Constructive Government and Self-destructive Politics
In today’s political milieu, the Town of Taos, per the mayor and council, continues to self-destruct while over at the County Complex, Commissioners continue to engage in the serious business of governing.
After Sign Man Jeff Northrup led the assembled citizens and elected officials in the pledge of allegiance at the County Commission meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 7, activists Marilyn Hoff and Jeanne Green urged commissioners to consider joining the Town of Taos, Santa Fe, and others to consider a resolution aimed at voicing opposition to the cover up of Technical Area 54, aka area G at Los Alamos, where NNSA and LANL propose turning a temporary waste site for nuclear disposables into a permanent waste disposal site in an unlined pit, contrary to New Mexico Environmental Regulations.
According to Hoff and Greene, Senator Udall is trying to persuade the U.S. Congress et al to provide the billions in dollars it will take to clean up the residuum of the Manhattan Project and the Cold War manufacture of nukes, where, since 1957, atomic waste has been stored in metal canisters, which waste endangers the aquifers and watershed of the Rio Grande, Santa Fe, Espanola, and numerous Pueblos adjacent to the White Rock area nuke dump.
Taosenos should remember that we live downwind from the fires and froth of depleted uranium etc. when the forests of the Parajito Plateau occasionally burn whereas Santa Fe residents live downstream from poisonous aquifers. Whether you breathe the air or drink the water, radioactive residue is considered bad for the health of human beings. Few people realize when they moved to the land of pristine views in Mother Nature’s beauty spot that they had begun living in a national sacrifice area. Commissioners agreed to consider a resolution at a future meeting.
In news of governing, the Commissioners voted unanimously to elect Commissioner Gabe Romero as Chairman. Commissioner Sanchez similarly was voted vice-chair. The rest of the commissioners assumed various responsibilities as members of the IGC/Enchanted Circle, Landfill, NMCIA Multi-Line Pool, TCEDC, and NPRTPO. The agenda included a hospitable letter from the County to the Town, inviting the latter to join them at the new E911-Dispatch Center in the County Complex.
Simultaneously on this same day, the Town of Taos was engaged in carrying on its unilateral battle against the County and voted unanimously, after emerging from an executive session of some three hours, to engage an appellate attorney to appeal Judge McElroy’s decision quashing the town’s bid for shoestring annexation. Judge McElroy found the petition flawed due to procedural and due process problems. Rather than simply fix the petition and forward it to the state boundary commission, the town seeks what some see as a quixotic legal resolution in the courts.
In a note to citizens re: the Open Meetings Act, the Town’s agenda listed a single item on Tuesday under Executive Session “to discuss pending litigations with Taos County” but Town Manager Oscar Rodriguez told a Friction observer that his job was on the line and he might be the sacrificial lamb. After coming out of the Executive Session, Mayor Cordova and Councilor Abeyta both referred to the discussion of the manager’s job, confirming the violation of the Open Meetings Act. Go figure.
Councilor Abeyta, who is running for another term as Town Councilor, apparently expressed his dissatisfaction with leadership at the Town in loud and certain terms. In fact, according to County employees, Abeyta was seeking a “trade” or “sale” and wished to lay-off the manager’s contract at the County Complex during the last few weeks. Rudy “Walmart,” and Rudy “Asbestos” is now Rudy “Anti-Town Leadership.”
Apparently, Rudy is running against himself, his own mayor and council as well as five or six candidates for council and mayor. He has taken a page out of Ronald Reagan’s book who ran, famously, against the government even as he sought the presidency. Neither Rudy nor aspiring mayoral candidate, Fred Peralta, is happy with the Cordova administration of which they are prominent members, who have consistently voted to support the mayor’s unpopular and perilous policies.
You can’t make this stuff up.
But then consider Councilor Michael Silva’s contribution to the carnival of political denial. Silva has demurred and will not run for a second term as town councilor but has announced that he seeks a position as County Commissioner even as he voted on Jan. 7 to pursue annexation of El Prado, his hometown village—despite the opposition of residents and relatives. Meanwhile, Silva has also voted for the follies at the Command Center. Apparently the aspiring politico seeks to burnish his town credentials while seeking more town contracts for his excavation business even as he runs for commissioner in district 5, which includes Penasco and Canon.
But both Canon and Penasco-area residents historically oppose the Town’s appetite for control and empire building. If Silva were elected, voters can expect him to try and reverse the County’s decision to forbid the Dollar Store deal in El Prado on his property, while also trying to persuade the County to join the KCEC Command Center and wave the white flag of surrender to annexation. Some might say Councilor Silva should retire from politics and devote himself to his dirt-work operation because he is exposing himself to public ridicule—like Rudy Walmart, Rudy Asbestos, Rudy-Anti-Town leadership.
The greater community, both the Town and County, need serious representatives at Town Hall, not Coop puppets, friendly dilettantes, or greed heads. We need a town council with a vision like Hahn’s to Return, Refocus, Revitalize, and Restore community. Candidates like Fritz Hahn, Judi Cantu, and Mr. Work Gloves, Dan Barrone fit the bill for the second decade of the 21st Century at the Town of Taos.