Council - Special Meeting

Thank you.

Welcome, everybody. I'd like to, good morning, and I'd like to call to order the July 29th Special City Council meeting to order.

Mayor David Romero.

Here.

Councilor Marvin Martinez. Present. Councilor Barbara Casey.

Here.

Councilor Benito Pacheco.

Present.

Councilor David Ulivari. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. We do have a quorum.

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 Pacheco, silence.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Just a moment of silence for all of our intentions. A moment of thanks for the rain and moisture that we've been receiving as a community, as a state. And also a moment of silence for all the residents of Las Vegas that have passed away and their families. Thank you.

Mr. Mayor, approval of the agenda. We do have a recommendation from city manager to remove executive item and that will be placed on the August 12th meeting.

WE HAVE A RECOMMENDATION WITH THE REMOVAL OF EXECUTIVE SESSION. THAT'S THE PLEASURE OF COUNCIL.

MR. MAYOR.

MR. MARTINEZ.

I'LL GO AHEAD AND MOVE TO APPROVE THE AGENDA WITH THE REMOVAL OF THE EXECUTIVE SESSION AT THIS TIME.

MOTION BY COUNCILOR MARTINEZ. SECOND. SECOND BY COUNCILMAN PACHECO. ALL IN FAVOR? AYE. AYE. THOSE OPPOSED? THE AYES HAVE IT IN FAVOR.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Moving on to our public input. We have no public input this morning. Going to our next item, approval of minutes for July 8th, 2026.

The pleasure of the council. Mr. Mayor, go ahead.

My minutes are perfect. Absolutely perfect. And I move approval.

A motion by Councilor Casey. I have a second. Second. Second by Councilor Pacheco. All in favor?

Aye. Aye.

Those opposed, same sign. The ayes have it. In favor?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Moving on to our business items. Our first item is request approval of resolution number 2639, a final budget adjustment for the 2025-2026 fiscal year. We have our finance director, Mr. Morris Madrid.

Good morning, Mr. Madrid. Good morning, Mayor and Council. Before we get into our business items, I want to mention something that applies to all three. I want to especially thank the finance team Dominic Chavez, and especially these two, Anthony Trujillo and Chastity Garcia, they have become the backbone of all this work. And I get to sit up here and take the credit when we look good, but their work results in this beautiful document that you have. This is the first time we sent it out to print. It was our idea, and... In more than looks, you'll see that we're moving forward and it's because of their work. And I want to thank them in front of everyone. Thank you guys. First item is the budget adjustment. This adjustment here is mainly to address a finding in our audit. We had two findings last year. One of them was this, that we had a fund that was overexpended. This is to avoid the repeat of that finding. The first one is an increase to the emergency medical services fund. I believe what we failed to do during the year was to budget the carryover. You'll see that throughout the budget that we're going to approve today, hopefully. The second one is in the law enforcement fund. That was for a reversion. Because it was an expenditure, we have to allow budget for that. It wasn't an overexpenditure. The last one is for some generators that we got that were funded from FEMA through DHSEM. And I believe, I'm not sure where these particular generators are located, but there will be more of this. We've had generators placed at the fire departments, rec center, senior center, and I think we're going to have some more coming. That's what this is for. We hadn't anticipated that funding, but we did get it, and we did spend some of it. This is to avoid any over-expenditures in our budget. All the other funds have been reviewed, and we ask for your approval. Council on the bar.

Mr. Mayor.

Councilor Martinez.

I'll go ahead and move to approve Resolution 2639, Final Budget Adjustment 2526, Physical Year. I have a motion by Councilor Martinez to have a second.

Second. Second by Councilor Pacheco. Roll call.

Councilor Casey. Councilor Martinez?

Yes.

Councilor Pacheco?

Yes.

I have a motion by Councilor Pacheco. I mean, a motion by Councilor Martinez, a second by Councilor Pacheco. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Motion carries. Moving on to our next item, request approval of resolution number 2640, the final quarter report for 2025-2026 for submission to Department of Finance and Administration, Local Government Division.

