City Council Meeting January 5, 2026

MINUTES

City Council

Monday, January 5, 2026 @ 1:00 PM

City Council Chambers, City Hall

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

Councilor Johana Bencomo, City Councilor Becky Corran, City Councilor Michael Harris, and City Councilor John Munoz

ABSENT:

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

APPRECIATION/PROCLAMATIONS - COUNCILOR BENCOMO Councilor Bencomo Kasandra Gandara with a proclamation for Youth Mentoring

Month.

Rochelle Miller-Hernandez, Destination Management Director gave a presentation on the Mesilla Valley Balloon Rally. 1.3 JOBS OF THE WEEK. Sarah Raney, Americas Job Centers of New Mexico presented Jobs of the Week. 1.4 PETS OF THE WEEK. Carol Nielson, Animal Services Center of the Mesilla Valley presented Jobs of the

Week.

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

SECTION 2-27 (E)(2) 2.1 None.

3. ORGANIZATIONAL CEREMONY

3.1 SELECTION OF MAYOR PRO TEM. Mayor Enriquez said we will open it up for nominations for Mayor Pro Tem.

Councilor Mattiace said he would like to nominate John Munoz.

Councilor Corran said I would like to nominate Councilor Bencomo.

Christine Rivera, City Clerk said this one is for John Munoz for Mayor Pro Tem.

Councilor McClure, yes, Councilor Mattiace, yes, Councilor Harris, no, Councilor

Corran, no, Councilor Munoz, yes, Councilor Bencomo, no, Mayor Enriquez, yes.

Christine Rivera said he got four votes which makes him the next Mayor Pro Tem.

4. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION 4.1 Liz Rodriguez-Johnson, Member of the Public said here is a list of the top six actions

Las Cruces Utilities is taking that we know of to falsely minimize the number of lead or galvanized pipes that should be replaced. All six maneuvers violate the Lead and

Copper Rule. Number one, attaching non-lead classification to piping by falsely claiming it was installed after the lead ban when it was actually installed before the lead ban. Inventing non-lead classification for piping with no documented records to justify it. Number three, inventing non-lead classification for piping without any justification whatsoever. Number four, falsely classifying piping as non-lead plastic and inventory report even though the inspection report shows that piping is actually lead and/or galvanized which must be replaced. Using an inspection technique that looks exclusively at the meter box, a technique which is not capable of finding lead lined piping or lead or galvanized piping further up the line, both of which EPA has said must be accounted for, leaving half the city off of the inventory and off the inventory map. That is a really effective way of deceptively cutting in half the number of lead pipes that are acknowledged and must therefore be replaced. Every one of these actions by Las Cruces Utilities removes for all practical purposes the effected properties from the list of properties that need piping replaced, which appears to be the city’s goal. This is real, this matters. Every one of these decisions by Las Cruces

Utilities means that fewer lead pipes are being found or acknowledged there are likely to exist in Las Cruces. A city that has significant portions that were built long before the 1986 lead ban. Every one of these actions is unacceptable and clearly violates the rule. Every one of these decisions has the potential to harm the health of city residents, especially children, unborn children, and seniors. Why is the City Manager allowing Las Cruces Utilities to do this? Why is the City Council allowing the City

Manager to allow Las Cruces Utilities to do this? If Las Cruces Utilities is going to such lengths to cover up the true number of lead and galvanized pipes in the city what else is being covered up?

Lynn Moorer, Member of the Public said today for the start of the new year I am going to spell out ways to fix the top ten fixable mistakes in legal deficiencies related to the city’s compliance with the Lead and Copper Rule. Number ten, restore to the online inventory correct installation dates, designation of sensitive populations in

disadvantaged neighborhoods and inspection dates and revised water hook up locations on the maps so they correctly match the property’s address. Number nine, replace the worthless disclaimer that pops up on the web page with a message in

English and Spanish that explains how the website can be translated into Spanish or other language. Number eight, send out notices to all property owners with galvanized piping requiring replacement, all new customers and all of those with unknown service lines. Number seven, apply for more funding to competently carry out all EPA requirements enlisting the help of a different city department to double check the math in all funding applications. Parks and Recreation is filled with friendly people, I am sure they would be willing to help out the Utilities Department. Number six, correct all inventory records so that they actually match the inspection reports and include all the connector materials in the inventory that inspections find. Number five, provide justifications for the characterizations for every single property so people can know why the city thinks a property’s piping is galvanized for example. Number four, correct the characterizations for all properties so that the justification of installation after lead ban is used only for properties whose installation date is actually after 1986. Number three, include all properties on the inventory including all mobile homes so that every single property in the city shows a water hook up if it has one and what kind of piping the city thinks it has. Number two, sample the tap of everyone who requests it. And the number one way to fix the top ten fixable mistakes and legal deficiencies related to the city’s compliance with the Lead and Copper Rule, institute several additional inspection techniques recommended by EPA including but not limited to vacuum excavation, potholing, snaking a camera up the interior of the pipe and/or digging along the entire length of the pipe exterior should so you can actually determine if there is lead lining and/or a piece of recycled lead piping placed somewhere in the middle of a service line and go back and redo all the inspections so far which just looked in the meter box and didn’t use one of these additional procedures.

LaVaughn Hart, Member of the Public said I am the Director of the Spay and Neuter

Action Program, SNAP. I am here today to provide an update on the spay and neuter program that we have going on with the city. As many of you know we are on our second year of the program with the City of Las Cruces and we continue to see significant increases in the number of vouchers issued for spay and neuter surgeries for the pets of low-income residents of Las Cruces. As of December 31st, we are seeing an over 50% increase in the number of voucher requests over the same period last year. This is wonderful for the residents of Las Cruces and their companion dogs and cats. I have provided copies of data showing the results of the first five months of the 25/26 fiscal year. As you will see, almost 470 cats and dogs have been spayed or neutered, 319 have received rabies vaccinations, and 241 have received microchips.

We have already issued over 749 vouchers just in the last five months, yes our participating vets are very busy, and the SNAP office is seldom quiet. While SNAP is delighted to see the increases in the number of surgeries, vaccinations and microchips, these increases have led to SNAP expending the funds provided by the city in just the first five months of the fiscal year. We are aware that these are tight budget times for everyone. However, without additional funding from the city it is likely that SNAP will have to reinstitute co-pays this spring. This is something that the SNAP

Board doesn’t want to do because we know it will impact residents’ ability to avail themselves of our services. We are looking for grants and trying to increase donations, and our goal isn’t to reduce the need or eliminate the need for co-pays. If

any of you have ideas, we are open to them. We are looking at being as creative as we can be. SNAP has received a New Mexico State Spay and Neuter grant for trap neuter release and to increase our outreach to south county but that doesn’t help the residents of Las Cruces directly. We are truly grateful to the City of Las Cruces for supporting our program. It has enabled us to assist a greater number of Las Cruces residents, and we are looking forward to more spays and neuters and happy pets in

2026.

Robert Williams, Member of the Public said I am a business owner and a father. I am here today because there is a lot of economic issues going on that I am concerned about and I am glad that we have people here still trying to get the lead pipe problem fixed. I have been coming off and on for a few years and I can’t believe we are still a few years in and trying to get it fixed, and I know Las Cruces is growing and so I appreciate them always showing up. Seems like when I am here they are always showing up, and it is good to see that, and I am glad that it is kids’ month in January.

