City Council Meeting March 18, 2024

MINUTES

City Council

Monday, March 18, 2024 @ 1:00 PM

City Council Chambers, City Hall

PRESENT: Councilor Cassie McClure, Councilor William Mattiace, Councilor Becki Graham, Councilor

Johana Bencomo, Councilor Becky Corran, and Councilor Yvonne Flores

ABSENT: Mayor Eric Enriquez

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

APPRECIATION/PROCLAMATIONS - COUNCILOR FLORES. 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 None.

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION 3.1 Russ Smith, Member of the Public gave an overhead presentation regarding shade in the Downtown Plaza. Retractable shade has come of age. The idea of building has been proven the idea of the concept is finding economies, and a limited RFP could be

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drawn together and brought to bear to prove that it is a good idea.

Mayor Pro Tem Bencomo said thank you and I appreciate it. I am going to suggest that you speak to Chris Faivre down there, he is with our Economic Development

Department, and we have had this conversation before at other TIDD meetings so maybe he can give you an update.

Craig Gerkson, Member of the Public said I am the President of the Homeowners

Association for Del Prado Condominiums. We are located just up above Dona Ana

Community College. We are only half a block from Sam Graft Park on Sedona Hills

Parkway, and our neighborhood loves that park, and it is well used. You always see kids playing in the playground with their parents who are watching, teenagers playing basketball. It’s really in constant use, or at least half of it is. All of those active activities take part on the western half of the park. The eastern half of the park is just grass and it is very nice to walk through and people like me walking my dog, I love to do that, but we do see people who are playing with their dogs not on a leash which could be dangerous because the entire park is surrounded by streets. So, my proposal or ask of the city would be to consider fencing that eastern half of the park where there is already grass, there is sidewalks complete to create an off-leash park for people who would like to bring their dogs there. My neighbor calculated that over

60 dogs regularly use that park as part of their daily exercise and so it would be well used. The park is literally surrounded by over 1,000 homes that are within walking distance of that park. So, my request would be to consider that. Consider creating an off-leash park there by simply fencing the eastern half of that park. Councilor Flores, I believe this is in your district. I would be happy to meet with you there at the park and walk through what my proposal is and besides that I would be happy to answer any questions that any of the council might have.

Donna Stryker, Member of the Public said it is real short and sweet I have been watching the councilor’s comments after the meeting. I am not always able to stay because I pick up my grandkids and things like that but after at least a couple of meetings one of the things I took away from the council is that we as citizens and a lot of the people that I am working with in Businesses for a Safer Las Cruces, we need to take some responsibility and do something. This flyer is just a result in one week of what our group was able to come up with. We have been working with Chief Story. He had a great presentation for our group on things that we need to do to support the police and back the blue and so this is going to go out to as many small businesses here in Las Cruces as we can get. We have a wonderful community member, Beth

Johnson who has given us these and printed them on her own time and her own money so that we can get it out to businesses so that we can all work together for a better and a safer Las Cruces.

Dr. Kyle Schumacher, Member of the Public said I am managing DVM at Schumacher

Veterinary Clinic on Valley Drive. I last spoke to council on February 20th in the immediate aftermath of the murder of LCPD Officer Jonah Hernandez. I am well aware that my views, my politics, and my agenda is not necessarily the same as yours, nor as the same as the folks sitting in the audience next to me but I do feel that as a group we shared many similar and harrowing experiences and expressed our

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overwhelming concern regarding the ongoing problems with homelessness, illegal drugs, crime, and the daily threats to our personal and public safety. I hazard there has not been individuals that come to stand and speak who hasn’t had the realization that we, I, could have just as easily suffered that fatal consequence. I also feel that the majority of the business owners who have spoken made sincere efforts to be respectful and work towards constructive solutions. I was unable to stay until the end of that meeting or to attend the next as such listening to the comments afterwards I was shocked to hear how quickly some sought to deflect blame and blithely dismiss our concerns. I am acutely aware that the current situation is not the responsibility of one or all council members and that there are numerous issues which require attention at higher levels and in different branches of government. However, I do maintain that you are responsible for safety and welfare of the people who live and work in your districts. Even if these immediate solutions may be distant or beyond your personal control. I am grateful for the first very few efforts, weeks later to reach out to local citizens and business owners but these have been few and far between. I continue to deal with these issues on a daily basis. My doctors and staff are frightened, my clients are concerned for their safety, citizens and local businesses in our area have been frankly terrorized and have suffered permanent damages as a result. My fears is that I am no longer safe in my place of business, that I am unable to work and to serve the community, these should be your responsibilities. I will go off script and say that I do very much appreciate Councilor Bencomo approached me before the meeting and she has made some offers to come out and meet with me and that is much appreciated. I know that offers have been extended before but I will repeat it here, I would encourage any council member, member of city management or other public official who has an interest in helping us to overcome these challenges to spend some time with myself or any of the other small business owners here.

Honestly, I am there after dark there a lot so I will appreciate the company. I do hope you take this personally because I take this personally, we take this personally.

Vic Villalobos, Member of the Public said I think Dr. Schumacher kind of summed it up for everybody. I do want to say that I truly appreciate Councilor Bencomo last week reached out to me and we were able to spend a little over an hour together and I will say to my surprise I think we had more in common then I think we did opposite of each other, and I truly did enjoy my conversation. I do encourage all of the city council, you know we talked about the fact that we are all busy but the fact that she reached out to do that was very appreciative so I would encourage all the councilors to take a few minutes and reach out to those people. I know for me it made a big difference to get a little bit of a different attitude towards what is in front of me, so I do encourage that to everybody. On a completely separate note I do want to say also that I am the head of Mesilla Valley Search and Rescue and I would like to say my thanks to Chief Smith because the Fire Department here has always been very encouraging to us and very supportive in our training efforts and this last weekend we did that again and had a very long and strenuous training with the Fire Department so

I want to thank Chief Smith for supporting that when we are always out there.

Beverly Hogan, Member of the Public said I am a resident of Las Cruces. I do want to address and ask you not to move public input to the end of City Council meetings. Mr.

Mattiace suggested in my response to my email that I appreciate those of you who responded to my email that possibly the Mayor has something else in mind but it

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might be a different venue, it may not involve councilors which is kind of sad but I just want to know why you decided that?

That after April all citizen input would be at the end of the council meeting. You all are elected to represent us. Freedom of speech is a First Amendment and I really truly value that. I am a retired middle school and social studies teacher. I knowingly accepted that teaching job for decades understanding that I might be exposed to harsh criticism from some parents. Just like all of you I think that when you run for politics, I don’t think I would have a thick enough skin to do that. I did have a thick enough skin to be a school teacher and middle school but you have to accept that people may not always be happy with what you are saying but I am pleased to hear that many of you have responded and reached out and did talk to the people who had concerns and that I think is valuable which is again why we need to have something like this. I think that in many respects it might have been a knee jerk reaction to a couple of folks who spoke at that one meeting but honestly, I think 90% of those people were giving constructive criticism and that is how I have always looked at it when parents would suggest something to me it is just constructive criticism. I just don’t think that all the citizens of Las Cruces should be punished for the Mayor’s attempt to partly suppress our right to free speech knowing that citizens will then have to wait anywhere from two to six hours to speak. Many of them have children or grandchildren or work. Such a rule in effect would remove almost every citizen from ever having the right to exercise their freedom of speech at these meetings. I am asking again to please ensure that public comment remains that the beginning of the city council and have the kind of dialogue that I see here today which I see as very positive.

Stan Engle, Member of the Public said I am here because Mr. Roy Parra died allegedly at the hands of a drunk driver who was speeding last information I saw. I was here maybe like a month, two months ago and my initial moment was that our infrastructure was actively hostile towards life, and I think this proves that. We have designed the city where unless you are traveling in a car and even then, you can still be unsafe because we have infrastructure that encourages our worst impulses. It encourages speeding. We have no enforcement that discourages cell phone usage, distracted driving, and no enforcement that I can see that does anything about speed.

