[Music]
good morning everybody Welcome to our
our work session it's Monday October
23rd it's 10: in the morning we have a
special work session today if you would
please stand and recite the Pledge of
Allegiance before we get
going Al to flag uned
States thank you okay one and only item
is discussion of a non-binding tax
increment development District tid
memorandum of understanding between the
city of Las crusis and New Mexico State
University good morning Chris good
morning mayor proam uh Chris favor
economic development for the record um
I'm going to turn this over to NMSU here
in a minute but I just wanted to uh
introduce um Scott Ashen brener and
Wayne Savage with NMSU they will
introduce their Consultants um NMSU
wanted an opportunity to discuss with
the council collaboration of a potential
tax increment District along NMSU and
portions of Campus uh they have a
presentation uh that they will be uh
making for you here and I've also asked
uh staff uh from Key departments who
would be involved in a project like this
to be an attendance so we have Public
Works Community Development uh utilities
finance and of course police and fire
are here as well to answer any questions
you may have so at this time I'm going
to turn it over to Scott Ashen brener
with Mexico State University and uh
stand by for questions after thank you
thank you Chris good morning Scott
please come to the podium state your
name for the
record good morning my name is Scott
Ashen Brer and I'm special assistant to
the president so good morning mayor
protim City counselors and city manager
peely thank you thank you for this
opportunity to come before youall today
in this work session um we're here uh
very excited about the opportunities I
think this is could be a pH phenomenal
opportunities you'll hear throughout
this presentation uh a collaboration
between uh city of Las cruus and New
Mexico State University for some
significant potential for economic
development for this for this community
and for the region as well so uh one
thing I uh you know I want to point out
that since we we first came in August
obviously there's been some questions
which is is natural and this is we
really appreciate the opportunity to
come for you all in this work session I
hope that we'll have answers to a lot of
those questions but really this is just
the beginning of a of a pretty long
process and a lot of these questions
will probably be developed out through
um several sessions with the core team
for the city of L crusis as well as our
core team at New Mexico State University
so with that I'd like to introduce you
to our core team again I'm Scott Ashen
brener we've got Wayne Savage Wayne
sitting back here he's the executive
director for Arrowhead Park and then if
I could I'd like to have uh Harry R can
come up and introduce and just give a
short introduction of of his background
and why he's part of our special team
that New Mexico State University has
hired to help us uh work uh help us move
forward with this uh with this uh tid
collaboration with the city I think
you'll find that they're uniquely
qualified to help represent an enim
missu and help us move forward and then
I'll I'll introduce uh Kim after that so
har if you don't mind
please thank you Scott protim members of
the council and staff my name is Harry
relin I am a native New Mexican uh
educated in New Mexico and an attorney
by trade um why I am part of this I'm
principal of sage land Solutions a land
Consulting Group and uh my background
that I think may be helpful in this uh
effort is that I was the senior Vice
vice president at the mesel soul
development when tid was created we were
one of the two uh main entities that
created tid and I was part of a team of
four that drafted the original tid
legislation for the state legislature to
consider and uh
then led the lobbying effort to get it
passed for the state of New Mexico uh
subsequent to that tid being in place
and you may be familiar with m so
recently in the news Netflix is located
there uh maxion solar the First Solar
manufacturing um reshoring if you will
in the uh in New Mexico and perhaps in
the United States very recent 182,000
jobs uh all of that based upon tid being
available as a means for uh creating the
necessary public
infrastructure uh in addition to that I
worked with Kim Murphy who's going to be
introduced here in in a minute on the
University of New Mexico South Campus
tid which is pretty close to a model for
what we're hoping may make sense here
because it was a collaboration between
the City of Albuquerque and the
University of New Mexico as join
applicants pretty much as uh proposed
potentially here uh and so Kim and I led
the efforts uh uh from a Consulting
Viewpoint in order to get that tid
enacted and it has been created the
county has participated and the state
now has uh participated at the fullest
amount allowed under
law so that I'll turn it back over to
Scott thank you Harry and U if I could
I'd like to introduce uh Kim Murphy but
before I have him come up you I think
it's important to do to mention here
from our P from Minimus use perspective
is the reason we're here before you is
to ask for anou which basically is
asking for us to work together as we
move forward NMSU is going to be
expending some considerable sums on this
effort and uh I think the regions felt
like we wanted to make sure that the
city was was willing to work hand inand
as we moved through a lot of these
difficult questions I know you all have
these questions that will come up but uh
these are things that will be developed
out as we move through this process so
with that just felt like it important to
get the point across that we're trying
to be judicious judicious with our funds
as we move forward and make sure that we
have a partnership that can that can
move forward as we do this so with that
I'd like to introduce Kim Murphy thank
you thank you
Scott again my name is uh is Kim Murphy
um
uh I my um in my former life here I'm
retired right now but and Consulting but
I was the real estate director at the
other institution of H Ed up up uh
I25 uh for about 25 years uh when I
retired about 10 years ago uh I was
tapped by the president to head up the
effort to create a tid for uh or tax
increment development district for uh
UNM South campus and as Harry indicated
I um we formed a team Harry was very
crucial part of that team and we were
quite successful in U in working with
the City of Albuquerque beralo County
and and got it approved in terms of the
formation of the tid and then we went to
the State Board of
finance and and the state legislature
and was very well received and in this
last legislative session uh as
indicated uh they committed uh funds uh
that would be dedicated to the to the
tid uh for public infrastructure it's
important to understand I believe uh
you've you've had proposals before for
the tid so you should understand and um
that the money that goes uh to the tid
is for uh public infrastructure or
Public public
improvements
um The Proposal today really is is a um
has two actual models one of them is
right here in Los crusis your downtown
tid which you created very early uh and
as I understand uh been widely widely
publicized is quite successful and this
other is the uh South Campus tit at the
University at the University of New
Mexico both of these proposals are
really government driven uh I understand
that you've you a couple of years ago
you had uh a private uh developer uh
propose a t um and they are different um
and and they are different because in
many cases the private developer is
developing their own plans and
presenting them uh to the to the
municipality in this case of course the
city um what we're proposing here is
this mou so that we can collaborate in
in the development of the of the plan
for development and also understand what
the financial plan is and what the
fiscal impacts of the development are
going to be and it's that's that
collaboration that is key and it's set
forth in theou in a number of whereases
where it's clear hopefully that all
we're requesting today is the is the
opportunity to work with
you as a governing board with the
Regents of the University and with the
staff of both
institutions to uh create a proposal and
a product that meets the goals and
objectives of both
entities uh and and and but one that is
that is driven by the desire to promote
Economic Development and and and job
creation the
um excuse me for a minute here
uh the University uh New Mexico State
University engaged Harry and I a couple
of years ago to do a feasibility
study um and our goal there was to at
somewhat of a high level to make some
assumptions about the
development and do a financial analysis
to see what sort of of potential there
was uh to create public infrastructure
that would support the development and
that feasibility study was presented to
the Reg regions uh late last year and
and was enthusiastically endorsed and as
Scott has indicated um resulted in them
committing some funds for moving forward
to to work with the city to see if it
can be uh could be imp
implemented
um fortunately the University of New
Mexico was well on its way to the
establishment of the South Campus T and
so the Scott Wayne and others at the at
and MSU are monitoring the progress of
that project and um so we have a bit of
a guide uh here for us and and as Harry
has indicated um we've been through this
process we know we know uh the
requirements we know the questions that
are going to come up we know the
opportunities and and the
challenges and we're eager to work with
the city and this body in order to uh
seize this opportunity and and use it in
a way that can both transform the uh the
institution in the city of Los
Cruses hopefully in your
packet you saw an article that appeared
uh just last week in the Albuquerque
Journal that uh addressed some of the uh
uh some of the excitement that the South
Campus tid has created and highlighted
the nature of the Public Public
partnership or what we call the
government to government
collaboration uh to to create the tid
and we would like to um engage in a way
that that we can uh uh address all your
questions and and create that level of
excitement within within your
community so let me move hopefully
through
the slides um try to do this relatively
quickly again I know there there are
questions we'll be happy to address them
to the extent we
can
um but as I've indicated in and Scott
has indicated um many questions are
still uh yet to be answered and we have
attempted to answer them in a way that
we think U makes sense to us but it
really is only when we roll up our
sleeves and we work uh with your staff
and with this uh Administration and and
with your governing body that we can
actually uh craft answers that uh that
make sense and are workable as solutions
for for uh both the institution and and
the
city so the pending action before us is
a
non-binding uh tax increment development
District uh memor of understanding we
would like
at at the discretion of of this body we
would like to
see approval of the board excuse me
approval of the governing body uh if if
so desired or if there's a sense that uh
that uh you would like to move forward
uh perhaps direction to your city
manager to move forward with the uh with
theou and and either of those options
would be acceptable to us
um but we do need we do feel like we
need to have um theou executed so we can
uh work collabor together and and as I
said answer these
questions so what is the Amo you do uh
it really is a government-driven
proposal similar to downtown uh your
downtown tid as well as the UNM South
Campus it's non-binding there really no
commitments other than to work together
and if it proves up that it's desirable
to form the tid that we would do so
collaboratively um and it's an really an
in a collaborative investigation process
as Scott has indicated the Regents have
allocated funds to move forward and
ultimately we hope it would end up with
a joint uh a joint uh tid application
because these land most of these lands
there's a few exceptions most of these
lands are still within the county
they would have to be annexed uh to the
city and that would be concurrent with
the formation of the
T we believe that like like with the
City of Albuquerque and UNM that this is
an important um uh intergovernmental
cooperation that uh um is is part of a
long-term uh
process um hopefully not a long term
with respect to the tid but but one that
establishes a Cooperative working
relationship between the institution and
the and and the city that can be used uh
moving forward to address a number of
concerns
um uh I'm not indic I I don't mean to
indicate by that that the city and the
University have not cooperated before
but often times having worked at at UNM
for almost 25 years there's this town
and gown kind of relationship between
institutions in the cities in which
they're part of or adjacent to that
often doesn't um uh create opportunities
for working coll collaborative together
and we think that the tid um assuming we
we deem it to be feasible and desirable
and and uh that we do move forward and
get it Formed that that that would
provide a launching pad for further
cooperation um it creates a
comprehensive plan for development um
frankly the university so far has
proceeded with a number of projects
principally at Arrowhead
Park uh on their own but it's been it's
been sort of a I won't say uh
incremental um but it's it's um the tid
really is an opportunity to take a
broader perspective of all these lands
and develop uh develop um a master plan
for development
that and the key here is that it can be
implemented we you you have a city
master plan the university has a has a
campus master plan but the key here is
the tid
forces um the participants to really
show how it's going to be implemented in
a way that can be financed and in a way
that that is fiscally that is fiscally
sound uh the other thing the tid does is
it brings in other parties it brings in
