[Music]
thank you
[Music]
okay good afternoon everybody Welcome to
our work session of Las Cruces City
Council today is Monday November 9th
2020. it's approximately 1 p.m before we
begin if you please join me in the
Pledge of Allegiance please
foreign
of the United States of America and to
the Republic for which it stands one
nation under God indivisible with
liberty and justice for all
and we don't have a pet of the week so
we're gonna go to jobs of the week
actually
we have some other information if I make
oh oh okay go ahead Jennifer thank you
just like last week as the mayor said
I'm Jennifer Martinez by the way with
the city's Communications office there
is no pet of the week but
um we do have some information from the
Animal Services Center that I can share
with you and I'll do that real quick can
you see my screen
yes okay perfect
um so again the ascmv is closed to the
public temporarily you can check the
shelter's Facebook page for updates and
or
ascmv.org if you'd like to get updates
on when they may reopen uh the volunteer
program participants have been given
instructions for the next few weeks and
if you have uh any concerns you can call
382-0018 and of course the off-site
adoption events are still canceled until
further notice we do have another mask
up event that's going to take place this
Saturday from 1 to 3 P.M at Vista Middle
School 4465 Elks drive that is where you
have the opportunity to receive reusable
masks for adults and kids and also covid
testing if you're interested in doing it
is free you do not need to bring
anything with you just yourself and
please wear a mask and of course there
is a testing surge that is going on the
Department of Health is partnering with
the federal government to do this
testing surge it began on November 5th
and I checked yesterday it went through
the 11th but then I checked again today
and it looks like it's been extended
through the 14th you can can
pre-register for a test at do I need a
covid19test.com and you can schedule a
time from 3 to 7 pm at NMSU it's in the
parking lot right next to the natatorium
you'll be going in off Williams uh I
believe Avenue or drive
um again you'll need to pre-register do
I need a
covet19test.com thank you mayor okay
thank you Jennifer
all right so now we're gonna go to jobs
of the week and I don't see Darlene oh
yeah I did Darlene Lopez
at least I thought I did
you there Darlene
sorry can you hear me now yes I can hear
you now oh sorry thank you Mr Mayor
Darlene Lopez One Stop operator for the
Southwest New Mexico Workforce
Connection offices and the jobs of the
week are
crew leader
Parks Parks maintenance city of Las
Cruces one position and that closes 11
20 of 20. physical therapist with tresco
Inc one position closes 11 20 of 20.
two technical writers and one machinist
at Alaska's structures and that one
closes uh 11 22. a caregiver with
Crossroads in-home care that closes 11
13 20.
and landscaper for GNA Landscaping
there's one position and that closes 11
15 20 and then we have multiple
positions at a Saputo Cheese Factory
Seven positions and there's a virtual
hiring event 11 18 and 11 19 and you can
find more information on that at
saputo.com forward slash en forward
slash careers you can also learn more
about all these opportunities by going
to employ nm.com and government jobs
dot com forward slash careers forward
slash Las Cruces and then on this next
slide you'll find our local office
information should you wish to reach out
to our local Workforce Office the phone
number is 575-524-6250
thank you so much mayor
okay thank you Darlene
okay so we're going to jump right into
the agenda we've got four items on the
agenda and the first one is going to be
the skate park assessment
and I believe Kathy Matthews will be
making this presentation
good afternoon mayor I'm going to share
my screen for the
okay uh good afternoon everyone my name
is Kathy Matthews on the landscape
architect with the Parks and Recreation
Department and this afternoon we just
want to give you an update with regard
to the skate park assessment and the
report that was a result of that
assessment giving recommendations for
renovation and replacement of our
existing skate park also I'll be talking
about updates on other skate park
projects that we've got coming up
yeah
so our existing skate park was built in
um with
um a lot of support from the skateboard
skateboarding Community
um they instigated the idea they
initiated the thought process and the
planning and they volunteered to build
that Park so it was a community build
skate park with a deep Community
involvement as well the the parks
department at the time offered in-house
construction assistance as well and
since that Park was built in 1998 over
22 years ago it's definitely time for
some renovation it needs some updating
it needs to be brought up to today's
standards for the skateboarding Sport
and for safety issues as well to that
end over
since the spring we've been working with
American ramp company to conduct an
assessment of the existing conditions to
find out exactly what's not working at
the park where we have difficulties
where the skateboarding Community wants
to see improvements in our existing Park
so um in addition to that work the
assessment having been funded with uh
operations
um money from Parks and Recreation we
have also received recently uh funding
from the state legislature in the term
in the um form of
Capital Improvement Grants so for the
renovation the state legislator
legislature has granted us 845 thousand
dollars to complete those Renovations
that will cover design
through construction and I wanted to
note that we will be conducting a lot of
public input as well and Council input
on the actual design of the renovations
the budget is significant and
substantial but may not be sufficient to
complete everything that needs to be
done so we'll be making some choices
with the community and with Council
input about how to do those Renovations
I anticipate at this point in time about
an 18-month project from design public
input through construction and closeout
uh in addition we've received the city
has received a State Legislative Grant
to the tune of a hundred thousand
dollars for design of a new skate park
the steps that need to occur for that
project include selecting the location
which we intend to be in an existing
Park
planning and design and of course we'll
we will do public input as well
um
to select not just select that location
but also to complete the design also
anticipate
um that we could have design completed
as early as December of 2021.
uh in addition we've we've discussed
before and and Council seems to to be
interested in seeing skate spots we're
called skate spots the idea here is to
have individual skate features or
obstacles
um in existing Parks also but on a
smaller scale
um just maybe one or two features in a
park so that we can create more skate
opportunities throughout the city
um where these features would be located
in parks that are closer to the majority
of skateboarders also the idea is that a
skate spot could serve as a temporary
location while the existing skate park
is under construction for skateboarders
to participate in their sport as well
so the general idea is to create
um
different types of features different
opportunities for practicing different
kinds of tricks and the like that
um that skateboarders want to see
so and then of course we need to talk
about maintenance
typically when a new facility comes
online The Parks and Recreation
Department receives O M manuals
operations and maintenance manuals and
those are come from the contractor or
the consultant or the manufacturer of
the individual feature outlining the
um steps required to operate and
maintain the facility properly
um these kinds of manuals and
information help us to plan for future
maintenance
um what kinds of supplies and equipment
are going to be required what kind of
training is going to be required to make
sure our staff is up to speed on the
processes that are necessary to maintain
whatever feature that we end up building
I wanted to mention also that there is
there are options particularly for new
skate parks or even possibly for the
renovated skate park to contract with
the builder or manufacturer of the skate
park for an annual inspection and
maintenance
of that Park the the that kind of
contract can
um
cost between
um ten and fifteen thousand dollars a
year depending on the size of the
facility and the complexity of the work
that would be required to do that annual
inspection
and regular maintenance
um
so at this point I want to introduce you
to Brian Moore and Brian represents
American ramp company who Parks and
Recreation hired
to conduct the skate park assessment and
Brian will walk us through that
assessment and the process that we went
through to get to the end result of that
report and all Advance the slides as
Brian continues to present so with that
mayor I'd like to turn it over to
Brian Moore
thank you Kathy um hello mayor and city
council
um first off I did have my video
available but it got turned off so I'm
not sure if it uh someone can put me
back in if you wanted to see me or not
but
um it is available
um okay so yes
um back in earlier this year excuse me
Brian I'm sorry for interrupting yeah
can you just state your name I know we
introduced you and everything but just
for the record yeah sorry about that
There You Go videos up my name is Brian
Moore and I'm a project manager here at
American ramp company okay thank you
okay thank you okay
um so our scope of work was to review
existing skate park conditions um that
you currently had
um at your skate park assessing make
recommendations for renovation
um or replacement and then uh maximize
available funding and update the park to
current Skate Park Sports standards to
speak upon
um you know uh bringing in the East
skate park up to current Skate Park
Sports standards I did want to mention
that skateboarding was supposed to make
its Summer Olympics debut uh this past
summer but got postponed due to covid-19
and so they're shooting to make that
happen next year so
um it's great to see that skateboarding
is acknowledged as an Olympic sport next
slide please
okay
um so yeah so we understand that uh you
know this this K Park was built back in
um you know to me you know that was when
the industry was just kind of just
blasphemy I've been in the skatepark
industry since 1997 myself so 98 is when
it really kicked off so I really do
commend uh the city for allocating 33
000 square feet for the skate park which
is a pretty substantial size um so I
think that's awesome but you know as we
were evaluating the skate park we did
notice you know aging concrete some of
the transitions or radiuses were very
steep there's some exposed aggregate in
the concrete which can be a safety issue
some drainage issues with water pooling
on the slab
um heavin joints and uh spalling and
cracking
so to us we feel like it's it's reached
its lifespan
yep next
um next up uh current condition so you
know other other areas that we looked at
is you know being that it was you know
designed back in 1998 and built with a
community build
um we did notice that a lot of the
measurements or angles or degrees of
banks are kind of inconsistent with what
today's standards are uh you know and
then also the settlement issues
throughout the years being 22 years old
you know the concrete's going to shift
over time so
um the design
um is is somewhat outdated compared to
today's skate park standards and we do
understand that it's you know not
professionally built
um so you know uh with the Summer
Olympics coming up there's actually two
disciplines that have been identified
that are going to be in the Olympics one
is Street skating and the other is kind
of like park or flow Bowl skating so you
know we feel like you know it's
important if we when we go through
through the renovation
process that you know at least a couple
of these disciplines are focused on as
well next slide
okay public involvement so
um you know due to the covid-19
restrictions we weren't able to meet in
person however we were able to
successfully troubleshoot an online
public involvement kind of survey
process
um
uh you know everyone that responded uh
was from General Public to active Park
users
um we did create a custom web page that
first started out with the survey and to
your right you'll see a little uh
screenshot of kind of asking you know
what is your ZIP code
um other responses like that but we
received a total of 133 uh survey
responses which is amazing I felt like
if I were to fly out there and do a
public design Workshop in person we
wouldn't we wouldn't get 133 people in a
room you know uh so I think that's great
um you know uh we did also um on that
survey page allow additional input which
we received 15 responses uh the city was
was great about posting it
um on uh the city's Facebook page which
you know we we received 101 comments as
well and then we were also reached out
by Logan and a couple of his friends
who's a local skater there uh in Las
Cruces and had a zoom meeting
um over a video with our lead designer
kind of talking about the pros and cons
of these existing skate parks some of
the neighboring skate parks nearby what
do they like to ride just to get a
general feel of uh what their opinion
was but
um also that was uh great on on the web
page was uh Sonia actually uh did a
video an intro video and we actually
were able to upload and integrate it on
on the page to help build the buzz so
thank you sonny I I think that was great
that you were able to do that next slide
please
okay so our survey page not only had
just a standard list of questions but we
also went over the skate park in general
so what we did was we took this aerial
of this gay Park and we identified about
17 features within the Escape Park
itself
um we were able to label it uh put names
on those features
um create this little interactive map
where if you hovered over each feature
and you clicked on it it actually blew
up a bigger photo of that feature and
then we talked about you know would you
rather renovate it or replace it
um I mean look
okay so a lot of the um you know
comments that we received the most
comments were of that square Bowl so if
you look at the image it's ramp number
14 in the bottom left hand corner the
square Bowl did receive the most
comments and some of the uh comments we
did receive that was uh pretty typical
was a lot of the writers complaining
that the transitions are too steep uh
that they're not really safe as well as
uh that bowl has drainage issues too
next slide please
okay so this is the um when you did
click on the when you hovered over that
ramp and you clicked on the feature this
is what it kind of blew up and kind of
uh presented to you uh we gave a feature
description kind of describing how that
uh feature is being used
um highlighted the problem areas
um we ran a percentage and and asked
them would you rather renovate it or
just replace it entirely
um and then most common responses for
each uh feature was provided all of this
information is in our detailed
information is in our report so if
you're interested to see you know what
what the community was talking about or
kind of like their comments about per uh
each different feature you can look into
our report
next slide please
okay summary of conditions and usability
um so first I do want to mention that
you know back in 1998 uh that's when
kind of the industry was just growing
since then ASTM has gotten on board and
created standards these are standards
for above ground ramp Parks as well as
in-ground concrete Parks such as yours
uh you know ASTM is if you don't know is
the American society uh for testing
materials
um so they kind of really just dissected
from
um you know different tolerances that
are needed within skatepark design and
construction as well as materials and
and such
um
looking at your conditions and usability
you know there are a lot of safety
concerns just with the general wear and
tear of the skate park majority of the
concrete is not smooth
um there is extensive uh surface surface
failure in the Square Bowl as well as
throughout the park
um not only is the transition walls too
steep within the bowl itself but also on
other features found within the skate
park and the radiuses aren't aren't
smooth as far as the approach to get up
to the ramp
next please
so we were tasked to come up with a
couple different options
um to work with I do want to point out
that you know your skate park is your
current skatepark is 33 000 square feet
in size
um that's that's what we label a
regional size skate park it's a big one
and it's great
um right now today's typical
construction cost for skate parks is
running about 50 per square foot so if
you take that number and you multiply it
by thirty three thousand square feet
you're at about 1.6 million to just
replace that entire park
um or if a community chose to do a 33
000 square foot today that's what the
price range you're looking at so what we
did was we were very strategic about
trying to
um analyze and maximize your guys budget
construction budget the best that we
could so if you look at the diagram on
the right
um we first started with a perimeter the
dark gray is an existing top debt that
is primarily used for circulation around
the skate park
um so we on this particular option we
did decide to keep that circulation
around the skate park
um and next up is the red red is the
existing top deck or flat areas that are
found throughout the skate park so we're
talking about demoing or removing that
the yellow is actual features themselves
so we were talking about demo and
removing that
um if you look at there's a couple
features in the middle of the gray of
the light gray area those would require
like a surgical type demo to remove that
kind of astringent process however it's
still maximizing your budget
um and then the light gray last is your
existing flatwork that's found
throughout the bottom of your skateboard
and we talked about renovating that flat
work instead of demoing and removing it
entirely so the approximate finished
cost for this is just over a million
dollars option number one is the least
most uh or the least expensive option to
go with
um let me see yeah and then in that
large flat area you know we we would
plan on or the designer would plan on
just integrating new features just just
to try to connect
um the rest of the skate park
next please
okay option number two so in in theme of
the first option everything stays the
same where we keep the dark gray
um for the existing circulation around
the park so people have a good view and
are able to walk around the skate park
itself the red we would demo and remove
yellow we would remove demo demolish all
that existing features and the light
gray we would actually demo that out and
Report
um the approximate cost is about
1.44 million um for that uh again this
is the same as option number one except
we're going to go ahead and demo and
remove
um the inside light gray existing
flatwork you may ask you know how is
this cheaper you know compared to the
1.6
um if you were to do a brand new 33 000
square foot skate park I just want to
remind you that uh we are keeping that
dark gray perimeter area for circulation
so that's your kind of like remaining
square footage that we're keeping
next slide please
I believe you're gonna um
continue this one Kathy
yes thank you thank you very much Brian
appreciate your uh running through that
with us so at this point in time we're
just wanted to present this update and
seek general counsel consensus regarding
which option to to lean towards
staff at this point of course is leaning
towards option one because it's more
close to our budget we will of course
have to make some
tough decisions and some hard design
choices to bring the project itself into
our budget but I wanted to mention also
that we are
um
going out to the skate Community again
or continuing I should say to solicit
input from the skate Community with
regards to their thoughts about which
option we should go with or and
specifically what kind of features we
should focus on
repairing or demoing or replacing and
the like and so we are in the process of
making that announcement again that once
again this assessment and report will be
available for the broader community and
the skate Community to comment on and to
give us their opinions regarding option
one or option two so we're looking to
complete that process through November
and December and we're hoping to be able
to come back to Council in December
possibly January to get some kind of
um
final consensus on which option to
proceed with based on our additional
input
our next steps also then include putting
out a request for proposal for the
design build of the renovated skate park
um
uh based on the budget and the
complexities of this project we wanted
to make sure that that RFP
um was out to uh the
skate Construction and design Community
across the country
um and as part of that RFP process of
course we'll go through our regular
proposal evaluation process through the
selection advisory committee in addition
we're we've asked Logan
to be on that committee as well as our
subject matter expert so that we can
make sure that we have as close
communication with the skate Community
as possible and still adhere to our
purchasing requirements
um so the idea is we're looking for a
consultant or contractor who can do the
design build process figuring that that
will be the way to maximize our budget
again to make sure that we get the
highest quality product we can
um through this Pro process we will be
soliciting Community input throughout
the design as well to make sure that
we're hearing what the actual users want
and having their assistance in guiding
us as to how to make the best decisions
on utilizing our budget once again of
course we'll go to council to seek
approval on the design and to update you
all on the process and how
how the community has responded and then
of course we'll go into construction as
I mentioned before I anticipate probably
about an 18-month process from design
through Construction
um with that I would like to make myself
and Brian available
for questions and um some discussion
regarding the consensus I wanted to
mention also that Logan is available on
this meeting to answer questions and if
you're interested in hearing his
comments and his perspectives as well he
is available to to give those okay thank
you Kathy and definitely want to hear
from Logan but before I go to council
thank you Brian for the presentation uh
really quickly if you don't mind
um option one and option two so I just
want to make sure there's just two
options right yes correct okay so on
this one here do you have a life
expectancy if you were to do this how
long all this would last about him yeah
I mean being that if it's professionally
designed with construction documents and
such as well as professionally built by
Escape Park Builder the life
expectancies are are 20 years plus
um
and then the next option too
the next one on that one same thing same
question I just wanted to have this so
that when I go to the council you know
that's out of the way and today's
typical warranty for in-ground Custom
Concrete is one year however there is
maintenance that will have to be
performed
but I mean on option two is saying 20
years 25 years I'm looking for yeah it
is yeah number of years okay
Okay so we've got counselors Ben Cuomo
Flores and Gandara so councilor bencom
thank you mayor um and thank you so much
Kathy and Mr Moore for the presentation
I firstly I want to say thank you for
all the work that you all have put into
engaging the community and particularly
obviously the people who will be using
this right like I could I wouldn't even
be able to give input on design even if
I wanted to I have I know nothing about
skating so I think it's so so important
in like such a good lesson for us to to
really go to the folks that will be
utilizing the service most right so um
so thank you for all that engagement I
do have a couple questions
um
and yes I would love to hear from Logan
if he's on the call I think that'd be
wonderful for the council to hear from
him
um I so
Kathy can you remind me what our budget
is like what what's our actual budget
uh counselor thank you uh for the
question our budget right now since at
845 000 okay
so what so with these two options right
are are above that both of them I'd be
curious to hear for sure from
um the skating Community which option
they prefer and then for me I guess the
conversation is what how will we how
will we fill the budget Gap
have we discussed that Kathy uh Mr Mayor
councilman Como we we have discussed
that in a general kind of way at this
point we're in a planning stage so the
responses to very carefully select what
we demo and what we put in place
um making design decisions that may even
shrink the park a little bit to make
sure our budget is adhered to
um yeah that's that's unfortunate that
makes me sad right I want to make sure
that we have
um Escape Park that that is that is good
and that you know people are going to be
proud of and people are going to use and
not just say well this is what we could
afford right like I want to make sure
that we that we give this sort of our
best so
um you know I'd be curious definitely to
hear from
um
at least even on this option right like
the gap of what is it 175 000
um how the city manager Mr Mayor is
thinking about that because I would hate
to to significantly reduce the size of
the skate park
um for you know if if we can't meet that
budget
um so that thank you for that Kathy and
then my last question is
so I'm unclear about Mr Moore you are
the Builder but then we need a
contractor for design or you're not the
same person so um um American Ram
company we were just hired to do the
assessment I think four years but we are
a design build firm yes okay okay
[Music]
[Applause]
from Logan as a representative of the
community but
um you know I just I want to make sure
that we give this community a good a
good skip Park so I'd love to talk about
that budget Gap sure you know I have him
down as um as fourth speaker after uh
mayor Pro tem but I think you kind of
asked the question of of E40 myself so
this is my take counselor UMO
is
I think it's important that since we're
looking to do these what did you call
them Kathy skate spots yes yes mayor
yeah then I would probably lean toward
the option one if we weren't doing those
then I'd probably lean towards option
two
um now how would we come up with the
money
I think um
well obviously the general fund but I'm
also thinking that that we need to move
forward with one of these two options
obviously because
and I think the the the
young men and women that came to council
was after the fact that we had moved
forward with our bond
if we had known the the popularity I
mean you know of it we could have
included that in there and so I didn't
want I don't want them to feel left out
so I think that's important that we come
up with we'll figure out and find the
money to to make this work
because and then but
I guess what I'm trying to think of is
you know and I do put a lot of stock
into the East the East London property
which I think we're gonna have some
discussion on later today
um and then once that once that hits uh
pay back the general fund a couple
hundred thousand whatever it is that we
needed to borrow from it so that's my
thing
thank you
uh counselor Flores and the mayor Pro
Tem
thank you Mr Mayor and thank you thank
you Miss Matthews and Mr Moore for your
presentation
so
um I have a question that's similar to
um mayor uh mayor's question about uh
the difference between
um the quality that we're going to get
uh between option one option two where
there's like half a million dollar
difference but Mr Moore you said there
really wasn't any difference in the
quality even though you said that
there'd be more or total removement
of the pavement so
um I just want to know if if if it's
your answer was that there was like a
20-year uh shelf life or
or whatever
that that either option would have can
you explain why we would even think of
going for option two if option one is
going to give us the same
this same project essentially a million
dollars less right so
um
the difference between option one and
option two is that light gray area about
you know with option one keeping that
light gray area but just kind of cabinet
instead of full demo just capping it and
making that large flat area Mark work
within a new design option number two is
so so when you do it I'm sorry let me
back up when you do option number one it
does kind of limit the design capability
of what what you're trying to accomplish
and option number two is just full demo
like no no restrictions uh um you know
you could pretty much do whatever you
want with that area you know
um since this park was built back in
1998 you know again there wasn't any
ASTM standards so today you know this
will be should be built with a
professional skatepark designer on board
as well as a professional skateboard
Builder that will follow the ASTM
standards so your shelf life of your
skate park will will last longer
um but I do want to remind everyone that
I do you know general upkeeping
maintenance is important although it is
uh less with a concrete skatepark but
you are going to have to address some
issues over time
yes thank you Mr I do have
um another question I think we all have
a
I think we all were very supportive of
the skate uh uh Park so
um or you know having several pop up
around the city
so
um I don't know how soon the city would
be able to Mr Mayor or the powers that
be our finance people or whatever budget
people
would be able to address how soon after
we take care of this park we'd be able
to build or fix more around the city
and whether we might go for option two
since it would afford more Escape
skateboarding options or areas
Council Flores if if I may this is Kathy
Matthews yes
so the skate spots Our intention is to
uh Parks and Rec's intention is to
incorporate skate Parts Escape spots
wherever we can in
um ongoing projects and and potentially
to look for additional ways of
incorporating those skate spots into
existing Parks even if we don't have an
ongoing project in a particular location
I did want to let Council know that the
skate spots are estimated to cost
between 50 000 and 200 000 each and I'm
sorry how much Kathy fifty thousand to
two hundred thousand dollars each skate
spot depending on the complexity and the
size of the skate spot
um
we at this point Parks and Rec is
considered how we might achieve a spot
or two within our existing operations
budget but that might be a little tough
um given you know the high cost of even
a skate spot
um but the idea was that the skate spot
um design and construction would sort of
be an ongoing thing
um that we would tackle
um as quickly as we can to get those
skate opportunities available to the
public
so as it stands right now we just have
the current location the one we're
discussing is that correct Mr mayor
council Flores yes that is correct
so it might be a while
um I see so if we were to spend say a
hundred thousand on each skate spot
um but we don't know whether that's in
the near future or not we could
um build five and what would uh in
comparison to what we have now the area
we're discussing now is for the
presentation of Mr Moore what would that
compare to in size to the skate spots
yeah sure um well your skate park is
currently 33 000 square feet
um eight spots are typically between
3000 and 5 000 square feet and they're
really located in existing neighborhood
parks in order to serve you know people
within that neighborhood or facility
I see so they're a lot smaller but
they're still well you're a skater so a
skateboarder so you would know whether
um that would be really enjoyable for