Mr. Mayor and Council, the first thing I'd like to do is address questions Mr. Madrid, why did you place this under our nose right before the meeting? It was not in your packet. And the answer to that is because it wasn't actually completed until yesterday. Now, why is that? The budget report has to be to the dollar This report has to be to the penny Some statements we get on the 5th of the following month some on the 10th or the 20th There was one statement from NMFA that didn't come in until day before yesterday so it had to be to the penny and I apologize that it was this late and put in front of you. This is exactly what it has to be. It has to be accurate, and that's above everything else. This is the basis of their budget approval for the following year and our whole financial plan. So with that, I ask your approval.

Mr. McGregor, just to clarify, I mean, just to make sure that we got this straight, the agenda was prepared timely. You know, the 72-hour, the only thing is you gave us the supporting document because it was last minute. That's the only thing. And I just want to know, I know it's been questioned in the past, but over the past year I've asked plenty of times with the Attorney General and... Auditors that it is okay to bring documents because you can't predict what document I mean things like this happen You know sometimes last minute, so I just want to clarify that we're okay on on the agenda and finalization Yes, that's correct. What's the pleasure of the council? Mr.. Mayor I move for approval of the resolution I Do I have a second? Second. Second by Councillor Martinez. Roll call.

Councillor Pacheco?

Yes.

Councillor Martinez? Yes. Councillor Casey? Yes. I have a motion by Councillor Pacheco, a second by Councillor Martinez. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Motion carries. Moving on to our next item, request approval of Resolution No. 2641 to adopt the final fiscal year 2026-2027 budget. Mr. Madrid.

