My First Day at the Roundhouse

Even though I have been political active in Albuquerque for the past few years today was the first time that I every went to the roundhouse. I have a good cause to be there this year.

I am trying to get a bill passed that would give instructional support staff paid holidays and paid annual leave. These individuals have worked for the Central New Mexico Community College for years and worked with student everyday to provide them with a quality education. Yet they earn less then $25,000 a year and are forced to take off 21 days unpaid leave every year. The unpaid leave is divided up in such a way that they cannot find part-time employment during the leave. Other staff gets paid annual leave and holidays but they work for the administration. We are told that because we work with students that we don’t deserve to be treated fairly. How do I know all of this? I work as an instructional support staff member for the college.

I did not start this journey yesterday. I have worked for the past six years four of those with the AFT union trying to help get instructional support staff these benefits. I have been through every level of the school administration. They all say that they support these benefits but then turn around and vote against them. They fight hard to keep us from getting the same benefits that all of the other administration staff receives each and every year. They lie to our faces and feel what good about it? They give the president our raise and think nothing about it.

The time has come to take our case to the state government. The time for hope is now! I hope that the AFT feels the need to do more then just thank me for my efforts in this matter other wise why am I paying dues to them or for that matter why is any instructional support staff member paying them dues.

I watched the State Senators debate the Solvency bill today in the senate. They spent way too much time on an amendment to provide $6,000 to fund web-cameras to record the proceedings. From all the debate I got the feeling that they need to work on a real plan and process to make this a reality but the bill they were debating was not the place for that amendment. I think web cameras would be great because when administered fairly they provide transparency for our state government. I understand that a few of our state senators don’t think they are cute enough to be on camera but what they don’t understand is that what they are talking about is far more important then how they look or how much hair they may or may not have on the top of their heads. One senator pointed out that senators would have very little reason to grand stand in front of the cameras because it would make the voters unhappy to watch them behave in such a poor manner. I must admit he had a point.

Albuquerque should be very proud of a few of their state senators because they speech well for our city and our children. Senator Eric Griego, Senator Tim Keller, and Senator Tim Eichenburg all did us proud today. Senator John Smith is a person to watch because of the control he holds in the state senate over some of our senators. Clearly he fears that our budget could fall much lower in the future. I hope he remembers what the mission of education is in this state and finds a way to side with the individuals who work hard everyday to provide our children of all ages K-16 with the educations that will provide our state with a skilled workforce. Our local economy will only suffer in the future if we fail to provide our residents with the proper education that will attract both large and small companies in the future. Business leaders do not want to have to pay more for employees just because there are fewer qualify workers.

The Railrunner needs work Governor Richardson. They need to train their staff to be more helpful when it comes to directing people to connections once they arrive in the city of Santa Fe. More information should be provided to travelers on how to make connections and maps with people to greet them in the capital would be of great help. We want visitors to feel welcome in our capital city. I met some very amazingly helpful local residents who were very kind but without them I would have been lost and I grew up in a large city back east so I don’t get lost easily.