Decision on Mount Taylor emergency meeting
AG: It was illegal
[photo by Brian Leddy / Independent]

Ruling says property owners,
lessees not properly notified

By Helen Davis
Cibola County Bureau

SANTA FE — The state attorney general’s office issued a ruling last week determining that the Feb. 22 emergency meeting that designated 600 square miles of Mount Taylor as traditional cultural property for one year was held illegally.

A May 8 letter from the attorney general’s office to the Historic Division said that notification before the meeting, held in Albuquerque, was inadequate and in violation of the New Mexico 1978 Open Meeting Act.

The ruling renders all action taken in the February meeting invalid; Mount Taylor cannot at this time be considered a state traditional cultural property, even on a temporary basis.
The Historic Division must call another meeting, with proper notice; produce a summary of comments made at the February meeting and retake the vote if it wants to designate the mountain an emergency TCP status.

The attorney general’s office ruled that notice to property owners and lessees in the designated area was inadequate, although it found that notification to the media followed the letter of the OMA guidelines.

Estevan Rael-Galvez, chairman, Cultural Properties Review Committee, said “It (the decision) does surprise me a little.”

Rael-Galvez previously told the Independent that he wants the committee to be transparent and the public involved.

“It has never been our intention to obscure the work of preservation. If we need to work harder to fix the (notification) system, to make it more transparent, we will,” he said upon hearing of the decision.

The chairman added that as long as the committee was under his management, he would insist on making a better notification system. “We need a better process,” he said and added, “We want to do the right thing. Manipulation has never been the intention of this body.”

Rael-Galvez said that since the attorney general decided the meeting was in violation of state law, the committee would hold the meeting again and make sure people were notified.
Even if the review committee again votes to award the temporary TCP designation to parts of Mount Taylor, homeowners, campers, hikers, hunters, other recreational users and fuel and nut gatherers will not find their access limited.

The designation will assist the forest service and other agencies in evaluating the impact that development such as roads, communication towers, exploratory drilling and mining would have on the mountain.

Requests for development permits will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis, with more attention to cultural impact than is currently given.

Cibola County Manger and state Sen. David Ulibarri, D-Grants, who filed the complaint with the attorney general’s office in late February, said he was aware of the decision but had not received official notice and would release a statement today.