Silver City council split on budget, but it passes

By Lynn Janes

The Silver City Town Council held a regular meeting July 28, 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. Snider acknowledged that Lori Ortiz, finance director, and Randy Hernandez, business operations manager, had really worked hard on the budget. He did not feel he had enough time to review it because they had just received it. He wanted to postpone that agenda item. Hernandez and Charles Kretek, town attorney, said the budget must be turned in by July 31, 2026.

The three items on the agenda pertaining to this will be recessed until the next day to provide time for the council to review and ask questions. Snider did think they would be approving the 2025-2026 fiscal year budget and Ortiz explained that budget had been passed last year. Hernandez explained further and he and Snider went back and forth for a while. In the end they approved moving three resolutions to a recess and to convene the next day to finish. It will include amending the approved budget for fiscal year 2026-2027, final quarter financial report for year ending June 30, 2026, and approval and adoption of the fiscal year 2026-2027 budget. Prince did vote against recessing these items until the next day. The council, Wheaton-Smith talked for some time about the process to do a recess for the next day with advice from Kretek.

Council comments

Salaiz wanted to take some time to discuss two departments important to the community, the Silver City Museum and Silver City Library. She wanted to say she valued both institutions, they preserve the history, provide educational opportunities and contribute to the quality of life. Her comments would not be directed at the employees who work there but about how taxpayer dollars have been allocated, and the current amounts could not be sustainable.

The proposed fiscal year 2026-2027 budget allocates $774,440 for the museum and $741,140 will be for salaries and benefits leaving $33,300 for operating expenses. The library has a budget of $723,644 with salaries and benefits included of $676,744 leaving only $46,900 for operating expenses. "These numbers tell an important story." More than 95 percent of the museum budget and 93 percent of the library budget is for salaries and benefits. This leaves a very small number of resources that will benefit the public. She stressed again this would not be a criticism of the dedicated employees that serve the community but raises an important policy question. "Is this sustainable over a long period of time and are we allocating our limited resources in the most effective way possible?" As a council it would be their responsibility to examine every part of the budget and ensure that taxpayer dollars are used wisely.

"At the same time, we continue to face challenges recruiting and retaining employees in essential departments such as streets, utilities, water, wastewater, parks, and other public services that residents rely on every day. As we move through this budget process, I hope we will consider whether there are opportunities to reallocate existing resources in ways that strengthen essential town services, improve employee recruitment and retention, and better serve the taxpayers of Silver City. I believe there are options worth exploring and I look forward to discussing them with the council at the appropriate time."

The museum budget has been increased by $308,865 yet the town cannot find the money to pay employees better. Currently someone making $14 an hour will only see an increase of $29.12 a month with the cost of living raise.

Salaiz addressed a comment that Wheaton-Smith made saying they would be demanding the museum society pay some of the museum costs. Salaiz said laws protect the museum society, the town had broken the contract first. She referred to laws laid out by the Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act and Nonprofit Corporation Act. She has not been aware of any contract that would make them pay that money. Salaiz said again the budget would not be sustainable for the two institutions. She went over some of the recent events that had happened with the museum society one being the discussion of the museum society taking over the day-to-day operations and who actually requested it.

Wheaton-Smith had told Salaiz and Nanez to come up with solutions to provide raises. Salaiz said one would be for the museum society to take over the day-to-day operations of the museum. It would not be giving up the museum, and the town would still retain ownership. She then spoke to the library being unsustainable because most went to the employees. "Sometimes you have to make difficult choices. Doing the right thing is rarely easy but reducing the workforce would be the right thing."

Salaiz spoke to the essential services of the town lagging. A constituent called her and told her she had to pay to have street gutters cleaned because the city had not done it. It does not get done because of the lack of personnel. They will continue to lose personnel because of the low pay, and she said it would not be that they can't; it would be they won't. Other things have been prioritized. She wanted to reiterate that she did not think the museum and library would be unimportant, but they need to find effective ways to cut costs to prioritize what keeps the city running.

