Monday, May 3, 2010

EGWC NEWSLETTER 2 - 4/ 2010


East Gateway Coalition of Neighborhoods Newsletter
February-April 2010
(Publication date: May 1, 2010)

Revitalization of East Central Avenue. The East Gateway Sector Development Plan is under consideration by the City Council Land Use, Planning, and Zoning committee. The council’s attention is on the budget, so it may be June before the next scheduled LUPZ hearing occurs. The plan can be found at http://www.cabq.gov/planning/long-range/eastgatewaysdp.html. Following the LUPZ review, the plan will be forwarded to the full City Council. Review the plan and provide comments to dharris@cabq.gov or testify at the LUPZ or Council hearings. I urge you to participate in the process—this will set the future appearance of our corner of Albuquerque for a long time to come.

Metropolitan Redevelopment. There will be a public meeting on MRA along East Central Avenue on May 4, 2010, at 6:30, at the Manzano Mesa Multigenerational Center. Contact Gabe Rivera at jgrivera@cabq.gov for further information. Better, participate to see what projects might receive stimulus funding along Central.


Coalition Meeting April 22—Presentations.

Crime Prevention—Steve Sink, APD Crime Prevention Manager
· Who’s primarily responsible for your personal safety? You are! You can control your environment at that critical, unpredictable moment in time when you’re threatened.
· Report suspicious activities to 242-COPS, file a police report on www.cabq.gov/police/, or visit your Area Command. For crimes in progress, clearly threatening situations, or other serious activities, call 911.
· Be aware of your surroundings, and trust your instincts. You know what’s “normal” and what’s suspicious.
· A Crime requires a Target, Opportunity, and Motivation.
o Targets include women’s purses, someone carrying packages, open garage door, or other “valuable” source of valuable items.
o Opportunities include unlocked cars, open garage door, and people who are apparently unaware of their surroundings and potential threats.
o Motivation is that perception by the criminal that he/she has the opportunity to acquire the target. This is usually fueled by a way-of life, an attitude disregarding laws and rules, past history of criminal activity, need to steal to support a drug, alcohol, or criminal addiction.
· Auto Theft
o Albuquerque is always high on the list due to location.
o Auto burglary is often the goal to steal a car and its contents
o Thieves fence stolen cars to “chop shops” to be disassembled and sold as “off market” repair parts.
o Don’t keep your vehicle registration and insurance documents in the glove compartment. Carry them with you, provide copies (with original signatures) to other drivers, or put them in a secure, hidden location in the trunk.
o APD conducts free VIN etching on all car windows on the last Saturday of each month, except in May it will be on May 22. Call 311 or look for notices in the newspaper for times and place.
· ID Theft
o Often methamphetamine driven. Addicts need drugs, steal wallets/purses, and sell the identification documents and credit cards to wholesalers.
o Theft of a wallet is a short-term crime; recovering from ID theft can take many months.
o Scams abound to capture personal information; they are always externally initiated. Don’t provide account numbers, PINs, social security numbers, or other “private” information to anyone unless you initiated the call or request and know and trust whoever you’re dealing with.
· Homeless and Vagrants—Panhandling
o There are more than 3,000 homeless people in and around Albuquerque. They are in need of cash for a variety of reasons (often to support drug or alcohol problems), but DON’T give panhandlers cash—that will only perpetuate the problems.
o Some panhandlers consider asking for cash (for gas, for baby food/diapers) as their employment.
o See it; sense it; report it! Call 242-COPS, notify store managers.
o Avoid panhandlers, loiterers in parking lots, and suspicious people—don’t respond to please, ignore them, walk around a row of cars; go back to your car; ask someone to walk with you.
o You know what’s normal, so act on your instincts to avoid confrontations.
· Safety at Home
o Locks, lights, 4-inch dead bolt plate screws.
o Make it look like someone is home.
o Ask a trusted neighbor to pick up mail and newspapers, park a car in the driveway at times, take out trash, return the trash container from the street.
· Door-to-Door Solicitation
o These days, there probably aren’t any “legal” solicitors.
o A solicitor may be searching for a vacant house—as a burglary target. So DON’T hide and fail to let the solicitor know that someone is home; you might be surprised by someone crashing through your back door or patio door, leading to a violence—property crimes progress to violent crimes.
o Respond to a knock on the door or doorbell, but DON’T open the door. Let the solicitor know someone is home, but you don’t want that person on your property—tell him/her to leave.
o Solicitors must have a city permit issued and WITH THEM; ask to see it. If there is confusion or hesitation, immediately tell the solicitor to leave the premises (failure to do so is TRESPASSING), and tell him/her that you are going to call police.
o Watch the departing solicitor; if he/she continues to your neighbor’s house, call police.
o Political, religious, and youth-associated solicitation does NOT require a city permit, but you can tell the person to leave your property—you’re not interested.
· Home Invasion
o Rare, but it happens. And it can be violent.
o The 2:00 AM frantic knock on the door. You respond, look, and sleepily assess the situation. It might be an apparently injured non-threatening gal asking for help after “an accident.” But DON’T open the door to express your sympathy, because you might then see two really scary dudes appear from the shadows and bulldoze their way into your home. Without opening the door, assure the non-threatening person that you’ll immediately call 911—and DO THAT while the visitor can hear you. He/she may miraculously disappear, but should be checked on before another neighbor opens a front door.
· Neighborhood Watch
o An effective crime prevention program along a block, where you know the neighbors.
o Get to know your neighbors, their vehicles and habits, and watch for suspicious variance from normal.
o Look out for your neighbors; ask them to look out for you.
o Call Steve Sink (924-3600) for information on establishing a Neighborhood Watch program on your block.
· Who’s primarily responsible for your personal safety? You are!


