City Council Meeting June 17, 2024

MINUTES

City Council

Monday, June 17, 2024 @ 1:00 PM

City Council Chambers, City Hall

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

Becki Graham, Councilor Johana Bencomo, Councilor Becky Corran, and Councilor Yvonne

Flores

ABSENT:

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

APPRECIATION/PROCLAMATIONS - COUNCILOR CORRAN. None. 1.3 JOBS OF THE WEEK. Sarah Raney, New Mexico Workforce Connections presented Jobs of the Week. 1.4 PETS OF THE WEEK. Amy Defelix, Animal Services Center of the Mesilla Valley presented Pets of the

Week.

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

SECTION 2-27 (E)(2) 2.1 Councilor Graham said I am going to recuse myself for item 7.3 Resolution No. 24-

133. My husband is employed with the Fire Department and is a union member.

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION 3.1

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Tim Jenkins, Member of the Public said I had come up and spoken to you guys’ last week about the situation that we are having over there at the Pecan Grill in the arroyo and I just wanted you guys to see the pictures. This is the camp that they set up on the bottom of the arroyo and there were seven to ten individuals down there and it took us about two weeks and about ten calls to LCPD to actually get the situation resolved but Mano y Mano came out and did a wonderful job and got everything cleaned up for us and we really appreciate the support that you guys gave us. It was kind of frustrating that it took a little while but I think slowly but surely we are getting there. I kind of call it an Airbnb camp because it was pretty intense. I just wanted to bring something else to your attention that I encountered this week. I had a friend come in town from Bakersfield, California. He has been living there for 13 years and he was driving around doing jobs with me and he asked me, what is going on in this town with all the people with shopping carts full of trash up and down all these streets? I said that is the situation that we are facing, and it is the unhoused. You mean homeless? He said why do you call them unhoused? I said it is just a more politically correct and gives them a little respect and he said I can’t believe that they are going around with shopping carts, he said I don’t understand. I live in Bakersfield,

California, I have lived there for ten or thirteen years, there is a lot of homeless people out there but none of them have shopping carts. He said in Bakersfield, California if you are caught with a shopping cart from a business it is a $1,000 fine or 90 days in jail mandatory. He said they don’t have shopping carts out there. I thought that was pretty powerful that he shared that. I assured him that we have been coming to city council and we are working on it. We are trying to do our best. Well not only three hours later we were coming down Lohman and in my work truck which is a pretty big box van with a jotter on the back on my way to Mesilla for an emergency with a full

600 gallons of water and right there by the McDonalds a homeless came out with a shopping cart full of stuff not at a crosswalk, not at a light, nowhere close to that just in the middle of the street and I had to slam on my breaks so hard that every single thing in my van ended in the front windshield and broke the windshield.

Donna Stryker, Member of the Public said I want to thank several council members.

Mayor Pro Tem I watched the Work Session, you were right on with Memorial. You did an excellent job. I really appreciated your research. Whatever you did to get your facts together was very impressive. I really liked it. Becki Graham, thank you. Cassie

McClure, thank you. Ikani, you guys went on that ride, and I know Becki has gone twice, thank you for going out in our community and seeing what is going on. I am sure it was powerful. It looked really hot. I don’t think I could ride that far but thank you so much.

Susan Cabello, Member of the Public said I am the Executive Director of Downtown

Las Cruces Partnership and I wanted to introduce my intern Kylie Jenkins. We have been working together for the last week on economic development projects such as the business fair, making a comprehensive list of downtown businesses, and visiting our downtown businesses and just getting to know them. She is part of the County program, and she has done a fantastic job. She is fourth in her class. Speaking of business fair, I want to thank you guys for supporting that project. For sending out

Celina and Blaire, and Cruz to come and talk about data analysis so your Economic

Development Department talked about all your tools that you have like ESRI to do a market analysis for our businesses, and it was probably the booth that I got the most

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positive feedback about. Especially businesses that are in highly competitive markets like hair, like coffee, like restaurants. You know getting that data really makes a big impact on where they set their prices, where they put their store, maybe the market is too saturated already and they need to find plan B so really, really excited about all the services you all offer. Being able to show those to our community and having

Celina, Blaire, and Cruz do a great job interfacing with the community and making your Economic Development Department really welcoming to them. DLCP gave out our first micro-loan since I have been at DLCP. It is $5,000 to the Las Cruces Prep

Kitchen which is a great model. It is a place where businesses who do not have a commercial kitchen can come in and prepare food to sell like charcuterie boards. Just about all of our businesses downtown have had this issue with people having small businesses, they can’t afford a commercial kitchen, but they have a really great product to sell. So, we are excited about that coming to downtown. We know that it’s going to help a lot of our businesses and hopefully help them expand as well.

Dudley Moore, Member of the Public said I live at 1730 Regal Ridge. Our residence suddenly became famous about six weeks ago. Its May 6th around 9:20 at night. We were interrupted from a quiet night with a series of booms, fifteen- or twenty-seconds worth, felt like an earthquake. When the dust settled, we had a 25 to 30 foot hole in our front yard about that deep. Nobody was hurt but both of our daily driving cars were in the hole. I immediately called the nonemergency number and police and fire showed up within minutes. They kind of secured the area. They turned off our utilities, gas, water, and electricity just for safety’s sake because it was at night. We really couldn’t tell how deep the hole was. The next day at the time it happened I was wondering what caused this and is it going to get worse? We are still kind of wondering that ourselves. The next day the City Spokesman was stating to the public that we were going to be liable for the whole thing because it was all on our property and if we would be liable for fixing any damage that might have occurred to the sidewalk or the street, trying to do a repair to it. The city hired a Geo Engineer to determine what the cause and extent of the hole was and he immediately took control of the area so we couldn’t change anything. We could hardly get our cars out. He didn’t want us to move the dirt or put any water in there which I understood but we thought he was representing the city we would hear from the city promptly, well it took two weeks. We finally called up to see what was going on, how do we proceed? They said they would turn on our utilities within 48 hours which they didn’t do. They back tracked on that and then they turned just the electricity on a week later. Meanwhile my lawn is dying, my landscaping, my pool is green, and luckily for some of the neighbors they let us use the water spicket outside their home so we have been trying to keep that kind of stuff from being as bad as it could be. Now it is six weeks today and I still have a hole there. I ask myself what did I do as a homeowner to cause this but now that there is an engineer report that just came out this week and to me the only thing that we were guilty of was buying a home in an existing development that was inspected, approved by the city for long term development and now we have a hole here. The engineer described it being built on large arroyos and water repairs throughout the years to the street that leaked into the ground. I want to know what the city is going to do to help us correct this problem? It is still a danger. There is risk to our house. There is liability to our house and the neighborhood. I thought as a taxpaying citizen that the city was in charge of health, wealth, and public safety and so far, the only people I see going to my side is every day they go over there to look

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to see if the hole is bigger. That is the only action they have taken.

Randall Hickman, Member of the Public said I live at 1731 Regal Ridge next door to the Moore. The hole in the ground affects my house as well and will if the rains start and if the hole gets bigger it will cause my fence, my stone fence to fall into the hole.

