On January 6, the Albuquerque City Council enacted a city ordinance voting 7 to 2  making  extensive amendments to the city’s Integrated Development Ordinance (IDO). The bill was co-sponsored by conservative Republican City Councilor Dan Lewis and Progressive Democrat Joaquín Baca. Voting YES were Republican City Councilors Dan Lewis, Renee Grout, Brook Basaan, Dan Champine and Democrats Joaquín Baca, Tammy Fiebelkorn and Nicole Rogers. Voting NO were Democrats Klarissa Pena and Louie Sanchez.

The bill aims to increase housing along the ART Bus  route as well as main street corridors like 4th Street and Broadway through zoning changes to allow more multi-family developments and new restrictions on how those projects can be appealed by property owners and neighborhood associations. The ultimate goal of  the amendments enacted  is  to ease the burden of getting residential and commercial developments approved by the city  and to  allow duplexes, townhouses and multifamily housing along key streets and heavily traveled areas of the city.

Passage of the legislation amending the IDO was justified by city officials and city councilors  as a need to add affordable housing and streamlining  the development process. City officials have argue that at least 5,000 people are experiencing some form of homelessness and the city needs to add at least 15,000 units to its housing inventory to satisfy demand.

MAJOR CHANGES OUTLINED AFFECTING NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION APPELATE RIGHTS 

The amendments enacted to the Integrated Development Ordinance removes administrative appeals for projects on city-owned property.  The amendments enacted makes it so neighborhood association appeals to a development must have a petition signed by the majority of residents within 660 feet of the proposed site.

The enacted amendments limits the standing of Neighborhood Associations to file appeals by excluding an individual’s use of public lands as a basis for standing.  The enacted amendments eliminates the failure to notify Neighborhood Associations as a basis for appeal or remands.

The enacted amendments allows amendments at the request of a developer or other unknown party and to bypass the Environmental Planning Commission or the Land Use Planning and Zoning Commission and go straight to the City Council for approval.

The changes to the IDO allows  a City Councilor to NOT be recused by  themselves even when that councilor sponsors an amendment and where there is a conflict of interest.

The amendments enacted mandates  that Neighborhood Associations must  pay the attorney fees of developers when Neighborhood Association’s appeals are denied, but provides that  developers have no liability to pay attorney fees of Neighborhood Associations when developers appeal a denial, regardless of the decision.

The enacted amendments eliminates failure to notify Neighborhood Associations as a basis for appeal or remand and allows a City Councilor to NOT be recused themselves even when that councilor sponsors an amendment;

STRONG OPPOSITION EMERGES

On January 6, an exceptional number of concerned citizens and neighborhood association representatives signed up to speak on a  short week end notice and to object to the city council actions and to  oppose enactment of the amendments. Many of those who spoke expressed major  concerns about the amendments and expressed   a desire to retain the ability to fight new developments in or near their neighborhoods.

The Inter-Coalition Council voiced strong opposition to the legislation and said this:

“This bill is not about affordable housing or homelessness; its intent is to disenfranchise members of the public, enrich the development community, and concentrate power amongst fewer elected officials.”

The Inter-Coalition Council added  that this ordinance violates the “New Mexico Civil Rights Act.”

District 7’s neighborhood association president Janice Arnold-Jones expressed her frustration, telling News 13 that this bill was a rushed job.  Arnold-Jones  said this:

“We’ve not had absolutely no chance to weigh in [on the bill] … and that is wrong. It is not public, it is not transparent, and it does not follow due process.  … I learned that you have to take the time to hear the citizens, because my perspective of what is happening may differ greatly from yours. And we need to figure out where’s the common ground, and when we do that, the citizens of Albuquerque win”

The two city councilors who opposed the bill were Klarissa Peña  who represents the city’s Southwest side and Louie Sanchez, who represents the Central Westside.  Peña said this:

“I think everybody, probably, here on this Dias [but]  only speaking for myself,  thinks that we do need additional affordable housing, but sometimes there’s an opposite effect to when we do that”.

SUPPORT SHOWN

One organization that showed up to speak in support of the measure was the local chapter of Strong Towns a non-profit that aims to improve the financial health of cities. Jordon McConnell, Communications Chair for Strong Towns Albuquerque, said this:

“We’re pretty happy to engage with neighborhood folks who feel upset or even sad about these changes, really what we’re looking for is a city that engages everybody and we all want the same thing, which is a stronger Albuquerque”

McConnell added that the organization sent over 100 letters dispersed among the nine city councilors urging their support and received a response from each.

William Indelicato, Civic Liaison for Strong Towns said this:

“One of the things we’ve identified in our research is when a city or when a region undertakes a lot of construction of housing, it’s both market rate and affordable options. It’s when a region or a city restricts housing development, is when you start that shift towards those higher prices.”

MAYOR KELLERS HOUSING FORWARD PLAN

It was on  October 18, 2022 Mayor Tim Keller announced his “Housing Forward ABQ Plan.” It is a “multifaceted initiative” where Mayor Keller  set the goal of the City of Albuquerque being involved with adding 5,000 new housing units across the city by 2025 above and beyond what private industry normally creates each year.  According to Keller, city officials and the city council, the city is in a major “housing crisis” and the city needs as many as 33,000 new housing units immediately.

During his news conference announcing his “Housing Forward ABQ Plan” Keller emphasized the importance of amending the city’s Integrated Development Ordinance (IDO).  Keller said this:

“Right now our zoning code will never allow us to meet the housing demand in the city … If you want a place to advocate, if you want a place to change policy, if you want a place to argue, it’s all about the IDO [Integrated Development Ordinance] .  …  The proposed changes are intended to be transformative, which is fitting for the crisis facing our local government, thousands of families in our community, and our housing partners.”

To add the 5,000 new housing units across the city by 2025, Keller proposed that the City of Albuquerque fund and be involved with the construction of new low-income housing.  The strategy included a zoning code “rebalance” to increase population density in established neighborhoods. It included allowing “casitas” which under the zoning code are known as “accessory dwelling” units and duplex development on existing housing and other major changes relating to parking and height restrictions.  It included “motel conversions” and conversion of existing commercial office space to housing.  It also included enactment of ordinances to regulate the rental and apartment industry and promoting city sanctioned tent encampments for the unhoused.

Allowing both casita and duplex development, increasing density in established neighborhoods,  reducing parking  requirements in new developments as well as allowing increases in height restrictions were all changes strongly supported and lobbied for by the development community. The local chapter of the  National Association of Industrial and Office Parks (NAIOP) lobbied heavily in favor of Keller’s “Housing Forward ABQ Plan”.  NAIOP is considered the most influential business organization in the city consisting of developers, investors and contractors with membership in excess 300 with many bidding on city contracts.  NAIOP has its own politcal action committee and the organization endorsees candidates for Mayor and City Council while the membership donates to candidates.

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

Simply put, the enactment of the amendments to the Integrated Development Ordinance as embodied by Council Bill No. O-24-69 is  nothing more than a continuation of Mayor Keller’s “Housing Forward ABQ Plan”.  It is  not at all likely that the adopted changes to the IDO will spur development of affordable housing. The actions and rush job by the Albuquerque City Council to enact the amendments to the Integrated Development Ordinance was about as underhanded as it gets and a breach of trust by elected officials.

The city council bill making amendments to the IDO, was introduced on December 16 by then City Council President Dan Lewis and he did not refer the legislation to any committee for review, hearings and public comment as is normally done. The council scheduled final action and a final vote on the ordinance for January 6, 2025 where upwards of 10 amendments were offered and debated for hours by city councilors. The action of City Council President Dan Lewis of introducing the legislation and then scheduling it for final action within weeks without committee hearings was as nefarious  as it gets and nothing more than the city council gutting the rights and remedies of property owners in favor of developers.

The housing shortage is related to economics, the development community’s inability to keep up with supply and demand and the public’s inability to purchase housing or qualify for housing mortgage loans. The shortage of rental properties has resulted in dramatic increases in rents. Simply put, the City Council  has declared  a “housing crisis” in order to shove amendments to the Integrated Development Ordinance   down the throats of the city residents and property owners and to gut the rights of neighborhood associations.

SINISTER MOTIVATIONS OF CITY COUNCILOR  DAN LEWIS

The sinister motivations of City Councilor Dan Lewis with his sponsorship of Council Bill No. O-24-69 must be challenged. The City of Albuquerque lost a lawsuit in District Court that the Westside Coalition Of Neighborhood Association  filed when Dan Lewis acted improperly on behalf of developers to gut scenic protection rules near Petroglyph National Monument.  His behavior was specifically cited in the Judges  Opinion and Order in that case (No. D-202-CV-2023-03961).  The City appealed and lost again in the Court of Appeals.  What ostensibly has upset Councilor  Dan Lewis is that the Judge reversed the Council’s action and barred him from participating in the remand of the issue.  Undeterred, Lewis  “cleverly” got around the judge’s order by passing Council Bill No. O-24-69 that is  so sweeping, that no neighborhood association could hope to win in the future, or even have standing to appeal anything, going forward.

CITY COUNCIL AMENDMENTS TO IDO OUT OF CONTROL

Ever since its enactment in 2017, the City Council has enacted amendments to the IDO with an average of 100 to 150  changes considered each year, most of which have  lessened protections for neighborhoods, historic districts, parks, open space, and the values of sustainability and livable communities. The City Council amendments and legislative changes are often worded in complex, conflicting, and vague language, requiring thousands of hours of review to understand the consequences and give thoughtful and cogent feedback in hopes that the city adopts and maintains fair and equitable rules to grow our city in a way that meets shared values and protects Albuquerque’s character and natural setting. The postscript to this article provides a short history of the adoption of the integrated development ordinance.

Much of the public feedback comes from Neighborhood Associations.  These are volunteer-run, non-partisan organizations made up of residents from all walks of life who care about their community, and are willing to give countless hours of their time in public service.  They give voice to the concerns of their neighbors, promote sustainable neighborhoods, and advocate for planning that considers the whole community and not just the profit-driven motives of developers.

A SMUG AND ARROGANT CITY COUNCILOR

On January 8, City Councilor Tammy Feibelkorn attended a meeting of the District 7 Coalition of Neighborhoods and reported on enactment of the ordinance.  She  refused to outline the 9 amendments she sponsored and she refused the request to move for reconsideration of the ordinance.  Feibelkorn exhibited her usual degree of contempt and arrogance that she is known for as she advocates for  her own personal agenda. Feibelkorn smugly declared that she had fixed a highly defective ordinance with her amendments ignoring or not at all caring  how Neighborhood Association rights had been gutted.

RECONSIDERATION OR VETO

Any one of the 7 City Councilors who voted for the legislation enactment has the right to move for its reconsideration and ask that it go through the committee process.  Mayor Keller also could VETO the measure and demand that the city council refer it to the committee for hearing and public input.

This year, 5 of the 9 City Councilors, along with Mayor Keller  will be up for re election. Those City Councilors are Republicans Dan Lewis,  Brook Bassan and Democrats Tammy Fiebelkorn, Klarissa  Pena and Louie Sanchez. Neighborhood Associations need to remember the actions of Republicans Dan Lewis,  Brook Bassan and Democrat Tammy Fiebelkorn and especially  their arrogance ignoring and gutting the rights of property owners and neighborhood associations in favor of the development community.

Links to relied upon and quoted news sources are here:

https://www.abqjournal.com/article_9d1e1708-cd4d-11ef-b718-fb0091bfc539.html

https://www.krqe.com/news/albuquerque-metro/criticisms-mount-over-proposed-albuquerque-housing-bill/

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POSCRIPT

RECALLING ADOPTION OF THE INTEGRATED DEVELOPMENT ORDINANCE

On March 20, 2017, the Albuquerque City voted to adopt the findings and recommendations of the “ABC-Z Project”. The project was an aggressive two-year initiative begun in 2015 by then Republican Mayor Richard Berry, a contractor and developer, to update the Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Comprehensive Plan and to create an Integrated Development Ordinance (IDO).