Mayor and Council, you should have received... It's a two-page summary of changes from interim budget to final. Before I go through that list, I want to address some things that I addressed with the Finance Committee because their recommendation for approval of the interim budget came with four recommendations, and I informed them of the status the day before yesterday. The first one was they recommended an increase to the abatement fund because we had reduced that BASED ON REDUCED REVENUES. SO THAT WAS DONE. WE DID BUDGET AN AMOUNT THAT'S GOING TO BE TRANSFERRED FROM THE GENERAL FUND TO INCREASE THAT TO AN AMOUNT OF 50,000. THAT WAS DONE, AND WE DID AGREE WITH THAT. THE OTHER THING WAS A CONCERN THAT THE FINANCE DEPARTMENT BROUGHT TO THE FINANCE COMMITTEE, AND THAT WAS A CONCERN ON OUR FEES THAT WE PAY FOR CREDIT AND DEBIT CARD CHARGES, MAINLY FOR OUR UTILITY PAYMENTS. I have reviewed that contract. It is probably one of the most convoluted contracts I've ever seen. The bottom line is we're going to prepare an RFP to try and consolidate that service all into one for fees that we can predict and we can understand. It's just way too expensive and the solution is a new contract under the terms that we would like with a provider and a document that we can live with, so that's in the works. The other one was a recommendation of an increase to compensation in code enforcement, and I have ongoing discussions with a manager, and he can talk a little bit more about this, but the concept, and there was no decision made on this, but the concept that he is considering It involves a multidisciplinary position, which involves more duties than just code enforcement. And it would be a multiple certification, and compensation would be related to that. And I'm not sure what that is, but we're not ignoring that. We're taking that and trying to modify it and adopt it to this new type of position that we're talking about. So that hasn't been resolved yet. The final one is an early payoff on settlement with HUD that we have annually. That's an interest-free one. That one we didn't take action on yet because generally, traditionally, at the end of the fiscal year, this would be from the general fund. and our cash drops when we start paying all our bills at the end of the year and starting off new, that's still a consideration. We just haven't made the call on if and when to pay it, but that is still under consideration. Those are the four things that were recommended by the committee. There are some new initiatives that are contained in the budget that I want to reiterate that may not be on this list. The first one is And this was in interim budget an initiative for capital funding that was placed in there The projects have not been determined they would be at the discretion of the governing body and In different places including our capital improvement fund and our general fund savings fund There's about three million dollars appropriated for projects that may come before the governing body and Doing that allowed us to for example write a check for the property acquisition that you all approved in the last couple of weeks So we didn't have to scramble to find that money That's another thing that I want to mention is within the budget. We are budgeting some matching funds that we know about now Traditionally we have accepted funding and then looked for the match. We want to avoid that in the future and We will be increasing of course as we get more projects But this is the first time that we budget matching funds in the initial operating budget The other thing that you may notice in the in the capital projects we have initiated contact with NMFA regarding our debt and and our capacity to fund additional projects. We're going to be looking for other resources, including bonding, other funding, to determine what our whole capital resource would be in the tens of millions based on our budget and our audit report rolled together determine what types of funding we can access that we can borrow. It also helps with our grant applications and legislative requests. So this is just the first step. When you go to the legislature or you go to apply for any type of a loan, they want to know, what have you done for yourselves? You have some skin in the game. We do. And that's part of this budget also. One other minor thing I wanted to mention is we placed some initial funding, a small amount, for an event or events that the governing body may want to undertake. There's nothing designated. There's not actually an idea. But it was a recommendation that the governing body should have that type of discretion also if you want to have a senior day Pumpkin day or whatever that's in there now this year and it can be adjusted up or down, but it's in the initial budget the other thing that Was done across the board and it's very minor But it is a different it is a change is for uniform allowances for all city employees the Standard uniform or anything like that is not in the budget, but the capacity is in there and And we believe it makes a difference, and it's going to make a difference. And I think we're an example today of a difference that it makes when you're in the public eye. So that's in there also. I think that's it. In the comments in the document that I sent you, the increases in compensation are in line with the collective bargaining agreements that you agreed to last year. Some of them have a dollar an hour increase based on anniversary. Some of them are moving up to a tier or a step. Those have been anticipated and included in this budget. They're not across the board. Generally, they're based on whatever the collective bargaining agreement says. So those are the things that you'll see across the board. Now I'll get to the actual changes from interim to final, fund by fund. In the general fund, as I said before, we had a $5,000 increase to allow event funding for the governing body. In the city manager's budget, we allowed an extra $5,000 for subscriptions and travel, some due to just increased activity and other things, for example, the ICMA certification. In the police department, the funding related to U.S. Marshals was reduced by $2,000, so we just made that minor adjustment to make it actual. In the library, there was originally $125,000 budgeted for capital improvements. We got a better estimate on the HVAC system That involves replacing the old boiler and radiators. The status of that is, I think, has been submitted to the Historic Preservation Division of Cultural Affairs. We don't have a response on that, but we did get a better estimate, and it came out a lot higher than we anticipated. That's the increase of 230,000. We increased 130,000 in the general services budget, to adjust closer to our general liability insurance and contractual services. We had some contractual services budgeted partially in community development and we wanted to consolidate them all into the right place. In the largest tax fund, this was an increase of $23,000 based on the projected events that they know thus far. And this is for publication and advertising. You'll see more I believe the basis on this one is mainly TV ads for events There will be some additional publication and radio, but the main one here is for television in the general fund savings account This is where we're budgeting the matching funds that we know of so far That's a change from last year and the change from interim and in the recreation center. This is a decrease of $45,000 to offset increased staffing costs. Because the hours have been expanded and they're fully staffed now, those costs went up. So as we didn't have a negative cash balance, we did have to reduce expenditures somewhere. I've had a discussion with both the director and the manager. Some things that can be done to Accommodate the maintenance one of the ideas is to Have the parks department staff assist in the winter time with some of the maintenance when they're not working outside They can assist with the rec center The next one is a senior center that one I won't go through line by line But this is to adjust the budget and it is a complicated budget if you look at those pages To exactly what the state mandates in that budget There's really not a lot of discretion in this budget. We get it, and we enter it, and we implement it. So that one I won't review in detail. The next one is Carol Peachey Foundation Fund 269. We got notification of an actual grant of $32,000, so we're budgeting that. The next one is an estate library grant. That one was $449,000, so we're budgeting that. The next three, three and a half, are to adjust the budgets for actual carryover numbers from prior year funding. We had estimates on those for interim budget. We have almost exact numbers for carryover for these funds, for projects that were over a two-year period, and the funding was not spent last year. So we're just budgeting the carryover at a more accurate amount. There is no over or under expenditure here. It's just getting closer to the actual. That's part of the reason for our increase in the Rehab of Taxiways Fund, and it has that name, but it is kind of a catch-all for... Additional funding for the airport. This one had $842,000 of carryover and new funding of $1.1 million. So that's to appropriate that money that we did not have at interim. The last one is in our automated system financing fund. That's our IT department that's funded internally. And that's an increase of $63,000 for operations coordinator. That is a new position. We did discuss this with Adele and the manager and I agreed that this would be a necessary position. This is not a technical position. It is more of a technical support position to assist with efficiency and handling the work order tickets and the administrative part of IT so that all of the IT staff can be more efficient in assisting out in the field. and the way that they operate. So we do support this. Those are the basic changes from interim to final. I stand for any questions and recommend your approval, Mayor and Council.