We have a lot of things going on politically with immigration. A lot of things that really messes with my mental health and as a student, I am a student at New Mexico State

University getting my master’s degree in business and one of the ways I keep my head organized is through fitness. What is going on with the skate park? So is this like a project that started, and we took funding for something else? Does anybody have any answers as to why we can’t finish it? It looks like it is about 80% complete and it is still locked up. I think you guys should at least open the gate and let us start skateboarding. So, I want to see what is going on? Why is it taking so long? And why does something as simple as that, I know we got parks everywhere. It’s free, it doesn’t cost anything for us to do and even me at 43 years old, I didn’t have a mentor growing up. My mom was a single parent and that was one of the things that I did to meet other kids like to have fun. I just want to see if anyone can give me any answers as to why it is taking so long? I know we got other things going on but like I say can we at least get this one part, project finished up. It doesn’t seem like a big thing and which construction company is doing it? Is it somebody from Las Cruces or do you need a construction company to finish it. What is the hold up on it? Does anybody have any answers on that while I am here?

Nicholas Talent, Member of the Public said I am here to talk a little bit about Parks and Rec. We are a town of 115,000 people odd. How many ADA accessible weight rooms do we have in the city right now? Can anyone answer that? It is zero. We have zero weight rooms in a town of this size. I am a passionate racquetball player, that is what I really love. As of right now we have zero racquetball courts open to the public.

NMSU does but they are 18 plus. For the Youth Mentor Month, they are not allowed to use that. That is my big thing is that I know it is because Meerscheidt is under construction. Why was there no planning with that? Why did we close the racquetball courts at Meerscheidt the day that NMSU closed their racquetball courts for Christmas break? We built the East Mesa Community Center, why isn’t there a weight room in there? There is an outdoor fitness facility. If I could do a chin-up I would do chin-ups at my house. We need equipment. We always hear about Dona Ana County is 40% obese and we make it so hard to even utilize the resources that we have. I have lost

140 pounds going to Meerscheidt in the last three years and I have been slowly watching it become more and more and more difficult to use these facilities that we have. I use pretty much a Parks and Rec facility almost every day if I can. If you don’t

use them we are going to lose them, that is one of my beliefs. In the last 6 months the bathroom at Burn Lake has been open for one day when the soccer fields were being utilized and those port-a-johns there are like nightmares. I don’t understand why this is the case. There must be some reason for it but I just don’t understand it. The racquetball courts at Meerscheidt are being used for storage. Why don’t we get storage units or portables outside for the people to work out of. The one court has been used for storage for three years. This is not a new thing for the construction, two years before the construction it was being used for storage.

Cindy Habor, Member of the Public said I am a big animal advocate. I have fostered dogs for probably 20 or more years in the state that I used to live in and in this state. I have done it with our shelter. I have also done it with rescues, and I am really pleased that we’re getting this spay and neuter thing that it has been enhanced, it has been improved in the last year and I really do appreciate it. Yesterday I saw a petition going around and it addressed some of the issues that I have been very concerned with about what is going on at the Mesilla Valley Rescue Center for dogs, animals and pets and it is about euthanasia rates. When I first moved here we did not have the euthanasia rates that we have now and at that time I saw posted many pets were euthanized on a regular basis. I am not seeing that now. I don’t know if they are not being posted or if I am not looking in the right places, but I am not seeing them. I have heard from different rescues, I do keep up with the rescues that they are having difficulties getting enough notice about the at risk pets in the thing, that they don’t have enough notice to try to place them and there were a couple that were only, there was a notice like two hours before they were going to be euthanized. We also need something to change. So, we will only euthanize animals that have an untreatable and/or suffering condition or if they are at a major, a huge behavioral risk but not some that have little issues that a trainer could work with or anybody who has worked with trainers.

Juan Garcia, Member of the Public said the Regional Aquatic Center is an excellent, excellent fitness center. This is particularly good for people my age. It can cater to younger folks to but it is a great place to go. Happy New Year and congratulations to our new and returning councilors, best of luck. I woke up on January 3rd and switched on the news. The American military had just wrapped up an operation in Venezuela.

No reported US or Venezuelan casualties. Minimal fire power used, mostly to keep hostile forces at bay. It was nothing like the chaotic and deadly Afghanistan withdraw under Biden. Now the former Venezuelan leader is in the US to face trial. “Since 2019 more than 50 countries including the US have refused to recognize Maduro. Maduro leads the Cartel of the Sons, a Venezuelan drug trafficking organization comprised of high-ranking Venezuela officials. From Pew Research over 650,000 illegal

Venezuelan immigrants reside in the US. And why are they coming? Venezuelan’s have fled their homes due to hyperinflation, severe shortages in food, medicine, high poverty, and a traumatic contraction of JDP making basic necessities unaffordable for many, authoritarian rule, a lack of democratic freedoms and government repression, heightened levels of insecurity, and violence all under the regime of the Dictator

Maduro and a failed socialist state. Mayor Mamdani from New York and Senator

Soules, is strong admirer of Mamdani might learn from this lesson. So why are we having protest by the left in support of this atrocious dictator? Plenty on the left are experts of spreading misinformation including the New Mexico Delegation and frankly

quite a few folks in our twisted upside-down community. Why? Because of the hatred for the President. On 21 June 2020, Biden stated, “Trump talks tough on Venezuela but admires thugs and dictators like Maduro, as President I will stand with Venezuela and for democracy”. I guess those were pretty empty words, standing by a dictator who is allegedly murdered thousands and has nearly destroyed his country is despicable but many of our friends on the left don’t care. Their hatred for Trump supersedes. This is the upside-down world that we live in today.

Donna Stryker, Member of the Public said I would like to congratulate Councilman

Harris and Councilman Munoz. Thank you for your willingness to serve not only your district but your community as a whole. I would like to thank all of the councilors for their willingness to serve even if we don’t agree. It is hard to be an elected official.

Today I would like to issue all of you, including you Mayor a challenge. I would like you to ask yourself in your heart of hearts which type of elected official you are?

There are two kinds. The one that truly in their hearts wants to be change in the world, wants to help others, and wants to make a difference in the lives of their constituents, their city, their community through selfless service, no agenda, no behind the scene deals, no but truly service. I have met a couple of you and I applaud you and I have listened, learned and grown from that interchange. The other kind is not here to serve the community or their district or the city of Las Cruces, there is an agenda, self- serving, bigger plans and it is not about selfless service. It is about the end game, the big picture. Regardless of what you are my challenge to you, each and every one of you is to have a town hall, each of you, some of you have but all of you and meet with the City Manager, have him arrange for the department heads to attend, give plenty of notice after work for those voters and constituents that have to worry about how to attend a meeting like this and more importantly don’t talk, listen. Don’t tell everybody how great you are and what you have done, what you are going to do, etcetera. Ask them what they want, what they need, what are their concerns about? If you truly wish to serve this community instead of yourself and you want to serve your district and this city don’t talk. Listen, truly listen. You will not always hear what you want but unless you actually listen, actually ask your districts, your city’s concerns and what they are, how can you serve effectively? Your job is not to serve special interest groups only. Your job is to serve the people of this city when you were sworn into office the oath was very easy to understand. I challenge you to show me and all of us in this community in 2026 just which kind of elected official you really are.

