[LWVNM Action] NM Ethics Watch on the lack of diversity on the Citizen Redistricting Committee - and my take

[George Richmond]

And we should know in a few months the outcome of their first efforts.

Acceptance by all parties and no legal actions would be a good measure.

Seeing how the district of Liz Stefanics comes out would be another test.

George Richmond

On 6/20/2021 10:41 AM, Richard Mason via Action wrote:
> Although the LWVNM has expressed the same concerns about the lack of 
> ethnic, geographic and gender diversity on the CRC we 
> still  believe it can be highly effective. The 3 Ethics Commission 
> appointments were excellent and they will be the swing votes. We need 
> to have the CRC appoint advisory committees to deal with the lack of 
> diversity.
> Dick Mason
>
> *For ethics’ sake, we must redo the state redistricting commission – 
> oped in ABQ Journal*
>
> BY KATHLEEN A. SABO / EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, N.M. ETHICS WATCH 
> <https://www.abqjournal.com/author/abqnews>
>
> Friday, June 18th, 2021.  at 12:02am
>
> During our pandemic-borne podcast, EthicsNOW (www.ethicsnow.org 
> <http://www.ethicsnow.org>), we asked guests what “ethics” meant to 
> them. Collectively, guests spoke of honesty, integrity, keeping one’s 
> word, thinking of the other not just ourselves, doing the right thing, 
> creating equitable opportunities. High school students who responded 
> to our essay contest prompt in 2019, “What does being ethical mean to 
> you?” chose to write about many of the same things.
>
> All of the work New Mexico Ethics Watch undertakes has the same goal: 
> to improve the ethical culture in New Mexico – encouraging public 
> officials, citizens, our youth to value ethics, to practice and 
> demonstrate identifiable ethical principles and actions. New Mexico 
> and New Mexicans will be better for this practice.
>
> A recent Albuquerque Journal editorial, “Redistricting redux: Voters 
> deserve a do-over,” published Sunday, June 13th, highlighted how far 
> from the ethical mark committee appointers fell with regard to 
> appointments to the newly-created Citizens Redistricting Committee. 
> How, in practice, the appointments, collectively, did not hold to a 
> high bar reflecting integrity, keeping one’s word, thinking of the 
> other, doing the right thing and creating equitable opportunities. 
> Although the editorial only mentioned the word “ethics” in the State 
> Ethics Commission’s title, the failure in practice can be called an 
> ethical failure.
>
> It is true that the Redistricting Act did not mandate coordination or 
> networking between the appointing authorities – various lawmakers and 
> the State Ethics Commission – but, as the Journal editorial points 
> out, the Redistricting Act calls for appointments “with due regard to 
> the cultural and geographic diversity of the state.”
>
> As an appointing authority – particularly if you’ve voted on the 
> legislation, but hopefully even if not – you are aware of what is 
> essentially a pledge or a promise to appoint a culturally and 
> geographically diverse group of citizens. But we did not get that with 
> the appointed committee. Instead, we got a committee made up of six 
> men and one woman, a committee with no Native American or African 
> American members, a committee where six of the seven members live in 
> Albuquerque, and the seventh in nearby Belen.
>
> How is that equitable? How is that ethical? How is that representative 
> of the state? It’s not. And so, the Journal proposes a do-over. Might 
> a tangent to ethical principles be the ability to admit when something 
> has gone wrong and to take the care and consideration to try again for 
> a better result?
>
> Cynics might say that the Citizens Redistricting Committee, with its 
> lack of ability to impose map choices upon lawmakers, is just for 
> show, has no power, was a compromise without teeth that lets lawmakers 
> trumpet – or even whisper – their support for ethical, nonpartisan 
> redistricting. Even if this is so, why don’t we let our public 
> officials know that it matters to us – New Mexicans, citizens, voters 
> – and that we want to hold legislators to their word and have them act 
> more ethically in appointing a diverse, representative committee? We 
> can and we should.
>
> As far as who goes and who stays in this do-over? While the 
> appointment of retired Justice Edward Chávez to chair the committee is 
> unassailable, lawmakers would do well to appoint people from outside 
> central New Mexico, a Native American member and an African American 
> member, reflecting our cultural and geographic diversity.
>
> The particulars are up to the appointing authorities, but creating a 
> more transparent selection process, like that undertaken by the State 
> Ethics Commission, and using that process in a coordinated, second 
> attempt at creating the Citizens Redistricting Committee will assist 
> in building trust among the public – a public wary of politics and 
> that is most likely tired of political “business as usual.”
>
>
>
>
>
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-- 
George M. Richmond
152 Juniper Hill Road, NE
Albuquerque, NM 87122-1913

C: 505-280-2105
E: geomrich1 at comcast.net



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