City Council Meeting March 17, 2025

MINUTES

City Council

Monday, March 17, 2025 @ 1:00 PM

City Council Chambers, City Hall

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

Becki Graham, Councilor Becky Corran, and Councilor Yvonne Flores

ABSENT: Councilor Johana Bencomo

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

APPRECIATION/PROCLAMATIONS - MAYOR ENRIQUEZ. Mayor Enriquez presented the Las Cruces Utilities with a proclamation for Natural

Gas Utility Workers Day.

Mayor Enriquez presented the NMSU School of Social Work with a proclamation for

Social Work Month.

Mayor Enriquez presented Scott Lucas with a proclamation for the Las Cruces

Symphony.

Mayor Enriquez presented Mark Aranda with a Certificate of Excellence.

Mayor Enriquez recognized members of the Mesilla Valley Balloon Rally organizers for their dedication of reviving the long-standing event in Las Cruces.

Mayor Enriquez recognized Students from the Las Cruces Public Schools for their contributions to Get to Know Your Local Government.

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 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 Earl Nissen, Member of the Public said I live in Las Cruces. I think that only four of you were on the dais who are on the dais today were present when our citizens committee made a proposal for a Citizens Police Review Board. As I recall four of you voted for the board and in final discussions at that time left the door open for future discussions. We now have the same citizens and a few more coming forward to broach the reopening of discussion of establishing a Citizens Police Board of some type in view of things brought out in the recent trial of an officer. Also, the OIR audit may be professionally done but only reviews officer’s infractions from hindsight and doesn’t involve citizens in the evaluating process. The public meetings that OIR had recently were informative because we did have the LCPD Internal Affairs Officer there to answer questions. What we need is a system for hearing complaints and the ability to discuss policies that affect the public. Since we are always up against time restrictions Mayor we are requesting that we be put on the next regular meeting agenda for a discussion on the implementation of a Police Review Board. I shall make this request in writing to you also.

Michael Hayes, Member of the Public said I live in Las Cruces. I want to talk about fear. Not the fear created by the current administration in Washington but the fear right here in Las Cruces. City Council’s fear of the truth about and of the Las Cruces

Police Department. At the time of the Eight Can’t Wait Movement, shortly after the police killing of Goerge Floyd, then Deputy Police Chief Dominguez testified before council, among other things he said that the public did not trust the police. A remarkable statement but no one on council remarked. No one on council asked the obvious question, why? Why not? Because no one on council wanted to know the answer. Everyone on council was afraid of the truth. Instead, council hired a business dedicated to whitewashing police departments. OIR processes data selectively provided by the LCPD according to narrow contractual guidelines. It then reports bland findings and conclusions and suggests a few tweaks to improve the department. Only those who fear the truth and want to believe no ill of the department accepts OIR reports. Others are justifiably skeptical. In the five years during which

OIR has been earning its fee by making council members feel good about the department its officers have killed or crippled one harmless civilian per year, a higher rate than before OIR began its auditing. Unprofessional police misconduct from profanity and insults to excessive force reflects the department’s culture of corruption.

As a result, citizens are as Dominguez said distrustful and as I infer fearful.

Understandably council members and Police Chief Story have opposed a truth

seeking organization under council auspices. It would explain the public’s distrust and fear of the police. It would also explain council members’ fear of the truth about the department and their refusal even to try to reform the LCPD because of their fear of the police. The cost of councils fear of the truth and failure of police reform is multimillion-dollar settlements. Council resists even a Plan A, a group of council selected officials and citizens to receive and report citizen complaints about police misconduct and to make recommendations to council. Citizens deserve a better Plan

B. A self-selected citizens only group chartered to do the same things but without limitations or hinderance by council members, city officials, or the police. Whatever council decides may the truths set the citizens free from their distrust and fear of the police.

Robert Butler, Member of the Public said lets always support the blessed Aggies. Now

I am going to the body. This is very serious. Number one, the very universal world is actually blessed. Bill Mattiace, may I address the council honor Mayor? Mr. Bill

Mattiace, you have a son. Which I believe is named Bill Mattiace Jr., he will be a

Republican President on the Republican Party. Number two, there is a very distinguished young man by the name of Matteo. Kelly O’Connell is mentoring him.

Number three, I forgot to say Mike Becket of Coas, he is number one, he has the voice of the New Mexico you ought to listen to him talk. He is a very good man. Two four-year terms immediately. There is man by the name of Luis. He is a neighborhood young man with a beautiful, gorgeous dog. He qualifies to be President of the United States. We need the whole community’s help on this.

Marcel Nicholas, Member of the Public said I am here just to compliment some of your workers. I worked for the city for 10 years and I know that sometimes compliments are very scarce to come by, but I want to compliment Adrienne Widmer,

Director of Utilities and staff. The Locator Luis Calderon, on Friday the 28th of

February came out and located a water line and was out there in 35 minutes after I called. After him the locator came but I wasn’t at home to get that person’s name.

After that, the very next Monday the water line service team came out. The lead was

Armando Chavez, Jaime Romero was the Operator, Steven Fisher was a crewman, and Alfredo Montoya was a crewman. I mention their names and I bring this up because having been a supervisor as I said before compliments don’t always roll downhill like some other things and I would like for the council, Mayor maybe you can get with some of the directors of other departments, make sure that they compliment their workers. They do a darn good job, and I was so impressed with the utility guys.

