Despite the fact that nobody remembered to bring a Bible, Rio Arriba County’s three newly-elected officials were sworn in Jan. 2 at a packed Tierra Amarilla Courthouse.
State District Court Judge Tim Garcia administered the oaths of office but forgot to bring a Bible for the ceremony, provoking some laughter in the crowd, who were there to welcome into office County Clerk Moises Morales, Commissioner Felipe Martinez and Treasurer Livia Olguin.
Commissioner Elias Coriz provoked a thunderous outburst of applause and cheering from the crowd when he said of Morales, “He’s the one who made this courthouse famous.” Coriz’s remark was in reference to Morales’ role in the 1967 courthouse raid by land grant activists that resulted in infamy for the raiders and the shooting of a County jailer and a State Police officer.
“I was a scout for the (courthouse) raid,” Morales said. “It started out as a citizen’s arrest of District Attorney Alfonso Sanchez for violating our civil rights.”
Morales was later arrested and jailed as a result of the raid. But now more than 40 years later, Morales is a leading member of the County establishment that he once opposed. Except he and his political allies control County government.
Morales is a former County commissioner and candidate for state representative. And with the strong support of Northern Rio Arriba voters and his political allies who informally constitute the Democrats for Progress political faction, Morales won an easy victory over County Democratic Party Secretary Lou Baker in the June primary. Like all the candidates for County office, he ran unopposed in the general election.
Morales replaces Fred Vigil, who has served as County Clerk for 10 years and has been credited with cleaning up an office that had been marred by scandal. His predecessor, David Chavez, resigned in April 1998 after being convicted of illegally opening a ballot box.
County Commission Chairman Alfredo Montoya praised Vigil for his service and integrity.
“Fred Vigil is the county’s longest-serving clerk — 10 years of a tough job, making sure there are fair elections,” Montoya said. “Whether true or not, we had a questionable reputation at one time. We were the joke of the state. Now, we’re the pride of the state, thanks to Fred’s vision and diligence.”
Vigil has been rewarded for his work and his support of Morales in the election. Vigil will now serve as Morales’ deputy clerk and Vigil’s outgoing deputy clerk, Maria Elena Rodela, will move into a previously vacant County position of election chief. Rodela was the odd woman out when it came to the clerk race. She had planned to run for the office but dropped out of the race just before filing date. She blamed personal reasons, but it didn’t help her chances that some of her potential supporters, such as Montoya, had said they would support Morales’ candidacy.
“But I’m still young. I can run in 8 years,” Rodela said last week.
Morales said Rodela would be performing “the same duties on elections as she’s done before but under a different title.” Asked why Rodela’s duties as Vigil’s deputy clerk were now being split into two different positions, Morales said that Rodela had been performing the jobs of both positions — deputy clerk and elections chief — for several years.
Meanwhile, Rodela said that she will work with Vigil to “continue doing what we’ve been doing,” ensuring clean elections and up-to-date County records.
The County clerk earns a salary of $57,265 per year. Both Deputy Clerk Vigil and Elections Chief Rodela will earn $48,675 per year.
“Deputies are paid 85 percent of the official’s salary,” County Comptroller Mary Louise Martinez explained.
Vigil had not held elected office before he was county clerk, which after being appointed to the office he won re-election bids in 2000 and 2004. He said one of the first things he did when he started out as clerk, was to scour voter registration records and vital statistics records.
“People always joked that the dead vote in Rio Arriba County. So we checked,” Vigil said.
Finding no examples of postmortum balloting, he set to work reducing the error rate in the County’s voter registration records, bringing it down from 46 percent to 2 percent during eight months in 1999.
“We moved on (from that) to honest elections — monitoring elections and training poll workers,” Vigil said.
While vote-buying accusations have not disappeared during Vigil’s term, they have been relegated to Española municipal elections which are overseen by the city clerk and not Vigil. Also, last year’s election ran smoothly in Rio Arriba County despite high voter turnout, early and on election day.
As for Morales, he said that he wants to work on digitizing County records.
“We are looking into imaging so citizens can get documents online and are working on ways to share records,” he said. “I want to digitize everything.”
The man who holds Morales’ old County Commission seat was re-elected to a second term last fall. Commissioner Martinez, a rancher and board secretary of the El Rito East Cattlemen’s Association, beat Village of Chama Mayor Archie Vigil in the primary for the Commission seat that represents the northern part of the County.
