foreign
thank you
foreign
[Music]
good afternoon everybody Welcome to our
city council meeting I'd ask that you
adhere to the ground rules posted above
when you come and speak to us I'd like
to welcome you but I also would like to
honor our fire and our staff with LCPD
thank you for all that you do to protect
the city and if you will would you
please stand so we can say the Pledge
Council correct
for all
thank you
hi Jennifer
oh further minute there I thought you
had a dog
which would be great
although at one time we did that many
years ago and we had some accidents so
we had to stop I would love to be able
to bring them in here but our photos
will have to do
yes
good afternoon mayor Pro temen Council
I'm Jennifer Martinez with the city's
Communications office and today we have
some new pets that could potentially be
your new family members we have Jello
the five-year-old gray Tabby who is as
sweet as can be Jello starts turning on
the charm the minute she knows you're
even looking at her she brushes up
against you and starts giving you head
butts she has so much love and can't
wait to give that love to a forever
family
you can see her smiling there on the
bottom photo with teeth she's so excited
to meet you
and then we have sausage I can't imagine
that the person who named these wasn't
hungry at the time that they named them
this guy is a year only and he is just
so anxious to get out of the center and
into a forever home he is very excited
and needs to burn off some energy and
afterward he can settle down quite well
sausage is very friendly with other dogs
but is not the biggest fan of cats so he
is currently hoping for a cat-free home
if you're interested in adoption you can
contact the ascmv at the number there on
your screen
3820018 and if you go ahead and look at
the animal numbers in these two that way
you can get quicker access to them for
Jello it's four five five four five and
for sausage 51845 there is also an
adoption event that's going on this
Saturday January 21st at 315 South
Telshor Boulevard thank you theme
Jennifer
with Jello and sausage so those of you
please look and consider adding these
animals to your your home we have so
many that are awaiting adoption
so thanks Jennifer next up Amanda Tapia
hi Amanda hello welcome thank you I am
glad to be here my name is Amanda Tapia
I'm with New Mexico workforce connection
and I'm going to be presenting the jobs
of the week
So currently the city of Las Cruces has
director Parks and Recreation position
available
White Sands Missile Range has a general
engineer position available
CD General Contractors Incorporated has
one roofer position available
Chicanos Por La Casa has one evaluation
data analysis position available
U.S Renal Care Incorporated has one
dialysis clinical coordinator position
available and First National Bank Texas
has one bilingual personal banker
available
for more information on these openings
and many many more you can reach out to
the New Mexico Workforce Connection
office by phone
by our office as well as our website at
www.employenm.com
thank you thank you so much Amanda we
have some great positions available here
in the city thank you
now next up is our proclamations thank
you councilor Koran for being ready here
thank you
thank you very much first I'd like to
invite up Dr Bobby green
it's Dr Green here
there's someone from the NAACP
all right not seeing anyone coming up
I will read this this is a proclamation
for MLK Day
whereas the legacy of Dr Martin Luther
King Jr has left an indelible mark on
our country and whereas even as we
celebrate MLK day we recognize that Dr
King's dream of a just Society has not
yet been fully realized gun violence and
unprecedented mass shootings have
compromised Our lives our liberty and
the pursuit of happiness
and whereas the current climate of
social unrest affords us the opportunity
to defer to the wisdom and guidance of
slain civil rights leader Dr Martin
Luther King Jr and whereas as we
celebrate MLK day we have the
opportunity to increase the awareness
of Dr Martin Luther King Jr's six
principles of non-violence
and whereas Dr King's principles of
non-violence states that non-violence is
a way of life for courageous people
non-violence seeks to win friendship and
understanding non-violence seeks to
defeat Injustice not people non-violence
holds that suffering can educate and
transform
non-violence recommends that we choose
love instead of hate and that
non-violence suggests that that the
universe is on the side of justice and
with a deep Faith Justice will
eventually win
and whereas the donena county NAACP and
the city of Las Cruces acknowledge the
importance of Dr King's six principles
of non-violence and the value of working
together for the benefit of all citizens
just curious
no no one's here to hear this now
therefore we the mayor and City Council
of Las Cruces New Mexico do hereby
Proclaim Monday January 16 2023 as MLK
Day in Las Cruces and encourage all of
our citizens to unite in solidarity and
to practice Dr Martin Luther King Jr's
principles
of non-violence in our own lives
[Applause]
next up I think uh Victoria tofoya and
Michelle Gutierrez are here
I'm looking out for
please come up thank you so much
um
you can come up here oh yeah
um
so I'll read the proclamation and then
you you can hopefully speak please
uh this is a presentation for the
national day of racial hearing healing
whereas the city of Las Cruces affirms
that all people regardless of their
racial ethnic and religious group
identification skin color or physical
traits deserve an equal opportunity to
experience well-being and a just society
and be full participants in our
democracy we acknowledge that we must
work to address historic and present-day
harms of racism heal the wounds created
by racial ethnic and religious bias and
build communities where all children can
reach their full potential and thrive
and whereas all children have the right
to safety dignity and humanity and must
be provided every opportunity to grow
learn flourish in a nurturing
environment and whereas every individual
possesses the ability to learn grow and
change and build communities of
accountability care and Collective
action and whereas if we all dedicate
ourselves to a process that brings
individuals and communities to wholeness
repairs the damage caused by racism and
transforms societal structures into ones
that affirm the inherent value of all
people we can bring about the necessary
changes in thinking and behavior that
will Propel this great country forward
as a as a society where everyone belongs
and whereas racial healing is a vital
and crucial commitment to the
educational social and mental as well as
overall well-being of our all of our
children and whereas the city of Las
Cruces in conjunction with others
throughout the United States of America
and across the globe acknowledge the
Tuesday following Martin Luther King day
today as the national day of racial
healing and urges all citizens to
promote racial healing and
transformation individually and
collectively as a means of working
together to ensure the best quality of
life for every child that now therefore
we the mayor and City Council of Las
Cruces New Mexico do hereby Proclaim
Tuesday January 17 23 2023 as a national
day of racial healing in Las Cruces and
encourage our citizens to promote racial
healing and transformation individually
and collectively as a means of working
together to ensure the best quality of
life for every child so thank you for
being here I hope they can take pictures
oh how do you say something
good afternoon city of Las Cruces
council members my name is Michelle
Gutierrez and I'm a senior program
officer for the W.K Kellogg Foundation
on behalf of the foundation I'd like to
thank mayor Miyagi Shima each of you and
the city of Las Cruces for commemorating
this important day
the national day of racial healing is
more than a day for us at the Kellogg
foundation and for our communities and
children that live in them
we promote racial equity and healing as
core strategies for achieving our
mission and vision on behalf of children
families and communities throughout the
country and right here in Las Cruces
our efforts and Investments are Guided
by the belief that all children deserve
an equitable opportunity to grow learn
and thrive
now in its seventh year the national day
of racial healing provides an
opportunity for individuals communities
and organizations to come together and
acknowledge the values we share as
people
to build trust in each other to develop
authentic relationships and to inspire
Collective action on how we heal from
the effects of racism
healing events are taking place in
communities across the country and also
right here in Las Cruces led by the
Learning action buffet with the goal of
creating a more just and Equitable
future for our children
I invite you to join us
thank you counselors for your support in
honoring the national day of racial
healing in Las Cruces gracias
[Applause]
thank you next up I'd like to invite
Wendy Wendy Wendy Drake to come up
for National for Catholic schools week
or you're you're you all right all right
yes please
um
thank you for being here
as a Catholic School person who went to
Catholic school I'm delighted to have
the opportunity to read this
whereas the city of Las Cruces is
witness to the consolidation of two Las
Cruces Catholic schools in order to
further promote excellence and better
serve the community and whereas the
Catholic schools challenge their
students to achieve High academic
standards to live the gospel message and
work for social justice and whereas the
Las Cruces
the city of Las Cruces is highly
dependent upon a well-educated and
caring citizenry which these schools
consistently produce and whereas the
city of Las Cruces is proud of its
citizens who are students and alumni and
wishes to honor the Catholic schools for
their educational excellence and
contributions to the community
now therefore we the mayor and City
Council of Las Cruces of New Mexico Las
Cruces New Mexico hereby proclaim the
week of January 29th through February
4th 2023 as celebrate Catholic schools
week in Las Cruces and call upon our
citizens to salute local institutions
and express appreciation for the
dedication with which the students
parents faculty staff and administration
approach their responsibilities
[Applause]
okay good afternoon good afternoon my
name is Adrian galaz I'm the school
principal for Las Cruces Catholic School
Mrs Wendy Drake who was not able to
attend as the coal principal of the
school and this is Sister Mavis who's
joining me and is one on behalf of the
school I want to thank the mayor all
council members all of you leaders for
our community for taking this time to
recognize our school in the upcoming
Catholic schools week and I'm just for
people that may not be aware of us we
are a preschool through eighth grade
school it is a Catholic school but we're
open to all denominations all faiths and
we're just really proud of the hard work
our teachers our and the support that we
get from our parents I'm happy to say
that actually just today we enrolled
some new families into our school and
for the first time the past seven years
my fifth Year's principal there we're
above 300 students which is a pretty big
deal for our small community but we're
definitely seeing an increase of
enrollment so
um our job as administrators and
Educators for this school is just try to
make the school more accessible it is
tuition-based it costs money to attend
the private schools and um not all of
our families are the well-to-do families
but um they are able to reap the
benefits of scholarships and and donors
and things like that so I just wanted to
make the school more accessible to more
families in our community again to any
denominations and to give them that
strong Foundation before they go off to
the local high schools so once again
thank you for recognizing us and thank
you for your support
thank you
now I'd like to welcome up Beth Hoffman
for National Youth mentoring month
thanks for coming up
thank you for being here whereas January
2023 will Mark the 21st anniversary of
national mentoring month
an annual campaign to focus attention on
the need for our mentors as well as how
each of us can work together to increase
the number of mentors to ensure positive
outcomes for our young people and
whereas Las Cruces New Mexico donena
county honors volunteer mentors who
support young people by showing up for
them every day and demonstrating their
commitment by helping them Thrive and
whereas mentoring programs like Boys and
Girls Club of Las Cruces Big Brothers
Big Sisters Americorps kids can
Community Action Agency make our
communities safe and stay Stronger by
driving impactful relationships that
increase social capital for young people
and provide invaluable support networks
and whereas during the covid-19 pandemic
mentoring programs have stepped up to
fill gaps for young people and families
connecting them with resources and
ensuring that mentoring relationships
continue virtually to ensure that
physical distancing does not mean social
disconnection and whereas mentoring
plays a pivotal role in career
exploration and supports workplace
skills by helping young people set
career go girls equipping mentors with
the skills needed to support the
professional growth of young people and
drives positive outcomes for young
people and businesses and whereas
quality mentoring promotes healthy
relationships and communication positive
self-esteem emotional well-being and
growth of a young person in their
relationship with other adults and
whereas students who meet regularly with
their mentors are more than 52 percent
less likely than their peers to skip a
day of school and youth who face an
opportunity Gap but have a mentor are 55
percent more likely to be enrolled in
college than those who do not have a
mentor
and whereas youth who meet regularly
with their mentors are 46 less likely
than their peers to start using drugs
and 27 percent less likely to start
drinking and whereas almost half of
today's young adults report having a
mentor in their youth
and those are rates appear to have been
rising steadily over the past several
decades and whereas National mentoring
month is the time of year to celebrate
Elevate and encourage mentoring across
our state and recruit caring adult
mentors in Las Cruces New Mexico and
donena County now therefore we the mayor
and City Council of Las Cruces New
Mexico do hereby proclaim the month of
January 2023 as National Youth mentoring
month
thank you
hi everybody I'm Beth Hoffman I'm the
senior director for Big Brothers Big
Sisters Southwest New Mexico thank you
for having us today and thank you to the
council members and the mayor for
recognizing January as National
mentoring month in Las Cruces we at Big
Brothers Big Sisters we recognize every
January is National mentoring month and
um we try to do a lot of extra special
things for our matches during January so
this this means a lot to us and I know I
speak on behalf of all of my colleagues
and all of the other youth mentoring
programs in Las Cruces when I say you
know our kids our kids are still
recovering from all that missed time in
school and our kids need you so if you
have the time and ability to give even
just a few hours a month at any one of
our programs we'd love to have you
thank you
thank you Beth
next up we have a presentation and no
minor sales by Kat
is she here
I think you sent in your presentation
right yes
all right are you ready to go yes all
right when you stand up here please say
your name and and go from there I'll get
started
hello uh my name is Andrea McNeely I'm
the no Miner cell campaign manager and I
just want to thank you all so much for
your time to listen to our presentation
I have two of our youth Advocates here
who will actually be leading the
presentation
um so thank you so much for your time
I'm gonna have them introduce themselves
and they'll get started with the
presentation so thank you so much
hello my name is Kat theater I am
currently a senior at Arrowhead Park
Early College High School and this is my
third year aunt evolvement and my second
year on their leadership team
hello my name is Diego Romero I am a
junior at Arrowhead Park Early College
High School and I've been involvement
for two years
yeah
no minor oh sorry no minor sale is a
educational and advocacy campaign trying
to reduce the illegal sale of nicotine
products to minors no miners still is
mainly concerned with the sorry the
flavored products including cotton candy
sweet fruits and methanol
so we have three campaign objectives one
is to increase awareness of the problem
with illegal nicotine product sales and
access to minors and a flavored nicotine
products
two is to generate strong concerns
Statewide and threes to build support
for nicotine flavor restrictions
towards these objectives is by
advocating two groups in support of no
miners Hill the first group is
evolvement which is a national
award-winning youth sorry
youth movement where high school
students are trained to become youth
Advocates and the second group is our
adult volunteer program which is open
for anyone over the age of 18. on our
and both groups are able to support the
campaign through events and
presentations educating New Mexico about
the dangers of tobacco products and
flavored nicotine products and they're
funded by the New Mexico Department of
Health's nicotine youth prevention and
control program
we also want to clarify that no minor
sale is focused on preventing youth
commercial tobacco use and not
traditional tobacco use commercial
tobacco products are mass-produced and
contain high levels of additive nicotine
whereas traditional tobacco is used in
ceremonies within our tribes for healing
prayer and offerings
so I personally care about protecting
youth from the dangers of nicotine
products because I have a little brother
who is currently a freshman and high
school and I worry that he will go into
the wrong group if he starts using
tobacco products and I would rather him
focus on his education and his health
rather than something that is not safe
for his health
so I also care about protecting youth
from the danger of nicotine products
because they are our future of our whole
country and the whole world and without
them you know our world won't really end
up anything
79 percent of Youth ages 12 to 17 and 89
percent of adults ages from 18 to 24
stated that they use these products
because then came in flavors that they
liked
fruits and candies and flavored
e-cigarettes teens are three times more
likely to use and these products are
easily accessible to youth people and
with over fifteen thousand flavored
nicotine liquids
available there is something for
everyone
so
um and what that comes to Flavors the
tobacco industry has used the targeted
marketing towards specific minority
groups
um for instance the majority of U.S
youth smokers who use combustible
cigarettes
specifically smoke menthol cigarette and
black youth are much more likely to be
to use methanol Secrets sorry
okay so one way you can we can help stop
the issue is at local levels is through
the repeal of the preemption which is
currently being discussed with
preemption not only is New Mexico but
Las Cruces is restricted on passing a
flavor restriction policy this means
policy change can only happen at the
federal level which takes a significant
amount of time
yeah okay so if preemption were to be
repealed this would put the power back
into our hands and allow localities to
pass a flavor restriction policy on
their own supporting preemption repeal
means communities such as Las Cruces can
make change happen and be a part of the
solution
so we can take action sorry as your
local elected officials supporting a
minor sales so the next
so the best way to to show support for
the no minor cell campaign are by
supporting tobacco preemption repeals
and by signing a local elected official
support guard so at this time if you
have been if you have received a no
minor sales card
I would like for you guys to sign it if
you guys like and is there yes and is
there any questions
thank you so much Kat and Diego
appreciate hearing and being more aware
of this issue and I think counselor
Flores has a question for you
thank you again
um Kat and Diego for your presentation
it was very educational
did I hear you say that there's a
federal law that that we're concerned
about as well as a New Mexico law or is
it just is it just a law in New Mexico
where we're preempted
if you don't know I can research it it's
okay
that's that's mine
um so the main issue at the moment is
that there is preemption in New Mexico
please thank you oh yes my name is
Andrea McNeely no minor cell campaign
manager so the main issue at the moment
is that there is preemption in the state
of New Mexico so we're trying to get it
repealed so that we can ultimately
decide if we would like to pass a flavor
restriction policy on our own so if it
was to be repealed Las Cruces could take
that that issue into their own hands and
pass the policy okay but there isn't a
federal preemption
um I don't believe so there are certain
states that are able to pass policies on
their own just not New Mexico and other
states so you're asking the city to um
a work on behalf of this issue to
eliminate the preemption law that we
have yes so we're asking if you would
support uh preemption repeal that would
be on your own no minor cell is not
focused on trying to go after that
policy but that is something that would
be helpful in allowing a flavor
restriction policy to be passed at some
point so that is an issue that if you
could support that would be great so I
personally support it algorithm my
colleagues do too thank you so much
thank you so much thank you madam chair
thank you councilor Flores yes counselor
abeta yes thank you
on this card we have the logo for the
New Mexico Department of Health are you
working in conjunction then
um and are they as supportive
uh sorry once again Andrea mcnilly no
minor cell campaign manager um so
actually we are funded by the New Mexico
Department of Health so yes they would
definitely support this thank you and
thank you okay
thank you councilor beta councilor
binkomo thank you I just wanted to say
to the two of you that you did a really
great job today I think uh public
speaking is
um
incredible difficult skill to hone in
and you all have done it already so
congratulations you're doing a great job
thank you I think that concludes the
questions here do you want to pick up
the cards now or
collect them now otherwise
but I'm sure I think they have to go to
Christine first
pass them down to Christine
today is the 17th
23.
