City Commission - Regular Meeting

here. Mayor Prom Josh Reed here. Commissioner Baxter Patillo here. Commissioner Steven Bernett here. Commissioner Warren Robinson here. Commissioner Al Ernnandez here. Commissioner Mark Tapley here. Madame Mayor, we have a quorum. Thank you. Um for the invocation, um I just want to give a call out. Uh is Pastor Lance Garrison here? Okay. If not, um uh Commissioner Warren Robinson is going to do the invocation and uh Commissioner B, um Bernett is going to do the invocation. I mean the pledge of allegiance.

Would you join me in prayer? Heavenly Father, we invoke your presence. be among us. Be in our hearts. Be in our minds. Be in our thoughts. But Lord, most of all, be in our actions. Let us see each other as brother and sisters, not as enemies. As those who are trying to improve our city, the way of life, and the quality of business in Alamordo. Bless us to do the best that we can. And then when we can't live up to that standard, Lord, give us the energy to try energy to try just a little bit harder. When someone else disappoints us or does something that we don't like, give us the patience, Lord, to forgive and move on with the best that we can do. Bless each person who has a concern and has taken time to come to a city forum so that life may be better for all of us. bless us in all that we do. This is what we ask in your son's name. Amen.

Please join us in the pledge of allegiance. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Do I have a motion for the approval of the agenda? So move. A second. I will second.

So it has been motioned by Commissioner Bernett and second by uh Commissioner Patello. going to go for the vote and it passes 7 to zero. Next on the agenda is going to be the presentation uh purple update for military kids uh day proclamation. I will do the proclamation. Uh chief board is here. Is there anybody else that is going to be represented? Okay. All right. Can I read the proclamation from up here or do I need to be down there?

Okay. And this is the proclamation for purple up for a military kids day. Whereas April marks the nation's month of military child, a time to celebrate military children for their service, commitment, and sacrifices made along their parents alongside their parents in support of the military mission. And whereas the month of the military child provides an opportunity to pay tribute to the New Mexico's military children as well as those assigned here from other states to honor them, celebrate their spirit, and let our men and women in uniform know that while they are taking care of us, we are taking care of their children. And whereas purple is the color that symbolizes all branches of the military as it is the combination of army green, air force blue, coast guard blue, marine red and navy blue. And whereas all citizens of Elmagora, New Mexico and Otto County are encouraged to wear purple on Wednesday, April 24th as a visible way to show support and thank military children for their strength and sacrifices. Now therefore, I, Sharon McDonald, mayor of the city of Elmagora, New Mexico, do hereby proclaim Wednesday, April 24th, 2026 as Purple Up for Military Kids Day in Elmagoro and urge all citizens to wear purple in its observance. Okay. All right. Do we have the families? Get the trash can.

One more. Can you appreciate the sacrifices that you made? in the military and uh she can only thank you very much. Now we have the proclamation.

Thank you so much for having us out into the city of Ala. Folks, if you don't know, we've got a little over 2,000 kids that are involved in the workplace district. for us to say anything that doesn't depend on you all in this community. So we behalf of Colonel Ed and all and all the families we greatly appreciate all that you guys do support the base and all of our members especially the schools and all our kids we couldn't be more happy

and I just wanted to also say that I was looking around. Mayor Mayor didn't know we two ways to look at it. The kids get to make a ton of friends, but they leave a ton of friends. We rip them out of schools and their families and have them start over. It takes a super strong community like this one.

Can we get a picture? I think um vice pres or the chair of the school board. I saw her. Angie. Hi.

How are you? Come on up. I knew she was here just ready. Thank you. Item number two on the agenda is a presentation of an award by the Veterans of Foreign Wars uh VFW and Police uh Chief Kunahro to White Mountain Drug Task Force Deputy Commander Travis Jones. Chief. Well, good evening, mayor, commissioners, uh, citizens of Alamagordo, and all who are watching. I have the I have the honor and privilege tonight to um be a part of awarding this is Travis Jones, Agent Travis Jones. Um, he was awarded the VFW public servant award by the VFW. So, what I'm going to do is just highlight a little portion of what we submitted and then I'm going to uh turn it over to the VFW to do the rest. So, Agent Jones began his law enforcement career in 2007, putting himself through a police academy at the age of 20 in California. He served with

the Banning Police Department and later the McFarland Police Department before deciding to work as a private investigator for a number of years. In 2016, he returned to law enforcement serving with multiple agencies including the Coyote Valley Police Department, United States United States Border Patrol, and the Lovelock Police Department in Nevada. Following his move to New Mexico, he worked for the Hatch Police Department before being hired by the Alamoto Police Department in two 2000 or I'm sorry, in 2023. Upon joining the Alamoto Police Department, Agent Jones quickly distinguished himself and excelled through field training. He was soon selected as a field training officer within months of being hired. In early 2024, he was chosen for the K9 program and partnered with his partner here, K9 Mika. Uh in September of 24, he was assigned to the White Mountain Drug Task Force uh where he where his performance and leadership led him to a selection as deputy commander. In addition to his investigative work, Agent Jones has become a trusted resource for patrol officers throughout the department. Numerous officers regularly rely on him for guidance, assistance, and followup on cases. Regardless of the time of day or night, Agent Jones answers his phone and is always willing to help. Whether it's providing direction during an active investigation, assisting with drugrelated cases, or offering advice based on his experience, he consistently supports his fellow officers and strengthens overall operations. Agent Jones has exceeded all expectations and has made a significant and measurable impact on public safety in Alamagordo and the surrounding area. In 2025 alone, his efforts resulted in seizure over uh 12,000 fentanyl pills, over 200 grams of fentanyl powder, 1,700 gram of methamphetamine, over 400 gram of heroin, 89 g of cocaine, 30 firearms,

uh over 10,000 in US currency seized. These seizures represent countless lives potentially saved. Agent Jones works tirely, often during nights, weekends, and holidays, dedicating himself to removing dangerous drugs from the streets and holding those responsible accountable. For his dedication, leadership, and outstanding service to this community, Agent Jones is highly deserving of the Veterans of Foreign Wars public servant award for for law enforcement. So, what I've done internally is tonight he will receive an award, an exceptional duty award, which on his class A uniform he'll get to wear a ribbon. And I have awarded him the chief's commendation award. And I'll turn it over to the VFW for the rest. Mayor McDonald. Commissioners, um this is the uh VFW National Law Enforcement Award. This is a national award. This is not local. Um, my name is Jason Casey. I am from Post 7686 here locally in Alam Maguardo. Um, I'd like to read this in recognition and sincere appreciation of his dedication and selfless service to the city of Alamagordo. During narcotics K9 unit, Travis Jones outstanding career has maintained a record of highly professional and exemplary service to the community and the nation. His extraordinary commitment clearly illustrates the proud core values and traditions of the of the law enforcement profession. Further highlighted by the degree of administration of admiration, I'm sorry, and respect of both his peers and local publics uh local public he serves. Uh, narcotics officer Jones and K9 unit, I'm sorry, narcotics K9 unit Travis Jones is truly an exceptional exceptional example to all law

enforcement and his honor reflects the proud ideals and high standards of the veterans of Foreign Wars United States. Thank you. Thank you. So, if you join me in congratulating Agent JONES HERE,

NO. AWESOME. appreciate you.

Next on the agenda and we want to say congratulations to um to Travis Jones um for his awards. So, next on the agenda will be a presentation of suggestions for Alama Park Zoo and Train uh Depo uh improvements and collaborations. And the person that's going to be speaking on that is uh James Perry.

Um my name is James Perry. I uh grew up in Rosville, New Mexico. Uh but unfortunately the aliens picked me up and dropped me off in Texas. So I spent most of my life in Texas. I'm a Texan native New Mexican. Proud to be um I'm a retire little brief history on myself. I'm a retired art teacher, artist, dreamer, and visionary. And I see things as most artists do, not as they are, but as they should be, would make them better. I have some ideas on how to improve uh the beauty and beautify Alama Park and the zoo. I realize some of these suggestions may have already been put in place, but even improvements in these uh those existing areas encourages positive change and progress. My me and my wife went to the zoo and it is a beautiful zoo and I've been to it several times even as a child. We would come through Elmagoro and go to the zoo. Um and uh we just happened to be there when the train was passing through and it uh the noise I think is damaging to the animals and uh intense and uh this type of noise uh uh prolonged noise and over again over and over again repeating uh impacts the hearing and the well-being of the animals and uh we need to improve that if we can And I think there are some improvements we can make. Um, installing noise barriers between the train and the tracks. This is done in El Paso on the freeway. Uh, they work because there are residential areas

right up against the freeway in El Paso and yet the people have barbecues with no problems. And uh, I don't think they're that expensive and could probably be secured through a federal grant or something like that. Um by installing these sound barriers, it breaks up the uh noise that uh the trains transmit. Uh also plant native u sound barriers uh plants, shrubbery uh and landscape mounds would help also uh to help uh curve the sound away from the animals. And uh also and this came to me my crazy mind uh install some speakers in the in the zoo area where they as the train approaches natural sounds would be put into the speakers and uh and uh would help drown out the train noise. Excuse me. Um, and I know the railroad company would work with us on this cuz what's good for Alamo, it's good for the trains. Um, we need to uh encourage uh the uh even though the the zoo was kind of started by Deer Park, I think we should uh and we have plenty of space in Alama uh reinstitute Deer Park into the community where children could or people could get on the train and ride to Deer Park, a petting zoo with deers, and uh get off the train and feed the animals if they choose to. And uh and encourage local ranchers and

farmers to donate livestock that would be acceptable for this uh uh new addition. And uh here we go. Okay, moving on. Oh yeah, defense. Uh we need to include a very nice uh aesthetically pleasing fence on the back side. Maybe all the way from the memorial uh military memorial down to uh pass the train uh museum uh to just add better aesthetics to the area. And um have a uh and this is on down the road, have a snack snack bar inside the park where they can walk from the deer park over into the zoo if they choose to. That way they would get through two or three museums at one time. The train museum, the train ride, the deer park and history behind the deer park and also the zoo. So that would be a a good uh u day for the students and activities. And I'm about done. I think I have lots of other ideas for the community. I I cannot present them all at one time this time, but uh there could be a a snack bar there at the end with uh New Mexico uh food. try and really push the New Mexico history and influence of uh the zoo and the community into the park for the visitors from other parts of the country or the world whatever.

And uh I would uh like to return and I guess I will return with other ideas that I have. Uh, my crazy mind goes 900 miles an hour because I'm no longer teaching and my creative spirit is still creating. So, I have to put it somewhere and I'll be glad to put it in the direction of Elmagardo. It would honor me if I could work with you all in doing some of this and I think it's achievable and we should do it. And thank you very much for your time. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Perry. Item number four is the presentation of the Alamagordo I mean the Alamita Park Zoo progress current status and path forward uh toward accreditation and long-term sustainability. And this is going to be presented by uh Kate Maize uh zoo manager and Belinda Bass parks and recreation director. All right. Uh, good evening. My name is Kate Mazize and I've been the zoo manager at the Alama Park Zoo for the last 5 years. And tonight I'm going to talk to you a little bit about where we are with accreditation and what we already have accomplished and kind of where we're we're thinking we're going to end up when we do apply for the accreditation. So, a lot of this PowerPoint is what we took directly off of the accreditation standards, and I'm going to kind of talk through on what we have accomplished and what needs a little bit more work. And our goal right now with where we're sitting, we are thinking that we're going to be able to apply for accreditation next spring. The biggest setback that we had for accreditation was infrastructure. And you will see in some of this um information tonight that one of the biggest problems we had was our perimeter fence because our perimeter fence was not USDA um did not make the standards unless everything that we do is under USDA and it's at the correct standards accreditation is really off the board. So we were lucky enough that this last Christmas time we had finally achieved that and the entire perimeter fence now meets USDA regulations.

So the kind of the backstory on accreditation with the Alama Park Zoo is uh our zoo was aa from the 90s until 2026 I mean 2016. Uh the last accreditation that the zoo went through was in 2011. They passed. They were given a a bunch of different things that were going to be issues issues when it came to accreditation in 2016. When the time came around that the manager of the zoo at the time had decided to step down because he didn't feel like we were ready to go for the accreditation with us with aa standards. The aa standards of course like everything else they had changed. Uh right now aa is at the highest that it's ever been with what they're expecting from research projects, veterinarian care, the zookeeper trainings. Um when they show up for those accreditations, they're showing up and they're looking in your closets. They want to know your janitorial. I mean, it's from the very bottom to the very top of what they're looking for. and we have gone through and we're working with the ZA um accreditation standards and that is going to be that organization was created for mainly city ran zoos we're small uh we have some limitations just on uh funding and staffing is a lot of the issues that we find with the accreditation with those and so we have been working the last five years to get to that point So tonight we're going to I'm going to talk to you a little bit about where we are and how close we are. So the first part is talking about the uh the housing and the enclosures. So a lot

of y'all know in 2022 we had put in for an ICIP grant for the Wolf back quarters. that was the oldest um back quarters that we had that was going to be an issue for us moving forward infrastructure-wise. That also incorporated in that project. It was the start of rebuilding the entire perimeter fence on the north end working towards the south. Okay, I got a little ahead of myself in not changing the buttons here. Okay, so uh number two is vetinarian care. Uh when I took over in this position, we had lost the USDA inspector who had been inspecting at this zoo for 20some years. She had retired and they' brought in a new uh USDA inspector. And if you've ever worked with these inspectors, they call it the blue book. And that is what all of our guidelines are based off of. And it's all done on interpretation. So a lot of the changes that we had to make quick was due to a past USA inspector, what she considered as a qualified, you know, standard versus this new inspector. there was a big change and we had to change pretty quick to stay up with the standards. So part of that was the veterinarian care. Um we had to go through and create a whole new program that included annual vaccinations for everybody. Uh we now do monthly visits where we have separated the zoo out and the different animals. uh last month for an example they went through and it was an exam for the sloths, our vervet monkeys, the marmicetses and then um our tapers.

So we we start with these guys and that way everything is current. Um that was one of the big issues that we had problems with was making sure that we had the vaccinations that protected us as well as the animals. Okay. So, records of course with the change in a USDA inspector also came the change in what she considered uh correct records. um this new agent came in and we had to spend a lot of time to really get our documentation right and actually as of the last US USDA inspection she has cleared us everything that we have is proper it's to the standards and it's also leveled up to track our veterary care as well as the dietary and our enrichment logs. So, the zoo has now completed a record system meeting the USA standards and we're using a system called the speci species 360 animal record system. So, this is a system that talks to zoos worldwide. If I were to bring in an animal out of Arizona, chances are those medical records are going to come directly from that facility to our facility. And this is also a part of the accreditation is to be able to communicate when it comes to species survival plans, the information that we have and it helps with the genetic breeding to be able to track on what's going where. Um, our zoo now is contracted to use veterinary services with the pawn clinic here in town with Dr. Lamden and we also use Dr. Frank Franklin's clinic in Rio.