We are looking at some potential increased damage here if something isn’t done before the start of the rains. Who knows when they are going to start again but we are looking for some help from the city some leadership because the city has resources that we do not as private citizens. This is a neighborhood problem it is not just an individual problem with Mr. Moore’s house, or my house and it is a neighborhood problem because all of the houses, all of the homes within sight of this hole in the ground have been affected mainly in reduced value. The tax value of Mr. Moore’s house is probably zero. The tax value of my house next to it is probably half of what it was before. That represents a significant loss in tax revenue to the city and the county, and I am asking that the city act promptly to prevent further losses in their own tax revenue.

Diane Starbuck, Member of the Public said first I would like to thank Councilwoman

Bencomo for your participation in last week’s Work Session with the hospital. I think you did a great job too and also for Councilwoman McClure for nailing them with the

Medicare rating. That was a good one. I hope you continue to ask questions and if you get answers can you make them publicly known because those two stories didn’t jive with what we saw. Now speaking as Animal Advocate For Change member, it has been months since a new animal ordinance has been discussed and we have been told that it is being reviewed by someone or another. The Mayor admitted that animal welfare was put on a back burner with everything the city has been through at that time. We have not pushed the issue ourselves out of respect for the community and the Police Department dealing with the tragic death of Officer Hernandez but when is it going to be the animals’ turn? Why is the ordinance a secret? Where is the transparency? Where is the accountability? Why won’t the city work with any animal advocacy group? Why has the Mayor ignored repeated requests for a meeting with animal advocates? We need all city councilors to advocate for the companion animals of Las Cruces and start asking questions at the very least we need a phased in fully funded required spay and neuter ordinance with exemptions to curve the over population of dogs and cats. The situation is so bad that a private rescue is transporting more than 50 animals at a time as far away as Connecticut with donations from the community. The rescues are overwhelmed, the fosters are exhausted. With the upmost respect Mayor, the animal advocates of this community are tired of charring our butts on your back burner.

Eddie Thomas, Member of the Public said first I would like to commend you Mayor for retracting the parts of the proposed rezoning ordinance that were clearly destructive to family life and the single-family neighborhoods in Las Cruces. Next, I would like to talk about the pilfering for lack of a better word of the $28 million that you are taking form the city’s Telshor Fund. I like Councilman Mattiace question the wisdom of killing the goose that lays the golden egg by the rest of the council. Therefore, I would like to see more transparency on the lascruces.gov website explaining exactly what you plan to do with it. The budget link on the website doesn’t shed any light on what you plan to spend it on other than public health projects and building the next homeless hotel.

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That doesn’t account for all of it. We lose interest bearing monies that would be self- perpetuating. You can’t just break the city’s piggy bank without being held accountable. As the saying goes, the devil is in the details. My fear is that besides the details the devil is in these very chambers. The next thing I want to speak on is the $10 million abortion clinic that is set to break ground on the corner of Lohman and

Sonoma Ranch. I realize that this is a state issue. I would just like to know what if anything our delegation that goes up north to speak at the round house said. Did they mention that we could use a mental health facility instead of an abortion clinic? How much does the city stand to profit from this? I found it totally disgusting and abhorrent that the city would profit from the dismemberment innocent infants. Texas is just 30 miles down the road on I-10, tell me that is not a coincidence? Guys can come smoke a joint while they wait for their girlfriend’s procedure to get done. We are on the fast track, and we will soon be known as the Abortion Capital of the Southwest. We are already the Cannabis Capital why not go for both wonderful distinctions.

Joaquin Munoz, Member of the Public said I am speaking on behalf of the seizures at the borders for the cannabis industry. The legalization has been reached. The oppression and stigmas are still relevant in all aspects. Recently I had a conversation with an old friend talking about renting land to help build opportunity and because we are in the area that we are in this deal wasn’t able to go through because of the search and seizures. He is looking for land outside of the checkpoints. Protection and fighting for the state is needed in order to have long term success in the industry.

Without the state defending us we are led to the mercy of those wanting to keep oppression relevant and hurting those who have sacrificed many freedoms in the traditional market as well as the legal market. Before I leave, I want to thank everyone for giving us the opportunity to talk about these issues. By addressing them we are able to move forward and build a stronger community.

Vee Quevedo, Member of the Public said I am a resident of District 1 in Las Cruces.

Last month the Mayor did not even allow a vote on a ceasefire resolution to end the genocide in Palestine. The resolution was based on Palestinian leadership across the country and resolutions that passed in Oakland, California and Carrboro, North

Carolina with additional input from the staff here in Las Cruces. Over 100 cities have passed ceasefire resolutions. Resolution 24-114, May 6, 2024, a resolution calling for a permanent ceasefire in Palestine. The city council is informed that, whereas the city of Las Cruces is dedicated to fostering a community that embraces diversity, values life, and upholds the principles of equality and human rights and we affirm that human beings deserve safety, dignity, freedom and equal rights regardless of religion, race, or nationality and international humanitarian law recognizes the rights of all people and cities across the United States including San Francisco, Minneapolis, Seattle, St.

Louis, Detroit, Atlanta, Akron, and Providence have all passed resolutions calling for a ceasefire. In between October 6, 2023 and April 17th, 2024, there have been over

24,000 Palestinians killed including 13,000 children and the ceasefire is critical to the release of Palestinian and Israeli hostages and building a foundation for lasting peace and there needs to be an immediate end to all funding and weapons transfers to

Israel and we support the prompt provision of unlimited humanitarian assistance to both north and south Gaza including supplying food, water, and medical supplies which are indispensable for the survival of the civilian population and we condemn the occupation of Palestine and the 17 year siege on Gaza and we condemn incidents of

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antisemitism, Islamophobia, ethnic cleansing, deliberate starvation, or collective punishment and we support international law being upheld in the west bank and all parties must fully comply with their obligations under international law and peaceful diplomacy and mutual understanding is the only way to achieve these permanent goals and we strive that Israel and Palestine develop friendly relations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples and take other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace. The city of Las Cruces asks that the New Mexico congressional delegation and President Biden facilitate an immediate permanent ceasefire in Gaza and in the west bank and restore UN, United

Nations relief and works agency funding and ensure Israel allows unlimited humanitarian aid to enter in North and South Gaza and uphold international law in the west bank ending all settler terror on Palestinians and an ends to all funding and weapons transfers to Israel. Now therefore be it resolved by the governing body of the

City of Las Cruces that the city council affirms its support for a permanent ceasefire of the genocide of Palestine and that city council asks staff to send copies of this resolution to the President of the United States, Vice President Harris, Secretary

Blinken, Senator Lujan, Senator Heinrich, and Representative Vasquez.

Lucas Herndon, Member of the Public said I am a resident of District 2 here in Las

Cruces. Last month I came to City Hall to cover the scheduled vote on the resolution before this body calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. Restoration of UN funding and humanitarian aid access, ending attacks on Palestinians by colonizers in the west bank and ending funding and weapons transfers to Israel by our federal government.

