Angry,
disgusted seniors seek
ouster
of 3 city commissioners
By
Fred Mramor
Petitions
to recall Truth or Consequences City Commissioners Everett Banister,
Nadyne Gardner and Jimmy Rainey, which had lain dormant and seemed to have
been forgotten since they were filed with the city clerk’s office in
May, are now being circulated around town.
Like
City Clerk Kathleen Terrazas, Carol Main said Wednesday she doesn’t know
who the mysterious young woman who filed the petitions was, or why she did
it, but Main said she and other T or C seniors have numerous reasons for
seeking the three commissioners’ removal from office.
“Property-owning,
tax-paying seniors are angry and disgusted to see the city wanting to
spend more and more money for things that are no good instead of fixing
things they know need to be fixed for the people who are here,” Main
said. “Let’s take care of the infrastructure of the basic needs of the
people who are already here before we get pie in the sky ideas and throw
money at them.”
The city
wants to drill five new wells and build more water tanks that would create
more pressure and cause the old WPA era water mains below the city’s
streets to “pop like geysers,” Main said.
Main
said that in 1991 a study to ascertain the condition of the city’s water
tanks, which had cost the city some thousands of dollars, determined that
the tanks had another 20 years useful life. The tanks were painted by Las
Cruces mural artist Anthony Pennock with city money and contributions from
private citizens, Main said, but now people are reading in the newspapers
that city officials say the tanks should be torn down and replaced.
She said
seniors were infuriated by the city spending tax money on that “piece of
vomit” (ceramic fountain at Las Palomas Plaza) to replace Geronimo’s
Spring.
Main
complained that many T or C seniors living within a few blocks of
Bullock’s and Pixie’s can’t get to these stores in their wheelchairs
because of the poor condition of the city’s streets and sidewalks and
the danger of crashing and falling over.
“We
need a common sense commission that knows enough to buy a horse before
they build a buggy for the horse to pull,” Main quoted another T or C
senior.
Main
said some city residents wanted to oust the commissioners when they hired
Sam Isom of Tennessee as city manager in February 1999, recalling that a
previous city commission had fired then City Manager and out-of-towner
Mike Trujillo.
“With
Isom’s resignation, many of us were ready to drop the recall drive but
then the commissioners got stupider, so let’s just get on with it and
get rid of them,” Main said.
Main cited raising acting City Manager Mark Huntzinger’s salary and
commissioners’ decision to hire a fourth finance department employee on
an emergency basis as examples of their stupidity.
“It’s
not just that they were rubber-stamping Isom, some of these were their
ideas,” Main said. Main asked what more damage the commissioners will do
between now and the 2004 election.
Main
said some T or C seniors refused to sign only because the petitions
don’t call for the removal of all five commissioners. She said they
wanted a “clean sweep” but that more felt that voters will have a
chance soon enough - in the March 2002 election - to retain or eject
Commissioners Cookie Johnson and Lois Reaver-Black. But without a recall
election Rainey, Gardner and Banister will be in office until 2004, Main
said.
In
addition to the complaints already mentioned, Main provided a list of
reasons drafted by a group of seniors from the northern part of T or C to
recall the three commissioners:
1.
Number of employees increased by 35 percent (from 110 to 148) in
just over two years.
2.
Unusual number of “emergency” hires.
3.
Commissioners’ salaries almost tripled though not implemented
because of lack of funds.
4.
Hand picked employees - utilities office manager a family friend of
city manager from same home state.
5.
Locals not afforded opportunities for employment. In some instances
employees not given the opportunity to advance.
6.
Budget increase - $40,000 budgeted for purchase of land to expand
golf course to 18 holes. City now subsidizes golf course at about $80,000
per year.
7.
Utilities rates increased yearly - five percent increase for water,
sewer and electricity in 2000 and one percent increase in 2001. Main added
that people would not have been angry about the rake hikes if some of that
money went toward replacing water mains she said are always breaking or to
providing sewer service to T or C residents who don’t have it, while the
city is talking about new and unneeded water tanks.
8.
Late payment of bills - City paid over $1,000 in overdraft fees to
the bank and over $4,000 in penalties and interest to vendors in less than
a year.
9.
Reduction in street services - not swept as often (previously once
a week, now once every three weeks, according to Main).
10.
Elimination of pothole
crew for next fiscal year.
11.
Garbage pickup
eliminated on weekends in commercial areas (restaurants, motels, etc.).
12.
Sewer and waterlines
extended to shooting range and benefiting major landholders.
13.
Some places within
city limits currently without sewer service.
14.
Non-operation of Youth
Center because of “safety factors,” our youth not allowed (yet others
allowed) to use.
15.
Poor relations with
Elephant Butte.
16.
Current threats of
lawsuit from the Village of Williamsburg because of illegal sewer hookup.
17.
City manager’s
contract extended before evaluation procedures (Sam Isom having resigned
doesn’t change the fact, Main said).
Contrary
to possible explanations for the recall drive offered by Mayor Banister
and Commissioner Rainey after the petitions were filed in May, Main said
that neither she nor anyone else she knows wish to recall the
commissioners because of the new skate park at Ralph Edwards Park.
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