City Council Meeting February 20, 2024 MINUTES City Council Tuesday, February 20, 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 GRAHAM. 1.2 PRESENTATION OF CERTIFICATES OF APPRECIATION/PROCLAMATIONS - COUNCILOR GRAHAM. Councilor Graham presented a proclamation to Engineers from El Paso Electric for National Engineers Week. Staff Sergeant Harold L. Morris did a brief presentation in honor of Black History Month. Mayor Enriquez recognized Jesse Walden as a local hero. 1.3 JOBS OF THE WEEK. Giselle Palomares, 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 Page 1 of 26 None. 3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION 3.1 Pat Peugh, Member of the Public said we own AAMCO Transmissions for 55 years on West Picacho and our situation is grave and terrifying because of the lawlessness that reigns. The police are really good to come when we call them. However, catch and release remains the biggest problem even when we have video footage showing what the crime was, where they went, across the street where they sell the stolen property right in that motel. The police say they can’t go in, even get a warrant to see how we can stop this unlawful activity and the terror is the people who come into the business that are scary. My granddaughter and I work up front and sometimes we just lock the front door. It is very difficult, and we need some help. It is unsustainable. Yoli Diaz, Member of the Public said as a mother of a first responder I am here today to pay tribute and respect to Officer Jonah Hernandez and to provide sincere condolences to Ysenia his wife, sons, parents, family, and friends. Officer Hernandez’s senseless death is a loss to everyone, his family, LCPD, Silva’s family, all of first responders, our complete community. This tragedy is personal to everyone. As my daily advocacy is specific, many of us advocate for data change. We come before you and take our three minutes as in the attempt of burning through what seems a steel wall for this needed change of action regardless of repeatedly asking for a call to action. I have experienced fear, pain, trauma, and loss and I have witnessed it in others. I think of the present and I think of our history and how some things don’t change. Not even since the sixties when I was born. I would like to share the lyrics of a song that was written in the sixties in honor of a very poignant time of history, a time of turmoil, political upheaval, social inequities, segregation, poverty, inequality, disparity, and cultural health and mental health issues. It is a song that remains forever sacred, and an impactful message that still rings true today. It is a testament to the power of music to inspire action and embolden the hope for change unity, peace, equality, faith, and just a better world. The lyrics and the singer are very meaningful to me and hold a very special place in my heart. I would like to share them with everyone today. If I can dream, there must be lights burning brighter somewhere. Got to be birds flying higher in a sky more blue. If I can dream of a better land where all my brothers walk hand in hand tell me why, oh why can’t my dream come true. There must be peace and understanding sometime. Strong winds have promised that would blow away the doubt and fear. If I can dream of a warmer sun where hope keeps shining on everyone, tell me why oh why won’t that sun appear. We are lost in a cloud of too much rain. We are trapped in a world that is troubled with pain as long as a man has the strength to dream, he can redeem his soul and fly. Deep in my heart there is trembling question, still I am sure that the answer is going to come somehow. Out there in the dark there is a beckoning candle and while I can think, while I can talk, while I can stand, while I can walk, while I can dream, please let my dream come true right now. So, I say to you we must unite while we can think, while we can talk, while we can stand, while we can walk. We need to evaluate priorities to benefit the residents. There are consequences when we are doing nothing. Page 2 of 26 Richard Farr, Member of the Public said there are laws on our books already that should be addressing and more rigorously enforced to improve the quality of life in our community. So, to Chief Story, I don’t know what resource political or policy constraints that your fine team are having to deal with. I think it is clear to everyone in this room that a more effective and rigorous enforcement of laws that are already on the books would go a long way to improving community life. You council members, particularly those who have been on there for a number of years, you are very much a part of the problem. Your distorted priorities, refusal to take responsibility and effective action is shameful. It is a noble thing to care for those who are the least among us but not to the detriment of the quality of life of the greater part of the community of hard honest, hardworking, tax paying citizens that are the true body, heart, and soul of our community. To Mayor Enriquez, you are a new face up there and we hope that you will aggressively step up to the challenge and provide the inspired and dedicated leadership. The determined leadership necessary to get our community headed in the right direction. To all my fellow citizens, in the auditorium and beyond we are also part of the problem for not asking effectively and not demanding action, transparency, and complete accountability from all these folks up here and from all our elected representatives. Dr. Kyle Schumacher, Member of the Public said I head and manage Schumacher Veterinary Clinic on Valley Drive very close to the location where the tragedy with Officer Henandez occurred. Our family-owned veterinary clinic has been a staple in the community for over 40 years. I am sure I have seen more than one of you in the clinic, often times on a weekend or on a holiday. During that time, we have also been privileged to work with LCPD, their K9 Officers, along with numerous other law enforcement agencies. All of the businesses in our area have been struggling with the progressive influx of homelessness and subsequent crime. Our clinic and neighboring businesses have suffered from numerous break-ins, vandalism, threats to our personal safety, and general aggressive and disruptive behavior at all hours. These deplorable conditions also present concerns to our customers and have had negative impacts on business and revenue. This particular instance has been very difficult on a personal and emotional level. I passed the roadblocks myself that Sunday night, minutes after the tragedy occurred on my way to attend to a sick family pet. A few minutes different in time and space might have resulted in a different outcome perhaps on my front door or in my parking lot. I could not have dealt with these circumstances. I can only be deeply and eternally grateful to Officer Hernandez, his sacrifice, LCPD, and all of those involved. It has certainly made me rethink and reconsider doing business in this location and sadly most especially providing after hour services to the community. We are the only veterinary clinic in Las Cruces to do so but I am uncomfortable with the risk to our safety. My many actions with LCPD including personally with Officer Hernandez have never been anything but positive. Our police officers have been tasked with the impossible burden of protecting the local citizens and businesses without any real means to do so. The city has ignored these issues for far too long. Our livelihoods, LCPD, and most especially Officer Hernandez and his family have paid the price for this neglect. Similarly, the homeless and transient population in question is in need of real help. Every day I see obvious cases of physical and mental illness, severely erratic and dangerous behavior and obvious struggles with illegal drugs and other addictions. Again, the city and our judicial system has failed to provide the help needed by all. I know that improvement Page 3 of 26 won’t be quick. I know it won’t be easy. In fact, I fully expect that the situation will get worse before it gets better. What we expect the City of Las Cruces to pay real and immediate attention to these matters and to plan for concrete change I would like to also assure you that local business owners are communicating, planning and trying to provide constructive solutions. Now is the time to effect change. Vic Villalobos, Member of the Public said I own a couple of businesses in town, and I know some of you know me. I actually want to start this presentation, I know the people behind me can’t see this, but I want you to see this because honestly, I don’t think other than the two Chiefs to my left truly understand the gravity of what is going on. Since February 10th to this morning, I am going to show you. These are the people in our community in the last 10 days that have been arrested for all these crimes and for the people behind me what I am showing them is 16 pages of over 220 people that have committed crimes and that have been arrested in our community and those aren’t the people that we account for that the police have had interactions with that weren’t arrested but that are true arrests within our community and I want to finish with a picture of what I call Steve. This is Steve. If you have not seen him, he is all around town. Steve has been polluting our city streets since May of 23. On June 3rd in the morning at 7 a.m. Steve was arrested on Valley Drive for breaking into businesses as he was taken by police into custody, and he was released about two hours later. Two hours later he decided to go back on the street and he made the mistake of robbing the businesses around, he robbed, he broke into, and vandalized three businesses around me. When he came to my business, we had the proper security set up, he was detained while the police got there. Steve, since then has gone on to commit plenty more crimes all the way through January which include being naked on the street, to battery to more burglaries, you name it Steve does it. So, this is a problem that we have the same people coming out over and over. Now I want to fast forward to the date of February 11th so the morning of Jonah’s death. He was killed on the corner of our property, and I have no words for Story. I have worked with the Police and Fire. We didn’t actually call because of that vagrant we called police because two vagrants that broke into the back of the property and so we had three