Thursday, March 24, 2022Can A Former Cop Turned City Councilor Rein In APD Extreme Overtime Abuse? Plus: Montoya Vs. Sanchez Is a Key Northern House race To Watch Westside Councilor Louie Sanchez is apparently ready to give it a shot. At this week's council meeting Sanchez took note of the recent TV news report describing how APD Lt. Jim Edison--now fired--received over $242,000 in pay in one year--$131,000 of it in overtime--in the latest example of extreme OT abuse. Sanchez started by critiquing APD Chief Harold Medina's response to the Edison shocker. Medina said: We're so busy (that) to go through the final details of looking through somebody's time sheet, it is not something that we are going to be carving out time for. To which Sanchez responded: When I was a young police officer I was told your time sheet was the single most important item that you deal with as a police officer every single day of the week. . . That it needs to be accurate--one hundred percent. It's a legal document so it has to be 100 percent accurate. . . The comment that we don't have time for that (means) you don't have time to do your job. So I need to get an explanation why we don't have time to check timesheets. . . But Chief Medina was not at the meeting and a spokesman told Sanchez the department needs more time to answer the question. Let's hope they don't use overtime to come up with the answer. A long line of mayors and councilors has failed to seriously question the overtime abuse--to the point that it has become institutionalized as an unspoken perk, costing taxpayers millions. As a former cop, Councilor Sanchez has the credibility to spearhead reform--if he can get an assist from his colleagues and the Mayor--and the attorney general who has taken a pass on charging any of the overtime culprits. MOST VULNERABLE  That's because Montoya's foe is Joseph Sanchez who held the seat for two years but left it in 2020 to make an unsuccessful run for the northern US House seat. Sanchez is a moderate and Montoya is a progressive. That helps Sanchez in this district but it also helps that many residents probably think Sanchez is still their representative.
In a blow to Montoya, who is campaigning hard, is this endorsement of Sanchez by the Ohkay Owingeh Tribal Council: With your prior experience and expertise in working with the State of New Mexico and Ohkay Owingeh we are confident that you will continue our camaraderie and working relationship with our community. Ohkay Owingeh is proud to endorse you as our State Representative. Sanchez vs. Montoya is a key primary race to watch as moderate Dems try to reduce the progressive majority in the state House with the help of business allies. BLACKOUT CONFUSION We erred when we blogged about the blackout period for fundraising as a result of the special session. We were correct that the fundraising blackout for state representatives and candidates for the House begins when the Governor issues the special session proclamation and ends upon adjournment of the session. However, the same time period does not apply to the Governor. Her fundraising blackout extends until 20 days after the session. For other statewide candidates the blackout ends when the session ends. Yes, it is a tricky section of state law. THE BOTTOM LINES  Chaves County has joined Lea County and the state GOP in a lawsuit challenging the new congressional district map, voicing concern that Chaves has been split among all three US House districts. Heard on the street: Joe, when the end comes there will be only three things left--Cher, cockroaches and Brian Colón. This is the home of New Mexico politics. E-mail your news and comments. (newsguy@yahoo.com) Interested in reaching New Mexico's most informed audience? Advertise here.   (c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2022 Wednesday, March 23, 2022Progressive Interruptus: Political Landscape Changes And Is Felt In Key Issues Of The Day, Plus: The Clyde Or The Tingley? Let's Vote! ABQ Mayor Tim Keller was expected to veto the council bill that permits the use of those convenient single use plastic bags at city grocery stores, even though the council had the six votes to override his veto. Keller apparently thought better of it and decided to quietly let the bill become law and avoid another round of animosity. The bill is significant because it is a defeat for the brand of progressivism that seems to be rankling the public lately. Take the case of state Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto. Eight progressive advocacy groups piled more sex harassment charges on him this week and again demanded the resignation of the chairman of the Senate Rules Committee. But Ivey-Soto doesn't seem to be breaking a sweat and Roundhouse watchers say he will not resign. Instead, he will face whatever music there is at a 2024 Dem primary election where progressives will get another bite out of the apple. The problems? The progressives are asking for a lawmaker's resignation before an investigation, they are not producing the names of the accusers of the most serious allegations and the move to oust him comes on the heels of the progressive voting rights measure dying in the senate and they blame Ivey-Soto. The overreach may have triumphed a couple of years ago but as we noted with the plastic bags, the cultural progressives are losing ground as the agenda veers back to the meat and potatoes issues of war, inflation, gas prices and crime run amok. In fact, not long ago Ivey-Soto may have felt real public pressure to resign. Instead his case has become an insider Roundhouse imbroglio among an army of paid hired guns and a contentious Ivey-Soto. Another example of the trend came this week when the aforementioned city council voted to prohibit any requirement that city employees get a Covid-19 vaccine. There is no such requirement and since the bill passed on a 5 to 4 vote Keller this time would be able to successfully veto it. But again, on personal lifestyle and cultural matters progressives don't have the votes. And there's dissension at City Hall because of it, reports one of our Senior Alligators. They say that the resignation of Chief Administrative Officer Sarita Nair was prompted by Keller's drift to the center and away from the left on the all consuming matter of crime--and that there are other progressives in the administration who feel the same way and may head for the exits. Of course, it's possible Nair had enough of the incessant pressure and lack of results on the crime beat and that forced her departure. But there's no argument that Keller and MLG have both scampered to the center as the moderate/conservative winds blow stronger. THE CLYDE?
