Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
Logan Mayor David Babb recently was charged in Tucumcari magistrate court with working as an electrical contractor without a license.
According to a criminal complaint filed in early April by the state of New Mexico, Babb on May 25, 2017, violated the Construction Industries Licensing Act and was charged with one count of working as a contractor without a required license, a misdemeanor.
If convicted, Babb could be sentenced to 90 days in the county jail or a fine of $300 to $500. Babb, who pleaded not guilty, remains free while his case is pending. According to an administrator at the Quay County Detention Center, Babb never was booked there.
According to the complaint filed by criminal investigator Dean Cooper, Babb, doing business as TBZ Inc., on or about May 25, 2017, acted as an electrical contractor in the village of Logan without a valid license.
The complaint states Babb on April 12, 2017, relinquished his contractor’s license and agreed to pay a civil penalty of $10,000 to the Construction Industries Division after being accused of installing HVAC equipment and connecting propane piping to it as an unlicensed contractor. The Construction Industries Commission on May 17, 2017, ordered the revocation of the license for TBZ Inc. and Babb’s certificate.
“Through a freedom of information request, Construction Industries Division (CID) obtained copies of invoices and checks from the Village of Logan starting on May 25, 2017, and continuing until February 15, 2018. The invoices were billing invoices for electrical work for the Village of Logan, as the customer, and were submitted by TBZ Electric and TBZ Inc. In total there were eleven (11) invoices totaling $1,085.72 in billed work, and there were seven (7) checks issued for a total paid to TBZ Electric Inc. of $1,090.72,” the complaint stated.
District Attorney Tim Rose in mid-April named Sally Galanter, an attorney for the Construction Industries Division and Regulation and Licensing Department, as a special prosecutor in the case against Babb. Rose stated in the filing Galanter “has expertise in this field of law applicable to the case,” and “it would be in the State’s best interest” to let her prosecute Babb.
Babb last year won the Logan mayor’s race against TJ Smith by five votes of more than 340 cast.
Babb resigned his mayor’s post in February 2017 amid the state’s investigation into Babb’s former business partner, John Harley.
Harley remains at large with multiple misdemeanor counts of working as an uncertified journeyman and contracting without a license. Harley was accused of illegal installation of heaters in Quay County. Babb, as a licensed electrician at the time, was accused of giving Harley the heaters for the installations.
No lawyer was listed for Babb in online court records. No new court date in Babb’s case has been set.
Babb could not be reached for comment. He was not in Logan Village Hall when a Quay County Sun reporter visited there Friday.
According to a report last week by KRQE-TV, a reporter recently asked Babb about his electrical work for the village.
"I did some maintenance work is all I did. ... I'm not doing it anymore. It was stuff that needed to be done. (I was) trying to keep the village operating," Babb said.
Babb admitted to the TV reporter he did electrical work after his license was revoked. But "the people of Logan appreciated what I did."