I think the time has come for me to give up on local politics. Santa Fe’s political climate is just too confusing for me. When I was a little kid, I had a fascination with comic books. I especially loved Superman – his world of truth and justice was one with which I related. But of all the villains that attempted to destroy Superman and his virtuous ways, Bizarro struck me as the worst. I especially hated his world: everything considered “good” was “bad” in Bizarro world and I hated that concept. The problem is that Santa Feans are living in Bizarro world and I just don’t know how to cope with this topsy-turvy world.
Here’s why: there are two (2) things that Webber campaign team are touting as successes: 1) a very late audit that is riddled with findings; and, 2) the Midtown homeless shelter. Because I know both things from a first-hand perspective, I know for a fact that no one, rationally, would consider either a success if they saw the truth.
In the case of the audit, twenty-one (21) findings, especially of the nature listed in the audit are simply bad. They are a clear reflection of an organization that is very light on establishing sound business processes. What makes the whole thing fitting for Bizarro World is that when the chair of the Audit committee actually praised the audit to the Santa Fe New Mexican. What? How in the world could anyone with a financial background actually say the audit was fantastic? It was simply NOT good. What makes even less sense is the amount the City is spending to hire contractors to do last year’s audit. If the audit was so great, then why is there a need to spend half a million dollars to bring in contractors? Oh, right, the pandemic cleared out employees and internal financial knowledge. So, if there’s no one to guide external accountants, how are they going to know what to do for audit prep? oh yeah! i doesn’t matter because bad is good!
The second item, the Midtown homeless shelter, was nothing short of a complete and utter disaster while under the City’s care. It was a place riddled with Meth and violence. I personally called 911 no less that three (3) times to report overdoses and violence (I was sent there to help. Some say I was banished to the homeless shelter). I also had to do some crisis de-escalation after a resident reported having been raped. But what made the whole thing even worse was the trauma city employees who had no business dealing with these situations encountered because they didn’t have the skills necessary to handle the intensity of overdoses, meth distribution, rape, and other forms of violence with which they had to deal. Did I mention that these employees were working a homeless shelter in order to avoid being furloughed? Did we forget about the gazillion dollar shortfall the pandemic was supposed to cause upon which the furloughs were based? (I know the amoutn presented was $100M, but for the lack of evidence anyone provided, it may as well have been a gazillion dollar projection).
So, because these two (2) things that I experienced as bad are really good, I think I need to ignore Santa Fe politics. I can’t live in Bizarro World. I tried while I was actually employed with the Webber administration, but I started feeling like I no longer understood basic logic. I left the City because I couldn’t play along. But now I realize that the Webber administration isn’t playing. It really believes it’s doing well for Santa Fe. This belief is a huge contradiction of my experience and unless I want to end up in a loony bin somewhere, I have to give up on local politics.
