The Furr's Still Flying

We told you recently about the Chavez administration's continuing problems with fuzzy math (read it here and here). They seem to have problems with numbers in just about every department and frankly if the 11th floor claimed that there were 24 hours in a day, we'd ask to see a clock. Now they seem to be tailoring reports to specific councilor's sensibilities (or lack thereof).

Monday, the Albuquerque Journal reported that a four page report - meant to justify the mayor's shakeup over at Animal Control and convince the council to release some $4 MILLION in funding that had been frozen in response to the shakeup - had been tailored in an effort to please one councilor.

The administration's initial four-page report was cut in half at the request of Councilor Sally Mayer. The final document failed to include criticism of the old animal-care leadership team— information the administration had included to bolster its case for hiring a new director.

In an interview last week, Mayer, who supported the previous leadership, said the parts she objected to were misleading.

"I said, 'This is insulting,' '' Mayer said. "It was a big spin campaign."

-ABQ Journal Subscription

The Mayer didn't like the idea that the administration's report included information that was less than flattering to the previous manager and her staff. First of all, we don't know what the heck Ed Adams was doing having a councilor approve a report to council. Second, the thing was four whole pages?! If your average mid-schooler showed up with a book report of four pages they'd probably be spending more time in mid-school than they'd like (except at APS but that's another story).

Remember, this report was supposed to justify the major shakeup over at animal control and almost half of the original report was characterized by The Mayer as "spin." So... the council takes definitive action freezing $4 MILLION and demands an accounting of the administration's actions and Mayor Chavez's team comes up with four pages. That's $1 MILLION per page - $2 MILLION per page for the submitted report. Apparently, even the councilors noted the lack of report in the report.

City councilors seemed surprised recently when the administration presented a two-page report on plans to improve animal care.

"This is the report?" two councilors asked during a November meeting, sounding surprised and disappointed.

- ABQ Journal (Subscription)

We've been baffled by this whole shakeup thing and suspicious of the apparent rift between The Mayer and the mayor from the very beginning. It almost seemed to be a fight over who was going to take credit for making Albuquerque a live exit city.

From the numbers we saw the shelter was making substantial gains before the shakeup. After the shakeup the new director claims credit and follows up by inflating numbers at an adopt-a-thon that was by all accounts successful without the fuzzy fib.

There really doesn't seem to be any justification for what the mayor did when he sacked the previous management and even less justification for what The Mayer did afterwards. Why lead the charge to freeze money for Animal Control only to accept a substandard report as justification as long as it didn't speak ill of the people that it was supposed to justify replacing?

Yeah, we know... bizarre doesn't even begin to describe recent events.