City Council Meeting November 4, 2024

MINUTES

City Council

Monday, November 4, 2024 @ 1:00 PM

City Council Chambers, City Hall

PRESENT: Mayor Eric Enriquez, Councilor Cassie McClure, Councilor William Mattiace, Councilor

Becki Graham, and Councilor Yvonne Flores

ABSENT: Councilor Johana Bencomo and Councilor Becky Corran

1. OPENING CEREMONIES 1.1 PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE - COUNCILOR GRAHAM. 1.2 PRESENTATION OF CERTIFICATES OF

APPRECIATION/PROCLAMATIONS - COUNCILOR GRAHAM. Councilor Graham presented Barbara Toth with a proclamation for Las Cruces Day of

Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims 1.3 JOBS OF THE WEEK. Sarah Raney, New Mexico Workforce Connection presented Jobs of the Week.

1.4 PETS OF THE WEEK. None.

2. CONFLICT OF INTEREST INQUIRY BY MAYOR AS REQUIRED BY LCMC

SECTION 2-27 (E)(2) 2.1 None.

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION 3.1 Tim Jenkins, Member of the Public said how is it possible that Las Cruces has now

become a dumping ground for homeless, illegals and drug addicts from all over the nation. Why is it that people being dumped here for us to deal with when in fact we can’t even take care of the ones that are here in our own city. Who is getting kickbacks for all this mess and who is promoting this and why is this happening?

About two months ago our Police Department, resource officers, codes enforcement and Mano y Mano spent 5 to 6 hours cleaning up the entire dirt lot across the street from Craig en Taggert. It was literally clean for less than two days before it had tents and trash all over again. The city owned arroyo next to Bubba’s that literally took me three weeks to get completely cleaned up is again full of tents and trash and all of the no trespassing signs that I personally paid for out of my pocket have been ripped down and are gone and how is it possible that the Scottsdale Police Department is issuing $50 bus tickets to any drug addicts or homeless people wandering the streets of Scottsdale to come here straight to Las Cruces. We keep talking about housing, housing, and housing but it seems to me that the housing is a very small fraction of a much bigger problem that only seems to be getting worse and worse every single day.

What are we actually doing to solve the bigger problem here?

Juan Garcia, Member of the Public said when is enough, enough? Drugs are poisoning our streets, criminals are embolden by the lack of consequences, small businesses are dying, even behind a landscape that resembles a hurricane ravaged ghost town. It is time for change. Insanity is defined as voting for the same politicians and expecting different results. Look at the timing office of the following legislators who in my opinion by their lack of decisive action has empowered criminals and have endangered our families. Hamblen, four years, Cadena, four years, Ferrary, six,

Rubio, New Mexico House District 35 who many will argue represents Ground Zero for crime in Las Cruces, six years, Lara, four, and Smalls, six. On the Senate side,

Cervantes, 22 years of course that includes House and Senate, Soules, ten, and

Steinborn, sixteen. A plague of violence has consumed our city since 2019 with this politicians at its rotten core. They all have been in the New Mexico Legislature for every step of this terrifying rise. They have enabled the chaos that is making Las

Cruces trend toward a crime ridden nightmare with them protecting the criminal ideology. Public safety is a human right but these politicians have trampled it.

Remember when they tried to disarm lawful gun owners, tried to make it illegal to purchase a large capacity magazine unless you are over 21 but it is okay to terminate the life of an unborn without age restrictions and parental consent. The same elected officials, Cadena, Ferrary, Jaramillo, Rubio, Smalls, Cervantes, Hamblen, Soules, and

Steinborn voted to force schoolteachers to secretly help children access transgender surgeries and abortions with no parental notification. Every single one of these politicians is on the ballot. You hear, savor democracy is a desperate cry used for fearmongering. Our progressive friends shout it, but their actions have brought us to the precipice of collapse. Las Crucens, our city is becoming a war zone. Our people are enslaved by drugs that they have allowed to flood our streets, our businesses are covered in plywood, our children are their next victims. Will you or will we succumb to their deadly policies or do we rise up and reclaim what is left of our city. The power is ours, lets act with determination not insanity and vote to create a city where there is individual accountability and consequences and not a legislature who gives in my opinion a free pass to criminals. Think before you vote.

