Fourth-Floor Shakeup

Staff changes are shaking up Gov. Susana Martinez' administration.

Departing Deputy Chief of Staff Ryan Cangiolosi has gotten the most ink, mainly because he's taking a $10,000 pay raise to occupy a newly created post as executive projects director of the University of New Mexico's Health Sciences Center, which will pay $125,000 annually. As Martinez' deputy chief of staff, Cangiolosi held one of the most powerful positions in state government. According to a 2011 staff sheet, he oversaw the New Mexico Department of Military Affairs, the New Mexico Economic Development Department, the Office of the State Engineer, the Regulation and Licensing Department, the New Mexico Environment Department and the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department. His administration post was still vacant as of press time, according to an email from Scott Darnell, the governor's communications director.

Blogs have reported that Darnell and his wife, Alexis Valdez Darnell, the administration's operations director, are also departing. He writes in an email to SFR that the two are not, in fact, planning to leave—but Brian Moore, the other deputy chief of staff, is out. Moore oversaw the administration's Washington, DC office "for a period of time," writes Darnell, adding, "The office has been closed, and those duties are handled by staff here." Jessica Hernandez, the administration's general counsel, will take Moore's $115,0000-a-year post; no word yet on who will fill her general counsel spot.

"No other changes to the legal department have been made," Darnell writes, "and we will be examining the allocation of oversight responsibilities among deputy chiefs of staff and other staff in the weeks to come. There will be some changes."

Outside the administration, the US District Courthouse in Santa Fe has a new face in Martinez' husband Chuck Franco, a retired law-enforcement officer who will work a part-time security shift there.

Santa Fe Reporter