Work Session Meeting July 13, 2026 MINUTES Work Session Monday, July 13, 2026 @ 1:00 PM City Council Chambers, City Hall PRESENT: City Councilor Becky Corran, Mayor Eric Enriquez, City Councilor Cassie McClure, City Councilor William Mattiace, Mayor Pro Tem John Munoz, and City Councilor Michael Harris ABSENT: City Councilor Johana Bencomo 1. READ CLOSED MEETING STATEMENT 1.1 The Las Cruces City Council met in closed session and only discussed those limited items as stated in the posted notice: 1. To discuss pending or threatened litigation regarding Kline Charles Maynard v. Lorenzo Tovar and City of Las Cruces, Cause No. D-307-cv-2025-2680, which is closed pursuant to NMSA 1978, Section 10-15-1(H)(7). 2. To discuss pending or threatened litigation regarding Brandon Barron, et al. v. City of Las Cruces, et al., Cause No. D-307-cv-02217, which is closed pursuant to NMSA 1978, Section 10-15-1(H)(7). 3. To discuss pending litigation regarding City of Las Cruces and Dona Ana County v. Apollo Global Management, Lifepoint Health, and Memorial Medical Center; Case No. 2-26-cv-01280-JHR-GJF, which is closed pursuant to NMSA 1978, Section 10-15- 1(H)(7). 4. To discuss the purchase, acquisition or disposal of real property or water rights by the public body, which is closed pursuant to NMSA 1978, Section 10-15-1-(H)(8). 2. AGENDA ITEM 2.1 LAS CRUCES SISTER CITIES YEARLY UPDATE. Catrina Godinez, Community Outreach Manager introduced the topic. Elaine McKinney, President of Sister Cities gave the overhead presentation. Councilor McClure said the only thing I would supplement is I know you focused on student exchanges but when we were in Lerdo there were also teachers who were interested in doing exchanges. So having consideration of what trades can we kind of pull back and forth across various borders, various oceans would be something also to consider and then they come back as ambassadors to their students and gives that little bit reassurance to parents there, to parents here, with that looks like gives them new ideas and for their teaching and their trades what they could bring back so just this supplement but thank you. Elaine McKinney said that’s a very good idea, Councilor. I think that we’ve had some communications but we haven’t solidified anything but I think that’s an excellent idea for a great start to introduce them to our community here and to, likewise maybe send a group down to Lerdo. Thank you very much. Councilor Corran said as Tim Chappell knows I hosted a bunch of students from Lerdo over when we did the student exchange through the DACC and I still am in touch with a bunch of those folks who many of whom have traveled, some of them live in the States now, some of them live in different parts of Mexico but it is great to be in touch with those students still 10/12 years later from Lerdo though we initially met as part of that exchange which was great. So, I just want to say you know, count me in for the hosting of students, if that’s where you are or whatever kinds of things that you all need in that and supporting that relationship. It was a great experience at the time, and I really appreciate you all caring that torch forward. I did have one city that I would say if you all are in thinking about other places, a place called Huaraz in Ancash, Peru, it’s at the base of a very large mountain range, very much like here 115,000 people, diverse population, a long history, super interesting relationship with water. So not that you necessarily need, I am sure you have a million places to consider but, when you were talking and said like oh, we’re thinking of other places, that place that I have been connected to in the past, mean, came to mind as a very close match to Las Cruces in terms of those things. So, thank you again and we appreciate your commitment. Elaine McKinney said you’re welcome and I’ll be happy to give you a card so you can send me information on that city. We are looking definitely for cities that are going to be beneficial for Las Cruces and it always involves a little time of courting to get to know one another and to see what we have to offer them and what their community has to offer us. So we are looking for that strong link between communities and I would say that Councilor Corran’s information there regarding her relationship with the people that she has hosted and been involved with, really demonstrates what happens as we interact and become friends and we get to know their culture, they get to know ours we share things back and forth so it’s really important, that brings a oneness to our communities and although we may not agree on different things we can acknowledge and respect one another and that’s what helps our international relationships so thank you very much. Councilor Munoz said Elaine thank you, your board, your volunteers for all the work that you are doing. Definitely important as folks from these Sister Cities will say danke sehr gut y gracias buen hecho. Another city to consider will be Maiori, Italy I’ll get your information be great as you expand to look at the city, the beautiful little city near a beach with a wonderful view and structures that are over 9,000 years old and as I tell the Public Works guys they also have streets that are 3,000 years old with no potholes. They are still standing, well, kind of. Mayor Enriquez said thanks again Elaine for the presentation, the update. I look forward to the expansion, the growth that Sister Cities can do and provide. Looking forward to the Christmas tree decoration, Catrina has already mentioned to me and we can do a lot of things and you’re right it is the relationship, it’s the education, it’s the art, it’s