Silver City council member calls out mayor

By Lynn Janes

The Silver City Town Council held a regular meeting July 14, 2026. Attendance to the meeting included Mayor Simon Wheaton-Smith, Nicholas Prince, Stan Snider, Victor Nanez and Angela Salaiz. 

The council approved the agenda with some changes. Because of the high number of people coming to speak for public input the time allotted was decreased to three minutes as opposed to the usual five minutes. Salaiz made a request that did not pass to remove an agenda item (number 14) pertaining to actions with the museum. She said they had already addressed it and voted twice June 15, 2026, and June 23, 2026. She said it would be inefficient of council time. 

Ceremonies

The town awarded the employee of the month to Olivia Britton. She had not attended but Wheaton-Smith read the letter. Randy Hernandez, business operations manager, and Lori Ortiz, finance director, had submitted the letter. The certification had been presented to Britton in recognition of her outstanding performance, dedication and exceptional contribution to the town of Silver City. Her hard work, positive attitude and commitment have made a significant impact. 

Hernandez said Ortiz had nominated her and she currently works as the purchasing agent but has been with the town for twenty years, primarily working as the utility supervisor. He said she has always gone above and beyond in any role to help her coworkers or the public. She has become the unofficial trainer at city hall and has helped department heads and staff understand the procurement process rules and regulations.

Wheaton-Smith said he had witnessed something at city hall that day. One of the employees had taken a phone call and left the building. He wondered why and followed them outside and asked what had happened. She pointed out a truck coming down the road and explained the person has difficulty moving around and they had agreed that if that person called, they would come out and take the paperwork they brought. Wheaton-Smith said that was the kind of dedication he has seen with the town employees. 

Council comments

Salaiz said she had been appointed to the council January 21, 2026, and has had overwhelming support from a lot of citizens because they wanted transparency and someone to give it to them straight. “I am that type of person.” While being interviewed by the now mayor he had said he needed people who would call him out if he went in the wrong direction. At that time, she had promised she would. At the June 15, 2026, meeting, he had said they would not have any more delays regarding the museum and museum society. “We had two unanimous votes regarding the museum and the museum society. The last one was a unanimous vote to continue negotiations with the society that was held on June 23, 2026. 

How many meetings have they had with the society since then?” Salaiz said they had not had any meetings with the museum society and had not responded to a letter from the museum society. She asked if they had any material change of circumstances to excuse the delay. She did not know of any. 

“I believe that in postponing you're subverting the will of the council." She continued. "We voted not to postpone, and you have taken measures that are in effect postponing negotiations with the society, and I disagree with that wholeheartedly. We need to continue with the decision that we already made.” They had two unanimous votes, but they still continue talking about it. 

Salaiz added the money issue. She wanted to know why the museum had a budget higher than the road department. She continued to want to know why the road department only had three employees and said that had a lot to do with so many potholes. The starting wage for them isn $14 an hour, and she felt that to be unacceptable. The department had asked for raises for years but had been told money does not grow on trees. “Apparently it does depending on what department you work for.” The workers have to live in low-income housing and again cited that to be unacceptable. They also don’t have proper equipment and have to borrow equipment from parks and recreation to dig graves at the cemetery. She felt they needed new equipment and vehicles to do their jobs properly. 

Salaiz said, “It is unacceptable that we should fund the museum this humongous amount of money and not someplace like our road department. We've got aging infrastructure that is ready to fall apart, but we are sitting here still arguing over the museum. I am tired of it. I have had enough. I made a decision.” She pointed out they had all made a decision, and they needed to stick to it but instead they have the agenda item again on what to do even though the decision had been made. “We have other things that are far more pressing.” 

The museum society has had good standing with the town for over 40 years and have raised money that has kept the museum in shape. They have provided hundreds of thousands of dollars every year. They had never had a problem until the current director. 

Every day Salaiz receives complaints about the roads, sidewalks and lack of bicycle lanes. Absolutely nothing has been done in part because of having a lack of money and employees to do the jobs. 

