City Council - Regular Meeting

All right. Good evening, Mayor and Council. We are now live.

Hello everybody. Welcome to the regular city council meeting on Tuesday, May 12th, 6 PM in the council chambers. Um, with that, I want to go ahead r and all and do the roll call. Councelor Garcia here. Councelor Yazy, councelor Pier, councelor Molina here. Um, I'll councelor Yazi's online and then I get to say here and she is too. Okay, awesome. And Mayor Depali

here. Um, also our uh city manager's mother is ill and he might be able to log on today uh during the meeting sometime. She's in Farmington. Um the uh if we could all join me in the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Well, so the the next item is the comments by the public on non-aggenda items and I imagine a lot of people in here to speak uh for some of the previous events that happened and some of the other previous council meetings. So, um we have a bit a long agenda. It's there's 14 items along with that include the lodgers tax funding. So, we're going to limit the uh the participation to three pro and three con for each uh item that's discussed. Um, and with that, Al will be doing the um just timing everybody for two minutes so we can get through and get done. Um, all right. Neutral can be its own class. There's no neutral. Okay. All right. Um with that uh we can go ahead and start by members of the public who would like to comment just come up give us your name and um where and the this topic you're going to discuss. Good evening Mayor Depali members of the council uh esteemed elected officials

that are in the audience and guests. My name is Peter Compost. I am the CEO of the Gallup McKinley County Chamber of Commerce and I'm here to make some public comments on a proposed data center that has been a hot button item not only on social media but around the community. The Chamber of Commerce has historically been pro economic development, pro business. We're about supporting things that are going to help do job creation in our area. You know, one of the biggest complaints that I'm sure everybody hears is, "We don't have any industry here. We don't have any jobs here. Why isn't anybody doing anything to bring more jobs here?" So, on that note, what the chamber would like to state is our position. We are not pro- data center or against the data center. What we are here to state is that we are supporting the process. We don't have enough facts to make an educated decision. Right now, everything is purely speculation. And so, why would we shoot down a potential of bringing in 300 jobs, a huge multi-million dollar industry without knowing all the facts? You know, if it's going to harm our environment, we will absolutely be against the data center. But without facts, without anything that's been stated so far, it we cannot make that judgment. So what we are here to do is say we would like to support the process. You know the water rights thing is one step the first step in a long list of processes and so we would like the process to run its course before we make a judgment on whether we are for a data center or against it but we do support the process. I appreciate your time. Thank you.

Um next if we could have somebody that's um that was pretty much a neutral comment I think. Um um new or whoever whoever wants to come up next.

I'll make this fast. Um my name is Richard Anderson. I'm a taxpayer. I'm a citizen of Gallup. I've been paying property taxes, city tax for the last 15 years since I got sober. I used to be homeless. I used to live on the streets. I ate out of garbage cans. But I work my way. Now I have my own trailer. Yes, it's old. It's a rat trap. I don't It's a rat box. It's old. But I don't care. It's a roof over my head. I got my own vehicle now. I have a granddaughter. And I'm here to tell you something that's really bothering me. And I wrote a letter to the last mayor about what happened to me. He didn't do nothing about it but give me the finger and it's still bothering me. It's about three years ago it happened. Happened at my work. This guy came in and tried to steal something. I threw him out. He called me a [ __ ] and set my motorcycle on fire. I never got my motorcycle's gone and I never got a sorry or nothing. I wrote the I wrote the a letter to the last mayor. I said, "I'm a victim of a hate crime and I need some help. I need I need I need some help with a job. I need some help some wheels." All I did was get the finger. And I tried to get a job from City of Gallup and they asked me for a driver's license. I don't have a driver's license. The child support took it and they told me to get out. We only hire people with driver's license. That's unconstitutional. That's unAmerican. I'm an American citizen. I got state ID and state ID should be good enough for

the city of Gallup to have employment. I'm a good worker. I don't do drugs. I don't drink. I'm always on time. It's two minutes, sir. And this hate crime still hurts. Thank you, Richard. Um, next I guess you can state your name and your position and what you're just what you're commenting on.

Oh, okay. I'm Marilyn Taylor. I'm new to Gallup and I am just going to comment on things that I have experienced with AXI or X AI X. Yeah, that's it. X AI. Uh, but anyway, I I'm I'm against the Danis Data Center because they promised jobs in Memphis. They they brought jobs to Memphis, but they also brought their own workers. There are very few Memphis citizens that got jobs out of it. TVA gave them a great deal on their electric electric rates. Promised Memphis your rates will not go up. The rates just went up. They promised they would use only gray water. Well, they're now pulling from the aquafll. And Memphis has enough water. I'm not sure Gallup does. They got permits for 15 smoke stacks. They've just put up the 33rd and nobody's stopping them. You can smell the data center when you get within about 15, excuse me, five miles of it. you can hear it within about two miles of it. Um, I guess all I'm saying is don't be naive. When people are trying to get a deal, they'll tell you, excuse me, they'll tell you whatever you want to hear and y'all know that. But this is what happened in Memphis.

Good evening. My name is Tommy Haw and I serve as president of the Greater Gallup Economic Development Corporation. The city council recently deferred a vote for legal assignment of effluent water rights to a future meeting. Approving the assignment will allow a process to move forward to continue the due diligence to take place for the possibility of bringing a company in to provide jobs, increase the tax base, and grow our economic base in Gallup and McKinley County. These rights had already been assigned to a company per and per the agreement were able to be assigned to a future potential user. I encourage the council to approve the assignment in the future for two primary reasons. One, it will allow the process, the due diligence process to continue to see if this potential investor in the greater Gallup economy is able to provide a good fit for our shrinking economy, provide good jobs, and add the add to the tax base and fee base for local governments. This will not be a final vote on the project, but without it, the company would not be able to provide these answers and be considered for future fits. Please do not foreclose the pro uh future possibility of discussions or decisions by ending the process now. And furthermore, please do not base this or any future decisions on a misinformation or scare tactics of projects in other parts of the country. Your vote will not be a referendum on the end product. It will be an approval to continue the work of the very rigorous project process and it has potential. The second, this is the most important in my mind, in the economic development world, site selection is a rigorous process to even get to the point where deeper vibe deeper dives on a project can take place. If the council votes to reject a simple proposal that would continue to allow vetting to go forward, then the message is sent to the entire economic

development field that Gallup is a place that is not open to future business. What happens is not that we get scratched off the list, that we never get considered on the list in the first place. Thank you. Thank you. Um, thank you, mayor.

Thank you, mayor and council. Um, I also wanted to make a few comments this evening. I was at your last city council meeting and um there was a lot of comments in in regard to the uh effluent agreement and I just wanted to say that um I don't think that the public completely understands what this effluent agreement is about when it comes to um the agreement being set up and approved for Kohl's gray which is was a different company to use effluent the city leadership had approved of that a lot of due diligence was done done and now this company has the right to assign that effluent amount to another company. Is that is that correct?

Yes, that's that's the

that's correct. So they have they are simply exercising that u that process. Now I think what has happened is the public is super concerned that now that automatically means that there's going to be a data center. That is not true. There are many many steps that have to happen and and I think that the agreement that was drafted I assume it was drafted by your uh former your former attorney and he did a very good job in that it really puts Gallup in the driver's seat. I' I've reread it a couple of times and what if all of these elements are not met that means that this this project never happens. So it is a long long process and so what I'm asking this evening mayor and council is that we actually have this process that we are allowed to have public hearings. I'd like to see things that are fully transparent. I would like to um have each one of the components of the contract fully explained so people understand what this means uh in terms of the purchase, how much this is going to cost, um uh what the uh uses are for.

It's two minutes and and so forth. I I'm getting the I'm getting the hook here. But I would just like to ask because it is it is super important, mayor and council that when we're looking at economic development initiatives that we follow our own rules and if we set up a contract that allows for this, please let's follow our own rules. Thank you. Thank you, Penny. Next.

Um, good evening, Mayor and Council. I am Joanne Beninati. I've been a homeowner, taxpayer, voter, and resident of Gallup for 22 years and a resident and voter of McKinley County for 46 years. I recognize the need for economic opportunity and would welcome increased investment in and development of our very diverse and talented, creative community. as well as our awesome outdoor adventure venues. These sectors of our economy would in turn enhance tourism and our local hospitality industry and retail businesses. They would provide employment and income to residents who already possess skills and knowledge in these areas. Gallup and its surrounding communities have a legacy of trauma and loss from mining and extractive industries. We all know too well the devastation brought to numerous communities still awaiting reparations after nearly 50 years. About a decade ago, Rhino Health came to Church Rock with the promise of 3 to 400 local jobs, an expansion from one manufacturing facility to two or more. They received Lita grants from the state, bond support from the county, and promises from the Navajo Nation. Due in large part to unkempt promises, they were unable to sustain operations and left the area, leaving behind a huge debt to the city of Gallup for unpaid utility bills as well as 100 or so newly unemployed workers. Before we approve any new industry, we need more than promises. We need proof, guarantees, and strict enforcable consequences for violating the guarantees. But the bottom line is that we need to protect our people, fauna, flora, air, water, and soil because no level of economic impact

is worth sacrificing any of that. Thank you.

Good evening, uh, Mr. Mayor and Council. My name is Daniel Berg. I was born and raised in Gallup uh and I raising my family here now and I'm a homeowner. And I think uh what we're seeing with these data centers, the AI data centers, is that they have a trend across the country of not keeping promises. Uh people have proposals that look great and then what they're paying for afterward is that the companies they're doing well, they're making money, but the surrounding local community is being um their resources are being sponged up, right? the electrical the water resources and so um I'm all for business in Gallup but I think what we're seeing is the trend with AI data centers is quite shady and with Gallup already having limited resources and of course it would only be the effluent water which they propose to use however um the trend is showing that that's not all they use right that they have ways or they have access to those things and so um so I stand against the AI data centers and uh I I don't think it would be a good fit for Gallup. Um although we do need these jobs, I just think that the long term uh we might look back at this and understand that it could be an instance where we are having the ends justify the means and um I intend to raise my kids here and I hope my kids raise their kids here and so there are other ways to go about this where I don't want this look like Los Cruus situation where they say the uh the air pollution is going to be double Albuquerque or Santa Fe. what we see with uh Utah where they just approved a data center that's going to use double the city or double the entire um state's uh electrical use. Um things like that that are just quite alarming and I just think we need to slow down, back off and not get involved in the um in this kind of gold rush mentality like we need to do it so we can be leaders and I think we've been making it without an AI data center before this. I think we can move on and not and make it

without it and we can open up our options to um to other industry. And so I think again I hope all the regulations and restrictions are are placed on them if this goes through but again they choose rural areas because they uh don't have the regulations and zoning restrictions of cities so they can move forward. Thank you. Yeah. Um, thank you, mayor and council for allowing us to speak for a little bit. My name is Priscilla Bonali, and I'm here to introduce myself to you all and to the community of Gallup. Um, I am one of the candidates for um, district 6 um, New Mexico State Representative position. Uh, and I just wanted to mention that I'm very honored um to be the only candidate for McKinley County. I'm facing three other individuals from Sibila County since districts 66 and sits in two counties um McKinley and Sibila. Um and I it's been in um Sibila County for over 15 years and I think it's about time we bring it back to McKinley County. And I'm very fortunate that I've been running around to my chapters and to my communities. Um, but I also thought it would be very important to come out and introduce myself to the city of Gallup and um, also do the same thing to the county commissioners. But I really appreciate um, this discussion. Um, I this was on one of the questions um, that I had an interview on and my comment back to the reporter was I need to get more information from my my community and and I that's what I plan to do and I appreciate it. Like I said, I just wanted to introduce myself. So I thank you.

Um with that how how many we had uh four and against and neutral. We have three neutral, two four and two against. Okay. One of each left.

Good afternoon. Good evening. Uh my name is Janice Peterson. I live in McKinley County for our fourth generation. And it's good to meet you all, the mayor and the counselor. This um reason why I'm here is I live in church and yes, there's new business coming to McKinley County and the city, but as native out in the community area, we don't know what's going on with the city until the last minute that okay, this is what's going on with data entry. Is it really guaranteed that our community will experience or learn more from each other instead of just outskirts and come in here and get, you know, get rich off of us? You know what is the main thing that we need to learn to understand why our community is really in a bad shape especially with the homeless people are out on the street so will that help them get back on their feet or is it going to help us with the education more skill than what we can because you know a lot of these things that we hear they don't go out in the Navan nation we don't hear anything at all because I'm one of the community members from there and we're look working with a lot of entities with different areas so I think you guys need to really share not just here. Maybe contact the Navajo Nation and go from there and see what you can work from them and here understand what the that interest is about because if it's going to be coming from outskirt people getting rich off of us, I don't think that's fair to us. So, I think you guys need to really look into these um businesses coming out of different areas like the glove factory. They didn't stay. They ran off back to Texas and you guys end up with a big bill. They're not going to pay for it. So, that's my comment. Well, thank you. Thank you.

My name is Nathan Stannis. I'm a local teacher in the community here. I just want to make a few quick points. I read some of the comments from the council members last week and I noticed you guys have a lot of enthusiasm about the fact that they're not using effluent water. So, I just want to make a few points about some considerations that you should have with any agreement that you make with data centers. The first thing that you should be keeping in mind is the use of effluent water does not necessarily lower the environmental impact of a data center. What that effectively means is that they are going to be using an openloop system as opposed to a closed loop system. That simply means that instead of using other means other than water to cool down their system, they're going to use water in an evaporative way. That means they're not just using water that we wouldn't use for anything. That means they're going to evaporate water that is then removed from our water supply. That is important to our ecosystem. That is not the same thing as when we simply don't use water. And some of the comments made it sound like we're equating it to just not using water. But it's not the same thing. The other thing to keep in mind is that this company has no track record with their data centers. They're a brand new company. So we don't actually have any evidence for how they're going to be using their data centers, how they're going to build it, the safeguards they're using. And it didn't seem like their presentation was very specific on those areas. We should be extremely skeptical of companies that are new to an industry like this and we should pay close attention to the exact safeguards that they intend to use. As other people have pointed out, it's very easy to begin with effluent water and then transition to other forms of water and especially if you're a brand new company who's trying to cash into this sort of business. It's also very easy to build expectations like that without having the specific safeguards to actually protect Gallup from that situation. So, I would be very skeptical of everything that they say and pay close attention to the exact parameters on how they're allowed to use the water that used it. That's all.

This doesn't have anything to do with the data or the water center. I'm Sergeant Martinez. Is there anybody else? I think we've met met the quota with the data center and the pipe water agreement. Al, is there we had three three and three or someone? Yeah, I believe we met the quota, but we also have a list of uh callers as well. Callers. We've got three that have asked to address it. Tell us if I go ahead.

