County Council - Session - Regular Meeting

device to connect to as well. So public comment will be accepted at the beginning of the meeting on topics that are not on the agenda tonight. And then as we go through each agenda item, we'll be seeking public comment during that time as well. So please limit your comments to three minutes or as otherwise directed. And we just ask that you state your name before making comments. We also ask that we have virtual attendees that use the naming feature so you can properly address on Zoom. And also ask the comments be addressed to the chair and the question, the topics that question here. So I think with that, we're ready to go to the roll call, opening roll call. So I can actually see everybody here tonight that's in person. So we have six or seven councillors here in the chambers. Councilor Haberman is excused tonight. And then on to item number two, which is the Pledge of Allegiance. So if you're willing and able, please join us in 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. So now we're on to item number three, which is a statement regarding the closed session. Is there a councillor have that statement? Ready, Councillor Cull?

The matters discussed in the closed sessions of County Council held on July 28th, 2026, that began at 5 p.m., was limited only to the topic specified in the notice of the closed session, and no action was taken in any manner in the closed session. We request that this statement be included in the meeting minutes.

Thank you, Councillor Cull. So now we're on to item number four, public comments. So this, as I mentioned just a moment ago, this is for items not on the agenda tonight. So we have any one present here in the council chambers wanting to make public comment? Not seeing any. So Ms. Madison, can you check on the line for us?

I can. If you'd like to make a public comment, please raise your hand. Chair, I'm not seeing any hands raised. Okay, thank you, Ms. Mason.

So now we're on to item number five, which is approval of the agenda. Is there a councillor interested in making a motion regarding the agenda? Councillor Cull? I move that we approve the agenda as presented. Is there a second?

Second.

Okay, so we have a motion by Councillor Cull, second by Councillor Neill-Clinton. Seeing no discussion, Can we indicate approval by raising your hand? OK. I'll let Rutgers show that all six councillors were in favor of the motion. So passes unanimously 6-0. OK. So now we're on to item number 6, which is presentations, proclamations, and recognitions. So 6A is 21159-26. It's the proclamation declaring August of 2026 is Bear Month in Los Alamos County. And it'll be accepted by some folks, I think, that are here tonight. I think maybe Casey Lundberg and Kristen O'Hara from Pairito Environmental Transition Center here. And Councilor Neil Clinton has the proclamation read.

Whereas Los Alamos County is home to an abundance of wildlife, including the American black bear and the presence of this wildlife contributor to the ecological balance and natural beauty of our area. And whereas it is the responsibility of our community to coexist peacefully with wildlife while taking necessary precautions to minimize potential human and bear encounters, and whereas five critical bear safety practices should be added to our daily and recreational activities. When out in nature, keep dogs on a leash, talk and make noise, stay alert, and actively look for signs of bear activity. Never, I'm including this word, ever approach a bear stay calm and do not run into a bear encounter. And whereas we can also reduce bear encounters at home by never feeding bears, securing garbage in bear resistant containers, removing bird feeders at night, planting gardens away from game trails, frequently turning compost and securing chickens, And whereas the Pajarito Environmental Education Center and Land of Enchantment Wildlife Foundation will host New Mexico's only annual bear festival sponsored by N3B and Century Bank on August 29th at the Los Alamos National Nature, at the Los Alamos Nature Center from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m., and whereas local, regional, state, and federal organizations will be present at the Bear Festival to educate the public on how to keep human and bear populations safe by engaging with the community through crafts, games, food, and other activities. Now, therefore, on behalf of the County of the Incorporated County of Los Alamos, I do hereby proclaim August 26 as Bear Month in Los Alamos and urge our citizens to participate in the Bear Festival to raise awareness and encourage responsible practices to ensure the safety and preservation of both humans and bears. dated this 28th day of July 2026, signed by Randall Wrighty, chair of the Los Alamos County Council.

Okay, thank you, Councilor Neil Clinton. So I just saw Mr. Robinson up here, so did you want to make, do you have some other folks with you?

Sorry about that, I got caught on the phone. Mr. Chair, Council, thank you for once again proclaiming August Bear Month. This has been a I think we're on our 10th bear festival this year. So this has been something that the county has been working on a lot with its citizens. And I think we're seeing it pay off in this year of a lot of bear incursions into our neighborhoods because of the ongoing drought. So I'm here to thank you all on behalf of the board of Land of Enchantment Wildlife Foundation for your continued support in this program. And I think it's gonna be another successful year. So thank you all.

Okay, thank you. So can I photograph?

Yes.

Okay, thank you. Let's go on to Item 6B, 219A2-26, Introduction and Discussion on the Local Economic Development Act Lead to Participation Agreement and Mets Pulitzer Redevelopment Area Development Agreement high level terms for the guest house project.

Okay, good evening everybody. So my name is Max Kutikoff. I'm the economic development administrator for the county. So I'm excited to introduce the developer, Mr. Tucker Sharp with Grand Mesa Partners, who's gonna talk about the project that we are discussing today. So essentially the guest house, it is located at 400 Trinity Drive, also known as the former Hilltop House site. The project is located within the east downtown Los Alamos MRA district. Overall, the project is going to contain 60 room hotel development, targeting business and leisure tourists, with some rooms reserved for extended stay options for summer interns, postdocs, visiting researchers, et cetera. Overall, the project budget, it's over $30 million. So the county investment requested is the combination of LIDA and MRA funds for the total of $3,875,000. So essentially the LIDA request, it's $3 million $2 million in grant funds, and $1 million as a 0% 10-year loan. And the Emory grant funding requested is $875,000. So the developer is providing over $7.2 million in cash equity financing, and the rest is going to be financed through conventional bank loans. So the economic impact of the project, it's job creation, GRT revenue for the county during construction phase, GRT revenues during the operations phase and the lodgers tax. And the MRA outcomes is the remediation of the blight site at the entrance to the downtown and the increased commercial activity within the district. So with this, I'll pass it over to Mr. Sharpe.

