Well, good afternoon everyone. Welcome
to the work session. Today is Monday,
November 10th, uh, 2025. It's a little
after 1, it's 10:04 p.m. approximately,
and I'm Mayor Eric Enriquez. Uh we'll
start with a moment of silence for the
brave men and women of the United
States, the armed for forces as they
protect our interests around the globe
and also for for our police and fire
that keep our city safe 24/7 365
and also wanted to before uh pay tribute
to our veterans as tomorrow is Veterans
Day and uh thank them for their
dedication, their courage and their
sacrifice. And with that,
[music]
Great. Please join me in the pledge.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the
republic for which it stands. One nation
under God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all.
All right, next we have jobs of the week
with Sarah Rainey.
Thank you, Mayor.
All right. My name is Sarah Rainey. I'm
the onestop coordinator for the
Southwest Region of America's Job
Centers, New Mexico. For jobs of the
week this week, we have a buyer one for
the city of Los Cusus for 2379 an hour.
It is a continuous posting at this time.
We also have a senior office assistant
um for the city that's starting at 16:15
an hour and closes on the 17th. We have
a student program coordinator at NMSU
starting at 1785 an hour and it closes
very soon actually on the 12th.
A home care assistant for Angel Wings
Coordinated Care LLC for $12 an hour
closing um later on this month on the
28th. a full-time Universal Banker, one
for Citizens Bank of Las Cruises for $14
an hour, closing on the 22nd, and then
they also have a part-time Universal
Banker um closing on the 27th as well.
And then the pay is depending on
experience on that one.
Um as always, we have our community of
hope um job readiness event coming up
this week. Actually, Wednesday, we have
that this week. And the other events
that we have coming up are all in
office. So, if you are looking for a
job, if you want part-time, full-time,
seasonal, please come in and talk to us.
We've got a lot of good resources and a
lot of employers are looking right now.
Thank you.
Thank you, Sarah. Next is Pets of the
Week with Carol.
Good afternoon. Afternoon. I'm Carol
Nelson, digital content specialist with
the animal services wow services center
of the Messia Valley. This week, our dog
of the week is Lemon Mering 91342.
Even though I've spent a bit more time
here at the shelter, I've turned out to
be a fairly balanced pup. I love heading
to the playyard where I can stretch my
legs and explore the world around me.
Treats are my motivation. I'm more than
happy to work on my sit command. I
respond to recall commands, so getting
me to come back when called, working on
it. But it's getting easier, especially
if there's a yummy treat waiting for me.
If you're looking for a playful
companion who comes with a big part, big
heart, and a bit
and our cat of the week is CutiePie,
98691.
I'm a six-year-old cat, a bit older than
some of the younger felines around the
shelter. I'm still full of life and
ready to enjoy every moment. I
absolutely thrive on affection. My
favorite thing in the world, neck
scratches. I'm also quite the
storyteller, so get ready for some
charming meows and purr as I keep you
company while you show me affection. I
would do best in one cat household where
I can soak up all the love and
attention. If you're looking for a
gentle friend who will keep you company
and fill your days with conversation and
love, I'm your kitty.
And as always, we like to highlight our
long-term residents uh to encourage the
community to come adopt uh when they're
looking to adopt animals because the
longer uh animals stay in the shelter,
it's harder for them to thrive. Cosette
has been with us now 370
wow 37 days. Dexter 292,
Finn 282, and Hulu 280 days. All really
good options. They're really fun dogs,
but it does get harder for them. So,
please, please, please come help them
out.
And this coming weekend, we will be at
Petco from 9 to noon. So, come on out.
Uh, grab your supplies, say hello to our
adoptables, and bring someone who's
looking to adopt.
And as always, for more information,
visit us at asmv.org or follow us on
social media. Thank you.
Thank you, Carol.
Next, we'll move to the agenda items
4.1,
2026, state and federal legislative
priorities.
I have Christine Reven.
Oh,
one second. I have to read the closed
meeting statement first. [laughter]
Where is that one?
So, city of Los Cruus City Council met
in close session along with the uh board
members from the county commission at
11:04 a.m. on November 10th, 2025. The
following were attendance. Councelor
Mccclure, Councelor Graham, Councelor
Kuran, Mayor Prom Bencomo, Mayor
um Councelor Flores, City Manager was on
teams, Econopa,
city attorney Brad, uh city clerk
Christine Rietta, also city attorney
Henry Becker from the county, Chris
Salio Hernandez, Manny Sanchez, Shannon
Reynolds, Gloria Gomeros,
also staff Deborah Weir, Carrie Neil,
Steven Lopez, and outside councel Chris
Dealippo.
[laughter]
The items that were discussed threatened
or pending litigation in the matter of
Memorial Medical Center note breach sent
on August 29th, 2024. The meeting
adjourned at 12:58 PM.
Now we can move to agenda 4.1.
Uh state and federal legislative
priorities. Uh city clerk Christine Ria.
Yes. Mayor, city council. Good
afternoon. I am Christine Rivera, your
city clerk. And today we have the state
and federal legislative priorities for
2026.
Um, first I would like to extend my
appreciation to all the departments that
went met with myself, Cynthia Almo, and
Gabby Prattz to review and discuss their
respective priorities. Based on those
discussions, we have developed a list of
projects and initiatives that we believe
align well with our legislative
delegation. Today's presentation will
consist of multiple parts. To begin, I
will turn it over to Larry Heran, who
will provide an update on the special
session in October and share insights on
to what to expect during the upcoming
30-day regular session.
Uh thank you, mayor, members of council.
Larry Heran, state lobbyist for the city
of Los Cusus. It's always good to be in
front of you uh as we as we head into
another regular legislative session. Um,
breaking news is we're in our second
special session of the legislature today
as of about 1 p.m. They call themselves
back into special session again. So,
I'll go over both special sessions and
what they're um what they're dealing
with. The first special session was
first in October uh October 5th and 6th.
the they passed uh five total pieces of
legislation primarily to deal with the
um changes at the federal level that
came with the the budget resolution
passed by Congress and signed by
President Trump. Um dealing with general
appropriations to bolster against future
cuts to the Medicaid program. Um they
put money in to help people pay premiums
under the Affordable Care Act if those
tax subsidies are not extended. um they
put more money into the SNAP program
benefits and then they made some changes
to the criminal competency law that they
passed uh that [clears throat] they
passed last year to allow for metro
court judges which only applies in the
city of Albuquerque to also apply um to
to utilize the the criminal competency
challenges that they passed in the last
session. And then also they changed
rules to immunization based on the the
changes that came um from the US
Department of Health.
We're heading into the 2026 session and
um I'll remind you short sessions come
every two years, 30-day sessions. 2026
will be a 30-day session. So the subject
matter that the legislators can um
consider is limited to revenue matters,
appropriations, messages from the
governor, and also bills that had been
previously uh vetoed in another session.
What we're seeing this year, and we're
already starting to see the signs of it,
is the budget is starting to constrict
and revenue is starting to constrict at
the state of New Mexico. price of oil is
down. Production is still strong, but as
anticipated, it's starting to it's
starting to peak. The production and and
the revenue we're getting from the oil.
And so, we'll start to see that in the
budget. And we also may see it as it
relates to um funding that's available
for capital outlay and other projects
from the legislators. Although it's not
capital outlay is based upon severance
tax revenue, they also have a permanent
fund. They can issue bonds related to
it. the past several years, all of the
um capital outlay for the state has been
we they've used excess general fund
cash. So this year, you're already
seeing signals from the legislators,
particularly the finance and
appropriations committee, that they
think the budget's going to it's going
to start slowing down. So, um many of
the legislators who were in now have not
experienced any kind of a downturn or
shortfall. We're not at the at a point
where it's considered a downturn. It's
just a slowing of growth. So, what does
that mean? the GRO funds, which also had
been known as House Bill 2 Junior Money,
they were on a two-year cycle um in
2024. So, if they were going to extend
them, this would be the session that
they probably would extend them. Because
of the slowed growth, there's probably
not going to be excess general fund
revenue or they're going to have to
spend it in other places. So, we're not
likely to see growth funds. What are we
going to see? In the special session in
October, there was discussion going into
the special session about passage of the
medical compacts. There's 11 compacts
that were introduced in the in the last
60-day session um in or to that will
help it make it easier for healthcare
providers in New Mexico or out of the
state to actually practice in New
Mexico. We only participated in one or
two now. There's 11 that they're looking
to um that they were were introduced
that we were looking to join. They did
not pass in the 60-day session. They
weren't quite ready, meaning legislative
leadership and the governor's office
weren't ready to come to a resolution on
how to deal with the compacts during the
special session, but legislative
leadership did make a commitment that
they will they will address and hear
about the medical compacts in the first
half of this coming 30-day session. and
also
there's significant movement discussion
um and I would say anxiety on both sides
as it relates to the medical malpractice
act. This is a malpractice act was
changed in 2021. I think New Mexico came
out with a report last year talking
about needed changes to the medical
malpractice act. So you have providers,
hospitals on one side of the issue,
trial lawyers and patient advocates on
the other side. This is another area
where where we'll see something in the
30-day session. Not sure yet whether or
not a compromise will be a will be
reached at that point, but um the the
momentum the is building. Um I would
also say emotions are getting hot as it
relates to the medical malpractice act.
And so we're starting to see this issue
come to a boiling point, which is a lot
of times what it takes um to make a
change in a significant law like the
medical malpractice act. We'll see that
in the coming 30-day session.
What else? Um further possible
mitigation of of federal cuts as it
relates to Medicaid and SNAP. Um today
the special session is focused solely on
SNAP benefits. Uh the governor was able
to fund 10 days of SNAP benefits that
were scheduled to stop at the beginning
of November because of the federal
shutdown. They were able to do that with
emergency funds that they had available,
which was to the tune of $30 million.
That would have expired. That today
would be the last day they would be able
to fund SNAP benefits. So, they called
themselves into special session to
appropriate up to $300 million from
reserves that live in the healthcare
authorities budget to fully fund SNAP
benefits through November if the
shutdown does not end. If the shutdown
ends, which we're seeing signals that
it's close to ending, that money, that
$300 million, then will go into the
Medicaid trust fund that they um that
they created last year.
Again, tax credits for the health
insurance exchange. The big issue at the
federal level is whether or not those
tax credits are going to um be extended
into next year for people buying
insurance on the health insurance
exchange. If that does not happen, then
the legislature has it called the
healthcare affordability fund that can
help people pay for their premiums. Um
so we'll see issues again related to
that tax package. Last year the tax
package was vetoed by the governor. It
had just a couple of um it had
it was not I wouldn't say it was a
sweeping um tax package. had a few
things to the tune of about $150 million
um of tax changes this year because of
what's happening with the um with the
with the price of oil and the
constriction on the budget. There's
probably not capacity for them to pass
it have a tax package. Um so we don't
know yet. They've had discussions at the
revenue stabilization committee which is
the interim committee that relates deals
with tax issues. Senator Carrie Hamlin
is chair of that committee this year and
also chair of the the tax committee in
the Senate. They're considering
potential tax package, but as we get
closer, it's looking less and less like
we're going to have one. Uh, one issue
with that will come up as it relates to
dealing with um medical services and
going back to that Think New Mexico
report, one of the recommendations in
the Think New Mexico report was to
eliminate the gross receipts tax on
medical providers. What happens when
that when the state does that? We saw it
when it hap when they eliminated gross
receipts tax on food. It would have had
would have happened on medical provider
gross receipts tax elimination. If they
eliminate the entire gross receipts tax,
they take the state portion and they
also eliminate the local portion. And so
that has a significant fiscal impact on
cities. And so when the municipal league
took a position on that legislation last
year, it was to oppose the legislation
because of of how it would have impacted
cities. So, we had um I made a
presentation along with Allison Nichols
from the Municipal League to the revenue
stabilization committee um last week.
What was the ask? The ask was generally
going forward to protect local revenues,
if you're going to do something like
take away the gross receipts tax on
medical gross receipts, take away the
state's portion if the state chooses to
to enact that because that's their
revenue and leave the local portion
alone because cities and counties have a
lot many a fewer revenue sources than
the state of New Mexico. And so the
request would be going forward as
they're considered tax policy, leave the
cities alone. Don't hold us harmless.
Don't make harmless payments. just leave
the tax in place as it relates to local
governments. And so, um, I'll I'll stand
for any questions now or if if you think
it's appropriate later if there's
anything you would like me to cover
about what has happened or what's coming
in the next 60-day session. And then it
is the governor's last regular session,
although um, we've had two special
sessions this year. So, even after even
after the session ends in February, she
could call the legislators back in to
deal with some of these kind of big big
ticket issues.
All right. Thank you, Larry. We we'll
wait for questions at the end. Okay.
Questions at the end.
Mayor and council. My name is Cynthia
Lamo, capital improvements program
manager. So, as we talk about the
upcoming legislative priorities, we want
to talk about the capital improvements
program as it is the starting point for
the selection of the projects. The
capital improvements program that goes
by CIP is a planning tool that's
required by the city charter and it's an
annual process. So I also want to uh
take a moment to thank all of the
departments and staff who has been
working with CAP as our pro process does
take a full year from starting to
adoption.
The program generates what we call a CIP
document which is a document that we use
to help uh communicate all of the
funding infrastructure needs that the
city has. It spans six years. See the
first year includes all of the budgeted
infrastructure project which means our
projects that have some sort of funding
associated to it. And then the outer
years which is years 2 to six are all of
our funding needs which are unfunded uh
infrastructure needs which is what we
need to use as a tool to help us find
for funding alternatives.
As I mentioned, the CIP document is
adopted by city council and as our
projects move forward and uh progress,
we have to bring in them to city council
for adoption. Also, if there's an
additional funding source that we need
to include into each of our projects
after the document is approved by
council in May, we then work with the
state to submit the infrastructure
capital improvement plan that it's
called.
This is another planning tool that's
used to communicate uh the funding needs
of our municipality. As we get closer to
the legislation,
uh the state department, specifically
department of finance and
administration, will communicate our
project information to the legislature.
So that will be additional information
and details that they can review and
oversee as they work with communities in
identifying projects. So CIP while it's
quite lengthy, it does provide a very
strong planning tool for us to make sure
that we have a good identification of
the projects that we need to fund and
any associated funding sources. Then I
will pass it on back to Christine
Rivera.
Okay, Christine Rivera, city clerk
again. Um, so since this is a 30-day
session, policy items will be limited,
but the New Mexico Municipal League is
bringing forward the following items for
consideration. So the first one is the
creation of a New Mexico land banking
for property, community, and economic
revitalization act. What this is is it
will create a working group to draft
legislation related to a funding source
for vacant and blighted properties and
communities.
Next is the request water and wastewater
funding. This request is for an
appropriation to the water project fund
to meet the needs of vetted project
applications due to increased critical
needs of municipal water infrastructure.
