City Council Meeting September 2, 2025

MINUTES

City Council

Tuesday, September 2, 2025 @ 1:00 PM

City Council Chambers, City Hall

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

Becki Graham, Councilor Johana Bencomo, and Councilor Becky Corran

ABSENT: Councilor Yvonne Flores

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

APPRECIATION/PROCLAMATIONS - COUNCILOR MCCLURE. Councilor McClure presented Ken Martin and Carol Brey with a proclamation for Rio

Grande Rotary Club Day.

Mandy Leatherwood, Communications Director gave a presentation on the NATOA

Government Programming Award.

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, Animals Services Center of the Mesilla Valley presented Pets of the

Week.

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

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

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

3.1 Lynn Moorer, Member of the Public said today I bring more documented facts about the city’s non-compliant activities regarding the new Lead and Copper Rule. Last meeting the Assistant Utilities Director said updating online inventory records in real time created too much confusion. I have seen this characterization used by officials who are caught cooking the books. It is a classic put down of the public. In reality we the public are not confused. We can tell the difference between before and after 1986.

We can discern when half the city has been left off the map. We have no difficulty understanding when the City Clerk tells us in response to an IPRA request that the city does not actually have any records notifying new customers that their pipe material despite the Assistant Utilities Director’s false claims, to the contrary, see

Handout 1. We may be just riffraff in Councilor McClure’s view, but we are not stupid.

We know when we are being lied to. Handout 2 shows that EPA requires water systems to notify all new customers of their service line material. So why hasn’t the city notified all new customers as required and produced records that prove it? This is a clear violation. Handout 3 sets out facts regarding the city’s pattern of characterizing pipes as non-lead without any stated or justified basis. These properties constituted

33% of 81 properties sampled. This means the city has no justification for characterizing one third of the properties as non-lead. It is just making things up.

Without a basis they can’t be believed. Why isn’t there a basis for every property.

Handout 4 is a property whose lines are classified as non-lead without any basis. The record doesn’t add up. While both lines are characterized as non-lead the symbol on the map indicates this property is unknown. The customer online is characterized as non-lead galvanized. That’s all. We don’t know whether this galvanized line is or was downstream of a lead line which would require replacement. It doesn’t say. This shows the folly of relying on the characterization that has no basis whatsoever. Last meeting the Assistant Utilities Director used the same mantra that Steve Perez used, the city doesn’t have a lead pipe problem. This means that an impartial assessment of the city’s piping required by EPA is not underway. You all should be disturbed by this overt bias against finding the truth regarding Las Cruces piping. The city is using these stratagems to avoid finding lead pipes. Characterizing piping as non-lead without any basis whatsoever falsely characterizing lead piping as non-lead because of installation after the lead ban leaving half the city off the inventory using a pipe inspection technique that is not highly accurate, relying on water sampling only with no records or field inspection only with no records. Not finding lead pipes saves the city and a lot of work. It is clear that is the goal. The rule imposes many requirements that are hinged on the certain kinds of lines are identified. The city is making sure it doesn’t identify much. Has the city no sense of decency? How much longer will the city allow its staff to flout the law and the well-being of its citizens?

Liz Rodriguez-Johnson, Member of the Public said at the August 4 meeting the

Utilities Director said, “we believe we are meeting all requirements”. That is an astounding statement given all of the EPA requirements Las Cruces Utilities is clearly not meeting. Most of them have been brought to your attention but here is a partial list. EPA requires that water systems sample consumer taps upon request. See

Handout 3 from the June 16th meeting and Handout 4 from the July 21 meeting. Why hasn’t Las Cruces Utilities sampled the water from consumers who requested as required? This is a clear violation. Why hasn’t the city publicized an offer for people who don’t know that this can be requested? EPA requires that water systems notify

owners of galvanized required replacement pipes within thirty days of submission of the inventory. See Handouts A and B from the August 4 meeting. Why hasn’t Las

Cruces Utilities notified all the galvanized required replacement folks as required?

Why does it plan to put this till the last quarter of the year? This is a clear violation.

These folks appear to be located in the older parts of the city. Is this another example of Las Cruces Utilities unequal treatment of city citizens? EPA requires a proven evidence-based technique for identifying the nature of piping. See Handout 1 from the

August 4 meeting. Why has Las Cruces Utilities utilized two techniques widely, water sampling only with no records and field inspection only with no records that are plainly not evidence based? These are obvious violations. Handout A from the August 4 meeting shows EPA requirements that the inventory include all properties served by the city. Previously I provided you handouts showing 33 neighborhoods without water hookups. Why does half of this city not have water hookups on the map? This is a clear violation. The majority of the omitted neighborhoods are mobile home neighborhoods. Why are many of the folks who live in mobile homes left out? To receive a grant the city promised to prioritize disadvantaged populations. In fact EPA requires this prioritization. See Handout A but the Director said that the city is only planning to complete it in 2027. That is not keeping faith with the disadvantaged people of Las Cruces nor is disappearing for the inventory of all the information about the disadvantaged neighborhood. It suggests that the grant was obtained under false pretenses. How many properties in the city’s oldest areas has the city inspected?

Where are the records? The city should make sure the health of all of the citizens is protected. That should be top goal, not using as many tricks as possible to avoid finding lead pipes. That violates a rule and that puts thousands of vulnerable Las

Cruces residents at risk.

