City Council Meeting May 5, 2025

MINUTES

City Council

Monday, May 5, 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 - COUNCILOR CORRAN. 1.2 PRESENTATION OF CERTIFICATES OF

APPRECIATION/PROCLAMATIONS - COUNCILOR CORRAN. Councilor Corran presented George Pearson, Ashleigh Curry, and the Lynn

Community Middle School Bike Club with a proclamation for National Bike Month.

Councilor Corran presented Dr. AJ Stephens, Erin Young, Pamela Field, Jackie

Kaiser, Cheryl Lombardi, Caitlin Podsiadio, and Jessica Womack with a proclamation for Nurses Week.

Councilor Corran presented Susana Santillan, Maureen Grant, Brenda Lopez, Saron

McKee, and Kass Borunda with a proclamation for Interpreter Appreciation Month.

Councilor Corran presented a proclamation for Economic Development Week.

Councilor Corran presented the Greater, Hispanic and Green Chambers with a proclamation for National Small Business Week.

Councilor Corran presented Officer David Udero with a proclamation for National

Police Week.

Councilor Corran presented Viola Perea, Rachel Thielen, Vanessa Williams, William

Blanchard, Alma Ruiz, Ernest Budden, John Frye, and Rick Rivas with a proclamation

for Internal Audit Awareness Month.

Councilor Corran presented Ron Borunda with a proclamation for Drinking Water

Week.

Councilor Corran presented Christine Rivera and Teresa Stavenhagen with a proclamation for Professional Municipal Clerk Week.

1.3 JOBS OF THE WEEK. Sarah Raney, Americas Job Centers of New Mexico presented Jobs of the Week. 1.4 PETS OF THE WEEK. Carol Nielson, Animal Services Center of the Mesilla Valley presented Pets of the

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

SECTION 2-27 (E)(2) 2.1 Councilor Corran said I do, and I will recuse myself when it comes time to vote on that, a potential conflict of interest because I serve on the board of one of the organizations that we are considering.

Mayor Enriquez said this is for item 7.2, as a part of our agreement with HUD, an additional conflict of interest disclosure is requested regarding the following agencies who are being considered for funding as part of the 2025 action plan on the non- consent agenda, Mesilla Valley Casa, Casa de Peregrinos, La Casa, Mesilla Valley

Community of Hope, Mesilla Valley Habitat for Humanity, and Tierra Del Sol Housing

Corporation.

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION 3.1 Rod Gajewski, Member of the Public said I am the Adjutant of the Purple Heart Las

Cruces and live at 4420 Winchester Road here in Las Cruces. I have given each one of you a flyer and contact information for Lorraine Padilla from Hospice to participate in the, if you would we have never had anybody but the Mayor when had been the

Chief participate before but we always look for someone from the city administration to participate in the Candlelight Ceremony. Every year and I am going to quote from the American Legion magazine, the most recent issue, “Every year on the last

Monday of May Americans honor the brave men and women who gave their lives in service to our nation. Memorial Day is a solemn testimony to valor marked by ceremonies, parades, and moments of reflections as it is time to ensure that the sacrifices of the fallen are remembered”. And that is all this ceremony is for. We don’t introduce dignitaries. It is about the 204 Southern New Mexicans who gave their lives for the service in combat, for their service to their country. Our Purple Heart group,

Mesilla Valley Hospice has taken over the program with the support of the city, the

Mayor, it is part of the Mayor’s budget and Purple Heart but the Hospice program here

is called the Vet to Vet Program and it is about serving Veterans who are passing, men and women who are passing and we honor them. We take care of them, we look out for them and it is a special program that the hospice does but this year they have taken over it as one of their events to maintain their certification. We have given them kind of the lead of the program but Purple Heart monetarily and physically supports this action. Lorraine Padilla, her name is on the flyer that you have, you would contact her if you were able to be a sponsor of a candle. It is placing the candle on the wall.

That is all it is. There is no cost involved. It is simply to honor that Veteran which their names will be read that evening.

Mayor Enriquez said Rod, I just want to thank you. You have been doing this for a number of years, this Candlelight Ceremony and thank you for your service.

Liz Rodriguez-Johnson, Member of the Public said I continue to have concerns about the city’s record keeper regarding city water pipes and private water pipes. With respect to the Lead and Copper Rule, EPA says, “The service line is determined through evidence-based record, method, or technique”. Where is the city’s evidence- based information? At a briefing November 16, 2024, city personnel stated that

15,627 properties were determined to be lead free. It was stated that this inventory was determined “based on available records”. This indicates two things, first the

15,627 properties were not physically checked. Second, the conclusion that they are lead free is based upon available records. The quality of public records depends upon among other things upon the accuracy and the thoroughness of all the personnel who have had access to those records throughout the years and this can vary widely to say the least. The new rule says that a galvanized service line is one that is or was at any time downstream of a lead service line or is currently downstream of an unknown service line. It also says that if water system is unable to demonstrate that galvanized service line was never downstream of a lead service line it must presume there was an upstream lead service line. This galvanized service line then requires replacement.

