Changes at City Hall
There were several changes in the City of Vision, particularly at the top. Tom Swisstack, who served as the city’s mayor from 1994 to 1998, is back at the helm. He defeated six other candidates in February’s municipal election.
|
|
Since becoming mayor, Swisstack has invited community feedback with a series of community meetings, town halls and surveys.
The drama in the city manager’s office continued for Rio Rancho. Jim Payne resigned as city manager a little after a year on the job. He was hired in June of 2007 and in July of 2008, he announced he would resign on Sept. 30.
When Payne was asked if he was asked or forced to resign, he simply replied, “No comment.”
Payne received a hefty severance package to bow out of the position. Swisstack used his authority as mayor to offer Payne 10 months’ worth of salary and benefits to resign. Swisstack said Payne’s resignation was a mutual agreement. Payne’s annual salary was $121,000. Payne resigned before the city council conducted its performance review of him.
With Payne out of the picture, the city needed a new city manager. In early August, Swisstack announced that former city manager and Gov. Richardson’s chief of staff James Jimenez would be a great fit for the city.
The city council agreed with Swisstack and waived the right to search for other candidates and support Swisstack’s recommendation of Jimenez for the job.
On Sept. 13, Jimenez officially became Rio Rancho’s city manager and the highest compensated city manager in the state. Jimenez’s contract is worth $150,000 a year.
Jimenez has hit the ground running since he took over in October. He had a main role in finalizing the incentive package to entice Hewlett-Packard to build in Rio Rancho, as well as finding a new management company for the Santa Ana Star Center and coming to an amenable agreement with the New Mexico Environment Department regarding a lawsuit against Chamisa Hills Country Club, regarding who should clean the ponds on the golf course.
Former City Manager Jim Palenick stayed in the headlines for 2008 and it appears he will also have some headlines in 2009. Palenick is suing the City of Rio Rancho for what he says was illegal termination. His case is scheduled to go to trial on Feb. 16.
Palenick, the city manager for Gastonia, N.C., says he’s owed more than $100,000 in back pay because he was fired illegally and was still the city manager. His attorney, Daniel Faber, contends the firing was illegal because it was decided in a rolling quorum between then-Mayor Kevin Jackson and city councilors in December of 2006.
Thirteenth Judicial District Court Judge George Eichwald, in August, ruled that the city corrected any violations of the state’s Open Meetings Act in November of 2007.
Palenick served as city manager for Rio Rancho from July of 2003 to November of 2006.
School District faces
difficult times
In September, Rio Rancho Public Schools officials announced that the district would have to cut more than $4 million from its $107.5 million operational budget. Superintendent of Schools Sue Cleveland said she didn’t want to cut jobs. The district instead said it would try to use creative measures to shore up the budget.
RRPS Finance Director Randy Evans is cautiously optimistic the district can pull through the $4 million shortfall, but it won’t be easy. He said it’s likely the district will have to deplete all of its cash reserves to meet the tight budget.
Evans explained that the $4 million shortfall is a situation created by a multitude of causes. Last year, the district received $1.9 million in supplemental emergency money from the state. The district didn’t receive that money this year and the district didn’t make the $1.9 million in cuts. Evans also said the district anticipated that the funding formula would have been changed this year, giving the district more money by properly funding each student. The formula was not changed. He also pointed out the district had to open two new elementary schools and continue to prepare to open Sue Cleveland High School.
Some of the district’s cuts, however, weren’t appreciated by the Rio Rancho School Employees Union, which is still operating without a contract for the 2008-’09 school year. More than 100 public school teachers, educational assistants, staff and students let their voices be heard in December as they picketed at the intersection of NM 528 and Southern Boulevard to let people know they’re not happy with how the administration is handling the district’s $4 million shortfall.
Besides not having a contract, the union is upset that the district’s administration yanked union members’ access to district e-mail, asked employees to take unpaid leaves of absences and have all but eliminated substitute teachers.
Other perceived union grievances include employee rights being ignored, federal wage laws not being honored, stipends eliminated and what union members say is a lack of respect.
In December, the district announced it would severely curtail the use of substitute teachers. This would help the district save more than $1 million, according to Evans. Instead of substitute teachers, Rio Rancho students may see principals, librarians or secretaries teaching their class if the teacher is absent.
The positions that are approved to serve as substitutes include educational assistants, secretaries, librarians, counselors, educational technicians, site specialists, assistant principals and principals. Additionally, transition specialists, security, academy heads, the athletic coordinator and activities director will be allowed to substitute for the Mid-High and high school.