On December 1, 2017, the City Council voted to approve the Integrated Development Ordinance (IDO) which incorporated and adopted the “ABC-Z Project”. At the time of enactment of the IDO, there were 60 sector development plans which governed new developments in specific neighborhoods. Forty (40) of the development plans had their own “distinct zoning guidelines” that were designed to protect many historical areas of the city. Examples of areas of the city governed by long standing sector development plans include Barelas, San Jose, Hunning Highland, Silver Hills, Nob Hill and Old Town. Under the “ABC-Z Project” the number of sector development zones went from 250 to fewer than 20, which was  dramatic and excited the real estate development community.

The “ABC-Z Project” project was promoted as a way to simplify zoning and subdivision regulations “in order to improve economic development, protect established neighborhoods and special places, streamline the development review/approval process and promote more sustainable development.” What it actually did was to  “gut” in full historical overlay zones and sector development plans enacted to protect neighborhoods and their character. Many of the affected historical neighborhoods condemned the ABC-Z comprehensive plan as being racist, something totally ignored by the entire city council, Democrats and Republicans alike on the city council, to the delight of Mayor Berry.

The Integrated Development Ordinance (IDO)  repealed a number of historical sector development plans making it far easier and cheaper for real estate developers and contractors to do re-development free of many zoning and construction and design code restrictions. The ABC-Z project rewrite spear headed by the Berry Administration was nothing more than making “gentrification” official city policy and “gutted” long standing sector development plans designed to protect neighborhoods and their character. Many of the affected historical neighborhood condemned the ABC-Z comprehensive plan as being racist.

The links to related blog articles are here:

Mike Voorhees Guest Opinion Column: “ABQ City Councilor Dan Lewis Sponsors Sinister Legislation to Gut Your Rights and Silence Neighborhoods To Favor Developers; Lewis Violates Both Court Order and Settlement Agreement”; Lewis Needs To Go; Tell City Council To Vote NO On Lewis Council Bill No. O-24-69

 

Mayor Keller’s Housing Forward Goal Of 5,000 City Subsidized Low Income Housing Units In Two Years Falls Short By 3,000; Keller Reacts Like Spoiled Child Blaming City Council And Legislature For His Failure; Revisiting Where Kellers’ Housing Forward Plan Succeeded And Failed

Since his November 5 victory, President elect Donald Trump HAS been going at break neck speed to fill cabinet and executive positions before he is sworn in on January 20.  Eight years ago, he relied significantly on the Republican party and appointed traditional Republican insiders, many who were considered wealthy, but not billionaires.

Eight years later, Trump is ignoring traditional Republican appointments  reaching way  beyond Republican insiders and appointing many individuals who are antigovernment with great reliance on wealthy billionaires who have the ultimate goal of dismantling government and agencies that they believe have interfered with their business interests.

BILLIONAIRE AND MILLIONARE APPOINTMENTS

Trump has tapped an unprecedented number of  billionaires and millionaires for his administration. Trumps  nominees make up the richest presidential administration in modern history.  His nominees include a wrestling magnate, a private space pioneer, a New York real estate developer, the heir to a small appliance empire, and the wealthiest man on the planet, Elon Musk,  with several being donors and close personal friends of Trump.

In total, the combined net worth of the wealthiest members of his administration could surpass $460 billion which exceeds the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of mid-sized countries. Even if you discount Elon Musk, Trump’s cabinet will  still be the wealthiest in history. Trumps cabinet will include billionaires Howard Lutnick  nominated as Commerce Secretary, Linda McMahon nominated as Education Secretary, and Scott Bessent nominated as Treasury Secretary.

 BILLIONARE APPOINTMENTS

Beginning with President Elect Donald Trump himself, following are Trumps biggest appointment and their estimated net worth:

PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP:  $6.2 BILLION

Trump’s original fortune comes from real estate, which includes residential and office buildings, hotels and golf courses worldwide, including Mar-a-Lago in Florida and Trump Tower in New York.  The former president also has a $3.5 billion stake in his social network, Trump Media & Technology Group, though he has vowed not to sell his shares.Trump’s net worth is $6.2 billion, according to Forbes.

DEPARTMENT OF GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCY: OLIGARCKS ELON MUSK AND VIVEK RAMASWAMY

Trump announced that Elon Musk, a billionaire backer, and Ramaswamy, another billionaire and a  former primary rival who endorsed Trump, would lead an effort to slash government spending and regulations. Trump said the effort would partner with the Office of Management and Budget, but would provide guidance from “outside of Government.” Musk in particular has extensive financial holdings with government contractors that could complicate an official government job. Both men have absolutely no background in government and are hell bent on trying run government like their own private businesses. Private businesses are run for profit, while government is run to provide essential services free of charge to the public.

ELON MUSK: $363.3 BILLION

Musk is the world’s richest person, with his stakes in Tesla, SpaceX, Twitter, and artificial intelligence startup xAI making him worth over $400 billion, according to Forbes. The tech mogul spent over a quarter of a billion dollars to help return Trump to the White House, and has emerged as one of the most influential figures in Trump’s world.

Trump tapped Musk to lead the Department of Government Efficiency, an outside of government advisory group Trump plans to establish once he takes office. Much is still unknown about the new commission, how exactly it will function, but Musk promised it “will send shockwaves through the system, and anyone involved in Government waste.”

Musk said  he believes he can cut $2 trillion from the country’s $6.75 trillion budget and acknowledged that such large cuts could be uncomfortable. “We have to reduce spending to live within our means. … And, you know, that necessarily involves some temporary hardship, but it will ensure long-term prosperity.”

VIVEK RAMASWAMY: $1 BILLION

Vivek Ramaswamy is an entrepreneur and former pharmaceutical executive who rose to prominence as one of the Republican presidential candidates, and as a challenger to Trump. He eventually dropped out and threw his support behind Trump and parroting to great lengths all things that are Trump essentially becoming a clone of Trump. Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur made his fortune through his 10% stake in Roivant Sciences, a biotech company he founded in 2014. After leaving Roivant in 2021, he founded Strive Asset Management, which manages approximately $1.7 billion — including offering an “anti-woke” index fund. During his long shot bid for the White House, Ramaswamy loaned and contributed $26 million to his own campaign.

Trump tapped Ramaswamy to join Musk in co-leading the Department of Government Efficiency. In an opinion column they co-wrote for the Wall Street Journal, the two said they view their role is to “cut the federal government down to size.”

“We are entrepreneurs, not politicians. We will serve as outside volunteers, not federal officials or employees. Unlike government commissions or advisory committees, we won’t just write reports or cut ribbons. We’ll cut costs,” they wrote.

Ramaswamy’s net worth is $1 billion, according to Forbes.

COMBINING FORCES TO DISMANTAL GOVERNEMENT

Since Trump announced his plans for a “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE),  both Musk and Ramaswamy have talked up their big plans to slash government regulations and spending while downsizing the federal workforce.  Despite its name, it won’t actually be a government “department,” like the Department of Education or the Department of Homeland Security.

On November 21, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy outlined a plan  for Trump to oversee a massive reduction in the federal workforce, arguing the employees won’t be needed after Trump eliminates “thousands of regulations” in his next administration. Musk and Ramaswamy, singled out in a Wall Street Journal op-ed federal employees “who view themselves as immune from firing thanks to civil-service protections.” The duo pointed to recent Supreme Court decisions to argue the incoming president has the executive power to nullify many regulations unilaterally without Congress, pursue “large-scale firings” of federal workers and relocate some agencies outside of Washington. They said “a drastic reduction in federal regulations” would require vastly fewer federal employees.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/11/20/musk-ramaswamy-federal-workforce-trump-admin/76458753007/

One area Musk targeted after the panel was announced was spending on medical research.

Ramaswamy, meanwhile, said on X that the government shouldn’t appropriate money for programs that have expired. Ramaswamy said this:

“There are 1,200+ programs that are no longer authorized but still receive appropriations,” he wrote. “This is totally nuts. We can & should save hundreds of billions each year by defunding government programs that Congress no longer authorizes. We’ll challenge any politician who disagrees to defend the other side.”

Ramswamy’s post prompted some users to note that among those expired programs is veterans’ health care, one of the largest expenses in that bucket.

Ramaswamy, the founder of the biotech company Roivant Sciences, had a laser focus on slashing the federal bureaucracy during his time as a GOP presidential primary candidate. Speaking with NBC News as a candidate, he outlined his desire to use what’s known as “reduction in force” regulations to trim the federal workforce while also shuttering a number of federal agencies.

Ramaswamy predicted he would overcome any legal challenges because he wasn’t proposing to fire individual career officials, who are covered by civil service protections, but to institute widespread layoffs, eliminating jobs altogether. Ramaswamy also sought to eliminate the FBI; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Education Department; the Nuclear Regulatory Commission; and the Food and Nutrition Service within the Agriculture Department.

LINDA MCMAHON, EDUCATION SECRETARY: Up to $3 billion

McMahon, with her husband Vince McMahon, founded the company that later became World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. Under her leadership, WWE became the world’s largest wrestling entertainment company, with Vince McMahon worth over $3 billion in 2024. The McMahons have since separated, and it’s unclear how much of the company Linda owns individually.

Trump turned to McMahon, co-founder of World Wrestling Entertainment, as his choice to lead the Department of Education . On the campaign trail, Trump repeatedly spoke about dissolving the federal education department and instead leaving education decisions up to the individual states. McMahon, who donated $6 million to Trump’s first presidential campaign, served as leader of the Small Business Association in the former president’s first administration and currently works as co-chair of Trump’s transition team.  Prior to that, McMahon served for a year on the Connecticut Board of Education, and served on the board of trustees for Sacred Heart University in Connecticut. McMahon, along with her husband Vincent McMahon, founded WWE in the early 1980s.

McMahon shares a $3 billion net worth with her husband, Vincent McMahon, according to Forbes.

HOWARD LUTNICK, COMMERCE SECRETARY: $2.2 billion

Trump nominated Lutnick, head of brokerage and investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald, a financial services firm he joined in 1983,  to be his Secretary of Commerce. The billionaire businessman has led the investment firm  since 1991 and owns about 60% of the company, according to Bloomberg Lutnick, who currently serves as co-chair of the Trump transition team, would be in charge of promoting and building American industries.

While campaigning, Trump proposed tariffs on imported goods as a way to drive sales for American-made products. Among his proposals were a 60% tariff on goods from China and a 20% tariff on all other imports. Lutnick supports the use of tariffs, and said that “balanced tariffs … make the most sense,” in a September interview with CNBC.

Lutnick’s net worth is $1.5 billion, according to Bloomberg.

SCOTT BESSENT, TREASURY SECRETARY: Reported billionaire

While Scott Bessent has been widely reported to be a billionaire, his exact amount of wealth is hard to pin down. Trump selected money manager Scott Bessent for Treasury Secretary, a move that will likely please Wall Street. He served as an economic advisor to Trump on the campaign trail and is the founder of hedge fund Key Square Capital Management.  As treasury secretary, Bessent would be responsible for advising Trump on domestic and international financial, economic and tax policy.

A protege of Democratic megadonor George Soros, Bessent worked as the chief investment officer of Soros Fund Management before founding his own firm, Key Square Group. Bessent developed a reputation for bold bets on macroeconomic trends, including making more than a billion dollars by betting against the British pound in the 1990s, followed by a similar trade against the Japanese yen in 2013 that netted more than a billion dollars in profits. At one point, Bessent’s Key Square Group managed more than $5 billion. During the campaign cycle, Bessent was a major fundraiser and emerged as a key economic adviser to Trump.

Bessent has defended Trump’s use of tariffs, writing in an op-ed earlier this month that they are a “revenue-raising tool and a way of protecting strategically important industries in the U.S.” He called warnings that tariffs will lead to higher prices for Americans “fundamentally incorrect,” despite 16 Nobel prize-winning economists saying otherwise.