Good evening. Well, I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Tucker Sharp, and I'm here on behalf of Grand Mesa Partners. And I'd like to thank everyone for the opportunity to be able to introduce our project. I would just like to ask, am I able to control the slides, or how should I? Say yes. Next, OK. All right. So we could go to the next slide, I guess. And we could go to the next slide after this and the next one here. So I'm really glad to be here to introduce the project and have the opportunity to discuss the guest house at 400 Trinity Drive. And this evening, I'd like to discuss three things. First, why this property is uniquely important. And second, what we are proposing. And finally, why we believe this project represents an opportunity to advance many of the county's long-term economic development and metropolitan redevelopment area objectives. If we could go to the next slide. As many of you know, 400 Trinity Drive occupies one of the most visible locations in Los Alamos. It sits directly at the entrance to downtown and serves as one of the first impressions visitors receive when entering the community. For years, However, the property has represented something quite different. It was the home of the former Hilltop House, which ultimately became vacant, deteriorated, and was eventually demolished and leaned. The site also carried numerous legacy challenges beyond just the demolition issues, but including environmental remediation, underground fuel tank removal, state agency coordination, and ownership complications. Over the past years, we've invested several million dollars into resolving all of those issues. And today, instead of representing a liability, the property is finally prepared for redevelopment. If we could go to the next slide. Our vision is straightforward, and it is to develop a guest house hotel that serves visitors with a focus on land of business travelers as well as leisure visitors while helping shape and improved arrival experience into downtown Los Alamos. The project will feature 60 guest rooms within roughly 40,000 square feet of development, and the project is designed to achieve LEED Gold standards and incorporate outdoor gathering areas, landscape spaces, and architecture intended to complement the surrounding community. The project aims to serve people already coming to Los Alamos. That includes LANL employees, management, laboratory contractors, consultants, visiting researchers and interns, and business travelers, as well as tourists exploring northern New Mexico. Our goal is to better accommodate demand that already exists today in an effort to help alleviate stress on the existing housing stock in Los Alamos. And next, we have some renderings of the project. we go to the next slide we have and this slide is the courtyard the next slide from Trinity Drive the next slide is a lobby space the next slide is interior rendering of guest room and the next slide is another interior rendering of the guest room the next slide is a interior rendering of a common kitchen that we have on the second and third floor of the property. And the next slide from here will give me an opportunity to talk about how this project is much more than and is about much more than constructing a guest house. It represents the transformation of one of Los Alamos' most prominent vacant properties into an active economic asset. During construction, the project generates gross receipts tax revenue. And once operational, it creates permanent employment opportunities. Overnight guests support local economic activity through restaurants, supporting retailers, coffee shops, and small businesses throughout downtown. The project also generates lodgers tax revenue while increasing visitor spending throughout the community. Beyond direct economic benefits, additional lodging capacity supports Los Alamos National Laboratory and its team of managers and so on with improved ability to recruit talent and accommodate visiting researchers, contractors, interns, and collaborators. Those visitors become customers for local businesses and contribute to the vitality of downtown. This is exactly the type of multiplier effect that successful economic redevelopment seeks to create. If we could go to the next slide, and the next slide after this, I can talk about the Metropolitan Redevelopment Area. We believe the project aligns closely with the goals of the Metropolitan Redevelopment Area. This location sits squarely within the MRA and represents an opportunity to improve not only a single parcel, but also the surrounding public realm. The project enhances aesthetics. It improves walkability, it strengthens a downtown identity, and it introduces dark sky compliant lighting. It also activates a property that's remained vacant for years. Perhaps most importantly, it creates a stronger arrival experience at one of the most recognizable entrances into downtown Los Alamos. If we can go to the next slide. This project will also improve the surrounding streetscape for the community. And we see potential opportunities to work collaboratively with the county on a gateway feature that reinforces the identity of downtown and creates more welcoming experience for residents and visitors alike. So in closing, we appreciate your time this evening and look forward to continuing this conversation as we move through the leader and metropolitan redevelopment area process. Thank you. And we will be happy to answer any questions.

Okay. Thank you, Mr. Sharp. So this is just a presentation tonight, so there's no action. But I think Councilor should ask any technical questions or make any comments they want to make at this time. So I think I saw Councilor Ann on a very nice first.

Thank you, Chair. Mr. Sharp, I really appreciate your presentation, and I I'm looking forward to seeing something develop there after so many years of watching the hilltop house go through all these different changes and then eventual demolition. One of the real assets of that piece of property is it has an amazing view to the east, especially if you're up high, like on a second floor. And I couldn't really tell in, You know some of your renderings and you know I know this is very early in the process, but I would just ask that, as you progress through the design that you really consider. What you can do to take advantage of that, because you know they had a restaurant in the hilltop house that was up on the second floor and the view out to the east, you know with the mountains and everything is just really. And I think it would be something that every guest at your development would appreciate. And, you know, I think it would be a very welcoming experience and provide something that really emphasizes what we offer here in Los Alamos.

