Tell ABQ City Council to Improve Governance at unelected Air Board

There is an effort  underway at Albuquerque City Council to make some necessary improvements in governance and accountability at the unelected (and unaccountable) Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Air Quality Board. A resolution and ordinance will be voted on as soon as this Monday, October 30. You can contact your councilors to lend your support to this resolution and ordinance here.

Resolution  23-176 Ensures the board follows the Air Quality Control Act and operates with accountability when creating regulations.

Ordinance 23-88 Removes the current Air Quality Control Board ordinance and replaces it with a board that establishes the Joint Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Air Quality Control Board.

You can read more information from Councilor Lewis here. Here are some reasons why this needs to be undertaken:

The resolution and ordinance put forth by Councilor Dan Lewis is an attempt to  ensure that the Board that currently sees itself as autonomous and that is not subject to control or answerable to the council, the commission, city administration or the governor. That means they do not feel they are accountable to the public. If they are not accountable to elected public offices that created the board, they are not accountable to the electorate.

The board has continued to work on issues that the courts have said are not allowed under current law. Lewis’s resolution prohibits them from doing what the courts have already said they can’t do.

The ordinance was drafted to correct these and a few other problems that are the result of the board’s actions.