By Lynn Janes

The Silver City Town Council held a regular meeting February 11, 2025. Attendance to the meeting included Mayor Ken Ladner, Mayor Pro Tem Guadalupe Cano, Nicholas Prince, Rudy Bencomo and Stan Snider.

Ceremonies

Employee of the month

The council had passed a resolution to begin a recognition program for exemplary employees of the town. Fire Chief Milo Lambert said all the departments had held department head meetings. They had nominated Vicki Toney, code enforcement officer, as the employee of the month. Lambert continued with the reasons why she had been chosen. Her job as a code enforcement officer consistently puts her in possible negative situations. She always finds ways to preform her routine duties with professionalism and compassion. As issues arise outside of code enforcement, she continually takes steps to improve the city process to fix ordinances to make them enforceable. Toney maintains fairness while interfacing with the public even in situations that could be negative.

Toney thanked her mother and grandmother for instilling a good work ethic. She also thanked the town for providing a job to her that she loves.

Ladner wanted to thank Toney for her progress in enforcing ordinances in Silver City. She has always been willing to work on any problems he had brought to her.

Cano said, "You are invaluable to me. I talk to you as much as I talk to Mr. Brown." It seemed like she always had something that she needed to ask her about. Toney has always been able because of her knowledge to explain the ordinances and process so that Cano can then explain it in a better way to the public. "I appreciate the fact you are always in a good mood even after somebody's been not so nice to you as they could have been. It rubs off on me, and I appreciate that. Thank you for all you do for the town."

Prince said she had eased a lot of suffering of many of the people in his district. She had been able to reach out calmly and easily communicate for better outcomes.

Snider said she had always been responsive and when in situations she had always handled them very well and keeps it mellow. He thanked her for her service to the town

Bencomo said he had met her when he had first been appointed to the council and has felt very comfortable contacting her with any issues. She has always been very responsive to help needed. "It is not an easy job."

Ladner asked if she takes before and after photos of properties. She said yes and Ladner thought it would be a good idea to put together some kind of presentation. "You have made a tremendous difference in this town."

Council comments.

Cano spoke to attending Grant County Days and the legislature. It had been a good event and thanked the Prospectors. "They always put on a day of important meetings." This year, as in the past, they had too many people and not enough space. "It is a good problem to have." It means Grant County cares about being at the legislature to make sure the people's voices will be heard. Some people had their needs met to keep working on projects. She thanked the prospectors and saw Bruce Ashburn in the audience and thanked him as a member of Prospectors. They work really hard all year long to make sure it happens.

The warming center continues to be open on nights of extreme cold and that would be any night when temperatures drop under forty degrees. Cano said they had been closed for a few days. It looked like it would be cold again and the center would open up. It has continued to be successful. They have had other people beyond the unhoused. A woman had her firewood stolen so she had been coming in. Currently they have averaged  about 38-40 people a night. Cano had heard some rumors in town comparing them to other locations. She asked anyone that thinks there could be an issue to come visit the warming center and spend some time there. Talk to the coordinator Tiffany Throckmorton and learn what has been going on.

The warming center has been a completely different concept in the community and working a different way. Cano said, "I am really proud this week that two of our guests have found jobs, so they are trying to better their lives." She hoped the desire would rub off on some of the others and they would find employment also.

Cano does the Friday overnight shift and one of the evenings they had an issue that law enforcement had to be called. Someone had been there that should not have been, and they knew it. She thanked Sergeant Larimore and Patrolman Singleton that responded to the call. They had both been kind and compassionate in their response and both went above and beyond. After they had dealt with the situation one of a missing person had come up and they showed up at the warming center. Singleton had been kind to the family of the missing person and the missing person who had chosen to be missing. "The way both handled themselves really stood out to me. It is that kind of officers that I am really thankful we have."

Snider had attended Grant County Days in Santa Fe. The Prospectors had been organized for the event. In 2024 they had secured $17 million for Grant County. Since the session will be going on for a while Snider said he didn't know how much they would bring. He thanked them for all they do.

Since the last work session, Snider wanted to look up the difference between an ordinance and a resolution. He shared what he had found. A resolution would be a desired action, intent or stated position. An ordinance would be a binding legal regulation that would be enforceable, a law. It cannot override state or federal law. A resolution would be temporary, while an ordinance would be permanent. The process to enact an ordinance would be more complex and he went through the process.

Bencomo didn't have a comment in the interest of time.

Prince wanted to thank Ashburn as well as the rest of the prospectors that had attended the meeting. "This year the Grant County Days event was phenomenal and being able to go up to the legislature and speak to the issues that matter the most to my constituents would not be possible without the efforts of the Prospectors."

