Berry reviews first half of term as Albuquerque mayor

KOB Eyewitness News 4 caught up with Mayor Richard Berry who is right smack in the middle of his first term in Albuquerque.

He is talking about his staff's biggest accomplishments and one of his biggest setbacks so far.

Mayor Richard Berry said, from the very beginning, his focus has been on public safety, fiscal responsibility and taking better care of Albuquerque's most vulnerable.

He has seen major progress in public safety.

"Well we've got crime at a 20-year low in the city of Albuquerque - we've got the murder rate hopefully on a 20-year low by the end of this year...Albuquerque citizens are safer than when we started," he said.

Berry said that came at a price.

For some city employees, it was a 2.2 percent pay cut - an unpopular move, but one Berry said was necessary to avoid layoffs.

"We've had to cut $130 million out of the first two budgets alone since I've been the mayor, but we've been able to do that while still keeping our employees on the job, while still keeping services intact to the community - without raising taxes," Berry said.

This fall, voters rejected bond question 12, also known as ABQ: The Plan.

Among many things, it would have brought in total of $50 million for an ambitious multi-sports complex and for a new Paseo Del Norte and I-25 interchange.

"We ran into opposition and we ran into funded opposition and that funded opposition came from several of our unions - police, fire and AFSCME all put money towards fighting bond question 12," Berry said.

The mayor believes employee pay cuts were the reason for the opposition.

"I can only imagine it's because there was a pay cut and they want to make sure they get employees back to square - well so do we. We just think that, I think as a mayor that the best way to do that is to grow the pie in our city?bring more revenue into the city," Berry said.

The mayor said keeping the city competitive and attractive will bring in the dollars necessary to give employees raises.

He believes in it so much, he is working on getting some of the projects done one at a time.

"ABQ: The Plan is certainly not gone, we had one setback but we have so many other things that we're doing on ABQ: The Plan," Berry said.

Berry said once Albuquerque can start bringing in more business and can start attracting more major events, it will make the city stronger and better.

"ABQ the plan is just a way of saying we need to invest in our community and trying to change the discussion from should we invest in our city to how should we invest," Berry said.

Source: http://neheights.kob.com/news/news/104924-berry-reviews-first-half-term-albuquerque-mayor

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