{"id":1065,"date":"2007-01-05T15:54:00","date_gmt":"2007-01-05T21:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/01\/moving-swearing-in-ceremony-to-nmsu-is-costly\/"},"modified":"2007-01-05T15:54:00","modified_gmt":"2007-01-05T21:54:00","slug":"moving-swearing-in-ceremony-to-nmsu-is-costly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/01\/moving-swearing-in-ceremony-to-nmsu-is-costly\/","title":{"rendered":"Moving swearing-in ceremony to NMSU is costly"},"content":{"rendered":"

The prospect of moving future swearing-in ceremonies for Do\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place> public officials to a location with room for the public to attend would be costly.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

As it has done for several years, Do\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place> organized and held a ceremony on Dec. 29 that was closed to the public. Each official being sworn in was allotted tickets, and the media was invited to document the event for the public.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The Las Cruces Sun-News had a problem with that. In a Dec. 29 editorial<\/a>, the newspaper complained that, even in the commission chambers of the county\u2019s new government center on Motel Boulevard<\/st1:address><\/st1:street>, there apparently wasn\u2019t room for the public to attend.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cOh, for pity\u2019s sake!\u201d the editorial stated. \u201cDo\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place> built itself a huge new government center that does not have a room large enough to accommodate the public ceremony inducting its publicly elected public officials into public office.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The newspaper suggested that the county consider booking Aggie Memorial Stadium for the next swearing-in ceremony.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

County<\/st1:placetype> Director<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place> of Public Information and Special Projects Jess Williams, who organized this year\u2019s event, has inquired about that. It would cost $12,000 to book Aggie Memorial Stadium for the event, and $5,000 to book the Pan<\/st1:placename> American<\/st1:placename> Center<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

That\u2019s on top of the approximately $800 the county spent this year on other organizational aspects of the event.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

In a Jan. 2 letter published<\/a> in the Sun-News, Williams explained why the ceremony was closed to the public, saying it was \u201cto assure that the loved ones and friends invited by the elected officials would have their seating guaranteed.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

This year, there were 21 officials scheduled to be sworn in, though only 20 showed up. Each was given 10 tickets to the event in the county\u2019s commission chambers, which seats 240. Fire codes allow something like 300 people to be in the room at once.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The county could move the event to a larger venue and spend several thousand dollars, but it seems to me there\u2019s an easier solution. The event should, by principle, be open to the public. But the reality is that there won\u2019t be a flock of adoring voters attending to gaze with admiration while their leaders swear to uphold the Constitution and all that.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot of empty space in the commission chambers around the 240 chairs already in there. Couldn\u2019t the county add some more chairs for the ceremony? Couldn\u2019t it allow standing room? Could it give each public official nine tickets instead of 10?<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

It seems to me there should be a way to give each official a number of tickets and still squeeze out 50 seats in the commission chambers for anyone else who cares to attend.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

If not, let\u2019s hold it at Pan Am. Who wants to be outdoors for a swearing-in ceremony in January? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The prospect of moving future swearing-in ceremonies for Do\u00f1a Ana County public officials to a location with room for the public to attend would be costly. As it has done for several years, Do\u00f1a Ana County organized and held a ceremony on Dec. 29 that was closed to the public. Each official being sworn in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1065","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=1065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1065\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}