Utilities Commission in bid to remove chairman

Comments by Bill White urging dissolution of the board upset members

The Rio Rancho Utility Commission, angered by Chairman Bill White’s recent call to dissolve the board, requested a vote next month to decide whether he should continue to chair the board.

Commissioners asked for the vote during Tuesday’s commission meeting.

White called for dissolution of the board during the public comment portion of a Rio Rancho Governing Body meeting last month.

Saying that he was speaking as a concerned resident, White claimed the commission was in “complete disarray, with a level of disrespect” for the governing body and had “run amok trying to exercise power it simply does not have.”

He also said, “All my life, I’ve heard the saying ‘The only way to kill a snake is to cut off his head.’ Well, ladies and gentlemen, metaphorically, it’s time to cut off the head of the utilities commission by dissolving its existence by a motion and a vote.”

White’s remarks at the governing body meeting followed the commission’s 5-2 vote to recommend eliminating the franchise fee the city pays to use public rights of way, despite Mayor Gregg Hull’s public disapproval of the board making such a recommendation.

White voluntarily left the commission earlier this year before he was appointed by the governing body to rejoin the board in July. He was elected chair at his first meeting.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Commissioner Stephan vanHorn said he was surprised to hear the chairman’s remarks.

“It doesn’t seem to make sense to me that a chairman that’s asking for the dissolution of a body would want to remain chairman of that body,” vanHorn said.

Commissioner Moses Winston said White’s remarks brought into question his confidence in the chairman.

“Disbanding the commission is akin to removing your lungs to prevent them from getting lung cancer,” Winston said.

Commissioner Bruce Redd called White’s remarks “reprehensible,” and “an unwarranted and gratuitous” public insult to the board and each commissioner.

“It’s as if the governor of the state of New Mexico requires a request of vote on a bill and doesn’t get it, and then says, ‘Let’s just dissolve this state because I didn’t get what I wanted,’” Redd said. “You have, at the time you made these allegations, been to two meetings as chairman in this term … . In my opinion, and based on what I saw and based on my experience on other boards and commissions, nothing unseemly or untoward was implied in any of those meetings towards anyone.”

Redd said he had no confidence in the chairman and asked the board to consider a vote of no confidence in White.

VanHorn, who said he had previously spoken with the city clerk on the matter, asked Redd if the commission could instead vote next month on electing a new commission chair; Redd agreed and made a request to schedule a vote during October’s meeting.

Following the board’s decision, White apologized for his remarks to the governing body.

“I meant no ill will to anyone on this commission or disrespect,” he said.

White, speaking with the Observer after the meeting, said that, although he might not argue next month to keep his position as chairman, there’s no guarantee a vote will be allowed.

“To oust the chairman of any city committee simply because they don’t like the guy I don’t think is correct,” White said. “I don’t think (city officials) want this precedent set where a committee or a commission or a board can get rid of an elected chairman or vice chairman that they elected simply because they didn’t like what they said, or who he is, or whatever.”

The next utilities commission meeting is scheduled for Oct. 18 at 6 p.m. in the council chambers at City Hall.