Council - Regular Meeting

We have something ready. Welcome everybody. I'd like to call to order the regular city council meeting of March 18th, 2026 to order. Mr. Cassen, Mayor David Romero, here. Councelor Marvin Martinez, present. Councelor Barbara Casey here. Councelor Bonita Pacheco present. Councelor David Ulivari here. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. We do have a quorum.

We could have uh I know we have in the in the audience the West Las Vegas wrestling team. So, if you guys could lead us in the pledge of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Councilman Pachco, you'll lead us in a moment of silence.

Thank you, Mayor. So, let's uh we can have a moment of silence for for uh young people that have lost their lives over the last uh month or so here in Las Vegas. All those that uh are serving in the uh overseas on behalf of the United States, all those dealing with the uh ongoing ongoing process in Iran. Uh just a moment of silence, please. Thank you. Thank you,

Mr. Mayor. Approval of the agenda. We had an opportunity to review the agenda. Is there any changes or recommendations from Mr. Manager? No, mayor. I don't have any others. I I did want to note on the record that um under executive, the council will be here at 6 PM. Okay. Mr. Mayor, I move approval of the agenda as presented. Motion by council, second by Councilman Martinez. All in favor say I. I. I. Those opposed, same sign. The eyes have it. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Moving on to public input. We have no public input this evening. Moving on to our mayor's appointments, reports, recognitions, and proclamations.

So, at this time, if uh I'll go ahead. I know we have coach Juan Montano here with his wrestling team. So, Coach Juan, if you don't mind coming up, I'd like to recognize uh another uh great uh season that you had this year. Uh you I know your boys placed third place overall in state and the girls had a a good turnout. Uh so, with that, I want to go ahead and uh we have certificates for those that placed, those that qualified, and those that participated through the season. Again, Coach Montano, I know when you took over the program, uh, West Las Vegas had a struggling wrestling program and you've built it up to where now it's one of the most competitive in the state considering we're from a smaller district. So, thank you for all that you do and you continue to do and the commitment you have towards these student athletes. So, uh, with that, uh, go ahead and call. I don't know if they're all here. I don't see Mr. Rumble Lopez. Yeah, there he is. And he's the 113 pound state champion. CONGRATULATIONS.

Actually two time right. Congratulations Mr. Corbin Harvey 175. Congrats. Congratulations,

Mr. Vicente Garcia, 190 lb state champion.

Mr. Santiago Medano, 132 state runner up. Mr. Jacob Rivera, 165 lb, placed fourth at state. CONGRATULATIONS

MR. Antonio Martinez 106 placed six that STATE we have Solis Medano 125 place six that STATE

congratulations congratulations Jeremiah Ortega, 120 lb state qualifier.

Mr. Toby Ortiz, 126 lb state qualifier. Kayan Ansley, 138B state qualifier. Ariana Garcia under Tom State qualifier.

Congratulations. There's a smile in there somewhere. Congratulations. Isabella 105 pound state qualifier

congratulations

Haley Koka 120 lb state qualifier. Kylie Lopez, 115 lb. Santiago Abita, a 250 pounder.

Congratulations. Quinton Martinez, 157 pounder. Xavier Moreno, 150 pounder. Lazarus Martinez, 144 pounder. I think we got him, Coach. So again, congratulations on a on a on a good season and hopefully you'll be back next year and you don't retire unless you want to say a few words, coach. Coach, I don't if you want to say a few words about the season and and then let the council speak.

Um, one of the things that a lot of people didn't know and recognize is West Las Vegas wrestling is one of those interesting an interesting dynamic. They have um they have uh everyone either you're in 5A or 4A. And so what they did was they clustered everybody. So you have 42 teams representing the 4A uh classification. Um, one of the things that, well, hasn't been advertised or talked about is our wrestlers. Uh, we went with only nine wrestlers. Um, Aztec, who had, uh, who took first place, had 13. Uh, Ben, who edged us out by two points for second place, uh, had 14 guys on their bracket. So, they had this many guys. So, the impressive team that we've got ended up pulling off a third place finish considering we're outnumbered and under manned, but these guys all came through. For those that didn't place, um we appreciate the time that they um stayed with the team because actually uh those that did place ended up placing because of the efforts that these others that didn't place did for us. So, we thank you for the recognition, Mr. Mayor, and distinguished members of this council. And thank you and have a good afternoon.

I don't know if you want to say a few comments. Councilman Martinez. Thank you, Mayor. Go ahead.

Thanks, Mayor. Um, I just want to say congratulations of course to the team and to coach. I' I've always called him chief. So, I guess that'll always be part of uh his title. But, nevertheless, I want to say thank you to uh to the entire team and it's so nice to see all these young ladies participating in that state in that uh in that sport. So, congratulations to all of you and and have a good luck and and good luck next year as well. Thank you, Mayor. Senator Casey.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I too want to congratulate uh the West Las Vegas wrestling team. I think you're awesome and I'm very proud of you and thank you for doing such a wonderful job of representing Las Vegas and uh West Las Vegas School District. I'm very proud of all of you and I'm very thankful that we have wonderful coaches and parents that encourage their children to participate in sports that are good for them. So, thank you for everything. Good job,

Councelor Pacheco. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh, congratulations, West Las Vegas. Uh, welldeserved honor. Uh, congratulations, Coach Montano. Uh, for those of you that don't know why he's such a good wrestler, it's because we wrestled together in high school and he had to practice with me every day. So, that that's probably why. No, I'm just kidding. Uh, but congratulations, coach. I have to give a a special shout out to uh Jacob out there. Uh, little cousin of mine. Also, I have to acknowledge that my wife is the principal at West Las Vegas. So, West is the best. What What can we say? So, congratulations to you guys all. We thank you. Thank you, Council Councilman Lewin.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, staff. Thank you, our wrestling manager and the kids. You talk to your kids, talk to them, and they realize what they can do. They're powerful. And the thing is that when you get out there and fight for what you do for your school, whatever you do, just be always positive. Whatever comes out of it, it's because what happens, but always be strong with everything you do in your life. Thank you, Mr. Maro. Uh, councelor Pacheco.

Yeah, I just want to also acknowledge the uh other coaches that I know of that aren't here uh uh tonight. Uh, coach Chris Lopez and uh, coach Gabe Salasar. Is there any other coaches uh, Coach Montano that we should uh, recognize? John Trill, John Salasar, GMO Castiano, James Martinez, you know, they all help out. Well, listening is one of those things once you're in it, uh you're in it for life. So, a lot of help there at West Las Vegas, and we really appreciate the uh the output and the effort and and again the uh uh dedication that you all have to your to your high school in the town of Las Vegas.

Getting two more points. John who's of our intern.

Okay, Ishmael, come on. Come on up. Since you're the last, Mr. Mayor, if I may. Go ahead. We'll we'll give you a few minutes on the mic. Do you have anything you want to say, sir? No.

Sean Medano. Thank you. and and also I know we have some parents in the audience you know uh let's give them a round of applause because without them these student athletes WOULDN'T again thank you again uh you know for your participation participation and also for representing not only West Las Vegas but the city of Las Vegas in general. So thank you all and thank you coach. Mr. Manager did you want to say a few words?

Mr. Mayor Ditto what everybody said, it takes uh direction. It takes leadership, hard work and and dedication and wrestlers one-on-one uh mono ammano with with each other. And so our mana mana uh as well mono is always masculine. La mano,

thank you. Thank you as always uh councelor Casey. But uh just want to give them uh congratulation, hard work on their efforts. Thank you. Thank you guys. Thank you. Now going to the next uh the next part of my report. I know we have Mr. Joseph Cruz. And I'm going to explain uh what I asked the committee at the time or suggested to the the community development director on on that aspect is as you all know when we put the events committee together, you know, to be uh fair all across the board is we gave a seat to uh KN&MX and one to KFUN so both radio stations would be acknowledged. Uh we do have an email from Mr. Joseph Baka that he said he couldn't participate. So instead of me trying to select somebody and you know uh maybe showing some type of favoritism one way or another, I asked the committee to go ahead amongst the four that were the four that were uh you know uh approved already by council for them to choose a fifth person amongst you know amongst the four and they did that and I guess in conversation and I don't know Mr. Dwight if you want to come up and say a few words on that on how you guys uh selected Joseph. Uh, and I appreciate that because it was the four of you that came up with the name and that's how how we have the appointment, the name here for appointment tonight.

Good afternoon, mayor, uh, members of the council. I'm uh, Dwight Torres. I was appointed chairman of the committee by showing up late to one of the meetings. So, but yes, we have uh met like three four times I believe and um we had asked all the members to come up with a name or two of somebody that they'd like to serve on the committee to fill that vacant seat. Um we did come up with Joseph's name. He's uh has served on one or two other committees for the city and we thought he'd be a good fit for our committee. So, we did um put up his names. It was a unanimous vote by the remaining members of the committee and uh hopefully with the committee that we have now, our goal is to work for um to level the playing field and to level the fairness of how a lot of these um bands are are chosen for the for the events that the city puts on. There is a lot of work to be done still. Um we have uh work tomorrow evening that we'll do to uh work move forward a little bit with a lot of this stuff. And uh you know I want to thank Amanda. Amanda put together an amazing uh application that will help uh with uh the level field playing leveling the playing field for a lot of these bands. Um you know these bands work really hard and they put their time and effort. Las Vegas seems to be a big destination for a lot of these groups and again, you know, we don't want to leave anybody out, but we want to level the playing field and create a fairness on how this is done and how they're selected and give everybody the same opportunity to be able to play here in Las Vegas where be for fiestas, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Friday alresco. You know, I think it's important that the more variety we have, the more we're able to do for our

community, the more we're able to bring to our community and bring more the more bands we're able to attract, the more variety, the more beds and heads that we can get into the into our uh uh motel, hotels, and uh people that we can get into our restaurants. So,

thank you, Chairman. I do want to acknowledge we have Miss Tresa Diaz, and I know we have a presentation, but I just want to acknowledge them. Uh M. Teresa Diaz is is back there. Uh she's one of the committee members. We have uh April Matias. Uh one of the committee members. Uh Dwight. And now if with your approval, we'll have Mr. Joseph Cruz. So with that, I'll uh entertain a motion on that appointment on my recommendation based off of the committee's recommendation. Mr. Mayor, I move that we approve Joseph Cruz to the events committee. A motion by councelor Casey. Second. Second by councilman Pacheco. Roll call. Councelor Levati. Yes. Councelor Pacheco. Yes. Councelor Casey. Yes. Councelor Martinez. Yes.