Municipal water systems service
approximately 70% of the state's
population, but aging infrastructure and
high maintenance costs are significant
challenges for municipalities.
Next is the streamline approval of water
project fund projects.
Legislative authorization requirements
can delay shovel ready water projects by
several months as funds cannot be
dispersed until after the session and
bill signing. This requirement would
allow the New Mexico Finance Authority
to directly approve eligible projects,
speed up funding, improve project
outcomes, and maintain oversight through
the NMFA vetting process.
And the last one is the law enforcement
recruitment and retention.
New Mexico faces a pressing need to
recruit and retain qualified law
enforcement personnel. Many
municipalities in the state report
significant staffing shortages and
challenges in recruitment efforts. The
league staff is working with the New
Mexico Chiefs of Police Association and
other stakeholders on an evaluation of
barriers to recruitment and retention
and potential solutions including
legislative recommendation.
So now we're going to go into the state
priority projects.
As previously noted, we met with the
departments to identify priorities that
align with the capital the city's CIP
program. We also met with legislators
and each one of them identified items
from our list that they consider
priorities for the upcoming legislative
session.
First is affordable housing.
The city currently has a need for
approximately 5,600 rental units. This
funding will support the completion of
POS Verde and reduce the city's loan
contribution for phase two of Peach
Tree. Together, these projects will add
a total of 386 rental units to the
community. And we're asking this year
for $6 million.
Next is Legacy Parks. This includes
parks that are more than 30 years old.
Given the unfortunate events that
occurred earlier this year, our focus
will be on Young Park. The master plan
is currently in the public comment
phase. Proposed improvements include the
renovation of ex existing features and
the construction of new amenities to
modernize facilities, enhance efficiency
and improve improve accessibility.
Additional enhancements will include
increased shade, updated systems, and
overall beautifification and
revitalization of the park. And we are
asking for 6 million for this project.
Next is the East Mesa Public
Recreational Complex.
Part of the 2022 geo bond, the city has
completed design and construction of
phase one to include two ball fields
with lighting, two multi-use fields with
lighting, grading park with turf,
walkways, landscaping, bathrooms, eight
pickle ball courts with bleachers, ADA
parking, small parking area, and water
fountains. Currently under construction
are basketball courts with lighting,
walkways, landscaping, bathrooms west of
Kamino Coyote, ADA parking, the art
garden, parking lot improvements, and
water fountains. Future funding would
construct eight sand volleyball courts
with lights, a food truck court, umpire
building, and spectator improvements
around the ball fields. And for this
project, we are requesting $3 million.
Klein Park improvements.
Funding to date has allowed us to
complete several significant
improvements, including re-roofing,
stuckle repairs, and new paint at the
amphitheater,
installation of a new shade structure
over the play area, new site
furnishings, an art mural, electrical
upgrades, perimeter wall repairs,
walkway enhancements, and resurfacing of
the basketball court. This year we are
requesting funding that may go towards
the Camino Royale garden, the multi-use
plaza, the grand steps, and additional
shade structures including a gazebo. And
this request is for $500,000.
Fire station improvements.
We are all aware of the renovations
needed at our fire stations to support
the wellness and safety of our
firefighters.
This request focuses on enhancing
station security through the
installation of fencing, which will help
reduce liability for the city while
ensuring a safe and efficient
environment for both firefighters and
the community they serve. This project
is $500,000.
Regional driving track.
The Las Cusus Police Department
currently utilizes the driving track in
Deming for its academy training.
Unfortunately, this facility is expected
to close in the near future. The driving
track is track is a required component
of the academy and without access to
one, we will be unable to conduct our
own training program. This would
necessitate sending cadets tomies in
northern New Mexico, resulting in a loss
of local oversight and control of
training standards. To address this
need, the city will pursue a joint
effort with the county to develop a new
driving track facility. The the design
has been complete. So, we're asking 1.5
million to start con construction.
Real time crime center bandwidth
upgrades.
The Las Cusus Police Department
currently utilizes Oh, sorry, wrong one.
The Real Time Crime Center became
operational this year thanks to funding
previously received from various
sources. As some of you have seen
firsthand, it serves as a powerful tool
that enables the Los Cusus Police
Department to take a more proactive
approach in responding to critical
incidents throughout the city. However,
we currently lack the capacity to fully
support our expanding technology needs.
And so, we're asking for three million
for this project.
Brenan Library renovation and expansion.
During the work session on October 27th,
we had the opportunity to review the
impressive master plan for this project.
Phase one will focus on essential
repairs and improvements, including
upgrades to counters, windows, lighting,
flooring, restrooms, the service desk,
seating areas, security systems, sound
systems, infrastructure stabilization,
foundation, roof, walls, sidewalks,
abatement, ADA compliance, and the
amphitheater.
This phase will also include the
expansion of the Banakin Library through
the construction of the atrian lobby
addition. Additionally, phase one
allocates funding for temporary rental
space to accommodate library staff and
services throughout the construction
period. So, this is a big one. This is
for 10 million
East Side Center purchase and
renovations.
The East Side Center provided
approximately 18,000 congregate meals
and 120,000 home delivered meals in
FY25.
Located in the Mosquite historic
neighborhood at the heart of downtown
Los Cusus, the center serves as a vital
hub for seniors who have lived in the
neighborhood for decades. Offering both
access to meals and a sense of
community. Currently operating on a
leased property, we are seeking funding
to purchase and renovate the facility.
Planned improvements include upgrades to
restrooms, kitchen, HVAC, parking areas,
drainage, overall structure, dining
rooms, program and storage spaces,
flooring, windows and doors, security
and safety systems, roof and foundation.
And so we are requesting 775,000 for
this project.
Wastewater septic systems.
The New Mexico Environment Department
adopted a new liquid waste disposal
regulation that became effective
September 1st, 2005 that revised the
rules governing lot sizes. The city of
Los Cusa's septic tank identification
and prioritization plan written by Camp
Dresser McKe identified 1,880 parcels
located within the city limits that are
on septic tank systems and not served by
the city's wastewater collection and
treatment system. Removal of septic
tanks within the city limits aids in
groundwater protection by eliminating
the possible contamination of
groundwater by household waste.
Highdensity residential subdivisions
utilizing septic tank systems such as
these could result in nitrate
concentration in local aquifers that
exceed the drinking water standard.
Completion of the projects will aid in
protecting the aquifer from pollution
and help ensure the reliability of the
city's drinking water supply. And this
project is $1 million.
The last the last project we have before
you is the Messa Grande Drive extension.
This project will construct a north
south principal arterial roadway
providing a new connection between US
Route 70 and interstates 25 and 10. The
project includes new east-west
connections at Northwest Drive, Gaithas
Boulevard, Sedona Hills Parkway, Sonora
Springs Boulevard, Sonoma Springs
Avenue, and Lman Avenue. The proposed
roadway will consist of a four-lane
boulevard approximately 5.7 miles in
length, and will include sidewalks,
protected bike lanes, accommodations for
highfrequency transit service, and a
requirement to build 40% attainable
housing. We received a grant this year
for $61 million and the grant match is
15 million and that's what we're asking
for.
So the total of all those projects that
I just presented to you comes out to
approximately 47.3 million.
So now I'll move on to the nonprofits.
The kitchens at Community of Hope, a
joint effort with Kasa de Perigrinos.
This project will develop a 17,000
square foot shared facility to serve as
a new head headquarters for Elcadito
soup kitchen and to establish a
community kitchen in the city of Los
Cusus in Jonana County. The facility
will include space for the soup kitchen,
a licensed commercial kitchen available
for rent by local food producers, a
training facility, and an emergency
kitchen to support community needs. Casa
de Peragos alone has served almost
40,000 clients in 2025 and distributed
over 7 million pounds of food.
Community of Hope master plan
implementation.
The master plan includes roadway and
pedestrian improvements along Amidor
Avenue and Valley Drive. Planned
enhancements include the installation of
two Hawk signal systems, addition of a
bus and turning lane, construction of a
third emergency exit driveway for
community of hope, trail improvement or
development, parking lot renovations,
and new fencing. And so this one is for
2 million.
So now I'm going to turn it over to John
and Keryakus who are going to go over
the federal priorities for you.
Christine, uh thank you for the uh
introduction. Um, I'm John O'Donnell,
managing partner of MMO Partners in
Washington. And with me is Keryakus
Pagonus. Kuryakus, you want to introduce
yourself?
Thanks, John. Uh, Kuryakos Pagonus with
MMO Partners, uh, vice president here at
the firm.
So, um, to start off, I asked Keryakis
if he would update us on what has,
excuse me, [clears throat] taken place
over the weekend and today with the
federal shutdown because it does have
some bearing on the FY26 appropriations
process.
Thanks, John. Uh, mayor and council, uh,
nice to see you today. As John
mentioned, uh, there appears to be an
agreement on the Senate side as of last
night. uh they took a vote to proceed to
a bill that would uh extend uh nine um
appropriations bills through January
30th of 2026 and then uh include three
spending bills, the A ledge branch and
military construction and fund those uh
through the end of the fiscal year. So
there would be a short-term uh CR for
nine of the 12 bills and then the A
ledge branch and milcon bills would
would be funded through uh the rest of
the year. Uh the the the deal it appears
uh would include uh back pay for federal
workers um that have been working or
furlow and furlowed. Uh it would revise
uh some of the firing layoffs that have
happened during the shutdown. Uh and
there appears to be uh some some
commitment to have a vote on the Senate
side on extending uh some of the
Affordable Care Act uh credits. Um it's
unclear at this point uh whether or not
the House will will pass it, although it
does seem to to to lean in that
direction, but we'll see uh once the
Senate takes action. Uh and we expect
that the Senate could move as quickly as
tonight to pass it uh and then uh as as
members on the House side get back to
town. uh later this week uh we probably
looking at maybe a midweek uh passage on
on the senate on the house side.
So uh we would have um some movement on
on appropriations bills. Uh the a bill I
will say does include uh earmarks uh
that house members and and senators have
have included. Uh so there there is some
positive uh movement on including uh
projects um as well as the milcon and
and ledge branch although the ledge
branch doesn't have any ear marks but uh
that's where we are currently. Uh we
we're certainly uh watching this and and
we'll make sure that uh the city uh gets
a an update as soon as we we hear it.
John,
thanks Kuryakis. So, where we are with
the FY uh 26 appropriations, as Keryaka
said, they have a continuing resolution
which will take us to the end of
January. Um, and they will extend
spending for programs under uh the CR
that are not covered by this three uh
subcommittee
uh bill. So there is a possibility that
we'll still see earmarks in the FY26
appropriations bill. Um both House
Appropriations and Senate Appropriations
Committees uh members said last week
that they really wanted to try and
finish an FY26 bill and not go to a
continuing resolution.
um that means if they do this earmarks
uh as I said will be included the 26 ear
marks will be included. So my only note
related to that about looking forward is
that uh this conversation with members
of the council and the mayor today is a
good starting point u to determine what
exactly are going to be the city's top
priority requests in earmarks for FY27.
Um,
we have in addition to the
appropriations bill for next year, we
also have some other important
authorizing legislation which includes
reauthorization of the surface
transportation legislation. That's
highways and transit and highway safety.
Um, and by the way, the city did submit
comments uh to the uh House and Senate
appropriations or I'm sorry, authorizing
committees that handle that legislation
with some recommendations that we shared
with them from the US Conference of
Mayors, the National League of Cities,
National Association of Counties and
Metropolitan Planning Organizations.
They called it the lot proposal, LOT,
local uh uh organizations
transportation.
Um so that was done. That also included
uh some transit uh legislation which
which the city commented on too. Um the
other bill is the housing the road to
housing act which the city has commented
on to the congressional delegation. The
Road to Housing Act is a bipartisan
piece of legislation in the Senate by uh
Senator from uh South Carolina and
Massachusetts. It was included in the
defense authorization bill for 2026.
So, it is now part of what will be
conferenced between the House and the
Senate on the National Defense
Authorization Legislation, which will
get finished before Christmas. Uh this
is interesting because it does have some
uh rather good uh elements in it for
that benefit local governments. And we
just uh completed it hasn't been sent
out, but we just completed an analysis
of the bill which uh I believe Kerry
will probably get to uh Miss Ria later
today or tomorrow. Um tax extenders
always come up. The one there that's
always important for local governments
that have transit systems is the
alternative uh fuel tax uh which refunds
money to uh local governments for the
fuel that they use in their
alternatively fueled transit uh
equipment. Uh the final one that I
mentioned is the water resources
development act. Uh this is a bill that
they try to do every two years for the
core of engineers and the program the
the authorization really authorizes
studies that the core does which is
their first step to authorizing a
project and then project authorizations
where they commit the total amount of
federal funding uh that goes to projects
that the core and local non-federal
sponsor um have developed.
Um
the next uh point that I would make is
um oh I want to say one more thing about
the water resources development act. Um
this came up this bill came up in
conversations which we had with the
utilities department in September. Um
because the state of New Mexico has a
statewide authorization under this
program. It's called rural western
water. There are six other states that
are covered by this authorization.
And what is traditionally happened with
the New Mexico congressional delegation
is Senator Luhan and Congresswoman
Ledger Fernandez usually
um earmark funds from this rural western
water account strictly for projects in
New Mexico.
uh they call out the specific name of a
project.
Senator Heinrich, who's a member of the
appropriations committee, doesn't pick
projects, but he authorizes a generic
amount, if you will. Uh it could be
anywhere between three and $10 million.
And then uh the Albuquerque District of
the Core of Engineers uh determines
which projects in New Mexico uh to fund.
We'll talk about that in a little more
later in this uh presentation.
Um the
other list and I think give you can you
we've moved to the earmarks is these are
the ear marks that are currently in FY26
bills and uh we would expect as you can
see that these because they're in there
and what we've said is we believe that
uh Congress will f finish an FY26 bill.
[music] Um, you can expect the funding
for these programs. I do not have a uh
determination
uh about this second to last one, the
consumer home energy navigator. I know
that's been asked for before, but I
don't know uh if it will be in one of in
the Department of Energy bill, energy
and water development is the
subcommittee. Don't know if it'll be in
there yet. We haven't seen that. Um
what we did with the city manager and uh
the city clerk in August was to meet
with department heads uh virtually
um and talk about earmarks, grants,
projects or issues that were high on
their list. Uh we also talked uh about
uh the possibility of of funding some of
these earmarks in terms of very specific
um bills and it's my understanding that
and then in September Kerry and I met
with the mayor and council members to
talk further about what their specific
interests were or are in U grant grant
funding or earmarks. What came out of
some of those discussions?
Um, and I believe the city manager and
the city clerk had a discussion about
the lists that were put together from
those conversations with departments and
the elected officials. And some of the
uh highlight ones that came out were the
uh seven that you have here on the
possible FY27 earmarks. an airport
hanger, Peach Tree, South Fork, Mareno
Aoyo, Branigan Library, Railroad Museum,
Sewer Connections, and Well 66.
