ToadBook

May 2025. This comes from an ethics complaint obtained via open meeting request. (Sometimes called an IPRA request).

KNOW THIS: The ethics complaint was about several Councilors two of whom are no longer active. But it's worth noting one is still around.

KNOW THIS: The behavior of this Councilor has not improved.

Apologies are Needed

Let's hit the Truth Button long and hard on this topic!

There is a darling elderly lady who has stopped going to Council Meetings and who had her heart broken at a Council Meeting.

The public who boo-ed her down and yelled at her to sit down and shut up should be ashamed.

How embarrassing that some people think it's ok to behave this way. My momma taught me to treat elderly with respect

The Councilor who pumped her fist and encouraged the poor behavior directed against this lady should have charges filed against her. (2-2-2 among other state laws) (Ahem... cough cough... DeSmet)

No! I haven't forgotten and neither has this darling older lady who has been a mainstay in Bosque Farms.

And what prompted this behavior? What did she say that was so despicable that it resulted in being boo-ed, yelled at to sit down and shut up?

This lady said essentially 'why can't we all get along?' She called upon everyone's better nature to be better!

There are no words for this. And if you are one of those people who behaved so terribly Apologize Now!

This lady has lived here her whole life. She has dedicated countless hours to attending meetings, running elections, supporting the PD, refereeing, donating to local organizations (Scouts etc), etc etc etc

I guess we should have known what kind of government we were in for when this happened.

Well we knew it would happen -

When we sat in council meetings and heard Councilor DeSmet go after the treasurer – we knew eventually the treasurer would be gone.

• The treasurer who thought about the bigger picture. 
• She was aware of the long term highs and lows of Gross Receipt Tax (GRT). 
• The treasurer who would look at the Village budget BEFORE just approving purchase orders – because that is her job. If there isn’t enough money in the budget – it doesn’t matter how much you want to spend – there isn’t money. 

The treasurer who could say GRT is going down and this budget won’t balance no matter how much you want to spend the money.

And when did we lose the treasurer? When did E. DeSmet and the other Councilors (Bruhn and Zamora) choose to put this on the agenda to get rid of the treasurer?

THE END OF THE YEAR and THE END OF THE MONTH and THE START OF THE NEW FISCAL YEAR and PAY ROLL.

SO? You might ask? Well -- the end of the year reports are due to the state. -- the end of the month reports are due to the state. -- New budgets are due to the state. -- Employees need to be paid. -- Bills need to be paid.

And all of this needs a treasurer – a trained treasurer.

If we don’t get those in on time there might be fines, the state might think we can’t manage our budget and come take over.

This does NOT sound like these councilors are thinking of what is best for the Village of Bosque Farms – it sounds like they are setting us up for failure.

Why?

On April 26, 2025 Councilor E. DeSmet wrote to the current Clerk Admin. It's a long email full of hyperbole -

KNOW THIS: Councilor E Desmet is running around having meetings and making decisions about the expenditure of funds.

Remember, this is illegal. The Council must make these decisions, in public.

KNOW THIS: Grants often have requirements about expenditures. It's not possible to just decide to spend a grant any old way.

KNOW THIS: Is it done yet? Why Not? It's easy to blame the mayor but has the Council voted on this? Has the Council read this grant and explored options? Has the Council looked at the budget for these funds?

One small good piece of news! This email was NOT sent to the whole council. No rolling quorum. No hint about future votes. Shocker that!

On April 26, 2025 Councilor E. DeSmet wrote to the current Clerk Admin. It's a long email full of hyperbole -

KNOW THIS: Councilor E Desmet is running around having meetings and making decisions about the expenditure of funds.

Remember, this is illegal. The Council must make these decisions, in public.

KNOW THIS: Grants often have requirements about expenditures. It's not possible to just decide to spend a grant any old way.

KNOW THIS: Is it done yet? Why Not? It's easy to blame the mayor but has the Council voted on this? Has the Council read this grant and explored options? Has the Council looked at the budget for these funds?

One small good piece of news! This email was NOT sent to the whole council. No rolling quorum. No hint about future votes. Shocker that!

This author requested a copy of emails from and to several people. It looks like E. Desmet requested info from Ms. Martinez and then sent it on to another person (Quinton Webb is an Officer at BFPD)

BUT WAIT!

Does anyone remember the news article about E. Desmet and the open meetings act? The local rag requested phone records and E. Desmet said ‘oh no, I never use my personal phone’

E Desmet doesn’t have a phone provided by the Village of Bosque Farms.

I’ll leave it to you to figure out the truth here. You are smart readers!

M. Zamora’s response:

He has still included someone from Peralta. Overlooking that -

Short. Succinct. Offered a better date for himself. And ended with a positive Thank you,

Most importantly - No Councilors or Mayor included so no reason to worry about violating open meeting acts! No hints, no clues to how he might vote, no clues to other Councilors.

High Five! M. Zamora.

DID YOU KNOW?

Councilors are NOT supposed to do business with other governments?

The power Councilors have comes from sitting in a Council as a group of four, five including the Mayor.

Mayors of other municipalities should not do business with Councilors. That means Peralta's Mayor should NOT invite councilors to a public meeting for their input on EMT services.

One More! Look at this email! Carefully!

Ignore the spelling errors. Everyone is allowed a bad day once.

This was back in June! Yet it's STILL Importantly.

He says he’s been asking for an EMS workshop for 6 months. Sounds good right?

Yet at one point during the past 6 months there was EMS service and the Council chased the EMT person off. In a meeting.

So has he been asking for a workshop on this for six months?

And let’s look at this – He was only informed of a meeting LAST NIGHT (which would be June 8th) that Peralta was going to cancel EMS Services for us.

So has he been asking for a workshop on this for six months?

From his first meeting he attended? He asked for this? That would be supposedly when he started as Councilor. None of it really hits the truth button does it?

One more little point – what J. Bruhn doesn’t tell you is that he stood up at a meeting in Peralta on June 8th and spoke about how he understood and supported Peralta’s decision to cancel our MOU.

How is he representing us?

One day he’s going after the Volunteer for EMT for Bosque Farms and the next week (give or take) he’s saying ‘This is a matter of life and death.’

One night he says ‘oh yes, Peralta Council – cancel our MOU and we support this decision’ and the next he says ‘This is a matter of life and death’.

Does this make sense?

Who is he representing? Maybe it’s Peralta he’s representing.

Well in spite of the DO NOT REPLY ALL at the top of the email – this email addresses THREE other Councilors.

This is called a rolling quorum. It is in violation of the open meetings act.

In fact, if you have attended meetings with the Village Attorney – The one they hired to represent the Village and advice the Council on how to best run Village business – She said DO NOT INCLUDE ALL THE COUNCILORS on your emails.

(Maybe that is why they got rid of her? They didn't like what she was saying?)

All she got was push back by two new Councilors saying “well it’s ok, we just can’t make decisions” and again the Attorney said – BEST PRACTICE is to not do it.

And this email is an example of why--

First- J. Bruhn is transmitting to other councilors that he’s working to schedule a meeting he deems important. He’s telling them who he has invited and in many ways indicating how he wants them to vote.

In what way you ask? How? - why invite Peralta if they are terminating the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) unless you are interested in exploring options with them. - Why invited Valencia County unless you are interested in exploring options with them.

In other words this email can be read by other Councilors to say ‘Hold Firm, we will have a meeting and the ONLY time to do it is June 18 at 9am.’

This email can be read by other Councilors to say ‘I want to do something with Peralta and even though the vote will be public, I’m telling you how I’m going to vote”.