Bosque Farms holds emergency meeting about ambulance; no notice

BOSQUE FARMS — A special meeting held by the Bosque Farms Village Council earlier this month unexpectedly segued into an emergency meeting, with the councilors voting to officially remove the village ambulance from service since it once again is without a crew.

As the special council meeting on March 5 wound down, Councilor Erica De Smet said she wanted to make a motion to adjourn the special meeting and go into an emergency meeting.

Mayor Chris Gillespie said an emergency meeting hadn’t been noticed, to which De Smet replied “it doesn’t have to be,” citing the pertinent part of the New Mexico Open Meetings Act.

The OMA states an “emergency” refers to unforeseen circumstances that, if not addressed immediately by the public body, will likely result in injury or damage to persons or property or substantial financial loss to the public body.

The act does require the public body to provide notice as far in advance as reasonably possible under the circumstances for any type of meeting, but it relaxes the agenda requirement in cases of emergency. The public body must still provide an agenda for an emergency meeting, but it need not be available 24 hours before the meeting.

In addition, if an emergency matter arises too late to appear on a meeting’s agenda, the public body is permitted to discuss and take action on the matter.

Councilor Manny Zamora seconded De Smet’s motion to adjourn the special meeting and move into an emergency meeting, but there was no vote taken on the motion.

De Smet distributed a copy of an agenda for the emergency meeting to the council members and mayor, as well as the people at the meeting. The agenda wasn’t approved by the council, as is typically done at a public meeting.

The roll was called by Village Clerk/Administrator Erica Martinez. All four council members and the mayor were present.

De Smet said the reason for the emergency meeting was the immediate public safety concerns regarding the operational status of the village’s ambulance, Rescue 5. The ambulance was put back in service on Feb. 3, with one person available to take calls — the village’s now former volunteer EMS coordinator Vernon Abeita.

The mayor appointed Abeita to the volunteer position on Aug. 1, 2025, with the direction to reestablish the necessary state and federal certifications so the ambulance could return to service after nearly two years of sitting idle. That appointment ruffled feathers on the council, with De Smet saying the choice of Abeita “undermines the morale and cohesion of our fire and emergency services community,” noting the appointment was “deeply troubling,”

“I have been accused of dangerous rhetoric,” De Smet said at the March 5 emergency meeting. “Right now, Rescue 5 is still in service and being called into service on high acuity calls.”

She then played two brief audio clips she said were recordings of Rescue 5 being “toned out” for service twice, two minutes apart, on Wednesday, March 4. The councilor said the first tone for the ambulance went out a little after 2 p.m., with a second tone a “minute or so” after, with the Peralta ambulance ultimately responding to the call. She asked Zamora to explain what a high-acuity call was.

Zamora said it could be anything that has to do with life and safety, “a heart attack, anything requiring (advanced live saving) service. It’s a very important call.”

Incident reports from the Valencia Regional Emergency Communications Center indicate a 911 call came into the center just before 2:03 p.m. on Wednesday, March 4, for an elderly woman on Sego Lilly on the north side of Bosque Farms needing an ambulance. The reports show Rescue 5 was toned at 2:05 p.m.

In the recording of the call, the dispatcher calls for a response from both AMR and Rescue 5 simultaneously in the first tone out. AMR advises they will arrive on scene in about 10 minutes.

After gathering more information from the caller, Rescue 5 is toned a second time at 2:13.44 p.m. and 15 seconds later, the Peralta ambulance is toned out for mutual aid on the call. The acuity of the call did change from medium to high between 2:03 p.m. and 2:05 p.m., but due to redactions of the records for medial privacy reasons, the reason for the escalation isn’t apparent.

The reports shows the incident was created at 2:14.42 p.m. and the first unit arrived on scene at 2:18.06 p.m.

De Smet asked that a directive be sent to VRECC to pull Rescue 5 out of service.

“We have no one to man it. To have it in service is completely irresponsible,” she said.

Village attorney Nann Winter said VRECC requested the village send a notice that Abeita was no longer available to man the rescue, which was sent on March 2.