Nanez said he had previously mentioned being a union representative and said he would have never been able to look at his people and tell them they would be receiving a 1.2 percent cost of living raise. It would be an insult to provide a $6 a week raise. He agreed with Salaiz that the town priorities have been wrong. The town says it wants to cater to tourists but all they offer will be potholes and streetlights that don't work. While taking out his trash, he had been confronted by a resident about the condition of the cemetery. He had no positive answer to offer. He didn't feel the majority of his constituents went to the library or museum but he receives complaints daily about the infrastructure. "Our funding needs to be checked into again."

Snider did not have any comments currently.

Prince said in the past week a lot of conversations had been around the budget, and this would be his fifth budget. He said many of those employees would also be constituents. The overall budget had increased from $17,379,776 to this fiscal year being $19,768,888. The medical insurance had gone up 15 percent and large amounts of money are being obligated to bonds and debts because of decisions made before they came into power. He went on with a synopsis of the past several months' financial events, and he thought they had been lucky to not have to do mass layoffs and proud they had not. When they had the new administration come in, they had $300,000-$400,000 in the bank , which then went to 94 cents. It has now moved up to $1.1 million. He spoke to a single contract the town had for gas and paying the highest price. "Deals were cut that the council was not involved in." He then said that these departments deserve these budgets. The departments have not been able to have the time to pursue grants that could help, and Prince said he knew money has been left on the table.

Prince blamed this on one single person administering things and now they will have teams to make these decisions. "I have been able to go around town with my head held high. I know I am doing the best with this and the numbers we have right now will start to solve the issues we are looking at." He added he would not be happy until the employees could make a living wage and blamed not being able to now because of debt. He said $22 an hour would be a baseline to include insurance, health care and childcare.

Prince said, "We have a mental health care issue that needs to get solved. We still need to get our teams together to distribute the opioid settlement money so that we can actually start addressing some of the hardest problems we have in our town. I know that with this budget that we're going to be able to do that." He continued to say it would be a big ask, but "We really need to be able to trust in the teams that we have built." The issue had compounded for decades and rarely has poverty been confronted. "We are building the teams that can actually start addressing this." He believes that having their administrative teams, they will make changes happen.

Wheaton-Smith had attended the coffee with a cop in which he had enjoyed and had been well attended. Some scam emails had gone out that appeared to have been from him, and he put a message on Facebook on how someone could tell if the email actually had come from him. "Please be cautious when you receive email." This had been the third time it had happened to him.

The issue of the museum has been a very emotional one. He said he had done a total of four meetings with the museum society. At one meeting he thought the idea of having the society run the museum would be good but as he learned more, and they could not agree on thirteen items, it would not be a good idea. The next meeting the society had rushed and will have the attorneys, and they will finalize the MOU (memorandum of understanding). He went over some of the problems they had but fixed. One council member had suggested doing an RFP (request for proposal), but he said that would be a decision for the council. "I have only done exactly what you told me to do in that you gave me the authority to negotiate." He did not know if he would need to bring it back to the council and asked that he not be chastised for bringing it back. "I am working my rear end to try and work this issue." The town and society have had well over a year and a half with the current problems. "I think we have made a lot of progress." He added the museum has been a significant interest to the tourists. He spoke to the two entities that have been fundraising for the museum and said they might have some flexibility and if not, some difficult decisions need to be made. Wheaton-Smith again said he would prefer not to be chastised for working his rear end of trying to do the job properly.

The council approved the minutes from the regular meeting on July 14, 2026.

Public input

At the last meeting due to the large number of people doing public input, the mayor changed the five-minute time to three minutes. Today it would go back to the five minutes.

Billie Turrietta came to speak on two issues. She felt the golf course would be a big asset and would not like to see the town without one. She knew it lost money each year and had maintenance issues that needed to be resolved. It has been a big draw to the area and especially for someone thinking of moving to the area. Len Zamora, the current manager, has been doing a great job with what he has to work with. She compared the golf course to the museum. She knew a lot of people who had moved to the area for the golf course, and no one that moved to the area for the museum. She had used the golf course over 200 times in the last two years and not been to the museum once. "I know a lot of people that would say the same thing. We need to keep the assets here that the local people enjoy."