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

Action Program, SNAP. I want to give a brief update on the Spay and Neuter Program that we have with the City of Las Cruces. As you know we really got started on this program at the end of last year and started putting out the word to all of Las Cruces residents on January 1, 2025. For the fiscal year ending June 30, 2025, under our contract with the City of Las Cruces, SNAP facilitated the spay or neuter of 243 cats,

352 dogs for a total of 595 spay and neuters for companion animals of low income

Las Cruces residents. We also facilitated 293 rabies vaccinations and 272 microchips.

We saw an increase during that time of over 35% in the number of vouchers issued to residents for spay and neuter surgeries. So far during the first few weeks of this fiscal year we are seeing an even larger increase in the number of residents requesting vouchers. In fact, I ran the report last week and it scared me. It is like 100% of increase over last year same time. To assist in getting all of these dogs and cats fixed we held five special spay/neuter clinics for Las Cruces dogs and cats last spring.

Thank you to Schumacher Vet Clinic and Calista Animal Hospital for hosting these events. Over 130 dogs and cats were fixed during those clinics. Thank you also to Dr.

Carver of the Mesquite Animal Vaccination Clinic who held a special vaccination clinic at our offices to get a large number of those dogs and cats ready for their surgeries.

Most of all I want to thank all of you for the support of this program. Truly together we are making a difference in the lives of Las Cruces residents and their companion dogs and cats. Now we need to start talking about what more we can do. I gave you a handout and on the front it kind of goes over the numbers. The other side, we need volunteers. So, anyone out there in the community, if you are interested in helping us

with this program, we need volunteers so please contact the SNAP office. We particularly need Spanish speaking volunteers as we have a significant number of our clients who are Spanish speaking. We are also seeking board members so if anybody would like to serve as a board member on SNAP, please also give us a contact.

Frankie Lawrence, Member of the Public said I am a senior citizen that attends the

Aquatic Center on a regular basis and currently it is out of order. We have not been able to go there for a while and as you know the Las Cruces community is growing quickly with senior citizens and those that have surgery and the water is very beneficial for our wellbeing and recovery. With that I was hoping we could get it going again. It has been out of commission several times. We try to go on a consistent basis. It is not possible when the pool is entirely closed. Anything that you can do to help us get it going I would really appreciate it.

Lucas Herndon, Member of the Public said I am a resident in District 2. I am here today to ask for your help in trying to stop something horrible happening in our county.

Last week the Dona Ana County Commission made moves to approve $165 billion bribe from a Texas based tech company to build a data center in the southern part of the county. I recognize and I understand that the city and county are different entities but part of the egregious nature of this issue that has come up is that they only gave the community three weeks to do anything about this. If you have seen the news or attended, you saw that dozens and dozens of residents were at that meeting asking the county to not move forward with this. The risks to our ground water and our drinking water, which legally are two different things, is very, very great. Data centers require too much water for a community like ours here in the desert. In my role as

Energy Policy Director at Progress Now New Mexico, I myself am concerned specifically about the energy use of this data center. Part of what they are working on, this borderplex company comes from a memorandum of understanding that they signed with the Governor that grants them permission to use the loophole in the state’s Energy Transition Act where they can build gas plants, hydrogen plants, nuclear plants on their micro grid and have that energy excluded from the state’s movement towards renewable energy. Because they will need interconnection with El

Paso Electric to get started those power plants will be connected to El Paso Electric’s grid and as the area’s largest user of EPE electricity and the city making its own moves towards some electrification efforts where we get that electricity matters to residents and if El Paso Electric is getting energy from gas plants on this micro grid they are excluded from the ETA we can’t necessarily in good conscience use that energy if our goal is to reduce emissions, protect the air and the water of our residents. So, my ask is, is that in whatever official capacity you can from your seats on the council with your relationship with the county please help us fight this. At the very least give us more time to have the community properly engaged with this, to learn more about it. To learn what the risks are. This is a big deal and we need as much help and support as we can get.

Maryellen Boberg, Member of the Public said I have been a citizen, a resident of Las

Cruces, New Mexico for the last 30 years. I have raised my family here and I have enjoyed many, many benefits in the city of Las Cruces. One of the things that I am enjoying currently or trying to enjoy currently is the availability of the Las Cruces

Aquatic Center and the access that I have to be able to go every day and get the exercise that I need. I have some motor issues that limit my ability to be in the natatorium pool which is available right now but the other pool, the one that we use at the Aquatic Center has been inoperable for a month and half, two months and now I was there today using the warm water pool and I have some concerns because the water that is sitting there now is stagnant and it is becoming very dark and now I am growing concerns that there are going to be problems for the warm water pool that many people have to use other than the cold water pool which is in the natatorium.

And I am concerned about what could grow there. I don’t know if they have just filled it with chlorine to just keep it from growing. To me I think mosquitoes could even get in there and set up a home. We are a group of senior citizens who I am finally able to enjoy my retirement. My service here in Las Cruces has always been either through the state government or through Las Cruces Public Schools and now it is my turn. I am hearing all of the things that people need. I am really desiring that you guys pay a little bit of attention to that pool because I have researched where other states, they have nothing compared to this pool and so I wonder what those senior citizens are able to do. If you can’t walk you have got to be able to get some exercise and movement somehow and being in the water is key to that.

