“The problems are much worse than I think anyone believed. … This project is a bit of a lemon”, so said Mayor Tim Keller about the ART Bus project during an extensive news conference to discuss the ART Bus project.

Keller’s comment will without a doubt go down as one of the biggest understatements in the city’s history summarizing a construction boondoggle costing at least $130,000,000.

Keller really needs to ask if they can paint bright lemon yellow the remaining buses that still need to be delivered.

(See January 9, 2017 Albuquerque Journal on line article “Mayor outlines major problems with ART, including inability to charge buses)

Following is the complete Albuquerque Journal news story and link:

“The problems with the Albuquerque Rapid Transit project are so grave that Mayor Tim Keller and his leadership team won’t even venture a guess on when the controversial project will be operational, although one official acknowledges that there’s little chance that it could be up and running within three months.

City officials outlined serious problems with the electric buses that have been delivered — including the fact that the city is currently not able to charge those buses. There are also design and construction flaws along the ART route, one so serious city officials are exploring the possibility of reconfiguring an intersection.

“Out of the 20 buses that were supposed to be delivered on Oct. 3, 2017, we’ve only received nine buses,” Chief Operating Officer Lawrence Rael told the Journal. “Out of the nine buses that we’ve received, we have found issues associated with those buses, everything from mechanical failures to some inconsistencies in how the buses are put together.”

The problems are such that the city, under Mayor Richard Berry’s administration ended up renting portable generators to power the buses in order to use them for the River of Lights, Rael said.

He said the Keller administration stopped that practice after being informed that using the generators could compromise the equipment’s warranty.

Among the biggest problems:
• Some of the buses can’t be charged because the charging system doesn’t work.
• Axles on the buses are leaking oil.
• The buses have not gone through the certification process required in order for the city to be reimbursed for the buses by the federal government. Rael said one of the ART buses put through the certification process did not pass.
• A third-party certification officer wouldn’t certify the chargers that have been installed. “The chargers themselves are not operable because they’ve used what looks like Chinese equipment and probably a different standard for how they built these boxes,” Rael said.
• Fully charged batteries on the buses are supposed to last for 275 miles, but the testing the city has done so far indicates that the charge is only good for 200 miles, which means that the city will need additional buses for ART unless that problem is resolved.
• Restraint belts that are used to keep wheelchairs locked in place while they’re in transit are in different locations in almost all the buses.
• The battery cages that house the bus batteries are already starting to crack and separate.
• There are also problems with inconsistent heights on some of the platforms, which creates problems for wheelchair access.
• The Atrisco platform, meanwhile, is at an angle, which, again is creating problems for people in wheelchairs.
• And the Keller administration is concerned about two stations because of the distance between the intersection and the actual platforms. At the Washington and Central platform, for example, the platform is so close to the intersection that a bus coming from the east side going west can’t make the approach without taking up the entire intersection, Rael said. He said the city is considering reconfiguring that entire intersection.

Rael said the city hasn’t signed off on any of the equipment or the construction. He said the problems with the buses appear to be a failure of the bus manufacturer, Build Your Dreams, to meet the terms of the RFP or the contract.

ART has been billed as a project that will transform Central Avenue into a rapid transit corridor with a nine-mile stretch of bus-only lanes and bus stations. The project — and associated utility and road work — comes with a $135 million price tag.

The city has been banking on $75 million from the Federal Transit Administration’s Capital Investment Program for the project, but that funding agreement has not yet been signed.”

https://www.abqjournal.com/1116887/mayor-outlines-major-problems-with-art-including-inability-to-charge-buses.html

Governor Susana Martinez will once again request the New Mexico Legislature to reinstate the death penalty during the upcoming 2018 thirty-day legislative session.

Martinez will also again seek to toughen criminal sentences for a host of offenses without addressing the root causes of crime.

The Governor’s proposals include a bill to toughen penalties for people who commit crimes while on probation or parole and restoring the death penalty for people convicted of murdering children and law enforcement.

A three-strikes proposal would require life sentences for repeat offenders convicted of a third violent felony.

http://www.koat.com/article/gov-martinez-unveils-tough-on-crime-proposals/14829131

Last year in August, 2017, Albuquerque Republican State Representative Monica Youngblood announced she would again be sponsoring legislation to reinstate the death penalty for the killing of a law enforcement officer and the murder of children.

(See August 5, 2017 Albuquerque Journal, page C2, “NM Conservatives push for death penalty law; Bill would bring back capital punishment for killers of cops, children”.)

