City Council Meeting November 3, 2025

MINUTES

City Council

Monday, November 3, 2025 @ 1:00 PM

City Council Chambers, City Hall

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

Becki Graham, Councilor Becky Corran, and Councilor Yvonne Flores

ABSENT: Councilor Johana Bencomo

1. OPENING CEREMONIES 1.1 PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE - MAYOR ENRIQUEZ. 1.2 PRESENTATION OF CERTIFICATES OF

APPRECIATION/PROCLAMATIONS - MAYOR ENRIQUEZ. Mayor Enriquez recognized three high school students from Las Cruces Centennial

High School Students with Certificates of Excellence.

Mayor Enriquez presented Heaven Coki with a proclamation for Las Cruces Day of

Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims.

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 Mesilla Valley presented Pets of the Week.

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

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

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

3.1 Lynn Moorer, Member of the Public said I learned of more galvanized water pipes in the city. At least 77 properties with galvanized service lines requiring replacement under the Lead and Copper Rule are now identified. Many have been hidden from the public. More than a quarter don’t show up on the online inventory that EPA requires because Las Cruces Utilities falsely labels them unknown or non-lead. Keep in mind that the reason galvanized pipes need to be replaced is because there is some involvement of lead at the connectors or upstream. This means calling galvanized pipes non-lead is not accurate. The city’s records also hide galvanized piping by using inventory labeling that doesn’t match the investigation report. There is six weeks in the inventory associated with 505 South Main Street, Suites 102, 103, 109, 114, 115, and 117 that all say non-lead. By contrast there is investigation reports for just three meters associated with 505 South Main Street labeled meters 4, 5, and 6, which are all galvanized. It doesn’t say which meters are associated with which suite but none of the six suites shows up in the inventory as having galvanized piping even though the meters show galvanized piping. Handout 1 is an investigation report for a property on

South Locust that indicates the system owned line is copper and the connector materials are galvanized, thus this line should be regarded as galvanized. It says the customer owned service line is also galvanized. By contrast the inventory characterizes this property as non-lead, plastic. For both lines even though there is no finding of plastic of any kind in the investigation report. The differences between the investigation report and the inventory record for this property are stark. One says the piping is galvanized, the other says it is plastic. If it is galvanized it must be replaced.

If it is plastic it doesn’t need to be. These differences can’t be excused. If you owned this property, I really doubt you would be satisfied with this workmanship. This falsification of records is dangerous in public health, environmental protection and engineering. The devil is in the details. Bad things can happen if you don’t get the details right. The evidence is indisputable that many of the city’s records are clearly false. It is very troubling. Plus, EPA requires each property owner with galvanized piping requiring replacement be notified within 30 days of inventory completion which

Handout 2 explains on page 6 but Las Cruces Utilities hasn’t done this. It is a knowing violation. This is your Utilities Department that is consistently failing to conduct competent investigations to maintain an accurate inventory or to carry out the required notifications. You need to do something about it, don’t you agree?

Liz Rodriguez-Johnson, Member of the Public said it has been more than a year that

Las Cruces Utilities said it submitted the initial inventory to EPA, October 16, 2024, to comply with the Lead and Copper Rule. Even though the city should consider the inventory to be a living data set that is continuously improved over time as materials are investigated, the city has been content to allow deficiencies to persist. The city must now correct them because the EPA requires the inventory to be updated at least annually. Where on the inventory map is the other half of the city properties that Las

Cruces Utilities has omitted? EPA requires the inventory to include all service lines.

See Handout 2, page 2 which Lynn Moorer just gave you. Many of the properties that don’t show hookups are mobile homes. Why are they still not included? Handout 2 also states on page 2 that water systems should include in their inventories pipe diameter, installation date, source of material information, actual material non-lead lines, and other sources like goosenecks and solder. The inventory doesn’t show any of this information for any properties. Why not? The inventory used to show

installation dates but when false claims that piping was non-lead because of installation after the lead ban were publicly noted all installation dates were disappeared, why? Why do dozens of properties still show up on the map in a location that doesn’t match its street address? Handout A shows one example. The street address says this property is on Holly Drive but the designation on the map is placed on the corridor of A street and E street which appears to be a block away from Holly

Drive. Correctly identifying street addresses on a map seems like a pretty simple task that Las Cruces Utilities should be able to master after a year of working on the inventory. When Las Cruces Utilities demonstrates that it isn’t carrying out fundamental tasks correctly it creates doubt that more complex tasks related to compliance with the rule are being handled competently. EPA requires systems to offer to sample the tap water for lead for any consumer served by a lead galvanized requiring replacement or unknown service line who requests it. This requirement is set out in Handout 4 that was provided to you at the July 21 meeting. Handout B, page 3 is another EPA document that reiterates this requirement. Las Cruces Utilities still has not done this. Significant violation. Why do you continue to fail to instruct the City

Manager to assure that this sampling is carried out as required?

