Letters to the editor - July 16

Time for change in Portales leadership

Once again the city of Portales has seen fit to use the panic/emergency style of governing it has fallen into.

We witnessed this last year when they came out and declared the need to raise our utility rates by an astonishing amount to get us in line with what we “should” be paying. The result of that scare tactic was a smaller increase in rates. Everyone grumbled but felt we dodged a bullet.

Seeing the outcome of this tactic, they came out this year and said we need to increase property taxes by 158%. We ended up with an increase of about 50%. That bullet did damage, especially to people on fixed incomes already hurting as a result of record inflation.

Now we have a Stage 3 water emergency the city failed to prepare for, if it actually exists. The city has constant water leaks that have leaked for years including the one across the street from me. No doubt they will soon ask us for more money to combat this “emergency” that prohibits us from watering.

Despite all of these needs for essential infrastructure, the city recently bought a building to make a new city hall.

How was this a priority? They say they can consolidate all the offices in one building. I guess they can’t pick up a phone?

It’s time for a change. Our mayor and city councilors consistently blame past city officials for the “emergency” situations we keep ending up in. But many of them are the past city officials.

We can’t get change unless we can clean house, including the city manager and department heads that are embedded like ticks on a dog into the bureaucracy that this small town government has become.

As a minimum, we should demand that any projects that cost taxpayers over $1 million should be put to a referendum.

Bill Hailer

Portales

City commissioner should explain actions

While City Commissioner David Bryant is no stranger to costing the city money, allegations he’s stealing from taxpayers is a new low.

Bryant went to Santa Fe to attend a city meeting, and it seems the mayor, among others, believes he instead took the opportunity to make it his own personal vacation.

No one seems able to confirm he attended the meeting.

It’s ludicrous that this is even a debatable situation because Bryant has been given ample time to explain his side of the story. Many have tried to get an answer to no avail. He even had Commissioner Gene Porter attempting to get the facts of the situation from any and all sources since Bryant himself couldn’t (wouldn’t) explain it.

David Bryant is an elected official who is fully capable of explaining where he was or wasn’t when that meeting took place.

He couldn’t even bother with showing up to the July 6 commissioner’s meeting. For a commissioner who has been so outspoken about his stances, it was disappointing to see him dodge accountability from the public.

Disappointing but not unexpected.

There were members of the public that attended the commissioner meeting in support of Bryant. They deflected the blame to others and demanded “the truth.”

But I don’t believe they want to hear the truth.

One man claimed that Bryant showed up to the event, so that should count for something. Even if he did show up for all of three minutes, he still stole from the people. You can’t show up to work for less than an hour and expect to be paid for a full eight hours.

If Bryant has wronged the people, he needs to do the right thing and resign. This holds true for all city officials.

I believe the usual group that came to defend Bryant at the commissioners’ meeting felt the need to stand behind him because of Bryant’s previous actions in support of the city’s anti-abortion ordinance.

They can’t have the star commissioner of the anti-choice movement in Clovis get caught stealing funds. That’s bad PR.

Regardless, perhaps Bryant could tell us himself what he was doing in Santa Fe?

After all, the silence is deafening.

Victoria Robledo

Clovis