At Tuesday morning’s meeting of the Doña Ana Board of County Commissioners, a vote not to include a proclamation on the agenda elicited strong reactions during public comments. Scott Brocato has more.
Near the beginning of Tuesday’s BOCC meeting, District 5 Commissioner Manuel Sanchez asked for one of five scheduled proclamations to be removed from the agenda: to make May 1st, 2025 National Day of Prayer in Doña Ana County. The board eventually voted 4-1 to remove the proclamation from the agenda, with District 4 Commissioner and Vice Chair Susana Chaparro voting for the proclamation, but not before a discussion between Sanchez and Chaparro. Vice Chair Chaparro gave her reasons for wanting to keep the proclamation.
“For me, it’s a very important thing,” she said. “Our nation is divided at this time…It is not only important to myself; it is important to many constituents who called me to state the same. We are a community of traditional, faithful people for the most part—I’m not saying everyone is—but to be able to express ourselves in a moment of silence, or a moment of prayer, I think is important for this community.”
Commissioner Sanchez explained his reasons to removing the proclamation from the agenda, while acknowledging that the Commissioners could no longer vote on proclamations.
“I think the people who want to congregate on public property, they should be allowed to; that is fine,” he said. “But in terms of the County recognizing it, celebrating it, I don’t agree with that…I know that historically we have done this in the past. Unfortunately, what I’ve seen is…I know, Vice-Chair Chaparro, you’ve noted the country is divided as such. My biggest concern is, when we’ve seen the National Day of Prayer here held outside, we have seen language that is divisive in itself. It is not inclusive, even though we hear that they welcome everybody.”
Later during public comments, nearly a dozen citizens either praised or criticized the County Commissioners for removing the proclamation from the agenda. Former County Commissioner Isabella Solis expressed her disappointment in the BOCC’s decision.
“I declare today that the Church of America is arising, and is becoming a superpower by the Holy Spirit to take over the evil that is taking place,” Solis told the board. “And all of this that is happening today is evil against good.”
Las Cruces resident Jim Hoerst stressed the separation of church and state and thanked the board for the removal of the proclamation from the agenda.
“We were the first government in the world to say, ‘Everybody has the right to believe whatever they want to,” Hoerst said. “And to protect that, we said that churches have no political power in America…And that is our blessing to the world: our first amendment, which begins with religious freedom, and separation of church and state. Thank you very much for acknowledging that today.”
In other BOCC business, the commissioners voted to appoint Dr. Robert Czerniak, Cristal Garcia, and Bill Zargas as Planning and Zoning Commissioners to serve two-year terms.
