We're not on yet.
You're live.
You're on now. Okay. Thank you. I was
practicing for a little warm up. Good
afternoon. Welcome to city council
meeting. Today is Monday, April 6, 2026.
It's approximately 100 p.m. I am Mayor
Eric Enriquez. Before we start, I want
to mention that we have the ASL, the
American Sign Language Interpreters up
front available for us at every city
council meeting. We will start with a
moment of silence for the brave men and
women of the United States Armed Forces
as they protect our interests around the
globe, as well as the courageous men and
women of the Los Cusus Police and the
Los Cusus Fire Department that protect
our city 247 365.
Mayor Prom, if you lead us in the pledge
to the flag of the United States of
America and to the stands one
indivisible
andice for all.
Yeah, I think they're all here.
So, we'll start out with our
presentations of certificates and
proclamations by Mayor Prom Munoz.
Thank you, mayor.
Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you
all for coming today.
I'd like to start at recognizing our
graduates from the Neighborhood
Leadership Academy. So, as I um I'm
saying a few words, if the graduates
would come up and join me, including
Scott and Katrina for a picture and our
mayor.
Congratulations 2026 academy graduates.
In 2017, the city council adopted a
strategic plan.
Now, I know it's been windy, so um some
of your hair might be messed up, so just
just wanted to help out there. Um so,
2017, the city council adopted a
strategic plan to increase community
government engagement leading to the
creation of the neighborhood leadership
academy. The academy available to Los
Cru's residents provides firsthand
insight into city services and programs
through presentations by city personnel
and on-site visits to public facilities.
Launched in the fall of 2017, the
program ran until spring 2020 when the
pandemic paused in-person sessions. Due
to strong interests, the program resumed
in 2024, spring of 2025, and now spring
of 2026. The academyy's mission is to
equip the residents with knowledge of
city government, enabling them to become
effective neighborhood advocates and
community leaders. This free program
helps residents understand how the city
operates and how they can collaborate to
enhance neighborhood quality of life.
Weekly workshops and field trips cover
various city operations, services, and
ways to bring about positive change.
Sessions include meetings with city
leaders, parks and wreck activities,
utility codes, demonstrations, touring
the new transit facility. Participants
also learn about public works, pavement
management systems, and how our fire
department has expansive services to
ambulance and mental health calls. We
congratulate the participants for
completing 11 weeks 11 weeks of
presentations, demonstrations, and
active involvement. From what I
understand, it was about 21 or 24 hours
of total presentation time. So,
outstanding outstanding jobs. So, let's
give uh the graduates a round of
applause. Will be our city ambassadors.
So, um, camera mayor, would you like to
join us for a picture? Yeah. Would you?
Okay. Squeeze in this way.
Katrina.
Good afternoon. Katrina Godz, community
outreach manager. Um I would like to
tell everyone that this has been our
largest class one also our largest
graduating class. We had 33 graduate
today. We had 55 originally sign up but
um can you give everyone a round of
applause for sticking with the program?
Thank you. And thank you council mayor
for everything. Thank you.
Thank you ladies and gentlemen and thank
you again Katrina and Scott for uh and
everyone who participated
in this wonderful program.
Okay. Now I'd like to read a few
proclamations.
This proclamation is received by Sergio
Tees,
the fair housing for fair housing month.
Serio, are you in the audience
or someone from the group?
Okay. Proclamation.
Whereas fair and equal housing is a
right guaranteed to all Americans. And
whereas the principle of fair and equal
housing is a fundamental human
entitlement. And whereas the month of
April 2026 represents the 58th
anniversary of the signing of the
federal fair housing act by then
President Lyndon Baines Johnson. And
whereas all citizens have the right to
live where they choose within their
financial means. And whereas people must
not be denied housing because of race,
color, religion, sex, national origin,
disability, sexual orientation, gender
identity, or marital or family status.
And whereas we must as individuals
assure equal access to housing for all
in our communities. And whereas New
Mexico acknowledges the importance of
assuring fair and equal treatment of all
citizens. Now therefore, we, the mayor
and city council of West Cruz's, New
Mexico, do hereby proclaim the month of
April 2026 as Fair Housing Month.
Congratulations.
The next proclamation
is for Graduate and Professional Student
Appreciation Week. Uh, Anna Harmon, Jay,
and others who would like to join me,
please come up.
And all of you are welcome to take
pictures as well.
Proclamation.
Whereas graduate and professional
students across New Mexico, especially
those at New Mexico State University,
make invaluable contributions to a
vibrant academic environment and to the
long-term economic, cultural, and
intellectual prosperity of our
communities. And whereas New Mexico's
universities and NMSU in Lasuses stand
as beacons of higher education,
fostering innovation, research, and
intellectual growth with their graduate
students serving as essential pillars of
academic excellence who push the
frontiers of knowledge and dedication,
perseverance, and curiosity. And whereas
graduate students play an indispensable
role in advancing and upholding the land
grant mission of teaching, research, and
public service, strengthening both their
campuses and the broader communities
they serve. And whereas the scholarly
pursuits, outreach and engagement of
graduate and professional students
enrich academia expand opportunity and
positively impact residents throughout
Dona County, Lasuses and the state of
New Mexico. And whereas the diverse
talents, global perspectives, and
cultural contributions of graduate
students enhance the social fabric of
our communities, helping build a
dynamic, inclusive, and forward-looking
people. Now therefore, we the mayor and
city council washes New Mexico do hereby
proclaim April 6 through the 10th as
graduate and professional student
appreciation week. Congratulations
Okay. The next proclamation presented to
Barbara Tooff in Haven.
Barbara, come on up. Come join us.
Wonderful. Okay. All right. Thank you,
Kevin.
All right. Proclamation. Whereas the
city of Lasus holds the health and
safety of its citizens in high esteem.
And whereas distracted driving is one of
the fastest growing safety issues on
roads today. And whereas distracted
driving occurs when drivers engage in
activities that divert their attention
from other road users such as texting,
talking on a cell phone, adjusting the
radio, and interacting with passengers.
And whereas the roadways of Losus are
both used by vulnerable and road users
and motor vehicle operators. Whereas the
city council is committed to supporting
safer roadways, especially for those who
are at the greatest risk of serious
injury and death. And whereas it is in
the best interest of all who live in our
community to proactively establish a
strong culture of personal
responsibility,
a cultural norm of driving habits which
increase safety for all road users. And
whereas dedicated attention to
distracted driving programs and
activities will help lusters create a
supportive culture that encourages all
drivers to establish full attention
driving habits. Now therefore, we the
mayor and city council Lasuses New
Mexico do hereby proclaim April 2026 as
distracted driver awareness month. And
the uh proclamation is accepted by tell
me your name again.
Heaven coke.
All right. Thank you. There you go.
Okay. Next proclamation
for the 250th anniversary of the signing
of the Declaration of Independence
presented to Linda Barllet. So Linda and
some from your groups if you want to
come up.
Thank you. Please join me up here.
Proclamation.
Whereas on July 4th, 2026, our nation
will commemorate the semisu centennial
anniversary of the signing of the
declaration of independence. And whereas
the journey towards this historic
milestone is an opportunity to reflect
our nation's past, honor our
contributions of all Americans, and look
ahead to the future generations who will
carry forward the ideals of democracy
that make the United States of America a
unique nation. And whereas on June 21,
1779,
Spain officially declared war on Great
Britain and issued a royal decree
requiring that all Spanish subjects in
New Spain, including the province of New
Mexico, make a one-time monetary
donation to support the American
Revolution War, Revolutionary War.
Whereas from the 250th anniversary of
the Boston Tea Party until the 250th
anniversary of the signing of the Treaty
of Paris, our nation will celebrate our
rich history and diversity by honoring
all men and women who helped achieve
American independence. Whereas the Dona
chapter, NSDAR,
invites the citizens of Los Cusus's, New
Mexico, to take part in celebrating our
nation's 250th anniversary. Now,
therefore, we, the mayor and city
council of Lasuses, New Mexico, do
hereby proclaim July 4th, 2026 as the
250th anniversary of the signing of the
Declaration of Independence.
Congratulations.
Sure.
Okay. We have a few words.
Yes. My name is Katherine Glenn and uh
we just moved here about three weeks ago
from Albuquerque and um my husband's
fifth greatgrandfather signed the
Declaration of Independence. Judge
Richard Stockton, we wrote a book about
him and my husband is standing in the
back,
John Glenn,
and uh we're so happy to be here. He's
the vice president of the Sons of the
American Revolution and I'm a a member
of the Daughters of the American
Revolution and uh we're so happy to be
here to our new home, our 21st move.
Thank you very much.
Wonderful.
Thank you very much.
Thank you and welcome. Welcome.
All right. The next proclamation is
child abuse prevention month presented
to Sandra Ortega.
Sandra and your group
proclamation
whereas families and youth innovation
plus FYI plus New Mexico children youth
and families department Los Cruus New
Mexico and other community partners
recognize April as national child abuse
prevention month and whereas effective
child abuse prevention strategies
succeed because of partnerships created
among you community members, human
service and child welfare agencies,
schools, faith communities, healthc care
providers, civic organizations, law
enforcement agencies, and the business
community. And whereas all children
deserve to thrive in a safe, stable,
nurturing homes and communities to
ensure healthy growth and development.
And whereas child abuse and neglect is a
community's responsibility that affects
the quality of life of a community and
its members. And whereas every year
millions of children and families
benefit from prevention programs,
including home visits, visits, family
resource centers, and community supports
that keep children safe and strengthen
families long before a crisis. And
whereas all parents should have access
to the social support, knowledge, and
concrete resources needed to cope with
the stresses and demands related to
parenting. And whereas we recognize
families are our greatest asset to
keeping children safe. Yet many are
facing growing barriers to housing,
child care, health care, and paytime off
and overall economic stability. Now, it
is the time for communities to come
together to strengthen and support all
families. Now, therefore, we, the mayor
and city council of Los Cusus, New
Mexico, do hereby proclaim April 26th as
child abuse prevention month.
Congratulations.
We're we're going to stick with that.
So, we've been collecting some some data
um on the performance of these buses. Um
again, we we started late in 24 when
when we first put them in service.
um our new transit facility we barely
moved into in March of 25. So the data
that you see on this um graphic here is
more accurate from about March um going
forward. What this graphic here shows is
is basically the fuel cost per mile by
fleet and the the tan colored one is our
diesel buses. It's showing as of
December about 54 cents per mile is what
it cost to run a diesel bus. Um the
battery electric buses um have steadily
been decreasing as we utilize them a lot
more. Um currently as of December is
showing about 9 cents per mile.
This metric right here will show
basically the utilization of the buses.
As you can see, we've gotten better at
utilizing these buses as time has gone
on. Um the drivers have gotten better at
driving these buses. um they they
utilize the regenerative braking which
actually puts more power back into the
battery so the buses are able to last
longer and as you can see the the line
on the blue is showing the battery
electric buses are catching up to the
utilization of the diesel buses. So this
is only with the five electric buses
that we have running. So what we're
going to see with the next six and the
total of 11 is probably the ser passing
of the electric bus fleet passing the
diesel fleet based on the amount of
buses that we have in service at any one
given time.
Um I have more information on this but
I'd like to probably come back on a work
session at a later time to kind of give
you a better overall look of what the
buses are doing. Right now, the six
buses that we have, they're going to be
DC's charged buses, which is different
from the buses that we currently have.
The five that we have now are AC
electric buses. They're charged through
AC current, whereas the new buses are DC
current. Um, it's something that changes
in the industry to make it more standard
across the United States. So, that's the
reason why the buses are different. It's
the same manufacturer and I hope and I'm
pretty confident that the buses are
going to perform the same but until I
have the numbers I couldn't couldn't
guarantee you that. But I would like to
come back at a later time once we have
more data to give you some of that
information. Okay.
The main reason I came today was transit
is actually celebrating our 40th
anniversary this year. 40 years ago um
roughly 1985 the city of Los Cruus
applied for federal funding through the
Urban Mass Transit Administration which
is the Department of Transportation
federal funding and they received grant
money to start public transportation in
1986.
So they launched that service on April
21st of 1986. This was actually our
original logo from them.
I have some nostalgic pictures here from
our first drivers in 1986. This is an
actual picture
um of those drivers. Um
two of the people on the left are well,
one was a trainer and one was one of the
administrators, but the the other eight
people on the right, they were actual
drivers that started. Actually, I put
this picture in for ACM's Delgado if she
if she actually recognized anybody in
that picture.
Um 2006 was our 20th anniversary. So I
had a picture of the drivers there. I
have a lot more pictures, but in the the
sake of time, I didn't want to bring
them. We have um a bunch of uh different
uh booklets and everything. So if you
ever come visit us, be happy to show
them to you.
So this is this is our new logo that we
created for this year. Um we have two
different programs. We have our fixed
route um transit buses. Then we have our
Bominos paratransit service. So we
created these logos to um to celebrate
the drivers and to show what they've
drive because it's two different
programs even though they support each
other. It's it's still both public
transit. One of them is on a fixed route
guideway. The vominos is paratransit
which serves those people who are unable
to access the fixed route buses but um
still are able to use public
transportation.
So this is a comparison of where we were
at and where we are now. Um the
population numbers I did get um their
estimates based on the census data. 1980
population growth to 86 was a little bit
more. So the numbers look a little
different. So population cruises 55,310
and 86. Um estimated population this
year is 119,636.
So we've we've grown pretty much
exponentially. We started out with four
bus routes. We currently have 10
fixed route trips. They did 328,644.
Um those are 1987 numbers they needed a
year to to to collect that data. Um the
data that we um reported last year to
the federal transit database was 801
887,000 trips that we provided last
year. That was on fixed route. Dileride
which is our current bomino service. We
started out with two vehicles in 1986.
We currently run six or 15.
They had produced in ' 86 1913 trips
total trips of of the paratransit
service. Last year we did 56,832.
So pretty impressive.
So um what I really want to do is I want
to celebrate our people. Um these are
people that you don't see really behind
the scenes. The drivers are usually the
face of our people. They're the ones
that are driving the vehicles and people
see them. Um, right here, this is a a
picture of my admin staff. There's
myself and these four people that run a
department of 103. So,
I'm not going to name their names. I'm
going to invite you all to come meet
them. So,
right here is our customer service team.
On the left, we have our customer
service representatives. These are the
people that are manning the phones at
our inner modal transit terminal. They
help the public find where their buses
are. They also serve other transit
entities that pulse into the inner
modal. They they help with the the RTD
South Central. Um they help with
Greyhound. They help with the parking
ride. They help with Zrans out of
Alamordo. They have information on all
those systems. And these are the people
that are answering the phones and and
giving that information to the to the
community. On the right side, we have um
four of our dispatchers. One of them is
is missing. She was camera shy. she
didn't want to be in the picture. So,
um, but these are the people that are
answering the phones on the bomino
service. These are the ones that are
talking to the community, helping them
with their rides, um, making sure that
people that are at their doctor's
offices that run late that they're going
to get picked back up and everything
else. So, these are the people that are
behind the scenes that you really don't
see a lot. So, I I wanted to showcase
them as as part of our team because
they're an integral in integral part of
our team.
our maintenance crew. There's 19 of
them. Um, these are the ones that keep
our vehicles running. They they help
with the shelter cleaning. They're
they're the live bone of of of our
service. They're the one that keep the
vehicles running. They they work on our
diesel buses. They work on our electric
buses. They wash the buses. They fuel
the buses. They do all of that. And very
proud of that team.
Vomos drivers. These are our paratransit
drivers. Um, again, these this is not
all of them. There's over 20 drivers
that that serve on the paratransit team.
These are the ones I was able to get
pictures of when they were together
because they all drive a separate
vehicle so it's hard to get them all
together at one time. But um this is a
special group of people. They they serve
an underserved part of the community,
the disabled community. They serve the
seniors and they they have a connection
with their people that they that they
serve because a lot of them they
interact with the their their customers
and sometimes they're the only people
that they talk to during the day or very
few, you know what I mean? So very proud
of what they do.
Our fixed route drivers, we have 46 of
them total. Um this is not all of them,
but again, this is I I caught them in
between shifts, so I I got quite a few
of them at one time. Um but again, these
are these people are every day in and
out um six days a week. Um hopefully
seven days on Sunday sometime soon. Um,
but their dedication to the community,
everything that they do, they they're
ambassadors to the city. They they're
travel agents to the public and they're
the eyes and ears of the community. They
they do a lot for for reporting things,
potholes, low hanging trees. They help
the community when there's things that
are going on that people don't see.
They're all over the all over the city
all all day long. So
this logo we created um in in response
to us having our 40th anniversary um it
it basically is is providing where we
were at, where we are today, and where
we're going. So four decades of Cadinho
providing public transit service to the
community and hopefully another 40 to
come. So, I invite you all to come with
it being our anniversary this month to
come by, say hello, and thank the
drivers for what they do. So, I
appreciate it. Any questions?
That's good. Thank you, Richard.
Appreciate it. And congratulations.
Thank you. Good.
Next, we have CIP U.
Cynthia
Mayor, I apologize for might need one or
two minutes while I get the PowerPoint
on.
Okay.
Okay, we are gonna start. Good afternoon
everybody. My name is Cynthia Almo. I'm
the capital improvements program manager
and today I'm going to share with you uh
some CIP information on behalf of as
part of the departmental highlight
highlight for today. So the CIP capital
improvements program we have a large
number of projects in itself. We have
right now 290 projects. Out of those 290
projects, we will need $1.1 billion in
order to fully fund or partially fund
the projects that we currently have on
the CIP.
Out of those 290,
186 have no funding identified. Nothing
has been allocated for them as of right
now. Then the remaining projects have
some sort of partial or fully funded. So
as you see the CIP has a wide range of
projects. So this highlights one of the
core realities of the cap programs that
a city's capital needs far exceeds the
city's funding capacity to complete
those projects.
Another thing important to highlight on
the CIP is that outside of the number of
projects that we currently have, another
important factor to consider is that
some of the projects are funded and
unfunded and some of them vary due to
the nature of the project itself. So the
CAP project carries programs or projects
that vary in the scale of it and the
nature of it.
For example, here we have a sample of
funded projects. We have small one-time
projects that once completed, we're good
to go. We have Benavida Center
improvements which included the
renovation of the floor for 126,000.
We have the Veterans Memorial Park
enhancements with included park
improvements and improvements to the uh
walkway for 250,000.
But CIP also carries large multi-year
projects. For instance, we have the
housing project at Amateur Crossing that
currently has 16 million and we have the
mobile integrated health building for 11
million. Both funded by grants and both
projects moving forward.
Now on the other end, as I mentioned, we
have unfunded projects. We have them in
the same range. those small projects and
large multi-year projects. Some sample
of unfunded projects we have, for
example, park drinking fountains and
light replacement improvements. It's
important to note that this two
projects, they do have needs year
through year. Every year it changes
because they have different sides, but a
funding of 100,000 170 each could help
them complete significant portions of
those capital needs. We also have large
unfunded multi-year projects. One
example is the East Mesa outdoor pool
where we will need to have do a ground
stabilization study and potential
mitigation projects for 400,000.
We have Vijamora Park who is right now
ongoing but uh has a need of 7 730
730,000 $100,000.
And ideally, we also have um not
ideally, but we have a wide range of
projects and programs that need funded
year by year. For example, playgrounds,
restroom renovations, all of our legacy
parks, all of those are projects that
need funding continuously as we have one
project after the other. So ideally
there's always a um the need or a good
idea of have a potential funding for
contingency to help close out all of
those projects are on a routine basis to
help those projects move forward and
ensure that we have projects completed.
The other thing that CIP also helps is
identify completed projects. So even
though the core of the discussion is
always how we have a lot of projects,
how we have a large financial need,
there's a positive side to CAP which has
been to help complete projects. Here is
a few list of those projects that have
been completed. Um last year we have
fire station 5 improvements with the new
generator. Fire station 2 improvements
where we remodeled the fire engine bay.
Fire station 6 with roof repairs. police
apartment building. It has it was office
improvements, clean park, new
amphitheater, mural and benches, valley
view park improvements with the new
playground and benches, pioneer park
improvements, a new gazebo and benches
and lastly a significant portion of the
Madrid road extension that was uh a
replacement of pavement.
So hopefully this gives uh also a
different perspective on the CAP
document where we know we have large
number projects we have funded and
unfunded but the projects in itself vary
as we have smallcale one-time project to
multi-year projects that we need to uh
help them secure funding so they can
continue move forward or complete
significant portions of their projects.
So that's um the quick update I have for
the parliamental object uh highlights
for CIP.
Thank you Cynthia.
Next on the agenda is pets of the week.
Uh Miss Corales. Is she here?
Hello, Mayor, City Council. My name is
Amelia Corales. Um, and I am actually
here I'm going to introduce our brand
new executive director, Stephanie Lewis.
She is going to be giving the pet of the
week presentation today.
Yes. Welcome. Welcome.
Thank you. Thank you so much. Um, figure
all this out here. Okay.
Mr. Mayor, city council, thank you so
much for having me today. This week's
pet of the week, we have two. Um, this
is Gotent. He is one and a half years
old. Um, we are doing a highlight of
some of our longest day dogs. He is he
came in as a stray and he's been with us
for 261 days. Um he is a great hiking
buddy and adventure pal. He joins our
weekly play groups and he's been on many
of our field trips. Um so we would love
for someone to come and adopt him this
week.
His adoption as always is free.
Now the next one we have is Sheila.
Sheila is also one and a half years old
and she's been with us for 291 days.
Sheila goes to playgroups. She is what
we call a gentle dany. So, she is very
much a little princess in playgroups.
Um, she's loves to have her training and
go on training, but her favorite thing
to do is to be with her handlers and get
loves and cuddles.
And again, her adoption fee is free and
she is available for adoption today.
We like to highlight some of our
long-term residents as well. This
weekend during our Easter events, Lily,
who had been with us for 338 days, was
finally adopted. That makes Yes, my team
did worked very hard to get that done.
Rosa has been with us for 306 days, and
so she is now our longest term resident.
We also have Harvest, who's been with us
for 259 days. Dober, who's been with us
for 246 days. Dober also loves to go on
adventures and go on field trips. And
all of these dogs are available for our
field trip program.
The events we have this weekend, we did
have our first ever Easter scavenger
hunt. We had 18 participants and we had
five adoptions of our dogs come out
through this. Um, we will be at Petco
for our shelter sweethearts on April
11th. We will be at the farmers market
for Bark and Brows on the 18th and
PetSmart on the 25th.
Um, for more information about us, you
can go to any of our social media links.