Well, thank you so much for that. If I can respond, I would just say I appreciate that. We did work in the design to orient the building in that direction with that in mind. And we do have a, what we're calling an elevated roof deck amenity space, not quite on the roof, it's on the third floor level, but it is an elevated amenity space that's going to aim to create a gathering space with that view in mind.

That's fantastic. I look forward to seeing this actually come to fruition. Thank you.

I just wanted to add part of the MRA money is considered for adding on some facade improvements and some features. I don't know if it includes balconies, but it does improve the look from the outside as well as maybe the access to the views. Not mentioned here tonight, but One of our downtown goals is also creating a gateway. And so there are discussions going on about how we can use this project and lever this project and have a public process and work with Main Street on how to create kind of a Central Avenue gateway from the roundabout. And so there is an opportunity here of some placemaking that is being considered under the MRA portion of this public private partnership.

Okay. Thank you. Councilwoman Clinton.

Thank you, Chair. Thank you for your presentation. You mentioned the remediations and the challenges. Can you address what those were and how they were solved?

Yes. Several beyond those of which you may be aware as far as the demolition and the liens and, you know, curing that issue. You know, as there was a gas station at the property prior, We did remove the underground petroleum storage tanks. We had the Petroleum Storage Tank Bureau. We provided them with a work plan and report to ensure that the soil there was clean. We received a no further action letter from both the Groundwater Bureau and from the Petroleum Storage Tank Bureau, preparing the site for development, eliminating the environmental issues. There was some detail there about when the property was demolished. There was a suspected release. We don't know how it happened. That was before my involvement, but we certainly set to work making sure that that issue was resolved and coordinated with the various state agencies and gratefully was able to achieve the no further action letters. Hard fought, hard won documents.

But greatly appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor Nunn-Clinton. Do we have Councillor Rieger?

Thank you, Chair. Well, that's a nice presentation. Do you have any interior drawings, or is there a restaurant, or what is it? Is it mostly guest rooms?

Mostly guest rooms. We have a few of the interior renderings. We have some guest room renderings. We don't have a restaurant per se, but we do have the common kitchens that will work to serve the guest needs. We have... some other amenities, outdoor amenity spaces in the property and we have a modest conference space as well.

And is this a huge conference thing?

No, no, it's, it's not aimed to certainly not a conference sent, you know, the property is not a conference. center itself. It's just a meeting space for the guests. Yeah, for guests. We're still working on some of the programming for the property. So whether, you know, that can be rented potentially, or, you know, if there's abilities for there to be, you know, public events there is TBD. But, you know, we're focusing mostly on the guest experience at the property.

And what did you say about the drawing now? You don't have it here? You have drawings of the interior?

We do. We showed some renderings of the interior guest rooms of the common kitchen and the library spaces. But I was saying the programming, we're still working out the exact programming that will take place at the property.

Yeah, okay. Well, thank you very much. My pleasure. Thank you, Councilor Rieger. Councilor.

Thank you for the presentation or I'm certainly very excited about this. Do you have a rough idea how many full-time jobs this will bring?

Full-time long-term jobs at the property specific to operations of the guest house we're approximating for full-time employees at the property. We also believe there will be a variety of contract labor and contract services that are also created opportunities for those vendors created by the property as well.

Great. Thank you very much.

Okay. Let's see. So can you tell us the amount of the lien that the county had on the property that you repaid?

Yeah, it was approximately $1.2 million.

Okay. So I know some of this will be in the development agreement, but we get questions about things like security. So it just seems like the leveraging within county funds versus your funds on this one seems relatively high. So I think that's why you're getting some questions about, like, jobs and that. And do you know, like, over what period of time you'll be looking at recovering? Like, you know, we're going to be having obviously there's zero for improvements on the property because there's been a building demolished. So do you know roughly how many years we're looking at for return on, like, the county investment? on property taxes or receipts tax.

Yeah, I think we're still discussing the repayment term, but I think we're approximating between five and 10 years. Okay.

And then I think you've ever been asked about like what is additional, but what wasn't clear to me was like how much the County funds are leveraging you to do something more. Cause I remember hearing about this and it was a 60 room, You know, extended stay to begin with, and it's still 60 rooms. If you knew about the history of the Hilltop House, it had quite a few more rooms because it was an extended stay. And I don't know how the square footage compares, but it's fairly generous per room per square foot. And I understand you do have some common areas. So are you looking at the number of rooms? In terms of the final model, or is this like it's going to be 60 rooms and that's the model that works, you can't fit any more parking, or what are the constraints that lead you to 60 rooms?

There were some constraints regarding parking, for sure, because it's really not even a two-acre site, so accommodating the right amount of parking, the right amount of setbacks, landscaping area, so forth. And, you know, we have one of our... team members from our architecture team who could talk maybe more about design. Um, but in general, you know, it's an expensive project, even as small as it is at 30 rooms, 30 keys, um, costs continue to increase just with, um, kind of the macro economic, you know, uh, state of the world, um, presently the items that we had to address, um, prior and just, Creating feasibility for the project is really aided by the funds from LIDA and from the MRA. We're also aiming to try and make the project more aesthetically pleasing than it is to create, even in its current design, So we are going to aim to use funds, especially the MRA funds, to be able to improve the facade. So we're looking to put some stone back on the building, to put some wood detailing on the building, and to make improvements that we otherwise wouldn't be able to incorporate into the design. Okay.

