Your life.
Well, good afternoon. Welcome to the
work session. Today is Monday, March
23rd, 2026. It's approximately 1:00 p.m.
I am Mayor Eric Enriquez. 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 Las
Cruces Police and Fire Department.
You join me in the pledge.
I pledge allegiance to the flag
of the United States of America
and to the
republic for which it stands,
one nation under God,
indivisible, with liberty and justice
for all.
So, first on the agenda, we got item
1.1, fiscal year 2026
uh 2027 budget review.
And before you get started, Leslie, I
just want to acknowledge uh the NMSU
students that are here in the audience
today with Sabina Hershauer and her
students. Thank you for being here.
And always Yeah, always glad to have
you.
Okay, Leslie.
Good afternoon, Mayor, Council. Leslie
Doyle for the record.
Today, I want to talk about the budget
budget priorities that you guys have
given us over the course of
the last couple months.
I also am going to be speaking to you
with some very preliminary numbers on
both budget and both revenue and
expense.
And then we're going to have the
departments actually come up and share
with you specifically
how the budget budget priorities that
you guys have given to us are
incorporated in the budget.
So, we do still have some time. So,
again, these are preliminary numbers
because we still have a final work
session in April and then budget
adoption in May.
Wanted to make sure everybody is aware
that we still have
you know, some time before we finalize.
So, we have been talking about the
themes that you guys have provided to us
specifically at budget retreat, but also
from the dais. So, these are the things
that we have identified that have been
mentioned across the the board by
different councilors as well as uh in
the budget retreat
we heard multiple times as we started to
evaluate the data that we got. So, we've
got youth engagement, affordable
housing, traffic safety, pedestrian
safety, infrastructure improvements,
muni court improvements,
animal welfare, partnerships with the
public schools, utility preparedness,
communications, IPRA, and mental health
expansion. So, these are the things that
we saw that we wanted to make sure that
were addressed today because these are
the priorities that we heard multiple
times.
Also, just some highlights that are
currently in the budget, we have the
SNAP program, uh PAL boxing, community
schools agreement with Las Cruces Public
Schools, senior nutrition,
uh utility assistance, out-of-school
time programs.
And you can see there that the reason
that we broke that out is because while
we do get some revenue from
out-of-school programs, by and large,
the the expense is is much larger than
the revenue that we would receive.
The transit transfer, this is the
required transfer that we have for our
match for our transit grant.
And then uh $100,000 to address gun
violence.
Also, Mesilla Valley Community of Hope
Outreach, Mano a Mano, health care
services, fire station repairs. This is
not the only money that is allocated to
firestation repairs, but this is
one specific area that was specific to
those repairs. Facility maintenance,
various projects across the board,
traffic calming and fix-it fairs. So,
these are things that are currently
already in the budget and
will
do address some of those priorities.
So, what you have before you is our
preliminary general fund revenue
projection.
Can see it's about 185 million.
For context,
it was adopted in fiscal 26 at 166
million.
And then recently, you guys did a budget
adjustment because we wanted to bring it
into more actual and it is now a revised
budget of 178 million.
For gross receipts tax, we looked at,
you know, a couple of different things
across the board, but ultimately what we
settled on was a 3% increase
year-over-year for gross receipts tax.
Fees and charges are actually those
revenues that are budgeted by the
departments for their programs.
And then property tax
is about a million dollars more this
year than it was last year, keeping in
mind that we do not yet know the effect
of the veterans exemption. So, I'm a
little conservative there, but as the
year goes on, we may adjust that.
Uh franchise fees are 4.1 and then
cannabis of 5.08.
So, that is our revenue projection.
Preliminary.
For the fiscal year 27 budget.
So, now I want to talk about
expenditures. You can see here we have
personnel, operating, capital, and net
transfers.
Personnel at 130 million, operating at
52, capital at 477. One of the things
that I do want to point out is that net
transfers is we budgeted it last year
about 37 million and this year it has
been brought down pretty significantly.
So, that is something that we did talk
about at the budget retreat as one of
the priorities that we wanted to do.
And then just because transfers is such
a big area, we wanted to show the bulk
of it is debt service. Then we have
transit, which is the 4 million that I
just mentioned,
capital and other. And other is
inclusive of light rail, uh prisoner
care,
um what else?
I know my budget team told me, but uh
prisoner care
and liability insurance, things like
that.
So, total expenses about 205 million.
And that
is actually all that I have for you, but
I'm happy to stand for any questions.
Yes, Council Ortiz.
Um Leslie, if you go back to page I
think it was page four.
Um
you you made a comment right after
looking at the uh
youth out-of-school time program.
You know, that it's quite expensive.
Um
it's sometimes I like to see
how many people are reached
based on the expenses.
You know, sometimes it looks expensive,
but if you're reaching
15,000, 20,000 children,
and you do a little bit of division,
you know, then it doesn't become too
expensive. Maybe if you could just give
me a breakdown if you have time.
Yes. You know, the impact. How many
people are we serving
when we spend so many millions?
Mayor Council Ortiz, absolutely. That's
information that we will get for you.
Maybe it won't look quite as expensive
that way.
Council Harris. Um thanks. I had um
question on slide six.
So, the gross receipts tax here, that's
this this amount includes the increase
that we're seeing, that we've been
talking about, or
that's somehow accounted for separately?
Mayor Council Harris, no, this is
accounted for separately. This is
general fund only. Okay. That
GRT is actually a special revenue fund,
so it's in a completely different fund
that we will be bringing detail for. Got
it. Believe on the sixth. And then um on
seven,
um just because debt service is on here,
I think something that came up at the
budget retreat is not rolling
the next set of bonds. Um does that
impact things for 27 or for 28?
Uh Mayor Council Harris, it does not
have a huge increase this year because
again, we do have to roll those bonds
off.
Once that debt service once the debt is
paid for, we'll see a larger larger
increase, but
it is not something that you would see
really an impact of in fiscal 27. Okay.
That's it. Thanks.
Council Brecht.
Thank you. I just wanted to add that I
think the JPAs are in other
also. Or clarify, I guess. I think
that's where those are.
I'm not sure. Sorry.
So, actually
the operating that's actually included
in the 52 million.
Okay. Okay, thank you. I just wanted to
clarify where the JPAs were. So, thank
you very much.
Mayor.
Council Bencomo.
Leslie, I think for the
[laughter]
Over here. Just for the public, so that
folks are clear, can you talk a little
bit more about why the new GRT funding
that the voters approved lives outside
of this?
Yes, Mayor Council Bencomo. This is
the GRT that was just recently passed
has a very specific
uh use that we can use and so we do
isolate it as a special revenue fund so
that we can ensure that that is used for
what the voters intended it for.
Okay, thanks, Leslie.
Thank you.
And I will turn it over to Christine
Rivera,
city clerk.
Mayor City Council, Christine Rivera,
your city clerk. So, at the budget
retreat, we did hear the common theme of
IPRA, everyone's favorite. And so, I
just wanted to kind of go over where we
are right now as it relates to IPRA
requests. So, in 2024, we had over 3,000
requests.
Last year, we had over 7,000 requests.
And as of last Wednesday, we are over
3,000 already, anticipating to be on
target for about 15,000 this year.
So, we spend approximately 500 hours as
an organization collectively
researching, reviewing, redacting,
releasing documents to the public.
So, what that doesn't include is the
processing of requests. And so, I want
to kind of walk you through what it
takes to process one request.
So, this morning when I logged into our
GovQA portal, which is our records
request portal, we have over
or almost 2,000 open requests right now.
So, we are a little backed up when it
comes to requests.
A lot of those requests, I will say, are
for PD video.
And those take a significantly
more amount of time to do than a
document to redact. So, for every 1 hour
of video, it takes staff approximately 3
hours to redact, and that's just for one
video.
So, you can see why we're progressively
getting backed up in the number of
requests that we're getting.
So, we get about 40 to 50 new requests a
day. I know last week and my staff came
to me, we got 150 requests over one
weekend.
So then, on Monday morning, we have to
start processing. So, what does that
entail?
Well, we receive IPRA requests via
different avenues. So, we receive them
through our GovQA portal,
or we receive them via email,
or in person. Now, if we receive them
via email or in person, what we do is
then we just put it into our GovQA
portal because we track that, and that's
how we release documents most of the
time.
So, after we enter into the portal, we
do what is called the 3-day response,
which is required by law. So, we have to
send each individual requester a
response saying that we will get to you
in 3 days to let you know the status of
your request.
After we do that, we start sending what
we call our activities to departments.
And so, that's where they try to
research and find all the documentation
that is required.
We also send those to PD, who do their
own redacting, and then provide stuff
back to us.
After we get the documents back from the
departments, a lot of times we still
need to review them. And so, at the 3
days, we have to send an additional
letter saying, "Now we have up to 15
days to respond to you."
And again, that is also required by law.
After we receive the documents and we
review them, we have to apply any
exemptions that may apply.
And then we make sure that it's all up
in the portal for them to review and um
receive.
After we
redact the documents, we then have to
say send a subsequent email or letter
saying, "These are exactly the things
that we redacted from your document, and
we have to list out every state statute
and exemption.
