Socorro Families Saved

Families in Socorro that live near Coker Road can breath a little easier thanks to a few items passed last Thursday night by the Socorro City Council. Councilman At-Large Rene Rodriguez put an item on the agenda to instruct city staff to explore the use of the area for a dual-use pond and park space.

That move would mean that the city can acquire the land via eminent domain, meaning that the home owners would at least get fair market value for their homes. Under an effort supported by City Rep Ralph Duran and Mayor Elia Garcia, the homeowners would not have received any compensation and their homes would have been taken via a nuisance ordinance.

Ultimately the measure to direct staff to come up with a public base plan by Rep Rodriguez passed with a 4-0 vote.

In other developments, Mayor Elia Garcia was removed as the city's representative on the MPO and council voted in favor of replacing her with City Representative Rene Rodriguez by a 4-1 vote, with Rep Duran voting to keep the mayor. Duran is a close political ally of Mayor Garcia and during the debate accidentally put his ally on the spot. Rodriguez had been arguing that Garcia had strained relations with members of the MPO and that she hadn't notified council of some possible changes that would have a major impact on the City of Socorro. Duran, wanting to save her seat, challenged Rodriguez asking him why he hasn't offered to help the Mayor and guide her on key projects and issues relating to the MPO. Rodriguez indicated that he had tried and that they mayor said she didn't need his help.

The mayor didn't deny saying that, which is likely what sealed the vote for the other members of council to replace her.

The other issue Socorro is still dealing with has to do with a dangerous media policy. Council voted to have a workshop on the issue so there is still some time for them to fix it, but as it stands right now the council is more focused on being nice to one another in the media. Duran even going so far as to talk about having a policy that has some "teeth". The issue is that there is a bid to create a media policy that essentially uses the mayor's office as the flow of information to the public. There are several problems with that, chief amongst them being the 1st amendment. But there are some other issues like the fact that under the Socorro charter, the mayor is not only a weak mayor, but thanks to the Gandaras wanting a death grip on power, the mayor is even weaker than in other models. The city has 4 single member districts and one at-large seat, meaning there are 5 voting members. So when the mayor only votes in the event of a tie, there simply aren't that many opportunities for the mayor to even vote.

The members of council aren't subordinate to the mayor, they all serve at the pleasure of the voters of Socorro. So each of them has a right - a responsibility - to keep their constituents informed through mass communications. Socorro shouldn't lose sight of the fact that it was a member of council that regularly spoke to the media and ultimately the authorities, during the dark days of the Gandaras. Had then-City Rep Maria Reyes not spoken out, the Gandaras might still be in office.

So Socorro City Council should keep all of this in mind while they are developing their media policy.