Report from Santa Fe; Paula Tackett

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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . in the thirties for six years, and he was Speaker of the House for two. My father's brother, who was from Kentucky,

was a state senator in the thirties, same period of time about, and he represented Sandevol, Bernalio, and San Juan County so that it was a fairly disparate group. And I didn't know that until I was here for some time. But I went to law school and I was in private practice. And my favorite time was a lot, was during the session. I'd like the legislative process, I'd like the given take, the solving problems, the consensus building, the collaboration, I'm not really a very adversarial type. So I really enjoyed the whole legislative process when I lobbied. And then John Anderson left the council service and they asked me if I wanted the job. And I did. Yes. The rest is history. Now you've talked about your antecedents who were lawmakers. What about your antecedents in the judiciary? Well my father was Paul Taket and he was a district attorney in Albuquerque for six years and then he was district judge for 13 or 14 and then he was on the Supreme Court. Right. So you come in

both, you know, the only one you don't cover is the executive, but you've got the judicial and the legislative background and experience. So also you graduated from UNM law school at the same class as our Senator at Commuda. Tom and I were in the same class and he's as delightful now as he was then. Oh, I'm sure. I'm sure. So you stepped in to explain what the director of the legislative council service does. Well, I thought it was just someone who managed the office and we're the legal research and drafting arm for the for the state legislature, but also for the executive, the courts. We're actually the drafting agency for the state. Although we are very much a legislative branch agency. What we also do is staff interim committees as the legislative council creates the more of their created statutorily except for the finance committee and the education committee. And so we're sort of the general all purpose staff of the legislature.

And we have, you know, and I assume that that was the primary role. I learned when I got here that of course, Clay Buchanan, my predecessor was also responsible for the building and the grounds. In fact, what I love is I was reading some old stories about Clay and how he and Dick Fulmar, who was the deputy director and probably more my mentor than anyone in this building, basically took turns watering the plants that they were growing up in what they made of a greenhouse up on top of the capital underneath the dome. And they grew all kinds of things. You know, the most of the Russian olives came from pieces and parts, you know, little clips that came off of Dick Fulmar's backyard. Pyrakhantha. I mean, they got it from anybody who'd give them plantings and clippings. And they would grow them up in the greenhouse and then clay would wander around in his floppy hat and plant them. So

I realized he was responsible for the grounds. And well, let's step back a little bit and look at a little bit of history because people now see the capitals so beautifully, you know, Clay's gardens were phenomenal, a hundred species of plants, tall trees, but it didn't start out that way. It didn't start out that way. But it's interesting to note that New Mexico is unusual in that we've had five capitals. We've had more capitals and they've actually are still in most of them, except for one that was burned down in 1892. Most of them are still standing and are still functioning. The palace of the governors was the first capital, right? Sixteen -ten. Sixteen -ten. About eighteen. Well, they started designing a second one in about 1885, but that was very formally done. And it was close to the military garrison. It actually is the old federal

building that's now IAA. And the citizens really didn't want that to be their capital, although it was the intended one from the federal folks perspective. They wanted one that was going to be different and that was going to be more traditional, more like Santa Fe. And so they had built one that when it was built before the federal building was actually finished, they built one on the south side of the river. And it was done in 1880s and then it was burned down in 1892. So, they'd only been in it about four or five years, and so they ended up having to spend some of their time in what had become the federal building, the federal courthouse, while they built another capital that was more what they wanted on the site, sort of close to the site of the original, well, the capital that they had actually wanted. And that was called the state -statehood capital. That's the statehood that

they had brought into. The batan, it actually was. It started out sort of as a pueblo revival and then it grew and grew and became the batan building and it was the capital. And at that point it was sort of territorial revival period. And then it just we outgrew it. I mean, we actually have some pictures here. If you would be so kind, let's start. We don't have that. We don't have some of the old ones and the one that burned down, although I have that picture somewhere, I couldn't find that. But this is the batan building now. It started much smaller and they added this sort of dome and tower so that it would have some grandness and it would be easily recognizable, which, as you know, is totally different from the capital that they finished in 1966, which, as you know, looked like that. Well, I think it's, yeah, let's just take a few seconds. Actually, let's

look at this. I'm going to take this. And so that is, what was that 1966? It was finished in 1966. Okay, I don't think people can imagine this. This is big, beautiful, round building with six and a half acres of grass around it. And this shows the parking and the neighborhood. Uh -huh. But this is actually the picture of a much closer picture of the capital. Right. The 1966 capital. Yes, you can certainly see its complete architecture there. By the way, they said that this was based on the Zia Sun symbol, the shape of the building, the roundness with the four cardinal points. Actually, it's fascinating about those four cardinal points because they weren't on the original design. The original design was like a spaceship. It was round, but they had these massive sort of cement, uh, I don't know, we've been what, I know what a plent is, but this was like these huge structures and