On the Carroll Petrie Foundation, that money is for the library? Is that where it goes? It's for the library, yes. Okay, I wasn't too sure on that. Thank you.

Sorry, the senator won't care.

I'm wrong.

Thank you. That's how valuable I am.

Mr. Manager. Mayor and council, there's a few things I want to say on the record. First and foremost, I want to ditto and echo the comments of our finance director and thank him as the leader of the finance team and the entire finance team here with us today for their work and efforts, and also the collective work of all of the administrators throughout the entire city that deal with the budget and the department heads in each respective department that put in the work to bring the document before you through the finance director and his team. So thank you for those efforts and kudos to that hard work and attention to detail. Code enforcement specifically I want to speak to that To let you all know that I take the recommendation of Finance Committee and individual counselors very seriously We're going to continually review process protocol and function Personnel and a key component that ties to that particular division is that it bisects it crosses over multiple departments community development the police department and the fire department and involves code ordinance matters, but it also involves matters associated with building code. So we want to make sure that adjustments and recommendations moving forward take into play all those facets. So the department heads, community development, our fire chief and our police chief are going to be involved in the discussions along with the finance director to provide some recommendations on on what a potential Restructure looks like an improvement to that function and process and so I wanted to comment on that The finance director mentioned the capital package that additional capital package. That's something that we've been talking about within the next three months I actually want to bring specific recommendations on the capacity that the city has and then seek guidance from the mayor and council on the use of that potential capacity and how you would like that allocated for projects, specifically linear projects, vertical projects, infrastructure projects. Morris, what is a pumpkin day?

I'm sorry?

What is a pumpkin day?

Oh, I have no idea. I couldn't think of anything else.

You mentioned the uniform item. I don't take that lightly, but I also noted that there are individuals citywide that have shirts, just like the shirts that are noted there. So I'm working with the department heads, make sure we're in compliance with the requirements of our bargaining agreements, but also make sure that there's parity across the city in the who, what, where, when, and how related to uniforms and who gets them. I wanted to note that on the record. Continual process citywide, process protocol and function improvements are ongoing that tie directly to the finance department and how we improve upon, track our work, approve our work, allocate our work, all of the above. And so that's ongoing. And I also would support the technical support position noted that would be in the IT department. And I would also note within the IT department with existing staff prior to Shay and Adele and Taylor and others, that whole team has done an excellent job like the finance department does, navigating across the whole city to provide upgraded, intense support that meets the needs of the city. And I would defer any questions or comments that you might have and add to ask the department heads. Ask them how they feel about that work. But I want to highlight and note that that work has been exceptional and is very appreciated by myself. I've got through the changes with the finance director. The city is financially strong. This nearly $28 million reflects a lot of work and a lot of function pushing 300 employees that do excellent work across the board. I appreciate the mayor and council for your guidance, vision, and direction. I stand in support of the document in front of you. Thank you, Mayor and Council. Mr. Martinez.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just wanted to ask a couple of questions. I know that we did talk about the housing, that housing fund that we supported annually with $150,000. That's an interest-free loan for the housing. Do you know what that balance is at this point, or you're not sure? Give me a second, and I'll ask the brains. Okay, I just kind of wondered what that was. I don't know right off the top of my head.

