A no-confidence vote in the police chief will be on the table for the Albuquerque City Council at its Wednesday regular meeting.
Strike Out or Home Run
Councilor Louie Sanchez has failed a couple of times to get a message of no confidence off the council table and onto the mayor’s office.
The city’s Finance and Government Operations Committee, which is made up of five councilors, met earlier this month and approved sending a measure for a vote of no confidence in the police chief to the full council. The message was passed without a recommendation. Items coming out of the finance committee can have a recommendation to approve or not approve or without recommendation.
If approved, the message of no confidence bears no weight and will simply be sent to Mayor Tim Keller’s office. But it is a first step in the process leading up to a removal vote. Voters changed the city charter to give the council the power to remove a police chief and it must be done by a vote of two-thirds — or six votes.
Read our previous coverage on how the process works here.
City Business
Councilors will also be asked to:
- File a grant application from the State Outdoor Recreation Division for expanding and improving disc golf facilities.
- Authorize the sale of almost $112 million in general obligation bonds to finance city projects relating to public safety, seniors, homelessness and community enhancement, parks and recreation, transportation and many other projects approved by the voters.
- Approve an alignment of the Rio Grande Trail which is the state’s portion of a roughly 500-mile trail plan from Colorado to Texas for hiking, biking and horseback riding along the river. There are currently only about 88 miles completed with six state parks on board. The city is looking to align the Paseo del Bosque trail with the state’s larger Rio Grande Trail plan.
- Approve the filing of an application from the Federal Land and Water Conservation Fund for a grant to purchase the 640-acre Northern Sand Dunes property to be part of the open space division. The property is privately owned, vacant and located on the city’s Westside southwest of the Shooting Range Park. The property was recently appraised for $550,000, according to city documents.
The full council agenda can be found here.
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