Keller registers third veto in a month

Jessica Dyer, Albuquerque Journal, N.M.
·2 min read

Apr. 2—Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller has never used his authority to force city workers to get COVID-19 vaccines.

Apparently, though, he's not keen on legislation that would foreclose that possibility.

Keller — once again pushing back against the City Council — has vetoed a bill the council passed last month barring the city from imposing an employee vaccine mandate. He argues that leaders have more pressing concerns than "manufactured ideological disputes."

In his veto message, Keller noted that he has never imposed a COVID-19 vaccine requirement. He wrote that the city instead made vaccines readily available, took other safety precautions, and had therefore "successfully navigated a middle road" between those who strongly supported and strongly opposed such rules.

"In this context," he wrote, "a ban on vaccine mandates is an answer in search of a question."

Keller's veto triggers another vote at the council's Monday meeting, and numbers could be in his favor. The bill initially passed 5-4, with Brook Bassan, Renee Grout, Trudy Jones and Louie Sanchez joining sponsor Dan Lewis in support. Overriding a mayoral veto requires six votes.

"The majority of the council wanted to give our city employees some peace of mind," Lewis said in a written statement to the Journal on Friday. "Apparently, the mayor wants the ability to make them get a vaccine they don't want or need."

Keller's veto message indicated he's ready to focus on other matters.

"City leaders need to come together to address crime, homelessness and housing, youth programming and services to seniors. We know that the best way to do that is to maximize our City's flexibility to adjust to any new fiscal, health or public safety challenge. We know that manufactured ideological disputes do not advance our vision for a safe and healthy city," he wrote.

This is the third bill Keller has vetoed in a month.

He won the first battle in that stretch.

The second — his veto of the council's plastic bag ban repeal — is also up for an override vote Monday. That repeal bill initially passed on a 6-3 vote.