Rio Rancho Governing Body Work Session - February 17, 2026
Rio Rancho Governing Body Work Session - February 17, 2026
This work session, held at 3:00 PM in Council Chambers, focused on two agenda items: an update from the Fire and Rescue Department and the status of the 2026 Municipal Officer Election. No public comment was taken, and no action items were voted on.
Fire and Rescue Department Update
- Deputy Chief Jake Bailey presented three new advanced life support capabilities: liquid plasma administration for severe bleeding, finger thoracostomy for emergency chest decompression, and medication-facilitated airway management (MFAM). These place Rio Rancho Fire Rescue among only 1-2% of ground ambulance services nationwide that can deliver plasma in the field.
- Fire Station 8: The bid will close on March 26, 2026, with a contract award expected at the April 9 council meeting and groundbreaking in mid-to-late April. Construction is estimated at 12-18 months. The station will also include an election space.
- Fire Station 3 apparatus bay addition: The bid is expected to go out in the coming weeks, with design, engineering, and construction costs totaling approximately $1 million.
- Council members (including Councilors List, Culbreath, Dapson, Wymer, and Mayor Hull) expressed strong support and praise for the department's innovations, noting that the majority of calls are medical (about 70%) and that the department is an ISO Class 2, ranking in the top 7% nationally.
- City Manager Matt Geisel announced that Deputy Chief Bailey will be retiring in early summer 2026. Geisel also highlighted the department's growth in paramedicine, with approximately 40 paramedics expected after the May graduating class, funded by the governing body.
2026 Municipal Officer Election Update
- City Clerk Noel Davis reported that early voting began on February 3, 2026, at the Clerk's Annex (Broadmoor Senior Center). In the first 9 days, 692 voters cast ballots, an increase over the 2022 mayoral election.
- On February 14 (Valentine's Day), four additional early polling locations opened, including a commercial site at 2345 Southern Boulevard.
- As of the meeting, total voters were 1,645. Absentee voting ends today (February 17), but turnout has been lower than in 2022, partly due to voter confusion over the permanent absentee list (which applies only to statewide elections, not municipal).
- Same-day voter registration is available at all polling sites. Rio Rancho has approximately 83,000 registered voters in Sandoval County and about 130 in Bernalillo County.
- Councilor Wymer noted he voted at the Southern Boulevard location and encouraged others to vote.
Key Outcomes
- No formal votes or decisions were taken; this was a discussion-only work session.
- Next steps: Fire Station 8 bid closing March 26, 2026; groundbreaking April 2026; Fire Station 3 bid release in coming weeks; and continued early voting through Election Day.
Meeting Transcript
Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you for I'm gonna go ahead and call this meeting into order. Thank you for joining us. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. Counselor Culbreth, would you lead us, please? I Pledge Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. You may be seated. Let's see here. Fire. Okay. So we're gonna go ahead and this work session. We've got a couple of agenda items. Uh Jake, we're gonna go ahead and call you up for the uh fire update. Oh, I'm sorry. Yes, we need to do that first. No, you can come on up. Um but could you we'll go ahead and call attendance? I don't have an agenda. I I'm I'm flying, I'm flying without an agenda here. So uh we'll go ahead and call roll. Counselor Dabson. President Councillor Lynnentine is not with us, Counselor Tyler is not here. Counselor Weimer. Present. Councilor Culbright. Present. Counselor List. Present. Thank you. Um so uh we do have a quorum, uh, but uh with this is a governing body work session. Uh no comments will be taken from the public and nothing discussed here. There are no action items on the agenda items, so there will be uh no agenda items voted on today. So thank you, Chief. Uh if you would give us uh your uh update on the uh fire department. Okay, thank you. Mr. Mayor, members of the governing body, my name is Jake Bailey. I'm the one of the deputy chiefs for re-rancho fire, and I'm here to give uh some updates on recent and forthcoming happenings for re-rancho fire rescue. Uh the first few are uh advancements we've made in our capabilities to provide EMS services to re-rancho. Uh the first of which is liquid plasma administration. Uh liquid plasma is a blood product uh that allows us to um treat uh patients with severe bleeding or who are significantly hypotensive before they reach the hospital. Normally we would use normal saline, but using a blood product means that we're providing patients with oxygen carrying uh fluid that has oxygen carrying capacity, uh which dramatically improves outcomes for these types of patients. It also places rearanchofire among only one or two percent of ground ambulances uh nationwide who have the ability to deliver plasma in the field. So it means that we're getting definitive care to patients well ahead of when they would normally expect it in the hospital. Uh the second is uh what's called finger thortomy or emergency chest decompression. Uh this allows our paramedics to rapidly relieve life-threatening pressure in the chest caused by severe trauma, restoring the ability for the lungs to function effectively. We find this in uh trauma cases where the lungs have been damaged, and so inspired breasts begin to occupy the space outside of the lungs but in the thoracic cavity, which compresses uh the lungs and reduces a patient's ability to oxygenate their brain and the rest of their body. Uh so this is a reliable and less uh ironically, less um invasive or traumatic way to uh expel that error and allow the uh the lungs to expand again uh and improve the patient outcomes. Um this is another hospital uh intervention.
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