Because I was here for work, I had not planned on speaking that day but being here now let me say I unequivocally support that measure. I stand with the people of

Palestine on the sole idea that they have right to exist, a right to have a home but what needs to be said here today is that I have worked in political communication over a decade in this state and what happened last month only has one interpretation. That this council with exceptions for Councilor Corran and Mayor Pro Tem Bencomo were so swayed by whatever propaganda, fear or simple laziness then rather than execute their job as representatives of the people of this city and facilitating a conversation before voting on that resolution they manipulated parliamentary procedure to remove the resolution before the body. I make a living out of calling out elected officials across the state for impeding the progress of everyday New Mexicans and while I may not be here for work today it would violate my own core principles to not call out this extreme miscarriage of so-called democracy. While it seems fairly clear how the body might of voted on that resolution itself at least we would have known where you stood when it comes to supporting the basic human rights of an entire people but as it stands now I and anyone watching can only assume that your stance is acquiescence that you are fine with over 40,000 dead human beings as long as you don’t have to suffer from the potential angry emails or mean Facebook comments that might have followed if you had stood in support. When I say end the genocide in Gaza, I am just another voice in the statistical majority of Americans. However, what you said or maybe more specifically what you didn’t say as a collective body rings out much louder into the broader narrative. I am not a religious person, but I was raised in the Christian faith.

Revelations Chapter 13, the writer counsels the church, I know your deeds. That you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other, because you are lukewarm, I am about to spit you out of my mouth. I don’t know what could be more important than discussing the ongoing genocide of an entire segment of the human

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population that you are lukewarm towards that for even talking about, well as the writer said.

Tony Chavez, Member of the Public said I appalled at the comments of these so- called Palestinian people are making. I mean war is hell and they don’t talk anything about Gaza and the Hamas stopping the war. They started the war, and they don’t distinguish between the casualties that the Hamas uses in regard to their numbers and they don’t distinguish between combatants and civilians. So, you guys did a great job. I appreciate what you guys did and I hope this resolution doesn’t come up.

Monty Rutledge, Member of the Public said I joined the Navy in 2001 after 9/11. I deployed in 2006 in support of OIF/OEF. I am a combat Veteran, several TBI’s and other injuries I sustained while in the military. After my military career I joined the

Border Patrol and retired in 2021 under the MRA Plus Ten Program because my physical and mental health was not doing very good. I would not be here today if it was not for cannabis. So, I am coming before you to express my concern about what is happening at the US Border Patrol checkpoints here in the state of New Mexico with regards to season cannabis. When I look at the national strategy that CBP has for 2022 to 2026 I can’t help but to note that the very first sentence in their national strategy says, “since 1924, the US Border Patrol has been entrusted with protecting the American people and promoting economic prosperity throughout our border and national security mission”. I don’t feel they are doing that. They have seized over $500,000 worth of product this year alone. That cost gets pushed down to the consumer such as myself. I am a medical patient. I am on a fixed income. Cannabis like I said has saved my life and I need it for daily living, just for a functional quality of life. I am very concerned that if this continues, I am not going to be able to afford my medication. If you go further into the national strategy, the very next page where they talk about their guiding principles the very first sentence reiterates what I just read.

Where the CBP says that their main focus is protecting Americans and our economic prosperity. I don’t feel that they are doing either, and I put before you if you haven’t already considered it trying to find some way to either work with Border Patrol or alleviate some of the issue we are having right now. It’s very concerning and I plead for your help. Maybe we can use Operation Stone Garden like I have seen other states use. Get a state or local official at the checkpoints to conduct these inspections so that the federal government’s interest is upheld and so is the states.

Jim Hurst, Member of the Public said I will be reading from the New Mexico

Constitution. Article II, Section 2, “All political power is vested and derived from the people. All government of right originates with the people. It is founded upon their will and is instituted solely for their good.” I have heard some comments in these chambers declaring that the United States is not a democracy but a republic. We are both. We are a democratic republic, hence the name of Thomas Jefferson’s party, the

Democratic Republicans. Whatever room for debate there may be concerning the US

Constitution there is none in the New Mexico Constitution. All political power is vested in and derived from the people. All government of right originates with the people. It is founded upon their will and is instituted solely for their good. Thank you for allowing these comments, this is democracy.

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Yoli Diaz, Member of the Public said I want all of you to think of the brave and courageous patients who told their story to Gretchen Morgenson, Senior Investigative

Reporter of NBC Universal Investigative Team, New York City. I thank the NBC team for their excellent reporting and bringing this to the national forefront. CEO John

Harris chose not to be interviewed. Other than John Harris at Memorial’s C suite that presented seem to have no concern for the cancer patients who told their story to

NBC I want to sincerely ask you, how would you feel if this had happened to your wife or husband, your mother or father, your daughter or son, your granddaughter or grandson, your loved one, or yourself? Would you be accepting to this denial or delay of needed lifesaving hospital health care? There are two things that I want everyone to remember, one there is a lease between Dona Ana County and City of Las Cruces and Memorial Medical Center. A legal binding contract with contractual obligations.

Two, there is the New Mexico Statute, the law of New Mexico Indigent Hospital, and I will repeat, Hospital and Health Care that binds each county with the responsibility falling on the board of county commissioners. Dona Ana County is probably the only county in New Mexico that has a lease between joint local governments and a private for-profit major US hospital chain owned by a private equity group with very high charge to cost ratios of 670% and the national report with 2018 data ranking Memorial

Medical Center as the 8th most expensive hospital in New Mexico to receive hospital care. Yes, in this disenfranchised area, two things, the law is the law and the lease is the lease. Both but separate legal commitments. The 2004 policy mentioned in the lease between Dona Ana County/City of Las Cruces states, “Ikard Cancer Center/

Memorial Medical Center Cancer Center and Home Health, since these business units are included in the whole of MMC the same expanded care services/community benefit program guidelines will apply as apply to the hospital”. CEO John Harris states that Memorial Medical Center does not deny or delay healthcare. They deliver care to all our neighbors regardless of their ability to pay and that he works in close partnership with the city and county. I have many questions that you should more importantly have. One, why in July or August 2023, MMC did not provide patient access to the disabled patient diagnosed with breast cancer in the chap that I reported to our county and city even after Jamie Michaels, Dona Ana County HHS

Director stated she was meeting with Memorial Medical Center to review possible options. Memorial Medical Center covered cancer treatment through the expanded care services community benefit program stated in the lease agreement when the hospital was leased in 2004 and when it was updated in 2010 the policy. Why is it excluded questionably I will add in some documents in 2015 and 2016. Three, my

Dona Ana County records request from October 2022 provided me Memorial Medical

Center 2016 policy, why does this not match recently provided 2016 policy to include a 2015 policy where it states, services not covered, and I am going to repeat, services not covered under the chap program, outpatient oncology, chemo services, outpatient dialysis. So, I am going to have to skip a lot and I am going to say very most importantly why did Dona Ana County not take action until June 11th, 2024, to cover this life saving treatment effective July 1, 2024 after the NBC national report and why was action not taken to cover cancer treatment in years 2015, 2016, 2021, or 2023?