I asked you all, challenged you to go out and stand on our roads and our streets and to see how miserable it is to see how fast traffic is. How many people are using their cell phones. How many people are speeding and to see how many people are now driving obscenely large trucks. The trucks have gotten so big I am starting to feel like we are just going to go to tanks. I feel like it has robbed our independence. I have mentioned in the past to city council that I like to take my kid to school on his bike. I want him to be independent in our community and I feel like maybe a lot of people want that too but unless we can do something to limit the amount of vehicular violence, I don’t think that will ever happen. We are going to have a society, a community of children in this generation that are going to go from home to car to school, back to car, back to shopping without ever actually exploring their environment because their parents rightly so are too scared that they might get hurt.

So here I am challenging you all again to start taking our infrastructure seriously because it does encourage our worst impulses. It is unsafe for our children and for ourselves.

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Rick Reynaud, Member of the Public said I am here today to recommend to not change the public comment order in council meetings unless you move it to the first item and the first reason is that Mayor Pro Tem Bencomo did a great job shepherding the speakers at the last meeting and then this meeting. I think you worked yourself into a job assisting the Mayor. The second reason is that I observed dozens of first timers at public comments for the past two years. You can tell. I was once one also, a first timer. They have brought outlandish stories, filmed encounters, and still things have become progressively worse. Downtown business owners are again using the term fed up about the continuing crime. Even after the local tragedy and now a state police officer. I know of one downtown business owner who has to close shop to run around back here to attend the public comment. I am going a little bit off script here, but I need to let the new councilors know and the Mayor about the Desert Hope

Apartments. The housing first model does not work. We have proven that. It has to be intervention first. I have an office near the Desert Hope Apartments. My wife was trapped in my office. It was my wife, a Fentanyl guy and her phone for twenty seconds. Not good for mental health. A direct quote from a resident who wrote a book on his experiences at the Desert Hope Apartments. “This place has become the very pit of hell, full of drugs and drug use, a cesspool of mentally ill persons”. Mental illness and drug use are the main causes of a local tragedy and now the Crisis Triage Center is closed. A whole lot of fanfare about a year ago. The city and county could ultimately manage the center and the Desert Hope Apartments through the Mesilla Valley Public

Housing Authority. I learned that from an interchange with Becki Graham when I found out who managed the Desert Hope Apartments. Bear responsibility along with every local rep and senator for the tragedy experienced here. Again, back to the first recommendation is keep public comment first.

Juan Garcia, Member of the Public said first of all I would like to recognize Catrina and Grace for a superb job for planning and executing the Neighborhood Leadership

Academy. All citizens should participate and learn of the different functions of the city government. Now let’s take a trip down memory lane to the 3 April 2023, when this chambers were packed, standing room only with the additional police presence and the who is who of progressive politics. Senators, Commissioners, and even the

County Clerk were here to “pay homage and shower the women of the council with adulation and praise”. Senator Hamblen insulted men with her comment which referred to men as “petite Richards”. No issue, she attempted to link the woman of the council with Rosa Parks and other female luminaries. While good, what prompted this massive turn out? About 1 April, one of our councilors who frequently speaks of misinformation, practiced the same on public media to incite a progressive massive reaction in this chamber. The coalition was going to force the council to resign. Public comment lasted about three hours and fifteen minutes in total session of about four hours and twenty-nine minutes. Was anyone insulted? No. Did our progressive friends have a right to honor the woman of the council? Absolutely. Did the council feel that they were being bashed, no. Did the Mayor attempt to suppress public comment, no.

Fast forward to 20 February, about fifteen businesses and victims of Las Cruces criminal element petitioned a councilor for help and response by the council was to circle their wagons and express how there was a bashing and that they are being picked on and the Mayor who in my opinion presented his proposed change of public input in order to suppress or reduce public input that was not “friendly to the council”.

It is not a secret that council doesn’t like criticism. This in my opinion is retaliation, yes

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retaliation. Citizens honor the council. Citizens petition their leaders to address crime and that is immediate retaliation. I am going to punish you. We are going to try to suppress. Both groups of citizens have the right to speak to their public officials. Is there a bit of hypocrisy here? Of course there is. The optics are horrible, but your message is very clear.

Eddie Thomas, Member of the Public said this move to move the public input to the back of the city council agenda will give the appearance of evasion. It is not a good look. It will produce the opposite of what you so desperately need right now, transparency. It will look like you are trying to shield the city council from the big bad constituency, the very people they need to hear from. I am sorry if it is not always nice and sweet, but it is the job that you signed up for. So, I would tell Mayor Enriquez to resist his first impulse as fireman and protect you all from the heat. You need to hear from the people that you represent. These people are scared and angry and they have a right to be. Despite what the general crime statistics show we still feel it when crime makes us the victim and you all would say that it would hurt you as well if you were the victim. It hurts when you have to shut your business down or when a loved one becomes a victim of a mugging or some other carjacking incident or some kind of violence. You all need to do something about that. I would suggest that you take Chief

Story’s recommendations on what to do to steer the city back to a safe condition. I would heartily ask you all to consider that so that something positive can be done in the city to make us feel safe.

Jorge Aguirre, Member of the Public said I am a Las Cruces resident, small business owner, and employer. I am here because a man on a bicycle was killed by a driver last week. This driver did not kill a person out of spite or because they were evil, or they were doing what their infrastructure naturally incentives drivers to do which is to go as fast as possible to their destination. That is how most people drive and that accident could have happened to any of us because the problem is car centric infrastructure. Our city has been built for decades for cars but not for citizens. Our roads are wide, they even have a shoulder, but they make drivers feel comfortable, even safe when speeding. The lengthy sidewalks built adjacent to the road make it dangerous to exist outside of a car in our city. Most citizens are coerced into sacrificing a large portion of their income to purchase a car. Cars cost a fortune. I think they exceeded $12,000 to own a new car last year and they come with additional cost like insurance and financing, and maintenance, and other hidden costs like tolls, and speeding tickets, and parking permits that consume a significant portion of most people’s income some people even get enormous tires. Similarly, most cities also spend a large portion of their budget just in maintaining their existing asphalt and it is never enough, just ask anyone. Nobody likes their pavement in front of their house. Cities spend a lot of money to build, expand, and maintain free roads and the citizens have to spend a lot of money to use those free roads. Everybody loses but it is all about money. Car centered infrastructure is a failed strategy because it produces high infrastructure maintenance cost combined with lower tax revenue for the city.

Lastly in the last session there were debates over zoning changes in the Mesquite neighborhood. Residents opposed the zoning change and the reasons they listed got my attention. They didn’t want increased auto traffic or changes in the traffic pattern or car noise or traffic noises. They said they were opposed to the zoning change but really, they were opposed to cars. They didn’t want to be honked at or rushed in their

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own neighborhood and to have to dodge speeding drivers. Many were unnecessarily opposed to business but to increased noise and nuisance of car traffic. Pedestrian traffic often increases retail sales because people have a chance to see things that they wouldn’t have seen if they zoomed by in a car.

William Gilman, Member of the Public said I am here to talk about, obviously there are a lot of challenges facing our city which always seems to be the case and in addition to very legitimate safety concerns about homelessness, and mental health issues, and drug abuse. As my colleague pointed out a person was hit and killed just while in a crosswalk on the sidewalk. They were also on a bike and that is what I want to talk about. The development plan for Las Cruces says it wants to prioritize vibrant neighborhoods, but we can’t really have vibrant neighborhoods if people can’t walk down the sidewalk safely. I live up by Roadrunner and that road at least once a week you hear drag racing and it is just really really easy to go fast. For a person with a hammer everything looks like a nail. When you build something that looks like a highway through a residential neighborhood people innocuously treat it that way.

