A. If the required majority of votes were cast in favor of the organization of the district, then the county commission chairman shall declare the organization of the ".....economic advancement district." The county commission shall call for an election of a board of trustees, within not less than sixty days or more than one hundred twenty days, one from each school district participating in the district in the event there are three or more such participating areas, which shall be held at a time and at sites within the district selected by the county commissioners. In the event there are less than three participating areas, there shall be, in the case of a district with two participating areas, two trustees elected from each school district participating and, in the case of a district with one participating area, three trustees elected from the district.

B. Board of trustees members shall be over twenty-one years of age, qualified electors and residents of the district.

C. Persons desiring to be a candidate for a position on the board of trustees shall file a declaration of candidacy for one of the positions on the board of trustees with the county clerk not later than 5:00 p.m. on the thirtieth day after the issuance of the proclamation by the board of county commissioners. The declaration of candidacy shall be an affidavit as to the qualifications required by law of the declarant for such office. The declaration of candidacy shall be on a form prescribed and furnished by the county clerk. The candidates shall file for and be elected to a particular position number. The candidate receiving the highest number of votes for a particular position shall be elected. To provide for staggered terms, either one-year and three-year terms or two-year and four-year terms shall be assigned by lot to the position numbers in such a manner that approximately half the terms expire in the first even-numbered year following the initial election and the remainder in the next succeeding even-numbered year. Board members shall be elected for terms beginning April 1 succeeding their election. Trustees shall thereafter be elected for four-year terms at elections to be held on the first Tuesday of March of each even-numbered year. The elections required by this section shall be held, conducted and canvassed in the same manner as municipal elections, unless otherwise specifically provided in the Economic Advancement District Act. All vacancies caused in any other manner than by expiration of the term of office shall be filled by appointment by the remaining members.

D. Immediately after the election of the members, the board of trustees shall select from its members a chairman and secretary-treasurer who shall serve in these offices until the next regular board of trustees election. After each board of trustees election, the members shall proceed to reorganize.

E. Members of the board of trustees shall be suspended or removed from office only as provided in Sections 10-4-1 through 10-4-29 NMSA 1978.

History: Laws 1987, ch. 115, § 5; 1988, ch. 86, § 3; 1989, ch. 268, § 2.

The 1989 amendment, effective June 16, 1989, in Subsection A substituted all of the present language of the last sentence following "shall be" for "three trustees elected from the district at large".

The 1988 amendment, effective March 8, 1988, deleted "economic advancement" preceding "district" in Subsections A and B; inserted "county" preceding "commission chairman" in the first sentence of Subsection A; inserted "of trustees" following "Board" in Subsection B; substituted the present sixth and seventh sentences in Subsection C for the former sixth sentence which read "Board members shall be elected for a term of four years from April 1 succeeding their election or until the next presidential election year, whichever last occurs"; substituted "even-numbered year" for "presidential election year" at the end of the eighth sentence of Subsection C; substituted "by this section" for "hereby" and deleted "school" preceding "elections" in the next-to-last sentence of Subsection C; and substituted "board of trustees" for "economic advancement board" throughout Subsection D.