For the last two years, under City Manager Bruce Swingle, the electric department’s cash was not pillaged to pay for the golf course, swimming pool, airport and other non-essential government concerns.
For years the electric department was often referred to as the “cash cow” by city commissioners. It was a given that customers’ electric-bill payments would be used to pay for deficit spending and that robbing Peter to pay Paul was perfectly fine, demonstrating elected officials’ utter lack of knowledge of city management and responsible fiscal oversight.
Swingle stopped the city commission’s merciless milking and neglect out of necessity. As soon as he took the job as city manager, the grid almost went down. The north and south transformers were both 60 years old—at least 10 years beyond their life expectancy—and one of them was offline and inoperable while the other one did the work of two and could blow at any time. Swingle had to make an ignominious emergency purchase of about $1.3 million for a new transformer, frowned on by the state Department of Finance and Administration. The money had to be borrowed, costing the public more than it should have in interest. There were also interim emergency repairs that had to be paid for while the transformer was built, delivered and installed.
How could no one else have noticed or reported this?
The city commission does not require reports from department heads. It remains purposefully uninformed. It only superficially considers department needs and expenses once a year—during budget talks, asking few questions, if any. There is zero accountability required of department heads. Swingle has gone along with this, declaiming during a “retreat” held for city commissioners that he would not allow department heads to be exposed to “the shit show” public comment creates.
Of the dozen or so cities and counties I have covered as a local government reporter for 18 years, the T or C city commission takes the prize for rubber stamping anything put in front of them.
Other cities have governing boards that insist on each department head drafting and presenting a 5-, 10-, 20-year asset management plan. During required bi-monthly or at least quarterly reports, the department head grounds his update on this document, which is supplied for easy reference to the public. If a $1.3 million electrical transformer needed to be purchased, it would have been on the city commission’s and the public’s radar for years in advance, with cash being put aside each year in the budget to pay for it. Unless a piece of equipment was on the asset management plan, it wouldn’t be purchased.
Easley has never drafted an asset management plan or any kind of plan, nor has any other city department head. Why should they? It has not been required by the city commission or city manager.
About five years ago an engineering firm was hired by someone with the city to locate and tag electric department assets, which cost the public purse about $150,000. I only learned about it from Ron Fenn, a public activist who had made a public documents request for the engineering report. Easley never turned it into a management tool, he never referred to it and nor did the city commission. There was no replacement and repair schedule for equipment, certainly not for ancient transformers, no matter how essential to providing the public with the electric service they have paid high rates for for years.
Easley, in 2019, didn’t ask to replace a transformer, instead, he asked for smart meters and a ladies bathroom at the electric yard.
My jaw literally dropped at the August 2019 meeting when then-City Manager Morris Madrid verbally stated the smart meters would cost “about $1 million” and the city commission approved the purchase by mere motion. To this day there has never been a public accounting of how much the smart meters and its infrastructure cost. Electric-rate payments from customers provided the cash for the purchase, which made borrowing money to purchase the $1.3 million transformer necessary.
Sandra Whitehead, who was mayor at the time, signed a contract with Landis + Gyr to provide the meters, the infrastructure and the ongoing software services, which I uncovered through a public documents request, guessing, correctly, that the deal was being done in secret. I submitted a complaint to the attorney general’s office, pointing out that the contract had not been a public meeting agenda item and the city commission can only take action as a body and only while in a publicly noticed meeting. The AG’s office did nothing.
The contract didn’t nail down pricing, but gave a series of price ranges and options. Customer number changed the price. The division of city and company labor–for the initial installation and then to monitor and maintain the system–changed the price. Any city attorney would have insisted on more concrete terms before signing.
At the May 24 city commission meeting, Easley asked that the contract with Landis + Gyr be “amended.” During a break, I pointed out to him that the original contract had never been made public, let alone an amended version, and only a portion of the contract was included in the city packet. Easley insisted that the Request for Proposals issued in 2019 was the same thing as the contract, which demonstrates his lack of understanding of the procurement process and also how little understanding is required of him as the director of a $7.5 million-a-year department.
The software services portion of the contract is to increase in price. Easley mistakenly said the city had paid $950 a year for the service and it would now increase to $1,400 a year. The document states $1,400 a month will be paid. The city commission didn’t notice and approved the amendment with no discussion. Mayor Pro Tem Rolf Hechler asked how often Easley used the software (“a lot, every day”), demonstrating he had no understanding that the software connects the 4,000 customers’ smart meters to a central brain and is therefore used continuously. He obviously didn’t read even the portion of the contract provided.
