Clashes mark city meeting

Clashes over the city’s marketing efforts and nuisance ordinance marked Thursday’s meeting of the Tucumcari City Commission, as well as an announcement that city employees had filed complaints about public mistreatment by two city commissioners.

The complaint likely will become the first test of the city’s ethics ordinance passed in August. It was filed against District 1 Commissioner Ralph Moya, who opposed the ordinance, and District 2 Commissioner Paul Villanueva, who was elected to the commission in November, according to an announcement read by Mayor Ruth Ann Litchfield during the meeting’s closing minutes.

Litchfield said the complaint deals with the ordinance’s prohibition of public criticism of individual city employees by commissioners. Further details were not made available.

A public hearing on the complaint was tentatively scheduled for April 30 to accommodate individual schedules and state-ordered rescheduling in efforts to halt the spread of coronavirus.

Tourism panel

After some heated discussion about the formation of a proposed committee to develop a branding and marketing plan for the city, the commission decided Thursday to appoint a representative to attend the committee’s meetings as a non-voting member.

The committee has been formed in the wake of the commission’s rejection of the city’s third-year contract with Sunny505, an Albuquerque marketing firm, on the recommendation of the city’s lodgers tax board.

Lodgers tax board members, many of whom are Route 66 business owners, had complained Sunny505's efforts had focused on First Street motels and restaurants at the expense of the ones on Route 66.

On Thursday, the committee presented a draft proposal outlining the committee’s purpose and intended functioning and asked the commission to support the committee.

Tucumcari MainStreet Executive Director Connie Loveland read a statement in which she said the makeup and intent of the committee had been misconstrued to represent only the interests of businesses along Route 66.

“It should be mentioned,” she said, “that this initial committee will be a group of individuals who care deeply for Tucumcari and are volunteering their time, experience and talents for this effort. There is no self-serving agenda here.”

According to the draft proposal, the committee would guide the hiring of professionals to handle various advertising and publicity media and would represent Tucumcari MainStreet, Tucumcari/Quay County Chamber of Commerce, Mesalands Community College and the Greater Tucumcari Economic Development Corp.

She concluded, “At this time, we ask that you please approve the formation of this initial branding committee, with the intent that it will report to the commissioner regularly through the branding process.”

City manager Britt Lusk heatedly asked Loveland whether the committee expected to be approved as an official city committee, based on a draft proposal.

“You’re asking us to sign a blank check,” he said.

Lusk said he had been accused by lodgers tax board members of “getting kickbacks” from Sunny505 in his advocacy of continuing the contract.

Lusk also cited an opinion from Randy Knudson, the city’s attorney, which stated the tourism committee could not obligate city funds unless it was a city-recognized board, which would require an ordinance.

Loveland said the committee’s work would be strictly voluntary and free of charge to the city. Moya and District 5 Commissioner Todd Duplantis expressed their support for the committee.

Loveland said the committee would use free services from MainStreet branding and marketing specialists in devising their branding strategy.

Richard Talley, former owner of Motel Safari, said the committee and the plan are “a work in progress, but it’s off to a great start.”

Committee members, he said, “have a lot of marketing experience.”

Currently, the committee has named Loveland and chamber director Carmen Runyon as its only two permanent members, according to the proposal presented to the commission.

Nuisance ordinance

The commission discussed the nuisance ordinance in a public work session before Thursday’s regular meeting.

Commissioners discussed whether the ordinance’s enforcement provisions on owners of properties overgrown with weeds or containing abandoned buildings should be strictly enforced or removed from the ordinance.

District 1 Commissioner Christopher Arias favored the enforcement, though there was agreement that enforcement has not been effective.

“We should enforce it while we have it,” Arias said. “We should try it and see if it works.”

If it doesn’t work, he said, “we can take it out. We can put it back in later, too.”

Moya said the large number of abandoned buildings in the city make enforcement prohibitive.

Lusk said enforcement is complicated by inability to find owners or owners unable to act on properties, such as the imprisoned owner of a collapsed building on Second and Main streets downtown.

In addition, Lusk said, some properties are worth far less than the amount of liens on them. One property, he said, is worth about $30,000 but has liens of $600,000.

Duplantis said he didn't care which alternative the city chose, but he said a decision is needed on whether to enforce or repeal those sections of the ordinance.

The commission agreed to draft an alternative ordinance before its March 26 meeting, which would give it a choice between keeping the existing ordinance or introducing an amended ordinance for publication and public hearing.

In his city manager’s report, Lusk said city employees found the owner of a boat that was removed from a city street and relocated to city property on Whitmore Avenue.

Lusk said the boat’s owner had wanted it to be hauled away for trash, but the hauler instead parked it on a Tucumcari street.

Lusk said city staff is working with the owner to arrange the boat’s disposal.

Villanueva also said residents of Rock Island Street north of Route 66 have been complained about speeding.

Other action

In other action, the commission:

• Approved for publication ordinances that would repeal ordinances related to possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia and change the city’s traffic law ordinance to comply with a change in state law. A law passed by the 2020 New Mexico Legislature requires that marijuana and drug paraphernalia offenses be brought before magistrate courts, not municipal courts. The legislature also changed some fines for traffic law violations that must now be incorporated into state statutes. After the ordinances are published, they must undergo public hearings before the commission makes final decisions on them.

• Authorized the city’s Community Development Department to seek a $25,000 grant to buy used equipment from the New Mexico Department of Transportation and a $34,073 grant from the state agency, matched by an $11,358 local contribution for improvements in the Aber Addition on the city’s east side.

• Approved changes in funding from the state’s Non-Metro Area Agency on Aging to the Tucumcari Senior Citizen Center. The changes will increase the amount allowed for senior transportation services by $5,500, with funds taken from cuts in group meal and homemaking services allocations totaling $9,500. The fund changes were based on increased use of transportation services and less-than-expected use of group meal and homemaking services.