Contentious Issues Take Center Stage

GRANTS, N.M. – All councilors were present at the Regular Grants City Council Meeting at the end of November. This meeting became very contentious as councilors debated an increase to Gross Receipts Tax. All members of the Grants City Council were present for this meeting.

The meeting opened on a positive note. Grants Fire and Rescue honored Lieutenant Anthony Valencia. According to Fire Chief Robert Hays, lieutenants are the leaders for their shifts, they help to make sure that the city is safe from fire and disaster, while making ensuring the good order of their team. Chief Hays said that Lieutenant Valencia checks all the boxes of a good and effective leader, before Lt. Valencia was pinned by his father and Lt. Mike Maes.

Taking action for the first time in months on the Charter Advisory Committee Board, the council voted to approve Reyes Jaramillo, Elven Ray Clemons, C.L. Peterson, and Brian Johnson to the board that will rewrite the city’s governing charter.

The city council then went on to discuss raising the price of cemetery plots in Grants for outof- town people who would like to be buried in Grants. The Grants Memorial Cemetery is working on expanding as the cemetery will soon be at full capacity. City Clerk Frances Salas said “I estimate that in the Spring, we will probably only have about 10 plots left.” She said that there are more and more urns that are being buried, and that regular casket funerals are lower than on average. The council all agreed that the Grants Memorial Cemetery is the nicest in the state, with Councilor Fred Rodarte saying that he would like local residents to have preference in the cemetery. With their changes to the rules, if a Grants resident changed their address while in the military, or for school, or for medical purposes but still lived in the community for several year, they will still be able to pay an intown- resident fee. The board is considering a fee for transferring cemetery plot data. The city council decided to table this discussion until more solid numbers can be brought up.

The cemetery is running out of space. Mayor Erik Garcia said that the cemetery is running out of space, he asked the council to table the resolution until the full numbers could be crunched. The mayor said he would like to know the amount of money that is coming in so the cemetery could be expanded before it runs out of space.

In a three-to-one vote, with a motion by Councilor Beverly Michael, seconded by Councilor George Garcia with a vote of support by Councilor Zachary Gutierrez, opposed by Councilor Rodarte, the city voted to increase the cost of burying urns from $200 to $450, and decrease the cost of out-of-county burials from $5,000 to $3,500.

GRT Debate

The city then shifted their attention to a proposal that would increase the city’s gross receipts tax.

Mayor Erik Garcia has been pushing for an increase to the city’s Gross Receipts Tax, he is looking to put the extra money into the police department and fire department’s budgets. He said that this is a matter of public safety, because crime is on the rise and he said, “I don’t know what else to do if we don’t get this passed tonight and put some funds into our public safety.”

Grants Police Chief Maxine Monte was called up by the mayor, “to see what this increase can do for you, or not do for you, what do you think?”

Monte reported there were 78 arrests in just the last six weeks. It does not include all the reports and calls for contact they have to do. This is with the officer shortage that they have. GPD is having trouble finding “qualified candidates”, the chief said that GPD has received applications but, “We’re looking for quality, not quantity.”

Chief Monte said, “Crime is not stopping and it won’t stop, we’re seeing more, higher, violent crime in the City of Grants. Lieutenant [Barbara] Kohn spoke a couple of months ago and said that the crime is moving from bigger cities to smaller cities, and she is right 100 percent.” Chief said that drugs and alcohol are major issues in the city right now, with more money coming in, Grants Police Department will work to get better equipment, and focus on retention.

Chief Monte thanked the council for their previous support of the police department, and said that even though the council bought new cameras, no one thought about the storage space required for hours and hours of camera video. The department has a serious need to increase their cloud storage. Police are required to record, and recordings have become essential in securing convictions.

Chief Hays then rose and said that GFR needs new and better equipment, especially to bolster their emergency medical equipment and operations. Lt. Maes said that the fire department is getting more and more hazmat calls, which has the potential to damage their equipment which can cost upward of $25,000 per set of equipment.

Councilor Beverly Michael pulled out the budget, and said that the current approved budget for GFR is, $1,223,235 in the general fund. “I feel very much that the fire department is moving in a good direction, I think that we need time to budget correctly and keep spending that funding wisely.”

She then said the current approved budget for GPD is $2,408,991, “I’m glad we have the new chief. We are looking forward to all that you do, and looking forward to the next budget season. I think you can justify the needs that you’re seeing you need this fiscal year, very much so.”

Councilor Micahel said that the IT problem is going to be getting significant funding and that the people should give IT the chance to “evaluate the required security for what we need for our city. We don’t want to be reactive. I agree that crime has been horrible, we’re all seeing it, we’re all hearing it – we have concern… The city needs to give more time to see where the new chief, IT director, and finance director see as needs for our city.”

Councilor Michael was concerned about the wording, “unrestricted use” which prompted the city attorney to clarify that this is just a legal classification for this specific use of GRT. The councilor then asked to see a specific line-item budget to better understand where the money will go.

Councilor Garcia said that he is uncomfortable with moving forward without seeing solid numbers about the use of GRT and said that he doesn’t want to add “an additional burden on our citizens.”

After tense debate, the council went for a vote. Councilor Gutierrez made a motion to approve an increase on the gross receipts tax, the motion died with no second.

The Grants City Council will meet again on January 25 for a regular meeting.