foreign
again thank you so much for being here
and for presenting
this really important issue and will you
come back and let us know how it is
going at the legislative session in
which Bill if I'm assuming there will be
a bill
uh so um Jerry McNeely um yes I believe
that for this legislative session
there's not a specific Bill focused on
Flavor restriction but it is something
that we're discussing with legislators
and hopefully we're hoping that in the
coming years we'll be able to get that
got it okay very good yes concert
Florida thank you madam chair Andrea I
have one more question yes so in terms
of doing your lobbying work with the
state legislature are you presenting
facts about how bad tobacco is I mean
tobacco itself is carcinogenic yes so
you're doing all the medical stuff yeah
so as far as no minor sale goes we're an
educational and advocacy campaign our
main goal is to educate we do have
lobbyists who work with the New Mexico
Department of Health that actually tried
to push policies but um for us we're
just going to educate and yes explain
how dangerous great thank you so much
thank you madam chair thank you
counselor Flores okay thanks so much
thank you so much thank you that
concludes our proportion of the
proclamations and presentations next up
is anybody on city council staff or
Administration have a conflict a known
conflict of and with any item on the
agenda none none
on to public participation
um remember temperatures Council grams
Mike doesn't work
it's not working Council Grove
oh there we go sure I have to make the
same joke that I've been recalled okay
good also none thank you thank you
counselor Graham
okay next up is our public participation
I will start on my left and I don't see
anybody on the first second or third row
fourth row
anybody fourth row fifth row
how about sixth row
mayor Pro tem Council I believe Juan
Garcia I believe proposed resolution
2387 to help small businesses recover
Financial losses as a result the violent
destructive attacks by the Las Cruces
crime element incurred through no fault
of their own should be approved it's
just interesting that we just heard a
proclamation against violence yet
violence continues against small
businesses unabated
since I started involvement with small
businesses about two months ago there
have been over 25 businesses that I have
met that have been attacked this to
include an attack at the Sierra Vista
Community Church setting fire to the old
La Fuente restaurant
nothing and no one is sacred I sat with
Moses at the rip smoke shop yesterday on
El Paseo
where they experienced their second
break-in in about seven months three
young recent high school graduates early
20s who opened a business to hire
citizens give back to the community have
now suffered about seven thousand
dollars worth of damage seven thousand
dollars they just opened they have not
been able to recover or make any any
money in large part due to this debt
same old story suck it up or else
close-up shop that's the price of doing
business in the community that has no
support from the state elected officials
to enact laws that will deter
and I'm quoting this from the gentleman
less Cruces is built as a business
friendly City so why is this issue not
fixed
Jorge a Hispanic individual trying to
make a living through small Auto Repair
he told me
and I quote memorett
they stole my truck
with my with my tools I don't know how
I'm going to work
this and many other hard-working
citizens that are trying to bring
themselves out of poverty on their own
not through handouts during the
pre-legislative meetings I brought up
crime Senator steinborn representative
Ferrari no engagement Rubio's concerned
about quote police brutality and reform
representative small indicated there may
be money
for more policing until the victims
organize
and remove elected officials
that care more for criminals than
hard-working citizens nothing will
change
because property crime just like illegal
immigration sexualization of our kids is
being normalized it is going to get to
the point that
politicians feel that if you continue to
ignore it it will just go away and
people will forget about it
but they won't there's a lot of upset
people out here in this community
that are not happy with the way things
are going
thank you for your time
thank you seventh row
thank you mayor Pro tem and city council
my name is Sarah Smith
I really appreciate that your agenda
today includes the item that is working
towards helping small businesses with
their property crime expenses
at your last meeting you voted to move
forward on a pilot program to implement
hygiene stations where homeless people
can use the restroom dispose of used
drug needles and potentially shower
I understand that the specific details
such as the locations the equipment and
the cost for this program are not not
yet known and I ask that once the city
has developed a plan for this the people
of the city are given a chance to
provide input before the hygiene
stations are implemented
the city of Seattle previously tried
having similar public toilets over a
decade ago these were intended to help
the homeless population and others but
Seattle abandoned this initiative after
the toilets became quote a Haven for
drug deals drug and alcohol use and
prostitution
Seattle spent 5 million dollars on these
toilets and according to the New York
Times quote the bathrooms had become so
filthy so overrun with drug abusers and
prostitutes that although use was free
of charge even some of the city's most
destitute people refused to step inside
them users left so much trash behind
that the automated floor scrubbers had
to be disabled and prostitutes and drug
users found privacy behind the toilets
locked doors
Seattle ended up selling their toilets
on eBay for only a few thousand dollars
at a huge loss to the city
I'm concerned that the hygiene stations
in Las Cruces could end up having the
same issues they faced in Seattle
it seems also unlikely that people are
going to travel long distances in order
to use the hygiene stations so I wonder
whether they will be able to really make
much of an impact on the dirty needles
and the feces in the urine that's being
found around the city
if the hygiene stations do end up being
used a lot there's a potential for
people to be congregating in the nearby
areas like the desert hope homeless
housing project there's the potential
for the hygiene stations to increase
other problems in the nearby
neighborhoods and businesses such as
harassment trespassing aggressive
panhandling and property damage
if the city moves forward with
implementing hygiene stations it will be
important to assess the level of crime
and disturbance in the nearby areas
before and after the hygiene stations
are put into place so that we can
actually tell whether these are having a
positive impact on the community as a
whole
overall I'm concerned that the policies
being implemented by the city may be
making it easy or enticing for people to
continue their self-destructive drug
abuse behaviors
it feels like the city is inadvertently
making it easy to be a drug addict such
as through funding organizations that
provide food and shelter regardless of
whether people are using illegal drugs
having no real consequences for people
who are repeatedly committing crimes in
the city and now tacitly supporting
illegal drug use by providing containers
in which to collect dirty needles
Las Cruces children families and
businesses are counting on you to make
our community a safe place to live and
work but over the last years we have
watched as things have gotten worse and
worse please be willing to consider that
the hygiene stations and other recent
policies may actually make the situation
Mr Smith thank you
okay I think that was eighth row ninth
row
anybody on this side did I capture
everybody okay next first second row
third row I think the staff fourth I'm
not wearing my glasses so
do you have something to
okay fifth row
six
seventh
anybody on this side
no okay that will conclude public
comment
um
I need let's see we're on to motion to
accept the agenda but we will need to
remove item 7.6 in its entirety
and so we will need a motion that
reflects that please
motion Babe by cancer Flores do I have a
second second gram second by counselor
Graham
Christine this is on the motion to
accept the agenda as presented with
removal of item 7.6 in its entirety
councilor beta yes councilor Graham yes
councilor Ben komal yes councilor Graham
yes
counselor Flores yes mayor Pro tem yes
and the mayor's absent
thank you Christine
okay
put myself together here
all right we are on 7.1
move to approve
second motion made by councilor Graham
second bite was that counselor Bingo
Mall
hi Lisa happy New Year thank you
Happy New Year to everyone
good afternoon mayor Pro tem Council
City management and others listening my
name is Lisa LaRock I'm the
sustainability officer for the city of
Las Cruces
I'm here today to talk about a
resolution to support legislative
actions that Advance sustainability and
climate change
the city of Las Cruces is a member of
the Coalition of sustainable communities
of New Mexico and this Coalition is a
non-profit nonpartisan group that
represents is representing and serving
New Mexico cities counties Pueblos
Nations and tribes currently the members
include the city and county of Taos the
city and county of Santa Fe Los Alamos
Albuquerque and Las Cruces which is
about 40 percent of the state's
population
the Coalition is committed to developing
common understanding and aligning
interests and working together to
amplify voices and for this reason
for the past four years the Coalition
has done research about State bills
related to sustainability and climate
change and each member can present the
bills to their counsel or commission for
consideration through a resolution
[Music]
and with an approved resolution the
Coalition serves as an advocate for
members that support these bills and
Santa Fe
so today I'm here to present some
different bills that the council or that
the Coalition has researched the first
bill that I would like to talk about is
local Choice energy and what this bill
does is it disaggregates and generation
of energy from the distribution and
transmission of energy and this allows
municipalities the option to choose
their electricity generation sources and
lower the cost to customers and this is
a big benefit for Las Cruces utilities
because who's working on their energy
transition plan because it will allow
them more opportunities to pursue energy
generation
the second bill is the geothermal energy
development and tax credit this is
another form of of clean energy
geothermal energy and
um it already exists and what they want
to do is extend
um the program already exists and what
they want to do is extend the tax
credits through 2033. it also supports
the installation of geothermal heat
pumps which are similar to the ones that
the city hall has right now
the third bill is enter is the electric
vehicle and charging unit tax credits
and
um this is for uh proposes personal
income tax credits in addition to what
the federal tax credits are so you can
get up to three thousand two hundred and
fifty dollars for EVS that have a
suggested retail value of less than
fifty five thousand dollars so
um it's it's meant to make EVS a little
bit more accessible there's also the
7500 one that the federal government
offers
um and there's also uh 300 for Chargers
in addition to the El Paso Electric
rebate program and
um and now if you register a vehicle
that's an EV you pay 54 dollars for
registration and 27 if you have a
plug-in hybrid
the fourth one is the distribution
energy generation act and what that does
is it encourages the renewable portfolio
standard that is part of the renewable
energy act to increase the amount of
distributed solar energy so you have it
on your building or you have it through
local sources and the advantage of that
is that it increases on-site and local
solar generation and that reduces loads
on the system and or and load loss
system loss so it's it's better to have
it closer to the site and it it
increases the ability to for
Independence
for everybody
the bills that have asterisks by them
are ones that were previously presented
to the council in Prior legislative
years that were were supported
the second cluster of bills that I'm
going to talk about is the climate
action plan
and this is was implemented
um that this implements the governor's
executive order number three on climate
change action it's even more ambitious
than the city's 50
goals the state will require that its
actions reach 50 percent greenhouse gas
reductions by 2030 and 90 by 2050 and
the pro and it also establishes three
programs one is just transition to
really focus on Equity another one on
resilience and a third one on climate
crisis infrastructure
the second uh the sixth bill is the
climate Health resiliency act and that
is to protect the health of New Mexicans
especially those in underserved
communities that are most impacted by
climate change and the department of
health will establish a climate and
public health program a resiliency
program an emergency preparedness
program under this bill
the water conservation Act is to develop
legislation specifically on drought to
New Mexico and the plastic pollution
reduction Act is similar to the one that
we have at the city we will be
grandfathered in
as to how we are currently managing it
but it would also subject us to the
rules that are going to be established
for takeout containers that would ban
the use of
Styrofoam and limits the use of of
takeout containers Statewide
lots of changes
the third set of bills that I want to
talk about has to do with financing
has to do with financing for the
environment there is the clean energy
green fund
act and what that does is it focuses on
ways to get money a portion of money uh
the seven billion dollars that are in
the ira that will be used to finance
Clean Energy funds Bridge operational
funds and
um
also provide low uh low loan programs
for low and moderate income this green
bank is really a loan program that's
established for low and moderate income
people to be able to uh to have the cash
flow that they need for the for their
Investments
the tenth one is the public banks for
New Mexico and this is a non-reoccurring
appropriation and intends to invest
public funds taxes and fees and keep
them circulating it will work with
different banks Community Banks credit
unions and the community development
financial institution to support
infrastructure development the last one
is the on this slide is the grants
opportunity Council and that is a
program that will be established
as part of the Department of financing
and it will share best practices for
applying for all of the grants that will
be coming out for any of its applicants
and establish a grant matching program
the last slide of slides are listed they
were included in the packet
and they are not being recommended
and the first one has to do with the
environmental rights or the green
Constitution Constitutional Amendment
and that amend that amends the New
Mexico Constitution
to add that future Generations have the
right to clean and healthy environment
this States and counties and
municipalities will be the trustees of
the natural resources these profession
these Provisions are self-executing and
there's the monetary damages shall not
be awarded for a violation
the next one is supporting New Mexico
environment Department energy minerals
and natural resources department and the
office of State engineers and the
interstate stream commission's budget
there are many increases that are needed
to manage the programs especially that
are coming through the investment or the
inflation reduction act and this is a
request to uh to be able to take
advantage of this the last one is the
reform for the New Mexico legislation
this is an amendment to increase the
duration of sessions staff assistance
and compensation of legislators for the
proof for the purpose of improving
quality efficiency and equity
and with that I leave you for questions
and comments and a vote
if you have lots of questions sir Lisa
let me see if I got them in order
benkomo Graham
update the Quran
thanks
