Seriously, is blaming the local newspaper for someone’s ineffectiveness, ineptitude and inaction the best the Weed and Seed steering committee can come up with when faced with a blank slate of accomplishments following a $600,000 spending binge?
The city of Española’s Weed and Seed just blew through another $20,000 of wasted taxpayer money by hiring a Taos Company to do a survey of the agency. That money would have been much better spent by giving it to Ben Sandoval at the YMCA tech center. He’s doing something on the west side. He’s making a difference. He’s working with west side youth every day. Bet he doesn’t make $50,000 a year either.
It remains unanswered why it took Taos firm I2I Institute 40 days at $500 a day to ask steering committee members questions about the progress of Weed and Seed and what accomplishments the group can put on its resume. Some committee members weren’t surveyed, others don’t remember what was asked.
What we do know is Director Stephanie Marquez-Martinez pulls in $50,000 annually out of the funding and really doesn’t need to do much to justify her existence. Steering committee members actually said she was doing a great job.
“Results indicate that most Steering Committee members think the Coordinator is doing a good job, she works cooperatively, and provides supportive resources, including funding, for many local projects focused on improving the Española community,” it reads. “One of the main barriers seems to be the local newspaper; the medium’s criticism of (Weed and Seed) and/or ignoring (Weed and Seed) activities was mentioned by several interviewees.”
What local projects and what does supportive resources mean? If Weed and Seed is trying to take credit for Spañapalooza, those organizers may have something to say about it. She probably gives them our money, so that must be “support.”
As for ignoring Weed and Seed’s many projects, the big, bad newspaper did a preview and coverage of Spañapalooza last year as we have for many years. It’s a limited event targeting a specific crowd. And it is not specific to the west side, which is supposed to be what Marquez-Martinez is working on.
Step up and take responsibility. The committee has never held the director’s feet to the fire and blaming the newspaper is an easy way out of being leaders. Give Sandoval that budget and he’ll do things with it without the newspaper’s help. That’s because he’s a person of action making a difference, not a politician or a political appointee.