Council - Regular Meeting

You're live. Okay, well, welcome back and we'll start our work session. Now we'll start with the agenda items 4.1 and MSU College of Health, Education and Social Transformation. Would be you, Doctor Marlin.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Distinguished members of the Council, thank you so much for the opportunity to be with you this afternoon. Appreciate it very much. And an honor to have been invited. My name is Rick Marlette. I'm privileged to serve as the dean of the College of Health, Education and Social Transformation at New Mexico State University. We love our acronyms in higher ed. So. So we're hest if you've heard of us, hest is the merged college from 2021, bringing together the old colleges of education and the College of Health and Social Services, along with two new departments, one from Arts and Sciences, sociology and a new department in Nmsu's newest department, Borderlands and Ethnic Studies. Very honored and excited for the opportunity to interact with you all this afternoon, I have a brief presentation that I'd like to provide, focusing on kind of three three part mission, which is workforce development, research and innovation, and community outreach. The College of Hest. We are driven by by our mission, which is to pursue social change and transformation through education, research, and outreach. Our vision is to be collaborators and leaders in the discovery of innovative solutions in healthcare sciences, allied health, education, and social services, all of which lead to social transformation in New Mexico and beyond. We welcome the opportunity to serve all students and invite all community members in the borderland and beyond to join our academic communities. As a college, we are incredibly proud of who we are. Our contributions to Nmsu's land grant mission, and our robust engagement with communities and students across the state and region. Our students become experts in their fields. They get great jobs right away through hands on experience and learning opportunities, and they are the beneficiaries of cutting edge scholarship from our faculty and our amazing alumni and donor networks that support our college. Our students graduate, get those great jobs right away, and become strong leaders who are

difference makers for their families and change agents in their communities. Hest is a place to get involved, to embrace an identity of strength and service, and to advance the aspirations of New Mexico communities and families. With that, I would like to just go ahead and kind of go through these slides. So we're going to focus a lot on the workforce development aspect of the college, which drives our mission in terms of the academic success and opportunities that we offer students, as well as our outreach and community engagement mission, which is prominent as well. So just some brief overview of the college. We did have our highest enrollment on record in fall 2025, has served over 4200 students across undergraduate and graduate enrollments. That includes an all time high of 4224 enrolled student headcount, and then an all time high crushing 38,000 student credit hours, which was very exciting. Hestia's, MSU's second largest college, we support over 200 faculty members and nearly 200 staff members. Our research expenditures in FY 26 were 17.5 million, and we've been the beneficiaries of a tremendous amount of support from the state in terms of our higher education endowments, and those have supported our areas of social work, nursing and teacher education in particular. We do have several priorities that kind of run as a through line through our college and bring together our disciplines, which on paper seem to be somewhat far apart when we think about nursing being in the same college as, say, kinesiology or public health. But what what really brings us all together is some of those foundational through lines, such as ensuring that providing training and workforce development around mental health and wellness, social, emotional, working, social and emotional learning, workforce development, and high quality instruction across the board. We have nine academic units in the College of Health,

including three schools and six traditional academic departments. Seven of our nine academic departments are accredited at the state and national level and lead to licensure in a professional program. So I have listed our departments and schools here on the next couple of slides and also added the accrediting again after the fall. But just just to point out that, you know, our, our programs, our professional licensure leading pathways whereby students have an apprenticeship and clinical experience out in the field. And most of our students, especially if they're willing to stay in New Mexico, which we highly encourage and incentivize students to do. They're going to have a job right away, and they're in their professional field. We have a number of new, notable academic pathways in the college that just went online this last year. As you can see, we're really attuned to aligning our programing in the college with the needs and the high demands of workforce out in the state. Just just briefly, I want to point out, again, the enrollment is pretty much across the board in our in our college. So of our nine academic units, nearly all are showing growth over the last several fall semesters. Increases in student enrollment for headcount, as well as the total accumulation of student credit hours, which is exciting. Those are the numbers across the college, as you can see, growing on the undergraduate side, as well as the graduate side there in crimson and in silver. You can see we're continuing to serve that mission to expand our capacity and to train more highly qualified, culturally competent professionals for the state of New Mexico. In addition to our academic arm of the college, we also pride ourselves on providing experiential learning and research and outreach for a huge community engagement mission. A number of our sites

across the college are testaments to that, to that public facing community service aspect. We have the Nursing Skills and Simulation Lab, for which we did a ribbon cutting in the fall. Very exciting there. In the old HHS building, we have a number of clinics on site in the college, including the Mental health clinic for clinical psychology and school psychology, the Autism Diagnostic Center, the Edward Speech and Hearing Center, and the Glass Family Research for Early Childhood Studies. When the O'Donnell Hall expansion is completed, which which I'm told as of this morning is is on track and should be ribbon cutting there in the fall. All of these clinical public serving entities will be together on the ground floor in O'Donnell Hall, facing public facing accessible for for children and families and clients across the board. So it's very exciting. We also have a number of of other outreach entities and research and outreach units in the college, including the Stem Outreach Center, which leads all out of school time activities, summer Stem camps, and professional development for teachers across the state of New Mexico. We have social work teaching and in some cases, public health now, where we can offer paid practicum to all of our practicum students when they reach that stage of their program. A number of other, again, public serving, really community engaged kinds of outreach centers in the college include Crimson research, for which the public Health Department right now is working on a homelessness study for the for the unhoused in Las Cruces, working with the city on that, which is very exciting. Our educators. Rising chapter for the State of New Mexico affiliates with high schools and middle schools across the state to ensure that we have a strong and steady, robust pipeline for new teachers across the state. And then the our newest member of this group is our Borderlands and Ethnic