I would like to know how the city demonstrates that such a line was never downstream of a lead service line. It seems to me that the city would need excellent records regarding all the water piping in the city to be able to demonstrate that. Lynn

Moorer has provided data that indicates that many obviously incorrect records are in bedded in the Las Cruces Utilities inventory map. Unfortunately, that makes the city records highly suspect overall. In fact, the more the city records are reviewed the more clear it becomes most are unreliable. Here are some examples, the record declares piping to be non-lead based on installation after the lead ban which occurred in 1986 even though the recorded installation date was before 1986. Another record characterizes a line as non-lead even though a portion of it is unknown. Yet another record declares a line is non-lead without providing any basis for the declaration. Plus, approximately half of the city is omitted from the map, hundreds of businesses, homes, schools, and churches appear on the map without any piping hookups or any kind or any kind of piping record. Please bring in at least one engineer with senior management experience to comprehensively address these critical deficiencies.

Robert Lee Butler, Member of the Public said Albuquerque/Las Cruces, I will talk slow. It is Mother’s Day coming up so let’s wish our moms a very people pleasant and happy Mother’s Day. Okay, here I go. Go Aggies. With that said I am going to the body of this presentation to say poor, poor, poor Texas A&M, poor El Paso, Texas.

Israel Chavez, Member of the Public said lifelong resident of the community here.

This month, in addition to all of the wonderful things that you all celebrated is also

Historic Preservation Month. I have repeatedly met with city officials about historic preservation’s community. My family, my great-great grandfather, grew up on

Augustine and Campo right behind this building almost. What occurs to me is that we are one of the only cities in Las Cruces that doesn’t treat its Historic District like an asset but rather more like a burden and I just want to encourage the city to look at one of the more historic communities in the valley. Mesquite Street and all of the accompanying areas not only have incredible history around segregation. One of the first black schools in Las Cruces was the Phillip’s Chapel. My office was built in the late 1800’s. It is older than Mesilla. Historic Old Mesilla calls it old, old Mesilla, right?

But in reality, Las Cruces has an older townsite and we don’t see the same promotion.

We don’t see the same advocacy. To that end I am partnering with the National

Endowment for Humanities to lead a walking tour through the neighborhood, and I would encourage anybody to come join us. They are going to be providing lunch from

2 to 4 on May 10th. It's a Saturday. We are starting at Klein Park and we are going to be walking around the neighborhood. There is an incredible history in what is the old part of Las Cruces. I don’t see the city using its resources to promote, to support, many of these buildings are allowed to remain abandoned including buildings that the city owns. The city owns buildings that sit there and you can’t let adobe sit and rot, you have to invest in it. You have to ensure that people are restoring those buildings because I know that this building isn’t built of adobe. I know that the city is not building adobe buildings. Every time you tear down an adobe building that is it. We are not getting new ones. It is an endangered species and the city has to treat its adobe assets like every other city. When I was Assistant County Attorney in Santa Fe, it was a pain, Historic Districts, historic preservation is difficult but preserving the community’s history, understanding where we came from and the mistakes we made are important and so is the architecture in that district. My office used to have trees in front of it and the city tore them out because all across the country during 1960’s, early 50s,60s, and 70s cities were tearing trees out of majority Hispanic and Black communities because they didn’t want those communities to be desirable. We have to learn that lesson and I would also would like to see the city replant a lot of those trees and I think there is investment happening in trees but the city has to promote its

Historic Districts. So, I hope you will do that and join me.

John Jacobs, Member of the Public said I am probably the youngest person in this room so I think it is pretty fair to say that this might not be as prepared as the rest of us. Basically, I just wanted to say congratulations to the City of Roswell. The City of

Roswell on Friday accurated the first City Strategic Bit Coin Reserve. I believe that this is a great step forward and I believe that our city could be the next city to follow suit. Just today alone United States printed 72 containers worth of Fiat Money. This is a thing that happens each and every day. If I was a monkey and I got paid in bananas and bananas were everywhere those bananas would be worthless. Fiat is becoming worthless. Ladies and gentleman, I don’t expect this to be a drastic change. I don’t expect this to be something that happens tomorrow or even years from now, but I would like to say I would give my time and my service to the city and to the people here to maybe help the next generation as we see digital transformation of technology. The digital transformation of wealth. The digital transformation of

computers. What was the first computer that you had? It was a typewriter, right? And now we have this fantastic technology, and we have all sorts of other things. We have things that have progressed our society immensely. Now look, I don’t think that this would be a big deal. I don’t think that this would change a whole lot, but I would be gladly willing to donate my time, my services as well as a small starter capital to our fund.