Bob Halk, Member of the Public said I agree with everything that Maryellen said. We have been waiting to have the channel repaired and it hasn’t happened. So, I guess our question is, when will it be done? Is it being worked on? Is somebody paying attention to it? I don’t know. Anyway, thank you very much for your time.

David Sedillo, Interim Assistant City Manager said we are aware that the pool is down. We have some electrical and pump issues that are going on at the pool. We are actively working to get those fixed at this point in time. We did have a vendor come out to look at the old pump to see if we could repair it and also looking at replacement pumps to get the pool back up and running as soon as possible.

Linley Hornsby, Member of the Public said I am a resident of District 4. Also here to talk with you all about our shared water supply which is at risk by Project Jupiter which I know that is a county jurisdiction but I am surprised of how many non-county

Democrat politicians are supporting that, right? We see our State Senators,

Representatives, our Federal Congressional representatives taking a stand on this and so I just want to encourage any of our city council leadership to use your platform and privilege to protect our water here in Las Cruces and the water in our county at large, the air that we breathe which is going to be impacted by this data center, right?

And for our community not to adopt another boom-and-bust industry which New

Mexico has been burned by time and time again. That is what AI is and I know that the vote is not before this council but I just appreciate you all, those of you who are using your voice in this issue and I encourage you all to really listen to the constituency and what we want for our communities understanding that we know what is best for our communities and a zillion PowerPoints from a corporation that wants to just profit off of our land and resources is not necessarily going to placate us. That is all for now. We will talk soon about GRT. As GRT comes up and you all are deciding how to spend that just remembering that public safety is community safety. It is how we use our infrastructure to take care of each other, especially the most vulnerable in our communities as you are thinking about the capital outlay projects that you will be

dedicating that money to really asking if that funding and that infrastructure is going to be supporting all of our community members and the most vulnerable among us.

Juan Garcia, Member of the Public said Las Cruces is steep in violence. Just last week at the CCNJ the surge of juvenile crime was laid bare, grim and unsettling.

Property crime, drive by shootings, rampant drug use, the massacre at Young Park, gangs turning on each other, domestic violence. It all stacks up casting a very dark cloud over the city. If we don’t cool things down and find some respect for opposing views on both sides political blood shed might be next. I have noticed a trend at recent local events like Save the Vote and the protest against the new abortion center here in Las Cruces. The atmosphere feels charged and some people, militant agitators seem one step away from letting things get out of hand. Peaceful protest is a core American right whether the issue is genuine or manufactured outrage. Just because someone believes abortion or ending an innocent life isn’t health care, doesn’t give the opposition license to stir up violence or scare those who disagree to shutting up. Shoving a bull horn in someone’s face or screaming at them, rushing the stage isn’t going to win anyone over. I have seen plenty of protestors waving signs, attacking federal agents for doing their job or warning of the “militarization of the community”. There are people who fly the flag upside down making a mockery of our national ansen which I find very troubling or lumping together legal and illegal immigration. As someone who immigrated here legally, I find it disrespectful not just to me but to the millions who followed the rules and respect this country enough to do things the legal way. Most of the time I just avoid the situation entirely or if I am there,

I keep my distance and quietly watch. A final word of caution and this also goes for irresponsible comments by elected officials, not everyone who shows up to protest is there for the right reasons. I hope LCPD continues to monitor these events because there are always a few waiting for an excuse to light the match. If that happens and someone crosses the line the outcome could be devastating. Resentment towards the

President is boiling over and is bleeding into our streets. Don’t let rage or reckless impulse drag us into something we can’t undo. This community cannot survive the added poison of political violence. Once that is unleashed there is not telling where it stops. We will continue to advocate for peaceful protest and a civil discourse.

Jay Choate, Member of the Public said I am a resident of District 5. I would just like to note for the record that peaceful protesting while it is an American pastime doing things like hanging the flag upside down, burning it, stuff like that, people have done that for a while too. That is also freedom of speech. Just wanted to throw that out there. I also wanted to echo the similar sentiments that some of my peers have expressed about Project Jupiter. I am not inherently opposed to industrial developments but you when they don’t really answer questions and it seems like they are trying to kind of rush through things, and it is inherently an industry that uses a lot of water. You know big businesses, big private interest make promises a lot and then years later it turns out to be lies when they start polluting the local water. There is an example of XIA over there in Tennessee and there is countless other data centers across the country where this has happened. So, they pollute the environment especially if they have things like fossil fuel power generation, that goes into our atmosphere and we have to deal with that as a community so it seems kind of counter to me that we are encouraging them to do that but then the rest of the state has to go towards renewables so I am just hoping you guys can kind of push some

accountability there. Having the elected officials on the county commission kind of be responsive to the public here and not just kind of ignore or silence them. I recognize that is not necessarily the city issue but you all are elected officials within the county. I hope that you could speak to that. As far as some other stuff goes I am hoping we can do more public engagement outside of working hours. I know that we have had some stuff in the past. I wasn’t here earlier in the summer but it would be nice to see that more so that people who are most impacted by these types of policies can get some feedback put into it and have an environment where they can all come together and talk to you about that. That would be nice and I also wanted to kind of advocate for public transportation more. I know it is very important. We need more people to be able to use it and while it is a tool and resource to people who need it, I think it should be something that is more comfortable for everyone involved. Especially for somebody like myself. I live twenty minutes away from NMSU and so it is a pretty inconvenient for me to use the bus or public transport but if there were a lot more opportunities around this city maybe it would be more convenient for me in the future or if I happen to go to NMSU and I just want to pop downtown, stuff like that. I know I am pretty busy all around town and it is difficult for me but just having more of that is always good. Thank you all for letting us have public comments and I hope you will push the county to be a little more accountable with this Project Jupiter.

