Tuesday, August 17, 2021MLG High Cabinet Turnover Draws Scrutiny But Does It Have Political Legs? Plus: Debating Jail Bookings, Ten Possible Stapleton Replacements In Place And A Covid Bomb She admits she's a hard to work for boss and the high turnover in MLG's cabinet as portrayed in this chart from the New Mexican certainly attests to that. Whether the musical chairs in the administration becomes a hot issue in the Guv race is far from certain. Voters tend to give the executive a lot of latitude when it comes to personnel. But the departure this month of CYFD Secretary Brian Blalock under an ethical cloud presents the R's an opportunity, if they can link that and other turnover directly to government performance. GOP hopeful Rebecca Dow gave it a shot as Blalock headed to the exits: It’s eye-opening to understand just how often high-level officials are turning over under MLG but not surprising. It’s no wonder the agencies that run our state are slow and clunky and fail to perform. This is just a chart of secretaries. There is also high turnover at the deputy level, her chief of staff, political advisors, and legislative liaisons. A true leader surrounds themselves with other leaders who carry out their duties with integrity and commitment. As for the "integrity" mentioned by Dow of the dearly departed cabinet bosses, none has been indicted or charged with a crime, although the Blalock scandal eruption had to throw a scare into the Fourth Floor. On the crime beat Monday we blogged that "bookings have also crashed at the (Metro) jail, from 38,349 in 2010 to 17,734 in 2020." ABQ attorney Jeff Baker comes with this: Because of the McClendon federal class action lawsuit involving the jail, APD now issues citations to folks they used to arrest and book. The policy has been in place for a number of years. It is a mistake to correlate bookings to murders. The jail used to be full of folks who did not have $50 (10% of a $500 bond for a low level misdemeanor which typically was dismissed because it was not important enough to prosecute). The old system, in which everyone was arrested and everyone was booked into jail, had two results: the jail was overcrowded and it made bail bondsmen wealthy; it did little to keep the community safer. Blaming Mayor Keller, former APD Chief Michael Geier or current Chief Harold Medina for the explosion of homicides misses the mark. It is a function of a lethal cocktail of untreated mental illness, cheap drugs, and easy access to guns. That lawsuit did have a major impact on bookings but Medina himself noted in our interview that he believes there are not enough people going to jail--especially repeat offenders and those involved in violent crimes. REPLACING STAPLETON  There are plenty of choices for the Bernalillo County Commission to name a replacement for former State Rep. Sheryl Williams Stapleton who resigned this month amid scandal. Ten individuals have filed applications with the commission to fill out the remainder of Stapleton's term to her District 19 SE Heights seat. Their names were posted on Facebook by Commissioner Charlene Pyskoty. The five member panel will meet August 24 via zoom to name the new representative. The District 19 seat is all D all the time and the commission is 4 to 1 Dem. The seat is highly coveted. Stapleton had held it since 1995. Meanwhile, 9 minutes of police lapel camera video of Stapleton's house being raided in connection with the APS scandal has emerged. The early morning raid shows a stunned Stapleton in the front of her home asking police what's going on. She has not yet been formally charged with a crime. A COVID BOMB One of the biggest failures in the handling of the Covid crisis in our state has been that massive $500 million loan program to help struggling small businesses. It has only distributed about $73 million, mainly because of restrictive conditions. Another reason is that shell-shocked businesses do not want to take on a lot of debt in this unsettled environment, no matter how cheap. So why not cut the fund in half and convert it a grant program, directly aiding businesses who with a brief credit check and interview could demonstrate exceptional need? The loan program is being financed from the $6 billion Severance Tax Permanent Fund and has made legislators feel good about doing something but businesses in need and getting slammed again by the Delta variant are not sharing the good vibes. Rather than keeping the unused cash in the fund because of a lack of demand, why not direct the NM Finance Authority to loosen the purse strings and put it to work in local businesses that support the work force? 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 2021 |
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