In a recent phone call about Albuquerque’s acute homelessness problem, an aide to city council member Tammy Fiebelkorn essentially called long-time community organizer, activist and policy analyst Valere McFarland a Nazi who wants to "put the homeless into concentration camps," McFarland said.
McFarland is requesting an apology from the aide, Laura Rummler.
According to McFarland, Rummler said during the phone call, "I know who you guys are. You want to put the homeless into concentration camps, away from the city, away from services, away from jobs,” McFarland wrote in an email to Fiebelkorn and other city officials.
"Ms. Rummler thus called me a Nazi," McFarland wrote. "I demand a formal apology from Ms. Rummler. I do not take this statement lightly. She should not be in a position of interacting with the public. I believe she needs to be disciplined, if not outright terminated for the comment she made to me and the unprofessional way in which (she) spoke to me."
According to the email, a copy of which was provided to the New Mexico Sun, McFarland placed a call to Fiebelkorn’s office Monday to follow up on a previous message encouraging the mayor and city council to suspend any consideration of zoning permit applications for the city’s tenuous plan for sanctioned homeless encampments across the city called "Safe Outdoor Spaces" (SOS).
With a doctorate in education policy studies, McFarland is an experienced public policy expert and civil rights activist. She has worked internationally as well as for many years in Hawaii and New Mexico where she joined and built coalitions to challenge and confront issues involving equity in education and environmental causes. In Albuquerque, McFarland is an active member of Women Taking Back Our Neighborhoods (WTBON), a group founded in 2018 to inform the public and demand greater accountability from elected and other civic leaders for preventing crime on Central Avenue, in neighborhoods and in public parks. McFarland has also advocated for animal and environmental causes.
McFarland recently co-wrote an opinion piece published by the New Mexico Sun arguing that the city of Albuquerque should pursue a "housing first" approach to Albuquerque’s homelessness problems called The Campus Model.
The National Alliance to End Homelessness describes "housing first" as an approach prioritizing housing for people experiencing homelessness as well as emphasizing flexibility, support services and individual agency.
The New Mexico Sun previously reported that the city’s sanctioned encampments plan, first added to the Integrated Development Ordinance (IDO) albeit without budget and operational rules in place in early June, has faced citizen-led opposition. City councilors are now planning an Aug. 15 vote to remove the Safe Outdoor Spaces encampment scheme from the IDO.
Fiebelkorn represents Albuquerque’s District 7 including the mid-heights, uptown and parts of the near northeast heights. Elected to the city council in December 2021, Fiebelkorn is serving her first term on city council.
McFarland said an apology has not yet been issued from Fiebelkorn's office for Rummler's comments.