I understand the benefit of that, but it doesn't seem like from a hardcore economic benefit it Does that provide hardcore economic benefit to put a nicer appearance on the building?

I think that's the MRA benefit in particular, but the economic benefit really comes from, I think, the ability to be able to have more visitors overnight in the downtown area. Okay. Ms. Lorenz?

Chair, I just want to add a couple things. I think what was missing from the staff report, but was highlighted in the initial presentation, but I think it's worth restating is that the overall value of construction is about 30 million. So the proportion, it may not be, it's a, what the county's participation is not a huge percentage compared, I mean, it is actually a lesser percentage to some of the other MRA or LIDAs that you've heard recently. So I wanted to clarify that because it should have been in the staff report, and I just wanted to highlight that, that the value of construction and the gross receipts tax the county will get on that construction is significant. The other thing I wanted to mention is it's the lodgers tax, and it's the jobs, and it's the tourism, the role a hotel might play on spending money in the restaurants or doing entertainment around town. The MRA piece of it very much talks about you know, helping do things like relocate the site utilities, the landscaping in the public right-of-ways, the widened sidewalks in the right-of-ways, and then facade improvements. And so those are the elements that make up the – and then potentially an entryway feature. Those are the elements that make up the MRA 800-something estimate right now.

Okay. Well, thank you, because I think that didn't come across, I think, to a lot of people. in the staff report. So appreciate that clarification. And yeah, I think just it's important to make sure we are clear about the, you know, the costs and benefits for the project. So I think we're looking to see if there's any public comment. Anyone? Please come on up and and just state your name. And we'll get the timer ready for you.

Good evening chair and counselors. My name is Jason Chappelle. I'm a resident of Los Alamos County and also a candidate for county council for this next year. Tonight, however, I'm simply speaking as a citizen about the community and the responsibility of stewardship of public resources. I think most of us can agree On one thing, the former hilltop house property has sat vacant for far too long. Redeveloping the site would be a positive step in supporting thoughtful economic development that strengthens our community for future generations. But supporting economic development doesn't mean that every proposal should be automatically received public financial assistance. When taxpayers are asked to invest nearly $4 million on a private development, I believe our responsibility should be to ask simple questions. What is the public receiving in return? Will the project create meaningful number of permanent jobs? Will those jobs provide wages to support local families? Will the hotel offer a meeting and event space that benefits the community, organizations, nonprofits, and community functions? Will it help attract conferences, visitors, businesses that generate measurable economic growth for both Los Alamos and White Rock? How will our success be measured? And if the projected benefits doesn't materialize, what protections are in place for the taxpayers? These aren't questions meant to oppose the development. They're questions meant to ensure that the public investments truly serve the public. I believe economic development works best when it creates partnerships between public and private sectors. a partnership where both sides contribute and both sides share responsibility. If public dollars are part of the equation, then the public benefit should be just as clear as the private benefits. As someone who is seeking the privilege to serve in this council, that's the approach I hope to bring to every decision, and I hope we will tonight and going forward with this project. I'm not asking whether a proposal is politically popular or unpopular, but whether it's transparent, fiscally responsible, and accountable, and ultimately serves the best interests of the people who live here. Ultimately, my hope is that every major decision the council makes reflects the values of Los Alamos and its citizens. They have strong fiscal responsibility, transparency, and a commitment to empowering citizens through open and accountable government. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chappelle. Please come up and just state your name. Thank you.

All right. Well, I'm Lisa Shin. I'm at 637 47th Street. And county counselors, I just wanted to remind you that as elected officials, you are entrusted with the lawful, ethical, and responsible stewardship of public funds. And so I do have some serious concerns about this renovation. First of all, I want to point out that I'm just worried about what exactly happened to Hilltop House Hotel, because I remember being there for many wonderful parties and wedding receptions. And it was a really great place. And all of a sudden it's demolished. And, you know, I just don't understand, like, if that happened before, then what prevents that from happening again? And so that's kind of the question that's running through my mind. And again, I'm also asking, is there a true public benefit or does it mostly benefit the developer's pocketbooks? In this case, the developers are asking for nearly $3 million in free money and a $1 million interest-free loan, which amounts to about $585,000 in interest savings over 10 years, to generate just three or four new jobs. And that just really doesn't seem like a great return on investment. I also want to know, what are the line items in the 2026-2027 budget for these interest-free loans and free money? Like I didn't, I looked at the budget for the past couple of days. I wasn't really seeing, I mean, is there a cap on the lead of funds? And I just wasn't really seeing where there's a line item for this. Is it just unlimited funds or is there actually a cap? And I just also want to say, ask that what is being done to make sure that these lead of funds are not being used to put existing businesses at risk? or directly compete with our local entrepreneurs. And we know that Alan saints wrote a wonderful article, um, for that very question. I just heard meeting rooms. I'm worried about, you know, the meeting rooms that he offers at Sala. Um, and then finally, I want to ask what is being done to ensure the public is not liable for business failures and loan defaults. Um, our new Mexico legislative finance committee show that nearly one third of lead of recipients fail to meet their job creation requirements. What happens if projects fail to meet their anticipated job creation, lodgers tax, and GRT revenue targets? Will Los Alamos County demand reimbursement if the developers fail to meet their obligations? Thank you for your time. Thanks.