Okay, great. This is um I'm Sergeant Martins. I work for the Gal Police Department. I just wanted to remind the public that uh police week started on uh Sunday. So the GAL Police Department stands together to honor the courage, sacrifice, and unwavering dedication of officers who have given their lives in the line of duty. Their service community reflects the highest ideals of our profession. Integrity, bravery, and commitment to protecting others even at the greatest personal cost. We remember our fallen not only for how they served, but the lives that they touched, the families they love, the legacies they live they left behind. Their absence is felt every day and their impact continues to guide the men and women who wear the Gallup badge. We stand with the families of our fallen officers whose strength and resilience remind us of the true cost of their service. Their sacrifices shared with honor and courage. And we reflect this week. We affirm our commitment and values of our fallen officers embodied. We honor them through our actions, our sacrifice, and our dedication to keeping Gallup safe. We remember, we honor, we will never forget. and we have um put up some ribbons and things for um police week. We also are going to have a run on Sunday.

Thank you very much. You have three people on Yes. So, we've we've u we had one that called before the meeting and two that called dur. Okay. But we've already met our quota or do we continue? We're not sure what the uh what uh what the the speakers want to speak about. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Hang on everybody.

Modern technology. Here we go. I'm far from fashion. Good evening, Mayor and Council. He's trying to get that phone. Go ahead. I'm just um asking if we can have folks who are in the room who wanted to speak either for, against, or neutral to stand for each of those so that the counselors know why people were here. That's that's my only request.

You do add a minute. Hi, Mr. Cedo. Mr. Cedo. Yes. We have you on speaker phone before the Gallop City Council. This is public comment. You have two minutes, please. Thank you. This is Chris Cedo.

Good evening, council. Um, I'm calling in regards to the flyers that have been coming out. No LPR, uh, no data center, so on and so forth. There's a couple things. The LPR systems, there's multiple uses for them, and we're missing one crucial one, and that's for law enforcement. Law enforcement should have LPR units on every single unit. The state police officer that was killed on I40 recently by a stolen vehicle. It takes dispatch and I've spoken with state police and metro dispatch and it takes anywhere from 30 seconds to two to three minutes. They don't have an exact answer. LPR systems go instantly. If it is in the database, it goes instantly. We got the law enforcement day or whatever it's called. You know what? Let's keep less names on that list and more officers going home every night. I asked the city council to put it on the books to find a budget to get LPR units for the officers for their safety. They're saying there's no privacy. Well, guess what? When you're in public, there's no expect no expectation of privacy. Stay home. Board your windows. I'm about keeping officers safe. LPR LPR units will keep them safe. The sheriff's department is in the process of getting them for their deputies. The police department needs to get on the same track and get LPR units for the police officers to keep them safe, to get them homes. It also helps with uh silver alerts, Amber Alerts, so on and so forth. I could speak from experience. I saved the life of an elderly woman at Walgreens from Texas 16 hours from home because of an LPR unit.

Thank you. Thanks. Thank you, Mr. We have two more. Just a moment, please. This is Christopher Hudson. Tell us.

If you record your name and reason for calling, I'll see if this person is available. Y City Council.

Thanks. Please stay on the line. I'm sorry. This person is not available. Okay, sir. We'll move to the the next caller. This is Christine Een.

Hello. Hi, Mrs. East. Yes, this is the G City Council. We are during public comment and we'll return your phone call and you have two minutes to address the council.

Okay. Good evening everybody. Good evening neighbors. Um what my comment pertains not to either of the other two comments. So I'm not in the group of those limited. I would like to just remind city council that the city's charter and ordinances require that you have an appointed city attorney. That position remains vacant and has been vacant for a month and a half. We have a deputy city attorney. We do not have the mandated city attorney position filled. As you all know, the city attorney plays a critical role in the city's governance and conduct, including contract formation, contract review, and contract approval, as well as ordinance review. and very importantly advising council on matters of substantial legal significance such as the matters before you tonight including the flock contract and the extension of affluent option agreement. It's highly questionable in my view as to how you can proceed not only tonight but at all without the city attorney position being filled and I urge you to fill that position immediately. Thank you. Oh [ __ ]

I have a corrected number for the other caller if I can get them called last time. Which one? Uh for Mr. Hudson. I have a corrected phone number to to to call. Just call next time. Just let's just get Yeah. Well, he can comment next time. Okay. We've tried.

Thank you. Um, with that, um, that we'll conclude the public comment. With Bill E's, um, request, I wonder if the people that are in favor of the transfer of the water supply agreement could stand up and we can kind of see the differences of the amount of people that are that are to for the progress of the water treatment, the wastewater effluent agreements transfer. Sure.

Yeah. or guest in neutral. If you're if you're uh for it, if you could stand up or the agreement, the transfer agreement and if you're neutral, um just kind of gives us the ones that are waiting for more information. Yeah. Good. Good. I think pretty good. Pretty good. Pretty good. And then the ones that are against the uh agreement transfer. Okay. Could you all tell me what you're seeing in the chambers, please, with that? Or Yeah. Are we taking count? No, we're just built out a request for one of the Sierra. It's kind of hard to count, but

it's about 10 people stood up for FA for seven or five, seven neutral and everyone else was against basically. Sure. Okay.

All right. Okay. With that, well, thank you very much everybody. Um, we'll move on to our next item. Uh, council meeting council meeting and this is going to be the consent agenda. These items are placed on the consent agenda. So, city council can can designate by unanimous decision consent those routine items they wish to be approved or acknowledged by one motion. If anyone if anyone item does not meet the approval of all council members or or where is my page or what or or citizen so request it'll be a separate item. Um Al let you read the items. Consent agenda item number one, approval of minutes of the March 10th, 2026 regular meeting, March 24th, 2026 regular meeting, and the April 6, 2026 work session. Consent agenda item number two, budget adjustment from non- capital to capital for equipment purchases. Consent agenda item number three, budget adjustment from fund 280, cannabis tax. And consent agenda item number four, budget action related to best of the best. What's your the good to go with the consent agenda?

Yeah, I know. Motion to approve consent agenda item one, two, three, and four. Councelor Molina, yes. Councelor Garcia, yes. Councelor Piano, yes. Yazi, yes. Mayor Depali,

yes. Okay, the next item is pretty important to everybody here for law enforcement. Um, these are the discussion items and action topics. The first one is a mutual aid agreement with the Navajo Police Department. And our speaker today is Aaron Toilina Pablo and Erica. And I did notice some Navajo police out there. No good.

Okay. Okay. Thank you, Mayor and Council. Erica Pro, W Dep W Dep W Dep W Dep W Dep W Dep W Dep W Dep W Dep W Deputy City Attorney. I'll provide some background and then allow Chief to fill in with some more context on this agreement. So, the mutual aid agreement is important because it allows for our police officers that need assistance from Navajo Nation or if Navajo Nation needs assistance from our police officers on a voluntary basis to be able to um respond to that request and provide that assistance. It also helps cover us in the event of an emergency. It does not change our respective um jurisdictions. It does not change what each um sovereign is able to do under the law, but it does provide for some better cooperation, improved communication, and obviously where we're located in a multi-jurisdictional area with respect to events that involve both citizens of Gallup, citizens of the Navajo Nation. Um it's something that will help with that. It's common practice for Navajo Nation to enter into fees agreements. As far as I can tell, this is the first time the city has entered into an agreement with the Navajo Nation for mutual aid and law enforcement. And one thing that's important is that it has to be approved through our respective approval processes. So, we allow it to be executed in counterparts. So, should council approve it today, we will still have to wait for it to be approved by the Navajo Nation. You will also see next um on your desks an addendum. There is a provision in New Mexico statutes for um the governor to approve mutual aid agreements. I'm not entirely too sure why the state would have an interest, but nonetheless to comply with that statute. We would be sending a copy of the agreement once it's approved by the city and the Navajo Nation to the governor for their approval as well. Um and then I'll I'll allow Chief to provide maybe some context as to why he thinks about this. Thank you, mayor and council. Um, and also thank you, Erica. So, I have been working on this for about a good year

and a half. Um, as you know, we did have an incident that occurred um during the ceremonial um and there was not only the parade, but we did have an incident out at the Red Rock Park. Um, in that incident, we had an individual with a firearm that crossed over from our jurisdiction, which is just right there to the Navajo Nation. um and trying to work with that. We did find that there was some hardship in trying to get the evidence process and also interviews done. Um we looked at this and thinking that hey, we need to get something done and going as far as a mutual aid agreement. And I when you think about an agreement, you're thinking like all of our services and you're you're probably thinking well the lack of officers and resources that we have um why were we getting into some type of agreement with the Navajo Nation to provide services? But this is also I I it has been identified that it is for um for major incidents. Um we talk about when we have um incidents where it is affecting the Navajo Nation um and they reach out to us for our services because we have um our emergency response team um is needed um we're unable to provide those assistance when we have someone that flies in um i.e. anyone who is I think we had the first lady fly in about four years ago, three years ago. Um and we provided that security from here, but it had to end at a certain area. Um so that that type of thing is what we're talking about. I think when we go into um when we had um a mass incident on the west side of Gallup where we had a explosion um involving the railroad uh close I40 um those type of things is where we really want to reach out to other agencies to assist the Gallop Police Department or the city of Gallup. So those are some of the um more recent incidents that I'm I'm informing you guys about, but there is probably a lot of history back of when we could have utilized this. Um I think it's um a

process in forward when we talk about our agenda u of working with others and opening up um resources. I think that's something that we want to push forward to make sure that we're a team player in all of this. So but I I it is my recommendation that I know that um uh this is something that's going to be um an asset to our department for resources when we do need that. Um, but it is my recommendation for you all to look at the agreement and I know it does have to go through certain processes, but this is the first step um for your approval on that. But I stand for any questions.

G Pablo, thank you so much. Um, I let me ask the first couple questions. So, just so you know, I remember Frank Gonzalez was really into cross commissioning and having agreements and believe me, this is one of the best things that can happen for the area. Um, is this a cross commissioning agreement or just a assist system assistance?

It's not a cross um um commissioning agreement. It's just for major because if you if we ran into a situation, let's say we on the north side, we had a vehicle pursuit um and it went into there. That's saying that we we hooked it. We're going to take it all the way through there. But no, this is that's more or less that cross um commission agreement. This is just for um the mutual aid. When there's an emergency, when when there's something that is mass happening, then we're looking at those resources. We wanted to make sure that we weren't um putting oursel out there to um handling a lot of the cases where in jurisdiction we would call Navajo Nation. Um as you know, there's certain areas within our jurisdiction that have those checkerboard areas.

Great. And then does it include Game and Fish also the Naval Nation Game and Fish and other or is it just the police? It's going to be the Department of Public Safety and that's that's what it is. Yeah. So if they do fall under that, that'll fall under that portion there. But um they would have to look at the agreement on that part. Thank you. Um Ron to go ahead. Yeah. Chief Pablo, do you know or does anybody know in this room that we've ever have we ever had agreement like this? No, we have not. Never have. No. Never have. Okay. Sounds to me like it's a long time coming. It is, sir. Yes.

I want to make comment. So, Chief, I think this is a a great beginning to work with the Navajo Nation that we've been wanting, excuse me, the city along uh to work with the Navajo Nation and I believe this is just the beginning. It is a great asset to be working with Navajo Nation. I'm I'm proud to be working with them at this point. So, this is a great game. Thank you. Thank you, council. Any other questions from Z? Starting off the bang. I have no questions. Save calls for later. Thank you, Council. Sierra, you're you have a question. Can you hear us? Okay. Yeah, I can hear you. Um, no. Just I think this is a great idea and I'm excited to see it move forward.

And if I could just make a request for the motion. Um, there's a few technical amendments we need to make for the um names and positions. So, if you could just give us some leeway to correct any nonsensitive but technical amendments to the agreement before we forward it. We'll do. Okay. If we could have a motion and I make a motion for approval of the mutual aid agreement between the NAVO Police Department with the agenda motion to have for change

that'll have an addendum in a single page thing. Just just a signature page for the state, I believe. Oh, okay. And just to make sure that the approved by the governor second. Councelor Molina. Yes. Councelor Garcia. Yes. Councelor Piano. Yes. Councelor Yazy. Yes. Depali. Yes.

Thank you, Mayor C. Thank you, Erica. Our next item of discussion is it's the write offs of past due amounts with budget adjustment and our and this is for well I'll let Denise uh explain. Is Denise here or is Patty? Yes, I'm here.

Oh, she's on Zoom. Okay. Is she on? There she is. Sorry, Denise. No problem. Good evening, mayor and council. Um, today I'm presenting a utility write- off in the amount of $92,7979. Uh, these balances primarily come from accounts that were terminated in 2020 and 2021 during that time of the CO 19 pandemic when collection efforts were limited and many customers faced financial hardship. Um there is a total of 175 customer accounts with 162 of those that are residential and 13 that are commercial accounts. Um the largest portion of this write off is from electric services at 49,991 followed by water wastewater and solid waste. The largest category balance is approximately 24,000 and the largest individual account is just over 4,100 with most accounts being smaller balances that accumulated over time. Um, this write-off does not mean the debt is forgiven. It is an accounting step to clean up uncollectible balances that are no longer realistic to recover. Um, this situation highlights the importance of consistent collections. Um, utilities operates as an enterprise fund and we rely on payments to maintain services, infrastructure, and fairness to customers who pay on time. When balances go uncollected for long periods, it results in write-offs like this. Um, since the beginning of this year, we have also worked to support customers by removing 3,000 in late fees and penalties to help them get back on track. Moving forward, I am focusing on stronger and more consistent collection efforts while still being mindful of customers facing hardship to prevent

this type of situation in the future. So, with that said, I'm also requesting a budget adjustment as well. And that's also in your handouts. There's a budget adjustment of from the water fund of $480, solid waste of 504 of $7,535 and electric with an account of 507 of $17,910.

Do you have any questions?

Yeah, thank you, Denise. Um, you know, one of the things we found in Gallup, what's happening with the, uh, a lot of the vacant buildings, they're red tagged and they're red tagged because they don't have utilities. They don't have utility service. Um, you know what? One of the things we need to keep track of, and we not necessarily with this list because this is an older list, but how many of the pe that the buildings that are on that are being red tags and are no longer that no one enters or can go into are on this list? Um I I've spoke with planning to see if we can get a get a correlation to see if if indeed there is we are impacting people's lives by turning off their power or if there is a problem with that. So maybe we could have on the next list we'll provide a a list of houses that have been literally the meters have been pulled and that they've been red tag they can no longer be inhabited. Um, with that then then the next question we have and I just wanted to make sure you know J C Penney is on this list and believe me I'm not wondering but uh that was corporate change. Is that what happened there?

