City Council Meeting March 3, 2025

MINUTES

City Council

Monday, March 3, 2025 @ 1:00 PM

City Council Chambers, City Hall

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

Becki Graham, Councilor Johana Bencomo, Councilor Becky Corran, and Councilor Yvonne

Flores

ABSENT:

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

APPRECIATION/PROCLAMATIONS - COUNCILOR FLORES. Mayor Enriquez introduced a video created by Visit Las Cruces.

Short video shown.

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

Week.

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

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

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION 3.1

Robert Butler, Member of the Public said I am going to start off with a positive, and then I am going to the body and close with a divine closing. I am here to talk about the

Holy Trinity. First in line is Chief Story. Next in line is Chief of Fire. He is going to the

Moon with Chief Story. Now I am going on the body. Mayor, may I address your

Council please? Councilor Flores, you have my vote. You will be a two term

Governess of New Mexico because you are a woman. Now it is very important, I had a very illustrious three weeks thank you to Chief Story and his staff. I wanted to say that there are a lot of outstanding people.

Lynn Moorer, Member of the Public said I formerly practiced environmental law in

Nebraska. I’m what Councilor McClure, my councilor regards us as just riffraff, simply because she disagrees with me on the issue I will discuss today. I have recently learned that she considered a lot of good Las Cruces citizens who provide comments to you as just riffraff, in her words. I am proud to be in that discarded category along with the other good people of Las Cruces. Four months after the original letter in

English was sent out to property owners in Las Cruces announcing the new Lead and

Copper Rule improvements a letter has finally been sent out in Spanish, unfortunately the letter and the destinations in which it directs citizens to find information are flawed.

Not a single website to which the letter directs readers is in Spanish. This means that

Spanish only readers who have computers can try to hunt down any of the websites will find they are shut out of the information on them. No direction shows Spanish only readers how the page might be translated. Someone who called the number listed in the letter experienced a sixteen-minute wait before a live person came on the line.

This person did not speak Spanish. There was another two minute hold before a

Spanish speaker came on the line. I don’t know many busy people who are willing to wait 18 minutes on hold. The Spanish speaking Utilities person then made statements inconsistent with information previously issued by the city. The letter says that by calling the number the caller can obtain information about potential financing solutions to assist property owners with replacement of lead service lines. When the caller asked about financial help, they were told the letter doesn’t say you get any financial assistance. This contradicts what the letter plainly says of what is inconsistent of what

EPA requires so the caller was turned away with no help. The Utilities person also said that the city is testing city owned pipes only not privately owned pipes. This is inconsistent with the rule and not what utilities personnel stated during the November

18th city council briefing. At that time the representatives said that the city would test all unknown pipes. So, after an 18-minute wait to speak to a Spanish speaker the caller was provided information that does not match the information on the letter, nor does it comply with the rule plus they were given information that contradicts what

Utilities personnel said at a previous public meeting. This is a abysmal performance by the city. It adds to the deficiencies outlined at previous city council meetings regarding the questionable performance of utilities personnel. This includes the inadequate technique the city uses to determine what pipes are made of, a technique that goes to the heart whether the city is accurately identifying all lead piping that must be replaced. It is concerning that the city seems to be demonstrating that it is both incompetent and uncaring about whether it fully complies with the new Lead and

Copper Rule improvements and whether it truly meets the public health needs of all of those who drink Las Cruces water.

Tito Marquez, Member of the Public said after three months of refusal to do so the

notification letter regarding EPA’s new Lead and Copper Rule has now been sent out in Spanish. The city’s communication about the new rule continues to reek of unequal treatment. The letter relies heavily on links to websites to spell out information. The glaring problem is one that has been brought to the city management’s attention previously. None of the websites are in Spanish, not one word. No non-English reader is given any clue as in how to translate the page. The place to click just says English.

Few non-English readers will be able to understand that. On top of that many non-

English speakers don’t have computers. They might have a smart phone. The setup of the city’s website reeks of difficult to navigate on a smart phone. I can’t see any non-English speaker being willing to try to navigate it. City Manager Ikani has been proudly talking about a little video the city created to show how to determine what your pipe is made of. This video continues the bias treatment of Spanish speakers.

