On February 21, 2018, President Donald Trump met at the White House with over 40 people including the teenage survivors of the recent Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting that killed 17 as well as the parents of those children killed in other school shootings.

Gut wrenching recounts of what happened at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School were presented by the students as well as angry voices of parents who had their children killed in other incidents of school shootings.

Demands were made that politics needs to be set aside and solutions found to stop the scourge of gun violence in the United States.

One suggested solution was to raise the minimum age required to purchase rifles to age 21, including assault weapons such as the AR-15, arguing that if you cannot buy a beer at 18, you should not be able to buy an assault weapon at 18.

Another suggestion was to strengthen background checks to keep guns from the violent and the mentally ill.

President Trump told the group his administration would be looking very strongly at allowing concealed weapons in schools to be carried by trained teachers who would volunteer.

Trump said it would be too expensive and impossible to put enough arm guards in the schools and to secure the schools and it would be a lot cheaper to arm the teachers.

Too expensive? This coming from the President who wants to build a wall across our border with Mexico that will cost taxpayers billions and not paid for by Mexico as he promised.

The very next day after his meeting with the group, Trump said he stood by his recommendation that teachers should be armed and even given bonuses to carry guns.

It is downright laughable to suggest that teachers start carrying guns and it shows just how bad things have gotten with the President’s state of mind.

Next thing you know, Trump will want to strap a gun on all kids in school so they can protect themselves from teachers who may want to molest them or who want to impose some sort of physical restraint on an out of control kid.

WAS TRUMP REALLY LISTENING?

The message delivered to President Trump was loud and clear: ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

The problem is, was Trump really listening or was it all just a reality show to him like the “Apprentice” for the cameras when he had “crib notes” of talking points.

A photo of the notes held by Trump included the questions for him to ask the group and included:

“What would you most want me to know about your experience?”

“What can we do to help you feel safe?”

One note encouraged Trump to ask those attending for their ideas about how to move forward.

The last note said “show sympathy”.

It is downright pathetic when a President of the United State needs notes and needs to be reminded to show sympathy to a group of violent crime victims and grieving parents, especially from one who said he is a “really, really smart guy” and is a genius and wanted to compare IQ’s with others.

During the election, Trump embraced the National Rifle Association (NRA) and pledged to oppose any form of gun control.

Trump told the NRA “I will not let you down” and will protect the Second Amendment rights.

In return, the NRA donated upwards of $30 million to his election efforts as well did what it could to undercut his opponent.

EPIDEMIC OF MASS KILLINGS

Since 1995, the United States has had 95 mass shootings, including seven of the 11 deadliest.

Three of the 11 biggest mass shootings in American history have now taken place in the United States in the last five months.

History shows that there was a time congress would take action on gun control to curb crime and gun violence.

In 1934, responding to the rise of organized crime and the MAFIA, Congress enacted the National Firearms Act which heavily taxed machine guns, among other things.

In 1968, after the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy, the Gun Control Act was passed that grew the list of those people who could not purchase guns expanding it to more convicted felons and mentally ill people.

In 1986, with the rise of gang and drug violence on city streets, Congress enacted the Law Enforcement Officers Protection Act, which outlawed armor-piercing bullets.

In 1994, after the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan and a spike of workplace shootings, Congress passed “The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act” that implemented a waiting period for handguns and a national instant background check.

James Brady was the White House Press secretary who was shot in the head and almost died during the attempted assassination of President Reagan by John Hinckley, Jr. who was found mentally ill and institutionalized for a number of years.

The 1994 Brady Handgun Violence Protection Act temporarily banned assault weapons.

There has been no major gun control legislation since 1995, which is about the same time the National Rifle Association (NRA) became very politically active in congressional races.

In 1990, the NRA created a foundation to “raise millions of dollars to fund gun safety and educational projects of benefit to the general public” which has translated into the NRA getting involved with congressional elections by donating millions to candidates running for office and who oppose any form of gun control.

There is no doubt we have a deadly mass shooting epidemic on our hands.