When they came out, they explained exactly what was going on. There was a letter that came from the city about lead and copper pipes. They found a copper pipe in my system. They replaced it within three hours and thirty-five minutes. Dug a hole, got it out, replaced it and now I have got beautiful pure water, and I can actually take a shower without dancing around because of the water pressure. I just wanted to say thank you to the council, thank you Mayor and thank you to the Utilities’ guys.

Lynn Moorer, Member of the Public said in a democracy the citizens, we rift raff hold our government officials accountable. We are now engaged in good citizenship regarding the new Lead and Copper Rule. Digging up facts from authoritative sources and bringing them to the attention of those who have a responsibility to act upon them. The facts cannot be wiped away by spin from staffers and councilors who turn

out misleading statements where absurd falsehoods to try to denigrate citizens. The websites are still not accessible for Spanish only readers. The website can be designed so that the first screen gives a choice of languages to translate into. I urge you to redesign the website so that they do this. The town hall on March fourth unfortunately did not engender confidence in Las Cruces Utilities Staff. The staff asked a knowledgeable consultant to give the main presentation and provide meeting materials. He presented information that matches precisely much of the information we citizens have presented. None of the information we have presented was contradicted in this presentation. For example, there is indeed a big chunk of funding available from the federal government for work on lead pipe replacement. The fact is however as this nice man says he bears no responsibility for the city’s implementation for the new rule. I am familiar with how this works. He provided city staff with a shield of deniability. If the public tries to hold staff accountable for anything that he stated, the staff can say you didn’t hear it from us. We didn’t say we would do any of these things, he said it, we didn’t. I have seen other governmental bodies use this trick to try to hide from accountability moreover the fact Las Cruces Utilities couldn’t do this presentation itself says a great deal unfortunately. Another deficiency, Las Cruces

Utilities invited someone to speak as a regulator who doesn’t have any regulatory authority for the rule in New Mexico. The state whose representatives acknowledged this fact currently does not have primacy for enforcing the rule. EPA which does was not there, so no one was present with responsibility for overseeing what Las Cruces

Utilities does. There was no one to consult regarding the ways in which it appears the city is failing to comply with the new rule. An example is the city’s failure to verify promptly the technique it uses to identify what pipes are made of. As EPA says verification goes beyond just checking the meter box plus staff can’t explain why the city’s online inventory has major holes in it, 44% of 225 addresses from all parts of the city reviewed indicate no service lines found. Nor could staff explain why each of the addresses which have service lines show unknown for the customer owned part of the line even though some of these properties have been checked by city staff who then inform the property owner they were not lead. Since then, further research shows the inventory hole is even larger, 63%, almost 2/3 of 600 addresses show no service lines found. In some these are facts causing citizens concerns to continue about Las

Cruces Utilities competence.

Liz Rodriguez-Johnson, Member of the Public said at the town hall meeting on March

4, I asked a very specific question about the initial inventory of lead piping the city submitted to the EPA on October 16, 2024. I asked whether the city’s initial inventory included all of the city owned piping. Las Cruces Utilities Director of Regulatory

Compliance answered yes. His answer was adamant, later in the meeting another citizen asked where the city could find these city owned pipes on the online inventory which the rule requires all municipalities of 50,000 or greater to make available. This citizen noted that she had been unable to locate any city owned piping on the online maps. The Deputy Director of Regulatory Compliance then backtracked and said that information is not available to the public in the inventory or on a map. As an explanation he argued semantics and said that city owned piping means something different to him. The location and materials of all the city owned piping regardless of size throughout the city seemed to be the third rail for city staff. They refuse to talk about those subjects in any meaningful way. This is not the first-time questions of the extent and location of city owned piping which feeds water into all privately owned

piping has been dodged by the staff and this should concern all of us. Obfuscation by staff about city owned lead pipes or any subject is unacceptable. Moreover, it gives the impression that the city is hiding something about its city owned piping. The

Utilities Department needs to post a comprehensive map online that allows any citizen to locate where all the city owned mains, transmission lines and any other sort of piping are regardless of the size. The map should show when they are installed and what they are made of. Of course, this map needs to be fully accessible in Spanish and English. Property owners with lead pipes who are being required to replace their piping at their own expense need to have complete confidence that before they go through that considerable expense that the water flowing to them is not coming through any kind of city owned lead pipes. If there are gaps in the city records and/or gaps in the city knowledge regarding all the city owned pipes Las Cruces Utilities personnel need to acknowledge it and then openly take immediate steps to fill those gaps.

Israel Chavez, Member of the Public said the water quality is very concerning and the list of things that this city does sufficiently much less well seems to be shortening by day. I would love to the city excel a couple of things, the MRA is late. I am here to hear about that report although I don’t know if I will be able to stay that long. I initially intended to come and promote historic preservation, especially in the Historic District.

I don’t understand why this city treats the Historic District like a burden rather than an asset. We see the Town of Mesilla, a younger community than the old district in our city thriving with restaurants and meanwhile restaurants, everything seems to be closing in this city, at least in our core. There doesn’t seem to be any sense of urgency from the legislative branch, which includes the Mayor unfortunately. I would advocate for making this a strong mayor system because I don’t see any willingness by council to hold the executive branch accountable. You are too close to the executive branch. I found a 50-page study because you all love to approve money for studies about the Historic District with a bunch of suggestions that have done nothing.

This is not a new study, it’s an old one and so we pay for these studies repeatedly.