our youth or for excuse me not just our
youth but uh people who are capable of
doing this skateboarding yeah yes oh
yeah yeah I'm just trying to size up you
know sometimes and my father always said
uh sometimes when you pay less for for
an item you end up paying more in many
in in this time you know in this context
we're talking about quality of life for
our youth or you know for for the
enjoyment of life here in Las Cruces so
um I just want to make sure that we're
going to be uh not you know being uh
what is it pound wise and or Pennywise
and pound foolish and
um because I'm I'm really I mean I wish
I certainly wish I I could take it out
of my pocket to make up that difference
to uh make uh make it possible for
option b excuse me option two to make it
uh bigger and have more people be able
to use it you know in the year year and
a half then it'll be completed so anyway
thank you very much Esther Moore and
thank you Kathy Miss Matthews and thank
you Mr Mayor
thank you counselor mayor Pro Tem
thank you mayor thank you Kathy thank
you Mr Moore appreciate the conversation
and all the work that's been done thus
far
um it's part of your work to do sort of
a
um a master plan kind of thinking about
those
um not only the existing Park but the
spark the park no the skate spots
um as well I mean do we have some
indication of what that would look like
moving forward
um
thank you for asking
um no that actually was not part of our
scope of work we were just hired to do
the assessment of your current skate
park however you know we could provide
um options of what the skate spots can
look like
um you know really it's the big
difference is between them is size
um when we do these skate spots
um we typically don't do like an
in-ground Bowl which is going to cost
over a hundred thousand dollars right
off the bat and a bowl only really
Services one Rider at a time right and
so what we would do is we were pretty
strategic when we look at the way we
design them we basically design them as
as Street or Park features where it's
just like a set of stairs a grind box a
grind rail real small and limited but
just to serve just that local community
yeah okay I appreciate that
really thinking that
that part of what you're doing I think
that's important like comes from bengomo
I'm not a user and so I I'd love to have
the folks that do use it you know weigh
in on that and looking
um
visioning right what what we would be
doing with these skate spots so if if
there's any way
that we can incorporate that into
um this particular work product Mr Moore
that would be in my mind helpful moving
forward
um and the other thing is and hearing
Kathy
um
option one would that mean decreasing
the size of this particular Park
I'll I'll speak on that counselor um uh
no there they would both be the same
size it's just option one the design
would be a little bit limited because we
were going to be keeping that and
restoring that existing flat work that's
within your current skate park sure you
do option two you're basically starting
with a brand new fresh blank sheet sheet
of paper yeah yeah
I I am you know we see how heavily that
Park is used and we see when we've
stopped using it because of covet and
when we opened it up how packed that
Park was now I ventured to say when we
start developing the skate spots that
that might ease up a little bit but I'm
really intrigued by this Regional Park
and the standards and being able to hold
really cool events for the entire region
like we've heard throughout this time
um as we are speaking to this the
opportunities that we could have I don't
know
competitions and different things and
you hear about some of these other
larger I don't know if they're larger
Parks but other really well developed
and designed parks in Albuquerque and
Alamogordo and maybe a I think up North
Farmington maybe I hear they're really
awesome so why not compete in that way
um and it just sounds like option two is
the better but again I like to hear
Logan
because I'm sure they've already have
the users right our youth know what
which one they like and I don't think we
should be limited in terms of fun I get
it I understand
um kind of going with it and working
within our budget but
um
I really like the sound of option to
starting with a clean slate and building
from there
um it makes sense to me
um especially with the thought and mind
of having these really cool tournaments
and different or events of sorts um I
would really like to see that and our
kids deserve something of high quality
and not that option one would not be I'm
just thinking I really like the sound of
of option two better but more
importantly is listening to our youth I
think that's important and you know
we've heard throughout this time and how
organized they've been and I I just want
to be able to hear from Logan
um what what option it suits
um them
thanks mayor thank you Mr Moore okay so
before I get to counselor sorg I'm going
to listen here from Logan and Logan can
you state your first and last name
please
uh yeah my name is Logan Howard I'm with
the Las Cruces skatepark coalition
um good afternoon mayor and council
members uh first I just want to say
thank you to American Ram company for
working on us or for working with us on
the assessment and I really appreciate
their Outreach despite covid I think
that we were all really worried about
the engagement that we were going to
receive and we wish that there were more
but I think they did a great job
considering
um being in the middle of a pandemic uh
I also want to thank Parks and Rec uh
we've had really great
um Clear Channel of communication
between us and them and trying to relay
as much information to the community as
possible so Sonia and Kathy have been
great on that and I also want to thank
the elected officials for working with
us so far I know we've been through a
lot of meetings and been through a lot
of steps we still have a lot of steps to
go so just want to thank you guys for
that there's a few things I want to
touch on and I want to pause in some
areas and ask some questions but
um first thing that I want to touch on
are the options
um going through this we've talked to
some of the community and that's one
thing I want to talk about a little bit
later is we want to increase the amount
of Outreach we're doing with the youth
right now it's been a lot harder to get
community doing community organizing in
the middle of the pandemic but while we
have been talking about it we've been
thinking about the budget
and
option two is the option that we'd like
to shoot for we've been told that option
one may be something that maybe almost
that we're trapped into considering the
budget but um kind of mirroring the
concerns that I heard the mayor and some
of the counselors say is you know like
we're spending you know at this moment
almost nine hundred thousand dollars and
to settle short and not have what we
could have I think is worrisome so if we
can settle if we can work towards option
b or option two that's something we like
to shoot for and I I don't want to ask
the mayor uh you had said that you you
think that we may be able to fill that
Gap and if so should we can we focus on
option two or should we
like where where does that stand and
then also if if the city can't fulfill
it would would we be able to access some
things like outdoor Equity Fund or other
things like that where we could fill
that Gap I know we're a little worried
about
um trying to access more CIP or more
money from the state legislator
concerning the state and the pandemic
budget
um
sad
yeah thanks Logan for that question that
probably would need a little bit more
time from from the city to figure out
exactly where
um we may find some savings I mean it
could very well come from uh as simple
as there could be some positions that
maybe the city doesn't need to to fill
but I would prefer that probably
let the management team discuss that if
they're welcome to talk about it now but
I would think that they probably I mean
there's coming up with 600 000 is a
little a little bit of a challenge right
you know right off the top of our head
that's what I'm trying to get at
Mary this is before I that's that's
pretty much what I was going to manifest
the direction uh if we're looking at
that if you just give us some time give
us some time and we can we can get with
staff to look for uh I'm sure we can
can uh you know internally look for some
funds to do that if you know if that's
the direction that we went ahead but
yeah I was just going to say even give
some time to do that with our our team
here okay
so another quick question regarding the
budget and if that is the direction that
we're going to choose to go for because
I mean either option A or option b
there's a gap to fill and I think Sonia
had mentioned that the we have about
three or four weeks until we're to
present a final or an option that we
would like to choose whether it's option
A or option b
um
would would you be able to know what gap
of which budget we'll be able to fill by
that time
foreign can you repeat that question
Logan please so Sonia said that after
this meeting
um there'd be about three to four weeks
until we are to choose whether we're
going to go with option A or option b
before the RFP goes out and
um would we know by that time how much
money would be able to get to fill the
Gap that we're missing
I would think so because we want to know
how much we're going to spend before we
go off to RFP so
oh yeah I I think your questions pretty
would be fair to say that we would know
how much we're going to spend before we
go out to bid
is that your question
uh yeah yeah that's my question I just
um I guess we'll just have to wait
in the meantime and see what you guys
come up with as far as what numbers you
guys can fill
right and in first I mean unless I
didn't hear quite um from the rest of
the council I just heard from mayor Pro
tem that she would like to see option
two but I I haven't heard from the rest
of the of the board yet so
um
so I I it all depends on what the you
know what council wants to do and then
and then we'll go and try to find that
money
mayor for the record this is counselor
Flores I did say that I prefer option
two oh okay I'm sorry and that I wish I
had that money to put you know out of my
own pocket I did say that so you I
definitely oh that's right you did yes I
did thank you Mr Mayor
uh there's also rumor that you can
afford to pull it out of your own pocket
but you know I do I do I just choose not
to I think I'll just buy a uh an island
off uh you know Amalfi or something
thank you okay
uh Logan was there anything else you
wanted to to discuss before I go to
counselors and see if in councilor beta
stew VC what they have to say uh yeah I
do there's a few things I like to touch
on if that's okay so also they had um
as Kathy had mentioned she
um they were able to get me on the on
the sac committee or what it's called to
help advise with uh like making sure
that the correct contractor is built one
thing that we'd like to talk with the
city and with Parks and Rec cabal is
getting more people on that seeing if we
could shoot for a number of three people
to help guiding on that making sure that
we keep the community engagement as high
as possible as we've had through the
beginning of the process
um so that's one thing that I would like
to that we would like to mention and
also moving forward
um
asking the city and Parks and Rec to
help us with Outreach whether through
their channels as much as possible could
just it's been hard with covid not being
able to have the meetings I've been able
to in person so having you guys part of
that
um and then one major thing that I
wanted to touch on which you guys
touched on a little bit is um Kathy had
said that this is going to be around an
18-month process for the park to get
built and we I mean we only have one
skate park right now so it would be like
if we were to build like building a new
basketball court and the
and we only have one basketball court in
town and they shut that down for 18
months there's nowhere to play
basketball
so we would like to advocate for having
something to skate or having something
for the kids or the youth to enjoy
um while the park is being built uh one
option that I had talked with Sony about
Sonia about maybe we can tap into that
the skate spot idea as well is we have
that one hundred thousand dollars that
is set aside apart from this budget and
maybe looking into that and seeing if we
can use that money to build something
um
before our wall
um the new park is being built I know
Arc they did the Mesquite the Mesquite
day park and people out here drive to
Mesquite day like all the time to go
skate that Park and I think that that
cost I think um that cost around fifty
thousand I could be wrong I don't know
Brian
um
so we would definitely like to the city
to look into that and and with those
type of products they're prefab Parks so
it's not like you have to have a
concrete team or anything crazy like
that we just need a slab of land whether
that's in a park or two if we can get
them under 40 000 that would be great to
have like maybe one on each side because
not every kid has access to like you
know transportation to get onto the
other side of the Town
um so that's one big thing also Mr Mayor
this is Kathy Matthews yes Catherine
um uh thank you Logan
um you you've uh thrown a thrown out a
number of things that I wanted to see if
I could address a number of those
questions real quick
um
so just in order
um with regard to the selection of the
consultant for design build
um I will have to talk with purchasing
regarding the number of um subject
matter experts that we can have on that
committee so I need to confirm with them
that we can
include more outside subject matter
experts
um I I it seems to me that that could be
reasonable but I do need to confirm that
first before I can commit to that but I
will I will do that I will seek that
response and and see what we can do
um
D and the second thing is absolutely you
can count on Parks and Rec to do
everything we can to uh get as much
public input as we possibly can and to
do what Outreach we can advertising
um doing Facebook blasts
um making Zoom meetings available and
um the like everything that we can
within the restrictions that we're given
you can absolutely count on us to fully
participate in enthusiastically seek
that that input
um so I hope you I hope you do count on
us I hope you trust us with regard to
that
um I know the other day we did discuss
um what we're going to do how folks are
going to be able to skate where they're
going to be able to skate while we're
under construction and and that's
definitely an important question I
wanted to mention that the 18-month time
frame is design and construction and so
it won't be a full I don't anticipate a
full 18 months that the park would be
out of commission I know that doesn't
help because it will be out of
commission for a certain amount of time
while we're under construction we can't
have construction and use going on at
the same time I don't really see how
that could happen and so we have
discussed a little bit internally about
some options of how to provide skate
opportunities for the community
um
when while we are under construction
because it's important I mean people
I think this pandemic has taught us
people need a place to skate they need a
place to recreate and they're kind of
desperate for it because it's so
essential to keeping people healthy and
happy
um so we're definitely
seeking options for that I have to say
the one option that it that I have to
say will not work is using that hundred
thousand dollars to build a temporary
Escape facility and the reason is is
that the legislative language for that
hundred thousand dollar Grant
specifically
slates that money for planning and
design of a new skate park
so unfortunately we're limited with the
um and how we can use that funding it
has to be for planning and design of a
new skate park that hundred thousand
dollars
so we um as that one slide mentioned we
have two two sources of legislative
funding one is eight hundred and forty
five thousand dollars for design and
construction of a renovated skate park
and the other is a hundred thousand
dollars for the planning and design of a
new skate park unfortunately
um at this point in time those those
pots of money are slated for those
specific projects
um and we would not be able to use a
hundred thousand dollars for
construction I I hope that helps
and I want you to know that we are
seeking ways of of getting Escape
facilities available for our community
thank you before I get to counselor
sword and debate the Stevie Catherine
Kathy let me just ask you a couple more
questions so have we identified where
the new skate park would go
Mr Mayor we have not identified that
location we want to um consider
internally some options that staff will
propose and that we would
um feel that would be suitable but also
we want the public involved in that
decision and discussion as well it okay
and did you say that that I I know we
got the hundred thousand from the
legislature but we didn't get
another 800
000 or so Mr Mayor that is correct we we
I do have the two sources of funding a
hundred thousand dollars for but for
planning and design of new and the 845
for renovation Construction
renovation construction of the new the
new one or for the old one the existing
one the old one
did we when when we um
got the money from the legislature did
we give them a price tag as to what we
thought the park was going to cost
uh Mr Mayor the skate Community was and
Logan can speak to this was very active
in seeking that funding from our
legislative Representatives
um and my understanding is they
um sought an amount of a million dollars
Logan uh if I can speak on that real
quick Mr Mayor so we went up and lobbied
with our we had meetings here and went
up to Santa Fe and Lobby and we shot for
three million
um and it was broken down into we wanted
three million for a new a new skate park
in general
um and then when they came back the
language was that it was too it was they
broke it down to two different projects
one was uh renovation of the old and one
for the new and it ended up that we only
got 845 000 for the renovation and only
a hundred thousand dollars in seed money
for the for a new part
so we had shot we had shot for three
million and I think that a lot of these
issues and like you said um you know we
didn't come before the bond and so we we
shot through just that channel and
that's why we're dealing with a lot of
the issues now and trying to make this
budget work
um yeah so we did we did ask for three
okay let me let me uh Sonia wants to say
something so let me just uh go to her
real quick Sonia
good afternoon mayor members of council
Sonia Delgado director of Parks and
Recreation I just wanted to make a
comment and just make you aware
um I do understand that the skating
Community is going to want a place to
escape while their facility is under
construction uh this is becoming a
reoccurring question now now for example
with go Bond I've let individuals ask me
where am I gonna go play tennis where am
I going to go play Pickleball
um where are we gonna go play softball
baseball Etc and so this is becoming a
reoccurring question that's great in the
sense that we're getting some renovation
or some new facilities but this is going
to be a challenge going across the
boards I just wanted to make you aware
of that uh that we are getting those
types of requests thank you well Sonia
hold on I gotta ask a couple more
questions to ask you so do you have a
general did you have a general idea
where you thought that this new Park
Skate Park would go
uh for the new one not yet just as Kathy
mentioned we've been having some general
discussions about that but we do want to
open it up to the community to our
skateboarding Community to find out
where might be some ideal locations we
definitely need some things in the East
Mesa District 5 district 6 area
um of course in District 4 as well so we
could we could probably put it just
about anywhere but we need to have those
conversations and we were going to get
that process started in the spring of
2021. okay so thank you for that let me
just go back to Brian and then I'll go
back to council here real quick I'm just
trying to put a few put a few things in
my head here Brian yes
okay the our current skate park the one
we've just been discussing
if we did zero renovation to it right
now will would it last at least two more
years
um I mean it would last two more years
but I just know that
after reviewing everything that a lot of
the problem areas are a safety concern
oh I mean we'll take care of the the
smaller things let me tell you what I'm
thinking okay we Fast Track the the the
the new location
um and we'll we'll try to get a
legislative change to use that 845 let's
say we find a new location
and we spend two million dollars to
build a new skate park
um and then and and then get the
legislature uh legislative language to
allow us to use that 845 plus the 100
that we need so it comes that means we
come up with a million and then we go
and bond that to bond for that that
million then that way there it's not
closed down this park is still moving
while we're building the new one and
when we're building a new one they'll
theoretically have two of them but one
will be brand new one will be not so new
and then um but you know they'll
gravitate to the new one of course and
then that gives us chance to kind of do
some things that we need to to renovate
this
and then you've got them strategically
around you know one in the middle of
town and one in the East Mesa if that's
where we're going to go and I'm thinking
at the
at the um at the sports complex where
we're thinking of putting everything
else I mean it would seem like it would
make sense to go in that direction over
there but this way here there's no down
time and to to answer the questions that
that Sonya was saying the difference
with this pickleball and the tennis
courts and all those there are other
locations for them to play that this one
here you shut this one down it's it's
done that's it they only have one
so that's what I was thinking
um so if we hold on if we have the land
do you you think we could build one for
two million
uh two million again that's a very
healthy budget for foreign
um so uh yes I believe I I figured that
okay I'm sorry Kathy go ahead thank you
Mr Mayor I apologize I I did want to
remind everyone that the 845 000
um we have a requirement to obligate
five percent of that funding uh within
three months of having received it so we
do we unfortunately must proceed with a
certain
um extent of that project of the
renovation
um so we can we could start on design
the design portion of that renovation
project
um fairly quickly
um do in an effort to meet Our
obligation to uh to uh encumber five
percent of that budget well I mean
theoretically we could use five percent
of that budget to renovate it and use
the 95 towards a new one
I mean we just have to get the
legislative language changed it's not
it's it's it's a little bit easier if
they see what our big plan is it would
be almost impossible like what you know
like what was uh earlier mentioned that
take you know that 100 000 and and go
some other place for it because then the
legislature is going to say hey wait a
minute that that's totally different
than what you're saying whereas this
um it's like kind and and I think it'd
be a little bit easier to to get that
language changed I'm I'm pretty actually
I'm pretty confident we could but that's
just my thinking but it's up to council
if they want to go in that direction
it's just that way they're the down
there's no real downside to that
actually uh the the place it would still
be functional they get a new um facility
out of it you know we'll go ahead and
you know bond for the the million and
then we'll just use the general fund to
pay for that debt service on that
instead of having to come up with
another six or seven hundred thousand
dollars
but okay let me go to counselor sorg and
then Abate the Stevie and oh counselor
Vasquez is here and then councilor
Vasquez so counselor sword
thank you Mr Mayor
thank everyone for the uh extensive
discussion on this whole uh project
um and it's nice to see counselor
Vasquez here uh as I know he's very
interested in the skate park
um
I just have a couple of things in the
mayor kind of
covered one of them
um
in uh this renovation of this park
I would like to have everybody keep in
mind that considering what we have now
considering how it was built with
volunteer and no professional uh uh work
done on it uh professionals working on
it uh doing it
um it's a park that's uh that has served
its purpose of course for for a while
um but uh the standards and so forth
that we're going to put in a renovation
of this is going to have a significant
uh increase in the in the quality of the
park and no matter what uh
option we take uh
that we decide to have there it's going
to have it's going to be a super duper
Park compared to what we've had in the
past 20 years
um what I would like to know is uh if we
go this direction where we choose option
one or two where we're going to get that
600 000 what part of the budget does it
come from that's I need to know that
before I can decide what what option to
choose and whether to do it at all for
that matter
um
the the option one or two so I if that
information I think is important we've
made decisions in the past blindly so
okay we'll just do this and and uh you
don't know where the money's coming from
uh what programs are being cut uh What
uh employee is not getting this money or
whatever and so I just need to know that
so uh I'm sure that staff can can
provide that information and I did have
the same question uh the new park I was
going to ask Kathy and Sonia where they
thought the best location of the new
park would be and so I'm just curious of
what that is and I guess they answered
that question so I'm okay
thank you mayor
thank you counselor beta Stevie
thank you uh mayor and thank you to all
of our participants today I was actually
uh really interested to hearing from Mr
Howard and the skating Community to see
what uh their choices were um I am
inclined to want to proceed with option
two
um and and really make sure that we're
we're utilizing a full space um since we
do have a lot of of people that want to
skate and and are enjoying that type of
um commitment
um one of the questions I had for you Mr
Moore in both of those options is that
is the bowl filled in both options then
or is a new one going to be made
yes Council good question
um it would probably be uh demoed and
removed um just because that bowl is a
occupies a small footprint um the design
is a little bit outdated
um and not to mention
um you know there were no as Built
construction drawings for this skatepark
right so it's it's going to be quite a
chore to investigate the existing site
conditions that's underneath there we
have to identify you know all the
utilities
um that are running there I'm not sure
if there's actually drain pipes for that
bowl or not appears to be but unclear
where how deep they are and where they
go
um so the the bowl would get removed but
through the design process if a new bull
is wanted then yes uh that would be part
of the new design
Okay so
and if we were to ever think about doing
any sort of type of competition or
inclusion event
um are goals necessary for those types
of events or is it something where it's
like two different styles of skiing so
you don't necessarily need it yeah good
question it is um it's a different style
of writing terrain so like older guys
like myself I grew up as a traditional
Street skater so I would jump downstairs
in handrails and whatnot but as I get
older I'm not doing that anymore right
um just because I have to go to work the
next day
um but uh what we do is when we design
um you know these these Parks uh for
competitions or or whatnot it is
advantageous to have a bowl
um so it is a separate writing style so
you can have a Bowl contest and then
move over to the next section and have a
street contest you know
um that way you're kind of um
um you're allowing any different writer
to be able to participate versus kind of
limiting the terrain itself
okay
um you know just thinking ahead then I
think it might be beneficial to have
both options available especially if
we're trying to attract
um different types of events that way
we're not excluding and if we're already
spending
um a significant amount of funds then we
might as you know well make it uh very
inclusive as possible so that's just
something I think to keep in mind
um when I looked at this event and I
talked with many different people from
the skating community and I've always
appreciated their commentary um you know
uh even my own kids they saw a skating
um video game and it said Tony Hawk and
they said is that the person that
developed the game and I felt like I
failed so we had plain about who he was
and what he was doing so I you know it
has a long history and there's many
different age groups that participate so
I want to make sure that we uh we're
doing that so thank you thank you
thank you welcome
um counselor
Vasquez
all right thank you mayor and uh I
apologize for being late had some
um some personal business to attend to
this afternoon but I'm glad I'm getting
to catch the tail end of this uh thank
you Logan and Brian for being here today
um yeah so I just want to quickly go
back to kind of the you know the the
Nexus of where this started and it was a
community meeting
um a district three community meeting
um at barricade culture shop where a lot
of young folks showed up a lot of
neighborhood folks showed up and it
skatepark wasn't on the agenda but we
asked what do you care about what do you
want to see changing your District
um how would you like to see the city
invest in your community and
overwhelmingly I think folks that showed
up said you know we've been we've been
asking the city for upgrades or
renovations to the skate park for years
and it doesn't seem like we've ever had
any traction
um Logan I think you were there I think
several other members of the district
were there
um and so you know that the conversation
really started from from the Grassroots
from folks from young people who
actually showed up to a city council
meeting right because we went to them in
there and you know in a place where they
felt comfortable and and they asked for
this and so
um whatever decision we end up going
with I want to make sure that it stays
true to the desires of the skating
Community
um I will say the reason we have that
845 000 to make a decision over in the
first place is also due to the skating
Community
um they organize themselves
um they fundraise to take a van up to
Santa Fe and they lobbied individual
legislators for this capital outlay and
even in a time now right where so many
of the capital outlay projects were put
on The Chopping Block in fact I think
the transportation grant that was also
part of the skate park that
representative Lara Cadena had allocated
for this project got cut by the governor
in in light of covet so we did lose a
little bit of money for the Escape Park
but we were able to retain that 845
thousand dollars but again I think that
was due to the heartfelt pleas in the
lobbying of our young people
um and our some of our you know some of
our young adults also right who grew up
skating in this community who grew up
skating in that Park and who had fond
memories of creating that Park
um so I just want to um I want to take
it back to Logan
um I have seen the skate park analysis
and the report that was put together and
both of the options
um and and I think from the tail end of
the conversation I caught that we're
thinking about creating
um perhaps a invest seeing reinvesting
