Mayor quashes proposed bond election
Webber says city must try to regain public trust, continue conversation on issue
Santa Fe Mayor Alan Webber has called off a proposed $60 million bond election, saying this week that City Hall has much more work to do in fixing its finances before asking voters to take on debt and possibly raise their own property taxes to help pay for roadwork and other public safety measures.
Webber, who introduced a two-part bond package last month, called the election proposal a “placeholder” meant to facilitate conversations among city councilors, with an eye on a midJune deadline to ensure a spot on the November general election ballot.
Some city councilors said they were caught off guard by the plan, and the election proposal had a chilly reception at its first committee hearing earlier this week.
City Councilors Mike Harris and Roman “Tiger” Abeyta, members of the Public Works Committee, said they were certain it would fail at the polls without more preparation and a build-up of community trust in City Hall’s financial management abilities.
Harris said the failed bond proposition would be a “black eye” for the city.
Other councilors, even those who seemed open to the idea of an election, were skeptical the city could hash out the ingredients of the bond questions by the mid-June deadline.
After all that, Webber late Wednesday walked back the election proposal. He cited the “severe indictment” of a recent report by McHard Accounting Consulting LLC, which found city financial procedures were highly susceptible to fraud and abuse, and the “very difficult” findings he expects from the State Auditor’s Office as it reviews the city’s six-month-late annual external audit.
“I think we are making progress,” Webber said. “That said, I think we’re still in a building year as far as creating the city government we all want to be leading. … At this point, we’ve got a way to go before we can earn back the public’s trust in the way we handle their money.”
A newly approved city operating budget for the next fiscal year includes $200,000 for three audits, one of which will be a forensic audit. The city also plans to outsource internal audits and expects more annual reports than in previous years.
Webber and top management have met
regularly to discuss recommendations in the McHard report, and the city plans to open its fraud, waste and abuse hotline to the public. The line previously was open only to city government workers.
The bond proposal, which city finance staff said was a means of addressing the city’s estimated $250 million in deferred maintenance needs, envisioned $40 million spent on roads, $15 million on a fire training center and $5 million on a new southwest-side fire station. Brad Fluetsch of the city Finance Department said these uses were identified as priorities in a citizen survey last year.
Webber said conversations about an eventual general obligation bond are not dead.
“The process of considering what a [general obligation] bond should have in it” will continue, he said. “The conversations already have been incredibly constructive.
“As we look at the issue of our capital investments in the city and our financing of a host of improvements and maintenance opportunities and requirements,” he added, “the entire council has to be engaged in putting together an approach that makes sense and we all believe takes care of our existing investments and will make new investments so, going forward, city resembles the kind of place we want it to be.”
The second part of the twopart bond package, a $13 million gross receipts tax revenue improvement bond that would not require voter approval and would not impel a tax increase, was greeted more warmly by councilors this week. Those funds, according to a draft ordinance, would be put toward upgrades of city facilities.
Webber said late Wednesday the city will continue to move forward with that proposal; the city Finance Committee is scheduled to take it up Monday.