the culture. There’s so much that we can learn from each other and I’ll throw this one to the Fire Department, we had one time talked about having Lerdo fire members maybe attend one of our academies and we can host some and give them some training from this area. I was fortunate in Nienburg to go to the Police Department to their academy and the things that they do over there, it’s a 3 year program and a lot to learn and things that we could learn from them as well. So looking forward to it. 2.2 TELSHOR FACILITY FUND. Lesley Doyle, Finance Director gave the overhead presentation. Cynthia Alamillo, Capital Improvements Program Manager continued the overhead presentation. Natalie Green, Housing and Neighborhood Revitalization Manager continued the overhead presentation. Lesley Doyle, continued the overhead presentation. Councilor Corran said just at a very basic level, if I remember the last time we had this conversation, the State Investment Council only promises like a 2% return or something, don’t they? Like I don’t know what they if or if they suggest, I know it’s like 2,000 investments and it’s a very like complicated thing, but my sense from before when we were talking about this, which was not one of the double digit return years was that they were really bullish in how much investments in the State Investment Council would bring in and it’s obviously overperforming like all investments, most investments at this moment are. I am wondering, I don’t think that that’s going to be a forever, like I know that you’re not, you just said that you are not a financial adviser. I don’t think a 10% is a reasonable return to expect on any investment and any market except this exact moment. So I am curious if you think what is the definite amount of return on investment that we could expect for whatever we keep in the State Investment Council, and then to me that’s a very important variable in whether or not we leave things there or not. My tendency is produced a lot of money is to leave as much as we can and to make liquid only the things that we need as they go along but I am curious if you can talk a little bit about that because obviously our return on investment and when we had the money wasn’t as good but the market was also different, etcetera, etcetera. So, can you talk a little bit about that, speculatively please? Lesley Doyle said I would agree that 10% is not something that is probably sustainable over a long period of time. As far as what the State Investment Council, you know, guarantees or, I am not familiar with that, I’ve never heard of them guaranteeing a certain rate of return so I am going to have to do a little bit of research to see if that is in fact the case. But I guess just to put a finer point on what you said, 10% is not something that I would expect year over year for multiple years, but we also did you know do better with this investment than we did internally. Councilor Corran said I know it is too much, it is a lot of speculation but I appreciate your insight and it’s sort of what I guess I imagine. I shouldn’t have said guarantee. I don’t mean that, I think that we just talked about like what can we expect under all conditions overall and I am wondering if you can go back to that graph really quickly? So yes, for me this is just a wild return on investment slide that I do think we should hire a financial adviser to help us with frankly because this is not real or like very hard to establish something or expect something, but I guess I would say I would, my recommendation would be one that we do not take, that we take out what we need and keep the state investment the money with the State Investment Council while we’re still figuring out what to do with the rest, and I also would say I do acknowledge that holding like, holding on to a rate of return like this, we’re a city entity, we are here to help people, we’re not here to make money. So I think for me fundamentally that’s one of the things that I think is really important in this, but I do think we should balance those 2 things by keeping some money in investments and spending it as the liquidity goes on. So thank you and again, I support hiring a financial advisor if we’re going to take it all out and give it to the city, I would hope we would hire someone from the State Investment Council I guess, to help us figure out what to do with it, but it seems like this is a pretty good place to keep our money. Councilor McClure said I guess I am going to supplement a little bit what Councilor Corran said and maybe kind of highlight where I think on money, it’s one of those sort of lucid things that in my life. What are we saving for? And I think one of those questions too is when you talk to lay people and they say, oh we have billions of dollars in our coffers in the state and we’re saving it for a rainy day and people feel like it’s raining. So I am also of the mindset of yeah, get a financial adviser because I like people who do this for a living, it’s not going to last forever like this, right? Can we leverage for things where it is actually raining? I am thinking if we have a heat wave, the library is a cooling station. Can we pay for what we’re saving in those hours for the Sunday library through this? Things that are actual immediate needs. I would say too like if we’re, if we have projects like the MRA and we can supplement say, the Boys and Girls Club too to see that we build that catalyst there that people see a future that they want to live in, right? That’s where I am always focusing on. These couple of things where we’re making things happen now is kind of where I’ve always been focused on as well. So, but I