Um,
these are not final by any means. This
was just a discussion about what the
possibilities are. So, there is further
discussions to be had uh with you, the
council and mayor, about uh the projects
that were identified. And I'd say at at
this point we're now in uh mid November,
almost mid November, um we understand
from the congressional delegation staff
first that um they certainly expected to
have FY27
earmarks and we had that discussion with
them a couple of weeks ago while we were
still in the shutdown because people
were asking us, do you really think
they're going to do FY27 appropriations
uh earmarks? And so what we've been told
informally is that that will happen. Um
the other part of our discussion
uh as I mentioned was about
possibilities for grants and you can see
uh the expansion of the wastewater
facility at the uh innovation industrial
park fire engines young park east lman
and flood mitigation.
So, a word about
more about the ear marks is that when
you look just for example at the ones
that were on the previous page, the
seven of them, you wind up looking at
about three or four of them that would
probably be have to be funded out of
what we call the transportation and HUD
uh appropriations bill. Uh there are two
on there, the South Fork Mareno Aoyo and
well 66 that might either come out of
energy and water development or the
interior and environment uh
subcommittee. So between I said this is
the right time for us to be having this
conversation because what we need to do
is look at the list of projects that
seem like they would be uh most
important to the city, most important
for uh competitive grant or competitive
earmarking. And then we have to look at
how many of them come from the same um
subcommittee or the same federal account
because this is more of a of a relevant
issue for Congressman Vasquez because he
only gets 15 requests. The senators can
make a number of requests although
they've started to put limits on them
last year. So, we have a lot of work to
do yet in terms of a project's readiness
for an earmark or for grants to to be
constructed. Uh, the accounts that are
being used, the amount of funding. Um,
so those are things we'll be talking
with the city staff about over the next
month and a half because the
appropriations process will open the
FY27 will open up probably near the end
of January and we'll have to have
projects
uh ready to go uh for submission in uh I
would say starting in midFebruary and
going through probably the end of March.
the Senate usually our two senators
usually have later deadlines.
Um
I think
yes I've kind of talked about uh the
next steps already. Uh that's the
following u slide. So with that I'll ask
Keryakis is there anything that I've
missed and then we'd be glad to take uh
questions from the mayor and council.
I I don't think so, John. Thanks.
Okay,
thank you, John and Kuryakus. So, we're
on to our next steps slide. We're almost
done. So, first today, we want to hear
from you. Tell us what your council
priorities are. Do they align with ours?
Um, we'd like to get them in an order.
So, if you could tell us what you're
feeling today, that'd be great. Um, next
we'll have adoption of a resolution in
December so that I can then turn that
over to Cynthia who can then enter those
projects into the ICIP portal. And then
of course advocating when the session
starts, so in January and February.
And so before I open it up for
discussion, um, I just wanted to take a
moment to express my sincere gratitude
to Larry, John, Kuryakis, Cynthia,
Gabby, and Natalie. Your guidance and
support and helping me understand the
legislative process has been invaluable.
I truly appreciate your patience and
willingness to answer all of my
questions, no matter how silly they
were. Um, and so with that, I'll open it
up to discussion and let you know that
the departments are here to answer
questions um, in more detail on their
projects.
All right. Thank you, Christine, and
everybody involved. Thank you. Um,
Council Mccclure,
I'm sorry. Sorry, I didn't think I was
kicking it off, but I was going to say
um specifically on South Fork Marino,
I'm going to advocate for that. Um just
to clarify a little bit how I wandered
into this is that you have a constituent
that reached out and said, "We have our
road flood all the time off of Hatfield.
What can you do?" And I was like, "Well,
that seems relatively straightforward."
It was not. And so, a lot of it is that
we don't have we don't own the utilities
under it. We don't um owned all the
land, specifically all the rightaways.
So it became this whole conversation
about drainage. Super unsexy. Can't sell
that. So what was encouraging is to talk
to some of the uh federal lobbyists to
say there are all these other options.
So a lot of the things that I learned
out of this process was boy it doesn't
seem like we can do some of these larger
things but when we look at it in a sort
of holistic way of what that drainage
look like that might be a priority. Um
I'm always going to advocate for the
library. Love the library. let's do the
thing. It has been kind of historically
put to the side because that's easy to
do, but I'd like to look at that as
well. And I would also say the East Mesa
Recreation Center, if we were focused on
our kiddos and as I am taking my kiddos
up there to play soccer, this is a
really hard one too to to kind of put on
the wayside because I have grandparents
coming up to me recognizing me awkward
and saying, "I would like to have
handicap parking, but that's phase two."
So, I'd like to look at how we can do
that more meaningfully. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Anyone? Councelor Matise.
Thank you, Mayor. Uh again, thank you
for the presentation and the work that
you've done to bring the priorities to
the surface. I I think my number one
priority because that's basically what I
campaigned on is uh public safety. And
then number two, I'd like to see the
septic tanks. I like I like to see
removal of the septic tanks in the city
of Los Cruus just because of the
environmental
uh advantages and and protecting our
water systems. And then thirdly, of
course, the library. Um Carol Bray and I
go back 300 years and so I'd like to
support the library. Thank you very
much.
Thank you,
Councelor Flores. Well, she looks a lot
longer younger than you do, so it's okay
that you said that,
Miss Flores. I'm going to miss you.
A I'm sure you will. Um, so, thank you
so much for the presentation. Um,
there's a lot here. Um, in terms of uh
my district, um, soon to be the district
of John Munoz.
You still live there?
Oh my god. No, I'm
Well, eventually I'm moving. Um but um
I'm really interested in um my district
which and it makes me very happy to see
that it wasn't overlooked because
sometimes it is because people think oh
district six it's new everything there
is perfect and wonderful. Well, in a
world in some kind of a world, it is
perfect and it's always wonderful, but
um I would just really like to see um
the development or whatever uh
improvements for the East Mesa
Recreation Complex. it is uh used um a
lot and it makes me really happy to see
uh so many families out there and you
know when I see all these people and
kids especially youth um having a
wonderful time um I think geez you know
it was worth the wait um and I I didn't
believe it till I saw it because it just
it took you know some of these things
seem to take forever but then when they
get done it's like wow
Um, so and then as far as Young Park
goes, um, uh, it's, you know, a legacy
park
and, uh, it's unfortunate that we have
some situations there that are less
than, you know, whatever, um, less than
nice. Um, but, um, we really, uh, need
to keep an eye on that. Um,
and then the rural western water
project. Can can you tell me what that
is and why it's only in New Mexico
or is this what
mayor councelor Fus are you talking
about the policy item from the league or
are you talking about the septic?
I'm talking about engineers.
I I think it's about the core of
engineers.
I'll let John
[laughter] Yeah. So John,
can you elaborate on that?
Um, yes. So this goes to uh something
that was just mentioned a moment ago,
the drainage um on the Mareno Aoyo. So
when we were there, what we mentioned
was this is that is the title of a
section of federal legislation rural
western water which authorizes spending.
Um, I think the total amount of
authorized spending now is in excess of
$535 million. But you have to a local
non non-federal sponsor like the city
would have to talk with the core of
engineers about we have a project. We
would like to fund it under that
authority from that water resources
development act of 2014. And our project
will do drainage improvements, storm
water management,
um wastewater,
uh so it's an authority.
You you can call it a program, but if
you were talking to a lot of federal
officials, they would not say that it's
a program. They say it's an
authorization in law which you can draw
down against that money that over 500
million that I talked about. You can
draw down on that in appropriations. You
have to have a project. It has to be
something that fits within the
eligibility criteria and you deal with
the core of engineers uh district in
Albuquerque to get it funded.
Okay. And is all of that in process at
this point or
Uh, councelor, we would we would help
the city pursue a project with the core
if one is identified and um we could
work on that to be a project in the FY27
appropriations bill. What the city would
have to do as a step towards that, we've
mentioned this to city staff, is you
have to get in touch with the
Albuquerque district core district and
tell them that you're interested in the
program and we have to submit a letter
of intent about the project which we can
help with.
Oh, okay.
And this is the right time to be doing
such a thing. And so that LOI would be
um you'd be leading us through the
process on that or um
yes, we we can help with that.
And how soon do we have to start that
process or is it in process now?
Uh it's not in process now and it should
start as soon as we can identify a
project.
How soon will it take? No. [laughter]
No. It's just that it's wonderful to
have all these things going because we
have stuff um that is still this is my
eighth year on the city council and um
there are things that are still in the
making
and um and it just it seems like time
just goes by so fast and I just feel
like um you know the sooner we start on
things the sooner they they will
materialize. So thank you very much and
thank you city clerk.
You're welcome.
Thank you. Thank you, Mayor
Councelor Kin.
Thank you. Um, thank you for for
preparing all of this, all of you that
have contributed to it. I know it's a
lot and I know and to John and Kuryakus
as well and and I know that this
involves a lot of conversations with a
lot of people who have wildly disperate
ideas about what we should be doing. So,
thank you for having those conversations
and sifting it into some kind of um
thing. And thanks to um John and
Kuryakas to giving those inputs that the
city gave to some of those transit
funding things. I think that's really
important that we also keep track of
where our voice matters or where our we
have an opportunity to give input to
federal policy as well. So, thank you
both for helping on those fronts. Um I
think I I echo a lot of what my
colleagues have said. I think we have a
lot of success and support for
affordable housing initiatives in in the
city and I think that our legislators
really um see the investment and return
on that investment happening all the
time. So I I think for me that's always
going to be a priority and I think our
library we are on a wave of support and
readiness to to modernize and beautify
our library. So I'm with my colleagues
and in hoping that we can include that
in every every place where we can to to
cobble together more than enough
funding. I hope um the other things that
I think I've heard a lot about the fire
station improvements. I think that
really I really don't want us to
overlook that. I know it doesn't sound
um it sounds boring but also it is
directly related to safety and health of
of folks there. And I hope that we can
find again a number of places where we
can help in funding that. Um, and I
think th those are the things that I
really hope we can include as priorities
and but I look forward to I I will go to
work for whatever you all tell me to as
as it comes for lobbying or writing
writing things or contributing to
whatever conversations that need to
happen. So I I appreciate this process.
Thank you,
Mayor Pro tip.
Thank you, mayor, and thank you everyone
for the presentation today. Um, my
question is mostly for staff. I think um
Sonia, maybe you first. I I'm just
curious about like strategy this year,
right? Obviously, we have the new GRT.
I do feel like Well, no, I'll stop there
because my other strategies are
a little bit more of a bummer. The
reason they're a little bit more of a
bummer, um but for the new GRT, how are
we thinking about approaching some of
these projects? Are we just saying like
as much as possible for some of them? or
we I guess I just want to try to like
maximize
um you know the amount of funds to
actually get projects completed and not
little by little. So um I'm curious if
you all have had conversations about
that. Uh good afternoon, mayor, uh
members of council, mayor prom, son deo,
um assistant city manager. With regards
to the GRT, as you know, we have a lot
of different pots of funding um coming
available to us and so currently we're
trying to get our projects in line for
the state because that deadline is
coming up very quickly. we have been
discussing um we have a long list of
projects and so we want to get your take
and want to see where you're sitting
with regards to the state and then we're
going to continue to take one at a time
and I'll let Christine chime in in just
a moment but that's what we were doing
one get the state done first and then um
make our way through but yes we still
want to have those pots of money we want
you to keep thinking about them and then
trying to figure out which is the best
way to put them into play
okay thank you I appreciate that and you
know I think mostly because I'm like,
okay, well, it it was clear that the
public was very supportive of the
library when we did our GRT
conversations.
So, to me, I'm like, that should be a
priority as we move forward in that
conversation. Does that mean then when
we go to the legislature that allows us
an opportunity to then ask for the other
very big projects, right? Because I do
think about like Mesa Grande and the
huge investment from the federal
government. I believe that $50 million
is necessary, right? like it's some sort
of match.
Mhm.
And if we wanted to, it's such an
important project and it would be like
such a big loss if we couldn't get that
that for me that feels like an important
priority. Um and so I guess that's just
sort of what I'm trying to get at,
right? In terms of like um how we're pri
prioritizing some things. So just maybe
some food for thought for everybody. And
then my next question again in terms of
strategy um Larry maybe this is for you.
I I am curious about [laughter] I
because as we approach this, should we
be thinking about like what are the
legislators thinking in terms of like
the budget concerns, the federal
restrictions like are we are we in the
same playing field that we have been in
previous years regarding capital outlay
asks like should we be considering
anything?
Thank you mayor. Mayor Pro Tim, Larry
Heran, lobbyist for city of Los Cusus.
Mayor Pro Tim, no, I think I think that
landscape is changing. So, this year
they're anticipating 450 million in new
money. So, it's still growth,
but with I'll talk about Medicaid
specifically, we're seeing a trend over
the last starting in July after the
continuing resolution was passed at the
federal level. increased utilization of
Medicaid, increased acuity, meaning more
sick people are getting treatment. And
then as we see the folks who are going
to drop off based on federal changes,
we're going to leave the sicker people
on Medicaid. So the acuity is going to
get worse.
It's not a New Mexico trend. It's a
national trend and we're seeing that.
And so that 450 million pretty quickly
gets eaten up.
We still do have a significant amount of
non-recurring revenue coming in. The
challenge now becomes is how are they
going to how do they fund use
non-recurring and try not to put it in
recurring programs like Medicaid. So we
will see less
um available for projects. We don't
know. The last few years it's been 2 and
a.5 million for for a house member in
capital outland just over four million
for a senator. We don't know yet. It's
too early to tell um how much they're
going to have available. And again they
haven't bonded. So the bonding capacity
is how they'll determine what's
available for capital. So
we do need to start thinking about it in
terms of of our requests. But there's
also additional pots of money. We saw it
last year when we were working on
affordable housing.
Yes.
Particularly with Chairman Small and his
real focus on affordable housing. We got
to we got some general fund money
available for housing.
Um and so it's not just capital outlay.
We should look at those other projects.
There's the other thing municipal league
is is looking at is water trust board
funding. Christine talked a little bit
about it. Big water projects. Now some
members of the legislature are trying to
funnel all of those projects into the
water trust board allocation and not use
traditional capital outlay. That's an
effort that's that's underway. I don't
think it's probably going to work
because I've heard at least one
legislator as soon as the idea was
floated shot it down pretty quickly
because they want to be able to fund
their water projects. So that's a long
way to say there's other pots of money
available that we can tap into. And so
what we've done pretty well in the past
is
we've tried to hit every one of those
priorities and and then again with
Governor Luhan Gisham in her last term
for the past few years we've been
successful tapping into her capital
outlay pot which is bigger.
And so I think we would continue those
advocacy efforts because that's why
we've seen a pretty significant jump in
in what we've gotten in capital outlay.