It is the killings of children, attacks on law enforcement officers and rising crime in Albuquerque and the state that have Republican Governor Martinez and conservative state lawmakers calling for New Mexico to reinstate the death penalty saying it is the solution to stopping heinous crimes and repeat offenders.

New Mexico State Representative Monica Youngblood stated “I think [the death penalty] would be a deterrent. I mean, look what’s going on in Albuquerque. … This would be a narrow reinstatement focusing on those who kill law enforcement and children.”

Democrat State Representative Gail Chasey said the focus should be on stopping crime before it happens in the first place.

“By providing law enforcement with what they need address crime in our city, and addressing root causes, we would not only honor those lost in senseless tragedies but would also increase public safety” said Representative Chasey.

DEATH PENALTY DOES NOT DETER CRIME

Governor Martinez and the Albuquerque Journal have repeatedly supported the death penalty be reinstated.

Proposing to reinstate the death penalty is political pandering and grandstanding at its worse done to “gin-up” the hostility of victims of crime and the general public who are seeking and demanding justice.

We are supposed to be a civilized society.

The death penalty is nothing more than an “eye for an eye” approach to criminal justice and it does not deter crime.

The trend nationally is that states are abolishing the death penalty.

Many people on death row being released for crimes they did not commit because of scientific evidence.

There is no mention of how the legislature will pay for the millions it is going to cost reinstating the death penalty and the mandatory appeal process that take years.

There is no mention of any increase the budgets of the Judiciary, District Attorney offices, Public Defenders Office and the prison system to get the job done.

The death penalty is simply not good enough to render justice upon violent criminals who murder any police officer in the line of duty.

There are times the death penalty is simply not good enough to render justice upon violent, immoral people who commit crimes against the most innocent, defenseless and helpless people, especially children, in our so called civilized society.

I believe this to be true about the death penalty for those people who commit heinous crimes against their own defenseless children of tender years.

The drugging, raping, murder, dismemberment and the burning of the body of 9-year-old Victoria Martens by her mother, her boyfriend and two others is one such crime.

Even life imprisonment without the possibility of parole is not enough for some violent crimes such as murder of a child, but justice is what needs to be sought by a civilized society, not vengeance by imposing the death penalty.

Since 2001, in New Mexico, no less than 22 children, ranging from ages of 5 weeks old to 3, 4, 5 months old to 3, 4, 5, and 11 years old, have been killed because of child physical and sexual abuse. (Re: August 31, 2016 Albuquerque Journal Editorial Guest column by Allen Sanchez.)

Study after study has shown that children from lower economic homes have a higher risk to suffer severe physical abuse and sexual abuse from their parents.

Cool heads must prevail and ensure swift justice is bought upon those who kill innocent children and police officers.

Our criminal justice system presumes innocence until proven guilty and demands due process of law, even for the most heinous of crimes, and not an “eye for an eye” approach to criminal justice reflected by the death penalty.

Even more important, Albuquerque and New Mexico must find solutions to what contributed to or caused the most horrific crimes: domestic violence, substance and drug abuse, children living in severe poverty, a poor education system, the breakdown of the family unit, the failures of our social services and child protective services, a failed mental health system, an ineffective criminal justice system, a failing economy.

We need to confront our demons and find solutions to the problems that cause the crime and not be misled to thinking that the death penalty and increased penalties are going to solve our social problems.

CONCLUSION

Governor Martinez has learned absolutely nothing during her entire seven years in office when she rolls out the same old legislative agenda year after year after year.

After seven years, Martinez has absolutely nothing to show for her “all crime all the time” legislative agendas.

There should be a way voter could “buy out” her contract the way UNM does with all its coaches.

Voters could pay her last year in office salary and throw in a letter of recommendation to Trump to hire her for his cabinet and get her out of town.

Hell, she could even replace Jeff Sessions, now wouldn’t that be special.

Former Bernalillo County District Attorney Kari Brandenburg in a letter to the Albuquerque Journal and in a front-page Journal story declared in no uncertain terms that she wanted to bring multiple felony charges against former APD Lieutenant James Brachle for the January, 2015 shooting of former undercover APD Detective Jacob Grant during a botched drug sting.