little tiny thin windows that went down around. And the citizens of Santa Fe went nuts as one might guess. And my understanding from Senator Worth is that he remembers his grandfather, John Godmeam, spending a whole vacation time redesigning the outside of the building to track with the territorial revival period and adding those, those porticoes, those, those, those. Oh, I never knew that. Yes, thank you. It was a totally different looking. We have a picture somewhere and it's like, oh no. I'm glad he, because this is a much beloved thing, but there's also another psychological reason they said that wasn't only this symbolic roundness of unity and disease symbol, but they say you can never corner a politician in a round building. Well, and I think you're right there. It was, it was worse before we renovated and we had two round halls, one in the center and one in the outside. And you really couldn't corner somebody. Just it's like, well, I saw him go around. Oh, okay. And then just keep going around and

around and around. But now we're going to look at the capital now, so yes, because Clay and Dick, as I said, thought that for lots of reasons, you needed to soften the building. I mean, my understanding is it loomed out at, at, at you. And so that's the capital with a lot of the foliage that has been grown and, and planted lovingly and cared by Clay. And then by, by us, Clay was a director for 29 years. And I've been the director, I mean, my 23rd year. And the, the grounds crew and the building services crew are fabulous. I mean, this is, then of course, we renovated in 2000. We got the state library. It was going to be moved. So we got it. And that's the new walkway that connects the, what we now call capital north with the existing capital. And this has wonderful art and wonderful light. And I just brought this because this is last fall on the east side, on the front of the capital. And those trees,

during the winter, you know, those are all lit. And that was Clay's menorah to complement the Christmas tree that's on the other side. And that was a little thing that Clay thought would be appropriate in the state capital. Well, what a pleasure to look at, you know, say capital of the past. And to see how much it's grown and changed. You know, the, the landscaping is really phenomenal. So I'm going to come back to your role as the director of the Legislative Council service. How many people are working here who in keeping up six and a half acres of jungle, of forest is really phenomenal. What, what size of staff do you have and what happens during the legislature? Well, luckily the legislature is in the winter. So the staff moves from pulling weeds and pruning and making sure that everything is cleaned up and, and watered to making sure that the sidewalks are, are clear. And that the pedestrians can, can walk and all of the snow is, is, is removed. And they're still around cleaning. And there's about

45 people in building services and four folks on the ground's crew. And then several summer students. That's just the, the building services folks. And then of course in the council service, there's about 50 people who are build rafters, staff attorneys, a librarian and librarian assistant. We have research. We have a print shop. We basically are the full service staff for the, for the legislature. And then during session, we go up to about 120, you know, a total with building services and the council service. We go up to about 125 people because we run the joint billroom, mailroom, switchboard. Not to mention bill analysts, bill drafters. The bill drafters and proofreaders are all in, in our shop. The bill analysts, the, the committees actually. I mean, we will do analyses if, if we're asked. But the LFC does a lot of fiscal impact reports. The education committee does reports on, you know, analysis of the education bills. And of course, each of the committees has an analyst or two that is hired to also help with the, with

the workload because in a constitutionally limited session, there's a lot of work that needs to be done. Well, as you are looking at this happy retirement event, I've been, you know, listening to and reading some of the things that people are saying about you. And one of the things they say is that you have always been so fair and such a wonderful mediator. Who was it who said that you were the glue that, that held the capital together? I think that was Governor Carruthers. Yes, well, he's a, he's a, he's a very astute. I think that's, that's very true. In this time of, of really sometimes toxic partisanship, a very turbulent time, you've always been this, you know, with the compass pointing to the true north of, of openness, of access, of institutional memory. This is how things were done in the past. And so what, as you look back at those many, many years, what are some episodes that come up in your mind? Well, let me, let me start off by saying first that I'm, I was

following a path that was set for me by Clay Buchanan and Dick Fulmar. We believe very seriously in the service part of our title and service to all sides, both parties, regardless of your leadership role or, or whatever. So I, it was, it was a good role that had been set out for Mike by Clay. But it's true, it is more partisan now than it has, has, has ever been. And there have been times when, you know, we've been asked to do something and we have to say, no, we can't do that. And we just say it. And some of them, actually, most, most members get to where they go, oh, oh, that's right. That's, that's political. You can't do that. I say, right, we'd be happy to work on a, on a speech. You'll have to give it your partisan slant because we can't do that. But we'll be happy to do the, the basic speech writing for you. And we do that and research on a myriad of topics. And of course, build drafts on, on everything. And of course, partisan doesn't always mean political party. You know, it's one side versus another. And

