Wiley Era Begins with Special Meeting on Water, Staffing
Council approves clerk and police chief as village hauls water from Alamogordo
The January 9 special meeting—Mayor Dusty Wiley's first since taking office—addressed critical infrastructure challenges, including a severe water crisis requiring emergency hauling. Plus, two key hires were unanimously approved.
Trustees Danny Hardwick, Gail McCoy, Keith Hamilton, and Matt Willett joined Wiley behind the dais, which was livestreamed on Facebook by former Trustee Grover Sterling.
Finance Director Sylvia Hall recorded the minutes, while contracted experts Judi Starkovich, Lauren Groesbeck, and Karen Gutierrez were present at the meeting to provide budget and grant information.
Restricted: H20h No
Public Works Supervisor J.J. Carrizal reported that the village is experiencing a critical water shortage, necessitating emergency water hauling over the past two weeks.
On Sunday, Jan. 11, Carrizal told the Reader the village is still hauling in water.
According to Carrizal, the shortage was due to sudden tourism-driven demand, a problem exacerbated by reduced production from the village’s spring-fed wells.
“Our raw water tank went down to 3 feet of water. That’s why I made the decision to call in and haul water,” Carrizal explained.
“Our spring output from October 25th [2025] was 33 gallons per minute, which has gone down to 27.8,” Carrizal reported.
“The village is not paying for this at all. It is all funded by the Bureau of Reclamation,” Carrizal stated. 46 loads of water from Alamogordo to Cloudcroft have been delivered, approximately 285,000 gallons, with 28 loads remaining under the current contract.
The village remains under Level 3 water restrictions, which have not been lifted since former Mayor Tim King implemented them in January 2024.
“We are still in water restrictions 3. We have never gotten off of it,” Carrizal confirmed. These restrictions affect all businesses in town. “I know that the ice rink can’t pour this weekend. Other businesses are affected, too,” he noted.
The water department is actively working to locate and repair leaks throughout the system. “We’re after it. We’re isolating areas in town,” Carrizal reported.
New Year, New Hires
The council unanimously approved Jini Turri for hire as Village Clerk/Treasurer at $75,000 a year.
Trustee Gail McCoy emphasized the critical nature of the position: “We’ve struggled extremely without having a clerk here. So I think it’s probably the most important position in that whole office— just having some good [leadership]. So Jini has my vote of confidence for sure.”
There was a discussion about the distinction between the clerk's and the treasurer's responsibilities. Judi Starkovich clarified: “State statute identifies a position of Clerk to do the clerical administrative duties and Treasurer to have oversight of the finance department.”
The council also approved hiring Roger Schoolcraft as Police Chief at an annual salary of $85,000. Schoolcraft served as Cloudcroft’s Chief from July 1 to Dec. 31, 2024, when he resigned during administrative turnover.
The council raised concerns about police staffing turnover over the past few years. Since May 2024, the formerly four-officer department has experienced continual turnover, with nine officers resigning or being terminated.
Schoolcraft said he aimed to hire “seasoned officers” for Cloudcroft, and that the department “can’t compete with larger agencies.”
Trustee Matt Willett raised concerns about ensuring proper planning before expanding the department: “My only issue right now is... we don’t know our budget. And I’d like to see a plan of okay, we’ve got one officer at this rate, and then what are the next officers coming in at? What are their benefit packages? What will it cost us in total? What’s the goal?”
Mayor Wiley promised to have detailed job descriptions for the upcoming January 20th council meeting.
At the meeting, Schoolcraft presented a comprehensive policing plan to staff the PD with 2.5 officers, including himself, another certified officer, and a School Resource Officer, with the School Resource Officer's pay shared with the school.
Schoolcraft’s Vision
“I’d like to see what my budget would be for the police department. So we’re not hiring a bunch of people that we don’t need necessarily right now or taking more out of the budget,” Schoolcraft said.
Village contracted financial team Judi Starkovich and Karen Gutierrez were available for comment on the council’s budget questions.
Starkovich noted that the village had budgeted funds for four police officers—funds that were not fully spent due to staffing turnover and an empty department—and that funding for a police chief at the $85,000 salary level was already budgeted for in this fiscal year.
“Something I’m really passionate about is putting the school resource officer in the schools here,” Schoolcraft said. “It’s basically a 50/50 split. The school district pays 50% of that officer’s salary. The village pays for the other 50% salary.”
On scheduling, Schoolcraft proposed: “We did discuss a 4/10 work schedule. I like that idea. We want seven-day-a-week coverage. I want the school zones covered. Every morning I [am in] the school zone because we need to protect our children.”
Schoolcraft emphasized school safety:
“Chief Erich Wuersching and I have been working on the active shooter team. What we’re going to do is partner with the fire department. In an active shooter situation, I can’t wait for 20 minutes for the sheriff’s office to show up. We’re going to go to the threat, and we’re going to take care of the threat. Chief Wuersching already ordered some ballistic body armor vests for select EMS people who are going to go in behind us to start triaging and getting our injured out of the school.”
Schoolcraft also plans these community policing programs:
Mountainbike Patrol and Neighborhood Watch programs that he began in 2024 in Cloudcroft
The Fifth Grade DARE program, in partnership with the Otero County Sheriff’s Office
Coffee with the Chief, where citizens can meet with him one-on-one
New Year’s (Grants) Resolutions
The council unanimously approved four grant agreement reauthorizations and a new grant totaling $2,401,342.52 for wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) improvements. All agreements require the village to pay expenses up front before requesting reimbursement from the state.
Grantwriter Lauren Groesbeck emphasized that securing the federal land on which the treatment plant sits was paramount. Go deeper with our previous reporting on the WWTP, here.
J.J. Carrizal said that a survey team was scheduled to visit the plant on January 20th and that he planned to champion the effort: “I’ll start talking to the Forest Service people to see what we’ve got to do next.”
All agreements, except for a new $750,000 grant for the fan press and generator, must be expended by June 30, 2027.
Budget Tightrope
The reimbursement-based nature of the grants raised significant cash-flow concerns during the meeting.
Groesbeck was transparent about the financial challenge: “I do want to be fully transparent. Each of the agreements you see in front of you today is reimbursement-based. There are several decisions ahead for this team on the cadence for spending this money. The village will have to find the money to put up first before any of this is going to come back.”
After the meeting, Starkovich explained to the Reader that there are safeguards in place on village grant spending:
“The resolution isn't committing any money. It’s the acceptance of their grant. And the signature authority.”
”They're really on the hook when they do the notice of obligation. That's when they say, okay, we've gone through the process of procuring, we're going to use this grant and we're going to pay this vendor.” So, really, once it's in the budget, and they do the notice of obligation, that's when. Right now, they're just saying that they're going to accept a grant.”
“Before Cloudcroft will even make the purchase of anything, it will be scrutinized by both the agency, the budget, and the board before any monies are ever let out.”
In the meeting, Groesbeck urged the council to follow proper procedures: “Do not pay anything out of these without a notice of obligation.”
What Comes Next
Wiley's first meeting as mayor proved efficient and information-dense, with the council swiftly addressing both the water emergency and filling two critical leadership positions.
The mayor pledged that future regularly scheduled meetings would include dedicated public comment periods.
The council next meets on Tuesday, January 20th, at 6 p.m. in the village chambers. See you there.
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