Town approves uniform advisory board rules
The Town of Taos Council voted Tuesday (Oct. 25) to create uniform rules for the advisory boards that advise on topics from trees, noxious weeds, the library and the airport.
The decision comes after the town voted in September to remove Daniel Weeks from the Airport Advisory Board for what Mayor Pascual Maestas said was a perceived conflict of interest. The council was initially split in their decision to remove Weeks, and Maestas broke the tie. But the legality of the tie-breaking vote was put in question due to a stipulation in the ordinance establishing the Airport Advisory Board, stating that a member could only be removed by a three-quarter vote of the council.
At a later meeting, Councilman
Darien Fernandez ultimately decided to remove Weeks from the board, and the threequarters requirement was met. It was noted at the time that the Airport Advisory Board was one of the only town boards with the three-quarters requirement.
That changed after Tuesday’s meeting, when the council voted unanimously to alter the wording of the ordinance. “We are trying to standardize all of our different boards and commissions,” Maestas explained, adding that the Audit and Finance Committees will be codified by ordinance in the town code while the various advisory boards will be established by resolution, with members “serving at the pleasure of the mayor.”
“The [Audit and Finance Committees], because they have such an important financial impact and oversight mechanism on the town, I thought it best to establish them by ordinance and codified rather than an advisory board style, with resolution,” Maestas said.
He explained he was modeling the advisory boards after the Lodger’s Tax Advisory Board, which was established by state statute. Each member of the board is appointed (and can be removed) by the mayor.
Council member Marietta Fambro asked how this would affect the Planning and Zoning and Historic Preservation Commissions. Maestas responded that “the Planning and Zoning and Historic Preservation Commissions really get their authority derived from the council,” and that each town council member will still get to choose an appointee to those commissions.
The council voted unanimously to standardize the advisory boards.