The mass shooting with guns in the last 10 years include: Orlando, Florida (49 killed, 50 injured), Blacksburg, Va. (32 killed), San Ysidro, Cal (21 killed), San Bernardino, (14 killed), Edmond Oklahoma (14 killed), Fort Hood (13 killed), Binghamton, NY (13 killed) Washington, DC (12 killed), Aurora, Colorado (12 killed), Sandy Hook Elementary School, Newtown, Conn (21 children and 6 adult staff members killed) and the largest mass shooting in this country’s history that occurred in Las Vegas, Nevada with at least 59 dead and at least 515 wounded.

COMPONENTS OF AMERCAS MASS KILLING EPIDEMIC INCLUDES NRA

There are many components to America’s mass shooting epidemic.

We need more mental health treatment facilities, more parental involvement, better educational systems, early childhood intervention to prevent child abuse and to identify and get help and counseling to emotionally and violent children and more to secure our schools.

The NRA is part of the problem because of the choke hold it has on the United States Congress.

After the Trump meeting at the White House with the victims and parents, the NRA came out in opposition to the 21 age provisions and any other gun control provisions again arguing the problem is not with guns but the criminals who are using the guns and law abiding citizens rights under the second amendment should never be infringed upon.

After so many mass killings, it is difficult to refute that something needs to be done about semi-automatic and automatic guns such as the AR-15, or the type used in all the mass shootings and that are the weapons of choice for mass murderers.

After so many mass shootings in the last few years, its clear the NRA controlled congress does not want, nor is it willing to take, any action on gun control.

The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School killing of 17 students in Parkland, Florida appears to have ignited a national movement by our youth who have become very angry over the shootings and they are saying “enough is enough” to elected officials.

All over the country, high school students are protesting and demanding action on gun control from their legislatures and from the United State Congress.

A march on Washington DC is now going to occur on March 14, 2018.

“The March For Our Lives” movement is gaining traction very quickly and it is becoming a wild fire movement like the “Me Too” movement that has swept away so many of the powerful who engaged in sexual harassment and abuse of women over so many years.

CONCLUSION

My generation (people over 60) has a real bad habit of underestimating the determination, independence, creativity of millenniALS and have the wrong perception that millennials are powerless or too lazy and self centered to do anything and more concerned about texting on their cell phones and playing video games all day.

I really do hope the NRA and their bought and paid for congress does not see “The March For Lives” movement as a real threat to them so that when the NRA bought and paid for congress is swept from office they will not know what hit them and real change can occur.

Unless we begin now with responsible measures to deal with gun violence in this country, we will never complete the journey and eliminate mass school shootings and we will be waiting for the next news cycle, the next mass shooting and watch the funerals of innocent children.

The March For Our Lives Movement may be just the beginning of something that is long overdue in the United States: enactment of responsible gun control laws.

Screwed! APD to start over on reform. Former command staff botched everything; had no plan.

February 21, 2018

By Dennis Domrzalski

The Albuquerque Police Department’s former command staff so obstructed APD’s reform effort that the department basically has to start much of the reform the process all over n.

That’s the word from the independent monitor in the reform case, James Ginger, who, earlier this month told the federal court judge who is overseeing the case that the prior command staff never developed a plan to comply with the settlement agreement the city signed in late 2014 with the U.S. Department of Justice.

As a result, Ginger is working frantically to get APD’s new command staff up to speed on the reform process and help them develop a complete compliance plan. But that so-called new way forward has yet to be fully fleshed out.

“To make a long story short, the reason we’re in the mess right now is we never could get a real plan out of the old APD,” Ginger told U.S. District Court Judge Robert Brack during a Feb. 8 status conference in the case.

Ginger continued:

“At this — at this stage of the game, I think everybody understands they [APD] are seriously off track. That had nothing to do with this new command staff that is present. They’ve sort of inherited the mess. And what I’ve tried to do is design a way forward that will allow the new APD to pick up the pieces and start making progress relatively rapidly and, basically, to help the Court understand what I’m recommending happen, is a highly compressed and highly focused process that was provided originally to the old APD when this project first started.

“I’ve designed a process that I think, based on my experience, will allow the new APD to pick up the pieces — I mean, there’s a lot of things that have been developed that we – quite frankly, we just need to throw away and start over again, but that’s not everything. We can — we can salvage some of the work that was done in the first couple of years.”