The video is entirely in English. The up shut is that a significant chunk of information about the new Lead and Copper Rule continues to be inaccessible to Spanish only speakers in Las Cruces, a majority Spanish community. The fact that City Manager

Ikani still after 3 months fails to assure that Spanish only speakers are treated equally and have the same access to all the critically important information regarding public health as English speakers now seems intentional. This serious injustice must be rectified. If the city uses a website, it must be redesigned to make it as clearly understandable in all respects for Spanish only readers as for English readers to fully inform Las Cruces water drinkers who don’t have computers the city must send out much better designed letters that spell out information in more detail using visual aids as well as providing more clearly written text. It is hard to believe that the City of Las

Cruces can’t do a much better job of communicating all the important information related to this new rule other cities do.

Margarita Porras, Member of the Public said my address is 230 Mojave, Zia Shadows

Trailer Park. Back in September we got a letter that we are going to have a fee of

HOA. I think it is like $80. I am not too sure, but I have been here since 2016 and we never had this issue before. They put in gates that they have not been working for over a month. They lock to go out of the trailer park, but they don’t work to go in because they are broken the whole time. So, we have to pay this fee. It is 24 homeowners of this trailer park. This company is going to making roughly $20,000 a year for these 24 homeowners. So, I don’t think it is fair for us to have to pay since a lot of the owners are low income, fixed income, social security income so I don’t think it is fair for us to be paying these fees for an old, old trailer park. My daughter has a gated community, beautiful gated community, new houses, new gates, beautiful you name it. If you go by Zia Shadows and you see the trailer park we don’t have a nice park, we don’t have a swimming pool, we don’t have anything. That park, nobody uses that park because there is nothing except for the tables and trash cans. So, I ask for you guys to look into this issue and help us out. Melissa is here too, and I would appreciate it if you could help us with this issue.

Jim Hoerst, Member of the Public said I want to talk about what the law of separation of church and state means. It means that the church has no authority in or over our government. It means that the bible is not grounds for public policy or law. It means all beliefs have equal status before the law, even atheism. If separation of church and state is truly observed the state would neither affirm nor deny the existence of God.

Yes, I realize that the recognition of God is a common practice in America today. I

recognize that it is even in the New Mexico Constitution, but I also declare that it is a contradiction to the sentiments of our state and national constitutions. Many of these traditions began at our founding in the late 18th century. Fortunately, religious beliefs are not the same now as they were at the beginning of the 21st century. We are free to discard the religion in religious rituals of the past. They are not sacred. American religious beliefs have changed. Traditions are ours to make or break as we choose.

Why is the principle of separation of church and state so important? The first right mentioned in the Bill of Rights is the non-establishment clause. Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion. It protects our government from being entangled in religious disputes, from being co-opted by those who use their offices to promote religious beliefs and interests. What does all this mean to the city council? It means that you should give no weight to religious privilege. Claims that America was founded on Christian principles that our founders were Christian, that the USA is a

Christian nation, and the like are examples of claims of religious privilege. If you honor the first amendment, then you can give them no weight as you deliberate laws and policies for our community, that is if you intend to honor your commitment to the

Constitution. That is what our Constitution says and is what our founders meant. Don’t let the dominionist, the Christian nationalist, and MAGA tell you otherwise.

Juan Garcia, Member of the Public said I want to thank Councilor Corran for her comments during the last meeting regarding citizens should demand more from public officials even if they offer them or not. I appreciate that comment. New Mexico progressive politicians consistently vote along ideological lines rather than for the whole community interest. Recent examples, they tried to restrict legal gun ownership again, SB 279 and burden gun store operations, SB 318. They pushed to normalize abortion as a pregnancy outcome option to our teens by adding to middle school education curriculum, SB 258. They watered down the omnibus crime bill, HB 8, that was passed only when the Governor intervened. Follow the trail of votes over the last few years and Representatives Ferrary, Rubio, Cadena, Lara, etcetera consistently favor lax laws. Favoring the criminals instead of all the victims of crime. So, if we are disappointed with the results of the crime bills, we shouldn’t be. There is a pattern.

Elections do have consequences, and we are paying for the last election. They blocked HB 104 which would have increased penalties for crimes against police officers in their executions of their jobs. In my opinion there was a wrongful conviction of an LCPD officer for executing his job. I have followed this case relying on published articles from the time it happened. Actions have consequences. Had there not been a theft or resistance to police where this incident occurred? We probably wouldn’t be speaking on this today. From KFox today, why the refusal of the court to allow toxicology results into the trial? If in fact the deceased was high on meth, that could be a game changer since it is well established meth may cause violent behavior. The following is a quote from KFox, “officers who make a split-second decision to protect themselves or their partners now they could be charged, convicted, and sent to prison. How does that make sense? We trusted the justice system to do the right thing, to protect officers who follow their training, who do their jobs but in my opinion, this was political and I think a lot of people in this community feel the same way”. And this is from Mrs. Lunsford, and this was in today’s KFox article. We, myself, agree and support the effort to overturn what we also consider to be a wrongful conviction.

