I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
Not only does incumbent Mayor Martin Chavez think Richard Romero is out of touch when he says Albuquerque’s water future isn’t secure, he also argues that Romero was complicit in the creation of a new city-county water utility that downgraded the city’s control.
Here is the statement that his campaign sent to the Independent yesterday regarding Romero’s comment that “no mayor can honestly claim that our water future is secure”:
Once again Richard Romero demonstrates he is clearly out of touch. The San Juan Chama Project and the water conservation program, all spearheaded by Mayor Chavez, won the World Leadership Award in London in 2006 as the best initiative of its kind in the world. The San Juan Chama Project literally saved Albuquerque and put us on a water par with every major city in America.
Richard Romero, on the other hand, led the effort with Manny Aragon to take Albuquerque’s water utility away from the taxpayers and the City of Albuquerque and give it to those who didn’t pay for it.
Mayor Chavez currently serves as the chair of the United States Conference of Mayors Water Council and is recognized nationally as an expert on this matter.
Chavez’s comment about Albuquerque’s water utility refers to ex-state Senator Manny Aragon’s 2003 Senate bill that created the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority. Chavez urged Gov. Richardson to veto the bill in an Albuquerque Journal opinion piece shortly after the 2003 session, but the governor went ahead and signed it, leading to the water authority that exists today. At the time, Romero was senate president pro tem.
Update: Richard Romero told the Independent that while he voted for the bill creating the ABQ-Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority, he had nothing to do with crafting it or pushing it in the legislature. Here is his statement:
“My relationship with Manny wasn’t the best the last four years because I knocked him out of his position [as Senate President]. I’d never collaborate with him on legislation, and that bill came as a surprise. I thought a lot about it, talked to a lot of people in the County, and decided it would be a good thing. It created a collaborative relationship between the city and county on water, and I think it’s working pretty well.”
Romero also that he did not vote for the other bill that came up that year that Chavez editorialized against—which took away the city’s extra-territorial zoning authority.