They sit on a shelf and gather dust, and we don’t do what we say we are going to do when it comes to infrastructure, when it comes to policing, when it comes to water, when it comes to the adobe buildings in our community. They are a finite and an endangered species and this city unlike any other city I have ever seen in New

Mexico, having served as the Assistant County Attorney in Santa Fe, having lived in

Albuquerque and have been born and raised here, this is the only one that loves to tear down historic properties, owns them, holds on to them, an eyesore across the street from my neighborhood and will not do anything with it. It has been four years.

We brought it up to the Mayor and there still seems to be no real concrete plan other than they want to tear them down. You are not going to build more adobe buildings.

The more that you tear them down, that is a finite number of buildings. They are not coming back so please treat the historic properties in this community not as a burden but as an asset. We can really leverage these and please feel some alarm that businesses are closing, and I also just want to thank you for passing Realize Zoning update, that is a good thing and everybody that doesn’t like it can move back to Texas where they came from.

Jim Hoerst, Member of the Public said diversity, inclusion, and equality are three dirty words according to our President Donald Trump. Our President wishes to delete

these words from the American vocabulary. I object to that, and I hope you do too.

Diversity, equality, inclusion have been the watchword of these United States of

America since our founding and should always remain so. The American story begins with the words all men are created equal. How can a nation deny the very words that gave it life and remain faithful to its founding heritage. It is impossible to imagine our story beginning any other way. Can any deny that America was intended to be a nation that valued equality? Diversity, our founders had a phrase for that. E pluribus unum, it is just fancy Latin for diversity. The phrase is not just a recognition of our differences but a celebration of them. You cannot reject the value of diversity without rejecting the model of E pluribus unum. If you reject that then you have rejected that the American people are defined by our common ideas rather than by genetics. You cannot harm American blood because there is no American blood. There is only mixed blood. There is no more mixed blood in the world than American blood. Give me your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, America is a great nation because refugees from all over the world’s dysfunctional countries and societies have found a home here. We are for the most part the children of the huddled masses who yearned to breathe free. America is the very definition of inclusion, diversity, equality, and inclusion cannot be eliminated from the American vocabulary without eliminating the

American mentality. They are the three words that best define the American dream. If you remain faithful to them, you will remain faithful to America and our constitution.

Sara Hipps, Member of the Public said I am a Bachelor Level Social Work student doing my practicum with the Dona Ana County Resilience Leaders. I wanted to extend an invite to you and everyone here and anyone listening to come to our 100% Family

Center grand opening. The 100% Family Center is centered around serving children from ages 0 to 5 and their families. Connecting them to resources, offering parenting solutions, connecting them to the things that they may need to build and become resilient families which can only benefit our community here in Las Cruces. If you have any questions we are going to be here. I am going to leave this here as well and

I hope to see you all there. The date is March 28th, this next week at 9 a.m., it will be at the Roadrunner Food Bank on 2100 North Main.

Juan Garcia, Member of the Public said there is a painful irony in our society’s approach to basic human needs. We stand on podiums and declare affordable housing a fundamental right. Our voices echoing through City Hall and social media yet when confronted with a desperate shortage of doctors and nurses in New Mexico.

Those who to tend out our sick, comfort our dying and bring new life into this world are impassioned pleas fall silent. The contrast speaks volumes about our selective empathy, about the shadows we choose to acknowledge and those we leave unexplored perhaps the greatest tragedy lies not in the shortages themselves but in our inconsistent will to address them. Follow the money, follow the money, 9 March,

Albuquerque Journal, headlines, “a malpractice bill has yet to be heard in senate committee. All of the democratic committee members had campaign donors connected to the issue. Five democrats from the committee where medical malpractice bill is waiting to be heard received some of their largest campaign contributions from the New Mexico Trial Lawyers Association. In 2022 New Mexico had the highest medical malpractice insurance loss ratio in the country according to our recent Think New Mexico report, meaning that insurers paid out 183% of the premiums they took in. New Mexico was one of the seven states where insurers lost

money. Making it more expensive for them to function in the market. The New Mexico

Trial Lawyers Association PAC spent $556,000 in the 2024 election cycle according to the New Mexico Secretary of State data base. Its largest donations were $52,000 to the Bryant E Golf Speaker Fund a PAC that works of the democratic majority in the state”. In my opinion the bill failed because the progressives were against it. Favors can be “bought” in the New Mexico legislature regardless of the suffering in the community but our politicals don’t care. On a different note, regarding one of our councilors who is not here today who enjoys speaking of mis and disinformation. At the last meeting perhaps, she was trying her hand at humor or maybe practicing disinformation or virtue signaling but there is no “Trump/Musk Administration”, it is the

Trump/Vance Administration and finally I would like to thank LCPD for their efforts in keeping our community safe.

