An article worth reading!

http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/legislature/gop-dems-eye-key-districts-for-control-in-house/article_63a2c566-16a8-53b2-9411-da1923c1cd27.html#.UwtgxCmd_7g.gmail

Those that attended meetings regarding House Bill 356 will recognize some of these names, but for those that did not, here is something to think about.

As the article states, Speaker W. Ken Martinez was elected to his seat as Speaker of the House because the Democratic Party is currently the majority in the House. It is the Speaker who assigns house bills to committees and it is the Speaker who decides which bills get presented to the House floor for debate and a vote. HB359 was first assigned to the Health, Government, and Indian Affairs committee. In this committee, Chair Roger Madalena (D) gave the opposing side the opportunity to speak for a total of 1 hour between Tuesday and Thursday on their opposition of HB356, yet gave the taxpayers, who were the majority attending, only 10 minutes! Thankfully, Nate Gentry (R) disagreed with the Chair, and demanded he give the committee members a voice after Madalena attempted to table the bill with no input from the committee. Alonzo Baldonado (R) seconded the motion and HB356 passed to the next committee. Yvette Herrell (R) not only supported this bill, but after Memorial 17 was presented, co-wrote HB356. Twice, Donald Bratton (R) stood up to those opposed to this bill and asked how such unfair business tactics could even be allowed to take advantage of any consumer. Rep. Bratton spoke the words our community was not allowed to speak!

These are Republican Representatives who crossed party lines to help support our State Representative Carl Trujillo (D) in an attempt to pass legislation for fairness to ALL people of our community! They, along with Rep. Trujillo, did not stand up for special interest groups but against unfair business practices that punished innocent people for something the federal government created with a law (25CFR169.12) that gives no limits to what Sovereign nations can charge for utility easements.

This is not an attempt to promote any political party, this is a plea for our community to become informed and know who we are electing to our Legislation. Remember, taxpayers in our community are almost 90% of the voting power. We have the power to help decide who is running our government – let's choose wisely regardless of party affiliation!

The link below will give you information on who leads our Round House, committee members, and representatives currently in our legislation. Primary election is June 3, 2014, and general election is on November 4, 2014. Talk to your family and friends in other New Mexico communities and tell them your experience with our Legislation!

http://www.nmlegis.gov/lcs/committees_standing.aspx


2014 Regular Session Bill Locator

This link below will allow the taxpayer to review what bills each Representative entered for their constituents and the outcome of that bill.

http://www.nmlegis.gov/lcs/bill_locator.aspx?year=14

HB 356 DID NOT MAKE IT TO THE HOUSE FLOOR FOR A VOTE

HB 356 was on the agenda to be voted on by the House floor but was not presented by House Speaker W. Ken Martinez. In the final hours of the 2014 Legislative session, apparently there were a few very important bills still pending such as the Lottery Fund and the Indigent Fund Sole Provider which took much time to debate.

We like to remind everyone that participated, either by attending the meetings or by emailing Representatives, what a difference their voice made and how important it is to get involved. This started as a Memorial which is only recognition that a problem exists, to a Bill that went through two key legislative committees with much support and recognition by many Representatives as being a very important and complex issue that needs to be addressed.

In the end we did prove one point. We proved the power of a united community that demands a voice! Please remember:

TAXPAYERS ARE THE MAJORITY VOTE AND THE MAJORITY CONSUMER OF OUR COMMUNITIES. UNITED WE CAN MAKE CHANGE HAPPEN!

BIA Letter of Trespassing

On December 6, 2013 a letter was sent to Santa Fe County from the BIA stating that San Ildefonso Pueblo considered County Road 84 to be under trespass. In response, Santa Fe County sent a response to the BIA with a copy of a perpetual easement agreement paid to San Ildefonso in 1989. In response to community concern over a letter sent to the County of Santa Fe from BIA, Congressman Ben Ray Lujan reached out to the BIA to further investigate the situation. Below is his letter expressing concern and seeking more information from BIA.

This is a strong statement made to the BIA and Congressman Ben Ray Lujan asked that they consider this situation critical and one that needs to be resolved quickly. He also states that he is personally willing to work with the BIA in a resolution to make sure El Rancho, NM has access to their homes, businesses and private property.

HB356 PASSED THE BUSINESS & INDUSTRY COMMITTEE, 11-1

HB356 was presented to the Business and Industry Committee last night at 10:00pm.
The people that waited for +5 hours to represent our community, made it very clear that we supported this bill because taxpayers deserve fairness and consideration, as well as representation on business agreements that affect ALL citizens and have a huge economic impact on our communities. Sovereignty should not exempt anyone from unfair business practices that impact innocent people.  

This was reinforced by Representative Donald E. Bratton from Lea County.  (donald.bratton@nmlegis.gov) This Representative was our voice last night people! He reinforced everything our community has been saying and stood up for all consumers and taxpayers in New Mexico. So much so, Rep. Bratton deserves an email from everyone in our community thanking him for standing up for what is right and reinforcing what we have been saying! Negotiating agreements using unfair advantage is not friendly and neighborly negotiations. Imposing high fines until an unreasonable offer is accepted is not fair negotiating. Imposing unreasonable fines for trespass yet stating it “inhumane” to stop service in which you are in trespass of, is not acceptable. 
Rep. Bratton, thank you for taking a stand!