Clyde is a name that long ago disappeared as a favorite but it does have a whiff of old school luxury and would be a good fit for the new bar the hotel is developing and plans to call "1922." Instead, how about "Clyde's Place?" When you think of Clyde Tingley you think of Mayor Tingley, Governor Tingley or City Commissioner Tingley. Clyde? Not so much. Congrats to the hotel's owners on their revival of New Mexico history but how about they put the name to a vote? Clyde Tingley always did relish a good campaign. THE BOTTOM LINES In a first draft Tuesday we blogged that Scott Forrester was chief of staff for Rep. Deb Haaland. He was her district director and today is Chief of Staff for Rep. Melanie Stansbury. E-mail your news and comments. (newsguy@yahoo.com) Interested in reaching New Mexico's most informed audience? Advertise here. (c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2022 Tuesday, March 22, 2022Checking On The Paychecks: What Top NM DC Staffers Pull Down, Plus: Readers Write Of The Special Session And APD Overtime Abuse Scott Forrester, chief of staff to ABQ Dem Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury and who held the position of district director under former ABQ US Rep. Deb Haaland, appears to be the highest paid among the staff heavies. Forrester's precise pay isn't listed but given as a range of $152,000 to $169,000 a year. On top of that Forrester, a former political consultant, currently earns about $900 a month for working on Stansbury's re-election campaign. That used to be a prohibited practice. Even though it is now allowed it is unusual for a staff chief to do paid campaign work. Current records do not show any other of the chiefs to be drawing a salary from a campaign. Forrester works at the ABQ district office, instead of in DC, another departure from tradition for a chief of staff. Stansbury and other rank and file members of Congress make $174,000 a year, a rate that hasn't changed since the Great Recession struck in 2009 and members held back on pay hikes. Rep. Stansbury, who was a consultant on natural resources issues before going to the US House, took advantage of a little used law to give herself a pay day when she first sought election. As a candidate for the congressional seat in the June 2020 special election to replace Deb Haaland, who had been appointed Sec. of Interior, Stansbury gave herself a salary from campaign funds that totaled $3,600 for the short campaign. Congressional candidates can draw a salary from campaign money but not incumbents. Several Republicans are running for Stansbury's congressional seat that now dips into SE NM as well as the ABQ metro. The favorite for the GOP nomination is Louis Sanchez who previously made a run for the GOP Senate nomination and who ran and then dropped out of this year's race for Governor. Stansbury remains favored in the November election. Records our Senior Gator checked also show that Ben Ray Lujan Chief of Staff, Carolos Sanchez, is paid about $166,000 per year; the staff chief for Sen. Heinrich makes about $164,000 and the staff chief for US Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez earns around $133,000. Last in line in for chief of staff pay for the congressional delegation is Michael Horanburg from the office of GOP US Rep. Yvette Herrell who earns about $124,000. DC staffers until recently were not allowed to make more than the $174,000 paid to their boss but that was changed to allow them to earn as much as $199,000 because leadership believed they would lose talent if pay rates stayed frozen. FUNDRAISING HALT One of the downsides of a special session for the state House candidates on the campaign trail is the required halt in fundraising. The fund-raising ban begins when MLG issues her proclamation for the April 5 session and ends when lawmakers adjourn. That's a relatively short period of time but with many contested Dem June primaries the pause will be felt. As for the candidates for Governor and Lt. Governor their blackout period extends until 20 days after the session ends. GO BIG A reader writes of the debate over how much those planned rebate checks should be for New Mexico residents and that will be on the special session agenda: This is the time when the state has all that money to go big. After what people have been through with the pandemic, inflation and now high gas prices, give to the citizens. We have the money. MLG needs to go big or go home. It could make the difference in being re-elected or not. She’s not all that popular. HOW MUCH? Reader Tom Miles writes of our report last week revealing more overtime abuse at APD