Santa Fe City Councilor Matt Ortiz gave SFR a look at a binder showing the expenses and revenues of Santa Fe 400th Anniversary, Inc, the largely public-funded non-profit organization that’s staging events for the celebration. In SFR’s earlier reporting on the anniversary budget, 400th Executive Director Libby Dover declined to share such details. But now that the non-profit, aka “the committee,” is asking the city for another $750,000—see the New Mex story today—they didn’t have much choice but to open their books.

Some highlights:

Dover makes $10,000 a month!

The other five employees average $4,000 a month. Not bad considering the local average.

Salaries aside, it’s a pretty bare-bones operation.

The chair of the committee (Maurice Bonal) has his own office at $300 a month. For what? Meeting with all those corporate sponsors they don’t have?

Whoever manages the committee’s decent-looking but content-free website (the registered administrative and technical contact is Bonal) is pulling $2,100 a month. Hmm… (Their graphic designer has a pretty good gig, too.)

The committee expects to bring in under $200,000 in revenue from events.

One more after the cut.
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In case of emergency, break glass: Inside Railyard Co LLC's "offices"

SFR has learned that one of the principals in the company that wants taxpayers to help build a cinema in the Railyard has been charged several times with writing bad checks. Railyard Co LLC principal Richard J Jaramillo was also sued last year by his ex-wife and the New Mexico Human Services Department for child support, and has had the police called to his house more than once regarding domestic violence.

A resolution coming before the Santa Fe City Council’s Finance Committee tonight would begin the process of issuing a $35.4 million bond to build a movie theater in the Railyard, and authorize the city manager to negotiate with Railyard Co.

Why would the taxpayers entrust millions to a company whose leadership includes a man repeatedly charged with failing to meet his financial obligations? Incredibly, despite all the controversy that has surrounded the idea of a Railyard cinema, no one has asked this question.

And it was a question Jaramillo himself was unprepared to answer when SFR reached him by phone on Oct. 16.

“Please put the comment in writing,” Jaramillo said. “I’m an individual that’s part of a company, OK?…I’m only part of the company.”

According to Jaramillo and Marco Gonzales, an attorney and “member” of the Railyard Co partnership, both the Journal Santa Fe and the Santa Fe New Mexican agreed to conduct interviews by email, ostensibly so that the other principals, including Allen Branch and Steve Duran, could agree on a response.

“We took a vote that we will answer any media responsively and quickly so everybody has a chance to comment,” Jaramillo says.

Of course, Jaramillo’s partners may not know all the answers.

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“Neither a borrower nor lender be” suggested Polonius in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. But the City of Santa Fe will be juggling both ends of that teeter-totter if it can bring a Hail Mary save to the desperate situation at the College of Santa Fe.

City Councilor’s Miguel Chavez, Rebecca Wurzburger and Rosemary Romero are co-sponsors of a resolution to direct city staff to negotiate a deal to pay off the College of Santa Fe’s debt and purchase the school. The plan was instigated by Mayor David Coss and, with three amendments, it passed the council’s finance committee unanimously on April 20.

The resolution will now be heard at the April 29 City Council meeting, where Councilor Matthew Ortiz—chairman of the finance committee, expects it will again pass unanimously. That’s when the hard work will start.

“All this does is authorize a negotiation,” Ortiz says. “That’s it.” A wide array of issues could derail the process at any point. If the end result is the council convening to consider issuing a general revenue bond in excess of $35 million dollars—which is likely—that act will require a supermajority of the council: six out of eight votes.

Six councilors attended the April 20 finance meeting and all expressed their support for saving the College of Santa Fe (and its tenant, the Santa Fe Art Institute). However, among the amendments to the resolution was strict language that the net cost to the city be zero. At the same time the city considers issuing a bond, it will be negotiating with an entity to operate the school—and pay for the privilege. Although the College of Santa Fe has had recent flirtations with New Mexico Highlands University, University of New Mexico and New Mexico State University, those plans were scuttled when the state legislature declined to create a path that would enable state purchase of the private school.

The most likely candidate to step in at this point is Laureate Education, Inc., the for-profit global consortium of schools that left the college in the lurch last November. Mayor Coss told SFR that he has had initial contact with Laureate and has confirmed its willingness to come in as a lessee and operator. If a deal can be struck in which the lease amount that Laureate pays covers any bond obligation incurred by the City, the deal is likely to go through in the end.

But that’s a big “if.” Among the current vagaries enumerated as issues by the finance committee were the as yet untallied amount of deferred maintenance (rumored to be between $5 and $20 million) at the CSF campus and to what extent the State of New Mexico and other entities may participate in the rescue or utilize campus space. At this point, emphasized Mayor Coss, it’s easy to see a situation in which the pro-forma works out and it’s easy to see the development of a financial gap that simply can’t be bridged.

If the council approves the resolution on April 25, negotiations are expected to take 60 to 90 days. If the council agreed to issue a bond at that point, a minimum of an additional 60 days would be required before funds would be available. Coss says he hopes that any negotiations (with Laureate or otherwise) would result in a lessee ensuring that the College of Santa Fe be open for the start of the fall semester, in advance of the city funds being available.

Coss has been serving on a task force created by the Governor to consider all options for the fate of CSF. The task force is scheduled to complete a report of its own on April 30. Some members, including Santa Fe Community College president Sheila Ortego have cautioned that the city’s rescue effort may be moving too fast.

“As far as I know, everyone else has the same news that I do: the College of Santa Fe is closing on May 22,” Coss says. “Just how much slower should we be moving?”

Frightening e-mail subject line in my mailbox this morning: ‘matthew_ortiz is now following you.’

What? I’m being stalked by a city councilor?

Ortiz’s also watching Zane, Julia and Corey–using Twitter. Yes, Councilor Ortiz has gulped the Kool Aid and is now tweeting (see lefthand tool bar – it’s microblogging, yo).

Follow him here: twitter.com/matthew_ortiz.

Rockwell’s Somebody’s Watching Me, here.