Have a motion by councelor Casey. A second by councelor PCO. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Motion carries. Congratulations, Mr. Cruz. All right. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Other than that, I I do want to kind of just give our reports. The city manager, myself, uh Mr. Jimmy C had an opportunity to go to Santa Fe and uh basically re-engage with the city of Santa Fe. We went uh for one intention of the of the water uh pertaining to our water situation last year and just wanted to make sure that we continue that uh uh collaboration with the city of Santa Fe and some other discussion happened. So uh training opportunities where we could collaborate uh uh public safety issues. So, I just I thought that was important that uh you know, I know my commitment has been uh around has been making sure that we have those collaborations with neighboring communities. So, wanted to report on that. I don't know if you wanted to say a few words, Mr. Manager, on that.

Mayor, I think you covered I I I would just highlight uh the training uh public safety oriented work uh the chief working with their police department and some other initiatives that they're doing in Northern New Mexico connected with state police around drug enforcement. And so we had an invitation to participate in some of those discussions. So chief's going to get engaged with that. Chief Marquez. And then uh another discussion connected in two ways to the fire department. Uh they do training associated uh our ARF training. Is is that correct? uh but it's tight around the airport and it's a very expensive training that usually happens out of state and so they invited uh uh our chief and his team to participate in observing this round. Um and then we're going to work to create a the mutual aid agreements uh with the city that will bolster the relationship with the city. uh and then we can access those those trainees as one of their partners which will save resources but more importantly get certified uh staff to to be able to participate. One one other piece that's of significance and uh you'll be hearing more from the chief uh as we rotate in uh chiefs from reports from the fire chief. But the ladder truck ladder truck is an investment that we need to uh work on and make to upgrade the one we have. But there's an opportunity to partner potentially with the city uh where they they may lend us a a ladder truck in the interim while we're getting ours worked on. So, some pretty cool stuff uh and discussions that led to other potential partnerships with our with our neighbor to the west.

Thank you, Mr. Manager. Cassandra. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Moving on to our counselor's reports. Counselors. Mr. Mayor, Councilman Levari. Thank you, Mr. Manager. Mr. Mayor, I'm a little upset because they never had call me to come and I like to take pictures with everybody, but you know what it is? It is a bunch of bull because usually I've been here for a lot of years and usually they call me and tell me, "Hey, we're going to do this communication only takes 10 minutes, five minutes." Mr. manager. Mr. Mayor, thank you.

It's helpful because I I come here try and be here at in time 15 20 minutes, but if we don't have any communication in this city with all the staff and all the counselors where we at right. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor, I I I'll take uh responsibility for improving that communication. and I had direct conversations with with um uh mayor and council and so I'll I'll take the responsibility on that. I'll work on that. Councilman,

uh thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh thank you everyone for uh being here. I don't have too much of a update tonight. Uh we had uh two back-to-back meetings, if you will, uh two weeks in a row. I just want to reiterate some of the things that have occurred in the recent uh past. Uh one, the the uh speed enforcement cameras. I think that's going to be uh a big plus for public safety in in Las Vegas and and free up some uh officers for other other duties. Uh as part of my uh uh platform for election, I will note that public safety was was uh one of those uh platforms. I I conferred with uh Chief Marquez through part of that campaign. He actually corrected me on some stats I was giving out. I was uh a little low on some of that information, but I just want to reiterate to to war two into the city of Las Vegas. We have a officer shortage. We're we're looking for officers to to help uh uh fill vacancies on the city police department. Um, and and I don't think that we can um uh be too lax on that. We we want some good people uh excuse me, good people serving Las Vegas. Uh reminder to to all of the public that we have ongoing review of our ordinances that are in existence. That's uh continues on. uh like any good housekeeping, we have to see what what is still valid, what's still in use and uh update to to what's actually valid in in in today's world. Um I haven't forgot about maintenance and and and graffiti and and supportment of of uh code enforcement. I think those are important issues. Things take time. I've seen I've seen things occur. we've we've made some strides and and it's a

it's a it's a marathon. It's not a sprint. Um but but I appreciate the the attention that this the city directors and the city manager has provided to that. We're on a on a path moving forward. Uh we will be looking at some water uh uh banners in this meeting. One of my other goals was to to let's res solve or resolve our water situation. Uh we've been dealing with this since uh my my entire lifetime since since it started here in the 70s. So uh I'm I'm looking to find a lasting and long-term permanent solution. Still committed to that. Uh and once again, I will uh be holding public forums in the near future. Uh and I just have to find the location. I think potentially we could use a city city properties. Maybe the the fire station there on Legion Drive would be a good place within the ward. So, uh that date and time will come out soon. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman Patrick. Councelor Casey.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just have a a couple of comments. I have been receiving phone calls and um I've also seen uh Facebook posts on Samaritan House and um I just want people to know that we care about Samaritan House. We care about the people who are served by Samaritan House, but the city does not own Samaritan House, nor do we run Samaritan House. And so, um, you know, I'm just saying that so that people understand that we really can't do anything until Samaritan House comes to us and says, "We need help. Can you help us with such and such?" And we have given Samaritan House throughout the years money on a yearly basis to help them u provide the services that they provide. However, now that it is closed while they uh regroup, uh we don't have anything to do with that. We didn't close it down. We didn't stop providing services because we never did in the first place to begin with. Just wanted to clarify that. The other thing that I want to clarify is that our water is good. And uh sometimes the documents that you receive in the mail with your utility bill, those are uh mandatory statements that don't come directly from the city but from the state entities that uh monitor the water. Our water is safe. There's nothing wrong with it. And people, you know, see something about, you know, water, whatever. And if if you have a baby or if you have an illness, have your doctor check. That's just um regular language that they put in every

single announcement or notice. It doesn't mean that our water is causing anything like that. And so, uh, we drink water, my husband and I, every day, all day long. We shower with it. We wash our hair. or we do laundry and we're still alive and we haven't gotten sick and we're not going to get sick because our water is perfectly fine. And I want people to understand that. And if they do have a problem, it might be, you know, if they said the water's coming out yellow, it might be their own pipes in their home if they have an older home or it might be um a water leak someplace that's, you know, picking up u other particles in there that shouldn't be there. But call and and I know that the water department will be happy to go out and check and see what's really going on. But our water is very safe to drink. It doesn't taste bad. It doesn't have funny taste. It's not turbid. And so I just want people to know that. Also, um I do have a question on um the little library that one of my constituents called about about uh adding that to Hannah Park because she has uh quite a large number of children's books that she would like to put out there someplace close to where the children can uh get them after they come out of school or um on their way home from school on the weekends. or whatever. So, if we could maybe in the future get an update on what's the possibility of that happening, that would be wonderful. And the last thing I want to say is that I'm really um I feel very blessed being in the position that I'm in the position that I'm in because Las Vegas has

wonderful hardworking employees. And people have to understand that some of the jobs that the employees perform are dangerous. People can be injured. our employees can be injured and um you know if you get a PSA or you see something on Facebook that says please you know watch out for the workers are you know they're checking the water lines in such and such a street or there's a fire on such and such a street stay out of the way because those people are already in danger to begin with. They don't need people to be driving close to get a better look at the fire or to get a better look at, you know, what pipes they're checking or whatever it is that they're doing. The employees need to be left to their job so that they can do it well, which they always do in my opinion because they they work very hard, they're dedicated, they're careful, they're polite, they try to work with people. So please understand that you know we have wonderful employees but many of the jobs that they perform can very easily turn into a bad situation if they are injured during the jobs that they are doing. So um pretty much that's all I want to say. I want to thank the employees for the work that they do. And um like again I said I'm I'm very proud that we have the wonderful employees that we do have and we have directors that keep everybody in line and they're they know what they're doing. And so I'm I'm very proud to be a part of the city of Las Vegas. Thank you.

Thank you Councilman Martinez,

Mr. Mayor. Thank you. I just uh I just wanted to mention the the many projects that we still have currently in our community. Uh there's projects throughout the the community, number one, but some streets and some u you know infrastructure that goes into our our community, but that just shows the commitment that we have as a governing body and the people that that help us get those grants. you know, we've got we've got directors in in the right positions to be able to do that and and I applaud their efforts because we continue to get something done in our community and I appreciate that a whole lot. Uh we've got street projects that are coming up. We've got commitments for, you know, Plaza Park and so forth. Uh projects don't stop. and and I don't know what it was like prior to, you know, this governing body, you know, maybe several years back or so, but today it's a new day and we're doing things in a different way. So, a big shout out to all our directors, number one, for for getting those those grants, you know, receiving those grants and following through to make sure that they're there for our community. It's uh it's it's good to see anything happen in our community. Number one, you know, when you have a street paved, it's such a great thing to be able to actually drive on it. So, we uh we continue to do those things every day. They the directors continue to find the resources for those grants. And then we also have a grandfinder, you know, Robert Archeletta. We appreciate what he does as well. But all of you directors in every way that you do, uh, I want to I want to say thank you because and

