Council - Regular Meeting

Welcome, everybody. I'd like to call the June 17th, 2026 regular city council meeting to order.

Mayor David Romero.

Here.

Councilor Marvin Martinez.

Present.

Councilor Barbara Casey.

Here.

Councilor Benito Pacheco. Here.

I'm going to hear.

Councilor David Ulivari.

Here.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. We do have a quorum.

For the record, Mr. Benito Pacheco is excused. Thank you. Mr. Travis Martinez will lead us in the pledge.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Councillor Casey, moment of silence.

LET US PRAY FOR THE CITIZENS OF LAS VEGAS WHO HAVE PASSED ON THIS MONTH. I'M THINKING ABOUT MR. CHARLES LUTY, WHO WAS A LEADER IN OUR COMMUNITY, VERY WELL-KNOWN PERSON, AND FOR HIS FAMILY, HIS DAUGHTERS AND SISTERS, AND SON-IN-LAW, WHO WAS A STATE SENATOR FROM SANTA FE COUNTY. and all others who have passed on or who are very ill and in danger of death. Let us pray that God will take care of them in his manner and that the families receive solace from God. Amen.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Approval of the agenda. I do have one recommendation for an amendment to the agenda for business item number 10. It should include fiscal year 26 and fiscal year 27. And that would be for the approval to authorize and support a summer youth program.

With that recommendation, what's the pleasure of the council?

I move approval of the agenda as amended.

Motion by Councillor Casey. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Councillor Martinez. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Those opposed, same sign. The ayes have it.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Moving on to our public input. We have no public input this evening. Moving on to our mayor's appointments, reports, recognitions, and proclamations.

Okay, at this time, if I can, Ms. Monica Brown, if you don't mind coming up. I was made aware by Ms. Brown about some heroic acts by some community members, and tonight, based off those acts that these members did in our community, they saved a life, and uh sometimes you know these things happen uh and we don't recognize or acknowledge that but i think saving one person's life is huge and uh with that miss monica brown if you don't mind you know sharing the story because i think i know i could say what you had told me but i think it's more personal because you experienced it firsthand okay thank you mayor and council for allowing us to be here

employees. So on May 26th, me and my husband were having dinner at Dick's.

Let me get you the mic just for the viewers online.

And I'll try to keep it short. That's okay.

It's the mayor's report so you have as much time as you need.

Don't tell me that because I'm a talker.

So on May 26th, my husband and I were having dinner at Dick's and I had a clear view of the bar and I witnessed a gentleman come in and Not to pass judgment, he looked like he was struggling. And he went up to the bar and he talked to the waitress, the bartender, Raven. And immediately she told the other bartender there's something. She grabbed her phone and she started to run out with the gentleman. And I heard him say, in the alley, go to the alley. So it concerned me. So I asked my husband to go out and just make sure she was safe. But after a few minutes, I decided to go to the back door of Dick's and just check. And I saw Raven running from the alleyway behind Price's. And she yelled, get me the Narcan from the bar. So I got the Narcan from Lori, handed it off to her. She ran back out. When I turned around to come back in, I saw Leah Hayes. who I knew was a nurse. So I said, you're a nurse, right? And she said, yes. And I told her there was somebody unresponsive and they were going to administer Narcan. So she immediately jumped up, left her family, ran out the back door to go help. And so then come to find out that this gentleman had overdosed. He was unresponsive. And I guess the gentleman had previously gone to another business to ask for help, but they declined. They asked him to leave. So I feel like If Raven wouldn't have listened and not passed judgment, she just sprung into action and ran and saved him. So I later found out that Zoe and Devon were also there assisting with the lifesaving measures. So I commend them for, first of all, being human, accepting others, not passing judgment, and just jumping into action and saving a life. So that's it.

thank you monica so at this time uh again and i can't say it i mean so so heartfelt and you know that these individuals that i'm going to recognize on behalf of the city council uh without these individuals we would be one less community member in this community so with that the first one goes out to miss raven king AND ALL OF YOU ARE RECEIVING THE CITY OF LAS VEGAS LIFE SAVING ASSISTANCE AWARD IN RECOGNITION OF YOUR COURAGE, YOUR QUICK THINKING, AND SELFLESS ACTIONS IN HELPING TO SAVE A LIFE. YOUR EXTRAORDINARY ACTIONS REFLECT THE BEST OF OUR COMMUNITY AND THANK YOU FOR MAKING A DIFFERENCE. SO AT THIS TIME, MS. RAVEN KING. And then it's, now we say angels are always by your side and you know, for Leah to be there. Ms. Leah Hayes, thank you for being there and participating in this heroic effort.

Ms. Zoe Kurtz.

And then Devon .. Thank you. And last but not least, to Ms. Charlotte and Jonathan Moore for specifically having Narcan in their place of business to be able to have what was needed that night. So, uh, I don't know if anybody's here to represent Mr. Bustos beyond Bustos. So to miss Charlotte and Jonathan Moore, So if we can get a picture, Ms. Amanda, with these individuals. And I'll just make one comment again. Thank you guys again, I mean, for all that you do. And I know this isn't probably the first time that you guys have had to experience something like this. I'm sure similar situations have come up. But Ms. Monica Brown, thank you for bringing it to my attention. And thank you guys. You guys want to say a few words?

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor. I just, I do want to say this. The way it was spelled out by Ms. Brown, you don't pass judgment. You know, that's big. That's huge. And if you can take any part of that and make good of it, you've already accomplished a lot. So much appreciated. Thank you very much for doing that.

THANK YOU, MAN. THANK YOU, GUYS. IT'S A TEAM. YOU GUYS, WE LEAVE AND LEARN. EVERY DAY, WE LEAVE AND LEARN. I WANT TO THANK YOU GUYS FOR KEEPING OUR EYES OPEN AND GREAT JOB. THANK YOU.

THANK YOU. THANK YOU.

I'M A CRY BABY IN THE GROUP, RIGHT? ME TOO. IT'S OKAY. ARE YOU READY? YES.

ONE, TWO, THREE.

My voice pretty much carries anyways, but I did just want to say that I

In this particular situation, we were dealing with a patient who, or an individual in our community who's struggling with addiction. However, Narcan is for more than just that. It's for our children who might get into medications that they don't know what it is. It's for our teens who are experimenting and don't realize what they may be experimenting with. And it's for our seasoned population that may forget that they've taken meds and then take them again. This story is actually proof that community saves lives and Narcan saves lives. And I'm going to leave some Narcan with each of you, and then I'm going to leave some out there with an information sheet. So if anybody feels like... This is something they may want to have with them. I encourage everyone to. We just saw, I was just going out to dinner and had the bar not had it, I truly believe that this young man would have lost his life. So it's important, it's necessary, and I'm more than happy myself or the hospital are more than happy to educate others on how to use it or provide more for you whenever you need it. So thank you.

Thank you, Thea. I APPRECIATE YOU.

THANK YOU SO MUCH. GOOD TO HAVE.

THANK YOU, MA'AM.

OF COURSE. THANKS, GUYS.

APPRECIATE IT.

MR. MANAGER, DID YOU WANT TO SAY A FEW WORDS ON THAT?

Mr. Mayor, councillors, I think I would just say that when no one is looking, what would you do and what could you do? And they did it. They took care of someone without judgment. And so I thank them very much as well.

And I'll leave my report for that. I know we have a long agenda and executive session, so I'm done with that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Moving on to our councilor's reports.

Councilman Ulibarri.

Mr. Mayor, thank you. Mr. Manager, we need to take a look at Valencia, West Valencia. Some of them are paved and some of them are gravel. We've got to look at the ice skating pond. I don't know how much property we've got. The city's got that. I know more or less we've got some, but it's in bad condition. And the weeds around town, I would like for you to get with a bear or with one of the councilmen and go with the warden. You have trees growing around the stop signs. And I know your crew's working on them. And it's a very weedy season. So we're doing our best to take care of it. As I said, look at that, sir. Thank you.

Thank you. Casey.

Thank you Mr. Mayor. I had a constituent call me up. I believe it was Friday late afternoon asking me what I thought about a petition that he had brought to city manager. And I didn't have any idea when he was talking about. So he told me that he had gathered signatures from the residents on 3rd Street and had brought a copy of the petition to city manager who he thought was going to give me a copy. I did finally get a copy from that constituent. He delivered it here and I came to pick it up. I just want to make a request that if someone from Ward 3 comes to see city manager or one of the directors that I be at least notified so that I know what some of the concerns of the people are. Sometimes people don't know how to get in touch with me, so they come directly to City Hall. So I would appreciate that very much.

Mayor, if I could? Councillor? Councilwoman? The petition was from Mr. Baca, and immediately after the meeting, I scanned the petition, and it was sent to the full mayor and full council. But I'm happy to work with you on further communications, but that was scanned and sent to mayor and full council that day, actually.

Was it sent via email? It was sent via email and the scan copy was sent that it went through to the mayor and full council With the Google added to my computers I get nothing from the city I Don't know why I just don't and I have said that for years The 10 years I've been on the council and still doesn't work. So I don't know what to do about that. So, if anything else comes that needs to come to me in any way. Please send it to my personal email. I think you have a copy of my personal email. So that way I'm assured that I get what is necessary. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. The other thing that I wanted to talk about was Monday, I had the pleasure of joining Lucas Marquez and Amanda Salas and former Rec Center Director Loretta Abrego-Martin and others who were there to distribute ITEMS TO CHILDREN ENROLLED IN THE SUMMER PROGRAM. THE SAN MIGUEL COUNTY FOURTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT COURT APPOINTED SPECIAL ADVOCATES PROGRAM WAS TERMINATED ALONG WITH TWO OTHER PROGRAMS IN THE STATE, BERNALILLO COUNTY AND CHAVEZ COUNTY BY THE STATE ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE OF THE COURTS. And so we had boxes and boxes and boxes and boxes of things for children. So I called Mr. Marcus and I said, do you want me, you know, can you give these to the kids? So Monday afternoon at 2, we distributed... Some had pajamas, some had blankets. All of them had a coloring book and a stuffed animal. We also gave them duffel bags that were green and gold, which I thought was kind of you know, semi-appropriate since there weren't any red and white ones, but the kids loved them. One little girl that was itty-bitty got that duffel bag and she opened it up and she says, I can sleep in this. And she was all excited. They got stuffed animals. They got pillows and blankets that were made by the Luna Community College quilting class. And so 91 children got something. And although not all of them got everything, they all got something and went home with something that was donated to them. So it was a wonderful experience for me. I love children. And so we had a good time. And it was fun to watch the kids jumping around and putting the pillowcases on their head and doing all kinds of things. I loved it. So I just want to thank the rec center, particularly Mr. Marquez and Loretta Abreu-Martin, and of course, Amanda Salas, our PIO, who does an awesome job of always being at the right place at the right time.

So thank you so much.

I appreciate everything that everybody does, and I hope those kids are still, you know, dragging those things around. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you. Councilman Martinez.

Thank you, Mayor. On my council's report, I just had that one individual that also probably talked to Councillor Ulibarri in reference to West National, I believe. It's the dirt road that basically goes out toward the county. Maybe there's a way we could consider putting them on a schedule maybe where they would be covered a couple of days. ONCE AT LEAST EVERY TWO MONTHS OR SOMETHING. OTHER THAN THAT, I JUST KIND OF WANT TO KEEP MY COUNCIL REPORT SHORT. I KNOW WE HAVE A BIG AGENDA, SO I'LL JUST GO AHEAD AND PASS ON THE OTHER STUFF. SO THANK YOU, MAYOR.

NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU. NEW SPEAKER MR. MAYOR. NEW SPEAKER COUNCILMAN, I MEAN, MR. MANAGER.

NEW SPEAKER MR. MAYOR, COUNCILMAN MARTINEZ AND COUNCILMAN OLIVARI, DIRECTOR LOPEZ AND I WERE THERE TODAY, AND WE HAD A CONVERSATION ABOUT THE WHOLE STRETCH, BUT IN PARTICULAR, THE HILL HAS BEEN AN AREA WHERE THE COUNCILMEN AND MR. CASPIN AND OTHERS HAVE RAISED CONCERN, SO WE'RE GOING TO TAKE A LOOK AT THAT PARTICULAR PIECE FOR MAYBE OTHER MEASURES BEYOND JUST GRADING, AND THEN I'LL WORK WITH MR. LOPEZ ON THE BALANCE OF THE ROAD AS WELL, BUT WE WERE, HIM AND I WERE THERE TODAY.

NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU.

NEW SPEAKER AND MR. MANAGER, JUST FOR THE RECORD, I DO HAVE AN APPOINTMENT WITH THAT INDIVIDUAL TOMORROW, SO THAT'S PROBABLY WHAT IT'S ABOUT, SO I'M ASSUMING. NEW SPEAKER YES, SIR. Cassandra, thank you.

Mr. Mayor moving on to our city managers report. We have our city manager. Mr. Robert Ian. I am mr.

Manager, mr Mayor members of the council I'm gonna ask that the full text of my report be included in the in the minutes I'm just gonna go through some some highlights the first part is very important that I want to read into the record and I'D LIKE TO EXPRESS MY GRATITUDE TO DAVID MARCUS FOR HIS PRESENTATION IN ALBUQUERQUE JUNE 12, 2026. JIMMY AND I ALSO ATTENDED THE SESSION WHERE DAVID DEMONSTRATED EXCELLENT WORK AND SUCCESSFULLY SECURED SOME ADDITIONAL RAID GRANT FUNDING THROUGH THE NEW MEXICO ENVIRONMENT DEPARTMENT. I'd also like to thank Consuelo Gallegos and the HR team for putting together the AFLAC presentations and supporting the work to get information added into our systems. Thank you. That's a lot of work. It's a heavy lift that was done to get that accomplished. I'd like to thank Mr. James Stevens for his work in fleet maintenance. and for his continued efforts to support our youth working with the West Las Vegas students. Thanks to Tavon Moodley for his consistent daily dedication to maintaining the City Hall compound and ensuring our buildings and grounds are in excellent condition. Additionally, I'd like to recognize the facilities team that's been doing extra work around the plaza with new lights, JJ Villanueva, Sebastian Saiz Gomez, Ethan Herrera, and Max Bustamante for their hard work installing the lights and banners across the plaza as we prepare for the upcoming fiesta season. Thanks to Chuck Griego and the whole events team for their weekly hard work putting on the events for Friday al Fresco and all the support staff. I've attended several of those myself and can personally attest to the positive community response that we have received. PURSUING A HIGHER LEVEL OF EXCELLENCE, I JUST WANTED TO NOTE THAT COUNSELOR CASEY, PER YOUR REQUEST, FOR SEVERAL MONTHS NOW, ALL OF THE HUMAN RESOURCES LISTINGS ARE WITHIN THE PACKETS, BUT ALSO ALL OF THE DEPARTMENT REPORTS WHERE YOU DON'T HEAR FROM THOSE DEPARTMENTS ON A REGULAR BASIS LIKE FIRE AND THE POLICE DEPARTMENT AND FINANCE, THOSE ARE IN THERE MONTHLY FOR YOU TO REVIEW IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS THAT YOU WANT TO RAISE OR CALL ANYTHING positive or concerns associated with those reports, our staff is here and the department heads are ready to address those. But along with those new hires, I've missed a few, but I'm very diligent and work with Consuelo and her team to go to the orientations to meet the new staff Mondays myself. And so I just want to highlight that continued work and coordinated efforts from departments, through the hiring process, through the orientation process. Coordinated follow-up. We're working through a coordinated, comprehensive document that'll deal with communications. We have a draft document that Adele, Ms. Lutie, and Ms. Salas are working through, but we incorporated at least one member from each department to help provide feedback and recommendations associated with that process. So it's fully engaged the whole staff across the city, and we'll be working on some final recommendations and work within that particular structure under the operational side of the equation. Partnerships. I wanted to highlight that at the New Mexico Finance Authority board meeting a couple weeks ago, we made it over another hurdle tied to our Water Trust Board funding. And I wanted to acknowledge that Mayor Romero and I were there, but Mayor Romero received specific acknowledgment, as well as the City, FROM CHAIR KATHY KEITH, MEMBER MARTIN SUAZO FROM THE CITY OF LAS VEGAS, AND THE DIRECTOR OF THE FINANCE AUTHORITY, MS. MARQUITA RUSSELL. TRAVIS MARTINEZ, MORRIS MADRID, JIMMY SEISS, AND THE FINANCE TEAM. have really done a heavy lift in working through the Office of State Engineer grant that we received for 3.5 million dollars that was on a very compressed time frame to get the essential documents put together and packaged. We had a few back and forths with the Office of State Engineer but I THINK MR. BADRID, WE'RE GETTING CLOSER TO CONCLUDING THAT PARTICULAR PIECE. DO YOU WANT TO COMMENT ON THAT? IT'S A LARGE SUM OF MONEY AND IMPACTS THE WATER PLAN AND THE WATER SYSTEMS QUITE A BIT.

YES. I DON'T HEAR THE MICROPHONE. THEY REQUIRED A LOT OF DOCUMENTATION. THIS IS A REIMBURSEMENT TYPE GRANT, SO WE PUT THAT TOGETHER, COMMUNICATED WITH THEM ON THE FORMAT. THEY WANTED US TO CHANGE THE FORMAT, WHICH WE DID. And Travis' staff hand delivered that today. So I think we're on track and we should get full reimbursement.

