The November 7 municipal election will remake the Albuquerque City Council and perhaps there will be a shift from the current Democrat control to a Republican controlled city council. Three of the four incumbents whose seats are on the ballot are not running for reelection.  They are District 2’s Democrat Isaac Benton, District 6’s Democrat Pat Davis and District 8’s Republican Trudy Jones.

The only sitting councilor running this year is District 4’s first term Republican Brook Bassan who is a public finance candidate while her opponent is Progressive Democrat Abby Foster who is a privately financed candidate.  The city council’s 5 other seats will not be decided again until 2025 and will include the Mayor’s race. There are no term limits for city councilor nor for Mayor.

ANNOUNCED CANDIDATES

The candidates who have qualified for the ballot and public financing are the following:

DISTRICT 2 (DOWNTOWN, OLD TOWN, PARTS OF THE NORTH VALLEY AND WEST SIDE)

• Joaquin Baca, Democrat: Water rights program manager at the U.S. Forest Service, member of the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District, President of the ABQCore neighborhood association. (Qualified for $40,000 public financing.)
• Loretta Naranjo Lopez, Democrat: Retired city planner and member of NM Public Employees Retirement Association Board. (Qualified for $40,000 public financing.)
• Moises A. Gonzalez (Undetermined): Documentary filmmaker, former teacher and community activist. (Privately financed candidate.)

DISTRICT 4 (NORTHEAST HEIGHTS)

• Brook Bassan, Republican: Incumbent City Councilor and a stay-at-home mom.  and incumbent councilor.   (Qualified for $40,262 in public financing.)
• Abby Foster, Democrat:  Small business owner, attorney and mediator who practices adult guardianship law. (Privately financed candidate.)

DISTRICT 6 (NOB HILL, INTERNATIONAL DISTRICT)

• Jeff Hoehn, Democrat: Executive director of Cuidando Los Niños. (Privately financed candidate.)
• Abel Otero, Democrat: Owner and operator of Fonzy’s barbershop. (Qualified for $40,000.00 public financing.)
• Kristin Greene, Democrat: Tattoo artist and Burlesque dancer. (Qualified for $40,000.00 public financing.)
• Nichole Rogers, Democrat: Office manager and independent contractor for Primerica Financial Services. (Qualified for $40,000.00 public financing.)

DISTRICT 8 (NORTHEAST HEIGHTS AND FOOTHILLS)

• Dan Champine, Republican: A retired police officer and current mortgage lender. (Qualified for $44,577.00 public financing.)
• Idalia Lechuga-Tena, Democrat: Vice president of Meals on Wheels of New Mexico  former NM House representative for District 21.  (Qualified for $44,577.00 public financing.)

The link to the City clerk’s website listing candidates is here:

https://www.cabq.gov/vote/candidate-information/2023-candidates-and-committees-1

ISSUE BACGROUND AND CANDIDATE QUESTIONS

All too often, city council races are ignored by many voters and the campaigns do not really heat up until the very last month or two  weeks of the campaign. Most city council races are won with direct voter contact and candidates going “door to door” looking for support and votes.

Voters should know where candidates stand on the major issues they care about and what they will do if elected. Major issues and questions candidates for City Council and voters  need to think about and discuss include the following:

SOCIAL ISSUES

A.  ABORTION

ISSUE BACKGROUND: 

Two New Mexico County Commissions and 3 municipalities have passed ordinances restricting a woman’s right to choose by prohibiting the operation of abortion clinics. The ordinances are  based on the Comstock Act which is federal legislation from the 1870s that prohibits the mailing of “obscene material,” including medication or equipment used in abortions. The Attorney General has filed a New Mexico Supreme Court action to set aside the ordinances and declare such ordinances as unconstitutional with the litigation still pending.

CANIDADATE QUESTIONS

1.Are you in favor of the City Council enacting similar legislation in the form of prohibiting the city from issuing licenses to do business in Albuquerque to any health care provider that provides abortion services?

2, During the last fiscal year, the city council funded Planned Parenthood, which provides abortion services, $150,000. Do you feel the City should continue providing funding to Planned Parenthood?

B.  GUN CONTROL

ISSUE BACKGROUND:   

The exclusive authority on gun control is given to the New Mexico legislature and municipalities are barred by the New Mexico constitutions from enacting such legislation. The 2023 New Mexico 60-day legislative began on January 17 and came to an end on March 18.  Upwards of 40-gun control measures were introduced, but only 10 were seriously considered and of those 10, only 2 made it through the session to become law. Among the laws that failed were banning the sale of AR-15-style rifles and prohibiting the sales magazines with more than 10 rounds.

CANIDADATE QUESTIONS

1. Do you feel the City should seek home rule authority to allow it to prohibit the city from issuing a yearly license to do business in Albuquerque to any retail business that sells AR-15-style rifles and prohibiting the sales magazines with more than 10 rounds?
2. What gun control measures do you support and feel the city should support in its annual legislative priorities presented to the legislature?

C. THE HOMELESS 

ISSUE BACKGROUND: 

Each year the “Point in Time” (PIT) survey is conducted to determine how many people experience homelessness on a given night in Albuquerque, and to learn more about their specific needs. The PIT count is the official number of homeless reported by communities to the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to help understand the extent of homelessness at the city, state, regional and national levels.

In August, the 2022 the Point In Time (PIT) homeless survey reported that the number total homeless in Albuquerque was 1,311 with 940 in emergency shelters, 197 unsheltered and 174 in transitional housing. On May 22, the New Mexico Legislative Finance Committee (LFC) released a  report on the state’s homeless and the affordable housing shortage.  The LFC report included the preliminary estimates yet to be  finalized 2023 Point In Time (PIT) annual homeless count.

The 2023 PIT preliminary data revealed a significant 48% uptick in the state’s homeless population going from upwards of 2,600 people to nearly 4,000 people. The increase was reportedly driven primarily by an increase in the unsheltered count with 780 more people in Albuquerque and 232 more in the rest of the state. According to the LFC report, the 2023 Albuquerque unsheltered count increase by 780 more people. In otherwards Albuquerque homeless went from 1,311 in 2022 as reported by PIT  to 2,091 as reported by the LFC.

Over the past two fiscal years, the City Council has approved and budgeted $33,854,536 for homeless emergency shelters, support, mental health and substance abuse programs and $60,790,321 for affordable housing programs for the low-income, near homeless.  It has also approved funding for two 24/7 homeless shelters, including purchasing the Gibson Medical Center for $15 million to convert it into a homeless shelter. The Family and Community Services approved 2023-2024 budget lists forty five (45) separate affordable housing contracts totaling $39,580,738, fifteen (15) separate emergency shelter contracts totaling $5,575,690, and twenty seven (27) separate homeless support service contracts totaling $5,104,938 for a total of $50,261,366

CANDIDATE QUESTIONS

1. Do you feel that the city homeless numbers have reached a crisis level and do you feel the Keller Administration has been effective in handling or managing the crisis?
2. Should the City continue to fund city services to the homeless or near homeless at the current levels?
3. Do you feel more or less should be spent on dealing with the homeless?
4. What more do you feel can and should be done to reduce the homeless population in Albuquerque?
5. What services should the City provide to the homeless and poor if any?
6. Should the city be more involved with the county in providing mental health care facilities and programs?
7. Would you be in favor of the City Attorney’s office participation in a mental health “civil commitment” program of the homeless suffering from mental illness and drug addiction where they would not be criminally charged nor prosecuted and jailed but committed to a behavioral health and drug addiction facility or hospital  after a court of law finds that they represent a danger to themselves and/or the general public?

C. SANCTUARY CITY VERSUS IMMIGRANT FRIENDLY CITY

ISSUE BACKGROUND: 

On May 9, 2023 Title 10 referred to as the Covid-era restrictions that allowed immigration officials to quickly turn away migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border expired at ushering in tougher policies for asylum-seekers. Republican controlled state governors such as Florida and Texas are busing migrants seeking asylum to major cities such as New York and Washington DC.

In 2001, the Albuquerque City Council enacted a resolution that declared Albuquerque an “immigrant-friendly” city and 10 years later the city council voted to affirm the policy. An “immigrant-friendly” city implements “welcoming city” policies and does not provide for city enforcement of federal immigration laws, and addresses only city services, including licensing and housing. The City of Albuquerque has never been a “sanctuary city” where law enforcement is prohibited from enforcing federal laws and local government provides services to migrants seeking asylum. Albuquerque’s “immigrant-friendly” designation welcomes immigrants to the city and is mainly symbolic.

CANDIDATE QUESTION

1.Should the city of Albuquerque provide housing or services to migrants seeking asylum and to what extent?

2.Should the city council repeal the 2001 resolution that declared Albuquerque an immigrant friendly city?

3. Should the city remain an immigrant friendly city as defined by city ordinance or should the council go further and declare the city a sanctuary city?

D. CITY GOVERNMENT AND SERVICES

1. Do you feel the position of an elected City Councilor should be a part time paid position or a full-time paid position that should prohibit outside employment as is the case with Mayor?
2. On March 24, 2023  it was reported that the Citizens Independent Salary Commission responsible for making recommendations for compensating city elected officials voted to recommend increasing the pay of city councilors by 87%.  If approved, city councilor pay would go from the present $33,600 to $62,843 a year.  Are you in favor of the pay increase or should city councilor pay remain the same?
3. Are you in favor of a state “right to work statute” that would impact or eliminate city employee unions?
4. Should city unions be prohibited from endorsing candidates for municipal office?
5. As a candidate for city council will you seek and will you accept the endorsement of any city of Albuquerque union, including the endorsement of the Albuquerque Police Officers Association and the Fire Fighters local union?
6. Are you in favor of privatizing city services or work such as public safety, the 311 call center operations, the bus system or the maintenance and repair work done at city facilities such as the Bio Park?
7. Are you in favor of the city bus transit be free of charge to the general public?
8. City Councilors each fiscal year are  given upwards of $2 million in discretionary spending for capital improvement projects in their individual districts. What projects your district would you identify to spend such money on?

E.  CITY PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT

ISSUE BACKGROUND:

On October 18, 2022,  Mayor Tim Keller announced his “Housing Forward ABQ Plan”. It is a “multifaceted initiative” where Keller set the goal of adding 5,000 new housing units across the city by 2025 above and beyond what the private sector normally creates each year.  According to Keller, the city is in a major “housing crisis” and the city needs between 13,000 and 28,000 new housing units.

Keller’s “Housing Forward ABQ Plan” was embodied in amendments to the Integrated Development Ordinance (IDO) which is the city’s zoning laws. To add the 5,000 new housing units, Keller proposed that the City of Albuquerque fund and be involved with the construction of new low-income housing.  The strategy includes “motel conversions” where the city buys existing motels or commercial office space and converts them into low-income housing.  It includes “casitas” on existing residential properties as permissive uses and not as conditional uses.

On July 6, Mayor Tim Keller signed into law the zoning amendments that embody his “Housing Forward ABQ Plan”.  It will allow casita construction on 68% of all built out residential lots in the city.  Casita construction is now a “permissive use” on all single-family R–1 zones giving the Planning Department exclusive authority to approve casitas over objections of adjoining property owners. Mayor Keller announced his administration’s goal is to review and approve 1,000 new casitas all over the city by 2025.  Keller announced the Planning Department will also “lower the bar” for property owners to build casitas and provide pre-approved casita designs. The city also wants to provide loans for building costs to homeowners that agree to rent their casita to those who use Section 8 housing vouchers.

CANDIDATE QUESTIONS

1.Are you in favor of motel conversions and if so to what extent should the city council be involved with approving the acquisitions?

2. Should “casita” additions be a “conditional use” requiring an application process with the City Planning Department, notice to surrounding property owners and affected neighborhood associations and provide for appeal rights?  Should casitas  be a “permissive use” that would give the Planning Department exclusive authority to issue permits for construction without notices and hearings and with no appeal process?

3.  Should the City Planning department provide pre-approved casita designs to developers?

4. Should the city provide  loans for building costs to homeowners that agree to rent their casita to those who use Section 8 housing vouchers?