Diane Starbuck, Member of the Public said I am with Las Cruces Nones. Our group advocates for separation of church and state. The Nunns come from when you are asked to fill out a religious affiliation on papers and nothing quite fits, you check off the box that says Nones. We will stand beside anyone to protect their freedom to worship or not worship as they see fit without government interference. I would like to thank the councilors who attended the Las Cruces Nones Day of Reason last Thursday.

Even though the city did not sanction the event, I would like to thank the city for allowing us to hold the event at the flagpole. We received a lot of positive feedback.

Lucas Herndon, Member of the Public said I am a resident of District 2 and I came today prepared to talk about my ongoing concerns with our local police but then the memorial or citation was read and apparently we are going back to the 18th century when we are propagandizing cops. So, if we are going to talk about history of cops going back the 18th century and if we are talking about dead police officers, I thought

I would be fitting to read this from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial

Fund. So, this from there website. From an article called Slave Patrols: An early form of American policing. There is a significant origin of American policing that we cannot forget and that is slave patrols. The American South relied exclusively on slaved labor and white southerners lived in constant fear of slave rebellions disrupting the economic status quo. As a result these patrols were one of earliest and most prolific forms of early policing in the south. The responsibilities of patrols was straight forward. To control the movement and behaviors of enslaved populations according to historian Gary Potter, slave patrols served three main functions, one to chase down and apprehend and return to their owners runaway slaves. Two was to provide a form of organized terror to deter slave revolts, three to maintain a form of discipline for slave workers who were subjected to summary justice outside the law. Organized policing was one of the many types of social controls imposed on enslaved on African

Americans in the south. Physical and psychological violence took many forms including an overseers brutal whip. The intentional breakup of families, deprivation of food, and other necessities and private employment of slave catchers who track down runaways. Slave patrols were no less violent in the control of African Americans. They beat and terrorized as well. Their distinction was that they were legally compelled to do so by the local authorities. In this sense it was considered a civic duty. One that in some areas could result in a fine if avoided. In other patrollers received financial compensation for their work. Typically, slave patrol routines included enforcing curfews, checking travelers for permission passes, catching those assembling without permission and preventing any form of organized resistance. There is more to the article. Normally I try to keep it focused on what we can handle at hand but to stand up here and try to appeal to us over one dead cop over the city when the cops murdered 1,200 Americans last year and New Mexico is the most violent state to be a citizen to be murdered by cops is disgusting, it’s disgusting that the city would do that.

I am ashamed.

Michael Radtke, Member of the Public said I am the Chair of the Airport Advisory

Board at the Las Cruces Airport. I am a licensed airline pilot, Gold Seal flight instructor, and a resident. I flew 500 miles out of my way today to be here to talk to you for three minutes about an issue going on out at the airport. As the Chair of the

Airport Advisory Board, I am tasked with advising this Airport Manager on policy that impact safety and operations and ultimately pertains to adherence of Federal Aviation

Regulations on the ground and in the air. The ordinance does not give me the authority to act in any formal capacity, so I am here today as a concerned citizen, but I wanted to bring up the fact that aviation is not an inalienable right. It is a privilege and there is checks and balances that keep aviation safe. As a pilot I am held to these checks and balances and aircraft owners and operators are also held to these checks and balances as well. The city is a Part 139 Certificate holder that allows us to be an international airport and is beholden to the airport, the ACM which is the Airport

Certification Manual. In a delinean it is the authority of the Airport Manager and his authority over the field. For instance, I have not completed my gate access training and so my gate access has been revoked to the field until I can complete that training.

The issue that I wanted to bring up is I have been in concourse correspondence with the FAA and they have been made aware of the internal issue with city management and city staff and they are opening a formal letter of investigation in our airport which could jeopardize our Part 139 Certificate and this is bad news because the airport has great trajectory right now. If they find us out of compliance this will mean a huge loss of revenue and huge safety concern for pilots and the general public. I don’t want to get into the specifics of the policies however I am available to do so but I just wanted to make the point that the Municipal Code and the Airport Certification Manual spells out clearly the authority of the Airport Manager and his duties to the city. I have issues with Andy but that is why I work with him closely to make sure those issues are addressed, and the city needs to let him do his job and follow the corresponding rules and regulations.

Deb Dennis, Member of the Public said I am the Vice President of the Amador Hotel

Foundation. I am here today to request that Resolution No. 25-121 be removed from the consent agenda. As I read this you are about to rescind a 2009 resolution which identified the historic old post office as the location for the Museum of Art. I understand that much has changed in 16 years and the city has identified another facility which you deem more appropriate. However, that leaves the question of what is going to happen to this historic building? We had expected that it would be renovated and restored and re-adapted to be the Museum of Art. If you do not do that

I think the public deserves an opportunity to hear from you as to what will happen to this building, which is about the only building that made it through urban renewal among other reasons for its historic significance. I hope that there can be some sort of discussion that allows us to learn what adaptive reuse plan, restoration plan, whatever it is that you may have planned for the old post office as we move forward. I am also asking this because what I know personally is that for the past ten years the north end of the old post office, the municipal building has served as storage for more than half of the Amador Hotel’s original holdings. Everything from silver and china dining sets to furniture. We never expected it to be in storage for ten years, but the restoration of the

Amador Hotel goes on with no real end in sight. So, we are also concerned with what happens to the old post office in and of it for itself but also as a storage facility for the

Amador holdings.

