City Manager Gary Whitehead is exercising oversight over capital projects
He’s only been city manager since February, but Gary Whitehead has probably saved the people 10 times his $115,000 yearly salary already by exercising fiduciary oversight over upcoming capital projects.
Whitehead has casually reported changes he’s made to capital projects during city commission meetings, as if it’s no big deal, but it saving the people millions of dollars. He’s the first city official in years to critique and question engineering firms’ plans and projects.
Water Meters
At the June 11 city meeting he answered a question I’ve raised for five years at the mic at city meetings and in articles concerning the exorbitant cost of smart water meters–$5 million or so–which is five times more than the people paid Landis & Gyr to install smart electric meters–and the city has more electric than water customers.
Landis & Gyr and city officials, such as then-City Manager Morris Madrid and Electric Department Director Bo Easley, promised that when smart water meters were installed it would be even cheaper than the $1 million or so the city spent on electric smart meters because the signalling equipment and communications and reporting software would be in place for the water meters.
Whitehead said, “somehow that project got off track,” but that he has hired Landis and Gyr to do the water meter project.
Non-questioning city commissioners signed off on accepting two grants so far at $750,000 each with a $75,000 city match, the first two phases of the $5 million project. Whitehead was too late to save the first $825,000, but got the project back on track before the second-phase grant money was spent.
Whitehead didn’t give new estimates for the cost of water meters, but he is in the process of having all capital projects posted on the city’s website.
Solid Waste System’s Headworks
Since the massive rain and flood event July 2020, the headworks at the wastewater plant have been broken. They used to clear themselves mechanically, but city workers have had to crawl down into a hole filled with methane gas to clear the debris manually.
This problem was not reported until a couple of months after Arnie Castaneda was hired to run the consolidated water and wastewater department January 2023. Without being specific, Castaneda, in an oral report during a city commission meeting, said the city was being made to provide protective gear and masks for city workers. A letter to the editor in the Sentinel from a worker’s relative revealed that city workers had been injured or made ill and that complaints had been filed with the federal Office of Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Whitehead, during his report at a city commission meeting about a month ago, revealed that the New Mexico Environment Department was insisting the city fix the headworks ASAP.
Evidently the city has not had the money to fix the problem, even with OSHA and NMED breathing down its neck for years.
According to a year-old capital projects document I saved from June 2024, an application to the New Mexico Finance Authority’s Clean Water State Revolving Fund for $1.5 million was “in progress.”
In a conversation with the Citizen about a month ago Whitehead said he was paring down the Wilson & Company’s headworks plan, which was a whole new design and replacement of the two-gate headworks system. Instead, the one-gate’s timing would be fixed and parts replaced at a lower cost.
Animal Shelter
Three legislative sessions ago Senator Crystal Diamond Brantley gave the city $450,000 of her discretionary capital outlay money to expand the animal shelter. The lowest bid was $1.5 million.
This past legislative session Brantley gave $250,000 and local Representatives Rebecca Dow and Gail Armstrong gave $125,000 each or $500,000 more in capital outlay to complete the project.
During a budget session, Whitehead said the $1.5 million cost and higher submitted by bidders was “excessive” for a 2,000 square-foot building, implying that contractors, after years of lack of city oversight, may think the city will not question high prices.
Whitehead thinks the project could be done with the $950,000 in hand. He is going to try using a “design build” procurement method, which allows the city to sole-source a project instead of putting it out to competitive bid. Whitehead will look for an architect/engineering/contracting firm that will do the project for the money in hand.
Foch Street drainage, road and sidewalk improvements
This T or C MainStreet project has been on the books for six years. The New Mexico Economic Development Department has awarded about $1.95 million for the project over three or four disbursements, but T or C MainStreet, during May and June city meetings, has asked the city commission to support them in applying for more grant money.
Whitehead, during a budget meeting, said the cost is possibly higher than it should be because it calls for deep tear up of the street instead of a repaving job. He suggested that the design-build procurement method be applied to this project as well.
Hooray for Whitehead studying plans and then interviewing and questioning engineers about them, as well as evaluating costs and procurement methods.
I have written in several articles over the last six years that the city needs a city planner/engineer to oversee capital projects to ensure the city is not getting ripped off. Whitehead appears to have the ability to do that job as well as his other duties, saving the people another $150,000 or so in salary and benefits costs.