Liz Bennett, Member of the Public said I want to start off the new year by welcoming the new city council members with an urgent reminder and plea as you face the work ahead of you to please carry with you the charge to invest in care not criminalization.

The militarization of civilian life and the criminalization of the human struggle creeps into our city through the targeting of black and brown communities, the criminalization of poverty, the use of lethal force in response to mental health crisis and the use of mass surveillance technology like the unsecured AI powered Flock cameras currently placed throughout Las Cruces. I want to acknowledge that there are genuine concerns to respond to around community safety but how we respond matters. The effectiveness, of the strategies that we use matters. A take them out and lock them up approach is ineffective and in fact perpetuates the cycles of poverty, trauma and discrimination that breed violence in the first place. Historical and empirical data spell out the facts that investing in education and employment opportunities free accessible

public spaces and services, opportunities to connect with peers, diversion programs and common-sense gun control laws are the types of initiatives that truly prevent harm and promote community safety particularly among young people. On the contrary, incarceration often increases the likelihood of reoffending and recidivism. I have provided several research articles that go into further detail. It is right here in our own backyards among our elected officials and community advocates where we have the most power to act in accordance with our values in the face of the dangerous national and local trends to maximize state aggression. Las Cruces as a community has demonstrated our capacity to invest in each other’s wellbeing. It is a part of our identity that we must intentionally and purposefully hold on to. Please hold this at the forefront of discussions on how to invest the $11 million of additional annual GRT funds, keeping in mind that the community clearly voice their support for funding libraries, affordable housing, parks and trails, over the harmful and traumatizing expansion of carceral infrastructure.

Lucas Herndon, Member of the Public said it is a new year, it is 2026 and that gives us some statistics to look back on for the year 2025. Police killings were slightly down in 2025, 2024 remains the highest year on the books for police killings. Unfortunately, despite that overall national statistic New Mexico still led the way as the most deadly state for citizens to be killed by the police in 2025. This city, our city continues to tolerate a Police Chief who uses his position for political purposes. I have brought it up multiple times, as have others. It has been well documented and as of last month when I spoke it was unquestioned, right? The event that he spoke at was a political rally by the Republicans held at the school board not an official state business but a political rally and while we all have a right to express our personal opinion when in uniform and on the clock my understanding is as an employee the Chief is not in a situation where he gets to do that. Later today and I can’t stay to talk about it and I understand that we are asked to speak on these things, but I am on my lunch break so later today the city will be affirming an MOU with the cop union to give the cops raises. I oppose this on the grounds that the cops already have the second largest line item of the entire city budget and when it comes to the percentages overall, they are the only line item that is over 20% which is one in five of my dollars goes in paying cops. That again statistically are the most deadly in the country when it comes to us moving around as supposedly free citizens. I know that there has been consternation at me speaking on this issue. I just want to reassure you, the council and all my fans behind me, that I will be here all year reminding you about this as long as it remains an issue.

Vic Villalobos, Member of the Public said I haven’t been here for a while. I assure you

I have been staying busy trying to raise money for the city for the city council with my taxes and you are welcome to take two of my five dollars to pay for the Police

Department when you give them that raise, I am more than happy to do that. I am here actually to say that we don’t always get to be here but the majority of us, and I say the majority of this city is in support of law enforcement the way it is done. I should want to thank Chief Story specifically for the latest Bridging the Badge. I was completely aware of youth crime in our city and I am pretty hard to shock and I have to tell you that when I saw the videos of what some of these youth are doing in our community I was shocked and it really surprised me that you have this underlying factor and yes things are getting better in many aspects of what we do when it comes

to law enforcement and by the way I completely support Veterans in law enforcement, as a Veteran I take some offense that people don’t like the discipline and maybe the support of our country that it created in me but I think it is a good thing and I think it is a good thing to instill in our law enforcement and Fire Department. I look back at two years ago tomorrow which would be the day that my friend and teammate in Search and Rescue, Mitch Russell who was starting his young life, he got a new job with the

Forest Service where he was going to be maintaining a pack of wild horses which was his dream up in Northen New Mexico and part of Colorado. He had been recently engaged and had came down to visit with me and a few other people and two days after that he went to Walmart to get some stuff for his grandma and he saw someone breaking into cars and decided he should intervene, as I would have and many of us would. That person shot Mitch three times in the chest and killed him. That person started out as a juvenile. His criminal history was long. It started with just abusing women, I believe he had a rape charge in there, he had interactions with police where he had actually gotten into a gun fight with police. He was a known problem. There was no incarceration for him when he was young. There was also no treatment for him which I agree we need treatment for youth, not necessarily just incarceration and as he grew to an adult turning 18 that is when he escalated to doing what he did. That person served less than six months because of a judge here in our community who let him go and so what I am saying here today is support the Chief, support what he wants in Santa Fe, and bring change because it has to start with our youth.

Lonnie Montgomery, Member of the Public said I am a follower of Jesus Christ. And I don’t think they have done away with prayer so I would like to pray for you people. I appreciate you being elected and hope you take care of God’s constituents better known as taxpayers. Dear Lord God, thank you for these people that they have decided to serve, and I ask blessings of discernment and wisdom that they could come to good decisions for everybody within the city in Las Cruces. This I pray in the power of Jesus name, Amen. And since I can speak on anything I am going to take full advantage. Being a former teacher I am going to come as part of my riff raff report

I would like to do on different things on teaching that some people may have missed out when they were going through schools in this area and other areas and so I started with the Constitution of the United States and the beginning of the Christian

Republic. The first thing that Ben Franklin wanted to do was pray, so they did. Were they Christians? Yes, they were. Wiliam Penn was a Quaker, George Washington was an Angelican, Charles Kean was Catholic, John Adams a Congregationalist, but all were Christians. They believed we were endowed according to Declaration of

Independence by our creator with certain inalienable God given rights among those are life and liberty in the pursuit of happiness. So why did the break away from

George III. He established tyranny against the states, the forbad their government from passing laws without his decent, he dissolved representation, repeatedly he made judges depend on his will alone to establish new offices to harass the people and so on and so forth. Standing armies among the people without their consent, cut off trade with the rest of the world and impose taxes without representing the citizens which we could learn from, and sent Americans to Britian to be tried, splendid, and the legislature abolished the laws. So, we got together and they said they wrote the

Constitution and, in the Constitution, they have certain amendments and certain things that people thing that are in there but are not. That will be continued on the next riff raff report.

Derrick Pacheco, Member of the Public said I live at 640 South Mesquite, in the

Historic Mesquite Neighborhood. My family has been on the block for over one hundred years. I am highly invested in what I am about to say right now to all of you.

On Wednesday, September 10th at 9:28 a.m. I asked a sitting city councilor on the bench right here, “could we organize a community meeting regarding the nearly 100

Flock cameras coming to Cruces? I don’t feel good about it at all to be honest”. The response, “let me ask Story when there might be another town hall. We are actually touring RTCC tomorrow so I should have more info then”. That never happened. I am here today to ask you to bring forward a resolution to cancel the city’s contract with

Flock Safety. Remove the cameras and require deletion of locally stored data that is not tied to a specific lawful investigation. Before I get into the reasons, I want to briefly explain what Flock actually is because many people hear the word camera and think it is just another traffic cam. Flock is not a normal camera. It is a license plate surveillance system that automatically photographs every vehicle that passes, records the time, location, vehicle type, color, bumper stickers and travel patterns and stores that info in a searchable database. A simple way to think about it especially for those of us who grew up before smartphones is this, imagine if in the 70’s or 80’s the city had stationed a police officer on every major road, writing down every license plate where you were and when you passed even though you had done nothing wrong and then kept those notebooks for months. That is what Flock does except it does it 24 hours a day automatically and at a scale that no human could ever do. Now let’s talk about why cities from across the country are walking away from Flock. In just the past year multiple cities have canceled or declined to renew their Flock contracts including

Flagstaff, Arizona, Eugene, Oregon, Cambridge, Massachusetts, San Marcos, Texas.