Lisa for the work you do in your office
as I always say I think we're very lucky
to have you as our sustainability
officer
um thanks for this I think just a couple
of process things I know we haven't had
a TSI meeting in a while just holidays
got in the way and for future reference
I I would love to have these go through
the TSI PRC before they come to council
I think that would be most appropriate
given how lengthy some of them are
um
remind me the name of the Coalition Lisa
I'll show you the whole list thank you
the Coalition of sustainable communities
of New Mexico great thank you and the
this Coalition they're seeking for
endorsements on these bills Statewide
from folks like us
uh mayor Pro tem counselor Ben Como yes
they are
will go forward and Advocate or Lobby
for any of the bills that are that the
members are supporting
okay thank you
um I think for me when these type of
resolutions come forward in terms of
indoors or support this x policy at the
legislature I personally think it's best
when there is an advocacy group behind
it asking for endorsements as I feel
like it
often I feel like sometimes you pass
these resolutions and they sort of go
into The Ether and don't really go
anywhere and so when it is an actual
advocacy organization asking us for an
endorsement that they believe will be
critical in the passage of the
legislation I I much more rather do that
I support doing that very much
um I agree with most of these
um if you can please put the no
recommend one up
um
I personally would like to remove the
green Amendment from the list before
voting yes on this piece on this
resolution
um I hadn't publicly given any comments
in relation to the screen Amendment
however I have
um pretty serious frustrations regarding
the intention of the green amendment I
feel like it is putting the burden of
accountability on municipalities thus
the taxpayer as opposed to Industry who
is the main primary driver of climate
change
I guess you know the state legislature
though it's hard to address
and hold industry accountable when Oil
and Gas makes up 30 percent of the state
budget and this to me feels like it is
placing municipalities like ours at
Great risk and it is placing the
taxpayer as the responsible party for
um
climate change when municipalities like
ours are in fact ahead of the curve on
climate action and so I I have seen I
have yet to seen
um
why this green amendment is actually
good for communities when it is not
holding the parties who are responsible
for climate action I recently read this
funny meme about how no matter how many
plastic straws we don't use that are
individual choices matter but they won't
matter if there is no transformational
systemic change to policies that don't
hold industry accountable so this one
feels a little bit of like a litmus test
if you will so I would like not support
it I uh with all due respect completely
disagree on
the no recommendation for reforming the
New Mexico legislature
I completely support this
piece of legislation and will continue
to
New Mexico is if not the only volunteer
legislature in the country one of two
volunteer legislation late in the
country
and that breeds corruption and as uh
representative Angelica Rubio often says
traditionally those who have had access
to being elected to the state to state
legislature are the rich
they're retired and she says like her
they're resourceful and
working-class people should have access
to serving their community Through
Public Service in the state legislature
without feeling like they have to
sacrifice their wallet how they're going
to pay bills I think it's completely
shameful that we still have this
volunteer legislator legislature often I
think you know people come here people
send us emails that were just
we're getting wealthy off of this job
and I certainly when I talk to
legislators feel like I have
nothing to complain about because you
know our 34 000 salary which amounts to
about 16 an hour
um is something it's certainly not
enough to pay my mortgage there's one
two three four five of us on this diet
that have second jobs in order to to do
this job
um and similarly with state legislators
and so I I completely disagree that that
this should not be something we support
I think it's uh important actually that
this body support that piece of
legislation so I just wanted to say that
I'd be happy mayoral mayor patema after
this
um I would like to make an amendment to
remove the green Amendment from the list
so that I am so that I can vote for the
whole resolution but I'll allow my
counsel colleagues to go first
thank you councilor Bengal Mo I'm a
little confused because these are bills
that the group did not recommend moving
forward so the environmental rights
constitutional amendment is a is
recommended mayor pretend I think
they're in the resolution
as they're all on the same yeah
Christine is saying that if
mayor pretend they're listed in the
exhibit so she would be correct we would
need to amend it to remove that one
gotcha
gotcha okay
thank you a little confusing but yes
counselor Graham they mayor Pro tem uh
Lisa I don't have questions just a
soliloquy so feel free to think about
other stuff stop making eye contact with
me
um so spoiler alert I'm inclined not to
vote for this resolution but I want to
quickly explain why
um just because and I think councilor
Ben Cuomo has already said a lot of what
was already in my heart
um in terms of these
these big blanket
you know I'm I'm being asked to say yes
to 20 different things 10 of which are
very vague at this point
um I have no idea where some of these
things are going to go and the Coalition
providing the input specifically says in
the exhibit like we're just kind of
we're speculating here
um
I on the other hand you know as as a
probably no vote I want to make it clear
that I am not pro-drout
anti-resiliency
anti-environment so please like don't
come at me with this that like counselor
Graham hates the environment because
it's not that
um and I also recognize I'm still a
relative newbie here I get this is how
it works
sometimes you know we are asked to just
look at a big package of things all at
once for sake of efficiency
I though am more inclined I would rather
have to take the time to Wade through 15
or 20 different things so I can say yes
this know that yes this may be that
I don't know maybe that probably makes
me
terrible to be up here I'm awful at the
ceremonial stuff
um but yeah so all of that to say I just
wanted to provide a little Clarity on
where my thinking is
um and to say that this is not my
declaring myself an
anti-environmentalist but rather
somebody who is
concerned about voting on something
before I have enough detail and yes to
reform of the New Mexico State
Legislature for all of the reasons that
you've said councilor bencomo thank you
thank you mayor Pro Tem
thank you counselor Graham councilor
beta
thank you mayor Pro tem I also in good
prefaces that I'm not anti-environment
however there is a few process items
with this out of the 20 items that we
had 14 did not have sponsors which means
it's not written and what I you know
from my time working up north is what is
good policy and what's a good idea can
sometimes be two very different things
and so I often want to see what is
exactly written out what is included in
this type of legislation before I
approve type different items we also
have a few items on here that were noted
that we were approved in Prior Council
years but haven't been made into law and
so I'd be very curious to know what were
the barriers for that to pass what was
the analysis of the impacts to
communities and was that the reason why
they haven't gone further and so for
that those types of reasons I'm not find
either to pass this as a whole and I
would rather go piece by piece if we are
being asked to support this type of
legislation because these items do have
high impacts to municipalities councilor
Ben Como was very right when she talked
about the green Constitutional Amendment
that there can be some serious issues
when it comes to how municipalities have
to work with some of these
bills that are passed and it can have
you know a lot of unintended
consequences which is perhaps why some
of these items maybe didn't make it to
the Finish Line in previous years and so
for that I'm inclined not to approve
thank you mayor part time
okay counselor beta councilor current I
think a lot of my colleagues sort of
shared the the concerns and I also just
want to sort of put it out there that I
think
I appreciate when Community
organizations come and and say can we
support this can you talk about it can
you inform folks and I think there's
there's even one included in here public
banking that we've been having
conversations about but I know that
that's not actually
going to be in the legislature this year
so
it's been yeah so I I feel like
um this packet of things
shows me where we can inform folks or
where we can be better educated but I
don't feel comfortable voting for things
that seem
um pretty unclear about the implications
um except I do also support the reform
of the legislature and that's why I have
questions about these recommendations
too I would like to know what the sort
of rationale for recommendation versus
not recommendation is and I'm definitely
not comfortable making a decision when I
don't totally understand the rationale
for recommendation or not recommendation
so and this isn't really a criticism of
you I know that you took these I think
we need to have more conversations about
a lot of the things in here and I think
I would be happy to engage in those
especially on the TSI committee
and and so but I don't feel comfortable
approving a blanket statement especially
when I don't completely understand the
rationale between recommended behind
recommendations or not recommending not
recommended things so
um thank you similarly uh I am not
anti-environment uh I guess which is
which for the record I hope we don't
have to say that but but
um just to you know make it clear
um
thank you
thank you Council Quran cancer Flores
uh thank you madam chair and thank you
Lisa Ms Lorac for the presentation I'm
in complete agreement agreement with all
of the comments made by my colleagues
um I I find this to be
um it's like everything you know it's
like everything in the kitchen sink was
thrown in and I find it very offensive
that I find it very offensive that it
comes this late for a group to to go
through our city through your department
and this is of course nothing
um
to criticize anything that you've done
but the fact that they didn't come to
the to the city council maybe a year or
two years ago because as well with some
of these things they've been floating
around for you know for quite some time
but as uh councilor beta noted none of
these have an author and for them to
come to us to to submit something or
other is really offensive I think that
um like the
public bank group I mean they've been
coming to us for what three or four
years now and going to our community
groups too to to fully discuss uh the
impact of this particular that
particular group would have uh should we
have that public Bank
um
the Constitutional Amendment on the
environmental rights that I think is a
red herring
um the reform of the New Mexico State
Legislature we need that more than ever
I mean to to have a state legislature
that only meets 30 days
uh and oh big deal we're having 60 day a
60-day session
um which opened today
um but we we need a full-time
legislature I think it's a state of
North Dakota that doesn't have they
don't even get a per diem
so is it North Dakota oh it's South I'm
sorry I got myself but yeah so
um yeah I
just by way of how I I was a legislative
intern in for the State of California
during my senior year in college and
um
and what I learned was that I would get
my job was I was working for a majority
consultants
and my job was to take the bills and
weed out what didn't make sense
and it was amazing the compromises that
went on so I'd like to know how this
group was working with who or you know
which group or it really doesn't make
any sense what they're what they're
doing here
um
so I will definitely not vote in favor
of it I I think that it has to go
through a PRC I think councilor Ben
Cuomo said it would be the TSI do you
sit on that or do you attend those
meetings Lisa so protem Council Flores
yes I do yes so it would be perfect
place to kick it around and weed out
some of this everything in the kitchen
sink take this kitchen sink out and and
see how we can come up with something
that is really impactful
this doesn't make sense at all but thank
you very much Lisa thank you for all
your dedication to and as you know I'm
not against
environmental change and
yeah and I'm anyway so you know all that
so
um
thank you very much Lisa thank you madam
chair
thank you counselor Flores
um yeah Lisa thank you for presenting
this to us
um this is by no means a criticism on
you or a slight on you
um the last seven years when we come to
this point there are things that's the
council and the council has changed
drastically in the last seven years
um to include this one there have been
things that each of us have requested
that when these sorts of things come to
us that we are given the bill
um that the analysis
just a lot of research that you and our
policy analysts and maybe legislative
aides need to be looking at and
presenting to us in its entirety so that
we are able to make the best choice and
I do agree about moving this through the
prcs there are certain ones that may not
necessarily go completely to the TSI it
could be the how the health policy
Review Committee it could be housing it
could be some of the other ones but I I
feel very strongly that
um that that
although I appreciate what was in the
packet and the exhibits and I read all
of them I too had issue and got very
concerned about those bills that didn't
have a sponsor at this point
um and and so given that and and
interesting enough evil and I had met
last week or a couple of weeks maybe
it's been longer than that info maybe
it's been about a month concert Flores
myself Mr peely and conserabeta we're
meeting so as we could preparing for the
session related to the airport and one
of the things that I spoke of was
um it was four weeks counselor Flores
has put out her fingers four weeks and
one of the things that we spoke of was
my time at Children's Youth and families
department and during this time
they've selected
during the legislative session they've
selected people to monitor bills that
were important to the department
and and they would monitor him in its
entirety and in the event that we would
need to go to the session to advocate
for a particular bill then we would do
that and so those are things that I
brought to ifo's attention and something
that I know he's kind of pondering and
thinking about but it's something that I
know we're not doing currently here and
maybe you are I don't know each of you
are doing that but we don't get we don't
get that sort of regurgitated back to
council as as it relates to that and and
a lot of times
it doesn't happen to Larry comes back
right after the end of the session our
lobbyists Larry haran and so those are
things that I'm asking that will make it
easier for us to be prepared to to vote
on this
um and then lastly ifo would like to
just speak to process and and and
explain to us so that we have a better
understanding of what what from the
administrative standpoint where where he
was going with many of these Ethan thank
you
the cuttings had this might gone so if
we can go here and then I can fill in if
he doesn't Okay apologies to Connie I
don't look all the way down oh you're
good the dice but yes thank you mayor
Pro tem and uh city council I I just
first off want to thank Lisa for her
advocacy on on this topic
um on the question for rationale um
Bill's not recommended that was uh that
that's on me
a few members of CMO myself we met with
Larry Horan and the rationale is simple
with the green Amendment uh
they're you you mentioned there's a lot
of the reasons mentioned on on why that
that was not recommended but the other
two bullet points the rationale was
um as we had a discussion with Larry
Iran and by the way he's he's on Zoom
