Last week in a brief Espanola City Council meeting a vote was taken without public discussion to put us on the hook for over $3 million for continuance of an easement on Pueblo land.
Turns out we have been trespassing for 20 years.
Barely reaching a quorum with several councilors on the phone, Mayor ProTem Peggy Sue Martinez presided over the meeting that began almost immediately with an executive session. When the councilors emerged from that meeting, they quickly held the vote to pay fees dating back to 2002 for use on Santa Clara Pueblo land and then to authorize to future payments for sewer and water rights should a new easement be granted.
The total bill, as we have said, will amount to over $3 million for a city that some critics contend is in the red, losing money.
Questions still abound about the financial health of the city with no clear answers.
Most bothersome was the lack of public discussion or comments from the councilors about how and why they made their decision to go forward. More than likely those discussions took place in executive session.
The use of executive session to discuss important matters appears to be abuse by this administration. It is worth reminding everyone that government is best run out in the open, in the sunshine.
The history of dispute is this:
The Bureau of Indian Affairs under Indian Rights of Way Act granted a 20-year easement to the city of Espanola to deliver water in 1982, but the city never applied for an application to renew the lease when it expired in 2002.
In 1984, the BIA granted a similar easement to the city to run sewer lines, but in that case the lease was only for 10 years and expired in 1994. The city failed to renegotiate an easement in that case too.
A lawsuit was filed against the city and last week’s vote appears to have resolved those issues so that a renewal of the easement may now be granted.
We need sewer and water but that’s not issue. We also need to know more exactly about why and how councilors vote.