Council - Regular Meeting

Your life.

Good afternoon. Welcome to City Council. Today is Monday, July 6th, 2026. It's approximately 1 p.m. I am Mayor Eric Enriquez. Before we start, I want to mention that we have the ASL, American Sign Language, up in the front if anybody needs our services. If you please rise, we'll start with a moment of silence for the brave men and women of the United States Armed Forces as they protect our interests around the globe. As well as the courageous men and women of the Las Cruces Police Department, Las Cruces Fire Department, as they keep our city safe 24-7, 365. Mayor Pro Tem, if you'll lead us in the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, So the first thing on the agenda is presentations of certificate or proclamations and we have none so we'll go into departmental highlights with economic development

All right, good afternoon, mayor and city council. My name is Elizabeth Teeters, and I'm the economic development director here at the city. Last time I stood up here, I gave a brief update on the industrial park, so I thought I would take the opportunity to focus more on the programming and policies we've been working on and how we're, the initiatives that we are creating within the department. So first off, the Safety Improvement Program. This was a program we started back in November, and it provides up to 5,000 for security improvements for eligible businesses. It was originally implemented in El Paseo and South Solano MRA, and as of July 1st, we have now expanded that to the West Picatua Motel Boulevard MRA. It's only been open less than a week, and we already have four applications, so that's really exciting. for that area, for sure. Why we implemented this program, it's because it is a low-hanging fruit, and it addresses a clear need. Safety has come out of every MRA as a top priority, so it was something we were able to implement that had an immediate impact while we started to work on larger policy initiatives. which leads me to the incentive stacking that we're gonna start doing. The first program is the Metropolitan Revitalization Incentive Program, which is a property tax abatement for commercial, residential, and mixed-use development. The abatement ranges from seven to 14 years based on the project qualifications. This is a program we are hoping to bring to council for approval in August or maybe September at the latest. The process will be that it goes through the internal MRA committee to decide on the recommended seven to 14 years, and then final approval comes from council. On top of that, we will be doing an update to our LIDA plan, so in order to use LIDA, it has to be written into your plan. We currently have four models that you can use, preferred model, basic model, which are your basic jobs, investment, priority, industries and whatnot. We have a local model that we added about three years ago, and it is for local businesses, which Jim Magic is on the agenda today for first read, and it'll be our first local model project that we will be doing. And then we will be adding an MRA project model as well. This is authorized under state statute that projects specifically in MRAs are eligible for LIDA. So when I talk incentive stacking, while these programs by themselves might not be beneficial for certain developers or small businesses, you start putting them on top of each other and it really starts to help businesses and help them move in the right direction or redevelop a property that needs it. Maybe it's a brownfield property. Whatever it may be, it's It's pointing in the right direction and we're trying to create these programs so we have multiple options because economic development isn't cookie cutter. On top of that, we will be bringing an industrial revenue bond policy forward. So an IRB is a tax exemption tool for both industrial and qualifying multi-family housing projects. The purpose of creating a policy is because it establishes the application process, project expectations, clawback provisions, and fee structure. And it provides a greater consistency and transparency for future projects. So why now? Because we have done IRBs in the past. It's because Economic Development and Neighborhood Services are gonna be doing their first housing project IRB in the near future. So we wanted to make sure we had something in place because the housing IRBs are a lot more intense than the ones we're used to, so we wanted to make sure we had a policy. This will also be coming August, September, hopefully. And then finally, just an update on workforce development. What staff has been doing is developing a comprehensive inventory of local workforce programs and partners. The list that I know of of workforce partners is at least 10, and so we're meeting with them one-on-one to figure out what programs are out there that can help local businesses, whether they're in an MRA or not. Once we identify those gaps based on And we're going to be identifying gaps based on employer and community need. By collaborating with our partners, we're hoping that we can develop programming and expand targeted workforce programming to be able to better assist the community and the businesses in the community. So there's more to come on this. We're in the very beginning stages of it. But I'm really excited to start partnering again with our workforce development partners. We've had great projects come out of ARPA dollars that we did for workforce development. This will hopefully just continue that hard work that everybody's been doing. And that's just a quick update. Any questions?

That's great. Thank you, Elizabeth. Councilman Curran?

Thank you, Elizabeth. That was great. It's very exciting. I was wondering, the MRIP, I'll call it, because I can't remember what it stands for, is that just for new development, or is that for rehabilitation of existing spaces, too?

Mayor, Councillor Curran, it's for rehabilitation, as well.

Oh, awesome. Thank you. Very cool. Thanks for the update. Yeah.

Mayor Pro Temp.

Mayor, City Councilors, Elizabeth, thank you for putting this together. Could you go over a little bit of the qualifications? So we mainly talk about economic development and businesses. Do these include, like, nonprofits, churches, other entities like that?

Mayor, Mayor, are you talking about for the MRIP? Yes. It's a work in progress. Yeah, yeah. So this will be specifically for... The way we have it right now is for... commercial residential and Mixed-use and even that properties. We don't specify 501 C 3 or anything like that It's really we're gonna leave we have a scoring matrix, which is the last piece of the puzzle that staff's been working on that It'll really be up to the discretion of that the MRA committee to bring a recommendation to council So count council have the final say on on the abatement Thank You Elizabeth Thank You mayor

Councillor Harris. Thanks, Mayor and Elizabeth. So also on the abatement, just to clarify, we're only able to abate the city's mill levy on those taxes, right? They still will pay county property tax and the school tax.

Mayor counselor Harris, that's actually something we're working on. We're just focused on the city's portion right now, but along with the other tax For the tax increment we're working on with the county We're trying to figure out what we can and can't do at this point, but our focus as of now is just the city Okay, thanks All right, thank you Elizabeth

Next on the agenda is Pets of the Week, Tanya Conway.

Good afternoon, Mayor, counselors and staff. My name is Tonya Conway. I am the management analyst for ASCMV. I appreciate the opportunity to present to you today. We have two pets of the week this week. Our first up is Katie. She is a resilient and affectionate dog with a playful personality who loves engaging with people and enrichment activities. She thrives in an active home and that can offer regular exercise, mental stimulation, and structure. She's ready to move on from shelter life. Katie has all the qualities to become a devoted and cherished member of a forever family. Our second pet is Tina. Tina is a friendly, affectionate dog who loves interacting with people and eagerly seeks out attention from staff and visitors. She has shown strong social skills in playgroup, often serving as a calm greeter and engaging appropriately with other dogs. with her resilience and deep desire for human connection tina is an excellent candidate for adoption and ready for a well-deserved second chance at a forever home we have four long-term residents at our facility there is dover and francesca ebony and playa and all these four dogs have been there for over 300 days ASCMB recently participated in the July 3rd electric parade. We will have an adoption event on Petco July 11th, and then another one July 18th at Household Furniture, and another one at PetSmart on July 25th. This month we have our Red, White, and Cute Adoption Special. ASCMV is celebrating summer with our Red, White, and Cute Adoption Special throughout the month. All dog and cat adoptions are just $25. This promotion is a fun way to encourage the community to visit the shelter, meet our amazing adoptable pet, and help more animals find loving homes. Every adoption opens a kennel for another animal in need and gives a deserving pet a fresh start. So we invite everyone to come by ASCMB, meet their new best friend, and take advantage of this limited time adoption special. And for any other information about fostering or any other events that ASCMV has, you're welcome to visit our four social platforms, or you could stop by ASCMV. Thank you.

Thank you, Tanya. Next is a conflict of interest. Does any member of the city council, city manager, or any member of the city staff have any known conflict of interest with any item on the agenda?

No.

None. None.

No conflict.

Next is public participation will allow up to three minutes, no pending litigation or items on the non-consent.

Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, folks here today, those watching online, I'm Lynn Maurer. Last meeting, Mayor, you were right that in this country we do have freedom of speech regardless of the city councilor and utilities director's attempts to muzzle discussions about the city's compliance with the lead and copper rule. A competent organizer knows any attempt to stifle public comment simply causes citizens to expand their investigations. Mayor, you were wrong in claiming that I've refused to agree to a meeting with city staff or the utilities director. Utilities director has never reached out to me for a meeting. Your statement is false. Handout one is my response to an assistant city manager, which does not include refusal to meet. Rather, it encourages her to study the information we've put on the record to help her understand our concerns before seeing whether further explanation is needed. If it is needed, it won't be in a private meeting where additional information is shared. It will be in public with an opportunity for all to hear. I'm familiar with manipulative attempts to shut up an expert, a whistleblower, or a citizen leader because they publicly question the integrity and or competence of a public entity and lay out in the open documents the public entity would prefer to hide. Let's talk about the galvanized pipes at Fair Acres Elementary School. Handout two is the inspection report dated July 9, 2025, provided to you April 6th and 20th that clearly records the finding of galvanized piping at Fair Acres. The inspector's comments note how bad the pipes looked in the presence of a lot of rust. This report was provided by the city clerk via an IPRA request. If you question its authenticity, take it up with her. On April 20th, I alerted you that after 36 properties were found to have galvanized pipes, it appears Las Cruces Utilities fabricated new reports for each of the properties a few months later. now saying there are no galvanized pipes. If they did not, in fact, fabricate 36 second inspection reports to hide the original findings, including at Fair Acres, the director needs to explain in detail why these 36 second inspection reports were created. Why is the second inspection report for Fair Acres the only one of the 36 that now says the piping is plain steel? Research shows that plain steel with no galvanization virtually never exists in Las Cruces. This fabricated report is apparently the one to which Councillor Bencoma imprudently referred last meeting. As noted previously, a licensed plumber called this report unbelievable and fishy. One cannot argue that between the first and second inspection reports, galvanized pipes were replaced. Responses to IPA requests all indicate no piping has been replaced. This fact was recently confirmed to Derek Pacheco by two inspectors who inspected his pipes. We will no longer bear the expense of providing handouts to those of you who are clearly not interested in any research regarding the city's compliance with the rule and other obligations. If any of you wish to continue to receive handouts during our presentations, let me know by email. Thank you for this opportunity to speak.

Mayor, City Council, I'm Liz Rodriguez-Johnson. Liz and my comments over the last 18 months have focused on two things, pointing out how Las Cruces Utilities is not complying with the lead and copper rule and ways to comply with the rule and make drinking water safer for the citizens of Las Cruces, especially those at the lower socioeconomic level. This information is well documented and very easily accessible, particularly for someone who works for the city. We could not be clearer about the issues and approaches to resolve them. Anyone who claims they want to discuss our concerns either hasn't been listening, isn't interested enough to access the information available, or is being very disingenuous about their motive, which, based on the comments made by the mayor and Councilor Bencomo recently, is to make Linda Nee the villains. Las Cruces is an old city with very old parts of town. When you walk through old neighborhoods and old schools, common sense, basic common sense, tells you that it's highly probable some of these houses and schools have lateral galvanized piping. just by virtue of their age. In the case of Fair Acres Elementary School, an initial report definitively stated that the school piping was galvanized and corrosive. Five months later, a second report said the issue had disappeared. Councilor Bencomo erroneously stated that if you don't trust Las Cruces Utilities, You can rely on the second report because it comes from the school. This is false. The second report was not prepared by the school and was in fact prepared by the city on a Las Cruces Utilities form signed by an employee of Las Cruces Utilities. If you're not leaving the poorest parts of Las Cruces off the inventory map, show the public, because everything on your website says that you are. If you are not recreating reports to show there is no problem and where one existed before, show the public, because IPAA requests produce documents that indicate that you are. If you are truthfully reporting, LEAD LEVELS IN CCR'S SHOW THE PUBLIC BECAUSE IF I REQUEST REPORTS SHOW THAT YOU ARE NOT REPORTING TRUTHFULLY AND IF YOU ARE ACTUALLY PRIORITIZING DISADVANTAGED PROPERTIES AS THE UTILITIES DEPARTMENT PROMISED THEY WOULD TO OBTAIN A $15 MILLION GRANT, SHOW THE PUBLIC BECAUSE IF I REQUEST SHOW THAT YOU ARE NOT PRIORITIZING DISADVANTAGED PROPERTIES. YOU HAVE HAD 18 MONTHS TO SHOW THE PUBLIC THAT WE ARE WRONG AND YOU HAVE NOT DONE SO WHICH IS WHY WE CONTINUE TO COME BACK. The mayor falsely claimed that we citizens just want to repeat the same thing. We have not been repeating the same thing over 18 months. Every comment cites several new concerns based upon new findings discovered in research. The overall theme that Las Cruces Utilities is not compliant with the rule remains the same, but every meeting we have provided new aspects that show even more details of how Las Cruces citizens are being left unprotected from letting their drinking water. Thank you.

Mayor, Council, Juan Garcia, every election cycle we watch the same old circus rolling to town. Big promises and politicians swearing they've come to move New Mexico forward. In my opinion, both political parties pretend to quote represent the people. But clear the smoke and what do you find? A nest of hypocrisy where the real winners are the parasites who cling to power, feeding on the system while pretending to serve the people. The Republican Party leadership spent part of the year bickering over a mess it created. None of it had to happen. The decision was simple. Follow the rules and decide what's best for the people, right? Wrong. The infighting and drama made the headlines and set social media ablaze until the courts stepped in. Meanwhile, the Republican Party of New Mexico distracted ignored the real work of reaching citizens who desperately want to fix to the mess created by decades of single democratic party rule. New Mexico is trapped at the bottom, and there's no sign that's changing anytime soon. Many voters looked at the circus and figured, why bother voting? And I continue, the Democrats slap socialists onto their brand and parade around with delusional slogans like no kings. But in reality, they swap in their chosen queens. They complain the SAFE Act disenfranchises voters, but then in a smoke-filled backroom deal, Deb Haaland, candidate and de facto party leader, tosses out the 42,000 votes Harold Pope, the first black New Mexico state senator and 21-year veteran earned because it suits her. The excuse, both parties allow it, it's in the rules. SGR Stephanie Garcia Richards bailed on the lieutenant governor's race for family reasons and earned zero votes. Maggie Oliver won the primary, then suddenly drops out, also for, quote, family reasons. Or maybe she couldn't stand partnering with Holland. Who knows? Magically, SGR's family issues are better just in time for her to step into the spot Maggie vacated. Is this another, quote, rigged backroom deal or coincidence? But that's OK. No one is waving signs or predicting democracy is going to end at midnight tonight by these actions. Anointed queens, trashing votes, and the political hypocrisy are alive and well in the Democratic Party. Thank you.

Good morning, Mr. Mayor. My name is Jim Hurst. Thanks for the opportunity to speak. Perhaps you watched some of the events this weekend at the 250th celebration of America's anniversary. I followed as many events as I could on the National Mall. There were many state-sponsored religious events at the National Mall. We have an administration in Washington that no longer recognizes the separation of church and state. They've stated explicitly that they think such an idea is a myth and it's not confirmed by the Constitution. I don't believe that's a valid interpretation of our First Amendment. And I believe this commission, this council should take very seriously that denial and do the same things that you do to protect immigrant rights from a renegade administration. We need to protect separation of church and state. The first thing we need to do to do that is put everything involving separation of church and state into the sunshine. Take it out of the dark. For example, our practice of a moment of silence is not recorded in the minutes. If it's worth doing, it's worth recording in the minutes. Second, we have a resolution process, a proclamation process that's entirely in the dark. There was a proclamation proposed for National Day of Prayer in this city. The commission voted that down. I don't know what the proclamation was. I don't know where to find it. I don't know who voted for what. Stop doing stuff in the dark. That's corruption. Whatever's happening in the dark can be presumed to be corrupt. Bring it into the sunshine. Put it on the minutes, put it in the agenda what proclamations were proposed and who voted how. I deserve to know that. My fellow citizens deserve to know that. Thank you very much.