there's a lot to be done yet. We we're just getting going, but there's a big commitment from our us here, all of us five and you guys to make sure that our community gets the needs taken care of that we need. And we're going to get there. We're going to we're going to make those strides and we're going to get to where we need to get. Whether it be water, streets, you know, sanitation, gas, even uh community development, police department, fire department. I appreciate all of those working uh working together, you know, finance, everything works because it's noticeable to our community. So, I just want to say thank you to all you guys that uh that do that hard work for us. Thank you again. Thank you, councelor Mayor. M Cassandra.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Next on our agenda is the finance report. We have our finance director, Mr. Morris Madrid. Morning, Mr. Madrid.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. The report will be fairly routine. our finances, our budget standing is all uh in good shape. As you can see on the revenue side in the general fund, our gross receipts tax and revenues in general, even our property taxes are still on an upward trend. So, that's a good thing. We expect that to continue at least through the rest of this year. Uh on the expenditure side, uh the pace of our expenditures is normal. It's higher than last year as I mentioned last month because of our compensation uh for employees across the board where you see any uh anomalies. I'll give you a couple of examples. In general services, we prepay our insurance at the beginning of the year. So that kind of skews it. It's not steady throughout the year. in other departments and you'll see this in utilities also where we make large equipment purchases that uh puts a spike in the earlier part of the year and evens out by the end of the year. So in general our general fund uh is in very good shape. You can see that we're always conservative in estimating our revenues. They're coming in above our estimates as they should. So uh this is a good picture for the city in the general fund in the enterprise funds. Again uh same thing these revenues are seasonal and these budgets are based upon uh revenues projected and reserves that have been appropriated. So even though you may see uh some of the revenues lower than the expenditures, we did anticipate that in the budget because we appropriated some of the cash reserves that had been sitting there. We

always maintain a good solid uh reserve base. So there's there's no concern there. Our cash reserves are very strong. You'll see that at the very end on the last page. In the recreation department, uh we do have some increases in revenues in some of the programs. Again, these are seasonal. You'll see uh an increase in the employee expenses because we're fully staffed now and we we do have expanded hours. So although the expenditures are going up, the service to the community is going up with it. So that is a good thing on on both sides. Uh in the lodgers tax fund, you'll see that the budget and the expenditures have gone up. Again, that's because of budget adjustments that we've done to appropriate reserves that need to be spent. in the largest tax fund uh there is a statute that requires that we cannot keep reserves in that fund for more than two years. So, uh, in getting close to that, uh, with the board and and this administration, uh, found ways to efficiently and effectively spend that both, uh, for events and for infrastructure. And I think that kind of shows itself year round. Now in the cannabis fund uh the uh revenues are up just a little bit. The expenditures again are from uh expenditures that were authorized by this body last fiscal year but didn't arrive equipment for the parks department in particular and were paid this year. So there's there's no issue

there. That was expected. Pardon me. You uh didn't mention Lodgers tax. Yes. I think you skipped it. You skipped it. Oh, I No, I uh I did talk about it. No, no, I guess we did. I'll I'll real briefly. I'll go over it again. I guess I was I'm thinking of Oh, okay. Yeah. Okay. Never mind. Sorry. There's going to be a quiz. No, I'm just kidding.

In the opioid fund, uh we did get an influx of some additional revenue um that uh we haven't had any discussion on on what to do with it yet. I'm sure that'll be part of the discussion uh between the governing body and the manager when you do set priorities. In the uh FEMA fund, you will see one thing. Uh we have started to transfer money to NMED for the water plant construction project. That's the number that you see in the FY 2026 actuals. In connection with that, you will start to see on the very last page a change in our local government investment pool. Because what we've started to do, and you'll see it in next month's report for the month of March, we've started to transfer money from the investment pool out of the the 98 million and the interest earned back to our general fund and then transfer that money to NMED. So that process has begun. You will see a change in these numbers next month and uh I'll go over that in a little more detail when these numbers are reflected on the report. Uh in general we are financially strong. We continue to be uh and it has nothing to do with uh FEMA money or not. The city is in good financial position even without that. Um we are starting the budget preparation process earlier this year. That'll include all the department heads, the governing body and the manager. And uh it's a the process that we used last year although it was a little later was a very good process in that we just sit around the table and go through the history for each department

with the department heads and their appropriate staff there and what are the changes? Do you really need this? Is it reasonable? Is it necessary? and uh it is it's developed itself into a very good process that'll include the governing body this year also. So we look forward to that. We've got a lot of work to do. That concludes my report. Mayor and councel. Thank you, Mr. Madrid. Councilors, any questions? Mr. Bear.

Councilman Martinez. Yeah, I I get I get this asked quite a bit uh out there with with the public and a lot of the public want to know what our operating budget annually is and that I guess what I want to do is I want to hear it you know from finance so that we can portray that information you know appropriately for those ones that are listening in. So

right and uh primarily uh all of the enterprise funds operate independently. They they are expected to maintain themselves. You can see on the first page our general fund operating budget uh for the year is $28 million what we spend and uh you can see department by department where that comes from. Uh, I'll give you an example that depends on the weather. The gas department, we could budget 10 million. If it's really warm, we may only spend five or six, but the revenues are tied to the season. And so are the expenditures because if we don't need to, if we don't buy much gas, we don't sell much gas. We have a certain portion of our budget just like the general fund that is fixed that uh we have to pay for just because employees have to show up to work and things need to be maintained. Uh department by department they can vary uh in uh in the water department. If you have an a large project during the year those expenditures may be a lot higher. There may be a spike one year. There may be a year where the funding wasn't there or we had funding from other sources. For example, the water trust board which we're waiting for some some news on. If we get other sources to pay for some of our operating expenditures, then they're down. There's a lot of factors that go into that. But one thing that we can do and and maybe we should with the direction of the managers is post these reports on the website. At least there's a quick reference to the bottom lines and department by department. These are

very easy to read and uh we can include information for uh from the department for any of the public that has questions. That's one thing we haven't done. Maybe we should counselor. Mr. Mayor, thank you. Mr. Mayor, counselors, I just want to note on the record that uh the full packets with the full content is published as part of the packets that the clerk publishes, but we can work on a an executive summary that targets the key aspects. I think that that would be a good tool for an overview, but uh the full packets are uh published for public review and consumption.

Thank you. Thank you, Morris. Any questions? Thank you. Thank you, Morris. Mr. Mayor, next on the agenda is our city manager report. We have our city manager, Mr. Robert Aaya.

Thank you, U mayor and council. I'm not going to read my report in the record. I am going to note some key items. I think first and foremost I want to address um a comment that was made by councelor Casey associated with the Samaritan House and the postings that were made and just emphasize the point that was made is that we provide resources and in fact restarted resources for the Samaritan House. Um so we weren't directly involved. I want to restate that on the record and I would also state that the Samaritan House can still open in their location. There was a note provided to me by our PIO and I appreciate that uh that said that we disallowed that uh their work to continue and so for clarity their work can continue and we have in fact funded them and we can bring a summary to the next meeting to provide a recap of the investments that the city's made. uh within the Samaritan House and we'll do that. I would also note uh that the water is good and so I want to confirm and clarify the water is good and compliancewise and direct partnership and relationship with the city through uh city and state through the IGA. But through our normal compliance process that's required by all entities that have water systems statewide, our system is in compliance with those regulatory requirements that are put upon us. So the water is good. Um I want to extend a a thanks to our legislators um in the region. Senator Compost, Senator Stefonics, Representative Gonzalez, Representative Chatfield, and uh not in your report, uh but Representative Joseph Sanchez. I want to say on the record, these regional legislators had opened doors and uh supported all staff.

But I also want to note that many of the leadership and other legislators statewide supported the initiatives of the city of Las Vegas and our efforts. And so we have partial uh information on funding. We'll get a complete picture which I'll bring back to the council on what we'll end up with with water trust board and we're going to know that coming up in April. So, I'll bring a comprehensive breakdown of that um money once we get the final report. Um we've continued our process of communication and outreach with our whole staff on a regular basis to pursue that higher level of excellence and to remind staff of all all of our collective responsibilities, mine included, to help uphold the highest levels of professional professionalism and work ethic. Um, we're continually working on expanding and improving communications. Uh, that's noted in the packet. Uh, I want to thank the whole staff and the team and the council, mayor and counsel for requesting additional clarity and information. So, uh, we get better and we continue to work to improve information to you, uh, which in turn is better information to the public. I want to note on the record new hires. It's an item that's come up from councelor Casey and others relative to who are they? And so I want to note Reyes Rubio, a new laborer in gas department, Marcus Strada, a laborer in gas. Benito Cisneros, a laborer in water. Joseph Vhill, um OIT, um I think is that yours, Travis?

Yes, sir.

Uh water treatment systems. Andrew Duran. I want to welcome our new deputy chief to our team. Sean Mononttoya, recreation specialist. Uh Leticia Romero, recreation aid, and Crystal Denorio, a site supervisor at our PCOS and San Miguel site. So, want to welcome all those new people to the city. Uh the other thing that we're working on, we started that process today, is we're working on IDs and badges citywide for all employees. So we'll actually have faces to the names that will ultimately have uh we'll we'll be careful about that associated with with confidentiality with public safety individuals but for intra net within the city we'll make sure that the governing board has access to those people so they can not only know who they are but see see who they are uh here at the city. So, I I wanted to note that uh I want to note the the partnerships meeting that that was previously noted with NMDOT. Councelor Martinez and councelor Casey uh uh joined us in an ongoing discussion. Uh we had a discussion already about that, but I wanted to reflect that in my report. And the continued progress on the water treatment plant, we're going to have more and more updates uh because there's such a high volume of information that's coming in. We're going to have more regular updates to the public in mayor and council meetings, but we're also doing more updates internally amongst counselors uh and the mayor to make sure everybody is up to speed with that everchanging dynamic of the water treatment plant. um people in outreach. Uh there's many many items and people noted there that the full team citywide has been helping with and I want to note and appreciate uh those efforts. Uh finance authority municipal league, Al

Ga Vista Hospital, Highlands, Luna, um Clean and Beautiful Grant, Amtrak, Senior Day at the Roundhouse, Healthy Communities, and many more. Those are all reflected in my report and be can be accessed and read and and so that's a credit to mayor and council and the full departments and and their teams. Um public information and transparency always an ongoing thing that we're working on. The last thing I would note is I've now because we're having such good movement with the water treatment plant had an opportunity to spend much more time with individual staff me members uh directors uh on a regular basis and get to know those individuals day in and day out. You noted it, councelor Casey, and and I'll say the same thank you to directors and to each and every one of the 260 plus employees that we have at the city. Sometimes bad things happen and and I want to note that uh we want to do everything we can to support our teams, the safety of each individual that comes through so that we can all go home to our families. But uh that's all I have. Mayor Council, I would stand for any specific questions. Uh one other one other note I wanted to make. I did have one piece of information that should have been in the packet that was my responsibility on one of the items coming forth on the Salser Group uh contract. I've provided that to council uh as an additional piece of information you needed. And so we'll continue to be more methodical, myself included, to make sure I'm held to the same account accountability and standard as I'm expecting from my respective departments and directors uh here in this room. And so I'd stand for any questions that you have, mayor and council.