the county and it brings in the state
that through the dedication of their
share of principally gross receipts tax
but in the case of the County uh
property tax they can contribute to the
public infrastructure that's actually
going to be
owned either by the city or by the by
the university so it leverages the
resour the local
resources and ultimately we're promoting
Economic Development that's the whole
reason behind this um
I need to emphasize that as we work
through this process we're going to be
coming back and informing the council uh
as on our progress uh perhaps uh
bringing some solutions forward and
getting your input to those
Solutions
um but there's going to be some
agreements further down the road uh one
is the pre-annexation agreement and the
other is the development agreement which
is kind of the last step of of this
whole planning activ ity that will that
will need to come before this body and
will need to come before the regions um
so this is not this is the starting
point here this is not um this is uh
nothing more than that and they'll have
an opportunity not only to have input
but you'll have an opportunity to
comment on these other agreements as as
they come
forward I've kind of touched on some of
this uh here in terms of the benefits
but let me just highlight a couple of
things um one is that that we've looked
very carefully at your Elevate uh Los
cruus plan and have used uh that as a
guide for our development assumptions
and our land use assumption so far um
it's very very helpful very useful
document um the plan you know um uh
mentions uh number of cases of a number
of times rather uh Aggie Uptown uh which
is currently in the county and we're
talking with this process to bring that
that important uh development
opportunity within the
city U the other thing is that we'll be
able to coordinate hopefully the
provision of Services Public Safety
fire um utility
development other infrastructure
development will be able to coordinate
those between the university and the
City
a couple of slides here just highlight
the areas that would be
included um we're again we're subject to
uh the input of the city um on on on uh
on these properties um but they fall
into really three main areas one is the
University Corridor along main campus
the souths side of University Avenue um
which we propos really for some infill
uh retail and mixed housing
institutional type development some uh
we're anticipating the perhap perhaps
some parking structures and amenities
that could be established along
University Avenue on the West End um the
College of uh of uh agriculture has
indicated that they'd like to see some
uh community outreach in in that area
we've we've got some exciting ideas
about that um you might notice on this
plan that we've included uh some of the
athletic facilities and the parking
areas surrounding that it's not
anticipated uh that the tid would fund
any athletic facilities itself but that
it would fund maybe some support
improvements like beefing up the parking
structure uh the parking areas uh
developing Landscaping Trails lighting
other things that could enhance the use
of those athletic facilities and enhance
the uh the Public's uh uh um enjoyment
of those
facilities the other area is Arrowhead
Park um we've indicated here some of the
land uses uh that we're proposing there
they're kind of similar to what's there
uh Wayne has Savage has done an
outstanding job in bringing resources to
that development and have a number of of
projects that have sort of kickstarted
that area the tid will allow him to
develop more infrastructure and develop
other support uh improvements that will
allow him to accelerate uh that activity
in health
education uh Innovation digital media
Aerospace and uh Energy Water uh
research and finally the third area is
this Aggie Uptown East Campus area uh it
involves the relocation of the golf
course
to uh an area to the east uh of of where
it currently is located uh continuing to
use the clubhouse as the anchor for that
uh for that relocation the relocation
would be phased in over over time and
would free up some land at this very uh
very important uh interchange location
on
I25 uh for some mixed use commercial
housing Hotel retirement
housing um and uh some institutional
uses we've gotten some input from the
planning staff uh through other
departments as kind of a wish list of
projects that they would like to see
included and they're listed here one of
of and they're very important and and uh
we're in agreement that they are uh
would add a lot to um uh to the uh
University Avenue Corridor principally
um but the campus in general and that
those are improvements to University
Avenue itself the convention center
expansion and then an intermodal transit
station
um by the staff's estimation these
projects would be on the order of 60 $60
million um they are referenced in theou
as desirable projects um so we're we're
committed to study these further and see
how they can be
implemented
um this slide here really addresses the
application process and what our time
schedule is um it's largely
driven uh by the schedule of the State
Board of
Finance uh they only consider tid
applications twice a year uh once in
July 1 and January 1 uh so in in order
to get to kind of optimize our
opportunity to get through the state
process uh rather
expeditiously we'd like to be able to
get the district uh formed if assuming
we we move just you know we decide to
move forward get it to get it uh get it
formed in the uh uh by the end of April
so that we can prepare the state
application and get it submitted by July
get through the State Board of Finance
in December of this year and then be
ready for the state legislature uh next
session which is a 60-day session uh
which is more desirable than trying to
do it during a 30-day
session and let me just go backtrack a
little bit and just emphasize uh here as
well we we were with the UNM South
Campus tid we were very pleased to have
the support of some some key
representatives and
senators and that were very very
instrumental in getting approval through
their
bodies um and those those
representatives are aware that the
university is is um in discussions with
the city right now on this project and
they all indications are that they would
be supportive of seeing something move
forward that's important again again
because it lever which is State money
would come into these Pro into these
public improvements through the tid that
normally would not come through a normal
appropriation
process and those dollars are
significant and they Leverage The
roughly 148 million that would come to
the tid if we were
annexed and and with the county and the
state combination an additional
200 over $200 million would come in for
for these public improvements
so we're able to leverage re financial
resources of both the county and and
especially the state to
support uh public improvements that help
the city and help and help the
University Drive Economic Development
and job
growth so once again we'd like to see um
a consensus of moving forward W with
allowing us to move forward with the
with your staff uh to go through the app
the feasibility study more carefully uh
to understand what all the issues are
and and be able to formulate some
responses to those uh um issues and
questions that come up um and and be
able to work come back to you uh as we
go through the various steps uh uh to uh
formulate hopefully an application for
the tid reserving obviously a final
approval of of U any formal action uh to
this body and to the board of
regions with that um Mr Mayor mayor PMA
answer any questions thank you Mr Murphy
and I apologize for being a little bit
late but I'm here so that's good uh just
a few things when we sent out the
information and I specifically I I don't
know if I copied you um I copied quite a
few people in the university and there
were some questions that I thought we
can at least begin to start with and
then open up for to my colleagues
because probably a lot of these
questions might already be uh answered
by what they want to ask you but I I
know that let's just start from the top
and I know it probably was pretty quick
but so and I noticed that you had
a I guess you've been talk you know the
Regents approved this back in July of uh
this I mean to approved to move forward
with the UN with the the city so yes sir
so the first one says feasibility study
for the proposed
areas you you were and I think um
councelor beta met with we met with you
all a couple weeks ago as that was one
of her biggest uh concerns and questions
were you able to put anything together
just on the anything just to give us an
idea of where this 200 million was you
know specifically was going to come
from well yes U sir um Mr Mayor mayor
portam um the feasibility study um which
I indicated is is part of the part of
theou uh and again this is this is
somewhat high level but but we believe
it's
reasonable um
it indicates that the city would be
would would generate through gross Reeds
tax and property tax would generate a
little over $200 billion during the life
of the tid which is about 25 years it's
actually 25 years from the from the
first issuance of the long-term
Bond right now the city of Los crues
gets no tax
revenue except what it gets out of the
the Courtyard Hotel and and what little
bit they might get out of the
uh um the convention center which are
which have been annexed into the city
the rest of the land uh um for the
largest for a large part is is not
within the city limits and therefore the
city collects no gross receipts tax or
property tax from this
property so with with the tid these
lands would have to be annexed and they
would be have to they'd have to they
would be the subject of a separate
pre-annexation agreement that will
address a whole variety of
issues
um so out of that 200 million we're
proposing um 145 million would go
through the tid to finance public
infrastructure infrastructure that would
be owned by the city or owned by the
university I'm going to let councelor AA
since this was her her main question
kind of ask any specific questions on
this sure thank you um I actually wanted
to see really the numbers and the
methodology that was done to create this
feasibility study um given the research
that I've done over the Albuquerque tid
and looking to see the types of projects
that are being utilized here you know we
have a lot of um investments into
research um we have some areas that
don't seem to be high yield producing
areas and so that's why I really wanted
to look at those numbers and see where
they came from so if that's something
that you have available for us today
that's really what I was looking
for uh it certainly is available and and
we will be as we move through this
project in
collaboration we're going to be
performing a whole new Financial
feasibility
study the one that we created was for
the University was really just to
establish the potential of moving
forward we're not going to rely on on
what we have done we're going to be
working with your staff and other of
others of our Consultants we have we
have uh we're going to have Municipal
Finance people as part of our team we're
going to have Bond counsil as part of
our team we're going to have civil
engineers that are going to cost out the
infrastructure we're going to have
Architects that are going to cost out
the building improvements and and it's
when when we have those that those
inputs which we estimated in the
financial feasibility that we did but
when we have those inputs then we'll be
able to show you how gross receipts tax
gets generated largely through retail
and other kind of commercial
businesses um and like the like the UNM
South Campus that proposed quite a bit
of of commercial and Retail
development does gross receipts taxes
that they went into infrastructure that
actually went into the science science
and technology park up there and that's
where the job creation comes so we use
we use the the gross receipts tax from R
retail and Commercial to actually fund
the expansion of the research Park which
really is the the uh job creation engine
so I I'd be happy to to I I don't have
it right now I mean we've got a whole
financial model of spreadsheets that
that we we can walk through but the
point is is that we're going to do that
again we're going to hire other experts
to move forward and we'll work with your
staff with your Finance people with your
Municipal development people and we'll
we'll agree on the
assumptions and we'll show you
specifically how this project can
perform the way we estimated it would
perform during our preliminary
feasibility
study okay so let's go with councelor
gramp and Kom kururin who have some had
their lights on
so thank you mayor uh thank you all who
have presented so
far
um I'm gonna I'm going to just kind of
give you my primary question
concern provide an example and I
recognize you know I am kind of looking
at the the question mayor if you and I
are if we're on the same page uh why is
this a city being asked to invest future
taxpayer proceeds in development owned
by NMSU What specifically are the
benefits for Los cruus taxpayers with
supporting data is that are we all on
the same question list okay thank you
mayor proam and I see uh you know you
started to delve into that and I
appreciate it and I see a list um that
will be part of theou as exhibit B and
there are some very demonstrable
benefits specifically to the university
area definitely in terms of
entrepreneurial and job opportunities
but my larger question is how will this
how will this impact the lusus community
as a whole so we have the example of the
downtown tid and obviously the nature of
any tid it is restricted to a certain
geographic area but I think it's pretty
clear to see the benefits to the entire
community of the downtown tid I'm a
little less clear how people not
specifically in the university area are
going to benefit from this very
significant investment of resources time
