Committee will consider revamp effort

Staff report

There are no plans to disband the Local Growth Management Committee, but a new name and purpose might be on the horizon.

During the LGMC meeting Friday morning at City Hall, Portales mayor and committee chairperson Sharon King said strategic planning might be in order for the group.

The LGMC was created in 2006 in response to the Base Realignment and Closure Committee’s decision to close Cannon Air Foce Base.

Cannon was saved; but now the future of LGMC is unclear.

“We need to redefine the purpose of the committee,” said King, adding that she’s “got somebody in mind” she wants to ask to help conduct strategic planning with the LGMC.

King gave no names as she has not yet asked this person about possible involvement.

King clarified that there are no plans to disband the LGMC.

“It all started with me asking. ... ‘Do we have a purpose?’” King said of where the news of the committee’s demise may have started. Although misunderstood, she said, the question got committee members thinking.

A new name for the LGMC was also discussed during the meeting. Curry County Commissioner Wendell Bostwick said the new name might drop the word “management.”

“It’s not our idea to manage,” Bostwick said, “We’re not the dictators.”

He said “management” might be taken out to emphasize the LGMC’s collaborative effort.

The committee also approved adoption of resolution 2014-01 Open Meetings Act.

Curry County Commissioner Tim Ashley gave a report during the meeting about what took place during the Association of Defense Communities National Summit June 4-6 in Washington, DC.

Ashley said the summit focused mostly on the P4 effort— a public-to-public, public-to-private partnership.

Ashley said the P4 process is meant to initiate agreements between a military installation and its neighboring local governments.

For example, he said, should a military installation such as Cannon need maintenance work, it can contract with a local government such as Curry County instead of with a private company.

“It’s all about trying to create synergies, where it’s a win-win situation,” Ashley said.

Partnerships such as the P4 are especially convenient during a time when defense spending is down, Ashley said. During the summit, Ashley got figures from Sen. James Inhofe, R-Oklahoma, who said defense spending has historically been 5 percent of the national budget; but is now only 2 percent.

“There is a lot of pressure on the military budget ... to reduce their asset base (and) shed facilities and properties,” Ashley said.

Facilities may close to meet budget constraints, Ashley said. Cannon’s involvement in a P4 partnership could help keep the cost of operating the base down; a situation that would play favorably for Cannon in that it would attract more missions and keep the base from closing.