this money into a new skate park
which is fine if that's what the skating
Community wants but I mean I I also just
think about how Central that location is
how many kids I see walking to that
skate park from all different diverse
neighborhoods in our community in the
central part of the city and I wouldn't
want accessibility to be an issue if you
put a skate park kind of out in the
middle of nowhere are kids going to be
able to get to it but anyways um I I do
want to hand it back off to Logan I
apologize if he might be repeating
things that I haven't heard yet but
Logan what are your feelings from
working with a skate park Coalition on
the auction if if I may Council Vasquez
and and um that was just an idea I had
floated the council hadn't that was just
something I was just trying to figure
out a way to keep this park open that's
in uh office Bradley and then and then
start a start a new one and then move
that see about moving that money over
that hadn't we had gotcha yeah that was
Logan can still talk on that in fact I'd
be interested to hear what he had to say
on that too yes thank you man
thank you Mr Mayor cancer Vasquez one
thing I would like to clarify real quick
is like algae said like this has been
from the beginning a community project
and um
before we had had this meeting or before
I jumped on this meeting today we had
all decided through talking with Sonia
that we would go with option A or option
A because it seemed more attainable
through the budget
um and I just want to confirm that that
is our still our standing
um and if so and like so for instance if
we were to go with option b
I we wouldn't want to go with that if
that's something that a we could risk
the money risk the chance of losing the
money or also having the process being
delayed or pushed back by who knows how
long
um so that's one thing too and also
one thing that I think is important how
Gabe said too is any decisions being
made I may be up here speaking right now
but I'm not the Coalition so for any
decisions to be made we need we would I
want to come back talk with everybody
talk with you talk with the Coalition do
community outreach and have us or them
decide on whether it's option A or
option b and I know from talking with
them you know if option A is more
attainable and in the budget then that's
what they seem like they would go for is
option A but if if how the mayor had
said if there's budgets if there's
things that can be moved around and we
can get that money for option b then of
course I mean that's the optimal thing
um but that's not something that we
would want to go with if the timeline
will be pushed back considerably or we
have a chance of losing the money yeah
Logan when I was talking about the the
money moving around wasn't for option b
it was to build the new skate park of
wherever it's going to be to Fast Track
uh where this new park is going to be
and I just used the sports complex on
the East Mesa as an example so that so
that there'd be no downtime you'd still
have the current skate park but then be
building the new one because that's
going to take probably I don't know a
year to do and then and then when when
that one's finished then you'll have
actually two parks you'll still keep
them the one that we have in in the
central part of town and then one on the
east side of town yeah uh Mr Mayor
that's actually what we were advocating
for from the very beginning
yeah we didn't yeah that's what that was
our goal I mean yeah of course we would
love to have two brand new awesome
concrete skate parks but our goal was to
build one new skate park and somehow a
guy twisting the language up where we
ended up where we're just going to
renovate the old one
um that that's that was our goal from
the beginning was to have one brand new
skate park
okay well
gotcha
um thank you Logan I appreciate I
appreciate that and I think that's
um again the spirit of of this whole
process and bringing um young people
young adults together people who care
about this place that want to see uh new
generations of uh young people enjoying
these places and really just for us to
be up to par with these types of
facilities and surrounding communities
um you know I want to respect what what
the what the users of this facility will
want
um including yourself and so
um you know it sounds like maybe mayor
your proposal is something that
um you know would be very beneficial
right I'm sure we'd like to have two
facilities rather than one I think we
have to have a plan for that old
facility as Brian was mentioning the
safety assessments I think that were
done
um I think even before Brian by another
company indicated there might be some
serious structural issues and even some
liability issues to the city should we
choose to keep that Park open
um you know just in terms of what what
could happen there
um so I think we have to address that if
but I definitely would support building
a brand new park I just think we also
have to figure out how we're going to
pay for the improvements on the existing
Park
um so that we you know to make sure that
at least on the safety side of things
um that that we are in compliance and we
are watching our liability issues
um but also you know because it is that
skatepark is kind of in the Heart of the
City and accessible to so many people
um so many public transportation I mean
there's a bus stop right across the
street from there
um it's really at the convergence of
like three or four major neighborhoods
uh like I said a lot of kids walk there
all the time so uh I think your proposal
is great mayor I would just say let's
let's also make sure we keep up the
maintenance on the existing skate park
as well and if we can have two it sounds
like Logan that's something that um uh
again you would you would be in favor of
or at least bring that idea to the
community
um to gauge their support for them
let me thank you Council service let me
ask
um either Brian or or or Kathy or Sonia
what what was identified that needed to
be uh upgraded
you know the at the minimum you know
like I don't know was there some maybe
there was one part that was cracking
that needed to be redone or something I
don't know is can one of the can can
either of you speak to that I could oh
okay yes um so yeah there was a priority
um that was created based upon the
survey results that went over the 17
obstacles
um so uh there is uh kind of like a
priority level
um for each one of those so we could
definitely uh you know
um
we take a look at that make make
additional suggestions if you will
um but you know one of the big problems
is with this park is a lot of the
um not just talking about the failure of
the concrete but the design itself is is
kind of lacking
um and and so
um we could I mean of all the features I
found out that I think the the pump bump
which is one of the isolated features
um in the middle is one of the most
common and and uh heavily used uh we got
that through the survey and so yeah I
would look at that that would be low
priority maybe we keep that
um I did look at it and it looks kind of
steep to me but you know maybe that can
be fixed but there is other other ways
to kind of navigate through that and
update them so what I was thinking Brian
is is identifying what if any part of
the of the current skate park
is um could be from a liability
standpoint that we need to get repaired
okay and and then if and if Council and
I think what what would be good is to
have two proposals to go to council one
is is is option option one let's just
say is to
um take and I'll just use hypothetically
10 because the earlier you heard Kathy
say we got to spend five percent but
let's say we do ten percent so that's 80
something thousand dollars that we need
to
go right away in the current skateboard
to to fix you know something and that
leaves us
um roughly 800 000 or 775 000 that if we
get an appropriation to move that plus
the 100 that we already have from the
legislature and and then so we go and
bond 1.2 million to build the new skate
park but we've got to Fast Track that to
figure out where we're going to put
that's option one our option two is that
we is this right here we just but but
see that's if we go with either these
two options and we shut down we're gonna
have to shut down that Park and and the
skate park I mean I would think I don't
know but uh here
after we do all the design and we you
know once they start constructing it I
don't know maybe not a year maybe six
months I have no idea but do you know
how long you think it should take I mean
actually from the time they turn uh the
dirt to the time they have the
ground breaking right
um yes Mr America question
um it really depends on what that final
design is going to look like the
complexity of it you know um we estimate
um you know between a six month to eight
month window
construction for that department what I
will add to that is what we I kind of
spoke to Kathy about is if we were to
um you know one of those skate spots
that you wanted to design
um temporarily if we were able to do
that out of
um you know some portable ramps or some
modular ramps just to help fill the need
the temporary need in the meantime
um the designer and Builder you choose
can actually take those ramps after that
use and design it and integrate it and
move those ramps into that skate park
into the new skate park so it wouldn't
be a waste of money it wouldn't be a
waste of time but that would help kind
of absorb that downtime of not being
able to ride sure gotcha okay if I can
speak if I can speak on that real quick
I think that that's fine did it just
identify yourself so Logan Howard
skatepark Collision I mean I know who
you are but it's just for Trans person
transcribing the notes okay sorry about
that um yeah so what I had that's kind
of what I was mentioning earlier to
Kathy is like whether we go whatever
option we go with if we have to shut
down the park or just building I I
called it a attempt it's not temporary
like these like portable options like
what Brian is saying like in Mesquite
day it's not it may be portable but it's
a permanent Park
so that was my question and also with
Kathy it's like these aren't it's not a
temporary option it's a portable ramp
but it's a permanent solution so it's
like I mean it's a temporary solution to
not having something to skate in the
meantime but it's it's permanent in the
sense that we'll end up with another
neighborhood park and the Mesquite part
costed around under a hundred thousand
so there's a possibility that we could
even build two of those or one really
nice one you know maybe one on each side
of park or each side of town or I don't
I don't know which way it would go but
okay well we can come up with that maybe
that may be the way to go with your with
your group you know I'm I'm just looking
to see if the way I'm thinking is if
we're going to build one anyways then we
might as well just fast track it and get
it built you know and and that way there
there's no downtime but hey if you guys
are okay with it I'm okay with it it's
not like I you know I think that that
would be fine and mayor um I
um I think probably part of what Logan
and the coalition's concerns are
um I I think you're right it's just the
timeliness of it right like getting
getting
seeing this project come to fruition and
actually start to Turning some dirt over
I think is an important part of this
process that folks want to see and so I
don't know how feasible I don't even
know if there's roads out to the new
um uh East Mesa Recreation Complex built
yet so Logan I don't know
how important that is in the grand
scheme of things but seeing a timeline
of when when a park on the East Mesa
might be built might also be a
consideration you would want to take to
the skate park Coalition
um because fast tracking in the
government world right in our city world
might be like two years and if we
started work on renovating the existing
skate park you know that might be next
month and so that's a big difference I
think in in what you know the community
wants to see so
um Kathy is that something that you
might be able to provide in terms of if
we were to go with that option to build
a brand new skate park on the East Mesa
go through the bonding process like what
timeline we're sitting on versus if we
were to put the existing funding into
the skate park under plan a or Plan B
and then figure out that timeline
because I'm guessing that might have an
influence on the decisions that the
skate park Coalition might want to make
on this
uh yes uh Kathy Matthews with Parks and
Recreation Mr Mayor councilor Vasquez
yeah we can definitely put together
um estimated timelines
um for
um the various permutations that we're
talking about here
um I suspect none of them will be
considered fast
uh uh
but it but we can try to move them as
quickly as we possibly can I'm uh a
couple things I hope folks will keep in
mind
um I will put together timelines for for
the various and Sundry um options here
um and the however I did want to remind
folks as as Logan had mentioned the
original request to the legislature was
for new part skate park funding the our
legislative tours chose to fund
renovation instead you know maybe they
can be persuaded to change their mind
but it may take some doing
um just to keep that in mind that they
they actually chose themselves to fund
renovation
um and the I've lost my train of thought
with regard to another question that you
had
well hopefully that's good well well
Kathy thank you that that's helpful and
um you know I I also don't see why we
can't use the existing fund that's
already been appropriated to this
project for renovation and then bond out
for a new skate park
um on the East Mesa in conjunction with
the development of that existing Park if
we're talking about spending that money
anyway
um uh as part of that facility
um it might just make more sense to to
continue on track and then use our
bonding capacity to incorporate a new
skate park into the East Mesa
um just in terms of timeline and and
kind of where we're at now
um especially since I know a lot of
work's been put into this and Logan I
know you've gone through the process of
reviewing this document thoroughly and
meeting with your folks about it
um
so so I don't know that I mean that to
me that might be more more viable
um according to it also
Kathy's wishes and right now playing
with funding at the legislature might be
a little tricky you know I don't know
what legislators might say they might
just be like hey you don't want it we'll
take it back you know who I mean I don't
know but
it's not it's not one of those
infrastructure projects that's going to
be priority for them next year either so
yeah absolutely yeah uh this is Logan
Howard again um yeah counselor Vasquez
Mr Mayor that's one thing definitely the
timeline is is very important to us you
know like having a new park sounds great
but do we want it in two years not if we
can start the renovations in the next
you know month or two I would like to I
mean if yeah I guess I'm not used to the
term Fast Track being used in government
when I hear Fast Track I think like okay
like we'll start on the new park in a
new in a month or two instead of the
renovations in a month or two but if
it's going to be pushed back by you know
who knows how long I think and once
again I have to go back to the Coalition
the community and get community input
but I think that we would like to stay
on track and have you know the best
possible option within the budget if
that means that we can fill that Gap
whether it's option a option b
yeah Mr Mayor if I may Kathy Matthews
with uh Parks and Recreation
um
I did want to note also that
um
uh Parks and Rec has a a lot of projects
on the books right now a lot of projects
um and while these are very important
projects of course and we'll work to get
them in our schedule
um it's it's going to take some doing to
rearrange and and to Fast Track it's
going to take some
likely some decisions about what may
become less
of a high priority on our current
project list just something to keep in
mind okay well I appreciate that Kathy
we may want to then I don't know we'll
take a look at
councilor vasquez's idea and just uh
maybe what it would take just a bond out
a
a new skate park and just move forward
with what we were talking on this plan
here so
uh I think I think the key is is to get
some buy-in from your group Logan and um
that way there helps because I'm sure
Council will do what you know the best
that we can with resources that we have
and the timelines I mean really when you
get right down to it I mean it's we're
just doing it to to help as much as we
can for for you and the others that you
utilize this
I've always wanted to learn how to skate
I never could I don't have the I don't
have the balance I don't have the
coordination even if it was eight feet
long and four feet wide it probably
still fall off but come out I'll come
out I'll teach you oh no no okay don't
break my head it looks like Sonia wants
to say something
foreign
yes thank you mayor members of council
Sony Delgado Parks and Recreation
director I just wanted to reiterate what
Kathy had mentioned and thank you Kathy
the city did submit requests for both
existing and new for the skate park but
legislators did choose to fund primarily
the existing facility and so and and we
believe councilor Vasquez had mentioned
you know I wouldn't want to risk
uh not hanging on to that although I do
understand we need another facility I'm
I'm on board with that completely I also
understand that we want to Fast Track
our projects and as Kathy mentioned
there are several Parks and Rec doesn't
build anything we maintain and we work
very very closely with public works and
I would say they probably have a long
list that's on their table from us and
so we do have a lot of projects working
with them now so they would have to help
us with that which means that would that
would change their list of projects that
are coming out as well so I think that's
something to think about Parks and Rec
has been gaining a lot of projects
lately in the last couple years so I'm
going to throw this out there now is we
might want to consider coming back to
probably put those things into priority
and so everybody has an understanding of
the volume that's coming our way and the
expectations from the community because
there's a lot of wants and needs out
there and we're trying to balance them
out but they're starting to catch up to
us and and so I think it's time that we
come to the table and we look at all
them and prioritize them and dedicate
that funding so everybody understands
what's coming out and when um I think
that would be a huge help to everyone
okay and looks like the lady with the
checkbook Amy Johnson basford has a
comment
thank you mayor Amy Johnson bassford
grants administrator for the record uh
just to reiterate what Sonia um was
talking about and Kathy we did submit
for both projects last year and I
believe that this the renovation of the
skate park was funded primarily as a
choice by legislators based on the good
work that the skate park folks did and
the need that that Park is over 20 years
old and it needs some upgrades so
um that part I want to I Just Want to
Thank The Escape Park folks for for
really going to bad up there the other
thing to remember is all of our
legislative Appropriations from 2020 are
funded by Severance tax bonds which have
very strict laws attached to them where
we must obligate a certain amount within
a period of time I would worry if we
went back and and tried to reauthorize
this money for a different purpose that
in this time of of limited funding at
the state we might lose it
so I would caution uh for us to possibly
go forward with this project and find
some other funding sources to help with
the actual construction of a new park
and just wanted to share that amount
with that information with you sir
I appreciate it thank you
uh let's see here
Council service you're done with your
comments
uh yes mayor I just want to reiterate I
think um that's the right right way to
go and it seems like um there's a lot of
you know
um conversations and meetings and you
know
uh let lobbying that have led us up to
this point and and maybe that's the best
way to go
um Logan uh as you mentioned with with
option A is something that you have
um discussed with or option b but
regardless I think
sticking with renovating this park and
then figuring out where we can get funds
for a new one okay
looks like counselor Flores and sort
um want to talk so Council Flores
I just want to say uh Logan so if you if
you
um
if you had your druthers would you
um
would would you
I mean this is just you know like
Fantasyland but
um if you had your druthers and you
could
say that yes I'd like uh you know option
option two as
um the way to go and the money was was
uh obtainable
um would you opt for that
I mean I'm not saying because we're not
voting on this today
um it's just you know we're just talking
about it and seeing where we're gonna go
with it
um and if by some um stroke of Magic by
our city manager who is piped in and
piped up or whatever and said that maybe
somebody could be uh obtained
um and if it didn't halt the process
because I agree with you you can't lose
that money
um would you
would you want the um total renovation
as opposed to
option one
uh thanks for that question counselor
Flores Logan Howard talking again
um yeah I mean if I if if the timeline
was not going to be pushed back if the
money could be allocated then option b
is what we would go for if
and that's ideal though I mean and what
if the option if it looks like the
timeline is going to get pushed back or
the wording might get pushed around we
might lose the money then we'll go with
option A but if for some reason the
however the Gap can gets filled gets
filled we would like option b but like I
get like I said like and like you said
in a fantasy world if the money's there
if we can fill that budget for sure yeah
the other question is is the park uh
with either either the rent I think the
renovation and of course a new one to
totally replace it
um I mean you know we rebuild it
um both would be uh a good ground for
Olympic Training
oh sorry
counselor Flores yeah so having a new
park here would benefit in tons of ways
yeah I mean yes one of the counselors
had mentioned earlier I mean the skate
park has always been I mean even despite
its lack of relevancy like it's always
been a popular structure or location and
then since it's been back open I don't
know since covid has you know shut it
down opened back up and I don't know if
you went back went by the skate park but
there are tons of people there all the
time I went there the other night I've
been there I've been skating there for
eight eight nine years and there was so
many new kids like it's skateboarding is
going to continue to grow so not only is
it a good thing for like yeah like the
Olympic thing coming up but people need
an outlet right now they need a physical
outlet and the skate park provides that
for them and you can see that if you
drive by so I mean it's great for the
community on on many levels
okay thank you Logan and thank you so
much for your work and pulling in the
community on this and um my my question
is for maybe I don't know
um
maybe uh Mr peely or
um or Sonia or someone in the community
development department and and this may
be really off base but the the
the premise or I think Kathy started out
by saying that um yes Kathy started out
by saying that um we're looking at skate
spots and
um and her words were incorporate quote
wherever we can
uh unquote
um so my question is there is
development in the East Mesa new new
homes being built in that area and
you know the the uh
you know the Gold Bond uh land there I'm
talking about just generally where home
builders are putting new homes up and a
lot of home builders add a park to their
areas and I think it was it was uh Brian
uh Moore who said that
um our skate park right now is about 33
square feet and that skate spots are 3
000 to 5 000 square feet so does anyone
in city parks or Community Development
or Mr peely or Mr Mayor do you know
whether a builder would
um would go for putting in a skate park
um I don't know how big the parks are
and a lot of these developments some of
them are a good size
um some of them are very small
but um I think they're more than three
to three thousand to five thousand
square feet so would it be possible
maybe to have uh Developers for putting
in
um skate uh skate parks instead of just
you know swings and a sandbox and I'm
not minimizing that I'm just saying you
know but can we do that
from Flores this is Kathy Matthews
um yes
Council Flores absolutely
um
we're working currently with a couple
two or three developers as we as we send
right now where that could definitely be
an option
um of course many new parks are going in
at Metro Verde with our partnership
um and our collaboration with uh the
developer there and I think that's a
distinct option and it's it's one I am
interested in pursuing
oh thank you so Kathy would it be I know
that John Moscato has a new development
coming up in my district just south of
um uh Oregon Mountain High School so
maybe we can approach him or something I
don't know I I don't know how to go
about it I'm just saying
um if we're you know working it in more
ways because I think that I know that um
when I was a kid we did our own
skateboards and I don't know about you
Kathy but I know for me I mean My
Generation actually got the steel skates
and took them apart and put them on a
card you know and that's what you did
and uh and it was a lot of fun I mean I
wouldn't dare do it now but back then it
was just you know who cares if you
follow you just you know put a Band-Aid
on it but um anyway this is wonderful
thank you Kathy for all your work and
thank you Mr Mayor thank you Logan and
thank you Brian thank you everybody I
think people people wanted to say
something but his was probably more when
it came to the money part so evil
mayor council yeah I just wanted to to
clarify you know I mentioned that you
know if you give us time I know there
were questions about where this font
where these funds are going to come from
and uh the truth is I don't have the
answer on the top of my uh top of my
head so my whole comment was if you'll
give us time to do that I understand no
decisions are well we can't make any
decisions today but even direction for
for Logan and to go back uh
and and I I would certainly need time to
get with my staff to see where we can
pull the funds but I I do I do want to
say you know I I've I've taken tours of
all the projects uh underway and I've
actually been briefed on all the
projects we have on our list from both
Public Works and Parks I know we talked
a little bit about the timing as a
priority which I agree with that we need
to prioritize the timing uh but also
funds right I mean I also get emails I
know I know you all get emails from
different interest groups in the
community
um from soccer to pickleball to you know
just all over uh wanting more and more
funds available so
um I wanted to clarify uh because
Florida's I wasn't necessarily saying I
had a magic wand to uh to to bring funds
to the table but
um if if that was the my comment was if
that was the direction
um if everyone was sold on on option two
I would certainly need the time or want
the time to go back with staff and and
see where we can bring this money but I
I can tell you right now
um from the projects fund from our
capital projects fund but we don't have
money right so it would have to be uh it
would have to be from somewhere else
some other funds that we can somehow uh
pull from or Justify pulling pulling
from it so my thought when we talk about
option A
um are moving to option b if I'm being
honest there's going to be a delay not
only because we're trying to find funds
to shuffle
and also uh timing but also
um I don't I don't understand how the
the legislative legislature is going to
gonna look at this uh by changing
direction on what they've approved and
so all that's going to take all that's
going to take time and so there's going
to be a delay so if there is there is an
appetite if the if we are okay with
moving with option a
um I will say that's the fastest that's
the fastest way to to get a project done
but nevertheless like I said if
if that's the direction of the counselor
interested in that and even you know the
Coalition if that's something we need to
look at give me the time let me get with
uh our budget team and see what we can
pull out but I know from our capital
projects uh I can tell you right now
there is no there's no extra funds to do
this especially at that amount but I'm
certainly willing to look at it
thank you Mr peely I'm really makes me
very happy that you um at least are
thinking about it or I mean I think at
this point I think Logan's made it very
clear and the community has spoken and
so far as a timeline I think we're going
to be bound by that but thank you so
much Mr feely I appreciate that thank
you Mr Mayor
hey Sonia uh before I get to counselor
uh Sonia do you have approximate how
much you spend either a month or a year
on the current
Park as far as
um maintenance or things of this nature
that you're doing
uh mayor members of council Sony Delgado
Parks and Recreation director other than
our general maintenance to go through
pick up trash clean
um I don't have that exact dollar amount
but we haven't done anything
major because once we start
um to redo some of that concrete we have
to have a whole report we can't we
couldn't just fill in a crack we've done
that in the past but now it's starting
the surface is becoming uneven and so
that that no longer helps us but I can
get you the exact dollar amount I just
don't have it with me at the moment let
me tell you what I was what I was
looking at so let's just say
hypothetically you spend five thousand a
month in
whatever hard costs that you do whether
you buy things for it or you you know
labor costs whatever and so
what I'm trying to get at is if we were
to bond 2 million our debt service
depending on our interest rate that we
can get might be
11 000 a month and so where do we come
up with that 11 000 and so we were if it
was going to save us five thousand a
month having a new one then our net our
net amount that we need to find is six
so that's that's what I was just trying
to get but that's okay uh yeah whatever
you can find that would be great
uh before I get the Council of Sword
gifo did you have another comment or you
forget to put your hand down
I'm sorry man I just forgot to put man
down okay no problem bouncer sword
um
thank you Miss mayor um
we've been talking a lot about time
uh and time is really important here
um and I I am talking about the speed of
construction of this park uh renovating
this park
um I can't help but keep thinking about
the fact that this country has produced
a vaccine for covid-19 in nine months
when a name can take as many as four or
five years to do it I think if we really
put our mind to it we could get this car
park on
uh
renovated in a relatively short period
of time so that the skaters don't have
are not uh had are not without a park in
that time
um and then you know we could put this
on a fast track and get it done quickly
um
so that's that's my uh part of this is
that uh and this goes for a lot of
projects that we do it seems like it
takes a lot of extra time to do them
that uh
um I think we can speed things up
and so um
that for our first for my part of this I
I think we should renovate the park that
we have
but one last thing I I know of a piece
of land that the city owns and the city
has all the infrastructure to it
um they could go in there and start
building a new park tomorrow
we don't have to wait for anything
except for the money to get it done so
um there's places that we could get a
park built fast if we had the money