Even myself, going 40 miles an hour there when the speed limit is 35 allegedly feels like you are just creeping along and so that is a huge part of the problem and the sidewalks are so narrow and right next to the road. There was a walking field trip that one of the schools took and they had to have two police car just slowly cruising along by them because we don’t trust drivers to drive safely. Not because our drivers are terrible people but that is just how we built this system is that it makes it so easy, so I think we need to address that, right? People lament about how kids spend all their time on their phone and all the time on the internet, but parents don’t actually let them go outside because we don’t trust them to cross the street. Not because the kids aren’t capable or responsible but because we just don’t trust the drivers. We need to do something about that. There is a proposal to expand the sidewalk on the corridor between Solano and Main, on Lohman and Amador, I think the city needs to move on that. We need to make this city more walkable, more bikeable because that is good for business. Those restaurants are going to get a lot more business with the foot traffic. The neighborhoods are actually going to be vibrant if people can walk to services nearby and as my colleague said you have to fork over a bunch of money to get a car. I was just run off the road on the interstate. My car was totaled. I had to buy a new one. I had to spend twenty-seven and half thousand dollars to get a new car.

That could have easily been a down payment on a house but instead that is going to have to wait because we prioritize cars over our citizens.

Lisa Parrot, Member of the Public said I am a resident of District 6. I wish to address public input and if I have time, I might address the vehicular situation. It deeply saddens me that two letters to the in this week’s Bulletin portrays citizens exercising their constitutional rights of redress as a jovial and consequential and laughable matter. Do you require the Constitution of the State of New Mexico to force you to allow us to have public input or do you want to do it because it is the right thing to do?

Is moving public input to the end of your meetings only the first step of eliminating it totally? Please keep it at the beginning of your meetings. Regarding the vehicle situation. It is very much the people driving the vehicles who are responsible for their actions the same way it is for the people who carry firearms to be responsible for their actions. It is not the gun, it is not the car.

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John Castillo-Guerra, Member of the Public said I am a new resident of Las Cruces, and I came here for the nice weather and the nice sized town and being proximal the

Chihuahuan Desert. It’s a beautiful place and I like the people. I get generally a good feel here. I have certainly witnessed unsettling scenes around Las Cruces as I have moved about. Especially up and down Valley and Main and other parts of the city.

This tragic incident that resulted in the death of Officer Hernandez as well as his assailant is a very sad situation that I really can’t stop thinking about and as I read about the incident I learned that the assailant, Mr. Silva appeared to be setting up camp for the night and he was seen on surveillance video by someone in an office somewhere and a decision was made that he needed to move and so an officer was dispatched to his location to carry out that task and it obviously did not go the way the officer intended. It probably did not go the way Mr. Silva intended. It was a tragic situation that we cannot help but reflect on and when we reflect on this situation, we see this enormous disparity of wealth within the city. Again, an unsettling scene to see as you drive around Las Cruces and you go up into these ritzy subdivisions with big houses on sprawling lots with perfectly manicured landscapes of native plants, xeriscaped beautifully. Really attractive places and then you just go a few miles down hill and you see people without housing, without food, without clean clothes, and you have to wonder how did we get to this point. This disparity in wealth, this inequality in

Las Cruces is not unique to Las Cruces. I will conclude by saying that is the core of the issue and we cannot police our way out of this problem of inequality.

Karen Landino, Member of the Public said I am really not prepared to say anything but after listening to comments I am disappointed that the Mayor is not here because I would like to ask him to not move the public input to the end of the meetings. The supreme court is listening to arguments today about censorship from big tech and I believe that when you move the comment, public comments to the end of the meetings that is basically what you are trying to do is censor us because a lot of us don’t have time to come and wait that long. A lot of us have to work. I have to work. I come here on my lunch hour, and I feel like it is censorship and I really wish you would rethink that and as to some of the comments about being afraid to walk down the street. I can’t walk down the street in my neighborhood because there are people on Fentanyl or drugs or whatever and they are screaming. I hear them Sunday mornings at 7 a.m. I am afraid to go out and walk in my neighborhood you know and it’s not because of the cars, it’s because of the drug problem and it is not because of homeless people. Well part of it is but when you talk about the homeless people a lot of it is because of a lack of personal responsibility. They don’t want to follow the rules, they don’t want to work because we are going to give them a basic guaranteed income. Who wants to go to work when you can sit at home and smoke pot and do whatever. It’s silly to me.

Yoli Diaz, Member of the Public said I urge you to investigate Memorial Medical

Center, MMC abdication of its legal responsibility to approve access even to indigents to professional hospital care. MMC leases the hospital from Dona Ana County and

City of Las Cruces. It is a New Mexico Safety Net Care Pool Hospital operated by Life

Point Health which is owned by private equity firm Apollo Global Management. This lease contains requirements regarding mental health care and provision of care to indigents which MMC has too often ignored. As both public entities and landlords the city and county have a duty too oversee MMC and hold it to the condition stated in the

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lease. The public interest demands a thorough investigation of the lease between

Dona Ana County, City of Las Cruces, and Memorial Medical Center and compliance with NMSA 1978, Chapter 27, Article V. As you know I have been advocating for access to needed health care especially cancer treatment of chemotherapy and radiation at Memorial Medical Center since my first official meeting in October 2021 with County Manager Macias, that included then Mayor Ken Miyagishima and Dona

Ana County Health and Human Services, Director Jamie Michael. I followed up with email communication and a request for calls to action, solutions, and more. I have done research and requested IPRAs record request. I am concerned and dissatisfied with County Manager’s and City Manager’s inaction, their duty to take action, the communication and findings, therefore as there has been no action provided to me to resolve access to needed health care or a direct written navigation for all Dona Ana

County residents to access needed health care at Memorial Medical Center I am providing you the courtesy to know that I am distributing a letter urging to investigate including submission to federal entities and US Senators investigating Apollo Global

Management. My concerns are described. It includes that in our disenfranchised area, high poverty area with only three for profit hospitals, of these three to our major US health systems that these same three, two to who are owned by private equity firms and of these same three two are rated the top fifth in highest charge to cost ratio hospitals in New Mexico in a national report. Memorial and Mountain View have high charge costs ratios in that report, Three Crosses wasn’t in the report. Memorial and

Three Crosses are owned by private equity firms. These hospitals of New Mexico have the highest proportion of private equity owned hospitals in the nation, 38%. Their focus is maximizing profits and minimizing patient care. The only real action I know is that my advocacy in Albuquerque Journal article reached the Senior Financial

Investigative Reporter for NBC, Universal from New York City Gretchen Morgenson, who is a prize winning journalist. I look forward to her media regarding Memorial

Medical Center because I know she will bring forward more issues than what I advocate for.

Sidney Webb, Member of the Public said I am a long term Las Cruces resident for many years here and now I am retired, and a member of the Audubon Society and I want to bring up the topic of Veteran’s Park and construction that is ongoing at this time and I want to say that it looks like a great project but as they got started it decimated a lot of environments used by the birds. It is very hard in the spring, the migrating situation on the roadrunners and the quail and it is an ongoing project and I am here with Dolores, and a lot of them might come up in a speakers forum but we would like the city to think about this issue and be sure that in the future they do everything they can to save the birds. What I would have to say is on the one hand I think we could have done it better this time around and saving the birds is very important, not just to Audubon Society but to the world in general. On the other hand I think the project of the Veteran’s Park is a great project. It has been under review for almost five years now and it’s going to add a pond and it’s going to have more space for the park and I think it is a great project and I don’t want you to stop it and maybe what we can learn from this in the future is that when there is similar project being considered that we use the same intervention as in federal projects and have a review before it begins so that we can mitigate any property destruction and this is something the next speaker may speak about. Don’t forget the birds.

