A group calling itself “New Mexicans for a Better Tomorrow” has announced plans to gather petitions to recall three members of the Las Cruces City Council.
KRWG contacted the group’s campaign manager, listed as Jeffrey Isbell, and we hope to speak with him this week. The group issued a press release on Friday, stating it had filed paperwork to recall councilors Olga Pedroza, Gill Sorg, and Nathan Small…a process that requires petition signatures from ten percent of registered voters in each council district, followed by a recall election. The three councilors all voted against a proposal to raise the city’s minimum wage to $10.10 an hour by 2017. A “no” vote majority would have allowed the measure to go before voters in November. But that never happened, because the other four council members voted for the new law, while expressing the need to change it. Small says the lack of a public vote has led to the current climate over the minimum wage issue.
The press release issued by New Mexicans for a Better Tomorrow states “Las Crucens deserve honest leadership who will represent them without being easily manipulated by special interests.” But as we mentioned earlier, the targets of the recall voted “no” on the minimum wage law, which had they been successful would have resulted in a public vote in November. The council is now debating an amendment proposed by Mayor Ken Miyagishima including exemptions opposed by Café, the group that brought the ordinance before the council. Café executive director Sarah Nolan talked about her opposition to those exemptions at a KRWG forum last week.
For his part, Councilor Small agrees that significant changes to the minimum wage law would only cause more division. And he says the proposal for a recall election is also divisive. In addition to a recall, the press release by the group New Mexicans for a Better Tomorrow states it has filed a Freedom of Information Act request for e-mail and cell phone records of councilors Small, Sorg, and Pedroza.