so uh just to let you know there's
there's there's there's ways that we
which we can do this thank you mayor
okay well looks like we've had a pretty
uh healthy discussion covered a lot of
things and so how about if staff just
comes back with um some of the things
that they've heard
specifically where the money is going to
come from
okay
thank you Mr Mayor
okay well thank you everyone thank you
Logan thank you for your input
okay so now we're going to go ahead and
go to the second item Parks and Rec
juvenile citation program overview
looks like Robert Nunez and Grace Theus
will be making that presentation
Mr Mayor counselors uh City staff guests
uh thank you for having us today and
mayor if you do jump on a skateboard
make sure you have a helmet on and make
the pillows are in the right location
just there's just no way I'm gonna jump
on a skateboard possible
Mr Mayor counselors uh today we would
like to talk about our uh diversion and
development program
um
which is out of our line of business uh
for our juvenile citation program uh
this is a great entry uh this past two
hour discussion
regarding our skate park regarding ball
fields open space courts I think that's
ideal for
um
for this presentation and I will share
my screen at this time
foreign
[Music]
hope you all can see it again it's a
great introduction introduction to what
we're talking about here today
um
I would like to uh
offer some insight in regards to the
juvenile citation program it is operated
by the city of Las Cruces it is a
program within the Continuum doniana
Juvenile Justice Continuum this program
was a pilot program which started in
2003 with a base dollar amount budget
amount of thirty three thousand dollars
and has grown throughout the years it
was recognized in 2009 through 13 as a
best practice program through the office
of Juvenile Justice and delinquency
prevention and our diversion program
consists of choices social and life
skills parenting
parenting classes support and community
service
our program has three different levels
of programming and Miss Grace Tais will
be discussing that a little bit later in
the presentation and also we partner
with uh FYI the uh jar program in
regards to intakes and assessments uh
case management and follow-ups that
assist us with with various services for
mental substance and Behavioral Health
our diversion and development program is
housed on thorneo Street
um 860 tornio I'm sorry 890 tornio and
we've been located there since 2016. uh
it's it's a true benefit for the program
as it has jumped around throughout the
city and and now we've had a permanent
home here now going on four years five
years and that that provides a stability
for staff as well as for the program
client and clients that are attending
our programs it is a grant agreement
between the state of New Mexico children
youth and families program through the
Juvenile Justice Services special
programs which includes the J Jack which
is the Juvenile Justice advisory
committee as well as jdai Juvenile
Detention uh Alternatives initiative uh
currently this year we were awarded 308
779 and we are set on a four-year cycle
now uh with this grant process
um which was approved this past year
also approved this year was the
partnership with FYI for a hundred and
eleven thousand for those additional
services for the community uh the
doniana Juvenile Justice Continuum board
consists consists of the third Judicial
Court uh Dona Ana County of course
representation from the mayor's office
um a city of Las Cruces uh law
enforcement
um locally uh doniana County uh and the
village of Anthony Sunland Park as well
as Las Cruces Public Schools uh Gadsden
Independent School District
um NMSU
and Messiah Valley Hospital of course
FYI is involved with us as well was up
north hatch Valley Public Schools are
are part of our continuum
something that we'd like to identify
within our Continuum is it is also a
program for the entire County so so all
these funds
um are distributed throughout
um through these programs through the
jark through JCP
for for youth that are needed for
diversion informal and formal uh
referrals from throughout our County as
far south again as Sunland Park And as
far north as uh hatch
um
doesn't say hatch America
um
our youth are involved in
classes initial intake assessments and
processing that are identified through
the juvenile inventory for functioning
which we call the GIF it provides a
service plan for them uh our intake
Specialists and our Educators as well as
our supervisors provide the the right
fit for that youth to be in our program
and again there's three levels they
attend these classes we normally have a
community service component for all
three levels but at this time what due
to covid we've had to rearrange our
programming to be all virtual so we we
don't have any youth that come to our
program at this time everything is
taking place through Zoom meetings the
intakes are taking place through a
Survey Monkey our case management is is
performed in that manner our mentoring
and life skill sessions are part of
those classes and they too are offered
as as
virtual classes
um upon completion of their classes they
are tracked and monitors for uh
depending on the level for three months
six months or up to a year and at that
time if they Pro if they complete the
program successfully uh we'll notify
currently we work uh specifically with
uh informal referrals with the juvenile
probation office and we'll notify them
that they have completed our our program
success successfully we we have a lot of
Outreach we we work a lot with various
businesses And non-profits in regards to
providing uh civic duty and services for
our youth to go out and beautify our our
community we've worked with local
artists in regards to mural projects
with our keep Las Cruces beautiful
program to Abate the the negative
graffiti that is around the community as
well as litter control
Loaves and Fishes we have guest speakers
that come into our programs
uh Walmart prevention officers we have
had
um
we've had a Civic engagement with our
our council members and that is
something we would love to revisit
um I believe there's a counselor sorg
and maybe councilor Gandara have done in
the past but we would love to re-engage
our youth with with our our city council
and be able to provide them an
opportunity to ask questions as well as
um you to to gather additional
information on on what is what is
happening with our youth today
um our program
uh consists of girl Circle and boys
Council
um we are gender specific for both
programs so our young ladies will meet
together uh
in in a specific group in our young men
will will meet together in that area and
do the circles and counseling program
our life skills we focus on
communication and self-directing
resilience decision making in regards to
drug alcohol and tobacco and competition
and Trust making sure that they
understand
you know there's always a healthy
element to competition and and in that
decision decision making and those are
the choices that our our youth are are
put up against today and and that's
where we would like them to to have to
understand the positive aspect of all
their choices and also really understand
um the consequences with what they what
they are receiving due to their the
choices that they're make that may not
be healthy for themselves or for their
families or for our community and again
our guest speakers we've had government
professionals career planning higher
education
um Community College
um of course our our Public Schools GISD
to come in and and re reiterate to them
the importance of
of of a of an education and academics
within their life um at this time I
would love to
um introduce our uh interim diversion
program supervisor Miss Grace tayus and
she will talk a little bit more in
regards to the classes specifically
good afternoon mayor and council members
I'm I'm very happy to be here today to
be able to speak about um
what what it is that we do here at the
Juvenile Diversion and development
program excuse me Grace I I know they
introduced you but can I have you state
your name please
sorry mayor um this is Grace day's
interim program diversion supervisor
here at the Juvenile citation program
thank you again thank you for having me
a little bit about the classes is like
Robert mentioned their their levels so
we have level one level two and level
three
level one it's as Robert mentioned all
our classes are now virtual we've had to
adjust and be creative and and adapt
with times as many of us have
um with our level one class we currently
have a parent youth
added to it's a total of
five classes in a three week period So
within those five classes we have a
parent youth class
we have a guest speaker class and we
have a life skills class
as well as a two choices class and when
I refer to choices I'm referring to a
class where we talk about the choices
that were made as well as a consequence
um a consequence geared towards the
curriculum that we have available to us
as Educators facilitated topics that
I'll go into a little bit more our level
two class is 14
total of classes in a five-week period
so they meet regularly it's a total of
14 classes and that also includes a
parent use a guest speaker
and a couple life skill classes
and then we also have our level three
class kind of The Last Resort of the
program
um after their level three chance and
they could moving on to possibly
um probation
so in the level three we have a total of
24 classes in a 12-week period
that one is a little more intensive I
want to there's parent three a total
three parent youth classes in our level
three
as well as total of five life skills
and a couple of guest speaker classes
and the Educators here have been doing
an amazing job facilitating these
classes like Robert said through zoom
and what isn't what is an adjustment to
us from our face-to-face contact with
parent Youth and
um the community so it's a little
adjustment but we've adjusted well
the curriculum used is through the one
Circle Foundation organization which
includes girl Circle model and boys
Council
girl Circle model is
is from my experience being in this
career for many years has a life
impacting effect especially on our girls
I've seen firsthand as an educator as
well as the boys but more so my past has
um I've seen how it has a big um role on
our girls
um so it's girl Circle boys Council as
well as some other evidence-based
curriculums that we use
our parent youth class
is is really good class because there
are parent youth we we work on um
building the parent and youth
relationship amongst one another so a
little bit about our parent youth
classes
um is the fact that they um
we we go through communication we
enhance and build communication through
communication we talk about risky
behaviors as well as building blocks to
improve communication between the
parents and the youth as well as the
barriers
the barriers that come into play between
a parent and youth relationship
my time of seeing through parent youth
classes it has been really
really impacting to the parent and youth
because a lot of times in society it's
I've seen where parents this is their
time to take a breather
from everyday commitments to really
connect with the youth which has been
been great and that's something that we
can we continue through our virtual
classes level three as I mentioned has
three parent youth so staff has been
working well with parents
um here at the Juvenile citation program
we we aim to to meet the
or connect with the family as a whole
not just the youth
so on that note with on the girls Circle
curriculum we we touch on being queen of
your body healthy body image
mother-daughter relationships
um
self-esteem confidence empowerment
um I can go the list can go on and on
with the topics that we cover for the
girls for boys we we touch on on being
becoming non-violent leaders learning
how to deal with your emotions positive
mentors positive influences how to deal
with their anger frustrations the
machismo how to how to um
just to to learn how to to realize that
it's okay to cry to show their emotions
as well
um
the curriculum is great on both ends
boys Council we touch on living a legacy
learning how to be proud of where you
come from
um Journey to the great warrior and the
men of honor of course as well as for
the girls we do the pathways to Future
the Pasty future sorry path to Future
and La Mariposa and who I am which are
all great great material that we use
um
is a great
activity guide or that we use in
reference to learning how to just be
proud of where you've come from and
accepting
um
your miss your I want to say mistakes
but accepting your choices that you made
to create and build better outcomes for
their future
I take pride in what I do here I love
what I do
but that's that's the basics of our our
levels
but as Robert mentioned we have guest
speakers we have
um
we have our life skills classes we bring
in probation we bring in law enforcement
we bring in
a lot of professionals from in our
community as well as just individuals
that have life impact to stories that
have been able to turn their life around
so that's a little bit about our classes
I think that's everything
thank you Miss Grace
um again Robert Nunez Youth Services
administrator a little bit of
information that we received from from
our intake Specialists who initially
worked closely with jpo
um in in the non-uh informal referrals
we have seen a battery of a household
member increase this fiscal year
um
uh we we've seen
um
runaway I know we've seen that in the
news recently and our runaways have
increased
um we are six months into this fiscal
year and we are just about at the number
we were at last year fiscal year 20.
um so so those are a couple of areas
that we're certainly concerned about
we're working closely with with juvenile
probation office where we've just
recently met with them we have regular
meetings with families youth uh
Incorporated with with their area of the
jar on a weekly basis to to discuss this
type of services that we can uh continue
to assist our families with and the
youth
um some some statistics that that I that
I can throw out real quick uh over the
last five years we've seen on average
about
432 clients come through our program per
year
um
in regards to city and county depending
on where they're living The Residency we
see about 58 percent within the city
limits and 42 percent throughout the
county we do offer all of our programs
pre-covered
um of course everything is virtual but
pre-covered we coordinated with uh
doniana County to be able to use a
location down south
um to be able to to house our programs
down there to eliminate that Obstacle of
transportation for the families uh down
from the valley and be able to identify
a location
um near them that they can attend these
classes the parents the youth and
everybody can be successful in getting
this completed
um in regards to males and females no
correlation in city and county but doing
our numbers it is also about a 58
percent male 42 percent female breakdown
regarding uh the number of males and
females friends
um so those are so those are some of the
the
benefits and opportunities that we have
to offer to our our youth in our
community and I know we just talked
about the skate park I have I have been
with the city over 20 plus years and and
I know the importance of Parks and
Recreation programs the libraries the
museums
um open space leagues anything that we
can offer in in a positive manner
currently our Our Youth Services
programs of out of school time are
offering tutoring for youth Tinder all
the way through 12th grade
um we see the need we are certainly
trying to offer as many services as we
can during these unprecedented times
um but but we we will always uh offer
some type something positive for these
youth to be able to to experience
um we've we've created within parts and
Rec our student recreation aids for
youth ages as young as 16 years of age
for them to be able to get some
employment and help them out in that
manner what whether it's themselves
their entire family we offer a food
programs throughout all our sites
um as we we know that the food
insecurities for these families and and
so we we certainly try to offer as much
as possible to keep our youth busy to
keep them engaged and and to provide
them something positive and on the same
end when they hiccup or or run into a a
pothole we have the diversion and
development program which which benefits
them tremendously and we are certainly
working with our public schools at this
time law enforcement
um everyone locally to identify ways for
for families to reach out to us to to
communicate with us on how we can assist
them
um with their youth with their families
and and whatever we can to provide them
the positive services that they need
um we certainly thanked everyone today
for for allowing us to speak and and
provide a basic background of our
program I think it's it's been
beneficial being in existence since 2003
I think it's shown that uh we've had
positive strides in our community I know
at times that we hear a lot of the
negative but we certainly and that's
something grace and I are working on
with with our with our team is creating
those those positive moments of those
individuals of joining the military
you're going to college or or getting
their high school diploma or or even
getting back into school and pursuing
that or getting a GED and and showing
that they can be successful and and
there are positive
um streams in in this world and and this
team Works tremendously hard
um I didn't mention that we have uh six
full-timers to seven to include Grace uh
full-timers two part-timers
um that that do awesome work uh they
love what they do they care what they do
and it really shows with our families
and our clients
um and have great lines of of
communication with with everybody that's
involved and and that's what we do
appreciate is is everybody striving to
be successful within uh the the juvenile
citation program and and overall within
the diversion and development
um line of business within youth
services and and the perfect home is
Parks and Recreation because on one hand
we have those positive programs that
that these youth can be involved in we
have special events I was working with
Mr Phil catnak prior to uh prior to
covid hitting us and we were looking at
offering them you know the teens
concerts and opportunities local talent
that they do have and then bringing in a
possible Regional opportunity for them
to to be at a venue of of downtown or
Klein park or up on the East Mesa and
it'd be an event for our teens and they
can they can engage with one another and
we can have some positive Services uh to
communicate with them and and so
certainly when we get out of out of this
uh pandemic we are gonna We Are Gonna
again venture out uh with our team
connection with our special events uh
with our youth board with everything
involved to keep our youth engaged and
to assist them in making those positive
um decisions so again mayor council
members City staff I appreciate your
time and uh we're here for any questions
if any
thanks uh Robert and Grace and before I
get to the counselors
um councilor sword may be aware of it
but I'm not sure if the newer ones are
aware of exactly the this program and
what it is I think for the most part if
uh if a young person gets in trouble at
school or elsewhere
um to avoid them having any type of
criminal uh record then they can be
assigned to this and there are certain
things that they can do and then
um get it pretty much off
off their juvenile record I guess you
could say do you want to just talk talk
a little bit about what the program does
as a whole and then uh kind of kind of
then circles around and then talks you
know then this all makes more more sense
for them
yes sir Mr mayor council members Robert
Nunes Youth Services administrator so
what we'll do is through our program
um juvenile probation office will
contact us and let us know of any status
offense uh class three offense it could
be truancy it could be shoplifting
battery uh possession
um driving without a license they come
to uh we'll review they'll review the
case and uh choose the ideal program for
them there's uh Southwest counseling
also offer offers seven challenges
they're also uh started up again as the
drug court
um that is being offered as well as the
juvenile citation program and those
youth will come to us
um at pre-adjudicated and if they agree
through their parents and and come
through our program and successfully to
complete the program
um that will will again they will not be
certainly we don't want to label them in
any manner but but that will relieve
them of having to pursue anything
further within the courts okay thank you
I appreciate that also if I may Mr Mayor
um we have three levels for a specific
reason
um
we were all teenagers at one time and
and we've made numerous mistakes so we
you know there's that I don't want to
say three strikes but there's that
opportunity if they get into level one
and Hiccup again they can go to level
two and same thing with level three
available so we give our youth as many
chances and opportunity as possible uh
to be successful
yeah no I I appreciate that and and in
some respects it was a lot easier uh
when Gill and I and others grew up today
it's you know there's just so much
pressure there's just so much out there
and it just it's got to be difficult for
for today's youth to grow up in in
today's world Okay so we've got a
Telstra sword about the Stevie and Como
Flores thank you Mr Mayor uh and then I
I just simply wanted to tell Robert that
I am and I'm sure other counselors are
uh uh ready to volunteer and meet with
the youth
um whenever you want uh just send us an
invitation send me an invitation and
I'll be glad to come and I always enjoy
talking to them and and share and
sharing our experiences and so forth uh
I thought it was quite good so I just
wanted to let you know
um I'm willing to come so let me know
when it when you want me thank you
you're not still charging 50 bucks for
your speaking fee are you no I actually
it's gone up to 100. oh is it okay
counselor beta Stewie
thank you mayor and thank you Robert and
thank you Gracie
um
proud to be able to serve on the
Juvenile Justice Continuum board the
Youth of course is uh
holds a special place in my heart and
it's an area that I know a lot about so
far but I've been continually
um very impressed with the amount of
services and the adaption that this
program has done during this time and I
was wondering if we could speak real
fast about how are the youth and the
juveniles receiving the new programming
with
um the zooms I know it's very hard it's
different but how are they doing with
that what type of Engagement are we
seeing what's been maybe something
strong and what's been areas that might
need to be
looked at
Mr Mayor counselor beta stuvi thank you
for that question we have seen very
positive numbers with with us going
virtual it gives a little bit more
flexibility for our youth and our
families to be involved it's also
offered our program opportunities to add
additional programs
um we don't want to I I think youth
already are
overloaded with zoom or with virtual
um and so it's a it's a balance act that
we that we need to work on but I know
speaking with Miss teus is that that
we've seen a very positive attendance
um and interaction with our program so
that is something that as we go post
covet that we may be able to offer some
options additionally to our to our
families throughout our County
um I know I think we might be tired of
Zoom after after all this but again if
it's something that will benefit our
families and our youth it is something
that we want to pursue something that
that Grace and I have talked about is
and and our team is looking outside that
box you know what are other avenues that
we you know we still run into those
challenges of of of some families not
even having uh internet service
so so we've run into that aspect of it
um kind of like the transportation piece
of it when we were pre-covered
um but but it is something that I think
we have we have seen
um speaking with jpo and our other
partners is is they are seeing that that
they are able to connect with families a
little bit easier now it's just uh you
know again it ideally to be face to face
um that's our human nature and and so
that makes it a a bit difficult
thank you
um building upon that um if we've had
clients that had issues with internet
access or computers have they been able
to help provide or assist them with
those because obviously many of these
students will probably need it for
school too so have you been able to make
those connections with um different
partners
mayor councilor about this do they we
have communicated with Comcast
um we we've also been in discussions
with Cy State office CYFD on on being
able to utilize possibly some of our
funds to assist families with possibly
having a
a hot spot that we can utilize for
various families that do not have that
that Wi-Fi access or or being able to
get them something for the duration of
our program whether it be five weeks 12
weeks or or the the level three
okay
and I
they're still enrolled in
the insight
many of them or at least a few of them
Mr Mayor uh councilor Beethoven yes
I would I would believe that a large
amount of them are
um still uh students are still
registered within the schools
um what we are seeing is is as we're
moving along covet and this going into
this full semester or now for the the
new school year is
um trying to coordinate with the public
schools and G and and Gadsden
Independent School District to assist
them in ways when they identify those
youth that are are not attending at all
and and how we can assist or utilize our
our Educators our intake Specialists to
make contact with those families because
because I know our counselors and our
educators are busy with with other areas
but if there's any way we can assist
them
um we have offered our support in that
manner
fantastic and you know I know that we
gave
um resources for things like internet
and and stuff to the schools I believe
um with their coveted assistance so I'm
just thinking if there's a way if we
need to make those connections or tied
together to assist even after the child
has left your programming
um that they still have the access to
those resources to stay able to stay
successful
um with their their schooling and those
other connections that they're going to
need
um so just a
um and then real fast uh once a child
has been identified
um to be in your program
um how long does that process usually
take
um from let's say the event
um that has occurred to the time that
you can attend their first class with
you
uh Mr bear uh Council Rebecca stuvi
that is a uh the variables are yeah are
are quite low distance
um you know we've seen
um locally and in the South where the
turnaround may be as they've been moved
forward to jpo that it happens within a
week or two and then we've seen
instances where it's been six months and
three you know sometimes longer I know
jpo is doing a tremendous job
um law enforcement when they do cite
youth in follow-up and so I
seen through covet I think it's it's
um and Graceman you may be able to help
me there is I think that's that that
window has gotten smaller where that we
can provide services to our youth um I
know previously it just varied quite a
bit
um but but we have seen as soon as they
get to us within our our process we try
to turn them around within seven days
as soon as they do they come towards us
um from from Juvenile Probation Office
thank you
lastly of course if I can be of
assistance or help
um in any way let me know I'm happy to
to speak so thank you and I have
appreciated everything that you and your
staff have been doing
um and thank you mayor thank you
councilman Como
thank you mayor and thank you so much
Robert and Grace for joining us
I really enjoyed
[Music]
listening to your orientation I teared
up for a little while because I just
think it's so powerful what you do and
as everybody here knows I cry about
everything so I don't know if that's a
thing or not but you all made me tear up
um and so I wanted to thank you for the
work that you're doing in our community
um especially right now but always
um I have several questions for you but
before I do I I just wanted to say a
couple things
um before they skip my mind
um I have never been so hyper aware of
juvenile related incidents in our city
since
um you know since I I wanted to run for
office and I've become a a city
councilor and like hyper aware of the
news stories of the information that we
get sent out about young people
involved in any sort of criminal
activity like I'm hyper aware of it and
I to me this is something really
important that I carry in my heart and I
just it feels really important to me
because I think because I was not always
on track as a young person to be here
like that was not I was not always on
track to be here and if I wouldn't have
gotten some Second Chances if I wouldn't
have gotten some mentors I don't know
where I would be and so um to me this
feels critically important and I love
what you said rapper like we will give
people as many chances right I I believe
that that's necessary and true
particularly for kids of color who
frankly often the criminal justice
system will not give second chances to
right so I think
what you're doing is so important
um so I wanted to say that
um I also am a deep believer that
um
you know people say it takes a village
to raise a child I believe that it takes
a village to also fail a
and you know people say it's often you
need to go back to the home it starts in
the house and sure that's true but
there's there's an entire environment
and an entire community that whether
we're investing in young kids
particularly that come from low income
households or not that will have a
significant impact on those kids lives
and so for me investing in a program
like this feels like a priority it feels
like something we should continue to do
and perhaps even grow that investment
because what you're doing is is critical
in the survival of our communities and
for the Next Generation so I wanted to
say that
um
but I do have some questions for you
um I
I'm curious to hear from you what some
of the biggest chat like internally what
are some of your biggest challenges as a
as an organization
um I'd love to hear from you what some
of those are
uh Mr Mayor councilor Ben Cuomo
I would say
budget I mean we can we can always I
think we could always use we could
always use more more money
um something that CYFD is doing this
this year that we just recently met with
them last month is is they've they've
asked all continuums or there are
um
I believe there's 32 33 counties in in
our in our state and there are only 22
continuums they're all organized by by
counties
um so so there's funds available for the
existing continuums
um kind of like we were just talking
about with with counselor beta stubey
was was that technology aspect of it
um how we can reach our youth
um
how we can offer possibly more mentoring
program life skills programs
um I would love to be able to reach
these youth prior to
law enforcement prior to jpo I think we
have that opportunity in Parks and
Recreation I know 21 years ago when I
started uh we had it was called Midnight
basketball and it was specifically for
teenagers
and we opened our doors on Fridays and
Saturday nights for our teens to come in
and break a good sweat and and hopefully
they get tired enough that that they go
home afterwards
um but but then again not all not all of
our teens are athletes right not not all
of our teams want to break a sweat you
know and how do we create that social
environment
um special events our youth board our
team connection program
um I know and our team connection was