Lonnie Montgomery, Member of the Public said I want you to know I love you guys.

When I say guys, I mean like the President, Mr. Hudd saysthat is men and women and I do know what a woman is and we are not in the commissioner’s office in Dona

Ana so I guess we can pray do I’m going to. Dear Lord, I pray today for better skills, for the people on the board here and skills in this sermon and understanding to become better public servants and make wiser decisions. So much for that. I am going on to what I call the riffraff report, and the riffraff is doing pretty well as far as I know. But I am not allowed to mention names I guess because of political things but I have written down like five names and they take office in Congress and to me they are voting the wrong ways. They are voting against women. They vote for having trans men compete against women and take away their awards and their scholarships and everything else and to me that is hating women and another group I think they are taking care of too is our kids and our grandkids and our great-grandkids. They are taking that there and they add to it all the time. They didn’t want the vote so that we wouldn’t have a 63% increase in taxes. They voted for that in their vote the way they voted it and as far as the state goes. I think we are getting into our complete insanity.

That means your voting and doing the same things over and over again as everybody knows. But we keep electing the same people and they spend billions of dollars on education and according to Mr. Obama that would make us 56th in the nation as far as education goes. So, we know what sort of education he got. As far as teaching goes we have allowed kids to read library books that encourage teenage boys to use younger boys and girls as their sex objects. Also, according to New Mexico Law, teachers can have the people take the things to make them what they are not supposed to be men to women and women to men and also set up the operations which as soon as this big thing is built in Las Cruces to take off the breast and genitalia or whatever in that particular area.

William Moreland, Member of the Public said I do want to mirror the sentiment of my other peers that saying that we should try to do whatever we can to try to stop Project

Jupiter. I know that it is a county issue but as Dona Ana County’s biggest municipality

I feel like it is part of our obligation to kind of help stand up for the smaller municipalities in our county especially from a lot of the sentiment that I get from some of the people that live outside of town they don’t know what this project is. We are the biggest voice in this and if we don’t stand up for them the drought situation that we have been having could get worse. Heat islands which data centers could cause can drive away rain and that is on top of the issue of them wasting water. Another smaller issue that I have been noticing it and it is funny that coming up and talking about this near the tail end of summer but a lot of the public transportation bus stops here in town do not have shade and that could be a big issue especially for someone like me who barely misses buses through no fault of my own has to now wait an hour outside.

I feel like having some reprieve near those bus stops would be really useful to anyone who has to use that transportation system to get in and around town.

Jim Hoerst, Member of the Public said I am here to speak on behalf or in favor of

Jupiter, the Jupiter Project. That area referred to as Chapps often is baren of any economic development and the economic development that is coming to the area in the form of the data center will bring its own infrastructure. It will be able to tap new aquifers, it will be able to generate its own power, it will be virtually self-contained and it should spur other economic growth in that area. I heard the word used, bribe and somehow it is going to chase away other rain. I don’t know how that happens. I don’t think there is corruption involved. Of course, government is corruptible but to presume that there is corruption is most unfair. I also think that economic and environmental issues can be addressed. It is wrong to presume that it is going to be a boondoggle. I trust capital to operate in its own interest. I don’t believe that people will invest billions of dollars into enterprises that they aren’t sure are going to work. They might be wrong but at least they are trying to make money, not trying to lose money. We should hear both sides, get all the information we possibly can before we say no. I think some people have been very quick to say no. I think they need to look at all the facts and also have some sympathy for the economic development of that region. That is jobs, economic development is just another word for jobs. Jobs are just another word for prosperity.

Donna Stryker, Member of the Public said I don’t know if any of you saw the agenda or were just not able to attend. Last week Courts, Crime and Justice Legislative

Committee met at NMSU. I was there all three days, not for every minute, and when they come back, I would like to have more participation with the community and the council. I was there for Fernando Macias’s comments and his presentation, which was well received by the legislative body that was there on the committee. The Police

Department did a presentation on youth and crime, and it was disturbing and if you have not seen the video I would definitely ask you to have Chief Story share that video with each and every one of you. The faces of the legislators was telling and I don’t think that there was one negative comment about the fact that something needs to be done about crime not only in our city but in this state, Albuquerque and the country. And if you could please watch it. It would be helpful I think as things come up on our community and unfortunately our DA was not able to come to the third day but there was a conversation about competency and there was a shift. There was a huge shift on that day it appeared that there was more collaboration and perhaps more openness to hearing that we need to do something. We meaning the people, the

communities, the councils, the legislature, etcetera. There was one thing that was very disturbing to me, and it embarrassed me for my community and that is when a senior Senator put down my council and put down my community and basically pointed fingers which I thought was extremely unprofessional of that particular

Senator. I try really hard not to name names because I don’t think that it serves any purpose, but it was inappropriate. I don’t agree with everybody all the time, ever, it’s just not human but it was disrespectful and it really bothered me that he said those things about my council and pointed a finger at us in the audience and said this is your fault and I thought that was childish, immature, inappropriate for a senior sitting

Senator and I am sorry those comments were made in a public forum. It was not appropriate at all.