Sherley O’Brien, Member of the Public said I am the Chief of Student Services and

Community Relations for Las Cruces Public Schools. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to come by this afternoon and speak for a moment about our bonds and milllevy that will be on the ballot or has been on the ballot for early voters. So, we have $65 million bond on the ballot, that and a renewal of the $3 mill levy. The $65 million bond will be used for renovations, repairs, maintenance and new classrooms for our students. Some of these items include $20 million for Mayfield High School renovation. That will be an ongoing project because it is going to take us about 8 to 9 years to get that project completed but it is time for that building which is almost 60 years to get a renovation and a facelift. We also have some Title 9 projects to bring equity to our boys and girls athletics facilities at three of our high schools. Those will be at Mayfield, Las Cruces High, and Organ Mountain High School. Playground equipment and shade structures at several of our elementary schools. We know how important it is for our playground equipment to be up to standard, and we also want to provide shade for our students. We know our summers are brutally hot in our late spring and early fall. We also have some roof and HVAC replacements that we’ll be doing in several of our schools and safety and security enhancements. Every time we poll our families, of course safety is always number one on the list. We will be working on exterior key card entrances for every one of our schools so that everybody enters with a badge. We will do that on the exterior of all of our schools and then we will move into the interior and every one of our schools will be affected by this project. We also have a small contingency fund to make sure that if we have any overruns or increases due to supply chain issues, we have a little bit of money to make sure that we finish these projects. We do have some carryovers from the 2021 bond which we will complete in this bond. We want to be transparent with our community and let them know that we said we were going to do these projects, and we will complete them. Let me just say a little bit about our $3 mill levy, that generates about $10 million a year for our school district and that is again used for maintenance and upkeep also for band instruments, band uniforms so that funding is also very important for those going to the polls. Make sure you turn your ballots over, some will have one of these questions on the back of their ballot.

Tim Jenkins, Member of the Public said after watching last week’s session it is crystal clear to me that there is a certain demographic of people who spoke at last meeting that wish for nothing more than to defund and demoralize our Police Department, which I find very hard to fathom considering that they have never in a day in their lives stepped into the shoes of a law enforcement position. I also find it very troubling that these same individuals attended and voted at all six town hall meetings even though it wasn’t even in their district or they had no business even being there. When there was all the discussion and talk about raising the GRT, what was discussed and talked about time and time again, the number one priority that was at the top of the list the entire time was public safety and how we can make our city safer and support the police in their efforts to do the same. So how is it possible that not even a year later public safety seems to have worked its way down to the bottom of the list? And how is it possible that spending $35 million on library renovation is somehow going to make our city safer? I guess I will answer my own question. Renovating the library will never in a million years make our city safer. In my opinion the GRT should never have been raised without a concrete plan in place of where those funds would go. Public safety needs to be everyone’s top priority no matter what anyone says. Our city is being overrun and destroyed, and it is heartbreaking to watch this playout before our eyes. I believe in my heart that it should be mandatory for every member on city council to do a ride along with LCPD at least every three months so that you all get a small taste of what our officers face day in and day out in the trenches in our city. Our officers need our support more than ever now.

4. ACCEPTANCE OF AGENDA Councilor Becki Graham moved, seconded by Councilor Becky Corran, to accept the agenda as presented.

RESULT: Carried

MOVER: Councilor Becki Graham

SECONDER: Councilor Becky Corran

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

Councilor Becki Graham, Councilor Becky Corran, and Councilor Yvonne

Flores

5. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES 5.1 REGULAR CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF OCTOBER 6, 2025.