Yeah. Thank you Larry. But I I also had
the governor's fund on here because I
think especially this last legislative
session, we were tremendously successful
and I do think it's because we took that
strategy and you know we had affordable
housing projects on our capital outlay
and we ended up getting $11 million from
a totally different pot of fund, right?
So if we like how are we leveraging, you
know, other opportunities more
strategically so that we can get as many
of our projects because they're all
important, right? Like we could sit here
and rate them one month to 10, but at
the end of the day, they really all are
important. And so I just I hope that
that's the takeaway for staff as we move
forward and and especially in
conversations with like chairman Small
in terms of like do we think more
affordable housing money will be
available to us especially because we're
going to spend the heck out of that $11
million right Natalie and they're going
to say oh we trust Los Cusus to be good
stewards of that money and so we're
going to give them more and that's you
know what we should ad be advocating
for. Um, so those were like my big
strategy questions and I think I had a
similar one with our federal lobbyists
in terms of like, you know, what do we
expect? Obviously the federal landscape
has also changed and I think we should
just try to go after money that we know
will get funded. Um, and then I just
have uh
one specific question regarding the
real-time crime center. Um, Lieutenant,
sorry to put you on the spot. Chief
Story was like, I'm not gonna be here
today, I guess. Um I
I this is my very first time hearing
about the additional $3 million request
on the real time crime center. I think
we've we've been very committed to that
and have funded um that. I'm just
curious about
um like how this came about. I hadn't
you know we recently had a tour and I
didn't hear anything about additional
funding. So I'm just curious about if
you're able to answer. If not, that's
okay.
Mayor, Mayor Pro Tim, Lieutenant Joshua
Savage here. I am unfamiliar with the $3
million request, but more than happy to
let Chief Story know and have him get
back to you.
Yeah, thank you.
I was just going to see if public works
could come up. I know that they've been
working on the project. Kyle, do you
have any additional information? They've
been working on it with PD related to
the fact that it also connects with the
traffic system. So, I'll defer to Kyle.
Good afternoon, council and mayor. Uh,
for the record, Kyle Ar, your interim
public works director. Um, what I can
tell you about the the the new ask for
the real-time crime center is that the
first batch of money created the center
itself and some of the cameras, but the
infrastructure to get everything
community together was dependent upon a
kind of an antiquated system for traffic
for our traffic signals. So, it all
needs to be reinforced quite a bit in
order to get all the communication back
and forth to the to the center itself.
Okay. Thank you. I appreciate that.
Um
well that was news to me I guess you
know I do feel like if we wanted to
fully function then I guess that is an
important investment for us to make we
don't want to do it half way halfway you
thought didn't you
um and then I guess my last plug would
be for our wastewater system I think
anytime I'm with whether I'm with our
federal lobbyists or Larry or um anybody
I do feel like I need to um plug again
utilities here because our wastewater um
system is old and it needs a lot of
support. So, um that's sort of the one
last specific thing I will add.
That's it. Mayor, thank you.
Sorry,
councelor. Correct.
Sorry. I have one other thing that is
related to these handouts that you have.
I don't know if now would be a time.
This is sort of an added thing that I
just want to not necessarily add to our
official list, but just put on folks
radar um that will come up in the state
legislature. These are two items. The
affordable spay and neuter money, which
we just got $50,000. This is this went
into place, I think, four years ago.
This uh system of paying for spay and
neuter. Um it's like a an obscure tax on
dog food, I think. Um and it's set to
automatically repeal. So, they're
advocating for us to continue this. And
this would be 50,000 like at least
$50,000 that would be going into our
ASMV for for spay and neuter that I hope
that we can like add to something if
just so you know if it comes up. It
doesn't necessarily have to be on our
call to to pass, but just as as radar
that of things that have an impact in
our community that will be on the on the
up for consideration. And then the other
one is related to a program that I knew
nothing about. So I'm really just here
sort of to talk about this um that's
also up for continuing funding, the CARE
program, which provides um support for
people who are leaving domestic violence
to not have to leave their pets. They've
helped hundreds of people in in Dona
County um who were experiencing uh
domestic violence to either shelter
their pets or find a find a place a
temporary or permanent shelter for
themselves and their pets. In either
case, um
they they've have been doing this for a
number of years and they support
community organizations in doing this.
And so I just want to say it's also on
that on folks radar. So if you hear
anyone talking about it, I hope we can
we can think about these things too
because they're definitely concrete
things that will be up for refunding um
in this session and and so I just want
to put them on our radar. That's all.
Thank you.
All right. Thank you.
Okay. Again, I just want to mention u
thank you John and Keryakas for being on
on the federal level. It's always
looking for flood mitigation. You know,
anytime we get a new building or
anything new, we always talk about what
about the maintenance, what about the
repairs and a lot of that happens with
flood mitigations with new developments
and things that take place. So, anything
that we can do on that end would help
our community and also at the innovation
industrial park with water and waste
treatment as well. Those are the things
I would be looking for with the federal
uh request on the state. Like we said,
we have to have a strategy and we also
we also have to be realistic. What have
we gotten in the past and what are
legislators looking for? And it's
usually finishing things that have
already been started. And you know, it's
just so hard to to um turn away from a
$60 million grant that we've received.
It's huge and it captures a lot of
things. um so many things as far as
safety when we're looking at travel and
also the addition of housing that will
occur and economic development maybe
some industrial improvements in that
area. So that messag extension for
looking for that matching funds to be
able to complete that. We already have
60 million. We don't want to turn that
back. We want to make sure that we move
forward and it captures so many things.
Uh quality of life, economic
development, everything else that we can
do for our community. I think that's
huge. Uh I'm also an advocate for the
library and want to push forward
anything we can do to get for our
library and get that get that going. Um
the other thing is the police track that
is huge. That is huge. Not it's already
far enough to travel almost all the way
to Deming to train and and then that's
going to go then the travel will be to
Santa Fe. And then it's
you can only train when it's available
to the state for us to be there. And
then the other thing is weather
providing. So, you know, there's several
months of the year we can just say we're
not going to be able to train. And it's
so important when we start looking at
liability issues, when we start looking
at accidents, when we look at at how can
we prevent some of those things,
training is a huge thing. So, that
police track to me is something that we
really need to advocate for public
safety. Those those are the ones. Young
Park, of course, you know, there's so
many we can go down the list. the
quality of life and what we need for our
youth and and and making Los Cusus
thrive, but I'll just stop at those and
and and yeah, add Young Park.
Got [laughter] it.
Um okay, with that, um was there any
members of the public that wanted to say
a few words? Yeah, come on. Start
forming a line. Come up. We'll give you
a couple minutes.
Uh George Pearson, I was really happy to
hear the words protected bike lane and
the description of the Mesa Grande
extension. Also want to make sure that
you talk about protected intersections
because that's a key component the new
ashtto standards for the bikeway design
has some very good uh work on that. So
we need to build a 21st century road
there. Um I had there was promises of
developer contribution to the match. So,
I want to make sure that that's still
going to happen. Um, on the surface
transportation bill reauthorization, I'm
glad to hear that the city is putting
their words in. Um, recently,
it's been said from the Republican
leadership that there's going to be
emphasis only on vehicle traffic. So,
that's going to be at the expense of
transit and bicycle and pedestrian
safety. So anything that we can do to
retain uh bicycle and pedestrian as part
of the surface transportation
reauthorization is very important. The
other thing I want to talk about is as a
neighborhood association, the Alama
neighborhood association, we have been
advocating with our state senator and
representative for the WIA building. the
city's already identified $700,000
as the need and so I would hope that
that would be a part of your ask and
that it is available so we as a
neighborhood association will still be
asking for that and so that it's on the
ICIP so we could get that money
successfully hopefully and anything that
the city can do to help with that would
be great. Thank you.
Thank you, George. And I'll let you know
that it is on the list so that we make
sure it's on there.
the WIA building.
Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the
council. My name is Steve Chvid. I'm
executive director at Elcalito Soup
Kitchen. And I just want to thank you
for uh the listing the priorities today.
But for the record, I just want to make
one quick two quick clarifications. And
one is that the um kitchens at the
Messia Valley Community of Hope um is
actually a partnership between uh
Elcalito and uh Casa Perinos and the
city. we are an active participant in
that process and so I want to make sure
that um that's reflected on the record
and um as we uh talk about the
priorities and and the justification for
moving forward with that project um it
was great to hear the statistic of the
amount of poundage that Kasa Pino put
out um and they do a lot of great work.
I also want to clarify that um uh
Elcadito soup kitchen in the calendar
year of uh 2024 we served 155,000 meals
and uh our capacity is is only getting
uh needs to get bigger and bigger. Uh
but for the record I just wanted to make
sure that that was part of the process.
So thank you for your time. Appreciate
it.
Good afternoon, Mayor Council. My name
is Lorenzo Alba. I'm the director at
Kasa Perinos. And I also want to echo
what uh Steve said. I want to thank you
for prioritizing our project. Uh it is
important given these uh very difficult
times for a lot of families that are
missing out on meals, that are
definitely feeling the pinch when it
comes to their budgets at home.
This is a priority. Feeding people is
definitely a priority. Getting the soup
kitchen up and running and allowing them
to be able to serve more during the day
is going to be a priority for everybody
in this community.
The uptick is inevitable moving forward.
Even if the government opens back up,
guess what? The residual effects of
what's happening right now is going to
happen for a little while longer.
The families are already coming in in
probably about a thousand families more
that we've seen at Kaza Pervino Sant. I
don't know what Steve's seeing right
now, but it's definitely having a major
effect on the people that we serve. So,
this should be a priority. I think you
should put us on your federal
priorities, too, because we can always
take advantage of those dollars with the
state's matching programs. So, I think
that's something that you should take
into consideration. uh Christine, I
should have mentioned that to you
before. I'm sorry. Uh in our planning,
but and I do want to thank Christine and
her team for all the planning that
they've done because they've met with
all of us. We've got to meet with uh
your lobbyists, both the state and the
federal lobbyists, and that helps us at
least try to find out what's going on
there and how we go about our ass. So,
we are actually planning also to get
together with all your team so that we
can prioritize how we um head up the
state legislature this year. So, our
schedules will coincide with each other
and I'll see you guys in February for
your big event. Thank you so much.
John, did you have something to say?
Uh yes. Thank you, Mayor. Um, I'm I
should have mentioned this earlier
because Mesa Grande has been uh
mentioned several times and I want to uh
Kiryakis and I want to thank the city
staff for the fine work they did on that
grant application and we worked with
them and the congressional delegation
and our transportation uh associates in
Washington to make sure that that
project got its review over at
headquarters. uh and I think that was
awarded in January, but I wanted to uh
for certain congratulate the city on the
work that it did. It that was the fifth
largest grant they made in that program.
So, congratulations to you folks and
thanks for your work with us on that.
Thank you, John.
See another no another. Thank you,
Christine. Appreciate it. Larry, thank
you for being here.
Thank you. [snorts] Good to see you and
Cynthia. Thank you.
Next on the agenda is item 4.2, public
input needed for metropolitan
redevelopment area plan overview for
West Picacho and Motel Boulevard.
and Selena.
Good afternoon, mayor, counselors, and
staff. Selena Morales, deputy director
for economic development. As part of our
ongoing redevelopment efforts today,
we're excited to share the progress of
our West Pocacho and Motel Boulevard
Metropen Metropolitan Redevelopment Area
Plan. This corridor is a vital getaway
gateway into our community, and this
plan represents months of collaboration
between city staff, local stakeholders,
and residents to help guide future
investment, safety improvements, and
overall revitalization in the area. We
partner with Stantic who will be leading
this project with extensive community
engagement and technical expertise.
Presenting today is Rhonda Bell, the
project manager with Stantic who will
walk us through the process, community
input, and the priorities identified for
moving this plan forward. With that,
I'll turn it over to Rhonda.
Is that good? A little higher.
Mayor and council, good afternoon.
I'm Rhonda Bell. I'm a urban planner
with Stantech and I wanted to introduce
you to our team. Uh, also here with us
today is Colleen Ruiz who is a PE
engineer.
You'll need to speak clear more clearly
into the mic, please.
How's that?
Uh, Colleen, wave. Uh, other the other
folks on our team that you may have seen
uh around town over the last year
perhaps if you came to any of the public
engagement elements are uh Jason
Baskkey, he's also an urban designer and
Lorena Gonzalez uh an urban planner.
So, as Selena said, Metropolitan
Redevelopment Area, MRA. Uh, this is the
boundary that was established in 2023 by
city council. Uh, it is roughly bounded.
You can see it's not exactly a perfect
rectangle. Uh, roughly bounded by Tashir
on the north, uh, Hadley on the south,
Motel on the west, and then we have that
nice straight boundary over there on the
east for railroad. As we started this
process, however, it did come up that
perhaps we could uh extend the boundary
just a little bit. And that is
I'm so sorry the our system is not
picking up your voice. So, either speak
a little louder or closer.
Oh, you can also raise the podium. Will
you raise the podium?
Never mind. It's as far as it goes.
Is this better?
Yeah. Just give me a flag if it doesn't
work. I'm so sorry.
So, we've got the boundaries up here on
the uh the screen. The the slightly
higher image is the original boundaries
as they were approved by council. Uh the
lower image is the suggested extension
of the boundary along Picacho. And this
is just the parcels that abut Picacho as
far as the river. And the reason that
it's suggested that those also be
included is there's a number of uses
that are fairly similar to the ones
already in the MRA, particularly uh
those older motel type uses that could
also benefit from being in the MRA. And
just a quick backup, uh the MRA is a
state level designation um administers
by the city. So there are other uh
communities in New Mexico including
Farmington and uh Albuquerque who are
also doing MRA plans. And what it really
does is it opens up other funding
opportunities for infrastructure, for
private development directed towards uh
economic development and urban
revitalization. So I know we'll be
holding any questions until the end, but
your opinion on whether or not that
extension of the boundary of the MRA is
acceptable is one of the elements we'd
like to hear from you on today.
As far as schedule, we've been working
on this for about a year. We started in
September of last year and it followed a
fairly typical planning process,
existing conditions, uh,
recommendations, uh, actions, uh, and it
did go out to the public throughout this
entire process. We're here for with a
draft plan. Uh, we in intend to be back
here December 1st in about a month,
hopefully for adoption. And one thing I
do want to mention is that public
engagement was woven throughout all of
these orange boxes you see for the past
year, including most recently the draft
plan that was included in your packet
that you just read was posted on the
city's website for the required 30 days
for public comment and that ch that
closed on October 28th.
As far as public engagement goes, we try
to reach out as far as we can and get as
many and as diverse opinions as we can.
So, we have consulted with city staff,
with local business owners, local
residents, and with the community at
large because even though we're talking
about the MRA, the MRA is part of larger
Los Cus. So, we truly want to hear from
everybody about what they want to see
and what they think will be successful.
Some of the things that we did with
public engagement, we always try to not
come up and just kind of talk at people.