Commissioners Martinez and Coriz said the Commission would emphasize going after economic stimulus funding under President-elect Barack Obama’s proposal, lobbying the County’s congressional delegation.
Martinez wants to protect the County’s water and health.
“In developments up north, people are buying real estate where there’s limited water; the County needs to work with hydrologists to (protect) acequias,” he said.
Martinez is close allies with Coriz and Montoya. Coriz said he will become the Commission chairman at its January meeting.
Olguin, of Canjilon, was reelected as treasurer in a race against former county commissioner Ray Tafoya. Prior to her first term as treasurer, she had worked for more than 25 years in the treasurer’s office.
Olguin listed as priorities for her new term, creating a web site that would allow online credit card payments, organizing the County’s historical tax records and resolving problems collecting back taxes — particularly from mobile home owners.
“I really want to bring down the number of delinquencies for mobile homes,” Olguin said.
Olguin noted that the penalties and interest for delinquent taxes on mobile homes goes to the County, unlike fines for back taxes on other houses, which go to the state.
“We could recoup maybe $30,000 per year for the County,” Olguin said.
The SUN discovered just weeks before the primary that Olguin herself was late paying $317 in property taxes. Records show she eventually paid the balance.
Jerome Block
Public Regulation Commissioner Jerome Block Jr. was sworn into office Jan. 1, but that may not signal an end to his legal troubles.
Attorney General Spokesman Phil Sisneros confirmed that there is still an active inquiry into Block’s campaign expenditures. In October, Block had to return $10,000 in public campaign funds and pay an additional $11,000 in fines after the Secretary of State’s office identified three expenditures that were in violation of state law. The matter was then handed over to Attorney General Gary King’s office.
According to state law, anyone who knowingly violates the Voter Action Act or makes a false statement in a report required by the Act is guilty of a fourth degree felony.
Despite the campaign-finance scandal, Block handily defeated Green Party candidate Rick Lass in the general election in November. Block had already bested five opponents in the Democratic primary in June 2008.
He is the son of Jerome Block Sr., a former Public Regulation commissioner and member of the powerful Block-Salazar clan of Española.
Block Jr. could not be reached for comment.
Española City Councilor Dennis Tim Salazar, who is Block Jr.’s second cousin, said Block’s troubled road to office is in the past, and his swearing in represents a fresh start.
“I think it’s going to take a little bit of adjusting to the job,” Salazar said. “With time, I think he will make an excellent commissioner.”
Block will earn $90,000 per year.
New DA
Former city of Española attorney Spence Pacheco took over the First Judicial District Attorney office Jan. 1.
She has not returned calls for comment after stepping into office but did say prior to taking office that she did not plan to put an attorney in charge of the Española office until the end of January.
Pacheco replaces Henry Valdez, who served 16 years in office and did not to run for re-election again last year. She beat two Democratic candidates in the primary and faced no opposition in the general election.
One of her opponents, AJ Salazar, was one of eight prosecutors in Valdez’s office to receive letters in the days following the general election requesting they hand in their resignations Jan. 1. Salazar was a chief deputy for Valdez and the head of the Española office. Despite applying for the vacant city attorney position and state District Court judge slot (see sidebar), he did not resign.
“I have not resigned,” Salazar, of Alcalde, said. “I submitted communication to her Friday, Jan. 2 and am waiting to hear back. Essentially it was a letter of non-resignation.”
Pacheco’s other primary opponent has decided to move on.
“The memo said we were at-will employees and requested our resignation,” Joe CampBell said. “That, to me says I was fired. I left the office Dec. 26 and am employed with the Fifth Judicial District out of Las Vegas, running the Santa Rosa office (Guadalupe County). Maybe the top people she fired were a little too close to Henry’s style, maybe it was political, I have no idea. I’ve seen her in the office a few times and she never acknowledged me when she came in after Dec. 1.”
New Magistrate
Rio Arriba Magistrate Court Judge Joe Madrid, who ran unopposed in the November election after being appointed by Governor Bill Richardson, has yet to be sworn in since the election, he said.
His first few months have brought the challenges of keeping up with the heavy workload in Rio Arriba County, Madrid said. Madrid said since he became judge, he’s been strictly enforcing consequences for defendants who violate probation and fail to comply with sentencing requirements for DUI violations.
“I’m just trying to keep the courts fair — to take care of the people but the interests of the court as well,” Madrid said.