This column also recently appeared in the ABQ Free Press.

You might say we're paying the price for not paying the price. How the state and city can sit by and watch Tingley Coliseum--one of its most iconic structures--gradually decay into a dilapidated retro reminder of the 50's--attests to the deep freeze encasing our political and business leadership.

Berry & Chief Eden

How about this? Amid one of the worst climates for finding a job in ABQ, the APD reports its staffing level is at or near its lowest in history. They can't give away a job at the troubled police force which is under investigation by the Dept. of Justice for possible civil rights violations stemming from dozens of police shootings, fatal and otherwise.

There are now only 884 cops on the force, a number one officer says is similar to what we had 26 years ago. And in the year ahead APD could see another 100 retirements of longtime officers.

It's worth repeating: APD is to Mayor Berry what Vietnam was to Lyndon Johnson. Like Johnson he is fighting the wrong war, avoiding the major shake-up and leadership changes that would restore confidence in APD and enable recruiting from other departments around the nation. Instead, Berry blames the crash in officer staffing on an officer's inability to retire and then rejoin the force and get two paychecks. Heck, we can't attract applicants to this troubled APD for one paycheck, never mind two.

Meanwhile, Wal-Mart closes several city stores overnight because of criminal activity.

Of course, we can always rely on the city council to light a fire under Berry to make the painful personnel changes needed at APD. Not. . .

POT WATCH

Marijuana legalization advocates in NM might want to take a look at this in-depth series on Colorado's experiment with legalizing pot. It's from The Gazette in Colorado Springs and is a real eye-opener.

TENSION TIME

The tension of the legislative session lives on. Now it's gnashing of the teeth over what bills the Guv will sign or veto. NM's growing solar industry--which they put at 1,900 employees--is one of many groups awaiting word on favored legislation. The administration has close ties to the oil and gas industry which has frowned upon solar but advocates point out the bill extending the 10 percent NM solar tax credit was passed with the support of both Dems and R's, including GOP legislative leaders Nate Gentry and Stu Ingle. Says one:

The 10 percent NM tax credit for solar is successful in conjunction with the federal 30 percent federal tax credit and creates good-paying jobs. This bill will extend the solar tax credit, gradually reducing the percentage from 10 percent to 5 percent over 8 years. SolarCity recently announced their move to New Mexico. They've hired and trained 50 employees. That's results. . . .

While many in the GOP approved of SB 391 its prime sponsor is ABQ Dem State Senator Mimi Stewart who is a longtime opponent of the Guv.

The tension for everyone awaiting Martinez's decisions can last until April 10. Legislation passed in the last 3 days of the session must be acted upon by the Governor within 20 days of adjournment, or it is pocket vetoed.

VOX POPULI

Reader Steve Dick writes:

Why would the GOP even want to take over NM? What is there to take over? They are helping to break it and they don't look so good at running things either. And when are the Dems going to show some spine and throw it back at the Governor? I wouldn't put up with her dressing me down in her office after the legislative session. I would be glad to give her a ration face-to-face. She has no long term political future if she keeps acting the way she does. Not even a cabinet secretary position. Senators in hearings will have her lunch.

A reader writes:

ABQ's Bob McNeill comes with thoughts on the city economy:

Joe, excellent, albeit depressing, reporting on our local economic stagnation. The Brookings report is stunning. There are lots of causes and reasons, including the awful national press we've deservedly received courtesy of APD, but the problems go far beyond this shameful mess. For far too long, we've been highly dependent on defense related (government) spending. 

 Taking in one another's laundry and service industry jobs don't compensate for a robust economy that can be brought about with talented, creative and vigorous (progressive) leadership at the state and local levels. Ignoring what we learned about economics 80 years ago isn't helpful. And a decent newspaper would help bring us into the current century by presumably improving the quality of public discourse. I'm depressed about the situation, but as always, onward and upward should be our stance.

The current situation, Bob is a downer. What we look forward to is the emergence of unexpected, dynamic, risk-taking leadership that will lead us in a fresh direction.

THE BOTTOM LINES

ABQ public radio station KUNM-FM comes with this:

Joe, I saw that you talked about a reader note saying that the public radio stations don't have anyone up in Santa Fe. Wanted to let you know that KUNM, NM PBS, and New Mexico In-Depth coordinated to have a reporter focusing on the session. A link to our legislative coverage is here.

