MESILLA – “This is not the way I like to do a budget,” Mesilla town clerk and treasurer Rani Bush said Tuesday, referring to a midnight deadline for the town to submit its budget to the state.
The town’s board of trustees and Mayor Nora Barraza held a special meeting that afternoon to approve a $1.8 million budget, with a few corrections to make before the data was presented to the state Department of Finance and Administration.
Bush, a former city clerk and treasurer for Elephant Butte who succeeded Cynthia Stoehner-Hernandez in Mesilla earlier this spring, submitted the town’s first budget since presenting a corrective action plan in February to address findings from Mesilla’s recent annual financial audits.
Auditors alerted the town to $3,794 in court cash collections that lacked supporting documents as well as discrepancies between cash receipts and bank deposits, indicating a risk of loss or theft.
At the time the plan was executed in February, an ongoing investigation was underway at town hall while staff implemented updated internal controls pertaining to cash receipts and matching them to bank deposits.
The corrective plan acknowledged the town submitted last year’s audit to the New Mexico State Auditor past the Dec. 15 deadline because town staff provided some required documentation late — a matter auditors said was the responsibility of the town clerk and treasurer, who at the time was Stoehner-Hernandez.
For subscribers:In Mesilla, a community balances historic preservation against new development
Auditors also discovered employee files with missing job descriptions, evaluations and other documents. Some’ employees records included incorrect pay rates.
The town reported it had updated and corrected the personnel files in December and that it also corrected balance statements of its capital assets.
Bush told trustees the finance office took extra care to make sure the personnel budget of $1,183,268, which includes salary increases, which was accurate in light of the audit findings and recent turnover among town staff.
In addition to personnel services, the budget includes an operational budget of $664,979, Bush told the Las Cruces Sun-News.
That leaves the town with some breathing room, Barraza noted, since projected revenues are currently estimated at $2.06 million.
On Wednesday morning, Barraza confirmed that the budget was submitted to Santa Fe around 11:30 pm Tuesday.
The trustees also approved a renewed agreement with the Las Cruces Public Schools to assign school resource officers from the Mesilla Marshals Office to Zia Middle School and Rio Grande Preparatory Institute at a slightly increased cost of $106,469 to the school district for the 2022-23 school year , which Barraza said would cover salary increases for the officers.
The trustees also approved the hire of a new utility clerk/receptionist after conferring in closed session for just six minutes.
Algernon D’Ammassa can be reached at 575-541-5451, [email protected] or @AlgernonWrites on Twitter.
Comments are closed.