Torrance County Commission Considering Adding Two More Seats

Below are exerpts from the Commissioner Handbook regarding 5 member boards:
(http://countycollege.nmsu.edu/documents/nm-commissioners-handbook-jan-2011.pdf)



In most New Mexico counties, one commissioner resides in and is elected from each district; a change of residence to a place outside the district automatically terminates the service of the commissioner and makes the office vacant (N.M. Const. Art. X, Sec. 7). All five-member boards of county commissioners serve by district. Each district is required to be compact, contiguous, and as nearly equal in population as practicable. Three-member boards may continue in districts if the population of the county is greater than 13,000 persons. However, in smaller counties, three-member boards may serve either at-large, or by representative districts, if so determined by the BOCC (4-38-3). 
In counties with five county commissioners, the terms of no more than three commissioners shall expire in the same year (N.M. Const. Art. X, Sec. 2).
A person is limited to a total of two consecutive terms, regardless of whether they serve them in different counties.  (Page 20)

B. The board of county commissioners of any county having a population of more than one hundred thousand, as shown by the most recent federal decennial census, and having a final, full assessed valuation in excess of seventy-five million dollars ($75,000,000) shall consist of five qualified electors who shall be elected according to law.  (Page 110)

§ 4-38-3. Residence in districts; period for districting; election at large


A. A county having a population greater than thirteen thousand, according to the most recent federal decennial census, shall be divided by the board of county commissioners into as many compact single-member districts as there are board members to be elected. The districts shall be as equal in population as possible and numbered respectively to correspond to the number of board members. One commissioner shall be elected from each district by the voters of the district and shall be a resident of the district from which he is elected. If a commissioner permanently removes his residence from or maintains no residence in the district from which he was elected, he shall be deemed to have resigned. The division of the county into single-member districts shall be made once immediately following each federal decennial census.
 
B. An H class county or a county having a population of thirteen thousand or fewer according to the most recent federal decennial census, may be divided by the board of county commissioners into single-member districts. If the county is districted, the districts shall be as equal in population as possible and numbered respectively to correspond to the number of board members. A commissioner shall be a resident of the district from which he is elected. If a commissioner permanently removes his residence from or maintains no residence in the district from which he was elected, he shall be deemed to have resigned. The division of the county into single-member districts shall be made once immediately following each federal decennial census. The board of county commissioners in a county with only three board members may require either that:


1) commissioners shall be elected from each district by the voters of the whole county; or

2) each commissioner shall be elected by the voters of the district from which that commissioner is running for office.

§ 4-38-9. Proceedings to be published


The proceedings of the several boards of county commissioners shall be published within twenty days after each meeting in some newspaper of general circulation, in the county in which such a meeting is held, in English, such publication to be made but once.