During this year’s budget hearing on May 8, the same laissez-faire attitude toward fiscal oversight and department management was apparent. Easley asked for a $250,000 bucket truck. Hechler asked how many bucket trucks Easley has now. Five, Easley said, with only three crews to work three trucks at a time, making the new truck the sixth. The city commission approved the purchase, offering high praise to Easley.
After the plans to purchase and install smart water meters failed, it was decided that the city could purchase electrical smart meters and at a later date add the smart water meters. There was no discussion of the need for the smart electrical meters and suddenly a $1M dollar contract was signed. I spoke with the bidders and clearly saw that a system at half the price would be a better solution to the problems that were mostly management and training. I spoke with the CEO of the company who submitted the half price bid. He felt that there was nefarious activity going on and wanted to protest the bid. They had 30 days to submit the protest, tried to contact Pat Wood at the contract office and didn’t get a response until after the 30 days had expired. He was disgusted with the experience and would not do business with T or C ever again. It was clear that the city manager at that time with the electric dept rigged the bid. Corruption by definition!
The bills from this department have always been suspect indicating that the smart meters would not solve the problems of dumb users. Only fix the problems that cost you money . . . and let’s get a new truck or spend ~$30K for a woman’s bathroom for the new hire.
For more than 20 years I have watched this city, under the direction of Luna and various ‘good old boys’ dig the debt hole deeper and deeper. Those who had a handle on the problems and those who spoke of them were silenced/excluded by attacks on their character or had vicious rumors circulated about them.
Now that the chickens have come home to roost, it would be good to hold those persons accountable for the part they played and the decisions made that have brought us to this point.
As George Carlin once said “it’s a big club and you ain’t in it”.
A good friend from here in town who was forced to have a smart meter installed on her residence moved to another community forwarded me this article. I had just read it at and no more than a couple of minutes later at 3AM this morning the power went out and I had to sit in blackness for over 30 minutes. Great Spirit had spoken to me
Over the last 30 years plus, my family and I have built a business from scratch which has been a tremendous help with our transformation from a poor almost ghost town to the place where tourists from North and South East and West–near and far– come to on a weekend– a relaxing fun place that is a great addition to New Mexico’s tourist draw.
I volunteered for decades–Treasurer for the Youth and Education Council bringing in funds to build the skateboard park, computer center and meeting place for youths– Planning and zoning commission during its most difficult times– and also years with the chamber of commerce– and my most success volunteer job was as the first head of the Mainstreet Organization during the highway renewal project working with the highway department to make downtown a safer place for tourists and the elderly, and beautifying it with a great group of fellow volunteers.
I can honestly say that in 35 years of building our family business and as a volunteer—- when I could, the City has worked against me every step of the way to try and to prevent us from expanding—— to keep our community one of the poorest in NM?? — Most of all for the last 7 years.
Our attorney has put a gage order on me so I will say no more except that Jay Ruben and the people who give him orders to hold this community to being the poorest and one of the most indebted small cities in New Mexico have structured City finances so nobody can find out how much he charges the city for his legal fees each year and the Santa Lawyers for what he should be doing. “Hey Bruce, I am still waiting for you to get back to me on that, and why the City persists with their suit against us when even the biggest gun with the best experts has dropped out.” I am sorry to see you give up. Swingle. You are the best of an endless string of Managers we have seen come and then go for decades when they realize they can’t manage the fiefdoms of the department heads.
Thanks to Sloan for another hard hitting editorial, and the opportunity for me to get off my frustrated silence I have sat on for decades now in the dark like the rest of my fellow citizens.
As for the clown show clueless City Commission. When I get the time in my too busy life to sue the city for the $50 dollar a month fee you charge us and others who tried to educate you to the dangers to our health that so called smart meters cause, and refused to have one installed because of existing health problems we and our loved ones have——- I will!! The fee Commissioner Luna threw out off the top of her head is cruel, punitive, and most likely illegal. Believe me when I say I have the funds to hire the best attorney in the State for our little group who held out under great emotional cost, and now bears this tremendous financial burden due to most them having limited fixed incomes.