NEWS ITEM: On Saturday April 5,  a “Hands Off!” rally was held at  Downtown Civic Plaza in Albuquerque with well over a 1,000 people in attendance. The rally was merely one of more than 1,000 held across the country in a mass mobilization “to demand a stop to the chaos and build an opposition movement against the looting of our country” organizers said. Similar rallies took place at the Roundhouse in Santa Fe and in Las Cruces and in major cities coast to coast all over the United States. People all over the country protested in mass in unity against President Donald Trump and  Elon Musk, the world’s riches man. They protested against the Trump mass layoffs, judicial overreach, immigration crackdowns and mass deportations, foreign wars, cuts to social security, cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, the dismantling of the federal government, the tariffs imposed on all countries including America’s closest allies and the chaos and disruption Trump has brought since being sworn in for a second term.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/global-hands-off-protests-donald-trump-elon-musk-rcna199847

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/huge-crowds-gather-hands-off-rallies-nationwide-protest/story?id=120523176

https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/06/us/video/anti-donald-trump-elon-musk-hands-off-protest-digvid

https://www.abqjournal.com/news/article_2144aa8f-6e14-4704-beba-1fffbf4d05be.html

JAEMES SHANLEY GUEST OPINION COLUMN

Following is a guest opinion column written by Jaemes Shanley. Mr. Shanley gave consent to publish his guest column on www.PeteDinelli.com and he was not compensated for it. The column captures much of the sure essence of what the “Hands Off” protests were all about and what caused the movement. Mr. Shanley’s biography can be found in the postscript to his article and it reflects a person who has  worked a lifetime in the private sector in sales and marketing for various corporations in the United States, Australia, and Japan and whose work required extensive travel throughout Asia Pacific and Latin America routinely in more than 30 countries.

EDITOR’S DISCALIMER: The opinions expressed by Mr. Shanley are not necessarily those held by www.PeteDinelli.com. The guest column is being published as a public service announcement.

HEADLINE: THE AUDACITY OF CONTEMPT

BY JAEMES SHANLEY

When your head is exploding it’s hard to think straight…

We are still in only the 12th week of the Trump regime, what used to be government of the people, by the people, for the people.  The affronts are so many and so diverse as to cascade with each day’s news cycle onto our consciousness like fragments from the rapid unscheduled disassembly of a Space X Starship.  People, pundits, and Democratic Party leaders seem at a loss to know which piece to grasp. In our outrage, confusion, and anxiety we are failing to re-assemble those pieces into a coherent image of the missile that is headed straight for the heart of US preeminence and leadership of a democratically inclined world order.

155,247,302 votes were cast in the 2024 US Presidential election.  77,302,580 (49.8%) were cast for Trump/Vance.  77,944,722 (50.2%) were cast for other people, 48.3% for Harris/Walz.  That is a popular vote victory and, in this instance, a bigger electoral college victory.  It is not a “mandate” for the agenda now being executed, unless you feel contempt for at least half the country and ordained by such a narrow margin to apply every lever of power you can seize to impose on the United States its greatest national security vulnerability in more than 100 years.

CHINA’S ASCENDENCE

We have known for more than a decade that China’s ascendence has made its leaders more vocal in their resentment of US global “hegemony”.  We have heard the same from their junior partner in the axis of autocracy, Vladimir Putin. Xi Jinpeng has articulated an intention to make China the dominant world power before the middle of this century.  Moreover, instead of simply agitating his populace with sloganeering, Xi and the CCC have been acting on strategy to realize their objective.  From rare earths to batteries to EV’s to quantum computing to A.I., not to mention their military expansion and muscle-flexing (toward Taiwan especially), they are demonstrating daily their capacity to hold parity with or surpass the US.  We are naïve to believe constricting chip or other technologies will not spur them to innovate around the obstacles with their own R&D and breakthroughs.  Deep Seek and BYD’s recently announced EV battery and charging system that can deliver 400 miles of driving range in a 5-minute charge should, among other achievements, be snapping us to attention.

No living citizen of the United States has personal experience of a time when our country was not the world’s most influential power … economically, technologically, industrially, scientifically, culturally, and militarily … usually all of those at the same time. It has become such a “given” for most Americans that we forget this extraordinary state of affairs was realized by a nation with less than 5% of the world’s population living on 6% of the world’s land mass.

Though we have prevailed at the forefront through two world wars, the race to the moon, the cold war with Soviet era communism, and the first two phases of the digital technology revolution, we are confronted now by a rival of unprecedented potency.

Arithmetic is not an ideological pursuit.  There is very basic “math” defining the current US-China reality.

US	China
Geography                                     9,525,067 sq km	9,596,960 sq km
Population                                      341,963,408	1,416,043,270
GDP (purchase parity $)                 $27.72 trillion (2023 est.)	$31.23 trillion (2023 est.)
GDP per capita                              $74,600 (2023 est.)	$22,100 (2023 est.)
Real GDP growth rate                  2.89% (2023 est.)	5.25% (2023 est.)
Military Spend (%GDP 2023)        3.4%	1.5%
Active-Duty Military Personnel   1,310,000 approx.	2,000,000 approx.
Navy                                                480 ships	788 ships
Air Force                                         5,500 aircraft	4,500+ aircraft
AI                                                     ChatGPT	DeepSeek
STEM PhD’s produced a year    40,000	77,000
Engineers                                       1 million est.	4.5 – 5 million est.
Auto Production annually             10.6 million est.	30 million est.
External Debt (US$ Sept. 2024)   $25.8 trillion	$2.52 trillion

*gathered from online resources including CIA World Fact Book, Wikipedia, US Treasury Dept., CEIC Data, BCG, CSET and others

THE PACE OF CHANGE AND THE EXTERNAL DEBT

There are two points most salient:  The pace of change and the External Debt.  China’s military spending will inevitably eclipse the US and US External Debt will metastasize quickly to a debilitating economic cancer if the US loses its standing as holder of the world’s reserve currency.  It is worth recalling the former position of the British pound sterling and that Argentina was among the world’s wealthiest countries per capita prior to 1930.

Confronted by this challenge we have democratically elected a leader who is embarked on an agenda he and his enablers claim will Make America Great Again, as if looking backwards while at the wheel did not guarantee driving off a cliff.

Slip on the shoes of Xi Jinpeng to imagine a “wish list” of US government missteps and the tactical underpinnings that will propel China to sole world dominance:

1.     Disunify the US population

• Direct the frustrations and ire of Americans toward each other
• Make political division render having 1/4^th China’s population functionally equivalent to 1/8^th

2.        Undermine trust and confidence in the US as an alliance partner

• Insult, threaten, abandon or attack closest allies
• Act with more empathy toward Russia than toward NATO allies
• Dispatch the Secretary of Defense and Vice President to Europe to channel the spirits of
• Neville Chamberlain and Oswald Mosley in their debut performance for allies Bludgeon trading partners with a punitive tariff program

3.        Amplify global perception of the US as an aggressor nation

• Manufacture a new Manifest Destiny targeting allies (Canada, Greenland, Panama)
• Flatter dictators
• Manifest gross hypocrisy in contrasting stances on wars in Ukraine and Gaza

4.        Destroy or replace US programs of material assistance to third world countries

• Transform US image of life saving to life ending for the world’s most vulnerable
• Destroy the front-line force of US soft power (USAID) and watch China step in to take up the slack, starting with the earthquake in Myanmar.

5. Silence US global informational propaganda programs

•  Shut down Voice of America to clear the way for foreign state suppression of free speech

6. Exploit US global supply chain dependencies to harm the most vulnerable Americans and expand economic inequality

• Impose tariffs on essential consumer goods that trigger tariff reciprocity on essential exports

7.      Diminish foundational academic research to weaken US techno-commercial power

• Gut university graduate and institutional R&D grants
• Drastically and abruptly downsize US federal agency science & research functions Replace scientists with idealogues throughout federal government agencies

8. Exploit internal divisions and disinformation to distract US population from China’s dominance of critical future industries

• Support denial of climate science and impacts of warming
• Disorient and disrupt support for education, thus maintaining declining performance in STEM Obsessively attack and degrade the US societal diversity which undergirds its overperformance across myriad domains of human endeavor

Rewrite history by executive order to keep eyes on the past and off the future

9.      Undermine public confidence in qualified and experienced administrators and run government thru obsequious amateur political appointees lacking the competence and mature judgement to efficiently operate the country

• Under cover of a manufactured “deep state” conspiracy theory, drive independent specialists and experts out of key government agencies.
• Produce snafu’s and departmental dysfunctions that will make public more receptive to contracting of vast government functions to private companies of the “owner class” Undermine public confidence in federal support for disaster relief as climate change makes disasters more frequent
• Politicize the US military with ideologically driven firings and replacements at senior levels, gutting its core professionalism and ultimately its battlefield competence.

10.   Amplify Americans’ perception and acceptance of an oligarchic/ plutocratic drift in power concentration and government control

• Brazenly embrace and support purchase of elections (national and local; legislative and judicial) through campaign funding by members of the “billionaire class”
• Dispense (contemptuously) with any adherence to “conflict of interest” or “divestiture” conventions among elected or appointed officials.
• Fully pardon Jan. 6 insurrectionists while promising “severe consequences” for anyone vandalizing Tesla’s.
• Undermine voting rights and oversight to rig future elections

11.   Let “America First” produce “America Alone”

China is unquestionably our rival.  That does not make China our enemy.  The interests of both nations and the world at large are far better served by collaboration to overcome global challenges (climate, health, prosperity, environment, resources) than by confrontational hostility.  The commonality of interest is stitched together by the threads of intertwined economies.

As Trump’s tariffs cut those threads, the common interests and restraints will unravel.  Collaboration and peaceful coexistence will demand a degree of power parity which requires the U.S., given the basic math of our respective demographics and economics, to embrace, not alienate, our allies in order to check any rational temptation to use military vs. diplomatic means to resolve disagreements.  What should be intuitively obvious is inescapable common sense when, again, viewing “the math”.