Greg Smith, Member of the Public said I am a resident of District 2 and I want to follow up on what Mr. Chavez was talking about with Historic Preservation Month and with what Dr. Dennis mentioned with that same effort being made in Las Cruces. One, the Amador Hotel is actually starting to look pretty good. Some effort has been made to clean up the east side of that building and of course a lot of really important work has been done on the west side, so I commend the city for that work. I would also like to say that Mr. Mayor if you want to indicate at any time that the resolution that is noted as 6.3 is going to be pulled from the consent agenda, I will save the rest of my remarks for that time. Otherwise let me point out to you that the Municipal Court

Building that currently serves there is a building that is over 100 years old. It was designed to be a court building over 100 years ago. It does not meet current standards. There are plans on the second floor for a new Municipal Court across the street. Unfortunately, those plans have been left in a bin as many other plans have been on the second floor so I would ask you to consider how you might move forward with moving the Municipal Court into a building that is up to current standards. The second thing is that where you are talking about expanding the current Museum of Art is an area where you are also sharing an area with a museum with the Museum of

Natural Science, and you are also or a least the city has talked at points as to having a children’s museum. So, you are still talking about a large concentration in a fairly small area of museums for the city and I would suggest that it would make sense to get the Municipal Court moved and then take this building that is sitting there in a very prominent site and putting the emphasis on the Museum of Art. I also want to point out that we do have a lot of art in Las Cruces. It is a large part of our economy and putting that kind of emphasis on the arts is something that I think should be considered. I will wrap up for this point hoping that you will move it. To point out that some of us have observed prisoners being marched from where the parking lot is to the entrance to the courtrooms. It is hardly the look that I think Las Cruces wants for its plaza is to see prisoners being marched, I realize this has to happen but I think that in such a prominent location that maybe we can handle our court system and our museum system in a different way.

Eddie Thomas, Member of the Public said let me start by listing the prominent things good, bad, or indifferent about Las Cruces that we are known for. Cannabis on every corner, homeless, plywood windows, crumbling buildings everywhere, especially downtown, high crime, high taxes, soon to be the southwest capital for abortion and now the scene of the latest mass shooting. Oh, I almost forgot the movie industry.

Maybe they would consider making a movie about Las Cruces, but we will talk about that later on. Moving on, so your delegation to Santa Fe returned empty handed.

Probably as you expected they would so that you could continue to point the finger at

Santa Fe. Since the legislature failed to pass anything related to stopping crime in any substantial way, we are doomed to repeat the do-nothing scenario of last year. The

Governor will declare a special legislative session which will close in record time perhaps beating last year’s record for the shortest duration of five hours without getting anything done. Then the Governor will get on her broom and fly around New

Mexico holding marathon townhall meetings that accomplish nothing except political finger pointing and drama that do nothing to deter crime. Meanwhile council members here will write another scathing manifesto criticizing the Governor for her efforts to

enact some kind of meaningful crime reform. All this while the competency requirement that turns our judicial system into a revolving door for violent career criminals remains virtually unchanged. For this I hold the city council and Mayor responsible for creating and enabling this lawless environment we find ourselves in where juvenile gangs rule the parks and shoot each other with real guns and real bullets. As a result, three real teenagers are dead and 15 are injured. What platitudes do you offer? Your condolences to the affected families mean nothing if you don’t do something to enact positive change. You have got to put some teeth into the law whether you proffered the progressive policies yourself or you inherited them when you took office. You own them. You as government officials took responsibility for the laws on the books and allowed these tragedy to occur unabated. The idea is to deter crime, not to encourage it. Is it going to require another human life to be sacrificed on the altar of progressive passivity? It is baked into the culture here and you guys are the ones in the kitchen. It has been that way for a long time ever since I can remember. Disrespect for the law and law enforcement is considered normal and is a rite of passage into adulthood in Las Cruces. It is passed on from generation to generation. You are just not a macho man if you’re a law-abiding wimp. You have to drink beer, smoke pot, own a gun, belong to a gang and drive fast.

4. ACCEPTANCE OF AGENDA Councilor Becky Corran moved, seconded by Councilor Yvonne Flores, to approve the agenda as presented with the removal of item 6.3 for discussion.

RESULT: Carried

MOVER: Councilor Becky Corran

SECONDER: Councilor Yvonne Flores

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 APRIL 7, 2025.