It was yeah they filed bankruptcy. It was a corporate change. Okay. All right. And that's what I've also noticed as a trend in um corporates filing chapter 11. Um we just recent rec recently had one uh Genesis which is the over there on um Church Rock Road the the Red Rock Nursing Home. They just recently filed Chapter 11 as well. So it kind it it puts us in a tat with collections because we're having to pause on shutting off or even collecting. So it's Yeah. So, we've had some recent corporate ones like that, which is just as recent as today that did that.

Thank you for the explanation. Um, any questions, Sarah? Yes, I do have a few questions. So, um, to be clear, I know at one point we had I don't know what I'd asked, are we considering having a third party to go after some of his funds that we're losing every year? Or I know we're just kind of doing it in terms.

I actually did want to bring that up um with you as well. Um, I've been in this position for one year now and I wanted to see if we could possibly even Farmington Credit Bureau. Um, and see if we could get a lot of those collections because even with final accounts, it's up to after this write off of 92,000 um, there's approximately 1 million still just in final accounts that are just sitting there. Okay. So maybe like think I mean like it has to be worth it because we have to pay the company to do that but exactly

I don't know it might be worth it because I know they can go after that money a little more intensely than we can internally. So just something I think we should um and then I think you mentioned this but like basically they're all terminated and then they can't get any other service. So, like they go to another residence or open another property, they can't get service for utilities or water if they're on this list basically until it's paid. Correct. We put them in a C status for collections. So, once they're in a C status, if we were to look up their name and try to put something in their name, it would pop up and so therefore, they're unable to open an account until that particular debt is paid off. Any any more questions for Denise?

Yeah, I was just curious if this amount is u much larger than typical because of maybe the pandemic issues um or the amount of time that's gone by. It is larger um because when I looked at last year's it was only 29,000. So this year it's 92. And one of the ones that was the highest was the Lexington Hotel. And that one there was a lean filed on it and then it was unforgiven or wait it was forgiven to where it was not collected on. So that was approximately maybe a third of the 92k of the 92,000.

Thank you. And then um sorry it's a little bit hard for me to hear counselor speaking if you can use your microphones. Um but I was also wondering if how the process is different for commercial versus residential with collections. Um just really quickly if you could help me understand that if we do anything different in pursuing those collections.

Sure. Before it goes into collection status. So with commercial accounts, we generally do not do an extension whereas with residentials, we do at least a 7-day extension from the second cuto off notice. So we try to give as much time for the residential customers to make a payment and to catch up and then also do budget billing with them. As opposed to commercial, we're a little more vigorous when it comes to collections because we unfortunately we don't Most often, I mean, there are times where we do grant an extension, but we do attempt to collect as soon as they hit the cutoff date, which is usually um 36 to 39 days after the bill date.

Any further Sierra? No, that's all my question. Thank you. I have a question. So, help me understand this like Lexington this huge amount and J C Penney is this huge amount. Why do we get it let it go so far with these huge amounts when it's a the residential if they're late one month or whatever they're cut off. How how do these get amounts get so big that we don't collect from them? Do we not collect from them on a monthly basis or not?

So once so I cannot really answer for that because I've been in this in this um position for the last year but I do know that as soon so this was during the pandemic. So there was a course there was a time where these accounts got completely out of hand because nobody was collecting on them because that was the time that everyone fell into financial hardship. So I know that um Francelia my current supervisor and also the my um predecessor Clarice they had to create a um collection report and then get everyone back on track. So this is pretty much from 2020 to where they were trying to get everyone back on track. But the but for these accounts that you're asking about as to why they got So once they go into a finan final status, it's almost like nobody collects on them. So that's why with Sarah with counselor Sarah Piano's question, how are we relying on a third party to collect? Once it's finaled, we're no longer going after the money. Even today, our our collection process once they're final, we almost don't go after the money after they are final.

Yeah, I think I think we need to consider u hiring a company if you're collecting after it's written off to bed bid. I think we could recoup a lot of that money. It's a it's a normal company thing. They all hire companies to to uh to collect money after it goes past the 120 20-day column uh pull up that debt and and you write it off your books. And normally they uh send that over to a collection agency to to get it collected. Collection agencies generally do a pretty decent job.

Yes. because currently right now my account specialists um I have two of them. They currently work on the active collections for customers who are active but I do not have um within the last year I've not had anybody reach out to anyone who is final as far as actively collecting on those final accounts. just that at a different time in order to see if we want to have that process. But also like it just feels like it's taking a I don't blame you guys at all, but just like a long time, right? These are from 2020. It's 2026 now. This is like this has been like six years people we've like gone after them haven't paid gone after them and then finally whatever you know they move some someone may have passed away um or they just you know skip town or I I don't know what's happening but I mean these are a lot of people that and a lot of businesses that are filing chapter 11 that are uh still operating they're still operating but they f I mean they file bankruptcy and then keep operating right like so that's not great either so I mean I don't know I I think it's unfortunate We talk a lot about the water and electric not going up. We don't want it to go up for the average citizen, but we also need the people like these people that are not paying to pay that. That helps it not go up for the average citizen, right? Like if everybody pays their bills. So

yeah, I think we can take that up, but Frank get something lined up there. Thank you. No, thank you. Then on your um seemed like you had four items. There was the for the the write offs and then the budget adjustment. Did you want did you explain that to us? I sure did. Yes. Yes, mayor. Okay, thank you. Um, water fund 505. So, there is a 505 for 504 and 507 budget adjustment requests.

So, $480 from 505 and let's see here. and then 700 I'm sorry 7535 for solid waste and then with the electric 17,910. Thank you Denise. And I I know Patty's here too. So the relevance of this budget adjustment versus the 92,000 in write offs. Um just so we know what what the difference or what the need is. Sorry Patty, you got me or Thank you. You guys tell us why they're different.

Yes, sir. Mayor and Council, the departments had originally put in an estimated budget for the year for write-offs. We tried to guess ahead without tying up too much of their budget and we felt a little bit short. So these are the differences that she's calculated that we'll need to make sure the write ups don't exceed their budget. Thank you. The total right 902,7979. Oh, so the other number is just the guessing and the 92,000 is the accurate or No, no, the write-off is accurate. The remaining amount is the additional budget. We just need increases in some of it because they had originally done an estimated amount in the original budget. Okay. So, the write off is the 92.97. Yes, ma'am.

Any more questions? Thank you, Patty. Thanks for the explanation. Motion to approve write offs of past due accounts with budget adjustment. Second. Piano. Yes. Councelor Molina. Yes. Councelor Garcia. Councelor Yazine. Yes. Yes. Thank you.

Yeah. Thank you, Denise. The next item is wait a bit on my right page. It's going to be the resolution resolution number R2026-16 approving the FY 2027 preliminary budget. And our speaker is Patty Holland.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. After numerous meetings and sessions with you and without you and and throughout the city, we have finally gotten together our preliminary budget. we want to bring forward today for approval. Tonight's presentation is super short and simple. I have a PowerPoint with a couple of slides to highlight the the uh key things that I want you to be able to see. First of all, this is our preliminary budget for 2027. DFA will require me to be for me to bring back to you in the month of June the initial budget. The only thing that we anticipate changing between the two budgets will be the cash balances. Right now we're doing it based on our estimated year end. When we do the um initial budget, it will be exact cash balances as of year end. The employee retention, we always have this as in our forefront of our minds when we're putting together the budget. We are recommending this year and have it embedded in here a wage increase across the board of 5% effective July 1. We're also recommending and planning to increase the sick leave payout when employees retire to 50% and cap it at a thousand hours. Next slide.

Can you explain that one more time to the 50%. So, so right now when you retire you get a 33% payout on your sick leave and we're recommending to incre. Do we currently roll over that? So like you have 40 hours like so many hours can roll over to the next year. They build up to a maximum amount. Yes. And then it rolls over every year a certain amount. It it just keeps building. Oh, so Oh, so there's no limit every You could roll over the whole Well, it rolls forward, but when when you retire, we have a cap on it of how much it'll pay out. And then your vacation leave will actually forfeit in January of every year if you have above the maximum.

Yeah. If you don't take vacation, work 20 years, don't take too much time off. And then that rolls over every year. Maybe you It caps out at for regular employees 248 hours. I believe that's still that's don't quote me that's a lot of hours the average person that's amazing is it 280 280 hours and it's you know we do have employees that it's really hard to be away from the office and get that time off we have some that just are really dedicated but um you know we we do cap it and and we do regularly sweep those accounts that's that's a January process

okay so moving on a highlight For our general fund, we have this year in revenues a little over 44 million. Rounded off, it's 45 million in revenues anticipated. Our expenditures for payroll and operations is 49 million and almost a million in capital. So, this budget is proposing a use of cash of 5.2 million through the enterprise fund. Solid Waste is going to have an estimated revenue of 5.1 million, payroll and operations of 4.6, capital of almost 500,000. He has a net cash gain of 33,000, but remember we did have to move one of his trucks to fund 202 so that that he had the proper cash reserves on hand.

And so as always, we're not doing the 20% cash reserve. Obviously, we do 180 days cash on hand for all of these. 180 days. Yes, ma'am. That's our cash policy that we we presented to council years ago that we've worked hard to maintain. And that's so that when there are dire emergencies or there's a problem with revenue flows or anything that we have the property cash on hand to get through that period of time in order to not interrupt operations in any way. But this net of 33,000 isn't the cash on hand. No, that's the net of this budget will show a gain of cash of $33,000. Okay. That's what I was concerned. I was like this is the cash on hand. This is concerning.

Now this is strictly the result of the proposed budget only. So for our water department, we're anticipating 7.5 in revenues. Payroll and operations will be 5.3 million. Another three million in capital with the use of cash of 750 thou $65,000. Electric, this is our largest enterprise fund. He has revenues of a little over $29 million. Payroll and operations will be almost 25 million. Your capital is going to be about 13 million investment for a use of cash of 8.4 4 million he's he's got and that was part of your 10ear CIP. So you you saw all of those items that he's investing in. Wastewater has revenues of 7.5 million. Peril operations will be 5.2. Capital is um $38,000 investment with a $1.9 million gain in cash. Remember under wastewater we have some large grant loan money that we are planning to utilize. So we didn't have to take that out of the operational cash at this time. And finally, the FTEES for the year. We will be moving forward with 408 full-time employees funded, 73 part-time. We do have six new positions in resulting in a total positions for the city of 487. With that, I stand for questions and request your approval. Righty. Thank you so much for putting together summarizing the budget and putting it together for all of us and the PowerPoint presentation that you've provided. Um, is there any questions from the council?

Sierra.

Um, thank you. Not so much. Uh, thank you so much for all your work on this, Patty. I know it was a lot being new. Um this year I just did a lot of listening and observing through a lot of the sessions and I did learn a lot. However, uh coming out of it I would say I would really really appreciate any kind of like narrative summary and um helpful visuals. You know a some municipalities are able to put out for their public to also understand the budget a lot clearer ahead of time before the approval process um begins. I know that we were kind of on a tight timeline with this and um I do believe we did our best and we did well with what we had to do. um it was just a lot to take in and I was kind of looking for that like where the you know the cheat sheet and the easy visuals and I think so that's rings true for our public I think too that they would like to know where the money's going without having to sort through the hundreds of pages of spreadsheet and line items and um seeing that only a few days before this meeting you know just with the agenda being published I think having more time for public review and input would be helpful. Um, but because of that, I just wanted to also say, and I apologize for the background noise. I could not find a better place to be right now. But um I just wanted to say that with um the concerns about Flock and about the automated license plate readers, camera systems that we will work closely with procurement and legal when contracting for those systems, the gunshot detection system and the camera systems to ensure for civilian data privacy. I think that is definitely a concern to this council and um something that we care about and have heard the public on. So, I know that some people had expressed they were concerned that this that was still

included in this budget and I just wanted to point that out that um we are aware of the concerns on that line item and moving forward with this budget um doesn't mean anything about the final contract that we'll end up with for those services. So, do stay engaged and thank you for expressing your concerns. Thank you, Son.

I got a little gray area. maybe you can shed some light on is uh our total payroll is pushing $50 million. We got almost 500 employees. That comes out to about $100,000 per employee. I know most of the employees don't make that much. I know I don't.

I I could get a breakdown for you. Um but you know, we have employees. Our lowest pay that we have I believe is 19 19 I don't remember our entry level wage but it's well above minimum wage. We do have have some of our higherend individuals that that do make higher than that. Our benefits is a very strong package and that's that's a big part of the the cost of our employees. That's what I'm trying to find out. Tell us about this. So So our our benefit package is roughly 50% of your wage. 50%

50%. And everybody participates in that with the exception of seasonal employees do not qualify. Our part- timerrs get a reduced level of benefits, but they do participate in PAR. So that's that's the primary one. That's good. A great and I needed to drag that out of you because our employees need to realize uh you know the average employee in the city of Gallup is making $100,000 a year with benefits. With benefits. Yes, sir. you know, and that benefit package is uh lots of people would die to have the benefit package the city has. Thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you. I'm glad you pointed that out. Our our benefit package is extremely generous.

Yeah.

Questions and comments. Um so, yeah, I echo what um Councelor Lena said. I mean, in most industries, they a lot of industries don't even pay your benefits. You pay on your own or that it's very minimal what you get paid out. So government I will say just government in general pays exceptionally well for benefits. So I think that is really important point that you brought up. Um I also want to com I have my own comments but comment also Yazi I I do agree with um having more um you know making sure the public understands things but I I also as a person who does budgets in my day job I want to say that this is a 30 million plus budget and um this is this is not against anyone but I think it's challenging to do a summary of $30 million budget with the amount of departments we have and the amount of I mean it's astronomical and and I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, we have the open system that people can go into and look at the budget, but I don't know that we can do like a like it's not going to be like pretty basic. I mean, this is a this is an extensive extensive budget. And you know, if you want to come to me or Patty and you really want to know, you want to spend 12 hours going, I mean, also our our budget hearings are public, so I encourage people to come and learn, but I mean, sometimes I don't even want to be there, people. So I'm just saying like it's a extensive budget. Don't hold that against the joke.

