Taos News Briefs

KCEC Website

The information on the fabulously informative Kit Carson Coop website allows members to calculate the effect of rate increases on their pocketbooks. We congratulate the Coop on the site. Peruse it at your leisure.

A member reminds us that “If inflation averaged about 3% per year (actually 2.91%) then the savings each residential meter holder gained by the coop not regularly raising rates over the 25 year period [would] total $1,452.10.

Indeed, just as the Coop refused to raise Propane rates for several years—due to political considerations (and lost millions)—so now the Trustees have run into their own re-built meat grinder i.e. public opinion. The seven good years are now being followed by seven lean years. (Read your Bible and remember Joseph’s advice to the pharaoh.) Public opinion no longer favors unlimited debt, further expansion, and air tickets to fancy conclaves in expensive hotels.

According to the “Oath of Office,” also found on the KCEC web site, trustees swear to “protect and preserve the true principles of cooperation whereby each member has an equal vote and all members have equal rights to share in the Cooperative’s services…” The vote for a member of the Coop from Taos is worth about one third of a member’s vote in Penasco. Trustees from Penasco represent about 800 members; trustees from Taos represent about 3000 each.

When was the last time you were invited to a baseball game, courtesy Tri-State in Denver or to the NMRECA party house in Santa Fe? The trustees are in violation of their oath of office and should consider reforms or resignations.

See Tio Minio for Jobs!

In her wisdom, governor-elect Susana Martinez has, according to the Associated Press, named a “Taos County rancher” i.e. Erminio Martinez to the team that recommends nominees for Office of State Engineer. The choice of a State Engineer will tell state residents much about water policy in the Martinez administration. Former environment secretary John Maggiore (under Gov. Gary Johnson) will also serve on the committee.

Martinez himself, a former magistrate judge, was sanctioned by the New Mexico Supreme Court for “willful misconduct,” according to court documents, and later resigned from the office without fulfilling his term. So far, Mr. Martinez, a reported democrat, is the only Taos County representative on the new Governor’s transition team. El Norte is woefully under-represented by Martinez transition teams, which are filled with Anglo names from Albuquerque south.

TMS

Taos Municipal Schools board has initiated a dialogue on the concept of “site-based management” for individual schools. Site-based teams, composed of the principal, teachers, parents, and students would operate the school with little oversight by CRAB Hall administrators. It is a way for taking back schools from bungling bureaucrats and implementing local educational strategies. The union and progressive parents support the concept. Knowledgeable observers say it is a way to compete with Republican and Democratic plans to privatize and or institutionalize more charter schools.

In Taos, Arroyos del Norte, for instance, might be an ideal school to try out the concept due to its geographical ties with the community. It seems unlikely that the legislature will undo HB 212, which gives all the power in school districts to the itinerant superintendents or that the federal government will reform NCLB in a meaningful way. Site-based management is a way for local residents to take back their schools but it requires public participation i.e. interested parents and teachers.  When the late Bob Benavidez was principal at Ranchos Elementary School, the latter functioned independently due to Bob’s gritty leadership and the students prospered academically—despite high poverty rates and the high numbers of non-native speakers. So it can be done—even in Taos.

County News

We hear one of the jail walk-outs apologized, “sorry bro” to the guard he ignored as he pushed the button and opened the doors for an inmate “walk-out.”

The County’s P&Zers have approved the expansion of the local Neem Karoli Baba Ashram over there on Martinez Lane adjacent to the Town of Taos. Remember, the County Commissioners also approved the misbegotten “Outlaw Garage.” And winked at the Blackstone Ranch.

Now we want to know when the Commissioners are going to allow La Martina to resume a tradition of serving beer at the historic site of Old Martinez Hall/El Cortez Tavern?

Locals have a right to resume celebrating their own modest cultural practices, saluting Cesar Chavez with a Schlitz or drinking to the Broncos with a  Coors– congratulating the Giants by drinking  a Bud or Burgermeister.  She ain’t selling shooters like local liquor stores, where the empties get tossed on the highway.

While the County allows outsiders to expand their numbers in the worship of foreign gods, they discriminate against their own. After Taosenos worship at St. Francis on Sundays, they should be allowed to adjourn to the flat screen TV, where  red-blooded Americanos celebrate the heroes of football, baseball, and basketball or even sit down to discuss politics and taxes—even in Ranchos—home to rambunctious residents and a mini-business district.

What are commissioners afraid of?