Tarin's Plan

Politicians' have platforms, Tarin has a plan.

Over the last year, Tarin has met with hundreds of residents, service providers and experts plus surveyed over 900 Santa Feans to figure out barriers to accessing housing and vital services. You can still take the survey.

Your feedback coupled with extensive research on actions taken by city hall since 2007 helped identify critical issues throughout every facet of city hall. But there's hope. Seriously - a majority of our issues could have been solved with common sense and real leadership.

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Phase One: The First 30 Days

The state legislature has legally mandated 46 critical responsibilities to cities: Animal Control, Annexation, Audits, Bonds, Bridges, Cemeteries, Census, City Charter, City Commissions, Codes: Building, Administrative, Air Pollution, Elevator, Fire Prevention, Health, Housing, Traffic and water conservation and drought management planning, Community Centers, Electric Facilities, Event Centers, Fire, Garbage, Gas Facilities, Generating Facilities, Historic District, Hospitals, Markets, Municipal Court, Municipal Housing, Municipal Landmarks, Municipal Libraries, Municipal Records, Museums & Art, Nuisance Properties, Parks & Recreation, Permits & Licensing, Police, Public Buildings, Regulation of food, merchandise, weights and measures, adult businesses, second hand stores and the sale of gasoline, Sewer Facilities, Storm Drains, Streets, Roads & Alleys, Trees, Water Facilities & Zoning

But if you read the paper or watched any of Tarin's videos, you know our city leaders are failing to provide good government.

Here are Tarin's Rules for Good Government.

1. Build a dream team/Listen to the experts

2. Find consensus

3. Vote your district

4. Don’t pick winners and losers

5. Cut the red tape

6. Guarantee transparency

7. Follow your own laws

We can ensure every facet of City Hall makes your day-to-day life easier but first, we need to fix City Hall & take emergency action to address auditing, wastewater and homeless services.

Fix City Hall

CODE ENFORCEMENT: City Hall can’t enforce its own codes and laws if they don’t follow them first. Whether it is establishing standard operating procedures, inspecting city owned infrastructure and buildings or putting the resources aside for improvements - City Hall must set the example for residents.

Then it is time to talk about:

the thousands of encroachments
fire hazards and safety concerns plaguing our neighborhoods and
the need for additional positions for code enforcement and a court advocate for residents needing to take their neighbor to small claims court.

STAFF MORALE: But none of this is possible without addressing staff morale and the toxic work environment that is City Hall. Tarin is the only candidate with a proven track record of overhauling a government agency into a positive working environment built on transparency and support. Tarin helped make the New Mexico State Land Office the top rated government workplace in the nation since 2023. Tarin will:

end the intentional siloing of departments within City Hall
foster an environment of teamwork, training and public service and
ensure additional support for our unions and for staff without advocates through real investments in an ombudsman program and third-party counseling services.

Forensic Audit

Santa Fe has never had a real audit and even still - there are findings after findings, discovery of unknown bank accounts and loss of our insurance and bond rating. The misuse of taxpayer dollars, lack of transparency and accountability and waste of time and resources has to end. That's why over the last year, Tarin has built a dream team of experts and project managers ready to turn things around on day one. We understand that there are major issues around auditing, payroll and payments meaning there is probably a cash flow issue and mismanagement of funds. So, it's time for a targeted forensic audit of our city funds, departments and boards to root out waste, restore trust and reallocate funding to our roads and other critical infrastructure projects.

Homelessness

ONE STOP LOCATION: We can pass every law we want criminalizing the unhoused but it won’t stop homelessness. Cost of living, loss of mental and behavioral services & limited single-family homes have had a direct impact on our unhoused situation in Santa Fe. That’s why it’s time to listen to every study since 2011 and build a one-stop location for all service providers.

Tarin is the only candidate with a masters in social work and a team of service providers ready to start on day one to figure out needs and a location to ensure we have:

a mental health facility because Santa Fe is out of beds
a drug rehab facility because too many have closed over the last few years
a shelter/resource center to meet the needs of Pete's Place & Consuelo's Place &
an outdoor space in one area that can be monitored and policed 24/7.

Once this location is secured, our shelters can relocate and a regional partnership can be established with neighboring counties to help offset the costs.

TRANSITIONAL HOUSING: Santa Fe has well over a thousand youth, veterans and domestic violence victims in need of transitional housing. While some steps have been taken to convert space for this purpose, permitting issues have plagued build out and millions have been wasted on temporary pallet-shelter homes that cost the city over $1 million in wrap-around services per ten units, every year. This model isn’t sustainable and better public-private partnerships will be needed to build real brick and mortar housing opportunities for Santa Fe’s most vulnerable.

INVESTING IN AT-RISK YOUTH: But it isn't just the 700+ Santa Feans currently homeless, it is the thousands that are one paycheck away from being unhoused. It is time for our city, schools, youth organizations and specialists to work together to identify those families at risk and intervene with support. Tarin supports continuing the Santa Fe Learn, Earn, and Achieve Program (Santa Fe LEAP) program for adults and expanding it to our at-risk youth to encourage them to stay in school and extracurricular activities.

Wastewater

Our wastewater treatment plant isn't just impacting the health of our rivers and neighboring communities, it's impacting our local businesses, airport operations, housing costs and wasting millions of gallons of drinking water.

Our city leaders have known since 2017 that a new plant was needed but instead of acting and taking advantage of hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to build a new facility, they continue to waste millions on studies, minor upgrades and a pipe to dump the toxic waste into the Rio Grande River.

City Hall has a legal responsibility to protect public health and water for future generations, so it's time for emergency action to combine federal funding, state grants and a municipal bond to build a state-of-the-art new facility off airport property and restore the wetland area along the Santa Fe Living River.