Barbara Corral, Member of the Public said I have been here before in front of you. I spoke to you about MMC and the inability to get treated at the hospital. I was here last week when MMC was here, and it was very difficult for me not to voice my thoughts.

At first, I got very angry because I was basically told without mentioning my name that

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I was a liar. I don’t know where I would come up with that. I did not make up the fact that they would not treat me for my cancer. It’s fact, why would I go to Albuquerque?

So, I was pretty offended by that, and I really wish I could have had a conversation with Mr. Harris but he doesn’t want to talk to me so that is fine. One of my biggest passions in life besides dogs is women’s gynecological cancer and that is actually why I am standing here. When they hear a woman has cancer they think automatically breast cancer, pink ribbon. Well, there is other cancers too, and people need to be aware that woman can get ovarian cancer or even vaginal cancer like me.

When I was told that I was so embarrassed, and I shouldn’t have been. It was cancer.

I didn’t ask for it. It just came and found me. The point is that nobody should ever have to go through what I went through no less having to have cancer treatment because it was hell, and I am not the same woman I was before and I probably never will be to be honest with you. It wasn’t misinformation. It was the truth, and I would love to have the opportunity to have somebody call me. Nobody called me. Nobody sent me an email, nothing, not one word just telling me, or you that it was misinformation. I didn’t ask NBC to come write a story on me. I didn’t do any of that.

All I did was get cancer. The rest of it just fell into play. So, the only thing I can say is that my wish for you is to hold MMC accountable. Keep working with them please.

Don’t let this happen to anybody else. If I wasn’t as strong as I am I probably would have ended up like an ostrich with my head in the ground but I am not going to do that. I am standing here, and I am proud to say that I am a cancer survivor.

Kelly Coins, Member of the Public said I am the General Manager for Agricultures for here in Las Cruces. I thought the best thing to do is kind of explain a day in the life of trying to go through Border Patrol as that seems that that would be the best education. So, we follow all of our requirements and we are compliant and obviously in Las Cruces and in any direction pretty much you have to go through Border Patrol and so we transport compliantly and it is just very intimidating. There is dogs and there is a lot of questions. I personally have not experienced too much hardship going through Border Patrol. I have a feeling a lot of that is because of how I look and the car that I am driving and so I just want you to know that we are all giving back to our community not only obviously through our taxes but through employing people that work here in Las Cruces and we are doing our best to participate in community events and try to be great businesses and it is just something that we are just really asking for your help. I get it, its federal, you are very limited in what you can do but it is very scary, and it is very scary for people who are younger and are transporting products to stores throughout the state. I just got back from Clovis. You can imagine we are transporting just like Coke, Pepsi, anybody else in distribution so we hope that you could take a look at just what we are going through because it is very scary. It is the same feeling as if you were doing something illegally in trying to take something into

Canada or anywhere else. That is the fear that you go through when you go through these Border Patrol Checkpoints, and they have made it perfectly clear that they will not uphold our agreements that are through the state.

Orrey, Member of the Public said I work in the industry of cannabis. These seizures that are happening at the border, it really comes down to the people in the industry and as Mr. Monty said anybody who has those medical cards it effects those and me personally you know the company that I work for was subjected to one of those seizures and it really did hinder our company’s able to get those medical patients

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some kind of product that they needed. It also hindered my job as well to be able to put food on the table for my family. I feel like there is something we can do even at a state level you know if it is legal why can’t we do anything? New Mexicans pride themselves on having each other’s back. How come we aren’t doing that? I don’t see any help coming from anybody. In a whole it really just effects the state’s economy. If you are going to let us, do it, let us do it. I am not a criminal. Nobody I work with is a criminal. Why are we being treated like one?

Chad Lozano, Member of the Public said I have appeared here many times. Mostly on the topic of cannabis and today that is no different. I want to start out with 20% and soon to be 21%, that is the total tax that we give New Mexico for the cannabis that we sell. With the issues that we have $500,000 being taxed at 20%, that is a big loss and especially with it going up to 21% we don’t want to keep losing. Every year from now on that percentage is going up 1% and if this issue continues, we are just going to lose more and more money and less people are going to want to bring this down to the south. I understand that the city is very limited on what they can do. The state is limited as well but having your support is just more than enough for us if that is all you guys can do but as Monty said you know if we can look at Operation Stone Garden as a possible relief for us that would be a really great idea. It would not come out of our pockets, but it would come out of the federal government’s pockets. It is still taxpayers’ money at the end of the day but it won’t be coming from any state funds and I kind of feel that would be a really great idea. This is something that is very alarming for us because let’s be honest, businesses are booming, and it is not slowing down anytime soon. You have little Dubai down there, aka Sunland Park. Some of those places are making a million dollars a month just in one establishment. You have here in Cruces, we are doing pretty well too. Some are hitting the $200,000 to $300,000 a month and we want to continue that trend and the only way that we can do that is allow other products in but people are too afraid to bring that in if they are going to get popped at the border check. I grew up in the area, I am from Alamogordo originally, so I grew up with these border checks my whole life, so it is nothing new to me seeing something like this, but it is a little alarming when we start seeing it at this level and it starts happening so much. Now they are starting to go after patients and that is when it starts to alarm me. Yesterday I got word that they had regular civilian cars pulled over. I don’t know if that is from a mixture of different tactics being used from our own industry or they are trying to figure out what tactics they are using but once they start going after my patients I start to worry a lot more and I kind of feel that trend is going to continue because as we saw during the medical days that happened

I have been harassed before at the border myself. I just don’t want to see it happening any further. This issue is far from being fixed but I kind of feel that with the support and maybe some brainstorming maybe we can come up with something.

Nicole Jordan, Member of the Public said I am approaching five years in the cannabis industry now. I started when it was medical, and I have been able to see the transition in the legalization of cannabis and now we face an issue at the Border Patrol

Checkpoints where they are seizing. Starting February, they began seizing product and now we are past half a million dollars worth of legal seized cannabis product.

Checkpoints are to stop the illegal flow of drugs but New Mexico has adopted a medical program and now cannabis is also legal and so why is the government interceding with our state rights and commerce? It interferes with our rights to provide

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medicine such as it was mentioned earlier, and it interferes with the process of transportation. There is fear that is being built in the industry and now we feel that we cannot go and transport our product even if it is completely legal. Even if we have the proper documentation and following all the rules, we still hear every week different companies being detained, owners being traumatized for hours all for their product to be taken. So, we are here to ask for help in representation for this southern part of the state. We already are so repressed in certain areas within our industry, and I would also hate to be repressed within our state.

Jordan Walters, Member of the Public said I am a local grower here in Las Cruces. I know you guys probably hear all this stuff about the federal government all the time but what is really affecting us are the people we are hiring locally because of these border checkpoints. I work for Iron Lung Labs so over $200,000 of that product is actually ours, of this $500,000. So, it really sucks because that is hard work that we are putting in to make all of this and then it comes down to people who trim for us.

