Independent opinion
No lease on the will of the people

Our infamous mayor, Harry Mendoza, has once again shown Gallup residents that the will of the people is immaterial.

Harry has taken steps to make sure that the council do it his way, even though the majority of the council members oppose him.

The issue centers around the Southwest Indian Foundation, a non-profit agency that sells Native American products and uses the profits to help poor and disadvantaged Natives in this area by repairing their homes, providing them with furnaces, etc.

No one doubts that this area is better for SWIF being here, but the mayor has this idea that the organization is cheating the residents of Gallup by trying to get out of paying the city for the utilities it uses at the Gallup Cultural Center, which it has occupied for the past 14 years.

Back in 1995, the building was known as the Old Santa Fe Railroad Station and the city and the state — mostly the state — put in hundreds of thousands of dollars to renovate it and make it into a transportation center for the community.

Despite this, most of the building was vacant and city officials were trying to think what to do with it. It would still cost hundreds of thousands to finish the project, and the city had neither the money nor the need for the building. What they hoped was that some organization would step up and take the building off their hands.

At this point, officials for SWIF stepped up and offered to take over the building. The city jumped at the chance because they didn’t know what else they could do with the building and the ideas expressed by SWIF officials seemed like good ones.

After a long-term agreement was established, the Southwest Indian Foundation completed an interactive Storyteller Museum with dioramas, the Masters Gallery, and the Kiva Cinema on the second floor. The front door entry way, gift shop, and cafe were completed on the ground floor.

Numerous additions, beautifications, art displays, tile and carpet, fixtures and historic photos from the Harvey House archives and antiques were also contributed. A large sign structure, sculptures, and enhancements were added outside.

For 14 years, SWIF has run a deficit in operating the Gallup Cultural Center. Out of pocket expenses to SWIF has run over $150,000 a year. If one includes projects, services, and catalog promotions for the city and the area, the amount is close to $400,000 a year.

But Mendoza ignores the good SWIF does for the community and instead keeps on harping that it costs the city $30,000 a year to provide utilities to the cultural center.

The fact that SWIF doesn’t pay the utilities, he said, is a slap in the face to decent residents who have to pay for their utilities.

It’s amazing that Mendoza would actually say something like this since these decent residents have to put up with the fact every day that the man they elected to represent them has been lying about his involvement in the gang rape of a 17-year-old Native girl. Talk about a slap in the face to decent people!

Speaking of slaps in the faces, what about the way he treated his fellow council members, Allan Landavazo and Mike Enfield? These two were given the responsibility of negotiating a fair lease between the city and SWIF, and in the opinion of most city residents, including three of the four council members, they did just that.

But it wasn’t what Mendoza wanted, and instead of listening carefully to what the council members were saying, he decided since they didn’t do what he wanted, he would just veto their approval, leaving the whole situation up in the air.

Sounds like the cries of that young woman again are being ignored. While she and now Gallup scream for help Harry holds her (read:Gallup) down and says it is his way.

In vetoing the vote, Mendoza has made fools out of both Landavazo and Enfield, showing them he doesn’t want them to do what is right for the city. Their negotiations are right.

Any reasonable person would realize that the lease is a good one for the city, but no one has ever called Mendoza fair and reasonable, or ethical for that matter. Or honest. Or any of the other virtues that city voters would want to see in their mayor. How ethical and honest is Harry since he runs from punishment and lets his fellow gang rapist take the punishment?

Instead, here’s a man who started out his life in Gallup involved in what law enforcement officials were saying was one of the worst crimes the judicial system had heard. But Mendoza, who was charged in that rape, took the coward’s way out and showed he had no integrity, no character.

Instead of facing the charges as the others who were charged did, he ran away — away from his responsibility and away from a community that wanted justice.

When he won election a little more than 30 months ago, most Gallup residents had forgotten or had no knowledge of the gang rape and Mendoza’s involvement in it. If they had, we can’t imagine that anyone would have put their trust in him.

But since becoming mayor, we have seen Mendoza ignore the people who voted him in and take actions that have resulted in him raping this community like that young Native woman was raped. He has rejected the will of the people and with the decision to veto the action of the council, he has rejected the council as well. The cries for help go unheeded.

And as long as Mendoza has Azua ,who has as much if not more to hide as Harry, on his side, he’ll continue to rape and run Gallup with an iron fist. Since it now takes all four council members to overturn a veto, Azua’s decision to tun his back on his constituents and Gallup and follow Mendoza no matter where he goes means that as long as Mendoza is mayor, Gallup doesn’t have a mayor-council form of government.

What it has is a dictatorship with Mendoza continuing to plunder and rape without anyone having any ability to say no.

It is time for the entire council to say no to this hideous man and return integrity back to the people of Gallup. Do what is right for Gallup and let the negotiated lease go through.