So, [snorts] most of the time at that
point, if it's electronic, we can close
out the request. Here's your documents,
we're done. But sometimes people request
that the documents be printed or they be
put on a jump drive. So, we do charge
for that. We charge for printing copies
or the cost of the jump drive only.
So, then what we have to do is then we
have to create an invoice in the system
for them. So, that's an additional step.
Then they have to come into the office
to pick up the invoice, pay it, and then
give us receipt of what they've paid.
Then we have to go back into the system
and mark it as paid. And that that point
it's closed out.
So, if we are not able to disclose stuff
at the 15 days, which is becoming more
prominent, especially with video, we
have to send another letter updating
them that it's going to take us this
amount of time to get to your request,
and we try to do what is called rolling
disclosures. So, every month, every
couple weeks, we're producing stuff.
But like I said, as we're
producing stuff minimally, we're getting
more requests, and we're getting more
and more backed up.
And so, I just wanted to explain the
steps of just one IPRA request and how
many hours it takes my team and also
PD's team to get through IPRA requests
every day.
And so, with that, I will turn it over
to Mandy. Hopefully she has something
more exciting for you than me.
Uh thank you, Mayor Council. Mandy
Leatherwood, I'm the Communications
Director. And so, there are a couple
items brought up at the budget retreat
related to communications that I wanted
to talk about with you today. Uh the
first is a communications plan. And so,
we do have a we will be putting in place
a communications plan in the next fiscal
year. There will not be additional
budget for that. We have a lot of the
pieces already. Uh social meet we have a
social media policy, we have a news
policy, we have brand and um brand
standards and guidelines. And so, it's
just a matter of pulling those into one
place so that it is easy for council and
our community to understand uh what
we're doing. So, we will be doing that
in the next fiscal year.
Um to address
as part of that communications plan, the
council strategic plan, the the last
one, I know that's being updated now,
specifically called out several um
hard-to-reach audiences, and I just
wanted to address that we are
consistently improving how we reach some
of those audiences, one of which is um
Spanish-speakers.
And so, one of the things that we
recently implemented was allowing for
there to be Spanish captions for city
council meetings that are broadcast. Um
there there was a cost to that. That was
in this year's budget. It'll roll over,
so we're not asking for an increase.
We're also looking at several things
related to um
Americans with disabilities. We do
things for such as uh captions and alt
text for um people who um
who need it. We also are looking at now
some audio descriptions. That also will
have a cost, but we are not asking for a
budget increase for that. We're going to
work within our current budget um to to
make that work. Uh a another audience
that was called out as difficult to
reach is uh our youth, and that was a
theme in our um budget retreat. And so,
there's a couple things that we
currently do to engage with youth. We
have increased some of our social media
on TikTok. And I want to call that out
because we have Instagram and Facebook,
and we look at our analytics, and the
top-performing post oftentimes Facebook
and Instagram are similar, but TikTok
has a very different top-performing
post. Uh last year uh some of our
top-performing posts were the mayor and
counselor Kuran doing basketball
challenges with teenagers. Uh so, I do
think that it is reaching the audiences
that we are intending. Uh we're also
consistently working in partnership with
the schools and with NMSU. Uh in
addition to those summer rec um being
high-performing, uh a recent video that
have very good analytics was a
partnership with NMSU where we shared uh
transit options between uh New Mexico
State University and downtown. And so,
um working with our partners helps us
get uh higher viewership. Um I called
out on the slide a couple of programs
that our community engagement team does
now. One is Know Your Local Government,
where they work with um students that
come in and learn about different things
that we're doing, and then they actually
do an
engaged activity where they help us work
through some issues that we're looking
at. Um we and in the fall we do a
Developing Youth Leaders program, which
is during fall break, and we bring in
high schoolers, and they spend a week
learning about different things that our
departments do. They spend a day at
Parks and Rec, a day at Public Works, a
day at Utilities. Um and so, really
trying our best to make sure that um
students are engaged and understand what
we are doing here.
Um one more thing and we do have some
budget related to that um specifically
in social media and then running those
programs, but again, those are already
budgeted, so it's not going to be a new
ask in the next fiscal year.
Um and then one thing that came up in
budget retreat was our Ask Las Cruces
program. That is the city's 311 system.
Uh so, you can report if you have uh you
see a pothole or there's weeds in the
median or something, there's a street
light out. All of those things can be
reported so that we can fix them. And we
actually relaunched that app uh this
month. It just went live. It has
Hopefully it's a little bit more
intuitive, uh easier to use. It has a
fresh look. And so, um that's really
exciting because we've been working on
that for a very long time. Uh we There
is some budget related to promoting
that. Um and so, we will be promoting
some of it in this fiscal year, but
we've also requested to we have
requested to increase some advertising
budget in uh the community engagement um
line item so that we can do advertising
to so that people understand what that
program is and hopefully uh will use it
and and share more of those issues with
us so that we can address them and fix
them quickly. And so, those were the
communications items that were brought
up at budget retreat. We are not asking
overall to increase the budget for
communications, but we'll be allocating
things specifically to those items.
All right. And with that, I will invite
Chief Daniels up here.
Good afternoon, Mayor Council. Mike
Daniels, Fire Chief.
Uh
I appreciate the opportunity to come up
and just talk about some of how the fire
department's programming aligns with the
council priorities. Um and and truly
we've we've always felt very supported
by city staff and council, so it's much
appreciated. Uh youth engagement, uh
this is one of those areas that I think
uh has been a really big part of the
fire department
uh mission is engaging with our youth,
getting education out there. Some of
it's actually mandatory uh through our
ISO and
uh scoring. So, uh but every year we
have a summer youth camp. We bring in uh
anywhere from 10 to 20 teenagers and
just teach them about the fire
department, try to engage them. And it's
been really successful in in actually
getting people going down the career
path in in the fire service. So, I know
we have one kiddo to right now who's
part who's an A student who started in
our summer summer youth camps, and uh
he's
100% intentional on
on joining the fire department when he
graduates high school. So, we're excited
for that. But we also do A's throughout
the year. We have students uh cycle
through stations. Uh they also cycle
through some of our other divisions like
MIH. Uh they we really don't have them
respond on light type calls, but in the
MIH world, they have gone through there.
Um same with our our operational support
and logistics. And now as we start to
expand in EMS services with our single
role providers and transport, uh I'm
looking for opportunities to to get them
engaged there.
Uh summer internship programs or or the
uh summer program where they are paid
internships that we've partnered with
Doña Ana County for. Every year we've
had students
through that process. I think last year
we didn't because we had some carryover
from our A students who ended up in a
paid internship program, so.
But uh also, so one of the requirements
every year or through ISO um and it
impacts our ISO score is uh
early childhood education and
elementary, second and third grade is is
our our primary target for visiting
every class in every school every year.
So, that's one of our goals is to engage
there.
Um and then community event standbys.
Believe it or not, we get a lot of
engagement in our Special Olympics
standbys where we're working with the
community. Uh PAL boxing, we try to
engage and and provide all the medical
support there, but also getting several
of our members who have come up through
the PAL system and are now firefighters.
We have I It's not just one or two. We
have several people who have uh who have
come up through the PAL system. So, we
like to remain engaged there and and
ensure we're we're supporting that. And
we've we've always had the support.
We're not asking for any additional
support in those areas. Those are
already part of our operating
um
goals.
Uh LCPS partnerships uh
So, we the state is generally
responsible for fire drills and fire
inspections in government buildings.
Uh
One of the issues that we generally see
with that is you have
you you don't have the same level of
resources that you can commit um because
there's only a handful of inspectors
throughout the state and they cover the
entire state.
Um So, we've actually entered into an
agreement with the state. I believe that
started under uh
uh
former Chief Enriquez, now Mayor
Enriquez, but uh but we're we have
started working toward Now, we do 100%
of all the public schools within the
city. We do their fire drills. We do
their fire inspections to make sure
we're
there that the school facilities are up
to par and and they're they're meeting
the intent of our our fire safety
requirements within the city. Um it's
something that we enjoy doing. We like
being a part of it and it it just
continuously gets us in the schools.
Um additionally, with the opioid some of
the opioid funds, the Keeping It Real
program is is getting back it is going
to be getting back into the schools. I'm
not entirely sure where that is
um right now, but I know they've been
working toward getting that re-engaged.
On mental health inspection expansion,
which I think is one of the bigger areas
that I think um
that the fire department has been
involved in over the last few years. Uh
With with respect to light, we're still
only responding to about 50% of the
mental health calls that
um occur within the city or the calls
that light is responsible for responding
to. Um
Naturally, that number is it's a little
concerning in that um we would love to
be close to 100%. Some of that involves
overnight and in the absence of a
facility to house them overnight, we're
just not there. Um and that's the honest
truth.
