{"id":1615,"date":"2007-04-20T14:04:00","date_gmt":"2007-04-20T20:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/04\/ag-says-monday-vote-on-annexation-would-be-illegal\/"},"modified":"2007-04-20T14:04:00","modified_gmt":"2007-04-20T20:04:00","slug":"ag-says-monday-vote-on-annexation-would-be-illegal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/04\/ag-says-monday-vote-on-annexation-would-be-illegal\/","title":{"rendered":"AG says Monday vote on annexation would be illegal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The Attorney General\u2019s Office says the Las Cruces City Council would be in violation of a state statute if it voted Monday on the annexation of 4,200 acres on the East Mesa<\/st1:place>. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The land is part of a 6,000-acre proposed development, The Vistas at Presidio. The council is scheduled to vote Monday on the master plan of the development and annexation of the land that isn\u2019t in the city.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

At issue is a state statute that dictates the timeframe for a vote. Deputy City Attorney Pete Connelly has interpreted the statute to say the council has to give an up-or-down vote on the annexation within 30 days of April 12, the day the Do\u00f1a Ana County Board of Commissioners provided feedback on the annexation proposal.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

But Councilor Ken Miyagishima<\/a> challenged that opinion and got three lawmakers to ask the attorney general for an opinion.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The AG says the council must vote on the annexation between 30 and 60 days after first reading of the proposal, which took place at the council\u2019s Monday meeting. That means, according to the AG, that the council should vote between May 16 and June 15.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cWe conclude that the statutory guidelines\u2026 do not permit the Las Cruces City Council to take action at its scheduled meeting on April 23,\u201d the AG opinion states.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The AG has been working with staff from the city this week as it formed its opinion, and City Manager Terrence Moore<\/a> said it appears likely that the council won\u2019t vote Monday on master-plan approval and the annexation of the 4,200 acres that aren\u2019t in the city limits. He plans to bring up the issue this afternoon at a public meeting on the development.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cI simply look at this as everybody\u2019s now on the same page as far as the timeframe,\u201d Moore<\/st1:city><\/st1:place> said.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Though the AG says the council can\u2019t act on the 4,200-acre portion of the development Monday because of the annexation statute, the master plan for the 1,700-acre portion of the development that\u2019s already in the city could still be voted on Monday by the council, because it doesn\u2019t involve an annexation.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

It\u2019s also important to note that the AG opinion is just that \u2013 an opinion. The council could opt to proceed under a different interpretation, which would likely lead to the issue being settled in court.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The city will have to sort out how to proceed. I\u2019ll have more this afternoon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Attorney General\u2019s Office says the Las Cruces City Council would be in violation of a state statute if it voted Monday on the annexation of 4,200 acres on the East Mesa. The land is part of a 6,000-acre proposed development, The Vistas at Presidio. The council is scheduled to vote Monday on the master […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1615\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}