Why is everything a complete mess in our city? Countless wrecks, putting citizens in danger, and not a single snow plow out in Santa Fe today. Were Webber and Blair too busy covering up each other’s mistakes last night, hiding audit results, to bother informing the road crew to be out this morning? Or was Blair too occupied sending d*ck pics during work hours to even check the weather report? Way to go, Santa Fe voters – we just keep electing real winners! Big thanks to Michael Garcia, Chris Rivera, and Lee Garcia for standing up to the continued incompetence!
Comments on the New Mexican:
- Encourage incompetence and you just get more.
- Given roughly a quarter of people actually voted in this last council election, it seems the Apathy Party won. And we get what we richly deserve.
- It’s ok to admit your mistake and correct it with a recall.
- Start at the top and work on down. At least initiating a recall of the mayor is easier with the now reduced voter count requirement. But will it happen, or will the catharsis of SFNM comment writing dispel our outrage into apathy?
- There is still a huge amount of money and political capital backing Webber, don’t underestimate the power of that corruption.
- Here’s a challenge for our feckless city government, including Mr. Blair, the Mayor, and his cohorts: Make public the total amount of money spent on the three audits by audit, the time each took, the final resolution of each audit, and the post mortem plan to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
- There is absolutely no excuse for Blair keeping this critical information from the Council. Let’s keep it real and call it what it was….. he lied! Blair compounded his lie by pretending to have done it because “…councilors have shared sensitive information with other government entities.”. In other words, our city manager, an unelected position and one he was not really that qualified for, in his infinite wisdom, decided the city needed to be protected from its city officials. So utilitarian of him! A three day suspension would have been a minor slap on the wrist versus the consequences of him having done this in a corporation the size of the city (hint: he would have been summarily fired). I came here from a corrupt city and Santa Fe appears to be every bit as corrupt, just smaller. The attack on the councilman asking simple, and possibly legally required, questions, is just an ongoing example of the corruption this Mayor has wrought.
- Knowing Blair since second grade is not good evidence for his being a competent city manager. Maybe for a grade school student council office. He is a politician with no public administration training or certification who never would be hired in an open search. I grew up in the Chicago area and Mayor Webber’s hiring practices seem to match those of Mayor Daley.
- Indeed, like Chicago under Daley, cronyism, nepotism, and corruption.
- So they have a closed door meeting before the vote and then none of the councilors have any comment in public. So tell us where is the transparency. This administration is literally a joke.
- We are in more than a pickle–we are in a crisis concerning accountability and transparency–It was disgusting seeing Romero-Wirth feeling “uncomfortable” with hard questions (hers are always softball lobs to get the answer she seeks) and then the city attorney actually questioning a member of the legislative branch who is trying to gather info on WHY the audit is late and WHEN the finance director knew. Would the AG go to legislature and tell them that they cannot debate or ask questions of witnesses for bills or when in study committee? Of course NOT. IF the WEBBER ADMIN does not want legislative interference (council) than he should stop voting except for a tie and the city attorney should NOT be holding up legislation…Councilors should just introduce it as state legislators do. Wouldn’t it have been HONEST (what a concept) of Oster to say I have interpreted the audit confidentiality rules and cannot answer that question–instead of weeks of dancing away from the question–IMHO that makes Oster NOT transparent. And I love Councilor Amanda Chavez who wants council to be transparent but not the administration. Mostly it is the administration we have problems with….Even the 3 year study on Health and Safety did not include disabled or seniors as at risk groups and despite the rhetoric about access to health care, the city will not discuss settlement when someone is injured at a public facility–no let’s hire a firm that will devote 4 lawyers and 2 paralegals==all sending the same emails–to avoid a $15K or less claim WE ARE PAYING FOR THIS INCOMPETENCY. (caps for EMPHASIS). We are not third graders Ms Chavez–we are complex people with varied experiences not all of them positive so when the city manager can meet with the head of the soccer league or the head of the homebuilders association but not address individual zoning problems ever than we know it is about power and influence not diversity and inclusion. And the “testimony” of the second grade teacher was beyond pathetic IMHO
- Kudos to Michael Garcia. The Webber mafia tried to intiminate him; what a pathetic performance by his cronies, especially by Romero-Wirth (this isn’t kindergarten). What he asked was legitimate and within the realm of his job as a City Councilor. The mafia wants to hide the inadequacies of the Webber administration.
- Now you see the insiders at work, 3 represent the voters and 6 represent the good ole boy party. The public needs to remember they are the final word and can petition to remove Blair and Weber while they’re at it.
- This isn’t the good ol boy patron system of the past. These folks represent the radical left. The evidence is all around us, in plain sight.
- John, with all the issues surrounding this group you call it a disagreement.late audits are late audits, lack of transparency is obvious there is nothing to disagree about facts are facts.
- Garcia doing his job. This administration is as bad as we’ve ever seen here. Embarrassing, incompetent and lost in ideology. Time to initiate recall.
