Updates from the Mayor

Mayor Turner told the Cloudcroft Reader he is asking for a full audit of the Village financial records, is making progress on new hires, and is very worried about fire risk

Getting the House in Order

The last few months have been as busy as any in Cloudcroft’s long history.  Numerous resignations, particularly among the police, fires, and dropping water levels have kept the Trustees and the new mayor hopping.

What to make of all of it?

It’s fair to say that when the mayor and trustees recently took their (unpaid) offices, the Village administration was not a well-oiled machine.  As chief administrative officer of the Village, it falls to the mayor to captain the ship.

True to his promise, Mayor Craig Turner has been diligent in his efforts to upgrade the performance and transparency of the Village staff.  That the drive has hit a few road bumps is not surprising.  Folks who regularly engaged with the administration in the past consistently complained of its lack of responsiveness and follow-through.

Since taking office, Turner has thrown himself into the work. He attends workshops, rides with maintenance personnel to inspect water leaks, monitors fire threats, reaches out to state and regional leaders for assistance and guidance, and collaborates with the Trustees. He opened up the budgeting process to the public and has rolled up his sleeve to do the job of staffers, better learning the processes in place. Turner keeps meticulous notes on a long legal pad as he goes from meeting to meeting every day. He seems insistent on getting the right people and the right policies in place going forward.

It’s worth remembering that the mayor’s office is an unpaid position. His long hours appear driven by a passion for leaving the Village administration in better shape than he found it.

On Thursday afternoon, Mayor Turner invited the Cloudcroft Reader into his office for an on-the-record interview. While nursing a cough and looking a bit ragged from the long hours and stress of his daily work, Turner shared news on several fronts.

Calling for an Audit

In a big step to improve the quality and reliability of the Village’s financial records and processes, Turner wants to commission a thorough audit by an outside CPA firm.

At Tuesday night’s upcoming Council meeting, he will recommend hiring a new accounting firm (Beasley, Mitchell & Co of Las Cruces) to complete the 2023 and 2024 audits for the Village—and then conduct a forensic audit of all the Village’s financial controls and systems. It’s a major project that will take until mid-2025 to complete in full.

What’s behind the decision?

Troubling Surprises

In the process of submitting the Village’s interim budget to the state—slightly tardy, but “with forgiveness,” due to the many sudden resignations in village administration in the last few weeks, Turner says: “We did find some neglect, which will be the word I’ll use, with some of the things that we should have been taking care of here in the office.”

“We found some things that weren't completed and some things that were completed that were errors. None of us are CPAs here in the office; we are the village residents, and again, I’m a resident myself. We deserve to know that the village is being operated most efficiently and accurately with everything that we're doing.”

“It's not so much a dollar amount that we have found. It really isn't. It's just noticing that things that are supposed to be submitted, things that we know after doing the interim budget that are supposed to be submitted to the state, weren't submitted. If they were submitted, sometimes it was just even zeros that were submitted. So it just was... Alarming.”

“Some of the things that we uncovered are just things basically not being done.”

“I have no suspicion of embezzlement or anything like that whatsoever. And I don't want to use the word ‘neglect’ versus ‘unaware’ and… ‘poorly trained.’ Two better words. I think there are some things that maybe weren't done simply because we have had such turnover that our employees here didn't even know that that was something they were supposed to do. And I think there may be some of that. I think there also is going to be some portion of it that is maybe they knew it, but they just didn't know how.”

“I don't have any confidence right now on anything that has to do with reports that go to the state, reports that even go to the federal government, that have to do with grants. I'm just not super confident in anything that... Gosh, I hate to use the words ‘record keeping’ because that is so broad. And if your readers read that, they may think, oh my God. But it’s just, I don't have a great deal of confidence in anything that's been submitted in the last 18 months.”

“A forensic audit of the village will ensure that we are completely up to speed with everything that we should be. They’re going to look at everything. The village deserves that, and the residents of the village deserve that.”

Turner acknowledges the “deep dive, forensic audit” of the past 18 months will cost the Village money it hadn’t anticipated. “You can quote me on this, ‘This will be on the dollar of the dime of the taxpayer we're going to have to pay for this—I just want to make sure this house is in order.”

The trustees make the final decision to allocate the funds to conduct the audit.

On Tuesday night, Mayor Turner hopes they will agree with him that “it's prudent and responsible to do this.”

Rebuilding the Administration Staff

After the special meeting on Wednesday, June 5th, the village has a new deputy clerk. Laura Robertson, Part-time Court and Planning and Zoning Clerk and the sole remaining village office employee, was promoted to the full-time position.

