Tonight’s Town Commission meeting has been cancelled.

Reason given is lack of a quorum due to two Commissioners being out of town and presumably unable to call in. I’ve taken advantage of the lull to catch up on reading. 

First, a brief wrap-up for the previous meeting: 

• It appears that salaries and benefits for two of the three positions mentioned on the agenda have already been accounted for in the budget. 
• The Animal Control position will require some reshuffling of finances. 
• The Commission is still trying to pretend that holding individual Commissioners responsible for remarks made on the record during meetings is not only indecorous, but that attempts to hold them accountable constitute impermissible “personal attacks” which will not be tolerated. 
• Meanwhile, we are waiting to see the Commission’s choice to fill the vacancy in District 5. It seems there is no shortage of applicants, but how many of them are even minimally qualified and live in the district?  

I’ve heard a lot of questions about the so-called “leak” of confidential information regarding the Berrenda Pipeline proposal on social media. 

• The town’s reaction is typical of local government caught out in an embarrassing situation: Discredit the messenger and ignore the pertinent substantive questions raised by the leak. 
• Who leaked the information, by what means, and for what reason?  
• Edgewood’s town government has a long history of shooting itself in the foot; this situation may be nothing more than the nasty intra-factional quarreling which erupted soon after epCorE’s Glorious Revolution of 2021. 
• It is a long, difficult, and expensive road between buying paper water rights and water out of taps; it is way too soon to either fully embrace or reject the proposal.
• When Commissioners characterize legitimate questions as attempted sabotage, then the public has every right to question not only the proposal but the Commissioners’ motives.  

From my current Edgewood-specific reading list:

• This profile of the town’s fifth town manager in five years, Kelly Hamilton, makes for interesting reading. 
• I will leave it to readers to draw their own conclusions, but the latest agenda/packet for the Lodger’s Tax Advisory Board also contains information about the news outlet which published the profile of the current Town Manager. 
• And, last but not least, this July 22 update from Reboot Edgewood helps explain why the questions about the feasibility of returning to county governance continue to gain support.  

Upcoming meetings (updated with links added)

The Agendas and Minutes page at the Town website is currently showing four upcoming Meetings:

• July 8: Two advisory Committees: Parks & Rec and the Economic Advisory group  both of which have posted agendas.
• July 14: Town Commission meeting. [Agenda & Packet link]
• Also on July 14: The Town Commission meeting will be preceded by an informational meeting on the Berrenda Pipeline proposal. [Agenda] 
• July 16: the Planning & Zoning Commission has a preliminary agenda which was posted well in advance of several land use public hearings which appear on it. [Agenda] [Packets: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3]
• My take on the FAQ section at the bottom of the Berrenda Pipeline page is that the language has been curated so as to tease and create a bandwagon effect; it conceals more than it reveals. 
• Based on its past performance and now some chatter from the usual sources, I have little confidence in this governing body’s ability to get past the inevitable hype that always accompanies such proposals.
• While not as immediately urgent as was the Fire/EMS JPA, this proposal could either be a much needed advance for the area, or just another in the long series of the pipe-dreams which have beguiled Edgewood’s Cargo Cult since before 1999. 

68 Days and Counting…

 …Because Santa Fe County is NOT the problem. The bias against the county is coming from a small group of vocal and influential people, but as the Commission found out the hard way, this group NOT a majority; not even close. 

The buck stops with the Edgewood Commissioners who voted for the Budget Adjustment Resolutions in 2024 and again in 2025. Was there a  plan to provoke a blow-up, pretend the town had been left with no choice, and then dazzle us with their less than brilliant DIY plan? If so, someone miscalculated. 

Coming soon: A look back at the Campbell Ranch Annexation Part 2

[Part 1 (below) sets the stage: The May 8, 2002 edition of The Independent serves as a time capsule for looking at the municipal government’s early years.]

A few things have changed, mostly the dramatis personae, but the fundamentals have not. Meanwhile, I suggest a visit to EMPAC’s homepage featuring a slide show where one image shows Edgewood’s Great March North along with the Bride and Groom at the top of the wedding cake: Campbell Ranch.  

While looking for something else, I found an old paper copy of The Independent (May 8, 2002 Volume 4, No. 19). The front page (above the fold) features the headline Campbell price to leave Edgewood: $1.1 million followed by a detailed story on the offer written by Theresa M. Oderman. Bracketing the Campbell headline is a larger one Drought, export imperil water under which Kevin Bean outlines Export on the left with Drought on the right. One of the best things about reading The Independent in those days was venturing into lower Edgewood, picking up a paper copy, and analyzing how the staff employed all of the classical rhetorical canons week after week. (The advent of the e-mail pdf version was still several years in the future.)  

Roof leaks at the Edgewood Library and Town Hall: What is the solution?

If the north building is no longer suitable to the town government’s needs, it may be time to move on. The lease with MESD was never intended to be anything more than a bridge between the building on Rt. 66 which the town had outgrown, and eventual construction of a new facility on land the Town has purchased further north on Section 16.

The best long-term solution would require three steps: 

(1). Move immediately to drop the predatory lawsuits in which the Town of Edgewood is the plaintiff, and where appropriate, make restitution to the defendants. The town has the authority to withdraw under those circumstances, and the new town government should do so.  

(2). For other lawsuits in which the town is the defendant, and for which it appears that the plaintiffs have a legitimate case, instruct the lawyers to make a good faith effort to settle them as the Commissioners recently voted to do for Santa Fe County’s suit.  

(3). Redirect money currently being wasted on litigation into realistic plans for use of the land already purchased from the State Land Office to build our own. Start with a basic design for administrative offices and a meeting hall which allows for future expansion. 

