City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everybody. We are now live.

Good evening, everybody. We are now live.

I think I only need five. Mr. Mayor verified. Okay.

Welcome everybody to the Gallup City Council regular meeting. Tuesday, June 23rd, 2026 at 6 p.m. in the City Council Chambers. The first item, Al, if you could do the roll call.

Councilor Garcia? Here. Councilor Yazzie? Here. Councilor Piano? Here. Councilor Molina?

Here.

Mayor DePaul?

Here. Now, if everybody could join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. The first item is going to be the comments by the public on non-agenda items. And members of the public may submit comments either in person or by telephone. To submit comments by telephone, there's a phone number, 863-1254, 505, of course. Leave your name and return phone number. Members of the public are invited to comment on matters not appearing on the meeting agenda. With that, if you could, we're going to limit the comments to two minutes. And if you could give your name and the subject you're talking on.

Hello, City Council. Suzanne Hammonds here to comment on a non-agenda item, which is the potential use of AOPRs. So real quick.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh, 1st off, I just want to thank Mr for meeting with me a few weeks back and my open invitation to meet with any of you at any time still stands. I'll also be available after the meeting in case you have any questions, and I'm happy to submit any of those links to you by email. Um, just a quick note that, um, because of the budget that was just voted in 1 of the light items is for less than 50,000 dollars, which, according to your own policy does not a city council vote. And I've heard plenty of arguments on AOPRs. And so this is sort of a I'm obviously biased against them. So this takes statements from reporters, from flock themselves, from the Supreme Court, from people who are tech experts and from reporters who have looked at these issues and arguments and address them. I think one thing you need to think about is that you're potentially opening yourself up to lawsuits, as many other cities, as I've indicated, have now undergone. And that is some people have said, well, we don't have the right to privacy in public. It's not true. The Supreme Court in multiple cases has ruled, especially when law enforcement gets involved, that we do have a certain amount of privacy. I just hope that if you decide to go with Flock, I'm only singling Flock out because it is by far the largest market share. There are others like Motorola and Axon that I think have the same considerations. Like, for instance, Motorola was also compromised. They've been hacked before. So I would just urge and please ask you to all consider very, very carefully if you do contract with any companies that especially use AI, AOPRs, first of all, just to not do it. But if you do, to be very, very careful about what you do. So thank you.

My name is Amy Clark, and I'm speaking on the topic of data centers. Do you know anyone who knows very much about how AI is produced? My bet is that you personally don't know even one person that does. Americans know who probably does, but those in the know are not talking. We've heard of one thing needed to produce AI data centers, but why are data centers actually needed? We know some people here in Gallup want to put one in our community. We know data centers need a lot of electricity to keep their equipment constantly running and cool, and that takes a lot of water. That's pretty much the extent most of us know about it. But there's a new book called Feeding the Machine by Oxford University Professor Mark Graham that can tell you a whole bunch more. Everybody's asking, will Google drink up all my town's water? Well, here are some statistics. 2028, data centers in Ireland are estimated to require roughly 27% of that country's available electric supply. An anti-fossil group there is demanding a moratorium on the construction of new data centers until they can be run entirely on renewable energy. Ireland's electric grid supplier, Iyer Grid, has warned rolling blackouts might result from a lack of electric production capability in the future. Why is that? Well, a large data center could consume between 11 and 19 million liters of water each day, equivalent to an American town of 50,000 people. Recently, Google admitted it used 29% of an Oregon city's water in 2020. We need to remember that AI is being developed by large tech companies operating in a competitive global economy. They're always under pressure to lower costs. So they squeeze more output from workers or invent a new technology. Do you believe startup founders and tech CEOs are the best people to make the most important decisions about what new technology receives funding and how it should be built?

Amy, that's two minutes. Thank you so much.

Oh, I'm sorry. Did I go too long? Okay. Well, I just have a few more words then to my next speaker. Minute, please. Many Americans are not aware that AI targeting systems are developed in the U.S. and sold to Israel's military, and they resulted in thousands of Palestinian women and children killed in Gaza. The Jewish Diaspora Tech Group said Israel's action violates the principles of the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights. You know, Google and Amazon provide AI for Israel's military through Project Nimbus.

Amy, you actually can come in. Thank you.

Thank you.

Excuse me, Mayor, Council, Robert Baca, County Commissioner. I'm not here to discuss any of those. I'm here to say, last week we held our New Mexico County's conference here in Gallup, and I wanna thank you, and I wanna thank your staff, everybody that participated. It turned out to be a great event, and we heard great comments from our elected officials from around the state. You guys did tremendous, and I wanna say thank you for everything that you did. That's from me, from the other commissioners, and from the county. So thank you guys. I told Vince his crew did an outstanding job out there. Again, the people that came in were just odd. Because of the reputation we always say Gallup has, they didn't see any of that. None of that. So again, thank you. Thank you for your participation. And thank you for everything you guys did. Much appreciated.

Thank you, Commissioner Barker. I agree with him.

Hello, Mayor and Council. My name is Larry Winn. My comments will be brief on this topic. Whether it's data centers or similar topics, one thing that is increasingly clear is that the public, our public here and around the country, are being very curious about natural resource adequacy and non-natural resource adequacy, for instance, infrastructure and specifically water and power. And I think that one thing that is probably would be appreciated by everyone in the community is if they have a sense that there is a serious treatment of not only the adequacy of these essential resources, but also that those things are being contributed in such a way as to reflect transparency. Transparency is increasingly important to everybody. We all know this. Trust is breaking down in this country, has broken down in this country in general. about government and other things. And I think that transparency is very, very important and would be appreciated and would lead to more trust and more cooperation. and more sense of unity politically, and perhaps even for a vision of Gallup's future. And so I urge you to consider that, and if it need be, to establish citizen boards that would participate in understanding these things with city government and then be in a position to report not only to you, but to the city in general.

Thank you, Larry.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. My name is Tommy Hawes. And I've got a copy here. I can pass out. I'll leave this with the clerk with your permission. This is a state of New Mexico's quarterly assessment of economic development for McKinley County. This is a It's a public document that the state of New Mexico's economic development produces, and it analyzes county by county. And just wanted to bring your attention to a couple of things with regards to this report. One is the McKinley County economy is shrinking. And it is also under serious pressure that is now pushing on to the secondary and tertiary sectors. jobs that are out there. Retail trade and accommodation food services account for a large chunk of our economy, which is good, but those are secondary and tertiary jobs. And so the concern is the economic base is shrinking. And one of the things that I hope Mayor and Council continue to do and support is economic development in the area so that we can grow the size of the economy significantly. and do it, of course, in an open, measured, transparent way, as we just heard from Mr. Nguyen, but in a way that is also part of our policy and rules that is established by the city, and we'll analyze well and make sure that our resources are well stewarded. And so I offer this report to you just to take for your review and just kind of see that we are in a declining economy here, and we hope that it's we can do some things to help change that trend and retain the Gallup we all love. Thanks.

Thank you. Anyone else? All right, with that, we'll continue to the consent agenda items. These items are placed on the consent agenda so City Council can designate by unanimous consent those routine items they wish to be approved or acknowledged by one motion. If any item does not meet the approval of all City Council members or if a citizen so requests, it will be heard as a separate item. Al, could you read the items?

consent agenda item number one budget transfer to close project number la 1981 indian hills park lighting legislative grant number one nine dash d three zero eight one consent agenda item number two approval of one thousand forty three dollars and sixty five cents for reimbursement for the law or approved law enforcement equipment purchases incurred by the Gallup Police Department as outlined in House Bill 2, Section 5 of the 2025 legislative session. Consent agenda item number three, approval of FY27 agreement with NCI for detox administration and operation and budget adjustment.

Any items? Any good? Good to go?

Motion to approve consent to items number one, two, and three.

Second. Councillor Molina?

Yes.

Councillor Piano? Yes. Councillor Garcia? Yes. Councillor Yazzie? Yes. Mayor De Folley?

Yes. Next is the discussion items and action topics. Number one is the appointment to the trade board and Mr. Pena, John Pena, a very well-known city of Gallup person that actually is the same age as my mother. Went to high school, he went to Gallup High, my mother went to Cathedral. You know, he's city manager, worked for the Gurleys forever, mayor, all kinds of things. Yeah. State representative, yes. He's going to resign his position. He said he might want somebody younger in there to follow through. I said, well, John, you're young enough, but he wants to move on. So with that, we've asked Tommy Hawes to consider being the representative to the trade board. And with that, I'll turn it over to Frank.

Thank you, Mayor. Tommy Haas is a very good businessman here in Gallup. Been with Pinnacle Bank. Been a member on the board chair of Gallup Greater Economic Development for many years. Knows the heartbeat of Gallup, as you can see how his statistics talked about McKinley County and where Gallup is. So I think he would just be a wonderful choice for Gallup. being the city's choice to serve as one of our two members on the board. And I would recommend that the council approves the mayor's recommendation.

Mayor, I have a question. Yes. I think Tommy is a great choice. I just have a question. This is in no way against Tommy. I just want to be clear. This is just a question that I think some people might ask. Is there any conflict of interest in the fact that he does serve as the board chair of GGEDC. And then, I mean, it makes sense because then he would know so much about the trade port, which I think would make sense, but just want to clarify, that wouldn't be a comment of interest to have him as board chair of GGEDC kind of on the trade port.

Do you want to just- I'd like Frank to answer that.

There has been discussion on the role of, The board members at GGEDC, it did come up at a previous meeting with GGEDC on another member that's on the trade board that is also with GGEDC. And the board voted that it's not a conflict, that if there is any time there is a conflict, they can abstain their vote.

Yeah, I would just want to make sure that we put that in the agreement that they would abstain if there was a conflict. I'd also just want to amend the motion slightly. Tommy Haas' last name is spelled incorrectly. I'd just like to point that out to me, that correction.

