City hopes new board brings business to area

By Zsombor Peter
Staff Writer

GALLUP — Most people probably don't know it, but the city's new economic development/tourism board has been at work for several weeks now and has met three times already.

Part of Mayor Harry Mendoza's plan to revive the city's slipping regional economic standing, the board is working on what he's calling "a long-range, comprehensive plan to promote Gallup."

Mendoza spoke of forming a tourism board during the mayoral race earlier this year to brainstorm ways the city might attract more visitors. After winning the election, and having the economic development director fired, that talk turned into plans of a combined tourism and economic development board. With little fanfare, the board held its first meeting about a month ago.

A 2006 study by the University of New Mexico's Bureau of Business and Economic Research found that Gallup was losing its regional market share. Mendoza hopes the new board will help turn that around.

But neither he nor board president George Muñoz sound clear on exactly what the "long-range, comprehensive" plan the board is charged with generating will look like. One thing the plan needs to include, Muñoz said, was a thorough list of all the properties around town available for development listing their particular assets, access to Interstate Highway 40 or the railroad tracks for example, something the city could show a company thinking of moving here and looking for land.

According to Muñoz, no such list currently exists. When a Malaysia-based company's talks with Gamerco Associates over a prospective site for its rubber recycling plant fell through, Muñoz said, he, the mayor and City Attorney George Kozeliski had to scramble for sites the city could offer as alternatives. They came up with a few, including the old Boardman scrap yard along Hasler Valley Road the company settled on, and saved the deal. The company, Green Rubber Global, plans to open the first-of-its kind plant next summer and fill most of the roughly 140 jobs it will need locally.

Muñoz said the board also plans to include a list of industries it believes the city should focus on promoting and attracting in the plan. Most New Mexico cities, he said, have their eyes on light manufacturing.

Mendoza, however, believes Gallup has something unique to offer.

"We need to promote Gallup for what it really is, which is the Indian capital," he said. "We need to capitalize on the Native Americans."

Historically, the city has always sold itself as a mecca for American Indian arts and crafts, but Mendoza believes it could do more. Most shoppers, he said, probably don't know that at least three quarters of the American Indian jewelry sold around the state comes from this area. The board, the mayor said, should help spread the word.

Muñoz said the board had no goal in mind for when it hopes to have the plan finished by. He said it was still busy lining up area groups like the local chamber of commerce for presentations, an effort to get a handle on Gallup's current state of affairs.

"What we're trying to do is get everyone together and on the same page so we can move forward," he said.

The board has, however, already decided on recommending that the City Council find a full- or part-time economic development/tourism director to serve as the go-to intermediary between City Hall and the business community. The board is strictly voluntary. The job of chasing down potential business leads, Muñoz said, deserves more attention.

The city had an economic development director in Glen Benefield. Former City Manager Eric Honeyfield fired him at the council's, and in particular Mendoza's, urging in April. Mendoza has declined to comment on the matter.

As part of its settlement with the U.S. Justice Department over employment discrimination charges against Native Americans, the city then had to offer the job to former state Rep. Irvin Harrison, who got passed over for the position several years ago. After weeks of contemplating the offer, Harrison turned it down.

The city still has money to fill the position, however. The council budgeted $65,000 for it in the city's 2008 budget.