also, I’m not a financial person. So I want to say that we are doing this in a responsible way. We do need to have more people on that committee like Natalie said as well to have those robust conversations, right? Because need sometimes does change, and focus might change sometimes, and I think that is, that’s a hard conversation to have and we should have those with people who are invested in that and have the background to have that conversation and know a little bit more than perhaps some of us on council. I’ll speak for myself and not council at that point. Councilor Harris said as someone who’s relatively new and has been vaguely aware of the Telshor Fund for a long time, this was all very enlightening. I guess I also agree that State Investment Council seems to have had a pretty good return, that is obviously a lot to continue to expect forever, but we’ve got it right now and I say we ride it as long as possible. So you know, I think keeping it here, selling it as needed to have liquidity to pay out the contracts that we’ve got, I think that’s the course now and that seems like a reasonable course for the future. I’m not sure that we could do better as a city, I guess the state already has financial advisers and people whose sole job it is to keep this fund going for all the municipalities, so you know, hiring our own people and trying to do this in house might not be as disastrous as when I try to pick my own stocks but you know, probably were it seems like we’re getting decent rates here. As for spending priorities, I too worry about like what’s going to happen when this money is gone, and so you know, we started with 24 we’ve got 30 right now, so we’re doing pretty good. But I also don’t want us to get into a situation where we spend it all and then organizations that have come to rely on a yearly distribution of $600,000 dollars of that money don’t have it anymore. At the same time if we could spend it all in some magic wand and then solve all of the problems and then we don’t need that in the future, that would be great but I don’t think that’s the case. So that’s what I want to be careful on drawing it down is, you know, maybe not drawing it down for operational type expenses but keeping in mind that there are projects that can leverage a lot more money like what Natalie was presenting on if we can use it as matching funds, you know we can get a 60% return on investment if we use it as matching funds you know, if you want to think of it that way. So, see if I had any other specific questions. I guess another just concern that I’ll throw out and I hope that the NMSIC is thinking about it is, and also is related to us managing it ourselves. There are some pretty unstable forces in the current market right now and I just want to make sure that we are not exposed to that as much as possible although I know some of the exposure is being forced by forces beyond our control. So those are my thoughts for now. Councilor Mattiace asked how close are we to go getting into the corpus, the original amount? Lesley Doyle said the corpus was about 28 million and if we expend all of our 27 budgeted expenditures our ending balance will be 30 million. So give it or take 2 million before we begin to utilize the corpus. Councilor Mattiace said I agree with Councilor Harris. I’d like to see that at least not, you know, touched, and of course we could make more money and still do all the good deeds that we are doing, and I realized Miss Green has even payments coming back to the Telshor Fund from some loans. So it looks positive that there it could go to 35 maybe 40,000 and I’d like to see that happen. I think it’s good that the city has another reserve just besides the 2/12, and then you could guarantee the 600,000 a year to the nonprofits, and that would be for perpetual. That’s the way it was designed. It was designed that it just wouldn’t be expended totally and then you don’t have 600,000 could go maybe to a million in a couple of years if interest rates and return of investments are good, but I would like to see that bundle preserved and then all the good deeds come out of you know the interest rather than the corpus, and if there’s even a little extra, you know that’s just smart investment on our part so that would be my direction. Councilor Munoz said my thought as we look into this is definitely we do need you know, subject matter experts and we look towards you and other experts that we have around the state. At the point in time that we are in today and I think Councilor McClure mentioned this you know rainy day fund, we talked about the rainy day fund from the state level and you know it’s someday, rainy day, you know, there’s no someday on the calendar, I know that when my son was little, we would say, oh let’s save this cookie for a rainy day and it’s like oh mom and dad, it never rains in Las Cruces, right? We’re kind of in a juxtaposition right now where people have food insecurity, people need food, we’re stressed out about affordability and so as we look at some of these projects I’d like to hear and see a needs analysis of the organizations we’re supporting to see where the needs are. If I look at, I think it was page 19 or 26 we’re funding half of what people, what organizations are asking for. If we invest anemically we’ll probably get anemic results and that’s not what we want to do to be effective and to govern effectively and to help people out effectively. So, I would say let’s look at with our subject matter experts what we can do. Let’s look at the organizations and the folks that we are supporting and prioritize where we can see some positive impact and that rainy day, I mean, it’s here. As