Lonnie Montgomery, Member of the Public said I am a follower of Jesus Christ. Dear

Lord God, bring wise decisions from these people that like the man before us that they can get this city straightened out. We ask that they consider things very carefully and take care of the people that they are serving, in Jesus name we pray. When I stopped God and a man by the name of Walter and myself had agreed that there is no such thing as a transgender. God created a man and a woman. His book is called

Paper Genders and the only place you can change that is on paper. You can change your license, you can change birth certificate, you can change that, but you can’t change your gender. No matter how much you get the other hormones in you and the other ones out when you die or whatever they take your bones, and they can figure it out that you were a male or female. He says that the people who have this identity disorder they are often pushed into it by like somebody says the teachers and in New

Mexico you don’t have to inform parents that this is happening, among other things, suicide, helping to change people and your kids in the area right there. I want to speak on transgender athletes. These are guys that can’t make it. Even Bruce Jenner or whatever he calls himself now, agrees they should not be playing in this area with women. We fight so hard for Title IX and then we throw it away. I am going to stop now but when you go home practice your Mandarin.

Jim Hurst, Member of the Public said I want to address the comments made by

Lonnie Montgomery at the last meeting. I agree with Lonnie on one thing. We need to talk about the role of religion on our society, but I disagree with Lonnie on many other ideas. No, America was not founded on biblical principles. America rejected at least three biblical principles, and we are most fortunate for having done so. The first biblical principle America rejected was monarchy, the rule by divine right. Romans 13 taught that all authority was derived from God, all who held the authority were given it by God and those who opposed authority opposed God. The implications of Romans

13 is that some were born noble and empowered to govern and some were born common and destined to be subjects. America said all are created equal. Another biblical principle America rejected though it took far too long to fully realize was slavery. The bible taught slaves to submit to their masters thus implying that some were created to be slaves, and some were created to be masters. The Declaration of

Independence asserted that all were created free and equal. Misogyny, the idea that women were born to be servants of men is another biblical principle America rejected.

The bible commands and in the same way it tells children to obey their parents, wives obey your husbands. I Corinthians 11:3, declares the head of a woman is man. It took thousands of years, but we know better than that now. Americans believe that men and woman are equal. If you don’t believe that, you men try to convince your wife, mother, boss, coworkers, and daughters otherwise. Of course, not everything in the bible is wrong but the progress of America and all of humanity in the last few centuries has been realized by rejecting biblical principles determined to be irrational. Humanity is far better off being governed by reason then by holy books that is why it is fortunate that our constitutions specifies, freedom of religion and separation between church and state.

Jennifer Kreie, Member of the Public said I just thought public comment was going to be too short. I wanted to get up and say thank you for all of your attention and hard work.

4. READ CLOSED MEETING STATEMENT 4.1 READ NOVEMBER 4, 2024 CLOSED MEETING STATEMENT INTO THE

RECORD. The Las Cruces City Council met in closed session and only discussed those limited items as stated in the posted notice to discuss pending litigation in the matter of

Juliana Reyes, which is closed pursuant to NMSA 1978, Section 10-15-1H (7).

5. ACCEPTANCE OF AGENDA Councilor Yvonne Flores moved, seconded by Councilor Becki Graham, to accept the agenda as presented.

RESULT: Carried

MOVER: Councilor Yvonne Flores

SECONDER: Councilor Becki Graham

AYES: Mayor Eric Enriquez, Councilor Cassie McClure, Councilor William Mattiace,

Councilor Becki Graham, and Councilor Yvonne Flores

6. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES 6.1 REGULAR CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF OCTOBER 7, 2024.