people, we had an incident of three things going on on the property at one time and it was because Jonah had contact first with that person to what happened and it’s just a sad situation. I want to say I believe you have failed us. You up there have failed this city. You have failed in what you have done in the past few years doesn’t work. It hasn’t worked and despite the fact that Jonah died, the fact that a citizen had to shoot and kill someone to try and render aid to an officer. Despite all those things I believe I still have faith in you, I do. I believe that you still know what you are supposed to do right even those of you that I blame for the past, I think you know what you need to do, and I ask that you do it. There are new people up there, there are old people up there. Despite everything I have faith, I do that you guys can do the right thing and that is all we are asking today’s businesses, do the right thing. Shannon Murray, Member of the Public said I am managing partner of Las Cruces Dock Diving and K9 Event Center. The business is located at 335 South Valley Drive. We are on the same property where Officer Hernandez was brutally murdered. Since opening the only indoor K9 pool in the state and region in May of 2019 we have worried for the safety of the customers not to mention the other dog trainers that are all female. We love our customers, human and canine, have become friends with Page 4 of 26 many. Sadly, we have shared a lockdown while police searched for a suspect and located them in Solitaire Homes. Held up one of our North America Diving Dog Events with customers inside while bomb squad came for something tossed over the fence with a death to all manifestos. Cancelled pool sessions due to police activity on the property searching for a crackhead who stabbed someone at Craig and Tagert. I just finished a class with a customer before heading here today and this is her direct quote to me. “We can’t support this area if you can’t support this area”. Please help us make this community a better place for everyone. Heather Murphy, Member of the Public said I am a thirty-year resident and a sixteen- year employee of Tagert located directly across from Community of Hope. Our hearts go out to Officer Hernandez’s family and our community. I find it obscene that it has taken his death to finally get people’s attention. We are asking you to untie LCPD’s hands, increase patrols in high incident areas, increase the number of officers in the property crimes unit, actively push for prosecution of repeat offenders of property and trespassing crimes, and restate effective measures to eliminate panhandling and homeless issues plaguing our city. In addition, I challenge you to collectively and actively push for and solicit funds for a permanent sustainable crisis center. While I agree that not all homeless violent or criminals. I applaud those who are actively working to make better for themselves and their communities. I refuse to sit here and allow you to continue to lie to the public and turn a blind eye to the issues. Just within the bounds of our building and the lateral next to us we have a murder, a recent unintended death, drug addicts and dealers, dirty needles and pipes into our work yard, our mailbox was torched, employees are threatened and assaulted, destruction of property, shoplifting, break-ins, armed suicidal individuals, fights, trespassers, illegal camping, and mounds of garbage and feces to name a few things. We are forced to deal with incidents every week and often multiple times in a single day. A huge number of these involving homeless individuals. We have filed police reports, sent letters, made phone calls, emailed, had Zoom meetings, post signs, and offered up reasonable solutions over the years. Unfortunately, it appears that our city and its representatives are only interested in doing the minimum required to help local business and are perfectly happy handing out lip service and warm fuzzies instead of putting their boots on the ground and doing the hard work. I have personally worked with EBID in cleaning up the Armijo lateral around us and I would like to thank them for the assistance. We have spent well over $35,000 in repairs, security measures, and cleanup. That money could have paid an employee’s salary who in turn could have contributed to the tax base of this city. Aside from the financial burdens no one appears to be concerned about the emotional cost which are extremely high. Our employees feel victimized over and over every time they have to witness these incidents. Please do not let Officer Hernandez’s death be in vain. Donna Stryker, Member of the Public said my husband and I own commercial property onValley Drive two blocks from where Officer Hernandez was murdered. We have had multiple issues with violent vagrants and violent homeless at our building. According to the director of Community of Hope Nicole Martinez at a townhall meeting on January 23rd it is myth that the homeless are violent and drug addicts. Tell that to the family of Officer Hernandez. We have owned the property for over 13 years and in the last four years the incidents have escalated substantially. We have spent thousands of dollars on repairs, additional cameras, barriers, fencing, and more. And Page 5 of 26 as a taxpayer I find that very offensive to my husband and I and it adds insult to injury. We contribute financially to the city and the county of Las Cruces. What exactly to violence, homeless, and vagrants contribute to our once fine city? I would like to request the following of the City Council, an increase in patrols to the high incident areas. and an increase in charges for stolen property where homeless are allowed to steal shopping carts and walk the streets showing off their treasures. An increase in the number of officers assigned to property crime. This private citizen would like to request that a Work Session is scheduled in the very near future to address my concerns and the concerns of everybody here today. Council Woman Bencomo I would like to address that this to you. You told me prior to the election that a scheduled Judge ruled that a city or municipality that owns property cannot move homeless off the property unless they have somewhere to go. That was a ruling of the Ninth Circuit Court. We live in the Tenth Circuit Court, it does not apply here and that is why the city property the west of Casa del Peregrinos cleared out all the homeless the day before election. That was very convenient and why does Mesilla move their homeless to Las Cruces. The homeless on the ditch bank behind our property on McSwain is EBID land. There is a “No Trespassing” request made multiple times. They were moved to the City’s property which is in violation of Code 18-2. I highly suggest you read it. The city is breaking the law and allowing violation of its own City Codes, what is good for me is good for thee. The city property owners and small business owners are outraged at the deterioration of our city and our voices are going to be heard. Our city must be safer for all of us. “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has”, Margret Mead. I would like to thank the Council for looking at us today, it really makes a difference and I feel like you are paying attention. Shawna Pfeiffer, Member of the Public said my husband and I own Stryker Shooting World at 415 South Valley Drive but more than that I was born in Las Cruces and I don’t recognize it anymore, at all. What was once full of vibrance and prosperity, hominess, and culture has been bastardized by filth, decay, violence, and crime. The politics of this once great city have resorted to pushing a progressive agenda at all costs, even at the cost of public safety. Do you wish to live in Portland where public drug use is rife and feces litter city spaces? Do you wish to live in San Francisco where constant theft is pushing businesses out that have been established for decades? Do you wish to live in Chicago where lawlessness reigns and cops are actively hunted? Then move, go and stop bringing it here. In last 6 months my husband and I have witnessed the following firsthand, a man was arrested I hope across the street from our children’s daycare while openly pleasuring himself. Alcohol and drug paraphernalia litter the streets and are actively consumed in broad daylight. Human feces is nearly a daily occurrence on private property, rocks have been thrown at us and our business. Vagrants openly carry machetes, broken bottles and even a speargun into a restaurant my children and I were eating at. Screaming vagrants cause us to have to hide in the bathroom while we try to patronize other businesses. Flood control infrastructure constantly blocked with items stolen from Goodwill. They are making apartments under our bridges. Tented trespassing persons attempted to call our dog away from us. ATMs are constantly monitored, and I have seen homeless people basically ascend on those in front on me in line. My husband has been threatened numerous times when he attempts to open the business and arouse trespassers from their stupor. When we get an alarm call at 2 a.m. for the store and Page 6 of 26 my husband has to go down to make a report I only hope it is just another incidence of destruction just to be destructive and not something more sinister. I can’t move. My whole life is here. I have a career, a business, a farm. Everyone my children love lives here. They get to see their grandparents almost daily. In this city I was raised to be empathetic, kind, generous, and it breaks my heart that I cannot teach my kids those same values because it is dangerous. You can no longer take the time to get to know someone on the street because violence, mental illness, and drug use causes people to strike without warning. My daughter wants to be a police officer, like her uncle, her hero. How am I supposed to tell her that it is a job where the community demonizes you, the courts throw your efforts in the trash, and the city politics make your job impossible to complete. Our business apparently drew the short straw to be co- located with the ever-expanding attempts by the city to appear progressive even though those policies don’t work here or anywhere else. The work you are doing to help people at Camp Hope is noble and warranted but look at the numbers of those willing to play by the rules and be helped they are minuscule compared to their counterparts who cannot be helped who are violent and destructive