Mayor pro-tem, attorney’s use eyed by city

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Gaye Brown de Alvarez
Staff writer

GALLUP — The Gallup City Council regular meeting took place Tuesday night, preceded by a work session in the council chambers.

During the work session, City Attorney David Pederson informed councilors about how and when the mayor pro-tem is selected.

“The city code doesn’t say much about it, but our customary practice is to name a mayor pro-tem once every year. But it is an internal decision the group can make,” Pederson said.

“We rotate members every year,” Mayor Harry Mendoza said.

Councilor Mike Enfield asked Pederson about hiring outside counsel and if there was a cap on hiring outside law firms for cases against the city.

“If you hire outside counsel and pay $100,000, I want to know about it,” Enfield said.

There was some discussion of the city attorney’s duties and what would constitute hiring outside counsel.

“Ninety-five percent of the time it’s somebody suing us,” Pederson said. “We rarely go out looking for a fight. There is a cap, whatever is in our budget.”

“I don’t want to read about anything in the paper before I hear about it,” Enfield said.

Pederson also told the council that the professional services by Padilla Computer Services at the Municipal Court were owned by Judge Linda Padilla’s husband, but he was the only one who was familiar with the type of software needed at the court and he has been contracted for the last five or six years and “sort of” pre-approved by the court in Santa Fe. Pederson said that he wanted to bring this to the mayor’s attention, although there were never any complaints about Padilla Computer Services. No other providers are available in town here, Pederson said.

The meeting started at 7:30 p.m., and mayoral appointments were made; Danny Unale, Bill Martinez, Bill Lee and Jerry Smith were appointed to the Rote 66 Bike, Balloon and Air Rally Committee; Bill Bright, Chris Chavez, Larry Winn, Michael Stauder, Don Hyde, Chuck Wade, Anna Rondon and Enfield were appointed to the Sustainable Energy Board; Frank Sanchez was appointed to the Gallup Sports and Youth Commission and Jerry Garcia, Frank Mraz and Ali Haider were reappointed to the Planning and Zoning Commission.

Discussion/Action topic number six was tabled because Chairman Bill Keeler was not in town and requested a two-week delay.

The resolution for final adoption of the growth management master plan was unanimously adopted.

Lee, director of the Chamber of Commerce gave the councilors and mayor an update on the status of the nightly Indian dances at the downtown Courthouse Square.

“We are 26 days into the total 106 days of the Indian dances,” Lee said. “We average about 166 people a night.

The most we ever had one night was 600 people and the lowest number we had was 50. If we continue at this pace, we have about 17,649 total for the 106 days.”

He gave the council a new brochure explaining the Summer Indian Dances. “We expect this new brochure to be beneficial.”

The mayor asked if there was anything special on the night 600 people attended the dances.

“World Changers were in town,” Lee said. “But I think it just happened.” He talked about how the chamber is convincing people to stay in town to see the dances.

“Terri Fraizer does the organizing and I think the location is great,” Lee said.

E. Brian Wall talked briefly about the good time he and friends had at the Lions Club Rodeo and how well organized it was, and Mike Enfield informed the crowd that the cleanup contest was going well. He thanked everyone for participating.