Santa Fe New Mexican, Jan. 25, 2014

Page 1

Demonettes win 16th straight by beating Los Alamos Sports, B-1

Locally owned and independent

Saturday, January 25, 2014

www.santafenewmexican.com

75¢

Speed-van bribery linked to N.M.

New head of arts group ‘fits right in’ David Setford takes the helm of the Spanish Colonial Arts Society and draws praise.

Ex-Redflex executive says ‘gifts, bribes’ used to secure contracts; Santa Fe official says deal legit

LOcAL newS, A-6

including New Mexico. The Chicago Tribune ran several stories starting in 2012 that revealed Redflex Traffic Systems likely bribed city officials to instigate the city’s red-light camera program. The organization filed a lawsuit in Arizona Superior Court, alleging former top executive Aaron Rosenberg largely was to blame for the troubles in Chicago. But Rosenberg has fired back, filing a counterclaim in Arizona Superior Court saying he was merely “carrying out orders.” Additionally, Rosenberg accuses the company of bestow-

By Chris Quintana

U.S. stocks tumble on emerging turmoil

The New Mexican

The private firm that operates the photoenforcement vehicles in Santa Fe has been under fire over allegations of bribery in Chicago, and new testimony from a whistle-blower alleges those same practices occurred in 13 other states,

The Dow, on Friday, saw its biggest one-day decline since June, plummeting 318 points. PAge A-2

ABSENT WITHOUT APPROVAL

Please see BRIBeRY, Page A-4

SAnTA Fe TRUAncY RePORT Santa Fe schools’ 201314 80-day attendance: Elementary schools E.J. Martinez: 92.38% Tesuque: 92.71% Acequia Madre: 92.72% Kearny: 93.02% Ramirez Thomas: 93.42% Chaparral: 93.61% Nava: 93.61%

Piñon: 93.63% Salazar: 93.63% Amy Biehl: 93.82% Sweeney: 94.06% Agua Fria: 94.22% Carlos Gilbert: 94.87% Wood Gormley: 95.16% El Dorado: 98.21% Community schools El Dorado: 98.21%

A photo-enforcement vehicle operated by Redflex is shown on U.S. 84/285 in 2009. NEW MExiCAN FiLE PHOTO

Jaramillo’s face missing from City Hall wall

Gonzales: 93.92% César Chávez: 93.24% Aspen Magnet: 91.27% Secondary schools Academy at Larragoite 51.62% Santa Fe High: 79.60% DeVargas Middle: 89.76% Capital High: 90.87% Ortiz Middle: 91.58% Capshaw Middle: 92.14%

Unconventional portrait of former mayor vanishes without a trace By Daniel J. Chacón

The New Mexican

Portraits of all of Santa Fe’s past mayors line one of the walls in City Hall. Arthur Seligman? Check. Ralph Emerson Twitchell? Check. George Gonzales? Sam Pick? Larry Delgado? Check. Check. Check. Debbie Jaramillo? Che…. A picture of Jaramillo, the city’s first female mayor, is missing from the wall. Why? Debbie “Mayor Jaramillo’s photograph Jaramillo was in the hallway with all the other mayors,” city spokeswoman Jodi McGinnis Porter said Friday. “The photograph was removed. It just disappeared one day.” Jaramillo had a stormy tenure at City Hall, where she was known for making ad hominem attacks on city councilors and anyone who challenged her. She also came under criticism after her brother, Isaac “Ike” Pino, who was city manager at the time, hired her brother-in-law as police chief. At one point, a local sign painter covered the sign outside City Hall with a sign reading “Jaramilloville Municipal Building.”

