By Whitney Cheshire
Does twice the salary mean we should expect double the results?
There’s a growing trend in
This would sound like the makings of Spiderman IV except for the fact that their so-called night jobs are not really night jobs. That, and there’s the whole tight, red spandex suit thing…
But needless to say, there are those who feel our educator/public officials are the poster children for a clear “conflict of interest.” There’s legitimate concern that public school employees could make budget and policy decisions that unfairly benefit their schools instead of their voting constituency.
There is also criticism that such officials “double dip” into taxpayers’ pockets. I’ve been told the Albuquerque Public Schools actually offers 60 days of “political coverage” – which includes substitute teachers – for elected educators.
In short, public schools are smart to encourage their employees to seek elected office. If small businesses did the same – paying for their employees who wanted to serve – perhaps there would be a better representation of the public in the state Legislature and on our local governing bodies.
The
Three of Gov. Bill Richardson’s cabinet appointees will now be getting paid by these universities.
Last week, much ado was made over
Can the new appointees act without conflict if their salaries are paid in part by the universities?
I think that’s a legitimate question, to be sure, and one that we tackled on The Line last week. The appearance of a conflict is certainly there. That’s why state Sen. John Arthur Smith requested a legal opinion on the matter.
What about legislators?
But if this payment structure really constitutes a conflict, what about state Rep. Rick Miera, who was a 20-year employee of UNM and is now the chairman of the House Education Committee? Or Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Cynthia Nava, who was just named interim superintendent of
State Reps. Sheryl Williams Stapleton and Mimi Stewart – both of whom serve in leadership positions in the legislature – are currently on the APS payroll. And in 2004,
On a local level, what can we make of Bernalillo County Commissioner Alan Armijo serving as the legislative lobbyist for APS? Or the discussion over whether or not Albuquerque City Councilor Brad Winter can serve two masters – the city of
Are they all in conflict?
It’s hard to see any difference whatsoever between the dual role that Nava plays and that which
The legislature could prohibit public school employees from holding elected or appointed office. If you think there is an ethical problem with collecting payment from one public entity while serving as a policy-making, public official, that’s the only remedy. Which, pardon me, is a terribly dumb idea. And, like the Hatch Act, in my humble opinion, one that would be unconstitutional.
Because if the legislature did that, they’d have to place the same restrictions on all publicly-paid employees. Firefighters, city accountants, open space officers, you name it. Most
In a nutshell,
Let’s talk about real issues
New Mexicans have a choice: We can try to cut down on the conflict by paying all of our elected officials a real salary (which would have very debatable results), or we can deal with the possibility of a conflict. After all, conflict can develop from nothing more than a personal preference. For example, physical therapists are likely to vote for things that benefit physical therapists.
OK – our WMQB question of the day – If it’s clear that many leaders in
We’re going to guess it’s the “how much.”
Two of the three new
Fine. And I mean that. Let’s pay more. Let’s get the best. Let’s do it.
And then instead of talking about salaries, e-mails, and payment plans we can start talking about results.
Is our cancer death rate dropping? What about childhood obesity, high-school dropout rates, failing fourth-grader rates and numbers of students needing remedial coursework in college? What can we do to increase enrollment in vocational and technical schools, raise the average ACT score or raise the rate at which American Indians graduate from college?
Those are the indicators of success and failure. We should be thanking our new cabinet appointees for taking on the jobs. They will not be easy.
Let Reed Dasenbrock have his $275,000 salary. But let’s find out what he’s going to do with it, and then accept nothing less than success. After all, he’s being paid for it.