You're live.
Good afternoon. Welcome to City Council.
Today is Monday, February 2nd, 2026.
It's approximately 1 p.m. I'm Mayor Eric
Enriquez. Uh before we start, I want to
mention that we have the ASL, American
Sign Language, up in the front,
interpreters available. They're here at
every regular council meeting.
Uh we'll 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 Los Cruus
Fire Department as they keep our city
safe 247 365.
Council Mccclure, if you'll lead us in
the pledge.
So there are no presentations or
proclamations today. We'll start with
jobs of the week. Sarah Rainey
Thank you, Mayor and Council. My name is
Sarah Rainey. I'm the onetop coordinator
for the Southwest Region of America's
Job Center. For jobs of the week this
week, we have a permit technician
starting for the city of Los Cusus
starting at 1877. It closes on the 9th.
We also have a library manager for
support services for the city starting
at 60,000 and that one closes on the 9th
as well. We have for Pinnacle
institution an institution liaison and
receptionist. That one starts at $15.90
an hour and closes on the 22nd.
We have an account supervisor for L
clinic day familia starting at 90,000
and that one closes on the 20th.
behavioral tech behavioral health tech
and driver for intensive outpatient for
LCLica as well starting at 30,000 and
that one closes on the 20th. An animal
control officer for Donana County and
that one starts at 16 and closes on the
19th.
Also, just to let everyone know today,
um we actually have an onboarding for
ALUPS in our office. So feel free,
anybody can stop by and get more
information on the ALUPS opportunities.
They will be in our office every Monday.
So anybody can stop by from 9:00 to 2
and get that information directly from
ALUPS. We also have starting tomorrow
and Wednesday NMSU Career Expo at the
Corbett Student Union Center. That's not
only for students, that is for the
public as well. So feel free to stop by
on that one. On the 10th in our office,
we have the JobCore meet and greet if
anybody's interested in the JobCore
program. out of Roswell that um the
representatives will be there on the
10th in our office. On the 11th in
Hatch, we have the MSFW that is the
farmworker program. Um we have more
information on the farmworker program
for those that are out there in the
fields working hard. Um we have
information for support services for
them. That one will be going on like I
said in Hatch. And then we have an
employer in office meet and greet.
That's for all employers that are
looking for employees. You can come and
you can sit in our office and meet the
potential job placements there. Um, and
then anybody looking for a position can
come in and meet the employers. And
again, just another plug for the
Mockatill Rocket. I know it's a little
bit early because that one starts, that
one is in March, but we're still looking
for volunteers to do interviews. Um if
anybody's interested in being a part of
that, it's for our local juniors and
seniors just being um mentors for them
and showing them how interviews go. So
if you'd like to volunteer and be a
mentor and do some interviews with our
kiddos, um you can sign up on
employee&mm.
And again, all of our information is on
employee&mm. Anybody can scan the QR
code and make it to all of our social
medias as well.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you, Sarah. And on that uh
interview and mentors, uh what what time
is that exactly?
That one's going to go on from 9 to 2
because we're going to try to get all of
our juniors and seniors across the the
county there.
Okay. Thank you. But you can also I do
want to mention you can also sign up in
shifts. So if you want to do like a
morning shift or an afternoon shift and
that's better, that's fine. We have some
people that are able to stay all day, so
it's up to you.
Okay, sounds good. Thank you.
Next is pets of the week. Uh Carol,
good afternoon. I'm Carol Nelson,
digital content specialist with the
Animal Services Center of the Messia
Valley. This week we have Willow for our
dog of the week, 95530 to look her up on
our website. I'm a sweet naturatured gal
and love any one-on-one time I can get.
A fresh breeze in the playyard clears my
mind and I adore sniffing around to find
new scents. Treats. You won't believe
how quickly I can see sit when there's a
snack involved. Just a little motivation
and I'm your obedient friend. I've spent
several months at ASMV and I'm feeling
restless in my kennel. My behavior is
declining and I risk euthanasia unless
someone rescues me. But I really do know
how to stay calm when given the right
space to do so. If you're looking for a
loving and smart companion, come adopt
me. So, we would really love to
highlight her because she is one of our
red zone animals, which if anyone's
unfamiliar, our red zone animals are the
animals that are at higher risk for
euthanasia because we talk about it all
the time here that the longer an animal
stays in shelter, the more likely they
are to decline and will have to be
euthanized for behavioral reasons. So,
we don't want that to happen to Willow.
She's an absolute sweet girl. Just can't
really handle the kennel stress.
And our long-term residents, again,
we're highlighting for the exact same
reason. We would love for them to get
out. Hulu, unfortunately, has hit a year
in shelter. So, please come adopt Hulu.
Farah has been with us 320 days. Maddie
283 days and Lily 278 days. And for
upcoming events, we'll be at Miha Coffee
um for our Pause and Brews event this
Saturday from 10:00 to 1:00. And then we
have our drive-thru clinic coming up
February 22nd, Sunday. Sorry, that's
Sunday, February 22nd. Um, we'll be at
the Field of Dreams parking lot from 9
to 1. And for more information, visit
our website or you can follow us on
social media. Thank you.
Is that all?
Thank you.
Next is a conflict of interest. Does any
member of the city council, city
manager, or any member of the city staff
have any known conflict of interest with
any item on the agenda?
None.
No conflict. None.
Mayor,
I would like I'm will be recusing myself
from item 7.1.
Thank you.
Next, we have public participation and
Katrina will be up to usher you to the
podium. We'll allow up to three minutes.
Please speak directly into the
microphone. State your name. Uh no
pending litigation or items on the
non-consent
Mayor, council, those here today, and
those watching online, I'm Lynn Moore.
We continue our methodical process
carried out over the past year of
holding the city accountable regarding
its non-compliance with the federal lead
and copper rule. A rule that is critical
to protecting public health because
there is no safe level of lead in
drinking water. I'm hearing from an
increasing number of folks whose
municipal water is now undrinkable and
who have invested in water filters to
try to make their water drinkable.
However, many folks are not able to
afford water filters. As a part of its
application to receive $15 million in
funding, the city promised to prioritize
disadvantaged properties so that these
are inspected first and if needed have
their lead piping replaced first. But
the department has classified as
disadvantaged a large number of single
family properties currently valued at
$300,000 or a great deal higher. The
question whether it's I question whether
it's reasonable to conclude that any
property valued at $300,000 or higher is
actually disadvantaged.
By contrast, most of the single family
properties built in the older parts of
the city like on Mosquet Street, Solidad
Avenue, Touo Street, and Griggs Avenue,
which seem to be truly disadvantaged,
are currently valued at less than
$200,000.
Indeed, most are valued at less than
$100,000.
Many had customer-owned piping installed
in the 1900s, 1910s, and 1920s. One had
piping installed in 1868. According to
records, these are the properties that
need to be inspected first and have
piping replaced first if lead is found.
$500,000 and $600,000 properties
shouldn't even be in the mix. The
utilities department has nevertheless
included them. Let's take a look at
Corttoella. As you can see from handout
one, 13 properties are on Corttobella.
All 13 were built in 2001 or later. The
current estimated valuation for these
properties ranges from $374,000
to $670,000.
This yields an average valuation of
$536,783.
Incredibly, Las Cusus Utilities
classifies every one of these properties
on Corttobella as disadvantaged.
In contrast, let's examine some of the
properties in the oldest parts of the
city. We have documented information
today on 10 blocks situated between
South Mosquite and South Tornado
Streets. Liz Rodriguez Johnson will
enlighten you about those. As always, if
you're interested in reviewing more
documentation, just let me know. Thank
you for this opportunity to speak.
Mayor, city council, I'm Liz Rodriguez
Johnson. I have facts for you about the
92 properties on 10 blocks situated
between South Mosquite and South Toronto
streets that we examined when assessing
Lasus utilities non-compliance with the
light and copper rule. Handout A shows
the 10 blocks. According to city
documents, of the 92 properties
currently present on these 10 blocks, 14
have been inspected. This means that
only 1515%
of the properties in one of the oldest
areas of the city have been inspected.
All of the properties are designated as
disadvantage.
like properties discussed at the last
meeting. For none of these 14
properties, does the information
regarding piping classifications match
the classifications Las Cruis's
utilities recorded in the inventory
records or spreadsheet information
submitted to the state. These documents
continue to be full of inaccuracies and
inconsistencies.
Now for some of the estimated valuations
for properties on 10 blocks between
South Mosquita and South Dono streets.
The properties on East Griggs Avenue
with the oldest recorded customer-owned
piping installation date of 1868
is currently valued at $110,000.
The second oldest customer-owned piping
installation
date of 1890 is for properties on East
Grig and North Mosquite which are
currently valued at $135,000 and
$143,000
respectively.
The median estimated valuation for these
properties in the 10 block area is
$154,600.
82% are less than $200,000.
At the other end of the scale of what
the utilities department calls
disadvantage, I have a new information
gleaned from an IPA request about
properties on Silverado Loop. As you
recall, I told you at the last meeting
about properties on Sylv Loop that are
designated as disadvantage
as shown in handout C provided to you.
Then Lasus utility says piping was
installed in 1936.
I noted this was not believable since
Silva the Loop appears to be in a New
Yorker subdivision. Recently received
documents confirm this.
Handout B
shows that this subdivision was
constructed in the early 2020s and water
and wastewater piping was installed July
1, 2021.
This means the 1936 date the city
provided to the state is entirely
incorrect. In addition, handout C shows
that the estimated value for a property
on silver
loop is more than $400,000.
How Gwen Lascus Utilities categorizes
properties on Silverado Loop as
disadvantaged. It makes a mockery of
those that need help the most. Thank
you.
Hello, mayor, city council. Uh, my name
is Candace Nanco and I handle the
corporate operational side of 828
Productions. I'm also a native New
Mexican. Uh for me, this role isn't just
about business logistics. It's about
building a sustainable worldclass
industry.
Uh
it um that one is on the discussion
item. So when that time comes up, we'll
let you speak. You can't speak on an
item that's on non-consent at this time.
Okay. Can I speak as a citizen of New
Mexico and just what this employer does
when that item comes up?
Okay. Thank you.
Mayor Council Juan Garcia, I believe
everything in our lives fall under two
paths. What we can control through
choices, risks, and consequences, and
what we can't. Wrong place at the wrong
time. Kids are buckled up and on the way
to Young Park. lovely weather and follow
traffic laws. Getting there, you arrive
and suddenly there's a driveby shooting
and next you're holding a dead child in
your arms. Choices, risks, and
consequences.
Take the local incident of the
individual who shoplifted. Bad choices.
Resisted arrest. Another bad choice. A
string of bad decisions and now he's
dead and the cop's life is destroyed.
individual walks down Main Street firing
a gun in a commercial parking lot and
flees from police. He ends up being shot
by an officer. Bad choice, high-risisk
actions, ending in a tragic situation.
Both stories and hundreds of others
could have ended differently if people
would make better choices and evaluated
the risk of each one. We all screw up.
God knows I have. And it's impacted
people around me. But when those
screw-ups go public, they become
ammunition in the neverending political
circus we live in. The headlines keep
coming. People in the country, excuse
[clears throat] me, illegally or being
arrested and deported.
Two people interfering,
excuse me, with those arrests or now
dead. The news cycles play images of
crying children and shattered families
ignoring the difficulties our law
enforcement deal with while politicians
argue over who's to blame.
The reality is raw. Lives are being
upended and there's no signs of it
stopping. The large majority of these
incidents could have been avoided
if individuals had not violated federal
law 8 USC 1325.
Illegal crossings were made knowing the
consequences could affect them and their
families often tragically. But they took
the risk and here we are in New Mexico.
Progressive legislators proposed the
quote immigrant safety act to protect
those here illegally by attempting to
close detention centers created for
people breaking our laws. If they do
close, citizens in these counties to
include could face financial
devastation.
This is a blatant attempt at pandering
to those here illegally. Pandering
involves giving people exactly what they
want in a way that exploits their faults
rather than leading or guiding them
responsibly. All for political gains.
This is the upside down world we live in
today. Thank you.
