Regular Commission Meeting

GRANTS, NM – This month’s county commission meeting the commission approved their audit for Fiscal Year 2022-2023, they approved to support Cibola County Outdoor Recreation for their grant application, and approved to submit NMDOT Transportation Project Fund Applications for construction of County Road One and planning and design for County Road 8 in Cubero.

This meeting’s public comment section saw the beginnings of political campaigning with three of the five individuals making public comments being candidates. These candidates included Keith Hillock who is running for the New Mexico State Senate for District four against George Munoz, Pricilla Benally who is running for the New Mexico House of Representatives for District six against Eliseo Alcon, and Harry Garcia who is running to keep his seat in the New Mexico House of Representatives for District 69. Other public comments were made by C.L. Peterson who encouraged the commission to visit the new exhibit at the Double Six Gallery.

County Manager Kate Fletcher and Finance Director Paul Ludi gave a report for the budget and finance. The County is reconciled through February 29, 2024 for the Main Operating account and the Treasurer’s office is reconciled through February 29, 2023 for the Tax operating account. The NMFA Loan for El Morro Volunteer Fire Department has been tendered. The Local Assistance and Tribal Consistency Fund federal reporting has been completed and Bond Reporting to the Securities and Exchange Commission has been completed. For the month of March, the county received $534,154 in GRT which is $15,681 below the projected budget which is still recovering from the hit that the county took last month from the legal ruling. The county has collected $2,414,011 in current taxes for property tax and $454,645 in delinquent taxes.

For the Cibola County Operating Cash Recap, two funds are currently in a deficit which include Farm and Range which is in a deficit of $15,578.55 due to a timing in cash flows and the Consolidated Dispatch which is in a deficit of $63,929.10 due to the shortfall of GRT. If there is a deficit next month when the county needs to report to the state, they will need to take a loan out from the general fund.

Public Safety Ansering Point Manager Mindy Cunningham gave a report on Dispatch which included an update on their mission and what the commission has done to boost morale at dispatch which include PERA, raises, insurance, Upgraded equipment and a new facility. Cunningham also gave an update to their call statistics from January 1, 2023 to January 1, 2024, the total incoming calls is 55,036 and the total outbound calls is 32,874. As for call type 16,918 of the total calls were 911 calls, 637 were abandoned 911 calls, 16,281 were total 911 calls and 38,118 were admin calls.

There was a presentation from Beasly, Mitchell, and Company Certified Public Accountants regarding the County’s FY2022-23 Audit. The audit’s overall opinion is an unmodified opinion with 2 findings being resolved by the accountants. The two findings were cash reconciliation, which was due to some numbers not matching up and Fletcher said that this finding ended up being a system issue, the other finding was pledged collateral. The commission approved a resolution to approve and accept the FY2022-23 Audit.

Les Gaines from the Cibola County Outdoor Recreation and Eileen Yarborough came before the commission to ask them to approve a resolution to support Cibola County Outdoor Recreation. Les Gaines said that they are requesting this resolution to include the county’s support when they apply for a grant. The resolution passed in order for them to apply for the grant with Lowery opposing saying that the resolution is too broad and she would like for it to be rewritten. Following the approval the commission agreed that the Cibola County Outdoor Recreation should rewrite the resolution with Commissioner Lowery’s assistance and bring it before the board again at next month’s meeting.

The commission approved a resolution for Budget Adjustment 5. This BAR included 13 adjustments which included adjustments to purchase new computers for the DWI Distribution, an election MOU for the BOE and Primary Election MOU expense to spend on the June 4 primary, medical direction revenue for the fire marshal, multiple CoOps for road construction and maintenance and new funding from the LERF for officer retention.

The commission approved two resolutions to submit NMDOT Transportation Project Fund Applications. The first application is for construction for County Road 1 and the County is requesting $4.3 million with a 5 percent match of overall project costs from the county. The funding will be used for phase two of construction to stabilize the stream channel, stabilizing and improving the bridge structure, adding guard rails, and improving roadway drainage issues on both sides of the road. The second application is for planning and design for County Road 8 in Cubero and the county is requesting $750,000 with a 5 percent match of overall project costs. The funding will be used for planning, preliminary engineering, engineering and design, ROW studies, geo-technical studies, and survey to determine how to widen the road and possible construction needed for the first phase.

The county completed an annual certified countymaintained mileage report with the total mileage for Cibola County being 340.973 miles. The commission approved to submit this report to the NMDOT. The commission also approved the RFP for the contract for legal services from Nance, Pato & Stout, LLC. and for them to continue providing legal services for the county. The commission also approved a resolution for the Law Enforcement Retention Fund Use Policy which deputy sheriffs who have reached four, nine, fourteen and nineteen years of service to become eligible for the LERF application. The Laguna Fire Protection Department requested the county to approve the purchase of Wildland Fire Protection Uniforms and Equipment from Artesia Fire Equipment in the amount of $44,684.35. The commission approved the requisition.

The commission meeting ended with announcements, the next Regular Commission Meeting will be on Thursday, April 25 at 5:00 p.m.