7. RESOLUTION(S) AND/OR ORDINANCE(S) FOR CONSENT AGENDA 7.1 RESOLUTION NO. 25-050: A RESOLUTION ESTABLISHING DATES FOR

HOLIDAY OBSERVANCE FOR CITY EMPLOYEES IN 2025. 7.2 RESOLUTION NO. 25-051: A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING AN INCREASE

IN THE ANNUAL NOT-TO-EXCEED AMOUNT OF TWO (2) CONTRACTS

FOR PAINT AND BODY WORK SERVICES TO A COMBINED TOTAL OF $550,000, PLUS NEW MEXICO GROSS RECEIPTS TAX, ANNUALLY (PROCUREMENT NO. 19-20-038). 7.3 RESOLUTION NO. 25-052: A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING AN INCREASE

IN TWO (2) CONTRACTS FOR LIGHT DUTY AUTOMOBILE AND TRUCK

PARTS AND LABOR FOR A COMBINED TOTAL NOT TO EXCEED $530,000 PLUS NEW MEXICO GROSS RECEIPTS TAX ANNUALLY (PROCUREMENT NO. 19-20-107). 7.4 RESOLUTION NO. 25-053: A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING AN INCREASE

IN THE ANNUAL NOT-TO-EXCEED AMOUNT OF FOUR (4) CONTRACTS

FOR MEDIUM DUTY VEHICLE PARTS AND LABOR SERVICES TO A

COMBINED TOTAL OF $490,000, PLUS NEW MEXICO GROSS RECEIPTS

TAX, ANNUALLY (PROCUREMENT NO. 19-20-131). 7.5 RESOLUTION NO. 25-054: A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING AN INCREASE

IN THE ANNUAL NOT-TO-EXCEED AMOUNT OF EIGHT (8) CONTRACTS

FOR HEAVY DUTY VEHICLE PARTS AND LABOR SERVICES TO A

COMBINED TOTAL $1,325,000, PLUS NEW MEXICO GROSS RECEIPTS

TAX, ANNUALLY (PROCUREMENT NO. 19-20-132). 7.6 RESOLUTION NO. 25-055: A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE CITY OF

LAS CRUCES (CITY) TO ACCEPT GRANT AWARDS FOR VARIOUS CITY

DEPARTMENTS THROUGH AN AMENDMENT TO THE CITY’S ADOPTED

FISCAL YEAR (FY) 2025 BUDGET.

8. RESOLUTION(S) AND/OR ORDINANCE(S) FOR DISCUSSION 8.1 RESOLUTION NO. 25-056: A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE CITY OF

LAS CRUCES (CITY) TO ACCEPT A GRANT AWARD IN THE AMOUNT OF $175,000 FROM THE NEW MEXICO DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION (NMDOT). Gaby Prats, Grants Manager gave the overhead presentation. Councilor Becki Graham moved, seconded by Councilor Cassie McClure, to

Approve Resolution No. 25-056.

MOVER: Councilor Becki Graham

SECONDER: Councilor Cassie McClure

ABSENT: Councilor Johana Bencomo and Councilor Becky Corran 8.2 RESOLUTION NO. 25-057: A RESOLUTION AMENDING CONTRACT 20-21-

054 AXON LAS CRUCES POLICE DEPARMENT (LCPD) CAMERAS WITH

AXON ENTERPRISE, INC. OF SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA TO INCREASE

THE CONTRACT AMOUNT BY $446,625.57 FOR BODY CAMERA AND

NONLETHAL ELECTRICAL CONDUCTED WEAPONS (TASER) AND DATA

STORAGE SERVICES FOR A TOTAL NOT TO EXCEED $2,324,799.79

PLUS GROSS RECEIPTS TAX. Virginia Barela, Buyer II gave the overhead presentation.

Councilor McClure asked back in 2020 when the senate bill went in, did they allocate any funds for municipalities for the use of the body cameras?

