EMS agreement in the works

At the June 17 City of Socorro meeting Mayor Ravi Bhasker reported that, pending approval from the county commissioners, he believed they had reached an agreement with the county to fund three additional EMT employees for the fire department with approximately $240,000.

The following Tuesday city meeting Bhasker raised concerns about a clause in the ambulance service agreement that would require EMTs to administer medication to inmates at the jail.

“There is a clause in there that was added, and I missed it, that says that the ambulance crew can be called to the jail for different reasons, and the main reason is to administer medicine to the inmates.” Bhasker said, “I’m just saying that I would like to amend that agreement, to eliminate that clause.”

He argued the primary purpose of emergency medical services was not to administer medication and it could create potential liability issues. The council unanimously voted to amend the agreement to remove the clause.

November election

During the June 17 meeting there was also a discussion and concerns about the upcoming municipal election.

Polo Pineda, city clerk confirmed that in November there would be four councilors and a municipal judge positions.

Bhasker explained that the city moved to an at-large voting system last year at per state requirements for municipalities under 10,000, meaning candidates no longer run for specific wards and the election goes to the top four vote getters. He said the city used to run their own elections in March, costing about $25,000 and it was voted to move the election with the county which was implemented the last election.

Councilor Anton Salome shared concerns the new system might reduce election integrity, as voters might strategically vote for fewer candidates.

He said he believed in the last election there was about 5000 votes cast for the mayor positions and total votes cast for counselors about 2300.

“So people had their ballots in front of them. People had a pencil in their hand, they cast a vote for the mayor, and the 2700 or so chose to not cast their total number of eligible votes. What happened is that, in my opinion, the integrity of the election was lower because people didn’t cast their vote.” Salome said.

He said the at-large system could encourage people to only vote for one candidate even with multiple openings on the council.

“The integrity of the election is diminished, in my opinion,” Salome said.

Bhasker said it was something they could discuss and figure out if they could change it.

In other business

The councilors approved the purchase of the Newberry pond at $150,000.,

“It’s not going to be a water park right now, it’s going to be the recipient of the 250,000 gallons a day of clean water that’s being cleaned with a super fund site, and it will also be the recipient of runoff flood water from the conservancy,” Bhasker said.

Samantha Winters gave an update on the bike rack installations and thanked the city for their support; a resident said during public input that his property was flooding and Bhasker confirmed he would address it. The following business registrations were approved: Naty’s (Polvadera), Peace in the Valley (Crane Way), Double H Auto DBA Napa ( California Street) Inly Construction ( Belen ) and Olivia Services LLC (Perkasie, PA).

The next meeting was held at noon on June 24.