Ginger told Brack that his team, which is being paid $4 million for their efforts, spent 18 months giving APD’s old command staff technical assistance on a variety of issues. Much of that technical assistance might have to be gone over again for the new command staff, but the money budgeted for that assistance has already been spent, Ginger told the judge.

“We had a fairly protracted period of technical assistance where we worked with [former] key command staff members on a Use of Force Policy, on policy development, on training, planning and development, on supervision, and on command levels,” Ginger told Brack. “And what we plan on doing — that period – that lasted for a period of about 18 months until we thought they had had enough technical assistance and APD was ready to start moving forward.

“Unfortunately, that movement forward never really happened with the old APD. What we’re planning on doing, given the budgetary constrictions that we’re confronting as a monitoring team — in other words, we’ve spent most of our technical assistance monies already, and yet we find a need to have to do that again.”

During the status conference, Brack was also told that three city councilors have called off their requested audit of Ginger and the work he has done so far in the reform case.

The councilors – Don Harris, Ken Sanchez and Brad Winter – called for the audit in late October saying they were worried that Ginger was trying to game the system by spending more time here than necessary and squeezing more money out of city taxpayers.

But during the status conference, attorney Jerry Walz, who has been hired by the City Council to represent them in front of Brack in regards to the audit, told the judge that the councilors had called off the audit.

“A request was made on behalf of – in late January of several of the requesting councilors for the audit that the Internal Audit Department at this time discontinue or otherwise not move forward on any type of independent review or audit performance of Public Management Resources, Inc., and Mr. James Ginger, who is the independent monitor,” Walz told Brack.

“It’s my understanding that based on that request, there has been no movement forward by Lawrence Davis, who is the acting City auditor to conduct such an audit, as originally was envisioned pursuant to the City Council’s resolution 17-252. Rather the City Council may be working what I would label as an approach to somehow assess the type and nature of services rendered and to confirm that the dollars appropriated and spent were appropriately done so.”

The councilors called off the audit after learning that Ginger was charging the city only a fifth of his usual fee in such cases.

“I think that they were all quite surprised to learn that Dr. Ginger has been working at a fifth of his regular consulting rate while he has been working on this project,” Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Martinez told Brack.

Martinez also told Brack that APD’s new command staff, including Chief Michael Geier, are working with the city’s community policing councils in a way that the old command staff never did.

“The City and the Police Department already have responded to the requests from POB [Police Oversight Board] and the CPCs for a restructuring of the citizens police academy that would better meet the needs that they have to get their members trained so that they can participate in the functions that they have to fulfill under the CASA. And it’s just terrific,” Martinez told Brack.

“They have completely revamped the training that the CPCs, the POB members have to have to do their work. And it’s just heartening. And I applaud the – we all applaud APD and Chief Geier and the City for moving so quickly on this.”

https://www.abqreport.com/single-post/2018/02/21/Screwed-APD-to-start-over-on-reform-Former-command-staff-botched-everything-had-no-plan

With all this talk of the City Council wanting to raise our gross receipts taxes and the beginning public outcry opposing it, the City Council needs to start thinking out of the box.

City Councilors Trudy Jones and Ken Sanchez want to raise the gross receipts tax that will generate $55 million a year to help pay for the $40 million projected deficit as well as hire more cops and dedicate money to public safety.

Police Union President Shawn Willoughby wants the City Council to guarantee at least 60% of the new revenue be given to APD to help recruitment and give his membership raises.

“Public Safety” represents 29% of a $529.6 million general fund budget appropriations for the City of Albuquerque, and includes the Albuquerque Police Department and the Fire Department.

The Albuquerque Police Department’s (APD) Annual budget is $171.8 million.

APD employs 1,484 full time employees.

The Albuquerque Fire Department (AFD) employs 699 full time employees.

The Albuquerque Police Department had a general fund budget of $171.8 million approved for the 2017-2018 fiscal year which included an increase by $7 million or a 4.2% increase for the Department.

The Albuquerque Fire Department (AFD) annual budget is $75.5 million.

The Fire Department budget had a decrease of 1.6% or $1.2 million below the FY/17 original budget.

It turns out that the City is also facing a $75 million shortfall to pay for the ART Bus prject if the federal grant money is not forthcoming.

The ART Bus project construction is almost complete and the bill must be paid.

