City hires economic czar to wrangle deals, land 100 jobs

By Zsombor Peter
Staff writer

GALLUP — Mike Enfield is reprising his role as the city’s economic development director — this time on contract.

According to City Manager Gerald Herrera, Enfield will pocket $10,000 to fill the vacancy for the next three months. It is a role he’s familiar with, having served as Gallup’s economic development director for the first two years of the Rosebrough administration. The position has been vacant since Mayor Harry Mendoza had Enfield’s successor, Glen Benefield, fired in April.

Herrera said the contract was a temporary solution for the city, which is the middle of sealing a pair of critical deals that could bring more than 100 new jobs to Gallup, though he did not rule out a renewal after the three months expire. Enfield called a renewal likely.

Neither man ruled out the possibility that the former economic development director might reprise his old role as a regular city employee either, though Enfield said he’d prefer to stay on contract. Mendoza never officially ruled out the idea of refilling the position with a full-time employee either, even after appointing an all-volunteer committee to oversee economic development and tourism recently. There’s still $65,000 in the city budget waiting to pay someone’s salary if they do.

“It was the right way to go for right now,” Herrera said of the contract, given the need for speedy action.

The city has been preparing for the pair of projects — a rubber recycling plant and a slaughterhouse — for some time, however, well before 2007.

Enfield, who started Aug. 27, said he would continue his private consulting but devote the bulk of his time to the city. At the top of the list, he said, was the rubber recycling plant.

McKinley County and the city of Gallup signed a memorandum of understanding with the Mel Gibson-backed Petra Group for the construction of a first-of-its kind plant designed to recycle used rubber back to its raw, “green” form July 10. The deal commits the city and county to $500,000 each.

The holdup seems to be the $2.9 million Gov. Bill Richardson has reportedly “pledged” to the project. According to city officials, the governor agreed to release the state funds to pave a road to the future plant’s formerly proposed site, in Gamerco. But now that they’ve decided to build the plant along Hasler Valley Road instead, a site that already has paved access, they’re asking the governor for permission to spend the money on building the plant itself.

New Mexico Economic Development Commissioner George Muñoz, a member of the city’s development and tourism committee, said Richardson’s chief of staff has already agreed to the switch. When the Independent called the governor’s office Friday afternoon, however, a spokeswoman said she was not even aware of Richardson “pledging” the $2.9 million for the road. She did say the Economic Development Department was planning on asking the state Legislature for $3 million on the plant’s behalf during its next session — in January.

In the meantime, Enfield said he will be preparing a council resolution that will make the city’s $500,000 investment official if approved and finishing the cleanup of the proposed site, an old junkyard.

“What I’m trying to do,” he said, “is get our ducks in a row before we go to the state and say, ‘How are your ducks doing?’”

As for the slaughterhouse, the city is still trying to convince the partners — the Ramah Chapter of the Navajo Nation and Moriarty-based Western Way Custom Meat — to locate their proposed meat packing plant within city limits. Although the partners can asked the city to overturn its current ban on animal slaughter, they’re thinking of operating on county land instead.