Prince asked people to view the hazard mitigation action plan update. It could be viewed at www.grantcountynm.gov. "The document is about 385 pages and if you are concerned about drought, fire, flood, hail, wind, lightning, it covers all the bases and how to keep the community safe."

The council approved the minutes from the meeting January 14, 2025

Public input

Ladner reminded those signed up for public input had five minutes. He said he would notify them when they had one minute left.

Patricia Erickson said, "I am a Grant County native and have lived at my current address for forty years." She has been a licensed clinical mental health counselor and felt the citizens' advisory board would go a long way towards improving quality of life.

She had a recent situation she wanted to make the council aware of. Recently she had been cited into municipal court by an animal control officer because her dog had been off lead. She had seen a city truck on multiple occasions speeding on the street outside her house. On November 25, 2025, she had raised her voice and told them to slow down. She had leaned down to hook the lead on her dog's collar and before she knew it the vehicle had made a rapid U-turn in the street and come back and stopped. Her dog being friendly thought he had come to visit and ran over to greet him. The animal control officer exited his vehicle and yelled at her saying he would cite her because her dog had not been on a lead. The situation developed into a citation.

At the hearing, the officer could not provide any evidence of prior contact with Erickson. He had said he had searched the system and had talked to her before. He claimed two other alleged violations. One had been harboring an unvaccinated animal and harboring an unspayed unneutered animal. The shelter staff had told Erickson it has been routine for them to receive requests for information from animal control.

She had taken her proof to the municipal court and the charges had been dropped. However, she had been found guilty of having her dog off lead and given a 90-day deferred sentence. She paid the $25 deferment fee via volunteer service at the Humane Society Thrift Shop. She regularly volunteers there. "I believe this situation could have been handled differently. I believe those who are charged with enforcing the law should themselves obey it."

A couple of weeks after the incident Erickson had called central dispatch to report the same vehicle speeding on the same street. This had taken a great deal of time and had been difficult to work through the court procedures and prepare for the hearing. She hoped they could do a better job at communicating about these issues and a citizens' advisory board would facilitate positive communication among citizens.

Hopefully the spirit of the law would be taken into consideration. "This is an example of an important quality of life issue in which such a board would be invaluable." She provided her full statement to the council.

Victoria Reece had spoken at a previous meeting on the citizens' advisory board. She thanked the police chief for beginning to reach out. Captain Hobbs had come to a PFLAG meeting which had been a very good start. "I was told he was nicer than he looked, so I went over and met him today and he was." She hoped it would be the beginning of fostering a better relationship because, "There is still a lot of fear in the gay community with people in authority." Reece continued, "If you have the chance to get to meet the people in charge it's much easier to handle." She hoped this would be part of what the citizen community action board would do, give a person someone to talk to that knows how to handle people when they are upset, anxious or scared.

Reece continued that this would not be an oversight board and would not have any power over the police chief. "We are simply to give people someone to talk to." They would also be there to provide people who have had years of experience with social work and mediation. They would not know what it would be like to be a police person and to understand the stress that they would be under. The officers only have a small amount of training in social work, and it does not equal that of a person that has done it as a life's work. They can work together, and she pointed out that she thought the police department had been looking for funding to have social workers available to them. This board would be offering it for free.

"I am a retired retail manager. I got to deal with all the customers that were unhappy, and I learned if I stood there with a serious expression and listened to them, it solved 90 percent of the problem whether or not I could do anything they wanted." Reece said the board had been designed to give someone a place to submit their problem and relay it to the police chief. Then he could make changes he might need to make or not and then explain to the board what had been done and why. The board can then explain it back to the person fostering much better communication and understanding.

Reece said, on that note, and referred to the fire chief and the cat on a pole. She felt the board could have helped with something like that. The resolution idea she said would just be a way for people to say no without saying it. "This needs to have some teeth, and people will feel it will be here."

Sharon Bookwalter had spoken about the citizens' advisory board to the council a few times. She wanted to address some questions proposed by Paul Leetmae in the last council work session held February 3, 2025. He had questioned the time people had lived here that were proposing this board and if they had lived here long enough to have insight into the community. She said Snider had worked at the water department and been the go to guy in the neighborhood to light ancient furnaces. He had been here 30 years or more. Frances Vasquez has been a lifelong resident of Grant County, born and raised in the mining district and a graduate of Cobre High School. She had retired from Silver Consolidated Schools. Ray Cressler had been here for 10 years. He and his wife had owned a business downtown and he now teaches at Aldo Leopold Charter School. George Carr retired to Silver City 8 years ago. Bookwalter said she had lived here 44 years.

