Neutrality, Sandia Airpark, and Rainbow Road?

New Mexico News does a good job of covering the issue in this recent story. The proposed Town Resolution was confusingly worded, which may partly explain why the Commission did not address it. The cause of the dispute is rooted in activities internal to the Sandia Airpark Home Owners Association (HOA) in which two factions are attempting to control and possibly disband the HOA. Former Town Commissioner, Jerry Powers, is a resident of Sandia Airpark and an officer in its HOA.  

Edgewood’s Subdivision regulations specifically exclude town enforcement of HOA’s which raises the question of whether the town acted properly in becoming involved in the private dispute. It appears that at least some portion of Town Commission Version 2.0 consisting of Patrick Milligan, Mike Rariden, Stephen Murillo, Kenneth Brennan and Phil Anaya is attempting to extricate the town, but may have found it necessary to compromise. 

This is not the only issue in which the Town Commission Version 1.0, made up of Jerry Powers, Audrey Jaramillo, Sterling Donner, Kenneth Brennan, and Phil Anaya, voted to involve the town in lawsuits for questionable reasons. In addition to the Sandia Airpark matter, the town government is now involved in litigation with the Moriarty Edgewood School District, and a continually evolving suite of private lawsuits against Former Mayor John Bassett and members of his family. The Town Commission Version 2.0 now finds itself in a difficult position between EMPAC and Campbell Farming as several town officials seem determined to continue the aggressive legal posture of the original Town Commission.  

[One clarification may be needed about the road in question; I’ve had several questions about the issue. My understanding is that this dispute pertains only to that portion of Rainbow Road which lies inside the Airpark. The portion between the south boundary of the Airpark and Dinkle Road is a public road which was paved by the town following the GO Bond election in March of 2014. The reasons for choosing Rainbow were two-fold: to ameliorate dust generated by traffic in and out of the Airpark, and to improve access for air ambulance flights.]

Joint Meeting of Town and P&Z Commissions July 10, 2025

The agenda features two items; one is a presentation on Master Plan Zoning. The other is an update on the proposed re-routing of a high-pressure pipeline. This may be the project Brad Hill hopes to use for colocating wastewater lines capable of serving the Hillcrest and Section 16 Master Plans. 

The original wastewater service area was designed to primarily serve the I-40 Route 66 corridor with only a short run north on NMSR 344. While the treatment plant is capable of expanding capacity, the cost to significantly expand the service area further north via conventional means became prohibitive after the decision was made to move the treatment plant to Section 30 east of Parker Farm.  

Background information from the Water and Wastewater Page.  

April 12, 2004: Council votes to confirm the service area as primarily serving the Rt. 66/I-40 corridor with a short run north on NM 344. Service extending to Section 16 was excluded from consideration due to costs. However, because the plan at that time envisioned building the plant near the intersection of NM 344 and I-40, the extension of service to Section 16 and Hillcrest Master Plans was contemplated once the Rt. 66/I-40 corridor had service available.

October 6,2004:  Mayor Stearley reports to the Governing Body that the PER identifies two locations for the plant. The first option would be on Cactus near Park Street. The second location would be at the east end of Park Street on the 10 acres of land owned by Santa Fe County. He had contacted the County to inquire about the status of that parcel. After residents in the Cactus Road/Park Road area present a petition asking that the wastewater plant be located elsewhere, the Council schedules another hearing on the matter.

December 1, 2004: Councilor Chuck Ring offers a motion to change the location to Section 30. His motion is approved. This action effectively ends the possibility of serving Section 16 or Hillcrest Master Plan with the proposed wastewater plant due to the costs involved of running lines from that location.

June 24, 2025 Town Commission meeting recap

In no particular order, last night’s meeting was significant in many ways. Former President Ronald Reagan used to tell a joke that started out, “It’s ok, we’re from the government and we are here to help you!” 