6. RESOLUTION(S) AND/OR ORDINANCE(S) FOR CONSENT AGENDA 6.1 RESOLUTION NO. 26-058: A RESOLUTION ESTABLISHING DATES FOR

HOLIDAY OBSERVANCE FOR CITY EMPLOYEES IN 2026. 6.2 RESOLUTION NO. 26-059: A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE CITY OF

LAS CRUCES (CITY) TO ACCEPT GRANT AWARDS AND BUDGET

ADJUSTMENTS FOR VARIOUS CITY DEPARTMENTS THROUGH AN

AMENDMENT TO THE CITY’S ADOPTED FY2026 BUDGET.

7. RESOLUTION(S) AND/OR ORDINANCE(S) FOR DISCUSSION 7.1 RESOLUTION NO. 26-060: A RESOLUTION AMENDING THE FY2026 - 2031

CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS PROGRAM. Cynthia Alamillo, CIP Manager gave the overhead presentation.

Councilor Becky Corran moved, seconded by Councilor Yvonne Flores, to

Approve Resolution No. 26-060.

MOVER: Councilor Becky Corran

SECONDER: Councilor Yvonne Flores

ABSENT: Councilor Johana Bencomo 7.2 RESOLUTION NO. 26-061: A RESOLUTION APPROVING A

PRECOMMITMENT OF CITY FUNDING FOR A MULTI-FAMILY FEDERAL

LOW-INCOME HOUSING TAX CREDIT DEVELOPMENT PROJECT,

SUBJECT TO AWARD OF SAID TAX CREDITS BY HOUSING NEW

MEXICO. Jan Lauterbach, Housing and Neighborhood Services Manager gave the overhead presentation.

Councilor Corran asked I was just wondering if you could talk about the 4% versus

9% and the context for that? I just wanted to allude to this because I think it is relevant to the part of the conversation that we are going to have.

Jan Lauterbach said a 4% versus a 9%, a 9% with Housing New Mexico offers 70% of the construction cost towards the deal and a 4% only offers 30%. So, there is a lot more financing needed with 4% than 9%.

Councilor Corran asked this is more competitive and more benefits to the community if we are able to qualify for it, right?

Jan Lauterbach said definitely. That is a good point to make. The 9% is a competitive application with the Housing New Mexico as to where a 4% is not.

Councilor Mattiace asked do you have any ideas of who the non-profits, do you have a list or an idea of who may step up to the plate?

Colin Kruger, Enriched Communities LLC. said we are looking at a couple of options on the non-profit. The Housing New Mexico Finance Agency did change the scoring this year. They have changed it from a higher of ten points, which is last year to now a high of 5 points. So, we don’t think it is necessarily going to kill the deal from that perspective. We think we have enough points through other means, on less particular deals but we do have Tierra Del Sol standing in front of us potentially a grantee with regard to this particular project for the City of Las Cruces, not necessarily for the

finance agency.

Mayor Enriquez said this is great. This is exciting news as you mentioned in the old country club and we have seen a lot of dead trees and dead space there and this is an opportunity to bring it back to life and thriving again and in the community, so thank you, looking forward to it.

Councilor Mattiace asked that is your total cost, there is no possible increase, it will be at the 108,000?

Colin Kruger asked are you talking about that $33 million number? $31 million is the number.

Councilor Mattiace asked then it is 108 apartments?

Colin Kruger said 108 apartments.

Councilor Mattiace asked what does that per unit cost?

Colin Kruger said on the hard cost $185,000 per unit, 286 on the entire development.

To the point of the 9% versus the 4% we are trying to max out on units. Typically, a

9% deal would average between 60 and 70 units, but we are trying to push with the city grant we are trying to push the number of units to 108 so we can get more units on the site.

Councilor Mattiace said that is where Councilor Corran was saying that the competitiveness comes in there will be a lot more people wanting to do it.

Colin Kruger said it is a competitive program come in. As a company we were successful last year in securing a 9% award for Ruidoso. So that is the same program.

Councilor Becky Corran moved, seconded by Councilor Becki Graham, to

Approve Resolution No. 26-061.

SECONDER: Councilor Becki Graham

AYES: Mayor Eric Enriquez, Councilor Cassie McClure, Councilor Becki Graham,

Councilor Becky Corran, and Councilor Yvonne Flores

NAYS: Councilor William Mattiace

ABSENT: Councilor Johana Bencomo 7.3 RESOLUTION NO. 26-062: A RESOLUTION APPROVING THE CITIZEN

PARTICIPATION PLAN, AS REQUIRED BY THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF

HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT (HUD), AS PART OF THE

PREPARATION FOR THE 2026-2030 CONSOLIDATED PLAN AND

ANALYSIS OF IMPEDIMENTS TO FAIR HOUSING CHOICE FOR THE CITY

OF LAS CRUCES.