right now if there's any questions as
well I just wanted to let you know he he
is standing by
the rationale is operational these have
to do with operations from the
government uh reform from New Mexico
state legislator that that
that had to do with uh with governance
and support for NM environmental
departments
that had to do with budget increases and
so what this
what the political strategy was and
again this was just a staff
recommendation knowing that it would be
presented in front of the diocese and so
what the plan was was if questions came
from the diocese then we asked then we
would share what the rationale was so I
apologize if next time we'll make sure
it's clear in the bullets so so uh as
you're making up but it was just staying
in our lane and staying in our sandbox
not telling the government up north how
to
um how to increase their budgets or how
to increase their sessions and so
strategically was just remaining silent
remaining neutral on on this uh again
strategy uh with our lobbyists in saying
we just wanted to remain silent on that
so that was the rationale again if
there's any questions with that we have
Larry haran and with any of the bills in
here learn Larry haran our lobbyist is
anzu as well so thank you
thank you akani for that and then
concert bencomer you had
something you would like to say Yes
um Yes actually I was going to ask that
Council Quran had to raise this question
about process and I was going to ask to
repeat it but
um I would just like to note that I
would rather
table this indefinitely because I don't
want anyone to take my no out of context
in terms of
what I support and what I don't support
so I would rather table this
indefinitely and if Lisa and staff want
to work through TSI as these begin to
clear up
I I would much rather do that may or
protect
thank you counselor bengalman counselor
Grant do you want to add no just thank
you for giving me giving us the
rationale
um I I tend to agree with
um counselor Ben Cuomo but I also would
say that I I understand the idea the
perhaps their strategy to remaining
silent on certain things but
um for me that's a that's a place I I
don't want to go and in particular
related to reform on the state
legislature I I understand it's telling
someone else what to do but this is
literally about telling other people
what to do so uh here we are
um so if we're going to tell them what
to do I would like to do all of that in
the best most impactful way and and I
understand that might not be politically
a popular position but but I don't think
we should remain silent on some things
especially something as important as
that so
um I I appreciate you letting us know
the rationale and I appreciate you all
talking about this but I think
um
uh I I agree with councilor Ben Como
thank you councilor Koran
um Evo thank you mayor Pro Tem
I think it kind of answered what I
wanted to to say regarding the rationale
the only thing I I would add to maybe
process
um because as you know Elise is very
thorough when she comes with
presentations this is just happens to be
something that we bring every year right
Lisa this is this is something that has
been brought in this format and this
fashion for I don't know how long the
fifth year but the fifth year the city's
been a part of this coalition
for five five years and so this is this
has been the process in fact this is a
little bit more detailed than what we've
we've brought in
um in the past
and when this was brought to our
attention there are some of these
um
like like even the uh
you know the public bank and some of
these
that I don't know if we necessarily had
a
wanted to just have a neutral stance but
when we're talking about environment and
this coalition
some of these are outside the scope of
that right and so if we are going to
discuss it
we should be discussing it on its own or
in a different format with the different
you know and so those were some of the
rationale some where we knew there were
some
controversy
you know where we looked at at some of
these and then yeah again it's
uh
also having really no impact to the city
in some way we also looked at that
criteria and so again Larry's been a big
help with that but I just want to point
that out with with Lisa I mean the
reason why it's presented in this way is
because
as a part of the Coalition the city's
been a part of this Coalition that's
been the step that's been the process we
just bring it forward it gets approved I
think it was originally put on like a
consent agenda right
um
no okay it wasn't mayor Pro tem um city
manager pili that I've done this exact
same thing yeah in five years and so so
when we looked at it we we kind of
pushed it this way and Lisa was pretty
uh you know accommodating to us to the
CMO office to be able to go through this
a little bit but hearing from from you
all I think it was good direction for us
to
to break them up and then we'll continue
to do that further so
we've heard you loud and clear
thank you thank you evil and I
understand Larry is on the line and I
don't know if he has anything to add
can he
thank you mayor Pro tem
um and appreciate you commenting Zoom
I'm up here in Santa Fe for the opening
day
and I think I think Mr peely said it
very well I think when you look at those
three-step recommendations and Andy
Connie did a good job of explaining our
discussion the first one the green
Amendment as as we've all had
discussions when we had our individual
meetings
there are potential implications for the
city that may be unforeseen and may be
negative and so that's why that was
recommended taken off and the other two
are just at least initially when you're
talking about budgets for state agencies
that's not something as a municipality
we have typically weighed in on before
at least not in a direct Manner
and so that's why that recommendation
was there and again I think it was
really helpful for me to hear the
discussion about the third which is the
reform of the state legislature and
Connie described it very well do we want
to weigh in on how another governmental
entity decides to enact their rules and
govern themselves and I think we've
heard loud and clear from you as members
of the council that that's something you
think is important and for us to weigh
in on so none of neither of those second
two were any opposition to the efforts
themselves it was more of a do we want
to weigh in on that type of issue and I
think we've we've received that
clarification and and I'm happy to
answer any other questions you might
have thank you mayor Pro tem members of
the council thank you Larry I appreciate
that any feedback comments to Larry's
okay
um then it counts for Bingo mall I would
like to make a motion to table this
resolution indefinitely motion made to
table this resolution indefinitely by
bencomo second by Flores second by
Flores
Christine
this is on the motion to table
resolution
23-085 indefinitely counts our beta yes
councilor Graham yes councilor Ben Comal
yes councilor Koran yes counselor Flores
yes mayor Pro tem yes and the mayor's
absent
thank you Christine thank you Lisa thank
you
Thank you Lisa
7.2
um
a resolution authorizing the city of Las
Cruces to accept various Grant awards
for various City departments through an
amendment to the city's adopted 2023
budget may I get a motion to approve so
moved
motion made by Graham second by Flores
hi Rocio how are you hello I'm good and
yourself good good
afternoon mayor Pro temment members of
Council budget analyst today I'm
bringing a resolution before you to
accept two state grants and one
modification Grant
the fire department has been awarded a
grant for the New Mexico State Fire
Marshal equipment Grant
from the special Revenue fund Lucia will
you talk more directly to into the mic
please yes thank you
I'll start out over here okay
the first grant is for the fire
department for New Mexico State Fire
Marshal equipment Grant
for three hundred thousand dollars the
grant granting agency is the New Mexico
Department of Homeland Security and
Emergency Management
this grant is to purchase self-contained
breathing apparatus for the fire
department this is funding from the 22
New Mexico capital outlay for fire and
the fire FY 23 fire fund
the second ground is for Haida Haida has
been awarded a Haida FY 23 modification
number two and three in the amount of
thousand dollars
for a project total of 1.2 million
the granting agency is from the
executive office of President Office of
National Drug control policy
this action accepts two modifications
the first is to reduce the awarded
amount for fugitive violent offender
task force by fifteen thousand eight
hundred and sixty dollars and the second
increases the award awarded amount for
the New Mexico crime gun intelligence
enforcement by twenty five thousand
dollars
quality of life department has been
awarded FY 23 New Mexico state grants
aid for Thomas and Branigan library in
the amount of 20
509.44 cents from a granting Agency New
Mexico State Library
this is to support recipients recipients
Library collections Library staff
salaries professional development
equipment and other operational
expenditures associated with delivery of
Library services
that she'll do it here are your Council
options I will stand for questions along
with alfredo Pacheco Deputy Finance
director representing grants and other
staff available from each department
today to assist thank you Rocio
appreciate that a counselor Flores thank
you madam chair and thank you Rocio for
your presentation
um
on the on page two the department after
uh below fire what does that stand for
Haida um
high intensity
drug trafficking oh and that's why is
that from police
it's for police I'm sorry yes I have
nothing to do with that
um obviously so
um counselor Flores um Chief got his
light on and you want to explain it to
me as if I were a four-year-old please
mayor Pro temo concert photos it stands
for high intensity drug trafficking area
Ida
and that and that's the money that's
coming from the uh Homeland Security
is that National Drug control policy
Executive Office of the President Office
of National Drug control policy so
that's Homeland Security Chief Dominguez
concert Flores we have a representative
from Haida here to explain oh wonderful
you see now we're all going to learn I
hope the Sun News good afternoon
my name is Sandra Russell and I am the
finance director for the high intensity
drug trafficking area in the state of
New Mexico we are a Federal grant
program and we are funded by the office
of National Drug control policy the
um
city of Las Cruces acts as our fiduciary
for some of these Grant funds and I'll
entertain any questions in regards to
the funding
So when you say fiduciary those
fiduciary agent do they are there any
Services related to being more than a
fiduciary medium
yes we do fund several of the um City
projects such as Metro narcotics
we fund um
we provide funding for the
enforcement efforts that are that are at
that location
I see so um there's direct funding to
personnel
is that correct uh in support of
overtime and also operating expenses ah
okay thank you so much thank you thank
you thank you counselor Flores
anybody else
seeing none Christine I'm sorry
public comment any public comment
related to this
Cena Christine
this is on the motion to approve
resolution
23-086 counselor beta yes Council Graham
yes councilor Ben komal
foreign
yes counselor Flores yes mayor Pro tem
yes and the mayor is absent
thank you
hi Chris
good afternoon mayor approachment
council this is a resolution number
23-087 it's adopting a small business
storefront repair program may I get a
motion to approve move to approved
second Corin motion made by wasat Graham
and second by
sorry motion made by a beta second by
Graham
Chris
Koran
they have me straight
good afternoon everyone Chris Faber with
economic development here to talk about
the small business storefront repair
program
so this program will use four hundred
thousand dollars in remaining
unencumbered arpa funds
and it's to go to businesses who
experience direct economic disruption
related to covet which was the
overarching idea behind arpa
um this proposal is that small
businesses can apply for a grant of up
to twenty five hundred dollars to help
repair storefront property damages that
occurred on or after January 1st 2021.
and damages include broken windows doors
locks etching on Windows those types of
things
applications will be accepted on a
continuous basis until all the funds
have been expended
one application may be submitted per
registered business and it will be
administered through the business
development section of Economic
Development Department
and if approved applications would open
on February 1st
some of the eligibility requirements
businesses had to experience direct
economic disruption due to the impacts
of covid
they need to provide proof of repairs to
Broken doors windows and or locks
they need to be an act to have an active
CLC business license or be a current
501c36 or 19.
be in compliance with all local federal
state and city laws and regulations
they need to be located within the city
limits and are currently open to the
public have 40 or fewer full-time work
full-time equivalent employees
have been in business since March 15th
of 2020.
and be a locally owned non-corporate
franchise or non-corporate chain
business
and they need to operate from a physical
location and or mobile truck that serves
the General Public
that's all I have questions thank you
Chris Graham Flores
thank you Mary Pro tem uh thank you
Chris the
what is eligibles is extremely limited
and I was wondering if you could provide
some insight in the packet for instance
it specifically says graffiti removal is
not covered can you just give us a sense
of what's covered and why sure mayor Pro
tem councilor Graham that was sort we've
modeled this after other programs around
the country and that was just kind of
the basis for what was covered and
wasn't covered obviously if you guys
feel otherwise we could certainly make
adjustments to that but most of the
issues revolve around provoking Windows
sometimes broken locks damage to Windows
and things of that nature but it is
obviously up for discussion if we want
to expand some of that as well
okay I yes so I I would be interested in
hearing from colleagues on that if we
could be a little more expansive with
how we are how we're
deciding what counts as damage
um the other questions I've received
um I'm thinking that it's the nature of
the arpa funding that puts us on this
kind of covety timeline that's the
reference to March 2020 and that is
correct yes okay great
um that's all the questions I have thank
you so much thank you councilor Graham
counselor Flores
uh thank you madam chair and thank you
Chris a favor for your presentation when
we discussed this at the economic
development policy Review Committee did
the issue of insurance
by the business owner come up
it did come up didn't it and can you
refresh my memory as to because I don't
see that as a requirement to qualify for
reimbursement right mayor Pro tem
counselor Flores yeah I think probably a
lot of these will go to reimburse
businesses for expenses they had to pay
for a deductible things of that nature
so yeah
good because I thought okay does my
memory serve me well and it did and I'm
happy to hear that thank you so much
thank you madam chair
yes thank you Council Flores counselor
bencom thanks Council photos for that
clarification and Chris for uh you and
economic development staff for bringing
this forward I think it's a good and
Innovative use of
um funds not tied down by anti-donation
so I appreciate that very much
um what so if everyone see 6 and 19 can
you give me an example of that
counselor Flores uh or um excuse me
um councilor mayor Pro tem councilman
Como I'm not exactly sure on what a C6
or 19 is might have to get some
clarification those were the criteria
that we use for the cares Grant when we
did that a couple years ago so it's I
remember there was some discussion
around that and it seemed like those
were the ones that were should be
accepted but I don't know the specifics
all the details for each of them and so
you will be accepting applications react
retroactively then that is correct yeah
we dated it back to January 1st of 2021.