Eddie Thomas, Member of the Public said I want to ask you why you are hell bent on

destroying the American dream. Of course, I am referring to your new zoning code ordinance that eliminates single family residences in Las Cruces proper. What do you have against us that you have such disregard for the very people that pay the lion’s share of property taxes. What did we do to deserve your disdain? It is misconception that self-contained apartment/shopping strip neighborhoods you hope to create will produce less carbon emissions. Apartment dwellers drive cars too. They are also much less likely to own electric cars as they are expensive. Do you plan to install charging stations in the parking lots of every complex? That will surely add to the cost of rent. Do you think apartment dwellers all drive bicycles or walk to work and school?

You have made some serious miscalculations and false assumptions. Concentrating the population in stacked dwelling units will only increase the traffic and congestion in that area. Why don’t you just continue permitting the apartment complexes in the outlying areas of the city and leave us single family home dwellers alone. I have nothing against apartment buildings as long as you don’t destroy single family neighborhoods to do it. Single family homeowners bought their homes on the premise that the neighborhood they bought their homes in would remain single family neighborhoods. You are essentially reneging on the deal we struck when we purchased our home. The relative peace and quiet and safety in the neighborhood is part of the deal now you are changing the terms, that is not right. Owning a home is the hallmark of the American dream. Living in a rented apartment is not. The truth is that nobody on this dais knows what affect this is going to have on property values but

I can assure you it is not good. Why can’t you just create the code you want for apartments with shopping enhancement without eliminating the one for single family home neighborhoods. We want separate residential and commercial zones just the way they are. We don’t all think like you. This is something that should be put to a public vote to let us decide if we want. We want our freedom and independence to be homeowners. This is what America has always been about. Don’t destroy it. Stop being bullies. It is just short of tyranny to eliminate a class of residents in favor of another. We are not racist. We are hard working Americans of every color and creed.

Raquel Gonzalez, Member of the Public said I am one of the owners of the Zia

Shadow’s space over there like the other lady. I am here because I received a letter also and I am not willing to pay anything to them because I bought this property twenty years ago and in twenty years, they haven’t asked me for nothing. I know these people are new owners and that is what they are trying to do, charging us because they are going to do a swimming pool. I am not willing to pay them because since all that time I have been owner nobody has bothering me with that. Plus, I pay my taxes. They don’t pay my taxes. I do pay them, so if they keep going with that idea, I may sell it. I will do whatever I have to do but I am with these people, and we are not willing to pay nothing.

Lisa Grande, Member of the Pubic said a lot of changes are underway in the United

States. We are seeing everyday hundreds of executive orders and actions being taken away in Washington which have a direct impact on the financing of the services and the programs that many of us depend on. Impact us at the state level and city level. It is very hard for a lot of us who are concerned citizens to understand what those changes mean for us. I have looked on a number of the websites that relate to

Las Cruces trying to see what an executive order that was issued last week by the new administration in Washington means for us here. You can’t find that information

but there are other cities that are doing a better job with that. So, I would like to raise for the consideration for the council the responsibility to help educate those of us who live here on what the new executive orders, the new steps that are being taken in

Washington mean for all of us.

Melissa Rhodes, Member of the Public said I am also one of the families that own a home within Zia Shadow Mobile Homes. The problem is that Zia Shadows was purchased by Three Pillars Communities which is an investor company. Zia Shadows consist of 178 units. This investor company owns 154 of these units. Since Three

Pillars owns most of the properties, we the 24 families that own the remainder of the properties have lost all our rights within Zia Shadows. Our voice and our vote no longer count. At any moment Three Pillars can increase the price of their HOA fees to a monthly amount that is unreachable to the 24 families and there are no laws to stop them. That is why we need our government to step in and sponsor a bill or create regulations for these types of situations. We demand protection for New Mexican homeowners whose properties fall under the New Mexico Condominium Act. We believe that Zia Shadows is the testing ground when it comes to rich corporations buying large quantities of homes within these types of neighborhoods. I invite all of you to come take a drive in Zia Shadows and see for yourself if this neighborhood lives up to the expectations of a HOA. First off, the gates are broken, and these gates have only been running for a month. Now Three Pillars wants to charge us for repairs or possible replacement of a job they did not get done correctly in the first place and that is not right. Since Three Pillars uses employees, equipment, and the office to run their private rental business I have requested documentation to ensure that we are only paying for the common elements, and our money is not going to help them run their private business. They have not provided any of the information that I have originally requested on January 7th. I have reached out to the city, county, state,