I think one of, one of my most instrumental learning experiences for me was when I staffed the education reform in 1985. It was a, it was a big committee. It was a task force. We had public members on it. And that group worked like crazy. And we had open meetings for seven, three day open meetings. And then we closed the doors and went behind the scenes. And we, and the committee really, you know, we had black boards and the committee would get up and they argue about what education should, should look like, what the system should, should look like. And they came out with this 100, over 100 page bill called SB 10 Senate Bill 106. And they were really solid behind this. And I think the coalition was in charge in the Senate at that point. So Senator Houston was the pro -tem. The chair was Senator Watts from Carlsbad. And I had worked, I mean, I'd really worked on

this thing. So I was very, you know, knowledgeable but also wedded to my work product. Well, then, of course, the process happens and all these people, lobbyists, unions, school board members come in and they all want to make changes to my bill. Well, you know, quickly you learn in this business not to take, not to get too wedded to your product because that's the process. And so I got to draft all the amendments to change, trash, unfund, whatever for the next several years on that bill. And that was a wonderful learning experience for me because I did learn that we do serious work. We try not to take ourselves too seriously. And for heaven's sakes, don't get too attached to the results. Well, some of the early stories that I remember, this is before everyone had a copy of the bill. And I remember hearing about Ike Smolley standing up with the only copy of a bill and saying in front of the Senate, do I hear a do not pass

taking out a lighter and igniting it the only copy of the bill on the floor? So it definitely did not pass. That's a great story. My story on Senator Smolley was when he was instructing Senator Matoya who would be taking over the judiciary. He'd say, now, these are the bills you're going to pass. These are the ones you should let the committee hear. And this is the stack I just lock in the drawer and after session. I just take them out and we throw them away. Well, it doesn't work like that anymore. The bills are all heard. And there is, you know, it's a very open process and getting more and more open. Well, under your watch, we have gone now to the webcasting of the floor sessions and of several committees. I think you're going to be doing some of the interim committees. We are going to, I mean, we're getting direction from the house. I know we are supposed to be getting cameras in place so that we can, we can webcast those. Yeah. And the Senate is, is probably going to add cameras to the floor. That's not have the seven

heads, the back of the seven heads anymore. I think we are going to try to make it so that you can actually see the whole Senate body. Yeah. But it was a very important incremental step and I was very incremental step. I would give, I would give thanks to the, to the leadership who, who directed us to move forward. The House and Senate leadership of both parties who, you know, said, okay, it is, it is time. Yeah. Every 44 other states are doing it. Maybe we should, are there other changes that you would like to see in the future? I mean, you've come a long way, baby. That's right. Well, I think what's always been amazing about the Council service is that, you know, people talk about, well, you know, how many women are in the office and we've always been a very equal opportunity in employer. So although I'm the first, the first actual director, woman director, and I'm only the third director, there was an acting

director in 1951 when it was created. Now she only worked a couple of days a week, I think, joy think. And she was the acting director before they hired Jack Holmes. So, you know, Inaz Gill, who was an absolute legend in terms of finance. And she's the one who trained Marilyn Bucky. I mean, we go, you know, involvement in women in the Council service and the process and the legislative process, at least at the staff level, has been long, long standing. At least since the 50s. You've brought, you know, there was a lot of building and expansion and construction to oversee. But in 1991, you set up the capital art foundation. Now this is really, you, this absolutely transformed the capital. Tell us what you brought in terms of art. Six million dollars worth of art. Well, actually, I must give credit to James Rutherford, who was the governor's gallery director at that point. And he was on, we had done some 1%, we had not funded it, but we took from our

a little of the reserve that we needed. You know, you always have a build a little building reserve. We took about a hundred thousand dollars from the 1 % for the art. 4141 % for the arts money. We actually ended up also taking some out of the furniture budget. And we have like 19 different furniture settings. Oh, yeah. Oh, it's drafted. We had 57 submissions. We went through a public process for the furniture. We had about 250 submissions for the for the initial 11 pieces of art that we had. And I was the chair and knew very little about art at that point, except I liked it. And there were some wonderful people on it. Alice King, Glenn Goodaker. It was just an amazing, Glenn Cutter. It was an amazing group. And James Rutherford was on it. And after we were done, he said, well, you know, you ought to start a foundation. So we went to the legislative council and they said they passed a resolution, a memorial in the house. And that house and Senate each one passed directing the council to direct

