Regular Governing Body Meeting - Last Wednesday Wed, Aug 26, 2026 · Governing Body https://santafeminutes.space/meeting/934-governing-body-aug-26-2026 == Executive Summary == The Governing Body held an emergency meeting on August 26, 2026, to address a critical clerical error in Resolution 2026-32. This resolution, related to the Swan Park bond question, incorrectly stated the bond amount as $3,500,000 instead of the intended $4,250,000. The City Attorney explained that immediate action was necessary because the deadline to submit the corrected resolution to the county was August 25, 2026, to ensure the correct amount appeared on the November ballot. Failure to correct this error would have resulted in substantial financial loss for the city by jeopardizing capital funding for Swan Park. During the meeting, the Governing Body approved an amendment to Resolution 2026-32 to correct the bond amount. Despite technical difficulties experienced by Councilor Garcia, which affected his participation, the resolution passed unanimously. The immediate next step was to submit the corrected resolution to the county by the end of the day. == Key Decisions == - Approved an amendment to Resolution 2026-32 to correct the Swan Park bond question amount from $3,500,000 to $4,250,000. == Motions & Votes == - Approval of agenda — Passed (Councilor Bustamante, Castro, Faulkner, Figalli, and Mayor Garcia voted yes) - Resolution to amend Resolution 2026-32, correcting the Swan Park bond question amount from $3,500,000 to $4,250,000 — Passed (Councilor Castro, Faulkner, Figalli, Bustamante, and Mayor Garcia voted yes) == Public Comment == No public comment period. == Topics == - Swan Park Bond Question - Bond Amount Correction - General Obligation Bonds - Meeting Deadlines - Emergency Meeting Justification - Resolution 2026-32 - Technical Difficulties - Voting Procedures == Full Transcript == I'd like to call to order an emergency meeting of the governing body for August 25th, 2026. Madam City Clerk, can we get a roll call, please? We can't hear you, Madam City Clerk. Can you hear us? I was able to hear somebody. Okay. Councilor Barrett? Nope. Councilor Busamante? Here. Councilor Cassette? Councilor Castro? Present. Councilor Chavez? Councilor Faulkner? Here. Councilor Figalli? Here. Councilor Garcia? Mayor Garcia? Present. You have a quorum, Mayor. Thank you so much. Next step is approval of the agenda. Are there any changes from staff? If not, changes from governing body. Motion to approve. I'll second. We've got a motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none, Mister City Clerk, can we get a roll call vote, please? Yes, Mayor. Councilor Bustamante? Yes. Councilor Castro? Yes. Councilor Faulkner? Yes. Councilor Figalli? Yes. Mayor Garcia, or Councilor Garcia, excuse me. Councilor Garcia, I believe you're muted. I'm not sure you can hear us. Asking to give a thumbs up. Councilor Garcia? It looks like he might be having some technical difficulties. Garcia, can you hear us? No? Okay. Councilor, if you can hear us, let's have you maybe log in and log out. That might fix the issue. Where were we at with the vote, Mister City Clerk? Councilor Garcia is the last one we're waiting on there. Okay. And he's back. Councilor Garcia, can you hear us now? Okay. Mister City Attorney, what should we do given that we've got four councilors that have voted in the affirmative? One councilor can't hear or participate in the vote. Would that mean that I would vote to ultimately move forward? In this case, I think you would then vote in order to make the action that's necessary for the governing body to act. Okay. So I will vote in the affirmative as well, Mister City Clerk. Okay. The motion has passed. Okay. Next item is the action item. Mister City Clerk, could you please read that into the record? Yes, ma'am. Can you adjust it? There you go. So we have consideration of a resolution, a resolution amending number 2026-32 to make a technical correction in Section 3, Swan Park bond question, changing the amount from $3,500,000 to $4,250,000. Okay. And so with that, Mister City Attorney, if you wouldn't mind giving an overview of this request. Yes. Thank you, Mayor, members of the governing body. I'll give a short history of this matter for the benefit of the public who may be interested in the information. The short history is that there was a clerical error in Resolution 2026-32, which was the recently adopted resolution that would place general obligation bond questions on the November 2026 ballot in Santa Fe for various capital projects. The error was that the Swan Park bond question text listed an incorrect amount, $3,500,000, rather than the $4,250,000 as staff had intended and as the governing body discussed at the August 12th meeting. That amount was the correct amount was actually noted in the caption and in the FIR. Upon discovering the error, city staff and the county clerk staff conferred on finding a timely solution that would keep the correct amount on the November ballot. Initially, staff believed that we could correct the error at tomorrow's regularly scheduled meeting with an amending resolution. However, upon further discussion with the county attorney and wanting to avoid any dispute over the timing of the correction for the Swan Park bond question, we believe the most conservative and defensible path forward was to hold a special governing body meeting today as we are doing. The deadline, the most critical deadline we must meet, is to have the corrected resolution to the county today, August 25th, 2026, which is 70 days before the general election as required by NMSA 1978 Section 1-16-3. Although we had sent the initial resolution to the county in that timeframe, and we believed that there was an argument to be made that the amending resolution would have qualified under the initial transmission, we didn't want to have any doubt over the validity of the resolution and the ballot questions. Additionally, this matter qualifies as an emergency under the Open Meetings Act, which states that emergency refers to unforeseen circumstances that, if not addressed immediately by the public body, it will likely result in substantial financial loss to the public body. In the absence of the governing body taking action today, the Swan Park bond question will risk losing the opportunity to obtain bond-funded capital money. Therefore, it qualifies as an emergency that if not addressed immediately today by the governing body, will likely result in substantial financial loss to the city. Therefore, I recommend that the governing body approve the resolution amending Resolution 2026-32. And I stand for questions, and I believe that Sam Burnett is also here who may be able to assist if the governing body has any questions. Thank you, Mister City Attorney. Are there any questions from governing body members? If not, what's the will of the body? Move to approve as amended. Second. Okay. So we've got a motion and a second to approve. Any discussion on the motion? Hearing none, Mister City Clerk, can you please provide a roll call vote, please? Yes, Mayor. Councilor Castro? Yes. Councilor Faulkner? Yes. Councilor Figalli? Yes. Councilor Garcia? I still don't think he can hear us. Councilor Bustamante? Yes. City Attorney Martinez, would we have the Mayor vote since Councilor Garcia is unable to hear us? Yes. I believe he would vote in this matter. Mayor Garcia? Yes. The motion to approve the resolution has passed. Is this your first vote, Mayor? No, it's not. I believe that it completes our agenda, so we stand adjourned. Thank you, everybody, for quickly rushing to have this special governing body meeting.