March 5: Village of Jemez Springs Mayor
Village of Jemez Springs MayorServes as the chief executive officer of the municipality and presides over meetings of the governing body. Administers all municipal services and enforces all municipal and state laws within his/her/their jurisdiction.
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Michael Nealeigh
(NPE)
What abilities do you have that qualify you for this office?
What is your top priority, and how do you plan to address it?
How should Jemez Springs improve its procedures for notifying residents of environmental emergencies, such as the sewage leak in November 2023?
What type of development should Jemez Springs encourage, if any?
What actions will you take to strengthen communications with constituents?
What other issues should be addressed by the Trustees and Mayor over the next two years?
Campaign Phone
575-829-3765
For most of my professional life I served as a vice-president for university advancement (external relations) at three small universities in Texas, Kansas, and Oklahoma. Working with the many and varied constituencies required of a university administrator has prepared me for the multifaceted demands of village leadership. I have supervised multi-million dollar operating and project budgets, and raising tens of millions of dollars while leading volunteer and employee teams.
My top priorities will be structural. I will continue the work begun by Mayor Sweet and his team to stabilize Village finances, organize personnel for the benefit of the community, and complete the work of renovating the library and upgrading the wastewater treatment facility and collection lines. It will take a slow and methodical effort to secure the funds necessary to complete these projects and to place village finances on a sound footing.
When the sanitary sewer overflow took place in November, all hands and all efforts were put to resolving the immediate problem. A well-established emergency communication strategy would have eliminated the unfortunate byproduct of that effort when the unintended silence was filled by those who were well intentioned but not well informed. I will work with the Village Council to develop an emergency communication plan that will keep residents of the Village informed.
One form of development that we can encourage over the next several years is an increase in retail space. This will serve the dual purpose of increasing revenue from those visiting the village while providing retail resources for those of us who live here. We also need to increase access to healthcare resources in the village. Encouraging and expanding the good work of organizations like Jemez Aging in Place and Jemez Sustainable Solutions will be a part of that.
I’ve already mentioned the need for an emergency communication plan. But even more important is a routine communication plan. This will involve expanding the places in the village that receive notifications required by the Open Meetings Act and publishing updates of ongoing projects in After The Thunder and social media sites like Jemez Chat and Next Door. The Village could also have regular town halls and the mayor could speak at gatherings to keep residents informed of critical projects.
The focus over the next several years will be on critical infrastructure. In 2023 the village experienced two catastrophic infrastructure events—the flooding of the wastewater treatment facility and water infiltration at the Village library required emergency funding and placed Village finances on a fragile footing. It will take methodical management to stabilize finances while resolving these and ongoing issues. The Village is fortunate to have a strong infrastructure of organized volunteers.
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