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Dolores Bernal, Member of the Public said I am a resident of Las Cruces, District 3. I am a cyber security professional. I work for a company based out of DC, but I was a former journalist. I used to work for the Sun News. I used to cover NMSU back in the early 2000’s. So, birds are singing in back yards and front yards of people’s homes in

Las Cruces. Spring is here and from mid-March to late May these birds including roadrunners reproduce by laying eggs just beneath desert shrubs that are all around us. Unfortunately, not a lot of people know when roadrunner breeding season is and it shows. The expansion of Veteran’s Park is taking place right now at the height of mating season for roadrunners and quail. In over 2 acres of their habitat has been bulldozed, destroying countless nests and eggs. To prevent such a lapse in judgement on the part of officials who approve these projects I and others, including

Sid are asking you today members of the city council to seriously begin requiring environmental impact studies or assessments before approving public and private construction projects. Before green lighting construction you should be more informed. An environmental impact study will provide you with crucial information to lessen the impact on our native species including the roadrunner. This is not about stopping construction. This is about lessening the impact on our wildlife. You can learn more about the benefits of these types of studies on our website savetheroadrunner.org. You can’t continue to blindly approve projects without taking into consideration the wildlife that makes Las Cruces unique. Why should we wait until species are endangered? Why should we wait until we hear from experts that we only have 100 roadrunners left, that we need to preserve them. We shouldn’t wait. We should act now. I invite you to be a proactive government. A proactive government that thinks ahead. A proactive government that other cities, counties and states can follow as an example for good stewardship of the earth.

Fred Huff, Member of the Public said I want to talk about moving the public input to the end of the meeting. I kind of get it. We are talking at you and then at the end of the meeting you are talking at an empty chamber. I did listen to the council’s comment on the last March 4th public meeting. I was very impressed with Councilor McClure’s suggestions for a legislative team because in my opinion we probably have one of the greatest police chiefs that Las Cruces has ever had sitting here on the dais today and he has made some really good suggestions to help get the city back on track and on that March 4th comments council said most of those suggestions are out of your control. I accept that. I buy that, it’s at the state level but you all have the biggest voice of anybody in this room. Councilor McClure suggested a legislative team. Councilor

Flores kind of backed that up. I think that is a great idea, Councilor Flores had mentioned the disappointment over SB16 dealing with the competency issue that failed. Maybe a little bit of preplanning on your part and using your voice to talk to our local state representatives because you can talk to them anytime. Talk to them and also have a plan during session where you go up there. I remember one of you mentioned it was quite chaotic and maybe for confusing especially. I love Councilor

McClure’s comment, this is her first rodeo. Go in with a plan. Go in with some action.

You all have some great ideas, let’s live up to it and step forward with them. Chief

Story has some great ideas, let’s do something there. Councilor Bencomo mentioned a panhandling ordinance, let’s get one in works. One that meets constitutional luster and go from there. While they are doing that lets address the abandoned grocery cart issue. Get all that litter off of our street. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Plenty of other cities have done plenty of other stuff. Let’s borrow their ordinances and go down

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the road.

Peter Goodman, Member of the Public said listening to Mr. Huff, one of the things that

I thought despite all the heat and acrimony I think some light is being shed by both sides, or all sides, however you want to put it and people are beginning to recognize that you folks want to do the best for the city, that many of these things are not within your power, many of the things that Chief Story has quite sensibly recommended are either in progress or beyond the state level. So, I think that is progress of a sort. I want to disagree with the Mayor, without speculating on his motives. I think it is unwise to move public comment later on. I can understand some motives, including the fact that we are an hour into this meeting, and no one is doing agenda business yet. If I were here on some agenda item, I would probably be inpatient, but I think this current situation is the best mix between getting your business done and hearing from the public. I want to welcome John and his mention of inequality of any base cause of homelessness. It is in my view the current abuse of our capitalist system and I think it gives a lot of us a basic sympathy with the homeless. I disagree with Carolyn and think the bulk of them are people who either are not called competent to run and keep a household or have one paycheck that put them homeless. On the other hand, I think, I’m progressive like many of the councilors we are beginning to see that this is a red alert. What people are suffering obviously the situation with Jonah Hernandez, and I think you folks are beginning to do the right things about that and I hope that the public is beginning to see that and maybe try to limit some of their comments to good ideas as opposed to, well you are a progressive, so I don’t like you.

Lina Smith, Member of the Public said my little brother and I attend class at the downtown mall, and we frequently ride the city bus to get there. I come before you today with a list of things my brother and I have seen and experienced both on the bus and in the downtown area. On the bus there have been several people that were acting like they were on drugs. There was a drunk person at a bus stop that tried to prevent the bus from leaving and there was a man on the bus that was yelling at the other passengers. In the downtown area we have seen graffiti, refuse, broken windows, a man with a sign that said need weed, people illegally smoking cannabis in public in the plaza, and a man screaming while kicking and whacking a wall. Our class in the downtown is a mixed ages class with children as young as nine. Numerous times out the window during our class we have seen two men giving each other pills, drinking hard alcohol shots, smoking cannabis, and trying to smoke what was probably crack or meth. The smell of cannabis has entered the classroom. One day when we were going to our class there was a man standing on our doorstep of the building in which our class is situated. He was smoking cannabis, yelling and gesticulating. My little brother and I quickly back tracked hoping he had not seen us.

We walked around the block and entered the building through the back door. There was a young employee inside with a broomstick to defend himself if necessary.

Another day there was an attempted theft in the other building while we were having class. On another occasion the mother of one of the children in our class was accosted by a vagrant while she was trying to leave. These instances are becoming more frequent over time. I am calling on all of you to please make dealing with crime a top priority. Our community is counting on you to make Las Cruces a safe place for kids.

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Sarah Smith, Member of the Public said when my daughter told me she wanted to speak to you today I thought you might want to hear her perspective and she did right that comment, go home schooling. As you can imagine from her comments I am very concerned about the safety of my children as well as other families in the downtown mall. You have open usage of illegal drugs as well as vagrants accosting and harassing people. Business owners from this area have also come before you to ask for help including Patricia from the Little Shop on Main who has suffered repeated vandalism, trespassing, stalking, harassment, all of these at her store by vagrants.

You may also recall the owner of Dwell Yoga Studio whose employee was attacked with rocks thrown at her car and threatened with being raped and killed. I know that you are paying for security for this area, but this is clearly not enough. I know that there are issues with laws at the state level and I know you don’t want to incarcerate our way out of this situation. However, are you able to potentially rework some of our local city ordinances to require mental health or drug treatment as an option in lieu of jail time. Will you please tell us what steps you are taking to make substance abuse and mental health treatment more available right here in Las Cruces? We also need to learn from the mistakes of the Desert Hope Affordable Homeless Housing Project and not repeat them. Will you please make sure the upcoming Amador Crossing

Homeless Housing Project is aimed at rehabilitating people’s lives instead of enabling them to continue down the path of self-destruction and drug addiction? My other concern today is related to the Mayor’s plan to move public input during your meetings. I agree with the previous commentor that Mayor Pro Tem Bencomo has shown that this method works really well and can be managed very well, and I appreciate your cordiality in doing so. Whether it is intended to or not if the Mayor moves public comments to the end of your meetings this will suppress the public’s ability to give input. The length of your meetings is unpredictable. You are all being paid to be here for this meeting, but we are all having to miss work and family duties to be here and we cannot afford to sit here for many hours in order to speak. The previous Mayor allowed anyone to speak during the public input period and that made it so that people who wanted to speak about agenda items but could not stay long also had an opportunity to speak at the beginning of the meetings. That method worked very well in supporting the public in being able to speak. I wish Mayor

Enriquez was here today, but I will ask him virtually. Mayor Enriquez if you want to make sure the public has a chance to hear the council comments in person will you please move the council comments to the beginning of the meeting right after public input? This would be a reasonable compromise that would allow the public to continue to bring our concerns to you as the leaders elected to represent us.

4. READ CLOSED MEETING STATEMENT 4.1 READ MARCH 11, 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 regarding:

1. To discuss pending litigation regarding Francisco Estrada v. City of Las

Cruces, et al., D-307-CV-2021-01309, which is closed pursuant to NMSA 1978,

Section 10-15-1H(7).