Uh
but I I do want to highlight that
there's several cross-functional
programs across the city that I think um
often get missed when it comes to mental
health awareness and and how we're
engaging. So, MIH light uh our
partnership with LCPD with with Bluebird
and their community community advocacy,
Muni court uh
in in and their
management case management where they're
helping people get to court dates,
helping them access resources. These are
things that realistically, I didn't even
know existed a year ago. So, um I'm
really happy to see that a quality of
life senior programs, their social
workers do an amazing job in their
annual visits. Um
And then our our NGOs that we have
throughout the city, they I I think we
often look at specifically what is the
city doing and we forget to take into
account the the broader picture of what
mental health looks like in a community
and whether or not that's immediate
access to counseling and care, what are
the barriers to immediate access or
access to regular care? Is it a a lack
of providers? Is it a lack of
transportation? Is it a lack of getting
people
to or getting people engaged because
the reason we have an MIH program is the
healthcare system is pretty convoluted
and difficult to access sometimes. So, I
I think it's important for us to take
stock in all of the services that the
city has, not only provided by the city,
but through our partners. Um some of the
challenges that we're navigating is
uh
or not really challenges, but things
we're starting to really look at
navigating um and talking to Allison
Stoner, our our program manager for for
MIH and light is uh
is how do we how do we leverage the 911
988 system? How do we
tap into There There are two crisis
teams in in in our county um
that
that they operate through the 988 system
and and 911 and 988 don't really
communicate well. So, those are some of
the things that we have upcoming. I
don't know that there's an immediate
solution or really a monetary thing that
happens today, but mostly just
gaining a solid understanding
how we can integrate our systems, create
efficiencies amongst all of our partners
without losing effectiveness. Um so,
that's that's our goal for this upcoming
year is really to start understanding um
a lot more where we're seeing breakdowns
within the system so that we can make a
very intentional uh recommendation when
it comes to expanding that service or
expanding mental health programs.
So, with that, I stand for any
questions.
Oh, questions after. Okay. I got kicked
out. Sorry, questions are after everyone
presents.
Yeah, we can do we can do the questions
[laughter] at the end. Good afternoon,
Mr. Mayor, members of council. Natalie
Green for the record. Uh so, the general
fund represents about 2% of our total
budget. Um so, our plan with the funds
that we are given is to continue to
leverage state and federal funds for
affordable housing development. So, we
do um
the development through special revenue
or grants.
Uh this year with the general fund, we
are expanding the emergency handyman
services program. So, we're raising that
by $20,000.
Uh as part of our CDBG funds, we
increased funding for home
rehabilitation and we're also expanding
that to include some essential services
in partnership with our utilities
program.
Uh we are anticipating the winter
opening of Amador Cresting. So, we have
a small set aside uh for that opening.
As the rental income comes in, then it
will become uh self-sufficient.
Uh one of the big priorities that's come
out of our uh consolidated plan and our
affordable housing plan is uh
expanding single-family homeownership
program. So, there's some new revenue
sources coming out of the state. So,
we'll be exploring those
uh to bring those to Las Cruces. Um and
one of the big ones is uh uh up to
$50,000 down payment assistance for new
homeowners if it's a entry-level uh
housing product. So, the lot has to be
less than 5,000 square feet and the home
has to be less than 800 uh 8 1,800
square feet.
Uh we are launching uh next month a
request for qualifications. So, we're
looking for a development partner to
work on a downtown mixed-income
mixed-use facility. This is intended to
be a higher income than our traditional
low-income housing tax credits um and
that's to uh encourage investment in the
downtown. So, uh that
RFQ will be out April 1st. Uh we also
have a couple projects in the queue that
are small-scale missing middle housing.
Uh this has been an ongoing uh
discussion in both Elevate and our
housing plan and so we have some pilot
projects that we'll be working on. Uh
the general fund will cover uh some of
the due diligence that's needed for
those, but then we'll pursue some
special revenue funding primarily out of
the state to fund those. And then we do
have continued support for our uh
nonprofit partners out of the Telshor
funds. That includes the healthcare
public services funding and that funds
uh a variety of programs including uh
youth uh nonprofits, food nonprofits,
some basic needs like shower services.
Um and then we have some special
revenues that are assisting the
Community of Hope campus uh both
facility improvements and then uh
operations. Uh so, things like that.
Uh state funding for the active
transportation, the Hawk system. Uh we
have some funds coming in for the
re-roof of one of the facilities. Um and
with that, I will turn it over to parks
uh with
Steve Bingham.
Thank you, Natalie. That's Steve
Bingham.
Parks and recreation.
Um
We we have a number of things in the
budget. Um
couple have been touched upon, but um
we are reclassing um one of our um
aquatics maintenance workers to be
aquatics maintenance supervisor. We're
looking for someone who has um plumbing
or electrical
um license and has more experience
related to um
the more intense aquatic maintenance
issues so that we can increase our
online time.
Um
Just to highlight, the 4th of July
celebration is 235,000.
That doesn't include wages and overtime
for the police.
That's your the stage, your
entertainment, your fireworks, your
security
and a number of things there.
The PAL boxing about 100,000
individuals. It serves 40 people a day
in the PAL boxing.
Um and then we have what's the out of
school time. So, it's after school
programs, teens. We expanded this
last year from one site. We're in the
process of expanding to a second site.
Uh the weed and seed program at Safe
Haven and the youth development
diversion.
And I can provide you um
some specific numbers. I don't have all
those numbers on me right now. For
example, the after school program has
420 slots
with a 81%
fill rate. Um the teen connect has 72,
but I don't I don't have full
comprehensive list of numbers. I don't
have the numbers on me for the um weed
and seed and the youth and development
and diversion
and that. So, we'll send those over to
you.
Um a little bit about
the youth development diversion, for
example, they hold things like dating
violence rallies at various schools. Um
they have um classes on healthy
relationships.
Um they the juvenile probation office
gives us referrals
and the Las Cruces um public schools,
the SROs and parents um all provide
references and referrals for
youth for the more intense programming.
Good afternoon, Mayor Council. Jimmy
Moreno, uh interim
uh assistant director for public works.
So, I wanted to just talk uh for a few
moments on the some public works key
initiatives as part of the budget.
Uh
uh one dealing with traffic safety is
expanding our traffic calming program to
include more mobile and easily uh
deployed devices.
Uh this will also include pilot programs
uh for those cases as well, similar to
uh the the pilot program we installed
there on Melendres. So, similar similar
items.
Uh also as part of the traffic safety,
uh
we're going to use the pending traffic
safety action plan from the safe streets
for all analysis uh to target
infrastructure expenditures. So, that'll
help us target um with our heat map and
be able to target some of those specific
zones where we're seeing uh some some
recurring issues.
Um also we would like to pair grant
opportunities with city funding uh based
off of our overall system uh pavement
condition index PCI. So, hopefully
that'll start getting those uh PCI
numbers to to climb and get higher.
Um and then that's mainly for our
traffic safety and horizontal
construction our roadway.
Um as part of our uh facilities
infrastructure, uh general facility
repairs uh to include roofs, uh HVAC
systems, electrical systems, mold and uh
asbestos abatement, um all sorts of uh
general facility repairs that that are
needed throughout the city.
Um also uh security, fire alarm, uh
generator upgrades, and parking lot
repairs. Some of our parking lots are in
are uh in dire need of of um
rehabilitation. So,
uh Leslie only allowed me one slide, so
that's all I can I can speak to, but
I'll be happy to answer any questions at
at the conclusion.
Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. Carol
Braid, director of the Quality of Life
Department. And uh we heard a lot of
great feedback from Council at the
budget retreat, uh much of which we can
respond to from the Quality of Life
Department. So, happy to use my one
slide to do that.
Uh first, I wanted to mention um there
were of course many references to youth
programs. We've heard this from you
multiple times. And as you know, our
department provides a diverse array of
programs for all ages, ranging from
story time for preschoolers and movement
uh programs to uh STEAM programs, uh
science, technology, engineering, art,
and math for our uh elementary school
students and teenagers, as well as
weekly programs for teenagers. And uh we
have two maker spaces actually at our
library right now at the Branigan
Library, and we do maker activities at
the museums as well. So, uh that's great
for our future computer scientists, et
cetera. Uh but we also we heard a lot
about youth programs and teen programs,
and I want to focus more on that. Uh we
are working on a pilot project, a teen
hangout pilot project, uh at our
Branigan Library. We already have a
designated teen space there. We've been
doing some work to upgrade it. It needs
some more upgrading, and I'll talk about
that in a minute. Uh and we also have
our um
teen Tuesdays every week at the museums,
which have been very popular and keep
growing in number. So, what we're hoping
to do is uh capitalize on the teen
hangout space, our teen space at
Branigan Library, plus these teen museum
programs, uh and we'll include
activities such as video games are very
popular. Um we have computers available,
particularly at the library. Uh we have
homework help available, crafts. Uh we
have the two maker spaces as I
mentioned. Uh the libraries do something
called punk do DIY, punk do it yourself,
which is very popular. And food, of
course. Food is very important if you're
getting teens into the space, and
sometimes we even use food as a bit of a
um
draw, I would say, but once they get
there, they find out how great our
spaces can be. So, uh we do have a few
needs to make this happen. We're looking
at uh some deep cleaning needed of the
space, a little updating, probably some
paint, maybe some new lighting, some
better shelves for our manga collection,
especially I'm told by our teen
librarian,
uh and better food, we are told. Uh the
the museums serve pizza, the library
does not. So, we're going to have to
work on that, but we will. Um and then
in terms of communications, you know,
obviously we're on social media a lot.
