Roosevelt County Commission Minutes

Tuesday, April 5, 2022

County Commission Room

Roosevelt County Courthouse

Portales, New Mexico 88130

The Roosevelt County Commission met in regular business meeting on Tuesday April 5, 2022 at 9:00 a.m. in the County Commission Room with those present being: Commissioner Paul Grider, Commissioner Rodney Savage, Commissioner Shane Lee, Commissioner Tina Dixon, Commissioner Dennis Lopez, County Manager Amber Hamilton, Assistant County Manager Liliana Rivera, County Attorney Randy Knudson, County Clerk Mandi Park, Deputy Clerk Silke Humpe, Road Superintendent Ricky Lovato, Chief Deputy Assessor Stevin Floyd, GIS Coordinator Johnny Montiel, Special Programs Coordinator Carol Acosta-Flores, Treasurer Layle Sanchez, Detention Administrator Shayla Ramsey, Lt. Javier Sanchez, Human Resources Coordinator Shawn Andrus, ENMU Chancellor Dr. Patrice Caldwell, Arch Volunteer Fire Chief Jay Lang, Portales Fire Chief Timothy Cathey, Bill Cathey, Angie Smith, Jeff Fleming, Dede Pouge, Summer Fleming and Pat Fleming, Pastor Gary Piepkorn and Eastern New Mexico Staff Writer Grant McGee.

Call to Order – Commissioner Lee at 9:00 a.m.

Invocation – Pastor Gary Piepkorn

Pledge – Commissioner Lee

Approval of Agenda: A motion to approve the agenda was made by Commissioner Grider with a second from Commissioner Lopez. Commissioner Grider-Yes, Commissioner Savage-Yes, Commissioner Dixon-Yes, Commissioner Lee-Yes, Commissioner Lopez-Yes.

Approval of Minutes: A motion to approve the minutes from the March 8, 2022 – regular meeting was made by Commissioner Dixon with a second from Commissioner Lopez. Commissioner Grider-Yes, Commissioner Savage-Yes, Commissioner Dixon-Yes, Commissioner Lee-Yes, Commissioner Lopez-Yes.

Approval of Accounts Payable and Payroll:

Commissioner Dixon made a motion to approve the accounts payable and payroll for March 1 – March 31, 2022, with a second from Commissioner Lopez. Commissioner Grider-Yes, Commissioner Savage-Yes, Commissioner Dixon-Yes, Commissioner Lee-Yes, Commissioner Lopez-Yes.

Public Requests: There were no public requests.

Elected Officials / Department Heads reports: Commissioner Lee asked to move the commissioner report item up in the agenda to allow Commissioner Lopez to recognize Summer Fleming and her family.

Commissioner Lopez congratulated Ms. Fleming for her recent competition wins. Ms. Fleming designed the Business Professionals of America pin that was chosen for this years BPA Conference. Ms. Fleming is a student at Dora High School and a member of the Dora BPA team. She won in the Personal Finance Competition as well as in the Design Competition for her pin. Ms. Fleming presented each commissioner with a pin.

Informational Item: Dr. Patrice Caldwell gave an update on events going on at Eastern New Mexico University. She said they are seeking a professional search firm to conduct a national search for the next ENMU President. Dr. Caldwell has announced her retirement, but will remain in her position until a new President is hired. Dr. Caldwell stated student athletes are competing in spring sports. Students involved with the Chamber Singers under the direction of Dr. Paulk performed over the weekend at Carnegie Hall in New York City, and Dr. Caldwell was honored to be in attendance. Dr. Caldwell reported many students and faculty are conducting ongoing research both on and off campus. Dr. Caldwell stated the university has received funding to build a solar farm near the arena that will provide for the energy needs of the university. Construction on that project is set to begin in the summer and should pay for itself over the course of about 8 years and start to show a profit afterwards. Eastern In Action is set for Saturday April 23, 2022. That is a day when student organizations give back to the community through clean-up and beautification projects. The Wade Bowen concert will be held on campus on April 30, 2022. Tickets are on sale now. The mud volleyball scholarship fundraiser is also scheduled for April 30, 2022. Dr. Caldwell shared there are currently over 4500 students enrolled in the spring semester, however, less than 2200 of those are on campus. She provided a handout that gave additional statistics regarding enrollment, course taking patterns, housing, and marketing efforts. Dr. Caldwell also noted that accepted applications for the fall 2022 semester are up 15% over this time last year, which is a positive indicator. She stated they are making an effort to get students back in the classrooms and in campus housing. The spring graduation ceremony is expected to be large and well attended. Dr. Caldwell thanked the commission for the opportunity to give the update. No action was necessary as a result of this informational item.

