Work Session Meeting January 12, 2026 MINUTES Work Session Monday, January 12, 2026 @ 1:00 PM City Council Chambers, City Hall PRESENT: City Councilor Johana Bencomo, City Councilor Becky Corran, Mayor Eric Enriquez, City Councilor Cassie McClure, City Councilor William Mattiace, City Councilor John Munoz, and City Councilor Michael Harris ABSENT: 1. PETS OF THE WEEK 1.1 Carol Nielson, Animal Services of the Mesilla Valley presented Pets of the Week. 2. AGENDA ITEM 2.1 POLICE SERVICE AIDE (PSA) ORDINANCE REVISION. Brad Douglas, City Attorney gave the overhead presentation. Councilor Harris asked we have got commissioned officers, we have got codes, and animal control and PSAs and park rangers if you could talk a little bit about what kind of training or certifications that the PSAs have relative to those other jobs? Brad Douglas said with regard to the PSA, I know that they have already received training with regard to report writing, citation writing because they already write parking citations. They have had training with courtroom procedure, courtroom demeanor. I do expect that there would be refreshers. Cody Austin, Las Cruces Police Department Special Services Lieutenant said before what I have right here is our most recent academy that we had ran with the PSAs. It is a five-week academy. I would like to provide Ms. Rivera with a copy of them so you all have them. This is our most recent training schedule looks like and then from there I think it will give you a better idea of what they have. If you have a specific question about the duration or time that they receive that training, we can go in depth there. As Ms. Rivera hands those out it is front and back as you will see just like any other city employee who has been hired with the City of Las Cruces the first four days are normally orientation. Part of the onboarding that we have from here we would go into CIT, deescalation, dealing with persons with mental health issues, report writing, crime identification specific to Municipal Code when they are actually investigating a traffic crash they can identify what ordinance to properly cite under. From here we will go into crash investigation. They have already received approximately 40 hours of crash investigations along with search and seizure training, along with some defensive tactics. The PSAs are in a unique role where they have a lot of contact with the public and there may be some things under their authority that they are able handle and we think it is important for them to understand clearly what their roles and boundaries are and if they encounter something that is going to possibly result in an arrest so as the City Attorney alluded to was DWI well then an officer would have to be called. So, then we want them to be trained in observing certain actions, odors, and slurred speech and things of that nature as to where we can get an officer there. Councilor Harris said it is good see that we have specific training for deescalation and dealing with people with mental health issues and mental impairments. I know PSAs probably have a lot of contact with the public and park rangers and those kind of roles too and I guess are there thoughts about adding more of that kind of training into this regime in the future? Lt Cody Austin said yes, this five-week schedule is not set in stone and so if we start to see that maybe we have deficiencies or opportunities to grow we will definitely expand this or make the necessary changes within the schedule. Councilor Corran said I just have to acknowledge that I have been reading the OIR reports and PSAs I would describe them as overrepresented in that sort of accountability measure that we track on and that might have to do on measurement, that might have to do with the types of reports that are a part of it but I am also curious about screening and then follow up for folks in this category because I think especially given that they are interfacing with the public a lot and some of the things that we read in the OIR reports are very troubling. I would like us to have a really tight sort of screening process and then a really strong follow up like we do with sworn officers. I understand that it might not be the same level, but I think those are two areas that would also help have some sort of parity or paying really close attention to it especially if there will be an increased interface, an increased authority given to those folks. So that is one thing that I am curious if you can talk about and then the other part I feel like we are probably not naming this, but I have a sense that there is an eco-system. There is something related to officers and their work which is not what I am considering as part of this but one part of this that I am curious about is my sense is that insurance companies and I don’t want to name villains but I am going to name a villain in this conversation but my sense is that there is increase in this conversation but my sense is that there is increased demands for documentation and accountability in traffic accidents and that is part of this over reporting. So I am just wondering if you can talk a little bit about if this is somewhat a response to a paperwork bureaucratic demand that exists that is totally external to everything that any police officers