We talk with our teens as much as we
possibly can. Um we're on Facebook,
Instagram, and TikTok, but we've also
begun some discussion, I think we have
Mandy, with our communications
department about some potential videos
of teens at the at the library, at the
museums, showing the kind of good times
are having, and posting those on social
media as well.
Uh so, we'll have more to say on that.
Uh we're going to present something of a
plan to our assistant city manager Sonia
Delgado and uh see how we can make that
happen.
Uh we'll make it happen either way, it
just depends on how much budget we'll
have. So, uh we also maintain a close
relationship with the community schools,
as you know, Las Cruces Public Schools,
community schools. We have uh
Counselor McClare currently serving as
the uh chair of that partnership board.
Counselor Harris serves on it. The mayor
is going to be attending, I understand.
Uh we also work closely with the
community schools. I attend those
meetings every month, and our museums
provide regular activities for second
graders at the community schools, and
we're working on a fourth grade program
as well. Plus, we're just really kind of
in constant communication with them
about outreach programs they're having
and that kind of thing and participating
in those.
Um and then another group I want to
mention is our um
neurodivergent uh individuals. So, the
museums have stepped up to serve another
group of patrons, really those with
neurodivergent traits. And
neurodiversity is a term that refers to
the natural variations in human brain
function.
Uh it really embraces the fact that
people have different ways of thinking,
learning, and processing information.
So, some people are, for example, very
sensitive to excessive noise, light, and
smells. So, we've created these
neurodivergent nights on Thursdays to
create kind of a quieter experience at
the museums, less light, less noise, um
and we're finding it's extremely
popular. We've had upwards to 40 people
a week at these nights. I think people
enjoy the fact that the museums are
open, first of all, on Thursday night,
that they can have a different kind of
experience, and we're working with a
national organization called Culture
City that is helping us with this, and
it's really transformed our our museums
on Thursday nights. It's pretty cool.
Uh
I also want to talk a little bit more
about just physical and mental health. I
want to thank Chief Daniels for
mentioning um our senior programs and
our case managers and what we do there
to promote mental health for our
seniors, also physical health. We have,
as you know, a wide range of activities
at our senior centers, um from line
dancing, which is extremely popular,
ballroom dancing, um our just our our um
chair yoga, you know, stretching
exercises, all kinds of programs. Um but
we also promote health at our libraries
and our museums. We've had um a number
of programs. There's a program the
libraries have right now called, I think
it's called aging for aging for adults
or something like that. Uh you know, so
because it's not always easy. We've had
our pull up a chair programs at the
museums where we've talked about
difficult subjects, such as when we had
the downwinders exhibit about uh what
happened after the atomic bomb testing
in New Mexico. That was a tough exhibit,
but it was really well received in our
community. Uh so, that's something we
continue to pursue. And our senior
programs um will also every year they um
promote and support a
um prevention of abuse in later life
health fair that's held at the Munson
Center each year. And I want to say that
carefully, prevention of abuse in later
life. Uh but it's really very popular.
We bring in lots of agencies to that
every year. And last but not least, I
just want to mention um our many
infrastructure improvements that we're
working on that are in various stages of
development. We have, um of course,
we've just finished the Munson Center
addition. We have our Branigan Library
renovation and expansion project, which
is by far the largest project we're
working on right now. Um the purchase
and renovation of East Side Center, Sage
Cafe expansion is getting ready to start
now. We have uh
the funding has finally come for the
final phase. We'll be able to build
another 4,500 square foot addition at
Sage Cafe for our seniors, that will be
great. Um and then, of course, uh we're
doing some improvements on Branigan
Branigan Cultural Center. We have about
a million dollars in TID funding to do
the stucco and painting on the exterior.
We received legislating fund legislative
funding for the Monas Museum of Nature
and Science Nature Center improvements.
And of course, we're working on the
Amador Hotel restoration. So, all of
those projects are in some state of
funding at this point. You know, I
forgot to mention on Eastside Center, we
don't have quite enough to do everything
we want to do, but we'll have enough to
purchase the facility and do the initial
renovation. So, um, you know, it as it
was mentioned by by Jimmy Moreno from
Public Works, it's so important to keep
our facilities in good condition. And we
do work very closely with Public Works
and Facilities to make sure that we get
repairs as we can do them as we have the
money for them, but also that we're
thinking about the future and how we can
accommodate our public. So, that's it
for me and I will introduce Adrian
Woodmere from Utilities.
Mayor and Council, Adrian Woodmere,
Utilities Director. Thank you very much.
Well, as you know, Utilities is an
enterprise funded
department.
And as part of that, we budget to meet
service
and operational demands with each of the
lines of business. And so, we have four
of those. And that's what the revenues
from water, wastewater, and natural gas,
and solid waste.
This year, we're going to be focusing on
finalizing the energy transition plan.
So, we're hoping to do that before the
end of the
calendar year. We're not sure it'll be
completed before the end of June.
We'll be reclassifying some positions,
uh, specifically contract positions.
And those, even though they're contract
positions because we are requesting them
to become full-time employees, they're
considered new
positions. And we're mainly doing that
because it's very difficult right now to
hire
people on a contract basis. People would
really like to have a full-time job. So,
um, you know, um, a few years ago, we
added three new people for a crew for
water and those have not been filled
specifically because they are contract
positions. So, if they're FTEs, people
feel
more inclined to go ahead and take that
because of their expertise. We are,
however, asking for one brand new
position and that's going to be for a
regulatory analyst. And that's because
of the increased regulatory requirements
and or review of new and existing
regulations.
We're also going to be utilizate
utilizing loans and grants for our
capital improvement projects this year.
And we're go we're requesting minimal
minimal vehicle and
equipment replacements this year.
And then, uh, we are working on rate
reviews. It's been nearly 10 years since
we did water and wastewater. Both of
those are under review right now. They
should be coming out shortly and then we
will follow with solid waste and natural
gas.
Our overall proposed budget, we'll be
taking that in front of the Utility
Board in April so that it can be
incorporated into your budget uh, come
May or June as that works. So, and
that'll be coming as a recommendation
from the Utility Board.
Thank you.
Hello again, Mayor City Council.
With that, we will stand for any
questions. I'm hopeful that now that you
had an opportunity to hear from all of
the subject matter experts that you are
comfortable with the things that we have
already incorporated into the budget.
All right, thank you, Leslie. Counselor
Harris.
Um, thanks Mayor and Leslie. I have many
questions. Um, so everyone will get a
chance to come back up, I think.
Um, the the first question, since you're
already up and I guess it's the elephant
in the room, our general fund incomes
are less than our general fund
expenditures.
Um, by quite a bit.
So,
I guess
what more of that should we be concerned
about?
Yeah, well, yes, Mayor and Counselor
Harris, that is definitely the elephant
in the room and something that I have
been working close with my team as well
as the City Manager on what that will
look like going forward. So, we have
done budget reductions both this year in
fiscal 26
as well as
people submitted budgets for draft for
proposed 27. We did go back and ask them
to reduce those.
We are continuing to look at transfers
and where we can reduce those. You
mentioned debt. That is a huge part of
our transfers. Unfortunately, until that
debt pays off, we aren't going to reap
the benefits of that.
There are lots of things that we are
looking to do in fiscal 27.
I just am not
we don't fully have those flushed out
yet and when we do,
sooner rather than later cuz I hear you
when you say it's definitely the
elephant in the room.
But there are
a lot of different avenues that we're
we're working on. I will say that we
have made a lot of progress in, you
know, that line that we talked about at
the budget retreat that is
kind of crossed where revenue and ex
revenue did not match expense. We are
much better in this budget as well as in
this fiscal year.
So, when I bring that to you next time
that
God willing, that line will look much
different. Okay. All of that to say, I
promise we are
are addressing that. Yeah, no, that's
that's good and I I just want to make
sure that everybody everyone understands
that
we all know
that those lines are crossing and we're
trying to not
have that situation cuz
yeah, that's not not good. Not good for
a city.
Um,
so, um,
my next question, I think, is for
Christine.
Just go in order.
Um, so,
first question, you mentioned that you
sent some
the major thing is for police body cam
footage and
um,
the I have personally seen starting to
cross my Instagram and YouTube feeds,
um,
channels that are kind of slop and just
are like, "Gawk at this body cam footage
that we got from random police
department." Um,
are we seeing a bunch of that from us?
Yes, Mayor Counselor Harris. We are
seeing a huge uptick in requests from
YouTubers and TikTokers requesting
video. Um, we have a huge amount of
requests for that right now and it's
becoming difficult to balance those
requests over a citizen requesting a
police report for an accident. So, it is
it's becoming very difficult for us to
manage.
Um, yeah, I figured. I mean, the
public has a right to get documents and
there are important requests and
there are other kinds of requests, too.
Um, so, that is
unfortunately, we are in in an an
unfortunate position because of the
state law on that. Um,
but you mentioned that PD does some of
the redacting.
Do they are they able to do most of the
redacting? Um, is it shared by you?
