Gallup teen running for city council

By Zsombor Peter
Staff Writer

Mike Butler

GALLUP — There may be a number of things that set Mike Butler apart from the other city council candidates of Gallup's past. The most obvious is his age.

Butler, who received his graduate equivalency diploma this year and plans to enroll at the University of New Mexico-Gallup in January, is all of 19 years old. In between classes at the branch, he'll be running for city council.

His case is not as unique as some might think. According to Butler, the city had a 21-year-old mayor in the 1920s, a distinction at the time that earned him an invitation from the City of San Francisco. While it's still not common for someone as young as Butler to hold public office, he does not consider his candidacy the novelty it once was, either. He noted the case of an 18-year-old city councilor elected in 2004 in Florida, and another 18-year-old elected in Michigan.

And it's hardly Butler's first foray onto the civic stage. On any given weekend, he can be seen marching through the city's streets against racism, helping out at the Rainbow Recycling Center or walking door to door collecting signatures for a referendum to raise the local minimum wage.

But Butler believes there's only so much he can do at the grass roots level, hence his bid for city council.

"I see it as a bigger way to influence things," he said. "What I want to do as a city councilor is get more people involved in the political process to create social change."

One way to get more people involved, Butler said, is to get more people to vote. Though it won't help him in this election, he'd like to lower the minimum voting age from 18 to 16.

"They have jobs. They pay taxes. Why can't they vote?" he asked.

"By the time kids are 18 they don't care," he said of most people his age. "I think they realize the system's so screwed up they just don't think they can change anything."

By letting them vote, Butler wants to get them involved before that cynicism kicks in.

He also believes the city could stimulate involvement by providing more programs and resources for its youth, and wants to set up a youth advisory council composed of his peers to help. He believes it's the lack of attention that encourages many a Gallup youth to leave.

"I think that's why when you ask youth what they want to do after they graduate they say 'Get the hell out of Gallup.' "

Toward the same end, he supports the city's preliminary plans for a new park on the east end of town where he lives and said he would continue those efforts if elected.

But Butler has much more on his mind than the youth. He knows that as city councilor he'll have to represent not just his east end constituents but every resident of Gallup. And he thinks they'd be well served by an increase in the local minimum wage.

"I think it's disgusting that people have to work for $5.15 an hour," Butler said.

A person working full time at minimum wage will gross $10,712 a year. For a family raising children, Butler said, "$5.15 just doesn't cut it."

He's one of a handful of locals collecting signatures in an effort to put a minimum wage proposal on the March ballot. With exemptions for work-study students, academic interns and any business with fewer than 15 employees, they propose raising the minimum wage to $6.75 60 days after approval, to $7.50 by 2008, and in proportion to any change in the consumer price index beginning in 2009 and every year thereafter.

Butler hopes they get the proposal onto the ballot and passed by the voters. If not, he said he'd push for an increase as a city councilor. Though generally opposed to government regulation of the private sector, he believes there's no one else to hold Gallup business owners accountable in this case.

Butler also wants to see more affordable housing in Gallup. City officials have called the lack of such housing one of the main obstacles to economic development in Gallup, and recently paid a private contractor $50,000 in addition to installing all utilities at no cost to build 30 new $175,000 houses on the east end of town.

But Butler, again, believes the city could do more. He'd like to see the city cut out the middle man by building the houses itself and thinks it could find the money by abandoning some "unneeded" projects. He's not sure what those projects might be just yet but believes every government has some.

Butler said he'd also like to put some of that new-found money toward expanding Gallup's recycling program. It's been only a few years since the McKinley Citizens' Recycling Coalition opened the Rainbow Recycling Center next to the Larry Brian Mitchell Recreation Center with the city's help. He'd like to see the city go further by helping set up recycling centers across Gallup.

Finally, Butler spoke of doing more to involve the residents of his district and strengthening relations with the tribes that surround Gallup, and of hosting separate, monthly meetings to do both.

Butler is the only person to declare his candidacy for the east end council seat to date. He's running for the seat being vacated by Councilwoman Mary Ann Armijo, who was forced out of the district a few years ago by the federal demands of redistricting and is now running for mayor.

When voters go to the polls, whatever their politics, Butler hopes they look past his age.

"I've been involved for three or four years, and I don't think they'll look at my age as much as what I've been doing in Gallup and what I plan to do," he said.

The city has scheduled the election for March 6. In addition to a mayor and east end councilor, voters will be choosing a new west end councilor and municipal judge.