- Withholding critical financial information from Council, and false claims of “bullying” when all a Councilor is doing is asking relevant questions, is sickening. As far as that state letter alerting the city it could not access legislative capital outlay until it submitted all past due audits. Who was it addressed to? The Mayor or the City Manager? Seems it would be addressed to the head of government. Is that Webber as CEO or Blair as city manager? So who really made the decision to keep it from Council? If Council is involved in approving the city budget, it seems to me budgetary oversight over issues that can affect the budget should be part of its job. Maybe we need a new city charter with more teeth in it for sitting councilors. The Mayor has a point: reading over the charter (https://santafenm.gov/MunicipalCharter2020DIGITALversion.pdf ), I don’t see where Council has obvious duties as a watchdog here and that is alarming. There is this: 6.02 B. “The governing body shall provide for the exercise of its powers and for the performance of all duties and obligations imposed on the city by law.”. And 9.04, The governing body shall, by ordinance, adopt an independent audit committee for the city. Ok, having an audit, and providing the state the proper documentation in order to receive state funds, seems to be an obligation. Is there an independent lawyer in the city to explain that clause, as I wouldn’t trust the city’s attorneys to answer with a straight face given they report to the Mayor and Manager. This reeks to high heaven. I should say I am disappointed in some councilors and whoever wrote that charter (we had just moved here in ’18, so I was pretty clueless for a while–maybe still am), but I have come to expect this.
- Team Webber is using Oster’s professionalism, and the excellent job she has apparently done, in order to provide cover for their own refusal to be timely and candid with both the Council and the citizens of Santa Fe. That alone is disgraceful. I believe Councilor Michael Garcia was asking Ms Oster the question of when she was aware the audit would be late not to castigate her, but to establish exactly when Blair would have become aware. It is Blair and Webber that have the responsibility of notification, and their use of Romero-Wirth and McSherry to attack Councilor Garcia for doing his job is simply an attempt to continue to resist transparency in Blair’s and Webber’s own duties. Also, it was particularly despicable when Blair suggested Councilor Garcia had inappropriately shared information with other State entities. It was information which had already been made public, and based on Blair and Webber previously hiding or slow walking information, I would have hoped everybody sitting on that dias was touching base with the State of NM for straight information. I recommend anyone really interested in this issue review the YouTube video of the exchange available at this link. The relevant section begins at about 2:35:17. https://www.youtube.com/live/o8fxo-AQLrM?si=RXNAvJCDBlcBKAIH Finally, while the Mayor and 5 Councilors let down their constituents by not even allowing the most minor of sanctions for Blair’s deliberate withholding of information, I am sure there will be future missteps awaiting us from the unqualified Blair. His entrance as City Manager was based on Webber not mentioning his intentions during his last campaign, and then almost immediately after the election hiring Blair without any sort of public search for somebody with actual experience in municipal government at any level.
- First I thank Michael Garcia for his courage to ask the tough questions! Second we get what we ask for! Wirth, Sig, and Webber will still have the majority with the new council coming in! Change? That’s a joke! We have 2 more years in front of us, of the same incompetent Mayor, Council, and administration!
- Thank you, Michael Garcia!!! This is exactly why people voted for you! Thank you for asking the questions that everyone was wondering.
- Add bad the water system to the mix… and perhaps it’s time for a Class Action Suit from the Citizens to defend all public health and safety, since it’s what – four / five years of this same inconsistency in water & money negligence. Keep this trend up for next year too, and the toilets won’t work either to flush even more cash – we can’t track, find, report.
- “Half a dozen of his friends and acquaintances, including a second grade classmate and former teacher, rallied to his defense during a public comment period Wednesday.” Let’s see if other employees who are at risk of being fired can call their friends and acquaintances to speak on their behalf so they can stay employed. Looks like a precedence has been set for city employees.
- I am shocked at Romero-Wirth. I thought she had more sense. Asking an employee a relevant question is simple transparency in the midst of a morass.
- Congratulations to Garcia, Lee, and Rivera for doing their jobs, as the peoples’ representatives of our city government! Performance matters and the need of some of these councilors who defend and support Webber like mothers coddling their own children no matter what Webber’s actions are is an embarrassment and demonstrates a profound lack of understanding of their role as city councilors. Webber is not correcting a downward spiral, he is the downward spiral and enabled by several council members who think loyalty trumps performance.
- Accountability is not harassment. Action is needed but, none taken! No punishment, no accountability? Can we remove more of our past instead? Take down another statue?
- Our City government has entered into absurdity. “Fellow City Councilor Carol Romero-Wirth, the mayor and the city attorney argued the question appeared to be an attack on Finance Director Emily Oster.” Don’t ask questions Don’t investigate Don’t look at the finances Don’t expect the water treatment plant to work Don’t expect roads, parks, and infrastructure to be fixed in a timely manner Don’t worry, West Alameda was re-opened in 6 months! Don’t worry, someday the City will provide sewer services to areas annexed long ago. On on and on. The Mayor and his cabal respond to failure by blaming and punishing others; aggression (doubling down); playing victim; and in certain instances, filing lawsuits seeking to overturn the will of the people they claim to want to represent.
- If an elected city council rep can’t ask an unelected city official questions, related to that official’s timeline and duties…well, we are in a pickle. I think, that is the councilor’s job (to ask) and the finance director’s duty (to answer). All the back and forth among the council+mayor is pure politics.