I just wanted to note on the record, it was a compressed time frame. There was other jurisdictions that were under the same framework and time frames as the city of Las Vegas was but they've had more challenges than we have and I think we're going to be able to get full reimbursement in such a tight time frame so kudos to the whole team collectively for those efforts. Progress on the water treatment plant, a lot of work happened in the last few days so I'd like to, for you Travis, I know today was a pretty comprehensive day related to the water treatment plan. If you could just provide a few brief comments, if you will, about what Bruce McDonald's been doing and about what the State Environment Department's been working on and how we've been lockstep with that interface and that work tied to the water treatment plan.

Mayor, Council, just a quick update on the water treatment facility. It's already passed the 30% design. All of the water testing has been submitted, and now a lot of the stuff has been submitted to the Drinking Water Bureau for approval for the next stage of the process. So we're at that step right now to start the 60% design here pretty quick. So we're moving pretty fast on that one.

MR. MARTINEZ, IF YOU WOULD ALSO COMMENT THAT WE ARE STILL UNDER WATER RESTRICTIONS AND SPEAK TO SOME OF THE CHALLENGES THAT WE'RE MITIGATING DAILY AND WATCHING DAILY ASSOCIATED WITH THE WATER FLOWS AND OUR WATER RESOURCES.

SO RIGHT NOW, WE ARE WATER RESTRICTIONS, ONE. I DON'T HAVE THE PAPER FOR YOU, BUT I THINK OFF HAND. Right now we're dealing with the river. The river, the flow comes in high. Sometimes it comes in low. It's not really constant like we're used to. We usually, we see this type, we see the river this way not till the end of July. We're starting to see it a lot sooner. We filled up both reservoirs. Peterson is coming back online. We've done all our testing, everything. So we're balancing both between reservoirs. And with that said, we'll be balancing of the flow of the river on both sides. One, we'll do each one. And then on top of that, we're also starting to use tater wells to supplement the zone three. So that way we can conserve our water and our resources that we have to make it through the summer.

EXCELLENT. THANK YOU, MR. MARTINEZ. PEOPLE IN OUTREACH, THERE'S A COMPREHENSIVE LIST IN FRONT OF YOU. SENATOR CAMPOS, ENVIRONMENT DEPARTMENT, WATER TRUST BOARD, FINANCE AUTHORITY, OFFICE OF STATE ENGINEER, DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE ADMINISTRATION, WEST LAS VEGAS SCHOOLS, FEMA, COUPLE DIFFERENT OCCASIONS, GOLF COURSE COMMITTEE RELATIVE TO HIGHLANDS UNIVERSITY. Glorietta Geoscience, Southwest Capital Bank, Burns & McDonald, weekly meetings, inclusive of meetings between the Intergovernmental Agreement and the New Mexico Environment Department, discussions within DOT leadership, Las Vegas Events Committee, and numerous others. But constant communication, coordination with all the parties, relevant to the work at hand. I did want to note I had a very good meeting with one of our staple individuals here at the City of Las Vegas, Mr. Bob Witters, and his participation on Finance Committee as well as the Airport Committee. Learned a lot of valuable information and a really good perspective on financial matters based on his skills and experience that are very extensive. I wanted to note that. Conversations with Tom Clayton as well as our judge, our Honorable Judge Mr. Eddie Vigil. Moving on through the public information and transparency, we had some concerns raised associated with debris removal. We made a stop. We did a hard stop on the construction. Engaged more communication with more community members. We had a press conference We continue to work through that particular project. I was out there again today with mr. Lopez they're navigating the sediment removal of the pond and sediment removal throughout the the other water traverses through through the city and so we're doing that in accordance with the permitting we're doing that in accordance with the specs that were written and Mr. Lopez, is there anything that you would like to add associated with debris removal based on your visit today and just the context of the whole particular project?

Thank you, City Manager Anaya, for that opportunity. So yes, as the manager stated, our commitment now is to address all the sediment in front of our structures, so being our bridges. They've been reduced to minimal capacity through them, so we want to restore full capacity if we do sustain flooding. So that is going to be the focus for the upcoming weeks. They started today dredging the pond, which was full of sediment. There's a lot coming out of there, and then we'll move on to the structures. But it's going to be a great improvement. Again, when it floods, it's not if it floods, when it floods, we will be able to handle a lot more capacities through those bridges and avoid overtopping and possible damage to those structures.

Excellent. Thank you. Mr. Lopez executive office support slash news Various items. Mr. Seiss has been stepping up and helping our risk HR team as well as safety with navigating communication and interface between departments, so I want to give a shout out to Mr. Seitz for supporting HR and supporting the team in some of those efforts. I also want to note the work on the Fiesta Guide has been extensive and long-standing. Ms. Salas has been working on the Fiesta Guide. And we've been working through the pageant that we're going to be dealing with here soon and working through. Ms. Salas, do you want to add a couple comments associated with either of those two items?

mayor council um so we're just working through the final logistics for the fiesta pageant primarily making sure that we have everything that we need supporting miss anna romero who is taking the lead with the pageant so i've been working closely with adele with shay jimmy and others so we can continue through the process making sure she has everything that she needs so this is the first time i've been part of this and many of us so it's a learning process but it's going to be really nice so we're excited for that as far as the fiesta guide that will be out we'll be receiving 7 000 copies tomorrow so that will be for distribution and you can also purchase it in the las vegas optic this friday

Excellent. Thank you, Ms. Salas. A couple other notes. Hayley Lucero, a relatively new addition to the executive team, has been finding her footing in her new role and has been helping to navigate schedules and has provided valuable support for the overall needs of the executive office. We are currently navigating standard growing pains associated with evolving process changes and function, but I want to thank the directors for their patience and diligence in helping us work together through standardized processes that eventually equate to more information and clear communication to the public. And so I want to thank the departments, all of you, for your patience through that process. But I also want to provide another acknowledgement to Ms. Elena Martinez, who I've asked to stay today. Where is she? She's back there. Her, along with some other staff, and I'll let our finance director speak to the other staff. But Elena Martinez recently passed through the New Mexico EDGE program the certification for Chief Procurement Officer. And in that particular position, that's a valuable resource to have to make sure that we're doing our procurements and work with the financing in an appropriate manner. So, Elena, congratulations. If we could give her a round of applause, I'd appreciate it. So I think in closing I want to thank the entire team all the work and efforts of the city staff across the board and also want to acknowledge and say publicly I've enjoyed the last several days working through the ICMA process I've been going through the assessments associated for the ICMA certification process for city and county managers So I I think that's a good process that I'm going through. It's a it's a stepped-faced process But I'll keep the mayor and council apprised as to my work through that but I've been registered. I've done the assessment I've done some of the initial applications associated with that that process to get Certified so I know that was a little longer than normal mayor council, but I thought thought it important to note those Items and thank those individuals for their collective work. So I stand for question

Thank you Mr. Manager. I just want to you know thank you first of all and I know you gave a little more detail in this last report as far as meetings and partners that you've been meeting with. I think that's important because you know there's sometimes because you're not in the office there's probably a misunderstanding that you're not here but I know as Mayor and constant communication between you and I that you're attending other meetings So I think the council now seeing that will you know, maybe understand understand that there's there's more than just being in the office So wanted to acknowledge that but I also wanted to a couple things That were left out and I know mr. Marcus with everything that he held the departments He's dealing with haven't had a chance to acknowledge for the first time in over 10 12 years We have, and I'll let you go ahead and say it if you don't mind. Mr. Manager, if you don't mind, we have some other certifications that were, especially in his department, and we're pretty close.

For the first time, Mayor, Council, good evening. For the first time in over 15 years, we finally have two certified zoning officials within the Community Development Department. And one of them is actually in the house tonight, Mr. Justin Marcus back there. I don't know if you could stand up, Justin, and just real quick, I'd like to get a round of applause for him as well. And the other individual is my right hand in community development, Mr. Scott Zunker. He's not here tonight. He's taking care of his family affairs that he needs to take care of. But he's here for me in a lot of other areas. I'm always there for Main Street meetings and things that he has to take care of for community development. But I'm very proud of these two individuals. We still have two more, actually three more getting ready to be certified. And we'll be a fully certified department here pretty soon once we get the other two on the board. Yeah, so it's looking really promising over there.

Thank you. And I mean, but I just think it's important to acknowledge that. I think from the beginning, the commitment to professional development, you know, not only within additional people getting procurement certified, but also now these individuals in zoning. And like you said, the first time in 15 years. So that's huge, especially when they go to court, right?

So definitely. Yes, sir.

Mr. All right. Thank you. Any other comments?

Mr. Mayor, thank you. I just wanted to point out just one little mistake you had made. Manager was our magistrate. Judge was Eddie Trujillo. No, you mentioned Eddie Vigil. I just wanted to bring that up. No, nothing bad about it. I just wanted to bring it to your light.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Councillor Martinez.

No, other than that, I think you know that's huge. What what what Lucas, our director from Community Development said. We haven't had these people in these these positions in. 15 years or better and this is going to help our community catch up. YOU KNOW, EVERYTHING THAT WE NEED TO DO. SO MUCH APPRECIATED TO THOSE GUYS THAT HAVE TESTED AND HAVE PASSED AND LOOK FORWARD TO BIGGER AND BETTER THINGS. THANK YOU.

THANK YOU, MAYOR. THANK YOU, MR. MAYOR. THANK YOU, MR. MANAGER. THANK YOU FOR ALL THE WORK YOU GUYS HAVE BEEN DOING AROUND THE RIVER WALK. IT LOOKS BEAUTIFUL. PEOPLE LIKE IT. IT'S PART OF THE WEST SIDE. Part of the Fourth of July people know that part all the time. And the staff and yourself and everybody at the mall, thank you for all the work you guys have been doing.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Councilman Olabari. And Mr. Madrid, do you have the names of those other individuals that also passed that certification? Or do you know, Elena, the others?

I don't know.

Shania McAdams, Pastor of the Chief Procurement. Jennifer Montoya.

Chastity Garcia.

And Chastity Garcia. So I wanted to note those. The other thing I wanted to note on the record is when, and we will make sure we acknowledge all those certifications and all that work. When we do acknowledge them, we're going to also include memos to each of their respective files, noting that acknowledgement as well. So I'll work with Consuelo and her team to make sure we get those in their personnel files.

Thank you, Mr. Manager. And just one more thing. I know I've gotten calls, so I'm sure the counselors here have. I know there was discussion about the restriction of fireworks, but I mean, I know we're at our strictest that we're allowed, and I don't know if you or maybe Chief could kind of speak to that. Just for the record, I'm sure people are going to continue to ask, but if you don't mind.

For the record, sir, going along with the drought monitor for the state, we don't meet the level to enact that restriction. GOING ON WITH THE DROP MONITOR FOR THE STATE, WE'RE NOT AT THE LEVEL THAT IS REQUIRED FOR US TO GO INTO THOSE RESTRICTIONS. OUR ORDINANCES ARE PRETTY CLOSE TO WHAT THAT RESTRICTION IS ANYWAY. But that ordinance has to be in, that resolution has to be enacted 20 days before the holiday. But right now we're, it would make a difference really, depending on the, what we do have. We do have our fireworks display, which will be the fourth at the golf course. Hopefully people will watch that and save themselves some money this year.

So pretty much the way our ordinance reads is only ground items, so anything that goes up in the air is already restricted, and that's pretty much the, I mean, we're already at our highest, I mean.

Yes, sir. The city ordinance already restricts anything over 10 feet, so that's what the restrictions the governor would have us do according to the CDC-UC. So right now, we already restrict that unless it's a planned event or approved event. PER CASE.

I JUST WANTED TO BRING THAT TO ATTENTION. I KNOW I'VE BEEN GETTING CALLS AND I'M SURE THEY'RE GOING TO COME A LITTLE MORE AS WE GET TO FIREWORKS VENDORS STARTING UP. SO THANK YOU.

YOU'RE WELCOME, SIR. ONE LAST, COUNCILMAN NELIVARI.

ON ALL THE VENDORS, ARE YOU CHECKING EVERYBODY FOR THEIR LICENSES AND APPROVAL OF SELLING THEIR PRODUCT AROUND THE PARK?

NEW SPEAKER WE ARE, SIR. WE ACTUALLY ADOPTED A NEW PROGRAM FOR MOBILE VENDORS LIKE THAT, WHERE WE'LL ACTUALLY HAVE A STICKER THAT GOES THROUGH THE WINDOW, NOW WE PUNCH OUT THE DATES, IT WAS INSPECTED, AND THAT PERMIT'S GOOD FOR ONE YEAR. SO YOU CAN WALK BY, ANYBODY IN THE GENERAL PUBLIC CAN WALK BY AND SEE THAT THEY'VE BEEN INSPECTED AND MEET THE REQUIREMENTS.

NEW SPEAKER THERE'S QUITE A BIT OF VENDORS THAT COME IN FOR THE FOURTH AND THEY And they'll go to your city manager and the fire chief for all the approval.

It needs to be get done.

A couple years ago, there was only one or two, but they didn't get them, and they're still using the city property to sell the product, and I was just wondering if you're taking care of that.

If they don't have a business license or inspection, they will be shut down this year. Thank you, sir. You're welcome, sir.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Manager.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Moving on to our next item, we have our Fire Chief's report. We have our Fire Chief, Mr. Stephen Spann.

Maybe I jumped the gun with that last. Good evening, Chief.

Mayor Johnson, how are you doing? All right. so this report we're going to give you is from april 1st to may 31st and it will address your question to council your buddy about the mobile vendors i can magically make it appear on the screen we'll go from there that's on my side okay mayor council uh So here's our calls of service for that month and a half two month period We had a total of 198 EMS calls 14 public service six alarm activation responses nine false alarms 17 non-emergency cancelled Five outside fires zero structure fires, which was nice here and One special fire, which is usually a Matanza or something like that. Two hazardous situations, nonchemical. Three hazardous situations, which is hazardous material. And one hazardous situation, investigation. Total calls for that time period is 256. Those hazardous ones, most of them are in the same location, and we're actually in the process of working with our corporate to resolve the issue right now. So fire inspections, counselor. April, they did 78. May, we've done 21 for a total of 99 inspections. Deputy Chief Duran hit the ground running with his team, and they've been catching us up. If you look, here is... THE BREAKDOWN OF THE DIFFERENT VENDORS. OUR TOP VENDOR FOR INSPECTIONS THE LAST MONTH AND A HALF IS MOBILE FOOD VENDORS. A LOT OF THEM ARE FIESTAS, A LOT OF THEM ARE JUST FOR AROUND TOWN, WHICH IS GETTING TO THE POINT NOW THAT WE'RE RECOMMENDING We're going to recommend to council that we maybe do something like Santa Fe, where we have a piece of land just for mobile food vendors so we can concentrate them there instead of everywhere a bacon lot exists. So, training, the crew's been working great. Forty-five hours of in-house training, which is a normal shift training, cover anything in the book. Two personnel, Firefighter Freeman and Firefighter Barboa, completed advanced EMT certification. So we now have three intermediates on our department for EMS. I know I'm going to say this wrong. Firefighter Mascarenas completed his EMT certification. That's 180 hours. 185 hours of training were completed at the State Fire Academy in Socorro. through our different crews. Two personnel completed the Fire Incident Safety Officer Training, which is 20 hours. That is required that we have one in every scene. We now have five certified personnel for that. It was Deputy Chief Duran and Firefighter Mayes that completed this last round. Three personnel enrolled in Mental Wellbeing Peer Support Training and Certification. Once they're done, we'll have three certified peer support counselors for our crews, and they'll be able to help them through any difficult situations they may have. For a total of 1,025 hours of training with our personnel. Staffing, right now we're at 26 uniformed, two civilian personnel. That also includes that civilian being John, our museum curator. Vacancies, we have one fire inspector, four firefighter EMTs, and one captain, who is enjoying his retirement, by the way. Spill my sign. Total activities conducted, 14. Our recruitment officer, Lieutenant Ortiz, did three new hire testings, or two new hire testings. I'm sorry, he just did the third one last week. Public events, community outreach, they've done six of those. Fire prevention, emergency preparedness, we've done six of those as well. Those include our elementaries, middle schools, and high schools. New hire testing is April 30th and May 18th for those last two months. Public Events Committee Outreach, they've done the CYFD Easter Egg Hunt. They did Kids Counseling, Sparky's birthday appearance. In fact, last week they went to a young man's birthday party at the Plus, a little five-year-old.

He got to meet Sparky, so...