Okay. So, the biggest part that we really wanted to start working on was the facilities. Um, as you guys all know, really since 2021, we've had construction project after construction project and and we needed it. Um, the wolves were the start of it and then we were able to finish out the perimeter fence around the whole zoo. And another issue that was going to come up with USDA was going to be the bear exhibit, which we are so thankful that we were able to end up with ICIP funds. And that project's fixing to kick off pretty quick, right? That is going to allow us to expand the bear exhibit. It's going to put in a proper water feature. That was something that USDA was really starting to get on to us about. And then um right now we're currently working on the duck pond project which we're going to add in a flighted aviary fixing the duck pond drain and then we're going to divide the drain or divide the ponds so we can bring in some different aquatic species. And all of these slides that I have, these are word for word of what the accreditation kind of looks like. And what we're doing is going through and we're creating either documentation we already have or expanding. And then you will see some of these that we still need a little bit of work on. Okay. So I've got some pictures. The primate exhibit was a project that was going they were doing in-house for several years and we were able to get this completed and finished out and this was the progress of it. And now today if you know we've got a pair or not a pair but we have two male mandrels that are

in that exhibit right now. And the cool thing about these mandrels that we've gotten, they're part of the species survival plan. And come probably this fall or next spring, um, all the zoos that are control of that plan, they will come through and they will decide which male will transfer to another facility for breeding purposes. Okay. So, this is what the Mexican greywolf backquarters look like before the construction. And I don't know if y'all know, but we've got a keeper back here, Pedro. Pedro was way too tall to even stand in these. It was a much needed upgrade. And so this is the Mexican grade wolf back quarters. Now, the picture on the right, that's the back quarters. We have a functioning back quarters that we were able to use for our veterary procedures uh two months ago for the wolves. And then the outside needed a whole new faceelift. And then this is the back quarters that um we're able to bring wolves in and separate if needed. And it's a functioning back quarters. Okay. So fencing fencing has been a huge project for the zoo since 2021. The zoo staff and this is our maintenance guy who's built these fences. Um he's totally redone the front part of the camel exhibit. He did the back tin wall of the kangaroo exhibit. He's um the contractors they finished out the male deer fencing as well as a perimeter wall on the north end. And then um we've worked on improving all the guest barriers to make sure that they are up to code. Okay. So, the reptile house, this was a

donation from Lynn Rice, and we are really excited about this project. Um, we were able to open it in the last month, and if you'd seen the reptiles before, we'd had to have somebody in there to have it open for the public to come in. So, what we did is we turned this into a walk-in reptile exhibit, and it's open every day that the zoo's open. It's got the correct lighting. We are able to really adjust the humidity, the way the back rooms are set up now. And this has been a huge improvement just to the reptile exhibit alone. We're really excited about this one. Okay. So, last summer, Hollerman Big Give, they had uh actually contacted us to do a project and they are the ones who really came up with the design. They created all the sensory items. They've um the paintings and all this majority of this was donated through the Halman Big Give. And this room is going to be where we house all the junior zookeeper classes coming up. And as soon as we've got the office room set up, this is where we're going to move our education coordinator and then he's going to be able to hold uh daily education classes in there as well. And then if you know the the tree on the left picture, that tree was created by the guys at Hollowman and inside of it, that's what it looks like with the black light on the right. They did a really awesome job and we had it open for the last reptile show and the kids loved it. Okay. Some of the other projects that we've got coming, uh, like I said, the bear expansion project, um, we're going to add a climbing feature, a new water feature, and right

now the current bear exhibit is not compliant with USDA, but because we do have it in the works, USDA is happy with us and they know it's coming. And then the duck pond project. Um they're in the middle of it right now and we're working on securing some new animals to put in these exhibits. Okay. And this is just kind of the dayto-day um what our zookeepers are doing. So like drink when it clean drinking water. So every day every zookeeper goes through and we clean everything. All waters get dumped, scrubbed, and then bleached if needed. Um, and on here it talks about some emergency backup systems that right now, uh, we've got our documentation in line and we do have a plan that's part of our USDA contingency plan and a lot of the same criteria is going to be the same criteria that we're following with USDA now. Okay. So, another um big thing that we had to get going was enrichment. Uh USDA has really kind of taken the same kind of standards that the accreditation facilities have. So, enrichment and husbandry training. So we brought in a individual from Positively Wild and she worked with our keepers individually for about 2 years and what this has done and I'll use the otter as an example. Those keepers can now ask those otter to come into a tube and they can inject vaccines without us chasing otter, getting chased by otter and it has eliminated the risk for us as well as the animals. Um, another cool thing is weighing. So,

we've got a set of we'll use the alpacas that they are now trained to step up on a scale. So, when we're vaccinating or we have to um give a certain sort of medication, we can give an accurate uh weight of these animals. And that's something that we've gotten going for the mountain lions. Uh the raccoons are another. And they've been working with the primates as well. And this is just kind of the start of what's helped us on the medical side with these animals. Okay. So, I've got a couple pictures of what the animal training does look like. So, on the left, we've got Pedro with some target training. And what he's doing is asking those primates to come and sit stationary if he were to give meds. And a lot of times primates you can give oral meds and they can, you know, it's virtually just like giving your dog a oral uh vaccine. And then we've got Amy. This is when we had the um a baby kangaroo that we were bottlefeeding. And that was actually the kangaroo that we used for the school visits. And then tapers. So, a lot of times tapers can be kind of tricky to work with and they were a priority for the training just because trying to hold down a four or 500 lb animal to give a vaccine. This eliminated that and gave us the opportunity to teach them to stand to take vaccines. Okay. And so this is kind of talking about the public u contact with animals. Right now our zoo doesn't hold any sort of different level animals that we'd really have to watch public contact for. like uh some of the zoos use elephants as um a public education where ours is

we use like the bearded dragon and the snakes that are all appropriate that fit within the guidelines. Okay, so we talked about the veterary care program. Um our one of the other biggest thing is both these vets are really good about reaching out and finding the information because a lot you we don't have a lot of exotic vets in this area but we do have the resources to find the information. Um same thing when it goes to pharmaceuticals equipment. Uh one of the biggest things that issues that we had when we first stepped in here is having a working dart gun. Um that is something that all of our staff is strained on. U we they all have access to it for some reason and animals out or you know down or or whatever it could be. We've got that and everyone's trained on how to use it. Okay. Nutrition. That was a big one. Um, we had reached out to a PhD in exotic nutrition and they did an override of all the diets and that really changed on how we fed. And if you come by and see how we're feeding now, it's a lot of prey items. Um, we've really moved to more of a naturalistic way to feed. Uh, quarantine, we do have a couple areas set up for quarantine. And the way we do it, we have a round pin that these animals are come, they spend two weeks, we make sure everything's okay, and then we slowly start introducing animals back in or back to a new exhibit with other animals. Uh pest control, that's another um an item that we worry about just as well as like inside pest spring.

And then kneecropsy. So any mammal that we have, it has to go to a vet for a proper necropsy to rule the the death. Okay. So conservation programs that is something that we are working on. We've kind of revamped the whole education program and what some of these programs that we are participating with it. They've changed the SSP to AM for abbreviation and that's going to be like our Mexican grey wolves. So those wolves are federally owned. they don't belong to us and each year they get together and there's a committee and they will go through and they will decide if those wolves are going to be used for breeding, if they're going to be released, if they need to transfer and then we all work within those guidelines. And actually this year they're meeting at the Albuquerque Zoo for the conference. Um, another one that we are a part of is the mandrels. they um they will come in and they will decide on who's going to go for breeding, who needs to transfer, what not. And then um then you've got some of the critically endangered. Uh our South American tapers are actually on a breeding loan. And the reason that we've been able to keep these guys is because we've had two successful life births. So these guys, there will only be one or two live births in the nation every year. and there's only about 30 pairs throughout the nation. So, that was something that was really cool and kind of shows that our facility is getting to a point where we can house those kind of species. Okay. And then the last part is just the education animals right now because USDA does not cover reptiles. Those are what we use as education animals that we take

to the schools for the most part. And that will be something as we roll along with accreditation because accreditation will look into the reptiles as well. That's something that we will have put that program in place. And then we've got um some of our keepers with junior zookeepers. And then we have we've been doing the school talks and then just some of the other items that we've got going on. Well, as soon as Earth Day is over, we're going to announce the junior zookeeper dates and sign up. Uh we've been doing a lot of school visits, career days, reptile shows, and then keeper talks, and then we just recently introduced the Wednesday nights, which has gone really well. And then, of course, we've got Earth Day this Saturday from 9 to 2. Okay, so this is just kind of an overview of the housekeeping. animal enclosures and then the safety and part of our program that we had to put together within USDA inspector was a contingency plan. We have a call down list. We have numbers to turn off gas, electricity, the police, animal control. Um, and then we've got the kind of talks about if we had potentially dangerous and venomous animals, which we do not. And then the firearms, that's where the dart comes in and that's the only thing that we use. So, this will be part of the accreditation where it'll be more working with animal control on their equipment. Okay. And then perimeter fence. Perimeter fence was a huge one for us. We'd been hit with USDA for a couple years and we're very very excited that

that is complete and the last um USA inspection we had, she was happy with it. Okay. And then uh since assuming the role as a zoo manager in the March of 2021, my primary focus was to elevate the Almeida Park Zoo to a professional operating standards and improving animal welfare, visitor experience, long-term stability, and the over past several years, the zoo has transitioned from a basic maintenance operation toward a compliance-driven planned growth. Significant provocus has been made in animal care and welfare, including the complete overhaul of veterinarian care plans, development of updated diets and exotic animal with with an exotic nutritionist, the implement of the annual vaccination schedules, routine health monitoring, and the established of the USDA compliant animal record system. A positive reinforcing animal training program was introduced is now routinely used for medical care, weighing, and daily animal management. The zoo enrichment program has expanded and and received positive recognition during USA inspections. The zoo's made meaningful strides to our accreditation and readiness. The final primate exhibit was completed and now housed the minerals. The zoo successfully passed an aa primate inspection which um I don't know back in 2021 to house some of these vervitz and kind of higher class primates they sent a individual from the Indianapolis zoo which is accredited by the aa to inspect and they have deemed our primate facilities the quality of an aa facility. Um the infrastructure and the safety improvements have been a priority due to the zoo's age. Structural repairs completed between major exhibits. Um yearly tree trimming and removal

program was established and an ongoing safety evaluations are now standard practice. The zoo secured its first ever ICIP funding com um completing the Mexican grey wolf back quarters and exhibit in 2024 with additional ICIP projects approved to address the walls, exhibits and pond renovations. So those are the major infrastructure projects and then our visitor experience. The community engagement has also grown. The improvements include upgraded signage, added seating and shade, expanded education programs, weekly keeper talks, the zooled earth events, continual growth of Zubily Wednesday evening at the zoo and the return or I guess the return at one time with the zoo movie nights. Um and then of course the volunteer engagement that reached a milestone with the 2025 Hollowman Big Give. And that is my presentation about where we've been going.

Kate, how many visitors do you get? I'm sorry. How many visitors do you get?

We get 60,000 visitors a year. And I also wanted just to say we've put over a million dollars into the zoo, but we couldn't have done it without our state legislators because they have given a tremendous amount for most of our exhibits. And of course, the commission has put money towards some our um our permit perimeter fence. So, we're grateful for all of that, but we couldn't have done it without the state um our senators and our representatives. And then Kate had a really heavy lift and she's done a phenomenal job. If you have not been to the zoo even in the last year, I go, especially on Wednesday nights. Those are those are really cool nights. And you have two staff members here, Pedro. But Pedro's so tall, I can't see who's next to him. So, if you guys could stand.

That's Pedro and Sunny. Okay. They do a lot of work at the zoo. So, thank you, Kate. Thank you, Pedro. Thank you, Sunny. Next on the agenda is the public comment and we're going to start with is this Tamara Hansen? And she's speaking on the union.

Good evening, Madame Mayor, commissioners, city staff, and the community. I'm Tamara Hansen. I'm the records and archives clerk for the city and I'm here with a couple of our dedicated golf maintenance staff this evening to announce that I am the president of the city employees union asks me 3818. Um, a lot of you see the general workforce out and about, but you may not know us very well as individuals. We are your peers. We are your neighbors. We care deeply about this community. And we take pride in the job we do for it. We're the people behind the scenes and on the ground doing the work every day that keeps this city moving. Not much happens without us. And our union is present. It is engaged. And it is an important viable voice for the city's workforce. But unions are not just about contracts. We're about communication. We're about fairness. We're about making sure the people who carry out the hands-on labor of government are in are not invisible in the decisions that affect their livelihoods, their families, and their futures. Our union has been part of the city for a long time and we seek to maintain a productive mutually respectful relationship with the city leadership for years to come. We want employees to succeed. We want divisions and departments to succeed and we want the community to succeed. We do not exist as your combatants.

We exist as your partner in making Alam Gordo a city we're all proud to call home. We rise or we fall together. So tonight, I just want to remind everyone that the union is here, the workers are organized, and their voice matters. Seated together at the same table, management and workers can make good decisions that result in good things for everyone. And I am always available to meet with you or answer any of your questions. Thank you for your time. Thank you.

Thank you. And before the next person comes up, I just want to remind uh you know uh the people that are speaking that there is a threeminut um moratorum on the uh public speaking and um we will u we're not going to cut you off at your sentence but uh if you're in the middle of a sentence we'll let you complete it and give you those 20 seconds to complete that sentence but otherwise it is 3 minutes. Uh the next person is uh Tiffany Miller and she's going to be talking on the natiatorum. Good evening all. Uh my name is Tiffany Miller and for the past seven years I've had the privilege of coaching two different swim teams here in our city. I come from a family of coaches. My parents spent over 20 years coaching both club and high school teams. I'm not just a coach. I grew up in this community's aquatic tradition as a swimmer and I'm here tonight because I care deeply about its future. The Natiatorum is a project that our city's residents, the people you guys represent, voted to approve almost two years ago. They recognized the need, made their choice, and trusted you all to carry it out. For the past for these past 10 years, while we have waited for a year-round niatorum, our swimmers have been pray paying the price for the delay. Every single day we have a team full of dedicated, exhausted kids who travel to base after school just to get pool time in the winter. Not only Hollowman, but we also have to bust to Whismer, Riadoso, and even Albuquerque. That's time they aren't spending on homework, time they aren't spending with their families. They are sacrificing their evenings, their energy, and their focus all to represent a city that is failing to provide them with a place to train. I have to be honest, this delay feels

like reopening an old wound. It's like deja vu. 10 year 10 years ago, almost to the day, Commissioner Hernandez suggested that we close the pool in the winter. The delay in buying a new pool cover led to the pool's closure in winter when new environmental rules came in and the money set aside for the cover was used elsewhere. Back then, the commission delayed and the pool was cancelled. feels like the same thing is happening again today with the proposed delay. The rec center has outlived its lifespan. If it weren't for the dedicated staff working hard to keep it going, we wouldn't have anything at all. It can only last so much longer. If you all vote to delay this funding, we could end up without a pool at all, even in the summer. Plus, with the rising costs of materials and labor, waiting will only make the project more expensive, maybe even too expensive to build at all. How many more generations of swimmers will have to spend their seasons on the road? How many more kids will miss out on the opportunity to learn discipline, teamwork, and the life-saving skill of swimming? How many more seniors will have to spend their winters being unable to exercise comfortably as they do in the water? You all have the power to stop history from repeating itself. You have the opportunity to honor the trust that was placed in you. Please do not be the commission that delays a dream into oblivion. fund the natitorium as planned. Fulfill the promise. Give our swimmers a place to call home. Give us something to be proud of. And let's stop getting in the way, getting in our own way for the improvement of the city. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Uh next is um Cheyenne and I think this is I can't say the last name, but uh you're up and you're uh speaking on the natiatorum also. Good evening. My name is Cheyenne Cervantes and for the past decade I have been swimming and practicing under the swim teams of Alam Magordo. For the past few years, I have worked as a lifeguard at the New Mexico School for the Blind and at the rec center. Like others, I've come to show my support for the muchneeded nitorium. I remember the feeling of overwhelming hope and excitement that came over me as a sophomore two years ago when the vote to build the new Nitorium was cast and won. It was a moment of success, not just for my swim team, but for the entire town of Alamagordo. But I'm standing here again to speak up for the pool that was already decided on. If you had told me two years ago that there was going to still be debate over this, I would have told you that you were crazy. The natiatorum was already supported by the people of Alamagordo and now it's going to be delayed which in other words means it will probably never happen. The cost will rise and we will never have the funding for it again. The rec center has served El Moro for decades, but soon its age will catch up with it and maintenance will be too hard to keep up with. I have played many roles as a swimmer, a lifeguard, and a water instructor. I have taught this town's children how to swim and watched my family and peers make memories in the pool from the smallest child to the oldest adult. Um I I the people deserve to be able to make more memories inside of the new niatorum. So why will Alam McGord be stripped of that? Other smaller towns have adequate facilities for everyone's needs. So why don't we? I implore you to listen to your voters, go through with

the promise plan. Thank you. Thank you. Next on the um the list is Jan Brenn and she's also going to be speaking on the pool.

