ToadBook

What can the Council do to attract businesses and keep businesses?

It seems that there are a lot of options that the Council can take to attract businesses. (And lest you forget - GRT is at stake).

Here are a few although the Council should be doing this work - maybe this will get them at least thinking.

Change planning and zoning laws. Allow for mixed use buildings. An example: Allow for running a senior living home- and a small cafe or a small flower shop.

Change planning and zoning to allow for small start ups in an incubation place. There is lot to say about incubation offices but it's a good idea.

Allow for flexible places such as places for food trucks. (Gosh isn't that place up in Los Lunas busy all the time with a variety of Food Trucks?)

There are other ideas - ask residents what they want to see in Bosque Farms. We all get a water bill put a note on there for input. Use facebook for positive instead of just posting complaints etc, ask residents what business do they want to see?

Just remember The Council CAN NOT legally and ethically vote to help themselves with their own business.

The Three haven't been to ethics training and it shows.

https://www.sec.nm.gov/education/

So - in passing one of us was asked - why so many posts on one day?

I chose to take this one on and answer for my self.

Because there is so much wrong.

Because there is a big hope the residents of Bosque Farms will see this and understand what is wrong. The lack of ethics, the threats, the screaming, the multiple meetings held as a way to ensure you can't attend, etc are all wrong. I have much hope that the residents of Bosque Farms are smart enough to see documents, read laws and start to say 'enough!'

Because there is a very faint hope that one councilor one wife of a councilor will see this - and maybe, just maybe, at least one councilor will realize they are doing all kind of things wrong.

Because there is a faint hope that someone might see that and step up to help.

So what is wrong? Take your pick. Any one meeting might have

• threats,
• yelling
• swearing
• law breaking (yes really - go read the ordinances that manage meetings yourself).

Add to it

• non-emergency meetings called as an emergency
• so many meetings held - possibly as an effort to cover up what is happening (?)
  • ethical issues overlooked
  • rolling quorums

There is more... Any one meeting includes all of the above.

February 22, 2024.

There are a lot of wonderful employees here at Village of Bosque Farms and also Town of Peralta! I think a lot of them are behind the scenes and you may not know what they do or how they can help! Once a week I’ll be posting a “get to know” an employee/department for both Bosque Farms and Peralta!! Enjoy our first “get to know” post!

Councilor Desmet posted this whole thing about an employee on this date. (You can go look it up if you want, that employee is gone and so the name doesn't matter).

Since then how many once a week positive posts have you seen? Two? Three? Promises not kept.

Maybe that's because someone (like the clerk administrator at the time? an attorney? her training?) pointed out that employee management is not her lane to be in?

Even so, something nice and positive posted would be nice rather than the constant yelling and complaining.

The Three have watched person after person leaving and as those employees have left the Three have decided to not always replace those employees.

Let's Hit the Truth Button. If there are not enough employees in the Village front office - it is hard to do business in the Village. If there is a constant wait to get paperwork signed and it's easier down the road in Peralta common sense the business won't move into this community.

The Council needs to put on their Common Sense hat.

If you want success let's get a full time business person on the books. Get a planning and zoning person. Maybe two.

One person to do the zoning (weeds, too many broken cars in the front yard of your neighbor etc) and one person to do the planning (bringing in businesses). Or one highly motivated person to take this position on.

Many communities, some as small as this Village, have several employees that have this same job.

If a person wants to open up a business how long does it take to do that? Is there a person to shepherd and advocate for this business? Is there a person that says 'let me provide you the ordinances'?

The question the Three could pose to current businesses is "How could we have made this easier for you?" and then at least consider the responses.

That is something they can do.

GRT - the letters of the day! Gross Receipt Taxes.

This is something we each pay each day when we shop. There are some things that you don't pay GRT on (food for example). But generally you will pay GRT ever time you shop. This is a Tax.

Some of the taxes that are collected come right back to the Village of Bosque Farms.

Take a drive down the Village of Bosque Farms Boulevard. What do you see? Not much. A few businesses and a lot of empty buildings, including one that has set up a 503c (no taxes from that place).

The Three can do something about this - Provided they do NOT vote to help themselves. Meaning if a Council Member has businesses that are impacted by their actions - they MUST recuse their selves. YES! Really. That is ethics and the law.

Watch this for future posts about some ideas on how to attract businesses. Wanna bet nada gets done?

