New Mexico Statutes
Article 5 - Joint City-County Building
Section 5-5-3 - Definitions.

As used in the Joint City-County Building Law, the following words or phrases shall be defined as follows:
A. "city" means any incorporated city, town or village that is a county seat in the state of New Mexico, whether incorporated or governed under a general act, special act or special charter of any type and includes any combination of such cities, towns or villages located in adjacent counties;
B. "council" or "city council" means the city council, city commission, board of commissioners, board of trustees or other governing body of a city in which the legislative powers of the city are vested. "Councilmen" means the members of the council;
C. "county" means any county or combination of adjacent counties in the state of New Mexico;
D. "board" means the board of county commissioners. "Commissioners" or "county commissioners" means the members of a board;
E. "municipality" means a city or county;
F. "governing body" means a council or board;
G. "building" means any building for use as a county courthouse, city hall, jail, regional jail, library, museum, utility office, garage for housing county and city vehicles, transportation office, communications office, maintenance shop, warehouse, cafeteria and restaurant facilities for county and city personnel, sheriff's office, police station, fire station, records office and administration building and for similar uses, or any combination thereof, to be acquired and jointly owned by a county and a city as tenants in common;
H. "site" means land and any estate, interest or right therein on which to locate a building. Any building site may include landscaped grounds and off-street parking facilities, including improved or unimproved parking lots and buildings erected above or below the surface of the land for the accommodation of parked motor and other vehicles;
I. "acquisition" or "acquire" means the acquisition by purchase, construction, installation, reconstruction, condemnation, lease, rent, gift, grant, endowment, bequest, devise, contract and other acquisition as may be deemed necessary or desirable by the board and council, or any combination thereof;
J. "improvement" or "improve" means the extension, betterment, alteration, reconstruction, repair and other improvement as may be deemed necessary or desirable by the board and council, or any combination thereof;
K. "equipment" or "equip" means furnishing all necessary or desirable, related or appurtenant, facilities, or any combination thereof;
L. "project" means any building site therefor, structure, facility and undertaking of any kind that a county and a city are authorized by the Joint City-County Building Law to acquire, improve, equip, maintain and operate. A project may consist of any kind or all kinds of personal and real property, including land, improvements and fixtures thereon, property of any nature appurtenant thereto or used in connection therewith and every estate, interest and right therein, legal or equitable, including terms for years, or any combination thereof;
M. "disposition" or "dispose" means the sale, lease, exchange, transfer, assignment and other disposition as may be deemed necessary or desirable by the board and council, or any combination thereof;
N. "federal government" means the United States or any federal agency, instrumentality or corporation;
O. "state" means the state of New Mexico or, except where the subject matter or context is repugnant thereto, any state agency, instrumentality or corporation;
P. "publication" or "publish" means publication once a week for at least three consecutive weeks commencing at least twenty days prior to the election in any newspaper published in a county;
Q. for the purpose of computing any period of time prescribed in the Joint City-County Building Law, including publications, the day of the first publication, other act or designated time shall be excluded and the day of the last publication, other act or designated time shall be included; and
R. whenever such construction is applicable, words used in the Joint City-County Building Law importing singular or plural number may be construed so that one number includes both; words importing masculine gender shall be construed to apply to the feminine gender as well; and the word "person" may extend to and include a firm and corporation, except in any reference to any election; provided, however, that these rules of construction shall not apply to any part of that law containing express provisions excluding such construction or where the subject matter or context is repugnant thereto.
History: 1953 Comp., § 6-9-3, enacted by Laws 1959, ch. 300, § 3; 1977, ch. 28, § 1; 1983, ch. 264, § 1; 2019, ch. 212, § 190.
The 2019 amendment, effective April 3, 2019, revised the definition of "Councilmen" and removed the definition of "elector" as used in the Joint City-County Building Law; in Subsection B, after "Councilmen means the", deleted "aldermen or other"; and deleted Subsection P, which defined "elector", and redesignated former Subsections Q through S as Subsections P through R, respectively.