City only fixing half the problems exposed in 2014 mess

Walter Rubel
Las Cruces Sun-News
Walt Rubel

The city is finally starting to address the weaknesses in city charter that led to the minimum wage debacle of 2014, but they are only fixing part of the problem.

That year, the faith-based advocacy group NM Comunidades en Accion y de Fe (CAFé) launched a petition drive seeking to use the citizens’ initiative process to force an increase in the minimum wage.

For several weeks, volunteers fanned out throughout the city every day , diligently knocking on doors or stopping people at public events to ask them to sign their petition. By the time they were done, they had far more signatures than needed.

That seemingly left the City Council with two choices. They could accept the proposal by CAFé, or they could put the wage issue on the ballot and let the voters decide.

Finding neither of those choices desirable, the city legal staff at that time invented a third option. The city charter says the City Council has to accept the proposal, they conceded. But, there is nothing that prevents them from then immediately voting to change it.

And, that’s just what the City Council did. They accepted the proposal called for in the petition, then voted to change it by extending the phase-in dates, giving businesses more time between each increase.

Even with those changes, some in the business community were outraged by the wage increase, and launched a recall effort against three council members. That petition drive eventually came up short, but exposed issues with the city recall provisions.

Namely, that an elected official can be subject to recall simply for taking a vote that some people don’t like. The proposed change would require those seeking a recall to first present facts that demonstrate misconduct or violations of state and local laws.

That change would bring city laws in line with state recall provisions, and would maintain the integrity of our elections. The will of the voters should not be overturned lightly.

But, amending the recall process only fixes the part of the problem that impacts them.

The citizens’ initiative is intended to give us a process to force the City Council to act on a measure that may not have majority support on the council, but does have that support in the city at large, without waiting until the next election. It shouldn’t be easy, and it’s not. But, the process should be available.

As it stands now, the citizens’ initiative process is an empty promise. Why would any group go through the effort that CAFé did in seeking the minimum wage increase when we all know that the City Council can change that proposal any want they want?

The City Council shouldn’t be bound to the initiative forever. The change needs to include a framework that allows for further review in the future. But as things stand now, there is no functioning mechanism allowing residents to petition their government for change.

The City Council is making fixes to help themselves by making it harder to be recalled. That’s fine. I support those changes, and will be voting for them.

But while they’re helping themselves, they should also help us as well. The initiative process should either be fixed or scrapped. What we have now is a fraud.