If confirmed, Bessent will be the first openly gay treasury secretary, and first openly gay Senate-confirmed Cabinet member in a Republican administration, according to the Associated Press.

DOUG BURGUM, INTERIOR SECRETARY: $100 million

Trump picked Burgum, to head the Department of the Interior. As secretary, he would be responsible for managing federal land and natural resources. The Bureau of Land Management and the National Parks Service would fall under his leadership. Burgum previously ran against Trump in the Republican presidential primary, but dropped out and eventually threw his support behind the former president. His exact net worth is not listed with Forbes, but Yahoo Finance estimates it is upwards of $1.1 billion.

Doug Burgum got his start in the software business in 1983 when he mortgaged a quarter million dollars worth of farmland to found Great Plains Software. Microsoft eventually purchased the company for a billion dollars in 2000, and Burgum went on to run a real estate development firm and venture capital company.  He was elected governor of North Dakota in 2016 and was reelected in 2020. He ran a long shot presidential campaign and dropped out before the primaries, though he was one of Trump’s final three picks for vice president.

While campaigning, Trump said “drilling, drilling, drilling” was one of his Day One promises. Trump believes by increasing oil and gas drilling and rolling back clean energy regulations, inflation will come down. Burgum, whose state ranks third in oil and gas production, is likely to uphold Trump’s commitment to increase drilling.

PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY NOMINEE:  $17 million

Pete Hegseth is an American television host has a net worth of $17 Million. Hegseth earns a salary of $5 million annually from Fox News. He owns $9.2 million in real estate assets. https://www.caclubindia.com/trending/pete-hegseth/

Hegseth served as an officer in the Army National Guard and did tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, earning two Bronze Stars. He is currently a co-host for “Fox & Friends Weekend.” Trump has pledged to fire generals involved in the 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal and to eliminate “woke” initiatives that focus on diversity and equity in the military.

Secretary of Defense designate Pete Hegseth has railed against women in the military saying women should not be in combat, voiced support for troops accused of and in some instances, convicted of war crimes, and advocated for the firing of the military’s most senior officers accused of supporting so-called “woke” policies. Trump’s decision to place Hegseth into the top Pentagon job means he is set to put his ideas into action and clash directly with most current Pentagon leadership

ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR., HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY:  $15 Million

President-elect Donald Trump announced he will nominate anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, putting a man whose views public health officials have decried as dangerous in charge of a massive agency that oversees everything from drug, vaccine and food safety to medical research, Medicare and Medicaid.

RFK Jr.’s net worth is around $15 million, Forbes estimates, as of Nov. 14. However, the Kennedy family fortune was valued at $1.2 billion in 2015, according to Forbes. According to his 2023 financial disclosure, RFK Jr. owns Bitcoin worth between $100,001 and $250,000. He earned close to $5.5 million from his law firm Kennedy & Madonna LLP and made more than $1.5 million as a consultant for another law firm. RFK Jr. owns an estimated $3 million property on the Kennedy Compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, according to Forbes. He also owns a $7 million Los Angeles home with Hines.

https://www.newsnationnow.com/politics/rfk-jr-net-worth/

Kennedy founded one of the most prominent anti-vaccine groups in the country and has promoted the debunked claim that childhood vaccines cause autism. Kennedy vowed to purge entire departments at the Food and Drug Administration to root out corruption.

Kennedy is best known for his criticism of childhood vaccines. Again and again, Kennedy has made his opposition to vaccines clear. In July, he said in a podcast interview that “There’s no vaccine that is safe and effective” and told FOX News that he still believes in the long-ago debunked idea that vaccines can cause autism.

MAJOR AGENCY  APPOINTMENTS WHO ARE BILLIONARES OR MILLIONARES

Trump has announced the appointments of the following major agency heads:

FRANK BISIGANANO, SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION COMMISSIONER: $1 billion

Bisiganano was one of JPMorgan Chase’s most influential executives during the 2008 recession, before taking over the financial services company First Data Corporation. Bisiganano became the CEO of Fiserv — a leading financial technology firm — when the company bought First Data in 2019. A hefty executive compensation package — more than $100 million in 2017 — and his stake in the company contributed to his net worth exceeding $1 billion, according to Fortune.

JARED ISAACMAN, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: $1.8 billion

Trump appointed Isaacman, CEO and founder of a credit card processing company, to lead NASA. Isaacman has collaborated with Musk since he bought a series of spaceflights from Musk’s SpaceX and in September Isaacman conducted the first private spacewalk. He also co-founded Draken International, a defense aerospace company.

Isaacman is a pioneer in private space exploration who made his fortune by founding the payment processing company Shift4 Payments. In addition to his stake in Shift4 — which processes a third of the customer payments made to American hotels and restaurants — Issacman sold his tactical aircraft company Draken International, LLC, to the investment company Blackstone for a reported nine-figure sum.

“Jared will drive NASA’s mission of discovery and inspiration, paving the way for groundbreaking achievements in Space science, technology, and exploration,” Trump said in a statement. “Jared’s passion for Space, astronaut experience, and dedication to pushing the boundaries of exploration, unlocking the mysteries of the universe, and advancing the new Space economy, make him ideally suited to lead NASA into a bold new Era.”

Isaacman’s net worth is $1.7 billion, according to Forbes.

KELLY LOEFFLER, ADMINISTRATOR OF SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION: $800 million

Loeffler is a former Georgia senator and the former CEO of Bakkt, a cryptocurrency trading platform. She owned a minority stake in the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream in 2010 before selling her stake in 2021 amid criticism stemming from the Black Lives Matter movement. Loeffler is married to billionaire and major Trump donor Jeffrey Sprecher, the CEO of Intercontinental Exchange, which owns the New York Stock Exchange. She was appointed to fill a vacated Senate seat in Georgia in 2020 but was defeated in a special election in 2021. Trump recently named Loeffler to serve as the co-chair of his inaugural committee and nominated her to lead the SBA.

MEHMET OZ, ADMINISTRATOR OF THE CENTERS FOR MEDICARE AND MEDICAID SERVICES: $100 million

Dr. Oz is a heart surgeon-turned-TV-host who became famous for his program “The Dr. Oz Show.” He was previously the director of the Cardiovascular Institute at New York Presbyterian Hospital and vice-chairman and professor of surgery at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.

In 2003, Oz began his television hosting career with his show “Second Opinion” on the Discovery Channel, and later became a regular on “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” In 2009, Oz debuted his own “Dr. Oz Show,” which ran until 2022, when Oz ran for the Senate in Pennsylvania and lost.

During the coronavirus pandemic, Oz promoted the treatment of hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug unproven in treating COVID-19. He has faced criticism over his claims about weight-loss products and over his past statements on vaccination.

Oz has defended his endorsement of controversial medical products by saying that he goes against the “established grain,” and that he always puts patients first.

During his Senate run, he valued his assets between $100 million and $315 million, according to a federal financial disclosure.

STEPHEN FEINBERG: DEPUTY SECRETARY OF DEFENSE  (Forbes valuation: $5 billion).

Stephen Feinberg is the co-founder of private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management (approx. $65 billion in assets under management).  Feinberg was nominated by Trump as the upcoming deputy secretary of defense after serving as a chairman on the president-elect’s intelligence advisory board during his last term 

 

BILLIONARE AMBASSADORSHIP APPOINTMENTS

Trump’s ambassador picks  include several billionaires, including financier Warren Stephens, who has been tapped to serve as the ambassador to the United Kingdom, Conair executive Leandro Rizzuto Jr., tapped to serve as the ambassador to the Organization of American States, Charles Kushner, Trump’s son in law Jared Kusherners father named the ambassador to France, and Tom Barrack, named the ambassador to Turkey. Following is a listing aof announced Ambassador Appointments:

LEANDRO RIZZUTO JR., AMBASSADOR TO THE ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES: $3.5 billion

Rizzuto’s family made billions growing the hair product company Conair from a small family business run out of a Queens, New York, garage into one of the largest private companies in the United States. Forbes estimated the family’s net worth at approximately $3.5 billion in 2017. Rizzuto briefly served as Trump’s principal officer at the U.S. Consulate General in Bermuda in 2020 after his 2018 nomination to be ambassador to Barbados failed in the Senate.

WARREN STEPHENS, AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED KINGDOM: $3.4 billion

Stephens has spent his entire career with his family’s Little Rock-based investment bank, becoming the firm’s CEO and president in 1986.  He spent $2 million in 2016 to support a group that aimed to stop Trump from winning the Republican nomination, but donated to Trump in the 2020 presidential race, and eventually supported Trump 2024 election after initially throwing his support behind other Republican candidates.

“Warren has always dreamed of serving the United States full time. I am thrilled that he will now have that opportunity as the top Diplomat, representing the U.S.A. to one of America’s most cherished and beloved Allies,” Trump said on social media.

Stephens’ net worth is $3.4 billion, according to Forbes.

CHARLES KUSHNER, AMBASSADOR TO FRANCE: $1.8 billion

Kushner is a real estate developer who made his fortune building thousands of residential units across New Jersey. In 2005, Kushner was sentenced to 24 months in prison after pleading guilty to multiple felonies, including making false statements to the Federal Election Commission, assisting in the filing of a false tax return, and retaliating against a cooperation witness.

During his plea hearing, he admitted to retaliating against his sister for cooperating with law enforcement by having a prostitute seduce her husband and covertly film them having sex.  After serving his sentence, Kushner made a series of successful investments in the New York real estate market, including the purchase of a midtown skyscraper for nearly $2 billion. He was subsequently pardoned by Trump at the end of Trump’s first term.

His son Jared Kushner is married to Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump, and the Kushner family’s overall net worth is approximately $1.8 billion according to Forbes.

THOMAS BARRACK JR., AMBASSADOR TO TURKEY: $1 billion

In 1991, Barrack founded the private equity real estate firm Colony Capital, which now manages more than $80 billion as DigitalBridge Group.

A close friend of the president-elect, Barrack chaired Trump’s first inaugural committee and in 2022 was acquitted of federal charges accusing him of illegal foreign lobbying on behalf of the United Arab Emirates.

STEVEN WITKOFF, SPECIAL ENVOY TO THE MIDDLE EAST: $1 billion

Trump selected Witkoff, Florida real estate investor and Trump’s golf partner, to serve as his special envoy to the Middle East. He is chairman and chief executive officer of Witkoff Group, a real estate firm with luxury condos, office spaces and hotels around the country. Witkoff is also the co-chair of Trump’s inaugural committee along with Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler.  After first meeting Donald Trump in a New York deli in the 1980s, Witkoff climbed New York’s real estate ladder alongside Trump, ultimately building a personal fortune of a billion dollars.

Witkoff has remained close to Trump for decades, testifying as an expert witness at his New York civil fraud trial in defense of the former president, and golfing with Trump during his second assassination attempt in September. Despite his limited experience in foreign affairs, Witkoff was named Trump’s Special Envoy to the Middle East.

“Steve is a Highly Respected Leader in Business and Philanthropy, who has made every project and community he has been involved with stronger and more prosperous. Steve will be an unrelenting Voice for PEACE, and make us all proud,” Trump said in a statement.

Witkoff’s net worth is at least $1 billion, according to Forbes.

TILMAN FERTITTA, AMBASSADOR TO ITALY  (Forbes valuation: $10.4 billion).

