Hello Albuquerque, Are You Paying Attention?

Almost exactly two years ago, I was pointing out that Albuquerque Mayor Marty Chavez had Arena Envy in a big way:

And yes, we did talk about Mayor Martin Chavez' desire to put $125 million of taxpayer money on the line to fix his Arena Envy problem. It seems the Mayor really wants to get a big one, no matter whose property rights he has to trample.

You would think that the reported financial problems of Rio Rancho's Santa Ana Star arena would have cured Mayor Chavez of pursuing his own arena dreams, but it seems, like many of the bad ideas proposed by this administration, it is put back on the table every two years:

The Star Center has been a costly undertaking for the city. Rio Rancho sold $36 million worth of bonds to build the $47 million, 6,500-seat center, and pledged gross receipts tax revenues to back the bonds.

At the time, Albuquerque was considering building a Downtown arena, but Rio Rancho beat its larger neighbor to the punch. Soon after Rio Rancho announced its arena plan, Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chávez said he was "pulling the plug" on its arena, saying taxpayers would likely have to back debt for the project.

Albuquerque is now reconsidering building its own 12,000-seat arena and 450-room hotel near the convention center downtown. The project is expected to cost $398 million.

Albuquerque city officials are expected to make a decision in six or seven months, after a feasibility study is completed.

So, explain something to me. If twenty four months ago, it made sense to pull the plug because taxpayers would have had to foot the bill, what would have changed now? After all, we have now learned from Rio Rancho not only will taxpayers have to back the debt (i.e. bonds), but in all likelihood, taxpayers will have to pay ongoing costs when the ill-conceived project under delivers the performance outlined in the feasibility project.

We've already seen new taxes being pushed to support the government's last greatest economic development ideas - spaceport and train. Do we really now want to pay more in taxes to pay for an arena as well? I'm thinking enough is enough. Until the government can pay for their last great idea without coming back to the "taxpayer bank," I don't think they should get to move ahead with any new "great ideas."

Off to a Great Start

Sometimes you read something, and you can't help but shake your head in amazement (subscription):

During the first meeting of Albuquerque's new City Council on Monday, four members refused to attend because of a squabble over who should be president.

Don Harris, Sally Mayer, Ken Sanchez and new Councilor Trudy Jones boycotted the meeting. They met at Capo's restaurant, about three blocks away, and held a news conference later at City Hall.

In their absence, the council elected Brad Winter to serve as president for the next year.

Hmm, last I checked a Council is supposed to be a deliberative legislative body. Usually, deliberation requires people to be in the room. If the liberals on the Council are able to make the others run off and lick their wounds so easily, we are in for a LONG year. I'm agreeing with the Eye on this one.

Sitting Through a Candidates Forum

I attended the Albuquerque City Council Candidate forum organized by the Albuquerque Metropolitan Board of Realtors, the Apartment Association of New Mexico, the Commercial Association of Realtors New Mexico, the Home Builders Association of Central New Mexico and the National Association of Industrial & Office Properties.

You can read about it over at the New Mexico Business Weekly online. Overall, it was pretty unexciting. For the most part, people said exactly what you would expect them to say on some of the hotter topics:

Affordable housing was a hot topic given the pending $10 million general obligation bond that will be on the ballot Oct. 6. The Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce has come out in opposition to the bond question, arguing the bill could prevent implementation of the workforce housing ordinance.

Katherine Martinez, director of government and community affairs for the Home Builders Association of Central New Mexico, who is running against Debbie O'Malley for the District 6 seat, said there should be a focus on keeping housing affordable across the city by evaluating legislation that puts additional fees on the building industry that are then passed to homebuyers. Her comments were echoed by Harris and Jones, who preached incentives rather than mandates for creating such housing, and Brad Winter, the incumbent in District 4. His opponent, Paulette de'Pascal, added that there should be input from all stakeholders when creating mandates for things like affordable housing -- a stance she reiterated often during other questions. De'Pascal owns Success Group International, a marketing, public relations and consulting firm.

Yup, as reported, Ms. de'Pascal was very fond of using the phrase "input from all stakeholders." So, I'm guessing that must have been something she learned during her studies.

This is not to say there weren't a few amusingly bizarre moments. For example, Joan Griffin commented that she was in part motivated to run because she was tired of hearing about "men picking up men in public restrooms." I kid you not, she did say that line.

Then there was Paulette De'Pascal's claim that she has "no enemies other than her ex-husband as widely reported in the Albuquerque Journal."

Oh, and I almost forgot, Councilor Debbie O'Malley decided to try and "discredit" her opponent Katherine Martinez by pointing out that O'Malley's family has deeper roots in the North Valley. How backwards is that? Maybe Councilor O'Malley would like to pass a city ordinance barring any recent migrant from another state from voting or seeking public office until their family has been in New Mexico for two or more generations.

I'm glad I live in the East Mountains. If you want to experience what I sat through, radio station KANW-FM 89.1 will broadcast a recording of the forum Sept. 26 at 6 p.m.