Mayor, mayor prom commissioner staff. My name is Jan Brending. I live at 3407 Street. I too want to urge you to move forward with funding the pool. My past experience is as a city administrator, I have dealt directly with this situation. We had an aging pool. We had to close it. That city is still without a pool. I think they're finally realizing their funding after over 10 years. I would hate to see the city of Alagorto not have a pool in place. Your current pool is failing. The residents of the city of Almagoro voted for a new pool. I encourage you to move ahead with the funding of this pool as soon as possible. A new pool is only going to get more expensive as the days go on. Thank you.

Thank you. Uh, next on the the list is uh Angela Cowwater and she's going to be speaking on the zoo. Mayor, Commission, staff, I'm here speaking to you as a past board member of the Almagorto Friends of the Zoo, and I would like to talk about what good job the zoo has been doing with moving forward with the projects that they are and the help that they've gotten from the legislature with some of those projects. And the complete vet care to USDA standards has been a big plus to the zoo and that's a step forward. Um, of course I'm very invested in education and they've taken a lot of time to go talk to the students and then the junior zookeeper is also a good place for education for the students and they're doing late nights at the zoos for more family events because people always say there's nothing to do in Algordo and that's a good family event for families and their kids and the uh infrastructure that they've moved done for the great wolf is a good project. Uh the bear extension, the reptile room is an awesome thing because that's things that kids really love. And I can't read my own writing. Uh the south chamber building was a great addition and the uh schools and the education talks has been a very good plus for our community. And I I just like to add what a community f friendly environment the zoo is. So thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Next on the list is Crystal Manata and she's going to be speaking on the zoo. Mayor, commissioners, I'm a parent, two parent, a parent to two. My youngest is autistic. So, the the zoo opening at night is amazing because it gives them or gives her the opportunity to enjoy the animals just like anybody else with a lower impact with sensory. I don't know if you guys know a lot about autistic, but sensory overload is a lot. Stimulation, it's a lot for them to process like what's going on around them. So, having that reptile show in that room is amazing for even just a break for them. And Wednesdays are the best at night. If we could get more nighttime visits like that would be awesome. But there the zoo is doing a tremendous job on keeping Dal McGord beautiful. So, I just want to come up here and just say thank you for allowing them to do that because that means a lot to my family and other families that have special needs kids that are able to access that whether it's at night or during the day. So, I just want to say thank you.

Well, thank you for coming out. Next on the list is um Shelley Dohanak uh Baron. And if you'll come up, you'll be speaking on the pool. Good evening, Mayor McDonald, Mayor Prom, City Commissioners, Dr. Hernandez, and my Alamagordo neighbors. My name is Shelley Dhanic Baron. I am a proud resident of Alamagordo and I am an avid swimmer. I am a patron of the Alamagordo pool four to five times a week. Today I got my 60 laps in. I am very passionate about investing in quality of life amenities that make Alam Mcordo more livable and appealing. I'm confident that good city commissioners up there feel the same way. Facilities like the Natiatorum signal that our community is forward-looking, it's family oriented, and it's committed to improving the lives of its residents. Unfortunately, last week, our aging pool could not open on the projected date because the heater would not work. So, I missed a day of swimming. As a swimmer, I was disappointed that a short-sighted motion was passed at the last city commission meeting delaying approval of the ordinance for the new niatorum. These delays are not costfree. Every month this project is postponed. The city is exposed to rising construction costs and the risk of paying more in the future for the same facility. In the first two months of 2026 alone, steel has increased 4% in cost in two

months. Concrete has also increased. We all know that construction pricing is not tending downward in 2026 and 2027. And no one wants to increase the burden on taxpayers for delaying action on this project. Thank goodness. No. Thanks to our city manager, Dr. Hernandez and our finance director Evelyn Huff for their exceptional leadership in guiding our city to achieve a AAA bond rating. Their disciplined fiscal management has positioned Alamagordo to access favorable financing options at a time when delays have closed other doors like the New Mexico Finance Authority. Prudent fiscal management means moving forward in a timely way, controlling costs and not delaying a project until it becomes more expensive. The people of Alamagordo voted and they approved this natitorium because they understand both its value and its cost to the community. I urge the commission to approve the ordinance and please move this project forward. Thank you for listening to my passion about the pool and for recognizing the importance of delivering this project for our community.

Thank you. Next on the agenda is the city manager report. Good evening, mayor, mayor prom commission, citizens. Um just a few things. I sent out invites. We our budget workshops are Monday and Tuesday, May 4th and 5th. Um 5:30 to whenever you all call it for the night. Uh we just scheduled two nights. We believe we'll get through it in two nights. We really don't ever go longer than than that. Um so just for the public May four, May 4th and 5th um Monday and Tuesday. We also are doing the city staff um the directors. I'll be sending out this for invite. This is just in case you want to go. We'll be doing coffee and connections at the inkwell on May 8th. All of the directors will be there except maybe one. Evelyn, just kidding. Um, but it's for a chance for everybody who you have a question about any one of our departments, they're there to answer your questions. And we've been doing a lot of outreach. Tomorrow we're going to Rotary. We're going to do Rotary again. Anybody who asks us to speak, if they wanted any specific topic, we're showing up. So, we're trying to get the word straight from the horse's mouth out there to the public so we have a lot less um just bad information sending out there. Um I did want to touch a little bit on our golf RFP as I sent out an email letting you know we did have to pull it um because it now involves union employees. We have um per RCBA, we have to give the union the opportunity to um have their input on that. So, I just wanted to for the public's sake in case they saw it and then we had to pull it back out. Um, I wanted to follow up on Commissioner Hernandez's comments from last time. I am looking at the issue with the dump trucks. The problem is there's a lot of trash in the city and

so they're starting earlier. We're going to see if we can maybe adjust those hours in accordance with what they say on their website and with the noise ordinance. Um, the person who was my go-to in the city has retired. So, we're we're starting that relationship again. I wanted to also follow up on the concern about the water billing. We all know that's an issue. Water billing knows it's an issue. We only have two staffs members. We have tried to hire I mean we've interviewed more but we have actually made offers and tried to hire nine individuals and they have not passed the background or they haven't um the credit checks because of course that's a big area dealing with a lot of cash. So we're working on it. We have we have adjusted staff a little bit to try and take some of the other duties off of the current two staff members. Um opening mail, things that require time so that they can focus directly on customer service. We're trying as hard as we can. We're going to we've looked at different things. Um we're just going to have to sit down and really look at those jobs because those jobs are really challenging. Um, you're not just taking money, you're reading ordinances, you're interpreting laws, you're dealing with upset people. Um, you're dealing with a 13,000 accounts. So, we're we're really looking at that. We're nobody wants to open it more than than us, and we're really working on trying to do that. Um, and I think that is all I have.

Madame Mayor, before we move forward, I was just notified that someone signed up for public comment. It was skipped from the VFW. I am so sorry. What was the name? I'm here to build. Oh, okay. I'm sorry. I I I I'm sorry I skipped you. No worries. Um and you're talking about the Honor Flight U return.

Yes, ma'am. I'll make you quick. I promise. Sorry about that. I am with the VFW. I'm also with the US Veterans Motorcycle Club. Um we uh twice a year we bring back the veterans from El Paso International Airport um that are local. Uh this year we have two of them. Uh their names are Lucio Vosquez and uh Chris Hall. They're both Vietnam era vets. Um a little bit about the Honor Flight. It's mission 21. Um what they do is they take them to Washington DC and they get to meet up with um old veteran buddies that they used to serve with and they get to see the monuments and all that. They get a a couple days out there and when they come home we like to make a really big deal about them. So the return is the 25th of April. The time is 7 to 9:00 p.m. It is at uh patrons hall like it usually is. Uh in the past we've had um support from uh the police and the fire department for um escort and the fire department sets up the the fire truck and the flag. Um we would love for that to be supported again. And uh that's all I had. I appreciate you. Thanks.

All right. Forgive me for not No worries. I I'm sorry I skipped over you. It's totally fine. Thank you. Thank you. We're going to move on to the um remarks and inquiries by the city commission. I got a couple. Go ahead.

Uh I had a call from a constituent uh last week sometime about a a road issue up by his house. Uh took a drive up there to check it out and and uh in front of 3206 Summer Avenue. He says it's been there for 6 months. It is a huge mess. It's looks like we've had a heck of a water leak and we let it leak for a long time. Um 3120 Sunrise, 3224 Sunrise, 3001 Sunrise, all patches. He says they've been there for a better part of 6 months that have never been they've been fixed, but they've never been repatched. Um there's one on Dwey 1302 Dwey. I've noticed it it's been that way for the last month and a half, two months. Um, I had another constituent email me about Puerto Rico Avenue wanting to know the status of it being repaved. I haven't seen the uh SMP list in a number of years. So, if you could notify me of where we're at on that one. Um, I think you addressed uh Oregon Avenue in front of Miss Turbull's house. I think I seen an email today about that. Um, and then we harp on our residents about keeping their weeds and everything down. U, y'all may have addressed it the last two days, but Sunday when I was out driving around the community, Washington Park is horrible. Uh, the weeds, you know, they were a foot foot and a half tall. Um, and then I had another gentleman call me about this ditch. Um, it's just north of Aspen between Washington and I think it's Jefferson and I think they're three to four feet tall. So, if we could get that on the list to get it addressed and then that was it, I think. I believe

so. And then the stop sign out on Black Street. Y'all had just put a brand new one in on the corner of Black and Mayflower. Somebody's already run it over. Just thought I'd let you know. wouldn't me. I don't I don't use the front of the building.

So, I just had a question, Dr. Hernandez, about the golf RFP. when we did a recent RFP for weeds and drainage maintenance, uh could you explain the similarities and difference differences between that RFP and union and the golf RFP and union?

There really isn't any difference. The difference is we when we did that during budget, you all didn't see the process. So all the proper notifications were given before So it was during budget and I can't remember the date that they the term date but all the notifications were done the same. This one happened um you made the the commission made the decision in the meeting. So we started doing the RFP and then we had to backtrack because we kind of skipped that step. We we forgot that that step had to happen because we don't we don't get rid of departments often. So we that there really is no difference. They're exactly the same. It's just the notifications happen differently.

Okay. Thank you. And as far as the uh transition plan with the extended timeline, what is the plan for that?

The transition plan as far as the timeline. So, um the it's a pretty much a 30-day delay. We have spoken and I have not spoken to grants. Um, I also kind of want to see what the management company, the commission decides on, how soon they can take over. Um, you heard one can take over two weeks, one is more than that. I kind of want to see what that timeline is, but the we can consider this an emergency due to two different components, the commission's vote and the union's participation. So, we would be able to extend the current contractor, GNL Golf, which I again I haven't spoken to Grant about this, um, an extra 30 60 days to allow for that transition transition, but I I want to see kind of where we're at with the management companies.

Have we had any correspondence or interaction with the vendors and the contractors? No. Okay. So, no concerns from them? Not that I'm aware of. Very good. Thank you. Hold on. I have

um I have a few. Um I spoke last time about uh project signage on roads. I did talk to uh employee Justin Bole today about uh White Sands and for Grounds project. Um if you look at it right now, the detours go around all the businesses. And so I know that's partially a state project and they had a lot to say with it, but I think we really need to look at when we do large projects like this that we do allow um access to these businesses and show the access to these businesses. Um because one of the concerns I have as a construction worker is right now they have it set up where you can go through those barricades and it's actually encouraged to get to those businesses. as a construction worker, that's not a good thing because we're always told, "Don't do that." Um, what could end up happening is people get just complacent with that and not really care. Um, it's even on White Sands Boulevard, you know, going into Tractor Supply or even to Murphy's. Um, that there's no like turn here or go here. Um, there could be an accident where somebody turns in under the barrels and somebody turns in above them and hits them. I mean, it's just it's not a good thing. Um, I'll talk on weeds a little bit. So, I have a I have a huge concern that um I was actually given a notice of violation. And on the notice of violation, I was given 15 days to correct or else uh $200 administration fee and then correction cost, whatever that costs. Um, and basically what I've seen the contractors do right now is go around uh spraying the weeds and then they're going to end up like mine, dead. This is what the violation is for, dead weeds. Um, and again, I was given 15

days to correct. Um, I don't see why the city is not aggressively uh maintaining that. I've had a lot of complaints from constituents. Um, I got the same call that you did from the gentleman. Uh, calls out at Walker Road. Um, I think we really need to hit that pretty hard. Um, also got a call, um, where the paratroopers memorial is at the park. There's that area in the back where the benches are. Um, there's a lot of homeless people starting to migrate there. Um, so I've gotten quite a bit of complaints on that. Um, the trash trucks Um, I understand. I mean, there's a lot of trash. There's a lot of work to do. Um, if I was building a house or building a building, the ordinance falls 7 to 10. I was once told by my commissioner, an ordinance is an ordinance. So, I mean, it just it is what it is. Um I also made a trip to Roswell on Friday to uh meet be on the um cog board. Um had a lot of items mostly we had presentations from our legislators and one of the big outcomes from that is um you know the southern part of the state really finances the whole state because of our gas and oil. and we receive less than less funding. Well, we received funding for less than 100 miles of road on the southern part of the state. Um, so it's a big fight for us down here. Um, and they said that they would continue to fight to bring as much money as they could to us. And that's all I have on that.

Anyone else before I have a few things. Uh Baxter asked a couple meetings ago about the Lita applications and the uh estimates on the construction for the the removal of some of the buildings. Where are we at on that?

Yes. So, um I believe I had put it in a weekly report, but if I didn't, it will be on the 28th meeting. Um I was going to do on the May whatever, but um because we're not doing the golf RFP, it'll be on the 28th. you'll get the applications and then um the quotes for La Placita and Oregon and Holiday Inn. We were also trying to work privately with um the Holiday Inn, not the Holiday in group, but the owners and um developers. It we're about to do a foreclosure uh default judgment, a default judgment on the Holiday Inn. Once we do that, it becomes a little more difficult. It would be easier if that owner sold it to a developer. Um my understanding is there has there hasn't been interest. So we're going to do a default judgment. So um I got the quotes. It'll be on the next meeting.