Tilman Fertitta is Trump’s pick for ambassador to Italy. He is the owner of the Houston Rockets and Landry’s restaurant and entertainment company  

The link to relied upon or quoted news sources are here:

https://abcnews.go.com/US/trump-tapped-unprecedented-13-billionaires-top-administration-roles/story?id=116872968

https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/how-many-billionaires-are-in-trumps-administr

https://www.axios.com/2024/12/26/maga-civil-war-ramaswamy-musk-loomer-cernovich

https://www.forbes.com/sites/saradorn/2024/12/22/the-billionaires-trumps-picked-for-next-administration-elon-musk-tilman-fertitta-and-more/

ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY

The total net worth of the billionaires in the Trump administration equals  or is upwards of  least $382.2 billion,  which is more than the GDP of 172 different countries. Since Musk, Ramaswamy, Witkoff, Isaacman and Stephens won’t be part of Trump’s Cabinet, excluding them brings the net worth of Trump’s Cabinet to at least $11.8 billion, assuming all nominees are approved in the Senate. The wealth of Trump’s current cabinet rivals only that of his first-term cabinet, which had a combined net worth of $3.2 billion. By comparison, President Joe Biden’s Cabinet total net worth was about $118 million, and Trump’s first Cabinet total net worth was about $6.2 billion. Prior to Trump, former President Barrack Obama’s Cabinet net worth was about $2.8 billion in his second term, according to Forbes.

While it’s common for people with careers in business to serve in government,  ultra-rich individuals with complex financial backgrounds and previous business dealings raise concerns about potential conflicts of interest. Kedric Payne, senior director of Ethics at Campaign Legal Center, formerly deputy chief counsel of the Office of Congressional Ethics, said this:

“Being wealthy by itself is not a disqualifier. … It’s just simply the potential conflicts of interest that are the concern.”

Trump-Vance transition spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt  said this:

“The American people re-elected President Trump by a resounding margin giving him a mandate to implement the promises he made on the campaign trail, and his Cabinet picks reflect his priority to put America First. … President Trump will continue to appoint highly-qualified men and women who have the talent, experience, and necessary skill sets to Make America Great Again.”

Under federal ethics laws, Trump’s wealthy nominees and appointees will have to divest themselves of stock holdings that could raise conflict issues . They will be required to release their financial disclosures. It’s not yet clear if Musk and Ramaswamy will fall under the disclosure requirements, due to their positions being described as “outside” of the government despite the massive impact they could have on the government.

IT’S THE ECONOMY STUPID

It was the economy and inflation that swept Trump to a decisive victory. Exit polls showed that the voting public were extremely disgruntled if not downright hostile with the direction the country is going, with inflation out of control. Voters were far more were concerned about making a decent living, angered over grocery and gas prices, as opposed to any threat Trump posed to democracy. Voters simply believed they were better off when Trump was President the first time believing all his lies. Voters chose to forget the 4 years of total chaos Trump brought upon the county and his failure to deal with the pandemic that killed millions worldwide and in the United States and that had a strangle hold on the country and that destroyed the economy.

In the end, voters simply ignored Trumps flawed character, the multimillion dollar civil judgements against him for sexual assault and slander, his criminal conduct in the private sector and while in office, his fraud in securing millions in loans in New York, the  multiple state criminal convictions and pending federal criminal charges, his two impeachments, his misogyny and racism, his threat to democracy, his attempt to overthrow the government with all his lies that the election was rigged and stolen from him, his attacks on woman’s rights and civil rights, his partiality to racists groups such as the Proud Boys, his promotion of racist policies and his cult following of Christian fundamentalist who totally ignored his immorality, multiple marriages and affairs and praised him as the second coming.

Throughout his successful campaign, Trump campaigned on the idea that he would “rescue our middle class” and fight for the average American. Now that he had been elected, he has essentially turned his back on the average American and has chosen billionaires to run and dismantle government. Gone are all of his proclamations that he will reduce the cost of groceries and gas.  Trump has gone so far to suggest after he was elected there was not much he can do about consumer prices and the cost of groceries.   Now that Trump as been elected, he and his cadre of billionaire friends and associates will now have the opportunity to do what they have always wanted to do: dismantle government.

Links to related blog articles are here:

Trump’s “Clown Car” Appointments Will Seek Trump’s Revenge On Department of Justice, Fire Military Hierarchy, Endanger Public Health And Compromise Nations Intelligence And Security; Trump Relies On Oligarchs To Systematically Dismantle Government; Trump Wants Recess Appointments To Avoid Senate Confirmation Hearings

Mike Voorhees, whose educational background includes degrees in geography and engineering, moved to Albuquerque in 1995 to help grow the aerospace sector. Since then, he has been involved in various community organizations and activities, including a Habitat for Humanity house build, open space trail repair, and advocacy for safety and education in hot air ballooning.  In 2024, after exposing multiple improper actions of the City’s Planning Department, he was elected to the Executive Committee of the West Side Coalition of Neighborhood Associations (WSCONA) as Member at Large.  In 2004, he was presented the FBI Director’s Award for “Exceptional Service in the Public Interest” for his work protecting and improving the security posture of critical infrastructure in New Mexico against both natural and human-caused threats.

MIKE VOORHEES GUEST OPINION COLUMN

Following is a guest opinion column written by Mike Voorhees entitled
“ABQ City Councilor Dan Lewis Sponsors Sinister Legislation to Gut Your Rights and Silence Neighborhoods To Favor Developers; Violates Both Court Order and Settlement Agreement”

EDITOR’S DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed in this guest opinion column by Mike Voorhees do not necessarily reflect those of www.petedinelli.com blog. Mr. Voorhees gave consent to publish his guest column and he was not compensated for it. The guest column is being published as a public service announcement to educate citizens of Albuquerque.

GOOD CITY LEGISLATION DOES NOT QUIETLY APPEAR OVER THE HOLIDAYS TO BE VOTED ON AT THE FIRST COUNCIL MEETING OF THE NEW YEAR

A little background:  Most cities rarely make major changes to their zoning ordinances, and when they do, it typically goes through a process of community engagement, staff review, and extensive public feedback.  Albuquerque completely overhauled its zoning ordinances in 2017 by adopting the IDO (Integrated Development Ordinance) which was largely written by a consultant according to the wishes of the developer lobby.  Even so, the IDO has been changed every year since, with an average of 100 changes considered each year—most of which lessened protections for neighborhoods, historic districts, parks, open space, and the values of sustainability and livable communities.

The legislative changes are often worded in complex, conflicting, and vague language, requiring thousands of hours of review to understand the consequences and give thoughtful and cogent feedback in hopes that the city adopts and maintains fair and equitable rules to grow our city in a way that meets shared values and protects Albuquerque’s character and natural setting.

Much of the public feedback comes from Neighborhood Associations.  These are volunteer-run, non-partisan organizations made up of residents from all walks of life who care about their community, and are willing to give countless hours of their time in public service.  They give voice to the concerns of their neighbors, promote sustainable neighborhoods, and advocate for planning that considers the whole community and not just the profit-driven motives of developers.

WHAT JUST HAPPENED?

Even though the City Council agreed to move to a more manageable [Integrated Development Ordinance] IDO update process every two years, Dan Lewis introduced surprise update legislation (O-24-69) over the holidays to be heard tomorrow, Monday, Jan 6, 2025!

 If you read the legislation’s introduction it makes some ridiculous and misleading statements.  It complains that the IDO—which was written to advance the interests of developers in the first place—still “imposed substantial burdens on City staff and developers”.  In other words, even the existing very pro-developer ordinances don’t allow developers to crush opposition from neighborhoods, indigenous populations, or advocates of our parks and open space.  It also tries to couch this legislation as somehow responding to the “housing and homelessness crisis”.  This legislation will do the opposite, and data from across the country shows this.  Where legislation with similar provisions have passed, corporate and hedge-fund ownership of rental properties has increased, rental price collusion has been on the rise, and housing affordability has decreased.

 SO WHAT IS THIS ALL ABOUT?

The City of Albuquerque lost a lawsuit in District Court that WSCONA [Westside Coalition Of Neighborhood Associations] and I filed when Dan Lewis acted improperly on behalf of developers to gut scenic protection rules near Petroglyph National Monument.  His behavior was specifically cited in Judge Ortega’s Opinion and Order in that case (No. D-202-CV-2023-03961).  The City appealed and lost again in the Court of Appeals.  What apparently irked Dan Lewis is that the Judge reversed the Council’s action and barred him from participating in the remand of this issue.  Undeterred, he thought he could “cleverly” get around the judge’s order by passing legislation so sweeping, that no neighborhood association could hope to win in the future, or even have standing to appeal anything, going forward.  I will be surprised if he and any councilors who support him aren’t found to be in contempt of court.

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!

The lawsuit the City lost involved property used by a member of the Asphalt Pavement Association of New Mexico (APANM) which hired Dan Lewis as its Executive Director.  You might recall that Dan Lewis signed a Settlement Agreement with the State Ethics Commission promising to recuse himself in all matters that come before the Albuquerque City Council relating to any APANM member.  Since Guzman Construction Solutions, LLC has been associated in various capacities with the property in question in our lawsuit, by proposing sweeping changes to the IDO that could impact the zoning status of that property, Dan Lewis has violated that Settlement Agreement.

WHY SHOULD YOU CARE?

This legislation guts your rights. It exempts the City from following its own Integrated Development Ordinance (IDO) on any property it owns or leases.  That park in your neighborhood, or that open space you use? Maybe Dan Lewis would rather see it converted to a data center or a multi-story self-storage building.  O-24-69 excludes your use of any public land as a basis for standing in any appeal!  Don’t worry, your neighborhood association will save you again, right?  Not if Dan Lewis has his way. O-24-69 states that when the City doesn’t even notify your neighborhood association about variances or hearings, there is no right to appeal on that failure. And it makes neighborhood associations potentially liable for developer attorney fees, but not the reverse! “Try to fund that appeal, annoying community activists!”  Sure it violates the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and Article II, Section 18 of New Mexico Constitution, but who cares?  There are even more sordid details mentioned in the letter to the City Council below that read as though they were lifted from a “Breaking Bad” script, but this should be enough to make your blood boil.  Dan Lewis should resign and crawl back under the rock from whence he came.  In the meantime, call your councilor and tell them to vote no on O-24-69.

Or better yet, sign up to speak against it at tomorrow’s City Council meeting either in person or via Zoom:

https://www.cabq.gov/council/find-your-councilor/public-comments/public-comment-sign-up-jan-6-2025-council-meeting

The following is the letter from the Westside Coalition Of Neighborhood Associations (WSCONA) Executive Committee sent to members of the Albuquerque City Council concerning O-24-69:

January 2, 2025

“Happy New Year, Councilors!

Contempt of Court is a bold move for Albuquerque City Council’s first meeting of 2025.  But here we are.

For those of you who have not been paying attention, or joined the City Council after this case was filed or were relying on the City’s attorneys to keep you out of trouble, let me bring you up to speed.

Beginning in 2022, Councilor Dan Lewis attempted, at the request of an undisclosed client of Consensus Planning, to amend the Integrated Development Ordinance (IDO) in order to remove a portion of the protections that preserve the views near Petroglyph National Monument. These protections limited building height to a maximum of 15 feet (or 19 feet high with an approved variance) along land near the volcanic escarpment that is cherished by Albuquerque’s residents and visitors and is sacred to 29 Pueblos and Tribes.

This ill-conceived amendment was opposed by City planning staff and voted down by the Environmental Planning Commission (EPC). Undeterred and despite substantiated requests that Councilor Lewis recuse himself, he resurrected the amendment via the Land Use Planning and Zoning Committee (LUPZ)—which he chaired at the time—wherein it recommended the amendment to the full City Council, which voted to approve it.

Based upon numerous due process violations, the Westside Coalition of Neighborhood Associations (WSCONA) and I subsequently filed suit in District Court (No. D-202-CV-2023-03961).  The Court ruled in our favor and found as follows:

“The Court holds that Councilor Lewis’s failure to recuse himself from the proceedings in this matter denied Appellants an opportunity for a fair hearing before both the LUPZ and the City Council. As this issue is dispositive, the Court does not reach the other arguments raised by Appellants.”

“The Court holds that Councilor Lewis should have recused himself from considering the Amendment both before the LUPZ and the Council meeting.”

