Village of Angel Fire v. Wheeler

• Decision Date: 02 January 2003
• Docket Number: No. 22,316.,22,316.
• Citation: 63 P.3d 524,133 N.M. 421,2003 NMCA 41
• Parties: VILLAGE OF ANGEL FIRE, New Mexico, Appellee-Petitioner, v. Scott WHEELER, Lorna L. Santillo, Robert T. House, Lou House, and Janet D. Reed, Appellants-Respondents.
• Court: Court of Appeals of New Mexico

63 P.3d 524

133 N.M. 421

2003 NMCA 41

VILLAGE OF ANGEL FIRE, New Mexico, Appellee-Petitioner, v. Scott WHEELER, Lorna L. Santillo, Robert T. House, Lou House, and Janet D. Reed, Appellants-Respondents.

No. 22,316.

Court of Appeals of New Mexico.

January 2, 2003.

Certiorari Denied February 10, 2003.

Joseph F. Canepa, Patricia J. Turner, Canepa & Vidal, P.A., Santa Fe, for Petitioner.

Mary E. Humphrey, El Prado, for Respondent.

Certiorari Denied, No. 27,882, February 10, 2003.

OPINION

PICKARD, Judge.

{1} In this case, we consider the type of record needed by a district court in its review on appeal of legislative action by a municipality. We decide that duly approved, written minutes of a policymaking body can be sufficient to constitute an official transcript for review, pursuant to the Rules of Civil Procedure governing administrative appeals. We also decide that duly approved and executed resolutions of a policymaking body can appropriately serve as a statement of the legal and factual basis for the body's decisions, pursuant to statutory mandate governing appeal of agency final decisions.

FACTS AND BACKGROUND

{2} Appellee-Petitioner Village of Angel Fire (hereinafter "Village") seeks review by petition for writ of certiorari of the decision of the district court reversing resolutions adopted by the Village Council that created and effectuated a special assessment district. We granted the petition, and we now reverse and remand to the district court to conduct an appellate review of the Village proceedings, using the duly approved minutes of the Village meetings as the official transcript of those proceedings.

{3} Beginning in late 1997, the Village began the process of creating, adopting, and effectuating a special assessment district pursuant to the Improvement Districts Act, NMSA 1978, §§ 3-33-1 through -43 (1965, as amended through 2001). The Village states, and Appellants-Respondents (hereinafter "Land Owners") do not dispute, that the Village was endeavoring to improve the sewer system in response to concerns about potential ground water contamination along the State Highway 434 corridor into the Village. In March 1998, the Village adopted a resolution directing preparation of preliminary plans, and in October 1998, the Village Council accepted these preliminary plans that had been prepared by an assessment engineer. In February 1999, the Village adopted a resolution (hereinafter "Resolution 1999-14") creating the special assessment district based on the 1998 engineer's report. In May of 2000, the Village filed the assessment roll for this district and then held public hearings on the assessment roll in June 2000. On June 13, 2000, the Village adopted a resolution revising and confirming the assessment roll (hereinafter "Resolution 2000-15"). By the end of the process, the assessment district was made up of 63 land owners situated along State Highway 434, all of whom were assessed, according to the engineer's report, an amount based on the cost of the improvement and the special benefit conferred on each owner.

{4} Pursuant to the Open Meetings Act and the New Mexico Administrative Code, the Clerk of the Village prepares minutes of meetings of the Village Council from tape recordings made at each meeting. The minutes are approved at subsequent meetings and then become the official record of the proceedings, which are kept by the Village in perpetuity. Once the written minutes are approved by the Village Council, the tapes are re-used or discarded. This is the regular practice of the Village. Accordingly, the official minutes of each meeting at issue in the appeal are included in the record, but there are no tapes of any proceedings for the district court to review.

{5} The Land Owners in this case are the owners of four parcels of land. Their property is included in the assessment district, and they have each been assessed according to the assessment roll adopted by the Village on June 13, 2000. Three of the four Land Owners filed written protests of the assessment roll and made oral protests at the public hearing on June 5, 2000. All four appealed the adoption of Resolutions 1999-14 and 2000-15 to the district court, pursuant to Section 3-33-22 (allowing appeals of assessment hearings by governing bodies); NMSA 1978, § 39-3-1.1 (1999) (allowing appeals of agency final decisions placed under the authority of this statute); and Rule 1-074 NMRA 2002 (governing review by the district courts of administrative decisions and orders). The Land Owners claimed that the assessment district was invalid ab initio because of violations of the notice requirement of the Open Meetings Act and because the adoption of Resolutions 1999-14 and 2000-15 was fundamentally unfair and not supported by substantial evidence.