Elected Officials / Department Heads reports:

Treasurer: Ms. Sanchez stated collections are currently at 62%, which is up from 59% at this time last year. Second half payment are due May 10th and will begin coming in soon. She stated they have had issues with online payments and have been working to correct those issues. She is hopeful that all web payment issues will be corrected before second half payments are due. Ms. Sanchez noted that the delinquent property tax sale had been moved from April to May 5, 2022 at 10:00 am. She will post the list of properties that will be sold at the tax sale to the website when that list becomes available. The New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department will also publish that list in a newspaper of general circulation prior to the date of the sale.

Ms. Sanchez presented the January 2022 treasurer’s report stating the general fund beginning cash balance was $4,615,381.90 with debits of $2,030,467,51 and credits of $519,355.37 leaving an ending cash balance of $6,126,494.04.

Detention: Ms. Ramsey reported the current facility county is 62 with 10 female detainees and 52 male detainees. Three of those are from out of county. She reported 87 bookings in March and 85 releases. There were 13 detainees transported to Department of Corrections, or other counties in March. Ms. Ramsey stated there are no detainees in restrictive housing. She advised Guadalupe County had been billed $3,300.00 for March for detainee housing at RCDC. She announced 2 new detention officers have graduated from the academy and are now working inside the facility. She said the camera installation that began in February now has close to 80 new cameras installed and cable is being run for the remaining 16 cameras. Ms. Ramsey reported there are currently 10 detainees in the MAT program and 9 more who have been referred to the program. The participants receive group and individual counseling as part of the program. Only one participant is receiving medication as part of treatment for an opioid use disorder. Covid-19 enhanced cleaning protocols are still in place. Staff and detainees are adhering to the modified mask mandate. Masks are still being utilized when staff are in contact with detainees as well as when detainees are outside of the dayrooms. Detainees wear the N95 masks when outside of the dayrooms performing work duties, in the kitchen, laundry and common areas. Ms. Ramsey stated they have started to prepare their garden spot where they will grow vegetables for use in the facility. The garden has been a success in the past. They are also getting weed eaters and mowers ready for the season.

Indigent Meeting: Commissioner Lopez made a motion at 9:29 am to go into indigent meeting, with a second by Commissioner Savage. Commissioner Grider-Yes, Commissioner Savage-Yes, Commissioner Dixon-Yes, Commissioner Lee-Yes, Commissioner Lopez-Yes. Ms. Acosta-Flores presented 24 indigent health care claims totaling $16,355.73. Ms. Acosta-Flores stated 10 of those claims, totaling $12,896.46 were past timely filing, or were for patients not in custody at the time of service and should be disapproved. She recommended approval of 14 claims totaling $3459.27. At 9:31 am Commissioner Lopez made a motion to come out of indigent healthcare meeting, with a second by Commissioner Savage. Commissioner Grider-Yes, Commissioner Savage-Yes, Commissioner Dixon-Yes, Commissioner Lee-Yes, Commissioner Lopez-Yes. Commissioner Lopez made a motion to approve the indigent healthcare claims as presented, with a second by Commissioner Savage. Commissioner Grider-Yes, Commissioner Savage-Yes, Commissioner Dixon-Yes, Commissioner Lee-Yes, Commissioner Lopez-Yes.

Road: Mr. Lovato reported crews are doing routine maintenance, blading, cleaning cattleguards, removing tumbleweeds from roadways, etc. He stated in order to blade the roads they have to pull material from the ditch onto the road and push the tumbleweeds to the back slope. This can create a problem blocking a driveway or gate. They are careful not to block gates and driveways, but occasionally they are already covered in tumbleweeds and they are not seen. Crews will come clear the blocked gate/driveway if they are made aware that one is blocked. Mr. Lovato stated the new road barn is complete and they have moved it. He invited anyone to stop by for a tour after the meeting. Mr. Lovato stated his crews had assisted local fire departments on two big fires and other smaller fires recently. Mr. Lovato also noted that new PPE for fire response is on order as he expects a long and difficult fire season. He has scheduled fire safety training for new equipment operators and invited staff from other agencies who may benefit from the training. Commissioners thanked Mr. Lovato for all the equipment operators have done over the last month to assist fire departments. Mr. Lovato thanked the departments for keeping his crews safe while they were assisting on the fires.

Manager: Ms. Hamilton stated the renovations to the Bonem Home are underway and once complete we will be able to identify new ways to utilize that space. She reported the abatement and demolition at LaCasa are ahead of schedule and the repairs and upgrades are ready to begin. Ms. Hamilton stated the work on the Youth building is complete and the building looks nice. She said there are other potential grant funded projects in the works for the fairgrounds. She shared an award received for the underground stormwater drainage project, and recognized Mr. Spinks and Ms. Acosta-Flores for all of their work on the improvements to the fairgrounds in addition to the drainage improvements.

