Taos: How Green is my Coop?

(July 2008, Horse Fly)

Las Movidas in Mora

“Sin Verguenza” in Taos

By Bill Whaley

Green Energy

By the time the pesky pundit arrived at the annual Kit Carson Coop (KCE) meeting, Sat. June 28, most of the Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs (CFLs ) had been sold. (Coop members can buy the energy-saving CFLs at KCE HQ in Taos on Cruz Alta anytime.) The popularity of CFLs indicates how concerned KCE’s members are about conserving energy. During the recent Coop election, Trustee Luisa Valerio Mylet gave out CFLs as campaign favors and the members voted for La “Verde” Mylet in record numbers at the ballot box.

CEO Luis “The Rabbit” Reyes says the KCE Coop members are the Number 1 consumer of green energy-electricity generated by renewable wind and solar sources in the 44 member Tri-State Generating and Transmission (Tri-State G&T) coop family. The state has mandated that New Mexico Coops must produce 5% of their electricity load via renewables by 2015. Currently, Reyes says KCE uses renewables for 3.8% of its energy load today and will achieve the 5% level by 2009—six years ahead of the 2015 deadline.The Tri-State G&T coop combine encompasses four states: Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico, and Nebraska.

In the KCE area of Taos, Colfax, and Rio Arriba counties, the local Coop serves about 28,143 members. More than 700 local Coop members showed up for the annual meeting at the Taos High Gym. Members met the quota for a quorum for a 12th straight year. The Coop itself hasn’t raised electricity rates for fifteen years, according to Reyes. The energizer bunny pointed out that Tri-State, its supplier, raised rates and the Coop passes through the charges as fuel adjustments. Do your own accounting.

For showing up, members received a ten-dollar credit on their electric bills, plus a green grocery shopping bag, two 13-watt (60 watt equivalents) CFLs, and a green key-ring flashlight. Local Green Party spokesmen and KCE member Cliff Bain spoke of global warming caused by coal-fired power plants and said KCE should embrace more green energy alternatives. During the drawing for district 1 in Taos, yours truly won $250 in greenbacks. The grand prize—$1000 in green cash—went to member Dolores Pacheco. During the meeting, members discussed curbing the trustees’ appetite for travel and meetings due to greenback temptation. As Mary the Cheerleader might sing it, “Green is the Color of My True Love’s Coop.”

Mora & Taos

During the public comment period, member Molly Cook said it was fitting that in Taos “we construct windmills since we’re the blowhards of the nation.” KCE members talk, but the members of tiny Mora-San Miguel Coop high up in the mountains do the coop walk. Last year Mora members voted to reduce the number of trustees from 11 to 5. This year Mora members approved seven ballot initiatives aimed at curbing the trustee-greenback load loss. Among other curbs, Mora members imposed term limits, dealt with “conflict of interest issues” by forcing trustees to resign if they filled partisan offices, and reduced coop expenses by eliminating medical-hospitalization insurance for trustees. To keep trustees on a tight leash, Mora members voted to keep by-law changes for three years, so trustees can’t do the dirty.

Taoseños merely asked the trustees to enforce extant board policy regarding travel and limply suggested reducing the number of paid meetings trustees attend.

KCE member Felix Duran of Peñasco talked about efficiency and suggested trustees combine monthly workshop and regular meetings. Stormin’ Gary Storch of Taos pointed out how trustees spent too much for travel and charged $150 for special events like a photo op in Taos with Senator Pete Domenici, who delivered a USDA check for a loan of $2.8 million to build the controversial command center. Fabi Romero asked what happened to policy recommendations made by a members’ committee meant to rein in the traveling trustees?

The chief Coop cheerleader, however, loveable Mary Mascareñas of Peñasco, who initiated each round of applause during the prior period of happy reports, switched gears suddenly when she thought her trustees were under attack. She then attacked board members and members with innuendo and sly remarks about “conflict of interest” and missed “child care payments.” Mary defended trustee trips abroad as educational expenses, implying that board members needed to understand the new lenguaje of technology.

Storch came stormin’ back and said since Mary named names, he would name the Cheerleader’s husband Ambrose Mascareñas as the beneficiary of some $34,000, collected in pay and per diem from the Coop. Storch mentioned that Trustees Manuel Medina and Chris Duran asked the board to institute and enforce policies regarding pay and travel expenses at the last meeting in June but were rejected. (The board actually voted to table the Duran-Medina movida until the new board members were seated.)

And, a couple of months ago, modest Chris Duran of Penasco ($15,517.07) introduced a motion, seconded by Trustee Mike Arguello (a $32,000 board member) to cut committee pay from $150 to $75. It was unanimously approved. Committee meetings include issues about picnics, safety, payables, etc. According to financial reports, trustees have charged $150 for talking to a constituent or for showing up to flog CFLs at promotional events and eating hotdogs as on propane appreciation day.

As President Bobby Ortega said at the time, “It must be election time.”

Immediately following the annual meeting, during its annual re-organizational movidas, the trustees elected Proud Mary’s long-serving husband Ambrose as president of the board, again. Later in the week, the longer-serving Art Rodarte, the current Rio Arriba County Assessor, was named the Tri-State representative. Art, who hails from Ojo Caliente, charged the Coop $37,000 in 2007. The Tri-State board pays an estimated $400 per meeting plus per diem. The plum can be worth an estimated $35,000 annually.