okay I also did appreciate the some of
the pieces you had on this last slide
around
um yeah under fewer for fewer than 40
locally owned non-core bread I think
those are really important so I really
appreciate that Chris
um it I also just
while I think this is important and a
good use of these funds that are left
over
I you know I still a Band-Aid
um and we can never pay back someone's
lost peace of mind right
um I am curious about
um perhaps the collaboration between
economic development and the police
department around
preventative measures these keep
happening we keep hearing about
businesses in our in our districts
getting broken into and
it just seems like it keeps happening
and happening and so I I would love to
hear whatever you can share
Chief and Chris around what are the
preventative initiatives that that PD is
is putting forth that you can share with
us that you can share with the public
and if there's anything that this
Council can do to to support whatever
might be missing I just I just feel like
you know this is a good Band-Aid but a
Band-Aid nonetheless so I'm curious if
anyone has an answer on that
mayor Pro tem councilman come all defer
to Chief Dominguez on that one
mayor council Flores our Patrol officers
and our streets
mayor Pro tem my apologies Council
Flores our Patrol officers and and
Patrol ships and our street crime units
continue to work projects diligently day
in and and night to prevent especially
commercial burglaries which is what
we're discussing right now it is
important to point out that we have had
a large rise in commercial burglaries
since covid and the the approach it
continues to happen we have seen small
decreases at times based on on weather
and things of that nature but we do
continue to see a large increase in
commercial burglaries not necessarily
storefronts which is what was mentioned
here but we do see some modus operandi
where they're going in through back
doors breaking in through Windows things
of that nature and we we feel the the
frustration from from business owners as
well as Citizens that come forth we
continue to do what we uh we're working
projects and attempting to get more
personnel which is obviously prevention
is is the key and and bodies are going
to be a big difference for us right
right now we are trying to add more
tours to our staffing and discussions
that I've had with Mr peely to to add
more Staffing so that we can prevent a
lot of these things from happening thank
you Chief and just I didn't quite catch
you did you
or Staffing oh okay stop being there
okay thank you I thought stuff is I was
like what are what are stuffies
um thank you Chief I appreciate you
noting that and I'll continue my
conversations with our city manager as
well
and I do want to also just note a big
thank you to like officer glimp for
example who goes out to your business
and even your homes and assesses your
risk factors and so that's been a really
big help for people in my district and
so I just wanted to express my gratitude
for that as well and all the small
business watch programs that he has
helped start those are my questions
Chris thank you I really appreciate it
thank you counselor
um councilor bencom oh my God sorry
conservate that but we're going to say
that counselor Flores looks younger
today right yes
thank you uh mayor Pro tem uh just a
quick comment um based on what I just
heard from Chief I do know that we're
going to have a lot of our budget uh
conferences next month and so I hope
that this type of issue is something
that is brought up during those meetings
as we look at what is necessary needed
for the budget next year
thank you and thank you Mary for
attending thank you councilor beta Chris
thank you for bringing this forward it's
outside of the box and creative and when
we you brought a number of things along
um to our Economic Development PRC
um I I want the public and the business
to know that we think about these things
this is like something that's very
important to us
um you know when we get public comment
it's almost like people are thinking you
know you don't care
um and that's just far from the truth we
do care we're doing what we can based on
what this the tools right in our toolbox
appreciate your Ingenuity and and and
looking sort of again outside the box I
have a couple of concerns we talked
about a police report being made I
didn't see that as part of the criteria
and the reason that I am pushing this a
little more today is because I'm getting
the impression and when I do speak to
businesses they are not calling police
and there have been a couple of
instances where I've tagged or copied um
Chief and officer
um glimp and clemek and the folks that
are on the receiving end of some of this
crime have not called police they go and
they look the re and research that
information and it's not being reported
and that is something that we have to
curb we have to work together and this
is one of the things is like I know
there's a lot of frustration one comes
up every regular council meeting and
speaks to the numerous break-ins that
are occurring in the city and I see them
I'm seeing them on Facebook I think
there's an impression that we don't have
relationships with the business
community and we do many of them we're
reaching out I'm I you know the issue
that happened at the downtown I was
there early morning hours look looking
at the the destruction
it so when you start digging in our
business Community isn't calling police
and that's sort of the first thing that
they should be doing so that police can
start investigating and I'm not saying
that that's happening all the time
please don't don't misunderstand what
I'm saying but this needs to be a part
of the criteria they have to make a
police report in order for police and
the groups that are established to do
the work that they're supposed to be
doing to catch the criminal if you can't
even do that basic thing then I think we
have a problem and so I'm asking that it
gets put can I just address that real
quick so I we talked about that and my
thing we did talk about it my thought
was if someone dating back to early 2021
applied but didn't file a report at that
time I didn't want them to not be
eligible for this program and I didn't
want to make that blanket requirements
so what we're doing internally is when
we get applicants that come in with
something that happened recently through
the process our staff will tell them
please file a police report and have
that conversation with them but if I
made it a blanket requirement I was
afraid it was going to eliminate those
businesses from the early days of the
pandemic that didn't file one and it may
I don't know if it's would be too late
to go back at that point in time but if
it was I didn't want to eliminate them
on something like a technicality so I
hear what you're saying I thought that
might be the best way to really
appreciate that Chris I think that's
that's something to think about and I'm
wondering if we can grandfather in you
know from the the from the previous time
to up to February 1st and and but it
also
it concerns me that we're not utilizing
our police force like we need to
although they get a lot of calls like
000 54 000 something like that cheap
could probably give right off the top of
our head a lot of calls
um but this is
for me very basic so that it initiates
the investigation moving forward so I'm
asking that maybe there's that
grandfathering in from that period of
time but also encouraging the folks like
you said when they come and present this
application that it that a police report
is is because I'm afraid that people are
taking things on their in their own
hands we've had issues where that has
happened and a person got shot dead
because they went after someone that had
a gun and and so
um it's just it's creating a lot of
right a lot of tension and concern in
the community there and I realize that
all of us have what we have because we
work for it and and truly what's
happening is
um
a lot of this is drug related according
to what Chief and
um and and I have spoken about
um related to this increase in crime
so I'd like I'd like to say that um
and
let's see I think it's important to also
um
I appreciate counselor bincomo and
others talking about like what PD is
doing prevention is really important and
I've been thinking about how the Las
Cruces Care Unit although they're just
two
could really help and provide some
guidance along with the victim Advocates
that PD has specifically when our
business Community is being
um targeted
um and and so I'd like to see
um at least one or maybe hiring another
Las Cruces cares Advocate specific to
our business Community
um so that they can reach out upon
hearing that they've been broken into
and sort of outline what are the steps
and sort of kind of like a warm handoff
almost right and and that would be the
the liaison if you will to the people on
patrol and I've been talking about this
for some time and I'm really hoping that
this can
um can be a piece of this component and
if you need more money to be able to do
that I think count I know some people
you know some people I know some people
that could approve
from the um you know an additional Las
Cruces cares Advocate specific to our
business
um Community I think it will go a long
way it will bridge the gap or the
barrier that I think a lot of our
businesses are are feeling related to
the city and and police department
so
anything else any other
concert ground is this the point where I
can propose my amendments yes you can do
the resolution yes sorry in advance
Christine oh no
hit me um mayor protein counselor
grandma was actually going to say that
the resolution is written so
non-substantive and substantive issues
can be made to the program itself so
um we can give direction to the city
manager to add that if you would like
instead of an amendment
okay so we would be able to relax the
standards on what is eligible and we
could also remove the the provision that
specifically
Outlaw well is correct graffiti okay
correct I'm happy then thank you
so no we don't have to say specifically
oh just give direction to ifo gotcha
okay direction
we're giving you Direction I think we
did right we're pretty specific do we
want to recap
do you know what the Chris mayor Pro tem
I can go back and rewrite the language
and work with City manager's office to
make it a little bit more
yeah expansive good work yes
I can work on that today you know one of
the other things I think I'd like to
talk about is I did get a couple of
emails about the urination and
defecation and why isn't that included
um I want to say that we have very
specific programs like the spot cleanup
band that comes very much of a plea you
know if they're if that has happened
um and but maybe it's not working
um
in its entirety because it's not a 24 7
program and and so I wanna I want us to
consider
um you know looking at that because that
is a pretty tough thing to have to do
when it happens late at night and you're
with you're in the morning having to
open up the onus is on you to clean that
up we can't wait for the spot band to
come and clean that up so I wanted to
bring that up I had just remembered
about that but also the Mano and Mano
program those are all those programs
that I think will work in conjunction
with this that we need to I think
partner with Pio
to ensure that the public is aware of
those things and people I'm wondering if
maybe we can have an element to the spot
cleanup that is 24 7.
I'm not sure but we should probably have
a little more conversation about that
because I think those are that kind of
thing is really happening and hopefully
the hygiene stations will alleviate that
but until then that continues to be an
issue
okay all right Christine
this is on the motion to approve
resolution
23-087 counselor beta yes councilor
Graham yes
yes
and the mayor's absent thank you
Christine thanks again Chris
next up 7.4 resolution number 23088 a
resolution approving the Housing Trust
Fund loan agreement between the city of
Las Cruces and three sisters may I get a
motion to approve to approve motion made
by councilor beta
second by counselor Flores hi hi Jen
yeah I don't think I've seen you yet
might not have yeah good afternoon mayor
Pro tem and City councilors my name is
Jan lauterbach I'm with the economic
development department
and the resolution before you seeks to
an approval of a loan agreement
and corresponding budget adjustment for
a multi-family affordable housing
project to be known as the three sisters
Apartments
the proposed complex is being developed
through a partnership between Catholic
Charities housing Inc and Chelsea
Investment corporation
will contain 71 2 and 3 bedroom units a
community center and outdoor recreation
space
with one of the units set aside for an
on-site manager the low-income housing
tax credit project will Target Target
households at less than 60 percent of
area median income
funding sources include low-income
housing tax credit or light tech and
Equity investors MFA home funds which is
the mortgage Finance Authority
defer developer fee National Housing
Trust Fund monies and city of Las Cruces
funding
in December 2021 city council approved
resolution
22-072 which approved an allocation of
2.4 million dollars in city funding for
the project which was contingent upon
the project receiving award of light
tech funds
this commitment of City funds represents
13.31 percent of the estimated total
development cost of just over 18 million
it strengthened the low-income housing
tax credit application as the project
was awarded like Tech funding
like Tech rules require a developer to
begin construction one year from the
award date and action today will approve
the funding and I'm sorry action today
will approve the required security and
Loan agreements along with the budget
adjustment for the funding and allow the
project to move forward through the
development process
here's a vicinity map of the project
it's located near the intersection of
Griggs and Walnut Street just south of
the Angel Care property and just I'm
sorry just north of the Angel Care
property and south of the athletic
fields on Walnut and Hadley
this is the architect's rendition of the
project on the site
and the budget adjustment the funding is
coming from the telstor fund Telstra
facility fund excuse me
and with that you have your standard
Council options and I stand for
questions thank you counselor Flores
counselor binkel thank you thank you
madam chair and thank you so much Jan
for your presentation
what is the the
the qualification the amount I mean in
dollars and cents at 60 percent I I
think it was page
three
the sixty percent limit right currently
right now sixty percent for a household
size of a family of four is thirty six
thousand six hundred for a Lancome
housing tax credit project okay can
those um limits are sent by set by the
New Mexico housing or sorry the mortgage
Finance Authority all right MFA
um so uh family earnings
um thirty six thousand six hundred or
less qualify yes that's for a family
size of four four okay and
um are there adjustments for
a family Beyond four members uh how
should I say that
um
I have a chart that might be helpful oh
yeah yeah I know there's charts so
um so it does change according to the
the 60 percent will uh adjust
accordingly yes mayor Pro tem and
counselor Flores I have the chart up in
front of you showing the household sizes
in the top
the so someone uh with eight members in
the family
would oh right across at the Forty eight
thousand Three Sixty would be a limit
for an eight
um family size of eight oh so that would
be a limit so anyone in 70 or 80 would
not qualify that's correct sixty percent
is the limit for the complex
I see
thank you very much Jan that was a very
good presentation thank you thank you
madam chair thank you counselor plus
cancer Grant
thank you Mary Pro Tem
um first of all thank you so much for
the presentation and
um I just want to say what an amazing
project this looks like it's going to be
love the location love that it's so
close to one of our great Community
Schools Lynn Middle School we've got the
skate park right there
um the question I have and this is this
is probably just going to show my
newbiness
um up here I'm looking in the agenda
packet
um You probably don't have access to
here to that where you're standing but
um well you do yeah okay cool uh page
155 of 491
um can you just help me understand if is
this a typical funding structure for a
project like this so in other words city
of Las Cruces is the fourth mortgage G
for mortgage holder
there are three others ahead of us can
you just help me understand a little bit
this is the norm
mayor Pro tem and councilor Graham it is
a norm on a low-income housing tax
credit project the we have a
construction lender to start off with
with the end of construction that gets
paid then there becomes a permanent the
permanent lender right behind the
permanent permanent lender is the
mortgage Finance Authority home funds
they are required in second position if
the city of Las Cruces had home funds in
it we would be in second position there
so MFA their money and the National
Housing Trust Fund money come in before
the city of Las Cruces funding
okay thank you
um and how does that affect
our ongoing really does it affect kind
of our ongoing relationship with the
project once it's rolling
happening that's probably I'm probably
not phrasing that very elegantly
mayor Pro Tim and councilor Graham I do
not believe it affects our funding there
are so many pieces of the puzzle and so
many legal papers in here and so many
commitments to make this project work
our funding should not have any effect
on being in fourth position okay thank
you so much thank you mayor Pro tem
thank you Council Graham any other
questions concerns good picture Adrian
um oops mayor Pro tem Gandara and
counselors I have um Tim Baker with
Chelsea Investment corporation who would
like a moment of your time please sure
hello Mr Baker welcome mayor Pro tem
counselors uh first of all it's honor to
be in front of you again
sorry Tim Baker Chelsea Investment
corporation Carlsbad California the
other Carlsbad
um
following up on your questions about a
structure I've about 25 years of
experience in affordable housing I've
done about 40 developments
the way the the stack of financing Works
typically it's the biggest government
agency so it's the feds first the state
second the local governments third or
fourth no matter what the amount of
money is
the king's rule so to speak or Queens if
you will so to speak so it's very common
for the city jurisdictions to be third
or fourth in a lean position so forth
um
in terms of oversight we have annual
inspections by the state of New Mexico
if it's in the loan documents but I've
not seen them but I would imagine
there's inspections by the city also
from our funder standpoint which will be
Key Bank Rocky Mountain and the investor
will be the Richmond group they all have
inspections so you could be rest assured
where inspection inspections inspections
we also like to say that the best way to
Market our projects in terms of future
projects is that we're the best one on
the Block we challenge people to go see
our projects at five o'clock in the
morning on a Saturday morning or go see
it at 11 o'clock at night to see how
well they're maintained we take
great pride and honor in terms of
