April 20, 2006

Minimum wage bill passes

The City Council voted 6-3 in favor of Council President Martin Heinrich's minimum wage bill.

The no votes came from three of the council's four Republicans: Sally Mayer, Brad Winter, and Craig Loy.

More details to come in Friday's Albuquerque Tribune.

Amendments a-comin'

Here are the highlights from the amendments proposed to the wage bill tonight.

Michael Cadigan offered the first one. This one is to give credit to businesses that offer health and child care.
It passes 8-1. Sally Mayer said she felt it would be disingenuous to support an amendment when she didn't support the wage hike.

Next comes Brad Winter, who wants the wage hike to start next April -- after the state Legislature takes up the issue. It fails 6-3.

Don Harris wants to exempt workers age 18 and under who aren't high school graduates from the wage hike, believing that the wage hike is meant to help the neediest workers. Most tenagers, apparently, aren't among them.
This one is turning into an interesting debate.
Craig Loy is arguing the age level should be 15, since 17- and 18-year-olds sometimes like to get married and support families. It fails 6-3, I think. They raised their hands to fast.

Attendance is lower

If you're into comparisons, the City Council chambers is sparse compared to last year's failed effort.

There are only 30 people signed-up to give their two minutes of public comment. It's 7:10 p.m. -- just over an hour into the meeting -- and we've had 14 of them speak.

All but two are in favor of the wage increase.

Tough questions, strong answers

Already tonight, we've received a commitment from AFSCME that they likely wouldn't start a petition for an even higher minimum wage so long as one is passed tonight.

Sally Mayer wanted a reassurance from the union, which along with advocacy group ACORN, was gathering signatures calling for a special election to put the wage at $7.50 an hour immediately. Their proposal would rise with inflation.

"There's a thread out there that if we don't (pass a higher wage) you and your forces will do another public referendum," Mayer said. "How do we know that if we do pass this that you're not going to do that anyway in a year or so?"

Union spokesman Carter Bundy said they wouldn't start the petition drive if Council President Martin Heinrich's bill passed.

"Anybody who's been through one of these battles and would voluntarily do this is crazy," said union Spokesman Carter Bundy. He said if the City Council doesn't revisit the issue in 2009, after the wage's gradual increase would peak, the petitions could return.

He also said Councilor Michael Cadigan's amendment to lower the wage requirement for employers that provide health care is acceptable to the union.

Bundy's assurance is an important development in all of this. Before today, Heinrich's bill faced the threat of both a mayoral veto and a referendum that wasn't supported by the business community.

Both of those threats appear to be gone.

There's a few characters here

I'm blogging live from City Council chambers as the council prepares to hear testimony on the minimum wage. Consider this my first contribution to tonight's blog-in.

Already, Council President Martin Heinrich and Mayor Martin Chavez have announced an agreement on a bill that would avoid the mayor's veto.

As I look from my perch in the press room here, I notice certain sections of the audience stand out.

In bright green t-shirts are representatives from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).

Sporting red t-shirts are high wage advocates from the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN).

And in front of me, to the left side of the chambers, are a half dozen or so laptops representing local bloggers. I've called them the "laptop brigade" because I'm fond of naming things. Chantal Foster from Duke City Fix just took my picture, so I'm a little nervous about that.

The guys in suits at the front of the room are the politicos. But you don't need me to tell you that.

April 18, 2006

Riding the rails

I got to ride the Rail Runner today. Fun stuff. Beats covering a City Council meeting.

Speaking on both subjects -- rail and the City Council, that is -- your local elected officials approved the hiring of HDR Engineering as the firm to design Mayor Martin Chavez's modern streetcar system.

Here's a pretty picture thanks to HDR:

Now, if you're wondering how the city will foot the bill, keep reading.

First off, the city has been saying for a while that the modern streetcar will cost $120 million, split evenly between the city and the state. The mayor today said in a news conference Downtown that the cost is $240 million split evenly.

I'm told that the original $120 million estimate was for just the section that would run from Old Town to Nob Hill at Carlisle Boulevard. HDR's planning, though, will include another spur to run south from Central down University Boulevard, past the sports venues to Albuquerque International Sunport. That, I'm told, is another $120 million.

Chavez outlined several methods for which the city will pony up its share. For one, an existing quarter-cent transit tax will be dedicated to the project. The city seek voter approval for some of the money through general obligation bonds.

And finally the city is considering a so-called "Public Improvement District" -- Chavez called it "PID." The PID banks on the property value along the rail line rising. While the structure of the PID hasn't been determined, the process sounds a bit like taxing property owners for a portion of their increased property value.