Angelica Rubio, Gabe Vasquez, the Las Cruces District Attorney, the Attorney

General in Santa Fe and we just got the run around. We get sent off by these people to Legal Aid, Southern Poverty Law, HUD for help and these organizations end up telling us that they cannot help homeowners in these situations. The burden is then placed on us hiring expensive attorneys that end up just taking our money and not doing anything. We need this to change, and we demand that our government protect taxpayers’ homes from fraudulent situations like the one we are living in. There is no way the city of Las Cruces can claim that they are addressing the housing crisis if it is not addressing the uncomfortable elephant in the room which is the investor companies buying up homes and threatening to take away New Mexican homes. It is important to mention that of the 24 homes affected the majority belong to seniors who live on a limited budget. We are here today to give us solutions and not send us knocking on other doors for help.

Josh Allen, Member of the Public said I live in Zia Shadows as well. To shine some light on things. I have been there 22 years and for like the last 12 years we have not had an HOA. So now we have a HOA, and they are demanding all these fees. So, all these years we have lost all the amenities. We are considered a condominium, which we are not, it is a trailer park. We used to have common areas which was a club house, a playground, and a pool. The pool has been filled in. We are not allowed to use the club house and there is still a playground. So, they are asking for all these fees. Especially these elderly people who are on fixed income. It is going to keep

raising and raising. So, we did have a meeting. We all voted which we have our twenty something votes, and the guy pompously says well I own 157 and I submitted yesterday, I am the President. I don’t see how they can keep raising and raising these fees without us having a say and that is where we are at.

Maria Cortez, Member of the Public said I live too at Zia Shadows. This Condominium

Act was created without any regulations. We want a change. In some articles we need the city and state government to help us citizens from Las Cruces when living in low income. Several of us live on only social security check like myself, I only receive a month $825 for all month and they are asking now for me to pay $67 a month. They would like from this community of Homeowners Association they change because we are living every day in fear, threats, thinking if we are going to have a home in the future if we are not able to pay for what they are asking for us to pay every month.

That is amount is going to be rising for whatever they want the amount. We will have to choose between to eat or pay the money they are asking to pay for us to keep our home safe. All of this Condominium Act is a fraud, extortion, abuse taken of a trailer park of low income residents on their Condominium Act covered up like it was a family community. We demand that you the city to make change in the articles because they are not transparent with us since the day they bought the property. We hope you can help us, like me, I am an old person that lives on social security check.

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

RESULT: Carried

MOVER: Councilor Johana Bencomo

SECONDER: Councilor Becki Graham

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

Councilor Becki Graham, Councilor Johana Bencomo, Councilor Becky

Corran, and Councilor Yvonne Flores

5. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES 5.1 REGULAR CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF FEBRUARY 4, 2025. 5.2 WORK SESSION OF FEBRUARY 10, 2025.

6. RESOLUTION(S) AND/OR ORDINANCE(S) FOR CONSENT AGENDA 6.1 RESOLUTION NO. 25-100: A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE

DESTRUCTION OF RECORDS THAT HAVE MET THEIR LEGAL

RETENTION.

7. RESOLUTION(S) AND/OR ORDINANCE(S) FOR DISCUSSION 7.1 RESOLUTION NO. 25-101: A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE FILING OF

APPLICATIONS WITH THE FEDERAL TRANSIT ADMINISTRATION, AN

OPERATING ADMINISTRATION OF THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT

OF TRANSPORTATION, FOR FEDERAL TRANSPORTATION ASSISTANCE

AUTHORIZED BY 49 U.S.C. CHAPTER 53; TITLE 23, UNITED STATES

CODE, OR OTHER FEDERAL STATUTES ADMINISTERED BY THE

FEDERAL TRANSIT ADMINISTRATION. Mike Bartholomew, Transit Director gave the overhead presentation.

Councilor Corran said Mr. Bartholomew is retiring very shortly and I just want to give a little homage of appreciation I sit on the Transit Advisory Board which I have really enjoyed and have appreciated getting to know you but just a few things about Mr.