Hello. How you doing? My name is Tommy
Black. Uh the reason I want to come up
here today, uh because I know that
there's always a recurring events that
happen here at the city council meeting
where sooner or later someone's going to
come up and talk about the displeasure
in the job that Chief Story is doing as
the chief of police. Now, I as a citizen
of Los Cruus, New Mexico, I refuse to
beat down on the person that's actually
trying to help our youth, which is a lot
more than I can say about a bunch of
other people in town. So, to all those
people that always come up here
complaining about Chief Story, my
question to you is, what is your plan to
make the situations better for the youth
in this area? And the reason that I'm
asking that question is when I grew up I
was told that there it takes a village
to make the village better. So that
means it takes all of us to work
together. Not one time have I ever
looked in the dictionary and saw it
takes a village and I saw Chief Story's
picture. That just didn't happen.
So right now we have to as adults start
having selfacountability. You know when
we look wake up in the morning and we
check the mirror the reflection we see
is us. We don't see Chief Story. And to
be totally honest with you, if I did see
Chief Tori, I would call the police on
Chief Story because I feel have faith in
what those guys would do. But right now,
we need our adults in this area to stand
up. We need to work together to make the
situation better for our youth. All this
complaining has to go out the window
because when we steadily pointing
fingers at other people, we never notice
that there's three fingers pointing back
at us. So every week or every day that
we don't have a plan to help our kids
and we kick that can down the street, at
the end of the day, what we're really
doing is failing our kids. So now we
have to ask oursel this question. Do we
want to be a part of the problem or do
we want to be a part of the solution?
Right now we need to stop all this
complaining. And I I go online, we we
fuss about ICE, no ice. We fuss about
Republicans. We fuss about Democrats,
but nobody is giving that exact same
energy, what we need to help our kids
out. So take that energy that you have.
Let's all sit down as adults together
and let's not rely on the city council
and chief story. As citizens, we can
make some stuff happen and we can bring
them in later. So if you're really
serious, and I'm talking to the people
that's on the cameras looking at me. If
you're really serious about helping our
kids, let's sit down without them and
come up with a plan. Then bring them in.
All this old fuss and stuff, man, those
jobs are occupied. Let's do a new job
and sit down as adults in this area and
make the situation better. We're talking
about our future leaders of America that
we are failing right now. And we're
coming up on the year anniversary of the
Young Park shooting. And we are in the
exact same situation we're in now,
complaining and fussing. We don't need
no more reality TV shows. We don't need
no love and hip hop. We need people
that's really going to do something to
help these kids. Thank y'all for giving
me the opportunity to speak today.
Now I'mma limp back. It might take a
minute, so I'm sorry.
Good afternoon, city council, mayor,
mayor prom, uh, everyone that is here
today. My name is Yoli Diaz, and I am
here today because some of you might
have noticed that I'm kind of bombarding
your emails. And I kind of want to give
you a reason why. And and a way to kind
of do that is I am going to read from a
public input that I did here at city of
Los Cusus almost two years ago February
5th 2024. I did that because there was a
new mayor and a new mayor prom. And
really when I started my advocating
there's only one of you that sits in the
dis that is still here today. So, we
have a new attorney from when I started,
a new city manager, new city councils.
And so, what's important is the history,
the history as to why I'm doing what I'm
doing because the history is extremely
pertinent. And I hope that who I'm
speaking to sees themselves as leaders
and takes that leadership to heart and
understands that Yoli's bombarding my
email. But maybe, just maybe, I should
take the time and read these emails
because I'm going to be bombarding it
more. But I today I'm going to read as
far as you I can because I know I only
have a minute and 40 38 seconds just to
give you an idea of what I said two
years ago prior to the NBC National
News, prior to the attorney general
coming in here and launching an
investigation on Memorial Medical Center
and prior to the city of Los Cusa
sending a letter of default to Memorial
Medical Center. It's very very
important. I tend to feel that things
are happening but we don't know what's
happening. Right? So I'm going to read
this because there's something really
really pertinent to what I said almost
two years ago. I'll get as far as I can.
My name is Yoli Diaz. I will begin with
my asks. There are four. One, I ask that
you put the issues of accessing hospital
care at Memorial Medical Center on your
next agenda since there is now a new
mayor and a new mayor pro 10. Two, I
again requesting a meeting with each
council member. Three, since I have
continued to receive calls from
residents who need access to cancer
treatment, a potentially fatal disease,
I'm asking each of you again to please
consider the healthc care fund proposal
I provided you in October 2023. However,
that needs a lot more than that. Four,
create a joint powers agreement with
Donana County similar to the animal
service center to provide health and
human services and oversight in
healthcare. And I'm going to repeat
that. Four, create a joint powers
agreement with Dona County similar to
the animal service center to provide
health and human services andor
oversight in healthcare. Thank you.
Uh, Mayor Council Jim Wilcox.
[clears throat] Today I speak as a
member of the Metropolitan Planning
Organization Bicycle and Pedestrian
Advisory Committee, BPAC representing
cyclists. Much has been presented here
about a global effort to reduce
pedestrian and bicycle fatalities
through a program called Vision Zero.
But there seems to be something that is
impeding its local adoption. I have
evidence as to one reason why that is.
At the December BPAC meeting, a mother
of two with a special needs child spoke
before the committee. She expressed
concern for her child's children's
safety as they rode bikes on the
streets. She wanted to know why. If
other states have adopted vision zero
practices and lowered fat fatalities,
then why hasn't the state of New Mexico
done the same? In asking this, the
mother of two directed her question to a
staffer from the MO, leading to a back
and forth between the two. This unusual
exchange during a public comment period
actually revealed something that I
present to you today. In responding to
this parent, the NO staffer expressed
that he did not speak for the state of
New Mexico, but speculated as to why the
state was not actively pursuing vision
zero goals. He said if the state of New
Mexico sets goals to reach vision zero,
and I quote, "There are punitive
sanctions in the law for failing to meet
these targets." And so the state of New
Mexico has been concerned about the
likely inevitability of failing to meet
the targets if the targets are set at
vision zero. End quote. This succinctly
describes the situation. The state will
not be adopting vision zero targets
because they could be negative
consequences for failing to reach them.
Meanwhile, the state continues with the
highest rate of pedestrian bicycle
fatalities. We're tra are we trading
lives for protection against punitive
sanctions because we didn't don't want
to reach the vision zero goals. What do
we tell a parent who has a child injured
or killed in a road acts incident? Do we
say, "Well, we sympathize with your
loss, but we did avoid sanctions by
keeping our objectives moderate." Given
this this body cannot affect the state
actions, it can do something locally. I
recommend this body be a model for the
state and fully embrace vision zero
goals. Thank you.
Good afternoon, uh, mayor, city
councilors. I'm Jennifer Cry and I'm
just here to wish you good luck and a
safe trip up to the roundhouse to get a
lot of money for our city. And I cannot
wait to hear how much money you get
toward the library expansion and
improvements. I'm sure you'll do it.
Thank you.
My name is Fred Huff. At the last city
council meeting, I spoke with gratitude
about the new park rangers and LCPD
officers working at clearing out most of
the 11 illegal encampments that were in
B in the Burn Lake area. The trash and
other litter that accumulates and blows
throughout the neighborhood is
incredible.
Not to mention the fire danger that
these encampments pose with their
illegal campfires.
On December 23rd, 2020, we had to
abandon our house for several hours
because the people living in the bottom
of the lake bed set it on fire. The
smoke completely hit our house at times.
We did not know if we were going to have
a house to return to when the fire was
out. If the wind would have been blowing
from the north that day, the smoke would
have blown across I 10 and possibly
caused a m massive pile up with
fatalities.
When councelor Ben Como spoke at that
meeting after my talk two weeks ago, she
just happened to have references to the
American Planning Association magazine
and said it talked about the cost of
criminalizing homelessness through
camping bans and strongly implied that
encampment sweeps are a waste of
taxpayer dollars. Whoa.
Enforcing the laws concerning
trespassing on city and private property
is a waste of taxpayer dollars. Wow. How
many houses have burned in this city in
the last few years that were set by
trespassers living in them? Are the city
parks open for camping 24/7?
There just happens to be already a city
ordinance that answers that question.
Under chapter 20, parks and recreation,
we have section 20-28
operating policy. A city park shall be
open from 5:00 a.m. to 11 p.m. So people
are not supposed to be in the parks
24/7.
What is happening right now in Los Cusus
is is these people are inhumanely being
kept in their situation through free
handouts. What we need to is be giving
them a hand up and help them break the
shackles of dependency by taking
responsibility for their lives. Many
other cities have successfully enacted
public camping ordinances to address
this problem. I do not believe that
camping ordinances are designed to
criminalize homelessness. They just give
the police and others the tools needed
to help these people start changing
their lives for the better if they want
to. And yes, a big question is where do
they go? I totally believe it is very
inhumane to keep pushing these
unfortunate people from one spot to
another. And we'll talk about a possible
solution later. Thank you.
Good afternoon. My name is Jim Hurst.
Um,
we hold these truths to be self-evident
that all men are created equal, endowed
by their creator with certain
inalienable rights, among them life,
liberty, the pursuit of happiness.
We are human beings
before we are Americans.
We are human beings before we are aliens
and before we are citizens.
We were endowed with certain inalienable
rights without countries. We established
countries and governments to maintain
those inalienable rights.
We have one of our rights is the pursuit
of happiness.
What does happiness what does the
pursuit of happiness mean counselors? If
it doesn't mean the right to migrate
to travel the face of this earth to find
the best home for us and our families.
That is a basic human right.
I'm here because my ancestors chose
America as the place they would build
their lives.
They came. They had nothing as far as I
know. And they succeeded.
They listened to America when it said,
"Give me your huddled masses yearning to
breathe free." And they came. They
breathed free and they prospered. That's
why we're the most successful nation in
the world because people heard our call
to come here and to prosper. And they
did.
Why are we closing the gates?
It works. Telling the world to come here
to America to make your life here and to
prosper here worked. It worked for 250
years.
And all of a sudden, immigrants are bad
and evil and we have to treat them with
scorn.
And the Americans that show sympathy
by standing up to ICE in their illegal
activities.
You can't claim shelter from the law as
law enforcement officials unless you're
wearing a uniform and you're not wearing
a mask and all that other crap they're
pulling.
Real officers use warrants.
Thank you very much.
Good afternoon, mayor, city council, and
chief of police, Tim Jenkins. I would
like to thank the city council and the
chief of police for the collaboration on
getting the park rangers not only hired
on, but also trained and out in the
field in a timely manner. I would like
to address a major concern in our city
right now concerning the homeless
population. And before any member on
city council even thinks about
suggesting that we are trying to
criminalize poverty, I would like to say
that that is as far from the truth as
could possibly be. We are actually
dedicated to the safety of our city and
to the well-being of all. I would like
to bring to your attention a situation
that unfolded this week with a homeless
encampment at the dirt lot just between
Red Lobster and Farley's. There was an
extra-large tent set up on the private
property with massive amounts of trash
and garbage and mattresses, etc.
covering the lot. It was called in and
LCPD trespassed the seven individuals
that were in the tent doing drugs and
gave them 24 hours to vacate or they
would be criminally trespassed.
12 hours later, another officer in
charge of that area for the day was out
assessing the situation. While we were
out talking in the Red Lobster parking
lot, the individual that owned the tent
began yelling at the officer that the
officer had no business being there. And
not only did he need more than 24 hours
to vacate, but also that he had been in
this city for 3 years now and should be
allowed to set up camp wherever he
wanted to in this city and should be
left alone and not be bothered by
anyone. I am not trying to be rude or
insensitive in any way here, but the
mentality of these individuals is that
they own this place. They refuse to
follow the laws of the land and to use
crosswalks and exercise proper street
crossing, especially all the way up and
down Lman. They cross whenever and
wherever they want at any given time.
And we are just supposed to slam on our
brakes in the middle of oncoming traffic
to let them do as they please. And it's
been suggested here in council chambers
that we're going to change the crosswalk
there by the gospel rescue mission for
their safety. But they don't even use
crosswalks as is. What is the point?
After spending a day with Greg Hull, the
mayor of Rio Rancho, which is by the way
the safest city in New Mexico, I highly
suggest to council that we consider
adopting practices that will actually
make our city safe again. I have major
concerns about the direction we are
going here in Los Cusus.
It seems to only get worse and worse
with no actual real resolve. We need to
be giving these folks a hand up, not a
hand out. By the policies in place, it
seems we are willing to keep these
individuals shackled in poverty and not
provide them with the resources they
truly need to be able to contribute to
society and to provide them with the
resources to be able to help themselves.