Dr. Bobbie Green, Member of the Public said I am President of the Dona Ana County

NAACP. Thank you for your service and your work and your willingness to listen. I believe that I have had discussions with all of you and I appreciate your compassion for your job, your empathy. I mentioned a couple of years ago that we were going to have to have some difficult conversations and now it is several years later and several millions of dollars in litigation has changed hands. I went to the police transparency page. It was very well done. There was a lot of data on that page but what was missing from that page is what happens when there are repeat complaints of excessive use of force. I haven’t seen that. I would like to know what happens with that. I also would like to request respectfully that you consider reconsider looking at our proposal which we made a couple of years ago. We submitted a resolution. It took a minute to get it on the agenda, but we did get it on the agenda, then we did have a working session. I would like to pick that information back up and start the dialogue again because circumstances have changed, have gotten worse in my opinion and the players have changed as well so. Many of you are new, were not there a few years ago when this happened so I hope that we can look at it with a clear set of eyes. Look at it from the perspective of something that is going to be good for the community. I have mentioned it many times that we are looking to be, the NAACP is looking to be part of the solution. We do not want to be part of the problem, but we also cannot ignore the fact that there is a problem. So, I would like to ask if it is possible to discuss with you getting the Citizens Review back on the agenda so that we can have some meaningful discussions and so that we can come to a solution. It won’t please everybody, it is impossible to please everybody but I believe we can do some things with just a few adjustments. We can make a change, some changes that will be beneficial to this city. I don’t like the fact that the city of Las Cruces has a reputation, national reputation that is negative. We want to put ourselves in a positive light. I want to be part of that positive light and I know you do too so I hope we can work together to come up with some smart solutions that won’t detract from what we are already doing.

Delanore Quinn, Member of the Public said I have recently been attending the police trials and to my dismay I find the behavior of the Police Department to be appalling. I love police. I love justice. I love peace. I love humanity and I am a former high school teacher, Detroit, Michigan. We had review, No Child Left Behind came through

President George Bush. A lot of teachers were absolutely against it and those were the teachers that wanted to hide performance. Those were the teachers that came to

school late, they were absent a lot and they did not want to work, and I am here to suggest that to make a better department you need citizen involvement. Our image for

Las Cruces the nation is a murder city and I believe that with review of additional review, additional change in policy, additional change in the group that conducts the investigation for the police only needs to be modified. I know that after No Child Left

Behind came through in Detroit for me, I was absolutely all for it because I worked very hard every day. I had nothing to hide. I was a high performing teacher, and I actually looked forward to the review. So, I am suggesting that there be citizen involvement now to change this in the future to bring up that which we need to sustain the city and the Police Department to include us to change the darkness into light.

Beth Bardwell, Member of the Public said I am actually here to thank you for two things today. One, I have been recreating at the East Mesa Recreation Complex. I just want to tell you what a fabulous place that is and I really appreciate the city investing the money in constructing that complex and every time I go there is a lot of people there and they are having a great time and so it is just one way that I believe city council has invested in this city and the wellbeing of its residents. The second thing I want to thank you for is passing Realize Las Cruces, the long awaited changes to the old land development and zoning code. When city council approved Realize in

February many people came and took off time from school and work and their volunteer activities to encourage you to move forward and you did. Why? Because many of those people who spoke in support young and old saw that increased flexibility and freedom to do more on their private property, would increase prosperity and freedom in this city, would bring down housing prices and make it easier for developers and home builders to develop missing middle and entry level housing like casitas. I have a friend who does line dancing, and she went to this public line dancing class and a participant was asking other dancers to sign a petition to repeal

Realize Las Cruces. That person was not carrying a copy of the code like they are required to. She stated that city council passed the changes without community input.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Realize Las Cruces gathered public input over three years. She stated the changes will increase housing prices and I just want to bring attention to the public and council that the Pew Charitable Trust, a very well recognized nonprofit organization nationwide recently published a report that casitas generally rent for less than studio apartments. Making them affordable for lower income residents. They increase housing supply and increase home values by adding a rental housing unit to an existing lot that can later serve a family’s aging parents or young adults. I hope residents that are asked to sign a petition to repeal Realize decline.

Peter Goodman, Member of the Public said I want to thank Bobbie and Earl and the others who have spoken about this, and I want to thank you for all that you do and for listening to us. For many reasons this city should have a Citizen’s Police Oversight

Board. Whether you call it oversight or something else. Three minutes limits about what we can say about the merits, but we have already presented that to you all. I will just say for now obviously actions by Las Cruces Police Officers have killed people, have resulted in huge, humongous damage awards or settlements and have even involved criminal convictions whether those stand or not and I say this without judging any officer. I don’t have the expertise and without forgetting for a moment Jonah

Hernandez, the officer who was senselessly and tragically killed last year. A citizen

board could have helped prevent some of this as well as helping to reinstill trust between the community and the Police Department. Such boards have worked elsewhere. Where they haven’t worked that is for clear reasons in many cases that we can learn from and avoid. In 2023, as has been mentioned we presented to you at some length a specific ordinance and arguments for it at the end of which at least four of the councilors said yes we should discuss this further. Staff and citizens should discuss it, refine it and bring it back to us and through a trick of the prior Mayor no further discussions ever happened. Since then, the need has only grown. We are still here to discuss this with you. The problem is still here, it’s magnified. So, I would urge you whether it is by signifying your agreement during council comment later or by having this put on the agenda for your next meeting for formal vote. I would urge you to restart those discussions to authorize the City Attorney, the Police Chief and whomever else from the city to talk with citizens who are interested in talking about this and bring back to you folks the best and greatest proposal that we can.

Greg White, Member of the Public said I live at 360 El Prado Avenue in Las Cruces.