and dangerous, but these problems are not Valley Drive problems or Picacho Avenue problems, they are Las Cruces problems. They are Dona Ana County problems and if allowed to fester any further they will become catastrophic for every resident in the area who lives, works, or buys groceries here. Every law-abiding hard-working citizen who pays taxes and is just trying to raise their family in a city that used to be safe and tranquil will pay the price either with their lives, their livelihood or the basic human right to feel safe in the once beautiful city they chose to settle down in. I implore the city to consider the policies that led Chicago, San Francisco, and Portland to where they are now. Las Cruces is headed down the same path. This is a moment for change, be brave and change. You have laws on the books, enforce them, prosecute them. Stop making my hometown a sanctuary for lawlessness, drugs, and violence. James Chavez Floyd, Member of the Public said I am a sixth generation Las Crucen. Johana, my friend, all the stuff I wrote down on my speech last night was all covered behind me. I live in District 4, my business in District 4. It is nothing like it was four years ago. To have to pick up Fentanyl across my parking lot every morning and chase people away that are just vandalizing. My daughter goes to school downtown as well. It is dangerous. I have done my best to serve the community and be fair and to have open thoughts on all the things that you guys campaigned for, and I ask now for you all to serve us as citizens and make this town safe so our children can play out front. We won’t be robbed. The children and the elderly won’t be targeted. The Fentanyl problem, the motels, all this stuff. Our police need backing. No more defunding the police. We need 100% help. It is dangerous. We need you guys now more than ever. We are in the national spotlight. We have Fentanyl coming over our border right here in a mass amount that is killing all of North America. We need help. Patricia Jimenez, Member of the Public said I am the owner of the Little Shop on Main and I have been an ongoing crime victim of violence since February of 23. I have voiced my concerns since 2023. I have a five-year order of protection and I have several trespass warnings cards and unfortunately my condolences to Officer Hernandez, he did respond to one of my situations and it is unfortunate that he wasn’t able to provide my store with the report number so that is a little concerning. I have had third parties reach out to Chief Jeremy Story and I have yet to hear from you. I Page 7 of 26 have been harassed by your officers for calling the police on several occasions. I have confronted the police. I have been told that I was a cop hater. That I think police are bad, like Brad Lunsford who actually came to my store and told me that I had to raped in order to get a temporary order of protection. That has been reported to the Attorney General and the Department of Justice and the FBI. I just want you to know that I am not a big person. I probably weigh like a 105 pounds and I am by myself. The security has to protect me but the security that is hired by the same council here to patrol the streets and there is only one security guard, that is ridiculous. We had a guy with a hatchet that I have a trespass warning card, he has terrorized me, he is on Fentanyl. He came with a hatchet, and I have footage and that footage is being shared with the media of a police officer telling me that the trespass warning card has nothing to do with the hatchet even though it was right by my store. It was at my store. I am just trying to figure out what is going on here, but I have been harassed. I have had people covered in blood come in my store for theft, vandalism, stalking. I have about nine trespass warning cards and I have a lot of police cards with no report numbers on them. I am being told that my trespass warning cards that we don’t do report numbers anymore. Since when? So how do I document that guy with the hatchet that comes to my store if there is no report number and that leads to the statistics. I reported the Police Department and the City to the FTC for falsifying statistics and I am going to tell you why. Some people may not report those cases, correct? What about people like me who get trespass warning cards but no report number? What about the people that are calling 911 twenty times and police don’t come and that guy is gone, the police come, they leave. They don’t even talk to us. They don’t even call us and they don’t give us a report number. That is very misleading to the public. Sometimes the police make it about me saying I have PTSD. I am acting crazy, and I can hear on the footage when I request IPRA footage that the police their computer systems in their cars are not working. So maybe that might be why they are taking a while to come. Body cam footage is being manipulated. That is being reported to the Department of Justice. IPRA violation with the Attorney General. The City Council continues to enable known corrupted nonprofit organizations such as Desert Hope and Community of Hope. You recently budgeted $6 to $7 million to these two nonprofits that enable drug use as Fentanyl. Drug dealers sell drugs. Needles are distributed throughout the facilities, prostitution is evident leading many to believe that the needles and all that they are shooting up and coming to our stores and actually terrorizing us. This has been reported to FBI, the DEA, the CDC, the Community of Hope is being reported to the IRS because apparently, they are corrupt and they are using their nonprofit status to get $6 to $7 million a year so that they can harbor these criminals and drug dealers and they are terrorizing us and that is wrong. You guys need to be accountable. Natalie Chadborn, Member of the Public said I am the owner of Flowerland and Flowerland2. At the Lohman location at the Arroyo Plaza, we have experienced vandalism in the middle of the day, homeless men sleeping in front of our doors, urinating, and defecating in front of our doors, burning a shared trash dumpster in the back with our other business owners and many other similar acts. My employees are afraid, and I have no way to protect them. We take all the precautions, but we still feel unsafe, and we are on guard all day long. I am requesting from you, the elected officials the three following items, an increase in officers patrolling in the high incident areas, increase your budget, whatever you need to do make it happen, increase of Page 8 of 26 officers for property crimes, higher more, move money, whatever you need to do to make it happen and finally I am requesting a Work Session within the next thirty days so that we can work on a plan of action that will enforce existing laws for the purpose of protecting all of us who live and work here. Michael Fraembs, Member of the Public said I am with Arista Development. I am here today, originally, I came to speak about Officer Hernandez. It’s a very emotional and traumatic event for our whole entire community. Very sad what happened, and I was going to give everybody my two cents of how I feel. However, I don’t feel that would be productive. I want all the council men and council women, take a look at your audience here. Listen to them. You are here because you are elected, and we require you to put processes in place that we voted you in for. I could honestly say every single one of us are here because of a broken judicial system. Criminals are not getting the proper, they are not being sent to prison, they are not being prosecuted and it is entirely sad. I was here a year and a half, two years ago with my business which was in construction with regard to all the theft and burglaries that we were going through. I spoke to everybody, and I quote which is very sad that, “this is victimless crime and I need to have compassion for people” that is what one of the council members told me. Victimless crimes ultimately ended up with the death of Officer Hernandez. Think about it. Look at his rap sheet of the criminal. Think about how many times that gentleman was arrested, released, arrested, released, and never prosecuted and that’s a dang shame. A man had to lose his life for protecting our community and being a good public servant. We all here have the responsibility to uphold the judicial system and criminals need to go to jail, no if ands or buts. Last night a community of us business owners all got together, and we spoke about the problems we are having and constant cost, fear, anxiety that we all receive as business owners and that is one of the reasons why we all met. I want every single one of you up here to know we are forming a group, Las Cruces Businesses for Public Safety and you are going to be hearing a lot from us. The democratic process is extremely important, republicans/democrats. That was created to create a check and balances of both parties and it is extremely one sided. We are not here to create conflict. We are here to create change and solutions and both of us no matter what our viewpoint is we need to work with each other and come together as a community. It is so sad to see Officer Hernandez lose his life, but I hope there could at least be one good thing that comes out of this and makes us all look at one another and come together as a community not as an adversary. We are all Las Crucens. We all live in New Mexico. I think if you ask any one of us no matter what side of the aisle you are on, we are all here for the same thing and we need a safer Las Cruces. So, we all came here as a community to work with you not against you. Yes, emotions are high, people are upset, people are fearful that is going to cause everybody to conflict with each other and we need to come together to work this out. The sad thing is at this meeting last night we identified the vast majority of these crimes are happening in District 4. In fact, we classified District 4 as Ground Zero. Ground Zero for all the criminal activity that has gone on here in Las Cruces. These transients, homeless, unhoused people are becoming aggressive, unstable, unpredictable. Officer Hernandez had no idea he was about to be charged with a kitchen knife and have no time to react. A trained officer did not have time to react. Think about a normal citizen like myself or anybody up there. What would they do in that situation? A trained officer was not able to react within enough time because we are dealing with extremely