Council - Special Meeting

At this time, I'd like to call to order the August 31st Special City Council meeting to order. Ms. Cassandra.

Mayor David Romero. Here. Councillor Marvin Martinez. Present. Councillor Barbara Casey. Here. Councillor Benito Pacheco.

Present.

Councillor David Ulivari.

Here.

Thank you, Mayor. We do have a quorum.

Ms. June, will you lead us in the pledge? Yes. Casey, a moment of silence.

Thank you, Mr. Maynor. Most recently, we have lost three people that I consider to be key people that have helped Las Vegas. The first one I'd like to talk about is Harry Lippe. Dr. Lippe was the first person to start a foundry at Highlands University. He taught art history, and he was one of my teachers when I was first at Highlands as a young student. He started foundries in other places. He is a veteran, having served in Korea. And after he worked in other universities in California and other places, he moved to New Mexico and ended up at Highlands University. And he loved Las Vegas and stayed here for the remainder of his life. And according to his obituary, he had lived over 100 years. So he was here for the majority of those 100 years. I want to thank him for that. He is also the husband of Nancy Lippe, who has served on the city's tree board for many years. So condolences go out to her. Please keep her and their families in prayer. Also, Leveo Sanchez. Leveo Sanchez was... on the Highlands Foundation Board for over 30 years. Then he was appointed as a regent for Highlands University where he served for a couple of terms under Susana Martinez when she was governor and then later under our current governor. And so he gave so much of his time, money, and energy to Las Vegas and Highlands University. He loved Las Vegas. He was born and raised in Peru. From there, they moved back to the United States. They moved to Las Vegas. And his mother started teaching education courses at Highlands University. And the teacher education building is named after her, Dr. Victoria Sanchez.

That was his mother.

And that's the veil. They will be having services for him this coming Thursday at his home in Santa Fe. And the last one is the wife of a former employee, Fidelina Fefi Roybal, passed away just a few days ago. She had been very ill. Her husband, Alan, worked in the street department and also in the tree department. And he retired from the city of Las Vegas. And his daughter, Amanda, worked in IT for a short while and she left her job so that she could help take care of her mother until she passed away. So please keep those families in your hearts and in your prayers and let us ask God that they have some solace in knowing that those people are no longer suffering from whatever ailed them and took them away from us. Amen.

Mr. Mayor, approval of the agenda.

It's the pleasure of the council.

Mr. Mayor, I move that we approve the agenda as presented.

Motion by Councillor Casey, second by Councillor Martinez. All in favour? Aye. Opposed? Ayes have it.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Moving on to public input. We have no public input this evening. Going on to our approval of minutes for August 12th, 2026.

Mayor, I move approval of the minutes.

They were perfect. Second by Councilman Iwate. All in favor? Aye. Those opposed? The ayes have it unanimously.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Moving on to our business items. Request approval to adopt Resolution No. 2642, approving the acquisition of real property located at 622 Douglas Avenue, Las Vegas, New Mexico, authorizing the execution of a purchase agreement and related documents, and authorizing the Mayor to take actions necessary to complete the acquisition. Mr. Mayor, I turn it over to you and Mr. Anaya.

All right. So, Councillors, I know we've... Discuss this last meeting you gave myself and the manager the opportunity to put together a purchase agreement Mr.. Manager, I don't want to touch up on Some of the highlights. I don't know if maybe Scott and Lucas could come in. I know they were they worked on the purchase well Mr.. Scott worked on the purchase agreement The council had a mr..

Manager if you're not saying Yeah, just go ahead and come on up Scott or just I have our legal counsel comment on the process and the function that we've met the requirements associated with state law in the discussions and potential action on this item.

Sure, Mayor, Council. I think just two things that are most important. The purchase agreement appears to be completely in order. I think I've approved as to form and legal sufficiency as to the purchase order itself, and we drafted the resolution, and that appears to be appropriate with state law. I'm prepared for your consideration. Once you approve that resolution... Everything can then be finalized with governing body approval. I think the process that was followed appears to comply with all requirements of state law that I'm aware of. I think that pretty much touches on everything as far as my end.

Thank you, Mr. Castellano. Mr. Zunker, if you could add some comments, I'd like to make just a few brief comments after Mr. Zunker and turn it back over to you, Mayor and Council.

So basically I agree with attorney Castellano basically everything looks like it's in order we have Gone through everything looked at everything and like I said, it does appear to be in order. I don't see anything that Is out of the ordinary it does appear to meet all of the the requirements by the state of New Mexico

Thank you Mr. Zunker. I would just say it's a privilege to even sit here before you all to have the opportunity for you to consider this. It's something that's been discussed over many years and I think sitting in this chair I'm excited about the opportunities that are in front of it if the Mayor and Council so choose to approve.

Exciting times to see an area that potentially could be revitalized for use by our city government in the historical In that historical district I stand for any questions, man Yeah, thank you yeah, I guess you know just for the general public to to understand the somewhat of the contract I guess one of my questions would be what I Is there a timeline between the transition of them kind of moving out and, you know, city taking occupancy of the building and so forth? Just so that we can get kind of more of a clear picture of moving forward, I guess, is what I'm asking.

This would be what I would consider a lengthy closing. It would be sometime in December. So the bank has to follow FDIC rules, and they have to give notice to all of their depositors Of this now. They are not leaving Las Vegas. They still have the other branch up by Up on 7th Street north of Mills. They my understanding is they will be looking for another location that would be much smaller to Replace this this place of business. So it's not like the banks leaving and but this lengthy closing has to do with them following FDIC rules, that they have to give sufficient notice.

