[Lwvcnmtopics] LWVCNM Monthly Meeting Oct. 14th at Noon - Voter Education Part 2

[Starlyn Brown]

Join Us! Thursday October 14th at Noon via Zoom
Monthly LWVCNM Member Meeting
VOTER EDUCATION, Part Two

Zoom invitation included after the meeting description.

The 2021 Municipal Election - What is on the ballot and what isn’t

This year on your ballot you will see the usual candidates for Mayor and city council, but there will also be candidates for school board and other entities you haven’t heard much about. We have a panel of experts to speak to via zoom at our regular noon meeting on October 14. They will discuss a little known entity that is on the ballot this November, and an interesting problem that came up in this election – board positions with no candidates running.

One of these is the Albuquerque Metropolitan Arroyo Flood Control Authority. AMAFCA for short, is responsible for the big concrete ditches that run through the center of Albuquerque. They were created to move water that falls on the Sandia Mountains through the city to the Rio Grande without damaging property along the way. This year two of the board members who set policy for AMAFCA will be on the ballot. But the Executive Engineer, Jerry Lovato works out the project details and supervises the agency. He will explain what AMAFCA does and how it works.

One of the most interesting things about the municipal ballots in Bernalillo and Sandoval counties this year is what isn’t on it. There are seventeen ballot positions in Bernalillo and twenty-three in Sandoval for which there are no candidates. And because no one is running for these positions, you won’t see them on your ballot.

Albuquerque allows the creation of Public Improvement Districts. These are areas of the city where real estate developers create a district with special property taxes. Homeowners are assessed a specific amount each year to pay for things like parks, or drainage improvements. If you live in one of these districts, you will see the cost reflected on your property tax bills. These districts have boards that have traditionally been elected. In Albuquerque the city administration hire law firms to actually run the districts and work with the boards. Chris Muirhead from the Modrall Sperling Law Firm will talk about how these districts work and look at the problem of the vanished board members.

Chris Muirhead concentrates his practice in the area of public finance. For more than twenty years, numerous New Mexico municipalities and counties have relied on Chris for advice on their public financing matters such as general obligation bonds, gross receipts tax revenue bonds, utility system revenue bonds, special district financings, and economic development projects. He serves as general counsel and issuer’s counsel for the New Mexico Hospital Equipment Loan Council, a state-wide issuer of conduit debt for New Mexico healthcare facilities.

One of the benefits of league membership is your opportunity to learn about elections and election problems are really not covered anywhere else. We hope you will join us for this enlightening panel discussion.

LWVCNM Zoom is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Voter Education Part 2
Time: Oct 14, 2021 12 PM Mountain Time (US and Canada)

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Meeting ID: 864 4370 2207
Passcode: 175838
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