receiving public dollars
and take great responsibility in that
way to honor those those dollars our
company just really quickly is over 30
years old
we have 130 developments and Carl's I
mean excuse me California Arizona New
Mexico and now and one in Utah we do not
sell our developments we learn to be we
look to be long-term custodians and this
project will remain affordable for 35
years in terms of compliance so it's
great to be in front of you all and
thank you for the consideration and I'm
happy to take any questions thank you Mr
Carter any questions Council yes
counselor Flores thank you madam chair
and thank you Mr Baker
um
so if say the city of Las Cruces is
fourth the fourth formicy
where is it mortgager well whatever
lien holder lien holder so
um in terms of a foreclosure
um is Chelsea would be the first in line
right
if there was a foreclosure
in affordable housing the key thing with
affordable housing is the equity
investor that buys the tax credits is a
limited partner and they own 99 of the
partnership
if we're doing something wrong most
likely what will happen is they will
kick us out and they'll bring somebody
else in in our place they don't want to
be for they own the property they don't
want to be foreclosed upon by any of the
funders so the Richmond group they don't
have a lean position they're part of the
ownership so way before somebody would
foreclose on us and this would be
Rocky Mountain CRC and they're in the
business to do community lending we
would be kicked out and somebody else
will be brought in to make sure the
project is being run correctly because
they have a obligation to their
investors in the tax credits to make
sure the project is being operated
correctly so
would I be correct in deducting from
what you've said that it's not likely to
happen very unlikely in in the
affordable housing world when you have
tax credits it's highly unusual to see a
foreclosure great thank you so much
thank you madam chair thank you
councilor Flores anybody else
and if I could add one other thing too
part of the ownership structures that we
provide guarantees so we provide
construction guarantee we provide
occupancy guarantee and excuse me we
provide funding guarantees
so those go some of those go on for at
least four to five years so there's a
lot at stake for us too beside your
reputation well then what's the term of
the
loans the loans
um
it varies so Rocky Mountain will have a
loan for 30 years the New Mexico Housing
Finance Agency is for 55 years and uh
the the city's loan I believe is 50
20 years 20 years
Okay so
okay great thank you thank you very very
welcome thank you Council Flores
any public comment
somebody before you sir
get in line thank you
good afternoon my name is Eddie Benz
hello Mr Bennis good afternoon thank you
Happy New Year
it's uh sitting back there listening and
watching it's interesting to say the
least first of all the project you're
looking at is needed in Las Cruces and
we need that type of housing but I am
also in the housing market too and have
a good understanding uh as you all are
aware I have involved in a department
complex under construction up on Road
Runner Boulevard that particular project
is about about 270 units ultimately in
it and it's interesting enough that
we're providing Olympic swimming pools
we're providing all types of amenities
from Recreation rooms to exercise rooms
and such and that project is coming in
at probably around a hundred and fifty
thousand dollars a unit
with all of those amenities and with
that type of project and when I hear a
project of this nature coming in at 250
000 a unit I would like to get involved
but it I question the use of our tax
dollars there's there's I don't know if
they're being used the most advantageous
way or we have looked at the market very
seriously uh from the market standpoint
we're involved in over 3 000 apartments
in Artesia Carlsbad Hobbs Las Cruces in
Las Cruces we've got probably 1500 or
more Apartments here and of that 1500 I
have about 500 departments that are
renting under 600 a month so we are
covering the market on a pretty broad
scale and have a pretty good feel of
what should be going on and it's
something that I don't want to table
this contact but I'm asking to take a
real serious look at the numbers because
they are way different from what private
Enterprises doing at this time
thank you
thank you Mr Vince Mr Baker would you
like to comment on that
mm-hmm
Tim Baker
senior development executive very cool
can I get this at home
um needless to say in my 25 years of
experience this is not the first time
I've heard this
argument
uh first of all on the site specifically
I'm not sure if the gentleman's aware of
the site at all but it is
sitewise has some challenges to the
heights elevations grading there's also
contamination issues from the plume
uh uh so we are going to be doing some
grading we're going to be doing some
walls
secondly this is Davis bacon
thirdly 30 percent more than 30 percent
of the units are three bedroom units
fourth we have certain guidelines that
market rate Developers
and being that my dad used to be a
market rate developer and all that don't
have to deal with from sustainability
efficiency and size
comparing this to market rate
as much as I would love to build market
rate there's constraints that we face
that market rate developers never have
to face
and respectfully disagree with the
fellow gentleman it's apples and oranges
as much as I'd like it to be market rate
it's not you get government involved
has its positives
and we can Services sustainability
we're way above code in terms of what's
required to do sustainability because
MFA requires these projects to be really
efficient
uh
the negatives if you will or positives
is governments involved in terms of
design criteria and all that I play in a
box that market rate developers don't
play in
and I would love to have a deeper
discussion with anybody on that basis
and all that so uh we are value
engineering this project to the hilt
we are getting multiple beds
and unlike market rate developers our
rents are restricted we can't increase
them however our operating expense is
our market rate
so there's a challenge there that market
rate developers don't have to deal with
um and so forth so
I respectfully understand the
gentleman's position but
um completely disagree with that
thank you thank you Mr Baker
mrtillas
I guess I'm like the lower this thing
down I'm not quite oh that okay got it
uh thank you uh Pro Tem gandera
would it be possible to get a police
report of the units in the different
areas they have to see what kind of
control they have on crime and what goes
on in these units that would be what I
would be interested in
need to state your name for the records
and uh yeah that's what I'd like to do
is what the crime is like in their
developments are they uh do they turn
into trap houses what is the
crime rate in those specific areas thank
you thank you Mr tayas
I think I got I think I got this down
Tim Baker senior development executive
director Chelsea
um
I'm very open to any
police report from any of our projects
here in New Mexico Artesia Hobbs grants
Los Lunas we're closing deals in Taos
and Belen Rio Rancho and also here this
year
um we take great pride in terms of our
developments being secure
you the tenants basically have two
chances and then they're out
in terms of that we do criminal
background checks before people along
with employment background checks
we for our projects we tend to have long
wait lists there's no reason why we need
to work with somebody that's not going
to honor their units in terms of keeping
it clean uh SEC fourth fifth
in Grants we invited the police to have
a substation or a community center
so they stopped there for coffee and
doing their reports and all that
and this is the first time I've ever had
this when we were doing the rehab work
in our project and grants
two police officers stopped
during our construction and said thank
God you guys are doing this thank you
very much
so we would welcome if the police would
like a substation have a coffee break
what have you we would welcome to have
you it'd be terrific uh 24-hour
you know
openness if you will so we are very open
to working with the police as well as
fire it's a relationship that we take
very seriously
Mr Baker
any other public comment
seeing none Christine mayor Pretenders
I just I also do definitely want to
challenge private developers you know
the housing team is always looking for
new Partnerships for developers who want
to build affordable housing so certainly
want to throw that challenge out to
anybody who is interested in in building
more affordable housing because we
certainly need it so thank you
thank you counselor bencomo concert
Graham do you or you oh Christine I
think we're ready
this is on the motion to approve
resolution
23-088 counselor beta yes councilor
Graham yes councilman Como yes councilor
Koran yes councilor flood is yes mayor
Pro 10 yes and the mayor's absent
thank you
next is a resident 7.5 a resolution
number
23-089 recommending the city manager to
negotiate the leasing of Las Cruces
utilities property for a community solar
project
hi Adrian hi move to approve
thank you thank you
thank you motion made by count Sarah
beta second by counselor bengomo
mayor Pro tem counselors Adrian Whitmer
utilities director thank you very much
and happy New Year
we're really excited to talk about this
back in April in 2021 the New Mexico
legislature did enact the community
solar act since then we've been working
with NMSU on our advancing clean energy
and we've been looking at public sites
to actually do a community solar project
the New Mexico PRC they posted an RFP
for developers to actually request to be
able to make a
Community solar project and tie into
their infrastructure and that's one
thing that utilities is interested in
although through our transition plan
that's something that we'll be working
towards to actually become our own
energy developer but at this point we
don't have that so in looking at sites
we did have some discussions with
ameresco and the
closing date for the RFP actually with
the New Mexico PRC is January 31st well
with it being utility property one of
the sites that they were looking at and
other sites that we're looking at
we needed to go to the Las Cruces
utilities board to actually get a
recommendation for them for us to come
to you to request to have the city
manager actually negotiate with mresco
for any of those types of leasings
this last Thursday on January 12th our
utility board approved the
recommendation to come in front of all
of you to request the approval to have
the city manager actually sit down and
negotiate with ameresco so that on at
least a certain property they're looking
at one particular piece of property but
I left it very general in case that one
doesn't pan out another one may actually
be eligible and so through that
I'll just stand for any question that
you all may have thank you thank you
Adrian
any questions all right counselor Karen
I have a quick question thank you Dr
Widmer
um
I I just am curious I still find
Community solar slightly uh
incomprehensible if I'm if I'm honest
and how exactly it works and what the
benefits are for the community I'm
curious what so this seems like a
company that's been doing this for a bit
that's my inference from the documents
provided in this conversation
if this sort of comes through what would
be the ultimate sort of outcome in terms
of diversifying the the energy sources
for the people of Las Cruces how many
people what kind of options might it
provide and really I'm just hoping that
you'll educate me not that this
necessarily affects how I feel about
this but I think it's the first time
we've really talked about Community
solar necessarily to take action on so
I'd love to hear a little bit more
please
mayor Pro 10 uh Council yes
um so thank you very much though the
community solar what happens is you have
a developer come in and for instance for
this particular one it's up to five
megawatts and out of that five megawatts
they develop it they tie into El Paso
electrics grid
then from there 40 percent of that has
to be dedicated to low to moderate
income households and that's where the
solar that's generated is providing the
electrical power for them so that
they'll be um
I guess a um
subscriber
and so we promised at least 40 percent
of that 30 percent can actually be City
facilities and then the rest is open and
so what that's supposed to actually end
up doing is that for instance amaraska
is going to have a rate that they're
going to charge people to actually
utilize this amount of solar that
they're putting out based on the
subscriptions
theoretically that's supposed to be
cheaper than just regular buying
electric from The Electric Company
so that's how it helps the community in
that sense that the power is going to be
cheaper then on top of that it also
lowers the greenhouse gas emissions
which is part of our um carbon action
plan
thank you that really helps so more of
these the more the better is that the
general idea if we're thinking about the
community benefit in terms of people
being able to buy it and people who have
accessible low to moderate income being
able to buy in for more cheaply
mayor Pro Tim counselor clan that is
correct okay so and and that's one of
the things as utilities is looking at um
part of our
transition plan is were there other
places that we then in 2025 when the RFP
comes back out again from the PRC so
that we can apply for ourselves so um
part of our Natural Gas and energy line
of business is so that we can actually
have energy
in multiple forms that we can actually
provide to the community to lower the
greenhouse gas emissions and at the same
time to be competitive and as cheap as
possible
all right thank you I appreciate I
really appreciate that sorry to put you
on the spot thank you for that
presentation
thank you counselor Karen Quran cue
anybody else
seeing um none for counsel what about
any public comment
Hi how are you
I either need to set closer to the front
or keep my mouth shut
you can sit closer to the front we'd
love to
love to please state
this is Eddie Benz say again or speaking
at this time there is no question that
we need solar help all over the place we
have in fact I'm very involved in it and
I currently have three projects that are
in front of the PRC for sort of projects
scattered in various locations
these projects that I'm involved in will
all be going on private property paying
taxes at Valorem taxes and taxes on the
structure that goes on it so I have a
question whether the
project going on city property would be
paying ad valorem taxes or paying taxes
at valorem on the structures that are
there which makes an uncompetitive
situation between private Enterprise and
the city of Las Cruces now part of that
will depend on what the city manager
negotiates and how it is worded but it
is my concern in following the dollars
and the use of our tax dollars and to
try to collect tax dollars as due on
projects that are going on in other
locations but it's something that I want
to call your attention to there's no
question about it
there is a limited number of projects
that will be going in New Mexico because
there's a limited number of funds that
the legislature made available and as of
January the 31st that process will close
and the state PRC will make a selection
of the projects which are most desirable
or beneficial so that is part of the
process chance that is going on to pass
on that information and said thank you
thank you Mr Vince I wasn't aware so
Adrian
you're in competition with other folks
across the state and what
how do we jockey into position to make
it
that ours get funded
mayor Pro Tim Adrian Whitmer utilities
director yes it's going to be quite
competitive and so one of the things
that is required as part of the
application is the more that you're
showing that you are ready to actually
um I guess
ready build shovel ready uh the better
and so this is one of them is to be able
to sit down and provide the um the
resolutions from the utility board and
from the city council to attach as part
of ameresco's application for additional
points in order for them to score as
high as they possibly can
thank you thank you
we meet
Lisa you keep I think I keep seeing your
hand but I'm not sure you want to come
up and say something
please do
hello mayor Pro tem Council this is Lisa
LaRock the sustainability officer for
the city I've been working with Adrian
Whitmer and amaresco on this project and
um I just want to Echo what she has to
say about the merits of this project it
isn't just about the competition which
is there's about 72 applicants for six
positions in the El Paso Electric
territory it's about providing the
lowest rate possible for our low and
moderate income people and the goal that
we've set is at least 20 percent
reduction in our electricity costs and
it isn't
um although the goal although the the
minimum you can provide is 30 percent
we're shooting for 50 percent and that
will be about 500 households and that's
especially
valuable for renters which are our uh
the the folks that are most um at risk
of energy burdens as well as other
people who don't have the initial
Capital to be able to do this and the
the ability to have the partnership with
amaresco and the city having the Browns
Fields having all of those shovel ready
things that Adrian talked about are
really essential to make us more
competitive and um and the association
that uh that this project has with lcu
will do a lot to bring forward a new
model
where we're actually doing this is the
from my understanding this is the only
Municipal partnership with a community
solar project so it's it is really
significant and unique and it's a great
way to get the foot for lcu to get their
foot in the door so I just want to say
this more for props for Adrian than
thank you Lisa for that we really
appreciate that councilor bengomo thanks
I'm here pretem I also thank you both
very much I I'm very excited about this
project and thank you for mentioning the
2025 goal Adrian I also just want to
note that
this project is so important because
going solar is inherently inequitable
it is very expensive to go solar on your
home and so people with memes wealthy
folks will be able to do so and I think
programs like this community solar are
trying to interrupt that and say we are
actually going to uplift and ensure that
people who are not only most at risk of
energy burden but are also inherently
more disproportionately impacted by
climate change are at the center of this
transition and so I think that's why I I
think this it makes this a highly
competitive application and I'm so I'm
just very excited that we are here on
the Las Cruces is getting ready for this
thanks mayor Tim thank you councilor big
coma any anybody else any other public
comment okay scene none Christine
this is on the motion to approve
resolution
23-089 counselor beta yes councilor
Graham yes councilor Bingham yes
councilor Koran yes counselor Flores yes
mayor Pro tem yes and the mayor's
episode thank you Christine
thank you
Thank you Lisa and Adrian
next up is 7.7 Council bill number
23-016 and or an ordinance number 3022
and ordinance approving a zone change
from multiple properties Parcels from A2
um c3c
and M2
and C3 and M1
etc etc hi David Weir good afternoon