Once before, Art served as the Tri-State board member but got removed from his position by the KCE trustees when he neglected to follow the board’s directives. (Call the two top traveling trustees, Art and Ambrose the “Gold Dust Twins.”)

Hub and The Enforcer

Mora’s sling-shot activists are raising so much hell that Tri-State sent Mr. Big, Harold “Hub” Thompson, and New Mexico Enforcer, “Big Tony” Casados of Chama, to attend the annual meeting in the mountains. Hub might have been worried about his own board since Tri-State’s Strong Arm, Don Diego Quintana of Pecos, the previous “yes man,” got defeated in this last election. When the Mora trustees re-organized the board after their annual meeting, they named former board president, Carlos “The Cat” Lovato, Tri-State’s man from Mora. While Hub and Big Tony won that round in Mora, the members themselves had won nine straight in their reform bouts with the trustees.

(Why, at the end of the Mora meeting, we are told, a local abuela spanked Carlos “The Cat” Lovato for chewing gum while he conducted the proceedings in his role as president. At KCE’s annual fiesta, President Bobby Ortega, courteous and polite, was the perfect gentleman, switching from Spanish to English like a UN interpreter. President Ortega, despite his extra duties, charged members a modest $19,000 in comparison to Ambrose’s $34,000 for his term as president.)

If two more NM Coops find the courage to join the KCE irregulars and the threesome file protests for a “cost of service study” with the PRC, Tri-State will be forced to open up their books. Fearless as their namesake, the KCE irregulars must confront coops across the state, who are filled with fear lest Hub’s men jerk their greenback perks. KCE Trustee Virgil Martinez refers to the Tri-State Westminster-based gang as the “mafia.” Sure KCE has millions but Tri-State has billions.

Color Envidia Green

Regardless of their courage to confront Hub, the PRC, and the other coops, the KCE board of trustees suffers from bi-polar envidia-based allegiances inside the boardroom. Manuel Medina, Chris Duran, Bobby Ortega, Jerry Smith, and Bruce Jassman sit on one side while Virgil Martinez, Luisa Mylet, Ambrose Mascareñas, Francis Córdova, and Art Rodarte sit on the other. Who are the goats? Who are the sheep?

Newly elected moderate, Toby Martinez, could become the swing vote and leader of a new green coalition on the board called

“Conservation” and “Efficiency.”

(How can we resist reminding our readers that the art of politics imitates life? The businessmen of the small town, i.e. “BST” oppose los politicos on Varrio Cruz Alta, i.e. “VCA.” Check with the public defender or DA for further analysis.)

Next year, both trustees Manuel Medina ($16,048.93) and Francis Córdova (Sgt., National Guard, retired) will be up for re-election. Francis spent $26,688.73 of the Coop’s dough in 2007. He charged the Coop for meetings at $150 each for smoking the peace pipe with the Taos Pueblo governor on several occasions—and included mileage in his charges. The governor’s office is a stone’s throw from Sarge’s El Prado digs. Sarge charged for extra meetings to the tune of $4,350: the bid, picnic, safety, payables, audit, and other committee meetings.

Sgt. Córdova’s loyalty to the VCA (Los Politicos Locos) has been rewarded with a one-year pass. He’s been named as the dutiful representative to the New Mexico Rural Electrical Coop’s (NMRECA) party house in Santa Fe. (Last year’s rep, La “Verde” Mylet, brought home $28,112.62 for her efforts, much of which revolved around the NMRECA meetings and getting certified per the by-laws.)

Caveat

The El Prado-based Chicano Chamber of Commerce issued this reminder to Mr. 1-800-Movidas on July 4th: “Sarge, this ain’t the U.S. Army and You ain’t the supply sergeant here.” Chamber President and Disappeared Barber, aka Juma Ali Khalid Rachman-Archuleta, says if he gets his habeas corpus heard and doesn’t run for town council, he might challenge Verde Francis and Vecino Manuel. “Why work when you can get paid by the Coop?”

Stability

Despite the peregrination of the Traveling Trustees, the annual meeting in Taos celebrated the Coop’s growth and prudent electrical operations. Despite a few rough years, CEO Reyes claims KCE’s entry into propane has saved consumers money and increased safety for members due to competing for customers in the marketplace. Last year’s propane loss was down to $49,000, according to the auditor. As for the telecom program, KCE lost over $700,000 in 2007, alas. Though one person praised KCE’s Internet service at the annual meeting, Horse Fly frequently hears complaints about “Wild Blue” from members and even trustees.

Ironically, the success and stability of the Coop is still a compliment to the trustees. Even as they stick their fingers in the pie or throw pie at each other, they have left enough pie on the table for the members. KCE Coop is another sign that you, Dear Member, live in the midst of one of the Paradoxes of Paradise. Taos can’t be summed up by some silly chamber of commerce catch phrase, drug dealer slogan or new age notion about Living Life at a Higher Level. The charged culture at the Coop is grounded in the mysterious chthonic spirits who inspire “The Soul of the Southwest.”