Taos Coop Wins Icicle and Crab Hall Awards

 

King Rabbit

 

Competing with the Legends

The “Icicle” and the “CRAB Hall” for 2010 go to King Louis I, aka KCEC CEO Luis “The Rabbit” Reyes and the Rubber Stampers. This is only the second time one organization has won both awards, accomplishing a rare “Double Whammy.”

Longtime local observer Flavio, said admiringly, “They sure deserve it. Wow!” He continued, “I’m not sure anything beats the awards Judge Hall gave the County Commission and Jail Director back in 1999.” The County received the “Hogan’s Hero” trophy for ongoing jail deaths and escapes, along with the “Colonel Klink and Sgt. Schulz” acting awards. One commissioner earned the “Lifetime” recognition award for public service to the community.

“But with the Coop,” Flavio says, “we have an ongoing series of goofs and it ain’t over. The Coop has a chance to one-up the legends of Taos County.” Flavio reminded us that “the County had two wrongful deaths due to jail dysfunction back in 1999 and the Coop has one wrongful death on the record due to negligent propane installation.” Ironically, the character at the center of negligent jail-related deaths serves frequently as Coop president, according to Flavio.

“Personal peccadilloes are frequent and scandalous,” said the custodian, “but this controversy is about rate increases and retaliation.”

Causes

According to recent news reports, the Rabbit declared war (shades of the Socorro Coop) on his own KCEC members, claiming only 6 of 317 protests against higher electricity rates were valid. Though the final decision is up to New Mexico’s most ethical public body, the Public Regulation Commission (PRC), and, perhaps, ultimately the courts, one must admire The Rabbit’s imitation of Tri-State’s legendary CEO, Hub Thompson.

Reyes may win the war at the PRC rate hearing on Jan. 10 but he has lost the public relations battle for the hearts and minds of members. Street Talk suggests the Reyes’ snafus could lead to the recall of current trustees or a protracted court battle says Flavio.

A decade of wild spending and debt formation under Reyes and his Rubber Stamp Board has turned the Kit Carson Electrical Coop into a diverse and debt-driven mini conglomerate, thanks to electricity assets collateralizing loans from the USDA, etc.

A decade ago, they pledged $6 million to pay Tri-State in a costly merger and lost out on—in the process–millions of dollars in members’ capital credits. Then Trustees used loans and KCEC income to cover $10 million (so far) in propane and Internet losses. They are borrowing and spending $3 million plus for the white elephant Command Center. They have used $5 million in loans for installing solar arrays while squeezing out private entrepreneurs. They engaged in a ponzi-like program of infrastructure expansion with cost over-runs estimated at $6 million for expanded service to no-growth areas like Penasco and Ojo Caliente. Now they want to pile another $19 million on the roof for Broadband expansion.

Throw in an extra million dollars for Trustee perks and travel and we’re talking about $50 million in unnecessary expenditures—the debt borne by this and future generations will amount to more than $80 million by the time these free-spenders are finished.

Coop HQ the new “Crab Hall” on Cruz Alta St.

In a retaliatory movida, driven by public criticism, the Coop has threatened critics with litigation and/or higher costs for local taxpayers, who are also KCEC members. First, KCEC employees have told family members to turn off their protests lest they lose their jobs. Second, the KCEC has threatened to shut down the new County Complex—based on technical—procedural issues if taxpayers (also KCEC members) don’t spend hundreds of thousands of dollars for the latest upgrades. Third, the Coop has threatened to file a lawsuit against a courageous County Commissioner, Andrew Chavez, a former Coop employee, for suggesting the rate request is too high by half.

Now Reyes has turned, like a rabid rabbit, on 311 members, declaring their protests “invalid.”

Analysis

During the 2010 race, the Coop was stumbling along in third or fourth place in comparison to TMS, Town of Taos, and Taos County last August. But they closed out the season with a rush like their alter egos, the World Series champs, San Francisco Giants, or the current Rose Bowl winners, the TCU Horned Frogs.

Thanks to the “Naughty Nine” Rubber Stampers, Reyes got an end-of-summer raise; then trustees voted to ask for a rate increase; then they went on a vacation travel trip to learn about Broadband in Arkansas, where they contemplated the $19 million
Broadband debt. The Coopsters closed out the 2010 season in Dec. by attacking the members and implying that we, all of us, are just a bunch of dummies.