These individuals seriously need mental
health resources to help them
rehabilitate to life. Thank you very
much.
Good afternoon, Mayor Prom Council.
Chris Apadaka is my name. I'm from Los
Cruus, born here. Big family. I moved to
Los Angeles when I was 11 years old.
Became a child actor. Uh, I worked in
television and film uh up until I was 20
years old. I became a talent agent when
I was 22. I had to withdraw from college
because I had a dream job that came my
way.
Uh, unfortunately
uh the uh job positions require a
college degree. I worked as an agent for
25 years and worked in production for 15
years. A-list actors, A-list directors,
and I've been trying to get connected
here uh for probably uh 12 years now.
And um I know Senator Steinborn and he's
very nice and I consider him a friend.
Uh the only types of jobs that I can get
are non-paying jobs and I don't work for
free. Uh, I've been doing this my whole
life. If you want production to come
here, if you're really serious, you got
to get people that are connected that
are going to bring I know a lot of
things have happened over the last few
years for I I know that I in the time
that all this has happened. Uh, I would
have had at least three or four TV shows
filming here in Los Cruises.
Studio or not studio, it doesn't matter.
Um, I'd like to give my uh number to
anybody at any point in time in this uh
I have u a proposal
coming from me and who I know in
Hollywood. I could give you a list of
probably a hundred stars and 50 big-time
directors that I've worked with. I'm
working with 824 in Los Angeles. I'm
working uh with uh Matt Damon and Ben
Affleck's company, Artist Equity, Mark
Wahlberg in Las Vegas, uh Summerland
Studios in Las Vegas. I I don't have any
trouble getting work out of the out of
town and I'd like to bring it here. I
like living here. Um and uh you know,
any day if something opens up for me in
another state, I will move on. Uh, but
I'm very interested in making things
happen here. Um,
that's it.
Thank you for your time, Mayor.
Next we'll need acceptance of agenda.
Move to accept.
Second.
This is on the motion to accept the
agenda as presented. Councelor Mccclur.
Yes.
Councelor Matise.
Yes.
Councelor Harris.
Yes.
Councelor Bencoml.
Yes.
Councelor Karan.
Yes.
Councelor Munoz.
Yes.
And mayor.
Yes.
Next, we'll move on to resolutions for
discussion. A resolution uh item 7.1,
resolution number 26-099,
a resolution authorizing a contract with
Single Space Strategies of Albuquerque.
Move to approve.
Second.
Okay, Donnie.
Good afternoon, mayor, city councilors,
and city staff. My name is Donnie
Proise, purchasing supervisor for the
financial services department, and
before you is a resolution to authorize
a contract for the city strategic plan
update.
The city of Los Cusus utilizes a city
strategic plan for guiding the city's
priorities, resource management, and
decision-making processes over the next
several years. The current strategic
plan adopted in 2021 is due for an
update to reflect evolving community
needs and city council priorities and
ensure continued alignment with the
long-term vision outlined in the 2020
Elevate Los Cusus comprehensive plan.
The intent of this process is to balance
the community's long-term vision,
available resources, and city council's
near-term priorities to produce a plan
that is both clear and implementable.
This updated strategic plan will
directly facilitate the organization's
efforts to translate strategic
priorities into tangible outcomes while
supporting the city's comprehensive
plan, Elevate Los Cusus, and guiding
meaningful community improvement. The
city envisions a newly adopted plan
after a 12-month planning process. The
final document will incorporate best
practices and strategic planning,
embrace innovative techniques, and set
clear and achievable priorities. It will
be a living document supporting the
city's ongoing efforts to serve the
community and advance its vision.
The city's purchasing program issued
requests for proposals number 25-26-025
on September 19th, 2025 to hire a
consultant to develop the new city
strategic plan. Four proposals were
received and evaluated by the selection
advisory committee on November 19th,
2025, and the SAC is recommending award
to Single Space Strategies of
Albuquerque, New Mexico. The community
development department is requesting
authorization to contract with single
space strategies for a term of one year
in an amount not to exceed $145,000
plus applicable taxes subject to
approved budget appropriations.
With that, these are your council
options and I stand for questions and uh
community development director Chris
Faver is also here to address any
questions that he may need to.
Thank you, Donnie. Any questions from
council?
Councelor Curry.
Thank you. I just have a quick question
related to this being a CD proposal is I
I my sense is this is a this is citywide
strategic planning but since like 244 of
the 500 or whatever goals that were
outlined in elevate were part of realize
that's partly why it's in this domain or
can you tell me what the sort of
relationship is or is this just related
to things that have to do with CD
mayor councelor Cran Chris Favor uh
community development director for the
record. It's part of CD because
strategic planning was reorganized back
into community development this past
year. So all those operations now are
part of the planning team of community
development.
Okay, awesome. I I just ask in part
because I like to talk about the fact
that we have actually achieved some
goals and I want us I'm happy that we're
updating our our conversations to to
talk about that. Thank you.
Seeing no other Christine,
this is on the motion to approve
resolution 26-099.
Councelor McClur,
yes.
Councelor Matise,
yes.
Councelor Harris,
yes.
Councelor Beno is abstaining. Councelor
Karan,
yes.
Councelor Munoz,
yes.
And Mayor,
yes.
Next is item 7.2, resolution number
26-100,
a resolution authorizing the city of Los
Cruuses to accept grant awards for
various city departments.
Move to approve.
Second.
Good afternoon, mayor, counselors, city
staff, community members. I'm Gabriela
Pratz. I'm the city's grant manager. And
before you, I bring a resolution to
accept three grants for three different
departments
or JPA.
The first is a grant made to the uh I'm
sorry from the New Mexico Department of
Finance and Administration to the Animal
Services Center of the Messia Valley uh
for $280,000
to replace deteriorating kennel medical
kennels and repair the uneven flooring
at the animal services center. As uh the
city owns this particular building, the
funds were um granted to the city and
the public works department will be
working with animal services center to
get this completed.
The second award is uh for the Messia
Valley Metropolitan Planning
Organization. This is the fiscal year uh
federal fiscal year 2526 unified
planning work program award in the
amount of almost $380,000
with a match of about $51,500.
This funds the operations of the Messia
Valley Metropolitan Planning
Organization.
This award through the Federal Highway
Administration
through um the Department of the New
Mexico Department of Transportation
funds uh the operations and awards
include included are under section 112
and there's $9,728
that are 100% federal funds, no match
needed from um for planning and research
from planning and research funds to be
The third grant or rather the third
modific the third is a modification
number five to the Haida grant from the
office of national drug policy to um the
police department metro
the increase this increase is for 95
almost $700 which brings the new total
of that grant to9 93,310.
The increase
funds salaries and benefits and overtime
for the Haida agencies. This particular
um amendment is the last modification to
close out last year's grant.
These are your council options and I
stand for questions.
Thank you, Gabby. Any questions from
councel?
Seeing none, Christine,
this is on the motion to approve
resolution 26-100.
Councelor McClur,
yes.
Councelor Matise,
yes.
Councelor Harris,
yes.
Councelor Bencoml,
yes.
Councelor Karan,
yes.
Councelor Munoz,
yes.
Mayor,
yes.
Next is item 7.3, resolution 26-01
101,
a resolution amending the FY 2026
capital improvement program.
Move to approve.
Second.
Good afternoon, Mayor, City Council. My
name is Cynthia Lamo, capital
improvements program manager.
Today I have a few amendments for your
review and approval. We have two type of
amendments. One is adjustment to reflect
available funds and the second one is to
reflect new funding for different CIP
projects.
This first slide identify four projects
that we are amending to reflect the
funding that they have available. As the
project move forward and as we review
accounts and their balances, we just
make the necessary adjustments to make
sure they have the funding to continue
moving forward. We have legacy park
renovations that will have an ending
balance of 1.5. Skate park improvements
for an ending balance of 43,000.
Playground renovations total of 1.1 and
lawn acquisition planning and design for
parks for a total of 29300,000.
The second batch of projects that
follows the same category where we're
amending the project balance to reflect
what they have available to move
forward. We have uh utilities projects
with gas development for a total of 2.5
water projects for 15 million and
wastewater projects for 16 million.
This is a second set of uh of category
for CIP amendments which are amendments
to reflect new funding. These two
utilities projects have re is receiving
funding in the terms of loans. So we
have one for drinking water state
revolving loan fund usually is well
known as the WSRF for 15 and the water
project fund known as WPF loan for 3
million.
This is the next round of amendments to
reflect projects that are receiving new
funding. This is a correction we're
making to the Museum of Natural Arts and
Science that received capital outlay in
2005 for 44500,000.
So, we're making the correction to place
the funding in the correct program so
they project so they can move forward.
To learn more about this project, I
would like to invite Garland Courts with
quality of life deputy museum director
so we can learn more about it.
Uh, good afternoon, uh, Garland Courts,
Deputy Director for Quality of Life. Uh,
good afternoon, Mayor Enriquez and City
Council. I was given the opportunity to
kind of give you a very brief update on
this project. Uh, last year we got, uh,
legislative appropriation for this
project and we just got funded late last
year and so we're ready to to go on this
project. Uh the photograph that you have
there of course is the everybody kind of
knows that's been in that building that
that's our nature center. Uh we have all
kinds of displays of animals from the
Chihuahuan Desert and this is uh the
area where we're going to use that money
to uh enhance the building.
Uh the next picture here is the back
room which most people don't get to see.
you you saw the the uh the other side of
the the room, but this is this is where
the action happens, where our staff
takes care of the animals. So, a lot of
people don't know it, but we've got
close to a hundred animals that are in
the nature center. Takes a lot of uh
work to keep them on display and keep
them alive and keep them active. So, not
all of them are on display at the same
time. You know, we have to rotate them
out. So, some are in the back room there
and getting a little vacation, if you
will, from being on display. Uh, so what
we're going to do with that money is,
uh, you can see the flooring is kind of
a tile floor that's got grout. That's
not great when you're working with uh,
aquatic tanks and heavy tanks that you
need to move. Uh, so we're going to kind
of have a flush surface there that's uh,
that's for safety of our staff that's
non-slip. Um, it's going to allow us to
push the water out that gets on the
floor and uh make it a much better space
for our for our staff most of all that
they can do the job that they uh need to
do. Um, so we are dividing this into
into two sections. We're going to uh fix
the the back house of the of the nature
center. There you can see lots of
electrical wires. We're going to get
that all cleaned up. We have all kinds
of electrical devices. We have heat
lamps, uh, regular lights, water pumps,
everything you need for an aquatic
environment back there. So, we'll get
all that kind of tidied up and, uh, a
little bit easier to use for our staff.
And then the next project will be
looking at the exterior. We want to make
sure that all of our visitors can see
uh, the animals that we have on display.
Maybe increase some of the window sizes.
You can see some just some little kids
there that are on that. So, we do have
uh viewing areas that are low down. We
we have mid-range and we have taller
ones so that every visitor that comes in
has access to the animals. They can see
it better. So, we're going to work on
that. We'll be doing um some
interactives that the kids love. You
know, we we bring them in with those
animals. People come back very often to
see the animals and stuff, but then we
can kind of tell the story, talk about
desert culture, uh the desert uh
terrain, things that are happening in
that climate, uh water uh needs, and uh
talk about pollution, things like that,
things that affect the animals in the
area. So, um yeah, we're looking forward
to that. We have three years to spend
the money, but we're looking at getting
it done within two years with very
little uh interruption for people
visiting the animals. We'll try and have
them off display as little as possible
so everybody can enjoy the animals
because that's what they come for. The
Monus is our most visited museum. We had
uh 57,000
in uh fiscal year 25 and lots of them.
They're the the animals are rock stars,
so they come often for that. I'll stand
if you have any questions.
Thank you. Any any questions from
council?
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Garland. With that,
council, these are your standard
questions for this amendment.
Council Matise.
Uh page four. Um
and then and then maybe uh the utility
director or or you could explain
specifically on the gas development,
what's being implemented with that,
what's actually developing.
[snorts]
I'm sorry. I didn't know you was so far.
