On February 7, 2018, the Albuquerque Journal published on its editorial page a political cartoon by syndicated cartoonist Sean Delonas who is with CagleCartoons.com.

The cartoon depicts an apparently frightened white couple holding their hands up while being robbed by two MS-13 gang members pointing a gun at them.

The cartoon also depicts a third person appearing to be a terrorist strapped with sticks of dynamite with lighted fuses, and holding a bloody machete with the barrel of a rifle pointing down from the back.

MS-13 is an international criminal gang with members primarily from Central America or of Mexican or Latin decent.

The man is quoted telling his wife: “Now Honey … I believe they prefer to be called ‘Dreamers’ … or future Democrats …”

“Dreamers” as many people know are young adults born in other countries and brought to the United States as children without documentation, typically by family members, and who only know the United States as their home.

The cartoon is essentially portraying “dreamers” as mugging gangsters who want to rob white people or terrorist who want to kill them by committing suicide or killing them with a machete.

Delonis is no stranger to controversy.

In 2009, media magnet Rupert Murdoch issued a personal apology for a Delonis cartoon of a chimpanzee that was interpreted by many observers as President Barack Obama.

There is an estimated 2 million “dreamers” who have grown up in the United States and who will be deported if the United State Congress does not pass a version of the DREAM Act (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act).

The DREAM Act is a multi-phase process for qualifying alien minors in the United States that would first grant conditional residency and, upon meeting further qualifications, permanent residency and perhaps citizenship.

President Donald Trump has also withdrawn the Obama Executive Order that prevented dreamers from being deported and the US Congress is struggling passing the DREAM ACT.

The editorial cartoon came under fire from Journal readers and both of New Mexico’s U.S. senators and one New Mexico State Senator.

The cartoon was criticized as being “misguided”, “bigoted”, and described as an example of “ignorance, racism and hatred”.

Some readers have defended the cartoon as legitimate political commentary.

On February 8, 2018, the Albuquerque Journal published a very lengthy story on the reactions to the cartoon and giving an explanation why it was published.

(February 8, 2018 Albuquerque Journal, page A-9, Metro & NM Section, “Editorial cartoon sparks controversy; Item on Journal page called ‘misguided’, ‘bigoted”)

https://www.abqjournal.com/1130848/journal-editorial-cartoon-sparks-controversy.html

It is indeed a sad state of affairs when the Albuquerque Journal finds itself having to publish an article with a lengthy explanation and rationale on why it published a political cartoon from a nationally syndicated cartoonist with no ties nor understanding of New Mexico.

For close to 35 years, John Trever was the political cartoonist for the Albuquerque Journal, is retired, and was nationally recognized as one of the best political cartoonist in the United States.

Trever, being from here, has a clear understanding of New Mexico and its people.

Being a Journal subscriber for over 35 years, I cannot recall anyone of John Trever’s cartoons ever generating the level of criticism as has the Sean Delonas cartoon .

Under the United States Constitution First Amendment guarantee of free speech and of the press, the Albuquerque Journal had every right to publish the cartoon, but that does not mean it should have published it.

In describing the Journal’s rationale for choosing to publish the cartoon, Editorial Page Editor D’Val Westphal said “the mission of an editorial page is to explore all sides of an issue, to make people think and debate and examine closely the opposing view of an argument. Unfortunately, this cartoon did not inspire that kind of discussion.”

When you have the constitutional right to publish or say something it also means it will reflect on what you believe and your real motives.

Publishing the cartoon is evidence that the Albuquerque Journal has lost touch or does not understand, if it ever did, the community and state it reports on.

The Albuquerque Journal’s rational for the cartoon rings hollow on a number of levels.

The fact that two United States Senators and one State Senator condemned the cartoon speaks volumes as to why the Albuquerque Journal felt it needed to explain its rationale.

I have heard many people say that the Albuquerque Journal has contempt or hatred for the very community and state it reports on, and the cartoon is evidence of that fact.

Channel 7 President and General Manager Marry Lynn Roper did a community comment entitled “Fight for the DA’s Office to be properly funded”.

Ms. Roper asked viewers to contact the New Mexico legislature and help Bernalillo District Attorney Raul Torrez to secure an additional $5.4 million for his budget so he can hire 34 more prosecutors and 7 more investigators to deal with the crime crisis in New Mexico.

The Bereanlillo County Dsitrict Attorneys Office is the largest law firm in the state of New Mexico, it has an annual budget of $18.5 million, employs 300 people including upwards of 115 funded, full time prosecutors.

Bernalillo County District Attorney Raul Torrez is asking the state Legislature for a 30 percent increase to his current budget of $18.2 million, or a $5.4 million increase, to handle the felony case backlog.

