Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
Tucumcari city administrators found a “silver lining” that could mean as few as two full-time city employees lose jobs next fiscal year and others who would have been dismissed would be made part-time, acting city manager Mark Martinez told the city commission Thursday during a public work session.
At an April 23 work session, administrators presented options that would have meant as many as 17 full-time positions lost, along with three part-time and five current openings unfilled for fiscal year 2021 that begins July 1, as the city deals with budgeting uncertainties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic’s effect on local tax revenues and expected reductions in the state’s oil and gas tax revenues.
The key to saving more jobs, Martinez said, would be letting the city’s cash reserves fall to between 15% and 25% of total general-fund spending next year, taking advantage of a 35% reserve expected at the end of this year.
If the city were not to cut any positions, Finance Director Rachelle Arias said the city would be left at the end of fiscal 2021, which ends June 30, 2021, with a cash reserve of $686,000, which would represent only 11% of total general fund expenditures, which Arias estimated to be about $6 million.
In future years, however, Martinez said, the city will have to deal with raises in minimum wage, which would lead to bigger pay increases for more experienced workers, and recognition “some departments are overstaffed. Some positions will have to go away.”
Martinez added, “We still have a lot of work to do. There’s a lot that goes into this, and we want to serve the best interests of the city all around.”
Martinez said more discussion of the budget will occur before the city adopts a preliminary budget to be turned in to the New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration by May 31.
The commission Thursday also renewed its contract with Tucumcari MainStreet for two years to continue MainStreet’s programs designed to entice more businesses to expand or start in downtown.
Through the “professional services” agreement for $45,000 a year, MainStreet agrees to “help revitalize and support economic growth” in downtown with assistance from New Mexico MainStreet, a division of the state Economic Development Department.
MainStreet also agrees to adopt at least two “economic transformation strategies” and work plans for revitalization projects downtown, develop a “capacity-building” strategy involving public-private partnerships involving city government and the MainStreet program, and provide a MainStreet executive director to assure compliance with MainStreet guidelines and help coordinate MainStreet revitalization programs.
The agreement also waives the $150 monthly rent MainStreet was paying for use of space in the city’s historic rail depot as long as MainStreet brings at least that much in resources to the city.
In remarks during a public work session before Thursday’s meeting, Connie Loveland, Tucumcari MainStreet’s executive director, said MainStreet had brought in $649,000 in resources to the city through grants and other assistance.
The commission also voted to extend MainStreet’s contract to the end of the current fiscal year, June 30, for $3,750 to cover May and June payments.
The commission delayed action on a three-party agreement between the city, Tucumcari MainStreet and New Mexico MainStreet to allow representatives of all three to gather to discuss terms.
In other action, the commission:
• Re-appointed Axiom, an Albuquerque accounting firm, as the city’s auditor for review of the current fiscal year’s financial activities. The city will pay Axiom $48,967.
• Approved $9,202.32 in new funds from the New Mexico Non-Metro Area Agency on Aging to the Tucumcari Senior Center to fund extra services needed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Senior Center director Clara Rios said the extra funds will help with cooking and delivering more home-delivered meals to seniors because the Senior Center is not open for group meals.
• Authorized a change order totaling $18,323 to AUI, an Albuquerque construction firm, to correct a bid specification in water system delivery and metering equipment in connection with water line expansion along Mountain Road. AUI’s total contract for water system work on the project is $658,435.18.
• Approved extending contracts with M &M Golf, for Tucumcari Municipal Golf Course management services, and Parkhill, Smith and Cooper, for environmental monitoring services at Tucumcari’s expired and current landfills, to June 30, the end of the current fiscal year. Martinez said M&M Golf will receive $11,697 for extending the contract from May 8, and the monitoring firm will receive $15,600 for extending the contract from May 19.
• Renewed its membership in the Eastern Plains Council of Governments for fiscal 2021, payment of $1,828 in annual dues and naming Martinez as the city’s primary contact.
• Held an executive session to discuss threatened or pending litigation involving the city but took no action on the issue.
• Rejected a request for $3,500 in lodgers tax funds for the Rockin’ Route 66 event, which was canceled this year, to meet its promoters’ original request. The motion to grant the extra funding died for lack of a second.