Thank you, Dr. Shin. Anyone else present want to make a comment? Okay. You should check online for comments, please.

I can, Chair. If you'd like to make comments, please raise your hand. I'm not seeing any hands raised so is where can you.

Briefly tell us if there is a budget for leader and I'm already funded projects.

Sure chair righty the funds for these type of public private partnerships sit within the economic development fund and each year this is one of the budgets that carry over year to year we historically recently and contribute. Somewhere between a million and 3 million each year into the economic development fund from our general fund it has sort of been building up over the last several years, because these opportunities have been thought about, but we haven't been this close before two projects actually. Being ready to be shovel ready, I guess, is the better way to say it, no and be being. actually having leader requests come in, but the short answer, sorry, is about 10 to 12 million right now with anticipated future transfers.

Okay. And then the, obviously this was just a high level overview, but there's a project participation agreement that includes the potential for clawbacks as well, right? So.

Chair Reidy, that's correct. There are, and there's also a state, the law requires a definition of security. Yeah. And in this particular case, what's currently being considered is that similar to what you heard with the CB Fox renovation building, the project will be built and then the county funds Once there's equity in the improved project, the security will be in the improved project. The funds are not provided until after the certificate of occupancy and the construction is completed. And then there are participation agreements. It does outline the obligations of both the county and the business entity and in what circumstances the money would be clawed back or be required to pay back or we would call on our security.

Okay. Thank you. So I think there's We're ready to go on, I think. Did you have something to follow up?

I think you stated that there was only going to be one conference room within the development, correct?

Yes. One conference space.

Thank you.

Yeah. Okay. Thank you for that, letting him clarify that. So I think there's more details that will come when we actually are ready to have an introduction.

We're grateful for the opportunity, and we look forward to continuing the conversation.

Yeah. Thank you very much for being here, and Mr. Kutukov, too. So, thank you. So, I think now we're ready to go on to the next item. So, it's going to be 6C21890-26. It's the fiscal year 2026 4th quarter briefing on County investments and 4th quarter financial and budget over you.

This is not seen as good evening charity and counselors and I'm here tonight to present the 426 financial overview. Next slide please. The overview includes a review of our annual investment report budget actual performance capital improvement projects and grants. Next slide. Beginning with investments, finance does receive guidance from our independent investment advisor, Ms. Deanne Woodring of Government and Portfolio Advisors, or GPA. And I'll turn it over to her now to walk us through our annual investment report.

Thank you, Chairman and members of the Council. It's a privilege to be in front of you today. Last year was the first time I was in front of you, and I'm glad we're starting to get an annual cadence to be transparent and provide the investment report for the members. Next slide, please. So I wanted to start with a little backdrop on the markets. We're all hearing about interest rates. We're all hearing about the Federal Reserve and changes that are going on. And so that impacts the portfolio structure overall. And so I just wanted to share some of the guidelines and strategies that are developed and the outcomes that you're having from the investment portfolio. The key drivers you're going to hear a lot about in news right now is inflation, is pressure from oil prices, and higher interest rates. And we have been facing that. Our job growth and stability, our economy is holding pretty well. So this is causing some challenges for the Federal Reserve and how they're going to manage short-term interest rates. So as short-term interest rates for your portfolio, those are impacted by the short-term liquidity balances that are maintained in the portfolio. The longer-term rates are impacted by the investments that we're making outright on your behalf with the direction of the finance team. So we work very much in collaboration, and it's a joy to work with the Los Alamos County group. We work with both the utility as well as the general funds and we really work on a collaborative basis. So everything we do is at the direction and we continually are looking at strategies to maintain a very balanced portfolio for the county. So next slide. So we do focus on structure of the portfolio. I work on their general fund investment component, which ended the year at about 146 million. And I focus on the liquidity balance that's held at the LG IP pool and some bank balances. Those two components are the ones that we can kind of change and anchor down strategy within those. The current yield on the general fund into the year at 392, so almost 4%, and that was our goal, is to try to anchor that portfolio. And then the short liquidity is at 323. That's a significant difference from where it was a year ago when I was here, where the short-term rates were higher. And our goal was to make sure that we're capturing for the long run, making longer investments to smooth out your interest earnings and not being subject to short-term rates. That was a lot. The other components of the portfolio that I help oversee are the SIC portfolio structures. Those are down at the State Investment Council. Those are invested in a component of longer bond funds and equity funds. Last year we did reduce the exposure of equity funds in the general fund to reduce the volatility that was occurring. Right now, of the $20 million that's in the general fund, there's about 40% of that is in bonds and 60% is in equities, and that's performing quite well. And then there's the two longer-term reserve funds, the cemetery and permanent fund, that are balanced in more of a 25% bonds and 75% equities. So the key here is that we've got strategies for every component. Every component has its own directive and own purpose. And so this report is reporting out to you how those are each invested in using all the ability within your guidelines, state statute, and the risk tolerance that you have. Next slide, please. So when we look at the, there's a lot of numbers up here. I had to consolidate my report, but the bottom line for the general fund is the investments that GPA is responsible for. Last year, you generated about 6.3 million. This year, we generated about 6.7 million. The goal last year was to at least hold in this lower rate interest rate environment, and we were able to do that. So I'm really pleased with that. I'm expecting rates to be about the same next year. So we won't probably see higher rates. And hopefully we can hold around this current 3.5% to 4% level that we're earning. The bottom chart down here just shows you the price movement. And the key is your general fund is managed much more conservatively than your permanent fund components because we have a shorter profile. This is taking care of your project funds, your ongoing cash flows. I did just attend GFOA, which is our National Oversight Committee. And I'm pleased to say how we're looking at your portfolio, incorporating cash flows and activities is perfectly in line with the best practices of our national organization. And GPA is really ahead of making sure all of our clients are incorporating tools that make sure the stewardship of the funds are being managed and reportable. Next slide. Then we talk about the SIC funds. So the bottom part is the price change that's happening on the portfolio. The portfolio increased in value by 4.5 million. That's primarily driven from the exposure in the equity market. And the total return performance of that portfolio performed at 8.95% for the year. Down from last year, last year was a stronger year, but again, nice consistent returns. And again, this is that volatility portfolio. So when the stock market does reverse, you do feel it, but it's a longer term. appropriate to handle those swings and it's worked out quite well. Several of our portfolios, we do work with Rio Rancho. We also work with City of Albuquerque. Rio Rancho does also participate in the SIC fund. So I'm very versed in looking at those different balances. With that portfolio, we are watching all the equity components within that. So GPA is very versed here in New Mexico of your options and your choices and the stability of your portfolio is strong. Next slide. And then lastly, I wanted to touch on the utility portfolio. In 2024, the utility came forward to the finance team and asked, is there a way to separately manage that portfolio and take advantage of the longer investment profile? Because there were longer purposes for that $45 million. This top graph is showing that was the time that you started looking at this, where short-term interest rates were very high, up over 5%. and the tenure trade paper was trading around a 440. This is just illustrating that that call was very, very good. You did not get hurt from the rising rate environment of the tenure. It was really stable, and the overall earnings on that core portfolio is a 434. So that insight, and that's what I love about working with clients like you, that you guys are thinking about it, you're insightful, and then we're able to help build strategies to deploy for the long run. So that portfolio is working out very well also. Next slide. And then the earnings on the utility portfolio, same thing generating a, did get impacted a little bit in our reinvestment because rates did come down in the front end, but still earning a nice attractive 433, which generated about 2.4 million for the utility fund.

