Here we go again.
Alex Naranjo, county board chairman, keeping the family traditions alive and is at it again- doffing his hat to nepotism and cronyism and directing politics and hiring and in the process knocking Rio Arriba County back into the 20th century, make that 19th century.
Rio Arriba County continues back to the future.
Politics and special favors are a way of life here. Sad. Sad. Sad. If you know the “right” people, you can get a good job whether you deserve it or not. It is called patronage in many places. Between the county and the city and the many boards populated by the “very few” life here is littered with trash in politics. Good government continues to go begging. Take a look at how many of the same people, mostly men, populate organizations such as the county commission, city council, Espanola school board, and the board at Northern New Mexico College, and Jemez, the utility. The Mayor of Espanola John Ramon Vigil even serves as a paid board member of Jemez. We believe that is a conflict of interest.
Tomorrow, Thursday, May 18, The Sun has learned from a source, the North Central Solid Waste Authority will name Leo Marquez, as its director. This job or one like it has been in his future since the night Alex Naranjo was elected to the county board of commissioners. Talk around the bar the night of his election and with beers being downed had Marquez positioned for a new, good job, thanks to his friends. At one time he was rumored to be the next county manager.
Naranjo tried to pave the way for Marquez as county manager and that job by firing one of the best chances the county had for professional management with Lucia Sanchez. But friends and other cronies of Naranjo balked at Marquez in the job. So, if, in fact, source is correct and he gets this new job most likely it is but a placeholder until his friends can find one even more high paying than being director at the waste authority. Qualifications or lack of them or prior experience to do these jobs do not matter.
The most recent and controversial trash authority manager, Janet Saucedo, resigned recently before she was allegedly about to be fired.
A grand jury is supposed to be currently investigating the many problems at the trash authority.
Marquez is alleged to have bragged he would not take this job for less than $100,000 a year.
The waste authority has been a cesspool of mismanagement and maybe worse.
Marquez, who has a record of “leaving jobs unexpectedly and quickly,” will fit right into that malfunctioning trash service if our source is accurate, although implying it provides good service is an overstatement.
There have been rumors of financial mismanagement and questions still remain unanswered about the trash worker killed on the job several months ago.
Stay at it, boys. You are sowing bad seeds everywhere and the trees that grow from those seeds will be scrawny and weak and sick with the disease of bad politics and poor government.