Thank you, counselors. Any questions for manager? Councilman.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh thank you, Mr. Manager. I I I just have a uh recommendation uh for for the report. Uh we do have quite a bit of uh well, we have a few large projects such as the water plant project with specific dates and and timelines. I think uh maybe within the manager's report, it would be helpful for some of those larger projects if we had a huh an update on on schedule running ahead of time. Just an update on some of those larger projects that we're we're seeing uh in terms of some of the funds we're spending the water the the water plant, maybe some of the road projects. Um but that's all I have. Thank you for the information. Thank you, Councilman.

Thank you, Mr. Manager, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Manager, I know that around the the city there's curbs that have been really erosion and I've been talking to some of you guys what's going on. But we're we're looking at streets that are a mile long, two miles long. And to take care of that, Mr. manager or if it's erosion on those on your sidewalks or something that's part of the city that we have to do and it's not because of your all of us are related here on on this little town and and there's streets that are really bad and we we I think our director or somebody's got to try start looking at that because we're doing a good job on our buttples but there's other streets that need to get done and not only my ward but the rest of the wards I would like for you to start looking at that, sir. Thank you.

Thank you, councelor. Mr. Mayor, Councilman Martinez,

Mr. Mayor, Mr. Manager, I I just wanted to note that um I had an individual that came to me and talked to me about a position that she had been applied for. I guess I should say it like that. She applied for a position, but she had never received anything either in writing or verbally that she did or did not get that position. I just want to I know we've hired a lot of people and I just want to make sure that we're we're being fair across the board and we're letting people know as well whether they did receive that uh position or not. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Manager. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Moving on to our next item, presentations not to exceed 10 to 15 minutes. We have a presentation by city manager Robert Annayia, community development and the events committee giving a fiesta planning update. Mr. Manager,

mayor, council, I'd like to ask um Mr. Marquez to please come to the microphone. I don't know. I think uh if Mr. Torres, if you could come forward as well. Um I think Mr. Mr. Torres, uh the chairman did a really good job doing a summary of uh the work and what they're doing with the events, but I just wanted to note on the record and then I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Marcus and Mr. Torres is that we're a full house team, all staff, all hands on deck from a public sta safety standpoint, fire and PD to uh the bands we select to the vendors that we're working with. we really are making sure that it's a a comprehensive effort that that is communication collectively and that it we're doing it transparently and so that that process is is ongoing and happening and I'm uh happy with the progress and it's been great to have the input from the events committee and uh all hands are on deck with each department each uh public safety entity understanding their roles and responsibilities and so that's a credit to everyone everyone from the clerk to everybody in the city, every department uh citywide to help put this event on.

And Mr. Manager, if we we could also get Miss uh Amanda and Mr. Chuck Grego up here to join them because I know uh they're they're a big part of you know, as this events committee's uh you know, they're going through all these uh discussions, you know, that they're also in there. Abs. Absolutely, Mr. Mayor and and council. uh those two individuals along with the whole team are doing a lot to make sure that we're all in the loop and that the community is well aware of what's happening. So I'll start with you uh Mr. Marcus. Go ahead.

Thank you Mr. City Manager. I appreciate that. Uh good evening Mr. Mayor Councel u coming here and just the first off right off the just to start off the whole uh conversation uh you know I've been uh extremely lucky and we're humbled to go ahead and have this board and committee that we have there. Uh they work really well together. I'm really excited to be able to work with Mr. Torres over here and Miss April and and of course Teresa and Mr. Alvin couldn't make it and now we got our fifth member Mr. Cruz and I know he's going to be a good valuable asset to us. Uh we've been functioning in the capacity of getting uh ideas put together. We we the first couple of meetings were kind of just pushing back and forth um to see what we can come up with to to be as transparent and as fair as we can to everybody. Uh the great news is that Amanda joined the joined the fight with us, came up with some great ideas, and you know, I know she she's humbled to say, but uh uh she put together one of the best uh applications I think that we can have over here. Gives us a lot of of uh insight of uh how the bands uh project themselves to the community, how they feel they're going to uh benefit us, how they're going to benefit themselves. uh and puts a lot of the a lot of the u application at their hands and and gives them ownership of this uh event as well. Um her her goal was to get at least 50 applicants and she's exceeded that by seven. So we have 57. Uh we we did give them a time limit of about three was it three or four weeks, Amanda? About four weeks.

Four weeks. Yeah. A lot of advertisement. We got a lot of hits on Facebook. Uh we pushed it everywhere. We shared as much as we could. Uh Amanda went out to certain places. Chuck went out to certain places and gave some uh flyers out. We did what we could to the community to make sure everybody had a chance to apply. And the ones that applied are on that list right now and we're going to use them to compile um the who's going to be playing at all our events. The are our events that everybody wants to play in. Mother's Day, Father's Day, Red Alresos, and our most prestigious one, the Fourth of July fiesta. Um I do want to make sure that uh Amanda did put a little presentation together that we could I don't know if we could put it up on the board, sir, if that's okay with you,

and we can go from there. I'll let Amanda explain a tiny bit of that and um and we'll stand for any questions afterwards if any if need be.

Good evening, mayor and council. So on the um presentation as you see on the screen, these are the 57 applicants that applied. So you will see one in there that's a test, but that was ultimately for uh quality control. So I filled out the first one just to double check, make sure everything would work good. So, we got some great bands, a lot that a lot of them that do play for us, um, you know, regularly, but we also have some really new ones. So, that's great. So, we're we're definitely branching out. So, the great thing about this application is it was able to calculate some data for us. So data that would be presented for you guys for the public. So they kind of have an idea of the different music, the different genres that we were looking at as well as who have applied. So this next slide, it tells you a little bit about why do you want to play at these city events is what was asked in that application. So we gave them a few standard options to pick which were the top six and then they had a section where they could write in any kind of additional comments. So primarily the biggest reason is for the community. They love our community um tradition and they also talked about venue uh event planning and for staff. So primarily it's because of our community that people want to play here. We also gave them the option to apply for multiple um events so they didn't have to do it every single time. So we gave them multiple options. Majority of them of course wanted to play for the fiestas but a lot of them did want uh to be added to others as well the entertainment genre. So this was really interesting to see what these what people are playing what they want to present um and so we could have more of a variety. So of course New Mexico

Spanish was the highest uh country rock latin mariachi salsa and and it just kind of went on from there. So that was pretty cool to see. We also asked if people would be interested in playing at new events. So let's say something we decide to do something different uh this year. We have them on board already. So we can reach out to them. So 87.9% were willing to do that. How long would you like to perform? So that was a big question. You know we were kind of curious. Do people want to you know uh play for 1 hour, 2 hours? Uh, so the majority wanted to pay the play for the two hours and we had some for the 1 hour. So that helped us as far as moving forward on how we put together the um actual listing. The next thing which was interesting because we talked about cost. Um, so we put this in there to see kind of get a vibe of what people were willing to give and not give, right? Um, so we're looking at are you willing to donate your performance? 89.7% said no. Uh 10.3% said yes. One of them was me which was a test just to try it out and uh we had five others. So I did name those individually on there as well that were willing to donate their performance. So that gives us an idea you know moving forward how do we leverage cost? How do we deal with that? Uh but so as of right now it's really only for revenue is why they want to play. And then this is just some real general information, range of fees. Um, so we had as little as $50 an hour, uh, up to $4,500 an hour. And for one, it would be 6,000 for 2 hours. Uh, majority on average was $1,500 an hour.

Common rate again was $1,500 an hour. 11 respondents did state. So um and if we talked a little bit about um how they broke down their fees based off of their f their members, how many members do they have? Um how long have they been a member in a band? Um and additionally on top of that we also had them upload information. So videos, professional pictures with the understanding that the city has the ability to use them for marketing purposes as well. But it also gives our committee as well as mayor and council, our city manager, the ability to hear them because there's some bands that we aren't sure what they sound like. Would that be marketable to the public? Um is that something that our public would want to hear? You know, so it it gave us a really good overall view. Um the other thing that the uh application did is it did it by time, date, timestamp and so forth. So when they submitted it, we know exactly when it came in and when um they finished it, they couldn't edit the application. So we got all the primary information. Um and then we also asked them why they wanted to play here. You know, what benefits would they bring? So a lot of them were heads in beds or they were very high functioning bands. Uh a lot of motivation uh they love the people. So we gave them a little bit of movement to own that application and sell themselves, market themselves to us.

Thank you, Amanda. Thank you, Amanda. I want to note too that Amanda's also uh using this application to process uh our uh uh vendors as well. So, we get a lot of information out of them and we're trying to compile everything we possibly can so we could go ahead and come back to council and of course our city manager and and and go over uh uh what we're learning from from what they're wanting and what they're what they're willing to provide. We're also doing this application for our reas. Uh we really really want to push on that one and we want to get um uh you know a big amount of applicants for that. So, I know Amanda has another very ambitious number there and and I'm not going to reveal it to right now because I know she'll she'll she'll get mad at me. But, uh but we're looking at some good numbers and she's got an application that's going to be kind of specific to them so we could try to get them out here. Uh we are we do have plans on going and getting out to the local high schools and and other uh places that we can reach out to uh these young ladies and let them know how valuable the tradition is of Lena here in the city of Las Vegas. So, uh, again, this committee helps us with all those all those little intricate pieces that make our our Fiestas and our events the best events there is in in New Mexico. Uh, and and we're going to continue doing that. This year, we have some hardships that we're going to be dealing with with when the Plaza Park does um start to get remodeled, which is a big bonus for us. But, uh, we do have a a meeting to a meeting to go ahead and discuss what parks we're going to use other than the plaza uh that we can have our Fridays alrescos um when that construction begins. Um, I want I don't know if Mr. Torres has anything to add to this at all, but um, if you if you want to, Mr. D.