“Councilor Lewis’s statement at the LUPZ, which occurred prior to the Council’s consideration of the proposed amendment, is a clear and unambiguous indication of prejudgment. Finally, Councilor Lewis officially voted on the committee amendment.”

“For the foregoing reasons, the decision of the Council is REVERSED. This matter is REMANDED to the Council for a new hearing without Councilor Lewis’s participation.” [emphasis added]

The City appealed this decision in the Court of Appeals and lost.

Now we find that Councilor Lewis has quietly introduced Council Bill No. O-24-69 over the holidays, attempting an end-run around the basis of the Court’s decision, carving out exceptions to the very due process violations cited by Judge Ortega in her decision.

The purpose of Council Bill No. O-24-69 seems to be—in addition to undermining democracy and the property rights of homeowners—entirely designed to allow Councilor Lewis to rig the game in favor of the same undisclosed client of Consensus Planning that was behind the now-reversed amendment. Councilor Lewis is, despite the Court’s order, essentially participating without “participating”.

Council Bill No. O-24-69, blatantly attempts to:

Limit the standing of Neighborhood Associations;

• Limit an individual’s standing by excluding individuals use of public lands as a basis for standing;
• Eliminate failure to notify Neighborhood Associations as a basis for appeal or remand;
• Add the expensive risk to Neighborhood Associations of having to pay the attorney fees of developers when Neighborhood Association’s appeals of approvals are denied, but allows developers to have no liability to pay attorney fees of Neighborhood Associations when developers appeal a denial, regardless of the decision;
• Allow amendments by the request of a developer or other unknown party to bypass the EPC or LUPZ and go straight to the City Council;
• Add a burdensome requirement for a Neighborhood Association to file a petition in order to have standing in any appeal;
• Allow a City Councilor to NOT be recused even when that councilor sponsors an amendment;

While this bill would impose numerous policies detrimental to Albuquerque’s residents that are directly opposed by Councilor Lewis’ own constituents, you might wonder why he is so adamant about refusing to accept the Court’s ruling on this matter and risk contempt charges?

Perhaps a little context is needed. When WSCONA and I filed this and a related lawsuit, we collected funds from concerned citizens to pay our attorney, including through Go Fund Me campaigns. Unknown to us at the time, a party connected to opponents of our lawsuits created a fake FACEBOOK account deceptively using my name and likeness, wherein the account holder made vile, racist posts, disparaged Native Americans, made false statements about our lawyer, and used copyrighted photos I had taken without obtaining my permission, while also linking to the real Go Fund Me campaigns, all in an apparent effort to discredit me and to discourage others from supporting our fundraising campaign.  This fraudulent cyber activity violated multiple Federal and State laws.

Because of this, I was able to obtain a subpoena in Federal Court, which was served on Meta Platforms, Inc., to disclose the data related to the fraudulent Facebook account.  In compliance, the data provided by Meta led back to entities in Albuquerque; Las Vegas, Nevada; and, more troublingly, the City of Patzcuaro in Michoacán de Ocampo, Mexico.

Why was this criminal activity traceable back to Michoacán, a region known primarily for both drug cartels and illegal avocado production?  Why would anyone there have any interest in an 18-acre parcel of land in Albuquerque and be willing to commit cyber crime to advance that interest?  Why would Councilor Lewis be so compelled to do the bidding of an undisclosed client of Consensus Planning and thus risk contempt of Court for himself and his fellow Councilors?

The answers to this are probably best left to law enforcement, but that these questions logically arise from the bill before you should at least give you pause.

The provisions of this bill run counter to due process rights guaranteed under both the New Mexico and U.S. Constitutions.  They will not be effective in limiting rights in the courts, and will ultimately send plaintiffs directly to the courts, thus costing the City more money fighting lawsuits, rather than dealing with and sometimes disposing of issues at the administrative level.  In addition to being unconstitutional, it will likely be an irresponsible waste of taxpayer dollars.

This issue is even more troubling given the history Councilor Lewis has with the State Ethics Commission and the Settlement Agreement he reached with it.  That settlement included the following provisions:

“To settle this matter, City Council President Lewis has agreed to recuse himself in all matters that come before the Albuquerque City Council relating to the AQCB [the Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Joint Air Quality Control Board] (or any successor entity to the AQCB), the APANM [Asphalt Pavement Association of New Mexico], or any APANM member, so long as he serves on the Albuquerque City Council and also is employed by APANM.” [emphasis added]

Dan Lewis remains the Executive Director of APANM.  Guzman Construction Solutions LLC is a member of APANM.  Guzman Construction Solutions LLC maintains a commercial water tank on the property in question and operated heavy equipment on the property for years in violation of the City’s zoning ordinances. There is clearly an interest by Guzman Construction Solutions LLC in the fate of this property.  While members of LLCs in New Mexico are not listed publicly, and thus full property ownership information when any LLC is involved in zoning approvals often remains opaque to the public, it is essential that public officials recuse themselves when there is even the appearance of impropriety.  In this case, quite the opposite has occurred.

Councilman Lewis, in his current attempt to alter the rules of the IDO in a matter relating to Guzman Construction Solutions LLC, has violated the terms of his Settlement Agreement with the State Ethics Commission.  And the purpose of Councilor Lewis’ proposed amendment is clearly to alter the results of any remanded hearing on amending the view protection rules in favor of developers, including presumably the undisclosed client of Consensus Planning, in effective violation of his Court-ordered exclusion from participating in that process.

Perhaps there is an innocent explanation why Councilor Lewis quietly introduced this legislation over the holidays when most residents were enjoying time off with families and friends, and are not generally checking for surprise additions to the City Council’s agenda.  Perhaps there is a reasonable basis for why Councilor Lewis decided to ignore the Council’s adopted policy to only make changes to the IDO every other year.  None readily come to mind.

As a resident of District 5, my councilor is Dan Lewis.  I am appalled at his behavior and his brazen attempt to put private commercial interests above his duty to his constituents, the City Charter, the rule of law, or even a lukewarm attempt at ethical behavior.

An astute reading of the above would lead a wise City Councilor to avoid supporting or having anything to do with Councilman Lewis going forward, as his motives remain suspect at best.

Do the right thing and reject Council Bill No. O-24-69.

Sincerely,

Mike Voorhees, Member at Large

On behalf of all members of the WSCONA Executive Committee with one voluntary recusal.

CC: Elizabeth Haley, René Horvath, Jim Price, Jane Baechle, Richard Schaefer, & Frank Comfort

DINELLI COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

Albuquerque City Councilor Dan Lewis’ sponsorship of Council Bill No. O-24-69 is about as underhanded as it gets. His nefarious conduct as described by Mike Voorhees is the very type of ethically challenged conduct that gives elected officials bad reputations and who the public simply cannot trust.

During the last three years he has been an Albuquerque City Councilor, Dan Lewis has exhibited a pattern of downright hostility towards constituents who oppose or who disagree with his votes on policy and legislation. Lewis has a reputation during city council meetings of berating, insulting or ignoring members of the public who disagree with him. Lewis is known to text on his cell phone  or be on his phone during city council public comments.  Lewis is known to go out of his way to offend citizens by leaving meetings very early on not to return.

Dan Lewis ran unsuccessfully for Mayor against Tim Keller in 2017 when Keller won the 2017 runoff by a decisive landslide with 62.20% to Lewis 37.8% and it is said by many city hall observers he still harbors bitterness over his loss to Tim Keller.  District 5 Conservative Republican City Councilor Dan Lewis previously served 2 terms on the City Council from 2009 to 2017. On November 2, 2021 Lewis defeated incumbent Democrat Cynthia Borrego who had replaced him.

Since his return to the city council in 2021, Lewis has engaged in obstruction tactics to carry out a very personal vendetta against Mayor Tim Keller. His tactics include demanding additional confirmation hearings on already council approved Keller director appointments, such as the City Clerk and Chief Administrative Officer, so he could disparage their job performance and insult them during public hearings he presided over with the full intent not to vote for their confirmation.  In 2021, immediately upon being sworn in, Lewis introduced legislation to repeal pandemic era legislation he disagreed with and that was enacted after he left the council in 2017, with all 4 of his  efforts to repeal failing to his chagrin.

Lewis has already said to media outlets he will not be running for Mayor in 2025, but he has a reputation for misleading and he should not be believed nor trusted not to run for Mayor. To run for Mayor would prohibit him from running for another city council term. Lewis has not said if he will seek another 4-year term on the City Council.  His constituents need to send him a strong message loud and clear that he has worn out his welcome. Lewis needs to move on because he no longer represents the  interests of his District but his own right wing Republican MAGA political agenda. If he does run, he should be opposed.

CONTACT CITY COUNCIL

On Monday, January 6, the Albuquerque City Council will be meeting and will be voting Council Bill No. O-24-69 sponsored by Dan Lewis. Voters and residents are urged to contact and voice their opinion and tell all city councilors to vote NO and reject Council Bill No. O-24-69.  City Council phone numbers and email addresses to the councilors and their council services assistant are:

CITY COUNCIL PHONE: (505) 768-3100

CITY COUNCIL AND COUNCIL ANALYST EMAILS

lesanchez@cabq.gov,

bmaceachen@cabq.gov,

joaquinbaca@cabq.gov,

bacajoaquin9@gmail.com,

kpena@cabq.gov,

cquezada@cabq.gov,

bbassan@cabq.gov,

dawnmarie@cabq.gov,

danlewis@cabq.gov,

galvarez@cabq.gov,

nrogers@cabq.gov,

district6@cabq.gov,

tfiebelkorn@cabq.gov,

tanyaj@cabq.gov,

dchampine@cabq.gov,

rgrout@cabq.gov

rrmiller@cabq.gov

The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the City of Albuquerque is an independent entity that has the responsibility for promoting accountability, integrity, efficiency, and transparency in the governance of the City of Albuquerque. Through inspections, reviews, and investigations, the OIG identifies systemic corruption vulnerabilities and recommends improvements to reduce the City’s exposure to fraud, waste, and abuse. The Office’s goal is to improve the function of City departments to ensure they are effective and efficient for the constituents of Albuquerque.

According to City Ordinance 2-17-2, the Inspector General’s goals are to:

1. Conduct investigations in an efficient, impartial, equitable, and objective manner;
2. Prevent and detect fraud, waste, and abuse in city activities including all city contracts and partnerships;
3. Deter criminal activity through independence in fact and appearance, investigation and interdiction; and
4. Propose ways to increase the city’s legal, fiscal and ethical accountability to insure that tax payers’ dollars are spent in a manner consistent with the highest standards of local governments.

https://www.cabq.gov/inspectorgeneral/our-department

OIG REPORT FILED

On November 24, the City of Albuquerque Office of Inspector General issued a final Investigation Report with the entitled subject matter “Alleged Improper Use of the Child Care Stabilization Grant Funds by Inappropriately Compensating City Employees Through Bonuses.”

On January 2, the investigation report was released and posted.

You can read the entire 24 page Inspector General Report here:

https://www.cabq.gov/inspectorgeneral/documents/23-0013-c-_23-0014-c-_23-0019-c_investigative_report-final.pdf/view

file:///C:/Users/HP/Downloads/23-0005-N_Grant_Bonus__FINAL_12.02.2024%20(2).pdf

OIG CONCLUSIONS

The city of Albuquerque’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) investigation concluded that a group of city employees, including top administrators in  Mayor Tim Keller’s Family & Community Services Department, received more than $280,000 in improper bonuses using money intended to sustain “childcare providers” during the COVID pandemic.  According to the  investigation report,  the OIG found “questionable expenditure” of federal grant funds to 27 employees between 2021 and 2023. More than 10 recipients, including top managers, received nearly $20,000 each. The grant money was supposed to assist in keeping child care providers’ doors open during the pandemic.  The Family & Community Services Department now operates under the umbrella of the city’s Youth and Family Services and Health, Housing and Homelessness departments.