good afternoon oh I'm sorry yes thank
you second
motion made by cancer I bet I'm getting
ahead of myself and um second by
councilor Ben gomo again good afternoon
mayor Pro tem and city council I'm David
we're at the community development
department and this agenda item is a
zone change to facilitate the
development of a commercial industrial
park along U.S 70 and also to remove a
defunct or Legacy zoning district from
the property
I'm gonna I'm gonna jump ahead in the
presentation a little bit
um just to give you an idea where it at
where it is at
um basically this generally north-south
street is Rinconada Boulevard the
General East West is U.S 70 baton
Memorial the two Frontage roads the
property is located within this yellow
area
and as mayor Pro Tim noted it does have
multiple zoning districts on it and so
basically the zone changes to bring the
zoning districts into the property in
conformance with the intended
development
just to give you again some background
there are existing multiple Parcels on
that there are also a proposal to modify
those lot lines and again this is just
to bring the property into compliance
with the intended development the parcel
is pro partially developed there is one
business located on it the rest is
vacant so it will be developed in the
future
again these are the zoning categories
when they go to the zoning map I can
give you a little better idea I think it
it's a little clearer when you have a
picture than having to read all these
words or at least it was for me
um this is the existing zoning on the
property again it's generally the same
map of the Street Lake locations the
yellow areas of the property um subject
to this zone change the pinkish color is
an existing M2 the green is an A2 which
is an agricultural or holding district
and that's the one that's no longer in
our zoning code
the the other pinkish color is C2 and
then the the granular pink is a c3c
um
this map is actually what zoning is
being proposed the area in white
is currently zoned M1 M2 and it will
remain that way there's no zone change
for that particular parcel
the property in this square is currently
zoned A2 it proposes its own change of
C2 which is our General commercial
generally the the lot size has to be an
acre or less
this greenish square is a
it's the property that has the most
categories on it it has that A2 which is
that now defunct Zone it currently is
Zone C2 and it's also Zone M1 M2 so the
proposal is to bring this all into a C3
zowing District which is our larger
community-wide commercial category the
yellow property currently has a a C3 and
a C2 zoning on it the proposal is to
move that to an M12 that's also the
parcel that has the existing structure
which has commercial and light
industrial uses on the property
again this describes what I tried to
explain to you with the the graphic so
I'd be happy to go back if you want me
to go through it
um
when this was reviewed by staff it was
sent out to our reviewing departments
internally and also to our partners like
New Mexico highway department or dot
Department transportation all persons
that reviewed this were in support of
the zone changes presented notice was
sent out to adjacent property owners and
we did not receive any input in regards
to anybody protesting or supporting the
zone change
um therefore staff did recommend
approval this zone change it was based
on the intent of the zoning ordinance
compliance with Elevate Las Cruces and
the existing development and nature of
the the adjacent properties in the area
they made this recommendation to plan
zoning commission the plain zoning
commission also reviewed this and made a
recommendation I think I jumped a slide
they heard this in July again there was
no public input at the time
the commission reviewed the staff report
and
endorsed the recommendation by my staff
and approved it
unanimously with one member absent
um so coming forward again there's a
recommendation approval I can go back to
any of those Graphics if you have any
questions or answer any other questions
but you have your standard options the
applicant is present if you have any
questions for them also
are there any questions okay I just
counselor current thank you this is my
district and actually arguably my
backyard ish
I just have a quick question I think I
wince every time I see these crazy uh
Graphics of our old-timey development
code with
seemingly arbitrary numbers for Parcels
that are clearly homogeneous in nature
so it's it's wild to me I just have a
quick question about going forward
is this the sort of thing that will be
corrected and I know I always ask you
about this by realize Las Cruces and
please say yes
mayor Pro Tim and Council Quran that is
one of the biggest things we want to
accomplish with realize
we have not only an update to our
development codes but as a part of that
project we have a city-wide rezoning map
to take place that would be endorsed so
we would not have these defunct or
I'll Never Say Never but the intent is
to never have any of these defunct
Parcels where you have to have these
type of corrective zone changes going
forward thank you so much I am really
glad to hear that I can't wait for
realize to come come forward so thank
you again
anybody else
public comment
no no Mr Benz please come if you'd like
to say please come up no okay
foreign
going once going twice Okay no Okay
Christine
this is on the motion to approve
ordinance 3022 counselor beta yes
councilor Graham yes councilor Ben Como
yes councilor Korean yes counselor
Flores yes mayor Pro Tem
yes and the bear is absent thank you
Christine
okay
um board appointments next on the agenda
I see none
there's one for wait wait
you're gonna get there's two pieces of
thank you Larry thank you thank you Dave
okay
um oh yes
um a board appointment is for realized
Las Cruces advisory ad hoc committee
Luis Rios move to approved please
um motion made by counselor Quran second
second by Consular beta
Christine
this is on the motion to appoint Luis
Rios to the realize Las Cruces ad hoc
committee counselor beta yes councilor
Graham yes councilor Ben Cuomo yes
councilor cran yes councilor Flores yes
mayor Pro tem yes and the mayor is
absent thank you Christine
next is um notice a proposed ordinances
9.1
bring it forward thank you
counselor but I've never done this part
councilor Bingo do I have to repeat
concert binkelma has brought it Forward
okay good
9.2 Council bill number
23019 Bring It Forward
thank you
and next up is item 10 city council
member board reports and comment
hey
gosh I have a bit of a laundry list of
concerns and issues and I will start
with utilities I've received a number of
emails with the increase of gas prices
and some of my constituents are paying
I'm triple what they normally pay one of
them and I'll be sending an email to
Adrian about her bill being over four
hundred dollars and when they call the
utilities utilities explained that the
DECA let me I wrote it on decatherm is
now currently
13.71 cents when a year ago it was
5.94 cents and so her request is to
renegotiate the gas prices and so I got
to thinking that people are not aware
Evo after
um we had that major freeze the way the
sitting right negotiates gas prices
um and so I thought I would recommend
that either we have Adrian and I see her
walking up here but maybe a work session
that explains how we are negotiating
um I don't know if it's daily I don't
know if it's weekly how we negotiate
those gas prices
um regularly they don't they it's just
not like we are going for the highest we
try to go for the lowest as evil as you
explained to me um several years back so
Adrian would you like to help me out on
this
[Music]
mayor Pro Tim Adrian woodmer utilities
director thank you very much and it was
very interesting because councilor Koran
sent me an email this morning saying
oh I'm sorry Graham
yes
I'm sorry Becky and Becky slapped me I'm
sorry Becky with an i
oh that's true
so in going through that today there was
a discussion and we had actually spoken
with the Utility Board last Thursday to
talk about that and we're putting an
insert into everyone's billing and
depending on what cycle they're actually
on for their billing cycle is when
they'll actually get it and so typically
um and and I can actually take the email
from commissioner Graham and forward it
to you all so that that you're
completely aware is that we do order our
base load every month and then we try to
get the Peaks we look a few days ahead
and order it and that's kind of how that
works if you order too much and you
don't use it then you pay uh penalties
so our gas analyst Mario Puentes he's
been doing this for uh decades and he's
very good at it unfortunately one of the
main places that we get our gas is from
that El Paso natural gas pipeline that
comes out of the Permian Basin well
they've been having maintenance issues
with their pipes
so there's only so much gas that they
can send to us well the cheapest gas is
also coming out of the Permian which is
like super cheap which is part of what a
lot of people are saying that this is
what our prices used to be well we have
no other choice but to get gas from the
San Juan Basin which is in this case
like at least three times higher now one
of the things that utilities is offering
is that if someone feels like this is
going to cause hardship if they'll just
get with customer service billing and
receivables we can sit down and work out
an actual payment plan uh the um the
original costs associated with the uh
the very large storm all of those have
been paid back so this is you know we're
back on even ground right now so but I
can certainly forward the email that I
sent to to councilor Graham and then
we're more than willing to have a work
session with you to go over it as to how
that works yeah really appreciate you
explaining that a little more in detail
Adrian I know that I knew I didn't
understand that until the freeze
happened and just
trying to get you know ahead of the game
for some of the questions that could
come up so those are things that I don't
think that our constituents really
really understand so going back to your
comment about the maintenance issues at
the premium basin
where we're used to getting our gas
is there anything that we can do to help
her
um when you talk about maintenance
issues can you be a little more specific
and are our hands tied are we unable to
really do anything more to assist them
is it a it it feels
ambiguous to me
mayor Pro Tim thank you very much so
um they ended up having a rupture in one
of their lines like last year and then
which then puts them under regulatory
requirements to get a bunch of stuff
done and then report back and then
um kind of like work with the federal
government the nice thing is is just
this very last week probably like on
Friday
they had completed all repairs and
they've turned the paperwork Into The
Regulators who then come down and take a
look at it for inspection if everything
turns out then they'll be able to go
ahead and add additional pressure and
provide the natural gas as they
previously did so right now it's a
temporary thing they just happen to have
a blowout which lowered the amount of
pressure that they could actually
provide in their in their lines so
they kind of put them in a difficulty in
providing more than what they're used to
doing what they're used to buying from
okay and so we've always gotten our our
natural gas some from the permians and
from the San Juan it just so happens
that the Permian is a lot cheaper in San
Juans a lot more expensive this year yes
and and also to tell
um
um to tell our customers that
it's not our rates that are causing you
know the high cost
it's actually the cost of gas because
that's just a pass-through yes so we
don't make any money on it uh whatever
we're paying for the gas is what gets
passed on to the consumer yes I think
those are all very important things to
explain and greater detail
um is would it help but then good to
know about the federal the feds coming
down whoever the inspectors are would it
help to inform our federal delegation
that this has happened that we're
waiting for the inspectors to come down
and that they need to pressure this
needs to happen immediately not you know
I don't know how quickly folks come down
schedule their inspections to come down
but this feels
um emergent and so I'm thinking that we
should have some sort of letter to our
federal delegation informing them that
this has happened and that we're
requesting that this get taken care of
quickly so we can go back to you know
receiving that although
as you mentioned it's not going to solve
the problem because gas is so expensive
right now
mayor Pro tem yes gas is expensive you
know either way
and it's just like any other regulatory
um issue once you file the paperwork
then you wait for the regulatory in to
come and and come and and do their
inspection
um
if you don't ask you don't get so we can
certainly
um work with our
um natural gas Consultants
he's kind of like on our legal team for
that to see if we write a letter will
will that assist or would it actually
end up just putting their feet in the
mud
because you never know how what kind of
response you're going to get from
regulators
but I think
all we can do is be as transparent as we
can is this is unfortunately the price
of natural gas right now it's a
pass-through if you're having a hard
time paying the bill or you would like
to have a payment plan we're more than
willing to do that but all of the
Southwest is dealing with this right now
it's just not us
yes thank you thank you Adrian I I would
like to have a letter I'm asking that we
replenish or increase the fund that we
have to pay for you know utilities gas
and the like so water I think that's
something that we really need to look at
because I don't know about anybody else
but paying close to over 400 dollars for
gas and water is astronomical and it's
going to make it very difficult for many
of our families here in Las Cruces
equal did you want to say something I
felt like you wanted to say more about
that yes I mean I pretend just just to
add to what Adrian is saying and just to
make sure it's it's clear
so when we talk about negotiating our
gas prices
uh I think it's important to understand
we we have like Adrian mentioned our
base low purchase so we've purchased
that block in fact I think we're
we have contracts in place that secure
some of that that prevent you know
fluctuations in that so we we've gotten
as secure as we can be what we're
talking about is peak and so when you
get the cold front when you get
um you know throughout the country the
demand is higher naturally and so what
we're talking about is just that the
difference between what our base load is
and what the fluctuations are in our
demand and so that's where we're open to
the market we're left open to the market
if we're going to go and purchase blocks
to try and speculate
then then it's it gets pretty risky
because like Adrian mentioned if we over
purchase
then we're then we're stuck with it and
we have to pay and so we have to we have
to go off what our base demand is
and and maybe as we're moving forward
you know we and I'm sure
you know I mean there's a lot a lot
smarter people in in our guests uh
looking at this than I am but maybe we
look at in the future we look at uh
increasing That Base load but we're
right in the middle of that that battle
right now so
um it's it's really about managing that
that demand and really subset we're
really subject to the market and so
right now and so I know that's uh
hard to to explain to the to the
residents but
I think the only thing would be is to
contemplate something where we can you
know we can look at assisting but you
know they'll certainly have to come from
from the general General Finance it has
been in the past
um and not not from the utilities but
I think if that could be
you know we all get we're all getting
emails and it just is just for more
information for your background to be
able to explain
exactly what is because especially with
the question of can we negotiate we I
mean they're they're looking at you know
every year they're negotiating prices
but it's this peak it's the fluctuation
that we we have no no opportunity to
negotiate
I
polluted as all of that is we I think I
appreciate Adrian
um your words I think being transparent
with the public about what exactly is
happening explaining and since many
um ways that we can not only in inserts
at our bill but also on a press release
on our social media accounts and having
something to be able to write like you
said I'll share what I've said to
commissioner Graham I think that would
be very helpful and again I'm I'm asking
because I
I not only negotiating your payment
plans but also this fund that we
replenish every budget cycle right every
year I think we're going to have to
consider replenishing that sooner rather
than later and those are things I'd like
for us to consider moving forward
uh mayor Pro tem um I totally concur
with you and right now that particular
fund has a balance of a hundred and
twelve thousand dollars and so that is
another thing that sure will look at the
payment plan but obviously those that
are low income that that are really
struggling there is the 112 that is
still in that fund
so far thank you Adrian you're welcome
um and then um I want things I want to
speak again about the hygiene station so
just getting an idea of where we're at
what needs to happen to get these off
the ground
um at like just a update on that ifo if
we can and then I'm very excited about
the storefront repair program I think
this is going to be very helpful to our
businesses
especially as as we move forward I agree
with concert Ben gomo that this is just
a Band-Aid and and we need to look at a
few other preventative programming
also in our discussion at the PRC we
talked about staff looking at other
grants that don't
connect us to the anti-donation so from
a federal standpoint looking at Grants
that help our businesses um so that we
can continue to utilize this particular
program and then lastly I I had
mentioned a month or so ago about
wanting to re-examine the Messiah Valley
Housing Authority resolution
and art Serio has been has done that and
sent it to me last week I'd like to
propose to a moving that to our housing
policy Review Committee concert binkomo
I think that would be a good opportunity
to look at that in Earnest so
I'll work with you counselor bengomo to
get it on the agenda not this week as we
have our meeting tomorrow I think but
for the following for the following
month
um and then just happy MLK day I I went
to the
the event the breakfast on Monday and it
was phenomenal it was so energizing and
you know
um it's Martin Luther King Jr's words
just renovate Renaissance
resonate with me especially around using
love and and thinking about
how Not only would we love our family
members but loving people we don't know
and doing things and with love it's a
lot to live up to but I'm certainly up
for the test so with that I'll turn it
over to counselor Flores uh thank you
madam chair
so um
Adrian I do have a question for you
and maybe address this also to Mr peely
um
so you know I was out of town for about
three weeks or so a little more than
three weeks in the meantime I received a
bill from utilities
and when I went to pick up my mail
I mean I presumably was sent a bill
while I was out of town
