It is the position of the Cibola Citizen that elected officials in every capacity – including school board members, municipal officials, county officials, state, and federal officials – must be held to a higher standard. They chose to do the hard work in leading their respective communities, and must attend their meetings, read their documentation, be prepared, and do work that will benefit the economy and overall wellbeing of their respective communities.
The City of Grants is the primary economic engine of Cibola County, it is the home of the Grants-Cibola County Chamber of Commerce, it is the largest concentration of residents in the county, and the financial well-being of the entire county relies heavily on the successes of Grants.
The Cibola Citizen appreciates the work of the city employees who labor tirelessly to ensure the city does not fail. Their work is stifled, however, by a dysfunctional, lame duck government. The work of the city, which benefits the whole of Cibola County, could continue if the Grants City Council would put aside their politics and start acting like elected officials who ran for office to govern. The longer it takes for these men to put aside high school drama, the more the City of Grants and Cibola County suffer.
There was never a reason given by the Grants City Council – namely the three councilors who voted to fire former City Manager Vanessa Chavez surreptitiously: Mayor Pro tem Rick Lucero, Councilor Fred Padilla, and Councilor Fred Rodarte – to fire former manager Chavez.
Chavez was an at-will employee who had a very successful and short time in office. Her firing sent ripples through the City of Grants, with several city employees asking if they were going to be the next ones fired for doing their job.
City employees are not the only ones watching the actions of the city government. Businesses that are looking to relocate to Cibola County thanks to our beautiful views, enchanting mountains and hardworking citizens need more assurances than just natural beauty and hard work. They need cooperation. If the city government cannot cooperate with itself, why would it cooperate with businesses? The instability and failures of this city council is scaring away businesses and making the work of Cibola Communities Economic Development Foundation that much harder.
CCEDF has to find a way to defend the failures and complacency of the county seat. The actions of Cibola’s local governments affect the entire county – from the tax base to the population. Businesses can succeed or fail based on the actions of the city government.
Here at the Cibola Citizen we hold our elected officials to a higher standard. We do not want to hold the City of Grants to a lower standard, that would be unfair to the Village of Milan, Grants-Cibola County School Board, and all other elected positions through Cibola County. The city needs to get its act together and stop playing politics, the economic future of the county depends on it. Stop playing games with the future of the City of Grants.