ISSUE BACKGROUND:  

Amendments to the  Integrated Development Ordinance, which is the city’s zoning laws,  allows for the land use known as “Safe Outdoor Spaces” to deal with the homeless crisis. “Safe Outdoor Spaces” are city sanctioned homeless encampments located in open space areas that will allow upwards of 50 homeless people to camp, require hand washing stations, toilets and showers, require a management plan, 6-foot fencing and provide for social services.  The city council has voted to allow 18 Safe Outdoor Spaces, 2 in each city council district. The City Council has attempted 3 times to repeal allowing Safe Outdoor Spaces and funding with Mayor Keller vetoing the attempts.

5.  What is your position on city sanction and funded Safe Outdoor Spaces and should they be allowed at all and if so to what extent?
6.  The Integrated Development Ordinance enacted by the City Council in 2017 essentially repealed all sector development plans designed to protect neighborhoods and their character to favor the development community. Are you in favor of repealing the Integrated Development Ordinance (IDO) and reverting back to the comprehensive zoning code and enacted sector development plans?
7. To what extent should adjoining property owners and neighborhood associations have the right to contest and appeal changes in zoning permissive and conditional uses?
8. What do you feel the Albuquerque City Council can do to promote “infill development” and would it include the City acquiring property to be sold to developers and the formation of public/private partnerships?
9. What do you feel the City Council can do to address vacant residential and commercial properties that have been declared “substandard” by city zoning and unfit for occupancy?
10. Should the City of Albuquerque seek the repeal by the New Mexico legislature of laws that prohibit city annexation of property without county approval?

UPTOWN TRANSIT CENTER EXPANSION

On July 6 Democratic U.S. Senators Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luján and President Biden’s senior adviser and infrastructure coordinator Mitch Landrieu along with Mayor Tim Keller held a news conference to announce $25 million in new federal funding that will be used in part to expand the Uptown Transit Center. The total cost of the entire development project will be at least $50 Million. The project has been dubbed “Uptown Connect”.  It is a public-private partnership project to reconstruct the existing bus platform on America’s Parkway, between Uptown Boulevard NE and Indian School Road NE. The overall development project will have underground parking, entertainment, affordable housing and retail uses.  Project developer Palindrome said it will be building 400 apartments above the transit center, as well as restaurants and retail sites. 200 of the 400 of the apartments will be dedicated to affordable housing and the other half will be at the fair market rental rates.

1.Are you in favor of the Uptown Transit Center expansion?

2.Do you feel it is appropriate to mandate 200 of the 400 apartments to be dedicated to affordable Housing?

3. The city owns the land upon which the Uptown Transit Center expansion and apartments will be built and it is some of the most expensive real estate in the city. Do you believe that there is a higher and better use for the property, such as a park or a community center?

RAIL TRAIL DEVELOPMENT PROJECT

ISSUE BACKGROUND:

On July 22,  Mayor Tim Keller announced  plans  for the Albuquerque Rail Trail project. The Rail Trail project  is an $80 Million dollar a 7- to 8-mile multi-use pedestrian and bike trail circling downtown that will connect key destinations in the downtown area. The Rail Trail will consist of 11 major sections all in the Downtown area from the Rail Yards to the Sawmill District, Old Town, Tingley Beach, the Barela’s neighborhood, and back around in a 8-mile loop. The total projected cost is $80 Million. The project is roughly half funded. Funding for the Rail Trail Loop includes $15 Million from the City, $10 million from the State of New Mexico, and $11.5 million  from the Federal RAISE Grant, totaling $36.5M for the full loop.  Money from bonds that voters are expected to vote on in November’s city election could also be used for the project.  A 25-foot neon tumbleweed at the intersection of Route 66 and the railroad is being proposed.

CANDIDATE QUESTIONS 

1.Are you in favor of the Rail Trail project as proposed by Mayor Keller?

2. Do you feel the city council should have any input on the plans and designs for the Rail Trail?

3. Are you in favor of spending $80 Million dollars on the project?

4. Should the Rail Trail project be placed on the ballot for voter approval?

5, Do you feel that State and Federal funding should be used for the project?

6. To what extent should the city provide law enforcement to patrol the 8 mile rail trail and do you have any public safety concerns for the project?

7. Do you have an opinion on the appropriateness of spending money on a 25 foot neon sculpture of a “tumbleweed” at Central and the railroad tracks?

F. ALBUQUERQUE POLICE DEPARTMENT AND CRIME:

ISSUE BACKGROUND:

The Albuquerque City Council plays a crucial oversight role of the Albuquerque Police Department (APD) including approving its budget. Since 2014, the city and the Albuquerque Police Department (APD)  have been working under a federal court approved settlement agreement after the Department of Justice found a “culture of aggression” and   excessive use of force and  deadly force.  Under the terms of the settlement, APD is required to implement 271 reforms with oversight by a court approved Federal Independent Monitor.  When APD reaches 95% compliance in 3 compliance levels and maintains that compliance for 2 years, the case can be dismissed.

On May 10, 2023  Federal Court Appointed Independent Monitor James Ginger filed his 17th Report on the Compliance Levels of the Albuquerque Police Department (APD) and the City of Albuquerque with Requirements of the Court-Approved Settlement Agreement. The Federal Monitor IMR-17 report which covers August 1, 2022, through January 31, 2023,  reported APD’s compliance levels were as follows:

Primary Compliance 100%

Secondary Compliance 100%

Operational Compliance 92% (95% needed to be achieved and sustained for 2 years)

CANDIDATE QUESTIONS 

1. Do you feel the city should seek immediate dismissal of the Court Approved Settlement Agreement or wait and additional 2 years after APD comes into complete compliance in all 3 of the compliance levels?

2.  What oversight role do you believe the Albuquerque City Council should play                  when it come to the Albuquerque Police Department (APD)?

3. Should the City seek to renegotiate or set aside the terms and conditions of the Court Approved Settlement Agreement (CASA) and if so why?
4. What would you do to enhance civilian oversight of APD and the implementation of the Department of Justice mandated reforms?
5. Should the APD Chief, Assistant Chief, Deputy Chiefs and APD command staff be replaced with a national search and replaced by “outsiders” to  make changes at APD with new leadership and management?
6. Should the function of Internal Affairs be removed from APD and civilianized under the city Office of Inspector General, the Internal Audit Department and the City Human Resources Department?
7. APD currently has 980 sworn police. What are your plans for increasing APD staffing levels and what should those staffing levels be?
8. What are your plans or solutions to bringing down high property and violent crime rates in Albuquerque or your district?
9. Should APD personnel or APD resources be used in any manner to enforce federal immigration laws and assist federal immigration authorities?
10. Should the City Council by ordinance create a Department of Public Safety with the appointment of a Chief Public Safety Officer to assume management and control of the Albuquerque Police Department, the Albuquerque Fire Department, the Emergency Operations Center and the 911 emergency operations call center?
11. Should APD and the Bernalillo County Sherriff’s Office be abolished and consolidated to form one regional law enforcement agency, combining resources with the appointment of a governing civilian authority and the appointment of a Superintendent of Public Safety?

APD POLICE PAY

ISSUE BACKGROUND

The City Council must approve contracts negotiated by the Mayor’s Administration with all unions including the Albuquerque Police Department Union (APOA). Although state law is clear that management is strictly prohibited from joining government employee unions, APD Sergeants and Luitenants, who are management, are allowed to be members of the police union.

On July, 14 2023, the Mayor Tim Keller Administration City announced that it  negotiated a new, two-year contract with the Albuquerque Police Officers Association. Under the new 2 year contract, APD police officers are being paid a 5% pay increase for the budget year that started on July 1 and goes through June 31, 2024. Hourly pay will again increase 4% for the next budget year that starts on July 1, 2024 and ends June 31, 2025.  Under the new contract APD Police Officers will be paid between $63,000 per year and as much as $81,000 per year depending upon their total years of service.  Sergeants will be paid between $86,659.65 to $90,126.04 a year under the new contract. Lieutenants will be paid between $99,065.40 to $103,027 a year under the new contract.

The union negotiated hourly yearly pay amounts do not include bonus pay, overtime pay or longevity pay which can add thousands each year to base pay and can result in police officers doubling or tripling police officer annual pay. In addition to their hourly pay,  APD sworn police officers are paid “longevity pay” with  longevity pay starting  at $2,730 per year and increases topping of at $16,380 annually for those who have served 17 or more years.  Retention pay  bonuses for  police officers who have been on the force 19 years or more, and who are eligible for retirement  are  paid as  much as $18,000 more per year, or $1,500 more a month. A combined total of $34,380 yearly incentive pay and longevity pay is paid to a police officer with 18 to 19 years of experience.

CANDIDATE QUESTIONS

     1. State law prohibits government management from joining government unions,                 Should APD Sergeants and Lieutenants, even though they are management, be             allowed to be members of the police union allowing the union to negotiate pay                 and  benefits for them?

2. Should the city abolish APD hourly pay and implement a salary structure with a step increase system based on year experience and performance measures and abolish overtime pay and longevity pay?
3. The City of Albuquerque Budget is referred to as a performance based budget where all city departments must submit detailed statistics and data referred to as “performance measures” to justify their budgets. Should negotiated APD pay raises be tied to department overall performance measures such as crime rates, total arrests and clearance rates?
4. The city of Albuquerque employs upwards of 6,000 full time employees. APD is currently budgeted for 1,000 sworn police and 780 firefighters and only they are paid longevity pay and bonus pay. Do you feel that all city employees and not just police officers and firefighters should be eligible to be paid longevity pay and bonus pay?
5. Should the city continue to fund and provide full time APD police officers, known as school resource officers, to the Albuquerque Public School system or should the Albuquerque Public Schools expand and provide more funding to its own APS School Police and reassign APD Officers to patrol the city?

G.  THE CITY ECONOMY

ISSUE BACKGROUND:

It is often said that the City of Albuquerque is the economic engine for the state and as goes Albuquerque’s  economy so goes New Mexico’s economy. The city’s Economic Development Department provides services intended to bring long term economic vitality to the City. Included in the department are the economic development division, the film and music offices, the international trade division, the management of contracts for tourism and the program for economic development investments.  The mission of the department is to  develop a more diversified and equitable economy that works for everyone by growing and retaining local businesses and jobs; eliminating barriers to success in underserved communities; recruiting businesses in key industries; increasing Albuquerque’s competitiveness in the global market; and fostering a healthful built environment.  The  FY/24 General Fund budget for the Economic Development Department  is $3.8 million, a decrease of 62.1% or $6.2 million below the FY/23 original budget.

1.What strategy would you implement to bring new industries, corporations and jobs to Albuquerque?

2. Albuquerque’s major growth industries include health care, transportation, manufacturing, retail and tourism with an emerging film industry. What programs would you propose to help or enhance these industries?

3. To what extent should tax increment districts, industrial revenue bonds and income bonds be used to spur Albuquerque’s economy?

4.  What financial incentives do you feel the city can or should offer and provide to the private sector to attract new industry and jobs to Albuquerque, and should that include start-up grants or loans with “claw back” provisions?

5. What sort of private/public partnership agreements or programs should be implemented to spur economic development?

6. What sort of programs or major projects or facilities, if any, should the city partner with the State or County to spur economic development?

7.  What programs can the city implement to better coordinate its economic development with the University of New Mexico and the Community College of New Mexico (CNM) to insure an adequately trained workforce for new employers locating to Albuquerque?

8. Are you in favor of the enactment of a gross receipt tax or property tax dedicated strictly to economic development, programs or construction projects to revitalize Albuquerque that would be enacted by the City Council or be voter approved?

9. What programs can Albuquerque implement to insure better cooperation with Sandia Labs and the transfer of technology information for economic development.

10, Do you feel City Economic Development Department is adequately funded and if not what funding levels and personnel staff do you feel is needed?

H. EDUCATION

1. Should the City of Albuquerque have representation or be included on the Albuquerque School board, the University of New Mexico Board of Regents and the Community College of New Mexico Board?
2. What do you think the City can do to help reduce high school dropout rates?
3. What education resources should or can the City make available to the Albuquerque school system?
4. To what extent should the city make available before and after school programs?
5. Should the city offer as a paid benefit to its employees child care at a city facility?

I. TAXATION AND PROJECT FINANCING:

1.Do you feel that all increases in gross receipts taxes should be voter approved or should tax increases be the exclusive prerogative of the city council as it is now?

2  Are you in favor of constructing an outdoor soccer stadium at the Balloon Fiesta Park?

3.  Are you in favor of constructing a multipurpose arena funded by use of voter approved bonding and if so where should it be built?