Albuquerque Public Schools—David Robbins, APS Board of Education
· APS has about 14,000 full-time employees, 1,000 plus part-time employees, and 140 schools (plus other support facilities). Costs have increased about 18% per student over the last 13 years.
· APS gets the vast bulk of its resources ($600 million in operating funds) from the State. Revenues have dropped. So there are severe budget issues facing the Superintendent.
· The School Board has three functions: set policies (not programs or plans); advise the APS Administration; and hire/fire the Superintendent. The Board can’t demand or order any actions outside those activities.
· Finance staff and managers have experienced an unfortunate personnel rotation/loss for the last several years. Inexperience and sometimes weak capabilities created problems; there have been four Budget directors in the last four years.
· APS “found” $16 million recently. The situation was that financial personnel had misidentified $8 million in FY09 funds as “restricted” [reserved for a particular budgeted purpose] rather than “unrestricted” [available for other uses]. With staff inexperience, that same error was made in FY10, so there was a total of $16 million misidentified, but actually “in the bank.” Someone finally caught the error.
· Due to lower revenues and unforeseen expenses, there is a $43 million shortfall.
· Capital budgeted moneys can’t be used for operational expenses—so the choices under consideration are difficult and will adversely affect administrators and teachers. Firing “double dippers” could cost more than the potential savings in salaries, since APS receives more funding for well-experienced teachers—the additional funds probably exceed the projected salary savings.
· Financial problems have included under-budgeting, barely qualified staff, inexperience, and accounting systems issues (the “new” system was not calibrated against the “old” system; software doesn’t work as predicted).
· In the past, budgeting and financial procedures were NOT documented. Each new person had to reinvent a method to budget, pay bills, and account for LOTS of money.
· In the past, APS only reported monthly costs. The Board has now required that monthly reports include projected budget amounts for that period, actual costs, variances, and explanations of over/under spending so that managers and the Board (and the public) can be aware of the financial health of APS and act to correct errors and adjust to changes.
· Fixes are underway. A better-qualified manager is in place; procedures are being documented. Transparency and public notice of newly discovered problems will become the appropriate method of reporting.
· Questions on Vandalism.
o Vandalism costs APS about $1 million per year.
o APS is installing many cameras to document damages and vandals.
o Seeking to recoup repair costs from offenders and parents.
o More costly to hire sufficient APS Police or guards for all the facilities 24/7/365 as prevention measure.
· Questions on Management
o Teachers get promoted to department heads, then Principals, then APS Staff managers without having managerial expertise.
o Some programs to train managers, but the culture promotes “educators” into management.
David Robbins can be reached at 252-2375.

Joint Land Use Study. Kirtland AFB and the Mid Region Council of Governments (MR COG) are coordinating a study of:
· collaborative land use planning among military installations (KAFB), planning authorities (presumably Albuquerque’s Planning Dept and Bernalillo County’s Zoning and Planning Dept), and regional governments;
· intended to provide technical assistance to help understand, assess, and control the impacts on civilian and military populations of potential implications on each other from their respective activities and land uses;
· method to provide for long-term preservation of Kirtland AFB and foster compatible community development and growth.
There have been (poorly publicized) public meetings, and the report is being assembled over the next 2-3 months. I virtually stumbled into the last public meeting that was held next to the meeting place for the County Capital Improvement Program, so I have very limited information at this time. More later on this subject.

Coalition Meetings
· The next meeting is tentatively scheduled for July 22, 2010, at the Manzano Mesa Multigenerational Center, beginning at 7:00 pm.
· Please provide your recommendations for speakers, forums, or meeting themes to Roger Mickelson, 332-9273 or fhvharoger@aol.com.