(January 7, 2017 Albuquerque Journal, page A-1, “FORMER DA: Felony charges warranted in 2016 officer shooting; AG dropped case because statute of limitations ran out on misdemeanor charges”)

The felony charges Brandenburg and her officer felt were in order at the time included “shooting at or from a motor vehicle”, a second-degree felony and “aggravated battery with a firearm”, a third-degree felony, with no misdemeanor charges.

THE TRAGIC SHOOTING OF APD DETECTIVE JACOB GRANT

In January 2015, former undercover narcotics APD Detective Jacob Grant was shot seven times point blank in a parked car by his APD Lieutenant James Brachle.

Undercover Narcotics Detective Grant was negotiating a drug buy from two drug dealers.

Grant had broken his cover when Brachle rushed the parked car, opened the car door where Grant was sitting and opened fire shooting Grant point blank seven (7) times according to police offense reports.

According to police lapel camera video, upon realizing who he shot, Brachle blurted out “I’m sorry man, I didn’t know it was you!”

It was reported that Brachle did not attend the “pre-sting” briefing where it was discussed where Grant would be in the vehicle but Brachle showed up to the sting operation any way.

Grant was extremely lucky to survive the shooting and underwent extensive surgery for his wounds, was hospitalized for months and eventually had to retire from APD because of his permanent physical disabilities related to his injuries from the shooting.

Ultimately, it was the citizens of Albuquerque that were held financially responsible for the tragic shooting that was at the very least negligent.

APD Officer Jacob Grant was paid $6.5 million dollars plus all his medical expenses being paid to settle the civil claim.

THE ATTORNEY GENERAL’S DECLINATION OF PROSECUTION

Months after Grant’s shooting, Brandenburg asked Attorney General Hector Balderas to take over the review and potential prosecution of the case after the unexpected death of the Deputy District Attorney who was handling the case.

It has been reported that Brandenburg made it known to Balderas that she felt felony charges should be brought.

The Attorney General agreed to take the case over for potential prosecution.

Attorney General Hector Balderas waited over a full year after Brandenburg left office to announce that there would be no prosecution in the case and that Brachle would not face any criminal charges.

The explanation for no prosecution was that the statute of limitations on misdemeanors had passed including the misdemeanor charge for “negligent use of a firearm”.

According to the Attorney General’s spokesman James Hallinan, the A.G.’s office determined that because Brachle was acting in his capacity as a law enforcement officer at the time of the shooting no felony charges could be filed against him under New Mexico law.

The finding by the Attorney General’s office that no felony charges can be brought against Brachle for the shooting of Grant is total and complete nonsense and a fabrication.

Whenever a police officer uses deadly force, it must be justified under statutory law as well as APD standard operating procedure, with no room for exceptions.

There is no such thing as a “friendly fire” killing or shooting in law enforcement as there is in military combat.

The fact that the shooting victim was a cop does not negate the fact that the shooting was done by another cop and it was still a police officer involved shooting and it must be investigated and determined if it was justified.

To put the shooting of Grant by Brachle into focus, former APD Police officers Keith Sandy and Dominique Perez were acting in their capacity as law enforcement officers when they shot and killed homeless camper James Boyd, and they were charged with murder.

Just because a police officer is acting in his capacity as a law enforcement officer when he discharges his firearm and injures or kills someone does not completely negate criminal or civil liability of the shooter.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) consent decree mandates that APD excessive use of force or deadly force cases must be investigated, yet nothing has been reported by news agencies if the Grant shooting was reviewed for violation of APD use of force policies.

Brandenburg wrote her letter to the Albuquerque Journal questioning the Attorney General’s decision not to proceed with felony charges against Brachle and the letter resulted in a front-page story.

(January 7, 2017 Albuquerque Journal, page A-9, letter to the editor by Kari Brandenburg, “Detective Shooting case was handled properly: DA’s office did not drag its feet seeking prosecution.)

https://www.abqjournal.com/1115805/detective-shooting-case-was-handled-properly.html

GAGGING ON THE DEFLECTION TACTICS

“No one should politicize this tragedy,” said James Hallinan, a spokesman for Attorney General Hector Balderas, referring to the shooting of Grant and responding Brandenburg’s allegations and letter.

The email to the Albuquerque Journal is a classic and pathetic response by a political operative to deflect the truth, avoid answering questions and taking any responsibility or making any decision that may be politically explosive.

It is Attorney General Hector Balderas with the help of his political operative who has now politicized the Grant shooting.

The public relations response by the Attorney General Hector Balderas is an example of why the public gags and gets disgusted with politics and political operatives who “pivot” on an issue to deflect blame.

