May 29—It was a mismatch that never should have happened.

City Manager John Blair, 50, stepped close to an 85-year-old man to usher him from a news conference by the mayor.

The older man, Elmer Maestas, has atrial fibrillation, an irregular heartbeat that can leave him dizzy and short of breath. He told Blair to back off or he’d be arrested.

Maestas was more at risk than the city manager. Two police officers entered the room, took hold of Maestas’ arms and led him to the foyer.

“Mr. Maestas was asked multiple times to stop interrupting the press conference,” Blair wrote in an email. He said neither he nor Mayor Alan Webber asked police to intervene.

For his part, Maestas said a city councilor tipped him about Webber’s news conference last week regarding proposed legislation to place hot-button monuments of historical figures in public places. Maestas didn’t think much of the mayor’s plan, and he intended to say so publicly.

A bronze statue of Spanish conquistador Don Diego de Vargas that Webber in 2020 had removed from Cathedral Park would be displayed in the New Mexico History Museum. A sculpture of two Tesuque tribal members involved in the bloody Pueblo Revolt of 1680 would be housed in the Santa Fe Community Convention Center.

Webber called his initiative a positive development. He has the measure on a legislative fast track. Webber and a majority of the City Council will vote for it next month, but their half-steps won’t bring the community together.

Leery of the mayor and his legislation, Maestas wanted to ask Webber why only certain segments of the city were consulted before the proposal was unveiled. Blair cut off Maestas, saying there would be a time for community members to speak, but not at the news conference.

Once police stepped in, Maestas felt intimidated. “I was shaky. I didn’t want to go back in,” he said. “My wife and I decided to go home, but I had to sit in my car for awhile. I was still shaking.”

Maestas was not alone in being ejected from the news conference.

Police Chief Paul Joye told me his officers removed three other people for being “disruptive.” Joye said he did not have police reports, if any were generated, and he did not know the names of the others who were removed.

Clear already is Webber’s legislation won’t assuage anger over his decision to remove the De Vargas statue from a public park. Webber at the time said he did so to head off violent protests.

Yet his police command staff permitted violence on the Plaza when it stood down as a mob of mostly white people destroyed the 152-year-old Soldiers’ Monument in October 2020. A wooden box now squats on that space.

Union Protectíva de Santa Fé, a Hispanic organization, sued the city in hopes of restoring the shattered stone obelisk. The case is scheduled for trial Sept. 9 in state District Court in Santa Fe.

The monument primarily honored Union soldiers who stopped the Confederate Army’s westward advance in New Mexico, helping the North to win the Civil War. Many people, though, disliked a panel of the obelisk that referred to “savage” Indians. Someone with a chisel edited out the offending word in 1974, but certain groups still wanted the monument destroyed.

The mob that ripped apart the obelisk with hammers, ropes and chains mostly went unpunished. Eight defendants attended a secretive mediation session with a handful of community members. The vandals paid fines averaging $1,900 and performed 40 hours of community service.

Defying all reason, District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies claimed their crimes in wrecking the centerpiece of a National Historic Landmark weren’t violent.

Then Webber and the council wasted some $265,000 on consultants who helped organize community meetings on what should replace the Soldiers’ Monument. City councilors, two representing each quadrant, could have obtained the same information at no cost.

Either way, the suggestions would not have mattered because a trial is to decide the issue. More public money probably will be squandered on litigation before there can be a decision on what, if anything, should replace the obelisk.

There’s only one possibility, a long shot, to curtail runaway spending and begin healing raw wounds.

If Webber and the City Council are serious about ending divisiveness, they should authorize rebuilding of the Soldiers’ Monument, minus all the old inscriptions on its panels. Grace the obelisk with a plaque explaining how the Union Army’s stand in New Mexico made freedom possible, regardless of skin color.

No group should argue against displaying a monument highlighting the arduous fight to end slavery. But this is Santa Fe, so any antic is possible.

Webber’s proposals will make more headlines. And Blair, in a conciliatory line, wrote: “I’m hopeful that Mr. Maestas will participate in either or both of the Governing Body meetings and provide public comment on the resolution.”

The formulaic meetings about Webber’s proposal won’t soften hard feelings. Rebuilding trust starts and ends on the Plaza.

Ringside Seat is an opinion column about people, politics and news. Contact Milan Simonich at msimonich@sfnewmexican.com or 505-986-3080.