The two underlining themes in the questions and comments I received, as a result of my articles about Jaime Abeytia’s criminal travails, were about why Michiel Noe would appoint him and why did I bother to write about Abeytia. I would like to take this opportunity to address those two questions.

The first question is why Michiel Noe would consider appointing someone like Jaime Abeytia. I am not really sure how Abeytia ended up on Noe’s short list for an appointment to the cultural center subcommittee, however I can speculate by his reaction and the reasons he has expressed publicly and privately to various individuals. Two things stood out for me. There were numerous communications sent to Michiel Noe starting on Monday morning and throughout the course of the day. There may also have been some attempts to communicate with him over the weekend; however, I am not aware of any.

There was also much social media reaction to the proposed appointment as a result of my Saturday article pointing out the proposed appointment. I am not really sure when Noe became aware of the controversy, but through various sources it is my understanding that he was defending Abeytia’s criminal past as a result of a “messy divorce.” This is the theme that Jaime Abeytia has been floating about in the public arena. There has also been comments made publicly that Noe thought the Hispanic community would “value” Jaime Abeytia’s input on the cultural committee.

How he arrived at that notion is something I do not know, but it leads me to believe that Abeytia’s name was given to him, either by Abeytia or by one of Abeytia’s political supporters. I have heard, but have not been able to verify that Vince Perez or Claudia Ordaz reached out to Noe. Again, this has not been verified and is purely speculation as far as I am concerned.

However, taken in context to the other political shenanigans, which I routinely allege about Jaime Abeytia’s usefulness as a useful idiot for a political agenda; it would make sense that for him to be effective he needs to be “revitalized” in the public arena. By appointing Jaime Abeytia to the subcommittee, it creates the illusion that Abeytia is a well-connected upstanding member of the community, thus “revitalizing” Abeytia’s public persona. The appointment would have bolstered Jaime Abeytia’s credentials as a former Vince Perez aide and now a member of a city board. Instead, Abeytia’s resume currently reads former aide to Vince Perez and now on probation for criminal conduct.

Basically, Jaime Abeytia’s political credentials need to be bolstered in order for him to serve the political masters he does through his political rhetoric. The proposed appointment would have accomplished that in addition to giving him access to politicos in the city on an equal footing.

This leads me to believe that Abeytia ended on Michiel Noe’s short list as a political favor to someone that would benefit from Abeytia’s revitalization. Whether Noe knew the extent of Abeytia’s criminal record is still open for debate.

The second question is why I have spent so much time on Jaime Abeytia’s criminal past. The answer to that question is that useful idiots are effective only when they are allowed some credibility. Without credibility, the useful idiot is useless. Jaime Abeytia’s entire public persona is currently defined by his criminal behavior. As such, it is imperative that he establish some credibility to be useful and in order to accomplish that he needs to pretend his criminal record does not exist. He must also show that he has political connections that are publicly acknowledged.

Michiel Noe’s proposed appointment of Jaime Abeytia, to the cultural sub-committee, was an attempt to create the illusion of credibility for Abeytia in the community. Had I not written the blog post on a Saturday, which I very rarely do, it is likely that Abeytia’s appointment to the committee would have been fait accompli. It would have come in under the radar in the consent agenda. By that time, it would have been very difficult to correct that fiasco.

It is Abeytia’s criminal record that ultimately was the demise of his appointment and it needs to be exposed and readily available so that those making community decisions, regarding Abeytia, cannot hide under the notion that they did not fully understand the scope of Abeytia’s criminal history.

Jaime Abeytia will continue to try to pretend that his criminal past has nothing to do with his credibility and it is likely that those he serves, as a useful idiot, will continue to try to establish street cred for him through future political favors. As such, it is imperative that the real Jaime Abeytia record be readily made available so that the community may interject when it is necessary.