The truth is, the statute of limitations may have run on the misdemeanor charges but the statute of limitations has not run on felony charges.

The Attorney General letter declining prosecution conveniently says absolutely nothing about potential felony charges.

Attorney General Hector Balderas in his letter declining prosecution goes out of his way to point out that outgoing APD Chief Gordon Eden never referred Greg Brachle to New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy Board to investigate the shooting as required by state law.

The New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy Board has the authority to suspend or revoke police certifications.

Attorney General Hector Balderas is the Chairman of the New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy Board and he has the authority to order the board’s investigators to review the case to determine if Brachle’s law enforcement certification and license should be revoked.

Balderas failing to make the referral himself to his own board is evidence of more political deflection to avoid taking any police oversight responsibility.

No satisfactory explanation has been made by the Attorney General why felony charges cannot be brought against former APD Lt. Greg Brachle.

Attorney General Hector Balderas letter declining criminal prosecution was delivered to new APD Interim Chief Greier the very day the Chief was sworn in.

Immediately upon being sworn in, APD Interim Chief James Grier referred the Grant shooting case to the New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy Board for investigation.

If Balderas does not want to prosecute a police officer for felonies in any case, or because he has a conflict, or he knows the difficulty in convicting any cop before a jury, or feels it will harm his working relationship with law enforcement, he should just say so.

Instead of being upfront and after agreeing to take the case in the first place, Balderas sends out his mouth piece to accuse another for “politicizing” a tragedy.

CONCLUSION

Attorney General Hector Balderas should refer the case back to the Bernalillo County District Attorney for a final decision.

Bernalillo County District Attorney Raul Torrez needs to decide once and for all if felony charges should proceed against Greg Brachle.

The problem is that Torrez may play the same little game of blaming his predecessor or say his office is too short handed to handle the case or does not have the resources.

DA Torrez has over 30 police officer involved shootings that are still pending review by special prosecutors on contract.

One more police officer involved shooting case should not pose that big of a problem, unless you do not want to make the hard decisions and do not want to alienate law enforcement.

Then again, Torrez can get Hallilan on loan so he can issue a press release that says he does not want to politicize another police officer involved shooting and therefore will not take the case back and prosecute.

Sleazier than thought; Hernandez and Huntsman gave judge only partial video

January 3, 2018

By: Dennis Domrzalski

https://www.abqreport.com/single-post/2018/01/03/Sleazier-than-thought-Hernandez-and-Huntsman-gave-judge-only-partial-video

Former Assistant Albuquerque Police Chief Robert Huntsman and former City Attorney Jessica Hernandez and crew were a lot sleazier than we knew when it came to trying to deceive the federal court judge about the alleged bias of the independent monitor in APD’s three-year-long reform effort.

Hernandez and crowd gave the judge only 14 minutes of a 45-minute video of a meeting in which Huntsman secretly recorded the monitor, James Ginger. And only about nine minutes of the 14-minute video they filed with the judge contained any disagreements between Ginger and APD staffers.

It means that Hernandez and crowd withheld 70 percent of the actual video from the judge.

Here’s the background:

In late October, Hernandez and Huntsman and former Chief Gorden Eden filed a motion with U.S. District Court Judge Robert Brack claiming that Ginger, was biased against APD.

As proof of that bias, the city provided Brack a 14-minute video of Ginger that Huntsman had secretly recorded on his department-issued lapel camera, and a transcript of the video that contained only the last nine minutes of the March 18, 2016 meeting between Hernandez, Huntsman, Ginger and others.

Brack ripped Hernandez and Huntsman for trying to deceive him and for trying to discredit Ginger and derail the reform effort. He said the first four minutes of the 14-minute video showed Ginger being cordial to APD officials, and not hostile.

Here’s where the real deception comes in: The entire video of the meeting in which Ginger allegedly threatened APD and Hernandez was 45 minutes long! That’s right, 45 minutes long. And in all but nine minutes of that meeting, Ginger is cordial to Hernandez and other APD honchos. He got a bit angry only after Hernandez verbally attacked him.

So Hernandez and Eden and Huntsman and crew gave Brack only 14 minutes of a 45-minute video.

Freelance journalist Charles Arasim obtained the full video through an Inspection of Public Records Act request to the city. The video of the meeting is in three segments. The first two segments are each 15 minutes and 55 seconds long, while the third, which is the one the city gave to Brack, is 14 minutes and two seconds.