I think it's under a million dollars. I thought it was over.

Then, Morris, I had another question on an unfunded position. Tell me a little bit about that, those unfunded positions that are available online. here in the document, but they're not being filled. I mean, that's not an...

The idea is to keep them as a placeholder in case they have been needed in the past. They're considered, at least for this fiscal year, unnecessary. The reason to freeze them and not eliminate them is in case they're reactivated. So we just keep the placeholder but not commit the dollars.

And I was kind of looking at the lodger's tax in reference to the unfunded position for visitor center clerk.

Yes, that was because that was necessitated by the lack of having a chamber contract in place. That's normally their responsibility. We do fund it, but it's through their contract. So we no longer need to pay for the position

Directly as a city employee we had to do that for a little while Because I think that We fund him just like San Miguel County does but they're using that money to pay employees Do you follow me and not actually run that So that's why I'm asking that question if if that position needs to be brought back to life, I guess, you know, in that perspective. Not when we have the contract in place with the Chamber.

When we have the contract in place with the Chamber, we fund that, but it's their responsibility to administer that.

If I could, Mayor, Councilor Martinez, we, the county, the city, took on the support structure because there was a gap. So during the time period, that the chamber was in flux and didn't have appropriate leadership. We came back before council and you provided us authorization to actually hire those individuals to cover the work at the facility, if you'll recall. So that's the budgeted piece that we had at that time. Now that there's a chamber director and they've gain some additional capacity, I think is the best way to put it. We've basically turned the ball back in their court. But we stand ready, Mayor, Councilor Martinez, to continually work with the Chamber and make sure that there's coverage. We simply put a stopgap measure in with your authorization while they were adjusting maybe or reestablishing some continuity maybe is a better way to put it.

Okay. So, Mr. Manager, I think what Councillor Martinez is getting to, and this is a bigger discussion, broader discussion. We can't... I mean, I think what's happening is based off of the funding right now that the Chamber, and I'll kind of talk kind of from my vision on the outside, and Councillor Martinez probably knows more because he actually sits on there as the liaison. But I think what's happening, based off of the funding that they're receiving from the city and the county, they're barely maintaining... their positions, right? So I think what he's asking is, can we fund it through the city? But I think there's more discussion because, as Morris mentioned, it's in a contract that we have with them that they'll run it. I think what's happening is they, I mean, in my opinion, and I've had an opportunity to talk to others, and we've kind of introduced or connected individuals with Los Alamos, et cetera. I mean, I've spoke to Los Alamos. They continue. I think all they're paying is $50. And I don't think that they've even received a bill from the last time that I think I spoke to them. So there's some legwork that I think that they have to build some reserves within them, but I think maybe what Councillor Martinez is saying is there ways that we could, you know, help them get back on their feet because at the end, you know, any community that has a strong chamber, and I think what's happened is that chamber went, I mean, let's just say it, it went down while they didn't have their 5013C. So I think there's some building that needs to happen, but it also takes not only the dependence on the city, but also those board members to get involved to seek out funding, you know, alternative funding, not just kind of solely depend on the city and the county. So I think there's more, I think, I think we can all help them out. I know we've done our part with Los Alamos. I mean, typically Los Alamos funds chambers $5,000 to $6,000, $4,000 to $6,000. But when you're only getting $25 from them, I mean, that's not Los Alamos. I think there's some work that needs to be done.