Natalie Green, Housing & Neighborhood Revitalization Administrator gave the overhead presentation.

Councilor Flores asked how is it that you are reaching out to get responses?

Natalie Green said so one, we identified stakeholders already and our consultant has reached out to them to schedule interviews, so they are able to do both virtual and in person meetings. What we are trying to do is get on people’s standing meetings so if someone has a specific standing meeting with a group. For example, they met with

Affordable Housing Committee two weeks ago, they have also met with Dona Ana

Resilience Leaders, the Housing Task Force, and there is some other groups that they are doing.

Councilor Flores asked do community members actually participate or just the organizations?

Natlie Green said the community does, for example again we mailed 9,783 postcards specifically to residents who reside within low-income census tracks. So CDBG and

HOME Funds are for people who meet that low to moderate income definition, so we take a special initiative to target those least likely to participate in the process and so we that is one way and again we printed flyers. So Casa de Peregrinos will be putting flyers in all of the food boxes across the county and that includes the city’s pantry and the county’s mobile pantry so that we can get participation in that survey and then we also of course advertise in the paper and on the city’s website and then if you watch

Mas Las Cruces there is also a video advertising the survey for this month.

Approve Resolution No. 26-062.

ABSENT: Councilor Johana Bencomo 7.4 COUNCIL BILL NO. 26-008; ORDINANCE NO. 3100: AN ORDINANCE

AUTHORIZING THE CITY TO ENTER INTO A FRANCHISE AGREEMENT

WITH RIPPLE FIBER NEW MEXICO LLC (“RIPPLE”), TO AUTHORIZE THE

CONSTRUCTION, OPERATION, AND MAINTENANCE OF A

TELECOMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM FOR FIBER INTERNET WITHIN THE

CITY. Henry Becker, Interim Deputy City Attorney gave the overhead presentation.

Councilor Corran said I am very excited to learn all about these franchise agreements that exist. So, thank you for giving us a little orientation. I have two questions. One I really appreciate you all thinking about the dynamics of moving forward, how can we better leverage the idea of a franchise so thank you for including those things and I

am glad to see those as part of this franchise agreement. The second part I am wondering, I didn’t know if you wanted to talk about this or if this is to like political but I think there is some history of exclusionary franchises especially as it relates to fiberoptic internet and that is in part why we are in a little bit of a situation with this but

I don’t know maybe I am misunderstanding my history of this but in any case I am happy to hear that the market is expanding and if you don’t want to share anything about the history of sole source franchise agreements, that is fine but from my perspective I am just glad to hear that this is one both going to have a really integrated conversation with the city as it goes on and two that it is broadening the internet related options I think for people in our community because I do think that is part of the reason whether this is a public utility or not a public utility I guess is what I am alluding to and I don’t know if you want to talk about that or not, but I am glad that this is happening.

Henry Becker said I am not exactly sure what you mean by references to exclusivity.

There is an ongoing conversation at the federal level over whether or not fiberoptic internet is construed as an information service or as a utility under federal communications laws which can have different effects for how they are regulated. I believe at this exact moment the FCC considers them to be information services but to kind of get to the nuts and bolts of this franchise it includes language that is intended to be flexible and to capture whether or not there is a change in opinion from the FCC. You are right Councilor, sometimes political parties come in and that definition changes at the federal level. That is not something that we locally here can control but we are trying to make sure we account for that through flexible terms in the franchise agreement.

Councilor Corran said not the political parties necessarily but the politics of public utilities. Generally, I think is really interesting if any of you all want to learn more about franchises and this discussion, super interesting but thank you for accommodating that and having that as part of the contractual discussion too.

Councilor Mattiace asked is it both residential and commercial or one or the other or both?

Henry Becker said the franchise I believe is not specific. I don’t want to speak to

Ripple’s particular business plans Councilor. I will let Ripple’s representative do that if she wishes to. I will say I believe this allows the flexibility to go where there is demand for the service. So typically, a franchisee and I don’t wish to speak for Ripple particularly, the franchisee will first go out into the community and see who is interested in the service and once they have agreements in place, perspective business in place they will expand there. So, it could be residential in theory, or it could be just commercial in theory, or it could be both. It is just where the demand is. I will give an opportunity to Ms. Delalla to speak if she wishes to speak from Ripple’s perspective.