Salaiz questioned the new organization started called Friends of the Museum that has not registered as a 501c3 and has been listed under the Gila Community Foundation. The current director of the museum started the organization, and Salaiz said that would be unethical and possibly illegal. It would be a conflict of interest even though he had stepped down, he had formed it and packed it with his friends to do his will. She questioned where that money had gone that they raised from the citizens. They do not have an official contract or memorandum of understanding (MOU). 

Salaiz had attended a museum advisory board meeting. One person in particular at the meeting had been very hostile towards the society and anyone who sided with the society. While on a board you must be impartial and fair; anything else will be unacceptable. "She reiterated she would not change her mind, and the council should also stick with how they had already voted. They needed to be responsible for the taxpayers' money and put it where it will be best to make citizens 'lives better.

Nanez had no comment currently.

Snider wanted to address the July 4 celebration permits utilizing the new expedited process. “The council makes good decisions by listening to the public discussion during the council meeting, then voting with the majority.” The expedited process utilized for the July 4 permits and late application by the applicant did not have any public input, no discussion by the council, and the minority would have made the final decision to deny the celebration permit. The way the current expedited process has been used, the best council decision has not been made and it is unfair to the applicant because the minority could deny the permit. In conclusion, “I believe that the new expedited process should not be used, and we should return to the original process of approving the celebration permit at a council meeting.”

Prince had three major topics to cover. 

He said that at the prior week's Grant County Commission work session, they had a lot of discussion about the regional water project and joint powers agreement (JPA). Regionalization  of the water supplies will be a major solution to ensure community resiliency and stability. He referenced a situation in Arizona in which Scottsdale just quit shipping water to Palo Verde. In the presentation done at the Grant County Commission they announced the project would be expanding to include economic development motives. “The language they used sent up some pretty significant red flags for me.” The former town manager had said the county had only been using 80 percent of their capacity. According to the 40-year water plan the county looks great for water availability. He said they acknowledged that the way the JPA has been set up that if one entity should decide to remove themselves it would dissolve the JPA. They spoke to working towards legislation so that option would not be available. He asked all to view the JPA before the next legislative session. He encouraged a conversation about the future water supplies. “This water was meant only for people, homes and sustainable agriculture.” He had been receiving emails concerning the heavy water usage of data centers and how that would be stopped. “We only have 200 years of water supply.”

The second point he wanted to bring forward he felt would be the public's right to know. He asked that people that have Trees of Heaven or Chinese Elms it would be a great time to talk about removing them. Although great shade they are invasive species and crowd out native species. The US Department of Agriculture has a treatment for these trees and many tips. 

On a positive note, the New Mexico Farmers Market Association did a video on the local farmers market. 

Wheaton-Smith wanted to address something brought to the council. When the police department writes a report, the council has no authority to change it. Reports may not be modified. He had turned down a request from a citizen to be on the agenda because of this reason. The person had a bicycle accident. He had come to speak in public input and that had been good. However, putting him on the agenda would not do any good as the council could not change that report. He spoke to another request about a compliant on Litte Walnut Road. Other departments had already made competent decisions. He had also been asked to be involved with an issue with water billing and said he could not. The town splits into policy on one side and operations on the other. He spoke to a fire around the Pizza Hut that fortunately had been taken care of and happened due to fireworks. 

Wheaton-Smith attended an event at the Silva Creek Botanical Garden and had been very impressed. They had a lot of booths that had information on insects and animals. He wanted to speak to how active the lodgers tax committee has been and making sure the town does not have an overlap of expenses.

He addressed the comment made by Salaiz. She asked what had changed. At the last meeting they had discussed what kind of museum they actually wanted. Out of that came, “Why don't we go talk to the visitors and the volunteers? For that reason, I sent the president of the society a letter saying we're going to hold off until we've done that.” Wheaton-Smith continued, “We want to figure out what kind of museum we want. And we're not going to run on the museum societiy's or anyone else's time. We'll do it on our own.” This provided time for the council to visit with the staff and that will be why a decision will be ready to be made. He thanked Salaiz for doing what she did and “That is how democracy works.” He said he appreciated it and applauded her comments. 

