Rumpf raises ruckus with county commissioners

A document drafted after the Magdalena Law Enforcement Summit was released at the Socorro County Commission board meeting last week. The private meeting between Socorro County and Magdalena Village officials occurred on November 5 at the Magdalena Village Hall.

In September, regarding criminal activity and law enforcement concerns, County Commissioner Ray Martinez requested a meeting between the village and county “not to point fingers but to see how we can work together.”

On November 26, at the Socorro County Commission meeting, Richard Rumpf, mayor of Magdalena, addressed the document from the summit during public comment.

“Everything in that document, it’s not going to happen,” Rumpf told the commissioners, “The manager came in with his own agenda. I do not condone disrespect, condescending attitude, or arrogance, and that’s the way I was treated, in my chambers in the village, so you can scratch that item. Because the thing is, nobody has authority to tell us where our marshals can go to train or when,” Rumpf said.

He said it has caused him stress and that he hasn’t been able to control the rumors, disrespect and misinformation spread by people in the village.

“The only people who have authority in Magdalena is a mayor and its trustees. If people have concerns, my door is always open, anybody can come in, if they have valid concerns, come in and talk to me, and the people that have done that they went away happy and shake my hand and thank me for my time, because they finally have all the facts.” Rumpf said.

Martinez said he couldn’t respond during public comment, but he would make comments during the agenda item, and he requested Rumpf to stay for it.

“You can make your comments; I don’t care. We are doing our due diligence,” Rumpf said and left the meeting.

During the summit agenda item Martinez said he wanted to make it clear that County Manager Andy Lotrich was not disrespectful at the summit. He said at first the village attorney did not allow Martinez in the meeting but later retracted when Martinez explained he was a county commissioner and had called for the meeting. He reported that he encouraged everyone to bring up any issues so they could work through it like adults and create a plan to help the community.

According to Lotrich and Martinez, during the summit, everyone at the meeting came up with a list of items that could help support the Magdalena Marshal’s office. They said the village attorney took the minutes and agreed to draft a document.

“He (Rumpf) never objected to anything that was brought up. We came up with a list of items all together of what we felt could help. When we left the meeting, I thought everybody was happy, and then all of a sudden, this is what comes out. He says they’re not going to follow it.” Martinez said.

Sheriff Lee Armijo, who was also at the meeting, said that some of the suggestions were about trying to figure out ways his deputies could work overtime to help out when the Magdalena marshals weren’t available.

“Everybody was polite, and everybody was trying to be productive. And when I walked out of that meeting, I really was happy. I was happy with the outcome. It was even better than I thought,” Armijo said, “There wasn’t any disrespect because none of us have any ideas of disrespect. I think that we all left shaking hands, and it was good, and I’m sorry that he (Rumpf) sees it that way.”

Lotrich presented the document drafted by the village attorney from the summit. Lotrich said it was all public record including the emails between himself and the village attorney.

“That letter contains everything that was discussed at that meeting, the tenor of the meeting, exactly how everybody got along, “ Lotrich said, “It was positive, it was going to be a really good thing, that it’s unfortunate that the mayor (Rumpf) doesn’t want to implement any of these ideas and concepts that were jointly recommended by everybody in that room because if we would work jointly together to do this, we could really start overcoming some of those deficiencies in the village,”

Lotrich and Martinez said they felt the citizens of Magdalena have a right to know what happened in the meeting.

Armijo said that he will never stop trying to help the Magdalena community, “If there is a small disagreement, well, we can get over it, because it’s not about us personally, it’s about the people, and that’s what we’re trying to show.”

Duggins said the situation might have been overwhelming for Rumpf, “I suppose he runs his office the way he wants to. I guess we also have a responsibility, as the Socorro County Commission to the well-being of all citizens of the county.”

Martinez said the intention of the summit was to clear up miscommunications and work together on a solution.

“I’ll say this again, we did not tell the village what to do. We offered assistance. And I’ll say that twice, we offered assistance. We’re not telling them what to do. We don’t have the authority to do that,” Martinez said.