Greg Solano takes on the city via the Internet.
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Call him the chief of cyberspace. Or better yet, inspector of the Internet.
Ever since Sheriff Greg Solano began keeping an online blog three months ago (
www.sheriffgregsolano.blogspot.com
), Santa Fe County's top cop has raised eyebrows with his impassioned and well-crafted soliloquies on everything from the President's State of the Union address to the upcoming mayoral race.
Recently, however, Solano has taken heat for a blog entry that is causing a stir among city officials.
The Feb. 13 entry in question, innocuously titled "Annexation of Airport Rd," takes sharp aim at the city's approach toward annexation of 14,000 patchwork acres of unincorporated county land.
The City of Santa Fe is considering annexing the land from the county because it already provides many services to the area such as water, sewers and roads but receives none of the financial benefits like gross receipts taxes. The result is a topographic netherworld where the boundary between city and county, both in services and geography, is blurred.
That could all change if the city moves ahead with annexation, a prospect still pending six months of forthcoming public hearings and final approval from the New Mexico Municipal Boundary Commission.If the city annexed the land, Santa Fe Police would take over patrolling the area.
That's where Solano's commentary comes in.
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In his blog entry, Solano criticizes District 3 City Councilor Miguel Chavez and the Santa Fe Police Department for what he characterizes as insinuations that his department doesn't have the manpower to patrol Airport Road.
The area, 2,000 acres of the total parcel up for annexation, has long been seen as the main flash point for crime within the unincorporated area; it's currently patrolled both by the Sheriff's Department and New Mexico State Police.
Solano tells SFR he was motivated to write the blog entry after watching a Feb. 8 City Council meeting discussing annexation. During the meeting, Chavez referred to a local newspaper article on a State Police sting operation on Airport Road. Chavez questioned why the Sheriff's Department did not fully participate in the sting operation and noted that the call volume for the Sheriff's Department from the Airport Road area is particularly high.
Solano took the comments as an attack on his own agency's ability to handle Airport Road. In his blog, Solano writes that the Sheriff's Department provided support for the operation but did not wholly join the sting because his detectives were busy handling two homicides. He also writes that the city's take on crime in the Airport Road area is overblown.
"The city is always saying 60 to 80 percent of our calls come from Airport Road, and that's outrageous. It's actually only about 20 to 30 percent of our total call volume," Solano tells SFR. "It's gotten to the point that people are putting down the county and county law enforcement to prove their point, and that gets to me."
Chavez, who read the blog entry after it was e-mailed to him by Solano, says he was simply trying to figure out the details of policing Airport Road.
"I'm trying to understand the level of service for that area and how that fits into the larger question of accommodating new growth," Chavez, a staunch proponent of annexation, says. "I'm not trying to do any bashing. I don't want to make this political. This is about principal and policy, and I'm doing my job."
Another point of concern for Solano is the Santa Fe Police's contention that it would need an additional 37 officers to police Airport Road if annexation goes through. Currently, the Sheriff's Department uses 12 deputies to work the area-a number Solano believes is adequate, though he says he wouldn't mind more men on the ground.
Still, in his blog, Solano terms the purported need for more firepower as "highly exaggerated."
He writes: "Normally, I would not criticize a fellow police agency trying to add more police on the streets but when they do that while at the same time criticizing our ability to handle the area I find that unnecessary and mean spirited."
Santa Fe Deputy Police Chief Eric Johnson says his agency came up with its numbers based on a study it conducted two years ago and was not taking shots at the Sheriff's Department.
"Our concern is that we want to make sure that once the land is actually annexed, we can provide the same quality of service the rest of the residents in the city are getting," Johnson says.
Johnson also emphasizes that his agency has a "very good working relationship" with the Sheriff's Department.
Solano, who notes he too is a proponent of annexation, will likely continue to be a player in the annexation debate, given his penchant to speak (and write) his mind.
"The area is so checkerboarded, that there are always disputes over who pays for what and who does what," he says. "Even if the city does annex, we'll still have some responsibility there."
