Taos Vendors Beat “The Man”

Hardball Time at TMS

Big Box Coming?

Update (WhaleyLeaks) Sources say the PRC has received about 300 protests against the proposed KCEC rate increase. CEO Reyes, according to PRC insiders, is not popular with the regulators. A local entity will consider putting an attorney in place to guide the protestors. And activists may seek signatures to petition for a special membership meeting to introduce new restrictions, redistricting, and the reduction in number of trustees next year. Unequal representation and a lack of accountability has turned Coop operations into a shell game, according to insiders.

Reminders re: Fast Fred (See below)

Flavia says “Fast Fred” has never cared about our students. As mayor the closest he ever came to a school was when he used taxpayer money for the arroyo near the Middle School to build the rock revetment to protect his house. Excuse me, he did use the Taos School District drive-way to get to Town Hall.

“Did Fast Fred as mayor visit the schools to get an idea or plan of possible ways of doing something of the overall crime evolving students for the last several years, tragic incidents that caused the community great concern?

“Did he raise awareness by informing residents of how to get involved in violence prevention programs in their neighborhoods?

“Did Fast Fred upon learning of these incidents, offered his assistance to do whatever he could to help alleviate the violence within the town? And now he wants to become a school board member to help out Chuby, the nephew of another mayor who couldn’t finish his term Bobby Duran.”

“Has Billy Knight joined the “good old boys” in common cause due to his perceived resentment directed at Arsenio?”

(Pobrecito: The last sentence alludes to a hilarious tale of political ineptitude, switching horses, and general envidia.)

Free Market Wins

It’s a victory for custom and the U.S. Constitution, “Gorge Vendors Get The All-Clear,” according to a Journal North story by Andy Stiny this morning (Nov. 30, 2010). Stiny’s story says “District Court Judge John Paternoster’s ruling mirrored [Judge} Ortega’s, saying the law is both `unconstitutional as written and inapplicable to the location and activities engaged in by defendants.’” For decades New Mexican artisans and crafts people, vendors and merchants have supplemented their income by selling everything from fresh produce to trinkets to art and household items along the people’s highway right away. The state police filed the complaint in magistrate court where it was dismissed but then appealed to district court, where it has been dismissed again.

The Taos Vendors represent a growing segment of roadside sellers and green-team resistors, who work outside corporate capitalism in the best tradition of American free enterprise. Paternoster, Ortega, and Public Defender Daryl Bouchard have struck a blow for patriotism and human rights in defense of vendors, who are a colorful part of the Rio Grand Gorge Bridge, the state rest stop, and the spectacular BLM west rim trail. The number of local vendors, like the number of out-of-state visitors rises and falls each day, depending on the weather or day of the week. It’s a clean, well-organized operation where local independents appear to cooperate for the greater good.

The Rio Grand Bridge is one of the top three tourist attractions in Taos–the sublime home of land and light–and another of the sacred places, consecrated by both God and man.

Big Box?

Speaking of free enterprise, Flavio passed by a Town LUDC revision meeting recently and overhead the committee discussing the “Big Box “ code. Somebody wants to more than double the maximum 80,000 square feet allowed. Apparently, the ghost of Rudy Walmart is haunting the town planning offices. We’ve been hearing that Lowe’s is coming to Taos. If you think the Town has trouble with one Jeff, wait until the community gets hold of this one and one hundred raging Jeffs show up to protest a variance for Super Walmart? Quien Sabe?

Fast Fred: A Brief Reprise

Another ghost from the past and fellow Frisco native, “Fast” Fred Peralta, former Mayor and Renaissance man, is considering a run at the school board. According to the news, he thinks the staff at TMS, which have been dinged by every benchmark and audit known to interested observers, should be left alone to confront their own failures.

But shouldn’t you report crimes against education and children? Not this candidate: Leave them alone to (not) do their job!

As Mayor, “Fast” Fred led a naïve council down the road to violations of the state procurement code in the great “swimming pool scandal,” which cost the taxpayers and town a million dollars in cost over-runs and hundreds of thousands in repairs on the “no-bid” municipal project. (He and Gus, the manager got caught then by Clean Gene Sanchez.) Indeed, Fred sullied the name of do-gooders, the council, the manager, and a famous anonymous artist by circumventing the code.

“Fast” Fred earned his nickname when the three “Little old Ladies” from Plaza de Retiro took him on and beat him black and blue politically because he tried to move the post office from the current location without telling the council or the residents.

With his sidekick, Slick Gus, town manager, Fast Fred tried to make a deal with the tribe on the Casino-Kachina project: Slide the casino in the back door if Taos Pueblo approved the crosswind runway at the airport, while the town only required a minor “environmental assessment.” But the Town Council voted him down, down, down on that one and joined with others to request an EIS–in federal court.  Chagrinned, Fred joined the majority and fought the Tribe in court—as if it was his idea.

Indeed, the council then, on the big issues—Walmart, Casino, Post Office, Annexation—stood up to Mayor Fred unlike today’s rubber stampers who do what Darren does. Still, believe me, Darren is way better as Mayor than “Fast Fred.”

Perhaps Fred thought like Commander Reyes of the Coop in terms of “economies of scale.” He wanted to annex El Prado and Blueberry Hill into the town. He and Slick Gus tried more than once to bring Super Wal-Mart to town. Despite his diclaimers, Fred doesn’t appear to support small business or  “the little guys and gals” (la gente) of the community.

As Mayor and President of the HCH board, Fred participated in the anti-union doings at Holy Cross Hospital. He and CEO Spellman saw to it that two union workers were arrested in the cafeteria, marched out in handcuffs, tried and prosecuted in the Taos Municipal Court–Fred’s court. (He controlled the budget and salaries of municipal court.)

When Gov. Bill Richardson nominated Fred for Dept. of Tourism Secretary, the onetime doyenne of the Democratic Party, Sally Howell, told Bill, “It’s our gain and your loss.” Fred resigned as Mayor and Bobby Duran assumed the mantle. Never forget the night, we were downtown at the meeting, yelling “Bobby,” “Bobby,” “Bobby,” when Mayor Bobby voted against the Big Box. While Bobby was a political populist, voting with the citizenry while Fast Fred, “the elite father of us all,” sang tunes to Mr. Big.

Given CRAB Hall’s financial problems, putting Fred on the board would be like putting the fox in the henhouse. Hey, you may not like Arsenio or Lorraine, due to personality problems and biased news coverage, but let’s not get carried away here.

It’s time to play hardball, Charmin’ Billy.  There’s more, much more.