They can’t come because we can’t have that much product leaving the facility then comes to people putting stuff in packaging for us because now, we can’t send that in boxes in jars because that is going to get taken immediately. That cuts into cost for the product, the jars, the packaging, and other people can’t even come to work. It’s just really tough, really scary for a lot of people. We had one of our transporters get pulled over past the checkpoint, they made it through, cars pulled her over, pulled her out of her vehicle, drove her vehicle back, drove her back, detained her, took our product and let her proceed in her own vehicle after that. But now you can tell that now she is flagged and that was part of her career so. I come from a family that was not very supportive of doing this anyways. How many of you are up here doing something that you wanted to do when you were younger, that is what we are doing.

So please help us.

Martin Lopez, Member of the Public said I am local here. I am also a small business owner. I have one business that does a lot of give back to the community, low income, done toy drives, etcetera. The company I am here representing today is Juanito’s

Joint. We are a brokering consult company, so we have gotten to feel what the vibe is around New Mexico and it’s pretty tough. Nobody wants to start a business here anymore. They can’t start a manufacturing business here you just heard the downfalls of starting a manufacturing business, can’t start production and you know a lot of the big issues are like people brought up, why do we have so many retail locations? That is the only thing you can do out here. I know we are really limited on what we can do with the federal government. You know we can’t build a road because then we have to worry about everybody getting through. We can’t just get a free pass you know just to walk through because you know we have to hit certain standards in quality and production. It is preventing us to even progress in that sense to improve those areas. I just wanted to let you guys know there is a lot of down people in here in this city that really just can’t be a part of the culture and part of helping medical patients and it’s just really sad because now everybody that had invested and heard it’s legal now, Las

Cruces is going to get a huge bump. We are going to see a high fluctuation that we saw of tax dollars and then we are going to get dependent on that funding and it is all going to drop. So, we just want to guys to keep in mind we are not talking about people who are on drugs, we are talking people who are using medicine and people that are feeding their kids, your friends, your families. Even if you are not directly

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impacted you are impacted. It’s your economy and we are your people, so we just hope you are looking out and we hope to hear from you all soon. Not only for the sake of my business but for everyone that took time out of their day. They could be doing a different day job helping their families but they are here.

Josh, Member of the Public said I could have been the product of a negative statistic around New Mexico. I am born and raised in Las Cruces, New Mexico where my mom and everyone has roots and so these licenses that came up actually gave people like me a breath of life because I am not the smartest person. I can’t do much most of anything but that is me being honest and with that being said when the chance arose and then these problems start coming up. I am a mom and pops business so this could be the death of my business and hurt my family and friends and with that being said like I understand limitations and I have been hearing that but this is the first step and I believe you guys are interested in hearing otherwise you wouldn’t be here. We appreciate the time. I know I do especially, and you are just changing my life for the better so I hope that this dictates a lot and not take it to the negative way because it can lead to the black market that we are all afraid of and trying to get rid of and we can’t do that if we are shooting ourselves in the foot. I don’t want see this city, state to have a bad reputation. I for once have something passionate to fight for and with that being said I think we should show out for New Mexico and show other people what we can do so thank you guys for whatever you can do and the help you can bring.

Austin Plaines, Member of Public said I am actually a transplant from here. I am from

Jersey originally. A lot of people when I came here, I will be honest they complained about New Mexico a lot and when I came here and I found the cannabis community, this is one of the only communities that really loves New Mexico. Tell me about green chile, show me the mountains you know, show me all these different things that it has to offer but it all started from the cannabis community. That is the thing that brings so many different people together and at the end of the day this is medicine and I know this is not something that you guys have uptmost control about but like Chad, and

Nicole, and everybody else that came up said your support, your undying support is more important than most. Anything that you guys can do to contribute to our mission and our fight we do appreciate.

Robbie Tafoya, Member of the Public said I know a few of you on the board right now.

We have Desert Flower Growers right here in Las Cruces. We started way back when medical first started. We were working with patients early on over ten years ago and when the recreational came in it seemed like it was going to be a pretty good idea.

The city definitely flourished with a lot of new businesses but as you can tell a lot of them are already starting to close down and the reason for that is because we have way too much competition, and it is not from right here. It is coming from up north.

Can you imagine if we had to tell everybody that you can’t have Hatch Chile anymore from down in our area? But you can bring it from Albuquerque down here, but you can’t have ours. What would that do to our economy? And that is what is happening right now. We opened up a new product and people like it. I am one of the growers that we grow specific types of cannabis for different ailments for the patients. Whether it be for being anxious or being tired, whatever it may be. We try to find the best alternative for it. We have a clean product, and we are working with a lot of people.

We have a lot of growers here and I think that is our biggest problem now is that we

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have so much product here we can’t get it out. It’s forced all of the people who are producers and manufacturers like myself to have to dumb our product down so cheap that we are literally giving it away on pennies on the dollar just to try to stay to compete with a lot of the bigger manufacturers that are here. You guys opened this up and so we definitely need your help to be able to get up north. Seventy percent of my business and I have said this over and over is on the other side of the border. On the other side of the border checkpoint anyway and for us that is hard. I have to run three times a week or two times. I can’t tell you exactly how much, but I have to take it. I have no choice and it leaves me no choice and it is because I have to provide for my family. This is my business, this is what I do for my retirement. I wanted to start something that was going to be for my family. A lot of the people in this industry have either used our product or worked with people that we worked with. We support all the small farmers. That is why we are called Desert Flower Growers because we bring all the local farmers together. We use their products, we produce the best stuff and give it out to the public that we know is safe. So, with your guys help it would really be a push. We call this devil’s triangle, we can’t get out any other way without going through a border check point and so we need your help. Something needs to be done.

Again, I think this is like Hatch Chile, you are keeping it from the rest of New Mexico. I don’t know how fair that is, but I would definitely like to see my product be able to move and not be in fear of going to jail.

Michaela Kelly, Member of the Public said I am representing Prohibition 37, a local cannabis dispensary in town. As a lot of my comrades have stated we need your help.

We are really stuck down here in regards to following compliance. If we have product that needs to be returned up north or be destructed, we cannot do that without it being seized. We go through all proper protocol as well as compliance. We desperately need your help so please help us flourish in our southern part of our state. So, if there is anything that you can do, if you can meet with all us that would be absolutely amazing.

4. ACCEPTANCE OF AGENDA Councilor Becki Graham moved, seconded by Councilor Becky Corran, to accept the agenda as presented.

RESULT: Carried

MOVER: Councilor Becki Graham

SECONDER: Councilor Becky Corran

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

Councilor Becki Graham, Councilor Johana Bencomo, Councilor Becky

Corran, and Councilor Yvonne Flores

5. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES 5.1 JOINT WORK SESSION OF MAY 13, 2024. 5.2 WORK SESSION OF MAY 13, 2024. 5.3 REGULAR CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF MAY 20, 2024.