 

	US + NATO + Japan +	China + Russia +
	South Korea + ANZUS	Iran + North Korea
Population	1,187,957,808	1,671,549,683
GDP (purchase parity $)	$67.759 trillion (2023 est.)	$38.528 trillion (2023 est.)
GDP per capita	$57,039 (2023 est.)	$23,049 (2023 est.)
Military Spend (%GDP 2023)	2.4%	2.1%
Military Spending	$1.629 trillion	$800 billion
Active Duty Military	4,238,800 approx.	4,900,000 approx.

* CIA World Fact Book

The leadership capable of guiding the forces of democracy and a benevolent world order is not that of a would-be emperor using his thumb in a gladiatorial arena.  It is, most essentially, a leadership grounded in respect, not contempt, for truth and facts.

GEORGE WASHINGTON V. DONALD TRUMP

Consider the irony that almost 250 years from our nation’s founding and first Presidency under George Washington, we are being led by a man who took such an opposite lesson from the apocryphal story of chopping down the cherry tree, so formative of the notion of truth-telling to my (and his) generation growing up. Most of us, even as children, could perceive essential virtue in the courage to speak honestly regardless of the consequences. For Donald Trump, perhaps on the advice of Roy Cohn, it was a lesson describing the path of “suckers” and “losers”.

Not that long ago it was considered an outrageous “mortal sin” for a President of the United States to lie to the American people. Since Trump’s first term in office, it is merely a routine updating of fact-checking stats. What too many of us, the audience and recipients of all this lying and disinformation, seem unwilling to acknowledge is that it is an expression toward all of us of total contempt.  We are deemed by those who purport to lead us as being so predictably susceptible to manipulative misinformation that we can be herded into acquiescence or dismissed as radical leftists.  Our information eco-system has become so fragmented, polarized, and pervasive that we occupy “bespoke realities” (as described in Renee DiResta’s Invisible Rulers), as dissociated from one another as separate planets.

WALTER CRONKITE OR STEVE BANNON

We have traded Walter Cronkite, Huntley Brinkley, Barbara Walters, and Roger Mudd for an ever-expanding information propagation complex operated by the likes of Joe Rogan, Alex Jones, Steve Bannon, and Tucker Carlson, while we resist acknowledging the latter group’s primary motivation is money, influence and power, not the ideological “virtue” they would have us swallow.  In their contemptuous worldview, the relegation of facts to a category of quaint irrelevance is a core tenet.  There is heartbreaking irony in the willingness with which millions of Americans have thus embraced a new paradigm of “free speech” that draws more on the mechanisms of Putin’s Russia (described in Peter Pomerantsev’s Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible) than the intent of America’s founders.

SECOND IN COMMAND ELON MUSK

To hijack a nation, a Commander must have Captains. It speaks more volumes about Trump’s idolatry of dollars that he should choose as his de facto second in command the world’s richest man.  Again, the seeming contradictions between perceptions and behavior are confounding.

Is Elon Musk not the most visionary, innovative, courageous, and effective industrialist of our age?  That was Elon Musk: 1.0, the one whose brilliance and virtues realized the world’s first large scale Electric Vehicle manufacturing company in spite of short sellers and naysayers, who put his fortune on the line to lead a transformation of the possibilities and economics of space travel, who resigned in disgust from the first Trump administration’s advisory council of prominent business executives after Trump withdrew the US from the Paris Climate Accord, whose satellite internet service was made available to Ukraine without hesitation to secure its battlefield communications in the face of Russia’s invasion.

Today we are living under the chainsaw of Elon Musk: 2.0. Not all upgrades are improvements. This version is not driven by the visionary genius behind Tesla, Space X, and Starlink.  It is motored by the “darkness” his biographers describe.  We all have demons.  With Musk 2.0 we are witnessing the rebirth of technocratic ideology, masquerading in a MAGA hat, unleashed from the pinnacle of economic and industrial power.  This Musk, liberated extravagantly from the constraints of money, is nonetheless servant to his grievances, ancestry, and gnawing appetite for attention and influence.  Stunted as a human being by near absence of emotional intelligence, he acquires Twitter not as a financial transaction but as a platform he can control and algorithmically manipulate to maximize his personal acquisition of followers and validation.

Musk retains the cognitive intelligence to apprehend that the doctrine of contempt for truth will be far more conducive to sating his emotional needs than any form of honesty.  He recognizes in Donald Trump today, not a climate change denier, but a purchasable pathway to prominence and influence he could never otherwise achieve.  Thus do we have the spectacle of the world’s richest man taking on, as his first target for “Government Efficiency”, not the $1.7 trillion allocated to notoriously over budget and behind schedule Pentagon weapons system programs, for which he is unimpeachably qualified by his Space X innovations to address with positive effect (better systems, faster, and at lower cost), but the less than $70 billion annual budget of USAID, the tip of America’s soft power spear, directed at life-saving health and safety initiatives for the world’s poorest and most vulnerable.  Where will this rank in America’s hall of shame?  DOGE’s priority of targets and track record so far screams that it is faster, easier, and more fun to use a chainsaw than a scalpel and to hell with those who are unjustly hurt (national interest among them).

The portrait of the billionaire “tech bros”, gathered in their vassalization at Trump’s inauguration, will stand for posterity in stark contrast with John Trumball’s painting of our Founders in Declaration of Independence.   It is perhaps understandable that people, (coincidentally all men), who were able to achieve extraordinary wealth and influence because they built companies in a nation committed to free enterprise, should morph into moguls who decide they should be not only freed from fair taxation but should be elevated to greater power and influence as the Olympians of a new technocratic world order …  the same failed vision that produced fascism in the 1930’s.  The talents and predilections of wealth creation are not those required for democratic governance.  We don’t give enough credit and admiration to the likes of Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Gordon Moore, Andy Grove and the long list of tech titans of yore who built companies and fortunes while changing the world, without feeling the need to control it.

NEED FOR BIPARTISAN GOVERNMENT 

If there was ever a time when national unity and functioning bipartisan government, girded by Constitutionally defined separation of powers and checks and balances, was needed it is now.  The relentless doubling down on this regime’s misguided bet of our future as a nation should, even at this early stage, clearly signal we are being unmoored not just from truth but from safety.

The situation is not improved when the other side (Democratic Party leaders and influencers) embraces a counter strategy of:

A). Defending the policies and positions that lost them the 2024 election.

B). Being unwilling to acknowledge their contribution to decades of decline in US economic and governance vitality as applied to the middle class, and

C). “Fighting” under each and every banner deemed convenient in the moment, be it “billionaires”, “oligarchy”, “fascism”, “working families” (suggesting billionaires don’t work), “reproductive rights”, “Elon Musk”, “due process”, “rule of law”, “LGBTQ rights”, “security breach”, or other marginal minutiae.

That is not to say those issues don’t matter, but they are not impacting every American and other issues are. The entire public is being held hostage to incessant partisan nitpicking over the malfeasance of the moment, like spectators at a ping pong match, while elected leaders fail to articulate a rational prioritizing of policy solutions to the existential threats to our nation and world, a credible alternative vision which can be persuasive amid this turbulence.  There are abundant blueprints available from which to build a compelling platform to pull the nation and the American people out of this morass; but the time to “get our act together” is running out.

Because the regime is just getting warmed up.

Their attention is directed at the free press.  From funding for public broadcasting, to excluding press access to the administration, to favoring the organs of the ideologically aligned or captured, we can expect every possible suppression to be exerted on truth and transparency, with the acquiescence or active assistance of social media platforms.

The rule of law as we have known it can no longer be taken for granted.  The judiciary, blue state governments, “non-aligned” law firms, universities, and opposition voices will be targeted and punished by any means the regime can manufacture.  Legal residents can be misapprehended and deported in acknowledged error before “due process” is even considered.

The mid-term elections cannot be taken for granted.  As its favorability ratings decline, efforts will be amplified and accelerated to secure the regime’s Project 2025 goal of entrenching an extreme MAGA Republican lock on power for an indefinite future, with or without the Constitution.

For those 77,944,722 Americans who did not vote for this debacle and the growing number with “buyers’ remorse”, the next 94 weeks (if we assume midterms occur) appear bleak.  Letters to our elected leaders, gatherings to protest, and especially sending donations in response to incessant solicitations from Democrats without a coherent platform, feel like pathetic hand gestures in the face of a tsunami.

The architects and functionaries of this Orwellian nightmare are counting on our sense of impotence.  They depend on our collective “shock and awe”, delivered “at muzzle velocity”, distracting us from recognition of the latent power of the “voting” each of us does daily.

Exit poll data indicates that the 50.2% of voters who did not want Trump/Vance punch above their weight economically and in their share of consumer spending.  Consumer spending is 70% of US GDP.  Perhaps it is time for us to stand up and be counted, not just figuratively but literally and daily. If the regime is willing to jeopardize with impunity our welfare and safety, individually and as a nation, then maybe we should reward their contempt for us with some applied shock therapy to the system they seek to subvert and own.  The votes we cast each day with our dollars will be counted.

WHAT WE CHOOSE MATTERS

We choose whether our dollars reward the businesses of would-be oligarchs.

We choose whether we want an unfettered free press or free shipping.

We choose to click (or not) on social media feeds that yield advertising revenue.

We choose to maintain active accounts on social media platforms controlled and manipulated by owners to amplify disinformation and distort attention rankings.

We choose to goose or gouge the economy with the amount, place and timing of our spending.

