On Wednesday, September 9, during a meeting of the Albuquerque City Council, Republican Albuquerque City Councilor Brook Bassan asked questions of Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Sarita Nair if APD Chief Michael Geier still had the confidence and backing of Mayor Tim Keller who appointed him Chief. During the day, rumors of Chief Geier’s immediate departure circulated throughout City Hall and the APD main office building downtown. The line of questioning and answering between Councilor Bassan and CAO Nair became extremely tense and viewed as hostile by many. As is the case with city council meetings, Mayor Tim Keller was not present and CAO Nair responded on his behalf.

LINE OF QUESTIONING

City Councilor Bassan asked questions of CAO Nair on how much direction the Mayor’s Office was giving APD. Bassan asked about a social media posts that alleged that Mayor Keller and his Administration were pushing Chief Geier out. CAO Nair responded that neither she, Mayor Keller nor anyone on City Hall’s “11 th floor”, a reference to where the Mayor’s offices are located, were making tactical decisions for APD.

Nair did not give a definitive answer when Bassan asked directly if Geier had the administration’s support. Nair dismissed the question as “disrespectful” and did not give a direct answer. Nair told the council that Geier was the “right person for the job” when he was hired nearly three years ago. CAO Nair responded this way:

“I think it’s really important that we can dispel myths, but that we don’t fall into the rumor mill. … Chief Geier was one of the first appointments that the mayor made; he was so clearly the right person for the job at that time that even when we went through a national search, he emerged as the top candidate. … I’m sure it’s not your intent, but it is deeply disrespectful to Chief Geier to engage in internet rumormongering at this point.”

https://www.abqjournal.com/1494988/councilor-grills-keller-official-on-handling-of-apd.html

NOT THE FIRST TIME

The September 9 City Council meeting was not the first time Bassan had asked CAO Nair about APD nor Geier. During an August City Council meeting, Bassan questioned Nair after media reports that Geier had requested an Internal Affairs (IA) investigation into his Chief of Staff John Ross for engaging nefarious conduct. The alleged conduct was outlined in a complaint to Chief Geier by his Administrative Secretary. The conduct includes:

1. Ross circumventing purchasing rules to make improper purchases,
2. Ross by passing Chief Geier to secure a $10,000 raise taking his pay from $129,304 a year to $140,000 a year
3. Ross absconding with the chief’s signature stamp that was being kept locked in a secretary’s desk drawer,
4. Ross yelling at and intimidating the chief’s secretary, and
5. Ross takin his dog to work without approval and allowing the animal to defecate and urinate in Deputy Chief offices and instructing personnel to walk the animal.

Chief Geier for his part said:

“I take responsibility for what happens in my office with my chief of staff and my assistant. Any suggestion that I am not in control of the department (is) ridiculous. This is nothing more than petty water-cooler talk.”

The link to a related blog article is here:

https://www.petedinelli.com/2020/08/14/a-police-chief-of-staff-engaging-in-nefarious-conduct-for-financial-and-personal-gain-is-not-petty-water-cooler-talk-geier-needs-to-go-and-take-his-chief-of-staff-with-him/

THAT TWEET THAT WAS

During the September 9 City Council meeting, Bassan asked questions regarding the recent controversy in which APD deleted a tweet from its official account that quoted Chief Geier calling the police shooting in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where and African American was shot in the back 7 times by a police officer, as “senseless.” Chief Geier later claimed he was not aware of the shooting and said he would not have issued the statement without knowing all the facts surrounding the shooting.

The tweet was removed and Geier issued an apology for the TWEET saying he did not authorize the TWEET. Department Spokesman Gilbert Gallegos later admitted he was the one who wrote and sent out the TWEET without Geier’s approval. When Bassan asked Nair about the TWEET, Nair said that it was “uncommon” to quote officials without their permission. Nair said that APD Spokesman Gallegos had “stepped up to take accountability for that very human mistake.”

ONATE PROTEST HANDLING QUESTIONED

On June 15, a man was shot in Old Town over the “La Jornada” (The Journey) sculpture in front of the Albuquerque Museum. The June 15 event was originally scheduled to be “prayer vigil” for the removal of the Juan de Oñate statue from the Albuquerque Museum. The prayer vigil erupted into a protest riot and a shooting occurred during the protest for the removal of the figure of Juan de Onate de Salazar in the sculpture. APD’s response and its subsequent shooting investigation came under severe criticism from city councilors and the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s office.

During the September 9, meeting, Bassan raised questions regarding APD’s handling of the Juan de Oñate protest. Bassan said she was concerned that the Mayor’s Office had helped make decisions about how APD handled the Onate protest and other protests, an allegation Nair rejected. CAO Nair responded this way to the line of questioning:

“Let me be clear: To the extent you’re suggesting that the 11th floor, as we call it, is making operational or tactical decisions about the Police Department, we are not.”

More than one confidential source has reported that Mayor Tim Keller was in constant contact with CAO Sarita Nair during the June 15 Onate Statue protest at the Albuquerque Museum. According to sources, Keller and Nair were particularly concerned to what extend the Onate statute should be protected and if it even should be protected at all. Mayor Keller had already been informed that the Albuquerque Museum Board of Directors had decided a week earlier that the Onate statue was to be removed and stored until a decision could be made what to do with the statue. As a work of art, the Onate statue is worth upwards of $100,000 and when combined with the other statues, the exhibit originally cost the city $800,000 paid for by voter approved bonds.

CHANNEL 13 NIGHTLY NEWS

On Wednesday, September 9, within a few hours after the City Council meeting, KRQE News 13 during its 10:00 pm news cast reported that effective September 30, APD Chief Michael Geier had been relieved of his duties and was out as APD Chief. News 13 also reported Deputy Chief Harold Medina would take over as acting chief on September 30. When News 13 contacted the Mayor Keller’s office to see what sparked the move, the mayor’s office would not confirm or deny the report.

https://www.krqe.com/news/albuquerque-metro/apd-police-chief-relieved-of- duties/?fbclid=IwAR1EwxihuZ3l1FvMrdfOyf9wxRpfX2nQjE1kHAJVhDSAPbTYA_9dFoEHY7s

APD CHIEF MICHAEL GEIER ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT

On Thursday morning, September 10, Mayor Tim Keller along with APD Chief Michael Geier, held a press conference to announce that Chief Geier was retiring after 2 years and 9 months as APD Chief. Mayor Keller announced that Deputy Chief Harold Medina would be taking over as interim Chief starting Monday, September 14.

APD Chief Geier’s formal announcement was that he had decided to retire and the announcement came less than 24 hours after the previous night’s City Council meeting. At the Thursday morning news conference, Mayor Tim Keller said the details of Chief Geier’s departure were finalized the morning of September 10. According to Keller it was Geier’s decision to leave at the end of the pay period which is September 18.

Chief Geier for his part teared up and gave at emotional farewell. Chief Geier cited a few factors in his personal life that said lead him to retire, including the amount of work the job requires while also having custody of two grandchildren. Geier said:

“My grandkids were playing and I was doing something for work and they asked a couple times, ‘papa come out and play.’ And the little one came and said, she’s eight years old, she goes, ‘papa do you still love us?’ And that was that moment that I wondered, if I was ever looking for a time when I knew I had to retire, it was then.

I love this department. I’ve had a wonderful career in law enforcement. It was very enjoyable and I feel very rewarded. It gave me the opportunity to serve others, and now it’s time for me to rest and turn the reins over to people who have more energy, are a little bit younger and have a lot more time.”

Chief Geier left immediately after speaking and did not take any media questions.

Links to news coverage are here:

https://www.krqe.com/news/albuquerque-metro/apd-police-chief-relieved-of-duties/

https://www.krqe.com/news/albuquerque-metro/apd-police-chief-relieved-of-duties/

https://www.abqjournal.com/1495117/chief-geier-to-leave-albuquerque-police-department.html

EDITORS NOTE: Chief Geier’s statement read to the press on September 10 is in the postscript to this article. The reasons given by Geier for retiring from APD are remarkably similar to those he gave when he retired as Rio Rancho Police Chief close to 3 years ago. When Geier retired as Chief of RRPD, the reasons he gave were he wanted to spend more time with his wife, who suffers from the rare skin disease scleroderma. Many sources have said that in 2017, then New Mexico State Auditor Tim Keller running for Mayor, met with Geier and Keller asked Geier to be APD Chief if Keller was elected Mayor, and Geier agreed.

A LABOR DAY WEEKEND WALK IN THE PARK

Confidential sources have provided information that APD Chief Michael Geier was summoned to a city park by Mayor Tim Keller and CAO Sarita Nair during the September 5 Labor Day Holiday weekend. The purpose of the meeting was that Keller had decided to let Geier go, that his services were no longer needed and it was time for Geier to leave APD.

According to sources Keller told Geier he wanted to take APD in a different direction. Geier was given the choice between termination or retirement and Geier agreed that it was time for him to retire. Soon after their walk in the park, sources say that Geier met CAO Nair in her office at city hall and the meeting became hostile. On Thursday morning, September 10, the details of Geier’s “retirement” were worked out and the press conference was held by Keller where Geier read his statement.

KELLER ARTICULATES REASONS FOR GEIER’S DEPARTURE

Keller and Geier have known each other for 15 years. They met when Keller was a freshman state senator representing Albuquerque’s International District and Geier was the APD area commander. Chief Geier was one of the first appointments made by Mayor Tim Keller when he took office on December 1, 2017. Geier is given credit for making great gains in implementing the Department of Justice 270 mandated reforms.
In a written statement, Keller said:

“Chief Geier came in at a pivotal moment for the Department, and did a courageous job righting the ship through our first year, getting new leadership in place, focusing on gun violence and getting reform efforts on track. … I deeply appreciate the extremely difficult job he took on nearly three years ago. He helped move APD in the right direction in so many important ways.”

During the September 10 press conference, Keller said there were many factors contributing to the decision for Geier to retire. According to Keller, those factors included the “big issues our city is facing” as well as “small distractions.” Keller put it this way:

“As we saw the need, I saw the need, for also just increased progress for a faster rate of change. … We think it’s the right time for new leadership at APD. So, I think it’s a mutual decision. We want to move faster and we think it’s time for new leadership and he’s also ready to retire. So, I think it’s the way it should be.”

“Any time we have rising crime, we’re not where we want to be, that’s certainly the case. … Any time our Department of Justice reforms are stalled out, that’s not where I want to be, that’s absolutely the case. But I think you also have to be thoughtful and timely about those issues and when you make changes, and I think now is the right time.”

Keller addressed the internal investigation Geier opened into Chief of Staff John Ross over the summer for allegedly improperly purchasing electronics with Geier’s signature stamp and other “conduct that reflects poorly on the department ” and said it was a distraction by saying:

“That’s also something that no one wants to see. … I don’t want to see that either because I want everyone focused on fighting crime.”

Mayor Keller went on to say he felt the city’s 6 yearlong police reform effort under the Department of Justice Court Approved Settlement Agreement (CASA) should be moving faster. Geier’s departure from APD occurs soon after the New Mexico State Auditor’s Office and the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office announced APD is under investigation for alleged overtime pay fraud.

Mayor Keller, Chief Geier and APD also faced severe criticisms for APD’s releasing crime stats that were seriously flawed and exaggerated the reduction in crime rates. At the time when the statistics were released, Keller held press conferences to announce the statistics and essentially took credit for reducing crime. APD was criticized for its handling of the Juan de Oñate protest and the shooting investigation.

https://www.abqjournal.com/1495117/chief-geier-to-leave-albuquerque-police-department.html

KELLER TAKES CITY COUNCIL TO TASK

During the September 10 Keller press conference announcing Geier’s retirement, Mayor Keller addressed the exchange between City Councilor Bassan and CAO Nair the night before on September 9. In a very uncharacteristic stoic style and without his trade mark smile and grin in his voice, Keller had harsh words for those who he said were “pandering to social media” and said in part:

“I think it’s important that we give the chief and the leadership and the departments at least a couple of days out of respect to understand what they’re doing next and when their last day is. … I think it was totally inappropriate for council to go into those questions in public.”

City Councilor Bassan when contacted was quick to respond saying she disagreed that she was in the wrong. She said she was raising questions brought to her by her constituents. She also said she considered it her responsibility to seek answers for the public. Bassan was direct and said that CAO Nair “evaded” her questions when she could have instead acknowledged the administration was evaluating the chief’s performance. Bassan had this to say:

“I realize … [Mayor Keller and his administration] don’t want me to be vocal; that would make everything a lot simpler [for them.] .. But I seriously believe the city of Albuquerque deserves to know what is happening.”

https://www.abqjournal.com/1495117/chief-geier-to-leave-albuquerque-police-department.html

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

CAO SARITA NAIR

CAO Sarita Nair is a political operative for Tim Keller. Prior to being appointed as the CAO, Nair served then State Auditor Tim Keller as the State Auditor’s Chief Government Accountability Officer and General Counsel. Keller appointed Nair Chief Administrative Officer(CAO) in December 2017. As CAO, Ms. Nair is the City’s top senior executive manager, overseeing all 19 departments of municipal government and a budget of over $1 billion dollars. Historically, Mayor’s usually appoint CAO’s who have worked for the city and who have understanding how the city is operated. Nair is a bureaucrat who runs the city, yet she has absolutely no prior experience running any city nor any city department and has never been an elected official.

As CAO, Sarita Nair is paid $186,747.20 a year according to the city’s 250 top wage earners. Nair’s inflated pay is the most paid to any CAO in the city’s history and her pay appears to be her biggest accomplishment at city hall.

The line of questioning by the City Councilor Bassan was legitimate and necessary, even if it was based on any rumor of Geier being forced out. When CAO Sarita Nair tells an elected city councilor “I’m sure it’s not your intent, but it is deeply disrespectful to Chief Geier to engage in internet rumor mongering at this point”, it is Nair who is being disrespectful with her backhanded remark and downright arrogance with her “political pivot” answer. Nair could just have easily said she was not prepared to answer the question and moved on.

