Healy Honored, Court Rejects Town’s Appeal
Early Voting begins at Town of Taos town hall on Camino de la Placita.
On Thursday, February 13, 2013, the New Mexico Senate and House will memorialize and honor Taos Water Activist, Trudy Healy, for ten years of service to the state on the Water Trust Board. Trudy served as treasurer and on the review committee, vetting applicants and working with NMFA to make sure communities, municipalities, counties, water and sanitation districts, the tribes, irrigation districts, acequia parciantes, and watersheds got a fair shot at phased in water projects. She formed relationships on both sides of the aisle and gained respect from farmers and ranchers in the north and the south due to her even-handed treatment and advocacy for all New Mexicans.
The Martinez administration summarily dismissed her and replaced her with Greg Alpers of Roswell, a representative of DowAgro Sciences, which sells leading-edge insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, and fumigant technologies. The Office of the State Engineer is occupied by Scott Verhines, who has allegedly put his OCCAM engineering stock in a blind trust. Occam engineering apparently is promoting the Ute Pipeline in Southeastern New Mexico. The pipeline is considered a potential source of New Mexico water aimed at replenishing the Permian basin because the Oglala aquifer in west Texas and eastern New Mexico is drying up.
Martinez and Verhines replaced Healy, a New Mexico public member of the Water Trust Board so, allegedly, they could make decisions about new water projects without pesky questions from experts or activists. Earlier in the session, the Albuquerque Journal reported that Gov. Martinez was seeking $114 million in appropriations from the legislature for water projects. By changing policy and appointing lackeys, the Governor can determine who gets what money for what projects without input from the pesky Water Trust Board.
Trudy, is well known for her loyalty to the state and promotion of “holistic” management. She will be celebrated on the floor of the Roundhouse Thursday. (I smell a movida.)
Supreme Court Rejects Town’s Annexation Lawsuit
After District Judge Jeff McElroy ruled against the Town of Taos’s plans for the six-mile shoestring annexation of the airport, mostly on procedural grounds—no map, no notice, no defined boundaries, and violation of due process— the town council voted to skip the New Mexico Appeals Court and appeal directly to the New Mexico Supreme Court for relief. According to Taos County officials, who brought the original suit against the Town of Taos to stop annexation, the Supremes told the town to follow the procedure like everyone else i.e. go to the Appeals Court first.
The fundamentals of the appellate process are well known to most law school graduates and lay people. But apparently the Town’s attorneys were absent during class that day. No doubt the court’s decision came as a shock to Mayor Cordova, aka the Legend, and his Chief Adviser, “Father Fred” Peralta.
As mayor Father Fred once tried to annex El Prado all the way to the Blinking Light as well as Blueberry Hill. But Bobby, Erlinda, Meliton, and Frank said “No.” Similarly, the venerable town council rejected Fred and Gus’s backdoor maneuvers when they tried to bargain with Taos Pueblo over the Kachina Casino issue. The duo offered to drop objections and forgo requesting an EIS if the Tribe would drop objections to the town’s plans for expansion of the airport. The council said “no” and the Town ultimately joined RISE at federal court, where the judge chastised the BIA for trying to bypass the EIS.
Fred and Gus tried a back door movida on the post office: close it and move all mail service to the industrial area over there somewhere behind the south side Allsup’s. But three “Little Old Ladies” caught wind of the matter, gathered signatures on petitions and called Senator Pete. Senator Pete notified the post office that they must hold a public hearing and inform the Town Council, which rejected red-faced Fred’s movida. Oh, yes, Fred was all for building a Super Walmart just like Rudy Abeyta, who has tied himself to Mayor Cordova’s guitar strings. We won’t discuss Fred’s violations of the procurement code when it came to building the swimming pool: no bid, no public process, and lots of extra expenses. He blamed the donor of millions for his own mendacious behavior. Shame, shame.
At The Taos News forum for council candidates, Rudy said he, his brother, engineer Alex, and Darren were like “triplets.” Rudy and Darren have nominated council candidate Pavel Lukes as another brother. In response to a question about his interminable runs at public office from Editor Joan Livingston, Pavel likened himself to Abraham Lincoln…I kid you not.
Fred says he wants to sit down some more with the County and discuss the Command Center and annexation. The commissioners seem bored by Fred’s blither.
Tuesday night last the mayor and council endorsed a pay raise for a first year municipal judge in the event that Ms. Cyndee Perez, attorney Brian James’s paralegal, wins the contest against the incumbent Judge “Dickie” Chavez. Cyndee got trained by Gus and assigned by Darren to lucky Brian James. She’s not as unpopular as Gus was among the staff, not yet.
Recently, according to a Dunn House merchant, merchants in the historic district met with Town Manager Oscar Rodriquez to complain about the negative effects of parking meters on GRT. Visitors would rather feed the meter than buy. But Oscar said the historic district GRT is miniscule in comparison to the chain stores. Why should he listen to pikers? Like Brian James said about the County, Rodriguez implied that local merchants have “no standing.”
Darren is taking credit, listen to this, for the “Abeyta Water Settlement” despite its having been signed off on in 2006, a few years before he was selected as mayor. He said it at the forum. But there was a photo op at Taos Pueblo in 2006. Governor Richardson was there as were other luminaries from Taos Pueblo, El Prado Water and Sanitation, the Mutual Domestics, and the OSE. Oh yes, Palemon Martinez of TVAA was there but Darren, the Legend and lover of acequia culture, says he sang the song.
And why are the Spring Ditch parciantes in court with the Town of Taos, which, according to the town’s own hydrological studies, has impaired the historic ditch? Eh? Is it any wonder that Mayordomo Dave Rael and parciante Jerome Lucero are driving around towns with signs instructing voters to turn Darren and Rudy out of office? We’re having fun now.