Petty City Politician

There are a few points that need to be brought to the public’s attention with regard to recent events involving Mayor Chavez, Lt. Governor Diane Denish, and Judy Espinosa.

On Monday, August 21, 2006 there was a community meeting held in Martinez-town to discuss issues important to the residents, with Lt. Governor Denish.  Apparently, during this meeting Judith Espinoza, past Mayoral hopeful and current Chief of Staff to Lt. Governor Denish, parked the Lt. Governor’s SUV near a fire hydrant.  This seemed to have been of such importance that the fire Chief for the City of Albuquerque even came out to lecture Ms. Espinosa about this minor incident.  I have a few questions to ask about this situation.
First of all, was there nothing else for the Fire Chief to be doing with his time rather than lecturing Ms. Espinosa about her parking? Does the City fire Chief come out every time that someone parks near a fire hydrant? Or was this a special case, given the Mayor’s current feud with the Lt. Governor, and obvious bad blood for Judith because she had the guts to run against him in his past election?  It would be no surprise that the Mayor would go out of his way to cause trouble for both of these women.  He is obviously an incredibly petty and arrogant politician. Asserting his arrogant authority issues, he actually told the Lt. Governor to “keep her nose out of the city’s business,” forgetting that the Lt. Governor is actually a member of state government that has jurisdiction over the entire state. Furthermore, she was simply asking the City Councilors to hold off the vote until after a statewide conference on the issue, which is very appropriate, to maintain civil liberties, and create uniform statutes around the state for the safety of all our residents.
Furthermore, I understood that as a resident of the city of Albuquerque, elected or not, the Lt. Governor was well within her rights to call any elected official in the City and make any request of them she feels necessary. Will the Mayor ask me to keep my nose out of City business when I ask my councilor and others on the council to fix the problem of, say a non working fire hydrant in my neighborhood?
This brings me to my next point in this debacle of ego and pettiness.  The Fire Hydrant Ms. Espinosa parked near was a non working Fire hydrant. I may be mistaken, but last time I checked (though I’m no expert on fire Hydrants) when a working Fire Hydrant is missing a cap on the side pointing pipe, there is water spraying out and a small group of children running through it on a hot summer day. I have seen the fire hydrant first hand, (and also have pictures) it is clearly missing a cap, but has no water spraying forth. So I ask Mayor Marty, and the press, which is a worse insult to the resident of Martinez-Town?  Having an SUV accidentally parked near a non working fire hydrant, or having a non working Fire Hydrant near and important building such the House of Neighborly Services?
So what is more important to the Mayor of Albuquerque, getting a tiny bit of revenge in the press on our Lt. Governor who only was looking out for the residents of our city and state? Or maybe its sending the fire chief to the scene of what was clearly not a serious violation to lecture the woman who stood up and put forth her name to serve her city as Mayor. Maybe instead of calling names, playing games, and striving for potshots in the press, the Mayor ought to be having his own meetings with the residents of Martinez-town to find out what needs they have as a community. Maybe he ought to be making sure the fire hydrant in the neighborhood actually works, should, God forbid, a fire happen nearby.   What I really wonder is, will we get answers or responses for any of these questions? Or will we get the usual, petty, childish commentary this mayor is known for?