As we cower for cover from the fallout of the contempt directed toward us by our own elected leaders, we can be certain of one thing.  A house divided against itself will not stand.  No regime consumed by retribution and wanton indulgence of power at the expense of its citizens and friends can hope to stand strong in the face of a rival with the population and power of China.  No regime can make any nation “great” if it does not prioritize ensuring its own people are all fed, housed, healthy, educated, and safe.  We have a 250-year track record demonstrating the force multiplying effect of a constitutional democracy in meeting challenges set before it, but our high achievements have occurred only when the “United” part was in operation.

Absent a course correction, the United States and all it stands for and has been in the world for the past 100 years is headed for an ignominious fate, akin to her namesake ocean liner which once proudly sailed the Atlantic, still holds the record for crossing speed, and will soon be a sunken artificial reef off the coast of Florida.   At the age of 10, I sat on her aft deck with my parents and viewed the Statue of Liberty for the first time as we sailed out of New York headed for England, unaware I would not return for seven years.  That torch held aloft as a beacon to the world could hardly be fathomed in its symbolism by my pre-adolescent mind, yet I could feel its pull and potency.  It is not only to the rest of the world she is calling out “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

Will we gather our wits, reconvene under the umbrella of truth, facts, and common sense, and roll up our sleeves, individually and collectively, to refurbish our nation and ensure the metaphorical light from Lady Liberty guides us back to our goodness and illuminates the world?

______________________

BIOGRAPHY

Jaemes Shanley is a resident of the Mark Twain neighborhood located in the mid heights. He first arrived in Albuquerque in August 1969, after graduating High School in England, to attend UNM from which he graduated in 1973. His parents followed a year later, and his father retired in Albuquerque after a 30-year career as a US Naval aviator.  In 1971 they purchased a home in the Mark Twain neighborhood where they resided for the remainder of their lives. Jaemes worked a lifetime in the private sector in sales and marketing for various corporations in the United States, Australia, and Japan. His work required extensive travel throughout Asia Pacific and Latin America routinely on the ground in more than 30 countries. Jaemes and his wife returned to Albuquerque in September 2006 to renovate and take up residence in his parent’s Mark Twain neighborhood home where they reside today, becoming actively involved with Neighborhood Associations.

 

On December 27, 2024 the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released its 2024 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report: Part 1: Point-in-Time Estimates.   Following are the key findings of the report:

NUMBER OF PEOPLE EXPERIENCING HOMELESSNESS

“The number of people experiencing homelessness on a single night in 2024 was the highest ever recorded. A total of 771,480 people, or about 23 of every 10,000 people in the United States,  experienced homelessness in an emergency shelter, safe haven, transitional housing program, or in unsheltered locations across the country.”

CONTRIBUTING FACTORS

“Several factors likely contributed to this historically high number. Our worsening national affordable housing crisis, rising inflation, stagnating wages among middle- and lower-income households, and the persisting effects of systemic racism have stretched homelessness services systems to their limits. Additional public health crises, natural disasters that displaced people from their homes, rising numbers of people immigrating to the U.S., and the end to homelessness prevention programs put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic, including the end of the expanded child tax credit, have exacerbated this already stressed system.”

RECORD LEVELS IN ALL POPULATIONS

“Nearly all populations reached record levels. Homelessness among people in families with children, individuals, individuals with chronic patterns of homelessness, people staying in unsheltered locations, people staying in sheltered locations, and unaccompanied youth all reached the highest recorded numbers in 2024.”

MORE CHILDREN FOUND HOMELESS

“People in families with children had the largest single year increase in homelessness. Between 2023 and 2024, 39% more people in families with children experienced homelessness. Overall, the number of people experiencing homelessness increased by 18%. Nearly 150,000 children experienced homelessness on a single night in 2024, reflecting a 33% percent increase ,or 32,618 more children, over 2023.  Between 2023 and 2024, children, defined as those  under the age of 18,  were the age group that experienced the largest increase in homelessness.”

NUMBER OF HOMELESS VETERANS DOWN

“Veterans were the only population to report continued declines in homelessness.  Between 2023 and 2024, the number of veterans experiencing homelessness declined by 8%, or 2,692 fewer veterans. The number of veterans experiencing homelessness has declined by 55% since data collection about veteran homelessness began in 2009. The declines in sheltered and unsheltered experiences of homelessness were similar, (56% and 54%). These declines are the result of targeted and sustained funding to reduce veteran homelessness.”

https://www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/2024-AHAR-Part-1.pdf

HUD ANALYSIS ON VETERANS

“Through targeted funding and interventions that utilize evidence-based practices, homelessness among veterans dropped to the lowest number on record. There was a nearly 8% decrease,  from 35,574 in 2023 to 32,882 in 2024,  in the number of veterans experiencing homelessness. Among unsheltered veterans, the number dropped nearly 11%,  rom 15,507 in 2023 to 13,851 in 2024. In 2024,  HUD  helped connect nearly 90,000 veteran households to stable, rental homes through the HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) Program. The Department of Veterans Affairs announced that it has permanently housed 47,925 Veterans experiencing homelessness in FY2024  marking the largest number of veterans housed in a single year since FY 2019.”

https://www.hud.gov/press/press_releases_media_advisories/HUD_No_24_327

HOMELESS BY AGE

About 1 in every 5 people experiencing homelessness on a single night in 2024 was age 55 or older. More than 104,000 people experiencing homelessness were between the ages of  55 to 64, and just over 42,150 people were over age 64. Nearly half of adults aged 55 or older, 46%, were experiencing unsheltered homelessness in places not meant for human habitation.

RACE AND ETHNICITY

People who identify as Black, African American, or African continue to be overrepresented among the population experiencing homelessness. People who identify as Black made up just 12% of the total U.S. population and 21% of the U.S. population living in poverty but were 32% of all people experiencing homelessness.

However, the share of people experiencing homelessness who identify as Black of any ethnicity decreased from 37% of all people experiencing homelessness in 2023. This change could partially be due to changes in the way race and ethnicity was reported this year and the inclusion of additional reporting categories. However, in recent years, many Communities of Care (CoCs) have engaged in additional technical assistance to correct bias in the allocation of housing and prevention resources. This decline could also reflect the effects of those and other local efforts to more fairly distribute resources

https://www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/2024-AHAR-Part-1.pdf

CHRONIC PATTERNS OF HOMELESSNESS

One in every 3 individuals experiencing homelessness reported having experienced chronic patterns of homelessness, or 152,585 people. This is the highest number of individuals experiencing chronic patterns of homelessness counted in the annual Point In Time survey. Individuals experiencing chronic patterns of homelessness have increased by 27% since data was first collected in 2007. A whopping 65%  of all individuals experiencing chronic patterns of homelessness, or more than 99,500 people, were counted in unsheltered locations. This is also the highest number recorded since data collection began.

Click to access 2024-AHAR-Part-1.pdf

NATIONAL INVENTORY OF BEDS

“The national inventory of beds for people currently experiencing homelessness increased by 13% between 2023 and 2024. This increase was driven by increases in emergency shelter beds, which increased by 18% between 2023 and 2024 and have doubled since 2007. Transitional housing, meanwhile, has steadily decreased over time, declining by 4% between 2023 and 2024 and by 60% since 2007. However, this reduction since 2007 does not necessarily mean that transitional housing beds were completely removed from the national inventory.

Often transitional housing programs realize they function more like emergency shelter and convert their project type to align better with the way they actually function. In other cases, transitional housing programs converted to permanent housing projects, including transition-in-place and rapid rehousing. Nearly 60% of the national inventory of beds is for people formerly experiencing homelessness.

Rapid rehousing (RRH), permanent supportive housing (PSH), and other permanent housing (OPH) programs make up 57%  of all beds reported in the housing inventory count (HIC) and people in these programs are not counted as experiencing homelessness in the PIT count data. Between 2023 and 2024 total inventory for these programs increased by 3%, with the largest increase among OPH programs, 14,735 more beds. This reflects significant investments into OPH through the Emergency Housing Voucher program. PSH makes up the largest share of all inventory for people formerly experiencing homelessness at 58%. While nationally the supply of PSH beds has more than doubled since 2007, there are still areas where the need for permanent housing has outpaced the supply.”

https://www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/2024-AHAR-Part-1.pdf

NEW MEXICO STATISTICS

Following are the statistics for the state of New Mexico gleaned from the HUD 2024 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report with the pages of the report identified:

The estimated NUMBER OF PEOPLE experiencing homelessness in New Mexico in 2024 was reported as 4,641. (page 8).

The PERCENTAGE of people experiencing homelessness in New Mexico who were  UNSHELTERED in 2024 was 48% (page8)

In New Mexico the number of People Experiencing Homelessness from 2023-2024 increased by 789  (page 9), an 11% to 25% increase.

The ESTIMATE OF THE NUMBER OF INDIVIDUALS experiencing homelessness in New Mexico in  2024 was reported as  3,744  or a 65% to 74% range  increase. (Page 20 of report)

Th percentages of the number of  individuals experiencing homelessness who were  UNSHELTERED in New Mexico in 2024 was 57% or a 31% to  50% range. (Page 21 of report)

The largest increase change in the Number of Individuals Experiencing Homelessness in New Mexico from 2023-2024 was 933 more than a 25% increase. (Page 21 of report)

The estimates of People in Families with Children Experiencing Homelessness  in New Mexico in 2024 was 887 or a 0% to 24% range. (Page 32 of report.)

The percentages of People in Families with Children Experiencing Homelessness Who Are Unsheltered in New Mexico in 2024 was 12% or a 5% to 15% range. (Page 32  of report)

The change in the Number of People in Families with Children Experiencing Homelessness  in New Mexico DECLINED by 144 from 2023 to 2024. (Page 32  of report).

