Michael Morris
Photos by Racquel Morris – Click any image to enlarge in new window

Friday I had the honor of attending the Inauguration of the new Tribal President, Vice President and Council of the Mescalero Apache Tribe. I left a little stunned. Not because of anything unusual, but rather by my awakening to the universality of my concept of usual. President Mark Chino spent a significant part of his address discussing the destructive effect of faceless rumor on both the morale of citizens and the dousing of the desire of the young to aspire to service. How is that any different than the dramas playing out in the newspapers and their forums concerning Capitan and the Alamogordo School Board? I walked in expecting some typically typical political this and that and left thinking that if Mark Chino put his entire life force into achieving the goals he set he could take his people beyond far. Good fortune be with you sir.

Incident photos by Racquel Morris

Date: 01-09-2008
Time: 17:02
View full story for details.

Michael Morris – In Focus

UPDATE - After being informed of the issue Alamogordo MIS Manager Mark Graham jumped into action getting the site search facility to search the minutes including the PDF files - all within less than 24 hours. Thank you. Use the site search until the Google search results catch up. Now why can't the rest of the City employees have this kind of motivation?

Those of us who care about the state of the public records have been able to search the Alamogordo City Commission meeting minutes using Google in the past. Unfortunately that will not be the case in the foreseeable future. The new City of Alamogordo web site (LINK) was launched today and the minutes have been moved with no redirect commands effectively removing the ability to search the minutes since the new site has no mechanism to search them. While this was probably not an intentional action by the City it does go to show the quality of contracting the City does. Any competent web developer will include “301” redirects which point the old page to the new seamlessly. It is unclear whether “The Active Network” offered this or not, but the result is that all of the existing search results for the City of Alamogordo web site now produce dead links and will continue for some time. Try this search for "Sunbaked Biscuits" (SEARCH) Nice going Pat McCourt.

Michael Morris - In Focus

Sunbaked Biscuits recently answered the lawsuit (PDF) filed last month by Leonhard Packaging in what was to become the first in more than a half dozen "order, receive and refuse to pay" suits to be filed against the now defunct cookie maker. The answer essentially denies that Sunbaked should pay for the goods received. Accompanying the answer is a counterclaim against Leonhard that can be generously be described as a collection of spurious allegations that seem to defy logic. At the same time the allegations now raised will shed a bit more light on the manner in which business is conducted by not only Sunbaked Biscuits, but by their attorney Randy Burroughs as well.

Michael Morris - In Focus

While compiling the timeline to include in the upcoming Grand Jury petition an interesting series of events was isolated that may help clear up the nature of the fraud that has defined the current predicament. The featured stars of this unsavory brew include City Manager Pat McCourt, Alamogordo Federal attorney, board Vice Chairman and significant shareholder S. Thomas Overstreet, an as yet unidentified Alamogordo Federal executive with a supporting role by City Attorney William Brogan. While this contains an element of what did he know and when did he know it the information below should enable the City of Alamogordo to obtain the records from Alamogordo Federal sufficient to determine just what happened. The problem is the city has been sitting on this for months. The one thing that is crystal clear is that the city should never do another bit of business with this shady bank.

Michael Morris - In Focus

The latest in the raft of lawsuits against Sunbaked Biscuits for buying yet not paying adds even more clarity to the manner in which Christopher Roberts operates (PDF). In the victim's seat this time is Plastic Packaging Inc. of Kansas City. Without spending any time on the rather repetitious details defining the Roberts business plan let me direct your attention to the exhibits for the dates on the invoices. At the same time exhibits "C" & "D" are demand letters from the company then subsequently their attorney. Specifically note that the company was even willing this month to work with Roberts if he would pay 25% of the outstanding balance, submit financial statements and personally guarantee the remaining balance - yeah right! At the same time please note that on the economic development front somehow the folks from Kansas did find the local Law Offices of John Hakanson to handle the case with Hakanson's associate Miguel Garcia signing the suit. Hakanson's office has become the defacto general counsel for locals screwed in this scam. BTW - this suit includes all of the details the Alamogordo Daily News claimed they could not find.

Michael Morris - In Focus

We have been hearing for some time about possible buyers for the defunct Sunbaked Biscuits facility. So focused has the discussion of a buyer been on there being one that some important factors have not been considered. The most significant among the items not really publicly considered is the definition of a buyer and what this would mean for the citizens, the City of Alamogordo and the creditors of the current operation. The distinctions between the ways such a buyout could turn out are just as important as the reality of a buyout itself, if not even more. The fact is that some buyout scenarios could be very bad for all or some of the parties involved.

Michael Morris - In Focus

In what is becoming as common as a sunny day in New Mexico, yet another sunburned victim of Sunbaked Biscuits has come to court seeking payment of $7400 for services rendered (PDE). Not surprisingly this bill was due yet not paid around the time Christopher Roberts took delivery of the last $500,000 gift from the City of Alamogordo. This time the victim is Clark & Associates, a local advertising company. This is just one more example of the kind of business you get from a bribes-for-jobs program run by a man with no conscience or integrity.

Michael Morris - In Focus

As we look back on the failure of Sunbaked Biscuits and OCEDC it is ever so important that we not miss out on the lessons waiting to be learned. It has been mused that a donkey is a horse designed by a committee. That is what we have here - the economic development donkey. Based on wildly varying definitions of economic development the various deliberative bodies entrusted with the economic development in Alamogordo have created a long eared short legged creature incapable of further propagation. It has only been in recent months that the citizens themselves have become aware of the nature of the donkey. Folks, there is no way to tweak this into something useful. The time has come to evaluate the underlying strategy employed, not the tactics employed.

Michael Morris – In Focus

While it might not seem all that remarkable that Christopher Roberts’ Sunbaked Biscuits has drawn another lawsuit the latest one does convincingly show that Roberts is simply a criminal. The suit filed yesterday by Toyota Lift of Texas (PDF) is a matter of Replevin or a return of what is theirs. The matter at hand is 2 forklifts leased by Sunbaked last June. As you may suspect it appears the initial payment was all the lessor received. This is not in the least surprising from these bandits. Significant in this suit is the allegation that Sunbaked Biscuits has refused to return the leased equipment even after repeated demands by Toyota. Make sure you thank Ed Carr for bringing this band of gypsies to town.