• Top billing should go to the Water Utility Ordinance discussion which starts at about 30 minutes into the meeting. Do not worry, dear citizen, about that scary eminent domain language. It’s just in there because that’s the template required by the state government according to Mayor Kenneth Brennan. Linda Burke did add an important qualification: it won’t be used immediately. Passed 5-0 with no substantive discussion. 
• The ordinance isn’t all bad: It lays the groundwork for eventually achieving important goals of former Mayors Bob Stearley and John Bassett by requiring a 40 year water plan, and if properly implemented, would allow the town to sidestep the primary factor which has hindered economic development in the past. If it’s mishandled, the town could end up in yet another convoluted legal morass.  
• In keeping with the current administration’s now familiar habit of proclaiming transparency but doing the opposite, Commissioners had been provided with late breaking changes to the proposed solid waste disposal ordinance which were not made available to the public. Fortunately, due to Brad Hill’s concerns that the language threatens the viability of his widely acclaimed nuisance abatement program, the Commission immediately postponed the hearing pending a workshop on the subject. 
• The solid waste ordinance is going to be unpopular; the version made available to the public was garbage (pun intended), and so I wonder if this was some kind of Trumpian opening gambit designed to make version 2.0 less odious. Nevertheless, it raises the specter of yet another town official hired for overseeing the vital task of monitoring citizens’ feeble ability to manage their own trash. Of course, dumpster snooping will be allowed only by a government-approved Sanitary Officer. Freelance dumpster divers would be subject to prosecution. Penalties for such reprehensible, anti-social behaviors have yet to be determined. 
• The social media policy discussion was hilarious. Its adoption will pit boomer-tier, rulebook grammarians against cyberpunk pranksters. My money says that cyberpunks rule with the eventual outcome being the town’s social media accounts devolving into the pointlessness of a sanitized echo chamber. 
• The evening concluded with the termination of an employee upon recommendation of the Town Manager. 
• It is clear that following the departure of three of the original Town Commissioners from Commission Manager version 1.0, most traces of Edgewood’s vaunted hyper-libertarianism are gone. Version 2.0 sees the Commissioners lining up with only occasional token objections to jumping through the hoops necessary for accessing state and federal funds. Stay tuned: This is an Election Year. Commission Manager Version 3.0 will debut come January 1, 2026. If it contains new faces, then the dynamic will change again. Even so, it is clear that Republican or Democrat, Edgewood is learning to embrace big government.  

Good coverage of the e-mail hoax at nm.news

The only thing I questioned in the story is that the author noted that the Town Commission still has to approve the P&Z Commission’s most recent action on the Campbell Ranch subdivision application. Edgewood’s P&Z has authority to approve or deny subdivisions. However, since it is almost certain that P&Z’s action has or soon will be appealed, I expect the Town Commission will decide to schedule a second appeal hearing.  

Economic Development or Cargo Cult?

For those readers who are unfamiliar with the state laws governing several important aspects of how local governments are supposed to interact with prospective developers, there are several things to consider:

1. The Local Economic Development Act (LEDA) is the state statute which sets the parameters for what activities town officials may or may not undertake when pursuing development opportunities. 
2. The Anti-Donation clause found in state statutes which are intended to limit politicians from gifting town resources * to members of their Friends and Family Plan. Proper use of LEDA is key to avoiding running afoul of this aspect of state law. (For example, Edgewood used LEDA in negotiating the conditions under which the Comfort Inn connected to the town’s wastewater system. But do beware that if you succeed in finding the relevant documents, the project was made more difficult by an intergovernmental quarrel with the Moriarty Edgewood School District, personal grievances, and exacerbated by unwise hiring practices which resulted in procedural delays.) For specific dates, this took place during Brad Hill’s first (de jure) term as mayor (2012-16).
3. Edgewood’s history of ambivalence with regard to those laws and which is rooted in several erroneous beliefs which have, nonetheless, frequently been touted as gospel truths by local cargo cultists. These beliefs combined with the policies designed to implement them form the basis for describing Edgewood using the lens of cargo cults.  

• The notion that local municipal governments are sovereign city states which may do as they please so long as they can muster a majority of votes first to get elected, and then to adopt policy. (Reality check: Local Government charters are granted by, and are largely governed by the laws of the State of New Mexico. Obtaining Home Rule Charter Status is a way for local government to gain more autonomy; given the fact that Edgewood is mired in several expensive lawsuits, actively courting more, and can’t seem to get its financial house in order, I don’t expect to see any real progress on that front anytime soon.)
• The belief that land use regulations of any kind are an infringement on private property rights and that local land use ordinances must be changed i.e. weakened in order to facilitate economic development. (Reality check: review the flap over the proposal to amend the Zoning Ordinance to allow small wind generators as a permissive use. Hint: the eventual change allowed for them, and still does, but under the heading of conditional use. The “usual suspects” who would normally argue for fewer restrictions went full-on NIMBY which is the short form of oh, heck no-how dare you? Not in My Back Yard!) For specific dates: this took place during Bob Stearley’s second, full term as mayor (2008-12). 
• A belief that once approved, Master Plans achieve the status of Holy Writ and should not be modified. (Reality check: examine the minutes regarding town actions subsequent to the adoption of the Section 16 Master, Campbell Ranch, and Hillcrest Master Plans). For specific dates, see the pages links for each MP at the top of the page.