Uh, good afternoon, uh, Mayor Councelor
Matise. My name is Dominic Rodriguez,
assistant utilities director. The $1
million is for, um, the Del Ray
high-pressure
uh, project. And so we have in the
winter time have had low pressure in
this line and so we need to rehab
rehabilitate it and then um I think
they're going to also
connect it and loop it and so it's
really about the pressure dropping to
our customers are not able to receive
gas during the winter months.
Thank
you're welcome.
Thank you
councelor Harris. Um, thanks. Uh, next
slide. Slide five.
Yep. Same question. Um, if you could
give some background about what these
projects are since they're new.
Sure. Um, Mayor Counselor Harris Dominic
Crogas, assistant utilities director.
The drinking water say revolving fund
loan is money that we received for lead
and copper. Uh, that includes design,
replacement, construction. And so that's
the 15 million one. Uh the one below it
is the water project fund which we asked
for from water trust board and that is
for the telshore tank rehabilitation.
Cool. Thanks.
You're welcome.
Seeing no other Christine.
This is on the motion to approve
resolution 26-101.
Councelor Mccclair.
Yes.
Councelor Matise. Yes.
Councelor Harris.
Yes.
Councelor Bencoml.
Yes.
Councelor Karan.
Yes.
Councelor Munoz.
Yes.
Mayor.
Yes.
Next is item 7.4. Council bill number
26-014.
Ordinance number 3106.
An ordinance amending chapter 23 section
police service aids.
Move to approve.
Second.
All right. Good afternoon, Mayor
Council. Let me see if I can turn it
into a slideshow. Christine F5, right?
Got it.
All right. So, um just a quick recap
because I know that we uh discussed this
not too long ago at a uh work session,
but basically uh if approved, uh this
amendment would allow our police service
aids uh who actually already are
assisting with traffic investigations,
crash investigations to uh at uh crash
sites uh issue citations where
appropriate. As you all know, uh the
practice right now is that the PSAs will
uh assist with the crash reports, taking
the driver's information, uh so on and
so forth. But if there are actually
citations that need to be issued, such
as no driver's license, no insurance, no
registration, uh due care collision,
they will have to uh wait on scene uh
for a commissioned officer to show up
and issue those citations. Uh just a
reminder, if approved, uh PSAs would
still not have uh arrest authority, but
they would be able to issue those
traffic citations with the goal
hopefully being uh to reduce um strain
on our commissioned officers and so that
they would have uh the bandwidth to
engage in um I don't want to say more
important, but more serious matters.
Uh we went over at the work session how
our uh percentage of crash reports taken
by police service aids have steadily
increased over the years. You see in
2023 we were at roughly 1100 reports
taken by our PSAs with a an approximate
28.72%.
We go on to 2024 that number increased
to approximately 2,000 reports taken by
PSAs. And we actually see that in 2024
we started to see a majority of those
reports were taken by our PSAs.
And then last year the trend continued
with uh approximately 2200 give or take
uh reports taken by our PSAs with an
approximate 2/3 rate. Uh, at this point,
as I just mentioned, the proposed edits
or amendments include authorizing PSAs
to investigate traffic crashes resulting
in up to minor injury. Of course,
anything involving death or great bodily
harm would still be within the purview
of commissioned officers
um, and to allow those PSAs to issue
traffic citations uh, under our
municipal code during their post
accident investigations.
Uh again, no arrest authority on behalf
of the PSAs,
even if amended.
Uh like I stated earlier, the rationale
is hopefully this would lead to
increased efficiency with commissioned
officers not having to respond to minor
accidents.
Um
uh something that I think is important
is that would also lead to a decrease in
encounters between commissioned officers
and uh citizens here in our community
based on minor traffic accidents.
And your council options are to vote yes
to amend the code as proposed to vote no
to deny set amendment. uh you can vote
to amend with uh direction to city staff
with regard to the amendments that you
would like to see or you can vote to
table this item and myself and
Lieutenant by the way I never introduced
myself Brad Douglas for the record city
attorney and I'm here with Lieutenant
Cody Austin and we'll stand for
questions.
Thank you Brad. Any questions? Uh
councelor Tory. Thank you. And forgive
me for not asking this in the in the
prior work session. I've just been
thinking about um
when we had our budget discussions, one
of the traffic solutions and something
that's being discussed in the
legislature is related to speed cameras.
And I know that part of our historic
conversation about this is that an we
would have to have a specific officer
who validates every data point from
something like a speed camera to issue
those things. Would this be something
that a PSA could fulfill or not is my
very specific question and if not that's
fine but that would be something that I
would ask if we could venture to
consider.
Um that's a good question with regard to
the speed cameras particularly. I am not
sure. I would have to let Chief Story
answer that.
Go ahead Chief.
Good afternoon. Jeremy store police
chief mayor council cran I believe under
state statute has to be a commission
police officer that reviews and then
issues that citation.
Okay. Thank you. I thought perhaps it
was a state law but if it was possible
for us to do that I would want us to do
that too. So thank you very much.
Mayor prom.
Um mayor city councilors chief story.
What's the headcount for the uh police
service aids? Do you do you have a rough
estimate or sorry? Yeah. Thank you.
Good afternoon, Mayor Council. Cody
Austin, the specialty lieutenant.
Currently, we have nine PSAs fulltime.
Okay. Thank you, Lieutenant.
Thank you.
Okay. See none other questions. So
Christine,
this is on the motion to approve
ordinance 3106.
Councelor McClur,
yes.
Councelor Matise,
yes.
Councelor Harris,
yes.
Councelor Bencomo,
yes.
Councelor Karan,
yes.
Councelor Munoz,
yes.
And mayor,
yes.
Next is item 7.5, council bill number
26-015,
ordinance number 3107,
an ordinance terminating the project
participation agreement with 828
Productions.
Move to approve.
Second.
All right. Good afternoon, mayor and
city council. My name is Elizabeth
Teters, and I'm here to talk to you
about the proposed cancellation of the
city's portion of 828 Productions Lita.
To first start out, I want to talk about
cinematic infrastructure and where these
funds came from. Um, back in 2016,
capital outlay funds were designated in
the amount of about $900,000 to plan,
design, construct, furnish, and equip
infrastructure that directly supports
film and digital media. And right after
that, the city council at the time
designated hold harmless funds and the
two the in the amount of $2.8 million to
support the effort. And the purpose of
these funds was to bring in a film
studio to Los Cusus to support the film
industry.
So, this LITA local economic development
act uh was first adopted in March of
2023. At that time, the city used the
897,000
from the capital outlay funds and the
state of New Mexico came in with $3
million.
After that, there were two different
amendments um to designate the two $2.8
million for the hold harmless funds and
to put it to specific properties. So,
all of the cinematic infrastructure
funds were put towards this project.
Uh, we received a request for
reimbursement in March of 2025. Um, and
we noticed with it that there was
limited supporting documentation and
there was an overall concern that funds
were used for upkeep and not towards the
purpose and intent of the project. So, a
few weeks later, we requested supporting
documentation which we received from 828
in June of 2028 for that specific
request for reimbursement.
While this is all going on, it was time
for the annual performance review which
is required by the Lita statute and by
the ordinance. It gives the opportunity
for the city and the project to sit down
together and talk about how the project
is going. Uh gives it the company can
talk about any difficulties they're
having. The city may request data and
information to assess the broader
economic impact of the project, but the
company shall not be required to divulge
information or documents it considers
confidential or proprietary.
So we took the opportunity with the
annual performance review and we decided
we were going to do a full review of all
the invoices. We were going to do an
internal review and we also asked A28 to
provide support to the work that they
have completed. We gave them a document
of bullet points and here's just a few
of them. Um so we were looking for
project milestones in the progress
report, the economic impact, um
community and site management, how
things were going actually on the
ground. Uh some forward-looking
statements. So what the work would be
done in the next year or so and when we
should we expect more reimbursements and
any reflections and requests any ways we
could possibly um assist them. And so we
gave them a deadline of June 30th which
is when what's in the actual ordinance
but we received no documentation for
this review.
So out of this the request for
reimbursement and the annual performance
review a lot of concerns came out which
got put in the document that was sent to
828. Overall the request for
reimbursement fit within the broad scope
of the funds funds expenditure list uh
which is an attachment in the amendment.
But if you look at the individual
expenditures on each invoice they do not
align with the categories within that
expenditure list. This is something that
staff should have caught. this is
something that staff should have made
them go back and put it in the right
place. So, I am owning up to that. Um,
it is unfortunate. It is just a
technicality within the grand scope of
things, but there's a chance that things
could be different right now. Um, within
that also, South Miranda has been fully
expended and only four of the 21
categories within the expenditure list
were actually utilized. And when looking
back in the reimbursements as they went
on and on, we saw more for monthly
expenses, repairs, and upkeep even
though they were sprinkled throughout.
And we also saw planning and design and
minimal construction. Over 60% of the
funds that we gave 28 to 828 was for
planning and design or consultation. Um
when we met with them to talk about this
annual review process, we said, "Show us
the plans.
Show us if there's plans or construction
done with those plans. show us if
there's landscaping done, tell us where
the landscaping is and we'll go look at
it. But again, we received no
documentation.
And finally, when we legal got brought
into the whole process, they made a
recommendation that the payment schedule
align with the PPA. So with LED up to
this point, we have always reimbursed
incrementally if they have the expenses
to go with it. But it was decided from
this point on that we would only
reimburse if the entire benchmark or
trunch is completely satisfied. Um the
whole point of this process was to try
to get a level playing field to be able
to complete the project with everybody
on the same page.
And also I just want to note that the
our partners at the New Mexico film
office and the New Mexico Economic
Development Department have been
involved throughout this entire process.
Um, and I actually have a statement from
them. The New Mexico Film Office and the
New Mexico Economic Development
Department have worked closely with the
city of Las Cusus throughout the
duration of this agreement and support
the city's authority to make decisions
it determines are in the best interest
of its community and the responsible use
of its city funds.
So, they were brought on early in May
and in June, and we have kept them up to
date throughout this entire process.
So if you go back to the PPA, which is a
project participation agreement, it is
the main point in the the main document
within Alita agreement. Um there are
goals and objectives within it. It
states the objective of this agreement
is to create and support an economic
development project that fosters,
promotes, and enhances local economic
development efforts. At this point,
going through everything we went
through, we did not feel like that was
being done.
So through the annual performance
review, there is a requirement that said
the city can terminate. So we notifi
notified on August 15th of 2025. We
notified 828 of our pending
cancellation.
The next 60 days, we did two 30-day
extensions with 828 with the purpose of
coming up to a middle ground and finding
a PPA amendment that worked for
everybody. At the end of September, the
city proposed ours to them and included
in that was reimbursement based on
completion of phases of construction so
we can see more tangible items of when
things were getting done. We also
updated the job creation clawback
because this one is very vague in vague
in this agreement. And finally, we gave
stricter annual review expectations.
Again, with our lessons learned, we felt
like it was necessary.
On October 19th, 828 sent us a counter
PPA amendment. They're at they were
asking for all funds to go towards 106
South Miranda in phases. They asked for
the job creation to be changed from 100
to 45 full-time jobs, but the production
spend go up from 350 million 350 million
to 405 million. And they also review
they removed the clawback and annual
review sections. And it was so close to
the deadline and we were so far apart in
our amendments that we just decided to
let it expire.
So now I want to talk about clawbacks.
So within the agreement there's always
your benchmarks, your tanches, what
you're supposed to meet. But there's
also other parts that a company needs to
be accountable for. There's job
creation. In this case, there's uh
production spend. There's facility
closure. There's economic impact
analysis. So it doesn't matter where the
money went originally.
If they are meet not meeting these other
parts of the agreement, the city has the
ability to claw back those funds. And
throughout this entire process, we found
two clawbacks. The first being the
economic impact analysis. It is due
every year on February 28th to the
economic development the state economic
development department and failure to do
so by April 15th shall be subject to a
10% clawback of all funds received. On
July 10th of 2025, NMED emailed 828
addressing their failure to meet the
deadline and requested clawbacks and the
data was sent to NMED 4 days later.
The second clawback is the [snorts]
facility's closure clawback. Um it's if
it's a failure to produce product for a
period of 90 days or failure to occupy
the facility. um if it is only
temporary, they have the opportunity to
give us show us how it's going to be
resolved. But if it's complete like
closure of operations, they're supposed
to notify the city within 10 days.
