Roswell Daily Record
Vol. 123, No. 218 75¢ Daily / $1.25 Sunday
THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
September 10, 2014
WEDNESDAY
www.rdrnews.com
City Council approves Polasek as new city manager BY RANDAL SEYLER RECORD CITY EDITOR
The City Council approved hiring Steven Polasek, the city manager of Keller, Texas, to be the next Roswell city manager. “I am very humbled and honored to be selected to be the next city manager for the city of Roswell,” Polasek said Tuesday night following the City Council meeting.
---Speaking via telephone from his home in Keller, Polasek said he looks forward to working with the mayor, the City Council, and his colleagues to make the city one of the premier cities in New Mexico.
“I believe Roswell is a city on the rise and only begining to scratch the surface with regard to its full potential,” Polasek said. “To be able to play a small role in our many future suc-
cesses will be tremendously rewarding to me both personally and professionally.”
Polasek was not approved unanimously, however, and there was some complaining about the proposed salary and severance package outlined in Polasek’s proposed contract.
Councilor Juan Oropesa took exception with the salary. The salary range for the city manager job was
posted at $110,000 to $130,000, but the contract submitted to the council on Tuesday night exceeded that pay range, of fering Polasek $155,000 a year. The contract also offers a severance pay package if the City Council votes to terminate Polasek within the first three years of employment. The amount of severance is on a decreasing scale, dropping from nine months’ pay to
three months’ pay as time goes on, City Attor ney William Zarr said.
“I don’t think we are covering all of our bases if things go wrong,” Oropesa said. “I have a problem with the city paying someone not to work.”
Oropesa said he agreed that Polasek was a good choice for city manager, but the councilor had a problem paying more than the posted pay range. “I think
Tim Williams, left, Roswell’s director of parks and recreation, discusses the Yucca Recreation Center with the Roswell Kiwanis Club on Tuesday, while Kiwanian Abel Esquibel, at right, listens.
Duffey surpasses 10K in campaign funds BY JEFF TUCKER RECORD STAFF WRITER
Following the lead of the Chaves County Republican Party, the Democratic Party of Chaves County has chipped in for the only contested race for a county office on the Nov. 4 general election ballots, although Republican Commissioner James Duffey continues to significantly outpace Democratic challenger Eloy Ortega Jr. in fundraising. The Democratic Party of Chaves County on Aug. 29 donated $500 to Ortega’s campaign for county commissioner, according to the latest campaign finance reports released Monday. That follows a $2,600 donation to Duf fey’s reelection campaign from the Chaves County Republican Party on May 12. Other Republicans have rallied behind Duf fey’s campaign in recent weeks, according to the first general election reports filed with the New Mexico Secretary of State, as Duffey holds a more than 11-to-1 advantage in available campaign funds. Duffey had $9,783 in his campaign cof fers as of
Sept. 1, while Ortega’s campaign had $863 cash on hand. The candidates have yet to unload their campaign funds, evidenced by the lack of yard signs that dotted practically every block of Roswell this summer for the heated Republican primary races for sheriff and magistrate judge. By contrast, the DuffeyOrtega race is the only contested race for a county office on November ballots, and only residents of the 1st commission district east living east of Main Street are eligible to vote. Duf fey raised $7,480 between June 29 and Sept. 1, clearing the 10K hurdle with a total of $10,080 of contributions in his re-election campaign. Ortega raised $800 in the same timeframe, raising his total contributions to $925. Duffey had 38 monetary contributions from various GOP supporters, including donations from several local of fice holders, between June 29 and Sept. 1. Duffey’s largest contribution in the time frame was a $1,000 donation from Dexter’s Three Amigos
Dairy on Aug. 22. During the reporting period, Duf fey received $500 donations each from Roswell dairyman George Krasowsky, Coll Brothers Oil of Roswell, DBS Commodities of Dexter, the Friends of Dennis Kintigh political campaign, the Candy Spence Ezzell for state representative campaign, and from Roswell ranchers Michael and Dianne Marley. Whitney Far ms of Roswell donated $400 to Duffey’s campaign on Aug. 27, farmer/ranchers Jay and Carrie Hollifield of Roswell donated $300 on Aug. 22, the Chaves County Republican Women donated $250 on Aug. 22, and farmer/rancher John Lackey of Roswell also donated $250 on Aug. 22. All of Duf fey’s other recent donations were $200 or less, including $200 donations from both the Patrick Barncastle for sheriff campaign and Roswell Seed Co., and $100 donations each from Chaves County Commissioner Robert Corn, Commissioner Kim Chesser and his wife, Patricia, state Rep. Nora Espinoza, and Magistrate
HIGH 89 LOW 64
• ATHENA MICHELLE HIGGINS • DECIDERIO MANUEL GONZALES
TODAY’S FORECAST