Six more brand new ART buses have been delivered but the administration has no idea when the ART Bus project will be completed nor when the buses will be used, but the buses still must be paid for to the tune of $22 million.

What the City owes on the ART Bus project could almost pay for a full year’s budget for the Fire Department.

It’s time for the city council to think out of the bus when dealing with the city’s financial crises and the projected deficits.

Perhaps our Firefighters could use the ART Buses to go to emergency calls for service using the ART Busses as a means of saving money.

The city could also install extension ladders bought at COSTCO on the tops of the buses and convert them to ladder units to deal with high rise fires.

Hell, the city could even convert the ART Buses to APD Breathalyzer Test stations or portable APD area command stations for use by our police officers.

Maybe the City Council could replace Shawn Willoughby’s patrol car with an ART Bus and put him in charge of police recruitment and send him around the country finding qualified people to become police officers, at least that way the City Administration would get him out of town and out of the papers and off the TV and allow them to do their jobs without police union interference.

APD’s slogan is “to serve and protect” while the police union slogan is “what’s in your wallet”.

Albuquerque City Councilors Republican Trudy Jones and Democrat Ken Sanchez have introduced a bill that would increase Albuquerque’s gross receipts tax by 0.375 percentage point, or three-eighths of a cent per dollar is expected to bring in about $55 million annually.

(February 20, 2018 Albuquerque Journal, page A-1, Council asked to tie tax hike to APD growth; Police Union seeks guarantee that money will help hire officers)

https://www.abqjournal.com/1135802/council-asked-to-tie-tax-hike-to-apd-growth.html

The City Council legislation states that public safety is a priority for the city and that additional funding is necessary to attract more police officers to Albuquerque but says revenue from the tax would be used for “general municipal purposes.”

The bill does not specifically say how much of the tax revenue would go to police, prompting the Police Union to complain.

After 8 years of budget cuts, downsizing government and reduction of personnel, and the city facing a $40 million deficit, the proposed tax increase is no surprise.

Timing of the proposed tax increase dove tails into Mayor Tim Keller submitting his first city budget on April 1, 2018, with city council budget hearings to follow and enactment of the budget by July 1, 2018.

Shaun Willoughby, the president of the Albuquerque Police Officers Association, wants the city councilors to amend the legislation to “guarantee” that 60 percent of all the revenue generated from the tax will be new revenue for the police department to recruit more officers and increase pay.

According to the police union, the revenue generated from the tax increase should go to the police department until the department is fully staffed.

The union goes as far as to say that the city council is “flying the banner of public safety” to help justify enacting the tax.

What the Police Union President is really saying is that no other city department is hurting as much as the police and for that reason his union members and APD are the only department that should really benefit from any sort of tax increase.

The City of Albuquerque has a total general budget of $955.3 million dollars, of which $529.6 million is the general fund which goes to providing all essential services, with the balance going to capital improvement projects, debt service and other essential services.

The essential services provided by the city include not only police protection but also fire protection, solid waste and garbage pickup, our transit and bus services, family community services, the bio park including the zoo and aquarium, museums, children’s science museum and balloon museum, libraries, senior citizen centers, parks, golf courses, open space management, swimming pools, youth programs, programs to help the homeless, the planning department, code enforcement, municipal affairs and street repairs and projects, fleet maintenance just to mention a few.

The Police Union ignores that there are roughly 4,000 other city employees that are overworked and other city departments and services that have also suffered from severe budget cutbacks and reduced salaries.

The Police Union also ignores the huge budget deficit the City is facing.

The City is facing a $6 million deficit for this year, a $40 million dollar deficit for the next fiscal year, $69 million for the ART Bus project that must be found if the federal grant is not forthcoming, $40 million needed for the emergency operations center and communications center, the need for funding for 350 more police officers that the Mayor and city council want, replacement of the roughly 20% of police units and fire department units that are needing to be replaced, not to mention the $25 million dollars lost because of repeal of the hold harmless provision.

The point is that the lion share of the $55 million raised by the tax being proposed will in all probability have to be applied to the $40 million dollar projected deficit and other incurred debts.

There is also a need for further tax revenue to address all the other city departments, vacancies and increases in salaries to those other city employees who have been given significantly less in salary increases, or no increases at all, for the last eight years while APD’s budget and salaries increased.