With regard to the unauthorized tweet that Chief Geier later apologized for, Nair said that it was “uncommon” to quote officials without their permission. Truth is, it was not “uncommon” but a violation of personnel rules and regulation and has an element of fraud. Nair once again deflected the truth and said that APD Spokesman Gallegos had “stepped up to take accountability for that very human mistake.” Nair did not volunteer if anyone asked that Gallegos send out the tweet for Geier, if she was the one who directed Gallegos to send out the tweet nor if she found out why it was sent out in the first place.

With her condescending remark referring to “internet rumor mongering”, it is obvious that CAO Nair does not have a basic understanding that the Albuquerque City Council plays a crucial oversight role of all city departments, including the Albuquerque Police Department (APD) and all budgets. The City Council votes to approve the Mayor’s appointment of the CAO and the APD Chief. In short, CAO Nair is a political appointment who reports to the elected City Council. The City Council does not report to Nair and are not required to do her bidding but the bidding of their constituents.

Nair has a history of being less than forthcoming when asked questions by the city councilors. Her responses regarding the Mayor’s office not being involved with the Onate Statue tactical plan has been discredited by confidential sources that have said she was in constant contact with APD and the Mayor during the protest.

Further, the fact that it was confirmed within hours after the September 9 city council meeting that Geier was leaving APD is evidence that Nair was less than candid about Geier’s departure and downright misleading. It is now apparent Nair was fully aware that Geier was on his way out and she knew what was going on or she at worse was lying to the city council by withholding information.

KELLER IS THE ONE PANDERING TO SOCIAL MEDIA

When Keller said City Councilors were “pandering to social media” he also said:

“I think it’s important that we give the chief … at least a couple of days out of respect to understand what they’re doing next and when their last day is. … I think it was totally inappropriate for council to go into those questions in public.”

Keller ostensibly has forgotten that the City Council not only controls the APD budget but also is responsible to vote on and approve whoever the Mayor appoints as APD Chief. The City Council has every right to ask the employment status of those they are required to vote and approve for a job.

The APD Chief as a Department Director is required to appear before council on a regular basis to testify as to budget matters and policy matters. When Keller tries to admonish the city council for asking questions at a meeting Keller did not even attend, it is as if CAO Sarita Nair went crying to her boss to complain and to demand that she be treated with respect.

No doubt Republican City Councilor Brook Baasan feels that she is not indebted to Mayor Keller in the least, and she is not. Least anyone has forgotten, Mayor Tim Keller endorsed Baasan’s Democratic opponent for City Council Anne Romero. Bassan has also made it known that she is a strong advocate of Chef Michael Geier and for that reason alone she had every right to ask her questions no matter what Keller or his political operative Nair felt.

The only one guilty of “pandering to social media” is Mayor Tim Keller himself. Ever since Mayor Tim Keller assumed office on December 1, 2017, he has taken political showmanship to all new levels. Keller is known for his photo ops and press conferences, attending protest rallies to speak at, attending marches, attending heavy metal concerts to introduce the band, running in track meets and participating in exhibition football games as the quarterback and enjoying reliving his high school glory days, and posting pictures, press conferences and “fluff” videos on his FACEBOOK page all to the delight of his hard core supporters who heap praises on him.

KELLER’s 60% APPROVAL RATING LIKELY THE RESULT OF CORNA VIRUS PUBLIC RELATION TACTICS

Keller increased his public relations activities once the corona virus hit hard in February. Keller held daily news conferences as if competing with the Governor’s daily press conferences. He also took it to another level and held telephone “town halls meetings”. The “town hall” meetings were especially effective and consisted of calling upwards of 13,000 people at one time on city compiled call lists likely prepared by the city’s 911 call center.

During the “tele conference” town halls meetings, Keller answered questions about the pandemic, what the city was doing, including small business grants the city was offering. All the questions asked of Keller were screened by Keller’s longtime political consultant Alan Packman who now works for the city at the 311-call center, paid over $80,000 a year and who only answers to Keller.

Keller’s public relations actions have paid off for him but that may be short lived. On Sunday, September 13, the Albuquerque Journal reported that a poll revealed that Keller has a 60% approval rating close to 3 years into his term. Such an approval makes Keller the automatic front runner as he seeks a second term. However, cautionary statements were made by the pollster.

In the Journal report on the poll taken, Pollster Brian Sanderoff, the President of Research and Polling, said it “is unknown whether Keller’s approval dropped at any point in the past two years and then climbed back up.” According to Sanderoff, it appears that the public perception of Keller improved during the COVID-19 pandemic and said that may be partly because the virus has temporarily supplanted crime as voters’ top concern.

The public’s focus may have shifted to COVID-19 for now, but Sanderoff said Keller’s legacy is still tied to the city’s response to crime and put it this way:

“Crime is still lurking as the biggest issue facing the city, and whether people ultimately will continue to approve of the mayor’s performance will ultimately be determined by how he’s perceived as handling crime.”

The link to the Albuquerque Journal report on the poll is here:

https://www.abqjournal.com/1495901/mayor-keller-maintains-his-high-approval-rating.html

REMOVING GEIER MAJOR STEP FOR KELLER’S REELECTION

Candidate for Mayor Tim Keller ran on the platform of reducing the city’s spiking high violent crime rates, increasing the size of the APD, returning to community-based policing and implementing the Department of Justice Court Approved Settlement Agreement (CASA). Keller made it known in November that he will be running for a second term in 2021.

Sources report that Keller intends to run once again as a public finance candidate and he is already approaching people to help with his re-election bid by asking them to commit to collecting $5.00 qualifying donations and nominating petition signatures for him. Simply put, Keller’s high approval rating can drop in a heartbeat during a highly contested race once his record is examined and how he has failed to keep all of his promises. Keller is trying to turn things around at APD, but it may be too late and things are likely to get worse.

Keller’s removal of Geier as APD Chief is viewed by city hall insiders and political observers as a major step to his reelection bid. Despite all of his public relations and implementing 4 data-based programs to reduce violent crime, Keller’s efforts have been less than stellar especially at reducing crime rates. According to FBI statistics, Albuquerque’s crime rates are at 194% higher than the national crime rates. Albuquerque is also on tract in breaking the all-time high record of homicides in one year. APD continues to struggle with implementing the DOJ consent decree mandates, increasing the size of APD and returning to community-based policing.

ASK ME NO QUESTIONS, AND I WILL TELL YOU NO LIES

With the remarks made by Mayor Keller and CAO Nair about the City Council asking questions, they have adopted the philosophy of “ask me no questions, and I will tell you no lies”. They are seriously mistaken if they think any City Councilor is going to stop doing that, especially the Republicans on the City Council and those who are eyeing to replace Tim Keller as Mayor such as Democrat President City Councilor Pat Davis.

Voters will be deciding if Keller deserves another 4 years with Mayor Keller likely using the Covid 19 Virus epidemic as an excuse for his need for another 4 years to finish what he started. As has been the case in the last 3 elections for Mayor, in 2021 crime rates will likely be the biggest determining issue in the race as well as how APD is performing.

Crime was a major issue in the 2017 Mayor’s race and Keller pledge to bring down high crime rates by returning to community-based policing and increasing the size of APD to 1,200 police officers. At this point, APD has 984 sworn police with 532 of those officers assigned to the field service patrolling the streets of Albuquerque. Although Albuquerque’s property crime dipped very slightly in 2019, the city’s recorded violent crime has increased and the highest number of homicides recorded in one year reached the highest in 2019 and is on pace to break the record again this year.

FINDING NEW APD CHIEF WILL BE DIFFICULT AT BEST

APD leadership and management is crumbling around Mayor Tim Keller who is failing to keep his campaign promises of reducing high crime rates, returning to community-based policing, increasing the size of APD and implementing the DOJ reforms. The abrupt departure of Chief Geier no doubt will have an impact on implementing the DOJ mandated reforms.

Mayor Keller is now faced with the very difficult task of finding and hiring a new APD Chief 14 months before the election for Mayor. That may not happen because of the possibility that person may also be out of a job if Keller is not reelected. For that reason, it is likely Interim Chief Harold Medina will remain Interim Chief until after the 2021 Mayor’s race. If Keller is reelected, Keller will only then make Medina permanent Chief.

Mayor Tim Keller says he wants to conduct a national search to find a new Chief. If in fact Keller finds a new Chief from a national search, he needs to allow that person to run APD and be free of his interference or the interference of CAO Nair. If that person does not produce results, then Keller needs to find to someone who can. Mayor Keller should take this as an opportunity to also remove all the current Deputy Chief’s and allow whoever he selects to be the new Chief to select and bring in their own command staff.

Keller and Nair must understand that while they oversee APD, it is the chief and command staff who have the police training and experience to lead APD. As Keller begins his search for Geier’s replacement, it is likely career law enforcement candidates will be asking how much authority they will really have and who they can surround themselves with to run the department.

CONCLUSION

At this point in time the best thing Mayor Tim Keller could do for his reelection is to buckle down and do his own job. That includes reorganize APD, find a new chief and deputy chiefs and let the city council ask all the questions they want.

Keller also needs to tell his CAO Sarita Nair that she is not being paid almost $200,000 a year to be condescending to any elected official, to knock it off, be honest and forthcoming and show respect to elected officials and never mislead or lie to the council.

Ditto for Mayor Tim Keller. In politics, public relations and a smile on your face and a grin in your voice can get you elected. Sooner or later people expect and demand results.
______________

POSTSCRIPT

Below is the statement read by Chief Geier at the September 10 press conference announcing his retirement:

“I just wanted to take some time today to send my last personal messages to all members of the Albuquerque Police Department. As you know, I am a 2nd generation police officer, who has served in law enforcement for close to 47 years. It is been a very full and satisfying career and I know that I have touched many lives throughout the years I have served. My father planned for his retirement for many years. He and my mom were going to move to Florida and retire near the Orlando area. He wanted to get a job as security at Disneyworld all his grandkids could come down and visit. Unfortunately, he was diagnosed with cancer and retired after 30 years on the police force. He passed away 9 months later at 56 years of age. He never got to live that retirement dream and he got to meet some of his grandkids and great grandkids.

I have always known that the day would come when I would retire. The last several months have taken its toll on all of us. We have faced unprecedented challenges with COVID, protests in the wake of the George Floyd incident, increased violence in our city and let’s not forget, the never-ending scrutiny of our consent decree. Over my career I have been unable to spend quality time with my own family that they deserved. I will never be able to recoup what I missed but I now believe I can make up for lost time. My wife, children and grandchildren always placed my career at the forefront. They endured the varied work schedules, long hours on graveyard shifts, 24 hour on-call status . missed little leagues games, birthday parties, weekends and holidays worked, etc, etc. My goal is to now put all of them on the forefront and spend many hours of quality time I missed out on during my career. It has not been an easy decision but I will be retiring from APD in the next few weeks.

I have been extremely honored and proud to have served as the Chief in the best Police Department in the nation. Every member of APD is a dedicated and compassionate public servant who have devoted their life to helping others and making a difference. To our sworn officers,, remember that as peaceful warriors, you have willing embraced the challenges, risks and uncertainties of our profession knowing that you serve a cause bigger than self- each of you served a great good! Thanks for all you do to make APD great. I will miss you and I will keep you in my prayers. Be safe and take care of each other. Thanks for the memories.”

GEIER’S DEPARTURE FROM RIO RANCHO POLICE DEPARTMENT

January 28th, 2017, it was reported that Chief Michael Geier Rio Rancho Police was stepping down as Police Chief of the Rio Rancho Police Department (RRPD). Geier joined RRPD in 2014, following a 20-year career with the Albuquerque Police Department. Reasons given by Geier for retiring from the RRPD were he wanted to spend more time with his wife, who suffers from the rare skin disease scleroderma. Geier said in 2017:

“I’ve been doing this for 43 years and, at some point, you’ve got to put something first. We’ve been together 42 years …right now, I need an extended sabbatical to help her and give that attention.”

According to news reports, Geier said he would consider a job teaching criminal justice in the future. Confidential sources have said that in 2017, then State Auditor running for Mayor Tim Keller, met with Geier and asked Geier to be APD Chief if Keller was elected Mayor.

A link to related news coverage is here:

https://www.abqjournal.com/937902/police-chief-to-step-down.html

“I take responsibility for what happens in my office with my chief of staff and my assistant. Any suggestion that I am not in control of the department (is) ridiculous. This is nothing more than petty water-cooler talk.”

APD Chief Michael Geier responding to Albuquerque Journal inquires relating to Internal Affairs Investigation of APD Chief of Staff John Ross, August 11, 2020.

On Wednesday, September 9, during it 10:00 pm news cast, KRQE News 13 reported that effective September 30, APD Chief Michael Geier has been relieved of his duties and is now out as APD Chief. News 13 also reported Deputy Chief Harold Medina will take over as acting chief on September 30. When News 13 contacted the Mayor Keller’s office to see what sparked the move, the mayor’s office Wednesday would not confirm or deny the report. Geier has more than 43 years of police experience including 20 with the Albuquerque Police Department.

https://www.krqe.com/news/albuquerque-metro/apd-police-chief-relieved-of-duties/?fbclid=IwAR1EwxihuZ3l1FvMrdfOyf9wxRpfX2nQjE1kHAJVhDSAPbTYA_9dFoEHY7s

STATEMENTS ISSUED

On Thursday September 10, Chief Geier and Mayor Keller issued the following statements:

APD CHIEF MICHAEL GEIER STATEMENT

“It has been an honor to lead the Albuquerque Police Department over the last three years. After 47 years in law enforcement, it’s time to pass the baton. Our transition plan aims to set the stage for the next phase of the Department’s effort to make Albuquerque safer for us all. I want to thank every police officer who shows such an incredible commitment to our city, and will be praying for you to stay safe and successful in your service.”

MAYOR TIM KELLER STATEMENT

“Chief Geier came in at a pivotal moment for the department, and did a courageous job righting the ship through our first year, getting new leadership in place, focusing on gun violence and getting reform efforts on track. I deeply appreciate the extremely difficult job he took on nearly three years ago. He helped move APD in the right direction in so many important ways.

