US Snapshot: New Mexico Mayor "I Was Quite Drunk When I Signed Those $1 Million Contracts" (Rayfield)

Jillian Rayfield reports for Talking Points Memo:

Ever have one of those nights where you wake up with a hangover and $1 million worth of architecture contracts?

No? Martin Resendiz, the [Democrat] Mayor of Sunland Park, New Mexico, certainly has.

According to court documents, Resendiz admitted in a June 2010 deposition that he was drunk when he signed nine contracts with the architectural design firm Synthesis+ for $1 million worth of work.

Resendiz said in the deposition that he signed the documents in May or June of 2008 at the local restaurant Ardovino's after "a good two and a half, three hours" of drinking, Rene Romo of the Albuquerque Journal reports.

"Again, this was after two or three hours of us drinking, not exactly the best time to do business, not exactly the best time to read over legal documents, which [Synthesis+ executive Daniel Soltero] did not portray at any time to be legal documents," Resendiz said, according to a transcript of the deposition.

"The day I signed ... I had way too much to drink. It was after 5 p.m. and I signed it (the contracts) and I didn't know what I was signing," Resendiz wrote as a response to questions from lawyers for the firm. "My sister had to pick me up."

City Councilman Daniel Salinas also claimed in his deposition that he was at the meeting and he was also drunk, but Synthesis+ says the contracts were signed at city hall at the Mayor was not drunk.

Synthesis+ filed a lawsuit in late 2009 against the city of Sunland Park for $1 million to cover work it did under the contracts. The city argues that the contracts had to be approved by the City Council before they became valid, and that never happened.