And the village is hiring for three more staff positions.

Mayor Turner says, “I’ve received several quality candidates that are interviewing for the Clerk position, [who in] recent months moved to village and live here now and want to be a part of our community. So I'm very excited to say that hopefully Tuesday I will be extending offers for these positions.”

“We have been interviewing. We've involved people from the village, trustees, to help me in the interviewing process. So it's been a panel interview. And I'm not done yet. [We are seeing] quality people with not just college degrees; these are people who have been in the workforce for years. So anyway, some quality people.”

Turner is looking to round out the team with four staff members. He says, “Four staff members can do this job.”

Training will now be an important part of staff management.  “We're going to start immediately is cross-training. We have gotten ourselves into such a mess because everybody was in a silo, and no one knew the other person's job. We are going to immediately start cross-training because that way, if employee A decides to leave for a new position—we're not stuck in a position where we don't have someone that's competent to do the job.”

Resetting the Police Force

Turner says the interview process for a new chief and other officers has been going well, and he has more candidates to meet.

The candidates understand that the Village has shift to the Panama plan for scheduling officers. “Everybody that has applied for these police positions. So it's what everyone is used to.”

While the hiring process is underway, Cloudcroft has been operating with one officer.  But promises by the state police and the Otero County Sheriff to help cover the community in light of the dramatic force reduction have come through.   Earlier this week, for example, an emergency call to a cabin in the Village was answered by EMS and two Otero Country Sheriff officers.

Turner says, “I'm so proud of Sheriff Black and his team. I'm also very proud of the state police. I've seen a big presence of all of them up here since I reached out to them and asked for help.”

Turner hopes to present the Council with hiring recommendations for officer(s) also at Tuesday’ Council meeting.

Fire Danger

We asked the mayor about his experience with the Moser Ranch Fire.

“I could not be prouder of the forest department, the hotshots, our own voluntary fire department,” Turner says. “I was out there for most of it. I was there for the 5:30 AM updates, and I was just so impressed by the level of professionalism and the can-do attitude.”

“I couldn't be more proud of the village. People offering free hotel rooms, people giving free food. Dusty Boots provided food. Brother-in-law BBQ, Mad Jack, all of our cabins offered free rooms. So couldn't be more proud of how they reacted.And now to address what's going on right now. We've got to be so careful. The conditions right now are very, very bad…It's very important for us, of course, with courtesy and with kindness, remind and let [visitors] know, hey, no smoking, no fires, no charcoal, no gas fires. That's part of all of our responsibility.”

The village has moved to level four fire restrictions.

“It's still by far my biggest fear. I mean, all the things going on right now, the resignations of the employees, what we’ve uncovered doing the budget work and all that... none of that is near as concerning and worrisome to me as a fire…I have heard it said that if we had a fire anywhere between here and High Rolls, we would have seven minutes to evacuate this village. Seven minutes.”

Moving Money

One item on the Wednesday, June 5th special meeting’s agenda was pushed until Tuesday night’s council meeting: the transfer of funds from the village’s emergency fund to the general fund.

At April’s budget meeting, the council approved to move some monies into the emergency fund, which historically has been appropriated little to no funding, according to Trustee Gail McCoy.

On the emergency funds, McCoy says, “We put it in there for emergency. We’ve had the fund, but it’s never been used. Nobody has put any money in there. We want to save it for actual emergencies. So, we’re building it up.”

The request for the transfer is to pay for fire hydrants. The village recently received a grant for monies that could be used to replace 75 hydrants.

Tuesday night, the council will vote on the funds transfer. Why the rush?

Apparently, the village wants to spend the money out of the emergency line item rather than general fund—a “use it or lose it,” situation, according to Trustee Tabitha Foster.

Foster says, “The state sees it as emergency funds, so it needs to be spent quickly. The state can pull the funds for other state emergencies, i.e. a fire in another part of the state, then they can use those funds. We’re telling the state this is a definite need.”

Getting the House in Order, Part Two

Turner says, “We're still just being cautiously optimistic. We're probably another six months out still where we're trying to get our feet wet and get these new employees trained.  I believe this village could be in so much better shape. And then, when we finish that audit, I will feel so comfortable to say, all right, I've done my job.”

“I'm so driven to do this. We need to know that we're operating within all the rules, that we're meeting all the requirements by the state, by all state statutes, by all state compliances. And so even if we have to dig for it, we’ll find the money.”

Turner chuckles as he says, “I'm willing to give up my salary.”