So many candles; so few receipts

SANTA FE (KRQE) - Santa Fe is holding a birthday bash like none other spending $3 million on a 400th anniversary that now is in turmoil and raising questions about where the money went.

For 16 months, the City Different is celebrating its 400th birthday with taxpayers picking up the tab.

"It is a big deal for Santa Fe," said Maurice Bonal, chairman of the anniversary board. "There aren't too many cities in the United States that can say they're 400 years old."

But with the committee's executive director and two other employees fired, and the group asking the city for an additional $750,000, KRQE News 13 wanted to know where the organization was spending its money.

After pouring over hundreds of expenditures involving more than $1 million News 13 found gaps in receipts, contracts and reports about what exactly what the money was spent on.

Before the celebrations began, the Santa Fe 400th Anniversary committee purchased more than 100 hardback books on the history of Jamestown, Quebec and Santa Fe. Every legislator in the state got one at a total cost of nearly $3,700.

"I think they could have spent the money a little bit better," state Rep. Al Park, D-Albuquerque, said. Park said he didn't know what the gift was for, didn't read it and the book is now sitting on a book shelf somewhere at home.

The committee spent $264 to ship biscochitos to London although the city isn't saying how schmoozing the Brits benefits Santa Fe taxpayers.

And there was a $1,700 for a Spanish delegate dinner.

Yet there's no record of what the event was for, who was on the guest list or what they talked about, and again the city's isn't saying either.

There's also $5,000 paid out Carlos Fierro, a once-prominent attorney now jailed after killing a pedestrian in a hit-and-run collision after a night of drinking.

The 400th committee hired Fierro last year to do fundraising, lobby Congress and sweet talk Spanish big shots into coming to Santa Fe for the celebration.

But the chairman of the committee conceded Fierro didn't raise any money.

"Nobody did," Bonal said. "I think he was worth more than the $5,000 we paid him."

But News 13 couldn't determine if Fierro did the work and neither could the city of Santa Fe. News 13 asked to see the contracts, reports or receipts, but Santa Fe officials said they didn't have them.

"Typically everything they've done to this day, there has not been anything that has been really questionable," said Darlene Griego, who works for the Convention Center and is one of the last people who signs off on paying the bills.

Before the 400th celebration wraps up at the end of 2010, the committee plans to leave a lasting gift. Taxpayers will be footing the $100,000 bill for two books documenting the history of Santa Fe.

The committee said it plans to offset the cost through book sales.