staff to create a capital art foundation. So that's what happened. And then we have had two curators. And mostly we had we had some funding that came from, I mean, Glenn Goodaker did up a macket that was sold. She did a hundred of the water bears that's out on the on the Capitol grounds. And then we've had other mackets that have sold to increase some funding for the for the foundation. So we've bought some and we've had lots of donations. I mean, I was I was walking down the hall and seeing the forest moses and the Priscilla Hoback, who's a sculptor in in Santa Fe and forest moses who lives here. And I think about the the Frederick Rico Villile mural and Bernadette, who's at the end of this hall, his sister and just the Larry Bell, who's a modern art. I mean, I just the diversity and the breadth of the art in this capital is really amazing. And it's a wonderful, it makes it a wonderful place to work. I will I will miss that along with a lot of other

things that I will miss about being here. Well, you know, during this session, we spend many late nights roaming this building waiting for someone maybe to stop speaking or for a vote to be held or for people to stop caucusing. And I just many times just give thanks that I can be in some obscure corner of the building and see some magnificent piece of art. And that's one thing I really, really want to encourage our audience. If you're having a staycation this year, you're going to be in New Mexico, come to the state capital. It's better than any museum. The art is fantastic. You can have a tour, and they'll tell you the history of the art. The other pitch I want to make for our capital is at New Mexico is one of the few states where the ordinary citizen has access to his lawmaker. If there's something you want to talk about, well, during the session, they're very busy, you have to kind of schedule it. But you can come to the capital and visit your lawmaker and watch the process. I mean, it's just you have worked so much for openness, access, and transparency. And I want people to come and take advantage of it. Well, thank you. And of course, even if they can't come and take advantage of it, we're on the

web. And my staff always laughs because I'm not exactly what anyone calls a technology adept here. I'm not, I'm this removed from being an absolute ledite. I can spell computers, and I actually do work on them a little bit. But, but I was put in charge of by the council of integrating, developing integrated information system. And part of that was to provide access to the public so that if you're in jail, you can find out what bills have been introduced when the hearings are, what's going to, to go on. And we're very pleased about that particular part of the web because it really does help the citizens stay more abreast of what's going on. It's very hard when you live in some of the far corners of the state to come and spend two months here. Yeah, it's also very hard when you do come up to hear your issue, where on the calendar, it's going to be when they're finally going to get in the round to it. It's just a very nebulous sometimes. I want to talk about just our last topic, but the one time that we had no

access because what I was in the 90s, 96 was it the reopening of the remodel wonderful capital. That was a 91. 91. And so many of the lobbyists by gold, I know Ernie had a lot to do. Raised money to do this fabulous bash to inaugurate the grand reopening. And there was a horrendous blizzard. Huge snowstorm. I mean, nobody could get here. Six feet. It was amazing. Except who made it? So there were people scheduled to speak from Albuquerque, from Santa Fe. They didn't make it. The co -talkers from Gallant. And had a lot of food to eat. They had a lot of food to eat. And the governor actually was meeting at that point with some representatives from Mexico, I believe. And so they were introduced and got to tell their story as well. So it wasn't a totally worthless. I mean, I think they were excited to be here. And we were thrilled that they made it.

But it was nice to have something for them to also participate in because they had made such an effort. And it was so amazing that they got here. Maybe not so amazing after all. After everything they've been through. Amazing group. And what we missed the most about being here night and day. I think I will miss the people. And the adrenaline. I'm a bit of an adrenaline junky. I'm a bit of a type A. So I think I will just miss the process and the people. I mean, I think this is a state where you you can still get things done if you're a small group of people. And that's not always it doesn't always feel like like that. But I will miss that part of it. Well, we want again, the people of New Mexico to come visit their capital. It's something we all, you know, you've much feel much more personally than I am. But I'm so proud of our capital. And I love coming

here. And so I want to thank you for your many, many years of service. And I wish you all the best in the future. Thank you so much. And it's been a joy to to be here. And it's been a joy to have this job. I have loved almost every minute of it. Almost. Well, our guest today is Paul Attackett, the director of the Legislative Council Service. And, you know, I'll see you when you're a little more relaxed and off the job. But I know you'll be haunting the building still because it's in your heart. And I'm Lorraine Mills. I really want to thank you our audience for being with us today on report from Santa Fe. We'll see you next week. Past archival programs of report from Santa Fe are available at the website report from Santa Fe dot com. If you have questions or comments, please email info at report from Santa Fe dot com. Report from Santa Fe is made possible in part by grants from the members of the National Education Association of New Mexico and organization of professionals who believe that investing

in public education is an investment in our state's economic future. And by a grant from the Hilly Foundation, Tau's New Mexico.