We'll change your name for you, too. We'll see you at the courthouse tomorrow. Sorry.

I can empathize with that. I have just a comment on this topic in general which I did discuss my interest with Mr. Haas and so I'm willing to support his nomination in that

of the criteria for the trade port projects approval there is a point in the legislation that says the net environmental impact of that proposed project should be considered and nowhere in that that i can see does it state that we need to consult with any other governmental bodies however given the location of the trade port i find it very important that we keep the tribe and local chapters in consultation and so Just for the public's knowledge as well, Mr. Haas did agree that he would go with me to things like that and that we would keep the local regional governmental bodies informed of new developments and of what companies might be considering coming into our new industry here.

Especially for jobs too.

Yes.

That's the most important thing.

People do want jobs. Yes.

Okay, we have a motion.

Motion to approve discussion action item topic number one, appointment of trade port board, Tommy Harris.

Second. Second. Councilor Molina? Yes. Councilor Piano? Yes. Councilor Garcia? Yes. Councilor Yazzie? Yes. Mayor DePauley?

Yes. Second item on the discussion action topics is the budget adjustment and transfer to close a project. And the speaker is going to be Patty Holland.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Just to explain the process a little bit. Normally, when we're ready to close projects, we don't require any of your time. But in this one, it was a little bit more complicated. We had some infrastructure money that was granted to us through the state. Our time was running short on being able to fully expend the money. So we did reach out to some other projects. So we're eligible. We got the nose approved. We got the state's approval. We got funding reimbursed to us that we now need to transfer back to the departments that actually paid that out, which was the electric department in the streets. I do have one correction on this on the, the, Two lines that say from 301 and 2301, that should be 391. There is not a fund 301. But what we're asking for tonight is just the budget authority to go ahead and put the cash where it belongs. It came in under the grant. It went into fund 391. But we owe the electric department $1.4 million. We owe the streets department $1.4 million. and then we need to do a slight reimbursement back from general fund of 105,000. This would clean it up, finish out the project, and then we would be able to close it out and put the files away.

Questions?

Any other questions? Sorry, how many projects were closed out in order to have all this money, just one?

For this, we reached out and utilized five different projects is where all the spending occurred. So besides one of them being this particular project that we were utilizing, we used three out of electric. One was AMI work. One had substation sunshines. That's hard sunshine substation work on it. And then we had a SCADA system. And then the one for the streets was work on Njoni. And so they were all eligible funding that we were going to use other funds for. But when we found that we could go ahead and utilize this and not let the money revert back, we took advantage of that opportunity. Out of the 3.7 million, we spent all but $68,000.

I'm sure the departments will be glad to have their funding back.

Any other questions? We have a motion.

Motion to approve budget adjustments and transfers to close project. Second. Council Piano?

Yes. Council Yazzie? Yes. Council Molina?

Yes.

Council Garcia? Yes. Mayor DePauley? Yes.

yes thank you thank you patty um the next item is acceptance of an epa award of a million dollars for a waterline replacement project and our speaker is going to be jan boone or keegan sorry keegan i didn't it's you it's you yeah i i read it off here i forgot that we changed it and uh Just so everybody knows, these EPA awards, and Keegan will give you more information, these are direct congressional spending. They're the state grants, and we've applied for them Six years ago, probably five or six years ago.

I was going to say, so this is referred to as fiscal year 24. And so my understanding of it and Mark, you can mayor, sorry, you can jump in, but this was, I kept referring to as Heinrich money that although it's been appropriated, it takes a while to get through the process to actually do the application. So we started the application. about a month or two after I came on board, so around July of last year. And it took until we completed it probably April through all the requirements related to the environmental issues with the land and all the steps that have to be considered. So it's kind of a long process. So this just was granted us. It's for water line replacements, specifically cast iron. it's a million dollars and there's a $250,000 match, which we are going to take out of, um, the department's water minor improvement fund, um, to have the 1.25 million. And I don't have any other questions related to it.

I'll clarify. This is from up second street from 66 to green. Um, I'm sure the businesses here on 2nd Street will appreciate it. Between Camillas and 305, we've had two waterline breaks that had the road closed for months. The 100 block down here on 2nd Street, we had the road blocked for months because of a break. That's a failing line, and it'll be a good service to have to replace that.

Thank you, Frank. And also, just to make sure, it's not just Heinrich, it is Lujan also that helps us.

Okay.

As we were applying for it, I want to make sure everybody gets the credit.

Yeah, give everybody credit that needs to be credited. I just kept referring to it as the Heinrich.

The other thing about these grants, which is odd, is you get awarded the money first, and then you do the application. Yeah. So it's interesting. And you have eight years to spend the money after you get it. So it's kind of opposite of most other grants, these EPA stat grants.

And we had that similar one for the well project that was fiscal year 23, the same pot and the same process.

I have two clarifying questions. So this is congressionally directed spending fund from Heinrich's office and Luhmann's office. So they split it half a million?

No, it's not how it comes across. It just comes through.

You apply through their office. They only get so many grants a year. Right. This one we applied. We're very lucky that we've got senators and representatives that sit down and discuss. I only have so many. You only have so many. They made an agreement that Heinrich would carry this one through as one of his, and that way it freed up another one for Lujan to carry through. So they passed it through to the funding agency as a recommendation, and then the funding agency did select us, so. Well, it came through Heinrich's office. We do need to thank Senator Lujan also for working so jointly together. I honestly think at this time, Lujan was carrying our cost cap bill and such for the Navajo Gallup water type projects and getting the fiscal appropriations for those. So they were working very hand in hand, both on behalf of Gallup. So while it comes from Heinrich's office, it's a combination joint effort.

And I should clarify, it's an EPA grant. So although the back end funding, maybe I'm not sure how you refer to it goes through those two offices that we actually applied to EPA. So this is Environmental Protection Office.

So yeah, I'm kind of learning how that very process works, but very happy to say that three of ours that we put through to the offices of our congressional have been passed through this year, from law enforcement to um wastewater wastewater type type projects that have been passed through to the funding agency for consideration by our legislators so it's been been a good year so far knock on wood in two years we get that money and is uh is replacement of our water line still number one on the icip it's on the top yes it's on the top line

PB, Lupita D Montoya, Okay, also it says do you place in cast iron watering lines that we have so so updated.

Yes. And I mean, and one of the issues if you read the stipulations for the grant, it's to deal with the lead issue on the cast iron where they're seen together, where they're welded together. And so there's an issue in the old lines that that's the material they use. So that's part of the issue coming through the environmental department is that you're cleaning up cast iron and lead. Yeah.

Thanks. I'm sorry, really quick. This is obviously amazing. Super thankful to Full Time to move on for this funding. Although I am sure the businesses will be really happy that we're doing this. I know they will also want to be informed as to when we're doing this because obviously we will probably have to close down roads and I know that can affect businesses, especially downtown being a small space. So do we have a timeline for when that will be or when we kind of let people know so that if they do have downtown businesses, especially eateries, that they can inform their customers of different routes that will be closed?

We will reach out to the public and any of the businesses that are affected. I think that this is probably late fall timeline to maybe the beginning of the year. I don't have the narrative in front of me. Sorry.

Yeah, we'll have traffic plans. And our goal is to probably shut down one or two blocks at a time, not tearing up six, eight blocks straight through. Do one or two blocks at a time so that we ingress, egress, you can still get to businesses.

And remember 2nd Street is highway department too. So we had to deal with them.

Yeah, so it's it's not going to be tomorrow to go through all the steps for the traffic plans and coordinating with everyone there.

Yes, I've got a question or a comment. Yes. First question is how far is the sewer line from the water line.

So this particular one, right now the water line is on the east side of the sewer line. We're moving it to the west side, 10 feet away.

10 feet away. Yes. And there's no doubt the water lines are popping like popcorn. They're pressured, lots of pressure on those water lines. The sewer lines, there's no pressure on them. But the sewer lines, you don't hear a lot about sewer lines, but unless somebody touches one. As soon as you touch a sewer line, it just falls apart. Like cotton candy, nothing in your mouth, you know. That was a terrible analogy.

Cotton candy and sewer line, yeah.

But my question is, this is a long shot fit. I'd love to replace both the lines at the same time. Is there any way possible that we could afford to add the sewer line to this contract?

That is something we're looking at. And also I'm working with District 6. I would also like to pave it gutter to gutter and not just do a four-foot patch up the street, sort of like is from Green South. So we would like to replace all the pipes, if possible, and pave gutter to gutter.

And you understand where I'm coming from. You know, we paved the street, got a nice street, repave it, and then Uh, five years from now, we're going to tear it up again, you know, and it's kind of a waste of money to be honest with you, but in five years, the price of sewer lines probably going to double. It'd be nice to get it done at the same time, whatever we could do. I know I'm putting it in good hands. Thank you, Frank.

And Council, that's an overall kind of attitude that all the departments are having to collaborate and to come together and hear about each other's projects so that we are not duplicating work or pulling up street to redo another line after something's been completed. So the goal has been for the departments to collaborate and to understand each other's projects. The issue is always funding. And so making the funding align at the same time is somewhat difficult, but that's been the goal.

Very good.

Thank you, Keegan. Okay. Can I have a motion?

Motion to approve the acceptance of EPA award and $1 million for the law of the land.

Second. Councilor Garcia? Yes. Councilor Molina? Yes. Councilor Yazzie? Yes. Councilor Piano? Yes. Mayor Foley?

Yes.

Thank you, Mayor and Council.

Thank you, Keegan. The next item is... Resolution number 2026, excuse me, 2026-27, amending the rules and procedures regarding City Council meetings and agendas. And with that, our speaker is going to be our City Clerk, Alfred Abeyta.