with one officer who has since been fired--receiving over $242,000 in annual pay: In addition to your great piece on police overtime, it would be cool to have a companion piece on the taxpayer-funded citizen APD/BernCo Sheriff lawsuit payouts. It all adds up and should somehow be remediable with some brass-ball clear thinking and acting, no? Those dollars could surely be put to better use supporting needy citizens, homelessness and business development. To be clear, it was TV news that broke the latest case of outrageous overtime and we followed up. And yes, Tom, it is time for an update on how much APD and BernCo have paid out recently for lawsuit settlements for law enforcement misconduct. We'll check. This is the home of New Mexico politics.E-mail your news and comments. (newsguy@yahoo.com) Interested in reaching New Mexico's most informed audience? Advertise here. (c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2022 Monday, March 21, 2022Dem Special Session Deal Spares Guv Embarrassment And Shifts Focus To Economy; She Avoids Veto Override, Plus: Fresh Rebate Debate; How Much? And: GOP Power Player Pat Rogers Dead In ABQ That's the deal--a politically essential one for the Democrats--struck between the Governor and lawmakers disgruntled over her veto of a prized $50 million pork bill that had them considering calling themselves into an extraordinary session to overturn the veto. Instead, a chastened Fourth Floor did a turnaround and negotiated a special session she will call for April 5 where a new pork bill will be drafted that the legislature can approve and put the ugly memory of the veto in the rearview mirror. And that sigh of relief heard in the dens of Democrats is the agreement to have only the spending bill and inflation relief on the special agenda. No combative and unproductive arguments (and divisive stalemates) over crime, hydrogen energy and the like. This smart politics deal leaves Republicans grouchy as it deprives them of a major opportunity to sow discord in the state's majority party as they attempt to take back the Governor's office this November. Senate Minority Leader Greg Baca declared that the "people of New Mexico will not forget" the "vindictive" veto of the bill that included funding for senior programs and law enforcement equipment. But memories are short and the veto will be--if not forgotten--a mere footnote now that MLG has basically admitted to an unforced error and is making amends. What will be remembered about the upcoming special is how much relief New Mexicans will get from steep gas and grocery prices. True to form the austerity hawks at the powerful Legislative Finance Committee are already lowballing proposed rebates, putting a ceiling on them as low as $110 for those singles with incomes below $75,000 and double that for households below $150,000. But that's now chump change, argue those urging larger--much larger--rebates. They make the case that the rebates will be one time--not recurring--so they won't place a burden on the state if the financial sky were to fall. Not that such a fall is expected anytime soon. With the booming SE NM Permian Basin now expected to churn out revenue from the Black Gold for years--not months: . . . The boom times are likely here to stay, at least for the next few years, given the vast shale-based reservoirs yet to be tapped in southeastern New Mexico and West Texas, said Raoul LeBlanc, vice president at IHS Markit, a global energy consultant. “The Permian Basin remains the best place to drill in the U.S. in terms of profitability. Plays in other basins will likely grow given today’s prices, but we believe the Permian Basin will remain the primary growth place for the country going forward. When will the LFC bean counters adjust to this new reality? Given the backdrop even tight-fisted Senate Finance Committee Chairman George Munoz is less chintzy than the LFC as he eyes rebates of $300 for single taxpayer filers and $600 for joint filers. But even that is seen as inadequate in a state that is generating so much revenue that reserve funds are being accumulated at an unprecedented rate and as consumers fight sticker shock at the grocery and gas pumps. THE MAINE WAY  Townsend, R-Artesia, said the rebate amounted to a pittance when considering the significant increase in costs for the average household. He added that rural New Mexico is feeling the pinch even more since residents have to drive farther for groceries and doctor visits. . . We have to be concerned about people's standard of living. Today in New Mexico, about 24% of seniors live in poverty and a little more than a