So So our budget actually the share revenues are over 142 million. Spending is 165 million. We have somewhere in the range of 80 active funds over 5,000 lines. It is very detailed, very extensive, and all the way up until last week Thursday morning, we were finalizing things. It It's just a very lengthy process. Every year we try to figure out a way to get it to this stage sooner and earlier and just because of the processes it takes and the feedback and the time for people to, you know, once we start getting it to to the table for your eyes to see, then there's additional feedback questions or or re re um prioritizing and different things that have to happen. It's really hard. We do have um there's not public access to our budget system at this point because we've never moved into the budget book side of it, but as counselors, we can definitely and we we've tried it in the past and it didn't work out well just because because of of the the it just took more time, but you can gain access to it. We can set you up to have viewing access to go through it and look at details and run reports on your own as well. We we can definitely work to improve it. This year was probably the most chaotic one we've had and and it's it was a little bit harder on us, but I think I think overall we've got things fairly well represented. I do anticipate some a little bit harder work on it next year because we're finding that we're we're getting to the points where we've got more and more constraints and more and more needs and demands on our funds.

Thanks. And I had one sorry mayor I had one more comment. Um, also in terms of I just want to give clarity to us as a council and the public that if we have, you know, items that are in this budget that we approve and they're like capital projects and they're rolled into this budget, but capital projects I believe do have like for contracts, they'll have to come back to us. So, I know um councelor Yazi did bring up, you know, the flock and I know uh I I'm I'm I'm not saying I'm not I'm just staying neutral, but I think that it's not flock, right? Like that came out as kind of the what we was originally proposed, but it's the surveillance system itself would have to go to RFP and every contract we do has to go up for RFP. It has to go to bid. So, it's not going to it's not just like an automatic, go we're interested in this company. has to go through a very detailed process through purchasing. So, I just want to reiterate that and that any contract moving forward is brought to council as a capital request and that if we at that time are like we're not comfortable with this but we want to change it. Yes, like the money was budgeted but we can change that at that time. We can change the contract. We can change the money we want to invest in that contract. So, it's it's not exactly I know it feels like it's in the budget it's written in stone. It's not really like that, right? The budget just gives us the wiggle room to work with it. So, I just want to give clarity on that because I've had a lot of questions about that as well. Like, well, you're putting this in the budget and so now you're going to move forward and it's like, no, these contracts that through cap, especially if it's a capital purchase, do have to come back to council before they're approved,

right? If the contract exceeds $50,000, it requires council approval for the city manager to have the signature authority to sign on it. Also, one of the things we did to try and get costs within the right price ranges so that they were reasonable because people were were doing their own guesstimates. The same item needed in five departments. Vehicles was a particular one. One department came in at 20,000, the other was at 60,000. So, we require them to get some kind of bid, some kind of quote, some kind of estimate of what it's going to be. So, you may see a name brand on any one of these, but until it goes through the procurement and goes through the purchasing department, we we don't get to hand select and pre-select the vendors. They do we do the full process. This is just when you approve these tonight, you're approving the funding for those items, but you're not dictating what the vendor is or what all of all of the the different options are when when we get to the contract stage to finalize it. Does that make sense?

Um, is there any comment questions from the public or no? Nothing. Yeah. Thank you. uh comment that I think that's not go ahead and come up and you give us your name.

Sorry. Thank you. Suzanne Hammonds. Um thank you for explaining that. But I think it's not just about flock in particular. It's all license plate readers. And in respect to the caller, the gentleman caller earlier who spoke up. Um we do have a right to privacy when it comes to the the fourth amendment of the constitution. Um nobody wants to see law enforcement hurt. We want to equip them to do their jobs, but not using a system or any private company that will violate cell data. There have been employees that have been caught logging in to watch children. Where's that data going? All of these private companies. That's what we're against. It's just one simple item in the budget. I know it's long, but there are systems in place that the police already have access to, that do follow the law, that do require warrants, that don't sell our data to whoever, that don't use AI. That's simply what we're against. I just want to make a comment and I I respect every opinion that comes forward and I been careful about not saying this but I I want to be clear that if you have a cell phone and you have a computer is using AI every day and when I see people on Facebook I not saying you just anybody using Facebook that's doing those quizzes making their face into somebody else oh so I look like a my adopted sister all those quizzes you know what I'm talking about that is using AI data and I guarantee selling your information so I get I get not wanting AI and not wanting data sold. I get that. But unless unless we don't have a phone or a computer or any of that, it's doing the same thing tracking us right now. The difference is I can leave my phone at home. I can leave my computer at home, you know? Um I can't opt into one of these. And second of all, we do again there is a line somewhere, right? Like if I demanded you hand me your phone, I want to look at it. I want to so everybody hear what your text messages say. Of course, you'd be against that. There is a line that we have. And so I I understand that that's a reasonable thing, but especially when it comes to law enforcement.

Thank you so much. Yeah. Thank if we could have a Yeah, if we could have a motion. Motion to approve resolution number R2026-16 approving fiscal year 2027 preliminary budget. Thank you. Thanks for the great job. Thank you. I appreciate it. Council Garcia. Yes. Councilor Piano. Yes. Councelor Molina. Yes. Council Yazy. Yes. Def. Yes. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next item is an ordinance to amend section 8-6-2 PN BN 6 of the Gallup city code clarifying the use of Navajo Gallup water supply project searchcharge and our speaker today is Erica Bro.

Thank you mayor and council Erica bro deputy city attorney. Um, this matter came to our office late last year. Um, in light of, as this council knows, the ongoing delays with the scheduled delivery of project water for Navajo Gallup. Um, the council established back in 2014 a search charge to cover that escalates up until FY2029 to cover project costs. The way the ordinance was written was it was really limited in terms of how the city could use those funds for the project. What we've learned is that the city's reliance on groundwater has been extended because the surface water deliveries have been delayed. Groundwater has always been contemplated to be used as part of the project as conjunctive groundwater as the mayor is well familiar. Um, but this would allow the city to expand the use of that search charge to account for all components of the Navajo Gallup water supply project. construction, operation, maintenance, repair, replacement, including groundwater wells, storage tanks, the full component of the Gallup regional water system that's required to service this the citizens of Gallup. That's also part of the Navajo Gallup water supply project as the whole. So, this amendment just fixes some constraints within the original ordinance. It stays within the original intent from our opinion um in terms of using it for project costs but builds in some flexibility for the city to address these um additional delays.

Well, thank you Erica. Um you know this this is very important for the city the city that the delay in the delivery of the surface water from Navo Gallup has really put the jeopardy the city in financial jeopardy and in trouble with water supply. Um, so of course we were we were able to get some wells drilled, but the other thing that's happened is we were we were planning on having that water delivered. We would start fixing our water tanks and replacing our pipes and our pumps. Well, the water's not here. We're still paying for a project and we need to get our water storage tanks replaced and we or fixed or repainted. We have there's a bunch of pipes that need to be replaced because they're cast iron and there's other production facilities that need to be fixed and transmission and this money allows us to do that. Um so if you like if you're driving and you see Rahobitth tank up on the hill looks like it's all little rusted battleship. This money will be used to fix Rahobit tank and other tanks in the city. And

and I'll clarify this doesn't change the surf the search charge amount the escalation. It just amends the language for the use of the searchcharge. Mayor, out of my curiosity, are we going to not have that search charge at some point? That's a financial that that'll be fin determined with our repayment contract once we negotiate. And the big thing that's coming up the Navo Gallup project is called the operation maintenance and replacement contract. So until we get those values or those numbers taken care of, we will uh we still are required to keep the search charge and the other the other fees we have in place.

Yeah, the search charge will continue. It just stopped escalating in FY2029.

Again, the delay is we should have already had the operation maintenance contract. We'd know where we are and because of the delay, we don't know. We while we're but we did get a cost cap for our capital cost operation maintenance and replacement is the next negotiation. Ron,

yeah, I just like to make a comment along that line. You know, with what I do for a living, I' I've get involved with a lot of the city's infrastructure and uh it's bad. It's very bad. There's been plenty of times where we got a water break here, it gets fixed and 20 ft down the road when we turn the water on, the rest of that pipes ruptured. It's very delicate height at this point that's underground. Shouldn't have lasted this long. Uh should not have gone this long, but uh our council here tonight is has the opportunity to take care of that and fix it, and we are. Thank you. Anything else?

Yeah. If we're done, I'd like to make a motion approve an ordinance to amend the section 8-6-2 B6 of the Gallup city code clarifying the use of Navajo W Gallup water supply project searchcharge. Second. Councelor Molina. Yes. Councelor Piano. Yes. Councelor Garcia. Yes. Councelor Yazy. Yes. Mayor Depali. Yes.

Okay. Thank you very much. With that is the lodgers tax discussion. Um and our speaker of course is going to be Matt Robertson, tourism and marketing director manager with the city. And we Hey, U. Matt. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Thank you for having me up this evening. Uh, yes, I I think the agenda narrative kind of laid it out pretty well, but I know we want to address applications individually by vote. So, I thought this would be a good moment to just have kind of a general discussion, answer any questions you might have, and and hopefully aid in any information you need for the decisions tonight. So, I laid it all out there in the narrative, and I'd stand for any questions you might have. So, one of the things that when we when we met we we looked at the budget, we realized that the um the policy was to keep $500,000 in reserve. Um but when we went through the requests, we found that if we took 45,000 of that instead of full funding the reserve, we would have enough money to fully fund most of the most of the requests. Unfortunately, Matt was not briefed on this because our city manager had to leave to take care of his mother. And um that's yeah that's that's where the uh where when it comes down to the paragraph it says a policy to keep $500,000. We will be reducing that amount by the 40 40 if we if we approve the recommend the awards that we put together here that will reduce that by 47,000. Mayor council I I think my overall question is we have an all volunteer lodger tax committee. So, what do I go back and tell them? Because they volunteer their time. They work hard

reviewing all these applications and they really stuck their necks out at the last meeting making tough decisions to try to live within our budget. So, if we override their recommendations, what would you like me to go back and tell them for their service, their volunteer service? Well, to be clear, um I can't speak for anyone else, but for myself, this is the first time I'm hearing this from mayor or city city manager in terms of that we're changing anything. I have not been included. I've not been apprised of that. So, I'm unaware of any new situation that we're talking about and I can only speak for myself as a counselor. But

when I presented the FY27 budget, I went through line by line and made cuts across the board. The average cut I made to the other council was about 53%. The cut to the lodger tax grant program is 50%. In fact, I reduced our overall advertising budget. the real meat and potatoes of putting Gallup on the map. I reduced that fromundred and wait 175,000 to 35,000. So for me, my intention going into the budgeting was to share the burden across the board and I am definitely opposed to anything that removes the spirit of that. I think all the accounts need to share the same burden and if we're going to cut into the reserve policy which I object to but if we're going to do that then it needs to be applied across the board in my opinion

a further if if you're going to change the cash reserve policy that is part of our policy for our coastal framework for controls for part of our audit. So I'll have to bring that policy back to you for official modification and approval. But keep in mind this is a one-time thing. you're dip you would be dipping into the savings and then it's a permanent change once you spend that that additional 47,000 then that's it. It's it's not available again and again. It just reduces how much is is going to be there at all. And we've been spending down cash for the last couple years and unfortunately it has created um an unrealistic expectation of the funds that are going to be available for for funding

because eventually the reser excuse me mayor uh on it the won't be there right I mean the reserve will just eventually go away and there won't be a reserve because there's nothing replenishing the reserve.

Well so what all the reserve is is when we we work with this fund we spend the money coming in this year this year. So, we set a threshold several years ago as part of our cash controls to make sure we don't run into the negative on funds that seem to be the most risky. And we set a $500,000 threshold on only a handful of funds. And then on the utilities, we set it as 180day cash reserve. That was best practices. So, we did set that. You could permanently change that threshold to any number you want. But again, that just re frees up that money that first time. And then you're still going to you still need to maintain some threshold. Otherwise, if this if we remove that 500, then the fund is in at the same position we have with uh grant funds to where every quarter, then I I potentially would be up here saying, well, we didn't collect it quite as fast as we were able to utilize it, so we need to do a $100,000 loan or whatever. And it impacts our cash flows for general fund. It is it is allowable. It is something you could do. It's just not what I would consider best practices. So the the the way it the way it's going to the way I interpreted it. Now I might be wrong, but next year we were going to have a convention fee that should pay $450,000 for the the Red Rock State Parks portion. So what that means is next year we should have an additional $450,000 if you did this direct math um of money because it's not going to Red Rock State Park anymore. That will be paid out of the convention fee. Is that that's what I'm being here. I But check keep us straight. I mean that's

Yeah. Mayor and council that money was shifted into the convention center fund. You're correct. That doesn't reduce the the deficit we are facing. We would still be in the same position with that money in there. It'd be even worse actually if we kept it in tax. Then we're looking at closer to 900,000. But but that's this year. But next year we we should have the 400 once the all the convention fee money is collected in in December of next year. We should have that 450,000 in the convention fee budget. Then we can you utilize that for the Red Rock State Park or anything else. Correct. But the but but the lodgers tax then doesn't have to pay the 450 anymore. Right. Next year

that burden has already been removed from next year's budget from the lodgers tax. It's already got put into the new convention center fee. This is with that consideration already being moved over that that we're pushed this far on the demands and the the opportunities that are available.

Like basically unless we get more heads and beds for the lodger stacks, it it's it won't replenish that 450,000 because we already lost so much of that is what we're saying. So we're not replenishing it really. And I think if we want to go by that math, then let's wait till next year to see how much is in there and then we'll decide on those amounts at that time. But I I'm I'm with M on this. I don't think we should be saying let's change the amount now because we think next year we're going to have the money like wish in one hand and you know in the other. So I just say it out loud but I just think we got to be careful about that. We have money. We have we have to follow the money. We have had many conversations about this. And quite frankly, I also feel strongly that if we're going to have discussions at any point as a council and mayor about changing what we dip into the reserve, that that should have been brought before the council before this meeting because that I I was not I was not um made aware of any change.

Well, you guys already dipped into it. That's you're making the deficit up. That's what this is. So, there was already that the dipping was already done, right? For this year right now, it looks like we're going to fall a little bit short. We're going to we're going to be a couple hundred thousand dollar short, but then again for next year it was going to push it even further and that's when we went in and and Matt made all the recommended cuts to bring it back to where it end next year at 500,000. So So the So the So the money's already been So right now the only money you have in reserve is 300,000, right? You don't So you're getting $200,000 out of this year's proceeds to bring it up to the 500, right? See, so that's already been dipped into. So what? How much is So how much is the reserve now? 300,000. 300,000. Yes.

