Albuquerque Journal

PRC Candidate Lists School that Doesn't Exist on Resume
By Raam Wong, Journal Northern Bureau

SANTA FE — There's just one problem with Democrat Jerome Block Jr.'s claim to have earned an associate's degree at the "UNM Anderson School of Banking."
       
Such a school doesn't exist.
       
The District 3 Public Regulation Commission candidate listed the purported degree on a Journal candidate questionnaire during the primary campaign in May. Block also told the Santa Fe New Mexican that he attended New Mexico State University but did not graduate and received the "equivalent" of an associate's degree from the banking school at the University of New Mexico.
       
UNM spokeswoman Leslie Venzuela said UNM's Anderson School of Management does not offer associate's degrees.
       
Block appears to be referring to a 16-day professional development program for bank employees that was for years affiliated with Anderson. It's known as the Western States School of Banking, and students do not receive academic credit for participation in courses like bank profitability and team building.
       
"I think it'd be a stretch to refer to it as the Anderson School of Banking," school executive director Mark Fidel told the Journal.
       
"It would be incorrect from my perspective to say there's an associate's degree with our program," Fidel said, adding later that it would also be an exaggeration to describe the program as comparable to earning a degree.
       
Block, who has said he stepped down from a job as sales manager for a title insurance company, did not respond to two voice messages and one e-mail request for comment Friday and Saturday. Block is seeking the northern New Mexico seat on the PRC, where his duties would range from regulating pipeline safety to pocketbook issues such as utility rate increases.
       
Block, who lives in La Puebla, has previously faced questions about apparent discrepancies in his answers to reporters' questions and the Journal questionnaire, filled out during a competitive six-way race for the Democratic nomination.
       
During the primary, the Journal asked candidates whether they had ever been "cited for, arrested for, charged with drunken driving, any misdemeanor or any felony in New Mexico or any other state."
       
Block wrote that he was found "not guilty" of a drunken-driving charge nine years ago. But that's not quite accurate. The aggravated DWI charges against him were dropped because the arresting officer failed to show up in court.
       
On the same questionnaire, Block also failed to disclose charges related to urinating on police property at the annual Summerfest in Albuquerque in 1998, as well as his 1999 arrest for riding with a drunken driver.
       
Block has said he does not remember the 1998 disorderly conduct case and regrets not listing the unlawful riding charge.
       
Questions about the candidates' qualifications for the PRC office arose in the campaign last week, when Block brushed off a debate challenge posed by his Green Party rival Rick Lass.
       
In an e-mail forwarded to reporters, Block said Lass' only past experience appeared to be as a pizza delivery man and grocery store clerk. Lass graduated from St. John's College and is now the director of Voting Matters, an election-reform group. No Republican is on the ballot.
       
As for education, Block described his own schooling differently to the Taos News, saying he graduated from the "Anderson Western States School of Banking at the University of New Mexico." Block's campaign Web site includes only photos of the candidate, but no biography or resume.
       
Created by the Independent Community Bankers Association of New Mexico, WSSB was affiliated with UNM for 33 years. A UNM faculty member was under contract to serve as WSSB's director, Fidel said.
       
The banking school eventually moved to New Mexico State University, where classes began in the summer of 2007, Fidel said.
       
The course is designed for banking professionals. Students attend two eight-day sessions over consecutive summers. In the year between the two summers, students also participate in three "correspondence problems" that take about 30 hours each to complete.
       
Associate's degrees are typically awarded after two years of "study similar to the first two years of a four-year college," according to the Web site of the College Board, an association of more than 5,400 schools. Liz Ellis, head of the department of finance in the NMSU College of Business, said WSSB's classroom time comes nowhere near what's typically required for an associate's degree.
       
"It's certainly not a college degree," said Ellis, stressing that the program is academically separate from NMSU's business program.
       
Block is running for the $90,000-a-year PRC seat being vacated by Democratic congressional candidate Ben Ray Luján. Block's father, Jerome Block Sr., served for many years on the PRC and its predecessor, the state Corporation Commission, as did his grandfather, Johnny Block.