MARFA — Marfa City Council members met last week to discuss the possibility of new hours of operation for the Municipal Court department, to approve the purchase of an X-ray scanner for the Marfa Police Department and to throw support behind a county groundwater conservation district initiative.
City Manager Andrea Walter, who started in the role in early March, was present in addition to Mayor Manny Baeza, Mayor Pro Tem Raul Lara and council members Eddie Pallarez, Mark Morrison and Travis Acreman.
New hours for City Hall, school speed zone
Last month, the City Council voted to approve new hours of operation for City Hall, expanding hours to 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday so that the facility is now open during lunch hour from noon to 1 p.m.
The move was a part of broader housekeeping updates, in addition to updating city job descriptions and more, brought by the new city manager. Last Thursday, council deliberated expanding open hours for the Municipal Court to five days a week — hours are currently Monday through Thursday.
Mayor Baeza told the council that he invited Municipal Court Clerk Cherry Torres, who had not been approached by Walter about the potential change to her department, to the meeting because he wanted her to be a part of the discussion. “What really alarmed me is she wasn’t notified that this was going to happen,” Baeza said. He said city staff were not notified of the new hours of operation for City Hall that council approved the prior meeting until after the fact.
Torres explained that the reason Municipal Court is closed on Fridays is to allow her time to perform her other administrative role as benefits coordinator for the city, an agreement she reached with a previous City Council. Baeza said there has been a history of city employees not utilizing their health insurance, and Torres has worked to improve employee health outcomes in her role as benefits coordinator.
Torres explained that Municipal Court is “extremely busy,” and she needs one day a week to perform her other job duties. “The phone is non-stop in Municipal Court,” Torres said. “I am on the phone 90% of my day.” Torres is also in charge of city employee payroll, which she said she works on during her lunch hour Monday through Thursday.
Council, recognizing the move may require additional manpower, took no action on the item to expand Municipal Court hours to Friday. Walter said she would talk to Justice of the Peace Dina Jo Marquez, who also serves as the Municipal Court judge, about her overlap with court operations and continue to explore options.
In a follow up with The Big Bend Sentinel, Walter clarified that the initiative was an attempt to standardize open hours for those needing to pay city fines and tickets. “I believe in having everything open to the public as much as possible,” she said.
Council did vote to approve a resolution updating the school zone speed limit hours for streets surrounding Marfa ISD. The new hours are 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, reflective of the district’s four-day school week. New signs notifying drivers of the change — and 15 mph speed limit — have arrived and will be posted soon.
Marfa PD updates: Impound lot, X-ray scanner
Council members heard from the Marfa Police Department about new initiatives to utilize the impound lot at the Marfa Airport and to purchase an X-ray scanner with border security grant funds.
Police Chief Gilberto Carrillo explained that he is seeking to enter into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Presidio County Sheriff’s Office regarding the county impound lot at the Marfa Airport. He said vehicles the P.D. seizes — either through traffic stops or because they are in city rights of way — without insurance or registration are picked up by Rio Grande Towing, with officers waiting up to 1.5 hours for towers to arrive, only for the vehicles to be taken down to Presidio where Rio Grande stores them.
He said under the new agreement with the sheriff’s office, some vehicles would go to the Marfa Airport, and if they went unclaimed, as some are, could then be sold off with the sheriff’s office and Marfa P.D. splitting the profits 60-40. The sheriff’s office will manage daily fees, paperwork and the auctions, he said.
Council voted to allow Carrillo to sign the MOU, with the only hesitation coming from the city contract accountant and previous mayor, Dan Dunlap, who warned the city could be entangling themselves by utilizing the ill-fated impound lot, which is technically in violation of the Federal Aviation Administration.
Next council heard from Rene Gonzales, who works as an administrative assistant for the Operation Stonegarden grant — a state border security grant Marfa P.D. receives annually, with the most recent award totaling $194,187. Of that total, $58,940 was budgeted for the X-ray scanner, $120,247 for personnel — P.D. overtime — and $15,000 for supplies.
Gonzales explained Marfa P.D. is looking to purchase an Viken X-ray machine for $49,997 to assist with border security measures. The handheld device will allow officers to search vehicles — if probable cause is established — without having to tear up car doors or seats to search for concealed contraband, Carrillo explained in a follow up with The Sentinel.
As it stands now, the P.D. has to rely on cumbersome Border Patrol equipment that may not be available, and that takes a couple of hours to start up, Gonzales said. He said it will help officers easily find hidden firearms, drugs and currency, for example. “You have probable cause, you have search, you can just pull that thing out of your vehicle,” Gonzales said. “An officer on duty can very easily deploy it and use it.”
“There will have to be probable cause or consent,” Baeza added. “This cannot just be used like, ‘Hey I got a hunch.’”
Gonzales said the Viken security company will train up to 15 officers on the machine, and Marfa P.D. plans to share the resource with other area law enforcement. Council voted unanimously to approve the purchase.
Protecting the future of the county’s water supply
A long-considered initiative to amend the enabling legislation of the Presidio County Underground Water Conservation District (PCUWCD) is one step closer to being realized after Marfa City Council members voted in support of the change last week. The City of Presidio approved the measure earlier in March.
The item — brought forth by PCUWCD General Manager Trey Gerfers — involves filing local legislation to remove the “Midland exemption,” a legal loophole that exempts municipalities with populations 130,000 and under from water use limits, including Marfa and Presidio.
The effort is an attempt to protect the municipal water supplies in Presidio County, which will now apply for and receive production permits from the PCUWCD, who will then be able to protect the municipalities from new users whose pumping may lead to the draw down of city wells.
“It’s when new users come in, and new development comes in, that the permit holders are going to be glad that they have their permits because future permits will be subject to conditions where if the cities or the water supply corporations see their wells going down, then the new users will have to reduce their pumping,” Gerfers explained in a follow up with The Sentinel.
City councils in Marfa and Presidio will each appoint a representative to the PCUWD board, he said, and production permits will not be restrictive. “It’ll probably be something on the order of what they use currently,” Gerfers said. “Plus some kind of a generous margin for growth.”
“This really isn’t going to change anything,” he added. “No one’s going to see their water prices go up. Nothing is really going to change as far as what the cities can do with their water. This is really just a proactive step to protecting the future of the water supply.”
The PCUWCD enabling legislation change, which will take the form of a local bill, still has to make it past the Texas Legislature. Gerfers said it is unclear whether the bill will pass this session, but both Sen. César Blanco and Rep. Eddie Morales are in support of the measure.