Taos Ski Valley drug sweep blamed on quotas

By Andy Stiny / Journal Staff Writer

    Last month’s controversial drug sweep at Taos Ski Valley was the result of U.S. Forest Service officers trying to make an annual quota for citations, contends a federal worker advocacy group that released two memos from the Forest Service on Monday.

    In one memo, issued last November, a U.S. Forest Service official says the national leader of the agency’s law enforcement operation expected each officer to issue at least 100 citations a year – and that less than a third in the Southwest region had met that goal.

    Then three days after the Journal reported that Forest Service agents conducted the drug sweep on Feb. 22, which resulted in tickets for a number of minor violations including marijuana possession and traffic infractions, another memo came out.

    This one, from the Forest Service’s deputy director for law enforcement and investigations and dated March 4, said supervisors should make sure “no quotas are being developed” and that while officers’ performance measurements should be “meaningful,” they shouldn’t include ticket quotas or ” ‘expectations’ that can be construed as quotas.”

    The memos were released by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a Washington, D.C.-based whistle-blower protection group for federal workers.

...Aban Lucero, regional patrol commander for Forest Service law enforcement in Albuquerque, sent the November memo that seemed to set a 100-ticket annual quota to Forest Service patrol captains.

    Lucero wrote that David Farrell, the Forest Service’s national director of law enforcement and investigations, “has clearly indicated his expectations of LEOs (law enforcement officers) issuing a minimum number of 100 VNs (violation notices) per year.” Lucero added, “As you can see we have approximately 70 percent (of officers) who fall below that number.”

    “Please take a look at the numbers and share with your LEOs. You know better than I do if there is reason for concern,” Lucero’s memo said. He did not return a call for comment.

    The Journal’s article on the Taos Ski Valley drug sweep was published on March 1. On March 4, Tracy S. Perry, the Forest Service’s national deputy director for law enforcement, issued a memo about implementing performance plans and measures for officers.

    “To ensure there is no confusion,” Perry wrote, supervisors should ensure no quotas are developed and that “we should all be consistent in our messaging” that ticket quotas are not appropriate.

 ...A Rio Arriba County citizens group also has complained recently about Forest Service police actions.

The El Rito Citizens Caucus sent a letter Jan. 22 to U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who oversees the Forest Service, complaining about “Gestapo intimidation tactics” by the Forest Service against the people who live on land grants and in other parts of northern (New) Mexico, citing arrests for violations such as DWI, lack of car insurance or registration and similar violations.

    The letter said Forest Service agents can’t legally enforce state law without a commission from a sheriff. Rio Arriba Sheriff Tommy Rodella has declined to commission the federal agents.

    Mark Chavez, a Forest Service spokesman in Albuquerque, said in a prepared statement that Forest Service agents can in fact issue federal violation notices to enforce state law on Forest Service lands and roads, but also said the Forest Service “does not issue citations for violations of state law unless its law enforcement officers are deputized to do so.”

    “The violation notices recently issued by the Forest Service at the Taos Ski Valley for alleged motor vehicle violations were all federal violation notices,” Chavez added.

I commented on the original Albq. Journal article here.   I'd be curious to see which federal statute makes a "cracked windshield" a violation of federal law.

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

PEER spokesman calls for the dismissal of Forest Service LEI Director Ferrell

I've previously covered this issue here, here and here.

This is from an article by Andrew Oxford in Thursday's Taos News where Jeff Ruch of PEER calls for the dismissal of David Ferrell:

...Lucero’s communiqué was directly contradicted in a March 4 email from the agency’s deputy director of law enforcement and investigations. The message from Tracy Perry called on patrol commanders to ensure “no quotas are being developed” that would require officers to issue certain numbers of violation notices or other citations. Ruch described the email as “a classic cover-your-ass maneuver,” noting Perry’s communiqué was sent to Forest Service law enforcement officers mere days after the agency began to receive criticism for its saturation patrol in Taos Ski Valley. “He’s maintaining there aren’t quotas and to ignore the ones that exist,” Ruch told The Taos News, arguing Perry’s email demonstrated “the garbled message” that informs the work of Forest Service officers. The agency’s law enforcement personnel have lamented the pressure to meet quotas for citations and violation notices in surveys undertaken by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, Ruch said. A Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group, the organization is completing its annual survey of Forest Service staff and expect to find pressure mounting on the agency’s officers, he added.  “They need to change the leadership of that program,” Ruch told The Taos News, calling for the Forest Service to dismiss law enforcement and investigations director David Ferrell.