Greg Payne Responds To Sandra Richardson

I had some calls from folks yesterday wondering about the authenticity of that email I posted from Sandra Richardson yesterday. Well, I heard from Greg Payne himself, and now there is no doubt it's real:

Mario,

Following is my response -- on Sunday, July 15th from my own computer -- to the e-mail you've since posted from Sandra Richardson, dated July 14th.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: RE: Paulette, THE PLAN and the structure
From: greg@gregpayne.com
Date: Sun, July 15, 2007 8:44 am
To: "Sandra P. Richardson" <sprichardson@comcast.net>
Cc: ckb8249@msn.com, depascal@aol.com

Please forward this to Mike Collins. He'll be consulting Paulette on the campaign.

Thanks,

Greg

Greg feels confident that this indicates that someone other than himself would be working or "consulting" on the campaign. And, he asks people to consider if he were running the show, why would he want it forwarded to somebody else?

So my friends, what do you think? Don't be shy, go ahead and put your comments below.

How Much Computing Power Does One Campaign Need

Paulette de'Pascal, the taxpayer funded City Council Candidate in Albuquerque District 4, has raised more than a couple of eyebrows with her purchase of a $2,990.26 computer from the Apple Store at ABQ Uptown.

Now, I'm not one to question anyone's decision to buy an Apple computer. After all, I'm in advertising, you know, the industry that LOVES Apple. In fact, most of the computers in our shop are Apples. I've bought several in the last couple of years, which is why I'm kind of sitting here and scratching my head.

You see, $2990.26 is an awful lot of computer. Sure, Apple computers sell for a premium over most PC's, but $2990.26? You can get an iMac for as little $999, or even a MacBook laptop for as little as $1099 (what I've been using for the last three years). As someone who has run a campaign, I can tell you that would have all of the computing power Ms. de'Pascal could possibly need.

Instead, it looks like Ms. de'Pascal opted to use just shy of 10% of her taxpayer funded campaign resources to buy something like a MacBook Pro at $2,799+tax.

So, how does Ms. de'Pascal propose to fix this serious error in judgement? By returning the extravagant taxpayer funded purchase and buying something a little more sensible? Hmm... no. There is no way she is going to part with that really cool computer. Nope, her solution is to insult our intelligence by pretending to do the right thing by turning the outright purchase of this extravagant machine into a lease.

Ms. de'Pascal would like us all to forget this whole thing, and focus on the issues. The thing is, with all of the hoopla going on in Rio Rancho regarding inappropriate spending, it seems that this is the issue.

UPDATE: I stand corrected. Thanks, Billy. It looks like Ms. de'Pascal bought " bought 2 computers and 2 printers for [her] campaign." So, I guess she needed double the computing power. But , the inappropriate spending theme still rings true. If you were running a business campaign for six months (roughly the amount of time she has to spend taxpayer money on this thing) would you put NEARLY 10% of your resources into a capital investment? Probably, only if you were using SOMEONE ELSE'S money. Not the type of person I would want making budget decisions down at City Hall.

Beating the Cameras

Just found a new ABQ blog, check out it out here.

Just Like I Said

Last night I wrote about third world tactics, and today Hugo Chavez was good enough to help illustrate my point (subscription):

As Venezuela embarked on another six years under Hugo Chavez, the president announced plans to nationalize power and telecom companies and make other bold changes that will concentrate more power in his hands.

Chavez, who will be sworn in Wednesday to a third term that runs until 2013, also said he wanted a constitutional amendment to strip the Central Bank of its autonomy and would soon ask the National Assembly, solidly controlled by his allies, to give him greater powers to legislate by presidential decree.

See, I don't make this stuff up.

Third World Tactics

Ever wonder why most Latin American countries lag so far behind the United States when it comes to economic prosperity? Think inadequate protection of private property rights. See, it is hard to encourage growth in countries where a sudden change in the political landscape can result in the new government deciding to seize a private investment for the "public good."

Keeping that in mind, what sort of message do you think this sends (subscription) to those who would consider investing in New Mexico:

In 2004, [the newly formed public Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority] increased what it charges [the privately owned New Mexico Utilities Inc.] for sewer service by tens of thousands of dollars [in blatant violation of a 1973 contract]. The utility [which has provided services to area residents since the 1960's] sued.

The authority [created in 2003] has made no secret that it wants to condemn New Mexico Utilities and merge its operations with the city/county agency.

Think about that... a new governmental agency is formed in 2003, and one of their first orders of business is to try and seize a private company. A private company that has been operating a viable, growing and successful business for more than 40 years. This is wrong. Our elected officials need to be reminded that this is not the way that America works.

What's More Disturbing?

The City of Albuquerque had a 42 percent increase in auto theft (subscription) in the first seven months of the year. That's cause for alarm, and it reflects negatively on Mayor Martin Chavez. However, one of the proposed solutions is just beyond creepy:

Having the police department purchase computerized license plate readers. The devices can be placed at different places in town to read plates as cars pass by. A nearby officer is alerted if the device reads a plate from a car that has been reported stolen.

First, there were a few cameras at intersections to stop people from running red lights. Now, they want to put computerized license plate readers all around town to monitor every car as it goes past. At what point do we say enough is enough?