Channel 13 Investigative Reporter Larry Barker also did a two-month KRQE investigative Report entitled “Justice Denied: Thousands of Albuquerque accused criminals are not prosecuted”

http://krqe.com/2018/02/06/justice-denied-thousands-of-albuquerque-accused-criminals-arent-prosecuted/

Torrez says a lack of resources is the reason his office cannot even come close to prosecuting all the pending felony cases in his office.

According to Torrez, there are simply too many criminals and not enough staff.

“If we don’t get sufficient resources in this legislative session I would think several thousand felony cases simply will become too old, too stale for us to act on. It’s not justice” Torrez told Larry Barker.

What Channel 7 and Channel 13 did not report nor reveal is that the state’s sunshine portal shows that Torrez has 45 unfilled positions in his office, 18 of which are unfilled attorney positions.

I’m all for giving the DA more resources, but what good is it if the people are not hired and positions are not filled.

Larry Barker reports that accused criminals, most of them repeat offenders, are handed “get out of jail free” cards courtesy of an underfunded and overloaded justice system.

At least Larry Barker recognized the problem is not just with the District Attorney’s office funding but includes the Courts and law enforcement.

WHAT GOOD ARE FUNDED POSITIONS IF NO ONE IS HIRED?

Mr. Torrez now wants funding from the 2018 New Mexico legislature for an additional 34 attorneys without explaining why he cannot fill the 18 attorney vacancies he has.

Torrez has given no explanation how he is going to recruit so many more prosecutors to go work for him while competing with other District Attorney offices in the state.

What is known for sure is that Mr. Torrez is hiring retired Assistant District Attorneys and retired former Assistant United States Attorneys, some on contract, and paying them anywhere from $75,000 to $125,000 a year which is significantly more than entry level positions that pay between $45,000 to $50,000 a year.

Torrez has hired retired prosecutors on contract to review the backlog of 32 officer involved shootings with only a few of those cases cleared for no prosecution within the last year.

Retired Assistant District Attorneys who have been given contracts are paid PERA pensions and cannot “double dip” so instead of suspending their pensions, they are paid on contract to collect both their pension and contract amounts.

What is troubling is that Torrez may be using salary savings from unfilled positions in order to hire people on contract which may be a violation of the personnel rules and regulations of the Office of District Attorneys Association.

WANT SOME WHINE WITH THAT CHEESE?

Bernalillo County District Raul Torrez has been in office over a year.

By all news accounts, he wants to prosecute violent crime and repeat offenders to bring down our crime rates.

During the past year, Torrez has gotten considerable press from the Albuquerque Journal and the local TV news agencies complaining about lack of resources, lack of personnel and blaming the Court’s and law enforcement for our high crime rates.

Torrez lost a lot of support from the courts, and some would say his credibility, when he blamed the Courts for all of our high crime rates.

Less than six months after being sworn in as Bernalillo County District Attorney, Raul Torres blamed the New Mexico Supreme Court’s Case Management Order (CMO) for Albuquerque’s increasing crime rates.

The CMO was necessitated by the fact that so many defendants were awaiting arraignments or trials and being held in the Bernalillo County Detention Center, or jail, for months, and at times years, to the point that the jail was becoming severely overcrowded exceeding its capacity of approximately 2,200 inmates.

Torrez had his District Attorney Office issue a report that outlined the so-called problems he perceived since the issuance of the Case Management Order by the Supreme Court in February, 2015.

The main points of the DA’s report was that defense attorneys were “gaming” the court mandated discovery deadlines under the CMO to get cases dismissed by demanding evidence they are entitled to under the law and the Rules of Criminal Procedure and asking for trials instead of entering into plea agreements.

The Judges strongly disputed the Torrez report.

In response to the Torrez report, the Courts did their own case review of statistics and found out the it was the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s Office that was dismissing the majority of cases.

The Case Management Order (CMO) has since been amended and Torres and the Courts seem to be getting along much better.

CONCLUSION

The problem is that Torrez does not seem to understand fully that the prosecution of any crime demands full cooperation of law enforcement, the public defender’s office and the courts.

The criminal justice system is very much like a chain in that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

Instead of advocating for increase funding and personnel not only for his office, Torrez ignored how underfunded and poorly staffed the Courts, the public defender office as well as all law enforcement are in the State Of New Mexico.

One day District Attorney Raul Torrez is going to learn that constant whining and complaining about lack of resources and personnel may generate a lot of publicity but it is no substitute for making tough decisions, attracting dedicated people to fill positions to run an office and doing a good job.

Until Torrez learns a lesson on leadership, someone needs to give him some cheese to go with all his constant whining and complaining.