And here is the "cover-your-ass" email:




Tuesday, 3/4.

All,

We have discussed this before but to ensure that there is no confusion, as our individual Patrol

Captains are working with their LEOs to implement FY 14 Performance Plans/Measures, please

ensure that no quotas are being developed with regard to the minimum number of VNs, WNs and IRs that an LEO must issue. We want the performance measures to be meaningful, but they

should not include quotas for the number of VNs, WNs or IRs written (or “expectations” that can

be construed as quotas). Please discuss this with your Commanders and ensure that they are reviewing the performance plans as appropriate so that this does not occur. In addition, we should all be consistent in our messaging that quotas regarding the number of VNs, WNs and IRs issued are not appropriate. Thanks. TP

Tracy S. Perry

Deputy Director

Law Enforcement and Investigations

PEER's materials on this issue are here.  In spite of the Aban Lucero's email which says, “Understand, Director Ferrell has clearly indicated his expectations of LEOs issuing a minimum of 100 VNs per year...", the Forest Service is denying they have quotas.  U.S. Forest Service spokesman Larry Chambers released this statement Wednesday:

"The U.S. Forest Service is committed to quality police work on the lands we are charged with protecting, including fostering a relationship of trust with the communities we serve. In the spirit of that mission, the Forest Service does not require any citation quotas, and the agency has not issued formal or informal guidance to that effect. We are reviewing recent events in Taos and the coordination with both Taos Ski Valley and local authorities to assure that the Forest Service always handles these types of situations in the best way possible. Once the after action review of the operation there is completed, we will begin to implement recommendations. We take our mission to protect and serve very seriously, and view this as an opportunity to improve the way we partner with the communities where we live and work."

It appears to me the Forest Service does or did have quotas as part of their performance review.  It also appears to me their LEOs and the LEI division is the only part of the federal agency that's not into collaboration, collaboration, collaboration.  And they are the ones who need to practice it the most.  

Update:  The Albuq. Journal has an editorial posted online today, where they refer to "The Great Taos Dope Raid"  and write "the Saturday crowd was viewed as one big quota filling opportunity."

Forest Service officials visit Taos Ski Valley to probe drug sweep

by Andrew Oxford

    A senior Forest Service law enforcement official will visit Taos Ski Valley this week to meet with local leaders as the agency conducts an internal review of a controversial operation in the resort community Feb. 22 that prompted complaints from tourists and residents alike.
    Capt. Cheri Bowen, from Coronado National Forest, and a "review team" will address concerns about the operation with the officers involved as well as executives, municipal officials and former Gov. Gary Johnson, who is a resident of the community.

    The visit, scheduled April 2-5, comes as Forest Service officials backpedaled on the incident and resort executives advised staff swept up in the saturation patrol to await the agency's internal review before paying any citations.

    "The intent of the visit is to determine what happened, what worked well, what didn’t work well, and what can be done better next time," Forest Service spokesperson Larry Chambers told The Taos News.

    The review was prompted by a slew of complaints and questions surrounding a saturation patrol at the resort during which four Forest Service Law Enforcement and Investigations personnel accompanied by a drug-sniffing dog issued 13 violation notices including five for possession of marijuana and one for illegal possession of prescription drugs. Three notices were also issued for expired motor vehicle registrations, two for speeding, one for driving without insurance and one for passing in a no passing zone.

    The officers also issued four verbal warnings.

    The sight of federal agents leading a drug-sniffing dog around vehicles in the ski area's parking lot and the unusually heavy traffic enforcement along State Road 150 rankled local residents as well as the visitors upon whom the area's economy depends.

    "People felt threatened, bullied, and because of this intimidation, felt violated and that they had no choice but to comply...," Taos Ski Valley Mayor Neal King wrote in a March 4 letter to a Forest Service Law Enforcement and Investigations official.