Good evening, Mayor and Councillors. In 2021, the council adopted a resolution governing the rules and procedures for its meetings. The resolution was amended in 2022 to add a section regarding public comment at council meetings. The proposed resolution before you this evening would amend the public comment section, which is section V, as in Victor, subsection V as in Boy, to establish a signing process for anyone wishing to address the council regarding non-agenda items. A person would need to register with the city clerk's office no later than one hour prior to the scheduled time of the meeting by providing their name and topic for their comment. And then at the discretion of the mayor, the city clerk may manage the list of speakers by topic or by the order in which the speaker is registered. The current provision of the existing resolution will remain the same in which the mayor may limit the time that a person can speak, limit the number of speakers on a given topic, and may limit speakers to comment that are not redundant or repetitive to previous speakers. Accordingly, submission of registration or minutes to a meeting does not guarantee a person will be able to provide common strength. So overall, the purpose of the amendment is to have a more organized process for public comment during meetings. Staff recommends approval of resolution number R2026-27. Staff, any questions? Questions from council?

so some clarification so with this how would people be chosen to speak and how how are they chosen like because right now we kind of allow it to be open and we do limited time which i think is good because we have limited time but um yeah is it i mean is it first come first serve or is it based on topic i'm just curious about that and then i'm also curious i don't know if i read it correctly but um it says no later than an hour before so Is the, is the thought that they would have, people would have to do it at any time. Once the agenda is out Thursday or Friday morning, then anytime before an hour before, or just an hour before.

Anytime once the agenda is published, they can contact the city clerk's office. They don't even need to come in person. They can just come and give us a call. They can just give us their name and the topic that they want to speak about. They don't have to come to the office, provide an ID or anything like that. It's just letting us know what you want to talk about. Then the reason for that hour from 5 o'clock to when the meeting begins at 6 o'clock, so we could look at the list and be, you know, organize the list as, you know, the best way we can by topic, by those who registered first. And we can, you know, that would be at the discretion of the mayor's guidance that we could look at.

And I'd like to clarify, it doesn't have to be once the agenda is posted. They can sign up today for the next meeting. It's just a gamble because you're speaking on non-agenda items. So if it is an agenda item, it's just going to be marked off. You'll be speaking then at the agenda time. So if I want to speak on a data center and the data center is not on the agenda and I sign up today for the next meeting, I'm on for the next meeting. So there is no time constraint except for within the hour before. So that way, if there's 20 people signed up for one topic, maybe an hour before we can get some of those people together to say, can we have three of your spokespeople? Or everybody speaking on just the water portion, can we limit it to two? Not 10 people saying the same thing about save our water? That kind of stuff. So just to streamline the meetings to, as you said, better organize.

And we don't let everybody talk. I mean, we don't plan on stopping anybody's right to speak. We just want to have it orderly and so that we can present it so that it's not shotgunned all over the place and the items just pretty much stay together. But we have no intention of stopping or preventing anybody's freedom of speech at all. We might limit the time, but that's about it.

May I say something? I don't have a... question per se for you, Mr. Clerk, for the chair. But with respect to this, I just don't think that we currently have a problem with organization that we currently do have the authority of the chair to limit the number of speakers on any topic and the number of time that people can speak and to I've heard you ask Mr. Chair that people not repeat comments that other people have made. And so part of this is just the management of that public comment time. In my time on the council, and I recognize that I'm the newest member, but in my time on the council, I haven't seen that this has posed a very big issue or that we've had to take lots and lots of time out of our meeting to do public comment. And as a working parent, I just have to say, I think it like when I was, before I was elected to this office, I think I came in person to a city council meeting one time because it's really hard to organize your life to get here on a weekday evening. Even if you're, even if you have a day job, but I watched the city council meetings on Facebook when they were live streamed on Facebook. And yeah, So in respect to that, I just think it makes it really unnecessarily more difficult than it already is for members of the public, especially working people, people with families, people with two jobs to make the comments that they want to make, even if it is just a phone call to register. And even if it is that they can still call in and make comment, we've seen here that people have called and tried to comment and then they're not available when we call them at that moment. That's more like my concern is really that as elected officials, it is our job to hear every constituent on every issue that they want to speak about. And this is a forum where that is that we have created for that to happen. I don't find it inconvenient to meet with constituents or to talk to them. And I think that whatever you know, this doesn't affect just one group or one political party or one issue. This really affects everybody across the board. Um, so I would suggest that if we need to post the rules of decorum, maybe we go back and redraft this resolution to state the rules of decorum that maybe if we don't want to have applause, you know, after comments, or if we do want to say that, um, you must continue to address the council and you can't address the audience. Those kinds of things I think are reasonable to ask. But I don't think that the new resolution as it's written serves our public and creates greater trust, which is what we're trying to do.

Thanks, Sarah.

You know, one of the things we've always kept our comments at the beginning of the meeting just for that reason. So people can comment and then whatever they have to do the rest that I've stated to the rest of the meeting.

And in that actually regard to that, you know, one of the other things we could change It's not in this section of the resolution that's amended, but in section B, subsection A, where it says that non-agenda items, we could actually allow public comment on agenda items at the same time. because we haven't also done very well to check if there's public comment on agenda items as we go through. So opening it up that all comments on agenda or non-agenda could be at the beginning. But I would just suggest, Mr. Chair, that you could ask in the beginning, how many people are here to speak? Let's see. Okay, there's a lot. Let's limit it. let's cut it down like on a case-by-case basis rather than requiring people to register which I know I would forget to do and yeah um well and with that is there any more yeah I I uh counselor I respect you you know I do but uh the issue I've got with that is mayor's got his hands full with the meeting

everything's happening at the beginning of the meeting. That's why this makes sense. This isn't the only place. This happens everywhere. You know, most cities have this. A lot of cities have not. Everybody's shaking their head. But the problem is, what I'm hearing is that we're not hearing you. Well, I'll tell you what, I beg to differ. You can ask a lot of people that I get calls every day from people and I always have time for them, always have time. You can ask, you may call me and I may tell you I have to call you back, but I normally do call you back. And that's where a lot of communication takes place with the public, it's one-on-one. And I get everybody wants to be heard in public, I get that. My issue is we don't have time to listen to the whole city. you know, in one night. A lot of this, I really feel like that's what city councilors are for, to listen to you. I've always told everybody, council's heard it plenty of times, every time I have a meeting, I tell them, the city manager runs the city, we're over him and the attorney, and all the constituents are over us. You guys run this city. I know that better than anybody else. And so do a lot of people because I get calls every day. One day during the data center, I probably had 30, 40 calls in one day. You know, and I like people. I love people. I enjoy the camaraderie we carry when we have our conversations. It's important to me to talk to people. I enjoy it. but I don't know that we have to list them to the whole city in one single night. All we're trying to do, as they say, is organize this to make it more manageable for council. Thank you.

I'm just, I mean, this could be for future too, but with the comment that Councillor, Now, as you made about, I've always thought this on the public comment. That's going to be maybe for later, but just if we look at the ordinance too, I think obviously people can step up and they can do now because we can comment now on action that our actual action items. Right. But I think a lot of times we don't stop to say, does anyone have a comment on this? Cause right. A lot of people are public commenting before, but not on the actual. So that's just something we should look at to make sure people realize. Cause I know I talked to a lot of people that early on said, oh, I didn't know I could comment on the actual action. agenda items i thought it was just like knowledge because it says do you want to comment on non agenda items so it makes it lends itself to looking like you can't comment on agenda items which isn't true so i think just you know clarification on that as well as helpful

Well, and thank you there.

So just to keep it transparent to the public that your horse is very important to each and every one of us. And we want to hear each and every one of your concerns. And we will take that into consideration each and every concerns that you have. We just want orderly and we just have maybe the transparency is to say if it's not agenda items against the action items that we will be more specific from this day on to say, do you have any comments on this action item? And make sure that you have that voice at each and every item. That's my question.

Please go ahead. Hearing everybody's comments, may I suggest that we change the wording to state that people who wish to make public comment can register on site at the time of the meeting rather than I know we want the hour to organize the list. But even if having them written at that time would help. I think it's just a step better than saying it has to be an hour before because an hour before is 5pm. And we all know what it's like at 5pm. So I would if we're going to move forward with changing the resolution. Can we please consider other options like that to help organize, but that really don't restrict or limit people's ability to come here and speak? Maybe when they weren't planning to. Maybe when they didn't know if they'd be free or not. Maybe when they can finally arrange, you know, they got childcare to come at the last minute. They didn't know if they would. Just those kind of circumstances that tell the public that they are welcome here and we do want them here and that we're not, I think the way it's worded right now is overly restrictive.

My concern would be is trying to start the meeting right at 6 o'clock. We've got a line of people who are showing up to sign in. That could delay the start of the meeting. But, I mean, that would be a good start.

Yeah, just make sure you sign in before.

Sign in before we have a cutoff time. I'm okay with waiting five minutes. That doesn't bother me.

It does us. We have six o'clock.

Okay, well, and thank you, Sarah, we can. So, with that, you know, this is. Just so everybody knows discussion action topics are for everybody to comment in the, in the audience. And so with that, with this particular item, I will ask the question, how many people are here to speak in support of the. Item of the idea, the change in the resolution. 123. okay. And how many people are here to speak in against the, the change in the ordinance? So. So, if I'm.

20, so keep your hands up for a moment.

Um, this is my 20, 20. so if we uh so 20 people four and about four 23 so if um if everybody had 20 had five minutes that would be a we'd be a long time which i mean i'll be here the whole time doesn't matter but we need to uh have some order with what we do so um what's that everybody had to consider here yeah yeah

I would suggest we take a number of speakers from the public on this issue and say to keep it under and not be redundant. And don't repeat.

I thought that's what this said, right?

Yes, that's already in the ordinance is that keep your comments concise and avoid repetition. Yes.

So it was 23-4 and four against. So if we could have, that would be a very, 24 versus three. At least it's not, that's not a soccer score. At least, you know, it's not a football score. So if we could have two people that are four and eight against, would that be a fair number or a percentage? I'm doing the statistics in my head. and limited to two minutes each. Yep.