These cities have cited concerns about privacy, cost, outreach, and lack of measurable public safety benefits and those concerns turned out to be justified.

Recent investigative reporting revealed that live video feeds and administrative panels from Flock cameras were exposed on the open internet meaning that strangers could watch real time surveillance footage and access stored data. Cities affected included

Bakersfield, California and Brookhaven, Georgia.

Jim Wilcox, Member of the Public said today I am celebrating five years of living in

Las Cruces and I wanted to go back and look at some of the great things that have happened since I have been here. This is not an exhaustive list, and it is not in any particular order but one of the things I want to recognize that the council did was the dog spay and neuter ordinance and we heard about that today and I think it is a great thing that you have done that and I think it is going to help a lot of animals avoid the ultimate consequence that some of them see. Also, the TNR Trapping Neutering and

Return of cats, when I got here there was a cat hanging around and she bred and I said what is going on here you know? And so then I noticed that she was gone and this other black male cat was gone for a little while and they came back with clipped ears and the little grey female I got and enticed her and she had gotten beat up by another cat and she got inside the house and now she is my indoor feral cat and I have another guy outside that has his own kitty condo, he’s got a heater, he won’t come in but he is having a good time out there and then I rescued another guy that was hit on the street so that has been a great thing. Also, I wanted to point out that plastic bag ban when I got here that was a discussion and the council at that time passed it and one of the things we do is not notice what didn’t happen. So we don’t

notice how few bags are out flying around because when I got here they were flying around all over the place like it was snowing and if you go out towards Burn Lake area, that big field out there used to be full of plastic bags and now you don’t see one every once in a while so try to remember what it was like then. Try to remember how great now because it wasn’t before. Also, Mira Celebration, that is a great celebration.

Whoever is putting that on is doing a great job. I got to see everyone bouncing around out in front of the plaza. They had great music, they had people in these costumes, and it was like Carnival and I was like wow, this is really great. This is something that they don’t have to pay for. The city picks up the tab or somebody is picking up the tab, sponsors. It is a great program, and it is great to see you guys smiling because you that is also lots of fun. Last but not least is the weed ordinance, the one you recently passed. Now people know which plants they have to pull out and which ones they can keep because they are native plants. Of course shepherding that and I like to call it the Wilcox Weed Ordinance but that is just something that we can just leave for another day. So those are the five top things that you guys have done, and I want to congratulate you. It is really great working with you and I am going to plan that I am going to stay even though Eugene was brought up today, my old hometown I am still staying.

Jim Hoerst, Member of the Public said I just have to defend separation of church and state. Some people wrap themselves in ignorance and pretend it is knowledge. It is really easy to read works by George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas

Jefferson, and James Madison and those guys who we consider to be the founders of this country. Franklin and Jefferson and Madison were deists, as well as Thomas

Payne and many others and they decided to form a government not based on religion.

Not based on the divine right of kings. Our government is instituted by the people. Not

God, us. It is our government. We each answer to God individually if at all. No government person has the right to tell us what to believe, what not to believe, where to go to worship, or any such thing. They are not allowed to use public facilities to promote religion, they are not allowed to make religious declarations as though they knew something about God because they were elected to office. They simply serve the people, and religion is strictly the people’s business and not the government.

George Pearson, Member of the Public said I am the Vice President of VeloCruces, the local bicycle and pedestrian advocacy group. About a month ago I was here with the sad news of two pedestrians’ fatalities in our community. Today we have news on two more pedestrian crashes. One resulting in fatality and the other in a severe injury.

We need to actively work towards Vision Zero with actions to improve transportation safety in Las Cruces. Some actions have been taken but it is working at the speed of government. Safe Streets for All grant was successfully received and the RFP for that

I believe is in process, but I haven’t heard a current update on that. This will be a useful tool towards Vision Zero. Also, the city is hosting a bicycle friendly community meeting on January 14th at 10 a.m. in the Roadrunner Room at Branigan Library.

This is to work towards the city’s application for a bicycle friendly community, and this also works hand in hand in improving safety for bicyclists and pedestrians. All of those interested should please attend. There are also a couple of other action items, I hope council could direct staff to implement it. Joining the Vision Zero Network should be done. There is no cost to the city, but this could be done perhaps through a resolution setting out city policy to accomplish this task. There is also another practical step for a

current construction project. The University Avenue Multimodal Project currently under construction is designed with twelve-foot travel lanes, except where it is right- of-way constrained where elven foot travel lanes are used. Narrower travel lanes are known to help reduce travel speeds and improve safety. There is a peer reviewed academic paper from John Hopkins with this conclusion and also guidance on the

FHWA website recommending narrower lanes. Most of the twelve-foot travel lane in the project are inside city limits. My ask is that council direct staff to formally contact

NMDOT and ask that 11-foot travel lanes be used for the entire length of the project.

5. ACCEPTANCE OF AGENDA City Councilor Becky Corran moved, seconded by City Councilor Michael

Harris, to accept the agenda as presented.

RESULT: Carried

MOVER: City Councilor Becky Corran

SECONDER: City Councilor Michael Harris

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

Mattiace, City Councilor Johana Bencomo, City Councilor Becky Corran, City

Councilor Michael Harris, and City Councilor John Munoz

6. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES 6.1 REGULAR CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF DECEMBER 1, 2025. 6.2 WORK SESSION OF DECEMBER 8, 2025.

7. RESOLUTION(S) AND/OR ORDINANCE(S) FOR CONSENT AGENDA 7.1 RESOLUTION NO. 26-080: A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING AN EXISTING

CONTRACT PURCHASE AGREEMENT FOR SWEEPER EQUIPMENT,

PARTS, AND LABOR WITH TEXAN WASTE EQUIPMENT, INC. VIA

BUYBOARD CONTRACT 775-25 FOR A POSSIBLE TERM THROUGH

JUNE 30, 2028 IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $250,000 PLUS

APPLICABLE TAXES ANNUALLY, SUBJECT TO ANNUAL RENEWALS

AND APPROVED BUDGET APPROPRIATIONS (PROCUREMENT NO. 25-

26-045). 7.2 RESOLUTION NO. 26-081: A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING AN INCREASE

IN THE ANNUAL SPENDING LIMIT FOR THE AGREEMENT WITH TURNER

PUBLIC RELATIONS, LLC OF DENVER, COLORADO FOR PUBLIC

RELATIONS SERVICES FOR VISIT LAS CRUCES TO AN AMOUNT NOT

TO EXCEED $130,000 PLUS APPLICABLE TAXES ANNUALLY, SUBJECT

TO ANNUAL RENEWALS AND APPROVED BUDGET APPROPRIATIONS (PROCUREMENT NO. 24-25-018). 7.3 RESOLUTION NO. 26-082: A RESOLUTION APPROVING A WAIVER FROM

100% OF THE REQUIRED ROAD IMPROVEMENTS TO PECAN LANE

ASSOCIATED WITH A PROPOSED SUBDIVISION KNOWN AS LUJAN

TRACTS ON A 2.05 ACRE PARCEL LOCATED AT 6401 JEFFERSON

LANE.