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6. RESOLUTION(S) AND/OR ORDINANCE(S) FOR CONSENT AGENDA

7. RESOLUTION(S) AND/OR ORDINANCE(S) FOR DISCUSSION 7.1 RESOLUTION NO. 24-131: A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE WRITE-

OFF OF UNCOLLECTABLE UTILITY, GENERAL BILLING, AND LIBRARY

ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE FROM THE FISCAL YEAR 2018 IN THE

AMOUNT OF $248,684.42. Adolfo Cardenas, Accounting Supervisor gave the overhead presentation.

Councilor Flores asked the write-offs still allow to recover the debt and how successful has the city been? Do you have a history as to how much money is recovered? Is there a certain percentage? Do you pursue it avidly?

Adolfo Cardenas said I do not have that information with me right now, but I can get it.

As soon as I get it, I can send it to the City Manager that way every councilor can obtain it.

Councilor Becki Graham moved, seconded by Councilor Johana Bencomo, to

Approve Resolution No. 24-131.

SECONDER: Councilor Johana Bencomo

Corran, and Councilor Yvonne Flores 7.2 RESOLUTION NO. 24-132: A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE LAS

CRUCES FIRE DEPARTMENT TO DONATE A HOIST MULTI-STATION

WEIGHT MACHINE WITH AN ESTIMATED VALUE OF $500.00 FOR USE

BY THE COLUMBUS FIRE AND EMS DEPARTMENT IN COLUMBUS, NEW

MEXICO. Jason Smith, Fire Department Chief gave the overhead presentation. Councilor Becki Graham moved, seconded by Councilor Becky Corran, to

Approve Resolution No. 24-132.

Corran, and Councilor Yvonne Flores 7.3 RESOLUTION NO. 24-133: A RESOLUTION APPROVING AMENDMENTS

TO THE COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE

INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF FIREFIGHTERS (IAFF) LOCAL

NUMBER 2362 AND THE CITY OF LAS CRUCES. Jo Richards, HR Director gave the overhead presentation.

Councilor Bencomo asked in terms of pay now where this puts our Fire Department in

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comparison to other fire departments of our size?

Jo Richards said our first-year step in our pay tables now brings us first in the comparator’s that we used in our study. Some of those comparators in the state include Albuquerque, Alamogordo, Santa Fe, there were a few others. But again the

13% increase for the first year puts us first in the state. There are other steps in the pay tables that also put us first and those were I think the 21st year as well as the

24th.

Councilor Bencomo said I appreciate that. That is really great to hear. I am curious if this will remain that way for the next three years by the time the next negotiations rolls around or will we by the time we get there be behind?

Jo Richards said it is really dependent on what other organizations do. We are seeing increases on a regular basis in public safety in general so I am sure there will be changes over the period of the contract.

Councilor Bencomo said obviously we will support this. I don’t think there has been a time when we have not supported a union contract. I am a really big advocate for fair pay for hard work and I feel like our fire crews have been under paid for a really long time. So, I think that whatever makes us catch up and stays consistent to me feels really important. Obviously, we have Project LIGHT teams now and social workers that are part of the Fire Department. I am curious about the status for them in terms of union membership?

Jo Richards said right now they are unrepresented. So, they are based on our salary grades for unrepresented staff.

Councilor Bencomo asked do you know if there is any conversation about, is that even possible? They are part of the Fire Department, right?

Jo Richards said the union can request that through the state’s process for them to be accreted into the union.

Councilor Bencomo asked it’s not a city issue then?

Jo Richards said no.

Christopher Johnson, Union President said thank you for the opportunity, City

Council, all of the members who have been a part of this city staff. Thank you so much for the opportunity to speak upon this. Huge thank you to Ms. Richards and her team for the extensive work put into building this contract. Started back in November and it has been eight or nine months’ worth of contentious arguments I would say. I don’t believe we agreed on many of those 38 resolutions or 38 articles, but we very much recognize the extensive work that went on both sides to get to that conclusion of where we are at. I can fully agree that at the moment that we are very competitive with the pay based on this specific pay raise we are going to get this year, but I am going to make a note based on your question those pay raises are coming quickly

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around the state as well. We talked to multiple unions that are signing between 15% to 20% over the next couple of months and so I understand where we are at and the city can’t make that kind of commitment that soon. I appreciate everything that you have done so far, how far we have come with it. I do think in three years’ time we are going to be having the very same conversation as they are getting the same 15% to

20% this year which will put us right back where we were three years ago. Beyond that though as far as the operations went and the collective bargaining for things that we wanted and things that the city wanted and what staff wanted, I commend the team and the effort that we have been able to complete and the partnership that we have done on that and I think a lot of good things came of it so thank you city council for supporting us. I know you guys have always been on our side throughout that process. Mayor obviously you were a huge support for us for years as the Chief, and

Chief Smith has been behind us 100% of the way. I can’t thank them enough for the work that they have put in for all of that. Councilor Yvonne Flores moved, seconded by Councilor Johana Bencomo, to

Approve Resolution No. 24-133.

MOVER: Councilor Yvonne Flores

Councilor Johana Bencomo, Councilor Becky Corran, and Councilor Yvonne

ABSTAINED: Councilor Becki Graham

8. BOARD APPOINTMENTS 8.1 JOAQUIN ACOSTA Councilor Mattiace reappointed Joaquin Acosta to the Planning & Zoning

Commission. 8.2 ENRICO SMITH Councilor Bencomo reappointed Enrico Smith to the Planning & Zoning Commission.

9. 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). 9.1 COUNCIL BILL NO. 24-029; ORDINANCE NO. 3071: AN ORDINANCE

APPROVING A ZONE CHANGE FROM C-2 (COMMERCIAL MEDIUM

INTENSITY) TO C-3 (COMMERCIAL HIGH INTENSITY) FOR A PROPERTY

ENCOMPASSING 2.567 + ACRES AND LOCATED AT 2605 BATAAN

MEMORIAL WEST. SUBMITTED BY KARY BULSTERBAUM,

REPRESENTATIVE. (24ZO0500035). Council agreed to bring it forward.

10. CITY COUNCIL MEMBER BOARD REPORTS AND COMMENT 10.1 COUNCILOR MCCLURE Just a quick thank you to Community Development for getting information for the

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zoning to me with the redline changes where you have incorporated public input. I appreciate that and my thanks to David Weir that if people are interested in that to ask for it then too.

10.2 COUNCILOR MATTIACE I would like to start out by telling the public I really appreciate all the no loitering and no trespassing signs that I have seen at several businesses in the town. I guess it was done by Chamber of Commerce and other organizations. I see that on all the banks. Maybe we should add if Chief Story, you could relate it to them that maybe we should have no loitering. No littering and no violent action that might help with the other signs that are being posted throughout the city and no shopping carts. The other thing I would like to bring up, I would like to ask the Mayor and the council that within four months that we could have an accountability, maybe a joint meeting on MMC just to keep records of how they are improving their service. How they are improving everything at MMC and record keeping. Definitely in four months, not five, not six, not a year but in October to actually bring MMC forward to a joint meeting with the county and the hospital to see if they delivered on their deliverables. 10.3 COUNCILOR GRAHAM I wanted to express my gratitude for my second police bike along that I got to go on with Councilor McClure and City Manager Ikani last week. Many thanks to Officers

Kelly, Kane, Palos, Rodriguez, and Smith for being willing to kind of go out on a limb and accommodate my initial request that I wanted to try this out on bikes, and I think it went really well. You are able to see parts of the community that you just wouldn’t have access to in a vehicle and many thanks for patiently addressing my million questions and thank you cards will be forthcoming. The other thing that I wanted to bring up, Ikani if we could explore like the city of Albuquerque recently passed a resolution to contract with a certified licensed whatever biohazard clean up company.

