Councilor leads charge to streamline City Council's legislative agenda

Albuquerque city councilors voted unanimously to defer their legislative priorities list just a few months before the 60-day legislative session begins in Santa Fe.

But the council on Monday did pass an ordinance aimed at streamlining the process and tightening up what priorities will be lobbied for.

The lengthy list does not include collective priorities — instead outlining priorities by district — and is separate from the Mayor’s Office priorities, which largely ask for public safety and housing improvements.

Councilor Klarissa Peña, the council’s most tenured member, introduced an ordinance to the priorities process that passed unanimously. The ordinance states that the city’s Committee on Intergovernmental and Legislative Relations should “promote cooperation and encourage coordination between the city, the federal, and state and local governments.”

The council’s list also asks for funding for construction projects — capital outlay requests — for each district.

The legislative priorities side is split up into two categories: public safety and behavioral health, and community improvement.

“We’ve tried to improve the process so that we could work together collectively to address our issues and concerns and projects for the city of Albuquerque,” Peña told the Journal on Tuesday, adding that sometimes “we get in our own way.”

Peña also said the ordinance is intended to collect all legislative projects from each councilor and the mayor, then narrow them down to the top six priorities to be focused on by the city’s lobbyist at the Roundhouse.

“So (Monday) night’s ordinance was just an attempt to say that the mayor and each councilor, all their priorities are important to the city of Albuquerque, and we need to make sure that we can inform our legislators as to what all our priorities are,” Peña said.

Because the ordinance passed, the bill that included the council’s legislative list had to be deferred as the ordinance “shall take effect five days after publication.”

Councilor Brook Bassan voiced her appreciation for Peña’s work Monday night from the dais.

“I really applaud Councilor Peña for doing this,” Bassan said. “I believe it will solve many problems while still notifying the public, the city, state, federal government, of our priorities and our dreams and goals.”

The only joint request currently on the capital outlay side comes from Councilors Louie Sanchez, Dan Lewis, Renée Grout and Dan Champine, who requested funding for updates and renovations to the city’s Shooting Range Park.

At the Nov. 4 meeting, the council opted to defer the priorities until the most recent meeting.

The opening day of the 60-day legislative session is slated for Jan 21. The next council meeting, when the priorities likely will be up for another vote, will be Dec 2.