APD BY THE NUMBERS

“Public Safety” represents 29% of a $529.6 million general fund budget appropriations for the City of Albuquerque, and includes the Albuquerque Police Department and the Fire Department.

The Albuquerque Police Department’s (APD) Annual budget is $171.8 million.

APD employs 1,484 full time employees.

The Albuquerque Fire Department (AFD) employs 699 full time employees.

The Albuquerque Fire Department (AFD) annual budget is $75.5 million.

The Albuquerque Police Department had a general fund budget of $171.8 million approved for the 2017-2018 fiscal year which included an increase by $7 million or a 4.2% increase for the Department.

The adopted FY/18 General Fund budget for APD has funding for a total of 1,484 full-time positions which consists of funding for 484 civilian support staff and funding for 1,000 sworn police officers.

Although fully funded for 1,000 sworn officers, APD has 853 sworn police officers, and only 436 are assigned to field services, divided into three working shifts, less any of those on vacation, sick leave or in court.

At any given time, there are 124 sworn police officers assigned to field services, divided by three shifts, or 24 officers per field command shift.

IT TOOK EIGHT YEARS TO DOWNSIZE APD

The operative words the union is using is dedicate the new tax “until the department is fully” staffed.

If history is any indication of what is going to happen, it is going to take years to grow the police department until it is fully staffed as the union wants, even if the entire tax is dedicated to APD.

In other words, taxpayer money will just sit in an account if the police union has its way.

Eight (8) years ago, the Albuquerque Police Department (APD) was the best trained, best equipped, best funded department in its history and it was fully staffed with 1,100 sworn police officers.

In eight (8) years under the watchful eye of the Albuquerque City Council, APD went from 1,100 sworn police to 853 sworn police officers.

From 2010 to 2014, APD was fully funded for 1,100 sworn police positions despite the mass exodus of sworn police and the APD Police Academy’s failure to recruit and keep up with retirements.

Three years ago, the City Council reduced funding from 1,100 sworn officers to 1,000 sworn officers because of the Berry Administration’s failure to recruit and keep up with retirements.

Currently, the Albuquerque Police Department is budgeted for 1,000 police officers but actually employs 836 with only 430 assigned to the field to take calls for service.

Money from the 150-plus police officer vacancies has gone to pay police overtime, and the Albuquerque Police Department busted its overtime budget by $4 million going from the $9 million budgeted to $13 million.

It’s not likely the new administration is going to be very successful anytime soon in filling all the vacancies APD already has, let alone know what to do with millions thrown its way that can only be used for one department.

CONCLUSION

Mayor Tim Keller made the campaign promise that he wanted to increase the number of sworn police officers from the current 836 positions filled to 1,200, or by 350 sworn police officers, and return to community-based policing, a promise that in all likely can not be fulfilled unless there is a tax increase or a cannibalization of other city services and budgets.

Keller was endorsed by the Police Union and no doubt the Union will be making its demands and expecting the Mayor to support what it wants.

Getting to the 1,200 level of sworn officers where APD is fully staffed is going to take years and it will have to be done in increments that is realistic and can be accomplished.

If the Police Union is really concerned about public safety, rather than only thinking of themselves, it should be asking the City Council and the Mayor to take bold action and propose a sperate and additional “public safety” tax to be enacted by the City Council along with the creation of a Department of Public Safety that is fully funded and staffed with the consolidation of the police department, fire department, 911 emergency dispatch center as well as the emergency operations center.

Until then, APD’s slogan will be “To serve and protect” while the police union’s slogan will be “What’s in your wallet?”

There should be absolutely no surprise that the Albuquerque City Council is now considering increasing the city’s gross receipts tax.

(See February 17, 2018 Albuquerque Journal, “City Council to consider tax hike; Councilors say city facing budget shortfall, needs more officers)

https://www.abqjournal.com/1134761/city-council-to-consider-tax-hike.html

The tax that is being proposed is three eights of a cent and could potentially raise $22 million and upwards of $55 million.

The City Council also has the option to increase property taxes if it wanted to, but that would probably be way to controversial to the voting public.

Mayor Tim Keller is due to announce his first budget on April 1, 2018 which will then be enacted by the city council effective July 1, 2018 after city council budget hearing.