In a letter with that date, Gillespie informed Abeita that “(Abeita’s) scope of work as the EMS coordinator with the village is complete and that any authority granted in my correspondence on Aug. 1, 2025, is terminated.”

Councilor James Bruhn said the village needed to pull the ambulance “out of service until we have EMS back up since they still tone out Rescue 5.”

De Smet said she would like to direct staff to pull Rescue 5 out of service.

“It was toned twice before another unit being toned,” she said. “It would be in the village’s best interest to pull it out of service and out of VRECC.”

Bruhn said he would second that motion.

De Smet continued, saying an “unapproved, appointed person shoving Rescue 5 into service caused a large amount of concern for residents. The council didn’t know the qualifications or background of this person.

“There is no loophole to declare a volunteer for apparatus, for budget, for purchasing. My interpretation is to ask the mayor to follow (state statute 3-11-6) in its entirety. The mayor can appoint and hire but it goes through the governing body. The appointment of a volunteer who we have no idea what his qualifications were is unacceptable. (The mayor) unilaterally choosing to hand a piece of paper to someone off the street, giving access to village apparatus, the budget, village spending, caused this whole mayhem.”

Abeita was EMS director for the village from 2015 to 2020 and returned as the village’s clerk/administrator from June 2023 to March 2024. He is a paramedic level provider certified by the New Mexico Department of Health, as well as certified in advanced cardiovascular life support, pediatric advanced life support and a certified level I and II firefighter.

Winter asked if council approval of volunteers for the village included the volunteers with the fire department. De Smet said the department has its own rules and those volunteers go through the fire chief.

“There is no loophole to hand someone a piece of paper that says, ‘I’m the mayor and appointing you a volunteer’ and hand them access to apparatus ... that person, not approved by this governing body, is absolutely illegal, whether they are a volunteer or not,” De Smet said.

When the councilor asked for the thoughts of the other councilors in regards to 3-11-6, Zamora said he agreed anybody who “has that kind of authority — volunteer firefighters don’t have that kind of authority — access to financing, spending from the budget. This is not someone who volunteers to come pick up weeds. Volunteer firefighters don’t have that authority. They don’t have (purchase cards) or any of that.”

De Smet asked the attorney whether the mayor alone could made decisions about the control of village equipment, since part of the council’s duties is to manage and control finances, and all real property.

“Only the council and fire department can say who can drive (the equipment) and where it’s stored,” she said.

Winter said her interpretation was that while the council can’t decide the precise time a piece of equipment leaves a storage barn, for instance, the council does approve procurement of equipment.

“The mayor is the chief executive officer and he decides whether this desk sits here or not,” Winter said, pointing to the table she was seated at during the meeting.

The councilor countered, “he’s not the only one. I’m not going to go back and forth with you. He gave somebody off the street control of apparatus. It’s also about money being spent without council approval for meds and licenses. We don’t know what money was spent on behalf of the village. It’s our duty as councilors to keep track of those funds.”

Councilors Bruhn and Zamora both said they agreed with De Smet’s interpretation of statute.

De Smet asked who was going to write the letter to pull the ambulance out of service. Gillespie responded he would talk to VRECC Director Tommy Sanchez.

“There’s no talking to anyone. This is the majority of the council,” she said. “I’d like confirmation your conversation with him will be about pulling Rescue 5 out of service.”

Winter suggested the mayor speak with Sanchez to clarify the language needed to accomplish that.

After a reminder from a member of the audience that there was a motion and a second on the floor which needed a vote, the council voted 4-0 to pull Rescue 5 out of service.

“I don’t like this. I don’t want to do special meetings, workshops, emergency meetings,” said De Smet, directing the rest of her comments to the mayor. “I am pleading with you to start communicating with us, and put things on the agenda and move this village forward.”

A March 9 letter signed by Martinez was sent to Sanchez informing him the rescue unit was no longer in service.

As per the OMA, the village had 10 days to report the emergency meeting to the New Mexico attorney general’s office, including actions taken and the circumstances creating the emergency. The AG’s office will evaluate whether the public body properly treated the matter as an emergency for purposes of the act’s agenda requirements.