The Doer, the Whiner and the Failure
February 7, 2018

Dennis Domrzalski

https://www.abqreport.com/single-post/2018/02/07/The-Doer-the-Whiner-and-the-Failure

You don’t have to look far to see that individuals – our attitudes and actions – can make all the difference in things.

Some people refuse to quit or whine, and wind up turning the most dire of circumstances into successes and triumphs; some whine incessantly no matter how good things are and will always be mired in mediocrity; and some just plain don’t do their jobs.

Those three different traits and types of people are on full display in Albuquerque right now, and I don’t think there’s any question as to who will have true success.

First we’ve got the Whiner, Bernalillo County District Attorney Raul Torrez. The DA has been whining since he took office a year ago that he doesn’t have enough resources, meaning attorneys, to prosecute all the criminals who are roaming our streets and stealing our stuff and creating mayhem.

Torrez’s office has a budget of $18.2 million. The office has 300 positions. As I said, since he took office last year, Torrez has been whining that he doesn’t have enough money to do his job. And now he’s asking the state Legislature for an additional $5.4 million so he can hire 20 more attorneys to prosecute felony cases.

But, Torrez’s office has 45 vacant positions, 18 of which are attorneys. He has never really answered the question of why he hasn’t hired those 18 attorneys, and no one in the news media, except this publication, has bothered to look at the state’s Sunshine portal to see all those vacant positions. And no one but ABQReport has bothered to ask Torrez why he’s asking for a lot more money when he can’t even keep his office fully staffed.

The state House wants to give Torrez a quarter of of his requested $4.5 million, or about $1.1 million in additional funds. That’s a decent amount of money, but it won’t be enough for Torrez. And you can bet that even if Torrez were to get that additional $4.5 million, he’d be back in a couple of years complaining that he didn’t have enough money and attorneys to do his job. He’s a perpetual whiner.

Now we come to the Loser in this situation, KOAT-TV President and General Manager Mary Lynn Roper. She put out an editorial on Feb. 5 going to bat for Torrez and his request for an additional $4.5 million. I don’t recall KOAT ever doing its job in this particular case and reporting on the fact that Torrez currently has 18 VACANT attorney positions. I don’t recall Roper or any of her station’s reporters asking Torrez why he’s asking for more money when he can’t, or won’t, fill all the positions he’s currently budgeted for.

KOAT says it has a news department. Well, if it’s a real news department, it would be doing some very easy reporting and asking Torrez some moderately tough questions. But it hasn’t, and in that regard, it’s a failure. It’s disgusting and embarrassing that these so-called news people can’t, or won’t do their jobs of holding public officials accountable.

And now we come to the Doer, the guy who makes no excuses and who is trying to scratch out success in a very tough situation. And that Doer is Albuquerque Police Chief Mike Geier.

Geier walked into an incredibly tough situation when he took over as police chief in December. APD has been chronically understaffed for years because of the failures and incompetence of the previous city administration, crime has skyrocketed in recent years, and morale among rank-and-file officers has been low.

But Geier hasn’t been sitting in a dark closet wringing his hands, weeping and whining about his lack of resources and the failures of his predecessor. In January, despite being more than 150 cops short of APD’s budgeted manpower level, Geier and his command staff put together a four-day auto theft sting that netted 23 recovered stolen vehicles and 22 felony arrests.

That was a huge and great first step in the process of taking back our streets – and motor vehicles – from the thugs.

Instead of whining, complaining and doing nothing, Geier took action; he charged the enemy.

When Geier took over as chief he said he was tired of the “Heads-down” attitude at APD. He said he was tired of hearing what couldn’t be done, and that he wanted a new attitude of accomplishment and service on behalf of the citizens and the department.

Well, because of Geier, APD has that new attitude.

The motto of Geier’s home town, the city of Chicago is “I will.” It’s not, “I don’t have the resources,” or, “I could succeed if only I had an endless amount of money,” or “Maybe I can do it.”

It’s “I will.”

Torrez and Roper have a long, long way to go before they can even come close to living up to that wonderful and inspiring motto. Because right now, their motto seems to be, “I can’t and I won’t.”

It was reported that two thirds of Albuquerque Police Academy applicants do not show up for testing to get into the APD academy.

http://www.kob.com/albuquerque-news/albuquerque-police-apd-recruitment-testing/4774021/?cat=500

The news report explained why Albuquerque is having so much problems filling unfilled positions and the difficulty in growing the department even with APD offering a $5,000 sign-on bonus for new hires.

According to an APD spokesperson 2,551 cadet “interest cards” were submitted by people online in 2017.

Of the 2,551 interest cards submitted, 1,479 were out-of-state applicants which reflects a healthy interest of people at least willing to consider coming to Albuquerque and beginning a law enforcement career.

Saying that there were 2,551 “interest cards” filled out is slightly misleading and does not mean actual applicants.

