GRANTS, NM – A Special City Council meeting was held on August 28. The meeting consisted of organizations getting funding for the year approved by the council, multiple presentations, and a recognition for the senior center. The meeting was pushed back after the original special city council meeting scheduled for the 23 was adjourned before any business was able to be completed.
The meeting began with the approval of minutes for the special city council meeting held on July 20, and minutes for the regular city council meeting held on July 26. Both minutes were approved by the council. The next item was recognition for the Senior Center to which Mayor Erik Garcia presented the Senior Center staff with a certificate as well as cupcakes to commend them on all the work they do.
The meeting moved forward with a discussion on public safety. Fire Chief Hays began with his report talking about the Tri-State Fireman’s convention and thanking everyone who was present. The fire department received their new fire engine, they continued the tradition of pushing the fire engine into the fire station. It is now being outfitted with all the necessary equipment and it is replacing engine five. Police Chief Maxine Monte then began her report speaking about the active shooter training that the departments went through. The training was put on by New Mexico State Police and was conducted at Mt. Taylor Elementary. Monte said the training was an eye opener in showing that the department needs more training especially handson and more equipment. She said the biggest hurdle for them was how they will enter a school. She said that now the majority of the Grants Police Department has access to every school in Cibola County through a key fob. Monte also spoke about the two threats that were recently made towards the schools. She said that she wants to encourage the public to reach out earlier if they see a threat made. To end off her report Monte reiterated that the department is giving active shooter training to local businesses and any other entities in the community.
The agenda moved forward with the next discussion which was regarding the City Charter Advisory Commmitee and consideration of a term increase. Basically, the City Charter wants a 6-month increase to their term in order to give themselves time to correctly finish rewriting the charter. The discussion had no action at this meeting. The next discussion was on rank choice voting. The presentation was overall about how the councilors should look into rank choice voting, where voters will rank their choices and while counting the votes the candidates with the lowest votes are eliminated until there is one candidate. For those eliminated those that voted for them will still get a vote and instead of their first choice their second, third, fourth and so on is chosen until there is a winner. The meeting moved on with the next discussion where they went over the process for the ICIP. Finally, the last discussion without action was on City of Grants infrastructure where councilor Beverly Michael showed a presentation that included pictures of streets with potholes, worn down sidewalks, holes in roads, etc.
The meeting then moved on to discussions with action. The first discussion/ action was approval of NWNMCOG technical and grant writing services agreement to which the council approved. The next discussion/ action was approval of amended date for the Bikers v. Bulls event which was supposed to be held on the same weekend as the bike rally but was instead held a couple weeks later. The council approved the amended date. The next discussions/ actions were Approval of old grants water system and sewer system improvements notices of award by TLC Company. The notices were approved by the council. The next discussion/action was approval of golf carts purchase or lease for the Coyote Del Malpais golf course. The council decided to buy out the golf carts that the golf course currently has instead of leasing new carts. Following these discussions/ actions were the agenda items of funding considerations for FY24. The first funding consideration for approval was Cibola Arts Council, the council approved S40,000. Next was the Cibola Communities Economic Development Foundation which the council approved $40,000. Following this was the Community Pantry which the council approved $25,000. The next consideration was Grants MainStreet which the council approved $35,000. Following this was NWNMCOG which the council approved $50,000. The last funding consideration for approval was Rockin’ 66 Transit which the council approved $52,000.
After the funding considerations the agenda moved forward with more discussions/actions. The first discussion/action was budget adjustment 1 which included 12 adjustments mainly in the general fund five of which are for the payout of the former City Manager Donald Jaramillo. The council approved BAR one. The next discussion/action was approval of New Mexico Self Insurance Fund invoice in the amount of $352,421. The council approved the invoice. The final discussion/action item was Superior Ambulance Service subsidy increase. The CEO of Superior wanted to increase the subsidy from $150,000 per year to $300,000 per year for the City of Grants which would require a new request for proposal. The CEO also mentioned that he wants to discuss with both the Village of Milan and the County to approve contracts. Currently the City of Grants is the only entity paying for the service. The council was told by both the City Treasurer Victor Villalobos and the Attorney that although it says action on the agenda, they were not required to make any decisions. The council moved on with no action taken.
The meeting moved on to an executive session and pending or threatened litigation was discussed. The pending or threated litigation was under Bond-Gunderson Properties Demand Letter. The council returned from executive session and no action was taken regarding the matter.
The next Special City Council meeting is scheduled for September 7 at 9 a.m. the agenda is available online on the City of Grants website. The next Regular City Council meeting will be held on September 27 at 6 p.m. the agenda will be available on September 22 both at City Hall and the City of Grants Website.
All meetings are livestreamed and available to watch live or replayed on the City of Grants Facebook page and the City of Grants NM YouTube channel.