HB356 now goes to the House for debate and vote. If it passes the House, it still has to go to the Senate for debate and a vote. Time is running out due to the legislative session ending tomorrow and it is a long shot.  

How can you help? Send a message to Speaker W. Ken Martinez and tell him the taxpayers and voters of our community ask that he support such an important issue to the people by placing HB356 on the House floor immediately for debate and a vote. Remind him that in our community, the taxpayers are the majority vote!

PLEASE KNOW your emails have been and are so powerful! It was very evident that the committee members read them and actually referred to them in their supporting statements.

TURN OF EVENTS: HB356 ADVANCES TO THE NEXT COMMITTEE!

All the community members who attended Tuesday's committee meeting were very upset on how the meeting was conducted. It was obviously conducted very one-sided. Some of the community members re-grouped last night and decided that we had spoken our peace as it relates to our community situation but this was something much bigger. Therefore we had the statement below, ready to go in case we were asked to speak once more.

Many realize that this Bill may not be the solution, in fact it was stated that it may only force a very difficult and complex situation to be discussed by our state and federal leaders.

The few in our community that attended this morning were prepared for this Bill to get "tabled". The Chair, J. Roger Madalena stated that he would not let anyone speak further except one person that asked for more time on the opposed side. After a 25 minute presentation, the Chair spoke of the accusation of "conflict of interest" and said he was merely a member of Jemez Pueblo, a life long council member and not involved in the JMEC negotiations. He did not let anyone in the committee speak and stated how this Bill would separate communities and violate rights. He then announced he was tabling the Bill. Some of the committee members were shocked and asked why they were not given a vote. He refused until Representative Nate Gentry demanded a vote, stating that the Chair did not have the power to table without their vote once a bill was presented. It was seconded by Representative Alonzo Baldonando. A vote was taken and in seconds it passed to the next committee, which is Business and Industry.

EMAIL COMMITTEE MEMBERS AGAIN!

We need to put in our own words a response to every single one of those committee members to let them know how we feel about the hearing Tuesday. Your first emails made a huge impact people! That is why HB356 was not killed or tabled....because you spoke! We need to let the committee members know that they have to support HB356 to help it pass to the floor! This is where it belongs for a FULL debate with ALL elected Representatives having knowledge and input to what is happening in our communities. They ALL need to recognize how difficult and crucial this situation is.

It can be short but the most effective messages will come directly from you in your own words. If you choose to copy elranchocommunity@gmail.com, we will not share the emails with anyone but will post to Governor Susana Martinez' website for you.

Here is the list of emails to copy and paste once more:
ken.martinez@nmlegis.gov,james.madalena@nmlegis.gov, alonzo.baldonado@nmlegis.gov, kelly.fajardo@nmlegis.gov, natefornm@gmail.com, yherrell@yahoo.com, emilykane4nm@gmail.com, rodolpho.martinez@nmlegis.gov, docmcmillan@gmail.com, liz.thomson@nmlegis.gov, lucky4st@msn.com

UPDATE ON HOUSE BILL 356

For all those that attended yesterday’s hearing, thank you so much for making the time to support our right to a voice. Unfortunately, we were not given much time to have a voice yesterday. HB 356 was opened at 10:30am. After formal presentations were made on the bill, Chair J. Roger Madalena told those in favor to be very brief because the committee had to report to the House floor at 11:00am. We were given 10 minutes and were rushed. Then he proceeded to allow those that opposed to speak. The clock then STOPPED… 35 minutes later he decided to let those opposed return on Thursday to continue their opposition statements. He ended the session by allowing as he stated, “My Governor from Jemez Pueblo” time to say his speech and asked him to come in front of the room! The Chair, J. Roger Madalena, is a council member of the Jemez Pueblo who is in direct negotiations currently with JMEC. Remember, HB 356 is asking for regulation on astronomical easement amounts and fines in negotiations with Cooperatives in order to be fair to all consumers.

Thank you everyone that spoke yesterday for HB356 for being respectful. The opposed called us racist, reminded us what our forefathers did to them 100 yrs ago, stated we were violating their sovereign rights and also reminded us that they were federally protected and the State did not have a right to challenge them. The opposed stated that HB356 would cause animosity to the relationship between Pueblos and communities. This is the reason for the bill! Animosity has already been fueled by unfair business tactics by some, that are affecting ALL persons in those areas.

House Speaker W. Ken Martinez is the person responsible for placing our bill in this committee (Health, Government, and Indian Affairs) and the people ask, was this intentional??? Please feel free to write him an email and ask him just that. ken.martinez@nmlegis.gov

HB356 will continue Thursday, Feb. 13 at 8:30am Round House 3rd Floor Room 309. 

Hope to see new faces.....the same ones cannot keep defending the whole community. Our only hope is to be a united Community and inform other communities in New Mexico what is happening in our government.