Agendas for the next board meeting are posted on the Notices Page – click here

Currently serving on the Lower Rio Grande PWWA Board of Directors are:

VACANT, Director
Term expires Dec. 31, 2027,
representing the residents of District 1
Email:

Enrique “Rick” Franco
Appointed 7/19/23, term expires Dec. 31, 2027
representing the residents of District 2
Email: enrique.franco@lrgauthority.org

James Cadena, Director
Appointed 1/12/23, term expires Dec. 31, 2025,
representing the residents of District 3
Email: james.cadena@lrgauthority.org

Esperanza “Espy” Holguin, Chair
Elected 11/2/21, elected Chair on 1/19/22, term expires Dec. 31, 2025,
representing the residents of District 4
Email: espy.holguin@lrgauthority.org

Juan L. Perez, Director
Appointed 1/17/2024, term expires Dec. 31, 2025
representing the residents of District 5
Email: juan.perez@lrgauthority.org

Glory Juarez, Secretary
Appointed 8/18/21, appointed Secretary on 12/7/22, Term Expires Dec. 31, 2027
representing the residents of District 6
Email: glory.juarez@lrgauthority.org

Muriel Bowles
Term expires Dec. 31, 2025,
representing the residents of District 7
Email: murial.bowles@lrgauthority.org

District 1 (Term expires 12/31/23) is currently vacant.
Send a letter of interest to board@lrgauthority.org or LRGPWWA Board Chair, P.O. Box 2646, Anthony NM 88021 if you reside within a vacant district and would like to be appointed to serve the remainder of that term.

If you would like to receive an email reminder about our Board meetings, email your request to: board@lrgauthority.org

LRGPWWA Board of Directors, August 2017
L to R: Henry Magallanez, District 5; Jose Evaro, District 3; Furman Smith, Vice Chair, District 7; Esperanza Holguin, Secretary, District 4; Michael McMullen, Chair, District 6, and not in the picture is Raymundo Sanchez, District 1.

LRGPWWA Board of Directors, April 2015L to R: Raymundo Sanchez, District 1; John Holguin, Vice Chair, District 4; Roberto “Marty” Nieto, Chair, District 5; Mike McMullen, District 6; Furman Smith, District 7, Carlos “Cali” Tellez, District 3; and Alma Boothe, Secretary, District 2.

LRGPWWA Board of Directors, August 2017
L to R: Henry Magallanez, District 5; Jose Evaro, District 3; Furman Smith, Vice Chair, District 7; Esperanza Holguin, Secretary, District 4; Michael McMullen, Chair, District 6, and not in the picture is Raymundo Sanchez, District 1.

LRGPWWA Board of Directors, April 2015L to R: Raymundo Sanchez, District 1; John Holguin, Vice Chair, District 4; Roberto “Marty” Nieto, Chair, District 5; Mike McMullen, District 6; Furman Smith, District 7, Carlos “Cali” Tellez, District 3; and Alma Boothe, Secretary, District 2.

On Tuesday, December 30, 2019 LRGPWWA Director Mike McMullen was re-elected and sworn in at the Dona Ana County 2020 Swearing in Ceremony in the Commission Chambers.

2023 Election Information

Four-year terms for Directors representing Districts 1, 2,  & 6 expire in 2023, and these positions will be on the ballot for the 2023 Local Election.  Election Day is November 7, 2023, and those wishing to run for office will need to file as a candidate at the Dona Ana County Clerk’s Office 70 days prior to the election on TUESDAY, AUGUST 29, 2023 between 9:00 am and 5:00 pm.  Additional information will be posted here as it becomes available.  Here are links to county and state election information: https://www.donaanacounty.org/elections/elections-info https://www.sos.state.nm.us/voting-and-elections/ LRGPWWA Governance Document

Local Election Day

November 7, 2023 @ 7:00 am – 7:00 pm

For information about voting early, on election day, in-person, or absentee, see the Dona Ana County Election Bureau page or the New Mexico Secretary of State’s Voter Information Portal.
Also see: https://www.sos.nm.gov/voting-and-elections/voter-information-portal-nmvote-org/absentee-and-early-voting/

Details:

Visit the Dona Ana County Elections page at https://www.donaanacountyelections.com/ or the New Mexico Secretary of State’s Voter Information page https://www.sos.state.nm.us/voting-and-elections/voter-information-portal/ for election and voter information.

Our First Board of Directors

The Initial Board consisted of five Directors, each appointed by the Board of Directors of the Founding Entity they represented. They served until the first elected board was sworn in on April 17, 2013. The initial appointed Directors were:

  • Chairman Roberto Nieto representing the Mesquite MDWC & MSWA
  • Vice-Chairman John Holguin representing the Vado MDWCA
  • Secretary Santos Ruiz representing Berino MDWCA
  • Director Rosaura Pargas representing Desert Sands MDWCA
  • Director Blanca Martinez representing La Mesa MDWCA
  • Director Mary Berry representing Butterfield Park MDWCA
  • Director Furman Smith representing Organ WSA
  • Director Mike McMullen representing Brazito MDWCA

You will find the NM Statute establishing the Lower Rio Grande Public Water Works Authority and our Governance Document on the Documents page. You’ll find information there on the duties of the Board, elections, districts, voting and more. There is a Board Minutes page where you will find the minutes & board packet from board meetings. A schedule of board meetings is located on the Notices page along with the Agenda for the next meeting and other items of interest. The Events page has a calendar showing board meetings, office closures due to holidays, etc.

