been disclosed; provided that public officers and employees and their families are not eligible for sole source or small purchase contracts; and required persons who negotiate contracts for a state agency to use due diligence to ensure compliance with this section.
The 1993 amendment,
effective July 1, 1993, inserted "public officers or" in the section heading and inserted "public officer or" in three places; substituted the language beginning "substantial interest unless" and ending at the beginning of the proviso for "controlling interests involving services or property of a value in excess of one thousand dollars ($1,000) when the employee has disclosed his controlling interest unless the contract is made after public notice and competitive bidding"; and made a minor stylistic change.
Public notice and a competitive process are required before a local government agency may enter into a contract with a public officer.
— Where a village trustee owns an RV park, adjacent to which is a piece of property owned by the village, and where, for many years, the RV park has used the parcel of village property as an extension of the RV park, and where the trustee has expressed an interest in purchasing the parcel, this section does not prohibit the sale or lease of the village property to the trustee as long as the public has notice of the trustee's interest in a transaction between the village and the RV park and the village conducts the sale or lease through a competitive process. 2023 Op. Ethics Comm'n No. 2023-05.
Self-dealing by non-state-employed council members does not violate the Governmental Conduct Act.
— The Governmental Conduct Act does not prohibit members of the New Mexico council for purchasing from persons with disabilities (council) from voting to approve a contract subject to the State Use Act, 13-1C-1 to 13-1C-7 NMSA 1978, between a state agency or local public body and a council member or a company in which the council member has a financial interest. Most of the members of the council do not receive compensation or cost reimbursements from the state, and therefore are not subject to the Governmental Conduct Act's conflict-of-interest provisions, and although the Governmental Conduct Act prohibits a state agency from entering into a contract with a business in which a public officer or employee has a substantial interest, it is the designated central nonprofit agency that holds contracts under the State Use Act, not the council itself. 2020 Op. Ethics Comm'n No. 2020-07.