The link to the  2024 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report: Part 1: Point-in-Time Estimates is here:

https://www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/2024-AHAR-Part-1.pdf

https://www.hud.gov/press/press_releases_media_advisories/HUD_No_24_327

Links to relied upon or quoted news sources are here:

Click to access 2024-AHAR-Part-1.pdf

https://www.hud.gov/press/press_releases_media_advisories/HUD_No_24_327

https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2024-12-30/the-number-of-homeless-people-in-the-u-s-has-increased

https://www.wxow.com/news/us-homelessness-up-18-as-affordable-housing-remains-out-of-reach-for-many-people/article_4f7105b3-d7c8-5e69-b5c4-2f8ec929579c.html

https://apnews.com/article/homelessness-population-count-2024-hud-migrants-2e0e2b4503b754612a1d0b3b73abf75f

ALBUQUERQUE’S “POINT IN TIME”  HOMELESS NUMBERS

On July 31, 2024 the New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness released the 2024 Point-In-Time (PIT) Report for the numbers of unhoused in Albuquerque. The  PIT count occurred on the night of January 29, 2024.  The link to review the entire 62-page 2024 PIT report is here:

https://www.nmceh.org/_files/ugd/2e9419_b4f165dd991a4b7aada59938d8488dbe.pdf

HOUSEHOLDS COUNTED IN ALBUQUERQUE

The 2024 PIT survey reported that the total count of HOUSEHOLDS experiencing homelessness in Albuquerque on January 29, 2024 was 2,248.  (Households include those with or without children or only children.)  The breakdown is as follows:

• Emergency Shelters: 1,018
• Transitional Housing: 174
• Unsheltered: 1,056

TOTAL HOUSEHOLDS: 2,248

PERSONS COUNTED IN ALBUQUERQUE

The 2024 PIT survey reported that the total count of PERSONS experiencing homelessness in Albuquerque on January 29, 2024 was 2,740 broken down in 3 categories.

• Emergency Shelters: 1,289
• Transitional Housing: 220
• Unsheltered: 1,231

TOTAL PERSONS: 2,740

UNSHELTERED BREAKDOWN

The data breakdown for the 2024 Albuquerque UNSHELTERED was reported as follows:

• 960 (78%) were considered chronically homeless.
• 727 (22%) were not considered chronically homeless.
• 106 (8.6%) had served in the military.
• 927 (75.3%) had NOT served in the military.
• 669 (56.6%) were experiencing homelessness for the first time.
• 525 (42.6%) were NOT experiencing homelessness for the first time.

ALBQUERQUE UNSHELTERED COUNTS YEAR TO YEAR

The data breakdown for Albuquerque’s UNSHELTERED for the past 2 years is as follows:

• 2023:  977
• 2024: 1231

https://www.nmceh.org/_files/ugd/2e9419_b4f165dd991a4b7aada59938d8488dbe.pdf  (page 8 and 16)

ALBUQUERQUE UNSHELTERED ADULTS WITH DISABLING CONDITIONS

The data breakdown for the 2024 Albuquerque UNSHELTERED with disabling conditions was reported as follows:

• Adults with serious mental condition: 44.4%
• Adults with substance abuse disorder:  40%
• Adults with with another disabling condition: 25.8%
• Adults with HIV/AIDS: 1.3%

Note that a combined whopping 84.4% of all unsheltered adults were reported as  suffering from serious mental illness or substance abuse disorder.

https://www.nmceh.org/_files/ugd/2e9419_b4f165dd991a4b7aada59938d8488dbe.pdf  (page 11)

THOSE WHO MOVED TO NEW MEXICO FROM ELSEWHERE

For the first time, the PIT tried to gage the migration of the unhoused to New Mexico from other states.  Individuals who stated they moved to New Mexico from somewhere else were asked whether or not they were experiencing homelessness when they moved to the State. They responded as follows:

• 82 (24.8%) said they were homeless before moving to the state.
• 212 (63.8%) said they were not homeless before moving to the state.
• 77 (11.4%) refused to answer

BARRIERS TO HOUSING LISTED

Unhoused respondents were asked to list the barriers they are currently experiencing that are preventing them from obtaining housing. The response options were developed during multiple meetings with community planning groups and based on responses to a similar 2023 survey question. The responses were as follows:

• Access to services: 439 responses (42%)
• Access to communication: 263 responses 25%
• Available housing is in unsafe neighborhoods: 119 responses 11%
• Credit issues: 150 responses 14%
• Criminal record: 220 responses 21%
• Deposit/Application fees: 316 responses 30%
• Lack of vouchers (rental subsidies: 333 responses 32%
• Missing documentation: 374 responses 35%
• No housing for large households: 33 responses 3%
• Pet deposits/Pet Rent: 57 responses 5%
• Pets not allowed/Breed Restrictions: 48 responses 5%
• Rental history: 144 responses 14%
• Rental prices: 340 responses 32%
• Safety/Security: 77 responses 7%
• Substance Use Disorder: 283 responses 27%
• Lack of employment: 45 responses 4%
• Disabled: 34 responses 3%
• No mailing address: 31 3%
• Lack of income: 30 3%
• Homeless by choice: 30 responses 3%
• Ineffective service landscape: 25 responses 2%
• Lack of transportation: 14 responses 1%
• Discrimination: 8 responses 1%

ENCAMPMENT CLEANUPS AND REMOVAL

For the very first time, Albuquerque’s Unhoused were asked how many times has their encampment been decommissioned (removed) by the city over  the last year. Following are the statistics:

• 69 reported once
• 98 report twice
• 67 reported three times
• 55 reported 4 times
• 497 report 5 time or more

ITEMS LOST AS A RESULT OF CITY CLEAN UPS

The unhouse surveyed were asked what types of items they lost during encampment removals. Losing these items can hinder progress toward housing and cause emotional distress, especially when sentimental items are involved.  The response categories are not mutually exclusive and respondents were allowed to select more than one that applied.

• 81% said they lost their birth certificate.
• 5% said they lost a phone or tablet.
• 4% said they lost personal or sentimental items.
• 5% said they lost prescription medications.
• 9% said they lost social security cards.
• 6 said they lost a state ID or driver’s license.

NEW MEXICO STATUTES AND CITY ORDINANCES

New Mexico Statutes and City Ordinances that have been enacted to protect the general public health, safety, and welfare and to protect the public’s peaceful use and enjoyment of property rights. All the laws cited have been on the books for decades and are applicable and are enforced against all citizens and not just the unhoused. The specific statutes are:

1. NMSA 1978, Section 30-14-1 (1995), defining criminal trespass on public and private property.
2. NMSA 1978, Section 30-14-4 (1969), defining wrongful use of property used for a public purpose and owned by the state, its subdivisions, and any religious, charitable, educational, or recreational association.
3. Albuquerque City Ordinance 12-2-3, defining criminal trespass on public and private property.
4. Albuquerque City Ordinance 8-2-7-13, prohibiting the placement of items on a sidewalk so as to restrict its free use by pedestrians.
5. Albuquerque City Ordinance 10-1-1-10, prohibiting being in a park at nighttime when it is closed to public use.
6. Albuquerque City Ordinance 12-2-7, prohibiting hindering persons passing along any street, sidewalk, or public way.
7. Albuquerque City Ordinance 5-8-6, prohibiting camping on open space lands and regional preserves.
8. Albuquerque City Ordinance 10-1-1-3, prohibiting the erection of structures in city parks.

All the above laws are classified as “non-violent crimes” and are misdemeanors.  The filing of criminal charges by law enforcement are discretionary when the crime occurs in their presence. The City of Albuquerque and the Albuquerque Police Department has agreed that only citations will be issued and no arrests will be made for violations of the 8 statutes and city ordinance as part of a court approved settlement in  a decades old federal civil rights lawsuit dealing with jail overcrowding.

US SUPREME COURT CASE GRANTS PASS V. JOHNSON

On June 28, the United State Supreme Court announced its ruling in the case of Grants Pass v. Johnson where the court held that local laws effectively criminalizing homelessness do not violate the U.S. Constitution and do not constitute cruel and unusual punishment.

The case challenged a municipality’s ability to bar people from sleeping or camping in public areas, such as sidewalks and parks. The case is strikingly similar in facts and circumstances and laws to the case filed against the City of Albuquerque over the closure of Coronado Park.

The case came from the rural Oregon town of Grants Pass, which appealed a ruling striking down local ordinances that fined people $295 for sleeping outside after tents began crowding public parks. The homeless plaintiffs argued that Grants Pass, a town with just one 138-bed overnight shelter,  criminalized them for behavior they couldn’t avoid: sleeping outside when they have nowhere else to go.

Meanwhile, municipalities across the western United States argued that court rulings hampered their ability to quickly respond to public health and safety issues related to homeless encampments.  The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction over the nine Western states, ruled in 2018 that such bans violate the Eighth Amendment in areas where there aren’t enough shelter beds.

The United States Supreme Court considered whether cities can enforce laws and take action against or punish the unhoused for sleeping outside in public spaces when shelter space is lacking. The case is the most significant case heard by the high court in decades on the rights of the unhoused and comes as a rising number of people in the United States are without a permanent place to live.

In a 6-3 decision along ideological lines, the Supreme Court  reversed a ruling by a San Francisco-based appeals court that found outdoor sleeping bans amount to “cruel and unusual punishment” under the United States Constitution. The majority found that the 8th Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment does not extend to bans on outdoor sleeping in public places such as parks and streets.  The Supreme Court ruled  that cities can enforce bans on homeless people sleeping outdoors, even in West Coast areas where shelter space is lacking.

CITY’S FINANCIAL COMMITMENT TO THE HOMELESS

Since becoming Mayor in 2017, Mayor Tim Keller has made the homeless the top priority perhaps only second to public safety. During the past 7 years of his tenure, the city has established two 24/7 homeless shelters, including purchasing the Loveless Gibson Medical Center for $15 million to convert it into a homeless shelter and he has spent upwards of $90 million to renovate it. The city is funding and operating 2 major shelters for the homeless, one fully operational with 450 beds and one when once remodeling is completed fully operational  will assist upwards 1,000 homeless and accommodate at least 330 a night.