The council approved the minutes for June 15, 2026, and June 23, 2026

Public input

Generally, they allow five minutes for public input but because of the large number of people that signed up the time was brought down to three minutes. 

Georgianna Duarte said she did not expect to be here but had not been coerced or enlisted to come but she wanted to address some of the presentation made by a council member. She had a different perspective. She has volunteered at museums her entire adult life of 35 years. She has been thrilled to be part of the volunteer staff and has collaborated with the organization as president. “I do not think that this museum is a static collection of artifacts. It is a very different kind of museum. It is a museum with evolving exhibits to engage the community and the diversity of cultures here.” After several months of volunteering, she had served as president of the museum society. She had resigned because two individuals on the board had antagonized everyone, some did not want the responsibility, and she felt the attention should not be on Bart Roselli. She had tried not to be involved but had heard too much. The same two people she spoke about had been part of a campaign of extensive spoon-feeding the community. For this reason, only she had come to objectively support the professionalism, ethical and transparent behavior of the museum director. 

Victoria Reese said a lot she had to say had been said by Salaiz. The town could not afford a budget of $465,000 for the museum and especially when it went $200,000 over the budget. “That is a huge red flag to the person running it.” She repeated other things she had said on the subject during public comment before. She had heard even though Roselli was on administrative leave he had been at the museum and felt he had been doing a lot of things he should not have been allowed to. 

Dennis Nendza had moved here in 2020 from Tucson and lives near the university campus. He had watched the small town struggle to accomplish projects and correct problems. He had volunteered at a museum in Los Angeles and recently has been appointed to a local 501c3 organization, and it led him to read the responsibilities and duties of board members in which the rules were clear. “The museum fiasco has consumed too much bandwidth. From what has been published, it looks like management has failed physical controls and cost the city tens of thousands. I now know it's hundreds of thousands of dollars. From published stories, that seems well-vetted. It also appears management has no talent for working with subordinates and exercises an uncontrolled temper. This needs to be dealt with by termination.” He said he had used the articles written about the council meeting in the Silver City Daily Press to form these opinions. 

Allyson Hearst said she had lived here three years. She had done some digging on some aspects of the museum that did not make sense to her. The museum society had collaborated with the museum for decades and the board members had been volunteers and had the best interest of the town. The people causing the conflict have paid salaries at stake. Similar excellent museums run with volunteers, but this museum has acquired a number of paid staff in the past two years. The museum society had operated the gift shop from 1985-2025 and volunteered. Now the gift shop has paid staff that makes no sense with the current budget. She also understood the museum had a strategic plan that the town adopted in 2019 and had fifteen goals. Most of these have not been reached by the museum staff.

Hearst said she and her husband donate financially to organizations to benefit the town. In the past where everythey did this they had been provided financial statements of income and expenditures annually. They have never received this from the museum. In her digging she found that the problems started when the museum society requested financial statements. 

Susan Berry said she had heard so many inaccurate statements and half truths at this meeting. She had been in the room when the museum society started in 1985 and for 26 years after that she had attended all their meetings as a requirement of the bylaws. The director has the supervisory power over the society. For six fiscal years the museum society had provided the museum approximately $200,000 in annual support. The budget the town appropriated for the museum in 2024 a good deal of the funds would be used for salaries, part time staff, overseeing educational programs, management of volunteers, events in the gift shop and community engagement. The society officers decided they should have the right to determine how those dollars would be spent. That had not been the way the organizational structure had been set up. 

The society refused to pay the money to the town and while they tried to have them come into compliance Alex Brown, then town manager, diverted funds to keep staff members in place giving the museum a $200,000 deficit. The former town manager, mayor and council supported Roselli. The society ignored multiple town offers to pay for the service of a mediator at their choice. In April of 2025 Brown had sent a certified letter to the museum society requesting they vacate the gift store and other spaces they occupied in the museum. Brown notified the attorney general and secretary of state the museum society would no longer be associated with the town because they had not responded. 

