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Cubero Fire Department Chief Joseph DeSoto (left) presents Doctor Karl Gutierrez with an Outstanding Service Award, an honorary firefighter certificate, other small gifts, and a heartfelt thank you for all of Gutierrez’s work and support of CFD and Cibola County over the years. Kylie Garcia - CC
CIBOLA COUNTY – The Cibola County Board of Commissioners held a regular meeting on Thursday, June 24, 2021 at 5 p.m. The public can now attend the meetings, and they can also be accessed on the Cibola County Commission Facebook page via Facebook Live.
The board approved the agenda with the change of moving item nine, the presentation item, ahead of item eight, the reports item, so that those that were apart of the presentation did not have to stay through the reports. The board then approved the meeting minutes from the May 27 regular meeting.
A presentation was then opened up by Cibola County Emergency Manager Dustin Middleton and the award was given by Cubero Fire Department Chief Joseph DeSoto, awarding a Cibola County citizen for his service throughout the community for many years. That citizen was Doctor Karl Gutierrez, who was acknowledged for being an outstanding medical director for Cubero Fire Department and many other agencies throughout Cibola County. “Your care really helped us help those people out there,” expressed DeSoto. After accepting the Outstanding Service Award and being recognized by Chief DeSoto as an honorary firefighter, Gutierrez said, “The true heroes are the people that are out there.” He thanked everyone for the award and the board congratulated him in return.
The board then moved on to hearing the Budget and Finance Report from Finance Director Paul Ludi and County Manager Kate Fletcher. During the report, Ludi stated, “It’s good to see that COVID didn’t affect us as bad as we had prepared for.” Ludi then went over some finance charts and explained the format and details to the board. Citizens can access finance reports in greater detail by visiting the finance department of the Cibola County website. Before moving on, Windhorst asked Ludi and Fletcher about the county’s audit and inquired if everything was okay with it. Manager Fletcher answered Windhorst by saying that they could not talk about the audit findings until the audit is released in July, but she assured the board that they will be discussing all the findings and that she is excited about it. Quickly, Fletcher then recognized Revolve Industries for creating the metal work lying on the wall behind the board in the chambers. The work featured the Cibola County emblem, and the board was very proud of it.
The board then went through the rest of the agenda, they approved a Consideration of Resolution 21-33 FY21 Budget Adjustment No. 10, a Consideration of Resolution 21-34 Records Retention Policy, a Consideration of Resolution 21-35 Tyler Software Cleanup of County Capital Asset Inventory of Real and Personal Property, a Consideration of RFP 2021-005 for Annual Financial Audit Service, and finally, a Consideration to approve requisitions over $20,000: a 2021 Ford F-150 Crew Cab STX Black for $37,741.00.
The Records Retention Policy was created to formally establish that county employees cannot just throw papers away. Manager Fletcher reiterated this by just letting the board know that they all have to keep everything. It is a policy that simply ensures that everyone is following the rules, doing what they need to do, and keeping what they need to keep. For the Annual Financial Audit Service item, the board was provided with the information that three firms put in proposal, and the presenter recommended Jaramillo Accounting Group. The presenter reported Jaramillo Accounting Group as having lots of experience with counties, government, and more so than the other two firms, hospitals. Finally, Fletcher went over the 2021 Ford F-150 purchase with the board and explained that the county has to give money back if they do not spend it. Therefore, Fletcher recommended the purchase and said it would come in handy when they needed a truck to pull trailers around during election time. The former truck used is being auctioned off.
The Board of Commissioners went into a brief Executive Session. The top item that was discussed in the closed session was “Pending or threatened litigation 10-15-1 (H) (7): i. City of Albuquerque Et al. v. TRD”. Upon entering back into open session, Chairman Daniel Torrez stated that no direction would be given to staff regarding this topic.
The next regular commission meeting will be held on July 22, 2021 at 5 p.m. According to Manager Fletcher, the next meeting is expected to be lengthy. Also, the Cibola County Offices will be closed on Monday, July 5, 2021, in observation of the Independence Day holiday.