KCEC: Will T(he)y Leave the Light on for Members?
Unlike the members of National Security State we know the “Traveling Trustees” and their motor mouth, CEO Luis Reyes. You can confirm their “faux” biographies at the KCEC web site, thanks to a mix of fiction and non-fiction. Naïve supporters of KCEC suggest members support the rate increase to “save the Coop” and because Luis gives lip service to “Green Energy.” Both ideas serve as excuses and mask the real purpose of the rate increases: power for the CEO and pleasure (financial and travel) for the Trustees, who capitalize as well on greed and the lust for power.
Below Taos Friction, depicts the Trustees whom he has known and covered for more than a decade. Here we post their jolly mugs on our post office wall. We give the date of their ordination in parentheses, an important marker, since several sat, for instance, on paid committees while overseeing KCEC’s neophyte Internet services, despite their lack of familiarity with such high tech demands like “email,” which their “grandchildren” managed for them. Hilarious but indicative of the blind leading the blind.
To the Taos team of Renewable Energy enthusiasts, I have a question. Do you think Luis is going to encourage the “actual” use of self-sustaining solar energy even as renewables diminish the centralized political and financial power at the Coop? I have a bridge to sell you. Like Bush, Obama bailed out the banks not the debtors. Luis learned his lessons by example. The trustees know who butters their bread and buys their travel tickets.
The Traveling Trustees
Art Rodarte (1984), the Ojo Caliente-Carson representative, an off and on Tri-State board member, never met a monthly meeting he could afford to miss at $400 per, going and coming, as well as committee meetings plus his KCEC income at a paltry $150 per or Committee meeting at $75. As an off and on Rio Arriba County elected official, he could easily double the estimate 40 Gs’ he makes from KCEC associations. Art, the proprietor of Oliver’s grocery store in Ojo Caliente, keeps his mouth shut and doesn’t give voice to the hypocrisies. He’s in it for the “money.”
Manuel “Parking Lot” Medina (1989) of the Taos District, aka the big (Police) Dog offers to settle disputes the old-fashioned way. When a “pack of dogs,” Virgil said, “led by the Chihuahua,” attacked him recently, Medina was absent, no harm done. The Parking Lot attendant owes his career to the divine intervention of “Mother Teresa.” He’s against “mail in” or “email” balloting because then “they” will control the Coop and refers to “You know how they are” at Taos Pueblo. He serves on the Fiesta Committee, which features mostly vendors from out of town who specialize in imports from China.
Ambrose Mascarenas (1996), the so-called soldier claims he served in the Utah and New Mexico National Guard but nobody has found the proof. He distinguished himself as administrator of the Taos County lock-up and was nominated by a Santa Fe Judge as an exemplary member of the “Hogan’s Heroes” cast because of jail related deaths for which tragedies he was duly “terminated.” When “Mother Mary” up in Llano San Juan says jump, Ambrose says “yes’m.”
Virgil Martinez (1997) recently lost an election for Commissioner, due to a lack of enthusiasm for the stuff of “transformation” but the inimitable man from El Norte at the Coop remains a popular Rescue Dog. “I been beaten up by dogs before,” says Virgil of the Coopsters who attacked him for voting “no” to rate increases. “They know where I live in Cerro.”
The mutt from Angel Fire, Jerry Smith (2001) never met a report at the Coop he didn’t think was “proprietary” and “private.” He has even denied the right of the public to hear audit reports made public. Why would anyone want to steal KCEC secrets, given the extraordinary losses? Few members turn out to vote in Angel Fire for the Black Lake resident from Texas. Apathy and secrecy is the secret of his success.
Chris Duran (2000? 2004?) posts no information on the KCEC web site and I can’t remember or find the info re: his election. He’s like the “Lone Ranger” or masked man and once resolved a pesky problem with Picuris Pueblo thanks to his Penasco Valley roots. He is also the only veteran (Iraq era) I know of serving on the board, honorably, except for his associating with the other trustees. Lately I’m told he’s making a run for the “gold” as a meeting-goer.
Luisa Valerio Mylet (2004) would be sitting at the right hand of the real Mother Mary if good intentions meant much at the Coop. Once she had to bring her Papa, Candido, to a Coop meeting in order to shame Los Malos. “I’m glad they are treating her better now,” said Virgil, since she voted for the rate increase. Pobrecita Luisa actually believes this turn will make a difference but Luis gave her the “shock treatment” and now she seems a little dizzy. Here’s an older photo: 
Bobby Ortega (2005), the “banker’s factotum,” and former mayor of Questa, jiggles when he juggles the votes for Luis and brings cheer to the homebound, the lonely and the desperately yearning. He lasted little more than a month at his dream job, Deputy Land Commissioner and nobody knows why except for the Shadow.
Bruce Jassman (2008), from Angel fire, is mixed mutt, more poodle than bulldog. He lucked out when he found a job as Mr. Committeeman, according to the resume posted on the KCEC web site. Apparently Jassman snarled at Virgil but without Manuel’s presence couldn’t quite get it up. His list of committee assignments ($75) makes him look like the all-time meeting-goer, Art Rodarte but without the savoir-faire of a Norteno.
Peter Adang (2012) transformed himself from activist into a vendidos, thanks to the magic of upstate New Mexico. Now he runs a blog and displays the heartfelt vanity and “father knows best” attitude so characteristic of the Taos elites and “do-gooders” while the local boys thoroughly out-smart the benighted former attorney. Before he was for it he was against it. What business plan?
Trustee David Torres (2013) is famous as an International Crisis manager but he can’t quite manage the “crisis” at the Coop or up there in El Salto. He gave up all that “prestige” abroad for the “nightmare” at home.
If you tell the truth, the only varmint who counts is the CEO: he orchestrates and conducts the Trustees, marching them in 4/4 time while they rubber stamp his projects. All hail the Energizer Bunny, aka CEO Luis Reyes, the “(Mad) Man Who Corrupted the Coop” (in my opinion).