Open Government; tabled.

City Councilor Ray Garduno
must be feeling more than a little
frustrated.

He introduced a bill in the City
Council which would have shined
some light on city government.

His bill was tabled, and he issued
the following press release; (emphasis added)

City Councilor Rey Garduño has introduced a bill calling for the City to be more open and transparent when it comes to the taxpayer’s money.

Recently, the headlines have been filled with accounts of corruption and misuse of our public funds.

Councilor Garduño’s bill, R-09-319, ( link, click on the bill number)brings sunshine and a proactive approach to restoring the public trust in how the City of Albuquerque spends it’s money.

“As a Councilor, I hear first hand the public’s distrust of local government and I want to shed sunshine on how our government operates for the taxpayers of the City of Albuquerque. After all, we do work for them,” Councilor Garduño said.

The bill directs the City to post valuable information on the City’s website about six key areas of City Government:

1. A list of all City contracts with contractors’ name, amount, term, service, contact information;
2. a list of existing IRB’s, TIDD’s, and PID’s with their amounts and quarterly updates;
3. a report of all Capital Outlay projects including State grants;
4. a list of all City employees that are currently receiving a pension from PERA;
5. the Quarterly Budget to Actual Expense Report for all operating funds; and
6. an online form to make public records requests easier for all residents.

The Sunshine Bill was to be heard and voted on at the Finance and Government Operations Committee on Monday September 14th but this important bill was tabled because Councilors Ken Sanchez and Don Harris voted against approval at the request of the City Administration. Councilors Michael Cadigan and Debbie O’Malley voted for approval, since the vote resulted in a tie, the bill remains in committee.

“Tabling a bill whose intent is to bring transparency and good government to the city of Albuquerque continues the cycle of local government being unaccountable to its residents,” said Councilor Garduño.

The Finance and Government Operations Committee is where the Ethical Public Service Act went to die, link.

The worst part of all of this is, if you email City Councils, (I did, all of them, twice) to ask them to explain why ethics and open government bills are not being passed out of the Finance and Operations Committee, your email will be ignored.

In short, if you ask any one of these public servants a legitimate question about the public interests and/or their public service, they can ignore you. There is nothing in the law that requires public servants to acknowledge a legitimate question, by responding candidly, forthrightly, and honestly.

And that is why government is rife with corruption and incompetence.



"... Councilors Don Harris and Ken Sanchez voted against
approval at the request of the City Administration."




That would be this guy;




photos Mark Bralley