Friday al frescoes, they go to those. Are you going to the concert tonight to make a public appearance there as well? It's a long agenda, Council. I'm going to kind of go through all these while you look at them because we have a... One thing we do want to do, and I want to thank you, Councilors and Mayor, for being there. We had our badge-printing ceremony, Super Manager, as well. Thank you for being there. Firefighters Rutherford, Chavez, Ortiz, Roscoe, Mears, and Watts were sworn in by the judge and have officially completed their firefighter hazmat and EMT certification and are full-blown firefighters. So when you see them, if you'll give them congratulations, please. Mr. John, he had 131 guests in April. He was open 87 hours, 87 and a half hours that whole month. He's doing pretty good. I'd like to look at getting a second part-time person so we can keep that place open at least five, six days a week. Community Connect, we're 174 this month. We went up by 10 as far as people registered. We are working with our PAO to try to get it out there to more people and get more people signed up because we can also... We see as a benefit the flooding last year we can do the reverse calling Citizens that sign up and notify them any emergencies or you need to see events going on So we're gonna work hard in that this summer any questions Questions come in Martinez Thank You mayor.

I thank you Chiefs band that was a good good report a couple of things I'd kind of like to Eventually put on. On a list, I guess would be the right way to say it is I know that we've talked in the bass about EMS. You know the city of Las Vegas taking taking that over at one point and. You know those are that's just an area that. It's still a very gray area and we need to concentrate on working on how do we get to that point if we're going to finally develop that that system or not. I also understand that there might be a possible one of our trucks, one of the ladder truck that might need re-inspection as well. So I know that's probably something that you probably have in the works as well. Normally for the Fiestas, I know that the state of New Mexico has a LP gas inspector come down and they check all these... Mobile food trucks that come into our community and. I've got his information if you need it. I could share that with you at any point that way. If you guys need to be in communication, it's best if once he certifies him, then I guess they're good for a year as well. But I just if you need that kind of information, I have access to some of that in case I'm not sure if you had that or not. I'm sure you do, but if not, I could. I could share that information with you. Thank you for your report, sir. You're welcome, sir. Okay.

Thank you, Chief. And I know on the fire truck, as Councilman Martinez brought up, I know when Mr. Manager and I met with Santa Fe, there was discussion. Chief did bring up about the need about getting it recertified or reinspected. So we can't, in this community, afford to be without a truck. So they did afford. They just wanted a timeline on how long it was going to take. I guess you guys are probably working out that information.

Mr. Manager.

Yeah, Mayor, Council, I would say yes. The feedback we received from the city was positive and being able to work with us, we just need to work out the logistics on timing it will take for refurbishing so that they can schedule and time a loaner in the interim. And so that coupled with also the desire from the city to buy a brand new truck are also things that we're discussing and working on.

Thank you, Chief.

Mr. Mayor, moving on to our next item, our approval of minutes for May 27th, 2026.

It's the pleasure of the council.

Mr. Mayor, I move approval of the minutes for May 27th.

A motion by Councillor Casey, second by Council Member LaVarie. All in favor? Aye. Those opposed, same sign. The ayes have it.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Moving on to our presentations, not to exceed 10 to 15 minutes. Our first presentation by Tim Jim Ter, speaking on the Tasna Moss Jingle.

Chief, if you don't mind keeping us on track. Thank you.

Welcome. Did you say something to me?

No, I was talking to Chief for presentations. They're timed, so just making sure he has his timer on. Welcome, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. And thank you, Mayor and Councillor Casey, for your enthusiasm about this project and having me scheduled. As background, sometime in 19... in the 1990s, I should be able to say, but I can't say any closer than that. I was contracted to write a radio jingle for the, by a PR firm in Albuquerque that was contracted to the Energy, Mineral, and Natural Resources Department of the state. Is there still that sort of department there? Okay, and it was, this was a jingle idea they had called Toss No Moss. And they asked me to write a jingle for it. And I did. And it came out pretty well and was pretty popular for years. And I think apparently a lot of people still remember it. And I understand you can run a video about it to remind people what it was?

Behold the common duck a Remarkably complex creature the duck exhibits a broad range of behaviors while one did

Yeah, Toss No Moss. I just wanted to say with a little bit of pride that I wrote that jingle. I understand it's the longest running jingle in New Mexico, something like 20 years so far. I wrote it and Michael Hearn added a chord which improved it quite a bit. uh he recorded he's the guy singing the jingle and uh i hope he's proud of it too toss no moss and i'm gonna include a few photos of uh we're trying to keep uh clean and uh beautiful here in new mexico riding the highway in new mexico

That's what she said. My beauty is fading, it soon may be dead. You're spoiling my highways, my beautiful lands. But you hardly answer the palms of your hands. And when she was through, I thought I would keep my New Mexico new. Toss no moss, this story is true. Our land is our treasure and it's up to you. Toss no moss, keep the spirit alive. Keep New Mexico clean and the beauty will survive.

Okay, so I put that video together also just for this, just to show that jingle. Now, I came up, it only took me like 30 years to think of this, but I thought, why don't I try to do one for Las Vegas? And so I rewrote it, and a couple people here have heard it, but I understood we were gonna have a video of it, but apparently not. Did you all get the lyrics in your package? Should you get the lyrics to the old and the new version?

It was a separate paper that was, there it is.

Oh. Can I borrow one maybe from there, because?

Thank you. May I have Miss June sing it for us?

I'll sing it. I'm proposing to sing it, so. Wish I had the recording, but here it is. Driving through Vegas on Bridge Street or Grand, beauty and mystery go hand in hand. Such subtle charm, not glitter or flash, but so hard to see when it's covered with trash. Toss no moss, keep Vegas clean. Trash is for hiding, it's not to be seen. The proper receptacle is waiting for you. to deliver your litter and keep Vegas new. Yes, we've got a legend, a ravishing pearl. There's nothing quite like it in this beautiful world. Toss no moss, keep Vegas clean. Trash is for hiding. It's not to be seen. The proper receptacle's waiting for you to drop off your litter and keep Vegas new. So that's... Okay, so anyway, I'm proposing to re-record that with myself and a female vocal, maybe Brenda Ortega or Marielena Valdez, who sings a lot with me. to do a jingle and also to do a video. And I do a lot of videos and photographs of Las Vegas. You may see them on Facebook and stuff. And I even have a book of those pictures. But then as far as getting it seen, well, we would hope the radio stations will play it as a one-minute jingle. And then I have my own YouTube channel that's got 3 million views. So I can usually get some good views on there. I have a couple videos about Las Vegas that have gotten a lot of views. One is about Las Vegas as a film location, and that's gotten 73,000 views. And one that I did with Brenda Ortega called The Real Las Vegas, that's got about 45,000 views. And so anyway, let's see. So I'm proposing to do that jingle and video. I'm asking $1,500. that and I can also I'm pretty good at promotion in in addition to whatever the city can do to promote it I've been pretty successful with getting news coverage like from the TV stations and so on they might they might have they might appreciate this angle that it's an old jingle but we redid it for Vegas and Vegas is getting some advertising some publicity from the video and the jingle and so on So I think it's got a good shot at maybe upping the awareness of Las Vegas a little bit. That's my hope. Any other, any questions?

So would you already have kind of like a production set or not? Because I'm just thinking here, I see Justin in the back, and we could, if they're littering, we just have Justin give them a ticket or a citation. And I kind of have all these ideas right now. But no, no, no comments from me. It's a good idea, and I think this is something that the commitment that this governing body has in cleaning its community up.

Well, again, we didn't get it on the computer tonight, but I do have on YouTube a demo of this new version with music and everything. And that's pretty much the way it would be, except it would have also female voices and and be more full than that. So anyway, it is there for inspection if you can find it.

And I'll share it with them. I don't know if I got the most updated, but I know you had sent me and I think Councillor Casey the short version, but if we can get that, we'll share it with them. But I guess, Mr. Manager... I guess I know this ain't an agenda item, but maybe if you could sit down with Mr. Terrell or with the appropriate staff and see if there is a way for this to get funded. I think it's something we all agree on, something that we should look into.

Mr. Mayor, I just wanted to add, maybe this is something that maybe through community development and Sunny 505 might maybe pair with that. I don't know. I'm just thinking that. They were on last week. Now we have this return here now. So I mean, it would have been nice to have them together now.

And because it has such wide distribution, might we be able to use some lodgers tax money because it promotes people wanting to come to Las Vegas and see what it's really like? Is it really trashy or is it really clean? So I think it's a great idea. Yeah. So if we can do that, we can help fund to move this forward.

Manager, you'll work with the appropriate staff to make sure that we do it right, if, you know, appropriately.

Absolutely, Mayor, Councillors. I was going to ask if maybe you'd consider writing one about some of the trash on Facebook and trying to keep some of that clean.

Yeah, I complain about that myself now and then. In fact, I resigned from one of the pages where things get a little too negative. I was going to say one other thing. Well, it's my instinct after years of doing a lot of these videos and things that people in Vegas, probably anywhere, but people in Vegas really get into it when you, I mean, it may be almost sappy. some of the ideas in this video, but people really like community pride and to feel that and to share that, which is the important part, sending this video to other people they know in other places. And I think it's just a positive thing, the way people respond to things like that and get them circulating. So I think that's it for me.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Turr. Thank you for your interest. So you'll be hearing from Mr. Manager or the appropriate staff and see how we move this forward. I appreciate you.

Now I have the tune stuck in my head. I'm going to be singing it all night.

So Councillor Casey will be singing after. Ms. Cassandra?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Moving on to our next presentation by Lucas Marcus, giving an update on code enforcement. He's our community development director.

Good evening.

Good evening, Mayor, Council, Mr. City Manager. Brought my guys here with me tonight so we could put a face to all the uh and if they don't mind coming up carlos and yeah they're going to be coming up now a little shy but we'll make sure they get up here well good evening guys good evening mr mayor for everybody that doesn't know that i'm to my left here is of course mr justin marcus he's been with us for quite a while he's our supervisor at the community at the community development code enforcement division uh on the other side of uh me over here to the right is mr uh Matthew Roscoe, uh, none of our officers and Mr. Carlos Gonzalez over there has also one of our officers, uh, the individuals that are out in the streets on trying to keep the neighborhoods as clean as they possibly can. Uh, so if we could just have our presentation pop up on the screen, I'll go ahead and I'll give a little bit of explanation and the guys are going to help me through some of these things. Cause they're, they're really knowledgeable in their areas.

And councillors if we can just will allow the presentation to take place and then normally on the presentations I won't allow but I think this topic is very important so I'll allow some questions. Go ahead. Chief you'll keep the timer going?

What I want to do is just kind of describe the slide. We do have our mission statement up there, but this slide outlines the core mission and strategic approach of the City of Las Vegas Code Enforcement Department. The primary mission is to protect public health and safety by maintaining properties, regulating waste, and upholding community standards. To achieve this, Justin and his crew, they employ a three-part strategy. And this is discussions that we've had constantly. We always try to do warnings first. We focus on voluntary compliance and communication rather than immediate legal action. And that way it gives these guys a chance to get to know the people out there in the community and we're able to talk with them and kind of educate them. And that's the main thing is educating them about what goes on in this area. They do the risk mitigation is our second one, where they proactively identify and remove potential environmental hazards. And Justin has done that numerous times. And vigilance, they maintain a consistent presence in the community to ensure standards are met. And the way we can tell that that's working is by our building permits or zoning clearances coming in. We've had an uptake in that since they came back over here to community development. It's just begun to rise. People are recognizing that they're out there. So that's the way we work on our first sheet right here. Again, we talked about warning first mentality. So they do try to prioritize compliance. They try to focus on the department's warnings first mentality, which emphasizes proactive communication over immediate legal action. The core approach is to prioritize voluntary compliance and a dialogue between officers and property owners. We really want to make sure we get that done, where we're able to talk with them every day. And they do do the knock-in talks. They sit there, they talk with them. They've even assisted them on finding people that would clean their yards for them. The goal is to achieve community standards through education rather than punishment. Um, that's one of the main things is we don't want to feel like we're coming to these people and punishing them for their yards. A lot of times, this is, uh, the mentality of our community that they've, they've had these, these properties looking like this for decades and family and generations, and it's nothing new to them. So it doesn't, it doesn't seem like it's affecting anybody. Um, but there is new, new ordinances that Justin and them have to push forward on. Um, so they do minimize punitive measures of fines, uh, in that, in that sense. This is our operational volume and action distribution from January to June. They've had 690 total calls for service. They had a significant activity in January with 214 service calls. 113 total citations were issued. Citations, they represent 13.8% of total service calls, reflecting a commitment to the warning first. And I want to make sure that I reiterate this to everybody that citation doesn't show work for code enforcement, compliance does. So if we get a minimal amount of citations and we're getting compliance, then we're in the right track. We're doing the right thing. We're on the right track. They have 105 violation notices, which are pink and yellow tags. Those are pretty much like our door hangers and our knock and talks that we get to give to the people and say, this is what you're violating and we need this to be corrected. 72 72 final notices. Those are our red tags and those those red tags have assisted us In abatements that we've we've really gone over a lot of the numbers So as far as the word we see the 72 those in our total red tags Those are just our final notices before abatement.

So those are our final notices since January That's really good.

That's in other words is what he's trying to say. So But they have, they assist us in these abatements. And there's a time when there's health and safety that comes into play. And we request immediate abatement through our city manager. And if he feels the same way that we do, then we go ahead and act. 33 vehicle stickers. Vehicle stickers are very touchy. We've had a really hard time in trying to redirect that ordinance. And we're gonna be working on that myself, along with the chief. We'll be looking at how we can correct that because it ties our hands once we put a sticker on a vehicle it ties our hands without question for 10 days we cannot touch that vehicle anymore that has to give the property owner enough time to take care of the problem and if we if we move it before then then we can face litigation and we don't we don't want to bring the city into that type of thing so we do have to give the 10 days And of course, we do have some cease and desist orders out there. The most recent was an illegal business that was cited on South Pacific and Independence dealt with an issue there. And I want to thank Fire Chief for his knowledge in a lot of that area that we had discussed and also Police Chief Marcus for sending us officers out there as well. These are just pretty much a visualization of the tags. You have our violation notices, our vehicle stickers, our red tag, and our cease and desist.

And then... You want to go back to that last slide? Sure, sure. So just to kind of like break it down. So the first one you see the violation notice, that's kind of if there's nobody there, that's kind of our first line of work right there. That's our door tag. That's just letting the community know or the property owner know that your yards, your property is out of compliance with the city, with the code guidelines, vehicle sticker obviously there. That's what we post. That's our legal notice for any abandoned and operable vehicles on city easements and roadways and right-of-ways. red tag that's kind of the big one when you see a red tag on your property that's means that you're it's it's a hazard it's it's a priority something needs to get done immediately that's that's probably our biggest form of of enforcement I would say the most serious form of enforcement so that's a red tag is probably something you don't want to see on your property and then of course the cease and desist is mostly it's for illegal construction, businesses operating without permits, stuff like that. That's our legal authority to shut them down until they get their proper permits and licensing. Thank you.

This slide kind of shows a little bit of what the stuff that they deal with, overgrown vegetation. You could see our tags are on there. They do try to make these knock-in talks as best as they can. When they find the property owner, usually the property owners are pretty compliant, and we do have some that get pretty defensive on us, and we've got to make sure that we try to give them a little bit of verbal judo and let them speak their piece and let them say what they need to say, their part, and then we try to explain to them what our ordinances are The main thing that they try to express is that it's not their rules, it's our city ordinances. And there are things that we're looking at to try to modernize as well. So unsanitary premises is huge for us as well in certain areas. We got some areas that really need some work and we're trying to do our best to get to what we need to get to. And I believe this is the last one. This is our rapid intervention. This is where Justin says that this is a place that is about to fall down or it's become a place where vagrants are going in and kicking in doors and staying in there, possibly starting fires. We've had situations where they have gone on to calls and actually have found deceased bodies. So we've got to be prepared for what they're going to encounter. Very, very strange areas that they have to deal with sometimes. You know, this is the type of things that we look around to to try to find, to try to make our neighborhoods a lot safer. Justin, you don't have anything to add on this one?

These ones have been pretty common as of late. You know, we see a lot of dilapidated structures, fences falling over, stuff like that. So we've been really vigilant, especially in the alleyways is where we find most of these things. these issues, especially when it comes to fencing, stuff like that. But I mean, I can't thank these guys, Officer Gonzalez, Officer Rascón. They're boots on the ground as soon as they get to work. They're ready to work. They're on it all day long, talking to people, walking up and down neighborhoods, placing notices. On a side note too, Right now these guys are working, they've been working really hard on the overgrown vegetation. It's overgrown weed season. So between the calls, the abatements, all the calls for service, they're actively out there. trying to get to every neighborhood. I know it's going to be pretty much impossible with what we have, but, you know, we're trying our best. We're making our best effort. I can't commend these guys enough. They're out there. They're walking. They're walking through alleyways. They're talking to everybody they can. They're leaving notices. So they're out there. And I really appreciate these guys. And, you know, I really commend them for what they do. They're really hard workers. So I just want to give them their praise.