BONUSES PAID TO KELLER CITY OFFICIALS

The OIG investigation report states in part as follows:

“Twenty-three out of the 27 employees who received premium pay had annual salaries greater than Preschool staff. Five of those salaries were more than double the Preschool staff’s highest paid salary with one almost tripling the salary of the highest-paid Preschool staff.”

In total, $287,972.77 was distributed to 27 city employees, a majority who worked outside the Family and Community Development Department, which oversees childcare in the city. According to the report, pay ranges for preschool are $32,469 to $42,162 annually. The report goes on to say that the pay ranges for the recipients of the “premium payments” range from $32,468.80  to $123,489.60. The bonuses were $3,878.99 to $22,498.03, with the highest payments given to office assistants, fiscal analysts, a fiscal manager, facilities operations coordinator, and a Child & Family Development Division manager.

The OIG investigation revealed $280,000 of federal grant money went to higher-ranking city staff that included the Family and Community Development Department  Deputy Director, fiscal manager and the child and family development division manager. Additionally, two fiscal officers, two payroll specialists and seven fiscal analysts received bonuses.

Twenty-three of the 27 employees received a July 2022 bonus of either $8,533 or $3,878, then in December of the same year, 14 employees received bonuses ranging from $5,400 to $13,000.  Among its findings, the OIG reported bonuses, called premium payments, of up to that $22,498 were paid to employees who earned $32,469 to $123,490 annually. The highest bonus of $22,498 went to the Child and Family Development division manager. The position made $88,000 annually before the “premium pay.”

WHAT REVEALED DURING OIG INTERVIEWS

The OIG employs investigators who conducted extensive  interviews to determine how the federal grant money was used to pay bonuses.

In city employee interviews during the inspector general’s investigation, employees stated the bonuses were for recruitment and retention, and couldn’t give a formula of how they decided  to pay each employee or who would get a bonus.  During one interview, the OIG asked “if there were others in the management chain who approved the list of disbursements. In response, one top ranking department official said a spreadsheet of proposed bonuses ultimately went to the “11th floor” of City Hall. The 11^th floor  is the location of  Mayor Keller’s office and city’s executive staff including the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO)  and Chief Operations Officer (COO).

Asked if anyone considered “that maybe teachers and direct support staff for the centers should have received more than the other support staff”, the unidentified division manager stated no, ‘it did not come up,’ and they “wanted to be consistent across the board.”

The OIG learned in one interview that all payments went through top-ranking directors “and then got signed off by the CAO (chief administrative officer).” But the report did not identify the name of the CAO. The CAO position changed hands in 2022 from Sarita Nair to Lawrence Rael, who retired in 2023.

Another top administrator in the Family & Community Services Department told the OIG that no one raised any red flags on who was to get the bonuses, and that official thought “it was a good opportunity to do something good” for the employees.

That administrator was quoted as saying that officials “thought they were protected with the guidance on allowable expenses and having key City Management overseeing and approving the disbursements.”

SOURCE OF FEDERAL FUNDING USED TO PAY BONUSES

The source of the funding for the bonuses paid  came from the federal American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 signed on March 11, 2021, for child care stabilization grants to help give financial relief to child care providers and defray unexpected business costs associated with the pandemic and to help stabilize their operations “so that they may continue to provide care.” The federal funding was administered by the state of New Mexico.

In 2021, the Federal Government signed the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) aimed at assisting local governments during the COVID-19 pandemic. The city of Albuquerque applied for funding through a series of 21 grants filed to the ECECD for approval of the funds. The OIG report states that the grants were completed by a division manager on behalf of 21 different site managers.

The funding, per the OIG findings, was meant to be paid out to providers and other teachers as a means of retention and “designed to stabilize existing childcare businesses”. In 2022, then city councilors approved the grants and the funding that was approved by the state.

OIG RECOMMENDATIONS

The OIG report does not explicitly recommend disciplinary action. In its recommendations, the OIG recommended the city should determine if the extra pay should be recouped or if the city’s general fund should be tapped to repay the amount improperly disbursed. However, a Keller Administration city division director was quoted in the OIG report as saying that the understanding was that “all employees who conducted work on behalf of the division” would receive bonuses.

OIG’S OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE DECLINES TO APPROVE INVESTIGATION REPORT

On January 2, 2025 the OIG’s oversight committee took the unusual action of voting not to approve the OIG report released. The Accountability in Government Oversight Committee, which is comprised of community members appointed by the mayor and City Council, met on November 14 to review and consider the investigative report.  The committee  found the OIG “lacked sufficient jurisdiction under the city’s Inspector General ordinance to investigate one or more of the allegations.”   This is simply a false finding in that according to City Ordinance 2-17-2, the Inspector General’s goals includes  “to prevent and detect fraud, waste, and abuse in city activities.”    The committee voted 5-0 against approval, stating in a “cautionary statement” attached to the investigative report that “readers are advised to review this published report and its content with the understanding that the Committee did not approve this report.”

REFERAL MADE TO U.S. ATTORNEY

City Council President Dan Lewis issued the following statement in response to the OIG report saying this:

My office is referring this investigation to the U.S. Attorney due to allegations of federal crimes involving the abuse, misuse, and theft of federal funds allocated to high-ranking members of the Keller administration. These funds, approved by the Council, were intended exclusively for early childhood programs as outlined in the grant’s description. However, they appear to have been unlawfully redirected as cash bonuses for the Mayor’s staff.

KOAT TV new legal analyst and private defense attorney John Day offered this analysis of the referral to the US Attorney:

“The real problem for the city is whether or not the Department of Justice, whether the U.S government is actually going to look at this because, across the country, there have been some pretty aggressive investigations and prosecutions by the federal government of entities and people who misused COVID funds. … The big problem for the city government could be is if the Department of Justice, if the U.S government, starts an investigation and determines that money was misused, that could be a problem.  It’s a tough job being an inspector general. The pushback from the city is pretty intense. They’re denying that anything improper happened. But the investigation by the city’s independent inspector general showed that people got bonuses, city officials got bonuses when the money was supposed to go to the people who are actually doing the work.”

https://www.koat.com/article/mayor-tim-keller-misuse-funds-albuquerque/63334454

KELLER ADMINISTRATION RESPONDS, LASHES OUT

In response to the OIG report, the Keller Administration responded it did not intentionally misuse the federal grant  funds and did not have direction from the federal government on where to appropriate the funds.

Associate Chief Administrative Officer Carla Martinez released the following statement:

“These were employees that kept childcare centers open during the COVID crisis, these were not bonuses, and these were not inappropriate.  … Once again the OIG is submitting subjective opinions that were unanimously rejected by her own oversight committee comprised of legal and accounting professionals. This grant provided necessary overtime funding for critical early childhood caregiver programs and management during the Covid crisis.”

Alex Bukoski, spokesperson for Mayor Tim Keller’s office,  responded to City Council President Dan Lewis:

“Dan’s comments are at best, a grossly inaccurate overreaction; and worst another in a long line of bitter rants against the Administration since losing his own election bid.”

The links to quoted and relied upon news sources are here:

https://www.cabq.gov/inspectorgeneral/documents/23-0013-c-_23-0014-c-_23-0019-c_investigative_report-final.pdf/view

file:///C:/Users/HP/Downloads/23-0005-N_Grant_Bonus__FINAL_12.02.2024%20(2).pdf

https://www.krqe.com/news/politics-government/report-city-of-albuquerque-misused-federal-funds-to-give-bonuses-to-high-ranking-staff/

https://www.koat.com/article/mayor-tim-keller-misuse-funds-albuquerque/63334454

https://www.abqjournal.com/news/article_db61b066-c95f-11ef-9abc-5fc03d5a4358.html#tncms-source=home-featured-7-block

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

In 2017, Mayor Tim Keller was elected to his first term as Mayor  with great bravado as the white knight State Auditor who stopped “waste, fraud and abuse” and held people accountable for government corruption. That all quickly changed once Keller became Mayor.

Simply put, its nothing but  absolute “waste, fraud and abuse” and downright corruption that the Keller administration would approve the payment of bonuses to city hall officials of $5,400 to $22,000 using funding from child care stabilization grants intended to give financial relief to child care providers and defray unexpected business costs associated with the pandemic.  The Keller Administration excuse that there was no intent to do something wrong and that it did not have direction from the federal government on where to appropriate the funds rings very hollow and is very disingenuous. The Keller Administration made absolutely no effort to seek guidance on what they could do with the funds.  The blunt truth is Keller and his executive staff saw a pool of federal money they could divert and give out as bonuses to reward 27 employees to the tune of $280,000.

The OIG’s oversight committee taking  the unusual action of voting not to approve the OIG report released is nothing more than a “white wash” of what happened. The committee  found the OIG “lacked sufficient jurisdiction under the city’s Inspector General ordinance to investigate one or more of the allegations.”  The conclusion is a false finding by the Accountability in Government Oversight Committee that the OIG overstepped its authority.  According to City Ordinance 2-17-2, the Inspector General’s goals includes  “to prevent and detect fraud, waste, and abuse in city activities.”    The OIG was doing its job of identifying  “waste, fraud and abuse.”  Instead of being alarmed, the committee appointed by the Mayor and the City Council,  have elected to essentially condone the nefarious conduct of the Keller Administration instead of demanding accountability and refund of the bonuses.

City Council President Dan Lewis’ referral to the United State Attorney Office is commendable, but is likely a waste of time and will be ignored given that a new US Attorney for NM will be appointed by Trump. The Keller Administration’s nasty little reaction and personal attack against Lewis for the referral to the New Mexico US Attorney came as no surprise given how Keller has already made it known he is seeking a third 4 year term  and he wants to avoid any and all controversy and accusations of corruption.

The City Council needs to take immediate and aggressive  action on its own and it has the authority to do so. The federal grant funds, were accepted and approved by the Council for use and  were intended exclusively for early childhood programs as outlined in the grant’s description.  Therefor the city council has the authority to enact a resolution requiring the return of the $280,000 by those who were paid the bonuses. Any thing less would be the city council condoning the Keller Administrations nefarious conduct.

 

Project 2025 is a proposed presidential transition project and consists of a series of detailed policy proposals put together by hundreds of high-profile conservatives. Those proposals are laid out in a roughly 900-page book entitled “Mandate for Leadership, The Conservative Promise.”  Project 2025 was written by at least 144 people who worked for Trump’s first administration or his campaign.

Project 2025 was spearheaded by the conservative  Heritage Foundation and  included an advisory board consisting of more than 100 conservative groups. It is led by two former Trump administration officials,  Paul Dans, who was chief of staff at the Office of Personnel Management and serves as director of the project, and Spencer Chretien, former special assistant to Trump and who was the project’s associate director.

Project 2025’s policy proposals are dramatic and sweeping and include a  wide range of topics from foreign affairs,  to public  education, to health care, to law enforcement and to immigration. Project 2025 proposes enforcing laws that make it illegal to mail abortion pills over state lines, criminalizing pornography and eliminating the Department of Education. The project also advocates a sweeping elimination of environmental regulations and a crackdown on programs to boost diversity in the workplace, which the project argues are broadly illegal.

Conservatives have  spent years envisioning how to concentrate power in Presidency  and impose a decidedly ultra rightward shift across the United States Government and society itself. The project calls for a broad expansion in presidential power by boosting the number of political appointees and increasing the president’s authority over the Justice Department and the military.  That last proposal has alarmed many law enforcement officials, who say it will undermine the department’s ability to conduct investigations without political interference.