Okay. And then also uh I would like to uh congratulate there was eight young females from Extreme Amplitude that qualified for regionals in Lovelin, Colorado and Galveston, Texas. So congratulations to them. If you have their names, we can I do, but I would butcher them. Okay. Well, if you send them to me, we can put a put some out on it. Go ahead. Okay. Uh, what is the time frame on getting that RFP back out? Are we I mean, is it exactly 30 days? Is it 28 days? I mean, what?

So, uh, okay. I can't remember the exact dates, but it'll be on day 31. We will get it out. Well, I guess I should say depending on the comments that come back from the union and what changes need to be made, we have to have that RFP ready, which that would be a Monday that they need to get the comments back. We have to have the RFP done by May I can't remember the dates. I'm sorry. I can get the dates clear uh better, but it would be Wednesday and then it would be advertised on that Saturday. Two subsequent Saturdays, two 14 days, and then it would come back. um we're going to do a simplified scoring uh and then it'll come back in front of commission at the next um meeting. So that would or we could call a special meeting, which I'm kind of wanting to do that timewise, but it the RFP and everything should come back before the end of May and we should be able to get it in a special meeting somewhere at the in between the 25th and the 31st.

That's it. Mr. Robinson, did you have anything? Not now. Okay. Next meeting.

Okay. All right. Um I am going to uh announce or at least just kind of um uh put a save the date out for the annual citywide cleanup on July 18th, 2026. Uh we will do the same thing that we've done in the past. Um I believe that um we are going to have another site possibly for the uh cleanup and uh this year we will have um all six of the uh communities represented and we will have the same uh type of competition uh for weight. Uh we are still going to do the uh cleaning of the yards for uh seniors um uh disabled and also for uh military. Uh we will have the shredding that will be uh done at Dudley School uh on uh Maryland. Uh that will be the only place for free shredding. Uh that will be from 10:00 to 12:00. Uh if you sign up as a volunteer, you will have to fill out a form. If you uh sign up uh to have your yard clean, you will also need a form. And uh we are going to put that on the website. And uh hopefully when you get your um applications or your flyers, we will have the uh QR code on there so you can go directly to uh that form, fill it out, and submit it back to um either myself or uh Vesta Edmunds. Um so we would like for everybody to participate this year. We want to make it bigger and better. And hopefully um that day will uh at least um signify uh community participation. Um on um April 7th, we also use the uh Dudley uh community center for a base planning commission. Uh and uh we do have two people from Alam McGord that participates on that board and that's Ed Branson and also uh Nadia Sykes. Um, so

they were very impressed with the facility and uh hopefully uh we will have everything uh in order for that to open up officially and to be used by our community. Um I was um asked to attend along with other um local leaders in Elmagora to meet and chat at um Owen Chapel. We have a new minister in town, our new pastor in town. And um her um church uh through the the Methodist um church has received a grant to help with uh you know just cleaning up uh the three or four blocks that's surrounding them. They have sent out letters to uh people in the neighborhood to make them more aware of uh how it looks. And uh the church is on the corner of uh Fifth and Delaware. And so if you ride past there, you can see how uh it looks. And what they're wanting to do is um make that area a little bit more appealing. And so they have planned to work with us on July 18th to u actually do some cleanup. And so we want to make sure we have an effort uh of uh people going out to that area to uh help out. And one of the significant things about uh the church is that uh they have appointed um a female bishop uh and she is representing district number five and she's also coming to uh district number five to look at the community where the church is at. And so in 130 years of the uh Methodist church and correct me if I'm wrong is that about right? So, this is the first time we're going to have a bishop uh of that level come to Al Maggoro to look at uh the area where the church is located. And I think that is

is huge. And um I think uh pastor uh Eil is making a um a really big effort uh to make sure that when the bishop comes here uh she will see that progress is being made. And so, um, I I wanted to also say for, uh, the people that would volunteer for the cleanup on July 18th, uh, Thrive is having a concert that night. And, uh, the name of the person that's going to be entertaining is slipping my mind at this time. But I think what we're going to do is, uh, have a drawing, uh, along with the, uh, competition and everything else that goes along with that day. uh a drawing so that we can have four people that are participating in that have a chance to um uh get um a chance to draw for uh one of those tickets. So it will be um a day where you can uh go out and work and then you can relax and then go to a concert in the evening. So, uh, we're trying to make this a nice day for the people who are working, uh, to help make Elmagoro, um, a better or a more beautiful place to live. And that's all I have on, uh, on mine. Mayor,

I have one more thing to clarify for Commissioner Tapley. So, timing of the R the RFP. So, the union has through May 10th. So, that gives the city the 11th and 12th and 13th to get it ready. It'll be advertised the 16th and the 23rd and then you have to give so many days. And so I was hoping to do a special meeting maybe Tuesday the 2nd. Mayor McDonald. Um on another note I forgot to mention um on the cleanup um something I was thinking about is if we could get uh some containers placed out at Walker that day.

They are okay. We we we have that is on Walker Road at the U the um baseball field. Okay. In the parking lot. Thank you. Okay. We're going to move on to the uh consent agenda. Uh does uh is there anything that um needs to be removed or um I'd ask to remove item number eight. So on the consent agenda, uh we're going to ask for a motion for number five, six, and seven. And we will um remove item number eight. Do I have a motion? So moved.

And a second. Second.

Okay. We have a motion by uh Commissioner Bernett and it's been second by Commissioner Robinson. We'll move for the vote. And the vote passes 70. And then we'll move for um item number eight. Consider and act upon approval of change order one in the amount of 135,75020 excluding NMGRT uh to cross town construction for waterline replacement and new bypasses, additional concrete work for sidewalks and additional materials. And Joseph Samore, the project manager, will speak on this. Uh good evening, Mayor McDonald, city commissioners, uh city staff members. My name is Joseph Mora, project manager for the city of Alamagordo, uh under engineering. Uh throughout the project, it was determined that existing conditions did not match the last set of drawings from over 20 years ago. Uh due to this, materials had to be ordered as an urgent order to keep the project going. If the project were to be put on hold for the normal approval processes, the public had a high chance of low pressure or no water. The only reason I asked to have it pulled off is the dollar amount. Um, just to make it a public item, so I have no problem with it. Just wanted to

There adequate funds to do this? Yes, sir. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Joseph, could I ask what would happen if this wasn't done? I believe uh the infrastructure would fail from that tank to I believe it's Callahan.

So, it's my understanding that a lot of times when they have drawings, they were they have existing drawings, but they are not um asbuilt drawings. And so for instance, an existing drawing will show a 8 inch line um where maybe that wasn't feasible and they did they didn't do an asbuilt drawing. It's actually a 10 in or 6 in or different size line. And so that's what's happened here is that the existing drawings weren't as built and they didn't match existing conditions. Yes, sir. Has any of this work already been performed?

Yes, it has. Okay. How much actual like how far of a line are we actually replacing? I'm not 100% a line from one tank to another. Yes sir. That is not 100% my project. So I short on some details on it. See it in here. Do we have a motion? I'd move to approve. Do we have a second?

Second. So, it's been a motion by Commissioner Hernandez and second by Commissioner um Bernett. And um at this time, we'll move for the vote. And it passes 70. Next on the agenda because I see Evelyn um Huff coming by obviously um Chris Mirhead and uh this is number nine. Consider and act upon the final publication of ordinance number 1722 authorizing up to 12,865,000 in bonds or a loan to uh fund improvements to our city's natiatorum with repayment from the 0.125 municipal infrastructure gross receipt tax. And so we have u oh Evelyn is here. That's good.

So, mayor, mayor prom commissioners, uh we are back in front of you today to discuss funding of the new niatorum. With me, I have Chris Mirhead from Modreel Sperling and uh unfortunately John couldn't make it tonight. So we in his place have the very capable Mark Venuela uh for BOSI Advisors and Mark is going to talk to you about some of the differences um in the funding that we're going to talk about tonight. As you all know our previous funding proposals was going through NMFA and going through their bond sale that would have happened after our last meeting. uh that wasn't an option after the last meeting and so NMFA removed us um from their bond sale. So that gave us the opportunity to go look at different financing um which again Mark is going to speak to the differences here. We wanted to be very transparent so that you know that while this is still the second reading of the ordinance, we wanted to make sure that the the changes were highlighted. So I'm going to go ahead and turn it over to Mark. We also, I believe, have Sebastian Garcia. Yep.

Rob Price. Rob Price. See, I thought I recognized you. Never mind. We have Rob Price from ASA Architects. So, we know that you guys have been uh provided with the 60% plan. So, if there's questions in um about the design and construction, Rob is here if we get in those weeds as well. So, I'm going to turn it over to Mark to start with.

Thank you. Good evening, U Mayor. Mayor Prom and Commissioners, it's I'm pleased to be here. I grew up in Capitan, so I feel like, you know, I'm in my my home community. So, thank you for having me. And I am pitch hitting for my business partner, John Archeletta. Um, and so I'll take you through these financing proposals very quickly. Um, as long as I can figure out how to use this. There we go. It is. Thank you. Um so uh under the procurement code um underwriting bonds is an exemption um but given that so in essence the city of Albuquerque or Al McGord excuse me could could choose any underwriter to do the transaction for you um without going through an RFP process. However, from our perspective as as the adviser to the city, we always uh like to advise our clients to compete the transaction to get the best structure, the best cost for the city. And so what we did is we conducted on behalf of the city uh what we call a mini RFP. Um and so if I can I'll take you to the next slide. I think I will. There we go. Um, so what we did, uh, and this this RFP process can happen very quickly, which it did if we had about a week and a half out. Uh, and and I'll tell you that commercial banks and investment banks are very used to this process. And so they're prepared to deliver a solid proposal, one that they'll they are committed to um, and will back um, and and so again, it's a very standard process in the business. Um, and so what we did is sent it to several investment banks and several commercial banks because they both offer different types of products. Um, and we also are still considering u for recommendation the New Mexico Finance

Authority. Now, if I can just step aside real quickly on the finance authority and what happened with their bond issuance. They what what the finance authority does is they combine several financings from cities and counties and school districts across New Mexico and then they go out and sell the bonds and they reimburse themselves for what they finance. Um they only go to go to the bond market two or three times a year. And so when Alam Gordo was no longer part of their transaction 10 days ago, uh they informed us that they're not going they're not planning to go back to the bond market for 5 months. Um, so it would have seriously delayed the project. And they consider anything over $10 million of financing to be what's called a simultaneous bond issuance, which is what you were set up to do about 10 days ago. So, if we were to go to them again, we would have to get a waiver from their board to allow them to finance the transaction, the 12 million, uh, rather not through a not through a simultaneous bond issuance, uh, but through a loan, just a traditional loan. And the economics change when you're dealing with finance authority. that the loan versus a simultaneous bond issuance has different structuring which makes some of the options that are I'm going to share with you a little bit more competitive and on par with the finance authority. So um so having said that we sent it to several investment banks and commercial banks uh we received five proposals two from two investment banks uh from Hilltop Securities and Piper Sandler. Um and then uh we we received three bank proposals. Uh one from Capital One public funding, so the credit card um they have an active presence in in acquiring taxexempt bonds from cities and counties across the United States. Bank of Albuquerque, which is really the Bank of Oklahoma. Um and then a late submitt uh which frankly I'm not going to share the numbers from

them called Flagstar Bank, which is out of New York. So, it was a good representation of comp competition for the financing. In light of that, uh, and I trust, uh, I trust you're aware of this. Um, so I I don't want to spend a lot of time here unless you have questions. We're in a very unusual market. Um, the interest rate financing, which is really based on the 10-year US Treasury, which is the proxy for all interest rates, um, it's just been very volatile. Um so we are considering that volatility in this conversation. Um and getting to market sooner is likely better but also timing uh what's happening in the world relative to interest rates is is an important factor and uh part of our recommendation is the flexibility that the city would have in terms of approaching the market. So the first side of this is the underwriter proposal. So, the underwriters um are going to be buying the bonds from you and then finding a market and selling it to investors all across the country. Um and so that's what these these two entities pitched. Their their um proposals were very similar. Um and so I'll point out a couple items just to to show the the comparisons. Both of the transactions would not require the city to have a reserve fund, which is going to be one of the compelling points about the finance authorities's financing structure. So, in this case, the city does not have to put up another $800,000 to sit in a reserve to just uh provide shity for um for investors. what rather what these investment banks proposed was what's called a shity policy. And so that's dealing with a bond insurance company who basically puts the money up on behalf of the city. So rather than

putting $800,000 aside for the length of the debt, 25 years, um you can get a policy and and pay about $35,000 for that bank to put that out for you. So that's what's being considered here. That's what there's no reserve fund under the uses. Um, I'll also point out just um the interest cost, the true interest cost, which is the real measure of looking at what what this will cost the city. So, Piper Sandler looked at the market and said that they believe that the 20 25-year financing was 4.225%. Um, and Hilltop was very close at 4.26%. Um, now one of the things I want to point out here on this financing structure is that this this structure looks more like what the NMFA transaction that you were going to be part of 10 days ago would look like. It's a market transaction and the bond investors today are buying bonds at a premium. And so at the top there on the sources side, you see that both of the proposals included about a million dollars of bond premium. Um, and so what that means, and this was the same structure that you were looking at with the finance authority, um, it basically means that bond investors are willing to pay up for your bonds to the amount of a million dollars. Um, and so that helps to net down the total interest cost. Um, and I'll show that on the bottom there. There's a net interest cost number. So just to put the and forgive me for getting a little complicated here, just want to be very transparent about this. So, the total interest cost, as an example, for under Piper Sandler's proposal was 9.25 million for the 25-year financing of $12 million. But when you consider the premium um because it's a net back to the city, it's a give back to the city, the net interest cost was $ 8.169. So, it's a real big benefit. Um and then you can

compare that to what Hilltop Securities was looking at. So these are the two proposals on that side. Um the next page is the three proposals uh from from private placement lenders or or commercial banks. Um and we have included the finance authority under their loan structure, not their simultaneous bond issuance structure. Um, and so you can see that in these cases, both the Bank of Albuquerque and Capital One, they will fund the city at $12 million. Commercial banks do not like to have a financing that looks like a underwriting financing or what we call federal securities. Um, so they do their best to not make it look like a security. Um, and therefore they don't want a reserve fund. They don't want a bond rating. Um, they don't want bond insurance. and the some of the things that you saw in the other one. Um, so it's a very straightforward financing, 12 million, no reserve fund. So you're only borrowing 12. You can see the comparison side with NMFA. With the reserve fund, you'd have to borrow 12.845 million. So you when you knit it all the way out, what you see at the bottom there is the Bank of Albuquerque proposal was 4.174%. Uh, the NMFA was 4.2. Um and then Capital One uh was 5.6 uh 5.26 excuse me. Um so uh again it just gives you a perspective on the different kinds of structures. Now what I want to point out here again to be transparent Capital One was financing a full 25-year financing. You would be in that on that transaction with them which is why their interest rate is higher. Bank of Albuquerque, on the other hand, is is allowing the city to amortize the

debt over 25 years for affordability, but requiring a final payoff in seven years. And I'll show you what the structure looks like. In other words, you're going to have principal at the end of seven years that you'll have to pay off or to refinance. Again, this is a very standard structure that we see in in tax exempt financing. Um, and it frankly gives the the city of Elmagoro uh some flexibility, but that's why the interest rates a little bit lower is that potential risk that you'll have to uh either pay that off in seven years or refinance whatever is remaining. And I again, I'll show you what that looks like. So, here's that Bank of Albuquerque transaction, and you can see that the annual payments are roughly $785,000. And again, what they're doing here is they're allowing you to amvertise the loan over 25 years to look like everybody else. Um, but banks trip typically don't like to lend for that long, especially more local banks. Um, and so what they're asking for is to have a final maturity at year 7, which means that in year seven, you'll have $10 million to pay off. That's not realistic. We understand that. Um and this the strategy there is in years 5 through 7 when the interest rates drop if they do um you know nobody has a crystal ball the city will be able to refinance and save money uh at that transaction and get rid of that that uh jumbo final payment in year 7. So under this structure um you can see that um average annual debt the average annual payment under the structure for those seven years is about 782,000. Um and other than the the the final seven-year payoff, it's a very straightforward transaction.