Turrietta had come to speak on another issue about the museum. The whole issue had started two years ago when the museum society wanted accounting of how the money they raised had been spent. Bart Roselli, museum director, had refused and become angry. Shortly after her husband announced he would be running for state representative, Roselli started spreading false rumors concerning the museum funds. She said now his opponent has been using it in his campaign to survey voters. "It is unbelievable and outrageous because the accusations are affecting my husband's campaign." She added that the opponent Luis Terrazas could not run on his record. Trying to ruin someone's reputation would be against the law. Roselli currently has been put on administrative leave, Turrieta said a paid vacation, with the taxpayers' money. She demanded Roselli publicly state he has lied about her husband and for Terrazas to take any references to it out of his campaign. She said she would be filing a lawsuit against Roselli, the town and Terrazas.

Delfina Jimenez spoke to a post Wheaton-Smith made on Facebook July 24, 2026, saying people had been complaining about the border wall semis making noise at 2:00 am. "I feel this is a political issue." If people don't like the border wall that will be their business. It would not be just the semis hauling for the border wall, but many other semi drivers also use that road. She wanted to defend these drivers that do what they can to pay their bills and feed their families. Semis come into Silver City to deliver goods to Walmart, Dollar General, Tractor Supply, Harbor Freight, Ace Hardware, Foxworth Galbraith just to name a few.

In the post the mayor said he would be checking on how long that contract would continue and told him he then needed to do it for all the companies hauling. "Do it for all or none." She added she lives on Mountain View Road and they have several semis pass daily at all hours of the day or night. "We don't complain because this is their livelihood." Jimenez suggested the semi drivers should come in and defend themselves before the council tries to make an ordinance on what times they can deliver their goods because of a few people complaining. She added the UPS has semis in the area late at night and early in the morning and told the mayor to check them out also.

Laura Schoen said she would be speaking as a downtown business owner. In the past she had come to speak on negative issues several times. She had not come to speak when a shift started to happen and apologized. She sees the negative comments on social media about downtown in random conversations. She has ignored it in the past but now has asked how long it had been since they were downtown. The answers have told her she should have responded earlier. The view from her shop had changed dramatically. Before it had been constantly negative and a feeling of being unsafe. She no longer has this view. People now stop and have conversations, genuinely enjoying themselves. She sees the police drive by all day and sees foot patrols. "What was a dull penny is starting to shine." She wanted people to know and tell others the effort that has been put forward and downtown had made a huge leap forward in the right direction. She wanted people to come downtown and see how it has been changing and the new businesses.

Daniel Duran-Paiz said he had come to talk last time but with only three minutes he waited until today when he would have five minutes. "In the era of the Trump regime, bigotry and racism have enjoyed a renaissance of alarming proportions. On the national stage, masked men, basically armed thugs recruited from the ranks of the Proud Boys and the Patriot Front, are killing, kidnapping and assaulting mostly people of color before they are sent to prisons and camps that are designed to be inhumane, cruel and dangerous on purpose." He continued his distaste for the regime as he called it. "Here in Silver City, we have our own problems with bigotry." He and his partner Mark of almost 45 years, decided to move to Silver City over four years ago after meeting some wonderful residents. Patsy Madrid had been one of the residents and the three have become the best of friends. It became personal when Madrid had been falsely accused of being racist, then called a self-hating Mexican. This had triggered long dormant memories of his life growing up in Portales, New Mexico. Religious conservatism ran deep and hope often seemed distant as the endless horizon. "I grew up brown, poor and gay in this environment." In 1969 he had been 12 years old and watching Walter Cronkite on the CBS evening news learning about the world and plotting his escape and how to survive until adulthood.

He had one foot in his Mexican upbringing, one foot in the American culture that dominated, one foot in the secret world of being gay and one foot in the straight world. He said since he only had two feet he had to learn to dance and pivot to fit any given situation. "I am self-educated, and my main interest has been politics. He had worked for the George McGovern presidential campaign in 1972, and it changed his life. He said Madrid had grown up on Brewer Hill where they did not have a sewer system until the 1960s and went to school where brown kids only could have peanut butter and jelly sandwiches while the white kids had hot lunches. He continued to tell the council about her life accomplishments.

