{"id":10430,"date":"2009-12-18T00:00:14","date_gmt":"2009-12-18T07:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=10430"},"modified":"2009-12-21T07:06:41","modified_gmt":"2009-12-21T14:06:41","slug":"las-cruces-needs-ethics-reform-many-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/12\/las-cruces-needs-ethics-reform-many-say\/","title":{"rendered":"Las Cruces needs ethics reform, many say"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Las

Las Cruces City Hall (Photo by Heath Haussamen)<\/p><\/div>\n

Election victories by progressives helped spark ethics reform in Albuquerque and state government. Now some say it\u2019s time for progressives who control government in Las Cruces to push similar reforms.<\/h4>\n

When progressives took control of the Albuquerque City Council in the earlier part of the decade, ethics reform followed. Similarly, ethics reform gained momentum in state government when progressives rose to prominence in the Legislature and joined others in pushing the issue.<\/p>\n

Progressives have had control of the Las Cruces City Council<\/a> for about two years, and some say it\u2019s time that ethics reform becomes a central topic of discussion here.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe progressive is, at the core, about reform. It\u2019s about modernizing government, it\u2019s about transparency, it\u2019s about making government accountable,\u201d said state Sen. Eric Griego<\/a>, D-Albuquerque, who has been involved in reform efforts in the Legislature and before that in Albuquerque as a city councilor.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re a progressive and you don\u2019t have as your fundamental objective campaign and ethics reform, how do you call yourself a progressive?\u201d Griego asked. \u201c\u2026 This is about taking on the status quo.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Las Cruces City Council has certainly become more proactive about listening to input from the public<\/a> since progressives took over in early 2008. But Griego and others say more structural reforms are needed.<\/p>\n

The topic may be especially relevant in Las Cruces given the controversy that ensued in the November election over a political action committee. The city clerk has found that Jobs for Las Cruces PAC didn\u2019t violate a city ordinance<\/a> when it failed to report<\/a> to the city that it had raised money by telling people it was for the Las Cruces municipal election. Still, people on both sides of the issue have expressed confusion about the wording of the city ordinance that sets reporting requirements for PACs.<\/p>\n

In addition, residents of at least one city council district received calls during the election season that some have described as a push poll. Who paid for the polling remains a mystery.<\/p>\n

Mayor considering reforms<\/h3>\n

Las Cruces Mayor Ken Miyagishima<\/a> said he wants to ensure that, in the future, Las Crucens have the ability to know who\u2019s paying for push polls and other campaign materials. Miyagishima said he has four ideas to address that and other ethics issues:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Tougher election disclosure laws, including a requirement that those paying for phone calls, mailers and other materials and activities in support of or opposition to a candidate disclose publicly that they\u2019re doing so.<\/p>\n

\u2022 A requirement that city councilors and the mayor disclose during council meetings when someone who has contributed more than $250 to their campaigns comes before the council.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Campaign contribution limits of somewhere between $500 and $1,000. Miyagishima said he\u2019s flexible on the dollar amount and on whether it would apply to family members of the candidates, and he\u2019s willing to leave such details up to the council. The city currently has no contribution limits.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Background checks for candidates for office. Miyagishima said the city attorney is currently considering whether the city can require background checks for candidates \u2013 which would be made available for public inspection \u2013 or whether the city could only implement a voluntary system.<\/p>\n

The last, Miyagishima said, may be the most controversial, but he said it\u2019s also important. He said he plans to voluntarily submit to a background check in the next election cycle even if it\u2019s not required.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe require that of our high-level employees,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t see why we can\u2019t do it for us and lead by example.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several councilors reached for comment said they also think ethics reform is an important topic to discuss, but none presented concrete ideas.<\/p>\n

Three elements of \u2018comprehensive\u2019 ethics reform<\/h3>\n

Griego said there are three fundamental areas of reform that officials in Las Cruces and elsewhere should consider:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Some sort of independent ethics board or commission \u201cthat can really be an objective arbiter of ethics and campaign-finance issues.\u201d Such a board, which could include members appointed by the mayor and city council, would handle complaints of violations of the city\u2019s campaign-finance and elections ordinances.<\/p>\n

\u2022 A revamping of the way city campaigns are funded. That could include enacting a public financing system, as Albuquerque has done, or it could include contribution limits and other measures. Another reform enacted in Albuquerque while Griego was a councilor was a ban on campaign contributions from contractors who do business with the city.<\/p>\n

Griego said he believes Albuquerque\u2019s voluntary public financing system leveled the playing field<\/a> in the October election, but if Las Cruces doesn\u2019t want to enact such a system, it should put in place \u201creal strict limits on who can give and how much they can give.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 Third, he said, local governments should have some sort of internal auditor overseen by an independent committee, or something like an inspector general. That\u2019s because, he said, the state auditor doesn\u2019t have the resources to properly investigate every complaint of fraud, abuse and waste.<\/p>\n

Las Cruces has an internal audit department with two employees, but rather than being supervised by an independent committee, that department reports directly to the city manager.<\/p>\n

Griego said reform in all three areas of government is critical.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Cruces wanted to be a leader in ethics and good government, they ought to consider all three elements of what I would consider comprehensive ethics reform,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u2018Let\u2019s just make it totally transparent\u2019<\/h3>\n

Another reform Albuquerque implemented years ago was an online system for making campaign finance reports<\/a>, travel records<\/a> for city officials and employees and other information available to the public. Greg Lennes, a progressive activist who lives on Las Cruces\u2019 east mesa, said the city should focus on such disclosure reforms and on creating a commission to review election-related complaints.<\/p>\n

Lennes is not a big fan of contribution limits, but he said all contributions \u201cshould be\u00a0immediately\u00a0reported to an established\u00a0local election commission.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to have\u00a0full and\u00a0timely disclosure\u00a0and end the games of and manipulation\u00a0by political action committees and independent expenditure committees,\u201d Lennes said. \u201c\u2026 If someone\u00a0wants to give and accept a large campaign contribution with the relating publicity and the potential negative perception of that contribution — then let them do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of trying to regulate campaign contributions in elections, let\u2019s just make it totally transparent,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Lennes pointed to ordinances in Boulder, Colo.<\/a>, and Washington State<\/a> as examples the City of Las Cruces might want to follow.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrue reform will bring the local elections process back to the people instead of to the special interests that manipulate the process to disguise their activities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Las Cruces City Council has certainly become more proactive about listening to input from the public since progressives took over in early 2008. But many, including the mayor and a state senator who\u2019s been involved in reform in Albuquerque and the Legislature, say more structural reforms are needed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[109,145],"class_list":["post-10430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-ethics-reform","tag-las-cruces"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10430\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}