SWOPblogger

To explain why he didn't recuse himself from the vote to create 9 TIDDs for SunCal Corporation, Bernalillo County Commissioner Tim Cummins told the Journal that "There is absolutely nothing of benefit that the TIDD brings to us."

We think this is highly debatable given the amount of land SunCal proposes to develop very near Cummins' own property. And we're not the only ones who think so. In her blog, Coco points us to this from the 2004 Alibi expose of west side development shenanigans:

"Cummins has said he will not vote on any plans that would directly affect the value of his property. But, bureaucratically speaking, to get any closer to the deal, he'd have to be the county commission's staff proctologist. (...)"

On other fronts, the Journal reports on a case this morning that NM State District Judge Jerald Valentine won't reconsider his decision to set aside an Extraterritorial Zoning Authority approval of a development project just south of Las Cruces.

Valentine made his decision because of the participation of Las Cruces City Councilor Jose Frietze in the hearing. Apparently Frietze has an extensive history of working with the developer, of which the Judge noted "...an objective observer would entertain reasonable questions about Authority Commissioner Frietze's impartiality."

During the hearing to ask him to reconsider his decision, the judge said that further study after his initial ruling about the relationship between Frietze and the developer "reinforced his belief that a "reasonable person could entertain reasonable suspicions" about Frietze's impartiality."

Moving this logic to the wheeling and dealing on Albuquerque's west side...we think any reasonable person can see that Tim Cummins stands to benefit financially a great deal from SunCal's development project. After all, it will essentially bring the City of Albuquerque right out to meet his land.

In 2004, Cummins told the Alibi he would not vote on any plans that would directly affect the value of his property. He might not be getting direct cash from SunCal, but it’s pretty obvious that the SunCal project will most certainly directly affect the value of his property.

Labels: Albuquerque County Commission, TIDD, TIF