Mr. Mayor, if I could, I hear you. I understand what's being requested, and we can absolutely... continue to take a deeper dive into what we're spending and how we might help more. And so I'm happy to do that. One of the things that we did to have conversation about even connected with Secretary Black is there's many different entities within the city of Las Vegas that are doing different but similar functions. And so Absolutely. Mayor, Councilman Martinez, we can take a deeper dive to see how we might be able to support or help more. We can absolutely do that and bring some recommendations back to Mayor and Council for your review and direction.

Okay, and just a couple of other things I want to, you know, still mention, and we've talked about it, you know, for some time, is the permanent position for HR, of course, and I know Rec Center, you have a kind of a plan that might work because of the fact that REC centers, right now the manager that's there, you might be able to utilize him through the winter months when parks is not real busy like you mentioned. So that's a good fit, I think, to some degree. So anyway, I just want to make sure that we continue that process moving forward to fill those positions that are needed. Anyway, did you, were you able to get a balance? I'm sorry.

Oh, okay.

And it was well over $3 million, I believe, $3.5 million when we started, and I mean, I think we were fortunate. Yeah, so it's not that much over.

Thank you.

And I think that's where Mr. Madrid says low interest, no interest is better than paying it, and then that funding could be available for other things. Is that basically what you're saying, Mr. Madrid?

If we paid that off today, we may have $2 million less cash for the projects we want to support in this year's budget. Thanks.

I'm glad that Councillor Martinez brought up the HR issue. And we have some thousand for the director of HR. BUT IS THERE ANY WAY THAT IF WE CANNOT FIND SOMEONE THAT FITS INTO THAT POSITION TO MAYBE CONSIDER AND I'M ASKING THIS OF THE CITY MANAGER AND OF YOU, MR. MADRID AND THE MAYOR, CONSIDER CONTRACTING WITH AN HR FIRM SO THAT WE CAN GET THIS BACK ON TRACK BECAUSE RIGHT NOW THERE'S A LOT OF ISSUES AND I'M NOT SAYING THAT PEOPLE ARE DOING THINGS WRONG OR WHATEVER. I THINK EVERYBODY WORKS HARD AT EVERYTHING THAT THEY DO. HOWEVER, THERE IS A CONCERN ABOUT LACK OF CONFIDENTIALITY AND THINGS LIKE THAT THAT NEED TO BE ADDRESSED AND OTHER ISSUES THAT HAVE KIND OF BEEN LINGERING THAT ARE NOT BEING ADDRESSED RIGHT NOW. SO IF WE COULD DO SOMETHING MORE PROACTIVE IN TRYING TO FIND SOMEBODY TO FILL THAT POSITION, or find a firm that is willing to work for the city to get us back to where we need to be. And the people who are there now are I think just kind of overwhelmed with everything that they have to do. A lot of our departments work with not enough staff. And so those are issues that we have to keep in mind also. But HR really definitely needs to have somebody there that knows HR well and can really get that back on track. I think Consuelo and Desi and Marsha do a great job. However, we do need to have somebody there that is familiar with how HR works in the city government.

We do have some flexibility to change the compensation or anything like that within what we have in this budget. So anything minor like that that's not really a new scope can be accommodated just with the manager's signature. Anything more broad than that, for example, a large contract for an external firm to do this function would, of course, be brought back to you. But to your point regarding addressing the director's compensation, that won't be an issue. Counselor?

