UNIFICATION CHARTER COMMISSION CITY OF ALBUQUERQUE-BERNALILLO COUNTY PUBLIC FORUM
January 11, 2003

City Hall Council Chambers
PRESENTATION BY TANIS SALANT
Institute for Local Government, The University of Arizona

Chairman Padilla and Members of the Unification Charter Commission:

I chose local government as my professional focus because local government is so very real, and what it does impacts citizens so quickly. It is the most significant and most important level of government on a day-to-day basis. Who runs for office, who gets elected, who they appoint, and how they all govern impacts the quality of our lives much more than actions of any other level.

I like what Alexis de Tocqueville observed in 1848, when he came to America to study democracy:

The strength of free peoples resides in the local community. Local institutions are to liberty what primary schools are to science; they put it within the people’s reach, they teach people to appreciate its peaceful enjoyment and accustom them to make use of it.

It’s hard to understand why we don’t routinely teach local government beginning in elementary school, but that is the case in almost all states. So, the task of the Unification Charter Committee to create a brand new local government will certainly be one of the most meaningful activities you will ever do in your lifetime. Very few people have this golden opportunity to help shape civic life and guide a new government into the future, and I envy you!

The form of a local government tells us how citizens organize themselves to realize joint aspirations and to provide for joint gains. By creating a new government that reaches to the county borders, you are, as commission members, involved in enhancing the quality of life for all county residents of this new government.

The value of any system of government depends on how its different units are related to each other and how well they serve the interests of citizens and constituents. Government does much more than tax and spend. It serves to realize the fundamental values of human community, and you will be defining, through this new charter, what the fundamental role of "Greater Albuquerque" will be in your community.

I landed last evening about 5:15 and drove west into town as the sun was setting. You have the vistas that I’ve come to love in Tucson, and the sunset gave Albuquerque a particularly Western hue. New Mexico is a quintessential Western state: large open spaces, big counties, rugged terrain, sparse population, federal lands and Indian reservations, small tax bases but nevertheless low property tax rates, dependency on federal and state aid, boom and bust economies, and, of course, aridity. The person who wrote so well about the West was Wallace Stegner, who coincidentally died in New Mexico in 1985 when he was 85. One of his concepts applies to local government officials and most certainly to this charter commission (in Sounds of Mountain Water). That is, your task is to create a society to match the scenery. In order to do that, you must draft a charter that is based on community values as well as principles of good local government.

I met last evening with the staff of the commission and got a sneak preview of a few drafts of a preamble, and in those drafts I identified about 18 different community values that could serve as a foundation for your drafting process. They are:

local self-determination
improve quality of life in urban and rural areas
better representation
effective and efficient government
total citizen participation
harmonious, cooperative public officials
accountable, ethical government
social harmony and cohesion
fair, equitable taxation
equal civil and political rights
shared economic, environmental and cultural prosperity
cultural, rural and historical preservation
enhance uniqueness of area
meet needs of urban and rural citizens
responsible and responsive government
fosters community-wide perspective among public officials
fosters progressive administration
progressive and equitable tax and financial policies

By any measure, Bernalillo County is in the big leagues of county government. There are 3,043 counties in the U.S. The average per state is 64, and New Mexico has 33, which is typical of Western states. Your counties are large. The average size of counties is 400-600 square miles and yours is 1,160. The average population is 10,000-25,000 and yours is over half a million. Most counties, except Western counties, are tiny by our standards. (If you ever fly into Atlanta, you will step into three counties before you leave the airport.) Bernalillo County also has a property tax rate that even Western counties would envy. (Mine is nearly four times greater.) And the fact that the state gives back very little to none of its revenues to counties and cities makes me wonder how Bernalillo County does all that it does with such a small revenue stream.

If the new government is created, it will be the 26th largest city in the country, larger even than Cleveland and New Orleans. According to David Rusk’s very excellent report on Greater Albuquerque, as he calls the new government, you would have more open space than any other city and become the only one with a national wilderness. The rest of the country will be very interested in the process you undergo to create that society to match your scenery.

