Dog Days: Public Safety and Public Health

“My starting point is always a feeling of partisanship, a sense of injustice.” George Orwell (Why I Write)

“And so I go on to suppose that the shock-receiving capacity is what makes me a writer. I hazard the explanation that a shock is at once in my case followed by the desire to explain it.” —Virginia Woolf (A Sketch of the Past)

“I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see and what it means.” —Joan Didion (Why I Write) See Joan on left next to Cable Car

Glenn Greenwald: “No one, not The New York Times, no one, is entitled to an audience,” he said, looking across the table and smiling. “The ability to thrive is directly dependent upon your ability to convince people that you’re providing something valuable and unique.” —David Carr (New York Times)

(Taos) From time to time it behooves the essayist/journalist, investigator and explorer of community, to state his motives. In the tradition of the Montaigne I sometimes seek the assistance of others, who say in succinct terms, what I think. (See above.) At the same time, I see my role in the community dialogue as an advocate. An impartial reporter can report the facts but a discussion of political issues and principles requires a declared point of view.

The real dialogue among community members occurs as experience and education, action and thinking come into contact. Our actions may be final even as our reflections and conclusions are tentative. When we receive more information, we may revise our decisions. I find the Town’s compromise on the Kit Carson Park controversy, keep the cemetery name as is but change the greater park’s name, a reasonable effect of the democratic dialogue.

At the County Commission meeting, Tuesday, Aug. 6, the Commissioners voted to approve Commissioner’s Blankenhorn’s motion to approve the JPA for E911-Dispatch. Commissioner/Mayor Barrone seconded the motion. Commissioners Romero and Sanchez voted to approve; Commissioner Duran said, “No.” Now the JPA goes to the Town of Taos, Questa, and Taos Ski Valley for consideration.

What a difference a year makes. Last March voters rejected the politics of privatizing taxpayer revenue by the former Mayor in favor of subsidizing the KCEC Coop’s ill-conceived Command Center. Commissioner Barrone was elected Mayor and the County and Town began working together. The current JPA and state of the art E911-Dispatch center being built at the County Complex are the results.

For those who question Barrone’s impartiality, County Attorney Bob Malone, yesterday, clarified the issue, saying “conflict of interest,” according to state statute, occurs when an elected official has a “personal financial interest” in the outcome of the vote. Mr. Barrone has no “financial interest” in the JPA. Many Taosenos support the idea of a Town-County governing coalition that reduces duplication and costs for taxpayers. Call the current status an experiment in a proto merger. We are taking baby steps toward cooperating on long-term community benefits and Commissioner/Mayor Barrone is a symbol of change.

Commission Chair Gabe Romero on Aug. 5 called for a joint meeting of the County, Town, and Taos Health Systems, the latter a self-selecting governing board for Holy Cross Hospital (like something out of a Manby project: see “To Possess the Land”). Yesterday, much testimony was heard from HCH staff: a doctor, union reps, employees, former employees, etc. about the dysfunctional nature of the current operation. Apparently the board listens to complaints in silence and refuses to acknowledge that HCH is hemorrhaging health care providers, doctors, nurses, technicians, and customers i.e. shipping patients south. HCH seems more like a MASH unit to be avoided than a hospital to be embraced.

Tonight, Wednesday, August 6, 2014, at 6:30, a large crowd of concerned citizens is expected at the HCH/Taos Health Systems (THS) boardroom to discuss the issues with the citizens committee on health care. Neither the union, employees, nor commissioners want to summarily kick out THS if THS will recognize and respond to the issues. The citizens and their representatives at the County could terminate the THS lease on the county owned facility and seek a new management team via a “request for proposals” (RFP) if the board does not start listening and acting.

As many of my readers know there is a huge gap between the politicos and the business community as well as between elected officials and the members of the hospital board and the Holy Cross staff. (Few newcomers understand the “political culture.”) But just as disaffected hospital employees have found friends at the 105 Albright St. Complex, so the THS board and the Quorum parasites should not underestimate the determination and courage of your locally elected officials.

This group at the Complex ran off the “legend” from town government and installed one of their own even as they cutoff the power to the energizer bunny’s Command Center. We call the recent change at town hall an exercise in “checks and balances.” We call it responding to la plebe in the villages and la gente in the county. We even call it democracy, pinche Quorum.