For the last eight (8) years, the City Council Republicans Trudy Jones, Brad Winter, Dan Lewis and Don Harris, strongly resisted raising the gross receipts tax at all costs despite the effect that budget cuts were having a severe impact on essential services and a disastrous effect on public safety.

All of a sudden Republican City Councilor Trudy Jones has “seen the light”, or perhaps the “deficit red”, and is not only supportive of the gross receipts tax increase but is cosponsoring the tax increase with City Council President Ken Sanchez.

Jones is probably supporting the tax because she knows she is not running for re election next year and no longer has to tow the Republican party line.

The city has lost $25 million in revenue due to the loss of the states “hold harmless” agreement enacted to reimburse the city for loss of gross receipts revenues with the repeal of gross receipts on food by the legislature.

The former Mayor expressed support of the legislature’s repeal of the gross receipts tax on food when he lobbied for it in Santa Fe to the detriment of city finances and revenues.

The gross receipts tax is a very regressive tax that hurts the poor and has a chilling effect on economic development.

Notwithstanding the regressive nature, gross receipts tax revenues is the major source of revenues to the city and no one wants property taxes increased or a city income tax enacted.

THEY KNEW IT WAS COMING FOR SOME TIME

Back in December, 2017, it was reported that the city was facing a $6 million-dollar short fall this fiscal year that would have to be made up somehow.

Among the contributing factors for the $6 million deficit was the the Albuquerque Police Department exceeding its overtime budget by $4 million by going from $9 million to $13 million and the excessive judgements paid out in APD deadly use of force cases such as the $5 million settlement paid in the Mary Hawkes case.

Further, it was reported that the city was facing a whopping $40 million-dollar budget short fall the city will be dealing with next fiscal year.

(See December 19, 2017 Albuquerque Journal “Mayor: APD still a priority despite projected deficit).

The $40 million dollars deficit does not include the $69 million dollars that will have to be found to complete the ART Bus project if the Federal Grant is not approved and congress does not appropriate the money.

At least $20 million will have to be found for ART in that the congressional committees have already cut the project by that amount.

The fiscal and budget policy of the last eight (8) years of cut city services and downsizing government has now run its course and there is not much more that can be cut, let alone savings that can be found.

It is going to take a lot more than just raising permit fees, licensing fees, golf fees, parking fees, entrance fees and bus fares to make up a $40 million deficit.

Back in December, Mayor Keller held a press conference at which time he said:

“Because we have a deficit situation, we are really going to have to focus on prioritizing what is important this year for our city. … A piece of that is also understanding we’ve got to find ways to step up for our officers, and we also have to prioritize job creation and keep our kids at the forefront of the budget process this year.”

Asked during his press conference in December if a tax increases would be required, Keller said:

“I certainly hope not, and I can’t imagine that at the end of the day, given what we want to prioritize, that is going to happen. The tougher question is how do we actually get more officers on the streets, and we’re going to be working with our police chief and the City Council to find a way to do that.”

Well Mayor Keller you need to start imagining a tax increase without a public vote and get behind it if public safety is in fact your priority.

And while your at it, please act boldly and propose a full quarter cent “public safety” tax to be enacted by the City Council along with the creation of a Department of Public Safety that is fully funded and staffed with the consolidation of the police department, fire department, 911 emergency dispatch center as well as the emergency operations center.

Currently, the Albuquerque Police Department is budgeted for 1,000 police officers but actually employs 836 with only 430 assigned to the field to take calls for service.

Money from the 150 + police officer vacancies has gone to pay police overtime and the Albuquerque Police Department busted its overtime budget by $4 million going from the $9 million budgeted to $13 million.

The 911 emergency dispatch center is in need of a $40 million-dollar upgrade.

The is also a need to acquire new police patrol vehicles to replace the aging portion of the fleet.

STATE AUDITOR TIM KELLER VS CANDIDATE AND ELECTED MAYOR TIM KELLER

Over a year ago on February 14, 2017 the mandatory state audit of the city was released by State Auditor Tim Keller, and he said Albuquerque needed to substantially increase funding for the risk management fund to $6.3 million a year to cover the shortfall.