You can also, we'd love for you to
follow us on Facebook. We're going to be
doing a lot of our adoptable dogs and
starting up some programs and a special
project for our long stay dogs. So,
thank you very much.
Thank you. Congratulations on your new
position and welcome to Los Cusus.
Thank you so much.
Next is a conflict of interest. Does any
member of city council, city man
manager, or any member of the city staff
have any known conflict of interest with
any item on the agenda?
None.
No.
None.
No conflict.
Next is public participation. will allow
up to three minutes uh to speak no
pending litigation and no items on the
non-consent at this time and Katrina
will help usher you to the podium. Thank
you.
Mr. Mayor, city council members, ladies
and gentlemen, my name is Rocky Bakus. I
provided a handout which I think was
passed around or is being passed around
now.
Just over a week ago, on March 27th, El
Paso Electric filed for a $70 million
per year rate increase, which increases
residential rates by 73%.
Let me repeat that. Residential rates to
go up by 73%
by the end of this year.
I've been an expert electric rate
consultant for over 40 years, testifying
before the California Public Utility
Commission, Nevada Energy Public Utility
Commission of Texas, the New Mexico
Public Regulatory Commission, and
others.
I've participated in every New Mexico
rate increases.
Electric rates in New Mexico are an
adversarial process.
Utilities have a fiduciary duty to get
as much as possible for their owners. El
Paso Electric is now owned essentially
by JP Morgan. So they're a
privatelyowned
company.
Interveners such as the city have to
fight the request in order to get fair
rates. It's just like in a court. You've
got a two sides. If you don't fight, you
get ruined over.
El Paso Electric states in their
request that they plan to increase rates
increase rates even more over the next
five years, beyond this current 73%.
A Paso Electric's filing is 4,157
pages long. It has 18 sworn
internal witnesses, plus a request for
another $2 million to be approved for
external outside services.
They're prepared for a major fight and
have been gearing up for it for almost
six years.
El Paso Electric has requested a fast
process so the rates can take effect by
the end of this year.
The case is already filed.
It's underway now, so it needs to be
processed as soon as possible.
El Paso Electric has fought to strike
the testimony of interveners in the
past, and top experts will be required
to fight this case. It will take
substantial funding to get fair rates.
Again, this is an urgent matter because
El Paso Electric filed for 70 million
per year rate increase which increases
residential rates by 73% and is to take
effect this year.
The chart I gave you, this table that
you see is all the different rate
classes and the amounts per class. So
that you could see that I appreciate
your time. I'd love to meet with any of
you that would be interested. My name
and phone numbers are on the sheet.
Thank you very much.
Mayor, city council, I'm Jennifer Cry
and I'm here to talk about cut and
paste.
Renicken Library budget 2025
to 26.
Year 26 1.2 million funded.
Year 27 15.3 million not funded. Year
28,
17.1 million not funded.
I can't tell you how expensive these
special effects are.
Budget 2026 2027
year 27.3
million
year 28
5.3
million not funded. Year 29
17.1
million not funded.
So, what you do is you highlight these
cells in the spreadsheet,
do a cut,
go down a row, over a column, and paste.
I would just say,
do we want to be known as being very
efficient? And there no criticism of
liquor licenses, but you know, we
transfer liquor licenses. We do
improvements
uh on roads,
but we need to have a vision for our
community, for our future, and that is
the library.
I'm Let's not kick the can down the
road.
Good afternoon. My name is Leavon Hart
and I'm the director of the spay and
neuter action program, SNAP. It's good
to see all of you again. Um, I want to
take this opportunity to thank the
council for your continued support of
SNAP. We really appreciate
the work that you've done to fit us into
I know a tight budget. So I'm truly
appreciative of that. Um also want to
thank um those of you who worked on
support of SB38
um which has passed and so we should
have some funding from the state level
for spayneuter services across all of
New Mexico. So, this is another really
good piece of information.
So, let you know what's going on at
SNAP. We've been busy this spring. So
far, we've already done um over 600
vouchers and we've actually done over
spayneuters.
So, that's a lot in a couple of months.
And by the way, that's really not
considering March yet because we're just
starting our billing for that. Um, we've
also started our trap, neuter, and
release TNR program for community cats.
I just started it in January and we've
already done um it says 50 on the
handout that I gave you because we're
not counting March yet, but I know
there's at least 20 more um that we've
done so far um in March and April. Um,
as I reported to you last time I was
here, we have expended all the funding
provided under our contract with the
city of Los Cruus as of December 2025.
Knowing the impact of reinstating
co-pays, our board has decided to
continue providing our services without
co-pays. We're using donations and
grants to fund the surgeries that we are
doing at this point and the coffers are
getting lower and lower and lower.
However, as one of my former directors
says, something will turn up. In the
meantime, I find that 3:00 a.m. in the
morning is a really good time to worry
about how you're going to pay your vet
bills in the future. Requests
for vouchers are still flowing into SNAP
on a daily basis, sometimes as many to
20 to 30 in a day. We're prioritizing
the vouchers at this point. Females,
dogs and cats, dog um female and male
pairs because we know that's where
problems can happen. And then males.
And we're going to get everybody done.
It's just going to take us a little bit
longer because we need to stretch out
the dollars that we have until uh our
new contracts take effect and some other
grant funding comes in. We are
participating in the New Mexico Bay
neuter um excuse me, New Mexico
Community Giving Day. We've got a $1,000
match. If you're looking for a place to
give money, we're taking
um looking forward to uh coming back and
talking to you some more in the future.
We've got some exciting things that are
going to happen in the next year and I
may even want a little longer to talk to
you about all those wonderful things.
Thank you.
Mayor, mayor prom council folks here
today, those watching online, I'm Lynn
Moer. Galvanized piping that requires
replacement has lead at its joints, lead
in its solder, andor lead upstream.
inspection reports noting the presence
of galvanized piping is the closest Las
Cusus Utilities comes to acknowledging
lead in city piping. It's not now trying
to neutralize its findings after the
fact in two ways. I'll tell you about
the first way today. The federal lead
and copper rule requires that
notification of known or potential
service lines containing lead, including
galvanized requiring replacement, occur
within 30 days of completion of the
initial inventory, which was due October
16, 2024, and then annually thereafter
until those lines are removed.
Documentation setting out this
requirement has been provided to you at
previous meetings. For example, example,
handout B at the August 4, 2025 meeting.
Handout one shows the notice the city
actually provided to each property with
galvanized piping. Of the 83 properties,
the city provided no notice whatsoever
to eight of them. For the remaining 75,
the city failed to provide timely notice
to any of them. The notices ranged from
42 days to 386 days after the inspector
found the galvanized pipes. Handout two
provides Las Cusus Util's list of
properties notified and then its
notification letter, which you may
observe is misleading. Comparing the
city's notification list to handout one
reveals that Fairacres Elementary School
is one of the eight properties with
galvanized pipes the city did not
notify. Handout three shows the
inspector's description of the
galvanized piping at Fair Acres is grim.
Quote, "Did not perform scratch tests
due to how bad pipes looked. I assume
they are galvanized due to the amount of
rust. Close quote. My consultation with
a licensed plumber about this report
confirmed that galvanized piping tends
to become highly corroded over time and
rusts out. Fair Acres is one of the
oldest schools in Los Cruus, having been
built more than 50 years ago. Remember,
lead is particularly hazardous for young
children. There's good reasons for
environmental rules. You need to know if
you have galvanized piping so you can
take steps to replace it if you have the
financial resources and to try to
protect your health until that happens
by using a water filter, for example.
It's unconscionable that Los Cusus's
utilities unlawfully failed or delayed
notifying all these folks. When I
discovered the city hadn't notified fair
acres, I contacted the Las Cusus school
board president who didn't know about
the galvanized pipes. If Las Cruus's
utilities notified the school by some
other method, the city was still
required under IPRA to provide that
documentation or an explanation as to
why it was being withheld. In any case,
the city failed to follow the law. The
majority of folks with galvanized piping
live in disadvantaged neighborhoods.
This is another example of Lasus
utilities treating genuinely
disadvantaged folks in our city
abominably.
Thank you for this opportunity to speak.
Mayor, city council, I'm Liz Rodriguez
Johnson. Today I describe another
example of Lasusa's utilities failing to
prioritize disadvantaged neighborhoods
or treat them properly. This violates
its commitment to the state in its
effort to receive $15 million in funding
for implementation of the federal lead
and copper rule of which the city must
repay only one quarter. At the January
20th meeting, we told you about mobile
home communities on Spruce and West
Hadley that the city is treating him
properly. None of the 110 properties on
Spruce is located on the inventory map
where the address says it is. None of
the 220 properties on West Hadley has an
inventory record that matches the
spreadsheet. Here's another
handout. A shows a mobile home community
on Avanita Deia called Trails West,
which has 325 properties. The map shows
18 water hookups. By contrast, the
spreadsheet lists 22 water hookups, five
of which the city says have unknown
piping. Las Kubis' utilities reporting
of additional properties to the state
that aren't found in the inventory
record appears to be yet another
technique by the city to falsely inflate
the number of disadvantaged properties.
Plus, the city has inspected only one
water hookup of the 18 or 22, whichever
number you want to believe. They all
need to be inspected because the
inventory says the various hookups have
different kinds of piping. One
inspection, one inspection is not
sufficient for this community of 325
mobile homes. While none of these three
mobile home communities have been
treated properly, at least they're on
the inventory. There are dozens more
obviously low-income mobile home
communities across the city that aren't.
Handout B shows another one. These
these aren't as upscale as the ones on
Spruce, West Hadley, and Avanita Deisia.
These don't have entrance signs,
communal fencing, or guardouses. During
meetings over the past nine months,
we've provided handouts showing 12
communities totaling more than a
thousand mobile homes without hookups
that still are not in the inventory. By
refusing to recognize that these folks
exist, the city avoids spending money on
their inspection and pipe replacement
and increases what can be spent on
favored projects. Instead of inspecting
all water hookups in every mobile home
community across the city, Lasus's
Utilities has prioritized and been
inspecting properties on Cheyenne Court
and Sage Crest Avenue with an estimated
value of over $400,000
and up. We'd like to see clear evidence
now that the city is probably inspecting
all mobile homes. It's a fundamental
part of utilities job and it's necessary
to meet the commitment it made to obtain
the $15 million. Thank you.
Hello, Mayor and Council. For the
record, my name is Victor Vasquez. I
just completed the neighborhood
leadership academy. I'll start by saying
that Katrina and Scott were amazing.
They were welcoming and organized. The
program exceeded my expectations by
mile. I'm sad that it's over. During the
academy, we met directors, deputy
directors, and dozens of staff from
different departments. We're able to
visit uh visit some of the facilities.
Each department explained what they do,
and we're able to ask a lot of
questions. It was a treat during the
last working session to see some of
these same people discussing discussing
the future of Los Cusus. It's clear to
me that the people we met are passionate
about their work and care deeply about
the well-being of our city. That sense
of commitment was consistent week after
week throughout the program. We got a
small peak at the countless moving parts
that keep our city functioning every
day. These are resourceful people that
find ways to do more with less. I was
surprised at how many projects require
the participation and cooperation of
multiple departments.
I'm proud of the people working on our
behalf for the city of Los Cruus. I wish
everyone in our city could participate
in the neighborhood leadership academy.
In closing, I'll switch to a different
topic. This is regarding the budget. I
agree that our city would benefit from
more third spaces. I believe in positive
interventions for young people. I
believe in rehabilitation and second
chances for individuals. When you're
planning a budget, it's like you're in
the kitchen adjusting the ingredients
for a big batch of soup. At this point
in time, I ask that we add a little more
seasoning for public safety. And this
batch of soup, it's like when we catch a
cold. It's not forever, but just for a
little while until we get better. Thanks
again, everyone. And Council Harris, I
look forward to your community
engagement meetings. Thank you.
Good afternoon. Uh my name is Robert
Williams and I'm here. I'm glad I came
today. There's a lot of good things
everybody was talking about. I see we're
talking about a budget.
Um just a little bit about me. Uh I'm a
business owner. I pay a lot of taxes.
So, it's really important what you guys
are doing with this budget. Make sure,
you know, that we can fund our
libraries. Uh, make sure that there's,
you know, you guys are spending it
wisely and doing everything you need.
Especially with El Paso Electric, 73%,
we're going to go up 73%. I can barely
pay my shop electricity, my house
electricity. We're in a world of mess
right now. So, take it seriously,
please. because the hardearned money I'm
working till midnight sometimes up early
4:30 in the morning doing this and so
I'm not the only one I know that there's
a lot of other business owners so I'm
here to speak on behalf of them. Uh also
uh April I had a chance to meet with uh
Representative Meno uh last week and one
of the questions I asked her was uh if
you guys have had any kind of autism
training. As you guys know April is
autism awareness month. Uh, I am a
father of an a son that is autistic. He
was non-verbal. He just started
speaking. Now he speaks three languages,
but it doesn't mean he's robotic. He
speaks them as he as he wishes. So, I'm
also here to advocate for all the other
parents that have to work hard like me,
spend our money, you know, wisely. We
have to pay for therapy services. We
have a lot on our plate and we just want
I just want to stress that to you guys
that everything you guys do affects all
of us. And there's a lot of us here.
There's a small number of you guys. I
just want to reiterate that. Okay. Uh so
if you guys can I know that uh Mr. Story
and the police department uh they have
autism training which uh and if and I
think that it should go along you know
everybody that's up here on this panel.
Uh because if you're not a parent of an
autistic children, you really it's kind
of hard to understand even if you get
the training. And if you get the
training, please take it seriously and
make sure you reiterate that with every
other officer. uh I don't care how big
and bad they are. Um you know, autistic
people uh need a little bit more time.
You know what I mean? And so that's why
I'm here advocating for my son. Uh and
uh one more thing that I have to speak
about, I know you guys are probably
tired of hearing me bring it up uh in
that budget or if you guys need some
help trying to brainstorm how to get
this finished up, let's finish that
skate park project. You know what I
mean? Like we need something to do. I
know Sonoma Ranch, they have a lot of
money. They got their little skatepark,
but we had ours right here and we helped
I helped build that park. I helped sell
the bricks. You guys tore it up. Let's
get it finished up. Whatever is going on
with it, I mean, feel free to reach out
to me. I would like to brainstorm with
you guys to figure out what we got to
do. But let's finish that one project
and then we can move on to other things.
Okay? Thank you guys. Have a great day.
Good afternoon everyone. Thank you for
allowing me a little bit of time. Um my
name is Christy Thomas. I am one of the
founding members of Parks for All LC. Um
I've spent the last 35 years fully in
immersed in what it means to be
disabled. It affects not only the
disabled person but also their families,
friends, and community that they live
in.
Federal legislation in the form of the
ADA was passed 36 years ago. So, I've
had a front row seat of what changes
have been made as a result, but more
importantly, what the act didn't
provide. Unfortunately, as with any
piece of legislation, it has enough
loopholes and caveats that even the bare
minimum of access can be overlooked in
many circumstances. Things that are as
simple as accessing floors in a
building, using restrooms, and traveling
can quickly become impossible. And most
of us have learned the hard way that
things that others take for granted can
become impossible or very costly. When a
family member has a disability, it
becomes difficult to find activities
outside of the home in which they can
participate and not feel excluded,
especially as an adult. My vision and
goal is to build a park where the
disabled of all ages have full access
and inclusion that allows them to feel
accepted and not accommodated.
My
uh two partners here, Olivia and and um
Lanni will be coming up to speak
shortly. Unfortunately, I asked if I
could go now because I have to give back
to my severely disabled adult daughter.
But the idea is is that even if we are
have certain accommodations to be able
to take them to a park, they in no way a
lot of them are able to participate,
utilize the equipment. Um everything is
surrounded by wood chips and all types
of things of that nature. So the we are
starting a movement to gain public
interest
to get input from families like mine to
see what it is that we can utilize and
do for this community. Approximately 1/4
to onethird of all of your Los Cusus's
families have someone in their in their
family that has a disability whether
they be a small child or a senior
citizen. So this is a part of our
population that does deserve to be
acknowledged and have something built
more specifically for them in mind than
having a few pieces of of unusable
equipment retrofitted in a park or two.
I really appreciate your time today.
Thank you so very much.
Good afternoon. Diane Starbucks for the
record. Southwest Coalition for Life is
a right to life group from El Paso. They
posted a form letter on their website
for members to send to 50 to 60
construction companies encouraging
companies not to supply sand, aggregate
or other materials for the construction
of aotio sexual and reproductive health
care facility. There is also a form
letter for members to send to medical
businesses around the work site that
states, "We are concerned that this
facility could tarnish the reputation of
businesses in the surrounding area and
raise significant public safety
concerns. For the well-being of our
community, I urge you to stand with us
in opposition to this project." unquote.
Since the mayor has chosen to be
associated with Southwest Coalition for
Life, does he also condone this type of
pressure being put on local businesses
and companies? Is your association with
Southwest Coalition for Life just an
uninformed, unfortunate mistake? Or are
you also responsible for sending some of
these letters and signing them? Mayor
Eric Enriquez.
This is unacceptable behavior for the
leader of Los Cusus who is supposed to
protect all businesses and all citizens.
Mayor, nobody is asking you to deny your
faith. And I in fact I said that I
respect your right to believe whatever
you want as long as it does not
influence policy or take away from the
rights of others.
As a reminder, New Mexico Constitution
states, Article 2, Section 11, "Every
man shall be free to worship God
according to the dictates of his own
conscience, and no person shall be ever
be molested or denied any civil or
political right or privilege on account
of his religious opinion or mode of
religious worship. In other words, there
should be a separation of church and
state."
This current federal government is doing
all it can to take away rights from
women. Our right to have control over
our bodies and voting are just the
latest. The mayor of Los Cruus needs to
support all of his centuits, not just
the men. You cannot have a free society
when half the population is not free to
choose their own life paths. You need to
do better, mayor. Thank you.
Hello, my name is Yiovanni Savan
Hernandez. I'll be reading a public
comment from my partner Abigail Sukugan
who had to leave because she was going
to work. Hello, my name is Abigail
Sulukan and I've been living in Los
Cusus for about 17 years now. I'm
usually not a pessimist. In fact, I'm
almost I'm almost always not a
pessimist, but I'm just starting to see
my representatives that are supposed to
represent me participate in events that
are against me and my healthcare. But I
am reminded by the women in um on the
dis that support and represent me, the
community who show up for people like
who are like me. So, I still show up. I
still give my public comments. I still
show up to community meetings. I put my
sticker on things I want to see in the
city and I still show up for my
community myself. So, I hope this
council does right uh does the right
thing uh right and just decisions today.
I also want to say I'm against any new
infrastructure for border patrol and I
would suggest that the mayor use his
platform to speak against that instead
of speaking against reproductive
healthcare facilities like Oko Theo.
I've seen firsthand uh kids being
separated by their families um after
school. So, no more funding for Border
Patrol and no new buildings.
Um,
Mayor
Sapatista
National
Revolution.
Politico.
Mexico.
Eric, if you didn't understand me, that
was
that was uh that was one of the demands
from the um sapatista Army for National
Liberation um in their uh revolutionary
law for the women um and one of their
demands is that women have the right to
decide the number of children that they
uh will have and take care of. Eric,
please use your platform to speak
against Border Patrol and not against
women. Thank you.
Good afternoon, mayor and city
counselor.
Um, my name is Alberto Campo. I am a
full-time student and also a full-time
uh worker. Um, I wish I could be here at
every single city council meetings. I
think this is a really good opportunity
to um engage with our local government,
but sadly I can't. And so one of the
things that I'm going to talk about
today is that the accessibility of these
meetings. Um
I don't think these meetings serve the
working class and the youth of Las
Cruises. Uh they happen on 1:00 p.m. on
Mondays. Uh county commissioner meetings
happen at 9:00 a.m. on Tuesdays. And so
this scheduling makes it incredibly hard
to utilize this forum as intended. This
is supposed to be our community's chance
to engage with elected officials as you
all vote on policies that affect us
directly.
Look at the average age represented in
the room right now. Think of those who
can't make it. Think of your
constituents who are being left out of
the decision-making process.
The working class of New Mexico and Las
Cruuses, the bus drivers featured
earlier, the educators, healthcare
workers, the people who keep the
libraries running.
Those are constituents whose input is so
often left behind of these decisions.
As you hold those chairs, your decisions
shape the life and reality of Las Cruus.
The way I see it, uh, holding one of
those chairs, uh, means a commitment to
making sure that these forums are
accessible to the majority of your
constituents, and I think that should be
a priority. Your decisions here affect
them the most. Please take the
appropriate action to allow to allow the
working-class and youth of Luses to be
represented in this space. Maybe shift
the meetings a little bit later. I know
so many students that I engage with
every day that have opinions on um the
decisions that you guys make and it
affects them directly and they want to
be here. They want to show up but they
can't because they have class or they
have a work shift. I mean 1 p.m. on a
Monday is just so tough and it really
limits who has access to these spaces.
I haven't been able to be here in a
while and so I'd like to uh say u to
councelor Harris uh it is refreshing to
see a new face and um I've also seen
your I've noticed your commitment to
meet your constituents where they're at
and I want to I want to thank you for
that. Um I also want to extend my
gratitude to council and Kuran. Um I see
you're championing initiatives that put
our community first. Um you champion
access to housing. Thank you. So, thank
you for standing for working-class
families.
Lastly, Mayor Enriquez, um your votes
against a welcoming city, which was an
effort to protect our immigrant
neighbors was received as disrespect. I
saw the slide that was there up um
earlier um asking for respect and I've
I've seen in different bodies both here
and the county commissioner where like
sometimes criticism for the decisions
that you guys made is taken as
disrespect. Um, your votes that affect
our lives are taken as disrespect. Thank
you.
Greetings, council, mayor. Uh, my name
is Jay Cho. You might have noticed me
earlier because I was up here for
graduate and professional student
appreciation week. Thank you for that
proclamation. Uh I just wanted to second
what my peer there was saying just now
about trying to move these meetings to
more accessible time for people. Yet
again, 1 p.m. is a difficult time. I'm
able to kind of squeeze that in with
some stuff, but it means I have to
scooch other things out of the way. Most
people aren't able to just move a
meeting to a different time or engage
with some uh students at a different
time. They typically work a 9 toive job
and so it's hard for them to show up at
city council in the middle of the day.
they might have to do with their
lunchtime or take time off and so
they're just not going to do it on a
daily basis even if it's things that are
important to them. And so I'm hoping we
can try and figure something out there
or at the very least do more of these
community engagement events consistently
throughout the year. Um that'd be
appreciated because I think accessing
everybody across the city is important
so you don't get the same voices showing
up all the time saying the same stuff.
