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

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

   3. (3) three members appointed by the governor; provided that one member shall be a:

      1. (a) current or past member of the acequia commission;
      2. (b) current or past member of the land grant council; and
      3. (c) current or past member of the colonias infrastructure board and a resident of a colonia.
2. 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.

3. C. The commission shall:

   1. (1) make recommendations to the department on applicants for the program;
   2. (2) advise the department on the adoption of rules to implement the provisions of the Community Governance Attorney Act; and
   3. (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. D. The university shall, with the approval of the commission, enter into contracts for expenditure of the fund for the purpose of providing free 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, counties or municipalities that have designated at least one colonia within their boundaries, state agencies or nonprofit organizations whose mission includes providing a range of 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 funding to provide a full-time position.

History: Laws 2019, ch. 43, § 4; 2025, ch. 87, § 2.

ANNOTATIONS

The 2025 amendment, effective July 1, 2025, transferred the authority from the community governance attorney commission to the university of New Mexico school of law to enter into contracts for expenditure of the community governance attorney and conditional tuition waiver fund to provide free community governance attorney services for acequia, land-grant Mercedes and low-income residents of colonias on issues regarding the governance of colonias, and allowed state agencies and counties and municipalities with at least one designated colonia within their boundaries to hire community governance attorneys; redesignated former Paragraph C(4) as Subsection D; in Subsection D, after the subsection designation, added "The university shall, with the approval of the commission", after "shall be entered into with the university" added "counties or municipalities that have designated at least one colonia within their boundaries, state agencies", after "a range of" deleted "free" and deleted former Paragraph C(5); and deleted former Subsection D..