Studies Research Center, which is doing some exciting work for the state and the region as well. One point out, once again, we have the Human services extension and expansion over in the HHS building, which includes the SIM lab that I mentioned previously, as well as a new operating room, which is very, very engaging, very hands on and very state of the art. We're able to compare with schools of nursing across the region, including Texas Tech and U of A and others. Donald Hall expansion that I mentioned a moment ago is 28,000 new square feet to house our new clinics, as well as to move our departments of kinesiology from the activity center over to O'Donnell Hall and our Communication Disorders Department, which houses the two clinics, the Edgar Speech and Hearing Center and the Papen Autism Diagnostic Center. Both of those, again, will be joining us in O'Donnell Hall. So we're going to be expanded and loud and proud, ready to serve the Las Cruces community in the state of New Mexico. These these pictures, although fairly recent, are already out dated. There's tremendous progress being made every day. And I can't say enough about our facilities and services and our contractors who are amazing. One example of Hescs workforce development successes that I would like to share is in our teacher education program, where I had the opportunity and was privileged to serve as the department head for a few for four years. Actually, in 2019, we began tracking the number of applicants who formally applied to the professional program right around their junior year. Typically, and as you can see, there are three intake periods for the program throughout the year and the year, the school year 2019 to 2020, we had a total of 83 students who were Nmsu education majors, who went ahead and applied and were admitted to the teacher

education program. As you can see, those numbers have increased exponentially, and we're at the point now. I need to update spring 2026 there. In the last couple of columns, we had 75 in this last spring intake alone. So we've already exceeded in the first two intakes. You know, going back to 2019, that baseline year, we've already exceeded that total. I wanted to point out to specifically in the southwest region, which is on our educator vacancy report that the college puts out every fall for the state anywhere south of Socorro, essentially. So south of Socorro, T or C hatch, Alamo, Deming, Gadsden, Las Cruces, obviously, we have 35 total vacancies in the entire region, the entire South region, including Las Cruces public schools. So obviously, we're very proud of the the the numbers of students that were, were developing, the number of new teachers were developing for the state and certainly able to partner with the state and with the local school districts. On incentivizing staying in New Mexico, building a career and supporting communities locally. That is all I have, Mr. Mayor and Council members for presentation, but would love to to interact with you further. So I'll I'll stand down. Thank you.

Thank you for your presentation and the great information that you've provided us. I'll see if anyone has any questions. Councilor Harris. Thank you, mayor, and thanks for the presentation. So I guess. So this all sounds great. What would you say are the main barriers? So you graduate a bunch of teachers. What are the main things keeping them from staying in the region in Las Cruces and New Mexico in general?

Mr. mayor, Council, Harris. Great question. Thank you so much for that. I think I think some of the challenges have evolved. When I first came to Nmsu in 2017, we would. Perennially lose our graduates to Arizona, Texas, Utah, Colorado and Arizona, who offered higher salaries. That has changed. And as you can see specifically in our region in the South, you know, we're we're experiencing fewer and fewer teacher vacancies every year. So we know that more of our graduates are staying in New Mexico, which is great. The pay is, is one part of it a significant component of it, I would say. But we've really leaned into and benefited from strong support from the state in terms of being able to pay our student teachers and teacher residents during either their final semester or their final full year in the program. As a graduate of a teacher preparation program myself, any amount of money was more than than I than I got paid. When I did my student teaching. We really want to support our our students. Our students at Nmsu are resilient, gritty. They know how to persevere. Many of them are raising families of their own. Many of them, you know, are the breadwinners in their family. Many of them have responsibilities that, you know us as us as faculty. You know, we, we, we, we need to remember, we serve, you know, a large number of first generation students, a large number of English language learning students, students who don't necessarily always have had the opportunity to be be in the know on how the Academy works and how to, how the job pathways work. And so really leaning into supporting students from beginning to, to

end in that regard. So along with being able to, to pay students for their final practicum stage, which is a huge retention piece, being able to, to retain those students, we also are able to lean into more kind of intensive mentoring, making sure that we have really outstanding teachers and we have so many with whom we partner in the state, making sure that our students are learning from them, they're observing them, they're interacting with them. They're collaborating with them, interacting with students, many diverse students, and understanding that, you know, New Mexico is a special place and making sure that they know that that we want them to stay and there are incentives for them to do so. We've we've been able to partner with the state. I have a few different partnerships and collaborations. So we have through the Indian Education Division of the public department, we have a couple of of grants that that we work with that focus on recruiting and retaining Native American teachers, social workers and school counselors. Our, our, our faculty do a great job of making sure that, that we have good relationships with legislators, good relationships with, with strong supporters who are advocates of our program. And so it's, it's a real partnership and making sure that, you know, we when they cross the stage, you know, we have that personal relationship and we, we are with them, you know, beyond sort of commencement ceremonies and making sure that that mentorship stays alive and well. So it's always a work in progress. But, but we're making really strong gains and we're proud of that.

Okay. So I guess beyond salaries, which on the city Council we can't help with, of course not that you're asking us to. What are there things that we can think about as we're talking about projects in the community, you know, partnerships with the public schools, things that that the city can do to make this an attractive place for, for your students to stay. And beyond teachers, you know, nurses, obviously everybody else in the college.

