Improving the future
Advisory groups propose changes to mayor in eight major areas to help make Santa Fe better
The Santa Fe of 2020 was visible for a few hours Friday. Eight advisory groups composed of activists, advocates and experts unveiled dozens of detailed
policy proposals designed to make improvements in the city.
The proposals, solicited by Mayor Alan Webber and his transition team, sketched out a vision of the near-term future as the Webber administration seeks to turn the page on a threemonth, post-election transition period and begin the work of governance.
“We’re moving from talking to doing. This is a set of practical actions we can take,” Webber said.
The five-hour marathon of presentations at the Community Convention Center was something of an ideas summit, and the result, Webber and attendees said, was an aspirational but still largely practical menu of steps City Hall can take to ease its affordable housing crisis, tackle public safety concerns and develop a 21st-century economy.
Each group compiled between three and a dozen-plus items that could be implemented within six months to a year.
“It’s a tutorial on how to make Santa Fe a better city,” Webber said. How to fund them? “That’s why you get paid the big bucks, Mr. Mayor,” said one committee chairman, Dave Weir, nodding toward a laughing Webber.
Weir’s financial contingency group recommended the city establish a local government permanent fund to protect against the next economic downturn and inevitable fluctuations in gross receipts tax revenue, the city’s largest revenue source.
Such a fund would require the approval of voters. The advisory group recommended a fund that was equivalent to 20 percent to 25 percent of the municipal general fund — between $19 million and $24 million. The city currently holds 10 percent of general fund expenditures in reserve.
Webber, who made such financial contingency planning a point of emphasis in his campaign, was receptive to the idea and floated a question about establishing the fund through a one-time tax increase.
The creation of a dedicated revenue stream to shore up the city’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund was another priority mentioned Friday that could require a tax hike.
Mike Loftin, chief executive of Homewise, who co-chaired a housing group, said a general obligation bond or gross receipts tax increase could be politically problematic. He suggested including infrastructure that could facilitate housing development as a priority in allocations for capital improvements, or possibly charging additional fee on short-term rentals.
The latter approach would open the question of how to avoid putting a millstone around the neck of that increasingly significant segment of Santa Fe tourism: “Can you do it in a balanced way?” Loftin said.
The housing group produced a series of proposals the city could consider, among them:
Revise its mixed-use zoning code to provide for more live-work developments, the corresponding amenities of which might cut down on rote “NIMBYism.”
Establish mixed-use planning districts, such as the Midtown Local Innovation Corridor around St. Michael’s Drive, in other parts of the city.
Donate city-owned land to developers of affordable housing.
Rethink the uses of other large city plots, such as the downtown Water Street Municipal Lot.
“We need to be innovative,” said co-chairwoman Carol Luna-Anderson of The Life Link. “We still need to build
but we need to take advantage of what is already there.”
A group of advisers that focused on public safety initiatives produced another lengthy and detailed set of action items, one being an expansion of the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion program, which reroutes low-level drug offenders through treatment.
The group also proposed enhanced recruitment efforts to fill the persistent officer shortage at the Santa Fe Police Department and a public information campaign about safe gun storage.
An education-focused group emphasized possible partnerships with the public school district and early childhood education providers to improve access to early-life schooling and establish workforce pathways for youth.
Equity was top of mind for a group assigned to evaluate the “unity” of Santa Fe. It recommended the city apply an “equity impact report” that would evaluate geographic and demographic effects to each piece of legislation and establish an office of equity and inclusion.
“You’ll have dedicated city staff in charge of making sure this practice grows,” said Maria Perez of FairVote New Mexico. “Our boards and commissions don’t look like our community looks.”
A jobs committee proposed, among other things, a business concierge service to help businesses navigate city laws and the process for obtaining required licenses or permits.
Multiple groups emphasized improved internet service and more flights at the Santa Fe Regional Airport.
A sustainability panel proposed a slew of immediateimpact ideas, including the placement of more solar panels on city facilities, free city bus service, the creation of a coalition of “like-minded” cities and counties to intervene in cleanenergy cases before the state Public Regulation Commission, and an audit of city water use to find where reductions are possible, in city operations and privately.
“As well as the mayor’s home,” said Beth Beloff of the Sustainable Santa Fe Commission, a crack about Webber’s home water usage that drew a snicker from the crowd.
Webber said he believed he and his wife had reduced their water usage by a third since a New Mexican story this year revealed the extent of his home water consumption. “It’s important to be a case study — whether for good or not so good,” he joked.
Webber said his immediate next step would be to identify proposals from the working groups he could enact as executive orders. Next, he said, he would convene with city councilors and department heads to begin to develop the city’s approach to other initiatives.