when I collected my mail at the post
office
there wasn't a bill there there was a
letter telling me that my that my
utilities would be cut off by January 26
if I didn't pay 197 dollars immediately
which you know I went online and paid it
through my bank
but um
but you know I and fortunately I have
that that amount but I thought it was a
harsh letter I mean I just thought you
know what if it's you know someone who
didn't receive the initial bill and all
of a sudden they get this bill and 197
is extraordinarily high for me
um but I just thought you know I thought
well
um yeah gas prices are high yada yada
but I just thought the letter was a
little harsh you know it's like I'm I'm
happy I mean I'm happy to pay my bills I
pay my bills on time
but I you know just as a matter of
policy you know first of all I never
even got my bill you know for some
reason it just may be the post office
threw it in somebody else's you know
mail hold
but Adrian so once the Permian Basin
Fiasco was taken care of will the gas
rates go down a little
because that's been uh will we be able
to get our guests our sources back our
source back instead of going to San Juan
mayor Pro tem uh councilor Flores Adrian
Whitmer utilities director
it should give us an opportunity to buy
more out of the Permian as opposed to
the San Juan okay so the prices should
go down a little
we certainly hope so and I think that
may actually help once they get up and
running
there's not going to be the same kind of
pressure because it is I mean it's
supply and demand
of course absolutely okay so
um And in regards to uh your bill so I
will have that looked into because
usually there's some kind of notices of
reminder reminder I I believe there's at
least two or three reminders before they
send that so
um if you still have that letter I would
I would love to have it so that I can
um pass that on and we can look into
that specifically for you yeah I did
bring it and left it on my desk upstairs
but I'll walk it over to you or yeah
okay thank you but I just just I mean I
I mean I'm very fortunate that I'm able
to do that but I I think of other people
who
you know may be out of town longer than
that and then they return on January 26
to find that they don't have their you
know utilities working you know so thank
you Adrian absolutely thank you and the
other I also would like to share
um
that uh
I was at the Martin Luther King
breakfast yesterday and
um and I I brought the
[Music]
program because the keynote speaker was
Sergeant Jamar cotton he's with uh
doniana the doniana Sheriff's Department
and he was really powerful and just a
lovely lovely human being and what he's
doing is he's working with youth and so
he had his
um the youth group but I hope it was all
it was us I think there were maybe about
a dozen children
um and you know I think they were middle
school and
um and E and five or six of them uh read
the principles of Dr uh the Reverend Dr
Martin Luther King Jr
um and to live by those principles and
of course as mayor Pro tem mentioned the
prevailing theme was love and that was
uh
Dr King's dream and it was very moving
but in all it was a a wonderful a
wonderful and mayor Ken megashima
actually
read the history of uh of it all and it
was actually
Reagan President Reagan who declared
January 15 federal holiday and of course
football's on a Sunday it's the
following Monday
um
so it was absolutely lovely it's backed
it's nice to be back in Las Cruces it
was wonderful seeing my grandchildren
and I want to wish Tessa a beta a happy
birthday today is her birthday
and um yeah so that's that's it for
today thank you very much Madam chair
thank you counselor Flores thank you I
also want to wish my fellow capricorna
happy birthday
um Capricorns do it
very strategically and with a lot of
forethought yes we do crazy
um it was counselor Karen's birthday
about a week and a half ago so happy
birthday to her too I'm glad we were
both born I don't know yes you did
um
uh I just have a couple of notes one is
very specific to my district the Red
Hawk Golf Club Road South of Arroyo will
be closed through about Thursday of this
week for some work that they're doing on
housing developments there so there are
detour signs available already it
started today so I wanted to give a note
to the folks in my district about that
and then I I have kind of another
note to sort of the folks around Las
Cruces and I've been thinking about this
a lot and thinking about rhetoric and
the kinds of rhetoric that we promote
and where where that leads us and where
we can end up and so there have been a
number of recent uh well there was one
very proximate
high-profile situation where someone
took into their own hands following
someone who was perceived to have
committed a crime and we heard about the
sad outcome of that
um
in addition in Albuquerque we heard
about the outcome of people who were
elected to office you know engaging in
conversations and then having their
homes shot up as a result of those
conversations which we all hear about
and feel in our in our own worlds but I
want to point out
sort of how our rhetoric and the
rhetoric that might appear here in our
public meetings and and then even more
to things that are happening right now
in our community I know that there are
folks outside of the high schools right
now
um sort of shouting uh with signs some
reports of recording the students going
into the high schools and kind of in an
aggressive way shaming students in
particular
lgbtq students and I do want to point
out that first of all
I'm confident those folks aren't from
here because I know that the city of Las
Cruces is better than that and also that
I want to point out to the people in Las
Cruces
um
or or sort of say to the kids in
particular that are having to that are
being subjected to that right now and
they're going into school
um
those folks don't represent any of us
we're here to to support you and we want
a better future for our kids and I hope
that those same high school students are
up here and are able to to sort of
counteract any of that rhetoric that's
built up around them but I would also
say to the folks who are there screaming
in their megaphones at children
I would urge you to come and talk to us
as adults if you have a beef
um because frankly it's pretty
horrifying to go and yell at children
and through megaphones screaming and
telling them that they're sinners
we see you you're not you don't belong
here but we're happy to hear you come
talk to us as adults in a public forum
where we can sort of use our rhetorical
strategy to say we reject everything
that you stand for so I just want to put
that out there our rhetoric matters and
the city of Las Cruces I believe that we
that we can be
positive and supportive and live up to
the idea of justice as the holiday
suggests so I hope that we do
beautifully said
counselor thank you so much and you know
I did one I also know
um just the arrest of the man in
Albuquerque yesterday that had
um
that had shot up the homes of our fellow
colleagues in elected office and that
had me pretty shook honestly as
um someone who lives with a teenager and
someone who often works from home and
just that public serving and public
office is hard enough to now have to be
worried about our physical safety is
just deeply concerning and so
um I just wanted to extend some
solidarity to our colleagues up up in
Albuquerque
um
shifting quite hard
um I did want to note that we have a
housing PRC meeting tomorrow at two
o'clock on the second floor
I will be hosting a neighborhood meeting
at Legends West with Parks and Rec and
public works and utilities no that might
be it and codes I think
um at Legends West at Picacho Middle
School tomorrow at uh
um 6 p.m for folks who live in that
neighborhood if they want to come voice
any concerns
um
I did want to bring up a couple of
pieces of legislation that I know are
relevant to Public Safety conversations
we've been having here at city council
that I was recently made aware of that I
think I just wanted to let you all know
these are happening there is legislation
being presented at this legislative
session to expand access to Medicaid
medication for addiction treatment in
Correctional Facilities so for our jail
to commit to actually using
um you know medication for addiction
treatment that can actually help people
wean off of of substance abuse before
they get out and and then hopefully can
guess you know additional support
it's also my understanding that there is
a
commission under the New Mexico Supreme
Court that is working to address mental
health issues in the intersection of
Criminal Justice work and they are also
working on a bill to address issues
around competency and people who are
deemed incompetent and sort of what
happens after that so I know that there
are there's a bit that there's a
commission under the New Mexico Supreme
Court working on issues of competency
um and then lastly I know that Jamie
Michaels had come to council before to
talk to us about a piece of legislation
that they are working on with
um Senator ortizi Pino around
the licensing regulations for crisis
triage centers that they currently they
say only that they are only to be used
as for voluntary purposes and they're
looking to change those regulations to
allow for both voluntary and voluntary
admissions so those I think are really
critical pieces of legislation that will
have a huge impact on the people of Las
Cruces and and what we've been seeing
um in in recent months so I wanted to
just note those for everybody
I do want to request information from
mervda also I always it's always a word
to say Merv da because it's not
necessarily spelled that way Roberta I
know it's true
um anyway I would like information from
merva regarding
um
calls that can be diverted to 988 and
that information I want to know how
that's gonna how merva is going to work
with project light and that whole
situation so that we can get the right
first responder to the right
um emergency info and so whether that's
a work session or report that can be
presented but I really do want us to
better understand how 9-1-1 dispatches
better collaborating with 988 in crisis
intervention so that we can get the
right folks to the right place
um
lastly I just want to give obviously a
huge shout out to the Animal Service
shelter because
um last Friday my family and I went in
and we adopted a new pup as a Friday it
was a week so
um her name is Lola she is I think like
a lab boxer
mix
um and she is a troublemaker and
um she I couldn't be happier to have
adopted a new pup into our family so we
have two our other little Santo who also
came from the shelter is not having it
with his little sister so we're working
with the Humane Society who provides a
Free Trainer for people who don't who
have pets and might want to do that
especially if you adopted him from the
shelter they will work with you and so
but I just wanted to extend my gratitude
to the staff at the shelter who do such
a phenomenal job it is really hard going
there and looking for a pet it's
heartbreaking just how many animals
there are and so thanks to a wonderful
Anonymous donor who helped us pay for
our
adoption fee
um I go ahead I wouldn't go ahead and
sponsor somebody else and my check
cleared on the 11th so I'm hoping that
that means a pet got adopted and I was
able to pay for that adoption so thank
you to the Animal Service shelter thanks
that's it for me
I love that concert Ben Como I've been
following you on Tick Tock and your
story and it's the cutest and oh I'm
praying for Santos that's all I'll say
concert
um actually perfect segue and we were
just talking about that word yeah
um I sit on the Merv deboard and
actually Jamie Michaels was a recent
presenter and we were privy to some of
the information that you were talking
about so I know it's there is being
formulated and have got to hear a bit
firsthand
um you know this this is a significant
Paradigm Shift the move to 988 I know
merva is very committed to doing the
training
um you know we got to see some of
actually some of the materials that are
in each call taker station kind of like
a small decision tree of where should a
call be routed so so I know that that
good work is ongoing and I would also
welcome a work session
um mayor Pro tem and city manager I
would love to for everyone to get to see
how that is going
um speaking of great developments in
Behavioral Health actually just about 30
minutes ago an event wrapped up
um mayor Pro tem I'm sure you're aware
of this one because FYI plus
NMSU dacc and apple had
um would send a kind of like maybe a
little hackathon or getting some people
together to see how we can
um improve Behavioral Health Resource
access and outcomes through some mobile
app development so I'm going to be
really excited to hear about the outcome
I wish I wish I could have been there
not saying I wish I could have been
there instead of being here but no I'm
just kidding
um so yeah that that just happened today
so very cool
um and also had a great meeting with our
Community Schools board there's some
very exciting news coming out that I'm
not able to divulge quite yet
um I know right I love being that person
like vague booking up here
um so it's just wonderful to see how the
Community Schools
group is continuing to develop and
dealing with the whole student families
and neighborhoods and I'll leave it
there
thank you
thank you counselor Graham councilor
abeda
thank you mayor Pro tem and thank you
all for the birthday wishes and once
again a happy birthday as well to my
colleague Becky Becky so we are
Capricorns and that tracks pretty well
um
I have a few dates one is from Movida we
did have a meeting today mid-year
reports are going to be coming out I
should be receiving one towards the end
of the week when I do I will forward
that to Christine so that everybody is
able to get a copy of that report
tomorrow will be a oversight meeting we
will be getting an update about the
Inspector General hiring process and
update and we'll also be going over the
accountability in governance ordinance
and possible revisions and this is one
that I would suggest for my colleagues
especially those that are new to look
back over the revision I will say
Christine is an expert so if there are
questions unfortunately I am going to
direct them towards Mr peely and to our
wonderful city clerk if you have any
questions on that so as we look it's it
was a new ordinance if there's things
that we need to look at to tailor we
want to make sure to get your input as
well and then we are going to be having
another oir group report here in a bit a
third presentation one of the
suggestions that I made during this
group is to also have a report from our
PD at the same time so that we're able
to kind of be able to have more
questions answered and or have the
department respond to some of the issues
that are brought up in the oir report so
I just think those kind of go along
together well for one session
uh and then it is the legislative
session started today
um so that's exciting I will just give
an update on some of the items with the
municipal League
there are a series
six
um six of the key priorities this year
um I will just list them quickly but if
anybody has other comments and or
questions please feel to reach me
afterwards but they are increasing
funding for Statewide EMS from what is
now 2.8 million to about 10 million
increasing the firefighter survivors
benefits to 1 million and this will be
in alignment with what the municipal
league did last year for peace officers
survivors benefits
supporting Public Safety agency's
implementation of the Statewide Public
Safety Radio Network
creating a database to track incidences
of excessive use of force and other
serious violations from law enforcement
officers
using motor vehicle excise tax revenues
to invest in Statewide road
infrastructure and this will include
adding an additional 140 million dollars
annually to the road funds and of course
investing State funds strategically into
local airport infrastructure
and thank you mayor Pro Temp those are
all my comments
thank you counselor beta Mr peedly
thank you mayor Pro Tem
first just a couple of events
the power up expo at the Las Cruces
Convention Center just a reminder it's
this Friday January 20th from 12
P.M to 5 p.m and then Saturday January
21st from 9 A.M to 5 p.m Lisa laroccan
sustainability office of mobilized
Community Partners to host this this
will be the first annual PowerUp Expo
this is an opportunity to hear from
Builders of all electric homes test the
best electric appliances talk with with
energy saving retailers
and receive estimates for converting
your living and working spaces to energy
reducing equipment
there's a there's also a rumor that a
flash mob may occur The Electric Boogie
or electric slide
we'll see you have to
and then at the same time there's uh
there's two events going on the other
event is the New Mexico State Aggie Bowl
celebration it's in the plaza again free
for the public just as well as the power
exports is free for the public
City's partner with NMSU to host the
Aggie Bowl celebration it'll be from 12
noon to 1pm
and the event opens with the Aggie
football team and marching band
performing the Aggie walk procession
through the Farmers Market
starting from City Hall and ending at
the plaza
there will be free posters shirt
giveaways autograph signings and more
12 12 to 1 pm
and then just a couple of a couple of
items
Barbara reminded me when we talked about
the mayor Patel and you mentioned the
comment about monitoring the legislation
which reminded me that during this
legislative session we are going to have
updates
uh and we are monitoring monitoring uh
these bills for example where we've
already put Larry on notice to monitor
the minimum wage
bill that's going through and there's
others that will be providing regular
updates
this uh this season this session
and then
um
just wanted to mention remember Pro tem
I apologize I don't have much of an
update for the hygiene stations where
right now we need the scope of work
and you know we were trying to figure
out whether or not we had to bid this
out and so we're still trying to go and
we're still trying to figure that out
through procurement and I still need to
pull in legal on that to give us some
some guidance but
the next step is getting that scope of
work over
it is a little tricky because if we use
you know one of these potential
I think we talked about FY if we use
them to give us a scope of work and we
have to go out to bid then it then
there's a conflict there and so we're
still trying to figure it out uh what
we'll probably hopefully have more of an
update by the end of this week on that
um
kind of see what else
just from your comments that I need to
address
uh
I think counselor Graham addressed your
comic concept Como about the Martha
there's a lot of work being done Chief
she's been working with them and I'm
excited about that movie but we'll save
that for a work session if if needed
okay I think that's all I have mayor Pro
tem thank you
can I get a motion to adjourn so move by
Florida's second and beta
motion made by counselor Flores second
by counselor beta Christine
this is on the motion to adjourn the
meeting councilor Vader yes councilor
Graham yes councilor Ben Cuomo yes
councilor cran yes counselor Flores
yes mayor Pro tem yes the mayor's absent
thank you could stream Christina