Originally, it was the city’s Family Community Services Department (FCS) Department that provided assistance to the homeless. In fiscal year 2021-2022, the department spent $35,145,851 on homeless initiatives. In 2022-2023 fiscal year the department spent $59,498,915 on homeless initiatives.

On June 23, 2022 Mayor Tim Keller announced that the city was adding $48 million to the FY23 budget to address housing and homelessness issues in Albuquerque.  Key appropriations included in the $48 million were as follows:

• $20.7 million for affordable and supportive housing   
• $1.5 million for improvements to the Westside Emergency Housing Center
• $4 million to expand the Wellness Hotel Program
• $7 million for a youth shelter
• $6.8 million for medical respite and sobering centers
• $7 million for Gateway Phases I and II, and improvements to the Gibson Gateway Shelter facility
• $555,000 for services including mental health and food insecurity prevention

The link to the quoted source is here:

https://www.cabq.gov/family/news/mayor-keller-signs-off-on-major-housing-and-homelessness-investments

Effective July 1, 2024, the Family and Community Services Department was split to create two departments:  Health, Housing and Homelessness (HHH)  and the Youth and Family Services (YFS). The Health, Housing and Homelessness Department (HHH) provides a range of services to the unhoused. The services offered by the department directly or by contract with community providers include:

• Behavioral health services, which encompass mental health and substance abuse treatment and prevention.
• Homeless services.
• Domestic violence support.
• Health care.
• Gang/violence intervention and prevention.
• Public health services.
• Rental assistance and affordable housing developments.

HHH also operates four Health and Social Service Centers and the HHH department employs upwards of 100 full time employees.

The enacted FY/25 General Fund budget for the HHH Department is $52.2 million, which includes $48 million for strategic support, health and human services, affordable housing, mental health services, emergency shelter, homeless support services, Gibson Health HUB operating, and substance use services from Family and Community Services Department, and $4.2 million for a move of Gibson Health HUB maintenance division form General Service Department.

The HHH departments FY/25 budget which began on July 1, 20224 includes:

• $13.3 million of FY/24 one-time funding transferred from Family and Community Services, including $265 thousand for strategic support,
• $110 thousand for health and human services,
• $8.5 million for affordable housing,
• $1.5 million for mental health services,
• $1.2 million for emergency shelter,
• $200 thousand for substance use services,
• $1 million for homeless support services and $500 thousand for the Gateway Phase 1 and Engagement Center at Gibson Health Hub.

The FY/25 HHH Department budget increases recurring funding of $250 thousand for Family Housing Navigation Center/Shelter (Wellness-2), and recurring funding of $250 thousand for Gibson Health HUB maintenance. The proposed budget adjusts program appropriations of $776 thousand in FY/25 based on projected savings.

The Gateway Homeless shelter on Gibson, the city’s one-stop shop for shelter, housing and employment services, has been appropriated $10.7 million in total funding fiscal year 2025.

The Westside Emergency Housing Center was appropriated $1.5 million.

The proposed budget includes $8 million in one-time funding for supportive housing and voucher programs, plus $100,000 for emergency housing vouchers for victims of domestic violence.

Other major budget highlights for the homelessness, housing and behavioral health include the following:

• $900,000 nonrecurring to fully fund the Assisted Outpatient Treatment program.
• $730,000 in recurring funding for operation of the Medical Sobering Center at the Gateway Shelter.
• $100,000 nonrecurring for emergency housing vouchers for victims of domestic violence.
• “Full funding” for service contracts for mental health, substance abuse, early intervention and prevention programs, domestic violence shelters and services, sexual assault services, health and social service providers, and services to abused, neglected, and abandoned youth.
• $1.5 million in recurring funding for the Medical Respite facility at the  Gateway Center.
• $100,000 nonrecurring for the development of a technology system that enables the city and providers to coordinate on the provision of social services to people experiencing homelessness and behavioral health challenges.
• $500,000 nonrecurring to fund Albuquerque Street Connect. According to the mayor’s office, Street Connect is a “proven program” that focuses on establishing ongoing relationships with people experiencing homelessness to help them into supportive housing.

You can review all city hall department budgets at this link: 

Click to access fy24-proposed-web-version.pdf

According to the City budgets for the years 2021 to 2024, the Keller administration has spent over $300 million in the last 4 years on homeless shelters, programs, and the city purchasing and remodeling motels for low-income housing. Keller insisted on buying the old Lovelace hospital on Gibson for his Gateway Homeless shelter and he has spent upwards of $90 million to remodel it because of asbestos removal.

Keller has taken an “all the above approach” to deal with the city’s homeless. The city will have a total of 5 shelters  to deal with the homeless that should be operating as an integrated system:

• The Gibson Gateway shelter
• The Gateway West shelter
• The Family Gateway shelter
• The Youth Homeless shelter
• The Recovery Shelter

BEHAVIORAL HEALTH REFORM PACKAGE 

During the 2025 New Mexico Legislature, the state enacted the Behavioral Health Reform Package consisting of 3 Senate Bills that make sweeping changes to how New Mexico’s mental health and drug abuse treatment programs are run statewide. The following is a description of each of the enacted Senate Bills:

Senate Bill 1: This bill creates the Behavioral Health Trust Fund for the state of New Mexico to support mental health and substance abuse treatment, prevention, and intervention programs throughout the state. The behavioral health trust fund will be invested by the State Investment Council. The trust fund will distribute 5% of its annual value to fund the programs and support investments in necessary infrastructure, technology, and workforce development to facilitate the expansion of services. The fund could also help New Mexico unlock matching funds from federal, local, and private sources. One major change made  to Senate Bill 1 was  removing a $1 billion appropriation for the new proposed trust fund.  Money for the new fund will be provided in a separate budget bill during this year’s 60-day session.

Senate Bill 2: This bill allocates $200 million to expand regional behavioral health services such as crisis response and outpatient care. The bill appropriates the funding to the New Mexico Administrative Office of the Courts and various state agencies to set up a new framework for behavioral health programs statewide. Senate Bill 2  was not part of the signing ceremony but never the less is part of the behavioral health reform package and  is part of general fund appropriations. It is assured passage in short order by the legislative leadership.

Senate Bill 3: This bill requires regional plans be crafted for providing mental health and substance abuse treatment. The plans would be overseen by the state judicial branch and would include time lines and regional funding priorities.

The legislation was  signed by the Governor Lujan Grisham  on February 27 and it  will take effect June 20, 2025.

The 2025 legislature also enacted House Bill 4  which is the criminal competency legislation that is part of the Omnibus crime package . It gives prosecutors more options to involuntarily commit people into a locked psychiatric facility if they are found to be dangerous to themselves or others and unable to stand trial. The courts will now have more options when dealing with suspects who are deemed incompetent to stand trial  instead of simply releasing them back on the streets. Under House Bill 4, when a court determines that a defendant is not competent to proceed in a criminal case the court shall determine if the defendant is dangerous.

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

The blunt reality is that Mayor Tim Keller, with all of his good intentions, 5 shelters and millions being spent on programs and services, is essentially proclaiming the unhoused to be “wards of the city” when such a responsibility should be undertaken by the state or federal governments. The city is assuming a financial burden that is not sustainable in the long run and it is becoming too big of a drain on city resources to the determent of essential, basic services.

The recent annual Point-In-Time homeless survey count found an 18% to 25% increase in the homeless with upwards of 3,000 chronic homeless in the city. It has been reported by those taking the survey itself that 75% refuse city services wanting to be left alone to continue living on the streets.  A whopping  combined total of  84.4% of all unsheltered adults were reported as  suffering from serious mental illness or substance abuse disorder. (44.4% adults with serious mental condition + 40% Adults with substance abuse disorder = 84.4%)

Despite Keller’s spending efforts to assist the unhoused, the city’s homeless numbers continue to spike and are out of control as the crisis worsens as the unhoused refuse services and as they take over our streets and parks. The $300 million spent to help 3,000 to 5,000 homeless with 75% refusing services would have gone a long way to finance community centers, senior citizen centers, police and fire substations, preschool or after school programs, senior citizen programs, and police and fire programs.

Mayor Keller has allowed the unhoused to proliferate city streets, parks and open space declining to aggressively enforce city and state vagrancy laws and make arrests as allowed by a United States Supreme Court ruling. Keller allowed Coronado Park to become the city’s de facto city sanction homeless encampment before he declared it to be the most dangerous place in the state forgetting it was he who sanctioned it and then he was forced to close it down because of out-of-control violent crime and illicit drug use.

Being unhoused is not a crime. Government, be it federal, state or local, have a moral obligation to help and assist the unhoused, especially those that are mentally ill or who are drug addicted. But that does not mean you make them “wards of the city”  to provide any and all assistance they want, how they want it and at their beckon call.

The unhoused are not above the law. They cannot be allowed to just ignore the law, illegally camp wherever they want for as long as they want and as they choose, when they totally reject any and all government housing or shelter assistance. The City has every right to enforce its laws on behalf of its citizens to preserve and protect the public health, safety and welfare of all its citizens.

Unlawful encampment squatters who refuse city services and all alternatives to living on the street, who want to camp at city parks, on city streets in alleys and trespass in open space give the city no choice but to take action and force them to move on.  Allowing the homeless to use, congregate and camp anywhere they want for as long as they want in violation of city laws and ordinances should never be considered as an option to deal with the homeless crisis given all the resources the city is dedicating the millions being spent to assist the homeless.

Too many elected and government officials and organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Association of New Mexico, have no problem and see nothing wrong with  homeless adults simply living their life as they choose, where they want to camp for as long as they can get away with it, without any government nor family interference and especially no government rules and no regulations. They could not careless the negative impact such conduct has on others and others property rights.

No municipality should ever be required to just simply ignore and to not enforce anti-camping ordinances, vagrancy laws, civil nuisance abatement laws and criminal laws designed to protect the general public’s health, safety and welfare of a community.

