Taos Sign Man Files Tort Claims

On April 25, 2012, Taos Sign Man Jeff Northrup filed a tort claim or notice of intent to file a lawsuit against the Town of Taos. Named in the potential lawsuit are Mayor Darren Cordova, Police Chief Jerry Holgrefe, and contract attorney Dave Romero of Las Vegas. The claim asserts that the plaintiff’s First, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution have been violated with regard to the display of signs within the Town of Taos. Northrup’s torts claim includes allegations of seventeen (17) incidents, wherein the Town has violated his civil rights.

Mr. Northrup’s assertions in the torts claim say that defendants have “vindictively prosecuted,” him, engaged in a “pattern of official harassment,” and have also been “depriving him of his signs without just compensation.” [Northrup estimates that the Town has confiscated over one hundred signs.]

According to a former Town councilor, the current sign ordinance was specifically designed and/or written to allegedly criminalize Northrup’s protests. Northrup, in turn, has called attention to allegations of corruption at the Town of Taos and Kit Carson Electric Coop. News reports and court decisions, while generally confirming Northrup’s claims, also display a decided bias in favor of the status quo. [How dare Jeff do our job for us!]

Certainly, the Northrup—Town of Taos controversy raises both serious and silly issues in today’s environment of government repression. While the federal government wiretaps and eavesdrops on American activists and criminalizes whistle blowers (See Amy Goodman’s column in the Albuquerque Journal, April 27,2012), so the Town of Taos and the local justice system penalize an old-fashioned picketer, who merely repeats a commonplace about local corruption. Just as the federal government is shutting down dissent, apparently the Town of Taos and KCEC, and their supporters in the judiciary, don’t want to hear from activists, who claim the public purse is being spoiled by excessive spending and cronyism.

In terms of public safety, Taos Friction does not believe that Northrup distracts drivers nearly as much as current candidates for office, whose signs dot the highway landscape with brightly colored messages, promoting their candidacy for office. Ironically, most of the signs alongside the road belong to candidates, who aspire to higher office in the justice system: District Court and Magistrate Judges, and the office of the District Attorney.

Yet Northrup, who calls attention to conflict of interest issues and rampant political unfairness, is being prosecuted and persecuted. Elected officials can safely retaliate against the political opposition because they are either protected by statute or because the huge risk management pool in the state insures them against financial loss, while acting in their so-called “official capacity.” Northrup’s case against the Town of Taos in a federal court could create new law, cost the Town hundreds of thousands of dollars, and/or amount to little or nothing but a burp.

In conclusion, by drawing attention to corrupt practices, Northrup pulls off the mask behind which elected officials and their supporters conspire to insure their control of elective offices and the public purse—benefitting the few at the expense of the many. A little corruption in municipal government or at the Coop is to be expected. But when officials tax and spend or raise rates and award contracts without regard to the law or a declining economy—it’s time for voters to throw out the incumbents and vote in new representatives.

The community needs representatives who believe in sharing the wealth and promoting fairness–justice–in the community. Currently, we see a great deal of selfishness among elected officials, who retaliate against the opposition while squandering the public purse upon themselves—even as they use the courts to protect themselves against lawsuits and/or recall efforts by spending public money on attorneys to defend themselves.

It’s odd indeed that a former trainer of trotters is trotting long side the road like Socrates, stinging the soul of the community and reminding elected leaders of their duty. A few signs are causing elected officials to take a second look at the rather grim Picture of Dorian Gray they see each morning in the mirror. And they don’t like the message anymore than Obama, NSA, and the rest like the whistleblowers.

Vote on May 8th for Peter Adang and Luisa Mylet as Coop trustees and you might get the last laugh.