KRQE Investigates Albuquerque’s ‘Public Servants’

Michael Dukakis famously claimed that the 1988 election “isn’t about ideology; it’s about competence.”

Taxpayers in Albuquerque might want to remember that line, as they vote in this year’s election. In the last few days, KRQE has reported that:

* The city, which “declined to go on camera but admits [it] messed up,” aligned an iron fence enclosing Sierra Sunset Park improperly. Since then, neighboring property owner Liz Alvarez built a brick wall to “separate me from the city park and the sidewalk.” Earlier this week, workers returned to fix their mistake, leaving “a piece of Alvarez’s wall … on city property.”

* “[D]ozens of blue … lights have gone dark” on the Bear Canyon Arroyo pedestrian bridge, necessitating replacements that will cost $210,000.

* “[A]nywhere from 100 to 200 bottles” of urine, covered with old newspapers, are littering an alley near I-25 and Coal. “I called a couple times with the city,” resident Richard Reycraft told KRQE’s Lysee Mitri. “They kept saying they’d get at it and get at it, but nothing.”

* The city has used “its own employees rather than use a professional construction company” for maintenance projects at the Biopark. “Building the elephant barn, for example, took three years and cost $4.4 million. [The mayor’s chief of staff Gilbert] Montano said estimates show private crews could have done the work in a year for almost a million less.”