Is Huffman-Ramirez going down?

Blogger Monahan writes; link, the way forward for Mayor Richard Berry's administration is to reassign Chief Administrative Officer Robert Perry, Public Information Officer Chris Huffman-Ramirez, and Chief of Police Ray Schultz.

Moving forward means damage control in the aftermath of the first press conference on the brouhaha surrounding Public Safety Director Darren White's conduct in the investigation of White's wife's accident. To say the presser was badly handled would be an understatement.

According to Monahan;

The debacle permanently demolished the credibility and effectiveness of ABQ Police Chief Ray Schultz, Chief Administrative Officer Rob Perry, the now departed White and city spokesman Chris Ramirez.

Monahan is reasonably concerned about the community's lack of trust in the Mayor's leadership team. Why would anyone expect them to step up to tough questions in the future? They made it clear that their first loyalty in not to the people, their press, and their right to know the truth about the spending of public power and resources.

Berry has managed to stay out of
the fray with the press and has so
far avoided dissing them personally;
though he did knowingly permit
and/or negligently allow Perry,
Huffman-Ramirez, and Schultz
to alienate them in his stead.
Even the establishment press
was treated to their disregard
and disrespect.


It's a toss up as to which of them is the greatest liability to the
credibility of the Berry administration. Perry is a distant third;
he is abrasive, condescending, arrogant and easy to not like.
But from the standpoint of repairing the public trust, far more
damage is being caused by Huffman-Ramirez and Schultz.

Schultz is at the center of a crippling
morale crisis among his subordinates.
If he ever had a subordinate vote of
confidence in the Chief, they would
vote; not. Apparently, any subordinate
evaluations of departmental leadership
at all would shake the Police Department
to it foundation.

Morale is an excellent indicator of effectiveness in any organization, and morale crises point to leadership crises.

Schultz can hide his issues because he doesn't answer to the people, by any reasonable definition. He can avoid questions simply by avoiding places where questions can be asked.

Huffman-Ramirez on the other hand,
is a public information officer; he is
paid to inform the public. He has to
show up where questions are asked.

Before his Monday evening debacle,
he was able to hide from tough
questions by keeping his distance
from tough questioners.

But now that the establishment
press is asking harder questions,
he is going to have to make a tough choice; continue to betray the interests of the people who pay his salary, and fuel the fire between the press and the Berry administration, or he is going to have to prove that he can stand up and take questions without attacking the questioner. He could stop ignoring emails, phone calls and legitimate questions.

Right, and a pint of Häagen-Dazs
will serve four.

Richard Berry represents that he
is a big transparency guy. He uses
the word a lot.

But when push came to shove,
Berry chose Huffman-Ramirez
interests over the people's, link.

Huffman-Ramirez cannot be fixed;
he must be replaced. He must be replaced by someone whose
first loyalty is to telling the truth, not spinning it.




photos Mark Bralley