City Ethics Board Will Pursue Investigation of Anonymous City Hall Critic

Ethics board will pursue “Jay Baker” investigation

The City of Santa Fe’s Ethics and Campaign Review Board yesterday voted to pursue a new complaint focused on an anonymous critic of City Hall. District 3 City Councilor-Elect Pilar Faulkner’s complaint, filed Nov. 30, alleges “Jay Baker,” a pseudonymous social media account critical of Mayor Alan Webber’s administration, purchased digital ads in the Nov. 7 local election critical of her and failed District 2 candidate Phil Lucero, while failing to properly adhere to campaign finance disclosure rules. Moreover, Faulkner’s complaint alleges Arcy Baca, who filed campaign finance complaints against Faulkner, Lucero and failed District 1 candidate Geno Zamora, knows Baker’s identity. Her complaint requests the ECRB subpoena Baca and Facebook to try to reveal who is behind the account. “To me, this kind of politicking in an attempt to influence elections was done illegally, and if we don’t address it as a city, we are setting a dangerous precedent,” Faulkner said during yesterday’s meeting. “Disclosure is a key part of the ethics of elections.” Board members appeared to agree and mulled ways they might pursue such an investigation. “If ever there was a situation for an investigation, this situation seems like it shouts out for it,” Member Judith Amer said. The board also dismissed Baca’s complaints against Faulkner and Lucero, but were unable to take action on the complaint against Zamora, a former city attorney, after three board members recused themselves citing personal relationships with either Zamora or his and Lucero’s campaign manager. All three of Baca’s complaints allege the candidates failed to disclose certain details related to targeted expenditures the board said yesterday are not required under the city’s campaign finance law.

State land commissioner extends Chaco drilling ban

A state moratorium on new oil, gas and mineral leasing on 72,776 acres of state lands near Chaco Culture National Historical Park will remain in place through Dec. 31, 2043, New Mexico Commissioner of Public Lands Stephanie Garcia Richard announced yesterday. The ban—one of Garcia Richard’s first actions upon being elected in 2019—had been set to expire at the end of this year. US Department of Interior Secretary Deb Haaland issued a similar leasing 20-year ban on federal lands surrounding Chaco in June. “The Greater Chaco landscape is one of the most special places in the world, and it would be foolish not to do everything in our power to protect it,” Garcia Richard said in a statement yesterday. “This region is significant for our Indigenous communities and the cultural properties found in the area are irreplaceable. Action at both the federal and state level is necessary to ensure we are protecting these special resources. Simply put, there is too much at stake for widespread oil and gas development to occur so close to Chaco.” All Pueblo Council of Governors Chairman Mark Mitchell, a former governor of Tesuque Pueblo, called yesterday “another historic day” and expressed appreciation for the extension of the ban. “We are thankful for this moment,” Mitchell said in a statement, “but we pray that Chaco Canyon and the Greater Chaco Region will be permanently protected. The permanent protection is not only for us, but for those who have yet to be born so they may continue to know that our roots, our cultures, our languages are tied to this sacred and irreplaceable area.”

US House passes defense bill, minus exposure compensation

Both the US Senate and US House this week passed the National Defense Authorization Act, which heads to President Joe Biden following House approval yesterday. The president is expected to sign the bill, which includes 5.2% raises for military personnel and millions for New Mexico’s national nuclear laboratories, but excludes an amendment that would have expanded the Radiation and Exposure Compensation Act to include New Mexico’s nuclear victims. The US Senate last summer supported the RECA amendment for the first time, US Sen. Ben Ray Luján, one of its sponsors, noted in a statement. “However, at the eleventh hour, Republican Leadership blocked its inclusion in the final bill,” he said. “This is an injustice to thousands upon thousands of individuals in New Mexico and across America who have sacrificed for our national security.” Luján, who voted for the final bill along with the rest of the state’s congressional delegation, said he supports the military pay raises and money for the state’s laboratories, but will “never stop fighting for justice” for the state’s Trinity test downwinders and uranium miners who were excluded from the original RECA Act. US Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández, D-NM, expressed similar sentiments, calling the removal of the RECA amendment “disgraceful…the Senate passed the Amendments with broad bipartisan support and House Democratic leadership was likewise in support of provisioning justice and compensation to New Mexicans who toiled in the uranium industry and downwinders who lived near the Trinity Test site and deserve compensation for the cancers, other illness, and loss of life inflicted upon them for our national security. The Republican leadership’s rejection of the RECA Amendments Act behind closed doors is morally bankrupt.” Among other appropriations to the state’s labs, the final defense bill includes $1.76 billion for programs and research at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