Okay, come on up.

The first one, if we could have the person that wants this, we'll take eight people that are speaking against it. And if you'd like to come on up.

Yes.

Give your name. My name is Dr. Liu.

I would like to hand over a petition that is signed by 103 people. Mr. Mayor, your copy has seven additional signatures, so it's 110 people who are signing this against the resolution.

Okay.

If you would indulge me as I am representing the voice of about 110 people, I'd like to read this letter. I will cut out the first paragraph, but it does address some pertinent comments. And again, my name is Dr. Liu. I am a community member from Gallup. So we do appreciate as people who have stepped up to serve in public office, we hope that you can join us in celebrating the fact that this community has robust civic engagement. Public comment is an important part of city council meetings across the state. It is unusual to require preregistration or to preconditionally approve comment before city council. We have read the rules for several other cities, Farmington, Carlsbad, Las Lunas, Edgewood, and Silver City do not require signup. Alamogordo and grants do require sign up, but do not require this in advance of the meeting. None of them require the procedural rules on non-agenda items put forth in the resolution. Larger cities such as Albuquerque and Rio Rancho do require sign up in advance, but these are significantly larger cities, 20 times the size of ours, and these rules are intended to facilitate equity and smooth proceedings, which is not necessary in our small town. Public comment is important and does not impede city council meetings. In the last three months, even when as many as 50 citizens have attended because of their concerns related to urgent civic matters, including data centers or proposed plans to bring the National Guard, comment on non-agenda items has not exceeded 30 minutes and is usually closer to 10 to 15 minutes. The tone of conversation to our view has been overall benign. No, few have exceeded their allotted time, shouted or been disrespectful. Public comment has served as an important forum for citizens with very little evidence of other political candidates taking advantage of the time for free press. Pattersing this resolution with the reasoning that it prevents political grand setting does not solve a problem, but rather unnecessarily restricts citizen output. We have observed political candidates for other elections coming to city council. They take no more than their two minutes, and we have not observed significant press resulting. When candidates come from Navajo Nation to speak on their candidacy, they come as representatives from a sovereign nation and do not appear to violate rules of conduct. Furthermore, elected officials do come to present on non-agenda items and are allowed to speak even when they are up for election. So we urge you to remember that citizen ability to comment on non-agenda items is important to democracy. It impacts our lives in ways that are not present on the agenda. And we urge you to preserve citizen ability to comment at council meetings. So we- Thank you so much. Okay. So again, this is signed by 110 people. And we do appreciate that you have these meetings at in the evening times, which is consistent with what our cities do. And I urge you to take these facts into consideration. Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor and Council, ladies and gentlemen, fellow citizens. I can see the clock. So I want to say that I want to give you a sheet that has four reasons for voting no on this change in resolution. But I think when it all comes down to it, It isn't a matter of organization and taking time. It's a matter of working with the people and viewing this kind of response as an asset, not a problem, but an asset. That's a rich asset for the community when people come out and want to say what they think to their representatives.

So, but the four reasons here,

One is that registering an hour before the meeting time, I think, would be a problem. And you did touch on this already, counsel. So people who work 8 to 5, and some people still work those kind of hours, you know, kinds of hours and days. But if you work till 5, they give period to sign up by 5, probably not feasible. Secondly, to come and register at 5 and then sit for an hour, To wait for the meeting start, I think it's going to discourage people from signing up and wanting to wait when we want to be encouraging people, not discouraging people. The third thing on here to me is that limiting the number of speakers on a topic. Now, the mechanism used tonight for show of hands is useful. But if we don't hear all the comments, we don't really get the full range of people's views and neither do the people. Because it's not only useful for the council to hear the citizens, it's useful for the citizens to hear what their fellow community members are thinking so we can interact as a community. So, I think in the resolution and then sheet, I passed out with you. The word limit is in there 3 times. We're trying to limit things, not expand things. And I think the purpose of this proposed resolution as it's written is to limit. And I have to say, discourage public comment when we expand really the elected city leaders should. solicit, encourage, and appreciate citizens' comments to inform and enrich their decisions and the whole community understanding. So that's my view.

Thank you.

Yeah, good evening. My name is Crystal Curley. I'm also the executive director of a nonprofit called Indigenous Lifeways, which serves a majority of McKinley County. And also it goes up into the Four Corners area. But I'm here helping ensure our community members have access space and access to share their voice and as elected officials it is your obligation to listen to your constituents regardless if comments are repeated or redundant the purpose of public comment is to hear and act on the people's concerns and solutions and to see the numbers of and seeing the numbers of your constituents that are for or against agenda items or non-agenda items every voice matters This is what democracy is about. This resolution creates extra barriers for communities that are already marginalized by lack of transportation to attend in-person city council meetings or having lack of internet or technology to participate virtually or not speaking English or not having a babysitter or not having the means to come here. How will this help the voices of our community? It doesn't. This will only continue to limit the community's voices. No matter the issue, community needs to have access to the information. You must have their consent to go and going beyond consultation of community members. You must listen to us. We must listen to each other. The real question is, why don't y'all want to listen to community as elected officials? Where is the leadership? Where is the accountability? Where is the democracy? And by limiting civic engagement opportunities only benefits elected, only benefits elected officials with hidden agendas. Thank you.

I wanted to take this time and let you know that I have been getting into a lot of groups where youth are getting involved in local government. I actually just got back from a visit in Bronx City. The community there shared with me how they interact with their elected officials and their city councilors. When I shared what this resolution did, our jaws were on the floor. I wanted to make sure that you guys know this is not a normalized process. I know you say that this is present in other cities. It's really not. So that reaction, I just hope you understand that. To make it more available, I went to the PRC meeting in Albuquerque that was on the PNM acquisition. There was hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people there to speak. Those commissioners made the time, they made the space, They didn't limit any comments. Yes, there was a time limit. There was a sign-in sheet, but that didn't mean that it had to be done an hour in advance. There was a table set up outside. They had all the personnel. That's what they were paid to do. That's what you're elected to do to make it accessible. So the PRC meeting, I showed up. I just got off of work. I signed in. They really just had that sign-in list to make sure that we were called to comment. So I wanted to make sure you understood that when PRC was facing hundreds and hundreds of comments, they made it accessible still. And just like another personal thing for me, if this resolution wasn't passed, I would not have made my first ever Gallup City Council comment on April 28th. This would have not allowed me to comment. I see myself as one of the few native young woman in civic engagement. And I hope you understand if this resolution were to pass, you limit that access to someone like me. If I had known there was rules to this, I would not have commented. You need to make it accessible and you need to make it welcoming. Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor and Council, David Eason, 1225 Vilda. I'm going under the knife in a couple days. One of the risks associated with the surgery is damage to the vocal cords. So I've decided to speak now before I may be required to forever hold my peace. Regarding the resolution, I have three points to offer. The first two are related. The third is broader. Point number one, Gallup and McKinley County are not doing well. You heard what Mr. Hawes had to say. We've lost our newspaper, a newspaper that survived the 2008 crash and COVID. We have a vacancy rate downtown in excess of 50%. What Gallup needs is an engaged citizenry, people who are willing to contribute because they are being heard. This resolution sends the wrong message. Point number two, with the loss of the Independent and the Suns Limited publication, comment in this forum is one of the few, arguably the only, public venues in which people can speak to and be heard on matters of public concern. It might be one thing to limit comment in a place where there's an active press, where you have letters to the editor, where you have editorials and guest editorials. It's quite another here in Gallup. You don't have that. Again, the wrong message is being sent. Point number three. Democracy is messy. It is noisy. It's obstreperous. It is or can be chaotic. It often proceeds by trial and error. It is in many ways the antithesis of a controlled and confined process. It is like a kid playing with paint. Sometimes the result has to be altered or discarded. Sometimes we have to start over. But when it works, it's beautiful. Now, it must be admitted that authoritarian rule is cleaner, quieter, more efficient. After all, Mussolini was able to make the trains run on time. But that type of rule ultimately fails. Listen to public comment. It can provoke thought. It is helpful. You need it. You need the mockingbird. Don't cage the mockingbird. Please think carefully on this matter.

Hello, my name is Aries Devitt. I did not plan on speaking tonight, but I do think this is very important. I'm going to keep it short. And I just want to emphasize that the public comment isn't about time you guys aren't trying to be efficient with public comment what you guys are trying to do with public comment is get the public's input and this would most definitely restrict it and even if it's a small thing it would restrict it in some way and that it might feel like an attack against us trying to okay not too sure but um yeah nervous and I think you guys should just think about this. Thank you.

Thank you. In fact, we have the people that are for the amendment, the resolution, please.

Well, thank you, Mayor and Council. Really what I wanted to say this evening is that as a long time, Patty Lundstrom, state representative, is that I wanted to share with you that in the state, especially in the House of Representatives, we always have sign in and there's always a designated time for people to talk. It's different with cities. I get that. I understand that. But in order to be fair, we want to make sure that the people that have taken the time to actually come in and sign in actually get a chance to talk. I think that's a very good idea. I think it's a good idea to have a sign-in sheet. I think it's a good idea to allow a couple of minutes for each person to say their piece. I like the idea about having... people be able to talk on items that are being discussed for that evening, because I'm not sure that you see that across the board. And that's why I don't like to just call out the city. I'm not sure if they do that with the UNM board, not sure if they do that with the school board, not sure if they do that with the county, not sure if they do that with the Navajo council. I know for myself, many times I've gone to school district meetings and You don't get to talk. Nobody talks. Don't know about UNM board, if they get to talk or not. I don't know if that happens anywhere else. So I don't think it's fair to call out the city as being the bad guy in this. I would hope that all these folks that are here in the audience this evening would also go to those meetings, those other public meetings that have just as much responsibility for public issues and say your piece. But I do know with the state of New Mexico, we do allow, we require that you sign in. We want to know who's talking to us. We want to know. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Next, we have two. So who else wants to speak for the amendment?