Page 9 of 26 unstable people on our streets. I am very hopeful Mr. Mayor, Chief Story. I am very excited to see some new blood up here. I think both of you can enact the change that we need. This issue is a cancer and what happens when people get cancer? It needs to be cut out. Now I am not saying that we need to lose our humanity in doing that, but actions need to be put in place and people that are repeat offenders need to be punished. If they are not punished things like what happened to Officer Hernandez will happen again or to one of your constituents. Like I said I want us all to work together as businesses, business owners we are all here to work with staff. Some of the impacts that have happened with us as business owners costly damage from vandalism, time loss, broken windows, scared employees, fear of safety, citizens even having to protect themselves. Example, I was at a different vet for many years, I transferred over to Schumacher Veterinarian clear across town because they are the only veterinarian that provides emergency animal care and with two working dogs I desperately needed that. If she went out of business and if I had an emergency with working line dogs I would have to drive all the way to El Paso to get care for them. this one business employs over 30 employees, 30 families, AAMCO, brick and mortar is extremely tough nowadays. Try getting walk in traffic in general much less in ground zero. Dang near impossible. Walmart, theft, aggravated panhandling, dock diving. Can you imagine running a business where an officer was murdered. What would that do to your patrons? Vic has people coming from out of state bringing money into Las Cruces from Texas, Colorado, many other states which we desperately need here in our community and that is being jeopardized. Solutions needed, I desperately need a Work Session in place for our coalition Las Cruces Businesses for Public Safety within the next 30 days. We need to start enforcing the panhandling laws that are already on the books. We need to get our District Attorney to start prosecuting repeat offenders. Don’t let Officer Hernandez’s life go to waste as it very well could be if we don’t come together. He gave his life to protect our community. Let’s protect his memory. Kim Stewart, Member of the Public said I am the Sherrif of Dona Ana County. I wanted to publicly and officially express our extreme condolences for the passing of Officer Jonah Hernandez. We have not been able to do that before and that is the reason I am here today. I also wanted to express to Chief Story and LCPD we are honored to be asked to assist you during this difficult time. We continue to be here for whatever your needs may be in the coming weeks. Ernest Carlson, Member of the Public said I am a financial advisor with Edward Jones. I have had a business here for a little over seven years. I am also a Captain in the US Army Reserves. For the last two years I have never seen so much crime in this city. It has impacted families, businesses, and visitors gravely. I do not see this as lack of duty on behalf of our fine police officers and law enforcement but rather a dereliction of duty on behalf of our elected leadership in reducing the patrol budget by 3% on this last budget from 41%. I don’t know if you all knew that? Rather than increasing that budget that is a big problem. I guess my final point is the majority of the city revenue comes from gross receipts from businesses and people going into businesses to conduct business. So, what happens if we can’t keep them safe and we can’t keep the businesses safe, and those businesses close their doors and they move out of town and then the people that live in this fine city don’t feel safe enough and they move out of town? That reduces your salary, and it reduces your budget to Page 10 of 26 do all the things that you want to do andthe pie in the sky deal that you guys keep bringing to this table. Jamie Borsodi, Member of the Public said I am with the Regional Chair for the United States Tennis Association, and I am here to speak on behalf of our kids and all of our recreational players about the need for us to feel safe. Judy Harless, Member of the Public said I am the Mayfield High School Tennis coach and I run a lot of Jr. Tennis tournaments here in town at Lions Park. Jamie Borsodi said as a community we are very fortunate to have a public facility with 12 lit tennis courts, swimming pool, handball courts, a children’s playground. Courts are in use in the morning and in the evening. Used by middle and high school. Used for summer camps. These activities are all open to the public at little or no cost if they are being put on by a different organization. We recently had a tennis tournament that Judy ran. We had over 80 kids and we had a survey that our results came back to us from the United States Tennis Association and the comments were at the park there were a lot of homeless. The restrooms are not clean. I will not take my daughter there next time. Lions Park venue was unsuitable for a Junior Tennis tournament. This was a park with homeless men everywhere. On Saturday 8 police cars responded down the street to what I understand was a homicide. I will not subject my family to this venue again. These are guests coming into Las Cruces. Judy Harless said while I was running the Junior Tennis tournament, I have to call 911 once on Friday and then I had to call them twice on Saturday and a referee called them once because we had a lady come down Picacho Street yelling and screaming her head off. She had no shoes on, she was improperly dressed. She came across the street and walked behind so we had to have somebody do a wellness check on her. I thought some guys were smoking in the men’s bathroom and said, “hey no smoking in the bathrooms”, and I peeked the door open and they were doing Fentanyl in the bathroom. Here we had a junior tournament with 84 kids, and they are doing Fentanyl in the men’s bathroom. Jamie Borsodi said as players we have been subjected to peeping toms in the woman’s restroom, a man disrobing on the courts in front of the middle school players. Players have been threatened. Police were called but there was no action taken. Registered sex offender walked through our junior tournament right through, we know that because the policeman said oh you know him? He is a registered sex offender. Open drug use. So, I understand as a city that we are compassionate and caring about the homeless and we have done wonderful things to help the homeless and the mentally ill among them, but it is time to put the compassion to us as citizens and our kids and provide us a safe community. Juan Garcia, Member of the Public said condolences to the family of Officer Hernandez and the officers of LCPD and to the family of Oscar Ramirez. He too was murdered recently on the corner of Armijo and Van Patton in front of a residence. You heard this last time. He is now another Las Cruces statistic. How many remember his name? I am very glad to see the very large number of small businesses, the forgotten Page 11 of 26 and ignored victims here today from Council District 4 and the community to share their pain, suffering, and financial losses at the hands of the Las Cruces criminal element. Except for the new council members all of you have heard or witnessed the frustration of hundreds before them and we are still here listening to them again. We have not heard from State Senator Hamblen, or State Representative Rubio who represent this area or their plan to help solve the problem. Did our Dona Ana County State Delegation propose or sponsor grant prevention bills in 2023 or 2024? We hear there is a tremendous problem with mental health in Las Cruces and yet the Governor wants to invest $10 million in another abortion clinic. I guess everybody has different priorities. The following comments are from Chief Story during the recent press conference. He spoke about the murder of Officer Hernandez the result of, “brokenness of the New Mexico criminal system that our elected officials allowed, “and I am looking at our elected officials”. A system that should have protected the community from Silva but instead allowed it to endanger us all. There is evil in this beautiful city”. Thank you Chief for those words. That perfectly explained how elected leaders failed us. Citizens don’t want excuses anymore. They don’t want finger pointing. The question remains, how many more businesses will be ransacked, citizens or officers murdered before positive and decisive action is taken to protect your community? The same question that we have been asking over a year. Julia Ruiz, Member of the Public said I have been a resident of Las Cruces for over thirty years. On January 2nd I spoke here and asked the following questions, how long before something is done, or someone is accosted or seriously hurt by one of these individuals that may be mentally ill or on drugs? How long will businesses continue to be vandalized and patrons made to feel unsafe while parking to enter their store front? Now the unthinkable has happened. My sincere condolences to LCPD and especially Officer Hernandez’s family. More questions develop. Why was Dona Ana County’s Triage Center shut down when we are clearly in desperate need of their services? Why is the focus not on the community and locals, the constituents, residents, and businesses? Instead, the focus is on nonproductive citizens that are mostly not Las Crucens. They are given housing, money, and everything free with no questions asked or strings attached. I have been visiting with small business owners and employees. They have told me that they are tired of coming into an unsafe work environment. They have trauma from the terror of witnessing crime and hostility, walking through the parking lots to get to work and while at work. Have any of you cleaned up human feces while at work? Where do business owners and their employees go for relief? When will the public be safe? Many of the business owners have stopped calling the police and this highly indicates that the crime statistics of 2023 are inaccurate. Crime has not decreased, it’s been ignored, and it is no longer being reported. When will the City Councilors empower law enforcement officers to enforce the laws? Jenny Hornsby, Member of the Public said I live in 340 East Las Cruces Avenue. I am a fashion designer that sewed in that studio for three years. Across the street from me is where the refugee buses come daily for three