Absolutely. Mr. mayor, Councilor Harris, thank you so much for the question. We absolutely. I think starting point is this right? You know, the opportunity to come before you and and hear what the concerns are and hear the opportunities. We have a number of of programs in the college, like public health comes to mind. Social work comes to mind that that are not necessarily tied to a specific entity or agency. You know, we place students in, in schools, obviously, obviously hospitals, but a number of community serving agencies, whether they be on the mental health side, behavioral health side, or just in general public service, we have we have a lot of programs where we're we're excited to think about innovatively. How can we tailor our internships and our apprenticeships to meet the needs of the community? So I think understanding potentially what some of those needs are and how our students could could help move programs forward, support programs, assist with any of the work that's happening. And we obviously know there's tremendous work happening in the city. And so I think that would be a great place to start is, you know, tying up those, connecting those opportunities with maybe some of the needs that the city may maybe having.

Great. Thanks. Yeah. Looking forward to collaborating more in the future. Councilmember.

Thank you. Mayor, I just wanted to shout out the fact that you are also part of the community schools with us. And I think these are the steps in terms of collaboration. Where do we look to, to, to kind of overcome that town and gown barrier, which is what we talk a lot about at, you know, Nmsu being sort of an entity to itself, the city being an entity, and how can we overcome that? But I think when we talk about when I had spoken to you about doing this presentation, what does it look like? And I think these sort of small steps where we can say, hey, what needs do we have? Right. I, we use Crimson research all the time. I don't know if it gets the shout out that it, that it does to, to a large degree. So things like this, I, I'm just very thankful that you guys came to or you came to present specifically on that because I had heard to the positive news about keeping teachers, keeping social workers and what that might look like for our community, especially since there's such a need for it. So thank you very much.

Thank you. Councilmember. Doctor, I was just going to ask our other. Familiar with the. Program of the Las Cruces five time. Mr. Mayor, Councilor Mattis, I am not familiar with the. I was just going to maybe connect with. You as well.

As chief story, because we've gone to social workers not only on our outreach, only when we have clients. And I think the Lcpd could connect with them and provide some employment, if that, as well as the right program, which is becoming a really good program. So just to make. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. That's a great point, counselor. And I know that our light team and our team are both very well connected with the School of Social Work already. If they haven't done place internship placements in the past, I know that they were looking into them in the future. And so that's I'm an alumni of the social work program. My stepdaughter is about to be a freshman at Nmsu in the School of Social Work. And so I tried to be pretty. I say it in pretty close contact with the school social work, and I know those two programs do as well. So hopefully you can have the opportunity to meet them because they, I think are pretty incredible. You could say marketing for the school of social Work as, as really incredible products of, of, of our education. So thank you.

Thank you. Mayor pro tem. Thank you.

Mayor, city councilors, doctor Marlin, thank you very much for your presentation and data. I would like to know, on average, how many nurses you're graduating a year. That number is so important by its. I read that by 2030, we'll have a shortage of probably 3000 to 4000 nurses in the state of New Mexico, which is probably the most severe gap in our country. So we want to make sure that they feel part of the community. You know, they feel spoiled here. I often inviting them to a picnic or to be on a kickboxing or something to that effect. I know we have losses. My. In my company, my workplace, and during rest of the week, which is coming up May 4th, there certainly is as we read a proclamation. But we we tend to spoil our nurses barbecue Italian Sundays throughout.

The week. So again, what do we do to to. And you don't have to answer that right now. How do we engage more with you and your program? But would you tell me how many nurses were graduating a year?

Mr. mayor Councilor, thank you so much. So I want to say, you know, if there's a barbecue and and if there's a kickball game, you know, test will be there and it'll be nice to have some nurses on hand for a kickball game. I think. So with our accrediting criteria and the current capacity of our faculty in the program, we're able to admit 64 nurses in each cohort. So. It, you know, the number of graduates who actually cross the stage for for the for the BSN is going to fluctuate from turn to turn. But I can tell you that there are largest graduating program each semester, the. The pinning ceremony that that we have each semester we're in, we're in all of the corporate ballrooms now, which is exciting. And so, so that that does have that just, just seeing the numbers is robust. This last December, I want to say we graduated 25 in the DNP, the doctor of nursing practice alone, which which far exceeded, you know, that was Nmsu's largest graduating class of doctoral students and graduate students across the board. So 64 on the accredited criteria that we have for our current capacity, always looking for opportunities to increase that capacity and serve the state. I think, you know, going back to Council McClure's notion about community schools, we're really trying to be innovative. Our our accrediting bodies, especially in nursing, are, are flexible enough with us to, to ensure that we can give opportunities, like for community school, who maybe has, you know, an opportunity to shadow what the school nurse or to work in the clinic, you know, a clinic. La clinica de Familia and a couple of the schools, for example. Those opportunities are there. And so we want to make sure that all

of our students know that, you know, there's those traditional pathways and traditional clinical experiences, but there's so much more out there for a robust kind of all encompassing education that that's what universities should be about. And so we're looking forward to that, but would love to, to continue looking for opportunities there. I know that I know that the traveling nurse occupation is is pretty popular. And my niece is a perfect example of that. You know, just as a young person, I think being able to hit the road and have that flexible schedule is, is enticing, but so is so is Las Cruces and so are our communities and our hospitals here. So lots of work to do. Some good things happening, but more to come. Thank you.