Yeah.

Mayor and Council. Robert Baca, citizen, not commissioner. In reference to this, and kind of going along with Representative Lundstrom, sign-in sheet wouldn't be a bad thing. At least you know who's coming up and what it is they're going to talk about. It kind of keeps things in order for you and it keeps things running. One thing I would suggest is put yourself a timer up here, two minutes. That way they know when their two minute timer is up. Also, Mr. Mayor, I suggest use your gavel. Utilize that for your meetings. But the other thing I would say as citizens, when you're told your two minutes, don't continue talking. Because one, that just prolongs everything that goes on. You're trying to step up a little bit more on your game. If we're talking about respecting what the rule is, that's the first part, is respect the rules. And that's what we look for. So that's my comment for it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor. One question, Al. If someone decides, because they could sign up right now for next week, not the end of the week. Sign up anytime. You're not there at 5. Sign up. Sign-in sheet gives us a little bit more order, which I appreciate. And if someone calls in and calls into your office and says, oh, I want to speak tonight or I want to speak at the next council meeting, is that the equivalent? Does that work the same way? So you can call in, you can do whatever you want, email, whatever you want to do to get your name on the list. All we need is your name and the topic. We're not going to restrict anybody's comments during the non-agenda or the agenda items. It would be clear that I don't think we're going to move. We want the discussion on the agenda items with the agenda. That's one thing. I don't think we need to have confusion of people talking on non-agenda items and agenda items at the same time. I mean, it seemed like it could get a little bit confusing on everybody's part. But a sign-in sheet is not something that you have here at 5 o'clock. A sign-in sheet is, we just want to get it an hour before the council meeting starts. And it's a good way to keep order. And you can call in, email in, whatever you want to do. And it's pretty simple to do. And I don't even know if you can't text it. And I guess we'd have to email or call in to answer the phone.

I'm sorry that I interrupted you. My name is Jim Bay. You have to answer the phone. I can tell you from last year when I was calling the city manager's office, how many times did I call and your phones were not working? or no one picked up. And I would call multiple times until I could get through to Tasha to talk, to get an information from her about dealing with, about meeting with Mr. Chipetti. So you need to answer the phone. And it's nice that people can call you because they have your phone number. I don't have Sarah Piano's phone number. I don't know how to reach her. And I can tell you from trying to email last year, that I'm an educated person, but I'm technically incompetent. And I had an email already, and something in your system would not accept the email that I had. So it never got accepted. If you're gonna have a requirement, you need to answer your phone.

Was there a message to leave? Did it give you a chance to leave a message? No.

The phone just wouldn't work. I don't know if anyone else has that problem when you try to call the city. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't.

Thank you. Observation.

I would really implore us as a council to, I am not opposed to having a sign-up sheet. I would implore us to remove the statement that says no later than one hour prior. And we could always put in a rule that says that we won't take more than 10 speakers on a topic. But we're going to speak in the order that they stand up. leave it open for people to sign up up until the start of the meeting. And then you don't have to take everybody at that point in time. But it's been very few and far between that we have so many speakers that we can't take them all. And so I think we need to be more careful with this action before we pass this resolution. There's a few details that don't mix.

And thank you, Sharon. Well, the other thing is let's just move the comments to the end of the meeting.

And that way we could have it all organized by the time we get there.

Move the comments to the end of the meeting like it used to be.

And that way we can have it organized.

HAB-Masyn Moyer- i'd rather hear it at the beginning, because if it gets crazy we're gonna be super tired after three hours and then I think moving it to the beginning was good, but I have a question is this for i'm just calm just action items that are non agenda items or would this also be for agenda items.

HAB-Masyn Moyer- On agenda only is all this.

HAB-Masyn Moyer- Because I don't think that's stipulated in the ordinance either.

Our clerk was saying that you can call, you could email, whatever. I don't see that in there.

We can add that to the resolution, but our intention is to put that information on the agenda.

So when the agenda comes out, you will have the posted information, what number to call to sign up. And the website as well. And the website as well. No, I don't think so. It's been a resolution.

I just have a question. How would this apply to people who are calling in their public comment?

Nothing changes.

They still have to call or whatever and get on the list and then call in.

In fact, it says right there that to submit comments by telephone, please call this phone number 505-863-1254 to leave your name and a return phone number.

Right. But I'm wondering about the registration process.

Okay. That has to be done. And the time is the question now.

Thank you.

If we compromise with 30 minutes, does that 30 minutes by 30 to sign up. And that means what happens is you just forgot to call and you said,

So I'm not sure. My name is Abigail Littlefield. Last year, we had Abigail Littlefield. Thank you. Yeah, no problem. My bad. I'm sorry. I'm all speaking fast. Am I tripping? Or do you guys remember last year when the fiber optic was cut and all the calls were down, Wi-Fi was down? What's, have you thought about what that looks like if that's not even accessible?

Yeah, when that happens, YouTube's out, everything's out. So we have no online, no social media, nothing.

So this isn't included in the resolution either. So like if that falls through, then.

Yeah, I mean, technical difficulties are beyond our control anyway, in any case. Yeah. Well, I guess with that, we have a motion.

I'll make a motion. Yeah. I'd like to make a motion to approve a resolution with the, sorry, I'm missing the word, with the amendment to the second sentence so that it would read, any person wishing to address the council regarding a non-agenda item should register with the city clerk prior to the scheduled start time of a meeting. and deleting the one hour requirement absolutely second so can you do your amendment again that was really approve a resolution with an amendment to this this sentence reading deleting the words one hour so no So they have to sign up at the meeting. No later than prior to the scheduled start time of the meeting.

And we don't need...

They can sign up and it will still say that at the discretion of the chair, they can be ordered by topic or... And no later than six o'clock.

They have to be here before six.

Yes, they have to be here before six o'clock if they want to speak.

They could sign up at 5.58.

Yes. And we don't... The discretion would still be there to limit the number of speakers.

Well, the discretion of...

But earlier discretion of the chair can limit the number of speakers. So start at the beginning of the list or limit the number of speakers by topic.

Yeah. And the mayor said earlier that he didn't intend to want to really limit most of the speakers. And I like that because I do like hearing from everyone, even if it's repetitive, I do believe that it is our job to listen to everyone. I want people to come. There was a time when very few people came to this meeting and it was very boring and And I think having, I mean, no, I mean, it was great with us. But it was just great. I think the public should want to come to meetings. And I'm glad people want to come and have civic engagement. Civic engagement is down across the nation. And I think having that is important. So I was going to vote no, but I think if... You'd limit the time that I might be amenable to that. But I just, yeah, because I like hearing from people and I want to say that I think we should try to hear everybody unless it really does get redundant. People are starting to say like, which has happened a few times, you know, where they say that, same thing but um yeah absolutely but i'll buy us a digital timer but let's also make the comment that more people could be heard if you guys stop the two minutes so like there was one person tonight that stopped at two minutes Like, two minutes, thank you.

Like, okay, just one more thing. Okay, just ten more things.

So you've got to respect the rule. If we're going to try to let more people speak, then you've got to, like, time yourself at home or something. I know you're passionate, but, like, do the two minutes because then it allows more people to speak. But if some of you go way over, now we're in trouble, right? So, I mean, let's just be realistic. Let's be realistic with each other. Yeah? Timer will help. Okay, and the gavel, if we just, like, throw random things at people.

No, just kidding. Shit.

Okay, we'll just put it up.

I'll do that. 30 seconds. 10 seconds.

There's a motion.

thank you for coming everybody

Thank you, Ron.

Since we're apparently having a debrief, I just want to come out of that gentleman's here, but.

All of our numbers and emails should be on the city website. So if you go to that, you can also, I'm sorry if the phones are working, but you should have to call all of our cell phones. And then you can also email us directly and then you can send an email to Tasha or call Tasha or Matilda and they will get the messages to us. So I just want to give clarification to people who are saying like, it's hard to get ahold of people. All of our contact information is on the city website and you can call the direct office and they'll, they will give us our messages. So just want to let you guys know that.

Thank you. The next item is.

Yeah. But anytime, going back to your meetings, if you're going to take a break, I suggest you make it official because if not, you just threw everything everybody just talked about from the toilet. You went unofficially, you had a counselor running out, everybody's getting up talking and all you did was excuse your staff. If you're going to do this, follow your rules.

Yeah, that's true.

Just makes sense.

Thanks, Bob.

All right, the next item is lodger's tax grant recommendation. This is gonna be with Matt Robinson for the Zia Rides for the Enchanted Forest Bike Event.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Thank you for having me up tonight. Yes, as Mayor described, there's an application before you for the 24 hours in the Enchanted Forest put on by Zia Rides. I apologize, this is a little tardy. We missed the first Lodger's Tax Committee meeting. As you might recall, we updated the regulations, so now there's two meetings a year. So, we were able to get the word out to most of our applicants, but this 1 came in a little bit late. So I still wanted to move forward with it given. This is our 1st year of new regulations and new guidelines. I like to work with our applicants and try to give them some grace on that. So that explains why this is coming to you at this point. Beyond that, excuse me, this is a strong annual event for our community, great outdoor recreation event. They bring in a lot of riders from all over the country, all over the place, really, to McGaffey Forest, the Zia Mountains. I got that mixed up, but you know what I'm talking about. So they're here again tonight to request funding through the Lodger's Tax Grant Program. You can see the budget listed in your packet, along with their marketing information. Plans, so she's a pretty great event. I think it's good. I recommended awarding about 7000 dollars to them last year. They were awarded a little over 11000. that's just because as we've talked about ad nauseum is going across the board and making cuts. We're mindful of the budget. So, with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions. I know Mr Bush was on zoom before we got disconnected. I don't know if he's back, but the event organizer was. Okay, I'm here if you can hear me. So, with that, I would turn it over back to Marin Council if you have any questions.

