What Can Politicians do to build the U.S. Economy?

 

With inflation, taking more of our paychecks every day the government needs to find new ways to build our economy. The answer lies in building basic infrastructure. I am not talking about just roads and bridges, which while needed are the way of the past when it comes to how Americans buy goods and services. Today is Cyber Monday. More and more people are buying their goods and services online from large corporations such as Amazon and Walmart. Small businesses cannot compete because of something we call the digital divide, a lack of basic access and infrastructure for the internet. The U.S. must make access to the internet free and fast for all Americans.

The U.S. should treat the internet as they did electricity. They should regulate not the content, but the service provided to all Americans. Basic internet should be free to the public and small businesses. Larger and middle size companies could pay for higher end services provided by private companies. By making internet accessible to all Americans, you increase the profit base and therefore increase the usages. By increasing the usage, you then increase the profit share to small businesses.

By increasing access of internet to all Americans, you build a customer base, which will grow other companies and provide basic tax revenues to small towns and outlying areas of our country. This is where government comes in. They need to tax the very largest corporations in this country to raise funds to pay for these investments. Think what it would have been like if our country had never developed basic utilities. Think of all the items that run on electricity in your own home. By providing access to all Americans, you build the economy and expand business in all parts of the country. I am sure that large corporations will fight this tooth and nail, but their fears are the same faced by this country every time there is innovations in our technology.

 

Gateway Center-City of Albuquerque’s dumping ground for the homeless

Do not get me wrong I am all for housing for the homeless but strongly feel that all six city council districts should share evenly in the responsibility of helping the city’s unhoused population. Mayor Tim Keller went on the news to tell residents living near the Coronado Park that they should apply pressure on the City Council to force zoning changes that would allow him to dump all the homeless from the Coronado Park onto Gibson in the Gateway Center.

Mayor Keller does not care about the residents of the Southeastern part of the City of Albuquerque. So much for One Albuquerque. The homeless population already in the area have destroyed businesses on San Mateo and San Pedro. They are now moving into the Ridgecrest and Parkland Hills area and are now attempting to break into apartments, cars and homes.  

Once the Gateway Center opens all the drug and alcohol issues will move to the southern part of the city. The few remaining businesses will be forced to move just to survive. Residents will be forced to move out of the area in order to feel safe and that part of the city will become a slum. Property values will drop like a rock.

The City has zero credibility when it comes to how the Gateway Center will be run since they totally lack the foresight to plan for all the negative consequences of a homeless center that large near local communities. The people in the area surrounding the area are not rich like in the Country Club area where Mayor Keller and his family have a nice home.

 

GOTV Rally for Melanie Stansbury in Ridgecrest Park

Here are the links for the photoes and the video. 

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipOK0vjoXjOe_c0myq_3g5XkT1_6uF9PBFJscwH2gNQ19vzT0kUudvGz5ccMDW1PxQ?key=M2lpTlRrWll0U2RhdUVuQ08taFFVdjg2U0tWdEVR 

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=5011542435528365&id=100000179738692

How do we deal with corrupt School Board Members?

I have had reason to think about this issue. The state has seen too many cases of corrupt school board members. They take state funding which was allocated to education. That funding never reaches the students and the students do not benefit from the funding. They hire family members and underfund teachers while paying egregious salaries to school administrators.

  

I have a suggestion. An ethics committee that is made up of two parents, two educators and two legislators from the school district. They interview people to take the position of one policy administrator rather than a school board. The committee provides a short list of qualified candidates and then the governor or their representative picks from that list.

The candidate must meet basic skills and education level, must have been a classroom teacher at one time, must have skills in money management and have training and experience in the field of educational administration. 

This educational policy administrator would then be required to set policy and hire a school superintendent. They would be required to develop a relationship with the parents and educational staff within the school district that they oversee. Other duties could be developed by the legislator, governor, parents, and teachers of that school district. 

The candidate chosen by the governor or the head of the cabinet position would then have to stand for a non-partisan up or down vote by the residents of the school district and a retention election there after every four years.

     

This method would produce one individual who is held responsible by the legislator, parents, teachers, and the governor. They could not pass the buck by claiming it was another school board member. They would know what the policies were and how they were developed. This one individual could be bonded to protect local school districts. Yet they would still be accountable to the people that they service.  

This method would also prevent the long drawn out recall process by the citizens of a school district. If there was misconduct, then the governor or their representative could simply fire this individual and call an ethic committee to replace the person.

Los Cruces School Board Members Facing Recall

On June 11, 2019 District Court Judge James T. Martin from the 3 Judicial District Court in Dona Ana County ruled that a citizen group could proceed to collect signatures to recall three school board members. Judge Martin found the citizens group have provided evidence and testimony to show probable cause that Ray Jaramillo, Terrie Dallman and Maria Flores all violated The Open Meetings Act (OMA), The LCPS School Site Selection Policy, and The Inspection of Public Records Act (PRA) regarding the use of Administrative Leave. Should the citizens group be successful in obtaining the required signatures a recall election would be schedules at the local expense to determine if these three board members should indeed be recalled.  

 

The judge did not find that the other issues sited within the complaint were under the scope of the statue (NMSA 1-25 to 13) used to recall board members. This is not the same as finding that no wrong doing had occurred. The judge did rule that if these individuals appealed the ruling to the State Supreme Court that his order would be put on hold until such time as the State Supreme Court could decide if there were any reasons for them to hear the case.

The problem with local school board is that they consider themselves little kingdoms where they can break state laws without anyone holding them accountable. These boards often behave in very unethical manners that cause harm to the individuals working within the school districts. The PED has failed to provide oversite of these boards. The elected board members have been known to misuse state money and to provide outrages salaries for administration while failing to pay teachers and support staff a living wage. 

I would hope that the State Auditor’s office is already conducting an investigation to determine if any financial wrong doing was committed by these school board members. It is often the case that these type of issues come to light once the State Auditor’s office does an independent audit.  It would then be the state attorney general office’s responsibility to press charges for any misusage of state money.  

The governor and her PED cabinet member should follow up to ensure that misconduct stops when it comes to these school boards. While they are elected the governor does have oversight responsibilities and can even dissolve boards in the extreme in order to protect state funding to education. Past governors have considered such actions in the past due to misuse of educational funding. While in best case these board allow for local control of school districts by residents that live within the districts, worse case has members of these boards profiting off of taxpayer’s money and depriving students of a quality education.   

Other articles covering this story:

https://www.lcsun-news.com/story/news/education/lcps/2019/05/16/las-cruces-school-board-members-recall-petition-court/3679783002/

https://www.bordernmvoice.com/2019/05/24/judge-to-consider-las-cruces-school-board-recall-petition/

Case Numbers that can be looked up at the NM Courts Home under find a case:

D-307-CV-2019-01397
D-307-CV-2019-01400
D-307-CV-2019-01399