Ms. Hamilton gave an update on the ICIP projects, stating the courthouse façade including brick work, 9 entry doors and walkways will cost approximately 2.1 million according to the engineers and architects. The old road barn property and the new road barn property have been combined into a single parcel. Ms. Hamilton stated she is serving on the board for Jails and Prisons (insert actual name). They will meet regularly over the spring and summer…She stated the commission will need to schedule a full day or several partial days to hold budget meeting. She will send out a few options for late April or early May to see what works best. She stated there may be a need to change the date of the June commission meeting, based on a conflict with the NMC summer conference. She will also coordinate that schedule change. Ms. Hamilton mentioned the special session of the legislature opened this morning. It should be a short session with only a few items on the agenda. They will consider a feed bill, tax relief to offset the rising gas prices, cutting fairs for the rail runner, and clarification to HB48, which is commonly called the junior bill which was vetoed by the governor earlier this year. The junior bill included funding for vehicles for the Sheriff’s office and road equipment. Ms. Hamilton will notify the commission when she knows how the special session will affect the funding for Roosevelt County. Ms. Hamilton stated she and Commissioner Dixon had attended the NMC Regional Legislative update held in Chavez County last week. The event was also attended by 9 of our area representatives and senators. Ms. Hamilton stated the biggest take away from that event was a report given by Rep. Larry Scott who sits on the Legislative Finance Committee. He stated a family of 4 with only one working adult making less than $30,000.00 had over $104,000.00 in state and federal funding available to them, per household, in 2021. The availability of funding from so many programs makes it very difficult for employers including the county to attract candidates for open positions.

Commissioners: Commissioner Dixon stated she had been to the fairgrounds to look at the improvements to the youth building and had noticed that in one of the window repairs, glass had been painted over instead of being removed. Ms. Hamilton stated she would follow-up to get that taken care of.

New Business:

Request for Approval of Minor Exterior Repairs of the Jake Lopez Building for $8,000.00 at the Fairgrounds: Ms. Hamilton stated the repairs to the Jake Lopez Building would be similar to the painting and patching of the youth building, including façade improvements to cover windows on the front and sides of the building and to replace bathroom windows on the north side of the building. Commissioner Lopez made a motion to approve the request as presented, with a second by Commissioner Grider. Commissioner Grider-Yes, Commissioner Savage-Yes, Commissioner Dixon-Yes, Commissioner Lee-Yes, Commissioner Lopez-Yes.

Request for Approval of Summary Replat of Lot 3-7 and 11-14 of Blocks 2 and 3 of the Seal Addition in the Limits of the City of Portales: Mr. Montiel presented the request from Victor Lopez to replat these 9 lots into 2 larger lots. He reported all paperwork had been completed and no adverse opinions were received from either utilities or neighboring land owners. Mr. Montiel stated all action necessary to approve Mr. Lopez’ application have been done and will be heard by the Portales City Council this evening at their regular meeting. He requested a conditional approval and asked that the replat be signed by the Commission tomorrow if approved and signed by City Council this evening. Commissioner Savage made a motion to conditionally approve the replat as presented, with a second by Commissioner Grider. Commissioner Lopez stated he would abstain from the vote because the property is owned by a family member. Commissioner Grider-Yes, Commissioner Savage-Yes, Commissioner Dixon-Yes, Commissioner Lee-Yes, Commissioner Lopez-Abstain.

Request for Approval of FY23 Preliminary Organizational Charts: Mr. Andrus requested approval of the organizational charts, stating they are the first step in compiling the personnel budget. He added that the only difference from the previous year was that the Chief Deputy for the Sheriff’s Department had been added back because it is an election year. That position had been removed in favor of an additional deputy position in previous years. Commissioner Grider made a motion to approve the preliminary organizational charts as presented, with a second by Commissioner Savage. Commissioner Grider-Yes, Commissioner Savage-Yes, Commissioner Dixon-Yes, Commissioner Lee-Yes, Commissioner Lopez-Yes.

Resolution – Ordinances – Proclamations:

Request for Approval of Notice of Intent for Consideration on Ordinance 2022-01 An Ordinance Relating to the Time, Place and Manner of Cannabis Sales, Manufacturing and Consumption: Ms. Hamilton requested approval of the publication of the notice of intent stating it must be published for 2 weeks prior to the commission considering the ordinance. The ordinance itself will be amended to conform with state law, and will be added to a future agenda. Commissioner Lopez made a motion to approve the notice of intent as presented, with a second by Commissioner Dixon. Commissioner Grider-Yes, Commissioner Savage-Yes, Commissioner Dixon-Yes, Commissioner Lee-No, Commissioner Lopez-Yes.

