{"id":2571,"date":"2007-11-28T11:12:00","date_gmt":"2007-11-28T17:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/11\/public-money-must-be-controlled-by-public-bodies\/"},"modified":"2007-11-28T11:12:00","modified_gmt":"2007-11-28T17:12:00","slug":"public-money-must-be-controlled-by-public-bodies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/11\/public-money-must-be-controlled-by-public-bodies\/","title":{"rendered":"Public money must be controlled by public bodies"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Decisions on how to spend public money must be made by public bodies. That\u2019s the intent of our system of government, and it\u2019s also, quite simply, what\u2019s philosophically right. <\/p>\n

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

That\u2019s why the Do\u00f1a Ana County<\/a> Board of Commissioners made a wise decision on Tuesday by indefinitely postponing action on a proposal to give an El Paso<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> developer control over $128 million in public funds for infrastructure in the Santa Teresa area.<\/p>\n

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

The money would have been fronted by the Verde Group<\/a> to build a sewer system, arsenic treatment plant and other infrastructure; then, 20 percent of gross-receipts-tax revenue collected from three districts in the area \u2013 two industrial and one residential and commercial \u2013 would have gone to repaying the developer. Each district would have been governed by a five-person board.<\/p>\n

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

In postponing action, commissioners were rejecting the Verde Group\u2019s request to have three developers and two commissioners sit on the boards, which would have given majority control to the developer. Noting the precedent such action would set, Commissioner Bill McCamley<\/a> said he \u201ccannot vote in favor of a system that allows this amount of public money to be controlled by what amounts to a private board.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

All commissioners and county Manager Brian Haines<\/a> agreed.<\/p>\n

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

It was a difficult decision. In rejecting the plan, the county risked the possibility that the Verde Group will walk away from a project in which the county has already invested more than $11 million, most of it on a water and sewer system. Verde had its own valid point of view \u2013 its shareholders wouldn\u2019t be happy if it fronted tens of millions of dollars to the county with no assurance it would ever be repaid, so it wants to control the boards.<\/p>\n

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

Though current commissioners have integrity and are willing to work with Verde, until 2005 the commission was frequently bogged down in scandal and infighting. Verde\u2019s shareholders would justifiably be nervous giving control of so much of their money to a board with such a history \u2013 a board whose integrity can change in any election.<\/p>\n

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

Verde says it has also invested a great deal of money in the project and isn\u2019t ready to walk away. So it\u2019s back to the drawing board, and Verde and the county will try to find another way to come up with the funding for infrastructure.<\/p>\n

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

It\u2019s good to know that Verde and the county are committed to this project. Long have public officials and developers looked at the desert west of Sunland<\/st1:placename> Park<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place> and seen the potential for economic development. Legal battles hampered the process for almost two decades, until new commissioners McCamley and Dolores Salda\u00f1a-Caviness<\/a> came on board in 2005 and worked out a deal with Sunland<\/st1:placename> Park<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place> to end the fighting.<\/p>\n

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

Verde hopes to shift manufacturing in North America<\/st1:place> to the U.S.-Mexico border by building a series of new cross-border cities \u2013 with Santa Teresa as the centerpiece \u2013 to take advantage of NAFTA<\/a>. The plan has big potential for Verde and Do\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place>.<\/p>\n

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

Hopefully, the county and developer can come up with a new solution that allows development but keeps control of public money in the hands of a body that is accountable to the public.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Decisions on how to spend public money must be made by public bodies. That\u2019s the intent of our system of government, and it\u2019s also, quite simply, what\u2019s philosophically right. That\u2019s why the Do\u00f1a Ana County Board of Commissioners made a wise decision on Tuesday by indefinitely postponing action on a proposal to give an El […]<\/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-2571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2571","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=2571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2571\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}