The next question from Leetmae had been about employment. In the '80s Bookwalter had taught GED and ESL classes at Western New Mexico University. It helped her connect to the part of the community that had struggled with school, language and work. After that she had become the Main Street Project manager and after that returned to teaching for 17 years and retired.

She referenced the question Leetmae had made about knowing the officers. She said she did, and some had sat in her classrooms.

Big city problems that now have suddenly appeared in Silver City had been brought up by Leetmae, and she said these problems may change over time, but the community has always had them. She spoke to a heroin overdose in 1985 when she had just moved here. About 15 years ago someone she knew died of an opioid overdose and several years later her daughter. When she returned to teach in 1993,  gangs and wannabees had been a growing problem. "Our town has always struggled with the problems of any other community."

Leetmae had asked about the qualifications being sought for the members of the board. The ordinance has specified that every effort be made to include members with backgrounds in social work, mental health, law enforcement, public education and criminal law. It will also reflect the broad and rich diversity of the community.

Bookwalter continued, "Those of us working on this ordinance have chosen not to make personal attacks on individuals or challenge their right to have opinions differing from ours but rather address the issues of how a community advisory board could benefit this community and law enforcement officers. We need to focus on issues and not attack the worthiness of individuals who propose ideas we don't agree with."

Michael Giusto wanted to address some of the fire issues in some areas around the county and city. He had taken photos of some areas and provided them to the council. These would maybe not be the most dangerous but the rippling effect on people's fire insurance. In the past few years when he had the opportunity to work with the fire department, he said they had been wonderful. He went over some of the programs they had had to mitigate problems and some of them would be for free. He asked that the town consider sending out letters to people who own vacant land with a lot of trees and shrubs.

Jim Goodkind came to speak in favor of the citizens' advisory board. He started with relating to a past incident. For many years he had worked as an electrical contractor in Silver City. He had a client that he didn't name but said it took him a really long time to pay him. After a while he contacted him to do more work. He had a conversation with him about how long it had taken him to pay and suggested that he pay him first and then he would do the work making them equal. In his 50 years in Silver City, he had mostly positive or neutral interactions with the police department. He said the theme seems to be, "If you are not doing anything wrong you don't have anything to fear." He added to that, "Well I'm saying we need to have equality here. With the citizens advisory board if you are not doing anything wrong you don't have anything to fear." This came back to his story before and alluding to equality. He asked the council that might be wavering to remember it cut both ways and would be a matter of respect.

"If the public is to respect the police department the police department has to trust the public as well." Goodkind had a last statement about the resolution and it being fairly meaningless.

Jeannie Martin has spoken on the citizens' advisory board before. She wanted to respond to some comments made by a council member on February 3, 2025, work session. It had to do with newcomers coming to Silver City to change things. "Well, if things need changing as a newcomer of 29 years and 4 months, I'm glad we and they do work to support change when the need cries out for it." She wanted to point out that those newcomers pay rent, buy property, serve on boards, support local businesses and pay taxes. She said these people would be essential.

The citizens' advisory board will strengthen trust among law enforcement and increase respect. "Let us move forward. The ordinance should be passed into law by the council as revised."

Chris Jepson came to speak concerning an immigration subcommittee he has been a member of. The goal has been to help families not be broken up because of policies that might exist in communities and support the undocumented immigrants in the community. The committee teaches them to know their rights as well as other community members to know the undocumented immigrants' rights. He had lived in Silver City for 30 years and with his work has visited undocumented families. "I have visited families having new babies and saw their concerted efforts made to raise children in a healthy environment." He had brought a poster they put up and cards given to undocumented individuals. "This is so if they have interaction with ICE or border patrol they know their rights."

Jepson wanted to know more about the town policy and had met with Ladner and has been waiting to hear back. He had spoken with Sherriff Raul Villanueva, and he had said he follows the guidelines on immigration that Attorney General Torres puts out. This means that ICE and border patrol will not be allowed to go into places of worship or schools. Superintendent William Hawkins, Silver Consolidated Schools, had put out a letter saying unless they had a warrant they would not be allowed. El Refugio had told him that they serve everyone equally and have not been mandated to report anyone undocumented. They actually help them with documentation.

Jepson said he really wanted to know the official position of the officials of the community and hoped to continue to serve undocumented individuals as well as they can.

