Tension was in the air at the March 12 Edgewood Commission meeting when officials got into a heated conversation over a proposed new position that would work for the commissioners.
Commissioner Jerry Powers brought up the idea of an appointment of a community liaison position. Powers said there have been communication issues between the commission and the community.
“The job of the community liaison is to interact between the public and the commission, which has to be accountable to the public,” Powers said. “To do the will of the people, they have to be fully informed, so it’s very important.”
Powers said this liaison would be a part-time position and would be accountable to the commission, not the town manager. He said since the commission cannot supervise direct employees at the administrative level, the position needs to be appointed rather than hired.
While viewing the job description, Commissioner Sterling Donner said the public should have had the opportunity to review it because it was not included in the agenda. He also said there was an overlap between this position and Janice Skidmore’s position as the communications and outreach manager.
“The public relations person is accountable to the town manager. We can’t direct her because she is at the administrative level,” Powers said. “This position is particularly for the commission to be able to communicate about the commission’s ideas, concepts, future planning and issues that relate politically to the community.”
Donner suggested they further review the job description and raised the concern of the position’s irrelevance since this is already the job of Skidmore and the Town Manager Nina McCracken.
“This sounds like a personal assistant to the commission,” Donner said. “Why are we unable to relay information to the public ourselves? That is our job as commissioners to be in contact with our constituents. I don’t believe that rushing to do this is a necessary thing we have to do.”
In favor of the position, Commissioner Filandro Anaya said the town manager already has a full plate and since the commissioners have jobs of their own, this position can assist with time management.
“Instead of us needing an assistant, if Nina is overwhelmed, why don’t we hire her an assistant so that can free up her time to work with us directly?” Donner asked.
While Mayor Ken Brennan and Commissioner Donner voted to postpone the approval until the next meeting, Commissioner Patrick Milligan, Powers and Anaya approved the new position.
New town logo
There was also some controversy surrounding the discussion of the cost of a new town logo.
Skidmore gave a presentation of new town logo designs she created with similar aspects and colors to the current logo so it is still familiar to the community, but introduced new features to highlight Edgewood’s uniqueness. She also displayed the new designs on shirts and hats.
Constituents asked what the expenses of a new logo and new merchandise would be. Skidmore said since she is the designer, there is no need to outsource, and they could create a print-on-demand link for merchandise so it would not be stored in-house.
“I don’t believe there is a cost to the town,” McCracken said. “We print letterhead as we go, we don’t have anything preprinted, it would just be once things run out we would just change it out.”
Commissioners did not make any decisions on the logo and said they wanted input from the community. No date was set for when that might happen.
Voting location
The commission did agree to indefinitely postpone the memorandum of understanding to hold early voting at the Town Office Administrative Building. Brennan said there are a few administrative things to take care of, but voting can be held at the Santa Fe County Fire Department on NM 344 near Venus Park, pending approval from the county clerk.
How to participate
The next Town Commission regular meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, March 26 at 6 p.m. at the Edgewood Town Office located at 171-A State Rd. 344.