Latest news with #CityClerk
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Santa Fe City Council, mayoral candidates raise concerns about rocky rollout of election website
First-time Santa Fe City Council candidate David Montoya showed up at the City Clerk's Office at 9 a.m. May 5, the first day he could begin seeking signatures to get on the November ballot. He asked if he needed a packet of information, he said, and was told all he needed to get started was a nominating petition, posted online. He was surprised, then, to discover he was not included on the city's election website, created by a vendor through a contract with the City Clerk's Office; nor had he been notified when the portal went live, allowing residents to submit signatures and make donations electronically for candidates to qualify for public financing. He received a lackluster response from the office when he reached out again, he said. IMG_0013.jpeg David Montoya "Everyone was indifferent about it," said Montoya, a District 1 candidate, adding the situation "raises serious questions for me about how the city interacts with everyday people on a customer service level." He wasn't alone. It's been a rocky start to the municipal election, with tensions flaring. Several candidates running for mayor and City Council expressed similar frustrations about the rollout of the election website, which didn't go live until more than a week after the target date and initially didn't include all the candidates. Some described what they characterized as dismissive responses from city staff when they raised concerns — however, City Clerk Andréa Salazar said some of her employees have been treated disrespectfully by candidates as well. "I had a lot of angry candidates threatening lots of things, being very aggressive with me and my staff, which I am not happy with," Salazar said Thursday. "No one has a right to yell at anyone or to threaten people." 'This isn't a fair race' Mayoral candidate JoAnne Vigil Coppler, a former city councilor, said she learned about the election website on Facebook. When she visited the site, she realized a link for people to sign her petition wasn't live. Joanne Vigil Coppler mug JoAnne Vigil-Coppler She contacted the City Clerk's Office last week, she said, and Salazar told her she was out of the office and would look into the issue Monday. Vigil Coppler spoke with Assistant City Clerk Xavier Vigil, who told her the office couldn't fix the problem because it was an issue with the vendor. After more back and forth, Vigil Coppler said she notified the city she would file an injunction if the problem wasn't fixed or the website taken offline. The problem was then solved. "If not everybody could get their petitions signed, this isn't a fair race," Vigil Coppler said. "Is that too much to expect? No, it's not." Part of the issue stemmed from emails the City Clerk's Office sent to candidates asking for their information — not everyone received one. Salazar said that also was a vendor-related problem and was corrected Monday. 5007723_030718_RonTrujillo002_CMYK.jpg (copy) Former City Councilor Ron Trujillo Former City Councilor Ron Trujillo, who is running for mayor for the second time after an unsuccessful bid in 2018, didn't receive an initial email but heard over the weekend he wasn't listed on the website. He has since been added. The site shouldn't have been published until all problems were resolved, he said. "There probably are kinks like that with every system … until you've gotten all the glitches out," Trujillo said. But, he added, "It shouldn't go live. That's the way I've always worked." Mayoral candidate Oscar Rodriguez said he wasn't listed initially but received an email from the City Clerk's Office on Monday. Oscar Rodriguez headshot Oscar Rodriguez "I trust there's no skulduggery," he said, "but still, it does give an advantage to those whose face appeared and who knew this technology was coming." Rodriguez, a former city finance director who is running a campaign focused on improving basic city services, said the glitch felt emblematic of why he decided to enter the race: "There's just so much stuff that plagues the city with execution." 'They really should read up' Like some of his rivals, Rodriguez said the website issues created an imbalance in the race. Salazar pushed back on that assessment, saying candidates were able to use paper forms to collect signatures and donations starting May 5; the electronic option was an added bonus. "It's a convenience that we're trying to make for people," she said. "We created this to help people, and we can not do it in the future, so no one has access to it. I guess that's the alternative." City Councilor Michael Garcia, who is running for mayor, said he is familiar with the process because he has run in two past elections but is worried people running for the first time will be at a disadvantage. michael_j._garcia_headshot_.jpg Michael Garcia Prior city clerks scheduled sit-down meetings with the candidates to answer questions and make sure they had everything they needed, he said, while this year, information was just posted on the city's website. Salazar said she has been too busy to hold similar candidate sit-downs but is happy to meet with any candidate — and some meetings already have been scheduled. "Part of the problem is, how can we reach out to people who we don't know are candidates?" she said. She encourages anyone who wants to run for office to do their own research. "What I tell candidates is they really should read up on the code, they should look at our website, they should make sure that they understand both the statutory sections that are in New Mexico statute, they should look at our charter, and they should also look at our public campaign financing and election code, and be as familiar with those to understand what the requirements are," Salazar said. Voter ed effort coming As of Thursday, most candidates who have publicly said they intend to run for office are listed. The exceptions are mayoral hopeful Tarin Nix and District 3 City Councilor Lee Garcia, who has said he intends to run for a second term. Lee Garcia did not respond to multiple requests for comment on whether he has submitted paperwork. Nix is the deputy commissioner of public affairs for the New Mexico State Land Office and has said she will not start seeking signatures until June. Once she is a certified candidate in August, she has said, she intends to take a leave of absence from her state job. Salazar said the City Clerk's Office is committed to being transparent and communicative, and is beginning to develop plans to educate people about how Santa Fe's ranked-choice voting process works, which may include sending out information with utility bills. "We want to make sure that everyone has the tools they need to move forward, and we want to make sure the community also understands what's going on in this election cycle," she said.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Ballots to be mailed Friday for Karman Line vote
