Silver City special meeting on museum issues

By Lynn Janes

The Silver City Town Council held a special meeting June 15, 2026. Attendance to the meeting included Mayor Simon Wheaton-Smith, and Councilors Nicholas Prince, Stan Snider, Victor Nanez and Angela Salaiz.

The council approved the agenda.

Council comments

None of the council members had any comments. Wheaton-Smith did ask if the council had read the article on the museum society and looked at the spreadsheet. The council took a five minute standard recess  to review the documents Wheaton-Smith spoke to.

Public input.

Victoria Reese had come to speak on this issue several times. She said a lot of unhappiness surrounds the museum issue and the museum has been a gem of the town. The unhappiness seemed to stem from the time Bart Roselli had come to the museum as director. She asked the same question as she had at previous meetings. "I have a real serious question on how in the world he was hired in the first places since he was fired from his job at the Seneca Zoo." This had disturbed her that he had not been properly vetted. She referred to an article several month ago in the Silver City Daily Press that said a number of artifacts had been lost. She hoped someone has been checking on this. Families had loaned some of these with the expectation of receiving them back. The museum society has been banned from the museum, but their job has been to raise money and help the museum. They had always been able to work with the directors before, and they needed to know budget and where they needed to raise money so they could help.

She said apparently when they wanted to see the budget had been when Roselli banned them. "Seemed he didn't want anyone to know how the money was being spent." She asked why they had been banned and the leaders defamed so badly. She said Raul Turrieta had not been in a place to be able to steal money, and Patsy Madrid had faced discrimination as a Hispanic so she would be the last person to turn around and make those kinds of comments. The lies had stemmed from one person. She hoped the town would rectify this so they could move forward.

Richard Johnson said he had retired from WNMU as a professor of computer science for 25 years. In his time at WNMU he had been elected twice as the president of the faculty and has been involved in the museum since 1994, primarily shepherding the Walton family gift of $141,430 to the society to establish a foundation for long term growth of funds to support the museum. It has been successful although others have not understood the ownership and the purpose of the funds. Most recently he has served as the secretary of the society board of directors and has been working with three other well qualified elected officers, but the past two years have been difficult for the society, as the museum leadership severed a relationship of over 40 years.

Johnson said this had effectively increased costs to the town that had to absorb over $700,000 annually. "That is an unsustainable taxpayer burden for a town with a population under 10,000." During the past two years the society had refused to speak out in any manner that would affect the museum negatively and it has caused confusion with the public. They had appreciated the outreach by the town to reestablish the connection between the society and museum.

Roger Tree serves as vice president of the museum society. He thanked the mayor, council and town manager for fostering an increased transparency that to his knowledge had not existed for years. The society has stood in solidarity with the course of actions taken over the past two years and agreed with what Johnson had just said. Taking a quick look back in the spirit of cooperation, the issues with the museum began when the board attempted to implement a sustainable budget, including fundraising efforts. The society has and always had a legal responsibility and obligation to be good stewards of funds and have never strayed from operating legally and transparently in an effort to maintain nonprofit status.

Tree reiterated what Johnson had said about not portraying the town or museum in a negative light and they had paid the price in the eyes of the community. He hoped to return to the days of sustainable budgets with increased relevance to the community. The society sincerely hopes the museum will thrive and prosper in a fiscally responsible and sustainable manner.

Raul Turietta said he has been serving as the president of the museum society. He thanked the society for their patience, knowledge and unity. He agreed with Johnson and Tree's statements. The society's primary role has been to support, contribute and succeed for the town and museum. "We remain committed to offer our full cooperation and partnership, working together to preserve our history's strength of this community and create opportunities for future generations to come."

Faye Venali said she had come to speak on her mother, Nicole Eleck's, behalf, She said in April she had been attacked by her boss, Bart Roselli, and had come home in tears and she had to console her through flashbacks for three weeks. Her mother had loved her job and went over her recounts of things she had enjoyed about the job. Then she recounted the events of Roselli chasing her mother around screaming at her. "Why is Grant County protecting abusers?"