So, we go for interactive public
engagement. You see some of the photos
of the different methodologies we've
used here. Uh the photo on the left
there is the funding priority jars. So
we had eight jars uh with different
possible priorities listed on them. And
we asked folks, we gave them four tokens
and asked them what to vote on, not not
unlike the conversation we were just
having on your agenda. Uh and let me
flip through my notes. I will tell you
the eight topics and the five that came
out as top.
So, the five uh top categories were
supporting small business, improving
property conditions, addressing safety
and crime, uh beautifying streets and
sidewalks, and addressing folks
experiencing homelessness. Uh the other
three that were in there, and this does
not mean they didn't get any votes, but
they ranked lower, was enhancing public
spaces, expanding cultural and
entertainment options, and expanding
housing options.
Uh we also did two community surveys uh
with the general community as well as
with business owners in the MRA and we
had a we had a great response for the
community survey. I've done a lot of
these and 700 is a really impressive
response. Um we did ask a number of
targeted questions and to not drag you
through all of them here they are
included in the appendix of the document
that you have. But the most desired
housing type was affordable housing. Um,
and the improvement that people wanted
to see the most was was related to
safety. Not a specific improvement, but
just improved safety generally. Uh, and
then you can see the businesses that
people most wanted to see come into the
community. Some [snorts] of those may be
candidates for one of the catalyst prop
projects that we'll talk about later in
this presentation.
The business owner survey was
significantly smaller. You can see again
a top concern was safety and they had
slightly different top needs. Although
this is a point I want to address public
engagement is not an exact science. We
don't say this is absolutely the number
one thing, the number two thing. Uh what
we see is that certain issues float to
the top so we can have an idea of
generally what's important to the
community and look to address those not
to put them in a specific order.
So taking that initial input um we came
up with a vision which is on the next
slide but also the purpose and the
approach of the project and I really
want to um address the approach which is
what we're looking to do what's we want
to lay out in this plan is what the
critical path is which are the
priorities what order they have to have
in happen in and who's responsible for
them. That's the champions part. And
champions is a little bit of a weird
term, but if no one is actually
identified as being responsible, it
probably won't get done. If everybody is
responsible, same result. So, in the
very last chapter of this plan, there is
an action matrix that lays out all of
the recommendations and notes which city
department is lead, not solely
responsible, but who is the champion to
keep pushing it forward. Um, the plan
also identifies potential funding
sources. Um, again tying back to the
conversation we just had. So what you
need to do, who will push it forward,
and how to fund it. Those are the goals
of the plan.
The vision, as you can see here, uh,
talks about all of well, all of the
strategies that are in the plan support
this vision. And when you look at this
vision and see that we talk about
cultural heritage, communitydriven,
community pride, quality of life, the
thing to call your attention to is that
the vision of this plan is all people
focused. It's about the people that live
there and work there and the greater
community.
So now we're going to move into the
strategies and recommendations in the
plan. There are six buckets of
recommendations, if you will. Um, but I
do want to say they're not prioritized.
So like number one, two, three are not
more important than four, five, and six.
They're put in categories to help us
think about them, but also to identify
who that champion would be moving
forward. Um, so first, the first uh
priority is safety and security. And we
use both of those terms because we heard
a lot of public input about not just do
I feel safe walking down the street, but
also about do I feel safe owning a
business and are there breakins? So,
it's about both personal safety as well
as property.
The first two strategies here are fairly
self-explanatory. Enhancing lighting to
increase security, um, police presence
and visibility. Those relate to some
things that we just heard, as does the
smart infrastructure. Um, I want to
point out that that is specifically
supportive of the real-time crime center
that you were just discussing.
The third and fourth things listed on
here, if you're not familiar, crime
prevention through environmental design,
or if you want to verbally abbreviate
that, SEPTED,
uh, talks about things like creating
sight lines from businesses and
buildings, um, to the outside so that
people can see what's going on. It also
talks about defining private space,
public space, and the space in between.
So, it's very clear if somebody is in a
space they shouldn't be. Uh it also
talks about creating longer hours of
activity in an area. You know, instead
of just regular business hours, having
activity and people around that extended
to the evening. And then finally,
concentrating as well on maintenance to
make sure the community looks cared for,
um that people are interested and have
pride.
Uh safety related community programs.
These can be things like neighborhood
watch, business watches, and I know
driving around Las Cruius, some of these
already exist. It can also be things
like slow zones around schools or uh
like learn to bike or bike safety
classes. And I want to note on that that
is not transferring all of the
responsibility for example to the
cyclist.
Most people are not solely cyclists or
pedestrians. Most people are also
drivers. So taking safety classes of
that nature is just teaching everybody
to look out and share space.
The other thing I want to note about
safety and security because this is such
a big issue is that these are four very
targeted strategies, but they're not the
only thing for safety and security. If
you do only these four things, it's not
going to achieve safety and security in
the MRA.
Safety and security comes from
everything that's in this plan, from new
development, from more people in the
area, um all of those types of programs,
extended activity, uh programs to help
people find, uh find [snorts] new
housing, find new jobs. So, supportive
physical enhancement, supportive
programs, supportive policy, it all goes
together. It's not just these
priorities. And I just wanted to be
clear that nothing in this plan stands
alone.
The second bucket or category of
recommendations we have is mobility. And
it's mobility. It's about being able to
move around within the MRA area, but
also to connect from the MRA area to Los
Cruus and even to the greater region.
So, we're talking about creating
enhanced bike and pedestrian policies
and infrastructure. That's one and four
on this list. And maybe in the final
plan, we'll put those next to each
other. Um, traffic calming and crosswalk
improvements. And that's particularly
important as we look to have new uses
come into the area and redevelopment.
Look at where people are wanting to go
and what the distance is between those
signals so that we don't create what I
call a frogger situation. Um, also
continuing to monitor the traffic on our
roadways for when it might be
appropriate to have act pedestrian
activated crosswalks or even new
signals.
Expanding multimodal options. This isn't
about getting rid of cars. This is about
making sure that people have options for
whatever they need that day or
particularly people who live in a single
car, single vehicle household so that if
today your distance is small and you
want to bike, you feel safe biking. If
transit works for you today, you feel
safe and it's comfortable to wait at the
transit stop. So, this covers all of it
and it's not about getting rid of cars.
Um, aligning West Picacho Avenue with
city design standards. West Picacho is
both a state and a federal h uh federal
roadway.
So, it is subject to those requirements
even though the city of Las Crues
currently has certain agreements in
place with both of those bodies for both
signalization medians and things of that
along those lines. However, to improve
what people are looking for, that
feeling of safety, security, comfort,
feeling like they belong as pedestrians
or as cyclists, uh it is possible and
recommended that we look to creating uh
enhancements along Picato. And this is
things like creating more shade, more
street trees, uh wider sidewalks, um
that create both physical and
psychological comfort. And we did meet
with both public works and with NMD dot
to talk about this and make sure that
this was acceptable within the
boundaries of that roadway
classification. And that both of those
were in favor of doing this.
And then lastly, wayfinding systems
helping people find existing
destinations as well as the ones that we
hope are going to come in. And
wayfinding systems are typically I want
to note they should be calibrated to
different modes so that wayfinding for
cyclists and pedestrians are different.
um they might show different distance
not different distances but um recognize
the the reach of walking and biking
might be less than cars. Uh but also
just the way that they're designed so
they're easier to read at certain
speeds.
Third priority economic and workforce
development and really supporting the
growth of local business. This is
another thing that we did hear quite
strongly in public input. Uh marketing
priority parcels. uh those parcels might
be priorities uh because of where
they're located or because they're
appropriate for a particular use that we
want to see uh come into the MRA. Uh
creating a land bank, that's something
that actually Ms. Re Ms. Rivera just
talked about. Uh land banks can be used
because you want to uh temporarily
retain a piece of property that you have
a vision for it, but the market might
not support that vision now. So, you
want to essentially not preclude that
use in the future and wait until the
market catches up. Alternately, you
might use the land bank to collect
parcels that you want to aggregate
together to be more attractive for a
private developer again for a specific
purpose or something that you want to
see in the district. Storefront
improvement programs. This can take both
a permanent or a temporary kind of
aspect. Uh permanent storefront
improvement is more like facade
improvements, helping people improve the
appearance, the attractiveness of their
business and their building. Temporary
improvement programs
uh are often things like looking for
creative uses for temporarily vacant
storefronts. So you might see uh I have
seen uh short-term museums, art
exhibits, uh even temp uh small
smallcale police outposts information.
I've seen project uh project offices in
vacant storefronts so that you don't
have that vacancy kind of staring you in
the face and it gives an idea of more
vibrancy in the community.
Also in this bucket
uh we're looking to cultiv cultivate
entrepreneurs that can contribute to the
MRA and locate in the MRA. Uh this could
be things like startup funds, mentorship
from other businesses that really help
them get started, things to think about.
Uh it can also be uh resources, making
meeting rooms available or making on
call legal services available. A lot of
times those are things that you might
see in like an incubator. Uh and you can
decide what scale they might be needed
on here in the MRA. I should also point
out at this point that some of the
recommendations we're talking about also
showed up showed up in the Elsalano MRA
that you just reviewed about six months
ago. So, we did review that plan uh to
make sure that anything that was in
there that kind of applies citywide was
also reflected in this plan. We don't
want them to exist in silos.
And then also workforce training. So,
bringing workforce training into the
MRA, it could be really specific, uh,
like a commercial kitchen and culinary
programs or training for specific
trades. It can more be more general,
helping people improve their computer
skills or even assistance with filling
out employment applications. Uh, it can
also take the form of matching people
with apprenticeship or internship
opportunities. All of those contribute
as I said to kind of raising the whole
level of the MRA and the safety and
security.
The fourth bucket is housing and we're
going to talk when we talk about some of
the the one of the catalytic pro
projects that's coming up next in
converting some of those older motel to
housing and that could be permanent
housing, it could be affordable housing,
transitional housing. It can take a lot
of forms. uh creating a housing and a
resource guide for developers that would
be primarily creating a digital
resource. It can be a print resource as
well that notes the available sites uh
available funding and also very
importantly proactive outreach to those
potential developers. So they might be
developers that are already working in
Los Cruus or in the state or they might
be national developers that might be
interested in starting to work here.
um promoting housing stability. We're
primar not the first thing we're looking
at here is to avoid eviction. So that's
direct rental aid. Uh it can also take
the form of rehabilitation grants for
owner occupants. This is a program that
you already have. So it could be
expansion of that program and then also
looking at things like the right to
return. So as the MRA redevelops, it is
possible that some residents may be
displaced as that property is
redeveloped. The right to return is
about making sure that they have the
first right of refusal to come back. It
also some cities take that one step
further and they have coordinators that
work directly with the people's people
who are displaced both to help them find
new housing to know where they've gone
and when that new project hopefully a
mixeduse development with additional
residential in it is ready to contact
them and make sure that they are the
first to potentially look at it and
decide if they want to come back. So
that's a more proactive instead of a
passive approach to the right to return.
And then offering incentives for multif
family and affordable housing. You've
done a lot with that so far. I don't
think I need to dig into that super
deeply. Uh the last two priorities,
beautifification uh and community
culture are are linked. Uh developing a
street beautifification plan.
Uh this can be about things like greater
shade, greater amenities like seating.
Um you could the city could do a pilot
block to demonstrate that or instead of
actually building the pilot block, it
would be important to decide what that
cross-section is on key corridors. U
definitely West Picato uh potentially
Motel and Valley as well. Defining the
cross-section in advance means that as
redevelopment or as new proposals come
in that can be included as part of the
requirement for approval because it's
very expensive. It's very difficult to
say that we're going to just you know
rebuild a quarter mile or a half mile of
West Picacho. But saying we have this
this cross-section ready and as things
redevelop this is what we want it to
look like. That's a a more phased
incremental approach. Uh district
gateways might be a part of that.
uh as well as public art temporary uses
on vacant parcels. This is something
that like uh filling in those vacant
storefronts also gives an idea of care
and activity in the community. Some of
the uses that we've seen, they might be
really temporary like we're just rolling
into Christmas market season. You could
have a one month Christmas mark
Christmas market on a vacant parcel. Uh
we have seen food trucks come in on
vacant parcels maybe every Tuesday. it
that's the where you go to get your food
truck lunch. Uh other uses like skate
parks and that doesn't mean that you
have to cast them into the ground in
concrete. They're more they're more
built temporarily usually with wood and
what have you. If you're if any of you
are familiar with park heing day which
is a national movement where you convert
like one or two on street parking spaces
to a temporary park. It's that kind of
creativity that could go into
temporarily converting vacant lots. Um,
community gardens is another use that
I've seen on on uh vacant parcels as a
temporary and they can be temporary a
month, temporary midterm, a couple
years.
And then the last bucket of
recommendations
all about cultural identity. Uh we
talked about public art in the last one.
This is this is really promoting that
that public art reflect a local voice,
local heritage. um integrating
storytelling and oral history. This
could be a physical improvement or it
could be a non-physical improvement. Uh
it could be something like a recorded
walking tour of the area or you've
probably seen local history or poetry on
plaques or included in paving.
We did include historic assets as part
of the recommendations here. uh since
the
uh the railroad depot is close but not
actually within the boundaries of the
MRA, but looking at rehabilit
rehabilitating and enhancing that could
uh could bring that cultural identity
and pull it into the MRA.
The next part we have to talk about is
catalytic sites. Though the city chose
three catalytic sites to do con concept
level site planning on and each of these
was chosen for different reasons. They
are distributed throughout the MRA. The
Tashiro multi-use hub is kind of north
there. The the one labeled one. It is 42
acres and it was chosen because it's the
biggest single undeveloped parcel in the
MRA. So it has a lot of potential to
really influence what happens in the RRA
and even jumpst start other development.
uh Camunes Park
labeled number two is on the west side
of Valley Drive. It's an existing city
park. It is owned by the city. Uh the
goal of choosing this as one of the
catalytic sites was to uh to look at how
it could be enhanced and uh maybe
promote more local neighborhood use and
respond to current recreational trends
and the way the community want to use
the park. The last Cuttle site, the
Blues Apartments, it is an old motel. It
has already been converted to apartments
and so we were working with the land
owner to look at how it could be taken
even further and it was chosen to act as
a template for other motel that may
convert in the future.
To go through those sites specifically,
as I said, Toshiro is 42 acres. It's on
the southwest corner of Tashiro and
Valley Drive and it is privately owned
and we met with the property owner
several times to understand his vision
and intention on the property and one of
the most important things to him is
flexibility acknowledging that this is a
very large site. uh projects like this
are often built in phases and so that's
why this is a very high level uh blob
diagram if you will as opposed to
specific footprints to leave the
flexibility to respond to the market. Uh
what he did want to see is commercial
and uh retail and that is the bigger red
uh blobs sorry uh that are against Tiro
and Valley because they offer the best
visibility for those types of
businesses. There's also a smaller red
area on the upper left. That would be
the northwest portion of the site that's
intended to be an entertainment
district. So that's fast casual food,
possibly food trucks, a community plaza
that's placed there to respond to the
Field of Dreams that is just west of the
site. The idea being that folks who are
there with their families for the
morning, for the afternoon, for the
whole day, uh this is an a chance to
offer amenity and capitalize on that so
that there's something in walking
distance they can go over and grab a
bite to eat while they're still over
there for sports tournaments.
