Bayard debates emergency abatement ordinance

By Lynn Janes

The town of Bayard held a regular meeting May 20, 2026. Attendance included Mayor John L. Ojinaga, Mayor Pro Tem Eloy Gonzales, Eloy Medina (phone), Gilbert Ortiz and Charles Gray. Martha Salas, city clerk, also attended.

The council approved the agenda.

Public input none currently.

The council approved the consent agenda that included minutes from three meetings, accounts payable and department head reports.

New business

The council approved the outfitting for the fire rescue SUV. Gabriel Gonzales, fire chief, said it would include emergency lights and emergency systems making it ready for service.

Ordinances and resolutions

The council approved resolution 10-2026 authorizing the city of Bayard to enter into a funding agreement between the New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission (ISC) and Bayard. Salas explained they had finalized an agreement with ISC for asset management with an award of $223,000.

The council approved resolution 11-2026 for budget adjustments. Salas provided a breakdown for the adjustments to the council and the reason for each one.

The council approved intent to adopt ordinance 1-2026 amending section 16-70, emergency abatement of the Bayard municipal code. Medina voted not to approve. Yvonne Gonzales, city attorney, went over some of the changes they had made and why which had to do with who the contacts would be. The process would start with a notification to the city maintenance with a complaint about a nuisance for their recommendation. At that time, it would be passed on to the beautification committee for their recommendation. Yvonne Gonzales said it will have to be an emergency to public, health, safety and welfare. If both maintenance and the beautification committee, make the recommendation they would notify the building inspector. She continued to explain the process. The owner of the property will be given the chance to abate the emergency, and the owner will have the right to have a hearing in front of the beautification committee. The police department, code enforcement or the fire department may notify the mayor of a public nuisance and its imminent danger to the public. She explained how that process would work.

Gray had a comment to make before they voted. He had visited with some of the residents that have been affected previously by these blighted homes and in fear of the continued affect they have had. The change will allow just another tool to keep the residents safe. As a governing body they needed to do what they could to keep residents safe.

Medina has spoken to some of the residents and explained it would be for safety. He did have a question about the qualifications of the public officer making these determinizations. Yvonne Gonzales said it would be the code enforcement officer, and they would need training, but the criteria would be spelled out in the statute.

The conversation continued among the council and attorney. Many residents spoken to had expressed the need for something like this to protect them. Medina spoke to taking down a person's residence would be serious. Many of these homes have not been occupied because someone has passed and the family lives out of state. Every attempt would be made to contact them. Medina continued to voice his concerns about the ordinance. Ortiz had some concerns about the liabilities that Medina concurred with. Medina continued with a number of concerns including the reporting being done through an emergency service person. They have been taught to not judge people when entering their homes. He felt it would stop people from calling emergency services because of fear of judgement. Medina addressed what would happen to those that had to be vacated. Did they have a plan for that?

Medina said he would be all for beautification and understands they have empty homes. They do need to look at the people that don't have the ability to take care of their homes and make them pristine. Those people had put them in the chairs they hold as well. "I think this still needs to go back to the drawing board."

Yvonne Gonzales said they could not put every detail in the ordinance, but it would set a standard and that would be that it had to be a nuisance. One person would not be making the determination, and it would be a number of people. Medina said it needed to have more clarification on the roles and responsibilities of the public officer. Eloy Gonzales felt they needed to move forward and make adjustments as needed. They had to start somewhere. The debate continued. Yvonne Gonzales said this would be more about securing the property with fencing so kids and vagrants could not enter. Once the land has been secured, they could start the regular abatement process.

Action for personnel

The council approved the completion of the probationary period for Armando Fletcher, wastewater employee. Stephen Estrada, wastewater director, said he had been doing well, learning everything he needs to know about the job and showing up.

The council approved the resignation of the animal control officer. Hector Carrillo, police chief, wanted to update the council. This person had loved working for the city of Bayard but because of unforeseen circumstances they had to make a choice and had left in good standing.

Department head reports

Sam Arellano, public works director, went over all the jobs they had done in the past month. They had been doing a lot of locates for some fiber optics contractors between Vanadium, Hanover, Bayard and Santa Clara. They had seeded and fertilized the parks making them really green. Several water leaks had been fixed. The cross training with wastewater has continued.

Estrada said he and Fletcher had attended a training held at the community center that had been a free class held by the New Mexico Rural Water Association that covered operating responsibilities and provided training credits. Afterwards the person doing the training had come to tour the facility and provide tips and contact information that would help them. Some of the contractors had shown up and will be working on some quotes for fixing some things. They have also been receiving quotes to do meter evaluations and to calibrate them. He had met with Stantec about a preliminary engineering report so they could make a plan moving forward and address priorities. Estrada continued with a detailed report of what had been happening.

Cordell Jones, planning and zoning chair, said they had not had any requests in the past month and did not have a report.

Gabriel Gonzales, fire chief, said they had one fire call in April for a vehicle fire in highway 180 close to Hurley. EMS had 25 calls of which 15 had been in Bayard, 8 in Hurley and 2 in Santa Clara. The department had fire and EMS training in the past month. He provided a review of all the equipment and its status. They didn't have any safety issues and provided an escort for the Cobre cheer team.

Carrillo said they had 222 calls in April and only two had to be answered by the sheriff's office and thought that would be the lowest county response they have had. One of the officers had been sent to training for a new instrument in DWI investigations. It will be helpful to the tri-city area. He thanked all that had helped with the Tour of the Gila.

Carrillo wanted to acknowledge that one of the officer's daughters would be graduating as valedictorian of her class. Carrillo's daughter had been in the top six.

Salas said, "I have been working on the budget." She has scheduled some budget workshops.

Mayor and council reports

Eloy Gonzales brought up the state champions for track and power lifting and wanted to recognize them at some point. They will be recognizing them at a later meeting.

Gray said he had been out and around a lot in the past week. It heartened him to see all the staff always doing something and see all their results from the efforts.

Ortiz thanked the staff for all their hard work.

Ojinaga said he had become very sick and didn't know what to do so he called the fire department and as EMT first responders they had taken care of him. They had done a medical assessment and taken him to the emergency room. "They are not trained in first aid they are trained in medical." He had pushed the fire chief to have them all certified as EMTs and was glad they had done it.

The council went into closed session to discuss anticipated litigation, real property and water rights.

The council came back into open session and said only the items listed in the agenda had been discussed and no action taken place.

Next meeting will be held June 17, 2026
Special meeting May 28, 2026

Meeting adjourned.