With all of the challenges this year has brought, it’s clear that the context for running a department, fighting crime and engaging in reform has changed dramatically. We know we have had persistently high crime for a decade, we know reform efforts have hit some snags, and we know there have been back office challenges and distractions. Chief Geier’s retirement comes at the right time for a new phase of leadership to address the old embedded challenges that continue to hamper the department. Like the residents of Albuquerque, I won’t be satisfied until this is a safer city. This is the time to hit the accelerator.”

https://www.kob.com/albuquerque-news/chief-geier-forced-out-of-his-position-with-apd/5858023/?cat=500

A FRESHMAN CITY COUNCILOR’S LINE OF QUESTIONING

The report by Channel 13 that Chief Geier is out as APD Chief came within hours after the September 9 City Council meeting during which freshman Republican Albuquerque City Councilor Brook Bassan, who was elected on November 3, 2019, raised questions about whether Chief Geier still had the backing of Mayor Tim Keller. Mayor Keller appointed Geier APD Chief within months after being elected Mayor and after a so called “national search.”

https://www.abqjournal.com/1494988/councilor-grills-keller-official-on-handling-of-apd.html

CONFIDENCE IN GEIER QUESTIONED

Brook Bassan asked questions of Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Sarita Nair how much direction the Mayor’s Office is giving APD. Bassan also asked about a social media posts that alleged that Mayor Keller and his Administration were pushing Chief Geier out. CAO Nair responded that neither she, Mayor Keller nor anyone on City Hall’s “11th floor” were making tactical decisions for APD. Nair did not give a definitive answer when Bassan asked directly if Geier had the administration’s support.

CAO Nair said:

“I think it’s really important that we can dispel myths, but that we don’t fall into the rumor mill. … Chief Geier was one of the first appointments that the mayor made; he was so clearly the right person for the job at that time that even when we went through a national search, he emerged as the top candidate. … I’m sure it’s not your intent, but it is deeply disrespectful to Chief Geier to engage in internet rumormongering at this point.”

https://www.abqjournal.com/1494988/councilor-grills-keller-official-on-handling-of-apd.html

During an August City Council meeting, Bassan questioned Nair after media reports that Geier had requested an internal affairs investigation into his chief of staff John Ross for engaging nefarious conduct. The alleged conduct includes: circumventing purchasing rules, making improper purchases, by passing Chief Geier to secure a $10,000 raise taking his pay from $129,304 a year to $140,000 a year, absconding with the chief’s signature stamp that was being kept locked in a secretary’s desk drawer, yelling at and intimidating the chief’s secretary, and bringing his dog to work without approval and allowing the animal to defecate and urinate in Deputy Chief offices and instructing personnel to walk the animal.

When asked about the internal affairs investigation Geier said:

“I take responsibility for what happens in my office with my chief of staff and my assistant. Any suggestion that I am not in control of the department (is) ridiculous. This is nothing more than petty water-cooler talk.”

The link to a related Dinelli blog article is here:

https://www.petedinelli.com/2020/08/14/a-police-chief-of-staff-engaging-in-nefarious-conduct-for-financial-and-personal-gain-is-not-petty-water-cooler-talk-geier-needs-to-go-and-take-his-chief-of-staff-with-him/

A DELETED TWEET QUESTIONED

During Wednesday’s City Council meeting, Bassan asked questions regarding the recent controversy in which APD deleted a tweet from its official account that quoted Chief Geier calling the police shooting in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where and African American was shot in the back 7 times by a police officer as “senseless.” Chief Geier at the time said he was not aware of the shooting, said he would not have issued a statement without knowing the facts surrounding the shooting. Geier issued an apology for the tweet saying he did not authorize the tweet. Department Spokesman Gilbert Gallegos later admitted he was the one who wrote and sent out the tweet without Geier’s approval.

The fact that a tweet from APD Chief Geier was sent out in the first place without his knowledge is disturbing and a violation of APD standard operating procedures. Ostensibly, the tweet was sent out after conferring with Mayor Tim Keller’s office seeing as Keller issued his own statement on FACEBOOK at the same time and that is his right. However, directing that a tweet be sent out by the APD Chief without his consent or knowledge would be an abuse of authority.

The link to a related Dinelli blog article is here:

https://www.petedinelli.com/2020/08/26/an-unauthorized-tweet-reported-across-the-city-reflects-apd-chief-michael-geier-not-in-charge-of-apd/

ONATE PROTEST HANDLING QUESTIONED

During the Wednesday’s meeting, Bassan raised questions regarding APD’s handling of the Juan de Oñate protest. On June 15, a man was shot in Old Town over the “La Jornada” (The Journey) sculpture in front of the Albuquerque Museum. The June 15 event was originally scheduled to be “prayer vigil” for the removal of the Juan de Oñate statue from the Albuquerque Museum. The prayer vigil erupted into a protest riot and a shooting occurred during the protest for the removal of the figure of Juan de Onate de Salazar in the sculpture. APD’s response and its subsequent shooting investigation came under severe criticism from city councilors and the Bernalillo County District Attorney office.

Bassan said she was concerned that the Mayor’s Office had helped make decisions about how APD handled that and other protests, an allegation Nair rejected.

CAO Nair responded:

“Let me be clear: To the extent you’re suggesting that the 11th floor, as we call it, is making operational or tactical decisions about the Police Department, we are not.”

NAIR’S RESPONSE ON ONATE PROTEST HIGHLY DISPUTED

More than one confidential source has reported that Mayor Tim Keller was in constant contact with CAO Sarita Nair during the June 15 Onate Statue protest at the Albuquerque Museum and were particularly concerned to what extend the Onate statute should be protected and if it even should be protected at all. Mayor Keller had already been informed that the Albuquerque Museum Board of Directors had decided a week earlier that the Onate statue was to be removed and stored until a decision could be made what to do with the statue. As a work of art, the Onate statue is worth upwards of $100,000 and when combined with the other statues, the exhibit originally cost the city $800,000 paid for by voter approved bonds.

According to APD confidential sources, it was Deputy Chief Harold Medina who made sure that the tactical plan for the June 15 Onate Statue Protest signed off by Chief Geier 10 days after the protest gave instructions as to what and how city property, particularly the Onate statue was to be protected, or in this case, not protected. What is extremely disturbing is that the tactical plan did not consider the Oñate statue by renowned artist Sonny Rivera, city property worth thousands and paid by the taxpayer, to be property worth protecting. In essence APD, and in particular APD Deputy Chief Harold Medina was fine with protesters armed with pickaxes and chains taking down the statue, so long as they didn’t try to set the museum on fire.

https://www.petedinelli.com/2020/08/17/who-is-in-charge-at-apd-answer-cao-sarita-nair-politics-is-no-way-to-run-apd/

EMERGENCY RESPONSE TEAM TACTICAL PLAN

After more than a two month delay, APD finally released the plan detailing when the APD Emergency Response Team (ERT) were allowed to intervene during the June 15 protest. Such plans are referred to as TACT Plans. The ERT team are police officers outfitted with riot gear given the responsibility to take control of gatherings of people that escalate into confrontations, violence or a riot. The link to the ERT TACT plan is here:

https://www.scribd.com/document/472053424/APD-Emergency-Response-Team-Event-Action-Plan#from_embed

The directives spelled out in an APD Event Action Plan provides in part as follows:

“ERT will only engage if there is a threat to life or if major property damage occurs. Damage to the statue will be considered minor property damage and will not elicit an ERT response. Any threat to the Albuquerque Museum will be considered major property damage due to there being high value historical items inside that cannot be replaced.”

“If gunfire or other life-threatening situations arise, ERT is authorized to deploy gas immediately to clear crowds and enable officers to withdraw to positions of cover. All ERT members will be dressed with rifle plate armor and carriers.”

Deputy Chief Harold Medina said during a news press conference that protecting the Juan de Oñate statue was “not worth damaging relations with the community for years to come.” During news conferences held by APD command staff about both the Oñate protest and an earlier incident Downtown in which people smashed business windows hours after a peaceful march, APD officials said a major concern was that if officers’ step in and made arrests for “minor” property damage, the situation could escalate unnecessarily.

https://www.abqjournal.com/1485044/apd-plan-limited-intervention-in-onate-protest.html

APD CHIEF MICHAEL GEIER

APD Chief Michael Geier has over 40 years of law enforcement experience. He retired from the Chicago Police Department after 20 years, came to work for APD, became a commander and then retired after 20 years. Once he left APD, he became Chief of the Rio Rancho Police Department and retired there in 2016 only to be appointed APD Chief by Mayor Keller in 2017.

Chief Michael Geier was well schooled in community-based policing when it was first instituted in Albuquerque back in the 1990’s. He was also well schooled in the management practices of former Chief Ray Schultz having been appointed a commander by Schultz. Confidential sources have said then Rio Rancho Chief of Police Michael Geier met with candidate for Mayor Tim Keller back in late 2016 before Keller announced for Mayor in January, 2017 and before Geier retired as Chief of the Rio Rancho Police Department on February 18, 2017.

Confidential sources have also said that it was during the election Keller made the commitment in private to appoint Geier Interim chief and to keep him for a while and to see how he performed before he was made permanent. Keller appointed Geier after a “national search”.

On May 1, 2018, the Keller Administration announced that a national search was underway to select a permanent APD Chief.

From day one, it was apparent that Mayor Tim Keller knew he was going to appoint Geier permanent when he said:

“We’ve got to have a chief that understands APD and Albuquerque. … That’s a general statement because I think that can come in numerous forms. I think that’s critical – they have to have some sort of experience with respect to our city, our state and the department. They also have to have some sort of outside perspective. We know that, coming in, we didn’t want someone that’s been solely in APD. They need to know a lot about community policing. It’s our administration’s priority and they’ve got to have expertise in that area.”

For a related blog article see:

https://www.petedinelli.com/2018/06/14/national-search-for-new-apd-chief-a-sham/

During his time as Chief of APD, Geier is given credit for the significant progress made with implementing the 270 mandated reforms of the Court Approved Settlement Agreement (CASA).

FIRST DEPUTY CHIEF HAROLD MEDINA

First Deputy Chief Harold Medina was hired onto APD in 1995 and retired from APD after 20 years of service. He served with APD until 2014, when he retired and became Chief of the Pueblo of Laguna for three years. Medina returned to APD as a Deputy Chief when Keller took over as Mayor in December, 2017. Medina during his original stint with APD rose through the ranks holding various positions. In 2014 when the Department of Justice investigated APD for excessive use of force and deadly force, Medina was in charge of the SWAT Unit. Upwards of 18 officer involved shootings were reviewed by the Department of Justice, with many of those shootings involving the very SWAT Unit that Medina was the commander. The DOJ ultimately found a “culture of aggression” within APD and the City entered into a Court Approved Settlement Agreement (CASA). For the last 6 years, APD has been attempting to implement 276 mandated reforms, and for close to 3 of those years Medina has been a Deputy Chief.

First Deputy Chief Harold Medina has the tragic distinction of shooting and killing a 14-year-old Cibola High School student in 2004 when he was an APD field officer. At the time of the shooting, Harold Medina was 30 years old and was a seven and a half year veteran of APD. According to news accounts, 14-year-old boy Dominic Montoya went to Taylor Ranch Baptist Church looking for prayer. Montoya was reported as saying he was possessed by demons and went to church for help. Some one noticed the teenager was concealing a weapon and APD was called. It turned out it was a BB gun and when APD showed up, the 14 year old was fatally shot by police after pointing the BB gun at the officers. It was the APD Officer Harold Medina who fired 3 shots at the 14 year old, Cibola High School Student with two hitting the juvenile in the abdomen. It was reported that the BB gun was indistinguishable from a real gun and Medina said he was in fear for his life.

https://apnews.com/41e13a7f6393b3ea5b92ccfadae5ccd6

APD First Deputy Chief Harold Medina has gone from being paid $136,040.20 in 2019 to now being paid $145,017.60 within a few months after repeatedly complaining to Chief Geier and CAO Nair he was paid less than the other Deputy Chiefs. City Hall insiders are also noting that Deputy Chief Harold Medina has increased his “media presence” and conducting press conferences and news briefings on occasion with those normally reserved for Chief of Police Michael Geier and even Mayor Tim Keller.

Confidential sources have reported that First Deputy Chief Harold Medina has been applying for Chief positions in other communities, including one in Colorado that turned him down, and has a desire to move on if he is not made the new Chief.

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

The abrupt departure of APD Chief Michael Geier no doubt is sending shock waves through out city hall and especially APD. It was common knowledge that Tim Keller gave Chief Geier a full 4 year commitment to stay with him until the end of his first term. Further, Chief Geier is credited as the one that has made significant progress with implementing the 270 Department of Justice Court Approved Settlement agreement.

MEDINA PART OF THE PROBLEM

It is no secret at city hall that Chief Administrative Officer Sarita Nair is very much involved with the day to day management of APD and that Deputy Chief Harold Medina have developed a strong working relationship with CAO Nair. According to sources 1st Deputy Chief Harold Medina will do whatever he is told to do by CAO Nair and Mayor Tim Keller. Confidential APD command staff have been reporting that Deputy Chief Harold Medina has been making it known to them that he intended to be the next Chief of APD sooner rather than latter or once Mayor Tim Keller is elected to a second term in 2021 or after APD Chief Michael Geier leaves.

Keller appointed Geier after a “national search” and after Geier retired for a 3rd time from law enforcement. The national search was a sham. Appointing First Deputy Chief Harold Medina as Interim Chief confirms insider information that APD is in total disarray and its management in shambles as s result of infighting. If Keller announces that another national search will be conducted to find a new Chief, it is likely it will be another another sham seeing as Medina has been going around making it known to command staff he would be the next Chief.