Melinda Austin hoped it would be okay for her to speak since it did not have to do with the museum. She lives a block off highway 180 in the university area. The big trucks had totally upended their quiet way of life. One of her neighbors had called Runyan Construction and asked if they could slow down their trucks coming into town because they have been using their jake breaks and it has become a safety issue. She has several neighbors that feel the same way. She didn’t know how long this would last but felt it would be helpful to have a little more information on what really had been going on. “They are not driving safely, and it is a real concern.”

Theresa Murphy said she is one of the neighbors concerned about the trucks and lives one block off highway 180. They start at 7:30 am and start revving up their engines to make it to the top of the hill and coming down the hill they have been making a lot of noise braking the trucks. She had tried different ways to solve the issue, and the city told her to call the state because it was state highway. They said they would put out some patrols but didn’t know if they had. When she called the construction company, they have been going to they told her to take down their license plate because the trucks have been contracted and are not in their control. 

Glenn Theron had spoken at the last council meeting on this issue that happened now sixty days ago. He had been at the intersection of College Street and Pope Street when he had been struck by a vehicle. He wanted to know why the driver had not been cited for proceeding through a stop sign into the clearly marked crosswalk and running him over. He had been cited but it was still pending. He continued to go over the incident as he did in the last meeting. He continued with the state traffic rules, which  say clearly that a person in a crosswalk has the right of way regardless of their actions, yet he had been blamed by his insurance company for making an improper turn. His medical bills had been covered by the VA which came to almost $5,000 but he now would be out a $4,000 custom bicycle. 

Alex Mackenzie said she lives downtown near Gough Park and also serves on the lodgers tax board. She also has a short term rental and files her 5 percent lodgers tax every month. In their last meeting they had approved to ask that they amend the facilitator marketplace ordinance to ask the marketplace people like Airbnb to collect the town's short term lodging tax. They do collect gross receipts but not the lodgers tax. 

Mackenzie added she had a short comment about the museum. She had worked as a volunteer and has a friendship with Roselli. “This needs to be settled because it is an open wound and you have bigger fish to fry. This is ridiculous, two years going down this road and still dealing with it. Make a decision and go on to other things we need.”

Daniel Duran-Paiz wanted to address his concern regarding the creation of a nonprofit organization connected to the museum by an employee of the town. He wanted to know if the town had fully researched the legal and ethical implications of the arrangement. They have not registered as a 501c3. If the research has been done and it needs to be communicated to the public. With two organizations fundraising for the museum, it will create confusion among donors, duplicate efforts and raise questions about accountability. The public needs to know why this structure has been necessary and how it benefits the museum. He continued to speak about the problems of the two fundraising organizations. 

Charlie Kiehne had been a volunteer member of the museum society and had a great experience. They had a good time and raised a lot of money. “Things had gone well and then they were out.” He had continued to want to support the museum with contributions to the Friends of the Museum. He later found out they did not have a 501c3 and that Roselli and his wife had a part in it and have gone through the Gila Community Foundation. It all has become confusing. He asked the council to take care of this problem and asked them to also speak to the volunteers at the museum and not just the employees. 

Kevin Hearst had expected five minutes but would try to cover it all. He wanted to voice his opinion on the museum item on the agenda and read it pointing out problems with the language and it being poorly written and vague. They have two separate entities involved in fundraising, Silver City Museum Society a 501c3 founded in 1985 and Friends of the Silver City Museum operating under the fiscal sponsorship of the Gila Community Foundation (GCF) a 501c3. He asked which one he should donate to as a supporter of the museum. 

The Museum Society has a track record of fundraising, and the Friends of the Museum just have an information page on the GCF website with no accomplishments and just asking for donations. On the Silveer City webpage it has a donation link for the museum, and it goes to the Friends of the Museum. He asked that they negotiate with the Museum Society because they have the history of doing a lot for the museum. 

