Corrales residents last week expressed disdain about the village’s way of handling requests for public information.
During the Corraleños Forum at the Feb. 24 Village Council meeting, several residents revisited an issue they’d brought up two weeks prior: the way roads are put on Corrales; infrastructure capital improvement plan (ICIP) list.
Some who live on Perea Road have been frustrated with its ranking, considering that it is prone to washing out in times of heavy rains and sees significant gravel dust caused by motor vehicle traffic.
The paving of Perea Road, at a cost of $200,000 is sixth on the priority list.
At the Feb. 24 council meeting, some residents noted that Councilor Mel Knight’s street is higher on the list, and questioned the process. Councilors pushed back against a suggestion that she wielded undue influence in the ranking, with Knight saying she waited eight years for its inclusion.
Corraleños Forum speakers said they found it difficult to find records of the process. Carolyn Wynn said she filed a request under New Mexico’s Inspection of Public Records Act, seeking records related to how Reclining Acres Road and Coronado Road were placed on the 2026 legislative funding request list.
“My IPRA requests were not filed to accuse anyone of wrongdoing,” she said. “I was trying to learn what steps would be required to move Perea Road forward when public funds are involved. Residents deserve clarity on how decisions are made and how projects move forward.”
She said the village responded to her request with more than 450 documents, none of which provided the information she sought.
“How can the village submit a legislative capital outlay request to the state of New Mexico with a specific dollar amount, yet have no documentation showing when the project was added, how it was prioritized, or how that cost estimate was calculated?” Wynn said.
Councilor Zachary Burkett acknowledged the “convoluted” nature of the ICIP process and directed residents to the June 24 meeting, which included a resolution listing every project on the list. The minutes document each councilor’s ranking of the items, he said, and they all have the prerogative to ask the administration to add additional items, with local representatives in the state legislature advocating for those priorities.
“So far, what I’ve seen in my six years on the council, (is that) things don’t often fall off the ICIP list until they’re accomplished,” Burkett said. “Our state representatives … give us the money for what they have the money for, and what they also prioritize. So we can recommend five or six things, and they could pick items four, five and six instead of one, two and three, if it aligns with how much money they have available and their priorities.”
He said the council’s ranking of projects is done publicly, but a documented flow chart of the process would be useful.
Tyler Muxworthy said the village’s neglect of Perea Road began with a refusal to acknowledge ownership of the road, and that the residents’ efforts to maintain the road were stymied by village leadership.
Muxworthy also suggested using $200,000 left over from a Meadowlark Lane construction project to pave Perea Road. Village Administrator Melanie Romero said the grant money that paid for the work can only be used on that specific project or returned to the state.
“If you don’t spend it on that road, it goes back to the granting agency,” Romero said. “So unfortunately, we cannot move money from one project to another. If it was village money, we could do that, but because it’s a grant … we don’t have any control over being able to move it to another project.”
In response to Wynn’s statement, Romero said the IPRA does not require the villages to create a document that does not exist.
She said Wynn received meeting agendas and minutes because the system the village uses can’t search within a document, but those documents were most likely to contain the information Wynn sought.
Also at the meeting, Romero told councilors Corrales has received a federal appropriation of more than $1 million for a wastewater line bypass. The money, obtained through a request by Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury’s office, will provide redundancy for the village’s septic tank effluent pumping system.
That means that should a system failure occur, public works crews will be able to perform repairs without standing in “dirty water.”
Romero said the village will have the money on hand to build the bypass once engineering consultant Stantec completes the design of the line, which will run along Loma Larga Road.
Corraleños seeking clarity on capital projects
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Corrales residents last week expressed disdain about the village’s way of handling requests for public information.
During the Corraleños Forum at the Feb. 24 Village Council meeting, several residents revisited an issue they’d brought up two weeks prior: the way roads are put on Corrales; infrastructure capital improvement plan (ICIP) list.
Some who live on Perea Road have been frustrated with its ranking, considering that it is prone to washing out in times of heavy rains and sees significant gravel dust caused by motor vehicle traffic.
The paving of Perea Road, at a cost of $200,000 is sixth on the priority list.
At the Feb. 24 council meeting, some residents noted that Councilor Mel Knight’s street is higher on the list, and questioned the process. Councilors pushed back against a suggestion that she wielded undue influence in the ranking, with Knight saying she waited eight years for its inclusion.
Corraleños Forum speakers said they found it difficult to find records of the process. Carolyn Wynn said she filed a request under New Mexico’s Inspection of Public Records Act, seeking records related to how Reclining Acres Road and Coronado Road were placed on the 2026 legislative funding request list.
“My IPRA requests were not filed to accuse anyone of wrongdoing,” she said. “I was trying to learn what steps would be required to move Perea Road forward when public funds are involved. Residents deserve clarity on how decisions are made and how projects move forward.”
She said the village responded to her request with more than 450 documents, none of which provided the information she sought.
“How can the village submit a legislative capital outlay request to the state of New Mexico with a specific dollar amount, yet have no documentation showing when the project was added, how it was prioritized, or how that cost estimate was calculated?” Wynn said.
Councilor Zachary Burkett acknowledged the “convoluted” nature of the ICIP process and directed residents to the June 24 meeting, which included a resolution listing every project on the list. The minutes document each councilor’s ranking of the items, he said, and they all have the prerogative to ask the administration to add additional items, with local representatives in the state legislature advocating for those priorities.
“So far, what I’ve seen in my six years on the council, (is that) things don’t often fall off the ICIP list until they’re accomplished,” Burkett said. “Our state representatives … give us the money for what they have the money for, and what they also prioritize. So we can recommend five or six things, and they could pick items four, five and six instead of one, two and three, if it aligns with how much money they have available and their priorities.”
He said the council’s ranking of projects is done publicly, but a documented flow chart of the process would be useful.
Tyler Muxworthy said the village’s neglect of Perea Road began with a refusal to acknowledge ownership of the road, and that the residents’ efforts to maintain the road were stymied by village leadership.
Muxworthy also suggested using $200,000 left over from a Meadowlark Lane construction project to pave Perea Road. Village Administrator Melanie Romero said the grant money that paid for the work can only be used on that specific project or returned to the state.
“If you don’t spend it on that road, it goes back to the granting agency,” Romero said. “So unfortunately, we cannot move money from one project to another. If it was village money, we could do that, but because it’s a grant … we don’t have any control over being able to move it to another project.”
In response to Wynn’s statement, Romero said the IPRA does not require the villages to create a document that does not exist.
She said Wynn received meeting agendas and minutes because the system the village uses can’t search within a document, but those documents were most likely to contain the information Wynn sought.
Also at the meeting, Romero told councilors Corrales has received a federal appropriation of more than $1 million for a wastewater line bypass. The money, obtained through a request by Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury’s office, will provide redundancy for the village’s septic tank effluent pumping system.
That means that should a system failure occur, public works crews will be able to perform repairs without standing in “dirty water.”
Romero said the village will have the money on hand to build the bypass once engineering consultant Stantec completes the design of the line, which will run along Loma Larga Road.
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