This week, Mayor and Council, we're out on the west side of town. They've been hitting the areas of like Cavanaugh, Socorro, Valley Street, those areas. They've been hitting that area hard. I believe Justin is going to continue down the road like that. He assigns each one to a different district. They try to stay as close as they can in proximity because they are, these are touchy issues and sometimes people don't really agree with what our uh speculation is and we got to make sure that we we keep each other safe when we're out there obviously so that is a it's a difficult job like i said they do the knock and talks they do have a lot of compliance but we also have the a few individuals that that feel that we don't have no business in their area So, again, they're on the west side. We'll be moving on closer to the other side of town here pretty soon. I know the weed season's here, so me and Justin have already sat and talked with the guys. And that's where we're coming at now is we're going to get on the radio. We're going to make sure we get our point across with Amanda to get those PSAs out there. Of course, with the guidance of the city manager to go ahead and make sure we get those weeds and other things under control before the summer gets here. We've got the 4th of July coming on. The main visualization for us right now is to try to hit every corridor that leads into the Plaza Park. So you'll see this on Hot Springs. You'll see us on South Pacific. You'll see us in the Bridge Street area. You'll see us in those areas that we're going to be trying to get to so we can make sure that we have properties in order for when we have all these visitors, the 14,000 plus that come to these fiestas, that they're seeing the better side of Las Vegas and the community pride that we instill.

That's 10 minutes, Mr. Mayor.

Mr. Mayor, I just wanted to add some comments, if I could. We realize and recognize that there's always room for growth and improvement. And I just wanted to note, when you look at ordinances, when you look at the fire code, when you look at the building code and permits, Animal control, our community service aides and the police department work, all of those interface with one another on a continuous and regular basis and we need to do a better job of linking all of those various aspects in a coordinated manner. and so this team has been committed to doing the work that they're doing but it takes all of the city including the police department including the fire department including building permits and code and also the integration of animal control as we navigate compliance and information and actual good, successful outcomes for the city and for primarily the citizens of the city of Las Vegas. And so I want to give Chief Caleb an opportunity to talk about a couple of those pieces, because we're doing this work, and we're in the discovery mode, right? And so we're making sure that we're communicating first, but then starting to better understand the ordinances Better make sure that we're citing into the appropriate ordinances and most importantly as it relates to anything code related and legal that we have the connection to the judge that helps us close the loop. And so all of those facets are in progress. There has been a pattern within the city over decades of transferring code enforcement from one department to another then back community development. And so what we're working together as a team to do is is begin to work together to get our hands around the whole context of what the needs are, and then how collectively we work together to work through an interface that's more successful across those various departments. So I'm gonna start with you, Chief Caleb, and then I'd also like Chief Spann to make some comments, because we're all sitting around the same table trying to help navigate the challenges that these gentlemen deal with on a daily basis.

Thank you, Mr. Manager. Thank you, uh, mayor counsel. Yeah. So we've been meeting, uh, every Monday since, um, the beginning of me, uh, to try to coordinate, to see what's going to best fit, um, the enforcement for animal control code enforcement, uh, fire code, uh, and as all incorporated into one, um, um, whether that's revamping ordinances that may not be covered by certain codes, um, which courts we're going to cite into for certain violations. and how to proceed forward collectively working as a group. And we have accomplished certain small goals in the meantime as far as even commissioning code enforcement to have citation authority on certain portions of property for vehicles and also committing manpower with our community service aides and animal control to assist alongside with code enforcement in the meantime. There's a lot of different codes ordinances and regulations to follow. So it's just going to be finding the right way to incorporate all of them together.

It's working this time. Yes, sir. Like Chief Kip, Caleb said, we have been meeting every Monday on this. We're working with them because we're in the process of actually moving the fire code to 2021, which would move the city also with the building code and existing building code of that to give these guys more power and authority as well. So we're working with the city manager and them to get there. And we've worked great with the code enforcement for years, so.

Also, Mayor and Council, Chief Spann and Chief Marcus, I do thank them because they have been sharing a lot of their expertise with us in this issue now that we're facing. Again, like the way City Manager said, we feel that there's a lot of ways that we can all intertwine with our ordinances. Right now, we have, like the way Chief Marcus said, we have a lot of ordinances, a lot of ordinances that these guys have to follow, so it's hard for them to sit down and be able to memorize them even though justin has about 90 of the book memorized uh i usually call him and he'll i'll tell him what sections that's this out and he'll just say i think good if you look at this section you'll find it and it's there so he knows what he's talking about the thing about it with our ordinances and i feel this and i've been we've discussed this as well our ordinances are antiquated And we've been moving forward, and I want to thank the clerk, Cassandra Frescas, in assisting us and getting in touch with our attorneys to make sure that we're doing the right method of updating our ordinances. And still have to sit down with city manager and a couple of them that we want to really look at differently. Am I correct, Mr. City Manager? And, you know, again, I really thank the chiefs for their support and the city manager for support as we're moving forward with this stuff. I think code enforcement has a good chance of getting a lot further this summer. And they're in the areas that they weren't typically at before. And that's one thing I can say. We're in the areas where we typically wouldn't go into before. These guys are poking their heads in there. We remove cars from a certain street. If we move two cars, four more cars are there in the next day. So it's kind of like, you know, it's cutting off a snake's head and they grow back two more heads. So we're going to continue doing that until we get to zero heads, hopefully, and then see what happens. Again, appreciate that. There's times that we do have to respect our law enforcement because they might have something going on in that area that we need to stay away from. But we'll stop for any questions, Mr. Mayor and Mr. Councilors. We appreciate you guys.

Thank you, Mr. City Manager, Mr. Mayor, Council. We have a problem. Code enforcement, thank you for all the work you do. Maybe you're short-handed, I'm not sure. But city yards, stop signs, weeds. I live on Ward 1. I almost go through part of the streets day in and day out. You guys are doing a good job, but we need to step it up. There's a lot of work to be done, and it's hard. It's very hard. It's hard for me, because I try and take care of my part. But you guys are our enforcement. You guys have the red tags. And I don't see too much of the who's getting tagged, who's not getting tagged. I can have my city manager go with me and my mayor, and I can show them what I'm talking about. That's only my work. I just want to thank you guys for the hard work you're doing, and it just takes a lot of work. Thank you.

Mayor, council, thank you for recognizing the short-handedness. We appreciate that. With the direction of my city manager, we have opened up two more positions, and we're in discussion and see how we could go ahead and get those positions filled quickly. I know that the community is responding to it real good, so we're going to check to see how much applicants we might have with our HR consuelo and make sure that we have some people there, and she'll give us the best candidates possible. I know that for sure. Thank you, sir.

Councilman Martinez.

Thank you, Mayor. You need to know that I do respect the work you guys do out there in the field. It's not an easy job to tell somebody to clean their yard when it's been abandoned for years. But it's all our job, too, to play a role in making sure that... you know, we inform, you know, of course, Director Mr. Marcus, and we're part of that same solution. We want to make sure that we're out there in the field when we go out there to visit sites that we recognize bad areas, that we bring it to his attention, and then, of course, work gets, you know, completed and done. One of the big questions that you YOU ACTUALLY ANSWERED WAS A QUESTION THAT I HAD. THE ANNUAL INSPECTIONS THAT ARE PRODUCED FOR FIRE DEPARTMENT, ARE THOSE ANNUAL INSPECTIONS WORKING, YOU KNOW, TIING TOGETHER WITH CODE ENFORCEMENT AND THEIR NEEDS? AND, YOU KNOW, OF COURSE, I THINK THAT'S SOMETHING THAT YOU'RE PUTTING TOGETHER AT CURRENT, WHICH IS A GOOD THING, BECAUSE IF FIRE GOES OUT THERE AND DOES AN INSPECTION FOR A NEW BUSINESS OR HOME, WHATEVER IT MIGHT BE, I guess it would be more a business, for example. If it's all trashed out, that needs to be raised right away so that that can be taken care of and maybe even that license be held back until it is taken care of. It's our responsibility, our community, to make sure that we keep our community clean. If everybody took care of their own yard, it would be great. But there's bigger issues. There's abatement issues. There's homes that are abandoned and And we all recognize that all of our wards have the same issues. There's none that are different from the other. It might be a new part of town with bad issues. It might be an old part of town with the same issues. So I recognize your work. I appreciate it. This council is making sure that we are providing the resources, the funding that's necessary to make sure that you guys have you know, the financial support to add people to your, you know, to that employment area because it's important that we take care of those issues in a positive way. We're also making sure that hopefully we can increase the abatement fund so that we can get more of that taken care of in our community. So we're here to support. I know that a lot of times we have issues trying to communicate maybe, and we might hear the same stories, whether it be myself, Councilman Uberry, anybody of us here. We do care about our community. Otherwise, we wouldn't be sitting up here. But you guys are doing the work out there in the field, so we appreciate that very much. I commend you guys for your work and hard work. Any way that we can... be a resource for you guys moving forward. I just want to make sure that we do. And we need to be, we need to hear from you too. So I appreciate you bringing them on today and having that presentation. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just want to thank both the Director of Community Development and the crew, because you do an amazing job. And I know that a lot of people complain all the time, saying, oh, so-and-so's yard is a mess, and code enforcement doesn't do anything, and... I tried to explain to people that there's only three of you, and we have a lot, a lot, a lot of properties that really need work, and you can't do everything in one day. Also, I think a lot of people do not bother to even know that there is an ordinance. THAT WE NEED TO KEEP OUR PROPERTIES CLEAN AND THE WHOLE PROCESS FOR CODE ENFORCEMENT TAKES TIME. YOU HAVE TO GIVE PEOPLE TIME TO MOVE THEIR CARS, YOU KNOW, TEN DAYS AND SOMETIMES PEOPLE FORGET OR THEY GET BUSY OR THEY GET SICK AND THEY CAN'T MOVE THAT CAR. IT TAKES ANOTHER TEN DAYS. PEOPLE DON'T UNDERSTAND THE PROCESS AND I THINK THAT We as counselors need to help people understand the work that you do and that there's only three of you. and once you say that they say well you need to hire more people oh yeah we do we know that it's just trying to get those people hired so um but i want to thank you for the work that you do it's not an easy job i would not want to be in in your job because it's difficult to deal with people who get angry because you you know red tag their property or you told them you know we're going to have to do something DRASTIC HERE IF YOU DON'T DO SOMETHING TO FIX YOUR YARD AND GET IT CLEANED UP. SO I COMMEND YOU FOR TAKING THAT ON, AND I APPRECIATE EVERYTHING THAT YOU DO, AND I DO MY BEST TO EXPLAIN TO PEOPLE THAT THERE IS A PROCESS, AND THE PROCESS TAKES TIME. SO THEY CAN'T REPORT SOMETHING AND WANT IT CLEANED UP LIKE THE NEXT DAY. SO JUST THANK YOU AGAIN FOR YOUR PATIENCE AND FOR YOUR WILLINGNESS TO SERVE THE COMMUNITY IN AN EXTREMELY DIFFICULT JOB. THANK YOU.

Thank you, Councillor. Thank you. I just want to have a few questions first. I'm just, are you guys wearing lapels? No, not currently. Is that something that's been looked into yet?

We've been looking into it. As a matter of fact, Chief tried to help us out. The cost is exorbitant, though. It's a huge amount. Something that I'm going to sit with the City Manager and Chief both chiefs actually, and discuss. I know there's a different route that we could take that would be a little less expensive. I just want to make sure the effectiveness is going to be there for them because I do want these guys to have some form of protection. They're out there with just, you know, just... There are ordinances and there are citation books and it's kind of, it's a rough situation for them. They're put in rough situations.

And the reason why I asked that, number one, just a public safety issue is that I know many times we get, you know, calls or one side of the story and it's completely different once the lapel is viewed. So I just wanted to, you know, if we could kind of keep that on the radar. but i did want to also acknowledge i know mr manager myself and in june just recently last week went to a county commission meeting and mr justin demos their planning and zoning individual was speaking to the commission and he brought up something that i know that i'll get to but HE TALKED ABOUT DOCUMENTATION AND ENCOURAGE THE COUNCIL TO DOCUMENT ANYTHING SO THAT WAY IT'S ANY COMPLAINT IS DOCUMENTED SO THAT WAY THERE'S A PAPER TRAIL. AND I'M GOING INTO NOW DOCUMENTATION. I KNOW THAT'S SOMETHING THAT WE'VE BEEN TALKING ABOUT AND I SAW THE LIST OF NOTICES AND I DON'T KNOW IF WE COULD PULL THAT SLIDE SHOW WITH NOTICES. AND THE QUESTION THAT I HAVE IS HOW ARE WE DOCUMENTING BECAUSE I BELIEVE WE'RE SHORT HANDED BUT I ALSO THINK WE NEED A DATA PERSON. BECAUSE THESE INDIVIDUALS CAN BE OUT ON THE FIELD, AND I'M JUST CURIOUS HOW WE'RE TRACKING THE DATA FROM THE FIRST NOTICE, IF WE CAN GET THE NOTICE UP FROM THE WARNING ALL THE WAY TILL THE END, AND HOW ARE WE FOLLOWING THROUGH? BECAUSE I THINK IN MY PERSPECTIVE, SOMETIMES I THINK WE MISS, YOU KNOW, SOME OF THE TIMES ON THIS, IT COMES TO OUR VIEW, IF WE COULD KIND OF TOUCH UP ON THAT AND HOW WE...

SO WITH OUR DOOR TAGS, OUR VIOLATION NOTICES, WE ACTUALLY HAVE A TEAR-OFF TAB ON THEM, SO WE CAN PUT THE ADDRESS, THE date um the violation and when we're planning on following up so we have a pretty good record of that we keep all of our the rest of our files our red tags we have a we have an online uh storage for them in numerical order by property number so everything every every uh every citation we issue every red tag we post every cease and desist we we post, any vehicle sticker we post. Everything is documented. My officers take tons of pictures of everything. Their reports are immaculate. Everything's in those online files. So we do have a file system for everything that you, if anybody NEEDS ANY TYPE OF, YOU KNOW, INFORMATION OR EVIDENCE, AND WE STORE EVERYTHING. WE HAVE EVERYTHING. WE HAVE A PRETTY GOOD FILE SYSTEM. WE HAVE A PRETTY GOOD CALENDAR SYSTEM. THESE GUYS ARE ON POINT WITH EVERY CALL. THEY KNOW EXACTLY WHAT FOLLOW-UP THEY NEED TO DO, WHAT DAY, WHAT TIME, EVERYTHING. AND MY OFFICERS ARE SO GOOD AT THEIR JOBS, I MEAN, I CAN'T COMPLIMENT THEM ENOUGH, YOU KNOW. THEY'RE SO GOOD WITH THE PUBLIC, YOU KNOW, WITH THE PROPERTY OWNERS THAT, YOU KNOW, WHENEVER We have to conduct a follow-up. They'll let them know, hey, we're going to be back on the same day next week at 11 o'clock a.m. So make sure, you know, somebody's here, you're here because we're going to be back. So we have a pretty good formula for all of that. We have a pretty decent, pretty good filing system for all of that. I don't know if any of my officers have anything to add to that or.

Just are we not using and I think one of the priorities was in that novel system was going to be coding are we?

So just to follow up on that. Yes, sir. Mr. Mayor, they thank you know, thank you to Adele and to city manager. We do have the novel solutions now and they are they're they're utilizing novel solutions and entering their their cases into the novel solutions that will help us keep a track record of problem properties. And that's what that's what we're trying to make sure that we look at if we're coming back to the same house for the same issue every Three weeks four weeks then now Justin knows what what route he has to take to go a little bit more severe and that's where we end the whole Compliance thing and we start going into the legal realms and I'd be doing a dishonor a disservice if I wouldn't mention How much backing we have from our Honorable Judge Trujillo? he does he does give us a lot of advice and he assists us and issues that we that we run into brick walls on and But Justin and the boys, they're using the novel solutions and they're going to continue using the novel solutions to kind of keep our heads in the game.

So with that, Mr. Manager, if myself or let's say Councilman Ulibarri or Councilman Martinez or Councilor Casey, we... BEEN FROM CERTAIN INDIVIDUALS ABOUT CERTAIN PROBLEM, BECAUSE I THINK, I MEAN, I DO AGREE THAT WE HAVE TO HIT UP SOME OF OUR ORDINANCES ON REPEAT OFFENDERS, BUT IF WE WANTED TO GO IN THERE RIGHT NOW, ALL THESE, SOME OF THE ISSUES THAT I KNOW HAVE BEEN BROUGHT UP IN THE PAST, THOSE WOULD BE IN THERE, WE WOULD KNOW THEY'RE AT THEIR 10-DAY OR I'm just trying to figure a tracking because I wish, I mean, I know sometimes they say you guys should be in our shoes, but you guys could also, I mean, could be in our shoes also when we get calls. I know on Chavez Street generator, every time it's turned on, it seems like I get four or five different calls. You know what I mean? So I'm just, you know, at what point, what point I can say, hey, this is where we're at. It's going to be pulled off or something's going to happen by tomorrow. I guess that's where we need to get to that point, I guess, of

Mr. Mayor, members of the council, the public, I want to back up and make a comment first. Relative to the two additional positions that you noted, we're advancing those because we got the support and the resources from mayor and council to do that. So I wanted to say that on the record, credit to the Mayor and Council for that support and those additional dollars. Tied to your specific question, we're absolutely on the same page, Mayor. Adele Lutie, Jimmy Sise, and the Novo Solutions team have been working incrementally with primary departments that take in the highest volume of concerns and issues raised by the public. Code enforcement, public works, animal control, and there's one other, Adele, am I missing one, or are those three primary? Those are the three. Those are the three primary Adele and her team Jimmy and novel solutions have been working with the code enforcement team on Populating and building those mechanisms and forms that we will utilize To be able to kick start the system now at the beginning of the fiscal year So we're actually to the point now where we're ready to pull the trigger and start the program for novel solutions And that integration has already started with those departments that I noted. So shortly thereafter you will be in a position as Mayor and Council to be able to go in specifically and look at those particular items and areas that you've raised on a specific street for pothole repair, for nuisance abatements for car removal all of those things will be populated and tracked and so we're going to build it out department by department throughout the whole city but it is a process to go through each department so we started with those highest use departments and I've been in coordination and communication today as a matter of fact follow up with our communications folks with Amanda and Elena and our teams internally, Adele, to make sure that as we roll it out, we do so in a systematic way so that it's a useful tool for you and it's a useful tool for the public. The essence of the system is a comprehensive work order ticketing system that will help us track many data sets across many requests. And so I say that with one of my former professors, Dr. Spencer, in the room, that if we don't have sound data sets, then we can effectuate good budgeting, good skills management, good project management, good delivery of services to the citizens. So the Novo Solutions software is at the core of making sure that we have the appropriate data sets and that we're implementing it and using it so it's a functional tool for you to look at, but also for the public to be able to navigate when the public makes requests for repairs on roads, nuisance abatement, or other concerns that arise.

