Tuesday, February 19, 2008

That Lawsuit and the Secretary of State

When I was Mayor I inherited a lawsuit brought against the city by a developer who had his land down zoned by the city in the mid nineties. It concerned land near Coronado and Winrock centers and there was no doubt in my mind that the city was wrong in what it did. The situation came about because the city council under the leadership of Vicki Perea just did the wrong thing. That was fourteen years ago. I offered to settle the suit for 3 million dollars in 1999 but the city council said no in order to save face for them selves and their staff. After I left office Mayor Marty Chavez would not attempt a settlement because it is said he didn't like the lawyers for the plaintiff. Now the New Mexico Supreme Court has sided with the plaintiffs and the city could be facing a payout of up to 14 million dollars after lawyer fees and interest is added up.

It will be interesting to see if the city continues to fight this. One wonders whether there is enough money left in the city's risk management fund to pay it. Could the Mayor and city council have raided that fund for other things in the Mayor's spending spree over the last six years?

On another matter, can you believe the amount of money spent by former Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil Giron on promoting herself when she was in office? Over six million tax payer dollars to put her face on TV. Of course now we know why. She is using the face time earned to run for congress against Martin Heinrich. Somehow that spending spree may not actually work for her, do you think?

I can't wait to see what happens in Wisconsin's primary tonight.

1 comment:

Nob Hill Ward Chair said...

Those PSA's were a true embarrassment. Vigil-Giron has zero support among SCC members, at least those who attended today's (2/23) State Central Committee meeting. It was wall-to-wall with Martin Heinrich supporters. He was the only candidate with stickers and wall posters. You'd think any experienced candidate would know how important showing support at SCC meetings is.