NM REGULATOR RETURNS FIRE

Former New Mexico Insurance Superintendent Don Letherer is suing several current and former state regulatory officials for wrongful termination. Letherer charges that the officials fired him in late Janaury in part because his office uncovered evidence that the officials had misappropriated public funds. Letherer was officially fired for negligence, inefficiency and misconduct. He filed suit in the U.S. District Court in Albuquerque seeking unspecified damages.

The suit reportedly names Bill Pope, chairman of New Mexico’s Public Regulation Commission; commissioners Jerome D. Block and Tony Schaefer; and Jack Hiatt, the PRC’s former chief of staff. Two other PRC who objected to the disciplinary action were not named. Letherer charges that the defendants inappropriately covered past PRC budget shortfalls with $500,000 appropriated by the Legislature intended to establish a special unit to carry out the objectives of a 1998 health care patient protection act.