Estancia trustees back desalination pilot bid and raise clerk's pay
ESTANCIA, NM — At the Monday, October 5, 2026 meeting of the Estancia Board of Trustees, Town Clerk Roy Hubbard said that Estancia residents are still relying on water hauled in by truck. The Estancia Board of Trustees voted to test a possible water source. Trustees took initial steps toward partnering with a private company on a bid for a state-funded pilot project that would treat salty underground water so it can be used by the town’s residents. The vote came at a meeting held without the town's mayor and without Trustee Amy May. Mayor Pro Tem Martin Lucero said neither had contacted the town.
The three trustees present, Mayor Pro Tem Martin Lucero, Albert Lovato, and Patrick Sanchez, also approved three New Mexico Department of Transportation (NMDOT) road funding resolutions, including one for $1 million. They removed absent Trustee Amy May from a regional water board seat and raised the salary of Town Clerk/Treasurer Roy Hubbard.
Water: new well plans nearly finished, hauling continues
Hubbard delivered the water update to the trustees. He said engineering firm Bohannan Huston is still drafting changes and specifications for the town's new well project. He said the firm's engineer, Donzil Worthington, told him the work should be finished this week. After that, the town can seek bids for construction.
Hubbard said he believes the town still qualifies for emergency procurement because of the water crisis and the large sums spent on hauling water. Emergency procurement can shorten the normal competitive bidding timeline.
Parts for Estancia Well 8 have also been ordered, including a new motor and smaller water pipe. Hubbard said that once the parts arrive, crews will pull the well and install them, and Well 8 "should be producing pretty well." Well 4 remains in operation.
The town's storage tanks are holding at 75 feet. Hubbard said crews are hauling one to two truckloads of water every other day to keep Tank 4 full.
Lucero asked Hubbard to request a Gantt chart from Bohannan Huston for the new well project. A Gantt chart is a common project management tool. It shows each phase of a project as a bar on a calendar, so readers can see what happens when and which tasks depend on others. "Everybody has the same question: 'When are we looking at pulling from this well?'" Lucero said. He acknowledged that project timelines change but said a published schedule would help residents. Hubbard said he believes the engineers are already including a timeline in their proposal and would make sure it is there.
A leak in a water tower
Sanchez asked about a hole in a town water tank. Hubbard said he has contacted the engineers who handled that project and hopes they will send someone out or provide a quote for the repair. Lucero said the town considered welding the hole closed itself. The tank may still be under warranty, however, and a town repair could void it. "We are losing a little bit of water out of there," Lucero said.
Trustees back pilot bid to treat brackish water
Trustees voted to support a partnership with Trevi Systems on a proposal to the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED). The proposal answers NMED Strategic Water Supply Request for Proposals (RFP) No. 27-667-2010-00027.
The Strategic Water Supply Program, created by the Legislature in 2025, funds projects that treat brackish water. Brackish water is groundwater saltier than fresh water. NMED defines it as water with more than 1,000 parts per million of dissolved solids. The program is part of the state's 50-Year Water Action Plan, and its goal is to tap that supply while preserving fresh water for drinking.
Hubbard said Trevi Systems contacted the town after news coverage of Estancia's water emergency. To compete for the state contract, the company needs a local community to host a pilot project. Hubbard said the pilot would not use the town's producing wells. It would use an older well that was capped years ago. The company would test that water and treat it with a desalination system.
Lucero described the system as a type of reverse osmosis treatment process, which forces water through a fine membrane that separates out the salt. Hubbard said Trevi's design keeps the leftover salt sealed in a self-contained unit, about the size of a shipping container, called a "salt vault," rather than discharging it into the ground. If the town is selected, Hubbard said, a company crew would spend about nine months in Estancia building the system and training town staff to run it.
Trustees raised several unanswered questions. They asked whether the town would have to pay anything, whether it would have to supply a building to house the system, who would pay for electricity, and whether the town's already stretched public works staff could take on another system. Lucero said that if the town takes on the project, he believes it would need additional public works employees.
Hubbard said Donzil Worthington, the town's engineer at Bohannan Huston, was cautious. Hubbard said Worthington told him the pilot "could be [a] great takeoff, or it could be a total failure." Hubbard also noted that Trevi Systems partners with data centers.
Lucero said he saw the pilot as a backup plan. He said the town does not know for certain whether water from the new well will be drinkable, and "everybody is putting all their cards in one bucket." Lovato agreed, saying the new well is being treated as a "silver bullet," and the brackish water system could give the town a second source.