So on November 4th, staff learned that
828 defaulted on 300 South Compris
August of 2025.
Um and the city has given over $1.1
million to that property.
And before I go to this ordinance, I
just want to state that economic
development comes with risk. Litas come
with risk. We've had some great projects
in the past. Saputo is a really good
example. Um, but there has to be checks
and balances. That's why we have the
annual economic impact analysis, the
annual review, the the quarterly jobs,
but also that's why we have clawbacks. I
mean, nobody wants to use clawbacks, but
people have to be accountable for their
for city money, for public dollars. So,
with that being said, um this ordinance
is to terminate the city's contribution
to this project and it authorizes
[snorts] the staff to require and seek
clawbacks, but we will continue to be
the fiscal agents for the $3 million in
state funds unless is decided to
terminate the Lita in its entirety.
And with that, I stand for questions.
Thank you, Elizabeth. Any questions from
council?
Councelor Harris.
Um, thanks. So, I was wanting a
clarification on how much how much money
we're asking to actually claw back. I
see that we're relieving ourselves of
future obligations and there's this 10%
clawback and so do you have a a number?
Yeah. Um, mayor, councelor Harris, so we
have given approximately
$1.8 million. We're asking for two
clawbacks, which is the 10% for the
economic impact analysis and the um 100%
for the facility closure that the funds
went to for that facility. So, the total
is about $1.3 million.
Okay. And just um to
emphasize the point, we are continuing
to be fiscal agents for the state side
of this. This is just the city the
city's portion.
That is correct.
Thanks,
Council Mayor Pro Tim.
Elizabeth, the uh state and the city
provided monies on what seemed to be a
good proposal from 8 to8 productions.
Um, so the state, let me just review,
the state committed 3 point or actually
$3 million and the city dispersed as you
said 1.8 million. As I understood as
well, 828 promised to develop a um
studio complex investing $75 million of
their own money. Have you seen um that
investment or where are we with that?
Uh mayor mayor prom. Uh so according to
the the data in the economic impact
analysis submitted by 828 last year,
they have invested a little over $3.5
million.
Okay. Okay. Um so 88 828 also promised
hundreds of jobs for last cruisins and
that number you're proposing to to
change to go down. Um how many have they
hired?
Um mayor mayor prom. So in the annual
performance review or the economic
impact analysis uh put in their
documentation they had 15 jobs. I asked
the economic development the state
economic development department and
quarter three of this past year they had
10 and quarter four they had nine. So,
nine employees from Las Cusus or is that
determined? Is it
I will have to get back to you. I'm not
sure.
Thank you. Thank you. Um and then 88 was
supposed to also bring about 350 million
in production revenue. I know that
number has also been adjusted. Um on
that amount, what have you seen there?
What's the trajectory?
Um mayor, mayor prom. So again, this
goes back to the economic the impact the
document they did which was almost a
year ago at this point. Um but direct
spend was 1.2 million which means that
from way I understand it it's
productions specifically with 828 and
indirect is 104 million which is them
partnering or giving their facilities to
other production companies.
Gotcha. Okay. Okay. And um as an
entrepreneur and a business person, I
understand the weight of um having
employees and and driving an enterprise,
whether it's three or 30 or 3,000
employees. Um that weight is is heavy
because not only are we supporting those
employees, we're supporting the families
uh that those employees have.
How is the communication back and forth?
Because results obviously are critical.
Communication is important and obviously
making sure that there are results is
also important not just to the
enterprise not just to that corporation
or that business but to the families
of those employees.
Mayor Mayor Prom um when this started
early on I started keeping a log of all
the communications back and forth
whether it be email phone call um
meetings itself and this doesn't include
all of Mr. Henry Becker's
communications. I have a document of
over 50 communications between us since
March.
Okay. Thank you, Elizabeth. Okay. And it
sounds like just in in transparency that
you're doing uh a debrief or going back
and doing a forensics of any gaps that
we had on our side as a as a city. Um so
I appreciate uh you and your team doing
that and making us aware of your
concerns. Thank you. and mayor, mayor
perm, I meant to bring this up um just
to discuss the the steps that I've taken
with my department. So, we now have a
designated employee to go through um all
all agreements. And so, this person,
whether it be our partner agreements,
LITA's, ARPA agreements, they're before
we pay out any reimbursements, they're
the person that's going to be looking
through all the documents. We're also
going to be working with legal to come
up with our own PPA template. We've done
it with the state for more majority of
years, but through this process, we have
learned that while we have goals that
are similar, we have goals that are that
are different as well. So, we want to
put that into the document and put what
our expectations are. And the last step
we're taking is an annual performance
review. We're formalizing it. We're
going to make sure that the company
knows exactly what their expectations
are every year to move forward.
Thank you. Thank you, Mayor.
Thank you, councelor McDonald.
me. Thank you. Sorry, I did not hear
very well. Thank you, Elizabeth. I first
of all just want to acknowledge that I
can tell this feels heavy for you and I
I know that it is. I I sure it wasn't
easy to get here and so I really do want
to acknowledge that from your point and
and staff's point. I've since I've been
on the council, I've been through
several litas and I think since I've
been here, only one other one has been
has had to be I don't even think it was
a clawback at that point. I don't even
think anything was it was just like
cancelled and so
um you know and and so I know that the
private public partnerships are hard.
They take a lot of work and the
expectations,
you know, that standard is very high and
it should go both ways, right? From what
the other person should expect from us
in terms of communication and
responsiveness and all of that and the
other way around as well because this
this is public dollars, right? And and
due diligence must be met. So, I I just
want to acknowledge that and and I think
that's sort of the way I'm approaching
this because,
you know, I
I promise I'll land the plane on this in
a second. I often think about how much
in public dollars a pro a project, for
example, like Spaceport America has
received. Millions of dollars in public
dollars that could have been used for
anything else. and we're just sort of
waiting and waiting to get back some
sort of benefit that was promised to our
community. Meanwhile, we are giving
millions of dollars away. And I to me
that's um
quite frankly to me that's very
frustrating. And I expect that when we
go into these kinds of agreements um
that the person receiving these funds
will understand the impact and the
heaviness of that that these are public
dollars. And often I have come to find
that it is lose-lose for the city.
Whether we are incredibly strict and
tight and little flexibility then we are
not business friendly. If we are a
little bit flexible, if we maybe say
okay, we'll extend it, we'll extend it,
then we end up in audit trouble, right?
And so it is often lose-lose and I
it's difficult to make decisions out of
that place and it's difficult to arrive
at places like this. So, I I want to
acknowledge all of those things because
it then makes conversations like this
honestly to me a little bit easier
because you know what I see out in the
public um
isn't what I thought we were promised.
And uh
it's just not hard to to see. It's
there. It's like the the tangible pieces
are there. So anyway, I just wanted to
caveat that before I ask you a couple of
questions. On page 12, Elizabeth, I
think it was page 12.
Were you given a reasoning behind the
job creation from 100 to 45 yet this
production spend um increasing like
this? Were you giving were you given
what was the reason behind that? Um,
mayor, councelor Bencomo,
I'm going to turn it over to Henry.
Mayor, counselor, thank you for the
question. So, uh, these the PPA
amendments were sent back and forth
between myself and council for 828. Um,
at the time we had agreed to a second
30-day extension. I want to say we were
within 5 days of that second extension
ending when I received this counter
proposal. Um, and at the time looking at
it, it was so far below our own
expectations that I think I responded,
and this is just my memory. I think I
responded to council for 828 that this
is just not going to work. So, there was
an investigation as to why they proposed
those terms. So, I take responsibility
for not having an answer on that.
Thanks, Henry. I appreciate that. Um,
and then Elizabeth, on this from the
state letter that you read, when did you
receive that? Um,
mayor, councelor Ben, I received that on
Friday, but I was in communication with
them daily, all week.
Okay. Thank you. And then just, you
know, I I assume there's going to be
some public comment about the impact of
the film industry and what this could
mean and the sky is falling kind of
conversations, but I am curious if you
could speak to film loss cruises and the
impact that film loss cruises has had um
you know in our partnership with them. U
mayor councelor Vencomo. So um while we
have been in contact with NMED and the
state film office, we have been keeping
film losses apprised of this situation,
but we have purposely kept them at arms
length because this is their job. They
have to be able to do it on a daily
basis. Um and so let me see I do have
so I they have provided some data points
that I will uh I'll just share. So in
2023 there were 10 productions. four of
them feature films. Um, in 2024, 14
productions in Los Cruises, seven of
which were feature films. And in 2025,
there were 17 productions and nine of
them feature films. And they did tell me
that only two of those feature films
were 8 to8.
Those are all film loss cruises uh led
by they're part of the process. [snorts]
Got it. And I mean anecdotally I
appreciate that because anecdotally I
could say I get emails from film loss
cruises all the time about this is
happening and this is happening and this
production is happening. So um I just
wanted to get some real numbers out
there. Elizabeth, thank you. Thanks
Mayor.
Thanks Council Mat Elizabeth. I was just
going to go back and ask you you is it a
new hire or a new position? Sounds like
a compliance type. Mhm. Um, mayor,
councelor Matise, it's a it's an an
existing employee. Uh, we recently went
through a little bit of a reorg within
the department and with that we moved
one person while they have other tasks,
they will be doing this compliance work.
Okay. And then just to tag on with the
city manager, I believe we hired a
compliance officer position. Is that
correct? We have that in the works or
councelor May mayor councelor Matise um
that is in discussion what we have we do
not have currently have that position.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you Elizabeth.
Okay.
All right. Thanks Elizabeth. I know uh
through the city clerk there's some uh
representative A28 that wanted to speak.
Is there are they in the audience? Is
there anyone from 828?
Yeah. Normally in discussion items, any
of the public participation is uh two
minutes, but we'll give you three to
five minutes so you can speak on behalf
of A28.
Thank you, uh, mayor, counselors. Uh, my
name is Joseph Dwarak. I represent H2A
Productions. Uh, I want to before I give
my presentation, I understand there were
a few individuals that wanted to speak
as members of the public and they were
um told to speak during public comment
during this period. So, I'd like to um
allow them to address the council first
um in order of priority and then uh I'm
hoping that my presentation uh on behalf
of the company formally uh can get into
more of the details of the issue on the
agenda.
Uh what I had talked with the city clerk
and to get over to 828 was if they
wanted to speak or do a presentation, we
would allow 3 to five minutes from a
representative. Any other members of the
public that would like to speak to this,
I'll give them two minutes, but they
can't be uh speaking to the
representation of A28. That would be
you. So you can go ahead and then anyone
in the public that wishes to speak, I'll
give them two minutes.
Okay. Uh thank you, Mayor.
And I'll I'll try to be brief. Uh and
I'm happy to answer any questions uh
mayor or members of the council have. Uh
we were only allowed five minutes for
this. Uh we also requested to be able to
provide a PowerPoint and we're told uh
that we couldn't do that. So if there's
an opportunity to present the council uh
more fully in the future, we really
would appreciate that opportunity and
look forward to it. So, uh, I I want to
start off, um, by just quoting, uh,
your last city council meeting, which
was on January 20th, um, last month, and
the city manager shared, and this is a
quote, film Los Cusus announced that Los
Cusus has been named one of the best
places to live and work as a movie maker
in 2026. This marks the fourth year in a
row that the city has been listed in the
top 10 film towns in America. Great job
to our filmmakers and our economic
development for assisting with that. And
earlier in August of 2025, film loss
cruis uh provided stellar reviews of the
film industry in Los Cusus. Uh for
example, worker days, which had a goal
of 1,000, was exceeded by over 350%
uh with 3,655
days. local spending uh exceeded by over
a thousand%. Uh the expectation was a
million dollars in local spending and
there was over 10 million and this is
from uh 2024. Uh the number that was
provided by your economic development
team. Uh I want to highlight that that
$10 million and those number of
productions is important because in just
one year and it was a production that
went from over two years. that started
in December of 2024 and went through
January of 2025, which was done by 828,
uh, had over $15 million in production
spend. So, this number that all of these
other production companies, they're all
important, but 828 in terms of size, in
terms of dollar amount, blows these
numbers out of the water. And that
context is important, and we're able to
provide a lot more detail of that uh to
paint a more full picture for the city
council.
uh the the economic the local economic
impact of 828 which is the whole purpose
of the local economic development act
and a PPA agreement um in a single year
and this was the first true year of
production by 828
productions brought in over a hundred
million dollars in production. It is
true that not all of that was spent
within Los Cruus's city limits, but
Netflix does not use all of their
production within Bernalo County or the
city of Albuquerque either. Um, and
while of course it would be better, I
understand as policy makers to have that
spending uh consolidated to the city,
that is just not realistic and that
won't help happen with any production
company.
um some of those examples
of production spending in 2024 uh there
was approximately $50 million in the
last year. So um in the $350 million
that was set as an expecta expectation
uh benchmark in the PPA in two years of
production alone 828
uh met almost half of that number
there there have been delays in
828 getting off the ground primarily and
in the letter that I shared with city
council that I hope you all have and I
have copies uh if if it would be helpful
uh to share there as well.
