VILLAGE OF MILAN, N.M. – The Village of Milan Board of Trustees gathered for a regular meeting on Thursday, March 17, at 5:30 p.m. Trustee Ellen Baca was absent, having attended her last meeting in February. Trustee Roseanne Lopez was present via phone call, and the rest of the board was also present. The agenda was approved as presented after the opening prayer and pledge of allegiance, and there were no public comments.
The board started off by approving the meeting minutes for a February 10 Board of Trustees workshop and a February 17 Board of Trustees regular meeting. As for the Action/Discussion portion of the agenda, the board first approved three financial items: the municipal court cash journal for February 2022, the finance report for February 2022, and Resolution 2022-011 Budget Adjustments Bar 8.
The board then approved a Village of Milan Procurement and Purchasing Policy, as well as an Internal Controls Policy. The Procurement and Purchasing Policy is a newly established policy that will set the standards and guidelines under which the Village of Milan will operate when conducting business through the purchasing of the goods and services they need. This policy sets the standard for how the village should responsibly use taxpayer money when making purchases. As for the Internal Controls Policy, this policy is similar in that it sets standards, but it relates to how village financial protocol should operate internally, rather than externally with outside business transactions. The policy outlines procedures “for reducing the risk of theft or errors during collection, recording and deposition of cash receipts…. during the preparation, authorization, and distribution of checks…. practical and cost-effective internal controls that can be used to protect banking information…” and so forth.
The board approved an Award Request for Proposal (RFP) 2022-001 for Legal Services for the Village of Milan. According to a memorandum written by Village Clerk Denise Baca, the village received two bids in response to the RFP. “The bids were ranked and rated by a board of [four] members,” Baca wrote. The board recommended entering into negotiations with New Mexico Local Government Law, LLC for legal services for the Village of Milan, and this recommendation was accepted.
The trustees also approved an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) between Cibola County and the Village of Milan for the housing of inmates. Essentially, this agreement allows the village to house inmates in the local prison under the contract that Cibola County has with it. Both entities have a number of different responsibilities included in the agreement, which is good for a year, auto-renewing up to four years. Milan is going to pay Cibola County at a rate of $71.00 per day per inmate.
Also approved was the awarding of the re-construction of the basketball court at Mirabal Park to Better Builders Construction Services, who quoted the lowest for the project, including fiber mesh, in the amount of $23,229.72. Next, the board approved a Code of Ethics for Employees and Elected Officials. The Code of Ethics had a total of 21 items on it, which village employees and elected officials are expected to abide by.
The document begins, “Engaging in activities that are inconsistent with the proper discharge of a public employee’s duties is considered to be ethical misconduct and may constitute a breach of public trust. Such activities can include participating in decisions that present a conflict of interest or using confidential information for either actual or anticipate personal gain or doing this on behalf of any other person. A violation of ethical conduct and trust also includes acceptance of money, gifts, or favors from an individual or concern which a public employee has reason to believe may become (or is) a party to a business transaction with the employee’s employer. In addition, it is incumbent upon every Village of Milan employee to avoid engaging in any activity that may leave an impression that influence peddling is being condoned, or that favoritism is being extended to an individual or concern.” The rest of the items expanded on these ideas and can be found in the online meeting packet for the March 17 regular meeting at https://towncloud.io/go/milan-nm/.
Finally, the board approved the last three items: Resolution 2022- 012 Participation in the MAP program for Phase III of the Airport Rd. project, Ordinance 285 GIS mapping, and a PER report for Milan Volunteer Fire Department employees. Ordinance 285 establishes “a road naming and rural addressing procedure for the Village of Milan.” Fire Chief Daniel Urioste delivered the Personal Exposure Reporting (PER) report, which stated that the Milan Volunteer Fire Department had a total of five new VFD members that reported in 2021, nine current/returning (non-retired) VFD members that reported in 2021, and zero retired VFD members who reported in 2021, bringing the total number of Milan Volunteer Firefighters who reported exposures or effects of exposures in 2021 to 14.
For the fire chief’s monthly report, Urioste stated that for the month of February, Milan Volunteer Fire Department received a total of 85 calls – eight of those were fire calls, 33 EMS calls, one hazardous condition (no fire) call, and 43 combinations of calls for service, good intent, false alarms, and special incident types. The fires MVFD responded to in February included: a small brush fire in Grants on 2/7/22, a small brush fire in Grants on 2/8/2022, a vehicle fire in San Rafael on 2/9/2022 , a mobile home fire in Grants on 2/9/2022, a small brush fire in San Rafael on 2/20/2022, a big brush fire at the 94-mile post on I-40 on 2/20/2022, a small brush fire caused by unauthorized burning in Bluewater Village on 2/21/2022, and a vehicle fire at the 77-mile post on I-40 on 2/25/2022.
Police Chief Carl Ustupski’s gave his report for the month of February, Ustuspki stated there were 217 calls for service, 104 offense reports, 14 arrests, 21 traffic stops, four auto accidents, four alarms, 18 medical calls, 241 area checks, and 79 business checks. The total incidents recorded by dispatch were 636. The average response time to a call in February was two minutes and 24 seconds, a bit slower than January’s response time of one minute and 55 seconds. Ustupski also said that MPD is investigating an inmate death that occurred at Core Civic, and the investigation should be concluding soon.
On a more positive note, Ustupski added that MPD’s participation in beneficial trainings continues to be successful, and Ustupski has been invited to assist with a New Mexico Drug Recognition Expert training himself, since he is one of 13 instructors certified as such an expert in the State of New Mexico. Ustupski was also “named President of the Cibola County DWI Planning Council. I am looking to bring more awareness in educating the community on alcohol and drug impaired driving. We already hosted an ARIDE course, but I would like to eventually bring a traffic safety conference or training to the area,” Ustupski’s report stated.
The next regular Board of Trustees meeting will be held on Thursday, April 21, at 5:30 p.m. Newly elected village officials will be sworn in on Friday, April 1, at 9:00 a.m.