So you're just suggesting that we dip even further into the reserve. I mean, no, it would dip further into it and bring it down. Uh, not the way this reads. It says they're you're taking 200,000 to make up the difference to bring it to 500. So I'm just saying dip it into the 200,000 and make buy the 45,000 just to cover the amount the extra amounts for these. Um that that's

we should have in we should have not budgeted everything we came to council for this year and once I started getting the updates on all the numbers and put together the forecast at midyear we were overextended I we're going to go line we're going to go item by item you know for large checks right but I I just want to I've stated this many times I don't think I can say it any clear I think that we want to support events and we want to support but I think I stated in our budget meetings, I want to support generally tourism for the community. Like and if we support tourism generally for the community, it allows for hopefully all these events to succeed and already Matt not saying we're we're completely going down to like a bare bones even like we're the tourism. We're a bare bones marketing for tourism. That is insane. What are we doing? And then now we're saying but we want to give every event what they ask. Well, we just we are just slowly running out of money. We've talked about this and I I love all these events. I I've stated that I go to them. I think they're great. But I agree that if every time Matt and the Lodger tax committee that was appointed comes up with this decision and meets regularly and then they go to council and we just say whatever, we don't care what you decided. We're going to over what's the point of the committee? Then we the largest tax groups might as well come to the city directly if we're going to overrule the committee every single time.

I don't think we're going to I don't think that's the basis. We're not overruling every single time. But I think each each event should be case by case, not one lump sum of uh just because it has because we are you have it written out, you know, the 25%. We went we go by that. We went by that and I I I disagree that we're you know there's other uh uh agencies and organizations that meet and they have uh like let's say bid I'm on bid board and we over we have something done and we bring it to the city and the city says no. they override us. Okay, that's their decision. That's our right to do that. So, we're not overriding you. We're not I respect the board. I I want them to be there and I want to work with them, but I also want to work with each and every organization as a case by case, not one.

Mayor and council, I I can say the committee did go case by case, event by event. They went through in great detail all of the strategies that were recommended. We presented the overall budget that was available. They made a lot of tough decisions in that room. They really stuck their necks out. And for now to go back and say, "Oh, you did all that." Okay. You know, I've already had comments from the committee members saying, "Why are we doing this if we're not if our recommendations aren't being heard?" Because this is if we go through with what's on the paper tonight, that would be overriding them. The last time we came to council, we had to do a budget adjustment to put another $90,000 in the account because the recommendations weren't followed and council decided to fully fund the awards.

Thank Yeah. Go ahead. I just have another question for y'all for what is what is your marketing strate strategy now to bring in more tourism? Do you have one? And how's that working?

Oh, yes. So, are you asking for FY27? Well, I don't have a lot to work with in FY27. We're going to be leaning heavily on the co-op program that we participate in with the state. Hopefully, we'll learn sometime this month what we're awarded. I applied for about 80ome,000 of what the city would contribute and the state will match that 2 to1. So, that's going to be our bread and butter next fiscal year in terms of advertising. But that is also a limited menu of strategies we can select from. So I'm extremely grateful for the for the support from the state. But it is we're picking from predetermined strategies. It's not the strategies necessarily we want to do in house. I also like to have an appropriate advertising budget because it lets us kind of be flexible as we're going along. Sometimes things come up, events come up, priorities change, things happen, and I want to be able to be responsive. It's a very fastmoving industry. buying ads, getting social media placements out, running videos, all that kind of stuff. So, I want to be positioned to be able to pivot when necessary. In general, our advertising strategy focuses on culture, adventure, outdoor adventure, and shopping and dining and our events. We do uh while we have in the past in a tremendous amount of advertising to promote the cultural experiences in our community, the events that we have, we spend out of the lodgers budget, the general advertising budget, a significant amount of money even promoting the events for the events. We have event calendars all over the place. You probably seen the visitors guide event calendar. We pull ads in different publications to promote the events even when they're not our event because we want people coming to Gallup to enjoy the same events we enjoy and we know they're going to have a good time at. So there's several strategies I can talk to you all day about it.

Uh Matt, first of all, I appreciate everything the committee does. I I do. Uh the thing is is that uh it's tough. It's tough for both sides. Uh me as a council person, I'm I'm trying to do what's best for Gallup. I think the committee will understand that. Uh I I I'm looking at a list here. Uh and I've got to say, I got to be honest. I don't lie to anybody. I'm looking at this list and there's three that are near and dear to my heart. And I'm going to tell you right now, Lion's Club, uh, Lion's Club donates every penny back into this town that they make. Uh, with Lion's Club, it's a good investment, you know. Uh, and I'm talking about the eyeglasses. Uh, I made a comment one day. I was a treasure for the Lions Club and Dr. Dr. Balffor came in with a bill and I said, "Holy cow about fell over backwards when we paid this bill to Dr. Balffor." Well, when I put the pencil to it, Dr. Balffor thousands of pairs of glasses. He charged $8 for a pair of glasses.

Now, you tell me that is not worth helping out with. U they put on the rodeo. That's the only that's one of their major fundraisers and that's what we're trying to help them with right here. And that rodeo produces money for the eyeglasses for the local kids here. Uh all around not just Gallup, all around the the the tribal area. Uh God knows they need more help. Uh and I'm going to help them if uh everybody would agree with me. TDFL. Uh if you weren't there on uh what is it Friday and Saturday night to uh meet and greet the parents uh that that thing is an endeavor that uh Sammy C started and it's remarkable. Everybody knows it's remarkable but these people come from all over the place. They look forward to come into this uh football tournament and uh you know parents struggle to get their kids down and everything else but they bring the gr grandparents and the grandparents spend lots and lots of money here in Gallup. Um uh my other the other thing I really uh enjoy is Wild Thing. I know Wild Thing makes a profit, but Wild Thing is so entertaining. You know, it's just an amazing uh show that they put on.

But those are my three that I'd like to push for. Um and and we'll we'll address those when we get there. So, Ron, appreciate it. It's Yes. Thank you,

Mayor Counselor, if I may. None of these recommendations are based on the merits of the organization or the work that they do. My concern and my responsibility is for the lodger tax fund and the rate we are expending money particularly through the grant program is outpacing the revenue coming in. I would be derelictked in my duty if I didn't try to raise these points. So nothing I'm saying or trying to do has anything to do with the merits of the event, the wonderful work they do on the ground. I love our events. I love our organizations. Has nothing to do with these people. It's about the numbers and keeping this unsolvent. Matt, just one more question because I'm I'm not that familiar with lodgers tax or the convention fee funding. What is the anticipated income for FY27 for the convention fee? I'm looking at Patty too. What do you what do you anticipate with a convention fee?

I projected about 800,000. 800. And then what's the projected income of the lodgers tax? 1.3 million. So that's about 2.1 million between them and about 2.1 million. Did I add that right? Yeah. 1.3 plus8. Um anyway, and with and the lodgers tax. So looking at the budget, just so I'm just making clear, the budget that's been submitted does not include Red Rock Park in that budget and the budget that you have for FY27. Right. Right. It's not in the larger tax budget. It's in convention center. It's in the convention center budget. Okay.

All right. Okay. Good enough. Just wanted to make sure and see that what these items these items were. Mayor, part of the 1.3 estimated is that doesn't all go to like out to groups, right? Like that's divide. That's for the whole there's a budget in here. Budget. Yeah. So, is it like a 6040 or 4060? Forget that's that mayor council. One of the mandates we have to comply with is on the expenditure side. The 6040 ratio. 60% is supposed to be spent on operations. 40% is supposed to be spent on promotions. Okay. So, so only 40% of that number is on promotions.

Yes. because I just want to be clear because I don't like if I hear oh 1.3 million like oh hey we have tons of money like actually only 40% of the right and it's and and FY25 was 1.5 million um so they are anticipating a reduction yes sir I run a mayor council I run a forecasting model using actuals from previous years and that's how I get to the 1.3 million

and we know with higher gas prices people don't travel as much though Um, okay. Uh, I don't do we need anything with this? It's just discussion only. Um, if there's any more questions, if not for Matt. If not, we'll move on to the first recommendation. Mayor, council, good evening. The first uh recommendation we have from the logger text committees for Gallup intertribal ceremonial and the committee awarded them a recommendation of 30,000. They requested about a little over 50,000. So we went through to the organization's credit they volunteered a few cuts out of their own budget because they heard kind of they saw the writing that was going on during that meeting. So they stepped up and offered some of their their request to take it down. So the committee went through line by nine and they came up with 30,000 as the proposed amount.

Is there anybody with a ceremonial there is there and we appreciate it. You know like I said what like what everybody did. Um but we'd like to just make a small adjustment. We looked at the the numbers and who's we

oh excuse me. I would like to make a proposal that we adjust the amount as the mayor of the the award to the ceremonial based on the criteria that was given. It's going to be $40,000 is the maximum amount or 25% of their revenue or expected revenue. Um the way we looked at it, the uh the expected revenue is over $800,000, which would mean it'd be $200,000 if with one criteria. The other criteria was the $40,000 maximum. um with with the criteria that you put together wonderfully. We've stayed within the criteria, but we would I would propose to change the amount or the the ceremonial from 30,000 to 40,000 uh which is the maximum amount given to a to any to any request.

I think says 25% but overall I thought it was 20. It's 25%. It's in your package right now. 25% mayor council. Um, with that, is there any any discussion? Anybody have anything to add? If not, we have a motion to move with the 40,000. Yeah, if there's no discussion, I'd like to make a motion to accept that uh 40,000 max for Lodgers tax grant recommendation for the 104th annual Galifendel Travel Ceremonium.

Second, excuse me, councelor Molina. Yes. Councelor Garcia, yes. Councelor Piano, no. Councelor Yazy, I'm sorry. Can you clarify if we're voting to approve 30,000 or 40,000 for ceremonial? 40,000. No. Mayor Defoley. Yes.

Um the next item is for a logers tax grant recommendation for Lions Club Rodeo. Um again the U recommendation is for $20,000 and what we've done is we've looked again at the criteria and the requirements that for to award make the award and there were two items there that they submitted on. Uh one was a downtown event which had a total budget expected revenue or expenses of $16,000. Um, when we took the criteria of the 25% or the 40,000, whichever was less, we came up with $4,000 for that particular one item. That's LA that's Lion's Club downtown. Um, I just want to make sure we're uh following what we have here, but that's that's so that would be the that would be the uh request the award for the downtown event. And for the rodeo, um, it's the same thing. The expected revenues uh of the event expenditures is two $242,000. 25% of that would be 60,000. Uh but their request their total request in was only for was 38,000 for both the downtown event and the rodeo. Uh so we would we would recommend giving them 34,000 for the rodeo event. Um, adding both of those together, it would be it's of course the that's it's still less than 40 and it'd be $38,000 for both the downtown event and the rodeo.

Mayor, council, I need to point out the 34,000 for the rodeo is higher than their request. Their request was 30,000 and that was the same level as last year. Yeah. Their uh but their um downtown event was $8,000 request.

Yes, sir. and they would not be able to get 8,000 with the criteria we have today. Um because they they would only be eligible for 4,000. So we were going to meet their full requested amount by increasing because they're only eligible 4,000 for the downtown with the 25%. And they're eligible up to up to 60,000 with the rodeo event. Um that's why we we increase the rodeo events to 34,000.

Yes, sir. Mayor Council, this is going to create several issues when the reimbursement comes along. First of all, I don't know what the additional $4,000 would be applied to in terms of strategies. So, what are they approved to do with that additional $4,000? That's one issue. And the second issue is just being able to get a, you know, of a PO issued for it when the request is 30,000. I mean, I I guess if you say it's 34, then it's 34. But I don't know what that additional 4,000 would be applied to, I guess, is the point I'm trying to make. Thank you, Matt. Um, we have some Lions Club members here that can talk on that issue. And I could just I could just say this.

Thank you, Mayor Mayor, mayor and council. Appreciate all you guys. Have Lion Roxy here, myself, uh, Ed Ar. U, uh, I am the chairperson for the rodeo this year. Uh right now with our advertising budget as per what the guidelines were, uh we approved at our board meeting last week of $26,000 just to hit all the markets in the outlying area. And also that doesn't include the Red Rock Park for another $9,800. So if you add those two together, we're almost at $34,000 just for advertisements in the Red Rock Park rental. Uh, so we were grateful that you could possibly give us the 38,000 and be well spent. We're not using it on jackets. We're not using it on hats. We're not using on t-shirts. We're not using on buckles. We've reached out to all the markets. Uh, Lion Sylvester is our marketing strategist over there. IHeart Media does streaming online. They reach out in a broad broad pallet. We've reached out to Flagstaff, uh, Farmington, KOB, KRQE, all the news stations. Actually, before the meeting tonight, one of our advertisements played on the news at 5:00 this evening, but we've already started it. Uh, we are not doing buckles, back numbers. We followed Matt's guidance to the best of our abilities. Uh, and right now our our financial status of the budget is way over budgeted 20K because we're 25,000 right now for advertising that we're proving. Uh, you guys do know like like Ron pointed out, all of our monies goes back to the community. We help out TDFL. Uh, I don't know if you guys realize, and I know Matt doesn't want to argue merit and stuff like that here, but everything we do goes back to the

community. Without that extra $18,000, that's a 48 decrease in our marketing strategy that we're trying to uphold. Uh, without that, it's going to be hard to serve our community and keep this rodeo going. We are the 76th annual rodeo. Uh, we are celebrating this year the 250th birthday of America uh, at our rodeo. And then we're using the route 66 and that theme on our parade. So we're trying to tie in a few things there. I'll turn it over to Lion Rock.

Thank you. Hi Mayor um counselors. So the the thing with um the committee as well too when we went to the committee meeting and all the events were there. There was only an amount of what like 130,000 or 150,000 that was supposed to be divided between six events which four of the events are your largest events that we have that are here tonight which is alliance club by all things ceremonial um and TDFL. So, the committee had to work hard. Um, you know, and I think they did work hard as far as to try to divvy that up and make everybody happy, but it cut everybody in half. Like everybody in half. We asked for 30,000 for the rodeo and then we asked for 8,000 for the downtown. So, the total is 38,000 because they're two separate events. We were told that we could do two separate events which we've been doing these past years. So, at the committee when they were struggling, we were just like, "Go ahead and go ahead and combine them." We told them, "Go ahead and combine them." Figuring we would still get more what, you know, maybe not as less as we thought we were going to get. So, they combined them and gave us 20,000 for a $38,000 request, cutting it by $18,000 on there. So, if again, if the 4,000 can do for the downtown, we'll take the 4,000 for the downtown. And if we need to um do the 30 on our requested ask for, we're fine with that.

