City Charter violation

Editor:

I am filing a city charter violation of a mayor holding a state seat and a city seat, and the city clerk and city attorney are well aware of this violation and are ignoring this city charter regulation. In addition, your Maggie Cordova Elementary polling place was in violation of the use of intimidation tactics that govern HAVA federal regulations. The case in point (is illustrated) when then Mayor Williams used City employees to promote with signage, blockage of half of the sidewalk, and the vocal promotion of the current Mayor Williams as an intimidation tactic since these firemen are responsible for life-saving techniques to our residents of Rio Rancho. This intimidation at the polls, as well as the fear of retaliation to not respond to life-saving calls by law enforcement and firemen, must stop in our city and state polling areas. Also this concurs with the Observer advertising in the March 3 edition with advertising by the William’s campaign. If you want safe law enforcement choose Williams thus further proving the validity of the intimidation claim of infringement of voter’s rights. This (city charter violation) was hand-delivered to the city clerk’s office on March 3, 2008.

Cc: State Attorney’s General’s office, FBI unit for voting violations, and Jim Babin, Rio Rancho city attorney.

Kim Rytter

Rio Rancho

Swisstack commentary

Editor:

As a former Rio Rancho resident and assistant to Tom Swisstack during his first term as mayor,  I am pleased to see him in office again. He truly cares about the city, its residents, city employees, and works well with surrounding government entities. He will lead the City ahead and will make sure that there is citizen involvement. He is what the city needs. In my personal opinion, he was the last mayor that served the city properly. Congrats Tom. 

Ann M. Norby

Eagar, Arizona

Rio Rancho polling stations

Editor:

One thing I like to do is read polls, and I have to ask myself that with as many conservatives as there are in this town, in this state, in this country, why we have the situation that we have.

Let’s just keep it to New Mexico for now. The state legislature has just passed a bill that will effectively eliminate smoking from workplaces, restaurants, and bars et cetera, statewide. I will not even go into the so called hazards of second hand smoke, which have been debunked more times than the second shooter on the grassy knoll. I am an ex- smoker, so one would think I would be happy about this. I am not happy about this. This is not about smoke, this is about government slowly relieving us of our freedom, relieving us of our private property, relieving us of our responsibility for ourselves. 

The smoking bans are predicated on several lies. The biggest two are these: second hand smoke causes health problems and that businesses are public property. I would like to focus on this second lie. Those interested in the first lie can go to http://www.forces.org/evidence/evid/second.htm#iarc and http://www.lcolby.com/index.html to discover the truths that the statistic media in this country will never tell you.

A man builds a restaurant, perhaps he builds the building himself, and perhaps he leases it. He pays for it. He pays the taxes on it. He pays to equip it and to staff it. He pays for the food or alcohol that will be served there and for the people who will serve it. All the while he is paying, the state is already taking its cut in taxes. In the neighborhood I came from it was called extortion, now we call it government. This is very much a private place. The government had no stake in opening it, or running it. It is there for the public to use or not use.... as they wish. But apparently our state legislature and the sadists that make it up feel that that restaurant owner owes you a place to eat, that he is required by law to feed you. They believe that the bar owner owes you a place to get drunk. The idea that perhaps you have the ability to decide whether or not to enter a restaurant never crossed their minds. So they deem it a “public place.” This was only the beginning. From this mentality comes the infamous Kelo decision. Now the government can deem your land to be public lands, and steal it from you and give it to some developer to build a 7-11 on, for the sole purpose of the government collecting more taxes. From that we roll downhill into talking on cell phones while driving, banning that fat that makes your French fries so deliciously crispy, and forcing your kid to wear a helmet on his bicycle. Some governments even want to make it illegal to smoke in your car when there are children present, based on lie number one, and so now your car also becomes public property. In Massachusetts they played around with the idea of the inside of your home being public property too. 

