CAPITAN VILLAGE HALL NEWS

As we consider a clean slate of the upcoming year our thoughts turn to the making of New Years resolutions. In this, I'm no exception. For nearly a year I've aspired to be up front about your business at Village Hall. At times my reports and stance on different issues have ruffled feathers, mainly on the wings of flying monkeys. This year I'll try not to ruffle feathers - I think, I'll commence plucking these birds. When I ran for office I told you if elected it wouldn't be business as usual and you sent me anyway. So get a deep seat we're about to give this horse the gate.

I've said what I wanted to say about Lincoln County Solid Waste (LCSWA). Tiring of it I tried to moved on - until I read the Ruidoso News and found an article entitled "LCSWA Rep Upset with Colleagues". Summing it up, the article states County Commissioner Leo Martinez is upset with the Capitan Mayor and Chief Angelo Vega of Carrizozo.

Mr. Martinez is quoted as saying, "It seems two of the members only come to take pot-shots at her because of a personality thing, but as long as she keeps improving the service and the budget position we're $155,000 in the black I support her," Martinez said. "It's not a question of her doing her job, She's out there hustling " Mr. Martinez says our questioning of what I can only describe as an illegal action is nothing more then a "personality thing". I would point out that we are not taking "pot-shots" we are, in fact, openly questioning the manner in which the Operational Supervisor was hired.

To be honest, part of Mr. Martinez's statement is true. The fight between right and wrong, good and evil, is always waged because of ones belief and personality. It's our personality that causes us to stand up and not shrink when it is not the easy or popular thing.

It's personalities that cause me and The Lincoln County News to go toe to toe over LCSWA. They think I want nothing more then to burn LCSWA to the ground. Where I think, they're hearing one side of an already slanted issue from the Supervisor and haven't printed real news since before the Kennedy administration. (Did I say that out loud?) After the November Mayor's Report pointing out the facts, dates and where the information could be found backing up the claims I noticed the paper took a "Rodney King" attitude with a "Why can't we get along" stance. (I can't wait for the next paper now that we have let the dogs loose.)

My personality cries out that it's wrong to call the Operational Supervisor applicants in for an interview and tell them they are over qualified for the job. It's wrong to tell those applicants the job would only pay $20,000 per year, and then 21 working days after hiring the chairman of the board, one of the inside group, to double her salary. It was wrong to hire Ms Ingle illegally without a vote of the board. It's wrong to pay the kind of mileage payments we pay her without one board member checking that mileage and just writing a check from the people's checkbook. It was wrong for Mr. Martinez to make a motion to hire Ms Ingle after I brought these questions to the board and knowing how slanted the process was. It was wrong for that board to put our village in the line of fire for a possible law suit that could be brought by those other applicants. It was wrong to bring the issue of hiring one of the inside group and compounding the problem by trying to force a vote, a year later, without giving those other applicants a fair shot at the job for which they applied in good faith. It's wrong, when there were five voting members present, and Carrizozo, Corona, Capitan have to abstain to protect their village. It was wrong to attempt to convince the public the motion passed to hire Ms Ingle, when only two out of the five present voted yes. I say it's wrong because the joint powers agreement, that governs the actions of the LCSWA board says in plain English, "since the majority vote of those members present is required to take action". They took action with only two of the five votes that is wrong.

In the paper Mr. Martinez made an issue in saying that "Only three of us were there yesterday. And the representative from Ruidoso can only vote on landfill related issues." This statement is also wrong. The Ruidoso Rep is only supposed to vote on landfill issues but in fact if you check the minutes for the November meeting Ruidoso voted on going into executive session and it had nothing to do with the landfill. That session was for the members to tell me they were not happy with my stance on this issue of the hiring of the Operations Supervisor. It was a tie vote and the board used Ruidoso to break that tie that was wrong. Myself and Carrizozo wanted this handled in the public and in the open.

The newspaper reported that next month, if members don't show up again, the remaining appointees may discuss asking the other two villages to leave. This statement was not in quotes and not attributed to anyone. However, if they do that they will be wrong one more time in that they will not have a quorum and can not legally have a meeting to discuss anything.

The paper reported Corona would be sending their "proxy" vote in the future. This is wrong. The Joint Powers agreement, the mortar that holds the board together, does not provide for proxy votes. However, checking the minutes of the board meetings you find that Ms. Ingle, the chairman of the board at the time, carried Corona's proxy. In the November 2002, meeting the Corona Rep advised that the Mayor pulled his proxy vote from Ms Ingle in May of 2001, yet the minutes show she was voting his proxy until November 2001. Another issue my personality screams in a loud voice that it is wrong.

Your village does the billing for LCSWA each month. Each month your village dips into your coffers to make up the difference as we come up short. LCSWA always gets their money. I've asked them to take their billing for this reason. The Operational Supervisor presented me with a letter dated October 4, 2002, stating it would cost $47,988.05 per year to do the billing, a job we do for $3,552. Am I the only one who's personality is screaming that something is wrong?

The paper reported; "Capitan Mayor Steve Sederwall was out of town because of an illness in his family " In the line "Martinez said if board members aren't serious about doing the job, the towns they represent should replace them." This statement offended me. I was unable to attend the last meeting for the reason the paper reported. I would like for you to know as well as Mr. Martinez that I will be attending the next meeting if the Lord is willing. I would also like to say I shall be bringing my personality with me. We should stop playing the political game, wear our fighting clothes and get down in the dirt with this and end it. Do it legal, let people apply for the Operational Supervisor job, do it fair and above board, in an open meeting looking at the applicants and we will not have this "personality thing" as Mr. Martinez says we have.

Steve Sederwall: Mayor