Nicole Eleck said, "I am pretty nervous. This is the first time I have seen Bart since he chased me out of the museum." She continued to say she has been surprised by the women that have stood up to support someone that abuses other women. "It is shameful and really sad because I didn't do anything to deserve what happened to me." She continued to say her rights had been abused and she had cried for weeks. She turned and confronted Roselli very emotionally. Wheaton-Smith addressed her and told her she needed to stay by the microphone and speak to the council and not address anyone in the audience. Eleck continued, "I am ashamed of this community, and I don't deserve this." She said she still had not been paid and that no one cared. She asked, "What is the difference between them? It is because of my color, skin or because I am a woman?" She said anyone standing up for him would be wrong.

Barbara Totherow said she had come as a citizen and volunteer at the museum. She had a few things to say. Reese has spoken to the animosity and the society had been defamed and added she thought Roselli had been defamed. At a past meeting of the council, he had been out of town but had been accused of all kinds of malfeasance. She didn't understand why that had been public. Tree had said he wanted the relevance of the museum to the community to be returned. That she also did not understand and said how relevant the museum has been to the community, citing the Chihuahua Hill exhibit. She said Roselli had brought a lot of relevance to the community. Speaking on Turrieta she didn't know where the accusation of embezzlement had come from. She said the society had been sitting on funds and not using them for the museum. She said she supported Roselli completely and had not had any problems.

Reports

Manager's report

Jacqui Olea, interim town manager, didn't have anything to report currently.

New business

The special meeting had been called to make a decision on the steps to take to resolve the issues between the town of Silver City and the Silver City Museum and authorizing the mayor and  interim town manager to start the process and proceed to an agreement for the council to review and approve.

Wheaton-Smith said this would be the most important meeting they will have this year. The museum has been around for many years and went into his family's involvement. They had received public input on the matter and that would be all it is, but they have heard it. "We are all affected, and we listened to it." They obviously have been aware of the problems happening between the museum and society and had an executive session to discuss their concerns. It had been decided they needed to talk to the museum society and came up with a list of issues. He continued with what had been happening up to this point.

Wheaton-Smith said in the process something else had him concerned. He had looked at the fiscal 2026 year budget and saw how much funding had been required by the museum. The budget had been $465,575 and at the same time found the museum had run at a $220,525 loss. "That loss is totally unacceptable and unsustainable." That loss must come out of the general fund. He had meet with two representatives from the society to ask where they go from here. He would be meeting with Olea, Turietta and Susan Hinojosa, which had been where the brainstorm list had come from, and they had several options after a few meetings. One option had been a MOU (memorandum of understanding) and questioned if it would work or be sustainable.

As the council discussed the issues, Wheaton-Smith wanted them to think about some factors as they had their discussion. Did they want to suspend Roberts Rules of Order? Did they feel the current model will be sustainable, in reference to the cost of around $700,000. He spoke to the Deming museum that runs on considerably less staff. He asked if the council would like for him and Olea to proceed forward with and agreement including both attorneys meeting with them at the same time and place to review the spreadsheet of issues.

The council approved the suspension of Roberts Rules of Order for the discussion.

Prince had a few questions concerning information on the spreadsheet. He and Snider had concerns about the timeframes and hoped to move forward faster. Snider said he realized they needed to do an inventory and asked if they could expedite it to move forward faster. Nanez and Salaiz also had concerns on the timeframes.

Prince did not have concerns over the cost of running the museum and felt it would be a small amount compared to the $17 million budget. Salaiz said the constituents , taxpayers of the town would find $700,000 to be a lot considering the failing infrastructure. The town has potholes that she receives complaints on every day. The town has a wastewater treatment plant that could fail. She spoke to the Deming museum that runs on a budget considerably less and five times larger. "I am very concerned. It is not just a drop in the bucket. It is a waste of money that could be better used somewhere else." Salaiz continued, "The fire department has been operational since the  1960s on everything." They had to construct a bathroom for females on their own. "That is unacceptable that should not happen while the town spends three quarters of a million dollars on a small museum.

Nanez completely agreed with Salaiz. They should be addressing other issues for the community.

Wheaton-Smith said if the debate had finished,  they had a question before them. The council approved authorizing the mayor and Olea to take steps to resolve the issue between the town and museum society.

Meeting adjourned