Derek Pacheco for the record. I want to start by thanking Chief Story for joining me on the radio this past week. We had some wonderful civil discourse regarding flock and ALPRs in general. I really respect that someone took some time, some genuine time out of a super busy schedule, unlike some of my elected officials here that refuse to meet with me. I feel like I'm on a list that people just don't want to talk to me, don't want to meet with me, whatever the case may be. I don't know why I'm on a list, but I definitely am. My father poured the concrete that built I-10 here. My parents both worked at White Sands Missile Range. My cousin is a sitting judge on the Third Circuit. My other cousin is a retired LCPD. My other cousin retired from the third floor here. The list goes on. I am from Las Cruces. you treat me like i am not and like i'm not part of this community and i'm sick and tired of it we need to build trust there's no trust here trust is eroded with you people the county included i'd i'm gonna say this at the county if i'm allowed but i don't even know if i'm trespassed or not that's wacky over there too but regardless the fentanyl that hit the streets that the governor and the mayors and everyone else is saying that oh it was the DEA's fault You can't have that situation without having local knowledge. I ran into a situation here where I had a short-term rental invaded by some yucky people. I was pretty certain that they were working as informants. After talking to another co-host down the street that I'd never met before, she said the same thing. Her sister's on the street, and she mentioned that the word on the street is that the fentanyl was being let onto the street to find bigger fish. I had this discussion months ago, maybe eight months ago now, if not longer. So I don't buy this rhetoric. The other rhetoric I don't buy is our elected officials, such as Senator Bill Soles showing up at the park, all now on our side, the people's side. That's disingenuous. His wife graduated from this dais and now is working for the Boys and Girls Club, which got a huge giant novelty oversized check from Project Jupiter. And now Bill Soules is out there saying, oh no, dang these people. We can't have this. This is horrible behavior. Yet in secret meetings that were canceled on the agenda at the county but then happened anyway with the Boys and Girls Club and this big giant check from Project Jupiter, that does not build trust. I demand we speak about a data center moratorium. We do not need that junk up at the Mesa Technology Park, the industrial park, whatever you guys call it, the data center park, I'm sure is what you guys want to rebrand it as. We need real discussions here. I'm sick and tired of being treated like this, and so is everyone behind me. Thank you.

Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Gage Peter Burnett, and I'd like to say that I'm here to talk about something very boring, which is infrastructure. But I'm afraid I'm going to get emotional, so pardon me. I'm going to start by telling a story. So I grew up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. It's a beautiful little city on the eastern side of Pennsylvania. And when I was growing up, there was this gentleman, Patrick Itzma. And Patrick rode his bike along with a group of other riders past my house every single afternoon, right about when I got home from school. He encouraged me to learn to ride. He encouraged me to learn to ride a unicycle. He would stop at the door and check if I was okay if I wasn't out when I got there. and Patrick died in a bicycle crash that was nobody's fault. The car hit a pothole, he was too close, there was nowhere for him to go, and he lost his life. And this past weekend, here I was riding down Telshore when I encountered a shredded tire stuck in the middle of the bike lane, and I tripped over it because I couldn't run out into traffic because there was a car right there, and I skidded out on the sidewalk. This was preventable. Pardon me. There is trash all over the bike lanes in Las Cruces. Not just trash, but there is gravel, there is dirt. Every time it rains, there is a flood, and that flood lands in the bicycle lanes. Along Traviz, the street sweepers push the trash and the gravel directly into the bicycle lane, making it impossible for riders to go through it. That means that bicyclists are riding on the pedestrian walk along Trevis, which is horribly unsafe. It means that there is no way for me to safely get from my home to work on my bicycle, which I would love to do for the environment and for my own well-being. Trevis is not the only street that's affected. Telshore, like I said, is constantly flooded with garbage and trash that I cannot get around if I want to get to work on time and on safely. This is more than just a maintenance problem. Throughout Las Cruces, a place that I have decided to call home for the past five years and intend to call home for as long as I may be here, has a bicycle problem. And that problem is that bicycle infrastructure is neither well maintained nor well designed. There is nothing on Missouri Avenue. If I wanted to get to work that way with avoiding the hills, I wouldn't be able to do so. Solano, the bicycle lane stops abruptly at Amador and Lowman, which themselves have no bicycle lanes. There is nothing on Picacho near the intersection with Valley. And even where there are bicycle lanes, they are not safe to ride on because cars go so fast and so close to the bicycle lanes because they have no choice, because there is nowhere for them to go to avoid us. I would urge you now to consider expanding efforts to change that, to expand efforts to improve that infrastructure. Thank you very much.

Good afternoon, Mayor, City Council. My name is Fred Miller. I'm up here at the request of Ben Moore. It's just an anecdote about galvanized steel piping that I heard about from someone I lived with whose parents owned a trailer park and they had to deal with all the plumbing there. There was a property they had bought that had been vacant for an extended period of time and this And when they this was on the edge of the city This was actually the sewer line coming out rather than the line coming in but they moved in they turned on the water everything seemed fine, but then a short time thereafter Everything just backed up and when they went out to look for problem in the yard, the whole sewer line had just collapsed. And there was like a two to three inch just trench in their backyard. And it was like old steel galvanized piping. So there's the question of where we have galvanized piping in the city. At that time, it was just on the edge of town. Now it's in town. There's a question also about when you check the water lines, are you just checking current customers? Or are you looking at places that are currently empty too? Because the problem with this water line was although it was not used for a while, it was still corroding. And then when they started running water through it again, the whole thing just collapsed. So galvanized piping can be a serious problem. Thank you.

Good afternoon, mayor, city council, city staff. My name is George Pearson and I'm vice president of Velocruces, the local bicyclist and pedestrian advocacy organization. As I'm sure you are aware, we've had a recent tragedy in our community with the death of a vulnerable road user by an accused hit and run vehicle driver. Could this crash and resulting death have been prevented? Almost certainly, yes. News reports indicate the accused driver has a history of traffic violations, including street racing with speeds of 53 miles per hour over the speed limit. News reports indicate that the case was dismissed when the prosecutor failed to appear. So even when tickets are issued, there are no consequences, and behavior continues until we end up with a crash that results in the loss of life. This isn't an isolated problem. We have an enforcement problem, a prosecution problem, or a culture problem where it's okay to exceed, it's okay and mostly expected to exceed the speed limit by five miles an hour and no consequences for speeding 20, 30, or even 50 miles an hour over the speed limit. I know we are studying safer streets with our Safe Streets for All grant, but we do have a serious traffic safety problem that needs swift and systematic solutions. Do we need to wait for Safe Streets for All, or can't we also move ahead with Vision Zero solutions? We confiscate DWI vehicles. Why can't we also confiscate super speeder vehicles? We don't even have to identify the driver, just identify the problem vehicle and take it off the streets. We're heading towards another record year of bicyclist fatalities in New Mexico. What can we start doing to not match or exceed that grim goal? Thanks for listening, and we look forward to actions that will create a safer Las Cruces.

Good afternoon, mayor, city council members, and staff. My name is Andrea O'Gean. I am a board member for Velocruces and program manager for Everybody Rides with Grace. I'm also here because we had another citizen, father, loved one die a preventable death. here in Las Cruces. I wanna say that I greatly appreciate everything that our community is doing to improve the situation and safety for vulnerable road users. I know that we are doing many things on many different levels. Velo Cruces is also doing many things on different levels. There are a number of organizations here. and none of us wants people to die preventable deaths. It would be very valuable I think it could be very powerful if our city could demonstrate that you are resolved to stop these preventable deaths from happening. Resolving that our city is committed to having zero deaths would be a step in the right direction. There are other small steps, maybe simple steps, that wouldn't cost a whole lot. Some of you are very active on social media. You could use your platforms to talk about these things that are important to all of us. Talk about this case, the case. I don't know if it's in litigation, if you can talk about it now, but educate the public. Let the public know. We're watching, we're paying attention, and it's not just drivers that need to know, but cyclists that need to know, and we all need to work together to make this happen. These are my children, they ride bikes. We give bikes to kids with disabilities, including adults with disabilities, and we don't have places, very many places to safely ride our bikes, and we would like to be able to do that. So again, I'm just asking for some creative solutions, thinking about ways that you personally can, or you as a city can demonstrate your behind this idea of stopping it, whether it's a radio broadcast or an article in the newspaper, in the bulletin, just something, let us know that, that you personally care, we want to hear from you. Appreciate that. Thank you.