Of the 2,551-people showing an interest in applying, 2,050 qualified to take the academy test but only 606 showed up for the testing.

It turns out that it is a three-day testing process which probably explains why there are so many no shows.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS TO BE AN ALBQUERQUE POLICE OFFICER

All prospective Albuquerque Police Department officers must meet the following eligibility criteria:

1. Be a US citizen and at least 21 years old at the time of police academy graduation

2. Have a high school diploma or GED, and possess a valid driver’s license.

3. Applicants must have completed a minimum of 32 college credits unless the applicant has at least of two years of experience with and received an honorable discharge from the United States military.

4. Two years of continuous service as an Albuquerque police service aid or prisoner transport officer or five years of continuous service in a government or private sector position may also qualify for a waiver of the college credit requirement.

5. Immediate disqualification occurs if an applicant has a felony conviction, has been convicted of domestic violence, or has been convicted of a misdemeanor within three years of the application date.

STEPS TO BECOME AND ALBUQUERQUE POLICE OFFICER

Having the “minimum” qualifications to be an Albuquerque Police Officer only gives you an opportunity to test for the job.

The actual steps that must be taken to become an Albuquerque Police Officer are complicated and are as follows:

1. Meet the minimum qualifications for prospective officers and verify your eligibility by submitting an interest card to the Albuquerque Police Department.
2. Take the City Entrance Exam, which is similar to a civil service exam.
3. Submit a personal history statement.
4. Pass a physical abilities test.
5. Take the Nelson-Denny Reading Test (Note: this is a multiple-choice test measuring skill in vocabulary and reading.)
6. Submit the required personal documents, such as a credit report and photograph.
7. Complete a written psychological evaluation and background investigation.
8. Take a polygraph exam.
9. Complete a psychological interview.
10. Attend a panel interview with the Chief’s Selection Committee.
11. Complete a medical exam and drug screen.
12. Accept a conditional hire offer and attend the police academy.
13. Begin working as an Albuquerque patrol officer and [completing six months of patrol work with another sworn officer].

https://www.criminaljusticedegreeschools.com/criminal-justice-resources/police-departments-by-metro-area/albuquerque-officer-requirements/#requirements.

TWO REQUIREMENTS THAT SHOULD BE REVISITED

Approximately fifteen years ago, the minimum of 32 college credit requirement was added as a minimum entry requirement thereby excluding many individuals from being able to apply.

The rationale for the college credit requirement was that it would mean recruiting a higher quality of applicant and make better police officers.

A person’s education level does not always reflect intelligence nor how a person will react under pressure, especially when a life is in danger and you have to make life and death decisions.

The Albuquerque Police Academy is a six-month academy that requires the successful completion of physical and mental training and screening.

The academy has mandatory attendance of academic classes, in standard operating procedures, criminal procedure and the law with “constitutional policing” emphasized.

The college credit requirement needs to be revisited and determined if it is really necessary given the amount of training and education mandated by the academy.

Another requirement is passing a “polygraph” examine.

It is well settled law that the results “polygraph” examines are not admissible in court unless agreed to by the parties primarily because such examines are considered unreliable.

The rationale for the polygraph exam being evidence of a person’s propensity to lie is highly questionable and it is one requirement that should be revisited.

Eliminating the “college credit” requirement as well as the “polygraph test” would increase the final pool of applicants and not be a lowering of standards.

APD STAFFING LEVELS

In 2009, APD was fully staffed at 1,100 police officers, but command staff determined and recommended a staffing level of 1,200 officers was needed for a population the size of Albuquerque in order fully implement community based policing.

The December 11, 2015 Albuquerque Police Department Comprehensive Staffing Assessment and Resource Study prepared by Alexander Weiss for the Department of Justice concluded that APD needs at least 1,000 sworn officers.

The Weiss report concluded that 1,000 sworn police officers were sufficient for Albuquerque provided that APD officers did not respond to certain low priority calls such as minor traffic accidents or false alarm calls.

APD cannot recruit and hire enough officers to keep the department at the current funded 1,000 level of sworn officers.

During the November 16, 2017 all day hearing before Federal Judge Robert on the Federal Monitor’s sixth report, it was revealed that the Albuquerque Police Department had only 830 sworn police officers despite the department being fully funded for 1,000.

In 2016, the department graduated more than 90 cadets from its training academy, and because of retirements and other departures, the department had a net gain of six (6) officers.

1,000 to 1,200 applicants are needed to get a class of 40 cadets.

In 2016 APD had 90 retirements.

The net net gain in 2017 was almost zero.

Currently, APD has 850 sworn police officers and in 2017 graduated 73 cadets.

The problem identified is that if APD has the same number of retirements and other departures that it had last year, it means that the department’s number of sworn officers will shrink.