staff time when we're talking about the
proposed NMSU tidd and let me give a
specific example we are really delighted
that we have our two recent metropolitan
revitalization area designations ELO
South Solano cor Solano Corridor and the
West Picacho Cor
door
how my fear being the more we invest in
this new development the less resources
time bandwidth we have for these
projects in which we're already
committed to addressing some of the most
disadvantaged areas of the city so that
and I recognized that was a lot a lot of
words in a larger question of spirit and
a specific example of two areas that I'm
personally invested in as is in the
whole
city how will this support what we're
trying to do in other
areas councilor Graham thank you for
that question um this project would not
take away from those projects would not
take away from any current project or or
initiative that you have for any other
area of the city this is new money that
would come into the city that you don't
already
have and in terms of in terms of the
Vision it's really set out very well in
your uh Elevate Los Cruz's master plan
which calls for agie Uptown to be an
urban center an area of future growth
and development it also calls out for uh
uh Arrowhead Park to be uh uh a primary
uh employment uh District within within
the city so this is very consistent with
your compreh comprehensive plan and it
it actually
implements the objectives and goals
within your comprehensive plan but this
project takes no money away from any
other project takes no existing tax
revenue at
all the process of doing the financial
analysis is to
set the to set what existing and um the
mayor had this question to set its sets
the existing base of tax revenue from
these properties that the city is
receiving and the the word increment in
this whole in the whole uh tid means
that it's it's only the revenue Above
That Base that the new money that gets
dedicated to uh public improvements so
we will recognize the existing Revenue
that's being generated u i don't imagine
it's very much but we would recognize
that and make sure that the city
continues to receive that that
money and only the money above that
would be used to fund the public in
infrastructure but the bottom line this
takes no money current money tax revenue
from the city and dedicates us to any
other area of the city or any other
project it's totally new
money okay thank you um I have some more
specific detail questions but mayor what
I'd like to do is be able to turn over
to my colleagues for the bigger picture
you know knowing that we're on limited
time so thank you absolutely before you
do can you go back to the map where it
showed the proposed tid boundaries and a
little bit more they're right there so I
think um what you were trying to explain
Mr Murphy is the blue area which is the
university area right now or at least
the strip of
University the city's already receiving
gross receipts income and so if we had a
base of let's say a million dollar
that's going into the general fund from
that strip that would be our base we
would still the city would still get
that just anything of above that then we
would get at uh the city would then get
maybe say 25% of of the of all the
revenue that's
generated outside of the base is that's
what you're were trying to say yeah
there would be a percentage you you
would as the governing body would
determine what that percentage is of the
new money that's coming into the city
that would be dedicated to the to the
tid and only because this Germaine to
what counselor uh Graham asked is so
right now our the city of Las crusa
staff is the one who works on the tid
projects so I think using what she was
asking what counselor Graham was asking
were you expecting the city staff to
still work this tid that's going to be
here in the University does the
University have something similar I
don't think you have a Community
Development Department or can the city
like we've done in other times with
sometimes we do with the county
sometimes we do with other governments
if we're going to do something we we
figure out what the cost is and then we
charge them say 3% this is an addition
to all the other you know because
there's time that staff is going to have
to be be utilizing maybe we that maybe
eil is going to have to hire some more
people and I think that's what councelor
Graham was also asking
I think she was probably want us to know
about housing well we'll get to that
later but do you see what I'm saying as
far as um if we start taking away staff
to work on this tid is that going to
hurt and impact the residents right now
who are trying to do other projects in
the city and not necessarily outside in
in this new
area well Mr Mayor uh we would we would
hope that the that the um that this body
in the Administration would be
supportive of Staff working with us uh
we have
Consultants uh this the uh the
university has other departments that
would be re important resources in terms
of their campus planning University
architect uh physical plant utility
departments though so they they would be
working with with us as well but we're
working toward the
goal of creating new Revenue
out of the development of these project
of these properties that doesn't already
doesn't exist right
now yes sir uh Harry you can use the
that mic if you push down on it if you'd
like just need you to state your name
figure this out did I yeah oh good yes
and just augment I just need you to
state your name please Harry Rin sorry
um to augment what Kim said is it I'm
trying to push I'll I just you to get
closer to the mic that's all oh okay you
can sit down while oh thank you
apologize um Dogman with Kim said in the
regard to the question about staff uh
diversion of time obviously it will take
time working together that's the purpose
of theou first to just augment the
university and the regions have
committed uh to spend several hundreds
of thousands of dollars if theou is
executed as their contribution above and
beyond their own staff time in order to
get the right experts to try to answer
your questions but the other thing that
is possible and that we could work
through this I'm sorry for interrupting
this the clerk says not being picked up
on our recording can you come to the
this main uh microphone
please I must not know how to push a
button I apologize I'm trying anyway uh
in addition to um the university
contributing Direct Cash to get both of
us the right experts to help answer all
the questions as it moves forward in
addition to that under the tid law there
is an opportunity to recoup out of the
tid revenues administrative cost of
creating the tid so in in addition to we
could build that into the tid
development agreement that the city we
have to come up with whatever the right
way of judging what that is but the city
could be compensated back for its
administrative cost and moving forward
with the joint effort uh as well as of
course the
university we just call it a cool 2
million right now and then we'll just go
on the next question okay councelor bomo
and then councel Corin thank you I I
think I have similar questions along the
same lines but I think I would rather
hear from staff if that's okay um for
Chris or eepo whoever I think you know
before we get to this new Revenue um
there's going to be so the regions have
committed a set of resources for this
proposal what is the
required set of resources from the
city's part that must be required now
before we get to the big new shiny
develop
Revenue Mr mayor uh councelor Beno I I
believe each department excuse me would
probably need to speak to that I know
off the top um Community Development is
going to be very involved from a Time
standpoint with the annexation um and
Sarah Gonzalez with the Community
Development Department has been working
with NMSU on that so it might be best
for her to come up here and give you a
bit of a timeline as it relates to
Community Development and those efforts
I know Finance would probably have a big
role in this as well as public work so
maybe each of those departments can kind
of speak to their involvement um as they
see moving forward honestly that'd be
great because for me this is the
critical piece as and I'll just tell you
sort of what I'm trying to get at
because we've
committed
um time Sweat and Tears if you will to
two Metropolitan Redevelopment areas for
two critical areas of our city and to me
this all raises issues of equity and
development for whom is for the question
for me and so between now and for who
sorry for whom okay great um and for
between now and the implementation of
this potential tid so there's this two
Pathways right this between now and the
implementation of this new tid and
between now and the implementation of
two Metropolitan Redevelopment areas to
me that's the concern of capacity and
for me the priorities are the two
Metropolitan Redevelopment area so I
think that's sort of what I'm trying to
get at in terms of Staff
capacity and resources that must be
allocated now mayor mayor poem and
counselors I'm Sarah Gonzalez from
Community Development from a processing
standpoint staff would be looking at
approximately about eight months to do
the annexation the annexation process is
very time consuming in the sense that we
do have to work with outside agencies we
are not just working with internal staff
so besides the point that we are also
working with public work Works utilities
Fire Department police chief through all
of our resources we also have to reach
out to eBid we have to work with um BLM
state land office and doniana County
they have their own processes in place
that also take place where they have
their public hearings to let know what's
coming into the city limits or how those
resources will be reallocated so we have
a time frame also from us from the time
that we actually receive the annexation
we go through annexation zone change and
master planning we want to see all of
these into fruition so we understand
what exactly the city is bringing into
those City Limits and how they'll be
processed through the actual
implementation and then how they'll be
done through the construction portion so
there will be multiple departments
multiple staff members as well as
multiple entities outside helping us
through this process okay can you go
back to the portion in your presentation
where you have your
timeline please and thank you
Sarah oh there we go well Sarah good
job um okay so you're saying it would
take eight months to do the
annexation process
um and their timeline is city council
would approve annexation by April 2024
is that what you're hoping that that
would
happen Okay so can you talk a little bit
about this discrepancy in time here I
think from the timeline presented we
would be looking at um I know there is a
discuss discussion about a
pre-annexation which I'm not sure how
that follows or how that would follow
through our legal team if that's
something we are able to do um but with
that we would be looking at documents
being submitted you know very shortly we
don't have boundaries we don't have
property zoning so with that timeline we
would be looking at probably a couple
months after meeting that deadline
unless we're putting staff onto a
limited time
frame um mayor and city
council U annexation is a process that's
we have um ordinances in place and so
really we have to follow those deadlines
once it's submitted uh then we do the
review and goes through so Sarah was
giving you just a general what a normal
annexation uh would take take place so
um
really that process needs to be um
initiated and then the steps need to
take place um for it so it's rather
difficult for us to give you a
definitive timeline today thank you for
bringing that up the annexation policy I
was sort of reviewing that in
preparation for today and I know as part
of that process the city must lead a
fiscal impact analysis it has to go
through pnz it has to go through some
public um um public input process right
so for a project this size and I'm going
to ask you a big question and you might
not have the answer but I really think
it's important to ask it what do you
think the um sort of dollar commitment
that an annexation process would
take about how much do you think it
would cost mayor city council I I
apologize David Wear Community
Development Department um I don't have a
an estimate for that on that cost of
Staff time would something that would be
just a part of the the community
development's budget uh any outside
study we would have to um uh get someone
to to take a commitment on that so
you're probably talking a minimum of
$25,000 for that U fisal analysis and
then it's just um and I say that's a
minimum and a ballpark figure okay
that's fair thank you David for that
those questions yeah and then I also
have a bunch of other questions on the
pre-annexation language but because I
also want to pass it along to my I have
many many questions um I did want to
raise that thank you David I think
that's it for for on your part there's a
part in
the presentation that I wanted to just
read real quick that I think for me was
sort of raising the equity Equity Flags
there's a part in the presentation that
says ug there's no numbers on here so I
apologize but it's under real real
estate market
opportunities it says agie Uptown and
Arrowhead Park can capture a significant
portion of this growth with enemis you
being the Region's leader in high higher
education and employment proximate to
several neighborhoods with the highest
household income and net wealth and so
for me I think as I think about what I'm
sort of hearing is I would be all all
hands- on deck in order to meet some of
these deadlines that then would further
push the our priorities for these two
mras that are trying to have an impact
on the quality of life of a very
different population in our community um
um and so for me you know I think as I
think about the timing of this I think
it's just to me it doesn't feel right as
I think about the the priority we've