Barbara Bush came to speak on behalf of the Museum Society and New Mexico laws on town governance. She acknowledged the difficult job the mayor, council and interim town manager have. Bush, referring to the agenda item on the museum, said they needed to stick to what they had already decided to do twice. She then provided a rundown of what their jobs would be in this matter. The council had voted twice on this matter and the mayor had disregarded this and he did not have the power to do so. 

Willam Woodward had a history lesson. The city now has had an 81- ear contract with the Franks for their well field and the town uses it for the majority of their water. It is a perpetual contract, lasts forever, with no ending date or change in prices. This contract pays a half cent per thousand gallons, and the Woodward contract pays two cents per thousand gallons. He has heard they only have 200 years of water left and it will still be at 1945 prices with no escalation clause. If the prices would be adjusted, it would only cost a user of 2,000-3,000 gallons a month one dollar.

George Carr had been at the May 26, 2026, council meeting and it had been clear to him they would be negotiating with the museum society to work out respective differences and that never happened. He had come from eastern Mississippi and had been disgusted by what had gone on with the commercial transactions because no one honored their contractual obligations. When he had moved here, he had a number of conversations with judges in the town and told they had the code of the west meaning when you say you will do something you better do it. “To say tonight that you're excused from this obligation because you want to decide what kind of museum you want to have. This has been going on for two years. That does not cut it. If that's the way you want to do it, I guess we're going to go to court. I guess we're going to have this issue go on for years and years. It's just simply nonsense.”

Reports

Manager's report

Jacqui Olea, interim town manager, let the council know they had scheduled a budget hearing for July 23, 2026, to be held from 12:30 pm to 2:30 pm. It will be to discuss the fiscal year 2027 budget. She had two recommendations for the council. She asked that they postpone two items on the agenda, the destruction of town records and appointment of labor union member. She wants to ensure all proper procedures had been done regarding the destruction of town records. On the appointment for the labor board, they had not received any nominations from the unions. 

Finance Department report

Hernandez had provided a report for the council and asked that they bear with them on how the report has been presented. This covers the month of May 2026 for the general fund with a beginning balance of $1,588,463.23. The town had revenues of $1,577,100.25 and expenditures of $1,756,902.19 leaving an ending balance of $1,405661.29. 

Salaiz pointed out she saw the Friends of the Library on the financials but did not see Friends of the Museum and asked why. Hernandez said Friends of the Library has been a fund within the town and to his knowledge Friends of the Museum has not been associated with the town and the Gila Community Foundation handles those funds.

Salaiz asked why their information can be found on the town website if they do not have any affiliation. It directs people to the Friends of the Museum for donations and she that would be a problem. Hernandez said they could ask the Gila Community Foundation for a report on donations and present it to the council and Salaiz thanked him. Wheaton-Smith tried to explain the differences and Salaiz said she understood that but wondered why the town had not been accounting for that money that has been taken in when the town website directs them to donate with the organization. 

Wheaton-Smith thanked the finance department for their work since when the general fund only had 64 cents. Hernandez said this report only captured May, but they would have a better idea when they had the quarterly report. Hernandez said the reports for them would improve the more they identified what the council wanted to see and in what format worked best for them. 

Committee reports

Reuse and recycle committee

David Stone had come to provide a report. He serves as president of Silver City Recycles and as a member of the reuse recycle committee. He had attended an annual statewide meeting of the New Mexico Recycling Coalition. He had come to plant some seeds and hoped they would take root and grow. He had brought a slide show to help in the presentation. Changes have been taking place at the state level number one by renaming Solid Waste Management to Resource Recovery Bureau, which he felt would shift the focus. Currently the state has only a 12 percent recycle rate with the national average being 32 percent. This places New Mexico number 43 out of 50 states. 

