Dear Editor:
After being elected Cibola County Commissioner for District 4 five years ago, I had no idea the financial problems our county was in. The Commission was faced with some very hard decisions to get our county back on track. We immediately slowed the spending and worked on getting someone to go through our books and find out exactly where we were.
We made the difficult decision to close the Detention Center because of the many lawsuits that were threatening to place our county in the hands of the State of New Mexico. We stopped all Commissioner travel to Washington D.C. and all other places. Reckless spending for a new county building and other things had threatened our financial stability.
It took a while, but we found the right manager and she put a team in place and we now have a county that is financially solvent and thriving! Closing the Detention Center was a painful decision, but entering into a contract with Core Civic has saved our county millions of dollars. Because we had a good County Manager that brought in a talented financial Director, Paul Ludi, our Cibola County was given a prestigious award for best audit out of 33 counties last year.
Now, let's talk about the City of Grants. Because I had been through three years of financial hell with the county and many sleepless nights, I recognized that the City of Grants did not have control of their budget and were spending more money than they had budgeted for with the State of New Mexico. Cibola County had overspent their budget in the seven years before I was elected, by $9.5 million dollars and I was stressed that no one was listening. I am grateful that the Mayor and some Councilmen came to realize that there was a huge financial crisis looming that needed to addressed. There was a change in administration at City Hall and a new City Manager, Vanessa Chavez, was hired.
Vanessa Chavez immediately got into the saddle and put a team together. This team used the expertise of the Cibola County Financial Director to put together a working budget. City of Grants Financial Director, Gloria Pargas came back and has done an amazing job! Intergovernmental cooperation has begun a new collaborative effort between the City of Grants, Village of Milan, and Cibola County is solidly in place.
As Cibola County Commissioners, we have given support to the County Manager we hired, Kate Fletcher. She handles the day-to-day operations of the county. The same should be true of the Village of Milan and the City of Grants. I would encourage the Grants City Council to support Grants City Manager Vanessa Chavez and give her a chance to do with Grants, as Kate Fletcher has done for Cibola County. Because, I know Vanessa Chavez so well and know of her many talents and abilities, I would ask that the City Council support her in her positive efforts to put the City of Grants back on track. With so many encouraging things happening to our area, we need to keep our eyes on the prize, solid economic growth and opportunity for all that want to work. This will not happen without a good manager to control the operation of our wonderful city.
Robert S. Windhorst
Cibola County Commissioner, District 4