Uh there's also housing. The balance of
the site is housing. uh and that is
uh a good transition to the existing
neighborhood to the south and the
specific type of residential how dense
it is single family multif family that
is something that'll be market driven at
the time that it develops
the second catalytic site park this is
2.6 6 acres. As I said, it is on Valley
Drive and it is actually just south of
the Tishiro parcel. Uh this is an
existing park. It has some informal
parking over on the west side just in
the dirt against 8th Street. And then
there is a basketball court, a small
play area, and one picnic table with
with some shade over it. So the
objective here was to respond to what
the community wants in the park and
increase the usage. So you can see that
we've formalized the parking, made it a
little bit bigger and hard surfaced.
Soccer was a really popular request of
what could go in the park. There's a
basketball court as well as two age age
differentiated playgrounds.
There was also a desire to make space
for programming in this park. So that's
why you see the plaza shade structure
and then more plaza area around that
water feature. So the park can have both
active and programmed uses as well as be
used just passively and casually for
families that want to go out and have a
picnic or what have you.
Finally, the last catalytic sites, as I
said, is the Blues Apartments. They are
on the souththeast corner of the
intersection of West Picacho and 17th
Street. So this is an existing motel
that's been turned into apartments. Uh
it is the orange build all of the orange
buildings that you see in the left image
plus the red one. Those are all
residential units. Uh and you see that
there are two different images here. One
aligns with what the property owner is
currently looking to do and we did meet
with this property owner. It is
privately owned. uh at the at the
present time he is looking to make some
structural ch structural enhancements
and some aesthetic enhancements to the
existing hotel or existing apartments.
The other thing that we added is a
common open space there as well as we've
formalized the parking. Right now the
entire area is kind of a gravel dirt
lot. So by formalizing the parking we
can create those green areas side note
that uh that can be communal spaces. And
I realized that these would not be the
lush green that we're showing. Uh it
would be more desert landscaping. But in
in terms of differentiating what
differentiating what's shown in the
graphic, they're shown as green.
The second image that you see then is a
possible future phase two of enhancing
the apartments, which is everything you
saw in phase one plus adding a building
facing 17th Street. So that's a
two-story building with apartments and
then the parking grew a little bit and
the size of that building is
conceptually created of course due uh on
parking about how many vehicles can be
parked for that.
The last part of the plan that you have
chapter 7, it has an action matrix which
as I said before uh designates each of
the strategies along with the lead
parties and the resources required and
the phasing and then there's also a
funding matrix and the funding matrix is
specifically divided uh in the same six
strategy categories that we have before.
So that we're identifying for the safety
and security recommendations. There are
for instance 10 different funding
sources that we identified that the city
may be interested in pursuing. For
housing, we identified six. Uh we looked
at state, federal, and private sources.
And the the four questions that we asked
to determine whether or not they might
be suitable and should go on the matrix
for this plan is if the project and the
funding opportunity have the same
objectives. Basically, would your
project be as competitive as possible?
Does it merit the time it would take you
to write it? Uh the second question is
can the project meet the readiness
requirements? Some funding sources are
uh suitable for to take something from
concept to actual planning. Some are
just let's talk about concepts and
others are looking specifically for
shovel ready projects. So that was the
second question. Uh are the project and
funding program timelines aligned?
Important third question. And in the
matrix that you see in the last chapter,
each of the matrix matrices I believe
takes up two pages. So you see a
description of the funding program, the
contact information, the website, the
funding cycle so that you know it it
applications are due in September for
instance. Um and you have all the
information and in the live version of
it, it is actually it it's actually
linked and clickable for you. Uh and
then the last question is does the
amount that you that the funding
provides so if the maximum amount is
$5,000 does that justify both the time
to apply for it as well as the time to
administrate it. So $5,000
maybe or maybe not $250,000 grant that
would be more attractive.
I think that brings us to the end. So
I'm going to hand it back to
Selena.
Thank you, Rhonda. I appreciate it.
Selena Morales, economic development.
So, quickly, I just want to go over the
timeline recap of what's next. Uh, we
are coming December 4th to bring the
plan to adoption. If any um comments or
concerns or recommendations you have,
we'll have enough time to be able to
implement those in the final plan. We
have met with our internal MRA committee
um once already and we'll be meeting
again in January. We are currently
researching funds and programming.
That's going to be an ongoing thing when
it comes to both MAS and all MAS in the
future. And then uh we will be bringing
a resolution hopefully um in January
based on the data collected by tax and
rev and the baseline. If there isn't
enough uh data to make that
recommendation, then we'll have to wait
another six months. So typically it's a
year, but we're going to check in in
January for that.
As far as the implementation um and
moving forward, we're really going to
focus on um coordination with the
internal MRA committee. Um, this is made
up of department directors and
uh key staff that will help us
prioritize projects, identify funding
opportunities, and align efforts with
those departments. Um, so our goal is to
address those concerns proactively,
making sure redevelopment enhances the
quality of life for existing residents
and supports the growth of this area.
We're excited about what this plan
represents, and we'll stand for any
questions or discussion.
Thank you, Selena. Anyone have any
questions? Uh, councelor Kur,
thank you. Thank you for the
presentation and the insight. Um, I I am
excited about transforming the West
Picacho corridor. I support the
extension out to the to the river. Um,
as alluded to, I I did have one sort of
feedback point is I feel like I don't
know. I feel like the catalyst
um projects seem not exactly on
like as transformative as I imagined and
I realize I'm asking like I know that
all these things cost money and they all
have things related to them but that's I
think I was I was thinking about like
when you were talking about the section
of the road, right? that is that to me
is like a transformative idea and th the
catalyst projects feel like they're kind
of not not not even approaching that
kind of transformation. So for me that
that feels like a little bit like oh I
wish we could do more or think of a way
to to
um dramatically do that. And then the
question that I really have related to
that is I know I mean I think it took
years of work to get one pedestrian
safety
um measure on Picacho in part because of
the fact that four years, right?
Um that that it's not exactly ours,
right? Correct. Um and so I'm wondering
if you could sort of give a an
assessment of the the capacity for us to
actually do the kinds of transformative
things that I'm imagining. Like is there
a conflict here? And I I would like to
hear a little bit more about that
conflict and and understand it so that I
can frame my expectations of of what is
possible and what really isn't
necessarily possible. And I think you
were kind of talking about this, but but
I would love to hear more.
Okay.
If you're up for it.
Yeah, definitely. So, I know um speaking
to what Rhonda said. Oh, thank you,
Mayor and Councelor Karan. Speaking to
what uh Rhonda said, we did meet with
public works and NM DOT. I don't know if
you want to give more information on
those meetings as far as what led to the
recommendation or Kyle um as far as it
being not our roads and also the level
of staff capacity and the amount that
would required if we took over that was
an option that they provided that that
we can take over that street but the the
cost to do that and the amount of money
that it would take for the maintenance
and and taking it over completely um
just didn't seem feasible at the time.
Um, not to say that we can't ever do it
in the future, but just be being
realistic about that specific question.
Uh, it seemed it was really hard to make
it a catalytic project. Not to mention
these three are not the only catalytic
projects that we're thinking of. Of
course, we have about seven or eight
that are in mind, but as we've stated
with MRA projects, it takes one or two
just to get the ball money to get
interest going in the area. And so these
were the ones that we felt were very
doable, were aligned with other um
comments that we've gotten from the
public and community feedback and is
really what the community asked for.
Although they may not seem as grand as
you know you were hoping, it is a really
small area uh to work with in comparison
to El Paso South Solano. So um that was
some of the deciding factor with these
catalytic projects.
Mayor Pro tip,
thank you all so much. I um as I always
express, I'm just so excited about the
potential for MASS. Um obviously fought
really hard for West Pocacho to be one
of our top priorities. As I always say,
I think what happens on West Picacho
impacts the rest of the city. So I'm
very very excited um about what you've
presented here today. Thank you very
much for the work that you all have
done. Um I think having this MRA
committee has been um really excellent
and in how things are moving forward. So
again, thank you. Um, you know, I do
want to say that
um the num the catalyst project number
one on Tiro, I I've been part of those
meetings with that with that owner and
that developer and um this is honestly
this is really exciting. And I think for
me what's been most exciting is the the
communication between the city and the
owner and the developer and their
willingness to accept feedback and their
willingness to say this is our vision.
How can you support us? And and one of
the things that has very clearly come
out of this is that they they are like
full force full foot on the pedal moving
forward with some of the projects they
want to do. very like multi-use all
kinds of types of housing commercial
that's going to be really exciting for
the school all the activities that take
place here during you know after school
and weekends and for Legends West
neighborhood and for the Mccclure
Hogland neighborhood it's going to be
very exciting and I think one of the uh
barriers that we have discovered through
our conversation is that um there are
some kind of expensive um
barriers that have to get crossed that I
really hope the MRA can be supportive
with but perhaps other funding sources
so that you know if this is a catalyst
much like we've talked about like you
know the Boys and Girls Club being a
catalyst for El Po I think this can be
that for for West Picacho and I really
do hope that we try to find every
possible solution to support them in in
investing in this part of town because I
I do think it's important to reward for
those that that want to to stay here
number one who they don't want to leave
this area um but also who want to come
and so I'm just very very excited. I'm
also I hadn't seen the uh workup of um
Camuna's park and so this is really
beautiful and um right now this is a
really sad park honestly. Um and so this
so this um rendition is really beautiful
and and aspirational. So I'm very
excited about that. Um I think that's it
for me just in terms of um the
conversation with NM NM DOT. I know
you've heard this all before like that
median really between Second and Valley
um has hindered a lot of economic
support for the businesses along that
corridor and I think for us if we can
continue to advocate for the state to
think about that differently um is
really important. Like it is one of the
number one things I hear from business
owners in that area. And so I really
think we need to continue to push them
to um to just think about what that
medium does for that community. Um other
than that, I do want to thank you
especially for the kind of community
engagement that you've done with
businesses and just uh general users and
people who live in the area. And um I
can't wait to vote on the project. I
also think the expansion is very
important. So, I do think that I hope we
see that in the December uh resolution
to approve the expansion. Thank you.
Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Mayor Prom,
Council Matise. Now, I again, thank you
for your hard work on this project. Um,
I'd like to just give support to the
extension
to the river. Thank you.
Thank you.
Anyone else? We're good with the
extension. Everybody's good with that.
Yeah, I agree. So, no, thank you. It's
it's as Mayor Prom said, it's very
exciting for an area of Los Cusus that's
uh been a long overdue needing an uplift
and so looking forward to it. And um
with that, I'll ask if there's any
members of the public that want to share
any comments or have anything to say.
May share a comment.
I'm sorry. Oh, I'm sorry. Councelor
Fraud is
Thank you.
You Okay. I'm going to miss you, too.
Oh, [laughter]
yeah. This is um you know, I um I snuck
up on you. I I've lived in different
cities. I mean, it's not like, oh, I
lived in this part of the world or that
part of the world, but um I I've lived
in San Francisco, grew up in Los
Angeles, lived got my BA in Sacramento,
California.
um and you know traveled in Canada,
Mexico, South America, Europe and all
that. But I have to say um that uh when
I came to Laserus, I I fell in love with
it. It's kind of like the way you feel
about Paris, but but there's no
comparison. There's just something uh so
wonder Don't laugh. Um there's just
something so wonderful about the people
here and I want to thank uh you know you
for the presentation and I think you
have really captured you know in the
diagrams that we saw and the the future
and your work I mean just the entire um
you know the entire team um and it's
just so beautiful and it does take a
while you know Sacramento it took like
about 10 years for it to, you know,
really get everything going. Um, and
we're not in the best economy to boot.
And, you know, governmental, um, how
should I say, environment, um, at least
nationwide isn't very friendly right now
to to the human being. Um, so I just
really want to thank you for capturing
the beauty of this city and for um, the
design is absolutely beautiful. Um, and
I just I just want to express my thank
you and my gratitude.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mayor.
Thank you, Councelor Flores. Were there
any members of the public?
Yes. Come on up. We'll give you a couple
minutes.
Joan Woodward.
I have to have this hug. Can you hear
me? All right. All right. Um,
mayor and council and consultants, thank
you for the opportunity to comment. I
fully support this plan and I'm glad the
city prioritized its preparation. Uh,
I've been involved with other earlier
visioning processes with the city. And
um, one effort that always comes forward
is to identify gateways to Las Cruises.
And in several of the other planning
efforts, we looked at um a natural west
gateway as being uh at the river. The
bridge is dramatic. It appears in uh
surfer movies. It is uh an asset for the
community. And it was always around
Laorona Park that um it was determined
to be the gateway to Las Cusus. And so I
clearly support the extension. Uh and um
also would just like to bring up that
since it's a park along the river um and
that connects the Rio Grand Trail and is
perhaps eligible for funding and support
from the National Park Service Rivers
and Trails Conservation Assistance
Program and the state's outdoor
recreation trails plus grant. I just am
curious why uh the gateway, which was I
think number one in the plan, was um
placed at the what I consider to be a
very hazardous intersection at
Roadrunner. Um and uh why is that the
west gateway instead of the bridge in
the river park? And I would have liked
to have seen traffic and accident uh
analysis in the plan. I did see
demographics. I saw income, but I did
not see that. So that's that's my first
question. Should I hold on to that and
go to the second?
Yes, I wi I will. [laughter] Uh the
second one is um as I understand it uh
Picacho under this plan would remain a
principal arterial which allows truck
traffic uh through the area that
hopefully will become calmed by the um
the uh features that will be implemented
on Picacho with more intersections and
more friendliness to the I see you've
extended my time. Thank you. Um to the
pedestrian. I support and I want all of
these improvements that you propose, but
I notice uh in suggesting that Picacho
be transferred from DOT and federal
highways to the city. Um I wonder what
will become of that truck traffic. Will
that increase pressure on other uh east
west arterials or will that um trigger
something that I would not like to see
which has been on the MO plan for uh
many years which is um a bypass from um
Angler miles to the 10. And so that's a
a larger scale question I have as an
implication of this very good plan. And
I would just be interested in knowing
more about um changes especially with
regards to truck traffic. I believe it's
approved for transporting hazardous
material as a principal arterial. I'm
not sure about that though. And uh to
see what other pressure might be um in
our future on other East West arterials.