In the first segment, Ginger focuses on APD’s struggles with trying to write acceptable policies and tells Hernandez and Huntsman that policies need to be written for people who are new to the subject matter.

“The purpose of policy is to train people who don’t understand it yet,” Ginger said.

There were no arguments or harsh words during those first 16 minutes of video.

In the second segment Ginger tells Hernandez and the others that his his team is frustrated by their inability to get APD’s crisis intervention training curriculum from the city contractor who developed it. Again, there are no arguments between the parties.

It’s only in the third segment that Hernandez confronts Ginger about not wanting to be surprised by the comments he was supposed to make about the reform effort to an upcoming City Council study session on the reform effort.

False statement by Huntsman?

In the city’s motion against Ginger, Huntsman said in an affidavit that he turned on his lapel camera only after becoming concerned about Ginger’s increasing aggression. But that doesn’t appear to be true, as Huntsman had his camera on for 45 minutes. As the Albuquerque Journal put it in a story it wrote about the motion:

“Huntsman said in a sworn affidavit that he normally wouldn’t have recorded the meeting, but did so because he was concerned with Ginger’s behavior. The camera, which doesn’t show much because it is pointing at a table, captures audio of a tense conversation.

“’I was incredibly disturbed by Dr. Ginger’s comments during this meeting, especially his comments about this being ‘a game’ and that the department would be ‘collateral damage,’” Huntsman said in the affidavit. “’Since that meeting, we have continued to experience interactions with the monitor that we believe were improper.’”

So what are the penalties for making false statements to a federal court judge?

On Nov. 16, when he denied the city’s motion for for a hearing on Ginger’s alleged bias against APD, Brack accused the city of manipulating the situation by providing him a transcript of only the final nine minutes of the 14-minute video. Here’s what he said in open court:

“When the City went public with the shortened video, the City made its bed. And what could the City possibly have been thinking when it filed the 14-minute video and a supporting transcript that covered only the nine-minute segment. Let me be clear, if I haven’t been. The City filed a written transcript with the Court titled, “March 18, 2016 meeting.” That transcript only covered the shortened nine-minute version of the video. On the last page of the transcript the court reporter certified that she had, quote, “listened to the entire recording,” close the quote. And that the transcript was, quote, “a complete record of all material included on the recording.” This tells me that the City showed the court reporter the same version of the nine-minute video that it made public. I’m left to speculate about the City’s intention.

“So after recording the monitor and manipulating the record, what does the City do? It waits for 20 months, biding its time until the eve of Dr. Ginger’s sixth report, and the election, before releasing the nine-minute video to the public.”

If Brack blew his top – and he did – because Hernandez and company manipulated the situation by not giving him the full transcript of the 14-minute video, I wonder how he’ll feel when he learns that Hernandez and company gave him only 14 minutes of a 45-minute video.

The only good thing about this is that Hernandez, Huntsman and Eden are gone.

Review of the 2017 campaign finance reports for Mayor filed with the City Clerk reveals serious flaws exist in the City’s public finance laws and the rules and regulations governing ethics and campaign practices.

The review confirms just how measured finance committees and big money donations are undercutting the spirit and intent of Albuquerque’ public financing system.

Out of 16 candidates initially running for Mayor, Democrat Tim Keller was the only candidate that was able to qualify for public financing while eight (8) other candidates tried and failed to qualify for public financing with half dropping out of the race.

QUALIFYING DONATIONS AND NOMINATING PETITIONS

All candidates for Mayor are given three months to collect nominating petition signatures from registered voters and only eight (8) secured the required number of signatures.

Collecting the $5 qualifying donations is extremely difficult because candidates are only give six weeks to collect the donations yet are given far more time to collect the nominating petition signatures.

Theoretically, a candidate for Mayor could gather the required number of qualifying donations and yet fail to collect the required number of nominating petition signatures.

It makes no sense giving more than double to time to collect signatures and just six weeks to collect $5 qualifying donations.

The Keller campaign was required to collect 3,000 qualifying cash donations of $5 to the City of Albuquerque from Albuquerque registered voters over a six-week period, which is a daunting and very difficult task for anyone.

If a candidate seeking public financing donations does not secure the 3,000 qualifying $5 donations, all the money reverts to the city and not kept by the candidate that collected the donations.

Candidates that decide to go with private financing as well as measured finance committees for candidates can solicit unlimited cash donations from any source including out of city and state contributions.