Earlier in the school year, Cleveland encouraged teachers to have a better attendance rate. She asked teachers to avoid calling in if necessary and to limit attendance of outside professional development conferences and training.
In late December, the Rio Rancho Public Schools District Labor Management Relations Board ordered that the union and administration appear before a hearing officer, who will find facts and recommend solutions for any prohibited practices.
Doug Gibson a representative from American Federation of Teachers New Mexico said the union will submit a request to a federal arbitrator after the New Year. The arbitrator’s decision would be binding.
Economic development
2008 was a good year for economic development in the City of Vision. Hewlett-Packard announced in June that it would open a customer service and technical support center in downtown Rio Rancho. HP is expected to employ a minimum of 1,350 full-time employees by the end of 2012, with a goal of having 1,800 full-time employees in 15 years. The company says a vast majority of the jobs will pay at least $40,000, with an annual payroll of $54 million.
The city is leasing HP 17.08 acres of land, appraised at $595,203.84, to HP for $1 a year for 50 years.
Reid and Associates of Rio Rancho will build the three-story, 218,000-square-foot building. Dekker/Perrich/Sabatini of Albuquerque is the architectural firm.
HP, along with the proposed University of New Mexico West and Central New Mexico Community College campuses, and the University of New Mexico Hospital would help create the bedrock of Rio Rancho’s city center development.
Victoria’s Secret Direct in Rio Rancho announced in September that it was adding 360 call center positions at their site. With the new hires, the call center will employs roughly 700 employees.
Not all the economic news was rosy though, gross receipts taxes in the first fiscal quarter of 2009, which ended Sept. 30, were behind the projected estimates. The city had collected $6.7 million in GRT but had budgeted for $7.2 million.
Another bit of bleak economic news in 2008 was the announcement that Lions Gate was not going to build a studio in Rio Rancho. In November, Mayor Tom Swisstack and Lions Gate officials terminated the contract.
In June of 2006, the Rio Rancho city council approved an agreement to give 20 acres of City Center land, appraised at $1 million, to Lions Gate. In return, the film studio promised to open the facility within two years and create 595.2 full-time equivalent positions, within the first five years. Lions Gate, however, never moved forward on the project.
Caucus quite a ruckus
Long lines of anxious Rio Rancho Democrats converged at Rio Rancho High School’s Performing Arts Center in early February to vote in the presidential caucus. A long line of people snaked outside the center well before voting began at noon. Sandoval County Democrat Party chairman Jim Moran had expected roughly the same turnout — 1,500 voters — as in February of 2004. Instead, almost twice as many people showed up to support the Democratic Party.
The PAC seats only 650 people in the auditorium and 375 in the lobby. That meant hundreds of voters waited outside in blustery, windy conditions.
Many voters questioned why there was only one location for Rio Rancho Democrats to vote, rather than the normal precincts.
Moran said this was the second Democrat caucus and that the PAC was the largest venue to hold the vote.
In 2004, the caucus was at the Meadowlark Senior Center.
The Rio Rancho Department of Public Safety sent seven officers to direct traffic and DPS spokesman John Francis said things went smoothly.
Though no one was turned away, several Democrats were discouraged by the long lines and did not cast ballots.
As for the winner, eventual President Barack Obama received 2,882 votes, compared to Hillary Clinton’s 2,491 votes.
New places to learn, play
Recreation and educational opportunities expanded in 2008. The City of Rio Rancho celebrated the reopening of Esther Bone Memorial Library on Feb. 25 with a ribbon cutting and ceremony. Rio Rancho residents now have two libraries to use for their pleasure. Esther Bone closed in October of 2006 to allow staff and resources to be moved to the city’s new Loma Colorado Main Library, which opened in December of 2006. The million dollar renovations to Esther Bone Memorial Library include a new roof, new heating and air conditioning units, new lighting fixtures, data and wiring conduits, plumbing, sinks, carpeting and vinyl floors, windows and coverings and sliding front doors, paint and bamboo wall coverings, a new ceiling in the children’s area, new interior doorways and doors, refinishing of wood surfaces, new countertops, tables and chairs, new technology and telephones.
In June, the highly anticipated indoor aquatic center opened. Hundreds of eager residents lined up around the facility, ready to splash in the new center. The $10.25 million state-of-the-art indoor facility features multiple pools, slides, party/conference rooms, a competition pool and a variety of programs and classes.