And this is why I bring that up on documentation and data. you know, hearing from the counties, uh, uh, planning and zoning individual on documentation, even encouraging, you know, the commission to say, if you guys have concerns, put it in, uh, in documentation, document it. And I was just, you know, I think we need, sometimes we just didn't get a, uh, air, make a call, but I, we need to make sure that that's documented. And the way I was I was able to, you know, talk to them after, and it's because at the end, any documentation that you get is going to be better when you go to court. So I'm just, I just want to make sure, and I know we've been using Google Drive for a while, but Google Drive, I don't, I mean, I know it's not populating the 10 day, is it populating the 10 day, you know, after the, the Google Drive will populate that?

No, I was just agreeing with you, Mr. Mayor. Oh, okay, okay.

So I guess that's where I'm at, is after the notice is given in 10 days, do we get something pops up, says, okay, today's the 10th day, because these guys are so overwhelmed, as we mentioned, right? I totally agree with that, but... that 10 day might slip, and maybe on the 13th day we get a call and say, hey, it's been 10 days, there hasn't been nothing, and then it takes, that's what I'm trying to get is more automated is what we need, more automation and more help in that area, and that's why I say a data person on top of the guys in the field, maybe we need a data person that's just inputting all the,

MR. MAYOR, WE'RE ACTUALLY IN DISCUSSIONS OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT. CITY MANAGER AND CONSUELO, WE'VE BEEN WORKING ON A JOB DESCRIPTION. ONCE WITH HIS DIRECTION, WE'LL APPROACH AND SEE WHAT THE CONSUELO. THANK YOU.

YOU GUYS ARE ON IT THEN. YES, SIR. THANK YOU.

MR. MAYOR. MR. MANAGER, I KNOW CORE ENFORCEMENT IS A TOUGH JOB BECAUSE WE HAVE 15, 12, AND 14 RESIDENTS AROUND TOWN. THERE'S A PROBLEM. The thing is that you guys have the range to do it, to take care of it. I've seen red tags torn apart. You throw them on the side. I check them out. They're two years old. By tracking that, Mr. Marquez, by tracking that, you track it, or Mr. City Manager tracks it. You know, we've got residents that don't care. We've got residents that do care. And it's hard. We see it day in and day out. But you know what it is? You've got to care about this beautiful city.

I love it. I love this city.

And I take care as much as I can. And I'm not going to be there every day. I'll go through the same street somewhere every day, and there's something done and something that's not done. Sometimes I'm going to have to take my city manager and my to go over my ward, Ward 1, and I could go over a whole city and just track everything, some of it down. And I say you guys do a good job, but we might be lacking a little bit of maybe more foreign enforcement people to take a look at that.

Thank you, sir. Mayor, Council, yes, definitely. And we do recognize that as well. But with the benefit of the abatement fund that we had, we were able to come at some of these residents that had been red-tagged for two years previously. And we were able to knock down a lot of houses that were dangerous to the community. uh so we do we have we have spoken with the with the city manager and mr morris we're going to see if we can up that that budget eventually uh right now we do have a lot that a lot of money in there that we can we can use well right now not we we've expended it really pretty much we've bought in the proper um fencing that's needed we've knocked down the houses and of course paid the individuals that have done it for us So, you know, we do, we recognize that there's some issues and we're out there diligently every day facing the biggest challenge there is. There's three guys to 1,300 homes, or 13,000 homes, and they're doing their best to get this in order.

Mr. Marcus, it would be nice for me and the rest of the council to have a tracking, some kind of tracking to see what my court enforcement's working on. UNDER WARD ONE, WARD TWO, WARD THREE, WARD FOUR, BECAUSE IT'S JUST THINGS THAT WE SEE. YES, SIR. MR. COUNSELOR. AND SOMETIMES WE DO GET A PIECE OF PAPER AND SAY, WE WOULD DO THIS, DO THAT, BUT WE DON'T SEE WHAT AREAS THEY'RE WORKING ON BECAUSE WE SEE IT. THEY MIGHT SEE IT IN A DIFFERENT WAY. THEY HAVE THEIR HANDS TIED WITH A LOT OF THINGS THAT THEY DO. And it's a tough job. And we're there to take care of, to take care as much as we can. Thank you.

Thank you, Constable.

Mr. Manager? I just want to give the Chief a chance to comment. Lapel cameras are an essential tool for code enforcement. We had them before and we need to get them back. And so we're working with the Municipal League to help with that. Chief, did you want to make any comments?

So currently, uh, we do get reimbursed to the municipal league or insurance providers for, um, body worn cameras. We did reach out, uh, to see if code enforcement would fall within that, um, parameter of being able to be covered, unfortunately, because they don't fall under the police department there. They're not. But what we did do is we had some equipment that's still in good shape. Um, that we utilized at the police department prior to our new body-worn cameras. Um, and we're going to be in talks with Axon to see if we can gain some sort of account for community development to utilize body-worn cameras. Uh, they do reduce the number of complaints. They do, uh, assist with documentation. Uh, they're an awesome tool to have in the field. So moving forward with code enforcement, I think that's one of the biggest tools they'll have, um, out in the field as well.

And it does calm down the person as they come on, they see that they're being videotaped at the situation kind of quells.

IT ALSO COVERS THESE GUYS, BECAUSE I KNOW IN PD AND FIRE, WE'VE HAD ACCUSATIONS IN THE PAST, AND WHEN THE VIDEO AND THE PAL IS PLAYED, IT'S A COMPLETE DIFFERENT TONE, SO, YEAH. COUNCILORS, ANYTHING ELSE?

MR. MAYOR, I JUST WANT TO MAKE ONE MORE COMMENT. THE CITY ALSO OWNS QUITE A FEW PROPERTIES THAT, YOU KNOW, THAT WE HAVE TO MAINTAIN. Weeds and so forth a lot of times what happens is the general public thinks well the city is not taking care of their property Why should I take care of mine? We need to act on that as well not not necessarily give ourselves a citation. I'm not saying that What I am saying is we need those reported so that we can address them so we could do a better job with our own properties that we have I

We usually give Mr. Lopez a little friendly nudge and he gets his crew out there to get it done for us. So I appreciate Mr. Arnold as well.

Thank you.

Thank you guys. Thank you, Mayor, Council, Mr. City Manager. Thank you guys.

I just want to acknowledge former Councilman Mike Montoya just walked in. Welcome. Welcome. All right, Ms. Cassandra.

Mr. Mayor, moving on to our business items. Our first item is conduct a public hearing and request approval to adopt ordinance number 2602, authorizing the city of Las Vegas to enter into a loan agreement with the New Mexico Environment Department for the purpose of making major improvements to the solid waste department.

With that, I'll entertain a motion to enter a public hearing.

Mr. Mayor, I move that we enter a public hearing.

A motion by Councillor Casey. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Councillor Martinez. Roll call.

Councilor Libari? Yes. Councilor Martinez? Yes. Councilor Casey? Yeah. I have a motion by Councilor Casey. I second by Councilor Martinez. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Motion carries.

I'll go ahead and swear those that will be speaking in. If I could have Mr. Morris-Madrid as well stand also.

Raise your right hand. Under the penalties of perjury, do you swear that your testimony this evening is the whole truth and nothing but the truth?

Thank you.

Ms. Cassandra, for the record, do we have anybody here for the public hearing specifically?

No?

I believe that we're sworn in.

Mr. Marcus.

Mr. Mayor and Council. Mr. Jaramillo. Good evening, Mayor and Council.

I have my solid waste systems manager with me today, Gilbert Jaramillo. We've been working strategically. on doing some improvements at the solid waste facility. As you guys have seen, there has been a lot of improvements on what we've been able to do within internal use. We have been contacted by Mexico Environmental Department, who actually showed up and did an audit at our facility. They were very impressed on how the facility had looked and wanted to follow up on a previous follow-up meeting with us shortly afterwards. As we did have the follow-up meeting, we got into discussion and They gave an opportunity for us on a grant to apply for, which we did apply for. A lot of pressure was put on us that same very day. As we were discussing, they did tell us, you know what, you're on a timeframe. If you can put in your application within 30 minutes, We will review and move forward on accepting. We were able to do that and accommodate the needs. It did get accepted. We got called about a week later in relevance of other questions that they had. We answered those questions. We got called back two weeks later again. They approved us for $413,000 granted and then $1.237 million on the loan. Now that's what we're bringing to the table moving forward so that way we could continue with this project to not only benefit the city of Las Vegas but the transfer station as a whole. and being able to accommodate and move forward with doing the expansion. Now, when we talk about the expansion, there is a picture in Mr. Gilbert Jaramillo's office dating back to 1996 with the way the transfer station was supposed to look. Now, I know in the years past this has come forward. I don't know what's taking place as far as it moving forward and getting this accomplished and done. We're being able to bring this forward right now with again strategic thinking a lot of hard work a lot of determination But uh, I'm hoping we can all stand together here and make this happen as part of a history moment Moving forward for the solid waste division and for the city of Las Vegas along with our community members moving forward Thank You mr. Marcus I just want to acknowledge, you know your work and I think I

SOMETIMES IN GOVERNMENT, WHAT GOES UNRECOGNIZED IS THE NETWORKING AND THE RELATIONSHIP BUILDING THAT HAPPENS, AND I THINK ONCE YOU'VE COME IN, YOU'VE DONE THAT WITH THE NEW MEXICO ENVIRONMENT DEPARTMENT, ALSO WITH THE GAS DEPARTMENT THAT YOU'VE COME INTO, SO THAT'S MADE A BIG DIFFERENCE. I KNOW, AS YOU MENTIONED, THIS HAS BEEN PLANNED FOR MANY YEARS, BUT IT TAKES, I MEAN, YOU COULD APPLY FOR ALL THE GRANTS YOU WANT, BUT You don't build those relationships and those networks. When you apply, they put a face to the grant. And I think that's what we're doing here at the City of Las Vegas. And that's why you start to see more funding come in. We're making sure we're putting a face to the City of Las Vegas and not just a name. So thank you again. And again, even the reputation where now they're seeking, hey, this grant is coming available. I know they do that with Mr. Archuleta and other departments now that's happening more often. Again, just kudos to the leadership that we built here at the city and money starting to funnel in. I guess the only question I have, Mr. Madrid, forecasting based on the loan, we're good for the future based off of your predictions.

Mr. Mayor and Council, Marcus has handled this exactly the way we should in the future. He's been proactive in involving finance from the FROM THE VERY FIRST DAY THAT WE WERE INFORMED THAT WE COULD GET THIS MONEY. WE'RE ALREADY ON A FIRST NAME BASIS WITH THE PEOPLE IN SANTA FE AND HAVE BEEN WORKING WITH THEM DIRECTLY FROM THE WORDING OF THE ORDINANCE TO THE FINANCIAL PLANNING. AND HE'S DOING IT EXACTLY THE WAY IT SHOULD BE DONE. YES, WE HAVE THE RESOURCES AND YES, WE CAN MAKE THESE COMMITMENTS.

NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU. WITH THAT, ANY OTHER QUESTIONS? SEEING NO QUESTIONS, THEN A MOTION TO RETURN TO REGULAR SESSION.

Mr. Mayor, I move that we return to regular session.

Second, Mr. Mayor. Motion by Councillor Casey, second by Council Member Livari. Roll call.

Councillor Martinez?

Yes.

Councillor Livari?

Yes.

Councillor Casey? Yes. I have a motion by Councillor Casey, a second by Councillor Livari. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Motion carries.

Measure to Council.

Mr. Mayor, I move that we approve the adoption of ordinance number 2602, authorizing the city of Las Vegas to enter into a loan agreement with the New Mexico Environment Department for the purpose of making major improvements to the solid waste department.

Second, Mr. Mayor. Motion by Councillor Casey. Second by Councillor Menelewary. Roll call.

Councillor Casey.

Yes.

Councillor Martinez.

Yes.

Councillor Menelewary. Yes. I have a motion by Councillor Casey, a second by Councillor Menelewary. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Motion carries.

Thank you, Mr. Marcus, Mr. Jaramillo, and everybody that has participated in this. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Mr. Manager.

Mr. Mayor, before these gentlemen leave, I want to state that on my manager's report, I noted a $20,000 award that Mr. Marcus and his team were able to help garner for the city. That's what I'll call carryover work, right? The NMED recognized his abilities and the skill sets and his presence, and then they turned him to another funding opportunity, of which we're going to continue to low and expand on that application. So definite benefits of maintaining communication, not just initiating it. And so credit and kudos to them and COLLECTIVE AROUND THE TABLE JUNE DOES IT WITH THE SENIOR PROGRAMS THE CHIEF DOES IT WITHIN PUBLIC SAFETY AND PD WATER AND WASTE WATER WITHIN THE WATER DEPARTMENT AND IT GOES ON AND ON AND ON IT'S CREATING THE RELATIONSHIP BUILDING UPON IT AND THEN GETTING THOSE RESOURCES IN THE DOOR THANK YOU THANK YOU MAYOR AND COUNCIL I JUST UH I WANTED TO THANK DAVID UM FROM ME ON BEHALF OF THE

SOLID WASTE TEAM, THANK YOU FOR ALL THE SUPPORT THAT YOU BRING TO SOLID WASTE. AND IT'S NICE TO BE WORKING TOGETHER AND MOVING FORWARD ON ALL THESE PROJECTS. AND ROBERT, THANK YOU FOR ASSISTING US ON, YOU KNOW, THE GRANTS AND STUFF. ROBERT JUST WANTED TO THANK THEM.

THANK YOU, MAYOR AND COUNSEL. THANK YOU TO THE SOLID WASTE TEAM AS WELL. THANK YOU, MR. GILBERT. THANK YOU, GUYS.

And he meant Mr. Robert Archuleta for the Grand Trade. Next item.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Moving on, conduct a public hearing and request approval of ordinance number 2604, granting an amendment to the City of Las Vegas official zoning map from an R1 single-family residential zone to an R2 multifamily residential zone for property located at 2121 7th Street, Las Vegas, New Mexico, as requested by Eugene Rudolph, the owner.

At this time, I'll ask for a motion to enter into public hearing. Mayor. Mr. Councillor Martinez.

I'll go ahead and move to enter into a public hearing for the Ordinance 2604 as read into the agenda.

Motion by Councillor Martinez, second by Councilman Olivari. Roll call.

Councillor Casey? Yes. Councillor Martinez?

Yes.

Councillor Olivari? Yes. I have a motion by Councillor Martinez, a second by Councillor Olivari. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Motion carries.

Those of you who will be speaking will stand, raise your right hand.

Under the penalties of perjury, do you swear that your testimony this evening is the whole truth and nothing but the truth? Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor Council. Good evening.

So this item was discussed at the last planning and zoning meeting. They did recommend full approval. And we'll stand for any questions if you guys like.

Council, any questions?

I drove by to look at the house and realized that I drive by it all the time. It's like, oh, okay.

Seeing no questions, Mr. Rudolph, would you want to say a few words just on the record?

Well, just I'd like to thank you for having me here today to look at this item, this agenda. know really just trying to get it uh lined up with what it's been i think since my grandfather built it and um you know it's uh it's always good to be home it's really uh driving in with my little boys, you know, and telling them the story of a starvation peak. Like my dad used to say, it's kind of, it's really good to be home. And then from getting to sit through the city council meeting, I have to say, uh, you know, I feel really good about the energy that's going in the city, man. It's really, I have to say, man, you got a lot of really good people here moving and shaking a lot of good things. I think what I'm, what I'm seeing. So thank you for having me. And, uh, yeah.

Thank you, and welcome back. So with that, a motion to return to regular session. Mayor. Councillor Martinez. We'll go ahead and move to return to regular council meeting, our regular council meeting. Motion by Councillor Martinez. Do I have a second?

Second.

Second by Councillor Olivari. Roll call.

Councillor Martinez.

Yes.

Councillor Olivari.

Yes.

