http://www.freeabq.com/2017/03/16/no-art-in-trumps-budget/

President Trump has thrown Mayor Berry and the Albuquerque City Council under the ART bus.

Trump’s proposed 2018 federal budget, which was released March 16, 2017, does not contain the $69 million Federal Transit Administration grant the mayor and his staff have said repeatedly is coming.

Over 20% of the ART bus project is complete and construction should be finished sometime October.

The contractor for the project Bradbury and Stamm will no doubt will be demanding full payment for their work.

The City has already placed and order for new buses.

Chief Operation Officer Michael Reardon and Transit Director Bruce Rizzieri both repeatedly said during public forums that such funding is never denied once the Federal Transit Administration grants are approved.

The Albuquerque City Council refused to put the project on the ballot and voted to fund the construction without having the money from the Federal government.

U. S. House and Senate conference committees have recommended a $20 million cut in Albuquerque’s Grant under the 2017 Obama budget and funding has not been approved.

According to the ABQ Free Press article, officials at the FTA said that if ART does not appear on the current list of “fully funded” projects, it’s won’t get any more federal money, and Albuquerque’s ART Project does not appear on the list of “fully funded” projects.

Mayor Berry and the Albuquerque City Council have egg all over their faces while city taxpayers will suffer the consequences of their sure stupidity for spending money that has not been received.

There are at least three ways the City can make up for the lost grant money but the money will still need to come out of the general fund:

1. Cuts to services with money taken out of all city departments.
2. City Council can pass revenue bonds guaranteed with future gross receipts tax revenues and at least seven (7) city councilors must vote yes for enactment.
3. Enact a special 1/8 cent gross receipts tax with a sunset clause.

The Albuquerque City Council has already enacted $13 million in revenue bonds to help pay for the project.

The entire ART Bus project has been based on lies as I said in my March 13, 2017 blog article “The City Hall Liar”s Club.

Every Albuquerque City Councilor who is running for re-election including Diane Gibson, Ken Sanchez, and Don Harris and who voted to fund the ART project need to be voted out office as does Pat Davis if he runs again.

FOLLOWING IS AN ARTICLE THAT APPEARED IN THE ALBUQUERQUE FREE PRESS ON MARCH 15, 2017. I WAS DELIGHTED TO HAVE BEEN QUOTED IN THE ARTICLE.

12 • March 15-21, 2017 • ABQ FREE PRESS WEEKLY

Transit Group Predicts Fed Money for ART Won’t Materialize
Berry Administration Maintains It’s Coming
BY DENNIS DOMRZALSKI | dennis@freeabq.com

Mayoral candidate Brian Colón says that Mayor Richard Berry’s administration dismisses people who question whether the city will get all, or even any, of its federal grant money to complete the $126 million Albuquerque Rapid Transit project as wackos who “are wearing a tinfoil hat.” If that’s the case, Berry’s minions will have to start accusing a Washington, D.C.-based transit advocacy group of slapping rolls of Reynolds Wrap on their heads.

On March 9, Transportation for America, a group of elected officials, business people and civic leaders that advocates for “smart, homegrown, locally driven transportation solutions,” raised the possibility that the Trump administration could kill or greatly reduce funding for the Small Starts grant program — the source of the federal money the city needs to complete ART.

“Despite the ongoing discussion emanating from the White House about a $1 trillion infrastructure package, over the next few weeks, we’ll discover where the Trump administration’s transportation priorities truly lie as they release their first budget, one which could very well slash funding for competitive multimodal grants and transit capital construction,” TFA said in its newsletter. “While the bulk of annual federal transportation spending is sourced from the highway trust fund and could be somewhat insulated from the worst of these cuts, discretionary cuts would fall disproportionately on funding for new transit.”

With ART more than 20 percent complete, the city has paid, or committed to pay, $35.8 million for construction and electric buses. That represents 63 percent of the $57.2 million in local money and previous federal grant money that the city has on hand for the project.