was born through our a Fielder Memorial
Safe Haven our weed and seed program it
outgrew the teams outgrew that location
and that's where we have created our
team connection
um
but we need to hear from from our youth
and we do hear from them but I guess
that biggest challenge is what are they
looking for
yeah
of the 11 000 12 000 teens in Las Cruces
and I I don't want to leave out our
County but specifically in Las Cruces
we all we do hear at times there's
nothing to do there's nothing to do
come knock on our door
and and just like on that scale the
skate park and and other avenues what
can we do what can we create you know
and again it might it might be
pertaining what we can do as per our
budget but but I think
everybody here today understands the
importance of our youth and creating our
next leaders
um and so I think you know sometimes we
say we put our money where our mouth is
and and I want to show that to our team
to our to our youth not just teens but
all of our youth as as it even goes into
the age of you know 24 28 years old is
what can we do
in Las Cruces to to provide you those
resources to be successful
um right I love that thank you for that
I I mean yeah I hear you I think and I
think um we exactly as you said with the
skate park we know how powerful it is
when people directly impact it are the
ones leading those efforts right and so
youth LED programming I think
um I think that sounds great I'm I'm
curious Robert what does your budget
look like in terms of who like does the
county uh provide funds towards your
budget
um the city is there philanthropy like
what is that who are your funders the
the uh mayor councilor Ben Cuomo the the
funds that we receive are are the grant
at 308 308 779 and then through the
general fund
um which we receive approximately two
hundred thousand dollars
um which includes our the in kind of
benefits and and
um retirement What not for our our staff
are identified as as uh Grant funded uh
staff members
um
one thing that I I look at is looking at
the percentage of of city and county
um
youth that are involved is is we have
communicated with with the county
previously and they have provided us
some funds um but it has not been
consistently year after year and that's
something that we'd like to revisit with
them
um to see how we could there could
possibly be uh versus our staff
traveling down only on the weekends uh
for the county is that there might be an
opportunity to offer those Services
uh five days a week to possibly
Saturdays in the County area
as we see those those but
um currently that is that is what our
budget is is through the Grant and
through uh general fund
great
in terms of
the
challenges that you feel like these kids
are facing some of the families like
what do you hear
most often
Mr Mayor councilman coma I'm going to
defer to
um
Miss Grace Tais and and she can speak on
that one
mayor council members this is Grace
thayes
um Juvenile Diversion program supervisor
some of the questions thank you for your
questions everybody I really appreciate
that
um some of the questions that I would
like to touch on as well as the one that
was just mentioned is as far as external
factors uh let me let me begin with I
don't want to lose my Chain of Thought
um some of the challenges that I've seen
as a program supervisor from families is
not so much Wi-Fi accessibility but
um maybe I had one one case or multiple
few cases where the intakes were trying
to find alternative solutions for them
to be able to pay the bill because
Internet is just not something that is a
priority for some families right now um
keeping a roof over their heads and food
on the table is much more important than
internet
but the intake was able to work with the
families to
to secure some money to be able to put
towards their internet because that is
as we know and essential right now with
the kids this family had a lot of um
kids and and they're in school so the
intakes work really well with the
families and try to work with what what
they can
um to provide the resources needed from
other places in the community
um as well as the time frame question I
want to touch on that a little bit
the process from JPL JPL has been really
great with referring the youth and and
of course everything is virtual so I'm
able to get it immediately and our
intakes are able to work on it
immediately
um so that's been great
um
the external factors I I
personally and and through what I've
seen are are just
youth are getting antsy we know that
youth are getting um impatient and they
want to have social Outlets to be able
to connect with their their friends
um and they're finding alternative
Solutions maybe not the best choices to
be able to
connect and and emotionally and socially
and just
learn to develop part of development
um just get out there and
and meet with other people so
um of course Poverty of course
um economically like just the family
Dynamics families are trying to
um just struggle to make ends meet lots
of times that lots of times they're
alone and they're doing their own thing
that's just what being the reason why
um these last four months have
skyrocketed runaways like Robert
mentioned last year was the fiscal year
was 33 total youth we're already at 20
and we're only four months into the
fiscal year
but I expect that to go up
um what we can do I I feel is provide
more social social groups for youth to
connect healthy and with with a mentor
with somebody with a some positive
leader within it to be able to allow
them to express themselves and to do
what it is that they enjoy doing stuff
that maybe isn't sports related but
um
related to
or providing them an opportunity to
express themselves and who they are and
where they come from
thank you that's my advice thank you
thank you so much grace I really
appreciate you sharing that I think it's
important that we hear like
all of those factors right and
ultimately that's why we do this right
and so um I really appreciate you naming
that and I think the impacts of poverty
are have really long Ripple effects
right they go for miles and miles and
will last a lifetime often and so
um you know
like really interrupting that cycle is
really incumbent upon us and I think as
we consider our budget you know for the
next year and every year after that we
really must take into consideration some
of what Robert said maybe he didn't mean
it towards us but I want to mean it
towards us about putting our money where
our mouth is
um you know I really believe that
budgets are moral documents and when you
look at a budget from a city
particularly and you're seeing what
they're funding that's the thing that's
who and what they care about and so for
me I want to make sure that the city
prioritizes youth particularly
vulnerable Youth and I said this before
I think all youth are at rescued right
you never know when you're gonna step
into that one bad situation
um so for me so for me it's it's
I'm really glad you're here and please
know that I will continue that I will
continue to want to learn about what you
do and be an advocate for for you and
ensuring that your budget continues to
grow so that you can really build to
scale and and meet the needs of the
youth in our community so I'll pass it
over to my colleagues but I just wanted
to say thank you very much and I would
love to come visit with you and and the
kids and tell them about my 1.7 GPA my
freshman year of college and that
um those kinds of things don't Define
you forever so um thank you so so much
thank you counselor councilor Flores
um
uh yes uh thank you Mr Mayor
thank you so much uh Mr Nunes Robert and
uh thank you so much grace Deyes
um I think your presentation is
heart-wrenching and ours also inspiring
and I just I want to thank
um Robert who I met I guess a few years
ago now it's hard to believe on quality
of life and we had long chats about kids
and the challenges that they're facing
and now with covid I think it's even
worse
um
but I I did have a couple of questions
do you do any tracking to see what
happens to the kids that go through your
uh JPL
Mr Mayor councilor Flores yes indeed we
do initially when we received them
depending on what level they are we
track them for a minimum of three months
six months or a year
and do you have quote recidivism
or do these kids pretty much straighten
out and then they move on and
um do you hear from them like maybe two
or three years because you you started
in 2003 with a budget of thirty thousand
dollars and now in 2021 you're up to uh
uh 500 000 right everything combined
muscle Menos
so um so so have you heard from the kids
that you worked out way back when or has
any of that data kept or is it too
sensitive in terms of uh right to
privacy issues Mr Mayor uh councilor
Flores uh we recidivism currently is is
less than seven percent that are within
our program which is something that's
very positive for us
we do see our youth come back
um we do try to track them as long as
possible uh at some point when they
successfully complete our program
um we we set our file and of course we
still we we retain that through our
database but um unless they come back uh
on an individual basis and I know I've
been involved with the program since
2014 but Miss Grace has been involved a
little bit longer than I have and and
it's amazing that we when we do see the
youth that do come back and say thank
you and that's that's one thing I we say
is I love my paycheck
but I really really love when when a
when a young adult
remembers your face or even remembers
your name
for the impact that they have that
you've had on their lives
um through this program through our
summer rec programs through through weed
and seed program through all of our
programs
um that's a big payment right there
um knowing that they they are they're
doing their best and they know they
hiccups
and they're coming back to us and saying
thank you for
are you even trying to set me straight
because not all of them really go that
straight line all the time but but those
and then there's those that do and and
we get both of them we get both that
they're they're making every effort to
to do the right thing and I think it it
just goes to show what our program the
juvenile citation program and through
choices and the and the boys uh Council
and girls Circle that what it instills
in those youth as they move on
so so we do we do see um we do some of
them come back to us so I I know that
councilor Ben Cuomo asked about what you
see in families I think it's tough
sometimes for kids to or youth anyone
actually to really open up about your
whole life story but I imagine
um there are a lot of heartbreaking
stories and I I think that this way has
even teared up a little bit and I think
she had all of us crying
over here but um anyway yeah these are
heart-wrenching stories and and
um it's always a pleasure Robert to hear
from you and the commitment you have and
Mr Theus it's wonderful I commend the
two of you and
um and I hope that uh I hope that that
more funds are available either through
um through you know through grants or
something because it sounds like this is
a very good program that could come out
of some other Federal type grants maybe
his password can
um his password Johnson can I'm sure
that you've looked into it too but I'm
just saying it's hard not to pipe up and
say there's got to be more money for
this this stuff or you know you really
yeah yeah it's like The Catcher in the
Rye just catching those kids before they
really fall off that big cliff and and I
know I think we all have our stories
um I think my my third grade teacher
made all the difference in the world for
me and
um it's just that one person who just
really
you know listened and and uh had a smile
on her face all the time and it just
turned my life around Believe It or Not
by the way what is he that that's the
question I want to ask also what is the
uh age range they have children is are
these like uh pre-teens teenagers high
schoolers or even younger
Mr Mayor councilor Florida it ranges
from 11 to 18 years of eight or 17 years
of age
um they they must be 17 at the beginning
of the program but they can't turn 18.
but as young as 11 years of age okay so
they can be like uh 17 years and 11
months and then they can turn and they
can still remain in the program and they
started at 17. Mr mayor council Flores
says as long as we
um we receive the paperwork from
juvenile the referral from jpo and we we
begin the the intake process and that
they're 17 364 days
um then they can they can complete the
program with us wow that's great well
congratulations again on your track
record and thank you so much for your
love your compassion Your Enthusiasm to
the two of you and thank you for your
presentation have a good evening thank
you Mr that looks like we have uh Amy
Johnson password
thank you mayor uh councilor Flores Amy
Johnson bassford Grant administrator for
the record uh this is one of the very
first grants I worked on when I first
came to the city back in 2015. so uh I
didn't do it this past year but and it
was really hard to let go of it um I'm
very passionate about this particular
program and the folks that Robert has
working with him on it um in 2016 uh so
it would have been for fiscal year
2017. we were successful in getting the
county to provide us with uh 41 300 for
some of our programming down in Anthony
we have not been successful in getting
into their budget since then but that is
uh something that Robert and I discuss
on a yearly basis one of the other
things that we uh look at is we request
approximately 500 000 from the state we
are considered one of the most
successful programs in the state and our
best practice
um for the state they they refer a lot
of other programs in the state to us to
model after us
um but again as state funding goes we
you know get about 80 percent of what we
ask for
um so certainly
um ensuring that there's more funding at
the the state level would be helpful to
us as well uh
Robert and I have had many discussions
about how to frame the program to where
it might attract uh some foundation
funders and we continue to work on that
and and go after opportunities where we
think that we could have a fit uh for
this program to provide some additional
funding
um for it and for them to expand uh
we've talked about some ways to work
with some uh Community Partners and some
commercial entities that might bring in
funding as well so it it's on a it's a
top of mind for my for me just because I
I'm really passionate about this
particular program
thank you Amy I'm glad you're passionate
we're very fortunate to have you thank
you
thank you uh mayor Pro Tem
thanks mayor thank you
um Robert and Grace welcome back Grace I
know you left for a little bit and came
back right so happy to see you I know
you put your passion really lies so
um I appreciate that
um you know I I
I've been hearing the updates for five
years now right and we keep talking
about advancing or increasing budget in
some way
um also had many a conversations Robert
Wright with our quality of life
committee
quality of life policy Review Committee
in relation to
how do we
um ensure that the programming at the
elementary and middle school levels
right to capture them before they enter
into a program like this right because
sometimes it's too late sometimes you
can rehabilitate them and the and the
receive the recidivism rate is very low
but other times they just enter and then
all the other things right the factors
the poverty the all the social
determinants of help that we're trying
to to improve and so
um
I'm really deeply disappointed that that
um the county hasn't put forth any more
money
um since 2016. mayor I'm wondering if we
can write a letter
um you know to our County Manager
insisting because they because that City
staff that go to the county on the other
side to provide a service a needed
service if you will
um and
um it's to me it just unconscionable
that this is happening
um and then I hear sort of well there's
kids that need laptops are
um hot spots or Internet or things like
that and I've always been very proud of
our uh our response to covid but I've
also felt like we need to take care of
our people internally right so these
programs that are providing those kinds
of services need to be taken care of and
so when I hear stuff like that I think
why hasn't anybody come forth to say
you know the juvenile detention or the
juvenile citation program they need this
money to be able to operate moving
forward and so when I hear where there's
family there should be no family kid
that's in this program
in need of anything right they should
you all should know all this money we've
given to all the various services to
ensure that there's links right that you
can refer families to but also if there
are pro prop issues within our our
clientele
that you should have like a fund where
you're not having a call Santa Fe to say
can we use some of this money to pay for
the hot spot and so I'm really
advocating mayor I think for more
funding for the for this particular
program in as it relates to making sure
that they have a fund established to be
able to help these kids
um be successful or we shouldn't hear
that kids are sharing laptops
um that I understood the Las Cruces
public schools has plenty of laptops to
give out and if they don't and they're a
kid that's participating in this program
we should be able to fund that easily
um I hate to see our our workers
struggling
um it you know to to to make things
um
you know right for families that are
already in Jeopardy right at risk and
they're at much more risk now
um and so um I've appreciated hearing
um all the input the data
um so Grace or Robert my question is the
boys circle is that an evidence-based
program and it's similar to the girls
one or what excuse me you called it the
boys Council sorry right now is that in
that same
category of evidence-based programs and
it consists of like certain modules I'm
assuming right
mayor and council members and counselor
mayor Pro tems
um yes boys council is is
um
one Circle Foundation is the
organization of girl Circle and boys
Council are the model used
for multiple activity guys beneath them
so girl Circle past future
um La Mariposa
um who I am and then boys actually have
their own which is Men of Honor is the
one that we're really our male Educators
really use the Men of Honor and um
journey journey of a great warrior and
then creating the Legacy and being proud
being proud of who you are and where you
come from sure because their basis and
and creating non-violent leaders
learning how to deal with emotions right
being able to communicate effectively
without fighting you know fixating or
verbally attacking yeah okay cool I I
just wanted to I I wasn't familiar with
that particular woman I and I I doing
some research I saw the girls Council
but they called us
um boys
girls Circle they called it boy Circle
sex if it was the same kind of in the
same
um
from the same family
yes it is the same family cool cool okay
so the other thing and you made mention
of some of the the the increases of
runaways and um violent violence and
whatnot one of the things that I
continue to be very concerned about and
I've talked to Mayor about is our
suicide rate as an among people and some
conversations that I've had with
um School staff around attempts there
are so many Kids attempting suicide
um currently and we just don't have
enough eyes on these kids right and so
it I give possible when we're talking
like everything has to be virtual and
um I just I don't know that that's
helpful enough
um and so I I just wanted to make sure
that a part of your assessment is not
only assessing for
um barriers right to access to the
Healthcare dental care Behavioral Health
but that work that we're also accessing
by doing some mental health screenings
um touching upon I'm suicidal suicide
training like using QPR or mental health
first aid I know you have Lisa in there
that sits on our Suicide Prevention task
force
he's amazing as she always upstates the
entire group about
um about what's been in there and and
um you did I think according to her some
QPR training for parents and and the
kids and it was really successful so
um I I just want to put a plug in for
um you know you all
um in terms of of making sure that we're
also doing some check-ins with these
kids
um and their their parents so many times
and what we are seeing is parents have a
very difficult time asking the question
like do you want to kill yourself do you
have a plan
um what is that plan and then linking
and referring to the necessary resources
um I'm I'm I I continue to be alarmed at
the rates you know of our
contemplation and and and commit the
actual
um completion of suicide so I know that
you see a lot of Youth uh in your
program but and I just wanted to take an
opportunity
um to remind you there's the mental
health screening tool on our website
um and also the suicide prevention task
force is really looking for youth um to
advise the group about how do we move
forward especially during this time
um to ensure that the kids our youth
have what they need and then lastly
um
I wanted to say you know the resilience
leaders did a a survey about access and
you know to quality services of the
survival on thriving services and one of
the things that was of interest that I
think you'll find interesting is there's
like a huge disconnect of what parents
think kids are youth need and what youth
is saying they need and and it goes
along the lines of parents are parents
like my kid doesn't need mentoring and
the kids like yes we need mentoring and
you've already said they need there
there's their needs mentoring so I have
a colleague of mine that's been
um
um providing some mentoring for the kids
over at the youth over at my friend's
place and it's called values by your
design adjusting your personal life
philosophy
um and and so she he's been The kids
have just been like and I think Robert I
think he he has talked to you I want to
say now that you're nodding your head
and whatever and it seems like the kids
are just really like in really
interested in just gobbling everything
up that this
um gentleman has to say so I want to put
in a plug because I do think it's
important and I have to re remind folks
our strategic plan talks about right
internships apprenticeships mentoring
and I just feel like the city has a huge
role to play on that and then on the
mentoring angle
um and and I I think if all of us could
pick up a kid in our community to Mentor
especially now checking in on them
calling them
um maybe social dissing we need more
eyes on our youth because it's alarming
what's happening out there
um and I got a huge mouthful from our
Public Schools about what their what
they're facing and so I I just wanna I
wanna say that I appreciate what you do
um and I'm all for the evidence-based
programming and evaluating as moving
forward I think if we can reduce that
recidivism rate to even five percent
that would be fabulous because that
means less kids coming in and just
finding other opportunities for our kids
um to experience that may not just be
about Recreation right because I was an
athlete I loved all sports most sports
but most of some of our kids just do not
and I want us to remind ours you know
Jamie Rickman work with the schools and
the League of Women Voters and we had
lots of kids tell us lots of things
right about
what would they would like to see and I
want to remind us that that information
is floating around somewhere and we
should really use that and come up with
maybe a virtual training
um
of sorts or meetings
um moving forward
um again the staff of a need at this at
the at the schools need a lot of help
they're overwhelmed
um and again if I can do anything I'm
happy to help in any way
thank you mayor thank you
Benny hi Penny I have to say hi to Penny
my buddy over there
okay great
well thank you very much for uh this
update and all the information that
you've provided and um
well uh I do have one quick question
kind of follow-up to what mayor Pro tem
was asking so do you
um have you asked to any monies from the
county
Mr Mayor we we had approached them after
2016 we did approach him again
um at that time they they did not have
funds available but
um
with uh
County County Manager sorry County
manager masias there
um if you're aware he was one of the
proponents when he was a judge sure
um I found old documents um talking that
you know he was a big part of this
diversion program
um back in 2003 and and through those
years so we would certainly love to um
what amount were you looking for
foreign
thirty thousand fifty thousand Mr Mayor
I I you know looking looking at what our
our grand tasks to offer and then you
know what what our city supplements it
with
um and then I guess looking at the
percentages of what what county and and
City uh clients we are we are Servicing
I guess we could look at it as a
percentage-wise I mean it's it's almost
50 50.
um but I mean if we if we're to look at
a 60 40
uh I guess off of our general funds
um because as as the grant takes care of
throughout the whole entire county is um
because they have a they have a thing
that they do every year
excuse me that they give to non-profits
and they use their pilt money
payment and lieu of taxes that's well
it's gone up to like two and a half
million dollars so they have a lot of
the ngos that they go kind of like what
we do with our health and human services
fund they have uh you submit for a grant
and um can you just um and copy efop or
send me an email I'll send it to
Fernando and see what you can get on
that uh we can find out we'll have a
little discussion and see exactly what
they can what they can do
Mr Mayor I I can certainly do that and I
will include Miss Amy bassford as um she
is she's a an amazing asset to the city
and and certainly well versed on on how
to assist me to
to set that up okay and I think she has
her hand up Amy do you have a question
yes mayor
um I just wanted to follow up uh about a
year and a half ago CYFD
Service uh funding mechanism for the JCP
programs so we do have
um per per child what it costs to have
them involved in the program depending
on their if they're level one level two
or level three
um and and certainly uh Robert and I can
work together on the numbers of those
four uh the the county that that would
apply to
um and so it's a it's an evidence-based
uh calculation of fee for service so
that might be helpful to the the county
we have
um the past couple years really tried to
get in at the beginning of their budget
cycle because we are not
um we don't fit the exact criteria for
the Pelt money which I've looked at as
well
um we have not been able to apply for
that but perhaps you and
um city manager ifo uh submitting a
letter to our County Manager may help
move us forward in that process and
would be very much appreciated
but just out of curiosity how come you
don't qualify for their bill money uh I
I would have to go back and look at it
but I know that we've had we had in 2018
meetings with
um the director of their health health
programs that administers that and we
were not for some reason we didn't we
didn't qualify for it and I have not
looked at it for this past year
um yet but but that's certainly
something uh Robert and I can work on
looking at again uh for the upcoming
um I would have guessed it's coming out
pretty soon for the upcoming fiscal year
of 2022.
yeah because uh I think Fernando didn't
get there till right around maybe 2018
um so it may have happened before and so
yeah no it just drop me that that
message and we'll see what we can do
okay okay very good
okay well thank you very much for again
the presentation and uh all that you all
do
all right so now we're going to go ahead
and go to uh item 3.3 the 2020 ethics
survey Viola padea is gonna presentation
good afternoon Mr Mayor counselors
um my name is Viola perea I'm with the
city's internal audit office and before
we get started I'm going to share my
screen
are you all able to see the screen yes
okay let me get it on the slideshow here
okay again uh good afternoon everyone
I'm Viola perea with the city's internal
audit office and today we're going to
review the results of our 2020 ethics
survey
internal audit is a division of the
city's legal department and the mission
of the legal department is to provide
legal risk and compliance services to
city council the city manager and all
organizational units of the city so the
public will be confident that city
government is protecting valuable
resources and operating ethically
effectively efficiently and
transparently
the legal Department's strategic result
number five sets that by 2022 60 percent
of city employees surveyed will report
that they agree or strongly agree that
they work in an ethical climate
an annual ethics survey has been
completed by internal audits since 2014
an All-City email was sent out with a
link to this year's survey the survey
was open for three weeks from July 20th
through August 7th of 2022
weekly email reminders were set out to
encourage participation and a total of
396 responses were received this year
which is a nine percent increase over
last year
the survey consisted of 19 questions and
those questions were used to measure
knowledge application and compliance
with City's ethics policies as well as
to obtain an opinion of the city's
ethical climate
responses reflected an upward trend of
improvement in 18 of our 19 questions
and that's over the base year which is
defined as the first year the question
was asked
foreign
we did have one area where we had a
slight Decline and that was in the area
of the familiarity with our Anonymous
hotline
the results reflected a one percent
decrease over the base year but
currently the rate of familiarity is
still at 82 percent
our continuing strategies to improve in
this area include additional
presentations through the city Manor
dialogue and new employee orientation
increased ethics training enhanced
visibility on the city's public website
as well as on citynet and periodic All
City Pio messages to inform employees of
our Anonymous hotline
and with that I'll stand for any
questions you might have
okay mayor Pro tem did you have a
question oh yes you're excellent okay
um
councilor Vasquez
uh thank you mayor
um yeah just a so a question is what um
how are we trending towards that result
of sixty percent
um at this point
Mr bear counselor Vasquez this
particular question with familiarity on
the the Anonymous hotline
I'm sorry I'm going to go back to wrong
question a familiarity with the ethical
climate and agreement in the ethical
climate that question has been asked for
the last two years both 2019 and 2020.
it's a relatively new question that's
been asked last year we were at a 78
agreement or strongly agree and this
year we're at 81 percent
okay great and
um do the questions change have the
questions changed over a year on the
survey or are you asking the same the
same questions Mr Mayor councilor
Vasquez since 2014 we started with the
Baseline of questions and the same
questions are asked year after year
however we over the last few years we
have added a few additional questions so
we are measuring from the Baseline of
the addition of those new questions but
we have maintained That Base question
base from 2014 to current so they are
the same questions but there have been a
few additions since the beginning
uh thank you Miss Pereira and what what
caused the change to add those new
questions or if you don't mind sharing
what those new questions are
uh Mr Mayor uh councilor Velasquez Shore
um since 2014 we had
the vast majority about 75 percent of
the questions have remained consistent
from the beginning
um I can go through this very quickly in
2015 we added the question of whether
the city's ethics policies are
interpreted and used fairly by managers
in a department
and that has been remaining consistent
since 2015.