Tim Jenkins, Member of the Public said I wasn’t planning on speaking, but I would like to just second. I was also there for the two hour presentation for the Las Cruces

Police Department and it was very, very powerful and very sad at the same time but the presentation that they gave sent a very loud clear message to our Senators and my concern is that we need to look for every possible way to change the crime in this city. It is heartbreaking. We are getting ready to spend and we are going out to an intersection tomorrow I believe and talk about spending $11 million on homeless and unhoused and we are getting ready to spend $10 million for the largest abortion clinic but what are we doing about the mental health? That is my concern.

John Paul Palomino, Member of the Public said I am here to talk about Project

Jupiter. I believe it is not good for the county and city of Las Cruces and as the leadership for the city of Las Cruces, the largest population of the county. I believe it is imperative for you to encourage your colleagues at the county to stop this program from going forward.

Diana Alba-Soular, Member of the Public said I am Project Coordinator for the New

Mexico Local News Fund. I am here today because I wanted to introduce myself in this role. I am a long-time journalist here in Las Cruces. I am working part in a coordinator role and part in a journalist role. The New Mexico Local News Fund is a non-profit organization that is looking to support a variety of forms of local news statewide and so we have different projects and initiatives that are going on to do this.

Just recently we have begun discussing with a national initiative called Documenters.

Documenters is a project that trains citizens to become attendees of public meetings and documents them to put them out for public consumption. This is in part to try and help empower residents in an area where local news has seen a lot of decline in terms of the number of journalists that are here reporting in communities. It is not exactly a replacement for journalists, but it is a way to get more coverage in terms of just reporting. There is many medians that journalists rarely ever go to that still have health importance and citizens might be interested in and knowing what is going on.

So, I am just here today to just give you a heads up that we are doing this. We are trying to inform different public bodies that we are starting this project is in the very infancy right now and it probably won’t be until the first quarter of next year where we actually recruit citizens to participate. They go through a training through

Documenters, and they get paid to cover different meetings and so I am interested in getting feedback from you all as well as just members of the public who might be here and might be interested in becoming a Documenter down the road but my email

address is diana@nmlocalnews.org if you are interested in that and I will leave some cards for the City Clerk in case.

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 Johana Bencomo, and Councilor Becky

Corran

5. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES 5.1 REGULAR CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF AUGUST 4, 2025. 5.2 WORK SESSION OF AUGUST 11, 2025.

6. RESOLUTION(S) AND/OR ORDINANCE(S) FOR CONSENT AGENDA 6.1 RESOLUTION NO. 26-030: A RESOLUTION TO APPROVE AN

AMENDMENT TO INCREASE THE ANNUAL APPROVED EXPENDITURE

OF AGREEMENT NO. 20-21-089A FOR GRAPHIC DESIGN AND

DESTINATION MARKETING SERVICES WITH AFFLUX MEDIA DBA NMCO

MEDIA OF LAS CRUCES, NEW MEXICO TO AN AMOUNT NOT TO

EXCEED $265,000, PLUS APPLICABLE TAXES ANNUALLY, SUBJECT TO

APPROVED BUDGET APPROPRIATIONS. 6.2 RESOLUTION NO. 26-031: A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE CITY OF

LAS CRUCES (CITY) TO ACCEPT A GRANT AWARD FOR THE PUBLIC

WORKS DEPARTMENT THROUGH AN AMENDMENT TO THE CITY’S

ADOPTED FY2026 BUDGET. 6.3 RESOLUTION NO. 26-032: A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE CITY OF

LAS CRUCES (CITY) TO ACCEPT A GRANT AWARD IN THE AMOUNT OF $95,000 FROM THE NEW MEXICO DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION (NMDOT).

7. RESOLUTION(S) AND/OR ORDINANCE(S) FOR DISCUSSION 7.1 PUBLIC HEARING REQUIRED. RESOLUTION NO. 26-033: A

RESOLUTION APPROVING THE REQUEST FOR A TRANSFER OF

OWNERSHIP ONLY OF DISPENSER LIQUOR LICENSE NO. DIS-001199 TO

RT MANAGEMENT INC., D/B/A RUBY TUESDAY LAS CRUCES LOCATED

AT 2611 N. TELSHOR BOULEVARD, LAS CRUCES, NM. 88011. Public hearing began at 2:09 p.m. There was no one for or against. The public hearing ended at 2:09 p.m.

Adam Ochoa, Senior Urban Planner gave the overhead presentation. Councilor Becki Graham moved, seconded by Councilor Becky Corran, to

Approve Resolution No. 26-033.

ABSENT: Councilor Yvonne Flores 7.2 RESOLUTION NO. 26-034: A RESOLUTION ALLOWING THE DONA ANA

COUNTY IMPROVEMENT SPECIAL ASSESSMENT PROGRAM TO

OPERATE WITHIN THE CITY OF LAS CRUCES, INCLUDING PROGRAMS

SUCH AS COMMERCIAL PROPERTY ASSESSED CLEAN ENERGY (CPACE). Isaac Holguin, Economic Development Project Manager gave the overhead presentation.