You want to be hearing from everybody in
the city, not a couple people who always
make the noise. So thank you
Good afternoon, honorable city
councilors and mayors. I'm here to speak
today about the recent protests on March
14 regarding the opening of a facility
that will serve the needs of women's
reproductive.
Excuse me, ma'am. Ma'am, could you state
your name for the record?
Yes. Uh, forgive me. Jane Ash, ASChe.
The protest and ongoing public protests
is essentially about a difference of
opinions between two sets of religious
views. One view being that a woman, many
times a mother with children, does not
have the right to choose between her
health or in some instances her life or
death if she is carrying an unborn fetus
that some consider already a child with
a right to life.
The other view being a woman deserves
the right to choose between her health
and well-being and in many instances the
well-being of her children and family
and in some instances
her life or death while carrying a fetus
which is still an unborn embryo until
the moment of birth.
In our country, it has been a longheld
tradition and constitutional guarantee
that every citizen has a reli right to
religious freedom. That is to choose the
religious values one practices as long
as those values do not do harm to
others. In other words, the separation
of church and state. state meaning
government. Our local city council
members have a set of duties and
obligations that they pledge to carry
out which clearly does not include
passing laws or developing policy
related to reproductive rights.
However, since our mayor attended this
recent protest today, I respectfully ask
you, Mayor Enriquees,
should you attend future protests that
you make it clear that you are appearing
as an individual citizen to support your
religious view about women's rights to
choose and that you are not attending in
your role as a mayor of Los Cruus.
This is consistent with our cherished
tradition of the separation of church
and state.
In closing, I want to thank the mayor
and the city councilors for this
opportunity to express my opinion, a
mark of your practice to encourage
democracy.
I know that the job you do
in this job that you do, you often put
up with disrespect and threats to the
safety of yourselves and family members.
for that. I am truly sorry and I express
my deep appreciation that you persist in
your public service in spite of the
personal sacrifice. Thank you for the
time to speak.
testing. Can you hear me? Cool. All
right. Hello, city council. I am Rose. I
live in district 2 and I'm here to talk
about the top 10 total votes from the
community meeting back in October
um for the funding of the GRT. Um and
the list of it is the following. The
Bangan Library rec center wastewater
treatment
water. Um, that item is on the agenda,
so we can speak to that. You can speak
to that when that item comes up. We
can't speak to it during public
participation. The GRT.
Okay. All right. Be back later.
Thank you.
Uh, good afternoon, city council and
mayor. I'm uh Larara Jansen. Um, Mr.
Mayor, I was shocked and disappointed
when I learned you spoke at the
Southwest Coalition of Life at their
protest of the new women's health center
on Lman. That organization wants to take
away a woman's right to choose.
According to their website, their
doctrine is in line with Catholic and
biblical teaching. Of course, you have
the right to your own beliefs, religious
or otherwise. However, New Mexico gives
women the right to choose, and it was
not appropriate nor acceptable for you
to show your support for an organization
that wants to take away women's healthc
care rights. Separation of church and
state still applies. Thank you.
Good afternoon, mayor and city council.
My name is Leslie Woods.
And for my comment today, I want to
remind you of the words of John F.
Kennedy, our 35th president and our
first Catholic president.
In the 1960 election, Kennedy's
opponents sought to make his religion an
issue, claiming that if Kennedy were
president, the Pope would rule America.
Kennedy addressed the religious issue
with these words from the Greater
Houston Ministry Association, September
12th, 1960. I quote, "Whatever issue may
come before me as president on birth
control, divorce, censorship, gambling,
or any other subject, I will make my
decisions in accordance with these
views, in accordance with what my
conscience tells me to be the national
interest, and without regard to outside
religious pressures or dictates, and no
power or threat of punishment could
cause me to decide otherwise.
But if the time should ever come and I
do not concede any conflict even
remotely possible when my office would
require me to either violate my
conscience or violate the national
interest, then I would resign the
office, and I hope any conscientious
public servant would do the same." End
quote. Kennedy promised that if his
duties as president conflicted with his
religion, he would resign the
presidency.
Mr. Mayor, I don't know how to emphasize
this enough. If that standard is good
enough for John F. Kennedy and the
presidency of the United States of
America, then it should be good enough
for you and Los Cusus, New Mexico. Thank
you.
Mayor Council Juan Garcia, before I get
started, I am extremely proud of our
military and the job they're doing in
Iran so far. Serrify.
Today, I want to speak about the
13-year-old that is dead in Las Cusus
again, killed by another 13year-old.
Imagine the parents, the friends, the
empty chair at the dinner table. If your
eyes don't tear, then something is wrong
with you.
We call it a tragedy, as if it were a
hurricane. Unpredictable, unstoppable. A
13-year-old can't legally buy, possess,
or hold a weapon. We want to teach
respect for life. Yet, a child gained
access to a gun because we, the adults,
allowed it. A life erased in the blink
of an eye because we collectively
shrugged. We failed. Period. And another
family will never recover. In my
opinion, there are two major elements
that will help address the senseless
killings of our youth.
Responsible gun ownership and a change
in attitude towards our most vulnerable,
the unborn. Responsible gun ownership
isn't some bumper stinker slogan or a
talking point or confiscation of
lawfully owned weapons. It means locking
up firearms every single time and
background checks that keep out those
who shouldn't have a gun. It means laws
that put the safety of our children
above the fleeting convenience of
adults. And for those who violate, there
have to be consequences.
I recall the words from a recent trial
of a murderer from the Young Park
massacre. The court looked at the
teenager's crime and called it depraved
mind murder, saying they showed a quote
total and deadly indifference to the
value of human life.
How did we get here? We talk about value
in life, but what kind of message do we
send when we don't even protect the most
defenseless?
Something has to change or our kids will
keep dying. And I continue from a recent
op-ed by two of our counselors, Ben Como
and Harris, opposing the use of FL
cameras and going against LCPD. And I
quote, "We don't raise these concerns
because we distrust the police chief."
Distrust the police chief. LCPD invited
Las Cruz's residents to register the
doorbell cameras with lock to with for
crime resolution. Their comments, we
strongly urge residents not to
participate in this program. This is the
kind of support we get from our council.
And in closing, I know the mayor's got a
lot of flack for attending the prolife
rally on October 15, 2022. Councilor Ben
Ko stood there and warmed up the crowd
during a visit by MLG. Same thing. Thank
you.
Hello, my name is Spencer Taylor. I'm a
former 15-year professor at New Mexico
State and current master of social work
and um I'm from district 2. I'd like to
echo the sentiment about having a more
accessible time for these meetings. Um I
know lots of students around campus who
would appreciate being able to get here,
myself included, sometimes class getting
in the way or vice versa. Um,
I'd also like to speak, Mayor Enriquez,
about your decision to attend this Pro
Force Birth rally, um, and speak as an
official speaker. Um, I think it's
important that we realize in our
community that, um, pro-force birth is
an abusive stance. It's an inherently
abusive stance. Um it is essentially
leveraging the power of government, the
power of force, weaponry, imprisonment,
fines, whatever it may be to tell women
that they must give birth whether they
want to give birth or not. That's
abusive. Um, and so speaking to you, you
know, as a member of a group that we're
part of, men who historically have
enacted a lot of atrocious things um
toward women. If we want to enact some
level of repair, some level of apology,
some level of healing,
um we have one thing to do, and that's
just to step aside. To just step aside.
Um, occasionally as in this case, uh,
maybe lend an allied voice here and
there when called upon. Um, but for the
most part, we need to step aside, listen
to, for instance, all the women who
spoke here earlier. Um, listen to the
amazing comment Ben Como left at the
last council and as I think Corin
accurately called it, fire. Um, so what
can or should we maybe speak on more as
a group, as men? Um well at that rally I
understand you had police officers go to
silence counterprotesters
um who were there advocating for women's
rights and uh I think that really shows
a lot about the positionality of the
police in our society. Um they often
occupy a space of pointing guns from the
stance or from the point of power
elected or official power towards people
towards citizens residents individuals
who are standing up for human rights.
Um, and I think that we really need to
in Los Cruus start shifting some of our
perspective towards emphasizing um,
police as uh, something that should not
be there to continue oppression. Thank
you for your time.
Good afternoon, council and everyone.
And my name is Yoli Diaz. Thank you. I
sincerely appreciate your decision to
move forward with the lawsuit against
Memorial Medical Center. This action is
a critical step toward restoring
accountability and transparency for our
community. Thank you sincerely. In 2021,
I made a deliberate choice to fully
understand how our community reached
such a detrimental position with
Memorial Medical Center. I submitted
numerous inspection of public records
requests and conducted extensive
research. What I have learned cannot be
undone. What I now know cannot be
dismissed. And what Memorial Medical
Center has done cannot be erased.
Following the March 23rd, 2026 press
conference announcing the joint lawsuit
by the city of Los Cusus's and Donana
County, Memorial Medical Center released
a public statement asserting good faith
and denying any breach of agreement and
how you both rebuffed their efforts. But
no one should be misled by MMC's craft
carefully crafted language. Actions tell
the real story. As you know, I
personally sought detailed information
from MMC CEO Dennis Knox. Portions of my
requests were dismissed as demands and
critical information was withheld.
Likewise, the city of Los Cruus' August
2024 letter of default included requests
directly tied to the asset purchase
agreement. If Memorial Medical Center
chose not to provide that required
information, on what basis can they
claim compliance? Memorial Medical
Center must answer for its obligations
under section 6.5, indigent care and
continuation of services. Expanded care
services and reporting were required.
They were not optional. The law was
never eliminated. The program name
changed and funding
was never eliminated. The program name
changed and the funding was required to
be modified legally. But it was not
abolished. Medicaid still exists. These
are not technicalities. The are these
are egregious failures that demand real
scrutiny. After 18 18 months without
fulfilling all of the requests outlined
in the letter of default, the conclusion
is unavoidable and obvious. It was
Memorial Medical Center, not the city of
Los Cusus and Donana County that failed
to act in good faith and did the
rebuffing. The harm to Donana County
residents began long before this
lawsuit. In 2014, when Lifepoint Health
Leadership implemented an aggressive and
immediate expense reduction and revenue
enhancement strategy, the consequences
were profound. By 2016, removal of
cancer care had already been documented.
A clear violation of the indigent care
policy required under the asset purchase
agreement. These were not abstract
policy failures. They had real human
consequences. cost cutting decisions,
compromised care, placing lives at risk.
Residents were harmed and some residents
died. This is not merely negligent. It
is unconscionable. Thank you.
Good afternoon, um, mayor and members of
the council. My name is Denali Wilson. I
am here in a couple of capacities. I am
a lawyer who represents children who
have been sentenced as adults to life in
prison. And I'm also policy council for
All Safe New Mexico, which is a
coalition of organizations across the
state committed to advancing root cause
solutions to public safety.
I'm I'm here to express support for
dedicating a portion of the city's
budget to the design of a juvenile gun
diversion program. This represents a
tangible and modest investment that
would allow the city to begin developing
interventions that actually reduce youth
gun violence. I work every day with
people in prison who decades ago
received the harshest available criminal
sentences for harm that they caused as
children. And because of that, I'm
deeply familiar with how little these
traditional system responses deliver to
youth, to crime victims, and to the
community at large. The moment that we
are living in demands innovation, and it
demands creativity. It calls on us to
act on what we know. That when young
people cause harm, our responses must
reflect the realities of adolescence.
And that meaningful accountability is
only possible when we recognize young
people as still deserving of support,
capable of growth, and capable of
contributing positively to our
communities. I'm grateful to the
council's for the council's leadership
in considering an investment in a
juvenile gun diversion program and
myself individually and and members of
the allsafe coalition are eager to
partner with the city to design a
program that is both effective and can
serve as a model for communities across
the state. Thank you.
Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor, City Council.
My name is Jay Hill, and I was born and
raised in Los Cusus, New Mexico. And I
come before you today to speak on
something that is near and dear to my
heart. Much like uh my good friend
Christie said, uh that we have a problem
with our parks. And over the last 12
years, we have seen that 17% of children
born today have some sort of disability.
With that, uh, we look at our public
access and our public play spaces and we
don't see the inclusion that this
community with special needs needs.
Uh, many children with disabilities
simply don't have the same opportunities
to play and explore and connect as other
children. And I'm not just speaking as a
southern New Mexico New Mexican that has
a heart for that. I'm speaking as a
father with a son with a disability and
I can tell you there's nothing more
heartbreaking than to go out and watch
your child want to play with the other
kids but not having the opportunity. At
the same time, there is nothing more
heartbreaking than listening to your
family be afraid to take a child to a
park and not be able to play. That's why
I'm asking the city to begin looking to
identify an allabilities park. This is
something that is specifically set aside
for children. This is not a spot just to
gather. It's a spot for kids to actually
be kids, those that can't do what we
were able to do and we have often taken
for granted.
I want to acknowledge Chief Story and
the efforts that he's been doing to make
our park safer. Um, this is truly good
work that matters to all of us. At the
same time, it takes more than just
police. It takes financial
responsibility, accountability, and the
operation of a true budget.
As we consider this project, I ask the
council to please keep an eye on our
financial abilities to fund things like
this because many times you will see our
community come with an idea or a project
that we think will be so beneficial, but
by the time it gets washed through the
government process, we have spent
millions of dollars of taxpayers money
that never equates to what it truly
meant at this operation. I'm going to
give you one example and this was for a
public housing project that is here in
the city of Los Cusus. Mind you, the
national average to build an apartment
door, one unit in an apartment should
cost somewhere between 60 and $90,000
per unit. Our city spent over $345,000
per door to afford somebody the
opportunity to have housing like this.
And while that is something that I bring
to the table, I ask as you prepare your
budgets, as you prepare to look and help
those that truly need the support, make
sure that we do so in a proper way that
that funding gets to where it needs to
be. And with that, I ask that that goes
to our special needs children community.
Thank you.
Hi, I had pre-written my notes and so
some of this is going to be a little
redundant since you've already heard
from a couple of people before me. Um,
and I apologize for that. So, um, good
afternoon. My name is Olivia Kirkpatrick
and I am one of the members of Parks for
All Los Cusus. We are a grassroots
effort built around a single idea. Los
Cusus deserves a fully inclusive
allabilities park and I'm here to ask
for council support. Um, according to
the most recent US Census American
Community Survey, Los Cusus is home to
approximately 116,000 residents.
Although after seeing earlier now that
we're at 119 636, so my numbers are kind
of behind. Nearly 18,000 of them, 15.5%
of our community live with a disability.
But a disability does not exist in
isolation. Behind every one of those
residents is a family, a caregiver, and
a friend. The ripple effect is
substantial.
We are not talking about a park for a
segment of our community. We are talking
about a park that serves us all. The
core of Parks for All Los Cusus is this.
We deserve a park built intentionally
for everyone, especially people with
disabilities, cognitive and sensory
needs, limited mobility, and families
who've never had a park that felt
designed with them in mind. The heart of
why we're asking for a dedicated
inclusive park, not just ADA equipment
added to existing parks, presence is not
participation.
A person who can reach a park but cannot
fully use it has not been included.
They've been accommodated. That's the
difference between meeting a minimum
standard and building something that
actually changes lives. What makes our
vision different is its purpose. That it
would be designed around the
therapeutic, developmental, and physical
health needs of people of all abilities
and all ages. And the beauty of is of it
is that it would just look like fun.
Every element could serve a function, a
space where the design does the heavy
lifting. And every person who comes
through the gate just gets to
participate and to do so with dignity.
No one is limited to what is built for
someone half their age or a fraction of
their experience. Parks for all exists
to be a bridge between this community
and this body. We are doing the work and
we are not asking you to carry it along.
We believe there's a park in our future
where everyone can truly use and enjoy
the same park. That is not presence.
That is participation. And that's what
we're working toward. We're hoping that
together we can come we can build
something Los Cusus has never had. Not
just a park for the community, a park
built by the community. And we are
asking for your support to get there.
And I scheduled an email. So there
should be our package in your email
there. Thank you so much for your time.
And I do want if I could real quick,
there was a teacher and a mom of a
disabled child who was going to speak as
well, but she had to leave. So, I just
wanted to let you know that we had
someone from the community that was
going to speak on this and support it.
Thank you.
Good afternoon, Derek Pacheco for the
record. Uh, thank you very much to
councelor Ben Como and to councelor
Harris for the op-ed recently in the Sun
News regarding flock and bringing that
to the uh discussion table. I think
people need to learn more about that on
their own. Um, folks need to understand
what Flock is and what the CEO of Flock
uh has to say, especially about people
that speak out against Flock.
Uh, so thank you for that. Um, Councelor
Harris, thank you for addressing the
elephant in the room during the work
session last week. Uh, you were on point
with everything. Thank you. Councelor
Matise, very, very disappointed in you.
extremely.
You seem like a stand-up guy every time
we met. And now you're just laughing me
off right now, like disrespectfully, of
course. Uh, but you did lie to me. You
said you were going to research flock.
You said you were going to call other
cities that have been dealing with flock
issues, and then you never did. You
actually lied to me on the phone, and
you went into a deep story about calling
your cousin Columbbo over in New Jersey.
Remember that? You did nothing of what
you told me you're going to do. You did
nothing of what I asked you to do.
Why don't you just step down?
Council Mccclure, also disappointed in
you.
You did nothing that I asked for. You
lied to me. Also, you said that you had
no power to bring forth a resolution to
counsel and you had me uh you directed
me to councelor Ben Como instead.
Why do you think we're having such hard
time with requests?
Think about it. The people want to know
what's going on in their city. When I
call on counselor or mayor or anyone,
I get the opposite of what respectful
engagement is. I get no phone calls.
Council Mccclure, remember when I called
your secretary, your office, and I asked
you for inerson meeting, and then your
secretary calling back said, "Nope.
you're not interested in meeting with
me. Same thing with councelor Matise.
Nope. Not interested in meeting with me.
Left a message with mayor with his
secretary. Nope. Not interested in
meeting with me. So, if you won't meet
with us and you're just going to have us
file requests instead, but now you don't
want to give a budget to Christine and
handle more requests.
Thing is, you guys are lying to us. And
so when other people are watching Los
Cruuses from other states and other
markets, they want to know what's going
on, too. So they're requesting IPRO
documents. They're like, "What the heck
is going on in Los Cruuses? What's up
with the murders? What's up with the
everything? This is not working out.
It's just not working out. And three
minutes of public participation is
absolutely not enough time to engage
with you all to let us to let you know
what's going on.
Good afternoon, city council mayor. My
name is Albert Lee. The topic we are
discussing today is the woman's healthc
care center and the boycott against its
construction which you, Mr. Mayor, have
endorsed. Given that the those who
oppose the center do primarily on
religious grounds, it would be
appropriate at the outset to refresh our
memory on the New Mexico constitution,
which I am not going to do since it had
already been uh quoted today, which was
article 2 section 11.
But I am going to say I'm not a lawyer,
but it seems to me that if those were
citizens who organize a boycott against
the women who have abortions, they would
be guilty of molesting them for their
religious options opinions. So it seems
to me that those who boycott contractors
who work on a women's s clinic are
likewise likewise guilty. those please
bear these words in mind as we present
our ideas on the women's health center
and the boycott against it but
apparently that the mayor has supported
now I'm I'm going to give you a little
story I met a woman one of my child's uh
classmates she was the 30th child of a
woman who was in the result
u rural area of Texas. Her mother
started having children at the age of 15
and gave birth every single year for the
next 30 years. There were no duplicates,
no twins, no triplets. They were single
births. She never got to meet a mother
because she mother passed away after
delivering her. She was the 30th child.
She had no hospital in that area. So I
want you to consider when we boycott or
talk about women's health that these
kind of things happen and they are in
every state like New Mexico, Arizona and
Texas. Thank you for your time.
Afternoon,
city council. Mr. Mayor, my name is Jim
Hurst.
Lead, follow, or get out of the way.
The people of the state of New Mexico
have decided by law to allow abortions
on demand in this state. Pursuant to
that decision, they have authorized and
funded the building of a facility in our
community. Unfortunately, our mayor
disagrees with that decision.
It's against his religion. It's against
his principles.
Mr. Mayor,
you answer only to your conscience for
your religion.
I would have it no other way. I'm glad
you have principles. I wish all
politicians had principles.
Apparently, our president doesn't have
any principles.
It would be nice if he did.
The question is not whether or not you
have a right to your principles.
Certainly, you do. The question, Mr.
mayor is what do you do when your
principles conflict with your
constituents principles and you seek to
deny them rights which our laws grant
the people who want an abortion clinic
and you don't agree.
Who wins? Who loses? Mr. Mayor, if you
are true to the Constitution and your
state, the people should win.
We the people have the right to our
principles too.
One of those principles is that a woman
has the right to control their own
bodies
and their reproduction.
Mr. Mayor, I concede that you cannot
lead on the construction of an abortion
clinic and remain true to your
conscience.
Perhaps you can't in good conscience
simply follow on the issue.
That leaves only one option. Get out of
the way.
Your participation in the right to life
event was an act of obstruction.
If you consider JFK's prescription that
elected official should resign if his
conscience should disagree with the
public good, then he should resign.
that obstruction is not an alternative
open to you.
That leaves get out of the way as the
only other option.
That means, among other things,
renouncing the boycott.
You can do that today.
Mr. Mayor, please get out of the way.
Good afternoon,
Mayor Enriquez Council. My name is Eddie
Thomas
and the reason for my getting up to
speak with you uh particularly uh mayor
is because
um
I have been left uh wanting for a
resolution or any progress made on a uh
promise. Well, maybe not a promise, but
some kind of a resolution for the
situation in front of my house, which I
brought to your attention almost two
years ago.
I'm talking about the flooding and
ponding issue where my house is on Cay
de Lenanto. My house is at the lowest
part of that street. I brought that to
your attention and my counselor Beno
back in uh July of 2024.
I have the emails to prove it. The
reason I didn't send you recent pictures
of what uh my situation is because you
already have them in your email. If you
goo if you search my name, you should be
able to find all the letters, all the
emails that I sent with pictures of the
situation at my house. Now, when it
rains, it pawns in front of my house.
Okay? Since I live at the lowest port
part of that street,
I get all the the water, which is fine.
I I love rain as much as the next guy,
but it stays there and mosquitoes and
tadpoles form there. Okay. And I know
you know what brackish water is. That's
what it turns to after about 3 or 4
days. And it stinks to high heaven.
Okay. And this uh
you you and uh counselor Beno gave me
some kind of a hope that something would
be done. Okay, here we are two years
later. Nothing has been done. Okay, and
now we're here on rainy season is
coming. This is April, May, June, July.