With public financing, paper receipts had to and issue and copies of paper receipts and the cash was turned into city hall.

Once qualified, the Keller for Mayor campaign was given $506,254 in public financing.

As a condition to receiving public financing from the City, a public financed candidate must agree to a spending cap not to exceed the amount given and agree not to raise and spend any more cash to financed their campaign.

KELLER’S $1.35 MILLION CAMPAIGN FOR MAYOR

Notwithstanding being a public finance candidate, Keller had three (3) measured finance committees that either raised money directly to spend on his behalf or that indirectly spent money and supported him financially.

ABQ Forward Together was a measured finance committee that was formed specifically to raise money to promote Tim Keller for Mayor and it raised over $663,000 for Keller.

ABQ Forward Together was chaired by a former campaign consultant for Mr. Keller when he ran successfully for New Mexico State Senate.

$1,358,254 was actually spent on Tim Keller’s successful campaign for Mayor ($506,254 public finance money + $663,000 ABQ Forward + $67,000 ABQFIREPAC + $122,000 ABQ Working Families = $1,358,254.)

Republican Dan Lewis raised more than $847,000 in cash contributions for the October election and the November Mayoral runoff election.

Democrat Brian Colón raised and spent nearly $824,000 for his unsuccessful mayoral run.

Republican Wayne Johnson privately raised and spent approximately $250,000.

Republican Ricardo Chavez finance his own campaign by contributing and loaning his campaign $1 million dollars, but when he dropped out of the race all of the money was repaid to him after he spent approximately $200,000.

The remaining three (3) candidates for Mayor raised and spent less than $50,000 combined after failing to qualify for public financing.

BOARD OF ETHICS AND CAMPAIGN PRACTICES

The City Charter contains the city’s election code and creates the Board of Ethics and Campaign Practices where complaints can be filed and investigated for campaign practice violations.

(See City Charter Article XIII, Election Code, Board of Ethics and Campaign Practices; Rules & Regulations)

The Rules and Regulations of the City of Albuquerque Finance laws, creates the position of “Campaign and Election Auditor.”

The duties and responsibility of the Campaign and Election Auditor is to monitor all campaign finance disclosure statement to examine the accuracy and compliance by the person filing such statement with the provisions of the election code and with the Rules and Regulations promulgated by the Board and provide such other services as required by the Board.

The Board of Ethics and Campaign Finance laws does provide that candidates can be sanctioned, fined or for that matter removed from office if elected for violations of the finance laws.

If a candidate is found to have violated the election conde and is the successful candidate in the election, the Board of Ethics may recommend to the City Council that the violator be removed from office.

The US Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United basically said that organizations, corporations, unions and others can spend as much as they want as long as they don’t coordinate their activities with candidate, but this is federal election law.

There were a number of ethics complaints filed against Tim Keller, Dan Lewis and Wayne Johnson for violations of the campaign practices act, and all were eventually dismissed.

One complaint filed against Tim Keller’s campaign involved the allegation that “cash donations” for political consulting were reported as “in-kind” donations.

The Election Board of Ethics and Campaign Practices ruled that the cash contributions were in fact an ethical violation but that the Keller Campaign acted in good faith and there was an “unintentional” violation of the ordinances with the Keller Campaign receiving an admonishment and with no fines.

A second complaint file against the Keller campaign was that the Keller Campaign for Mayor committee was coordinating their campaign and expenditures with ABQ Forward Together, the separate measured finance campaign committee headed up by one by of Keller’s former campaign managers for State Senate with the complaint dismissed with a finding of no coordination.

City of Albuquerque campaign reporting and finance ordinances do not have any specific provisions that actually nor specifically prohibit the coordination of expenditures and campaign activities with measured finance committees and candidates in municipal elections.

PROPOSED CHANGES TO PUBLIC FINANCE AND BOARD OF ETHICS AND CAMPAIGN PRACTICES.

Public finance laws should not be set up to make it too difficult to qualify for public financing.

Following are recommendations for changes to the City’s public finance and election laws that are in order:

1. Allow four (4) months and two (2) weeks, from January 1 to May 15, to collected both the qualifying donations and petition signatures, and private campaign donation collection.

2. Allow the collection of the qualifying donations from anyone who wants, and not just residents or registered voters of Albuquerque. Privately finance candidates now can collect donations from anyone they want and anywhere in the State and Country.

