by Ruth Stodghill
AGUILAR — It was a busy night at the Aguilar town hall on Jan. 25 as the board of trustees faced a host of serious issues on its regular meeting agenda, including approving a budget and property taxes, hearing project updates, and dealing with water line breaks.
Stalled recall effort
Tensions ran high during public comments as trustee candidate Vernon Thorn spoke regarding an email he’d received from Deputy Clerk Sarah Porras requiring him to submit a 29-page financial disclosure including information on his income, properties, businesses, liabilities, assets, and tax returns.
“You’re asking me to fill out a disclosure or else I’m going to be disqualified from taking my seat on this council. A financial disclosure that no one else is being asked to fill out,” said Thorn.
“You’re trying to intimidate me. You’re trying to discriminate against me,” said Thorn.
Porras countered that the financial disclosure was a state requirement, as Thorn had publicly announced his campaign by placing a number of signs around town, a move his fellow candidates did not do.
“This is the election book for 2024 that I sent you a copy of,” said Porras. “It’s right here in black and white.”
When asked by the audience if all candidates were required to fill out the same paperwork, Porras said, “Nobody else put up signs, there was no signs, there was nobody saying I was running for the election.”
Porras instructed Thorn to come to the town hall the following business day to fill out the financial disclosure forms.
When contacted Tuesday, Porras said the book she was referring to was the Colorado Municipal League 2024 Election Book, an instruction guide of sorts for municipal clerks on how to conduct municipal elections.
She said she was referring to the book’s Chapter 14 – regarding the Fair Campaign Practices Act requirements.
That section spells out the statutory demands for candidates or political committees who collect and spend money.
But there is nothing in that chapter mandating disclosure of income, properties, tax returns and other personal information Thorn said was being required of him.
“We’ve been in contact with the Secretary of State’s office,” Porras said Tuesday. “We’re not sure where it’s going at this point.”
Fellow trustee candidate Bob Romero next addressed the board with a number of concerns, one of which was the status of the regular election scheduled for April, which according to state statutes is likely to be canceled as the town only had four successful applicants for the four open seats on the board of trustees. “Does anyone know where we are with the elections? We took all the paperwork in and everything, and we haven’t heard anything from anybody,” said Romero.
Porras responded, “We have to get the letters out to you guys. Those are going out first thing in the morning. And I believe from there we just have to take a look at the calendar and see what’s next on there.”
“One of the things that I turned in was the recall petition. I was told by Tyra [Avila, Town Clerk/Administrator] that it cannot be held at the same time as the election that’s coming up. I didn’t understand why we couldn’t do it that way,” said Romero.
“It’s state election rules,” said trustee Charleen Gonzales.
Romero then discussed concerns regarding a number of budget resolutions on the docket for the meeting, including one appropriating additional sums of money to defray expenses in excess of amounts budgeted for the town. Romero asked, “Are you giving town hall a blank check that they can put in any amount that they want?”
“It isn’t anything like that, Bob,” said Mayor Donald Gonzales. “As you know having been on the board before, anything like that comes before the board.”
16 water line breaks
During staff reports, Utilities Supervisor Joseph Porras updated the board of trustees about the town’s recent struggles with broken water lines following a spell of subfreezing temperatures. The line breaks drew a significant amount of water from the town’s water supply and threatened to drain the town’s two water tanks.
“My first question is how’s the water now?” asked Mayor Donald Gonzales.
“It’s coming up,” said Mr. Porras.
He stated that the town had located a total of 16 line breaks with 165,000 gallons of water lost. All but two of the breaks were on lines for vacant houses, and the town shut them down. “We can’t get into the house, so we just shut them off. That’s all we can do,” he said.
“The biggest one was around 72,000 gallons,” said Mr. Porras. “She wouldn’t answer her phone. So we just turned it off. It’s all we could do.”
He said that the crawl space of the home was entirely full of water. “It was coming out of her sprinkler system outside. And then finally it ran down into the road. That’s how we finally found it. We didn’t see it until three days later,” he said.
Mr. Porras said that the majority of the breaks were on the north side of town and pulled from the town’s green tank, and when it ran low, it pulled from the town’s second water tank. However, the water levels in both tanks were recovering. “They’re both going up, slowly but surely,” he said.
Projects galore
Project consultant Ken Torres presented updates on a number of projects to the board, starting off with ongoing construction of the Aguilar augmentation reservoir, which is on schedule with a projected March date to start filling with water.
Torres also stated the town received a grant to replace the electrical wiring and plumbing fixtures in the community center and to install a new stove. Materials were ordered, with work scheduled to begin in the next few months.
A grant to install bear-proof trash containers in the town park was also in the works. “We’ve been talking to Parks and Wildlife, and they said it looks very good for the town to get the containers,” said Torres.
In other business
The board of trustees approved a liquor license renewal for Ringo’s Market, the budget for the town of Aguilar for 2024, mill levies for property taxes as issued by the county assessor, and appropriated sums of money to the town’s various funds, including general fund, water, and utilities.
The board tabled a motion to approve a special liquor license requested by the Friends of Aguilar for the Aguilar Days festival in August. The board also tabled a motion to appropriate sums of money to defray expenses in excess of budgeted amounts, as the measure was written for the year 2017 instead of 2024.
