City council candidates held a forum, and here were the hot-button issues

Six weeks before election day, Albuquerque City Council candidates on Tuesday answered questions in front of a group of business leaders about the city they’d like to represent.

With four seats up for grabs, and just one incumbent on the ballot, the council could look very different following the Nov. 7 vote. All 11 candidates, including Moisés González, Joaquín Baca and Loretta Naranjo Lopez from District 2, Brook Bassan and Abby Foster from District 4, Abel Otero, Nichole Rogers, Jeff Hoehn, and Kristin Greene from District 6 and Idalia Lechuga-Tena and Daniel Champine from District 8, attended the candidate forum hosted by commercial real estate group NAIOP New Mexico. The forum was co-hosted by 19 other business organizations and moderated by Journal Executive Editor Patrick Ethridge.

City Councilors Isaac Benton, Trudy Jones and Pat Davis all have announced they would not be running for reelection. Only District 4 City Councilor Bassan is fighting to stay on the council.

All candidates were given a chance to introduce themselves, then were asked two district-specific questions and one general question before giving closing statements in the event held at Marriott Albuquerque.

Early voting lasts from Oct. 21 to Nov. 4. Election day is Nov. 7.

Crime

Crime, housing and economic development were highlighted by both the questions and the candidates.

The 11 candidates had different approaches to addressing crime in Albuquerque. Some asked for stricter enforcement of existing laws and ordinances. Others pointed to increasing social services to prevent recidivism.

Attorney Foster, the only candidate running against an incumbent, said she’d like to see more police officers hired and praised Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman’s efforts to prosecute more shoplifting cases.

Foster is running against current District 4 councilor Bassan.

Lechuga-Tena, who is running for District 8, is a former state representative for District 21. She said a crime diversion program, which “rehabilitates in a compassionate way,” would be an effective way to address crime, pointing to a similar program in Miami-Dade in Florida.

Gateway Center

When asked to name one thing Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller was doing well, and something to improve on, several candidates were critical of the current administration and one of the mayor’s major projects, the Gateway Center — the city’s one-stop shop for wraparound services to transition homeless people into permanent housing.

“I imagine Mayor Keller’s ears are ringing,” said District 2 candidate González.

Bassan reiterated a sentiment she’s expressed at several recent council meetings — she doesn’t want to see any more funding for the Gateway Center.

But District 6 candidate Otero, a small-business owner who said he himself experienced homelessness as a teen, had a different perspective. Otero said wrap-around service providers like Gateway are “phenomenal” — but the city needs to make a bigger effort to advertise and bring people in to receive those services.

“We need to make sure that we can get more programs into the community, instead of just relying on them coming to the programs,” Otero said. “We have to get out there.”

He added programs like Albuquerque Community Safety can be effective if they are staffed and funded appropriately.

Housing and permitting

Last November, Keller identified a housing crisis in Albuquerque and proposed the Housing Forward initiative, a far-ranging program aimed at increasing city-supported housing production.

In the months since, the housing shortage, which city officials have numerated at 30,000 units, has been a nearly omnipresent topic at City Council — especially as the council debated and voted on its annual zoning code changes. Changes to the Integrated Development Ordinance passed this year were largely geared at increasing housing density and simplifying the conversion of hotels and motels into multifamily housing.

Former police officer and District 8 candidate Champine said the city needs a “multifaceted approach” to housing, even as he said the approval of casitas and support of motel and hotel conversions in the most recent zoning code update were a good step.

The difficulty to obtain a permit was frequently raised by candidates, who spoke to a room full of developers, contractors and real estate professionals. Several others touted partnerships between public and private industries — at a City Council meeting last week, city officials said opening up requests for proposal to for-profit as well as nonprofit developers could help increase production of publicly supported housing projects.

District 6 candidate Rogers said affordable housing looks different for different people.

“We need housing on the entire income spectrum,” Rogers said.