He continued to address racism and that it has always been to degrade and dehumanize.

Reports

Manager's report

Jacqui Olea, interim town manager, had not attended to provide the report.

Police Chief, Freddie Portillo, had a report for the council. He used the latest downtown activity report. They had 52 frequent patrols, 9 downtown food patrols, 6 Big Ditch patrols, 9 citizen contacts, 2 traffic stops, 4 traffic citations issued and two arrests. The total calls for service had been 32, 6 alarms, 1 disorderly, 1 harassment, 1 agency assist, 1 reckless driver, 1 traffic complaint, 4 unwanted subject complaints, 1 medical call, 1 welfare check, 1 vehicle crash (no injuries), 1 burglary, 1 document follow up, 2 suspicious vehicle complaints, 1 loud music complaint, 3 suspicious person complaints, 1 criminal trespass, 1 animal complaint, 1 hit and run accident and 1 parking violation. They did not have any odor complaints or citations for noise complaints.

Prince addressed the complaints they had heard about jake brakes being used on highway 180. He wanted to know if that would be up to the state highway patrol or would local officers address it. Portillo said he has spoken to the patrol division, and they will be keeping an eye on it and conducting frequent patrols.

Snider wanted to address the noise downtown. He had a meeting at Little Toad Creek and after they had been talking on the sidewalk and the noise had been outrageous. "I could not hear myself think." He wanted to see something done about that. He didn't know why he had received complaints about noise downtown and Portillo had not.

Committee reports

Trails and open spaces did not have anyone attending, so Prince provided the report from his notes, and he went over each thing they had discussed. They will be applying for a grant through the state's outdoor recreation division that has helped to build out many of the park systems. He went over some of the trail systems and the residents' uses, in particular those that their properties line up with public property. He said it had been challenging in a couple incidents. The committee has plans to connect downtown all the way to Scott Park and will continue the trail improvements to the new recreation center as well as connecting to Gomez Peak. Prince said these would be long standing trail plans. Something that keeps coming up has been the old railroad line. A lot of other communities have utilized a federal program called Rails to Trails. Many of the rail lines have reverted back to local governing bodies. "Some private property owners think it is kind of theirs."

New business

The council approved the public/private celebration permit application process after a lot of discussion. Snider pointed out some of the weaknesses of the expedited process they had put in place and wanted to see it go back to the original process because it leaves the opportunity for the public to provide input also allowing full council approval. Prince said since the expedited process they had more events, and that has been helpful to the town. People having to come to the council meetings to present can be difficult for them and will conflict with their daylight working hours which would be their businesses. The new process has made their lives easier. He hoped for an amendment to the process to establish a period of time to have the application in. He asked that the business owners' needs be taken into consideration.

Nunez said the process they had implemented had been to expedite the entire process and make it more convenient for business owners but had not clarified many things and left some loose ends. He believed it had been good but needed to be cleaned up some. If the business owners comply with the requirements and make sure the council has enough time to review, it benefits both the town and business owners. Salaiz agreed with Nanez that if they cleaned it up and clarified the process it would be better on both ends. Snider said the expedited process does not leave time for public input and leaves the decision to the mayor.

Wheaton-Smith referenced a resolution from 2019. This actually had authorized the town manager to approve special celebration permits. The council discussed the difference between a public and private celebration permit. He went over the decision the council would have to make, and they could do special meetings to accommodate the approvals. The discussion on the process continued for some time.

Prince moved to amend the motion to require that applications for special dispenser public/private celebration permits where alcohol is consumed be submitted at least 25 days before an event to allow sufficient administrative review, with any objections submitted to the town clerk to arrange a special meeting. If no objections have been received within 72 hours, the mayor has authorization to approve the permit. The council voted yes except Snider voted no. It passed with a majority.