Here's what the finance authority looks like. Um and again, they're going to finance this for the 25 years. Um, and at year 10, they would allow you the opportunity to prepay uh or to refinance. Uh, but they're not going to force it like Bank of Albuquerque. So, you can see the the costs here. The key compelling issue here is that the finance authority is going to require that reserve fund and the banks will not require it. That's why Bank of Albuquerque is Costco competitive to the finance authority. And then Capital uh one structure. Again, they're they're going to go the full 25 years. They're a very large bank. They have no concern about the the risk or the credit. Um and they would give you the opportunity to pay it off in 10 year 10 like the finance authority. Their interest rate is just um significantly higher than the the other two. So, we're not recommending this one. Here are the numbers. And I'm not going to I won't go through a lot of time on this because I know time is valuable right now. But here's just the numbers just to back up everything, the summary information that I've shared with you. So here's Hilltop Securities, Piper Sandler. Both of these banks are very national, well-known firms and are capable of doing the transaction. Um, so at that point, uh, that's the information about what was submitted through the RFP process. um we are heavily regulated by the Securities Exchange Commission and so we're when sharing this information with you required to provide a recommendation which will align to what Mr. Murehead is going to talk about. Um so given the time frame we know that working through a direct placement with a commercial lender a bank of Albuquerque as an example we can still meet the timeline uh in terms of getting the transaction closed within about a month and a half. Uh so the city would have funds within a

month and a half to start construction on the project. Um so given that time frame, we are recommending that the city move forward with the direct placement. Um and in particular, if the pricing stays the same with Bank of Albuquerque, we would recommend that you move forward with them. If not, to consider some of the other bank offers that you have in front of you and also to keep NMFA um out there as an opportunity. the legal document that Mr. Mirhead's going to bring to you will give you and also your your city administration the flexibility to pick the best option. So, you're not locking into one of these uh specific items yet. Um you will have the chance to um pick either NFA or one of the banks, whoever is better. And then the final page is just uh you know what how we line up. If the decision is made today, we are recommending Bank of Albuquerque at the 4.175%. Uh, you know, this is about a week old this information and rates have changed and so we just want to go back after you take your action and make sure that we can commit to get the best structure and the best interest rate pricing for the city. Uh, which is why the the document that you have in front of you this evening will give you that flexibility. So, I know I threw a lot at you. Um, I'm happy to take you through any part of this or answer any of the questions you have, uh, you know, after Mr. Mirhead makes his presentation. So, thank you.

Thank you. Thank you,

Madam Mayor. Commissioners, Chris Mirhead with the module firm. So, uh, the ordinance in front of you is really very similar in substance to what we've already had a couple meetings about. So, it is the 12 million8 uh65 maximum. uh it has the same parameters in terms of interest rates. Mr. Valuela spoke about that. The key point being the size, the purpose is not changed. Still the natorium obviously uh and uh the pledge which is that 18 gross reer seats tax um that the voters had rededicated from the Lita uh to the uh recreation facility or community buildings. So the ordinance the only thing that's changed is the flexibility as Mr. Venzoa said to uh provide for either a loan agreement with the finance authority or with Capital One or Bank of Albuquerque. The previous ordinance had it where it specifically called out the finance authority. This one changes that to give the option uh and delegate to the the city administration uh the option to pick the best terms for the city. Um but the substance of this ordinance remains the same to what we've talked about previously. Um happy to answer any questions about that. Again, the important part just to hit it is that it is a limited special revenue pledge only of that 1/8 gross receipts tax. No other city revenues are pledged. There is no uh lean against your property taxes, your enterprise funds, your state shared gross receipts tax, which is the largest uh gross receipts tax coming in. Um and so uh that is the commitment that's the pledge that the city would make on this. Um and it does delegate authority to the mayor. uh the city admin or the city manager and finance director to accept the final terms consistent in the ballparks consistent with Mr. Venuela's presentation. Uh from a legal standpoint, happy to answer any questions uh about this. Again, as we talked about at the last meeting, it does require a super majority. So, six

of the seven of you voting in favor would be approval to move forward with uh uh negotiating and finalizing the the the loan or bonds. Chris, I have some questions for you.

The bond underwriters will require a bond rating and official offering documents. Um, does the city have a bond rating? So, uh, mayor, commissioner, uh, they do, and I'll defer to Mr. Bala also on this, but yes, I can answer your question shortly. It would, if you went through the public marketings, which was the Hilltop and the Piper proposals, it would require uh an offering document that lays out the the story of the city, the pledge, uh finances of the city. It's a more comprehensive and complicated process. Uh they would be looking for a bond rating. Um the city has had a bond rating in the past. I'm not Do you

So in this case, mayor and commissioners, um we would have to have it rerated. Uh, so we'd have to go out and get a new rating. Do we have one currently? Sorry. It's a little bit of a complicated question. Um, the city has been rated in the past, uh, but it's been withdrawn, um, I think at the city's request. So, yeah, we have done that. The the general obligation bonds from a decade ago or so were rated and were publicly marketed. Let's say we needed to keep this as an option. What would we need to do to obtain a bond rating?

Forgive me, mayor and commissioner. I'll stay up here. Uh, so we we would work with your team to put together a presentation and and engage with either S&P or Moody's uh whichever we thought was probably best suited to uh evaluate this credit. uh it takes about three weeks to pull and frankly we could move it to two weeks to pull everything together all the financial information that we would need. We would meet with the rating agencies um and then they usually uh deliver an opinion uh about two weeks thereafter. So the quickest four weeks maybe five weeks. So um like Mr. Mure had said I think that process would it would extend the timeline that compared to the commercial banks So, how when was the last time we had a bond rating?

Uh, mayor and commissioners, I I need to do a little research for you. Forgive me. Oh, yeah. 2017 when we did the fund center bond. And to be fully transparent, our bond rating would probably be impacted by the fact that we have a late audit. So, I not 100% sure because we've never gone through a bond rating before with a late audit, but I want to be fully out there on the record. So, Jeff, are you done? Uh, just to expand on that a little bit, uh, the audit would need to get done by when to get a bond rating.

So, the 2024 audit is the biggest one that's causing us an issue right now. our auditors. We have a phone call tomorrow to finalize some things. We believe that that audit will be done by the first week of May um and done and ready to submit and and do everything we can. Um so that would kind of correspond a little bit with the timeline that Mark is talking about with getting all the documents together and getting everything together. Um we get that submitted and then that obviously would substantially help our bond rating. So I guess I want to ask did would we have been able to go to NMFA uh without that? Yes. Okay.

Because we had already we had already spoken with them and disclosed everything and then I attended the board meeting where they actually voted on our issue um and we discussed any of the things and it was not an issue. The board still voted in our favor. So, not having a bond rating, not having the audit done hasn't had any negative impacts uh about what we're looking for from both state and uh private. Correct. And we also when we put out the RFP um that these uh banks responded to, we did disclose that as well. Um so we disclosed our current audit status, we disclosed everything through the gross receipts tax. So it's not something that is unaware.

Okay, great. Thank you. So, uh, to follow up on, um, Commissioner Patel, uh, Patello's, um, question. So, it would only be required for Piper Sand Sandler and Hilltop. Uh, for the Bank of Albuquerque, the NMFA, and Capital One, it would not be required. Correct. We would not need a bond rating for those three. Okay. Question for Mr. Mayor Head. Um, you do a lot of work around the state um, with other municipalities. How many of them utilize private funding? I mean, instead of NFA or DFA, like the normal avenues.

Yeah, Madame Mayor, uh, Commissioner, you know, it varies. There are some Rudoso does not use the finance authority. They go through and and through Hilltop as their municipal adviser always do private lenders for their general obligation bonds. Um, and I know Mr. Vonuela can speak to this too. I think it's a mix. Um the larger cities will go to a capital market themselves because they don't need the the credit boost that might come from the finance authority. um smaller than Al Magguardo cities routinely will use I think uh the NMFA just because it's a convenient source but it is common I I think it's and and again I'll defer to Mark who does a lot of this in terms as well I I see it uh being multiple options that are used between the capital markets given the size of the city uh the private placements um with Capital One I've done a lot of deals with them I've done a lot of deals with Bank of Albuquerque and the finance authority which the city's done a lot of deals with and that's where we started. Um but I would say to answer you directly um it is I would say the finance authority is more common amongst municipalities but it is not uncommon or shocking to see a private placement with the bank.

I was just a little concerned because if we go with NMFA, you know, looking at y'all's numbers, um it looks like we pay about 8.1 million in interest. If we go with any of these other ones, we're going to pay about a million dollars more in interest, between a million and a million and a half more in interest. So, and I think the the only other issues is we have to have that that reserve if we use NMFA. Uh, but that's not really I mean that's just money sitting in an account. Yeah. So,

yeah, Madame Mayor, Commissioner, and I'll defer to Mr. Venuela to give you the financial advice on that. the reserve. I think that just in real dollar sense is you're borrowing the 875,000 day one, putting it into that account, paying interest on 875,000 for the 25 years or 24 and then using it on year 25. That's an expense that's unfortunate that you wouldn't have with the other ones. Uh but that's not uncommon. The finance authority requires that of a lot of lenders or borrowers. So, but I'll I'll defer to Mark on the interest cost. No, no, there I think Mr. Mirhead stated it very well. So, one other one and then the the tax revenue that we have the the eighth of percent what does it generate a year is it around still around 1.1 yes.1

about 1.1 yes sir okay and I had a question on that we're borrowing 12 and I from past discussions with this pool we we said to kind of keep it between 10 million and 12 million didn't we what about the other 4 million that was rededicated so where's that at and where's that come into play

so that additional 4 million that we moved over. So, we've spent a little over one million on the design. We've spent about 450,000 on upgrading the plumbing, the connections, and everything that needed to be done during the Oregon SMP to be able to um tie the pool in to the plumbing. So, that was very important. So, we have currently about 2.5 million um that we have as contingency. The other thing that I failed to mention when I was up here last time is since that tax was rededicated, that money has been going into the the quality of life fund. And so that particular pool has been growing as well. So there's money there as well that can be used as additional contingency and also for the RPR services that are going to be needed to make sure that the pool is constructed properly. So that's the accounting of the 4 million that was moved. It's there. It's in that fund. It's protected. It's not being used for anything else other than specific things in terms of getting ready to build the nuditorium.

Okay. I wasn't at the last meeting, so I don't know what you didn't watch it with baited breath. I mean, come on. I did not I did not miss it at all. The golf was good. I was walking through Downtown Disney, so Oh, well. Hey,

Chris, I have another question. Uh, as far as the balloon, I I'm just a little worried about that and could you speak to the risks we might have uh running that option, the recommendation of the Bank of Albuquerque and what we could potentially get locked into with interest rates that don't change and uh refinance options. What's your outlook on that? Yeah, mayor uh commissioner uh that is the and as Mark mentioned there's no crystal ball about how that works interest rates from a legal perspective it is it would be an obligation do it year seven in that amount and so there would have to be planning going on uh the final terms with bank of Albuquerque we may say oh you can repay it anytime year four or five at that point the city through its adviserss would begin actively looking to see whether it's a finance authority bank of Albuquerque other going to the capital markets to uh refinance it. It would always be the plan to refinance it because this gross receipts tax borrowing something unforeseen would not produce enough money over the next seven years to be able to make that $10 million payment. So, you would be looking absolutely at a legal obligation at year seven. And the uncertainty is of course the interest rates there are no guarantees. We've been through a long run of uh I think historically low or steady interest rates the last couple months for the reasons everybody's aware of. they've, you know, spiked up and different things, but um yeah, that is that is the risk and I'll certainly defer to Mr. Valway to speak to that as well. Um it is a legal obligation that that is a payment that is due um at that point. Um but at year five or four, you would be actively looking to refinance it and watching to see again the finance authority always has an option there too to refinance it um at their rates and take it out for the remainder of an 18-year period.

I I also wanted to uh have I have a comment and um I think that um uh when um not commissioner but uh Mayor Pro Tim,

this is what happens when you miss a meeting. uh said it would be uh like a million dollars more and and I just wanted to because I was looking at how um I know that it is a risk um with um the balloon payment uh being uh uh 10 million 130 at the end of seven years. Um but I was I'm looking at the fact that with the Bank of Albuquerque um the money that would be uh required on a monthly I mean on an annual uh it it goes down substantially. Um so they're looking at 783,000 for uh the Bank of Albuquerque as opposed to what NMFA would be at 829. So, is that a true statement? And is it a million dollars more? Because I'm looking at the the I guess the balance for the 7 years, we would be at uh 15,250 uh,560516. So, when we're looking at how uh this would even out, we're paying $100,000 almost uh lower. It's not 100,000, but it's it's lower. 60,000 lower each uh year. So, even if we um went with the Bank of Albuquerque, it is a lower interest rate than NMFA, and it is a lower amount per year that we that the city would be paying for this pool.

Madame Mayor, that's correct. It is for that six-year period. Uh 60,000 roughly less. Uh, Commissioner Ren, I was looking at that. So, where were you looking at the million dollars more? If I look on page six, I'm on page eight. Let's see. Page eight, it says our interest total will be 8.1 almost 8.2 million. It's 8,195. That's for finance authority. For Capital One, it says we'd have 9.865. Um, Hilltop, it says we'd have 9.0 million. And then Piper says 9.2 two million.

Yeah. Mayor, commissioner. Yeah. Any anything that is advertised that is over the full 25 years. So, everything but Bank of Albuquerque, the NMFA, is the lowest. The Bank of Albuquerque is lower uh given that they're they're advertising it over 25 years, but looking at that seven-year. So, the interest rate is less, but as Commissioner Patil said, you do have that. Will there be an early payoff any kind of early payoff penalty in in their contract or mayor

say we borrow the money get the project rolling and then you know the bond sale this time next year we refinance it and pay it off and put it on a 20 24 year at that time or 20 year whatever we decide I mean is there is there any kind of a penalty for early payoff

so uh the the terms have yet to be determined yet but um typically ally with a seven-year final maturity from years five to seven there's no penalty for early payoff but if you want to go earlier um you know very likely the bank would not say after one year they would they would want to hold it for at least three years um and then at that point they would start charging a premium like a 1% in year four to to early prepaid and so um to answer your question there there's a couple compelling things that I probably was not very clear about that I'd like to share if that's okay. Mayor, uh we're in a we're in a an interest rate environment where short-term rates are higher than long-term rates. It's called an inverted or flat yield curve. Uh and what that means, and that's unusual, that's not normal. Um and so, you know, our thought is our view of the world is is that, you know, within a seven-year period, we're going to move back to a normal yield curve where short-term rates are much lower than than long-term rates. Um and so in that scenario, we see that that there's um the risk of a seven-year final maturity is not that great. Now also you know the point about the annual payment and the excess cash from the current revenues that you're collecting 1.1 million compared to that annual payment those additional revenues and and again it's not my this is your decision on what you do with those but if those are being set aside for the next seven years you're going to have about $3 million of cash to pre pay down uh on that $10 million that's due at year seven. So that's another compelling factor to lower the amount of debt and ultimately lower the amount of interest costs that you'll be taking on uh you know from a structure. So a couple compelling reasons to also think about that that structure.