or anyone has control over but that is effecting our ability to serve the public and you might not want to name a villain specifically but either of you might talk a little bit about paperwork demand, I think it relates to IPRA. I think it relates to how our public records are available and accessible. I just think there is a bigger issue here where we are bearing the burden of basically a private transactional interface which is the whole point of a traffic report I think most of the time and if that is one of the variables that is contributing to this increased response and then I understand the police officers also have increased response to demands but I am hoping you might talk a little bit about that so screening and accountability and the second part of that is how much of this is because insurance companies are going through the rigamarole to get as much documentation as they can to never pay claims? Lt. Cody Austin said we have a very similar hiring process as we do to our cadets. You will actually have your written exam. You are going to have a PT test. You are going to have an oral board and have a psychological, you’re going to have a medical, you’re going to have a polygraph. A lot of those run concurrent to how our academy standards are and what we have seen and reaped the benefit of is we have had four of our PSAs who have taken the step and transitioned into our police academy and will ultimately become officers and so we take it serious when we are trying to see who it is that we are bringing on and we want to hold on to them for as long as possible and so as far as for how we are bringing them on? It is very similar to our cadets. It is a very thorough and vetted process. To your second part, the numbers are concerning and when I looked at this and I see the rise in PSAs taking a number of crashes versus officers, it is a balance and so I looked at it in two parts and so one we can continue to have crashes and then we are very responsive. Or we can try and be somewhat proactive in our higher areas of vehicle crashes to where we will work with our Real Time Crime Center. We are working with our analyst to see and designate what are our highest areas for crashes and then we will send our officers there to target those areas and look at the contributing factors. I have seven motor officers that are assigned to that. You may see some updated post to where we have them taking specific actions in specific areas. While they are busy with that we have the PSAs that are back filling them and helping take crashes as much as possible. We have staggered their schedule from the 7 to 5 and a 10 to 8 o’clock at night to try and capture as much as possible. What it has created is when we have the PSAs unable to issue the citations it has really created a backlog for us because they are having to go back to an officer, pull an officer away to come and issue that citation when they had no real involvement in the case and ultimately leading to subpoenas for them in court and ultimately the implementation of the ROR through Municipal Court. What this would help us do is eliminate that by giving them a little bit more authority than what they already have and the case would stay with them. As far as for your insurance question, it is a hassle. The IPRAs that we get and the speed of which they come in it seems that it is a race just trying to keep up. Councilor Corran said I just want to name that there are other variables that you also are accountable to that are just really bureaucratic BS in that case, I don’t think is making the public any safer. I just think it is saving someone money and for me that stinks in the grand eco system of what we do. I understand how that is a variable in this paperwork, who can issue the paperwork and how it is issued in conversations and I just wanted to name it so thanks. Jeremy Story, Police Chief said just to clarify further Councilor, this really a is response to two issues. One having to call the officer to the scene to issue the citation obviously kind of undermines the whole point that council approved the PSA program which was to free up commissioned officer time but what also happens if there is not an officer available so to complete the crash report they will go back to the station, they won’t issue the citation on scene obviously because they can’t and then they will send a summons in the mail later with the citation, butthat creates problems because it is not on the crash report right of way then it looks like I wasn’t the person who did it and then insurance companies have a hard time figuring who is at fault and then the courts send out notice and if they don’t appear well now they issue a warrant and this person got it in the mail and I think all of us would say I want to actually make sure that I got that citation if I am going to get an arrest warrant. So, this is addressing concerns that Municipal Court has brought to us as well as the issues on scene. Councilor Munoz said if approved this is going to increase interactions. It has the potential to also increase the escalated interactions. I just want to know and probably already had this if not what are the plans for safety equipment like safety vest, Kevlar gloves, other items like that that will equip the PSAs to keep them