also in 2015 we added I am familiar with
the Anonymous hotline reporting system
to report fraud waste and misuse of City
resources
in 2016 we added I believe there may be
fraud waste and misuse of City Wars uh
resources in my work area
in 2019 we added I strongly agree or I
agree or strongly agree that I work in
an ethical climate
and in 2015 we also added overall the
ethical climate has improved in the last
12 months
thank you Mr I really appreciate
um that answer you have in those right
there with you thank you for being so
prepared
um
so with especially I'm
want to particularly focus on the
question about misuse of City resources
um
what happens when you get a strongly
disagree or negative response to that
are these responses all Anonymous or can
you at least track them by Department
Mr Mayor councilor Vasquez the survey is
anonymous however we do allow within the
questions and opportunity for employees
to provide feedback if they so choose
so we're able to identify any
particulars but only if they are
provided through the ethics survey
mechanism however with the Anonymous
hotline we do have employees as well as
the public reporting any instances of
potential fraud missed use or waste that
internal audit does conduct an
investigation along with the Departments
to determine the validity and then to
try to determine what type of solution
we need to take to resolve those issues
okay great thank you
um and do you
uh so I'm thinking about particular
questions
um that that may Trend differently in
different departments
um is that something that you're able to
track uh just using as an example this
question about misuse of resources if
you were to see let's say a response
rate of 50 versus a city-wide response
rate of 85 to 90 percent favorable uh is
that something that you can look at and
would that be something then that would
Merit some looking into
Mr Mayor councilor Vasquez up to this
point the way the survey has been
established is we do not identify any
responses by Department
that tends to deter people from
participating if we can narrow in on a
particular area it it avoids the the
ability to remain anonymous they folks
think that they might be able to be
identified
so up to this point we have not tracked
it by department or position it's it's a
city-wide overall completely Anonymous
uh survey and the only opportunity we
would have to narrow down on those
opportunities would be to add
um one element of either tracking which
again removes the ability to remain
anonymous or to add a question for folks
to tell us what department they work for
um but our understanding over the past
is when we do add in that type of a
question folks tend to either skip over
it
um they may not be accurate when they
choose what department or they may not
answer at all so to to try to gain a
city-wide overall perspective we try to
eliminate any particular identifiers
that might narrow it narrow down
so at this point we're not able to but
that's something that we can look into
if uh Council feels that that might be
important or valuable
thank you Miss perea um you know I I
definitely respect the anonymity and um
the privacy of respondents and
um you know often also feel like
that perhaps folks don't use the
anonymous
um uh hotline for the same reason that
if they report something in their
Department
um that you know it would be traced back
to them or somehow they'd be retaliated
against
um I've gotten in my time at the city
council maybe a couple of emails that
that indicated as such from from City
staff that I just passed on to our city
manager you know without responding to
them but
um you know a depart you know it would
be just interesting to see a trend
Department by department so that you
wouldn't you would have some level of
anonymity but also if there was less
confidence and ethical behavior in
certain departments that you'd be able
to at least narrow it down to a
department without having to go down to
that granular level of like a staff
member reporting one particular incident
or two incidents
um just as a as a as a way to to compare
departments um in terms of this survey I
think that might be valuable but um but
I'm not a survey expert and I'm not
certainly not an Ethics expert so I
don't know if that's possible or would
change the Dynamics of things but
um just the thought just the thought on
that so I'll see what other counselors
have anything to say on there thank you
Miss prayer thank you mayor thank you
and uh Jennifer uh Vega Brown hear the
comment
yes thank you mayor and Council
um I just wanted to follow up on a
couple of things that councilor Vasquez
said one of the things that we've done
since internal audit has come under
legal is we've tried to I'm trying to go
through the the comments employees are
able to make comments and sometimes
those are very detailed and I've talked
to Amber Vaughn and what I would like to
do is when we
identify one or two very
um important comments I'll just leave it
at that from a department I would like
to follow up with a smaller Anonymous
survey targeted at that particular
department so maybe
um just you know anywhere from less than
five questions maybe something that
would give us an idea of what is going
on in that particular department and
also allow employees to remain anonymous
so we're working on something on a
follow-up like that I think that's
really important another thing that in
the last couple of years that I started
to do is I I know it's important to look
at the Baseline Trend so the trend from
year 2014 to now is important to see
what the difference is but it's also
important to see what last year's
differences because you can identify
more trends that way so we can look from
year to year to see if there's a trend
up or down on any particular question so
that is another thing that we're looking
at as far as trends go we'll continue to
look at all of the questions because as
we as new issues come up and as we're
faced with new challenges sometimes we
need to add in another question just so
that we can get a better understanding
of what's happening in the workforce so
we're constantly trying to renew and
update the Epic survey it's important to
keep a lot of those questions the same
but we're we're looking at it and adding
when we can
okay thank you Jennifer
uh we'll see here mayor Pro Tem
thanks mayor
um thank you
viola Jennifer I think this is really
important and I've appreciated the move
from an intern the audit team being
initially with city manager over to
Jennifer
um you know let's face it since I've
been hunt Council we've had
um
um you know
um I'm very
um concerning things happen that have
been investigated
um
and so I think it I think to to do this
ethics survey
um year to year check out Trends I think
is is really important and and so one of
the things that
um
you know I've noticed from the time from
beget from I don't recall when you first
started doing this but I thought I
remember seeing some details when I
first got elected and you can correct me
if I'm wrong Jennifer
um and I've seen the increase of
participants what do you have in place
to ensure that we are getting more
participation from
our staff because we have what over 1200
employees
more than 1500 16.
so we have different employees so what
are we doing sorry about our life I
interrupted what what steps will we be
taking to increase that I'd love to see
you know half of that more than that all
of our folks
um participate I I find it really
interesting that they do not right so
you you can assume a lot in that
uh Mr Mayor mayor Pro tem gandada every
year the the results are since we've
been tracking this since 2014 the
results are a little up and down
depending on the year and in any given
year I don't think we've had more than
about 500 or so responses so we're
looking at maybe
um a third of our employees this year
we're at 396 and even with Cova taking
place uh several of our city staff were
working remotely and this the survey is
done through Survey Monkey so it's
through emails so we've been sending out
reminders every week just to keep it
fresh and keep it on top of everybody's
uh inbox to make sure that we're all
inundated with emails working remotely
so we want to be able to bring that up
to the Forefront and let folks know the
survey is still available to them we
extended it to a three-week period this
year uh with again with more reminders
to make that opportunity of a available
and it was an increase over last year so
we did make some good strides there
um but the way to do the survey is going
to be through that email capability and
we can send out more reminders maybe
some pios there are different Avenues we
can take to remind folks that the survey
is posted and this year I think we were
able to see a good uptick in that but we
can improve those efforts next year and
see if there's something else we can do
to remind staff that this is anonymous
there is no way to identify themselves
unless they choose to give that
information of course there's an
opportunity to give those comments but
if the concern is
remaining Anonymous we want to make sure
we maintain that integrity and let folks
know this is an opportunity for them to
voice their concerns in a safe way but
we can send out more reminders and I
think there's some other things we can
do just to let them know this is how it
operates rates here's your opportunity
to provide some feedback for us and let
them know Point them towards the survey
again to let them know there's that
Avenue for them to to voice their
concerns
so Viola you're saying that someone
could still
um
fill that out
Mr Mayor mayor Pro tem the survey was
closed so when we set up the Survey
Monkey we set up a start date and a
closing date and then every week I've
been sending a remote well during that
time period I sent out reminders to
folks letting them know it's still open
this is the date it's going to close and
I didn't close it into the Monday
following that Friday so there was still
a couple of days of buffer in there but
once we close out the survey that allows
us to gather the data and start putting
our statistics together to do the
trending analysis yeah yeah I appreciate
that you know I've been involved in a
few organizational surveys to this
extent uh you know
and and I think
um what what we've done or the state has
done in the past through a particular
department is hire consultant like a an
agency right that who that would do
what's just a third party someone
outside of the of the city that would
come in
um someone who
[Music]
um
is familiar with ethic questions those
kinds of things I'm not saying that
you're not I'm I'm just saying that
maybe taking it out of the outside of of
of the city that maybe we would get more
participation I I don't know and then
interesting enough I've I've had to look
for that at that hotline number
um
um a couple of times last week to give
to folks so it's not easily found right
um and so my recommendation would be to
to find it to put it in a place where it
pops up really quickly
um
and and maybe that's part of it that
folks just don't know where to search
um and and so I I just trying to give
some feedback about that I think that
hotline is so important
um and it really gives
um you know folks I don't know it it I
think it's helpful that someone could
call give remain anonymous and give
information out and then that you that I
know that you take it very seriously
right you take it seriously you look
through those things you do you know you
work towards you know solving it's an
investigation I I guess and and you work
towards you know solving that in a quick
and expeditious you know an expeditious
way their way and and I think that's
important for folks to know
as well Mr Mayor uh Pro mayor Pro tem
gandada to let you all know that we did
increase
um in the last couple of months
increased our visibility on our website
tremendously so initially we were on our
transparency page with the telephone
number as well as the web intake as well
as the odd the internal audit page we
had that those uh references posted
there as well since that time we've also
added both the telephone number and the
links to the web intake on next to the
transparency icon on the city's public
site it's under report an issue
as well as at the very top where it says
how do I you scroll down to contact
it'll have both the telephone number as
well as the the web intake there as well
um we've also put the telephone numbers
and and just when I say telephone
numbers we have both a public hotline as
well as an employee hotline both are
Anonymous unless the the individual
chooses to disclose their name and and
personal information otherwise it is
completely Anonymous it goes through a
third party uh reporting system so all
we get is the information provided by
that individual
it is also now posted as a footer on
every city page both the public and the
employee hotline telephone numbers as
well as links to the page and we added
one last link through our employee
portal
so as soon as people log on to city net
and you click on employee portal right
next to the city manager's picture
there's a big Link in there that says
Anonymous hotline system if you click on
that link you're going to again see both
telephone numbers and the links to the
external web intake page so we've tried
to find as many opportunities as we
could to increase our visibility in
areas on our page that would seem
logical where folks might go to to find
this information such as the you know
the how do I or or report an issue those
seem pretty logical as well as the
transparency internal audit the Footers
and then through our employee portal I
think we've increased uh visibility
quite a bit and over the last several
weeks and to give you an idea of we're
already seeing an increase
for example in 2019 we had a total of 51
hotline complaints and so far from
fiscal year 20 the first four months
we're already at 30. so in the first
four months we're more than half of
where we were in total last year so we
are seeing
um I'm assuming it's a result of
increased visibility but we are seeing
an increase in in complaints that are
being called in that's good okay I mean
not good it's not good because people I
mean you know what I mean I mean people
feel like I just want people to know
that we're really serious about this to
include externally but internally as
well that there's an Avenue that people
can take if they want to complain or
report something that just isn't right
um and and then Viola will you talk
about the process as it goes to the
third party you get the information and
then what happens after that uh Mr Mayor
mayor Pro tem gandada the way the
process works is an individual can
either call in to one of those telephone
numbers or click on the web intake
provide their information it goes
through a third party provider once that
information is received the individual
will be asked to create a username and a
password so they can later enter back
into the system and review the status of
their complaint at that point that
information is forwarded to the city's
hotline committee and the hotline
committee is comprised of both assistant
city managers the City attorney as well
as the city auditor so the four of us
will get this information it'll be
reviewed and the determination will be
made as to whether or not it'll be sent
to human resources for investigation to
the department where the complaint is
relative to or whether or not it'll be
investigated by internal audit
specifically I communicate that
information to again either the
department or HR are when that
information is completed or the
investigation is completed that
information is forwarded back
a draft report will be prepared for the
city manager but before then all the
details will be reviewed Again by the
hotline committee to determine if
there's any follow-up that might need to
be made if we've pressed the question or
the issue that had been addressed to
make sure that there is a resolution
that's been identified at that point
we'll close out the case and that
information will be sent to the city
manager
okay very good now Violet do we have an
Ethics Committee or what are we calling
this committee that we had to
put together
Mr Mayor Amer Pro tem gandada recently
we put together the oversight committee
per ordinance and that's going to review
investigations and audit reports that
are be prepared by either internal audit
or the Inspector General
if it is a a matter that is Personnel
related those items will not go to the
oversight committee for review but
General audit scheduled Audits and
investigations into matters City matters
will go to that um oversight committee
to review our reports and and obtain
comment from them as well okay so
there's an extra layer in the event to
write that something if it fits that
criteria will go to this committee
and then make comment recommendations
Viola then to you uh Mr Mayor Mir
project yes they will they will have an
opportunity to review the report and
make comment to make sure that any
questions that may come up get answered
by internal audit or the Inspector
General we do have one of our city
council members and the mayor are on
that committee as well as three external
individuals so we have representation
from the legal um field a CPA and a
business individual and so they'll have
an opportunity we'll have a good view
from different folks to give us some
feedback on the report to make sure
again that there isn't any questions
left unanswered provide us some feedback
in case we do need to follow up on any
issues at that point the report will go
back to the department as well as the
city manager with recommendations for
corrective action on an annual basis we
will be summarizing those reports and
we'll be making a presentation to
council at the end of the fiscal year to
let you know the progress of our our
scheduled audit plan good I didn't know
that last piece and I was going to ask
okay very good thank you Valerie I just
think it's important that we have checks
and balances that were that we're all
holding each other accountable
um and this is is really important to me
and I know the rest of this Council that
the public is is aware and and knows
that you know we're taking this very
seriously so I appreciate all the work
and um and I hope to you know see a huge
increase of of um employees
participating in the next survey
um and thank you thank you for your your
work
yes ma'am thank you
like Jennifer has another comment
Jennifer
thank you I just want to clarify a
couple of things um
site committee but I wanted to remind
you we also have an Ethics Committee
um the Ethics Committee will handle
things that are in accordance with the
city ordinance but also when there's an
Ethics complaint against a city employee
he goes to the Ethics Committee and
currently that is comprised of the HR
Director the chief of police and the
attorney we also have the hotline
committee so when we get Anonymous
hotline complaints those go to the um
this the city auditor but they're
immediately
um
they're immediately sent to the hotline
committee to determine by that committee
which is the assistant city managers and
the City attorney and the city auditor
who if that's a Personnel matter it goes
to the director of whatever Department
if it's you know however we need to
handle it if it's an HR matter it will
go to the HR Director if there's any
number of ways we can handle that
sometimes if it does involve Broadway
store abuse that will go directly to
internal audits so we do have those
three separate committees
thank you I appreciate that I'm not
going crazy I thought we had an Ethics
Committee too okay very good
thank you counselor Flores
thank you mayor and and thank you
um Miss uh for your presentation now
there we were talking about two things
though I think towards the end we're
talking about the ethics survey and then
we're talking about a hotline and the
employee survey is one thing and the
hotline to Lodge complaints is another
and
um so
I um
I'm not a statistician and so I don't
know how surveys are
um
designed or crafted uh but I and I don't
remember taking a survey maybe I did
um but I don't I don't understand how
and I'm I'm really have the same
questions or concerns maybe not concerns
of his but questions that uh
uh counselor Vasquez post
if someone is answering a survey and
it's supposed to be anonymous but yet
it's coming from your computer
I think that's the reason there was a
two percent
um there was a two percent turnout on
the survey right I mean 1600 employees
396 responses I think that's two percent
a little over two percent two and a half
maybe
so I I think there was probably
reticence on the part of employees or
anybody to participate in that because
because of that you're
you know anything can be uh and I'm not
accusing the city of anything but I'm
just saying trying to identify why there
are so few people who
who responded and then
um if there's no way of tracking
uh what this uh response might be to a
particular question that may raise an
eyebrow or if uh there's something in
the in the questions that raise uh some
sort of embezzlement or you know when it
comes to money that's really the big
thing
um or um but you know I I don't recall
the survey I don't recall the questions
but
um I I just don't know
what purpose that serves and
um and then the fact that some of the
questions are changed and
um they're different than the ones that
were originally framed uh when this was
first conducted
is um
you know I don't know if you take those
questions out and then just measure them
against the ones that have been
consistently there
so I you know I don't know I don't know
what the word might be it might be
validity and the other is purpose and so
um I just want to express those concerns
and uh
I just don't know what the purpose is I
mean I I think the purpose is for people
to feel that they have a place to
respond to a survey regarding a
department or a fellow worker
something he or she saw I don't know
because I don't recall them questions
and it all depends on the call of the
question and how it's framed or designed
so
I don't know I don't know if that's a
question if it's just a rhetorical
question I'm a park I apart I don't know
if you could answer it Miss but I don't
know if uh attorney Vega Brown
um can answer it I don't know if it bear
it's an answer but I have to express
that concern thank you Mr Mayor thank
you counselor Flores um and you are
correct there were two different issues
that were being discussed here initially
we're talking about the results of the
ethics survey and the questions in the
ethics survey are to measure the ethical
climate and it does give that
opportunity for folks to voice any
concerns about the ethical climate in
their area if they so choose but we do
maintain that anonymity we don't track
City email addresses within this survey
so there is no opportunity for us to
look back and identify who may have
answered a question a particular way or
provided that feedback it it is
completely Anonymous and the purpose of
asking these questions is to measure the
ethical climate if we do see well and
I'll take a step back the questions that
we have here overall this year we have
19 questions and about 14 of them were
asked from the beginning those remain
consistent from the beginning we don't
change them we continue to ask those
questions and we track the the
statistics the responses for each
question individually
so we're never altering the question we
may add an additional question to obtain
a little bit more information but we
don't change the question so we are
measuring from year to year their
responses from city employees on that
same topic
the second piece of it is the hotline
and that's what we've had in place for
several years now and it gives employees
an opportunity to report any concerns
about fraud waste and abuse within the
city and it ties back to the ethics
survey in that when we do our ethics
survey part of what internal audit will
be doing moving forward is to improve
our ethics training that's provided to
the city to make sure folks understand
um
any kind of challenges that they might
face an ethical dilemma that they might
face while they're working for the city
to help them evaluate whether the action
is appropriate or not the way they would
have throughout the year to report an
ethical dilemma or the potential for
fraud wasted abuse would be through the
hotline committee so the ethics survey
is once a year to measure the overall
ethical climate and on a daily basis
throughout the year if you do have an
ethical dilemma the hotline is available
you for you to report those issues
okay it still doesn't answer my basic
question
um
pondering as to what it is going to
accomplish is it going to just make us
feel a two percent better that we're a
little bit more ethical
so here counselor Flores um we had 396
responses
with about 1600 employees that's a 25
response oh 25 yes ma'am um so we did
have and again historically since we've
been tracking this data the responses
have raged anywhere from 310 responses
to about 510 being the highest so we're
at the higher level this past year than
we have been since 2014. so considering
again more folks working from home
um the extra reminders I think and then
extending the period that the survey was
open I think allowed for more
participation in there but we do need to
stress it is anonymous there is no way
to track that is something as as
Jennifer mentioned that we can create
supplemental surveys if we do see a
trend in a particular area but as it's
designed now the Citywide survey doesn't
give us that level of detail we'll have
to add additional surveying or maybe
refocus our training depending on the
comments that are provided through the
survey one of the things that we're
wanting to do is enhance or maybe review
the ethics training that's provided
every year that is a requirement for all
city employees we can work with HR in
developing maybe some new material to
address those concerns a little bit
differently than has been in the past so
as if the survey is is reflecting an
issue that maybe a downward Trend in
agreement with a positive ethical
climate then that gives us the
opportunity to improve our training in
the in the area of ethics and maybe
reach our our employees a little bit
differently and provide that information
to help them make those decisions
thank you thank you very much Viola I
appreciate it thank you Mr Mayor thank
you and thank you Viola for the
information and for the presentation and
so um there's nothing further we'll move
on to item 3.4 the East Lowman Avenue
development plan and looks like um
community community development director
Larry Nichols will be discussing
good afternoon mayor and city council
Larry Nichols community development
director uh so you know I'm going to
have uh deputy director David Weir and
our consultant a Southwest site so we'll
be presenting to you the uh of the
progress we are having with the East
Lowman project
they're completing their work uh Public
Utilities is completing their work with
the remediation of the site and there's
been several questions asked about what
will happen with the master planning for
that site as well as uh some of the real
estate
marketing uh analysis of the site with
that I'll ask Mr Ware to give a little
bit more information and then we'll go
to our consultant thank you mayor thank
you
good afternoon mayor and city council uh
thank you for giving us the opportunity
to share the information on the status
of the East Lowman development plan as
Larry said site Southwest is the
consultant that we hired last spring
early summer to conduct this work one of
the tasks of the contract was to prepare
an existing conditions report and also
evaluate the local real estate market
and so uh today they're going to present
that information and presenters with
presenters will be Rosemary Dudley from
site Southwest she'll go over a lot of
the overall status of the project and
the planning background and then Cameron
Pollock from RCL company and Cameron I
apologize if I butchered your last name
he'll be providing some of the initial
real estate information on that and then
there are also other subconsultants with
sites Southwest that are on the line
today that will be available to answer
any questions you may have so with that
I'll turn it over to Rosie uh with the
presentation
okay thank you thank you David
thank you Mr Mayor and council members I
am going to share my screen
to be able to show the presentation and
um excuse me for interrupting either
Rosie or Rosemary can you I know we just
introduced you but can you state your
name please yes yes I'm Rosie Dudley I
am with the site Southwest I'm a senior
planner and I am joined with um as David
mentioned a number of others on the East
Lowman development plan
um and are happy to hear to be here
today to be able to present
um what we've done thus far in the
existing conditions review and and then
hear from you with any questions
afterwards and and we are going to try
to be succinct with this
um the memo itself is many slides long
so bear with me I'm going to try to be
as concise as possible but feel free to
interrupt me whenever you have a
question or or I can just follow up with
questions at the end as can our fellow
Consultants
excuse me I would appreciate if you if
you do that
just go ahead and finish your
presentation then we'll just take
questions at the end okay yeah
foreign
so I'm going to go over the general plan
context our review of other adopted
plans and regulations that affect this
area that our review of the physical
assets and existing conditions
circulation access and infrastructure
and then I'll turn it over to Cameron to
go briefly over the socioeconomic and
demographic information for the project
area and the real estate Trends and
opportunities he's going to turn it back
to me just to sum up what we see as the
emerging vision for the plan area and
and then I'll go over just the immediate
next steps for the process
so to give you some context
um can you see my little laser pointer
yes okay great
um the project area for East slowman is
here in the dash black
line it's just east of I-25 and East
Lowman runs right through the site
um
Sonoma Ranch Boulevard runs north south
roughly through the site and just
adjacent to the site is the Las Cruces
Dam open space
with a lot of trails networks and it
accessed through the site from the South
Las Cruces Arroyo which has existing
trails
um right across East Lowman is the
Mountain View Regional Medical Center
and you might be familiar with the
Walmart Neighborhood Market right at the
north
um intersection of Sonoma Ranch
Boulevard in East Lowman and here's the
East Mesa Public Safety complex Mesilla
Valley Mall is outside the project area
but not far away so we're really bounded
by Road Runner Parkway
and then into the Foothills here
stretching east of Sonoma Ranch
Boulevard so that's just to get a little
bit of the bearing for the area now
zooming into the project area there were
identified three specific areas area one
is really the focus it's primarily owned
by the city it's fronting East Lowman
and Sonoma Ranch Boulevard and on the
um south side it's bounded by little
damaroyo
um the area two is just this little
section here in the gold that it flanks
both sides of v slom in between Road
Runner Parkway and Paseo De onate and
it's owned by BLM and the City
and then all the area in pink is
referred to as area three it includes
the existing medical buildings north of
the sloman it also includes a
neighborhood market and all of the land
out here owned by the city that includes
where the um the small airport
for remote control airplanes and the
archery range and then also the yard
waste and Greenway Center
yeah
so just to give you a
overview of our planning process we
kicked it off at the beginning
um well in the middle of the summer in
August with our project initiation and
fight evaluation and each of our phases
are shown here in the graphic in Orange
um
we have then since been doing our
existing conditions assessment
um and are are here today obviously to
go over that assessment
um each each phase that we go through we
have an opportunity for the community to
get involved
um whether it be on our
planisloman.com site where there's um
options to weigh in on what people are
interested in seeing in this area we did
kick off the project with eight meetings
they did take place over Zoom
um with stakeholders representing
businesses in the area Realtors
developers and economic development
representatives from both the city and
the region and we got a lot of great
input from them and we started to really
get a sense of the vision for the site
as a a place with a range of housing
types that connect to the existing
Medical a facility that crossed East
Lowman and
allow existing
users of the facility whether they be
patients patients
families and the medical workers
themselves to be able to connect into
the rest of the site so we can we've as
I go through this process we we've
integrated the comments that we've heard
thus far and we're looking forward to
hearing from more people since we
gave the announcement about this work
session last week we was the first time
we put it out to the entire City's email
distribution list using the Elevate Las
Cruces distribution list and since then
the site has gotten a lot more
um a lot more hits and a lot more people
interested in signing up for our our
site so I'm happy to answer more
questions about the process but this is
just the second phase of our process and
there will be a lot more opportunities
for Community to get engaged and provide
us with their input
so I'm gonna whiz through this
background section on the plans and
regulations that we reviewed
um that pertain to East Lowman so this
is the Elevate Las Cruces plan as you're
well aware was just adopted in 2020.