Page 12 of 26

2. To discuss pending litigation regarding the Estate of Teresa Gomez, et al. v.

City of Las Cruces, et al., 23-CV-952, which is closed pursuant to NMSA 1978,

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: Councilor Cassie McClure, Councilor William Mattiace, Councilor Becki

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

Yvonne Flores

6. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES 6.1 WORK SESSION OF FEBRUARY 12, 2024. 6.2 SPECIAL WORK SESSION OF FEBRUARY 16, 2024. 6.3 REGULAR CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF FEBRUARY 20, 2024. 6.4 WORK SESSION OF FEBRUARY 26, 2024.

7. RESOLUTION(S) AND/OR ORDINANCE(S) FOR CONSENT AGENDA 7.1 RESOLUTION NO. 24-091: A RESOLUTION APPROVING THE PURCHASE

OF 927.47 SQUARE FEET PORTION OF LAND OWNED BY BLARNEY,

LLC, A NEW MEXICO LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY AT 2135 MARTHA

DRIVE IN THE AMOUNT OF SIX THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED SIXTY

DOLLARS ($6,260.00) AS PART OF MADRID AVENUE EXTENSION. 7.2 RESOLUTION NO. 24-092: A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING AN ANNUAL

NOT-TO-EXCEED AMOUNT OF $850,000.00 FOR COMPUTER EQUIPMENT

AND PERIPHERAL PURCHASES WITH DELL MARKETING LP OF

DALLAS, TEXAS, SUBJECT TO APPROVED BUDGET APPROPRIATIONS. (PROCUREMENT 23-24-077) 7.3 RESOLUTION NO. 24-093: A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING AN ANNUAL

NOT-TO-EXCEED AMOUNT OF $250,000.00 FOR COMMUNICATIONS,

RADIO EQUIPMENT, PARTS, ACCESSORIES AND RELATED SERVICES

WITH ENCHANTED TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS, LLC OF

ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO, SUBJECT TO APPROVED BUDGET

APPROPRIATIONS (PROCUREMENT 23-24-078). 7.4 RESOLUTION NO. 24-094: A RESOLUTION TO AWARD A CONTRACT

FOR VECTOR AND PEST CONTROL SERVICES TO ENTOMOLOGY

CONSULTANTS, INC. OF EL PASO, TEXAS, FOR A TERM OF FOUR

YEARS, IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $150,000.00 ANNUALLY PLUS

NM GROSS RECEIPTS TAX, SUBJECT TO APPROVED BUDGET

Page 13 of 26

APPROPRIATIONS (PROCUREMENT NO. 23-24-013). 7.5 RESOLUTION NO. 24-095: A RESOLUTION TO AWARD A CONTRACT

FOR REPLACEMENT OF SEVEN (7) LIGHT POLES LOCATED AT MAAG

FIELD, IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $163,354.35 PLUS NM GROSS

RECEIPTS TAX, TO LYNCO ELECTRIC CO. INC. OF LAS CRUCES, NEW

MEXICO, VIA COOPERATIVE EDUCATIONAL SERVICES (CES)

CONTRACT NO. 2023-04-R2211-678, AMEND THE FY2024 BUDGET AND

CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PLAN (CIP) FOR $177,000.

8. RESOLUTION(S) AND/OR ORDINANCE(S) FOR DISCUSSION 8.1 RESOLUTION NO. 24-096: 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

FY2024 BUDGET. Joe Padilla, Budget Analyst gave the overhead presentation. Councilor Becki Graham moved, seconded by Councilor Becky Corran, to

Approve Resolution No. 24-096.

MOVER: Councilor Becki Graham

SECONDER: Councilor Becky Corran

ABSENT: Mayor Eric Enriquez 8.2 RESOLUTION NO. 24-097: A RESOLUTION APPROVING A REAL ESTATE

PURCHASE AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE CITY OF LAS CRUCES AND

LUTHERAN CHURCH EXTENSION FUND-MISSOURI SYNOD FOR THE

PURCHASE OF TWO PARCELS OF LAND TOTALING 21.15 ACRES

LOCATED AT THE SOUTHEAST CORNER OF MOTEL BOULEVARD AND

BRUINS LANE FOR THE PURCHASE PRICE OF ONE MILLION AND EIGHT

HUNDRED FIFTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS ($1,815,000) AND CLOSING

COSTS OF FOUR THOUSAND ($4,000) TOTALING ONE MILLION AND

EIGHT HUNDRED NINETEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS ($1,819,000) IN

ACCORDANCE WITH PROVISIONS OF LCMC 1997, SECTION 2-1312 AND

AMEND THE CITY’S ADOPTED FY2024 BUDGET. Sara Gonzales, Real Estate Specialist gave the overhead presentation.

Councilor McClure asked I know that there has been a huge demand for soccer fields might that be something that is incorporated in this land especially with all the soccer that is going around there?

Steven Bingham, Park & Recreation Director said yes, that is one of the items that we are looking at and pursuing the possibility of. This piece of property provides us multiple opportunities to consider and could meet a broad range of needs and it was important for us to take this piece of property off the market at this point because there is limited land over in that area.

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Mayor Pro Tem Bencomo said I just want to say how excited I am for the potential that this land has for our parks facilities, and I can’t wait to get started on that process for what this might look like.

Councilor Corran said I just think for the folks who remain just as a side note I want to give some context just for the idea of Park Impact Fees, that is on all new development. When a home is built in case you don’t know those folks pay into a Park

Impact Fee. That fund then can only be used for certain type land acquisitions for parks and so I say this as the place where I know that development happens in my district and folks sort of whingeat us but this is part of the collective sort of goal of thinking about parks across the city so just in case you are wondering where this money comes from it comes from every home that is built pays into the Park Impact

Fee fund and that is how we sort of do that for the publics information in case that isn’t clear. Councilor Becki Graham moved, seconded by Councilor Becky Corran, to

Approve Resolution No. 24-097.

ABSENT: Mayor Eric Enriquez 8.3 RESOLUTION NO. 24-098: A RESOLUTION APPROVING THE REQUEST

FOR A VARIANCE TO CHAPTER 26 OF THE LAS CRUCES MUNICIPAL

CODE TO ALLOW LOVE'S TRAVEL STOP NOT TO BE REQUIRED TO

BUILD SIDEWALKS ALONG TWO ROADWAYS IN THE LAS CRUCES

INNOVATION AND INDUSTRIAL PARK. Tim Pitts, Deputy Director Building Development gave the overhead presentation.

Councilor Graham said so understanding the importance of encouraging walking infrastructure but also asking when and where it makes sense, so I am kind of looking at sidewalks to nowhere. How many employees, business owners in the Innovation and Industrial Park almost kind walk over here?

Tim Pitts said I wouldn’t know how many walk. Of course, if there is no sidewalk that might impact whether they would walk or not. I am willing to guess, very few and just as a general rule I know in my days when I use to work in development our rule of thumb was 600 feet was the longest, we would expect an average person to walk.

That you would voluntarily go 600 feet. If it was more than that you just wouldn’t. One other thing I will mention Loves is proposing to have a dog park. So, if you’re coming there will be things within the site to walk to. You don’t necessarily have to be walking on the freeway to walk your dog to do its business, you will have a place to do that.

Councilor Graham asked when you walk around a facility like this, and I often travel with dogs and yes dogs are there for a bathroom break and I love the idea that there is going to be a dedicated area for that as opposed to wandering out into the desert.

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Final question, I am intrigued, 60-day sidewalks can be ordered but I am curious can one build a sidewalk in 60 days?

Tim Pitts said you are absolutely right. There is no way that someone could realistically get a contract.

Councilor Graham asked so that 60 days would be in terms of getting things going?

Tim Pitts said yes.

Councilor Graham said that is an intriguing portion of our odd and very arcane authority that I would love to hear more about in the future if that is something you could provide information maybe to send to Christine to distribute to all of us.

