NM agency selects film adviser for $260K a year

By BARRY MASSEY

SANTA FE, N.M.

New Mexico will pay a Hollywood lawyer $260,000 a year to advise the state on film investments, but several members of an oversight board objected Tuesday to the state's interest-free loans to movie projects.

The State Investment Council approved a three-year contract for Peter Dekom, but the state can cancel the contract with 60 days' notice.

Dekom has served as the council's film adviser since 2001 and last year was paid $360,000. He was picked to continue in the job after a competitive bidding process, in which four candidates were vetted.

New Mexico can lend up to $15 million to a film project produced in the state. Dekom recommends whether the council should invest in films that apply for loans and he is to help monitor whether any completed films make profits that New Mexico should share in. The new contract calls for him to do at least 30 hours of work for the state each month.

About two dozen film and television projects have received $240 million in loans since 2002. About $97 million in loans are outstanding, and the rest have been repaid. So far, the state has received about $500,000 in income from one film.

Gov. Bill Richardson's administration contends the loan program has boosted the economy through film jobs for New Mexicans who work as crew members, and it has helped businesses that sell goods and services to production companies filming in New Mexico.

Leonard Lee Rawson, a council member from Las Cruces, opposed hiring Dekom and said the state shouldn't make loans to films with one of its permanent funds. The council oversees investments of endowment funds valued at more than $13 billion, and Rawson said the council's mandate is to make money for the state.

"I just question if we're really in it to try to get more revenue for the SIC, it's not happening. If we're in it for political reasons for jobs, I would suggest that's not the SIC's charge," Rawson said.

The film program, he said, has earned only $500,000 while the council has paid far more to Dekom since 2001.

"Why do we need someone to help us lose money," said Rawson, a former Republican leader in the state Senate.

State Land Commissioner Pat Lyons said it was important for the council to maximize investment earnings when the state is cutting budgets for schools and other programs. Investment earnings from the so-called permanent funds accounted for about 13 percent of the revenues flowing into the state's main budget account last year.

"We should be looking at more ways to generate revenue rather than ways to lose revenue," Lyons said.

Former State Treasurer Doug Brown, a council member, said the state needed an industry insider to vet film projects and Dekom was the most qualified.

"It's easy to take a position of doing nothing here, but this is a time when the state does badly need just any economic stimulus it can get, particularly in the private sector where this is," said Brown, citing information from the state Film Office that there are 3,000 film crew members living in New Mexico.