Albuquerque City Council President Isaac Benton thinks that Mayor Martin Chavez’s veto of a bill placing city charter amendments on the October municipal ballot has a good chance of an override by the council. The question is a matter of timing, he told the Independent.

“I would support a veto override,” he said.  “And think the council would likely support an override, but we need to get the wheels in motion for doing that. Our problem now is timing.”

Because the council doesn’t have any meetings scheduled for July, they may need to call a special meeting in order to ensure the measures are on the ballot.

Benton addressed the three points the mayor gave for his veto.

Regarding the issue of a salary commission that would determine pay raises, Benton said it isn’t an “end run,” as the mayor said, because the commission itself is being put before the public for a vote.

“The idea that this is an end run around a public vote on the issue of pay raises seems ludicrous,” he said, “since this is putting to a public vote a new means of determining pay raises for elected officials. People can vote it up or down.”

Chavez also said in his veto message that the charter amendments “fail to strengthen the conflict of interest provisions of the City Charter for the legislative branch.”

The task force didn’t make such recommendations, Benton said, and he’s not sure why the mayor would veto a bill based on it not containing something.

Benton said the third element of the mayor’s veto message — that the amendments “weaken the executive branch in favor of the legislative branch” — is concerning if it’s about the amendments that strengthen the independence of the city clerk and the city attorney.

“That may be an indication that the city clerk and the city attorney’s office in the mayor’s mind are primarily his staff and not the city council’s, and that concerns me,” he concluded.