And I understand this is the first step, this resolution, to move forward with this. And it's a great day. You know, we're at a good point in the city of Las Vegas to make such a big investment into a community. We're making a big investment into the community, plus... Like, you know, the manager mentioned, we're revitalizing that downtown area. That's going to be big for our community. And we've got, you know, I think a lot of plans moving forward, and hopefully this comes full circle. Thank you, Mayor.

Councillor Casey.

Thank you, Ms. Mayer. I read every single thing and I'm very happy for the number of issues that came up because they answered pretty much all of the questions that I was thinking about. And word always gets out in Las Vegas as to what's going on and I did get some phone calls asking, well, what happens to our money if we have money saved there, and what if we have a CD, and what paperwork do we need to do? And I said, I don't think you have to do anything. Everything should just be transferred to the two other branches that are here in town. And there's one on Hot Springs Boulevard by the town post office, and the one on 7th Street that's where you turn off for the first parking area at Walmart. So those two are there, and so anyone who has bank accounts or CDs or whatever business they're doing with Southwest Capital Bank at Douglas will have their accounts automatically transferred to one of those banks, and they'll be told which. And the bank has been very diligent and they have already sent out letters to people who hold, have their money there or have business with the bank and telling them that they don't have to do anything, that everything will be taken care of and they'll be they'll let them know what's going on as the process moves forward. So I'm very happy about that. So I think it's a great thing. And also the resolution and some of the other due diligence items that were given to us in our package state that the city has the responsibility, or they can if they want to do it, is to get experts over to the building and check it out to make sure that everything is as it is supposed to be before anything is finalized. And that gave me a lot of relief, too, because sometimes you think, okay, well, what happens if we find something wrong and it hasn't been fixed or whatever?

So I'm very happy with the way everything was prepared. I think it is well done.

So I want to thank...

Mr. Zunker and community development in general because they are the ones that end up doing a lot of this difficult work and for our city attorney who does such an excellent job of making sure that everything that we have to work on that is a legal document of any type he always makes sure that it is correct and includes everything that needs to be included in documents such as these that, to make sure that the city is protected at all costs.

Thank you, Mr. Moore. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Moore. Mr. Prime Land, Mr. Scott, Mr. Prime Land. The only thing we would like to do, Mr. Manager, is put some signs up there. No trespassing or something like that because we might get some tort claims against it or, you know, people, kids or anything, something, someone might go through and claim something on us. And it's got to be a little more wise. You know, do your best so we can do that and put some signs out that it's private property and they know the restrictions. And the thing is that we've got to protect ourselves. Thank you, guys. Thank you.

So I just thank you, Councillor Casey, for bringing up. I think one of the big concerns in the community is going to be the customers of Southwest Capital Bank. And I just want to say how grateful we are to Southwest Capital Bank and the Levinson family for generations of commitment. They've helped families, supported local businesses, and I'd like to be the first one to say that if it would not be for the Bank of Las Vegas and the Levinson family, my family might not have started a business. So that goes back to 1979. So that just says the commitment that they've had in this community. And in speaking with Chez, they'll continue to have the commitment here in this community. It's just that, you know, with so many branches, they felt that the building was too big for their current needs. But in speaking, and Mr. Manager, you could probably add to this, is the commitment is there. I know we've discussed other housing, financial help that they could provide to the community. So their commitment, I want to stress this, their commitment to this community is still here. They're not going in anywhere. They made that commitment to us. Whether the city of Las Vegas purchased it or somebody else, more than likely it could have gone somewhere else. So it's great commitment. Great things that I think that us purchasing this building and hopefully the eventual plan is to put City Hall there and have more pedestrians in the Douglas District. It shows a commitment that this governing body has presented that we're committed to revitalization, not only the Plaza area, but the Douglas area and railroad district. So a huge investment, but it's going to... I know that... Once everything is final and if everything goes smooth as we anticipate it, we'll have more, not only the city hall there, but more businesses hopefully coming into that district and revitalizing. I think that's what we're all committed and we ran on is economic development. So I think... by us investing in that district, we'll show other business owners that, you know what, it's well worth, you know, putting your business in that area. And the foot traffic's going to be, you know, greater. So nothing but good things that I envision. And I think after hearing some good comments here from the city manager and everybody else, I think good things are to come. So with that, it's the pleasure of the council.

Mr. Mayor.

Go ahead. A motion for approval of Resolution 2642. Second. Motion by Councillor Pacheco. Second by Councillor Casey. Roll call.

Councillor Libari.

Yes.

Councillor Martinez.

Yes.

Councillor Casey. Yes. Councillor Pacheco.

Yes.

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

One last thing. Scott, thank you for all your help. Mr. Lucas Marquez. Mr. City Manager. I mean, a huge... I think this is a huge investment that the city is making. But I do want to say I think we... work this arrangement well. I know at one time, you know, an offer of much more than what we're paying today was made and things didn't, you know, there was other interested parties and I think by us waiting a bit and playing the cards correctly, we ended up with a good deal for the city of Las Vegas and the residents. So, thank you.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Board.

Mr. Manager. Mr. Mayor, I would just ask if the Mayor and Council would indulge me to make this comment. My life partner who dedicated 25 years to the city of Las Vegas, her birthday's tomorrow. So I just wanted to give her a shout out and a happy birthday to Doris R. Gallegos, Commissioner-elect for District 1 in San Miguel County. Happy birthday. Happy birthday.

So we're having cake.

Well, you already took care of it.

You got yourself in line for a good gift. So with that, motion to adjourn?

Motion to adjourn.

A motion by Councillor Pacheco, second by Councillor Martinez.