Production um was stalled for an entire
year after the PPA was created because
of national uh actor strikes and film
writer strikes that affected the entire
industry across the country. So there
was a whole year where there was nothing
happening and that was completely
outside of the control of the company
and that is also something that's not
been addressed.
Uh there's been over a dozen productions
uh since 828 started in Los Cusus. Some
very large ones uh include uh Edington,
which was filmed in Truth of
Consequences, but it was uh handled in
partnership with 828 here in Los Cusus,
and Protector, which was filmed uh
entirely in Los Cruus. And it's the
largest uh it's been the largest um film
production project in the history of the
city. And I think it just wrapped up
post-prouction yesterday and is coming
out in the next uh I believe it's the
next month. Next month. Uh during this
time over the past two years, A28 uh has
employed uh as as cast and crew over
1,200 uh New Mexicans uh mostly local in
and around Los Cusus. And the number uh
I I'm happy to explain the numbers that
are provided here. Any other questions?
Um but I want to get through a couple
points because I understand that I'm
short on time. Uh a few points to
correct is that 828 did not close its
facility. Um, it made a business
decision to focus and consolidate its
resources on its remaining properties.
Um, it's it has multiple properties. We
can get into those. I'm happy to provide
those details uh in response to
questions or in writing to the council.
Um, this delayed report, this economic
development uh report, uh it doesn't
require a clawback. It's discretional.
So, we would ask that the council use
its discretion if it chooses to uh seek
10% clawback of uh that money. Uh the
state has not demanded a clawback of
that and um I I can't find an example of
that clawback uh being um imposed for a
delayed report in the past either.
Uh there's also no intent shown by A28
and a lot of these issues uh A28
acknowledges that it made mistakes. Um
but it also acknowledges just as the
city has repeatedly stated uh the
agreement itself is vague. Uh there's
been practices by the city, lack of
communication by the city and it goes
both ways. A28 acknowledges that um it
could have done better in the past, but
these are partners and partners uh can
take responsibility for their own
actions with each other and and again um
we we we recognize um that there are
mistakes on both sides of this and we
want to move forward. Uh my last point
if I may, uh what is missing
in the documents that were provided to
the public in your agenda packet and
provided to the council uh for the first
read of of this uh proposed ordinance
two weeks ago uh is over 350 pages. Uh
there is not a single page in this uh
350 pages that includes correspondence,
proposals, uh memos uh or even
references to uh the
uh the justification or rationale
provided by 828 for uh the concerns uh
proposals on how to address the concerns
and uh requests to meet frankly with the
city council, a working group or city
leadership to address the problems.
Uh what is also missing uh and I would
direct the city council to the letters
that were provided dated January 30th
and January 26th uh just in this past
week uh from our firm on behalf of 828.
Uh there is no an analysis of economic
impact. There just simply isn't. Um
there this information is gathered and
analyzed by uh a paid economist at the
New Mexico Economic Development
Department. Um there is not a reference
to that. There's not a reference to the
indirect uh spending impact that 828 and
its work which is all documented uh has
on the the local economy and the local
industry. uh there's no analysis of what
company would fill the void if this were
to change uh the business trajectory or
or caused uh 828 to relocate elsewhere.
Um, all incredibly important things that
I think as policy makers have to be
considered uh not only when uh saying
additional funding isn't available, but
clawing back so much money, almost a
million and a half dollars from a
startup company that's been in operation
for two years and has 10 years to meet
its goal.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. I'll see
if council has any questions for you at
this time. Is there anyone? Councelor
Harris.
Uh, thanks, Michael Harris, for the
record. Um,
so you know, you I I think I was hearing
that you said you the facility hasn't
closed. Um, but there are several
facilities and so I was wondering if um
you or um our economic development could
talk to the actual disposition of those
facilities. You know, the purpose of
this Lita is that the city wanted to
have a film studio built in Los Cruus
and that was the purpose. Um, so what's
going on at these facilities?
Sure. Uh, Mayor Enriquez and Councelor
Harris, that's a really great question
and um, it and I'm and I'm not trying to
be evasive. It it's complicated uh, the
question. And in part uh the economy
surrounding the film industry across the
country has changed uh since 2022 when
828 uh was enticed to come to New Mexico
from California uh with the promise of
tax incentives which are there and any
film company in New Mexico will admit
that that is often the p it really is
the primary reason why film has a strong
presence in the state. uh but also
coordination with state and local
government and available economic
development funding. Uh the
there was a a level of urgency by policy
makers. Uh there was a announcement by
the governor. Uh there were plans shown
with with uh drawings uh of a a film
studio like something that you would see
in California with a water tower with
names on it and large studios and
beautiful landscaping. uh something that
is still a dream of 828 and I could say
that but not something that would happen
in two years um with any company there
there is not the industry to support
that here yet uh and so the disposition
of the property were many of these
properties were purchased uh in short
order millions of dollars in properties
and uh 828 has made a business decision
to focus on certain properties over
others because the long-term planning of
a large film campus is just not in the
short-term uh you know business plans of
the company at this time. So the the
that property is no longer being used.
Uh we're in uh conversation discussions
with the seller. Uh it was a self
financed uh a seller financed uh real
estate uh deal and uh we're the on
behalf of the company we are in
communication with the seller to
determine if um 828 can uh take title
back to the property because that that
is one of the issues that that's going
on is that that property is no longer
titled. It was never owned outright by
828. So it didn't take the property and
then sell it for an investment or
anything like that. It was a seller
financed property.
So to clarify on your last point, the
city put Lita money toward a property
with the expectation it would be
developed. You no longer own said
property and might not get it back to
actually do that development.
Yeah, Mayor Councelor Harris, that is
that is correct. Um, and there are um,
of course that's not that was never the
plan of 828 to um, to lose possession of
a property of that purchase. Uh, it also
didn't expect a writer stride. It also
didn't expect a 30% downturn in the film
industry across the country. Um, and
that property is still useful. It can
still be used even if it's not
immediately developed. Um, and so that's
what we're we're in conversation about,
but they do not currently have title to
property.
Thanks,
Councelor Beno.
Thank you. I'm I'm glad you brought up
the question of the properties as well.
Can you talk about which properties that
A2A is focusing on and which you are
not?
I I can answer that, but I can also
allow the the CEO of 828, uh, Todd
Lenbomb, to to speak to you uh more
about that. I'm aware of the plans. Uh,
and it's the hub. It's it's the one that
was always um that was always identified
in the PPA as the facility. The PPA
mentions the property downtown as the
facility, the the uh qualified
production facility and additional
locations around the city. So that
property uh where I was at this morning
is uh the the focus um of of their their
current business model. Now,
just to clarify, that property is the
South Miranda property, correct?
The Old Baptist Church. Yes. Okay. So
then can you talk about the other
properties? The one on uh Amador, the
old bowling alley, the one uh right here
next to the plaza. Can you just give us
uh and how many other properties A28
owns?
Um Mayor, uh Councelor Beno, I I can
answer some of those questions. Um
they're they're in part because I'm an
attorney representing them uh with with
real estate matters as well. Um, I want
to make sure that what I state is, um,
not anything that's privileged also, uh,
in in how we're trying to assist with
the company and being able to utilize
its money in the best way possible so
that it can grow the film industry in
Los Cusus.
So, it's the use of those properties and
the plan use of properties is is dynamic
and in part, it's what's happening today
with the city. Um, if if this company
has a immediately a 1.4 4 million
liability. Uh that changes its business
model, too. So, um I respectfully I I
would like to be able to talk to my
client and see um what answers um we can
provide in writing and I want to be as
clear as possible, but I want to make
sure that if um there are legal reasons
why we might want to not disclose. We
want to be as transparent as possible
and I don't expect that we wouldn't be
able to. But um if you wanted specific
Todd, would you mind if I yield to
if it's specifically about that?
Sure. Which properties?
Mayor, city council.
Mayor, city council. Um Todd Leom, CEO
of A2A Productions, and I'm just
addressing uh your questions about the
properties. Um, counselor,
uh, as my attorney stated, 106 South
Miranda has always been our headquarters
and it continues to be our headquarters.
Um,
as it pertains directly to 300 compress
1053 Heer, which was meant to be a much
larger studio complex. In 18 to 24
months, my employees called LCPD over a
hundred times
because of incursions into the property.
One of my employees was charged by a
local with a machete.
Yeah. No, I thought you I thought this I
thought this where I assumed this is
exactly where this would be going. I'm
asking about the condition of the
properties that you own and what you
plan to do with them.
Oh, I'm I'm I'm sorry. I was just giving
some context on on why those properties
became too dangerous and untenable to to
currently continue to develop. So, we've
we've sort of shrunk ranks to focus on
106. Um,
so that's that's where we want to focus.
What about the bowling alley?
The bowling alley also has breakins
almost daily and and it's just so
difficult to keep secure that whenever
I want to show it to an actor or an
agent or a director or a producer, we're
always running the risk of being
surprised by somebody who's camped out
inside the building. So, for the time
being, we're focusing on 106 because we
seem to be able to keep that safe and
and it doesn't reflect negatively on on
the area when we're bringing outside
investment or or uh producing partners.
Okay.
Church tree in the offices. And I I
would also just like to to say that over
the past couple of years, the number
one, number two, num number three
requests that we get is for more office
space. It's it's not it's not for hey we
need dozens of of soundstages. And in
this same period of time that I've been
trying to develop these properties,
there's been these tax dollars that have
been allocated to build another
facility. I think 15 to 20 million are
being spent to build a a sound stage
over at over at Arrowhead. Um so so all
of this landscape is is
it's dynamic. It's it's changing all the
time and and we're we are focused on
bringing outside productions in in in
into uh into New Mexico. You know, we
have a a large film that we're trying to
bring in here in April and
all of this that's going on right now is
is is is threatening that. So, we're we
are just asking for for more time and
more attention and more communication
with with y'all to to try to figure out
what's what's best for the city moving
forward. Thank you for your answer. I
just want to that point I just want to
say that um you know I've been working
very hard with community development
department to try to address uh
neglected and blighted buildings and the
reality is that um when a property owner
uh deflects their responsibility for any
particular building and it deteriorates
and it is neglected
uh and it becomes blighted, it invites
more blight and it's a bit of a a
circular situation and um I know that
what we can do is go to the responsible
land land owner who can take some
responsibility for those buildings and
from what I see um there has been some
some lack of in that as well and I
understand that it it would it is a bit
easier to say well it's all of these
problems that the city hasn't dealt with
and that's why the condition of the
building remains the same. I would argue
that the the owner of the building also
has responsibility to um to upkeep and
maintain their buildings.
Councelor
Matise, uh, you had mentioned and and
maybe you could repeat, uh, what's the
association with Arrowhead and the
studio
at S New Mexico State University's
plans. Correct. For
Thank you,
mayor. Uh, city council. So, um, when
when the talks first began about, uh,
using tax money to build a sound stage,
um, initially, uh, the state had looked
at placing that sound stage on on one of
my properties. And then um that
conversation changed uh because because
uh I I don't understand the full picture
but it landed underneath um
academia and and so then it was placed
at at Arrowhead because it's it's an
academic facility. Um so so my
understanding is they've raised $20
million of of tax money to build just a
single sound stage. is not to acquire
any uh any property or or uh um any of
the other infrastructure where you look
at what I was doing basically from
scratch having to do the utilities the
the land acquisition the design the the
build um so so we are getting I guess an
academic facility um I don't I don't
know yet I've heard so many different
versions of how it that's going to be
split up public private but uh but it's
my understanding that they've broken
ground on that and that is happening at
Arrowhead
Okay. And and just to be clear, A28
Productions has no association with with
that facility.
