Commentary:
I watched the City Council discuss Realize Las Cruces and the conservative campaign to undo it.
I felt for the folks pushing for a city-wide referendum. That has a certain appeal, but costs money and time. In a representative democracy: we elect representatives we’re politically comfortable with and trust to do their homework, use their judgment, and apply judgment and core values to hundreds of specific issues.
The referendum proponents’ objections seemed to be: that signatures were disqualified if names weren’t identical to the names as registered; and that the City withheld critical information.
The law provides that proponents have a set period for signature collection after the petitions are finalized. After the city clerk examines the submitted signatures, rules some out, and tells the petitioners where they stand, the petitioners can opt for a second period to try to collect enough valid signatures. The proponents say they asked when they could collect signatures, and got no answer. The City Attorney says an attorney answered that question and specifically advised proponents how to cure defects.
A couple of citizens voiced my reaction: whenever I’ve signed a nominating petition, collectors told me to sign the way my name appeared on my registration. Objecting to that requirement sounds specious.
Councilor Bill Mattiace voted for a referendum, saying that obviously more than 4,000 citizens were unhappy with the ordinance. But that’s not clear. Yes, 4671 signatures were submitted, but some were duplicates. Further, how many of those 4671 had been misled or flat-out lied to?
One Saturday at the Farmers’ Market I listened to a gentleman seeking signatures. He said the City was “springing it on people,” without getting voters’ views. Not true. I could testify that I was approached many, many times over a four-year period to attend meetings, answer e-mails, or otherwise learn more about this idea and comment. I’m told there were upwards of 30 public meetings about this. People weren’t interested. Zoning? Ugghhh! Petitioners now argue that a lot of the publicity was on-line, and not everyone is on-line; but a lot was by traditional means, meeting minutes were kept, reports made to the council, and I doubt the newspapers and KRWG were hibernating all those years. Should the City have spent our tax money going house to house?
Telling someone a McDonald’s is going in across the street is false fear-mongering. If you live on a quiet street in a quiet neighborhood, what sane entrepreneur would suddenly try to put in a truck stop or a McDonald's One puts those things where they’re very, very visible and very, very easy to enter and leave. City officials also claim that the new zoning wouldn't permit that. Further, basic parking, setback, and other regulations would likely make it impossible. I gather some of the “horribles” mentioned to citizens aren’t okay under the new code.
So in my one actual encounter, I heard untruths told, very passionately and persuasively. I can’t say they were intentional lies, the kind of whoppers paid canvassers used years ago in trying to recall three city councilors for approving minimum wage increases mandated by referendum.
“Realize Las Cruces!” should make developers more creative in building new neighborhoods and help some folks add a mother-in-law or art studio out back of their existing homes, but make no difference at all to 99.44% of us. Perhaps it’ll be delayed by a likely-to-fail lawsuit over the above claims.
Peter Goodman's opinions are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of KRWG Public Media or NMSU.