6. RESOLUTION(S) AND/OR ORDINANCE(S) FOR CONSENT AGENDA 6.1 RESOLUTION NO. 25-126: A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING AN ANNUAL

NOT-TO-EXCEED AMOUNT OF $500,000 FOR THE PURCHASE OF

OFFICE SUPPLIES WITH STAPLES CONTRACT & COMMERCIAL, LLC OF

FRAMINGHAM, MASSACHUSETTS, VIA SOURCEWELL CONTRACT NO.

070924-SCC FOR A TERM THROUGH FEBRUARY 2, 2029, SUBJECT TO

APPROVED BUDGET APPROPRIATIONS (PROCUREMENT NO. 24-25-

075). 6.2 RESOLUTION NO. 25-127: A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE LAS

CRUCES FIRE DEPARTMENT TO DONATE 15 SELF-CONTAINED

BREATHING APPARATUSES FOR USE BY THE CLOUDCROFT FIRE

DEPARTMENT IN CLOUDCROFT, NEW MEXICO. 6.3 RESOLUTION NO. 25-128: A RESOLUTION TO RESCIND RESOLUTION

NO. 09-270 (05-18-2009), “RE-DESIGNATING THE OLD POST OFFICE (CURRENT JUDICIAL COMPLEX/MUNICIPAL COURT AT 135 E. GRIGGS

ST.) AS THE FUTURE HOME OF THE LAS CRUCES MUSEUM OF ART.” Carol Brey, Quality of Life Director gave the overhead presentation.

Garland Courts, Museum Deputy Director continued the overhead presentation.

Carol Brey continued the overhead presentation.

Councilor Corran said this is something that we talked about when we had a quality of life policy review committee this came to those discussions when the museums were working on their master plan and this was something that they sort of identified as just sort of hanging around causing a little bit of conflict it is neither an ask to disinvest in some historical building nor hobble the process of sort of growing our museums. It is just that this strategic move was identified in the past and evidence doesn’t support thatit should be what we do in the future both the combination of the expense of sort of repurposing something. I think we should really commit to making sure that we invest in our historic buildings which there are even subsequent things on our agenda today that including our CIP amendments that show that we are making those strategic investments and thinking about how to improve our historic buildings but also thinking about all the work and community input went into strategic planning for the museum. So I just want to sort of speak to the fact that this has been in conversation and this specific act of asking to rescind something like this as the council did is really us showing that we are following the evidence in terms of what the best use of our land is and it takes time and causes us to reflect a little bit but I really appreciate the work that staff, Public Works, and the museum folks and all of the folks that contributed to the master planning. That doesn’t mean that I don’t think that we should keep on in improving the old post office as it exists. I think it needs a lot of love, and we know that and I think we will continue to commit to investing in that and Municipal

Court as an ongoing conversation. I think it is relevant but in this case it was just a thing that was lingering. It has been lingering for years and I think it is really important for us to be able to have this conversation here today about what plans are coming together and how we analyze the cost and benefits of each and I appreciate all of you doing that and please know when Zilla is coming over I will start digging my moat.

Councilor Flores said thank you so much for your presentation. It makes a lot of sense. It just does, thank you very much for your assessment and your presentation. I appreciate it and I think that you did it in such a way that I understand and so it means that everyone else in the world understood it.

Mayor Enriquez said I just want to say again, thanks for the master plan and everything that went into that. There is no secret I am a big fan of the old post office. It is a historic building and we do want to make sure that we keep it but we have the dilemma of the Municipal Court and where do we house them and where do we go from there so it is going to take some time but you put all the effort into the master plan and we can see where that is going and I see where we need to hang onto our buildings that are historic in our community,

Greg Smith, Member of the Public said yes, I am very aware of the hard work that the staff does on a lot of these things. Sometimes I also think that we have to present an alternative viewpoint to bring in some other factors and one of the things is with this

100-year-old court building you have a Municipal Court struggling to operate in a secure fashion in a building that doesn’t work that way. So, I would say that one of your first priorities needs to be to get the Municipal Court moved. Basically, Municipal

Court needs three hallways. A way for the judges and the jury to move around, a way for the public to move around and a way for the prisoners to move around. This building does not have that and hasn’t had it for a long time. So, it is something that really needs to be addressed. The other is with a historic building, historic preservation, you need to have a purpose for the building so basically whether it is a

Museum of Art or other thing, once you get to the point of bringing this because everybody is saying they want to save the building but as you have encountered with the Amador Hotel and other historic buildings if you don’t have a purpose for the building then it kind of sits there and it makes it kind of hard to justify spending millions of dollars to do something with the building. So, I would say please look seriously at the extra $10 million or whatever is actually going to cost but look at what it is going to do for our community because we talk about crime, we talk about a lot of other things and a lot of that comes back to how do we view our community? How does our community seem to care about the things that we care about? What does our community say with the actions that it has done as far as what kind of respect it has for its older citizens and its older history and so the Municipal Court Building I think still has an opportunity to do that either as the Museum of Art or in some other fashion but if you just throw out the Museum of Art as an option and forget about it then you leave that building waiting for some other purpose.