What the city doesn’t have is final approval from the Federal Transit Administration for the $69 million in Small Starts money it needs to complete ART. That raises the question of what the city will do if it doesn’t get all of its federal money, or if it doesn’t get any of it. So far, the Berry administration hasn’t put forward any contingency plan, despite being asked for one by the City Council. Instead of a plan, the city has repeatedly insisted that no city that has advanced this far in the grant process has been denied a Small Starts grant.

Mayoral spokeswoman Rhiannon Samuel gave ABQ Free Press Weekly this statement when asked what the city would do if it didn’t get all of its requested federal grant money: “In the unlikely event that the full funding is not awarded, the city will need to evaluate all the resources available at that time, including other federal funds, in order to complete the project.”

The city’s refrain that no city has ever been denied federal transit funds offends Colón, who said that with the unpredictable Trump in office, previous history doesn’t matter. “If this happens, [the city gets reduced federal funding, or none at all] it will be a complete disaster,” said Colón, a Democrat running for mayor. “We have a federal administration that is no holds barred. A new day has dawned in the federal government. He [Berry] needs to tell the public what his Plan B is,” Colón said. “It’s not fair to say this has never happened before, and it’s not fair to say that anybody who questions whether we’ll get funding, that they are wearing a tinfoil hat.”

State Auditor Tim Keller, who is also running for mayor, said that any scenario short of full federal funding “is a terrible scenario, no matter what.” If the city keeps building ART, it will have to pay the general contractor, Bradbury Stamm Construction, for all of the work it has done. And if the city doesn’t get its federal money, it would have to find it elsewhere. “You have to pay, no matter what,” Keller said, adding that bond rating companies would downgrade the city’s bond rating if it carried a large, unfunded debt on its books.
So what could the city do, if in April or May, it learns that it won’t get ART funding? It could order an immediate halt to construction and try to redesign the project to fit the reduced funding. Or it could look for more money.

Pete Dinelli, a former city councilor and city chief public safety officer, said a likely option would be for the city to sell revenue bonds, which would be paid off with gross receipts tax revenue. That route would require the votes of seven of the nine city councilors. Dinelli also said the city could cancel its $23 million bus order for ART and use that money for construction.

Keller said just stopping the project isn’t an option. “The new mayor has to be ready to make the best of it or deal with a huge hole in the road,” Keller said.

Dennis Domrzalski is an associate editor at ABQ Free Press. BY DENNIS DOMRZALSKI | dennis@freeabq.com

New Mexico’s unemployment rate is now 6.7%, the nation’s highest, while the national unemployment rate is 4.3%. (See March 14, 2017 Albuquerque Journal article “NM unemployment rate now nation’s highest” page B-1).

New Mexico employment grew by a paltry 0.1% or by 900 jobs.

Ben Cloutier, spokesman for the State’s Economic Development Department blames our reliance on federal funding and reliance on the oil and gas industry for the states failure to diversify our economy.

The truth is that there has been a complete failure of leadership for the last eight (8) years by the Albuquerque and New Mexico business community as well as our elected officials to do what needs to be done to diversify our economy.

ALBUQUERQUE IS ECONOMIC ENGINE FOR STATE

It is often said that the Albuquerque’s economy is the engine that propels our State economy.

It has been reported that Albuquerque lost 14,900 jobs during the last 10 years, which is roughly 4 jobs a day.

According to one Brookings Institution report, the Albuquerque metro area’s economy was so bad between 2009 and 2014 that it almost fell off the charts of three measures of economic health.

Of the largest 100 metro areas in the U.S., Albuquerque ranked 100th, 99th and 83rd in the three areas measured by the Brookings Institute: Growth, Prosperity and Inclusion.

According to the same Bookings Institute report, economically hobbled cities like Jackson, Miss., and Rochester, New York, fared better than Albuquerque.

Albuquerque ranked 99th for economic growth, 83rd for prosperity and 100th for inclusion, which measures how an area’s poorest residents are doing in the economy.

According to US Census reports, more people are leaving the State than moving in, and our youth are leaving Albuquerque in droves to seek employment with a future elsewhere even after they get their college education at our universities.

