At the same time Española Mayor Joseph Maestas’ bemoaned a financial slowdown in the city’s revenues, the city spent approximately $3,000 to print 4,500 newsletters promoting his annual state of the city address.
Page three of the newsletter even advised residents of a shortfall in the city’s 2007-08 fiscal year gross receipts tax revenue by approximately 10 percent.
Maestas said he was not aware of the cost to print the newsletters.
“I can’t pre-approve or oversee all purchases, especially small purchases, within the city, and because of that I have to trust the judgment of my staff,” he said.
Maestas said the newsletter is the one time each year that the city provides comprehensive information about what is going on in the city.
Interim City Manager Veronica Albin said paying $3,000 for the October newsletter’s printing is justified.
“This is our state of the city; this isn’t just this month’s newsletter,” she said.
The newsletter contained a summary of Maestas’ state of the city address that took place Sept. 18.
It noted highlights of 2007 and information on water projects, a new fleet of public safety vehicles and the 2008-09 fiscal year budget.
The newsletter will be sent to residents via utility bills and to city businesses, Interim City Clerk Lucas Gauthier said. The four-page, color newsletter will take the place of the monthly double-sided, black and white city newsletter that is normally sent out, he said. That latter newsletter costs about $360 to print monthly, he said.
Gross receipts tax revenue for the first quarter of the 2008-09 fiscal year was $143,000, or 5 percent lower than had been budgeted, Albin said. The city has been operating within the shortfall, she said.
The cost of the October newsletters was included in the clerk’s budget and came out of an $8,000 fund for printing and publishing, Gauthier said.