Gallup hosts city meet-and-greet to connect residents with departments

Gallup is set to put four city departments in one room this month, giving residents a direct chance to ask questions before small problems turn into bigger frustrations. The City + Community Meet & Greet will run Friday, April 24, from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at El Morro Events Center, where staff from the Library, Parks and Recreation, Museums, and Tourism and Marketing departments will be available.

The hourlong session is part of a monthly outreach effort the city has been building since the start of the year. City records show the concept was proposed as a way to make city staff more open to community members, with an early January agenda packet laying out a plan to launch the series with a meeting introducing the new mayor and city council. That first public session took place Jan. 30, when Gallup introduced Mayor Marc DePauli and the city’s councilors to residents.

The city has kept the format rolling since then. A Feb. 18 meet-and-greet focused on the Electric, Public Works, and Planning and Zoning departments, followed by a March 27 session with the Water, Wastewater, and Facilities departments. The April 24 gathering shifts the spotlight away from utilities and infrastructure and toward daily quality-of-life services, including library programming, park upkeep, recreation opportunities for children and teens, museum exhibits, and the city’s tourism pitch.

The setting is familiar to anyone who has attended a civic event in Gallup. El Morro Events Center, at 210 S. Second Street, is the city’s designated space for meetings, conferences, and events. Using that venue keeps the format informal and accessible, rather than sending residents into a more formal council-chambers setting.

The meet-and-greets also arrive as Gallup settles into a new political chapter. DePauli was elected mayor on Nov. 4, 2025, and the city council now includes Linda Garcia, Michael Schaaf, Sarah Piano, and Ron Molina. Gallup operates under a council-manager form of government with five elected positions, a structure that makes direct contact with department staff especially useful when residents want answers fast and want to know which office handles a problem.

That matters in Gallup, the county seat of McKinley County and a city in New Mexico’s Third Congressional District, where city services often ripple beyond a single neighborhood. A brief face-to-face conversation can be the difference between waiting on a phone call, chasing down the wrong office, and getting the right department to address a question the same night.