Mike Riordan and his DMD Traffic Engineers really don’t care how much of our tax dollars they waste on landscaping medians-even doing those that don’t need it. The Berry Bugle’s (AKA Albuquerque Journal) July 13 article by Abigal Ortiz confirmed that the City is proceeding with destroying an attractive median put in seven years ago by homeowner Ben Lowney with his own money near his home at Yale and Cesar Chavez and replacing it with a very expensive one by the City. Lowney was first told he could have formally adopted his completed median only to find out that there is nothing on the City website even mentioning such an adoption program. A recent Berry Bugle editorial pointed this out to the City and recommended they leave the nice Lowney median alone-and instead complete the 64 miles of bare medians still throughout the City. Included in this list of bare medians was on the one mile segment of Juan Tabo north of Montgomery near our NE Heights neighborhoods.
But when there are opportunities for tax dollars to be wasted, the City’s DMD just has to do it and then fabricate some excuse to justify it. First their high paid press secretary/spin doctor Mark Motsko would point out that Ben could not adopt his median as there was a “misunderstanding” on what their program was all about. It was just to have neighborhoods pull weeds and remove trash from the existing expensive medians City contractors put in. This DMD-alleged “misunderstanding” was insulting to anyone with any bit of intelligence. To help them perpetuate this tax waste, Ben’s Neighborhood Association President would then be called upon to say (now after
seven years of apparently liking what Ben had done) that the costly City redo was needed in order for such medians to “be uniform.” Ignored is the fact that there are many landscaping templates the City uses-all different. None are uniform.
I guess the wealthy neighborhoods and/or those with a lot of influence downtown like this particular one, gets the high dollar water wasting medians done immediately while others of us can wait. Mr. Lowney was justifiably upset-as all taxpayers should be when saying, “I want them to stand up to what they were going to allow me to do.” His proper demand fell on deaf ears-and seemingly our self-proclaimed fiscally-responsibly Mayor Berry couldn’t care less about this waste. This is not an isolated case. Yet another example of waste is DMD having its contractor landscape just 2 miles of Academy Boulevard west of Eubank to Truchas for an exorbitant $2.7 million-and yet it’s mostly rocks. Maybe I should be one of Mike Riordan’s lucky median contractors. Should anyone suspect any kick-backs with all this? Also see the July 13 letter to editor of the Berry Bugle by Jean Wilkerson Rodney commenting on DMD’s $500,000+/mile medians, “Money doesn’t grow in Medians, Fields.”
All should recall that a developer contracted some years ago to do the beautiful ½ mile waterless median on Eubank north of Juan Tabo to Academy for a fraction of cost DMD is now paying its contractors. We taxpayers are repeatedly being ripped off by Riordan’s DMD with a large capital budget to waste. He is the Santa Claus to all City Councilors, many of whom seemingly care little about this tax waste-as long as they get their little fiefdoms and other special interest groups get cared for. It’s always about priming the pump when they next come up for re-election. The $300,000+ of our tax dollars recently spent to give Councilor Rey Garduno his two traffic lights on Central whose locations both failed DMD’s signal warrant analyses tests was just more of the same-but who really cares downtown? For far too many on the City Council and in the Mayor’s office, our tax dollars are just fun money to be wasted as they see fit.
There are yet other examples of mismanagement of our road system in Mr. Riordan’s DMD. He still has not explained why our four lane one mile stretch of Juan Tabo-passing by our Eisenhower Middle School is posted at a high 40 MPG while the same length of the six lane Montgomery Boulevard from San Pedro west to I-25 is only 35 MPH. That stretch of Montgomery is well known as a speed trap at the camera equipped Carlisle intersection for those coming east off I-25. It likely makes a lot of red light camera speeding revenue for the City. The remaining six lane length of Montgomery Boulevard is properly 40 MPH. Our four lane stretch of Juan Tabo is also the only road that passes by a middle or elementary school not at the 35 lower MPH limit. Riordan’s people first tried to blame MR-COG for this high speed limit-something MR-COG’s spokesperson pointed out was a blatant lie. In fact it was the City’s decision. The City can certainly reduce the speed limit there but won’t because I-on behalf of our and our surrounding neighborhoods was the one asking for it. Our District 8 City Councilor Trudy Jones also couldn’t care less with any of this-as her allegiance will always be first to her developer, builder and real estate friends who are her only constituents and then her “business (Trudy) friendly” Mayor. Those of us who are unwilling to pay-to-play/are unwilling to stop criticizing the ongoing tax waste in DMD and elsewhere in the Berry administration will get nothing-be it long awaited Juan Tabo median landscaping, street lights, a traffic light and crossing for our elderly and school kids or speed humps on streets very near our middle and elementary schools. Can you believe Riordan’s DMD put four speed bumps costing taxpayers well over $7,000 on a dead end street in an exclusive NE Heights neighborhood? It’s true.
Riordan and his DMD Traffic Engineering Division are clearly out of control as evidenced most recently by this sanctioned tax waste on this new Cesar Chavez/Yale median. If DMD was ever audited, it would likely reveal a haven of wasted taxes and inconsistent application of traffic signals and speeds. Nobody cares downtown including Mayor Berry or CAO Dave Campbell who is supposed to be supervising Riordan and his DMD big dollar spending. The Berry administration also doesn’t care what the
Berry Bugle recommends in their editorials despite the Bugle’s blind loyalty to them. There will always be a Mark Mostko there to spin DMD waste into something that would appear justified.
Taxpayers can only wish that the DMD was the only waster of our limited tax dollars. Our Councilor Trudy Jones now wants to leave her own personal legacy to waste by proposing to spend more than $9 million-with the blessing of DMD to build a new Holiday Park multi-generational center that we never asked for. Yet there already exists an adequate City Recreation Center on that Comanche Avenue site and a modern YMCA for both children, adults and senior citizens a mere one minute drive away. That multi-million tax wasting project is proceeding on schedule managed by DMD’s Capital Project/CIP manager. The Director of the Department of Family and Community Services-a former lawyer colleague of the CAO seemingly feels it’s none of her business to question it even though she will have no money to staff it.
We should also recall the KOB-TV 4 July 12 evening news expose of the hundreds of thousands of our tax dollars wasted by the City on renting Tiffany lamps for the museum, buying leather computer cases for some privileged employees, a costly drum set, an XM radio receiver for a community center and Lord knows what else. The justification for of this offered up to the KOB-TV investigative reporter by CAO David Campbell could hardly be believed-if not insulting. Why nothing yet from City in response to former District 8 Councilor and ABQRide Director Greg Payne’s recent Berry Bugle OpEd on the millions wasted on sick, injury and other leave time in the City that the City’s Human Resources Director with the Mayor’s blessing seemingly cares little about? Waste permeates the Berry administration. The fancy rhetoric (I’m going to run the City like a responsible business) is starting to get a bit old. It’s time for Mayor Berry to stop the hypocrisy and start walking the talk on fiscal responsibility-if only for a change. He can start with his mismanaged DMD.
Silvio Dell’Angela
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