Update - STILL No Way to Do Business

Stranded Golf Course off N. Sonoma Ranch Boulevard

The “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” is a story that has exposed troublingly untrustworthy business practices on the part of city council. These practices have cost our area fundamental credibility and much more.
This story did not begin with NewsNM looking into the reasons why $1 million in refunds due the Las Cruces Public School District was lost by the actions of council. Nor did it begin as an investigation into the reasons why councilors turned their backs on the multiplier effect of $10 million in local economic impact. We were simply curious about the reasons why such a beautiful golf course (above right) seemed to be stranded out on the northeast mesa of Las Cruces.
Background: Members of the Las Cruces Country Club had spoken often earlier this year about the various ways in which the use of the new golf course was being held up by red tape and meddling micro-managing city councilors. In the early course of our investigation, NewsNM learned that the spectacular new golf course already had a perfectly suitable paved access road, but the road was being rendered useless because city councilors were insiting that city staff demand not one, but two access roads to the golf course.

First Access Road to Golf Course - Not Good Enough? 

We decided to take pictures of the so-called “Road to Nowhere” (left). During our visit to the site in City Councilor Gil Sorg’s district we also noticed that there were two brand new schools under construction in the area. The first school, Monte Vista Elementary School (below), was scheduled to open August 16th. Unfortunately, all of the road contruction delays have caused a delay in the school's opening. As of the start of the 2010-2011 school year, both schools in the area still have only one access road (Jornada Road). Logic dictated we ask why a school could open with only one access road while a private golf course with only one access road was being kept closed.

Monte Vista Elementary School

The events that followed are typical of any unfolding situation where bad behavior is being uncovered. Once one question related to this fiasco was answered definitively, it immediately led to another question. Eventually, the question and answer process unearthed some of the worst sort of public policy blunders made by elected city officials in this area in quite some time.
During our investigation LCPS officials indicated that the district had planned to build the two new schools in the new golf course area several years ago. Unfortunately for LCPS, as the completion of Monte Vista Elementary School continued to approach, the seemingly endless timeline for construction of a second access road to the school got tight for the school district. Then, and suddenly, the illusion of good news for Las Cruces Public Schools came late last year. Through the use of financing provided by the New Mexico Finance Authority, the extension of North Sonoma Ranch Boulevard appeared to finally be ready for completion after years of delays.

Sharon Thomas

Professional staff members at both LCPS and the city, along with city bond counsel, the city finance director, and the single property owner/developer in the proposed Special Assessment District worked diligently to reach detailed agreements in January of 2010. These agreements were affirmed by the Las Cruces City Council after it reviewed the proposal, including the properties to be included in the district. Councilors voted 7-0 in favor of a resolution to act as fiscal agent for the state funds. It seemd the pieces were finally in place to get the four lane divided road completed. Based on unmistakable signals from city council, detailed descriptions and surveys of all the property to be assessed to pay for the project were sent out for an independent appraisal.

Olga Pedroza

Then, inexplicably, and without any notice to LCPS staff or the property owner providing sufficient collateral for the Special Assessment District, in an early April work session it soon became clear to those in attendance that six city councilors (shown in order top to bottom in this story), Sharon Thomas, Olga Pedroza, Nathan Small, Gil Sorg, Dolores Connor, and Miguel Silva, all speaking from what seemed to be the same set of notes and talking points, were reneging on agreements they made in January. It seems clear now that all the work related to this road project, with four lanes, multi-purpose paths, bike lanes, street lights, ample drainage and professionally engineered ponding areas, was derailed by a tiny sliver of the local population. The sliver being a group of vocal anti-developer, anti-construction industry, anti-job, and anti-growth elements. It would seem this element of local society now controls city council as they quietly secured the ears council members (except the mayor) and engineered a political ambush. Left in their wake was the destruction of thousands of hours of planning and untold dollars that were spent in good faith.
With council's astounding one hundred and eighty degree reversal in position, LCPS, local area residents, the business people providing the financing, and all local unemployed road building and construction workers were blindsided. And despite the betrayal of good faith, there was not a single mention of this in the local daily news outlets.

Nathan Small

Mayor Ken Miyagishima was the first elected official to go public with a few of the details of this collosal $10 million blunder. When he first appeared on NewsNM on July 7th, the mayor offered suggestions as to why the biggest project Las Cruces has had going in many years had effectively been derailed three months earlier.