Councilor Flores asked why do you come to us for this question when the code already says that there should be sidewalks and the reason I am asking, it’s almost rhetorical. Are you familiar with the innovation, the Industrial and Innovation Park plans?

Tim Pitts said I am aware. If you would like for me to answer your first question.

Because they have due process to ask for relief from any section of code.

Councilor Flores asked even though you have a code that says you can’t say no, that is what the code says? Somehow, we are put into the position of arbitrating that, yes?

Councilor Flores said first of all I think we should adhere to the code and the reason is because the Industrial and Innovation Park has a plan and if you recall it will go down,

I don’t know if it will go down to Crawford, but it will definitely, Crawford runs perpendicular between the airport and Interstate 10. Then that other road, the frontage road and I believe the long-term plan because I don’t believe I am going to see it in my lifetime but the long-term plan is for that industrial park, Innovative Park is to enhance the airline travel. The plan for that area is absolutely beautiful and so I think that having sidewalks and having businesses that adhere to the code make a lot of sense and the part that you said about Crawford and somehow if you have a sidewalk there it will flood or whatever, it seems to me that is an engineering issue but

I think it makes sense to apply the code, go by the code, and I think that whole area will be a lot more attractive and walkable and we are encouraging walking. For people who are traveling it might be a way or it’s a connection if they are waiting for another flight, they can walk that area because my understanding is that our airport one day will definitely be at least intrastate and get more traffic. So, I am definitely against going against the code.

Councilor McClure said I would be more interested in amending. I don’t see a lot of utility for having it on the frontage road, but I do see it as a way to make that area say what we value and if we do value streets with sidewalks that would be great but that said if we are going to be rebuilding it, what is kind of the timeline on that? I wouldn’t

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want to throw taxpayer money into curbs and gutter if this is something that is in the near future so if you can give me a sense of that because I would say that the

Crawford if Allsups is going to be doing that they can do that as well and that will all enhance a little bit of what that looks like for those coming to invest in our city.

Tim Pitts said I do not believe this is on the radar in your Capital Improvement

Program. I think we would be way out in terms of the city building anything out here.

The roads are in quite good condition.

Councilor McClure said just to add a little bit to Councilor Graham’s question. I did a series of stories out there and a lot of people actually do walk to Subway, and they were actually kind of sad that there was not more options than Subway. So, I do think that there is especially with the cheese factory that there is, that there are people that would be walking if they had sidewalks. Personally, I would say just an amendment just for Crawford and then considering curb and gutter to protect people would be something we should be doing.

Mayor Pro Tem Bencomo said honestly, I was thinking the exact same thing regarding the frontage road potentially not needing a sidewalk. What gives me pause on Crawford is that Allsups is saying yea, we will do that. What also gives me pause is that we just redid this whole master plan for the Industrial and Innovation Park, right?

What I keep hearing from staff and from MVEDA is that sometimes people are walking away because there is lack of infrastructure. My whole thing this whole time is why doesn’t the developer create the infrastructure and so I understand that some of that is on us and some of that should be our responsibility. However, if we are trying to make this industrial park something that is thriving and exciting and sure not a lot of people will walk to work there because it is kind of far and uphill. Maybe we will have public transit that goes out there and people will be able to walk on their lunch time or whatever. I am curious though if the master plan talks about complete streets? Not just our complete streets ordinance but does the master plan for the Innovation Park talk about this kind of infrastructure?

Elizabeth Teeters, Director Economic Development said the Innovation and Industrial

Park master plan, it just refers back to the code. However, there is a recommendation in it that states that consideration should be made to put it into the capital improvement to do sidewalks and work like this.

Mayor Pro Tem Bencomo asked on curb and gutter are any other developers responsible for curb and gutter?

Tim Pitts said if they were building the road they would be required to but the sidewalk chapter is kind of the standalone thing that it just talks about sidewalks. Since they are not subdividing or building roads, they are not required to do it, it is usually a subdivision process that that takes place, but the city went through and subdivided all this land out here and then we built the roads back in the 90’s.

Mayor Pro Tem Bencomo said so if the responsibility is now on the city to build curb and gutter and maybe in the future, ten years, I don’t know how many years that

Page 17 of 26

would be, if these developers then build a sidewalk will that sidewalk be damaged?

Tim Pitts said along Crawford I don’t believe there is any danger of the sidewalk itself being damaged by, there is already concrete there. We have sidewalks like that in other neighborhoods in the city where the sidewalk is just flush with the curb, and it is flushed straight out so it is just a flat area. They would just put down the sidewalk.

Along Robert Larson it would be a little harder and I don’t know if Mike has any ideas of how we would do it.

Mayor Pro Tem Bencomo said that’s okay, I am not totally sold that there needs to be a sidewalk on that frontage road, but Tony Trevino with Public Works wants to come up to the mic.

Tony Trevino, Assistant Director Public Works said the way that the Industrial and

Innovation Park was designed initially was with no curb and gutter. There is no on site drainage systems to convey this water anywhere else. So again, if you are going to be putting curb and gutter along Loves and other side, we will have to have a place to divert that water down stream which we don’t have right now. This road was designed to do side ponding which I mentioned before is a rural roadway for ponding on the side of the road.

Mayor Pro Tem Bencomo asked would there be any unintended consequences that you foresee if we say yea, let’s move forward with sidewalks along Crawford regarding drainage issues?

Tony Trevino said as long as the impervious areas increased. Impervious area is calculated into the ponding area, no.

Mayor Pro Tem Bencomo said I don’t really know what that means.

Tony Trevino said the amount of concrete. So, it is going to take away from the calculation of the runoff through rain with the added concrete so as long as the ponding on the sides of the roadways and the property are adjusted and revised to accommodate that additional water then there will be no consequences from that additional runoff.

Mayor Pro Tem Bencomo said so if we are talking about this internal road for the internal part of the park you know I do feel if we start saying no to one we are going to have to, we set then a precedence for then the remaining lots where people will come in and want to do development and if we said no to one then why wouldn’t we say no to another and I don’t want to see that. We are already experiencing so much of that on the East Mesa where we are correcting the wrongs of people in our past, so I think we have a chance to do something different. I am in favor of an amendment,

Councilor McClure, I will allow you to make that after comment. By code are we able to make this kind of amendment?

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Councilor Flores said my comment on this is that when you go into an area that doesn’t have sidewalks whether it is the industrial park, whether it is a frontage road and since that area is, there is a plan for it, there is a plan for growth in that area. We already have the aerial shows and all of that once or twice a year. I think that when you don’t have sidewalks in an area it is like not having roads. It really diminishes the look, the value, just the spirit of the place.

Tim Pitts said if I may just comment on the issue about the airport side. Economic

Development is planning on bringing back the Las Cruces Innovation and Industrial

Park Code. After we have worked with it for a couple of years we find some things to be difficult to accomplish and so we are probably going to bring that back to modify it anyway and so what I think we are going to be recommending is that definitely on the northern side, the side next to the airport so where Crawford and all those trees are on Crawford and you are going north that that area be developed fully. If anybody develops sidewalks, curbs and gutter we will do the whole thing but to the south side down here we are not as sure as to what city council wants so whether we are going to do it all the same down here we can do that too. That is really what we are asking for direction if you are not going to vote no on this, we would like direction on that. Are we talking hey, let’s get the sidewalks on Crawford, maybe not on the frontage road which is a perfectly reasonable approach or we say we want them everywhere. We do that elsewhere for instance we do that along Hadley where it was also not built to accommodate sidewalks and it is a very difficult thing to get sidewalks in because the road isn’t built in such a way that you can put a sidewalk in, and it just work.

Councilor Flores asked insofar as the southern part of innovation, that area, is it going to be different from what is on the other side of the airport, closer to the airport? Is it going to be used for different purposes?