How how does that split work? Yeah, so,
Mayor Counselor Harris, PD does
redactions for their document and their
videos. Um, then we receive them and we
just kind of make sure that all the
correct exemptions were applied and if
there's any corrections that needs to be
made, then my team does that. Um, my
team focuses on just all the other city
requests and so, they're redacting all
the other city requests. Okay.
Um, and then,
do we have many like duplicates and does
that result in duplicate work or like
half duplicates? You know, if somebody
says,
"Give me all the body cam footage from
2025" and someone says, "Give me this
specific case."
I I don't know. Do we have a portal like
how do people go and maybe find some of
that stuff that's already been released?
So,
um, Mayor Counselor Harris,
we don't have a portal really where we
kind of make that available for everyone
to go view. What we do is we do get
their requests and so, we will get, for
example, multiple requests for an
officer involved shooting. And so, then
we have to reply to every single request
and we have to provide the exact same
stuff that they're requesting to every
single request. So, if they're
requesting 30 body cam videos, we have
to go through every single request and
and send them a link for each of those
videos.
But it's at least
you can handle them all like the same.
It's just copy and paste to all those
people who are requesting that. Okay.
That's good to know.
And yeah, I mean, those
the number
the amount of hours and the work that's
to be done,
I mean, that's like
almost five FTEs
worth of time.
Um, and we're kind of required by state
law to do that lest we incur financial
penalties.
Correct. And Mayor um, si- Counselor
Harris, I only have right now three FTEs
in my department working on upper
requests and then PD has I believe five.
They have five. Okay. So, yes.
We're down a little bit. Yep.
All right. Um yes, thank you very much.
Um
that was my last one for you.
Um and then I think um Mandy
with slide nine.
Maybe.
Uh slide nine? Yeah.
I started writing down slide numbers
after this. Yes. Um
so, are we
I guess kind of following the social
media trend. Um
are we paying for a lot of ads to push
our stuff on Facebook and Instagram and
YouTube and
the other part of that question is
are we seeing that those ads are
worthwhile? Cuz
personally in in the industry my I'm in
and things I follow
the ads seem maybe like an expense that
could be cut.
So. Uh Mayor Counselor Harris, uh yes,
we do have uh funding
uh behind our so not all of our social
media posts. A lot of things are
organic, but we do um certain things
that we want attention on, we will put
money behind. I would say it's not it's
probably one of the least expensive
types of advertising that we do and we
do get good return on investment. Um
often times when I pull the analytics,
when I pulled the top um
uh posts or or videos, the ones that
we've put money behind consistently come
at the top because we they have more
views because we've paid for them to be
there.
And are we tracking
um
I guess conversion from post
post to you know, whether it was boosted
or not to
something actually occurred like a
person showed up for a thing and I I
know that's a very
it's a very difficult thing to track um
but Uh Mayor Counselor Harris, yes, we
are and I'll just anecdotally tell a
story of the Neighborhood Leadership
Academy. We have seen dwindling number
of applicants. This year we did a video,
we paid money and we had 50 applicants,
which was the most we've had as long as
I've been working with it. So, they it
is working when we're
um
targeting those types of projects. Cool.
That's that's great. Um
that's all I got for you. Thank you very
much.
Thank you.
Um
Chief Daniels.
Um
so
I think you mentioned that I think all
all of us are um
very pro light and MIH.
That's a huge problem in the community
and I'm glad that we're working to solve
that. Uh you mentioned that we're kind
of dependent on a facility, that that's
the main barrier to
expanding the number of calls that can
be um
can be addressed and I know we've been
talking about that facility and
accepting grants for it. Um so, I just
wanted to make sure that that's really
kind of the main barrier.
Uh yes, Mayor Counselor Harris. I'm Mike
Daniels. I just
Sorry.
Um that's correct. So, the facility
right now there and when we did our
tours at the station, uh we have our
entire MIH and light team crammed in a
in a classroom
Yeah. Yeah. that that that has some
cubicles built into it and a couple
offices that were transformed. Um so so
space is is a very very big uh issue
right now for us. So, expanding the the
program wouldn't wouldn't be pragmatic
until we have that facility in place,
which is fully funded.
We're just going through uh finishing up
historic preservation. That just got
done and now we're in the waiting
period. Uh but but we're actually at a
point now where public works is going to
be moving forward with with
with trying to get a contractor for
demolition and and and to build the
station. Um and that should align pretty
that should align well with
our hopeful projected growth.
Cool. Um yeah, looking forward to that
new facility. Yeah, I know we've talked
about it many times before. Um and then
something else you said
was uh trying to do more integration
with between 988 and 911. Um
and
I have actually been sort of
uh on the other end of one of those
calls where somebody called 988 and then
988 was like
we need to help this person
and
they reached out, you know eventually
got back to me in my private capacity
um trying to like locate this person to
find them. Um which is quite a
desperation
uh from just, you know, being able to
call call police and and they said that
they couldn't they tried to contact
police and work with them and that it
just
wasn't working out. So, they were trying
all these other avenues.
Um
so, yeah, I'd be interested to know kind
of what
a little more about that. Um maybe not
too much. I'm taking up a lot of time
already and I have more questions, but
No, um not at all. Um Mayor Counselor
Harris. So, 988 doesn't integrate
necessarily with the 911 system. They
can transfer to 911.
Um
but we don't really see
good communication through the two and
and what that leads to is communication
breakdowns between the the crisis
response teams that are in the
community. So, I I know FYI and Allison
have talked and the goal is to get them
together and go
like what truly is our capacity and
where do we have gaps
in in in these response times what
whether it's 911 or 988 and and really
what we have to figure out is through
the Merida system
if our our light team is out of service
and it's non-urgent, right? The person
is not actively harming themselves or
others.
Um and they're but they're they're in a
a a variation of crisis and they need
services
is it appropriate for us to try to get
that call into the 988 system as opposed
to sending
PD officers, a fire truck Yeah. and
transporting them to an ER where they're
likely not going to get the care or the
services that they need uh when we could
have gotten Now, crisis triage is
beneficial in that um
we're
somewhat destination agnostic in that in
the in the private ambulance model, what
we would have experienced is this
reluctancy to maybe transport to um
a facility like that because it's
non-reimbursable. Well, for us, uh
that's not the important thing. The
important thing for us is ensuring that
a person gets to the appropriate level
of care. So, we will transport directly
to crisis triage when we can and and
that is an available service in the
community that that is really just
starting to pick back up because it
because of how it's ebbed and flowed in
its service capacity.
Cool. That's but yes, I was thinking
that exact same thing. So, thank you
very much for answering that. Yes, sir.
Um
Okay, I'm good. Thank you.
All right.
Um
and Natalie.
[laughter]
Um
so, I guess
one question here, so
and maybe a comment. Um
I'm usually in favor of the handyman,
the emergency handyman and the home
rehab programs. Um
and
would definitely be interested in
I know this is another thing that's hard
to quantify, but kind of our ROI on
that. Like if we're able to
help somebody fix a problem
what's our best guess on
how much that has saved the system as a
whole?
Um
you know, going on or have we kept them
out of needing other services, you know,
because we helped them fix some problem.
And that that might be a more of a
question for later. Um
but
Uh
Mr. Mayor Counselor Harris, so I believe
we're about 45 people that we've helped.
Some of them um has fixed an immediate
issue, so it's was like an ADA or a
water heater issue. Uh we've done uh
patching of a roof coating and that um
helped a permanent issue. Uh
many of the things that we're seeing is
a a life and
uh like a life safety issue, so we're
able to provide uh temporary air
conditioner in partnership with MIH. Um
so, they identify clients who are at
risk of heat-related incidents. So, um
we see that as the win that we're
preventing
um a potential heat-related death, but
uh we can start looking at some of those
data points to quantify in the future.
Okay. Yeah, I think um
I mean, I know that we've started doing
that in response to actual deaths. And
so, I think that's important to to keep
in mind for the community that like
this isn't something that we're like,
"Oh, this would be fun to provide." It's
like, no, people really need these
services and the little bit of money
that we put to it is is actually like
saving people's lives.
Um
so, okay. Thanks. That that was mine for
you. And then uh Parks.
Thank you.
Um so, you mentioned that of our after
school programs,
um we have like an 80% fill rate. Yes,
81. Yes. And
what do you see as the barrier to
getting to 100%?
And where could we put resources to get
there?
Well, you
I I'm going to let Robert specifically
speak to that. Why he's coming down, I
will
give you some information. Um
the typical after school program um
nationally costs between 3,500 and 5,500
a year per child.
And um
our current cost per child is $3,588.
And so, we're on the low end.
Um what you do see is is our fee
for service is at the very bottom
compared to what you see nationally. We
charge very little for that service.
Okay. Yeah.
Robert Nuñez, deputy director, Parks and
Recreation. Mayor, uh Counselor Harris,
I I think what we see at some of our
locations, we have four locations that
are at capacity right now. Uh the other
three locations, there is a community
schools in in two of them as well as
Century 21 and some other after school
programs that the schools host. Um
but traditionally it's been
uh Alameda, Loma Heights, and Cesar
Chavez that have had the lowest rates.
Okay. And is that
is that like a transit issue that people
have a hard time getting to the schools
or is it fees or just people aren't
participating in the community? Mayor,
Counselor Harris, um uh again, our
locations are at the schools, so they
there's no need for any transportation.
