Rains brightens candidate forum

By Zsombor Peter
Staff Writer

Ralph Rains

GALLUP — The way Ralph Rains had the crowd inside Calvin Hall laughing Thursday night, you would have thought he'd mistaken the mayoral candidates' forum for a night at the improv.

By the time the candidates wrapped up their closing remarks just before 9 p.m., there was no denying he'd stolen the show. While other candidates repeated canned speeches and pleaded earnestly with the crowd which peaked at close to 100 and faded away as the night wore on to vote for them, Rains was committing political suicide.

Hosted by the University of New Mexico-Gallup Student Senate on the branch campus, the forum was the candidates' chance to reach out to the students and professors in the room. But Rains didn't come to pander to any demographic.

Moderator: Have you had any interactions with any individuals or groups from the university?

Rains: "I don't think so."

Moderator: As mayor, how would you interact with the university?

Rains: "If you tell me we're going to interact, we're going to interact, you know?"

No one can accuse Rains of being the most savvy candidate in the race. But his nonchalance has some people wondering why he's even running.

As it turns out, Rains has been wondering the same thing and he still hasn't come up with an answer.

In his own closing remarks, Rains acknowledged that the mayor's chair would be no easy seat to fill.

"I'm not even sure I want it," he said, squinting and scratching his shaggy white mane as if pondering the thought right then and there.

"I wasn't even going to run because I got some things to do," Rains said vaguely. But if elected, he did make the crowd a promise: "I'll try my hardest if I accept."

Short and sweet. Just like the rest of his answers Thursday evening.

Drunk drivers
But if Rains' comic relief set the evening apart from all the other forums the candidates have been through in the run-up to the March 6 elections, so did some of the issues that came up.

For all the city's struggles with alcohol abuse, the candidates have hardly touched the subject, not even during the forum the McKinley Community Health Alliance hosted two weeks ago. Rynal Patterson, however, took his chance Thursday to ask the candidates what they'd do to alleviate Gallup's falling, but still comparably high incidence of drunk driving. He was thinking about prevention, but most of the candidates were more interested in enforcement.

The problem, said Larry Winn, was that drunk drivers weren't being held accountable. Winn, who works with alcoholics as a health counselor, spoke of a "silent conspiracy" among local authorities who hope to simply ignore the problem "if everyone was simply not found to be responsible for their actions."

"What it boils down to is we're not holding these people accountable," Ralph Richards agreed.

Both Richards and Winn placed much of the blame on judges who weren't being tough enough with their sentences.

Mary Ann Armijo, who showed up late from a methamphetamine forum and left early, spoke of the need for more public education. She also mentioned the additional protective custody officers she and her fellow city councilors have hired to search out transient drunks during the coldest months since they often fall asleep outside before they freeze to death.

Harry Mendoza answered the question instead by speaking about what he called Gallup's growing problem with drugs.

"While I've been campaigning, people have been pointing out these crack houses to me," he said. "Why we're not doing anything about them is beyond me."

He said the city should be hiring more officers and paying them higher wages.

Jimmy Parish agreed.

"I wouldn't put my life on the line for what they get," he said.

It was only two days ago, coincidentally, that Police Chief Sylvester Stanley stood before the City Council to ask for six new officers, an extra $58,000 to give everyone in his department from lieutenant through captain raises, and more vehicles for narcotics enforcement.

Native business
Thanks to local trader Ellis Tanner, Thursday's forum touched on yet another prevalent city issue largely ignored this campaign season. He asked the candidates what more the city could do to strengthen economic ties with its American Indian neighbors, the "economic backbone" of Gallup.

Anna Rondon, the only American Indian in the race, jumped on the question. She insisted on the need for and her efforts to create a separate chamber of commerce in the city specifically for American Indian-owned businesses. She attended a reception for Gallup's American Indian business owners at Billy Dee's Coffee Experience Wednesday.

One problem, Mendoza said, was that Gallup has been sending too much of its locally made jewelry out of town and not doing enough to bring shoppers here. He suggested using venues like the new downtown plaza to host more trade shows.

"Maybe we ought to put a sign up outside of Santa Fe saying three quarters of the jewelry in Santa Fe comes from Gallup," said Rains, getting at the same point.

But at the same time, said Richards, who's restaurant, Earl's, is a popular pace to buy American Indian jewelry direct from the artists, the city had to do more to reach out to the American Indian communities around it.

"Not always do they have to come to our door," he said. "We have to go to theirs."

Gallup businesses which haven't all lost their reputation for discriminating against American Indian customers could also stand some more hospitality training, Mendoza added.

Minimum wage
Considering how contentious the debate has been, it was no surprise that the two March 6 ballot initiatives proposing a local minimum wage increase came up. The moderator asked the candidates whether they supported one or the other.

Either proposal, if approved, would raise Gallup's going minimum wage set by the federal government at $5.15 an hour since 1997 to $7.50. One, placed on the ballot by petition, would get there by the start of 2008 and increase the wage in proportion to any change in the consumer price index every year after that. The other, proposed by the City Council, would get to $7.50 by July of 2008 and keep it there.

Although only the first would require active city enforcement and additional recordkeeping from businesses, Mendoza said either one would create a "bookkeeping nightmare." Even so, he said he preferred the council's version.

Winn said he wanted to see a minimum wage increase but didn't think either the city or the citizen's group behind the petition was qualified to do a good job on such a complex issue. He thought the matter was best left to the federal government.

"It's important that we let people who know how to do it, who have a body of law behind them, let them do it," Winn said.

Worried that a nationwide increase in the minimum wage would somehow bankrupt an already deeply indebted federal government, Rains said any increase should stay local. But the proposals on the ballot were both asking for too much too fast, he said. Rains suggested a much more modest 50 cent increase.

Armijo pointed out that neither proposal for a local increase will matter if the state passes its own plan. The Senate passed a bill proposing a statewide increase of $7.50 two weeks ago. The House followed suit Thursday afternoon. Gov. Bill Richardson has pledged to sign it.

Utility rates
Utility rates, yet another topic that's made few appearances during the race but isn't far from the minds of most city residents, usually as something to complain about, was also broached. The moderator asked the candidates what they'd do to keep rates down.

Rains and Parish both suggested building a power plant just for Gallup. Mendoza said he'd conduct a comparison of all the city's utility rates with the rates of other like-sized cities in the state to find out how Gallup stacks up. According to a list Armijo brought to the forum, Gallup's water rates, compared with all other New Mexico cities, sit roughly in the middle.

But the key to keeping rates down, said Armijo and Winn, speaking of water rates in particular, was conservation. The more city residents conserved, they said, the less they'd have to pay.

If Gallup doesn't do all it can to preserve the water it has, and find more, Winn warned, "there will not be a Gallup, New Mexico."

Short and sweet. An answer even Ralph Rains could love.