Mr. Smith goes to Washington, or in this case, Mr. Whitehead goes to Santa Fe

In the scrum of next winter’s 60-day legislative session, our local quarterback,Truth or Consequences City Manager Gary Whitehead, will be following the plays selected by the city commissioners yesterday. 

Shorthand for the playbook every local lobbyist carries to the statehouse is ICIP–Infrastructure Capital Improvements Program. 

At the May 27 city commission meeting, T or C’s elected officials passed a resolution that finalized not only what the city will lobby for, but what many city employees will spend thousands of hours on trying to achieve and what local taxpayers will spend thousands of dollars on in that pursuit. 

Bless local taxpayer Alice Hutchins for going to the mic during public comment. She pointed out–very diplomatically–why only five community members participated in the ICIP process locally. They weren’t prepared or informed enough by city staff. Simply announcing that ICIP hearings would be held and vaguely defining it, Hutchins pointed out, will not engage the public. 

Hutchins, in her ICIP written contribution, presumed water and wastewater would be a priority. Her directions, she said, couldn’t be more specific because she lacked the detailed knowledge of city staff. So her next ICIP suggestion was to put in a “splash pool” at Ralph Edwards Park for the kids. She later learned that any project suggestion had to be “shovel ready.” 

“Shovel ready,” she was told, means the project is essentially designed on paper to a minimum degree and as well as providing a pretty solid cost estimate.

But is that true? Another taxpayer’s suggestion–to build an industrial park–is also not shovel ready, and Mayor Rolf Hechler ordered it put on the ICIP list (which extends beyond the top five projects–there are about two dozen on the list extending out five years from 2027). 

And is it the public’s responsibility to make the projects they want “shovel ready?” Of course not. 

Hutchins asked the city commission to form a public advisory board whose mission is to suss out community needs and to get those projects into shovel-ready shape. Helluva idea. I’m for it. It would be as important as the P&Z and Lodgers’ Tax boards. It would be a year-round commitment. 

Later in the meeting the city commission tipped their hat to Hutchins. A splash pool would be included in the recreational facility they want built on the city’s golf course property, which project is among the top five. 

Lobbying elected officials as they sit as a body in a YouTube-broadcast public meeting paid off for Hutchins. More people should try it. 

The following is a list of what the city commissioners passed in their resolution for lobbying efforts aimed at local legislators and the governor: 

1. Wastewater Treatment Plant: It needs between $5 million and $6 million in repairs and replacement and removal of old works, Whitehead told the Citizen. The New Mexico Environment Department is ordering that the repairs be done as soon as possible. Once the work is done the city will have about 10 years to gear up for a system-wide face lift. 

The city has already put together about $2 million–$1 million from Governor Lujan Grisham during last year’s legislative session, $400,000 from the New Mexico Finance Authority’s Colonias Infrastructure fund and about $600,000 that will be pulled from the general obligation bond the public passed at the polls about three years ago for water, wastewater and roads infrastructure.

The city has also applied for $2.3 million in funding from the New Mexico Finance Authority’s Water Trust Board. 

That leaves $400,000 to $1.4 million more needed to finish the project, which will be the “ask” for capital outlay from the governor and legislators. 

City Commissioner Amanda Forrister pointed out that legislators don’t like to be lobbied for project money that won’t finish the project, making this project a good choice. 

Mayor Rolf Hechler pointed out legislators only have about $500,000 to spread among their constituents in “capital outlay” money. 

I would add that house representatives have $500,000 or so, which includes Rebecca Dow, Louis Terrazas and Gail Armstrong. The senate representative, Crystal Brantley, will have about $1 million in capital outlay money. 

City Manager Gary Whitehead added that Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham has more and already showed her support for fixing the wastewater treatment plant by giving $1 million last year. 

Whitehead’s remark subtly clarified that he could lobby the governor for projects that wouldn’t be completed. What he told the Citizen earlier also refuted Forrister’s information. In the past the city has lobbied the governor and legislature for money for preliminary engineering and partial funding–not just for money to complete projects. 

