Top News Story, 2013: Town of Taos Privatized

If the Mayor and members of the Town Council have anything in common, it is their mutual regard for themselves as businessmen.

The mayor, an entertainer, has expanded into broadcasting and profited from the town’s thirst for advertising by gaming the system for several contracts that support his radio stations.

The ex-mayor and incumbent councilor Fred Peralta is a former Sears’s appliance franchisee and carpet seller, who believes bigger is better, especially regarding arbitrary and capricious annexation. As Mayor, Father Fred ignored the procurement code and convinced the council to build a several million dollar public swimming pool without putting the project out for bid. His detractors allege that he profited from selling Sears appliances to buyers of the town’s affordable housing units. He apparently failed at the state level as director of tourism and mayordomo of New Mexico Expo (state fair). He came back to haunt Taosenos.

Thanks in part to private and public contracts with the town, the town’s developers, and Kit Carson’s Broadband program, Councilor Michael Silva runs a successful dirt-work company. Now he wants to run for a county commission because his support for the Command Center is so popular, one guesses, in Penasco. And he wants more public dirt contracts, according to The Taos News.

Councilor Gonzales sells doors and windows, especially to developers, who need help with variances or circumventing the process while seeking “certificates of occupancy” (he’s on tape). Critics say the state’s Construction Industries Division is investigating him and the Town.

Rudy “Walmart” Abeyta, Mr. Asbestos, is a realtor, who backs up brother Darren as if he were the leader of the free world, when he himself is not attacking newcomers because they are not from Taos. Rudy will say anything to get re-elected while he makes false claims about the overwhelming presence of asbestos at the E911-Dispatch Center on Civic Plaza Drive. Those who know him best don’t believe a word the loosest cannon says.

Due to mismanagement, the fivesome at Town Hall, aided and abetted by Oscar and Brian, manager and attorney, have transformed the Town books from black to red. Where’s Frank Cruz’s rainy day fund? Gone…

On a tawdry personal note, Attorneys, Judges, and Cops have been forced to intervene in town hall business due to “sexual harassment claims,” “domestic incidents,” and “claims of prescription drug abuse.” Well, the boys are only human, eh?

The County offered to rebate gross receipts taxes from airport expansion to the town so Taos Town could afford to match the federal grant of $22 million for airport expansion. The Town ignored the County’s offer and tried to hijack a 6.5-mile section of state and federal highway in a failed attempt to selfishly annex gross receipts taxes.

Then, against expert advice and because of personal political favors owed to the Kit Carson Electrical Coop, the town voted to move the E911-Dispatch center from Civic Plaza Drive to the Coop Command Center. None of the Town’s partners and members of the E911-Dispatch JPA (Joint Powers Agreement) voted in favor of the movida or signed on to a JPA approving the move. Now the County and the rest of the JPA members are constructing a new state of the art facility at the County Complex, which will cost taxpayers because of the Town’s privatization.

When the Town failed to win a motion for summary judgment against the County in District Court re: annexation, they lost twice. Annexation was foreclosed and due to new and proposed Command Center expenses, the County can no longer afford to subsidize airport expansion. Shoot yourself twice in the foot with one shot.

Now the Town is so financially crippled that they are having a tough time meeting their obligations to continue operating the E911-Dispatch Center. The County also claims the Town has spent reserves of $132,000 from E911-Dispatch and is asking DFA to claw back the proceeds and the Department of Tax and Rev to claw back GRT at the airport taken under false pretenses.

The Town’s planning department has been decimated in order to allow friends and councilors to benefit from a lack of code enforcement. Friends of Darren use wells in order to avoid paying town water bills—despite an ordinance that mandates water hook ups. The Town police department has privatized sign-code regulation and allocated enforcement to a tow truck operator. Call Triple A.

Streets and sidewalks in the downtown historic district continue to decay. The town purchases new-used parking meters but doesn’t enforce penalties but scares off visitors. Due to inaction the town lost a planning grant of some $75,000 that would have made the arts and cultural district eligible for a couple million dollars in grants for renovations. The Town government has been hauled into court by its citizens for impairing historic acequias.

Now, according to employees, town officials at Town Hall are shredding documents so that a new mayor and council won’t find the documentation to indict this council and administration.

If, as Mayor Bobby Duran once said about Taos, “everybody is related,” then the citizens need to phone 911 because Taosenos are being victimized by domestic violence perpetrated by their relatives.

Say Goodbye to Rudy, Darren, and Fred in 2013 and hello to Dan, Fritz, and Judi in 2014.