First Deputy Chief Harold Medina is part of the very problem that brought the Department of Justice here in the first place. It was the past APD management practices that resulted in the “culture of aggression” found by the Department of Justice that lead to the federal consent decree after 18 police officer involved shootings and the findings of excessive use of force and deadly force by APD. Any one in APD command staff who may have assisted, contributed or who did not stop the culture of aggression found by the Department of Justice and who have resisted the reform process has no business being Chief. Medina was a Lieutenant when Ken Ellis was killed and the one who called SWAT and when APD was involved with so many of the police shootings investigated by the DOJ. It is not at all likely, despite whatever public comments he makes, that Medina will ever get behind the Federal mandated reforms which should disqualify him from being the new Chief.

In the event that First Deputy Chief Harold Medina is nominated to become permanent Chief, his appointment will have to be approved by the City Council. Given the questions raised by City Councilor Brook Bassan at the September 9 meeting, it is not likely it will be a unanimous vote.

FROM THE MOUTH OF A FRESHMAN

What is so damn pathetic is that it has taken a freshman city councilor such as Brook Basaan to show virtually all of her other 8 colleagues on the council the true meaning of what role the city council should play when it comes to APD and the Mayor. She is commended for her conduct. The Albuquerque City Council plays a crucial oversight role of the Albuquerque Police Department (APD) including controlling its budget. The other city councilors have said nothing when it comes to Albuquerque Police Department (APD) reforms and have never challenged the previous Administration and the former APD command staff in any meaningful way demanding compliance with the Department of Justice (DOJ) consent decree reforms. Each time the Federal Court appointed Monitor presented his critical reports of APD to the City Council, all the other city councilors remained silent. The city council has a reputation of refusing to demand accountability from the Mayor and hold the APD command staff responsible for dragging their feet on the reforms.

When CAO Sarita Nair tells an elected official “I’m sure it’s not your intent, but it is deeply disrespectful to Chief Geier to engage in internet rumor mongering at this point”, it is Nair who is being disrespectful and down right arrogant with her “political pivot” answer. Nair could just have easily said she was not prepared to answer the question and moved on. The line of questioning by the City Councilor Bassan was legitimate, even if it was based on any rumor of Geier being force out. Nair has a history of being less than forthcoming when asked questions by the city councilors. The fact that it was confirmed within hours that Geier had been terminated is evidence that Nair was fully aware she knew what was going or she at worse was lying to the city council.

CLEAN SWEEP IS NEEDED

When candidate Keller was running for Mayor, he promised sweeping changes with APD, a national search for a new APD Chief and a return to Community based policing. During Mayor Tim Keller’s first 8 months in office, Keller did not make the dramatic management changes he promised, but a relied on past management of the department and past practices. The current Deputy Chiefs are not outsiders at all but have been with APD for years.

The Deputy Chiefs of Police appointed by Mayor Keller included now First Deputy Cheif Harold Medina who retired from APD as commander after serving 20 years, Rogelio Banez who was the area commander in southwest Albuquerque but who has now retired, and Eric Garcia who was a Deputy Chief under APD Chief Gordon Eden. The command staff under Chief Geier do not reflect a new generation of police officer fully committed and trained in constitutional policing.

All the previous commanders under the previous administration were shuffled around with a few retiring. It was the past APD management practices that resulted in the “culture of aggression” found by the Department of Justice that lead to the federal consent decree after 18 police officer involved shootings and the findings of excessive use of force and deadly force by APD.

APD needs a clean sweep in management and philosophy to remove anyone who may have assisted, contributed or who did not stop the culture of aggression found by the Department of Justice and who have resisted the reform process during the last 3 years of the consent decree.

By all accounts, Chief Geier has did a good job of settling the department down and he publicly committed to the DOJ reforms. However, making Interim Chief Geier permanent was evidence that nothing was going to change with APD management. Keller’s “new” and present Deputies are a reflection of APD’s past and all have been with APD for some time. APD’s current command staff are not a new generation of police officer fully committed and trained in constitutional policing practices.

CONCLUSION

APD leadership and management is crumbling around Mayor Tim Keller who is failing to keep his campaign promises of reducing high crime rates, returning to community-based policing, increasing the size of APD am implementing the DOJ reforms. The abrupt departure of Chief Geier no doubt will have a major impact on implementing the DOJ mandated reforms.

Mayor Tim Keller needs to conduct a national search to find a new Chief who is not already with APD and allow who ever is chosen to run APD department free of his interference or the interference of CAO Nair. If that person can’t do the job, Keller needs to find to someone who can. Mayor Keller should take this as an opportunity to also remove all the current Deputy Chief’s and allow whoever he selects to be the new Chief allow them to select and bring in their own command staff.

One thing for sure is that First Deputy Chief Harold Medina is not the person who should be appointed permanent Chief. Medina should also be thanked for service and move on giving him a good letter of recommendation as he seeks employment else where.

On March 16, 2020, because of the corona virus pandemic, the New Mexico Department of Finance, Local Government Division, authorized all New Mexico municipalities to submit their 2019-2020 budget as their fiscal budget for year 2020-2021 until reliable tax revenue projections could be determined. Albuquerque and all municipalities were required to submit interim budgets to the state of New Mexico by June 1. But with “the current economic uncertainties” related to coronavirus, the state allowed local governments to re-submit their current budgets instead of 2021 versions.

https://www.abqjournal.com/1434393/city-of-abq-may-have-to-face-new-normal-in-budget-process.html

On April 13, 2020, on a unanimous vote of 9-0, the Albuquerque City Council enacted R-20-31 which is the city’s operating budget for fiscal year and went into effect on July 1, 2020 and ends June 31, 2021. The enacted City Council’s operating budget, R-20-31 is a mere 7 pages of line item appropriations for each of the city departments. There is no explanation of the millions appropriated in the budget. No public hearings were conducted that would have allowed comment and input from the public. The link to the enacted budget, resolution R-30-21 is here. Click on the link then click on R-31 spelled out in blue and marked FINAL:

https://cabq.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=4411998&GUID=3FD662EF-A96A-4BD6-8113-380B7451BADC

EDITORS NOTE: The postscript to this blog article contains the general fund operating budget line item appropriations for the major departments contained in City Council Resolution R-30-21.

MAYOR KELLER’S 2020-2021 PROPOSED $1.5 BILLION BUDGET

City ordinance requires the Mayor to submit a proposed budget April 1 every year to the City Council but that was not done this year. It was delayed because of the pandemic. On Thursday, September 3, after a 5-month delay, Mayor Tim Keller held a press conference to release the long anticipated proposed budget for the 2020-2021 fiscal year which began on July 1, 2020 and ends June 30, 2021.

The link to the Keller Administration Proposed budget is here:

https://www.cabq.gov/mayor/documents/final_fy21-budget-presentation-_09032020.pdf

Normally, a massive detailed budget and analysis document referred to as the Mayor’s Fiscal Year Budget is prepared. For example, the 2019-2020 Fiscal Year (FY) budget submitted by the Keller Administration is 429 pages, the 2018-2019 FY year submitted by the Keller Administration is 401 pages , the 2017-2018 FY year budget submitted by the Berry Administration is 389 pages , the 2016-2017 FY year budget submitted by the Berry Administration is 389 pages. Narratives on each Department, accomplishments, statistics and personnel with line item appropriations are listed.

The 2020-2021 released proposed budget is a mere 16 pages. Performance based budgets prepared by the city finance department usually include statistics, graphs, pie charts reflecting sources of income and expenditures and supporting narratives justifying each of the city’s 19 department budgets. Yearly budgets are very voluminous. Keller’s 2020-2021 $1.15 Billion dollar budget amounts to nothing more than “bullet points” with no explanation nor details. The Keller administration has yet to provide department-by-department budgets with the financial breakdown with its proposal as required by ordinance mandating the submission of a “performance-based budget”.

You can review at all Fiscal Year budgets from FY 2007 to FY 2021 at this link:

https://www.cabq.gov/dfa/budget/annual-budget

Mayor Keller’s total proposed budget for the 2020-2021 fiscal year is $1.15 Billion which is slightly more than the 2019-2020 budget by about $5 Million. It reflects a zero-growth budget from last year despite the fact there has been a major decline in the city’s gross receipts tax revenues. Keller’s proposed general fund budget is $592 million compared with last year’s $641 million. The general fund covers most basic city services, including police and fire protection, park maintenance and the city’s animal shelters. The current proposal has the city ending the year with $49 million in state-mandated reserves, plus $40 million in contingency money.

City officials have reported that for the fiscal year 2020 gross receipts tax revenue finished 5% behind expectations. Another 5% drop in gross receipts tax revenue is projected for 2021 The drop in revenues resulted in a hiring freeze. The total tax revenue deficit that will have to be dealt with is $46 million.

The city in April received $150 million in federal CARES Act money and has spent about one-third to date. That includes about $1.8 million in financial assistance to businesses, nonprofits and arts organizations distributed before June 30, the end of the 2020 fiscal year.

The money – which has restricted uses – has also gone toward some personnel costs, including first responders and other employees working to address COVID-19. Keller has credited the federal funding for helping prevent employee furloughs and layoffs.

CARES ACT FUNDING FOR SMALL BUSINESS GRANTS

In April, the city received $150 million in federal corona virus relief funding under the corona virus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES). The Keller Administration was able to submit a balanced proposed zero-growth budget because of the CARES money. Upwards of one third of the relief funding has already been spent. The remaining two thirds will be applied to personnel costs and expenses brought on by the virus. The CARES Act funding is the main reason the city has been able to prevent city layoffs and furloughs. Notwithstanding, the city was forced to implement a hiring freeze.

Keller’s proposed fiscal year 2021 budget allocates $3.375 million of the $150 million CARES money toward COVID-19-related business support grants and related assistance. Republican City Councilors Brook Bassan and Trudy Jones are sponsoring legislation to increase the sum to $10 million for small-business saying it is vital to the city’s overall economic recovery to help keep them afloat. According to Bassan the $10 million proposal has been met with resistance from the Keller Administration which wants save money going into next year.

Under Keller’s proposal, the city would end fiscal year 2021 with about $40 million in contingency money. According to Mayor Keller, the $40 million is in addition to $49 million in state-mandated reserves “to protect against predicted drops in revenue that may stretch” into 2022. Councilor Bassan sees it differently and said:

“Right now, we’re seeing it as the city suffering and businesses are hurting, and if we don’t have businesses stay open, we’ll have a higher unemployment rate, higher bankruptcy and closure rates. … the fallout could spiral into long-term problems for the city. … What else is [the CARES funding] for if we’re not going to use it to help residents in Albuquerque.

https://www.abqjournal.com/1494124/councilors-want-10m-for-smallbusiness-grants.html

BULLET POINT BUDGET HIGHLIGHTS

Following is a listing of the “budget bullet” points presented as the 2020-2021 proposed budget.

PUBLIC SAFETY INVESTMENTS FIGHTING CRIME

• $2.5 million to support the hiring of 100 new officers
• $5.2 million for compliance the Court Approved Settlement Agreement with the Department of Justice
• $627,000 to acquire electronic control weapons that have an audit trail to monitor usage and compliance with use of force policies
• $594,000 to purchase on-body cameras, as required by the CASA and state law
• $500,000 for the Violence Intervention Program
• Full funding for ADAPT and Code Enforcement Division
• $300,000 in emergency board-up contracts for nuisance buildings
• $300,000 in park safety investments, including increased security presence
• Full funding for the Animal Welfare Department, including additional money for spay and neuter vouchers and enhanced veterinary operations
• Full funding for the Clean Cities and Block-by-Block programs ($11.3 million), which work to keep our streets clean and our neighborhoods free of graffiti P
• $10.7 million in funding for social service contracts
• $2 million for youth partnerships with APS and nonprofits that keep our kids off the streets and out of harm’s way
• $1.1 million for youth violence prevention
• 32% increase in funding for the Civilian Police Oversight Agency, which includes the CPOA taking over management of the Community Policing Councils and adding personnel to address complaints from the public about police conduct P
• $7.5 million in personnel, equipment and contractual services. In addition, ACS will leverage existing contracts with behavioral health and substance abuse service providers FIRE RESCUE & EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT
• $63.6 million in funding for AFR and OEM, including: •
Emergency Operations Center

HEART team of community health workers

4 th busiest Haz-Mat team in the US
• Wildland Fire Division helping out across western US

ECONOMIC RECOVERY TOTAL INVESTMENT: $20 MILLION +

• $1,000,000 Direct small business support
• $1,125,000 PPE for businesses
• $1,000,000 Outdoor business improvements
• $250,000 E-commerce grants
• Working with the State, administered $225,000 in LEDA grants, $344,000 in zero-interest loans to local companies, with over $1 million in still in the pipeline. In addition to $1.8 million in direct grants to microbusinesses, nonprofits and artists earlier in 2020

HEALTHY AND SAFE SAFETY NET INVESTMENT:

•$20 MILLION+ in expenditures
•$2.8 million to provide community-wide COVID testing, case management and non-congregate shelter for vulnerable populations,
•$2.3 million to address the digital divide so all kids have a chance to succeed in school $978,000 to expand of senior food, transportation and engagement programs $2.5 million to prevent homelessness through supportive housing vouchers, rental assistance and eviction prevention

WORKFORCE SUPPORT THROUGH YOUTH PROGRAMS

•Fully funding Head Start, including additional funding to maintain COVID-safe student-teacher ratios.
•$4 million for year-round continuation of youth programs operated or coordinated by the Family and Community Services, Parks and Recreation, and Cultural Services Departments.

EXTERNAL COST FUNDING ESCALATIONS

• Health insurance premium increases: $3.4 million
• Lodgers’ Tax and Hospitality Fee debt service subsidy: $3.5 million – attributed to COVID
• Isotopes Stadium subsidy: $1.3 million – attributed to COVID
• Gas Tax Operating fund subsidy: $625,000 (to support salaries paid from fund)

COST-SAVING MEASURES

• No overall salary increases for City employees in any department.
• Hiring freezes and slowdowns during the fiscal year to capture for $15 million in savings
• $639,000 in savings from a travel freeze and decreased spending on training
• Postponed $29 million pending initiatives via department requests for additional funding
• Deferred $2.2 million in new operating costs related to capital projects coming online

580 VACANT POSITIONS REPORTED

It was reported on August 2, there are 583 vacant positions throughout city government that have not been filled which represents approximately 9% of the city’s job base of upwards of 6, 000 full time positions. The vacancies account for about $15 million in savings in Keller’s proposed budget.