    The village did not dispute the right of federal authorities to patrol Forest Service land within the municipality, he added, nor did he dispute the constitutionality of the officers' actions Feb. 22.

    But King expressed frustration with the method in which the operation was conducted, writing that officers were "not personable and/or polite, but overbearing and aloof."

    Local leaders also felt caught off guard by federal law enforcement with the mayor adding officials "had no information for the reasoning behind the operation and [were] unable to give any positive responses to the many inquiries we received during and after this event."

    The ordeal left Taos Ski Valley, Inc. CEO Gordon Briner with one big question.

    "The thing we keep asking is who ordered this. Who thought this was a great idea?" he told The Taos News Monday (March 31), remarking that he had not seen anything like the Feb. 22 operation in his 16 years at the resort.

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

Forest Service probes ski area drug raid

Residents and business owners in Taos Ski Valley say the “swaggering” demeanor and heavily armed presence of a U.S. Forest Service law enforcement officer assigned to the ski area may have set the tone for a controversial drug sweep that now has the agency investigating itself. Jackie Banks of the Forest Service’s Kaibab National Forest in Arizona, along with Cheri Bowen, a law enforcement patrol captain also from Arizona, are part of an “After Action Review Team” that arrived in the ski valley on Thursday to meet with valley officials and residents about what happened on Feb. 22. Ski area chief operating officer Gordon Briner, village of Taos Ski Valley Mayor Neal King and village administrator Mark Fratrick met with Bowen, Banks and another review team member on Thursday afternoon. “Whatever their findings are, they are going to put it out to the press,” Briner said. He said the question of who ordered the drug sweep was one of the things discussed. “That is high on their list of things to identify.” Banks said in a telephone interview later she could not say who ordered the operation and that’s part of the review. “We want to make this as transparent as possible,” she said. “We’ve never experienced anything like this at Taos Ski Valley in the past as far back as anyone can remember,” said Briner. The review team will complete a draft report on the drug raid but it’s unknown how long that will take. “We are working quickly, this is important to us both personally and professionally,” said Banks. She and Bowen said that, following their site visit Thursday, they’ll talk to more people by phone if necessary. Several valley business operators, including Kent Forte, who manages the Edelweiss Lodge and Spa and is on the board of the Taos Ski Valley Chamber of Commerce, cited the attitude and behavior of a particular Forest Service officer as problematic. Forte did not know the officer’s name but said, “there is a new Forest Service guy up here who seems kind of power hungry.” “I’ve seen him around and he’s always wearing a bullet-proof vest and packing a lot of heat,” said Forte. Business owner and chamber board member Bob Reminger said, “there’s a local guy who is just way gung-ho.” Bowen identified the Forest Service Law Enforcement Officer assigned to the ski valley as Tommy Barr...more

Taos Ski Valley drug sweep by Forest Service ruffles feathers

One Carson National Forest employee has been called a Nazi, former Gov. Gary Johnson is on the warpath and there have been numerous other complaints because of a drug sweep by Forest Service agents at Taos Ski Valley last week. In short, the agency is catching some serious grief for an operation in which four agents with a drug dog issued several citations and confiscated “possession amounts” of marijuana in a “saturation patrol” that included the ski valley parking area and nearby roads. And the Forest Service is doing some serious backpedaling. We’ve had “many, many complaints,” said Kathy DeLucas, a Carson National Forest spokeswoman. She said her office had no prior knowledge of the Feb. 22 operation and that the impetus for the sweep came from Forest Service law enforcement in Albuquerque. The ski valley operates on Carson National Forest lands. Robin Poague of the Albuquerque office and special agent in charge for Forest Service’s Southwestern Region said he’s “not sure who actually made the decision” to conduct the drug sweep. That individual may be away on a training assignment, he said. “I don’t agree with the tone that was set by the officers there,” said Poague. Asked what he meant, he said, “I think there were too many officers up there. … We are taking a look at it and the unintended consequences of public perception.” Poague described the operation as a “saturation patrol” and it was his understanding that, prior to the raid, “they had some issues up there,” apparently some sort of altercation. “I am definitely conducting an inquiry as to what happened up there,” he added. He said he’s aware of the number of complaints to the Taos office “and that’s led to my concern.” Ski valley marketing director and vice-president Chris Stagg said he didn’t witness the officers in action but employees and guests complained to him and other ski valley officials. “They didn’t show respect to people,” said Stagg. “Clearly, I thought the officers, their demeanor was rude and out of line.” One consequence of all this, according to DeLucas, was that a Taos employee of the national forest “went into the grocery store in her Forest Service uniform and was called a Nazi. So it’s affecting all of us.” Apparently, “there was a cancer fundraising event and youth event” going on at the ski valley when the officers and their dog made their appearance on a Saturday, she said. Former Gov. Johnson, who lives at Taos Ski Valley, said he was outraged. Johnson said he got first-hand accounts of the raid from a dozen people. He was told the officers had to muzzle their “dog because this dog even bit one of its handlers. This dog was in the face of young children.”...more

