Credential check

A press credential check involving police and parliamentary procedure are topics touched on in the Metro Beat notebook.

Albuquerque police are trying to rebuild their relationship with the community. An incident like this can’t help: The city last week invited reporters to a question-and-answer session about the firm selected to monitor police reforms.

But police confronted some reporters individually beforehand, demanding they show press credentials before they would be let in.

Margaret Wright, a reporter for the New Mexico Political Report, an online publication, was barred from entering the conference room for lack of credentials.

Police also confronted Dennis Domrzalski of ABQ Free Press, a newspaper published every other week. He was allowed in, even without credentials.

But Domrzalski, a reporter for 35 years, said officers were too aggressive and that three of them surrounded him at one point. Wright also described being surrounded by three officers.

Some broadcast journalists, meanwhile, were allowed in without any credential check.

The dustup drew a rebuke from the local chapter of the Society for Professional Journalists.

“Powerful government officials should not be allowed to pick and choose which reporters cover them,” the group said.

‘I just wanted to fix it’

Gilbert Montaño, chief of staff for Mayor Richard Berry, describes the incident as “miscommunication” and the result of unfamiliar reporters showing up to the news conference.

Montaño said he takes responsibility for it. He was in Washington, D.C., on city business that day and said he would have cleared things up if he had been at City Hall.

“I would rather err on the side of inclusion,” Montaño said.

He added that the mayor’s security staff dealt with a major protest inside the mayor’s office in June. That’s when police arrested 13 people, one of whom had chained herself to an art case.

Montaño said Wright is welcome at future news conferences.

“When I heard about it,” he said, “I just wanted to fix it.”

How to handle debate

I don’t normally spend a whole lot of time thinking about parliamentary procedure. But that changed during last week’s City Council meeting when Council President Rey Garduño ended up in a bizarre dispute with his colleagues.

Garduño repeatedly refused to recognize a motion, then tried to adjourn the meeting early. He left the dais as everyone else continued on without him. (Garduño came back eventually.)

It caught the attention of the local chapter of the National Association of Parliamentarians.

The Albuquerque Parliamentarian Unit says it would be happy to provide training on the correct procedures to be carried out when presiding during contentious debate.

There’s also a seminar, Smart Meetings, planned for April 18. Visit nmsap.org to learn more.