The water at my house is undrinkable. So, I am going to say that right up front. I am glad the city is moving forward to look at ways at ways in which they can identify sources of that kind of undrinkable water. I want to say I also support you work towards this Police Oversight Committee. I think it is a good thing. I really appreciate as a retired member of an administrative program at the state level how much work you all do. So, I want to say thank you to Codes Enforcement. I have had good reason to call them. They are always timely. I also want to say that I think we are understaffed in the law enforcement area, and I think that you all know that. I personally support additional law enforcement funding for traffic control. There is an old theory, broken window theory if you leave a window broken in a neighborhood soon there will be a second and this is simplifying that theory and soon the neighborhood will go down. I see that in the traffic conditions in our town all the time and I know our officers can’t ticket those people for running red lights. I don’t know how many times I have almost been hit. So, I will say that. The third thing I want to say is that I really to as a fourth generation native of Las Cruces support whatever you can do to take the condemned houses or the houses that have been abandoned in our Historic District and look for alternative uses for them. Sell them for goodness sakes to people who want to buy project homes. Find a way to get them property owners, to pick them up and revise them. I think it is wonderful to be able to come here. I value this so much and I want to thank you again.

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

RESULT: Carried

MOVER: Councilor Becki Graham

SECONDER: Councilor Becky Corran

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

Councilor Becki Graham, Councilor Becky Corran, and Councilor Yvonne

Flores

5. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES 5.1 REGULAR CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF FEBRUARY 18, 2025. 5.2 WORK SESSION OF FEBRUARY 24, 2025.

6. RESOLUTION(S) AND/OR ORDINANCE(S) FOR CONSENT AGENDA 6.1 RESOLUTION NO. 25-104: A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE CITY OF

LAS CRUCES (CITY) TO ACCEPT A REAUTHORIZED GRANT AWARD

FROM THE NEW MEXICO DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION (NMDOT). 6.2 RESOLUTION NO. 25-105: A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE CITY OF

LAS CRUCES (CITY) TO ACCEPT GRANT AWARDS FOR VARIOUS CITY

DEPARTMENTS THROUGH AN AMENDMENT TO THE CITY’S ADOPTED

FY2025 BUDGET.

7. RESOLUTION(S) AND/OR ORDINANCE(S) FOR DISCUSSION 7.1 PUBLIC HEARING REQUIRED. RESOLUTION NO. 25-106: A

RESOLUTION APPROVING THE REQUEST FOR A RESTAURANT B –

BEER, WINE AND SPIRITS LIQUOR LICENSE WITH ON PREMISES

CONSUMPTION ONLY TO CHACHI’S, LLC., D/B/A CHACHI’S, LLC.,

LOCATED AT 340 N. MAIN STREET, LAS CRUCES, NM. 88001. Public hearing began at 2:24 p.m. There was no one for or against. The public hearing ended at 2:25 p.m.

Adam Ochoa, Senior Urban Planner gave the overhead presentation.

Councilor Flores asked have we had any other approvals in the city for granting liquor licenses to stores or whatever that are within the 300 feet limit?

Adam Ochoa said yes, we have. Just recently we had one that was done on Solano which literally there was a religious institution directly next door to that but public notice was sent out just like in this instance public notice was sent out to the surrounding property owners including the religious institutions, staff received no input on it.

Councilor Flores asked did you have a signed receipt notice type of thing to assure that the notice was received by the institution and the neighboring, whatever?

Adam Ochoa said unfortunately we don’t really have any way to track that unless we send out certified. By code all that is required is regular mail so that everything does get sent out through regular mail, but staff did not receive any comments, emails, or phone calls for the proposed liquor license.

Councilor Flores asked do you know if the city has ever gone through this process just as you have just testified and later had some complaints about not knowing that it was

going to go up or that there would be liquor sales?

Adam Ochoa said as Community Development took over this process going on about three years now from what I am aware of we have had no complaints in the past.

Councilor Flores asked regular mail has given enough notice? I am not sure about that but if you haven’t received any complaints after the approval then we should probably go by that. Councilor Becki Graham moved, seconded by Councilor Becky Corran, to

Approve Resolution No. 25-106.

ABSENT: Councilor Johana Bencomo 7.2 RESOLUTION NO. 25-107: A RESOLUTION TO APPROVE THE

SUBMISSION OF A GRANT APPLICATION TO THE NEW MEXICO

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION, MUNICIPAL ARTERIAL

PROGRAM, FOR THE FISCAL YEAR 2025/2026, FOR EAST LOHMAN

AVENUE/SOUTH WALNUT STREET SIGNAL IMPROVEMENTS IN THE

AMOUNT OF $300,000, REQUIRING A CITY MATCH IN THE AMOUNT OF $100,000, FOR A TOTAL PROJECT COST OF $400,000. Crystal Silva, Associate Grant Development and Compliance Specialist gave the overhead presentation.

Councilor Corran said we don’t necessarily talk about how things happen and how money moves through places like NMDOT or the federal government coming to the

City of Las Cruces and what the process is. I think that this is a great opportunity to talk about this program, the MAP Program. Each jurisdiction is sort of arbited or voted on by the Mesilla Valley Metropolitan Planning Organization, so I think right after this, which has three representatives from this city on it. Typically there are numerous government agencies, we serve with the county, the city and the Town of Mesilla on the MPO but different folks may submit to the MAP grant at any time and then the

Metropolitan Planning Organization which is really the branch of bureaucracy that I guess I would that legitimatizes spending on roads from the federal government and from the State Department of Transportation and if you didn’t know that exists and makes decisions in our world related to things like what projects get money I just wanted to point it out here in this conversation the MPO will be considering I think at their next meeting and it’s just sometimes things seem really opaque I think to people when they are wait why are we talking about applying for a grant because in part we will be competing for those other jurisdictions in that conversation and the city of Las

Cruces has fortunately faired really well in that and also sometimes collaborates with those organizations too with those other municipalities but I just want to shed a little light on this process which is how does transportation money get to our literal streets.