So, we're going to get some rain and
there's going to be some days where
we're I'm going to get an accumulation
of rain. And like I said, I love the
rain as much as the next guy, but not
when it causes problems like this.
I've been failed. Okay, nothing has been
done. And uh we're going on two years
here. And I just want to remind you of
the promise that that uh or the hope
that was handed out to me back in in the
those days that uh we were communicating
about that. So please
please do something for it, okay? Cuz
it's it's uh it's not a it's not a
pretty situation. And uh I I don't think
anybody would put up with it as long as
I have. Thank you.
Good afternoon, Mayor Ricas and council
members. My name is Dan Romero, a Los
Cruus resident. I'm here today to speak
about the pavement evaluation report
that was commissioned in 2024 and
released in 2025.
The report was conducted by RAS, road
asset services. While canvasing for some
state legislative representatives, I
noticed the poor conditions of the city
streets in the planet area off of
Roadrunner.
I was able to contact uh the community
development director and u that led to
um contact with the superintendent
um and I was able to get that report.
I asked one resident along the way uh
why his road how long his road had been
poor and he stated that he bought the
home in 2009. It was bad and that it has
deteriorated drastically since then.
It's 2026.
There are 501 miles of paved road in Los
Cruus. There are 41 a 12 miles of good
road. That's a a rating of uh 100 to 86
on the pavement condition index. 210 mi
of satisfactory road, which is 71 to 85.
175 miles of good roads, that's 70 to 56
on the scale, and 70 mi 75 miles of poor
or very poor or serious roads.
It seems like RAZ did a sampling of the
roads for for instance. They didn't do
all of them.
The good roads are 83% of the roads in
Los Cusus, but they sampled 18.8%.
The satisfactory roads are 41.8%
and they sampled 28%.
The fair roads were 34.9
uh% and they were sampled of 26%.
So it wasn't a real complete um part.
The road condition for the cities should
be 70. Los Cusus is 67.
Raz said that u there should be at least
$12 million a year spent for the next 5
years on the roads to keep them at 67%.
The city has budgeted 4.3 million which
means those roads will end up being at
63.4%.
that's going to go down. If you spent
the 6.23 million, your roads will end up
being at 64.8%
of the of the score.
I know it's a hard thing to do, but I
would request the council have
discussion, published the payment
report.
Earlier, you talked about 11 EV buses at
two to3 million a year per bus.
Spend some of that money in our roads.
We need quality of life in Los Cruuses.
It starts with our streets.
Thank you very much.
Good afternoon. Tim Jenkins for the
record. I've been coming to city council
for almost two years now since officer
Hernandez was murdered.
And
I see a pattern for two years that seems
to get worse and worse that there is a
certain demographic of people that come
up here and bash the mayor and bash the
chief of police and bash Matise and the
council members. And I apologize for
that behavior. That is unacceptable. You
guys do not deserve that. If the public
has a problem with any members on city
council, I suggest that you send them an
email and do it behind closed doors,
personal like you would want done to
you. You guys do not deserve that
behavior and I apologize for that
behavior and ask that we change that.
Thank you and have a good day.
Okay. Next is the acceptance of agenda.
Move to accept the agenda.
Second.
This is on the motion to accept the
agenda as presented. Councelor Mccclure,
yes.
Councelor Matise,
yes.
Councelor Harris,
yes.
Councelor Benol,
yes.
Councelor Karan,
yes.
Councelor Munoz,
yes.
Mayor,
yes.
So first is item 7.1 resolution number
26-122
resolution authorizing a contract
amendment to extend the term and
increase of total compensation of
electronic fuel card services.
Move to approve.
Second.
Go ahead, Donnie.
Good afternoon, mayor, counselors, and
city staff. Donnie Proise, purchasing
supervisor for the financial services
department.
And before you is a resolution to
authorize an increase and extend the
term for our contract for electronic
fuel card services.
On October 16th, 2023, the city council
approved resolution 24-040
authorizing an existing contract
purchase agreement for electronic fuel
card services with WEX Bank doing
business as Wright Express FSC of Carol
Stream, Illinois via a New Mexico State
Purchasing Division statewide price
agreement in an amount not to exceed
$350,000 annually. The city's fleet
services program requested authorization
to increase the annual amount to $1
million via resolution 25-075,
which was approved on January 6th, 2025.
The state's contract was originally set
to expire on December 31st, 2025.
The New Mexico State Purchasing Division
has exercised their option to extend the
contract for an additional one-year term
through December 31st, 2026. In
alignment with the state's extension,
Fleet Services is requesting
authorization to extend the existing
contract purchase agreement through
December 31st, 2026 and increase the
annual expenditure limit to an amount
not to exceed $1.5 million plus
applicable taxes subject to approved
budget appropriations.
Before you are your options and I will
stand for questions.
Thanks, Donnie. Any questions?
Seeing none, Christine.
This is on the motion to approve
resolution 26-122.
Councelor McClur,
yes.
Councelor Matise,
yes.
Councelor Harris,
yes.
Councelor Beno,
yes.
Councelor Karan,
yes.
Councelor Munoz,
yes.
Mayor,
yes.
Thank you.
Next is item 7.2, 2 resolution number
26-123
a resolution requesting budget authority
for the revenue received from the gross
receipt tax.
Move to approve.
Second.
Good afternoon, Mayor Council. Before
you, you have a resolution to approve
the budget for the gross receipts tax
that was passed in November of 2025.
Through fiscal 27, approximately 15.8
million will be received beyond what we
will be paying in debt service. So the
request that we are coming uh are
requesting approval for is for the funds
that are not obligated to debt service.
So the projects here are based on excuse
me both what we have feedback we have
received both at the budget retreat as
well as the work session. So this would
be 4.5 4.3 million for deferred
facilities and asset maintenance, 1.5
million for the Hogland Alama
intersection improvements, 5 million for
the fire department apparatus,
5 million for the police fire department
driving track, and as you can see in
orange, there's uh 2.09 that was
received in capital outlay funding
separate from the funding request that
I'm
speaking to you now. And then vehicles
for one police vehicles for 1.5 million.
And with that I will stand for any
questions.
Council Mccclure.
Thank you, Mayor. Um
I'm not sure how to rightly do this, so
let me just flounder into it. So,
deferred facilities. Um, can you talk a
little bit more about what that's going
to look like specifically?
Mr. Mayor, councelor McClure. Actually,
I'm going to turn that over to Jimmy
Moreno. He's got far more information on
this than I do.
Thank you, Leslie. Jimmy Moreno with
public works. For the record, uh, Mayor
Councelor McCor, uh, the deferred
facilities asset maintenance is is, uh,
the maintenance that we'll be doing on
all the facility buildings within the
city of Las Cusus. So, I spoke to it on
the last work session, couple of the
slides there, um, that showed a lot of
our abatements, roof replacements, um,
roof rehabs, parking lot rehabs.
Do we feel that rehabilitation of a
building is part of that?
uh mayor c uh councelor mcculler uh yes
that wouldn't be included depending on
the nature of of the maintenance. So if
it's end if any of the facilities or
portions thereof are end of useful life
we can replace them and rehabilitate
those those uh as as needed depending on
priority.
Were were any of the design planning
issues for the library included in the
deferred maintenance?
Uh, mayor, councelor McCor, no none of
the library unless there's some
specifics. Um, uh, not as as far as any
of the design or rehabilitations, that
was a separate project.
Okay. Thank you. Just to feel a little
bit like a lawyer asking these questions
like this. Um,
let me give a just a background of how I
saw GRT unfolding for the public. Uh,
just to give you a sort of sense of it.
Um, and I I don't mean to go sort of
half and half because I know we have two
resolutions at hand, Chris. I'm sorry.
I'm trying my best here. So, part of it
was
we know that senators and
representatives have a small amount
each, right? Every year, what do we get
about 1012 million for some of these
larger projects? It's really hard to
fund these things and and we have, you
know, our housing department, we have
the burger, we we put it together, we
leverage what we can, right? So, this
was part of the the question is how do
we leverage these large projects? And I
cannot follow um Jennifer's um
kicking the can down the road. Love
that. And that's where we've gotten with
a lot of things with our parks, with our
library. And I'd like to ask whether or
not we add specifically the library to
deferred facilities to kind of bump up
where we're going with this. I know that
we're looking at it strategically with
the go bond, but we got to be a little
bit clearer with people who are invested
in these spaces that make sense in that
way. And I would just like to see that
we we we put our money where our mouth
is, where where the library is, and help
kickstart that. I hate to throw the
wrench in right now, but I think it's
correct that we look at it that way.
What we have deferred crucial things and
the library is one of them. A lot of
this term of how do we leverage it's
starting these small things. So when we
go up to the legislature and they have
to make really hard decisions, they go,
"Okay, we can give more." And we did. We
got almost two million for the library
this year. But when we have a $45
million project, it's really, really
hard. How do we do that? Yes. the GO
bond will be a big component of this,
but we also have to show that that is
what our value is, right? And I think at
the budget retreat, a lot of us spoke to
that, but I think one thing that kept
kicking in my head was councelor Ben
Como said we all take the library
support for granted and we shouldn't we
should be explicit in that right now,
especially with how we're doing this. I
made notes. Let me make sure I got all
my notes.
If I think of anything, I'll come back.
But that's kind of where I'm at right
now is that I think that we should think
about even kickstarting some of the
design issues so that we when we say we
are putting our money where two, three,
four million ask that it is very
specific and very clear on where we're
going and what our values are for this
city and I think the library is one of
the top ones right now.
Thank you. That's that's all I got right
now.
councils.
Um, thank you, mayor. And, uh, yes,
coincidentally, whether any of that 4.3
million could be directed towards, uh,
the library was top of my list as well.
Um, so, so I'll echo that. I think that
there's definitely some justification
there. Maybe even the branch libraries.
Um, you know, that's those are
definitely facilities and, um, I'm sure
they'll be benefited. So, I would like
to see them benefited. Um the other
thing is um on the I think fire
department fire apparatus
100% we need to order those. We we won't
get them for a while but um be there. Uh
Hogland Alama
ever since I've been driving it's been a
problem. Ever since my parents have been
driving it's been a problem. So I think
it's good time to get that done. Um yes
and um then so so my other question is
on the police department vehicles. Um I
think we also on the next on the bonding
section we have some stuff for vehicles
as well. So how does how does this 1.5
million what does that get us you know
plus we're also talking about another
1.5 million basically in the next thing.
So that's like three million bucks for
police vehicles.
It's a lot.
Yes, Mayor Councelor Harris, what this
1.5 will get us is about 18 new police
vehicles. So, this is um this would be
now and then, as you mentioned in the
information that Chris is going to be
presenting, we will also have
600,000 every year for both police and
fire to continue to upkeep their fleet
because, as you know, those vehicles do
take quite a beating.
So, I don't know if that answers your
question. Is there additional
information you'd like?
Um, sure. So, I think for for the
public's benefit and for ours, $1.5
million for 18 vehicles is a lot of
money per vehicle. Um, so maybe some
more info on what all goes what goes
into those vehicles. Are they going to
have ballistic windshields? I know that
was a retrofit thing that came before a
previous council. Um any more info on
that would be helpful.
I I will defer that to Chief Story.
Go ahead, Chief.
Thank you, Mayor Councelor Harris,
Jeremy Story, Police Chief for the
Record. The update cost I mean that's
standard across law enforcement agencies
across the country. So the base cost of
the vehicle is just under 50,000 for the
police interceptor. That's the SUV
that's you see typically or Ford
Explorer. When you put in a cage, the
radio, radios are up to almost $10,000
for a radio. You have the the light
package obviously for visibility, which
is very important for the safety of the
officer, but also the safety of the
public. And when you factor in
everything, it's about $87,000.
Now, I can say Deputy Chief Mullen is a
very frugal person and he's been able to
find a way to to spread that money out
better than we ever have by being
competitive and and going to other
vendors and in making sure that he's
getting the best price possible and
they're essentially competing for our
business. So, we've been able to reduce
the cost even though or or at least keep
the cost where it is even though prices
have gone up drastically because of
inflation in the last two to three
years.
Okay, thanks for that clarification. Um,
I have other stuff, but I think it's for
the next item. So, thanks
council.
Thank you. Thanks again um for the
presentation and the next one. I before
I uh ask my questions, I want to zoom
out a little bit because I think it's
important to name a couple of facts. I
think there's been a very intentionally
well-crafted narrative in the last few
months about what this new GRT funding
was intended for. So, I wanted to remind
the public about the question that was
actually asked on the ballot. The
question actually read, and if you have
any updated language, please correct me
if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty certain
this was the actual language on the
ballot. Shall the city of Los Cruus
impose a municipal c gross receipts tax
in the amount of 320,000
of 1% parentheses 0.3250%
in the revenues of which shall be used
for funding capital improvements and
maintenance for public safety streets
parks and other public facil facilities
and critical infrastructure that sounds
correct right I'm going to repeat the
last part of that which shall be used
for funding capital improvements and
maintenance for public safety, streets,
parks, and other public facilities
facilities and critical infrastructure.
I think there's again I think there's
been this like very carefully crafted
narrative that this funding was
intentionally for just two departments
which are our public safety departments
and that is not that is wholeheartedly
actually inaccurate. That is not what
the question asked. Um fact number two
and the reason this is important is
because I actually it took a very long
time for me to come around and support
this initiative initially because the
second fact is that GRT is a regressive
tax meaning that it is it is structured
so that the tax rate effectively
decreases as the taxpayers's income
increases meaning lower income
individuals pay a higher proportion of
their income compared to wealthier
individuals. This is a regressive tax
for me. It was very hard to support.
However, the third fact that I have and
the ultimate reason that I did support
it is because in New Mexico,
municipalities have been left with very
limited avenues to increase our
revenues, uh, making it harder for
cities to run efficient services and
programming. So, it is very difficult
for uh, cities like us in New Mexico to
just say we're going to increase our
revenues for a general fund in other
ways. It is not difficult. It's
impossible. is the only avenue we've
been given. So given that and given the
fact that we have um 82 miles of
roadways that need to be repaved, that
we have failing parks, that we have um
failing infrastructure in terms of our
current buildings. For me, it was
important to ultimately advocate for
this on the ballot. When I spoke to
people about why they should vote for
this, that's what I talked to them
about. So I just want to
remind folks that the initial intention
the initial intention and what the
intention we should continue with is
that um we are trying to catch up. I am
so sad. Jennifer is gone. Is she gone?
Where's your bucket? Oh, there she is. I
the bucket is really on many things and
the library is absolutely one of them
and you can see that on the outside on
the inside and that is accurate. And
then what we then h then what happens is
that the public comes here and says we
want to see these things and then we
create this dynamic where um advocates
for one thing are sort of fighting
against other advocates for other
things. Like I don't think we should
ever be in a place where folks who are
here to advocate for ADA parks should be
throwing unhoused people under the bus.
We shouldn't um be in a situation where
people advocating for transit for better
roads should be throwing transit under
the bus. No pun intended.
But it happens because we've created
this this scarcity model. And I the
other fact is that the most well-unded
department in our budget is the police
department. It is the largest slice of
the general fund. And in the time I've
been here, in the seven years I've been
here, it is there's always there's
always money for PD. And I'm not making
that wrong or right. I'm just that is a
fact that there is always money for the
police department, realtime crime
center, park rangers, and so and I think
if we just zoomed out and really what
this GRT, what the public said, yes,
even poor folks, yes, you can tax us
more so that we can get the services we
deserve in our community.
That we look at them equitably. And when
we don't do that, that's when we create
this like this scarcity bucket where
communities and advocates are fighting
against each other when they shouldn't
be on quality of life issues and quality
of life issues that are evidence proven
to improve quality of life, to improve
safety. We keep kicking those down the
bucket. And I'm going to be very frank.
I was when this final iteration came out
for this item and the next item we're
voting on. I was very surprised at the
numbers for fleet. I feel like this
isn't a conversation we'd been having
with a matter of urgency. And so I was
very surprised that uh the high numbers
of fleet and I understand that um one
apparatus for the fire department is
$1.2 million. I understand that that's a
incredibly heavy burden and I also
understand that we've in every budget I
be I believe there's been an increase in
in amount for PD cars and so I just I
don't want us to fall into this
narrative that somehow PD hasn't gotten
what they've wanted because they have
and so then the things that are left
right are this driving track which um we
got a ton of capital outlay for and is
on this but is on this list and then in
the next item we have that number for
the public safety facility. So I those
those things are I think um as much as
doesn't matter I I what I'm trying to
say is that often I think what happens
is that we place this um we place
inequities in our own departments and
perhaps it's whoever has the most
political influence or whatever it is
but I again we're here and I kind of
feel like we're doing the same thing and
the public gave us this gift. They gave
us this huge opportunity to actually go
into deferred maintenance of so many of
the things in our community that people
want to see improved like their
libraries, like their roads, like
drainage in their neighborhoods, like
these things that often feel
boring. Um, but they're not. They
improve people's quality of life. So I I
just I want us to approach this in the
spirit of that in the spirit of what we
went to the public with this very hard
question and 55% of our community voted
in support of so I want to say that I um
Leslie can you talk about I and I know I
have a bad memory so maybe I forgot but
I really was shocked that the number at
the numbers that you all came to us
regarding fleet because this not it has
not felt like this is something that
we've been urgently talk talking about
in the last few months
at the budget retreat. I don't believe
this was an item that was discussed
heavily.
So, uh, Mayor Councelor Ben Como, this
was something that I, you know, that as
a team we determined was a priority
based on what we had heard from you.
At least that's how we interpreted it.
Now that does not mean that it has to
remain that way but I had heard you know
from our fleet you know our fleet
administrator I'd heard from you know
chief story chief Daniels that this was
something that they really did need and
so that is why we are bringing it before
you as they advocated for their
departments that's why we are bringing
it before you
I mean I I'll gently push back on that
right because it everything on the list
is something we need from every
department, right? every department
presented things that we all need and I
think it's the matter of how we ended up
internally choosing what rose to the top
and not and I think um my hope would
have been that it would could have been
easier for staff because I understand I
can't imagine how stressful this was
even you know in my little bit of like
Hunger Games uh conversations we've had
at the budget retreat for example or
work sessions um and you know as I think
about when we went to the public and we
asked the public the kinds of things
they wanted and I I don't want to just
pay lip service to that like the public
was also I was hoping that when the
public we engaged the public that it
would make it easier for staff to say
okay these are the kinds of things that
we need to be funding and so I um not
sure if councelor Mccclure um was going
to present some sort of amendment here I
I I
just and even in the next item, which
obviously I will wait for. I just even
the next item, the the amount that we're
putting towards CIP projects is
incredibly low. Like I just
I understand I I I
understand wholeheartedly how hard it is
to
say no to PD because I get so much
push back on that and I I get how hard
that is and I also the facts are in
front of us that we've deferred
maintenance on so many other things that
we have an opportunity now to do some of
those things a little bit more equitably
and still support our department. I'm
not saying don't worry everybody, I'm
not saying defund. I'm not going to say
the scary defund word. I'm not saying
that. I'm just saying that we do this a
little bit more equitably so that we can
get to I know I'm ranting. I I don't
know if there's going to be some sort of
amendment, but I I think we should have
that discussion.
Councelor
Matise.
Thank you. You know, uh, staff's had a
very difficult job here because I see a
different outcome in this screen because
I, you know, I've been here two years
and but I was watching how the city of
Los Cusus has actually neglected
a lot of things. You know, a lot a lot
of departments have been neglected. uh
facilities, the parks, public safety,
the police department, fire department,
stations, maintenance, roofs of on
different buildings.
But that occurred over the last 12
years, whoever was on this uh board.
That neglect came about to actually
present what we're seeing today, and
that is we have high crime.
That's that's obvious. The numbers speak
for itself. We have a lot of poverty and
that's why the community of hope has
such a you've seen that in the previous
slide what a healthy budget they have
the community of hope and we have to do
that and they of course they work for
grants they they get a lot of grants
they get a lot of federal help but still
they're addressing the needs of the poor
and they're addressing the needs for
shelter
but back to my theory that we we need to
spend
money on those people that get the most
benefits from it. And that number one
would be the library because they deal
with thousands of people, thousands of
youth, adults use the library. Again, we
need to spend a lot of money on on
public safety, police and fire because
again, they're impacting the entire
113,000 people. People want to be safe.
And there was a gentleman that got up
and spoke. I think it was Mr. Hill. Uh
accessibility for disabilities for
children and adults that have
disabilities to use our parks. But one
of the comments he made was
I don't even want to bring my kids to
the parks because they're not safe. And
then the second was accessibility and
and the equipment that had to be built.
So what he was concerned with is the
safety of our parks and and I believe
Chief Story and the administration has
helped that with with the park ranges.
But every every time we add something to
our public safety departments, it does
cost money, but it's impacting and it's
keeping 113,000
people safer. And and with a safe city,
other things start to get better. more
businesses come in, more companies want
to look at our industrial park, you have
to think of where we're putting our
money to attract more gross receipts
tax.
And if we have a good library, we have a
good branch, we have a facility that's
really appealing, it has the books and
the equipment that's necessary, that's
going to attract people to live here. So
I
would like to uh again support what
Mccclure said and that is maybe Mr. Mr.
Mareno, could you explain on deferred
facilities and the 4.3 million
specifically on the building? Cuz when
when I was mayor and we had a city
council, we put into the funding when a
building was built, we had a
depreciation I I don't know if it was 5%
or 10%
annually, but the depreciation amount
went in there just like we do with the
police cars. We we have is that gone or
has that built up or where is that now?
I mean did that go away in 2012 as well?
Uh mayor uh councelor Matise we don't
have a a deferred uh most of our
facilities maintenance comes from the
general fund and so typically what's
current currently budgeted or has been
budgeted in the past few years um will
cover our general maintenance. Um,
however, if there's large impacts like
large costs like roofs, full system
rehabilitations, HVAC, anything that's a
large cost, that doesn't cover it. So,
um, gets us through on general
maintenance, but not on larger costs
associated with some of our older
facilities.
Yeah. And and I I bring that up because
let's say we go in and and we get this
$45 million I hope someday we we we see
that a new you know new library another
branch.
Will there be a factor? Will there be
something built into that funding to so
that you have the maintenance
covered and maybe replacement of a roof?
I mean could you could you actually put
that into the funding of it?
Mayor Councelor Matis. Yes, that could
be programs within our CIP budget that
can be uh funded that way like a roof
replacement program
or different types of programs like
that. We try to increase our budget
based on new buildings, fire station 9
as it comes and new buildings that get
programmed into the facilities. Uh we
try to increase our our general budget
for that. Um, and then we try to utilize
the leverage of the CIP for like roof
replacement programs, parking lot
replacement programs that can be funded
separately uh to to supplement that.
