OPINION: Keller is appearing on city-operated television despite prior blackout policy

Mayor Tim Keller is appearing on the city-operated government television channel despite a city policy prohibiting candidates running for election or reelection from being on the channel 90 days before election day. With the runoff races, the blackout period was extended through Dec. 9.

I was the manager of the television channel GOV TV 16 (now One Albuquerque Media) in 1997 when the 90-day blackout policy was established. The policy as written was approved by the City Council and County Commission. By design it was intended to prevent incumbents from using taxpayer funded television programming to promote themselves during an election campaign. The policy partly stemmed from incumbents running for reelection who had scheduled events on the channel to show off what they’d accomplished for their constituents during their time in office.

The channel’s political programming policy definitively states that the only times a candidate can appear on the channel during the blackout period is during regularly scheduled City Council or County Commission meetings, or during nonpartisan open forum format programming, i.e., debates or moderated town-hall type events. Black and white. No gray areas.

From documents received via an Inspection of Public Records Act (IPRA) request, I learned that Mayor Keller appeared in 418 program slots from Aug. 7 to Oct. 21, when the IPRA request was submitted. None of them were in a City Council meeting or nonpartisan open forum format program. Keller was shown speaking at numerous events such as ribbon cuttings, ceremonies honoring city employees, dedication ceremonies for capital improvement projects, his State of the City Address, and in news conferences touting police drone technology, the New Mexico United soccer stadium, and expounding on his immigration policy. The last four could arguably be considered as promoting his campaign.

His appearances continue to this date. However, sitting City Council members running for reelection, or election for mayor, in districts 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 were informed by email from the channel’s management that their programming would be scrubbed from the channel due to the blackout policy. According to the IPRA documents I received, no such email was delivered to the mayor, the chief administrative officer or the mayor’s staff. It’s possible a verbal notice was given to the mayor. But his appearances have continued as normal.

In fact, an email exchange between the Alex Uballez for Mayor team and the director of the Arts and Culture department that oversees the channel shows that management has interpreted the mayor’s appearances to be business as usual, and that they are considered to be nonpartisan open forum format programs. That firmly is an incorrect, mistaken interpretation in both instances. And it should be noted that a current administrator within the department is a former manager of the TV channel, responsible for scrubbing the candidates’ programming during previous blackout periods. Did the history of this important practice disappear with the onset of the Keller administration?

I’m not suggesting Keller personally realizes these violations are occurring, but maybe he does. Nonetheless, he is the first and only mayoral candidate to appear on the government channel during a blackout period since the policy was instituted in 1997. All previous mayoral and council incumbents were mandated to follow the letter of the blackout policy. This mayor is appearing in violation of that same policy. No lax memory of history or mistaken interpretation can change that fact.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The author's name has been corrected.