Stone said it would not take a lot of money for them to do this, just political will. He had examples of what California, Colorado and Orgon had done instituting statewide state run programs. Many large companies have been encouraged to step up to the plate using state laws and ordinances to make extended producer responsibility the law. These efforts have started cardboard recycling facilities and plastic separation units in these states he used as examples. He eluded that a statewide system will be coming to do more recycling. The city did need to prepare and be ready for the statewide initiatives. He had started to apply for trash-to-treasure grants to build a facility. 

Snider thanked Stone and said at the last meeting they had talked about had been education and the steps they would need to take to make it a habit for people to recycle.

Municipal library community advisory board

Prince had the report and would report as the ex-officio member. The library has had a clerk position open for some time, and they have had to have salaried staff come in to fill in. The people at the library have been exposed to every single cold and flu around and have had a lot of sick days. The library has a $723,000 budget. They have plans to shift the hours of the library but will not be doing it until September or October. Presently they have ten staff members once the open position has been filled. 

Economic development and research committee

Prince provided the report but had not attended the last meeting due to being at municipal league training. He had met with the chair, and they spoke about having the town address the short term rental companies, so they collect the lodgers tax and disperse it to the state automatically. Another committee member has started to look into the vacant properties. The committee will also be looking into communities similar to Silver City and comparing their economies. Prince had consulted Wikipedia for communities with a population of 6,000 to 15,000 residents. Because of travel and vacations Prince said the committee would not have a meeting in July. A couple of members said they could not attend for different reasons. “I will work on respecting that and not violate any kind of quorum laws or force people to have to come in on vacation all of the time.” He offered to send people recordings and notes for the meetings. 

Lodgers tax committee

Nanez provided the report because Kitty Clements, chair Lodgers Tax committee, had been out of town. They had met July 1, 2026, and still have an open position. They had spoken to two main issues bringing everyone into compliance with the city ordinance for lodgers tax and the advertising promotion agency. They will be reviewing the billing from Sunny 505 and will be negotiating the contract at the end of October. Olea verified they would be negotiating the contract in October. 

Wheaton-Smith said the chair had a lot of real world experience with tourism, promotion and advertising. He also added they needed to consider having funds to help local events new and old. 

New business

The council approved the expenditure report for June 2026. Hernandez went over the expenditures ending June 30, 2026. The total had been $3,693,850.37. It included accounts payable and two pay periods. Major expenditures over $10,000 had been cooperative educational services for retaining wall project, Southwest Solid Waste, bond debt service, Universal Waste Systems, professional services, Stantec, software renewal and a number of other payments. One had been a payment to Sunny 505 in the amount of $48,420. 

The council voted to table the application process for public /private celebration permits until the next meeting. Snider said he felt they needed to go back to the old process. Applicants think that because it will be expedited, they can bring it late. Salaiz said it needs to come before the council because it would be a smoother process, and the emails cause problems. Prince had concerns of timelines, and the council all discussed what could be done. Nanez said the new process had been abused. They all agreed they needed to look at a reasonable timeline for the application process. Because of the new process one application had been denied because no one voted on it and Salaiz said she had not received the request through her email. 

The council approved the appointment of Bruce McKinney to both the downtown action planning committee and trails and open spaces committee. The council also approved reappointment of Harry Browne to the trails and open spaces. 

The council approved the recommendation of Olea to table two items as requested earlier in the meeting­–Destruction of town records and appointment of labor union member. 

The council approved resolution no. 2026-22 to participate in the local government road fund. Olea said this is a program the town has participated in and has a 25 percent match coming from the public works budget. This provided chip seal projects on town streets. 

The council approved resolution no. 2026-23 authorizing the town to enter into a funding agreement with the New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission (ISC). Olea said this pertained to the grant application for $906,000 for an asset management plan to assess the town’s potable water system, provide a data base system to oversee it and provide better maintenance schedules. It will be a 100 percent grant. 

The council went into executive session for meetings subject to attorney-client privilege pertaining to threatened or pending litigation in which the town may or may not become a participant.

The council came back into open session.

The council approved that the town shall continue to own and operate the Silver City Museum, and the town will negotiate with the Museum Society.  

Meeting adjourned