By Lynn Janes

The Silver City Town Council held a regular meeting July 23, 2024. Attendance to the meeting included Mayor Ken Ladner, Mayor Pro Tem Guadalupe Cano, Rudy Bencomo, Nicholas Prince, and Stan Snider (phone).

Council comments

Bencomo had attended a meeting on the new recreation center with Alex Brown, town manager, James Marshall, assistant town manager, architect and project manager. He had been very impressed and what stood out had been how young the architect and project manager had been. He encouraged kids to look into that line of work. He wanted to remind people on the Department of Transportation meeting the following night concerning the proposed light safety project on highway 180 from 14th Street to Fort Bayard Road at the Grant County Veterans Memorial Business and Conference Center.

Cano thanked everyone that worked to make the work session possible. She especially thanked Romeo Cruz, chamber director, and his staff for making the space comfortable for them. She felt it went well and they had some good input and conversation between the councilors. She hoped they have come up with some things to make downtown better.

In the past week Cano had attended Municipal Official Leadership Institute. She had graduated before but attends every year for continued education. She wanted to share with everyone including the public some of the things she had learned. Throughout the state they have a problem and recently have here. The problem has to do with elected officials staying in their lane. "We make policy decisions, not operational ones." This problem has come up in the last couple of months. The town council job has to do with making laws and it falls on the town and police to enforce the laws. She felt the public also didn't understand that distinction. "We don't get involved in day-to-day things, we are not supposed to. We should not be attacking departments or saying things about people in meetings." If they have a concern it needs to be taken to the town manager. "I have been guilty of this along with other councilors, but I have never attacked an actual department in a meeting, I would never do that, and it needs to stop." For this reason, Cano will be sponsoring legislation to have a code of conduct for the council. "Sad we are at this point, but we are." She hoped to do this and treat the employees with a little more respect than they have been.

At the training Cano had also learned some information about abstaining from voting. The only time a council member may abstain is if they have an actual conflict of interest. They must name that before the discussion and leave the room for that time of that discussion. This will also be added to the rules of conduct. She added this had all come from the municipal league and not her personally.

Snider wanted to update the council on the composting sludge project at the wastewater treatment plant. They had traveled to Carlsbad to obtain information on their project for composting sludge and how it worked. They had received valuable information to make it successful. They will be in compliance with the New Mexico Environment Department to protect the ground water. The department will be able to accomplish this by putting an impermeable membrane below the pile. It will be mixed with biochar and pecan shells that will bring it to 150 degrees Fahrenheit which will kill 90 percent of the pathogens. It will make it a class A compost. This saves the space in the landfill and protects the workers from hazardous waste. He wanted to thank the staff at the wastewater treatment plant for making the project happen.

Prince had attended the State Interstate Stream Commission. He said that they will be providing funding to insure water access for our area and surrounding ones. He thanked Cano for initiating the work session and it had been wonderful to see so much engagement.

Prince said, "Often times when there is public discourse the only time, they can speak is public input." He pointed out he would be available by phone or email. Prince directed these following comments to Cano. "I want to make sure we are being critical of the departments we have underneath our authority so we can have a better transparent communicative government and are doing our due diligence required."

Ladner thanked all the volunteers that come every month for the trash cleanup. One thing someone that comes consistently said to him he thought to be significant. She pointed out they come every month and clean a stretch of highway 90 and every month when they come back it will be full of trash. She said, "It is very discouraging." Ladner agreed but said what would happen if they didn't do it. "When we volunteer to make Silver City better, we make ourselves better."

The council approved the minutes from the July 9, 2024, meeting

Public input none currently.

Reports

The local 12212 VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) presented the town with a plaque to thank them for their continued support of the VFW.

The council approved resolution 2024-15. This resolution ratifies the agreement between the town of Silver City and the Southwest New Mexico Council of Governments (SWNMCOG). Brown said they do this annually and it has always worked well to help the town obtain grants and funding for projects. He said he knew everyone on the council had worked with Priscilla Lucero, director, and she had always been a great help. He also recommended the appointment of himself and Marshall (alternate) for SWNMCOG and economic development as representatives. He also recommended adding Jacquiline Olea as the alternate for RTPO (regional transport planning organization) and Peter Pena to remain the representative.

The council approved resolution 2024-16. This resolution amends the last fiscal year budget. Brown explained he watches the budget carefully along with Anita Norero, finance director. They always have been conservative with the budget revenues. They had received more than expected. He explained the adjustments and why.

Prince questioned him on the high amount for overtime. Brown said the biggest issue had been lack of staff and that creates overtime. He said they had the funds to pay that overtime but knew the employees would become burnt out. "We have been working to increase pay to be competitive."

The council approved resolution 2024-17. This pertained to the final quarterly report for June 30, 2024. Brown went over some of the report and provided explanations.

Prince said he wanted to make sure people have access to emergency health care services.

The council approved resolution 2024-18. This adopts the budget for the 2024-2025 fiscal year. Brown said this would be the final budget and will be ready to send to the Department of Finance Authority (DFA). He pointed out that part of the reason for it being higher than last year had to do with the construction of the recreation center and some road projects. Last year it had been around $68 million, and this year will be $71 million. Cano thanked them for all the hard work they put into this budget each year and said they did a wonderful job. Brown wanted to point out how many grants Norero oversees on her own. She oversees 48 grants, and they total about $15 million.

Prince asked for appropriate time to review the budget.

The council approved bid #24/25-1 for Little Walnut Road phase 4 and the award given to Deming Excavation Incorporated. Brown said they have been working on this for several years. They had received funding for this phase from colonias funding and a department of transportation funding in a total amount of a little over $3 million. They had two bids, Southwest Concrete and Deming Excavation. Brown recommended the lower bid of $2,972,986.72 that include the gross receipts tax.

Meeting adjourned.