Doña Ana County’s Project Jupiter committee holds inaugural meeting to lay groundwork and elect officers

LAS CRUCES, New Mexico (KVIA) -- The newly appointed 11-member Community Monitoring Committee for Project Jupiter convened for its inaugural meeting Saturday afternoon at the Doña Ana County Government Center, taking its first steps toward establishing public oversight and governance for the project.

According to the Community Monitoring Committee, it was created to transparently and independently monitor and study the operations and environmental impact of Project Jupiter in and around Doña Ana County, and spent much of the four-hour session establishing basic rules of order, debating member conduct amendments, and electing its leadership.

Following open roll-call votes, the committee elected Lynn Moorer, a local resident with extensive experience in environmental law, as Chair over nominee Arturo Terrazas. Arturo Terrazas was subsequently elected Vice Chair, and Don Bassett, a career environmental health and safety professional, was chosen to serve as Secretary.

Debating Bylaws & Public Participation

Saturday's proceedings featured lively discussion over procedural rules, including public comment structure and conflict-of-interest guidelines:

• Public Comment Limits: Members debated establishing a baseline 60-minute public comment window with a 3-minute limit per speaker, while allowing the Chair discretion to grant extensions when necessary.
• Interactive Dialogue: Meeting attendees raised concerns about standard government commission formats, urging the committee to allow back-and-forth dialogue between residents, project representatives, and domain experts rather than strictly timed single statements. Committee member Jerry Prochaska noted the board's intent to create a format distinctly different from standard county commission meetings to foster direct answers to citizen questions.
• Ethics & Amendments: The committee adopted language updates to its bylaws (Sections 3.8 and 8.2) offered by Prochaska to strictly govern personal gifts, gratuities, favors, and benefits. The committee also noted that future bylaw amendments will require a two-thirds vote.
• Meeting Locations & Access: To make meetings more accessible to residents living nearer to the Project Jupiter footprint, committee members discussed rotating future meeting sites south of Las Cruces and considering mileage stipends for traveling members.

Next Steps for the Committee

As the committee works through its initial setup, including defining secretary duties, bilingual accessibility options, and agenda submission rules, it is inviting members of the public to submit suggested topics and expert speaker recommendations for upcoming study sessions.

The committee plans to announce the schedule and location for its next public session once meeting locations closer to the Project Jupiter site are finalized.

• Elected Officers:
  • Chair: Lynn Moorer
  • Vice Chair: Arturo Terrazas
  • Secretary: Don Bassett