Often it is through a body like the Metropolitan Planning Organization. Not always but sometimes and some of us serve on that and I just wanted to sort of point it out. There

is often zero public comment at the Metropolitan Planning Organization meetings and so I say that if you want to increase your engagement or if you care about these types of things that might be a place to consider sharing as well so I just wanted to take a minute and talk about the MAP Program and what it means in this thing and I will be happy to advocate for this really important project when we go to that conversation.

Councilor Becky Corran moved, seconded by Councilor Yvonne Flores, to approve Resolution No. 25-107.

MOVER: Councilor Becky Corran

SECONDER: Councilor Yvonne Flores

ABSENT: Councilor Johana Bencomo 7.3 RESOLUTION NO. 25-108: A RESOLUTION AMENDING THE FY2025-2030

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

Andy Hume, Airport Director continued the overhead presentation.

Cynthia Alamillo continued the overhead presentation.

Dominic Soucy, Battalion Chief continued the overhead presentation.

Councilor Corran said I just want to thank Andy Hume for letting me say today at city council we talked about blast pads and I also hope there is an update for tetanus vaccine for whoever is working on that horrifying generator.

Councilor Flores said I would like to thank Andy Hume for all of his efforts and skills and his talents for making our airport at least intrastate. Thank you and I know that you have revitalized the airport. We have also had the assistance of Senator Soules who is very much in support of all of that. Councilor Becki Graham moved, seconded by Councilor Becky Corran, to

Approve Resolution No. 25-108.

ABSENT: Councilor Johana Bencomo 7.4 RESOLUTION NO. 25-109: A RESOLUTION MAKING CERTAIN FINDINGS

AND DETERMINATIONS PURSUANT TO THE METROPOLITAN

REDEVELOPMENT CODE, AND DESIGNATING THE AMADOR PROXIMO

AND SOUTH AREAS, APODACA AND LIFT UP AREAS, EAST OF SOLANO

NEIGHBORHOOD AREA, AND THE MESQUITE DISTRICT AREA WITHIN

THE CITY'S INFILL AREA AS METROPOLITAN REDEVELOPMENT

AREAS. Celina Morales, Interim Deputy Director Economic Development gave the overhead presentation.

Councilor Graham asked one clarification if we move ahead with these additional

MRA designations will that take away from the efforts that we would put forth towards our current MRA designations of El Paseo/South Solano and West Picacho?

Celina Morales said no it won’t. since each area has specific needs, we are not trying to rob from here to place here. We have to come up with creative ideas to be able to put money into that. Part of that is working with grants, we are currently working with them and in continuing collaboration with our public/private partners. So, no we don’t want to take from one area just to help another. That is also part of the reason that we are doing one plan a year to kind of stagger that.

Councilor Graham asked this is just good forward thinking and getting boxes checked so that we are ready to move ahead?

Celina Morales said yes, that is correct.

Councilor Flores said I am glad to see that the Mesquite District is in there, very happy.

Councilor Corran said I just wanted to say to Councilor Graham’s point and to the idea that is just something that I want to appreciate the city staff who have worked on changing the laws that enable this to be more expansive and also to the folks who continue to work on figuring out what it is. For some context the city of Albuquerque has 22 Metropolitan Redevelopments Areas so this will come to six or seven. I am not sure if downtown still counts as part of sort of an MRA but I think that seems like we have a little bit of time to catch up sort of terms in prioritizing these areas and really making sure that we are leveraging every tool at our disposal to do it so just for some context this will bring us up to what I think of as we are a third of Albuquerque it would make sense that we about the same proportional of MRAs. Thank you all for the work you have done, and I am glad to see these today. Councilor Becki Graham moved, seconded by Councilor Becky Corran, to

Approve Resolution No. 25-109.

8. BOARD APPOINTMENTS 8.1 TOMAS VALDEZ

Councilor Becky Corran moved, seconded by Councilor Becki Graham, to appoint Tomas Valdez to the ADA Committee.

SECONDER: Councilor Becki Graham

ABSENT: Councilor Johana Bencomo 8.2 CORY VALENCIA Councilor Becky Corran moved, seconded by Councilor William Mattiace, to reappoint Cory Valencia to the Transit Advisory Board.

SECONDER: Councilor William Mattiace

ABSENT: Councilor Johana Bencomo 8.3 ERNIE CAMPOS Councilor Yvonne Flores moved, seconded by Councilor Becky Corran, to reappoint Ernie Campos to the Historic Preservation Commission.

MOVER: Councilor Yvonne Flores

ABSENT: Councilor Johana Bencomo 8.4 JERRY WALLACE Councilor Becky Corran moved, seconded by Councilor Becki Graham, to reappoint Jerry Wallace to the Historic Preservation Commission.

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. 25-020; ORDINANCE NO. 3091: AN ORDINANCE

REPEALING AND REPLACING CHAPTER 7, ANIMALS, OF THE LAS

CRUCES MUNICIPAL CODE (LCMC).

Council agreed to bring it forward.