J.  MISCELLANIOUS ISSUES

1. Do you feel Mayor Tim Keller has done a good job, do you support his agenda as Mayor and has he endorsed your candidacy?
2. If you have qualified  to be a public finance candidate, will you truly be a public finance candidate or do you intend to rely upon measured finance committee’s set up to promote your candidacy?
3. Should major capital improvement projects such as the Albuquerque Rapid Transit (ART) project or the building of a soccer stadium be placed on the ballot for voter approval or should major capital improvement projects be up to the city council?

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

What is downright pathetic is that more than a few well-known political gossip types and city hall observers have already begun to declare who the winners will be in all the city council  races even before the campaigns are fully engaged and covered by the media.  One political gossip columnist and his sources began predicting the final outcomes of all 4-city council races the very day after candidates qualified to be on the ballot. It is the real slimy side of politics from those who have never run for office themselves and who simply want to try and be king makers, who are already supporting a candidate and who are actually working on campaigns. It is so very discouraging to those who are now running for city council, who are going do to door campaigning and who are  forced to listen to their political drivel. Predictions of front runners now does a real disservice to the candidates and the election process they are going through.

There have also been more than a few endorsements of candidates by outgoing city councilors. Endorsements of elected officials leaving office of those seeking to replace them amount to nothing more than attempting to preserve their own legacy. They are trying to influence public opinion, discourage the other candidates and to tip public perception in favor of their preferred candidates. The outgoing city councilors do not realize they are not as well liked as they think they are which is likely one of the reasons they are not running for another term.

The city is facing any number of problems that are bringing it to its knees. Those problems include exceptionally high violent crime and murder rates, the city’s increasing homeless numbers, lack of mental health care programs and little economic development.

The city cannot afford city councilors who makes promises and offers only eternal hope for better times that result in broken campaign promises. What is needed are city elected officials who actually know what they are doing, who will make the hard decisions without an eye on their next election, not make decisions only to placate their base and please only those who voted for them. What’s needed is a healthy debate on solutions and new ideas to solve our mutual problems, a debate that can happen only with a contested election. A highly contested races reveal solutions to our problems.

Voters are entitled to and should expect more from candidates than fake smiles, slick commercials, and no solutions and no ideas. Our city needs more than promises of better economic times and lower crime rates for Albuquerque and voters need to demand answers and hold elected officials accountable.

Let the debate begin and good luck to the candidates!

In a nearly 100-page indictment former President Donald Trump along with18 of his closest allies were indicted in Georgia over their efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state of Georgia.  The Georgia Fulton County District Attorney’s office charge Trump using a statute known as the state’s “Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act” (RICO)  used to prosecute organize crime and organize crime bosses and mobsters.  The indictment accuses Trump, his aides and lawyers of a “criminal enterprise” to keep him in power.

The indictment details dozens of acts by Trump or his allies to undo his defeat.  Ther efforts include:

1. Pressuring Georgia’s Republican secretary of state to find enough votes for him to win the battleground state.
2. Harassing an election worker who faced false claims of fraud and who later received death threats.
3. Attempting to persuade Georgia lawmakers to ignore the will of voters and set aside the election results..
4. Appoint a new slate of electoral college electors who would vote for Trump setting aside the electors who had been legitimately elected.

One particularly brazen episode outlined in the indictment alleges a plot involving one of Trumps lawyers seeking  access to voting machines in a rural Georgia county and steal data from a voting machine company.

The indictment outlines 161 acts by Trump and his associates that have already been reported upon and that have received widespread attention. The  Jan. 2, 2021 phone call  made by  Trump to  urged Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” the 11,780 votes needed to overturn his election loss stands out as the most damning.  The Fulton County District Attorney said the call violated a Georgia law against soliciting a public official to violate their oath of office.

The sprawling indictment charges Trump with making false statements and writings for a series of claims he made to Raffensperger and other state election officials. Those false statement and claims included  that up to 300,000 ballots “were dropped mysteriously into the rolls” in the 2020 election, that more than 4,500 people voted who weren’t on registration lists and that a Fulton County election worker, Ruby Freeman, was a “professional vote scammer.”

Former New York City Mayor and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani is charged with making false statements for allegedly lying to lawmakers by claiming that more than 96,000 mail-in ballots were counted in Georgia despite there being no record of them having been returned to a county elections office, and that a voting machine in Michigan wrongly recorded 6,000 votes for Biden that were actually cast for Trump. Giuliani was never able to produce a scintilla of evidence to support the false claims.

Also charged are individuals who are alleged to helped Trump and his allies in Georgia to influence and intimidate election workers. One man, Stephen Cliffgard Lee, was charged by prosecutors for allegedly traveling to Ruby Freeman’s home “with intent to influence her testimony”  before congress. Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss testified to Congress last year about how Trump and his allies latched onto surveillance footage from November 2020 to accuse both women of committing voter fraud, allegations that were quickly debunked, yet spread widely across conservative media. Both women, who are Black, faced death threats for several months after the election.

The indictment charges several co-defendants of tampering with voting machines in Coffee County, Georgia, and stealing data belonging to Dominion Voting Systems, a producer of tabulation machines that has long been the focus of conspiracy theories. According to evidence made public by the congressional committee investigating the January 6 riot, Trump allies targeted Coffee County in search of evidence to back their theories of widespread voter fraud, allegedly copying data and software.

Others charged include White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Trump administration Justice Department official, Jeffrey Clark, who advanced the then-president’s efforts to undo his election loss in Georgia. Meadows is charged with repeated contact with Georgia officials. Other lawyers who supported legally dubious ideas aimed at overturning the results, including John Eastman, Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro, were also charged. It was Eastman who wrote the legal theory that Vice President Mike Pence had the authority to reject the selectorial college vote.

A link to read the entire Georgia indictment is here:

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/08/14/trump-georgia-indictment-document-00111154

DISTRICT ATTORNEY FANI WILLIS

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, whose office brought the case had this to say in a late night press conference:

“The indictment alleges that rather than abide by Georgia’s legal process for election challenges, the defendants engaged in a criminal racketeering enterprise to overturn Georgia’s presidential election result.”

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said the defendants would be permitted to voluntarily surrender by noon August 25. She also said she plans to seek a trial date within six months and that she intends to try all  the defendants collectively.

THE 19 INDICTED DEFENDANTS

Including Donald Trump, the 19 individuals that have been indicted are:

Mark Meadows, White House chief of staff

Rudy Giuliani, Trump lawyer

Sidney Powell, Trump election lawyer

Jenna Ellis, Trump campaign lawyer

Mike Roman, Trump campaign official

Jeffrey Clark,Top Justice Department official

Ray Smith, Trump campaign attorney

John Eastman, Trump election lawyer

OTHER TRUMP ALLIES

Kenneth Chesebro, Pro-Trump lawyer

Trevian Kutti, Publicist

Harrison Floyd, Leader of Black Voices for Trump

Robert Cheeley, Pro-Trump lawyer

Stephen Lee, Pastor tied to election worker intimidation

FAKE ELECTORS

David Shafer, Georgia GOP chair

Cathy Latham, Fake elector tied to Coffee County breach

Shawn Still, Fake GOP elector

ALLEGED VOTING SYSTEM BREACHERS

 Scott Hall, Tied to Coffee County breach

Misty Hampton, Coffee County elections supervisor

FOUR PENDING CASES

As it stands, Trump had now been indicted 4 times that contain a total of 91 felony counts.  Trump has been charged in the State of New York with falsifying business records and now in  Georgia with both being election-related cases. Trump also  faces a separate federal indictment accusing him of illegally hoarding classified documents  at his Maralogo home in Florida.

It was on August 2 that Trump was indicted on felony charges for working to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the run-up to the violent riot by his supporters at the U.S. Capitol, with the US  Justice Department seeking  to hold him accountable for his efforts to block the peaceful transfer of presidential power and threaten American democracy.

Links to quoted news sources are here:

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/live-blog/trump-georgia-indictment-rcna98900

https://apnews.com/article/trump-indicted-jan-6-investigation-special-counsel-debb59bb7a4d9f93f7e2dace01feccdc

https://apnews.com/article/trump-georgia-election-investigation-grand-jury-willis-d39562cedfc60d64948708de1b011ed3

https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-fulton-county-georgia-08-14-23/index.html

 https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2023/08/georgia-indictment-defendants-list-dg/

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

One of the biggest arguments that have been made by MAGA Republicans is that Trump has done nothing wrong, that he did not have the necessary intent believing he won the election and that he was following the advice of his attorneys. Well, at least 7 of the indicted in the Georgia case are those very attorneys that gave Trump the legal advice he used to violate the law.

What is truly disgusting is the extent the Republican Party and its leadership continue to support Trump and go to his defense refusing to accept he is a danger to our national security and to our democracy.  Based on all the polls, Trump is the clear front runner and will be the Republican  nominee.  His opponents flail around unable to break the strangle hold over the Republican Party which has essentially become his cult.

It is more likely than not that more than a few of the 19  who have been indicted in Georgia will want to plead guilty to the charges and turn state evidence to testify against Trump in exchange for a suspended jail sentence.  That testimony will likely include admissions that Trump knew he lost Georgia.

The sooner Trump is tried, convicted and sentence to jail for the crimes he has committed, the better.  It will show that no one is above the law and Trump will finally be brought to the justice he so richly deserves. The beaty  of the Georgia indictment is that if Trump is convicted and then elected, he cannot pardon himself or any of his co conspirators on the charges.

The 4 pending indictments can  be called Making America Great Again one indictment and conviction at a time.

On August 11, as was predicted by www.PeteDinelli.com, Cristina Parajón was appointed by the Bernalillo County Commission to fill the District 25 seat vacancy in the New Mexico House of Representatives thereby succeeding longtime State Representative Christine Trujillo who resigned on June 7. Trujillo is a retired school teacher who had served in the New Mexico Legislature for 11 years.

Cristina Parajón, age 27, is the director of strategy for the New Mexico Human Services Department and she becomes the youngest female state legislator. She also must resign her job with the state because state law prohibits state employees from holding elective office.

4 TO 1 VOTE APPOINTMENT WITH POLITICAL DRAMA

Parajón was  one of seven applicants.  The other six applicants who applied to fill the vacancy were:

• Retired Metro Court Administrator Robert Padilla (D)
• Deputy Chief of Staff to Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury Sofia Sanchez (D)
• 26 year licensed private attorney Brian A. Thomas (D)
• Long time NM Vecinos Unted Director and community activist Andres P. Valdez (D)
• APS Secondary Social Studies teacher Derek James Villaneuva (D)
• 10 year US Army veteran and NM legislative aide Denis Litvinenko (R)

You can review each applicant’s letter of application and resume by clicking on each of the candidate names above.

PARAJÓN’S IMPRESSIVE EDUCATION WITH THIN RESUME OF JOB EXPIERENCE

Review of Cristina Parajón (D) resume reveals impressive academic credentials but a thin resume of work experience which is to be expected of a 27 year old.

Parajón is a 2018 graduate of Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts having earned a Bachelor of Arts in sociology. In 2019 she graduated from Tsinghua University in Beijing, China having earned a Masters in Management Sciences.

From 2019 to 2023 Parajón has held 5 jobs and she is soon to be unemployed. Those 5 jobs were:

August 2019 to April 2020 (8 months):  University of New Mexico Office for Community Health, Special Projects Coordinator “analyzing medical data for the viability of clinical services for the City Westside Emergency Housing Center.”

 April 2020 to September 2020 (5 months): Deputy Incident Commander, City of Albuquerque Emergency Operations Center to deal with logistics associated with COVID quarantine and isolation hotels.

September 2020 to September 2021 (1 year):  Employed as consultant working in New York, NY, for Oliver Wyman working on availability of prescription drugs to the under privileged and minorities.

September 2021 to May 2023 (1 year, 9 months): Gateway Homeless Shelter Administer, City of Albuquerque appointed by Keller Administration.

July 2023 to present (1 month):  Director of Strategy, New Mexico Human Services Department.

AN UNEMPLOYED STATE REPRSENTATIVE?

