By Lynn Janes
 
The town of Bayard held a work session June 12, 2023. The work session allows the council time to ask questions about items on the agenda and discuss them.
 
Marlena Valenzuela, city clerk, addressed the council with some information and concerns. Police Chief, Hector Carrillo had inquired about adding phone lines and Ortiz reached out to Michael Paez, public works director, to see if his department needed to increase its lines.
 
Valenzuela wanted to address some information that had come out in the Silver City Daily Press that had been incorrect. The paper had said Bayard had a $7 million surplus. “We do not have a surplus.” She went over the budget line by line with the council. She pointed out the $7 million belonged to restricted funds. Those funds have been allocated to EMS, fire, law enforcement, water, projects, etc. “These funds can’t be used for anything else. The city must, as a requirement, keep funds as reserves for the  entities and projects. We do not a  $7 million surplus.”

Valenzuela explained when the city applies for funding, they must provide the budget for the city. She told the board they did not have a lot of revenue for what is spent. “You need to keep that in mind.” Recently the council had talked about giving a 5 percent raise across the board to city employees. Valenzuela said she didn’t feel it would be a good idea right now. The expenditures to revenue do not support the increase. She also pointed out they had just done raises in December 2022. The city has a lot of projects currently that need to be covered.

A breakdown of the cost  to the city to provide the 5 percent raise would cost in total around $34,000. Valenzuela gave them a breakdown of how much would have to come out of each department.

The total fund balance currently is $740,438. Generally, the city has approximately $1 million so they have a shortage. Valenzuela pointed out that they still had a number of large payouts to make that would drop that balance down more.

The town of Bayard held a regular meeting June 12, 2023. The meeting started with Mayor Chon Fierro calling the meeting to order and leading the Pledge of Allegiance. Attendance at the meeting included councilors Eloy Medina, Frances Gonzales, and Jose Diaz. Mayor Pro tem Raul Villanueva didn’t attend.

The council approved the agenda.

Public input

Resident James Ervin addressed the mayor directly. He said he had lived in Bayard for seven years and not much had changed. “People in the town have been struggling, and Bayard had been stagnating. They struggle because of the leadership. What have you done in the past three-and-a-half years.” He said he had been attending