“The city is basically spending more than it can afford for settlements for police shootings and civil rights violations. … That’s obviously a financial problem, which is why it shows up in our audit” Keller said at the time.

“In light of the city’s troubling trend of incurring more liabilities, it is appropriate and necessary for the city to better fund the (risk management fund),” Keller told the city.

The city budgeted from $2.1 million to $3.6 million a year to bolster the risk management fund in the past three years.

Now that Mr. Keller is Mayor, he is now facing the consequences of city lawsuits and settlements and spending beyond its means.

Tim Keller was swept into office in part by voter anger about rising crime rates and how bad things are in the City when it came to the police department.

On the campaign trail, Candidate Keller laid out his plans for APD and his determination to complete the Department of Justice (DOJ) reforms.

Keller made the campaign promise that he wanted to increase the number of sworn police officers from the current 850 to 1,200, or by 350 sworn police officers and return to community based policing.

Frankly getting to the 1,200 level of sworn officers is going to take years and probably will not be accomplished without a tax increase and that is a cold reality.

On the campaign trail, candidate Keller said he would raise taxes as a last resort for public safety but and only with voter approval.

Candidate Keller saying he would draw from various agencies, departments and programs where large, misappropriated budgets exist was a fantastic talking point that sounded good, but not very realistic after the 8 years of budget cuts and downsizing of government by his predicessor.

There is not much more that can be done to find money.

Issuing paper audits by State Auditor Tim Keller is a far cry from running a municipality that has no money by Mayor Tim Keller.

Now that we have Mayor Tim Keller, he is mum thus far on a tax increase and his spokesman says everything is on the table.

I am always disappointed when Mayors and City Councilors proclaim they will put increases in taxes on the ballot thereby trying to avoid the political “hot potato” and accusation that they increased taxes when they run for office again.

People have no business running for office if they do not want to make the hard decisions, especially when it comes to taxes and public safety and providing police services.

In any representative form of government such as our city government and our congress, people are elected to make the best decisions they can based on the facts and needs of their constituents.

Public safety and police services is one of the very few areas that elected officials should never resist increasing taxes when there is a crisis such as we have now in Albuquerque with our high crime rates.

On a federal level, our military defense is akin to police services on the local level, and you never see congress put to a public vote the pentagon budget.

Keller is quickly learning, albeit the hard way, there is a big difference between running for office, making a lot of promises that you may be unable to keep versus actually governing and making the decisions that have to be made that will most assuredly anger people.

One of those decisions that upsets voters is having to increase taxes.

As former Mayor David Rusk said “Taxes are the dues we pay to live in a civilized society.”

It is the City Council that has the authority to raise taxes, not the Mayor.

For those City Councilors who refuse to support a tax increase, Keller needs to remind them that they are the ones that have failed the public during the last eight years to fully address our public safety needs and allowing the destruction of APD.

Keller also needs to remind Republican City Councillors Don Harris and Brad Winter they are the ones who voted to spend the $69 million of Federal Transportation grant money that the City has yet to see a dime even though the construction on the project is complete and the bill must now be paid.

CONCLUSION

If Keller feels we need a public safety tax for police and the DOJ reforms, he should advocate its enactment by the City Council and not put it to a public vote.

It’s great being Mayor during good economic times and low crime rates, and miserable being Mayor during a bad economy and rising crime rates.

A Mayor making decisions with an eye towards future office or a legacy is a recipe for failure.

The ultimate question is will the City Council and the Mayor want to put the tax increase on the ballot for voter approval or show backbone and political courage and just enact a tax?

Alan Webber is a New Mexico progressive Democrat who is running for Mayor of Santa Fe and who has also run for Governor.

Mr. Webber is a successful businessman, having worked in government and in journalism for a number of years.

Mr. Webber sent out an email regarding the Florida high school mass shooting that caught my eye, no so much for promoting his candidacy for Mayor, but what he said regarding responsible gun control and the National Rifle Association.

What Mr. Webber said in part is:

“… [W]e must call out the NRA at every opportunity. Congress, spurred by the NRA, has put legal limits on what city governments can do to stop gun violence. … even common-sense measures like one to keep guns out of the hands of violent offenders—which most law enforcement officials support—isn’t possible at a city level, because of the NRA.

