Federal judge dismisses Rio Rancho lawsuit but plaintiff says the fight isn’t over

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit accusing Rio Rancho of enacting ordinances without following its own procedural rules — but the lead plaintiff argues the court never actually ruled that the city did anything right.

U.S. District Judge Sarah M. Davenport granted the city’s motion to dismiss March 31, ruling the federal court lacked jurisdiction over most of the claims and that the remaining counts failed to state a recognizable constitutional violation. The court also denied the city’s motions to recover costs and impose sanctions against lead plaintiff and former mayoral candidate Corrine Rios.

The city called the outcome a vindication. “From the outset of this litigation, the City has maintained and demonstrated that no violations of rules of procedure or local, state or federal law have occurred,” said Ludella Awad, a city communications specialist. “We hope that this distraction and unnecessary use of taxpayer resources have been put to rest.”

Rios, one of six candidates who ran for Rio Rancho mayor in the March 3 election, did not advance to the April 14 runoff. But she pushed back sharply on the city’s framing of the dismissal. “The judge did not rule that the City followed its Rules of Procedure or that our concerns about missing ordinance sponsors were incorrect,” Rios said in a written statement. “The ruling was about jurisdiction, not whether the City followed its own rules.”

She said the ruling turned on two narrow legal grounds: federal courts generally cannot intervene in tax and fee disputes when state courts are available, and a city’s failure to follow its own legislative procedures does not automatically rise to a federal constitutional violation. “The only real way to fix this is through elections and accountability at the ballot box — or we go back to state court,” Rios said.

What the lawsuit alleged

The lawsuit, filed originally in state court in June 2025 before moving to federal court, alleged Rio Rancho enacted multiple ordinances — including water rate increases, a lodger’s tax on short-term rentals and adjustments to mayor and city councilor salaries — without a formally identified elected sponsor, as required by the city’s Governing Body rules. Rios argued the absence of a named sponsor left residents without a clearly accountable official to contact when problems arose.

The city maintained throughout the litigation that its process is authorized by the City Charter, and that the City Manager has authority to place routine or ministerial items on the agenda without an elected sponsor. Rios disputed that characterization, arguing ordinances are by definition not routine or ministerial in nature.

The water billing dispute

One concrete example Rios pointed to throughout the litigation was a water billing error the lawsuit helped bring to light. In September 2025, the city acknowledged that a billing and programming issue had caused new water rates to be applied to residents’ accounts prematurely — an error Rios says dates to 2020 and affected nearly 40,000 residents.

The city notified affected customers through their billing statements and said credits of less than $5 per residential account would appear on a future bill. Rios claims those credits had still not been issued as of April 2026. “Had it not been for the lawsuit, the residents of Rio Rancho would have never found out about the water billing error,” Rios said.

Rios ran for the New Mexico House District 57 seat in 2024 as a Republican and filed as a decline-to-state candidate for mayor. The April 14 runoff is between Paul Wymer and Alexandria Piland.