Bartholomew who I am very sad to see go. He started working as a driver in Senior

Programs in the city of Pullman, Washington a long time ago which I will not reveal and came to the City of Las Cruces in 2002 when this change that you alluded to about the title came to be and has served as Roadrunner Transit Director for 23 years. In this Mr. Bartholomew has been through extraordinary change, technological advances. I think there was a lot of paper in 2002. I was barely alive then, but technology advances have come a long way including really a bunch of transitions through making Roadrunner Transit way more accessible to people and growing in both efficiency and internal efficiency for drivers and administration and external for customers. So extraordinary technological change. You also led through the pandemic which I know meant you really had to think a lot about the safety of both drivers and both passengers and as ridership has really bounced back dramatically you have also been thinking about how to bring that ridership in and make sure that drivers remain safe and that routes remain fulfilling for folks. So, it has been really something to see Roadrunner grow under that. You also supported the city shift to electrification which has been an impressive and still ongoing shift and building the new transit center which is going to have a grand opening on March 21st and I know working with Public Works in building a new building is a huge lift for anyone working in city administration so I thank you for your leadership through that time to. So, as a person you have really focused on making sure that riders of Roadrunner and

Vamonos Service get the best possible service that you can do. I have seen you supporting drivers and administrative folks to better themselves and praise folks that do really lifesaving work in our communities so I just wanted to take this moment to publicly thank you for extraordinary work that you have done and I am sure that we will all get a chance to say goodbye to you but Roadrunner Transit is extraordinary and it is thanks to you.

Mayor Enriquez said you have been a tremendous asset to Transit, to the city. Trivia that Mike and I were hired by the same Director way back when. That was pretty interesting, pretty deep, good conversations between us but thank you Mike for everything. Councilor Becky Corran moved, seconded by Councilor William Mattiace, to amend Resolution No. 25-101 to add the wording pursuant to NMSA 1978

Section 3-52-4 in the last sentence.

MOVER: Councilor Becky Corran

SECONDER: Councilor William Mattiace

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

Approve Resolution No. 25-101 as Amended.

MOVER: Councilor Becki Graham

SECONDER: Councilor Becky Corran

Corran, and Councilor Yvonne Flores 7.2 RESOLUTION NO. 25-102: 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

FISCAL YEAR 2025 BUDGET. Joe Padilla, Budget Analyst gave the overhead presentation.

Councilor Flores asked on page four, the amount of $69,882 is that going to be enough to outfit the all of the vehicles that police officers use?

Joe Padilla said no, to answer your question it will equip around 13 windshields because each one cost around $3,500 and that includes installation. Councilor Becki Graham moved, seconded by Councilor Becky Corran, to

Approve Resolution No. 25-102.

Corran, and Councilor Yvonne Flores 7.3 RESOLUTION NO. 25-103: A RESOLUTION AMENDING THE FY2025-2030

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

Councilor Flores said it would be wonderful to have pictures of these improvements to show all the work that goes into it. I use Madrid Avenue and that has been under construction for a long time, and I think it would be wonderful for the community to see how long all of this takes because some of these projects are just multimillion dollars and then over the course of the life of our roads it will be more. Just a request. Councilor Johana Bencomo moved, seconded by Councilor Becki Graham, to

Approve Resolution No. 25-103.

8. BOARD APPOINTMENTS

8.1 None.

9. NOTICE OF PROPOSED ORDINANCE(S)

1) There will be no public discussion.

2) A Councilor may ask staff for clarification on the proposed ordinance(s). 9.1 None.

10. CITY COUNCIL MEMBER BOARD REPORTS AND COMMENT 10.1 COUNCILOR MCCLURE I have been working with the Zia Shadows people for a bit, and it is sort of a hard line in terms of city versus state but if there is anything that we can do to try and help them

I know we collected the information that it is and we kind of puzzled that out with them and that would be helpful.

I also wanted to thank staff, Sonya and Anthony and Vanessa from Facilities who have been engaging with me to do the tour of our facilities. Specifically Municipal

Court, I am now under the belief that we should probably make a comeback on wood paneling. It is actually kind of nice. I like it but seeing what kind of conditions we have them in is hard to see and that too I was looking at some of the different facilities. We have the old MVRDA Building and one off of El Paseo and whether or not we could build an emergency shelter of some sort if that is a need that our city has when we do discuss unhoused. That leads me to think, how do we fund that? Because in conversation we don’t want to drop the ball on something that we want to sustain for a little while. I would like to ask staff if we could start having discussions on the GRT and where that funding might go. I know it might seem kind of premature but at least get a lead up so that we are all kind of on the same page.

10.2 COUNCILOR MATTIACE I very much concur with Councilor McClure has just brought up. I would like to have some type of serious workshops on where the GRT is going to be obligated to and how it is going to be spent.