And then J, I was going to ask you in
supporting Mccclure and Ben Como on more
money for the library, what where are
you going to move that from? What what
happens with your 4.3 million? Let's
let's say we make an amendment to see
more money go toward the library. Chris,
Mr. Mayor, Councelor Matise, Chris
Faber, uh, community development
director. Uh for the record, um I I
would just like to jump in here and say
that there could be an opportunity to
look at some of those other projects
when we get into the bonding discussion
and maybe some of those other projects
that you'd like to discuss. That might
be an appropriate place to see if
there's some money under say the 40% new
project bucket that we could look at
maybe for that. If you take anything
away from the 4.3, it's going to come
away from um basically the the pot
that's going to go to any of those
projects. So if you if you take it away
and put it specifically for the library,
it's going to take that money from
basically the larger pool of city
facilities. So my recommendation would
be to have that discussion and the next
presentation specific to uh new projects
and maybe look at the library from that
perspective.
Okay. Thank you, Chris. Thank you,
Council Mor.
Thank you. I I just had a followup to
that and that was kind of my question is
where in which resolution might be a
good amendment but crucially here's
where I'm thinking too in terms of
strategy right if we do some of the
design work now with some of this
deferred maintenance money will we be
better prepped when we go to Santa Fe
and ask them for the bigger amounts
Mr. Mayor
because the other one's not going to be
there until October right we're not
bonding out until October
Mr. Mr. Mayor, Council Mccclure, that is
correct. I do believe that the funding
for the design of the library was paid
for out of the TID. Um I'm I'm not sure
if there's a gap there or not, but
that's how the city was using the TID
funds for the library design. So that's
where that pre and if you're talking
design for the new project or the new
upgrades, that's where that funding came
from.
So, I don't know how everybody else
feels on that, but I I would be happy
either way, but I I do think not to jump
ahead, but yay, you put traffic calming
in the next one, so happy about that. I
think we just need to see that support
for the library. And I don't know how
everybody else feels in terms of comfort
of where that might go, but we just need
to be very clear about that right now.
Council Harris.
Um, thanks. I
also kind of echo the the hesitancy on
the fleet um in general. And so a
specific question I have uh before I get
too ranty is in the general budget, the
general fund budget um how much is in
there for police vehicles,
if any, or is it all coming out of here
and we're freeing up some general fund
for that? Mayor, Councelor Harris, yes.
There is nothing in the general fund for
police vehicles at this time. Typically,
what I've seen in the past is that
there's an amount that has been
transferred and by and large, it is
spent on police and fire. This is a way
to free up the general fund so that the
vehicles for the other departments now
can actually move forward.
Okay. I
$1.5 million is still a lot and vehicles
don't
well depending on their visibility.
Vehicles don't stop crime. Um but uh at
the same time, I did see one on the back
of a flatbed tow truck the other day, so
I understand that there are maintenance
needs um acutely. Um
so, okay. So, that's good. So, just to
be clear, we're not like trying to
triple dip and get a whole bunch of
police vehicles by including them in a
bunch of areas of the budget.
No, sir. What we would have budgeted at
this point would be the 1.5 million for
plus or minus 18 vehicles, and those are
replacing the the very old ones that
are in pretty bad shape. I I would if I
if I might maybe address a couple of
other things that hopefully would maybe
give you some
make you feel a little bit better is
that while this list here is based on
money that we have received because
we've been collecting the GRT and then
we're going to talk about the bonding
going forward. We do expect that there
is going to be about 4.4 4 million a
year that is not going to be
specifically related to debt service and
our recommendation is that that 4.4 4.4
be specific for facilities maintenance.
So that is an additional amount that
they would that would be available every
year. And then I also we have his
historically done a bond for about 5
million for the fire department and
their apparatus. As you've heard me say
before, we are doing everything we can
to bring back that, you know, the
bonding because the debt service is so
high. So, this is also like a swap for
the the bond that we would have
typically taken out for this.
Okay. that that bond swap is actually
extremely good context because long-term
I'm in favor of fire apparatus anyway
because I know we have there's lead time
issues and stuff but if it's a if it
also swaps a bond then that's icing on
the cake. Um and then just kind of a
general question is
there's obviously a lot of support for
the library. Um
does
does the action item that we take and
this is maybe a procedural question
actually have to say library on it or
when we say deferred facilities and
asset maintenance obviously that's quite
flexible and it goes towards a lot of
city things
you know is the understanding
of is it good enough that staff
understands that the policy direction of
council is thus
I'm sorry Christine
councelor Harris uh mayor mayor prom
councelor Harris County city manager it
doesn't have to uh it doesn't have to be
if you're asking is it required it it
isn't um but obviously any direction
helps that we can um delineate at this
at this point in time now there can
there can changes if we need to make
changes in the future um on any specific
project. The the challenge is is once
those funds are spent on a project. So,
we would ask if there's any changes that
no funds be spent on that project
because sometimes the runway is long, it
takes a year or two for things to start.
Uh but I I would just say options are
available to change and amend, but the
more direction we get at this time, the
better. Thank you.
Okay. And then to follow up on that,
this pay as you go stuff is more
flexible than the bonding stuff because
if we go out for a bond, like we have to
include certain language for NFA
and we're legally bound when we issue
those bonds that we're going to spend it
on X, Y, and Z. Right,
Mayor Councelor Harris, that is correct.
That said, there is some flexibility
in in those projects, but as the city
manager mentioned, once we get started,
we need to ensure that we have that
funding available.
Understood. Thanks,
Councilman Cole. Oh, did you have your
light on or
I did. Yeah.
Okay.
I did have it before you. Sorry.
Um, thank you. Okay. Couple Thank you
for that clarification. That's very
good. I'm glad to hear that this is more
flexible. Just so I'm clear, I'm not
suggesting the 4.3 be reworked. I'm
suggesting we increase the 4.3.
Um, that's what I'm suggesting. So,
follow up. A couple of questions on the
driving track. Do we have a total cost
for that already?
Mayor, Council Ben Como, we have the
county is the one who initiated the
project and did the initial schematic
design and site selection. So based on
the schematic design, the estimate is
around 7 million. Now until we have the
full design, it's hard to have a I mean
that's that's still a ballpark estimate
because we don't have full design done.
So 7 million and we're putting in 5
million.
Well, capital outlay came from the
legislators.
Right.
Right. So it' be 3.5. County Commission.
I believe we're going next month, early
next month or at the end of this month
for another two million from the county.
Okay. So, okay. I So, what I'm going to
say is that I think this could be
reworked. What do you know what the
timeline is? What's the ideal like when
do you want have done?
So, we should have full design because
the county is moving forward with that
by October when we receive capital
outlay. So, we should be ready to break
ground by the end of the year. Best case
scenario. So if there's still gap, we
could always go back to the legislature.
And so here's another thing, right, that
I think about when in terms of some of
these projects like what what do we know
always gets funded by our state
legislators? And I feel like PD projects
will always have high favorability. So
if there's any room to rework some of
these numbers, I feel like it's here
because we know that one, it's a
partnership with the county and they'll
have their responsibility. two, we're
already saying we want to commit to
these some number and three, legislators
are saying they're committing to some
numbers. And so that is my suggestion. I
don't know if um
that deser needs an amendment or not.
And I'm also
how we figure out deferred maintenance
of some facilities to include the
library. I'm okay with that. I just I'm
my suggestion is that we increase the
4.3 million and not simply rework those
numbers
and your suggestion would be to remove
it from the 3.5 million.
My right now? Yes. My suggestion is, and
I'm happy to make an amendment if that
is what's needed, but I I think it could
be open for discussion, is that we lower
the 3.5 million for the driving track to
what I'm so sorry. What chief story,
what did you say the county is doing?
I believe the county has already put in
300,000 and they're doing another 2
million is what for
I mean I is there a reason we're not
sort of doing trying to match? Is there
like um equity issue like we're going to
use it more? They're they're going to
use it less.
Mayor, council going, we would have
priority for sure. We have more officers
and of course this would be in
combination with the fire department
which has a larger department as well.
I ju I just think that there is an
opportunity here to maximize dollars for
many different kinds of things knowing
that we can also go to the legislature
in 2027
and and ask for any gap funding that
might be needed here. And hopefully with
a driving track, we'll have less need
for more fleet because there'll be less
accidents.
It's a win-win.
Councelor
Karam, did you
uh sorry, now I'm pondering what I'm
trying to do math in my head, but so for
this again, we don't have to explicitly
say, but I think I would like to say I
I've know that there are some things on
the list of the 4.3 million. What I was
going to say is I don't want us to um
take away from that as it relates to the
library. I I also wanted to just echo
all of my colleagues that I don't think
I think whatever
wherever the investment investment in
the library is even if we know that
that's our hope for the geo bond I think
we also need to respect the community
inputs that that we've heard from very
very wide diversity of folks to to
include the library here and as part of
these critical investments. So I echo I
think everyone that's spoken so far to
to put that somewhere. I don't I I also
wouldn't want it to come out of the 4.3
million um in deferred maintenance. I
was going to propose that that comes out
of the municipal court study because I
don't I don't see how that has any um
primacy in and what we're talking about.
So that's in the next um that's in the
next conversation. But I'm also open to
hearing this idea that I I wouldn't want
us to um contribute more to uh any joint
city county thing than um they would
they were willing to commit. So I think
it I for me it's a parody issue and I
think I have experienced this disparity
in a number of actual infrastructure
projects where we invested an enormous
amount of our public dollars and they
didn't match that um investment.
Um, so I would I would support, you
know, shifting that, but I don't to
deferred maintenance, but I don't know
if that would be supporting the library
or I I will still make my uh proposal to
the next in the next thing to support
the library and
perhaps the rec center in the in the
following thing. So, but I would support
if that was a an amendment or a
direction, I would support that as well.
member.
Thank you, mayor, city councilors. Um,
my I just want to share the thought
that, you know, costs are going up,
expenses, expenses are so high now. The
cost of housing, cost of gas, of food,
it's a reality um right now. And and I
also want to share that, you know, it
isn't um
necessarily as competitive or or pitting
people against each other. Um I agree
with that comment. I think I think we
can creatively look at this and try to
work together. Um
you know if it's
and and I go I know the language isn't
uh as such
um in the initiative. So I'm not talking
about that. I'm just talking in general.
We're talking about budgets. But you
know create creatively
maybe we you know maybe it isn't a brand
you guys know how important a all
inclusive park is to me maybe it isn't
creating a brand new park but
retrofitting and really working on an
existing part with the foundation again
just looking at things creatively um you
know
maybe you know with other funding
mechanisms we look at the library and
accelerate that to save any uh and look
at at making that happen sooner rather
than later or possibly even look at a
temporary building
uh to house the library so it shows no
interruption of services and we can
because it it is a gem we I get that um
and and it's important so again looking
at creative things again I know that the
language isn't um in the initiative but
as a holistic discussion we also need to
talk about economic development, you
know, to fund these services and what we
want to do as a city, we need to create
jobs that are just not livable wages,
but thriving wages um that bring a lot
of income and then consequentially later
GRT to our coffers here in the city of
Los Cruz so that we can do more. Um
I like um Council Karan uh would be
willing to look at the municipal court
um study and see what we can do to uh
look at funding there.
Thank you, Mayor.
Council,
sorry I'm taking a lot of time today. Um
I would also support the municipal
court. Um, I I think it's hard to say,
you know, what deferred facilities.
We're coming into this with some real
ideas for and I and I hate to have
public works mad at me. Please build a
slide on spits just and that's that's
parks. Sorry. Get with them. Um, so I I
think that if we look at it in the next
one, but I think there should be a very
clear much like we had to make it very
clear traffic calming the library, the
shirtlessly
we'd like to see it. I think that you're
hearing it from everybody on the dis
today.
Councelor Harris.
Um, thanks, Mayor. So, I just wanted to
echo that it's it's a very good point
that the um state delegation and the
federal delegation really like giving us
money for public safety stuff. And, you
know, they funded the real-time crime
center and they've given us money
towards the driving track. And I think
that's great. those programs should be
fully funded and if we have other
agencies and other governments who are
willing to help us fund them, um then I
I'd be in favor of leaning into that and
then using our own indigenous funding uh
to do more of our deferred facilities
maintenance. Um the disparity between
the county ask and our ask does seem a
little bit much and that's a little bit
more of a break than I was expecting. Um
especially because like yeah sure we
would have privacy on it but uh there's
a lot of other agencies in the county
than numerically than just Los Cusus. Uh
so it might be nice to see see a little
more input from there. Um so you know I
would also
support you know support moving a little
bit of money away from the driving track
um towards deferred facilities and stuff
um so that so that we can maybe convince
the county to pick up a little more of
their share or you know get some more
funding from the state to to make up
that gap.
Mayor, Councelor Harris, do you have a
specific amount that you are
wanting to
um
what the counties was going to be 2.3
maybe if we need if we want you know
primacy on it if we're going to be using
it more 2.5
um I'm I'm open to other suggestions but
if That's a motion. I second it.
Uh let's let's further discuss before we
get to any amendments.
Council.
Okay. So, what exactly if we've moved
that money around? What are we getting
for the library at that point?
I don't know who can answer that here.
Sorry, Chris.
Mayor, Council Mer, I'll jump in and
just ask the question. Are you looking
for that money to go to the future
design or are you looking for that money
to go to ongoing maintenance
specifically of the library even while
the renovations are going? So, just a
little bit of clarity on where council
is looking to put additional funds.
This is where I kind of lean on staff to
say, "Tell me what is the best method of
spending this money." And that would
kind of lead to whether or not we pull
from other areas. At this point, if if
we take 500,000 from the driving track
and plink it up over under deferred
facilities, what do you get out of that?
That's not I mean, we I don't get a real
sense of that. What I'm trying to say is
that I don't think as using a budget as
a value doc value statement, we're not
saying that right now, but we're also
not clear on what that looks like
because I don't think we've been clear
on what the future for the library is
specifically.
Coun mayor, council, I was just talking
with Mr. Moreno on, you know, if it
would make sense to put some money
towards the existing facility or put it
to, you know, the the future design of
the facility. it probably makes more
sense to go that route since once the
building goes under construction, it'll
cease to be operating and needing that
sort of ongoing maintenance stuff. So,
if your recommendation or your is to
what which pocket or which bucket that
should go to, I I would say probably
makes more sense to put it towards the
future of the library.
And to me, the future of the library
would come out of this bond, right? that
to me that makes more sense than what
we're looking at here was is I think
part of the GRT2 was how do we do things
fast, right? How do we do things to fix
things that are I don't I don't
necessarily say that some of these
things are fast, but we're also planning
ahead. Say the fire department, right?
Where we know we won't get that for
another two years. Two years. Yes. So
things like that, but Hogland, I mean I
drive that one, too. That is a beast. If
we can make some changes that people can
see, that's what we were aiming to do.
the the library is a bear. It's it's a
hard one that we but okay, maybe I
should say it's an elephant. What do you
do with an elephant? You one bite at a
time, right? What are we trying to do
here? So, and that's with some of these
other projects. They are elephants and
we're trying to do the best we can with
those elephants right now.
Mr. Mayor, council. So to that point, if
you are looking to put more money
towards the future design of the library
without jumping ahead and talking about
the next resolution,
I would say if you're looking to put
more money into that 4.3, it would be
for additional facility maintenance and
upkeep independent of the library. Then
you can have a larger discussion on
putting some of the proposed GRT bonding
towards the libraryies renovations in
the next resolution. So that that's what
my recommendation would be from that
standpoint.
Thank you. I'm passing it back to
everybody else.
Councelor B.
Thank you. Thank you, Chris. I guess I'm
I don't think it should be either or. I
think can be both. Again, I appreciate
what councelor Kin said around like
respecting
the
incredible support the library has had
in order to get us here. And for me,
it's not 500,000 because you're right,
like what does that really go to? To me,
it's a a million dollars that can go
towards the deferred uh facilities
bucket
in order to start moving some things
along. I agree that it would go towards
the future. It would make sense to um to
put any money towards a building that's
going to be renovated. And
and even if we say, well, whatever.
We're going to do that in in the next
item and we're going to give, you know,
like really put some money behind the
library because we know that maybe the
GO bond isn't going to complete the
entire project. Um, I still think
deferred facilities is
deserves a little bit more money and I
still think there's parity issues with
the county with the driving track and
2.5 million is significant. That is a
significant investment in what that
could look like and a million dollars in
for in that deferred facilities item
could go a really long way for something
like the library. Um whether it's here
or in the next one. Um another million
dollars in deferred facilities could go
a really long way for those deferred
facilities. So I that's that's where I'm
at. I'm, you know, I I think this to me
makes a lot of sense and um I think it
like we will be le able to leverage
other dollars that that's going to be
completed. I have full confidence that
that will be a completed project.
Mayor John,
um point of clarification for the city
clerk or city manager. Um it seems like
these two resolutions are really tied
into each other. Um I know I had
mentioned the U municipal court study.
Um so did council kuran. Would it make
sense to um
do you understand my question? Yeah.
Um mayor mayor prom um if we wanted to
suspend the rules we should have done it
at the beginning to listen to both of
them concurrently. Um, we did discuss
this topic this morning and we didn't
want to confuse the two pots of money
and so we wanted you to vote on them the
separate pots basically.
Okay. Thank you,
Councilman Chase.
Yes. Um,
you gave us some surprise money that
might be coming down the road. You
mentioned 4.4 million. Can you explain
more about that? Maybe we could just
leave everything here alone and and work
on the 4.4 million.
Yes, Mayor Councelor Matise, excuse me.
This 4.4 million is going forward, we
will have once the bonds sell, we will
have to pay about 8.8 million in debt
service.
Beyond that debt service amount, any
money that we collect in the GRT, we can
use for whatever in whatever manner we
want. The recommendation would be that
it would be for or or that we have
discussed would be that it would be for
deferred maintenance.
So, it's it's an ongoing, you know, we
we continue to collect the GRT and we
collect more than we would have to pay
for our debt service amount. So that's
the the pay as you go the uh residual
amount beyond debt service that we would
have every year.
Thank you,
councils.
Um thank you, mayor. So
I guess I wanted to clarify a little
bit. So if we
if we say for now that we want to put
two and a half million toward the
driving track, that kind of puts us on
par with the county. um and the project
will get completed one way or the or
another. I I think I'm pretty confident
in that. Um there's enough interested
stakeholders that it's going to happen.
Um and it also flows into the next item.
Uh and then if we put that into deferred
facilities asset maintenance
um
while so there's a lot of talk of trying
to put something towards the library on
this slide I'll say. Um, but I think
also the library has to go somewhere
while it's being reconstructed. We have
a lot of facilities in the city that
require maintenance. And so if we, you
know, if we're taking care of other
facilities, I I don't know that
we need to
I think there's strong enough direction
um that, you know, if we're if we're
just generally maintaining our
facilities, like it's going to benefit
the library in some way. Um it's just a
statement. And and then also since you
mentioned the 4.3 pay as you go, if we,
you know, if we put 2 and a half million
toward the driving track and come around
next year and there's this funding gap
and the state's like, "Hey, we already
gave you 2.9 million. Our federal
delegation has no luck,
we've got 4.3 that we can still allocate
next year." And if if it comes around
and we still need it after the final
designs and everything have been
completed, um that seems like an easy
time to have that discussion as well. Um
whereas
we're not gonna I don't think waiting a
year and not having that million-doll
direction for for a year is going to
really put that is going to
significantly impact that project in any
way. Especially since I'm hearing we
won't know the final cost till the
design documents are um are decided. And
uh and we we know we've got a lot of
stuff. We know that we could use that
under line item one immediately. So
that's my thought for for the
discussion.
Okay. Now I just wanted to go back to um
let's go to the beginning to Richard's
presentation uh with transit. What what
he showed was 1986 about 56,000 the
population and 2026 we'reund
16 to 119,000 population. So there has
been some growth, there has been some
neglect, there has been some issues and
and some concerns. And
along the way when when you have that
growth there there is an increase in in
crime there there is an increase in in
other things that take place and things
have been neglected. And when we talk
about the police department we'll look
at their call volume as we looked at
transits
uh routes and passengers. So it it
continues to to to grow, but we can't
neglect and and so we have to look at
those things. I believe PD didn't get
their request for vehicles last year. If
they did, it was very minimal. There was
nothing in the general fund for this
year. So again, we're catching up. We're
catching up. And this is an opportunity.
And what I wanted to say about the
driving track was it it it became
urgent. It became urgent because where
they've trained before is no longer
available. So our options are drive to
Santa Fe.
So that's why it became urgent. And I'm
all about leveraging money and getting
people to help us and get external money
to pay for those. But the urgency is
now. So I I'm I'm not in favor of
cutting it back. I'm I'm saying we got
to move that forward because otherwise
we're we're uh we're having to spend
money to go to Santa Fe for our cadetses
and for continual training which is is
is not good management of our finances.
So I think that's where we're at with
that and um Christine has an update on
what we can do to move forward with
these two items.
Mayor, city council um discussed it with
Brad. What we could do if you want to
hear the next item, we could basically
table this for now until after we hear
the next item, then come back and vote
on it. So, it's up to you.
Move to table.
Second.
Okay. So, we're going to table
resolution 26123 until after we listen
to 26124.
Um, councelor McClur,
yes.
Councelor Matise,
yes.
Councelor Harris,
yes.
Councelor Bencoml,
yes.
Councelor Karan,
no.
Councelor Munoz,
yes.
Mayor,
yes.
Okay, motion passes and we'll move on to
the next one.
So, next we'll listen to item 7.3,
resolution number 26-124,
resolution authorizing and approving
submission of a completed application
for the financial assistant and pro
project approval for the new Mexico
Finance Authority.
Move to approve.
Second.
Good afternoon, Mayor Council. Before
you is a resolution to approve the
submission of the NMFA application.
So, this is actually going to be
associated with the bonding whereas the
resolution that you just heard was
related to uh pay as you go funds that
we already had available to us.
So for some background, this program is
for financing pro public projects. It's
not to exceed 22.15 million to include
cost of issuance. So what this means is
that
the bond will be sold to the extent that
we can get $20 million in proceeds. So
this amount here does include the cost
of issuance maturity date not to exceed
20 years and this is pledged with the
new GRT of the 325 municipal GRT that
was passed in November.
Again, this resolution is specifically
to authorize staff to submit the
application for bond financing.
And MFA requires council to approve the
application before we can proceed with
bond financing for any of these public
projects. And based on the feedback that
we have received, you will need to
approve projects for the 60% maintenance
as well as the 40% that will be for new
projects.