That's a good compromise. 34,000. I mean, you guys give all the money back to the community like you, right? Yeah. So, I'm okay with I mean, we could do 38 if you want, but no. I think we can do We'll take the 34 as far as the discount. I mean, we'll do 48 4,000 for downtown and the 30,000 as we requested because like you said, we're already at 25,000 for advertising right now. Plus, if we add the venue in for the park, that's another 9,000. So, we're already going to be that's where all that money will go that you give us tonight. If it is 34,000,

uh it'll all be spent on advertisement in Red Rock Park. Uh that would really help us on our bottom line. Uh we're flexible with what we can do. You know, uh you guys see us around the community everywhere. Everywhere we're at, we're always volunteering there. We do the hot dogs for and hamburgers for TVFL. We don't get paid for that. That's free. The Eastern thing is free. The national night out we do is free. You guys know what we do. I don't have to preach on that, but we'd appreciate any monies you can give us so we can help make a successful event and keep supporting our community. Mark, go ahead. Yes.

Uh before you sit down, what are we charging you at Red Rock State Park? Uh it's what 9,800 or? Yeah, 9,800. So you're looking at about $10,000. And I I will make a comment on their side. Again, um Gallop Lions Club is the one that started Red Rock State Park. Don't nobody forget about that. Without Lions Club, we probably would not have Red Rock State Park. for sure.

Uh, you know, and I'm u I I I I I don't agree with you. I'm still standing at a total of $38,000 for Lions Club. On that note, on the Red Rock Park is back in 1972 or 73, the Alpines Club had grants upwards of $250,000 and they donated that money in the Lewis Brothers Plumbing and Heat back then donated all their time and energy to put the infrastructure in at Red Rock Park. So figure $250,000 back then. Uh what's it worth? What's it worth today? And what was all their time and money worth? So, you know, since the city gave up on Red Rock Park as far as turning it over this county, we were getting kind of a wash with the city because of all the past things, I think understand things changed, but now that's a $10,000 budget hit for us and that takes glasses out of kids food off the pantry and stuff like that and so on and so forth. I want I want to I want to be clear. You guys know I think you do a good job, but on the reason just to clarify on the 38 versus 34. It's not that I don't think you should have it, but

we set our own guidelines as the city and the committee in terms of like each project and the percentage. So, if we don't stick by our own guidelines, like we're just not sticking by our own guidelines. And I we are Well, no, but like for 34,000, but on the 38, we just gave an additional four to the other event. That's not in the budget you submitted. than that. So that does cause a little bit of an issue, right? Like Matt's saying because that's the only reason I'm associated with 34 because it's we're doing percentages like up to 25% of So I'm just trying to and that's fine. We can do the 30 and the and we understand that we're trying to work with the hotel. It's still a west side.

Just to be just to be clear that the request for the downtown was 8,000 and the request for the the park was 30. So that was 38. Last week it was 38. Yeah. But you're saying according to the they request 8,000 but according to our own guidelines of up to 25% we actually can't get that four. Yes. Yeah. That's why we're giving them four of the other 30. Right. Right. So I was just but on the rodeo side uh mayor stated that we could qualify for up to $60,000. Well 40 $40,000 and is the max. So he's they're offering to give us 35 plus the four 34 34 plus the four. Sorry. All right.

Uh, so in reality, it's still within the budgets of both items. Yes. Mayor, council, if I could, if you do, there the rodeo request is 30,000 and we have a itemized breakdown of how they plan to spend that 30,000. If you end up granting 34,000, I need guidance on what that additional 4,000 can be applied to specifically so I can go through in the reimbursement process and make sure all the ducks are in a row and have our documentation in a row as well. Separate budget for the 8,000 that was requested. Yes.

So if we did 34,000 then they could you could stick to the guideline you have for 30,000 on the that they gave right and then you could stick to the 4,000 within the 8,000 like they It would stick within the budget that they gave, right? Mayor Council, 30,000 for rodeo would be within the budget. 4,000 for the barbecue would be within that budget as well. Yes. On the rodeo side, then the 25,000 that we've already had for budgeting plus the Red Rock Park of 10,000. So that would be 35,000. Could we do that? Here is 20,000 in advertising, 10,000 for Red Rock Park. So, we have to add Did I put that on the

Yes. Okay.

Okay. That's fine. So, this or I could redo it and add more advertisements. Can I say something on the Oh, yeah. Can I jump in? Yeah.

Okay. Given everything that was just presented to us, I really think it's important that we listen to the committee recommendations. I know that it's less than what everybody wants, but if the money is not there, then it's not there. And if we give everybody more than what the committee has recommended to us, we're gonna dig an even deeper hole for ourselves. Even anticipating that future income next year, I just I don't think that's fiscally smart to say that we're going to bank on replenishing the the fund if we don't have the money to give everybody what they're asking. We can't do that. And I I think we should really stick to the lodgers tax grant committee's recommendations. They went over every event. They went over every application in detail and gave us these recommendations for a reason. And I think it's I just think it is smart and it's not to hurt anybody's event or their feelings. These are all great events. We want to see them all continue. They do great things for the community. But specifically to promote their events, a lot of these are also longtime events that people know are happening here and that um we do want to market, but some of them can be marketed together. some of them have already are already being marketed in the visitors guide and other things. So, um I just think it's also like if we're doing this, if we're going to go ahead and approve more than what's recommended for all these events,

we need to let the public know that next year is going to look very different and that we cannot guarantee this grant program next year. Thank you. Um, can we have a motion time to proceed with the uh funding of the Lions Club? Yes. I'd like to make a motion that we uh approve the largest tax grant recommendation for Lions Club for $38,000.

They had um the recommended amount for this is $20,000. Yes, we know. Yes. I I don't know how to do this. I want to make a motion, but uh since they the Lions Club, we want to give them the 38,000 that could the 25%, you know, the money's in there, but they're agreeing to 34,000 and they're okay with that. So, I went over 34,000 because they agree. Oh, we just Oh, there's already a motion on the on the floor. Say no and then read the motion.

Second. I have not having a second. Yeah. So, no second. Uh, so we can move on to Lindia's motion. A motion for 34,000. And to clarify, that's 4,000 for the downtown and 30,000 for the rodeo. Second. Councelor Garcia. Yes. Councelor Piano. Yes. Councelor Molina. Yes. Councelor Yazy. Yes. And Mary Depal. Yes. Car.

Motion carries. We'll move on. Okay. The next item is going to be the one. Is it Matt? The challenge. I messed up. Desert challenge. Desert challenge. Um this is the in the same in the same realm we uh their request was 315. It met all the recommend all the categories their maximum they could get was 44,000 and um not a lot of discussion on that. project 6,000 in they can't get past

uh no I think they projected um six $17,600 in revenue this desert challenge we'll look at see I might have you know could be make a mistake so the event projects 6,000 in revenue and 14,000 in expenditures looking at that right yeah so that's 70,000 that's that's how how is that only in revenue and expenses oh so we're adding we're adding the Why are we adding the revenue and expenses together and then doing a percentage? We shouldn't

Well, if you if you read their if you read the uh map on page five and this is one of the things too. So, their original their original qu and I'm on part two. Um, and this is where it gets a little bit confusing too is the lodgers tax grant funding request is 31,500. And I'm assuming that matches the application on page seven. The total anticipated project event cost is according to this line item is 14,450. Um and they would be raising $6,000 themselves. So I think there in in um in any so the uh it looks like the the cost is 14,450. That's the event cost. That's That's going to cost them. So, what I don't have a calculator. What's 20? Did we Did we use seven? Do we use the wrong number? I think we added the 3150 to the 14. We shouldn't be doing that on any of them.

But if you go to the table, expensive, if you go to the table, we're approving what they ask for. Right. But, but we still have to in our realm, but but if you go to the table, their their their 315 is expenses and their 145 is both expenses. That's why we use 76. Is that right? I I did Mayor C. I didn't run the math just now. Okay. And I've got a calculator on me. So, if you go if you go to page seven and page eight, it's 301 361.2. Okay. They're asking 315. So, right under the threshold, right? Okay. We should only be doing the percentage on the expense the

well expenses, not the income and the expenses. The way the application is put together is those expenses are all exemized on the request. So there is a Facebook, Instagram, radios, flyers, trophies, plaques, finished pins, stickers, flyers, and plaque design of 315. And then there's more costs. Oh, no. You're right, Sarah. You're right, Sarah. Thank you. No problem. I didn't have to admit I'm wrong. Please, please let that be recorded. Just kidding.

You're right. It says there. Okay. Uh could we have a motion to move on with the uh uh desert cycle challenge? Motion to approve the 3,150 for the uh Route 66 Desert Challenge. Second. Councelor Garcia. Yes. Councelor Piano. Yes. Councelor Molina. Yes. Councelor Gazi. Yes. Mayor Depoli.

Yes. Uh the next item is TDFL. Um this item again the requests were made. Is there anybody from TDFL in the audience? I took my glasses off. I can't see. Um the uh they they went through some new management. you know, John Solless is their new president and of course Bobo CEO and all the guys are all working together with a passing of Sammy C, which is sad, you know, see um but with their request they they um requested $19,300. Um they're eligible for $20,750 based on their ex event expenses. And what we did there is we just kind of got between them and uh gave them an amount of $20,000.

I think we should we should just approve like you're trying I think you're being so nice, but you're like approving more than the organization even requested. And so that that's problematically with the budget is what I'm saying. So like they specifically itemize the line item for the committee to be 19,300 and they request 19,300. We're approving 19,300. Like, like we're trying to cut costs, not just give out free money. We're not Oprah. So, like, I just feel like we just give them the money they asked for. Like, this these are the easy ones. The ones that came in under budget. Well, and feel free to make a motion for the 19.

Okay. Motion. Wait, is there comments to approve tax recommendation for TDFL? Second in the amount of in the amount of 19,300. Second. Councelor Piano. Yes. Councelor Yazy. Yes. Councelor Garcia. Yes. Councelor Molina. Yes. Mayor Deal. Yes.

Okay. The next item uh is the Arena Cross and Mudbog Show. Um, this item, the request is for $3,600, $3,600. They're total eligible for $7,828. Um, and I don't see there they're there. Mayor Council, he may be on Zoom. I spoke to him this morning. He said he was going to get on the Zoom meeting. So, I don't know, Andrew, if you're here or not. Yes. Can you hear me? Yes, sir. Yes.

Awesome. Um, yes. Good evening, Mayor and Council. My name is Andrew Gaos, uh, promoter for the Arena Crop for Mudbox Show. Um, like to tell you a little about the event if you've never been. Uh, it's Arena Cross Mudbox Show. This event has been going on for almost 30 years. Um, it is part of a series this year. Um, our last event in Farmington, we had 160 individual racers. Um, usually each racer brings three people with them. Um, this is an event that does bring people from out of town, puts heads and beds. Um, this year I believe more people will stay in hotels due to the price of gas and diesel. Um, also new this year we're doing kids 11 under are free. In the past years, uh, this event was awarded around 20,000 lodgers tax. Um, this year we asked for 30,000. 10,000 of that was for the venue costs. Uh that is a new approved item. Um so I'd like to ask the council to consider more funding for this year for what was approved by the tax board.

Something isn't right on the agenda. I feel like because it says on this number in 2025 the organization was awarded $5,000 but he just said last year they were awarded 20. I believe they may have requested the Tony. They were awarded 5,000. That was reimbursed. Okay. So, you guys The actual was $5,000. And I'm I'm seeing I think I have a typo on the agenda here. It's saying 5,000 from the proposed FY27 budget. The actual recommendation is $3,600. So, I apologize for that oversight. That's my my my mistake.

How many pe um Andrew, how many people attended your event last year? So last year unfortunately was a lastm minute thing um with the county and the city switching I believe and the contract not be able to be signed till late for us. Um our event was in early May last year and they didn't finalize their contract till early April and so I was pretty nervous um getting that signed. So there was a lot of lastm minute um making this happen and so there wasn't a lot of advertising and all that stuff. That's why the the request, like I said, was high, but working with Matt, you know, we weren't able to even spend all that of money to get it going. But, um, I think we had about 120 racers and I would guesstimate about 2,000 spectators. And that was a one day show. This year, we're doing a two-day show. Well, according to our own contract and according to the mayor's own math, right, like what they what they like from from us,

what they requested is actually more than what we can even give. It's more than even if we did the 25% of their budget. So, we really can't give them the amount they require. It's over based on what we've been doing for everyone, right? So, as you said, based on the percentage that we did that's in the actual log stack contract, that would be only up to like 7,000 anyway. Yeah. They're asking for 3,000 3600 3600 and their LS were 7,800. Mayor and council, um I asked for 31,000 and the budget is 120,000. That's their total expenditures. No, what what are you actually requesting? How much money?

The requested was 31,000 for lodgers tax and the budget is 120,000. That's what I'm saying. He's saying he's requesting 31,000. And I want to be clear, Andrew just said that on live television. And we're saying we're saying and that's what it says in the agenda as well. He's requested 31,317. And what we're saying is even at the highest percentage you can give him is only 7,000 based on our stipulation. So let's just be as put that all out to the universal tax gods. So um so I mean and we only gave 5,000 last year. So Yeah, the the but council

the budget is 120,000 and I think 25% of that's maybe around 30,000. Oh, so that's 120. Just on quick math. I'm I'm having a hard time with these numbers. Hold on. Yeah, it's 30,000 is 25% of that. 30,000. So we could though they're eligible. They're saying their expenditures are 120,000. So 25% allowable expense up to 30,000. So if you still requested more than the allowable expense, but I don't I don't think I we want to go up a little bit from this, but I wouldn't recommend going over this.

We were just going to get the 3600 is all of us. Let's just give the request.

Well, that's request 31,000. Mayor and council, I in the lodgers tax meeting, um it was very distracting. Um and we went right after the Red Rock um motorsports club and you know they're they're an off-road event. Uh they have their event already there, their course and everything. Um I do run a motocross race also in Asset New Mexico. um that those costs are, you know, very minimal when you're uh at a place. When you're going into Red Rock Park, uh expenses are very high as you can see to these other um events. Nothing's cheap. Advertising not cheap. Uh if you look at my lodgers tax um advertising budget, what I'm asking for, all of its advertising, 7,600 of that is straight to Red Rock Park. I just ask that you consider for some more.

I for me, I understand the math of everything and now that we got that clear, they're asking for 31,37. The larger tax committee is recommending only 3600. I mean, they're I I realize all the issues last year, but they're bringing in a considerable less amount of people than some of these other events that we're giving less to. So, I don't think we should have done more based on the fact that I mean, some of these other events are bringing in more people and less. So, I think we have to be conscientious of that. Um, so I mean again expenses are high but um I mean um do you know why the recommended amount is so much lower than the requested amount?