Squatters who have no interest in any offers of shelter, beds, motel vouchers or alternatives to living on the street really give the city no choice but to make it totally inconvenient for them to “squat” anywhere they want and force them to move on. After repeated attempts to force them to move on citations, arrests are in order.

CIVIL MENTAL HEALTH COMMITMENTS VIABLE SOLUTION

The 2024 legislature enacted the Behavioral Health Package which will fund a half billion dollar trust fund to build behavioral health facilities an hire personnel in 3 regions. The county also has Behavioral Health Tax where facilities are also suppose to being built. The city was nuts to convert the old Lovelace hospital to a 24/7 shelter and should have kept it as a hospital and use the 200 patient rooms for civil mental health commitments.

The 2025 legislature also enacted House Bill 4  which is the criminal competency legislation that is part of the Omnibus Crime Package.  It expands the definition of “serious danger to self and others”  and District Attorneys can get people committed for longer periods of time and compel treatment. The Courts will be in charge and they are committed to getting the job done.

A whopping 84.4% of all unsheltered adults in Albuquerque are  reported as  suffering from serious mental illness or substance abuse disorder. This translates into  posing a serious threat to their own safety or the safety of others.  Rather than emphasizing temporary housing as Mayor Keller has done with his integrated shelter program, the city should take steps to implement a “civil mental health commitment” program to deal with the unhoused who are suffering from mental illness and drug addiction to get them the treatment and care they need and get them off the streets once and for all.

The links to a related articles are here:

Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham Signs Into Law The Behavioral Health Care Package And Omnibus Crime Package; Like Oliver Twist Asks For More; Changes To Children’s Code And Juvenile Justice System Stuck In Committee; Other Pending Legislation; More Must And Can Be Done To Address Crime

City Has Upwards Of 2,740 Unhoused, Balance Of State Has 1,907 Unhoused; Numbers Should Be Manageable But Only Getting Worse; Survey Includes Data On ABQ’s Efforts To Dismantle Encampments And Personal Belongings Of Unhoused; City Should Enforce Vagrancy Laws

 

Point In Time Survey Reveals ABQ’s Homeless Encampment Clean Up Efforts; City Policy And Process To Remove Homeless Encampments Outlined; More Must Be Done Enforcing Vagrancy Laws As Allowed By The United States Supreme Court

On Thursday March 12, Mayor Tim Keller officially announced that he is running for a third 4 year consecutive term. He did so by issuing a press release and a video. You can view the one minute video here.

KELLER RUNS AGAINST TRUMP

On Sunday, March 24, Mayor Tim Keller spoke to upwards of  250 people seated in the gymnasium at the city’s Monzano Mesa Multigenerational Center located two blocks South East of Central and near Costco. The event was billed as “DEFEND ABQ, Standing Strong For Families”.

Attendees were asked to register for tickets even though the event was free of charge. The audience was decidedly an older crowd and based on familiarity with those attending, the audience was “progressive” Democrat. The audience included elected Democrat City Councilors and County Commissioners.

Mayor Keller was the only speaker. He spoke for one hour and 15  minutes using a slick slide presentation and took questions afterwards. Throughout his presentation, the audience repeatedly applauded enthusiastically with approval everything Keller told them.

The entire program was Mayor Tim Keller discussing and outlining in detail the impact Trump budget cuts and other actions taken by the Trump administration will have on the city.  Keller emphasized the need for steady and experienced leadership and said this:

“It’s real here. … It’s real in every city in America. That’s what is so terrible about this. … What they are doing is destroying every aspect of our community, including the business community. … These dangerous cuts are very real for every city in America and would have huge consequences for our families in Albuquerque. But this is not our first rodeo with Donald Trump, and we will keep fighting for our families and defend our city against anyone trying to tear us apart. … These potential cuts are, pure and simple, dangerous to our city. Regardless of our party or feelings about the White House, no one in Albuquerque is better off when kids go without child care, a crime lab is without officers, streets and neighborhoods are without trees, or seniors go without meals. …  Like during Trump’s first term and the COVID pandemic, I will use all the tools we have, create new ones, and work with local and state government partners to keep our city running. I will stand up for every resident as we prepare for what could be exceptionally tough times.”

Keller touched on topics ranging from budget cuts to immigration. Keller outlined Trump Administration major cuts that will affect the city services. The Trump cuts include federal affordable housing funding, cutting vouchers for the unhoused, and cutting funding for homeless shelters. Cuts to transportation include cutting federal funding for road improvements, bike lanes and trails, bus routes and for the city’s multimillion dollar “rail trail” development.

Keller noted that 39% of New Mexico families are enrolled in Medicare and the Trump Administration is talking about making cuts to the program. Keller noted that there are 44,000 New Mexicans who are employed by the Federal Government and how blanket layoffs are already occurring in the city and New Mexico.

Keller outlined how federal funding cuts will impact other areas including:

• PUBLIC SAFETY: The city could see an impact to a number of areas in law enforcement including drug enforcement, crime fighting technology and a decrease in the size of the police force with federal funding for 50 police officers cut. Keller asked “Can you imagine how detrimental that would be, especially given the challenges we’re having with crime?”
• HOUSING: Trump federal  funding cuts will affect projects like the “Uptown Connect” project which is a federally funded mixed-use development that will replace the  the Uptown Transit Center. Included in the development are almost 200 affordable housing units. Keller said this: “We will never see it if Trump keeps doing what he’s doing.”
• MINORITY BUSINESSES: Trump also issued an executive order laying out plans to eliminate government entities, including the Minority Business Development Agency.

One area Keller claimed the city is fighting back against Trump relates to “diversity, equality and inclusion” (DEI).  Keller said the city will continue promoting DEI as Trump tries to crackdown on DEI programs across the country. Keller pledged to continue with the city’s Office of Equity and Inclusion, the Office of Civil Rights, and the Office of Financial Empowerment, all 3 which Keller created, and continue with the city’s Climate Action Plan.

Keller pledge to protect immigrant rights and went so far as to say “We’re not going to work with ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement).”  He said the city plans to continue being a “sanctuary city,” which limits or denies cooperation with federal immigration authorities, prevents city resources from being used for immigration enforcement or for sharing information about an individual’s immigration status, unless legally required. Keller said “We are not going to change now.”

Keller is wrong when he says  the city is a “Sanctuary City” when in fact it is an “Immigrant Friendly” city as decreed  by a city council ordinance. It was in 2001, long before Keller became Mayor, that the city council declared the city to be an “Immigrant-Friendly City” by City Council ordinance with the ordinance originally sponsored by former Republican City Councilor Hess Yntema who represented the South East Heights area, including the International District.

A “Sanctuary City” requires local government to protect the undocumented from federal authorities and federal arrests. “Immigrant Friendly” cities on the other hand enact policies that are favorable to undocumented people to allow them city services like all other residents  and its local  law enforcement personnel do not make arrests for violations of federal immigration laws and only make arrests of undocumented people for violations of local ordinances and state laws. 

Keller said he wants the city council  to  enact a “Reproductive Bill of Rights” a “Renters Bill of Rights” and an “Environmental Bill of Rights”. Keller said the city also plans to continue committing to programs like Albuquerque Justice 40, a Biden-Harris Administration initiative to deliver 40% of overall benefits from certain federal investments to disadvantaged communities.

At the end of his presentation, Keller was asked to comment on the upcoming 2025 municipal election. Keller was very careful to say the event was not politcal and noted that the 5 “odd numbered” City Council positions will be on the ballot as well as the Mayor’s race saying the petition gathering period begins on April 19, 2025 for Mayor.

The link to the relied upon or quoted in part news source is here:

https://www.abqjournal.com/news/article_20332fa1-b15c-4808-976d-6a16cdd28498.html

https://www.cabq.gov/mayor/news/mayor-keller-defending-abq-against-federal-cuts

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

Keller’s entire March 24 “DEFEND ABQ, Standing Strong For Families” program had the look and feel of an orchestrated re-election campaign event with Keller at the top of his game exhibiting his knowledge of city funding being cut by the Trump administration. The event could easily be described as his announcement and justification for another 4 year term. The only thing missing were 20 foot by 10 foot political banners saying “Re-Elect Tim Keller Mayor”. The event no doubt gave his opponents heart burn as it is proof of his base of support remains intact and that he has solidified his progressive Democrat party base with all that he said by campaigning against Trump.

On Sunday March  30, Mayor Tim Keller was introduced at the Bernalillo County Democrat Central Committee Convention as a candidate for Mayor with upwards or 250 in attendance with no other candidate for Mayor speaking. It must be noted that when Keller was introduced, the reaction was respectful but somewhat subdued with an extent of enthusiasm lacking. He spoke for 15 minutes and rather talking about his accomplishments as mayor he again attacked the policies of Trump and the need to oppose what Trump was doing on the national level.

It’s clear that Keller’s strategy for election to a third term is to ignore his opponents and critics and run against President Trump as Keller runs away from his own failed record as Mayor. During the March 12 and March 30 events, Keller more than once said he dealt with Trump during his first term as Mayor and knows how to deal with Trump policies.

KNOWN CANDIDATES RUNNING

There are 4 known candidates running against Mayor Tim Keller who have registered with the city clerk. Those candidates are:

1. Democrat Mayling Armijo is the executive director of a nonprofit business lending organization and former deputy county manager for Sandoval County. She proclaims she is not a politician and parrots the talking points of wanting to “focus on eliminating crime, revitalizing our economy, and creating a safer, stronger future for every resident” without offering any specific platform nor solutions which is a politician’s platform of no substance.
2. Republican Eddie Varela is a retired deputy fire chief with more than 30 years of public service. Varela has said that he did not vote for Donald Trump nor Kamala Harris, but he now believes Trump is doing a great job saying he supports Trump’s and Elon Musk’s efforts to reduce the size of government with the severe cutbacks.
3. Republican Patrick Sais is a is a small business owner, retired truck driver, school bus driver who ran unsuccessfully for state representative. Sais has no municipal government experience, yet wants to run an organization of over 5,000 employees.
4. Republican Darren White is the controversial former Bernalillo County Sheriff, former City Chief Public Safety Officer who “retired” from the city after he interfered with an APD investigation of his wife involved in an accident. White showed his hypocrisy following his law enforcement career when he started a medical cannabis business after decades of condemning the drug.