Cristine Parajón is required and has yet to announce her resignation as a state employee. Parajón needs to resign her employment with the State of New Mexico Human Services Department now that she has been appointed a state representative. New Mexico statutory law is clear that no state employee can hold political elective office except for a non-partisan county or municipal office. The statute is Section 10-9-1 NMSA, 1978.

https://law.justia.com/codes/new-mexico/2021/chapter-10/article-9/section-10-9-21/

City of Albuquerque personnel rules and regulations and ethics rules are also clear that employees of the City are prohibited from running for an elective office of the State of New Mexico or any of its political subdivisions, therefore she can not return to city employment.

https://www.cabq.gov/abq-view/documents/ethics-presentation-2016.pdf

AUGUST 11 COUNTY COMMISSION VOTE

After a meeting that lasted 70 minutes and included a few public statements from the applicants and the general public, Parajón was nominated by Commissioner Eric Olivas with her nomination seconded by Commissioner Adriann Barboa.  The final vote was 4 to 1. Progressive Democrats County Commissioners Eric Olivas, Barbara Baca and Adriann Barboa and Republican Walt Benson voted for Parajón’s appointment while Democrat Commissioner Steven Michael Quezada voted against it. The only surprise vote was that of Republican Benson.

What is interesting to note is how the August 11 County Commission meeting and vote went down. Commissioner Steven Michael Quezada was forced to appear by ZOOM because he had a conflicting schedule and was traveling New Mexico in his car to speak at a number of events involving education issues.  Quezada noted he was never asked if he would be available for the meeting.

Parajón was the very first person nominated. She was nominated by Commissioner Eric Olivas with the second made by Commissioner Barboa. What made the nomination interesting is that Barboa is believed to have recruited Parajón to apply in the first place.

Four others were nominated, one by Commissioner Baca who nominated Sofia Sanchez who is the Deputy Chief of Staff for Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury. Baca likely nominated Sanchez out of courtesy to Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury knowing full well she would simply turn around and vote for Parajón.  Commissioner Quezada nominated Robert Padilla, the retired Metro Court Administrator, and Derek James Villaneuva, an Albuquerque School Teacher. The first vote was taken on the Cristine  Parajón nomination and she won prevailing with a 4 to 1 vote negating any further voting on the others.

Immediately after being sworn into office, Parajón announced her candidacy to run for a full term to keep the seat. House District 25 is located in the Albuquerque’s mid heights and covers much of the area between Lomas and Montgomery and Carlisle and Louisiana.

PARAJÓN ANNOUNCES PRIORITIES

Soon after the County Commission voted, Parajón was interviewed by the Albuquerque Journal which reported this in part:

“Paragon has a background in public health and social services, having worked as a deputy incident commander for one of the state’s COVID-19 isolation hotels and as the project lead for the Gateway Center.  Parajón told the Albuquerque Journal that her top legislative priorities include infrastructure in District 25, addressing homelessness and the housing crisis by funding behavioral health and improving health care by boosting the number of primary care doctors in the state.

…

In the 30-day legislative session, which will start in January 2024, Parajón said her priority would be to evaluate the success of state programs using metrics.  Parajón, who referred to the budget as a “moral document,” said she would like to see more funding for the state Economic Development Department as well as additional investments in green energy and education.”

Parajón told the Journal this:

“My dad is a primary care doc. … I drop him off at 7:30 in the morning, and I pick him up at 9 p.m., because there are not enough docs to cover at his clinic.  So I really want to ensure that New Mexicans have the best health care here … and that we are raising up the amount of doctors. …  Hearing from my community … how difficult the pandemic was, it just felt a little weird to me to be working at my corporate job. … I really wanted to make an impact back home. So I moved back — and it was the best decision that I ever made.”

The link to the quoted news source is here:

https://www.abqjournal.com/news/successor-to-district-25-rep-christine-trujillo-becomes-the-youngest-female-state-legislator/article_b9767000-386e-11ee-805c-9f880cfe1d4f.html

RESIDENCY LENGTH IN DISRICT 25 CHALLENGED

Although born and raised in Albuquerque, Cristin Parajón, age 27, moved away from New Mexico approximately in 2015 to attend Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts where she also changed her residency and voter registration.  She later worked in New York City for one year. She untimely returned to the Albuquerque less than 3 years ago in 2020.

During the August 11 Bernalillo County Commission meeting, fellow HD District 25 applicant and longtime community activist Andres P. Valdez raised concerns after a recent Dinelli blog report that Parajón had moved to the district on June 8, just  one day after Trujillo announced her resignation.  According to Bernalillo County’s legal department, although applicants need to live in the district to serve, there is no minimum length of residency to qualify to fill a vacancy.

The report Andres P. Valdez was referring to was the August 10 report entitled  “Fix Is In To Fill NM House District 25 Vacancy; Cristine Parajón Changed Voter Registration Address Day After Vacancy Occurred; Politcal Movidas At The Worse As County Commissioner Barboa Recruits Parajón” published on www.PeteDinelli.com.

COUNTY ASSESSOR RECORDS AND VOTER REGISTRATION CARDS

It was on June 7 that New Mexico State Representative Christine Trujillo announced her resignation from the New Mexico House of Representatives, District 25 effective July 1.  Parajón filed a change in voter registration on June 8 giving a change in address.  Review of  Cristine Parajón’s voter registration cards reveals that she had lived in the district a mere 22 days before applications were being accepted on June 30, 2023 by the Bernalillo County Commission to fill the vacancy.

There are 3 voter registration cards on file with the Bernalillo County Clerk’s Office with all three signed by Cristine Parajón.  All 3 merit review to outline the lengths she took to change her address.

The Parajón voter registration cards gives two separate addresses, one that is within HD District 25 and the other that is in HD District 18.

One address is a Broadmoor Street address which is NOT in NM House District 25 but in House District 18.  Bernalillo County Assessor’s Office on line records reveal that the home in House District 18 is owned by two people named Chingchih Chanchien and Laura Chanchien Parajón, the first person believed to be the brother or father and the second believed to be the mother of Cristine Parajón.

The second is a Chinlee Street Address and it is within NM House District 25. Bernalillo County Assessor’s Office on line records reveal that the home is owned by Laura Chanchien Parajón who is believed to be the mother of Cristine Parajón.

The first voter registration card is dated and signed by Parajón on November 4, 2022. The registration card gives the Broadmoor Street address that is within NM House District 18.

The second  Parajón  voter registration card was signed on June 8, 2023 the next day after the Trujillo resignation, making the change in her address for voting purposes and determining the House District where she resides. The new registration card provides a home address on Chinlee Street which is in House District 25. The registration card gives the Broadmoor Avenue Street in District 18 as the location where she gets mail.

The  Parajón’s Broadmoor address caused confusion with the Democratic Party and the Bernalillo County Commission staff who reviewed the DNC VOTEBUIDER data base and county voter registration records respectively that initially determine that  Cristine S. Parajón was  registered at the Broadmoor home address that is  not within HD District 25 but HD District 18.

The second voter registration card also contains information worth noting. It indicates she lived and was registered to vote in another state before she moved back to Albuquerque. The second voter registration card provides that she gave authorization to cancel her previous voter registration in the city of Cambridge, the County of Middlesex in the State of Massachusetts.  Parajón is a graduate of Harvard University, which is located in Cambridge, Mass.,  and ostensibly she registered to vote in Massachusetts while she attended college preferring not to vote absentee in New Mexico.

The third Parajón voter registration card is dated July 1, 2023. It gives a Chinlee Street address where she now ostensively lives  with her mother and the same Chinlee Street address where she gets mail. As noted above the Bernalillo County Assessor  on line records reflect that the Chinlee residence is owned by Laura Chanchien Parajón who is believed to be the mother of Cristine Parajón

PARAJÓN OFFERS WEAK EXPLANATION OF DISCREPANCIES

On August 10, Cristine S. Parajón and all 5 Bernalillo County Commissioners as well as all applicants for the HD District 25 vacancy were sent by attachment the 3 voter registration cards.  On August 11, Parajón sent the following email to Pete Dinelli:

“I appreciate your commitment to integrity and the democratic process. It seems you have been given misleading information– thank you for giving me the opportunity to set the record straight.

I have lived at Chinlee for 3 years with pay stubs, insurance documents and credit card bills to show for it. As I prepared to run, I caught an administrative error in my file and corrected it promptly. As a young person, for short periods of time, I have stayed at various locations for education and to take care of family members — including my brother who lives 4 minutes down the street at the Broadmoor address.”

Over 100 of my neighbors have written letters of support for me, precisely because they know that I am rooted in this community and understand deeply the issues here. I am eternally grateful for their support.

Regards,
Cristina”

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

Cristine Parajón states in part in her email to Pete Dinelli “It seems you have been given misleading information  — thank you for giving me the opportunity to set the record straight.”  The blunt truth is that the only one who has given misleading information on her residency in HD District 25 is Cristine S. Parajón.  She has not set the record straight but instead offers excuses. What she did do with the filing of  3 separate voter registration cards is give misleading and conflicting information to the Bernalillo County Clerk, the Bernalillo County Commission, to the Democratic Party and the general public.

During an August 2 forum with the Democratic party applicants sponsored by the Bernalillo Democratic Party, Cristine S. Parajón proudly proclaimed she was raised in the House District 25 by her parents in the Altura neighborhood area. It was far from full disclosure.  She did not disclose how she in fact moved in and out of the district over the years and was recruited to apply and run for the position by County Commissioner Adriann Barboa.

At the August 2 Democratic Party function, Commissioner Barboa  sat in the audience with Commissioner Eric Olivas and both were introduced. Its likely both already knew  who they would vote for a few days later and they were there to give their encouragement to their selected candidate.  Their  presence at the function gave the appearance of impropriety given the fact that they would be hearing from the applicants on August 11 and would be voting.

What Parajón failed to disclose is that she left for a considerable amount of time to go to college at Harvard University, changed her voter registration to the state of Massachusetts and then went to Tsinghua University in Beijing, China and then later went  to work in New York City to then return to work for the City of Albuquerque in 2020 for the Mayor Tim Keller Administration.  Upon her return to Albuquerque, she ostensibly lived in District 18 at the Broadmoor address base on her registration cards, that is until she was recruited by Barboa to apply for and run for House District 25.

Parajón’s argument that she has “3 years with pay stubs, insurance documents and credit card bills” is as lame as it gets.  As a candidate for office she knows that all that really counts is the representations contained in the 3 voter registration cards which she has signed. Otherwise, she would not have gone out of her way and file 2 registration cards within a matter of days that established her residency for purposes of the appointment.  

IGNORING THE QUALIFICATIONS AND CREDENTIALS

There is little doubt that Parajón was the least qualified of the 7 candidates who applied for the HD District 25.  The Bernalillo County Commission essentially ignored her lack of experience in legislative matters and how the legislature works, experience that at least 5 of the other applicants do have.  The 3 progressive Democrats of Baca, Barboa and Olivas placed greater emphasis on appointing a Progressive Democrat who stood for their own progressive priorities and philosophy and ignored the actual needs and priorities of NM House District 25.   Barboa in particular, who makes a living as a registered lobbyist for progressive issues and causes, wanted to make sure she appointed a state legislator she could rely upon and call upon for a vote when the time comes in the legislature.

SNUBBING A CONGRESSWOMAN

Part of the politcal drama involved with the appointment of Cristine S. Parajón by the Bernalillo County Commission is the snubbing and somewhat embarrassment it caused  to United State Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury. One of the seven applicants for the appointment and who stood out immediately as highly qualified and initially perceived as the front runner was progressive Democrat Sofia Sanchez.  Sophia Sanchez is the current  Deputy Chief of Staff and District Director for United States Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury and has served in that capacity since June 2022. Sanchez also served for 4 years as the Deputy District Director for former United States Congresswoman Deb Haaland who is now the United States Secretary for the Department of Interior. Sophia Sanchez was  endorsed by former State Representative Christine Trujillo to replace her.  During the August 11 Bernalillo County Commission meeting, the clear majority of the public spoke in favor of Sophia Sanchez.

Sources have confirmed that County Commissioner Baca was contacted by Congresswoman Stansbury who asked Baca to vote for Parajón but  Baca declined to do that. Baca  instead opted to nominate Sanchez and then immediately turning around and voting for Parajón. It’s called adding insult to injury and embarrassing a United State Congresswoman.