Mayor Enriquez said just to recap we are looking at historic preservation as a city. On

May 19th there will be a proclamation for Historic Preservation Month and then also just recently a Historic Preservation Specialist has been hired and will be starting pretty soon so we will start addressing.

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

Approve Resolution No. 25-128.

MOVER: Councilor Becki Graham

SECONDER: Councilor Becky Corran

7. RESOLUTION(S) AND/OR ORDINANCE(S) FOR DISCUSSION 7.1 RESOLUTION NO. 25-129: A RESOLUTION AMENDING RESOLUTION NO.

23-087 FOR THE SMALL BUSINESS STOREFRONT REPAIR PROGRAM. Celina Morales, Deputy Director Economic Development gave the overhead presentation.

Councilor Graham said I just want to kind of get it out there that this program and the

recently launched biohazard cleanup program I have gotten what I consider baffling pushback on these programs both through personal emails, a lot on social media and

I do want to point out that these are not the solutions, the only solutions that the city is offering to deal with these ongoing issues. We are doing a myriad of things to address root causes, to address better services and resources so when people say that this is council slapping a band-aid on a huge laceration this is not all that we are doing and despite this pushback I continue to be in favor of programs like this because I think that it is dealing with a reality that our residents and our business owners are facing but it is not all that we are doing.

Donna Stryker, Member of the Public said I just want to say thank you. We have had over $20,000 worth of damage to our property, and it may not seem like a lot but $5,000 is a lot more than $2,500. Thank you. Councilor Becki Graham moved, seconded by Councilor Becky Corran, to

Approve Resolution No. 25-129.

Councilor Becki Graham, and Councilor Becky Corran

ABSENT: Councilor Johana Bencomo and Councilor Yvonne Flores 7.2 RESOLUTION NO. 25-130: A RESOLUTION APPROVING THE 2025

ACTION PLAN AS PART OF THE 2021-2025 CONSOLIDATED PLAN FOR

THE CITY OF LAS CRUCES. THE RESOLUTION AUTHORIZES CITY

STAFF TO SUBMIT THE 2025 ACTION PLAN TO THE U.S. DEPARTMENT

OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT AND INCORPORATE

NECESSARY AGREEMENTS WITH OUTSIDE PARTNERING AGENCIES. Natalie Green, Housing & Neighborhood Revitalization Administrator gave the overhead presentation.

Councilor Graham said I am just making sure that the Home Rehabilitation Program is what I am thinking it is. So, can you give a quick bullet point on that?

Natalie Green said our Home Rehabilitation Program has helped low-income home owners renovate their homes to make meet either habitability standards, if they have building code violations, or sometimes if they need ADA improvements and we also offer some weatherization grants and historic preservation grants through that program.

Councilor Graham said great I was thinking the right thing. I just want to give a shoutout to that program. A lot of households in District 3, my council district have benefited from that and I think it is such a vital part of what the city and especially your group does to keep people housed and prevent them from suffering from housing insecurity and we are also talking about at least in District 3 folks that have been living in their home often for decades and simply can’t, you know their whatever source of limited income they have they just can’t keep up with prices of fixing a house that they already own so I think it is often overlooked program and I wanted to appreciate it.

Councilor Mattiace asked who determines distribution and the amount of the funds for the different organizations?

Natalie Green said if it is for the public service programs, for the non-profits that is made up of the Health and Human Services Advisory Committee. If it is for the regular funding sources, that is a staff committee that evaluates those using a risk assessment and then scoring criteria.

Approve Resolution No. 25-130.

ABSENT: Councilor Johana Bencomo and Councilor Yvonne Flores 7.3 RESOLUTION NO. 25-131: A RESOLUTION ADOPTING FUNDING

PRIORITIES AND ALLOCATIONS TO VARIOUS LAS CRUCES NON-

PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2026 (FY26) TO PROVIDE

HEALTH-RELATED PUBLIC SERVICE NEEDS AND AUTHORIZING THE

INCORPORATION OF THE FUNDING AMOUNTS INTO THE CITY'S FY26

BUDGET. Councilor Corran said this is what I need to recuse myself from because I serve on the Board of Roadrunner Food Bank.

Isaac Holguin, Housing Development Specialist gave the overhead presentation.

Councilor McClure asked I would like to know a little bit more about the process that the advisory group takes to make the decision in the final funding amount for each organization?

Isaac Holguin said how the process works is that we will send out a NOFA, a Notice of Funding Availability to all the agencies and it will also go to the interagency council.

Once that is sent out it will end up being a letter of intent. We will review those letters of intent and then after that we will go ahead and if applicable, we will send an application. Once the applications are received by the department we will go ahead and send out those applications to the Health and Human Services Advisory

Committee, once they receive those applications they will go ahead and score them.

