In the latest sign that New Mexico may be the focal point of a coming apocalypse, KOBTV and KRQE have reported that Mayor Martin Chavez instructed Albuquerque's City Clerk to change the outcome of a city council vote from a DO NOT PASS to a PASS.
Administration officials say they were acting perfectly legally when they changed the record because the council failed to act before a deadline for dealing with the city’s budget. By charter, the council has 60 days from the budget’s submission to make changes. After the deadline, the budget automatically goes into effect...
...Councilors counter that they voted down the garbage rate increase on May 5th, well before the 60-day deadline...
...A spokesperson for Chavez said he was unavailable to address O’Malley’s allegations because he was “on personal time.” However through the spokesperson, Chavez characterized the whole issue as political garbage.
-Reed Upton for KOBTV
Monday evening, Albuquerque City Council will hold a vote to determine whether an internal audit of the Mayor's office is warranted. Considering that 3 members of the council are running to replace Marty, one would think that there's a good chance the audit will receive the six votes needed to move it forward.
What's unfortunate is that leading into the mayoral elections, the audit will likely become a “political football” with the Mayor's office spinning the situation with what I'm sure they believe to be witty sound bites and one liners, such as characterizing the whole issue as “political garbage.” But changing the results of a City Council vote- isn't political garbage- its a violation of the very rules we rely upon to defend against tyranny of the arbitrary and arrogant.
I'll withhold judgement on the Mayor's guilt, but I won't without hold judgement on his attitude in dealing with this matter. Nothing less than a full and open accounting of the events that led to the increase in pick up rates will be tolerated by the voters.
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