What the vacancies mean is that residents will see some service slowdowns. Keller had this to say about the vacancies:

“We have adjusted all sorts of service schedules because now we are understaffed citywide. We’re committed to continuing basic things like trash pickup, parks and [recreational services], but things … might take a couple of days longer. … We’re going to get the job done, but it’s not going to be quite as fast or on-time as it used to be.”

The city hall vacancies are because of a $46 million shortfall in gross receipts tax revenues the result of a slow economy and the city was forced to leave more than 580 positions vacant. The vacant potions include:

62 turf management workers to take care of city parks, saving about $2 million a year.

56 Albuquerque Rapid Transit (ART) inspection and maintenance workers saving $2.3 million.

16 security guards to watch over city buildings saving about $400,000

The list of vacancies includes those assigned to perform graffiti removal, janitors and 4 positions in the city’s police oversight agency.

Positions not on the list are police officers and firefighters. However, the city’s payroll records from a year ago shows APD has grown only by six.

https://www.koat.com/article/580-city-positions-go-vacant/33866391

The city’s workforce has also been hit in other ways. City employees will not get an annual cost-of-living raise, though the city will provide a one-time, $375 payment to cover the increases they will see in health insurance coverage.

NEW PUBLIC SAFETY DEPARTMENT

Mayor Keller when releasing the proposed budget said public safety continues to be his administration’s top priority. Keller is proposing upwards of $7.5 million investment in the new Albuquerque Community Safety Department, which would work alongside the Albuquerque Police Department. The new Department will have up to 100 employees funded by the proposed budget.

It was June 15 that Keller announced plans to create a new Public Safety Department that will be on equal footing with all the other 19 city departments, including APD and AFRD. Departments usually have hundreds of employees with separate functions, tasks, and services. As was originally proposed, the new department was to have 32 people for each its 6 area commands, or a total of 192 employees at a minimum, ostensibly working 3 separate 8 hour shifts to be able to respond 24 hours a day, 7 days a week as proposed, with none to have law enforcement powers of arrest and no training as paramedics like firefighters. Under the proposed budget, the new department has dropped from 192 personnel to 100.

Resources to create the Public Safety Department will come from other departments including the Family and Community Services Department that has personnel it who address homeless encampments, and the Department of Municipal Development which includes the city’s security guards. The city’s security guards in the past year have already begun responding to some 911 calls related to people who look unconscious in public spaces.

The new Public Safety Department will also absorb some civilian personnel from the Albuquerque Police Department, though the mayor’s proposal boosts general fund spending on police to $212 million from $205 million last year. The intent is to hire an additional 100 officers by the fiscal year’s end. The city is in the process of accepting a $9.7 million grant from the federal “Operation Legend” operation with the financing dedicated to the hiring 40 entry level police officers for a period of 3 years.

The Albuquerque Community Safety Department as envisioned will have social workers, housing and homelessness specialists and violence prevention and diversion program experts. They will be dispatched to homelessness and “down-and-out” calls as well as behavioral health crisis calls for service to APD. The new department will connect people in need with services to help address any underlying issues. The department personnel would be dispatched through the city’s 911 emergency call system. The intent is to free up the first responders, either police or firefighters, who typically have to deal with down-and-out and behavioral health calls.

OTHER PRIORITIES NOTED

Mayor Keller said he will continue to make funds available to fulfill his commitment to hiring 100 APD officers every year during his first term. Further Keller also wants to invest $10 million in programs that help get to the root of the crime problem such substance abuse, mental health, homelessness, and domestic violence centers.

Various planned expenditures were noted during the release of the proposed budget. Those expenditures include $1 million in direct relief to small businesses, $1.125 million to help businesses cover personal protective equipment, and $1 million to help cover tents, heaters and other costs associated with businesses moving activity outdoors.

SOBERING SUMMATION

During an August 31 press conference on city finances and as a precursor to the release of the proposed budget, Mayor Keller offered the following sobering summation of city finances:

“We have our economic challenges, there’s no doubt about that, but our city on a relative basis is actually not doing as bad as we thought. … [W]e tried to first cut costs then we tried to identify savings by banning travel, by examining department budgets for costs savings, restrictions on new hires; we have a broad hiring freeze that’s had a lot of exceptions we’ve had in place now for I think six months. …

“The reality is we have less code inspectors than we are supposed to have, we have less folks taking care of our parks than we use to have, we have less folks picking up our trash than we use to have, we have less folks driving our buses than we use to have. … We are begging to operate in the area of resource shortage.”

We have a broad hiring freeze that’s had a lot of exceptions we’ve had in place now for I think six months. Instead of the park getting mowed every week, it’s going to be getting mowed every 10 days. Those kinds of things are inevitably going to happen when we’ve had a long-standing hiring freeze. …

But by and large, any major initiative, we expect government to continue on as it normally would with just minor delays in some services. … The job recovery region, Albuquerque and Bernalillo County, is in much better shape. … We should be back to the normal level sometime in 2024.

“We are always considering what we need to do and that could include layoffs. That could include wage cuts. That could include furloughs.”

Links to related news coverage are here:

https://www.kob.com/albuquerque-news/city-of-albuquerque-faces-budget-shortfall-but-mayor-says-it-could-be-worse/5846715/?cat=500

https://www.koat.com/article/expect-taller-grass-trash-and-longer-bus-waits/33854871

https://www.abqjournal.com/1492125/keller-citys-economic-position-better-than-most.html

The proposed budget will now be reviewed by the City Council which will hold public hearings and make changes as they see fit. It is anticipated that the final version of the budget will reach Mayor Keller sometime in mid- to late October for his final approval.

GOOD FINANCIAL TIMES FOR CITY HALL COMING TO AN END

The City of Albuquerque had a fantastic fiscal year that began on July 1, 2019 and that ended on June 30, 2020. It is no exaggeration that the city was in a real sense flush with money during the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2020.

For the fiscal year of July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2020, the Albuquerque City Council enacted an operating budget of $1.1 billion for the fiscal year. It was the first time in city history that the city operating budget exceed the $1 Billion figure. The 2019-2020 budget represented an overall 11% increase in spending over the previous year.

In April, 2019 a onetime $34.4 million dollar windfall to the city was reported from what was called an “orphan month”. The $34.3 million “one-time, lifetime” boost in revenues could not be applied by the city toward recurring costs. $29 million of the $34.3 million was applied to numerous one-time investments the Keller Administration felt important, including $6 million for public safety vehicles such as police cars for new police cadets, $2.3 million for park security, $2 million for the business recruitment and growth and $2 million for housing vouchers and related programs.

https://www.petedinelli.com/2019/04/04/orphan-month-windfall-of-34-million-used-for-1-1-billion-city-budget-no-new-taxes-city-to-charge-for-car-crash-clean-ups-and-vehicle-fires/

On October 7, 2019 the City Council approved a $30.5 million “Sports -Tourism” lodger tax package on a unanimous vote submitted Mayor Keller to upgrade and build sports facilities throughout the city. Revenue generated by the lodger’s is used to pay off the $30.5 million bond debt. Lodger tax revenues are supposed to be used to promote tourism and tourism functions and facilities and not general sports venues used by the general public.

http://documents.cabq.gov/budget/fy-20-proposed-budget.pdf

BREAKING A CAMPAIGN PROMISE

On March 5, 2018 the Albuquerque City Council voted to raise the city’s gross receipts tax rate by three-eighths of a percent on an 8-1 vote without putting it to a public vote. Breaking a campaign promise made a mere 4 months before not to raise taxes without a vote, Mayor Keller signed the tax increase into law. It represents 38 cents more paid in gross receipts tax for every $100 in purchases. 70% of the tax was dedicated to public safety. The increase went into effect July 1. The tax of three-eighths of a cent raised taxes upward of $55 million each year. The rational for the tax increase was that the city was faced with a $40 million dollar deficit. The deficit never materialized and the tax increase was not repealed, and the Keller Administration has never disclosed where those revenues went or why the tax was not repealed when the deficit never materialized.

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

During the September 3, press conference releasing the long anticipated proposed budget for the 2020-2021, Mayor Keller had this to say comparing this year’s budget with past budgets:

“This is more about nuts and bolts, and how we’re weathering the storm. … [There is no funding for] awesome new ideas and initiatives and fun things.”

Slipshod and embarrassing are the two words that come to mind when you review the proposed 2020-2021budget submitted by Mayor Tim Keller.

It is slipshod because it lacks the care, thought, or organization mandated by a performance-based budget. It does not make an attempt at a traditional performance-based budget. Absent are any hard data on income and allocations. It is slipshod in that it does not include one single department budget with any line itemization as to what the funding is being spent on.

It is embarrassing because it was submitted by Mayor Tim Keller who knows better. When candidate Keller was running for Mayor, he reviewed prior city budgets to glean an understanding of city finances which Keller had a zero understanding of at the time. Keller is the former New Mexico State Auditor who became Mayor riding on a wave of popularity as the white knight crusader to stop waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayer money and promising transparency. The 2020-2021 proposed budget provides little transparency.

Now that Keller is Mayor running for re-election he obviously does want people to know how bad the city’s finances really are and how his administration has spent beyond our means. There is no transparency in the proposed budget. The budget contains nothing about how the April, 2019 onetime $34.4 million dollar windfall to the city was spent. The budget contains nothing about the $30.5 million “Sports -Tourism” lodger tax package submitted Mayor Keller to upgrade and build sports facilities throughout the city enacted on October 7, 2019 by the City Council on a unanimous vote.

City budgets do not have budgets entitled “awesome new ideas and initiatives and fun things.” City budget’s main priority must and always be delivery of basic essential services such as police protection, fire protection, street repairs, mass transportation, garbage pickup and even social services.

Perhaps Mayor Tim Keller is now realizing that fun time or play time is now over for him. Mayor Keller, Chief Administrative Officer Sarita Nair and Chief Financial Officer Sanjay Bhahta need to buckle down and get to work on actual department budgets because it is evident that they have done absolutely nothing for the past 8 months to prepare a performance-based city budget. Bullet points do not make a budget.

_________________

POSTSCRIPT

On April 13, 2020, on a unanimous vote of 9-0, the Albuquerque City Council enacted R-20-31 which is the city’s operating budget for fiscal year 2020-2021. It is not a performance base budget but the enabling legislation that is required before any expenditure can be made. Such a resolution is suppose to be enacted only after a performance based budget is reviewed and amended by the city council after public hearings. R-20-31, contains the following general fund Operating Budget line item appropriations as they appear for the major city departments:

ANIMAL WELFARE DEPARTMENT, ANIMAL CARE CENTER: $12,675,000

AVIATION DEPARTMENT

Management & Professional Support: $5,841,000
Operations, Maintenance and Security: $33,427,000
Transfers to Other Funds:
General Fund: $2,495,000
Airport Capital and Deferred Maintenance Fund $23,000,000

CHIEF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE: $3,439,000

CITY SUPPORT FUNCTIONS LINE ITEM BUDGET

Dues and Memberships: $504,000
Early Retirement: $6,000,000 (This fund is used to pay accumulated annual and sick leave to employees who retire.)
GRT Administration Fee: $5,400,000
Joint Committee on Intergovernmental Legislative Relations: $219,000
Open and Ethical Elections: $641,000

TRANSFER TO OTHER FUNDS:

Operating Grants Fund: $6,000,000
Sales Tax Refunding D/S Fund: $13,298,000
Vehicle/Equipment Replacement Fund: 1,200,000

CIVILIAN POLICE OVERSIGHT AGENCY: $1,065,000

CITY COUNCIL SERVICES: $5,337,000

CULTURAL SERVICES DEPARTMENT

Biological Park: $15,277,000
CIP Bio Park: $247,000
Community Events: $3,523,000
Explora Science Museum: $1,448,000
Albuquerque Museum: $3,713,000
Museum-Balloon: $1,528,000
Public Arts and Urban Enhancement: $511,000
Public Library: $12,952,000
Strategic Support: $2,795,000

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT LINE ITEM BUDGET

Convention Center / ASC: $2,234,000
Economic Development: $110,000
Economic Development Investment: $321,000
International Trade: $198,000
Office of MRA: $530,000

ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH DEPARTMENT

Consumer Health: $1,574,000
Environmental Services: $679,000
Strategic Support: $839,000
Urban Biology: $500,000

FAMILY AND COMMUNITY SERVICES DEPARTMENT LINE ITEM BUDGET

Affordable Housing: $2,665,000
Child and Family Development: $6,447,000
Community Recreation: $11,661,000
Educational Initiatives: $2,948,000
Emergency Shelter: $5,620,000
Health and Human Services: $4,084,000
Homeless Support Services: $3,481,000
Mental Health: $3,754,000
Strategic Support: $2,021,000
Substance Abuse: $3,075,000
Youth Gang Initiative: $1,155,000

FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE DEPARTMENT LINE ITEM BUDGET

Accounting: $4,125,000
Financial Support Services: $1,196,000
Office of Management and Budget: $1,109,000
Purchasing: $1,626,000
Strategic Support: $1,121,000
Treasury: $1,118,000

FIRE DEPARTMENT LINE ITEM BUDGET

Dispatch: $5,385,000
Emergency Response: $69,149,000
Emergency Services: $3,361,000
Fire Prevention: $5,861,000
Headquarters: $3,289,000
Logistics: $3,292,000
Office of Emergency Management: $307,000
Training: $2,178,000

HUMAN RESOURCES DEPARTMENT LINE ITEM BUDGET

B/C/J/Q Union Time: $131,000
Personnel Services: $2,994,000
LEGAL DEPARTMENT BUDGET

Legal Services: $6,237,000
Office of Equity and Inclusion: $409,000
MAYOR’S OFFICE $1,068,000

MUNICIPAL DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT LINE ITEM BUDGET

City Buildings : $14,766,000
Construction: $1,889,000
Design Recovered CIP: $2,077,000
Design Recovered Storm: $2,940,000
Real Property: $879,000
Special Events Parking: $19,000
Storm Drainage: $2,946,000
Strategic Support: $2,743,000
Streets: $ 5,227,000 32
Street Services: $15,210,000

OFFICE OF THE CITY CLERK LINE ITEM BUDGET

Administrative Hearing Office: $412,000
Office of the City Clerk: $2,211,000
Office of Inspector General: $504,000
OFFICE OF INTERNAL AUDIT AND INVESTIGATIONS: $934,000
PARKING SERVICES $4,368,000 (This is money used to operate the city’s parking structures.)

