Editorial: Damaging mayoral authority not the right course for a big city like Albuquerque

In Bernalillo County government, the dollar stops at the desk of County Supervisor Julie Morgas Baca, at least on paper.

The five chosen county commissioners hired Morgas Baca in September 2015 to run the county's day-to-day operations. The commissioners can end her agreement or place her on paid administrative leave if they're dissatisfied.

In some locations, county supervisors serve for years. It takes simply a narrow bulk of county commissioners to oust any county supervisor, at any time.

County managers have no term limitations, enabling long-term planning and execution of policies. An unelected county supervisor also has a degree of independence and impartiality.

2 Albuquerque city councilors have actually recommended gutting the mayor's powers and reverting to a structure comparable to the county commission-manager system-- a system Albuquerque jettisoned nearly 50 years back.

Councilors Louie Sanchez and Renee Grout are co-sponsoring a City Charter modification that would fold the mayor into the City Council and transfer most of the mayor's current executive duties to a council-chosen city manager, consisting of powers to select the cops chief and other department directors.

The City Council voted 9-0 last Monday to defer action until June 5. A minimum of six of the 9 city councilors need to accept put the procedure on the Nov. 7 local election ballot. It would then be up to city citizens to decide.

Sanchez and Grout contend electing a new mayor every 4 to eight years interferes with progress. But shouldn't city citizens be able to vote on whether they support that "development" or want the city to go in a different instructions?

Supporters also say cities with "weak mayor" structures-- consisting of Las Cruces, Rio Rancho and Roswell-- work more efficiently with a council-manager type of government. That's debatable.

Sanchez and Grout's legislation would render the mayor as a figurehead of local government "for all ritualistic purposes." The mayor would command City Council conferences and be empowered to vote, but only when there's an extremely uncommon tie vote.

Mayor Tim Keller's administration understandably opposes the step. A mayoral spokeswoman kept in mind the proposition would put all city powers in the hands of a committee and an unelected city manager. Do we actually want a local government like that to tackle crime, homelessness and taxes?

The council-manager structure isn't matched for big cities that can need decisive and instant action by one person who is then held responsible by citizens.

Believe choices concerning rioting or natural catastrophes.

The present system likewise has balances and checks. The nine-member council can veto the mayor's actions with six votes.

Gutting mayoral power in Albuquerque would have other unfavorable consequences, as Timothy Krebs of the University of New Mexico explained in a guest column published Thursday. The political science teacher says voter engagement lags in cities with council-manager systems. Among large U.S. cities with the lowest average turnout in mayoral elections, seven of eight have council-manager systems-- Austin, Oklahoma City, El Paso, San Antonio, Las Vegas, Fort Worth and Dallas.

" The factor for this relates to where power is focused," Krebs wrote. "In systems where appointed authorities have governing power, the general public disengages. In systems where chosen officials have it, the general public does the opposite."

Krebs also keeps in mind most cities over 500,000 have "strong mayor" systems "beause administrative functions are designated to a chief administrative officer answerable to the mayor, these systems benefit from technically competent management too."

Former Mayor Jim Baca says reverting to a council-manager type of government would be a huge step backward. And he's correct.

" City Councilors Renee Grout and Louis Sanchez want to turn Albuquerque City federal government into a clone of Bernalillo County where no one is in charge," Baca told the Journal. "The county simply invested $100 million on a new office building and there was no one to delegate the cost overruns."

Albuquerque has had a mayor-council government given that 1974 when citizens by a "runaway" 19,458-to-5,246 tally approved Proposition 3 on Feb. 26, 1974, establishing a full-time paid mayor as the city's chief executive, and a part-time, districted nine-member City Council as the city's legal body. The proposal, which passed in all 63 precincts, was backed by a vast array of organizations and community leaders. The city had been governed by an at-large City Commission since 1917.

"( T) he charter election and its result mark the beginning of a new and amazing age in Albuquerque local government," mentioned the Journal editorial of Feb. 28, 1974. "Just how severe the changes may be will be figured out mostly by the character and qualifications of those to be elected to act as mayor, the city's president office, and those who will fill the 9 districted council seats to work out municipal legal authority and direct community policy."

How real all that ended up being. Character counts.

The last thing Albuquerque needs now is to sterilize the only citywide chosen office and go with leadership by committee and an unelected bureaucrat. At least 4 of the 9 current city councilors need to vote versus this.

This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is anonymous as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the authors.