Councillor Casey. Yes. I have a motion by Councillor Martinez, a second by Councillor Olivari. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Motion carries.

Council Mayor move to request approval of ordinance 2604 granting amendment to the city of Las Vegas official zoning map from an hour one single family residential zone to an R2 multifamily residential zone.

Martinez second by consummated body roll call.

Answer anybody, yes, Councillor Casey, Councillor Martinez. Yes, have a motion by Councillor Martinez is second by Councillor Buddy. Thank you Mr Mayor. Motion carries.

Mr. Mayor, I just want to say it's good to see Mr. Rudolph. It's been many years. I've known him for many years and his family, but good to see good businessmen continuing to do good business here in the city. Good seeing you, Mr. Rudolph.

Mr. Mayor, moving on to our next item, presentation by Seeds of Wisdom, LLC, and adoption of the Las Vegas, New Mexico Urban Forestry Management Plan. We have our Community Development Director, Mr. Lucas Marcus.

Mr. Marcus, and I don't know if we have a few members of the tree board.

Mayor and Council, I wanted to do that if that's possible. I want to recognize the tree board. They're here in the audience tonight. Yeah. I want to recognize the members of the tree board you know I work with a lot of committees and a lot of boards in my position and and this this I've gotten a chance to really get to know this this board and the committees and they they show out they show out they support each other with their decisions and You know, they really get you into what they're talking about. And I'm getting informed a lot about trees. I never knew certain names about certain trees, but they'll teach you some good things out there. So we did hear about the urban forestry management plan back in October. So, you know, we've already gone through this we did we did get our our ordinance up and running So we are we already already we have an ordinance for that and this will just go ahead and complete and go into that ordinance as well But I do want to let Athena talk a little bit. You have a microphone that's on there. Mr I don't know if you want this one or if you like that one

Welcome, Ms. Athena.

Hello, honorable mayor and counselors and city staff and members of the community who've come out today. I'm Athena Bashir of Seeds of Wisdom, and I'm joined here with Kristen Sanders of the State of New Mexico Urban Forestry, and also Matthew Ellis, who was the creative director for the project. I just want to thank Community Development Director Marquez for all of his involvement in this project and City Clerk Fresquez for all her help and organization. and also the tree board chair of John Spencer as well as all the tree board members who are here today and the ones who are not because they really made a big difference in this project and so here we are with the completed plan and we are offering it up to you all for consideration of acceptance and adoption and And the following slides are a snapshot of the plan. You all received an electric copy, and thank you so much for taking the time to review it in its entirety. And I appreciate also the dedicated legal team who edited and verified to update the ordinances, and thank you for adopting those. So this plan was guided by community requests and involvement and references experiences of the community. And so it's a reflection of the future vision that the community has, that the urban landscape connects with the native surrounding environment. And that's a reflection of the fortitude of the community. and that mature stately trees go alongside the historic architecture and these offer services but we guide rainfall to help them grow in the shared livability and identity of the city as well as for animals and native plants This document is not meant to live on a shelf. It represents what people want, but it provides simple actions that, although small, collectively combined, they make a great difference to Las Vegas. It is meant to be continually used as a playbook filled with active solutions and best management practice for improving the health of the urban forest. it aligns with the state of new mexico's 2020 forest action plan and we reference this alignment throughout the document with this reference icon and strategy number seven for urban forests and communities has been especially highlighted The contents are divided into three main chapters. The background is fire, as the plan was created in response to the horrifying tragedy of the Hermits Peak Calf Canyon fire. It is the heart and the binding strength of the community that has set forth the goals for the future, and it is through hope that these goals can be strategized with practical solutions. A major goal for the document is that it is useful and that it offers insight to empower the community. Beautiful and simple illustrations such as this one for designing landscapes within the urban wildlife interface can even help our children understand the concepts of creating fire breaks. The community identified areas of flooding illustrated on this map, and now that the Gallinas River floodplain within Las Vegas has expanded by 61 acres, by including resident knowledge into the plan, solutions can be geolocated for best success. The benefits of trees, of course, are detailed. And we updated the current tree inventory and analyzed the data. Here we see locations of the 2,300 trees in the inventory. The map is publicly available through a browser, available thanks to State Forestry. so that anyone can see the name of the tree under which they're sitting in a park or while they're walking along a street. The tree survey does recognize that there is a lack of diversity among and of both species and age in the composition of our current trees and they their health is beginning to decline. So by continually planting trees and using a diversity of species, we can increase the resiliency against pests and pathogens. Some of the features of the plan can be stand-alones as single documents. An example of this is the map of parks. We hope that this map will encourage residents and visitors to explore the park system, possibly through connecting existing and possible future trails. We have outlined a few conceptual links within city properties for new connections between outdoor community places. The document offers insight into the strengths and challenges of each park. And one beautiful and rare feature that I'd like to highlight is in Rodriguez Park, where there's a southern wetland, which could be managed for additional stormwater protection to the adjacent neighborhood. We offer conceptual landscape designs highlighted with stormwater as a resource for growing trees. And for a few of these parks, these are actual conceptual landscape designs. Keys here runs along Mills, which experiences significant flooding. It is also on the tributary to the Pecos Arroyo. And as such, it's uniquely cited for absorption, tree growth, and refilling the underground water table. Hannah Park is another example, north of town that could collect rainfall as it goes down Legion to be incorporated into irrigation systems that would be specifically designed for tree watering. South Pacific offers incredible opportunity to guide stormwater to create a shaded neighborhood recreation area for students going to the nearby schools. Tree locations of these are also geolocated, and as such, the designs can be immediately available for parks to implement if funding and when funding becomes available. Many of the parks, the recommendations are directly from Parks Division Director Jeff Rudolph's 2024 park audit. Community quotes are also featured throughout the plan that express requests from Las Vegans of their favorite parks. This is an aerial survey that shows that our canopy is currently at 14.4%, which is actually really good for a southwestern town. And this map also illustrates impervious surfaces illustrated in light blue. And the reason for that is because It can be a directing tool to harness stormwater. Just as an example, with 0.1 inch of rainfall, we could collect over 3 million gallons of stormwater to guide towards plants. We have outlined the goals and strategies for the plan to be useful for the next 25 years. These are here illustrated and then detailed in a year-by-year guide. This is not meant to be a fixed, rigid Plan but rather rather a guide to offer specific and measurable tasks that help fuel related topics There's opportunities for job creation and staff training within the city and parks division A strategy that's become accepted in the Urban Forestry Network is the concept of the 33300 rule, which incorporates health outcomes living near trees. We have taken this concept and illustrated it beautifully to provide simple messaging. Everyone should see three trees from their home. Every neighborhood should aim to have 30% canopy cover and each home should be a 300 yard walk from to green space. And this is an attainable goal in Las Vegas as long as we plan ahead and continue to plant trees and irrigate them. one way to ensure that the trees survive is to plant the right tree in the right place and so we have outlined and created a recommended tree list specific for las vegas and it includes features of selecting the best tree for that In order to make quick use of this plan, we've also provided top lists for a variety of topics. These short lists can be quickly referenced to help make decisions based on the constraint of a particular site. Oops. The best management practices are standards of excellence for projects. And we offer several, including how to structurally prune a tree and as well as how to guide stormwater into rain gardens, which are beautiful best management practice that can passively direct stormwater for the growth of trees. This chapter contains illustrations, text outlining installation procedures with options, as well as photographs of installation, some of which we have designed and installed ourselves, such as the EPA award-winning Lagunita. Utilizing community data verified during recent rainstorm events, we offer compelling geolocated guidance for the top rain gardens. So here are just a few, and there's a few more pages of these. Construction details include several drawings of sediment traps a necessary addition to capture debris Microplastics and pollution off the road rain gardens in conjunction with sediment traps clean and slow storm water so that it is purified before it reaches our waterways The magnificence of Las Vegas is rooted in its historic architecture, but it comes alive in the generational connection people have to this place we call home. We hope that this plan can help families grow here and that children enjoy growing up here as much as their parents did. Inspiration drives innovation such as this example of harvesting around playgrounds where the water is actually brought into systems below the ground and used for watering trees. This offers insight into creating our own beautiful and enjoyable recreational facilities. A major component, of course, of this project has been working alongside the tree board, city staff, legal staff, and public to revise the tree ordinances, which now include green stormwater infrastructure. This updated and adopted ordinance is featured in the chapter of hope. because it offers community-sourced policy to support the planting and growth of our urban forests so it can reach maturity and offer shade to future generations. This is a milestone achievement for the city. If this plan is accepted and adopted, we ask signature of mayor and city clerk onto five copies of the plan for the State of New Mexico Forestry Division for their coordination, dedication, directional advisement, and funding of this project. Thank you, Mayor Romero, counselors, staff, COMMUNITY MEMBERS FOR SUPPORTING THE CREATION OF THIS URBAN FORESTRY MANAGEMENT PLAN. WE HAVE BEEN TRULY HONORED AND GRATEFUL TO HAVE HAD AN OPPORTUNITY TO WORK WITH YOU TO PROTECT AND GROW THE CANOPY OF LAS VEGAS.

THANK YOU. I APPRECIATE THAT.

THANK YOU, MR. MANAGER. I've seen that thing grow since I was 10 years old. It's a beautiful park. We're doing a lot of work to it. A lot of work. It's one of the... I think it's going to be one of our main attractions for our city of Las Vegas. It's natural. It's all natural. Another thing I can see is maybe go out there and if you have the power or the city manager can have people go out there and trim some of those trees that are on the side just to keep it a little more visible. It's a beautiful park. People are going to start using that park a lot. I just want to thank the staff, city manager, and the council for working on that park. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'm sorry, Ms. Anderson. Go ahead.

um good evening mayor and council um i grew up in las vegas in the 80s and 90s when we had a lot more trees and green lawns and my grandpa would let the sprinkler run all day and no one cared and that was a different time and now we have to care for our trees and our green spaces differently And I'm really excited to present this plan as a tool and a guide for moving forward in a way that we could sustainably care for an urban canopy and keep Las Vegas green. And I've got five copies to be signed by all of you. IT'S REALLY BEAUTIFUL. AND IT BRINGS TO LIFE ALL OF THE THINGS THAT ATHENA HAS PRESENTED OVER THE YEARS. WE'VE BEEN WORKING ON THIS FOR TWO YEARS SINCE DR. SPENCER AND I ASKED FOR YOUR APPROVAL TO MOVE FORWARD WITH MAKING THIS. SO IT'S A GREAT PLEASURE TO GIVE IT TO THE CITY.

THANK YOU.

THANK YOU. It took me all weekend to go through this. But I found so many things in here that I just absolutely just impressed me. And I even got emotional about some of them because it brought back memories of my grandfather taking care of the one tree that they had in front of their house. And he treasured that tree. And we couldn't touch it. We couldn't do anything to it. We just had to sit under it and enjoy it. But I do want to mention that this management plan has a lot of wonderful ideas that the general public can use on their own properties. And I especially liked... MANAGEMENT PRACTICES LIKE THE RAIN GARDENS, YOU KNOW, ALONG THE STREAM WHERE THE WATERS COME IN ON THE WATER CORRIDORS OR WHATEVER THEY'RE CALLED. I THINK THAT THAT'S WONDERFUL. I ALSO AM GOING TO BE MAKING OR MY HUSBAND IS GOING TO BE MAKING A LOT OF USE OF THE MULCHING GUIDE. I THINK THAT THAT'S A LOT BECAUSE I THINK SOME PEOPLE MISTAKE MULCHING WITH COMPOSTING. AND IT'S A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT THING. SO I THINK THAT THAT IS GOING TO REALLY BE BENEFICIAL TO PEOPLE WHO WANT TO, YOU KNOW, KNOW THE DIFFERENCE SO THAT THEY DO IT CORRECTLY. AND I REALLY LIKE THAT. AND OF COURSE MY FAVORITE WHICH I MENTIONED BEFORE WHEN YOU WERE HERE BEFORE, THE 330 AND 300 RULE BECAUSE WE HAVE I DON'T KNOW, ABOUT FIVE TREES IN OUR PROPERTY. AND WE DID HAVE property cleaning company come in to clean our front yard and we did have a tree that had a pinion tree that had died and my husband specifically said where the tree was and instead the company chopped down two other trees that nearly made me faint.

I got home and I'm like

Where are the trees? And when I talked to the people that were working in the yard, they said, oh, we thought these were the ones that you didn't want. That was a very sad day for me. But anyway, the 330 and the 300 rule I think is great. At least three trees right there at 30% canopy in every neighborhood and then 300 yards from the nearest park or green space. And I'm blessed to live close to Veterans Park and other parks are close by Carnegie that I can enjoy.

And so I want to thank you for this is a tremendous amount of work.

That you have put together and I think it's not only good for the city to have this information, but for people in general, because it has so much wonderful information about how things function, what we should do to keep our our trees and. beautiful canopies alive and thriving so that people can enjoy them and benefit from them also. So thank you so much for this wonderful work.

I appreciate it greatly. And this is going to be a part of

Our reading material at home and I've marked specific areas for my husband to make sure that he knows what I think he needs to be working on and so I really appreciate it. Thank you so very much and I want to commend the tree board and all of you who have worked on this project because I know it was time consuming and the detail is just absolutely amazing. Thank you so very, very much.

Miss Athena you said you had five copies today to be signed or Yeah, I have five copies that if adopted We'd hope that they could be displayed because they're so beautiful And you know maybe here maybe at Carnegie You know with parks the state has one that we'd like you to sign for us to keep and and also a copy for seeds of wisdom Okay, I just wondering since you guys are here and we have a tree board here and

THE PROPER THING INSTEAD OF ME SIGNING IT AFTER IN THE OFFICE WOULD BE NICE IF WE DO HAVE A COPY I COULD SIGN RIGHT AWAY WITH THEM IN THE AUDIENCE. THAT'S FINE. OKAY. SO WITH THAT, WHAT'S THE PLEASURE OF THE COUNCIL? I GUESS I SHOULD ASK THE.

MR. MAYOR, I MOVE THAT WE ADOPT THE SEEDS OF WISDOM URBAN FORESTRY MANAGEMENT PLAN.

SECOND MOTION BY COUNCILOR CASEY. SECOND BY COUNCILMAN MARTINEZ. ROLL CALL.

Councilor Casey? Yes. Councilor Martinez? Yes. Councilor anybody? Yes. I have a motion by Councilor Casey, a second by Councilor Martinez. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Motion carries.

Yay!

Ms. Cassandra, with that, since we have him in the audience, if you don't mind bringing me the document to sign, and we can official that here, right? Yeah, please bring it over. Please bring it. You guys don't mind coming up and...

RIGHT HERE WITH THE COUNCIL HERE, IF THEY DON'T MIND COMING UP.

Yeah, if you guys don't mind coming up here. I'll let Miss Cassandra fill out the details, but I'll go ahead and sign it here. Well, how about you have it? Oh, I've seen that.

It's so big, it kind of throws you off balance when you're...

I've got a cramp in my leg.

Thank you for taking a large step forward.

All right. Well, thank you, guys, and again, thank you for your work.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council.

If we can get Miss Cassandra a picture of her signing next.

All right.

She don't like to be photographed, so I'm doing it on purpose.

So she's going to be the first to implement it. Well, we know who's going to do it.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

I think you've done a remarkable thing for this city today.

I'm so excited. Christian, we're going to put one in the library. I think there's two for you guys.

Where did you go?

Thank you, Ms. Cassandra. Next item.

Moving on to our next business item, request approval to ratify the acceptance of New Mexico True Cooperative Marketing Grant in the amount of $256,428. We have our Community Development Director, Mr. Lucas Marcus.

Councilors, I know you guys have the memo, the details of this. What's the pleasure?

THAT WE RATIFY THE ACCEPTANCE OF THE NEW MEXICO TRUE INCORPORATIVE MARKETING GRANT IN THE AMOUNT OF $256,428.

SO A MOTION BY COUNCILOR CASEY, SECOND BY COUNCIL MEMBER DEBARRIE. ANY QUESTIONS? SEEING NONE, ROLL CALL.

COUNCILOR MARTINEZ?

YES.

COUNCILOR CASEY? YES. COUNCILOR DEBARRIE?

YES.

I have a motion by Councillor Casey, a second by Councillor Libari. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Motion carries.

Thank you, Mr. Marcus, you and your team. Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Council, and I want to thank Mr. Morris-Madrid for helping me make sure that I had all the funding I needed there to complete this. So thank you, Morris.

Moving on to our next item, discussion, review, ranking, and approval of the Infrastructure Capital Improvement Plan, ICIP projects for the 2028 through 2032 fiscal years. We have our City Project Consultant, Mr. Robert Archuleta.