Thank you, Leslie. Uh Chris Faver,
community development director for the
record. Uh so I know we kind of touched
on some of these in the previous
discussion, but um I just kind of wanted
to to recount where we are. As I was
putting some of these slides together, I
realized it's actually been almost
exactly two years since we started this
process for the GRT increase. We did a
community opinion poll in March and
April of 2024 and I'll touch on that
here in a little bit and then we went to
the voters in the fall of 2024
um for their approval. Um the it was
obviously it was a past uh the
collection started July 1st. Last fall
we did a series of GRT project public
meetings in each of the council
districts where we gave the community an
opportunity to weigh in on some of their
priority. CIP projects
both that could be used for GRT funding
as well as potential GO bond funding um
if if so approved by the voters uh later
on. Um we also followed that up sort of
recapping what came out of those
meetings at a couple of work sessions in
August and October. Of course we had the
budget retreat in January. We had
another work session in February. And
then here we are in between the first
read of the bond which was March 16th
and then adoption which will be on June
15th. And so we're kind of sandwiched in
the middle of those two. And then moving
forward bond sale will be coming to
council for an update in October. So all
in all, two years long process. Kind of
wanted to bring everybody up to speed. I
did want to mention that when we kicked
this process off in the spring, we went
uh and hired a public opinion company to
do a s a a a survey of registered voters
in Donana County and we were basically
trying to gauge support to do the
increase based on public safety,
streets, parks, quality of life
facilities and gauge the level of
support. And as you can see across the
board, we did have tremendous support
for all those different areas. Um, and
so from that, we move forward. Uh,
Councilman Coml kind of addressed this
previously, but this was the question
that was on the bond. Um, capital
improvements and maintenance for public
safety, streets, parks, public
facilities, and critical infrastructure.
Overwhelmingly, the community supported
at 55% and you can just kind of see
those tallies there. So all that's to
say, it sort of brings us to where we
are trying to make a decision here on
projects for both 60% maintenance and
40% new projects. And that was sort of
the direction that came from the budget
retreat where council definitely wanted
to prioritize uh maintenance of city
facilities and and various things over
the new project. So before we get too
far, I just did want to point out that I
put all the stuff on the slides and in
the bottom corner, you can see the money
we received from the legislature this
year. That way if you don't have to keep
jumping back and forth between slides to
kind of see um you know the information
that's on these next few slides. So, CIP
project recommendations under the 60%
maintenance, we had uh $5 million for
fire station inspire stations
improvements, not specifically one,
although there's probably one or two
that that needed more than others. Um,
heating, cooling, plumbing, utilities,
roof replacements, a variety of
maintenance. And I did just want to
point out that we did get $72,000 in
capital outlay for fire station
improvements. We are recommending $4
million for street maintenance and
traffic calming. Specifically, in
working with public works, they
recommended $500,000 for traffic
calming. They felt like that was a good
amount of money um to move that project
uh in various places around the city.
And then ultimately the street
maintenance would be dictated by the
pavement condition index uh and they can
prioritize those streets for the various
uh improvements that are required.
Again,
we kind of spoke to this previously, but
$2.4 million for public service fleet
upkeep. I do believe that over the last
few years, some of that money was kind
of not put towards those. So, this kind
of gets them caught up some of the money
from the pay as you go combined with
this. Um, we'll we'll sort of get both
police and fire where they need to be.
This is for two years. So, it's
basically $600,000 a year for each
police and fire for the next two years,
which is where the 2.4 for comes from
and then $600,000 for facility
maintenance specific to ADA compliance
in a variety of city facilities. So
that's all the projects sort of
recommended for the 60% which equals
about $12 million.
So moving forward CIP projects uh for
the 40% which is roughly $8 million. So,
these were some of the ones that were
high priority identified on the CIP.
More money for road reconstruction. Um,
there was $3 million initially for the
uh joint public safety facility training
and that was mostly for like the design.
Uh, $2 million for Bruins and Motel
Boulevard road improvements. Uh, $2
million for Municore design park
projects. $2 million for funding gaps of
current CIP projects and then Ingler
Road extension. So those were just again
just a list of all of them together. Um
and coming out of that work session in
February, this was sort of the direction
we have and a little bit more input from
staff here. So again, we were
recommending $1 million to go to the
joint public safety training facility,
and that would be used in conjunction
with the money that we both put for pay
as you go and for the capital outlay.
Originally, we had discussed putting
money towards Bruins and Motel Boulevard
road improvements, but after talking
with staff, timing, capacity, we're
recommending that if you, you know, to
put that money towards potentially a
future rec center just in general. So,
that's just a recommendation from staff,
but obviously we've had other
conversations related to the library.
So, again, that's an option there as
well. I know there were similar
conversations about potentially using
the money set aside for the Municord
design for other projects as well. Um
funding gaps for the CIP projects. I
know there were some questions about
specifically what those could go for. Uh
Cynthia did provide some information.
and it is on your sheet, but some of the
high high priority ones she had
mentioned in her department highlight um
drinking fountain improvements,
community recreation site improvements,
East Mesa outdoor pool stabiliz ground
stabilization, and then just sort of a
pocket of money for some of the other
little projects that could pop up. So,
that's a good use of how that $2 million
in CIP gap funding. And then Ingler Road
recommending $1 million. We did receive
a million dollars in capital outlay and
and we are trying to use this as sort of
a multiplier in that you know Angler
Road is is a very high priority road as
the East Mesa continues to grow and more
residents move out there having access
in and out of those neighborhoods um is
is increasingly important. uh putting
some of this money towards that project
and then potentially going after future
state and federal funds um to sort of
you know expedite the creation of that
road would be would be essential.
I'll go back but just want to point out
that technically what we are voting on
here is the approval of the resolution.
So that's why there's only the option to
yes no and to table. Um, and we do need
to have consensus on the projects, but I
just a reminder that specifically the
resolution is about the approval of the
NMFA application. So, I guess now we can
pick up our conversation before and if
you guys want to go back and we can
start with the 60% or if you want to
start with new projects at 40%, I'll
kind of see which direction you guys
want to go. But I just wanted to
reiterate that I put everything here
just to make it easier for you to
reference as we're going through this
process. Thank you, mayor.
Okay. Thank you, Chris.
Councelor Tren,
I just the staff capacity question.
I um I guess I'm wondering
like first of all, do we do we do an
amendment process of this? That feels
like we if it is for the rec center,
then we should just say that it's for
the rec center. I'm not sure if this is
about communicating that we aren't doing
those we aren't we don't have the
capacity to do those road improvements
right now or the rec center is separate
from that because that was sort of
related to the park that I think we were
talking about in that area as well. Um
so I just had a logistical question
about that like
uh can we assume that that's what this
means or do we have to be more clear in
saying yes that's absolutely what we
want?
Mayor Counselor Cran. So
our recommendation was to not obviously
put it towards specific route road
improvements because of capacity and
timing. Our recommendation was if you
agreed with not putting it towards that
one possible use could be money for a
rec center. So ultimately when you guys
are voting on on this resolution, you
could say no, we still want to put it
towards the road, but you could also say
we would like to put it towards a future
rec center. and then, you know, we can
kind of work with Leslie and her team on
the language that needs to go into the
application um as that moves forward.
So, again, the rec center was a pivot
from staff just saying we don't think
we're going to be able to do any of
these things in the first cycle. I also
just kind of point out that this is just
the first two-year cycle. So, we're
looking at what can we get done in that
two-year window and what makes sense to,
you know, sort of prioritize from a
staff standpoint. and that one just felt
like probably weren't going to get to it
in these first two years and there was a
better use for that funding.
Thank you,
Councelor Harris.
Uh, thank you. So, that was also a
question of mine. So, I guess we just
need to
what we're voting on right now is to
direct you to apply and you just need
consensus on the specific things. We're
not making motions to change this line
item or that item, right?
Like we're not amending. There's no
amendment to make. We just tell you kind
of what we Okay.
Um, very good. So,
Mr. Mayor, counselor. Yeah, that is that
is correct. Yes. Thanks. I was seeing
nods, but okay. An acknowledgement is
appreciated. Um, okay. Okay. So, to that
end, um I guess my input is I like the
million dollars for the public safety
training facility. Um that that is
appreciated that that was reduced based
on our last work session. And I
appreciate the cooperation um between
Chief Story and Chief Daniels and coming
up with with the solution they proposed
last time, which was I think a lot more
efficient and um and still gets them a
good training facility um in that can be
built a little quicker. Um I I agree
that we should probably put that $2
million towards a rec center. I
understand that there's several possible
locations for said rec center. So
putting it towards a specific street,
you know, doesn't quite make a lot of
sense. Um, uh, the MUN court design,
I I also am skeptical of that. Um, I
think that there's too much unknown
about that future. Um, and there's
places and things that we can get done
in the next two years. So, I I would
also agree to that I'd like to see that
moved somewhere else, perhaps the
library. Um although I also wanted to
point out because I think it came up in
the previous discussion that we got 1.7
million for the library and capital
outlay this year. So my understanding is
that the design
is like taken care of. Like we don't
need we're going to fund the design
that's already paid for. Now we're
trying to put together money to actually
like move dirt um or move drywall. I
guess we're not moving that much dirt.
Um,
and uh, the Angler Road Extension, also
totally in favor of that. That's that's
a pretty important thing. It's not my
district, but people I talk to mention
it all the time regardless. Um, so
yeah, I think that's that's my input for
now. Thanks,
Council M. Clerk.
I think I also if if there's an option
for a rec center, I I think I would go
for that as well, the um road
improvements because, you know, and I've
told people too that a lot of times we
have to think about road improvements
and fundamentally doing some of the
upkeep. But if we can kind of make do
and start the process for something that
people really want and we only have one,
just like we have only one library, um I
think I'm gonna get that in there every
time. Um I think I'd be interested in
that. I'm also interested in really
examining the design of the municipal
court. $2 million does seem like a lot,
but
if you guys can justify it, that's but
don't I don't know. That's where I'm at.
Mayor Pro.
Thank you, Mayor. Um, city councilors,
thank you, Chris. I appreciate the staff
um adding the comment of of capacity,
project timing um because you are the
subject matter experts. I mean, there
are things that we want, there are
things that we're requesting, there are
things that the public wants. Um
but it's also important to to set
expectations and and add some reality.
So, so I appreciate that. Um
and so I too would would want to look at
the municipal court design maybe
Most of that goes through the library
library and I would probably you know
see if there's a way to and again you
you just guided me through this way to
direct to some of that to deferred
maintenance as well. I just um the
deferred maintenance never works. Um it
it
you know you say I'm going to put oil in
my car 6 months from now. That's not a
good, you know, and and that was
supposed to be maintenance three months
ago. That's just not going to end up
well, right? Uh the other piece with
that is that, you know, our our
employees, our city employees, they they
work hard. They're they're good,
hardworking employees who care about
what they do, care about their
facilities. um it's important that they
go to a functioning, safe, pleasant
facility so that they can provide good
constituent care. So, um
those are my thoughts on that. And
again, thank you for putting this
together. I know it wasn't easy. I know
it's difficult. Uh and most importantly,
thank you for your honesty um in
transparency and capacity in project
timing. Thank you.
Thank you, Mayor
Councelor Benov.
Thanks, Mayor. Uh, thank you, Chris. I
appreciate all of the work on this and
and the responsiveness to, you know,
budget retreat and work session. I
Yeah, I think I'm I'm also I think I I
also accept the recommendation from
staff on on moving that towards a rec
center. I think rec center also placed
really high in when we went to community
input, number one. Number two, I think
it also goes to the conversation we're
having about young people. I I think
that's really important and and $2
million I think can go a really long way
into helping us, you know, build that
ramp into what that can look like. I am
curious about the $2 million cip
um projects. I think, you know, some
people may think, well, like, who cares?
But I actually think about I I hear
about drinking fountain at parks all the
time from people. It's like these little
things that make our quality of life,
you know, just so much better. Like the
little things that people can see um
immediately, I think, are really
important. And you know, Cynthia earlier
in the in the department presentation
talked about how even a little bit can
go a really long way for to get projects
off of the cip list. So I'm you know for
me I think there is space I would hope
to see space
um for this to grow
um even though so oh okay this is what
my question here I I I see this under
new projects. How come this isn't under
or am I confused now? Actually, no, it
is under new projects. How come this
isn't under the 60% deferred action?
Sorry, excuse me.
Mayor, councelor Ben Ko. So, are you
you're talking specifically, I guess,
about the 2 million. So, some of those
on the CIP could be a project that maybe
hasn't started yet that just needs a
little bit of money. So it, you know, it
could go towards, you know, an ongoing,
you know, I guess maybe there could be
some overlap with the maintenance side
of things for sure, but there could be
other things there that would
technically be a new project that we
just didn't have the money for on an
existing facility or some piece of
infrastructure that needs to have some
work done. So maybe a little bit of ven
diagram there, but
Okay. Yeah. I that that was my biggest
question here is wondered why this $2
million pot was under the new the 40% of
new projects given that it seems like um
their maintenance projects. But again,
for me, if this grows, I think this was
the full sort of like goes to the spirit
of so much of what asking the public to
vote for the GRT increase meant um for
us to just deliver better services. and
Cynthia just walked down to the front so
I don't know if she wanted to say
something um in regards to this
mayor councelor Reno Cynthia CIP manager
and you're right identify that a little
bit of conundrum whether is this brand
new or is it a maintenance or repairment
repair project so as you mentioned parks
drinking fountain is a project that we
need across multiple city facilities
ities, especially parks. Parks has a
master plan. So there's a lot of things
that can be as an actual brand new
improvement where is an improvement. So
we want to have that flexibility to move
projects forward. So the main intended
the selection of the two C million for
the capital projects were projects that
have scored high in in the CIP process
and also that do not overlap with the
current categories that we are funding
with the GRT. And lastly that a small
funding could give us a a strong head
step. So if you put all that three tasks
in a way to identify projects it was
also a challenge but we have a large
quantity of projects that we know that a
little bit of funding can help us move
in the right direction. So to go back it
is a little bit of a back and forth but
uh these are projects that can help uh
the community at large.
Yeah. Thank you. Uh Cynthia, remind me
you had a great presentation at the
budget retreat where you made us guess.
Yes.
Um some of the things. Can you do you
are those numbers at the top of your
head? Can you remind us the like total
number of the cap list in terms of the
number of projects and the number of
dollars it would take to get them all
done?
Yes. Yes, of course.
Do they haunt you at night?
Uh yes, a little bit. Yes, because um
our intent is to help uh departments
close out as many projects as possible.
So currently we have 290 projects in the
CAP. The CAP is has a range of five
years. If we decide, you know, we're
going to fund all of the projects that
we have in place, we're going to give
departments all of the funding needs
that they have identified, we will need
$1.1 billion and that's only for the
next five years. As you know, we have a
lot of projects that uh need capital
needs on a routine basis every year. So
after those five years, we have projects
that we know that we need to replace.
That includes um significant projects
for all of our legacy parks, bathroom
replacements, drinking water fountains,
generator replacement, HVAC program. So
we have a lot of those that we know that
we should expect that they're going to
come.
Yeah.
So we always need to try our best to
stay ahead of the curve.
Thank you. I appreciate that a lot. Um,
so 290 projects in five years and $1.1
billion dollars in order to get those
done.
Yes.
And only uh we have about 185
who um I lost it. Hold on, hold on, hold
on. Who have no funding at all? How
many?
185. So that's majority of our project.
The projects that have some sort of
funding either partial or complete is
106.
Yeah. Thank you. And look, you know, for
council, like this is to me why
increasing deferred maintenance buckets
is so important. Like this is
not great. 185 projects that have zero
funding, right? Like I think that that's
there there is urgency in that and I
think we can do things creatively and we
can do things better and ultimately that
is why we ask the public to raise taxes
on themselves so that we could pay for
more things and and provide better
services to our community. So I that's
why I just feel so strongly about
increasing those those kinds of funds
ultimately because it's just better
customer service. So, and I I know, you
know, that staff are working magic every
day to try to, you know, get things done
and and that goes for all departments.
Um, my last question, Chris, and
Christine may shut me down on this, but
I think it is important. I think one of
the biggest things that is missing is
that we haven't really talked about the
GO bond and sort of the like vision
behind that. And I think that that's
important part of the conversation so
that the public understands like just
how much we're thinking about the
library and the go bond and like in
specific numbers. Are we able to talk
about that?
Please say yes. Christine,
mayor, councelor Beno, we're actually
going to bring that to the work session
on May 11th because we're actually
working on that right now as a staff.
Okay. May 11th. But can we at least talk
about I'm gonna say it before you tell
me to be quiet. We like the the pro the
plan is here's the thing, right? The go
bond has prove proven very successful
for Los Cruises, right? Like we've been
able to get so many really amazing
things done like new fire stations, new
parks,
housing. My mind's going blank. We've
been trails, the animal sh like we've
been and like they get done right
because they h not only because they
have to but because our staff is great
and those kinds of projects get done and
that's why they've been successful and
that's why the public keeps approving
them and putting the library on the go
bond is a really good idea and I think
it's an important idea and so I just
want to put that out there because I
think that's just missing from the
conversation and I think the public
needs to know that. Sorry, Chris. I
don't know if you wanted to add anything
to that unless you're afraid of
Christine. Also telling you to
Mayor Councelor Bencom, we're we're all
afraid of Christine. So, I'll just say
more to follow at the May work session,
but I agree with your comments.
Thank you. So, May 11th work session on
the go bond. Awesome. Thank you,
Ma.
Um Cynthia Chris I you guys are subject
matter experts and you know this but I
just wanted to make sure since we're
talking we um just council m got me
thinking about water fountains. Um, so
you guys will do this in conjunction
with with the park's master plan, right?
Because it doesn't wouldn't necessarily
make sense to unless it's in complete
disrepair to repair replace a water
fountain and then later on, you know,
spend, you know, 25 $30,000 on it and
then later on,
you know, upgrade the entire park and
tear that up again, right? It wouldn't
be good use. You guys are coordinating
that.
Cynthia Lao the funding for the park
drinking fountains it's we want to have
some flexibility because it will include
actual fountains it will include uh the
dog bowls. Uh so we want to make sure
whether we have that capacity and
flexibility to replace as needed to
bring in new fountains as well or water
uh resources to call it um across the
city because we know that that's as an
amenity we need to make sure that we
have always working. Wonderful. And
that'll be in conjunction with the parks
master plan and working in in
Yes. Yes. Majority majority of the
projects that have a master plan
associated to it, we leverage that
because we want to make sure that we
actually helping the department
implement their master plan. So this is
only parks and wreck, but there are some
other departments that also have master
plans.
Perfect. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor.
Councelor Harris.
Uh, thank you. So, I wanted to go to the
60% because I didn't mention any of
that. And since you're looking for
support and direction, um, I just wanted
to say that I support pretty much all of
those. Um, personally, I think I'd like
to see maybe a little more money in
terms of traffic calming measures. Um,
but otherwise, just wanted to throw that
out there since that's the ask right
now. Thanks,
Council K.
Thank you. Thanks. I just want to
support the rec center. I do want to
talk about this in context. I know that
that's what the community is looking
for. I also want to just think about
this a little bit from a geographic
equity lens. I know that there's a lot
of discussion about where we can situate
new rec centers. Um, and this people in
my district might roast me for this, but
um, we should not put the rec center on
the East Mesa. I'm asking us to please
put a rec center on the west side of
town where folks um have been
historically underserved. My district
has 27 28 parks, something like that. Um
so we are over served if there is such a
thing. But I I just want to speak to the
need for a rec center. My hope that we
can do that in a place that's
historically been not not necessarily
served by um recreation facilities as
much as our east side has been. Uh very
lucky. We're we're very fortunate to
have that. So I just want to mention
that as as something that I hope we can
think about. And then also I just want
to speak to the Angler Road extension
which is driven by a um the NMDOT has
put the Angler Road exit from 25 on
their 2027 uh start date plan. So they
will be I know every literally several
people have said to me that my
predecessor promised them this for 10
years or something but it is on NMD
dot's plan of action for the Angler road
extension from 25 to happen. And so
that's that's what this commitment is to
to thinking about that traffic flow
issue that we have um in that part of
town Sonoma Ranch Boulevard um as the
main outlet right now. So I just want to
name why that appears now because it's a
time related issue that we're that we're
facing um that is really going to happen
and MDOT I think has a lot of money. So
I just wanted to say those two district
5 related andor um not district 5 again
maybe I'm not doing a great job of this
but I really hope we can put a rec
center on the west side when we think
about using that $2 million as
initiating the project. Council,
I would concur with Westside. I would
also concur with traffic calming a
little bit more. But you know what? I'm
going to defer to experts on this one if
we're talking about deferral. But I am
confused about the CIB project options
for funding. There was 2 million for
park projects, design construction.
Where did that get moved? How did that
get what did that how did that go?
So, Mayor, Council Mccclur, so those
were some of the original
things that staff brought at the work
session. And then from that, and you can
see there on there, and then from that,
basically what came out of the work
session was that that one sort of didn't
rise to the top of sort of the consensus
from that. But, I mean, it's there on
the list. It's obviously a project that
you guys could certainly fund and and
put money towards. This was just kind of
bringing you up to speed as to where we
left off on the February 9th work
session, but again, the full list you
can see far exceeds the $8 million that
we had for it. But it's it's very much
still an option for council.
Just to clarify, it sounds like some of
the CIP smaller projects might be
included in maybe that maybe that's
something she could speak to to show
yeah, we are going to try to get some of
the like drinking fountains are a park
thing, right? That's that's what what
other things could we be seeing that
might be included with parks that we
might have lost in that 2 million.
Cynthia
for the parks uh projects right now what
they have on the cip and it's fully
needed. I mentioned Vamora Park they
currently have funding but uh they need
a little bit of a gap funding to move
forward. They also have multiple um
needs in terms of park um restroom
improvements, playground renovations.
The city has if I remember right, 86
playgrounds and we know that's a
constant need that we need to um take
care of. Ideally, we will be renewing
five to six uh playgrounds every year.
We also have parks parking lot
improvements. uh we know that our fields
our uh rec centers are very well used
but then we need to ensure that the
parking lot still is up to standard. So
those are some of the uh parks projects
that come to mind that um I do know that
they need funding.
Thank you. And within deferred
maintenance are the restrooms through
kind of managed through public works in
that way in terms of
can we give money to that because I hear
that a lot too.
Where are we getting the money for
making sure these restrooms don't look a
little weird? So, I'm I'm wondering if
that if we have built that in to make
sure that some of these needs in terms
of restrooms are also being allocated
for in a public works question or not.