Role of Charter and Role of Charter Commission:
As Tocqueville observed, good local government is not only an end in itself, delivering better services, but it is also an educational process of tremendous importance to the nation: it is in cities, counties and towns that people have to learn the practice of democratic, responsible self-government. A charter is the basic law that defines the organization, powers, functions and essential procedures of the new government. It is the most important single law of any government. The better the charter, the better the government.

The charter commission is a distinctly American contribution to the art and practice of local government. It is a body authorized by law to draft a charter in a sort of constitutional convention. The commission investigates the existing government (in this case two) and charter; it studies the experience of local governments elsewhere, and determines best practices and principles.
If the charter is well written and forward looking, and if the voters approve it, the commission will have a positive influence for decades to come as well as serve as a model for other regions in the country.

A charter commission provides an opportunity for local statesmanship that comes infrequently. The charter that you draft will be a test of the vision, courage, and statesmanship of the commission. To accomplish this, the National Civic League’s Guide for Charter Commissions (p. 7) offers this advice:

1. Take an overview of the entire local government such as few if any officials or ordinary citizens can;
2. Probe deeply into the procedures and the interrelations of the different parts of the government to discover weaknesses and defects;
3. Look elsewhere to discover the best practices that might be applied and adapted;
4. Learn from all its studies how a better government can be arranged;
5. Having decided upon the major elements, set them down in clear, logical and consistent form as a proposed charter; and
6. Conduct its affairs in such a manner as to win the respect of the citizens and to educate and stimulate citizen groups and leaders to get the charter adopted.

Now, to some important aspects of a charter. I’m going to touch on both content and style.

Content. We have just finished revising the 7th edition of the National Civic League’s Model City Charter. Charters are typically divided into nine sections, called articles. I know that you have legal guidance and have collected various charters to see how others have drafted them. I will only focus on the parts of a charter that relate to structure.

You are considering forming a new government from two very different existing governments. The city of Albuquerque operates under a mayor-council plan with two professional management teams each serving the mayor and the council. It has a home rule charter so has declared its intention to make full use of all powers permitted by the state of New Mexico. Bernalillo County operates as a very traditional county—a five-member commission whose members are elected by district, with a chair who is appointed by other members rather than elected county-wide. The commission appoints a single manager who reports to all five. Then, there are four elected department heads elected county-wide. Called county constitutional officers, they include sheriff, assessor, treasurer, and county clerk. (The average number of these officers in counties is seven.) The county has no home rule charter.

So, you have two very distinct governing structures that you must reconfigure into a single new body. I’m going to talk about political leadership and professional leadership and methods of selection.

Structure matters. It relates to a broader set of attitudes and values that guide the behavior of officials. So the political values of a community can be reflected in structure. The choice is between:

1. Unified governing body
2. Separation of powers

Unified ( or integrated): mayor-council-manager form of government. Mayor is elected countywide as part of the council; this is a legislative mayor, not an executive one. Mayor and council together appoint the manager, who serves all.

Separation of powers: mayor is elected countywide as the chief executive (prepares budget, etc.). Does not sit on council unless breaking a tie or vetoing. Mayor appoints the manager (or CAO). May not even attend council meetings.

County constitutional officers: their presence creates a separation of powers somewhat, except that they only control one department and do not control their own budget.

To choose, you must get at the role of local government in your community. Separation of powers form of government was created to prevent bad things from happening. Unification of powers was created to make good things happen. Someone at our NCL charter revision committee meetings remarked that "if the feds or state government slows down or makes a mistake, you may be inconvenienced; but if local government makes a mistake, you may die. Smooth functioning day-to-day is vital to effective local government. Strong political leadership can occur under both forms, but a mayor and council functioning as a cohesive team is a better form for creating a long-term vision with mutually agreed upon goals and operating smoothly.

Council: councils are no longer viewed as trustees of the government (where ego, agendas and political ambition do not play roles) who take time out of their careers to serve the community. They are now more representative of the diversity of a community to serve their constituents needs rather than pursue long-term goals. They are a collection of individuals with agendas focused on their districts ("pot-hole politics").

A legislative mayor elected countywide can be a cohesive influence on the council, and moderate between service to districts and service to community as a whole.