GOOD EVENING, MAYOR AND COUNCIL. YOU HAVE BEFORE YOU A DRAFT OF THE INFRASTRUCTURE CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PLAN FOR THIS YEAR. AS YOU'RE AWARE, WE HAVE TO DO THIS PLAN ANNUALLY. IT IS A FIVE-YEAR PLAN THAT IS A WORKING DOCUMENT THAT KIND OF OUTLINES THE FUTURE OF PROJECT FOR THE CITY. The hard deadline this year, which has been moved up once again by DFA, is July 1st. So we still have 13 days to do any amendments or any additions to the plan. This year, the ICIP was put on a new system called the Capital Project System, the CAP system. It's a very user-friendly system. It really helps persons like myself who are working on ICIPs. However, it did come with a lot of caveats that we had to do. We had to add a lot of demographic information. We had to clone a lot of projects. and matters like that. So it did take some time to get it to where it is today. The PAR system, the Project Accountability Reporting System for our capital outlay projects and the CAP system, which is mostly the ICIP, kind of mirror each other. So it makes it, even though we have a manual that we have to follow to, to get all this accomplished, which is this, it does take some time to get in that system and learn it. Myself and Manager Anaya and Elena and Jimmy did attend a training several months back. But, you know, it's a PowerPoint. It doesn't really, until you get into it, that's really where you start learning the system. Again, it's a working document. I want to point the attention of the City Council to House Bill 247 that was passed this year in the Legislature and signed by the Governor. That House Bill is going to push things a little bit harder for municipalities and counties to spend their projects a lot quicker, to encumber funds a lot quicker. So I would encourage you to read House Bill 247 when you have a chance because there's going to be reauthorization limitations. So you'll only be able to reauthorize a project one time You're going to have to spend 10% of that project right away, and the only allowable changes are technical changes. So, for example, this year we reauthorized 8th Street water line extension to water meters because that project was only $100,000, and we were getting NMFA funding. So projects like that, for example, there's going to be strict limitations on reauthorizations. Projects on the ICIP should be $100,000 or more. And then if there's any projects that are really stalled with counties and municipalities, severance tax bond funds can be frozen. General fund reversions can be sent to a reversion fund. General obligation funds can also revert. So it's really important that we pay attention to that House Bill 247. As it stands, I don't think the city's in that predicament, because I think the city of Las Vegas does a really good job on spending their funding for capital outlay, even though there are times where there's delays, whether that's caused by the natural disasters or changes in administration or things that may hold up a project. But nonetheless, it's really important that when we are awarded a capital outlay project, that we go to quote and get a contractor on board and get those projects started. So having said that, I want to go into the projects that were added this year. Into the ICI P the first one was IT infrastructure and cyber security projects some things that are really needed for IT For the city we also added a water treatment plan microchlor disinfectant system We added the Douglas district Main Street corridor improvement So as you know the railroad district project on great blocks is done So we really need to focus now on the Douglas district. So that was added in and Plus, we also have some EDA money that this great block can spin off of that. Seventh Street road improvements from Mills to Grand Avenue need a lot of work. South Pacific Parks and Gateway Entrance, there's been some discussions with Councilor regarding some needs in that corridor as well. We had aging water line infrastructure projects on the ICIP, and there was too many of them, so we narrowed it down to 7th Street. That's one of the projects that really needs to get done on 7th Street, which I believe would be sort of north of McDonald's, is that correct?

Yeah, okay.

And then Mills Avenue needs a mill and overlay. That's about a two mile stretch. That's probably going to be about $2 million just for that, for Mills Avenue. That is an arterial road. That's probably one of the roads in the city that really drives a lot of traffic. So we added that into ICIP. And then we also added, today, a natural gas AMRMI meter replacement. It's on the list up there. I haven't finished completing the project, but it's in there. I just need to finish writing it up. The projects that were deactivated was the Litherland property, because we really don't have a plan or design for that property. El Creston Circle Improvements, that's the large project that's already almost 100% complete. The Main Street Corridor Improvement, that's the railroad district. That one was removed because that project is being paved today, and I think it's pretty much over. Okay. And then Lutheran and Collins was removed. That project's complete. And again, the previous aging water line project was reduced to just one street, in that seventh street. And then the eighth street water line extension, we reauthorized this year from that to water meters. And then we were awarded through NMFA, through the Water Trust Board for eighth street extension, which was much larger than 100,000. I think it was 1.5 million or so. So having said that, I did provide you with some dots to rank your top 10 projects. You can do it up there and take a recess, or you can do it on the sheet that's provided to you. And then I'll compile it and then go back into the system and re-rank the projects. And again, I want to emphasize that we still have like 13 days to make any additions or changes. And with that, Mr. Mayor, I'll stand for any questions.

So on this item, I know it worked good a few years back. And I know we didn't have the printer to make it bigger. But if we could go up there, we'll take, I mean, I won't even recess, just two, three minutes. And we go and we, you know, put our little dots on these items. And then, you know, when that's all said and done, then we could come back and adopt whatever. What I would ask is that I know Councilor Pacheco is in, but he could probably do his, you know, via the paper and submit it and you'll calculate that into, you know, whatever the final is. Is that fair?

One of the times that we all bump into each other.

That's right.

Go ahead.

I got 20 dogs, so hey.

Or I'll just use Councilor Pacheco's. All right.

I was going to take those. Mr. Manager?

Mayor, Council, I want to thank Mr. Archuleta and also note on project number five, and we've had several conversations in open session and otherwise, that project is... expanded in scope to include fire station and public safety complex, and we've targeted the south sector off of Grand as the target area.

AND WATCHING THE OLD CITY HALL RECONSTRUCTION WORK THAT'S BEEN DONE.

I DRIVE BY EVERY DAY ON MY WAY TO PHYSICAL THERAPY.

We just do it on this.

That's it.

It'll be a lot worse next.

Probably go to item number six, right?

Mr. Mayor, members of the council, I think so because I still need to quantify Benito's as well. So we really need to move forward to the next items.

So maybe what I could do is recommend or maybe a recommendation to the council. Oh, Councilman Martinez. So I guess what we could do is, based off of the information given, we could adopt it with the finalization of whatever Councilor Pacheco submits?

Yes, and I could provide the information to the council because I would still need to go back into the database and move stuff around based on the council's rankings.

A suggested motion would be to approve The ranking is submitted by the Council awaiting Councilman Pacheco's submission of priorities. Is that correct? So it's the pleasure of the Council.

Mr. Mayor, I move that we approve Resolution 2627, Adopting the Infrastructure Capital Improvement Plan, the ICIP. Hold on.

Item 5, so just for the priority.

I'm sorry. The ranking.

I'm sorry.

I'm getting ahead of myself. We're ready to go. So I have a motion by...

Okay, so I move that we approve the ranking. OF THE INFRASTRUCTURE CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PLAN PROJECTS FOR THE 2028-2032 FISCAL YEARS, WHICH WILL INCLUDE COUNSELOR PACHECO'S RANKINGS ALSO.

SECOND, MR. MAYOR. MOTION BY COUNSELOR CASEY. SECOND BY COUNCILMAN LEVARY.

Councillor Martinez?

Yes.

Councillor Casey? Yes. Councillor Livari? Yes. I have a motion by Councillor Casey, a second by Councillor Livari. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Motion carries. Moving on to item number six, request approval of resolution number 2627, adopting the infrastructure capital improvement plan. Casey.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I move approval of Resolution 2627, adopting the Infrastructure Capital Improvement Plan with all of the recommendations that have been made this evening and are pending from Councillor Pacheco.

Motion by Councillor Casey. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Councillor Martinez. Roll call.

Councillor Olivari?

Yes.

Councillor Casey? Yes. Councillor Martinez? Yes. I have a motion by Councillor Casey, a second by Councillor Martinez. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Motion carries.

Mr. Enchileta, anything else? Thank you. One final thought is once I get a copy of the signed resolution and after it's ranked, I will enter that into the database and we will meet compliance with DFA. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you for your work on this again.

Moving on to our next item, number seven, request approval to award request for bid 2026-12, Commerce Street Phase One Reconstruction Project to Magnum Welding in the amount of $525,560,155. Bid one, $636,914.96 was for bid lot two to include New Mexico GRT. Councilors, you guys have the memos and the updated information.

Mr. Mayor, I move approval to award RFP in number 202612, Commerce Street Phase 1 Reconstruction Project to Magnum Welding in the amount of $525,561.55. Mr. Mayor, by Councilor Casey, seconded by Councilman Olivari, roll call.

Councilor Martinez?

Yes.

Councillor Casey? Yes. Councillor Livari? Yes. I have a motion by Councillor Casey, a second by Councillor Livari. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Motion carries.

I must have been thinking about that MPI.

Thank you, Arnold. Next item, Ms. Cassandra.

Request approval to use the remaining balance from the Hot Springs Reconstruction Project Phase 2, estimated at $190,655.55 to supplement the Commerce Street Reconstruction Project. Mr. Arnold. Council.

Mr Mayor, I move that we. Approve the use of the remaining balance from Hot Springs reconstruction to phase two estimated to be under 90,000, 655 to supplement the Commerce St Reconstruction Project by Councilor Casey, second by Councilman Martinez roll call.

Councilor anybody?

Yes.

Councilor Martinez? Yes. Councilor Casey?

Yes.

I have a motion by Councilor Casey, a second by Councilor Martinez. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Motion carries. Moving on to Item 9.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Lopez. Wasn't that fun?

Request approval of resolution number 2628, repealing and replacing all previous resolutions by amending the City of Las Vegas zero tolerance drug and alcohol policy. We have our City Manager, Mr. Anaya.

Mayor, Council, Mr. Jaramillo helped with this particular policy. He couldn't be here tonight. He's off and he's coaching associated with the district tournaments. But the essence of this request is in the background memo, the existing policy prohibits off-duty use of THC marijuana. maintains a strict zero-town standard policy providing no secondary opportunities for employees to test positive for controlled substances or alcohol. The proposed revisions would amend the language to permit off-duty use of medical recreational THC. However, this authorization would not extend to safety sensitive personnel or federally regulated employees including CDL holders pipeline and federal transit workers and members of the fire and police departments. This comes to you based on other recommendations that happened at the state level for consistency with the policy change relative to THC use. This does not remove requirements for pre-employment screenings. It would effectuate the change for THC specifically. but still will maintain for pre-employment screenings and screenings associated with reasonable suspicion therein consistent with state laws state personnel policies I should say and We I stand for any questions my actions counselors Casey Has marijuana is being

illegal so i know that in the public school realm and other state-run institutions any federal dollars are denied to an entity that has a policy allowing the use of thc even if it does specify that it's only for people that come

ARE NOT GOING TO BE USING DANGEROUS EQUIPMENT OR ANYTHING LIKE THAT.

SO HOW WILL THIS CHANGE AFFECT OUR ABILITY TO GET FEDERAL MONEY?

MAYOR, COUNCILMAN CASEY, The changes are consistent with requirements that the state of New Mexico has. Santa Fe County also has adopted a similar resolution as well as the city of, I believe the city of Albuquerque and Bernalillo County. But they also receive federal funding associated with it. It doesn't change the mechanism that we are able to apply for federal dollars. This would be consistent with state law or state changes to the use of THC. We did provide a review through our normal process, but this change is brought before you for your consideration, approval or denial.

Okay. And just a suggestion, when we have a large document like this, if instead of printing the entire document, the changes, maybe we could just specify the changes?

YOU KNOW, AND WHAT SECTION THEY FALL INTO.

BECAUSE, I MEAN, I GOT A WHOLE REAM OF PAPER HERE, AND SO DID EVERYBODY ELSE. AND I THINK THAT'S KIND OF OVER THE TOP IN COSTS THAT ARE NOT REALLY THAT NECESSARY. AS LONG AS WE KNOW WHAT THE CHANGES ARE, WHAT THOSE CHANGES ARE GOING TO BE DOING, AND HAVE AN EXPLANATION LIKE WE JUST TALKED ABOUT NOW, I THINK THAT WE WOULD BE SAVING AN AWFUL LOT OF MONEY, YOU KNOW, IN TERMS OF PAPER, YOU KNOW, PROBABLY GET TOSSED OUT SOMEPLACE. SO JUST A SUGGESTION.

DULY NOTED, COUNSELOR CASEY. MR. JARAMILLO DID GO THROUGH IN DEPTH AND WANTED TO SHOW CLARITY OF EACH PAGE, BUT I DULY NOTE YOUR COMMENTS AND YOUR REQUESTS.

IT WAS A LITTLE BIT DIFFICULT. I HAD TROUBLE READING SOME OF THE, I DON'T KNOW IF ITEMS WERE SUPPOSED TO BE REDACTED OR IF THEY WERE BEING HIGHLIGHTED, BECAUSE THE HIGHLIGHTED STUFF WAS DONE IN RED INK MARKED OUT, AND THEN OTHERS WERE REDACTED, BUT I COULD STILL SEE WHAT WAS UNDERNEATH THE RED HIGHLIGHTED SECTION. SO IT WAS LIKE, IS THIS GOING TO STAY IN OR IS IT OUT? AND SO MAYBE WE CAN FIGURE OUT SOMETHING A LITTLE BIT DIFFERENT FOR THAT, TOO. THANK YOU.

THANK YOU, COUNCILOR CASEY.

COUNCILMAN MARTINEZ. MR. MAYOR, THANK YOU. I GUESS IT WOULD AFFECT THE TREE BOARD MORE THAN BECAUSE WE'RE KILLING ALL THESE TREES, RIGHT? BUT BY ALL MEANS, WHAT I KIND OF WANTED TO MENTION WAS I'M GOING TO BE AS HONEST AS I CAN AS FAR AS TELLING EVERYBODY THAT I WOULD NOT APPROVE THIS, AND I KNOW THAT THE STATE HAS ADOPTED IT, AND I UNDERSTAND THAT PART, TOO, BUT I COME FROM A FIELD OF IF YOU HAVE A CDL, IF YOU HOLD THOSE KIND OF LICENSES, HASMAT AND ALL OF THOSE EQUIVALENCIES, Are we being fair to the rest of the employees if somebody? Somebody you know gets. Mandatories you know send home or something because of THC and and then they continue to have their job. Currently it's a zero tolerance, correct? If I'm correct on saying that, so I just wanted to. I think it would be opening a can of worms, and I don't think the state of New Mexico has experienced That direction just yet and it may have to some degree and what I mean is if you're if you've got Gas department for example. Well, that's maybe not a good example the Just take solid waste. For example, you have all those employees that probably do big drive big trucks and in our community and throughout the interstate up to Wagamon and so forth. Anybody that's doing that is not subject to a, uh, they're going to be left out. They're not good. They're going to be felt discriminated against when it comes down to, um, somebody else getting a second chance versus zero tolerance for them. I don't agree on it. That's my personal opinion. And I don't want to have the city open to any kind of a lawsuit, any kind of discrimination lawsuit or anything like that. So I would, and I understand, you know, the state of New Mexico has adopted this, and I do get that. I just, I'm the type of person, I don't want to treat everybody equally and fair. So I don't know if I could, that I could agree with this at this point. Maybe if the language is different, but possibly, but it has to be fair across the board.

Mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor, I would just put forth that I completely respect the vote and will of the mayor and council. We've had a couple questions that were raised just tonight that I could get some additional DATA AND INFORMATION ON, AS WELL AS EVEN CONVERSATIONS WITH SOME OF THOSE ENTITIES THAT HAVE ADOPTED THIS PARTICULAR RESOLUTION. SO I'D BE COMPLETELY OPEN TO ADDRESS SOME OF THOSE QUESTIONS AND MOTION TO THE TABLE AT THIS TIME AND POTENTIALLY REVISIT IF THAT'S THE WILL OF THE MAYOR AND COUNCIL.

NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU, MR. MAYOR, MR. I agree with your zero tolerance on alcohol and drug, because that's the only way our refill series is going to run. You've got employees or you've got people that are not in the right mind. It just takes a little longer to take care of things like this. And the thing is that you've got to put something out there. And if you're going to come and work for a municipality or it doesn't matter, state job or anything, THERE'S POLICIES. AND WE GOT TO FOLLOW POLICIES. AND THE THING IS THAT IF WE DON'T TAKE CARE OF THOSE, WE'RE JUST GOING TO BE RUNNING AROUND. IT'S A VERY GOOD PACKAGE. I THINK I WOULD GO WITH SOMETHING THAT OUR EMPLOYEES WOULD LOOK AT OUR APPLICATION AND LIST THE THINGS THAT WE WANT TO BE REAL CRITICAL ABOUT AND THEY CAN read and listen to, or read and see what's going on with that, and it's okay with us putting the application when you can take care of that. Thank you, sir. Thank you.

I just wanted to make a comment, and I totally, I think sometimes we forget, we only think about the recreational use of THC and marijuana, and I want to be the first that Marijuana is used as a treatment and an ailment to help certain individuals that have no issue, have no addiction, but sometimes need that for pain and other medical needs. I do want to say that in the state of New Mexico, pretty much every entity is going into what we're dealing with. I do want to bring up, there will always be the suspicion as there is with alcohol. So if you look like you're drunk or you look like you're stoned, I mean, hopefully we get the training because, you know, I know sometimes there's that, are you really watching him or not? But if we get the proper training, uh you know then those individuals they shouldn't be drunk or stoned on the job but but i look at it a little differently and i totally get you know cdls under this current proposal those still they can't be using thc i mean they have requirements that they have to apply to abide by same thing with safety public safety they have their their obligations that they have to meet i think we all In in in the state and in here at the city. I think we're the only entity that government entity that has this strict of a policy, you don't have to take, in other communities, you don't have to take a pre-screening for marijuana. Again, they use only the suspicion. But I want, if it's tabled or whatever it may be, take into consideration those individuals that nothing's wrong with them. They're not using this just to get stoned or to party. They have ailments that they're able and able to work but they do you know need that medication and I think that's something to to look into as you guys are you know thinking about this is that there's individuals that need this and because of our strict policy we're not even looking at them. I mean I just want to throw that out Mr. Manager.

