Budget award, audit review, and PERA resolutions

The Cibola County Board of Commissioners worked their way through a lengthy agenda at their Thursday, May 26 regular commission meeting. The meeting was called to order at 5:00 p.m., and all commissioners were present except for Chairman Daniel Torrez. The agenda was approved as presented, and there were two public comments.

The first was provided by Les Gaines and Stephanie Gaines, who presented a plaque and hat gift to Cibola County Sheriff Tony Mace for always helping the Quadrathlon event to run smoothly and being involved in the event yearly. “My guys do all the work,” Mace graciously said with a laugh, and thanked the Gaines’ for the acknowledgment. The second comment was given by a citizen named Linda, who thanked the commission for passing a resolution supporting uranium workers and gave an update on the fight to support uranium workers at the federal level.

The commission approved minutes for an April 28 regular commission meeting, and then heard the Budget and Finance Report from Manager Kate Fletcher and Finance Director Paul Ludi. Finance reports and the finalized FY22 Budget are located on the County Finance Department webpage. Ludi shared that the county received the Distinguished Budget Presentation Award from the Government Finance Officers Association. This is the highest award and recognition a county can receive for budgeting, and Cibola County was the smallest county to receive the award, amongst other big-name places that received the award, such as Albuquerque, Bernalillo County, Las Cruces, Los Lunas, and Rio Rancho. The commissioners were very proud of this accomplishment and congratulated those involved with the budget.

There were three presentations; the first was presented by County Emergency Manager Dustin Middleton, recognizing Candy Kitchen Volunteer Fire Department’s Chief Michael Sweet and Executive Assistant/Fire Fighter Shirley Sweet. The Sweets have been serving Candy Kitchen Fire Dept. for 10 years, are retiring, and have passed the baton of Chief down to their son, John Sweet, who accepted the plaques on their behalf since they could not make it to the meeting. John Sweet spoke highly of his parents, adding that they deserved it and that they were leaving behind big shoes to fill. The commission thanked them for their service.

Next, Les Gaines gave a presentation on Recreational Economies in Rural Communities, which is the same presentation he has given to other local entities, attempting to bring attention to the recreation potential in Cibola County, the grant opportunities, fascinating research, and the needs of the initiative. “We have to get this going because this is good stuff,” said Gaines, who said the project coordinators need support and guidance on connecting with the right people who can help locally. Gaines and the commission agreed to stay in touch regarding this project and the Cibola Trail Alliance project once the forests reopen.

Finally, Jaramillo Accounting Group (JAG) employees Scott and Justin gave a presentation on the FY21 Final Audit Report. The auditors acknowledged the County for submitting their reports on time, and they discussed the responsibilities of the auditors and responsibility of management to monitor and maintain an internal controls structure. The county audit only received three findings this year, compared to the seven received last year. The first was a capital assets material weakness found in the area of infrastructure (modified and repeated), regarding a $13 million dollar figure that seemed to have a confusing origin. Manager Fletcher did not agree with this finding, and her and Ludi agreed that the figure goes back to when Cibola County became incorporated 41 years ago. The second finding was a material weakness and material non-compliance in cash reconciliations and cash adjustments (modified and repeated), and was reportedly due to software limitations. The third finding was a significant deficiency, noncompliance in property taxes receivable (modified and repeated), which all agreed would likely be resolved in a year or so.

As for Cibola General Hospital, there were six findings, compared to the 10-plus findings from last year’s audit. Some of the findings were attributed to CGH going through system changes in the past year. Manager Fletcher was pleased that both the County and CGH did not have any new findings this year. Commissioner Christine Lowery agreed, and said she was optimistic about CGH’s growth because individual change is hard enough, she said, but organizational change is much harder and takes much longer, so she commended them on their progress thus far.

The commission held a brief public hearing for two ordinances: Ordinance 2022-002 County Maintained Road Ordinance and Ordinance 2022-003 Restricting Open and Controlled Burns in the Unincorporated Areas of Cibola County. The public did not offer any comments seeking to change or alter these ordinances, but CGH CEO Thomas Whelan thanked the commission for taking action to protect Cibola’s lands from increased fire risk.

All items under the new business/action portion of the agenda were approved, and community members can access this agenda to view items passed via the link: https://cibolacountynmmy.sharepoint.com/personal/jphoracek_cibolacountynm_onmicrosoft_com/_layouts/15/onedrive.aspx?ga=1&id=%2Fpersonal%2Fjphoracek%5Fcibolacountynm%5Fonmicrosoft%5Fcom%2FDocuments%2FREVIZE%2FAgendas%202022%2F05%2E26%2E2022%20Regular%20Commission%20Meeting%20Agenda%20%2D%20Copy%2Epdf&parent=%2Fpersonal%2Fjphoracek%5Fcibolacountynm%5Fonmicrosoft%5Fcom%2FDocuments%2FREVIZE%2FAgendas%202022.

Items e. and f. were the ones the commissioners were most excited about. Essentially, the resolutions put a little bit more money in county employees’ paychecks by having the county pay more into their PERA retirement and the employees paying less. Therefore, they will see a small increase in their paychecks and the money they’re retaining, without it altering their retirement packages. Manager Fletcher reassured the commission that they did their research, looked at the option long-term, and found that it was feasible. There were two resolutions because law enforcements officers are in a different tier because their retirement packages look different, but the idea is the same. First Vice Chairman Martha Garcia joked at the end of it all, “Maybe they’ll buy us a cup of coffee,” which was responded by a room full of laughter.

Commissioner Robert Windhorst commented that this was only possible because of the hard work of the county employees and budget people, who took the county from a rough place years ago to now thriving. Windhorst said that the claims of those who say the county isn’t doing well are false, and that he is proud of the commission and where the county is at right now. Upon concluding the meeting, Commissioner Garcia announced that Cibola County Offices will be closed on Monday, May 30, 2022, in observation of the Memorial Day holiday. The next regular commission meeting will be on June 23, at 5:00 p.m.