Politcal bloggerJoe Monahan quoted in his August 14 post the following political gossip from a confidential source:

“Current Commission Chair Adrian Barboa is turning out to be a cold-blooded politico by taking down Stansbury’s staffer, Sofia Sanchez, in favor of questionable resident Parajón. The Stansbury machine that got her the congressional seat didn’t show up on this one. Similar to her knee-capping of Adrian Carver in the 2020 county commission primary, Barboa, a  progressive darling, is clearly not afraid of eating her own. But it’s wild to watch progressives become regressive and embrace the old-fashioned back door politics they claim to be fighting against.”

PARAJÓN RECRUITED BY BARBOA

The legal and constitutional process of filling vacancies in the New Mexico legislature caused by the early departure of a legislator has always rested with the County Commission where the legislators district is located.  On paper, it is pretty straight forward process.  There are 5 county commissioners and the applicant who secures a 3 vote majority wins, period, end of discussion.

In practice, the process of filling a legislative vacancy is always a very messy process, especially when there are philosophical rifts within the same party that has the majority of the votes on the commission. Such is the current makeup of the Bernalillo County Commission which is comprised of 4 Democrats and 1 Republican.

The current  politcal rift is between the 3 the Progressive Democrats of Barbara Baca, Adrianne Barboa and Eric Olivas who have the majority over Moderate Democrat Stephen Michael Quesada and Conservative Republican Walt Benson.  It was confirmed by sources that the desires of the county commissioners whose district the vacancy fell within, which in this case was both Barboa and Olivas,  would be given much greater consideration and relied upon by Commissioners Barbara Baca.  It was the progressive majority of Commissioners Baca, Barboa and Olivas who decided to fill the vacancy giving very little or no consideration to what was said by County Commissioners moderate Democrat Steven Michael Quezada and Conservative Republican Walt Benson.

What progressive Democrat Cristine S. Parajón failed to publicly disclose is that she was recruited to apply and run for House District 25.  Three confidential sources within the Democratic Party, including one Ward chair, have confirmed Progressive Democrat Adriann Barboa recruited Progressive Democrat Cristina S. Parajón to apply for the House District 25 vacancy with the full knowledge and approval of Progressive Democrat Eric Olivas.  One confidential source also said Barboa initially wanted Parajón to run for City Council District 6.  County Commissioner Eric Olivas, despite assurances to the contrary that he had not made up his mind, had also disclosed to confidential sources he intended to vote for whoever Commissioner Barboa wanted which was Cristine S. Parajón who Barboa recruited to run.

TALK OF PRIMARY OPPONANTS AGAINST PARAJÓN AND BARBOA

During the August 11 meeting, County Commissioner Stephen Michael Quesada encourage all the 6 other applicants to run for  NM House seat 25.  Although Democrat Cristine S. Parajón has announced that she is running to be elected in 2024, it is highly likely she will have a Democratic opponent. At least two potential candidates have privately said  they will be running but are not yet prepared to be identified as announced candidates.

Then there is the matter of Bernalillo County Commissioner Adriann Barboa actively recruiting Cristine S. Parajón to apply for the vacancy. Barboa is up for re election in 2024 and she has made it known she intends to seek a second term. It is also known Barboa is worried about a Democratic primary opponent, a concern she expressed before the HD House 25 vacancy.  At least two  persons have said they intend to run against Barbia, one a prominent progressive and the other in labor, but neither have yet to announce.

FINAL COMMENTARY

What happened with the application and selection process by the Bernalillo County Commission in filling the NM House District 25 legislative vacancy was so very wrong on a number of levels including the ethical considerations.

First, you have 3 County Commissions who could not careless what two of their peers think or have to say and essentially collude behind the scenes.

Second,  you have a County Commissioner go out of her way to recruit her own candidate and act like a king maker giving no consideration to what residents in the HD District 25 want and need.

Third, you have a number of even more qualified people who have actually lived in the district much longer and who know its problems.  They were forced to jump through the hoops, apply and even participate in good faith in a forum, not realizing that the fix was in from the get go thanks to 3 county commissioners.

Fourth, you had two county commissioners essentially high jack the process of selection by attending a Democratic Party Forum to gather information on the applicants they would be voting on over and above what was made available to their colleagues before a vote was taken a few days later.

Fifth, you have an opportunistic applicant go out of her way to move into a house district she has not lived and who likely does not fully  understand the real problems facing the district.  The County’s legal department has rendered the opinion that although applicants need to live in the district, there is no minimum length of residency to qualify. That may be true, but voters are not fools and understand that length of residency is critical for an elected official to understand their needs and priorities.

Sixth: Complicating things personally for Parajón is she is conceivably unemployed, will not be able to work for the state or the city of Albuquerque because of her status as a State Representative.  The private sector usually is reluctant to hire elected officials who are required to spend too much time on their official job duties as an elected official, including taking 30 and 60 off to attend legislative session.

This is the type of “politcal movidas” that destroy the credibility of politicians. It discourages qualified applicants from even applying. This is the very type of politics that gives the County Commission the bad name it so richly deserves with the filling of legislative vacancies.

This is this type of slimy politics that has given the County Commission such a bad reputation.  It begs the need for their appointee Cristrine Parajón to be  “primaried”  and in particular County Commissioner Andriann Barboa as she seeks a second term in 2024.

On June 7, New Mexico State Representative Christine Trujillo announced her  resignation from the New Mexico House of Representatives District 25 effective July 1.  It is the responsibility of the Bernalillo County Commission to appoint her replacement to complete the remainder of her term.  The Bernalillo County  Commission will appoint a replacement from the  list of applied candidates at their Friday, August 11 meeting.

Seven candidates have applied to fill the vacancy.  The 7 seven applicants are:

• Cristina Parajón (D)
• Robert Padilla (D)
• Sofia Sanchez (D)
• Brian A. Thomas (D)
• Andres P. Valdez (D)
• Derek James Villaneuva (D)
• Denis Litvinenko (R)

You can review each applicants letter of application and resume by clicking on each of the candidate names above.

The Bernalillo County Commission staff has confirmed that all 7 applicants are in fact registered voters in House District 7 and reside in the district and therefor are eligible to serve if in fact appointed.

FORUM AND STRAW VOTE

On August 2, the House District 25 Democrat Ward and Precinct leadership of Wards 25A, 25B, 25C, and 25D  held  a moderated, in-person candidate forum where  the  Democratic candidates were  allowed to participate in a candidate forum. The Republican candidate was not invited in that it was a Democratic Party event. County Commissioners Adriann Barboa and Eric Olivas attended the forum and were introduced despite the fact they will be voting on August 11 to fill the vacancy.

On August 8, the Democratic Party of Bernalillo County published on its on line weekly news letter “THE BLUE REVIEW” a straw vote taken of those who attended the forum to be used as a recommendation of who the County Commission should appoint.  The summary of the rank based voting is as follows:

1. Cristina S. Parajón came in first with 52 votes and the clear majority
2. Sofia M. Sanchez came in second with 23 votes
3. Sofia M. Sanchez and Derek James Villa-nueva tied  for 3^rd with 20 votes each
4. Brian A. Thomas came in 4^th place with 17 votes
5. Robert L. Padilla came in 5^th placewith  18 votes
6. Andres P. Valdez came in 6^th with 19 votes

CANDIDATE RECRUITED BY COMMISSIONER

The current makeup of the current Bernalillo County Commission is as follows:

District 1:  Progressive Democrat Barbara Baca, Commission Chair

District 2:  Moderate Democrat Steven Michael Quezada

District 3:  Progressive Democrat Adriann Barboa

District 4:  Conservative Republican Walt Benson 

District 5:  Progressive Democrat Eric Olivas

The legal and constitutional process of filling vacancies in the New Mexico legislature caused by the early departure of a legislator has always rested with the County Commission where the legislators district is located.  On paper, it is pretty straight forward process.  There are 5 county commissioners and the applicant who  secures a 3 vote majority wins, period, end of discussion.

Appointments to legislative vacancies can be very messy because of political rifts.There currently exists a politcal rift between the 3 Progressive Democrats of Barbara Baca, Adriane Barboa and Eric Olivas who have the majority over Moderate Democrat Stephen Michael Quesada and Conservative Republican Walt Benson.

The last time the Bernalillo County Commission filled a legislative vacancy was last year  when Westside Albuquerque Rep. Antonio “Moe” Maestas was appointed by the County Commission to serve the remaining 2 years in the New Mexico Senate caused by the resignation of Senator Jacob Candelaria. The November 16 County Commission meeting making the Maestas appointment degenerated into a verbal slug fest of false accusations, innuendos and slurs with one commissioner even calling another commissioner a “bitch”.

It has been confirmed by sources that the desires of the county commissioners whose district the vacancy falls within, which in this case is both Barboa and Olivas, will be given much greater consideration and relied upon. Therefore it will be the progressive majority of Commissioners Baca, Barboa and Olivas who will decide to fill the vacancy giving very little or no consideration to what is said by the other two commissioners.

Based on the Democratic Party straw vote taken, as well as behind the scenes actions of at least two county commissioners, the clear front runner for the County Commission appointment for House District 25 is Cristina Parajón.  Three confidential sources within the Democratic Party, including one Ward chair, have confirmed Progressive Democrat Adriann Barboa recruited Progressive Democrat Cristina S. Parajón to apply for  the  House District 25 vacancy. One confidential source also said Barboa initially wanted Parajón to run for City Council District 6.

Commission Eric Olivas, despite assurances to the contrary that he has not made up his mind who he will vote for, has disclosed to confidential sources he intends to vote for whoever Commissioner Barboa wants which at this point Cristine S. Parajón who Barboa recruited to run.

PARAJÓN VOTER REGISTRATION CARDS REVEAL MOVE INTO DISTRICT MADE DAY AFTER TRUJILLO VACANCY  

It was on June 7 that  New Mexico State Representative Christine Trujillo announced her  resignation from the New Mexico House of Representatives, District 25 effective July 1. Review of Cristine S. Parajón’s  voter registration cards reveals that she had lived in the district a mere 22 days before applications were  being  accepted on June 30, 2023 by the Bernalillo County Commission to fill the vacancy.

There are 3 voter registration cards on file with the Bernalillo County Clerk’s Office. All 3 merit  review to clear up confusion.

The first voter registration card is dated and signed by Parajón on November 4, 2022. The registration card gives a Broadmoor street address that is not within the House District 25.

The second  Parajón  voter registration card was signed on June 8, 2023 the next day after the Trujillo resignation, making the change in her address for voting purposes and determining the House District where she resides. The new registration card provides a home address on Chinlee Street which is in House District 25. The registration card gives the Broadmoor Avenue Street address where she gets mail.

The  Parajón’s Broadmoor address did cause confusion with the Democratic Party and the Bernalillo County Commission staff who reviewed the DNC VOTEBUIDER data base and county voter registration records respectively that initially determine that  Cristine S. Parajón was  registered at the Broadmoor home address not within District 25.

The second voter registration card  also contains information worth noting. It indicates she lived and was registered to vote in another state before she moved back to Albuquerque. The second voter registration card provides that she gave authorization to cancel her previous voter registration in the city of Cambridge, the County of Middlesex in the State of Massachusetts.  Parajón  is a graduate  of Harvard University, which is located in Cambridge, Mass.,  and ostensibly she registered to vote in Massachusetts while she attended college preferring not to vote absentee in New Mexico.

The third Parajón  voter registration card is dated July 1, 2023. It gives a Chinlee Street address where she lives and the same Chinlee Street address where she gets mail.

During the August 2 forum, Cristine S. Parajón proudly proclaimed she was raised in the House District 25 by her parents in the Altura neighborhood area. But that is far from full disclosure. What she failed to disclose is that she left for a considerable amount of time to go to college at Harvard University and then went to work in New York City to then return to work for the City of Albuquerque. Upon her return to Albuquerque, she did not live in District 25, that is until she was recruited apply for and run for House District 25.   

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

On August 11 the Bernalillo County Commission will make the final decision as to who they will select to replace State Representative Christine Trujillo.  The problem is that the fix is already in despite all the the efforts of the other applications and efforts  by others.

What has happened with the application process by the Bernalillo County Commission in filling this most recent legislative vacancy is so very wrong on a number of levels.

First, you have 3 County Commissions who could not careless what two of their peers think or have to say and essentially collude behind the scenes.

