In yet another disappointing turn of events, the Española City Council chose to fail the people of our city. In so doing, they also failed the processes and procedures required of a liberal democracy and its processes.
This time, it was nothing earth shattering, nothing major. But entire forests are often felled one quiet tree at a time.
At last week’s council meeting, the group of councilors handed off a decision about whether or not to dole out raises to just about everyone working for the city.
Instead of discussing the topic, the council punted the decision back to the finance committee.
Frankly, that is where the discussion should have started to begin with. But the finance committee hasn’t convened since September even though, according to the city statutes, the group of four councilors should meet every single month.
The entire council is actually supposed to meet every three months to discuss the financial situation of the city — that hasn’t happened since May.
But we digress. It’s election season and nothing says “vote for me” louder than giving people money.
It became abundantly clear that this was the motivation when the mayor agreed with the city manager from his pulpit: “We have to give them a raise before Christmas!” As for the city workers, they are all hard-working and dedicated to the city and probably do in fact need a raise.
But when the mayor and council bypass protocol and give out raises without knowing how much is in the budget, it makes you wonder.
I know there was pressure from some employees who said that if they didn’t get the raise, they’d run to Los Alamos for better opportunities.
We get that a lot around here and oftentimes managers have to separate the wheat from the chaff. But opening up the purse strings without knowing what you’ve got is like putting all of your new purchases — no matter how necessary — on a credit card.
We know the payment is just around the corner with interest.
The absurd part to the story (as if it weren’t enough already) is that the mayor punted the important decision about whether or not to dispense raises to the finance committee just to give the semblance of propriety. It’s all just a ruse.
You’d think there would be deliberation, careful insight and a budgetary review. There will be none of that.
The meeting was planned for 5 p.m. so that it would last only one hour and would come back with the only “correct” decision to present to the full council at 6 p.m.
How much can you really get done in an hour? It takes me that long just to decide which pair of socks to buy.
In other words, they’re just going through the motions of perceived accountability and transparency.
Felled forests don’t happen with one great big sonic boom, they happen one quiet tree at a time.
One bad process after another until ultimately there’s no real accountability or vestige of a city government.
Even the city manager said it right on her social media account: “At any rate, salaries will be increased and we will just have to hold a lot of pointless meetings to do it. Aargh!”
Javier Sanchez is an El Rito Media columnist, former Española mayor, and restaurant owner.