Columnist Simonich says new mayor up to same old deal-making
Let’s give 69-year-old Mayor Alan Webber credit for showing the blazing speed of an Olympian. He has been in office only a month and already he has written a report whitewashing the abuses of city executives who pushed through a series of controversial pay raises just before Webber became Santa Fe’s first full-time mayor in modern times.
Webber gave people hope when he campaigned as a reformer. He alone of the five candidates was believable when he spoke about running a government for the people. The others were all connected in one way or another to the entrenched City Hall bureaucracy that is out of touch with the public.
But now Webber is backing City Manager Brian Snyder and Deputy City Manager Renée Martínez after they handed 10 percent or 15 percent raises to 37 select government workers.
Snyder added the $400,000 in raises to the city budget around the time Webber was taking his oath of office.
Webber says it’s important that city government reduce its paper-shuffling systems and become an efficient digital enterprise. Nobody disputes that modernization would be valuable.
But Webber offers an illogical explanation as to why Snyder and Martínez did not publicly disclose their plan to reward workers involved in this effort. Not even the City Council knew about their maneuver to dole out double-digit pay hikes.
Webber said city executives have longstanding worries about being micromanaged by the council regarding personnel moves, so they went forward without disclosing any particulars.
That is precisely the problem. Nobody elected Snyder and Martínez. Yet they and others on an administrative team decided who would get sizable raises. Then Snyder made sure the money was allocated before the new mayor knew his way to City Hall’s washroom.
Oh, and Snyder shut out duly elected City Council members from hearing about this important project. Otherwise they might get nosy and ask questions about the public money they are supposed to be managing.
After this fiasco, with all its shadowy intrigue and suspicious timing, a mayor committed to cleaning up city government would have booted Snyder and Martínez, then rescinded the raises. Webber won’t do either. “This is really a gift,” he said in an interview Thursday, describing the blowup in a most peculiar way.
Webber said it gave him the opportunity to sift through details of what the managers did and then reach a reasoned decision. He said what went wrong amounted to “sins of omission, not commission.”
That assessment is as disturbing as Webber’s written report on what Snyder and Martínez told him.
“I heard honest, earnest, direct and truthful answers from Santa Feans who care deeply about our city — Santa Feans who are able to acknowledge the mistakes they made at the same time that they take pride in the important project they have painstakingly created and carefully shepherded toward success,” Webber wrote.
Webber protests too much. He saw a need to lard his defense with redundancies about his “honest” and “truthful” lieutenants.
The facts tell a different story. Martínez outlined the digital upgrade at a recent public meeting but left out the part about 10 percent and 15 percent raises.
Webber saved the worst of his report for his kicker paragraph.
“There’s one more lesson I’ve learned: We can’t afford to let cynicism, self-doubt or internal strife prevent us from embracing the changes we need to make to be the city we aspire to be,” he wrote.
What Santa Fe can’t afford is the backroom deal-making at City Hall.
Webber, though, has given a pat on the back to those who carried on that inglorious tradition.
If anyone is jaded, if there is unnecessary strife, it is because Snyder and Martínez violated the public trust.
And if there is self-doubt, it should belong to Webber.
He took office riding a crest of optimism and goodwill. A lot has changed in a month.
Webber has dug a hole for himself. Worse, he doesn’t seem to realize how deep it is.
shooting range.
“I had assumed that I had taken it out before,” he said. “Unfortunately, I didn’t check before I got on the plane. I was running late for my flight.”
Talachy, who travels frequently on business, said he was still able to catch his flight.
Talachy said he had recently completed a concealed carry permit class and that his license was being processed at the time.
“I’m not a violent individual or anything like that. However, since being in law enforcement, I’ve always believed in being vigilant — being a sheepdog as opposed to being a sheep, which is interesting because I’m a staunch Democrat, which makes absolutely zero sense,” he said, laughing.
While Talachy maintained a sense of humor about the incident, he said it was a serious matter and that he hoped others, especially tribal members, would forgive him for his mistake.
“It was a boneheaded mistake, and I hope you can express how apologetic and how hard it is for my family and I to have to go through this,” he said, adding that the incident doesn’t affect his ability “to lead my tribe with integrity, honesty and responsibility.”
News of the incident appeared on Facebook this week when an individual using the name of Jasmine Fierro posted a picture of the criminal charge against Talachy of unlawful carrying of a deadly weapon.
“Although the incident happened in February, I was hoping that it would be resolved before being made public,” Talachy wrote in response to Fierro’s post, which he shared on his wall. Both posts disappeared from Facebook after Fierro apparently removed the initial post.
Talachy said he had considered addressing the incident in a public forum such as Facebook but decided against it on the advice of his attorney.
“I didn’t anticipate that it would have any effect on my ability to lead or fulfill my duties as a tribal leader,” he said. “But now that it’s public or that it’s getting out there, I feel I do owe an explanation, and I’m willing to do that explanation.”