Yeah, thank you. Um, Matt, you know, 1 of the 1 of the things that we've recognized with our lodgers tax is how important it is. To for these events to support these events. And this particular event does bring in a lot of people and a lot of excitement to Gallup and a lot of people that ride bikes know about Gallup. So what I would like to do is propose instead of the 7,000, give them the 9,000, because that would be the amount they requested, just less the prizes.

Yes, sir.

And that would be within the 25% that we, 20%, whatever we stated, 25% that we stated. So, can you say that I'm not again 11,000 what.

So, we're recommending 9000 if you look in the in the agenda packet, can you please stop saying we, because I don't know who you're referring to me, I guess the in the agenda packet to the employees. Yes. Yeah. So with the breakdown $11,974, there's the local prize amount of $3,000. We took that amount off and it ended up being $8,974, so we just rounded it up to $9,000.

I personally would just like to do the 8,974. I'm just not a big fan of this rounding up. We've had other organizations that have come and we cut them. And so when we're rounding up more money, I know it's only like, 25 dollars, but it just feels wonky to me. Like, I'm fine adding more and cutting off the prizes, but I think we should just stick to, like, what it actually is without the prize money.

Mayor council. If I may, Mayor and Council, when I go through in the reimbursement process, I won't reimburse anything that's not approved. So even if you do approve X amount, if there are ineligible expenses that get them to that, they won't get to that.

Mayor, I'd like to speak on behalf of this event. I volunteered the last two years going up. There was a big discussion last year. Why are we sponsoring things that are solely in the county? People don't just stay in the county. They come into Gallup, they buy gas, they buy food. Some come down and shower. We're starting to get vendors that go up there. and sell and profit from the business. I think Seth and them have done a good job of putting together a wonderful ride. I still think you guys are crazy. Us old fat guys admire you guys riding the bikes for that long and that hard. But the county puts a lot in. County Fire, EMS is up there, a big crew. Most of them are volunteers. There are paid crew up there. So the county's putting a lot into this. They bring a lot of people to Gallup. And when talking to these people, especially the first timers, they're amazed at Gallup's trails. They see that trail and then they hear, oh, wow, you guys are putting in an Oso Ridge trailer. Oh, you guys are putting in a McKenzie Ridge trail. Oh, we hear you have the high desert trail system. We're going to come back to Gallup. And when they come back to Gallup, That's what we're talking. Destination Gallup type thing. McKinley County. Find your joy. Those type of things. And this just fits at what they can. Right now, economic development. This is what Gallup has. Jewelry and outdoor adventure. So these are the things that I really think we should be supporting. They're not out there really looking to make a profit. They're looking to give a good event to as many riders that can come in. And I've seen them coming from Texas, Colorado, many different places, get a lot of friends coming up from Las Cruces with their bikes. It's just a wonderful event. So I fully support it and am happy that the Lodgers Techs and the tourism group are bringing this to you.

I think this is a great event for sure. And I do want to support it. I do want to just say, and I realize that we're making an exception because this is the first year of the new process, but I do want to make sure we try to follow that process in the coming years, just for fairness for all organizations. I mean, you know, and I get it, things happen. But we did make this process so that people could come to one or the other. And so we're making an exception. And I think that is a great event. So I do want to make that exception. But I think exceptions are a slippery slope. And so we just need to make sure that all the organizations applying for next year, fiscal year, know like, hey, this is, you know, these are the two meetings you have. And just to be cognizant of that.

Yeah, I don't think we're making an exception with this. This is this is under the rules. It's just that we're we are things.

Mayor Council, if I may, it is the purview of Marin Council to approve applications directly. We go through the logic tax committee to help kind of vet things to make recommendations. They're an advisory board. Technically, Marin Council are the true and only approvers of these requests.

And when is your next meeting with the larger tax?

I think October, I believe, is the second round we put. I have it here. We don't have a date set, but it'll be in October, the two-year meetings. I just had it here.

So it'll be October. So the larger tax is every six months?

Yeah, the main thing is there's two meetings a year. Maybe that's what this is. Yes, sir.

Because you're going to have a lot of exceptions if that's the case. Yes. Mayor Mrakas, All right, thank you, yes, we have a motion to proceed.

I make a motion approval of lodgers tax grant recommendation for the 24 hour in the turn in the enchanted forest, the amount of $9,000.

Mayor Mrakas, Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. If you'll excuse me, I've got to go back to the square. Have a good evening.

Thank you so much.

The next item is the continuation of the final review and approval of the vacancy of the public rights away as identified on the final plat titled Lot 1A, William Boardman, Number 1, being a replat of Lots 1 through 10, Block 2, Lots 4 through 20, Block 3, and Lots 1 through 5, Block 4 of the William Boardman, Number 1 subdivision. And our speaker is going to be C.B. Strange. So I don't think you have to redo the title.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I won't. Save you some time. Mr. Matthew Drager, who I hope is on Zoom still, is here representing. He's with Newmark Mountain West, acting as agent. On behalf of Spencer V. Jones of Hillcrest Enterprises, LLC, who's the property owner, has petitioned the Gallup City Council for final plot approval. and approval for vacation of certain public's rights of way as identified as hiltcrest street and wade circle along with a 20-foot alley right-of-way uh as shown on the subdivision flat titled locks 1a william boardman number one and the mayor already read that it's been a replat of lots one through ten block two lots four through twenty block three lots one through five block four of the william boardman number one subdivision Property is located at 2410 through 2414 East Aztec Avenue. Currently, there's a combined total of 32 lots at the subdivision location. Spencer Jones, Hillcrest Enterprises, the property owner wishes to replant said properties from 32 lots to one lot, thereby reducing the number of lots for the purpose of selling the property. Set properties lie within the mobile home park subdivision, mobile home park zone district, excuse me, and currently contains an existing mobile home park. The proposed replat complies with the minimum dimensional requirements for the mobile home park zone district per table 10-2-13 MHP district dimensional standards. The site is fully serviced with utility infrastructure Typically a subdivision that reduces the number of lots would be classified as an administrative subdivision and handled administratively without the need for a public hearing. In this case there are two street rights of way identified as Hillcrest Street and Way Circle and a 20-foot alley right-of-way that will no longer be needed as part of the subdivision and as such are being proposed to be vacated as part of this subdivision process. The fact that the two public street rights-of-way at the alley right-of-way are being proposed for vacation necessitates the need for two public hearings. The Planning and Zoning Commission reviewed and approved this subdivision request at the regular meeting on June 10th of this year and has sent positive recommendation to City Council for vacation of the reference rights-of-way. City Council is now being asked to take action to vacate said rights of way or leave them in place. City Council is the final authority related to vacating public rights of way of any kind. It is the findings of staff post subdivision complies with the City of Gallup subdivision regulations for a minor subdivision, including all dimensional requirements or the mobile home park zone district. The applicant has submitted the required information, has paid all fees necessary in order to testify before the Planning and Zoning Commission. The Planning and Zoning Commission has reviewed and approved the request for final plat approval and has, again, has sent a positive recommendation to City Council for vacation of the public rights of way as identified on the final plat. The decision now falls upon City Council to approve or deny the vacation of said rights of way as identified on said final subdivision plat based on the information submitted, evidence presented, and testimony heard. And with that, I'll stand for any questions. But I do have, if you want to see what the current subdivision looks like and why this replant is taking place, I believe Alfred has a copy of the plat. If not, we could just move forward and I'll ask for any questions or answer any questions.

You guys want to see the plat? We have it in our packet.

That's the final subdivision plat for this one, but I'm talking about the way it exists today. Okay.

I'd like to see what you're getting rid of. Excuse me that you're getting rid of.

Sure, can I hear that?

Yeah.

If you pull up the plan out, I could show them what it looks like.

Mr strain is it unusual for a mobile home park district to be. 1 flat in this way.

Well. If you want a history lesson, I could go back and let you know what's going on. So back when this subdivision was platted, can you make it bigger? I didn't bring my binoculars, but yeah.

So, Stevie, I think in regard to Sierra's question is, you know, most mobile home parks are private. So this particular one was a subdivided property with dedicated right-of-ways back in 1961.

So in 1961, when this subdivision was platted, here's Aztec Avenue. As you can see, to the north of that, there's several plots within this or lots within the subdivision. South is what we're looking at, south of Aztec. This encompasses the existing trailer park right now. The intention at that time, I don't think, was to put a trailer park here because these lots are still actually existing lots. These right-of-ways are still platted right-of-ways, Wade Circle and Hill Street, Hillcrest Street. And this alley is still a platted right-of-way, alley right-of-way. So those all still exist. legally. When the park went in, I'm not sure. It was way before my time, probably in the 70s sometime, early 70s, I'm assuming, because that park is very old. When they put the trailer park in, the trailers are scattered throughout this property. They're encroaching over right-of-way lines, they're encroaching over lot lines, and it doesn't conform to current standard at all. So what the property owner wishes to do is to clean that up, and just replant all of the 32 lots into just one big lot. With that, the city doesn't want these streets. Right now, this is public property, city-dedicated right-of-ways. So they're not easements, they're right-of-ways, city-owned. An easement goes across private property and it's privately owned. So the city owns Hillcrest Street and Wade Circle at this point and the alley. By vacating it, it reverts back to the property owner. We don't have a use for these streets or the alley. There's no utility infrastructure within them. And right now. Keeping them there would obligate us to maintain there, which we cannot. Because there's structures over these things. So, it's in the city's best interest to vacate these. Let them revert let the property revert back to the property owner. It'll be 1 lot and the existing trailer park that's there will remain as is. It's nonconforming at this point. It doesn't comply with our current standard, but we have provisions in our ordinance and our zoning code that allows for nonconforming uses to continue. We're not going to go in there and make them come into compliance as far as where the trailers are located or anything like that. This is just simply to clean up the plat. Clean up subdivision and vacate these rights of way so that there's a clean. And we get rid of those streets that the city really doesn't want and the alley.

