Commish hears numbers on public service negotiations

The Roosevelt County Commission discussed dollar amounts and other numbers involved with services the county provides to the city and vice versa.

On Tuesday, county commissioners Tina Dixon and Roy Lee Criswell presented recent discussions they had with city councilors Veronica Cordova and Chad Heflin about the ongoing negotiations.

“What they're offering is $200 for anybody arrested, whether they're municipal, whether they’re state charges, whatever it is. $200 a day, up until arraignment” for Roosevelt County Detention Center services, Dixon said.

These negotiations started earlier this year. Originally, the commission offered $125,000 in funds for fiscal year (FY) 2023 (July 1, 2022-June 30, 2023) for emergency dispatch services from the city. However, the city council previously requested $175,000. It was ultimately decided to keep the funding at $175,000.

Dixon added that the county also pays the city $15,000 to $18,000 a year for water, sewer and trash at the detention center. “They will waive the fee for water and garbage for five years,” Dixon said.

“Even though we're doing a lower rate for them than we do anybody else, we're also still paying water, sewer trash, all of that to the city of Portales,” Dixon said. With this proposal, however, the city would waive the fee for water and garbage for five years, according to Dixon.

The county has also been paying $30,500 to fire and EMS up until this year with the negotiations going on. “We're going to bill them $154 a day anyway. That’s what it's going to be a day because that's the going rate,” Dixon said.

Dixon and Criswell then explained how the city is charging the county for the three mile extra territorial zone (ETZ). “We have not found another county that's our size, and that's comparable to us that has had to pay for the responses outside of the area,” Dixon said.

Some of the counties that Dixon and Criswell referred to were Lincoln, Grant, and San Miguel.

“I thought we've been pretty gracious to the city of Portales with the $30,500,” Criswell said. “I could handle the $45,000, but not with the $15,000 per year increase.”

Criswell said the county has had only very positive meetings with the city, and that negotiators are trying to keep the discussions as positive as possible. He said he was thankful that both sides were able to come up with some actual numbers to work from.

Commissioners Rod Savage and Dennis Lopez both agreed that the city and county managers should be included in the negotiation discussions when they happen.

“Our city manager and our county manager are the two most knowledgeable people in terms of the budget expenses, where the money's coming from, what comes in and where it goes out,” Savage said. “I think they need to be included.”

“Maybe we can move forward and get this deal done, and then go on to do something else and be more productive elsewhere,” he said.

“We talked about just washing things out, but we wanted to put actual numbers down so that in five years from now, the next commission wouldn't be in the same boat that we're in,” Dixon said.

In other items of business at Tuesday’s meeting:

• The commission discussed the Roosevelt County Fair, which begins Tuesday, and what is going on to prepare for fair week. There was a small fire out at the grounds after a fence installation, however, Hamilton assured the commission it was small and quickly contained. She reported there were no injuries.

• NCA Architect John Layman presented the drafted master plan for Roosevelt County Fairgrounds, and the county plans to display and solicit more public input during the fair next week.

• The commission approved a resolution that would oppose the listing of the dune sagebrush lizard as an endangered species with Dixon leading the discussion.

• County manager Amber Hamilton provided updates on the summer internship program and read thank you letters to the commission from some participants. Hamilton said there were about 40 students that participated over the summer.

• Reports and updates were given on the detention center and budgets.

• Hamilton also discussed the emergency operation center parking lot and gave an update on a design plan that is to come soon.

• Hamilton presented the Canvus Donation Program to the commission, which they approved to take part in. According to their website, Canvus is a manufacturer of products made from retired wind turbine blades.