{"id":7486,"date":"2009-10-08T00:01:41","date_gmt":"2009-10-08T06:01:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=7486"},"modified":"2009-10-08T00:02:03","modified_gmt":"2009-10-08T06:02:03","slug":"berry-hits-the-ground-running","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/10\/berry-hits-the-ground-running\/","title":{"rendered":"Mayor-Elect Berry hits the ground running"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_7418\" class=\"wp-caption module image alignright\" style=\"max-width: 280px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-7418\" title=\"Berry\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/Berry1.jpg\" alt=\"Richard Berry (Photo by Enrique C. Knell)\" width=\"280\" height=\"239\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Richard Berry (Photo by Enrique C. Knell)<\/p><\/div>\n<h4>Mayor-elect prepares transition, will also attend special session before resigning his legislative seat<\/h4>\n<p>Albuquerque Mayor-Elect <a href=\"http:\/\/www.berryformayor.com\/\">Richard “R.J.” Berry<\/a> hit the ground running the morning after defeating incumbent Mayor Martin J. Ch\u00e1vez and Richard Romero in the city’s 2009 municipal election.<\/p>\n<p>“We’re really excited,” Berry said Wednesday. “We rolled up our sleeves last night about midnight, worked until about 4 o’clock, got up this morning, and made breakfast for the family.”<\/p>\n<p>Berry was to spend part of Wednesday meeting with mayors from surrounding cities at their monthly meeting. During a morning phone call with 770KKOB talk show host <a href=\"http:\/\/770kkob.com\/showdj.asp?DJID=40274\">Bob Clark<\/a>, Berry said he was still working out scheduling details but was also going to have lunch with Ch\u00e1vez.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI’m very pleased that Mayor Ch\u00e1vez has extended a hand,\u201d said Berry, who will have to have a majority of his administration team in place by the time he’s sworn in on Dec. 1. \u201cI’m going to ask if I could have some access to the city departments and make sure I can start having some discussions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As a state representative, Berry will have to go to Santa Fe beginning Oct. 17 for a special session focused on plugging the state\u2019s $433 million budget gap.<\/p>\n<p>He is expected to resign his <a href=\"http:\/\/legis.state.nm.us\/lcs\/legdetails.aspx?SPONCODE=HBERR\">District 20<\/a> seat following the special session to prepare to become mayor.<\/p>\n<p>“It’s vital,\u201d said Berry. \u00a0\u201cWe’ve got a lot of work to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Berry, a Republican, is crediting his business and legislative experience for his election over two well-known Democrats.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a matter of putting the message out there and trying to share my vision with Albuquerque, and it resonated with the voters,\u201d Berry said. \u201cI think people are ready for a commonsense style of leadership, which is something I offer. \u201c<\/p>\n<p>Berry also thinks his pledge to limit himself to two terms played a role in his election.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI heard from a lot of people that was important to them,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen I stood up and took that pledge, I did hear from a lot of people that was something they were very interested in. I think that helps.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Some department heads could stay<\/h3>\n<p>Berry says he\u2019ll take time to make the right staffing decisions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe’ve got a number of people that I want to talk to,\u201d Berry said. \u201cThe fact of the matter is that I want to make sure that I’m making an informed management decision.”<\/p>\n<p>“As I sit here today those positions are not filled — they are not picked,” he said. “Today, I’m going to be having discussions and we’re going to move forward with a pace that is reasonable for the transitions. \u201d<\/p>\n<p>He also said some city department directors will be retained, but didn\u2019t mention who he thought would make the cut.\u00a0 Berry said each will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI believe that there are people that get up everyday and really do great work,\u201d\u00a0 Berry said. \u201cI think there are folks who do a great job, and I want them on my team.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>St. Cyr is a contributing writer for this site and <span style=\"background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%;cursor: pointer\">an Albuquerque<\/span> radio reporter. He can be reached at <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"mailto:peter.stcyr@gmail.com\" target=\"_blank\"><span>peter.stcyr@gmail.com<\/span><\/a><\/em><em>. By way of disclosure, St. Cyr has been, until Wednesday, a paid subcontractor through Mayor Martin Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s campaign spokeswoman on a publicity contract that had nothing to do with the Albuquerque election.<br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Albuquerque Mayor-Elect Richard “R.J.” Berry hit the ground running the morning after defeating incumbent Mayor Martin J. Ch\u00e1vez and Richard Romero in the city’s 2009 municipal election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[139],"class_list":["post-7486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-albuquerque"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7486","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\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7486\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}