Mayor I appreciate your comments and that that's why I would maybe ask for a tabling instead of a Denial tonight one of the other things that I've done over the course of the last year is sign several terminations right off of a random sample some of those individuals that were terminated off of the zero tolerance policy were good employees and maybe needed some other opportunity for some other support structures that could help them through employee assistance program or otherwise. But given the verbiage of the document that we have in place, they were terminated. And so it also provides a mechanism, from my perspective, where you have those individuals that maybe faced a one-off challenge or put themselves in a bind, gives us some latitude to get them some additional support and assistance to work through that particular challenge.

And to note on that, is they tested positive, but they weren't stoned out of their mind? Is that fair and sane?

That's fair, but the rule is pretty clear, and it's a zero tolerance and subject determination. And so it does, I think it still accommodates making sure people don't come to work drunk or stoned with reasonable suspicion at testing, but also deals with that broader full range of full testing. But at the end of the day, that's, that's a decision that rests with the policymakers as a, as a, as individually as Councillor Martinez noted and as a collective. And so I fully respect and acknowledge that role and, and defer to that. But, uh, those are my thoughts right now.

Thank you. What's the pleasure of the council?

Mr. Mayor, a comment and then a motion. I believe that the zero tolerance policy also has language in there that says that if someone is taking, let's say, morphine or a stronger drug for an ailment that they have and they are tested and they test positive while they're working or they're already employed, then If they report that prior to being hired, that they will be allowed to work until such time as they actually show up not functioning correctly or whatever. because we did have, I believe, a couple of employees in the past with a different mayor who had tested positive for the random testing that was done. But they had already reported that they were taking these drugs and that it didn't affect their work. They didn't have to drive vehicles that might be dangerous. They didn't have to use equipment that was dangerous.

So they were allowed to work. I don't know if that language is still in existence because the document is very long.

BUT THAT MIGHT BE SOMETHING THAT WE CAN CONSIDER FOR THE FUTURE.

AND SO WITH THAT, MR. MAYOR, I WOULD LIKE TO MAKE A MOTION THAT WE PLACE THE ZERO TOLERANCE DRUG POLICY AND ALCOHOL POLICY

on the table until such time as.

We can do a little bit more investigating into it and also so that we have a full Council here to vote on this issue because I think it's very important and it affects everyone.

Yeah, motion by Councillor Casey second second second my Councilman Martinez roll call.

Councilor Casey? Yes. Councilor anybody? Yes. Councilor Martinez? Yes. I have a motion by Councilor Casey, a second by Councilor Martinez. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Motion carries. Moving on to item number 10, request approval to authorize and support a summer youth program for fiscal year 26 and fiscal year 27. We have our City Manager, Mr. Anayo.

Mr. Mayor, Council, at the direction of Mayor and Council, we've brought forth a proposal to re-energize the youth employment program, and I want to ask Mr. Madrid to speak a little as well as Consuelo to speak a little. Related to the work that's been done, we have a recommendation that I believe is strong and that's going to put us in a position to bring youth in, make sure that they're adequately placed and that they have a good experience at the city beyond just any cleanup work or weeding or other assignments that they might have based on specific feedback we receive from mayor and council. So I'm excited about it. We got a lot of applicants and so I'll turn it over to you, Mr. Madrid, and the two of you to give us some background. Thank you so much.

Mayor and Council, this was an easy one for finance because we're using the cash balances in the cannabis fund. And we believe that although there's no restriction on it, this is a perfect use within the intent of that money. And the numbers are we have prepared to hire up to 50 students for six weeks at $16 an hour, 20 hours per week. And that would include that hourly rate. We also have to consider that we have to match the FICA in that. That's 7.65%. Total cost of the program is about $107,000. already within the budget for this year and it is included in fiscal year 27 budget you'll see that in the final budget when we present at the end of july so there are no financial issues here i'm glad mr mayor mr mayor that our city manager did say that

they are taking into consideration that it would be a positive learning experience for the students. However, your last line of your paragraph says, I would also note, however, that there is much to learn from good old-fashioned hard work regardless of the perceived level of task. I used to have to clean weeds off of a yard that was about as big as this room. I did it every summer at my grandmother's house. I hated it. I still hate it now. And I would hate to see any young person out there in the hot sun pulling out weeds. WE'VE HAD IN THE PAST, AND I KNOW THIS FOR A FACT BECAUSE THE CASA OFFICE WAS LOCATED AT RODRIGUEZ PARK IN THAT BUILDING THERE, AND WE HAD THE SUMMER YOUTH KIDS OUT THERE PULLING WEEDS AT RODRIGUEZ PARK, AND WE HAD TWO YOUNG PEOPLE FAINT FROM EXHAUSTION, HEAT EXHAUSTION, ANXIETY OF HAVING TO BE OUT THERE FOR A LONG TIME IN THE HOT SUN. And I don't want to see that happen. And yes, it's a good lesson to learn that you have to work hard sometimes, but I don't think that we should torture the kids that are trying to learn something. So I really am insisting that they do not do any type of work like that. If they need to work outside, let it be monitored very carefully so that they're hydrated, they get a chance to rest enough, And only if they really, really want to be out there. But other than that, I think we need to find something indoors where they are going to be safe.

Mayor, Councilwoman Casey, I appreciate it very much. And what the staff is doing, and Ms. Gallegos could speak to that, is a screening process where we're going to focus on not just work, but their areas of interest. We have had some students that are... excited about the opportunity to do some outdoor work and work with the streets crews, but to your point, we'll make sure that those that are put in those areas will work with Mr. Lopez and the parks if those are two areas that they're utilized to make sure that they're monitored carefully, hydrated, and follow all the necessary safety protocol.

Ms. Gallegos, could you speak to some of that? Mr. Manager, real quick, it's only 20 hours a week, right? So four hours a day, is that kind of, or how are we?

Yes, that's what's planned. Yes, that is correct. As Mr. Madrid mentioned, it's going to be only 20 hours a week. So I think, you know, working 20 hours, you know, and we are going to, for orientation, you know, we're also going to have the safety officer there. You know, we're going to be very clear, you know, OSHA regulations and, you know, want to make sure that they take enough breaks and if it's too hot. SO WORKING WITH THE STAFF, THEY WILL BE INVOLVED AS WELL. THE DIRECTORS WILL BE THERE FOR THE ORIENTATION. SO WE'RE ALL INVOLVED, AND WE'RE GOING TO MAKE SURE THAT THE KIDS, YOU KNOW, THEY WORK, THEY EARN THEIR MONEY, AND THEY'RE SAFE.

THANK YOU.

MR. MERKIN. THANK YOU, MR. MANAGER. THANK YOU. SOME PROGRAMS ARE VERY CRITICAL TO OUR KIDS, AND THE THING IS THAT We're not going to go out there and work them at the middle of the day. That's where your directors and your supervisors come in and got to work them when you can use them. And our directors and our managers have to look at that because we can use the help all over town, all over the wards. So it's on your hands and the things that we've got to take care of our kids. We've got to work them. That's what the summer program is. We used to do it. We didn't complain too much because we had to do it. We had to buy cars or whatever we had to do. And the things that our kids are, some are real weak, some aren't, and they'll take the responsibility. Thank you.

And some of us still do it, right?

And so just to give you a little background on what we've done in the past couple of days. So yesterday we had interviews for 23 youth, excuse me, 20 youth. And today we had 23. Tomorrow we'll have six. So we're looking about 48. employees. And, and to your comment, Council, your library, so we're going to be dividing the youth in half. So some will be working in the morning, and some will be working in the afternoons. And then also, we have to keep in mind that, you know, we have to follow the workforce solution, their, their, their laws and their regulations. So kids can only work a certain amount of hours. So they can't work like before 7am. And after I believe 9pm. So we have to. We have to follow all those regulations as well.

And Martinez. Thank you Mr Mayor.

I do strongly support summer youth programs moving forward definitely. The kind of the spoiler of what I'm when I'm going to mention now is is are these employees subject to the same rules that regular employees have? ALCOHOL OR DRUGS RELATED, YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN? I HATE TO THROW THAT IN THERE, YOU KNOW, AS WELL, AND I DON'T EXPECT THAT TO BECOME AN ISSUE. I JUST WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT WE GIVE THEM THE TOOLS TO SUCCEED, BUT THEY HAVE TO KNOW THE RULES OF THE EMPLOYMENT THAT THEY'RE TAKING ON AS WELL, AND I THINK THAT'S AN IMPORTANT PIECE. THE TIME FRAME OF THIS THIS PROGRAM, WHAT IS THE TIME FRAME? YOU SAID SIX WEEKS, BUT WHEN DOES IT START AND END?

SO IT'S GOING TO START THIS COMING MONDAY, JUNE 22ND, AND WILL END ON JULY 31ST.

OKAY, GOOD. SO I JUST WANTED TO MENTION THAT. I CARE ABOUT YOUTH, AND I WANT THEM TO SUCCEED. I JUST WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT THEY UNDERSTAND GROWN-UP RULES AS WELL, AND NOT JUST, YOU KNOW, JUST BECAUSE THEY'RE YOUNGER, THAT THEY CAN GET AWAY WITH SOMETHING THAT'S NOT RIGHT.

I MEAN, I JUST WANT TO THROW THAT OUT THERE, SO... AND TO THAT NOTE, COUNSELOR MARTINEZ, THAT'S WHY WE WANT TO INCLUDE ALL THE DIRECTORS IN ORIENTATION, YOU KNOW, SO THAT THEY ALL HAVE THEIR SAY ON, YOU KNOW, WHAT THEY REQUIRE WITHIN THEIR DEPARTMENTS.

And if you bring up the no tolerance that's currently in effect, it gives them a perspective of how they can stay employed. That's the way I kind of see it. Like I said, I do support the program. I hope it works good. I know it takes away from the directors so that they can go out there and get some areas taken care of. We have a lot of hot spots in our community, so I'm not going to point any out. We just need to get some stuff done. I appreciate the program moving forward, definitely.

And then on the note of the zero tolerance, the policy that we have now, that's something that the safety officer, Adrian Jaramillo, does speak on during his orientation portion. So that will be reiterated to the youth.

Thank you. You're welcome.

Mr. Martinez, are you saying you didn't have to go through the orientation like we did?

I didn't. I already had a job.

So with that, it was zero tolerance too. What's the pleasure of the council?

Mr. Mayor, I move that we approve the authorization in support of the Summer Youth Program for fiscal year two.

Second, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Casey, second by Councilman Indivadi. Roll call. Councillor Martinez? Yes.

Councillor Casey? Yes. Councillor Livari? Yes. I have a motion by Councillor Casey, a second by Councillor Livari. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Motion carries.

Thank you, Mr. Manager and staff for putting that together. It's going to be a big positive program for the community. I know a lot of kids are happy, so thank you.

Thank you, Mayor Coates.

Moving on to our final item, request approval of resolution number 2622, a resolution establishing reasonable notice of the city council meetings in compliance with the Open Meetings Act. So, Mayor and Council, I bring this to you every year in June. And as per our Open Meetings Act, we are required to do so to give notice of our council meetings. I've attached the resolution. It is basically the same resolution as it was last year. The only difference is we don't have as many of the board's committees and commissions on there because they're not established yet or they don't have enough people they haven't met yet. So those will continue to have to give their own notice. RATHER THAN THIS ONE, WE PUBLISH IT IN ITS ENTIRETY FOR THE YEAR. IT BECOMES EFFECTIVE JULY 1, SO WE AS A COUNCIL DON'T HAVE TO GIVE THE NOTICE FOR THOSE. SO I GUESS THE ONLY QUESTION I HAVE FOR MAYOR AND COUNCIL IS, WOULD THERE BE ANY CHANGE TO OUR REGULAR MEETING DATES, TIMES, ANY OF THAT? I LEFT THAT THE SAME.

I THINK THE ONLY THING TO ADD TO THAT, MS. CASANDRA, IS SOME OF THEM, THEY ALREADY HAVE THEIR, I MEAN, THE COMMITTEES ARE FORMED, BUT THEY HAVEN'T MET TO DETERMINE WHAT DATES THEIR MEETING. SO AS THEY MOVE FORWARD, THEY WILL HAVE TO COME IN COMPLIANCE MS. CASANDRA WILL MAKE SURE THAT THEY'RE ON TASK. MORE SPECIFICALLY, THE DIRECTORS. I KNOW WE DID HAVE, UNFORTUNATELY, THE TREE BOARD, A FORMER MEMBER, WHO BASICALLY SAID FORGET OMA, LET'S DO WHATEVER. AND SHE'S NO LONGER ON THE BOARD. BUT, YOU KNOW, COMPLIANCE, IT MAKES A DIFFERENCE. SO WITH THAT, WHAT'S THE PLEASURE OF THE COUNCIL?

I MOVE TO APPROVE RESOLUTION NUMBER 2622, A RESOLUTION ESTABLISHING REASONABLE NOTICE OF CITY COUNCIL MEETINGS IN COMPLIANCE WITH OPEN MEETINGS ACT.

COUNCILMAN MARTINEZ, DO I HAVE A SECOND? SECOND BY COUNCILOR CASEY. ANY MORE DISCUSSION? SEEING NONE, ROLL CALL.

COUNSELOR, ANYBODY? COUNSELOR CASEY? COUNSELOR MARTINEZ? YES. I HAVE A MOTION BY COUNSELOR MARTINEZ, A SECOND BY COUNSELOR CASEY. THANK YOU, MR. MAYOR. MOTION CARRIES. THANK YOU, MAYOR AND COUNCIL.

MR. MAYOR, I HAVE A QUESTION ON THE OTHER BOARDS. I THINK, DO THEY KNOW WHEN THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO MEET, OR DO THEY JUST PLAN OR WHATEVER? I MEAN, THEY'VE NEVER MET, SO HOW DO THEY KNOW WHEN THEY SHOULD BE MEETING? DOES SOMEBODY TELL THEM, YOU KNOW, YOU NEED TO HAVE A MEETING SOMETIME SOON?

YES, COUNCILOR, THE DIRECTORS THAT OVERSEE THOSE BOARDS, COMMISSIONS, AND COMMITTEES. THANK YOU.

AND I THINK THERE WAS DISCUSSION, COUNCILOR CASEY, WHERE IN THE PAST A DIRECTION OR A GUIDANCE HAS NOT BEEN PROVIDED, SO THEY WERE JUST MEETING AND NOT DOING REALLY NOT NOT BEING PRODUCTIVE, I GUESS. SO SOME OF THE DISCUSSION THAT I KNOW IN THE NEXT MEETING I WANT TO HAVE IS, YOU KNOW, IF THERE'S SOME TYPE OF VISION THAT YOU GUYS, THAT WE ALL HAVE TOWARDS A COMMITTEE ON WHAT THEY SHOULD BE LOOKING AT. OF COURSE, YOU KNOW, THEY'RE THEIR OWN COMMITTEE, BUT IF THERE'S ANY TYPE OF DIRECTION THAT WE WANT TO GIVE THEM, FOR INSTANCE, I'LL USE THE POLICE ADVISORY. IS THERE CERTAIN STATISTICS THAT WE WANT THEM TO BE REVIEWING OR ET CETERA? SO I'M WORKING WITH SOME OF THE DIRECTORS. I KNOW MORE WITH THE P.D. and police advisory. And I mean, there is an ordinance in place for the police advisory that chief has to follow, so.

Yeah, I'm talking about all the others that aren't in ordinance.

Mr. Mayor. We'll deal with that. Make a motion to adjourn. We have executive session. So what's the pleasure of the council?

Mayor. Mr. Mayor, I move to enter into Executive Session in accordance with New Mexico Open Meetings Act, NMSA 1978, section 10-15-1H8, purchase, acquisition of disposal of real property, water rights meeting for the discussion of the purchase of acquisition or disposal of real property of water rights by the public body.

Second. Motion by Councilman Martinez, second by Councilor Casey. Roll call.

Councillor Livari? Yes. Councillor Martinez? Yes. Councillor Casey? Yes. I have a motion by Councillor Martinez, a second by Councillor Casey. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Motion carries.

And if we could have Mr. David Marcus and also Mr. Madrid in this conversation.

Mayor, I'd like to also keep the Finance Director as well as the Water Director and Mr. Seitz. And the balance, if they could be released, I was going to go ahead and let the rest go. Manager.

during the regular session. In accordance with the Mexico Open Meetings Act, NMSA 1978, section 10-15-1H-8, purchase, acquisition, or disposal of real property, water rights, meeting for the discussion of the purchase of acquisition or disposal of real property or water rights by the public body. No decisions were made.

Councilor Casey? Yes.

Councilor Martinez? Yes. Councilor Levy? I have a motion by Councilor Martinez, a second by Councilor Levy. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Motion carries.

Go ahead. Motion to adjourn. Motion by Councilor Casey. Second.