PARKS AND RECREATION DEPARTMENT LINE ITEM BUDGET

Aquatic Services: $5,458,000
CIP Funded Employees: $2,589,000
Open Space Management: $4,408,000
Parks Management: $18,542,000
Recreation: $3,658,000
Strategic Support: $1,404,000

TRANSFER TO OTHER FUNDS:

Capital Acquisition Fund: $100,000
Golf Operating Fund: $1,368,000

PLANNING DEPARTMENT LINE ITEM BUDGET

Code Enforcement $3,570,000
One Stop Shop $7,543,000
Strategic Support $2,418,000
Urban Design and Development $1,637,000

POLICE DEPARTMENT LINE ITEM BUDGET

Administrative Support: $18,835,000 (This funding is for case management and reports, clerical staff and the forensic lab.)
Investigative Services: $45,622,000 (This funding is for the various detective units)
Neighborhood Policing: $104,730,000
Off-Duty Police Overtime: $2,225,000 (The funding is to pay for police overtime and for years the actual funding has approached $10 to $14 Million a year.)
Prisoner Transport: $2,423,000 (The funding is used to transport all arrestees to the Westside Jail.)
Professional Accountability: $34,042,000 (This is funding associated with the Department of Justice Consent Decree)

SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT

Administrative Services $7,687,000
Clean City $10,845,000
Collections $23,684,000 (This is the annual cost associated with residential and commercial garbage pick up)
Disposal $9,326,000 (This is funding to operate the land fill)
Maintenance – Support Services $5,641,000 (This fund is essentially fleet maintenance costs)
General Fund $5,933,000
Refuse Disposal Capital Fund $11,619,000

SENIOR AFFAIRS DEPARTMENT

Basic Services $256,000
Strategic Support $2,404,000
Well Being $5,657,000

TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION DEPARTMENT

Citizen Services $3,771,000
Data Management for APD $ 825,000
Information Services $11,546,000

TRANSIT DEPARTMENT: $26,578,000

TRANSIT OPERATING FUND

ABQ Rapid Transit: $1,824,000
ABQ Ride: $31,918,000
Facility Maintenance: $2,560,000
Paratransit Services: $6,232,000
Special Events: $237,000
Strategic Support: $3,464,000
Transfer to Other Funds (Transit):
General Fund: $5,590,000
Transit Grants Fund: $986,000
AIRPORT REVENUE BOND DEBT SERVICE FUND: $2,306,000

BASEBALL STADIUM OPERATING FUND

Stadium Operations $1,232,000
Transfer to Other Funds:
General Fund: $25,000
Sports Stadium D/S Fund: $1,023,000

BASEBALL STADIUM DEBT SERVICE FUND: $998,000

RISK MANAGEMENT FUND (This fund deals with litigation costs and settlements paid out when the city is sued)

Risk – Fund Administration: $1,173,000
Risk – Safety Office: $1,926,000
Risk – Tort and Other: $2,410,000
Risk – Workers’ Comp: $2,518,000
Workers Compensation, Tort Claims and Other Claims: $27,829,000

HUMAN RESOURCES DEPARTMENT

Unemployment Compensation: $1,028,000
Employee Equity: $445,000
Group Self Insurance: $84,917,000 (The city is a self insured entity and as such must maintain a percentage of projected liability exposure.)
Below is the link to located final draft of R-30-21. Click on the link then click on R-31 spelled out in blue and marked FINAL:

https://cabq.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=4411998&GUID=3FD662EF-A96A-4BD6-8113-380B7451BADC

During his September 3 press conference revealing the 2020-2021 budget, Mayor Keller reiterated that Albuquerque’s municipal government is in better shape than most other major American cities also dealing with the pandemic. Keller cited research covered by The New York Times that estimated Albuquerque’s revenue shortfall to be the second lowest among 40 large cities, second only to Boston.

https://www.abqjournal.com/1493168/mayor-proposes-1-15-billion-budget-to-council.html

On Sunday, September 6, the Albuquerque Journal began to publish the results of its long anticipated 2020 general election poll in the state. As has been the case for decades, the Journal poll was conducted by Research and Polling.

On September 7 and 8, New Mexico political blogger Joe Monahan published his take on the Albuquerque Journal poll on his blog New Mexico Politics With Joe Monahan. As usual, Mr. Monahan provided and excellent and insightful summary of the polls. Below are his articles:

Monday, September 07, 2020

Trump Hits The Blue Wall; Biden Trounces Him In Key State Poll: Impact On Legislative Races Eyed

Barring an event of unimaginable consequence, New Mexico is poised to go blue for the fourth consecutive time in a presidential contest.

The Albuquerque Journal poll released Sunday essentially puts the race out of reach of Republican President Donald Trump who won the backing of only 39 percent of likely voters compared to Dem challenger Joe Biden’s 54 percent.

Making a Trump comeback even less likely, just 7 percent of those polled said they were undecided or that they would not be voting for either candidate.

Given the exceptionally low undecided less than two months from Election Day only an event of seismic proportion that shakes the entire nation would appear to be able to alter the inevitability of a Biden win here.

In the know R’s are circling the wagons, acknowledging that with a Biden blue wave the state’s five member congressional delegation will likely stay blue and that the party’s best hope is to vigorously campaign to protect and add to their legislative numbers.

A Trump win is not in the cards but they see a shot at reducing his losing margin in which Trump breaks free from the Republican base vote of 42 percent. That could benefit their legislative candidates as well as southern congressional hopeful Yvette Herrell.

At NMGOP headquarters they tried to put a brave face on the dismal numbers. They questioned the survey’s demographics, wondering about the number of Dems polled vs. R’s, noting that the information was not released. They added:

Polls conducted in the summer often fail to be reflective of November elections. Campaigns don’t start until after Labor Day. There will be nationally televised presidential debates, and candidates will spend millions in media advertising. To conduct a poll during late summer may be useful, but in New Mexico there are more than 283,000 unaffiliated voters who were not involved in the Primary Election.

Still, this makes for some very wishful thinking. Trump lost to Hillary Clinton here in 2016 by 48 to 40 with Libertarian Gary Johnson garnering 9 percent. Pollster Brian Sanderoff sounded a four alarm fire for the White House, pointing out that Hispanic voters were supporting Biden 64 percent to Trump’s 28 percent and that just about all the Hispanics who supported Johnson were now supporting Biden. That undercut a key argument of the Trump campaign on why the state could be brought into play. The President would need 40 percent Hispanic support to be anywhere near competitive.

There were tidbits of good news for Trump in the survey conducted August 26 to September 2 among 1,123 likely voters and that sports a margin error of 2.9 percent. In the Northwest region he manages a 55 to 43 margin over Biden and on the conservative eastside Trump won landslide numbers, 65 percent to 30 percent over Biden. And while Trump is behind here it is not a surprise and not a commentary on what the ultimate result of the national election will be.

But it was the ABQ Metro that delivered what could be the death knell, giving him just 33 percent support to Biden’s landslide number of 61 percent. The Metro is the most populous region of the state and turnout could be off the charts this year.

In 2018–an off year election with lower turnout than a presidential year—a Dem Blue Wave washed over the usually moderate/conservative ABQ NE Heights. When it was done only one GOP state House member was left standing in Bernalillo County. R’s challenging the Dem freshman winners from that year have to face the dilemma of watching many of their voters going for Biden and then trying to persuade them to vote Republican for the House seats.

Then there’s the four metro area GOP state senate seats that could be crucial in determining how liberal state policy could be in the election’s aftermath. The R’s seeking those slots are in need of chicken soup and valium to help them recover from the body blow this poll represents.

One poll does not an election make but it often defines what is and what isn’t possible. Could we see some Republicans separate themselves from Trump in hope of surviving? Well, a hungry man will do most anything to see the sun rise another day.”

Tuesday, September 08, 2020

Poll Reveals Warning Signs For R’s In Southern CD, Plus: In Senate Race Lujan One Point Shy Of Magic Number And R’s Strategize State Senate

There are warning signs for the R’s in the latest polling as they fight to oust Dem US Rep. Xochitl Torres Small in the state’s southern congressional district.

The ABQ Journal survey conducted Aug 26-Sept. 2 has XTS carrying a two point lead–47-45–over Republican Yvette Herrell into the final critical weeks of Campaign 2020. That places the race well within the survey’s 4.8 percent margin of error. But there could be an enthusaism gap developing between the two contenders that left unchecked could give the Dems the edge.

First is the anemic performance of President Trump in the mostly conservative district. He aced Hillary Clinton by a ten point margin in 2016 but this survey shows he is beating Biden by only 4 points. That confirms insider polling we reported on weeks ago that showed Trump carrying the district by only one point.

A sagging Trump could have a profound impact on Herrell. Journal pollster Brian Sanderoff points out his studies show that what happens at the top of the ticket has significant impact on what happens below. Herrell needs a Trump rebound.

The other part of the enthusiasm gap is Herrell’s support from 81 percent of Republican respondents. That sounds high, but political pros will tell you that number should be pushing 90 percent. The R’s are much smaller than the Dems and must show unity to score the upset. The fear is that the ongoing infighting among GOP factions in the district will again dampen turnout for Herrell as it did when she lost to XTS by 3,700 votes in 2016.

LUJAN VS. RONCHETTI

In the Journal polling of the US Senate race, veteran political analyst Greg Payne pronounced himself “a little surprised” that US Rep. Ben Ray Lujan came up one point short of the magic 50 percent mark that signals victory is near. Lujan scored 49 percent to Republican Mark Ronchetti’s 40 percent. (Libertarian Bob Walsh had 4 percent).

Payne does not believe that Lujan is in serious jeopardy at this juncture. He says the northern congressman’s name ID statewide is only now being developed via TV ads.

There is also the matter of the intense dislike of Washington DC these days. The Journal poll gives Congress a ludicrously low approval rating of 12 percent. That could also be holding back BRL from getting an early “all clear” signal from voters. Ronchetti and the R’s have been hanging liberal House Speaker Nancy Pelosi around his neck. She’s unpopular with conservatives but also many in the Dems progressive wing.

Lujan has only just begun to put Ronchetti’s neck in the Trump noose. Trump is running about where Ronchetti is–39 percent against Biden’s 54. How can Ronchetti break through the wall of negativity surrounding Trump in the ABQ metro area where the poll says he is already behind 20 points? Without that breakthrough, he can’t win. His 40 percent polling represents a consolidation of the Republican base vote, not a breakthrough with needed Dems and indys.

Lujan’s first wave of general election ads left him about where he was in the June PPP poll which had him leading Ronchetti 48 to 34. There are still no signs that national R’s are interested in targeting the race but Lujan will want to close that door as quickly as he can. That means going negative.

Only the southern congressional race is competitive. The other two are snoozers. ABQ Dem freshman Rep. Deb Haaland has an enormous 58-31 lead over R Michelle Garcia Holmes.

Haaland’s politics may be a bit far left for the district but voters take pride in her overcoming her personal struggles to become one of the first Native American women to serve in the Congress and serving with dedication.

The lesser known Teresa Leger Fernandez, the Dem nominee for the northern seat, is also way ahead of her GOP foe, Alexis Johnson, 50 to 35. Leger will need time to win the hearts of voters but she possesses a calm competence that has been well received in the north.

STATE SENATE ACTION

R’s focused on the state Senate seats say that they have two possible pick-ups to offset a potential Dem rampage in the ABQ metro. They point to Crystal Dimond who is running against Neomi Martinez for the seat of Sen. John Arthur Smith in the SW. He was defeated by Martinez in the Dem primary but the district does have conservative inclinations. They also think that the seat being left vacant by conservative Dem John Sapien of Corrales could tip Republican with able GOP contender John Clark. Onetime Deb Haaland aide Brenda McKenna is the Dem hopeful and women are getting elected in droves on the D side.

The four R seats on the line include those of Senators Rue and Gould and the open seat of GOP Senator Bill Payne, all in big Bernalillo County. Another R problem is the challenge Republican freshman Sen. Greg Baca is getting in Valencia County.

The R’s would like the seat of Sen. Clemente Sanchez of Grants who was ousted in the Dem primary by Pam Cordova but that is a tall order with Trump leading the ticket and her deep roots in the district.

If the GOP could pick up the Smith or Sapien seats or both it would balance out potential losses or even lead to a pick up, if all their incumbents could hold on. One thing is certain–the R’s are again playing defense just as in ’18.

ABQ JOURNAL EXPLAINS MYTHOLOGY OF BOTH PRESIDENTIAL AND UNITED STATES SENATE POLL

Research & Polling Inc. is New Mexico’s largest full-service market research and public opinion research company. Founded in 1986, the company today serves a wide variety of prominent national and New Mexico clients. https://www.rpinc.com/ When it comes to polling in New Mexico political races, Research and Polling has an extensive history of accurate predictions and is considered the “gold standard” of polling.

“The Journal Poll is based on a scientific, statewide sample of 1,123 likely general election voters who also voted in either the 2016 and 2018 general elections – or both. Respondents were given the choice of Biden or Trump, as well as the option of volunteering support for a different candidate. Fewer than 1% chose “other candidate,” and 2% said they would not vote for either Biden or Trump.

