A Note on Free Speech
The City Manager spoke a lot about the oath we took in our last meeting. The main part of said oath was to protect and uphold the Constitution of the United States of America and the Constitution of the State of New Mexico. In these documents is laid out the freedom of speech, our most fundamental right as a nation.which is as follows in the US Constitution.
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
The New Mexico Constitution expands on this even further.
"Every person may freely speak, write and publish his sentiments on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of that right; and no law shall be passed to restrain or abridge the liberty of speech or of the press."
The spirit of these documents was meant to maximize these rights, our nation was founded by men who painted in broad strokes, not Bureacrats who used the restraints of legal language to bend the public to their will. This is why when my ancestors like Julian LeDoux and Felipe LeDoux took up arms against the Confederates to eliminate the horrors of slavery during the civil war, it was to honor the spirit of the law of freedom.
The City Manager said I should be ashamed for "platforming" said people by not censoring them and dialoguing with them about their concerns. Invoking my oath to supposedly defend the reputation of the city government. (which isn't in the oath) I'm sorry but it is he who should be ashamed. Who openly toys with the idea of silencing his critics. First by saying we need an ethics committee to investigate me for posting my opinions on Facebook. To saying we need to consider eliminating public input at City council meetings.
When I have to hear rumors and complaints about micromanaging of employees rights to post on Facebook in their private time, that is disgusting. The Government is the only employer in this country where your right to criticize it is not only legal, but explicitly written into law. If these employees are not doing things that make their job impossible to do then they should have every right to say how they feel and I would encourage the union to look into this. Only appointees serve at the will of the political arm of this body. That is people like you Mr. Lujan.
I serve at the will of the people of District 4, who elected me to work in their best interests. They are our boss, not you or the Mayor. When you have openly said you will not work with me because you personally dislike what I say in public, you are not doing your job.
This administration's actions to limit the ability for the public to engage with their government simply because their feelings get hurt by what and how something is said is wrong. We need to be honest and stop using the excuse of the hack of our YouTube's Google account to why live streams have ended. It's becoming more apparent by the day that this was more than likely done to limit access about what is discussed in our meetings from the public and press.
This December will be the anniversary of when we discontinued broadcasting of meetings. Unfortunately, this limiting has worked, we do receive less feedback from the public, and our meetings are covered less by the press. We are not held accountable for mistakes that happen in our meetings; like the completely inappropriate accusations that were made against the City of Roswell for supposedly bussing homeless people to our community made by the City Manager. Who has still yet to apologize both to us on the Governing Body nor the City of Roswell and their Governing Body and the Pueblo of Pojoaque.
The Mayor also speaks often about how supposedly one bad apple is the reason more restrictions are needed. He is of course referring to Steven Lona, who's profanity filled rants at our meetings have happened for the last few years. Mr. Vigil, our democracy is not a kindergarten class, we don't limit rights of the entire community because someone was rude. I don't like Lona's profanity or yelling but we are hardly the only governing body that has to deal with someone like him. Engaging with people like him and poking the bear only encourages this type of behavior in my experience in constituent services and serving on several boards through our my life. Your best course of action would've been to just let him rant until he got bored and stopped attending meetings. Instead at every opportunity you've made him a martyr, now the only way the public has access to our meetings online is through him. Instead of silencing him you made him a gate keeper.
To the people of Española, I will honor my oath and continue to fight for your right to criticize us and tell us how you feel. I'll honor the spirit of our constitution and look for ways to expand this right and your access. If it gets my name dragged through the mud by people like the Mayor and City Manager, so be it. People fought and died for these rights, they deserve brave servants willing to defend them.