Jeremy Story, Police Chief said no, that was an unfunded mandate. So, when the requirement came down there was no funding attached to this Senate Bill 8. We have already equipped all of our commissioned officers with body cameras. So, we are already in compliance initially.

Councilor Flores asked what I understood the Police Department had the tasers and then the cameras, did they go hand in hand, or I misunderstood that part?

Virginia Barela said the Police Department did own body cameras and they are interconnected with the tasers that they own.

Councilor Flores asked how are they interconnected?

Chief Jeremy Story said Axon is actually the company that we are talking about was originally called Taser and so they are the first tasers in all their different iterations.

So, they are the company that makes our body cameras and our tasers. Obviously,

the same company and so they are designed so that they work together. For instance, if your body camera is not recording and you turn your taser on it automatically starts recording your body camera and everybody within a certain radius. So, there is kind a check and balancing between the two products.

Councilor Flores asked does that mean if the camera is turned on the taser is functioning? Or does it work that way too?

Chief Jeremy Story said no, it does not work in the reverse.

Councilor Flores asked what does reaction software mean?

Chief Jeremy Story said we have received an increasing amount of IPRA requests or public records requests, year to date we are at 1,849 just for the Police Department.

So, the redaction software is a tool that our IPRA staff uses to go through the body camera footage and then apply a redaction, to things that are allowed by law to redact or exempt.

Councilor Becki Graham moved, seconded by Councilor Cassie McClure, to

Approve Resolution No. 25-057.

ABSENT: Councilor Johana Bencomo and Councilor Becky Corran 8.3 RESOLUTION NO. 25-058: A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE CITY OF

LAS CRUCES TO ACCEPT A BUDGET ADJUSTMENT ALLOCATING

FUNDS IN THE AMERICAN RESCUE PLAN ACT (ARPA) AND AMEND THE

CITY'S ADOPTED FISCAL YEAR 2025 BUDGET. Leeann DeMouche, Finance Director gave the overhead presentation.

Councilor Flores asked what part of the area or what part of town or what district are these septic tanks being installed?

Carl Clark, Assistant Utilities Director said there is a map there showing some of the areas and the council districts where we did the improvements. The green are the ones that we completed, the yellow are completed now so everything that we see in color there ignore been highlighted has been completed. So that is Council District 2,

Salopek Subdivision, there is District 4, as you can see, we did four in that area and then we have a bunch over in Hacienda Acres that we completed as well. That is

Council District 6. I believe that is the last of them.

Councilor Flores said there are still some homes in District 6 that I am aware of that, the septic tanks haven’t been replaced by sewage so is there anything in the works for that?

Carl Clark said we will we be applying for some state legislative money but after spending all the ARPA money we don’t have any more money available to help connect people at this time.

Councilor Flores asked will be asking the next legislative session?

Carl Clark said yes, the next go round.

Councilor Mattiace asked can you bring up District 2 slide again and when you say it is completed, what is actually completed?

Carl Clark said it is the highlighted lots that you see on that map, those have been tied into the system totally. The ones that don’t have any highlights on those property parcels they either selected that they weren’t going to do it, or they weren’t part of the priority levels that we initiated originally.

Councilor Mattiace said if I remember correctly there was over 300. So how many have you completed?

Carl Clark said there are over 400 that need to be done, and we only completed 71 with the money that we received.

Councilor Mattiace asked we are making a pitch to the state for more funds?

Carl Clark said we will be making a pitch to the state for that type of money to connect customers.

Councilor Flores asked does that mean the aim of the city or the goal the city has is to replace all of the sewage tanks with appropriate sewage equipment?

Carl Clark said the goal is actually part of our septic replacement project update in

2008, so there was a study done by CD & Smith back in 2008 where they looked at everybody that was on septics within the city limits and they identified the priorities.

So, we have a top high, middle, and low priority.

Councilor Flores asked what qualifies as top?

Carl Clark said top is within 1,000 feet next to city water well because we don’t want to be drawing any of that septic into our own water wells.