The link to the city’s clerks web page listing all candidates registered is here:

https://www.cabq.gov/vote/candidate-information/2025-candidates-and-committees-1

Confidential sources have confirmed that at least three other candidates are exploring running for Mayor but have yet to announce. The three are:

1. Democrat first term, West side Albuquerque City Councilor Louie Sanchez who is a retired APD Officer and is now an insurance salesman. During his term as city councilor, Sanchez has been a consistent critic of Mayor Keller and has often voted with all 4 of the Republicans on City Council. Sanchez  has put up a website seeking $250 in “seed money” donations. Sanchez is up for election to city council and must giving up his council seat to run for Mayor.
2. Former New Mexico U.S. Attorney Alexander Uballez who was fired by President Trump on Valentines Day February 14. Uballez is among more than 20 other U.S. Attorneys who were asked to step down and who were appointed by President Joe Biden. Uballez singular biggest claim to fame is bringing federal charges against law enforcement and the ring leaders involved in the DWI bribery and conspiracy scandal to dismiss hundreds of DWI cases.
3. Daniel Chavez, President of Parking Company of New Mexico.

There is a good chance that one or perhaps two of the four announced candidates will not qualify for the ballot nor public financing. All four of the announced candidates running thus far against Keller are more interested in hyperbole and disruption. Former BCSO Sherriff Darren White is such a candidate who is more mouth than substance.

Eight full years of Tim Keller’s failed policies as Mayor has been more than enough, but those who are running against him will likely be even worse. They do not have the gravitas to be Mayor meaning understanding the seriousness of purpose of being Mayor, background, credentials and the importance of manner causing a feeling of respect and trust from others.

KELLER’S RECORD OF FAILURE

After 8 years as Mayor, Tim Keller wants another 4 years saying he wants to finish work and projects he has started such as the Rail Yards project and downtown revitalization. Mayor Tim Keller has been a major failure if not an outright disaster when it comes to city management, policy and addressing the city’s complex problems. His failure as Mayor is the likely reason there are at least 4 candidates running against him, but there needs to be more.

Thus far the candidates running against Keller state the obvious problems the city is facing such as crime is out of control and the homeless have taken over the city. They offer no real solutions. Keller did the exact same thing when he ran for mayor the first time seven years ago, but now he must run on his own record.

MAYOR KELLER AND CHIEF MEDINA’S APD TRAIN WRECK

Seven years ago when Keller first ran for Mayor, then New Mexico State Auditor Tim Keller, candidate for Albuquerque Mayor, had this to say about the city’s high crime rates:

“It’s unfortunate, but crime is absolutely out of control. It’s the mayor’s job to actually address crime in Albuquerque, and that’s what I want to do as the next mayor.”

Proclaiming violent crime was out of control, Keller said that he could get crime  down and that he would increase APD sworn from the then 850 to 1,200. Violent crime continues to spike and is out of control seven years later with APD currently at about 800 sworn officers.

APD has fallen off the cliff under Keller’s leadership. Mayor Keller and Chief Harold Medina have seriously mismanaged the ongoing train wreck known as APD with the department still dangerously understaffed at about  800 cops despite seven years of increased budgets, salary increases, and lucrative bonus pay. The truth is APD is very top heavy with mid to upper management and  with  only about 350 officers actually patrolling the streets. Keller has literally thrown money at the problem, yet the department continues to languish. This coming from the Mayor who promised 1,200 cops during his first term. During a recent APD Academy graduation, Keller promised 1,000 cops by the end of the year which is not at all likely given expected retirements.

The city’s ongoing homicide and violent crime rates continue to be at historical highs and people simply do not feel safe in their homes as the fentanyl crisis surges.  Although the city recorded a19% drop in homicides last year, the city’s homicides spiked under Keller despite his policies. Following are the raw numbers of homicide from the 8 years since Keller became Mayor in 2017:

• 2017: 70 homicides
• 2018: 69 homicides
• 2019: 80 homicides
• 2020: 78 homicides
• 2021: 110 homicides
• 2022: 120 homicides
• 2023: 93 homicides
• 2024: 89 homicide

(https://www.kob.com/news/top-news/albuquerque-police-investigated-89-homicide-cases-with-96-victims-in-2024/)

In 2019, Mayor Tim Keller reacting to the spiking crime rates announced 4 plans in 9 months to deal with and bring down the city’s high violent crime rates. Those APD programs were:

THE SHIELD UNIT

The Shield Unit assists APD Police Officers to prepare cases for trial and prosecution by the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s office.

DECLARING VIOLENT CRIME “PUBLIC HEALTH” ISSUE

On April 8, 2019, Mayor Keller and APD announced efforts that will deal with “violent crime” in the context of it being a “public health issue” and dealing with crimes involving guns in an effort to bring down violent crime in Albuquerque.

“VIOLENCE INTERVENTION PLAN” (VIP Program)

On November 22, 2019  Mayor Tim Keller announced a “new initiative” to target violent offenders called “Violence Intervention Plan” (VIP). Mayor Keller proclaimed the VIP is a “partnership system” that includes law enforcement, prosecutors and social service and community provides to reduce violent crime.

METRO 15 OPERATION

On Tuesday, November 26, 2019.  Mayor Tim Keller announce a 4th program within 9 months to deal with the city’s violent crime and murder rates. Keller dubbed the new program “Metro 15 Operation” and is part of the Violence Intervention Program (VIP) program.  According to Keller the new program was to  target the top 15 most violent offenders in Albuquerque.

Notwithstanding Keller’s 4 programs he announced, homicides continued to spike and the 4 programs have  had little to no effect on reducing the cities homicide rates.

MAJOR CITIES CHIEF’S VIOLENT CRIME SURVEY

On April 26, 2023, the Major Cities Chiefs Association released its Violent Crime Survey and national totals for the crimes of homicides, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults. According to the report, Albuquerque was ranked 17th among 70 of the largest cities in the nation looking at trends in the 4 categories. The single most troubling statistic was Albuquerque’s increase in homicides.

The Major Cities Chiefs Association report shows in 2022, there was a 5% drop in homicides nationwide. According to the Major Cities Chiefs Association, Albuquerque had one of the worst homicide rates in the nation and is one of 27 cities across the nation that saw an increase in homicides.

The report shows in 2021, there were 106 homicides. In 2022, there were 115, an 8% increase. Other nearby cities like Phoenix saw a 13% increase in homicides. Meanwhile, to the north, the Denver Police Department reported an 8% decrease in homicides. Just four hours south, the city of El Paso saw a 28% decrease in homicides, one of the highest drops in the report.

Click to access MCCA-Violent-Crime-Report-2022-and-2021-Midyear.pdf

https://www.koat.com/article/albuquerque-homicide-rate-increase/43702586

APD RANKS NUMBER ONE IN POLICE KILLINGS OF CITIZENS

APD ranks number one in police killings of citizens in the top 50 largest cities in the country. On April 10, 2024 the on line news publication Searchlight New Mexico published a  story researched and written by its  staff reporter Josh Bowling. The Search Light New Mexico article contains a horizontal graph listing the 50 largest cities in the United States. According to the graph, among the 50 largest cities, Albuquerque Police killed people at the highest rate than all the other city police departments in 2023  at the rate of  10.6 per 1 Million population. It is worth comparing Albuquerque’s 10.6 kill rate to the largest cities in the surrounding border states of Texas, Colorado, Arizona and also including Oklahoma and Nevada:

• Albuquerque, NM: 10.6
• San Antonio, Texas:  9.8
• Phoenix, Arizona: 8.7
• Austin, Texas: 7.3
• Denver, Colorado: 5.6
• Tucson, Arizona: 5.5
• Fort Worth, Texas: 5.4
• Houston, Texas: 5.2
• Colorado Springs, Colorado: 4.2
• Dallas, Texas: 3.1
• El Paso, Texas: 2.9
• Las Vegas, Nevada: 2.6
• Oklahoma City, Oklahoma: 2.0

The link to read the full, unedited Searchlight New Mexico article entitled “Can the Albuquerque Police Department ever be reformed?” with photos and graphs is here:

https://searchlightnm.org/can-the-albuquerque-police-department-ever-be-reformed/?utm_source=Searchlight+New+Mexico&utm_campaign=ca4e266790-4%2F10%2F2024+-+Albuquerque+Police+Department+Reform&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_8e05fb0467-ca4e266790-362667516&mc_cid=ca4e266790&mc_eid=ccd9412715

APD’S LARGEST BRIBERY AND CORRUPTION SCANDAL

Then there is the largest bribery and corruption case in APD’s history with 15 APD Officers implicated and 4 who have been federally charged and who have plead guilty to federal bribery and conspiracy charges involving the dismissal of hundreds of DWI cases for bribes. The District Attorney thus far has had to dismiss 260 DWI cases which were brought by APD Officers who accepted bribes and whose credibility became an issue.  The former APD officers face up to 130 years in prison. Both Keller and Chief Medina have failed to take any responsibility for what happened under their watch as they deflect and blame others. They both have blamed the Court’s, the DAs Office and the Public Defenders for the DWI dismissals.

CITIZEN SATISFACTION SURVEY REFLECTS VOTER DISATISFACTION WITH APD

Simply put, the general public has lost all faith in APD and Mayor Keller and Chief Medina bear much of the responsibility for that lost faith.