After hearing from Chief Eden and Major Tyler at the November 16, 2017 hearing Judge Brack’s asked “How do we fix this? You are not going to get [to a fully staffed department] in my lifetime or in the lifetimes of anyone here. What have you done?”

THE DEVIL IN THE DETAILS

APD is severely understaffed and struggling to implement expansive and expensive Department of Justice (DOJ) agreed to and mandated reforms.

Although APD has 850 sworn police officers, only 436 are assigned to the field services, less those on annual leave or sick leave, spread out over three shifts, and taking 69,000 911 priority one calls not to mention priority 2 and 3 calls for service.

Recruiting a younger, new generation of sworn police officers and growing the size of the police department has become very difficult and unachievable for any number of reasons.

The number of APD sworn officers has fallen from 1,100 officers to 850 over the past eight years for any number of reasons including:

1. Extreme low morale resulting in experienced officers deciding to retire sooner than later or going to other law enforcement agencies.
2. Changes in the Public Employee Retirement Association benefits
3. Failed APD management by the previous administration
4. Poor Working conditions as a result of heavy workloads and caseloads
5. Intense scrutiny by the Department of Justice resulting in the DOJ consent decree.
6. Terminations and disciplinary actions
7. Inability to attract “lateral” transfers from other departments

APD’s poor and negative national reputation and Albuquerque’s high violent crime rates are also not conducive to attracting people who want to begin a long-term career in law enforcement in Albuquerque.

The DOJ oversight requirements and the increased dangers in being a police officer in a violent city such as Albuquerque has also had an impact on recruitment.

APD consistently has thousands of applicants that apply to the police academy every year as evidenced by the number of “interest cards” submitted which is the first step to applying with APD.

The overwhelming number of police academy applicants fail to get into the academy for any number of reasons including failing to meet minimum education and entry qualifications, unable to pass criminal background checks, unable to make it through psychological background analysis, failing the polygraph tests, lying on the on the applications or failing a credit check.

Once in the police academy, many cadets are unable to meet minimum physical requirements or unable to handle the training and academic requirements to graduate from the academy.

The APD Police Academy is unable to keep up with retirement losses and for a number of years graduating classes have averaged 35 to 40 a class, well below the number to keep up with yearly retirements.

CONCLUSION

There is no doubt that it will take years to grow the department to the 1,200-level desired to return to community-based policing.

Growing the department will take time, major changes in management and a major financial investment for recruitment.

The problem is that we have very little time left as a community to get a handle on our rising violent crime rates.

On February 5, 2018, the Albuquerque Journal wasted a lot of ink and space on a front page, above the fold report on the “Vacant and Abandoned House Task Force” report that was released last month to the City Council.

The headline blared “Vacant homes are bad neighbors; New task force suggests ways to deal with problem properties”.

Anyone who has lived in Albuquerque for the last eight years knows that vacant homes are bad neighbors and this really is not news.

https://www.abqjournal.com/1129085/vacant-degrading-homes-targeted-by-city-task-force.html

A lot of time and energy was wasted on the Vacant and Abandoned House Task Force when it would have been easier to fully staff and seek reinstatement and funding for the Safe City Strike Force.

It was reported last year by a TV news out let that in 2016 alone, there were more than 1,300 vacant homes added to the City of Albuquerque’s Vacant Building Registry.

By September of 2017, nearly 500 vacant homes were added to the city’s registry which does not include vacant homes that exist within the city not on the city’s list.

A conservative estimate is that there are about 3,000 vacant homes and not including vacant commercial buildings.

There is very little if anything reported by the task force that was not already known or should have been known by city hall.

Further, Vacant and Abandoned House Task Force Report makes recommendations that have been done or that was actually done by the Safe City Strike Force for eight years from 2002 to 2009.

The best example is the task force recommendation to create “land bank” to acquire properties.

Under the Safe City Strike Force, a land bank took the form of the “Metropolitan Redevelopment Project” where the City assembled substandard properties at fair market value in the Southeast Heights “International District” and then had it developed housing.

The “metropolitan redevelopment project” resulted in a large area of housing developed in the International District.

What is not in the report is the lack of real commitment by city hall to fully staff and fully fund a program that was recognized as a best practice by municipalities throughout the country.

NEW MEXICO LAW AND CITY ORDINANCES

New Mexico and the City of Albuquerque have some of the strongest nuisance abatement laws in the country and enforcement action can be taken by the City Attorney’s Office.

The City of Albuquerque can have an impact and reduce the number of blighted and substandard commercial and residential properties in Albuquerque by relying on existing nuisance abatement state law and city ordinances.

In 2004 the city enacted the Vacant Building Maintenance Act which requires property owners to register their vacant buildings, repair them and keep them maintained.

