Socorro Mayor & Councilman Screw Coker Residents?

Socorro Mayor Elia Garcia & Councilman Ralph Duran

This is why people hate Socorro City Council.

Apparently Socorro Mayor Elia Garcia and Councilman Ralph Duran are pushing for a very controversial policy to deal with flooding in a specific area in Socorro. Its particularly controversial given that we are hitting the summer rain season and because of a controversial new policy relating to media at the City of Socorro.

Residents on Coker Road have had to deal with flooding for a very long time but the situation has gotten worse over the last few years. The current city council has tried to bounce around the issue for a while now, even kicking the issue down to their city planning commission at one point, rather than deal with the issue themselves.

The City of Socorro has the ability to use eminent domain to purchase the land at fair market value from the home owners, giving them the ability to move to another location. But word in Socorro is that Mayor Elia Garcia and City Councilman Ralph Duran are pushing a policy of using a provision in the law to condemn the property rather than use eminent domain.

What's the difference? Well I'm glad you asked. Under eminent domain, the families get some money for they land and that gives them the means to find another place to live. Under Mayor Garcia's plan, the land would be condemned and that would give the residents 90 days to fix the situation in order to keep their land. There's essentially no way feasible to make their homes overcome the condemnation by the city. Once the 90 days are up and the families aren't able to overcome the condemnation, the city can kick them out, bulldoze the property, and place a lien on the land.

In other words, it would completely screw over the residents who are already in a bad situation. ITs the absolute worst way to deal with the situation.

This is why people hate city council in Socorro. They go out of their way to do the wrong thing rather than do the right thing for the community.

Whats the motivation for Mayor Elia Garcia and Councilman Ralph Duran? So that they can say they saved the city money by not paying for the land.

But here is what makes BOTH of those elected officials look bad. Neither one of them seemed to care about how much money the city was paying out when they weren't members of council. Mayor Garcia tried to TRIPLE her salary as the municipal judge a couple of years ago.

An even bigger hypocrite is Councilman Duran, who has received multiple pay-outs from the city of Socorro, one for around $30k for wait for it...damage to his property!

Here's a screenshot from the settlement document proving he very happily took money from the city while he's trying to prevent others from having their property purchased by the City of Socorro.

Here's the bigger piece of irony. I did an open records request last month, which is how I acquired the settlement paperwork above, and it turns out that Duran had a complaint lodged against him because of the structural condition of his home!

Word on the streets in Soco-loco is that Mayor Garcia instituted a new policy relating to the media, which I can't understand how its legal. Essentially the policy is that all interviews relating to the city of Socorro are done by Mayor Garcia. Members of council don't answer to the mayor, they are independently elected officials that answer to the voters so there has to be major first amendment issues with this policy. But word is that Mayor Garcia usually asks for the questions from the media in advance.

She is apparently doing a press conference or availability later this afternoon on another issue. Lets see if she takes questions on the Coker Road issue.