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If you have an opinion about how Albuquerque’s city charter ought to be revised, or not, you’ll have four chances to give your take directly to the new charter review task force members. But two of those chances are coming up quickly, so you better get on it pronto.
At their meeting a week ago Thursday, the task force discussed the charter amendment process and finalized its work plan. The articles are divided into four sections, with the first two being discussed and voted on right away.
Through this framework, task force members will consider the entire charter, and specifically address topics of concern brought to their attention in letters submitted by the City Council and Mayor Martin Chavez.
Sections One and Two: Charter Process, Human Rights, the Environment, and Electricity
The group will hear public comment at its Oct. 2 meeting regarding how to amend or sever the charter, as well as articles concerning human rights, the environment and electricity.
The City Council has asked the task force to specifically consider whether the human rights article should include “sexual orientation” as a protected class.
Section Three: City Governance
On Oct. 16, they’ll move on to city governance issues pertaining to articles about the City Council, the mayor, the annual budget process, city employees, and the veto process for legislation.
They’ll also consider whether current unelected officials — namely the city attorney and the city clerk — should be independent, and they’ll discuss issues concerning administrative law judges. Public comment will be heard on Oct. 16, and the group will discuss the issues through Dec. 4.
City governance issues are what led to the formation of the task force in the first place. City councilors are fed up with fighting with the mayor over who makes what decisions, and they want more clarity in the charter about separation of powers.
Among the 14 issues the City Council highlighted in its letter to the task force, a number specifically concern separation of powers between the council and the mayor.
For instance, the council would like a clarification “that council policy cannot be ignored or thwarted during the period between a bill’s approval by the council and the mayor’s action on that bill.” NMI readers may recall the recent conflict between the council and the mayor over the purchase of a balloon fiesta landing site, as one example.
Another point called for in the letter is for a clarification of “the mayor’s role in budgetary matters, including personnel policies adopted by the council.” For example, recently the council has been quite angry that the 3.5 percent pay raise they approved for city workers in the 2008/2009 budget has been reduced to 3 percent by the administration.
Section Four: Ethics and Elections
After Oct. 16, you have to wait until Jan. 15 to speak up, when you get to weigh in on ethics and elections issues, as the final section deals with articles concerning municipal elections, public power, the code of ethics, the election code, and the city’s public financing for elections provision.
The mayor’s letter to the task force focused mostly on ethics. For instance, he’d like the group to ensure that recent charter amendments concerning ethics and elections are consistent with existing sections of the charter. He’d also like task force members to review whether current ethics provisions are sufficient to address conflicts of interest.
The City Council also asked that the group clarify requirements regarding deadlines, signatures, and contribution rules for the city’s new campaign finance provision.
Going public, or not
Task force members spent a considerable amount of time at their meeting last week ironing out how to balance public access to and participation in the charter review process while also creating a working environment that facilitates frank and productive discussions.
Task force member Steve Gallegos asked at the outset of the meeting why the meeting wasn’t being televised as the group has agreed to previously. He also noted there were no media present, asking rhetorically, “Are the media not interested?”
As it turned out, the meeting was advertised as being broadcast on GovTv, so maybe the public intended to watch it from home. However, a decision was made to not televise the meeting before it began.
City Councilors Sally Mayer and Trudy Jones spoke at the beginning of the meeting urging that the task force not televise the proceedings. They both said they opposed televised proceedings in the interest of productivity, with Mayer saying she thought task force members sitting “shoulder to shoulder staring out at an empty auditorium” would hamper discussion.
Several task force members agreed, saying that the public had the option of attending meetings in person but that televising them would lessen the degree to which task force members would freely discuss the issues.
In the end, they decided to televise four meetings at which public comment would be taken. The meetings will correspond roughly with the introduction of each block of articles to be discussed, with the first being next week and the final being March 19, at what they hope will be the end of the discussion and voting process. You can also submit written comments at any time.