years now. I live by myself, and I have no children and I am not married. All I do all day is sew. What I want to know is if we can help dreamers come to America and they come off the buses daily with their families with cell phones on them like Coming to America, why can’t we help the people here? There is a library book that is on that church property, and it feeds the Page 12 of 26 Mesquite community down there which is the oldest neighborhood from what I understand. I understand that gentrification is happening but I it is not happening properly. I fed that bookshelf for three and half years from a restaurant called Tiffany’s Pizza which is my mother’s and father’s. We get tons of leftover food, so I have fed the homeless for three years in this city. Technically five but in that location for three years. On top of all of that I am going to be very vulnerable with you in October of last year I admitted myself to Mesilla Valley Hospital, not for drugs and not for abuse, not for anything else I just had severe breakdown in life. I got in there for depression, and I got to sit down with the community of the people that we are talking about right now for ten days, everyday about what their life was. Trust the fact that I asked every question. There was a lady in there from Tent City that I had fed that remembered me. It is not a problem of broken, it is a problem that we are broken but we are okay. When you leave Mesilla Valley Hospital you are not allowed to leave until you have an address to move into, a transition address. There was a man there that was there for sixty days that had light back in his life and he was so grateful to be there. He had been sick for 12 years and he was so grateful for the sobriety that he had had and Mesilla Valley was his angel. I am asking for grants to be made and a village of Mesilla Valley and make our dreamers come and give them cell phones and life too but fix your community first. Get grants for Mesilla Valley, make a stadium, the system is already there. Kate Price, Member of the Public said I am happy to be here and see all of you in person that I have only read about in the newspaper and my husband and I have been residents in Las Cruces for about 16 years now and we recently built a home out off of Fairacres Road and we were excited about the election. We watched all the forums on KRWG and we decided who we were going to vote for and we got to the precinct and found out we couldn’t vote because we are not in a voting precinct even though we are living in Las Cruces. We use Las Cruces City Utilities and there is a lot of people out there and so our question is there some provision to expand or add districts or I even thought maybe there could be a category of citizens At-large that aren’t fortunate to live in one of the districts? That is just the question I am bringing to the council and I appreciate being able to do this. Henry Young, Member of the Public said I am from the Las Cruces Gospel Rescue Mission and I would like to really inform many of the business owners that are behind me that we are not part of Community of Hope. Many people think that it is one big organization on both sides of Amador, but Community of Hope didn’t start across the street until after the turn of the century. The mission has been there since 1992, and I want to give a little positive input today. We have heard the negative and I agree with it, but I am here to tell you that the programming that we have at the mission is working. We have seen many of those people that have come from Mesilla Valley Hospital that came to us. You hardly ever see the police at the mission. You see them a lot at Community of Hope and nearby streets. We have a program that is working. I am going to attribute much of that to the faith component that we add with our entire programming. They do have to go to bible studies. They have to follow rules. They work four hours a day. Many of them go out on the street for work and they do go and shop and do other things but when they come back they have to stop at the front desk, be checked to make sure they are not carrying anything back in. We are a drug free, alcohol-free institution. If we can do it there, we can do it across the city. It will Page 13 of 26 take time, it will include all of us, but other cities have done it. Neighboring cities in California have done it, LA is bad, others are good. Instead of Denver, Colorado Springs is clean. Steven L Flowers, Member of the Public said I am the Ambassador of Christ from the Kingdom of Heaven otherwise known as Captain Flowers, retired Merchant Mariner of 15 years and Civil Air Patrol Cadet Captain. I have been sent to Las Cruces to establish a ministry. The ministry objective is to provide a place for those who do not have one. We are asking the Mayor if he could provide a representative to talk to me and I can debrief him on the ministry and also tell you more about it and so if that is acceptable I am going sit down and stand by and hopefully you can provide contact information today if you have a representative and if he can be an attorney I am an attorney as well. Richard Barela, Member of the Public said I approached this council with some evidence of using my name for fraudulent purposes as well as defamation. I have heard nothing back. I sent a letter with the evidence. I do have the evidence Councilor Bencomo. I want to hear back. I didn’t receive that money, but that paperwork says I did. I am not going to name organizations or names. I will do that in court if I am forced to. Also, I carry that walking stick back there not as a weapon, not intentionally but because LCPD broke my knee. I already had a broken back and part of that defamation is that it’s some kind of deadly weapon that I am going to start beating people with. Well, no I have to beat off pit bulls that are left running loose and now I am facing a criminal charge because I was carrying something else to protect myself from these dogs running loose which is the second of the same type of charge which is false. Everybody thinks that the people sitting up here or wearing a badge are somehow righteous, not true. Not when there is retaliation on their mind. Fred Huff, Member of the Public said I am also known as the Burn Lake Guy. I had not planned on speaking today but after listening to everything I wanted to make sure I recapped, understood everything. First of all, I do want to thank profusely the three new councilors or the two councilors and the Mayor for stepping up to this time in our history. To the previous councilors, let me make sure that I have understood everything correctly that I have heard today, and I can be corrected. It looked to me what I have heard from most of the businesses that almost all of the problems that I heard today is from District 4. By the way I am in District 4, Burn Lake is in District 4, our problems and most of the problems I heard today started about four years ago with the current councilor. Also, what I heard today a lot is that the Community of Hope, I was appalled yesterday when somebody showed me the budget in the amount of money being given to the Community of Hope. If you haven’t looked at it, please do, six million, five million, seven million dollars to this nonprofit organization in the last few years and projected for the future. So, I think it is time that we do congratulations to the councilor of District 4 for creating such a beautiful magnet to bring crime and lawlessness into our district. Congratulations and thank you for a job well done. Jo Ruprecht, Member of the Public said I am a long-time citizen of Las Cruces. I have many concerns. My concern today is very simple. I have listened carefully to all of the Page 14 of 26 comments that have gone before mine. Many of them have been addressed to the Mayor and the councilors, whether new councilors or old councilors but as someone told me about a year and half ago when I started being involved in more public projects, Las Cruces is set up as a system where it’s a Mayor as a figure but the City Manager is the power. No one has addressed you Mr. Pili and I want to take that opportunity now. I have met you and I like you. We shared some commonalities over a five minute or ten-minute conversation sometime last year. I remember it well, I don’t know if you do but many problems described today go within the tenure that you have served as City Manager and as much as I want to give you credit for coming into a new place and a new set of conditions from where you came from or anything you probably learned from I have difficulty with this situation. We did not elect you. We did elect our councilors and our Mayor, and I call upon them now to please pay careful attention to the City Manager’s report which is on today’s agenda I believe, and which should be given more often along with more comments and involvement on the part of the manager during these meetings. I ask you all to possibly reconsider the terms of the employment of the City Manager. Sarah Smith, Member of the Public said I am from the New Mexico Freedoms Alliance. I give my condolences to the family of Officer Hernandez. We have been pleading with you to fix the crimes, drug, and mental health problems plaguing our community for years. Why didn’t you pass any resolutions to urge our Legislature to pass the many bills that could have helped. For instance, maybe at your urging the Legislature would have passed the bills that were introduced to make it easier for the courts to hold dangerous criminals in jail. To increase the charges for drug trafficking and possession of a firearm. To strengthen the three strikes law. To increase the penalties for organized theft of homes and businesses, instead neither you nor our Las Cruces senators or representatives spoke in support of these bills and none of them passed. You have heard today from many people that are suffering. Meanwhile the city is spending millions on housing first programs to give homeless people that have no requirements for sobriety or accountability. Yet these programs are not helping many of the homeless to reform their lives and break free of their addictions. There have even been drug dealers housed in your homeless housing project. Will you please reprioritize the city budget to focus on public safety? If your own roof was leaking water into your house, you would stop buying new clothes or cars or going on vacation in order to get your house fixed first. We need to do the same