Thank you very much. Mr. Mayor, Councilwoman Casey, I appreciate the feedback. I would say on the record, I've had the privilege of working for larger entities than the city of Las Vegas, including New Mexico Department of Transportation, including Santa Fe County and other entities. And I will say unequivocally on the record that the folks in HR for nearly 300 employees are doing a good job with job announcements, with onboarding, with orientation, with upgrades to benefits analysis, and everything in between. I hear and understand your point as well as Councilman Martinez's, but I will say unequivocally on the record, we're doing what's required of us under the law and under the regulations of the city of Las Vegas. There's always room for improvement. We'll continue the search, and I will also look at options of entities that can augment and support us. But I want to say unequivocally, that team of people, including the support that Mr. Seiss is also providing now, has done an exceptional job managing nearly 300 employees and everything that comes with it, including the volume of risk claims that come in, tort claims to the city, and including disciplinary actions. They've done an exceptional job in process and function. They also work closely with the New Mexico Municipal League. So I want to assure the mayor and council that beyond the people in the office, the full team relies on advice from our legal counsel on a regular basis, as well as the legal counsel and the support that the New Mexico Municipal League provides to not only us, but all city governments across the state of New Mexico today. So be assured that that team is not only communicating with myself, but is also communicating with the Municipal League and other support structures to help. And so I wanted to tell you I hear your concern and will work towards providing recommendations, but for clarity, there's a lot of coordination, a lot of work that's happening between the League, between legal counsel, and our existing HR team.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Manager, thank you for that update. I am glad to hear that we're tapping into the Municipal League resources and it is comforting and refreshing to hear that we are abiding by the law and regulation of the federal government and of the state of New Mexico. I'm I'm glad that we're doing that. I knew that we were doing that, but I'd like to... I'm glad that we're hearing that on the record.

So, thank you. So I guess, Mr. Manager, and maybe I shouldn't ask this, but I'm going to ask it. So any issues arising that maybe HR isn't comfortable with, you are seeking those resources just to make sure that we're on the... Is that basically what I'm hearing?

Absolutely. On a regular basis, I'm in consultation with our council and the league, on pressing, challenging issues that arise.

Yep. I guess I'll be the last one to close it out, and I always have my question, but Mr. Madrid, and I know this was something that I had asked to see if we could, and I don't know, I didn't see it in this budget, and maybe there's reasons why, but I was really, really hoping we could get more positions in the streets department. Was that...

The short answer is we can, Mr. Mayor. I think we can bring that to you in the form of a budget adjustment and a related change in the org chart. It's a simple thing. We just need to...

I'll throw this pitch to the council. I know it's just what I'm thinking, but if you really look at parks and you look at some of these other departments, I mean, the reliability that we depend on the streets department versus... other departments and how many employees they have. I mean, our streets department is, is, is thin and I would really, really ask, you know, that we support here in the future, you know, at least two more positions, maybe even more because, because I mean those guys, especially in the winter, I know they get help sometimes from some other departments, but if we could really, really, You know bolster up. I think we heard all the time right about potholes How come that pothole wasn't filled and you know I think that list becomes longer longer and longer But if I'd really really ask that you know if we could really look in and bolster those a couple positions for sure mr. Mayor I want to comment that we we actually just had another conversation tied to your specific recommendation and and even feedback from other counselors

We get a budget resolution approved today to meet the requirements of the state. We'll bring back a recommendation in the second August meeting associated with two additional positions in the streets department.

Thank you, and that's all I have. Secretary of the Council, any more questions?

Mr. Mayor.

Mr. Martinez.

I'LL GO AHEAD AND MOVE THE APPROVAL OF RESOLUTION 2641 TO ADOPT THE FINAL PHYSICAL YEAR 2026-2027 BUDGET.

A MOTION BY COUNCILOR MARTINEZ. DO I HAVE A SECOND? SECOND. SECOND BY COUNCILOR CASEY.

Councillor Pacheco?

Yes.

Councillor Casey? Yes. Councillor Martinez?

Yes.

I have a motion by Councillor Martinez, a second by Councillor Casey. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Motion carries. That concludes the business items, Mr. Mayor.

Motion to adjourn. Motion by Councillor Casey. I have a second. Second.