Thank you, Doctor Merlot in pursuing your passion and your work. Thank you madam. Counselor. Thank you, Doctor Martin. I have you here. Could you expand more on on the expansion of the of the clinic and what it will offer and then who does who the services are offered just to students or.

Mr. mayor, councilor Mattis, thank you so much. So we so we have a number of clinics in the college. And one of the nice things as we reviewed kind of the workforce, the academic piece and then the community outreach is it's is it kind of is a great platform for all of those to interact. And so in, for example, our paper and op and autism Diagnostic Center, that's one of two autism diagnostic clinics in the state of New Mexico. I believe when we first started accepting clients, the waitlist was 18 months for families in the state to, to have their child be seen. We've cut down on that waitlist tremendously. Students clients are are currently seeing in the communication studies building. But when we do open up in O'Donnell, you know, we're going to have more space. They'll be right next door to the Speech and hearing center, which has been around for a long time, I think 60, 65 years. But a lot of those diagnoses and those clinical interactions are shared among those clients. And so having them all together is going to be really, really amazing. The Autism Diagnostic Center has 18 and under clients that we serve, as well as over 18 adults. I just joined the ADC team for their presentation. They did a training for the Gadsden Independent School District last week. And I want to say they just served a client who was 77, and that was their oldest client to date, eldest client to date. And so, you know, really trying to, to be broad and have a large, as large a capacity as possible to serve students and families and children and adults. And they do come from, from all over the state to, to, to have our services. And, and one more piece there is our graduate

students in the program get to actually do their practicum and apprenticeship with faculty in those spaces. So learning how to interact with clients and learning to apply their professional programs in action is great.

For that. But again, from that, we have a Telshor fund and it's basically a, a fund from Memorial Medical Center that goes toward healthcare. So if next time I have applications or maybe this Councilor from their wisdom of how I think I would be a great thing that I think my clinical a wonderful help because of so, so many hundreds and probably a thousand people in an annual time. So that would be really good. A lot of bang for the buck. So just don't go away. Thank you.

Thank you. I appreciate.

You coming today. And as as you've heard, I think we're all looking at seeing how as a city, we can always be a better partner with Nmsu. And I personally just want to thank you for your involvement, your involvement. You mentioned community schools. And then this past weekend we were with the city of the panel with middle school students. I was looking to foster and help the youth. I'm happy to say that here in the city of Las Cruces, we do have a public health coordinator here and has been working, as you mentioned, the partnership on the Homeless Mental Health Substance Abuse Survey and Strategic Plan, working with Nmsu. And that's Anthony Turner. He's right behind you. I don't know if you've met him personally, but he's a good contact to have. That's what we want to see, how we can be better partners and better with public health in the community, whether it's a life of my age, whether it's our case managers with senior programs, our case managers over at the court system, all of those out there has direct contact with all of that so that we can make sure we streamline it and be better partners with Nmsu when it comes to health. Thank you again. Thanks for your presentation.

Thank you mayor. Item number three. 2026 legislative update with the City Clerk, Christine Rivera. That's right. The city clerk. A little short. Oh. What happened? Okay. Hi.

City council, mayor, city council. I'm Christine Rivera, your city clerk. I just wanted to give you a quick update into our last session. It was a short session, but I think there was a lot that was accomplished. And I'm really excited and proud to show you what we did. So first, I'm going to go over some of the policy. There was actually quite a bit of policy that was passed this time for a 30 day session. So I'm just going to highlight on a couple of them that I thought were important. HB 61 is the aggravated battery on a police officer. This bill increases penalties for harming a peace officer with more severe charges for more serious or potentially deadly harm. HB 99 medical malpractice changes. This bill raises and structures malpractice damage caps, especially for hospitals, limits punitive damages more clearly improves definitions and administrative processes, and changes how compensation fund payments are handled. HB 128 Firefighter Occupational Disease Disablement This includes additional conditions that are presumed to be related to employment as a firefighter. SB 40 Driver Privacy and Safety Act. This restricts restricts who can access or use personal information without the driver's consent, with exceptions for law enforcement emergencies or authorized purposes. This one is a big one for us, also for Ipra, and I've already been in discussions with Brad about how to apply exemptions related to this one. SB 41 statute of limitations on certain sex crimes. This bill ensures that serious sex crimes, especially those involving minors, can be prosecuted even many years later. Recognizing the victims may delay reporting and that new evidence like DNA, can emerge over time. SB 58 extend property tax exemption period, so this extends the length of time from 7 to 14 years for property tax exemption regarding certain

properties located in the M, RAS. And last, we have SB 96 regulated child care zoning requirements. This bill allows home based child care and residential neighborhoods when the provider is registered or licensed through the state. Community development is already working on a communications plan regarding this and are available for additional questions. So we did get some growth funds this year, which is really exciting. We got 150 000 for Youth Prevention and Intervention coordinator. This will be housed at the police department, 180,000 for services and resources for after hours youth programing, which will go through our Parks and Rec department 180,000 for a sustainability project which will go through our sustainability office. And then of note, we also got 1 million for the air show, and that was part of HB two, but it was through our tourism department. So it wasn't specifically grow funds, but growth funds were also part of HB two. So I just wanted to highlight that. And now what everybody has been waiting for, what did we get for our funded capital outlay projects? First we got Apodaca Park. This was through a severance tax bonds and we got 3 million for that. Next we got 250,000 for our East Mesa rec center. Fire station improvements. We received $72,000. The driving track. We got a total of 2.09 million. Real time crime center technology upgrades. We received 100,000. Affordable housing. We received a total of 470 000. Mesa Valley Community