Mayor and Councel, um, yeah, uh, you know, uh, like Luca said, I think we've been I think we're on the right direction. I think that, you know, I want to thank Amanda for the hard work that she did on that application because it does give us a good idea, good guidance of what the uh entertainers are looking for out there and, you know, why they want to come here and how we can get them to help us bring beds and heads here to Las Vegas. And I think it's really important that right now we're I think we're on the right track. I think we have the right committee members that can help us work on this. Like I said, I think right now the goal is, you know, the costs were all over the place, you know, and I think right now we're we're in a good um in a good environment where we can say here's what we're going to pay, here's what you're going to do, here's what going to get per hour, whether you have one member, 12 members, whatever. and you know and in being able to talk to some of the headliners and showing them the fairness that we're trying to do, I think we're able to get some of them to come back and and participate with with with the figures that we had for them, you know, to work with us. And I think that's a plus not only for the committee, but it's a plus for the city of Las Vegas and for those that come to to Las Vegas. We have a lot of people that save Fourth of July for their annual vacation and we want to do the best we can but we have to again level the playing field. We have to be fair with each and everyone whether you're newcomers, uh, old-timers, whatever the case may be. I think that fairness is really important and I think that's where our main focus is right now. And with the work that Amanda has done, the data that she's put pulled together, that will help us with the transparency and going forward to the all the bands out there. This is how it became. Here's where the information came from and here's how we're going to move forward and I think we're on the

right track now.

Mayor Mayor Council, again, I I want to thank Chuck Grego, too. He's he he puts all these meetings together for us and gets everything in order. uh he works all day long on these things trying to make sure he puts everything in an order in in the the area that they're supposed to be in and then he brings them to me and I make him do it over because I didn't I didn't think that something was right. So then he's there again but he he deals with me and he puts up with me. So I appreciate Chuck Ggo for for being out there and working the way he uh he's doing and the transparency is is visible. It's there. We're we're very fortunate that this committee was put together. Um I think it's going to it's going to have a good impact on us. Uh the information we're gathering is just is just perfect. And uh I got to thank our city manager for the support and and the executive staff for being there and supporting me. Our police chief that shows up in the in the meetings all the time and of course our our committee. I mean without them uh and they're very busy these these uh you know Teresa and and April they run their businesses and you know Alvin's retired but has a little business on the side that he has to do and of course you know the Mr. Mr. Torres is our probate judge and Mr. Cruz again, another one that's running a little business on his own and doing what he has to do to to make ends meet. But they make time to be here and and I appreciate them for being here uh and and helping us get this difficult. It's a very difficult um event off the ground and we are behind the eightball on this one. Uh but with the with their help, we're we're going to catch right up.

Mr. Mayor,

and to add to that, I just want to comment. I know uh becoming mayor two years ago and the frustrations through the my first two fiestas and uh all the I would say the the knives and daggers that were thrown towards Chuck's way. You know, this was a way to alleviate that and uh bring fairness and transparency across the board, right? I mean, I I saw the list and there's some some names that didn't even apply. And I just want to also note that in this application process, if they couldn't do it online, they came in, you helped them fill them out, uh, you know, just to get the data, right? So, they manually filled them out, you put the data in, you sent out emails. So, no one can honestly say that they didn't know anything about it. Those that played in the past were given uh uh ample opportunity or they were uh, you know, brought awarenesses to the application process. So, if they didn't put in, you know, again, and that's usually what happens, right? Nobody says anything until about June, mid June and say, "Oh, well, nobody called me." Well, if you want to play for us, you should be calling us, not the other way around, right? And this is I think it turns back everything now giving some uh responsibility to the bands, right? If you want to play, well, you make the effort. Like staff don't have the opport, you know, don't have the time to be calling everybody and then, oh shoot, I forgot to call so and so. Now, you know, it puts the responsibility on the band members, on the vendors, uh, etc., right? And then now having these committee members and again uh you know this was you know as I put this committee together and I you know kind of asked each one of you know now we have in representatives that are in the plaza area. So you know if shutdowns happen they're going to have an opportunity to say something. There's representation from that downtown area. They'll have a voice. So you know this was a fair and balance and you know again having both radio stations giving them them them the opportunity. you know, unfortunately one couldn't, but hey, it was up to the four to pick the fifth. So, I I think that in all fairness, we did a pretty awesome job in making this fair and balanced and

transparency as we move forward. And Chuck, hopefully you and I don't have any daggers in our backs and city manager and all the responsibility that we never called or we didn't do anything. And so, I think there's uh more backs for for for uh daggers and knives to be thrown at because more individuals as you said and not only the committee now you have executive staff also involved in it. So there's a lot more responsibility laid out all over. So I don't know, Mr. Manager, if I know probably added what you were going to say

there may I'm not going to add much more daggers on on Q. Um Mr. Ggo did an exceptional job for decades, right? Working internally with team members, public safety, police, PD, all the other components. So, there was some pinch points and I think that's what you highlighted and what we've been able to mitigate with some more transparency with uh Amanda and the rest of the team, but Mr. Ggo is is the one person that's there from the beginning to the end. And so, he's the first one there and the last one to leave. And so, we're all together. We'll take the hits if they come, but I think we have a good process that's been transparent to uh avoid that as best we can. Thank you, Mayor Council. Oh, Mayor, I did have I did have one more. So, I want to just say again on the record, uh that one response of donating your performance, I I just give a shout out to to those individuals. They're those bands, a couple of those individuals been around a long time and done awesome things statewide. And so, uh, Lumbre del Soul, uh, Joe Amber, Christina Gomez, Silos, Northern Revolution, and, uh, Romelo and the vibe. Did I get that right?

I just wanted to say that on the record. Pretty cool that they they did that. Maybe there's something there's something extra we can figure out for them. Thank you, Mayor. That's all you have. Learing. Thank you, Mr. Manager. Thank you, staff. Restrooms. Are you guys planning to put the restrooms in the same place?

Yes, we the we'll have 40 well 51 portaotties and they'll they'll be divided um 10 by West Las Vegas, 10 by uh Frankie Antiques, the Plaza Hotel and then um by Elento. Have you taken look at the corner of Moreno and Hot Springs? I think it's a city owned property right there by the police station.

Yes, we that area is a lot of the our vendors utilize that lot um because they're not allowed to park in the circle once they set up. So, they'll put their their excess um vehicles on on those lots and then a lot of our city staff park there as well. The thing is that um our public restrooms are really sometimes filthy and then and uh I'm just kind of looking at that because I do visit the park and Friday festivals are the best for the our community. Okay.

Right. The the other reason councilman respectfully is is uh we have a lot of people who attend the fiestas who are physically not able to make that long that length of a walk. So we take those into consideration as well. So it's it's kind of it's a difficult thing and then we have um we have them serviced like four times a day. So every time they come out it's an extra cost to the city. So we try to to lower that cost as much as we can. Um, but it's it's a fine juggling act, but we'll look at it again. Thank you, Chuck. Yes, sir. Thank you, Martinez.

Mr. Mayor, thank you. Um, I do appreciate the the committee and everything that's going on. Thank you, Amanda, for doing your part as well. And I I I want to go back a little bit and just give the uh the general public uh you know this this year we're going to have less events probably at our city park, I mean at Plaza Park. And I think the general public doesn't really understand what might be taking place. Some have heard about a grant and so forth, but I I would like even if we can't do it at this point, maybe just touch on that at one point, you know, maybe another meeting or something just so the general public can understand what will be happening to our community as far as that uh that project. Okay. We we've got uh up to the 4th of July set up and then I know that uh Arnold with uh with his department um we're already looking at plans to what we can do in reference to the park. So bathrooms is a real big thing. Yeah. I I mean somewhere along the lines I'd like to see what we can do as a community to um to purchase a building nearby. That's almost impossible. Everything seems to be taken up already, but it would be better than having the portaotties, you know, throughout the event moving forward is what I'm talking about. This year is pretty much in the works. Um but for that planning that we have going forward, we just have to do this. We have a lot of elderly that go to the you know to the fiestas and so forth. All the uh events that are planned. Let's do it right. And you know this the

fiestas have been in in place for generations. Okay. We need to really put our heads together and get that figured out. So I just don't want to leave out that piece. It's an important piece and I think we need to talk about it definitely at least in another meeting.

Mr. Mayor, if I could Mr. Mayor, to Council Mart Councelor Martinez's point, uh just would note on the record again, we did receive over $2 million based on direction the mayor and council gave for the grant to get resources directly in Plaza Park. And so that that process of implementing that work is going to begin after the uh fiestas and we'll be doing uh planning and work at the park. So, I just wanted to note on the record, I would also note on the record that uh councelor Martinez, you brought up the bathroom discussion that is one of the items that I have u based on your request for us to dive into deeper as we have our discussion in budget as well as the retreat with all counselors and all wards in their respective projects.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh, I just want to say thank you to the to uh volunteers. Uh, Judge Toris, thank you for for your time. Uh, Mr. Cruz back there, I know you're you're just became a part of it officially. I know there was one other volunteer that is not able to be here. I didn't catch your name, but Mr. Alvin,

Alvin Horn, uh, and April. Okay. Thank you all for your for your time. I know it takes a level of commitment to participate in this. City staff, thank you so much. I just want to note that I've worked with uh uh Mr. Grego on past projects when I wasn't involved with the city in any capacity and I've always find him found him to be very responsive, very organized and I know you're doing a good job for us there uh uh in one other the question I have uh is the million-dollar question. So, how many of the 57 bands get selected to play at the fista? So we we have we can go anywhere from 41 to 44 concerts in 4 days. Uh we've done as much as 44 if a lot of the bands thanks to um to the work that Amanda has done a lot of the bands are willing to play for more hours. So that can go to 41 concerts in 4 days. And uh Councilman Martinez, the the only thing that will be moving is the Friday al frescos and that'll only be April I mean um August and September. So that'll be eight concerts. Um, roughly eight concerts for the Friday office frescos, but it back to you, sir. It can go up to 4441.

Thank you. I appreciate it.

Mayor and council, just to touch on on what uh city manager said about uh our other staff, I mean uh you we still we still include them on on uh not the daily the weekly uh meetings, but we do have monthly meetings with them in regards to uh the event. Uh, of course we have our police chief and our fire chief that help us tremendously with with the safety and traffic control issues. Uh, Mr. Arnold Lopez who's his crew stays with us with Chuck from the start to the finish. And of course my brother David has it his solid waste guys who those guys are always overlooked and overseen, but they're probably the most important part of our pl of our fiestas and they've always been. So, I always I always tip my hat to the solid waste guys um out there working hard and I just want to thank the council and the mayor for allowing us this opportunity to have a committee and of course our city manager, thank you Mr. City Manager for for this opportunity and again I just appreciate your support. Thank you guys.

Also, um the city clerk's office and Morris Madrid and his people, she cast all the contracts for us. She numbers them and Morris's staff process them all. So, it's a lot of work. she does show us how to get all the meetings in order so that we're not violating any issues. So, thank you very much, Cass. Thank you.

And just one and I know you know this was presentation but maybe also I think the big part and that we haven't touched on I know it's a separation and he's not here today but marketing uh if we could maybe get a marketing plan on you know the fiestas alone and how we're going to promote it and uh yeah we're we're working with Miss Amanda and she's she's doing a lot of things u that's that's within her realms but out of her realm as well. So she really helps us. I mean, she she'll come in there, she calls a meeting, and we sit down at that table and uh we we rack our brains and and she comes up with some really good ideas. Uh the best thing I like about when Amanda and Chuck work together uh and they they work together very well is they they get the job done. They get out there and they do knocking and talking with people. They're talking to everybody. They're getting on on uh social media a lot and the ideas that they come up with have been functioning and working. So, I'm I'm very grateful to them and very proud of them. We also have a marketing person and Sunny505, I guess, is

Yeah, Sunny 505. We'll put it out there, too, on their website. As a matter of fact, me and Chuck had a meeting with them yesterday. So, they're they're going to start doing some photo shoots and stuff and and getting our older photos and getting ready for our fiestas. Yeah, I've been meeting with DA. We've been talking daily as as well as Amanda, we talk daily,

mayor and council. So, additionally, what we'll be doing and hopefully by the end of the week, if not early next week, we will put out a annual calendar of all of our events. So from, you know, starting primarily, I think with Mother's Day down to the end of the year, that was one concern by constituents as well as business owners. So I want to make sure that we get that out there. The two things we're just waiting on official dates ultimately is going to be the pageant cuz there will be a pageant. That's the goal. We're going to do a lot of marketing to make sure that we have multiple uh individuals that apply as well as we are looking at possibly doing the fishing derby. So, uh, that's going to require a phone call back from, uh, Game and Fish, uh, so we can determine what the process would be, if that is feasible, and if it is, then we're going to try our very best to add that into the mix. So, hopefully once that is all done, we can get that out, goes to Sunny 505, um, Thomas as well, and they'll take care of it on the visit Las Vegas, New Mexico web page, and then I will add it to our government page and continue the marketing. So the goal is to be able to market all of our bands as well. So give them that kind of, you know, that they're proud to play for us. So moving forward, we may not have just 57. Let's let's aim for 100 next year. You know, really be able to pick who who works best for us. So give ourselves that that option to really make it grow.

Mr. Jun Lean are new to our department, but he's been working with me and we were able to reach out to Game and Fish and to to talk about the fishing derby. Um, part of our programs that we did last year is on the fiesta guide. We have all our events listed on the Fiesta guide. So, it's it's something that the people can keep um throughout the year because it doesn't only have the information for fiestas, it goes through all our events. So, there's a schedule of everything that we're going to be doing for that year. And I know Miss Jun's up back there, but uh she did a great job last year with our seniors participating. So hopefully we're still doing that. Thank you, June. Thank you.

One last thing I want to just say, mayor, is just to the public and to everybody listening to us and watching us tonight. These are free concerts for you to come and enjoy put on by the city of Las Vegas and our lodgers tax. Uh this is for for them. This is for our our our community and we invite everybody to come and invite all your families and friends and and that's thank you again mayor and council and thank you guys

mayor. Moving on to our next item which is our consent agenda. I may read those into the record.

Yes, please. Item number one, requests approval of addendum number three to contract 3958-23 with Moles and Corbin Associates for professional engineering services. Item two, requests approval of addendum number three to contract 395923 with Electric Horsemen for commercial electrical services. Item three, request approval of addendum number three to contract 396023 with New Image Construction Incorporated for on call commercial plumbing services. Item four, request approval of addendum number three to contract 396123 with All-in-One Excavation LLC for On Call commercial plumbing services. Item five, request approval of addendum number two to contract 407424 with BTU block and concrete for building materials and related supplies. Number six, request approval of addendum number two to contract 408124 with holiday outdoor decor aka Temple Outdoor Decor for building materials and related supplies. Item seven, request approval to ratify addendum number two to contract 406724 with pavement sealants for building materials and related supplies. Item number eight, request approval of addendum number three to contract 396523 with double E incorporated for maintenance and emergency repairs to the city natural gas transmission. Item nine, request approval of the Las Vegas Little League. And item number 10, request approval of the La Plaza Little League.

Council that we approve the consent agenda as it was read into the record. I have a motion by councelor Casey. I have a second. Second, second by councilman Levari. Roll call. Councelor Pacheco. Yes. Councelor Martinez. Yes. Councelor Casey. Yes. Councelor Levari. Yes. Have a motion by councelor Casey. A second by councelor Levi. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Motion carries. You wanted to say something?

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh uh I would just like to uh uh make a request. First off, again, thank you, Mr. Manager. Thank you directors for the updated way that we receive the u the information with which to make our decision on these contract extensions. Uh as I stated earlier in past meetings, one of the things I would like to look at moving forward in addition to this uh are our professional contracts and I'd really like to see the uh not to exceed wording built into each contract. I'd like to uh have it built in and not to exceed not just on the contract but not to exceed on uh c on task orders over a certain amount uh within that the task orders uh that go over that certain amount require council approval and I'd also like to see some sort of quarterly or semian annual you know better than I Mr. Madrid uh of these contracts uh within the the meeting. Um I know we can't answer that today, but I'd like to have that as an agenda item for review by the council and consideration in in a future meeting.

Miss Cassandra, will you work on Mr. with councelor PC on that agenda item request and then we'll Thank you. Certainly will. Thank you, councelor. Next item. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Moving on to our business items. Our first item is request approval of the city of Las Vegas lodgers tax board's recommendation for funding city of Las Vegas Mother's Day concert in the amount of 19,9729. We have our community development parks and rec director, Mr. Lucas Marcus. Question council, you guys have had an opportunity to review it if I mean this is pretty much routine. Uh what's the pleasure of the council questions or

I make a motion to approve. A motion by councelor Pacheco, a second by councelor Martinez. Any discussion? Seeing none, roll call. Councelor Casey, yes. Councelor Lee, yes. Councelor Martinez, yes. Councelor Pacheco, yes. Have a motion by councelor BCO, a second by councelor Martinez. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Motion carries. Item two is request approval of the city of Las Vegas Lodgers Tax Board's recommendation for funding city of Las Vegas, Alfresco, the amount of 14,400. Mr. Mayor, I move that we approve the lodges tax board's recommendation for uh funding the alresco concerts for the amount of 14,400. A motion by councelor Casey. There's a second. Second.

Second by councelor PCO. Loc call. Councelor Martinez. Yes. Councelor Casey. Yes. Councelor Pacheco. Yes. Councelor Lei. Yes. I have a mo motion by councelor Casey, a second by councelor Pacheco. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Motion carries. Thank you, mayor and councel. Thank you. Moving on to item number three, request approval of resolution number 2614 to apply for and assuring matching funds in the amount of 197,64422 for the 2027 fiscal year transportation project fund. We have our public works director, Mr. Arnold Lopez.

We had an opportunity to review it. Any questions presentation? Uh, I make a motion to approve. Uh, if you have any comments or uh, information you just like to share real quickly, I'm happy to have a motion. Motion real quick. A motion by councelor Pacheco, second by councelor Casey. Go ahead, Mr. Arnold. I don't know if you want to say a few things.

Okay. Good evening, mayor and council. Um, so, so this project is a shovel ready project. Um, NM DOT. We were only going to submit one project for consideration but they recommended that we select a second project. So being that this one is shovel ready on the shelf ready to go um that's the reason for the selection of this project. Greatly needed.

Councelor Lee. Yes. Councelor Casey. Yes. Councelor PCO. Yes. Councelor Martinez. Yes. I have a motion by councelor PCO. A second by councelor Casey. Thank you Mr. Mayor. Motion carries. Moving on to our next item is discussion and possible direction to identify funding for proposed road improvements on 6th Street from Douglas Avenue to Grand Avenue. The cost estimates range from 189,56066 to 460,49022. Mr. Lopez.

