Say “No Mas!” Vote for A Single Command Center in Taos
“But Córdova has been unwilling to bend when it comes to negotiating with Taos County. Because of his stubbornness on annexation and the E-911 center, he has fractured the community and halted progress on critical town and county issues.” The Taos News Editorial
To simplify this year’s Town of Taos mayoral and council race, a voter can boil down the issues to where the candidates stand on the Command Center. A vote for Cordova, Abeyta, and Lukes or Peralta is a vote for multiple command centers and will embroil the town and county for months and years to come in controversy.
Voters have the opportunity for the first time to express their decision re: the Command Center. The “Command Center” is symbolic of throwing good money after bad at the Town, due to favors owed to the member-owned Coop. Say “no mas.” Vote for Barrone, Cantu, and Hahn. Vote for collaboration with the county and you will resolve the controversy that threatens the public safety, health, and welfare of all citizens.
Vote for change. Vote for the challengers.
The story below goes to the heart of the Town’s lies and claims about security at the KCEC E911/Dispatch center. The public might be excluded from access to the E911/Dispatch center on Gusdorf but the communications are hooked up to an insecure tower and generator—open to the public on Civic Plaza Drive. See the pictures below.
Primo Down: Weak Security Link Threatens E911-Dispatch
On February 4th 2014, a number of town officials, including Councilor Andrew Gonzales, aka Mr. Doors and Windows, met with the County Commissioners, including County Manager Steve Archuleta. The assembled decision makers, among other items, discussed the proposed location of the Command Center and its security.
Commissioners say the town has violated the JPA (Joint Powers Agreement) for the PSAP (Public Service Access Point) for E911—Dispatch Operations. Although required to maintain repeaters and towers throughout remoter parts of the county, the town has rather cavalierly admitted it has not done so and refuses to recognize its contractual responsibility.
Commissioner Larry Sanchez said, as a result, “They (repeaters, towers) did fail. I lost a primo. My primo is no longer with us. The Town accepted responsibility for the PSAP.” Sanchez noted that the whole community pays into the fund for the PSAP. See Town’s Tower and Antenna pictured below.
Councilor Gonzales said he had attended a Homeland Security meeting and training in Orlando, Florida for E911-Dispatch issues and described the Town and County proposals to a Homeland Security official. The official told Gonzales he would be happy to visit the Town and County and look into what Gonzales described as the County’s inadequate facility. But as County Manager Steve Archuleta pointed out to Gonzales, “You represented to Homeland Security but you haven’t been to our facility.” Gonzales admitted as much. But yours truly has visited Andrew’s back-up generator and tower/antenna on Civic Plaza Drive.
The KCEC CC over there on Gusdorf behind the Masonic Hall, across the street from the Episcopal Church, east of the Don Fernando Hotel is hooked up to the antenna at Civic Plaza Drive, the former E911-Dispatch Center, where the cops and dispatchers used to work. The new system cannot communicate without its tower/antenna at the old site, pictured below. A 5000 square foot, perfectly adequate building sits empty, even as the outside antenna towers over it. Employees from local businesses park now where cops and dispatchers used to guard the exterior of the building.
A coyote fence, i.e. Taos fence made of latias encloses the back-up generator, see picture, in the event electricity fails: no electricity, no back-up generator, no working antenna, no E911-Dispatch. A typical padlock purchased from a local hardware store provides “security” ? 
More interesting is access to the tower, shown, where an agile ten-year old or teenager or anciano could climb up and clip the exposed communication cables attached to the link for the antenna at the roofline. Call this movie, “E911 Gone in 30 Seconds.”
If this is Mayor Cordova’s, Councilor Abeyta’s, Councilor Peralta’s, Councilor Gonzales’s, and Councilor Silva’s idea of security then I have a bridge on the Rio Grande to sell or trade for a proper Command Center. Perhaps Councilor Gonzales confused a trip to Disney World with a trip to a Homeland Security conference.
Whose primo will die next because of a communications breakdown?
On Thursday a former town official and I visited with the state DFA honcho in charge of the E911 matter. He said his hands are tied and hopes the current election will resolve the Taos Command Center controversy. By the way you don’t have to take my word or pictures as gospel. Visit the site yourself. It’s wide open for public inspection.
If a “chain is only as strong as its weakest link,” then the communications system, due to the tower/antenna pictured above, is vulnerable: you can see the man pointing to the wire cables curling up just above the roofline on the left back side of the lattice work. Que Pasa?