So, CB, 1 of the 1 of the items on wait circle, it does say a public utilities minister by retained over the entire area of the vacated Hillcrest street and wait circle. So we are going to maintain. just to maintain all this easement.

Now what happened there was there is existing utility underground electric infrastructure, but it's not exactly within these rights of way. So the electric department reviewed it and they requested easements where the lines were located. Uh, the property owner decided just to leave these as easements. Um, which we didn't have a problem with the, the, the, uh, electric department reviewed it as long as well as the other departments. And their conclusion was that was fine. If they wanted to dedicate him as easements, they would be private. They would not be owned by the city anymore. So they'd be private easements. So, yes, they're, they are being dedicated as part of this plat, but. Vacation of the right of ways would relieve the city from any obligation to maintain any of those.

You know, the sad part is this doesn't clean up the need. It doesn't really show the two streets. It shows the Hillcrest Street. But it doesn't show the two streets that go between William and Hillcrest that are more driveways into 20 or 30 homes. And, man, it's a huge fire hazard. You can barely get a vehicle in there, much less a fire truck, an ambulance. An ambulance pulling in there to pick up somebody is having to back out. Unless somebody's not home and they can somehow turn around between the 2 trailers and even then it's hit and miss. You know, this is an area that that somehow needs to be. Cleaned up for for the safety of the residents in my opinion. Now, I don't know if we have any legal means to do that. Well, vacating the easements helps us on expense on maintaining them. It's not overall doing what needs to be done for the citizens.

I agree, Mr. Trippetti. Given this was in my district, I did attend the Planning and Zoning Commission and I did my research. I drove through it myself. And I do believe it's in everyone's best interest for the city to vacate its rights-of-ways in this lot and to allow the combination of the plots into one plot. Yeah, I'll just leave it there. But I agree there is a safety concern beyond that that should keep in the back of our minds.

It sounds like he's trying to sell it, right? That's why he needs it to be all one.

Mr. Mayor, Councillor Piano, exactly. The property owner wishes to sell the property. He does have a buyer ready to purchase the property, but these issues needed to be cleaned up before he could sell it. And I do agree with City Manager Cipetti that there are significant issues there. And with a bunch of old mobile home parks that we have through the city have the same issues. Our current standards for mobile home parks, do account for that. Now, when you have a mobile home park, say someone is going to put a new mobile home park in the city, they have to comply with our standards, which is inside the park itself. They have to designate spaces. They have to be a certain size. The trailers need to be set back a certain distance from the properties to gain space. So to prevent fire from going from trailer to trailer, if there's a fire. Same way as like a residential subdivision. But everything within that park is private. So our obligation as a city for the utility maintenance and roadway maintenance ends at the frontage of that park. So everything within the park is private, even though there's regulations that require them to plat streets a certain width and designate spaces so that On a new one, all of those issues would be handled. But these old ones, there's really not a legal means to make them come into compliance. We can ask, but that's about all we can do.

CB, on the south side of the park, there's poles there. Is that Eastman-affected?

Mr. Mayor, Councillor Molina, all of the existing infrastructure went through review with the electric department and anything they needed an easement for, they got on this plan. Good. That's all I was worried about.

I have nothing to do with anything, but what are the plans for the new buyers? Are you going to leave it a mobile home park?

That I'm not sure you could ask Mr. Drager. He might have a better answer for you as to what the future plans are. I don't know if it's to just let it remain as is or if they're planning on redoing it. But Mr. Drager is on the line. Matt, can you hear us?

He's muted.

So we'll have to unmute yourself. That's all right. My apologies. My apologies. Can you hear me now? Yeah. So the question was, what are the future plans for the park?

My understanding, to be clear, I'm a representative of Mr. Jones, who is the current owner. My understanding would be that the seller or the buyer is... intending to continue operation of the mobile home park and to slowly kind of bring it up more in line with current standards that you might see and want to envision in something that's getting brought up a little bit more to date, so to speak. but I can't speak with any true clarity or knowledge beyond that as I'm just not, I am not his agent.

Very good.

Ready to make a motion?

Yes, you sure can. Yes, any other public comment is welcome.

This is Connie Liu again. I am not a housing expert, but it occurs to me that when folks have their entire home uprooted and put in another plot, that can be a tremendously traumatic event. I'm very grateful to hear that we have a city councilor who has been reaching out to the residents and is, you know, keeping them apprised of what's going on. But I would really urge that as this whole process happens, that there is a very clear process for making sure that the residents in this community are being included in decision making. Thank you.

I have a question. Are they, I mean they're just taking out the, they're not upgrading all the houses and moving them, right?

All this action does is replant the property. We're eliminating the 32 lots and creating one. We're not making anybody move their trailers. Everything's staying in place the way it is. If that happens, that's at the decision of the landowner. It's himself. The city won't make that decision. The landowner will.

But we do have, like Steve was talking about earlier, if they do make those changes, there are land development regulations they have to abide by. They just don't allow it to be like this. Can we have a motion?

Yeah, I will make a motion.

Leanne Gilson. Unless I misunderstood, but I thought he stated that the ownership of the trailer would revert back to the individual who lives in the trailer. Is that correct?

No, not the land. To clarify... The residents of the park do not own that property. They are tenants of that property. So the trailer spaces that they're in, they lease or they rent. The owner of the property is the owner of the property. So the rights of way, the property that the right of ways are on would revert back to that property owner, the owner of record as recorded at the county courthouse. They wouldn't go back to the trailer, the people living in the trailer, because they had not the property.

Motion. Go ahead, please.

Okay. Motion to approve the request for final review and approval of vacation of public rights away as identified on the final plot titled Lot 1A, William Boardman No. 1, being a replat of Lots 1 through 10, Block 2, Lots 4 through 20, Block 3, and Lots 1 through 5, Block 4 of the William Boardman No. 1 subdivision.

I second.

Councilor Yodley? Yes. Councilor Molina?

Yes.

Councilor Piano? Yes. Councilor Garcia? Yes. Mayor DeFalle?

Yes. Thank you. Thank you, CD. With that, we're at the end of the meeting and we have time for comments. by the mayor and city council. Again, I want to thank the county for their wonderful events that they had with all the counties, pretty much all the counties of the state here were this week in Gallup. We met with them a couple of times at the county convention, I'll call it. And also the public notices, you know, guys, water's precious. And we need, and our water director pointed out that there are a lot of evaporative air air conditioners leaking on roofs and leaking everywhere. And if you could please maintain them before we have to cite you for wasting water through your air conditioners. Anyway, just wanted to let everybody know. Thank you. Yes, please.

Yes, my comment is just regarding the last agenda item. Number 6, just to acknowledge that anytime a mobile home park transfers ownership, the residents are vulnerable to undo hardship, such as higher rent, new fees and new regulations. And so in support of my constituents in that area, I'll be hosting a Know Your Rights session at the end of July at the Faith Christian Fellowship, which is directly across the street from the mobile home park. And I am still finalizing the date and time for that. So I will share as soon as possible and on my social media accounts. And that's it for me. But watching the World Cup, go USA, go Ghana.

Linda? Let's see, a couple of things. Again, Commissioner Baca, great job at the County Associations Conference. It was, everything was just perfect. Cindy Gallop came through, along with all the other volunteers. It was just a great event. So kudos to County, did a great job. The best of the best rodeo, starting this week. And it will be on all this week. And we're going to use there's some of us that are going to volunteer to help the ambassadors of Gallup to welcome the rodeoers in this week. So that's a great event. So we support that greatly. And I'm looking forward to that. Thursday, I believe is the great race. uh i'll let mr chipetti uh give us an update on more more than what i have but that'll be this thursday um and i also oh i will also be having i've been getting requests uh for community meeting i am the process of finding a date and a time this will be an informational meeting on all the questions that have been and people coming in. So just get your questions ready. If you have any, but it's going to be mostly informational about what's going on on some of the topics that have been going on with the city as soon as possible, hopefully in the next two weeks. And I would like an update on the 4th of July. What's going on? I have not heard much. I know Chief Rep I was going to give us some information, but he went on a call, so Frank, can you give me some information?

Right now? Yes. I was looking for the great race agenda. I didn't know if you thought she meant like later.

Great race agenda. We are planning the 4th of July event at the sports complex involving the drone show. cake, watermelon, all the items that we traditionally do.

And last year there was a charge and this year no charge, I understand, right? Correct.

Anything else? We'll let Ron go because he goes last all the time. Is that okay?

Yeah, go for it. Go ahead, Ron. I'm just kidding.

Okay. Thank you, mayor. You might regret this one. Thank you. The county managers meeting. First of all, Robert, it was nice. I enjoyed it. It was my privilege to help. Although I only showed up for the golf golf tournament. And unfortunately we had a thing to go to an Albuquerque, Mark and I, and while I was in Albuquerque, it's the only time I put city business to the side, my grand daughter. was playing a tournament for her all-star team. So I wasn't going to leave that out. I left the city manager on Wednesday night just to attend her softball game. That was important to me. But it was a great group of guys. A lot of fun, a lot of good camaraderie going on over there. A lot of line on those scorecards, I'm going to tell you. I got to say something. It pains me to say this, but I read a Facebook comment. Normally I don't pay too much attention to it. That I was old. I was too old for this job.

And my self-image.

