Metro Taos and Upstate News: Mission Creep

Apparently the utility companies, gas and electric, who make poor decisions want the PRC to bail them out by rewarding bad behavior with rate increases.

As we know, a series of bungled infrastructure connections in Texas—rolling black-outs—apparently led to a natural gas shut-down in El Norte—Upstate New Mexico—during below zero temperatures. Worse, New Mexico Natural Gas bungled the process of relighting. The Gasbags had “no plan.” Now NM Gas wants a rate increase to cover up mismanagement.

Metro Legends?

A reader writes, “Bill, have you heard the story circulating in Talpa about the little old lady who got a phone call on Tuesday, before the gas outage? A young relative who works for NM Gas called to warn her that there might be a gas outage because he was concerned about her. This town is just too small to keep a secret for very long.”

Bill: “I haven’t heard this one but I heard another about a second homer in Weimer. Same deal: Call your aunt, there will be a shutdown. The call came from a North Carolina source in the energy business.”

Now comes news of KCEC, much bragged about by the CEO during the recent gas outage, but apparently caught off guard in the La Loma area. One senior citizen told me that he spent 12 hours in bed, trying to keep warm due to both natural gas shut off and the ensuing two-day (?) electrical outage. So he checked into a motel.

(A Reader writes: “I can verify the La Loma blackout. Nearly 12 hours Saturday that’s when the pipes and boiler froze, with a 5-hour encore on Sunday.”)

We hear the new County Complex can’t keep all the lights on at the same time due to its connection on the grid to Angel Fire. It’s a question for the engineers to figure out –“capacitors” (or something). How do you build a 135,000 square foot building with a computerized jail and offices set up for courts and administration within a few blocks of KCEC HQ and not prepare for the load? As one of the newest and biggest potential customers of the Coop, the Complex, paid for by taxpayers, most of whom are COOP members, deserves a better bargain from KCEC.

While the KCEC claims they haven’t raised electricity rates in decades, consumer—members have seen charges for electricity increase more than 60% since the Plains-Tri-State merger at the end of the 90s. The Coop is a voting member of Tri-State. Meanwhile, the Coop has acknowledged the loss of millions of dollars since the advent of diversity—propane, Internet, expansion, command center. All the protesters want at PRC hearings from KCEC is a plan to show how the Coop will stop bleeding red.

But the Rabbit and the trustees want confidentiality and a cover-up. Now the Trustees and the Rabbit also want support for a Disney like fantasia involving this Coop in a $60 million Broadband exercise.

We members generally support the historic mission of the REA but not mission creep into areas better managed by private enterprise. We can forgive the Vatos for their wild travels, visits to La Tules in Santa Fe and the green felt tables in Las Vegas–even the creepy if necessary relationship with Tri-State. But you got to get back to doing what you do best: Stick to the electric side.

As long as the Trustees control the voting districts and Taosenos remain under-represented, we have no electoral control over our destinies. The Coop is the Taos version of Corporate America, where those with the money get to dictate policy. Look how much—thousands and thousands of dollars–Brother Luis and the Trustees are spending to mold public opinion prior to the hearings at the PRC.

Why we hear, lo’ these years later, the Coop even sent a couple of engineers over to visit with the Spring Ditch mayordomo yesterday. Do you have a problem with our poles in your right away? Can we fix this? Eh? Suddenly the Rabbit is just so warm and fuzzy.

At the Town of Taos, Flavio says talk around the cafeteria focuses on the Mayor and Manager brouhaha. Apparently, allegations of “insubordination” involve the Council-Mayor re-organization plan. The manager was directed to present the elected body with proposed cost savings regarding potential lay-offs, according to HR and procurement code rules and regs in anticipation of GRT decreases. When the news came in, the Mayor and his sidekick didn’t like the message. “What? You can’t lay off my supporters and we suggest you hire or keep on members of la familia.” Custom met the rules and regs of modern protocol—a no no in El Norte.

