Medina will be out of town for critical vote
Monday, July 13, 2009, 7:51am
Valencia County Commissioner David Medina will be out of town on Wednesday, when a critical vote will take place over whether or not to stop American Iron and Metal Co., Inc., from constructing a metal recycling plant in the Rio Grande Industrial Park.
Medina said at a meeting last month that he would be out of town for the July 15 meeting, at the time not knowing what would be on the agenda.
With Commissioner Georgia Otero-Kirkham having recused herself from voting on the matter and Medina on vacation, that leaves three commissioners — Ron Gentry, Don Holliday and Pedro Rael — to take up the issue for action Wednesday night.
In their public comments, Gentry has leaned in favor of the citizens’ appeal to stop the plant, while Holliday and Rael have leaned against the appeal.
It’s possible Medina could participate in the meeting by speaker phone, as Otero-Kirkham did for a meeting two weeks ago. It’s also possible that Otero-Kirkham could decide to vote, though that’s unlikely.
“I anticipate that I will not be voting,” she told Valencia! last week.
She said she recused herself because, as the president of a title company, she has closed past real estate transactions for people now involved with the sale of land to American Iron and Metal. She doen’t know if she will closed the pending sale of property in the Rio Grande Industrial Park, because the company will buy the land only if the commission allows the plant to be built.
“I kind of feel I shouldn’t have recused myself, but I didn’t want there to be that question: Is she going to make money or isn’t she going to make money?” Otero-Kirkham said.