thing with the city budget and prioritize the safety and health of the whole community over other projects. Investing in the film industry and buying electric buses is not the best uses of our taxpayer dollars right now. Please invest more in mental health and substance abuse treatment. Please ensure homeless support is resulting in rehabilitated responsible lives instead of no strings attached housing. Please hire more police officers, please enact ordinances to stop the catch and release of repeat offenders. If that can’t be stopped at the state level, we have to do it here. Please find a way for defendants labeled as incompetent to receive mental health treatment instead of just being released back into the streets. Public safety is the most urgent need the community is facing, the other projects can wait but this has to get fixed right now. Jorge Aguirre, Member of the Public said I am a small business owner and employer, and I am here saddened by the loss of Officer Hernandez. I am happy to have heard of the complaints and fears and a lot of these strong feelings my neighbors have, all Page 15 of 26 very warranted. We also and what I heard is that we have a lot of fear and a lot of concerns about every time we stop out of the parking lot right and everywhere in the city we feel unsafe and the problem is that I see is a lot of calls on boots on the ground and more police and the thing is that police doesn’t solve the crime problem. At best they show up after the problem has already arise. What we need is less poverty, less homelessness, and I know that it is politically incorrect to help the poorest people. I know it is incorrect to build the Community of Hope and try to keep homeless people out without strings attached. What we need is for people to not be on the streets and it’s hard to hear but if what we need to do is give them free housing with no strings attached maybe that is what we need to do. That is what has worked in other places. You know what hasn’t worked? More incarceration. We are a country that incarcerates the most people in the world. We are not the safest. Yes, I thank the council for those progressive policies that have helped and some of them have failed. Some of them have not gone right. But it takes courage to do something difficult, different and go against the tide and try and do what is right for the community and so I know everyone here has good intentions and I appreciate everyone here listening. Mary Morgan, Member of the Public said I am an unapologetic data nerd. So, the General Fund in 2023 increased by what 18 more LCPD officers for hire. I am not discounting anybody’s first person accounts of the violent behavior or that they have witnessed, overall, in the city violent crime is down by 18% and property crime is down by 4%. Nationally homelessness has increased by 12%. Las Cruces is not immune to those kinds of statistics. I would love to come to a Work Session to try to address these specific needs in those businesses. Mayor, City Manager, and Councilors, Chief Smith, Chief Story you all have impossible jobs and thank you all for having the guts to put your name on a ballot. William Gilman, Member of the Public said I am a Las Cruces resident and a small business owner as well. I know this is a really hard time for our community and my condolences to the family of Officer Hernandez. It is really heart breaking and as well for the state of lack of safety that people are feeling in our community, and I have been up here in the past to say that we need real solutions to the problem of homelessness, and I do believe further that this proves the point. As people continue to remain homeless and have their mental health issues aren’t addressed, I have heard countless stories of what it looks like and how it deteriorates, and the violence can escalate and we need something that actually works. A lot of people have said a lot about local solutions but part of the issue that have people alluded to is the state level problem. If a person is arrested there is not always an actual place for them to be put in custody. A person with severe mental health diagnosis that sometimes can’t be even prosecuted for misdemeanors which is why they are often released. We have no model for that in this country. There is no sort of therapeutic custody setting and we know people that are put in prisons often come out worse especially people with mental health issues. So, what do we do? It is a tough question but there is a working model in the realm of special education. I used to work in a setting for special education school with people with very severe mental health diagnoses, very severe behaviors. At one point I had to disarm, me and fellow mental health practitioners had to disarm a student with schizophrenia who was threatening to stab people with a real deal sharp pair of scissors and those systems work. We see huge improvements with those students, and I think we need to adapt that model for adults so that when these Page 16 of 26 people are arrested they can be put in a placement that keeps the community safe and the addresses their mental health needs and hopefully diminishes the violence that they are willing to commit in the future and we need to petition the Legislature about it. 4. READ CLOSED MEETING STATEMENT 4.1 READ FEBRUARY 5, 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 Jennifer Vega v. City of Las Cruces, D- 307-CV-2023-02717, which is closed pursuant to NMSA 1978, Section 10-15- 1H(7). 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 the NMSA 1978, Section 10-15-1H(7). 5. ACCEPTANCE OF AGENDA Councilor Becky Corran moved, seconded by Councilor Yvonne Flores, to accept the agenda as presented and removing item 7.1 for discussion. RESULT: Carried MOVER: Councilor Becky Corran SECONDER: Councilor Yvonne Flores AYES: Mayor Eric Enriquez, Councilor Cassie McClure, Councilor William Mattiace, Councilor Becky Corran, and Councilor Yvonne Flores ABSENT: Councilor Becki Graham and Councilor Johana Bencomo 6. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES 6.1 REGULAR CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF JANUARY 16, 2024. 6.2 WORK SESSION OF JANUARY 22, 2024. 7. RESOLUTION(S) AND/OR ORDINANCE(S) FOR CONSENT AGENDA 7.1 RESOLUTION NO. 24-083: 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. Charlie Fierro, Budget Analyst explained removal of page 38. Councilor Flores asked can you explain what effect this has? Charlie Fierro said this modification 3 where originally staffing versus anticipating staffing change hence the reduction of award amount. If you need further clarification perhaps someone from police or HIDTA can elaborate on the change that is no longer needed. Page 17 of 26 Jeremy Story, Police Department Chief said there was a plan in place by New Mexico HIDTA to change the fiduciary for HIDTA. That plan has changed and right now will remain with the City of Las Cruces. That is basically the reason for that amendment. Councilor Cassie McClure moved, seconded by Councilor Yvonne Flores, to amend Resolution No. 24-083 to replace Exhibit A. MOVER: Councilor Cassie McClure Councilor Becki Graham, Councilor Johana Bencomo, Councilor Becky Corran, and Councilor Yvonne Flores Councilor Cassie McClure moved, seconded by Councilor Yvonne Flores, to Approve Resolution No. 24-083 as amended. Corran, and Councilor Yvonne Flores 8. RESOLUTION(S) AND/OR ORDINANCE(S) FOR DISCUSSION 8.1 RESOLUTION NO. 24-084: A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING AN ANNUAL NOT-TO-EXCEED AMOUNT OF $3,000,000.00 FOR GROUND AMBULANCE SERVICES TO AMERICAN MEDICAL RESPONSE AMBULANCE SERVICE, INC DBA AMERICAN MEDICAL RESPONSE (AMR), OF LAS CRUCES, NEW MEXICO FOR AN INITIAL PERIOD OF FIVE (5) YEARS WITH THE OPTION TO EXTEND FOR THREE (3) ADDITIONAL ONE-YEAR TERMS, SUBJECT TO RENEWALS AND APPROVED BUDGET APPROPRIATIONS. (PROCUREMENT NO. 22-23-021). Virginia Barela, Buyer gave the overhead presentation. Councilor Flores asked initial five-year terms, so from today’s date till 2029 and then after that there will be three one-year renewal options? Virginia Barela said yes that is correct. So, it would take effect March 1st of this calendar year through February 2029 and then after that we would have three options to renew for one additional year for each renewal. Councilor Flores said Chief Smith I remember the last time we renewed this contract or this agreement with AMR. There was some concern in terms of the services they were providing and the service we provide or maybe it was MVRDA, well that was four years ago in 2020. So now we are extending five years. So, they have done a good job? Jason Smith, Fire Department Chief said the contract that we are here to consider today is the first in many years that the City of Las Cruces is issuing. We are working Page 18 of 26 collaboratively with Dona Ana County. Dona Ana County is making the payments through us to AMR, and we will overseeing an Ambulance Oversight Committee as well as the contract for AMRs performance. Councilor Flores asked we service the city only and they service the county only, but the city is within the county, how does that work? Chief Jason Smith gave an overhead presentation. Councilor Flores asked it was four years, were those same measurements or same checkpoint checking to make sure they were working within the response time, were there any instances of not responding, AMR within those response times? Chief Jason Smith said I would say that there have been calls where they have not been responded to within the response time outlined with the contract that the county currently. I do know that hiring and maintaining fleet and ordering fleet has been a challenge since the Covid pandemic. AMR was subject to the same challenges in that way as well as in maintaining their staffing. I don’t think in the last couple of years there has been any quarter where they have met their response time matrix with the county. Councilor Flores asked they have not? Chief Jason Smith said that is to my understanding. Councilor Flores said I am just wondering about that working relationship and the safety of our community and at least I saw it as a big to do the last time we presented this agreement. Chief Jason Smith said yes, I would agree and that is where I believe the improvement and the innovation in the system that we have created two dedicated zones in the north and south for units that are there for 911 response and we have a multitiered response system