Um
prior to COVID, our fees were about $400
per semester. Uh
during COVID, of course, we we
eliminated our fees. We're currently at
$100 per semester. We have scholarships
available that can assist families. Um
I hope that they're going to other
activities. Um maybe privately or
whatnot, but um we we try to accommodate
as many families and youth as possible.
Okay. So, since they're at the schools,
are those limited to just students who
are in those schools or if there's
an an- another location that's full and
somebody can
get their child to, you know, Alameda
from
wherever, Conley, say.
Um
you know, would they be able to
participate in that program? Is that
like a way to start filling up those
programs or Uh Mayor, Counselor Harris,
we do allow families to transport their
kids to other lo- We have a I would say
about four or five families that that
transport their kids to those locations
to various locations. Uh no I don't I'm
not sure of specifics, but we do allow
that. Okay.
Um
cool. Good to know. That's what I had
for parks. Thank you.
Um No, go ahead.
I add one thing? I think one of the
things that um
is important is is part of the piece of
the puzzle isn't just after school
programming,
but it may be a tumbling class or a
dance class or a karate class at another
site where the um youth may be involved
in programming, but it's not an after
school programming.
per term, so.
Okay. Yeah, good to know.
Um public works.
On slide 13.
Oh, yes. Next one.
Um
so, you mentioned that we're expanding
our
program to include mobile and easily
deployed devices.
Um
what are some of those mobile and easily
deployed devices?
Um Mayor, Counselor Harris, so some of
those um
uh
devices include like speed monitoring
devices that can be easily mounted,
let's say, to a street light or
easily moved around to different
locations depending on on hotspots. Some
of those collect data as well, so we can
see if if uh
if those uh are empirically helping uh
to calm some of that speed. So, some of
those
um there's different um uh
uh speed tables that are that are uh
deployable, a little bit more mobile,
less permanent in nature.
Um and so, that allows us to to rotate
between different hotspots. Um and then
we also coordinate with PD on those
locations as well to do like some
blitzes and different uh speed
monitoring uh through through the uh
enforcement actions as well. So.
Okay. Yeah, it's the
the speed tables and things I am highly
in favor of, like the rubber ones that
you can just go bolt to the street and
not have to do a huge
a huge project to get them in. Um I
think there's lots places that we can
use those.
Um so, looking forward to
to a lot more
funding and and maybe a shift, you know,
towards more of these things. Um
I guess the mobile speed monitors,
I'm personally skeptical of how well
those work, um especially long-term.
Like we put them up and people slow
down. I mean, I've heard PD speak to
this, too, that they see
the study goes in, people slow down
while the study's there,
then it leaves and now things are
exactly back to the way they were and
there's been no real change. Um
but the more permanent things that are
quicker
to design and deploy um and the pilot
pro- programs like on on Melendres, I
don't want to steal Counselor Bencomo's
spotlight, but somebody did ask me about
it the other night and uh they said they
hated it. So. Um
and they're a pedestrian. They ride
their bike.
[laughter]
Um so, anyway, but but I guess the point
is that that's I'm a little more
like it's okay to put in a bunch of flex
posts and have them hated or not work
well than it is to
put in a bunch of curbs or like
permanent modifications that
also don't work well. So, you know, it's
I I like the fact that we we're we're
trying
I like
for us to try the cheap things and
rapidly iterate on them. Um so, I think
that's that's a good direction.
Um
and then I also wanted to
just highlight that several departments
have been doing um
in a lot of in-house work and I really
appreciate the work that like public
works has done with that new cement
truck um
to really kind of bring our costs and
response times costs down, response
times um well down, too, I guess.
Uh
you know, having that indigenous
capability and wasting a little less
money on overhead and contracting. Um
and I'd also like to see
I guess just more more of that.
Um like we were at museums and they had
some problems with a door at one of the
museums and I was thinking like, well,
could the door just be repaired by
somebody in-house who knows how to
repair a door?
Um
so, yeah, just just interested in
looking more at that. Um and likewise
with fleet, I know utilities has a great
fleet shop where they do they do all
their stuff. Public works has fleet
shop. So, I just wanted to to kind of
close by
highlighting that the more stuff that we
can do in-house and and we get these
full-time positions and uh
and expertise and materials and tools,
uh that saves the city money in the long
term, so.
Thank you and and thank everybody else
for presenting. Uh thank you for putting
up with all my questions. Thanks, Mayor.
Thank you.
Anyone else?
Uh Mayor Pro Tem.
Um thank you, Mayor, city councilors.
Um couple of comments and then um a
request. So,
on this
on the uh 311 the Ask Las Cruces
enhancement, I think it's important to
to uh communicate and get that out
there.
Uh that's that um
is is super helpful as far as
engagement.
I know there's a cost um and I and I get
it.
There's another cost that I I'd like the
staff to consider and our and our
councilors and mayor consider.
I'd like to enhance as we're
talking more about
the Ask Las Cruces app
and reaching other people. So,
a couple years ago, I had the the
opportunity to have interns
um from they were high school and
um
high school age. And so, I was showing
them a game. I said, "Hey,
can you all give me feedback on this
Facebook ad that we were doing?" And
they were like, "Facebook?"
"Oh, uh Mr. Muñoz, that's
that's for old people. We don't really
we're not on Facebook." I'm like, "Wow.
Okay." Uh what about Instagram? No. And
then and then they told me about TikTok
and obviously I went to my PR group and
they laughed at me because I call it
Tikky Tok. So, obviously I I need to be
educated on that as well. But um but I
think you know, as we cast that net,
that's appreciated. And what I'd like to
do is look at a 311 enhancement
enhancement where it'll make that tool
even more robust where we'll have a data
lake um and we will have a stronger tool
that can lay over ask Las Cruces for our
our staff who want to be of service and
provide timely service and it'll be also
a greater
much better experience for our
constituents. And so maybe look at you
know, 100,000 or something to that
effect that can overlay that that
service.
Mayor and Councillor Muñoz, I I would
like to say at all the things are valid
about Facebook. We actually have interns
that are college interns and our college
interns is who put our Las Cruces
advertisement together. So we're hoping
to get a younger and fresher perspective
on that.
The other thing I want to give a thank
you to the our IT team as we're they
helped us update that app. So it should
be easier to use but if there's
additional improvements or ways we'll
continue to make improvements. It is not
a one-time thing. We are continuously
improving that app. Wonderful. Yeah, I
think the 311 will be super helpful and
it you know, again include that spectrum
of young adults and and more mature
adults that range from you know, 17 to
70 90 and and all ranges. Thanks thanks
for doing that.
The other other piece is on Parks and
Recs as you all are are going through
this
budget discussion and other budget
discussions. Want to ensure that that
all our citizens all our residents have
access to those parks. And I know you uh
Steve you and the team have been doing a
great job of adding
additional and ADA compliant
play stations and other equipment around
the parks.
I I want to aggressively look at that.
The numbers really range and I wish that
there were a little bit more solid
numbers. There's about
a range of either 9 to about 15% of our
residents in Las Cruces are ADA. And
those are great spaces. Those are third
spaces and I would love to see more
access for 9-year-olds and younger to
90-year-old and older in our parks.
Steve Beam yes I
Mayor Pro Tem Muñoz and Council Mayor. I
I agree with you. It's something that's
been at our forefront
as we did the East Mesa playground. Not
only did we make it a regional but we
really went after more adaptive
inclusive features.
It's something we talk about all the
time. There's a broad range of
disabilities
and it's really hard to be able to serve
all the disabilities at every location.
It becomes very expensive. One of the
trends in this country is going to all
ability park. A location where you um
can bring a lot of things together and
for an example is a child with an
ocular implant can't go down a slide
that's metal or plastic
because it blows it out and so
departments are putting in a cement
slide but you can't afford to put in
cement slide everywhere.
And so they're doing it at what they
call their all abilities park.
But we do want to make every park
accessible.
Thank you Steve. Appreciate that.
Appreciate your focus on that.
And then as as we move in again again to
this budgetary discussion and other
budgets
that we discuss as we work on on the
library and museums quality of life.
There's so many amazing things happening
in in our in those spaces, you know,
from guitar lessons to a ceramic
ceramics and just a just a gem in our
community and as I was on the campus
trail I you know, just you know,
one of the
constituents you know, came up to me
says John I'm glad you're talking about
youth engagement but also talking about
senior engagement. You know, I'm 70
something. I'd like something to do.
Her favorite thing is the dancing with
the fire department Chief Daniels. So
please continue that program and that's
absolutely something that that she looks
forward to and and and enjoys. So as we
work through that
what I want to do work with with with
public works in the library
as we expand and we grow the more
aggressive that we can be to
with quality and with safety get our
projects done so that we don't displace
those programs because they are huge
benefit to our community.
Thank you.
Thank you Carol.
And then I'll close by saying you thank
you Leslie and thank you
to the department chiefs who are putting
this together.
I'm glad that
you all encapsulated the
youth engagement, community safety,
behavioral health, library and museums,
economic development and community
development all together
so that we can move forward. I know the
budget is what it is but I'm sure
creatively and as you work your magic
Leslie will make things happen. Thank
you.
