Portales honors outgoing city manager

PORTALES - After nearly an hour in discussion with his potential replacement, the Portales City Council honored outgoing City Manager Sammy Standefer for his 29 years with the city.

The council, following a 45-minute executive session, agreed to enter contract negotiations with Sarah Austin, who currently serves as village manager in Milan. Austin told The News she was glad to be there for Standefer's going-away meeting, and realized she'd have some big shoes to fill.

Standefer said his time with the city was supposed to be just a temp job mowing grass, and then a few weeks became a year, and so on.

"Even though I'm leaving (the job), all of the friendships last forever," Standefer told councilors. "The things you're working hard on today, they won't come to fruition for many years."

Portales Chamber of Commerce President Matt Hunton and Karl Terry also attended the meeting to present the chamber's Warm Heart of the Sunbelt award, and joked the only way they could get the award to him was to come to a council meeting his job required him to attend. Hunton thanked Standefer for all of his help over the years, including his time as a building inspector when Hunton first got the idea to have a family movie night in the city.

"You always did the setup," Hunton said, "and you found a way to make it work."

Hunton, who was on the city council that elevated Standefer to city manager, admitted he had reservations doing so because he didn't want to lose Standefer's expertise at the job he held.

A final piece of advice Standefer gave was to value the employees the city had, and to think of them as people before thinking of them as assets or objects.

Austin, contacted by The News after the meeting, has served as the village manager in Milan since October 2019, and has worked with the village since 2016. She previously was a data steward with the New Mexico Environment Department.

Austin said she was set to leave the village anyway for a position with the Western New Mexico Correctional Facility in Grants, but applied when she saw the position was available.

I was very excited to see (with) the board and the city manager, how involved they were," Austin said. "I felt like they all work together very well. I am very excited to be offered the position."

Along with the city manager position, she felt like Portales would be a good fit for the family. Her husband, Darrell Keith Austin, was born in Portales and grew up as the son of a Clovis firefighter. Also, her daughter Jazmyn is entering her senior year of high school and has shown interest in attending Eastern New Mexico University. They also bring their son Jaden, who will be a sophomore.

Mayor Ron Jackson said Austin was hired from a field of 10 candidates, and impressed the council with her demeanor throughout the process.

Austin's salary and contract are still being negotiated. She holds an associate's degree from New Mexico State University, a bachelor's from the University of Phoenix and a master's from Columbia Southern, and is also certified as a firefighter.

In other business at the Tuesday meeting:

• Fire Chief T.J. Cathey presented Meritorious Awards to Battalion Chief Hugh Frank and firefighters Michael Gonzalez and Micah Obenhaus for their work in saving multiple individuals trapped in a vehicle by fast-moving water at South Roosevelt Roads Q 1/2 and 6 1/2.

The three operated a ladder truck, basket and a rope safety line to create a path of rescue for the vehicle's three occupants, in a process Cathey said most everybody in Portales has already seen on YouTube or a television report by now. The rescue required Frank break the back window open to get to the vehicle's occupants. The performance was even more impressive, Cathey said, because response to other calls during the storm left limited personnel to handle the incident.

Cathey also recognized CareFlight 22 Clinical Base Lead John Kropp for assistance and Causey Volunteer Fire Chief Michael Mapp for providing coverage at Station 1, along with city personnel that included the police and public works departments.

Cathey said a Meritorious Award is not handed out, and that he only remembered one other instance of the award in the last 15 years. Criteria for the award notes "a meritorious act involves a risk above the ordinary sine the firefighter/EMT's task is inherently fraught with danger ... The relative peril to each member involved must be carefully evaluated in order to property reward the deserving."

Frank, who called the rescue a team effort, was also awarded a challenge coin to note what Cathey called exceptional leadership in the rescue.

• Councilors approved a 2021-22 interim budget with $10.013 million in expenditures.

City Finance Director Marilyn Rapp noted the previous year saw about $400,000 more in gross receipts tax revenues and $870,000 less in wage and benefit expenditures than predicted in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Wage and benefit savings were the result of higher-wage employees retiring and being replaced with less experienced employees who were lower on the salary scale.

Rapp anticipates a 9.63% gross receipts tax increase based on a new state formula for GRT on Internet purchases. She said the state previously disbursed those revenues based on population, but moving forward disbursements will be based on where purchases originate. Rural counties tend to buy more items online because those products are less likely to be locally available.

• Councilors approved a project participation agreement with Hampton Farms. Councilor Jim Lucero, who is also executive director for the Roosevelt County Development Corporation, abstained from the otherwise unanimous vote.

• The council moved its June meetings from June 1 and 15 to June 8 and 22 due to various scheduling issues.