that we are going to establish within the core population center of the county for the city of Las Cruces just outside the city. Councilor Flores asked there will be intermittent checks on keeping the stats, the times and all that? Chief Jason Smith said yes, we are even going to be pursuing a third-party vendor to review the response data metrics from both the CAD from Mesilla Valley Regional Dispatch as well as AMR to actually report on their performance. Councilor Flores asked have all the issues been resolved with MVRDA because there was an issue there too in terms of how they were channeling or communicating either with the city or AMR? Chief Jason Smith said not that I can recall. Page 19 of 26 Joaquin Graham, Regional Director GMR which is the parent company of American Medical Response said I happen to live here in Las Cruces. Las Cruces is my hometown, and I grew up as a paramedic serving Las Cruces with AMR and another company over the years but I think Chief Smith’s started one of the introductions with something I whole heartedly agree with. This new contract is very innovative and holds us to different standards and really develops what we were looking for, that of a partnership, right? It is no secret that Councilor Flores as you mentioned we have struggled with response time performance. Most of that is around our staffing parameters. We have done some very innovative work to increase the number of staff that we have on hand. That number is coming up very very nicely for us and we anticipate meeting those response time performances under the new partnership with the City of Las Cruces and their Fire Department and Rescues is going to be something that is very achievable and we look forward to working with you all on that. Councilor Becky Corran moved, seconded by Councilor Cassie McClure, to Approve Resolution No. 24-084. SECONDER: Councilor Cassie McClure Corran, and Councilor Yvonne Flores 8.2 RESOLUTION NO. 24-085: A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING AN AMENDMENT TO THE FY2024 BUDGET TO ADJUST THE BONDS DESIGNATED AS STATE SHARED GROSS RECEIPTS TAX IMPROVEMENT REVENUE BONDS, SERIES 2023A (SSGRT BONDS) AND AMEND THE FY2024 VEHICLE AQUISITION FUND. Rocio Gamboa, Budget Analyst gave the overhead presentation. Councilor Becki Graham moved, seconded by Councilor Becky Corran, to Approve Resolution No. 24-085. MOVER: Councilor Becki Graham SECONDER: Councilor Becky Corran 9. BOARD APPOINTMENTS 9.1 None. 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. 24-021; ORDINANCE NO. 3063: AN ORDINANCE APPROVING A ZONE CHANGE FROM R-3 (HIGH-DENSITY RESIDENTIAL Page 20 of 26 FROM THE SOUTH MESQUITE OVERLAY) TO C-1 (NEIGHBORHOOD COMMERCIAL DISTRICT FROM THE SOUTH MESQUITE OVERLAY). THE SUBJECT PROPERTY ENCOMPASSES 0.233 ± ACRES AND IS LOCATED AT 541 CAMPO STREET. THE ZONE CHANGE IS TO ALLOW FOR THE FUTURE DEVELOPMENT OF A COMMERICAL BUSINESS ON THE SUBJECT PROPERTY. Councilor McClure asked we are the final arbitraries on these two proposals, right? Kind of to borrow from the legislature if Historic Preservation and Planning and Zoning vote no on this we still review this, right? Secondly the R3, is there still commercial availability in that zoning designation, just for my curiosity? Larry Nichols, Community Development Department Director said even discussing it before the hearing basically those designations were reviewed and there is an allowed for that rezoning from 3 to commercial. Councilor Flores asked by voting yes on this today means that we are bringing it forward for further discussion so you may be presenting all the data and everything, right? Larry Nichols said that is correct. We have prepared a council packet for that presentation at the next City Council meeting, and they will be discussed fully about all the compliances and in concert with the Elevate Las Cruces. Council agreed to bring it forward. 10.2 COUNCIL BILL NO. 24-022; ORDINANCE NO. 3064: AN ORDINANCE AUTHORIZING THE EXECUTION AND DELIVERY OF A LOAN AND SUBSIDY AGREEMENT (“LOAN AGREEMENT”) BY AND BETWEEN THE CITY OF LAS CRUCES, NEW MEXICO (“GOVERNMENTAL UNIT”) AND THE NEW MEXICO FINANCE AUTHORITY (“FINANCE AUTHORITY”), IN THE TOTAL AMOUNT OF FIFTEEN MILLION THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS ($15,300,000), EVIDENCING A SPECIAL LIMITED OBLIGATION OF THE GOVERNMENTAL UNIT TO PAY A MAXIMUM REPAYABLE PRINCIPAL AMOUNT OF NO MORE THAN TWELVE MILLION TWO HUNDRED EIGHTY THOUSAND NINE HUNDRED FORTY- NINE DOLLARS ($12,280,949), TOGETHER WITH INTEREST, AND ADMINISTRATIVE FEES THEREON, AND TO ACCEPT A LOAN SUBSIDY OF NO MORE THAN THREE MILLION NINETEEN THOUSAND FIFTY-ONE DOLLARS ($3,019,051), FOR THE PURPOSE OF FINANCING THE COSTS OF A NEW WELL, ASSOCIATED IMPROVEMENTS OF THE WELL INCLUDING CONNECTING TO THE JOINT UTILITY SYSTEM OF THE GOVERNMENTAL UNIT, AND REHABILITATION OF WATER STORAGE TANKS; PROVIDING FOR THE PLEDGE AND PAYMENT OF THE PRINCIPAL, ADMINISTRATIVE FEES AND INTEREST DUE UNDER THE LOAN AGREEMENT SOLELY FROM THE NET REVENUES OF THE JOINT UTILITY SYSTEM OF THE GOVERNMENTAL UNIT; SETTING AN INTEREST RATE FOR THE LOAN; APPROVING THE FORM OF AND OTHER DETAILS CONCERNING THE LOAN AGREEMENT; RATIFYING ACTIONS HERETOFORE TAKEN; REPEALING ALL ACTION Page 21 of 26 INCONSISTENT WITH THIS ORDINANCE; AND AUTHORIZING THE TAKING OF OTHER ACTIONS IN CONNECTION WITH THE EXECUTION AND DELIVERY OF THE LOAN AGREEMENT. Council agreed to bring it forward. 11. CITY COUNCIL MEMBER BOARD REPORTS AND COMMENT 11.1 COUNCILOR MCCLURE I also wanted to echo my condolences to Chief Story and his entire force. I like you understand that words fail in the gravity of these situations, but I think what you said the other day in terms of it is a calling and particularly enhancing people with unique skills and that skill is courage and I think that doesn’t remove fear. It is going and doing it any way, walking with that darkness and I am very glad that we do have those who are willing to do that. I do see my job as trying to help as much as possible to make your job safer and more effective for the public so I welcome any opportunities to look at how we can do that. 11.2 COUNCILOR MATTIACE I would like to offer my sincere condolences to the family, and I will be there I believe Wednesday at 10 o’clock at Abundant Faith and I also realized today that a lot of our citizens actually have spoken and explained to me and showed me that quite a lot has changed since I have been on this city council and I appreciate their words today, their stories. I hope we can all work together to make the improvements in the safety of public safety issue for the city of Las Cruces. 11.3 COUNCILOR GRAHAM I too would like to add my voice to the thousands who are expressing profound grief, condolences for our Officer Hernandez, his family, his LCPD brothers and sisters. I just want to express that I am holding you all in my heart and in my thoughts. In a slight news item, I would like to thank Mayor Enriquez and Councilor McClure for joining me at the PAL Boxing Gym over the weekend on Saturday. We had some great amateur fights and again it is always so uplifting when we have these community events and have folks come into the gym who have not been there in several years and get to see the incredible good that the city investment in this program, in the equipment, in the people and the work that it is enabling. So, thank you colleagues for joining me. I want to speak directly to Mayor Pro Tem Bencomo. You shouldered a lot today. I want to recognize how heavy that was, and I want to say here on the record that it is an absolute honor to serve with you, that your passion, your intelligence, your courage and your unyielding capacity to carry this heaviness. To walk through the world the way that you do and to inevitably the brunt of this kind of criticism. It is not unseen, it is not unfelt, and I am here with you and for those who would like to leverage all of the blame on one member of council I invite you to speak with me also, to speak with me directly, to call me out directly because I am here with you and for you Mayor Pro Tem Bencomo. 11.4 COUNCILOR CORRAN Page 22 of 26 I join my colleagues in sharing grief and I am carrying Officer Hernandez and all of LCPD as we navigate this and understand the context of all of the emotions that are coming out now. I continue to carry that Chief and Officers as you move through these days. I am going to speak about something that I experienced yesterday and really put this in context. Yesterday Mayor and I had the opportunity to attend Veteran’s Court Treatment graduation which at the District Court down the street. It was an extraordinary experience that I had never anticipated it showed what a community can do when you see someone who has needs and you rally around them and support them and the folks who do Veteran’s Treatment Court are doing extraordinary things supporting those folks through their journeys. First of I just want to say that is extraordinary they got an award and shared a lot about what they are doing and how they do it. It is a really complicated subject for which there is no easy solution. In this case all I can think in addition to admiring the folks who were sharing their stories and committed to supporting those folks working through the criminal justice system and their addiction was this was a model and there is one person on our council who is committed to doing this kind of work and that is Councilor Bencomo, when i did hear folks excoriating her I realize perhaps they don’t understand how extraordinarily complicated these issues are and how extremely hard Councilor Bencomo has been working on these issues and thinking about them in complicated ways. I also would urge folks to direct their ire at me, I have been here. I am proud of the decisions that we make collectively, and I will continue to look to Councilor Bencomo as a person who thinks about things in ways that are different. In a way that she is not alone, in a way that I am here to work on complicated issues with my colleagues collaboratively and moving us forward and not leaving folks behind which frankly was the gist of Veteran’s Court yesterday and what I understand they are doing in our community and I am here for it and its hard work and I am willing to do and I am looking forward to working together with you all to do so. 11.5 COUNCILOR FLORES I too again extend my condolences to Chief Story, to your fellow officers, and the community. We have lost an officer