By Eric Maddy
The SCORE

District 4 incumbent city councilor Howard Balmer announced Wednesday night he will seek a third term on the Rio Rancho Governing Body.

Balmer, who was originally appointed to fill a vacant seat in 1999, won election in 2000 and reelected four years later. He was unsuccessful in the 2002 mayoral race, losing to Jim Owen.

Balmer, an air traffic controller, has one announced opponent. Steven L. Shaw, a retired deputy chief in the Rio Rancho Police Department who served as acting chief for six months in 2004, previously announced his candidacy.

“My campaign slogan is going to be something along the lines of Growing Rio Rancho Better,” Balmer said. “I think what we’ve done over the last eight or nine years has been fantastic, but I think we’ve got bigger and better things coming down the pipeline.

“You’ve got the entire City Center over the course of the next five to 10 years. You’ve got Quail Ranch with all the dynamics of 800 acres of manufacturing and industrial area. You’ve got entire the desalination project. You’ve got a whole host of things that we’re moving forward with.

“It’s a tremendous opportunity we’ve got now. It’s just going to be great out there in the next five years once we get the infrastructure in place. We’ve appropriated the bonds for it, along with AMREP and John Black ponying up another $15 or $16 million on top of what we’re doing. We’re basically spending $50 million in infrastructure out there.”

While excited by growth in other areas of the city, Balmer said he has taken care of residents in his home district, which has some of the city’s oldest houses.

“I’m proud of my record when it comes to Vista Hills over the past couple of years. We’ve replaced two huge main water lines in the Vista Hills area – Pyrite and Rockaway – the two that were always breaking.” Balmer said. “On top of that, we spent over $1 million paving about a third of the roads in Vista Hills, and we plan on continuing on phasing in that repaving in the rest of the city.

“On the Governing Body agenda for next meeting is final phase for landscaping on Sundt Boulevard. Currently in the design phase is the landscaping for Rockaway. I’ve re-done the entire area (using landscaping) on High Resort Boulevard and Ridgecrest and Ridgeview. The other part of High Resort is in the design phase currently.

“I’ll bet you we’ve spent more than $2 million over the last three years in Vista Hills alone just on those projects mentioned. So I’m not neglecting those areas. We’re fazing them in. You can’t do them all at once, unfortunately, but my whole focus is to ensure in the next four years all of those are done.”

I’m going to continue to do what I do. But I think I can counterbalance his public safety record by putting my safety record on display.

While he recognizes Shaw will have an appeal because of his career in law enforcement, “I’ll stand my record (on public safety) against anybody. I helped fund that police department for the last eight to nine years.”

Among the accomplishments Balmer cites:

 * Implementing step program (of raises) for DPS.

* Increasing the level of funding to the state’s public employed retirement association from level 4 to level 5, the highest offered.

* The addition of 24 firefighters/EMTs last year

* The governing body authorizing a 27 percent raise for public safety officers, both fire and police, over the next three years.

 “Before, when we used to lose people after training,” Balmer said. “We now have people wanting to come to Rio Rancho’s public safety department.

Balmer said the city is still “woefully lacking” in our fire department and “we still need a couple of fire stations located throughout the city.” Upgrading those services, along with repaving roads and adding a sports complex, are three major goals Balmer has if reelected.

“I continue to believe we need another sports complex in the northern part of the community. Now we have to figure out a way to fund it (after voters rejected a $12 million bond issue earlier this month),” Balmer said. “With the amount of kids playing Little League and YAFL football, we have to have those facilities in place. We’re totally maxed out at our current sports field.

“Secondly, over the next four years, I would love to see all of the older neighborhoods have all of their roads repaved. That is going to be a priority for me. And I think we can do that through our bond cycle.”

The biggest problem, as always, is money.

“The biggest expense we have in our budget, about 70 or 72 percent, is for personnel. Out of a $60 million budget, that leaves about $10 or $12 million for capital outlay. That’s not a lot of money,” Balmer said. “And our staffing is bear bones. Santa Fe has a staff of about 1,300 and we have 500 for almost the same amount of population, and it’s still 70 percent of our budget. The jobs these people do for our citizens is tremendous.”

In addition to repaving roads, Balmer recognizes the need to expand existing thoroughfares.

“(New Mexico 528) is a state highway problem and situation. We continue to push and prod the department of transportation commission to move up the portion of the road between southern and northern in its funding cycle in order to add another lane in both directions,” Balmer said. “Currently, the Loma Colorado project is responsible for adding a third lane from Southern to High Resort Boulevard, so that will alleviate some crowding in that area.

“Northern Boulevard currently is in the land acquisition and engineering phase in order to go out for a RFP (request for proposal) in the next year or two. The same is true with Unser Boulevard, because we got $6 million from the state this past year. We’re using that money to buy all the right-of-way from Farrell to King.”

Balmer also addressed three other controversial areas: allegations the Governing Body violated the state’s Open Meetings Act; falling revenue at the Santa Ana Star Center and the Special Assessment District proposal for Unit 17,

* On the Open Meetings Act: “Our staff’s interpretation of the Open Meetings Act was different than what the attorney general said. All I have is my legal staff to go by. And occasionally we’re going to get it wrong. I admit that. I learn from that, and I move on. Not just get it behind you, but learn from it, try not to make the same mistakes again and move on. That’s the way I approach it.”

* On the arena management: “That’s a definite concern. I know Mayor (Mike) Williams has met with the staff over there as we as with Dave Elliott, the owner of the Scorpions and our legal staff. They’re looking at the contract and the options available to everybody to make the arena successful.

“The first year, when you’re only 200K down, to me that’s a success. You almost always bank on the first year being a negative situation because you’re not in the circuit, you’re not out in the public, they don’t know about you, etc. So I think the first year was a success. The second year – yes, there have been a couple of pitfalls, and it is a concern.

* On SAD 7 for Unit 17, especially who are against the proposal: “I can’t speak for the other councilors, but I have met with some of the people who live there and are the focal point of that (protest and petition).I have basically told them I don’t believe taking them out of the SAD is in the best interest of themselves and/or the city.

“When I have people in that immediate area, not just Los Rios but that area in Unit 17, come before the governing body after what we experienced last summer and stating that this is a health, safety and welfare issue now with exposed gas lines, exposed power lines and exposed water and sewer lines, as well as the emergency ingress and egress, we as a city would be negligent if we did not pursue SAD 7.

“I have asked those people if they would be willing to state on a disclosure statement when you resell your house that you asked to be taken out of the SAD in the event that something happens to that house in the future. They really don’t give me an answer because it’s not something they think about, but that’s something I have to think about. That’s my job.”

Balmer served in the U.S. Air Force from 1980-84 and is a 1996 graduate of University of Memphis with BLS in Air Traffic Control. He was married Nov. 13 to his wife Nitaya and has two children, Nikolaus, 13, and Claire, 10.

For a list of announced candidates for the March 4 city election, click here.

Steven L. Shaw will challenge Howard Balmer for the District 4 seat. To read about Shaw, click here.