here we are
um just at the intersection of East
slowman and Sonoma Ranch Boulevard we
are identified as a town center within
our project area
um and we're closest to the um I'm sorry
I didn't mean Town Center I meant
Neighborhood Center we're closest to the
town center of Messina Valley Mall and
just a little north of Aggie Uptown just
to give you context so
um a neighborhood center as defined by
Elevate is a mix of residential and
non-residential land uses and located at
Key neighborhood intersections
um with a walkable environment that
provides both entertainment and
employment opportunities so that is um
one of the key forces of driving our
review of the area and certainly
we've reviewed the the Elevate Las
Cruces plan understanding how that
affects the project area
um specifically in East Lowman there
were four five Place types identified in
Elevate one is Suburban neighborhood one
is regional commercial rural
neighborhood Civic institutional and
open space Reserve where the the place
types that the Elevate Las Cruces
identified for the area
we also reviewed the Parks and
Recreation master plan adopted in 2019
and just zooming into the project area
you can see that there is a bit of a
void of schools and parks in the
vicinity in the actual project area just
to the north is the Desert Hills
Elementary School and its walk shed
overlaps a little bit of the edge of our
project area and just to the South is
the um Paseo deonate neighborhood park
these two green areas are the archery
range and the small remote airport or
airplane Airport
so there is room to to Really integrate
and and provide some more smaller um
Community or neighborhood parks in the
vicinity obviously this enormous amount
of of open space associated with the Las
Cruces dam is a huge resource that we
want to connect to along the Arroyo and
also through the vehicular
um the roads so to provide more
opportunities to connect that way we
also reviewed the active Transportation
plan adopted in 2018
um
and I'm not going to go into the details
that it identified because we have a map
later that compiled all the
recommendations from your adopted plans
in our project area but it um it was
something we have focused a lot on in
terms of bike and pedestrian
improvements for the vicinity
and and on that same note we reviewed
the mobility 2045 plan by Messiah Valley
mpo and they have they assessed
not only active Transportation including
bikes and heads but also the major
thoroughfares in the area and the future
improvements that they that are planned
in the vicinity so I'll go over that as
well in the next section
we looked at the bike I mean excuse me
the transit routes that are already
provided by Road Runner Transit and that
serve right down east Lowman and up
Sonoma Ranch and a roadrunner Drive our
Roadrunner Parkway
and the city has a complete streets
resolution adopted in 2008 2008 which we
will definitely be integrated in into
all the work that we do regarding land
uses and connectivity and they're in a
relationship
um and one thing I'm not I'm not sure
everyone is aware of but um is the
Lowman Avenue plan was adopted in in
2000 and it is more specifically focused
just along the Avenue that goes and it
goes beyond the interstate
um and what it did was develop design
guidelines to encourage development to
reinforce New Mexican articulate
architectural vernacular to uphold a
pleasant and attractive appearance to
use variation in modulation to reduce
mass of buildings and to add visual
interest so it had a set of stand it has
a set of standards that um we need to
adhere to and anyone developing in the
East Lowman area needs to adhere to
regarding Landscaping site design and
streetscapes to create their the vision
of that document was to create a live
Workshop environment with a mix of uses
which is actually very similar to the
kind of feedback we received in our
stakeholder meetings
that is they're perfectly United in
terms of having a vision to have this
seamless connection across East Logan to
the existing medical facilities and then
start to develop the the land on the
south side with housing and
supportive
retail and services
so just to jump into the physical assets
and conditions we'll start with zoning
but primarily the area is zoned as PUD
which gives a lot more flexibility and
then there are some pockets of
commercial into the North and the South
and the orange and yellow are
residential
and just to give you a flavor of the uh
what this it looks like from the side
this is at the top of area one looking
north towards the regional center I mean
excuse me the regional medical center
and you can see there's quite an
elevation change so you're really up
high looking down and just to give you a
sense of you know the existing Regional
commercial and the open space on the
east side of Sonoma Ranch Boulevard
and then again
um with all the parking that's
associated with the medical facility
looking through it North to Associated
medical offices and office space and
then beyond to some housing and just the
other images are just giving you a sense
of
um what the site looks like and the and
the areas to the South here looking past
this is Paseo De anate if you're on area
one looking to the Southwest
and then a a snapshot of of a typical
single-family home that's either in the
North or South neighborhoods on either
side of the project area
in terms of land ownership
the green is showing you the city of Las
Cruces land so as I mentioned almost a
good part of the 110 acres is owned by
the city
um this gold is BLM and then the the
rusty red is a it's private private
ownership
we also took us a look at the slope and
what you're seeing here is where the
darkest sections are are the steepest
areas with a a higher than 10 percent
grade and then when it moves into the
red it's going down to eight to ten
percent the yellow is
um three to eight percent and then the
green is the flattest part so you can
see that just along East Lowman here
there's quite an elevation change that
we will be addressing
um through our development scenarios
and and then taking a look at just all
the environmental conditions this map
helps to show that no matter where you
are in area one the views are pretty
astounding
um the organ mountains are just you know
looming down on you creating the most
amazing backdrop to this to the north
and east and then the robledo mountains
are towards the Northwest and if you
look off to the uh to the West you have
Sierra de las duvas so no matter where
you are you're seeing just some great
views and Vistas from the top of area
one this map is also showing where the
existing waterways are are
draining into the little damaroyo and
where there's undisturbed desert is
shown in the green
um and then the brown is showing you
some the more Disturbed areas but yet
undeveloped so we did notice a lot of um
Native species in terms of plant life as
well as
um animal life when we did our site tour
I did want to point out that the two
Arroyos throughout the site couldn't be
more different this is the one on the
north side of the hospital channelized a
real barrier between the hospital and
the office space that is on the North
side and then here is the little dama
Royal it's very natural and it's used
informally by the residents on the south
side of the project area for walking and
active transportation and we think of it
as a quite a resource to integrate and
to maintain that quality as we move
forward
um and here's a couple images of just
what those waterways look like through
through area one and the steep slopes
and how they're currently being
addressed with a development project
underway along East Lowman and then just
there's a lot of native vegetation that
seems to be quite healthy and that we
would be taking into consideration as we
move forward
from an Urban Design perspective the
commercial areas are definitely car
oriented a lot of disconnected parking
lots and narrow and sometimes
discontinuous sidewalks along the main
thoroughfares we didn't see a lot of
people out walking when we were there
for numerous times
and then from the the perspective of the
residential
um it's definitely a single family
residences on both sides so there's a
lack of the mid-market housing types
that are needed and we're brought up in
a lot of our stakeholder meetings
and there's a um a real focus on the
curvilinear street types with
landscaping and and some of them also
integrate storm water treatment already
we wanted to do a real quick comparison
just to give a sense of just taking area
one in a part of of area two on the
other side of Paseo De anate this is
about 153 acres and then overlaying that
on Aggie Uptown you can see how it
relates to your other development areas
in town so Aggie uptown's entire um
acreage is about 200 and there they've
divided into five districts we also took
the the footprint and overlaid it on
your downtown and the entire downtown
core fits within this this 153 area
Acres as well
and then I'll move into circulation and
access next starting with pedestrian
circulation
so as I mentioned there are some areas
where you know there are sidewalks along
East Lowman but it's such a car to um
dominated area you don't see a lot of
pedestrians out there
um
and we saw some Runners you know right
in the street and not using the sidewalk
what we did notice on the south are the
the neighborhood connections into that
little demo Royal there's a lot of
informal and formal connections into
that open space and this just gives you
a sense of um how wide East Lowman is
and um
the challenge that it presents to really
connect North and South along that
Boulevard
this map is summarizing the the
recommendations that I I um briefly
mentioned that both that came from both
the Messiah Valley and po Mobility to
2045 plan as well as your your active
Transportation plan
and so East slowman was already
identified as a pedestrian focused area
that's shown in this tan outline it's
also already has existing bike ways but
there are proposed separate separate
bike Lanes from Telshor all the way up
to Sonoma Ranch Boulevard
um the yellow here is an existing hard
surface trail that is um
already utilized and connects right
through the South Las Cruces Arroyo
trails that lead into the the Las Cruces
Dam and then Road Runner Parkway also
has an existing hard surface trail with
it with the potential for it to be
expanded or it's being proposed to be
expanded
down on the South Side you have Paseo De
unique they called out for further
bicycle infrastructure improvements and
then anywhere you see this white outline
there's Futures future study needed to
continue to improve the connectivity so
the site is very well positioned to
connect into all these great existing
infrastructure that you have and already
identify infrastructure that's already
been identified in your various Clans I
also wanted to point out that the Lowman
Ave transfer center is right at the East
edge of the I mean the West edge of the
project area along Road Runner Parkway
so that's another opportunity to to
Really integrate with that and make make
it a walkable and bikeable Community
that's accessed by transit
from a vehicular standpoint
this is showing some of the plans that
are and that are already on the books so
um East Lowman is called out as a
principal arterial as a Sonoma Ranch
Boulevard
um in yellow you're seeing the existing
collector along Paseo De uniate it is
proposed in the 2045 plan to carry on
and connect to Sonoma Ranch Boulevard
and we just started to look at some ways
to connect into East the north side of
East Lowman where all the existing
driveways are so that's something we'll
be considering as we move forward with
the development scenarios for this half
is just how to make the most of the
existing connections
so here's some images of of what those
boulevards look like
four lanes on both East slowman and
Sonoma Ranch with a speed limit of 35
but it is decreased to 25 within the
medical facility area
and then one thing we definitely need to
have at top of mind is to be reminded
that the East Lowman Avenue does provide
the emergency access to that entire
facility so any improvements that we
make to make that more connected from a
walkability and bikeability standpoint
we need to keep the emergency access in
mind
and then I'm going to just go real
briefly over the infrastructure there is
a utility easement right through area
one and a gas line shown in red here
East Lowman has water gas and Sewer
located
um within the right-of-way and Sonoma
Ranch Boulevard has
reclaimed water line right through its
right-of-way and as we move forward we
will be continuing to reassess just to
make sure that any proposed land uses
that that we put forth in the scenarios
can be
um Can Be You can utilize the existing
infrastructure and there wouldn't be a
need for additional utilities and if
there's any questions about that we have
our Engineers on the call as well
so at this point I'll turn it over to
you Cameron to go over the next half of
the presentation
great thanks Rosie good evening
everybody my name is Cameron pavelik and
I'm a vice president with rclco we're a
national real estate consulting firm uh
thanks so much for having us this
evening
um
so for this first phase of our work we
were focused on conducting an analysis
of
as Rosie mentioned the existing market
conditions both related to the
socioeconomics of the region as well as
the real estate land use trends
to try to outline the and outline the
potential drivers and demand drivers of
future development of both residential
and Commercial uses over the next 10 to
15 years
this first phase we really focused on
what are those existing conditions and
what are the key demand drivers in our
next phase we will be modeling out what
market demand is by land use and
projecting what we believe is the
potential supportable square feet on
site over the next 10 to 15 years
um Rosie I think for the sake of time if
you don't mind skipping ahead six slides
to the Regional economics
that's great thank you
um so we just skipped over some of the
the demographic analysis that we did and
we can obviously share that with the
group but I think you all know your your
city very well so I I won't uh go over
that but you know we spent a lot of time
looking at some of the key drivers in
the market with race ethnicity education
financial backings and we learned a lot
from our conversations
you know I think one program that stood
out was the bridges of southern New
Mexico and how you're using that program
to really Target education graduation
rates and boosting uh the platform of of
young adults in the city to increase
that education
but to get started I really want to
focus in on
the economics of the region
um
so with that said you know commercial
land uses are strongly reliant on a
robust economic growth which has caused
some concern over the next five to three
to five years given uh the the
covid-19 induced recession
with projected job growth moving forward
well below that of the past 20 years so
that's something that we're definitely
monitoring as the the situation evolves
with employment obviously in in
fluctuation
as uh we also believe that Economic
Development will be a key initiative to
drive future demand uh with bringing in
businesses that are not currently
located in Las Cruces
um and we think that efforts by New
Mexico State University the city's
Economic Development Department and the
Border Plex Alliance are all crucial in
recruiting additional businesses to the
market uh with really uh you know I know
I know they're focused on a medical
Aerospace defense onshoring of
manufacturing and a number of other
Industries
um but you know I think for our site
we're really focused on the potential of
medical given our adjacency to the
hospital there
um
so with that said
um you know this is something that we're
definitely monitoring and it's not the
the key driver but definitely something
that we want to keep in mind as we we're
looking at Trends moving forward
um the next slide Rosie is just kind of
outlining the different economic sectors
in play in the region and how those are
projected to grow over time
um you know obviously there's some
sensitivity with the current market
climate but I think it is really
encouraging to see
how strong the health services sector
has grown over the past 10 20 years and
we believe that trend is likely to
continue moving forward
and obviously again that is a key driver
for what we believe can can be at our
site given again our adjacency to the
medical facility
um
if you want to skip ahead to slides
so being mindful of the Town centers
that Rosie outlined in the Elevate Las
Cruces plan as well as the existing and
protected economic conditions we really
believe that the East Lowman sites are
are likely best suited for a wide range
of residential typologies neighborhoods
serving retail and complementary Medical
Services to provide that walkable and
mixed-use Neighborhood Center
um we believe that a vibrant mixed-use
neighborhood can serve as an attraction
to National and bi-national tenants that
are potentially looking for a more
integrated and walkable environment than
what might be available and in more
stand-alone land use settings
we also think that there's a strong
partnership for our potential
partnership uh with some of the great
organizations in the region as well as
the private sector and how we can kind
of tie all of those different
stakeholders together uh to create
additional upside so that one plus one
can equal three
um and then lastly just given the site's
proximity to the medical center again
the plan should Target some population
health research which we believe would
limit our competition with some of the
other key City initiatives across the
city that are potentially focusing on
Aerospace or other Industries really
trying to carve out a niche to where
we can support additional job growth and
office development without cannibalizing
other key projects across the city
um the next page we can just touch on
very briefly you know obviously
I want to address just the the impact of
covid-19 and how it's still evolving uh
every uh two quarters we put out a a
sentiment survey where we survey our
wide range of clients across the country
which kind of range from the public
sector to Pension funds to real estate
developers and kind of their thoughts on
how different land uses might be
affected by covid-19
and while this wasn't the
um the key driver of our analysis it's
definitely something that we're keeping
in mind of how is covid influencing
potential consumer and business
behaviors moving forward and how might
that impact our opportunity here at the
East Lowman slides
um next slide
so I'm just going to real quickly walk
through each of the land uses uh we can
obviously dive into questions later on
but I I'll walk through these relatively
quickly
I think at on uh on our first analysis
housing likely presents the strongest
opportunity
and the benefit of uh
housing as the land use is that it will
drive additional demand for Commercial
Services over the long term so we think
that having that mix of housing on site
will ultimately Drive additional retail
and medical services and office on site
as well so we really View housing as a
key driver
first on the rental housing side I think
the region has a lot of great things
going for it there's been relatively
limited new deliveries over the past 10
to 15 years
um despite relatively strong demand
which has contributed to low vacancy
rates across the market and we really
consider that the housing market here
the rental housing market to be
relatively healthy which is a promising
sign I think one thing to Just note on
here is that most of the rental housing
stock across the region is primarily
traditional multi-family but we really
think there's an opportunity to expand
from just multi-family rental to Target
segments that are historically
underrepresented in rental housing
whether that's seniors or family
households that can't afford to purchase
a home what other rental product types
can we offer on site to really provide
housing for the wide range of households
that that call Las Cruces home
the next slide
the force for sale housing market has
really been driven recently uh despite
the the significant loss of jobs by
extremely or historically low interest
rates which has made affordability
um which has increased the affordability
for many households so we really think
that the strong household growth that
the region has occurred over the past 10
years as well as these low interest
rates have really been driving the the
local for sale Market you can see that
housing prices have almost returned to
Peak uh mid-2000 pricing
um obviously you never want to compare
something to that time period but I
think the key thing here is that
the growth that we have seen is
demographic driven and it's not
speculation driven so I think that's the
key difference between the mid-2000s and
2020 where we at where we're at today
as we have more and more Millennials
moving into that Prime family formation
ages starting to buy their first home
and similar to the rental piece how can
we deliver a diversity of housing of
different sizes and different price
points to make sure that we're providing
housing opportunities for a wide range
of households that can also benefit from
the walkable environment created on site
so we really view both rental and for
sale housing as a strong midterm and
long-term opportunities on site
uh the next slide
so retail presents uh probably some of
the the greatest uncertainty not only in
Las Cruces but really Across the Nation
given the the rise of e-commerce and the
struggle of many brick and mortar uh
establishments the future of retail
demand is largely
um
largely in question and in flux it's
really going to be driven by the amount
of households and household income
growth over the next five to ten years
but we do believe that the share of
spending online will continue to tick up
which will reduce the amount of square
footage of brick and mortar retail space
demanded by households so we view this
as a really disruptive Trend that could
impact the opportunity for retail I
think the key thing with retail to keep
in mind is that
we're definitely not saying that
um all retail is is negative there's a
lot of retail centers that have been
performing well but typically those are
neighborhood serving retail that are
anchored by a grocery store people
places that people need to to frequent
for their daily needs it's the places
that big box retailers the regional
malls that have experienced more stress
and those are typically the places that
absorb more square footage and more
space
and so when you think about you know
attracting two or three restaurants
that's only six thousand square feet or
ten thousand square feet whereas if you
get one tenant uh you know one Macy's
that's a lot more square footage so
thinking about how the shifts in retail
space uh are going to impact the
opportunity here and we we view that
retail will definitely be a strong
supporting land use but it will not be
the the key driver of land absorption at
the East London sites
the next page
so again office is another land use that
is facing quite significant near-term
disruption I think the key thing that we
focused on in the office story
understanding some of your other
initiatives across the city is is really
the medical story and how the medical
office narrative plays into the
opportunity at East Lowman
and we and we believe that as the the
medical facility continues to expand as
the population not only in in Las Cruces
but Across the Nation continues to age
the need for medical services will
continue to rise
and so we really View Medical Offices as
a as a key secondary land use on site
and that'll help additionally provide
that nice mix of on-site employees
on-site households and retail on site
really providing that strong mix of uses
the next page
and then lastly three other land uses
that are just worth mentioning that
we're also evaluating is Hospitality
senior housing and Industrial Flex
um I'll start at the bottom first you've
probably heard a lot about industrial
and flex space with the rise of
e-commerce and the shift to more and
more uh great demand in industrial and
flex space however given the Dynamics of
this site
the orientation outlined in the Las
Cruces Elevate plan
we don't necessarily think that this
site is probably the best suited for
those land uses
um you know there's obviously other
projects across the the city such as the
West Mesa Industrial Park which we think
that will likely Garner much of that
demand and so while we looked at
industrial and flex we don't really
think that it will be the key driver at
the site
senior housing while in the near term
there's quite a bit of uncertainty of
what that looks like we think long-term
senior housing provides a strong
opportunity on site as the population of
80 plus year olds continues to grow
there will be an increased need for
senior housing facilities of various
care levels and we think given the
site's proximity to the hospital as well
as some of the retail nearby the site it
bodes well for for senior housing
opportunities
and then lastly Hospitality
um you know vacancy rates currently are
are significantly down and we would
expect Hospitality occupancy rates to
continue to suffer in the near term we
do think that they will recover over the
long term though
um given some of the the headwinds
facing the hospitality Market we think
that any Hospitality offering at the
site is likely limited to more of a
medical oriented hospital for patients
and
families of patients that are coming
into town from outlying counties and
other parts of the city
to get special Medical Services we think
that that might be a an opportunity
there long term but again that'll be
further down the road
next page
well great and then I'll just kind of
wrap it up so you know this was a very
high level uh look at
the land juices we we dug in deep and
have a lot more analysis so if you have
any questions please please fire away
um but our next phase will really look
to quantify what demand looks like by
land use and ultimately come up with
square footage recommendations for the
East London sites
that rosian team can can move forward
with to help put together some plans for
the overall project that are grounded uh
not only in the needs of of residents
but also what the market can support
so thank you for your time
all right thank you very much for that
it was pretty
pretty extensive
can I just sum up with a couple last
slides Mr Mayor oh yeah sure go ahead I
just wanted to say though so based on
all of our research and then the
conversations that we had with your
stakeholders
the emerging Vision that's has come to
be is seeing this area around East
Lowman as an opportunity to build upon
the existing medical uses on the north
side of East Lowman providing a mix of
housing types that can serve
um not just people in in the
in in this in Las Cruces today but also
there is a lot of um interest on the
part of the hospital to provide more
housing for their employees so they
didn't have to
um drive as far distances and as we know
we have a shortage of healthcare
Professionals in the state and to make
it more
attractive to a you know to get new
nurses and doctors and residents into
Las Cruces it helps to have a really
vibrant and walkable and
um
cool neighborhood where you can have
these mix of housing right adjacent to
where you're working we also think the
site has great opportunity to be to
integrate with the existing terrain with
those
um the great vegetation that's there the
trails that are already there both the
informal and the formal and to make the
most of the Arroyos and the views of the
mountains in all directions there was a
lot of interest in building this into a
healthy sustainable place and not just
thinking about
the Urban Design aspect of making it
walkable but also making the buildings
healthy you know having having thinking
through how what construction goes in
what types of materials go into
construction to make sure that those
buildings are healthy and sustainable
and then overall to become a mixed-use
neighborhood center that serves both
area residents as well as the regional
medical needs so my very last slide and
then I'll turn it over to you all for
questions is just our next steps
um are separated into to two categories
our first step that's going to follow
this work session is to prepare a vision
survey that will be online that will
will be um sending out to everyone on
the Elevate list as well as our own list
that start we started to put together
with of people's emails to provide input
on what specific types of development
scale and character and connections
there should be in this vicinity using
images and um to get people's ideas
flowing and then the findings from that
survey will help us confirm the emerging
Vision that I just described and will
inform the development scenarios that
we're going to be working through in a
charette process
in December and January so that will
also be an online opportunity that we
have a virtual Town Hall essentially
with and going through the various
scenarios and getting input from the
community and then it'll also be posted
on our website so if anyone can't be at
the specific meeting where we're
discussing it they can still look at the
the recording of that meeting and then
fill out a poll and questionnaire to
give us their input on the on the way
they want to see East Lowman developed
and then on the analysis side as as
Cameron alluded we are going to be
diving in more detailed on each land use
to see what is supportable over the next
five to ten years and
um to make sure that the key assumptions
and any potential catalytic events are
assessed and when we're looking at the
different land uses so that they are
sustainable
and then confirming that your existing
infrastructure and utilities can support
any new land uses that were that we put
forth in those scenarios so with that
thank you very much for your time Mr
Mayor and council members and I will
stop sharing my screen unless you have
questions about what's on it well um
there's a few questions here from
council members but just a couple things
when you earlier when you first started
you you had a map and you I think you
listed some of the schools and I thought
you listed some of the parks
I noticed that sure I noticed on
Roadrunner Parkway you didn't have
Veterans Park or sagecrest Park which
are basically right across the street
from the school from well Sage Crest is
from from
Desert Hills Elementary
right there
um yeah sagecrest is basically
um right about there actually give or
take I'm trying to think it's um it's
right it's it's just a little bit past
the school and then veterans part
Veterans Park is pretty much right in
the middle of Roadrunner Parkway yeah
and I believe it's this oh
yeah so it they're they're walk sheds do
fall outside of our Zone our area
um okay I just wanted to I just was
curious why that was left off okay so
and then can we go to the property real
quick
I I think okay yeah that's good right
there I think it's it's good to write
ironically right where the um
the little Dam Arroyo is so which yeah
that that is one of the things that I
had always discussed or even when I
talked with some residents is that we
would provide a buffer and that's
actually the perfect size that buffer
just stays like that so that the
residents won't you know they'll still
have this uh Royal where they they do a
lot of their walking still be very
natural and it's a it's a good buffer to
um to you know so that they don't they
don't feel like they're right next door
to any type of development okay that's
all I wanted to if we could leave that
up and then I'll go to my uh callings
here that's okay
so we've got counselor soreg Vasquez and
Gandara so a counselor sword
thank you mayor and thank you Rosie and
and Cameron
um Cameron could I just ask you real
quick you said your firm is called
National what
the firm is rclco
oh yeah uh it's a very long acronym for
a very long name Robert Charles lesser
and Company okay that's fine but I
thought you said it was National
um consulting firm did you say New York
State
uh no so yeah we we do work across the
country
um and uh we have offices in Los Angeles
