De Smet selected as Bosque Farms mayor pro tem

BOSQUE FARMS — The first meeting of the year of the village of Bosque Farms council was long and at times contentious, but by the end of the evening key administrative positions were appointed and the council selected its mayor pro tem.

The mayor pro tem is a member of the council who temporarily acts as mayor if the mayor is absent.

Mayor Chris Gillespie nominated Councilor Ronita Wood, who served as mayor pro tem last year.

Councilor Erica De Smet noted the village ordinance and state statute both say the council “shall select the mayor pro tem.”

Village attorney Nann Winters said, generally speaking, there would be a nomination and a vote.

“Wrong,” responded De Smet, again saying the council shall select the mayor pro tem. The councilor clarified she was trying to ask whether only the mayor could make a nomination. Winters said no, elaborating that a councilor can nominate themselves or another councilor, and vote for themselves.

Coouncilor James Bruhn then nominated De Smet for the position, but Winters said the council needed to take one nomination at a time.

After a moment of silence, Wood seconded her own nomination. When the vote was called for, Wood voted for herself, while Bruhn and Councilor Manuel Zamora voted “no.” De Smet commented she was “completely confused.”

With Wood’s nomination failing on a 2-1 vote, Bruhn nominated De Smet, with a second from Zamora. He, Zamora and De Smet voted in favor, with Wood voting “no” on the nomination.

As part of the annual organizational meeting, the mayor typically nominates people for the positions of clerk/administrator, police chief and municipal treasurer. When the council got to the agenda items for the treasurer and chief, Bruhn asked if the council could postpone those appointments until the next council meeting.

Winters said while the appointments were supposed to happen at the organizational meeting, “I guess you could postpone them. You could also turn down the mayor’s nomination, but that doesn’t remove the person from the position. It is (the mayor’s) selection. He can bring them back next month and the month after that and the month after that. (Council) disapproval doesn’t discontinue service of that person to the village.”

Zamora asked village treasurer Yvonne Maes what kind of background she had with budget and finance.

Maes said she previously worked at Intel in the accounts payable department, has worked in nursing and been a stay-at-home parent.

“When I started with the village I was doing payroll and accounts payable,” Maes said. “With the lack of a clerk in the last couple of years, I have stepped up and took on the role of the budget working with the previous clerk, Gayle Jones.”

She continued, noting she has taken classes through the New Mexico EDGE program — a service of the New Mexico State University’s Cooperative Extension Service designed to provide continue education to public administrators and staff — in order to become the chief procurement officer for the village, a certified position the village is statutorily required to have.

“I don’t have a degree in accounting; my degree is in nursing. My job description is payroll and accounts payable, but I took on being the CPO so the village could continue to operate. We were on the verge of not having a budget last year, so I stepped up and put one together as best I could,” Maes concluded.

Bruhn said during the recent training from the New Mexico Municipal League, it was stressed that council members are the fiscal managers “and they are going to be looking and watching. We have to know where the money is going. I wanted to postpone this to talk to (Maes). We can go from here.”

Zamora said he knew Maes has done a lot for the village and the council “needs to step up in that area for the village.”

In the vote on Maes’ appointment, Wood and Bruhn voted yes and De Smet and Zamora voted no. Gillespie broke the tie, voting yes for a final 3-2 vote to approve her appointment.

The mayor named BFPD Chief Andrew Owen as his appointment for police chief. Wood, Bruhn and Zamoa voted yes, while De Smet voted no. Owen announced his retirement at the Feb. 19 council meeting.

The council unanimously approved the mayor’s re-appointment of Erica Martinez as the village clerk/administrator.

The council also unanimously passed its Open Meetings Act resolution, setting regular meetings at 6 p.m. on the third Thursday of the month, at village hall.