Consideration of Resolution 2022-17 the Declaration of an Extreme Drought and Fire Danger Emergency in Roosevelt County: Mr. Lang requested a burn ban be put in place due to the extreme drought and heavy fuel load. He stated he had been in contact with other fire chiefs in the county and Milnesand, Causey, Dora and Portales fire department are in favor of enacting a burn ban. Commissioner Lee made a motion to approve the resolution as requested with the exception for agricultural burning, with a second from Commissioner Lopez. Commissioner Grider-Yes, Commissioner Savage-Yes, Commissioner Dixon-Yes, Commissioner Lee-Yes, Commissioner Lopez-Yes.

Procurements – Contracts – Agreements:

Ratification of Application Signature of Commissioner Lewis Shane Lee for the 2022-23 Law Enforcement Protection Fund Application: Lt. Sanchez asked for Ratification of Commissioner Lee’s signature on the LEPF Application that would provide $45,000.00 for equipment and $13,000.00 for education. Commissioner Dixon made a motion to ratify the signature as requested, with a second by Commissioner Lee. Commissioner Grider-Yes, Commissioner Savage-Yes, Commissioner Dixon-Yes, Commissioner Lee-Yes, Commissioner Lopez-Yes.

Request for Ratification of Change Order for Law Enforcement Complex Security System for $28,092.00 with APIC Solutions, Inc: Lt. Sanchez stated the change order would allow the county to complete the installation of all cameras at the Sheriff’s Office while APIC is currently in town to complete the work for the Detention Center instead of waiting and have their installation scheduled at a later date. Commissioner Lopez made a motion to ratify the change order, with a second from Commissioner Grider. Commissioner Grider-Yes, Commissioner Savage-Yes, Commissioner Dixon-Yes, Commissioner Lee-Yes, Commissioner Lopez-Yes.

Request for Approval of Memorandum of Agreement with the Administrative Office of the Courts for $52,495 for Pilot Project Grant Application Focused on Mental Health First Responder Training: Ms. Hamilton stated the agreement with the Administrative Office of the Courts would provide training for first responders including employees of the County as well as the City. Commissioner Lopez expressed his support for the program stating the training would be beneficial to all involved. Commissioner Grider made a motion to approve the MOA with the Administrative Office of the Courts with a second by Commissioner Savage. Commissioner Grider-Yes, Commissioner Savage-Yes, Commissioner Dixon-Yes, Commissioner Lee-Yes, Commissioner Lopez-Yes.

Request for Approval of Contract Extension with White Rock Crushing, LLC through June 30, 2022: Ms. Rivera stated White Rock Crushing has chosen not to seek renewal of the current contract for the next fiscal year. They have agreed to an extension to allow the county time to go through the invitation to bid process to find another provider. Commissioner Grider made a motion to approve the extension with a second by Commissioner Savage. Commissioner Grider-Yes, Commissioner Savage-Yes, Commissioner Dixon-Yes, Commissioner Lee-Yes, Commissioner Lopez-Yes.

Executive Session: Commissioner Grider made a motion to go into executive session at 10:22 a.m. commissioner Lee stated only the items listed on the agenda would be discussed in the executive session. A second on the motion was made by commissioner Lopez. Commissioner Grider-Yes, Commissioner Savage-Yes, Commissioner Dixon-Yes, Commissioner Lee-Yes, Commissioner Lopez-Yes. Commissioner Lopez made a motion to come out of executive session at 10:56 a.m. with a second by Commissioner Savage. Commissioner Grider-Yes, Commissioner Savage-Yes, Commissioner Dixon-Yes, Commissioner Lee-Yes, Commissioner Lopez-Yes. Commissioner Lee stated only those items listed on the agenda were discussed in executive session, no action was taken, but action was necessary as a result of the executive session. Commissioner Lee made a motion to ask Mr. Knudson to enter Roosevelt County into the redistricting lawsuit filed earlier this year by the Republican Party of New Mexico in Lea County against the governor and other state leadership. Commissioner Dixon gave a second to the motion. Commissioner Grider-Yes, Commissioner Savage-Yes, Commissioner Dixon-Yes, Commissioner Lee-Yes, Commissioner Lopez-Yes.

Media Communication: Mr. McGee asked what went into the decision to join in the redistricting lawsuit. Commissioner Lee answered representation is important. Roosevelt County and south eastern New Mexico would be underrepresented the way the new congressional districts were drawn. Mr. McGee also asked how many other counties were involved. Ms. Hamilton stated Lea, and Chaves are already involved and others may be considering joining the lawsuit. Mr. McGee asked other clarifying questions and thanked the commission for answering his questions.