A. The "board of the farm and ranch heritage museum" is created.

B. The board shall consist of one nonvoting member and eleven voting members who are residents of New Mexico, as follows:

(1) nine members shall be appointed by the governor with the advice and consent of the senate. Five of those nine members shall be farmers or ranchers and four members shall be from the general public. The five farmer and rancher members of the original board shall be appointed from a list of eight names submitted by the board of directors of the New Mexico farm and ranch heritage institute foundation, incorporated, from a list of persons recommended by farm and ranch organizations. When a vacancy occurs in any of the five farmer and rancher positions, two names shall be submitted to the governor by the board for each vacancy from a list of persons recommended by farm and ranch organizations. No more than five of the nine appointed members shall be from the same political party. In making these appointments, due consideration shall be given to the distribution of places of residence and to individual interests and backgrounds in farming and ranching. Initially, two members shall be appointed for terms of two years, three members shall be appointed for terms of three years and three members shall be appointed for terms of four years. The member appointed pursuant to this 2015 amendment shall serve an initial term of two years. Thereafter, members of the board shall be appointed for terms of four years or less so that the staggered expiration dates are maintained;

(2) the following shall have permanent seats on the board:

(a) the director of the New Mexico department of agriculture or the director's designee; and

(b) the dean of the college of agriculture and home economics of New Mexico state university or the dean's designee; and

(3) the director shall be a nonvoting member of the board.

C. A member of the board shall not be removed during the member's term except for misconduct, incompetence, neglect of duty or malfeasance in office. No removal shall be made without prior approval of the senate.

D. The chair of the board and other officers, as deemed necessary by the board, shall be elected by the board annually at its first scheduled meeting after July 1.

History: Laws 1991, ch. 48, § 5; 2004, ch. 25, § 44; 2015, ch. 19, § 11.

The 2015 amendment, effective July 1, 2015, provided for an additional general public member on the board of the farm and ranch heritage museum and removed the secretary of cultural affairs or the secretary's designee as a permanent member of the board of the farm and ranch heritage museum; in Subsection B, Paragraph (1), deleted "eight" preceding "members" and added "nine", after "Five of those", deleted "eight" and added "nine", after "ranchers and", deleted "three" and added "four", after "No more than", deleted "four" and added "five", after "five of the", deleted "eight" and added "nine", and after "terms of four years.", added "The member appointed pursuant to this 2015 amendment shall serve an initial term of two years."; in Subsection B, Paragraph (2)(b), after "designee", deleted "and"; deleted Subsection B, Paragraph (2)(c); in Subsection C, after "during", deleted "his" and added "the member's"; and in Subsection D, after "The", deleted "chairman" and added "chair".

The 2004 amendment, effective May 19, 2004, in Subsection A, changed the name of the board; and in Subsection B, Subparagraph (2)(c), changed "cultural affairs officer" to "secretary of cultural affairs".