Organizations such as the Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce, the Economic Forum and the National Association of Commerce and Industry (NAIOP), the New Mexico Business Coalitions must share some responsibility for having done little next to nothing over the last eight years to attract new businesses to Albuquerque.

When City of Albuquerque Economic Development Director Gary Oppendahl was first hired, he was called a “serial entrepreneur” by the Mayor and maybe he needs to be called a “serial business killer” for his absolute failure when it comes to economic development.

For the past seven years, the City of Albuquerque’s Economic Development Department has not attracted or convinced a single major corporation to relocate to Albuquerque.

PUBLIC AND PRIVATE LEADERSHIP REQUIRED

Albuquerque must redefine its identity, take bold and aggressive, calculated risks to attract and create high-paying jobs to keep our youth and talent from leaving.

Albuquerque’s taxpayers must be convinced by its political and business leaders of the importance of investing in major public facilities, construction projects and infra structure for economic development.

Albuquerque can turn our economy around with an aggressive and massive investment to reinvent itself like has been done by great American cities such as Denver, El Paso, Pittsburgh, Oklahoma City, Columbus, and other cities that have invested billions in their communities.

The City of Albuquerque could use financial incentives for economic development such as tax increment districts (TIDS), industrial revenue bonds and even fund an economic development investment program for initial startup funding with claw back provisions.

Improving our schools and vocational systems, reducing dropout rates, are critical to diversifying Albuquerque’s and New Mexico’s economy.

Albuquerque and New Mexico as a community need to voice our demands loud and clear to the New Mexico legislature that it needs to be far more aggressive in improving and funding our education system and fund early childhood care and intervention programs and mental health care programs and start solving the root causes of crime: poverty, poor education system, high unemployment, drug addiction, to mention just a few.

Albuquerque’s economic development efforts need to be better coordinated with our vocational institutions to identify new industries that can be attracted to Albuquerque and insure Albuquerque has the trained work force to accommodate any new industry.

Albuquerque can and must expand and find better ways to use financial incentives for economic development such as tax increment districts (TIDS), industrial revenue bonds, and even fund economic development investment programs such as initial start up funding with claw back provisions.

Albuquerque needs to pursue with a vengeance real growth industries like heath care, transportation and manufacturing, and the film industry to diversify our economy.

Public-private partnerships in the growth industries where ever possible should be encouraged and developed.

Special emphasis and support should be given to Albuquerque’s film industry which is developing, expanding and proving to be very successful in providing well-paying jobs.

The City of Albuquerque needs to partner more with the State of New Mexico wherever possible.

A good first start in partnering with the State is to find a new vision for the State Fair grounds and how that very valuable gem in the center of Albuquerque can be better utilized to serve the Albuquerque community.

Other joint powers agreements can be entered between the City, State and County for the mutual use of facilities.

CONCLUSION

Our political, business and civic leaders need to show far more backbone and commitment to improving and diversifying Albuquerque’s and New Mexico’s economy.

Otherwise, we are destined to become a dying, dusty southwest city and state without any real potential for growth and better economic times and continued high unemployment rates.

“I feel I have been lied to. We have been lied to all along”, so says Susan Ricker, the owner of a Nob Hill business for 30 years, when it comes to the ART Bus Project. (See March 13, 2017 Albuquerque Journal article, page A-1 “ART ATTACK; Transit project failing to deliver on promises, business owner’s say”)

The entire ART Bus project has been built on lies to the public by Mayor Berry, his administration and the Albuquerque City Council.

Let’s count a few of the lies:

1st lie: The Federal Transportation Administration (FTA) grant application for the project that said it will not be a controversial project and it has wide public support; Strong opposition occurred at five (5) public hearings.

2nd lie: There is no need for an environmental impact study; Businesses and citizens went to federal court and argued that such studies were indeed needed and required but the court said it was waived by the FTA.

3rd lie: ART will not put people out of business nor affect businesses; Over 250 business say otherwise and many have lost as much as 25% to 50% of their business with others closing.

4th lie: ART will not reduce off street parking; There will be as many as 350 fewer parking spaces up central.

5th lie: ART will not ruin historic Route 66; It already has and it will with the canopy bus stop design.

