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| Keller & Nair |
"I'm sick of being sick over our town."
So says retired APD sergeant, City Hall watchdog and part-time journalist Dan Klein as he turns an eye toward the latest downtown transgressions.
This time it is the abuse of sick leave policy, although the administration denies it, coming fast on the heels of an historic APD scandal. That wrongdoing involves numerous officers who allegedly took bribes from a lawyer of DWI defendants to get them off the hook by not showing up for their trials.
That's a lot of wrongdoing on Mayor Keller's plate--as well as that of the nine City Council. Klein brings the city up to date.
Again, the following are the opinions of Klein and written by him:
It's a sordid story in which the city's Inspector General investigated possibly illegal sick leave payouts to some of the highest ranking members of the administration of Mayor Tim Keller. That includes Sarita Nair, the city's former Chief Administrative Officer and ten other higher-ups.
Nair is now a cabinet secretary under MLG and has refused comment on the wrongdoing.
The IG investigation confirmed that the top-level staffers were awarded over $52,000 in sick leave hours they did not earn and that was handed out like candy, but only to Keller’s inner circle. This allowed these the top dogs to cash out those hours and take extended paid leave when they resigned their positions.
This is sick time the IG stated that city regulations prohibit. Keller’s staff argues this “paid leave off (PLO)” has always been done and it’s their right to do so. Really?
I invite Mayors Richard Berry, Marty Chavez and Jim Baca to tell us if they allowed this to happen under their watch? The IG, the taxpayers' watchdog, vigorously disagrees that Keller has such authority.
The Merit Ordinance and Rules and Regulations do not provide for employees with less than 500 sick time hours to be compensated for that time. If you have less than that you forfeit those hours when you depart the city. That's is how it has always been with thousands of past city employees obeying the rule.
None of the individuals involved can plead ignorance nor can they claim they have the authority to change rules whenever it serves them or their buddies.
Keller's spokeswoman says the city can “create exceptions for leave policies and it’s not unusual to do so for senior employees…”
This amounts to telling the citizens of Albuquerque to ignore their Inspector General and take Keller at his word that all is well. It seems Mayor Keller, nearing the end of his second term, believes the citizens he serves are simpletons. Clearly arrogance, power-obsession and gaslighting have infected the 11th Floor.
This sick leave scheme allowed these well-compensated employees (the CAO was making nearly $200,000 a year) to either extend their employment days by getting a paycheck for months at a time without going to work. They also gained pension credits while sitting at home.
NO FEAR
And they think the City Council is a joke.
Because of the inaction of past Attorney General, Hector Balderas, who failed to pursue charges for "tasergate" during the Mayor Berry years or the referral that then-State Auditor Colon sent him regarding widespread APD overtime abuses, it was clear to those involved in the sick leave caper that there is no consequences for illegal actions.
When “the gardeners” stop pulling the weeds from government, those weeds multiply and take over. In Albuquerque’s case the weeds and the gardeners are all friends. They hang out together and they support each other and their families. Maybe that is why corruption inside City Hall is ignored?
It’s time that our gardeners put friendships and politics aside and open investigations into what the IG says were illegal payouts. They work for the taxpayers and we deserve to know if a crime has been committed and if so, the violators will face justice.
We just witnessed history in two trials regarding Trump and Hunter Biden. Those gardeners did not turn a blind eye. What our gardeners do next will either put Albuquerque on the map as a corrupt city with no consequences or a city where justice is equal for all.
Postscript: The IG has asked that those who took the sick leave in question return it. Only one city employee has done so. They returned $526.00.
Thanks, Dan.
COUNCIL MEDDLING
@ABQCityCouncil took us backward by amending an already bad proposal. Rather than lowering the threshold to be elected mayor or city councilor from 50% to 40%, they've eliminated any threshold altogether. Candidates under this scheme could be elected with 10% for example. The 6-3 passage of this proposal means, voters will be confronted with a question on this November's ballot to eliminate run-offs and move to a free-for-all voting process where fringe candidates and special interests will dominate our elections.
The conservative wing of the Council and Keller have butted heads but the unneeded and anti-Democratic move picked up some Democratic support, an indication of the overall Council frustration with Dem Mayor Keller.
But the move is temperamental and bad for our city. We had a no threshold election in 1997 when liberal Democrat Jim Baca was elected with 29 percent of the vote in an eight candidate race. The results were not pretty and the no threshold requirement was abandoned.
This measure approved last night with a veto proff majority would bring to the mainstream divisive far left and far right politics that ABQ has largely avoided.
A crowded November ballot does not bode well for alerting ABQ voters of the foolish leap this Council has taken and persuade them to reject the Banana Republic plan. But we'll do our best between now and then.
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