{6} The district court, in its capacity as an appellate reviewer pursuant to Section 39-3-1.1, did not rule on the merits of Land Owners' appellate issues as raised in their statement of issues, and instead reversed Resolutions 1999-14 and 2000-15, finding that, due to a failure to preserve the whole record for purposes of appeal, the Village's Resolutions were not supported by substantial evidence and, therefore, were arbitrary and capricious and invalid as a matter of law. The Village petitioned this Court for a writ of certiorari challenging the district court's order, and we granted the petition.

SCOPE AND STANDARD OF REVIEW

{7} The Court of Appeals is limited by Rule 12-505 NMRA 2002 in its review of the district court's decision in an administrative appeal. C.F.T. Dev. v. Bd. of County Comm'rs, 2001-NMCA-069, ¶ 8, 130 N.M. 775, 32 P.3d 784, overruled on other grounds by Rio Grande Chapter of the Sierra Club v. N.M. Mining Comm'n, 2003-NMSC-005, ¶ 16, 133 N.M. 97, 61 P.3d 806

. The four grounds upon which this Court may grant a writ are (a) a conflict between the district court order and a prior appellate opinion of this Court or the Supreme Court; (b) a conflict between the district court order and any statutory provision, ordinance, or agency regulation; (c) a significant question of law under the New Mexico or United States Constitutions; or (d) an issue of substantial public interest that should be determined by the Court of Appeals. Id.; Rule 12-505.

{8} The Village raises two issues for this Court to consider in this petition: (1) whether the district court properly interpreted Rule 1-074(H)(5) in finding that the whole record was not preserved because the tapes of the Village Council proceedings had been destroyed and (2) whether the district court properly ruled that the Village's Resolutions were arbitrary and capricious because, contrary to the requirements outlined in Section 39-3-1.1, the Resolutions failed to state the factual and legal basis of the Village's decisions. We determine that both issues present a conflict between the district court order and a statute or a regulation, and to the extent that Rule 1-074(H)(5) and Section 39-3-1.1 have not been interpreted by the New Mexico courts, both issues present an issue of substantial public interest. See Rule 12-505(B) and (D).

{9} As grounds for affirmance, the Land Owners argue that there was not substantial evidence to support the factual basis upon which the Village made its decisions and that the Village did not strictly adhere to the requirements of the Open Meetings Act or the Improvement Districts Act. These issues were not ruled upon by the district court except as subsumed in the issue on which we granted certiorari dealing with the absence of a record. Therefore, this Court will not review on certiorari whether the Village acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner, and similarly we will not review whether there was substantial evidence to support the Village's Resolutions; that is the province of the district court acting in its appellate capacity pursuant to Section 39-3-1.1. C.F.T. Dev., 2001-NMCA-069, ¶ 12, 130 N.M. 775, 32 P.3d 784. Accordingly, we deem it prudent to address only the questions upon which we granted certiorari and allow the district court to conduct its appellate review in the first instance.

{10} The Village argues that the district court applied an incorrect standard of review in that it appeared to conduct a de novo review. If the district court did apply a completely erroneous standard of review, we would be empowered to examine whether the district court misapplied or misapprehended its appellate jurisdiction because, in that case, the district court's decision would conflict with cases of this Court or the Supreme Court. See N.M. Bd. of Psychologist Examiners v. Land, 2003-NMCA-034, ¶¶ 6, 18, 34, 133 N.M. 362, 62 P.3d 1244 (App.2002)

. In addition, such an error would clearly be within our review under Rio Grande Chapter of Sierra Club, 2003-NMSC-005, ¶ 16, 61 P.3d 806.

{11} However, in this case, the district court determined only that the record presented to it was insufficient to actually conduct an administrative review, and accordingly it did not examine the record for substantial evidence on the record as a whole. Therefore, we will not address the issue of using an incorrect standard of review at this time. However, we remind the district court that, on remand, the district court in its appellate capacity may reverse the Village's decision only if it determines that the Village acted fraudulently, arbitrarily, or capriciously; if the decision was not supported by substantial evidence; or if the agency did not act in accordance with the law. See § 39-3-1.1(D); see also § 3-33-13(C) (conferring power of district court to review a municipality's approval of an assessment district). The district court is to review the whole record to "ascertain whether there has been unreasoned action without proper consideration or disregard of the facts and circumstances." Las Cruces Prof'l Fire Fighters v. City of Las Cruces, 1997-NMCA-044, ¶ 7, 123 N.M. 329, 940 P.2d 177. Importantly, the...