I love the motel conversions. I love the
um invocation of Septad and I love that
if you've ever tried to drive west on
Picacho at 5:00 pm uh that so many of
these will um of the improvements will
overcome the glare issue which is so
dangerous in both directions during the
day. So I think this rigorous plan is uh
very highly um uh appreciated and I
thank you for prioritizing that. if we
could address those two questions. Uh
thank you very much.
Okay. Thank you. Selena, do you have uh
any information on that first one that
she asked about the gateway?
If I may, I'll stand for Selena. Uh the
location of the gateway. Uh [snorts] I
believe we were looking at more of the
the land use concept of when you feel
like you've arrived because there's more
of a concentration of built structures.
Uh I will say this is a draft plan. Um
we are not opposed and we are looking
for input like that that says you know
we really think it should be at the
river um for all the reasons that were
listed. Uh if you'd like I can also
respond to the second question regarding
the truck traffic.
Yes, go ahead. So when we talked to
NMDOT and public works altogether
actually um the question was on the
table should the city take over control
of West Picacho so that they can control
the public realm and create more of the
experience we're looking for. What came
out of those meetings is the sole single
thing that would necessarily change if
the city took if the city took
possession is that they could prohibit
truck traffic. On the other hand, the
cost of taking over the roadway would be
very high. And so, um, my apologies if
we are unclear on the plan, we can
update it to be clear. We are not
recommending that the city of Los Cuses
take control of West Picacho, um, for
the cost implications. And so to answer
the question, it will remain uh until
some point at the future if you know the
context would change and the city would
decide they want to take control. It
would remain a state and a federal
roadway and truck traffic would remain
on it. So uh I think directly answering
the question, no, it wouldn't trigger a
by a bypass because the intention is
that truck traffic remains.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you for that.
Mayor.
Uh,
yes, Councilman Cheese.
Come on up.
Go ahead, Councilman.
Yeah, I was just going to say it would
be interesting from public works and
other departments to give us an idea of
the future east west corridors that are
going to be built in the city of Los
Cusus. Um, I'd be interested in in
knowing that. Uh I think that's really
important for the traffic control uh
particularly the telshore and other
streets that are getting pretty crowded.
Thank you.
Sure. Thanks. Go ahead. Good to see you
Jason.
Good afternoon noon everyone. My name is
Jason
[laughter]
I have lived and or worked in the area
for 30 plus years. Um,
I went to
both
Kacho and Mayfield and care about the
area
greatly.
I agree that the area has been neglected
for far
too long.
And that investment is needed as well. I
like a lot of what the Pocacho
MRA is trying to do. Blues departments
do need help. They need they do need to
be brought into code.
communist park
needs to look like the pictures uh that
they showed.
Um it needs to be safe and fun.
I agree with bringing housing and
businesses here as well.
two things that I had.
I I'd also hoped that there would be
more downacho.
I hope that uh there would be a that
would be the main
focus.
I went to all of the
meetings that the MRA planners
put on. They had asked us for our
thoughts and ideas. ideas such as better
lighting
or walking paths, new types of
businesses, different places to eat,
doctors,
offices,
things to do at night were all amongst
the
mentioned ideas.
This all would be great.
Most people
did
mention crime as a big concern. Um, as U
Rhonda had stated,
some people even said they would like it
to resemble the downtown area.
That was like their idea
um of how to transform it. And um I
think that all would be awesome.
Number two is safety, safety, safety.
I know everyone is excited about that
big plot of land.
Um it is a big plot of land. You can do
a lot of things.
Um, I hope that we are
putting safety in mind
when looking at what would be allowed
here.
We have
Mayfield
with about 1500 kids plus staff and
Pocacho
Middle School with about 6 to 700 kids
plus staff.
Plus, we have the Field of Dreams and
Sports Complex with soccer and baseball
fields.
Many people who live or work or travel
in this area often know how bad it gets.
The big example I have is trunk or
treat. It was horrible down to Shuro.
Um, a lot of the events at the soccer
fields,
it makes everything plugged up. Um, I
know that we almost ran over two kids
just
sprinting AC sprinting across the
street.
Adding more homes will only add
to this and that's to be expected and
that's fine. But the businesses that we
place there, I think we have to be very
thoughtful and careful. Um, you know,
um, I know that the owner had said that
he had wanted to, you know, uh, do
something big.
Um, and that's totally fine. I think the
area, uh, a lot of people would be
happy. Is this the rice? Is this the
right place? I don't think so. Um, maybe
down Kacho. I think that would be great.
But um u so any commercial business that
is allowed here I hope will have a small
footprint and will be more of a low
traffic type just one small bit more. Um
just examples if you look at the other
three high schools in town that they
don't have a middle school
very close by.
um they don't have hightra
big stores very close to them. Los
Chris's high, you have an Alber's uh you
give or take about a mile away. Um
Lauren Mountain, no uh Centennial, you
go down about a mile and then you have a
grocery store. So,
we all know how high school
kids drive and I hope that
this would be all put into place in what
kind of businesses that we have. Um
the
question to planners that I have is, you
know, when you guys were um going
through
um
that
website. Um how many people had to
mention
safety as uh something very important?
um having things that
were
low traffic compared to high traffic.
I'm pretty sure um you got a few of
those. Um so I hope uh that
these are questions that city council um
would ask and hope to get before they
make a vote. I'm sorry for your
grandstanding. I do appreciate the extra
time.
Um, and I hope you all have a very
nice this afternoon.
Yeah. If you have any
any response to that.
I can respond generally to um Jason's
last question about what we heard on the
survey. Uh we had about 30 people
respond to the survey. Not everybody
answered. I'm sorry. I'm thinking about
I'm not sure if you mean the survey that
was done in the community at the
beginning or if more recently the draft
public plan that went up. Uh we heard
quite a lot on the survey, the community
survey about safety at the beginning of
the project.
Um, a lot of people did mention Picacho
specifically. I'm going into my memory
bank because that's an an older one that
I read. I don't recall specific comments
from the community survey done last year
on Tashiro. I [snorts] can say that on
the most recent comments on the draft
that was available last month, we ask
six questions. We asked for comments on
each of those six categories that we
went through and then we asked for
comments on if there were any comments
on each of the three catalytic projects.
I would have to go back. We may have had
one or two comments about Tiro the
property. Um but they don't stand out in
my mind that it was you know a wave of
comment from communities about that one.
I do recall talking to somebody at one
of the public meetings who lived in the
community directly south of there. Uh
their comment was not so much about
safety. They were concerned about the
drainage coming off the site. We can
certainly if you would like in the
interim, I'm sorry I don't know your
exact city process. We can supply those
comments or we can look through them
again and tell you if there were
specific ones about Tiro Drive or any
any other specific concern that you
have.
Okay, thank you. As Jason mentioned, it
is a a a valid concern when you have the
gathering at Field of Dreams or the
soccer fields and things and the
congestion and the traffic that take
place. So, just making sure that we do
have the safety in the area that that'll
be vital especially onto Shiro. But, uh
yeah, all aspects we have to look at
that. [snorts]
You know, it's a really great point and
I appreciate you bringing it to our
attention. We had noted specifically on
Picacho that traffic levels and volumes
should continue to be monitored and I
mentioned that relative to pedestrian
activated crossings or future
signalization and I would say we should
expand that recommendation to
specifically um note Tiro in that as
well because it's a really good point. I
mean this is a major planning tenant
that as new uses come in traffic is
going to go up. Um, Tashiro is
welldesigned now, but I can certainly
see as traffic increases, it might need
more of those items.
Okay. Thank you, Mayor Pro.
Thank you. Yeah, I was just I was going
to add I do feel like Tiro and the
parking situation when there are big
events like we really have to coordinate
better with the schools around what we
like the Gusmacker was kind of a
disaster when it came to parking to be
honest. And so I think that's a very
valid um concern. I also think there
being a neighborhood there, I do think
it will help. Um but I do think it's
important that we ask um that bringing
that we bring in LCPs for um better
coordinating on on how some of these
events happen. You know, there is a
giant parking lot on the other side and
there is another giant empty lot on the
other side of that. So, um there is
opportunity for us to to do something
better with um with some of that
parking. And then just lastly, as um
Jason was speaking, I I can you go back
to
um I think where you we had some of the
business response and what they wanted
their priorities.
I I guess I would like to maybe make a
pitch for like on West Picacho
specifically the infrastructure of a lot
of buildings though privately owned I
think is um it's struggling and I do
feel like for a lot of folks they just
don't have that kind of capital right
like they're small business owners or
perhaps not perhaps they're out of state
landlords and we're currently working on
something like this already right that
like to hopefully address some of those
issues and and honestly the MacArthur
neighborhood is in the MRA and so I I'm
excited for like the conversion of
couple of these things right like the
neglected um properties ordinance that's
coming up. Um, but I do hope that, you
know, as we start thinking about what
the funding may look like, that we
consider a pot of money for um folks who
want to improve
[snorts] um their uh storefronts,
especially along uh and prioritizing
along West Picacho um given that they
are part of the like what you see first.
So, I just wanted to add that last
piece. Thank you.
Anyone else? Thank you for the
presentation. Thank you. [snorts]
Appreciate it. We'll move on to the next
uh agenda item 4.3. An update on the
plastic bag fee. Jenny
I'm going to push yes. Hopefully nothing
bad happens. Um, mayor counselors Jenny
Ernnandez, sustainability office, um,
sustainability officer with the
sustainability office. We good to see
you all again. Um, happy to be here. So
today we're going to discuss a couple
things with you. Um the first being that
at the end of this year, so in a month,
we will have wrapped up four years of
the plastic bag ordinance, which is a
long time. It came by quickly. And so we
wanted to give you one an update about
how many how many of the fees we've
collected, not only in the past year,
but in the past four years and some of
the trajectories that we're seeing and
um things of that nature. And then the
second thing is which we'll go into
detail. We there are certain limitations
to how we can use this fee. So today
we're going to give you a preview of
what will come back in December to
propose to change the wording in the
ordinance to allow us some more
flexibility with how we're using the
fees. Um I brought a special guest with
me today, Molly Carrier, who will help
me present on the numbers and figures.
She is our sustainability co-op who
leads on some of this and so she'll do a
portion of the presentation and then I
will do a portion as well. So to kick it
off, a little bit of background context
just to refresh our memory. We passed
the plastic bag ordinance in August 16
of 2021 and it was essentially um
limiting the use of plastic singleuse
carry out bags. So no plastic bags in
retail spaces to be given out when
things were purchased. We the way the
ordinance is written is that if you go
to a store and you want to purchase a
plastic bag, there will be paper bags
and they charge you 10 cents. 5 cents of
which comes back to the city and then 5
cents which the retailer um keeps. And
as I mentioned, the fee can only the 5
cents that we collect can only be used
for very specific things. So the way the
the ordinance was written, it says the
fees collected are dedicating to
promoting sustainability, public
education, and purchasing of reusable
bags. And so that's a little bit of
background context. I'm going to pass it
over to Molly who will give us some
concrete figures for you all to look at
for the past four years and then the
past year and then we'll continue from
there.
Mayor, counselors, my name is Molly
Carrier and I am a sustainability co-op
with the sustainability office here at
the city of Los Cusus. Uh today I will
be covering a breakdown of the data from
the plastic bag ban report for 2025 as
well as accumulation of data since the
program started back in January of 2022.
Year four of the plastic bag ban started
in January of 2025 and will end in
December of 2025 with environmental
service fees for quarter 4 being due for
businesses by January 15th uh 2026. Uh
with that being said, we have up until
quarter 3's worth of data for this year.
Uh total yearly projection is set to be
roughly $174,000
uh with the data for the over $128,000
that we currently have accumulated so
far being displayed.
Uh in this slide I have detailed the
year 4 breakdown of procurement by each
sector uh which are grocery, retail,
clothing and hardware.
Grocery was the highest grossing area
with over 72% of fees originating from
the sector. while retail was the second
highest at 25%.
Clothing and hardware were our lowest
contributors at 3% and less than 1%
respectively.
Uh the graph on the right reflects the
affformentioned totals.
Now that we've covered the year 4
breakdown by sector, I will touch upon
the averages of data since the program
started in January of 2022.
The average for each quarter over the
almost four years of implementation is a
little over $45,500,
which can equate to roughly $180,000 a
year. As you can see by the graph on the
right, it depicts the total procured per
year. This year is projected to be our
lowest procuring year since the program
started at roughly um $174,000.
Along with total revenue procured per
year, a little over 917,000
paper bags are purchased by consumers
each quarter,
which can equate to roughly 3.6 million
bags a year.
Um, for the graph on the right, this
year is also projected to be our most
statistically significant decrease at
negative 7.46%.
Year 1, there was no percentage change
due to it being the start of the
program, but year 2 compared to year 1
also showed a decrease of 5.48%.
Year three, there was a slight increase
compared to year two at 49 4.9%.
However, the reason we're seeing such a
significant decrease currently is the
launch of the educational campaign that
was successful in relaying that the ban
is still in effect. Along with this, new
stores are arriving to Los Cususius. Uh
yet, we are still seeing a decline in
paperback purchases, which also means
that the ordinance has been effective in
being relayed to stores.
Now that we have been uh now that we
have discussed the data, I will pass it
back to Jenny to discuss how we've used
the fees procured uh from the
environmental service fee to help
educate the community.
Council mayor uh Jenny Arnandez,
sustainability officer. So, as Molly
mentioned there, um we've seen a
decrease in the overall usage of people
purchasing paper bags. So what we've
used this funds for, as a reminder, we
are it's very specific to what we can
use it for. These are the ways that
we've used it in the past four years. So
the first year was to help us with um an
educational campaign. So the first year
to let businesses know that there's this
new ordinance, here are how you get
registered to submit your fees and just
educational awareness to the public. Um
the then we did a second educational
campaign like Molly mentioned. We saw a
spike. I think it was in year in year
three. And so we thought, okay, well, we
should probably do another educational
campaign to remind folks that this is
still in effect and it still exists and
hopefully people will remember to bring
their reusable bag. And so I on the next
slide I'm going to show you because they
did an amazing job on this second
campaign um some of the promotional
commercials that I hope you all saw
around there and um hopefully will
reinvigorate um you remembering our
plastic bag that became basically um our
helper. Let's see if I can
Oh,
maybe not. Sorry folks.
We tested it out before and it worked.
Okay, that's okay. We'll come back to
it.
Oh, here comes Adrian.
Thank you, Adrian.
Not sure what happened there.
When Los Cruises went plastic free,
things looked great for usable bags like
me.
It was going to be beautiful,
but then you forgot about me.
And now you're wasting your money on
those things. Paper bags.
Next time you go to the store, don't
forget about me.
Here we are again. You're back from the
store while I sat here all alone.
Every time you leave for the store, you
also leave me behind and waste your
money on all those paper bags. So, here
I am, right where you left me, waiting
and hoping that maybe next time you go
to the store, you don't forget about me.
This ad was paid for by Paper Bags. No
reusable bags were harmed in the making
of this advertisement.
