Fundamentals - Let's Focus on them.

- Posted in Council by

Let's Focus on the Fundamentals.

The Council is meeting twice a month - let's see if they can get something done that remains within in their range of duties.

Fundamentals? Let's see

  • Ordinances. They can update ordinances that are outdated.

  • Businesses - They can update ordinances with an eye towards attracting businesses. For those who don't know - that's called economic development and it can be a good thing.

  • Basic Services - Sewer plant donut - asking for bids is certainly within their line of duties. Road repairs, fixing buildings like the library etc etc...

  • Budgeting - Budget for enough employees to get the work done. Budget a real budget WITHOUT unrealized revenues. (Go see the paper from August 6, 2026).

Positive Option - Businesses 4 - Hope the Three See this! →

- Posted in Council by

This has been shared previously and will most likely be shared again. Check it out!

This one page on the Economic Development Department of New Mexico has so many links to more help, more education, more resources.

On this page alone: Science and Technology grants, LEDA, Tax Credit incentives, Business expansion resources.

Each one of those links leads you to more. There are even contact phone numbers and emails.

Every link or program is most likely not going to be helpful but WTHeck Three?! Why not look at this and see if you can do something amazing.

Take it to the Council - set up a committee, look at options and bring back to the Council a suggestion they can vote on.

Positive Option - Businesses 3

- Posted in Council by

One thing the Councilors could do is invest in a program called "Buy Here" or Shop Bosque Farms or just about anything that encourages local shopping.

Why shop local? Once again - GRT.

What might that look like? Think creatively -

It could be very simple:

  • They could have put a note on the water bill encouraging people to shop local. (Free to do)
  • They can educate residents about how shopping local helps everyone.

It could be a little bit more complicated:

  • They could even put a list of local businesses on Facebook. (Once again a better use than complaining!)
  • They could develop a community card program.

It might be even more complicated:

  • Build on the fair success and have a business night. Shut down the main street (Is that possible? they used to for parades) have a night out with businesses setting up booths, stuff for sale etc.

There are a lot of options. Do some research, pick some ideas, work with businesses to discover what they think might work and let's work together to build up Bosque Farms rather than tearing everyone down.

A Positive Option - Businesses 2

- Posted in Stay In Your Lane by

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.

Positive Option - Businesses and Employees

- Posted in Setting Us Up for Failure by

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.

A Positive Option - Businesses →

- Posted in Ordinances by

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?

Word of the Day - Allocation of Funds

- Posted in State Laws by

RECAP - the Village has money to build a donut so that we don't end up pooping in buckets! Now the Council wants to spend the money ALLOCATED for the second donut on their new idea and not fix the donut. They are mad that the mayor won't break the law and spend allocated money the way they want to spend it. So they are going to get rid of him by malfeasance? Yeah! Sure! Let's hope not. We need someone who follows the laws.

Maybe a new category needs to be developed - Word or Phrase of the Day.

Allocation of Funds. Let's define this term. There is a legal definition. Here it is in simple terms to you can understand it without dealing with the legal language.

Allocation of Funds. Money is set aside for a specific purpose. In government this usually means you are given some funds for a specific purpose.

If a village, for example, goes to the state and says "give us money for paving roads", and the village is awarded funding for paving roads- this money CAN NOT all of a sudden be spent on salaries.

The money is allocated for a specific purpose. It can't be changed. Even if you want it changed. It can only be changed by going to the original source of the funding and asking for the permission to change it.

That is it. It's that simple.

In the case of our Village budget - there is money $4.+million that was given to us and it was allocated for building the sewer plant second donut.

Something that Councilor Desmet was screaming about by the way - remember we are one day away from pooping in buckets!

Now there is a push by the three to spend this money on other things some of it to benefit an outside agency who is running our sewer plant.

In fact the Council voted to spend the $4Million that was ALLOCATED for a second donut. And now they are mad that the Mayor is not breaking the law changing funding around without the permission from the proper authorities to just let them spend the money the way they want.

This seems to be one of the reasons they want to get rid of the mayor.

Treasurer Update and Contrived Emergencies →

- Posted in Council by

You can see the Councilor update here by clicking on this link and scroll to 1hr 31 minutes. Treasurer Update

WTH - 1 hour 31 minutes to get to the treasurer report?

So, how have we been set up to fail and who has done it?

The Council harassed and fought with the previous treasurer. They didn't like that she insisted on following procurement laws. They didn't like that she was strong and knew her stuff. They made demands such as when Councilor Desmet said: "We want to know every expense"

The previous treasurer asked in that meeting 'you want me to read the budget to you?? That will take all night.'

Finally it was at a point that the Council was telling the previous treasurer - Quit or Be Fired.

So the end of the month when monthly reports are due and the end of the year when year end reports are due and the end of the payroll time when payroll is due and the start of the month when bank recon happens and the start of the year when new budget is due and all the new yearly bills come in- she was ousted out.

The Village of Bosque Farms was set up for Failure.

The Council might stand by their words 'we didn't fire her' but they threatened it. They kept putting her on the agenda under executive session. Every employee knows when you are on executive session what will be discussed is if you stay an employee.

The worst time of the year to get rid of an employee - the worst time of the year to get rid of a treasurer... and now the Council is screaming at the Mayor and the current Treasurer and the Clerk Administrator - Why haven't bills been paid?

Well this is a result of the situation the Council put this Village into. What a shameful situation.

Contrived Emergency 3

- Posted in Council by

So what is the solution?

Send out the request for bid immediately, sign the contract and get the donut work going.

What is left can then be requested to be spent on grinder pumps. It will be easier to ask the state to change the terms of the grant AFTER the Sewer Plant is fixed.

That is what the grant was for - but once the original terms of the grant has been met- it is easier to ask the state to allow us to keep it and buy grinder pumps.

If we buy grinder pumps right away - we run the risk of not having enough money to fix the Sewer Plant.

The same for the Federal Loan. It is easier, once everything is getting spent on fixing the Sewer Plant (again, the real reason for the loan) it is easier to ask for the rest of the funds to be spent and the rest of the loan be converted.

By having meeting over meeting over meeting, by yelling, being more worried about trying to make the mayor look bad - the real work, the work of the council is NOT getting done.

Go ask the Village office yourself - has any Request for proposal been put out for the Sewer Repair? Why not? (Hint - it's because the Council hasn't voted to put it out to bid).

Contrived Emergency 2

- Posted in Council by

So what happens if we just spend money any old way?

Well - gosh. You can't. Federal Loans come with a lot of paperwork and to change the loan terms - sure you can do that. But it takes a lot of time. You can easily change where you spend the money on a paper budget BUT you have to go through the proper process which isn't easy.

So the 4.9 Million you keep hearing about - it's not as easy to spend as you might think.

And yes, that is what the Council was told after all the drama and yelling and accusations - they found out that the mayor was correct.

Grants come with a lot of paperwork both before and after the grant is awarded. You can't change what you spend that money on without the State government agreeing. The request goes back to state committees and gets voted on again.

That is the law!

So the other money you hear about can't just be spent the way they want.

What is the solution? There is one. Watch for Contrived Emergency 3 for a solution to these supposed emergencies -

We are ONE day away from pooping in buckets. (No, we are not as Molzen Corbin has told the council) and Sewage will back up into your homes but this man says No.

These are just fake emergencies for an excuse to spend money. Sure the Sewer Plant needs to be added to, sure the Village needs to buy grinder pumps. But is it really? Really really? the big emergency Desmet makes it sound like? And Which one is the emergency??