DOH warns of cantaloupe Salmonella outbreak

Two patients from Bernalillo and Dona Ana counties have recovered from Salmonella cases the state Department of Health said yesterday have been linked to a national outbreak. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 38 states have now had instances of Salmonella connected to a Food and Drug Administration recall of “Malichita” or “Rudy” cantaloupes with the sticker number “4050.” The CDC also warns against consuming pre-cut fruit cups if it’s unclear whether they contain the recalled cantaloupes (and includes a list of such pre-cut items made with the recalled cantaloupes, including Kroger, Sprouts Farmers Market, and Trader Joe’s cantaloupe chunks, mixed melons, fruit medleys and fruit trays with best-by dates from Oct. 28 through Nov. 8). As of press time, 230 people have become sick with Salmonella nationwide, with 96 hospitalizations and three deaths. Salmonella symptoms include “so much vomiting that you cannot keep liquids down,” along with a variety of other concomitant outcomes. In addition to not eating recalled foods, preventative methods include proper hand-washing and avoiding cross-food contamination. “Since New Mexico has two people infected with the ongoing nationwide cantaloupe-related Salmonella bacteria outbreak, NMDOH urges the public to check all cantaloupe in your possession, both whole and pre-cut, to make sure your fruit is not among those recalled. If you aren’t sure, throw your cantaloupe away,” Deputy State Epidemiologist Dr. Chad Smelser says in a statement. “By following our guidance, we can prevent further cantaloupe-associated Salmonella infections in our state.”

Listen up

New Mexico gift guides abound in print, online and, at least in the case of one popular podcast, on the air. Native New Mexican writer, realtor and cancer survivor Bunny Terry’s I Love New Mexico podcast kicks off a series of local gift-guide interviews, beginning with FS2 Supply Co. co-owner and designer Eric Griego, whose 6-year-old business just marked one year in the Railyard, and sells a plethora of New Mexico-festooned clothing and merchandise. Not just Zia symbols, as Terry notes (although the New Mexico Zia dog hoodie is pretty irresistible, even though we don’t actually have a dog). “For us, New Mexico is home: It carries family; it carries traditions,” Griego says. “We’re trying to provide other New Mexicans a vehicle for carrying forth their pride in New Mexico.”

Several pieces of history

Cowboy boots. Bolo ties. Pens. Leather bags. Cigar accessories. A guitar signed by the Eagles. These are just a few of the approximate 2,500 items that will be available on Saturday as part of an estate sale for the late Gov. Bill Richardson, who died Sept. 1 at the age of 75. The sale, from 9 am to 2 pm, is being run by Stephen’s A Consignment Gallery at the Santa Fe Convention Center, and organizers expect a crowd. “We’re going to start handing out entry numbers between 7:30 and 8 am,” Stephen’s Owning Partner Domenic Etre tells SFR. “And so people can come and grab an entry number and then leave and go to coffee if they want. We’re expecting quite the turnout…I would recommend people get here early because I think people are going to start lining up for this…between 6 and 7 most likely.” The sale came together quickly, Etre says, because Richardson’s wife, Barbara Richardson, asked Stephen’s to clean out Richardson’s office at the Richardson Center for Global Engagement because its lease was up. Barbara Richardson supplemented the office items with other personal ones. “There’s literally something here for everybody,” Etre says. Richardson’s pen collection, for instance, stands out. “There’s probably over 200 or so pens,” he says. “And they range anywhere from $5 to $2,500.” Etre personally has his eye on a few of them. “It is hands down the most outstanding collection of pens I have ever seen,” he notes.

Breakfast of champions

Saveur magazine homes in on an essential New Mexico menu item for home cook and diners alike, along with its equally indispensable main ingredient: the breakfast burrito and New Mexico chile. Case study: Chef Israel Rivera, who tasted his first New Mexico chile as a high school freshman in Albuquerque. Yes, he’d had chiles before via his Mexican parents’ salsas and the like. But the chile he encountered in a strip-mall breakfast burrito was a different story. “From then on, it was green chile on everything all the time,” Rivera tells Saveur. “To say it was life-changing sounds kind of dramatic, but it was.” We don’t need convincing but, if we did, Saveur makes the case by talking to a slew of locals about the life-altering magic of chile, be it green or red or a combo of both ala Christmas. “We find roasted green chiles necessary in most of our foods,” Rivera says. “It’s our way of adding umaminess to any dish. We’re just so in love with that flavor.” The story includes a recipe, courtesy Rivera, who serves the mainstay dish at his Albuquerque restaurant The Shop Breakfast & Lunch.

What a difference a day makes

Following yesterday’s melange of rain, fog, ice and snow accumulation, the National Weather Service forecasts a sunny day, with a high temperature near 43 degrees and north wind 10 to 15 mph. The weekend looks much the same, with temps rising to 50 degrees for the high by Sunday.

Thanks for reading! The Word is communing wth sea lions.