RR Municipal Election 2022: Municipal judge candidates – Rio Rancho Observer

• Jonathan L. Muniz
• G. Robert Cook
• If elected, what would your goals be for the next four years? If elected, I would like to enhance the equity, fairness, and accessibility of the courts to all community members. I would like to see the court becoming more engaged with the community.
• If elected, what would your goals be for the next four years? My goal will be to exit COVID successfully and return to in-person hearings for all cases.  Current virtual hearings are functional, but hardly ideal.  I intend to work with the Court Administrator to determine if court employees are paid comparable wages to other courts, and adjust accordingly if they are not.  I hope to continue to build on the relationship with the Mayor’s office to assure budgetary needs are met.

6 charter changes on ballot – Rio Rancho Observer

• the biggest change being the institution of a $10 million permanent fund.
• The charter itself, the city’s foundational document, requires a charter review, after which changes can be put before voters, at least every six years.
• How the permanent fund would work
  The city is proposing to invest the $10 million, with an estimated average annual return of $833,000 from interest for the first 13 years.
• Half of those earnings, or an average of $416,600 a year, would go to the general fund, which pays for much of the city’s operation. The other half would go back into the permanent fund to grow the principal, so it would produce more interest in the future.
• Where the city found the money
  After an economically difficult first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic, Geisel said, the city’s retail GRT revenue set records, and construction boomed, as did tax income from it.
  With more people working from home, he said, they shopped in the city more, and Rio Rancho has a lot of essential businesses that stayed open. Plus, governments within New Mexico began collecting gross receipts tax on internet sales.
  “We have a one-time windfall,” Geisel said. “Do we spend it now?”
• A permanent fund would provide a new revenue stream without increasing taxes and would be done more reliably than trying to grow the economy enough to produce the same amount of money.
• Other proposed charter amendments are:
  • Increasing the time span between required charter reviews to eight years, although it could still be reviewed more frequently. Geisel said the change would allow more time to test the efficacy of new charter amendments;
• • Increasing the time to appoint a successor for a governing body member who leaves office between elections from 45 days to 60. Geisel said 45 days sometimes isn’t possible, but 60 days almost always is.
• • Update the process of recording and codifying ordinances to match current technology and procedures, such as allowing e-signatures.
• • Requiring an acting city manager to be paid no less than the minimum salary set for the permanent city manager position.
• • Allowing the city to fill vacancies on volunteer boards and commissions “as soon as practicable” instead of within 30 days. Geisel said it’s not always possible to get applicants within 30 days.