Councilor Mattiace asked what kind of feedback have you gotten if any and if you have if you could just report that, from banks holding the mortgages? What you are saying is every bank has approved knowing that there is an additional lien on that property?

Isaac Holguin said yes, with respect to the lienholders we have to make sure that we get all the different lienholders that are going to be agreeing to this. Since this a property tax assessment. It is placed as a primary, on the capital stack, we have to have consent from all the other lienholders. So, if there is maybe a loan from a private capital as well as C-PACE we have to make sure that we are consenting on both of those lienholders, and they are knowing C-PACE is also going to be incorporated on that capital stack for the payments as well.

Eric Christensen, Adelante Consultant said just to add to what Isaac was saying about lienholders just with projects that we have seen with other counties in New Mexico.

We have had a number of banks kind of give that lienholder consent that has allowed

C-PACE transactions to take place and if for whatever reason as Isaac mentioned if the lienholder doesn’t want to give that consent then that is their right, and the transaction would not happen, so they are protected in that way.

Councilor Johana Bencomo moved, seconded by Councilor Becky Corran, to

Approve Resolution No. 26-034.

MOVER: Councilor Johana Bencomo

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

Councilor Johana Bencomo, and Councilor Becky Corran

NAYS: Councilor William Mattiace

7.3 COUNCIL BILL NO. 26-003; ORDINANCE NO. 3095: AN ORDINANCE

REPEALING AND REPLACING CHAPTER 18 - NUISANCES, SECTION 18-1

AND 18-2 OF THE LAS CRUCES MUNICIPAL CODE. Brad Douglas, City Attorney gave the overhead presentation.

Councilor Corran said I just want to talk about what this means in the context of, as city councilors if you all didn’t know we frequently get called when a neighbor is angry at their other neighbor. I am just going to tell you that a large portion of the calls that I get are people being mad at their neighbors. Of all sorts, many times it is something that falls under Supervisor Roach’s domain. Sometimes it is things that fall into Chief

Story’s domain, Supervisor Jimenez also but I say this to sort of contextualize this in this way, I firmly appreciate the way we enforce nuisance codes. That is often codes officers, and I try to sort of encourage folks to actually talk to their neighbors first because which I know is not always easy, but it is a wild idea but if you are really mad at someone sometimes you can talk to them about it and it actually gets better.

Especially when it is something like a plant which I would argue is very easily remedied. We can have a conversation about this. I just want to sort of contextualize this in the grand scheme of things. I support guidance to what we should and should not be cognizant not be self-policing, I am out there plucking the weeds. I don’t know what they are I just pluck them all, sorry and I don’t spray so I have to pluck more. It is what it is. I urge us all to consider this is asking folks to be more responsible citizens in a meaningful way that is constructive and clear. It is not an invitation to call the police on your neighbor’s weeds and so I am urging folks out there please don’t do that. If you find yourself thinking I am going to call my city councilor about my neighbor’s weeds I urge you to first if you can please go and talk to the person themselves. Maybe they are having a life crisis, and they can’t pick their weeds after a bunch of rain that is 80% of the time what is happening. So, I appreciate that this is coming forward and giving folks a context for which to understand what might be a useful plant versus a not useful plant. I urge us also to not use this as a license to be mean to each other, fundamentally I think that is part of our bigger fundamental problem so please look out at your own yard first. Think about what weeds you have there, make some time to pick them. Go over and offer to pick your neighbors. We do this in my neighborhood routinely because some of my neighbors have disabilities and so I say thank you for bringing this forward but also please folks of the public understand the context that we are functioning as a community and policing people’s plants is not something I don’t think and I don’t know if this is Supervisor Roach’s objection but it is mine that I don’t think we should be policing people’s plants or a myriad of other things about them so please keep that context in mind. I support this in the idea that it makes better neighbors.

Councilor McClure said I was going to second Officer Roach for getting me through some of the non-enforcement that we can and cannot do through Codes but how helpful he has been with it too. I think I had asked at one point if we could do photos and maybe that is not something we can put in the codes but if there was an educational campaign, even just a pamphlet you can hand out. I think that is something that would be helpful for some people who yes, I know we can Google but some people are going to get in the weeds about things. So, if we can do some sort of awareness campaign much like we need to do for other things I think that would be

helpful.

Brad Douglas said myself and Mr. Roach, we can communicate with our

Communications Director and see if there is something that we can push out, absolutely.

Councilor Mattiace said I just wanted to share with Councilor Corran said that the calls that I get are mostly neighbors not happy with neighbors either parking, weeds, and I just want to give a kudos say a compliment to one of your codes people. She came into my neighborhood I think two doors down, we have some neighbors that have RV and big trucks parking in the street, and I don’t mind because I just get out of there and I don’t look at things, but some neighbors really object it and she explained the entire ordinance. I mean she was very thorough and she spoke and I believe Sarah was her first name and I think she was very satisfied with the explanation and professionalism and I believe she said she came from Animal Control and now she is with Codes and she did an excellent job and settled down two or three neighbors and then when I came back from one of the neighbors commented on how professional she was. I think a pamphlet, education and maybe some type of maybe an outreach program with your codes people meeting the public I think they would really appreciate how professional these people are and how they have to know the law and thank you for your effort on another significant ordinance.