of Hope resource Campus improvements 434,000. Mesa Grande Drive, 2.05 million. Angler road 1 million. Stormwater detention. Another 1 million. Thomas Branigan Memorial Library 1.7 million. The WIA building. We received 900,000. I just want to note that that was actually more than what we asked for. So we a us also for the Eastside Center, we received 1.25 million, which was again, more than what we requested. I added the Amador Hotel because although it was a grant, it did have to be approved in the legislative session as part of HB two. And it was. So we got 4.84 million for the Amador Hotel. And then I just wanted to give a shout out to our nonprofit, The Kitchens. They received 2.95 million. So. Councilor Karen, I know that every year you like that big check that's on the screen. And I decided to do something different. I decided to money cats.

Pandering directly to me. Yes.

Because I knew you would like it. So in replacing of the check, I did the money cats. But I wanted to say that our total is also including the Amador Hotel grant that we received. But I did not include the kitchens because they're the nonprofit. But this was our grand total. So with that, I just want to thank our legislators who gave to us so generously this year. I want to thank you, Council, for coming to Santa Fe and for our staff. And lastly, I just want to mention that our communications department is updating our website right now with all of this information, so it should be available by the end of the day. With that, I'll stand for any questions.

Thank you. Christine Councilor.

Thank you for the cats and the grand total. I super appreciate that. I did actually, this is somewhat related to the cats, but I know that there have been some other things coming in that are sort of through state agency appropriations. Like I know that the Animal Services Center, we, we approved the grant for this a little while ago, got got a grant related to some rehabbing of the building, a capital grant through, I'm not sure, but Public Works got that grant. And again, I'm not completely clear on. I think we've gotten a bunch of other things that are sort of sort of like the grant for, for, for the Amador. I don't know if there's a similar way that we can add those to the total. Like those cats would be even happier, right? If that, if, but I, I say for the future, if there are any other things that we that, that are just on your radar that you know, that are coming through as much, I love to I really appreciate our legislators and what they do. And I know that actually the the other side of the house in Santa Fe is also really trying to support the city of Las Cruces. Not to not to say one is better than the other, just that I think those those other funds are really appreciated as well. So if you just I know that this is adding to your workload, but I know you see these things come through in the future. Next time we can maybe add some of those other things. If we know that they're coming in or they're, they're a part of it. But I do want to thank you for keeping track of this, keeping us really well informed. While we were in Santa Fe, I felt like we were really able to answer a lot of questions and be supported from with your sort of legislative affairs hat. So I really appreciate you helping us along the way. So thank you.

Thank you. I just want to add, we've said this a number of times. One of the things. Thank you, Christine, the department heads, staff, everyone who was there with us coordinating, I think, you know, there's so many competing priorities and voices in Santa Fe and with our legislators that being coordinated and organized, I think made a huge impact. So thank you all. Gracias, gracias. And that's all I have for thank you Council.

Thank you. Maybe a question through you to Connie. I just wanted to know, like on the 900,000 is allocated for local for how fast do they project now. I mean I have like two years left. Our goal, our goal is two years then. Okay to get that done before two years. How's that?

Okay. How about how about like whatever we have left, I bring this up because we are. Coming in at 2 to 3. Yeah. The question is to see how fast the progress will be. So thank you. Not a. Come on Connie.

Councilmember Council McClure. I'm sorry. Mayor, mayor Enriquez, mayor Pro Tem Munoz, Councilor Mattis and Council, I apologize. The the speed at which we can move. Absolutely. We have public works in the room. We have David Sedillo in the room as well. And so this is a building that has has been suffering for years. And so we hear you loud and clear, and we're going to do everything we can. I appreciate the mayor bringing bringing this up, that we do have to wait until we receive the funds. That's always a challenge. It's not an excuse, though. It's something that they do their best. And and once we receive it, I don't believe we have the funds in hand. It's something that typically we wait till summer to receive or in fall and then we move. But nonetheless, that is preparations that at this time we can start working with contractors, start working with our project management team. I do want to give kudos to Jimmy and the project management staff. They do everything they can to expedite it. And so I just wanted to to let that be known to you. And if anything that we can do, Councilor Mattis and Council, we can keep you posted as our progress. But to all the other various projects and we can come at work session and keep you posted often on that. Does that work?

And, you know, to do that, it's been quite a number of years that it's been neglected and depreciating. So I was just thinking, the longer we wait and and Mr. Moreno knows this and David knows it, sometimes it's just gets more expensive to, to fix. So that's the only reason I bring it to the surface as a priority for me. Thank you. Councilor. Thank you, Mayor and Christine, this the session was great and thank you for all your hard work. And thank you especially to all of our legislators who so generously gave us capital outlay and and helped us out through the rest of the process. I have.

A couple. Questions on the policy, things that went through, and maybe you don't know the answer offhand, but SB 96, does that like preempt any of the city's zoning? I'm going to let Chris come and talk to that because I talked to him about this on Friday. All right.

