KE­JAN HAYNES

PNM Coun­cil Mem­bers of The San­gre Grande Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion are up in arms over changes to its Fi­nance Com­mit­tee, where all but one PNM mem­ber was re­moved.

A com­mit­tee, by de­f­i­n­i­tion, doesn't re­quire all of the mem­bers of Coun­cil to be part, but the fi­nance com­mit­tee is where fund­ing for projects like paving or drainage con­struc­tion is ap­proved. 

In a vote, the UNC led cor­po­ra­tion re­duced the num­ber of the mem­bers on the fi­nance com­mit­tee from all 12 to sev­en—six UNC mem­bers and one PNM mem­ber. 

In a re­lease, the PNM coun­cil mem­bers al­lege the chair­man of the fi­nance com­mit­tee, Su­san Hold­er, is re­tal­i­at­ing against them be­cause they raised a mo­tion of no con­fi­dence in her af­ter she made racial­ly charged state­ments against them in a coun­cil meet­ing. 

“You can­not be play­ing kinder­garten games in a re­gion­al cor­po­ra­tion,” said Si­mone Gill, Coun­cil­lor for Va­len­cia West. “The vot­ers ex­pect us to vote for mon­ey for paving, recre­ation­al grounds and drainage. They vote for us to vote for every­thing.”

The PNM al­so has raised is­sues with Coun­cil­lor Anil Ma­haraj, who was charged in 2021 with Mis­be­hav­iour in Pub­lic of­fice, be­ing able to re­main on the com­mit­tee.

At­tempts to reach Cor­po­ra­tion Chair­man Anil Juter­am were un­suc­cess­ful.