About 20 New Mexico lawmakers and 18 staff members attended the legislative summit July 22-26 in the Big Easy at a cost to New Mexico taxpayers estimated around $65,000, including airfare, lodging and registration, reports the Albuquerque Journal.

The lawmakers and staff who traveled to New Orleans were among 1,000 or so elected officials who participated in an event hosted by the National Conference of State Legislatures. And Like other conferences where elected officials gather, special interests picked up a large part of the cost, and sent their lobbyists and other representatives to work the crowd.

Bernalillo County’s revived ethics board already has an issue and it hasn’t even met, the Albuquerque Journal reports.

Dan McKay of the Journal reports:
 

Don Bruckner, an attorney and ethics board member, said the board should consider the conduct of Bernalillo County Commission candidate Michael Wiener, who contacted 22 county employees this summer through their government e-mail accounts to solicit campaign donations. Wiener is unopposed on the fall ballot.

Three more buildings at Santa Fe Indian School are scheduled for demolition after 15 buildings already have been torn down, the Santa Fe New Mexican reports. The demolition of the buildings generated controversy when it began in late July.

The city of Farmington will begin curbside recycling in January after the city’s mayor cast a tie-breaking vote early Wednesday, the Farmington Daily Times reports. According to the paper:
 

Residents who live in homes, including single-family ones and duplexes, will pay an additional $4.70 each month to recycle aluminum and steel cans, cardboard, soda boxes, several kinds of plastic, paper bags, news and office paper, magazines, junk mail and other items.

A portion of residents’ increased trash bill — $1.56 cents — will go toward a new $3 million recycling center in Farmington.