Mayor Councelor Mccclure, uh the
restrooms are a parks facility. However,
if there the rest troops are located
within a for example like nearshite um
that is facilities and public works
would handle that but we we work
together with our partners in parks to
make sure that that some of those are
taken care of appropriately with
appropriate funds. There's overlap
and that's that's what exactly what I
wanted to clarify is that when we remove
stuff like this that there's embedded
into other things. I think other people
have kind of made that point too, but I
just wanted to clarify that for the
parks then.
Definitely. Another example as well is
the uh parking lots. Uh most of the
parks parking lots are actually
facilities within public works. So um
that will be part of the 4.3 funding
will be utilized uh on those areas as
well.
Thank you,
Councilman Como.
Thanks. Back to the municipal court. I I
guess I'd be okay reducing this as well,
but probably not taking it off
completely. I am curious about the
status of municipal court. Um, did they
move back to their building? Do they
have a safe working environment? I'm
curious if you could give us an update
on that.
Jimmy may have Mayor Councelor Vencom,
Jimmy may have a little bit more
information, but yeah, they are back in
the building, but beyond that, I don't
have any specific details.
Mayor, councelor Becom, Jimmy Moreno
with public works. Uh they are back in
the building. We finished the HVAC
renovation uh project to get them back
in there. Uh that building is old. It's
historic. Um there is a lot uh that that
building does need. Uh I think the
intent of this $2 million for the MUN
court design uh is for a new MUN court.
Um uh because the the cost of MUN court
for rehabbing the existing building is
almost equivalent because of its
historic nature uh to a new building. So
um that building has is at its uh end of
life. Um, so we're putting what we can
to to maintain it a safe facility. Um,
there's going to be some ADA
improvements that we'll be utilizing
some of that 600 K4 in addition to that.
So, we're doing smaller projects uh to
make it at least a a viable safe place
uh to to work. However, a munic
it it it's at its end of life. So,
yeah. And I mean that that does happen
when you defer maintenance for so long.
So I think cautionary tale for municipal
court in that building. And so I mean I
it's obvious that they need to go
somewhere else. And um
I just I think that needs you know we
need to put something towards making
that move forward. I I don't know like
obviously you're again the experts in
terms of thinking about that but I I do
think it's important that we consider
um
that they need to be moved and that they
need to go elsewhere and that there
needs to be a new facility or whatever
because um I think I don't think it's
appropriate that we keep people in safe
unsafe conditions um and and that's also
highly used by the public. So that's I
that's I guess the only thing I will
say. I think I'm okay reducing that. I
don't have any proposed number in my
mind and um but I just wanted to bring
that up given that uh we had been
talking about municipal court for quite
a quite some time especially because
they were you know operating out of the
second floor of city hall for a while.
Mayor, uh, Councelor Mano, just as a
point of clarification, the $2 million
dollars is an accurate design cost for,
uh, that particular building and the
scope and the size of that building. Uh,
it's usually design costs are about 10%
of the building cost, uh, which we're
looking at about a $20 million cost for
that building.
Thank you.
I'll let the city manager uh, add to
that.
Thank you, mayor, uh, councelor Bencomo
and city council,
city manager. For the record, I just
wanted to to share on this as we're
splitting up um if if the recommendation
from council and obviously we'll take
your direction um on the municipal court
design is to be reduced. All I would ask
is to confirm um and we can confirm with
staff later that whatever that money is
reduced to that we could actually do a
design with it. um because if we can't
then I would recommend that we uh
appropriate it to something that can get
done uh on that. That's all. Thank you,
Council K.
I I would ask that we take the $2
million and put it to whatever we can do
to move the books out of the library to
get that moving so that we show that
investment. Um I would like us to have
more beyond just a building
conversation. I don't know if Metro
Court is on our future horizons, but I
would not want us to embark on designing
a court building that couldn't
accommodate an expanded version of
municipal court if that is something
that is an inevitability in our future.
So for me, the that ambiguity in our in
our potential future, um I think it
would be important to
consider that. So, I I would like us to
think more critically about where
municipal court is going. I don't want
people to be functioning in a historic
building that's falling down that is at
the end of its life very interesting um
way of putting it um any more than
anyone else. But I also don't want us to
invest in something that will become
obsolete in a in an finite amount of
time. So, I would ask that we get more
information about municipal court,
what's happening with it, what's what
the possibilities are, and uh I I would
like us to see us have a conversation
about where that's headed and what um
that kind of investment would mean for
the future of municipal court as it
exists. Um so, I would ask that that $2
million just go to moving, showing an
investment in where we're going with the
library. Um I don't know if that could
be applied. I suspect it could be. I've
heard from from the folks in the library
that they have a number of phases before
even the first phase of construction
that could could benefit from increased
investment. And so I would ask that that
$2 million go to the that instead.
Council Harris.
Uh thanks. See, I think I mentioned the
municipal court thing, too. And I also
am unclear about what the future of that
building is. You know, if it's going to
be $20 million to rehab it versus moving
into a new building, I don't know that
it makes sense to put $2 million towards
a design to rehab something that we're
not even going to do. So, I just think
it's a little premature to have that on
a list of projects. Right now,
we have plenty of stuff for facilities
upkeep to make sure the air conditioners
work through the summer at least.
Mayor,
yes.
Chris, question. Is the TID available
for any
um sort of projects for municipal court?
Um, mayor, councelor Ben Como. So
certainly it's up to the TID board aka
council to make you know determination
on how to spend those funds. Um we're
hoping to get the phase three back on
the master plan here soon and then bring
it to the TID board for a work session
in future discussion. So those are
certainly conversations you guys could
have with those TID funds in the future
whether it's you know an alternate
location which there may be options uh
downtown to explore that but certainly
if that's what the board decides they
want to do that would be within their
purview certainly. Okay, thank you.
Again, I think we have to look at all
the places to leverage dollars and um so
I think those are I just those are
important pathways to consider when
we're thinking about how to best extend
the life of this of this money. So,
thanks
Mr. Mayor. If I could just make one
more, you know, comment too here. This
is just a reminder that this is just for
for two years. So we you know so if that
is the conversation there we could
revisit some of these in two years and
see where certain projects are at that
time.
Mel
um so I just want to clarify um mayor
city councilors city manager Tomo
and I believe Jimmy mentioned this as
well. So for the study for municipal
court it does take it will take $2
million.
Yes. or
Mayor Councelor Munoz. Yes, for the
design
for the design.
Gotcha. Okay. All right. So, it wouldn't
necessarily make sense to split that up.
Um I, you know, I I I'm content is we
could use those $2 million to uh help
phase the library work. So,
thank you. Thank you, Mayor.
Thank you all again. Um, a good reminder
of why
um, we moved to increase the GRT was
there's a lot of catching up to do.
There's a lot of things and I I agree
also with moving towards a rec center.
When we say that we've neglected a lot
of things, you know, again, I go back to
the increase in population and Mirid is
still the only rec center we have. So,
increasing another rec center. um for
that the library has been neglected.
We've all talked about that and we all
support the library and the increases
there. So I I would agree with that. Um
the other thing I just wanted to point
out again the driving track again became
an urgency and the reason that we
putting more as opposed to the county is
because it's supposed to be at the
future site of the public safety
training facility. So, it's going to be
at our location. It's going to be our
training facility used by not only
police and fire, but um all our uh
employees that drive vehicles. Uh so, so
we'll get more use out of it. And again,
I I can't stress it. It just became
urgent because of the track that we used
to use is no longer available. But I
know there's other people in the
audience probably want to speak to this
issue. So, I can open it up to public
comment if anybody would like to come up
and share their thoughts. And uh yeah,
I'll give you two minutes. Anyone that
wants to come up,
Tim Jenkins.
One of the main reasons the GRT increase
was created was for public safety. The
very core foundation and building blocks
of any school, house, city, or community
is safety. Without safety, you don't
have a city. Without safety, you don't
have a community. Without safety, you
don't have confidence. You don't have
trust. You literally don't have anything
of value. It is a core fundament of
life, liberty, and the pursuit of
soundness.
I would like to clearly state for the
record, all six town hall meetings were
clearly sabotaged on purpose by c a
certain very vocal group of individuals
who made sure they were at every single
one of those meetings to stack the votes
against public safety to vote in
districts that they were not even belong
in to make sure that they had the power
and authority to come back and throw
this in city council's face when in all
reality and in all honest truth before
God They don't really truly sincerely
care about the health and safety and
well-being of our children as long as
they can defund the police. The vile
hatred in these council chambers about
our police officers is despicable and
absolutely disgusting. So in all truth
and in all honesty, the votes that were
gathered at the result as a result of
the six town hall meetings about the GRT
should never even be counted or
considered because those numbers are a
lie and a fraud and not honest or true
or upright or just in any way. Not as
for me and my family, we stand behind
honesty and truth and justice. Not a
system that lies to skew the numbers to
get what you want and then come back and
scream and yell when you don't get what
you lied about. The enemy is at the gate
and the gate has been left wide open.
The real question is what are we all
going to do about that? This is not a
you problem. It's a we problem and we
all need to come together and help each
other. There is a pure evil that that
lurks here that we need to combat and
get rid of. Thank you.
My name is Lucas Hearnen from District
2. For the record, um, I've been to
nearly every council meeting on these
GRT funds since last summer. I've shown
up meeting after meeting because I
respect this process. I respect the work
that you do, and I respect the voters
who made this GRT increase possible. But
we need to talk about respect because it
goes both ways. We respected the
process. We showed up when we were asked
to. We filled out surveys. We spoke
during public comment. The message was
consistent across neighborhoods, across
demographics, and across this entire
city. Invest in our communities, parks,
recreation centers, roads, libraries.
So, I have to ask, where is the respect
for us?
Where is the respect for the voters who
trusted you with their money? Where is
the respect for the families who told
you what they needed?
This resolution or these two combined
um continually applied more money to the
best funded department of this city, the
cops.
Um
by contrast, things like the fire
apparatus replacement make sense.
Firefighters respond to medical
emergencies, fires, and crisises across
our community. That is community
infrastructure. But a police training
track, a training facility for a
department that already has the largest
budget, that is not what we voted for.
That is not community safety.
Director favors uh comments suggest
redirecting road funds to recreation
centers, pitting neighborhoods against
each other, making us choose between
fixing our streets or building a space
for kids. That is not respect. That is
not listening. That is not honoring the
process you asked us to participate in.
Here's what respect looks like. Honoring
the public input you received.
Understanding that we didn't vote for a
GRT increase to build training centers.
We voted for infrastructure that serves
every person in this community. Stop
asking working families to choose
between basic needs when there's already
money being spent on the wrong
priorities. I'm asking you today,
reconsider the millions and millions for
LCPD. Keep road funds intact. redirect
these police funds to the community
projects if you need to find more
funding. We'll be watching. We'll be the
ne next meeting because we have respect
for this city. And don't you tell me my
time is up. You have made us wait 4
hours to talk after we tried to speak
earlier and you told my No, you told our
community that you couldn't speak during
public comment because this was on the
agenda and then you took four hours to
get here. So, we will take as much time
and as much space as we want.
Okay. I'm telling you your time's up.
Disrespectfully, no. Thank you.
for the record, Jim Hurst. Um
in my mind prevention of crime
should be the top priority.
in my mind um recreation facilities and
the like
are crime prevention
and I think crime prevention is much
more efficient
than uh
uh other remedies.
I don't think a cop
uh a cop uh command post or whatever
it's called
is likely to prevent crime. It may help
crime response, but it's not likely to
prevent crime.
Thank you very much.
I think that on this item, as uh some of
the counselors have been discussing, um
and we should we uh the people who spoke
at the community meetings um have
pointed out and we should really
consider um what already has funding,
where we are, where we're already
spending money. Um the GRT is something
that we voted to do as a community and
we're looking at it in terms of you know
what are things that don't get funding
regularly you know so the police if I
understand correctly have about 25% of
the general fund whereas library gets
like 2% if I don't know if my numbers
are correct there but this is what this
is some general research I was doing
back up in the seats but we know that
the police gets a lot of fund right a
lot of funding um and this GRT
situation, you know, it's like we're
discussing, are we going to move a
little bit from the municipal over? Are
we going to move this over or that over?
Are we going to take 4.3 some of that to
the library? We're kind of moving
peanuts around. It sounds like um for
everything else like the GRT is a
situation where I think that we could
draw on that to do what we asked for,
which is community projects, things like
uh you know, rec centers, library,
water, etc. All those types of
infrastructure um create uh not only
like more safety in the immediacy.
They create safety in the long term.
They create social emotional learning
amongst community members. Um they
create bonding amongst community
members. They create interconnectedness.
Things that reduce crime. These are
things that um it's not just short-term
benefit, but it's long-term benefit. So
uh that's my ask. Thank you.
All right. My name is Sylvia. I'm from
District 2.
So, the wider Los Cruus community voted
y'all in to be voices for making
decisions. So, when I see Mayor Eric
Enrique speaking at anti-abortion
rallies and police chief Jeremy Story
attempting to get social media famous, I
don't see our officials doing their
jobs. So, back in December and October,
uh, the citizens of Los Cruz has voiced
their opinions on how we should be
spending our GRT budget. And our biggest
priority from what it seems like is to
provide renovations to the public
library, new recreational center, uh,
new wastewater management treatment
facility, and um, those were the big
three. Uh, the proposed training
facility for the Los Cru's Police
Department and Fire Department, I
believe, was number 12 in order of
priority. So it is clear what uh the Los
Cruus community has voiced their needs
for. Uh I found it very suspicious that
Jeremy and the police department are
trying very hard to push this training
facility for our police department
despite the fact that the public has
voiced their opinions. Um and as Ben
Kamo said, the police department will
always have funding. I think back
to June of last year when an activist
group in the community planned on an
explicitly peaceful protest in downtown
and LBT LCPD responded with snipers on
top of the library and in another
neighboring uh building. I also think
back to the time where we have or I also
think about how we have citizens
murdered by LCBD two times more than the
national average. Uh, so I don't trust
our police department to help our
community when we have shown time and
time again that there will that they
have been the antagonizers. I don't
trust our police department when we have
flock cameras on almost every corner.
Uh, when these have not shown to
decrease crime, but to actually help ICE
track immigrants and to help police
track women fleeing other states to get
much neededed reproductive healthcare.
So, I don't trust our police with more
funding and more toys and gadgets to
train within a new fancy facility. Uh
what does help crime decrease is to get
kids active in their community and to
get back to the public voting meetings
back to uh September. We have voiced
that. We want a rec center, library
renovations uh and such. So uh please
listen to your constituents. Thanks.
Hello, my name is Sierra Edmister. As
someone who's been an active witness to
the Project Jupiter mess and having
elected folks make decisions very
opposed to the popular one of the
public, I'm extremely tired and
disappointed to be here today to ask you
to not make a decision that is very
opposed to the popular want of the
public. Why did you make us all drag
ourselves out to these public sticker
meetings if you planned on ignoring what
we had to say? I've already shared here
stats that show more funding for police
is not only ineffective in helping
reduce crime but also has many
measurable consequences for communities.
There are people from older generations
that come here because they make a big
part of the select few that have the
privilege of being able to make these
meetings regularly. And I hear meeting
after meeting about the terrifying
delinquent youth. Okay, fine. These kids
who are trying to exist as best as they
can to survive the conditions they were
randomly born in are so scary. But if
you were really so terrified, wouldn't
you be desperate for changes that would
actually solve the problem? Throwing
money at a system that is statistically
failing to solve crimes is a mistake
that we cannot afford right now. If you
find yourself passionate about more
policing and harsher pun punishments for
young folk, maybe there should be a
reflection on what you actually want to
see.
Are we afraid of crime or are we afraid
of the uncomfortable truth of our own
community? There are real material
reasons for crime and these reasons can
be addressed and mended. Do you want to
save your community? Or do you just want
punishment and exile for the youth who
are also a part of this community? A lot
of the same folks who will be so vocal
on being pro-life and quoting the Bible,
turn around and want to cast out the
troubled youth and the homeless. The
hypocrisy is jarring. There's no place
in public political decisions for
specific religious belief. Period. But
what we definitely don't need is a
presence of this existential dissonance
where calls to action contradict the
very teachings you claim to hold sacred.
These funds should go directly to the
community, specifically to programs that
support our youth and address the root
causes of crime. We should fund
solutions that work, not strategies
based on fear. I don't believe this fear
is the popular narrative of Los Cusus. I
think for people that are involved in
the community and actively a part of
things that make it better, there is a
huge welcoming attitude. Thank you.
Good afternoon, Mayor and City Council.
I'm Heron Cave. Thank you for the
opportunity to speak. I live in District
2. I'm here to promote uh public safety
in Los Cruus. And because I want more
safety and not less, I'm here to ask
that this council not give a single
penny of our DRT funds to LCPD. Research
has long shown that the safest
communities have high levels of
investment in resources, infrastructure,
and social services, and that addressing
root causes of behavior that's
criminalized, root causes like lack of
jobs, access to healthcare, and housing
and stability is more effective for
safety than policing. Research for from
the Brookings Institution in 2025 showed
that providing jobs and educational
opportunities in high poverty
neighborhoods is a primary factor in
preventing violence. A well-funded
neighborhood is a safe neighborhood.
Cops don't keep us safe. Never have.
This is not a new insight. They create
fear and violence and perpetuate lies
about our own community and then present
themselves as the singular solution to
violence of their own making. To quote
Melanie Brazelle, research fellow of
public policy at Harvard Kennedy School,
when speaking of police, violence is
both their alibi and their outcome.
In 2025 alone, cops killed 32 people in
New Mexico. Again, per capita, that's
more than in any other state. Meanwhile,
LCPD loots the resources of our
communities that should be used to
actually address safety programs that
meet human needs. With the GRT increase,
we have the opportunity to fund those
community projects supported by the
community that actually result in
improved safety. Rec centers, community
centers, ADA compliant parks, skate
parks, um libraries, affordable housing,
public transportation, safe streets,
safe road, safe water systems, so much
basic needed infrastructure.
This council should be supporting
policies and investments that make real
safety possible. It's time we stop
accepting the violence of policing and
start instead to build safety through
lifeaffffirming community-based programs
and practices. This is difficult,
uphill, and collective work. And we can
start today. Thank you.
Hello. Uh my name is Yolani. Um,
holy hell. How do you follow that,
right? Um, I guess I won't really take
up much of your time. I'll just ask that
each of you uh vote with the community
in mind. Uh, remembering what it is that
people came out to do uh whenever we
were whenever y'all held these um
community listening sessions, voting
sessions and everything like this and
the continued engagement um of community
in this process. Um
there was a lot more people here
earlier. Uh and uh I think it's it's
really says something for the folks who
stuck out and have been through this
process. Um GRT is not something that's
particularly
um I don't know, it's not like a super
sexy thing that happens in the city
administration, but um it's important to
us and we know that this is where the
future of our community lies. Um thank
you very much.
Hello. For the record again, my name is
Albert. Um, many of your constituents
are living on paycheck to paycheck uh
state of survival. The fear of being
unhoused looms over their day-to-day
knowing that what follows is further
criminalization. Many people feel so
disconnected from local governance that
they don't even make the effort to
participate. I've talked to people, they
say things like, "What's the point? They
always do whatever they want. They
always do whatever they want. There's
always a day. Elected officials are seen
as separate from their constit
constituents. You and many others who
shape the future of Lasuses are seen as
the elite who hold power and will
utilize it to further their interest or
the interest of private investors or the
interest of millionaires or
billionaires, not the interest of your
constituency. You must remember the
structure of this packing order. Your
constituents sit at the top. That is who
you serve. On September 30th, in the
following weeks, you asked for your
community's input on what projects the
GRT would fund. Our community showed up.
Many rearranged work shifts and engaged
their neighbors to participate in this
public input opportunity. Even though
this gets presented as like a group of
people who were there to, I don't know,
uh, prevent the process from happening
equitably. And that's that's not true.
That's just people showing up. Um, our
community voiced their opinions and went
to the extent of carefully documenting
their votes, which is why we were
attending multiple ones and to vote
multiple times was to be witnesses to um
to to this vote.
In the months that followed, we've seen
the gross misrepres misrepresentation of
the public's input. Projects involving
the police barely even made the top 10
when you look at the votes. The city has
reported continuous increase in crime at
the same time that we continue to
increase police funding. There's an
obvious trend there that speaks to what
happens when we continue to dep
prioritize and defund our community's
direct material needs. Crime goes up
when our living conditions deteriorate.
You're being asked to keep an eye out
for funding opportunities for our
libraries, all abilities, park, our
roads, wastewater treatment facilities,
alternatives for car policies that work
at addressing crime to the root. This is
what the people want. The expertise
required to meet these needs exists and
is likely in the room with us right now.
Thank you.
Greetings, mayor, council. I have my
phone so I don't ramble too much this
time. Uh, so, you know, I'm here to
express the same concerns that the
community members have. You know,
listening to the community in my mind,
like I'm studying public admin areas I
care about is
Oh, my name is Jay Chote. Uh, District
5, apologies. Um, yeah, I'm studying
public admin and two of the areas I care
a lot about is community impact and
ethics. And a part of that is for me
there's a big lack of trust in the
government right now across the country.
Um, and it's present here in the city
too, right? Obviously people worry about
what the government's doing. And when
you have these events, you reach out to
community say, "Hey, what do you want?"
If you do that outreach, and then you
decide, well, we're going to prioritize
other projects instead anyways. I I feel
like that sends mixed signals to a lot
of people. At the very least, some
people may be active in the community. I
know when I went to those meetings, I
wasn't influenced by other people to
vote how I did. I voted on what the
community genuinely needed or what I
felt the community needed. Um and and so
I just hope that we can prioritize what
the community actually expressed. That
was to me that was the whole point of
those meetings. And if we're not going
to listen to them, then what's the point
of doing those meetings in the first
place? Um, beyond that, if there is such
an outsized need for some of these
projects that the community didn't
listen or didn't list out on the the
posters that you had there, then I feel
like the burden of proof should fall on
the government to prove why we need to
go out of our way to fund these things
and there should be a lot of evidence
and a lot of community engagement about
that. Um, and furthermore, I appreciate
some of the points uh councilors raised
earlier. I was thinking, well, why isn't
police just approaching through other
funds or going to the state instead of
trying to go through here, which is
often it's harder to get some of these
projects funded through those other
avenues because they look a little less
flashy. It's a little less impressive to
say, "Oh, I funded this thing because
it's those small incremental
improvements make a big impact in our
communities." Um, and I think that's
pretty much everything I just did. Let
me check. Oh, yeah. and then really just
focusing on that and trying to figure
out where we can diversify our funding
so that we are approaching through the
best places that can actually get
funding to the projects that need to
impact our community the most. So, thank
you.