safe? Lt. Cody Austin said I think it is a valid question and one that we have considered and so some of those things that we have tried to address is through having high visibility uniforms for them, vests along with asp batons and pepper spray. These are things that we would give to them but the goal for them is not to engage, it is to be able to defend themselves and create distance and get away and summons for a police officer to come. I don’t know if the numbers are going to increase that much more drastically because they are already showing up a lot of the time and we have had good success with them already. Councilor Bencomo said when I was first reading about this I also a couple of flags were raised for me regarding OIR reports. I don’t have a perfect memory but I do remember there being several and I think there are at least five reports that included PSAs in the OIR reports and again I don’t remember all of them when they are outcomes but just reminded me that we have had sort of these concerns and so for me I think what I would just love for you to address a little bit more because I think a lot of folks have asked about that but I think for me an increase of authority means an increase of expectation of professionalism and I think I just want to make sure that we speak to that and we are committed to that. Brad Douglas said that is a good point. That is something we that we have kind of thought about so even though these PSAs who are already working have already undergone a lot of trainings with regard to deescalation, professionalism, so on and so forth, what we were talking about if we do identify issues in the early going we will certainly provide them with refresher trainings, we could even and I don’t want to speak for Chief or Lt. Austin but another option is something as simple as something we do for commissioned officers is as issues come up or we see trends that are either concerning or to something that we need to discuss, what we have done in the past is we have to do shift briefing. Like before we used to do before you go on these are the things to consider. These are things that you might want to watch out for, and these are things that you might want to watch out for from yourself as well and so that is something that we anticipate you know there could always be growing pains. We hope not and we don’t think that there will be with this but if there are refresher training, remedial trainings, all of those options are on the table. Lt. Cody Austin said one of the things I would like to add on to that is we already have a good model with Codes and ACO who have a similar authority. So, I don’t think that is going to be a totally new adventure into this. I think the groundwork and the foundation has been laid and if we incorporate the higher standard that we have for our police officers as well then I think that we can measure it and I think Mr. Douglas had touched on a piece of that but I also think there is more with a continued ongoing inservice training and including them more and hopefully we can get there. Councilor Bencomo said I appreciate that follow up from both of you and I appreciate hearing our concerns around it and I think the priority should both be safety for our officers, PSAs, non-commissioned officers included and the public as well. Councilor Mattiace said I just have a different question. It applies to crashes since we have that topic being discussed and how the state ranks, we get rankings like 50th in the nation for education. But what are we on crashes? Is there a rainking? Is there an association that ranks the state, particularly Las Cruces and number of crashes? Lt. Cody Austin said I have looked at that and some of the numbers that I have compared was NMDOT and they have a grant with UNM which generally runs two years behind and they have to glean the data and review it. You will see that our numbers are significantly lower than what they are reporting. The reason for that is because it will include other areas within Las Cruces that definitely do not meet our boundaries so we are getting some of the information from Dona Ana County Sheriffs and New Mexico State Police which isn’t directly tied to us and so if there is correlation between education aspect of it, I couldn’t answer that. What I can tell you is as I look at it is one of the contributing factor. Where is it that we need to be in? Can we be more targeted and more precise? We are trying to reduce those number of crashes, not only through enforcement but through working with our city engineers for roadway design. Councilor Corran said my sense is actually to Councilor Mattiace’s point is that LCPD does an extraordinarily good job of tracking this better than the two-year delay and you all are sort of have a lot more data points. I think that you all have a lot more data points that would be actionable than the folks in the county or in other parts of New Mexico so I really just wanted to say thank you for that and I think this would be and I think this is all about data too, right? Our own paperwork, piles of paperwork that we create. This helps us have that data more meaningfully documented and more consistently documented as you and Chief Story have alluded to. I just wanted to thank you for I think being a