Okay. And I also wanted to you know to look at because uh I know that um NMFA is requiring the 12 million um845 which will be held and if we go with the banking uh they won't hold that $845,000 and then of course uh if we went to NMFA at the end of the uh seven years uh it would be a lower uh amount. held. And then when I'm looking at the underwriters discount, the Shirley fees, and I I'm just uh the bond uh insurance, uh those things are going to be uh not a part of this if we go with the banking. So, it it's going to be structured pretty much like the NMFA without the 845,000.

That's correct. Correct. With the with the 7-year balloon. So, we we do have some savings there. And then um the bond uh council on the NMFA is $844,57. So um we're actually not going to have that either fund. The reserve fund. So as bond council that sounded fantastic. Okay. $844,57. My wife somewhere is perking up. But yeah, no that that's for the reserve fund. Yeah. the reserve funds is 844057 is the bond council and municipal advisor is 50,000 each

but I was looking at the reserve fund that's what I was looking at there so but that is um almost like the 845 that is that is the 845 okay so their rates is the same I think no matter what we go with so so and if we were to refinance with the NMFA at the end of the seventh year then we would have less money that would be held because the uh the amount borrowed would only be um the 10 10 million at that time and depending on as Mr. Valway said you might have less depending on what you use with that excess over the next seven years.

Okay. There's also uh you could have discussions with the NMFA about different ways maybe you do they have strict policies and that's some of the pros and cons of the finance authority but maybe given the lower amount they're willing to look at a springing reserve where you don't fund it but if you drop below a certain coverage then you fund it over time instead of having to borrow and set them there. So the lower the amount gets and the shorter the time you're borrowing the more flexible they'll be about that reserve fund. Okay. So how would it look in a loan for um NMFA at the end of the the seven years? How many years would we have um remaining on that loan if we were to forego or and go with the bank?

I think these are currently structured a 25-y year term. So if if we stuck with that 25 year and maybe you be looking just if it didn't change, you'd be looking at 18 more years. But potentially you may be looking at you can advertise it over a shorter period because your revenues have increased. That's the beauty of the gross receipts tax. If your economy booms a little bit or it has a little bit of growth, you'll see more into that fund which then allows you to make larger payments which means you can reduce the the term. Okay. And so there's there is always that flexibility to shorten it.

Go ahead. Um, I actually have some uh Well, I got a question for you real quick. So, one of the items you mentioned is if we go through the bank, we had to put up $350,000. Um, no. For the bond? No. To purchase the bond? No. No. Okay. All right. Um, my next question is actually for city staff. What is our charter rule for a supermajority? A super majority is five, but it's not a supermajority, it's a 75%. Correct.

Yeah. So, uh, madame mayor, commissioner, this is would be driven by the state statute regarding revenue bonds. And what that requires is, uh, unlike property tax bonds or geo bond where a simple majority will approve the debt because the voters have approved it. With a revenue bond that is not voter approved, oh, this is a weird little dynamic with the GRT vote. Um, that wouldn't apply. you you do need 75% of the entirety of the governing body. And so, uh, that's why you look at and I asked last meeting with Commissioner Rearen absent and wasn't sure if the mayor voted, what would that number be, but with all of you, it would take six of the seven in favor. Okay.

Um, I just wanted to make sure that that we understood that, everybody understood that. Um, so it was also my understanding that you said that if we approved this tonight that we wouldn't have to come back as a commission that the mayor uh finance director and the city manager could approve whatever you guys came up with.

Oh yeah, let me uh Madame Mayor, commissioner, that's a very good point. So let's be very clear about that. This would be the action taken by the commission to approve the debt up to 12,865 uh and then delegating to the mayor and and the staff to make a determination in in consultation with Mr. Valenuela and myself or or coming back to the commission. I mean at this point it would delegate to them to accept what they felt was the best terms within these parameters subject to this the presentation. But yes, it wouldn't come back to the commission for additional action. and it would come back as anformational item to saying here's what we've done. U but this would be the the time this would if you approve it tonight it does approve the debt subject to these parameters and delegates to the mayor or the city manager to accept those terms uh consistent with this presentation.

So my point on that is 10 years from now if this turns out to be a flooy it wasn't Commissioner Hernandez that approved it. Exactly. I'm laughing at the floozy. Yeah. So, let me be clear. So, uh done this for 33 years. That's the first time I've had that question that way and I appreciate it. So, thank you. Um uh Madame Mayor, Commissioner, the minutes will show you voted to approve incurring a debt up to 12,865 for the pool.

Uh if it turns out that the pool doesn't live up to expectations, there may be a million reasons. I I have no idea. that they would look back and and you would be able to say given the facts I had and what was happening, I approved it um based on the information I had, but they would not look back and say the commission uh washed their hands over and didn't approve it. Tonight, if you approve this ordinance, you are approving the debt and the project and the pledge up to that amount.

Okay. And then I just want to make a clarification um on a comment that was made during uh uh comments earlier. Um 10 years ago when we had the money to cover our pool um it was city staff that decided to spend that money elsewhere. It wasn't the commission. The commission approved it on their recommendation. Um the reason that we got rid of the pool cover at that time was because of the weight, the danger of hurting employees putting it up and down um putting it up in the beginning, taking it down at the end. And then also there was an issue with um the humidity in the pool. They could not remove the humidity in the pool which which became an actual um uh OSHA violation. So that had nothing to do with myself nor the commission. That was an OSHA violation. The reason they got rid of the cover. Um there's a lot of misinformation. That's why I ask a lot of questions and I want to make sure that everybody is clear and understand um what this is all about. Uh it's not it's not that the voters approved it. That's great and I support that 100%. But it's also important to understand that the financing on $12 million um what all that means um and how that comes about. Um the next question I have is right now we're at 60% drawings. When would we have uh bid drawings, 90% drawings?

So I'm going to go ahead and have Rob Price come up here. Yes, it's Rob's turn now. So, this is Rob Price from ASA Architects. He has been with the project all the way since the conceptual drawings and now he's working obviously on the completed. Good evening. So, first we uh we're well beyond 65% drawings at this point. We're having our 95% review meeting at 11:00 in the morning. So, we're well beyond that and about 30 days or so. I'll know more after this meeting tomorrow because it's uh it's a time to have a lot of comments from everyone, but 30 45 days we'll have bid drawings.

Okay. And then city staff, what's the bid process on that once we get um drawings? So, we're looking at let's say the long-term 45 days. Where are we? We're in April now. I don't know.

So, by the by the end of Yeah. So, if we say that we have full drawings by June 1st, then we would go out um this is one that we would obviously want to advertise multiple times because it's a big project. So, we would go out advertise it at least twice. We would have a mandatory um pre-bid. So, that would pull us out. We're talking two weeks, 3 weeks. We would leave it probably at least 30 days to be able to allow everybody I mean there's there's a lot of pieces to this. It might actually probably be better to even leave it open 60 days to allow everybody to get their um bids together. So we're probably looking then at 90 days of bidding time. So that would put us September 1st. I would say we would bring it to you guys um in September or maybe the first meeting in October depending on how successful the bid process went. As uh Commissioner Hernandez, you and I have talked about before. You know, there is definitely an element of of the cost and the price. If they all come in over the $12 million, then, you know, we have to do some adjusting. So, if everything goes well with that and we bring it to you in October, then we'd probably look at breaking grounds beginning of January once we got all the bonds and everything in place.

Okay. And then if if we would have approved this last meeting um through the NF NFA, what was the interest rate at that time? What was your head? Mark, I have it. Um mayor and commissioners, it was about 4.25%.

Okay. So, just to clear up some again some misinformation, um, Commissioner Hernandez did not hold up this project. Um, this project is not even ready to bid at this point. Um, and I don't appreciate, um, it's been led to believe that staff has put out that misinformation through a news media. Um, and that that is just disheartening. Um, this project is not delayed. Again, we don't even have drawings for it, so it's not a good place to be right now. Got a quick question on that. You said it'd be about five months before NMFA does another bond sale. Yes, sir.

So, we have plans. Can we start the bid process prior to us having the funding? No. No. No, I can't. Per per our purchasing ordinance, I can't say. I was just thinking 5 months from now would be like mid August and and we we kind of looked at that. So I mean that was one of the reasons we went back to Rob and was like hey exactly where are you you know at the 95 and stuff like that and so seeing where they're going to be you know around June 1st. We would we would basically then sit on those plans for a couple months. Yeah. H and and there would be an additional cost because everything is continues to go up and we don't know where the interest rate would be at that time.

I mean, we don't we don't know where anything's going to be. I mean, we could have another COVID hit us and everything could skyrocket 300%. You know, I mean, it's a it's a what if. I I wouldn't have told you two months ago diesel was going to be over $5. So, we we just don't know. Where are we at on the cost of the actual structure? Do you know? We have an engineers estimate or Excuse me. Say that again. Where are we at on the cost for the actual structure in itself?

So the building, including the pool, the uh the decks, the offices, multi-purpose rooms, the fabric structure itself are all sort of in line with this 12,865. Depending on how much contingency you put on it, how much forecasting we do for inflation of cost, anywhere between that number and 14 million. But, you know, those are guessing numbers. Like, we would all guess right now. I

I'd be crazy if I told you I knew exactly what it's going to cost. Uh, you know, there we can we're inflating beyond that number that you have on the screen and that you guys are looking at for financing. We're not going to know until bid day what uh what the market established the cost of this project exactly at. I know that doesn't help a lot, but No, but I see three people up there. I know that know exactly what we're talking about. Based off of what we've been seeing here lately though, the prices have been coming in higher than what the engineers estimates have been. So there is good news. I've had a couple of projects bid below budget. Have they? Yes, it it's happening.

Do you know what the uh life expectancy is of this facility? So the the pool much like the pool you have now 20 25 years the fabric structure itself 20 25 years those are some of the same questions and information we went through when you guys initially uh approved moving forward with design those those numbers haven't changed and you know 2020 the one of the challenges with uh the information we shared initially was you know a brickandmortar building lasts beyond the pool itself uh What you're doing with this fabric structure is you've got the pool and the building are roughly lasting the same lifespan. Uh there obviously maintenance that you can go through there elongations you can go through. Uh the general life expectancy though is in that range.

So it it may last further than our payment. So further than what? Than the payment. So in other words, it's a 25-y year bond and the pool's expected to last 25 years. Yeah. I'd say they're probably running parallel to each other.

Just I just that's one of my questions last time and that was one of my concerns is that we're we're again I I have no problem funding a pool. It's just making sure that all of this information is out there. So 25 years from now people aren't spending on my grave. Tell me why'd you do that? Well, I think one of the things that um uh I found a little better for me, I said the brick and mortar um actually couldn't it couldn't control uh temperature uh and we had better access to uh replacing uh different uh parts and if something like the I don't know the fabric uh on the building it's not uh we don't have a roof we there are some things that we are not going to be entertaining over that 25 year span.

Yeah, I mean if you did a brick and mortar building and put a you know a 20-year TPO roof on it, you're going to get 20 25 years out of the roof. Uh so with a brick and mortar building, as much as the the wall itself can last for 50 years. The exterior finish, the roof, there are other things that you're going to replace within that same time frame again, 20 25 years. So, I would ask this for any of the adviserss and city staff. Uh, what if we get stuck? And what I mean by that is what if we get to where the cost is going to exceed and we're north of the 12.8. What are our options? And what does that value engineer? I'm sorry,

it's called value engineer. I wasn't going to use that term, but

but and I'm more asking about what are our options and how do we navigate that. So obviously, you know, main option is to see where it falls in with the contingency and and the cash that we have available in the fund. You know, if we're talking about that it comes in at 129, you know, that that's within tolerance. If it comes in at 15, that's obviously not within tolerance. We're going to need to go back and and go back with Rob and and his team and the rec center team and say, "Okay, you know what? What do we cut down? what do we get it? Because as I've iterated multiple times to you guys publicly and personally like this is a $12 million pool. That's what we have felt comfortable with. That's what we brought to you all from the beginning of this process. So if it does come in at 15 or 16 or something that's just completely untenable, then we would need to to go back on the design part. I wouldn't even feel comfortable bringing to that to you because it's so far out of out of balance of what we've presented.

So, we would need to go back and and as Commissioner Ruden said, do some value engineering and look at where we can do things. Again, there's a certain range of tolerance that we feel like we're we're comfortable with. Um, and if it doesn't pass the cash test, then there's no point in bringing it forward. Great. And for the record, what would our negative outcomes be? And this is for all adviserss and staff. What would our negative outcomes be if we don't vote on this tonight? Oh, I'm gonna let Chris have that one.

Madame uh mayor, commissioner, uh it would just continue, not continue, it would be a uh continuation of the timing. Um and I think it ties back to the procurement process and the bid process. And I think Commissioner Braren brought up a a good point. Well, why don't we wait for the finance authority in five months? And I think that uh Miss Huff addressed that saying, well, that's going to push then the procurement farther down the road and potentially the cost. From a legal perspective, um if you didn't do it tonight, you could do it at the next meeting or a month from now. Um so, deferring it, I don't think there's any legal implications. the importance if you did adopt it. Uh the key thing would be that you start a 30-day period for the any uh comment period or protest period as to the debt to run and then you could close on the debt after that 30-day period, lock in the loan, and then it it just the dominoes fall from there in terms of the the project. But I I'm not uh would not ever tell you that you have to vote tonight on something um that that just those are the the realities of it. Um but you certainly it's within your certainly within your powers to decide you want to want to wait.

Okay. And if I understand the time frame right, um, if we said yes tonight and we have the meeting tomorrow at 11 to go over 9 and we find bids, that would be when bids will be three or four months down the road. October. I see them coming in front of you. October. Okay. And we can't start the bids until we approve the financing. Correct. We cannot we cannot put it out to bid until you all have voted on the budget.

So what we would do in this case is if it was approved tonight, we would prepare the budget revision. Once we settled on exactly which funding source we were going with, we would prepare the budget revision that shows the revenue and it shows um in this case we wouldn't have the first debt payment wouldn't be in FY26. it would be in FY27. So, actually, instead of doing this as a revision, I would include it in the preliminary budget that you're going to be presented the first part of May showing that, hey, this is the revenue we're going to go in. This is our first debt payment, everything like that. You would vote on that budget. Once that budget is in place, then we can move forward with putting it out to bid.

Is there any advantage to waiting until we have the budget meetings? And this is for everybody. The budget meetings are the first full week of May, the fourth and fifth. You know, just as your consultant on the outside, I could say I don't really have an opinion on that. I could just tell you what we just Madame Mayor Commissioner just talked about in terms of the timing of everything else related to this would just move back a little bit. Um, but this is all within your within your realm of deciding where you're comfortable. Will the interest rates change? The interest rates change. Yes.

Just for the record, I do believe there is market risk certainly from uh from um you know waiting. So So let me ask you this. Say within the 30 days that we say we vote tonight say yes and we get the proposal back within the 30 days but the interest rate goes to 6% just say not that it would but say five and a half. Do we have the option to say we don't want to do it at that point? We absolutely do. We don't. Well, that's what I'm saying is if we guide staff to say if it gets to a certain interest rate percentage, we we don't want to do that,

right? So, so the the ordinance in front of you tonight is already capped at 6%. So, that's that's the wor if it goes above six, then you know you we wouldn't meet that parameter. Uh but you absolutely uh through delegation with the mayor and the city manager have the right to uh to not move forward on a transaction you're not comfortable with.

