New Mexicans have been singing the refrain \u201cWhat\u2019s wrong with New Mexico?\u201d for so long we should make it the official state ballad.<\/p>\n
Or maybe we could try listening to keen observers who are not stuck in old ways of thinking.<\/p>\n
Senator Bill Tallman, D-Albuquerque, quoted to me a statement that a fellow senator had made recently on the Senate floor:<\/p>\n
\u201cNew Mexico doesn\u2019t like change, and it doesn\u2019t take risks.\u201d That has the ring of truth.<\/p>\n
Tallman is definitely not \u201cfrom here,\u201d to use a favorite New Mexico term. He is unaffected by the sentimentality of native New Mexicans and wannabe native New Mexicans.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s a career city manager who has run city governments in several states. He is analytic about New Mexico and has introduced legislation to make government work better. Not surprisingly, some of his legislation has been resisted.<\/p>\n
For instance, when a top executive is hired for a public position, New Mexico law considers the list of applicants to be a public record. If a news organization (or anyone else) asks for the information, the public entity is required to provide it. Tallman thinks that is preventing the most highly qualified candidates from applying.<\/p>\n
The Las Cruces school district just hired a new school superintendent. The news service Source New Mexico published the names of 23 applicants with a paragraph about each one.<\/p>\n
It appears Las Cruces made a fine choice. The new superintendent is Ignacio Ruiz,<\/strong> an assistant superintendent for the Clark County School District in Nevada, the fifth largest school district in the nation, with an impressive resume.<\/p>\n However, the unanswerable question is who else might have applied but didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n Tallman has been consulting with Nick Estes, retired former general counsel for the University of New Mexico, Estes noticed that in recent searches for superintendents for the largest districts, none of the applicants were superintendents from districts of comparable size. He thinks a superintendent who already has a job of similar status would not risk applying if the names were to be disclosed, because it would damage the relationship with the community back home.<\/p>\n Estes said 37 states hold applicants\u2019 names confidential and most other states place some limits on what can be disclosed.<\/p>\n Our law makes an exception for university presidents. Only the names of finalists — at least five — are required to be published. Tallman\u2019s recent Senate Bill 63 would apply a similar rule to all public institutions.<\/p>\n SB63 passed the Senate comfortably but died in the House.<\/p>\n It was opposed by my friends in the journalism community, who in my opinion are putting an inflexible position on open records ahead of the goal of excellence.<\/p>\n Tallman didn\u2019t have better luck attempting to reform our goofy capital outlay process. That\u2019s the process where legislators earmark more than $1 billion every year on dozens of little projects instead of a few big ones that would have statewide benefit.<\/p>\n Tallman\u2019s bill, SB186, proposed to establish a capital outlay interim committee composed of legislators and appropriately qualified public members, which would set priorities for the billion-plus dollars. A different approach to the same issue was in SB197, with other sponsors. Neither bill passed.<\/p>\n On the capital outlay issue, there is more widespread recognition that we\u2019re behind the times and changes are needed. This change \u2013 whether Tallman\u2019s approach or another one \u2013 will probably batter its way through the legislature in the next few years.<\/p>\n Tallman is also working on procurement reform and other matters that can only be appreciated by policy nerds like me.<\/p>\n So many of us \u2013 me included \u2013 are tired of singing that old refrain about New Mexico\u2019s bottom position on the national stage. It\u2019s worth more listening to people who have been somewhere else.<\/p>\n \u00a9 2023 NEW MEXICO NEWS SERVICES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" New Mexicans have been singing the refrain \u201cWhat\u2019s wrong with New Mexico?\u201d for so long we should make it the official state ballad. Or maybe we could try listening to keen observers who are not stuck in old ways of … Continue reading