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Appointments to the Customer Advisory Committee
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At the August 2014 Board meeting, there was a request to provide additional time to determine if additional candidates may be interested in the three vacant positions on Customer Advisory Committee (CAC). The CAC was established to provide a professional/technical group of volunteer individuals who represented the five core functional areas of operating a water and wastewater utility. This group is intended to provide outside expertise in best practices and private sector applications for continuous business improvement. The CAC was never intended to be a feedback mechanism for customers - that mechanism is accomplished through the quarterly customer conversation meetings the CAC holds in the community and through biennial customer opinion surveys.
An email was sent to all Board members notifying them that an online application was created for customers who may be interested in serving on this technical committee. Board members were informed that if they know of anyone interested to apply from the Water Authority's website. In addition, a notice was placed on the Water Authority website's front page.
Qualified nominations were compiled and forwarded to the Chair who through this communication is forwarding the nominations to the Board for confirmation. All nominees presented for confirmation are highly qualified and certified in their field of work and for the technical areas recommend by the resolution.
The following three nominees are the most qualified and are recommended for Board approval:
§ Moises Gonzales
§ Laurie Firor
§ Marissa Reno
Moises Gonzales
Moises Gonzales is an Assistant Professor in the Community and Regional Planning Program at the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of New Mexico. He also serves as the Director of the Resource Center for Raza Planning, which is a community outreach center within the School of Architecture and Planning whose mission is to provide technical assistance in the areas of community development, design, and natural resource planning for traditional communities throughout New Mexico. Mr. Gonzales currently serves on the board of the Carnuel Mutual Domestic Water Consumers Association in addition to serving as the Secretary for the Cañon de Carnue Land Grant Board. Mr. Gonzales holds a Post Professional Master's Degree in Urban Design from the College of Architecture and Planning from the University of Colorado, Denver as well as a Professional Planning Degree in the Masters of Community and Regional Planning Program at the University of New Mexico. In 2008, he was awarded the Post Graduate Loeb Fellowship at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University where he studied sustainable urban design. In addition to being an Assistant Professor, Mr. Gonzales is the Principal and owner of Chimal Designs which has over 14 years of experience in working in community planning, land use, and design projects throughout the state of New Mexico. Mr. Gonzales teaches courses in the Physical Planning Concentration of the Community and Regional Planning Program which include; Advanced Planning Studio, Human Settlements, Urban Design Theory, Environmental Design Studio, and Introduction to GIS.
Laurie Firor, PLA, ASLA
Laurie Firor is a principle landscape architect at Consensus Planning and has over 10 years of experience in landscape design and planning. Ms. Firor incorporates sustainable design principles into all of her landscape and community designs. She promotes organic landscape management to reduce toxic chemical use, enhance soil health, and reduce human exposure to chemical spraying. She has worked on numerous projects which incorporate the use of cisterns to hold captured water as well as passive water harvesting for irrigation purposes. This approach, combined with the selection of native, low-water use plant materials, creates a sensible approach to landscape design. She is well-versed and has experience with LEED documentation and certification procedures resulting in numerous LEED Gold and Silver certifications, all of which received maximum points for water efficiency credits for landscape design features. As a project manager and designer, Ms. Firor's work encompasses diverse projects such as streetscapes, parks and trails, commercial landscaping, health facilities, academic and other municipal institution landscapes, and conceptual master plans. She has BA in Landscape Architecture from the University of Georgia and a Masters in Landscape Architecture from the University of New Mexico. She looks forward to participating in this exciting adventure of addressing community and utility goals, objectives, and priorities.
Marissa Reno
Marissa Reno is a hydrologist and economist by training with a passion for resilient resource management aimed at growing and sustaining a healthy global population. Ms. Reno has a BS in Environmental Science and BA in Economics from the University of New Mexico and has a MS in Hydrology from the NM Institute of Mining and Technology. She has engaged on state, national, and international projects to develop computational tools aimed at assisting resource managers in making informed, defendable long-term resource management decisions. Over the last ten years, she has worked as a Member of the Technical Staff at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), her work has involved the development of system dynamics models that look at the interdependencies and feedbacks between water, energy, and food in spatially constrained systems over time horizons of months to decades. She is passionate about and motivated by the idea that global water scarcity issues can be addressed and ameliorated, to a large degree, by changes in the way society grows and consumes food. Acknowledging that being intimately familiar with and engaging on water resource management issues at home is of paramount importance, Ms. Reno is eager to serve on the CAC and continue her work to ensure a resilient water future for us all.
Other Applicants:
Craig Hoover
Is a Senior Vice President and Principal-in-Charge for Bohannan Huston and the Manager of the Water Resources group. His wide ranging technical expertise includes planning and design of civil engineering projects in the areas of flood control, storm drainage, stormwater quality, water systems, sanitary sewers, subdivisions, and street rehabilitation. Mr. Hoover is adept in the preparation of feasibility studies, reports, and design plans, and his ability to clearly understand project and client needs and goals allows him to adeptly communicate this information to customers and stakeholders. Mr. Hoover has both a BS and MS in Civil Engineering and is a member of many local and national engineering affiliations.
Lisa Atwa
Is a registered psychiatric nurse practitioner and formerly a teacher. In her bio, she states that she is interested in ecological issues for the past 40 years and has tried to use water conservatively and educate others to do so. She has a master's degrees in nursing from NMSU and UNM. She also has a master's degree in education from UNM.
Alan Roderick Mahoney
Is a retired from Sandia National Laboratories. He is involved with Vecinos del Bosque Neighborhood Association. He also serves in an advisory role with the Partnership for Community Action and the Historic Bridge Mainstreet effort. He has a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from UNM.
Elaine Hebard
Is a lawyer who has been involved in water related planning activities at the local, state, and regional level as a volunteer since 1997. She has also been involved as a facilitator and consultant on water related issues. Has written articles and given presentations on water resource management.
CURRENT MEMBERS:
Member |
R-06-27 Category |
Term Expiration |
David Ritchey |
Financial Management/Institutional Customer |
5/2015 |
Will Gleason |
Planning |
5/2015 |
Amy Ewing |
Water Resource Planning |
4/2016 |
Wayne Frye |
Customer Service |
5/2015 |
Lola Bird |
Landscape Architecture |
8/2014 |
John Shomaker |
Water Resource Planning |
8/2014 |
Fred Arfman |
Water System Engineering |
8/2014 |
David Brookshire |
Resource Economics |
8/2016 |
Sarah Gilstrap Browne |
Environmental |
2/2015 |
FISCAL IMPACT: None