Yeah. And I'll just madame mayor commissioner to add to the the you are delegating to the the admin the mayor and the administration to enter into a bond purchase agreement or some kind of term sheet with a lender. Um that may have outs depending on changes in circumstances. But if up until then if there were changes and you wanted to revoke that delegation, you certainly could. So once this happens subject to an agreement entered into with the lender, it is still you as the commission can reign back in whatever delegation you have given out. Who who set the cap at 6%.

U madam or madame mayor, uh commissioner, the statutory cap is 12. Um and so um uh I don't know if we talked about that. Well, a after the uh the mini RFP we put out and saw the pricing from that, we were comfortable that the 6% cap would not be exceeded under that scenario. So, that's why we chose six. And in your opinion, do you see the interest rate raising within the next 30 days? Oh boy.

I I mean I I mayor finances are financing. You know, 40 days ago, oil was $68 a barrel and it's and it jumped up to 25, you know, over the over that period. So, we're in a very volatile market. I think, frankly, I'm advising clients if they can lock in a fixed rate that is within market uh within a good range, uh we should be doing that, especially given the flexibility that you would have in the structure. That that would be my only worried about not voting on it tonight and try to get it locked in as fast as possible. that with what's going on everywhere else that it goes to 6%.

In the event I got one quick question. So in the event that say we went with New Mexico Finance Authority tonight um and it with them is there an early payoff do we have to wait till 10 years or could we if rates come down could we refinance it say two years um pay them off? No sir you can't. They have a they have a standard policy of a 10-year. Okay. So, we would have to pay on it for 10 years before we could refinance with them. But with Albuquerque, we can do it at seven years or after five.

Uh again, again, the the terms haven't been set, but you could in in for for most of the deals I've ever dealt with with uh banks, five to seven years is the time frame that you would be able to start negotiating that refinance. Again, there is a premium for if you wanted to do it year four or year three, but uh we would never advise you do that unless unless it's beneficial to the city, meaning you save money.

I did want to point out something in terms of the Bank of Albuquerque proposal in terms of the useful life. Um that is something that gives us flexibility in terms of the useful life because we go to year seven and we see that hey the useful life looks good at 25 then we do the 18. If we get to year seven and we're like hey the useful life is going to be 20 it does give us 13. So there is some flexibility there with the questions about the useful life. Yeah. Because you see that's going to be a problem 20 years from now. You know I truly believe that we can make the pool last 25 years. We've made this last one last 31. Um, which you know it's pretty amazing. Um,

even with the seam, right? But it was built 31 years ago. Are you saying they were better 31 years ago? I'm saying they're better 31 years. Mayor Pro Tim's like, yes, and we all know that. But but that is kind of one of the nicer parts about the flexibility of the Bank of Albuquerque. But I I was going to ask, did anybody on the commission go and look at the pool that we have now?

Well, I will say I worked there for nine years and it had a really rough life at different parts. Um, so we are very dedicated to doing everything we can to make sure that the O andM is documented and well taken care of because there were definitely times as all of us know that the rec center the O andM was not taken care of well. So So the reason 10 years ago we didn't put the cover on it is because staff recommended with the issues it was having um the settling issues that it was not recommended to put the cover on the existing pool 10 years ago. It wasn't Commissioner Hernandez. In the event that uh you said with Albuquerque, Bank of Albuquerque, we'd have to go out and get a bond rating in order to apply. No, we don't. No, that was with the other banks.

Yeah. Okay. So, with NMFA, two underwriters, the NMFA, we don't need it and Bank of Albuquerque, we don't need or Capital. No. Okay. Or Capital One or Capital One. Okay. So, I just want to check consensus here from city staff and advisers. Uh, is it unanimous consent that Bank of Albuquerque is the recommendation and the best way to go? Right now, we had talked about it and that was our recommendation and I believe that's Bowski's risk recommendation as well. Yeah, I I can I'm legally prohibited because as Mark mentioned, it's heavily regulated. I'm not your municipal adviser. Um, but I can tell you legally this is a good it's a a good structure.

Darl Yeah. No, based off of the two options and kind of the position where we're at, especially with the uncertainty of the financial future, I I tend to agree with with staff and the presentations here that if if the decision is going to be made tonight, then Bank of Albuquerque.

Hey, I have one question, Evelyn. Um is it a a normal practice um on the finance side of that on these excess funds to actually put that towards the principal? I mean is that something that that is so um we have actually never had excess funds. Um I mean I'm just I'm just you you you're you're saying that it's going to you're gonna have this payment and this is what it should generate. Sure. In the event that there are excess funds. How do we use those funds? I mean it

so it's going to be up to the commission discretion. Um, I thought it was really interesting what what Mark and Chris brought up because these are discussions that we had when we were talking about the rededication was as the GRT is projected and has it has been flowing, there will be additional money over the debt service that is required. So you all will have options of either doing as Mark suggested and just just holding it and keeping it for, you know, debt service and to look at that option if we go with the Bank of Albuquerque to to say, hey, at the end of seven years, we're going to borrow um, you know, we're going to borrow $7 million instead of borrowing $10 million and we're going to pay 3 million in cash. you know, that is something that's definitely doable and and very responsible. Um, the other thing that we've we've talked about is you guys will also have the option though if you're like, "Hey, we need $100,000 to well, I don't want to put out the suggestion about the pickle courts, pickle ball courts, because then that'll be on Facebook that I said that um you know, a city owned facility."

Yes. To a city. But if you want to say, you know, we're going to dedicate $100,000 to a city-owned facility to do this capital improvement project, you would be able to do that as well. It's as long as, you know, we restrict the cash that will cover the debt service and and review the revenue to make sure that it's staying within our projections, then you will have some um disposable income, for lack of a better word, in that fund. Could we, you know, generates 1.1? Could we authorize you guys to just pay a million dollars a year instead of the seven? If we say we went with Albuquerque, it was it 752 or whatever it was. Can you do principal payments? 782.

I I was going to say we have actually never prepaid on other than other than refinancing. Banks are going to like it because you're going to pay their interest down faster. Yeah. Yeah. say we signed up for this tonight, but we authorized you guys to put a million dollars of the revenue towards it with all of the extra going to the principal and then the extra 100,000 or 200,000 that comes in goes into the and that we can make sure that when we're negotiating the terms after this that that is that is okay in the agreement. Obviously, that would be something we'd want to make sure is okay in the terms. I'll let Mark talk.

Yeah, that's that's right. Um, it's really tell us, you know, you you guide us in how you want the structure to look and we'll put it together. Uh, is really the answer to that. Kind of like to see the numbers on it. Like seven, you know, if you pay the 780 a year versus a million a year, how fast we'd actually pay it off. I mean, in seven years, would we be pretty close or or would it be 10 years?

We can provide the the numbers to your to your staff there. So there are several moving parts in these kinds of transactions and so the bank and again these terms have not been defined. Uh but the bank is going to want what a certain minimum debt service coverage. NMFA wants it this as well. So NMFA wants you to have 125% of your payment uh set aside and committed every single year to make that payment. So there's always going to be that excess. So the question uh that you're asking is we have to meet that that 125 first and then look at how we use that excess cash. So and and again it's it's your your decision as the commission. Um but we can structure whatever you'd like us to structure

and that when you're talking about giving that direction that direction would be given in the budget because that's how we would then budget the debt service to do exactly what Mark was talking about is test against the required cash. And I also think we have to keep in mind although it's the new pool is not going to be a new pool forever, some of that excess is going to need to go for the maintenance of it to ensure we meet the lifespan of the pool. The maintenance would come out of this same fund instead of in the budget it could it if any major repairs repairs needs to happen. We would be able to use this fund for that. I wouldn't expect we'd have to do any major repairs in the first 10 or 12 years. You would hope not.

We've got a great architect over here. I I I 100% agree with you, but you co nobody expected CO to happen either, so we just don't know. Okay. Do we have a construction duration period estimate? One more time, a construction duration period, 14 16 months. Okay. Give or take. All right. Just I just want to put a lot of stuff out on the record because, you know, six months from now, I don't want people saying, "Where's our pool?" Yeah. Yeah, it's a it's it's a big project. Complicated projects, you know. It's not like building a house. It's going to take a little while to build it. Is it 14, 16, 18? I I would guess 16.

It's probably a pretty good proximity guess. And coming in under bid, too, right? We're going to be uh around 10 million. We're going to be early and under cost, right? Nobody write that down. Madame Mayor, I'd like to make a motion that we approve item number nine. Oh, go ahead. Do the motion. We'll get a second, then you can make some comments. Okay. Uh, we approve item number nine. Uh, consider an act upon final publication of ordinance 1722. Do I have a second? And what option? What option?

What option are we going with? Um, with the uh Bank of Albuquerque. I'll second that motion. Okay. So, we have a motion uh by uh Commissioner Hernandez and it's been second by u Mayor Pro Tim Rearen. Uh we'll go for the vote. Hang on. I think Mr. Patito hits real quick. Uh want to make sure I understand this correctly that if we vote on this tonight, we'll have 30 days to review the finally agreed upon terms from Bank of Albuquerque. Is that correct? Yeah. I mean, generally,

Madame Mayor, Commissioner, yeah, the 30 days was for anybody to to potentially challenge the adoption of the ordinance, but and I'll defer to Mr. Valuel. Yeah, I think that uh the timing for finalizing the terms uh subject to that market risk thing or whatever, you know, you're talking about, but yeah, so uh working with Bank of Albuquerque, we could, you know, we're going to be looking to lock in a rate and get a final term sheet within the next week. So that means yes, you would have 30 days to understand what those are. Very good. And once that happens, we would have the 95% meeting. Did you say tomorrow, Rob? Say that again.

You plan to have the 95% meeting tomorrow? We No, we are having it 11 o'clock. Very good. Virtual meeting. All right. That's not That's the one thing we know for sure. 11 o'clock in the morning, we're having a meeting. Good deal. And open to the public. Uh by when did you say Evelyn that we would have uh a bond rating or an audit completion or both? We don't have one. We would have I'm just asking. We would have the the 2024 audit completed by the first week of May. We would not go out for a bond unless we had to because we don't go through the whole process just to Did I understand that refinancing with NFA was an option

after at after at the seven years? After the five to seven years to seven years. Okay. And we could put a bond rating together by then, I'll bet, right? Oh yeah, of course. Okay. So, uh just wanted to make sure I understood the chronology and the pieces. And that would be if we wanted to bond it versus loan it. Like what was presented tonight with MFA's numbers was for a loan. Okay. We we are out of the bond game with NMFA at this point. And depending on how much we'd be looking at in seven years, we would probably be out of the bond game at that point as well. Um just depending on what their funding structure was at the time.

Okay. If we approve this tonight, um, once you guys have the loan terms and all of that, I understand we're delegating the authority to city manager, the mayor, but could they email that out to us so we at least know what it is that y'all are agreeing to? Yes. Okay. And I wasn't sure, was that your recommendation as well for Bank of Albuquerque? Mine? Yes, ma'am. Yes. Yes, it was. Thank you.

So, we're ready for the vote. And the vote passes 70. You guys can clap.

I thought the meeting was over. Um number 10, consider an act upon first uh publication of ordinance 1723 declaring the need to um designate certain property in Otto County as a metropolitan redevelopment area. Uh Chris Murhead and we also have RB here from the county if you have any questions.

Thank you, Madame Mayor and Mr. Nichols here is uh uh very knowledgeable about this from Otto County. Uh this is the second of these type of projects for the MR designation so that multif family housing could be built that would get the benefit of a property tax uh some some abatement on the property tax uh for up to a 15-year period uh subject to the the terms of the what the county enters into and what the city wants to do. Uh I'll turn it over to RB who knows much more about its location in the city and and uh the project itself.

Sure. Excuse me, Mayor Commission. Um, so, uh, you've had presentations on this before and are aware of it. I think some of you were at the groundbreaking of the Cindereo Apartments. Um, and so that was the original uh location for the the site of this MRA. Um it's out at Mesa Village just uh west of um the intersection of Mesa Village, Mesa Verde Ranch Road and Accashia Avenue. Um but it's it's basically the undeveloped park past the the movie theater and out that way. Um but looking at it, um it really makes sense to not just do that parcel where Cindereo will be. There's 151 acres of undeveloped land out there. Um that arguably qualifies for this and um the the market study um both done by you have one from Patriot Point and then you have one from Cindereo. Um and and the one from Cindereo um done in 2025 showed a shortage of of apartments um rentals of uh almost 1,500 short for for the the the city and the county. Um, and with Patriot Point coming in, which is um, well, it it Cindereo is actually going to be built before it, but Patriot Point represents 114 units and Cindereo is 80. So, we're we're at 200 units. We we need 1,300 more just to be in a healthy rental market. Um, that's that's not even addressing um actual non-renal housing.

So, um it it meets the the definition under uh the statute. Um and I would request that you you consider the larger area um because Cindereo and and Patriot Point aren't going to cut it. Um much more is needed and it won't only be a housing uh that it attracts. It could be other industry um and business. Um but um stand for questions along with Chris. Any anything you got? You guys need more property for for everything is what you're saying. Well, we um

or bigger.

Yeah. I'm just saying it makes sense if we're going to do it. Like like the county is going to spend money um paying Chris and his team here to do smart smart things that um I don't know how to do. And um and if we're going to spend the money and we're going to go to the effort of it, let's get the biggest bang for our buck and and not just get this one parcel that Cindereo is building on, but um get that whole area developed and um and and benefit um the community because like right now, like I said, we're we're short 1300 uh units um if you don't count the ones coming in or if you count the ones that are coming in And those people right now are living in Los Cusus and El Paso and they're spending their money there and we're we're missing out on that money and those taxes.

So as far as a long-term plan goes, how does it work doing this one lot at a time? Just real quick. So Madame Mayor, Commissioner, uh just piggyback on Mr. Nichols comments in doing that larger area. uh it opens up that you wouldn't have all of these steps every time to come through there. You would already have an MR area designated and then the county if there was other multif family housing in consultation with the city could then just approve those projects to get that abatement without doing the entire MR approval that that is going on here.

And I'm asking because I want to make sure it works for the county and it works for the city to do it like we have been doing it twice now. And is that just opening the floor for debate? Is that the way to be doing it?

Madame Mayor, Commissioner, these are the the first one was very unique. Very unique to be that small. Um but it was targeted given what it was and um where it fit in terms of you know just doing that one spot for a metropolitan redevelopment area. It is much more it is the common way to do it that you would have a large area that you're operating within. The city of Albuquerque has I don't know like 13 of them and they're all multi- neighborhood areas and it provides then once you have that and you have your plan then you can work within that without coming back all the time doing that. So Patriot Point should it's unique and it's 100% legal and and kudos to Mr. Nichols for coming up with the idea. um that works, but it's that's a very unique thing here. Doing it with this broader area with the idea of hopefully attracting additional multif family housing and having one MR area is more consistent with practice.

And if I believe, if I remember correctly, we have two seats on the planning committee. Correct. So, we would work on they would I don't know exactly how it works, but we they I designate two staff to be on the committee or whatever it is to give input on on the MA. Is there a certain area that we're looking at possibility like this one?