Once they are done scoring, we will have committee meeting and when that committee meeting is held we will go over all of the scoring of the agencies and with that we will determine how they would like to allocate those funds. Whether there would be a tier system or distributing them all evenly like they did this time and then once they go ahead and vote on them, the final adoption will be here at council.

Councilor McClure asked how is it not tier, how is it just given flat rate to? I am just curious, it sounds like we do follow rubrics in other areas and I am curious how this

was given sort of flat rates? Making sure per need that we are doing the best we can for this.

Natalie Green, Housing & Neighborhood Revitalization Administrator said the committee sets a limit and the current limit is $30,000 and in this case we had less agencies apply so we were able to allocate more. The process is the series of public meetings so usually there is for health related there is two public hearings in which the agencies present their application and their request to that committee and then committee can also finalize their scoring and then we come back a week later and we show the scores and then we walk them through potential scenarios. Would you like to fund them, if you fund them all at this rate and so there is a pretty robust spreadsheet. In this case it is year two and so under the adopted guide by council year two is just proportional to what they received in year one as long as they met their compliance requirements in their contract.

Councilor McClure said I am just curious because it seems like we are looking at need based programs and to me it seems flat rate doesn’t make it seem like that is it but I guess if everyone else seems okay with that.

Natalie Green said as part of every investment strategy we usually bring that guide actually back to council and at that time council can make those changes, change how that has happened. About ten years ago we had a tier one, tier two, tier three system where certain categories got more funding versus less funding but again it changes over time based on the committee and their recommendations to council. Councilor Becki Graham moved, seconded by Councilor Cassie McClure, to

Approve Resolution No. 25-131.

SECONDER: Councilor Cassie McClure

AYES: Mayor Eric Enriquez, Councilor Cassie McClure, Councilor William Mattiace, and Councilor Becki Graham

ABSENT: Councilor Johana Bencomo and Councilor Yvonne Flores 7.4 RESOLUTION NO. 25-132: A RESOLUTION AMENDING THE FY2025-2030

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

Kyle Arend, Engineering Manager continued the overhead presentation. Councilor Becki Graham moved, seconded by Councilor Cassie McClure, to

Approve Resolution No. 25-132.

ABSENT: Councilor Johana Bencomo and Councilor Yvonne Flores

8. BOARD APPOINTMENTS

8.1 JOHN OLESKY Councilor Becky Corran moved, seconded by Councilor Becki Graham, to appoint John Olesky to the Capital Improvement Advisory Committee.

SECONDER: Councilor Becki Graham

ABSENT: Councilor Johana Bencomo and Councilor Yvonne Flores 8.2 ALICE CARRUTH Councilor Becki Graham moved, seconded by Councilor Becky Corran, to reappoint Alice Carruth to the Lodger’s Tax Advisory Board.

ABSENT: Councilor Johana Bencomo and Councilor Yvonne Flores 8.3 JOHN MCDUFFIE Councilor Becky Corran moved, seconded by Councilor Becki Graham, to appoint John McDuffie to the City Art Board.

ABSENT: Councilor Johana Bencomo and Councilor Yvonne Flores 8.4 SUSAN POLKA Councilor Becky Corran moved, seconded by Councilor Becki Graham, to reappoint Susan Polka to the City Art Board.

ABSENT: Councilor Johana Bencomo and Councilor Yvonne Flores 8.5 ADAM AMADOR Councilor Becky Corran moved, seconded by Councilor Becki Graham, to reappoint Adam Amador to the City Art Board.

ABSENT: Councilor Johana Bencomo and Councilor Yvonne Flores 8.6 CHANTELLE YAZZIE-MARTIN

Councilor Becky Corran moved, seconded by Councilor Becki Graham, to reappoint Chantelle Yazzie-Martin 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 I went for the first time to the 17th Annual Boys and Girls Club Breakfast last week and over 400 people came out and it was just a really lovely event, and I was wondering if we can consider too as a city council to support their capital campaign. In this time that we are talking about how we can support public/private relationships and do the best for our youth. I am wondering if we have the responsibility to support initiatives like this as city council. 10.2 COUNCILOR MATTIACE I just wanted to make the public aware there will be a District 2 Council meeting, May

29th, Las Cruces High School, at 6 p.m. in the cafeteria and I hope those in District 2 and others that have any concerns. We will have four directors who will give some good information. We also have somebody from Spaceport America that will give a briefing on what they are doing there, and I appreciate your attendance. 10.3 COUNCILOR GRAHAM First, I just wanted to thank the community and Ice Box Brewing for their amazing support for the Firefighters Union event that we had on Saturday. Super great turn out. There was a dalmatian on site that belongs to one of the firefighters, it wasn’t just a hired prop. It was just really great to see the community come out and support.