8. RESOLUTION(S) AND/OR ORDINANCE(S) FOR DISCUSSION 8.1 PUBLIC HEARING REQUIRED. RESOLUTION NO. 26-083: A

RESOLUTION APPROVING THE REQUEST FOR A RESTAURANT A –

BEER AND WINE LIQUOR LICENSE, NO. BLA-0000014270, WITH ON

PREMISES CONSUMPTION ONLY TO LA HOT POT & BBQ, LLC., D/B/A

LA HOT POT & BBQ LOCATED AT 840 S. TELSHOR BOULEVARD, LAS

CRUCES, NM 88011. The public hearing began at 2:12 p.m. There was no one for or against. Public hearing ended at 2:12 p.m.

Adam Ochoa, Senior Urban Planner gave the overhead presentation.

Mayor Enriquez asked that previous location did serve alcohol before, right?

Adam Ochoa said I believe it had the same license. It was an older one, they just called it a beer and wine only liquor license. The State of New Mexico has updated their slew of liquor licenses they provide now. But yes, they did serve alcohol there before as well. City Councilor Becky Corran moved, seconded by City Councilor Johana

Bencomo, to Approve Resolution No. 26-083.

SECONDER: City Councilor Johana Bencomo

Councilor Michael Harris, and City Councilor John Munoz 8.2 RESOLUTION NO. 26-084: A RESOLUTION APPROVING A

MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING WITH THE LAS CRUCES POLICE

OFFICERS ASSOCIATION IN ACCORDANCE WITH LAS CRUCES

MUNICIPAL CODE, SECTION 15-14, SCOPE OF BARGAINNG. Jose Vargas, HR Assistant Director gave the overhead presentation.

Councilor Munoz asked is that pay going to be retro or is that going to be from

December to December?

Jose Vargas said the MOU itself states that it will take effect the first full pay period once it has been ratified by council so if everything goes through today it would take affect January 11th.

Councilor Mattiace said I just had a ranking question. Being the second largest city in

New Mexico where do we stand on the pay in comparison with the ranking let’s say with the other cities?

Jose Vargas said from studies that we did back in September is the latest information we are currently 15th in the state when it comes to pay.

Councilor Bencomo said just to follow up on that question. Do you have data on the discrepancy between 10,11,12,13,14,15?

Jose Vargas said I do have some data. So as of September in order to break into the top 10 we are about $1.50 off an hour.

Councilor Bencomo asked can you talk about sort of the other benefits that are included in this in terms of our insurance and things like that?

Jose Vargas asked yes in terms of retention things that we have?

Councilor Bencomo said yes.

Jose Vargas said we do have some incentives with PD as well. Depending on the degree and depending on background we do have I believe up to $25,000 for some incentives and in terms of benefits we do have 82% of employer pay benefits for medical and for dental. We do have tuition reimbursement and then for PERA we do have a PERA pick up plan where we do pay a percentage on the employees’ behalf for their retirement as well.

Councilor Bencomo asked on the 82%, just for the public to clarify the city for insurance benefits pays for 82%?

Jose Vargas said correct, absolutely. When it comes to that benefit out of 100% of the pie the city pays for 82% of that.

Juan Garcia, Member of the Public said when I heard 15th in the state it is pretty sad.

Yes, thanks to the councilor over here for bringing up the benefits and everything else, I certainly appreciate it but with a high level of crime that the city has, 15th, that is pretty sad council. Hopefully you will revisit that number to make sure that our officers are well compensated in order to attract them and help address the issue that we currently have in Las Cruces. City Councilor John Munoz moved, seconded by City Councilor Becky Corran, to Approve Resolution No. 26-084.

MOVER: City Councilor John Munoz

SECONDER: City Councilor Becky Corran

Councilor Michael Harris, and City Councilor John Munoz 8.3 RESOLUTION NO. 26-085: 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

FY2026 BUDGET AND AN AMENDMENT TO THE FY2026 VEHICLE

ACQUISITION LIST. Gaby Prats, Grant Manager gave the overhead presentation.

Mercedes Tomayko, Management Analyst continued overhead presentation.

Councilor Harris said on the inductive chargers for the buses, if I remember correctly, we had talked about doing that some time ago. The project was being held up by needing a battery or something from EPE. So, is this for the first phase of the project or did we figure out how to get it done for that $100,000 or is that a question for

Richard?

Gaby Prats said there was some hiccups with the funding and it was funding that was awarded and then taken away and then they changed the RFP so there has been quite a bit of upheaval at FTA not necessarily with us.

Councilor Harris said I understood that there was two parts of it and they lost some. I am curious about the pedestrian roadway improvements related to the Community of

Hope. What does that look like? Is that improvements on Amador, inside the facility?

Natalie Green, Neighborhood and Housing Revitalization Administrator said the project is on Amador. It is one moving the pedestrian crossway further west and then also adding a Hawk system. As you the pedestrians cross that street often and so the

Hawk will be closer to the trail Armijo Lateral and Amador Crossing Apartments.

Councilor Harris said I actually got a comment from a resident about the area. I don’t know if it is related to that since I am thinking about it I wanted to pass on that the signals on Compress are not ADA accessible, the buttons. So, I don’t know if that can be fixed or added to this kind of thing since it sounds like it is pedestrian improvements?

Gaby Prats said that would definitely be something that we will pass on to Public

Works.

Councilor Harris asked the Integrated Health Care Building, I am new so I would love some more details about that? And what the plan for that is?

Gaby Prats said the Fire Department has identified Station No. 3 as the location where they would like to build the MIH building. The MIH building is a central location for two projects, Project LIGHT and MIH and the staff there provide services not only when they go out on calls but also, they provide continuing services such as counseling, support to the community, it is a nice location that is easily accessible through public transportation so that is partly why they chose that particular site. The building needs quite a bit of work. It is in a state of not great repair and so the funding for all of this is not only to just improve the building, bring it up to code but also to furnish it, equip it so that staff will have a central location from where to operate. I am not sure if you are aware but the Fire Department Administrative Offices are pretty much at capacity so this a very needed project.

Councilor Harris asked this is both for staff and for members of the public to go and receive those services?

Gaby Prats said that is specifically for people who are in crisis and usually that is folks who have been affected by crime that may have been serviced by police or fire.

Councilor Harris asked what kind of improvements are required to the airport if any to support the Phoenix route? Since that is interstate do we need TSA to like set up something?

David Sedillo, Interim Assistant City Manager said there are not other requirements.

The grant itself provides the funding for that is the Rural Service Air Flight that is going to be provided, we are just changing the route.

Councilor Harris asked is there maybe more specifics on what the Real Time Crime

Center upgrades were proposed to be in terms of bandwidth? Are we running a bunch of new fiber out to traffic cameras? What are we talking about for that project?