Tim Jenkins here. As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of our nation, I ask that we all take time to reflect on what a remarkable gift America truly is. 250 years is more than a milestone. It's a reminder that generations before us sacrificed, struggled, and believed in something greater than themselves so that the future generations could live in freedom. When our founding fathers gathered to establish this nation and later frame our Constitution, they understood that no government would ever be perfect. But they also believed that liberty, justice, and the rights of the people were worth protecting. Many of them drew strength and guidance from their faith in God and believed that our freedoms carried with them a responsibility to live with virtue, integrity, and respect for one another. The Constitution that they left us with has endured because it was not built on the idea that one political party should always win. It was built on the belief that free people could disagree, debate, and still remain united as a nation. So many conversations begin these days with, are you a Republican or are you a Democrat? when the question really should be, are you willing to be an American first? We don't all have to think alike, we don't all have to vote the same, but we should all be fighting for the same purpose and the same goals. Safer communities, opportunities for our children, respect for our neighbor, and a country that is stronger tomorrow than it is today. Our greatest strength has never been found in political parties. It has always been found in ordinary Americans who choose to work together despite their differences. Division only weakens us. Unity only strengthens us. As we commemorate 250 years of this great nation, let's honor those who went before us by recommitting ourselves to the principles that have carried America this far. Faith, freedom, personal responsibility, respect, and a willingness to put our differences aside and come together for the better of the nation. And let our hope be that future generations can look back on us and say that when our nation faced division, that we chose unity. When anger was easy, we chose grace. And when we had every reason to stand apart, that we chose to stand together as one nation and one people. Because at the end of the day, we are not Democrats and we are not Republicans. We are Americans. May God bless this nation and our city and our police officers. Thank you.

Good afternoon, City Council. My name is Lucas Hernon, for the record. My main point for being here today is to encourage the council later in the process to affirm council bill number 27004, ordinance number 3120, repealing the policy review committee. No decisions of a public body should be made in private and by those unelected by the citizenry. So I just want to encourage this body to follow through with that commitment. And since it's under a portion of the agenda that states plainly there will not be public discussion, I thought I'd mention it now. With the remainder of my time, I'd like to echo some of the comments made about public safety on our roads for pedestrians and bicyclists. And I would add to the list of physical places that have already been mentioned that along Solano... I'm sorry, but on... Not Solano. I've gone blank. The stretch between University and Missouri that runs by, there's a series of apartments. And all the apartments have private trash cans, or each apartment has their own trash can. It's not a communal one. So every Friday, people wheel their trash cans onto the curb, which in this case is the bike lane. So every Friday, the bike lane is inaccessible. And it's especially bad on grappler days, because people put large bags of trash, sometimes large bags of yard waste. And as is not uncommon, it will sometimes sit there for more than one week if they miss the grappler week. So I would just like for that to be flagged. Also, I appreciate that the clock did just start. I will wrap things up, I promise. Thank you for the extra time, though. I'm sure nobody wants to hear me talk. I will say finally that the rhetoric around public safety continues to be fully in the seat of those armed agents of the state as the only agents who can provide said public safety. And that rhetoric was used at the last city council meeting as a potential excuse as to why the library was closed and not, as has been stated by both the library here and by staff members, that they had budget cuts. and they had to close their hours and my concern is that uh... at least as of a week ago the library was still listed on the city's website as one of the city's cooling centers and i checked right before i came it is still listed as being open on sundays for those needing cooling services but if they are now closed that means not only the library closed and all of its various resources but that is one other location that uh... those in las cruces who are Overheating due to this incredible heat wave do not have access to so something else to consider As you look at the rest of the agenda where I see we were giving the cops more money just something to think about

Next is the acceptance of agenda.

Move to approve.

Second. Mayor, can I request that we remove an item from the consent agenda? Sure. Request to remove item 6.1 from consent agenda so that we can discuss.

This is on the motion to accept the agenda as presented with removal of item 6.1 for discussion. Councillor McClure? Yes. Councillor Matisse is absent. Councillor Harris? Yes. Councillor Bencomo? Yes. Councillor Curran? Yes. Councillor Munoz? Yes. Mayor?

Yes. So we'll start out with item 6.1, resolution number 27-001. Move to approve. Second.

Good afternoon, mayor, councillors, and city staff. My name is Donny Proseis, purchasing supervisor for the financial services department, and before you today is a resolution authorizing an increase for the museum systems storage facility lease. A little bit of background on October 28th, 2021, the city signed a lease with Binns Enterprises of Las Cruces, New Mexico for the rental of a storage facility to house the museum system's permanent collection. The rental of this facility provided more square footage than the two separate facilities being leased previously. The original lease was $8,000 per month or $96,000 annually for an initial term from November 1st, 2021. through June 30th, 2022 as approved in resolution 23-078. The lease will continue on a month to month basis while renewals are reviewed, amended and approved. During the fourth lease extension, the property owner requested an increase to $8,755 per month or $105,060 annually. During the fifth lease extension, the property owner requested annual increases of 2.5% for fiscal years 2027 through 2029, ultimately resulting in monthly rent of $9,428.18 or $113,138.16 annually. The Quality of Life Department is therefore requesting authorization to increase the spending limit for this lease to an amount not to exceed $113,138.16 through fiscal year 2029. Before you are your options and I stand for questions.

Okay, thanks, Donnie.

Councillor Harris? Thanks, and obviously I asked to discuss this, so I have several questions. First is, how big is this facility? Just out of curiosity.

Mayor, Councillor Harris, I do not have the exact square footage available, but somebody from the museum systems might be able to answer that question.

Hello, Whitney Broadway from the museum system. It is 8,000 square feet.

8,000, okay. So, I mean, all in all, I think that's not a terrible price given market conditions. But I think the more concerning thing is that we're being asked for approval, but we're actually being asked for retroactive approval. And so I think that that deserves some discussion and how do we get to this point? Why were contracts signed? What are we gonna do going forward to make that not happen again?

Mayor councillor Harris that is a great question the honest answer is that a previous buyer in the purchasing program did not realize when processing paperwork that came through with a request that the fourth extension to the lease had effectively authorized an amount above what the City Council had originally approved and and a newer buyer who has joined my team as of this past February actually was handling a new request and at that point realized that both the fourth and fifth extensions had put us in this situation and we immediately began working to bring this forward for approval, albeit retroactive.

Okay, so I guess just to be clear for people in public who are listening, we messed up in the past and somebody new came on and realized the mistake. And so going forward, you know, we're going to try and not do this again and make sure that contracts, what is our typical contract limit that council needs approval on?

Mayor, Councillor Harris, any expenditure of $100,000 or more in the aggregate or even for a single purchase requires city council approval under most circumstances. The one notable exception would be anything that you all have approved on the CIP list as part of the budget process. Those purchases don't need to be brought back for council approval because they've been pre-approved through CIP.

okay and that's and you said in the aggregate so that's over a period of you know if a contract lasts from 24 to 27 and it's for 700 000 or something then you know well obviously that would still count but if it was 10 years and each one was less than a hundred thousand dollars but over the aggregate it's expensive we'd need approval to do that

Mayor, Councilor Harris, the annual limit is usually the determining factor. So if we were spending less than $100,000 annually under that agreement, it would not require council approval. But in the aggregate, we're usually talking about if we're doing like a multi-award contract, for example, and we have... two to 10 vendors under contract, we would look at the total spending limit per contract and the aggregate. So we would come to council if everything was going to exceed 100,000 annually.

Okay, yeah, that's what I wanted to know. So thank you very much for presenting that.

Any other questions? Seeing none, Christine?

This is on the motion to approve resolution 27-001. Councillor McClure? Yes. Councillor Matisse is absent. Councillor Harris? Yes. Councillor Bencomo? Yes. Councillor Crayon? Yes. Councillor Munoz? Yes. Mayor?

Yes. Thank you. Next is item 7.1, a public hearing is required for resolution number 27-004. So the public hearing is now open at this time at 1.55 PM. Is there anyone here for or against the issuance of the liquor license?

Good afternoon, this is Lisa Cosper. Sorry. Good afternoon, this is Lisa Cosper on behalf of Cattle Baron Restaurants Inc. Here for approval of the liquor license.

Okay, thank you. So the public hearing is now closed. It's 1.56 PM.

Move to approve.

Second.

All righty, Adam Ochoa, Community Development. For the record, before you, we have a proposed liquor license for the Kettle Baron Steak and Seafood Restaurant located at 790 South Teleshore. This is the application for a transfer of ownership only of the inter-local dispensary liquor license. It's liquor license number DIS001067 with on-premise consumption. The Alcoholic Beverage Control Division of the state did provide preliminary approval to the city in May 19th of this year. AN EXTENSION WAS REQUIRED IN ORDER TO GET THAT BEFORE YOU ALL TODAY. BECAUSE OF THE HOLIDAY WEEKEND THAT WE HAD, WE NEEDED THAT EXTENSION FOR THAT, WHICH IS WHY WE'RE HERE BEFORE YOU TODAY. ALL REUNION STAFF SAW NO ISSUES WITH THE PROPOSED APPLICATION. SHOWING THE CITY MAP HERE. AS YOU CAN KNOW, IT'S RIGHT NEXT TO THE MALL, TELSHIRE BOULEVARD MALL DRIVE, JUST TO GIVE YOU AN IDEA OF WHERE WE'RE AT. So that way options today, Councils want to vote yes and approve the liquor license or two, vote no and deny. The ABC will be notified of the vote and I will continue the application process for the applicants. That is the conclusion of my presentation. I stand for questions.

Thank You Adam any questions council current thank you I and this is this goes for this and the next thing this is the I feel like this is the first time we've ever had this type of Application that's like a place that's in its place Applying for it again did something change in the law or is there is this just something I haven't I maybe I didn't realize that this was happening before or like that people have to do this reapplication process like because I don't think we've I don't know if we've done this type of same location same approval, but maybe I just missed it or they don't happen that often.

Mayor, Councilor Karan, this has happened before. For instance, when all the Brewer gas stations in the city turned into Shell gas stations, they changed from one corporation to another. This one is still the same corporation, Cattle Baron, I forget the full name of the LLC, but it's just changing the name of the actual owner, the physical person who maintains ownership of it. It's going from one person to another.

Got you. Thank you that I just wanted to clarify like it seemed new to me or different and I didn't want it to be like Oh suddenly we have to be doing this all the time, which would kind of be a bummer. So, thank you No other questions Christine

This is on the motion to approve resolution 27-004. Councillor McClure? Yes. Councillor Matisse is absent. Councillor Harris? Yes. Councillor Vancomo? Yes. Councillor Curran? Yes. Councillor Munoz? Yes.

Mayor? Yes. Next is item 7.2, also public hearing required for resolution number 27-005. So the public hearing is now open. It is 1.59 p.m. Is there anyone here for or against the issuance of this liquor license? Does she want to come forward and state? She can come again if she'd like, sir, yes. If she'd like.

Sorry, my apologies. This is Lisa Cosper again on behalf of Cattle Bear and Restaurants, Inc., doing business as Farley's.

Okay, the public hearing is now closed 1 59 p.m Move to approve second

Okay, next liquor license we have before you is for the restaurant known as Farley's Food, Fun, and Pub. This is located at 3499 Foothills Road. This is, again, another application for transfer of ownership of the interlocal dispenser license number DIS-001141 with on-premise consumption only. ABC did provide preliminary approval to the city on May 19th of 2026, same time as the previous one. REQUEST FOR EXTENSION WAS REQUESTED BY STAFF TO THE STATE TO GET IT BEFORE Y'ALL TODAY FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION. THAT WAS APPROVED. ALL REVIEWING PARTIES, ALL REVIEWING STAFF REALLY THAT TOOK A LOOK AT THIS REALLY SAW NO ISSUES WITH THE PROPOSED APPLICATION SINCE IT IS AN EXISTING LOCATION. I BELIEVE WE ALL KNOW WHERE FARLEY'S IS, LOCATED RIGHT HERE, NACHO ROAD, FOOTHILLS, RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET FROM HOTEL ACANTO, JUST TO GIVE YOU AN IDEA OF WHERE WE'RE AT. So with that, ladies and gentlemen, your option is one, to vote yes and approve the proposed legal license, or two, to vote no and deny the proposed legal license. The ABC will be notified of the vote and will continue the application process with the applicant. That is the conclusion of my presentation. I stand for questions.

Seeing no questions, Christine.

This is on the motion to approve resolution 27-005. Councillor McClure? Yes. Councillor Matisse is absent. Councillor Harris? Yes. Councillor Bencomo? Yes. Councillor Cran? Yes. Councillor Munoz?

Yes.

Mayor?

Yes.

Next is item 7.3, resolution number 27-066, resolution authorizing the city of Las Cruces to accept a grant award.

Move to approve.

Second.

Good afternoon, mayor, councilors, city staff, community members. My name is Gabriela Prats. I'm the city's grant manager in the finance department. Today, I bring your resolution to approve a grant, I'm sorry, to approve a budget adjustment for fiscal year 2026 for a grant award made to the police department. I'm sorry, I lost my train of thought there for a second. The award was made to the police department by the New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration in the amount of $44,432 or $33, and the purpose was to reimburse the city for the cost of hiring new officers. They reimburse for specific or certain law enforcement equipment that ensures not only the safety of the police officers or cadets, and also the public. For example, they reimburse us for the cost of uniforms, GEARS SUCH AS TRAUMA KITS AND BALLISTIC VESTS. AND HERE ARE YOUR COUNCIL OPTIONS AND I STAND FOR QUESTIONS.

ANY QUESTIONS BY COUNCIL?

SEEING NONE, CHRISTINE?

This is on the motion to approve resolution 27-006. Councillor McClure? Yes. Councillor Matisse is absent. Councillor Harris? Yes. Councillor Bencomo? Yes. Councillor Curran?

Yes.

Councillor Munoz?

Yes.

Mayor?

Yes.

Next is item 7.4, resolution number 27-007, a resolution authorizing the City of Las Cruces to accept various budget adjustments.

Move to approve.

Second.

Good afternoon, Mayor, City Council, staff, and public. My name is Vanessa Perez, and I am one of your budget analysts. Before you today is a resolution to accept various budget adjustments for fiscal year 2027. Before we start, I just want to mention that most of the adjustments presented today are tied to some grants. We are requesting to carry over several grants that were awarded and accepted during the budget cycle for fiscal year 2027. Due to timing, we couldn't build these grants into the fiscal year 2027 budget, so we're just asking to roll over grants that were already accepted in previous sessions. As usual the information presented today is a summary of the requests, but if you would like detailed information Please refer to your packets On screen we have a required match needed for a fire department grant in the amount of $35,380. Quality of life is requesting $48,000 and this is for a senior nutrition kitchen remodel. The total amount coming out of the general fund will be $83,720. On screen, you will see a lot of public safety grants that are being carried over within the Special Revenue Reimbursements Grants Fund. Quality of Life needs a grant carryover in the Special Revenue Reimbursements Grant Fund, and Public Works has four capital grants that need to be carried over into fiscal year 2027. Information technology department housing utilities and transit also have grants. I need to be carried over through various funds Before you are your council options and I stand for any questions Thanks Vanessa any questions by council my pro temp

Sure, Vanessa, thank you. Thank you, Mayor, City Councilors. So, again, just maybe just expand a little bit on it. Some of it was timing. Any other factors that delayed our executing on these grants? Was it staffing process, anything else that could have been changed, or it was just a matter of when these grants came in and were funded?

Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, all but one of these requests are just due to timing. The budget team has to place a stop date on when we can enter information into the fiscal year 27 budget because it takes a lot of time for us to process reports for like council work sessions and for council adoption or budget adoption. The only request that is not due to timing would be that senior nutrition kitchen remodel, which is on your screen right now. And Carol is here if you should have any questions on that.

Thank you, Vanessa. No, I think that covers it. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Christine.

This is on the motion to approve Resolution 27-007. Councillor McClure? Yes. Councillor Matisse is absent. Councillor Harris? Yes. Councillor Bencomo? Yes. Councillor Curran? Yes. Councillor Munoz?

Yes.

Mayor?

Yes. Next is item 7.5, resolution number 27-008, a resolution to reallocate HARPA funding from the Casa Linda Acres.

Move to approve.

Second.