On April 16, 2024 the results of the annual City of Albuquerque Citizen Satisfaction Survey were released, and they are a poor reflection of Mayor Keller’s and Chief Medina’s leadership. The following are highlights of the survey:

A majority of city residents were found to be  concerned about the direction of Albuquerque. When asked how they feel about the direction Albuquerque is going in 2024, 31% of surveyed say they are hopeful about the direction of Albuquerque, while 63% report feeling concerned.

The Survey found that city residents are very critical of the job the Albuquerque Police Department is doing:

“The majority of city residents DISAGREE that APD is doing a good job addressing violent crime with 39% agreeing it is doing good job and 56% disagreeing they are doing a good job.

The majority of city residents DISAGREE that the APD is doing a good job addressing property crime  with 35% agreeing APD is  doing a good job and 60% disagreeing they are doing a good job.

A slight majority of city residents DISAGREE that “the Albuquerque Police Department is ready to transition away from oversight by the federal government and operate on its own” with 39% agreeing APD is ready to transition away from federal oversight and 51% disagreeing APD is ready to transition away from federal oversight.

In addition to disagreeing with the positive APD statements, most city residents disagree that “The Albuquerque City Government is responsive to our community needs” with 35% agreeing that the Albuquerque City Government is responsive to community needs and 61% disagreeing Albuquerque City Government is responsive to community needs.

The link to review the entire unedited survey report is here:

https://www.cabq.gov/progress/documents/albuquerque-yearly-survey-2023.pdf

KELLER’S NETWORK OF HOMELESS SHELTERS NO REAL SOLUTION

Since becoming Mayor in 2017, Mayor Tim Keller has made the homeless the top priority perhaps only second to public safety. During the past 7 years of his tenure, the city has established two 24/7 homeless shelters, including purchasing the Loveless Gibson Medical Center for $15 million to convert it into a homeless shelter and he has spent upwards of $90 million to renovate it. The city is funding and operating 2 major shelters for the homeless, one fully operational with 450 beds and one when once remodeling is completed fully operational  will assist upwards 1,000 homeless and accommodate at least 330 a night.

According to the City budgets for the years 2021 to 2024, the Keller administration has spent over $300 million in the last 4 years on homeless shelters, programs, and the city purchasing and remodeling motels for low-income housing. Keller insisted on buying the old Lovelace hospital on Gibson for his Gateway Homeless shelter and he has spent upwards of $90 million to remodel it because of asbestos removal.

Keller has taken an “all the above approach” to deal with the city’s homeless. The city will have a total of 5 shelters  to deal with the homeless that should be operating as an integrated system:

• The Gibson Gateway shelter
• The Gateway West shelter
• The Family Gateway shelter
• The Youth Homeless shelter
• The Recovery Shelter

The blunt reality is that Mayor Keller has essentially proclaimed the unhoused as “wards of the city” when such a responsibility should be undertaken by the state or federal government.

The recent annual Point-In-Time homeless survey count found an 18% increase in the homeless with upwards of 3,000 chronic homeless in the city. It was reported 75% refuse city services preferring to be left alone to continue living on the streets. Despite Keller’s spending efforts to assist the unhoused, the city’s homeless numbers continue to spike as the crisis worsens and as the unhoused refuse services and as they take over our streets and parks.

The $300 million spent to help 3,000 to 5,000 homeless with 75% refusing services would have gone a long way to finance community centers, senior citizen centers, police and fire substations, preschool or after school programs, senior citizen programs, and police and fire programs.

Keller has allowed the unhoused to proliferate city streets, parks and open space declining to aggressively enforce city and state vagrant laws and make arrests as allowed by a United States Supreme Court ruling. Keller allowed Coronado Park to become the city’s de facto city sanction homeless encampment before he declared it to be the most dangerous place in the state forgetting it was he who sanctioned it and then he was forced to close it down because of out-of-control violent crime and illicit drug use.

CIVIL MENTAL HEALTH COMMITMENTS VIABLE SOLUTION

During the 2025 New Mexico Legislature, the state enacted the Behavioral Health Reform Package consisting of 3 Senate Bills that make sweeping changes to how New Mexico’s mental health and drug abuse treatment programs are run statewide. Hundreds of millions are dedicated to the programs. One bill requires regional plans be crafted for providing mental health and substance abuse treatment. The plans would be overseen by the state judicial branch and would include time lines and regional funding priorities.

Upwards of 75% of the city’s unhoused self report that they are suffering from mental illness and drug addiction that pose a serious threat to their own safety or the safety of others. Rather than emphasizing temporary housing as Mayor  Keller has done with his integrated shelter program, the city should take steps to implement a “civil mental health commitment” program to deal with the  unhoused who are suffering from mental illness and drug addiction to get them the treatment and care they need and get them off the streets.

KELLER’S FAILED “ABQ HOUSING FORWARD PLAN”

Keller’s “ABQ Housing Forward Plan” to increase affordable housing was nothing more than a politcal rues relying on the city’s housing shortage where he boldly claimed the city has an immediate need for 30,000 new units. His original announced goal was for the city to have 5,000 additional affordable housing units to be added to the market by 2025 but he fell short by 3,000.

Keller pushed mandating “safe outdoor spaces” approved exclusively by the planning department for the unhoused in all 9 city council districts over objections of neighborhoods. Keller wanted to double or triple the city’s density by allowing casitas and duplex development in existing neighborhoods by eliminating the rights of appeal by objecting neighborhood associations and adjoining property owners.

Keller’s “Housing Forward Plan” makes gentrification an official city policy that caters to developers and the NAIOP crowd at the expense of neighborhoods and property rights. It will not increase affordable housing. It will allow developers and investors to destroy existing neighborhoods for the sake of making a development buck and increasing density in established neighborhoods and destroying their original character.

Keller also supports recent amendments to the city’s zoning laws known as the Integrated Development Ordinance (IDO). Those changes reduce or totally eliminate Neighborhood Associations and adjoining property owners’ rights of standing to appeal developments. In the limited instances where they can appeal a development and they lose the appeal, the changes require them to pay the attorney’s fees of the defending developer when before both sides would assume their own attorney fees and costs.

KELLER’S FAILURE TO HOLD CHIEF MEDINA ACCOUNTABLE

Keller has also refused to hold Chief Medina accountable for a vehicle crash where Medina negligently plowed into another driver putting the driver in the hospital in critical condition. Medina admitted to violating state law when he failed to have his body camera on during an incident that preceded the crash.

After the crash, Keller called Medina “arguably the most important person right now in these times in our city.” Medina’s appointed crash review board declared the crash as “non avoidable” even after Medina admitted to causing the crash. Medina was given a slap on the wrist with letters of reprimand. The City and Medina have been sued by the other driver and the case is still pending and will likely result in a significant judgement being paid for Medina’s negligent driving and his running of a red light.

It was in April, 2024  that APD Chief Harold Medina made it known to APD personnel that he intended to retire in December 2025. He did so at a time when the Albuquerque City Council was attempting to remove and terminate him  for cause.

On March 27, APD Chief Harold Medina was interviewed by KOB Reporter Giuli Frendak and he made it know for a third time he wants to continue being Chief if Mayor Keller is elected to another 4 year term. It is more likely than not that Medina saying he was going to retire in December 2025 was nothing more than a politcal ploy or politcal diversion tactic to take the pressure off to having him removed. He made the announcement of retirement plans  at the height of controversy and efforts by the city council to remove him. Now that things have died down tremendously, Medina is banking on  people forgetting what happened and forgetting all of his controversies and now he feels he might as well go forward and not retire.

Mayor Keller for his part has never said if he intends to ask Medina to step down nor retire should he win a third term. The truth is Keller and Medina are tied to the hip, Medina wants to stay and Medina will likely continue to be APD Chief if Keller is elected to a third term. Mayor Keller’s unwavering, totally blind loyalty to Chief Harold Medina is unquestioned and has been the subject of great speculation as to why he keeps Medina despite all the controversy that swirls around Chief  Medina.

Links to relied upon and quoted new sources

https://www.kob.com/news/top-news/apd-chief-harold-medina-uncertain-about-retiring-in-dec

MORE QUALIFIED CANDIDATES NEED TO BE RECRUITED TO  RUN

Voters can and must do better than Tim Keller and those running against him. The city will do better with a new Mayor but that will happen only if other more qualified candidates who can mount a successful campaign are recruited to run.

The business community, civic organizations, neighborhood associations and concerned citizens in general should go out of their way do what they can to recruit qualified candidates to run. Otherwise, we will have another 4 years of disastrous policies, either under Keller or one of the others now running, and we will only have ourselves to blame.

The exploration period for Mayor began on March 3, 2025 and ends on April 19, 2025. Hopefully, better qualified candidates will emerge. The 2025 municipal election is Tuesday, November 4, 2024.

__________________________________________

POSTSCRIPT

The links to the City Clerks web pages giving candidate information, candidate calendar, candidate training, candidate information forms  and qualifying periods are as follows:

https://www.cabq.gov/vote/election-information

https://www.cabq.gov/vote/election-information/voter-information

https://www.cabq.gov/vote/candidate-information/candidate-information

https://www.cabq.gov/vote/candidate-information/candidate-calendar-for-the-2025-regular-local-election

https://www.cabq.gov/vote/candidate-information/publicly-financed-candidates

https://www.cabq.gov/vote/candidate-information/privately-financed-candidates

https://www.cabq.gov/vote/candidate-information/campaign-forms

https://www.cabq.gov/vote/candidate-information/2025-candidates-and-committees-

https://www.cabq.gov/vote/training-videos

https://www.cabq.gov/vote/information-for-measure-finance-committees

https://www.cabq.gov/vote/candidate-information/2025-candidates-and-committees-1/

https://www.cabq.gov/clerk/ethics-1/board-of-ethics