6th lie: The canopy bus stop design conforms with historical areas of central; The City’s Landmarks Commission asked for a new design.

7th lie: ART will not impact traffic; The city admitted in a public forum the project has a 19 year shelf life and that sooner than later the bus stops in the middle of central will have to be removed and traffic lanes will have to be rededicated to accommodate projected increases in traffic along central.

8th lie: ART will not impact emergency services; There is only one lane of traffic in each direction with no left turn lanes that will impair emergency services such as ambulance and police emergency calls.

9th lie: ART will cost only $129; At least $7 million in hidden sewer line replacement and relocation costs have already been incurred.

10th lie: There will be loans or grants to help businesses starting March 1, 2017; After much delay, the loan program was finally implemented on April 21, 2017 with many businesses unable to qualify and businesses already closed that needed the money.

11th lie: Construction will not start until after December, 2016; The city started to tear up the streets and relocate water lines in September, 2016.

12th lie: Sidewalks will be widened for pedestrian traffic; Simply not true per the Journal story.

13th lie: The buses are always full now; Most people and businesses along Central report the buses are empty most of the time and bus usage continues to decline.

14th lie: The ART bus project will be used by millennials; ART only affects a 9 mile stretch of Central and millennials use their own vehicles to go to work all over the city and not just up and down Central.

15th lie: This is the Mayor’s project and there is nothing the city council can do to stop the project; The City Council could have voted not to fund the project and has funded the construction of the project with at least $13 million in revenue bonds.

16th lie: There is no need to put the project to a public vote; Albuquerque historically has always put major capital improvement projects to a public vote.

17th lie: Congress will approve the $69 million-dollar grant; The grant is in serious jeopardy and congressional committees have cut $20 million dollars from the grant with no guarantee that it will be mad up in next year’s budget resulting in Albuquerque having to identify additional funding sources to makeup for the shortfall.

18th lie: The $129 million dollar project will have long term economic development benefits and will create jobs; The project is nothing more that a single construction project that only benefits the construction industry for a short term of a year.

19th lie: The project has already generated millions in economic development; The Berry Administration is taking credit for millions of dollars of construction projects that were permitted and planned long before the ART Bus project saying the new construction is because of ART.

20th lie: Mayor Berry proclaims the project is a “world class” transportation project per Berry; It is a nine mile, $129 million bus route. A world class transportation project costs billions of dollars like Denver’s and Phoenix’s light rail systems.

Stay tuned for more lies from the City Hall Liar’s Club.

It is being reported that an effort is now underway to get APD’s overtime budget under control. (See http://www.kob.com/albuquerque-news/apd-overtime-policies-being-adjusted/4420581/?cat=500).

What took so long?

During the last 7 years, the Albuquerque Police Department has consistently gone over its overtime budget by millions arguably to the detriment of other city departments and other city employees.

Actual annual earnings for police officers can be higher than base salary due to the inclusion of overtime earnings, sick leave sell back, longevity pay, shift differential, incentive pays, and other “special pays” such as time and a half paid in overtime paid for court appearances.

A total of 124 of the 250 top wage earners at city hall are employed by the Albuquerque Police Department and include patrol officers, sergeants, lieutenants, commanders and deputy chiefs, assistant chief and the chief with annual pay ranging from $95,000 a year up to $166,699 a year. (See City of Albuquerque web site for full list of 250 top city wage earners).

The average and normal yearly salary paid APD Police Officers First Class is $56,000 a year.

Five (5) APD Patrol Officers First Class are listed in the top 250 city wage workers as being paid $146,971, $145,180, $140,243, $137,817 and $125,061 respectfully making them the 6th, the 7th, the 10th, the 12th and the 20th highest paid employees at city hall.

There are listed 66 Patrol Officers First Class in the list of the top 250 wage earners at city hall earning in excess of $95,000 a year and as much as $146,000 a year.

The normal yearly salary paid and APD Police Sergeant is $64,000.

There are 25 APD Police Sergeants in the list of the top 250 wage earners at city hall earning in excess of $95,00 a year and as much as $121,884 a year.