a state we are doing well financially if we wait to spend that money in the future, you know those 3, 10 billion dollars will be less in the future if that makes sense because of inflation and just cost of goods and that will continue to increase year over year. So I would suggest that we do that and see where we can prioritize and see where we can most effectively spend our resources. Councilor Corran said this is just a quick follow up on that conversation. I think that the time that we talked about this prior was when we talked about the 300 and then the 400 and then the 600, which I think I was on council at that time, I wasn’t there for the other 2 conversations, but that was the interest based amount that came from the corpus at that time, roughly. I think that’s what we made that decision based on, I am not 1000% sure but my memory of our conversation about that was the interest was performing, outperforming what we had been awarding and so we were sort of amassing a lot of money, 53 million dollars at some point in time and so I’m just curious if that’s still reflective sort of to Mayor Pro Tem Munoz’s question if that’s still reflective of the amount of sort of expected interest profits? It sounds like it’s a little bit less than what we would expect and if we, if that’s something else that we should reconsider as part of the conversation as what in addition to 2 year contracts which I also hope we can do with the agencies and reduce the administrative burdens for the small amount of money that we’re actually giving each organization. I would wonder if it’s possible to expand that amount to something else? So, I guess is a question sort of for future consideration or if you know better, I’d love to hear it. Lesley Doyle asked I guess for clarification, do you mean just interest or do you also mean the appreciation of the investment? Councilor Corran said that’s what I don’t really remember how we decided, how we arrived at 600,000 dollars and that’s the part that I’m not completely sure of. I think that was just the interest, the expected interest, not the appreciation that’s happening at a different rate than we would expect, but I’m not 100% sure of that. I just wanted to clarify where that measure came from and then the money that we’ve taken out recently came from us having this conversation, which is, it is raining, we have 53 million dollars that we’re sitting on. We need to address essential services that we have in the discussion of 26 and 27, but I guess the 600,000 question is one that I also would like to know more about if you can share? Natalie Green said the 600,000 increased in between FY21 and FY22, and if you recall in the presentation at that time, we were not using the Telshor Fund for any of the other department or operational programming. So that was the consideration of the council at the time was, there’s an increase in need for nonprofits, let’s increase the annual allocation and were able to fund more nonprofits. Since then we’ve seen the Telshor used for capital improvements, some of these allocations, the parks facility maintenance. So we’re seeing that investment go down and then for affordable housing the 11.4, so I guess that would be possibly also part of the discussion is if I’m hearing council correctly we want to see the continuation of the HRPS Program for nonprofits at a possible increase if the interest allows it and also these one time, sort of, instrumental significant projects like Boys and Girls Club or Capital Improvements, is that what I am hearing from council? Councilor Corran said that’s what I think I’m saying and I’m sort of hearing in Councilor Munoz, but like I know that I understand that this FY26 and FY27 is not a sustainable model for how we’re spending the money. Like I think you are trying to convey that to us and I think we understand that. So in that context, I think understanding what the future plan is, is what you’re wanting us to talk about. So yes, from my perspective you summed up what I’m getting at, and I do have a desire to reduce this that we are doing related to the transfers for big projects, if we can, or if we can leverage in ways that we can, I am here for that, but I also feel like the nonprofits are serving thousands, hundreds of thousands of people, and I think if we have enough money to give them more, I would ask that we do. Natalie Green said I think that can be a discussion that we have with the financial advisor. Councilor Mattiace asked I think Natalie, if you maintain the corpus, you know, if you keep at least 28 million then if your investment is getting 8 to 10% a year, can we use that figure or 7%, what figure, what percentage you want to use? Lesley Doyle said I would love to use a 10%, I’m just not sure it’s realistic. Councilor Mattiace asked isn’t it going to crazy here, interest rates, no? Okay, what do you want to use, 4%, 2%, 3%? Lesley Doyle said I think a 4 to 5% rate of return is probably more reasonable than what we currently have. Councilor Mattiace said okay, let’s say 4% on 30 million. You know, you have 1.2 million that you’d be earning. You know, it looks like from what’s happened over the last 8 to 10 years, we’ve had some many rainy days, we spent almost 22 million, correct? I mean that went from corpus of 28 to 54 and in the last 8, 5, 7 years, you know, it’s been 4 million here, 2 million there, a million there, 2 million another and now we’re down to 30 million and so we have to be careful of just doing these rainy day ideas again for the next 5 or 6 years and we just we’ll be down to 0. Because you know, we spent 22 million pretty fast. So I’d like to see the council secure that