And just a few miles north in Colo. recreation use of weed is legal.  They didn't show "respect" and their "demeanor was rude"...rural New Mexicans know all about that.  These were the results of their "saturation patrol":

The Forest Service officers issued five violation notices for marijuana possession, one for illegal possession of prescription drugs and others for traffic or vehicle equipment violations. There also were verbal warnings for things like cracked windshields, said Poague. No “traffickable amounts” of pot were found, he said.

Illegal prescription drugs?  Traffic and vehicle equipment violations?  Cracked windshields?  That's what we pay Forest Service officers for?  Keep that in mind the next time you see an article about them not having enough money to protect federal lands.  Some folks need to go talk to the Sheriff as he could put a stop to this nonsense right away.

DuBois Column

My column this month covers marijuana, cracked windshields, jaguars and chickens

Smokey Is The Bandit

Forest Service law enforcement can take on a lone rancher, like Kit Laney, and there is not much reaction.  But issue some tickets to folks on the Taos ski slopes and you generate national headlines.

On February 22 four Forest Service LEOs and a drug sniffing dog performed what they call a “saturation patrol” at Taos Ski Valley.  They issued tickets for possession of marijuana and for having illegal prescription drugs.  Did they find crack cocaine?  No, it was for cracked windshields that they issued tickets.  According to news reports this “saturation patrol” took place while there was a youth event and a fund raising event for cancer patients taking place.

An official with Taos Ski Valley says the LEOs “didn’t show respect to people” and “…I thought the officers, their demeanor was rude and out of line.”  Urban New Mexico residents, say “howdy” to what rural residents have been putting up with for years.

Former Governor Gary Johnson, who lives at Taos Ski Valley said he wanted to know “who is ordering this and why?”  Well Governor, the answer is apparently centered round one word…quotas. 

The Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) has released an email from Aban Lucero, the Patrol Commander for the Southwest Region of the Forest Service, to his patrol captains which states in part: 

Understand, Director Ferrell has clearly indicated his expectations of LEOs issuing a minimum of 100 VNs per year, and as you can see we have approximately 70% of LEOs…who fall below that number. For FY 14, I expect these numbers to increase substantially.

If it walks and talks like a duck, it’s probably a duck…or in this case a quota.   

A spokesman for PEER says, "It's a unique law enforcement position to protect public land, protect our nature and forests, we shouldn't be turning them into ticket dispensing machines to focus on minor city cop type crimes."  Amen. 

I should point out the Forest Service Law Enforcement & Investigations unit is a separate and independent entity that reports directly to the Chief.  They were ripped out from under line managers in 1993, and it’s high time they were returned to that status.

Jaguars

Under a rule recently finalized by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service jaguars will have 1,194 square miles of critical habitat in southern Arizona and New Mexico for their recovery.  The designation includes the Baboquivari, Pajarito, Atascosa, Tumacacori, Patagonia, Santa Rita and Huachuca mountain ranges in Arizona; the Peloncillo Mountains that straddle the Arizona/New Mexico border; and the northern tip of the San Luis Mountains in New Mexico’s bootheel region.