Thank you Mayor.
Thank you.
Councilor Bencomo. Thank you. Thank you
Leslie. I to you especially but your
whole team. I know you know, leading
this budget starts starts much before
the
the budget retreat. Especially in a
difficult year. So thank you very much.
I also just want to thank all the
departments for being so intentional
about connecting what you are doing what
you're planning for with some of the
things that council presented on at the
retreat. I appreciate that. I don't
think today you're looking for any
guidance on anything in particular.
Okay. I I just have a couple of
um
questions. Leslie since you're up here,
I am curious about Municipal Court. I
know that there's a bit of a odd sort of
way we because the city is responsible
for their budget but they're obviously
the judicial branch and so that's
separate but I am always curious to hear
from them and their needs. I you know,
want to understand more about how their
SOS program is going and those kinds of
things. Is that something we're prepared
to hear from them at all in before we
make our final vote? Mayor Councilor
Bencomo, I have not reached out to them
but I absolutely can and
Okay. so we can see if they can present
and find out what their needs are.
That'd be great. Obviously you know,
something multiple councilors brought up
is Municipal Court their actual physical
building but obviously I know that they
have other needs as well. So I want to
make sure that we get to hear from them.
Brad are you leaving? Can I ask a
question? Yes, thank you. This this
might be for you. I think it'll be for
Christine or for you. Sorry I had to
catch you before you left. I'm so sorry.
Yes, that would be my request Leslie.
Thank you.
Yes, I can do that. Thank you. Christine
or Brad
um
this one could be for either of you. I
am you know, I know we're not
necessarily seeking guidance on anything
today. I think I just wanted to put a
finer point in why at least myself had
IPRA on my priority list for budget not
only because of the things that
Christine just presented on
about the
serious increase that we're seeing year
to year
but
to me one of the biggest consequences of
not being able to meet those things is
our civil liability risk and wondering
if you could touch a little bit on what
it means. Yes, see okay so it is Brad on
what it means for us not to meet those
requests Brad.
Mayor Councilor Bencomo,
um yeah that is something that I'm
concerned about. You know, through
no fault of our IPRA staff we're we're
looking at a pretty extensive backlog
right now.
We're we're looking at
you know, Christine and I meet about
this what about once a week probably
and we're we're trying to find creative
solutions
as far as how to start to cut into that
backlog.
But I think that what we're going to
find at the end of the day
is that there is no magic bullet.
It's going to require
sorry for the gendered term but
manpower. That's what it's going to
require. People power. There you go.
And so my staff is we're trying to help
as as much as we can
but we're looking at a
pretty tall task right now. So anything
that
probably not my place to do this but I
will
anything that the governing body can do
to support the clerk's office, please
consider that. Thanks Brad. I I really
do have concerns about our civil
liability risk in general as a whole and
I think this really fits into that. So I
understand we're in in a tight place. I
just I think as far as priorities go in
terms of staff, this is one of them in
order to prevent any further debt
in the future. Thanks Christine. And
then my last question is for utilities
simply because just last Monday Adrian I
brought up a couple of the things we
talked about during our utilities board
which included Walnut Griggs
and the cost allocation
conversation. If you could touch on both
of those, I want to make sure that
council hears directly from you on the
importance of something like especially
the Griggs Walnut. Am I saying that
backwards? Walnut Griggs?
Yes, but I knew what you meant.
what I'm talking about. Thank you.
Mayor council, of Bincomel, thank you
very much. So, um
the budget for Griggs Walnut has been
cut to 200,000 instead of 400,000 from
the GRT. And based on our discussions, I
did get with uh Dominique and reviewed
how much of the general fund has
actually been used over the last few
years.
So, the nice thing is is that there has
been enough funds in the um
when we settled with uh the United
States that we can use that money for
anything above and beyond what our
operational needs are
that is not paid for by selling
the reclaimed water back into the
system. So, that part is good.
There does need though to be the
complete and total understanding that
there if there is going to be budget
changes moving forward in Griggs Walnut,
it needs to be coordinated with me as
the um
project director for Griggs Walnut for
the city of Las Cruces and Doña Ana
County.
And one of the things that I have
thought about is that perhaps I need to
refresh because I really think that
there's only one of you, which would be
Councilor Matias, that is fully aware of
what occurred with Griggs Walnut
Superfund. So, that is um
a joint powers agreement between the
city of Las Cruces and Doña Ana County
for the Superfund project because
the federal government EPA said that the
probable responsible parties were the
city of Las Cruces due to the proper
airport and Doña Ana County because of
their
vehicle maintenance
that occurred nearby.
And so, with that, the county and the
city joined together for the joint
Superfund project, and the city is the
fiscal agent. Utilities offered to
operate and maintain it because we have
level four operators that can do the
work, and that we would cost share
50/50.
And so, throughout the years um prior to
us settling and us being able to get
money from
actually um another responsible party
that we brought to their attention,
which happened to be the National Guard
uh the city and the county were
splitting everything
uh
E-GRT, which is the environmental gross
receipts taxes, and the general fund
were put in together to actually pay for
those. So, after our settlement, and we
did get some money, we've been using
that particular money.
But any changes in the budget really do
need to be brought to the attention and
get the concurrence of the county
without um actually having discussions.
So, moving forward, Leslie and I have
agreed that uh we will have those types
of conversations with Doña Ana County
and make sure that that is very clear
and under- understood.
The other is the allocation plan.
Uh the draft MOU is with uh legal and
with finance that we need to finalize.
Uh we've been going back and forth, and
we need to
um sit down and have serious
discussions. Currently, utilities budget
does not include specific things within
uh the cost allocation as I am holding
those back because I want the MOU.
Okay.
And that MOU should be done before we
vote on the budget, yes? Um
theoretically, that would be nice, but I
don't know that we're going to be able
to get um through that based on other uh
timing issues. Um I think if our budget
gets recommended by
the utility board and brought to you
all, and you say okay to it, if we get
the allocation MOU agreed upon and any
changes, we can bring that back as a
budget adjustment. Okay. It's not going
to kill the budget either way. Got it.
Thank you, Adrian. I appreciate the
additional context.
You got it. Thank you. Thank you. And
then just a couple notes that these
aren't necessarily questions, I just
want to make sure I shout it out. The
brand new Ask Las Cruces app, good job
over you There you are, Mandy. It looks
so much better. It's so much it's just
updated like to the 21st century. So, I
really want to appreciate that. It looks
really good.
Um I really want to do thank public
works for the trami- the traffic calming
um
the ongoing
priority on that. You know, part of the
stuff on Melendres, the pilot. So, folks
don't like this one. They didn't like
the previous pilot either. So, I think
one of the things I've learned is that
there's never a win-win. We just have to
try our best. And I do think this pilot
program
um I think it looks nice, and I hope
that it yields the data um for us to be
able to do something more per- permanent
there. So, thank you very much, public
works.
And then this just a slight note because
I it just happens to be on my heart. I,
you know, Councilor McClaren I met with
YDD staff a couple of weeks ago. This
isn't
Don't panic, Leslie. This isn't a
request for this year, but I do want to
put put this out in
for you all for the future that um YDD
staff deserve higher salaries. And I
think it's really important that when we
talk about salaries for people, that
when we talk about the the
biggest assets that we have in the city
is people power. And um we just we
should should just be taking better care
of our folks at all across the city, of
course. And um that just was heavy uh
for me because we recently met with
them. And given the conversations we're
having about young people and juveniles,
they're the folks on the front line
doing a lot of that work um especially
with {quote} at {unquote} at risk youth.
And um that just feels an important
conversation for us to have in the
future. Thanks, Mayor. And thanks,
everyone again.
I don't see any others. Um Leslie, thank
you.
Thank you, all staff, for the
presentations. We appreciate it.
Let's get
Next, we'll get to item 1.2, capital
improvement program.
Is that Cynthia?
Okay. Good afternoon, Mayor City
Council. My name is Cynthia Lamillo. I'm
the capital improvements program
manager.
So, today I'm going to start just with
What is the capital improvements program
that we normally refer to as the CIP?
The CIP is referred by city charter,
meaning that we are obligated to
complete that program.
It also helps us prioritize capital
needs and identify potential funding
sources.
It informs the selection of legislative
pri- priorities. As we know, every year
we have the opportunity to go to
legislation and propose projects to be
considered for funding. It informs the
public of the city infrastructure
investments. And it provides a view of
both funded projects and unfunded needs.
The CIP program actually produces a CIP
document that spans six years, all for
infrastructure projects.
Year one of document is funded, and the
five outer years are unfunded.
The projects are included in the CIP are
guided by city adopted plans, with
Elevate Las Cruces, a comprehensive plan
taking priority, and then followed by
all other adopted city plans, which
includes and is not limited to the
action plan.
Uh
we also have El Paso footprint, and we
have recently included the MRA adopted
plans.
The CIP also includes multiple funding
sources
from local funds, grants, bonds, and
loans.
And it's approved by city council, and
every time there's a change or
amendment, it has to also be uh passed
through the city council.
Now, this is the final document, the
CIP.
So, I'm just going to quickly go over it
as to how to look at this document. You
have the first column, which lists your
projects,
followed by the department that's
related with that project.
