The New Mexico Secretary of State's Web site — on which hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent in past years — is completely offline, angering lawmakers and users.

"You can't be nice, you can't be polite about this anymore," state Rep. Janice Arnold-Jones, R-Albuquerque, said.

"The citizens deserve better. Just because they (the Secretary of State's Office) don't know what they don't know doesn't mean we have to stand by and be the recipients of such poor service."

At the same time, a database developer in the office has been placed on paid leave, under no suspicion of wrongdoing.

Deputy Secretary of State Francisco Trujillo II said that a recent security review — part of a computer network upgrade — found several vulnerabilities that in part led to the problem.

He said he couldn't say what those vulnerabilities are but said he hopes the site will be up again by Thursday.

"Because of the vulnerabilities that were detected, the (information technology) experts suggested it would be best for us to reconfigure our system with updated, modern technology," Trujillo said.

"In the process of doing that, part of the system went down and another part of the system we had to bring down so they could do what they needed to do to secure it."

The Web site hosts information for all kinds of users, from business partnership information to voter-registration information, campaign-finance reports and lobbyist registrations, as well as trademarks and agricultural-liens information.

Arnold-Jones said entities that get small loans from the USDA, for example, are required to file information with the Secretary of State's Office within 48 hours.

Trujillo said the office is manually entering information, including data from banks.

Meanwhile, a database developer who was working at the office, Brad Allen, has been placed on paid administrative leave, Trujillo said.

"His administrative leave has nothing to do with any kind of disciplinary action," he said.

"While we are doing the security assessment, none of our vendors really have access to the system ... and so everyone has sort of been cut off with the system. There wasn't anything he could do. He needs that to continue his development."

Allen said he was told he shouldn't talk to the news media.

"I was placed on leave on June 24, 2009, at 11:50 a.m.," he said in an e-mail. "The reason is a little unclear to me, having been through many security assessments at other companies and organizations ... and having never been placed on leave during any of them prior to this one."

A letter provided by Allen from Bureau of Elections director A.J. Salazar confirms the leave "is in no way intended as a disciplinary matter against (Allen)."

This isn't the first time the Web site has faced problems. It rarely has been easy for the public and news reporters to quickly find or access campaign-finance reports. Lawmakers and other users for years have complained about the site and both Herrera and her predecessor, Rebecca Vigil-Giron, have pledged fixes.

At Herrera's office, work was under way to meet a July 1 deadline to revamp the campaign-finance section of the Web site — something Arnold-Jones said she doesn't see happening now.

The improvements to the site, however, were looking promising, said Arnold-Jones, who has a background in information systems.

Sen. Dede Feldman, D-Albuquerque, also had heard the database had major improvements in store.

"It seemed to be preceded by such good news, that it was streamlined, that it was searchable and the whole thing... so it's distressing," she said.

So far, the site hasn't come cheap, with hundreds of thousands of dollars appropriated by lawmakers, including Feldman, for upgrades and fixes.

The Legislature in the past two years has appropriated $70,000 for the system, and the office also received $112,000 "to complete the implementation of trademark, agricultural lien and campaign reporting modules of the secretary of state knowledgebase application."

As part of the main budget bill passed last year for the current fiscal year, the office also was provided with:

• $176,500 "to enhance the secretary of state knowledgebase campaign reporting system to include records management, area code changes, and Help America Vote Act voter identification requirements."
• $150,000 to implement upgrades to the voter registration election management system for political finance reporting.
• $112,000 a year reauthorized through 2010 for the office "to complete the implementation of trademark, agricultural lien and campaign reporting modules of the secretary of state knowledgebase application."

For now, Trujillo said, the office apologizes for the inconvenience and working to get things fixed as soon as possible.

"We're just simply apologizing, letting them know we're doing everything diligently."

Contact Kate Nash at 986-3036 or knash@sfnewmexican.com. Read her blog at www.greenchilechatter.com