What are your thoughts on the city's rail system plan? Will it be useful? Will you ride it? This blog's open for business, so type away.

April 14, 2006

There's another council meeting next week.

You know all that stuff about the minimum wage? The big meeting on Thursday? Lots of people. Passionate arguments. Plenty of debate.

It's easy to forget that the council will be at work Monday night, too. To be honest, I think I'd like to forget. Two long meetings in a week isn't much fun.

Nontheless, here's the agenda. And here's a few things to look for on Monday:

Kendra's Law: I only mention this bill because it's bound to generate a lot of interest. It's only being introduced on Monday, which means the council won't address it but it could still generate some public comment. (There will be more about the opposition to the bill in Saturday's Tribune.) If you're unfamiliar, Kendra's Law would allow certain relatives, health care officials, and law enforcement to petition the state District Court to order a mentally ill person to receive assisted outpatient treatment.
The bill's sponsor, Michael Cadigan, says it could receive a full council vote within 45 days.

Have a HEART: Sally Mayer will present a revised version of her Humane and Ethical Animal Regulations and Treatment ordinance, HEART. The bill would make spaying and neutering animals mandatory, while also creating limits on the number of litters for breeders. Mayer introduced the bill last June, but it has languished since. Because of that, Mayor Martin Chavez plans to introduce his own mandatory spay and neuter bill that Mayer opposes.

Light Rail movement: The mayor's got the idea to put a so-called modern streetcar rail system that will someday run from Old Town to Uptown with a stop at the Sunport in between. On Monday, the council will mull the mayor's recommendation that the city contract with HDR Engineering Inc. as the design consultant for the job.

April 13, 2006

Welcome the laptop brigade

I'd expect a packed house at the City Council chambers on Thursday when the council debates Martin Heinrich's second attempt at raising the city's minimum wage.

Don't be surprised if you see more than a few faces hidden behind laptops.

Here's why:

The good folks over at Duke City Fix are calling local bloggers to the council meeting for a "blog-in" -- a kind-of 1960s-style sit-in but using electronic commentary instead of civil disobedience.

They're welcoming bloggers of all kinds, regardless of where they stand on raising the minimum wage. The bloggers can take advantage of the public wireless Internet access added to the City Council chambers a few weeks ago.

If last summer's City Council wage debate is an accurate barometer, I'd say it will be tough to find a seat. So get there early.

The meeting starts at 6 p.m. There's a 5 p.m. Committee of the Whole meeting where the council will discuss the city enterprise budget. You can take a nap.

April 07, 2006

Why the mayor has only one post on his blog

Mayor Chavez has been taking some mild criticism on local blog Duke City Fix for the fact that the mayoral blog, after being live for a week and a half, still has just one post.

Chavez has an answer for that.

As you may remember, Chavez announced last month that he would start the blog as a means of gathering input on his initiative to improve the city's school system. So far, it's worked -- with 46 replies to his lone post.

Chavez said he fully intends to add more posts "from time to time." But for the moment he's comfortable leaving it to one post about education as a means of furthering the dialogue on what he considers an important issue.

Maybe the solution is to just not call it a blog. A blog, by most measures, is something updated regularly. The mayor's site is more of a one-issue Internet forum.

So far, anyway.

April 04, 2006

The park that nobody can pronounce

The city today reopened Tiguex Park in Old Town, the venue for several of the planned Tricentennial events scheduled at the end of the month.

But during and prior to the event at Mountain Road and 19th Street I heard several different ways of pronouncing the park's name.

First came "Tee-way." Then "Tee-wex." Then "Tee-gway." And then there's me, the northerner of Scandinavian heritage, clearly butchering it with "Tee-gwex."

Does anybody have the true pronounciation? I'll give you 10 points. Toward what? I don't know. But 10 points nontheless.

On a side note, there were about 250 kids from San Felipe De Neri School sitting on the lawn behind Mayor Martin Chavez as he discussed the newly-named Tricentennial-Tiguex Park.

For a while, I started looking for one of those neon signs that says "laughter", the kind you'd see at the live taping of a sitcom. Because everytime Chavez, or anybody else, gave a chuckle the kids joined in with an uproarious chorus of laughter.

And we're not talking about the kind of laugh that comes when you actually thought something was funny. It was the kind of laugh you do when you're mocking someone or -- more likely in this case -- trying to be cute.

I had to wonder if Chavez didn't have "kick me" sign on his back.

"Is there a cue card back there?" Chavez asked.