Councilor Flores asked are all of those taken care of?

Carl Clark said we have done a lot of improvements or putting sewer in different areas of the city and the ones that have top priority have been somewhat addressed in regards to having municipal sewer with close proximity to the houses but they may not have connected. Those are some of those that we reached out with the matrix that we

put together when we received the ARPA funding, we listed all the top areas and those were the first ones we hit. It had to do with being in the top area and low to moderate income and so in our matrix it brought everything to the top and we reached out to those residents and unfortunately, we couldn't force them on to it so they had to choose to be on it to be a part of the ARPA money. Some turned it down and some of them said no we don’t want it, and some didn’t respond. We knocked on the doors and they still didn’t want it, and some didn’t respond, and we knocked on their door and they did want it. So, we worked with everybody out in those areas.

Councilor Flores asked even though it was fully funded there were some residents who did not want it but isn’t it a health and safety issue? There is seepage happening all the time with those sewers or the septic tanks so is there anything that the city can do so far as besides asking for money. I think asking the legislature is fine of course it is our taxes anyway, but it seems to me that we present some efforts to educate our community we would probably have some data to present that to the appropriate legislators.

Carl Clark said this is the first time we have ever been offered money to be able to do that for the customer side, but it is something that actually went over very well and it was received very well. It is very expensive in that aspect whenever we do that work.

We end up paying more because we are the municipality and there is certain things that we have to do that provide us with a cost. I wholeheartedly I would love to get additional legislative funding. There is an ordinance in place that requires people to tie in within a year of the sewer main being installed however there is not funding available for them and there is no teeth in that ordinance that says you will be fined X so it just leaves it open. When that ordinance came about a couple of years ago, three or four, Adrienne Widmer the Director of Utilities brought that forward to council and that was the decision made by council not to put any penalties for those who don’t tie in.

Councilor Flores said it would be good if we could get some money from the feds perhaps, I don’t know. I think there is resources. I think there is money from the federal government for this sort of stuff, isn’t there?

Carl Clark said I would assume there possibly is and we do request that and we are going to request it more heavily now so that we can start getting these people transferred over, but it is out of my hands. All I can do is request and hope that it comes in. Councilor Becki Graham moved, seconded by Councilor Cassie McClure, to

Approve Resolution No. 25-058.

9. BOARD APPOINTMENTS

9.1 CYNTHIA ENRIQUEZ Councilor Becki Graham moved, seconded by Councilor Cassie McClure, to appoint Cynthia Enriquez to the Capital Improvement Advisory Committee.

10. NOTICE OF PROPOSED ORDINANCE(S)

1) There will be no public discussion.

2) A Councilor may ask staff for clarification on the proposed ordinance(s). 10.1 None.

11. CITY COUNCIL MEMBER BOARD REPORTS AND COMMENT 11.1 COUNCILOR MCCLURE

None. 11.2 COUNCILOR MATTIACE None. 11.3 COUNCILOR GRAHAM Tomorrow is Election Day, last day to make your voice heard despite all of the anxiety and angst and all of the other A-N words that you might be feeling about the election. I hope you like me also see it as a celebration. I love Election Day. Voting is a privilege and an honor, and it is something that my grandmother made Election Day into a holiday when I was a little kid. That is back when you would actually go in and pull a curtain and pull a lever. So, I like to think that her spirit and her civic duty is a lot of the reason why I am here right now. It makes me think about it and please find a moment to smile on Election Day and think about the beauty of making your voice heard even if otherwise have a big old knot in your stomach like me.

11.4 COUNCILOR FLORES Voting for me is a very similar experience since my parents were voters and my father was a naturalized citizen, and my mother was born in the USA. I always felt proud, and the voting took place at our elementary school, the auditorium. It was just such a big deal when you would walk into the auditorium when you are not supposed to be there at night, whatever. That was highly engrained in our family and so we are very fortunate to live in a country that the people speak and then we get our leaders.