This is the home of New Mexico politics.

E-mail your news and comments. (jmonahan@ix.netcom.com)

Interested in reaching New Mexico's most informed audience? Advertise here.

(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2014. Not for reproduction without permission of the author

No, the ABQ recession/stagnation has not been wished away. The drip, drip drip of a downsizing economy is keeping us in an official recession, the only major metro in the USA to have that dishonor, says the latest Brookings Institution report:

The metro area remains farther away from pre-recession peak employment levels than any other in the region," the report said. The city was the only one in the report to see its output contract for the fourth quarter, by a small but noticeable 0.2 percent. As a whole, the U.S. saw an increase in output of 0.7 percent for the quarter.

The full ABQ report here It shows we currently rank 100th out of 100 metro areas in recovering from the economic downturn. The glimmer of good news is the increase in health care jobs.

And if you're a renter you may know about this. CNN reports that because incomes here have fallen so much the past five years, we are one of the worst places in the USA for apartment dwellers:

In some areas, rents may not have gone up astronomically, but income has actually declined, heightening the disparity. It is particularly glaring in Albuquerque, where rents have increased 10% in the past five years. But income in the metro area declined 12% in the period. It's a similar story in Providence, RI, Omaha, Tuscon and New Orleans, where income is falling even as rents rise.

This is a city that has flat-lined and the Legislature's crash and burn over the $264 million capital outlay bill isn't helping. Neither is reluctance of the state government to dig into hundreds of millions of unspent funds that are sitting there. The Governor's office says:

Most of the money identified is encumbered, meaning it is not available to be spent elsewhere, appropriated for a specific purpose. Even the best-planned projects are developed and built in phases, where expenditures often occur over a period of years as it is completed.

But what is "most of the money?" There is $1.2 billion in unspent capital outlay sitting there. Exactly how much is "encumbered" and how much can we put to use now to provide jobs and stimulate this moribund metro economy? Is it $500 million? $50 million?

And how about Santa Fe getting off its butt and and speeding up the spending of the "encumbered" money on the projects it was intended for?  Our construction companies could provide badly needed work for hundreds, if not thousands. Gosh. we really work hard at being 50th, don't we?. . .

STAFFING UP

NM GOP Chair Debbie Maestas must have found some money because she's staffing up at party headquarters:

The staff hires include Robert Talbot as executive director, Todd Johnson as political director, Natalie Offenbecher as finance director and Patrick Garrett as communications director.

 Talbot. . . was the RNC State Director in Arkansas. Johnson has worked . . . on the Allen Weh for US Senate Campaign—specializing in grassroots organization.  Offenbecher is a veteran of several campaigns in California. 

Garrett was the press secretary for the House Republicans during the legislative session. 

It's not expected that the '16 presidential race will be in play in Blue New Mexico but there will be that battle for control of the NM House and Senate. There are no signs yet that any of the three US House races will be competitive.

GOT WATER?

Is it "impossible" to sort out who owns what water rights in the Mid-Rio Grande Valley? That was the contention made by an expert in a recent news article. We wondered about that and heard from ABQ's Bill Turner, another expert who makes his livelihood from sorting out the ownership of water rights. He tells us:

Determination of the ownership of water rights is quite simple. We do it every day. Some are more difficult than others. Where it becomes difficult is where county records offices have burned down and land title records have become lost. However, these problems can be overcome from old title abstracts, old census data, and old maps where ownership is identified. . .  

Our firm has more than 70 successful water rights transactions where we have confirmed validity of water rights and ownership. Our advice to the public is keep a file on your property, title documents, tax documents, water records and research them as far back as you can go. . . The State Engineer is requiring much more site specific proof of water rights and title documents.

That reminds us that in the 19th century it was thought that it would be nearly impossible to sort out ownership of the Spanish land grants. But it was done--maybe not fairly or even legally--but it was done.

THE BOTTOM LINES

Readers correct our first draft on that emailgate lawsuit we posted yesterday. There are a total of six defendants, not three. And one of our Legal Beagles comes with this:

You mentioned the "charges" that were dismissed against Anissa Ford and the still pending "charges" against her co-defendants. The word "charges" implies that she and her co-defendants were being charged with crimes when actually the case is a civil case in which various "claims" are made against the defendants.