Albuquerque’s housing and commercial codes define substandard structures and there are provisions that allow inspections and civil code enforcement actions.

Under existing city ordinances, property owners can be cited for code violations for not maintaining their properties in compliance with city codes.

Under the nuisance abatement ordinance, aggressive code enforcement action against blighted properties, both residential and commercial, can be taken where it is found that that the properties have become a nuisance and magnets of crime resulting in calls for service to the Albuquerque Police Department.

SAFE CITY STRIKE FORCE

In 2002, the Safe City Strike Force was formed to combat blighted commercial and residential properties and I was appointed its Director and tasked with putting it together.

Thirty (30) to forty-five (40) representatives from the Albuquerque Police Department, the Albuquerque Fire Department, the Fire Marshal’s Office, the Planning Department Code residential and commercial code inspectors, Family Community Services and the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s Office participated comprised the strike force.

Seventy (70) to one hundred fifty (150) properties a week, both residential and commercial properties would be reviewed by the Strike Force.

The Albuquerque City Council would be given weekly updates on the progress made in their districts on the nuisance properties found.

The Safe City Strike Force routinely prepared condemnation resolutions for enactment by the Albuquerque City Council to tear down substandard buildings.

The Safe City Strike Force took civil enforcement action against some 6,500 properties, both commercial and residential.

MAGNETS FOR CRIME

Crime rates can be brought down with civil nuisance abatement actions.

The Safe City Strike Force took civil action against substandard properties that had become magnets for crime.

A magnet for crime property is one that has an extensive history of calls for service to the Albuquerque Police Department (APD) and where crime occurs.

Residential and commercial properties used for prostitution and drug activity such as meth labs and crack houses are examples of magnets for crime.

A review of the total number of calls for service a year is what is used in part to determine if a property is a public nuisance or a nuisance under city ordinances.

Calls for service to the Albuquerque Police Department to deal with properties that have become “magnets for crime” result in a drain on police resources and costs millions of dollars a year in taxpayer funds.

The average cost of a call for service to dispatch police officers to handle such minor calls as suspicious persons, loitering, loud parties and loud music cost taxpayers between $75 to $150 per call depending on the time spent on the call by police officers dispatched.

The Albuquerque Police Department handles anywhere from 600,000 to 750,000 calls for service per year consisting of priority 1, 2 and 3 calls made to the 911 emergency operations center.

BLIGHTED, SLUMLORD PROPERTIES

Albuquerque and the commercial real estate sector may be on hard economic times, but that does not mean commercial property owners and landlords can just turn their backs on making repairs and do nothing to maintain their properties.

Not being able to afford to make repairs is not a good excuse when it comes to substandard commercial and residential buildings.

If commercial and residential rental property owners cannot afford to make repairs and keep maintenance up, then they need to sell their properties to someone who can.

Residential rental landlords and motel owners need to provide housing that is safe, secure and livable for all tenants.

Tenants are legally entitled to safe, secure, clean, living quarters with working utilities when they pay their rent.

As Director of the Safe City Strike Force, I saw way too many slumlords charging top dollar to rent their properties to some of our poorest and most vulnerable citizens.

Many slumlords refuse to make repairs when needed, even when the health and safety of tenants are at risk.

Slumlords have the financial upper hand with their tenants and have the attitude with their tenants that if you do not like what I am renting to you, then get the hell out.

Undocumented or non-United State citizens are also reluctant to complain to slumlords for repairs or the police because of fear of eviction or deportation.

Slumlords are also quick to evict when there is a missed monthly rental payment.

Some of the more egregious instances where property owners refused to make costly repairs and where health and safety was an issue involved heating and air condition systems that broke down during peak usage times.

CIVIL ACTIONS EFFECTIVE TO ADDRESS SLUMLORD PROPERTIES

Nuisance and blighted properties bring down property values and can endanger an entire neighborhood when the property becomes a magnet for crime, especially when used for a crack house or meth lab.

The most effective approach to address blighted properties is to initiate civil complaints and secure temporary restraining orders, preliminary and permanent injunctions.

The City Attorney’s’ office can seek court orders to compel property owners to bring their properties into compliance with city ordinances, codes and state laws.

The City Attorney’s office can file in State District Court civil complaints for injunctive relief or negotiated stipulated settlement agreements to abate nuisance properties.

Interventions with property owners can also be undertaken to negotiate stipulated settlement agreements.

The Safe City Strike Force required slum lords to make repairs to their properties so that the properties could be occupied safely without exposure or threat of injury.

During my eight (8) years as Director of the Safe City Strike Force, I saw way too many slum lords charging top dollar to rent their properties to some of our poorest citizens with the landlords refusing to make repairs when needed, even when health and safety was an issue for the tenants.