Second,  you have a County Commissioner go out of her way to recruit her own candidate and act like a king maker giving no consideration to what residents in the District want and need.

Third, you have a number of even more qualified people who have actually lived in the district much longer and who know its problems and who  jumped through the hoops, apply and even participate in good faith in a forum, not realizing that the fix is in thanks to 3 county commissioners.

Fourth, you have an opportunistic politician and applicant go out of her way to move into a district she has not lived in for years and who likely does not really understand the real issues facing the district.

This is the type of “politcal movidas” that destroy the credibility of politicians. It discourages qualified applicants from even applying. This is the very type of politics that gives the County Commission the bad name it has with the filling of legislative vacancies.  It also encourages County Commissioners and their appointees to being “primaried” as the seek their own elections in 2024 with Adriann Barboa in particular seeking a second term.

On June 7, New Mexico State Representative Christine Trujillo announced her  resignation from the New Mexico House of Representatives District 25 effective July 1.  It is the responsibility of the Bernalillo County Commission to appoint her replacement to complete the remainder of her term.  The Bernalillo County Commission will appoint a replacement from the  list of applied candidates at their Friday, August 11 meeting at 10 am. The meeting will take place in the Ken Sanchez Commission Chambers at BernCo @ Alvarado Square, 415 Silver Ave SW.

https://www.bernco.gov/blog/2023/06/30/bernco-commission-seeks-applications-to-fill-new-mexico-house-district-25-seat/

Seven candidates have applied to fill the vacancy.  The 7 seven applicants are:

• Cristina Parajón (D)
• Robert Padilla (D)
• Sofia Sanchez (D)
• Brian A. Thomas (D)
• Andres P. Valdez (D)
• Derek James Villaneuva (D)
• Denis Litvinenko (R)

You can review each applicants letter of application and resume by clicking on each of the candidate names above.

EDITOR’S NOTE: In the interest of full disclosure, Pete Dinelli intended to apply for the vacancy but decided against it preferring to continue with retirement and publication of www.PeteDinelli.com as a Democrat activist and having other priorities in life without political drama.

AUGUST 2 CANDIDATE FORUM

On August 2, the House District 25 Democrat Ward and Precinct leadership of Wards 25A, 25B, 25C, and 25D  held  a moderated, in-person candidate forum where  the  Democratic candidates were  allowed to participate in a candidate forum. Many Democratic party officials’ believe there was a need for the party to be involved with the selection process and to at least voice their opinions by conducting a vote to make a recommendation to the County Commission as to who they should appoint.

It’s no secret  that the reason why there was  a candidate forum on August 2  is because of just how messy and divisive the last appointment was when Westside Albuquerque Rep. Antonio “Moe” Maestas was appointed by the County Commission to serve the remaining 2 years in the New Mexico Senate  caused by the resignation of Senator Jacob Candelaria. The November 16 County Commission meeting making the Maestas appointment degenerated into a verbal slug fest of false accusations, innuendos and slurs with one commissioner even calling another commissioner a “bitch”.

BLUE REVIEW REPORT OF AUGUST 2 FORUM

On August 8, the Democratic Party of Bernalillo County published in its on line weekly news letter THE BLUE REVIEW the following report on the August 2 forum:

“There were no vacancies in the room at the Albuquerque Teachers’ Federation (ATF) meeting room on August 2, when Democrats got together for a party-sponsored applicant forum for those who had applied to fill the vacancy left by much-lauded State Representative Christine Trujillo in House District 25. 80 attendees filled the space, despite the lack of working air conditioning, including the U.S. House Representative for NM-01, Melanie Stansbury.

It was the first time that the Democratic Party of Bernalillo County had sponsored such a forum. Multiple county party officers were there, making sure all went smoothly. John Dyrcz, ATF’s state affiliate political organizer, led off the meeting, welcoming all the attendees to the union’s space. Rayellen Smith, chair of Albuquerque Indivisible, was the unflappable emcee, reading and repeating questions for the six Democrats applying to hold the HD25 position through the 2024 election. The sole Republican applicant did not attend. Two county commissioners, Eric Olivas and Adriann Barboa, were attentive observers.

Every seat in the room was filled as the candidates in turn gave opening remarks; some latecomers were standing in the back of the room. Four candidates had earlier submitted biographical sketches to the Blue Review: Robert Padilla, Cristina Parajón, and Sofia Sanchez in the July 25 issue and Brian Thomas in the August 1 issue. 

 The other two Democrats, Andres Valdez and Derek Villanueva, were able to state their credentials succinctly. Brevity was necessary because the applicants had to adhere to a strict timetable, smilingly administered by Ms. Smith, to allow all six to give two-minute opening and closing statements and one-minute responses to the nine questions she posed. And, remarkably, they did comply; there were no time-constraint confrontations among the applicants.

Candidates varied in their approach: one, Cristina Parajón, emphasized her youth and the need for Generation Z representation in the Legislature, determining their own presence and future. At the opposite extreme, another, Andres Valdez, emphasized his 38-year experience affecting legislation. All spoke fondly of their community (District 25 is roughly bounded by Lomas to the south, Carlisle to the west, Louisiana to the east, and Montgomery to the north) and their commitment to the district’s needs. One of the questions dealt with how the $2.86 million federal infrastructure allotment to New Mexico can help serve the community.

 Most spoke strongly in favor of unions, gun control (and the enforcement of gun control laws already in place!), and doing something about crime and homelessness. Candidate Valdes emphasized that he felt “we are in a state of crisis,” and not just the climate crisis that all of them addressed. All felt the legislature should do more to stem the outflow and increase the supply of teachers and medical care providers, although they differed somewhat on the needed strategies. Each had suggestions as to how to deal with the dangers of right-wing extremists, and all opposed book banning. Each supported means of dealing with homelessness, some with support for building more affordable housing, some with making housing vouchers widely available. All would act to protect New Mexico’s environment and would work for clean energy to help move the state away from its current reliance on fossil fuel revenue.

Over 100 Democrats in the district register to vote and rank these candidates in a non-binding election. DPBC will present the full tally of the rankings to the county commission before the commission’s August 11 decision to appoint one of the seven applicants for Christine Trujillo’s seat. 

If a proof of concept was needed for such a democratic process, it was provided resoundingly by this ground-breaking, highly-successful event. May the best person win, and may DPBC consider setting up similar forums when other vacancies in our all-important representation in Santa Fe come up again.”

NON-BINDING ELECTION RESULTS

After the forum, the Democratic Party of Bernalillo County (DPBC) facilitated an online election for registered Democrats living in HD25. The election was ranked-choice, with voters able to rank all the candidates according to their preferences from 1 through 6. Only registered Democrats  residing in HD25  were sent a ballot.

On Monday, August 7, DPBC officers and representatives from HD25 Ward and Precinct leadership gathered and tallied  the results of the non-binding, ranked-choice vote to fill the HD25 vacancy. This final results of the vote was presented to the Bernalillo County Board of Commissioners. There were a total of 105  ballots cast from HD25 Democrats with 1 duplicate ballot not counted.

Four ballots were spoiled and not counted due to giving more than one candidate the same ranking.

The following results were tabulated for the votes 1 through 6

1st Place Votes

Cristina S. Parajón received the most 1^st place votes for a total of 52, followed by Sofia M. Sanchez with 28 votes, followed by Derek James Villa-nueva with 10 votes, followed by Brian Thomas with 7 votes, followed by Robert Padilla and Andres Valdez tied with 1 vote each.

 2nd Place Votes

Sofia M. Sanchez received the most 2^nd place votes for a total of 23 votes, followed by  Cristina S. Parajón with  16 votes, followed by Derek James Villa-nueva with  13 votes followed by Brian A. Thomas with 10 votes  followed by Robert L. Padilla with  8 votes  followed by Andres P. Valdez with  1 vote.

3rd Place Votes

Sofia M. Sanchez and  Derek James Villa-nueva  recieved the most 3^rd place votes tied each with 20 votes followed by Brian A. Thomas with  9 votes, followed Robert L. Padilla with  8 votes followed by Cristina S. Parajón and  Andres P. Valdez  tied  with 5 votes each.

4th Place Votes

Brian A. Thomas received the most 4^th place votes with 17 votes, followed by  Robert L. Padilla with 9 votes, followed by  Derek James Villa-nueva with 8 votes, followed by Andres P. Valdez with 7 votes, followed by Cristina S. Parajón and  Sofia M. Sanchez tied each with 3 votes.

5th Place Votes

Robert L. Padilla received the most 5^th place votes with  18 votes, followed by  Andres P. Valdez with 8 votes, followed by  Brian A. Thomas with  7 votes followed by Derek James Villa-nueva with  6 votes followed by Cristina S. Parajón  and Sofia M. Sanchez tied with 1vote each.

 6th Place Votes

Andres P. Valdez recieved the most 6^th place votes with 19 votes, followed by  Robert L. Padilla with 7 votes, followed by  Brian A. Thomas with 5 votes followed by Sofia M. Sanchez and Derek James Villa-nueva tied with  3 votes, followed by  Cristina S. Parajón with 2 votes.

The summary of the forgoing rank based voting is  as follows

1. Cristina S. Parajón came in first with 52 votes and the clear majority
2. Sofia M. Sanchez came in second with 23 votes
3. Sofia M. Sanchez and Derek James Villa-nueva tied  for 3^rd with 20 votes each
4. Brian A. Thomas came in 4^th place with 17 votes
5. Robert L. Padilla came in 5^th placewith  18 votes
6. Andres P. Valdez came in 6^th with 19 votes

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

It is highly commendable that House District 25 Democrat Ward and Precinct leadership of Wards 25A, 25B, 25C, and 25D held and  moderated an in-person candidate forum for the applicants.  It is clearly necessary to allow the Democrat Party to have input on the process and to voice their preference. What was  also commendable is that the meeting was  open to the public and the Bernalillo County Democratic Party  thereby made  accommodations for neighborhood association participation and other private citizens to attend who wanted  to merely listen to the candidates and become informed.

POLITICAL RIFT

To be perfectly blunt, the commendable and good faith efforts of the Bernalillo County Democratic party to become involved with the selection process by making  a recommendation as to who the county commission should appoint was essentially high jacked by the backroom antics of progressive Democrats Adriann Barboa and Eric Olivas with both revealing themselves to be ethically challenged.

The current makeup of the current Bernalillo County Commission is as follows:

District 1: Progressive Democrat Barbara Baca, Commission Chair

District 2:  Moderate Democrat Steven Michael Quezada

District 3: Progressive Democrat Adriann Barboa

Disrtrict 4:  Conservative Republican Walt Benson 

District 5: Progressive Democrat Eric Olivas

The legal and constitutional process of filling vacancies in the New Mexico legislature caused by the early departure of a legislator has always rested with the County Commission where the legislators district is located.  On paper, it is pretty straight forward process.  There are 5 county commissioners and the applicant who  secures a 3 vote majority wins, period, end of discussion.

In practice, the process of filling a legislative vacancy is always a very messy process, especially when there are philosophical rifts within the same party that has the majority of the votes on the commission. Such is the current makeup of the Bernalillo County Commission which is comprised of 4 Democrats and 1 Republican.

There currently exists a politcal rift  between the 3 Progressive Democrats of Barbara Baca, Adriane Barboa and Eric Olivas who have the majority over Moderate Democrat Stephen Michael Quesada and Conservative Republican Walt Benson.  It has been confirmed by sources that the desires of the county commissioners whose district the vacancy falls within, which in this case is both Barboa and Olivas, will be given much greater consideration and relied upon.  It will be the progressive majority of Commissioners Baca, Barboa and Olivas who will decide to fill the vacancy giving very little or no consideration to what is said by the other two commissioners. Sadly, such is the reality of politics. gg

APPEARANCE OF IMPROPRIETY

Three or more of the 5 county commissioners were strictly prohibited by law from attending the August 2 Democrat forum together all at once because it would constitute a quorum of the commission and be a violation of New Mexico’s Open meetings act. https://www.nmag.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Open-Meetings-Act-Compliance-Guide-2015.pdf  Notwithstanding, County Commissioners Adriane Barboa and Eric Olivas attended the forum and were introduced at the beginning of the event.