Mr. Mayor, Councilor Harris, Chris Favre, for the record. Yeah, it does. A few little areas of the code will have to tweak, but there were very few things. Most of the code was already aligned there. And really what it says is you have to treat home based daycares as if they were residential and all residential zones, so no additional regulations or restrictions because of it. So when we come back with an update of the code, we'll include a few of those things to align with the state. And then we have some information to put out to the public as well.

Okay. That's kind of what I thought reading it as well, that we were largely in alignment. And then I guess this segues maybe into the next item, but SB 58. I guess similar question. And is that just that's an extra tool and a tool belt, or is that restricting us in some way? Mayor? Councilor Harris, My understanding is that it won't impact us because it's property tax and that goes through the county. Gotcha. Okay. That's it. Thank you very much. Thanks again. Thank you. Councilman Coleman.

Thank you so much, Christine, for the presentation for planning our trip up there. And of course, you know, for helping us connect with our legislators. Obviously, we had a very successful time up there. Every year seems to be more successful. I think, as we as the state prepares for different changes, perhaps we may see different come in the next years. Hopefully not. But, you know, those fears are are there for sure that everyone's having budget issues. I I've said this before. I do think we need to do just a little bit of a better job at letting our legislators know where the updates of the projects are from the past, obviously, past projects, these projects, I think there's a lot of conversation happening at the legislature about capital outlay, dollars that go out and then never get spent, and I don't think that's our problem. I don't think Las Cruces has that problem. I think we do a very good job at that, and I think we also can do better at, you know, really putting out there like this is the update of all of our projects because again, our staff does an incredible job at that. So I just wanted to lift that up. And then I wanted to echo Councilor Cochran's, you know, making sure that we account for every single dollar that we put out there. Like last year, for example, we got our capital outlay dollars, but then a few months later, we got an additional $11 million for affordable housing projects. I think this year was similar, right? Like last just last week, we voted on a grant for the housing department got. And so I think all of those dollars really do should be put on our big, our big what is it called? The big check. What is that called?

Big check. Yeah. But it's never mind the big check. I still want to see a real life big check. So thank you so much, Christine. And yeah, thank you so much to our legislators who continue to invest in, in our community and who trust us to get projects done.

Thanks, Christine. You're welcome. Thanks. First, I just wanted to get back to what Councilmember had brought up with the WIA building. I know also that everybody who works with public Works has, has been, and has agreed to do a presentation for that work together. On what date of the design review. Remember to keep them up to date. I throw that out to public works that any projects that we can go out to partners or to the public and share those designs are until we get the funds and and what direction we're going, just to keep people posted and updated. I'm really pleased about the w a building because of what we're doing as a council and what community development is doing with the Nat program. If we're looking for buildings in the city and holding owners accountable for buildings that are dilapidated, we have to take a look at ourselves first. And that's why I'm glad that legislation the legislators all pitched in and helped us even more so that we can start revitalizing some of our buildings as a city. So that's a good thing. And I just want to say, this was your first rodeo. And, you know, the first. Time out of the legislation project, that they did a tremendous job. And it's evident by all the money, the funding and everything that we've received. So thank you for coordinating everything and doing a great job on your first goal right now. We expect more next year, right? No, no. Good. Good job. Thank you. There is a question on growth funds and allocations, because I know we're looking at after school programs. We've helped the schools before and we want to make sure we continue. Is there anything there.

Mayor, the 180,000 that we received for the after school hours will be for after school programing with the Parks and Rec department, and that will be in combination with the Las Cruces Public Schools. So that one is exactly what you're asking for. All right. Thank you. Great job. Thank you.

That's the agenda item 1.3 the Internal Metropolitan Redevelopment Area Committee update with Blair.

Good afternoon, city manager, mayor and council members. My name is Blair Florez and I'm in the Economic Development Department. Today I will be presenting on the Internal Metropolitan Redevelopment Area Committee update. I'd like to preface this presentation that I'm fully aware that this is not an award show, but I'm going to be doing a lot of shout outs to staff and departments because this has been a huge collaborative effort. So we are currently working through the City manager policy process to formalize this committee, but the committee will be facilitated by Economic development. It includes representatives from the majority of the key city departments, primarily leadership, and we have been meeting regularly. And the objective is to set priorities from the MRI plans, recommend funding, track progress and address any challenges throughout the plan implementation process. We also have been evaluating and prioritizing projects based on alignment with the MRA plans, feasibility, equity and impact. Again, this is something that we are nearing completion to formalize. We will also be overseeing funding strategies including grants and partnerships. Recommendations. Will any recommendation that is agreed upon in the committee will come to City Council and we will provide regular updates. We are doing this to ensure transparency through public reporting and community engagement, and I will get into the transparency component a little later. Throughout the presentation. So we had our

first meeting back in August of 2025. We have been meeting monthly again to understand the MRA plans and the implementation. We have completed one training on a platform called Visio, and Visio is a plan project management software that the city has used in the past. And basically it breaks apart plans into actionable steps that we can track and report on. So we did our first training on that, and we have a second training scheduled for May of 2026. In that training, we're going to update what we've learned in the platform in Visio, how to better report. And we're also going to talk about what implementation looks for MRA plans in particular. And then the economic development. The Economic Development Department has also been the lead on a lot of inter-departmental coordination and supporting implementation practices. So just some general things that we've been working on. And I know it's just three bullet points, but I really want to talk about what is required. So learning in Visio, training staff on in Visio, getting them comfortable with in Visio, breaking apart the plans. And I really want to give a huge shout out to the Visio team and community development. They've trained me and trained a lot of staff on how to use it, and we feel like it's pretty user friendly, and then we've also built out an internal MRA SharePoint. It's a large document library. This is where all the plans live. It's been a great way for everybody across

