Albuquerque’s new-look City Council  decided not to press the issue of  Mayor Tim Keller’s veto of legislation related to changes to the local air quality authority at the Jan. 8 council meeting.

The Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Joint Air Quality Control Board is responsible for maintaining air quality locally, in accordance with state and federal law. Among its duties is making rules to abate or prevent air pollution as needed to meet those standards.

Recent board decisions have drawn fire from local and state officials, mainly Republicans, as too restrictive and potentially harmful to the area’s economic interests. One bill vetoed by Keller would establish specific criteria for members of the board, including an academic, a physician and a person with a background in combating air pollution or in permit compliance, along with a representative of a private for-profit business. 

Keller vetoed the legi slation in November. His veto message cited legal concerns and possible damage to the relationship between the city and Bernalillo County.

He wrote at the time that adopting the bills could lead to the city and county ceding their right to make local air-quality decisions to the state government.

Councilor Dan Lewis said that the mayor seemed to want to delegate the council’s authority to the county commission.

“To defer to the county commission is outrageous, and it’s not our job,” Lewis said.

Andrea Calderón of the city’s Office of Equity and Inclusion said that the vetoed legislation would be an obstruction of democracy and that a culture of collaboration between the local governments is necessary in the fight to improve air quality. She said that citizens have greater faith in government when the entities work together, and that those who are displeased with the way the board operates now would still present the same backlash after changes to the board.

“It is encouraging to see that this new council understands that we need to be working together with our partners in the county on this matter, not apart from them,” Keller said in a statement released later. “The clear need for guiding principles that ensure better quality air for the next generations must always come before petty politics.”

New leadership 

Lewis was elected council president early in the meeting and Councilor Renee Grout will remain vice-president. Peña will chair the Committee of the Whole for 2024. The Committee of the Whole consists of all nine Councilors acting as a committee to consider the budget and the capital improvements program proposed by the mayor.

Keller said in a statement. “I look forward to working with this new council to advance legislation that elevates Albuquerque and the families who call this city home,” Keller said in a statement.

Questions

During a question-and-answer period with city administrators, the plight of unhoused Albuquerque residents was the main topic of discussion. Councilors quizzed city officials about Albuquerque’s compliance with a court order restricting the conditions under which police and solid waste department staff may remove the belongings of the homeless.

Councilor Tammy Fiebelkorn said that she has sought answers from police regarding reports she’s received of the order being violated and received none.

City Attorney Lauren Keefe said that the absence of comments has been at her direction, as the matter is considered pending litigation.

She said that some of the allegations that have appeared in media reports are being internally investigated by the police department.

“The city is trying very hard to comply with the injunction,” Keefe said, adding that staff have expressly offered a bed to every unhoused person, and that those who decline are considered voluntarily unhoused and “can be asked to leave public property.”

Among the allegations Fiebelkorn brought up are reports of homeless advocates being detailed by police for distributing flyers or parking on a public street and of encampments being dismantled at night, despite chilly winter temperatures.

Keefe said she was unable to verify the latter assertion, but that the Solid Waste Department doesn’t clear encampments at night (Solid Waste workers’ day ends at about 3:30 p.m.). She said that police might do so, but any such action would be in response to a call for service, such as a fire, crime or other problem.

Fiebelkorn also mentioned signs that incorrectly identified some city-owned land as private property. Two such properties are adjacent to the International District Library and at Alcazar Street NE and Central Avenue. Keefe said that staff used signs that the city had in stock and, after recognizing that they were causing confusion, replaced them with regular “No Trespassing” signs.

She added that the land in question is under a private development agreement.

Fiebelkorn said that she’s received reports of police officers and others citing incorrect information on the terms of the injunction, issued in September by District Court Judge Joshua Allison.

Namely, she said, people are being told that the restrictions are only applicable to city parks, that camping is banned within city limits and that the city is still permitted to bar people from any property on which their presence is unwanted.

Keefe said that the city has embarked on a “substantial training effort” regarding the terms of the injunction, and that as staff are dealing with hundreds of encampments a week, “a few misstatements were bound to happen.”

Fiebelkorn then asked about how the city handles removing the property of those in encampments; she offered stories of a person’s wheelchair being taken and another person trying to get on the back of a solid waste truck to retrieve a sleeping bag that had just been confiscated.

Keefe said that the homeless are each offered 96 gallons of storage for their belongings (against which a bicycle would not count), and that they are given plenty of notice before their property is removed. She said that sometimes staff return to a location and see belongings, but that no one is attending them.

She said that most of the people in that situation left their belongings behind with the understanding that they would be removed, which staff have interpreted as intent to surrender the property.

Councilor Nichole Rogers said that situation is more complicated by the fact that some unhoused people don’t know where it’s OK to sleep.

Councilor Klarissa Peña said that some parts of the city bear a disproportionate burden, based on the number of encampments in those areas and that it’s important to ensure that residents can have peaceful enjoyment of their property.

Public Comment

During the public comment period, 11 speakers asked the council to urge Keller to sever Albuquerque’s sister-city relationship with Rehovot, Israel, citing what they called “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians in the area by the Israeli government. Several of them suggested parallels between Albuquerque’s historic mistreatment of local Indigenous peoples and the current Middle East conflict.The next Albuquerque City Council meeting is set for 5pm Jan 22, 2024 in the basement of City Hall. You can watch it on Ch. 16 GOV-TV, on the Council’s YouTube channel or via Zoom.