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Española police fatally shoot teen
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New Mexico State Police are investigating the shooting death of a 16-year-old who allegedly pulled a handgun on officers and also was armed with a knife. PAge A-10
Wood products give gadgets a handsome look Dad will love. TecH, A-8
Audra McDonald, Bryan Cranston and Neil Patrick Harris all take home big awards at the Tonys. PAge A-12
Courage, ideas absent in race for governor
Mayor’s transition team recommends $1 per night hotel room fee, waiving parking tickets for out-of-state visitors, Plaza improvements
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ew Mexico’s campaign for governor still has five months to go, but already we’ve had a bellyful of bragging and blaming. It’s too bad that both contenders are in the business of salesmanship instead of statesmanship. They claim to be different, yet their shared tactic is to take credit for doing ordinary work and to blame the other side for whatever is wrong. Gov. Susana Milan Martinez, the Simonich Republican nominee, patted herRingside Seat self on the back because she said she inherited “the largest deficit in history” and then fixed it. Gary King, the Democrat challenging Martinez, resorts to guttersnipe language when railing about her performance and the sorry state New Mexico is in. Martinez, a lawyer and a former prosecutor, knows that New Mexico’s constitution requires a balanced budget. She also should know that the Legislature has never approved a budget written in red ink, so she could not have inherited a deficit. The state budget was balanced when she took office in 2011. But the carefully crafted fiction of a deficit was bedrock in the early stages of Martinez’s re-election campaign, a way for her to carp about Democrat Bill Richardson’s years as governor and to showcase how much adversity she faced. Recently, though, Martinez has adjusted her claim, instead boasting last week about how a future budget was balanced with team play. “And when we confronted the largest deficit in state history, in the middle of a national recession, and while facing massive, federal budget cuts, many said there was no way to balance the budget without raising taxes, no way a Republican governor could come together with a Democratic Legislature. But we proved them wrong,” she said. Once you wade through all the clauses in her speech, one fact remains: New Mexico had balanced its budget for 98 consecutive years before Martinez became governor, no matter how bad the economy was. As for King, he simultaneously delivered the worst speech of the year and showed off his vast vocabulary in an attack on Martinez.
Mayor, council to iron out details, new contract this week By Daniel J. Chacón
The New Mexican
Victoria Carlisle, right, helps Neil McLagan of Denver check into his hotel room at Hotel Santa Fe on Thursday. The mayor’s transition team on tourism has recommended that the city enact a $1 hotel room fee that would generate about $1 million annually. LUIS SÁNCHEZ SATURNO/THE NEW MEXICAN
Group pitches city ideas to boost tourism revenue By Daniel J. Chacón
The New Mexican
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ayor Javier Gonzales’ transition team on tourism recommends the city of Santa Fe enact a $1 hotel room fee that would generate about $1 million annually. The additional revenue could be used for different purposes, including allowing the city’s visitors bureau to pump more money into advertising or waive convention center usage fees for out-of-town groups and charitable organizations, the team said in its report. “A dollar is not going to break anybody’s bank,” Paul Margetson, general manager of Hotel Santa Fe
eDITOR’S NOTe
and chairman of the mayor’s tourism advisory group, said Thursday. The proposed fee is among a long list of recommendations from the group, one of nine assembled by the mayor to “set the trajectory” for his first term in office. The idea is worth considering, city spokeswoman Jodi McGinnis Porter said. “But we really need to look to the lodgers industry to provide guidance and get their take on it and input,” she said. “We look forward to the discussion with the lodgers industry to see what they think about that idea.” Margetson said the proposed $1 per night “Community Convention Center” fee on hotel rooms could help the city compete with
u This story is part of The New Mexican’s continuing coverage Mayor Javier Gonzales’ 140-page transition team report. Find previous stories online at www.santa fenewmexican.com.
out-of-town facilities. “Right now, we charge parking, we charge security, we charge room fee — and that’s before you have a meal,” he said. “If you go to a hotel, including this hotel, we don’t charge you for parking, security and room fee if you’re going to have a meal. It’s just to try and level the playing field, if you will.”
Please see TOURISM, Page A-4 A car with outof-state plates received a parking ticket Thursday on Lincoln Avenue near the Santa Fe Plaza. The mayor’s transition team on tourism has suggested the city give outof-state parking violators a free pass on parking tickets. CLYDE MUELLER THE NEW MEXICAN
Please see RINgSIDe, Page A-4
Institute programs challenge, inspire young minds ABOUT THe SeRIeS The Santa Fe Institute is a private, nonprofit, independent research and education center founded in 1984, where top researchers from around the world gather to study and understand the theoretical foundations and patterns underlying the complex systems that are most critical to human society — economies, ecosystems, conflict, disease, human social institutions and the global condition. This column is part of a series written by researchers at the Santa Fe Institute and published in The New Mexican.
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Leaders mull raise for city manager
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hen I begin my into the career of a working sophomore year scientist. at the University The Santa Fe Institute is of California, Berkeley this the perfect place for this fall, I will take with me expeone-on-one interaction. riences gained this summer The institute has helped as a participant in the Santa me learn about complexity Fe Institute’s Research Expescience since middle school, riences for Undergraduates when I participated in its Emma programs. after-school program called Wolinsky Funded by the National Project GUTS, which stands Science in a Science Foundation, this for growing up thinking Complex World program lets undergraduate scientifically and teaches students work on their own reasoning skills through research projects alongside mentors hands-on computer modeling. I’ve since participated in several other from the institute, offering insight
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institute programs that have helped me fine-tune my thinking skills and set me on my current path. My participation in the Santa Fe Institute’s education programs and its hands-on modeling exercises has influenced how I view and interact with the world. Complexity describes real-world systems in nearly every field, and its broad application and profound consequences piqued my curiosity. I began to wonder if every complex system could be simplified into programmable behaviors.
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Please see ScIeNce, Page A-4
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Mayor Javier Gonzales and the Santa Fe City Council are expected to meet in a closed-door session Wednesday to negotiate the terms of City Manager Brian Snyder’s new contract. The Mayor’s Office is considering a raise for Snyder, who currently receives $130,000 a year. Snyder, 39, was Brian Snyder appointed to his position last June under former Mayor David Coss. Snyder succeeded Robert Romero, who was paid $128,000 annually. Still, Snyder’s salary is less than those of other city managers in New Mexico, city spokeswoman Jodi McGinnis Porter said Friday. “It definitely looks like an increase is warranted to be comparable and competitive with what other city managers make,” McGinnis Porter said. A salary comparison to city and county manager positions for other urban areas in New Mexico found salaries that range from $150,000 to $173,000, she said. Santa Fe County Manager Katherine Miller, for example, earns $166,021 a year. Las Cruces’ city manager makes $173,000 and has two assistant city managers, McGinnis Porter said. “What the city is trying to do is to align pay with the duties assigned, and that’s important to be competitive with other cities,” she said. City Councilor Carmichael Dominguez, chairman of the city Finance Committee, said he would support a pay increase for Snyder. “We need to do what we can to bring the city manager in line with other people
Please see RAISe, Page A-4
Today Mostly sunny. High 81, low 48. PAge A-12
Pasapick www.pasatiempomagazine.com
Southwest Seminars lecture The series continues with The New Mexican political columnist Bill Stewart in a discussion titled “The Great War: Centennial of World War I and Its Meaning in Today’s World,” 6 p.m., Hotel Santa Fe, 1501 Paseo de Peralta, $12, southwestseminars.org, 466-2775. More events in Calendar, A-2 and Fridays in Pasatiempo
Two sections, 24 pages 165th year, No. 160 Publication No. 596-440