Stansbury hosts infrastructure roundtable discussion with Sandoval County community leaders

United States Rep. Melanie Stansbury hosted a roundtable discussion with local leaders in Sandoval County Thursday at Rio Rancho’s City Hall to identify and overcome infrastructure challenges.

Fifteen guests representing Sandoval County, Rio Rancho, Bernalillo, Santa Ana Pueblo, Southern Sandoval County Arroyo Flood Control Authority and the governor’s office were in attendance. The panel included Rio Rancho City Manager Matt Geisel, Sandoval County Commissioners Michael Meek and Josh Jones, Sandoval County Manager Wayne Johnson, Sandoval Deputy County Manager John Garcia and State Rep. Kathleen Cates.

The two-hour discussion was held to help local governments and tribal entities access federal funding for infrastructure projects. Stansbury said she and her office have been working with the Biden Administration to find ways to do that.

“We want to hear more about the specific infrastructure needs of Sandoval County, as well as these sort of bigger structural questions like, how do we fix the federal grant making and funding process? And how do we make it easier for you all as local officials to navigate that? How can the state help to also break down barriers to facilitate because a lot of the funding actually moves through this state?” Stansbury said. “There are lots of existing pots of money out there and many of our local governments already have very sophisticated grant-finding application processes, and then we have other communities that are, frankly, overworked and understaffed and don’t have those resources.”

Johnson agreed with Stansbury and said accessing those grant funds has been an issue in Sandoval County.

“What we’re looking at is Sandoval County is kind of the connective tissue between all of our communities. We’ve got a lot of different communities. So we’re looking for better ways to serve those communities, including grants and grant capacity,” Johnson said. “How can those smaller communities access some of the money that’s available to them? And I think there’s a lot of money left on the table for our tribal communities, for our smaller municipalities, towns, villages, and we’re building a grant program to build that capacity for those parts of our county.”

Rebecca Roose, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s infrastructure advisor, sat next to Stansbury and informed the panel of available state funding.

Roose said HB 232, which was recently passed by Legislature, would open an Infrastructure Planning and Development Division within the New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration.

“So you’ve heard the congresswoman talk about the difficulty navigating all the funding sources, figuring out how to navigate state funding plus federal funding and how to most effectively use your capital outlay planning process,” Roose said. “This new division is building on some existing components within DFA and adding new capacity, and it’s likely to be the group at DFA that manages the match fund as well. One of the drivers for the legislators that worked really hard to get that bill introduced and across the finish line in its first session was to shift the status quo in terms of what you all in the communities and tribes can expect from your state government in terms of services and technical assistance and grant navigation and infrastructure planning.”

Stansbury said the reason for hosting the roundtable was to hear what issues the local governments were having with getting funds and knowing what funding was available. She praised Rio Rancho but said other parts of the county and state weren’t as successful with finding such resources.

“I think again, Rio Rancho you guys get all the gold stars: certification and housing. You guys are killing it here,” Stansbury said. “But I will tell you we’re working, for example, right now in Valencia County, and there’s just no infrastructure to help with affordable housing issues down there and dealing with folks or the housing, homeless crisis. And so we’re trying to figure out how to help them navigate and find resources. So how do you capture some of those federal funds and infrastructure grants?”

Geisel thanked Stansbury for her praise but said Rio Rancho is also facing similar challenges.

“Thanks for the compliments about Rio Rancho, but we have our own capacity and technical challenges as well,” Geisel said. “Even for communities that you think are well-resourced, it’s hard for us. It’s very hard. It’s hard on housing. Just a broad statement, I say it a lot, grants and programs that keep people in their current housing is, I think, the best way to protect housing security or insecurity. We have an aging community in Rio Rancho. We have housing stock that’s between 40 to 60 years old now. They’re not funding major home repair.”

Stansbury called the meeting a success and said the guests were the “Dream Team.” She said she plans on holding more discussions in the future.

“We will definitely take this information on board for my office; we’ll share it with the rest of the delegation,” Stansbury said. “It will help us inform the way we do better service to help you guys, and I hope that it’s helpful to the city as well. And I think there’s a lot of food for thought and thinking about how to set up a Technical Assistance Program. And so this is the beginning of the conversation.”