Why do they keep forgetting about me?
This ad was paid for by Paper Bags. No
reusable bags were harmed in the making
of this advertisement.
Hey, buddy. You might be wondering how I
got here. Alone in the backyard.
Everything was wonderful at first.
Isn't this great? Now we don't have to
waste any more money on paper bags.
But then they forgot about me. And now
they're still wasting their money on
those things. So here I am hoping that
one day they don't forget about me.
Right, boy?
As the sustainability officer, I
probably shouldn't admit this, but I
deeply related to some of those
scenarios where you're at the checkout
and you're having a moment of panic cuz
now you wish you have eight arms instead
of paying 10 cents. Um, and so that
gives you an idea of the campaign
efforts that we did to help remind the
public about, you know, just don't
forget about re bringing your reusable
bag. And then on the right, you'll see
we had um a costume made of our bag
person um who we partnered with Cru's
Creatives to design the costume with us
and so that we could take it out in
public and pass out some of the reusable
bags to folks. So, um,
that gives you a sense of how we've used
the bag me bag funds so far. The second
thing that we've done is use them to
purchase reusable bags. Um, we've handed
out more than 6,000 reusable bags um
through this effort to again either help
especially low to moderate income folks
to have reusable bags to take to the
store so they won't have to purchase
any. um and just to the public so that
they can have some ready and handy for
when they go to the grocery stores. Um
the other ways that we've used this is
uh temp services. When we first launched
the um ordinance and campaign, we did
not have any awesome co-ops yet. And so
we used temp services to help us one go
out to business and do educational
promotion, but two to then get
businesses to register online to the
portal to submit their payment and all
of those um fund details that they had
to fill out. And then now you saw that
Molly presented on all those numbers. So
she actually tracks sends out um
reminders to the businesses on the
quarterly reports and things of that
nature. And so it partially funds some
of Molly's salary to help cover her
hours that she works related to the
plastic bag fee. And then last but not
least, educational events. We've
actually partnered with a couple of um
community- based organizations here in
Los Cusus to do educational events on
one remembering to use your bags, but
then going a little bit deeper in terms
of why we're really trying to push for
this and kind of the micropl
microlastics and the connections to
plastic waste.
So, as I mentioned, we will come back in
December for a first read to um request
us changing the language. Like I said,
it is very specific to how it can be
used right now. And so, to give you an
idea of the past four years, we have
collected about $700,000
of plastic bag fees. We have spent to
date based on the slideshow I I
presented on on the previous slide about
337,243
of the fee. We have not spent $363,000
and some change of the fee just because
of how restricted it is of what we can
and cannot use it for. Um and so when we
come in December, we will propose
language something similar to the above
that basically says it allows us to use
it towards anything that helps us meet
our goals in our climate action plan.
And so for example, including but not
limited to climate mitigation and
adaptation, energy conservation, public
education, and community engagement. And
so essentially that means that the fees
would be used to helping with any of our
projects that help us meet the climate
action goals that were adopted by
council.
And so why am I here today asking you um
to consider making those changes? And
you'll see the detailed revised versions
of the ordinance when we come back for
first read in December. And if you all
recall, we have a program called Plugged
In for Good. And due to the new federal
administration, we have lost a lot of
our grant funding. Um, and so we have
had to make a lot of pivots and shifts.
Um, which which means we've had to align
or realign what our office can provide
and do in terms of capacity and
services. And so it's really meant that
we put a lot of effort in our plugged in
for good project to help cover the holes
so to speak of the funds that we've
lost. And now we have some other
projects that we would like to continue
to do and provide services to the
community for but we simply don't have
the fundings and this could really help
cover the gap. And as a reminder,
Plugged In for Good is our um lowincome
retrofit program. That is we're aiming
to help people specifically in the
infill area have safer and healthier
homes. And so to just give you an
example of what I mean by it is limiting
our services that we can provide is we
like to partner and I'll give you a good
example on the last next slide with a
lot of our community-based
organizations. Cru's creatives being one
of them. Um, and we actually there was a
grant opportunity to partner with them
to submit a grant together, but we
decided not to move forward just because
we had to pivot a couple of things. And
another one is our EV funds. I was here
a couple weeks ago on the funds that we
received from the animal shelter. And so
there are additional opportunities like
that coming forward that we're really
having to strategize if we can move
forward with them or not.
And so how we're proposing to use the
additional 30 $363,000
um that are in reserves currently. So
with our plugged in for good project,
it's only very limited to lowincome
uh community members right now. We are
proposing
um we we hope to expand that to
everybody in the city who needs help
having a healthier and safer home that
we can help them. And so based on that,
we have to find different um funding
alternatives, right? We've learned a lot
from the community that sometimes
traditional loans don't work for people,
especially right now with high interest
rate. So we want to find different
innovative financing mechanisms that we
can help close the gap for residents to
be able to do retrofits in their home.
So we'd like to use some of this funding
to do an analysis to figure out what
those best methods are. The next one is
our fix it fairs. Hopefully this is not
the first time you have heard about our
fixit fairs. Last year we provided um I
think three or four fixit fairs across
the infill area. Um, we did one with
Weed and Seed. That was a partnership
that we did. And essentially the fix it
fairs are where residents can bring
things that they love that potentially
just need a little bit of TLC and then
they can keep continuing it versus
buying the thing completely new. So, a
perfect example is if you have a really
great favorite coat that you love, but
there's a button missing or you know
there's a hole in it, you could bring it
to one of the Fix It Bears and they
could help you sew it so that you can
continue to love your favorite coat and
actually use it. And so, the Fix It
Fair, they also provide um it's a
partnership with Veil as well, so you
can get your bike tuned up. You can they
also do electrical work and um wood
work. And so we had a lot of people
bring in lamps, their old lamps that
they had and they were able to fix them.
Um we also had a lot of folks bring in
um sharpening. So they needed knife
sharpening or garden tools that needed
to be sharpened and you can bring those
in and at the fix it fair uh they'll
help you sharpen those items. And so
this was a fan favorite. Um we heard
from a lot of our community members that
they hoped that we could continue to do
this. This was actually some funding
from a grant that we had previously that
we have lost since. And so this would
allow us to continue providing those
fixed fairs to our community that they
really loved and enjoyed. Um, another
way that we would propose to use the
funds is for future energy audits. So
last time a couple weeks ago, I was also
here to accept our seed grant funding.
Um, and part of that is energy audits.
So we have funds to do some of the ho
houses now, but we don't have funds to
do more houses essentially in the
future. And so this funding source can
really help us pay for um some of the
energy audits done in folks homes and
that helps us to understand if the home
is a good fit to do retrofit work in.
And last but not least um you saw Molly
present and she our co-ops in general
are essential to the success of our
program. Um, we've been very lucky in
that we've had really sharp and uh,
brilliant co-ops who can actually take
on projects and lead them themselves.
Perfect example is um, our car share
program that is about to launch on the
18th where you can rent an EV and ride
it around town was actually started by
one of our previous co-ops. And so that
gives you a sense of like they can we
can do a lot more when we have co-op
support. And so some of these funding
we're proposing to help pay for the
portion of their salaries to make sure
that we can keep our co-ops and have um
successful programs.
And so last but not least um when we
come back in December for a redline
version of the changes that we're
proposing because we're changing the
ordinance. We're going to also propose
that we revisit it after a year of
changing it so that we can give you an
update and tell you how it goes. and
then from then on there to revisit it
every three years. Um a big thank you to
codes and community development because
they have been working with us to
streamline the process of just some of
the things that weren't quite as
successful in the original ordinance
that we can really um vamp up to help
with the processes of the bag fee. And
then we've been looking at best
practices from other cities. Four years
is a long time. So many other cities
have also adopted something similar and
we're just seeing the best practices and
learning from them and seeing if we can
borrow and steal any of those and add
them to um the ordinance for any
revisions that we're going to make to
keep those included when we come back in
December to visit you all. And then last
but not least, I want to give an
example. A big shout out to Melissa and
her team at utilities. We did some
reusable bags that were Halloween themed
this year. Um, and to the comm's team,
she turned Joselyn turned this around
really quickly and it came out amazing.
Um, and those are the reusable bags. So,
that's an idea of some of the reusable
bags that we give out. They're caught in
tote bags so that hopefully all of your
groceries fit in there or those quick
stops that you make. Um, and so big
shout out to them. We we handed some out
to some of the staff and I asked them to
take pictures specifically so we could
share it with you all. Um, so thanks to
all the utility folks. If this is one of
you, congratulations. You are now
famous. Um, but I'll stand for any
questions or comments that you may have
that Molly and I can answer.
Okay. Thank you, Jenny. Uh, any
comments? Council Flores.
Thank you, Mayor. And thank you, Jen,
for uh your presentation. Um,
and keeping tabs on this. I was just
wondering um is there any um how should
I say uh is there any way that you would
be able to uh work with the uh school
district in terms of you know the
educational aspect and you know having
children take bags home you could be
maybe smaller bags because I I carry one
in my trunk so I never forget my bag and
if I do all I have to do is put the
groceries into my trunk, the trunk of my
car. But um just in terms of um because
it's so important for children and I
know that this the school a lot of the
teachers in their classrooms do raise
that awareness about recycling and you
know all that sort of stuff. But in
terms of um institutionalizing this uh
with an existing uh organization such as
the school district, is there any
possibility of doing that or I don't
know if there's there might be legal
issues or anything like that, but has it
been explored?
Mayor Counselor Flores, great question
and great tip on leaving your bags in
your trunk. Um uh so we we have a really
great relationship with our community
schools um that we work with frequently
actually on our plugged in for good
efforts. We haven't specifically done
anything with plastic bags and we have
they they were recipients of several
rounds of our reusable bags to hand out
at schools. Um but that's a great idea.
That is I think something that we can
definitely have our co-ops help lead on
um for the educational purposes. But I
think that's a really great idea and
since there's an existing relationship
with the community schools, we can
definitely look into it.
Yeah, Councelor Graham uh and I serve on
that board. I've served on that board
since be even before its inception. But
um I you know it seems like that'd be a
good way to uh bring it home uh
literally and figuratively uh to the
children in the community.
But thank you so much for your work and
thank you mayor
Council Matise. Um,
you know, I just have a question and and
I know it's
probably can't be rectified, but when
you go into a grocery store, u, and you
go to the produce department and you get
the apples and the and you use a lot of
plastic bags. I mean, you know, you have
42 plastic bags and then you get one
paper bag and you put all your all those
plastic bags maybe in your carry out
bag. Have you addressed any of that with
the grocery stores with the with the
plastic bags and the produce and all?
Mayor Councelor Matise, great
observation. Um, so there it depends on
which grocery store. We actually reached
out to natural grocerers. I don't know
if you all recall, they have like a
green bag. I think Sprouts does too.
Yeah, that's Sprouts.
Yeah, Sprouts and Natural Grocerers. And
so those are biodedegradable and not
made of plastic bags. Um and so we we we
were we were curious. We wanted to go
down a rabbit hole and see how much is
it more expensive, is it cheaper so that
we could propose the similar thing to
all grocery stores.
Yeah. And the reason I bring that up,
that might be another proposed usage is
some education that you could actually
use the money to go into the the the
bigger chain stores and say, could you
use the biodgradable?
And then another proposed use is
sometimes you have a lot of the paper
bags and and
biodegradable or the plastic bags on our
streets. Maybe we could allocate some
funding for Mono Emano, you know,
because they they do a great job
cleaning up all the the paper bags and
plastic bags in our city. So, that would
be another suggestion if uh if we could
maybe allocate another 100,000 toward
Mono Mano. Just just a suggestion from
from district 2 counselor. Thank you.
Thank you. Anyone else?
Me?
Thanks so much. I just want to say I
support this. I think it's smart to
think about how else to use the,
[clears throat] you know, limited
funding, but nonetheless, uh, I think
you have some really good options and I
support that. I wanted to ask do you
four years ago or whenever we adopted
this there was a concession made around
restaurants uh and their ability to
continue using um plastic bags. I'm
curious if you've revisited any conver
conversations with any restaurants about
this. If you haven't perhaps that's um
that could be the next step because I
think that at this point those are the
only businesses that use the plastic
bags.
Mayor Mayor Prom. Yes, we
it has been harder with the restaurants,
Jenny. The microphone's a little bit far
from you. Yes, thank you.
Uh it it has been a little bit harder
with restaurants just because I don't
know if you all have had this experience
when food spills in the paper bag, it is
a mess and so plastic folds up a little
bit better. Um, we can revisit it though
because it's been a long time since we
initially had that discussion and so
that is a a great suggestion that we can
revisit it.
Council,
just real quick, um, and vouch, uh,
Halloween bags were pretty top tier. I,
my daughter was super jealous that it
was mine only. Um, but I was going to
ask the the energy audits. Are those Do
you work with utilities on that or is
that just because I I'm I'm I like the
idea that you have multiple education
opportunities and that's definitely one
of them too.
Mayor uh Councelor Mccclure, we we do
not work with utilities specifically
currently for the energy audits that
we're doing now, but if the fee gets
amended, it is definitely something we
can explore with um utilities. Right
now, our partnership with is with um or
previously has been with uh
the community college. Sorry, we have a
a close community partner who has
similar acronyms. Um, and so we we've
been working with Donanic Community uh
college to help us with the the energy
audits that we've been doing.
Okay. Thank you. Were there any members
of the public that wanted to share
anything?
Come on up.
Mayor Council Garcia,
before I start, I'd like to congratulate
councelor Kuran for her election
re-election. I wish you the best over
the next four years.
I'm [clears throat] glad to hear me,
excuse me, I'm glad to hear the
malpractice act and the medical compacts
are back on stage and hopefully will be
resolved. There's no excuse for this
critical issue to still not be resolved.
Hope the next council will support. One
ordinance that I personally dislike is
the ban of single-use plastic bags. We
still have plastic bags for bread,
vegetables, fruit, and other items. But
let's make things difficult for the
population and [clears throat] impose a
usage tax, a usage tax for the use of
paper bags. So instead of plastic bags
on the roads, we now see an increase in
trash, needles, feces, and other garbage
around the city. But you scored some
good political points with Las Cruus
having the distinction distinction of
being the only city in New Mexico
imposing this additional tax. On the
other hand, the good point about this
ordinance is every time I go to Fiesta
Foods to get my groceries and I forget
my environmentally correct grocery bag,
I think of our council. So, thank you.
and we're going to miss you, councelor
Flores.
All right, thank you all. I think that
was it. So motion to adjurnn.
So moved by Flores.
Second.
This is on the motion to adjourn the
work session. Councelor McClur,
yes.
Councelor Matise,
yes.
Councelor Graham is absent. Councelor
McClur or Councelor Gran?
Yes.
Councelor Fletz,
who?
[laughter]
It's it's so late. I
was Yes.
Yes. Yes.
Sorry.
Councelor Ben Ko is absent. And mayor
Yes.