in the line of duty and I will be there tomorrow as well. I also align with what Councilor Graham and Councilor Corran have said regarding and I really saw it as bashing of Mayor Pro Tem Bencomo. I know she has worked very very hard. She has worked with the Governor’s Office. She has worked hard on many many issues that are the root problem that contribute to the situation we are in. I would also like to say that we have to be awfully naive or downright ignorant to think that 4 years that being on City Council, her four years on City Council made all the difference and major contributing factor to homelessness. That is awful naive, and I just want to say to our fellow residents that all of us up here, I have to say this honestly that all of the elected officials here are here because we really love people. We really understand the root problems and all of us here, we are not here for the money. Most of the council that is up here have other jobs, nonetheless they are able to contribute whole heartedly, to be here and there, and go up to Santa Fe and lobby our elected officials. I am the liaison to City Art Board. We had our first annual MIRA Las Cruces last April Page 23 of 26 and I believe this year it is April 27th and if that event last year had the highest attendance for any event historically that the city has had and finally Mayor Pro Tem and I had the pleasure of meeting these companies or whatever that promote cities and they have never been to Las Cruces. They were here, they loved it and so we are anticipating more people to attend, and the City Art Board is working on the chalk art that is on the sidewalk and the presentations last year were dynamite. Also on the Animal Services Center, Barbara Bencomo and I attended the meeting with Clint Thacker. We went over the proposed budget and it’s pretty good and Clint Thacker has been working hard at getting another veterinarian because everybody recognizes that we have a shortage and so in the meantime they are making do with what they can and the Animal Services Center has been looking for another veterinarian. We have a Joint Powers Agreement with the Las Cruces School Board. The Joint Powers Agreement is for the Las Cruces Community School and just about every councilor, Graham serves as a chair of that committee, and it seems that in for the four, five or six that I have been on that there is a new school added on and the concept, it’s a concept that started many, many years ago, maybe 100 years ago in New York and you bring the entire community in where the parents are participating and with their children’s classes and their education and there is a lot of success. It’s aligned with the NEA. At any rate I just want to share that from where I am sitting that we have a thriving community of people who care, people who are doing everything that can possibly be done to have a better world for everybody, and I just can’t speak highly enough for the JPAs that I am on. My fellow councilors sit on different boards as well and I just have to laud my colleagues and that’s it. 11.6 MAYOR ENRIQUEZ I also will be attending the funeral tomorrow for Officer Jonah Hernandez. It was a heavy week. So, Councilor Graham, thank you for the invite. It was great to see our youth in this community with an activity showing their skills and their talents. Councilor Corran you are absolutely spot on, the Veteran’s Treatment Court, it was great to see people who are committed to a change and change their lives and it starts with them and they follow the treatment. They followed the plan and if we all work together, we can work together on issues that we are all dealing with whether it is mental, addictions, things of that nature, that there is help and we just have to put those resources together and it was really great to see. I thank City Manager and Staff for the Budget Retreat that we attended, and I am very optimistic. I like what was presented. There is a lot of things moving forward and a lot of the public comments that came today was things that we are already looking at, identifying, and moving in that direction and there is more that we need to build on and I understand that. That is why as I sit up here it is not one individual’s fault. They can’t point their finger at any one person. It’s a community issue, it’s a community problem but as a Mayor and council we are leaders up here and we take that with full responsibility. We will be responsible, and we will be accountable. I look to the City Manager, do we need a Work Session and I am willing to address those issues at the State of the City Address. So those are some things that we can do to move forward. Page 24 of 26 As we make our comments now, I can see that no one is left in the audience and if there is sometimes that there is information that is not correct and so maybe we could clarify some of those things. One of the those things moving forward I would like to see this start taking place in April but we are going to change the agenda and we are going to put the public comments right before the Mayor and Council comments and hopefully we can make that agenda change so that it is right before our comments so that not get into a debate or discussion but at that point they can hear some of our comments as to what we are working on and the other thing is a sign-up sheet and to be honest I can’t figure out the rows. We would like for staff to create a sign-up sheet for those individuals who wish to speak at public participation to sign up, put their name, their address and so that we have it for the record and if they want to include the topic that is fine but I think those are some of things we need to do in moving forward and I would like to see that take place hopefully in April. On another note, on public participation on my part, the Las Cruces Public Schools is coming to have a benefit on Friday, February 23rd it is a tortilla folding contest. It is a benefit for the Las Cruces Public Schools. Join me if you can. 12. CITY MANAGER REPORT 12.1 IFO PILI Just a reminder February 24th is our Government Communications Day. So that is in honor of our Communications, give kudos to them. Also Visit Las Cruces, Sun Seekers Trail Pass has launched. It is a free mobile friendly passport that includes information, over 20 trail locations and the neighborhood dumpsters as well at Paz Park parking lot as well at Tony Gomez Park, and Henry Benavidez Community Center from 8 to noon. Mayor and Council, if I can just add one comment here about and I will keep the rest brief on my report. There was a comment made which I want to highlight, and I am grateful for the comment that was made because that was probably the most enlightening comment, I think if people really listen to a woman in the back, she is absolutely right. The form of government we have is a council/manager form of government. Like I said if everybody understood that this would be lining up in my office because the way that a council/manager form of government works is that the City Manager is appointed to run the operations of the city and one of the genius of that role is that it takes the politics out of that and that we go strictly on day to day operations and many people in the community understand that and both Chief Story and myself have had opportunities to speak and to really talk about facts. Give real data because the politics aren’t mixed into that. Certainly, we can speak more freely about facts and move away from the politics. If we are talking about facts the Police Department in the last three years, the General Fund Budget has increased by 25%. We spent close to $6 million on just vehicles and so there is so many programs, so many things that are, Chief Story and Chief Dominguez that have been pounding and putting into work and if people understood that rather than pointing fingers at the Mayor and council. I think there would be more productivity in the conversations that we have because there is absolute truth in that and I am happy to sit down with anyone, Chief Story as well, we are happy to sit down with anybody and talk about the plans from administration. We have also asked for solutions and I really haven’t Page 25 of 26 gotten much from those who have come but what they have walked away with is a better understanding of how city government works and the things that we are doing and the things that again that are not working but I will say is what the council does have or what the council is responsible for is approving our budget and the council has approved every single thing that we have brought to you certainly since I have been here. There has been no push back when it comes to public safety and I want to make that known, that is a fact no matter how the council and Mayor feels about what needs to happen there has been no push back. So, any thoughts about defunding, I don’t know where this information is coming from but I can tell you guys as City Manager there has been no talk about that at least with me who is the only employee of the mayor and city council and so I just wanted to make that known and also again I would spread that. I would tell the people that of what the role of government we have so that they will understand so we can meet with the politics aside and we can talk about again some of the things that we are doing that is working. In all my years I have never had a mayor and council that has worked so hard with the solutions because your role is really policy but you have worked so hard in trying to come up with solutions and I get stuff all the time from you council about things that we should try, we should do just from looking at other cities and so I wish the crowd was still here so that could be said but I appreciate the comment ma’am earlier. That is where you should be looking, that is where the people should be looking but I appreciate the opportunity and I stand with Chief Story when he says we want to make sure Officer Hernandez is honored and his death isn’t in vain. So, we will continue to push. We will continue to try and come up with solutions and we have never slowed down, council hasn’t, neither has staff. I have said that before, but it doesn’t seem to register so I would like to say it again and again I appreciate the comment and the opportunity. 13. ADJOURNMENT 13.1 Councilor Yvonne Flores moved, seconded by Councilor Becki Graham, to adjourn at 3:45 p.m. MOVER: Councilor Yvonne Flores SECONDER: Councilor Becki Graham Mayor City Clerk Page 26 of 26