The BCDP did not announce if all 5 commissioners were invited nor did Barboa nor Olivas disclose to what extent they had conferred with the other 3 commissioners to avoid a quorum and to what extent they would report back to the other commissioners on what was said by the applicants.  For the record, both progressive Democrat Barbara Baca, District 2 and moderate Democrat Steven Michael Quezada confirmed by phone to this author they would not attend the forum meeting raising concerns about propriety.

Simply put, Barboa and Olivas should not have attended the meeting because it created an appearance of impropriety and undue influence.  Both placed themselves in a compromising position for the public to demand if they were there  to support a candidate of their choice before the candidates were interviewed by the County Commission as a whole on August 11.  County Commissioner’s deliberations should be a matter of public record with them conducting interviews and asking questions of the applicants during a public meeting of the 5 member Bernalillo County  Commission.

FRONT RUNNER RECRUITED 

Based on the Democratic Party straw vote taken, there are two very clear front runners that have commanding leads over the other 5 applicants and both candidacies are problematic. Those individuals are:

CRISTINE S. PARAJÓN

Cristine S. Parajón, age 27, is a Harvard graduate with a Masters in Business and Economics. From July 23 to the present, she has been the Director of Strategy for the New Mexico Human Services Department. From September 2021 to May 2023, she was with the City of Albuquerque Gateway Homeless Shelter as the Gateway Administrator. From Sep 2020 to Sept 2021, she was a consultant in New York City.  From August, 2019 to April, 2020, she was a special projects coordinator for the UNM Office of Community Health and from April 2020, to September 2020 a Deputy Incident Commander with the City of Albuquerque Emergency Operations Center.

It is clear that Cristine S. Parajón  is the front runner for the County Commission Appointment. Three confidential sources within the Democratic Party, including one Ward chair, have confirmed Progressive Democrat Adriann Barboa recruited Progressive Democrat Cristina S. Paragon to apply for the House District 25 vacancy. One confidential source also said Barboa initially wanted Parajón to run for City Council District 6.  County Commissioner Eric Olivas, despite assurances to the contrary that he has not made up his mind, has also disclosed to confidential sources he intends to vote for whoever Commissioner Barboa wants which at this point is Cristine S. Parajón who Barboa recruited to run.

New Mexico statutory law is clear that no state employee can  hold political elective office except for a non-partisan county or municipal office. The statute is Section 10-9-1 NMSA, 1978.  (https://law.justia.com/codes/new-mexico/2021/chapter-10/article-9/section-10-9-21/)  Parajon needs to answer the question if she will voluntarily resign her employment with the State of New Mexico Human Services Department if she is appointed to fill the vacancy, a disclosure she was not asked about at the August 2 forum.

SOFIA  SANCHEZ

Sofia Sanchez is the Deputy Chief of Staff for United States Representative Melanie Stansbury since June 2022. From November 2018 to June 2022, she was the Deputy District Director for then United State Representative Debra Haaland who is now the Secretary of the Department of Interior.  Sanchez has received the endorsements of US Representative Melanie Stansbury  and the endorsement from Representative Christine Tujillo who she is seeking to replace.

Two issues that Sanchez needs to address is if she becomes a New Mexico State Representative does she intend to resign from employment with US Representative Melanie Stansbury or take a leave of absence during the legislative session and how she will resolve conflicts of policy with US Representative Stansbury. In otherwards, how much influence will Congresswoman Stansbury have over Sanchez’s votes in the New Mexico House of Representatives should she be appointed?

FINAL COMMENTARY

On August 11 the Bernalillo County Commission will make the final decision as to who they will select to replace State Repetitive Christine Trujillo. The problem is that the fix appears to be in despite all the applications and efforts made by others. This is the type of politcal movida that destroys the credibility of politicians and discourages qualified applicants from even applying.

Until then, the Bernalillo County Commission staff need to do their due diligence and determine who is actually qualified to be appointed and if the applicants meet the minimum requirements.

In the interest of full disclosure and transparency, both Commissioners Adriann Barboa and Eric Olivas should  make full disclosure on August 11 to all other County Commissioners of any and all involvement with recruiting the engaged in for candidates they wanted to fill the position. Such disclosure is the only decent thing to do out of respect to the other applicants.

On July 25, 2023 Mayor Tim Keller appeared before a luncheon of the local chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Parks (NAIOP).  During the luncheon, Keller announced to NAIOP that some parts of the Gateway Center are open.  Keller went on to announce it will be at least two more years until the Gateway Homeless Shelter is fully operational. Keller told the group this:

“Look, it’s a little delayed because of asbestos. Before that it was delayed because of zoning. You all know how that works [being developers], but we are doing this.”

According to Keller, the City has now broken up the center’s opening into phases by addressing one service at a time. For example, a housing navigation center, a first responder drop-off and a sobering center are e phases.

Other services like mental health care and overnight shelters will take even longer to open than originally planned. Keller said this

“My goal is, in the next two years to have all those phases open. It’s gonna be a heavy lift, but we have to do this for Albuquerque”.

https://www.kob.com/new-mexico/mayor-keller-talks-public-safety-plans-new-stadium-and-gateway-center-timeline/

City spokesperson Chris Chaffin said two parts of the Gateway Center should be completed this summer and they are the Housing Navigation Center and the Engagement Center. According to Chaffin, the Engagement Center started some operations in January. Eventually, people staying at the shelter will be able to get their hair cut, secure a ride to the clothing bank and get job training all in the same place.

Additional services like case management and job training are being planned. The Housing Navigation Center will include overnight beds for women and additional services to secure stable housing.  Chaffin said the certificate of occupancy has not yet been issues but is imminent. No opening date has been given.

https://www.abqjournal.com/news/despite-delays-city-aims-to-open-two-parts-of-gateway-center-this-summer/article_243bdd74-2bf6-11ee-9760-130f91496589.html

GATEWAY SHELTER COSTS AND OTHER EXPENDITURES

According to the Keller Administration, construction cost on the Gateway Homeless Shelter is $7 million which is upwards $340 a square foot. Next on the construction timeline is a receiving area for first responders and Albuquerque Community Safety employees followed by a medical sobering center and a “medical respite” center.

The current construction costs of $7 Million are in addition to the $15 million building purchase in 2021 and $1 million per year contract with Heading Home, the homeless service provider that operates the center, putting the current price tag at $23 million.

Over the past two fiscal years, the Keller Administration has spent $33,854,536 for homeless emergency shelters, support, mental health and substance abuse programs and $60,790,321 for affordable housing programs for the low-income, near homeless.  It has also spent funding for two 24/7 homeless shelters, including purchasing the Gibson Medical Center for $15 million to convert it into a homeless shelter. The Family and Community Services approved 2023-2024 budget lists forty-five (45) separate affordable housing contracts totaling $39,580,738, fifteen (15) separate emergency shelter contracts totaling $5,575,690, and twenty seven (27) separate homeless support service contracts totaling $5,104,938 for a total of $50,261,366

GATEWAY SHELTER OCCUPANCY

Over this past winter, but cause of harsh weather conditions, emergency overnight beds were opened to all genders due to the weather with nearly 100 men staying in the facility. Currently, overnight beds are only available for women at the Gateway Shelter.

Since January of this year, a total of 93 women have stayed in the overnight beds at the Gateway shelter. Currently, 35 women are staying in the Gateway shelter, using beds separated by cubicle-like dividers at the shelter. Rubbery sheets, studded with magnets, can be affixed to metal strips to add additional privacy. Like the Westside Emergency Housing Center, the Gateway Center is open to pets as well as people. According to city officials, allowing pets lowers barriers to entry.

One hundred beds are available at the Gateway Center. However, people are not able to walk in and access services.  A referral from another social service provider is required and then the person must go through a screening process. Although sobriety isn’t a requirement to enter the facility, drug use is prohibited on the premises.

City officials say that although one or two night stays are expected, the goal is for people to have longer stays and to take advantage of the housing and job training resources before eventually moving into permanent housing.

Family and Community Service Director Carol Pierce said the goal is to move residents of the shelter into permanent housing within 90 days. Pierce wasn’t sure how many women of the 93 have moved to permanent housing, but noted that the 90-day program hasn’t been fully implemented.

Links to quoted news sources are:

https://www.abqjournal.com/news/despite-delays-city-aims-to-open-two-parts-of-gateway-center-this-summer/article_243bdd74-2bf6-11ee-9760-130f91496589.html

https://www.abqjournal.com/news/gateway-center-feels-like-home-for-the-homeless/article_6a0ed4c0-324d-11ee-b2ab-df4211762646.html

KELLER’S ROAD TO GATEWAY 

It was on Tuesday, April 6, 2021, that Mayor Tim Keller held a press conference in front of the Gibson Medical Center, formerly the Lovelace Hospital, to officially announce the city had bought the massive 572,000 square-foot building that has a 201-bed capacity, for $15 million in order to convert it into a 24-7 homeless shelter. In making the announcement, Keller said in part:

“The City of Albuquerque has officially bought the Gibson Medical Center, the cornerstone of our Gateway Center network. In total, this represents the largest capital investment that Albuquerque has ever made for the unhoused. We have roughly 5,000 homeless people.  This challenge [of housing the homelessness] is huge. And we know this challenge has gotten way worse during the pandemic. For us, this is about actually doing something. Not just talking about it, not just discussing it, not just harping about the details. This is about action. … This is never meant to be permanent. It’s meant to be a gateway to services that can then lead to people enabling and changing their lives. …  What we’re looking at here is to move past this question of where … No matter how you feel about it, we’ve answered that question.”

After his press conference, Keller came under severe criticism for his failure to reach a consensus and take community input before the Gibson Medical Center was purchased for a 24/7 homeless shelter.  Keller said he planned to confer with residents in the future. Keller made it clear either way, like it or not, the site had been selected and the Gibson Medical facility will be used to service the homeless population as a Gateway Center.

After his press conference, Keller came under severe criticism for his failure to reach a consensus and take community input before the Gibson Medical Center was purchased. Keller said he planned to confer with residents in the future. Keller made it clear either way, like it or not, the site had been selected and the Gibson Medical facility will be used to service the homeless population as a Gateway Center.

https://www.abqjournal.com/774956/medical-center-at-old-lovelace-hospital-might-expand-to-other-uses.html

Since being sworn in as Mayor the first time on December 1, 2017, Mayor Tim Keller made it known that building a city operated homeless shelter was his top priority. Keller deemed that a 24-hour, 7 day a week temporarily shelter for the homeless critical towards reducing the number of homeless in the city. Keller’s plans are that the city owned shelter is to assist an estimated 1,000 homeless residents and connect them to other services intended to help secure permanent housing. The new facility is intended to serve all populations of men, women, and families. Further, the city wants to provide a place anyone could go regardless of gender, religious affiliation, sobriety, addictions, psychotic condition or other factors.

The city facility is to have on-site case managers that would guide residents toward counseling, addiction treatment, housing vouchers and other available resources.  The new homeless shelter is intended to replace the existing West Side Emergency Housing Center, the former jail on the far West Side. The west side facility has been deemed unsustainable costing over $1 million in transportation costs a year for the homeless. The goal is  for the new homeless shelter to provide first responders an alternative destination for the people they encounter known as the “down-and-out” calls.

DELAY AFTER DELAY

Since the April 6, 2021 purchase of the Gibson Medical Center for conversion to the Gateway homeless shelter, completion of the project has experienced delay after delay. The plague of delays has included neighborhood protests, a civil lawsuit and zoning battle and asbestos discovery requiring remediation.

PROTESTS RECALLED

After his April 6, 2021 press conference, Mayor Keller came under severe criticism for his failure to reach a consensus and take community input before the Gibson Medical Center was purchased. Keller said he planned on conferring with residents in the future.  However, Keller made it clear either way, like it or not, the site had been selected and the Gibson Medical facility will be used to service the homeless population as a Gateway Center.

Residents who live in the area said it would only cause more problems for them in the area. Other residents thought the facility should be used on a smaller scale to service a few dozen women and children, rather than a few hundred people. The biggest worry is that the Gibson facility would  in fact be converted to “mega-shelter” that will impact the neighborhood.

