Albuquerque Interfaith 2009 Municipal Candidates Assembly

Today the mayoral and city council candidates faced some interesting but difficult questions that were developed by leaders of the Albuquerque Interfaith organization. This group is a non partisan group that directs their efforts toward asking questions about issues that affect families in the City of Albuquerque.

The questions:

Workforce Development-Will you work with Albuquerque Interfaith to establish a workforce development intermediary that (1) provides long-term training for good jobs with a living wage, benefits, and a career path; (2) meets the specific training needs of participating employers with those jobs; and (3) provides students with the wrap-around support they need to graduate and succeed?

¼ Cent for Public Safety- Will you work to obtain an accounting of the actual spending of funds collected from the quarter-cent public safety tax since it was approved by voters in 2003? Will you work to implement the ¼ Cent for Public Safety Citizens Advisory Council passed by the council last spring?

Transit-Will you work to obtain an independent management review of the transit department’s employee discipline system and practices? Will you work with Albuquerque Interfaith to improve the bus routes serving working families, especially those with non-traditional hours, and increase service in the South Valley as part of the city economy?

They then had individuals present moving stories of why each candidate should be supporting these issues and requested that the candidates answer yes or no to these questions after which each candidate was given two minutes to further explain why that was their answers.


Candidates that showed up were:


City Council:


District One Ken Sanchez who answered no that he would not require a independent management review of the transit department’s employee discipline system and practices. He answered yes to all of the other questions.



District Three:


Alan Armijo and Isaac Bention both answered yes but one of the questions to all of the questions. It was pointed out that the job of making sure that the transit departments behavior was a direct responsible of the mayor and that city council has no control over these issues.



District Five


Michael Cadigan and Daniel Lewis answered yes to all of the questions



District Nine:


Don Harris and David Barbour also answered yes to all of the questions


Mayoral Candidates:


Richard Berry a republican and Richard Romero a Democrat both answered yes to all of the questions. The current Mayor Martin Chavez turned down the request and refused to answer any of the questions that mattered to the 450 voters who turned out for this forum.