10.3 COUNCILOR GRAHAM Add my voice, I am also interested in GRT. I know that we are not actually starting until July 1st, and I know Dr. Torres has taught me a lot but not enough about city economics and how soon we would get a sense of what we can anticipate year by year, but I would love to be involved in those conversations.

The only other thing I had was thanks to LCPD for a great Mock on the Block event at

Young Park last week. Special thanks to Grace Tellez and Catrina for following up so quickly with the questions I had about the posted notes that community members were sharing their thoughts and concerns and suggestions, but it was a great event and there were a lot of dogs there and any event with a lot of dogs, it’s a plus.

10.4 COUNCILOR CORRAN I just want to again elevate the Lead and Copper meeting tomorrow afternoon at 6 p.m. here which we will have Spanish interpreters as well and people will be able to ask questions of state environmental health experts and have a conversation more than we typically can have at a city council meeting and I also just want to sort of let folks know that we as the legislature as was alluded to continuing to do a number of things that have various sort of implications. Some of which are part of what we talked about as our public safety or other priorities in the legislative session and then other things that have come up which are really interesting, I think. The legislature is considering a number of statewide housing related ordinances that would basically preempt Realize in some ways, so I think paying close attention to what is happening in the state legislature and how that reflects our ongoing priorities that we have established in our conversations I think is really critical and I appreciate all of my colleagues who have been giving a ton of inputs, sharing, being on call for legislators when they have questions. I know that isn’t necessarily something that the public sees but it is something we keep up during the legislative session and also thank you to

Barbara and the staff, Larry and other staff who have given testimony. I think a lot of things are still forthcoming from the legislature, so it behooves us to keep on it and maintain our presence there. 10.5 COUNCILOR FLORES There was a comment by one of our constituents, the housing issue and the plan of

Realize. Is that accessible? Is the Realize plan online where people can access it to see and to understand exactly? I think a lot of people who have come before city council have this, there is that fear factor or not in my backyard type of attitude and how Realize is forward thinking. I think it would be good to have a presentation not only as to the elements of Realize but how it would be implemented. My understanding of Realize is that the city is not going to go into neighborhoods and all of a sudden, they are going to have all of these things that they don’t want. I think that the plan that is absolutely fabulous is the one that has been planned, it was planned like five years ago for that lot that the city owns across the street from Mountain View

Hospital and that really shows exactly what Realize is going to do, that is the actualization. So, I think it would be good if we could have a presentation on that because so many people are afraid, and I think that we should respect those fears and also allay them. 10.6 COUNCILOR BENCOMO I don’t normally like to respond to a lot of things that happened during public comment that sometimes feels really unproductive but today I am feeling particularly upset by misinformation just continuing to get spread. I think that something that particularly bothered me today while I am actually very thankful for the folks that are advocating for the folks that are Spanish speaking community, I actually take a lot of offense to folks who are saying, there is this narrative that people who speak Spanish are somehow uncivilized. That they don’t own computers or know how to use computers or know how to translate a document. The Spanish speaking community is incredibly resilient and I know because I come from that community and so I want to push back against this narrative that somehow we need saviors to come here and say the poor community this, if you going to be an advocate for the Spanish speaking community I highly recommend that you change up the way that you are speaking about them

because it is highly offensive. I do want to thank staff for putting together the town hall tomorrow. It is very important that and I think we have all acknowledged here that lead is bad, that lead in our pipes would be very, very bad. No one is denying that in fact we all agree especially our incredibly talented staff at Utilities. I think what is important is that and I want to speak a little bit more to this is as the City of Las Cruces how we combat misinformation, and we do that by countering the stories that we need to tell and I think a lot of people don’t know that our Utilities is a self-sustaining enterprise.

Meaning that every dollar that we charge a customer comes back to sustain the

Utility. There are no revenues that are made from the city of Las Cruces Utilities

Department. Everything is sustained, we are paying staff, buying equipment, there is no revenue. Other cities perhaps are better off than we are and are doing different things than we are related to the EPA rule, that is amazing, good for them. When this first came out and our staff asked EPA representative, how are we supposed to pay for this? They said maybe you should raise your rates. That was their suggestion and because we are not necessarily in the space to do that, we already have a process for rate setting that is not necessarily where we are at with the utilities and so I think it is important for the city to be able to tell the story of who the utility is or whatever department is currently being criticized. I just think it is important that we try to combat misinformation as best we can.