Gil Sorg

The mayor attributed the problem to the “inexperience” of the other six councilors as well as a wealth of misinformation that was fed to councilors between January and April 2010. During the July 7th show the mayor also made it known for the first time that the school district would lose out on the $1 million reimbursement commitment from the Special Assessment District's sole property owner.
Confirming the details of the financial disaster for the Las Cruces Public Schools was LCPS associate superintendent Herb Torres when he appeared on NewsNM on July 28th. Local businessman and developer John Moscato, representing the sole property owner providing the assessed property for the entire road building project, also appeared on NewsNM on Monday July 26th. Like Mr. Torres, Mr. Moscato confirmed everything essential in what Mayor Miyagishima said earlier in the month regarding this fiasco.

Dolores Connor

The political posturing that has proliferated since this story first began to break in early July has been fairly predictable. When NewsNM first began to report and investigate what the mayor had actually said on the show concerning the lost value of the project to the community, city councilors Sharon Thomas and Dolores Connor expressed outrage, but initially only behind the scenes. In emails to NewsNM Posse members both councilors suggested NewsNM (not the mayor) was spreading misinformation. Angry phone calls and visits to the radio station offices quickly followed. It was a classic case of a "shoot the messenger" strategy despite the fact it was Mayor Miyagishima that blew the whistle on this ridiculous blunder.

Miguel Silva

Since it has been repeatedly proven that the New Mexico Finance Authority (and not the city) was at risk for the financing, in the weeks that followed Councilor Dolores Connor and Councilor Sharon Thomas gradually backpedalled from many of their earlier claims about the city's financial exposure to the project. Councilor Connor has also finally, though grudgingly, acknowledged that her preference for a longer road were made without realizing there was an additional mile (instead of a half of a mile) of distance between Arroyo Road and Dragonfly Road. Connor has also becomebetter informed about the exact location of the temporary road that LCPS is being forced to construct.

LCPS Herb Torres

In the end the trustworthiness and credibility of city council continues to be lacking and the stubborness of councilors in error continues. Facts are stubborn too. The horrible meddling practices of this group of city councilors has now caused a massive waste of public and private funds that has harmed this area.
1. Once to properties to be included in the SAD were agreed to in January, an order was placed for an expensive property appraisal of the agreed upon properties. The appraisal was completed and paid for by the property owner. That appraisal was later rendered worthless when council changed its mind.
2. A tentative $10 million funding commitment for the entire project from the New Mexico Finance Authority was obtained and the commitment was communicated to the city council. This commitment was never capitalized on and hundreds of jobs remain lost to the area.
3. The $1 million reimbursement to LCPS from the property owner, which was contingent upon the timely fulfilling of all agreements reached by all parties in January has been squandered. Simply put, the ambush orchestrted on the developer by council and antijob elements within the area has cost LCPS $1 million.

Ken Miyagishima

It is quite ironic that Councilor Dolores Connor continues to claim the re-negotiation with the developer (road builder) was necessary so that we can "get it right the first time." NewsNM will be taking and posting photographs of the road the area will get in exchange for these councilor's decisions to abrogate their agreements. Herb Torres of LCPS did a good job of describing what citizens will actually get as a result of this blunder. The area around the schools will have to get by for the forseeable future with a temporary low grade, colonias-style, maintenance plagued road. The opening of Monte Vista Elementary will continue to be delayed. This multi-million dollar new school financed by local citizens will sit idle for many more weeks.

And thus we have the Boulevard of Broken Dreams. Inexperienced city councilors with an inability to differentiate between facts and misinformation have morphed into stubborn elected officials denying essential facts about bad practices. Political posturing, public posting of half-truths, and the regrettable act of attempting to justify the breaking of important good faith agreements is now an integral part of the fiasco. These are not the qualities citizens expect from elected officials going about the business of managing the resources and relationships for the people they represent. We at NewsNM will continue to work on this story and we will issue a final report complete with pictures of how "right" the city got it the first time, once the temporary road is laid down. What is obvious to us at this point is that this is no way for the city of Las Cruces to do business and citizens have decisions to make about the leadership they want for this city in less than fifteen months.

Update - STILL No Way to Do Business