placed on implementing our two mras and
you know not too long ago several months
ago when we implemented them I heard
from staff that they were concerned that
we wanted to do two mras that there was
a concern of capacity for us really and
this Council pushed on that and we said
we really feel like these two mras are
critical to the quality of life of our
community and staff said look there's
capacity issues so now we're saying
we're adding this third very big project
to that and so I do have concerns that
this would push what I consider two of
our biggest priorities right now which
is in the implementation of these two
mras so I'll leave it there if you would
like to respond I'd be happy to hear
your thoughts on
that councelor Bama the only thing is uh
I would say I mean certainly certainly
those are very important and valuable um
additions to to your community uh to the
entire Community um I would just go back
to your comprehensive plan that that IND
that recognized that that as an
institution New Mexico State University
is a major employer in this area and
will continue to grow I understand there
they according to Scott and Wayne that
their uh enrollment is is very much
improved this year then uh they're an
economic engine for the whole South part
of the state absolutely and this tid
would would provide additional
opportunities for the University to
expand uh their footprint and create
opportunities for the entire
population thank you I do have thank you
for that I do have concerns that it
we're creating opportunities for pretty
specific set of folks uh in the
community I would love to continue
collaborating with new meico State
University on things like you know I
just read an article the fentanyl crisis
is ravaging college campuses I would
love an opportunity to work with NMSU on
how we tackle that I would love to work
with NMSU on how we tackle issues of
student homelessness right so there are
different absolutely areas where I
believe that we can collaborate in a
much more meaningful and strategic way
not that this is not meaningful I just
again I have serious concerns about the
um Equitable nature of this
project I I would only say um councelor
B having worked at the University of New
Mexico for 25 years I understand all
those things that you EXC Mr Murphy can
you get a little bit closer to the mic
please oh yeah I I understand your
perspective and I appreciate it very
much
universities do lots of things do many
many many things for the for the for the
community uh both both in terms of of uh
social uh
benefits um social um uh uplifting of
various populations just just the fact
that you can enroll in institution of
higher ed uh now particularly with with
uh you know with our support for tuition
and so forth that the state is providing
those things are very are tremendously
beneficial but the point is that the
universities do so many many many things
that this project would not take away
from any of those initiatives that you
mentioned that the university decided to
work on or are working on
currently um this is just another
special Focus that we think uh would be
mutually beneficial uh to to the
university to the city and and to the
entire region not taking away from those
initiatives that occur daily in the
various departments and and research uh
organizations within the
institution okay before I get to
councilor Corin just a couple things and
I appreciate the comments made by my
colleagues but I just want to kind of
circle back that the MRA which for those
u in the audience or those listening
stands for Metropolitan Redevelopment
area and I think a couple of the key
items with a besides taking an area to
rehab or redevelop it and also to build
community uh building but also a big
part of that is economic development so
I I think This lends itself to to um you
know increasing the overall per capita
and that's one of the things that we
charge eil with is bringing a business
to raise the level of of income here of
our residents and so I don't think it
was necessarily just saying this is just
for this area here the the this area
that's being proposed I mean everyone's
eligible to get a job and and work at
these areas and if we can lift that up I
think is what the hey is and I and I you
know I appre but I appreciate the the
comments that were made um I just wanted
to just touch on that a little bit
councelor
porin thank you and I appreciate that I
I also want to Echo the same concerns
about capacity within the city and
diverting resources not just of City
staff but then of future businesses
considering the area um I think that
creating a competitive environment where
businesses and housing may be attracted
to a different kind of um folks I I
think that that us subsidizing that is
is problematic but my questions are
really more for Scott probably um
they're related to land use and
Community input specifically to the use
of the land um did you know NMSU is in
the top 10 land grab
universities um they've uh the native
land that they've taken from from folks
in in New Mexico has contributed about
20 million five 20.5 million to the
University's budget over time um I I
provide that as context because as
recently as April of 2023 uh faculty and
students at NMSU were were questioning
the campus master plan how it was vetted
and who was included in that process um
I'm hoping you could describe how it was
vetted and how many people participated
in it um you all sort of mentioned uh
our Elevate Los Cruis plan which had
over 4,000 individual participants um
who contributed to it and really helped
us understand what our community was
looking for I don't have a sense that
this happened with the campus master
plan because a number of the land uses
have been objected to by both tribes in
the community and students and faculty
at NMSU so I'd be curious uh since that
will be the primary sort of guide and
it's from the initial it appeared that
the city processes for public input uh
would not apply to this annexed part um
I'm ious where was the community input
in the campus master plan and uh could
you describe the specifics of that
please yes thank you uh mayor and mayor
protim uh councelor Kuran I believe you
were on um were you on the fact uh the
employee council at the time faculty
Senate yes yeah faculty Senate I
apologize and uh and also we had
counselor Graham who worked with us on u
i remember working directly with you on
writing the the master plan you know we
did the master
I was just a technical editor but I was
there yeah yeah you're certainly there I
believe we did that in 2017 is that is
that about right on the
date we we did our master plan in housee
and as you recall during that time frame
we were really struggling with funds uh
typically this is something that would
go out and we'd have hire a national
firm or you know a big firm to come in
and do this but we were challenged
economically so it was a Monumental
effort to do it inhouse and so we worked
through facilities we worked vetting but
but to say that the master plan was run
through the the community of Las crues
no it was master plan that was run
through the the university system and
was approved through the final approval
came through the board of regions and
that's how that how that plan was done
uh speaking about the Native Americans
concerns and I know that they we've been
having uh we've had meetings myself and
way Savage and others and trying to to
understand what those concerns are and
how to do we mitigate those concerns uh
I think a lot of it has to deal with
with uh Tortugas mountain and which is a
sacred area for for the Native American
communities here in town and obviously
they brought some New Perspective for me
uh helping to understand what that is
but it's basically that's a sacred area
and and what you'll see in these
development plans is is that we'll hold
those grounds sacred and we will not
develop on the Mountain uh we'll develop
some areas that may be fairely close
proximity those are areas that already
been developed it's where our rodeo team
is it's where our engineering has some
research projects it's where a has
research projects up there uh we don't
anticipate getting closer to to the
Tortugas Mountain so I hope maybe I've
helped answer a little bit of the
question I'm happy to clarify if I
haven't and and just to clarify in the
original mou uh that we saw the last
time this was going to come forward it
said that no Elevate uh that that all
Community input would be dictated by the
university processes not the city of Las
cruus processes for Land Development
correct well I think what we're what
what the regions have said is that
they're concerned about land use uh land
use planning that's still a state entity
and under State Statute the regions are
in control over that land so they would
like to have the final say or have a say
and in coordination with the city and
working together uh what what the final
use would be um but since it's State
Statute that the regions are in control
of that land the regions are expecting
to to have the final say on developments
that occur in there with the input from
the
city in input that would look
like well I think just part of our
collaboration uh you know we'll probably
prepare uh update we're working on
updating our master plan that would
certainly come with input from the city
we'd like to have some folks from we'll
have Community Development uh maybe sit
on that committee and help us work
through that and how can we collaborate
that way uh moving
forward okay thank
you and uh just to kind of add to that
so I think what um and I think I brought
this up in our last when we first met as
far
as one of the things that the council is
wanting to do has has mentioned to
utilities on any new any new areas is
that that they be pretty much all
electric construction you know as far as
utilities plus it's it's cheaper you
know and um and that's one thing there
that I think that I think this I can't
speak for them but I think it' be
strongly strongly um wanted to be
adhered to I mean as far as you all
trying to figure out what what area is
going to go there sure of course that
has to be in collaboration with us both
but uh I think that's a big key is is
and I think the areas that you're out
there there are some gas already been
laid out uh yes but that doesn't mean
you have to hook up to it you know what
I mean so I think that's going to be
really crucial and um what I was
thinking also is we could probably
invite a member of the from Tortugas to
be able to at least have a chance to you
just kind of sit at the table and just
kind of get make sure that that we're
being respective to some of their
concerns and um and I just want to say
if I didn't mention it before that if we
do move forward with this non-binding
mou it it allows both the university but
more importantly the city to to direct
EPO to have his staff figure out a lot
of these questions because it can still
come back and the council can say no
we're not going to do it but without but
without um because this is a lot of work
and so that's why they needed to have
something written to for EO to have to
say okay now he can use the staff to
start doing the resources so I just want
to be very clear when it says nonbinding
mou they're still going to have to bring
something back to council most like
likely it'll be after I leave but
nonetheless it's up to council then to
approve it to move it even further this
is just to get them to get both staffs
working together to start figuring out
is this something here that's how much
is going to cost and things of this
nature I just wanted to point that out
that's all um mayor protin did you have
any questions C coun okay councelor AA
thank you um along the lines that we
were going for um and what you just
mentioned as far as who would be um kind
of in control of sort of this process um
I do have a question that once that land
is annexed does that then um mean that
all uh and this is probably for staff
that all City policies and ordinances
need to be followed within that
tid here if you want to come forward to
the to the
podium looks like you're just just can't
wait to answer that question just need
you to state your name again I don't
know if I can't wa or not but the
question is here and I think it's a good
one um Mr Mayor state your name Council
Council Harry Rin I'm sorry
uh that's a excellent question on on
land use and ultimate control it a good
example to look at I think is the UNM
South Campus did it the big difference
between it and this one other than one
in Albuquerque and one's UNM and one's
in Los cuses and one's New Mexico state
which is enough difference in and of
itself but the big difference is that
land was already annexed into the city
uh almost all of uh unm's campuses are
have been annexed in and the way it
works from illegal is a bit of a dance
because state law says local government
cannot Zone
state
okay but they have had to work
collaboratively in order to meet the
needs of the development of the campus
and the campus areas and in the tid
example what gets developed under
anou almost identical to the one we're
proposing to you except this one to you
references the annexation issue because
it didn't exist when theou was created
with UNM and in City of
Albuquerque there has to be developed a
tid master plan that describes land
uses not each little building but
overall land uses that then will come
back to you and to the Regents for
approval so there will be a master plan
for the tid area that you will be seen
that hopefully the city has had input in
under the city's guidelines and the
university under its goals and
guidelines and we come up some with
something in terms of that master plan
that works for both entities that's the
value of the
collaboration and that's how land use
would
be uh evolved the university maintains
land use control but for the tid to get
the tid revenues it'll have to comport
with the tid m
plan so it actually requires