Some of the more egregious instances where property owners refused to make costly repairs and where health and safety involved heating and air condition systems that broke down during peak usage times by the tenants.

The goal was always to try to work with the property owners and negotiates stipulated settlement agreements with them, either for repairs or voluntary tear downs.

TEARDOWNS AND BOARD UPS

With the assistance of the Planning Department, Code Enforcement Manager, federal grant money was secured for the tear down of blighted, substandard properties and went from $25.000 the first year to $1 million.

The Safe City Strike Force was responsible for the tear down of an entire residential block of homes located at 5th Street and Summer in the Wells Park neighborhood area located north of downtown Albuquerque.

There was a total of 21 abandoned and vacant, boarded up properties that could not be repaired, owned by one elderly woman who agreed allowed a tear down of the structures by the City.

As Director of the Safe City Strike Force, I negotiated a voluntary tear down of an entire strip mall that had been boarded up for years, beyond repair, located near the former Octopus Car Wash on Manaul Street and Eubank.

The strip mall was constantly being broken into, with fires being set by the homeless, and at one time a dead body was found at the location.

Two long vacant and vandalized restaurants, the Purple Plum and a Furr’s cafeteria, both on far North-East heights Montgomery, were torn down by the Safe City Strike Force.

One year, Albuquerque experienced a huge spike in meth labs where almost 90 meth labs were found and identified and where the Safe City Strike Force was asked for assistance with contamination clean up.

CENTRAL MOTELS

The Safe City Strike Force required commercial property and motel owners to make repairs and they were required to reduce calls for service and address security on their properties.

The Safe City Strike Force took code enforcement action against 48 of the 150 motels along central and forced compliance with building codes and mandated repairs to the properties.

The Central motels that were demolished were not designated historical and were beyond repair as a result of years of neglect and failure to maintain and make improvements.

Central motels that had historical significance to Route 66 were purchased by the City for renovation and redevelopment.

The Central motels that the Safe City Strike Force took action against include the Gaslight (demolished), The Zia Motel (demolished), The Royal Inn (demolished), Route 66 (demolished), the Aztec Motel (demolished), the Hacienda, Cibola Court, Super-8 (renovated by owner), the Travel Inn (renovated by owner), Nob Hill Motel (renovated by owner), the Premier Motel (renovated by owner) the De Anza (purchased by City for historical significance), the No Name, the Canyon Road (demolished), Hill Top Lodge, American Inn (demolished), the El Vado (purchased by City for historical significance), the Interstate Inn (demolished).

The Safe City Strike Force was responsible for the demolition of at least seven (7) blighted motels that were beyond repair.

When people were displaced by enforcement actions taken by the Safe City Strike Force, the City’s Family and Community Services Department would provide vouchers to the displaced and assist in locating temporary housing for them.

VIOLENT BARS

The Safe City Strike Force took action against violent bars on Central that were magnets for crime.

Many Central bars have hundreds of calls for service a year placing a drain on law enforcement resources.

A few of the bars located on or near Central that were closed or torn down by the Safe City Strike Force include the Blue Spruce Bar, Rusty’s Cork and Bottle, the Last Chance Bar and Grill and Club 7.

The Safe City Strike Force closed Club 7 and the owner was convicted of commercial code violations.

As a Deputy City Attorney, I was co-counsel with the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s office and brought charges against and convicted the Club 7 downtown Central Avenue bar owner that hosted a “rave” that allowed under age participants to mingle with adults and where a young girl was killed.

CONVENIENCE STORES

The Safe City Strike Force took enforcement action against a number of convenience stores on Central that had substantial calls for service to APD.

In 2005, The Safe City Strike Force identified convenience stores that had an unacceptable number of “calls for service” which resulted in the convenience stores being considered a public nuisance by the Albuquerque Police Department (APD).

Outdoor phones at the convenience stores used for illicit drug transactions were identified.

APD felt the convenience stores were relying upon APD to provide security at taxpayer’s expense rather than hiring their own private security company.

In 2005, as Director of the Safe City Strike Force, I was able to negotiate a stipulated settlement agreement with three major convenience store corporate owners of seventeen (17) convenience stores throughout Albuquerque and they agreed to pay for private security patrols.

FLEA MARKETS

The Safe City Strike Force was responsible for the closure of Louie’s Flea Market and the Star Flea Market, two Westside flea markets both on Old Coors Road South of Central.
Area residents felt the flea markets brought down property values.

Both flea markets had been around for decades and caused extreme traffic congestion on weekends they operated causing problems for the established or developing residential areas.

Both flea markets were found by the Albuquerque Police Department to be locations where stolen property was being sold and both had an excessive number of calls for service.