Again, Mayor and Council, thank you. I come today respectfully to request additional funding for this particular project. Um some background to it. Um Councilman Martinez along with the mayor, you know, um brought this project forward. We've had a lot of requests in the past for improvements, badly needed improvements, and um they're willing to to put in their portion of monies remaining from their budgets. Um, unfortunately, we can do a minor improvement with that money, but in my opinion, it it would be just a band-aid and it would be a waste of of money. You know, we can do the surface road improvement, but the sidewalks and particularly the curb and gutter is in dire need of replacement. So, um, and the best value to the city would be to take um there's four options. My recommendation to to do would be the option that is in the amount of $333,48 and some change. And for the reason being is that would address this street for many years to come. You know, it it would have probably an additional life of of 20 25 years at least before you need to do anything else. Um, so it would consist of this particular one and the reason why I selected it is it's a little bit lower than than a full reconstruction and what what we would do is utilize the existing asphalt and it would be reclaimed along with the existing base course. It would be proof rolled and um, you know, make sure that the subgrade and everything is stable enough to sustain you know years of traffic. and it is, you know, a street that doesn't sustain very heavy traffic. And um so so going that route and then with a brand new uh 3-in asphalt surface

improvement, we would take care of all the curb and gutter within that area. There's some sidewalk, particularly up against all of the the businesses, the buildings that wouldn't have to be touched on both sides. It's it's really good condition. So that would save some money by by not replacing that because it's not needed. And then also it it releases us of the liability of damage to the buildings during construction. So um you know in my recommendation this would be the best value and option to the city and uh I I I request support and consideration of additional monies needed to complete this or or do it right basically. And uh councelor I want to go ahead and add on add on here. I know uh you know many of the businesses within that area uh there's been falls uh I mean I if you know that the the the roadway the sidewalks and not specifically closer to the building but the sidewalks closer to the road. Those are the ones that are pretty in pretty bad shape. Uh we've had uh I mean of course I don't think that we've got torque claims when I followed through on it, but still individuals falling, tripping. Uh the roadway is bad. I know councelor Martinez and I talked, he had a little bit of funding. I had a little bit of funding. We thought that would be sufficient enough, but uh after evaluation, I guess, from contractors, uh much more was needed. And uh you know, again, this is a sixth street uh you know, part of the main street downtown, uh you know, area. I know we're we've worked on railroad, we've worked on the plaza, we have the project going in right on between seventh and eighth on Douglas. So, I just thought that, you know, while all these other projects are going, if we could come up with additional funding, and I know uh you Morris at first when he saw this, when I put this item, he was like, well, we don't have the 300,000, but he didn't realize that Councilman Martinez and I had uh committed, you know, the balance of mine and whatever the balance of his

was, and we're short still. And I thought that it would be important, you know, number one, we're trying to spruce up these downtown areas, uh, make them inviting for businesses. And I think if some of these issues, of course, the liability we're taking away some of the liability that's going to, uh, you know, all it takes is one slip and one fall on one of these curbs or one on these streets. Uh, you know, I mean, and I I remember the days, you know, I mean, Douglas and Seventh Street and Sixth Street, those were like prime pedestrian areas, and we don't have that no more because of the conditions of these areas. And that's why specifically, you know, I I asked if we could put this agenda item and see, you know, if if finance could come up with some funding. And Mr. Manager, I don't know if you want to say anything, but I know there's other priorities through the city, but I just thought that now would be a time since we both have some funding available. And you know, if there is opportunity through savings or what it might be or however finance uh becomes creative with that, if we could finish this project specifically for downtown renovation is kind of the way I envisioned. I don't know, Councelor Martinez, if you want to add to that.

Thank you, Mayor. I, you know, I appreciate, uh, you know, Arnold, you going out there and, and, and showing us in detail the scope of the, of the work that needs to be done out there. If you don't go out there and walk it, you won't really know what's out there. And you know, just like mayor mentioned, I think a lot of these areas are just not being looked at because it's our job to make them what somewhat attractive to the general public for business purposes. Okay. And they've been neglected for so many years and I was willing to share my uh the balance of the dollars that came to Ward 4 along with the mayor, which is, you know, I appreciate that very much. Let's do everything we can to support our community, of course. And again, you know, Arnold took the time to go out there and show us the detail that's needed along with the contractor and and get these numbers where they probably have to be, I guess, because we were kind of hoping it'd be lower, but naturally it's not going to be that way. But any way we could support that moving forward, we could probably get that project done this year. But that street is in badly need of repair and anybody's welcome to go out there and walk it. Just be careful.

Mr. Mr. Mayor, u mayor and councel, um I I would say I know the stretch very well. One of my dear friends, Mr. Julian Reigns, has a business right there and and I frequented that place a lot. But I I would I would just uh say I support uh the additional resources. Um, and that said, I also recognize fully that there are four WS in the city that have been working to asssure that there's balance and equity in expenditures. And I would note on the record that this council in particular and previous council was very gracious with one another about supporting projects in each other's districts. uh as we advance to the retreat and the budget section, uh we're prepared to work collaboratively with mayor and council to make sure we continue that progress of balance and equity across wards with resources and and and types of projects. And so, uh, I stand in support of it and I look forward to the budget process so that we can not only demonstrate that equity and balance of expenditures that has occurred, but also get those recommendations from each of the mayor and council for your priorities going forward, not only with your own resources, but with full-blown city resources as is your responsibility under the budget. That's all I have. And Mr. Madrid. Uh I think we we definitely have the resource to cover the the gap for this project. Correct.

We do. Mr. N. Thank you, Mayor Counelors. I stand for any other questions. Pick.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh thank you for the presentation. Uh I appreciate projects that that benefit the entire city. This is an important part of the city. So I just have a a couple of questions because we within the the information we have in your recommendation is the amount for 330 which seems reasonable. I see that there's there's a estimate for a higher amount. Uh what and and and look sometimes uh I'm not saying I'm for the 460. I'm not saying that at all. But what more do we get? How better of a job is that? and and what is the the difference between the two?

So, a full reconstruction would consist of removing the asphalt. Okay. Taking it out and we recycle it. We keep the the millings and we recycle it for for our needs. So, so you remove the asphalt, you remove the existing base course and then you get to your subgrade which would take a subgrade prep. So, that's the additional work really. And then you come in after you you do your subgrade prep, you come in with new base scores. Okay. And and that's where the difference in cost lays.

Mr. Mayor, counselor, if I could, I I would just if I could, councelor, mayor, councelor Pacheco, I would I would add this. uh along with that retreat process and those priorities, this particular segment, along with other segments in the city have the old city hall uh in it and and some other uh work that we're going to be doing to leverage as much resources we can. And so uh I get the question and I hear you. You know, what else can we do to maybe do more? But I would also put forward we have maybe some other improvements up the street and in other other segments of the city that uh um may be in worse repair to get them to a a better standard. So I I I greatly appreciate the the feedback you're you're spot on. Those are the conversations that we have internally, but I I would just note that uh there's some other close projects that that uh could use some additional resource that will be part of your retreat and and uh discussion in your budget process.

Okay. So, thank you for the clarification and and my point is I you know, I believe in let's do things the right way the first time and if if the the recommended option is the right way and that's going to last us as a community, then I'm fine with it. But, you know, and putting lipstick on a pig, if you will, uh, I don't think is going to serve any of us as a as a governing body, as a community. So, so you're confident the the the 333 option is the is the best option?

Yes, sir. Um, so, so again, um, you you reclaim it basically. So, so the asphalt gets gets milong with the base course. So, it's reprocessed. Okay. And then and then you relay it. So we take a heavy piece of equipment and we proof roll it, you know, after it's been compacted, watered and the whole works. You proof roll it multiple times and that'll identify if there's any failures below that. If there is failures, they get addressed. Okay? So we'll remove soft spots that you call for that um sense. Um so you would restabilize a bad area if if so. It doesn't indicate of any bad areas like that. you could usually tell it's just deterioration through cracking and stuff like that, but there's no um surface that um you could really say that there is some subgrade failure going on. But the answer to your question, yes, sir. I strongly feel that if we took that route, it would stay just as good as if we did a full reconstruction. And that's why I consider it.

Thank you. Yes, Mr. Mayor, I move that we um accept Mr. Lopez's recommendation for the 333,4809 and that he work with our finance director, Mr. Madrid to uh work out all the details uh for that so that we can get the street fixed from Sixth Street to Douglas Avenue and in Grand Second by Councelor Casey. Second by Councilman Ulivari. Roll call. Councelor Martinez. Yes. Councelor Levari. Yes. Councelor Casey.

Yes. Councelor Pacheco. Yes. I have a motion by councelor Casey. A second by councelor Levi. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, motion carries. Thank you all. Now, I feel once that's done, I think we'll fill up some of those b those offices cuz right now it's Yes, sir. And and just to a comment, you know, our our future projects within the area are going to consist of Main Street um funding project. It's going to be on Douglas. So, Douglas, when we do that improvement, it'll tie into this improvement. No, and continue, you know, the improvement throughout that area. Okay. Thanks again.

Okay. I just want to thank uh Mr. Lopez because um through the time that he has been working for this city, he has always made recommendations that are responsible and that make sense and um I support uh Mr. Lopez and the work that he does and I thank him and more more importantly I trust him. Thank you councelor Casey and I'm committed to make doing the best possible job for the city and I appreciate your appreciation. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Moving on to our next item, request approval of amendment number two for contract 489824 with the Szer Group. Mr. City Manager Annayia.

Um, mayor and council, I did provide that additional background information to you. I'm going to ask Miss Deb Szer if she would come forward at this time. Um, I just want to say on the record that well before I came into the role of city manager, the city uh mayor and council had been fighting uh alongside um Miss Szer and her group of staff that that have done Yman's work uh fighting to get resources back to the city and uh also provided direct assistance during uh some of the difficulties that came from the flooding and the freeze. And so I want to note that on the record. Uh since the time that I've been working along uh Miss Sulzer and the group, uh it's been ups and downs and major challenges continued, but we've worked well. uh we're we're finally uh we let me say it this way, we were finally to the point where we we were garnering more resources back from FEMA, but through no fault of the mayor and council or staff or her group, uh a lot of challenges happened at the federal level that have nothing to do with the work that we've done to this point. Um but that said, we're excited about the opportunity with the new uh FEMA director once they do get funded. Uh, mayor, you yourself and I had the opportunity to have a discussion uh with with Nancy who was uh very straightforward and in the process of of trying to get this thing taken care of and get our resources in. But I'll just leave it at that. Uh we uh Miss Sulzer, if you talk just briefly about uh your funding and how it ties directly back to CATZ funding and and projects, uh that would be helpful. And then we stand for any questions. Mayor and counselors.