In the interests of higher rates, the Coop has spent thousands of dollars on attorneys, newspaper ads, and trustee travel to the PRC, while meeting with the commission’s most susceptible member in “ex parte” sessions.

Referendum on Reyes

The 317 protests filed by members question the skewed rate increases: higher charges for poor folks and efficient users, while abusers and large users get a break. (Tax cuts for the rich?) More importantly, the members have filed protests as a referendum due to the growing realization that Reyes and the Trustees are destroying the local Coop because of debt, diversification, travel for trustees, and one man’s fantasies.

For years, Reyes and the trustees from outlying villages have controlled the Coop. For instance, Penasco has two reps, representing 800 plus voting members each (including the above-mentioned jail director and frequent president of the Coop). Taos has four trustees, representing about 3000 voting members each. The Coop is in violation of their oath—one man, one woman, one vote—and the claims about fair representation, made on tax returns to the IRS.

Study History

 We all know what happened to King Louis and the Aristos during the French Revolution. We need some new Green Energy—transparency and a stop speculation order: help from the PRC, court-ordered injunctions, recalls, and elected trustees, who serve not themselves but the members who allegedly own the Coop.

(Trustees Virgil Martinez of Cerro-Questa and Luisa Mylet of Pot Creek-Talpa voted against Rabbit Reyes and the “Naughty Nine” Rubber Stampers.)

King Louis and the Rubber Stampers have earned the “Icicle” for their cold attitudes toward the members and the “CRAB Hall” for selfish and perverse policies aimed at undermining the members of the Coop. It is we who must pay higher rates for the follies of the King and his court.

Letter to Martinez

January 3rd, 2011

Honorable Governor Susana Martinez

400 old Santa Fe Trail

Room 400

Santa Fe , New Mexico

Dear Governor,

Congratulations on becoming New Mexico’s Governor. I know that its going to be a challenge to clean  up the corruption in the state but I am making you aware of a place to start this important work.

While you were running for office you came to Taos on two occasions and I was able to speak to you about the corruption in the Electric Coop world. Specifically I talked to you about the corruption at the Public Regulation commission and how they dealt with Electric Coops. I also mentioned that some activists had reduced the Board size in Mora at the Mora-San Miguel Electric coop. I am sure that you have heard about the corruption at the Socorro Electric Coop as well.

Here is an opportunity for your office to monitor this corruption as the Electric Coop In Taos New Mexico has asked the PRC for a rate increase of 13.1 %.  317 protesters from the Taos area have submitted protests asking the PRC to conduct a rate hearing on this matter but  Coop CEO Luis Reyes has sent most of us letters that try to invalidate our protests. I am wondering who Mr. Reyes thinks he is that he can invalidate our protests.

In  my particular protest he lied about the facts that I submitted to the PRC . A copy of my protest is attached and a copy of Mr. Reyes’s denial of my protest is also attached. Here is my request. I am asking you to send a representative from your office to monitor this hearing to insure that it is conducted in a fair manner. The hearing date is January 10 at 9:30  a.m.  at the PERA bldg. hearing room.

Mr. Reyes the CEO of the Kit Carson Coop maintains that the PRC can only look at things that are associated with the electric business but this coop has engaged in numerous non-traditional ventures that have continually lost money. I have looked up the New Mexico Public utility act which governs the PRC and find that this is not true. You as a former District attorney can review and help the members of the Kit Carson Electric coop because someone needs to look out for the interests of the consumer believe me the Trustees at Kit Carson are not doing it. The trustees have given up their fiduciary responsibility of looking out for the members when they gave Luis Reyes a blank check by resolution to the tune of 130 million dollars.

I am a retired Mora San Miguel Coop Mgr. and Department level Mgr. for Public Service co. of Colorado (28 years)

I hope that you follow through with your pledge of trying to clean up New Mexico corruption and I am there to help you with that effort. There are two board members on the Kit Carson Board that will also help, Luisa Mylet and Virgil Martinez.

 Jerome Lucero

Retired Electrical Engineer and Coop member of both Mora San Miguel and Kit Carson Electric Coops

Cell phone number 505-217-4092

Prospero ano.