(COLORADO SPRINGS) — Ballots will be mailed on Friday, May 23 for a special election in Colorado Springs, which could decide how the city grows in the decades ahead. The only question on this ballot is whether the 1,800 acre annexation of the proposed Karman Line Development will move forward. The land is west of Schriever Space Force Base, and developers plan to build about 6,500 new homes there. However, some in the community have raised concerns about water, emergency services, animals, and uncontrolled growth. A 'yes' vote means the annexation would get the green light, while a 'no' vote would overturn the annexation. 'We're going to be delivering a little over 330,000 ballot packets to our local post office here in town, so you should start seeing those ballots perhaps in your mailbox Saturday, or Tuesday, don't forget Monday is a holiday, no postal service that day,' said Sarah Johnson, City Clerk for Colorado Springs. City Council approved the annexation in January but enough signatures were gathered on a petition to hold a special election on the issue. All ballots must be returned to the city by 7 p.m. on June 17. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Bloomberg
20-05-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Chicago's O'Hare Airport Seeks Up to $4.3 Billion of Muni Debt
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson will seek approval from aldermen to sell as much as $4.3 billion of debt for O'Hare International Airport, according to a filing posted on the city clerk's website. If authorized, proceeds of the bonds will fund infrastructure projects at the facility, as well as refinance outstanding obligations, the ordinance that the mayor is scheduled to propose Wednesday said.
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Efforts to make Manchester schools a city department get new life
An effort to ask Manchester voters if they support making the school district a department of the city — a topic debated on and off for decades — has new life. Mayor Jay Ruais broke a 7-7 tie Tuesday night when he voted to send a request — to look at either making the Manchester School District a city department or granting the mayor the power to set the district's budget — to the aldermanic Committee on Administration/Information Systems later this month, ahead of possible placement on the November election ballot. Voting in favor were aldermen Chris Morgan, Ross Terrio, Ed Sapienza, Norm Vincent, Kelly Thomas, Joe Kelly Levasseur and Crissy Kantor. Ruais said he recently spoke with the City Clerk's Office and several department heads on how such a change would impact them. 'The easiest thing to do would be, on the budget side, to give the mayor — whomever that is — budget authority,' Ruais said. 'Merging the entirety of the school district and the city beyond just the budget would require potentially 14 changes to the charter." He suggested that the administration committee come up with a recommendation about the best direction to pursue. For the matter to appear on a municipal ballot this November, aldermen will need to take a final vote by June 3. 'This would be a pretty significant lift, and I just think if we're going to do this, we should do it thoughtfully and substantively and go through the committee process,' Ruais said. Similar efforts have fallen short over the past 20 years. In April 2017, Levasseur proposed putting a question on the ballot that, if passed, would have put aldermen in charge of school finances. That motion initially passed, but a few weeks later aldermen voted to reconsider, ultimately rejecting Levasseur's original motion. Levasseur said the school district would have better supervision and oversight as a city department. More than 20 years ago, the school district filed a petition to determine whether it was a city department. According to Judge Joseph Nadeau's ruling, the 'school district functions as a substantially independent governmental entity' and was not a city department and not under the control of the Board of Mayor and Aldermen. In 2001, voters passed by 4,000 votes a city charter amendment changing the school district to a city department. That amendment was later struck down by the courts, which ruled that it violated state law. The Legislature changed the law in 2003, but attempts to hold another charter vote have foundered — as in 2011, when aldermen voted against scheduling a required public hearing that would put the issue back before voters. pfeely@
CBS News
27-03-2025
- Automotive
- CBS News
Chicago waiving city vehicle sticker penalties for all drivers in April
The city of Chicago is giving anyone who doesn't have a city vehicle sticker a break for the entire month of April. The office of the Chicago City Clerk is calling next month Amnesty April . It means they're waiving city sticker penalties to make it easier for drivers to get a vehicle sticker if they don't have one already. That means no late fees, penalties, or back charges if you buy a vehicle sticker at a City Clerk or Chicago Department of Finance office. The cost of the sticker ranges from $53 dollars for motorcycles up to $530 for trucks. Drivers can go to any of the three Office of the City Clerk locations to get a vehicle sticker without paying any penalties: Amnesty April also is available at any of four Chicago Department of Finance locations: Drivers can't take advantage of the amnesty program at Currency Exchange locations. If you can't afford to pay for a full-year vehicle sticker, the city sells reduced-term city stickers that are valid for four months.
