Letter to the Editor

Will the Real Director of Municipal Development Please Stand Up?

Jeff Proctor’s page C-1 article on 2/9 about the top paid employees in the City says the highest is Ed Adams who Jeff and the City’s posted transparency press release identifies as the Director of Municipal Development (DMD).   Leslie Linthicum’s front page 2/9 article says that Mike Riordan is the Director-something that the cabq.gov website also states.  Mike testifies before the City Council as the Director.   Ed is just an overpaid $145K/year special projects guy in DMD under Riordan who was last identified as the one heading up Mayor Berry’s wasteful “ABQ-The Plan” initiative. 

Citizens should recall that a former Mayor Chavez CAO-UNM Academic-Bruce Pearlman signed a secret memo before leaving his post.   It promised his successor Ed Adams-then DMD Director, his $145K CAO salary for life-even if Mayor Berry decided to name a new CAO and put Adams in a flunky  job.   The City’s HR later claimed it had no knowledge of the Perlman memo and none of the City attorneys ever admitted preparing it-although DMD’s attorney Greg Smith-a close friend of Ed’s received a huge pay raise from CAO Adams right before Mayor Chavez left office.   Coincidental? 

When Mayor Berry had the opportunity to correct this blatant rip-off of taxpayers and challenge the legality of the Pearlman memo in court, the attorney or attorneys who prepared the memo for Pearlman asserted it was legally binding and to give in to Adams’s threat rather than risk a lawsuit.  So our Mayor backed down-as seems to be his common practice whenever he has the opportunity to save our tax dollars.   Recall him folding after APD’s Union leaders opposed White and Schultz eliminating take home cars for 150 APD officers who lived out of town and were not on call 24/7. 

Regarding Schultz’s officers who are making big bucks, Mayor Berry would again bless this saying that he “didn’t see any red flags.”  Really Mr. Mayor-no red flags?  With over 1000 officers in APD, it would appear that overtime for court appearances would seem unnecessary with proper planning-as businesses do when giving their employees compensatory time off when they have to work beyond their normal hours.  Of the 1000, one would think there would be some officers who could fill in for those given such compensatory time off.   We already see an excessive number- 10 or more officers in their cars reporting to most calls for service merely to justify their unreasonably high manning levels.  

As for the Chief’s overtime pool of money paid for by businesses and for sporting events, it would appear that both officers Simon Drobik and Sergeant Troy Luna (and likely others) had arranged a sweetheart deal with the Chief to be the preferred ones selected.  Are we to assume the other 900+ didn’t volunteer for this extra Chief’s overtime work? The whole situation with the high pay in APD and in other Departments stinks and it’s us taxpayers who are the ones being ripped off because this self-proclaimed tax saving Mayor simply doesn’t care. 

Regards,

Silvio Dell’Angela

Stop Police Atrocities Now (S.P.A.N.)