long-term uh cooperation between the two
entities to make it work and just as a
side and we recognized that at UNM
Albuquerque and we set up a working
group to continue the process going
forward with any of the development
there made up of both City and
University thank you and I see Dr
pitz thank you Mr Mayor uh counselors uh
I think the city may have a little
difference of opinion I'm not going to
make any legal statement here I leave
that up to your your lawyer to uh
explain to you what the I'm not a lawyer
myself she's your lawyer too she's my
lawyer too but she very much is going to
advise you on the legalities of this one
um but uh U it's my understanding under
our code
uh that private development is under the
purview of uh a city when it comes to
issues of what can be developed where
and so on they're absolutely correct
when it's when it comes to University
issues and and things that are um
operational issues for the university
the city has no say on how they operate
uh um and we would not we wouldn't ask
to have any of that at least Community
Development would not um but uh but when
it comes to issues like um
um alcohol licensing um where someone
can have let's say a cannabis facility
where someone can have a um uh you know
those sorts of things um the the state
is going to ask you for approval on
those things it's going to ask to come
through the city on those things this is
the way we handle it at at uh uh on on
lots of uh University property right now
for instance the uh PanAm Center is all
University property but those are all
permitted through the city uh they go
through business registrations with the
city that and so on we work very closely
with the university we have no interest
in going against what their goal is uh
but you're the you're the uh land use
Authority for the city of Las cruus and
if it's city property it's private
development is under your person you uh
so that's that's my understanding of how
things are as I say there's probably
some difference of opinion but I believe
that I can work with Scott's office very
closely to make sure that we're all in
agreement on what we're doing is is
working uh properly for both sides Dr
pits before you leave just to kind of
tell on one of the questions so if
needed so that the the two mras are
still intact and staff moving forward if
needed and you heard that could be
reimbursed the city possibly then could
hire additional staff to help with uh to
help Sarah and whomever is going to be
if if if we're moving in this direction
to help get this going I'll I'll say Mr
Mayor thank you Tim pits again uh what
I'll say is I think that this is really
a a a financing opportunity for uh
infrastructure it's it's not really
about land use it's not really about
these other things at least at this
moment moment that that's what we're uh
that's what we're we're looking at how
are we going to finance the
infrastructure along University and in
the uh uh Aggie uptown area and and
perhaps down into the arrowhead area how
are we going to finance that is it going
to come through a tid or is the city
going to contribute something or is the
it could be State appropriation or or
how is that going to get financed we can
always if if if staff staff currently is
not being asked to do anything outside
of our normal
day-to-day operations if if someone came
in with even a thousand acres they
wanted to Annex into the city we'd have
the same process we probably can't meet
their timelines can be pretty pretty
clear about that right now it' be very
very difficult just to meet the
timel but but we can get it done it's
just whether it's on the dates we see
here it's a month later or it's but but
in terms of that staff currently is not
being asked to do anything that wouldn't
be just a normal daily operation if we
were asked to do more so say that comes
into the issue of financing the um you
know if our public works department were
design helping design the streets for
instance yeah we might need more staff
to be able to accomplish
that okay thank you for that and I have
two checklists here so let me just check
one off here Sarah mentioned about
donana County and that's true because I
think I don't know if it's changed but
they still require one month notice that
of an annexation so I heard her talking
about timelines so I just wanted to
check this off my list here so thank you
councelor beta you have any further
questions yes I had a couple and it
really related to uh the financing
aspect so I think that's within our city
staff um you know a lot of these
projects look to be pretty high dollar
so I'm assuming that would need to be
bonded out yeah I'm seeing a headshake
yes um so with that you know um it's the
reason why I asked for the feasibility
study and really like the the look at
what that yield would be because if
you're going to be bonding I'm curious
if the tid doesn't produce um that type
of U money that is expected to generate
um what is that liability what does that
look like for even our bond ratings uh
at the city Mr counselor or Mr Mayor
counselor bet I'm going to turn that
question over to lean deus's Finance
director she could probably answer those
questions a lot better than I can thank
you so mayor counselor beta I'll try to
our downtown tid that we have is the
only one that I'm aware of and we
actually did what is called sponge bonds
and I'm looking at the mayor because he
probably remembers these uh the tid was
I mean we already had a very
welldeveloped area and we had uh grossy
receipts coming into that area and also
property taxes so we had a very Good
Financial base and as you stated earlier
this is new money and you're correct but
it's new money that will be going into
the tid not into the city so the tid if
this is a city tid in collaboration with
the NMSU and that's what I'm assuming
this is then it's the tid that would go
after the bonding it really wouldn't
affect the city but there's probably
would be a need for us to maybe work
with our bond counsel and work with um
you know with our financial advisor to
see if there's like special funding that
we can go after where maybe the first
couple of years we may not pay principal
or interest I mean there's creative
things that we might be able to do but
the bonding would be under the tid and
not under the city and I'm looking at at
Treasure to hopefully she's going to say
yes because that's the way our current
tidt is and we did have sponge bonds but
what happened was was the the bonding
went to the city the tid turned around
and in one day we paid that Bond off and
that was how we bonded um and the only
reason we did that was because in the
plan the master plan that we had for the
tid we said that we would do that and so
we had the capability and the financial
ability to do those sponge bonds so this
would be totally different and so it
would be the tid that would be taking on
that financial burden thank you and
there is then no liability on the city
if the tid does not generate um enough
money to pay off those bonds mayor
councelor beta that would be my
assumption it was something that we
probably would need to work with our
bond Council on since the only tid that
I have ever worked on is the downtown
tid but from reading what I have read on
tids I think that is uh correct okay
thank you councila I just would Echo
that the these uh bonds that would be
issued would be in the name of the tid
they would be solely the obligation of
the tid the uh they would not impact the
city they would not impact the uh City's
credit credit rating okay thank you um
very much for that um I would you know
um I know there's some concerns about
what type of um stress this would put on
the city system if we were to move
forward I would be very uh interested to
seeing what that looked like as far as
uh staff time U really and that's that's
a cost right uh as well so looking at
what the staff time is what type of
funding would be necessary for um the
feasibility study um a true one I'm sure
the city wants to have that on our end
if we're looking at uh projects and then
seeing as this project would be divided
uh the monies are going to be allocated
very differently from what NMSU is going
to receive to to what uh the city would
receive is to really look and see the
any sort of costs if that's reflected as
well so that the NMSU is paying if it's
a 75 25 split that NMSU is always paying
the 75% of whatever is needed for that
those types of things thank you thank
you coun and if I may before I get to me
proem so just remember about a 10 to 12
ratio like for example if uh if if the
tid brings in a million dollars a year
probably they won't Bond more than 10
times that so 10 million 12 million
because that's that money that's coming
in is what's going to pay the bonds so
unless there's money there you know well
the the city can do some other things
but I would strongly if you're were me
just wait until the money is there and
then that's when you start you know it's
like it's like uh you paying for
something when you can afford it instead
of just paying it out so all right May
prot
thank you Mary thank you all for being
here I'm always exciting to collaborate
with my Elma Moder um I appreciate it so
much always trying to find ways to do
that um and I I have a few questions
about the timing I think
you're give you're asking us to decide
something even though it's anou and I'm
interested in know when what dates were
you all already internally having this
conversation and when did you present to
the regions and how many times did you
present to the regions I'm I'm really
interested in in those
dates uh mayor Tim um Gordana um Ganda
Ganda apologize
um uh we met earlier this year
um Scott maybe you could maybe you could
um answer that question better than I
can yes Scott esmer again mayor mayor
protim gandra this has been an evolving
process uh I think we we actually came
and met with the
city five or six years ago when we first
started think this is I've been with the
university for eight years okay so this
has been something that's been ongoing
uh we also have what we call Regions
real estate committee uh which is made
up of two Regent members uh some others
from within the university and four
community members as well I think that's
important to point out that we've been
uh having these conversations back and
forth uh with with this committee this
real estate committee I'd say uh easily
four or five years and just trying to
figure out is this the right direction
for us to go uh your question about
bonding is certainly one that has come
up with NMSU we don't want to do
anything to jeopardize our our bond
rating and same with the city so this
these are all very similar questions
that we've been dealing with and trying
to work our way through um we've of and
on uh have have brought this to the
regions in executive session to discuss
uh the final approval came I think as
you see on here on July 17th in public
session meeting uh but to say that it's
just been going on for the last six
months this has been going I've been
there eight years and I think it's
something that I've been been working on
for the for the majority of my time at
the University it's been an evolving
process I think one of the things that's
also important to notice to note is that
we knew UNM was more or less out in
front right break the water for us and
just seeing where where the where the
rough spots were uh and to to see that
they had a tremend success not only with
the City of Albuquerque but also with uh
with the state really kind of helped
form our opinion to try and think that
this is an ability to move forward I'm
reminded that we all have a lot on our
plate and I promise you I have an awful
lot of plate and City staff does as well
it'd be easy not to do this right it'd
be easy to say let's not go down this
road but I think the rewards are so much
more worth it when you look at the
potential and I'm reminded of downtown L
cruus before I went to the nor of the
University I went an office building
right behind the blackbox theater and
when the mayor came on this is one of
the first things that came out I was
like how the heck is this going to help
the city the challenge is is it doesn't
help right in the beginning it's a slow
evolving process to the mayor's point
you build up a bank account don't you
you try and build up some funds and over
time you just you try and Target a few
little projects here and there well now
you've had tremendous success you're 20
years into it and you're able to go out
and do some big projects and and bond
some big big items and make some major
impacts This Ti wouldn't be much
different I think it's going to be slow
in the beginning but the benefits that
we'll be able to look at I hope 15 20
years down the road will speak volumes
for the efforts that we put forward to
move forward with this thank you for
that I appreciate that um you know we've
been a part of the tid um for eight
years I mean there were a lot of work
that was a lot of work even before I got
here I kind of just landed and was
started to come to um groundbreaking and
ribbon cutting of the plaza and then we
started to see the fruits of our labor
right so I understand that part many of
us weren't on this Council um you have a
transition of staff and so I just want
you to know it gives us pause when it me
I'll say gives me pause when you present
something like you do and I'm thinking
where well many and many of the
questions and the comments of my
colleagues very eloquently put forth is
stuff that I'm concerned about we're
just seeing this some of us for the
first time um and so I you know we've
had other tids we understand it's
government to government we had an
individual outfit that we hired um
strategic economics to come and really
analyze the tid prior to but also give
us some lessons learned and what we
should be asking for and so I'll ask um
by you all is that I think that we want
to see projections and um what those
public Improvement costs a feasibility
