Annexation and Litigation
The Town of Taos Council voted to relocate E911/Dispatch services from Civic Plaza Drive to the Kit Carson office building on Gusdorf Tuesday, March 12. The new location will add about $30,000 a year to the town’s annual budget for rent plus additional expenses for utilities, maintenance, property taxes, plus an additional but unknown amount for renovation costs. The current Joint Powers Agreement (JPA) will be terminated and, according to county spokesman Rick Bellis, Taos County, Questa, Taos Ski Valley, Red River, and Angel Fire are negotiating a new—less costly—JPA that will operate the Red River PSAP (Public Safety Access Point) at a location to be determined.
Bellis predicted that improvements to technology and federal plans for reorganizing emergency services in the near future would make the current PSAP systems obsolete within a couple of years.
Despite an offer by Taos County for a committed revenue stream and offers to meet with a representative of the state’s Local Government Division—Department of Finance to establish a regional airport authority in lieu of annexation, the Town of Taos Council voted for the shoe-string annexation of the airport. Annexation threatens the culture of local neighborhoods and the GRT income of the county.
The county and El Prado Water and Sanitation District gave lengthy presentations regarding what county attorney Bob Malone called the town’s “flawed ordinance” ordering annexation. Among other flaws, Malone and others noted the lack of notice, maps, facts, evidence, contiguity, as well as the town’s perceived conflict of interest in evaluating or judging its own petition for the planned annexation. Apparently, representatives of El Prado and the county could find no evidence of the plan, per the statutes, at town hall on March 12, 2013.
Malone referred to case law, Appeals Court decisions, and the statutes. Reciting from state statute, Malone said a political subdivision (U.S. Government/Taos Pueblo, El Prado Water and Sanitation, Lucero Acequia, and County Roads) “can be annexed only with that entity’s consent.” In other words real property owners, adjacent to and underneath the Highway 64 corridor have not been noticed.
Town Attorney Brian James assured the council that the Council was acting rightfully in view of his reading of the statutes and that “the County had no standing.” He said the decision to annex was made in an open meeting and that legal advertisements had been published. “None of this stuff (legal arguments) changes my mind,” he said.
Commissioner Tom Blankenhorn asked the town to compare timelines. One timeline would measure the time it takes to negotiate an agreement between the town and county to implement an airport authority. The second timeline involves litigation—the dispute dragging on in court, which could threaten town plans. Both the county and El Prado made it clear they would file lawsuits, objecting to annexation. Despite ongoing negotiations with Taos County and El Prado, the council voted to move forward, fully knowing the dispute would now involve the district court.
Town manager Oscar Rodriguez repeatedly said the $1.2 million cost of matching federal funds would be “very tough for us” yet he repeatedly turned down offers from the County to help. Mayor Cordova mentioned Commissioner Joe Mike Duran’s comment about the airport, who said, “We’re (Taos County) not the community bank.”
Although the council and mayor tried to reassure El Prado residents that this in not a “land grab,” Dr. Tessa Cordova mentioned a conversation with Mayor Cordova about the town repeating historic colonization similar to “manifest destiny.” The El Prado resident said the Mayor was unaware of the term. Despite Cordova’s allegation, we know the mayor is on intimate terms with the Coop’s namesake, “Kit Carson,” the very symbol of “manifest destiny.”
Taos County Commission Chair Dan Barrone said all small town airports lose money but that the county was willing to subsidize the operation in lieu of annexation. Remarkably, nobody spoke specifically against airport expansion but only against annexation. Town resident Cynthia Burt noted the decline in custodial services at the Youth and Family center and referred to the needs of community members who are underserved. The town manager spoke repeatedly about the town’s poor financial condition and the town’s librarian spoke about projected financial shortfalls affecting services.
Nobody on the town council mentioned the “elephant in the room.” It seems like a foregone conclusion that the town will be forced to raise taxes to pay for the lease and renovations at the KCEC office building and for airport expansion. The town will need to find the cash match of $1.2 million necessary to acquire $24 million in federal funds for the expansion of the crosswind runway. Meanwhile services decline, lay-offs continue, and employees are abandoning the town for more stable jobs.
KCEC CEO Luis Reyes was all smiles last night. He suggested I buy him coffee or lunch to celebrate his victory–which I’m happy to do. It’s been a long haul for the Rabbit. Now, in the guise of the Biblical David, Luis is off to fight with the Tri-State Goliath this morning at the state’s PRC. “We’ve got them where we want them,” said the Rabbitt–or something like that. Frequently, I say to activists and politicians alike that “you won’t understand Taos until you’ve lived here more than 40 years” or maybe a “lifetime” as Becky would say. Study your history in Hampton Sides’ popular “Blood and Thunder” and you’ll get some idea of how Taosenos would rather fight than switch but not why. The “why” remains mysterious.
In other words, the town made the exact decision that would end up costing them time, money, and ultimately threaten the cash match they seek for the federal grant. And, in their own way, the council threw down a political gauntlet that threatens all of them with being thrown out of office. Quien sabe?