Where Have All the Dollars Gone?

Where have all the flowers gone, long time passing?
Where have all the flowers gone, long time ago?
Where have all the flowers gone?
Young girls have picked them everyone.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?

Public Works Department 

While town officials and the community concern themselves with controversies re: the Farmer’s Market or Social Justice at the Red Willow/Kit Carson Park, the “little cowboy” at the Public Works Department spins out a rope and ties up the manager, mayor, and council and corrals the local and out-of-town engineers and contractors. Apparently, Francisco “French” Espinoza, “the little cowboy with the big black hat” controls as many as ten town departments and has created a “shadow” empire inside city government.

While French possesses little in the way of formal education or real life private-sector experience that qualifies him for the job, he bends managers, councilors, and mayors to his will because he’s a “master movida maker.” The council votes as if the “declared” or “virtual” decision-making process at town meetings means something. But French makes the “real” or “actual” decisions.

(Where’s Joe Mike Duran when we need him?)

Longtime observers of the Town, including current and former councilors frequently wonder why “nothing gets done” and if it does, why it takes so long? The following discussion concerns the controversial contravention of the procurement code on May 18, 2013, according to Town Documents and concerns the “Old Talpa-Canon Road Improvements.”

Although R. L. Leeder bid $429,025. 95 for the project mentioned above, the low bid was rejected and the project awarded to the higher bidder, Northern Mountain Constructors for $538,054.00 (against the advice of procurement officer Ms. Tina Torres, who has since resigned). Apparently Torres advised the committee to award the bid to Leeder despite a minor controversy over the omission of a requirement for a GF-4 sub-contractor in the bid to “install the storm sewer pipe.” Torres apparently mentioned that a sub-contractor or Leeder himself, by paying a $50 fee, could qualify his bid re: the GF-4 element.

Basically French and Alex Abeyta, the town’s “contract engineer” according to documents, used the GF-4 technicality to reject the “out-of-towner” and award local boy Joey Perovich the bid, despite the additional cost of “$109,029” which included a “$40,000” charge for “mobilization” and another $60,000” for “traffic control” (the latter charge despite the closure of the road during construction). According to a Taos Friction source, French, Engineer Alex Abeyta, and Perovich allegedly met to arrange the post-bid deal “with no oversight from the finance department or from the procurement officer.”

Currently, our source, Mr. Bob Maestas, a civil engineer, who graduated from NMSU in 1973, and former town employee, whom French fired, has filed a whistle-blower lawsuit against the Town of Taos. Prior to working for the Town, he worked for U.S. West, the Ortega engineering firm, and for many years was self-emplyed as a surveyor, engineer, and designed road improvements on major thoroughfares in Taos. If questioned, we expect the Town Manager, Mayor, and Council to bad-mouth Maestas, and call him a “disgruntled” employee and a product of “sour grapes.” Nobody but French and Rick Bellis, I guess are “perfect.”

Regardless of motive, the Maestas paperwork documents a trail of evidence that speaks to a lack of “fiduciary oversight” on the part of elected and appointed officials, including the Town’s “fiduciary agent” at the Public Works Department, where the Fox is in the Henhouse.

When the hen in the executive suite isn’t squealing with delight, the hens on the street are squealing: “fix these potholes.” Before the executives at Town Hall begin casting stones, I want to remind them how the public doesn’t need to use a bottle of Windex on the windows to see what goes on in glass houses. Historically and during the last decade, much has been revealed in public and private about the Peyton Place, where she was with him before he was with her on the merry Tio Vivo that spins around back offices in Town Hall.

When the “hard core” members of the Chicano Chamber convinced Fritz to run and the community elected him, he promised to become an “honest voice” for reform at Town Hall but never mentioned his aspirations on becoming a social engineer while avoiding the tough issues. Nor does the Chicano Chamber know where Dan and Rick stand on issues of municipal corruption.

(Course Juma always quoted his favorite book about Afghanistan entitled: “Every man in this town is a liar.” Judi’s against it, corruption and dishonesty, that is. She said so when I asked her.)

We’ve got more documents that summarize accounts of how taxpayer dollars dive down the deep holes at Public Works. The Three Amigos might ask themselves why engineers and contractors all worship at the feet of “the little cowboy.” And why Civic Plaza Drive feels more like the road to perdition than a public road?

Where has all the money gone, long time passing?
Where has all the money gone, long time ago?
Where has all the money gone?
Contractors, Engineers, Cowboys have picked up purses everyone.
Oh, when will the Council ever learn?
Oh, when will the Council ever learn?