Former Española police Chief Louis Carlos holds a banner of his son Aaron Carlos on Wednesday on Cerrillos Road with an empty light pole behind him where veterans banners once hung. Aaron Carlos is a disabled veteran from the war in Afghanistan and the family honored him with a Hometown Heroes banner. The city has not hung the banners this year due to concerns the poles would blow over.
Supporters of the Hometown Heroes program, which honors veterans with banners, rally Wednesday evening outside City Hall. The banners have not been hung this year after City Manager John Blair raised liability concerns.
Jeff Dieringer unrolls a banner with his father’s image at his Santa Fe home on Wednesday afternoon. The banner has not been hung this year on streetlight poles after the city raises liability concerns.
Former Española police Chief Louis Carlos holds a banner of his son Aaron Carlos on Wednesday on Cerrillos Road with an empty light pole behind him where veterans banners once hung. Aaron Carlos is a disabled veteran from the war in Afghanistan and the family honored him with a Hometown Heroes banner. The city has not hung the banners this year due to concerns the poles would blow over.
When former Española police Chief Louis Carlos was looking for a way to honor his son’s military sacrifice, he came upon the Hometown Heroes program, in which family members can hang banners displaying veterans’ names and likenesses on streetlight poles around the city.
His son Aaron Carlos had suffered injuries during the war in Afghanistan that left him disabled. He was ecstatic about the honor, his father said.
That happiness turned to “complete denial” after he learned the banners would not be erected due to safety concerns, said Louis Carlos, a former Santa Fe police captain.
“It doesn’t make sense,” he said.
Carlos was one of more than 150 people who congregated Wednesday evening outside City Hall and filled the City Council chambers to show support for the veteran program, whose future has been uncertain since June 7, when City Manager John Blair announced the banners would not be installed because they could cause problems with streetlight poles.
Don Christy, a U.S. Air Force veteran who helped spearhead Santa Fe’s version of the national program, had put out a call ahead of Wednesday’s meeting for other members of the veteran community to show their support.
As city councilors discussed a recommendation to construct a sanctioned homeless encampment at the largely vacant midtown campus on St. Michael’s Drive, veterans and supporters from as far away as Albuquerque gathered in front of City Hall and roamed into the council chambers, where the governing body was meeting. They were carrying banners.
Supporters of the Hometown Heroes program, which honors veterans with banners, rally Wednesday evening outside City Hall. The banners have not been hung this year after City Manager John Blair raised liability concerns.
“Mr. Mayor, three weeks ago on a Zoom call heard by at least seven other people, you asked the American Legion to call off the wolves,” Christy said during a public comment period of the council meeting.
“Well Mr. Mayor, here are those wolves, and I will let you tell them yourselves,” he added, pointing to scores of people waiting to speak.
Carmella Quintana, commander of American Legion/Lucero Y Nava Post 12, held a banner with the image of her father, Peter Quintana.
“Stop asking veterans who have already served their country and continue to serve their communities to do more,” she said. “Haven’t they done enough?”
Former City Councilor JoAnne Vigil Coppler, who had sponsored the resolution initiating the banner program, told the council it was “the craziest thing” that city officials were “back to square one.”
City officials have voiced a desire to find an alternative site for the banners, such as displaying them in the Railyard District, although it was unclear how many poles are available there.
Officials also have discussed a different type of honor for veterans if the banners could not be installed.
Elaine Lavadie, who purchased a banner for her mother, said her mother was moved to tears when she saw her banner hanging along Cerrillos Road and was not in favor of moving the banners to the Railyard.
“There is no better way to spend a summer evening or a sunny afternoon than driving along Cerrillos Road, looking at all the banners,” she said.
Jeff Dieringer unrolls a banner with his father’s image at his Santa Fe home on Wednesday afternoon. The banner has not been hung this year on streetlight poles after the city raises liability concerns.
City officials who determined the program created liability issues have relied in part on an email from Hapco, the manufacturer of the light poles, that said the poles were not designed to hold banners.
Blair said there have been discussions on whether other agencies would be willing to take on the liability if the banners were erected.
Gary Logsdon, a district officer with the Veterans of Foreign Wars in New Mexico, said he couldn’t understand how a vinyl banner could pull down a light pole.
“This council made a wonderful decision before to put the banners up,” he said. “I’m asking: Make another wonderful decision to put them up.”
Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza, who touted his family’s military experience, said the banners didn’t just represent the veterans but the families as well.
“I can’t think of a better way for the city of Santa Fe to honor these veterans and their families,” he said. “Especially during a time where our young adults are struggling to find role models.
“When these banners go back up, all they would have to do is drive down Cerrillos Road or
St. Francis [Drive] and look up and see these banners,” he said.
Sandra Archuleta, daughter of Korean War veteran Rolando Romero, said she was hoping the city would reconsider its stance and install the banners.
“These are our veterans that have served all of us,” she said. “They deserve our honor; they deserve our respect.”
In an interview prior to Wednesday’s meeting, Louis Carlos said he is still hopeful the city and the veterans community will find a solution, but he “isn’t holding his breath.”
“It has been nothing more than a stalemate in resolving this,” he said.
Santa Fe police officers lack sufficient time for proactive policing due to persistent vacancies, according to a department workload and staffing assessment presented Wednesday to the City Council.
California-based Matrix Consulting Group found officers spend an overwhelming majority of their time responding to calls, while they should strive to use at least 40 percent on proactive controls. For many of the shifts, proactive time was reported as zero to 38 percent of an officer's time.
According to the report, the department would need at least 75 officers for patrols; currently it has 83 patrol positions but 19 vacancies.
The department would have to add at least 28 sworn officers and eight new civilian positions over the next 10 years to address an expected 21 percent increase in call volume, the report added.
Sean P. Thomas, The New Mexican
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