I think this can help address some service gaps that we have been having in the community as we are hearing about from some of our small business owners and making sure that we are protecting the safety of our city team Mano y Mano.

Everyone else who is out there pitching in as always, but I would really like to see if we could come up with something with an alternative for that. 10.4 COUNCILOR CORRAN I just want to make a note of all the cannabis business folks here today. I don’t know a lot about what has been happening, but this has given me a really interesting picture, food for thought and I do think it is worth having a conversation about what if any potential impact that we could have. I would also just ask folks to understand the context of inland Border Patrol Checkpoints which are basically just a scourge on our community which what some will call a constitution free zone. Other states have rejected inland checkpoints and required them to be temporary. That is not is not the case in New Mexico but I would just say to the folks who are experiencing traumatic sort of invasive questions at Border Patrol Checkpoints I would urge you to realize that lots of folks in our community are traumatized by those checkpoints all the time and it is deeply problematic and certainly when my family comes to visit from places that aren’t in border communities they are shocked also that we would submit to such an extraordinary violation of what is fundamentally a constitutional right itself. I just wanted to speak to the general idea that those Border Patrol Checkpoints are deeply

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troubling and that folks are being traumatized by them for a long time, doesn’t make the new traumas okay but just to acknowledge that exists in our community and has existed for a long time.

I do want to thank Catrina for helping set up the Check the Chip event which will be

Friday and Saturday of this week from 4 to 6 on Friday evening and 9 to noon downtown on Saturday morning. This thanks to a community member who brought forward the idea when an animal was not identified as belonging to someone because they had incorrect chip information and so the context of this is really to help people connect with their pets and make sure that their chip information is up to date as we approach this season where a lot of animals escape from their homes, dogs and cats in July. Only about 15% of animals that animal control picks up are able to be returned to their owners because of their chip information which is a very small percentage. This event will help make sure thanks to ASCMV and animal control that we will look at the chips within your animals and make sure the contact information is up to date and help you update it if it is not. I hope to see folks coming out to join me and thank you for Catrina and team for organizing and thanks to ACOs and ASCMV and the Fire Department for hosting Friday from 4 to 6 and Saturday 9 to noon and it looks like it will be coolerish. 10.5 COUNCILOR FLORES I would like to thank Jo for getting that contract for our fire fighters and I think with other municipalities approaching that topic I hope we stay at that number one position after that. I definitely support unions and so thank you again Jo. I agree with my colleague Mr. Mattiace since he signed off on the agreement he really knows about

MMC but I totally agree that we have to definitely meet more often and we have to make sure that they are adhering to the items of the memorandum of understanding and that everything is being fully executed according to that MOU and we have to also look at other areas so I don’t know if that would be our legal department or if there is a joint commission on hospitals that can be alerted and so anybody out there who knows who they are before I forget. Keep that in mind and the more people in contact that commission the better outcome we are going to have.

I want to thank Councilor Corran for bringing up the interstate checkpoints. It is absolutely true that it is traumatizing. I do not leave my house without my passport. It is very traumatic after all these years. I spent a lot of time in Cuidad Juarez, a lot of my family is there and other parts of Mexico but it is very traumatizing and one agent actually kept my passport fortunately I don’t know if you remember Shannon, anyway her husband works with the government because they would not give it back to me and a call was made and I received a call right away. It is dehumanizing, it’s like having brown skin in this country is no fun. So apropos of that though the cannabis issue, you know we have the intrastate commerce clause and one gentleman presenter raised that question and I don’t know if it is something that the ACLU would broach or undertake that issue but there is a problem with checkpoints beyond being humiliating to us little brown people but it seems to me that is it is interfering with intrastate commerce so I don’t know where this would go. Definitely I think it is federal issue. 10.6 COUNCILOR BENCOMO

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I really want to congratulate a couple of people up here on their new roles. JC

Borrego on our new Assistant City Manager, congratulations. Brad Douglas, who has been acting City Attorney for quite some time and its now official, so I just want to really thank you Brad. You have been the City Attorney’s Office for quite a while and just really want to appreciate all the work that you do on behalf of the city, so thank you and congratulations.

I know regarding the neighbors with the sinkhole. I did just want to address them because sinkholes is actually one of my worst nightmares. So, when that happened I was deeply terrified and I just completely continue to be deeply terrified for them.

Monsoon season is coming, and you know sure property values and all those things are important, but I really worry about the safety of that family and that neighborhood and so whatever we can do to support them. I think the gentleman is quite right. What was his fault besides purchasing a home that he had no idea that that would happen.

So that is just deeply terrifying. I want to make sure that we have a plan for that given that it is not the first sinkhole in the last year, so I think that is deeply troubling. Ikani I would love to know what the contractor came up with in terms of why that happens beside the arroyo, that just feels really important to me. I feel that not get to real meta here, but sinkholes are more and more frequent now with climate change and I just think that is a real concern for all of us.

I also wanted to address the cannabis industry. I am a big supporter of the cannabis industry for many reasons. I think many of you all know, two weeks ago as well they invited me to the Cannabis Convention of the Southwest and I was very proud to be there and help give the welcome. Almost 1,000 people came through that Saturday visiting with businesses. I got to meet these young folks that this is their career now and they are incredibly smart and doing really great things for the industry and I want to continue supporting them and cultivating their entrepreneurship, and so this new challenge has been very difficult. Even though it is not new right? The checkpoints have been there for decades and of course cannabis has been legal for a couple of years. It is interesting that it is very sudden, and I think that is deeply troubling and so

I will continue to talk to the City Manager about what we could do as the city that could push back on this sudden enforcement and how it is impacting our economic vitality here on the border of New Mexico. I will say to the industry that I would love to keep having conversations with you about how we can be more supportive. I will tell you right now that I am not a supporter of bringing back Operation Stone Garden funds, Operation Stone Garden are deeply troubling funds that frankly come with strings attached in terms that federal immigration agencies working with local law enforcement agencies and that impacts the trust that many communities have especially if you are living as an undocumented American. Stone Garden was removed from city budget a long time ago. I think Councilor Flores was the only councilor left as part of that vote. That is not something I would support bringing back.

However, I am absolutely open to having this conversation with you all and coming up with other ideas about how we can push back this no secret on how I feel about the

Border Patrol and they are deeply unconstitutional, these internal Border Patrol

Checkpoints within the 100 mile border enforcement zone.