Participants in Project 2025 assembled lists of thousands of conservatives that could be slotted into politically appointed positions throughout the government in the opening days of a second Trump administration. Behind the scenes, the project’s affiliates have drafted executive orders and agency regulations that could be used to quickly implement the policies that the project is advocating once Trump takes office.  In essence, the goal is to create a form of American Fascism.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/what-is-project-2025-how-is-it-connected-trump-2024-11-26/

TRUMP DISAVOWELS PROJECT 2025

As the blueprint for a hard-right turn in America became a liability during the 2024 campaign, so much so that Trump pulled an about-face. He denied knowing anything about the “ridiculous and abysmal” plans written in part by his first-term aides and allies. During the last 6 months of the 2024 Presidential Campaign, Trump and his campaign repeatedly tried  to distance Trump  from Project 2025 claiming he had nothing to do with it. In a July 5 post to his social media platform Trump wrote:

 “I know nothing about Project 2025. I have no idea who is behind it. I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal. Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them.”

 Trump’s initial pushback to the initiative came after Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts said in a podcast interview that the nation is “in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.”

In further attempts to distance himself from project 2025, Trump said this:

“They’ve been told officially, legally, in every way, that we have nothing to do with Project 25. They know it, but they bring it up anyway. They bring up every single thing that you can bring up. Every one of them was false.” 

Trumps campaign said they would ban people involved in Project 2025 from his administration, which is now turning out to be just another lie.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/what-is-project-2025-how-is-it-connected-trump-2024-11-26/

DAMAGING INTERVIEW CONNECTING TRUMP TO PROJECT 2025

On July 24, the week after the Republican convention, Russell Vought, now Trump’s designate to lead the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) was interviewed at the presidential suite of the Rosewood hotel in DC, by two men posing as relatives of a wealthy conservative donor. The men Vought was talking to worked for the British journalism nonprofit Centre for Climate Reporting and were secretly recording him the entire time. The Centre had clandestinely placed several hidden cameras and microphones posing as relatives of a wealthy conservative donor.

Sitting on a couch in the hotel suite, Vought seemed relaxed and comfortable discussing a wide range of topics, from the history of the conservative movement to European politics to his relationship with Trump. Vought said he was unfazed by Trump’s repeated denials of any connection with Project 2025, dismissing such public statements as politics. Vought said this:

“I see what he’s doing is just very, very conscious distancing himself from a brand. … It’s interesting, he’s in fact not even opposing himself to a particular policy.”

Vought said he had personally talked to Trump in recent months and received at least one personal “assignment” from him after he left office. He noted that the former president has “been at our organization, he’s raised money for our organization, he’s blessed it … he’s very supportive of what we do.”

Vought said his group, the Center for Renewing America, was secretly drafting hundreds of executive orders, regulations, and memos that would lay the groundwork for rapid action on Trump’s plans  describing his work as creating “shadow” agencies. He claimed that Trump has “blessed” his organization and “he’s very supportive of what we do.”

While on video Vought discussed his plans to “take control of … bureaucracies” and said he wanted to “be the person who crushes the deep state.” Vought said this:

“Eighty percent of my time is working on the plans of what’s necessary to take control of these bureaucracies. … And we are working doggedly on that, whether it’s destroying their agencies’ notion of independence … whether that is thinking through how the deportation would work.”

In discussing Trump’s plan to carry out the largest deportation in US history Vought said the expulsion of millions of undocumented immigrants could help “save the country”. Once deportations begin, “you’re really going to be winning a debate along the way about what that looks like. … And so that’s going to cause us to get us off of multiculturalism, just to be able to sustain and defend the deportation, right?”

https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/15/politics/russ-vought-project-2025-trump-secret-recording-invs/index.html

TRUMP APPOINTS PROJECT 2025 MAIN ARCHITECTS AND AUTHORS

On November 22 news outlets reported President elect Donald Trump had completed assembling his Cabinet and senior staff for his second term in the White House before taking office on January 20, 2025. Trump nominated Cabinet Secretaries for government agencies and other top administration jobs that require United States Senate Advise and Consent confirmation mandated by the US Constitution.

Trump  nominated several architects and authors of Project 2025 who will have a key role in his administration. Following are Project 2025’s authors and contributors that Trump has nominated:

RUSSELL  VOUGHT

Russell Vought is a repeat from the first Trump Administration. Vought is  one of Project 2025’s top architects. He will  lead the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the agency that develops the president’s proposed budget and executes the president’s agenda. Vought started the Center for Renewing America, a nonprofit that describes itself as the “tip of the America First spear.”  Vought also served as the policy director of the Republican National Convention committee that rewrote the Republican Party’s  official platform this year, a sign of how central he is to Republicans’ policy goals. 

Vought plays a prominent role for Project 2025. Not only did he author a chapter on “Executive Office of the President” for the project’s “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise”, but his Center for Renewing America is also a member of Project 2025’s advisory board. According to press reports, Vought “was also deeply involved in drafting Project 2025’s playbook for the first 180 days of a new Trump administration.”   He has crafted plans for Trump to deploy the military in response to civil unrest and assert more control over the Justice Department.

Vought wrote the Project 2025 Chapter laying out priorities for the Executive Office of the President, which includes OMB. In it, he outlines ways to centralize executive power and in the federal bureaucracy which he says “all too often is carrying out its own policy plans and preferences—or, worse yet, the policy plans and preferences of a radical, supposedly ‘woke’ faction of the country.” He characterizes the OMB director as a vessel for the president’s policy agenda, rather than as “the ambassador of the institutional interests of OMB and the wider bureaucracy.”

Vought helped draft executive orders that would undermine civil service protections and make it easier for Trump to fire thousands of federal employees. Vought was  the chief architect of Schedule F, a misguided plan to reclassify federal employees as at-will employees who could be fired for any reason. He served as OMB director during Trump’s first administration, during which OMB reclassified 88% of its employees as Schedule F. But the reclassification was not fully implemented at OMB or other agencies, and President Biden repealed Trump’s Schedule F directive after he took office.    Vought recently said in an interview, “There certainly is going to be mass layoffs and firings, particularly at some of the agencies that we don’t even think should exist.” 

The strategy of further concentrating federal authority in the presidency permeates Project 2025’s and Trump’s campaign proposals. Vought’s vision is shocking  when paired with Trump’s proposals to dramatically expand the president’s control over federal workers and government purse strings. These are ideas intertwined with Trump’s  tapping mega-billionaire Elon Musk and venture capitalist Vivek Ramaswamy to lead a “Department of Government Efficiency.”

Trump in his first term sought to remake the federal civil service by reclassifying tens of thousands of federal civil service workers, who have job protection through changes in administration,  as political appointees, making them easier to fire and replace with loyalists. Currently, only about 4,000 of the federal government’s roughly 2 million workers are political appointees. President Joe Biden rescinded Trump’s changes. Trump can now reinstate them.

Meanwhile, Musk’s and Ramaswamy’s sweeping “efficiency” mandates from Trump could turn on an old, defunct constitutional theory that the president and  not Congress is the real gatekeeper of federal spending. In his “Agenda 47,” Trump endorsed so-called “impoundment,” which holds that when lawmakers pass appropriations bills, they simply set a spending ceiling, but not a floor. The president, the theory holds, can simply decide not to spend money on anything he deems unnecessary.

Vought did not venture into impoundment in his Project 2025 chapter. But, he wrote, “The President should use every possible tool to propose and impose fiscal discipline on the federal government. Anything short of that would constitute abject failure.”

Trump’s choice of Vought  immediately sparked backlash. Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, a Democrat and outgoing Senate Appropriations chairwoman, said this:

“Russ Vought is a far-right ideologue who has tried to break the law to give President Trump unilateral authority he does not possess to override the spending decisions of Congress (and) who has and will again fight to give Trump the ability to summarily fire tens of thousands of civil servants.”

Reps. Jamie Raskin of Maryland and Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico, leading Democrats on the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, said Vought wants to “dismantle the expert federal workforce” to the detriment of Americans who depend on everything from veterans’ health care to Social Security benefits.

“Pain itself is the agenda,” they said.

The Office of Management and Budget Director requires Senate confirmation, prepares a president’s proposed budget and is generally responsible for implementing the administration’s agenda across agencies. The job is influential but Vought made clear as author of a Project 2025 chapter on presidential authority that he wants the post to wield more direct power.  Vought wrote

“The Director must view his job as the best, most comprehensive approximation of the President’s mind.  [The OMB] is a President’s air-traffic control system [ and should be] involved in all aspects of the White House policy process [ becoming] powerful enough to override implementing agencies’ bureaucracies.”

Trump did not go into such details when naming Vought but implicitly endorsed aggressive action. Vought, the president-elect said, “knows exactly how to dismantle the Deep State” , Trump’s catch-all for federal bureaucracy,  and would help “restore fiscal sanity.”

In June, speaking on former Trump aide Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast, Vought relished the potential tension: “We’re not going to save our country without a little confrontation.”

STEPHEN MILLER

Stephen Miller is Trump’s pick to serve as White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and the President’s Homeland Security Adviser.  Miller is a longtime member of Trumps inner circle and a staunch defender and advocate of all that is Trump and the MAGA movement. Miller founded  as an ideological counter to the American Civil Liberties Union.  “America First Legal” was listed as an advisory group to Project 2025 until Miller asked that the name be removed because of negative attention.

Miller will be taking on a much  expanded role in Trump’s second term. While he is not listed as a contributor to Project 2025, America First Legal is listed on the Project 2025 Advisory Board up and until the group asked to be removed. Miller was also featured in videos produced by the Heritage Foundation promoting Project 2025.

Miller is the chief  architect of Trump’s immigration ideas, including his promise to initiate  the largest deportation force in U.S. history. As deputy policy chief, which is not subject to Senate confirmation, Miller would remain in Trump’s West Wing inner circle.  Miller said this at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally on Oct. 27:

“America is for Americans and Americans only.”

KAROLINE LEAVITT

Leavitt is Trumps’ pick for White House Press Secretary. She is his 2024 campaign’s national press secretary and served in the White House during his first term. Leavitt is listed as one of Project 2025’s instructors who train conservatives on conservative governance best practices. The course she’s teaching is called The Art of Professionalism. She was featured in the Heritage Foundation’s videos promoting Project 2025.  She tried to distance Trump’s campaign from Project 2025 even though she’s a Project 2025 instructor as well as his campaign’s national press secretary.

BRENDAN CARR

Brendan Carr has been nominated to chair the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), an agency that regulates interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, and satellite.  Carr is the senior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission having been appointed by Trump in 2017.  Carr authored a chapter “Federal Communications Commission” for Project 2025. Carr has proposed reigning in big tech and media companies that he claims have improperly “censored” conservatives’ views by limiting the reach of misinformation and lies.

Carr outlined his plan to challenge “Big Teck” in his FCC chapter of Project 2025. In his section, he called for the FCC to issue and interpretation of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act to eliminate “expansive, non-textual immunities that courts have read into the statute.” Section 230 protects platforms, such as Facebook or You Tube, from liability over content posted by their users. Carr also lays out proposals to expand broadband connectivity access, address TikTok’s “serious and unacceptable risk” and support emerging satellite technologies among other goals.

Carr wrote that the FCC chairman “is empowered with significant authority that is not shared” with other FCC members. He called for the FCC to address “threats to individual liberty posed by corporations that are abusing dominant positions in the market,” specifically “Big Tech and its attempts to drive diverse political viewpoints from the digital town square.” Carr has called for more stringent transparency rules for social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube and “empower consumers to choose their own content filters and fact checkers, if any.”

Carr will require Seante confirmation.

TOM HOMAN

Tom Homan is listed as an overall contributor of Project 2025.  Trump appointed Homan as  “Border Czar” who will oversee the southern and northern U.S. borders and all maritime and aviation security.  Homan served as the acting heading of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during Trump’s first administration. He retired in 2018 after the White House failed to move his nomination toward Senate confirmation. This time, Homan will bypass the process completely because his “border czar” role does not require Senate confirmation.

Homan, as acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement director during Trump’s first presidency, played a key role in what became known as Trump’s “family separation policy.” Previewing Trump 2.0 earlier this year, Homan said: “No one’s off the table. If you’re here illegally, you better be looking over your shoulder.” Project 2025 includes a litany of detailed proposals for various U.S. immigration statutes, executive branch rules and agreements with other countries. Examples include reducing the number of refugees, work visa recipients and asylum seekers.

