State Auditor Tim Keller has tased the Albuquerque Mayor, Chief Administrative Officer, former Police Chief Ray Schultz and his upper echelon for probable improprieties in dealing with the company that manufactures Tasers. It seems they all supported some pretty iffy back slapping between Shultz and the manufacturer as Shultz received gifts and then went to work for the company, even as he worked for the city. Millions of dollars in contracts, in Shutz's own words, were 'greased' to provide officers with the stun guns.
So, now what will happen? Will anyone followup on the Mayor and CAO's blessing of this mess? Will the city council barge in and say, 'this is corruption'? Or will they get into a partisan pissing match instead of standing up for honest government? And will the procurement system get a strong working over? Often it seems that the bigger amount of money involved in government corruption, the less that gets done.
7 comments:
It seems the ball is in Hector Balderas' court -- we are watching and hoping that he will take this to the next level which involves at the very least a grand jury investigation and/or criminal charges against Rob Perry and Ray Schultz and quite possibly their legal counsel, Kathy Levy.
Here's hoping that Hector doesn't let the people who voted for accountability down.
Hopefully Keller and Balderas go after this because it is the right thing to do and not just because they want to enhance their further political aspirations.
The city council won't do anything but maybe just maybe the U.S. Attorneys office will because this movida has all the makings of a RICO act violation. I've said it before Jim , the council is spineless and acts like they have never heard of any wrong doing under their watch. Just let the Feds take over if you don't want the politicos to screw it up.
This state needs a civil RICO statute to give the AGO more powers to prosecute corruption. This statute also allows private attorneys to serve as "little attorneys general" to prosecute civil corruption and seek injunctive relief against government entities for violations of statutes like the Procurement Code. What powerful watchdogs could be created with a little statutory power.
In a state with a legislature controlled by self-dealing criminal defense attorneys, the likelihood of that kind of prosecutorial tool passing is about nil. Just look at the rule-swallowing exception they crafted in the new asset forfeiture law that takes care of them first above all others.
Mayor Berry is in Mexico as this scandal under his watch explodes. When the Boyd shooting happened and questions asked, he was 'in Brazil'. The rest of the time if he is in ABQ, he is hiding out in his 'secure bunker at an undisclosed location'.
Stand up in a press conference Mayor Berry and answer some questions as to what is going on in your Administration.
Darren White Jay Mcklesky Berry Schultz and Susana Martinez all friends
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