For the Record:

1-3-1 This ordinance says essentially - the ordinances are local laws. If you do not obey our ordinances then you are subject to either the fine listed or $0-$500 dollars and possibly jail.

1-3-2 A lists the procedures for the Police Dept. officers to follow in issuing a citation.

1-3-2 B says this: Procedure for the Mayor or his designated agents. Whenever the Mayor or his designated agent(s) has probable cause to believe that a person has violated any ordinance of the Village of Bosque Farms, excluding traffic violations not amounting to a breach of the peace, but punishable by fine and/or imprisonment, the Mayor or his designated agent(s) shall prepare in triplicate the ordinance violation citation form which is described in Subsection A of this section. At the time the citation is written, the Mayor or his designated agent(s) shall deliver a copy of the ordinance violation citation to the accused.

Yes! The Mayor can and should hold you accountable for breaking an ordinance. The Council has done this all over the place and in front of the Police Department Chief of Police among other officers.

There is a process in place - let's follow it.

Check it out: NM Stat § 3-12-1 (2025)

It is STATE LAW - that the following happens: 1. The Mayor appoints a qualified candidate. 2. The council votes at an open meeting.

The Mayor does NOT have to set up an interviewing committee or anyone to meet this person. He can simply appoint a qualified candidate.

That person serves until the next regular local election or the councilor election whichever comes first.

Straight from state law.

Local Ordinances - that is our laws that the Village of Bosque Farms passed say this:

2-2-1 C Vacancies. In case of death, resignation, vacation or removal for cause of any member of the Council during his or her term of office, the Mayor, with the advice and consent of the Council, shall appoint a qualified elector of the municipality to fill the vacancy until the next regular municipal election, at which time a qualified elector shall be elected to fill the remaining unexpired term, if any.

Know this: If you are called by anyone other than the Mayor or a representative of the Mayor to interview for a councilor that person is breaking the law.

If you are called by anyone other than the Mayor or a Mayoral representative and asked to be a Councilor that person is breaking the law.

State law and our Ordinances.

Do yourself a favor - no matter how flattering it is - don't participate in the breaking of laws and don't participate in not obeying the National Constitution of Separation of Powers.

So a few of us were sitting around talking about the Village of Bosque Farms and all of the good things that could be legally completed by someone of Erica DesMet's energy and organization.

Here is a list that we came up with and maybe this will help the Council to do something useful.

• Write Ordinances. Not ordinances that impact one person (the Mayor) or ordinances that consolidate power in the Three. Real Ordinances that impact daily life. One Example: We have heard that there is a request animal control ordinances. One of us lives next to an animal horder and yet there are no ordinances that address that. That is a good place to start.

• Find new businesses. Drive along main street - how many businesses are there? Not many. Yet Gross Receipt Taxes benefit our Village greatly. -- Some of the things the three could do: Rewrite ordinances to make our place more attractive to businesses. Lower Gross Receipt Taxes so it is more attractive to set up and shop here. Develop an incubation place to allow small businesses to have an office and grow with support. Call the State Economics office to see if they can offer help.

• Budget wisely and Hire people. Did you know that the Council cut several main office positions in order to move money? Did you know there isn't a planning and zoning officer? Let's be clear - the Mayor hires but he needs the budget line item for it. -- Some of the positions they could hire include a planning and zoning officer. A deputy clerk was supposed be hired and rumor has it the PD gave up a position to make that happen. This summer the three told the Clerk Administrator to hire an OMA person (Open Meetings Act person) to fill out requests. (When one of us asked why this wasn't done yet - the answer was No budget.)

• Write an RFP with the engineers and get the bids going on the second donut. The funding has been awarded for this. They have been told they can't change the purpose of the funding so let's do the work to get the donut. That would be nice to not have to worry about pooping in a bucket.

• Budget and find money for the grinder pumps they keep yelling about.

• Take an ethics class. Possibly go back to training. (rumor has it that Councilor Desmet didn't get her certificate for completing her training for being a councilor)... hmmm That makes sense based on behavior seen these past two years.

• Get an attorney and Follow the attorney's advice. That is what a Village attorney does - reads ordinances and ensures they don't violate state laws and - stops the council or mayor from breaking the law - answers legal questions - among other things. The three could stop assuming they know everything and stop following the one person who knows the least and follow legal advice from someone hired to protect the Village. That is probably money well spent at this time.