© 2024 KRWG
News that Matters.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Goodman: A Need For Healing And A Focus On The Public Interest In Las Cruces

 

   Note: The column below, written Wednesday, appeared in the Las Cruces Sun-News this morning, Sunday, 8 February.   On Friday the Recallers turned in petitions seeking to recall City Councilors Olga Pedroza, Nathan Smart, and Gill Sorg.  By my count, the legal deadline for the Sorg and Pedroza petitions passed Monday. There's good evidence they collected their first signatures the weekend of November 28-29.  .

The law is simple: they had 60 days from the date of their first signatures to collect the number they needed, then five more days to turn the petitions in.  From November 29, 65 days would take us to February 2, so their deadline was this past Monday, the 2nd.   The campaign to procure signatures was also rife with fraud and probably fatal procedural irregularities; and there's a reasonable likelihood that some signatures could be mis-dated in order to evade some of the legal problems. We will learn over the next few days or weeks whether they found a way to get around having collected their first signatures by November 29 or will pretend they didn't understand or simply demand an extension.  We'll also learn how the responsible city officials – and/or the courts – will handle the situation

I had hoped this would be the end of this ugly episode in our city's history.   Deadline clear in the  law, deadline missed.  (The same rules were applied to CAFe.)  I still hope so; but if the recall election goes forward, the councilors will win.

The folks pushing the recall have accomplished a lot: they've unified against them people in town who care about good government and honesty; and they've alienated even some of their own Chamber members or non-Chamber business owners by the extremism and dishonesty of their statements and conduct. 

It's in this context that I'd like to see better communication between councilors and progressive citizens, on the one hand, and businessfolk who either are moderate or can leave their ideologies at home and discuss facts and actual practical needs.  We should be helping each other, as neighbors, whether or not we agree on who should be President, whether Roe v. Wade was rightly decided, whether religion should affect state law, or whether our economy is screwed up because of greedy corporations, greedy welfare recipients, or wars.

The turning in of the petitions could delay the healing process, as the City Clerk counts the valid signatures on the petitions, as the untimeliness and other problems get dealt with, and perhaps as we go through a rancorous recall election campaign against one or more of the councilors.   Anyway, here's the column:

Congratulations to Maury Castro and Ed Frank; to DACC; to the few citizens who voted; and to the community, for electing two people who'll do what they can to cut off a few heads of the “Testing” serpent.

Most citizens don't seem to much care or don't feel meaningful change is feasible. But a majority of voters judged right in the school-board election; and if Troy Tudor's candidacy was part of the Chamber's self-proclaimed electoral assault, his fourth-place finish in a four-way race was a small success for opponents of that plan.

Maybe another battle got decided this week, when municipal recall proponents failed to turn in signed petitions.

Apparently petitioners seeking recall of Gill Sorg and Olga Pedroza have failed. As of Wednesday, nothing's been turned in to the City Clerk. We could be close to another victory (or two) in the war certain wealthy businesspeople declared on us.

That makes this a good time to skip most of the crowing about victory and to reach out to business leaders. Particularly if those business leaders are about helping local businesses, without getting sidetracked by ideology.

We shouldn't be at war. We're a community. Despite our differences, let's talk honestly and seek solutions together.

Working together starts with talking together, with both sides trying seriously to understand what the other wants and really needs – and each side focusing on facts, not some damned ideology. If a building code provision or an ordinance seriously hurts business, let's specify the harm and try to harmonize competing interests – not debate whether government is too big.

Although there's no excuse for the recall effort, many businesspeople have felt pushed aside during recent years. Citizens and councilors would do well to acknowledge that feeling, despite the recall effort.

Two things are happening in the minds of businessfolk: real complaints about the collision between their needs and the local government's obligations regarding safety, traffic, the environment, etc.; and an ideology that demands as little government as possible – with private enterprise sacred.

Two things are happening in the minds of some city officials: the need to follow the law and fulfill their obligations to the public; and (according to businessfolk) an excess of non-cooperation or fussiness that suggests they're either hostile to business or feel that, “As long as I have some power for a moment I oughtta use it.”

We'd do well to assume that some city officials do conduct business that way. (Not many, I hope.)

Both sides must reach out to each other. Talking is a way of learning the other's language. It's how each of us learns more about the context in which the other appraises things – and talk can build trust and candor.

Sometimes business interests and the public interest necessarily collide; but sometimes we can avoid those collisions or find reasonable compromises to make the next collision less violent. We need to understand what each side really needs.

We're a community! Successful businesses are a plus for all of us. So are healthy workers. So are things that draw more visitors, as the Monument likely will. (Even the dreaded minimum wage will likely help the local economy, though probably not as much as the wage hike in Sea-Tac has. After a bigger minimum wage hike, the city's economy is booming.)

Talking to each other is worth a try. Having real dialogues, not shouting ideological slogans into each other's deaf ears.

If the Chamber insists on a war, I hope this week's events are omens that the Chamber will lose because its policies don't appeal to most citizens.

But I'd prefer peace. Can't we all just get along?

Peter Goodman is a local writer, photographer, and sometime lawyer.   He initially moved to Las Cruces in 1969, holds two degrees from NMSU, and moved back here in 2011 with his wonderful wife.  This is his most recent Sunday column in the Las Cruces Sun-News.  His blog Views from Soledad Canyon contains further information on this subject, as well as other comments and photographs, and past newspaper columns.