Mayor council the committee went through all the events and they I think they looked at past performance and kind of passed what has happened and they made recommendations from there and why they made this one cut. so much. I couldn't really speak to that. I would guess it's because they wanted to keep the other ones as whole as they could. You know, they were making tough decisions and so and they also one of the rationale of one of the committee members was I'm not saying this is true or not, but this is what was said that the arena cross event is similar to the OV event. So they that's kind of the rationale one of the committee members used to make the recommendation and the rest of the committee went with that. Yes, like Matt said, and like I'd say, it's not they're dirt bikes, but they're not the exact same. It's a different event.

Well, I think Ed, if we could have this council make a motion to proceed with I'd like to make a motion to approve the lodgers tax recommendation for the Arena Cross and Mudbog Show for $3,600. Second. Councelor Molina, yes. Councelor Garcia, yes. Councelor Piano, yes. Councelor Yazy, yes. Mayor Dealy, yes.

Okay, this next one is pretty simple. It's uh Route 66 Roping. Um their total event expenditures are 31,000. it'd be eligible for three $7,875. Um, the request is for $3,000 and that's doesn't seem like it' be a problem. Can I address that? Yes, you can.

Mayor and council, thank you. Uh, the Route 66 roping is kind of one of the cornerstones of best of the best. We've always did that on the last of it. I took lodgers tax rules perbatim. I asked for park rent and advertising only. Uh I got to step back one step and say me and my other commissioners have worked hard since we've took over Red Rock State Park bringing in over 20 $25 million for improvements of it. My big event here when you guys said you would no longer take promotional items. I'll apologize for the wrinkleness. I was being boards here. I started putting on openings in Gallup in 1983 and have been doing one every bit since then except for this year. What was formerly the Red Dog Classic is now the Rio Grand Classic. We moved to Albuquerque. I put on events in Los Cusus, Sakoro, Hobbs, Clovis. We have communities wanting our events there. I could not get lodger uh high school rodeo to bring back the rodeo they've had here because they said, "We know your lodger sacks won't help us anymore." Uh, as somebody that works hard bringing in money to fix up the park, I hate seeing the use of it diminish. And I can't speak for my other commissioners, but I think we need to look at this to see whether we want to continue with Red Rock State Park. Thank you. Um, any other comments or we have a motion?

Motion to approve the large tech grant recommendation for route 66 roping. Second. That's what they asked for. Councelor Piano. Yes. Councelor Molina. Yes. Councelor Garcia. Yes. Councelor Yazy. Yes. Depali. Yes. The next discussion item is for lodger tax grant recommendation for Soundway Festival. Um Matt, you can go ahead and give us the basics on this one.

Mayor, council, this is a new event. I don't believe it's ever been held before in the community and they've certainly never asked for lodger tax requests before. if it was held previously. Uh the proposal is a two-day concert music festival essentially at Red Rock Park and they anticipate about 30 volunteers and over 2,000 in attendance. And the other particulars are in the packet. Happy to answer any questions you have. And the recommendation from the committee was 3,600 for this event. Once again, this is a huge shift from what they asked for of 33 34,000 and then we're giving them um I don't think we should give 34,000. But I do think one of the things that I've said previously, so I want to stick to my word is that I think the largest tax is very helpful for new events and and and also for current events, but we haven't seen a ton of new events. And so having lunch checks initially was of course heads and beds but also for like promoting new events like making sure that because new events don't have any advertising at that time like they don't have a following. So, ideally, new events would need more promotion. It would be, right? So, just want to point that out that I I wouldn't I wouldn't think 34,000 because I don't know if that's the percentage, but what's what are they eligible for, but I would say maybe more than 3600 just because I they're a new event. They're trying to promote it and 3600 is not going to get them very far. So, and then we can reevaluate and see if the event went well next year, but they're brand new. So, eventually But I thought they

do they have red park? They said in the application they're requesting Red Rock Park. I don't know if there's a contract signed or if that's booked or not. I couldn't speak to that. Yeah. But I mean if they don't get a but I don't know. But if we approve it and then they don't get a place or this falls through then obviously we just no money was spent. I mean because they get reimbursed for what they spent. So if they don't do it, they don't go through, then no money spent, right? Right. Essentially, like if a contract never gets signed and this falls through, then spend money. Would it be better just to table it and then that'll be approved and then bring that back and and then approve it would be any different or that cause trouble?

Mayor, council, I would say we don't require any of the other event organizers to demonstrate they have a venue signed and secured. Right. None none of the reg mayor council none of the regulations are attached to a venue requirement we know about history

and if I'm not mistaken I I kind of tax were that in the events that was held at city county stateowned facilities are eligible for larger tax events happen

mayor council I'm not familiar with that requirement

to's No, there's no there's no harm because there's no I mean if they don't do it they don't do it as a reimbursement anyway. We're not giving them money up front. Plus I mean we we have to be fair to all. So for if we're making them say well give us proof what your contract is. We didn't do that with anyone else. So I mean we you got to be fair just to be fair. So I think and I want new events. We we spoke about them. Everyone here has spoken. Oh we want new events. We want new events. Now we get a new event. It's like oh I don't know like well saying we want new events. So let's give it a try. I have one question. They they said that their budget was 120,000. They do they have to prove to math that their budget is actually 120,000 being 25%.

Well, I don't know because no one here has proved that to us. Everyone else has been just given percentage. Yeah. I don't know. This is Mayor Council. This is the first year with the new regulations. Part of the application process moving forward is if you've had the event already, you're supposed to provide financials for your previous events. None of the applicants did that except for one organization. I'm not going to name names. So that component of the regulations has not been complied with by anybody. Given this was the first year, I'm trying to be flexible with people, work with people. So I didn't want to hold them to that because I know that's a lot of work, the accounting, pulling the paperwork, all that. So, I'm not holding people's feet to the fire on providing financials.

So, essentially, I could have an event and say I could say, "Yeah, our expenses are going to be 300,000, but there's there's literally no proof. I'm just throwing that out there, right? Because we don't have proof. I mean, we're just trusting organizations to give us what their actual expenses are, but we don't we're not actually seeing any proof from any of these organizations that that's actually true." So

I I think according to what they're saying their expenditures are going to be they're eligible for for the max,000 based on that. But I mean I don't think the new event we give 40,000 but I'd probably give more than 3600 maybe. And I mean they're a new they're a new event and we're trying to market new events. So I

I agree with that. they could do a lot of marketing with that amount and u two of their bigger items are for our website and for print ads which are expensive. Um if we cut it down to 3,600 then they would not be able to do a large amount of that but um yeah I would say anywhere between 5 to 10,000 at least to to help them get started with this event. I think music festivals are really great for people to come into the community. U maybe a different crowd than we normally attract with our big events and hopefully it's something that could get going um over time.

Okay. If you uh want to proceed or [ __ ] do you have anything? Yeah, I just want to say uh I mean just coming from a a business first of all uh they've never done this. It's a shot in the dark is best. I hate to put too much money in something that's uh a shot in the dark. Um that's how I feel about this. Thank you. Thank you.

But we're basically saying that we want new events, we want new things, we want to use the market for new events. So, we're willing to put in the marketing because we feel like, oh, it's a sure thing. These events are sure things, so we're going to put in. But even some of the other events we've funded in the past, quite frankly, haven't had the attendance that they anticipated. Like, there was circumstantial things. I get that, but like they've said, "Oh, we're going to have this many." And they didn't, right? But we still funded them because we're like, "Oh, cool. This sounds great. Now we're having a new event proposed to us." And you're right, it is a shot in the dark. But every single event that started at one point like every rodeo that started 20 30 years ago was a shot in the dark at that time and then they and then they did great. I'm not missing though. But

okay so but kind of get them to speakers you want to go but I mean I'm just saying like we're we're basically saying we don't want to help them because we we don't want to help them as much because we don't know them and we don't know if they're going to do good work which the whole point of logger check is to get events started and to get them going. like now we're saying we have a new event and we're going to give them less money than everyone else who's already started. I just think that doesn't make sense. Um, sorry to interject here, but I did talk to the young lady after the lodgers tax committee that day. Okay. She has done events like this elsewhere. That's helpful.

Uh, she wanted to use Red Rock Park. I don't know if she secured Red Rock Rock Park for it, but she wants to do a event on a smaller scale, but started out in Gallup like a Coachella or something like that. all different genres of music and just have a social type music event for two days. Sounded really excited. She sound very exciting. I wish she was here tonight to to to bring that enthusiasm. Uh I think Matt would probably uh attest to this also. Uh something different and she was looking at August, I think she said at Red Rock Park or whatever it was. Uh it sounded great from listening to her in my opinion. It has nothing to do with Lions Club. Just me talking to her. She should have been here. Uh,

you know, I don't know what kind of money she's looking at, but she wanted to bring something new to Gallup and uh, Coachella or however those m music festivals are and have a very very broad uh, spectrum of music there. No, that's a great thing. Sorry, I just wanted you to I didn't want you to think I was going against Life Club when I was saying like these events have been here for a long time. No, and and I understand that uh Sarah, but she's not here to talk and I talked to her after the event along with some other people. She seemed very exciting. I mean, new event. We need new events in Gallup. Thank you, G. Yeah, thank you. That's really nice. That is helpful.

Okay. I had a motion to approve um um $10,000 for Soundwave Festival. Second. Second. Councor Pio. Yes. Councelor Yazy. Yes. Councelor Garcia. Uh, not no not 10. Councelor Molina. No. Mayor Deal. No. Can we do another motion? No. Is that what happened? It didn't. I think we should bring it back because I mean now now we're doing them no money basically. So that's

so because we approached a higher amount and so I mean and I don't want to give them no money. So that's worse. So I don't know how we handle that or we have to put that on another separate agenda item for future. Mayor, would somebody else like to present a different motion? I asked. Yeah, I'll I'll make a motion uh to approve the $3,600 forum and we'll see what they do this this this year and uh we'll have a better idea of the next coming year where they're Can we give them a little because we talked about doing at least a little more like five. Can we settle? Can we all settle on maybe five? Like not 10 but a little bit more than 3600. Let's do five. Okay, I'll go five. $5,000. Okay.

I make a motion for $5,000. Larger stance larger tax grant recommendation for the Soundwave Festival. Second. Councelor Molina. Yes. Councelor Piano. Yes. Councelor Garcia. Yes. Councelor Gazi. Yes. No. Motion carries.

Okay. Okay, the next item is Wild Thing. Wild Things is similar as the uh the other events. Um it's of course it's our one of our prime events that we have. The um going through the criteria, the the 25% of the total exper expenses would be $50,000 and the uh request that we were that was recommended was 20, but I think we're pretty sure we can we can fund up to the full $40,000 amount. for Wild Thing. The 400 $40,000 amount 400 uh to cover Wild Thing. Um with that, if there's any discussion,

what say again the 40,000? 40,000 for Wild Thing. That's what he's pretty much that's that the 25% is 50,000 and uh it would be less than the criteria. It would meet the ma the ceiling of the $40,000 rule. That's the maximum we can give. Maximum. Uh I don't know if Mr. Larry wants to speak, but I would make a motion for the 40,000. We might want to let him motion. You want Larry stand?

33 years. That's how long a lot of things been here. For 25 of those years, we've been the biggest fundraiser for Manolita Children's Home. Um, they have us rated as the number one open B riding in the Southwest and everybody knows what has happened the last four years on expenses on everything. It is got atrocious on putting putting the show together. Um, I just want everybody to know I've worked with you a long time and I truly appreciate everybody looking at it and considering it and all the help we can get is truly appreciated. If there's any questions, I'd be happy to answer them.

Did we I didn't look at this. Is most of this this is all for advertising of 40,000 that would be all the park and the park.

The park and and mostly all advertising. I I Yeah, I would I would mean we very clear I think and the committee's been clear on not wanting to do buckles and other things that other I know I know we're not going to agree disagree on that but I think keeping that if we do go and cut it down from your initial request which we have to because we put our own parameters on it.

Well, the 52 going down to the 40s kind of eliminates those things you're talking about. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. Yeah. But most of it was honestly um anyway.

Matt has discussed this with me a lot on things like the Facebook. We've raised that up. We have over 20,000 followers. When we run a good video, it gets shared three or 400 times. 200,000 people will see it. Um, you know, I've I've discussed that with him on things like that. Um, I'm not a I'm not a AI person. And I'm not a Facebook person much or whatever, but but I work with and and I discuss all this with Matt on what we do and and when he pulled up all the phone stuff and showed where all the people were from and the huge amount it caused on lodgers tax and the income for the city, not just lodger tax, but the um

yeah, gross receipts tax and all that cuz the last the last deal that they did on from Cog said we were $1.4 million impact on the town of Gallup. Wow. Yep. Amazing. That's a lot of fun. And quality entertainment for the city of Gallup in the four corners. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Do we have a motion to proceed with? I'd like to make a motion to approve the lodgers tax grant recommendation wild thing championship bull riding for $4,000. Second. Councelor Molina. Yes. Councelor Garcia. Yes. Councelor Fo. Yes.

Yes. Mayor Deal. Yes. Okay. With that, Matt, thank you so much.

Thank you, Matt. listening to us. Um, next item is going to be a um, all right, a hearing for a proposed transfer of the ownership of the dispensary liquor license from Charlie Javis doing business as Vergy's Restaurant Liquor and Lounge to Burnt Corn Holdings LLC doing business as V's Restaurant and Lounge for the license premised at 2720 West 66. six. But in the meantime, we're going to take a fivem minute break because Oh, and by the way, everyone, this is uh also Commissioner Danielle Not here and so is Bobby. Didn't recognize you guys during all of the first part, but thank you for coming.

But I need to talk about the water. Okay. Okay. Is uh everybody's here. Um, the next item we already announced and with that we will turn it over to Erica, our acting city attorney.

No, it's all you. Ready? Yeah.

You're up, mayor. This is a public Okay. This is a public hearing on the proposed transfer of ownership of the dispensary liquor license number DIS- 000552 to Burnt Corn Holdings LLC doing business as Burgie's Restaurant and Lounge located at 2720 West Historic Highway 66 Gallup, New Mexico. Because this is a public hearing, anyone wish to wishing to address the address the council in in this manner must be sworn in. Would everyone who wishes to testify in this matter please rise, identify yourself and remain standing. Nobody wants to testify. Okay. Um there for the record, no witnesses.

Yes. No. No. No witnesses. Uh yeah. Is there somebody online? Thank you.