Combined, there are a total of 91 APD sworn police officers and sergeants who are named in the top 250 wage earners and city hall.

The fact that any APD Patrolman First Class or Sergeant is paid as much as between $95,000 to $146,000, or two to three times their normal salary, in any given year should be very concerning because it is a red flag for trouble, reflects excessive overtime and mismanagement of police resources or at the very least lack of personnel.

Consecutive shifts or excessive overtime for any police officer can lead to extreme fatigue, emotional burnout and reduce an officer’s alertness and response times and reflexes that can endanger lives and public safety.

The fact that there are 91 Patrol Officers and sergeants listed in the top 250 paid City employees reflects how poorly staffed APD really is forcing overtime overruns.

Excessive overtime for field officers can endanger the public safety by increasing the likelihood of on the job injuries and accidents or mistakes in handling service calls.

CONCLUSION

The number of APD sworn officers has fallen from 1,100 in 2009 to 850 in 2016.

Only 430 sworn officers are assigned to field services responding to 69,000 priority one 911 emergency calls a year which is probably one major reason for the excessive overtime.

Albuquerque needs 1,200 sworn police officers to effectively return to community based policing that will reduce overtime costs and reduce crime statistics.

A complete reorganization and change of management at APD is in order to get more police officers patrolling our streets.

An aggressive hiring and recruitment program needs to be initiated to increase the ranks of patrol officers.

In 1963, the United States Congress enacted the “Equal Pay Act” which makes it illegal for all employers to pay unequal wages to men and woman.

Notwithstanding the federal law, 54 years after enactment of the law and regulations to shrink the gap, Department of Labor and other studies show that the pay gap between men and woman for the same work is 21% or more, depending on the work or industry involved.

If you are going to do business with the city of Albuquerque and bid on a contract, you must complete a form explaining how much the company’s employees are paid in each job category employed.

The city calculates the difference in pay between genders for the same job to see if there is a measurable difference.

A business is awarded preferential or advantage points for a contract bid if the pay gap is less than 10%.

It has been reported that the Albuquerque City Council has enacted amendments to an ordinance that would make that gap even smaller at less than 7 percent “to encourage potential city contractors to review their pay scales” according to City Councilor Diane Gibson, the primary sponsor of the ordinance. (See http://www.kob.com/albuquerque-news/city-council-bill-would-reward-smaller-gaps-in-pay-equality/4418156/#.WL4kxZyQevM.facebook)

Gibson claims one goal is incentivize paying employees fairly with a preference on contracts with the city.

Mayor Berry states there are now only 59 vendors who do business in Albuquerque that do have a gender pay gap of less than 10% and that are certified for the pay equity preference. (See March 8, 2107 Albuquerque Journal, “ABQ takes on pay gap through bidding process; Contractors will need to prove reduced male-female inequality”, Business Section B, page B-1)

Before Berry, Gibson and the City Council pat themselves on the back, they need to look beyond the walls of city hall.

The city ordinance applies only to business that bid on city contracts and who do business with the City of Albuquerque to get points to be awarded a city contract.

Berry and Gibson pat themselves on the back and so self-righteous and say they are not going to stand for woman making less than men for the same work in Albuquerque, yet they are doing just that by making the ordinance apply to only city vendors.

Pay equality should apply to all businesses who are licensed by the City to do business in Albuquerque and not just those businesses who do business and contract with the City.

To do business in the City of Albuquerque, you must pay a fee and secure a license to do business with the city and agree to conform to all applicable laws and regulations.

Licenses to do business are issued and regulated by the City Planning Department and can be voided for cause.

If Gibson, Berry and the Albuquerque City Council really wanted to do something about equal pay for woman, they should make “equal pay” a requirement for all businesses in Albuquerque before they can secure or renew a business license.

By City Ordinance, all businesses could be required to submit a pay equity report and statement before a business license is issued, which is now required of contractors who do business with the City of Albuquerque.

No doubt the Chamber of Commerce and business organizations will argue that it is too much government regulation for the city to require businesses in Albuquerque to adhere to federal law mandating equal pay for woman.