the city to have the same access to everything. MRAs. And then something I'd really like to share that just recently got published is the MRA Resource Guide. Again, a huge shout out to Jocelyn and Communications. She was very patient with me in building this out. So the MRI resource guide came about through business visits that I started doing when I was working in the MRA. I listened to a lot of stories, a lot of experiences in the area. And then again, we heard more throughout the public meetings, and I felt like an MRI resource guide needed to be created. So in the guide, there's information about what MRAs are. It talks about tiffs. It talks specifically about the two adopted MRAs. But more importantly was breaking down programs across the city that we offer that maybe the community doesn't have time to research or we haven't shared. And I always felt like a guide was important. So that way when I was face to face, I had some type of solution, a clear direction to point them in. And so some departments are more broken down in the programs that they have, simply because through the public interactions, those questions came up. So for example, public safety, a lot of their programs were broken apart and leading the community to the correct point of contact. And that that proved to be a big task. So we've been sharing that in our business visits, any of our community outreach. We shared that at the Lcpd Town Hall for the El Paseo businesses. It will be on the MRA website by the end of this

week, and it's also been shared with everybody in the MRA SharePoint to to share these resources. In the back is also just a general directory of other city points of contact. I also wanted to provide an update on the Safety Improvement grant. Again, this was the pilot program that you all helped us support for, specifically the El Paseo and South Solano, MRA. We launched that grant to the public November 3rd of 2025. This allowed up to $5,000 of reimbursement for safety improvements to properties. So that could include cameras, locks, doors, sensors, lighting and fencing. We also partnered with Lcpd, and in the grant application, we offer businesses the opportunity to have safety evaluations of their properties, to get educated on preventative strategies, and then connect them with additional community resources. And to date, of the 100,000 that we were awarded for this pilot program, we've we've expended about $30,000, and that's helping seven businesses. And that will be expanded to the West Picacho Motel, MRA in fiscal year 2027. Another incentive that we're working on, as our city clerk mentioned, there was a change in the MRA code that allowed a property tax abatement program up to 14 years, from seven years to 14 years. So eligible projects for this would be residential, commercial, mixed use, and obviously that would include Nat properties. This is currently being built out, but

so far the application process looks like we will have an intake form for interested parties. They would have a pre-application meeting with the Economic Development Department. If we feel that it is a project that can move forward, they would go through the application process. We are building out a community benefit matrix, so making sure that that's in alignment with all of the departments within the city, the MRA plan. And then at that point it would go to the internal MRA Committee be presented. If that's a project that we feel qualifies, and then all recommendations for the tax abatement program would go to City Council for improvement. Again, this is currently being developed. So that will come to City Council once we are ready to present that. And then just a few updates on the El Paso and South Solano, MRA. So we currently have a web page up for the specific site. The adopted plan is available online for the public through the Visio platform. The full plan has been entered into the platform. And something that we did because we felt it was really important was we we met with all of the departments in the city, and we collected existing projects already happening within the MRA, because we realized that maybe some of those projects haven't moved forward because of funding, and we wanted to track those as well. And so those were also entered into Visio. We have provided the initial staff updates on recommendations, and in Visio that will be available online. I'm hoping by the end of this week on the El Paseo web page, so that will be ready for the public to view. And it's very user friendly. I'm really excited about it. And then obviously we have move forward

with the tax increment financing for the El Paseo. The city of Las Cruces approved the 75% increment, and we are currently working with the county on their GR and property taxes for the El Paseo as well. For the West Picacho and Motel. That as well has a web page. The adopted plan is available online. Foreign Visio. The plan has been entered into the platform, so staff has seen that. We also have collected existing projects within the boundaries. We have started working on updates. This one has not gone live onto the website, but it will here pretty soon. And then as well for the 75% tax increment that was adopted by the city. And we are also working with the county on the tifs and property taxes. Next we have our Apodaca and lift up area, MRA. We are nearing completion of the RFP RFP process. There is a website already live with a map and a description of the boundaries. We have set the Tiff baseline and that's the extent that we can move forward with that. We are working with the county to set the baselines for the an unadopted MRA as well. We have started doing business visits and conducting like pre surveys and researching and collecting data for the consultants. So that's going through all previous plans and having those ready. City city plans to share with consultants to onboard them. And we have started working on our stakeholder working groups. So collecting and updating contacts for community members, identifying

the city staff, that that will be part of the planning process on those. So next steps, kind of what we're working on next. So we're going to continue refining implementation processes. And this is why we are having that. Second training at the end of May is we realize the complexity of the MRAs and the recommendations and the asks, and understanding that the MRA plans are, are different than other plans that we've worked with before. And so we want to make sure that across the board, staff understands what implementation looks like, what it requires, more specifically the collaboration. And then we're going to continue to develop and advance redevelopment incentives, implement supporting policy frameworks. And this one's really important because we've spent a lot of time already doing this. I think the plans do a really great job in identifying some of the areas within our policy that needs to be further developed. And so we're working on that. And also, we kind of realized that some policy framework needs to be built out in order for some of the other recommendations to happen. So working on those and then defining the city's role in partnerships, that's really important. And the redevelopment efforts. So for example, like private partnerships, what is that going to look like supporting private property redevelopment? What does that look like? What's going to be our role? And then we are obviously coordinating with Dona Ana County on the Tifs, which is which is a big one. And then advanced project development and secure funding. And with that, I will stand for questions.