Just these past two weeks in my district there has been one incident of a loud party going on and you know in a quiet community in a cul-de-sac in fact. I believe there

was some shootings I don’t know if anybody died. I have not followed up on that and then today this morning I learned that there was another thing and that was, the one that happened over the past weekend is near my home. The one that I learned about this morning happened on the north side of Highway 70. It’s a new area for me after we did our redistricting. These are all very quiet areas but apparently people are beginning to feel that they can meet in masses and make a lot of noise till two, three, four o’clock in the morning. So, I just want to say that I find that very saddening and I want to thank our Police Department for being out there for putting themselves at peril in the line of duty for no good reason that I don’t understand why it is happening.

11.5 MAYOR ENRIQUEZ Adrienne Widmer, Utilities, thank you and your staff. Friday we were invited to

Utilities. They had a rodeo day. A lot of fun, entertainment, food but where they got an opportunity to show off their skills through various competitions from backhoes to meters to the skid unit and Councilor McClure was there and she participated and did a tremendous job on that skid. I think she placed and got some hardware. Okay, I made that part up, but she did extremely well. It was like an obstacle course, and she did well. Thanks for participating, our City Manager was there as well. It was a great day and great event and thanks for the invite and all you do at Utilities.

Again, a reminder that the Veteran’s Parade will be this Saturday at downtown at 11 a.m. and I encourage everyone to get out and vote as well. Next week I will be out at the National League of Cities where the City of Las Cruces will be receiving a Lifetime

Award for being a member of National League of Cities for 50 years. I will be attending that and receiving that for the City of Las Cruces.

12. CITY MANAGER REPORT 12.1 IKANI TAUMOEPEAU Tomorrow is voting day and as we all know from this seat and from staff we stick to facts here. We have a GRT on the ballot. This would be the first increase in about ten years. If it passes this would produce about $11 million for us on average a year for public safety, for road, park improvements, and critical infrastructure. GRT is paid by everyone who purchases goods and services in Las Cruces from city, county residents, and tourist and visitors, not just residents. The increase amounts to about .32 cents for every $100. GRT is not collected on groceries and not collected on medicine in New Mexico. If it passes the change will go into effect July 2025. As mentioned, key projects could include a new downtown public safety facility, indoor recreational facility, needed improvements to streets, parks, etcetera.

I have had the opportunity in this past week to meet with our construction team which includes Public Works, includes end user departments such as Park & Rec, City

Manager’s Office, Quality of Life, museums, libraries, and our Planning and

Innovation team. In this meeting we were presenting a list of capital projects, amounts, that amounts up to $787 million worth of projects that are the total amount of funds that are needed to complete these projects, and we don’t have these funds, and this is a fact. It is a fact that this is the total amount and what the cost of infrastructure and construction increasing 40%. It has been challenging as a city to

figure out how to make the ends meet. That is why what you see on the ballot is the

GRT. It has been ten years since there has been an increase and so this has been our approach, council approved this, and this is where we will leave this in the hands of the voters. I just wanted to share that and bring that to light as this is what we are dealing with. Many projects, many demands and at the end of the day we reach out to the state, and they say the state has a lot of money and they do their best, representatives and legislators, they are allocated funds but there is only so much that they can do so here is the facts. In recent years they have only given which has been very gracious from them, but they have given us an average of $11 million for varying projects. Eleven million dollars which goes a long way to knocking the $787 million amount of projects. We are grateful. There are many reps and legislators who are tracking, we have met with them. Those who have been able to meet thank you so much for making that time but this is the situation, so I just wanted to share that to those. Those who didn’t vote tomorrow is voting day and I just wanted to put that out there as a consideration to those who still have to make a decision. Thank you all and thank you city council for your time.

13. ADJOURNMENT 13.1 Councilor Yvonne Flores moved, seconded by Councilor Becki Graham, to adjourn at 2:00 p.m.

Mayor

City Clerk