Long ago, the NRA exceeded their charter. The NRA was founded in 1871 to promote “training, education, and marksmanship.” They added the NRA Foundation in 1990 to “raise millions of dollars to fund gun safety and educational projects of benefit to the general public.”
…

But today, [the NRA] is the single greatest opponent to laws that would help prevent what [happened in a Florida High School] as well as seventeen others school-based shootings since the new year. Seventeen shootings since January 1. That’s more than two school shootings per week

We have a deadly epidemic on our hands. And yes, there are many components to the epidemic– we need more mental health treatment facilities, more parental involvement, better education, early intervention in cases where young people are crying out for help – and more. But no one can deny that the NRA isn’t part of the problem. So let’s start there. Let’s start by calling out the NRA for what they are: complicit in this deadly epidemic” according to Alan Webber’s email.

What caught my interest is when Mr. Weber proposed and said what he felt we must do and where we can begin to deal with the epidemic of gun violence.

WEBBER SPECIFIC PROPOSALS TO BE CONSIDERED

The specific proposals outlined in Mr. Webber’s email are as follows:

1. Implement background checks on the sale of all guns.

2. Close the “Charleston loophole” or “delayed denial” where federally licensed dealers can sell guns if three business days pass without FBI clearance.

3. Update and enhance the federal National Instant Criminal Background Check system (NCIS).

4. Institute mandatory waiting periods for all gun purchases.

5. Enact a gun violence restraining order/extreme risk protection process to temporarily prohibit an individual deemed by a judge to pose a danger to self or others, from purchasing or possessing firearms or ammunition and allow law enforcement to remove any firearms or ammunition already in the individual’s possession.

6. Implement handgun licensing, permitting, training, and registration.

7. Ban bump-fire stocks and other dangerous accessories.

8. Ban future manufacture/sale of assault weapons, regulate existing assault weapons under the National Firearms Act of 1934, and initiate a federal gun buyback program.

9. Impose limits on high capacity magazines.

10. Make gun trafficking a federal crime and punish.

11. Repeal Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) to eliminate the corporate gun industry special protection from civil justice law that no other industry enjoys.

12. Restrict and penalize firearm possession by or transfer to a person subject to a domestic violence protection order or a person (including dating partners) convicted of a domestic violence misdemeanor.

13. Prohibit firearm sale or transfer to and receipt or possession by an individual who has: (1) been convicted in any court of a misdemeanor hate crime, or (2) received from any court an enhanced hate crime misdemeanor sentence.

14. Repeal the Dickey Amendment to adequately fund government research on gun violence.

15. Institute child access prevention/safe storage requirement.

16. Provide resources and treatment for people with mental illness.

17. Enhance accountability of federally licensed firearms dealers.

18. Implement micro stamped code on each bullet that links it to a specific gun.

19. Produce ‘xmart guns’ with Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) or biometric recognition (fingerprint) capability.

20. Limit gun purchases to one gun per month to reduce trafficking and straw purchases.

21. Prohibit open carry of firearms.

22. Digitize ATF gun records.

23. Require licensing for ammunition dealers.

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS

A few of the proposals are already in existence in one form or another and some of the proposals have been been around for a time, but congress has failed and refused to act.

Gun trafficking of certain firearms is already a federal offense, but the penalty could be increased substantially.

Allowing the “open carry” of firearms is embodied in the New Mexico constitution and therefore any prohibition would require a constitutional amendment.

One area in particular that needs to be considered is the prohibition of the manufacture and sale of “ghost guns” which are guns that are manufactured and sold in parts without any serial numbers to be assembled by the purchaser and that can be sold to anyone.

Another gun technology that is available is the personalization of handguns and rifles that are computer chipped programed with fingerprint identification and can only be discharged by the owner.

Still another proposal is the requiring the purchase of “liability insurance”, as is the case for automobiles, with each handgun sold and at the time of sale.

CONCLUSION

Mr. Weber acknowledges that there are many proposals that people may not agree with, but the point is that it is long over due to begin the discussion and force our elected officials, both on a local and national level, to take action.

Unless we begin now with responsible measures to deal with gun violence in this country, we will never complete the journey and eliminate mass shootings and we will be waiting for the next news cycle, the next mass shooting and watch funerals.