Thanks for that. Corrections made. It's always helpful to have the Legal Beagles on the trail.

This is the home of New Mexico politics.

E-mail your news and comments. (jmonahan@ix.netcom.com)

Interested in reaching New Mexico's most informed audience? Advertise here.

(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2014. Not for reproduction without permission of the author

The ABQ headlines are not eliciting shouts of "Spring is here!" The city was hit with a mini-crime wave over the weekend that claimed three lives, signaling that the city's crime and punishment problem is still its stickiest. Don't think that impacts most people? Well, look at this from Wal-Mart. Crime at some of its locations is so bad they're shutting them down overnight:

Walmart policy is to keep many of its stores open 24 hours, but the retailer is closing at midnight at some Albuquerque locations, and a rash of crime seems to be a key reason. . . Walmart stores at Coors and I-40, San Mateo near Central, and Eubank near I-40 are three locations that Albuquerque police say keep them busy. The stores are cutting hours and will now be open from 6 a.m. to midnight. Shootings, shoplifting, drug busts and deaths have all happened at the three stores. 

When you see that kind of stuff you know that ABQ remains a mid-sized city with a big city crime problem.

How are you going to get business coming here, Mr. Mayor, when one of the largest employers in the metro can't keep its doors open over night?

SKANDERA'S APS?

Watch out for the howls when this news is fully digested. A top official serving under controversial NM Public Education Department Secretary Hanna Skandera is among the first wave of applicants for the position of ABQ Public Schools Superintendent. Hipolito "Paul" Aguilar is Deputy Secretary for Finance and Operations at PED.

Aguilar has the credentials. He was a teacher in the Bernalillo Public School District, earned a Bachelor's in Elementary and Special Education and a Master's in Education Administration from NM Highlands University. He also was an education analyst at the Legislative Finance Committee. But it will be his connections to Skandera and her policies and politics that will be the point of contention, if Aguilar emerges as a likely choice.

ABQ City Councilor Brad Winter, a Republican with close ties to the Guv's political machine, is the current interim APS Super. The seven member school board will make the call on his replacement. This is one to watch. . .

Speaking of the Guv's machine, a former 2010 campaign aide to the Guv is breathing a bit easier. All claims against Anissa Ford in a federal lawsuit have been dismissed. The other defendants, including NM Dem Party Chairman Sam Bregman, still face claims. Ford and the others were sued for allegedly violating federal privacy protections by their involvement in intercepting and disclosing email from the governor’s hijacked email account. Here's the federal court order dismissing the charges against Ford.

HEAD SCRATCHER

Here's a head scratcher from a recent news article on NM water:

It is almost impossible to say with certainty who owns water rights in the Middle Rio Grande Valley, and it would be obscenely expensive to find out. If you can’t be certain who owns the right, you can’t create a market to buy, sell and lease water. Since it is hard to obtain water rights, and since nature doesn’t seem to want to give us more water, conservation is the best way to stretch supplies.

Well, what looks "impossible" today will become probable--if and when the day comes that the city faces a real water crisis. All that water going for unneeded alfalfa will be rushed into ABQ quicker than you can say: "There's money to be made." And that's today's lesson in capitalism.

THE MEDIA BEAT

Joe Monahan

We noted the explosion in on-line media that covers the NM Legislature, but this self-described "Veteran Wall-Leaner" rightly points out that is not the case with the mainstream media:

As important as what's happening in Santa Fe, the coverage by the mass media is underwhelming. Yes, there's AP coverage, coverage by the administration-friendly Albuquerque Journal, and the Santa Fe New Mexican. The public radio stations don't really staff the session anymore. In the past the Albuquerque TV stations had full time Santa Fe bureaus. Now the general assignment reporters provide superficial coverage. I used to think the voters were informed. Now, not so much.

No doubt mainstream media budgets and priorities have meant a cut in their coverage and that means average voters who don't immerse themselves in online media aren't getting as much info. But the contention of our Wall-Leaner that "as important as what's happening in Santa Fe. . . " doesn't hold up.