SAD situations
Thousands of Rio Rancho residents celebrated in April after city councilors voted to defeat a $70 million flood-control project, titled Special Assessment District 7B, which would have cost property owners $14,000 apiece.
The project would have paved streets and made drainage and water improvements in the northeast part of the city. The project was proposed in 2006 after a monsoon caused widespread flood damage in the northeastern part of the city.
In February, the city council split the SAD into two projects. At that time, the council approved SAD 7A, which is in the western part of the city.
The city also started the process for SAD 8 in December. That SAD, however, is small compared to SAD 7. SAD 8 includes only Nacelle and Nagoya streets in the northern part of the city.
While thousands of people celebrated the demise of SAD 7B, hundreds of folks were worried that another flood would wipe out their homes.
In early October, those fears became a near-reality when more than an inch of rain fell in the Unit 17 area, washing out roads and reviving memories of the 2006 monsoons that wrecked property and cost millions of dollars of damage.
Kristin Brown, a homeowner on Milpa Alta, led the charge in petitioning the city to get the ball rolling on SAD 9.
In October, the city council passed a resolution directing city staff to begin the process of developing necessary information that will facilitate further decision making on the issue and authorizes the funding of the process to create a SAD.
Expect to see the SAD in the headlines for 2009.
A growing school district
2008 saw the opening of two new elementary schools in Rio Rancho and its first comprehensive boundary realignment for middle schools since 1996.
Cielo Azul in Northern Hills opened its doors in October. Sandia Vista opened in September
Cielo Azul has 725 students. Sandia Vista Elementary has 400 to 450 students. Both schools were built to an award-winning “prototype” design originally developed for Stapleton and Maggie Cordova Elementary schools. The schools cost roughly $15.8 million apiece.
Cielo Azul has helped relieve overcrowding at Colinas del Norte Elementary. Meanwhile, Sandia Vista has helped relieve overcrowded Vista Grande Elementary in Enchanted Hills.
The district also adopted new boundaries for its four middle schools. More than 3,500 students are anticipated to attend middle schools next year in Rio Rancho. The boundary alignment is necessary because with the opening of Sue Cleveland High School, high schools in Rio Rancho will be for grades 9-12 and middle schools will be for grades 6-8. The three current middle schools do not have the capacity to hold all students in grades 6-8 living within their current attendance boundaries.
Therefore, the Rio Rancho Mid-High School will become the fourth middle school.
Under Option No. 1, all of Cielo Azul and Rio Rancho elementary students will attend Rio Rancho Mid-High. The school also will accept some students from Colinas del Norte, Enchanted Hills and Ernest Stapleton elementary schools.
All Maggie Cordova and Martin Luther King Jr. elementary students will attend Lincoln Middle School. The school will accept some students from Ernest Stapleton.
All of Puesta del Sol Elementary students will attend Eagle Ridge Middle School. The school also will accept some students from Colinas del Norte and Ernest Stapleton.
All of Sandia Vista and Vista Grande elementary students will attend Mountain View Middle School. The school also will accept some students from Enchanted Hills Elementary.
The Mid-High, in addition to being a middle school, also will host vocational, advanced and technological programs for high school students.
County moving offices
Sandoval County is moving shop. The government offices are moving from downtown Bernalillo at 711 Camino del Pueblo to the portion of Bernalillo surrounded by Rio Rancho.
Sandoval County will construct an administrative building at Plazuela de Sandoval, located in the northwest quadrant of Idalia and NM 528. Plazuela de Sandoval currently includes the Judicial Complex and the Sandoval County Health Commons.
The commissioners awarded the construction contract to Cameron Construction of Santa Fe in October for $10.65 million.
Phil Rios, the county’s public works director, said he anticipates the building to be open by 2010.
The 82,000-square-foot building will house all the current divisions presently located in the courthouse on Camino del Pueblo.
Water in them there holes
Sandoval County officials were ecstatic in late October, when they announced that initial test results of a deepwater aquifer in the Rio Puerco basin show that there is more than enough brackish water to meet the region’s water needs for at least 100 years.
The results show that, when purified at a desalination plant, the aquifer could produce 43,200 acre feet of potable water a year for the next 100 years.
Commissioner Jack Thomas said that’s enough water to support a town of 300,000 people for the next 100 years.
The site for two test wells, where the county and consultants conducted a 30-day aquifer test, is near the right-of-way for a proposed northwest highway loop connecting US 550 and I-40. It’s also near a proposed 3,300 acre industrial park, off the loop.
