A. The "community governance attorney commission" is created. The commission shall be composed of five members as follows:

(1) the secretary or the secretary's designee;

(2) the dean of the university or the dean's designee; and

(3) three members appointed by the governor; provided that one member shall be a member of an acequia, one member shall be a current or past member of the land grant council and one member shall be a current or past member of the colonias infrastructure board and a resident of a colonia.

B. Staff and meeting space for the commission shall be provided by the university. The commission shall elect a chair and such other officers as it deems appropriate and shall meet at the call of the chair. Members of the commission shall receive per diem and mileage pursuant to the Per Diem and Mileage Act [10-8-1 to 10-8-8 NMSA 1978] and shall receive no other compensation.

C. The commission shall:

(1) make recommendations to the department on applicants for the program;

(2) advise the department on the adoption of rules to implement the provisions of the Community Governance Attorney Act;

(3) pursuant to the Procurement Code [13-1-28 to 13-1-199 NMSA 1978], solicit proposals for disbursement from the fund for legal services;

(4) enter into contracts for expenditure of the fund for the purpose of providing community governance attorney services for acequias, land grants-mercedes and low-income residents of colonias on issues regarding the governance of colonias. The contracts shall be entered into with the university or with nonprofit organizations whose mission is to provide a range of free legal services to low-income New Mexicans. No contract shall provide funding in excess of one-half of a full-time community governance attorney position, and each contract shall be executed only with service providers that have secured sufficient matching nonstate funding to provide a full-time position; and

(5) adopt such rules as are necessary to carry out the provisions of this section.

D. The department, pursuant to rules of the commission, shall administer the contracts and programs provided for in this section.

History: Laws 2019, ch. 43, § 4.

Effective dates. — Laws 2019, ch. 43, § 6 made Laws 2019, ch. 43 effective July 1, 2019.