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In a statement today, ABQ mayoral candidate Richard Romero called on incumbent Mayor Martin Chavez to “stop fighting for his misguided SunCal soccer park.”
Here’s a little background, first.
After the Albuquerque City Attorney said last week that the mayor’s Capital Improvement Program (CIP) would be the one that went to voters in the fall instead of the one ultimately approved by the City Council, the mayor offered a “compromise” CIP that eliminates the most controversial component of his original plan — the building of a huge swimming pool at Tingley Beach. But it keeps in everything else that the City Council had cut, including an $8 million soccer complex to be built on Westside land donated by SunCal Corporation.
Pointing out that Chavez’s campaign manager, Mark Fleisher, is also a registered lobbyist for SunCal, Romero alleged that the mayor wants to build the soccer field for SunCal because the company doesn’t have the cash flow.
“SunCal doesn’t have the cashflow to build this park on their own land, so the mayor wants the taxpayers to do it for them,” said Romero. “His campaign manager is a registered lobbyist for SunCal and this $8M sports complex in the middle of nowhere just doesn’t pass the smell test.”
“What the City Budget needs is the $6.6M appropriated by the City Council for the Ventana Ranch Community Park,” Romero continued. “This project will serve an area where THOUSANDS of KIDS already live. The Mayor wants to eliminate that park and build the SunCal park where NO KIDS live. Who is he looking out for? SunCal or the existing Westside residents that desperately need more parks and green space.”
Romero said that the Ventana Ranch project will no longer be in the CIP and the SunCal soccer field would be re-inserted, if the Mayor’s legal opinion stands. And that would be “misguided,” he said.
“The Ventana Ranch sports complex has already been designed and gone through extensive community input and should be the priority,” said Romero. “It’s misguided for the taxpayers to fund an irrigation line and $8M soccer complex in the middle of nowhere.”
