No Excuse Doing Nothing

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http://krqe.com/2016/10/24/nightmare-neighbor-problem-continues-community-looks-to-sue

There really is absolutely no excuse for the City and the Safe City Strike Force to allow this to happen by doing nothing. The City of Albuquerque Nuisance Abatement Ordinance was adopted to address this very kind of problem property.

When I was Director of the Safe City Strike Force for 8 years, the Safe City Strike Force had upwards of 35 to 45 participants from APD, City Planning, the City Attorney’s Office, Family and Community Affairs and the District Attorney’s Office. The Strike force secured upwards of $500,000 from grants and the City Council just for tear downs of substandard buildings. The Strike Force would identify nuisance properties, both commercial and residential, and take civil enforcement action, especially against crack houses, meth labs and properties used to promote and facilitate crimes as well as slum properties. Our goal was always to work with the property owners as best we could to get the properties into code compliance and make neighborhoods safe.

Upwards of 1,000 properties a year were identified and civil action taken, which at times included getting consents to demolish buildings that could not be repaired and putting liens on the properties. Code Enforcement actions were taken against over 52 motels along central not to mention tear downs of 12 of those motels. We also went after graffiti vandals. The community was safer and cleaner as a result of what was done and calls for service went down as did crime. The program is nothing but a shell of what it use to be and I have heard it consists of only the Director and maybe two or three code inspectors in the Planning Department.

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About

Pete Dinelli was born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He is of Italian and Hispanic descent. He is a 1970 graduate of Del Norte High School, a 1974 graduate of Eastern New Mexico University with a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration and a 1977 graduate of St. Mary's School of Law, San Antonio, Texas. Pete has a 40 year history of community involvement and service as an elected and appointed official and as a practicing attorney in Albuquerque. Pete and his wife Betty Case Dinelli have been married since 1984 and they have two adult sons, Mark, who is an attorney and George, who is an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT). Pete has been a licensed New Mexico attorney since 1978. Pete has over 27 years of municipal and state government service. Pete’s service to Albuquerque has been extensive. He has been an elected Albuquerque City Councilor, serving as Vice President. He has served as a Worker’s Compensation Judge with Statewide jurisdiction. Pete has been a prosecutor for 15 years and has served as a Bernalillo County Chief Deputy District Attorney, as an Assistant Attorney General and Assistant District Attorney and as a Deputy City Attorney. For eight years, Pete was employed with the City of Albuquerque both as a Deputy City Attorney and Chief Public Safety Officer overseeing the city departments of police, fire, 911 emergency call center and the emergency operations center. While with the City of Albuquerque Legal Department, Pete served as Director of the Safe City Strike Force and Interim Director of the 911 Emergency Operations Center. Pete’s community involvement includes being a past President of the Albuquerque Kiwanis Club, past President of the Our Lady of Fatima School Board, and Board of Directors of the Albuquerque Museum Foundation.