No, sir.
Okay. Thank you.
It's it's competition. I mean, it's it's
taxf funded competition.
Thank you.
Yeah. And and counselor, I I did not
mean to shuck our responsibility in in
this. I it's a it's a partnership.
That's that's what I've tried tried to
say. Thank you,
Mayor Proip.
Uh thank you, Mayor. Mayor, counselors,
um I just want to stress that, you know,
Laser says we're we're open for business
and that's what uh we want to move
forward with. We don't want to um bring
concerns or scare off the film industry.
Um we I think all
have or had high hopes for 828
productions. Um
no investment is guaranteed. Uh there's
always there's always risk. There's
there's always risk. Those who invested
in Amazon early on did very well. Um
they were very savvy and sophisticated
investors and organizations that
invested in Enron and that did not end
up very well.
I want to reconcile some of the things
that you said. Um you talked about
hiring um 1,200 New Mexicans um but
Elizabeth um mentioned nine employees
and we're not sure how many of those
were from Los Cruuses. So, I'd like to
reconcile that. And then, um, the
communication piece, you mentioned the
350 pages now, and I get it. Partners,
you know, we're in business. We're
moving along. All partners have the
issue. You know, I've been married for
26 years, and and I still have
communication issues with my my wife.
Um, and we don't always agree. But what
um can you reconcile those those two
things for me? Uh, mayor, mayor prom,
that's a really great question and I
think that goes to um the point that I
made with 828's interest in discussing
the changes to the economic climate. And
so, one of those when when this first
began, the idea was that 828 would be a
company in which could employ a large
number of people uh and and many of the
services that go along with the
production would be done by full-time
employees of the company itself. uh for
a number of reasons and we can get into
those if you'd like. Um that business
model isn't sustainable at this moment.
Um but what 828 has shown is that it can
exceed the production spending amount
which is why that 40 that 4.5 million it
it was added to account for a million
for per employ uh full-time employee
reduction. So, it's a a 55 employee
reduction with a $55 million production
spend adjustment to that. Uh, there are
still many many jobs and I know um
crew jobs that come in and they have to
jump from project to project is are not
always the most uh desirable position,
but that is how much of the industry
works, particularly when a a new uh
production company is is is building in
a new area in a new city. And so, um,
that's the reconciliation. We're talking
about number of full-time employees. Um,
and I and I I think someone may be
making a a comment about this, but 828
has maintained those employees, and even
with the uh writer strike, they kept all
of those employees, didn't lose any,
have paid uh full benefits um and their
competitive wages. So, that promise has
been kept. It's just the type of of jobs
um have shifted um with the business
strategy.
Thank you. Thank you, mayor.
No other questions by council. At this
point, is there any members of the
public that would like to speak? Okay,
you start working your way up and I'll
give you all two minutes.
And thank you again.
Thank you.
Hello. Uh, my name is Candace Nanco and
I handle the corporate operational side
of 828 Productions. I'm also a native
New Mexican. So for me, this role isn't
just about business logistics. It's
about building a sustainable worldclass
industry right here in my own backyard.
828 launched with big plans and a lot of
momentum, ready to change the landscape
of film production in this state. As
many of you know, and we've talked about
it here today, the writer strike
happened and between that, we
effectively lost nearly a year of
production time. To give you an idea of
the macro picture, nationwide production
spend plummeted by 40% while sound stage
utilization across the country sat at a
staggering 63%.
For a company with big growth plans and
the kind of industry-wide freeze that is
that is the ultimate stress test. This
is where I get incredibly proud of where
I work. Despite the 40% drop in industry
spend, 828 Productions did not lay off a
single employee and for that I'm forever
grateful. Thank you.
My name is Fred Huff. I had a deal uh
prepared, but a lot of the information
that I got here totally changed that. So
my question is why did this thing fail
or in the process of failing? Um the CEO
mentioned it pretty good and and uh it
was also in what he said here was in a
January 28th Albuquerque Journal article
and he quote and to quote him he said
progress on developing industrial
properties near Amodore Avenue in the
middle town middle of town has slowed
because of trespassing property crime
and security concerns at the location.
Well, that's what we're having over at
Burn Lake Valley Drive. If you drive
down there, you see a lot of businesses
closed and boarded up or huge fences put
in. All of this is the same trespassing.
Um, Councelor Ben Como just a few
minutes ago, if I understood her
correct, said, "Oh, it's a property
owner's responsibility to keep
trespassing out." but also uh two weeks
ago she said it's a waste of taxpayer
money for the police to be um removing
tr trespassers from a city property. So
where where are we at? Um but the bottom
line is this property on Amador when I
fly over it with my drone
I see people going in and out of that
big building that has 28 828 on it. I
see them going in and out of that like
Walmart. So why? Well, the the
attraction is Community of Hope across
the street giving out all of the
freebies. So maybe if this thing fails
and you do your clawback, maybe you can
try to get that property right across
from Community of Hope and use it as a
place to go for these homeless and maybe
get a a ordinance passed because that's
a big objection on getting an a public
camping ordinance passed is where do
they go? That could be it. Thank you.
Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. Uh,
my name is Kathleen Ruiz. I work for 828
Productions as a bookkeeper. I want to
start by saying I moved to Los Cusus um
in June of 2024. my daughter and I moved
here from El Paso um with the hopes of
being able to make more, earn more money
and have um be in a peaceful community
and I was really excited to find that
within a month of moving here um a
posting with a film production company
in what I do. Um I love movies. We were
always at the movie theater. So to be
able to merge my two worlds was so
exciting for me and became even more
realistic through this time. Um sorry
I'm nervous. Um,
this was like the most exciting cover
letter I've ever written in my life. And
then to be able to be granted this this
opportunity to work with them. So, I've
been with them a year and a half now.
Um, and I will say a year ago when
Protector was here filming, I had my
opportunity to go to my first movie set
and to actually meet Mila Jovovich face
to face. Um, no other opportunity would
have come my way like that. Also during
this time, I want to say as a resident
of Los Cusus, I've seen three pay
increases during this time. Um, it's not
something that I needed to disclose, but
I I want to say there has been growth
opportunity during this time. Um, for me
that may not have been felt anywhere
else. Um during these reporting periods
that are were mentioned in the
presentation um we were going through um
staffing transitions and the reporting
to and uh the state ED fell into my
world. Um so I will take responsibility
in that those reports did go in late for
that reason. Um I was still trying to
get my head wrapped around those um
reports and what was needed. Um, but
there was no intention of delay or um,
especially no disregard for the
reporting requirements. So, honest
oversight on my part and it was
corrected immediately once I pulled our
CEO Todd in to assist me with that. Um,
thank you for your time.
Derek Pacheco for the record, Double
Strike Studios, Los Cuses, New Mexico.
to quote my director friend that I was
just texting right now um that I sent a
link to this meeting. [clears throat] He
said that was hilarious to watch.
I don't think it's hilarious. I think
it's absolutely disgusting. I think we
learned all we needed to know about the
situation by Mr. Apadaka here earlier
during public comment. He's a longtime
film professional. He's a former child
actor. He's seen it all and done it all.
When a professional comes in to
represent our hometown and say
essentially that it's not working out
and I'm ready to bounce, that should
concern each and every one of you. 828
has been absolutely the worst neighbors
that I could possibly have experienced
coming into my neighborhood. Absolutely
garbage.
Will not return phone calls. Will not
uphold meetings. um just buying real
estate to throw into a portfolio to see
that portfolio rise.
Nine jobs. Yeah, of course you didn't
have to lay anyone off. You didn't hire
anyone. It's a scam. It's a sham.
And it's heartbreaking because I was one
of the most excited people for this
project. Like, wow, film, my profession.
I'm going to see some work out of this.
I'm going to see a film community be
built. Do you remember the fanf fair
that we had with the governor here and
council members on stage at the Rio
Grand Theater? And wow, Warner Brothers,
watch out.
They can't even keep the landscape up at
Miranda. You can't walk down the
sidewalk without having the Mexican fan
palms hit you in the face. You can't
have a nice walk down the street on
Messia Street without hearing that
stupid alarm, back away from the
building. These ple these people have to
go. Thank you.
Good afternoon. Thank you everyone. Um,
thank you for taking the time here. Um,
uh, Gerard Munoz here, just a production
executive here with A28. Um, um, I grew
up in Los Cusus. I attended CMI. Um I've
you know I got 20 years in the industry
um in mostly in New Mexico as well as in
other states here and uh I just um when
I first graduated from CMI it was
exciting because I was there in the very
beginning of the Korean media institute
and it gave me a great opportunity to to
learn uh film making and whatnot. But
was heartbreaking is that uh you know I
had a daughter here and at that point of
time you really just had to move to
Albuquerque to get an opportunity to
work in this industry. So when 828 uh
reached out to me to come back here, um
just just very excited to be able to
create something here in Los Cusus and
um create an upward trajectory for the
uh creative community here. Um so um
even though everything has been a rough
going, um it's been it's it is it has
been a great opportunity and it still
can be a great opportunity. I really
hope that we can come to some agreements
here and work everything out. Um, but
you know what I mean? All the better
part of this morning was spent
interviewing a a business owner that had
their business re um basically renovated
and fixed up by production that we
brought here. So, um I know that we are
making progress and I you know I know we
are making progress. It's going to be,
you know, 828 has always been there
trying to make uh Los Cruus's production
ready and trying to build up that infra
infrastructure and I think with some
teamwork um between our partnership um
this can still be the case. Um,
you know, I appreciate the council's
time and just want to finally just say
that, you know, it it's really, you
know, the um partnership and um that
that can make this um opportunity uh
turn around.
Chris Abadaka, mayor
prom. Uh,
it's nice to meet Todd. Uh, I've never
met him. Uh, probably about four years
ago, I c uh when there was a write up in
the paper. Uh, I got in contact with the
uh head of business affairs. I never
talked to her. Uh, it was all texting
and emails. I It's been four years. is I
never have spoke to anybody uh which uh
I was very disappointed. Um this is the
first time I saw uh Todd. I'm very uh
connected with Los Cusus Ross. I I was
very close with Mark Medov. Uh they were
trying to get me as an adjunct professor
uh there at New Mexico State.
Unfortunately, the funds were not there.
Um, mayor, I I gave the city clerk my
phone number to give to you. Uh, I plan
on attending. This has been quite
interesting. Uh, uh, I'm glad I showed
up. I'm glad I showed up. Uh if you want
uh you know I have everything that you
would possibly want to look at but um
I'm very open uh
for any questions. You'll know that I
know my business. ask ask me anything
that you want to know and you can think
about it and uh I'll be here the next
meeting and you can
go
ask me anything uh about the business
and uh I'm very happy to do that. Um,
mayor, uh, I hope I hear from you and I
will be back
and, uh, hope you'll consider, uh, what
my proposal is. Um,
thank you very much.
Okay, Elizabeth, can you uh go over the
council options again?
Okay, we all good. Any questions?
Yes, councelor.
Uh, thanks. So, just to clarify on our
council options, if we vote yes, we're
voting to terminate the project
participation agreement with
Mayor Councelor Harris. Yes, we will
continue to be the fiscal agents for the
three million of the state money.
Okay, thanks.
Okay, Christie.
This is on the motion to approve
ordinance 3107.
Councelor McClur,
yes.
Councelor Matise,
no.
Councelor Harris,
yes.
Councelor Bencomo,
yes.
Councelor Karan,
yes.
Councelor Munoz,
yes.
Mayor,
yes.
Motion passes.
Next on the agenda is board
appointments. So this one is requiring a
motion and a second for James Bentley to
the Veterans Advisory Board.
Move to approve.
Second.
This is in the motion to appoint James
Bentley to the Veterans Advisory Board.
Councelor Mccclure.
Yes.
Councelor Matise.
Yes.
Councelor Harris. Yes.
Councelor Bencomo.
Yes.
Councelor Karan.
Yes.
Councelor Munoz.
Yes.
Mayor.
Yes.
Next we have a notice of proposed
ordinance.
It's council bill number 26-016.
Ordinance number 3108.
An ordinance amending chapter 2 article
4 division 3 subdivision of the Veterans
Advisory Board.
bring it forward.