3. A public finance candidate who fails to secure the requisite nominating petition signatures, but secures the requisite $5 qualifying donations would be disqualified from the public financing .

4. Once the allowed number of qualifying donations is collected, the public financing would be made immediately available, but not allowed to be spent until starting May 15.

5. Permit campaign spending for both publicly financed and privately financed candidates only from May 15 to the October election day.

6. Return to candidates for their use in their campaign any qualifying donations the candidate has collected when the candidate fails to secure the required number of qualifying donations to get the public financing.

7. Mandate the City Clerk to issue debit card or credit card collection devices to collect the qualifying donations and to issue receipts and eliminate the mandatory use of “paper receipts”.

8. Increase from $1.00 to $2.50 per registered voter the amount of public financing, which will be approximately $900,000, and allow for incremental increases of 10% every election cycle keeping up with inflation.

9. Allow for additional matching public financing available for run offs at the rate of $1.25 per registered voter, or $450,000.

10. Albuquerque should make every effort to make municipal elections partisan elections to be held along with State and Federal elections by seeking a constitutional amendment from the legislature to be voted upon by the public.

11. Any money raised and spent by measured finance committees on behalf a candidate should be required to first be applied to reimburse the City for any taxpayer money advanced to a public finance candidate or deducted from a publicly financed candidates account and returned to the city.

12. City of Albuquerque campaign reporting and finance ordinances and regulations need to define with absolute clarity that strictly prohibit the coordination of expenditures and campaign activities with measured finance committees and individual candidate’s campaigns in municipal elections.

13. A mandatory schedule of fines and penalties for violations of the code of ethics and campaign practices act should be enacted by the City Council.

CONCLUSION

Every effort should be made to make Albuquerque’s public financing laws for municipal elections to legally provide for a “dollar for dollar” match to privately raised funds by candidates, thereby providing a real level playing field.

The influence of big money in elections allowed by the US Supreme Court decision in Citizens United is destroying our democracy.

Many highly qualified candidates for office all too often do not bother to run because of the inability or difficulty raising the necessary money to run.

Political campaign fundraising and big money influence are warping our election process.

Money spent becomes equated with the final vote.

Money drives the message, affects voter turnout and ultimately the outcome of an election.

Albuquerque municipal elections need campaign finance reform and enforcement.

2018 should be the year the City Council and the Mayor take action on campaign finance reform in anticipation of the 2019 municipal election.

The Albuquerque Journal did an excellent front page profile of Mayor Tim Keller on New Year’s Eve 2017 that went into great detail on his background, his family and hopes and aspirations for the new year and for Albuquerque.

The fact the article was written by Senior Editor Kent Walz says a lot.

(December 31, 2017 Albuquerque Journal, page A1, “FACE TO FACE WITH TIM KELLER”, “TAKING THE REINS”, “Dyslexia, football and a love of politics shape new mayor”)

https://www.abqjournal.com/1113032/tim-keller-abqs-new-mayor-takes-the-reins.html

The one quote that stuck out to me in the profile of Mayor Keller was his final comment “When I decided to run, I realized it might be the last job I ever get politically, so I’m ready for that. I think the key is to go through that and leave it all on the field in the sense you try to do everything you wanted to do. And then if it doesn’t work out, you gave it your best.”

This comment reflects a dramatic political maturity from 20 months ago when I asked him why he was running for Mayor and he said “because I think it would be really neat to be Mayor of my home town and I have done good at all the jobs I have ever held”. Frankly, I was somewhat taken aback by his initial naivete based on what he told me 20 months ago.

Hard fought campaigns are an education of candidates, not only on the issues, but also an education of learning a lot about yourself.

Mayor Keller won by a landslide with 62% of the vote in a runoff.

Keller now has a mandate for change and he needs to take advantage of that early on, especially when it comes to the Albuquerque Police Department, our economy, cleaning up the mess he was left and taxes.

Winning by such a historical margin the first time around just may mean his popularity has in fact “peaked” given the challenges we face as a community.

Mayor Keller’s popularity will take a hit once he starts making the hard decisions.

Most assuredly, Mayor Keller will be tested in a crisis as is are all Mayors.

We should all do what we can to support his efforts but nonetheless hold him accountable for his actions.

Frankly, I have no doubt now that Tim Keller is up to the challenge and he will be a good Mayor.

Only time will tell if he will serve multiple terms or goes onto higher office or for that matter nowhere at all as all other Mayors.

As the old Chinese curse goes “May you live in interesting times”.