Homan is already flexing his anticipated power before he is even sworn in. On November 26 Homan vowed  to instill harsh consequences on sanctuary city leaders who are threatening to block immigration authorities from carrying out their planned mass deportation telling them plain and simple: “Don’t test us.” Homan said this during a visit to the border in Eagle Pass, Texas:

“Let me be clear, there is going to be a mass deportation because we just finished a mass illegal immigration crisis on the border. … If we don’t do it, what is the option? Let them stay? Cause if you let them stay, you’ll never fix the border. You’re gonna send a message to the rest of the world: enter the country illegally, which is a crime, ignore a court order … we’re telling the whole world it’s OK to enter this country illegally, you’ve never got to go home.

Denver Mayor Mike Johnston was asked by a local Denver television station to respond to Homan’s vows to arrest local leaders and politicians who stood in the way of deportation efforts. Mayor Johnston told ABC News reports he was willing to go to jail to stop possible mass deportation efforts under the incoming Trump administration.  Johnson  said he was  “not afraid of that” in a TV interview but said “I think the goal is we want to be able to negotiate with reasonable people how to solve hard problems. ”

During an interview on Fox News,  Homan said this:

“But look, me and the Denver mayor, we agree on one thing — he’s willing to go to jail, I’m willing to put him in jail because there’s a statute. It’s Title 8 United States Code 1324 (iii). And what it says is it’s a felony if you knowingly harbor and conceal an illegal alien from immigration authorities. It’s also a felony to impede a federal law enforcement officer. ”

Johnson said in a separate interview, that he would send Denver police to the city line to confront federal agents, an action he likened to Tiananmen Square. He later withdrew the comments. In a separate Fox News interview, Homan said the incoming administration would respond to blocking tactics by withholding federal funding from non-compliant cities and states.  Homan said “That’s going to happen, I guarantee you”

https://www.ncja.org/crimeandjusticenews/incoming-trump-border-czar-threatens-denver-mayor-with-jail-time

JOHN RATCLIFF

John Ratcliff is Trump’s pick to lead the CIA and previously was one of Trump’s directors of national intelligence. He is a Project 2025 contributor. The document’s chapter on U.S. intelligence was written by Dustin Carmack, Ratcliffe’s chief of staff in the first Trump administration. Reflecting Ratcliffe’s and Trump’s approach, Carmack declared the intelligence establishment too cautious. Ratcliffe, like the chapter attributed to Carmack, is hawkish toward China. Throughout the Project 2025 document, Beijing is framed as a U.S. adversary that cannot be trusted.  Ratcliffe will  require Senate confirmation.

Links to quoted or relied upon news sources are here:

https://www.afge.org/article/new-trump-administration-packed-with-project-2025-architects/

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/what-is-project-2025-how-is-it-connected-trump-2024-11-26/

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/project-2025-contributors-trump-administration-picks-1235175351/

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/after-trumps-project-2025-denials-tapping-authors-influencers-116170438

https://apnews.com/article/trump-project-2025-administration-nominees-843f5ff20131ccba5f056e7ccc5baf23

https://www.axios.com/2024/11/26/trump-picks-project-2025-russ-vought

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-cabinet-filling-project-2025-005256417.html

ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY

When it comes to all of Trump’s executive appointments, the single most important  qualification is absolute and unquestioned loyalty to Trump. What is also clear is that Project 2025 is indeed the conservative blue print do centralize more power than ever in the Presidency with no checks and balances by congress nor the courts.

It was the economy and inflation that swept Trump to a decisive victory. Exit polls showed that the voting public were extremely disgruntled if not downright hostile with the direction the country is going, with inflation out of control. Voters were far more were concerned about making a decent living, angered over grocery and gas prices, as opposed to any threat Trump posed to democracy. Voters simply believed they were better off when Trump was President the first time believing all his lies. Voters chose to forget the 4 years of total chaos Trump brought upon the county and his failure to deal with the pandemic that killed millions worldwide and in the United States and that had a strangle hold on the country and that destroyed the economy.

In the end, voters simply ignored Trumps flawed character, the multimillion dollar civil judgements against him for sexual assault and slander, his criminal conduct in the private sector and while in office, his fraud in securing millions in loans in New York, the  multiple state criminal convictions and pending federal criminal charges, his two impeachments, his misogyny and racism, his threat to democracy, his attempt to overthrow the government with all his lies that the election was rigged and stolen from him, his attacks on woman’s rights and civil rights, his partiality to racists groups such as the Proud Boys, his promotion of racist policies and his cult following of Christian fundamentalist who totally ignored his immorality, multiple marriages and affairs and praised him as the second coming.

Trump will be our President come January 20 and there will be a peaceful transfer of power, unlike 4 years ago when Trump promoted an insurrection. The country will get the President it has elected. Voters will get a clown car of a cabinet filled with people who have no business being appointed and whose goal is to destroy the very agencies they will head. The reality is that with his executive appointments he is following the conservative  Project 2025 agenda, topic by topic, page by page.  (See postscript below on Project 2025).

There may be a peaceful transition of power, but come January 20, four years of total chaos will commence. Trump has already said he can only serve another term but hinted that may change if people really want to change that.  With Trumps announced appointments, it his clear he intends to gut the Department of Justice, the military leadership, our health care system and dismantle government to carry out his personal vendetta.

Trump and his Republican Party will overreach declaring they have a mandate to do whatever they damn well want with no guard rails. Trumps selections for cabinet positions also indicate there will be no checks and balances from congress in that some Senate Republicans are already indicating a willingness to forego their “advise and consent” of appointments an allow for “recess appointments”.  There will be no intervention from the Trump appointed Supreme Court of right-wing conservative disciples who have given him immunity from prosecution making him above the law.

As the saying goes elections have consequences. But that includes unintended consequences. Trumps agenda will go way beyond what people thought they were voting for. It’s not at all likely voters will be any better off financially than they are now in two years under a Trump second presidency let alone the 4 years to come. His imposition of tariffs and the effects of mass deportation on the agricultural work force will have an impact as will corporate greed and refusal to reduce consumer prices. It may be the “economy stupid” but in reality a President can do little to bring down the cost of goods and services which is subject to the laws of market  supply and demand, and corporate profits and sure greed.

It’s only a matter of time before the general public turns on Trump as they did 4 years ago once they realize they have been had once again. Stupid is as stupid does. The public turned on  Republican President George W. Bush after he was elected by a popular vote and the Republicans lost congress. It will happen again. Voters have now voted for the return of chaos. Based on Trump’s agenda, and his cabinet appointments, chaos is exactly what we will get with millions getting hurt in the process. This is what happens when the big lies replace reality and personal finances outweigh preservation of our democracy.

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POSTSCRIPT

The CBS national news agency published  on line a remarkable  report written by its staff reporters Melissa Quinn and Jacob Rosen entitled “What Is Project 2025; What To Know About The Conservative Blue Print For A Second Trump Administration”.  It is clear that Project 2025 is Trump’s conservative blue for a second term reflecting an American Fascist Agenda to give Trump unfettered presidential power. The link to read the entire 920 page Project 2025 is here:

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24088042-project-2025s-mandate-for-leadership-the-conservative-promise

 

 

 

 

 

 

On December 15, the Albuquerque Journal published the following guest opinion column submitted by long time community  activists Isaac and Sharon Eastvold:

“The city of Albuquerque is moving ahead with yet another “green” project. The city also called the Albuquerque Rapid Transit project on Central “green.” That project cut down over 500 trees, and got rid of electric buses. There seemed to be no end to cost overruns.

Like ART, the new Green Stormwater Infrastructure “pilot project” being touted by City Councilor Tammy Fiebelkorn proposes to retrofit older neighborhoods with an impossible, destructive burden. Costs are already running into millions, and headed for even greater overruns. The money for this boondoggle is coming from, you guessed it, your tax dollars in the recent municipal bonds.

These bonds never fail to pass. Written comments which opposed putting Green Stormwater Infrastructure in the bond mysteriously disappeared when mailed to the full council and the mayor. Definition: GSI involves excavations of streets for what are called “bio swales.” These would be 9 feet wide from the curb, 9 inches deep and of varying lengths between driveways. The city claims that these excavations will capture stormwater and infiltrate it to groundwater below the swales. It won’t.

The water table depth in this project area varies from 150 to 500 feet. These bio swales need to be located above the water table within 5 to 18 feet. The water table is too far down for this to work.

In addition, the city’s own GeoTest Inc. has twice found clay levels 6 to 9 feet down that would prevent infiltration. They find that stormwater could move laterally, with time, and cause subsidence of adjacent streets and structures.

Albuquerque has been in a drought since 2021. In that year, some residents along Summer NE experienced stormwater over-topping the curb. No structures were damaged. This was caused by improperly resurfacing short stretches of Summer and Marble. Correcting the resurfacing would restore the intended gravity flow of stormwater to the San Mateo, 8-foot diameter, and San Pedro, 4-foot diameter, main drains.

The GSI “pilot project” also proposes cement underground stormwater storage tanks. One of these, on La Veta, is not even planned to connect to the city’s sewer system. It will simply capture water with no option for infiltration. The bio swales and storage tanks, therefore, can not comply with the legally binding N.M./Texas compact requiring all withheld water be returned to the Rio Grande within 96 hours.

Finally, the dark, moist place, of underground tanks would provide inviting habitat for the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes now plaguing Albuquerque.

Councilor Fiebelkorn, if she hopes to be elected to any office, should learn from the “greenwashed” and miserably failed ART disaster on Central. Her “pilot project” promises to be yet another expensive misuse of taxpayer’s municipal bond money.

Concerned citizens can support any beautification of the neighborhood or city that is environmentally sound and well-researched. They can not support ignoring good alternatives that resolve real problems less expensively.

What the city is proposing will only benefit the bottomless pockets of a small cadre of city consultants. The result will be the degradation of long-established mid-heights neighborhoods.”

The link to the Albuquerque Journal guest column with photos is here:

https://www.abqjournal.com/opinion/article_3b567438-b8d6-11ef-b39c-5f8ae05c2f0a.html

BIOGRAPHY

Isaac and Sharon Eastvold are long time community activists.  They founded the Fair Heights Neighborhood Association on October 11, 1993.  Both have been residents of City Council District 7 since its inception and residents of City Council District 5 which became District 7 because of redistricting. They have also been members of the Neighborhood Stormwater Drainage Management Team since May 31, 2021.  Isaac and Sharon Eastvold were the founding members of the Friends of the Albuquerque Petroglyphs (FOTAP).  This organization was instrumental in securing city council and community support for the establishment of Petroglyph National Monument on June 27, 1990.  Isaac was awarded one of two pens used by President George H.W. Bush to sign the establishment act.

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POSTSCRIPT

GREEN STORMWATER INFRASTRUCTURE DEFINED

Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) is a method of sustainable stormwater management that focuses on treating stormwater runoff prior to it entering waterways by mimicking and working with living, natural systems. It is an approach to managing stormwater runoff in ways that mimic the natural environment as much as possible, using plants, soil, and stone to filter and manage stormwater more effectively, reducing how much enters our sewer systems, and protecting our rivers and streams.

Urban areas have lots of hard surfaces  such as roofs, roads, parking lots, etc.,  that don’t allow water from rain, snow, and ice to soak into the ground naturally, so the runoff collects pollutants and litter on its way down the drain, and overwhelms our sewer systems, which can overflow into our rivers and streams.

Green stormwater infrastructure tools allow runoff to get soaked up by plants, filter into the ground, or evaporate into the air. Some systems also slowly release the water into a sewer once wet weather and the threat of overflows have passed.

https://www.bernco.gov/public-works/public-works-services/water-wastewater-stormwater/stormwater/green-stormwater-infrastructure-and-post-construction-stormwater-management/

https://water.phila.gov/gsi/