Thank you, mayor, counselors, and city
staff who are here. I am Linda Sinclair.
I am the president of the Friends of
Thomas Brandy Memorial Library. So you
all know that I'm here to say the
library is very important. Um for me a
key issue I used in a former life I was
a CPA.
The idea that there is not a line item
in the budget specific to the library I
find very concerning. The fact that I
was one of the people who attended all
six of the district sessions. I don't
even live in the city. I live in the
county. But I hear from the members of
the friends and I hear from the people
who come to the library all the time
that it is a very important part of
their life. It does so many things for
so many people and I think that the um
comments here today have suggested that.
I likewise think that there is time and
place for a lot of different services
for the city. I actually sent a an email
to Chief Story about a a program that
was in another city that was very
successful in reducing crime and I said,
"Hey, maybe this is something that the
friends could work with the the um
police department to try and do these
kinds of projects, too." So, it's not
that I'm opposed to looking at different
problems and solving them in different
ways, but at the end of the day, I do
believe that supporting the library is
supporting public safety. And I
understand that um there are a lot of
different demands here, but I'd be happy
to sit down and talk with any of you
about why I think that the library needs
to be at the top of that list when you
look at what the priorities of the
community are. Thank you very much.
Okay, Christine, you want to walk us
through this?
So, first it sounds like we have
consensus to move a couple of the
funding.
Um, municipal court design we're moving
to the library.
Yes. Okay. Um, and then the Bruins
Motel, we're moving to a rec center.
Okay. So, if we have consensus to move
forward to change those items, then we
can call for the vote for the
resolution.
So,
somebody going to say something?
Mr. Mayor, I was
point of clarification. So,
do we need to go to the uh prior
resolution
first the item and bring that off the
table? We will go back to that one after
we
not sequential. Okay. Thank you,
Christie.
Do you want to go over that really
quick?
Mr. May, I was just curious. Do we need
to discuss the 60% projects before we
vote or were we just voting on the 40%.
Okay.
So, do we want to have a conversation on
the 60% projects and if there's any
adjustments there? Again, we've got fire
stations, 4 million for street
maintenance and traffic calming. And I
just again talked with Mr. Moreno from
public works and he you know he said
$500,000 is an adequate amount for the
for these first two years for traffic
calming. So I feel like we can get a lot
done with the cost of the average you
know traffic calming project. So 5
million 4 million for streets um the
money for public safety fleet upkeep and
then money for um ADA facility
maintenance. So those were the ones
proposed for the 60%
Yes. Okay. I thought we Okay,
I have a question about that. I don't
have a question. I just I will have
something to say about that.
Thank you.
I
thank you, Jimmy, for sort of affirming
that that's enough. I
will always talk about the pavement
condition index and how I don't think
it's enough. I think, you know, to Mayor
Pertam's uh analogy about the car and
like waiting for, you know, six months
to piling your car or whatever, some of
these cars are dead. Um some of the some
of these roads are at the end of their
lives and they are mostly in lower
income neighborhoods and lower income
communities. And so I think again
there's just never never enough for
these things. And to me that's
uh disappointing. So I you know if
there's ever a workaround in getting
more money towards street maintenance I
will always uh go for that. And when we
talk about public safety I think you
know just today we talked about road
safety um and having folks here who came
to talk about um
distracted driving and the number of
casualties that we've seen in Los Cusus.
that's public safety and often that has
to do with design. And so I just, you
know, when I talk, yeah, I'm just I'm
going to ramble at this point, but I
think for me, um
I just continue to feel disappointed
that there's just not quite ever enough
to go towards the projects that would
help low-income neighborhoods the most.
Okay, Christine.
This is on the motion to approve
resolution 26-124.
Councelor McClur,
yes.
Councelor Matise,
yes.
Councelor Harris,
yes.
Councelor Beno,
yes.
Councelor Karan,
yes.
Councelor Munoz,
yes.
Mayor,
yes.
I move we bring 7.2 off the table.
Second
proto.
Wait, I need to call the vote to remove
it from the table and then we can go
back to discussion. Um, so this is on
the motion to remove resolution 26123
from the table for discussion. Councelor
Mccclure,
yes.
Councelor Matise,
yes.
Councelor Harris,
yes.
Councelor Bencoml,
yes.
Councelor Karan,
yes.
Councelor Munoz,
yes.
And mayor,
yes.
Now,
now we can discuss. Mayor Pro.
Uh, councelor Vancl.
Thanks. Uh, Leslie Chris, I don't even
remember who was presenting this
originally. I'm so sorry. Um, actually,
this will be for Cynthia actually.
Another question on the 4.3 million,
Cynthia. Um, is are any of of that 4.3
million deferred facilities asset
maintenance are is that going to go
towards excuse me, the 290 projects on
the cap.
Cynthia, ideally the first round of
projects that will be selected will be
from the CAP because they will be
existing projects. However, we do have
to have a little bit of flex flexibility
to identify those emergencies or
unexpected situations that happen and we
want to make sure we address them. So,
it'll be a combination.
Great. Thank you for that. Jimmy, did
you want to add something?
Mayor, counselor MCOM, there will be
some overlap. So, there is some projects
on the CIP, for example, re- roofs and
parking lots and things like that. Yeah.
Um, so there's definitely overlap and
and that will be included as well.
Thank you. So I think a million more
dollars in this fund could go a really
long way and I think for us to be
responsible and responsive and I just
want to say that framing the community
input meetings that we had as
fraudulent, is deeply problematic.
There's no evidence for that. And I
think when we go to the public and we
ask the public to tell us what they
want, we have to trust them. And um this
narrative that there that they there
should be cast the doubt should be
casted on them is I think is really
irresponsible and really quite shameful.
So I'm sad to hear that being um spread
around and um
that being said, I really want us to be
responsive to what community is is
asking us to do. I want us to be
responsive to the serious needs of our
community. There is urgency in many
places and um I think ensuring that we
have the most
um
the the biggest bucket as possible in
order for deferred facilities and asset
maintenance is important.
council.
Um,
yeah, I guess I think we we talked about
this quite a bit. Um, I think that we'll
have plenty of opportunity to complete
the budget for the driving track as it's
being built. Um, if we need to make up
some funds, we can absolutely do that.
Um, so to that end, I guess if if
there's other no more discussion, I have
a motion to make.
Christine, good. Okay. Um, so, uh, I
move to reduce the, uh, proposed budget
here for the driving track to 2.5
million and redirect that 1 million to
the deferred facilities and asset
maintenance, uh, line item.
Second
Okay. So, this would be to amend the
exhibit to reduce the driving track to
2.5 and then apply the 1 million to the
deferred maintenance. Correct. Okay.
Councelor McClair.
Yes.
Councelor Matise,
no.
Councelor Harris,
yes.
Councelor Bencoml,
yes. Councelor Karan,
yes.
Councelor Munoz,
no.
Mayor,
no.
Motion passes.
Okay. So this would be to
approve resolution 26-123
as amended.
Councelor McClur,
yes.
Councelor Matise,
yes.
Councelor Harris,
yes.
Councelor Bencoml,
yes.
Councelor Karan,
yes.
Councelor Munoz,
yes.
Mayor,
yes.
Okay. Next is item 7.4, council bill
number 26-017,
ordinance number 3109,
ordinance amending chapter 24,
procurement code of the Los Cusus
Municipal Code.
Move to approve.
Second.
Good afternoon, mayor, city council. My
name is Alicia Ernnandez, purchasing
manager for the city of Las Cusus.
Before you today is an ordinance
approving an update to the procurement
code.
The procurement code lies within chapter
24-1 of the Los Cusus Municipal Code.
The purpose of this chapter is to
maximize the purchasing value of public
funds and to provide safeguards for
maintaining a procurement system of
quality and integrity.
Procurement is defined as the buying,
purchasing, renting, leasing or
otherwise acquiring of any supplies,
service or construction. Governments
often have departments and laws for
procurement, usually with strict
procedures for how purchases can be
made. This ensures the process doesn't
become corrupted by bribes, kickbacks,
and favoritism.
These laws are designed to ensure
fairness, transparency, and
accountability in how public money is
spent.
We are recommending one change to the
current code in article 2, section 24-31
of Los Cusus Municipal Code to clarify
direct contact as it relates to the
ethics portion of the code. We are
requesting to add the following
language. Direct contact includes but is
not limited to inquiring about project
specifications that are not subject to
public record, responses submitted by
other competitors, compensation details,
or any other information not available
to the public.
And with that, here are your council
options. And I stand for any questions.
Councelor
Harris. All right. Thank you, Mayor. I I
do always have a question. Um so,
um can you go back to the slide that
you're changing the definition? All
right. Um so, just to clarify the um
responses
submitted by other competitors,
compensation details like dur is this
during the bidding process? Um, so this
isn't those things aren't likeable
during the bidding process, right?
Uh, councelor Harris, yes, you're
correct. It is during the open bidding
process.
Cool. That's it. Thank you.
Okay, Christine.
This is on the motion to approve
ordinance 3109. Councelor McCclar,
yes.
Councelor Matise,
yes.
Councelor Harris,
yes.
Councelor Bencomo is absent. Councelor
Karan.
Yes. Councelor Munoz.
Yes.
Mayor,
yes.
Okay. Board appointments is next. Uh,
read into the record. Councelor Munoz
appoints Gilbert Amosita to the parks
and recck board. Councelor Matise will
appoint will be appointed to the MO
policy board.
Now I need a motion and a second. Uh
Larano
reappointed to the senior programs
board.
Move to approve.
Second.
This is on the motion to reappoint Larry
Alamirano to the senior programs board.
Councelor Mccclair.
Yes.
Councelor Matise.
Yes.
Councelor Harris. Yes.
Councelor Bencoml is absent. Councelor
Karan.
Yes.
Councelor Munoz.
Yes.
Mayor.
Yes.
Next is notice of proposed ordinances.
There are none. City council member
board reports and comments. Uh Council
Mccclure.
Thank you, Mayor. I I'll keep this quick
because I ate a lot of candy that was so
nicely supplied because Okay. So, um I I
just want to quickly say that I I would
be in full support of an all-inclusive
park. I feel like I'm back to my parks
and wreck days here. Um, I think the
idea of equity in terms of play is a is
a conversation we haven't had yet
necessarily in the city and I would be
in support and I would hope also my
counselors, fellow counselors would be
in support of something like that as
well to at least point staff into that
direction. Um, and I think anybody who
watched today will know that the budget
for that is going to it's going to take
a couple cycles to get to it, but at
least to to start planning it what it
would look like here for Las Cruises
because it's and as I understand it, our
parks and rec director already has
experience with something like that
super helpful in this situation. And I
know a lot of people um feel that impact
of not being able to play in the ways
that they could. And I think we can
definitely look at that in the next
upcoming months if everybody else agrees
to that. Thank you.
Thank you, Council Matise.
Enough comments today. Thank you.
Thank you, Councelor Harris.
Uh thank you. Just a couple for me. Um,
first, uh, I was at the farmers market
this weekend and it was great, but I was
also noticing that, uh, kind of the only
barricades between people and the street
are just signs, uh, little standup
barricades. And then we just had an
incident, not we, but, uh, over the
weekend there was an incident in LA at a
parade where somebody drove through a
crowd. Um, and so I think it it would be
worth looking at uh to see if we can
maybe improve downtown with some pop-up
ballards or something to better protect
uh areas where crowds gather. Uh second,
uh just a shout out to transit. Thank
you very much, Richard. Go Transit. Um
you know, buses keep cars off the roads,
which reduces maintenance and traffic
and and everything for that. So, you
know, I I want to see that keeping uh
continuous improvement. Um
then I am also in favor of looking at an
all-inclusive park. I think that's very
interesting idea. Um also since we're
talking about maintenance, I saw
something very interesting this weekend
on the use of bricks as paving material.
Kind of more of a technical deep dive
into how that's done in other cities. So
maybe public works can look at that. And
then um last since
um you know the conversation around
flock and stuff comes up um you know I
think there are plenty of ways that the
community and the police department can
work together and I have personally
submitted video from some cameras that I
own to the police department to help in
their investigations. Um and we have a
system for that and we already pay for
it. We have an evidence collection
system. And it it seems crummy to me
that we have corporations coming in and
trying to wedge themselves between
police departments and their communities
in order to just make some profit where
they they really have no place. You
know, I think the city and the police
and our first responders can work
directly with the community. Um and
that's a lot more effective for
everybody. So, thank you.
Councelor McCo,
thank you. Um, first and foremost, I
want to really deeply thank Katrina and
Scott. Um, they're gone. I'm sure
they'll hear me. Um, I we had our
district 4 meeting last week and it was
very very well attended and very well
organized. All thanks to them. So, just
deeply grateful for our constituents
team. I think they're wonderful. I want
to thank fire, housing, economic
development, community development,
utilities, public works, sustainability,
codes, um, PD, our ACM staff for being
there. If I missed anyone, I am so
sorry. I am very grateful for everyone
who was there. Um, every time I looked
up and I looked around, you were you
guys were talking to somebody
consistently. So, I just really
appreciate that. I got really great
feedback about how that meeting went and
um it was just a wonderful meeting and
you know often public comment can feel
like this one a one-sided conversation
and then now I'm having a one-sided
conversation and so um just being able
to have the support from staff to create
those kinds of spaces to have really
meaningful conversations with residents
and answer questions um just means a
lot. So, thank you very much to everyone
who came and again to Scott and Katrina.
Um, thank you to councelor Harris for
leading on the flock issue. I think, um,
this is an issue not thought about
enough. Um, but the more I talk to
people who care about surveillance,
um, the more I see how deeply
intertwined it is with, um, the safety
of the most vulnerable in our community
especially. So, um, thank you for that.
Um, and then I think that was all I have
to say. So, thanks everyone. We haven't
had a long meeting in a long time. So,
councelor Karin,
thank you. I will also try to be brief.
Um, I do want to thank the folks from
America's job center for the mocket till
you rocket. I know I think councelor
Mccclure was there on an opposite shift
of me and a whole bunch of city staff
participated along with a bunch of other
people and it was really cool to meet a
lot of students who are planning their
future lives and talk to them. I only
made one cry which I'm still feel bad
about. I'm so sorry. Um uh I I hope it
wasn't me, but it was a really great
experience to see students the future of
our workforce, the future of our college
classrooms, the future city employees.
Um really enthusiastically try working
on their resumes, which were great. Um
so I hope some of them will come join us
at the city soon. So thanks to everyone
who went to that and participated and
shared your gifts with those with those
students. Um hopefully none of you made
them cry like I did. Uh
I also have been visiting a lot of
fountains uh or parks lately and in some
in many parks the as I always do um the
fountains weren't haven't been on and so
I just wanted to sort of speak to this.
I know we have sort of a system and we
don't want um these things to freeze but
if climate change is happening and I
think the time when things freeze is
getting smaller and smaller. So, I would
just ask that we consider when we turn
the fountains on as a fundamentally
important part of our city life or as
part of our public life. Um, I don't
know exactly how that conversation goes
in in parks and wreck, but I do know
that I was at a park where it was about
90 degrees and there were folks trying
the fountain and that was really like um
telling to me. Um, so we might have to
rethink something in our in our timing
of the fountains coming on. I I also
just want to speak to two other things
that were alluded to at different times.
One is the CBP station, which a number
of us have spoken out against um the
three proposed sites, some of which are
in the city, some of which are not. Um a
lot of folks gave public comment. I've
heard from many, many, many residents
who um urged CBP, if they're watching,
to not consider putting their station in
a neighborhood near um elementary
schools, people's backyards, our animal
shelter, uh parks.
Um and so I hope that that feedback has
been heard in in in the ways that it has
has been expressed.
Um, and then the other thing that I
wanted to speak to is, uh, someone
alluded to the El Paso electric rate
case, and I just want to say, um, really
quickly, the city and the county have
joined together again to, um, intervene
on behalf of residents so that we, uh,
hopefully can fight the rate case so
that folks don't necessarily have to pay
as much as El Paso Electric is
proposing. Uh the last time the city
intervened in the 2020 rate case, which
was ultimately resolved uh by 2023, um
the city was able to save somewhere
between 16 and 17 million per year for
rateayers uh because of their
intervention uh in those cases. So I
really want to thank city management and
and our attorneys for investing in that
intervention. As mentioned, it's
thousands and thousands of pages. So, it
takes legal expertise and it's very hard
to fight for the residents to not have
to pay um into uh private equity's
profit margin. So, I'm really proud of
the city that we intervene in this in
this conversation. Um and I I just
wanted to say the city is is tracking on
that and that we're here and we will be
advocating for for residents as this
moves forward. So, um we'll keep you
posted and I'm sure you'll hear more as
time goes on.
Mayor Pro.
Thank you, Mayor. I only have 20 items
to go over. I'm kidding. Thank you.
Thanks, Jen. Actually, thank all of you
for hanging in with us and those that
were here previously. You know,
democracy is is messy. If it were easy,
there'd be more democratic republics
around the world, and they're not. And
it's about discussion and different
viewpoints, different approaches to
solutions. Um and you know for the most
part I'm glad that we had really good
discussions um from the public and good
discussions here on the dis with our our
colleagues. Um and whether we agree or
disagree I think the the intent is
really to have consensus and to do our
best for our community. So, I appreciate
that. Whether it's it's um
funding the library, whether it's
funding an all-inclusive park, which I I
would encourage um all of my peers to
help out with that, whether it's it's
the park or a recreation center um that
is more user friendly for um folks from
all different abilities, that is that is
appreciated. or funding things for
public safety or a CRM. There's so many
priorities, so many priorities that we
have and um so few funds,
but we will figure that out together. I
also wanted to thank the um our sign
language uh professionals. I know we
threw them for a loop uh sometimes when
we throw Spanish in there, but and I was
worried about that because of access
obviously, but I uh uh I saw that they
did not miss a beat there. So, thank
you. Gracias. Mill gracias. I will try
to keep my Italian and German to a
minimum. Not to throw any more wrenches
in there, but thank you all also for
sticking with us. I'm sure your your
arms and hands are are very tired, but
that's definitely um something that's
appreciated, and I wanted to call that
out today. Thank you, mayor. Oh, and uh
if you do not have your library card,
please get one. This is a kitty cat one.
It's all access, by the way.
Wait, there cats on there?
Yes.
Is this really old or are there actually
cats on the
No, I'm not that old. No, no, no, no.
This is Well, fairly recent.
All right. This isn't what mine looks
like, but now I'm gonna have to go. I
mean, I go to library anyway, so I
better get on it.
She's jealous.
I have to find mine.
There's a new ones.
Oh, wow.
Okay. Well, thank you and uh Mayor
Promp, thanks for saying that because it
is correct. Um it is challenging but it
is great to have the involvement and
everyone take part. Um the beauty of it
is is uh we get to do this every other
year. You know it's a it's like I said
it's a good dilemma to have but but
that's why we increase so that we can
catch up and do things and add value to
our community and we will continue. We
don't get everything that we want the
first time around. That's that's fine.
and I'm looking forward to May 11th so
we can discuss the the geo bond and look
at that avenue for uh funds as well. Uh
just for this week just wanted to
mention the Los Cruus International Film
Festival is here this week from April
8th to the 11th. So, thank you again to
Ross Marks and uh Senator uh Steinborn
because uh they put a lot into that and
it's really helps our economy and our
our students at NMSU with filming. So,
it's a great thing to to to
be a part of. and also uh Oregon
Mountain High School will be uh the host
for shattered lives this year again to
discuss with with health and safety on
impaired driving for our students. So,
thank you police, fire. I know some of
our hospitals will be there as well to
partner up with with that event that'll
take place later this week, Thursday and
Friday. And with that, uh, city manager.
Thank you, Mayor Enriquez, Mayor Pertim,
and, uh, city councelor Sikto, city
manager. And I just wanted to say thank
you. Uh, I've been out for a bit. I
appreciate, uh, assistant city manager
Sonia and and David um, helping to run
the show and executive team and all the
staff who continue to uh, to run this
organization. So, thank you so much. I
have a few announcements, just three,
and I'll keep it brief. So, for police,
uh something I brought up last time, but
we uh the department completed the Kalia
assessment and it went very well. Um
before Kalia commissioners, uh this will
be presented before them in July, answer
a few questions, do an oral assessment,
and this process has been underway for
over three years, and we're very close
to achieving uh this accreditation. So,
thank you to chief and uh to all your
staff. So, please pass that along.
Airport on April 2nd,
which passed. Um, the airport hosted the
United States Marine Corps and the
Center for Counter Measures, CCM, at
White Sands Missile Range. Marine Corps
pilots flew a CH53K Stallion helicopter
from Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona to Los
Cusus International Airport to conduct
flight and system testings. The airport
offered both the Marine Corps and CCM
contingents immediate airspace ground
facilities and supporting for testing
that would otherwise require month of
planning and preparation. It was a great
day for training support of our military
partners. Uh we appreciate
the work of our airport staff for making
this happen. So, thank you uh to Blake
and to your staff. Last uh sorry, I
lied. There's one more. So, two more.
Uh, TID, there was a a question uh or a
comment made uh about sharing safety for
downtown. I wanted to share that this is
something that has um come also
previously before from the deis. Uh I
appreciate uh chief he's brought this up
um a few months back. He brought this to
my uh attention that this is a priority
um as well. So in line with what I've
been hearing from the deis and so I just
wanted to share that staff community
development VC and police have been
working together um to to look at
ballards uh for this and so that is
something that's being prepared uh as we
speak. So we appreciate that and that is
something that's in its um that's
already occurring right now. So just
wanted to give you update on that. So
perfect timing. And there was also a
comment um today on the skatepark and
and what that what what is happening and
and to divert funds if we can. Uh for
all those uh that may be watching or or
sitting with us, this is the update of
the skatepark. The city's legal team has
been in constant communication with the
with the legal team from the contractor
associated with the Walnut skatepark. We
have been in communication and our we
have sent our list of demands and look
forward to further meeting with the
contractor's legal team. We reiterate
our desire to continue productive
negotiations. However, the city will not
accept any resolution that does not make
the city whole and any resolution must
deliver a quality skate park for the
people in our community to enjoy. The
city will continue to vigorously pursue
all remedies available to it under New
Mexico law and contractual principles.
Thank you, mayor. That is all.
Thank you, city manager. And I'll look
for a motion to adjurnn.
Second.
This is on the motion to adjourn the
meeting. Councelor McClur,
yes.
Councelor Matise,
yes.
Councelor Harris,
yes.
Councelor Beno,
yes.
Councelor Karan,
yes.
Councelor Munoz,
yes.
Mayor,
yes.