And then lastly, just wanted to touch on the balances.

So the one thing that we focus on when we're creating an investment strategy is to look at the overall balances of the organization. So last year, our 2024, The county operating balances were $178 million in June of 25, $182 million, and increased here in June of 26. This is your higher balance because tax receipts just came in. But seeing some consistent stability, and that allows us to continue to manage a really concise investment profile. If we saw big swings or changes, we'd have to increase liquidity. So the balance is stable. And then we're very in tune with as changes occur or spending is happening, we're always aware of that. Everything we do is with approval and permission from the finance team, so they sign off on every authorization. The utility portfolio, stable and growing. There was some volatility in that portfolio as well, but stable, and that helps us to manage it effectively. Next slide. And lastly, I was just going to touch on our strategy going forward. So every year we sit down and create disciplines for the investment components. This allows us to watch and make sure we don't get overinvested when you need the liquidity. So the core investment target is around $155 million. Maintaining liquidity, cash on hand at $60 million. And then the general fund, SIC, we're targeting at $20 million. So we're able to, if that goes up because of the equity market, we'll pull funds out of that and put it back to the general fund bond proceeds abroad investments and then the utilities just solid there at 43 million and 15 million liquidity they haven't used a lot of liquidity, but it's available and that somewhere just keeping an eye on. So those are the disciplines that are in place and I think for you knowing there's a strong discipline that helps guide us through all these interest rates hopefully brings that confidence that we've got our eyes on everything for you. So with that I'll stand for any questions.

Okay. So thank you very much for the information. And do we have any technical questions or comments from council on any of this?

Okay.

Council Rager? So when you say you look at the green box there and you have the recommendation, Isn't 155 plus 160 supposed to add up to the total? Or is there another?

It does vary a little bit. Yeah, that should be the total. Thank you for catching that. And it does move depending on your balances over the year. Yes.

So our total is 215 is the recommendation?

You're at 215. You're at 219 as of June 30th. Yes, that should be 215.

Okay. And then what you're saying is then you go to the left column and you're saying the core investment is a little bit low, a little bit low. And we were being, how would you call that too conservative on the liquidity?

As your tax dollars came in, we're looking now to deploy and would increase that portfolio. So it's a communication tool for us when we let the balance go low for liquidity purposes and you had some liquidity needs. Once we see the stabilization come in from your taxes, then we feel confident because we've reviewed the portfolio that we can step forward and add another $20 million to the core when the cash flow balances are ready. So it's really just a guide for us to be able to communicate clearly that we've assessed it. We should never have the portfolio core over $180 million or up to $180 million. That would call us to action to say, let's pause here and see what's going on. So it just creates real good guidelines for us to manage through.

Okay. And then, um, so the recommended total you have is a lot smaller than what we have, huh?

That is an error. That should be 215.

Oh, that's what, that's the area where that's actually the third one down. Okay. Well, I have to think about it, but I think that makes sense. Thank you very much. And then going to the utilities, we have a similar discussion. It looks like we're just about on the recommendations there. Um, And that recommendation is just reserves based on typical for the size of this county?