Diane Starbuck, Member of the Public said speaking in favor of this revised weed ordinance clarification of law is always a good thing. Hopefully the revised ordinance will preserve native plants species and maintain food and shelter for native wildlife. I would like to thank Mr. Douglas and Officer Roach for their work on this ordinance.

Also, on a more personal note I ask that you approve this ordinance, so I don’t have to hear my friend Jim Wilcox complain about the weed ordinance anymore. Councilor Becky Corran moved, seconded by Councilor Becki Graham, to

Approve Ordinance No. 3095.

MOVER: Councilor Becky Corran

SECONDER: Councilor Becki Graham

8. BOARD APPOINTMENTS 8.1 None.

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 COUNCIL BILL NO. 26-004; ORDINANCE NO. 3096: AN ORDINANCE

REPEALING ORDINANCE 2964, CLOSING THE LOCAL ECONOMIC

DEVELOPMENT ACT (LEDA) PROJECT BETWEEN THE CITY OF LAS

CRUCES, SAPUTO CHEESE, INC., AND THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO,

AND EFFECTIVELY TERMINATING THE GUARANTY REQUIRED BY THE

LEDA STATUTE. Council agreed to bring it forward.

10. CITY COUNCIL MEMBER BOARD REPORTS AND COMMENT 10.1 COUNCILOR MCCLURE I was just going to say that I also too had some concerns about Project Jupiter. I know we heard a lot about that today. I think that we all want dynamic change for our area but a lot of times we have to think at what cost that is. I think a lot of this too is the speed that we are looking at. The speed is light years compared to what I have seen here at the city level. It takes a long time for things to get done so. This is what breeds mistrust. This idea that it happened so quickly and I know there is a lot of outrage so I would counsel some of my county peers to consider why this is happening so fast and consider listening to people slightly more. 10.2 COUNCILOR MATTIACE I want to say thank you to LCPD, of course the Fire Department. Both chiefs have made quite improvements in the public safety issue in Las Cruces. I get tremendous comments from people going to different functions how much better the city looks both the cleanup and taking care of blight, panhandling has come under control but the LIGHT program we get a lot of comments Chief on the LIGHT program and how good that is and for behavioral management for people who are maybe on different corners and struggling and the Las Cruces Police Department, I really appreciate the traffic citations. I think it is making an improvement. I don’t see as many red-light runners, and I don’t see as many speeders on the different streets. I think they are getting the message that we are out there to make sure you stay in control and follow the rules of driving. So, I appreciate LCPD and the Fire Department. Another kudos. I want to thank Olive Garden. Being Italian it is a frequent place that I visit, and I want to thank them for their donation of providing meals to the Las Cruces Police

Department. It is nice to see Corporate America be so generous.

On the Utilities, maybe the public needs to get this fact sheet that our Utilities

Department has almost ten years to handle the lead and copper issue and so this would be a good fact sheet to share with the public and I think our Utilities Department is doing an outstanding job and I really appreciate all the awards that our

Communications Department got particularly the one for Utilities. As for the one from

Ikani, that did shock me, him being so serious all the time but he does have a great sense of humor and thanks for doing that video. 10.3 COUNCILOR GRAHAM None. 10.4 COUNCILOR CORRAN I also wanted to elevate the Communications Department because I be zipping everyday Even though we didn’t see the zipper one, I personally watched that video

and now do best practices and I would say my best practice is speeding but I am just making the intersection more efficient at Spruce and Telshor. The zipper video was also really delightful so thank you for that. I also want to appreciate the Firefighters

Union who were recognized yesterday as an outstanding labor organization in our community and literally saving lives. At the Labor Day breakfast they were recognized for all of the things that they do from rescue to fire response to emergency services overall and so I really want to thank you and appreciate and elevate them as one of our collective folks that deserve recognition and so thank you to Chris Johnson and team for representing yesterday. We are really proud of the work that the firefighters and IAFF do in particular.

The second part that I really want to talk about specifically someone mentioned the housing thing that is happening tomorrow. There is going to be a press conference related to housing generally but also, I think these are a number of housing related initiatives. In particular this is that one that we approved about a month ago, a month and a half ago as this body of single family homes for folks who are at 120% of area median income and so just eluding to that, that is something that is happening tomorrow but I sort of want to give a shoutout to our housing staff generally and the community organizations including Community of Hope who really lead on a number of housing related things this week. The City of Tucson identified Las Cruces as the leader in housing and region and so folks from the City of Tucson will be visiting and visiting with folks from our housing staff and Community of Hope to find out what we area doing here and implement it in Tucson because they visited a bunch of places all over the southwest and they found Las Cruces to be the one they want to emulate so thank you to the folks who work really hard to be leaders in housing. That is also why we are getting millions of dollars from the state, and I just want to appreciate the community of folks including Camp Hope and Natalie and the housing team who have been working really hard to address housing at all levels. 10.5 COUNCILOR BENCOMO I am honestly so excited about tomorrow’s groundbreaking and the news about the $11 million that the state is investing in Las Cruces because of our dedication to addressing our housing crisis. That news is finally out, and I think we will hang on for a while longer and so that I am so deeply grateful that it is happening and that we get to really celebrate that tomorrow at Arcadia. One of the projects that Councilor Corran spoke to is single family housing. We are really targeting this wide range of housing options for so many of our neighbors and so many families in Las Cruces and that is just so incredible and exciting, and we are going to spend the $11 million. So, I am very excited to show the state what we can do so that they can keep investing in what we are doing.