study a finance plan I want our bonding
um our legal counsil to really look at
that you know before we say this is
feasible um this is what we think needs
to happen I think there's some great
things in this plan that you have put
out particularly on the South Side um
where our Convention Center is where our
MRA um will be matching up to University
where I would say this would be great
this would be a priority for me um you
know because it it lands very nicely
with the all the all the plans that we
have for that particular area um and the
update to University I I think as you
know you're in the thick of it right now
um but it would be a complete rehab I
think David is he here David
CIO I think they took off
yes hi Adrien wmer uh utilities director
and Tony had to leave okay but um they
would definitely take a look at that and
that's some of the stuff that we were
talking about and I think with the
collaboration within missu to see what
kind of reconstruction would need to
occur and where the funds would be
coming from would definitely be
something that Public Works would be
looking close at and collaborating with
the university thanks Adrien for because
I had some water questions and um things
of that sort um because when we do that
we're putting down all new you know
water and systems and conduit and
whatnot what are your thoughts about
what that cost would look because you've
I think you have somewhat of an idea of
what it's going to cost to rehab that
area
specifically mayor
um
Council Gand in in looking at that right
now um most of university has been
rehabbed okay um as you notice so
there's been already upgrades for water
sewer and natural gas in that area I
think we would definitely be sitting
down within a missu to see what the
increase in water use and what kind of
Wastewater flows and how that would
either affect our current plant or plans
for an additional plant maybe on the
southern side um how all of that would
work out so I think it's just a matter
of sitting down and doing some
collaboration with them to see what they
have in mind uh depending on the type of
uses will then also affect what kind of
water use will be used and what kind of
Wastewater use will be coming
down Adrian and as you heard that
they're going to move the golf course
over um I think you have your own
water um yes right yes mayor protim Gand
we do have our own water rights right we
do have our own water system the only
area you know we have we have utilized
some of the city's Resources with agie
Uptown we built that to city city
standards uh and and coordinated all
that with with the city with respect to
that area but the main campus is is
supplied by the NMSU Public Public Works
area thank you thank you um yeah I I am
concerned um I think there's a number of
things that need to happen prior to us
entering in into and I would say if if
if it's the will of council to move into
anou that I I that these things need to
be done I don't think we have um the
capacity to do it in the time frames
that you're putting out here um
and but there I feel like there's a lot
there to uncover and I I think I don't
think we've even talked or I haven't
talked to Linda about what our the the
legal ramifications are or our bounding
Council and those are all things that I
think need to be discussed and and I
mean it's a report that we PID for that
says we should do all that before we
enter into a tid um and it's not and not
that we're entering into tid you're
asking us to enter into anou to sit down
and have a
conversation um and so um continue to be
concerned about that um because of the
capacity that um has already been
discussed um we have a number of
projects um and I'm interested in the
Southside I'm know not sure that you're
interested in that as a priority um
number one priority but I'm certainly
interested in that it would fit very
nicely and I would say if we're going to
do this that's where I think we need to
start thank you
mayor okay so I appreciate everyone's
comments let me just kind of review a
few things that I some notes I
took first off let me just State this is
a what they refer to as a non-binding
mou
so and in order for the city for EPO to
for us to direct EPO to have his staff
start working on this this has to be
passed doesn't doesn't mean that we're
committed it just means this is what
triggers the eepo to move forward with
the team and if after it comes back in a
few
months council at that time says no okay
well at at least we gave it a shot but I
have to say
that if let's take Intel for example
they moved to Rio Rancho they they
utilize a lot of subsidies a lot of
Grants or awards that the state gave and
unfortunately they had to reduce their
capacity this is University one of the
top universities for engineering college
and if they can attract good businesses
High highp paying jobs that our
residents can
utilize that's what we want I mean
that's what we want and and here's an
opportunity to use a mechanism that the
state has given us for economic
development to be able to generate the
income needed to do what we what I think
all of us want to see here is that raise
reduce the number of of percentage of
pover those in poverty and raise the
level of income to our residents so I I
really think that we should at the very
minimum at the very minimum sign on to
this non-binary mou however I've have
written down notes Here in that if if
the ccil was to move forward these have
to be addressed gentlemen um we have to
know whether or not and I think eil was
going to talk about capacity but in the
event we needed to hire additional staff
I think it was mentioned it can be
reimbursed we need to include someone
from the Tortugas Pueblo um that all
electric development has to be addressed
uh as mayor protim was talking about I
think we and and you know Linda does a
great job but I don't know if if but as
that book you were talking about the
potential Lessons Learned by danis
Belzer and Daniel
ernandez um if we can contract with a
lawyer that specializes in tids to make
sure that the city's interests are are
taken care of you know because those
will be reimbursed so those are the
minimum that I I have written one thing
I just want to make sure
and this is something the city needs to
look at I can't remember but or maybe
you all you might know uh Harry is if
it's going to require a super majority
for the tid I can't remember when we did
the tid years ago but that's just
something just just because there could
be one member of of the council who may
feel that they want to just not move
forward okay Athletics I don't have a
problem with Athletics I don't know why
we didn't want to include them I mean
we've got a it it's uh something to
think about I mean not right now but I
don't see why we can't include that I
mean we've got we've got a lot of
momentum right now in the Mexico State
athletics and that just that helps
generate publicity for this for the
university for the city and um it's fun
you know and it's good anyways that's
what I've got here EO you want to talk a
little bit about
capacity mayor council thank you just
just a couple thoughts in addition to
that no may maybe
first uh first of all I just want to
assure the
council that just about all the
questions that you've asked uh have been
brought up by staff so we have the same
questions we've even brought it up in
our our
meetings
um I've realized that there's so many
points in this process for this to go
off the rails so I mean there's so
many this this is the
first but uh there are a lot of there
are a lot of deal breakers that on both
sides so from the city's side I'll tell
you a couple of deal breakers is if we
benefit less than what this costs right
um for them is if we take control over
any you know their land use and I I know
that's a deal breaker probably for their
their regions and so there's a lot of
opportunity we have to to take this deal
uh like I said off the rails and so the
only reason why we're even as staff even
you know showing support to bring It
Forward is none of those conversations
happen without without this um
non-binding mou and so just so you know
we're our eyes are are wide
open um like I said there's some some
issues that were brought up today that
were that that weren't brought up which
is good to have the feedback but for the
major most part um we've we've discussed
this we've discussed this internally and
we don't have the answers yet and
so but we we do realize that if we stop
here then we'll never get there we'll
never have the opportunity to
discuss and then going to
capacity what one thing I want to be
careful
um and speaking on behalf of staff
I don't want the message to be out that
we can't handle because we're just
getting started and so there are
projects um all over that we want and
that are continuing that we're going to
continue to go after there's big
economic development projects there's
affordable housing projects um of course
the MRA U there's all kinds of things
but uh we want to turn up the heat we
want to keep going and we want to keep
moving and so so if this goes off the
rails now or whatever I just don't want
the the message to ever be a question of
capacity because I think our staff can
handle it um we just need to get get the
resources if we if we uh if that's
determined and again the tid should pay
for that t should pay for any resources
that we have to acquire in order to move
forward and so we're going to we're
going to demand that as well as you have
but um
you know BR bringing a project of this
size uh shouldn't be a string because we
we want to bring bigger we want to keep
going and we want to elevate the city uh
in all aspects like I said not only in
in tax increment projects not only in
Economic Development projects but I I
mean we we have thousands of affordable
housing projects that need to come
through and I want to make that very
clear that we are ready we are open for
business and so um if this is going to
go off the worlds I don't want it to go
off the worlds because we think we can't
we don't have the capacity because I
believe we do but like I said there's
going to be a lot of
opportunity um and it may be quicker or
maybe maybe not maybe we'll get through
this but there there might be uh a deal
killer sub uh subsequent to this meeting
uh when we start talking about you know
how much reimburse
or um I personally don't want a bond I
really don't I don't I don't want a bond
if we don't have some if we don't have
some type of Revenue Source coming in on
a consistent basis that shows that we
can we can handle the bond so there's a
lot of there's a lot going on in this
but we don't ever get to that we don't
get to that if we don't have this simple
non-binding mou
and so that's that's the only reason
again going back I know I've maybe
beating a dead horse now too but that's
the only
reason we're we've even like I said
we've even thought about bringing this
forward at this point but
um regarding capacity as as you've
talked about we can handle
it thanks evil I do have a quick
question if someone can answer this so
this money that's generated for the
University
does does that go to I don't know for a
lack of better word their general fund
to help with their cost because you're
seeing more and more universities having
struggling to bring in revenues from all
sources whether it's from the state
whether it's through tuition things of
this
nature would they be able to if this was
to work would they be able to at least
benefit in uh through that way as well
Scott esmer again mayor May Shima um
we're we're challenged uh not unlike
y'all and and every year the pie gets a
little short little smaller fortunately
the last couple years at State
Legislature has been pretty good but we
we're NMSU is blessed with an abundance
of land with that not many universities
have but it's unutilized resource and
that's part of the reason I was hired on
back eight years ago was to try and find
ways to convert this into revenue
streams so it's a way to help augment
our mission which is educating and
community outreach and that's what we'll
continue to do with these funds good
good I'm glad to hear that you know and
the reason why and and I don't want to
be you know I've been very fortunate I
I've had four kids go to Mexico State
and and I would see how you know I would
watch you know our this tuition going up
go you know every time and and there's
times where you know it gets it costly
but by doing so I'm glad to hear by
doing so if we supposed to move forward
and and and start working that helps the
University's coffers to help take the
burden off of constantly putting on the
backs of the students and and the
parents who pay for it so I was just
well I'm just curious that's all that's
good to hear I didn't want to know I
want to know if it was went to a special
Enterprise fund that wasn't touched and
and know it doesn't be it can't be used
to help augment the the the budget so I
have some questions mayor yes for eil
mostley okay um just a couple of
thoughts as well I mean this could be
for you as well mayor and for Linda but
I mean I think we're also not taking
into consideration that this governing
body is in transition currently and so
it we're sort of making this really big
decision
that um a brand new Council has
to um see through that's I think
slightly unfair and while it's not as
big as hiring a new city manager I
remember four years ago the outgoing
city council waited till there was a new
city council to hire a new city manager
which felt really appropriate this is a
significant fiscal investment that were
this is this is not small potatoes right
I mean it's not and so we're asking
we're asking a really big question to a
governing body that is in transition
that's number one number two you know
you said there were some non-negotiables
I think for me it would it's really
important to understand the
non-negotiable you mentioned on the cost
benefit to the city like I have so many
questions and we schedule this on a
