VILLAGE OF MILAN, N.M. — The Village of Milan Board of Trustees held a regular meeting and a public hearing on Thursday, January 11 at 5:30 p.m. The meeting was conducted virtually via Zoom, all board members were present except for Trustee Chris Archuleta. The agenda was approved with a minor correction of moving an item on the agenda.
There were no public comments, so the board moved on to approving the meeting minutes for a December 9 Board of Trustees workshop meeting, a December 16 Board of Trustees regular meeting and public hearing, and a December 27 regular meeting. The board then approved acceptance of the municipal court cash journal for December 2021.
First up for the Act i o n / D i s c u s s i o n items, the Grants/Cibola County Chamber of Commerce was supposed to enter the Zoom meeting to make a presentation regarding an All-Terrain Vehicle event they are organizing, but Village Clerk Denise Baca did not see them in the virtual meeting, so she asked that the board table the presentation for a later date, which they did. Chamber Executive Director Brenda Curtwright informed the Cibola Citizen that the Chamber was having issues with the Zoom connection which is why they couldn’t attend the meeting. The board then discussed a series of “housecleaning” items that are put on the agenda of the first meeting of every new year. Resolution 2022-001 Open Meeting Act established in November 2022 that Milan Planning and Zoning meetings would be the first Thursday of the month, trustee workshops would be on the second Thursday, and regular trustee meetings would be on the third Thursday. Trustee Ellen Baca discussed the option of returning regular meetings to Wednesdays since the City of Grants holds their meetings on Thursdays, but Village Manager Linda Cooke said Wednesdays would not work for her because of other responsibilities. The board approved the resolution to keep the meeting schedule as is.
Raising the minimum wage
The board then made a motion to adjourn the regular meeting in order to hold a hearing for Ordinance 274 Municipal Bonds and Ordinance 275 Minimum Wage Act. There were no public comments regarding these ordinances, so a motion was made to reconvene the regular meeting. Ordinance 274, which Manager Cooke said raised the court fees because they were too low, was approved. Ordinance 275 was also approved, raising the village’s minimum wage to $11.50 to match the state’s minimum wage act and therefore bring up the pay for employees who were working below that amount.
Next, before approving the cash disbursement journal for December 2021, Trustee Baca asked about a section of the financial report that mentioned elected officials receiving a raise. Financial Director Candi Williams said that the section she saw was a correction, clarifying that they would not be receiving a raise. According to Williams, former Village Manager Sarah Austin included in the budget, at the time, a plan to give future Milan elected officials a pay raise by ordinance. That plan was never carried out or acted upon and there is not enough time for it to be acted on before elections, so Williams added that correction to the report to clarify that the pay raise would not be applied to the next governing body. According to current Manager Cooke, elected officials cannot vote on or pass ordinances to give themselves a raise. However, they can vote on an ordinance to give a raise to the next governing body after elections in March. This did not happen for incoming elected officials of 2022.
Financial updates
Director Williams then gave a quick financial update to the board. “Everything is looking really good. We are about halfway through the [fiscal] year. The departments are doing an excellent job managing their budgets. Fuel prices, as we have talked before, have been a bit of a concern, because we didn’t budget it high. We budgeted it based on what it has been the last three years, fuel prices are much higher now. But what we did is I sat down and I went with certain departments that had some money in places they weren’t spending it, we moved that to where it needed to be, we found some expenses that were budgeted for that we no longer even pay for. So, we’ve moved these things around… Our GRT’s are on that steady uptick, where we’re really doing well,” concluded Williams.
Countering COVID-19, department reports
During updates, Manager Cooke said that the village did close as a precautionary measure due to the rapid spread of COVID-19 in recent weeks, but that the village would return to normal operation Monday, Jan. 24.
Next, Milan Fire Chief Daniel Urioste reported that the department ended December with 126 calls and ended the entire year with 1,081 total calls. MFD’s biggest fire for the month of September was at Golden Acres. “Everything’s going pretty good. We are starting up some more trainings for the year,” said Urioste. He also mentioned that some of the trainings they are putting in order are some EMS trainings, and the agency’s recent funding applications and certification paperwork has also been completed.
In concluding the meeting, each board member echoed the same sentiment of taking extra precautions during the ongoing spike of COVID-19 in New Mexico and the Cibola County community, staying safe, and cherishing families. The Village of Milan Planning and Zoning will hold a meeting on February 3 at 4:30 p.m., and the Board of Trustees will have a workshop on February 10 at 5:30 p.m. and then a regular meeting on February 17, 5:30 p.m.