Elizabeth Teeters said yes. So, there are multiple zonings. There is going to be multiple uses at the industrial park right along Crawford on the north side of I-10. So, from I-10 to the airport is the commercial corridor so the ideal is it will have restaurants and hotels, that kind of thing so that is where you would generally see sidewalks. Now other than where the small area where Loves is and Allsups is going and I think there is a few more parcels, small parcels around there, those are the only commercial lots on the southern part. The rest is all industrial so that is why we are thinking a different recommendation for the southern part of the park because like

Mayor Pro Tem was saying earlier about setting precedence. We don’t necessarily want to set precedence to put sidewalks in an industrial facility. We want to be able to have flexibility to be able to help bring in the business.

Councilor Flores asked no sidewalks and those are drive up types of businesses, right? So, for truck drivers and travelers, they can deal with no sidewalks? So, is that pretty much the feel?

Mayor Pro Tem Bencomo said I guess I also feel like even if it is industrial, we are talking big warehouses, people will still work there. People will still want to go get delicious Allsups burrito eventually and so I am just wondering that we want to build this place that has people at it, 8-5 and maybe on the weekends and there will be a lot

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of people moving throughout the park is the hope, correct? I guess I am just wondering if this deserves a longer conversation because it seems like I feel like I am getting a contradictory information recommendation regarding sidewalk improvements at the Industrial Park and what we hope it looks like in the future.

Tim Pitts said I think what you are getting is the ambivalence we feel about this application. That on the one hand we agree with Councilor Flores that it says build the sidewalks, build the sidewalks. On the other hand, I am throwing out a number it is probably $100-$150 thousand to build the sidewalk. It is a big investment for somebody to and if that is the difference for somebody choosing to come here or not.

I think that is where we have our ambivalence.

Mayor Pro Tem Bencomo said yes, I feel like that if I want to you come here, I want you to make an investment in our community that it matters to the people who are working there. That is where at least where I stand anyway.

Councilor Mattiace said listening to the engineering complications of doing the sidewalk that is on Robert Larson, that would be quite an engineering feat and it might exceed the $150,000 and you still have mud and sand covering that sidewalk after the first rainfall. I support the amendment. I think we could handle the Crawford section pretty easily.

Elizabeth Teeters said on your comment to not wanting to piecemeal it, as Dr. Pitts had mentioned my department is going in and looking at the overlay zone right now because it has been in place for a few years so we are noticing as we are getting development there are certain things, we are finding could potentially have to bring variances and whatnot. So, we are planning on making an amendment. An idea would be to bring it to a Work Session when we come up with our suggestions to have a further discussion on what could and could not work or what you would recommend that we do so that we are following the will of city council.

Mayor Pro Tem Bencomo said that just leaves if we decide to do that just leaves the question of the applicant and does that leave them with any timeline constraints?

Tim Pitts said the requirement is that they have this in place before their occupancy, their certificate of occupancy. That is their last item. They are going to be done with everything. In the code it does allow for timing to be varied. It does require it by C of

O, but we have in the past made agreements with people to say we will issue a TC,

Temporary Certificate of Occupancy and then you can do the sidewalk later on. I am sure that the applicant wants to know because it goes into their pro forma, whether this a profitable venture or not. But at the same time, I think the worst-case scenario they should be operating under a worst case scenario that they would have to build it and they might get relief after you, that is the way I would recommend them to view it.

If you are going to table this if that is what you are looking to do that, we table it and come back with whatever amendments, Economic Development is working towards and if we can come up with a plan that works a little better because one of the things we could do is the city can always participate in any of these things. We can build the curb and gutter and they build the sidewalk and get around the engineering issues

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and we can always contribute but we can’t do it right now because it is not in our CIP for this year.

Mayor Pro Tem Bencomo asked you are saying there some is flexibility in timing?

Tim Pitts said it is going to take them a good year to get this building built.

Mayor Pro Tem Bencomo said back to council if we table this for date specific that would be difficult but knowing that we will have a Work Session specifically on the

Industrial Park, on all the needs of the Industrial Park but certainly what we hope it looks like in the future. How do you all feel about that?

Councilor Flores said I know that Davin Lopez has pretty much told the city, that it is difficult for him to get businesses to come to Las Cruces and somehow I see that whole area having so much potential and I still stand by my opinion, my view that when you have streets and sidewalks, there is just a lot of value. It looks like a city that really has it together. So, if we do have a presentation, I would ask that it include the Innovative and Industrial Park and the slides that go with it or the presentation that was certainly given to me or those of us on the Airport Advisory Board. I think it is good to just look at the big picture. We have to look at everything holistically in terms of planning in the future. Councilor Becki Graham moved, seconded by Councilor Yvonne Flores, to

Table Resolution 24-098 until July 15, 2024.

SECONDER: Councilor Yvonne Flores

9. BOARD APPOINTMENTS 9.1 STEVE NEWBY Councilor Becky Corran moved, seconded by Councilor Becki Graham, to reappoint Steve Newby to the CIAC.

MOVER: Councilor Becky Corran

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 COUNCIL BILL NO. 24-023; ORDINANCE NO. 3065: AN ORDINANCE

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APPROVING A ZONE CHANGE FROM R-4C (MULTI-DWELLING HIGH

DENSITY & LIMITED RETAIL AND OFFICE-CONDITIONAL) TO R-4 (MULTI-

DWELLING HIGH DENSITY LIMITED RETAIL AND OFFICE) FOR

PROPERTY ENCOMPASSING 2.908 + ACRES AND LOCATED AT 712 AND

722 HENDEE PLACE AND 725 BASHA ARCH. SUBMITTED BY M&M

BUILDING SOLUTIONS, REPRESENTATIVE. (23ZO0500143). Council agreed to bring it forward.

11. CITY COUNCIL MEMBER BOARD REPORTS AND COMMENT 11.1 COUNCILOR MCCLURE I did want to share something. We talk a lot about where the unhoused come from and I just got an email this week from someone whose rent went up from $825 to $1200 and I wonder about that, and I wondered about given that he is on fixed income with a disabled wife. How do we treat that within our society. That is all I am going to say. I was just kind of disheartened by that this week. 11.2 COUNCILOR MATTIACE None. 11.3 COUNCILOR GRAHAM None. 11.4 COUNCILOR CORRAN I just want to give a quick shout out of appreciation for the Realize Las Cruces

Technical Advisory Committee and all of the staff that worked really hard to, I know it has been a year’s long process to update our zoning codes. I have been so excited, and I have been reading it enthusiastically and it doesn’t put me to sleep at night. I am so excited to see some of the changes that are included in there to see how it will change a number of things both in terms of how we work in terms of how we constantly have to be revisiting things from the deeply outdated 2001 codes but also at how it is looking forward to our future needs in terms of safety and housing and sustainability. It is open for public comment through early April, so I urge folks who are interested in the development code to dig into it. Please do check out the Realize Las

Cruces documents that are there and available online and provide feedback. There is a feedback option within that. There is also a summary of major changes so if you are curious of what kinds of things happen in zoning code that is probably the place to start. So, thank you to all the staff that worked really hard on that, the consultants, and the community folks that have given a lot input in that. 11.5 COUNCILOR FLORES I want to thank Chris Faivre from the bottom of my heart and the Economic

Development Department. There was a meeting here Thursday and the New Mexico

Finance Authority presented to the public. There were numerous calls to you and numerous calls to the Finance Authority and what the Finance Authority does is help businesses. Max Bower attended and another gentleman and Max Bower actually gave them a tour of the Amador and I joined them in that tour but the point is though that they help people a lot and recently there is all this money that was through ARPA, that is why there was so much money. They actually assisted people in buying homes. ARPA money has pretty much been used up but there is a number that the

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public can call to see if there is any money left over. I know that we have, our city has guidelines and deadlines but a number you can call is 505-308-4206 and if there is anybody interested in starting a business, they will give you the money. It is just that simple. I mean it’s a little more complex but if you have a plan and its viable there is a way that you can have your business set up and the person to contact there would be

Mark Montoya 505-629-5078 or his email mmontoya@nmf.net. You can call to get help or call to see if there is any money left over for people who weren’t able to get money for loans, insurance on a house, they can direct you.