10:00 before another meeting and it just
feels like we're not being given enough
time to answer all the questions that I
have like I really want I have so many
questions about the environmental
impacts of the golf course moving I have
questions about um the annexation
process and maybe I'm naive but I just
don't understand how we Annex land the
city will then be responsible for the
maintenance the util ities all of that
yet the city will not have governing
power over that annexed land like that's
to me that's really hard to sort of
swallow and so I have all of these
questions that then I'm being asked to
decide on in two weeks to me that's sort
of a really and I understand this
timeline but it I it just
feels
um yeah there's a sense of urgency that
I I understand but I hope that you
understand why to me it feels really
heavy to then turn around in two weeks
so I don't know EA what you think about
those things oh and then the third thing
is there's been very little public input
on this right the T the downtown tid
what was the process for that downed to
come into fruition and for the Royal
Crossing T there was there was a lot of
public
comment mayor counselor um B Ko it was a
lot we
there was a survey I think that was
actually done we actually had to take it
out to vote this is a a little different
though this is Barren land in MSU so I
know that there probably might be some
contact on part of the area where
there's some private
locations but um yeah it was it was
almost I want to say a three-year
process if Mary you were probably the
only one that was around I think we
started this in ' 06 and if finally
started about 09 so and I'm not saying
it has to be a three-year process it
just I don't think it can be a two- we
process frankly and I think this thank
you lean first of all um and then you
know this idea of the public input I've
heard from a couple of folks about um
the new gas station that's going up at
AI Uptown and the surrounding area not
everybody is excited about that right
and so there's already been sort of
tension that's been rising between
community members and the way that some
of this is being developed and so I
think um more tension will continue to
build if there is no opportunities for
public
input let me just State one thing and
I'll let EO talk Council the November 6
is the action on this non-binding m
today's meeting is just to vet some of
the concerns that Council has so that um
so that when the eventual actual vote
for a tid which take sometime take place
sometime next year comes to be mean
these should be incorporated or probably
won't go that so that November 6 is just
to get the council to to pass the
resolution to for them to use for their
application and then for that to get the
ball uh started but there's going to be
an actual another approval and I think
there it is on April 2024 more or less
for the actual vote on a tid so this is
just this is just to get staff engaged
working with the university to answer
some of these questions that many of you
have provided and I was just writing
down some of these things so that they
would have a record of what it is that
Council was concerned about I mean mayor
the way I read theou
is we are making a we are saying we are
committing a set of resources to this
plan and sort of my biggest concern
hasn't really been addressed yet which I
you know I think staff would need time
to look it over
around given this timeline the resources
they would take to implement this T and
what that would do to the implementation
the planned implementation of our two
mras that's a a big question that I
would like answered but to me theou
isn't just like this non-binding mou it
to me it's a com it's still a commitment
so I just wanted to note
that mayor councelor bro yeah I I
probably my response is similar to what
the mayor was said was saying I mean I I
agree with you councel I wouldn't
suggest that you approve anything
that uh creates the tid certainly not
before before new Council and um
something of that
magnitude um the the only thing like I
mentioned this
is if you're willing to consider a
non-binding mou um I really don't think
there is much commitment I don't think
that's we're not saying much besides uh
when you talk about the when it when it
talks about committing resources it's
really is Staff time but I think
anything worth
um anything with the potential of being
worth something to the city uh we should
we should look at it we should commit
staff time to do it but as far as um
anything of substance that you're going
to approve I I wouldn't suggest that I
wouldn't suggest you you do it within a
two-e period I wouldn't suggest you you
approve anything based on information
you have right now because we still and
they them as well they we still have
things to Duke out before we even bring
it back to you for for consideration
like there's nothing we would we we
would not uh bring anything to you with
all these unanswered questions and just
throw it on you to to do that I I
totally get where you're you're coming
from and where it not for this m that uh
from our I guess from staff's
perspective and we've talked about I'll
be very open with you this mou is
probably less important to us than it is
to them in going back to the regions and
say hey you did one the city's done one
so this will allow us to commit
resources um and so this isn't that this
isn't that important to us it's really
so that they can go back and say you
know what the city's at least going to
be willing to commit time they're going
to be willing to at least look at this
but like I said there there are a lot of
unchecked boxes that we we need to go
down the list on and and there I don't
think there's any any
approval um like I said that this or
there's anything of substance that this
mou gives us or as far as commitment but
to be honest we we will commit resources
in the way of Staff time and the the
thing is I think somebody mentioned this
earlier we'll get projects all the
time and that's just part of our our
responsibility whatever project comes
forward the upside to this if if this
all checks at least I speak for my own
boxes if the upside is pretty high
however um I don't know if if that's
going to take us off the rails anyway
and I'm sure every one of every one of
us up here has has boxes that we need to
check and they all obviously need to be
checked before we do that um going back
to the masas that is that is our number
one priority when it comes to
Redevelopment I don't think it takes
away I I think we talking about staff
time there will be obviously we're going
to have to split split time but I mean
there's projects all over the the city
we have like 10 number one priorities
right now in the queue that we're
already split on and so I I don't know
if that'll be much of an issue I do
think this is close enough to the MRA
that there could be a lot of synergy
there and there can be a lot of lot of
collaboration that might help um but we
don't we wouldn't know that like I said
we don't know we won't know any of this
until we really get down into what their
numbers are what their feasibility I
will also say
internally uh we we want to run our own
so we won't come to the table with with
just a third party or what they're
saying we want to know internally what
this just our benefit selfishly with the
city why is this good for us um and then
and then we'll we'll compare but um like
I said I I think it the real issue comes
down to whether or not we think this
this mou is is something that's binding
or something that's in important but
like I said it it it seems like it's
more a lot more important to to animous
shoe than it is to
us so let me do this we've got maybe 11
minutes left uh how many members of the
public would like to say any questions I
got you senator who else just
one all right well we'll give you five
minutes Senator just come in here state
your name please and um
I texted you by the way I guess you
never responded I must oh yeah I know
yeah okay I just need you to state your
name please uh Steve
Fishman and uh first of all just butter
you all up I was really heartened to
hear the depth of the conversation and
the questions that have been asked um
from when I first moved here 18 years
ago um the sophist tication of the
council you guys just take a lesson
about how to butter up a public uh body
here U you've really uh shown a lot of
sophistication and thoughtfulness in the
questions that you're asking and uh it
gives me a lot of faith and confidence
going forward um so just a couple of
quick question quick comments one is um
you know personally the idea of the
uhou And discussing things certainly
have no objection to that um I think
that's a great it's great to have those
ongoing discussions the university is a
huge part of this community a huge part
of its uh who we are and its future
development um and uh in that sense I
totally agree with the mayor and uh the
city
manager um in in their comments in that
regard uh on the other hand I have lots
of questions very similar to all the
ones that you all raised uh about the
proposal that's on the table and is that
the one that is the final shape that it
should
be um I don't want to get into all those
details um uh but I think it takes a lot
more study because there's just a lot a
lot of questions there that I have and I
don't need to repeat the ones that you
all have raised already um I will raise
uh one point point where I think the
presentation um is probably not accurate
but that it's something for the council
to uh look
into um I think the representation that
U doing this project with the university
does not take away any
resources uh elsewhere in the city is
not
accurate um I think there's lots of
research out there because as a senator
in
legislature uh um we looked at a number
of tids and I did a lot of research and
a lot of reading and there are a lot of
communities that have run
into um Revenue shortages because
they've done too many of these projects
and the new tax revenue that would be
coming in has gotten sucked away into
these very specific projects and it
creates fiscal
stress um the idea that um it doesn't
take away from anything else going on in
the city well you might have somebody
who's paying 100% of their city taxes
who's running a business in this
neighborhood who decides to relocate to
the tid or you have a new business
coming in that was going to come in
regardless that instead of locating at
one area of the city because of the
financial incentives it goes to the
tidt and um my reaction to the kind of
overall big picture um to the proposal
it's a little bit of a grab bag and my
first kind of
impression in reading the proposal was
that um
essentially it's a grab bag of projects
we got three
Uptown uh South City and Arrowhead uh
things that the university wants to do
and essentially the
annexation uh creates is a way for the
University to tap into the city taxing
Authority in order to
fund their preferred
project for the
campus um there's nothing wrong with
that if the city decides it wants to
help fund that but recognize you're
making that long-term commitment and
just go into it Eyes Wide Open um so you
know my reaction is keep talking I don't
think this is the exact right proposal
but I think it to the extent that we can
help with development in
Arrowhead um help with the development
of you know getting the new campuses
going those are certainly worthy goals
um that you know we shouldn't just shut
the door on we should just keep talking
until we get to the right
proposal um so anyway thank you very
much thanks Senator we appreciate that
and those are my sentiments exactly I
mean I I can't tell you how proud I am
every time during the um whether it's
the NCA tournament or when when the a
are playing football on ESPN you know
there's Los Cru is front and center and
and you know where the staffs work very
very well in fact I I I sometimes I
think back on when Chancellor arisu
would say hey Ken we need to work
something together yeah sure sure sure
okay okay I'll call you you know things
and and he probably and staff probably
says well it's a university yeah we'll
just you know get this thing here
propose and run it to the city council
but I I think that again you you know
Council is going to have uh five months
well probably four months to to decide
if that's where they want to move
forward because this is like I said it's
nonbinding it just says it just allows
uh uh the university and and the city to
begin talking and being able to utilize
resources really because prior to this
all we can do is you know EO has other
things he has to have it clear that's
why we need a vote a resolution that's
all that's all is is the action on that
non-binding mou on November 6 to you
know if we had it here
today well we don't but this is just to
discuss some of these concerns that you
that everyone's brought up which I have
some too and I I inserted them in here
and
um you know I I I would like to still
have it on November 6th that gives you
time to decide okay you know it's still
an up up or down vote you don't have to
vote for it but at least we have we've
given it the the best shot we can to the
[Music]
university
so counselor did you have uh FLOTUS
would you like to say a few words
closing comments or the only comment I
have is that I agree 100% with Senator
uh Fishman um my concern is the same um
that businesses who are starting may
prefer the tid area and businesses that
exist may go to the tid area yeah so and
and uh in terms of uh there being no
impact on uh what the city has to
provide even though our city manager has
said that it wouldn't um I disagree with
that uh with all due respect Mr city
manager I'm not city manager but I do
know that um I'm here and I've been here
for six years and um I think that
sometimes our um our staff our our
departments are over worked and and we
know that because just because I'm not
going to go into the details but um I
think that we have to
um and then I agree with uh counselor uh
