BY RICHARD SKOLNIK
White Rock

I write about Councilor Havemann’s November 21 Letter to the Editor on the proposed County
purchase of property on Diamond Drive.

Ms. Havemann’s letter is, in my view, a superb model of flawed logic and bad policy
recommendations. I would summarize it as follows:

 The County has failed to create a policy environment that attracts private investment in
property or business development

 So, let’s substitute for that by having the County purchase a property for 76% more than
its assessed value

In this light, I must ask Councilor Havemann if she offered her private sector real estate buyers
the advice she is now offering us:

 “Pay more than 76% over the assessed value for the home or commercial property you
want, since by doing so you can help shape the future.”

I must also ask her why private lenders don’t lend more than a certain percentage of the assessed value of a property? They do this, of course, to try to minimize financial risk and ensure the property remains secured. Councilor Havemann appears to suggest that we throw this notion out the window when it comes to the use of public funds.

I appreciate the service of our County Councilors. However, many of them urgently need a
course on Public Administration 101 that can help them understand the essentials of public
economics, finance, and administration – areas with which few of them have any experience.
The County Council should also have serious questions about the “logic” and “analysis” of
County staff who would propose that the County pay 76% more for a property than its assessed
value. We should not normalize proposals that border on the obscene.

The County should absolutely reject the purchase of the property at the suggested price. Nothing could be simpler. No logic can justify this purchase. Develop instead a set of policies that will make Los Alamos attractive to private investors.

Lest anyone think I am a “crazed right-wing fiscal conservative,” let me assure you that I am as
blue a Democrat as one can be and (speaking of pedigrees) my paternal grandfather is buried in the Workmen’s Circle Cemetery in Chicago. However, I spent 40 years working with governments globally to help them invest public funds in ways that would produce doable, sustainable, cost-effective, and fair outcomes in education, health, urban development, and water and sanitation. This is a sound and ethical approach to investing public money and I feel obliged to help Los Alamos County at least try to do the same.

If the County Councilors wish to use their own money to buy assets for 76% more than their
assessed value, they are welcome to do so. However, they should not do so with public money.