Next is city council member board
reports and comments. Council Mccclure.
Thank you, mayor. I just wanted to give
a shout out to staff for the budget
retreat. I think it was a great
opportunity to kind of um merge some of
our ideas. Uh, one of which is the youth
advisory council that nearly every one
of us spoke to to be able to reach out
and build uh, opportunities for youth in
our um, city to be able to have direct
access to what they want to see, what
they want to grow here in the city. Um,
I also like the idea that uh, we are all
pretty much unanimous on supporting the
library and I hope that the legislators
feel the same way. So, thank you.
Thank you, Council Matise.
Yes. Thank you, Mayor. Uh, talking about
shout outs, I just wanted to, uh, say
thank you to Mandy. Uh, I that was a
great show. We had a artwork at Laavita
Park in District 2. Uh, Blendell was a
great artist and we had a nice turnout
and your production was done real well.
Thank you, Mandy. On the second item, we
had, I believe, Mr. black uh asking what
are we doing? You know, what are we
doing for teen programs and what's
what's our future? Well, we've had some
meetings Cassie attended, I believe the
mayor, we had the teacher from Fair
Acres, we had the parks director, and
we're trying to expand and upgrade uh
after school programs. And I think we're
going to get that done. We're going to
make after school programs more career
oriented. uh maybe skill building and
we'll have more of them. We're just not
uh satisfied with five programs, seven
programs. I'd like to see the after
school program programs implemented in
all the schools and to make them career
oriented. So we are doing something Mr.
Black. We're not just sitting up here
not doing anything. Thank you.
Thank you councelor nurse.
Um thanks. I would also like to uh echo
the thanks for the budget retreat. I
think it was a very productive
discussion. It was great to to hear from
staff and to be able to to really
discuss things in that in that open way
and have a handful of uh people from the
public there. So, appreciate appreciate
that. Um I think we we heard some hard
truths about the budget that we've got
to look at and um think we're we're
going to make it work. So, thanks
Council Brink Cole.
Thanks, Mayor. Yeah, I also had it on my
list today to
thank the staff for making the budget
retreat happen and of course to um
almost my colleagues for showing up and
and having those conversations. It was I
thought it was a really fruitful and
meaningful day. So, thank you. And and I
also wanted to lift up that you know two
things about the youth conversations
that we had quite a bit at the budget
retreat which were really powerful. Um,
one is that I again I wanted to lift up
the importance of having an a um gun
diversion program. I think you know it's
funny that Mr. Black talked about it
takes a village and you know I think in
in two ways it takes a village. It takes
a village to raise strong children that
become you know
the future the leaders of our community.
It also takes a village to fail children
in our community. And I think way too
often um we put especially young people
into into boxes and then we kind of
leave them there and we fail to ask the
hard questions about how you know they
ended up in there in the first place.
And so um I also believe that everybody
deserves multiple chances but especially
our young people. And so I would love to
um really put a motion in plan for how
we bolster the current youth diversion
and development program that we already
have at the city. certainly not supplant
it, but bolster it with the support of
other folks in our community who are
doing this kind of work and and really
hope that we get to put some money
behind a pilot project for specifically
gun diversion programming um that can
help young people find ways out of the
criminal justice system. And then, you
know, speaking of youth and, you know,
wanting to hear from them and and, you
know, perhaps creating something that
can help us better connect with them, I
also, you know, realized on Thursday
there was this huge school walk out in
Los Cusus. And, you know, some people
might say, "Oh, well, young people, they
just must skip school." But honestly,
what I saw was kids who are very attuned
to what's happening in our community.
Kids who are um seeing what's happening
across the country and they are seeing
their themselves in that. They're seeing
their families reflected in that and
they're experiencing heartache and anger
and they express that and it was really
beautiful. And so I think for all of us
who want to say we want, you know, we
say we want to hear from youth and I I
hope that we are prepared to hear from
all youth and what they have to say,
especially when they have to say it so
loudly. And I was very proud of those
young people. Um, our own high schooler
said she walked 10 miles total that day
from Centennial High School. So um, you
know, just really proud of those of
those young folks and I really do think
it it takes a village to both support
them and to fail them. So, I was very
happy to to see that we had a lot of
conversations about that at the budget
retreat and and I think something um
more powerful than what already exists
is going to flourish out of that. So,
thank you and thank you staff for
putting in that work.
Thank you councelor Kr.
Thank you. I don't have a lot. I also
just want to thank staff especially uh
our facilitators and the folks who came
and shared and and everyone who
participated in the budget retreat. Um
they were it was great conversations in
great context. I do feel like um
understanding the budget. I really
appreciate Leslie Doyle's you know
really clear um
picture that she painted for us using
graphs. So, I always appreciate that and
and the conversations we had about what
ways we have forward to be thoughtful
and good stewards of of our money. So,
thank you to everyone who helped
organize and and do that. I also want to
just give a quick shout out. I wasn't
able to attend the ribbon cutting for
the fire station 6 um
uh statue, but I think councelor Harris
was there. But I I know that uh the art
committee when I was on the art
committee at one point we had a
presentation from that artist and I
drive by that every single day. So I I'm
really excited to see it um come to
fruition. So uh drive by at the corner
of Rinkanada or Roadrunner and North
Rice, right? Yeah. uh if you want to see
a very cool stature statue. So that's
it. Thank you.
Thank you, Mayor Prom.
Thank you, Mayor. I also want to thank
the well, I want to thank the museum
staff for allowing me to come in and
talk to some of their middle school
students. Uh it was a um I wouldn't say
a tough crowd, but a crowd you had to
manage because uh it was me between
pizza or whatever. The team bought them.
So, uh, that was a little little rough,
but they were, you know, very
inquisitive and so I enjoyed my time
there. Also want to thank the the the
staff and our, uh, city manager for
putting together the budget retreat. Um,
very robust, very well thought out. I I
love the uh, flow and what I picked up
from that session. Wanted to also thank
the um, Miss Kyla Avula's class,
economic class from New America School.
Now the students right now you know some
of our Gen Z's or so it's hard to keep
their attention for two minutes. Uh they
were there for two hours two and a half
hours or so. Uh and they absolutely
loved loved the um the participation or
the information. Um and they had a so I
I need to get with the city attorney and
the and the city clerk to see how I can
disperse that information. They actually
sent me readouts and information of what
they liked, what they didn't like, and
some suggestions. um these um youngsters
from from uh high school and I was I was
so tickled by that. So a lot of good
feedback uh some constructive feedback
which is fine. We grow from that. Um but
but I was terribly impressed just as
amazingly impressed uh by Miss Aila's
class and their thoughtfulness of just
spending two hours with us. So I am very
hopeful in our future and our future
leaders. Thank you, Mayor.
Thank you. [clears throat]
Also, I just want to thank the Los Cusus
Police Department and our parks and
wreck for our newly certified park
rangers uh that were introduced on
Friday afternoon. Uh we're always
looking for public safety in our in our
community and this is a good way to
offer safety in public spaces,
especially our parks. Again, uh thank
you to the city manager and staff for
the budget retreat. I think it was done
very well and had a lot of good insight
from everyone and looking forward to the
work session. Also on this week,
Wednesday, we will be going up to Santa
Fe for city day. It be hosted by the
city of Los Cusus. We'll have a
breakfast there. uh a lot of us will be
attending so that we can uh discuss with
our legislators a lot of our priorities
uh such as the library and others that
we're looking for to bring value to our
community. And with that, I'll turn it
over to our city manager.
[clears throat]
Thank you, Mayor Enriquez, Mayor Prom
Munoz, and city counselors, city
manager. And just a few announcements. I
echo everyone on DS. are so appreciative
of of you attending and to staff and
especially the public. It's not an easy
meeting to attend. It was uh a full day
on the agenda and I s I am so sorry for
council. I kept you from lunch and break
time to squeeze in all the agenda items.
So, thank you for your patience and
understanding. Um I I echo your
appreciation for staff and I just want
to give some kudos to Leslie and our
budget team uh always working behind the
scenes. Thank you to Cynthia Almo and
our CIP team uh making it happen and to
um all of her team uh strategic uh
planning. Appreciate Chris and Sarah
Gonzalez for uh helping to plan the GRT
and all the departments who are working
on all the projects and have submitted
their projects for uh budget and and
GRT. Uh appreciate public works being
there, our uh assistant city managers
always there for support and Christine
Dvetta, thank you. Uh we had a great uh
budget team uh this year and so I'm I'm
I'm glad and and um hopefully uh budget
and our staff um heard all the
appreciations and kudos that council has
given them. That means a lot to staff.
So thank you so much. Uh parks and wreck
have a few announcements. Pioneer
women's park enhancements. I am pleased
to announce that the next phase of
master plan improvements at Pioneer
Women's Park is officially underway. As
as uh this month uh occurs, crews have
begun working on new walkways, the
installation of pergolas, and modernized
irrigation systems to ensure the park
remains vibrant and sustainable. We
expect construction to wrap up in the
time um in in due time to ensure the
park is ready for our residents to enjoy
the summer season. Neighborhood dumpster
day. Finally, a reminder for our
residents. Keep Las Cruciius Beautiful
will host the monthly neighborhood
dumpster day this Saturday, February
7th, from 8:00 a.m. to noon. Disposal
sites will be available at Apadaka Park,
East Mesa Recreation Center, and Young
Park. We encourage everyone to take
advantage of this opportunity. And last
for parks and rack trees trail re um
reforestation in our ongoing effort to
expand the city's canopy our community
forestry staff recently completed the
planting of 60 new trees along the east
trail between Kohl's and University
Avenue. While these trees are currently
in the early growth stage this is a
vital investment in our city's future.
Thank you park staff public works. Just
a few announcements and then we'll end
with VC municipal court HVAC. Um we have
our our renovations happening currently
at municipal court and just want to
announce uh to our our neighbors at MUN
Court. They've been on the second floor
for a few months and we appreciate their
staff and their patience and also our
staff accommodating them. Uh the
transition will happen on March 2nd
where they go back to uh their building
on 135 East Greek. So just a heads up on
that. Uh second announcement,
construction improvements on Cortez
Drive from Porter to Dun are complete.
New roadway sidewalks, multi-use trails,
utility, storm drainage systems, and
street lighting installed. Caliper
construction uh Incorporated of Las
Cusus completed the contract for $6
million. Uh next, new street light
installations began in the North Mosquet
Historic District. Work on North
Mosquite,
Pinon Avenue, and San Pedro Street, East
Picacho Avenue, and North Tornneo
Street. Work expected through June 26
with a contract value of 500,000 by
Highland Enterprise.
Last for public works, South Walnut East
Lman signal improvements is scheduled to
start on February 17th and continue
through June. Improvements include
traffic efficiency and safety, signal
upgrades, new crosswalks, and enhanced
pedestrian ramps. Intersection project
is 1.5 with a mountain construction in
Los Cusus. And last, I wanted to end
with a cool surprise. Um Michelle, can
you put your hand up? Are these free?
These are free. Okay, so visit Las Cusus
and that was our tourism director, Las
Cusus uh very own Relle Nandez. they
have put on this visitor guide. It is
out and has been receiving quite a few
compliments. Last year they actually
this guide uh different guide but um but
this is going to also receive some cool
awards. Last year they received the
award for best print campaign and we're
hoping to win it again. So, uh, we
appreciate Rashelle. Um, we appreciate,
uh, her and her staff also, uh,
postcards that look,
um, very similar. There probably other
postcards as well, or is this the only
one? Okay, there's several. She's
shaking her head. She's saying there's
various, uh, there's there's various
postcards, but this is just super cool.
Um, visit Las Cusus. They're saying this
is free, but they are funded by Logis.
So, this is actually paid by uh tourism.
So, we appreciate all the work that is
happening. Keep up the great work,
Relle. Uh this is a cool treat. So, get
your very own at uh Visas Cruis's
building. Thank you. And that's it.
Mayor,
thank you. Thank you, [clears throat]
city manager. With that, I'll ask for a
motion to adjurnn.
So moved.
Second.
This is on the motion to adjourn the
meeting. Councelor Mccclur,
yes.
Councelor Matise,
yes.
Councelor Harris,
yes.
Councelor Beno,
yes.
Councelor Karan,
yes.
Councelor Munoz,
yes.
Mayor,
yes.