The Arizona Game and Fish Department does not support the designation.  Assistant Director for Wildlife Management Jim deVos states, “I find it difficult to justify designating critical habitat for a species that is so rarely found in Arizona. In looking at the available data on the presence of jaguars, there has been no documentation of a female jaguar in Arizona for nearly a century. There have been long periods when no jaguar was even found in the state. Such designations should be based on good science and effective conservation, which are both lacking with this designation. This designation does nothing to further the conservation of the jaguar.” The department says the closest breeding population of jaguars is approximately 130 miles south of the international border between Arizona and Sonora, Mexico. Further, for many decades, the observations of jaguars in Arizona have been individual males, which clearly do not constitute a “population” given the lack of females and/or breeding pairs according to the department.  “With the absence of any documented breeding pairs in the U.S. for many decades and with an estimated population of no less than 30,000 jaguars and more than 99 percent of the jaguar’s range occurring outside of the United States, the Service’s recent declaration of critical habitat undermines the congressional intent for the Endangered Species Act (ESA),” says Larry Voyles, Arizona Game and Fish Department director.

Jaguars were placed on the federal endangered species list in 1997

Don’t Chicken Out

According to a release from the Western Caucus, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (WAFWA) have signed the Range-wide Oil and Gas Industry Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances for the Lesser Prairie-Chicken (CCAA), along with an accompanying environmental assessment. The agreement between USFWS, WAFWA, and the five range states allows private landowners who develop oil and gas on their lands to voluntarily enroll into the CCAA. Upon entering the CCAA, participants will pay mitigation fees when they perform certain actions that impact the lesser prairie-chicken or its habitat. These fees will then be used for conservation purposes.   

“I want to commend FWS for working with the five range states to approve the Lesser Prairie-Chicken Oil and Gas CCAA,” said Chairman Steve Pearce. “This decision will provide certainty for private landowners as they continue to exercise their rights to develop the resources on their lands. Listing the lesser prairie-chicken as endangered threatens the economic stability of our communities. Fortunately, conservation and development are not mutually exclusive goals. FWS must continue to work with the five range states to fully implement the Lesser Prairie-Chicken Range-Wide Conservation strategy, which they endorsed last October. This plan added over 1.5 million acres of habitat to millions of acres already enrolled through other FWS approved conservation programs. Energy, agriculture and other industries have proven that they will put in the effort to ensure that the species will survive, and preclude the need for an endangered or threatened listing.”

BLM artists & FS lectures

Did you know the BLM has an artist-in-residence program? The BLM will host an artist for a week in April at the Wickersham Creek Trail Shelter in the White Mountains north of Fairbanks. The April 14–18 residence is open to emerging or established artists working in nearly any media — including painting, printmaking, photography, writing and music. The BLM provides transportation between Fairbanks and the cabin, but artists are responsible for their daily expenses.  The BLM plans to sponsor more, possibly one for each season.  The artist will be there April 14-18, and you should remember this on April 15…when you’re paying your taxes.

And how about the Forest Service sponsoring “fireside lectures”?  I thought those went out with FDR, but in Alaska the agency sponsors a weekly fireside lecture, the most recent being about “ancient trees”.  I wonder if they have a quota on lectures.

Finally, the USDA has given $5 million to the University of Tennessee for its healthy eating program which dresses students up as fruits and vegetables and films them terrorizing the residence halls.  Doesn’t this sound like a vegetable-in-residence program? 

Think I’ll take advantage of all three programs.  Sit by the fire and paint awhile, then lecture awhile, and in between throw a few mountain oysters on the fire.  When full I’ll dump the cabbage and carrots behind the cabin, collect my $5 million and head back to the ranch.

Till next time, be a nuisance to the devil and don’t forget to check that cinch.

Frank DuBois was the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003, is the author of a blog: The Westerner (www.thewesterner.blogspot.com) and is the founder of The DuBois Rodeo Scholarship (http://www.nmsu.edu/~duboisrodeo/).

This column originally appeared in the April issue of The New Mexico Stockman and was written prior to the happenings on the Bundy Ranch.