Janet Wallet-Ortiz came to speak again on the citizens' advisory board. She has lived in Silver City for 42 years and retired as a professor at Western New Mexico University. "I have worked with advisory boards and found them helpful and knowledgeable." She wanted to respond to a few comments made at the February 3, 2025, work session. "I want to be crystal clear passing this ordinance and creating a citizens' advisory board is not about punishing the current police department for past egregious errors." This would be about moving forward by creating a board to encourage and facilitate mutually respectful relationships between the police, all members of the community and minimize the room for errors and miscommunication. She had an interaction with Officer Lockett recently at a protest and found him to be very respectful. "He was fair and balanced."

Wallet-Ortiz also wanted to speak to the distraction of the subject at hand by bringing in prejudice or stereotyping against people that have not lived here. "I assure you many do not want to remake our rural town into the places they left." All people want the same, a safe community. She jumped to the insurance deductible that Brown quoted increasing from $10,000 to $100,000. "We citizens pay that price." She suggested that a citizens' advisory board that simply monitors complaints given to them might be able to spot patterns or situations that might be averted so no more increases might happen.

Wallet-Ortiz said she agreed with the need for confidentiality and respect for police union contracts. The volunteers would need basic training to be a successful board. Each member needs to understand the parameters of their responsibilities. "It has been made abundantly clear that there can be no interference with day-to-day police activities." She said she fully supported the ordinance in its final revision that had been made by the subcommittee that included council members and volunteers who have worked to clarify the language. "I do not support a resolution on this issue because it would not carry any authority and would indicate a lack of seriousness."

Andy Payne had spoken to the council on this issue before. He started by saying he would not apologize for only living in Silver City 11 years. The citizens' advisory board could be viewed in many ways. He wanted the ordinance passed and not a resolution. "When Nikki Bascom was killed there was no citizens' advisory board in place for her to reach out to. If there had been it would have provided one more path for her to make her fears known." The city council at the time put their faith and trust in the police department. The police itself removed any officers that had mental health issues and posed a possible threat. "The faith and trust was misplaced. Nikki Bascom lost her life. The city was held accountable and paid a $10 million settlement." Establishing the citizens advisory board as a form of insurance could decrease the odds of history repeating itself.

Karen Cruz had come to speak of something different than the citizens' advisory board. "I stand before you now not just for myself but for every citizen who has been wronged, ignored and failed by a system that is supposed to protect us. I am here to expose corruption, demand accountability and ensure that justice is not a privilege for the few but a right for all." She said she had brought proof and had collected overwhelming evidence of misconduct at every level of the justice system. She named the police department, sheriff's office, district attorney and the judiciary. "My due process rights were violated."

She had proof of officers failing to investigate before filing charges. The legal system in Silver City had been weaponized against the very people it served. Instead of action being taken against this the people in power had been trying to silence her. They had tried to retaliate and intimidate Cruz. When she has demanded justice, she has been accused of harassment. She went over all the issues she had and said she would not be silenced. "This is bigger than me." She continued that if the system could railroad her, an innocent citizen, they could do the same to anyone.

Cruz said when injustice is not challenged it spreads like a disease. She had escalated this issue to federal authorities. She has filed complaints with the Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, attorney general's office, New Mexico Supreme Court and Judicial Standards Commission. "I have legal fillings in progress against those who have violated my rights, and I will not stop until justice is served." She told the council they didn't need to wait and had the power to do something now. She called for immediate dismissal of wrongful charges filed against her and a full independent investigation into law enforcement misconduct and judiciary corruption in Silver City. "You may try and dismiss me. You may try to silence me. You may try to intimidate me, but I promise I am not going anywhere. I am here. I am awake and I am watching."

The council took a ten-minute break.

The council approved resolution 2025-03. Brown said this would be the loan part of the colonias grant to relocate the sewer line in the southwest part of the town under the highway 90 bridge. The design had been completed, and it will be going out for bid in early March 2025. The resolution includes a pledge of .25 percent of the gross receipts tax in the event of nonpayment for the loan portion of $91,280. Prince wanted to make sure it would not be an increase in gross receipts tax and Brown said no. They will be paying $4,500 a year for 20 years with no interest.

The council approved resolution 2025-04. This adopts the town's fair housing policy. The resolution was a requirement of the Community Development Block Grant Program (CDBG). It had been done two years earlier, but New Mexico had lost the paperwork, and it needed to be redone. This also applies to the next resolution. The town had initially applied for the first $750,000, then a second $750,000 and now have received the last allocation $300,000. They have all the funds now needed to do the entire project in the southern Chihuahua Hill. These two resolutions will just be regular requirements.

The council approved resolution 2025-05. This also had to do with the CDBG and would be for the procurement policy. Brown said, "Because we are charter, a territorial charter community, we are considered like a homeroom community, so we have been able to adopt our own procurement policy." This resolution just says Silver City will use a state procurement policy for the CDBG.

Meeting adjourned.