Council delays vote on ‘racial equity’ bill

Legislation would ‘prioritize projects in underserved areas’

The debate over how the city of Albuquerque should use race data to steer infrastructure spending remains unsettled despite an hour of sometimes emotional and sometimes technical City Council discussion Wednesday.

The council ultimately delayed voting on legislation calling on the city to prioritize using a “racial equity criterion” when developing its Capital Implementation Program and to “prioritize projects in underserved areas of the city.”

Albuquerque’s CIP maps out city investments like new parks, community center renovations and roadway expansions. It guides the general obligation bond package that the city sends to voters every two years — a massive program that will this year total about $140 million.

Councilor Klarissa Peña, who sponsored the bill with Lan Sena, said it builds on legislation the council passed prioritizing projects in “underserved neighborhoods” for the 2019 bond cycle.

Peña said the new bill would make such considerations permanent and that all nine city councilors could use the criterion to help locate new projects in their individual districts. She repeatedly held up a map that she said showed high-poverty areas in each of the districts.

Passing the bill would show “we’re paying attention to communities in need and communities of color,” said Peña, who represents the city’s southwestern-most areas.

Sena said the criterion was “merely a guide” for decision-makers.

But multiple councilors expressed concern that the bill’s language boxed the city into prioritizing racial equity, arguing that could mean funneling most resources into certain districts at the expense of their own. They also complained they did not know exactly what the equity criterion would look like.

Brook Bassan, who represents part of the Northeast Heights, said she would struggle facing constituents if she voted on a bill that could slow investments in her district. Trudy Jones, who also represents part of the Heights, added “There are people who need help and there are people of color throughout the city. I don’t want to see this go to just one area of the city when we need it all over.”

Council President Cynthia Borrego raised similar concerns, saying that her Northwest Albuquerque district may be higher-income than some but still does not currently have a senior center or community center. The bill’s passage as originally written could have hampered such developments, she said.

Borrego proposed an amendment to soften the bill’s language and to clarify that the city would target investment in underserved parts of “each City Council District” as opposed to the more general “underserved areas of the city.”

Her amendment passed 5-4 with Bassan, Diane Gibson, Don Harris and Jones joining in support.

Isaac Benton and Pat Davis joined Sena and Peña in opposition.

Sena and Peña both said they were “disheartened” by the changes, and Peña said she would rather withdraw the bill than take a vote on the altered version. “I feel like I can’t even vote on this,” she said. Davis instead proposed deferring a vote until Feb. 1, saying he thought it could be saved if councilors received more information and details. His motion passed 8-1 with only Bassan opposing.