The last thing that I wanted to bring up, definitely for staff though because I have talked to just a couple of people about this just mainly our City Manager and our City

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Attorney about looking into a vacant property tax. I really very much have taken it upon myself to advocate for District 4 especially in terms of the NAT properties,

Neighborhood Action Team, or the Nuisance Abatement Team properties. Just on

Friday I took Ikani on a tour of the MacAurther Elementary Neighborhood where there are 18 abandoned homes and many of them are a serious public health hazard not only to the neighborhood, to folks who may be staying there and trying to find shelter, to our fire crews, to our codes crews, and they are just this huge public safety issue and then I think additionally there are commercial properties that have been long abandoned with very little movement to actually get them rented out or sold. I know

City Attorney Brad Douglas is already looking into it, but I wanted to bring that up as we are talking about other kinds of taxes. I think a vacant property tax sets a really firm line in the sand in terms of responsibility as property owner to the rest of your neighborhood. So, I just wanted to bring that up so hopefully we can get some information about that and bring it to a council discussion in the future.

10.7 MAYOR ENRIQUEZ As a member of MVEDA board we had a retreat on June 12th. Wednesday, they had a keynote speaker come and talk about different ways where taxes and increases in taxes from other states can also help economic development. So those were a lot of good ideas that took place at the retreat plus a five-year plan that MVEDA is working on. They will be coming and doing a Work Session here in the near future. I think sometime in August in the Work Session and give an update as well.

Spaceport has a rocket competition coming in this week. Anywhere from 900 to 1,000 students where they can build rockets and compete and help with the innovation and technology and a lot of their science programs. So that is going to be going on throughout the week here in Las Cruces as well.

On Saturday we attended myself, Councilor McClure, Councilor Flores and Mayor Pro

Tem and I, we delivered a proclamation for the Juneteenth Banquet that took place

Saturday. A very meaningful and joyful event in history back in 1863 and so we attended that and also just pass on that it will be a paid holiday on Wednesday, on

June 19th for the city as well.

11. CITY MANAGER REPORT 11.1 IKANI TAUMOEPEAU I am very appreciative to our new Assistant City Manager JC Borrego and our new official City Attorney Brad who has been doing that for the last few months and he has been in our Legal and the last survivor of our attorneys. I appreciate all of those internal candidates. We have a very qualified staff that applied for the Assistant City

Manager position. I was in that seat and there were many qualified similar to this seat.

I will tell you Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem and City Council that the future looks bright for this organization and continues because we have great qualified candidates really for these executive positions and all positions.

The status of Accountability of a Government Ordinance 2881, I appreciate our City

Auditor Viola, Brad our attorney, IG, myself, we are reviewing and finalizing this draft.

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This is the ordinance which will essentially tell the Oversight Committee what the parameters are. To give you an update and the public, some may not know in the

Oversight there are three appointed positions, one is filled, two are vacant and these are three positions that are asking for background in legal, law enforcement background, business, and auditing accounting background. It is the auditing accounting background, business background, those seats are filled. The question may come up to you, well why aren’t we having meetings? What is happening? And it has already come to public comments. The reason why we are not having Oversight

Committee meetings is because we have to set the parameters. We need this ordinance to come before council. So that is why the team that I mentioned is trying at the speed of light. Trying to get this in front of you with all the other tasks and competing interest that they have in front of them. The goal is to get this in front of you in a Work Session next month, July 8th. Once that is in front of you in a Work Session and that gets finalized later at a Council Meeting then the candidates that are applying for the two vacant seats will know what the parameters are and what they are signing up for because there will be updates to the ordinance so that is just FYI.

The animal ordinance is currently in Legal with Brad. He has been a one person show for the last few months. It has been very challenging and tough for him to get to really anything because he has been focusing additionally on, we have been recruiting. We have three Senior Assistant Attorneys that are coming on board. So, if you can count that is four attorneys. We have tasked him to do something that has been very challenging so in addition to all the internal stuff he has been given he has been tasked with the daunting challenge to hire additional attorneys which are coming and starting on July 1st. The reason why I share that is because we will have more staff for this animal ordinance. He is telling me that is something internally that we will continue doing and we will have updates internally perhaps and coming to a Work

Session where we can present this as soon as next month out to council.

In addition, sinkhole, I appreciate Mayor Pro Tem and Councilor Mattiace where this is in your district. He has been reaching out very concerned about this area as we all have. Here is an update as to what has been happening. We have had staff, we have assigned Larry roles and duties as a point of contact because this family rightfully so has been in contact with many including Chief Smith when they first came on site. We decided just to keep it clean and assign that to Larry and what’s been happening is that they came in last week ready to pull a permit, they were waiting for the report. We had a report, a Geo Tech report, our worst fear is that this expands our streets and public easements and obviously to any other house as well, so we want to get to the bottom of this. So, this report came out, they were waiting for this report before they wanted to pull a permit. They came today obviously but the same time we pull the report we are ready to hand them the permit. That is the update there. We will keep you in the loop, I know council and Mayor Pro Tem, there are many who are interested that is what I am talking with Brad of what just came out today we will look and see if there is anything in addition that we can do besides what we are doing right now. We will continue to keep everyone apprised on that.

Also, MMC I just wanted to make it clear that the monthly reports that were shared in the last Work Session it is important and I realize that not all council may understand that I am a member of the board. I attended the last board meeting and there is

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another one coming on Wednesday so I will be there as well. There is an agenda packet that is thick. It has a lot of information that you are requesting. It is confidential, just like all hospital review boards are. That is the only monthly review report that I have. I am not able to share that with you, similar to any to hospital boards. They typically are confidential. I have reached out to John and I have asked him if there is a monthly report that I am able to share with you all and so we have started that conversation.

I just wanted to make sure, Councilor McClure did you share your district meeting?

Councilor McClure said no I did not. Thursday at Loma Heights at 6 o’clock it will be my first community meeting. I am really excited actually.

Ikani Taumoepeau said from staff, Senior Programs Second Annual Abuse in Later

Life Health Fair on June 28th at the Munson Senior Center from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

June is Elder Abuse Awareness Month and World Elder Abuse Awareness Day is celebrated on June 15th. On July 3rd we have our Annual Electric Light Parade which is happening at 7:30 p.m. All of those who are signing up for the Electric Light Parade will meet at Apodaca Park and it ends in the Hadley area and that starts from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. On July 4th at the Pat and Lou Sisbarro Community Park, we have our awesome July 4th concert and fireworks which will start at 6 p.m. and the annual display will happen at 9:45. We have Black Jacket Symphony and that will be the entertainment for that day.

Last but not least I have the Legal team Brad and the vacant property tax that was mentioned by a few councilors on the dais, Councilor McClure has mentioned that and today Mayor Pro Tem Bencomo and so Brad when he has updates, I will be able to email that out to you as well or if we need a Work Session we can do that as well.

12. ADJOURNMENT 12.1 Councilor Becky Corran moved, seconded by Councilor Yvonne Flores, to

Adjourn at 3:00 p.m.

MOVER: Councilor Becky Corran

SECONDER: Councilor Yvonne Flores

Mayor

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City Clerk

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