Jeremy Story, Police Chief said right now we are still figuring it out. We are working with IT and Public Works to figure out what infrastructure we have and what we need to improve that so there is a possibility that we lay additional fiber although that money will not go very far if we do that. So, we are looking at broadband options and how we can make the most of that money that we have but there is a few different things at play right now. The goal is to actually increase the infrastructure that we have in the city which right now is kind of a hodgepodge and to plan out for the future a little better.

Councilor Bencomo said on page 15 you had mentioned the Lift Up site, that the site was not identified yet? I am curious if you could explain that a little bit more. Is that funding going toward changes in the current Lift Up site that has been identified or are they set for a new identified Lift Up?

Natalie Green said the Lift site has been identified. It is actually Sacramento, so it is the original Lift Up Neighborhood 1, and it is for planning and design for improvements to Sacramento Road.

Councilor Bencomo asked for what to Sacramento Road?

Natalie Green said Sacramento Road, near the Apodaca Park so it is in District 1.

Councilor Bencomo asked what is it going to be like lighting updates? Actual infrastructure?

Jimmy Moreno, Public Works Interim Assistant Director said Sacramento is currently at 90% designed. So, it will be roadway improvements, street lighting improvements, other ADA improvements throughout that corridor. So, we are looking to bid that near summertime.

Councilor Bencomo said over the holiday break I saw a great article in the New York

Times about Philadelphia and how they used similar programs like this to reduce

crime by beautifying neighborhoods and it seems so simple but it is so effective and they talk about how effective it has been and Philadelphia and so I just want to lift up our Lift Up program. It is evidence based and it is just a good idea to continue to do this so thank you staff for continuing to make that a priority. Given the information you had on the Active Transportation Plan Mayor I would love to request a Work Session on that. I would love to know updates on the Active Transportation. I would love to know how this kind of funding is being spent and where there are gaps still. I think that is a really important conversation we need to be having right now. So that would be my request and then just lastly for City Manager. I feel like there has been quite a shift in a way that legislators are talking about capital outlay in terms of accountability and I think just like the uncertainty there is at the state level are vulnerable with funding and revenues and things like that and I think they are going to start looking at capital outlay much differently and so I just want us to have that in the back of our minds and perhaps even have, I don’t want to add a lot more on staff. I don’t want to say quarterly updates, but I would love more consistent updates just so that we are also better stewards of that message with our legislators in terms of how we are good stewards of that money and are spending it wisely.

Councilor Mattiace asked if I could go to page 14? I have had residents, and I think I have discussed this with you already Steven on Salopek Park. We had that homicide there in that park and there is about 15-20 neighbors that have been asking for increased lighting. Is there something maybe you can do with this money and maybe go over and say yes to them?

Steven Bingham, Parks and Rec Director said we had a purpose for this money identified.

Councilor Mattiace asked can you repurpose it?

Steven Bingham said let me get with my staff and see what we can do but we are aware of your request and have been trying to discuss it internally and weigh it against a lot of different requests and we will put something forward in the budget proposal for city council to consider among numerous park projects for this coming budget year.

Councilor Mattiace said whatever support from the Mayor and council I would appreciate it as well and City Manager.

Ikani Taumoepeau, City Manager said at the Budget Retreat we will talk about GRT allocations and so if this is something that you would like to bring up as well. This can be a priority from you and if there is consensus, we can move that way as well. I just wanted to share that avenue. City Councilor Becky Corran moved, seconded by City Councilor Johana

Bencomo, to Approve Resolution No. 26-085.

Councilor Michael Harris, and City Councilor John Munoz 8.4 RESOLUTION NO. 26-086: A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING AN UPDATE

TO THE VEHICLE ACQUISITION PROGRAM. Mercedes Tomayko, Management Analyst gave the overhead presentation.

Councilor Munoz said electrification is of interest to me whether it is buildings or vehicles. I was wondering if you have, if not you can get me later where are we to goal or what percentage of vehicles are in the mix as far as electric?

Mercedes Tomayko said currently we are at 6% that is electric and hybrid. We are in the process of trying to move forward in purchasing and manufacturer availability has been one of our issues and so we are looking at different manufacturers currently so that we can bring in more electric vehicles. City Councilor John Munoz moved, seconded by City Councilor Becky Corran, to Approve Resolution No. 26-086.

Councilor Michael Harris, and City Councilor John Munoz 8.5 RESOLUTION NO. 26-087: A RESOLUTION APPROVING A

REIMBURSEMENT AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE CITY OF LAS CRUCES

AND NM VALENCIA, LLC, FOR AN IMPROVED NEIGHBORHOOD PUBLIC

PARK CONSISTING OF 2.026 ACRES KNOWN AS TRACT A OF ARROYOS

AT SETTLERS PASS PHASE 2 IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $533,000. Katherine Harrison-Rogers, Parks Plan & Construction Administrator gave the overhead presentation.

Councilor Corran said I have just a couple of clarification sort of things I was curious about. One was the size of the park which is under what we expect for neighborhood parks but I did also notice that in the documents that there was a bunch of other swaths of park land that might be related to this and both for my own sort of interest I understand the context of why we expect neighborhood parks to be larger but why smaller parks are sort of problematic in the scope of sort of taking care of them as the city takes over them and the other swaths on the image are very small so I was curious if you could talk a little bit about that overall picture of where those green spaces, I would call them green spaces, I would assume they are green spaces kinds of things are and then also I know that there is a new development that is happening right now and you alluded to the Park Impact Fee structure that will be part of but I just wanted to double check on the future parks that are coming. I know the neighborhood is really worried about a number of things, traffic but I think that they are also hoping for robust sort of trails and spaces for folks to be outside so I hope you can talk about the bigger context for future developments and then why this is sort of in this odd space and generally for my new colleagues on council we did have

a serious conversation about this idea of two versus three acre parks and I think we were really intentional in setting that are a little bit higher. I understand the context of this, but I just want to reassert that I would just like us to make sure that we are putting things at the three or higher realm.

Katherine Harrison-Rogers said I am going to go another visual so you can have a clear idea of what we are talking about. I would like to point out only Phase I which down here and Phase II, have been adopted as part of the master plan. Any of these other phases that you see sort of on the left-hand side of this screen have yet to be approved but they are conceptual in nature. In the long term discussions there was a discussion to actually add an additional acre to this two-acre park to have a three-acre park. Additionally, we have had a lot of discussions again with the design professionals and the developers about making sure that all of the other park spaces are connected in some sort of way to a trail system. One of the exceptions that we have in Realize Las Cruces for future park development is that we can consider sites that are less than three acres in size in so long as all of their parts are connected, ie. a trail system, maybe parklets in a larger park are at least three acres serving it and neighborhood if that makes any sense. In this particular context that is ultimately what we have discussed and what we envision. Again it is up to the developer to move forward with an amendment to a master plan to add those additional lands and then of course add those parks but even if they weren’t to proceed today as we move forward and lets say ten years from now they decide to move forward the premise of those would still stand and we would still want to consider some connections and additiions to existing parks that may stand alone and hopefully that answers your questions.

Councilor Corran said it does. This was actually the very confusing and that looks like a whole bunch of tiny places that we would have to be worrying about discontiguous, which is part of what we really hope and what the. I think the neighborhood is looking for that trail system that you alluded to so thank you for articulating that and sharing this picture and helps me and the neighborhood understand the future plans as well.

Councilor Harris asked if we don’t collect the $533,000 and the developer spends that whole amount are we still reimbursing for that or is it only up to the amount that is actually collected based on the size of the lots?

