Mid-Week Blues
Moment of Silence
Local journalists, whatever their stripes, will miss Patricia Chambers, news director for DMC Broadcasting. Ms. Chambers died at Holy Cross Hospital on Tuesday, June 8, 2010, after a brief illness, according to DMC Broadcasting general manager Jeff Singer. Chambers brought professionalism and neutrality back to The Taos News during her tenure at the local weekly. And we appreciated her calm objective coverage of state and local news at DMC. We wish the family our best. A memorial is scheduled at  Rivera Hanlon Funeral home, Thursday June 10th, 7:00PM. RIP, Patricia.
Caveat: TMS Meet
The Taos Municipal Schools meet today, Wed. June 9, 20101, at 5:30 pm. The agenda is remarkable for what it omits: any mention of the state auditor’s letter, which is highly critical of procedural inadequacies at the finance department. Auditor Hector Balderas notes that the TMS has yet to provide the state with their regular audit for the last fiscal year, which was due Nov. 15, 2009.
Yet, the agenda includes an item requiring action on the new budget. At their June 2 meeting, board members allegedly violated the Open Meetings Act by approving the proposed budget, so the board will take a second shot. At the June 2 meeting, according to comments, the board had only just received salary schedules that day for the first time. Salaries amount to about $12 million of the $20 million operating budget. The union opposes cuts to salaries for teachers, which highly paid administrators—including the business manager and superintendent–support.
Bad faith negotiations, according to the union, and blinders about budgets and audits, suggest the administrators, not school board members, are still in charge of CRAB Hall.
Coop Co-opts Members
In a series of lively community meetings for coop activists, KCE CEO Luis Reyes has candidly explained current Coop debt: $46 million, 4.9% interest, to RUS for electricity (USDA); $10 million to Co-Bank, $.3.4 million; and $6.3 million, 5% interest, to Tri-State for the merger: a total of about $60 million. The consolidated debt includes loans for electricity infrastructure, propane, Internet services, solar installation, the Command Center, etc. Honesty and transparency make for a brilliant public relations campaign.
Even as KCE Propane’s numbers of gallons sold and number of customers increased, the Coop lost millions of dollars from 2001—2008, due to pricing strategies in attempt to build the business, according to Reyes. Currently, a newly separated Propane division is beginning to earn a profit, Reyes says.
Now, the Coop is pursuing a grant for Broadband that could increase Coop debt by another $20 million due to federal requirements for a match. We don’t know whether the Coop’s inability to provide email for a week-long interregnum recently is indicative of their ability to manage Internet—Broadband service, but the failure of email service gives one pause.
At the annual meeting this year on Sat. June 12 at THS, members will vote on a variety of by-law changes, which amount more to clarification than substantive changes. Coop activist Jerome Lucero asked the 11-member board of trustees to consider redistricting so that members would have equal representation but that option was rejected. Currently, two trustees from Penasco represent about 800 plus members each while four Taos-area trustees represent about 3000 members each.
The lack of equal representation for Taos area residents indicates how the 11 current trustees are more interested in the political status quo than they are in doing what’s fair or democratic. We are particularly disappointed that Taos trustees Francis Cordova, Toby Martinez, Manuel Medina, and Luisa Mylet have not raised more of a stink on behalf of their constituents. What are we? Chopped liver?
Is Jerome Lucero our only Taos representative? In the picture, Jerome, right, is shown discussing the issues with Art Ortiz, center, and CEO Reyes, left.
The Coop spent more than a hundred thousand dollars to promote the annual meeting in 2008. At last year’s meeting, Trustees spent little,  tried to suppress attendance, and used parliamentary tricks to disenfranchise attendees, due to by-law changes affecting term limits and the reduction of board numbers. The tricksters were shouted down in 2009 and term limits were passed.
Regardless of Reyes’ candor, the trustees, due to their records—travel, denial about finances, and movida-making—cannot be trusted.
Bill,
I don’t know if you read Luis Reye’s article in last weeks Taos News but it was even comical that he took credit for the work that the board is doing while reducing their expenses. The only reason that they are watching their expenses is due to efforts of area activists and your efforts through the Taos Friction and the Horse Fly. Luis and the board se hechan el caldo pero uno de estos dias se van a quemar con el calor del agua en el caldo. People in Taos and generally across the country are sick and tired of the corruption in politics. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens this year at the annual meeting because the coop management team refuses to accept that the coop is controlled by its members. I am told that 5 of 11 board members from Kit Carson went to the Statewide REA convention in Ruidoso this year. So much for reducing costs.
Jerome Lucero