These legislators know what every conservative and libertarian knows, what our founding fathers knew: if you have no right to property, you have no rights at all. This is how every socialist country develops; this is what is developing here before our eyes. This is not an accident; this is a deliberate strategy on the part of those who want to run your lives, the “elite, effete snobs” who think they know what is better for you and your family than you do. The land of the free and the home of the brave are becoming the land that used to be and the home of the slave.

I return to my original question. With as many conservatives and libertarians that polls show live in this state, how is this happening?  My guess is that since conservatives and libertarians just want to live their lives and let others live their lives, they do not organize as well as those statistic (experts) whose goal it is to shove their view of the world on everyone else.

If you are one of the people who love freedom, who care about the vision our founding fathers had, who care about our Constitution, about our property rights, it is time to organize, unite, and to fight this menace that has beset America. If you are a Republican Conservative, then blast it, act like one, and put freedom at the forefront of your mind again. Or consider joining the Libertarians right here in Rio Rancho. Go to http://www.lpnm.org/. Or perhaps you can join the Constitution Party http://www.constitutionparty.com/view_states.php?state=NM . But all I can say is that it is time to draw the line in the sand and take a stand for freedom, for it is fast slipping away. Conservative Republicans (and I understand this is not all Republicans), Libertarians, Constitutionalists, you all need to take a few minutes to put aside your little differences to face this menace together. All freedom loving people need to join in one freedom movement. You independents who believe in a free society and not a society of slaves run by the elite few, it is time for you to stand up and be counted. Take a stand, or forevermore live on your knees.

William Pitt of British fame warned us: “Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human liberty. It is the argument of tyrants, it is the creed of slaves.”

Wake up America, wake up from your stupor. Remember that founding father who passionately cried, “Give me liberty or give me death.”

Al V. Puglisi

Rio Rancho

 

SAD 7 commentary

Editor:

On Feb. 13, the City Council of Rio Rancho wisely elected to postpone for sixty days any action concerning the implementation of the proposed Special Assessment District 7B. The postponement would allow the affected Unit 17 property owners some limited measure of response with regard to the projected environmental and negative economic consequences of the assessment.

As one of the affected property owners, I have many economic benefit questions related to the details of the current SAD 7B proposal. I hope that the City Council will see fit to allow homeowner group representatives to be involved in an advisory capacity within the decision making process. During the current national economic downturn to the housing bubble implosion, we need to be aware of the economic consequences of implementing the current assessment. A concern of mine is how the projected benefit appraisal of $15,000 per parcel became an accurate measurement of valuation regardless of parcel size. It would seem to me that the person owning a one half acre lot incurring a construction cost of almost $14,000 is subsidizing the construction costs for an owner of a larger multi-acreage parcel that will remit the same $14,000 levy. Similarly, a property owner with a 20-acre parcel would be subject to an overall construction cost of less than $400 per half acre as compared to the single half-acre homeowner receiving an assessment invoice for $14,000. Surely, there is a better method for equalizing the cost benefit ratio charged each property owner other than the current methodology that rewards a large single multi-acre parcel property owner at the expense of those with half-acre lots.

The negative financial impact to the small half-acre fixed income property owners in Unit 17 could require them to list their homes for sale in an already overcrowded market. During a period of ever increasing governmental funding requirements, this will result in substantial pricing discounts in an over-saturated market condition that will reduce property tax revenues. An Albuquerque Journal article on the bank construction loan exposure illustrates some of the economic issues facing large developers and mortgage institutions. This same edition had article regarding the recent municipal bond auction interest rate increased from the usual 5 percent to more than 20 percent due to rating downgrades. These articles would seem to suggest a need for caution in becoming overextended with debt relative to the current negative economic conditions.

Many property owners would like to discuss these issues with City officials and appropriate members of Wilson and Company along with other viable options such as implementing the City’s Infrastructure capital improvement plans as approved in 2006 and 2007. There are alternative plans that the citizens of Rio Rancho would support which would address the important issues of flooding and erosion without causing economic harm.

Roger Kolb

Rio Rancho