Lovato said he wants Trevi Systems representatives to present at a future board meeting before any commitments are made. Hubbard said the town has made no binding commitment. The town must give Trevi Systems its answer by Thursday, October 9, 2026, and the company must submit its proposal to NMED by Tuesday, October 13, 2026. Selection is not guaranteed.
Lovato moved to approve the partnership, Sanchez seconded, and the motion passed.
Trustee May removed from regional water board seat
Lovato asked for an update on Trustee Amy May during council updates. Hubbard said the town has made many phone calls to May and received no response. Lucero said he has also tried to reach her several times without success.
Later in the meeting, the board considered May's seat on the EMWT Regional Water Board Association. Hubbard said the association emailed the town asking whether it wanted to replace May because she has not been attending meetings. The association said any change must come from the town.
"I think it is important to have a representative on that board," Lovato said. "Unfortunately, I think we have had zero communication at all."
Town Attorney Nann Winter confirmed that the seat does not have to be filled by a member of the governing body. Lovato moved to remove May from the board and invite letters of interest from Estancia residents. Sanchez seconded, and the motion passed. Lucero said the town fills its EMW Gas Association seat the same way.
Lucero proposes attendance rules for elected officials
Lucero said the board should look at updating the town's personnel ordinance to set a limit on absences, after which an elected official's seat would be declared vacant. "Holding ourselves accountable, I think, would be appropriate at this point," he said. Lovato said he agreed. No action was taken. Removal of elected municipal officers in New Mexico generally runs through the district court process under N.M. Stat. Ann. § 3-10-7, et seq. (2026). The standard for removal for an elected municipal official is "malfeasance" by that elected municipal official, which the New Mexico Supreme Court defined in a 56-year-old opinion, *Arellano v. Lopez,* 467 P.2d 715, 81 N.M. 389 (1970)
The only cause for removal contained in the statutes is malfeasance. The term "malfeasance" has been variously defined as a comprehensive term which includes any wrongful conduct affecting performance of official duties, State ex rel. LaMon v. Town of Westport, 73 Wash. 2d 255, 438 P.2d 200, 202 (1968); or as a wrongful act which the actor had no legal right to do, or any wrongful conduct which affects, interrupts, or interferes with performance of official duties, or an act for which there is no authority or warrant of law or which a person ought not to do at all, or the unjust performance of some act, which party performing it has no right, Daugherty v. Ellis, 142 W. Va. 340, 97 S.E.2d 33 (1956); or doing an act which is wholly wrongful and unlawful, and which an officer has no authority to do, and if the act is discretionary it must have been done with an improper or corrupt motive, People v. Schneider, 133 Colo. 173, 292 P.2d 982, 985 (1956); also, as evildoing, the doing of an act which is wholly wrongful and unlawful, State v. Langley, 214 Or. 445, 315 P.2d 560, 323 P.2d 301, 309 (1958).
The Arellano decision does not include an analysis of whether one's absence or abandonment of one's post constitutes malfeasance.
Mayor Runnel Riley was also absent. Lucero noted at the start of the meeting that the mayor had not contacted him regarding this absence.
Clerk/treasurer receives raise
Lucero asked for the clerk/treasurer's salary to be placed on the agenda. He said that when Hubbard was hired, he had planned to revisit the pay. "Roy has a very good understanding of what is actually occurring in this office," Lucero said, adding that Hubbard "has been fixing more things for us than we have had in the last several clerks."
Hubbard said the position's pay range is $38,500 to $45,000 and that he currently earns the bottom of that range. Lucero first suggested $42,000 as a raise for Hubbard. He then said he understood the previous clerk, Veronica Navarette, earned $50,000, and he proposed raising Hubbard's pay to $45,000, which he described as the top of the range. Lovato moved to raise Hubbard’s salary to $45,000. Sanchez seconded, and the motion passed.
Lucero acknowledged that the town does not currently have an adopted budget. Estancia has operated without an adopted fiscal year 2027 budget for months.
Three NMDOT road funding resolutions approved
Trustees unanimously approved three resolutions by roll call vote, each 3-0, to keep the town in state transportation funding programs.
Resolution 2026-28 covers the Local Government Road Fund Municipal Arterial Program, or MAP (HW2L500685), for an undisclosed amount. Resolution 2026-29 covers the Local Government Road Fund program (HW2L600662), which Lucero said he believed was for $100,000. Resolution 2026-30 covers the Transportation Project Fund program (HW2LP50081), in the amount of $1 million.