Yeah. Um yes, I it's it's it's essentially the whole area of of um of Mesa Village that's undeveloped. Um so Cindereo is uh west um you know uh you know west from the movie theater down that road. Um but there's a whole lot of other land that is zoned for development there that is not developed currently. It's all on the um on the north side of Mesa Verie Ranch Road. Um but essentially what I did is I everywhere that um could fit that was undeveloped in that um area, I included it. Um so it could go ahead and

Does it include the commercial portion of their subdivision or is it just that area back there where Cinder? It includes the commercial some of the commercial that's that's open. Um I I believe the um in in your documents for the meeting um it doesn't have the map but it it has the parcels. Oh yeah, map would have been nice. I mean it gives us meets and balance back might know what all that means but I can pass one around you and just to remind you in process. This is a first reading. Okay.

Yeah. I I was going to second reading. Could y'all could y'all produce us a map of where this will be? Absolutely. And and similar to the first one, the very first reading had a very different square area than the second one as the commission decided, you know, have to either expand or contract. Um so the second reading can definitely have if if for some reason there's um a wanting a desire to change the designated area, the commission would still have that by the second reading. Okay. So with this, is the city looking at um acquiring any of that property as far as like for future for a second pool, second golf course, uh a fire station in that area?

We have not looked at acquiring it other than a possible fire station 8 due to the amount of homes out there. Um so no, we haven't looked at anything, but we have looked at a fire station out that way. I also just wanted to give a real quick with doing this I've already had people a developer and a chain qu ask questions about the MRA. So, in expanding this area that is doing what it's intended to do is peak interest and development in the area with the MRA.

Cuz that's one of the concerns I have is as we we're looking at we're growing north. Um the next thing that's going to come to us once we start fully developing this area is well we don't have a pool out here. We don't have you know amenities like they have on the other side of town. And so, um, the other problem with that is then if it starts to fill up, then it's harder to get that property, especially like for a golf course, um, or a rec center or pool center. Um, whether we use it for that or not, I mean, I think we need to actually look at it and lock that in and say, "Hey, this this could be for this." So, we have been told they would donate land to us for a fire station 8, which we will have to really consider that um due to the population and the amount the time to get there as it the population grows out there. What's nice about that one is the base can help us with that, not necessarily funding, but with the grants and um the big OOLDCC because that provides faster access to Hollowman out that way as well. So, we have been told that they would donate it for a fire station. If you want us to look and seriously consider, we would probably have to go into executive session to talk about acquiring land.

Well, I'm just thinking future because again, um, you know, with the city, you know, with what it looks like the people want to do is grow, um, if we don't start adding these things and planning on them, um, we're going to get locked out. And I'll add to that. If you're a developer and you come to the Alagorto Chamber of Commerce and say, "What are my options for tax incentives to build here in Alamagordo?" Do we say go CRB? Do we say uh I mean, and I'm I'm just trying to make sure I understand how we're presenting this and projecting this and what our plan is. I know we've got a lot and I know we've got a lot to figure out as far as uh how we're going to be doing this, but I guess for the time being in the event somebody comes in the next couple of months until we have our things figured out, how do we want to direct

this? This is controlled by the county. So, if they need and I'm not sure how the RB can probably speak to the process. I don't know if there's an application process for the tax incentive, but this is controlled by the county. Yes.

Got a quick question on that, too. like this mainly encompasses Mesa Village, but uh if we crossed the bypass, and I'm not quite sure where our city limits is right there, but it encompassed some of that land between the railroad tracks and the bypass, you know, and it would be just south of the of that other overpass, the northern overpass, and then maybe even up to Whit Sands Boulevard into that other subdivision for the MRA. Um would that be something feasible? because I mean there's I think there's two or three different subdivisions. There's Mesa Village and then I'm not sure what the name of that one is where the car dealership and the car wash is, but there's still lots available and then even over at the fairgrounds where the new one's going in. There's lots available there.

So, I think we had sort of touched on this a little bit is the city was going to take on an MRA during our comprehensive plan. So, that's a decision if you want to do that now or is this something that you want to look at going through the MRI because we do that to look at the city as a whole. Um, I'm just thinking since they're doing this area right here, um, you know, especially those ones on that side of the bypass, but this side of the railroad tracks, you know, it might be an incentive for somebody to buy that property and and develop it right there. So, do you have to get that pre-approved by your commission? No. Um, we could we could do it um in between now and and your next reading. I'm not sure if that's city limits on I mean I assume it is on that side.

I believe it goes to 82. Mhm. Yes. On that side. When you get to like Almo, I think it cuts across and it catches and then it and then it kind of comes back up over there on on Eddie Drive. But for the purposes of this, it it could be out in the county, too. It could be. Okay. Could we could we look at that? like when you get us the map, could you look at encompassing that in there? As long as it is reasonably ties together and um so it has to be within a vicinity of each other as far as like we can't pick that area and then go maybe go out to Wright Road, you know what I mean? All the way to Airport Road, you know. So, I mean, I'm just saying. I mean,

does the land have to be adjacent? No. Okay. I'm just saying if we're going to do it, might as well do it all. The So, well, I mean, I don't want to put too much work, but here here is the the the thing that um that we need to keep in mind that would be a limiting factor is uh once you get a little bit farther along in the process, every um property owner uh in the impacted area has to be notified via certified mail. And so right now that is um basically one owner and and maybe some coyotes. Um but

like when we had the original um setup for the Patriot Point one that went from um like Fourth Street all the way down to Panorama and Scenic and White Sands. That was going to be a lot of people to notify and I wasn't looking forward to that after I realized that. So thousands. Yeah. And so is the way we have done this with Patriot Point and Cindereo, is that working for you and the county? And so far, what would you do differently going forward? I I I don't want to do it again. Um, if I'm being honest, that's what I'm trying to find out.

Um, it's just it's not the most efficient. Um, right now if if if you guys have to do this and then the county starts the process. If when it's in the city limits, if you guys just roll with it, you don't have to do this extra step. um the county the commission wanted to help out and um they saw a need and so they wanted to um to to help and so they stepped in on these two. Um I don't if we we can look in other areas of the county um for sure um and um we we definitely want to do that but as far as in the city I think that um should be more under your purview. Um, you guys know your districts, you represent your districts. Uh, these don't have to be mutually exclusive. Just because we're doing one there doesn't mean you can't do three others across the city and um and and and bring in investment and development where you know it's needed. Um because I I think there there's a there's a case for doing it in a lot of areas. Um and uh you know there there's some going to be some other opportunities in the next year that we can work on on some other things. Um, but I I think this is also something that is important and it's just it's a tool. It's not the only tool, but it's a tool that hasn't been it's been underutilized and uh we don't the state has not given us enough tools unfortunately like um IRBs, industrial revenue bonds would be perfect for housing and um but unfortunately the statute doesn't um directly authorize it right now and it's been brought up before the legislature a few times but uh they haven't done it but That would be great and it would be simpler. It'd be less work and more

straightforward. But right now, we have the tools we have and uh it's just incumbent on us to to use them. Would you do a workshop with us to help nail this down and figure it out? Depends on what snacks you offer. Sure. Plain and watery. Thank you. So you guys will bring us back a map at the second reading. Okay. And then we can adjust the You'd have it before the second reading. Okay. We'll send it out email and then attach it to the second reading. Second reading.

Another piece of data that um Chris and I talked about tonight that um we should get before you before the next decision when you vote is um the actual numbers on the tax implications. Um so we didn't have that today, but that that's important to know. Are I I I had a question. Are you going to do it like you did um uh Patriot Point? Are you going to forego the taxes for seven years there too?

That would be the intent. um that that's because that's the only way uh that when I going back to the tool analogy um developers looking for places to go uh are looking for um things that are going to give them an ability to make a little bit more money and to make it viable. And right now with with how uncertain things are and how expensive things are, it's hard to make a project profitable and anything that can distinguish one area from another and give it an advantage is going to be where they go. And so if we have areas designated saying if you come here and you build, you develop, we need apartments, uh we're we're 1,500 short, um we will give you a break on taxes for seven years. And um the the really the the way to look at it is right now it's bringing in, it's just easy math, uh $1,000 a year. Um and it would continue to bring that for seven years. And then after that, um, it would bring a h 100red,000 in a year in property taxes. But, um, so we're giving them that break for seven years. We're missing out on maybe a million dollars, but they wouldn't come here but for that break. And so we wouldn't be getting that money anyways. Um, so that that's kind of the way to frame it.

And it's not necessarily that we're losing it, we're just not getting extra, right? We're we're freezing at the current rate. freezing at the current rate and um I'm trying to say that differently. So because you're getting taxes elsewhere other than get it in water, but if we don't give that seven-year break um they're never going to come here and it's just going to stay at that same rate. So is it going to be just a I mean I know you're probably it's going to be multiple use, but mostly apartments.

Um that I think that I mean that's going to be the primary need. um you know hopefully that you know restaurants or um other type grocery stores or something just because there's increased population coming in there to live uh it will probably um come with those too. And um to address um Commissioner Hernandez concern um I do remember seeing a parcel that is set aside for fire and EMS and and that is excluded from this right now. But um definitely when we bring you the map um that would be information to to include.

Yeah. Cuz I was offered like 8 n 10 years ago um for that. And my concern back then I don't have a problem putting a fire department out there. The problem was is that the main fire department that we had that wasn't manned which is the one they're rebuilding now is on Walker. Um how are we going to put a fire department out there when we can't even man the fire departments we have? And so that was you know back then and it hasn't changed much. So, but to your point, I was like eight years ago and look at what nothing's happened out there. Yeah. And and stuff should have. So, that's more of an argument to do something like this and incentivize um some building out there. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. You have more churches, you know, lots of other stuff. Okay. So, um I'll just make a motion to Okay. approve ordinance 1723. I'll second. Second. Okay. So, uh, Mayor Pro Tim Rearen, um, placed a motion and it was second by Commissioner Hernandez. Put it up for the vote.

Thank you, Mayor. I haven't got your vote yet. Well, I thought I had pushed the button

and it passes 70. Uh, next on the agenda is item number 11, consider and act upon resolution number 2026-10 authorizing the submission of an application to the New Mexico Department of Transportation local government road fund municipal um aerial program arterial program for a street rehabilitation of first street from US 54 to South White Sands Boulevard. Planning and design project for the FY20 2627 funding cycle. Funds match 81. This is 81,250 which is 25% and um we're looking at Jimmy Vargas. Is that Evelyn?

So no. So I I'll I'll muddle through this. Um Jimmy had a family emergency so he couldn't be here. Um, so we get a lot of concerns about the road the road past the bypass on First Street. So it's from the railroad tracks up to the bypass. Um, you can drive it. It's terrible. This is allowing us to put an application in for a grant. Um, our we're we're looking for grants for some of these other street projects that we don't have in our S&P. Um, this is just the approval to do the application. once we come back um there is a 25% match on there um if you do not want to do the 25% match or we we have we'll have the we do have the funding but right now I think this is just for design

is this is for the first street one from first street to street from the first street past the railroad tracks from um that roads was redone less than 15 20 years ago from the railroad tracks to first street needs to be redone Yeah. From the railroad tracks to the bike. Yeah. Okay. Maybe that's the section. It does say 82. It says first to 82. I think it says 54. 54. Sorry. I'm not against that piece. From the railroad tracks to White Sands Boulevard. That's horrible. Yeah. But everything from the railroad to the bypass was redone in the last 15 20 years.

Yeah. From from the bypass to the railroad tracks is fine. It's from the from the railroad tracks to uh the intersection there that where it's it's really bad. If we're doing this one, we might as well look at the 10th Street one cuz I almost get rear ended every morning because somebody I slow down to go over the railroad tracks. Yeah. But people behind me don't. So you drive a one ton truck, you got to slow down. Now 10th Street from the railroad tracks to the bypass is that pretty bad. Yeah. But first street is fine. Would you like to table it so Jimmy can come back here?

I mean I don't have a problem uh you know letting you guys apply for it, but I just want clarification of what it is we're actually doing. Okay. So if you want to we can approve it. I can get the information tomorrow from um well Jimmy won't be back till Wednesday. Or could he do an application for 10th Street also from the railroad tracks to the bypass? Mhm. Doing both. So, yeah. Yeah, might as well. I mean, yeah. I don't think I don't That road was done in the late 90s, the one from 10th Street to the bypass or from, you know, from from the railroad to the bypass, and it's it's failing. The the paving's failing on there uh very very badly. So, if

we can get them to help pay for it, it'd be worth it. So, Yes. So, we would come back with a separate application. It wouldn't be combined in one. So, okay. Um, whatever you want to do, if you want to approve this one and then we can come back and see if we can apply for a second one or if you want us to come back with it's up to you. Which is most likely to get approved, the smaller projects or applying? You don't really know. This is our our uh consultants helping us look for different grants, grants that we don't typically go through.

This one really needs to be done if it's that piece from railroad to to whites. So, is there a time constraint on that? There's a deadline. I cannot I think it's in the packet. I think we're still okay. Oh, see it here. It says 350 foot segment between existing railroad crossing and Whitands Boulevard. Okay. That's so he did it right. Yeah, that's the section. So So can we approve this one and then say, "Hey, let's let's throw one out there for 10th Street as well and Yep. Absolutely.

Yeah, absolutely. It says 350T between existing railroad crossing and White Sands Boulevard. Okay, that's better. Okay. So, um, we need a motion on this one. Any other comments? Okay. I'll make a motion to approve resolution in 2026-10. Second.

Okay. So, it's been a motion by uh, Mayor Pro Tim Reen and second by uh, Commissioner Tapley. Put it up for the vote. Can I ask real quick? You said 10th Street, but you said Panorama. So, you want 10th Street. 10th Street from the railroad tracks. Actually, just go from White Sands to White Sands all the way to to the bike or 54.

It's all bad. Whatever the hell it's called. I was talking about the little area right there in Panorama in White Sands. That's Oh, yeah. Like right by Chili's right there. Yeah, that's a speed bump ruffle. I mean, it's bad. It's always been an issue. So, and the vote passes 70.

So, um appointment to boards and committees and that's going to be done by me. Um, we have one upcoming VA vacancy for an applicant who lives in either the county or city limits due to an expiring term of ERIC. And uh, I'm going to spell it W U S C H I N G on May 28th, 2026. A new application by the same person was received. If reappointed, this would be his seventh term on the board. Uh does anybody have any objections? If not, he will be reappointed for the seventh time. Uh airport zoning board, one current vacancy for an applicant who lives within the city limits. Uh the Almagoro Public Library Board, one upcoming vacancy for an applicant who lives in the city due to an expiring term of uh Rhonda Alten on May 28th, 2026. A new application by Rhonda Altter has been received. If reappointed, this would be her third term on the board. Um, is there any objections to her being reappointed? If not, um, then, uh, she will be reappointed for her third term. And then there's, uh, one current vacancy for a county appointed representative. Um, the Senior Volunteer Programs Advisory Council, five current vacancies for applicants who live within the city limits and I have their information here. Okay. And then um executive session. Yeah, we're going to adjourn into the executive close session

in compliance with 1015-1 H2 NMSA1978 as amended to discuss limited personnel matters, discussion regarding the conduct of an employee in a supervisory operational role with the parks department and related management oversight by the city manager and 10.15-1H8 NMSA198 8 as amended to discuss real property known as the fairground parking lot located at the corner of White Sands Boulevard and Fairgrounds Road. Do we have a motion? So moved. Second.

Okay. So, it's been motioned by Commissioner Robinson and second by Commissioner Hernandez. I'll have to vote verbally because I accidentally closed mine out. So, I'm a yes. Well, it passed 70. We are now adjourned. Which room we go in? That one or this one?