Los Lunas village councilors question contract to develop economic development plan

LOS LUNAS — A plan to help spur economic development was on the agenda for the village of Los Lunas mayor and council at the most recent meeting on Thursday, Sept. 4.

The council approved a contract for the development of an Economic Development Strategic Plan with Better City, LLC of Marriott-Slaterville, Utah, at the council’s meeting by a vote of 3-1.

The lone dissenting vote came from councilor Gino Romero, who asked many questions of Los Lunas Senior Economic Developer Victoria Archuleta about the necessity of the plan, as well as its focus.

The agreement with Better City, LLC’s consulting services will be a one-time fee of $65,597.13, which Archuleta said was among the more reasonable bids received. She noted the council set a budget of $100,000 for the initiative, which started with a call for proposals in June.

Archuleta said the plan aims to establish a specific and customized economic development strategy for the municipality, guiding its growth for the next five and 10 years. She said strategic planning is seen as a way to be more thoughtful and strategic about future development, especially given the community’s rapid growth.

“Establishing an economic development strategic plan has been identified as one of the council’s priorities and something that I’m very grateful that was budgeted for this year,” Archuleta said, elaborating that the RFP brought “a considerable amount of responses from really outstanding economic development firms from across the country.”

“We may have set a new record for the village for the most number of proposals and responses,” she said, telling the council that 22 firms sent in proposals.

Among Romero’s concerns were that the village already works with and pays fees to the Albuquerque Regional Economic Alliance (AREA).

“I’m just curious; why do we need this?” Romero asked. “I thought that was what AREA did for us.”

Archuleta explained AREA helps more with marketing the village. She went further, explaining, “an economic development strategic plan really helps us take our very specific municipality, municipal growth into our own hands” by providing a “customized plan for the village.”

“They (AREA) are a tremendous supporter, and we work very well with them,” she explained, noting that AREA does not specifically help with strategic planning.

Councilors Christopher Ortiz, James Runyon and Cruz Munoz, who is chairman for AREA’s Public Sector Advisory Committee, all expressed skepticism, questioning the need for an external firm and also expressed concern about hiring an out-of-state company.

Archuleta pointed out that Better City has done studies in the past for Silver City, Lordsburg and Deming, as well as Grant County, and is currently working with Raton on economic development implementation.

“Although they are out of state, they do have a considerable amount of working experience here in the state of New Mexico with communities of similar size,” she said. “To the best of my knowledge, they also have someone physically present in northern New Mexico as well.”

Archuleta also reiterated that the bid for the strategic plan was put out at the request of the council, which she said had put on the budget for the village’s last fiscal year, 2024-25.

She also mentioned that part of Better City’s study would be getting a great deal of the community, stating that the plan relies heavily on community input, including surveys, stakeholder discussions, and engagement with business owners and civic leaders.

Archuleta will be working closely with Better City on the study, which is expected take six to eight months to complete. The study will provides realistic and achievable goals, deliverable metrics and a dashboard for tracking progress.

During the discussion, which also addressed the types of businesses the village is looking to attract, Mayor Charles Griego asked if the study would be using “community-based facts” and “getting input from the community back to the council” as well as “looking at what our strengths and weaknesses are.”

Archuleta affirmed all those issues would take place.

“I think there is going to be a considerable amount of community input from all various levels,” she said.

In his final comment, Councilor Romero said he wanted to make sure the money spent on the study did not go to waste.

“We just want to make sure if we’re spending $65,000 that it’s not shelved,” he said. “We had that tourist strategic plan a few years back, kind of like we’re talking about, getting shelved. It’s not just about businesses and stuff that we want to bring in. We want to make sure we’re bringing in that fun side of things, too, where people actually have something … We need stuff for people to do down here, not just shopping.”