This week, City Finance Director David Millican announced his resignation. Since Millican says an article in the New Mexican on his resignation “didn’t quite get the quote right,” we thought we’d let him offer some parting thoughts in his own words (edited a little, for clarity).

Without further ado, here’s David Millican on Santa Fe, the economy and the city’s plans to restructure itself:

When I got here in 2008, the real important issues then were getting oriented to the city, installing a new financial system and starting to work on finance department strategic planning, teamwork and customer service issues.

That shortly gave way to three big projects: dealing with the downturn and trying to come up with budget solutions that would minimize the impact on services, the community and on employees. The second one was the preservation of the College of Santa Fe, and the third one was getting a set of water rates passed that resulted in the city getting its first-ever AAA bond rating. Those all took a lot of time. Continue reading »

By Chloe Davis, SFR Intern

With drippy old-school punk sounds, Low On High brings a breath of fresh air to punk rock fans in Santa Fe. While the band’s sound doesn’t fall far from the tree of the prettier of Velvet Underground’s songs, one could say that Low On High is more active and energetic; it induces wild dancing and head bobbing, rather than shoe-gazing.

With LOH, Santa Fe filmmaker Jon Moritsugu and his wife Amy Davis have formed a band that tests its audience but is simultaneously totally listenable. Now this mixture of old-school and nu-wave plays at Corazón on Sunday along with Venus Bogardus, Rainbow Arabia and Broken Water as part of Corazón’s SXSF Transit Music Fest (Rainbow Arabia and Broken Water are on their way to Austin for SXSW).

Learn more about LOH and get the details on the performance below the jump.

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I’ve been driving meals every Monday night for Kitchen Angels for nearly five years now (I even wrote about it a few Winter Guides ago), and every year my single favorite event hosted by Kitchen Angels is Angels’ Night Out. This Thursday, March 11, if you go to any one of more than a dozen restaurants in town (a full listing below), said restaurant will donate 25 percent of its profits from that night to Kitchen Angels. You don’t even have to specify that you’re there for Angels’ Night Out, you can just show up and chow down and have that be that! Though it’s usually a good idea to call ahead of time and reserve a table, because things can get pretty crowded when the food’s for a good cause. You can also enter to win a door prize at every restaurant.

This Thursday yours truly will be an ambassador at Bamboo Asian Cuisine, which I personally believe is the best Chinese food in town. Come by, enjoy some fried rice and say hi!

Below the jump, learn more about Kitchen Angels, and get a full listing (addresses, websites and phone numbers included) of where you should go eat on Thursday.

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On March 10, the Santa Fe City Council will adopt the official results of last week’s municipal elections. We’ve pasted those results below the jump for all the local political junkies to pore over, and the new issue of SFR that hits the streets this week day will contain a mini-analysis of voter turnout—which was piss-poor as expected.

Actually, turnout was slightly worse than expected—which perhaps should be no surprise, considering the leading daily’s Eeyore treatment of the race.

The consequence of such low participation figures is easy to understand: People don’t feel invested in their government.

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For this week’s cover story on the local Tea Party movement, SFR interviewed former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, who seems to be running for President, although he says it’s “not part of my horizon.”

Read the full interview after the jump.

(And in case you missed them, check out related interviews with New Mexico Militia leader Bob Wright and Congressional candidate Adam Kokesh.)

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