Hubbard said the applications were due Wednesday, September 30, 2026. He said NMDOT sent the documents to his email address at his former employer. Lucero came into the office on September 30 to sign them so the town could meet the deadline. Monday's votes ratified those signatures. "The precedent has always been to continue to apply for as much funding as you possibly can," Lucero said, provided the town is a responsible steward of the money.
Bill list includes large engineering payment
Trustees approved the bill list for September 4 through October 1, 2026. Lucero noted it was larger than usual. Hubbard said it covered a longer period than normal and included a payment to Bohannan Huston of about $400,000.00.
Department reports
Fire and EMS. EMS Chief Jonathan Barela reported 10 fire calls in September on behalf of Estancia Fire Chief Chris Wolonsky. Three were actual fires: two illegal controlled burns in town and a travel trailer fire in the county. One call was a crash requiring extrication, and six were fire alarms. EMS crews answered 34 medical calls and made 12 transports. The department has one EMT applicant to interview.
He said the high school bonfire went well because the town brought in a backhoe to smother the fire with dirt. That method took about 20 minutes and 30 to 40 gallons of water, compared with the 3,000 to 4,000 gallons the department previously used. Lucero praised the decision given the water emergency.
Air ambulance coverage. Lovato raised the idea of contracting with PHI, a community air ambulance membership. He said the Town of Edgewood recently arranged coverage for its residents so that any costs left after insurance are covered. Hubbard said he believes Edgewood spent less than $35,000 on its contract with PHI, and said he would contact Edgewood's town manager for detail. Lucero asked him to get a copy of Edgewood's request for quotes. Lovato said town employees are already covered.
Police. Hubbard said Police Chief Tom Carter and his officers were in training all day and Carter had no statistics to report.
Planning, zoning, and animal control. Hubbard said Zoning and Animal Control Officer Bill Teaney is waiting on documentation before he can return to work full time. Hubbard said a brown stray dog well known around town is now owned by Cruzita and Solomon Zamora, who are arranging to have it neutered. Lucero said the Torrance County Animal Shelter has not received a copy of the animal services memorandum the board approved and asked Hubbard to send it so the county can begin providing services.
Public works. Crews are maintaining tank levels at 75 feet, hauling water as needed, and preparing the grounds for the town's pumpkin chunkin event. Lucero asked that roadside mowing be scheduled before the next rainstorm.
Library. Hubbard reported for library director Angela Creamer that 31 children had signed up for the reading program as of Wednesday, September 30, 2026.
Town hall. Hubbard said staff is still preparing for the town's audit with a third-party certified public accountant (CPA) firm. He and Laura Acosta are still searching boxes for documents the auditors have requested. He said the second-quarter financial report is almost finished and work has begun on the third quarter. Both are awaiting review by a state budget analyst. He apologized for the delay, saying staff is catching up on "a year and a half" of reports. "I would rather have it accurate than not," he said.
Hubbard also said an added module for the town's Caselle accounting software would cost about $2,000. Hubbard stated that the town pays roughly $22,000 per year for eight Caselle licenses. Hubbard said the town may not need eight licenses if department heads use the online Caselle Connect version. He said he would prefer they work in that version so they cannot accidentally change the town's core financial records. Interviews for billing clerk and receptionist positions were scheduled for Wednesday, October 7, 2026, beginning at 10:40 AM MDT.
New deputy clerk sworn in
Erica Martinez was sworn in as deputy clerk/treasurer. Lucero administered the oath and welcomed her and her family, who attended.
Other business
Lucero said a planned department head meeting did not happen because Monday mornings are spent processing payroll, and a new date is being set. He said he did not meet with pool manager Julie Morales as planned and will follow up with staff on the status of the pool liner.
Lovato said he contacted Thomas Farms about fertilizing the town baseball field's outfield while the ground is wet, noting the town paid substantially to install the grass. He said Estancia Valley Youth Athletics is restructuring so each sport has its own board, and its annual meeting is this month.
No one sought to make public comment at the meeting.
Closed session
The board went into closed session under N.M. Stat. Ann. § 10-15-1(H)(2) (2026) to discuss limited personnel matters regarding the mayor, and under § 10-15-1(H)(7) to discuss pending or threatened litigation. No action was taken following the closed session.