bill before the Legislature would focus more eyes on State Investment Council’s (SIC) cash register at a time the state agency already has attracted plenty of federal eyeballs.

Changes envisioned in the legislation include a lessening of the governor’s authority over the State Investment Council and a reduction in the portfolio of the agency’s top staff member — the State Investment Officer.

The proposal, sponsored by Sen. Tim Keller, D-Albuquerque, comes amid an ongoing investment scandal and questions about whether Gov. Bill Richardson has too much authority over the agency.

Currently, Richardson appoints the State Investment Officer who, in turn, can hire and fire advisers and outside managers helping the agency.

Under the legislation the State Investment Council, and not the governor, would hire the State Investment Officer. The council also would gain hiring and firing power over advisors and outside managers.

Other changes contemplated in the bill would require more investment expertise among SIC members, so that they possess greater know-how to assess investment decisions. Also the Legislature would gain more say in who sits on the SIC board.

In essence, the bill de-centralizes authority, Keller said.

It also “would reduce the conflicts of interest,” Keller added.

“I like the requirement of experience in investments,” said Sen. John Ryan, R-Albuquerque. “I know you are going after the State Investment Officer having too much power.”

The reforms the bill envisions for the State Investment Council board are similar to the changes corporate boards across the country underwent following the disastrous Enron collapse, Keller said. Under the Sarbanes-Oxley act of 2002, which was a response to Enron, WorldCom and other big company failures, corporate boards took on more responsibility for the financial health and oversight rather than leaving that up to executive staff.

Over the past two years, a similar upending has occurred in the investment world, partly due to institutional investors like the SIC, ERB and pension funds nationwide making bets on complicated investment tools that promised great returns but instead went sour.

Keller’s bill in some ways takes its cue from a just-completed outside review of the State Investment Council that recommended significantly reducing the governor’s power over the agency.

That report found that Richardson’s influence over the State Investment Council “is more far-reaching than it is for governors in most of the 14 other states with similar funds,” according to Chicago-based consulting firm EnnisKnupp.

In addition, decisions on how to invest New Mexico’s $13 billion worth of endowment funds were made internally and largely without scrutiny from the board appointed to oversee the state’s portfolio, the report said.

Richardson has said he is in favor of reforming the SIC. Keller also told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday that the governor supported the legislation provided that he could file some amendments.

Questions have swirled around SIC related to how much information and decision-making was kept from the State Investment Council during the tenure of former State Investment Officer Gary Bland. Bland resigned in October prior to a scheduled no-confidence vote by council members.

New Mexico in recent months has emerged as a hot spot in an ever-widening investment scandal with ties to New York state and California.

As a result, the federal Securities and Exchange Commission is conducting an inquiry into the agency.

The SEC inquiry, meanwhile, coincides with an ongoing criminal investigation that began earlier this year in New York. New Mexico’s former investment adviser, Saul Meyer of Aldus Equity, pleaded guilty there to securities violations. Meyer admitted to pushing certain deals to New Mexico’s two investment agencies — the SIC and Educational Retirement Board —because politically connected individuals here recommended them. Meyer didn’t name names.

It is unclear who exactly the politically connected individuals are in Meyer’s statement.

But Bland appeared to be close to two people well known by now to those following New Mexico’s investment scandal: Marc Correra and Anthony Correra.

Marc Correra shared $22 million in fees over half a dozen years, according to spreadsheets provided by both the SIC and ERB. The huge amount of fees has provoked outrage from state lawmakers and others in recent months, fueled in part by some investments that have failed, costing the state more than $100 million by conservative estimates.

Marc Correra is the son of Anthony Correra, a friend of Richardson who was involved in the hiring of Bland, the former top staff member at the State Investment Council.

No one in law enforcement has accused either Correra of wrongdoing, and Marc Correra’s attorneys in the past have said he worked hard to earn the fees he was paid.

The consultants’ report appeared to be a strong sign that the state lacked the kind of oversight required when a state agency makes important decisions about how to invest.

Beefing up the board’s oversight authority is exactly what his bill is attempting to do, Keller said.