Tucumcari interim city manager signs contract

After only 18 months, Mark Martinez again has officially become Tucumcari’s interim city manager.

At Thursday's Tucumcari City Commission meeting, Martinez signed a contract to become Tucumcari’s interim city manager after the resignation of Britt Lusk, whose last day in the job was April 5.

Two years ago, Martinez was named interim city manager after the resignation of then-city manager Jared Langenegger.

Martinez’s new contract to serve as interim city manager covers 90 days, and his pay for that period will be $19,000, he said, which is 15% above his salary as assistant city manager over the same period.

Thursday’s meeting, like the commission’s March 26 session, was held in an otherwise empty commission meeting room in City Hall. The meeting room was closed due to coronavirus concerns, but the meeting was broadcast live on KTNM radio and YouTube.

With the exception of Martinez, who shared the dais on which the commission sat, other city officials and one resident who contributed to public comments participated by phone.

Princess Theater

After some discussion, the commission decided to put off further debate about renaming the Princess Theater as Princess Academy.

District 1 Commissioner Ralph Moya said the name change would reflect an intention to use the theater, which awaits $1.1 million in restoration improvements, and would enhance its chances of attracting economic development funds.

“We have to be realistic,” he said. “It should be an economic development plant.”

Moya said the facility should host classes related to the film industry, which would make the name change appropriate.

Moya said he had discussed the idea with state Sen. Pete Campos.

District 4 Commissioner Christopher Arias said, “I don’t see how changing the name would help” and wondered why Campos had approached Moya and not the rest of the commission.

“I’d like to have the opportunity to talk to Sen. Campos myself,” he said.

The commission voted continue the discussion at a work session at which Campos and representatives of the city’s volunteer Princess Theater Task Force could participate.

Actions

The commission took action to:

• Give final approval to ordinances that update the city’s traffic codes to comply with recent changes in state law and repeal city ordinances that apply to possession of marijuana. The marijuana ordinance defers to state laws covering court proceedings and penalties for marijuana possession and places jurisdiction for marijuana cases to magistrate courts, not municipal courts.

• Authorized the Tucumcari Senior Center to apply for $58,114 in capital outlay funds from the 2021 New Mexico Legislature to replace ceiling tiles in the senior center.

• Approved the use of Axiom, the Albuquerque accounting firm hired to audit the city, also to audit the city’s lodger’s tax accounts, mostly to ensure lodger’s collections match hotel and motel revenues.

• Approved a contract with Cintas Janitorial Supplies and Services to provide janitorial supplies after Lucille Devine, the city’s warehouse manager, showed cost savings using Cintas compared with buying from several suppliers.

• Approved a budget adjustments for January and February that included an “unfavorable” $598,260 shortage in cash due to purchases of land for the city’s wastewater plan to keep treated wastewater out of streams and of a truck for the city’s fire department. Rachelle Arias, the city’s financial director, said she expects the cash to be reimbursed through state grants that have been authorized.

• Approved a budget adjustment for March to account for $301,063 in receipts of small-city assistance grants from the state, Arias said.

• Appointed Patrick Gonzales to the city’s Cemetery Advisory Board. City Clerk Angelica Gray said Gonzales’ appointment leaves one more vacancy to be filled on the cemetery board.

• Approved removal of a police vehicle declared a total loss from an accident from the city’s asset inventory. Arias said the vehicle will be replaced with state police fund money and insurance proceeds next year. In the meantime, she said, the police department has an adequate number of vehicles to function normally.

• Authorized Martinez to use a city credit card and taking Lusk’s name off the approved user list.

Abandoned boat

Gilbert Pacheco, a Tucumcari resident, commented an abandoned boat that had haunted city streets for at least two years still has not been demolished or disposed of, and he wondered if the owner would be fined.

Pacheco’s comments at a Jan. 23 commission meeting, in which he accused Lusk and commissioners of lying about the boat, set off a heated exchange between Lusk and Moya about whether the owner had been found and whether the city was procrastinating about the boat’s fate.

On Thursday, Martinez said the boat’s owner had been located, and but the owner had not responded to the city’s most recent attempts to contact him.

“There are a lot of irons in the fire,” Martinez said, “but we will get it taken care of.”

Martinez said that the boat’s construction material could not be recycled.

COVID-19 impact on lodging

District 5 Commissioner Todd Duplantis urged an inquiry to encourage more aid to the city’s lodging businesses, especially for the upcoming tourist season, which likely will bring sparse business due to COVID-19 concerns.

He questioned their ability to make profits if they are held to 25% of their capacity due to COVID-19 restrictions the state has imposed.

“If we lose the hotels,” he said, “we’re going to lose events.”