At the December 9, 2025 Town Commission meeting, an employee expressed frustration with the numerous roof leaks which have been experienced over the past few years. The facility which now houses the library and the town’s administrative offices was originally known as the “North Building” of the Edgewood Elementary School which closed in 2014. The best way to move forward in the short-term would be for the Commission to deal with objective reality, act like adults, and drop the lawsuit against the Moriarty-Edgewood School District (MESD).  

By looking at the town’s history it is possible to discern an unhealthy pattern in the way successive iterations of governing bodies have responded to a variety of situations. There have been many attempts at “re-inventing the wheel” in Edgewood over the past 30 years on just about everything the town has undertaken. These problems range from the larger issues such as its annexation policy and road improvements priorities, or as small as its website. Regardless of the intentions, the results have too often been wasted time, money, and political capital due to political instability. What one town government begins the next abandons; lather, rinse, repeat. 

It is time for Edgewood’s government to back off and allow MESD to move forward with its plans for buildings located on the former Edgewood Elementary School campus. The south building has long since exceeded its useful life span, The north building, while newer, is not far behind. 

If there are genuine historical sites inside the town boundary, one of the best candidates would have been the original Edgewood Elementary School building, but it was cleared off to make way for Smith’s and McDonald’s. At that time, the prevailing narrative was that the future is more important than the past. There were a few who wanted to preserve the building, but their efforts didn’t generate wide support. 

I agree with those who say that all school facilities ultimately belong to the citizens, but the State of New Mexico has placed the land and improvements of the former EES campus under the authority and stewardship of MESD. The town should respect the lawful authority of the school district. 

Some history on the different locations of the town’s administrative offices: 

• The first town offices were located in the old Edgewood Elementary School Building located south of I-40 which later housed several businesses including the Homestead Restaurant before it was demolished. However, they soon moved into a rented facility on George Court. 
• In 2003, after it became clear that the George Court location was too small and the rent too high, Council member Bob Stearley worked to buy what was known as the “Pitman Building.” At various times the site, located on NMSR 344, has hosted a private school, several businesses, a church, and later the Edgewood Community Library. Stearley’s effort failed due to infighting among the Cargo Cultists over who should (or more precisely who should not) receive commissions for brokering the deal. 
• Later, as Mayor, Stearley was successful in getting the Council’s approval to purchase the building on Rt. 66 which has since been renovated for use by the New Mexico State Police after sitting vacant for several years. 
• In 2007, after unseating Stearley following a card draw, former Mayor Howard Calkins commissioned an ambitious set of plans for a town center on Section 16 which was dubbed the Cowboy Hat Pavilion by critics. Its proposed location was roughly where First Choice Clinic and the Santa Fe County Fire Station were later built. That proposal disappeared after Stearley defeated Calkins in the 2008 mayoral election. 
• Stearley then had a more economically feasible set of plans drawn up for a different location which, in turn, disappeared following his defeat by Brad Hill in 2012. Stearley’s proposal for new town offices would also have been located on Section 16, but between the present Animal Control building and NMSR 344.
• Hill was not a fan of Stearley’s plans because he said the building would be soon outgrown and so he proposed a variety of more ambitious proposals for Section 16 which he named Edgewood Commons. The details can be seen in the current Section 16 Master Plan. It all looks impressive on paper, but Hill never got around to dealing with several important details such as road design standards and existing long-term leases.
• Former Mayor John Bassett, after looking at the depleted state of the town’s budget and the cramped building on Rt. 66 which greeted him upon his election in 2016, negotiated a lease with MESD for use of the north building. 
• Bassett was able to deal with the school district successfully by negotiating in good faith on a peer-to-peer basis without the grandstanding against the school district which we saw during the events surrounding the closure of Edgewood Elementary School. The school closure controversy spanned several years beginning in 2013 and continued on into 2014-2015. 
• The new town government which succeeded the Mayor/Council government in 2022 had campaigned against the exercise of eminent domain in 2021, but then promptly moved to enlarge the town’s eminent domain powers in a land and water rights grab disguised as a historical site preservation measure. That ordinance was then used as a pretext for its lawsuit against MESD. Is the current acrimony between tenant and landlord rooted in the personal grudges dating from the 2013 vote to close the school? If so, it’s time to get over it and move on. 
• Despite the public relations fanfare surrounding his announcement, former Commissioner Sterling Donner’s ambitious plans for a new town Community Center seem to have disappeared into the aether with little comment following the first round of elections under the Commission/Manager government. Did his plan fall victim to the infighting which saw the departure three of the original Town Commission within the first three years? Donner resigned before the end of his term, and questions about the fate of the project have been repeatedly deflected.  

Letter: Leadership, infrastructure and the future of Edgewood

Having been away from Edgewood for a large part of the past few years, I was disappointed to return and find that many of our roads have not been getting timely maintenance and are in poor condition. My neighbors are complaining about road improvements taking place in places where there are few houses, while they eat dust year after year. However, if you watch the town meetings you will hear a series of  glowing reports on road  projects. When mis-steps are acknowledged, they are accompanied by a series of lame excuses. 

At what point will Edgewood residents demand that its town government stop the hype and start dealing with reality? Former Town Councilor and Mayor Pro Tem, John Abrams, offers his thoughts in a recent letter to nm.news. Abrams is one of a very small group of town officials in Edgewood’s relatively short history as an incorporated municipality who has the ability to think long term, and who doesn’t try to exploit the town for personal gain. As such he is not popular with Edgewood’s cargo cult faction. Nevertheless, at several critical points, Abrams has been called on for help when Edgewood’s flashy promoters failed to complete important projects.

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.