Katherine Harrison-Rogers said ultimately because the city is under one park district if you will we can actually utilize any unincumbered collected fees that preceded this to pay or reimburse the developer back in so long as all of the documentation susses out. We are not obligated to collect $533,000 if you will in this particular neighborhood. It could have come from elsewhere or collected in the past.

Councilor Bencomo said I feel like you have gotten really good at reading our minds already because you knew exactly what we were going to ask and that is why you started your presentation the way you did. I am curious about because you said there would be less and less like this but I am curious about how many agreements like this are still in the docket?

Katherine Harrison-Rogers said at this time because of the approval dates on this

particular project this is really just one of the last ones that you will see like this. I am trying to think in my brain if there are any that I am forgetting but I don’t believe so.

You may in the future see community parks or if a developer goes above and beyond the minimum requirements, we may want to develop an agreement to reimburse them for going beyond and above the minimums so that is a possibility in the future but we are not quite there yet.

City Councilor John Munoz moved, seconded by City Councilor Becky Corran, to Approve Resolution No. 26-087.

9. BOARD APPOINTMENTS 9.1 COUNCILOR HARRIS IS APPOINTED TO THE ASCMV, MPO, AIRPORT,

AND CITY ART BOARD. 9.2 COUNCILOR MUNOZ IS APPOINTED TO THE SOUTH CENTRAL SOLID

WASTE AUTHORITY, SOUTH CENTRAL REGIONAL TRANSIT. 9.3 MAYOR ENRIQUEZ IS APPOINTED TO THE OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE.

9.4 COUNCILOR MCCLURE IS APPOINTED TO THE COMMUNITY SCHOOLS.

9.5 DWIGHT EGGERS City Councilor Johana Bencomo moved, seconded by City Councilor Becky

Corran, to appoint Dwight Eggers to the Las Cruces Utilities Board.

MOVER: City Councilor Johana Bencomo

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 None.

11. CITY COUNCIL MEMBER BOARD REPORTS AND COMMENT 11.1 COUNCILOR MCCLURE Happy New Year everyone and I will go quick. Welcome to the new councilors on

board and I would like to second a call for the Active Transportation presentation just to see where we are on Vision Zero efforts and I will just give a quick story that I got stuck behind the water tank on Triviz and I thought I can go down Griggs. I could not.

It was kind of scary. So, things like that and I would like to do a challenge to some of the people out there watching. Email me some of the desired paths you see when you are biking. Those things where you wish that was there. If that be something that we can integrate. If we can do small quick fixes to make our lives better on bicycles let us know. We are not going to know unless we are riding that route like I didn’t know that I could get stuck behind the water tank. 11.2 COUNCILOR MATTIACE I just have some inquirial questions that maybe Director Widmer maybe you could help answer. It is on the notice we got with our water bills. I think more of an explanation on if that is a new process, is it an old process to where you have three months as to not take any showers and save on water and your rate decreases or is that something that is new to the Utilities Department and I guess just having an absence for seventeen years and I don’t know if it was something new.

Adrienne Widmer, Utilities Director said this is a normal process. Has been for decades. Is that the three winter months essentially December, January, February depending on where you are within your billing cycle we take those three months of the average amount and that and that is how you are billed for your sewer. We always do send out notices, hey we are in the three months make sure if you don’t want a high wastewater bill to go ahead and not use a lot of water so ever since I have been around so it’s been at least 20 years.

Councilor Mattiace asked on the notification and the education to the public it is just in the bills and it is also when you are paying electronically, the notification is in the electronic as well? A lot of people have mentioned to me that they didn’t know about this because they just do online billing. They just pay their bill, and they are not getting notification like you do with your 8x3 flyer.

Adrienne Widmer said I will double check with my staff becasue I am not familiar with the actual when you get your electronic and you fill it or pay it. I will double check with that so that I would assume that there would be some kind of notice along with it. It is not like they are just sending something that says oh by the way you owe X amount.

But I will double check on that and I can inform the City Manager to pass that along to you all.

Councilor Mattiace said I think it is a good program. It is a consumptive type. In other words, if they consume a lot of water in three months their rate will be higher. If they can save on the wastewater, on the consumption of water the bill could be lower. It would be great if more notification, education could get out to our, how many users do we have? How many people are hooked up to our water system?

Adrienne Widmer said we have close to 40,000. It is very typical and the reason that we do that is because typically these winter months not a lot of people are going outside and irrigating for their plants. So that is going to be your lowest use months relatively and obviously the wastewater is for water that you are using indoors and so

that is why it’s an average. So, it is averaged out and that is how it gets billed. You are not getting billed on like twelve months of average or the summer months are not included. So, it minimizes what each of us pay for wastewater.

Councilor Mattiace said that is quite generous of you. You are talking about

December, January and February usage?

Adrienne Widmer said that depends on where your billing cycle is. For instance, yours is mid-November to mid-February. You can tell that by looking on your bill and it says when your meter read date is will kind of give you that idea. 11.3 COUNCILOR HARRIS

I don’t have a lot to report but Happy New Year and I am glad to be here and looking forward to doing some cool stuff on council, thanks. 11.4 COUNCILOR BENCOMO I am so excited to welcome our two new colleagues on to the council. Congratulations to Mayor Pro Tem Munoz and I of course feel deeply grateful for the two years that I got to serve this council and the city as Mayor Pro Tem.

One of the things I really have been thinking about lately that I wanted to make sure to talk about today was the tragic pedestrian deaths that occurred in December and I just feel like those messages are more and more frequent and really feel like it is an urgent matter for us to start thinking more seriously about how we address that and you know I am planning about talking about this at our Budget Retreat which I am very excited about which of course the public is invited to that. The media is invited to that come see how the sausage gets made and you know who shows up ready to do the work so that is a very exciting time for all of us and hope that some of you can tune in or stop by but I did just want to lift that up, the pedestrian deaths that are very concerning and you know a reminder for some I am still here just a couple chairs down. 11.5 COUNCILOR CORRAN Happy New Year to my new and old colleagues and I mean that in the approximate two getting elected not age related. I am so glad you all are here and looking forward to working with you. I also support the idea of an active transportation pedestrian safety cyclist safety discussion. I would love and I will include this in my budget priorities, I know that residents really want to feel safe on our streets and I really would like for us to think systematically about that and I think whatever kind of conversation we might have with its active transportation, pedestrian safety, neighborhood traffic calming, all of that I think is really connected together and thinking about engineering our way into a safer city for those aspects my residents are very, that was the single biggest thing people talked about in the campaign trail was their streets and the safety of their neighbors within their neighborhoods and the risks to pedestrians so I support my colleagues in requesting that follow-up action and I just want to follow up really quickly.