2019 Election – Local Election Act Changes & Lower Rio Grande Public Water Works Authority Elections

The Local Election Act enacted by the NM Legislature in 2018 and updated in 2019 consolidates the elections for many types of entities such as school districts, water districts, soil & water conservation districts, etc. into one election administered by the county Election Bureau in November.  This should greatly improve participation in our election, but it means that you need to be a registered voter to participate, and the Doña Ana County Election Bureau, will maintain voter rolls.  Directors will still be elected by district, and all registered voters within a district will be able to vote or run for office.  Voter registration information is available here:

https://www.donaanacounty.org/elections/registration

Three board terms expire this year and will be up for election: Districts #1 (Desert Sands area), #2 (Berino & High Valley), & #6 (Brazito & Organ).  Also, there will be a question on the ballot for amendments to our Governance Document to bring it into compliance with the Local Election Act and the changes made in 2019 to our statute with the 2019 Local Election Act clean-up bill. You will find our current statute establishing the Lower Rio Grande PWWA as enacted by the NM Legislature in 2009 and amended in 2017 and 2019 and our amended Election Policy on the Documents page.

UPDATED INFORMATION as of 9/12/19:  There will NOT be a ballot question regarding our Governance Document updates.  The Governance Document will still need to be updated, and there will be more information available here in the next few weeks.

UPDATED INFORMATION AS OF 10/16/19: The Board of Directors acted to amend the LRGPWWA Governance Document on this date.  The amendment was a statutory requirement, and, under the Local Election Act, Governance Document amendments are no longer eligible ballot questions.  The amended Governance Document now requires that future amendments will require a public hearing prior to adoption by the board.  The Governance Document as amended can be download from the Documents page.

2019 Election Timeline

  • Candidate Filing Day:  August 27, 2019 from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm.
  • Write-in Candidate Filing Day:  September 3, 2019 from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm.
  • Deadline to Withdraw: September 3, 2019.
  • Early & Absentee Voting: October 8 thru November 2, 2019
  • Election Day: November 5, 2019
  • Start date for Directors term of office: January 1, 2020

Information for Candidates

Anyone interested in running for one of our vacant board positions should download the Candidate Guide here:

https://www.sos.state.nm.us/candidate-and-campaigns/how-to-become-a-candidate/2019-local-election-candidate-guide/

Also, if  you are considering running, you might like to attend some of our board meetings (see Notices or Events pages for details) and/or have a look at some of our previous Board Minutes.  Contact us at board@LRGauthority.org or 575-233-5742 with any questions.

Election District Information

Developing election districts was a bigger challenge than anticipated, but the Board of Directors adopted the first Election District Map on April 6, 2011. And then, the Butterfield Park MDWCA, Organ WSA and Brazito MDWCA members voted to merge with us, so voting districts had to be redrawn, and now there are seven instead of five. These districts were adopted by the Board and an Election Proclamation was issued by Resolution on January 16, 2013 and has been filed with the County Clerk.

Our consultant, Vencor Engineering, identified each property within our Service Area by Parcel ID Number and owner information, and our staff put together our member and customer lists with the Parcel ID Numbers, this data was compared and collated by Vencor to establish a location on the map for each eligible voter. The Service Area was then divided into seven districts with an approximately equal number of eligible voters.

PLEASE NOTE that our Election District Map is NOT the same as our Service Area Map. Our Service Area is based on our Place of Use of our water rights and is mapped by Section, Township & Range. Election District boundaries need to be easily recognizable geographical features such as streets, rivers, canals, etc. Our Election District boundaries extend outside of our Service Area in order to show these features, but only Members of the Authority are eligible to vote. In order to be a Member, a person must own real property within our Service Area and receive service from us to that property.

We encourage our Members to be sure that we have your current and up-to-date account and property information on file for our voter rolls. The links below will open a PDF document of the District Map with a bit more detail than the images to the right to help you see which is your voting district.

LRGPWWA Voting Districts Map Individual
LRGPWWA Voting Districts Map Overall

Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash

Oath of Office Documents & Election Results

Oath of Office Documents

Election Results Documents

Documents:

Results:

  • District 3: Jose “Joe” Evaro
  • District 4: Esperanza “Espy” Holguin
  • District 5: Vacant
  • District 7: Furman “Smitty” Smith

Newly elected Directors will be sworn in at the regular monthly board meeting on Wednesday, April 19, 2017, 9:00 a.m. at our La Mesa Office, 521 St. Valentine.

Documents:

Results:

  • District 1: Raymundo Sanchez
  • District 2: Alma Boothe
  • District 6: Michael McMullen

Documents:

Results:

  • District 1: no candidate
  • District 2: Santos Ruiz
  • District 3: Carlos Telles
  • District 4: Johnny Holguin
  • District 5: Roberto Nieto
  • District 6: Michael McMullen
  • District 7: Furman Smith

Question Re: allowing Directors to be paid mileage for travel to Board meetings passed on a vote of 14-7

The newly elected Directors were sworn in at the regular meeting of the Board of Directors on April 17. 2013. There was an election of officers at the meeting,and a roll of the dice established staggered terms (three 2-year terms and four 4-year terms. In the future, all Directors will be elected to 4-year terms).