I thank you, Blair Council.

Thank you mayor. Thank you. I had a question too. I like that you talked about working with the county, and I, I still think that maybe not just necessarily policies for just the city working with public, but also the city, the county working with more private entities. I'm thinking specifically of the Boys and Girls Club for the El Paso area, how we can help them. I know that came up with Commissioner Sergio Hernandez, how we can see if we can supplement some of their their building of their of their new facility. That would probably be a great catalyst for that area. And I think they might need a little bit of help. But what that would look like for the city and the county working together would be something I'd like to see then, too. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Clark. Councilmember.

I was just going to ask, have you worked with Katrina, maybe on modifying the associations like Crescent Drive on El Paseo and thumbs up with okay, that's good. If those associations have been notified that the plan is online, then. And there's a I believe the other one is the heritage funds. And I think there's 3 or 4 that go down El Paseo. So if if we can communicate with them and when that. Katrina and Miss Flores put forward. Thank you.

Mayor Councilor Mattis. Yes, that's been a lot of our work right now is connecting resources and collaborating. And we have collected the data on the neighborhood watch programs and making sure that every department is involved. Because a lot of the recommendations, well, the entire plan has every department in it. And so having those conversations. But yes, we have we have that data. They are included in our outreach for MRAs. No, thank. Example. But we, we we shake hands and kiss babies. Thanks.

Thank you Councilmember. Councilor.

Thank you, thank you. This is awesome. And it's super exciting to see this moving. So I know that that's a lot of your effort. So thank you for doing that. I'm wondering if you can talk a little bit about the community benefit framework for the tax exemption that you mentioned. I, in particular hope that we can emphasize local, locally owned businesses and businesses that employ people and give them insurance. Those are two things that I feel like we should always prioritize in terms of our economic development strategies. And so I hope that we can include, I don't know what's in the community benefit model, but I hope that those can be things that weigh heavily in the in the understanding of who gets the tax abatements. Yeah.

Mayor Councilor Curren, yes, we we want to make sure that all of our we're touching all of our bases. And so again, it is in development. But the focus definitely is to, to make sure that with that big ask of. Of that incentive that that it's in alignment with what the city initiatives are. Right. So that will go to every department that is part of the MRA committee, and we're going to ask for feedback. And then that, of course, will come to work session for you all for you to see what that final, that final matrix will look like. But yes, definitely. We're taking that into consideration.

Thank you. Thank you. Mayor. Mayor, city councilors. Blair, thank you very much for putting this information together. And and thank you for the resource guide. I think that's brilliant. Very much needed in your feedback gathering sessions. And thank you so much for doing your outreach. What we're a couple of needs obstacles or just feedback in general that you got from, from some of the businesses in the area.

Mayor, mayor Pro Tem Munoz, thank you for the question. You know, every area is extremely different. El Paseo, I heard a lot of the small businesses concerned about safety, public safety and and it makes sense knowing the area and the stratified policing that Chiefs story has shared with us. That's in alignment with what the survey showed. Picacho, MRA we heard a lot about the concerns of the motels. So that was a big focus and obviously supporting the vacant property of the of the Tashiro property. I can tell you that already Apodaca is very, very different. I've heard a lot of concern. The number one complaint has been illegal dumping in the area because of the undeveloped alleyways. And so I've already started my research on that and trying to understand where the issues lie. And I've already reached out to utilities, and I've learned a lot about trash cans and the pickup schedule, and that's also in the MRI resource guide for that reason. So yeah, it's already very different. But again, being prepared for that, I've already started looking into some of those. So yeah, so far, Apodaca, the alleyways and illegal dumping.

Thank you. Thank you mayor.

For the presentation and all the effort and lift up area. You know, you're partnering with the county and all. Just something that's brought been brought to my attention is on Hernandez Street. The public schools have the facilities area that they've had there for years, and now they're building their new one. And always wanting to share a road. So that's a building that may become vacant. And that's something that maybe the schools would like to partner up in that area for something that could be for youth or educational or vocational areas. So that's something to to approach in that area. We might have some infrastructure there that that may act as a catalyst for that area.

Mayor. Mayor Rodriguez, thank you for for the comment. I'm taking notes. So we've worked very closely with Las Cruces Public Schools on all of the MRAs, and they were really kind enough to open their facilities for the focaccia. We we hosted one of our public meetings there. So they're definitely on our stakeholder list. So we will connect with them. And then just to add about the county, Dona Ana County has never worked with MRAs. And so it's definitely a learning curve. So we have we have spoken to other counties on how they handle MRAs. And we do have some. We've been in the talks of meeting with county leadership to to talk about MRAs, and we've been talking about Tifs. But I think the the general concept of MRAs is something we. We plan on connecting and exploring together.

Thank you. Thank you, appreciate you. I think that was the last item. All right. Look for a motion to adjourn. Move to adjourn. Second. This is on the motion to adjourn the work session. Councilor McClure. Yes. Councilor Mattis. Yes. Counselor. Harris. Yes. Counselor. Bencomo. Yes. Counselor. Koran. Yes. Counselor. Munoz. Yes. Mayor. Yes.

And one excuse me, one agenda setting meeting in a couple of minutes.