What is happening in Santa Fe is only important in the context of what is not happening. Legislative sessions have been reduced to annual squabbles with no significant attacks on the systemic poverty, loss of government jobs or education and social problems that keep the state at the bottom of the national rankings and that have forced people to flee to other states. The Legislature has become a bauble for journalists, lobbyists, contract seekers and political jesters.

Okay, enough about the Roundhouse. Spring is Here!

This is the home of New Mexico politics.

E-mail your news and comments. (jmonahan@ix.netcom.com)

Interested in reaching New Mexico's most informed audience? Advertise here.

(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2014. Not for reproduction without permission of the author

(Journal photo)

Susana Martinez is digging her high heels even deeper into the dirt in her second term. When three state senators made a ceremonial appearance at her office at the end of the legislative session Saturday to inform her that their work was concluded, they were surrounded by her aides as she intensely berated them for the session's failures. ABQ Dem Senator Jerry Ortiz y Pino said:

She was so angry. It really had the feeling of a dictator who had been thwarted.

At a post-session news conference Martinez lashed out at the Senate Democrats over the failure of a capital outlay bill and a tax cut package. She blamed them entirely for the do-nothing session. In turn, Martinez was blamed by her critics, with one of them on social media deriding her as the "Queen of Nothing."

It was yet another legislative session that went bust and even veteran wall-leaners seem fatigued. Says one:

It was the usual trainwreck. It's hard to care anymore.

She's right. Santa Fe's sessions--never compelling to the public at-large--seem even more insular, much more an insider ballgame and less relevant with flat budgets and no big ideas. And the quality of debate is suffering. The turnover in the House has been so great the past few years that newbie legislators are everywhere and they often simply don't know what they are talking about.

All of that--combined with a no-compromise mentality--has longtime journalists like Walt Rubel of the Las Cruces Sun-News sick of the entire affair. He said on Twitter:

At the start of (the final) week I wanted to see if the Legislative session was as bad as I thought. It's worse.

The irony is that there are more news outlets than ever covering the session's every second but they are talking mostly to themselves. Just look at the crash in voter turnout. The state awaits something new after this dour 60 day exercise. It has a long wait.

THERE SHE GOES

We asked how many days after the session it would be before Martinez left the state to pursue her national ambitions.  No one would have won betting on that because it was literally only hours after adjournment that she was on a plane headed to a Republican Governors Association meeting in Florida. Such meetings are usually accompanied by high powered fund-raisers and numerous political pow wows. When Gov. Richardson ran for president he also often traveled out of state. It cost him a good chunk of his popularity. . .

House Majority Leader Nate Gentry made a point of repeating this phrase at the end of the session: "Michael Sanchez failed New Mexico." Sanchez, of course, is the state senate majority leader, but that's not well-known throughout the state.

The Gentry phrase was reminiscent of 15 years ago when the GOP demonized powerful legislative leaders Manny Aragon and Raymond Sanchez. There's enough room to ask if Gentry's play on Sanchez was a play on ethnic politics. Whatever the case, Gentry has put a target on his back. Even if the polling shows it to be a long shot, Sanchez and the Dems will likely run a vigorous race against Nate in 2016. . .

CAPITAL DEBACLE

The session ended with that debacle over $264 million in capital outlay funds that could have stimulated an economy sorely in need of a shot in the arm. That money will now be added to an immense pile of capital outlay funds that according to State Auditor Tim Keller is just sitting there unspent. It was last put at $1.2 billion. And much of it, Keller says, could legally be reallocated and spent. So what to do?

Veteran GOP consultant and pollster Bruce Donisthorpe comes with one of the more constructive proposals we've heard:

It's time the Legislature put a sunset clause on capital outlay funds. If they haven't been put to use after four or five years, the projects they are designated for would not get them. The Legislature could reallocate the money and spend it on other projects or place it in the general fund.

Legislators love their pork but what good is the bacon when it's frozen? A bipartisan effort with the support of the Governor to get that bacon in the frying pan would be most welcome to job-seeking New Mexicans who could build the bridges and make the repairs much of that money is for.

WINNERS AND LOSERS


This is the home of New Mexico politics.

E-mail your news and comments. (jmonahan@ix.netcom.com)

Interested in reaching New Mexico's most informed audience? Advertise here.

(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2014. Not for reproduction without permission of the author