Work Session Meeting January 22, 2024 MINUTES Work Session Monday, January 22, 2024 @ 1:00 PM City Council Chambers, City Hall PRESENT: Councilor Johana Bencomo, Councilor Becki Graham, Councilor Becky Corran, Mayor Eric Enriquez, Councilor Cassie McClure, and Councilor William Mattiace ABSENT: Councilor Yvonne Flores 1. PETS OF THE WEEK 1.1 Amy Defelix, ASCMV presented Pets of the Week. 2. AGENDA ITEM 2.1 AMERICAN RESCUE PLAN ACT (ARPA) UPDATE. Liam Beasley, Accountant II gave an overhead presentation. Chief Jason Smith, LCFD continued overhead presentation. Deputy Chief Sean Mullen, LCPD continued overhead presentation. Rochelle Miller-Hernandez, Executive Director Visit Las Cruces continued overhead presentation. Chris Faivre, Deputy Director Economic Development continued overhead presentation. Irene Parra, Workforce Administrator Economic Development continued overhead presentation. Page 1 of 6 Natalie Green, Housing & Neighborhood Revitalization Administrator continued overhead presentation. Carl Clark, Assistant Director Utilities continued overhead presentation. David Sedillo, Director Public Works continued overhead presentation. Liam Beasley continued overhead presentation. Councilor Graham said I’m looking at the $459,000 and change that remains un- obligated for Public Health and Safety. What are our options there? What can we do with that? Liam Beasley said the broad category is just responding to any negative Public Health impact from the pandemic. For that amount I’m going to take a look at the detailed page for the remainder. Most of the balance is coming from the Police and Fire CPR and EMT training. Councilor Graham asked so it’s not remaining, that’s not what we still have to play with? It’s been obligated and has not yet been spent? Liam Beasley said so it’s been allocated meaning we decided what we’re going to do with it, but we just haven’t had a contract been approved and gone through the process yet for that. Councilor Graham said how has fire damage or damages from fighting that fire changed the scheme? Chief I don’t know if you would like to weigh in on this? I just don’t know how much damage there actually was. Ashley Echavarria, Chief Executive Officer Boys & Girls Club of Las Cruces said we are grateful the fire was contained to one theater, actually when the fire happened the Allen’s were still under ownership of the building, so they were able to file an insurance claim. It was contained to one theater. Of course most of the building is brick and cement, however the theater seats are cloth. The seats are really what caught fire. It did cause some damage, it’s my understanding to like some of the electrical and stuff like that. Most of the stuff is stuff we’re going to have to gut and replace anyway, so we’re fortunate. Honestly what ended up happening is they did some of the demolition for us that we’re going to end up having to do. The Allen Family went in and kind of gutted that theater and then as a result of that they also found out that, of course there was asbestos throughout the building. They were able to have the whole building abated for us which was also kind of a blessing for us in disguise because that’s something we didn’t end up having to pay for. Happy to say we officially closed on the building last week and it is now ours. The Allen family really worked with us to get that price down as much as they could and because of the ARPA funds that’s really what made it possible for us to be able to pay for the building and not to have to take out a loan while we’re raising the money to do the renovations. Page 2 of 6 Councilor Bencomo said I was reading this morning from the Economic Policy Institute that across the country so many ARPA funds have not been spent or obligated like 56% of local governments have not obligated they’re ARPA funding, which is honestly a travesty. I just really want to commend our staff and community for really making sure we did our due diligence, and that the dollars are impacting the people in the community as they were intended too, so thank you everyone. For the $6.6 million that are un-obligated does that mean they’re not allocated? They are allocated, they’re just not obligated. For public clarity it doesn’t mean that this is money that could be used for something else. We’ve actually said this money is going to be spent for specific projects? Liam Beasley said yes that’s correct. We’ve decided what to do with it however we just don’t currently have it under a contract with a vendor. Councilor Bencomo said so for example the workforce programs obviously we saw a hiccup there, that’s why we have not obligated those funds. Once those agreements are done like Ms. Parra said in the next few weeks then that will officially be an obligated money? Liam Beasley said yes that is correct. Councilor Bencomo said given that there is a risk of clawbacks from the Federal Government do we foresee that $6.6 million being completely obligated by the end of the year? Liam Beasley said yes we do. The departments are aware of the deadline, and we meet periodically. I give people updates on the financials that way if we’re coming up against that deadline we at least have some advanced warning and we have some awareness of that, if different decisions need to be made then they can. Councilor Bencomo said it’s just not some whatever deadline there could be serious consequences for not obligating those funds. We had the Mesilla Valley PHA that’s one of the housing projects, yes? Natalie Green said yes that is a housing project and it is obligated. Councilor Bencomo said, so the $2 million for the housing community development. Natalie Green said yes the Peach Tree, it’s New Mexico Community Development Corporation and they are working the Peach Tree Canyon Apartments in the East Mesa off of Granada and Peach Tree Road and so it is under contract we just haven’t executed a purchase order. Council may remember we are also allocating an additional $4 million for Phase 1 so we wanted to align those projects, or the funding to close all at once. Councilor Bencomo said you’re basically seeing it as obligated though because it’s full force moving forward. On the store front you said something about a third party, I just wondered if you could expand on that. The allocation for the Store Front Program that Page 3 of 6 only gets obligated once it goes into a business? Chris Faivre said yes just having the Resolution