Provide leadership in the promotion and marketing of Rio Rancho to

The Charter Review Committee has tried for
months to answer the one question on all
our minds – “What does a full-time weak
mayor do?” The term “full-time mayor”
leads to an expectation of strength and
leadership, yet the conundrum is that a weak
mayor is a glorified mascot with no legally
substantial power or responsibility. He’s an
ambassador.
a mayor and more, what
tangible
change is there in the job description to warrant such an increase in pay? Should we be so
determined to find a way to justify the desired
starting point of $75k? After their initial idea
to base the pay on a percentage of departThe merry-go-round of expecting a full-time
mayor and full-time pay sends us back around ment head pay failed, another go-round comto identifying responsibilities that would justify pared mayoral pay to Las Cruces and Santa
doubling or tripling mayoral pay as proposed. Fe. But Santa Fe is a hybrid system, with more
I’m glad none of the committee or governing mayoral responsibility. The latest recommendation before the Governing Body is to base it
body members suffered an aneurysm wrackon the Rio Rancho median household income,
ing their brains so hard trying to find something for the mayor to do. Nevertheless, they which just happens to be $73,998/year. All of
these roads lead to the magic $75k salary.
did come up with a couple of cutting edge
ideas:
One committee member asked the committee
Provide leadership in the promotion and
marketing of Rio Rancho to large
and small businesses to achieve
growth in products and services
available to residents and growth in
tax and revenues;
Participate with and provide input to the
City Manager in preparation of the
city’s budget for the mayor to perform the duties…
These are things our mayors have always
(more or less) done but were never defined.
The fourth floor at city hall is becoming topheavy. With a city manager, an asst. city manager, a deputy city manager, business liaison,
Articles by
Renee Wilkins,
RRTP President
number. It did not receive the support of the
committee. Furthermore, our current mayor
received an administrative pay increase from
$26,000 to $30,000/year just this month.
I’ve heard it said that increasing the pay will
“cut out the riffraff”. That it will “attract quality
applicants”. This position is more about presto consider it from a different angle by comtige and less about actual work or knowledge.
paring the percent of mayoral salaries to the
That won’t change until expectations match
corresponding general fund budgets for Rio
responsibilities. In the care and feeding of
Rancho, Las Cruces and Santa Fe. According
to this assessment, Las Cruces’ (same size city) mayors we are also feeding egos. I can sympathize that a mayor may not want to make the
mayoral salary is .000754% of their general
fund budget. Setting our mayor at .000797% same as his or her secretary; but without a
doubt, the secretary is working twice as hard
would put his/her salary at about $45,000/
for that pay. Whether our mayor plays Candy
year (a $15,000 increase). Our analysis indiCrush half the day or pursues the goals of our
cates that the compared budgets, while not
apples and oranges, are more like comparing Governing Body—the job does not make the
Fuji and Golden Delicious apples when taking person, the person makes the job.
into account general funds affected by airports, civic centers or utilities revenue. Even
so, this is a much more practical, reasonable
Continued
on Page 2
At the annual Sunday is Funday event, our
goal was to liven it up a bit and also educate
residents on important issues they may not be
aware of. We succeeded on both counts, but
what we weren’t counting on was getting so
much back in return.
We took our political carnival to a whole new
level this year, and we just wouldn’t be ourselves without poking a little fun at politics.
Our theme was “keeping our eyes on the
ball”. To that end our novelty prizes were all,
well, eyeballs. Eyeball gumballs, eyeball lollipops, sticky eyeballs, “be a mouthpiece” lip
whistles, and our salute to the event’s pirate
theme, zombie eye patches.
Our Presidential Duck Pond sported Presithe “Put a Sock in it” bean bag game. People
dents Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt, Nixon, from seven to seventy threw hacky sacks at
and Reagan. The drunken ducks kept falling
on their sides, and we had to weight them
Grand Prize Winner
like fishing bobbers at the last minute. Our VP
Robert Stephenson
put his engineering skills to work with some
ribbon and pennies and we were good-to-go!
We put a “spin” on our Rio Rancho Trivia this
year with the “Wheel of Misfortune”. Young
and old lined up to take a spin and answer
multiple choice questions on city government
issues like roads, water, codes and budget.
Eight year olds scrunched their faces in serious concentration when listening to their
questions. They were totally unafraid and had
their eyes on the prize. Most adults were
shocked at the answers, reinforcing the imcaricatures of politicians with their mouths
portance of actively informing and engaging
wide open. I was put to shame by grandthe public with the truth behind the issues.
mothers and grade-schoolers that made their
My favorite new addition to our booth was
shots the first time around.
Free Markets
The day threatened heat stroke, but it didn’t
stop the crowds. As the event wound down,
we drew our grand prize raffle winner from
hundreds of tickets. The simple act of pulling
a name out of a box left all of us with a profound sense of everything being right in the
world at that moment. The winner was 12
year old Robert Stephenson. When we made
the call to let him know he had won the Kindle Fire HD, he was as excited as if he had
won the million dollar sweepstakes! When he
and his mother arrived back at Haynes Park to
pick up his prize, he came bounding in with
hugs and thank you’s for everyone. His enthusiasm and thankfulness were humbling. Robert said that he had never won anything before. Well, Robert, you gave us much more
than we gave you! You gave us hope for the
future.
Tuesday, Sept. 1st—7pm
$ Ballot Sneak Peak!
RR Church of Christ
1006 22nd St.
(turn south at DQ on Southern)
City Councilor Chuck Wilkins
Limited Government
$ Waste Treatment Plant Problems!
Utilities Commission Chairman Steve Van Horn
Constitutional Freedoms
Fiscal Responsibility