10. CITY COUNCIL MEMBER BOARD REPORTS AND COMMENT 10.1 COUNCILOR MCCLURE This is a shoutout to ASCMV, back last year in July after a Work Session that I only kind of paid attention to because I knew I was going to have to put my dog down that day. One of the hardest things you can do as a pet owner and sort of the grief that you have is tempered by the love that you got. Today is a happy day because I get to pick up a puppy. I say this partially, so I don’t get stared at every time there is an animal of the week, but I am really glad that the shelter has done such a good job. We went five separate times. They worked with us every time to see if it was a good fit.

We were part of the sleepover program. There is a lot of innovative things happening and I think people here on the dais also recognize that it is a huge responsibility to take care. To be a guardian for a pet and have them join your family and I just wanted to share that and thank the staff there for being a part and also for those who celebrate happy Saint Patrick’s Day. I was so happy to see a lot of green here. 10.2 COUNCILOR MATTIACE I have been getting dozens of emails, and the emails are about the petition on Realize

New Mexico. These are people who maybe want to see it go to a referendum. They are not happy with the current Realize New Mexico and I think we need to respect them because it has been near 2,000 signatures on the petition. I don’t know about the one illegal incident. I didn’t hear about that, but these are people that have come to my neighborhood and with 2,000 votes I think it is considerably important to respect, and I say that because many of us are up here with less than 2,000 votes. I only got 1,200 votes. Some of us even got less than 1,000 votes so this is 2,000 voters, residents of the city of Las Cruces that have a feeling about this particular ordinance that was passed and I realize that it has been worked on for many years, three/four years and knowing that $700,000 well $677,339 was spent on it and if I was there during the entire time I may have voted yes on it because that is quite an investment to back up on but I think it is important to these 2,000 voters that we respect their decision and my point being is that they say they were cheated but they say they were not given an additional week and so with that said I am sure that our legal department is totally doing things by statute by legal provision, they went through the charter and that week was denied by the Legal Office. Mr. Douglas is not here to answer my question but maybe I can get an idea if that was totally legal why they were not given the full week. So, if you could give evidence of that statute or through provision why it was done then they would be happy, and I would be satisfied.

10.3 COUNCILOR GRAHAM I feel like this is my fourth year on the dais and I am finally starting to catch up with myself with things that were starting when I started and here we are years later. So very happy to see the animal welfare ordinance coming forward and many thanks to folks sitting in the audience. I know you had to be here in case one of us had a question but appreciate you and your work, community members who have been right there alongside so looking forward to hearing that and the second thing I wanted to share and some of you have already heard this story but I was reminded of it again

because I read a really great thought piece this morning. I am going to paraphrase the title, Everyone Wants a Village but Nobody Wants to be a Villager, authored by my brilliant colleague Councilor McClure. You can find her writing on her social media platforms and it was talking about being a member of a strong community sometimes means sometimes individuals sacrifices sometimes individuals inconveniences and

Realize Las Cruces remains a hot topic so I just wanted to share a quick personal perspective because I think I am the only person on council right now who does currently live in a mixed use area. I am what was formally C2. So, a little mix of small businesses, residential, light industrial, I am right close to a salon, etcetera and a few years ago a local restaurant expanded their operations and opened a drive through location right near my house and I felt that. The traffic did really increase in my neighborhood. Especially when people were using my street as a bypass to get to around the traffic block and ya no lie, I rolled my eyes at that occasionally because it was a personal inconvenience. However, when I weigh that against the benefit that we get not just of a local small business getting to expand, local jobs, this part business is a really great partner to the city, and I am able to walk easily from my house and go get a burrito and I do that on the regular. So yes, there are some personal inconveniences that I feel and yet I see the greater benefit to the community, and it is absolutely worth it. So, Councilor McClure, I wanted to thank you for reminding me about that. 10.4 COUNCILOR CORRAN When the folks asking for a Citizen’s Police Advisory Oversight Board, some version of that, that came forward before I was in support of that and I remain in support of that because I do think that anything that we do to positively improve to affect community and police relations is powerful so I remain in support of us having that conversation and to the second part also welcome to the dog I assume to the McClure

Family. I am very excited for you and so happy that you had a good experience at the shelter, and I can’t wait.

To the question of Realize, my understanding and again all of these local election acts and city charter things were passed through various sort of avenues of discussion well before my time on council but I do remember a number of different things that have gone through these processes. I echo what we heard from public comment that when someone asks you to sign something you should certainly put a lot of thought into what that means when you are signing it and I trust that the voters of Las Cruces do that so I trust that all of that community input has been weighted as is appropriate in accord with both our municipal code and the charter and Local Elections Act and I appreciate our City Clerk and City Attorney for working through all of this stuff which again we don’t have an influence on. These are things that are written in code, but I appreciate you all fielding questions and figuring out how to do those things to the best and maximumly to produce democratic processes that work. So I support you all in your administration of that and I trust that the people of Las Cruces to be thoughtful as they approach something like zoning as they have throughout this time but I would also just sort of to those specific things, to a more general conversation that I think people are alluding to that I am really interested in that Saint Patrick’s Day I was just listening to a really powerful podcast, my family were immigrants of Ireland. I was listening to a podcast of all of the Nazi resisters during the run up to World War II that were Irish doing Irish folks throughout the European continent fighting against Nazis

at every turn at Bletchley Park in France working with resistance folks there, getting soldiers care and I just thought it was an appropriate honor to the people of Ireland, my ancestral lands again from where we immigrated from as huddled masses some years ago. It also makes me think of today and I think the idea of the villagers is a really powerful one and while we don’t often talk about it because we have a published agenda, we have our things that we are working on all the time at a local level I do just sort of want to speak to the fact that all of us up here are thinking about how democracy works, how it happens in action, what our commitment is to it, how we can resist various forms of oppression that might be happening right before our eyes either personally or in the ways in doing our job as city councilors best or using our space that we have to speak out in the best ways that we possibly can against things that are deeply wrong that are happening in our country right now. I am going to ask all of you for Saint Patrick’s Day to perhaps channel the spirit of Irish resistance which is powerful and you can channel other Irish spirits too as is in honor of the day but in thinking about how we move forward together to make Las Cruces the best place it can possibly be to protect the residents of Las Cruces and do our best by our jobs.