The poll was conducted from August 26 through September 2. The voter sample has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points. The margin of error grows for subsamples. All interviews were conducted by live, professional interviewers, with multiple callbacks to households that did not initially answer the phone. Both cellphone numbers (73%) and landlines (27%) of likely general election voters were used.”

The link to the full Albuquerque Journal Presidential Poll report is here:

https://www.abqjournal.com/1493758/biden-holds-sizable-lead-over-trump-in-nm-journal-poll-finds.html

The link to the full Albuquerque Journal United State Senate report is here:

https://www.abqjournal.com/1493963/journal-poll-lujan-leads-ronchetti-in-us-senate-race.html

ABQ JOURNAL EXPLAINS MYTHOLOGY OF CONGRESSIONAL POLL

According to the Albuquerque Journal article, “The Journal Poll is based on a scientific sample of likely general election voters who also voted in either the 2016 and 2018 general elections – or both. The poll was conducted from Aug. 26 through Sept. 2.

In the 1st Congressional District, the poll sampled 404 voters and had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points. [ Congresswoman Debra] Haaland … was favored by 58% of likely voters in the 1st Congressional District. … Republican Michelle Garcia Holmes, a retired police detective, had support from 31% of those surveyed.”

In the 2nd Congressional District, the poll sampled 418 voters and had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.8 percentage points. … Democrat Xochitl Torres Small and Republican Yvette Herrell are … separated by just 2%. … . Torres Small had support from 47% of likely voters surveyed. … Herrell, a former state representative from Alamogordo, was favored by 45% of those surveyed.”

In the 3rd Congressional District, the poll sampled 301 voters and had a margin of error of plus or minus 5.6 percentage points. Journal Poll showed 50% of likely voters in the district say they would vote for Teresa Leger Fernandez. … . Alexis Johnson … had support from 35% of those surveyed. Of those surveyed, 14% said they were undecided or didn’t know whom they would vote for.
The margin of error grows for subsamples.

All interviews were conducted by live, professional interviewers, with multiple callbacks to households that did not initially answer the phone. Both cellphone numbers and landlines of likely general election voters were used.

The link to the full Albuquerque Journal Congressional poll report is here:

https://www.abqjournal.com/1493962/journal-poll-nms-2nd-congressional-district-too-close-to-call.html

CONTACT INFORMATION FOR JOE MONAHAN

The link to New Mexico Politics with Joe Monahan is here:

http://joemonahansnewmexico.blogspot.com/

You can email comments to Mr. Monahan here:

newsguy@yahoo.com)

On March 13, the Atlantic published a controversial article written by its editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg. He is a recipient of the National Magazine Award for Reporting. Mr. Goldberg is the author of Prisoners: A Story of Friendship and Terror. President Trump vehemently denied the truth of the article, but Trump’s previous comments are consistent with his actions and comments of the past. Other news agencies, including FOX News, have corroborate the Atlantic Report

Below is the article in full published by the Atlantic followed by the link:

“TRUMP: AMERICANS WHO DIED IN WAR ARE ‘LOSERS’ AND ‘SUCKERS’

The president has repeatedly disparaged the intelligence of service members, and asked that wounded veterans be kept out of military parades, multiple sources tell The Atlantic.

When President Donald Trump canceled a visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris in 2018, he blamed rain for the last-minute decision, saying that “the helicopter couldn’t fly” and that the Secret Service wouldn’t drive him there. Neither claim was true.

Trump rejected the idea of the visit because he feared his hair would become disheveled in the rain, and because he did not believe it important to honor American war dead, according to four people with firsthand knowledge of the discussion that day. In a conversation with senior staff members on the morning of the scheduled visit, Trump said, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.” In a separate conversation on the same trip, Trump referred to the more than 1,800 marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood as “suckers” for getting killed.

Belleau Wood is a consequential battle in American history, and the ground on which it was fought is venerated by the Marine Corps. America and its allies stopped the German advance toward Paris there in the spring of 1918. But Trump, on that same trip, asked aides, “Who were the good guys in this war?” He also said that he didn’t understand why the United States would intervene on the side of the Allies.

Trump’s understanding of concepts such as patriotism, service, and sacrifice has interested me since he expressed contempt for the war record of the late Senator John McCain, who spent more than five years as a prisoner of the North Vietnamese. “He’s not a war hero,” Trump said in 2015 while running for the Republican nomination for president. “I like people who weren’t captured.”

There was no precedent in American politics for the expression of this sort of contempt, but the performatively patriotic Trump did no damage to his candidacy by attacking McCain in this manner. Nor did he set his campaign back by attacking the parents of Humayun Khan, an Army captain who was killed in Iraq in 2004.

Trump remained fixated on McCain, one of the few prominent Republicans to continue criticizing him after he won the nomination. When McCain died, in August 2018, Trump told his senior staff, according to three sources with direct knowledge of this event, “We’re not going to support that loser’s funeral,” and he became furious, according to witnesses, when he saw flags lowered to half-staff. “What the fuck are we doing that for? Guy was a fucking loser,” the president told aides. Trump was not invited to McCain’s funeral. (These sources, and others quoted in this article, spoke on condition of anonymity. The White House did not return earlier calls for comment, but Alyssa Farah, a White House spokesperson, emailed me this statement shortly after this story was posted: “This report is false. President Trump holds the military in the highest regard. He’s demonstrated his commitment to them at every turn: delivering on his promise to give our troops a much needed pay raise, increasing military spending, signing critical veterans reforms, and supporting military spouses. This has no basis in fact.”)

Trump’s understanding of heroism has not evolved since he became president. According to sources with knowledge of the president’s views, he seems to genuinely not understand why Americans treat former prisoners of war with respect. Nor does he understand why pilots who are shot down in combat are honored by the military. On at least two occasions since becoming president, according to three sources with direct knowledge of his views, Trump referred to former President George H. W. Bush as a “loser” for being shot down by the Japanese as a Navy pilot in World War II. (Bush escaped capture, but eight other men shot down during the same mission were caught, tortured, and executed by Japanese soldiers.)

When lashing out at critics, Trump often reaches for illogical and corrosive insults, and members of the Bush family have publicly opposed him. But his cynicism about service and heroism extends even to the World War I dead buried outside Paris—people who were killed more than a quarter century before he was born. Trump finds the notion of military service difficult to understand, and the idea of volunteering to serve especially incomprehensible. (The president did not serve in the military; he received a medical deferment from the draft during the Vietnam War because of the alleged presence of bone spurs in his feet. In the 1990s, Trump said his efforts to avoid contracting sexually transmitted diseases constituted his “personal Vietnam.”)

On Memorial Day 2017, Trump visited Arlington National Cemetery, a short drive from the White House. He was accompanied on this visit by John Kelly, who was then the secretary of homeland security, and who would, a short time later, be named the White House chief of staff. The two men were set to visit Section 60, the 14-acre area of the cemetery that is the burial ground for those killed in America’s most recent wars. Kelly’s son Robert is buried in Section 60. A first lieutenant in the Marine Corps, Robert Kelly was killed in 2010 in Afghanistan. He was 29. Trump was meant, on this visit, to join John Kelly in paying respects at his son’s grave, and to comfort the families of other fallen service members. But according to sources with knowledge of this visit, Trump, while standing by Robert Kelly’s grave, turned directly to his father and said, “I don’t get it. What was in it for them?” Kelly (who declined to comment for this story) initially believed, people close to him said, that Trump was making a ham-handed reference to the selflessness of America’s all-volunteer force. But later he came to realize that Trump simply does not understand non-transactional life choices.

“He can’t fathom the idea of doing something for someone other than himself,” one of Kelly’s friends, a retired four-star general, told me. “He just thinks that anyone who does anything when there’s no direct personal gain to be had is a sucker. There’s no money in serving the nation.” Kelly’s friend went on to say, “Trump can’t imagine anyone else’s pain. That’s why he would say this to the father of a fallen marine on Memorial Day in the cemetery where he’s buried.”

I’ve asked numerous general officers over the past year for their analysis of Trump’s seeming contempt for military service. They offer a number of explanations. Some of his cynicism is rooted in frustration, they say. Trump, unlike previous presidents, tends to believe that the military, like other departments of the federal government, is beholden only to him, and not the Constitution. Many senior officers have expressed worry about Trump’s understanding of the rules governing the use of the armed forces. This issue came to a head in early June, during demonstrations in Washington, D.C., in response to police killings of Black people. James Mattis, the retired Marine general and former secretary of defense, lambasted Trump at the time for ordering law-enforcement officers to forcibly clear protesters from Lafayette Square, and for using soldiers as props: “When I joined the military, some 50 years ago, I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution,” Mattis wrote. “Never did I dream that troops taking that same oath would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow citizens—much less to provide a bizarre photo op for the elected commander-in-chief, with military leadership standing alongside.”

Another explanation is more quotidian, and aligns with a broader understanding of Trump’s material-focused worldview. The president believes that nothing is worth doing without the promise of monetary payback, and that talented people who don’t pursue riches are “losers.” (According to eyewitnesses, after a White House briefing given by the then-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joe Dunford, Trump turned to aides and said, “That guy is smart. Why did he join the military?”)

Yet another, related, explanation concerns what appears to be Trump’s pathological fear of appearing to look like a “sucker” himself. His capacious definition of sucker includes those who lose their lives in service to their country, as well as those who are taken prisoner, or are wounded in battle. “He has a lot of fear,” one officer with firsthand knowledge of Trump’s views said. “He doesn’t see the heroism in fighting.” Several observers told me that Trump is deeply anxious about dying or being disfigured, and this worry manifests itself as disgust for those who have suffered. Trump recently claimed that he has received the bodies of slain service members “many, many” times, but in fact he has traveled to Dover Air Force Base, the transfer point for the remains of fallen service members, only four times since becoming president. In another incident, Trump falsely claimed that he had called “virtually all” of the families of service members who had died during his term, then began rush-shipping condolence letters when families said the president was not telling the truth.

Trump has been, for the duration of his presidency, fixated on staging military parades, but only of a certain sort. In a 2018 White House planning meeting for such an event, Trump asked his staff not to include wounded veterans, on grounds that spectators would feel uncomfortable in the presence of amputees. “Nobody wants to see that,” he said.”

The link to the Atlantic article is here:

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/09/trump-americans-who-died-at-war-are-losers-and-suckers/615997/

FOX NEWS CONFIRMS THE ATLANTIC’S REPORT ON TRUMP’S SOLDIER COMMENTS

There is no doubt that FOX News is a 24-7 promoter of all that is Trump. It is likely he has many of FOX new casters, especially Sean Hannity, on the White House speed dial.

On Thursday, September 3, the Fox News national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin confirmed reporting published by The Atlantic that Trump had said soldiers who died in war were “suckers” and “losers” and said as follows:

“I’ve spoken with two U.S. senior officials who were on the trip to France who confirmed to me key details in The Atlantic article and the quotes attributed to the president,” Griffin said.

According to Griffin’s sources, one of whom she said was a former Trump administration official, “The president would say about American veterans, ‘What’s in it for them? They don’t make any money.’”

Griffin also said one of her sources said, “It was a character flaw of the President. He could not understand why someone would die for their country, not worth it.”

“Regarding the French trip to mark the end of WWI, according to this former official, the president was not in a good mood,” Griffin continued. “French President Macron had said something that made him mad, he questioned why he had to go to two cemeteries. ‘Why do I have to do two?’ His staff explained he could cancel, but he was warned they — they press — are going to kill you for this. The president was mad as a hornet when they did, according to this source.”

The link to the FOX News report is here:

https://www.thewrap.com/fox-news-confirms-atlantic-report-trump-soldier-comments/

TRUMP DEMANDS FOX NEWS FIRE REPORTER

On Friday, September 5, in a late night “tweet” Trump demanded that Fox News fire national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin after she said she confirmed “key details” in the Atlantic report that he had disparaged American military dead as “losers” and “suckers.” Trump tweeted:

“All refuted by many witnesses. Jennifer Griffin should be fired for this kind of reporting. Never even called us for comment. @FoxNews is gone!”

Griffin responded to Trump’s demand by saying:

“I can tell you that my sources are unimpeachable. I feel very confident with what we have reported at Fox. Not every line of The Atlantic article did I confirm, but I would say that most of the descriptions and the quotes in that Atlantic article I did find people who were able to confirm, and so, you know, I feel very confident in my reporting.”

Several FOX News reporters and on-air hosts went to Griffin’s defense, including Fox News’ Bret Baier, who said Griffin was a “great reporter and a total class act“; foreign correspondent Trey Yingst, who tweeted that she “embodies what the industry is built upon. Truth and accountability”; and State Department correspondent Rich Edison, who said she was a “terrific reporter.” ABC News’ Jonathan Karl also commended Griffin for being “an excellent reporter and a class act,” while the New York Times’ Maggie Haberman said Griffin is “one of the best reporters [at Fox News.]

https://www.thewrap.com/trump-demands-fox-news-fire-reporter-who-confirmed-report-he-disparaged-troops/

OTHER NEWS AGENCIES CORROBORATE ATLANTIC REPORT

On September 5, 2020, CNN published the following report:

“President Donald Trump has repeatedly questioned why Americans who served in Vietnam went to war, according to someone who has heard him make the remarks.

The President, who received a draft deferment for bone spurs, has suggested in those conversations that Vietnam veterans didn’t know how to exploit the system to get out of serving.

Men between the ages of 18-26 had to serve in the military for 21 months under the draft unless they were given a deferment. In January 1973, once the US ended its direct involvement in Vietnam, the US announced it was going to an all-volunteer army. In 1975, President Gerald Ford signed a proclamation ending the requirement for men to register for the draft.

Trump has also questioned, generally, the point of going to war in Iraq and Afghanistan, given his belief those wars were ill-advised. The President has wondered aloud “what did they get out of it?,” the same source told CNN.

The source spoke with CNN following Trump’s forceful denial of a story in The Atlantic magazine Thursday that he had disparaged US service members killed in battle and chose to skip a ceremony honoring veterans.

