Punting the Charter

Santa Fe city councilors have just under a month to determine whether to pursue ballot questions to amend the city charter in the next election or to refine proposals for a future election instead.

The city code requires a charter review every 10 years. Previous reviews have resulted in ballot questions on creating ranked choice voting in city elections and granting the mayor additional powers—both of which voters approved. This time around, however, both elected officials and appointed Charter Review Commission members say the current proposals aren’t ready for prime time. Though the board was appointed in November 2022, it got off to a slow start.

“By the time we got organized and were meeting regularly, it was January. We really only had four months,” Nancy Long, commission chairwoman, told councilors at a special meeting Wednesday. “And clearly that is probably an insufficient amount of time.”

City councilors will need to decide on a course of action soon: According to City Clerk Kristine Mihelcic, the city attorney would need to start drafting legislation for charter amendments no later than July 5 to make sure questions could hit the ballot in time for the Nov. 7 election.

The commission recommended in a report formally presented to the council in early May a number of questions for voters on topics including: creating a separation of powers between the mayor and council; allowing the mayor to vote only in the case of a tie but to also have veto power; adding language to specify operations for government finances; reducing the signature requirements for referenda and initiatives from 33.3% to 15%; adding language to address the quasi-judicial role public officials hold during land-use proceedings; and clarifying the public involvement and resources for future Charter Review Commissions. As SFR reported previously, the commission labored in relative obscurity and the city didn’t conduct much outreach or education during its process.

During today’s special meeting, Councilor Mike Garcia said he would be willing to sponsor resolutions for recommended questions for voters to get the debate moving; other councilors asked whether the compressed timeline was their only option and suggested the best path might be to spend more time on the ideas by reconvening the commission.

Garcia said he favored giving future commissions better support.

“I think we need to provide fiscal resources for folks to convene in the community and ensure that we are doing everything we can to encourage the public to participate in this very critical process,” he said.

Councilor Renee Villarreal joined others in noting the commission’s report needs more analysis.

“I guess I would’ve liked to see more time for you all to do your work,” she said. “What I’m seeing here are attempts to try to make recommendations on issues that are really complex...What I see here is giving me not a very clear picture of how to move forward.”

Councilor Carol Romero-Wirth, who served on a previous Charter Review Commission, also said she believed the work of the commission was rushed. The City of Albuquerque’s process to change the mayor’s voting power, she noted, took 18 months.

“We might not make it for this election, but I think long-term there is a need to break between the legislative and the executive…That’s going to take some time,” she said, adding later, “We have really asked you to do a hurry-up offense,” but that the effort “plants the seeds for things that we have to start to figure out how to work towards.”

SFR Intern Noah Hale contributed reporting.