Forrister has been a city commissioner for seven years. City commissioners and the public need more training and engagement on the ICIP process. Forrister would lobby much more effectively and citizens like Hutchins could give more meaningful input. That’s what the democratic process is supposed to look like at the local level. Whitehead should put a staffer on this. Assistant City Manager Traci Alvarez has overseen the ICIP process for many years in exactly the same manner. Looks like she needs help. I know she has been overloaded with duties for years. 

2. Lee Belle Johnson Center: Whitehead told the Citizen Governor Grisham gave $500,000 last legislative session, which he thinks is sufficient to repair the foundation that suffers from water damage from the hot springs aquifer. Evidently, based on zero public discussion, but in the ICIP document in the May 27 city packet, re-stuccoing and restoring the doors and windows to historic standards as well as interior work has been added, making this a nearly $2 million project and a $1.5 million “ask” for capital outlay.

Since the city commissioners never refute or argue with each other, civilly or otherwise, their group position and lobbying efforts are never clarified among themselves or for the public. 

Hechler, who had seemed to go along with Forrister’s admonition that the top five ICIP projects they would lobby for must be projects that can be finished with about $500,000, went off on another tack. 

The city commission, next year, will ask the city to pass another G.O. bond for another $3 million or so. This time more than water, wastewater and roads will be funded with the money. Hechler suggested the Lee Belle Johnson building be finished with such money. 

3. Marie Street: This is a major “artery” that goes by the golf course. Like some streets and highways, it was designed as a levee or dam at the golf course that is labeled as the Marie Street Dam by state agencies. Repairing the dam, repaving the street and putting in sidewalks is part of a larger effort to revive the golf course to its status as a community jewel. 

Whitehead said the city received $350,000 last year in capital outlay and 10 days ago learned the city received $1.3 million from the New Mexico Finance Authority’s Colonias Infrastructure fund for pavement and sidewalk. 

It’s a $3.5 million project, so that’s about a $2 million “ask” from the governor and legislators–another big ask. 

Forget trying to figure if that makes this a “finishable” project or if it matters in the lobbying effort. 

4. Community Multi-purpose Center: This is the indoor pool, etc., to be built at the golf course, estimated at a very modest $6.75 million. The city asked for $500,000 last year in capital outlay for engineering/design and received nothing. I guess the same request will be put forward. It wasn’t clarified in the meeting. 

5. Clancy Street Lift Station: This is the major sewer lift station that gets all the sewage from anywhere downhill from “vets’ hill” up and over that hill and to the city’s wastewater treatment plant. (Vets’ hill is the site of the New Mexico State Veterans Home.)

The pressurized pipe or “force main” that conveys the sewage from the mechanical pump or lift station to the top of the hill needs to be replaced (900 linear feet). Manholes at the top of the hill also need replacement, as well as “tie back” to the usual gravity flow, whatever that means. It’s estimated to be a $1.5 million project. 

Whitehead said U.S. Senator Ben Ray Lujan gave the city $1,092,000 for the project last year. Whitehead said he will ask the governor and legislators for $500,000 to $750,000 in the upcoming legislative session. 

On the city website is a letter from U. S. Representative Gabe Vasquez asking congress for $1.2 million for this project, which no doubt helped get the federal funding. 

Whitehead will lead the lobbying effort to state legislators and the governor. He is a stellar communicator and has a thorough understanding of the engineering for each project, which he can boil down into an elevator speech. He also knows how to pitch our community’s needs politically to win the legislators’ and the governor’s interests. 

Citizens can call the governor’s office and their local legislators to lobby for  their support for these projects to enhance the city commission’s choices. Maybe if we demonstrate we can be useful they will see the value in setting up an ICIP citizens’ advisory committee that could harness community lobbying power.  

Please note that this article was published at 5 p.m. with a misspelling of Alice Hutchins’ name (Hutchinson), which was corrected an hour later. Sorry for the error, especially you, Alice Hutchins.