Lastly on Friday evening, Friday afternoon I went on a ride along with Officer Udero. I just wanted to give him a shout out and tell him thank you for letting me ride along with him and we had a really great conversation. A couple of things that stood out to me while I was with him, we responded to a variety of calls. Some of them were related to our unhoused neighbor. These was one related to an overdose and then another related to an abandoned property and it just made me really affirm the fact that we just have to invest in a bunch of other things that can also be intervention so that our police officers aren’t having to be the first line of intervention at so many of

these things and so I think that is really critical for us to continue t considering and to continue committing to but again really grateful for that opportunity which can be really intimidating so I just really wanted to publicly thank him for inviting me.

10.6 MAYOR ENRIQUEZ Again, I just want to echo the same congratulations to our Communications

Department, Mandy and staff for their award-winning videos and also to Natalie in our

Housing Department, this $11 million is an investment in our community and it is the hard work that they put in. Nobody invest in somebody who hasn’t done before and has those that are in progress and then have the vision and have shovel ready projects so the team has done that and again I know you did a great job acting and tried to fix everything in this city but a large part of all the things that we are doing goes to our City Manager and kudos to his leadership and with that, thank you Ikani.

11. CITY MANAGER REPORT 11.1 IKANI TAUMOEPEAU I would like to touch base, there was a public comment earlier for the RAC and senior pool to come back online. I appreciate David sharing some updates as his team and

Parks & Rec and Facilities, staff and our aquatics team have all been trying to figure this out. I just want to share a few things and hopefully share why we are here in this place. I am sharing this so everyone knows it is not for a lack of trying. So earlier in

August we found out that the activity pool needed repair. There was an electrical panel failure, so we reached out like we always do to a repair vendor who came shortly after, and we assumed everything was going to be okay a few weeks later but they weren’t able to repair it. So, at the end of August, they found out that there was a coil that couldn’t just be repaired. We actually needed a new pump for the special material that was needed. So, we have a spare pump as we appreciate staff ordering spare pumps, but we have various pool pumps that are needed and the size that was needed was not the size for the pump that we had which means we would have to break additional concrete and base to put this down which leads to additional challenges and delays. So right now, there is two options that we have in staff is working with it and one of the options was to just buy the same size pump which they don’t make any more so that is causing a huge challenge. The other two options is having two local vendors evaluate the old pump would have to be rebuilt with new coils and internal components and then option two is working with a cost estimate making the necessary modifications to use the supplemental pump. Staff is currently working with these two options. The estimate is about two to three weeks, please don’t hold our staff to it. That is their goal to get it done by but we just wanted to share with the public that there is so much information, and we are not making any excuses.

Staff is definitely doing their best and I just wanted to share that information. So, thank you to those departments.

Pertaining to Parks & Rec, I want to give kudos. I want to take a moment to acknowledge Santino Carrillo, a valued member of our community and an exceptional example of dedication. Santino began his journey with our city’s youth diversion and development program as a participant. His commitment led him later to become a volunteer, then an intern and then eventually an employee in this program. His hard

work and leadership have been recognized by the state as he was recently appointed by Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham to the New Mexico Juvenile Justice Advisory

Board. We are incredibly proud to see his journey come full circle and we are grateful for his continued service to our community.

In addition to this there is a playground at Valley View Park has been replaced.

Please join us for a ribbon cutting at Valley View Park at 710 South Espina on

September 9th at 9:30 a.m. to celebrate this new facility.

Housing press conference will be held tomorrow as I mentioned and echoing what councilors have shared again off Red Hawk Golf Club Road new Portrait Street to announce the six affordable housing projects funded through an $11 million special appropriation by the State of New Mexico.

Internal Audit, the OIR group, will be presenting their eighth semi-annual police auditor report on September 8th, and will hold their third community outreach meeting later that evening in council chambers here from 6 to 8 p.m.

For Visit Las Cruces, get your dance shoes ready, Baila Las Cruces is back. We invite you all to check it out. Visit Las Cruces sponsors with some groups in town, Baila and

NMSU to teach salsa dancing, merengue, cumbias, bachata, and all of the above at

Plaza de Las Cruces. Fun starts at 7 p.m., Thursday September 4th, with free Latin inspired dances so hope to see you there.

Last but not least I just wanted to give time to Adrienne if Adrienne wants to come up.

She just has some updates to the public and to council regarding lead and copper.

Adrienne Widmer, Utilities Director said I just kind of want to give you a little bit of an update. A real time map is not required for the lead/copper, only updated annually of which we are going to be doing annually instead of doing a real time update as we move forward.

In regard to the IPRA request, it actually requested a list which means we would have to create a record which is not what you do when you answer IPRAs. Now if they would like a list, they can provide us a list of names and/or accounts, and we could provide that documentation. NMED has approved our customer notice process so there is no worries there. Customer request for water testing’s, those do not become a regulatory requirement until November of 2027 and mobile home parks, most of those are served by master meters in which case those will be looked at as we go through if they are deemed appropriate depending on the year that it was installed based on regulatory requirements of when lead/copper was no longer being used. Lead was no longer being used.

12. ADJOURNMENT 12.1 Councilor Becki Graham moved, seconded by Councilor Becky Corran, to adjourn at 2:49 p.m.

Mayor

City Clerk