Santa Fe High School students are dismissed at the end of the school day on Friday. According to recent data, Santa Fe High’s attendance rate is just under 80 percent. CLyDE MuELLER/THE NEW MExiCAN

Lawmakers propose bill that suspends truant’s driving privileges By Robert Nott The New Mexican

N

early one-third of Santa Fe’s public high school students and about 1 in 5 elementary and middle school students are habitually truant, according to a new report by the school district. According to state regulations, a student is habitually truant if he or she has accumulated 10 or more days of unexcused absences

within an academic year. Based on state data, 51,034 of New Mexico’s 335,000 public school students — some 15 percent — were classified as habitually truant in 2011-12, according to the report. In Santa Fe, many schools are maintaining attendance rates of at least 90 percent, which might sound high, but that means many students still could be missing up to 17 days a year, and therefore would be classified as habitually truant, explained Richard Bowman, the school district’s director of account-

Please see JARAMILLO, Page A-4

ability and achievement. Santa Fe Public Schools wants all of its schools to attain a 95 percent student attendance rate. Right now, however, only three schools are accomplishing that goal. The news comes as two state legislators — Sen. Craig Brandt, R-Rio Rancho, and Rep. Larry Larrañaga, R-Albuquerque, are proposing a bill that would suspend driving privileges for teens who violate the state’s compulsory school attendance law by being

Ex-Mayor Debbie Jaramillo’s photograph is missing from a wall of portraits of past mayors at City Hall.

Please see TRUAncY, Page A-4

DANiEL J. CHACóN THE NEW MExCAN

Grim search continues

Climate change sweeps away ski shop

Thursday’s fire killed at least eight elderly residents at a Quebec retirement center, and 30 are still missing.

Store owner: Santa Fe Mountain Sports a victim of drought

PAge A-3

By Staci Matlock The New Mexican

Pasapick

Obituaries Leo David Maes, 63 PAge A-10

www.pasatiempomagazine.com

Santa Fe Pro Musica Music of Vaughan Williams, Barber, and Beethoven, featuring violinist Cármelo de los Santos, 6 p.m., Lensic Performing Arts Center, 211 W. San Francisco St., $20-$65, 988-1234, ticketssantafe.org. More events in Calendar, A-2 and Fridays in Pasatiempo

Index

Calendar A-2

Classifieds B-7

Today Partly sunny. High 52, low 25. PAge A-12

Comics B-12

Kendel Fesenmyer stood among the ski wear and “store closing” banners at Santa Fe Mountain Sports, holding a helmet she was buying for her daughter. She wondered where she would go now for the kind of personalized attention she and her family had received at the locally owned store for the last 18 years. “They always knew what they were doing, and they were always helpful,” Fesenmyer said. “It concerns me that local businesses are having such a tough time.” Co-owner Dan McCarthy told employees and customers about the closing Thursday. There is

Lotteries A-2

Opinion A-11

Michael Svoboda, 21, waxes a pair of skis at Santa Fe Mountain Sports on Friday. The shop is closing after 18 years, owner Dan McCarthy says. JANE PHiLLiPS/THE NEW MExiCAN

no definitive date for the store to close its doors, he said, but it will be around the time Ski Santa Fe closes in early April. McCarthy said the fine snowy years he had enjoyed in Santa Fe in the 1970s and 1980s dwindled

Police notes A-10

Editor: Ray Rivera, 986-3033, rrivera@sfnewmexican.com Design and headlines: Dennis Rudner, drudner@sfnewmexican.com

Sports B-1

Time Out B-11

shortly after the store opened. The store survived the advent of the Internet and online shopping, and even the opening of mega-outdoor sports giant REI. But it faced a bigger challenge. “Climate change has been

Life & Science A-9

Main office: 983-3303 Late paper: 986-3010

the biggest factor,” he said. “We’ve been in a drought for the last several years. … We’ve been swimming upstream for 18 years. Now, finally, we’re getting swept away,” he said. Santa Fe Mountain Sports caters to people who pretty much live to ski, snowboard or mountain bike whenever they have free time and money to spare. Fesenmyer said it has provided a place to shop for serious high-end gear and clothes. Longtime customers Kenny and Caren Kahn said they trusted owners Dan and Annie McCarthy and staff. “For 18 years, Dan’s known how I ski,” Kenny Kahn said. “Every recommendation he made was right.” McCarthy, a ski racer and 30-year ski coach, said it’s been tough going since the day they

Please see SKI, Page A-4

Two sections, 24 pages TV Book, 32 pages 165th year, No. 25 Publication No. 596-440


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