Those ratios that you see there, the 26% and the 32%, those are kind of standards that we see with public funds, counties, cities, across our bandwidth. We manage in 11 states, we manage $35 billion in assets, and we run between 20% and 30% in liquidity for the general fund. So you guys are a little higher in liquidity, but you have a lot of capital projects going on. So I'm comfortable keeping that. If we had a big rate shift or there was a time for us to move that down, our recommendation would come in to pull that down a little tighter. But right now it's a comfort zone for you guys right around a 30%.

And then for the utilities, you have a lower recommendation for some reason?

It's a longer term portfolio. You're not needing to draw on cash in that portfolio so we can reduce the liquidity needs. And that was a number that we had at the very start, and we'll probably revisit that this year to see if they really need to keep that much now that we have a higher yield in investments than the pool.

Maybe you've talked faster than I can understand, but I think... You're saying in the utility department they do longer-term investments or they have a whole slower action, so you don't recommend as big a reserve?

It's a longer-term. It doesn't have ongoing cash flow needs out of it. They're not pulling money out of the liquidity portfolio, and the portfolio itself is invested longer also because the purpose of those funds are longer-term horizon. It was more of a reserve fund, so that's why that balance isn't changing very much either. versus your operating funds, there's a lot more fluidity going on. You get your tax time coming in. You have more expenditures coming out. So we tend to keep a little higher reserve in an operating structure. And it also has a shorter maturity than the longer one.

Okay. Well, that's all of my questions. Thank you. Thank you, Councilor Rieger.

Any other questions? So I was curious about a couple things. So are there certain kinds of, I guess, sources of funds, like I was thinking like federal funds, like if we get grants, we do not earn interest on those because you'd have to use that for that grant. So that's like a restricted thing, right?

Yes, Chair Eide, that's exactly right.

Okay. And then I did want to ask about, so I think we talked about this utility fund before. So is this utility fund the settlement monies? So it's utilities, but it's really electric. So I think that's what the long-term investment has to do with using the income to fund the electric utility, not all the utilities.

Right.

It's just electric. Okay, thanks for the clarification. So I think that makes more sense now. I'm not seeing any other questions. Is there any public comment? Oh, did we miss something?

Chair, there's a second part to the presentation if you'd want to let Mrs. Dodsey.

Yeah, I thought we were done, but we're not. Okay. So, okay.

Thank you. Good to see you.

Thank you. Thank you for coming. Thank you. Yeah, I forgot we had some more slides.

Oh, sorry about that. Okay. So I'll continue now with the budget overview. And I'll start with the grocery seats tax revenue. And this slide shows 10 years of GRT budget to actual results. As you can see from FY21 to 24, we did consistently receive significantly more GRT than what we budgeted. And that did allow us to build our reserves. And then in 25, of course, we saw that sharp decline of about 18%. And then in FY26, GRT has improved by about 5%. Compared to 25, however, we are projecting to still be about 2% under budget with our final numbers. still coming in. So these are unaudited. I just want to remind everyone of that. And then looking ahead to 27, we are projecting about a 22% increase in GRT, which does reflect both underlying growth in the tax base and also the new GRT increment that took effect on July 1st. And those revenues will reflect the new increment starting in September. So that's when we plan, that's when we'll start seeing those come in. Next slide. This chart illustrates the taxable receipts reported by industry from FY23 to FY25. Overall receipts remain highly concentrated within the administrative and service, excuse me, administrative and support and waste management sector, which represents the dominant share of total receipts across all three periods. This industry does represent 82% of total receipts in FY23 and 24 and then fell to about 75% in FY25. And I won't go through every category, but I do want to point out a few. Retail trade was 4% in 23 and 5.7% in FY25. Construction 3.7% in 23 and 5.7% in 25. Professional scientific and technical services was 1.8% in 23 and 3% in 25. Accommodation and food services in FY23 was 1.4%. It jumped to 2.4% in 24, then fell back down to 1.8% in 25. Healthcare and social services increased from 1.4% in 23 to 2.1% in 25. Other services increased from 1.5% in 23 to 1.7% in 25. Unclassified category increased from 0.7% in 23 to 1% in 25. And then if you add up all the other categories listed on there, in FY23, they were 2.7% of total receipts, and in 25, they were 4% of total receipts. So that just gives you an idea of the receipts we received by industry. Next slide. This chart compares general fund actual revenues for FY25 and 26 across all major revenue sources. Of course, the major contributor to total revenue growth is GRT. Property taxes did increase slightly. An investment income did increase by about 18% due to favorable market conditions. As a reminder, interdepartmental charges represent reimbursements from other funds, from utilities, fleet, transit, fire, and environmental services, to the general fund for facility maintenance, custodial work, finance, HR, IM, legal, procurement, and of course, IM includes records. User charges include recreation fees, court and clerk fees, community development fees, such as licenses and permits, cemetery services, and animal shelter fees. And then the other category includes building and land rentals and donations, which are primarily received from Friends of the Library. Next slide. This chart compares general fund actual expenditures for 25 and 26 across all departments. As you can see, public works expenditures increased by about 20%. This was driven mostly by a $2 million increase in pavement preservation contract work, which included repaving North Mesa Road and several others, and also $1 million increase in major facility maintenance on major renovations, such as the aquatic sun resurfacing, golf course HVAC replacement, and LA Little Theater fire suppression. The police department cost did increase by about 13%, and this is mainly due to salary and benefit impacts related to paying out retirement benefits while also filling those positions. And PD also did buy, or they purchased body worn cameras in 26 for approximately $500,000. As a reminder, the county manager department also includes HR, communication and public relations, sustainability, broadband, and the regional funds. These expenditures did increase by about 40%, which is mainly due to spending on EV charging stations and an increase in distribution of regional strategic partnership funds. Administrative services comprises of what we call central or internal services to include, of course, IM records, procurement, and finance, which are all charged out as interdepartmental charges to other funds. which I mentioned earlier. And essentially, this means that some of these costs are recovered. And ASD increased by about 6% from 25 to 26 due to increases in salaries and benefits, but mostly due to contractual service increases in IM. Next slide. Oh my apologies, yes fire so in the general fund so fire has its own fund but in the general fund the fire portion in the general fund refers to the in the cost of the county share essentially so the county does the split with the is 7076 their shares 2076% our shares 24% so and you'll see that increase is associated with those costs year over year. Next slide. Here are some highlights regarding our capital improvement projects. The Manhattan Project Dormitory does have finalized construction drawings. The Emergency Operations Center is currently in design phase, and we actually did just receive an executed capital outlay grant agreement with the state for about $742,000. And the Community Health Action Center site selection process has started. Next slide. Some playground renovations were completed in May of 2026, and now CSD is moving on to complete some other playground renovations. Longview Drive is currently undergoing a demolition project that is expected to be completed by the end of September, and the wayfinding signs are being installed, and they're about 50% complete. I also wanted to update the council on the status of some of our grants. Oh, yes, thank you. Social services, they received a vehicle grant agreement that is fully executed and obligated for approximately $123,000. Emergency Management Planning Grant, or EMPG for short. is funded by the state in the amount of $186,000. And we were just notified the other day that we were awarded the E911 grant from the state in the amount of $757,000. So you'll actually see that next council on the agenda for next council meeting. Next slide. This slide shows a list of currently ongoing grants and their funding sources. Federal Transit Administration grant has been awarded for FY27 and transit is in the process of applying for FY28 funding. Utilities does have a couple FEMA grant funded projects that they are currently working on. And the airport did receive funding from the state as well and is working on those projects. And with that, I'm happy to answer any questions.

