Española Mayor Joseph Maestas is spending $1,000 a month in taxpayer money on a radio public relations crusade against the Rio Grande SUN.
The city signed a contract with the Española radio station KDCE for that amount April 14 that gives Maestas and other city officials 30 minutes of airtime a week and calls for 20 daily promotional spots to promote city initiatives and “offset any negative attacks” from the media toward Maestas or the Council.
The contract calls for promotional spots to advertise “voter information, road construction, building repairs, job openings” and upcoming Council meetings, and requires KDCE to broadcast Council meetings.
But during a recent half-hour “Coffee Break” with Maestas, the conversation hovered around city road projects only for the first few minutes. The chat soon gravitated toward Maestas — his childhood, how he met his wife, how he thinks volunteering as a youth mentor makes him a better mayor and how he stays fit.
Toward the end of the segment, Maestas launched into an on-air tirade in which he accused the SUN of fabricating stories without providing specifics.
“Most newspapers are expected to provide balanced information and not distort and bias a story,” he told KDCE sales manager Thomas J. Garcia. At one point, Maestas described the SUN’s coverage as “fiction.”
Maestas could not be reached for comment.
KDCE broadcast its first Council meeting May 26, and the city has not yet made any payments to the station, Acting City Manager Veronica Albin said. The radio station did not attend or broadcast a June 10 Council meeting that included public hearings on an ordinance banning the use of cell phones while driving, a proposed increase in utility rates and the city’s fiscal year 2010 budget.
Garcia said the station’s contract requires it to broadcast only one meeting a month. However, the contract calls for broadcasting all meetings (see full contract at www.riograndesun.com).
Although the contract expires June 30, the city will likely sign a new one in July, Albin said. A contract provided to the SUN was not signed; and the contract was never brought before the council at a public meeting.
“I haven’t even seen the contract,” Mayor Pro Tem Alice Lucero said. “I didn’t realize we were paying $1,000 a month.”
New Mexico Municipal League Director Bill Fulginiti said it’s common for public officials to get regular air time on local radio stations. It’s less common for public agencies to pay for that coverage.
KZRE in Chama regularly covers Village Council and School District meetings, and often invites public officials to appear on air for interviews, general manager Scott Flury said. None of those agencies pay for the coverage.
“We consider it a public service,” Flury said. “If they were paying us, I might not feel so comfortable.”
KDCE owner Richard Garcia pointed out that like any other privately-owned media company, his station survives on advertising. Broadcasting meetings would mean hours of lost advertising, and the station can’t afford to do it for free, he said.
If the city asked only for the station to run a few public service announcements, the station would provide that at no cost, Richard Garcia said.
“What’s happening is the mayor feels you’re not giving them equal opportunity to respond, to talk about what the city’s doing,” he said. “That’s not my feeling, that’s their feeling. If they want to be on the air saying that, that’s fine, I’m not going to deny them that. But they have to pay for an advertisement.”
The city’s media campaign comes nine months ahead of the 2010 city elections, in which Maestas and four councilors’ seats will be up for election.
Lucero said the expense was justified if the radio spots are used only to inform the public of policy changes and upcoming meetings and public hearings.
“I wouldn’t like it to be used for a campaign platform,” she said. “We hadn’t been made aware of this. I plan to possibly run for an office in March. If I were to go on the air, I’d be very careful about what I’d say.”
Fulginiti said the campaign issue has raised controversy in other cities. But to be considered a political advertisement, the radio segments would have to explicitly endorse a candidate or criticize another, Fulginiti said.