Good afternoon mayor members of City Council humbly and Beasley the accounting manager and I'll be talking about the resolution to reallocate some ARPA funds from the Casa Linda acres reconstruction project to the Cortez Drive improvements project A little bit of a background and refresher on ARPA. ARPA is the American Rescue Plan Act that was signed into law in March of 2021. It was a $1.9 trillion federal stimulus package. And out of that amount, $350 billion went directly to state, local, and tribal governments to help them deal with the negative impacts from the pandemic. The city received two tranches of $12.4 million each for $24.8 million. And as part of the ARPA rules, the funds needed have been obligated by December 31st, 2024, which the city did hit that deadline. And all the funds need to be spent by December 31st, 2026. And any funds not spent by that date need to be paid back to the US Treasury. When the second tranche was accepted via Resolution 23-032, $2.2 million was allocated and budgeted for the Casa Linda Acres project. This is part of the water and sewer infrastructure category within ARPA. Eventually, a construction contract was executed in October of 2024. And the contract was terminated prior to the completion in April of 2026. And to date, there's been a total of 902,000 dollars that's been spent from leaving an unspent balance of 1.3Million. And so the main purpose of this resolution is to request taking that $1.3 million and then reallocating it to a different project, which is the Cortege Drive improvements project, so that we don't lose this money and have to pay it back. The United States Treasury, in the few years that the program has been active, has issued guidance that allows entities to reclassify their funds to different projects. The caveat is that the replacement project needs to meet all the requirements of the ARPA program. And so for Cortege Drive, the original contract was executed in November of 2024, so it met that obligation deadline. and it also meets all the other requirements that are specific to the water and sewer category within ARPA. And if approved, how it'll work is that the original accounts that paid for the Cortege Drive project will be reimbursed with ARPA funds, which is primarily bond funds, but that'll allow us to spend the remaining 1.3 million before the deadline at the end of this year. and here are your council options, and I can stand for any questions.

Thank you. Councillor Bencomo.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you so much for presenting on this, and I acknowledge that the questions I may ask may not be for you, but maybe for Public Works, but... Obviously, I'm pretty disappointed with the way that the Casa Linda project has sort of gone. I think this situation raises, and perhaps someone can update us on that, so I'm not talking out of context for my colleagues, but I think this raises questions for me about accountability for outside contractors and those kinds of things that frankly led to this. This was such a huge investment in District 4, arguably one of the districts with the worst index in road conditions, and so it's pretty disappointing for me to see this kind of investment moved out of District 4, obviously for another important part of the city. But I I think you know it would I would be doing a disservice to the constituents who live in this neighborhood if I didn't raise this question and I've received so many emails in the last few months about how frustrating this has been and so One would love to hear update on that. But two, I also want to understand then how How we will be investing how we will be finishing this project then at Casa Linda if we are moving out THE CURRENT FUNDS THAT HAVE BEEN THAT WERE IDENTIFIED TO BE FOR THIS SPECIFIC PROJECT THAT'S OBVIOUSLY ACTUALLY MY NUMBER ONE CONCERN AT THIS POINT.

Yes, Mayor, Councillor Bencomo, Kyle Orange, your interim public works director. A couple different answers there, a couple different questions to start. Yes, we're very disappointed with the way Casa Linda proceeded as well and with that contractor. That contractor obviously has been terminated at this point and we're in a low period right now where we're waiting to see what the CONTRACTOR'S BONDING COMPANY IS GOING TO DO FOR US WITH REGARDS TO THEIR OBLIGATIONS TO FINISH THAT PROJECT. THEIR RESPONSE IS DUE TO US THE 10TH OF JULY, SO WE'RE LOOKING FORWARD TO SEE WHAT THAT RESPONSE IS, BUT THERE WILL CONTINUE TO BE SOME DISCUSSIONS, I'M SURE, AS WE TRY TO GET THAT PROJECT BACK ONLINE AND COMPLETE IT WITH THE FUNDS. We were fortunate in working with finance to find another project which met all the ARPA conditions and was done within the same timeframe. So switching those funds over to the Cortez Drive projects allows us to complete the ARPA project. And the funds that were used for Cortez Drive can now be applied to Casa Linda. So it's not that the Casa Linda money is completely evaporating, but it does allow us to buy some time for us to work out getting a new contractor on board without the strict time frame of the ARPA contract.

Thank you for that. That's helpful. So there had been funds identified for Cortez Drive, and those will not move for the Casalinda project.

That's correct. Those funds that were identified for Cortez, I mean for Casalinda, were moving to Cortez, and likewise the funds that were used on Cortez will be made available to help with the finishing of Casalinda.

Okay, and just for everyone to know, the Casa Linda project, it's Calle del Encanto and Calle del Sol neighborhood. I think, again, I know that maybe I'll repeat this maybe in councilor comments, but I think, I'm glad this is coming up today because I just, I wonder how we are vetting contractors before we hire them. I just, this one has felt Like, you know, complaints of many kinds, right? One, obviously, that it's not getting done and now that timeline has been pushed. But two, that property has been damaged, right? Like, really just careless kind of work. And so I'm really curious about moving forward how we will do internally just better vetting of contractors so that they don't end up, you know, leaving us in this situation. And I know that's a longer term question. Kyle, I don't expect to put you on the spot to answer it right now, but I do just wanted to raise that for everyone.

Noted.

Thank you. And will city council see this similar kind of resolution to make sure that core test funds get transferred to Casa Linda in the future?

That would be a finance question, honestly.

Okay. Thank you.

Yes, Councilor Bencomo, Mayor, members of City Council, yes, we can give a presentation in the future to confirm that this swap has taken place.

Okay, thank you so much.

You're welcome.

No other questions? Christine?

This is on the motion to approve resolution 27-008. Councillor McClure? Yes. Councillor Matisse is absent. Councillor Harris? Yes. Councillor Bencomo? Yes. Councillor Crayon? Yes. Councillor Munoz? Yes. Mayor?

Yes. Next is item 7.6, resolution number 27-009, resolution authorizing the write-off of uncollectible utilities, general building, and library accounts.

Move to approve.

Second.

Good afternoon, mayor, city council, and city staff. I'm Adolfo Cardenas in treasuring. Before you is a resolution for you to approve the accounts receivable write-offs. New Mexico State Statute 3-37-7 grants the City Council the authority to write off the receivables that have been uncollected for more than four years. It does not affect revenues or expenses. This action is being taken for accounting and reporting purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles or GAAP. It is considered best practice to remove uncollectible accounts from accounts receivable balance to present a more accurate financial position. It is important to mention that the writing of these accounts does not extinguish the debt. The city can continue to pursue the collection and recover any amount that is written off. The accounts receivable to write off are as follows. Utilities, 178,997. General billing, 11,346. Library, 24,739 for a total amount of 215,082. This is a five-year history write-off for utilities. The proposed utility write-off represents 0.40% of the utility's annual billing. The average write-off percentage over the past five years is 0.31%. And here's the five-year history for the general billing. The proposed general billing write-off represents .05% of the annual billings. The average general billing write-off percentage over the five years, it's .07. This graph illustrates the percentage of write-offs by account type. within the general billing. The library write-off table provides a summary of the value of charges being written off, the number of patrons affected, and the total amount of old charges. before you are your council options, and I stand for question.

Councillor Herbs.

Thank you. Just one quick question. On your nuisance abatement, what do we charge for a nuisance abatement? Like if we have to go pull weeds on someone's property, do we bill them for that?

Yes. It was one property. The customer failed to respond to multiple violations, so the city hired a company. to do some maintenance of the property, and the property does not have a lien. But again, we can continue to pursue collection of that.

And going forward in the future, are we putting liens on property for that, or is that just like we hired someone for a few hundred bucks, it's not worth going through the process?

Mayor, Councillor Harris, yes, right now we Treasury has a plan, and we should be in constant communication, in this case, with legal department. So I believe it should have a lien. OK. Thanks. That's all.

Council Member Accomo.

Thanks, Mayor. Thank you so much for this information. Staying on this same slide, actually, I would actually love to see a breakdown of the actual dollars that go to these, if you can maybe send us that through the city clerk in the future, because I had very similar questions about nuisance abatement and whether that was like weeds or like a property that was demolished. And so I would love to see the actual dollar signs for all of these. And then for the library fees, for all of these fees, I think, arguably, obviously, like utilities, I think there's a person who follows up with people, is calling people, trying to figure out if they have overdue bills, that there's assistance, those kinds of things. I would love to hear from at least the library folks on what this would mean to not just write off these, but to cancel these. And again, I think for me, we would start with the library to be feels like the place where we could most do that, that has maybe the least impact. But I don't want to speak for the library. If it does have a big impact, I want to know. And I'm curious what you all think about that. And I want to know who these 11 people are that owe $200 plus.

Not to shame or anything, I just, she's most curious. Good afternoon, Sarah Booth, Library Deputy Director. Thank you, Councilor Bencomo, for that question, and Council. Some of these charges, well, we have charges that have been out there for a while. And we have recently updated our policy. So if someone owes less than $25, they can still check out an item. So the larger totals are for items like audio books, because those are very expensive. If you have seven discs, eight discs, and an audio book, that's going to be $400. So we try and offer payment plans. We want people to come and check out and use the library. So yeah, I hope that answers your question.

Yes. Going further, though, what would it mean for the library if we went an additional step and canceled people's

weight fees you know definitely like for i think under a hundred dollars it would be okay we don't see any of this money this goes to the general it goes to the general fund and when people like when people lose things we don't charge fines now we but when people lose an item or damage an item um there our first choice is that they can bring us a replacement copy so we can add it back into the collection but um so we don't we don't see any of this so i think that would be up to you all Thank you. That's really helpful.

Okay.

Thank you.

Mayor, city manager's office, I would love to explore something like that for folks in the library. I think, as you said, especially under her dollars, I would hate for that to be a barrier for people to come back because they're embarrassed, because whatever. And so I think that, to me, feels like something very doable. So I really appreciate it. Yeah. Thank you both.

Mayor Pro Temp.

Thank you, Mayor. A little for Mayor, City Councilors. Page six, I think it was. So events. What's that? Are those like the events that public has in parks and in shared spaces or?

Mayor, Mayor Pro Temp, it was just one customer. Okay. It was for the Country Music Fest. Okay. And it is my understanding that the business is no longer in... Yeah, it's kind of aged a little bit.

Okay. Okay.

So again, I'm gonna mention again, but we can continue to pursue collection on this.

Okay, so some of this is cleanup. Okay, that's good. I was just concerned that maybe some of the organizations or nonprofits in the community didn't understand the process or weren't able to pay, but it sounds like it's a one-off that's driving most of that number. Okay, thank you, Mayor. Thank you, also. Thanks for being here.

Thanks, Adolfo. You mentioned you can continue to pursue collection with a lot of these, or some of them. Anyway, who does that?

Who's pursuing the collection? Mayor, right now, Utilities is the only department that has a collection team. However, Treasury, the Finance Department, is already in discussion with them, with Utilities, about using the services of their collection team. So we have very high hopes that this will work. And if we use the services of their team, then they can collect.

Sounds good. Thank you. I see no other questions. Christine?

This is on the motion to approve Resolution 27-009. Councillor McClure? Yes. Councillor Matisse is absent. Councillor Harris? Yes. Councillor Bencomo? Yes. Councillor Curran? Yes. Councillor Munoz? Yes. Mayor?

Yes. Okay, so it was brought to my attention that item 7.3, there was maybe an error in the packet versus what was presented, and I'd like to see if we could bring that back up for discussion so that we can get that clarified and then re-vote on that.

Oh, we don't need to vote?

Okay, well, do we need a motion to discuss? So it's a minor, very minor.

Just a mulligan.

Okay, go ahead, Gabrielle.

Christine, oh, there it is. Again, Gabby Pratz, grants manager in the finance department, mayor, counselors, city staff, and our community. Somehow the wrong presentation ended up on on here. The actual grant that was received in FY26 for the police department was awarded by New Mexico State University for $5,000, and that was to support the department's youth leadership program, which they carry out over June and July, actually during June, in partnership with NMSU. No need for, any questions?

So point of clarification, do we need to then withdraw the previous motion and then re-vote on this with the correct information?

No, actually you don't because what you approved was the correct information, you just weren't presented the correct information. So what you approved was in the packet correctly.

Right, the packet showed, we noticed that later. Okay, thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Christine.

I say we'll move on to board appointments. There are none. Notice of proposed ordinances, there are four. The first one is Council Bill number 27-001, ordinance number 3117. Bring it forward, please. The second one is item 9.2, council bill number 27-002, ordinance number 3118.

Bring forward.

The next one is item 9.3, council bill number 27-003, ordinance number 3119. Bring forward. And item 9.4, council bill number 27-004, ordinance number 3120. Bring forward. Okay, we'll go to city council board, member board reports and comments. Councilor McClure.

Thank you, Mayor. Just real quickly, hot off the presses, we are having our first evening work session, September 14th. One of the things is gonna be the Youth Council, so we're gonna try to pepper it everywhere that you can find youths. Everywhere we'll figure it out. I trust that we can get that information out, but it's gonna be September 14th at 6 p.m Looking forward to having this place packed Perhaps with pizzas as I suggested before because bringing food is half of community building to a large degree So I'm looking forward to that and hope we can kind of get some people out to give us feedback Especially young people in Las Cruces. Thank you

Councilor Harris. Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to note that I do personally care quite a bit about traffic deaths and bicycle safety and pedestrian safety and driver safety. So I don't know. I just wanted to make that heard. I've been talking with Public Works and PD and Fire and a lot behind the scenes. So I appreciate the advocacy from the community. And we're definitely trying to find some solutions. Thank you.

Councillor Bencomo.

Thanks, Mayor. Yeah, I was originally only gonna talk about one thing today, but the, what I would say, a challenge by community members came up today that I think does feel important to talk about and address, which is the traffic safety concerns. And I think, I understand why people would come here and say, please show us that you care, because it doesn't feel like, you know, perhaps there is a level of urgency around some of the policy solutions or implementations. What I mean is that there's perhaps a lack of urgency around it, and perhaps not, I think, there are conversations happening behind the scenes that we should continue to have not behind the scenes and I think continue to engage with advocates on this because this is a really important issue for I think most of us and I think the recent very tragic death that was very publicized and politicized for I think even the wrong reasons but really highlighted for me the level of uh... the desire of community members for us to talk about these kinds of issues and often with this traffic safety issue a often feel like we're trying to legislate you know making our residents be kind to each other or aware of each other or just like acknowledge each other's existence as we move through the world which feels like an impossible thing to legislate but it's I think traffic safety is not an impossible thing to legislate. I think even if bicyclists or pedestrians are making quote unquote risky decisions, they're doing so because there's a flaw in the design ultimately. And today we heard it very bravely from someone who I'm assuming the injury they had was because of their accident. I think folks have talked about things that could be preventable, like better maintenance of our bike lanes. I think there are issues of inaccessibility of bike lanes. I think those things we can start to be more acutely aware of. Things like speeding, distracted driving, design. I even read an article recently that traffic pedestrian deaths are increasing because our cars are getting bigger and faster. And so there are some things that I think are ultimately out of our control, but there are some things that are not. And for the ones that are sort of in the middle, you know, would like us to see move things a little bit faster, you know, when it comes to some of those, one of those pieces. So I also just want to make sure community members know that I often think about this and that I appreciate the challenge they pose to us when coming here to ask us about what else we're doing. And then the last thing, the other thing I wanted to talk about was that a couple of weeks ago I attended the first meeting for, I am now forgetting the name of it, it is the Affordable Housing Playbook for New Mexico Local Government Leaders and I believe Natalie Green sent out an invitation to the entire council and perhaps other staff to attend this, I think it's six, a six session series where the Department of Workforce Solutions has brought together some experts to talk about specifically the state of housing in New Mexico through many layers and really, I think, help educate New Mexico leaders, people who are making decisions around housing. And so perhaps if you, maybe there's still time to jump on to these conversations, reach out to Natalie. But if not, I think obviously the folks who are there can be there and for the folks who can't, I would like to at least point out some of the things after every session because I think it's information that everyone should know and hear about. Some of the key takeaways I had from this last meeting were around population growth. Actually, Dona Ana County experienced the largest population growth in the state, though in counties with the largest housing unit growth, we were at number two with 5,022 units between 2020 and 2024. The total number that New Mexico is lacking in rental units is 34,000 and obviously growing is actually our state is seeing population increase. I'm guessing it's all those El Paso people coming here because they're experiencing population decline. Let me see, a couple other things that I thought were really interesting to come out of this. Lower cost rental units remain more difficult to find than higher price rental units. The median household, the median home price from 2018 to 2024 in New Mexico overall jumped from 205,000 to 335,000 in Dona Ana County alone. From that same time period, it went from 185,000 to 315,000. Thousand, again, that's the median home price. Anyway, I just have to really give huge props to the Department of Workforce Solutions for hosting this series and bringing on experts to talk about a ton of data, a ton of the real work that's happening, the stuff that needs to happen, and bringing community leaders from all over the state to talk about these conversations. I would urge you to try to jump on some of these if you can, and if not, hopefully we can advocate for them to continue to have this series because it feels very, very important in the current time that we are in. Thank you.