On Friday, April 9, 2021 neighbors who felt they have been ignored and overlooked in the planning process and being asked to shoulder too big of a burden protested near the site. Some held signs with the messages:

“NO INPUT, NO INFO, NO FAITH IN GATEWAY”
“KELLER LIES ABOUT SIZE”
“I VOTED FOR A SUBSTATION AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS LOUSY MEGA SHELTER”
“KELLER NEVER ASKED US”
“GATEWAY = KELLER’S ART”
“KELLER NEVER ASKED US”
“MAYOR KELLER, NO MORE DISRESPECT”

Vera Watson, a resident of nearby Parkland Hills neighborhood, said the city has too big of a concentration of social services in Southeast Albuquerque. Watson believes it contributes to crime. Watson said she voted for the bond question that generated $14 million for the Gateway Center and that she supports additional services for people who are homeless. However, she feels the city has neglected the surrounding neighborhoods while advancing the project. Watson said bluntly:

“I just think the mayor gave us his middle finger”.

https://www.abqjournal.com/774956/medical-center-at-old-lovelace-hospital-might-expand-to-other-uses.html

The net result of the protests was the neighborhoods organized, held meetings with city officials and recruited attorney’s acting pro bono to assist with appeals.  The neighborhoods argued that the city needed to do more for homelessness, but not all in one place at one time.

The neighborhoods were successful in negotiating greater input on the site development, including the city investing in lighting and infrastructure, security plans and creation of a “neighborhood council” to address unintended consequences. The city significantly reduced plans for the Gibson Gateway Center from an unlimited number of overnight beds to a homeless shelter for upwards of 50 women and those needing medical care.

ZONING APPEALS

Soon after the April 6, 2021 announcement that the city had bought the Gibson Medical Center facility for the new Gateway “overnight shelter”, the Keller Administration discovered that the facility was zoned for “hospital and medical” usage exclusvely. The existing zoning for the Gibson Medical Center facility allowed  for an “overnight shelter” but only as a “conditional use” that the city had to  apply for  under  the  city’s zoning laws known as the Integrated Development Ordinance.   Within weeks of closing on the purchase of the facility, the city applied for the “conditional use” arguing there was a strong need for it to enhance Albuquerque’s demand for homeless services to an ever-expanding homeless population.

From the get go, the filing for the conditional use zoning application was bogged down in appeals filed by the surrounding neighborhoods, which was totally within their rights but which upset Mayor Keller. In a June, 2022  press conference announcing the closure of Coronado Park, Mayor Keller took it upon himself complained about the delay and said this:

“The Gateway Center has been delayed years because of appeals based on zoning laws made by a small, tiny community that doesn’t want that thing to open. … [It has been tied up in an] endless purgatory of appeals.”

It was On August 16, 2022, a full 15 months of delay since the Keller Administration purchased the sprawling Gibson Medical Center to convert it into a 24-7  homeless shelter  that  the Keller Administration was able to finally secure the necessary “conditional use”  zoning change to operate the facility as a 24-7 “homeless shelter.”

ASBESTOS FOUND

The Keller Administration had planned to have overnight beds available by 2022, but for various reasons that did not happen. Then asbestos was found in the facility delaying construction and remodeling even further.

On April 25, 2023, KRQE News 13 Investigation Reporter Larry Barker reported on the Keller Administration’s discovery of asbestos at the new Gateway renovation construction site.  Barker also reported on the coverup of the cleanup efforts resulting in delays of completion of the Gateway Homeless Shelter.  Following is the report edited and rearranged for brevity:

“It’s a massive 70-year-old hospital building bought by the City of Albuquerque two years ago. Mayor Tim Keller pledged to transform the old Lovelace Medical Building into a showpiece complex to address the city’s homeless problem. Once complete, the Gateway Project is designed to be a modern multi-purpose homeless shelter and health services center.

Over the past year, the city has been engaged in a $9.5 million building renovation. The Gateway Center is expected to open for business later this year.

But there’s trouble at the Gateway Project, and it’s not something Albuquerque officials will talk about. You see, it isn’t just a construction zone; it’s a danger zone. Internal city documents obtained by KRQE News 13 show how Albuquerque officials involved with the Gateway renovation blatantly violated federal health and Safety regulations putting lives at risk.

One of the roadblocks to renovating old buildings is the presence of asbestos. In the 1950s, when the original Lovelace Hospital was built, asbestos was commonly used in building materials like insulation, ceiling tiles, and flooring. Today, if construction workers encounter asbestos during renovation projects, then stringent federal abatement regulations must be followed.

Breathing asbestos fibers can be deadly, so only specially trained and certified work crews are allowed to operate in asbestos remediation areas. Full body suits, respirators, gloves, and boots are required. Asbestos debris must be bagged and disposed of in a hazardous waste repository.

UNM School of Medicine Pulmonologist Dr. Akshay Sood said this:

“[Asbestos] does cause cancer, and it is recognized to be a carcinogen. … It’s important to minimize exposure to asbestos to construction workers because there is a tremendously high risk of developing… cancers as well as other diseases associated with asbestos exposure.”

According to a city timeline, last year contractors doing renovation work on the Gateway Center’s second floor used a large mechanical scraper to rip out and shred old tile flooring containing asbestos. The debris was swept up with brooms and thrown in the trash. There were no worker safeguards, no notifications, no protective gear, no respirators, and no regard for the law.

The Occupational Health and Safety Bureau (OHSB) initiated an investigation after receiving complaints that allege “No inspection or testing was done prior to demolition work. Workers are not wearing PPE and are scraping, and grinding. The HVAC system is still running and may have transported dust through the building. Staff have raised safety concerns multiple times but the project is politically driven and two work stop orders from the City’s Risk (Management) Division have been ignored.”

On February 28, 2023, Albuquerque’s Risk Management Division informed Gateway Project Manager Jesse Valdez that “There is high possibility that there is asbestos in the areas of the Gibson Health Hub that are under construction. All work in these areas must cease until an asbestos test has been performed.”

An internal city document noted, “There was no pause on the construction site with the reasoning that Risk (Management) does not have jurisdiction to shut down construction sites.” Renovation construction was halted only briefly and then resumed.

On March 9, 2023, test results confirmed the presence of asbestos in the 2nd-floor work area. OHSB Investigators directed the city to halt all work in the asbestos area. OHSB Safety Compliance Officer Lorenzo Montoya said this:

“It is imperative that a regulated area be established immediately. The area must be secured from unauthorized persons and demarcated immediately,”

New Mexico’s Occupational Health and Safety Bureau Chief Bob Genoway said this:

“We consider (these) to be serious allegations that warranted an OSHA investigation. … Bottom line is we’re trying to make sure that employees don’t become seriously ill or injured from hazards in the workplace. Asbestos is a recognized, serious hazard in the workplace and can cause serious diseases.”

Links to quoted news sources are here:

https://www.krqe.com/news/larry-barker/albuquerques-gateway-center-the-danger-zone/?ipid=promo-link-block1

https://www.krqe.com/news/larry-barker/behind-the-story-larry-barker-investigates-the-gateway-centers-asbestos-problem/

https://www.abqjournal.com/news/local/gateway-center-construction-hits-asbestos-snag/article_4ad152b3-2947-51c1-8dbe-ea04a58d3568.html

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

The approval process and the remodeling for the Gateway Shelter can be described as road of good intentions paved with ineptness and at times incompetency by Mayor Tim Keller and his administration.  There are 3 specific causes that placed the project on the road to unnecessary delays:

The first cause that contributed to the delays was the  actual selection and purchase of the massive 572,000 square-foot Gibson Medical Center complex, formerly the Lovelace Hospital for $15 million in order to convert it into a 24-7 homeless shelter.  The massive complex purchased has a 201-bed capacity, numerous physician offices, treatment and operating rooms, administration offices, a large lobby area as well as 250-to-300-person auditorium.

The city implemented a site selection process that originally identified 3 appropriate sites. On February 27, 2020 the City of Albuquerque released a report and analysis announcing the top 3 preferred locations. The 3 locations were:

1. University of New Mexico (UNM) land next to the state laboratory, near Interstate 25 and Camino de Salud
2.  Coronado Park at 3rd Street and Interstate 40
3. The former Lovelace hospital on Gibson

The UNM property was Keller’s first preferred choice and Keller took it upon himself to do a press conference to promote his selection and pressure the UNM regents to allow it.  When UNM balked at the idea, Keller quickly move to purchase the Gibson Medical Center.

Keller failed to even try to get input from the surrounding neighborhoods nor did he attempt to reach a consensus with them and major protests occurred. Mayor Tim Keller was perceived as mishandling the site selection process for the shelter, especially with his shaming, guilt trip press conference to force UNM’s hand, and his failing to build true consensus on what the city should do and where the shelter should go.

The second cause that that contributed to the delays is the fact that Mayor Keller and his administration ostensibly did not know and did not do due diligence to determine if the Gibson Medical facility had the proper zoning to allow a 24-7 overnight shelter. The commercial property was purchased “as is”. What Keller and company found out only after the purchase was that the facility and the area was zoned for a hospital and that a conditional use for a 24-7 overnight shelter was required under the city’s zoning laws known as the Integrated Development ordinance.  Rather than taking steps to rely on the existing zoning as a hospital  and use the facility as a mental health treatment and substance abuse hospital facility for the homeless, the building sat vacant as to city usage.

The third cause that contributed to the delays was the discovery of asbestos on the property that required remediation. It was a sign of sure incompetence that the city Planning Department, the Municipal Development Department or the Environmental Health Department did not realize that in the 1950s, when the original Lovelace Hospital was built, asbestos was commonly used in building materials like insulation, ceiling tiles, and flooring. What is  very disturbing is that the Occupational Health and Safety Bureau (OHSB) initiated an investigation after receiving complaints that allege “No inspection or testing was done prior to demolition work” and the city covered it up.

On April 21, the city announced that the asbestos abatement had been completed. That may be true for the area that is being remodeled for the new Gateway service, but that area is a fraction of the massive 572,000 square-foot complex.  It is highly likely that the rest of the complex is riddle with asbestos and any future remodeling will require asbestos remediation jacking up the costs. In otherwards, Keller had the city buy a money pit of endless expenditures needed for asbestos remediation.

NAIOP INFLUENCE OVER MAYOR TIM KELLER

It was no accident that Mayor Tim Keller made his announcement of the delays in opening the Gateway Shelter to NAIOP.  Keller’s very first State of the City address in 2018 occurred before NAIOP.  Such appearances before NAIOP are regularly scheduled by Keller to allow him to give reports and briefings on city business to an influential business group that ostensibly he favors and he relies upon for political support.  Each time Keller appears before NAIOP the press reports it and Keller makes the news. A good example was last year in August when Keller announced the closure of Coronado Park as the de facto city sanctioned homeless encampment.

NAIOP is considered by politicos as the most influential business and political organizations in the city. It boasts membership of over 300 developers, contractors and investors and it has regular luncheon meetings that are well attended with speakers and even sponsors candidate debates.  It has its own Political Action Committee (PAC) for lobbying and supports candidates for office by making endorsements and contributing to races for city council and Mayor. NAIOP opposes project labor agreements requiring payment of prevailing union wages on city construction contracts as well as advocates for right to work laws in the state.  Its membership is known to bid on and are awarded city construction contracts.

NAIOP membership consistently opposes, complains and lobbies to change city zoning laws arguing they are too burdensome and interfere with development.  Most recently, NAIOP endorsed and lobbied heavily for enactment of Keller’s ABQ Housing Forward plan and major amendments to the Integrated Development ordinance that now allows casita development in 68% of the city that favors developers and investors over neighborhoods.  The Keller Administration also pushed for changes to the zoning laws that reduce or eliminate property owners right of appeal and require input on developments.  Simply put, Mayor Tim Keller and  NAIOP have a relationship of politically scratching each other’s back.

FINAL COMMENTARY

There is little to no doubt that all the delays in completing the Gateway 24-7 homeless shelter fall squarely on the shoulders of Mayor Tim Keller and the way he and his administration have handled the project. One thing that always motivates politicians looking for public approval and financial support is an election year.

The next municipal election for Mayor is two years from now in November 2025.  Keller is already making it known to many on his staff and financial supporters he intends to seek a third term. It’s no accident that Keller told NAIOP on July 25, 2023:

“My goal is, in the next two years to have all those phases open. It’s gonna be a heavy lift, but we have to do this for Albuquerque”.

What Keller was really saying is he has to get the Gateway Homeless Shelter done for his reelection before anyone can accuse him a failing to deliver on his promise to build a homeless shelter.