The green column will always be the
funded that has been allocated to the
project, meaning those are the funds
that the project has the fiscal year in
order to move forward.
The next five columns are all of the
outer years. Those are funding needs.
Those are um the the estimated costs for
projects that they need to be completed.
So, this is how we communicate to the
community what we need to complete
projects, and how internally we'll work
as to how can we secure additional
funding to ensure those projects get
completed.
The last column is just the potential
funding sources and actual funding
sources.
Now, right now we're doing the work
session, but I quickly want to go over
the CIP process because it's quite
lengthy. In the In the fall time, we
start with working with departments with
project intake, and we evaluate the
projects that they submit for
consideration to the CIP.
We then follow with budget with uh
budget/CIP retreat, and then the work
session which is today followed by
public hearing and adoption.
Part of the process in taking evaluation
is running the projects through a CIP
project evaluation.
In the CIP, we have a wide set of
projects from a re-roof, new extension
to uh smaller and big projects. So, we
want to have something that will give us
a way where we can evaluate all projects
at the same level. Our criteria
evaluates planning alignment that
quickly indicates whether the project is
in any of the city adopted plans cuz we
want to ensure that our infrastructure
investment is taking the city in the
right direction.
We have a community benefit criteria
where we identify and indicate whether
the project will target a health and
safety hazard, whether there's an equity
component to it, whether that project
will target those underserved
communities,
whether there is a sustainability or
environmental impact, and whether
there's a community engagement of public
interest which is basically is there a
community need, has a community strongly
advocated for this project.
Lastly, we also have to recognize the
operational impact of the infrastructure
projects, whether a project will extend
the life of a of an asset,
whether after completion there will be
any operational impacts to maintain that
facility or that uh investment, are
there any other funding sources that we
can tap to to improve uh
getting the project move faster,
are there any regulatory compliance that
we need to be aware of, and lastly
leveraging, are there any other projects
that we can do at the same time to
benefit
um the investment.
So, in big terms, large terms, I'm
sorry, the CIP overview, currently we
have close to 300 projects.
That means 300 infrastructure projects
that the city has identified as a need.
As I mentioned, the CIP spans five outer
years.
So, if I ask the question as to how much
money do we need to complete all of the
projects are listed in the current CIP
with the needs for the five outer years,
we reach the one billion mark, which is
significant. But, that's why the CIP's a
plan document where we have five years
so we can find a way to space out
projects and make sure we try our best
to complete projects.
Out of those 300 projects, we have 185
projects that have not identified any
type of funding.
So, that means our projects that still
need to be done, but we need to help
them secure funding.
And lastly, in this new fiscal year that
we are planning on, 44 new projects were
submitted for consideration.
So, that uh that only increases the
number of projects that we need to work
on and
and bringing up the number to a much
higher number.
Part of the process is we verify and we
clean all of the submitted projects. So,
at one time we were working with about
300 390 projects or line items, but many
of them will be reduced. Many of them
hopefully will be completed. Many of
them are duplicate of projects or many
of them will be absorbed by a by a
larger project to ensure that we have a
complete scope of work.
But, in essence, we have about 145
future projects. These are the projects
that have no funding at all as of right
now.
We have 43 annual projects and these are
the projects that we know that happen
every year on a routine basis. For
example, the re-roofing of buildings. We
know that certain time
uh roofs needs to be replaced.
The carryover projects, these are mostly
our large projects that span across
multiple years because of the the scope
of the work. So, this is these are
projects that are carrying over from one
year to the next. And lastly, we have
five newly projects that are um
receiving funding for the first time.
For funding sources, the CIP captures
all of infrastructure projects and with
that it
it captures its multiple funding
sources. This is a preliminary breakdown
for the next cycle of CIP.
We have 666 millions in bonds and loans,
33 million in grants, which includes
state and federal grants,
28 million in capital outlay and this
has been appropriation that has been
done in the past years. As we know,
capital outlay they usually give us a
range of four years to fully spend the
funds.
We have tax incremental development
district with 16 million, the Telshor
fund 12 million,
the other, which includes a combination
of fees, developer contribution, and
sometimes even
um
donations, has 12 million.
Our impact fees, park, water, and
wastewater with four, one million, and
300 respectively.
The CIP also has the projects
categorized. This is to facilitate how
we communicate what our projects are
about.
Here you can see that they're in order
where we have the smallest amount in
city operational facilities. This is,
for example, city hall or a facility
that's not necessarily public facing.
Uh midway we have a public transit with
6 million, park improvements with a
million,
and then our
categories that has the most funding
right now will be public safety, which
includes both fire and police,
public facilities, which includes all of
our recreation facilities, the library,
and our senior centers,
attainable and affording affordable
housing with 22 million,
street improvements, which includes all
of our major reconstruction projects
with 25 million,
and utilities with 72 million.
So, all of this are funding that the
projects have already have been um
they have been allocated so that we're
just carrying over the funding because
these are multi-year projects. So, we
need to carry over the the funding so
they can continue to move forward. It
also captures the recently
uh grants and and loans that have been
approved in the last past months.
Now, here's where we see the needs for
the
uh following years.
So, this is where we have to understand
what is it that we have on the CIP. As
you see, for fiscal year 28,
departments have identified a funding
need of 448 million.
So, that's that's significant. We
recognize we have that we have a long
list of infrastructure projects that
need completed. As we move out in the
outer years, the number uh cons remains
in the 200 mark.
So, this is one of the challenges for
CIP. How can we complete projects? How
can we advance and take care of our
current infrastructure when the demand
of funding needs is really high?
With that and with the conversation that
we had at the budget CIP retreat, we
recognize that capital infrastructure
projects we have a couple of challenges.
We first recognize that there are
funding limitations, but at the same
time there are new opportunities
identified by the state and by grants.
So, we also want to make sure that we do
our best to capture those opportunities.
On the other hand, we're growing city
and we still have capacity constraints
and limitations.
So, while we want to move forward
projects, we want to complete, sometimes
capacity
will uh will identify the sequence of
the projects.
So, we mentioned how we have a wide
variety of projects, simple projects,
complex projects,
small cost projects, large projects,
one-time project versus multi-year. So,
how do we balance all of this? How do we
decide which project moves forward?
So, our intent with the CIP program is
to give you enough information cuz we
know that all of the projects are
important. But, the question we have is
when we identify projects and their
needs, how do we value the tradeoffs? We
know that we have maintenance projects
versus new.
We need to keep
care of the project of the of the
facilities that we have in place, but we
also know we have emerging needs. Our
city is growing, our staff is growing.
We also recognize that sometimes there
are small wins versus big investment.
Um a small win will help us tackle
something that's happening right now,
but a long investment will put us in the
right place in a few years.
We have ongoing versus new priority.
I just mentioned about 300 existing
projects in the CIP.
About 150 currently have funding, but
they're still not completed. Do we push
them to get them going, or do we
recognize the new priorities are coming
up that also need to be addressed
that also are important for our
community.
We know that we have unexpected urgent
needs,
but then we have to balance those
against long-term benefits for the
community.
And lastly, we have those visible versus
essential infrastructure.
We know visible will immediately impact
the community and it's a benefit.
But infrastructure projects are under
work, piping, all of that. We need it to
maintain city operations.
So, infrastructure projects does not
necessarily have to be visible to be
impactful for our community.
So, all of these are current challenges
that we have in place.
And like I mentioned with the SEIP
program, we're hoping to bring in this
information so you can have the best
information available to make the
decision that is best fit with
information that we have.
With all of that,
the framing for this next uh
fiscal year of CIP,
we want to continue prioritizing asset
management. We recognize that uh we have
to take care of our current facilities.
We also want to continue investing in
strategically.
We want to maintain capacity for new
projects while advancing initiatives
aligned with opportunities.
We also recognize that there um we need
to reinforce our capital needs in
mobility, traffic safety improvements,
park, library, public safety facility,
and utilities infrastructure.
And lastly, we're going to continue
working on continuing to strengthening
the CIP to help with the sequencing,
funding, and delivery for maximum
community impact.
So, there's a lot of things um that
we're working on. We want to move
forward. We want to help in completing
projects and helping in the selection of
projects as well.
So, with that, our next steps, we're
going to continue refining our
information so we can come back.
But we the plan is to release the CIP
document in March 30. We have a work
session with public
public hearing alongside budget as well.
And then the adoption of the CIP on May
18 at our regular city council meeting.
I will also be doing a short
presentation on the council meeting of
April 6 as a departmental highlight.
So, with that, this is our CIP
presentation for today and I stand here
for any questions you may have.
All right, thank you, Cynthia. Any
questions?
Any more, Council?
Uh I'm just looking at the next steps
again. No, that's good. All right, thank
you. Thank you, Cynthia. Thank you.
So, those were the only two items.
All right, I'll look for a motion to
adjourn.
Move to adjourn.
Second.
This is on the motion to adjourn the
work session. Council McLarren? Yes.
Council Matice? Yes. Council Harris?
Yes. Council Bencomo? Yes. Council
Crain? Yes. Council Munoz? Yes.
Mayor? Yes.
Yeah.
It's going all right.