GRANTS, N.M. — The Grants City Charter is a blueprint to how the city can and should operate. The document is 32 pages long, filled with legal mumbo-jumbo that most people don’t have the opportunity or desire to read and understand given the sheer length and complexity of the document. Today we are going to discuss the preamble, which is only two sentences long but holds a significant amount of power.
Preamble
This is where the agency and those who lead it declare their reasoning for having a charter.
The first section of the preamble reads:
“We, the citizens of the City of Grants, pursuant to the Constitution and laws of the State of New Mexico, in order to secure the advantages of local self-government, do hereby enact this Charter for the City of Grants, New Mexico.” [sic.]
This single sentence is what allows the City of Grants to exist. In this sentence the people of the City of Grants give their consent to allow a government to be formed and watch over their affairs.
The preamble continues with the second and final paragraph:
“Not more than three (3) days following the election and subsequent approval by the voters of the Amended/Revised Charter, the City Clerk shall canvass the ballots. At the next regular meeting of the City Council, the Council shall certify the election returns and thereby adopt the Amended/Revised Charter, which shall become effective thirty (30) days after the election.” [sic.]
This clause establishes that, in order for the charter to be changed, an election must be held to ensure that those people who are responsible for keeping the government going — the public — have the opportunity to see what changes are going to be made. This is further qualified in Article 1, Section 7 Charter Amendment, where the charter declares state law will be followed when amending the charter, specifically New Mexico Municipal Code, Chapter 3, Article 15 NMSA 1978.
New Mexico Municipal Code, Chapter 3, Article 15 NMSA 1978 reads, “The charter of any municipality adopted under the provisions of Article 10, Section 6 of the constitution of New Mexico, by law of the territorial legislature of New Mexico or under the provisions of the Municipal Charter Act [3-15-1 to 3-15-16 NMSA 1978] may be amended or repealed either by a proposal submitted by the governing body of the municipality to the qualified electors or by petition as provided for in Section 3-15-4 NMSA 1978 for the adoption of an original charter at a general or special election and ratified by a majority of the qualified electors voting on the amendment or repeal.”
This states that there must be an election before the charter can be changed.
In two sentences the charter creates the City of Grants, ensuring that it will strive to work on behalf of the people who lend it power, and ensures that the city is reined in, so the charter does not change without the consent of the people it governs.