I do understand that there is petition going that will come to the next ASCMV meeting,

but I just wanted to sort of talk about a few specific things related to the ASCMV. Spay and neuter as you heard earlier is one part of our big picture. The Spay and Neuter

Action Program is a community organization that work very tirelessly building that capacity. The ASCMV is something different and it is our municipal shelter that just takes in every animal that individuals drop off or that are found by animal control, the largest portions of how animals arrive there. First coming strays from animal control, second people dropping off strays or abandoning their animals and they do have an enormous intake for any community. There are a lot of statistics on the ASCMV website. Specifically, she asked about things like euthanasia rate and live release rate, what happens to animals when they go in the shelter and I did just want to bring up a few things when I first came to Las Cruces the Animal Services Center was putting to sleep about 8,000 per year. That was 2009, so 9,345 were put to sleep at the ASCMV. In 2024 2,609 were put to sleep at the shelter and I am not saying that is an acceptable number, I am not saying that any number is an acceptable number but just to put some context on the ways that the shelter is trying to solve the problem of huge numbers of animals arriving there. They have worked really dynamically and tried to address issues in the community in as many was as they possibly can so I sort of just waned to speak to that the folks at the shelter are working extraordinarily hard to get animals out of there alive and we had an Executive Director who left and we have been with an Interim Executive Director we have a new person coming on and hopefully with about a month Stephanie Lewis who I know will get to make some of these decisions. She is really well versed in a lot of the sort of best practices from across the nation. She is coming to us with an experience of both municipal sheltering and rescue background and an accounting degree for a business degree so she knows a lot of the aspects of the ASCMV inside and out and will be making a lot of decisions related to that so all of that to say folks who are here thinking about the

ASCMV, first of all I hope that at least you would check out the website or who are anywhere thinking about the ASCMV not here but the one individual that was here isn’t here anymore and I meant to go talk to her before she left but under who we are on the ASCMV website at the very bottom there are two things. Annual Reports and

Statistics that are updated in different degrees of timeliness and including a very up to date statistics page that include euthanasia rates that come in our quarterly meeting.

Our next quarterly meeting will be next Thursday, January 16th so folks are welcome to come to that but I do just sort of want to speak to the idea of one, the ASCMV is working really hard to address these issues in our community and two that we have a new Executive Director coming on who is going to take us to the next level I believe of humane sheltering and taking care of animals in our community. So, I understand all of the issues that go into that and the passion of the community and I just want to direct folks to a few resources that they might not be able to see otherwise so I hope to see anyone who is concerned about that to come to the meeting next week.

11.6 COUNCILOR MUNOZ also wanted to thank the voters who went out and voted in the last election. I know it has been a while and I wanted to do so. I wanted to say thank you those that supported and voted for me, it is my honor and I will do my best and also wanted to thank the council for their vote and I can tell you that Pro Tem Bencomo Emeritas, those are big shoes to fill and you have been a force on council and I look forward to working with you and the councilors as well, thank you.

With that I want to say that working together is difficult. It is not easy. It is easier to destroy, it is easier to criticize, it is easier to fight. The approach that I see with council here and mix of our new council, I know we have different paths but I know we all want to get there together for Las Cruces and we will have our discussions, and we will have our different paths but I know that we will come together. There are several things that I would like to work on next year and on the next four years as well is holistic approach to community safety, from behavioral health to construction programs, housing, wrap around services and tools for law enforcement and our first responders. I want residents to be and feel safe. I want our youth in our community to thrive. I also want to look at a comprehensive platform on collecting residents’ concerns, questions, and ideas like lighting in parks. Like potholes so that we can get them in one comprehensive platform so that we can make database decisions. Very simple explanation if contractor A reports 10 potholes at the end of year and contractor B reports 1,000 at the end of the year maybe we should not do business with contractor B. Simple as that but definitely a way for us to more open, more transparent with governance and add accountability just for transparency. Something I want to work with the City Manager. I know he has done a great job, he and his team of subject matter experts but this just adds a layer of operational visibility.

Of course, I mentioned electrification. I am supportive of that. I want to make sure that as a council and from my perspective that we are also being supportive.

I want to work with Economic Development in our in-house economist. I want to work with he/she or they to help create jobs and to bring needed revenue to the city as well, so I am excited about that piece. Overall, I think that we are in a good community. We have our issues and there are issues that we can work out together. We see each other at the mall, at movies, at the gym, Roberto’s more so for me at Roberto’s but we are about 1700 miles away from Washington DC, this is our community and what we do or don’t do effects each and every one of our families, our spouses, our friends, and so I am looking for brighter days ahead in Las Cruces.

11.7 MAYOR ENRIQUEZ I just want to wish everyone a Happy New Year. Kicked it off this year at the Chile

Drop, wihich was a great event, 2,000 to 3,000 people that were there to participate in the Chile Drop and I want to thank Mayor Pro Tem Munoz for being a partner with

Main Street Las Cruces who helped coordinate that event. Also, the sponsors

Nusenda Bank. More importantly you know the partnership and the working together with NMSU, the NMSU Engineering Program after 12 years, this was the 12th year for the Chile Drop. It was a new Chile. It was redone, redone, re-engineered lit up with

LED lights and was really a crowd pleaser and we want to thank the students from

NMSU and the engineering staff that allowed that to happen. It was a great event. So just looking forward as everybody mentioned to looking to work together to have a prosperous and thriving Las Cruces in 2026.

12. CITY MANAGER REPORT 12.1 IKANI TAUMOEPEAU

Regarding the Walnut Skate Park situation. City of Las Cruces is very aware of the frustration in the community regarding the skate park and the update is that we set our standards super high as a community and as a city organization providing the community with a skate park that meets industry standards for safety and longevity.

Our legal team has been in communication with the vendor, Spahn Ranch and continues to seek solutions to these issues due to the possibility of litigations the city cannot comment further at this time.

Regarding the East Mesa Rec Complex, I did want to share with the public comment that came although we do have the closure of this skate park, we do have a new skate park that opened and I want to let all community members know that it is at the

East Mesa Rec Complex. It has been recently constructed, and it is currently open although we have not promoted it because there is construction with other amenities surrounding the skate park so it is very difficult to access safely and so it is something that is open if anyone does want to get some skating in. We hope to have a ribbon cutting late spring, April timeframe but we will keep you posted.

Additionally, there was a public comment regarding the Safety For All RFP update. It is currently up for negotiations with the vendor and anticipating completion and award at the end of this month and project will commence shortly after that.

Regarding Meerscheidt Recreation Center, it is true, it is sad. Racquetball courts are closed. I am also disappointed too but for great reason Meerscheidt is undergoing renovations, so storage is being utilized for our recreation center which is from the

1960s and to the next note it is about eight weeks, two to three months wait for the weight room and the racquetball courts to reopen. I did want to use that as a diving board into the next topic that council is considering various capital improvement projects including rec centers and upgrading rec centers and new rec centers and that will come at the Budget Retreat later this month so I just wanted to share that there is a lot of projects that council is considering at this time.

Economic Development, we are happy to announce that Endurance Technology has chosen Las Cruce Innovation and Industrial Park for their expansion. They are a

Canadian company that did a nationwide search and chose us Las Cruces to expand into the US and will bring 41 new jobs and $17.5 million in capital investment. So great job to Liz, Celina and then the whole economic team, thank you so much.

Last but not least. I echo the excitement from Visit Las Cruces and Rochelle and her enthusiasm. If you haven’t been January 16th to 18th, please join the Mesilla Valley

Balloon Rally. Bring your photos, it is a marvelous sight. And I want to say thank you to Rochelle, Liz, and Sergio and the team on bringing this back to Cruces.

13. ADJOURNMENT 13.1 City Councilor Michael Harris moved, seconded by City Councilor John Munoz, to adjourn at 3:31 p.m.

MOVER: City Councilor Michael Harris

SECONDER: City Councilor John Munoz

Mayor

City Clerk