City, state wrangle with Red Rock Park details

By Zsombor Peter
Staff writer

GALLUP — If city and state officials can only work out the details , Gallup would hand ownership of Red Rock Park to the state and lease it back and the aging facility could end up enjoying a green Christmas this year.

After missing the original July 31 deadline, the city and state set for a handover of the deed to the park, they’ve set a new goal of Dec. 30. The deal would release millions of dollars worth of state funds for much-needed improvements to the aging park. The details could shape the future of a major engine of the city’s economy.

The pending partners signed off on a joint powers agreement over the park — laying out the basics of the handover and promising the city $10 million worth of improvements in return for the deed — in February. But the details proved harder to iron out than expected. The state added a new wrinkle a month ago by asking the city to not only hand over the park, but to lease it back as well.

City officials hesitated at first, worried the lease would leave Gallup holding bills they were hoping to avoid by handing the park to the state. But by Tuesday evening the council was ready to sign off on the new arrangement, if only it had something to sign. It was expecting the state’s final draft of the lease to arrive by the time in convened at 6 p.m. Instead, with the lease stuck in Santa Fe, it tabled the issue for another two weeks.

City attorney David Pederson said New Mexico Parks Director David Simon, under whose watch the park would fall, has assured the city that its concerns about the lease are being addressed in the new draft. But before the council votes on anything, Pederson added, “I’d actually like to see it in black and white.”

Pederson was reluctant to elaborate on the city’s particular problems with the original lease after Tuesday’s meeting, but conceded that the Americans with Disabilities Act was on its list.

The U.S. Justice Department threatened to sue the city a few years ago unless it agreed to bring all public facilities in line with ADA standards. Lacking any grounds to object, the city agreed, and figured Red Rock Park alone would cost over $1 million to fix. By handing the park back to the sate, the city hoped to hand it the bill as well.

A lease could change that. According to former city attorney George Kozeliski, it would make the city liable for the day-to-day operation of the park. And that, he said, would make it responsible for the ADA upgrades once again, defeating one of the key purpose of the handover to begin with.

The city would rather not give up the deed, and ultimate control of how the park is run — or whether it even stays open. Gov. Bill Richardson, however, has made it clear we would not release the millions the city is asking for until the deed is back in state hands.

To protect the millions of dollars park visitors pump into local businesses, the city is ready to comply. But it’s now trying to convince Simon to let it lease the park and leave the ADA improvements on the state’s tab. Pederson would not put it so bluntly but conceded that settling on exactly who would pay for the ADA upgrades was among the city’s key points of contention with the state. He said responsibility for equipment and personnel at the park were also on the list. Claiming it lacks the legislative appropriations to pay for more than two park employees, the state has been asking the city to provide the rest.

Pederson is expecting the state to meet its terms. If it doesn’t, he said, “there either won’t be an exchange (of the deed), or we go back to the drawing board.”

He hopes to see a final draft from the state in time for the council’s next regular meeting in two weeks. If approved, the city would hold on to the deed until the end of the year.

“Right now,” he said, “the ball is sort of in their court.”