On to misinformation regarding Realize. This one particularly is concerning to me. I think unfortunately Facebook groups tend to be sort of this place where misinformation just runs rampant and I am not saying to put staff, PIO staff there to monitor every single comment that is wrong on Facebook, certainly not but again I do think that City Manager and PIO office that we do need to take charge of some of this narrative and how we put it out there. Right now, for example Legends West community is talking about how that piece of property that we purchased with Park

Impact Fees is going to be used for affordable housing. That alone is problematic but what I am trying to get at is that people are running with this lie right, I keep calling it misinformation but essentially they are just lies about certain pieces of information and I just think that we should have a better strategy internally as to how we combat misinformation and tell a better story of what the city is actually doing in handling some of these pieces.

I was in DC last week. I have the incredible honor of being part of an organization called Local Progress, that is for local municipal elected officials that have a particular focus on social, racial and economic justice. Much like National League of Cities but this group just has a different focus. We were there and we talked about the local impact, public constituent talked about this, the local impact of the current Trump administration’s actions on our citizens. I think being locally elected we have the pulse in our community much better than the President ever will and sometimes even then our federal representatives. I do want to encourage us to listen to the stories of how people are being impacted and then pass them along. Pass them along to

Congressman Vasquez, pass them along to Senator Heinrich, and Senator Ben Ray

Lujan. I think they want to understand how these kinds of actions are impacting our community. I really do appreciate you coming to talk about that. I will tell you that in the last 30 something days of this administration, 40 days of this administration there has been a total of 81 executive orders. So it would take probably a whole person on staff to try to analyze and address and put out how it is going to affect community and

I think our Attorney’s Office has no capacity to do that but I agree with you that there has to be better communication as to the information that we are putting out to our community, about how city operations are being impacted certainly but I think maybe one of the things now that we have a Municipal League representative on the council.

I was doing a quick search and I think a lot of the information is being put out through

Municipal Leagues across the country and perhaps once the session is over this is a great conversation to have with the Municipal League on how they can help us with capacity around informing the public on how the Trump/Musk Administration is impacting the citizens of our community especially.

I think I want to add my voice on how we start talking about GRT spending but I would like to put out a plug for a participatory budgeting model that really includes a lot of diverse set of voices in our community for the things that are needed and how we should be investing in those at a very local neighborhood level ways. I am now the

Chair of the South Central Solid Waste Authority. I am very excited about that, and it should be posted already that we will be looking for a new Director for the South

Central Solid Waste Authority and that job posting should be out officially.

The last thing I wanted to say on the Zia Shadows Mobile Home Park. Again, another piece of education that I think is important for the city to help get out there for our residents to understand is that the state actually preempts the city on a lot of housing related things. Rent control, someone was calling us to pass a no cause eviction ordinance, those kinds of things the state preempt us from engaging in those kinds of things. Meaning that we cannot pass local policies on them. There is a piece of legislation working its way through the legislature right now around corporate landlords and the way that they have been hiking up fees for renters and much like this story. It is actually kind of an epidemic that is happening a lot here in Las Cruces to all renters of all kinds and it is a problem. I guess I want to put out there for us and the Attorney’s Office if this piece of legislation does not go through, I would really love it if we could start looking at how the city can actually start challenging state preemption on some of these things. I know that it sounds like a really big task but obviously we have community members that feel really powerless who feel like every turn they go, they go to every agency, every person and the realities of capitalism are that landlords can charge whatever they like. It is so awful to be able to have to tell someone I can’t do anything about that but if we can take a little bit of power back and say how do we start protecting, especially our renters and folks in this situation at the local level I think it is really incumbent on us to do that. 10.7 MAYOR ENRIQUEZ Getting back to accurate information, tonight at 6:30 put on by Community

Development and their new Director Chris Faivre will be hosting tonight a trial on a

DRC Development Review Committee to actually get with staff and members of the public to see how the Realize is going to be put into action. So, a lot of questions can be answered, a lot of clarification will be presented so that people can see firsthand how this was going to work. So, thank you Chris for putting that on.

Also, we were just awarded a grant from the Governor for $350,000. That grant will be to get a survey out to address the individuals that are unhoused, mental, substance abuse, with a lot of stakeholders working with housing, working with Natalie Green but

also getting a Public Health Coordinator to oversee. To start working on what are the problems out there. Working with stakeholders such as law enforcement, fire, judicial courts, the school system, mental health groups and just getting all the stakeholders together with this grant so that we can see what is going on. So, we thank the

Governor for awarding us that grant of $350,000. So that is up and coming, we will be working on that.