corpus, you know don’t by ordinance, by a consensus, by something but don’t go below $28 million, and then you guarantee the 600,000 to a million a year for these nonprofits. So you could rate, you know, you could go from 600,000 to a million if you have at least 28 million but if you have 10 million or 5 million or 0, then you have nothing. You have zilch. You have 0 for those nonprofits. So that’s just my statement. Mayor Enriquez said I’m in favor of keeping it as it is and then with the contract of a financial advisor or financial expert, I would definitely be in favor of that, not only to look at this fund but also what is one of our dilemmas that we’re facing here at the city is our expenditures and our revenues and I know that there’s a couple of committees so take the time to get a financial advisor, let’s get someone that can also look at that and help our budget overall. So we are deciding whether to spend or not to spend with the Telshor Fund. The other thing is, keep it as is, but if a crisis or an emergency, then we can always bring it to council and see how we look at those things. I know we spent a lot of money quick, but it wasn’t just a rainy day it was also over the course of years of things that were neglected and needed to be kept up or redone and it’s costly and we know that. The other thing is future spending plans is, I think that’s something that is ongoing but right now we do have our strategic plan in process. So that’s a tool that we should be able to use and again give that information to the financial advisor as time goes on. These are some of the strategic plans that are going on with the city, with the organization, with the community, and we’ve also got another survey and strategic plan on homelessness, mental health, and substance abuse that’s going on. Once those are completed, we get a better idea a better view of which direction we want to head and where we want to start spending some money for the betterment of the community. Lesley Doyle said just to be sure that I’m understanding council’s direction correctly. We are all in agreement that a financial adviser is the direction we want to go. Additionally we want to keep the investments to the extent that we can in the State Investment Council and sell as needed for liquidity, and then finally, we want to make sure that we keep the corpus whole so that we can continue to provide those annual allocations for the nonprofits. Did I understand that correctly? Mayor Enriquez said yes, I think we’re in agreement with that. 2.3 GO BOND QUARTERLY UPDATE. Kyle Arend, Interim Public Works Director gave the overhead presentation. Natalie Green, Housing and Neighborhood Revitalization Manager continued the overhead presentation. Councilor Harris asked when we’re doing like the Arcadia 4 and Skylark Developments, I know I’ve mentioned many times a dig once utilities policy, do we have any leverage to like make sure all the utilities are put in and we’re not going to dig up new sidewalks during those 2 since they are kind of city owned? Kyle Arend said we are still preparing the dig one policy and we prefer to implement it in many ways possible, but it doesn’t actually fully exist just yet. Each utility has their own right to bring in the utilities based on their schedules and their funding abilities. Councilor Harris said okay, it would be cool if we could do as much as possible to, I mean, they’re city owned parcels, so it seems like an ideal time and a model time to do it, but so whatever we can do policy wise up here, but I don’t know how much that is. Kyle Arend said definitely as far as coordination for these projects, and I think Natalie would agree that we always strive to do that, it just we’re not always able to completely enforce it. Councilor Harris said sure, understand, and then I guess my last comment. I am a huge fan of the EFIS so cool. I’m glad it’s going on Amador Crossing and it’s really hot outside so that’s going to be relevant going forward. Councilor Mattiace asked Natalie can you share some of the like the 2 bedrooms, 1 bedrooms and the different housing what the rent is right now, the rent or leases currently? Natalie Green said the rents are set annually by the tax credit, and so they just changed. So, the rents really vary depending on the funding source. If you guys recall the cheeseburger and so if it is a tax credit and they are at 60% AMI for Dona Ana County, Las Cruces area 1 bedroom at 60% AMI is 874 and a 2 bedroom is at 1050. If they happen to be in a 30% unit, then a 1 bedroom is a 437 and a 2 bedroom is 525. And then we have some low home units in some of the projects which is capped at 50% AMI and that’s a 728 for 1 bedroom and 875 for a 2 bedroom, and then just to add some extra complication to the cheeseburger, if they happen to have a housing choice voucher, then the rents are typically at the payment standard for the Housing Authority and that’s like a 10/40 and I can’t remember what the 1 bedroom is, but just adds an extra. I can send the chart though. I will add though for Peachtree, so our 3 bedrooms are at 1212 and there’s a private development around the corner from there, that’s their 3 bedrooms are running about 2200 to 2600. So, we are still substantially below the market rate of housing. 3. ADJOURNMENT 3.1 City Councilor Michael Harris moved, seconded by Mayor Pro Tem John Munoz, to adjourn at 2:33 pm. RESULT: Carried MOVER: City Councilor Michael Harris SECONDER: Mayor Pro Tem John Munoz AYES: City Councilor Becky Corran, Mayor Eric Enriquez, City Councilor Cassie McClure, City Councilor William Mattiace, Mayor Pro Tem John Munoz, and City Councilor Michael Harris Mayor City Clerk