Councilman Curran.

Thank you. Yes, I second that. Those are great sessions, and I really appreciated being able to join. I also want to talk a little bit about thinking about pedestrian and cyclist safety and road safety generally. I think the folks who have mentioned it already sort of have a sense of this. And I guess the idea of legislating kindness is a recurring theme after Fireworks Weekend and the torment of many of our neighbors who have pets or don't appreciate neighborhood fireworks or are really mad about that. I think about this idea of how to be a better neighbor and how to be a better human being. And I feel like so much of what we're asked to do every day is intervene in those types of situations. Many people at every level of the city are asked to intervene in those types of situations. It's an interesting place, but when it comes to road safety, at least we can make some difference. And I think about how we design roads moving forward, right? Like we are making sure that we're thinking about pedestrian and cyclist safety as we do those things. And I hope that we will continue to do that and thinking about enforcement while also thinking about addressing the existing roads that we have that are in various states of condition both in terms of the ways that we keep them clean and safe and how they were originally built needing a lot of help and that all ties into our bigger 300 million dollar capital improvement budget that I think we're always having those conversations about so thank you George and and everyone rides with grace for coming out and bringing this and always keeping it in our at the forefront of our thinking so not just when there's a tragedy but also exceptionally when there's a tragedy like the one from last week. So other than that I would like to thank everyone who helped do our microchipping event which we had here at City Hall. The ASCMV folks did it, came out and held dogs. We only had a few incidents of liberation of dogs, very brief, and they were contained. But otherwise, we got to hold a lot of very cute puppies, dogs, and give them microchips. The ASEMV did that. The county's vet also, Dr. McKenzie also joined because it's required by state law. which hopefully we can change, that a veterinarian be observing every single chip that happens. So, surprise, it's more complicated than we initially had thought, and than it is in every other state I would make note of. In every other state, they're just giving out the microchips. under the light supervision of a vet but here we have to have a veterinarian on premises so thanks to Dr. McKenzie who came out and joined us also animal control came and had little giveaways they also were educating folks about what to do when your pet gets lost so Then Katrina from the city manager's office and the facilities folks and security who were also here to help? That event to go off without a hitch, so thank you to that team effort It was our first time, but I hope that we can do it again in the future. We learned a lot So thanks to everyone who participated in that and that's it Thank You mayor proton Thank You mayor I'm

appreciative of the counselors and city staff who are supporting the evening session and I hope that we have public comment to be able to hear from from residents who may not be able to attend these day sessions because they're working I especially want to thank the staff, because I know it's after a long day. You were here early, and you'll be with us late night. I will bring my espresso machine, and we can hang out. Yes, I will bring that. We'd have a good discussion and a good listening session, I think. And eventually, I think, as these work out, it'd be nice to have them. more frequently, and we can test them out as a pilot and maybe also look at holding them in different locations. Again, more futuristically speaking, but very excited about that. We talked about utility write-offs. Just a reminder that landlords and property owners should look at having their cooling units already fired up already it is very hot and we are expecting another couple months of very hot weather so important that we keep people safe indoors as well Again, we talked about the unfortunate loss of life, I feel, for the victim's family and friends. One thing I would say in addition to what's been said by my colleagues is Maybe we don't wait until we have a tragedy like this or an accident like this. Maybe we can't fix everything all at once, but perhaps there are certain sections or certain pieces that we could fix now or we could address now that would help keep our residents safer. So I would encourage the city staff, our city manager and assistant city managers to look at this and help us look for solutions as to what we can do sooner rather than later. The, also very happy, we, the mayor and I spent some time, had a chance to spend some time with Barbara Hubbard who recently celebrated I believe her 98th or 99th birthday, somewhere after 90 we stopped counting. And the groundbreaking of the amphitheater near the fairgrounds, that's very exciting for our community and for our shared spaces, economic development and for education. So many good things that will come with that. The final piece I would say is happy anniversary to these United States. I know it's been called the experiment, the greatest experiment in world history. We are an imperfect union, always trying to get better. I don't think it's unpatriotic to always look at ways that we could do better and do differently. I do think that discussion is important in respect of different opinions is also important. And I love the example that Derek shared, Derek and our police chief, Chief Story, actually sat at the same table and had a good adult discussion. And I think discussions like that and forums like that are important. We listen to each other. There might be some areas where we have consensus and others we just understand that we think differently and view things differently. But I think that is very helpful. And if we are to progress as a community and a society, we should listen to each other. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you. I'll just follow up on a few things that were mentioned is, yeah, also looking forward to the evening council. We'll try it out. We'll have them more often if they're successful. The challenge always on other locations is the live streaming. That's a big challenge that we have going off-site, but that's something we can always look at. With the traffic safety, we do have a work session coming. It's something that we've talked about for traffic calming, and it will also include automated enforcement. That will be the presentation at an upcoming work session that we can also talk about safety. Barbara Hubbard will turn 99 July 12th, and she's a legend in our community. Anyone that has been here and seen all the superstars that she brought to the Pan American Center, and she still has the energy and the drive to continue. She mentioned she has three major shows still coming up this year, so... Her words to me were, hang on for the ride because we're going to keep moving forward. It's an inspiration to have somebody at that age still moving forward. I just want to say thank you to the city and thank you for the county and NMSU all partnering together for our 4th of July celebration. a celebration the electric parade and the event at nmsu was well attended spectacular firework display a great turnout for the parade so a special thank you to parks and rec police fire visit lost cruises and everyone else that joined in on that it was it was a great event and a great time and well attended so with that i'll turn it over to the city manager's report

Thank you, Mayor. David Cedillo, interim assistant city manager for the record. As the mayor said, the special thanks to a lot of folks for the 4th of July festivities that happened over the weekend. There were a lot of people in the background that made this happen for our community. Like the mayor said, very well attended. Very uneventful with any issues, so great event for our community. Just wanted to share some of the float results for the parade. Best overall went to Hernandez Heating, Cooling, and Plumbing. For commercial floats, the top three, number one, again, Hernandez Heating, Cooling, and Plumbing. Coming in number two, El Paso Electric, and number three, Vado Speedway. For our non-commercial floats, the top three were number one, Francie Immolate, number two, Welcome Home Veterans, and number three, Todd Garrison for Sheriff. There were over 200 vehicles in the parade, and that was between floats and car clubs. So again, thank you very, very much to all those who attended and participated. The next item I'd like to recognize and highlight one of our own. You may have already seen this go through in the posting, but I wanted to make sure that the public was aware as well. So I'm happy to share that the Government Finance Officers Association, or GFOA, selected our finance director, Leslie Doyle, as one of their 2026 recipients of the recognition for outstanding public service. And I'll read a little bit of the nomination. said Leslie came to the role after a career shift moving from a school district into municipal government. And she has met that challenge in front with confidence in her first year. Her approach has been defined by open communication and proactive problem solving qualities that have helped strengthen relationships across the organization. She has also worked to create a positive environment within her own department, one where employees feel valued and supported. So if you do happen to see Leslie Doyle, please congratulate her. Thank you, Council.

Can I just say something really quick about Leslie Doyle and why I'm really appreciative of her giving this award? Sorry, in case people don't know, I think city councilors might be the bane of most staff's existence, generously, if I can say. Sometimes not, but a lot of the time we are. And so I know that I personally have harangued Leslie in an extremely kind and gentle way. When I was being dumb as a box of rocks, she somehow got me from box of rocks to understanding really complicated things related to the budget that, you know, I don't know that city council necessarily comes to this. I think we're all perhaps, I mean, maybe not, a little box of rocksy up here, but she really has, personally, I am deeply grateful for the work that she's done in terms of talking me through things and really supporting my deeper understanding of how finance works and everything that's in it. And so I just want to give a shout out and an acknowledgement that Leslie really does walk the walk and invest in us understanding what's going on. And so I just wanted to elevate that appreciation very much.

Okay, I'll look for a motion to adjourn.

Move to adjourn. Second.

This is a motion to adjourn the meeting. Councillor McClure? Yes. Councillor Matisse is absent. Councillor Harris? Yes. Councillor Bencomo? Yes. Councillor Curran? Yes. Councillor Munoz? Yes. And Mayor?

Yes.