Again, just a shoutout to Visit Las Cruces again for that beautiful video presentation earlier to start our meeting. That was wonderful and we are going to invite people to our community and see it. The good news I have to share is the Gus Macker is coming back to Las Cruces. It will be hosted by the Mayfield Football Booster Team that is taking it on but we as a city will partner with them along with the other partners in the community. It will be May 17th.

Councilor Bencomo said I did actually have a little note in here about Realize. I am really glad to hear that there is a workshop this afternoon and not to put of course more work especially on our very brand new Community Development Director but I do hope there is more sort of like workshops and individual sessions where the members of the public can come and ask for information. Whether it is residents who are fearful because of the amount of misinformation but also the end users, the folks that are actually builders. The folks that are actually going to be using technical manual. I am already hearing sort of concerns of how it is still kind of expensive for people to build, that missing middle housing and how we best address those kinds of things I think is really important for us to continue to have those conversations Mayor and City Manager on a much smaller more conversational type of way. Thank you for that this evening. It is really encouraged for us to continue doing that in the best way that we can and have a better sort of PIO strategy on how we are telling this story and taking more questions.

Mayor Enriquez said this is one aspect, there could be more, but we talked about this a while back, probably almost a year ago with the PRCs being not implemented anymore or used and looking for more vibrant Work Sessions that we can get the message out and have a Work Session to give some of that. Especially as we see now a lot of misinformation going out there. This is a good way to clarify it so that is something that I think we all support, it is just finding the right tool and maybe the

Work Session is also something that we can look at.

11. CITY MANAGER REPORT 11.1 EXECUTED PRICING CERTIFICATE- LAS CRUCES GRT SERIES 2025 Ikani Taumoepeau, City Manager said there was an item executed pricing certificates for Las Cruces GRT Series 2025. This is something informal for council information.

The city series 2025 taxable MGRT bonds priced on February 6th through a negotiated public sale. The interest rate on the bond was 5.43%. Bonds closed on

February 20th. The bond sale met all the parameters set out in the ordinance adopted on January 6th, the pricing certificate is in your packet on all the terms of the sale. 11.2 For the community that came out from Zia Shadows Development, thank you so

much. We have taken down your contact information. We have already talked with

ACM JC who is reaching out to Community Development. They will connect with all of those individuals who came today. Currently staff is looking to see if there is anything in our authority that can control and if it is outside of your authority, we will give all the information that we can to assist with this development and give them options and at least some direction. If it is something we can control obviously we will assist as best as we can.

Regarding misinformation Mayor Pro Tem Bencomo definitely will get with our PIO and all departments. We have discussed this but I appreciate you bringing the intention of Realize behind us and definitely I know Mandy is already thinking about things that we can do to be proactive and so we will continue leaving our finger on the pulse here and moving forward on that. Additionally, I do hear you city council as you are sharing about your excitement to start planning of the GRT and where we are putting that. We were planning as staff to have the CIP Retreat which is coming later this week and then once that is completed, we were going to come forward to you as council and present options and see how you would like to proceed in the process. I am hearing a diverse public participatory method was something that I heard today.

We will present that along with other options to see if you would like to proceed with that. That is something that we were planning to bring after CIP Retreat. Again, to the community the CIP Retreat will be later this week on Wednesday at the Convention

Center. After which we will come forward in a Work Session and start getting moving on GRT to directions from you all on council.

I was going to share about the Copper Lead Town Hall Meeting, but I appreciate

Councilor Corran already sharing that. That is on Tuesday, coming up tomorrow.

March 4th, 6 p.m. coming up here. I do want to give kudos to staff putting this town hall meeting together and also being able to put together Spanish translated documents. There was a lot of effort putting that out. It is not easy. I appreciate

Domonique if you can pass along our thanks to the team and to Adrienne and to

Steven and to all the team. Thank you, Sonya, for your assistance to that as well.

For Quality of Life, kickoff meeting for the Branigan Library renovation and expansion project with Desert Peak Architects and Consultants, Brad Waters of Godfrey’s

Associates. Full design process will take approximately 14 months for phase I and phase II. Senior Recreation is working with Senior Olympics to discuss future opportunities to work together to offer services to our community. We will also be advertising in the upcoming games at our facilities.

Lastly the goal for GECU and VITA this year was to complete 150 tax returns. As of today, our volunteers have completed 149 tax returns. We will be exceeding our goal.

Kudos to the Quality of Life team.

12. ADJOURNMENT 12.1 Councilor Becki Graham moved, seconded by Councilor Johana Bencomo, to

Adjourned at 2:29 p.m.

SECONDER: Councilor Johana Bencomo

Mayor

City Clerk