third of those are raising grandchildren because of family issues. Welcome aboard, Jim. We've been waiting for you. And how much do you think the new rebates should be? Which takes us to the state of Maine. Yes--Maine--where we find a rebate number that could easily be plugged into New Mexico: Maine’s governor released a revised budget proposal that would increase checks the state plans to send to residents to $850. Democratic Gov. Janet Mills said she wants to increase the relief checks because of factors such as high inflation and rising fuels costs. The money would go to residents who earn less than $75,000 as individuals or $150,000 if filing jointly. Mills said the checks would give back half the state’s surplus to about 800,000 residents of the state. If approved, the proposal would result in a $8.67 billion General Fund budget. The currently enacted budget is $8.5 billion. Maine's rebates would cost $652 million, half that state's surplus. If New Mexico went that route the state would be handing back to taxpayers $1.25 billion of the $2.5 billion General Fund reserve--and that doesn't include other billions accumulating in the the Revenue Stabilization Fund, the Early Childhood Trust Fund, the Land Grant Permanent School Fund or the Severance Tax Permanent Fund, The rebate checks approved at the last session will cost $338 million. The math is easy. Double those checks to $500 and $1000 and you come in at less than $700 million. And that may not be a pittance but neither is it a bounty when you consider that surplus revenues continue to soar to previously unimagined heights. As Rep. Townsend pointed out, we have one of the largest percentages of low income residents in the nation whose pocketbooks are hit hardest by this bout of nasty inflation. The Governor and the legislature have plenty of room to think big and go big. PAT ROGERS Pat Rogers will be remembered as a fierce Republican warrior, taking on anyone with a D in front of their name and often fellow Republicans. Rogers, 66, died in Albuquerque over the weekend. Friends say the cause was cancer. Rogers rose to political fame as an attorney for the Republican Party, a NM GOP National Committeeman and a lobbyist with deep ties to Gov. Martinez's (2011-2018) political machine. Rogers' bulldog approach always kept him just steps away from controversy. In 2012 as the state's Republican National Committeeman he fell on his sword when he suggested in an email to Martinez staffers that she had "dishonored" Col. Custer by attending a summit with state tribal leaders. The statement caused a furor but Rogers dismissed it as a weak attempt at humor. Rogers' lengthy communications as a lobbyist via private email accounts with Martinez administration staffers was another major headline he made. Those communications, in which he comfortably discussed a wide range of issues with top officials, cost him his position with the NM Foundation for Open Government. His service at FOG was long-standing and praised, even as he ran afoul of transparency standards while lobbying. Within the GOP Rogers was at the founding of the party's most visible modern split--the one between advocates for Martinez and those who opposed her like prominent Republican oilman Harvey Yates. It's a split that persists to this day and surfaced again last month when GOP Guv candidate Mark Ronchetti, whose political consultant Jay McCleskey headed the Martinez machine, ran into headwinds at the GOP preprimary convention. Yates took on Rogers for the committeeman post in 2016 and ousted him in yet another major development in Rogers' long political career. As a GOP attorney Rogers was also deeply involved in pushing allegations of voter fraud and was involved in numerous court actions. No major fraud was ever demonstrated even as the GOP made the issue a centerpiece of their agenda as seen in the 2020 presidential election. The state GOP said of his passing: A talented attorney and dedicated Republican, Pat helped advanced the conservative cause in New Mexico for many years. Our prayers are with Pat's friends and family during this trying time. He will be greatly missed. Pat Rogers had the courage of his convictions and brought his "A" game to any battle he joined. His topsy-turvy time on the stage certainly earned him a chapter in the never ending book of La Politica. This is the home of New Mexico politics. E-mail your news and comments. (newsguy@yahoo.com) Interested in reaching New Mexico's most informed audience? Advertise here. (c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2022 |
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