10.5 COUNCILOR FLORES I would like to comment on the Realize Las Cruces concern that people have and this is my eighth and last year on city council but before I decided to run for city council,

Sharon Thomas who held District 6 at the time, she is a good friend, and she was very enthusiastic about the changes and then we have Realize came about and it has been around for several, several years and back in the day we used to have these forums where everybody would come together and people would vote by putting up a post it on the board regarding a change or a certain way to do things. At any rate I think that we have to look at the greater good and I think that some of the concerns that people have with all due respect things just can’t be the way we want it to be sometimes. I think we have to change our attitude in so far whatever is good for the greater good. Best for the greater good so and they do have a remedy and one of the persons who is really against that was actually featured in the Bulletin last Friday, door knocking so they have that recourse, and we will see what happens but I am really just disappointed that some people are just so scared. They are afraid that this horrible thing is going to happen, and I want to thank Councilor Graham for explaining how one adapts to certain things. It is not as if they are going to open a prison across the street or something horrible. At any rate it is for the greater good. 10.6 MAYOR ENRIQUEZ I would also like to mention about the MRAs, Metropolitan Redevelopment is something that I am excited about, I am happy for, thank you council for approving.

Thank you staff for working on it, the community involvement. What we want is better.

What we want is improvement. What we want are things that have been neglected to be improved and that is what we want so when we talk about those areas. That is what we are talking about. When we are talking about the Realize it is also to improve and get better for something that was outdated and to move forward and to have some flexibility and creativity so that this community can thrive. When we are talking about our police department, when we are talking about a review board or things.

Those are things that we can look at and address for improvement but again there is a lot of data to still collect. There is 150,000 calls that our Police Department goes on

on a yearly basis. There is a lot of data there, there is a lot of good calls. We have a few, we are not perfect, we are not 100% but I guarantee you this Police Department gives you 100% and I thank them for that. So, there is still a lot of things to consider and to move forward with.

I would like to go back to the presentation with Mark Aranda. I am so proud of him but the one thing I am proud of most of all is that Mark is a baseball enthusiastic individual and before he was even recognized he is sharing with me the uninterrupted play in our community. This community here I grew up here and I understand this is a baseball and softball community so when our play is interrupted it is a chaotic place. It is a place where you are taking away our reason to live and breathe in this community and I wanted to make it publicly noted that we are working on that. We are getting those light poles fixed, again something that has been neglected, something that has been overlooked but it is a safety issue. We want to make sure that our youth in this community is safe when they are out there playing ball and it is going to take some time but they are working on it I can guarantee you Parks & Rec, Public Works,

Facilities, City Manager’s Office, everybody is on this to make sure that we get our activities back in place for our community and again I go back, thanks Mark for not taking advantage of having the podium and really speaking on how he feels about play being interrupted in Las Cruces. I share the same feelings with him and I just want to say we are working on it. We are going to expedite that and do everything we can to get that going.

11. CITY MANAGER REPORT 11.1 SONYA DELGADO, ASSISTANT CITY MANAGER I will start with the comments the Mayor just made regarding sport lighting poles over on Hadley. We are working quickly, Maag Ball Park, all the light poles are down at this moment. We have already moved on over to Paz Baseball Field, so the team is now working on getting the Maag Ball Park fields ready for day play. Hopefully by March

26th. The team has been working quickly to take care of these because we all understand those that are from here we all play ball, somehow, someway we are at the ball field and so this is very important to us and we are working extremely hard and quickly to get this taken care of. So, we will have more updates as they continue to roll in.

I would also like to add that our very own City Clerk, Christine Rivera will be participating in the 2025 Sunshine Week by joining a panel at NMSU next week to discuss the Inspection of Public Records Act, IPRA. This week, my fault.

Keep Las Cruces Beautiful will be hosting a community tire dump on Saturday March

22nd from 8 a.m. to noon that will allow residents the opportunity to dispose of used tires at the following locations, East Mesa Recreation Center, 5589 Porter Drive,

Young Park at 850 South Walnut. KLCB will also be hosting an amnesty weekend

March 29th and 30th from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Amador Transfer Station. All residents can dump trash for free during this event.

Senior Programs for Benavidez Community Center will be closed March 24th through

April 18th for kitchen floor replacement. Last but not least, a new piece of public art was installed at the Mesilla Valley Intermodal Transit Terminal on March 14th. The title of the piece is Traditions of Balloons. It is funded by the Arts in Public places program and you can find the piece located in the lobby.

12. ADJOURNMENT 12.1 Councilor Yvonne Flores moved, seconded by Councilor Becki Graham, to adjourned at 3:17 p.m.

Mayor

City Clerk