Um, good afternoon. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you very much for for allowing me to be here today. Um the the one great thing, the best pitch I ever give to a client when we offer our services to them is that um by and large the majority of what we charge we try very very hard to be reimbursed for from FEMA so that it becomes a zero um actual out-ofpocket for for our clients. And we've been you know we're going on 20 years now. We've been super super successful in doing that. Um, so it is definitely something that I'm I take a lot of pride in. Um, so basically what we have done with all of our invoices and all of our fees is we have tagged them to either FEMA projects or claims office projects. Um there's only one one um invoice that had to do with the um with the diesel spill that we segregated out that I've been talking to the city manager about. maybe some alternate ways to get that reimbured as well. So, for the most part right now, we have um almost every dollar accounted for in a reimbursement. Now, the claims office presents its own sort of um challenges. So, that's still kind of an unknown on how they're going to handle um claim help with claim preparation or technical assistance and things like that. But we're making arguments that those things get included. Um so I'll stand for any questions. But um

m Miss Deb if if you don't mind I know uh you know councelor PCO and I don't know if he's had an opportunity to sit down with you yet but if not maybe here you know moving forward you can sit down with him and I think if you could just explain the cat Z and the reimbursement uh you know the service you provide had uh instead of if we had an attorney and then them doing public assistance. Can you kind of explain that portion that how your services are reimburseable versus if we went another way?

Sure. Um the FEMA program acknowledges the PA program acknowledges that it's complicated. It's time consuming. So they allocate um funding which ends up being it's capped at 5% of whatever the total grant amount is. So that's the space that we usually try and um and and and target our fees to match whatever that 5% ends up being. So the more money we get you, the more money there is available for processing and getting you the money. So um it's it's a it's not part of the project. So if you get a million dollars to um reimburse you for debris removal for example and there is a 5% cat Z is what it's called grant administration amount that goes into a separate project. So it doesn't eat at the the the cost of the reimbursement the cost of the project or whatever the reimbursement is to the city. It is on top beyond. Um so what we try to do real hard is either um the stuff that we do that's pure grant management we build to our category Z project which is already funded I think the the cat Z is funded about 1.2 million right now. Um the um the other services that we provide which just don't fit into it. They're more project management um type um services. we build that to the project that we are helping to manage. So, for example, we spent a lot of time with the mayor and the and the then city manager and some of the council um members as well during the June flood event um trying to rally resources together, do some coordination

with um with different things. So, that type of an expense is more project management than it is grant administration. So we were able to build that as part of the project cost successfully. So we've been the city has been reimbursed for that portion of our fees. It it's it's one reason why our feed why while why why our invoices are so so complicated because we really try and tag our time to an eligible project whether it's CATZ or project management within a whatever the project happens to be. So, it's kind of a long answer, mayor. I don't know if I hit exactly what you're

I think in general, but I'm happy to to meet with Councilman Pacheo and and kind of give you the FEMA 101 that I've given most of the other council members. Thank you. Uh questions, comments, what's the pleasure,

Mr. Mayor? I want to make a comment. I you know back for those flooding events that we had back in June and and I have to you know thank you for you know the support that you've given the community our community the city of Las Vegas the networking the resources that you have is what brought us back to life were drowning you know without water of But such an important, you know, part in it was the fact that you were able to bring those resources to, you know, fruition. So, it was an important piece for me. Again, I I think you continue to prove yourself to the city of Las Vegas with every every detail that that is written here. So, um, Mr. Mayor, I would uh I would go ahead and move to approve amendment number two, contract 4098-24 with the Sulsa Group.

Second by councelor Martinez. Second by councelor Casey. Any other discussion? Seeing none, roll call. Councelor Dvi, yes. Councelor Martinez, yes. Councelor Casey, yes. Councelor Pacheco. Yes. I have a motion by councelor Martinez, a second by councelor Casey. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Motion carries. Thanks so much. Thank you, Dave. Thank you.

If I could just have a comment after that. Go ahead. I I I uh you know, I'm comfortable moving this forward, but again, I would like to uh when we have these types of contracts with outside vendors, I would like to develop an exit strategy built into the contract because eventually this is going to end. there's a service that they're providing and and not to beat a dead horse, but our but our caps and and and things of that nature as we're going through and then just be careful in the R RFP process. This is this is uh hindsight's always 2020. This is our second amendment of the original contract was our original RFP not detailed enough. I I realize there's emergency situations that I'm not uh entirely well versed on at this point, but just some things to consider as we move some of these fiscal processes and contracts uh ahead in the uh coming years.

Thank you. Thank you, councelor.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Moving on to our next item, request approval of a memorandum of agreement between the Las Vegas Police Department and New Mexico State Parks and New Mexico State Forestry. We have our police chief, Mr. Cayla Barkcus. Good evening, Mayor, Council, Mr. Manager. Thank you. Uh, so I'm bringing forward a memorandum of agreement to enter into a partnership uh to utilize our shooting range um for the New Mexico State Parks and Forestry Division. Um, we uh are proposed to entering this MOA um with New Mexico State Parks to utilize the City of Las Vegas Police Department shooting range for training of firearm qualifications. This agreement establishes the terms and conditions under which New Mexico State Parks personnel may schedule and conduct firearm training at the city range. This arrangement supports um inter agency uh cooperation ensures that law enforcement personnel within the region maintain required firearms proficiency and certification standards. The Las Vegas Police Department maintains a certified shooting range facility suitable for law enforcement training and qualification exercises. Through this agreement, New Mexico State parks will have access to our local facilities that meet the required and meet the required training standards. Um, and we are recommending approval. This has also been approved through uh our self-insurers fund as well as our local attorney. Uh, so it's been checked on multiple times by multiple attorneys.

Uh, Councilman Pekco. Mr. Mayor, I make a motion to approve the uh memo with state parks with state forestry as well as the HU police to use the shooter. So, let's do one at a time, please. So, a motion on item six. Got a second by councilman. Roll call. Councelor Casey. Yes. Councelor Martinez. Yes. Councelor Pacheco. Yes. Councelor Levari. Yes. I have a motion by councelor Bacho, second by councelor Lei. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Motion carries. Moving on for approval of item seven.

Motion by second by councelor Casey. Roll call. Councelor Anibi. Yes. Councelor Martinez. Yes. Councelor Casey. Councelor Bacho. Yes. I have a motion by councelor Bacho. A second by councelor Casey. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Motion carries.

Manager. Um mayor and counselor. Uh just on these two items, uh there's a lot of interest in in the shooting range and uh chief and I have had several discussions. Um chief, I have one that we got a direct request to coordinate with the 4 program through the county um San Miguel County, but I just want to commend the chief and his team. We have a valuable asset there and I really think we can get our hands around some additional not huge improvements but some significant improvements that'll bolster it as a a regional shooting range to to be useful by many others. But uh I just want to commend Chief and his team for the work that they've done to uh sustain it and bring agreements like this forward.

Here you councilman Martinez. Thank you, mayor. I just I just wanted to note uh now this does not include New Mexico State Police. No, this does not include New Mexico State Police. Uh currently, they have uh reviewed and had some questions from their legal uh come back, but the recommendations from our legal team and our insurance and this is why they recommended to go into the memorandum of understanding or or agreement with them. Um they're not I don't know what how much we could bend on some of those things. So, Would we be willing to I guess their legal would have to review is what you're saying.

Their legal did review and and does have certain questions that we'll send to back to our So it may it may come down at a later Yes. at a later meeting or something. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Before we get to executive session, Dr. Linder, welcome again. I know uh you're you're a routine audience member now. It's it's always glad to have you in the audience and you keep up with what's going on here. Hopefully uh hopefully we're behaving up here. So, thank you. Okay. Next item, Mr. Sandro. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Our next item is executive session. Mr. Mayor,

Casey, I move that we move into executive session in accordance with the New Mexico Open Meetings Act and MSA 1978. Session 10-15-1H8 purchase, acquisition, or disposal of real property, water rights meetings for the discussion of the purchase, acquisition, or disposal of real property or water rights by the public body. And this discussion will be on property and water rights acquisition. Motion by councelor Casey. Do I have a second? Second. Second by council Martinez. Roll call. Councelor Anibbody. Yes. Councelor Martinez. Yes. Councelor Casey. Yes. Councelor Bacho. Yes.

Have a motion by councelor Casey, a second by councelor Martinez. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Motion carries. Mr. Manager, Mr. uh Mr. Mayor, if if it's okay, mayor and council, I'd like to release uh the balance of staff that have already presented if that's okay. The boss. Yeah. Thank you. Uh the only the only one I'm going to ask say Mr. Martinez for sure and then Mr. Madrid if you could join us in exe. That's it. Mayor. Thank you. So, are we going to stand here? We'll just stand here or

We have a motion to return to regular session. Motion to return to regular session. Mr. Mayor, but you have to read the whole thing. Oh, there's a whole thing. Okay. Well, thank you, Barbara.

Mr. Mayor, I move that we return to uh regular session after having been in executive session according to Open Meetings Act and MSA 1978 section 10-15-1H8 purchase acquisition or disposal of real property water rights meetings for the discussion of the purpose acquisition or disposal of real water uh property or water rights by the public body. Discussion on property and water rights acquisition. No action was taken. No vote was taken. Have a motion by councelor Casey. Do I have a second? Second, Mr. Second by Councilman Levari. Roll call. Councelor Peko. Yes. Councelor Levi. Yes. Councelor Martinez. Yes. Councelor Casey.

I have a motion by councelor Casey. A second by councelor Levi. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Motion carries. Mr. Mayor, I move we adjourn. Motion by councelor Casey. A second. Second. Second by councelor Pacheco. Meetings. All right.