* Note that the document the link points to is one which looks at the history of the statute, is dated 2014, and it has NOT been updated. There have been some important changes since that time.  

Update on Yesterday’s Cargo Cult Post

I was unable to attend the meeting, but have discussed what transpired with individuals who did. The town’s official explanation is that the email* was a hoax, and that the meeting scheduled to take place on the town calendar was, in fact, an organizational meeting for the town’s latest reboot of an economic advisory committee. So, while it appears that the e-mail’s hints that there would be a town meeting for discussion of the merits of the Campbell Ranch annexation, no such item appeared on the town calendar or agenda. That said, the meeting time, date, and place as stated in the email did point to a meeting of Edgewood’s cargo cult, but it should be taken in a more general than specific sense. 

The town has gone through several prior efforts at forming an Economic Development Board (proper noun) all of which eventually folded primarily because they could not meet the legal definition and requirements as found in state statutes, and secondarily because their meetings eventually degenerated into what is best described by an idiom dating to the late 19th and early 20th Centuries as “gobble, gabble, and tog.”

The most recent attempt has been presented as advisory in nature, which is more accurate. However, the town is still trying to assert (as it has tried and failed to do in the past) that this latest version is exempt from Open Meetings Act (OMA) or Inspection of Public Records Act (IPRA) requirements. 

Calling the group a Committee instead of a Board would be a more accurate representation of its actual resources, nature, and purpose. To call such a group a Board is, in effect, nothing more than the latest in the town’s history of failed attempts at credential inflation which will convince no one familiar with the subject. 

A summary of what attendees were told at last night’s meeting:

1. The individual(s) who had provided their contact information at the “ghost website” which appeared just prior to the remand hearing on the Campbell Ranch subdivision application, and who later received an email purporting to come from that organization touting a town meeting for discussion of the merits of the Campbell Ranch annexation were informed that they were victims of a hoax. 

2. Edgewood town officials claimed that meetings of its newly reconstituted Economic Development Advisory Committee are not subject to the Open Meetings Act (OMA) or Inspection of Public Records Act (IPRA), but failed to provide any legal basis for the exceptions. 

3. Binders were handed out to the committee members, but not made available to the public who attended the meeting.  

4. Town Commissioner Mulligan was present in his capacity as the governing body’s representative.

* Details from the email:

The header information on the email forwarded to me shows it being sent the morning of June 10, 2025 from a group calling itself Save South Mountain Project and pointing back to info_at_save_south_mountain [.] org  

The subject line reads: What the Campbell Ranch Development Really Means for Edgewood Resident (sic)

The body of the email is a rehash of talking points listed at the website and the mailing sent to various households (including mine) in the Edgewood zip code.  

It includes announcement of a meeting time and date billed as an Edgewood Town Meeting which was at the same date, time, and place as the ToE Economic Advisory Board meeting.  

The address at the bottom of the email is shown as 113 Cherry Street # 96728; Seattle, WA 98104-2205

Edgewood Cargo Cult meets tonight!

For those readers who found my description of  Cargo Cults difficult to accept: A group which has been described by EMPAC as “ghosts” will presumably de-cloak at this evening’s meeting which has been announced for: 

June 11, 2025

6:00 pm

171-A NM 344 Edgewood

The published meeting location is at Edgewood Town Hall. The choice of meeting place again raises questions of whether or not one or more town officials are embedded in the organization. 

There is no mention of water in the group’s communique nor is there any discussion of who will pay for ongoing provision of services after the PID expires. The email announcing the meeting concludes with another rant against outsiders…and then points to an address on the west coast.

Short term gain often leads to long term pain: The sad “Truth about Edgewood” is that the town many residents hoped to achieve in 1999 died not with the formal annexation of Campbell Ranch in 2001, but with the prior shoestring annexations which made it possible. Since public prayers and declarations of religious “values” are now fashionable in Edgewood’s official discourse, I would invite those who are so inclined to meditate upon the truths expressed in Matthew 24:28. Vultures or Eagles? Take your pick, but the stench is getting harder to ignore.