So “bait and switch” ensued, blame the manager; blame the council who supported him. Then there’s the issue of “bad manners” and “inappropriate behavior” by a highly placed official, which is throwing a monkey wrench in the works. You also got one or two cops out-of-control and your best investigator just left Superman’s department for a job with the state police. The Mayor might consider calling a restorative justice circle among the councilors and employees to enjoin political reconciliation before the press gets hold of what sounds like a pissing contest going viral, which could end up courtside.

At the County, BTW, apparently the claims of brutality, allegedly suffered by neighbors in Ranchos, who protested against the restoration of Martinez Hall was a ruse to cover up decrepit infrastructure by the local mutual domestic water minders. The single fire hydrant might not pass the pressure tests. Now, we hear the Ranchos MDW system wants alleged commercial (?) establishments to pay for the costs of upgrades to the whole system. A little honesty in local government and at the village might cure the risk and resolve the problem. But we don’t to hurt his feelings.

We in Metro Taos at the Town, KCEC, and County need to get on the same page what with hard times coming our way. As for TMS, we give up. We think the teachers and students, left alone, without institutional interference from CRAB Hall, could solve the problems. But a bureaucrat and his or her supporters will fight to the death for his or her paycheck. Talk about mission creep.

Responses

In response to yesterday’s “Class Warfare” story, a reader submitted the following news from Missouri. Apparently, radical Republicans, like Missouri Sen. Jane Cunningham (R want to “put parents back in charge” by repealing child labor laws.

“But let’s just use the official summary of the bill from the Missouri state Senate website and if you don’t believe me, click here and read it yourself.

This act modifies the child labor laws.

It eliminates the prohibition on employment of children under age fourteen.

Restrictions on the number of hours and restrictions on when a child may work during the day are also removed.

It also repeals the requirement that a child ages fourteen or fifteen obtain a work certificate or work permit in order to be employed.

Children under sixteen will also be allowed to work in any capacity in a motel, resort or hotel where sleeping accommodations are furnished.

It also removes the authority of the director of the Division of Labor Standards to inspect employers who employ children and to require them to keep certain records for children they employ.

It also repeals the presumption that the presence of a child in a workplace is evidence of employment.”

See the news at:

http://voices.kansascity.com/entries/missouri-senator-wants-repeal-child-labor-laws/
http://www.firedupmissouri.com/content/jane-cunningham-says-enough-our-stupid-child-labor-laws-already

Peaceful Skies

The coalition against despoiling El Norte’s fantastic blue and white skies will meet to lobby legislators at the Roundhouse, 10:30 am on Sat. in Santa Fe.

Silly budget Talk

Nobel Prize Laureate Paul Krugman writes in the NYT today:

“This brings me to the seventh word of my summary of the real fiscal issues: if you’re serious about the deficit, you should be willing to consider closing at least part of this gap with higher taxes. True, higher taxes aren’t popular, but neither are cuts in government programs. So we should add to the roster of fundamentally unserious people anyone who talks about the deficit — as most of our prominent deficit scolds do — as if it were purely a spending issue.

“The bottom line, then, is that while the budget is all over the news, we’re not having a real debate; it’s all sound, fury, and posturing, telling us a lot about the cynicism of politicians but signifying nothing in terms of actual deficit reduction. And we shouldn’t indulge those politicians by pretending otherwise.”

Carol Miller, our favorite independent congressional candidate and health maven, weighed in with news on the way the corporate political parties, Demos and Republicos, keep the independents and other proposed parties from being represented on the ballot. The corporate lobbyists, aided and abetted by the outlaw members of the Supreme Court, have termed a “corporation” a person, which is very strange in deed. Talk about the need for re-education. Most congressional representatives, like Speaker Boner, are just graduates of the K-Street Club for gamers in D.C.

As Mark Twain said, “We have the best congress money can buy.” As my childhood memories go, I refer you to the Reader’s Digest section: “Laughter is the best medicine.”

Don’t forget that LANL and NNSA want to build the biggest of all kennels for the Dogs of Nuclear War right here in Upstate NM. So it goes, Vonnegut said.