HOARDERS

Some of the most tragic and heart-breaking cases that the Safe City Strike Force dealt with involved “hoarders”.

Hoarding is a pattern of behavior that is characterized by excessive acquisition and an inability or unwillingness to discard large quantities of objects or animals that cover the entire living areas or exterior of a home or property.

The Strike Force dealt with approximately 10 cases of hoarders.

One hoarder case I vividly recall involved an elderly woman who was housing over 60 cats in her 1,200 square foot, three bedrooms home. The home was not fit to be lived in as a result of contamination by the animals. Dead cats were found in her freezer.

The City removed the cats, cleaned up the property and placed a $40,000 lien on the home for the cleanup of the contamination.

Another hoarder had accumulated an extensive number of items in his front and backyards to the extent that the area had become rat infested and the City forced a cleanup of the area.

CONCLUSION

For the eight (8) years, little or next to nothing was really done by the City of Albuquerque to address blighted and substandard commercial and residential properties.

Today, the Safe City Strike Force has one employee, its director, and the Safe City Strike Force exists in name only.

Funding the Safe City Strike Force may not be a construction project like the ART Bus project, a library or fire station that Mayor’s and city councilors always love taking credit for, but it would go a long way to getting rid of blighted commercial and residential properties, which only sully entire neighborhoods and put residents in danger and bring property values down.

I have no doubt that the task for report will sit on a shelf and gather dust despite representations to the contrary.

Talk about much ado about absolutely nothing.

The GOP’s controversial FISA memo in no way can be said to “vindicate” our “Liar In Chief” as he now claims.

The Republican memo failed to show any new bombshells nor new information, but did fail to include information that discredits the findings of the memo.

What Trump and the Republicans are hanging their hat on in the 4-page memo is that it states that then-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe testified he believed a court would not have approved the warrant for the surveillance of Trump advisor Carter Page had it not been for information that was included in a dossier assembled by former British spy Christopher Steele.

The Republicans argue that the dossier was paid for by the Clinton campaign which therefor shows “biasness”.

The memo in no way disproves or contradicts that there was collusion between Trump, his campaign and the Russians.

To say the Federal FISA court would not have approved the warrant is a real stretch of imagination or one of Trump’s “alternative facts”.

What is not in the Republican memo is that Carter Page, the target of the FISA warrant, long before the memo or Steeele dossier, was already on the intelligence community radar since 2013 as being a Russian sympathizer and the target of Russian recruitment.

It was the fourth time that the FISA warrant had been renewed and signed off by a Federal Judge.

Christopher Steele had also been used as a reliable confidential informant for the FBI a number of times before and he was found to have given credible information.

Even if the FISA warrant was based on information that came from a biased or questionable source, it does not matter so long as the information was found to be reliable and credible by the Federal Judge that reviewed the FISA warrant, which it was.

There is nothing to conclusively suggest that the Federal Court did not know the warrant applicant’s source of the information.

FISA warrants are not just two ot three pages long, but very exhaustive, albeit 50 to 100 pages long, where facts alleged are corroborated by Affidavits and confidential source information.

The four page confidential memo is very selective in what “facts” are pulled from the warrant in order to make the accusation that the FBI is biased against the President.

What also should not be forgotten is that the overwhelming number of Federal Judges appointed are Republican, thanks to the Republican Congress failure to approve Obama nominated judges to the court.

Thousands of search warrants alleging information and probable cause in criminal cases are issued every day of the year in state courts and federal courts based on “unidentified” sources or “confidential sources” or for that matter sworn affidavits from people with highly questionable or even criminal backgrounds

In narcotics cases for example, criminal “snitches” with criminal backgrounds are often the source of reliable and confidential information in cases and search warrants.

It’s the credibility or truth of the information that matters and that is why it is Federal Judges who issue FISA warrants.

The Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, the F.B.I. and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence have determined that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election.

The real disgrace is the conduct of the Republican Congressional Intelligence Committee placing party loyalty over getting to the truth and finding out if President Trump or his campaign “colluded” with the Russians to tip the election in Trump’s favor.

President Trump has yet to say if he will use the memo as justification to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein or Special Counsel Mueller, yet he is hinting at it.

When Trump was asked if he was more likely to fire Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein, who appointed Special Counsel Mueller for the Russian probe, if he still had confidence in him, Trump told the press “You figure that one out.”

At the core of the memo is an attempt to discredit the Russian probe and bring it to an end and it does not matter to the Republican Congress if the law enforcement community is destroyed.

As President Nixon found out, you cannot fire your way out of criminal charges and indictment for obstruction of justice.

As Senator John McCain said, the Republicans are doing Putin’s work for him.

Following is the link to the White House transmittal letter and the Republican FISA Memo: