Local History: How Gus Cordova Ran the Town

From the Desk of Andres Vargas

Read your piece on Town and Gus. I served with him as the attorney for the Town. Gus ran the Town like a business not as a governmental entity that is created to serve the best interest of its citizens.

Gus’s first official act was to recommend to the council to sell the garbage collection service and the dump. I asked Gus why he was recommending its sale and he said that it was not making any money. I stated that it was not a business but a service traditionally provided by municipalities for the citizens and if it was not breaking even, to raise the collection rates. He then responded that the truck was too old and the town did not have any money to buy a new one. I then told him that he could recommend that the council issue municipal bonds for the purchase of a new truck. It made no sense to him, nor apparently to the Council as the garbage collection was sold to Sanco.

Of course neither Gus nor the Council thought to consult with the County and Sanco promptly send the County a bill for over $200,000. County residents who had used the dump without charge started dumping their refuse everywhere.

The five or six workers who collected our garbage were forced out but none of their lives mattered as “it was not making any money.”

Years later, after Sanco had sold the works to Waste Management for millions, the Town purchased the dump back and we pay $50 per year. The lack of open and vigorous debate and discussion on issues affecting not only the Town but also the County, was not evident then nor is it now….

In Gus’s case, he also called the Councilors and discussed Town business without first giving notice to the public. I found out that Gus and the Council held “working sessions” as Gus called them, to discuss what was going to be on the agenda and how the councilmen were going to vote.

I was shocked one day when I walked into the Town hall and all the council members were going into such a meeting. Arturo Archuleta and Espil Montoya, with whom I was friends, asked if I was going to the meeting and when I asked what meeting they told me it was a working session that Gus held every month before the regular council meetings. I went in and sat through the meeting, wherein Gus laid out the agenda and what was going to be proposed. Espil and Arturo with whom I sat next to in that meeting, discussed amongst themselves who was going to second a motion. After the entire agenda was discussed and the Counselors determined how they were going to vote ( I was still in shock at what I had just seen ), I informed Gus that it was a violation of the Open Meetings Act to hold such meetings without notice to the public.

He promptly responded that it was not…it was a “working session” and that he used to do that when he worked at the Environmental Department. I explained that this was a governmental entity and as such all such matters affecting the public were required to be aired only after legal notice to the public.

It took a while for these so called working sessions to stop and finally notice was given to the public of their occurrence. Somehow, the same lack of open debate on issues nevertheless failed to materialize during regular meetings, they always did what Gus recommended.

The telephone logs provided in the Taos News last week of calls from the Mayor to the Counselors and visa versa sounds like a replay of Gus’ “working Sessions.”

Another business decision by Gus and the Council at that time was to pour the untreated sewage from the Waste Water Treatment Plant in Los Cordovas into the surrounding chamiso to make it fertile…this was something Gus told me he learned while employed at the EID. Needless to say, it poisoned the land and the Romero Family sued for the poisoning of their land. The case was, by in large, kept out of the news.

Gus also didn’t like to follow my legal advice on other issues. The dismissal of police officer Tommy Gallegos from the force without giving him a hearing first and without finding just cause ended up in Federal Court and after the 5 or 6 years that it took for the case to be final, Mr. Gallegos got reinstated, got all his back pay for the 5 +- years of lost wages, all of his PERA contributions, all raises given during his absence, and an undisclosed large sum of money, etc., all because Gus refused to follow my legal advise to first give Mr. Gallegos a hearing then if the evidence showed that he was at fault, terminate his emplopyment.

Gus chose to believe his Human Resources Director that I was advising that Mr. Gallegos be given a hearing solely because I was his friend and despite the fact that I told Gus that I represented the Town not Mr. Gallegos and that I was no more a friend of Mr Gallegos than I was of Gus. Gus ignored my advise and terminated Mr. Gallegos without granting him a hearing. After my deposition was taken and their deeds exposed, the case was finally settled. The only issue left to be resolved after the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals held that indeed Mr. Gallegos was entitled to a hearing was the amount of the damages, for which we all paid.

After the Town of Taos applied for monies from the FAA for a cross wind landing and after it had said it was going to expand the airport, people appeared in large numbers to protest that they had not been given notice and when people asked to speak on the issue one of the Councilmen asked that I determine whether they should be allowed to speak and I said, “let the people speak”. In their efforts to get the money and the cross wind runway, the Environmental Impact Statement was found to be false and the Federal Court ordered that another Environmental Impact Statement be done.

More recently, the Town’s parking meter increase to $1and limiting parking for 2 hrs. reminds me that it was Gus who first got the bright idea to put parking meters in the Historic Plaza to raise money. The Town now finds itself in apparent financial distress and will increase the meter amount and limit the time one can park…this makes it even more uninviting for the locals.

My modest proposal which I mentioned to you suggests that those parking meters be removed and that vehicular traffic (except for deliveries) be prohibited and that a parking garage be built in the public owned parking lot on East Kit Carson. I also suggest that the farmers market be allowed to sell their fruits and veggies every day, for the entire season. The youth of this town need a place to hangout, I suggest the court room with the murals teaching the kids about respect for the law, culture and freedom.

Hasta, Best regards.

Andres Vargas