That in a nutshell is the flaw of a proposal from frustrated Albuquerque City Councilors Louie Sanchez and Renee Grout who are proposing that we dismantle the Mayor/City Council form of government and replace it with a government led by a city manager where the mayor is president of the council but stripped of executive authority. 

Current Mayor Tim Keller is correct in calling the proposal a nightmare that takes the city back 50 years when the manager form of government then in place was rejected in favor of today’s structure approved by voters in 1974. 

At the time the manager led government had become something of a circus with various factions known as the Unity Party and such combating each other and gridlocking progress. City fathers saw the need for a strong executive and Council to move the city forward, and it worked. 

We don’t know exactly why, but what is one of the most heartening aspects of the form of government this past half-century has been the lack of major corruption scandals, a circumstance not all that common in big cities. That speaks to the strength of the current structure.

It’s true that Albuquerque is not the city it once was and is now plagued by widespread crime, homelessness and a more anemic economy. A good portion of this, however, is caused by national economic trends, especially economic inequality.

The crime wave has been particularly perturbing, but would a city manager form of government with a stronger Council have made a difference?  

If it could have, where have the Councilors of the past dozen years been as we and others pounded the table over their lack of involvement in providing desperately needed oversight to the city police department and a more vigorous response to the drug infestation. 

That’s not to excuse Mayors Chavez, Berry and Keller, all of whom failed in the crime department, in large measure because of the power allowed to accumulate in APD that has prevented painful but essential reforms as well as the national circumstances we previously mentioned. 

While the policy response has been woeful, voters get to weigh in directly on that performance even if in today’s troubled environment they don’t seem to be that stirred up. If the Council advances the proposal it would be up to voters to approve or reject a weak mayor system. 

Councilors Grout and Sanchez seem to be trying to pawn off today’s deep-seated social conditions crisis on the Mayor of today and not looking at the city through a long-term lens. 

The apathy and/or incompetence of previous city leadership has led to a very deep hole to get out of.  Crime abatement will require a top to bottom reformation of APD, and a deconstruction of it as a major political power center. Also critical is continued investment in behavioral health and housing which will now cost much more than most anticipate. 

A change in government is not the solution. If it were, a sum of some $20 million a year raised from a behavioral health tax that was implemented by Bernalillo County and its manager form of government years ago would have by now made a major difference in the community’s quality of life. Instead, the money has been frittered away or hoarded.  

That’s what you see when you hold the mirror up close, something that Councilors Grout and Sanchez should do rather than employing deflection pushed out as a solution.  

Joshua Cooper Ramo

The WSJ takes a deep dive into the Jeffrey Epstein saga and finds another NM connection—Joshua Cooper Ramo, a distinguished international business consultant and son of prominent New Mexicans Barry Ramo and Roberta Cooper Ramo. He has occasionally been mentioned as a possible candidate in La Politica:

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