El Rito man pleads to DWI charge brought by Forest Service officer

David J. Martinez, 36, of El Rito, pleaded guilty today in federal court to an aggravated driving under the influence misdemeanor charge, and was sentenced immediately thereafter. He was arrested by an officer of the U.S. Forest Service, which as been under fire for recent criminal charges filed in Rio Arriba County and from a raid at Taos Ski Valley. A Forest Service official on Monday said federal agents are empowered to enforce state laws on Forest Service territory. Martinez was arrested on Sept. 27 and charged in a criminal complaint with aggravated driving under the influence and several misdemeanors and infractions for failing to comply with the New Mexico motor vehicle code and the U.S. Forest Service’s timber harvesting regulations. The complaint alleges that Martinez was concealing a 30-pack of beer that was missing 16 cans under a coat on the front passenger seat of his truck. After Martinez failed standard field sobriety tests, the officer administered a preliminary breath test on Martinez, which registered a breath alcohol content of .166 percent – about twice the legal driving limit...more

The part about being "empowered" to enforce state law caught my attention.  Toward the end of the Albq. Journal article was this:

 Also, some Rio Arriba County residents have complained about arrests on state charges that they say Forest Service agents have no right to make without being deputized by a local sheriff. Special Agent in Charge Robin L. Poague, of the Southwestern Region of the U.S. Forest Service, said in Monday’s news release: “Federal regulations authorize Forest Service officials to enter orders permitting Forest Service officers to issue federal violation notices for violations of the state motor vehicle code on National Forest System lands and roads. “This ensures consistent enforcement of the motor vehicle code throughout the state and across agencies. The current order authorizing Forest Service officers to issue federal violation notices in the Carson National Forest has been in place since May 2012. The prosecution of Martinez on this DUI charge was initiated pursuant to this authority.”

 My understanding of state law is the same as the residents.  Some feds are cross-commissioned by state statute, such as the FBI and U.S. Marshalls, and the rest had to go through the Sheriff.  I haven't looked at the law in years, but it kind of makes you wonder if the Forest Service is violating state law to be able to enforce state law.  The sentence was handed down by a Federal judge in a federal court.  Was he found guilty of violating the federal regulation or the state statute?  If it is the state statute, why wasn't this done in state court?

Internal review coming in controversial Taos Ski Valley drug sweep

The popular image of the friendly forest ranger has taken a major hit after a drug sweep at the Taos Ski Valley angered skiers at the popular resort and infuriated a former governor of New Mexico. Now the special agent in charge of U.S. Forest Service’s Southwestern Region tells New Mexico Watchdog an “after-action review” will be conducted next week in the wake of the operation in which four officers carrying side arms, wearing flak jackets and accompanied by one drug-sniffing dog descended on the ski resort Feb. 22.  “I do have concerns about the tone of the law enforcement activities up there,” special agent Robin Poague, who is based at the Forest Service office in Albuquerque, told New Mexico Watchdog. Poague said a patrol captain is being brought in from Arizona to conduct the review next week, but didn’t say how long it will take for the findings to be released. “The bottom line is I’m responsible for what went on,” Poague said of what was called a “saturation patrol” of the resort. The chief operating officer of the Taos Ski Vallery, Gordon Briner, was more careful with his words, saying, “The manner in which the mission was done was not done in a manner consistent with a great partnership,” referring to the long-standing agreement between the forest service and the ski resort, which partially sits on federal land.  With feelings among some Taoseños still raw, Poague said he wanted to stress three things: “One, I’m the person responsible, not the officers doing their jobs. Two, as to the people who have expressed their concerns, I hear their concerns. And three, the after-action review will look at what went right and what went wrong.”  There has been speculation the drug sweep came in response to reports of a quota system on the part of forest service administrators, but Poague said that wasn’t the case. “We had some previous law enforcement incidents up there,” Poague said, including DWIs and selling of Molly, a drug similar to Ecstacy…more 

The popular image of the friendly forest ranger has taken a major hit after a drug sweep at the Taos Ski Valley angered skiers at the popular resort and infuriated a former governor of New Mexico.
Now the special agent in charge of U.S. Forest Service’s Southwestern Region tells New Mexico Watchdog an “after-action review” will be conducted next week in the wake of the operation in which four officers carrying side arms, wearing flak jackets and accompanied by one drug-sniffing dog descended on the ski resort Feb. 22.
- See more at: http://newmexico.watchdog.org/20802/internal-review-coming-next-week-in-controversial-taos-ski-valley-drug-sweep/#sthash.Qbm6d0JB.dpuf