for the program doesn’t make it obligated, whatever monies we have left over in that program if we want to continue it, which I believe we do, and I would recommend it. We would need to find a third party to help us facilitate the balance of those funds through the remainder of the time or until the funds are expired. The way it works we do a request for check each time a business requests funds. There isn’t one blanket PO that covers the entire amount. That one is a little bit different that sort of came up in our discussion on this presentation the other day. We will be working with Finance to find a vendor that can help us do that efficiently and effectively so we can keep that program moving. Councilor Bencomo said I just wanted to tell Utilities just a shout out because you are doing really incredible work, having hooked up 53 homes already. Thank you very much. Mayor Enriquez asked when you do this sort of connection what’s the process on the existing septic tank? Carl Clark said once they are connected it’s part of our contract we’re going to abandon the septic tank so they’ll collapse the tank, they’ll collapse the lid and backfill it with sand, compact it and cover it up, so it can’t be used again. Richard Barela, Member of the Public said I’m curious about the economic impact of these septic tanks that are no longer in use. Carl Clark said environmental impact of septics that are no longer in use. Removing the septic’s helps remove nitrates from possibly reaching our ground water. That’s the reason we have a top priority in our septic replacement plan of within a thousand feet of a municipal well. We don’t want nitrates to leach down to the water table and then we being pulling it through the well. At that point we would probably have to shut down the well and drill somewhere else at a $1 million a well it’s very expensive for the City. We take that very seriously about how close these septics are to our water wells. Sandy Smith, Cruces Creatives said I thought you guys would like a little tiny bit of show and tell about some of what we’re doing. What I have here is a jar of algae. Algae was grown in the buckets, so the kids actually get to make their own photo-bio reactor for the algae then we turn the algae into pigment, or it becomes fertilizer, or lots of other kinds of things, so much fun. Then I am going to show you these things so I can let you pass them around because they’re kind of cooler if you touch them. What we’ve got right here is bio leather meaning that this is actually grown from the Scobie of Kombucha. We put it in a laser cutter, so it’s got the little etching on it and applied with some of the stitching on it. This is what it look like when it just grows. This is what it looks like when we add some Pysanki dye, which Pysanki is a traditional Ukrainian easter egg dye sort of situation so we’re playing with what that looks like. Then we also have some mycelium grown so you can actually grow mushrooms into Styrofoam and if you happen to be working with the school during Dia De Los Muertos Page 4 of 6 you can grow it into a Halloween skull and just kind of get a feel for what they can do. The students got to paint those up. When your done with those they just go into the garden, it composts, the manufacturing is like totally earth friendly. 2.2 SUSTAINABILITY QUARTERLY UPDATE Lisa LaRocque, Sustainability Officer gave an overhead presentation. Councilor Mattiace said I really like that graph where driving an electric car helps and I have an electric car. Councilor McClure asked in a perfect world what would you recommend for us to do first? Lisa LaRocque said what I really think would be helpful is something that I already think is starting to occur and I’m going to give a shout out to planning and innovation. They are using a set of criteria that actually looks at the holistic view of these issues and how they advance both Elevate from a physical layout, as well as sustainability from a more actionable point of view. If you’re asking what the City should do first. I think the City should take the plans that it has and create milestones that are achievable in certain intervals and not push it down the road. That is what I think needs to happen. I think that it’s difficult because we’re at a crossroads where these things are just taking place but the persistence to do that would really accelerate our change. Councilor Bencomo asked Lisa are you able to give us all an update on the community solar project that was submitted to the PRC? Lisa LaRocque said from the City, yes so there were only 6 projects that were allowed within the El Paso Electric district and those although we applied we were not selected. I think there were 6-9 organizations that were selected from many, many projects. There was an idea of what was a good fit according to the group that was evaluating it. Right now everyone is in a stalled motion because of the rulings that are taking place as to how much credit we should give on these bills and how much the utilities are allowed to charge for their management of it. I am concerned that we have not found a sweet spot where we are going to help the 50 percent of the 20,000 people in the State who could really benefit from a lower rate and the needs for renewable energy that exists. Councilor Bencomo said that is really unfortunate to hear Lisa. Do you feel like there is a pathway forward for some kind of project like that for us in the future? Lisa LaRocque said I’m speaking for Adrienne, I will say I am heartened by the Energy Transition Plan RFP that we submitted and will hope to get some very knowledgeable folks to guide us in this process, I think there are many ways forward. Community Solar is one, allowing community choice where the City could generate energy and the transmission and distribution would come there, is another thing that been put forward by the Legislature. The answer is yes. Page 5 of 6 Councilor Bencomo said since you brought up the Energy Transition up you’ve had input and feedback on that RFP then. Lisa LaRocque said yes. 3. ADJOURNMENT 3.1 Councilor Becky Corran moved, seconded by Councilor Cassie McClure, to Adjourn at 2:31 p.m. RESULT: Carried MOVER: Councilor Becky Corran SECONDER: Councilor Cassie McClure AYES: Councilor Johana Bencomo, Councilor Becki Graham, Councilor Becky Corran, Mayor Eric Enriquez, Councilor Cassie McClure, and Councilor William Mattiace Mayor City Clerk Page 6 of 6