I won't bring your name into it. You're younger than I am. Anyway, it normally wouldn't bother me. But under the circumstances, I'm going to tell everybody out here. I work 70 hours every week. Every week. And the people that think I'm too old for this job, I dare you to keep up with me for those 70 hours. I bet you can't. You know? And I just had to get that off my chest. It offended me. Hell, there might even be a law against that. I don't know. But I was offended. It's not proper. I don't care if you're on Facebook. It's not the right thing to down some, you know, you don't like what I'm doing. My phone number is all over the internet, all over the, what do you call it? Google, Google, anybody can find me on Google. My number's on there. It's a 24 hour phone. I spend probably generally probably about six hours a day on the telephone. And every conversation I've had is a good conversation. And those people that don't think I'm working hard enough, pick up the phone and call me. I'll let you follow me around for a little while. Last thing, and I just need to get that off my chest. Thank you for listening to that rather awful negative comment. And I appreciate everything that's going on in town. Like I said, remember, I want everybody out there to remember, city council is not trying to limit anybody's voice. Never had, never will while I'm city councilor. Like I said, I take calls all the time. Every day I get two or three calls from people about city business, at least two or three calls. During this data center crisis, I was probably taking at least 10 calls every single day. And I took all of them and I talked to everybody. I returned the calls. Like I said earlier, all we're trying to do is, and this is my thing. Uh, you know, this is a place of business. Business takes place here. It's not a gymnasium. I appreciate everybody applauding each other and, You know, clapping in the whole nine yards, that's appreciated, but it's not a gymnasium. This is a place where you address council. You know, there's rules to go by. And all I'm trying to say is we're all in this together. You know, we're trying to save Gallup. You guys have all heard my spill. We've lost so many jobs here in Gallup. It's unreal. All we're trying to do is make up those jobs. We're trying to do the right thing With the citizens' help, it's gonna be so much easier and faster to get that done. Nobody's trying to do anything contrary to our citizens of Gallup. They're the most important part of this town. I believe that with my whole heart, and everybody that knows me knows that I do everything with my heart. My brain works in there every once in a while, but it's mostly my heart. Having said that, I'd like to thank all the employees, all the hardworking employees, that help us at the city of Gallup. Not all the employees, just the hardworking ones. And we appreciate everything you guys do. A fine example was the golf course. The golf course is looking pretty darn good up there under Mr. Alonzo's direction. And remind me of the guy's name, the head groundskeeper. Frank.

Eric.

Eric. Eric. Eric does an amazing job and his crew. I wish I could remember everybody's name up there, but they do a remarkable job. And like I said, to all the hard workers at Gallup, thank you.

Thank you, Ron.

See what happens when you let Ron go before me. Ron, I'm sorry that someone said that terrible thing. You're only as old as you feel. So I feel really straight. Um, I'll just reiterate a couple of things like counselor Garcia said, and I know Frank's going to talk about it, but the great race Thursday at 1130 at the Gallup cultural center. Um, that's gonna be really cool. Uh, it's a race. I used to explain more cause I didn't be terrible, but it sounds really cool. Uh, best of the best starting tomorrow, 24th through 27th. There was so much going on in June. Like if any of you were like, I'm so boring, Jude, that's on you because I posted like a thousand events that were, I was crazy. Um, tomorrow night there's this is just random things right there's a paint and sip from six to nine if you like to sip a beverage and paint um at art 123 which is really fun june 27th the public new art deal is doing a tour they've been doing these kind of regularly and if you've missed out on taking a tour that the new public art deal i encourage you to do it um so that's on june 27th and then um i i I know Bobby's probably like, yeah, where was counselor piano? I sadly was gone for 10 days. I was in Atlanta. I just got back yesterday. So I missed the entire county convention, which was really sad, but I had several people reach out to me. One is a county treasurer in Ria Reba County. And also my friend in Farmington that told me they were here and I was like, oh, I'm not here. And they said they were having a great time. And my friend Ria Reba actually went like took pictures with some of the people cleaning the streets and also like at a restaurant so they were going around town so they it seemed like they had a great time so that was a good reflection of just like the county and all the work they put in for that and the city help you know the county um so i heard it was just really great i was i was like i cannot believe my conference felt the same time as this so i'm really sad i missed it but i heard it was great um but because like it's just public mic i also just want to say i'm also a huge world cup fan i was in atlanta with the fifa fan club and lots of soccer and i saw fans from all over so for all you soccer fans out there it's been super great put me in a great mood and i wasn't even running for the usa but they've been doing surprisingly well but i'm a big spain fan so for anyone spain fan and mexico so you can ask me later why that is but yeah so that's been really cool so i was low-key excited that i got to be in atlanta and get to be involved with a lot of that world cup stuff so That's just a side note.

So I should have worn my jersey, I'm sorry. I was like, yeah. Sorry, I didn't get the memo out. I know, thank you. Just kidding.

That's all. And then I think Frank's going to talk about a little bit more of the Great Race events. Oh, and Nightly Indian Dances are still going on right now. That's where Matt had to run off to. So don't forget that at the Coral Square, we have the Nightly Indian Dances.

Is it a coincidence that the last 10 days were kind of quiet in Gallup?

Yes, it was. Weird, Allison said the same thing about our house.

Now all those people here earlier, they missed a great joke.

They should have stayed.

So starting 1130, 66 will be blocked off downtown. Starting time, like I said, 1130. We'll have two vehicles a minute scheduled to be coming in. Parking on 66. You can go out and see the cars, talk to the drivers, et cetera. They'll be going inside also to eat. We'll have some dancers there. Zuni bread. They'll be making fresh Zuni bread in the ovens. Always great. Really have to thank Angela's for partnering with us and Swift Museum. They've done a lot of great with this, putting this together. Very exciting to have this coming in. Coincidence that it's part of the Centennial Route 66. but it's absolutely great just to see the great race coming back through Gallup. It used to, and then didn't for a while. I'd like to take a second. We've already kind of talked quite a bit about the Mexico counties being here, but Isaiah Rodriguez, who I believe he is the conference and events manager for the state counties sent this letter and I'd like to thank county manager for forwarding this to us because he says McKinley County staff and volunteers. On behalf of the McKinley counties, I'd like to extend our gratitude for the effort, hospitality and support provided McKinley County during our eighty-ninth annual conference. To kick off the week, Sheriff Mariano and his crew did an outstanding organization and executing the golf tournament. I second that motion. Everything ran smoothly and his team took care of our county members and exhibitors throughout the event. Solid breakfast burritos to boot. Brian, while the hiking group might have been small, everyone participated loved it. They made sure to tell me what I missed. Thank you for offering the opportunity. It was a great way to help kick off the week and gave attendees another chance to experience the beauty of McKinley County. You hosted 551 attendees that did not include the families and spouses who joined. not a small undertaking, and your team rose to the occasion in every way. We'd like to say that's 551 heads and beds without asking for larger stacks money. It can be done. Wow, great job. From the planning process way back in July to the final day of the conferences, the dedication of county staff, volunteers, and community partners was evident throughout the night. Your host county, It was fantastic, along with Art Walk, the band playing, the county crawl section had it all. That was a refreshing take on a host county night, and you guys nailed it for our attendees. Kudos on the delicious food trucks and honorable mention to the Agua Fresca gals. One of the most remarkable aspects of this year's conference was the level of volunteer involvement. We're especially blown away to see the local legislators volunteering alongside county staff to welcome and check in attendees. He didn't mention them by name, but I want to. Representative Lundstrom, Representative Wanda Johnson, Councilor Garcia, we're all sitting there. Mayor welcomed every county person and spouse, family member who came to Red Rock Park. So cool. Something we never expected. That spirit of service and commitment leaves a lasting impression on us, and I'm certain our attendees too. I'd also like to recognize the partnership with Gallup High School staff and their catering team, SFE, and Ron and his staff at Red Rock Convention Center. Both venues worked well for our conference, and the meals and hospitality received many compliments from attendees throughout the week. It was hard to beat having a concert against the Red Rocks on a breezy evening. Catherine and your team rocked. Neil and your team rocked. Ron, you rocked. I didn't know how else to say it. Special thank you also goes to Tammy and the Gallup Express team. Tommy. Tommy and the Gallup Express team. Sorry, Tommy, for changing your sex. And the shuttle logistics for the event of this size are never simple. Yet Tommy and his crew worked well with our routes, schedules, and pickups seamlessly throughout the conference. We received zero complaints regarding transportation, pickup timing. He even extended services beyond our advertised shuttle hours, so no attendee was left behind. Thank goodness Red Rock Park to Gallup was a long walk. His dedication to providing incredible service helped create a smooth and positive experience. Most importantly, our attendees have nothing but positive things to say about their experience in Gallup. The warm welcome, friendly faces with yellow shirts with the McKinley logo on it, and the willingness to help at every turn showcase the very best of your community. Special VIP shout out to Shauna. I appreciate you answering all my calls and texts with prompt support. Please share our appreciation with everyone who contributed to the success of this conference. I don't believe I have everyone I need to on this email, but your hard work, professionalism, and hospitality helped make it a great conference. So the ones that weren't there were our streets, parks department, working extra long hours, putting in the extra time. Matt, Tasha, just every meeting up there working with the county folks. And of course, that whole county team. from county manager to commissioners all the way down, Brian Letty to every employee that worked They didn't even mention the equipment rodeo that was hosted out there. They said that was one of the highest number of attendees they've ever had for the rodeo. It went long just because they had so many extra people. It's just fabulous to see. This is what Gallup is about, and this is what we can bring. So talk to you about Thursday and Friday. Since we don't have a newspaper, I'm going to put it out. Longtime resident. Just a great person for Gallup, Joe Sparza, who had passed away. His funeral is 11 o'clock on Friday. I know without a local newspaper, it's hard knowing about those things. And then on July 18th, we're going to have a boxing match between the fire department and police department to raise money for charity. Six exhibition matches. They're all training right now. It's going to be some fun.

It was a workman's comp plans. Can we do an accounting?

What's that? Larry Brian Mitchell. Actually, I pitched to Captain Collins today. It'd be nice if we put the ring right up there in the middle of the courthouse square. That's some fun. Sorry, guys. I got to wear red that day. No, we think it's a great rivalry. The police association, fire association, in conjunction with the members, just want to have some good natured fun to raise some funds for charities. And I think it's just a great event.

All right. Thank you, Frank. With that, if we could have a motion to adjourn. Thank you.

Yes. Yes.

Yes.

Yes.