The Atlantic specifically reported that Trump didn’t want to attend a ceremony at the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in France in 2018 because he was concerned that the rain would ruin his hair. Trump said the US Secret Service prevented him from flying to attend the ceremony due to the weather conditions.

Later Saturday, a former senior administration official confirmed to CNN that Trump referred to fallen US service members at the Aisne-Marne cemetery in crude and derogatory terms during the November 2018 trip to France to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I.

The former official, who declined to be named, largely confirmed reporting from Jeffrey Goldberg in The Atlantic magazine.

Fox News, the Associated Press, the New York Times and the Washington Post have also corroborated various parts of The Atlantic’s reporting.
Trump has adamantly denied that he holds anything but the utmost respect for American service members.

“To me, they’re heroes,” he said in the Oval Office … . “It’s even hard to believe how they could do it. And I say that, the level of bravery, and to me, they’re absolute heroes.”

He called The Atlantic article a “fake story,” and he and the White House have pointed to his increase in military spending and a pay raise for military troops.

Trump has a complicated history with Vietnam. Along with his medical deferment for bone spurs, Trump also received four deferments from the Vietnam War draft due to education.

In an interview in the late 1990s, Trump, known for being a fixture in the New York tabloids at the time, made light of military service in Vietnam by comparing it to avoiding sexually transmitted diseases in the New York dating scene.

During the 2016 campaign, Trump attacked Republican Sen. John McCain’s service in the Vietnam War, stating in 2015 that McCain was not a war hero because he was captured by the North Vietnamese and held as a prisoner of war.

In a statement Saturday, Rep. Adam Smith, the Democratic chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, called Trump “incapable of performing the duties of Commander-in-Chief.”

“The President claims he loves the military, because it’s part of his political strategy, but when the mics are off and the cameras are no longer rolling he has shown his true colors,” Smith said. “He has no respect for our military; he views our service members as window dressing for his cosplay of the American presidency.”

The link to the CNN article is here:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/05/politics/trump-vietnam-war/index.html

TRUMP’S OBSESSION WITH JOHN Mc CAIN:

On July 18, 2015, then-candidate Donald Trump said this about John McCain:

“He’s not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”

Least anyone forget, McCain was a Republic US Senator from Arizona for 30 years, a former GOP presidential nominee who not only served in the Vietnam War but spent years of his life being tortured in a North Vietnamese prison camp. Trump on the other hand is a President who received several deferments during Vietnam, including for bone spurs.

On March 19, 2019, after Mc Cain died from brain cancer, President Trump offered his assessment:

“I was never a fan of John McCain and I never will be. … I’m very unhappy that he didn’t repeal and replace Obamacare, as you know. He campaigned on repealing and replacing Obamacare for years and then he got to a vote and he said thumbs down. And our country would’ve saved a trillion dollars and we would’ve had great healthcare. So he campaigned, he told us hours before that he was going to repeal and replace, and then for some reason, I think I understand the reason, he ended up going thumbs up, and frankly, had we even known that, I think we would’ve gotten the vote cause we could’ve gotten somebody else. So I think that’s disgraceful, plus there are other things.”

Trumps comments came after a weekend in which Trump repeatedly attacked McCain after he had passed , for graduating “last in his class” from the Naval Academy and for allegedly sending the so-called Steele dossier to the media, offering absolutely no proof that McCain had leaked the dossier put together by a former British intelligence agent and leaked to the press.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/19/politics/donald-trump-john-mccain-dead/index.html

On September 3, Trump cited the Veterans Choice health care program as evidence that he has done more for veterans than the late Senator John McCain.
There are two lies with Trump’s defense:

First: The Health Care program was signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2014.

Second: It was McCain’s bill. McCain was a lead author of the bipartisan legislation putting it together with Sen. Bernie Sanders.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/america-votes/fact-check-trump-says-he-s-done-more-for-veterans-than-john-mccain-did-1.5092854

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

When Trump first entered office, he surrounded himself with retired generals in key roles. The retired generals included Jim Mattis as Defense Secretary, John Kelly as Homeland Security Secretary and later Chief of Staff, and H.R. McMaster as National Security Adviser. All 4 generals were thought to be solid appointments. All 4 brought a sense of stability to the White House in the minds of the public. They were viewed as true patriots that would at least keep Trump in check and not allow Trump to start a war.

Soon all the relationships disintegrated and there was no trust. All were forced out by Trump, no doubt because they were too loyal to the country and the people they served and told Trump simply things he did not want to hear. Their sin in Trump’s mind is that they dedicated their lives to protecting the public, did not make money and were “chumps” for their willingness to give their lives for their country and fight for the freedoms we all enjoy. Trump wanted their absolute loyalty to him and him alone, and when they left his service, he disparaged them in no uncertain terms saying they were not up to their jobs.

After close to 4 years of constant daily news coverage and twitters from Trump creating crisis, after crisis, after crisis of his own making, even bringing the country close to nuclear war with North Korea, Trump never disappoints in showing just how low he is willing to go into the sewer to express contempt for those he dislikes or who he disagrees with. He has now revealed his total dislike for the military and the contempt for those he leads as Commander in Chief.

Trump supporters look upon him as the messiah that is cult like. Sadly, it is still not at all likely he will lose even a few of his supporters now that Trump’s contempt for the military and contempt towards those that have made the ultimate sacrifice to defend this country and its freedoms has been revealed. Die-hard Trump supporters refuse to realize he has no business being President of the United States and that he is incapable of performing the duties of Commander-in-Chief.

Our President and Bone Spur Commander in Chief has referred to the pandemic as though he is taking us to war. It’s a war which in all likely our casualties would be thousands less had he acted back in January like a true leader. Instead we have a self-center Colonel Sanders stuffing his face eating Mc Donald’s Big Mac’s all day long in the White House residence while he watches FOX News, at least before they called him out as the fraud he is on the military.

On September 3, it was reported that the city had its 53 homicide this year. The Albuquerque Police Department found a man dead around 2 a.m. Thursday morning near Menaul and Pennsylvania. According to an APD spokesman, officers were dispatched to the 7700 block of Prospect NE in response to a suspicious situation involving a man face down in a front yard. Upon arrival, they determined the man was dead and “appeared to have suffered an unknown type of trauma.” A homicide call-out was initiated. Police said there is no suspect information to release at this time and the victim had not been identified yet.

https://www.kob.com/albuquerque-news/police-investigate-homicide-in-ne-albuquerque-/5849995/?cat=500

A NATIONAL TREND

Diane Dimond, age 68, is a national “Crime and Justice Columnist.” Ms. Dimond is an American investigative journalist, author and syndicated columnist. In a recent column, she reported that the U.S. murder rate had been significantly slowing since the early ’90s but that is no longer the case and she reports:

” … Homicides and gun violence are on the rise. Murders have spiked in 36 of the 50 biggest American cities that were studied during a newly released Wall Street Journal analysis of crime stats. On average, the nation’s homicide rate is up 24% so far this year compared to the same period in 2019. But in certain cities the murder rate is much higher. In Chicago homicides are up 52%. In San Antonio it’s 34%. Phoenix has seen a 32% rise in murders, Philadelphia 31% and Houston 27%. Gang activity is most frequently blamed for the rise as gang members are also feeling the economic pinch of isolation and turf wars have ignited, playing out on near-empty street corners. This year’s recent huge jump in gun sales may have also played a part in the rising inner-city death toll.”…

https://www.abqjournal.com/1484278/the-good-and-very-bad-of-pandemicera-crime-rates.html

In yet another column, Dimond reports that FBI statistics reveal that Albuquerque has the dubious distinction of having a crime rate about 194% higher than the national average.

https://www.abqjournal.com/1491404/state-city-leaders-play-politics-with-public-safety.html

INCREASING HOMICIDE UNIT BY ONE SERGEANT

On September 3, the Albuquerque Police Department (APD) announced it is increasing the Homicide Investigative Unit to keep up with the increasing number of cases. The APD Homicide unit has investigated 53 homicides so far in 2020, which is ahead of the record-breaking pace in 2019, and now has another to investigate. According to APD Spokesman Gilbert Gallegos, APD will be adding another sergeant to the Homicide Investigative Unit, which will increase the size of the unit to 10 detectives and 2 sergeants. Since taking office on December 1, 2017, Mayor Tim Keller has doubled the size of the unit from 5 detectives to 10 detectives. APD has upwards of 980 sworn officers with 60 more in training at the APD Academy. Growing the ranks of APD is part of the strategy to reduce spiking crime rates.

APD Spokesman Gallegos had this to say about the staff increase of one:

“We’re going to use this extra sergeant to, you know, creatively to really ease the caseload for detectives and kind of make their lives a little easier. … The last thing we want is offenders out there that we are pretty sure are offenders, out there on the streets where they could commit another crime. … For others who are not going to get the message and who are going to keep committing violent crime, we are going to keep arresting them.”

https://www.kob.com/albuquerque-news/apd-expanding-homicide-investigative-unit/5850725/?cat=500

APD officials claim that the homicides are being vigorously investigated and detectives are following numerous leads. However, APD does not maintain collective data to show how many murders over the years have gone unsolved and still considered open cases. Some APD homicide detectives have fewer than 10 cases each.

https://www.kob.com/albuquerque-news/city-officials-look-for-solutions-to-ease-workload-on-apd-officers-homicide-detectives/5594211/?cat=500

https://www.abqjournal.com/1423578/more-murders-fewer-cases-cleared.html

HOMICIDES CONTINUE TO SPIKE UNDER KELLER

The city’s homicide rates have continued to spike during Mayor Tim Keller’s term in office. In 2018, during Mayor Keller’s first full year in office, there were 69 homicides. In 2019, during Mayor Keller’s second full year in office, there were 80 homicides. Albuquerque had more homicides in 2019 than in any other year in the city’s history. The previous high was 72, in 2017 under Mayor RJ Berry. Another high mark was in 1996, when the city had 70 homicides.

https://www.petedinelli.com/2019/11/21/city-matches-homicide-record-high-of-72-murders-mayor-keller-forc

CLEARANCE RATES

The FBI reports that the national homicide clearance rate is 61%. In 2019, APD’s clearance rate was 52.2% when the city reached 80 homicides in one year. In Albuquerque, so far it’s 57% for 2020. It more likely than not the clearance rate will fall even further in 2020 as more murders occur.

The city’s APD yearly budget contains performance evaluation statistics mandated by the city’s “performance evaluation” based budget. According to city budget documents, APD’s homicide clearance rate reported in the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report was 80% from fiscal year 2009 to fiscal year 2016. In each of the last two calendar years, the percentage of homicides solved in the city dropped to 52%. That number reflects homicides that weren’t deemed justifiable. The overall clearance rate for 2018 and 2019 was is slightly higher because detectives solved 9 homicides from prior years.

For the past two years during Mayor Keller’s tenure, the homicide clearance percentage rate has been in the 50%-60% range. According to the proposed 2018-2019 APD City Budget, in 2016 the APD homicide clearance rate was 80%. In 2017, under Mayor Berry the clearance rate was 70%. In 2018, the first year of Keller’s term, the homicide clearance rate was 56%. In 2019, the second year of Keller’s term, the homicide clearance rate was 52.5%, the lowest clearance rate in the last decade.

As of September 3, there have been 54 homicides reported in Albuquerque for 2020. With 54 murders thus far for 2020, the city is on track to match or exceed the all-time record of 80 homicides in one year or come very close to it by the end of the year.

https://www.krqe.com/news/albuquerque-metro/detectives-investigating-overnight-homicide-in-ne-albuquerque/

LONG STANDING NEED FOR TWO HOMICIDE UNITS, MORE DETECTIVES

During an October, 2019 City Council meeting, APD management said it was working on new strategies to ease the workload on APD sworn officers and homicide detectives.
During an October, 2019 City Council meeting, APD Commander of Criminal Investigations Joe Burke had this to say:

“I would say in the long term if I was looking at a long-term solution—I believe we need two homicide units. I think the best practices around the nation normally have two homicide units. Detectives should be balancing between three to five investigations and we’re nearly double that.

… We absolutely need detectives in criminal investigations. … I was happy when I went over at the end of July and was briefed on the status of the unit that there’s a plan in place within the executive staff that when cadets are graduating from the academy that we’re going to get a certain percentage specifically for the criminal investigations bureau.”

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

In 2017, candidate for Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller campaigned to get elected Mayor on the platform of implementing the Department of Justice (DOJ) mandated reforms, increasing the size of the Albuquerque Police Department (APD), returning to community-based policing and a promise to bring down skyrocketing crime rates.

Mayor Tim Keller can take very little comfort with the fact that the city’s increase in homicides is part of a national trend. The truth is, Albuquerque has been in the forefront of the trend for the last 5 years and homicides have more than doubled. In 2014, the city had 30 homicides and each year thereafter homicides increased and in 2019 the city had 82 homicides, the most in the city’s history. As of September 4, the city has had 53 homicides. Mayor Keller says violent crime is a top priority of his administration yet he has done nothing to beef up the homicide unit to a level that is needed to deal with the crisis and the unacceptable clearance rates.

In 2019, in response to the continuing increase in violent crime rates, Mayor Keller scrambled to implement 4 major crime fighting programs to reduce violent crime: the Shield Unit, Declaring Violent Crime “Public Health” issue, the “Violence Intervention Plan” (VIP program) and the Metro 15 Operation program. Based upon the statistics, the Keller programs have had very little effect on reducing violent crime. Rather than announcing program after program after program to deal with the homicide and violent crime in the city, Mayor Keller would be wise to concentrate on increasing the homicide unit from 10 to 20 detectives.

At this point, 10 detectives and 2 sergeants are not getting the job done and adding just one sergeant is simply not enough. Ten detective need to be assigned to the most current cases over the last two years and 10 assigned to the older cases. People want results and want to feel safe. Victims of family’s of those killed also want justice. Taking years not identifying, arresting and prosecuting those that killed their loved ones only prolongs their mourning and it certainly is not justice.

Mayor Keller patting himself on the back saying that public safety is his number one priority is no longer cutting it.