leader in the community in that annoying two-year gap report. I know that you guys are more on it than that is so thank you for that. Mayor Enriquez asked when did we start again having PSAs with LCPD? Lt. Cody Austin said June 2016 is when they first came out. Mayor Enriquez asked how many do we currently have? Lt. Cody Austin said we currently have nine full-time positions. Mayor Enriquez said I like the program. I like what it does. It is no different than when we look at priority dispatching, we want to make sure that if we have an extrication or an injury or if we just have a fender bender that we are sending the right resources out there and we are not duplicating services. So, this is a great way of doing it on the police side and it is also training ground. I guess he said that four have converted over to becoming police officers. This is a great introduction to the police service. So, I think this is on the right track and again the checks and balances, I am sure as part of the five-week training and what we have learned since 2016 is continued education in CEs and those types of things. The other thing is more for Legal. If there is any citations that go to Municipal Court who is trying these cases as a case agent? Brad Douglas said so typically these would be officer prosecuted cases. My office for example has taken on a heavier case load with regard certain enumerated crimes. So, the City Attorney’s Office prosecutes DWI for example, battery, assault on a peace officer, shoplifting and a number of others to try to try to have our officers engaging at what we think of as more traditional crime detection, law enforcement activity. So, if this were to pass the PSAs right now, they prosecute their own parking citations, they would be prosecuting these but what I will say is that my office is happy to be a resource for any PSAs that need us because they are going to be taking on increased responsibilities. Mayor Enriquez asked this is similar to our Code Officers and Animal Control but your office is there for any checks and balances, any trends, any things that are taking place that we can see that we need to make some changes or additional training? Brad Douglas said that is correct. Just like we already do for our codes section for our animal control section we will be a resource for those PSAs. 2.2 ANNUAL INSPECTOR GENERAL BRIEF. Charles Tucker, Inspector General gave the overhead presentation. Councilor Harris asked when you say we are allowed 100 complaints on the hotline is that like 100 dials, 100 real complaints? Charles Tucker said if the complainant leaves a complaint that counts as a complaint. So even if it is somebody complaining about people not flushing the toilets in City Hall that counts as a complaint if it goes to the hotline. We have two sides of the hotline. We have an employee side, and we have a public side and all of those count as 100. They are all balled into the same 100 and we have only exceeded that number once since I have been here. Councilor Munoz asked on the complaints that are employee related you said you don’t handle those but those employee relations, you don’t handle those? Charles Tucker said I do if it is something that involves fraud, waste, or abuse. If it is personality issues I will let a director or I will send it to a manager to look at and let them work that through. I try to stay out of stuff that is not fraud, waste, and abuse. Councilor Munoz asked I am assuming that there is some HR training or some sort of training that employees know how or what should go to the hotline or feel comfortable going to the hotline or how does that work? Charles Tucker said I try to stay in my lane with fraud, waste, and abuse. When it comes to HR issues I think by the time I get the complaint they are pretty frustrated so they may have tried to use their managers and especially when it comes to Animal Services Center and they had no Director for a long time, they had an interim and I think there was a lot of finger pointing at people that was going on so that is why I wanted to talk wit the new Director once they are in place and sit down and let them know what I have seen that is come across my desk just to give them a heads up. Councilor Munoz said I was just looking at optimizing your time and ensuring that we are not spending more taxpayer money than we need to spend. Yes, training and communication would definitely help. Councilor Corran said I appreciate that follow up with ASCMV specifically or anytime that you feel that this is happening in an area that you can do this education with folks about the best ways to address it I really appreciate you doing that proactively so thank you. I just sort of wanted to follow up with you all. I know we also in a different presentation when we get climate survey results typically to council. I think some of the things that boil to you are also represented to you and I know we get those each year. I can’t remember what the timeline is for those and then we also get our audit which I think is coming to the next meeting or one of the next two meetings. So just to triangulate some of the things you talked about other domains we do hear about some of those too. So, there is an opportunity for that feedback too, so I appreciate you seeing those