Chaos erupts in council meeting
Threats, accusations mar meeting

By Zsombor Peter
Staff Writer

GALLUP — Sen. Lidio Rainaldi accused the mayor of threatening him. Red Rock Park director Bill Lee began yelling and flailing his arms in the air. Councilman Frank Gonzales shot out of his seat as if to leave. The mayor slammed his gavel, shouting for order.

Someone could have charged admission to Tuesday evening's City Council meeting. Anyone who missed it missed quite a show.

Those who were there saw a bitter runoff council race intrude on council business.

The council flew through its agenda without incident, as usual, until the Democratic state senator from Gallup got up to address the room during the public comment period. At that point, the tension began to build.

Back in town following the end of the New Mexico Legislature's 2005 session in Santa Fe, Rainaldi faced the council from behind the wooden lectern. There he went through a list of concerns about the council's activities, from reports of wildly fluctuating water utility rates to the multi-year revenue bond it recently approved for utility repairs to its contract with a private management company to run Red Rock Park.

When the senator was done, Mayor Bob Rosebrough called on Assistant City Manager Larry Binkley, whom he lead through a series of questions and answers that either refuted Rainaldi's claims or emphasized the positives of the council decisions he had questioned.

Back at the microphone, Rainaldi accused the mayor of challenging him to a fight and a debate, and said he didn't appreciate it. Later on, the senator said he was referring to a meeting he had with the mayor in December, before the Legislature got under way, during which Rosebrough asked if he wanted a fight. At the council meeting, Rosebrough denied ever threatening or challenging the senator to a debate.

Next up was Lee, who took the chance to set the record straight about Global Entertainment's management of Red Rock Park.

Since the council signed a $480,000 contract with Global to take over daily operations at the park last summer, the deal has had its critics. But the abuse really started to fly in February, when Harry Mendoza began criticizing the deal during his campaign for the District 3 council seat, which will come to an end March 29.

He blamed the council for spending $480,000 on the park instead of coming up with some way to break even, blamed Global for failing to book a single new event since taking over, and said he'd advocate for canceling the contract if elected. City officials say they've actually saved the city hundreds of thousands of dollars with the deal, since it was spending as much as $880,000 a year before Global stepped in.

Lee hasn't taken the criticism lightly.

"In just eight months time Global Entertainment has booked over a dozen new events, and has resigned events that, frankly, were not going to return," he said.

Lee also noted the capital improvements Global has put into the park, including $52,500 in preparation for the Wrangler National Junior High School Finals Rodeo coming in July. By the end of the company's first year at the park, he said, it will have spent $177,443 on fixing up the park.

That includes the constant repairs.

"One of my goals is to get through the week without a major repair," he said. "So far that hasn't happened, but it will."

And even with the city subsidy, Lee expects Global to be $100,000 in the red by year's end. That, he said, was proof of the company's faith in the park's potential and commitment to sticking it out for the long run.

That's when he lost it.

If Global has done anything wrong, he said, it was not broadcasting its own accomplishments. And what bothered him most, Lee began to shout, waving his arms in the air and banging the lectern, then turning around to face Sen. Rainaldi in the audience, was criticism from people who he said have never even stepped a foot inside the park for political gain.

That drew the mayor into the fray, banging his gavel, shouting for order, and ordering Lee to direct his words strictly at the council.

"That's not true, this is not political," Rainaldi said of Lee's accusation, adding that he was only raising concerns he'd heard from his constituents.

Wherever those concerns came from, they did sound very similar to the criticism Mendoza has been raising in his campaign ads since February.

"It did appear as though his questions were virtually identical to a lot of the questions raised in (Mendoza's) ads," Rosebrough said, without insisting on any direct connection.

Rainaldi denied any influence from Mendoza.