uh Washington DC Florida and Texas
okay very good
um
you know I put down the word walk sheds
uh early on and um sure enough if uh
Rosie didn't mention it and uh I've got
to get to change here get my gallery
picture Rosie mentioned it all of a
sudden so I have a question for Rosie uh
when you plan this out and we design
what kind of buildings go where and so
on and so forth can you build it and to
encourage residents to do walking here
uh for example instead of having a
parking lot in front of a a retail store
I have this walking path sidewalk or
wherever you have go right to the front
door of the um resident or the retail
store
foreign
yes please thank you councilmember and
thank you Mr Mayor um I yeah so you can
do it a number of ways in different
neighborhoods and cities
um have addressed that in different ways
both from the physical design like you
mentioned so not having
um garages be the prom predominant
aspect of every new Housing Development
but rather have them either tucked
behind or in a lot of places they're um
they're calling they're calling
unbundling those garages from the unit
price so if you're going in to buy a
condo for example or a town home
um well more often like condo where
multi-family unit you wouldn't
necessarily have to buy it with the
price of the included parking space of
the garage because a lot of these areas
that are trying to encourage parking
really the people who are attracted to
them aren't necessarily going to want to
bring two cars for a 2 bedroom apartment
or or two bedroom home they would rather
use that money to to do whatever else
travel
um instead of you know having it being a
car dependent family so I think there's
a lot of ways that we can look at making
this a walkable space one of the
examples we were going to show with our
scale comparison is of an area in in
Arizona that is completely
insularly designed to be a walkable
environment without any need for a car
when you're within that space we weren't
able to show it because of um
you know restrictions on the images but
there there are examples in the
southwest as well as across the country
of how we can do this and we'll be
keeping those in mind okay very good
thank you
dad
um then also in the same vein uh I do
like your mixed use mixed housing types
as part of this development
um we don't seem to have as you said
that much of that in the city here and
that's what I'd like to see is having
those uh options or choices that uh
people can use for their residence I
like that a lot I like that off a lot
um
there is a high hill on this property
what is your vision to make the best use
of that high elevation
well that's the one million dollar
question yeah that we're going to start
to get into as you can see with what's
gone on so far there's a there's a
tendency to you know scrape it down and
get it to the level of East Lowman
um which isn't necessarily the most
beautiful thing you know or the best
thing for the for your environmental and
uh the sustainability of that site so
we'll be thinking about how how those
connections should occur how to get
people along the South edge of East Low
monapta at the level of the street you
know so if there is some complementary
retail people can see it from the street
level but then also have
um more uses up or up on The Ridges as
well so those are the sorts of things
that we're going to start to dive into
in this next phase okay very good thank
you
um I had another uh requests that in the
planning that it the area is uh uh
plumbed for with purple pipe so it can
be used in all of a landscaping and um
any parks that or open space that you
have there uh the purple pipe is right
next door there at Sonoma Ranch
Boulevard and just tap in and so that's
great
um then finally uh there's those two
little pieces of BLM land and as I
recall
um
uh road that goes a lot in between the
Foothills Drive no not drive but anyway
the price yeah there is a piece of of
city property on on the west side of
that
Jose
isn't there
yes that's correct I as as I recall
there was uh a landfill part in there
that we decided not to clean up because
we were thinking that we wouldn't
develop that into uh
buildings and so forth
um so that uh I would I would like to
see that be an open space Park if
possible
um skate park just saying and uh and uh
something like that anyway
so um good uh that's all I have Ben and
thank you so much oh by the way I do
like the whole idea that you're doing
here everything in general uh it looks
very new urbanism like very good thank
you
thank you thank you thank you counselor
uh you know I will tell you I I never
thought of the hotel but boy if if that
if that elevation could remain what a
view I mean that's that'd be incredible
uh let's see who's next counselor
Vasquez
thank you mayor
um and yeah first I just want to agree
with your comment I think um uh one of
the things that makes this site pretty
special is that that elevation gain
um uh but um you know this is
another opportunity I think for the city
to grow in a Smart Way
um I think this particular piece of
property here
um especially for a bunch of different
reasons but for me my connection to this
is that it it's it it abuts BLM land
um and it but it's a trail system that's
being used Now by a variety of folks
including mountain bikers
um gravel Riders the ATVs use this a lot
um unfortunately there's kind of an
informal shooting range out there by
that water tank that we have
um that I've actually had to that
cleaned up a few times and some local
guys go out to clean up all the time out
there uh but it is a it is a gateway to
um just large uh pieces of BLM land that
folks use for a variety of different
outdoor recreation reasons and so I know
the biking community in particular
um has used this particular property for
quite a quite a while
um
not legally obviously because it's
probably trespassing but um but you know
it it provides I think some of that that
elevation and some of those existing
trails that were there before we were
immediate the site were made by some of
the mountain bike folks and so
um you know and then we have our RV or
not our RV our um uh our archery range
out there we have our our small playing
um airport thing out there
um so it's just it's kind of a gateway
to to some pretty neat Parts out in
their desert and so I love to see this
development
um continue to encourage and kind of be
a gateway to some of those areas
um I don't know what the BLM really
plans to do with a lot of this land
um which I believe is right outside the
boundaries of the National Monument
their plan might be to sell it in the
future who knows but
um but I'd like it to this development
to still be conducive to folks
um either riding their bikes through
here or walking
um you know to get to some of these
Trails
um again that are used quite a bit uh
and so I know that I think that's
something that that you guys have
thought about
um and uh Rosie I know we've met about
this and talked about this before so any
updates on how that those kinds of um
opportunities for residents might be
incorporated into this plan
not we haven't put the pen
to pay to do those exactly but it's
definitely going to be The Driver as we
move forward into the next phase of the
scenario development is how to make the
most of these existing connections and
this Amazing Outdoor um opportunity we
have to the East and then also to
connect all the way through along
um these paths into the the dam and that
open space so
um as we move forward we'll we really
welcome to hear more from the the biking
Community as well as the the neighbors
we definitely
um need more input from The Neighbors
about how they see
um connections working through here to
make it a place that you don't have to
get into your car to go and do your
errand on the you know get your
groceries you can jump on your bike and
do a quick trip and make as many
connections be on foot or on bike as
possible
yeah thank you so much yeah I mean I'm
willing to bet if you survey the
homeowners in this neighborhood really
going all the way up to
um Missouri and where Missouri
um dead ends
um all those little trails that you see
in that desert back there that's all BLM
land
um on a daily basis are filled with dog
walkers and bike riders and and joggers
um it's heavily heavily used I know by
folks and so I think it's really
important to just integrate that outdoor
recreation connectivity
um to to this
um to this development in whatever way
possible and to to have that embrace it
um I do have a question in terms of uh
kind of like next steps
um you mentioned some charettes that are
coming up
um and I'm assuming those will be
virtual
um uh but following those charrettes
what's the process to incite or
encourage development here once
um you know a plan is formalized and
kind of accepted
um how what's what's the steps for to
encourage development on this property
good question thank you um Mr Mayor and
council member um we we are going to be
um getting into you know as I mentioned
the scenario phase and then the next
step after that is starting to find a
preferred scenario we hope to come back
to you all before
um before we go too far down the path of
the preferred scenario to get your input
but following that is when we get um
into the draft plan and the
recommendations so that's when we'll
really start to be thinking about the
best way to
um move this into a developer's hands
you know at the end of this plan we are
not going to be getting to the detail of
a construction drawing but rather the
plan is going to give the blueprint to
anyone who comes down the road as how
you know what are the preferred uses and
connectivity options
um moving forward so the work that
Cameron and his team are doing will
definitely be helping to make this be a
a a really
um the best word probably is you know
marketable a palette for for any
potential developers to come down that
come down the pipeline and Cameron if
you want to answer and add anything to
that we also have other members of our
team on McCall who I think have the
opportunity to unmute themselves if they
want to weigh in on these questions as
well
yeah thank you Rosie oh go ahead sorry
about that um yeah thank you for the
question
um yeah you know I think definitely one
of the key points if you don't mind I'm
sorry for interrupting uh I just
realized can you all just state your
name when you start talking so that the
transcriber can know who it is because
they don't watch the videos and just
okay thanks sorry Mike uh Cameron
pavelik with rclco thank you uh
congressman and mayor
um
yeah so I think one of the key points is
making sure that the plan is is
marketable as Rosie alluded to we don't
want to leave a an extremely pretty
rendering of what they could be but uh
there not be any way that a developer
could pull off the project so making
sure that what we're recommending is
aligned with current market conditions
general pricing
Etc
and kind of laying out a general road
map of of what the timing of the
different land uses could be over time I
think would be really helpful for
somebody coming in after after uh our
plan is finished
thank you Cameron um yeah I think that's
a that's an important
um that's a really important part of
this plan for me because I know we have
we've done a few of these plans in the
past
um that some of which have have still
been sitting kind of on the Shelf
without a developer really showing a lot
of interest and
um a lot of work a lot of community
input went into them and I think we had
some Visions for
um some parts of town that we just we
would love to see developed a certain
way but
um it just hasn't happened right it's
been years and years and now maybe those
plans aren't as current or as updated
and don't reflect current market
conditions and so
um yeah to whatever degree possible you
know having uh having a plan that's
implementable I think to me is just as
important as having a plan that's really
desirable to the community so that's
that's an important piece for me but
um I will just I will just leave it at
that
um I I think you know definitely
focusing in on the healthcare industry
with the proximity to the hospital here
is really important
um that that is one of the few
Industries here that continues to grow
um you know and so I think uh I think
you're right on in terms of targeting
targeting that particular sector as an
additive that could bring in new jobs
and not like you said cannibalize
existing retail or existing office space
but really bring in more healthcare jobs
I think this could be a place where
where folks would like to live and work
so thank you for that thank you mayor
yeah and uh David where did you have a
comment you you had your hand up
thank you mayor I just um wanted to call
out one difference between this
particular project and some of the other
Blueprints and neighborhood plans is
that typically that's you're working in
cooperation with private landowners in
this case a large portion of this area
is under City control so you will have
the the ability to set up the
development standards or conditions
under development to take place you have
a lot more control with this project
than some of the others and then just
from a technical standpoint
once the plan adopted is adopted The
Next Step would be the entitlements or
the zoning of the property and again
since its own PUD the city has the
flexibility to create standards that
will encourage the development that's
approved through this plan so
just I don't want to not get too far on
the weeds but tell you that you have a
lot of control with this particular
project thank you thank you thanks David
then looks like Larry has a comment
Larry Nichols
yes thank you mayor Larry Nichols with
Community Development
um I think with the part of the
presentation that I wanted to throw this
in and and that is that when we uh uh
met with our consultant Southwest sites
uh I challenged them I I gave them a
challenge right off the bat and I said
this site has many attributes and has
many uh things that can be brought in
that will make it uh difference
I said designers a master plan that has
a point of difference for this community
and that will bring everything that
we've just talked about here in a few
minutes ago they're bringing different
housing types it will bring development
it will bring a real estate market value
it will bring the trails it will bring
all of this even from the very start
this the way this site was acquired
um you know where it does have a city uh
in uh control as Mr Ware just mentioned
so all of that together makes this site
have a point of difference that will I I
believe will uh ensure its success and
help the city grow and I just wanted to
throw those few comments in mayor thank
you very much okay thank you Larry I
appreciate that
okay so now we're going to go to Mayor
Pro tem Gandara
thank you mayor thank you Rosie and
Cameron for your presentation and all
your work I'm really impressed
um thus far
um I would agree that for me
um incorporating
um
the active Transportation plan
um that includes slowing down traffic in
there even more than what it is
currently especially if we want to
encourage pedestrian and biking and you
know those kinds of things with the
exception of that 25 mile per hour speed
limit
um when you're passing the hospital
um for a certain amount of time is
really important to me
um also the mixed
um
development of you know different
housing opportunities Cottages
townhouses
multi-family but I don't want to lose
sight of the fact of that we need a lot
of affordable housing I think for me
that is really important I understand
from the hospital's perspective being
able to house doctors and nurses and you
know just different professions and
because it it makes sense right across
the
being across the hospital and other
office
offices that could possibly be in that
area so I I don't want to lose sight of
the affordable housing and then in
integrating the the already beautiful
landscape being that we do have
um connecting
um those informal and formal trails are
important
and then lastly
um I I like the idea of a hotel I could
I could see that
working out very nicely
especially because we're um
you know the regional Hub right for all
our smaller communities surrounding Las
Cruces that come seek Medical Treatments
um I I see that working out very well
and I especially don't want to lose
sight of that height I think
um I don't think
why I won't speak for everybody else but
I but I think that's one of the more
beautiful right views is keeping that
height not you know
um trying to make it equal to Lowman it
I don't I don't think is what kansa
would like to see correct me if I'm
wrong
um my colleagues on Council now but I
appreciate this this is really exciting
and I guess just the question is what
can we do to slow down that traffic and
have a buffer for those folks
you know riding bikes
um the The Pedestrian sort of
encouraging right
um that kind of active transportation
okay
[Music]
so I answered that last question yeah
we'll see thank you thank you Mr Mayor
and thank you mayor Pro tem
um so what we've talked about you know
with the the given um
proposal that was already part of your
active Transportation plan along East
Lomond to separate the bike
um paths is one a big step I think
towards making that feel like a a space
making the Avenue feel like a space
that's not just made for cars to move
fast through it
um because when we you know we haven't
we haven't been out there every day but
whenever we have been there we haven't
seen any bikes using that that Corridor
so I think having that separated bike
lane is going to be a big Improvement
um and then there's also a lot of
opportunities especially depending on
how we we start to to read these the
south side of East slowman and and put
um connections through so we have talked
as a team with David
um and his staff about different ways to
connect across you know whether it's at
grade with really you know the the table
Crossings or the hawk Beacon Crossings
is you know where um the cars can see
the flashing light whenever a pedestrian
decides that they're going to stop or
they're going to cross the cars have to
stop for them and everything is slowed
down with these raised
tables which are usually in accordance
with the emergency vehicle in their
speeds because the tables aren't like a
speed bump they don't have that same up
and down quality but they do let you
know you're now in The Pedestrian Zone
driver so you know slow down and be
aware of that
um there have been talk about pedestrian
Bridges
across this across the Avenue
um and I know that the hospital the
medical center themselves had looked at
pedestrian Bridges across the the South
Las Cruces Arroyo on the other side of
them
um so and that's a very costly thing to
do uh to do a big pedestrian overpass
can be you know an exorbitant fee but
you know we've we've just thought here
in Albuquerque right with The Pedestrian
with the Presbyterian hospital they did
a hotel that you know is focused on
their guests and they have a a walkway
that that spans Central Avenue you know
it's not as wide as East Lowman but
people people are doing it the risk with
that with that kind of
um infrastructure not only is it costly
but it also starts to take away activity
from the ground level so if you do want
people to be out on East Lowman and make
it feel like a Lively Boulevard
um that there are some pros and cons to
that so we would want to work through
that but all of those um connectivity
things are we're going to put as
examples in our vision survey that goes
out to the public to say like what would
you what do you think about this kind of
look for the bull to make East Lowman
Avenue into more of a walkable bikeable
um Pleasant environment to be in all
right okay thank you for that Rosie and
then
um Rosie since you mentioned it the
survey when do you expect I didn't see a
timeline sorry and maybe if it was up
there it's been a long day afternoon
yeah what is your timeline for that
survey
yes we are planning to have the survey
released at Thanksgiving and then have
it in start have the preliminary results
start to inform the very beginning of
our charette in in mid-December and then
um come back at with the virtual
um
design Workshop in January right after
the holidays and then end the end the
vision survey after that charette so if
people are just learning about the
project and they come to the charette
and you know there's excitement around
that they still will have a chance to
weigh in on the vision survey
um so it will still be we're hoping to
have it live from Thanksgiving to like
about the 13th of January
and and so we'll be able to look at the
the information as it comes in to get a
sense of where you know where people are
landing in terms of
um what type of development what they
want to see what type of connectivity
they want to see but um it will it'll be
open long enough to give people a chance
to weigh in
um even beyond the holidays because we I
know we're approaching the holidays so
it gets tricky to get people to want to
pay attention to things that aren't you
know cookies and baked goods and stuff
but um that we're trying to to give
people enough opportunity enough time to
weigh in in that way
okay good thank you for that Rosie I I
think um public enjoys those charades we
always have such a robust right
um Community participation and I don't
think this will be any different so
being able to extend it long after the
holiday season is helpful I think
um and so I appreciate it and looking
forward to hearing more about this thank
you mayor thank you counselor Flores
thank you
thank you Mr Mayor and uh thank you Miss
Dudley and thank you Cameron
um for your presentation this is my
district and so thank you so much
fellow counselors for your uh input and
um I know that this is also one of our
mayor's uh this is a Bright Child of his
to have this developed
um so I want to thank you and I thought
it was sites Southwest but then you're
saying that it's rclco so anyway I'm a
little bit confused about that so
um can you explain that Ms Dudley or
Cameron exactly uh because we were told
it was site Southwest are you affiliated
with them or is this a branch of uh the
company you're with is it a branch of
that or
yeah Mr Mayor and council member Flores
I'll I'll answer that so site Southwest
is a planning and um landscape
Architecture Firm based in Albuquerque
and El Paso and that's who I'm with and
our subconsultant is our CL Co to do the
real estate analysis we also have Wilson
and company that are based um they have
an office in Las Cruces as well is
throughout throughout the state um doing
the engineering work and we have um
Gateway planning out of Texas to help us
with the um both the the real estate and
the Urban Design and design scenario
land use development scenarios
well thank you thank you so that um
clarifies things I
um thank you and um I am happy to see
that you're taking into account
um the surrounding areas and the
sensitivity to
um the differences between the two
Arroyos that surround that area north
and south
um people who live in that area
um will how is the survey going to be
how are you going to reach out to people
to participate in the surveys given
covet is it going to be virtual and
um how much notice is going to be going
out because you said uh
the timeline that
the survey will be released around
Thanksgiving that's about two weeks away
really when you think about it
right two two and a half weeks away
so
um how
um
how are you how are you going to
publicize that
is it and how is it going to reach uh
especially people in that area and then
you're going to have people who really
the other thing well let me just say
this too um
counselor buses brought up a point that
this is really a potential Gateway for
all this Outdoors activity but um it's
also eventually uh you probably know
this already I think that Sonoma Branch
um well that's on
um Lowman Avenue will be I think a
connector at one point not arterial and
um
and so and and then we do have our
outdoor recreational
um
think going to so
[Music]
um
so anyway I just want to I lost my train
of thought I'm actually exhausted right
now but um so I want to thank you for
taking into account what the that what
our environment looks like your
sensitivity to people who already live
there
um
I think a lot of people who live there
it's just south of like little Dam
Arroyo they're all pretty much retirees
I don't know how much bicycling they're
going to do but I think that you will
have a lot of people who will want to go
out there and bike but
um
anyway
um I just my big concern is how you're
going to be reaching out to people to
really participate because there's a
sense of ownership
necessarily or
you know
uh by people who live in that area
so yeah so in answer to your question
counselor
um
we did a big push right before this work
session to the entire list of emails
that elevate Las Cruces had compiled
over the years
and that we're trying to build on that
momentum so we wanted to release this
survey not long after
um people have the option to opt out if
they're not interested in this planning
area
um from you know from those emails but
we have received a lot more foot traffic
on the site since that went out and a
lot of people have been
um hurt have heard about it and have
come to the website and subscribed
specifically to be informed about future
updates on the process so that's one way
um we're going to continue to do is
we're going to post it on the city's
Facebook page this lot this work session
was announced on the city's Facebook
page as well and we're going to push it
out via that large email distribution
list but if there's other avenues that
we can use to get in touch with
residents we welcome any input you have
given this is your District because I I
would really like to hear from more
residents in the area about what they
want to see here
well thank you thank you for that uh
Rosie I think what I'll do is work with
Jamie Rickman to get a community meeting
of sorts to focus on this because there
there will be a lot of questions and a
lot of comments and sorry stuff
um and I do know that um
we think counselor Vasquez was pointing
out in terms of
people who would really benefit from the
way you know your plan looks here
um they're going to be very appreciative
of keeping it
um
attractive to people who really like the
outdoors
so
um
thank you thank you very much and
and I'm glad you're from New Mexico
because I think you can appreciate how
much we love our open spaces and our
beautiful land out here so thank you
very much Rosie thank you Mr Mayor
councilor beta Stevie
thank you mayor and thank you Rosie and
Cameron um a lot of my questions have
already been asked this evening and I
um really appreciate your uh really
thorough presentation here
um just a couple areas to point out that
I'm also in agreement with
um is that of the biking Lanes you know
the Sonoma Ranch Boulevard
um is really used quite often when
you're heading towards Missouri
um back there and alongside
um I know a lot of people do loops
around where the Centennial High School
is and through there
and it's not conducive to that type of
writing safely and so
um being able to have you know that
connectivity and great loop system for
somebody to go out from their home
hopefully around the Foothills area make
a loop safely and come back I think
would be wonderful
um and then uh having that uh the idea
of a hotel actually uh I think is
something to explore
um much for the reasons mayor Pro tem
said when you have Hub centers when
they're doing surgeries or out of town
people
um needing that Medical Care being able
to have somewhere to stay very close is
very helpful
um and so that is something I think that
we should look at
[Music]
um with that in mind I think we might
get a lot of commentary from residents
if we start putting those types of items
near
um just by the community but uh that and
um just the mix mixed housing I think
would be wonderful that professional
housing but also looking if there's
opportunities that we can build in
affordable housing or and just be
inclusive in the area so thank you
um again for this wonderful presentation
thank you mayor
thank you Council Ben Cuomo
thanks mayor
mayor for the presentation
[Music]
I just wanted to jump in here around the
hotel piece I mean I do love that idea I
also want to make sure that you know I
think Cameron was the one that said that
housing is the biggest opportunity here
and like I really
grasped on to that right so I want to
make sure I definitely
um want to see
um this this be some like a mixed use
um
area that you know really is
incorporating some of our housing goals
and
um you know I I also heard you say
something about the need for mid-market
housing
um you know I think mayor in the future
I I would personally like us to
designate a certain percentage of this
land to be affordable or attainable
housing
um you know I recently learned about the
um Land Bank Trust Fund um and also
curious about how we could
[Music]
um
you know use some of the funds that come
out of the sale of this land towards
um towards the that trust fund and and
really ensure that we're using
um like leveraging this to benefit our
entire community and and not just this
particular area but I would it's clear
that housing is such a huge issue for
this for Las Cruces and I would def you
know I would really like to see
um more affordable rental units I mean I
lived I lived on one of the apartments
off-road Runner
um a couple years ago and my apartment
my one bedroom apartment cost like
eighty dollars less than my current
mortgage payment so not necessarily
affordable so I I like I just want to
make sure that whatever we are
um
that we're creating you know quality
housing that is Affordable and
attainable for Las Cruces as much as we
also want to create spaces to to pull
people in right that those young medical
professionals um I think both can be
achieved
um I would certainly prioritize that
over a hotel but if both can be done I
think that would be amazing
so thanks again very much for this
thanks okay so I think everyone has has
spoken so the other thing
um Rosie is the land
so let's see here would be so
south of Loman so across the street from
Mountain View
uh I had always envisioned that that
would be land that we would
the commercial part the commercial
portion that we wouldn't sell it that
would actually lease it
and that would be a revenue source for
the city uh to have um indefinitely and
I think I even went so far you know of
course this is getting a little bit off
the topic but you know that would be
something that the revenue that came in
would be unencumbered and and maybe uh
divided up by council districts for them
to have for their for their own
um
you know so basically bottom line is
look at what it would take
because you know obviously you're not
going to use that for residential right
across the street right there near Loman
I mean that's that's some of the most
expensive real estate in the whole city
right there so that would be what I
would think would be used for uh for
commercial development but also for rent
well let me do at least out
and um
so it's been a long day I I've got a few
other things but we could leave that to
another time as far as how we can
actually capitalize on the medical
community there so thank you
okay well good well I was very thorough
I mean a lot of a lot of good stuff that
you brought out and um
all right well and I think that pretty
much ends uh our discussion
and uh we appreciate it again very much
thank you Mr Mayor thank you council
members and if there's nothing further
entertain a motion to adjourn so moved
by Flores Okay second best
explosion made by Council Florida second
by sorg although uh Christine
[Music]
this is on the motion to adjourn the
work session counselor beta suvi yes
cancer Vasquez
yes
counselor Ben Como yes
counselor sorg yes
concert Flores
yes
there
yes
okay and I'll Stick Around for our
agenda setting meeting and um the rest
of you uh enjoy the rest of your evening
you're welcome to stay I mean no thank
you good night good night
[Music]
okay mayor I'm ready when you are okay
so this is the agenda setting meeting
for our November 16 2020 city council
meeting number one consent one consent
Parkinson's
thank you have a good night thanks all
right you too