The other good news is that due to the opioid settlement, this was brought against pharmaceuticals and pharmacies. The share that the city got was $10 million. It is still unspent. I know that the Assistant City Manager Ikani presented to the Finance Select

Committee when we still existed as to possibilities to use that money. The city council will make the final determination, but I just wanted to let people know that we will be making decision on how to use some of that money, $3.4 and then the remaining $6.5 million, the rest will filter in through 2038.

The point that Yoli brought up, Yoli Diaz a crusader for cancer patients and the lack of medical care is really outrageous. Here we are one of the most powerful nations in the world, one of the few if not the only first world country that doesn’t provide health care.

You go to any city in Europe, even South America, Canada where they do have health insurance for people. MMC has been, their practices are questionable, and I hope that we get some clear answers from them. The gentleman gave me, there was a passage of SB17 that I am not familiar with but apparently there is a lot of money there also, but you would have to talk to Representative Doreen Yvonne Gallegos. 11.6 MAYOR PRO TEM BENCOMO I want to announce that I have two upcoming spring open houses for District 4. I am taking a book from Councilor Graham, take on approach on community meetings that she did last year and the feedback was really positive so I am going to try that and so really what it means is just an open house. Come in any time between 4:30 and 6:30, talk to myself, talk to specific departments that will be there. The most highly requested services are from Public Works, from codes, LCPD will be there. We will have other departments where you can come and just directly go to them and talk to them about your concerns. I will be there, constituent services will be there so it won’t be so much a me talking at you presentation style community meeting, it will like I said more of this style open house so the first one is going to be Tuesday, April 2nd from

4:30 to 6:30 at the WIA building near Pioneer Park. The 2nd one is April 9th also

Tuesday from 4:30 to 6:30 at Picacho Middle School. So, you don’t have to come to both. It will be the exact same format but I guess if you didn’t get all your stuff into the departments you can come back the second time. I am very excited. I will be working with PIO to release that information and it will be on my social media as well in case you forget and hopefully, we will be sending out mailers as well and I really want to thank Catrina and Grace for all of their help in setting these up and I am very excited for these to be my first two community meetings of 2024.

I think given that we are hearing more and more speeding related issues I know that we had a conversation a while ago about the potential to bringing in some tools. I think unfortunately and fortunately I think we need to revisit that conversation not so

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much twhat was necessarily presented last time more so of the mobile unit, but I do think that we need to revisit it. I think it is a pretty serious issue all across the city.

Another piece I want to bring to staff’s attention and to my colleagues is that Municipal

Court, the position for Judge II is posted so if you know a person who would make an excellent judge who is committed to then running for that position in the future have them apply. We will be making that decision soon to help Judge Filosa do a lot of the things that we have set forth as priority for Municipal Court. One of the other things that has come to my attention is if you go on Section 1-11, Court Cost and

Collections, there are several pieces here that talk about court fees. In Section C in particularly is very concerning and I believe it is creating a debtor’s court. I think this is a piece of the code that we should look at potentially removing but I think it is an important conversation to potentially happen at a Work Session and that should come to us soon. I also know that state mandated fees, I think $29 state mandated fees are going away July 1st. I am not someone who would advocate for fees at a place like municipal court because I think it creates again a debtor’s court, but I would like to understand the impact that this might have on Municipal Court on services, on any of those things and if there are ways to either meet those fees a different way. I do believe there are people who currently cannot pay can sign up to do community service but again this sort of creates a system of people who have and people who don’t. I think all of these are important conversations and I do just want to note that

July 1st though that some of those mandated state fees are going away but I would like for us to have more of a discussion on that.

It is also my understanding that the ESL classes at the library are no longer happening which I had heard someone say that they were super sad about that because they were great classes and offered at really flexible times and so I would love to know why that is and if that was a matter of funding? I would really advocate that service for our community.

The last thing I want to talk about is that I met with Family Lutheran Services a couple of weeks ago. The organization here that is tasked with receiving and welcoming refugees. So, these are people who are coming to the United States with already a lawful state immigration status and many of them don’t stay in our community for many things, lack of community, lack of opportunity but many of them want to. Many of those refugee families want to stay in Las Cruces and many of them are having a hard time finding work because they left their homes, usually war-torn countries, devastating situations. In that situation you really don’t think about, I am going to grab my certificate from high school, or my college diploma, right? Like those are really difficult situations and so people come here and I would really love to work with staff on perhaps creating a pilot program for, they have people looking for work and the city has a lot of openings in a lot of departments working to see if we can do some sort of refugee work program that allows people to make a good living, to support their families. Many are coming with children and their families and so I would love to see if there is an opportunity for that because they have tried to apply for jobs here but often there is that high school diploma piece that is limiting them so I would really love to work with staff on seeing if we can create some sort of work program specifically with this organization.

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Councilor Flores said this is for Larry Nichols and Community Development. What has happened to the change of name to the street? I have a very dear friend who is Native

American who has asked me about that name change and I believe it has not been done. Didn’t we agree that it was going to be done?

Larry Nichols, Community Development Director said your question has been visited with my department and the Assistant City Manager Ikani and I think you have brought that question before him. What has happened to the street name change after the decision was rendered, I think it has been over a year and half now or more and basically there has been no further action on that item.

Councilor Flores asked why not? There was a process to go through and that wasn’t followed and is it going to be done? It is an embarrassment to us as a city to not take corrective measures.

Larry Nichols said what happened during that conversation, the residents of the street

I think there were 20 of them, I think the street is about a block, a block and a half long and the 20 residents came before and discussed it with council.

Mayor Pro Tem Bencomo said Mr. Nichols I don’t want to rehash all of this, is it okay if you all to connect and then come back?

Councilor Flores said I want this on the record and the reason is because for someone to have asked for this in our community and not to have an answer I don’t want to convey an answer that I would like to hear just a few words Mr. Nichols. This is something that is very concerning to me and should be to the entire city. Did the letters go out to them? Was there something done? What happened?

Mayor Pro Tem Bencomo said I apologize but this is a policy item and not on the agenda and we cannot talk about it. I would encourage you to talk to Assistant City

Manager.

Councilor Flores said so it is on the record, and it has been brought up and we cannot discuss it, but I hope that I will get an answer from you Mr. Nichols.

12. CITY MANAGER REPORT 12.1 SONYA DELGADO, ASSISTANT CITY MANAGER

I will start off with some of our members from the Las Cruces Fire Department who took on the ultimate challenge at the Bataan Memorial Death March this past weekend. We had approximately 12 of them and also with our Retired Fire Chief

Travis Brown. I thought that was really cool. We had two awards that came through.

One Civilian Female Heavy first place was Kristen Wahlen and then our Team Civilian

Male Heavy, First Place Charles Roybal, Michael Medina, Forrest Powell, Jesse

Johnson, and Robert Lopez. LCFD did a fantastic job and appreciate them participating in that.

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I also have some information from Parks and Recreation. Friendly reminder that the

Apodaca Park Pool demolition began onsite work two weeks ago and will last approximately two months. This morning the skate park contractors commenced demolition on Hadley and Walnut. The new skate park rebuild is anticipated to completed later this year and the ribbon cutting ceremony for the new playground replacement at A. Fielder Memorial Safe Haven will take place this Friday, March

22nd from 3 to 5 p.m.

Realize Las Cruces from Community Development, the initial draft of the revised

Development Code is now available for public review and comment, and it posted online. The initial comment period will be from Wednesday, will run through Friday,

April 5th and working draft and public comments can be accessed and submitted at www.realizelascruces.com.

We have Public Works on our pavement management system. We do have a crack seal project that is taking place. It will start March 27th and run through May 22nd.

Approximately 40 working days and we have approximately 48 streets. So, if you are interested, I can send those to you.

13. ADJOURNMENT 13.1 Councilor Becki Graham moved, seconded by Councilor Becky Corran, to adjourned at 3:28 p.m.

Mayor

City Clerk

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