A resolution before the City Council opposing plutonium pit production at Los Alamos National Laboratory has been withdrawn because one of the co-sponsors is no longer in office.

The resolution was introduced at a City Council meeting last month by Councilors Jamie Cassutt and Renee Villarreal.

Cassutt said she decided to withdraw the resolution at Wednesday’s Quality of Life Committee meeting because she realized she did not have enough expertise on the topic to carry it through the process without co-sponsor Renee Villarreal, whose term expired at the end of 2023.

“I just didn’t feel ready to carry it,” Cassutt said. “As people asked questions, I realized I also had questions and didn’t want to be rushed by the timeline of the committee process.”

Cassutt said she plans to look further into the issue along with new District 1 Councilor Alma Castro, and a new version of the resolution may be introduced in the future.

Castro said she is most interested in the issue from a labor rights perspective. “If we are going to be working on a resolution involving LANL, I really want to address their use of contractors and the protections that their employees have around whistleblowing,” she said.

The resolution was championed by Villarreal, who has sponsored previous legislation opposing plutonium pit production, a task the lab is undertaking.

The resolution was supported by the Los Alamos Study Group, which opposes nuclear weapons production. Members of the group have been regular speakers during public comment at City Council meetings over the past several months.

If approved, the resolution would have sent a letter from the City Council to the state’s congressional delegation, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and federal officials calling for a halt to preparations for pit production, the prioritization of disposal of legacy plutonium waste at the lab and a decrease in federal spending for nuclear weapons.

It’s unclear whether the resolution would have been supported by a majority of the City Council. Mayor Alan Webber, who met with Los Alamos Study Group Executive Director Greg Mello and other group members Tuesday, said he encouraged them to think about “a much broader community dialogue.”

Webber said he would like to see a resolution on pit production include a number of other related topics, including support for compensation to downwinders, a call for renewed engagement on nuclear nonproliferation and “aggressive cleanup” of nuclear waste and safety precautions for lab employees, many of whom are Santa Fe residents.

“A resolution that talks about LANL and nuclear weapons shouldn’t demonize or in any way make the people who live in Santa Fe and work at LANL feel less welcome,” he said.

Mello said the Los Alamos Study Group is “not on the same page” as Webber and was critical of the mayor’s comments about what he described as “emotional victimhood of LANL employees,” who he said are a net burden on Santa Fe. He said if a reintroduced resolution does not categorically oppose plutonium pit production, the study group will oppose it.

In an email, spokesperson Steven Horak said the lab is committed to prioritizing the safety of its workforce and the public and will not be conducting high-hazard work outside Los Alamos.

“We value our growing presence in Santa Fe and because more than 3,500 of our employees and their families live in the city and county, they clearly value this community as well,” he wrote.

Santa Fe County Commissioner Anna Hansen said she would like the county to pass its own resolution opposing pit production. She is the sponsor of a resolution opposing a proposed power line for the lab going through the Caja Del Rio. It is to be introduced at the commission’s Jan. 9 meeting.

Local and state level politicians do not have any jurisdiction over the lab’s activities, which are overseen by the Department of Energy and the National Nuclear Security Administration.