15 participants. Do we If you're online, can you identify yourself? Doesn't look like it's anybody. Okay. All right. We'll proceed. Um, witnesses. Okay. We don't have to go do the swearing in. It's already taken care of. Okay. City clerk, no more swearing in. Swearing. Swearing is not required. Public hearings are sometimes called a quasi judicial hearing because the procedure we follow is similar to a trial in a court of law. First, the person or organization that made the application, called the applicant, in this case, Burnt Corn Holdings, presents testimony and evidence as to why the application should be granted. This is generally done through the testimony of witnesses, but can also be through evidence such as documents, pictures, and the like. Witnesses will testify at the podium. As with all witnesses, council members and city attorney may ask questions of the witness at any time during the witness's testimony. When an application is done presenting it, applicant is done presenting this case, I will ask for anyone else wishing to testify in support of the application to come forward and testify. We ask that those witnesses do not repeat testimony that other witnesses have provided. After the conclusion of testimony in support of the application, I will ask for witnesses that oppose the application to testify. This would be anyone that thinks the application should be denied for any reason. Again, we ask that those witnesses not repeat testimony that other witnesses have already provided. When we have heard all the witnesses, we may ask for a summary of each side's arguments, but we will do that only if council feels it would be helpful. Our role is to ensure that the license that the law in this case the law related to the transfer of the ownership of the dispensary liquor license number DIS-0000552

to B burnt corn holdings is correctly applied to the particulars to the facts of this particular case. The law provides the city council may approve or disapprove the transfer based on number one the applicant status and satisfaction of statutory and regulatory requirements. Number two, proposed location, including whether it is within a area where the sale of alcoholic beverages is prohibited by New Mexico law or would violate a zoning or other ordinance of the city. And three, where the issuance would be detrimental to the public health, safety or morale of the residents of the city. As to the matter of public health, safety or morals, not morals, morals, sorry. The discretion of the council has to deny a license on moral grounds must be based on the moral effect of the operation by a specific applicant or particular location. Similarly, to deny issuance of the license based on safety issues, there must be substantial evidence that the issuance or transfer would be detrimental to safety. Evidence concerning the negative effects of alcohol by itself is not sufficient evidence. Evidence offer offered respecting the application should be relevant to the standards and criteria governing the transfer of ownership of the dispensary liquor license. The city council must make its decision based solely on whether the facts show that the applicant application should or should not be approved. We therefore request that the applicant and all participants in this hearing confine their testimony and evidence to matters that are relevant to the council's decision. Does anyone have any questions concerning procedure we will be following?

Anybody online have any questions? No questions. Because this is a quasi judicial hearing, council members should not participate in this manner if their impartiality might reasonably be questioned. This generally would be whether the member has a personal bias or prejudice, has made a public comment that appears to show the member intends to vote a particular way in this matter. would personally benefit the other matter from the matter decided is closely related related to the party or has a connection to the party that would tend to influence the members decision in this matter. Are there any counselors that wish to recuse themselves in this manner? That with that said, no. For the record, does the applicant wish to ask that any council member not participate in this matter due to a concern about the impartiality of a council member? We know that's not going to happen because the applicant's not here. We'll have to have Erica answer that for us when we get to the bottom. Did you want to do you want to answer that question now? Okay. Okay. So, well, now we will uh that's probably a pretty good question because right now we will hear the hear now hear the evidence with the applicants. Representative please come to the podium present the applicant's testimony and any other evidence the applicant wishes the council to consider. and council, I would submit that the evidence before you is what was provided in the um agenda. It's the application for the transfer the and the um publication of notice to satisfy the statuto requirements and then the certificate from our planning and zoning from our planning manager that um it is not in violation of any zoning

ordinances. But that that is the only evidence before you today to consider.

Thank you. Um let me let me continue and then you can um um does the applicant have other witness it wishes to testify and no they don't. Is there anyone that else wishes anyone else that wishes to testify in support of the application? Um, doesn't look like we've had have anybody off a audience today because we no one stood up. Is there anyone that wishes to testify in opposition to the application? So, we have now heard all the evidence. Does council feel that a summation of the EV evidence would be helpful or do you feel you have a complete understanding of the issue and wish to proceed to deliberations? Um, now is the time for any comments or questions based off the uh what was submitted.

I'll make a comment. Yes. Uh, I know Burgie's Restaurant uh was a past owner. Uh, Lauren Cook, he's he's already bought half the town. You know, he's got a big investment in this town. The way I see it, it's pretty pretty simple for for me to make a decision on this. I think this is great, but I'm I'm kind of frustrated that the people didn't come. I mean, like that's we're making a pretty big decision for them and I think it would be nice to show the courtesy of showing up to the council meeting to just present what's happening. Um or were these people notified that?

By law, I'm required to notify the applicant by certified mail and I not only did that, I notified them by email as well. Did anyone respond to say they'd be coming? I've received a response. I mean, I don't know. I guess I I feel in I feel weird because I'm like I think in general I'm supportive of this, but just transferring the license, it doesn't seem like a big deal. And I'm really thankful that they bought the restaurant. It's helpful for the West End. But it's also like a little bit disappointing that someone couldn't even take the time to show up or be on Zoom or call in to explain. I mean, I don't know. It's just that's a little frustrating, but I guess they don't legally have to be here, right? for us to approve it?

No, like I said, just whatever evidence is presented before you, if it helps, I can give you sort of the three circumstances based on the um licensing rags. Um you if if the council fails to take any action within 30 days after this hearing, the director may give final approval. They've given preliminary approval in their letter as evidence. If you approve the transfer, the director must approve the transfer. If you disapprove the transfer, the director um must disapprove the transfer, but the court of appeals will have initial jurisdiction of any appeal from the the decision that the director makes. And that's in the second paragraph of the agenda.

Yeah, thank you, Eric. You know, this is um it is I and I see what councelor Piano's saying, you know, but but on the other side, there's no opposition either. So, I think people are probably assuming that this is going to go through or that there's really no reason why Vergie shouldn't stay and be able to serve alcohol and beverages and and with their hopefully they'll keep the same menu.

I I feel I feel the same way. I think it's just uh something that we just got to go through the motions. Everybody, we have no opposition against it. You know, it's not changing the bill. It's the liquor license is not moving. The owner is just changing. Um, and like I said, uh, Laurens's bought, half exaggeration, of course, he's bought a lot of this town. You might have to change the name of Gallop the book, Cooksville or something. But is um, do you know it says Tanisha Cook, Burnt Corn Holdings. It doesn't say Lauren Cook. So, is this person local as well?

Yeah, he's he's he's he lives here. No, I'm asking you if you read the agenda. It says T Cook. It does not say Lauren Cook. So, it's person local. It says that the contract for Holdings is current for Holdings local. I just curious. You probably have to I think under the the application it was done under Tanisha's name. Is that

It has the mailing address. If you look on page three of the application for the business, the mailing address is a PO box in Fort Windgate. Okay. So, I think uh she lives in Petra. I mean, Yamato. Okay. So,

Okay. So, I have a a little bit of input because I don't actually know the owner and I'm going off of what counselor Molina is saying, but rather than say that this is somebody who fought half the town, you know, that doesn't really tell me much about the character or um what other kinds of uh constructive work are they doing in the community. I would love to hear more about that from people who do personally know the owners rather than just saying that they have a lot of property here. Yeah, I think without any negative opposition, I mean it puts us in a place just to make it make go ahead. And

so now is was there any other comments by the council? No, sir. Um let me let me continue. Um it is now time for council deliberate and come up in come to a decision in this manner. Council may deliver deliberate in either an open or closed session. What is the pleasure of the council as to how we deliberate? I thought we already did, but I'd suggest just an open open. Thank you. Short and sweet. I'm just following the script. Um, yeah. Good.

And then of course we already we already would any council members like to make a statement before we vote on this matter. And I think we just did that. Yes. Any more statements? I just was curious if um I mean so just trans so clarify just transferring licenses staying at burgies um and then and I think believe the name is staying burgies correct like business. Yeah. Yeah. So that's cool. Um so no other concerns and no other um like calls or emails ahead of time have been sent in opposition or for this. Is that my understanding? Correct. We haven't received any protests. Sorry. Just I just

Okay. Okay, with that, do I hear a motion regarding the transfer of the ownership of dispensary liquor license number DIS 00-0051 to Burnt Cold Burnt Corn Holdings LLC doing business as Burgers Restaurant and Lounge? I make a motion we approve it. Second. Councelor Molina, yes. Councelor Garcia, yes. Councelor Piano, yes. Councelor Yazy, yes. Dealing.

Yes. Okay, that concludes all of our discussion topics and items and we'll go back the agenda if I can find it. Um, and I lost my agenda. comments. Yeah, if we could do a if we could have our

I'm gonna have to rely on yours. Thank you. For some reason, microphone is gone. Okay, we'd have uh count uh comments from uh uh council and then the mayor and then the uh acting city attorney. Who would like to go first? Linda. Thank you, Linda.

Gloria. We had a lot going on this past weekend. I'm sure panel update us on that also. But I just wanted to say arch call was this past Saturday was a great success. Uh we all learn ourselves. So hopefully we could find some uh other avenues to expand um to accommodate the people that are coming out. Uh, and in saying that, I just wanted to know tell you that I went to the uh, Route 66 um, exhibit they had at Rex Museum and it's a great exhibit and they gave me a passport. Got my passport to come. I I highly recommend you go and visit that because they did an excellent job of uh, putting that exhibit on from 66. And then they had the Gallup Film and Media Expo. I wasn't unfortunately able to go very soon. Then um just want to say that the our city of Gallup annual uh cleanup is going to be this Saturday, May 16th. It's going to be the west side

west of Margarita Street and Margarit Street. You know what I'm saying? to count road one. This includes uh Chakita, Mendoza Airport Area, DNS, Western Skies, Sky West Subdivision, Auggies, All American Trails, uh West Matmore neighborhood. So, they recommend that you put your trash out in the front um and they will come and pick it up in a it's a designated area. Um so, I really thank Adrian and his crew. They do an excellent job of cleaning up each and every uh area. And also the um meet and greet, city community meet and greet will be May 20th. That's Wednesday from 11 to 12. I think it's 11 to 12 still. Uh it'll be the customer service department, purchasing department, and community development department.

Thank you, Council Garcia. piano. I This is so sad, but um I also did not go to the film the film um on Thursday and Friday and I'm so sad because that expo I love it and I think it did a good job with promoting it for our youth. I did not have a car access to me on Thursday. Um something happened and then I was out of town Friday and then I was out of town all weekend so I went to Buffy. So I'm really sorry. Don't judge me. I needed a break from my busy schedule. So, I was really sad though because a lot of people were asking if I was coming to Arts Call. I was like, "Of course, I'm gone during Arts Call because I do love Arts Call." So, um I I wasn't there, but I

did see that the job fair went well at UN. And then I was at some other economic development. The Chamber of Commerce hosted a um business after hours at the Hilton, and that was really well attended and and really great. Um so, excuse me. I was there and I was kind of throughout the week at at for economic development um at various events. So that was really great. I saw a bunch of people at different events for that. So um and then that's kind of it. I feel like I should have more coming up, but it is a three-day weekend coming up, right? So I just

Dang it, guys. I wanted a three-day weekend. I was just testing the audience's knowledge. Good job. Kiss pass. Dang, I took off work accidentally. All right. Well, then I like have nothing nothing else, I don't think. Very cool. Sier, do you have anything do you'd like to discuss or bring up comments?

Yeah, just really quickly um in addition to seconding the um kudos to the teams at the Route 66 exhibit at the Rex Museum for getting that up and going and then Arts Crawl, this very lively event. I wanted to say thank you to um Truckers Against Trafficking and Four Corners K9 Search and Rescue for hosting a coalition build event last Thursday this 7th at UNMG. Um it was just great to see so many of our local law enforcement agencies out and continuing to support the effort to prevent trafficking uh in our area. And also um just appreciate people again coming out to express their opinions. I think it's awesome to see the public so engaged um whether it's for or against or neutral just bringing us information. I always appreciate that and I think it's true that you know we just need to keep talking and having a conversation and I would be um in support of the council having a work session or just anformational publicformational session at some point as we move forward um exploring the options for the trade port in general but for Terraplex in particular. Thank you, counselor. Thank you, Mayor.

Oh, and I apologize for not being there in person. I'm I'm chaperoning a sixth grade field trip up in Cortez, so um but I did want to participate and thanks for being patient with me with the online participation. Thank you, Mayor. I got to take my hats off to Adrian and his crew. Uh they came and they did the Metmore neighborhood Saturday. Uh I helped them. No, I didn't. They wouldn't let me. I tried. Uh but I made them burritos. No, I didn't. My wife made them.

But the guys the guys just did such an tremendous job. Uh they're they're just you need to watch them work up close. They uh they're they're like a welloiled machine, you know. Uh and I guess Adrian's on their butts to make sure that keeps happening. He does a pretty good job there. My hats off to uh Solid Waste for their efforts. Thank you. I also went to the Arch Crawl. I had such a good time. All all my NAVO buddies were there and I think they're going to write me in for NAVO president this next election. Yeah, I really think they are. We uh we had a good time. There's a lot of people there. It was a very good arts pro.

Um uh my hats off to the people that put this together. It was amazing. Um, finally, I'd like for everybody to take time at one point or another and help me pray for Frank's mama that she gets better. Okay. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Her name is Beth Betty. Thank you. Well, with that, um, the only a couple things, you know, the fil the film expo we put on is wonderful. Thank you from M. Thanks, Matt. you know, the the city of Gallup has posed and the McKinley County in a wonderful position to start making movies. Um, you know, the next step is probably to put together a film commission. You know, that's something new that uh could really that could really work in Gallup. You know, showcase what we have and try to attract other the filmmakers to come to Gallup, if not make our own movies. Um, everybody clean up your yards the best you can. Change the subjects because uh we want this it's spring cleaning time. clean them up and throw this throw the debris in the trash. And if you're in the area that's going to get the trash picked up, there's no reason not to clean it up. Um and then coming up soon and with Commissioner Not here is the the state county mission. Um um M uh the all the counties are coming to Gallup representatives from all the counties over six00 people will be in Gallup McKinley County area here in a couple months.

June in June. It's coming up. Yeah. So, we want to make sure we give a good impression and make sure the city everybody looks at the city of Gallup and likes what they see. Anyway, thank you with that and I'll Erica, I'll turn it over to you if any or Kegan is that mean and greet uh 11 to 12. Yeah, we changed the date to the 29th. It'll be from 12 to 1. So, thank you for mentioning it, Linda. 29th last Friday of the month from 12. Same group. Thanks for running out here.

Erica, no comments. Thank you so much. Thank you, Councelor Piano. Garcia. Yes. Councelor Garcia. Yes. Councelor Molina. Yes. Councelor Yazu. Yes. Mayor Deal. Yes. Before everyone leaves, if you'll sign the budget resolution, please. Sure. My name is