I need to read this one, congratulations to LCPD, Chief I will ask you to fill in some details for winning first and second team at Battle of the Badges Charity Event this weekend. Can you just tell us the organization that this supports is?

Jeremy Story, Police Chief said we had an annual event that supports La Pinon,

Sexual Assault Recovery Services. I believe the 17th or 18th annual event and a few years ago they added in the Battle of the Badges component. This year we had the most teams we had ever had, 13 law enforcement teams. Each team has three members of whatever agency they come from and so we had a good mix from different agencies around here as well as Hobbs, Roswell, federal agencies. The top

two teams were LCPD.

Councilor Graham said thank you, that is amazing. Did anyone point out that we were particularly stacked because we have a National Champion on our team?

Chief Jeremy Story said we have a few really good shooters which makes it difficult to beat but it was good. 10.4 COUNCILOR CORRAN I do congratulate and appreciate the LCPD for being the best of the best. So that is pretty amazing although you didn’t say everything that they do. I would like to know was it trivia, shooting was a part of it, boxing is not a part of it. What did you, just shooting?

Chief Jeremy Story said this one was just a shooting competition. It is not all law enforcement. There is over 100 shooters and maybe close to half are law enforcement but the rest were just citizens.

Councilor Corran said I don’t have any particular announcements. I just want to say congratulations to all of the city staff and NMSU/DACC folks who are graduating in the next few days. It is a really happy time of year. It is one of my favorite times of year but I think a lot of people have and I have been seeing all kinds of reports of people who are getting Associate Degrees, Bachelor’s Degrees, Master’s Degrees and so I just want to give a congratulatory shoutout to all of those folks who have gotten there in their educational journeys and a welcome to the families in town celebrating. I don’t know if you have noticed but there is a lot of people like standing in front of things, taking pictures so give them a moment because they are in their graduation attire so welcome to all the families and congratulations to the grads who are graduating this week. 10.5 MAYOR ENRIQUEZ I just want to mention also I was at the Mary and Lou Henson Breakfast for the Boys & Girls Club, and I agree with Councilor McClure that is something we can do. We are very fortunate that the building that they purchased is now in the El Paseo area where there is an MRA so that is something we can definitely look at and see how we can support their cause and help them to get to where they need to go. The only other thing I had to say was congratulations to Chief Story for being recognized as citizen of the year. He is not just an excellent marksman, but he is an excellent member of this community and well deserved. Congratulations on your recognition.

Jeremy Story, Police Chief said thank you Mayor and Council for the support that you have offered and the things that you supported especially in the past year.

11. CITY MANAGER REPORT 11.1 JC BORREGO, ASSISTANT CITY MANAGER There will be a Mother’s Day concert on Sunday, May 11th at 5 p.m., at the Plaza,

Darren Cordova y Calor will be performing live. There will be food trucks. It is a free event and please bring your chairs.

To celebrate bike month, National Bike Month the city will do a ride your bike to work day on Friday, May 16th. So, all you city staff members please ride your bike on that day. The Parks & Rec Department is now accepting entries for the 2025 Electric Light

Parade. The theme this year is Las Cruces Unidos, celebrating our city’s unity. The parade will take place on Thursday July 3rd, starting at 9 p.m., and if you are interested in participating you can find more information and the application online at www.lascruces.gov/parade or apply in person at the Castaneda Building on Hadley

Avenue.

To celebrate of Arbor Day the city staff collaborated with El Paso Electric to plant 40 trees at High Noon Soccer Complex. From our Visit Las Cruces the Mira Las Cruces

Festival last Saturday was a success with approximately 12,000 attendees. VLC will have more information at their annual update at the next Work Session on Monday,

May 12th. From our Quality of Life Department, the Friends of the Library held a popup sale on Monday, April 28th. The sale was very successful as the Friends earned $1,082. So, thank you to the Friends for their continued hard work. Desert

Heroines, Emelia Linley and Galen Skibyak have been named Desert Heroines by

NGAGE Success Partnership and NMCO Studios. Desert Heroines are women educating and inspiring generations fierce and brave as resilient as life in the

Chihuahuan Desert. Their photos will be on display at the Mad Hatter Gallery through

May 24th. NMSU students installed their bronze tiles on the exterior of the Las Cruces

Convention Center on University Avenue. It is a partnership with NMSU and the public art program and instructors will add title plaque to finish the project soon.

Mayor Enriquez said just a few other things I wanted to mention going on tomorrow,

Scott Andrews, County Manager, will be delivering State of the Address for the county at 11:30 a.m., at the county complex and then on Thursday Ignacio Ruiz the

Superintendent will be doing a State of the District Address at the Convention Center at 11 a.m. So, a couple of things that our partners are doing in the community and if you get a chance to go by and support them.

12. ADJOURNMENT 12.1 Councilor Becki Graham moved, seconded by Councilor Becky Corran, to adjourn at 3:22 p.m.

Mayor

City Clerk