Once you choose the political structure, you will move on to the electoral structure, which is very significant. Councils used to be small bodies elected at large which appointed the mayor from within its ranks on a rotating basis. Jurisdictions are too large and complex and diverse for this type to be effective (or even acceptable to the Justice Department). The trend is to move to a hybrid system, a combination of district and at large with staggered, four-year , nonpartisan terms.

Other option: The Tucson Plan. Candidates are nominated from their district and the two top vote-getters then run citywide. Under this plan, council members are beholden to their constituents and to the whole city.

Partisan/nonpartisan
Communities tend to prefer which ever system they have. The literature shows that it doesn’t make much difference in terms of governance and service delivery, but that under nonpartisan, voting tends to be lighter except in presidential elections. Party affiliation tends to energize campaigns and get people out to vote.
County constitutional officers: Little research on this. No evidence exists to suggest that counties are better governed under one form or the other. Voters tend to get attached to who they vote for, especially the highly-valued sheriff and prosecutor. However, county management tends to prefer working with all appointed (and certainly commissioners do), but all these elected officials also bring political clout to counties. This is important since the national and state governments are highly politicized. When 33 sheriffs come en masse to testify, the legislature will listen. This is a tough call. So, appointing them may bring more unification but less political clout as well as alienate voters. Trying to make the sheriff appointed is often the kiss of death for a charter. But appointment does and can happen.

Style.
A charter, like a government, is a living organism. It should be general enough to give officials maximum flexibility in governing but specific enough to define relationships and roles. It should contain a preamble, for that expresses the genesis and intent of the charter. It is also an expression of the governing values which are to be fostered throughout the main document.

Most charters do not have a preamble or they have one that is a copy of others and is virtually meaningless. Some get flowery and reflect the personalities of the drafters. Some are written by lawyers. Here is an example of each:

In order to..."bring life to the meaning of the Indian word ‘Clallam,’ that is ‘strong people,’ and to establish a government closer to the people that will be: competent to manage the city’s resources wisely, able to accept the benefits and responsibilities of local control, and be open to all views and responsive to the needs of the citizens...."

We, the people of the city of Phoenix, a city incorporated under the name and style of "The Common Council of the City of Phoenix," now having a population of more than three thousand five hundred (3500), acting in this behalf under the Constitution and laws of the State of Arizona, have framed, adopted and ordained, and do hereby frame, adopt and ordain, the following as the Charter of said city, which shall supersede, as provided in the Constitution of the State, the Charter of the said "The Common Council of the City of Phoenix," and all laws amendatory thereof and supplementary thereto.

The document should be written not for attorneys but for citizens. Keep it simple and do not use "heretofores" and "thereins." It can be legally binding without using legal language. It can and should be interesting and reflect the vitality of the government and of you, the commissioners. But it can do all of the above with very few words. Keep it simple and to the point. Put details in the ordinances, not in the charter. The U.S. Constitution, with 27 amendments, contains 7,267 words. The city of Albuquerque’s contains 12,418 words. The Bill of Rights, which has protected our freedoms for 210 years, contains 482 words. Albuquerque’s charter uses 482 words to specify procedures for recalling elected officials, which has only been invoked once. (See Rusk.)

In closing, as you embark on creating a society to match—and nurture—your scenery through a charter, choose your words carefully. It is a much harder task to be succinct and eloquent than to be verbose.

Thank you for inviting me to Albuquerque. I will watch with great interest your progress and wish I could be here throughout. All of us will know the result of your hard work in September, and all citizens in the city and county can learn so much then about local governance. The more they understand, the more appreciative they will be of the hard work performed by local government with too little money. And I especially urge schools to get students involved in the drafting experience, for they will be more likely to run for office or make their careers in local government one day.

I’ll close with a passage from The American Commonwealth, written by James Bryce in 1891:

Self-government stimulates the interest of people in the affairs of their neighborhood, sustains local political life, educates the citizen in his daily round of civic duty, teaches him that perpetual vigilance and the sacrifice of his own time and labor are the price that must be paid for individual liberty and collective prosperity.