The council approved the destruction of records. They have 317 boxes from 2000 to 2010. Olea had asked the council to table the vote at the last meeting so they could review state law and make sure they would not have any violations. The attorney did request that all documents from legal counsel be scanned into a file before, and that had been added to the motion for approval.

The council approved the appointment of Terry Fortenberry, Eddie Mendoza Sr. and AJ Tow to the labor management relations board.

Wheaton-Smith announced that the council would go into recess until the next day and would be covering the rest of the agenda.

Meeting adjourned until the next day.

The meeting reconvened on July 29, 2026, to finish the three items on the agenda with all of the council present.

The council approved resolution 2026-24 amending the approved and adopted budget for the fiscal year July 1, 2026, to June 30, 2027. Hernandez said this would include the budget adjustments from the last fiscal year which ended June 30, 2026. The town staff must move funds to cover some deficits that ran over the previous fiscal year. He went over what had been transferred, and it ended in a total of $1,106,043.70 transferred to the general fund. This would fill deficits in the general fund. Hernandez then broke out how that had been split up in the general fund. Snider had met with Ortiz, and she had made a lot of clarifications for him on the budget, and he thanked her.

The council approved resolution 2026-25 final quarterly financial report for the year ending June 30, 2026. Hernandez went over the report that coincided with the last resolution. The council had questions on several things that Hernandez answered and added it would take a better part of the fiscal year to be back on track. Because of issues the town had been having to do monthly reports to the state but now will be back on quarterly reports. The finance department will continue to do monthly reports to the council.

The last item on the agenda would be to approve or disapprove of resolution 2026-26 adopting the budget for fiscal year July 1, 2026, to June 30, 2027. After a lot of discussion, the council split on this vote. Salaiz and Nanez voted no to the budget, and Prince and Snider voted yes to pass it. Wheaton-Smith broke the tie with a yes so, they passed the budget.

Hernandez went over what had been discussed at the budget hearing the previous week. Health insurance premiums had increased 15 percent; town share of those premiums would increase to $2.2 million from last year's $1.8 million. No changes had been made on the employees' health insurance coverage. They also had to increase the general liability premiums 7 percent making them $567,000 this year. Last year they had been $527,000. All town employees received a cost-of-living adjustment. General employees received 1.5 percent, fire department 2 percent and police 2.5 percent. The total budget for all employees in all departments will be $16,613,034.53 and the town's total debt payments will be $1.8 million.

Hernandez addressed the 100 percent rate increase they would have from the Southwest Solid Waste Authority and a 40 percent increase from Grant County Central Dispatch. They will start with a 3.5 percent increase for CPI on utilities. They have started to analyze what kind of increase they will have to pass on to the residents. He continued reviewing the beginning cash balance, anticipated revenues, anticipated expenditures and unexpected emergency costs in several of the funds.

Hernandez wanted to point out this budget would not reduce the workforce in any department. He had heard rumors and wanted to address them.

Salaiz wanted to reiterate nobody would be laid off. She did have a question and knew that Hernandez and Ortiz would have to provide the answer later. She wanted to know the salary of directors of every department. She said what she sees with the library and museum has been troubling and they are not essential services. "I understand their importance, but no one will die because they are not doing their jobs." She then included the employees of the library and museum salaries. She didn't know what they could do at this point, but she still had concerns. Hernandez said he would send her the information she requested.

Prince spoke to the budget and theincrease in medical insurance. "I know the health insurance companies of this country have such an incredible and sterling reputation. We are so fortunate to have the contracts that we do to be able to provide the healthcare that we do. But I do get concerns from time to time."

Salaiz wanted to reiterate they will be responsible for that money the taxpayers and voters of the town have put them in charge of. "They are not happy, and I have been hearing about it." She said she answers to them, and what she does next will be with them in mind.

Wheaton-Smith had a few questions that Ortiz answered about lodger's tax. He thought this had been the best budget process he had seen. Salaiz suggested in the future that each department justify their budget to the council, so the council knows exactly what that funding has been spent on and to let them know what they need in their department. It would further transparency. Nanez thanked Hernandez and Ortiz for working to simplify the financial documents.

Meeting adjourned