benom who uh has said that there will be
a change uh the day before um this is
supposedly scheduled for city council to
uh take action on
theou um so I I think we should wait uh
and really think about the implications
and the effect it will have on um on the
city and its revenues and its Workforce
thank you Mr Mayor thank you counselor
and I think you you probably didn't hear
the the six is just the actual formal
formality of a non-binding mou it's not
it's not the actual tid application or
orou it's just it just allows you know
even right now just to let the the city
staff start working working with the
university again I can't emphasize it
enough we still have four more months
before the uh Council then decides to
move forward but
um okay I I I would like I would still
like to see it on November 6 and that
way there Council like I said can decide
at that time up or down if they want to
go for it or not um just just to clarify
if we vote no on November 6 then that
means there's no tid and there's no
chance of the tid right that's correct
okay yeah
seems like a pretty high-risk proposal
mayor yeah oh I understand but we gotta
you
know I think from this point forward
when you say hey we got to work with the
university hey let's use University to
to help us with this or help us with
that you know how can we help bring more
Economic Development into the in the
community um for those who vote no
please don't ever say that again that we
want to do that because we'll address
these concerns and councelor FLOTUS you
didn't hear this like the city we we
hired a company an organization to help
us with our our our new master plan I
forgot the name of it what's the name of
the that
uh the one with the former Commissioner
Karen Pettis on uh that company I don't
see why if worst case scenario we
couldn't use them to to for additional
staff if needed because it's
reimbursable if we needed to you know
but I don't think we will because you
know to do a to do you know we have a
blueprint already our our previous tid
we know what a tid does we know how much
it what it takes we know how to do an
annexation last annexation we did I was
trying to figure out was 2007 Sierra
Norte and um
but I think we owe it to the university
to at least bring forward a council
action item on November 6 and if Council
said if the majority says no okay well
then that's the majority spoke but I
think between between now and then
you'll be able to at least hear some of
your concerns um by members of the
public if they reach out to
you just just to clarify again I'm
asking for us to not vote on November
2nd and I just really want would like to
voice that or November 6th I would like
us to delay it make sure we have all the
information we need that was not shared
today um and and so I I I would say that
I would like to vote Yes on this but if
I'm forced to make a decision without
information I will vote no so I get
you maybe okay so um Can someone explain
and the reason why I fast-tracked it
couple reasons one because you know I'm
leaving December 31st but I thought
there was some application that needed
to go in and I think the timeline can
someone share with me again why why we
needed to move this
quick
oh before you get Scott councelor beta
uh well thank you one of the reasons and
I'm probably selling your thunder there
was the timeline you needed it to move
was because of the applications but I've
think we heard today that given what we
need to do with annexation that that
timeline already looks different and so
we can't proceed as according to what
you have
proposed yes Mayor Scott asmer again
mayor Mima and councelor beta to your
point we we're trying to meet a time
frame more or less of trying to get
before the state legislature in January
of
2025 uh the reality is is is we knew
this was tight uh
and the reality is it's probably now
January of 2026 and that's if we can get
it in a 30-day session uh so it it just
it's just going to it it'll probably
delay the final timeline of getting a
tid approved by at least a year would
what about November 20th I mean would
that help could you still do it if if if
that you that's a little bit more time
for yeah I'm I'm going to look at my
group but I think the reality is is
understanding the annexation
requirements and things like that it was
an aggressive timeline we're not trying
to run anything through we want to make
this right right we're working together
and we want to answer all those
questions and if it takes another year
it takes another year uh we just have
some timelines that we're trying to meet
and in order to do that get before the
State Board of Finance we have to have
this stuff turned in only twice a year
and that's either July 1st or January
1st and that's that's the timelines
we're working off of that gives
councilor florus time to review the
video gives me time to really think
about it and uh why all of a sudden I as
you know I wasn't here for part of this
but why all of a sudden are you why is
it such a rush and and I don't like to
be rushed I don't about anybody else I
don't like to be rushed especially when
when this this decision uh and I'm very
leery of tids we've been through this
before uh not with you but um tids are
are a big deal and if that's if it's a
big deal to the to NMSU with all due
respect I think we should work together
why why are you pushing it at this time
why are you pushing it when we may have
a we will at least have one new person
on City Council well and so it and it
and it really being on Council for six
years now there's a chemistry there
there's a there's something that goes on
with how you work with people and um and
it's going to be hard for someone to
catch up right away and um so I I think
and I I agree with uh my colleague uh
counselor Quan that if I had to work uh
vote on it on November 6 or even
November 20 I think I would say no
no definitely November 6th probably
November 7th I would still say no but so
can you answer the question why this
Rush all of a sudden what what happened
did you give a history as to why we're
in this tight spot right now or you're
in this tight spot or
are yes mayor mosima and councelor
Flores uh I don't want to try and have
the impression of this being Russian I'm
sorry that you feel that way and and I
can certainly sit back and see where
your concerns are we originally tried to
come before yall in August August 4th
and and we we're going to try and move
forward with that to the mayor's
comments and and rightly so we just we
needed to do a work session and so
here's where we're at we're we're at
this work session today and we're hoping
that we can move it forward if if we
can't we can't I mean we we'll we'll
either know where we stand uh and and
the university will we'll continue to
try and do things as we have in the past
we just think we've got an incredible
opportunity here and it's an opportunity
that the city has utilized in the past
has been very beneficial so we're trying
to trying to utilize that but if you
feel we're not here to rush anybody
through we're just we're just showing
what the realities are of the time
frames and the approval processes so
what happened in in I guess it was you
were trying to get this on a work
session calendar here uh in August so
what happened before that why what and
you know it takes several weeks to get
things on calendar around here and I
don't know if you're well now you've
learn I now you know but why I mean why
would all of a sudden you know we want
to move were you working on something
before that was stalled or and and
knowing as you say you know you have to
go before the legislature yada yada so
Mr Mayor and and councilor Flores the
the reason if you look at is we had we
had the approval process on July 17 from
the border of regions once we had that
approval process and then we we worked
with the city and worked on getting that
on on an approval process and we did
come before in August early August to uh
see about getting the non-binding mou
approved and it became apparent that we
needed some more information so the next
step in this process has been the work
session thank you and counselor again to
your
comments if if and a lot of it was me
trying to get it done before so they
could go to the January 25 not this
current legislature but the January 2025
so even another month month and a half
will push it probably to you know
January
2026 so I think that 2025 I think those
are all financial matters that they
discuss I think the legislature every
other year I forget which one that they
go one year is is two months the other
one's 30 days and the 30 days is the
financial one yeah I think that's the
financial one so that's a lot of the the
fast tracking here and um you know it
just it be you you would have no idea
how many people have come to me on last
manye things that I'm that's why we've
had these work special work sessions and
and I knew I had this uh this do
disappointment but you know I needed to
at least I didn't want to do it on a
different day I wanted to be here
because I know some of you take certain
days off and you know it makes it easier
you know and so to to have a meeting on
Monday so oh uh let's see counc to still
had a question then counselor
Graham uh thank you mayor I just wanted
to express support for um doing the mou
but I would rather it be done um at a
later date I honestly I asked when we
had our meeting I asked for that
feasibility study and I asked for some
new information which I didn't really
see here today and so I've um I would
like to see those types of numbers
before we really go forward so I I want
I think think this could be very
successful I think it could really
benefit of course my district and I'm
going to be um greedy but about wanting
to you know uh help that but at the same
time you know there's a lot of those
unanswered questions and I thought some
of those would be answered today which
they haven't been and so um I do want to
see this move forward but I know that it
might take just a little bit longer and
I'd rather be thorough about that so it
can be
successful thank you councelor councelor
Graham
yes I would also agree with pushing
theou vote to a later meeting date um
and mayor I I also want to respond to
your assertion that to vote no on this
would be to close the door on future
collaborations with NMSU because I don't
think that's true um councelor
bomo gave two great examples we have
ongoing collaborations with
NMSU and in case I wasn't clear enough
about the philosophical issues I'm
having with this let me be very blunt I
feel like we're being asked to
essentially create another pocket of
wealth in the city and then rely on
trickle down economics or supply side
economics or whatever you want to call
it which I think has failed
spectacularly throughout history to
raise up folks who need Economic
Development the most and at the same
time I'm being asked to Grapple with
what is the value of open space we've
been talking about a lot of open space
and saying oh we're not getting anything
from this this would be new dollars
coming in from open space there's an
inherent value in open
space that I am also grappling with so I
don't want it to sound like it's such a
simple binary at least not from the seat
where I'm sitting thank
you okay so let me just share this with
you so I'm going to put it on the 20th
of November and and if you you don't
have to vote no you can vote to table it
all right so you don't but I'm telling
you you vote no that means you are not
with University that's plain simple that
is absolutely inaccurate mayor you
really need to stop saying those kinds
of com and to Our Guest here today hope
that counselor I'm sorry I still talk no
mayor that is so inappropriate I'm sorry
so I'm going to put on the 20th and and
um if you want to table it fine table it
to another another time but I think that
this is just non-binding this is just to
get staff to answer the questions that
you want answered because if without
this they're not going to be answered
it's not like you're voting for the
actual tid it's just to move forward you
know to get his to get EO staff to be
able to engage with the university to
start spending some money that's it it
doesn't mean it's that it's that's why
it says non-binding but if you want to
just at that at that time November 20th
that way there okay that's fine at least
to table table it to next year but at
least it's
there uh so that uh if in that remote
possibility that the questions are
answered between then and now okay yes
counselor thank you I really hope to our
guests that you don't walk away here
today with a completely inaccurate and
immature assertion that if I am not in
support of this for whatever reason that
I don't want to collaborate with New
Mexico State University the place that
ultimately kept me here in this
community and so I really hope that
that's not what you're walking away with
today and that uh my door is absolutely
open to collaboration it's just in the
role that I have I have to make a big
decision with very little information
and so I hope that um those assertions
are not what you walk away with
today okay so as mayor I get to control
the agenda so I will have it on November
20th and again like I said if it's
something there that Council wants to
table or vote no that's their Cho that's
their choice all right so thank you very
much for those who came here to um
provide some input and appreciate it
Senator and uh councel appreciate your
your uh comments I'll give these to if
he hasn't I'm sure he's already written
them down but if not we'll make sure
that they're addressed if there's
nothing further entertain a motion to
adjourn so so moved second motion made
by councelor Florida second by councelor
Pomo
Christine this is on the motion to
adjourn the special work session
councelor beta yes councelor Graham yes
councelor bomo yes councelor cran yes
councelor flotes yes councelor Ganda yes
mayor yes okay it's
12:13 p.m. we are adjourned thank
you