different spears and sending things in the different directions that they go. I was hoping you could talk a little bit about how you interface with Oversight Committee. I say this because I also am not on the Oversight Committee and I know that they are working on things, that you work with them pretty closely so I am just hoping that you could just talk a little bit about that just to get us all on the same page because this is the first time we have had this type of conversation so thank you for doing it and being here. Charles Tucker said I do work with the Oversight Committee. We meet sometimes it is once a month. Sometimes it is once every other month. It depends on how many cases we have. Right now, our ordinance calls for me to have my cases go before, anything that I investigate it gets redacted and then it goes to the Oversight Committee for them to review and then they can make comments. If they don’t agree with my findings or they don’t agree with my issues that I identify they have the ability to attach another document to that and that will go to the City Manager. But they review everything that I have done. Councilor Corran said there are connections, but it is also an independent conversation. Charles Tucker said correct. If I am doing something incorrect or if I am standing over something that should not be, like initially we had a problem with our redacting process that was going on with the cases. They were redacted when I would look at them online but somehow when they got emailed all the redactions would be gone, so oh we have to figure that out. So, that was an issue in everything that was just laid wide open and we are trying not to do that because we don’t want to point people out to the public on some of the issues that were taken care of within the city. So, we got that fixed. Yes, everything that I do investigate is reviewed by the Oversight Committee. Councilor Mattiace asked when the Oversight Committee and the Inspector General, there was sort of a sabbatical, how many years was it not happening? Charles Tucker said I can’t remember exactly when we started up again but I know the Oversight Committee closed down in October 2023. That was under Mr. Eakman and then maybe there was a part maybe we went a whole year without an Oversight Committee and then we started back up again. I can’t remember exactly what month it started. Brad Douglas, City Attorney said I believe that we were effectively without an Oversight Committee for approximately 9 or 10 months. Charles Tucker said it may not have been a year then Councilor Mattiace. I also am the liaison for the Veterans Advisory Board. So, I do that as well and I have really, really enjoyed working with my fellow Veterans on that for the city. Now I am taking care of calls coming in from other sources. So, I have a whole folder of complaints that I am working on now from a habitual complainer. Mayor Enriquez asked when you said some of them are either employee relations or policies are you gathering that data to see what those policies are and then the data from maybe where those departments, those employee relation problems are coming from so that it could either be a policy change, training, or something of that effect? Charles Tucker said a lot of times what will happen is when somebody gets on to the hotline and they are making their complaint they will select something like employee relations and it is not really employee relations it something like somebody was acting out during a meeting or something like that and another employee didn’t like it. They don’t want to go to their boss because they fear retaliations so they just call it into the hotline and it is not really an employee relations issue, it’s just personality issues but yes I gather all the data and I have all the data if you we wanted to go through it but anytime we see something where it is a policy issue then that will be addressed if it truly is a policy issue. A lot of times what will happen is when we get these things, everything that I get on the hotline goes to a hotline committee, which consists of the two Assistant City Managers, Brad, and Jo, our HR Director. We all develop a course of action, and those investigations will either be sent down to a director for them to investigate or have one of their subordinates investigate or it will come to me to investigate. Or if it is not even something that we should be taking care of it will go to either Lt. Alva over at the LCPD or we will send it down to whoever it belongs to. If it is one of our JPAs we will send it down there and have them do whatever they need to do with it but anything that is a policy issue, yes, we will look at and make sure that if we need to update our policies we will all talk about it at that point. It is not only me making those decisions, it is everybody on the committee. 3. ADJOURNMENT 3.1 City Councilor Becky Corran moved, seconded by City Councilor Michael Harris, to adjourn at 2:13 p.m. RESULT: Carried MOVER: City Councilor Becky Corran SECONDER: City Councilor Michael Harris AYES: City Councilor Johana Bencomo, City Councilor Becky Corran, Mayor Eric Enriquez, City Councilor Cassie McClure, City Councilor William Mattiace, City Councilor John Munoz, and City Councilor Michael Harris Mayor City Clerk