Judge Keith Rogers and his wife, Mary. Duffey held a $25-per person fundraiser Aug. 21 at the Roswell home of Clarke and Amy Coll. Other than the $500 donation from the Democratic Party of Chaves County, Ortega received $100 donations from both Pablo and Dora Martinez of Dexter and Adrian Ortega of Roswell during the most recent reporting period. Ortega also received $50 donations from both Theresa Martinez of Roswell, and Tony and Jeannie Ortiz. Duffey’s only campaign expenditure between June 29 and Sept. 1 was $992 paid to Southwest Printers of Roswell on Aug. 20. Ortega’s expenditures between June 29 and Sept. 1 entailed $36 paid to the Chaves County Clerk’s office on Aug. 12 for a voters list, and $14 and $10 paid to the clerk’s office for maps of the 1st commission district. Four years ago, Duffey defeated Ortega 1,004 votes to 1,003 votes after a threeday recount to win the District 1 race for Chaves See DUFFEY, Page A3
TODAY’S OBITUARIES PAGE A6
See POLASEK, Page A3
Parks director: Public opinion split on fate of Yucca Center BY RANDAL SEYLER RECORD CITY EDITOR
Randal Seyler Photo
$155,000 is overboard for an individual,” he said. Other qualified candidates may have not applied for the position, based on the posted pay range, Oropesa said, which also concerned him. “We have people we pay $8 an hour,” Oropesa said. “How can we pay one individual $155,000?” Councilor Elena
Residents attending the recent Yucca Recreation Center workshops were about evenly split in their said T im opinions, Williams, director of parks and recreation for the city of Roswell. About half those attending wanted to save the existing facility and the rest were of the opinion that the city should build a new recreation center, Williams told the Roswell Kiwanis Club members on Tuesday. Williams, who has been director of the parks department since June, came to Roswell from Renton, Washington. The Yucca was built in 1911 and was the first high school in Roswell, Williams said, and people who came to the meetings were definitely interested in the recreation center’s future. The current structure has several problems, Williams said, including a leaky roof and a substandard air-conditioning system. The facility is noncompliant with federal Americans with Disabilities Act, due to the center’s ele-
vator not being tied into the fire system. Williams estimated it would cost at least $60,000 to get the elevator into compliance. Without the elevator, the center’s activities have been confined to the lower floor since the beginning of summer. The parks and recreation department started holding the meetings on Aug. 23 to get the public’s input into the future of the Yucca Recreation Center. “It was a mixed response, about fifty-fifty between people wanting to renovate the Yucca Center and those wanting to build a new facility,” Williams said of the audiences attending the meetings. “A lot of people attending had history with the building, they went to school there, or they taught there, or they had a grandparent who went to school there, and they want to see that building preserved.” Williams said the city held five workshops at different locations within the city to gauge the residents’ feelings about the future of the Yucca Recreation Center. See YUCCA, Page A3
Dona Ana County OKs plan for immigration after petition New Mexico’s most populous border county joined a national movement Tuesday prohibiting local officials from going out of their way to enforce federal immigration laws. In a 5-0 vote, Dona Ana County commissioners approved a resolution to make the area a “safe county” and restrict county employees from asking residents about immigration status. The move came after commissioners received a petition in February with 10,000 signatures and dozens of activists began attending board meetings. The resolution, pushed by the advocacy group Border Network for Human Rights, calls for county departments and employees not to enforce federal immigration laws or use county resources for immigration purposes unless required by federal and state statutes. However, commission chair Billy Garrett cautioned that the measure didn’t address comprehensive immigration reform or change the status of anyone who may be in the
country illegally. “This is not about skirting the law,” Garrett said. Dona Ana County Detention Center announced in June it would no longer honor requests by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain people for 48 hours while agents investigate their immigration status. Until recently, it was common for ICE officials to ask counties to hold individuals brought in for traffic violations or other state or local infractions if the individual was suspected of not having proper immigration documents. In April, a federal court ruled that a woman’s constitutional rights were violated after Oregon authorities kept her beyond her release date so she could be transferred to immigration agents. Since then, counties across the nation have passed measures similar to the one in Dona Ana County or withdrawn from the voluntary ICE program. The American Civil Liber-
CLASSIFIEDS ..........B8
INDEX GENERAL ...............A2
FINANCIAL ..............B4
LOTTERIES .............A2
COMICS .................B7
HOROSCOPES .......A10
See PLAN, Page A3 OPINION .................A4
SPORTS .................B1
WEATHER ............A10