The site is approximately seven miles west of Rio Rancho, near the McKinley County line.
City reaches settlement over Chamisa Hills ponds
The City of Rio Rancho and the New Mexico Environment Department reached a settlement in their legal battle over who should clean the ponds at Chamisa Hills Golf and County Club. The settlement was reached in November, ending more than a year of debate between the city and the NMED.
As part of the agreement, the city has installed two groundwater monitoring wells at the country club near the east and west pond systems.
In March, the NMED issued a compliance order against the city for violating its state permit by illegally discharging treated wastewater into ponds at Chamisa Hills Country Club. The order alleged that the city’s operations related to discharges of treated wastewater to the ponds violate the city’s permit and state laws.
Rio Rancho officials disagreed with the NMED’s findings, saying that the city did not violate its existing permit and that the ponds are not the city’s responsibility.
End to the elections
Nov. 4 saw the culmination of more than a year’s worth of campaigning. Sandoval County voters sent two new faces to the county commission and voted to approve a sales tax increase for public transportation, a property tax increase for health care and a bond referendum for flood control improvements.
Darryl Madalena, a Democrat from Jemez Pueblo, was elected to the District 5 seat. Glenn Walters, a Rio Rancho Republican, was elected to the District 4 seat. Corrales Democrat Donnie Leonard’s re-election campaign was also successful.
Voters in Sandoval County joined with voters from Bernalillo and Valencia counties in approving a one-eighth of a cent gross receipts tax increase to help fund the Rail Runner Express and bus transit services in the area. The tax is expected to generate more than $26 million annually.
With the tax increase, the gross receipts tax rate in Rio Rancho will increase to 7.0625 percent, from 6.9375, percent on July 1.
Voters in Sandoval County approved a 4.25 mill property tax increase to help Presbyterian Healthcare Services and the University of New Mexico offer an expanded range of services.
The mill levy will be included on property tax bills in 2009. The increase equated to an additional $283.33 in taxes per year for a home with an assessed value of $200,000.
The additional taxes are anticipated to generate more than $13 million a year to be used for healthcare contracts with healthcare providers throughout the county.
Voters in Rio Rancho, Corrales and western Bernalillo gave the Southern Sandoval County Arroyo Flood Control Authority authorization to issue up to $18 million in bonds to pay for drainage and flood control projects.
The “yes” vote extends the .87 mill debt service so that $18 million in bonds can be authorized and used for the construction of dams, channel stabilizations and improvements, drainage improvements and other construction and maintenance projects to keep Rio Rancho safe in the event of future floods.
It does not raise the tax rate.
Hayes out, Vigil in
Longtime Sandoval County Manager Debbie Hays retired after 18 years leading the county (see our story on Hayes on page 15). Her former counterpart from Bernalillo County will replace her.
County commissioners unanimously approved a two-year contract for Juan Vigil, who is the former Bernalillo county manager, that pays him $120,000 annually. The contract comes into effect on Jan. 1, and expires on Dec. 31, 2010. It can be renewed if Vigil and the commission agree.
Vigil, who has served as Hays’ administrative assistant since January, was chosen in October by a majority of the commissioners to replace Hays.
Commissioners Thomas and Leonard joined David Bency voting in favor of Vigil on Oct. 16, while commissioners Madalena and Orlando Lucero would’ve preferred to hire the county’s public works director Phil Rios. Madalena and Lucero, however, said they were pleased to welcome Vigil aboard.
Global out at Star Center
Global Entertainment is out of Rio Rancho. Rio Rancho City Manager James Jimenez announced in December that the current contract with the Santa Ana Star Center operator would be terminated before the end of the year and bids would be sent out for a new contract.
To help oversee the project, the city will have an employee whose primary responsibility is to manage the contract. Jimenez said the city may hire a new employee or add the task to an existing employee’s job description.
Global, a Phoenix based-company, has yet to turn a profit managing the center since opening in October of 2006.
The city signed a 10-year contract with Global in December of 2004. The contract, however, states the city can terminate the contract if the center fails to produce sufficient revenue to cover debts the city incurred to build it.
Presently, the city is paying $1.4 million a year from the general fund to offset the $2.8 million a year debt service owed on $35.75 million bonds. The bonds were used to construct the 160,000-square-foot center in 2006.
— Compiled by J. Currier
Comments
No comments posted.