Noelle Delalla, Ripple Fiber said right now our model in the proposed plan in the city of Las Cruces is residential. We have it in our business model potentially in the future to also offer fiber internet services to businesses but right now our primary plan is

going to be to residents.

Councilor Mattiace said the reason I asked that is because in my neighborhood I believe it is Metro Vexus is installing. Maybe you can catch up with them and use the same holes.

Noelle Delalla said it is not in our business model to over build directly on other fiber but we want to come in and bring competition to the city so we are hoping that will happen in Las Cruces.

Councilor Mattiace said I hope you are as efficient and organized and as neat as

Vexus has been. There hasn’t been that many complaints in District 2, and where there were some complaints, they actually took care of, the right-of-way, the rocks and whatever landscaping and replaced it totally. So, I hope you have the same intention.

Noelle Delalla said absolutely, communication is key for us. We want to be in communication with the city and with the residents as much as possible. We also have a dedicated green team that would come behind construction and address any landscaping issues that go above and beyond just filling in holes and burying cables that would address electrical fences, irrigation systems, specialty landscaping as well. Councilor Becki Graham moved, seconded by Councilor Becky Corran, to

Approve Ordinance No. 3100.

8. BOARD APPOINTMENTS 8.1 LEN HAMPTON Councilor Becki Graham moved, seconded by Councilor Becky Corran, to appoint Len Hampton to the Veterans Advisory Board.

ABSENT: Councilor Johana Bencomo 8.2 JULIAN GALLEGOS Councilor Becky Corran moved, seconded by Councilor Becki Graham, to appoint Julian Gallegos to the City Art Board.

ABSENT: Councilor Johana Bencomo 8.3 JOY NELSON Councilor Becki Graham moved, seconded by Councilor Becky Corran, to appoint Joy Nelson to the City Art Board.

9. 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). 9.1 None.

10. CITY COUNCIL MEMBER BOARD REPORTS AND COMMENT 10.1 COUNCILOR MCCLURE None. 10.2 COUNCILOR MATTIACE None. 10.3 COUNCILOR GRAHAM None. 10.4 COUNCILOR CORRAN I wanted to welcome the DangerBird participants. That is this weekend. Super exciting at Klein Park, there will be a kickoff on Thursday from 4:30 to 7. So that is a different group of folks here who are enthusiast with the outdoors and cycling and I think danger. That will be starting on Friday, but Thursday night is the welcome event.

The Sustainability EV car kickoff which I am really excited that we will be able to borrow or rent EVs as part of the sustainability office event. Last but not least the

Veteran’s Day Parade which I think will probably be alluded to by other folks here but next Tuesday.

10.5 COUNCILOR FLORES None. 10.6 MAYOR ENRIQUEZ

I just wanted to say a reminder that yes, the Veteran’s Parade is Saturday, November

9th. It will be at 11 a.m. at the downtown so please join as we pay tribute to our

Veterans on that day and tomorrow is voting day. Please remember to go out and vote.

I just want to say last week I was able to attend the schools for Red Ribbon Week for being drug free schools. We have got to continue that. We have to continue to let the students know that we appreciate them and to go out and let them know to live a drug-free life. It was a good turnout at Jornada, so I just wanted to mention that.

Councilor Flores said I noticed that when the young woman who was here proposing and speaking on behalf of the school bond she didn’t mention that there would be no tax rate increase because I think people are always afraid that when a bond comes in there is going to be some kind of an increase so that should be put out there.

Mayor Enriquez said yes that it states that there will be no tax increase and will move forward with what already is existing.

11. CITY MANAGER REPORT 11.1 IKANI TAUMPOEPEAU The Communications Office was nominated for an Emmy in the branded content category for the I Can’t Do Every Job hiring video. They will be attending the Emmy ceremony this weekend in Phoenix on November 8th, and we are hopeful they bring some hardware home. We are proud of the talented group and the skill of our team is being recognized locally, regionally and nationally.

12. ADJOURNMENT 12.1 Councilor Yvonne Flores moved, seconded by Councilor Becki Graham, to

Adjourn at 2:06 p.m.

MOVER: Councilor Yvonne Flores

Mayor

City Clerk