Okay. Thank you, Ms. Dotsie. Um, so any questions or comments?

Uh, thank you, chair. I just wanted to compliment you on this presentation, um, because I thought it was very comprehensive. Uh, it has a lot of really good information in it. I don't remember seeing one like this before. Um, so I really appreciated the information. I think it's, uh, It's good that we're informed about all the different ways that we're, you know, using our money and where our grants are and, you know, the comparison of our GRT to other sources of revenue. It's all very good information. So thank you. Thank you.

Okay. Do we have any other questions or comments? No, I don't think I had any questions either. So thank you very much for the presentation. Thank you. It was very informative. Let's see if there's any, now we can ask them to see if there's any public comment. Okay. Not seeing anyone in chambers. Ms. Mazin, can you check on one?

I can. If you'd like to make a public comment, please raise your hand. Chair, I'm not seeing any hands raised.

Okay. Thank you. So now we're on to item 62 1788 to 6 is the quarterly intergovernmental regional activities update for summer 2026. So we have Mr. Am here.

Good evening chair members of the council. Thank you for the opportunity to do my quarterly update. I'm going to start out with a snapshot of the regional strategic partnership fund. what used to be called progress through partnership. So, Rio Riba County, so far you've allocated $5 million to Rio Riba County. That includes a $2.3 million allocation in 2023, 800,000 of which was used for their North Central Solid Waste Authority to help with recycling possibilities. And $2.7 million in 2025, combined with the remainder from the previous allocation for the nursing home in Espanola. And then the city of Espanola, you've allocated $3,075,000 to them. Back in 2023, you allocated $660,000 for the Bond House renovations, as well as plan and design for a cultural museum. And then in 2025, you allocated $2.415 million for renovations and creation of a park. And both the nursing home and all the parks are going well, and I have photos for you on the next slide. San Ildefonso Pueblo also received, you allocated $2 million for a matching grant, and we have, you've reimbursed $500,000. So if you'll go to the next slide, I just wanted to show you some renderings of what's happening in those areas where you've given money. The City of Española Parks, 99% complete. They will finish off the new park and all the items that they expect to place in that park by September of this year. The nursing facility has, you can now see it from the street when we, were invited to the groundbreaking two, two and a half years ago. I think people got lost because they didn't know about this road. I didn't know that that road existed, actually. I don't think I've been down that road before. And I think one of our former counselors got lost. But now when you drive past, you know, go past that grocery store there on Riverside Drive before you get to Wal-Mart, You can see the building. You can see the structure. It's looking really great. So I think you've done a lot for our neighboring communities. Continuing on with regional and tribal relations, we are talking to both Española and Rio Arriba about a possible landfill. We paid for a feasibility study, which was completed this year. We are currently at the point where we are talking with our two partners about having a meeting of all three governing bodies to really talk through the feasibility study and what possible next steps are. And I hope to have a date and some announcements for you soon. Also, Corey and Jessica Strong have been working hard on the regional behavioral health plans the district plan was submitted. I think all of you have seen that. You know that they work very hard on the gaps between the three counties and the tribes that make up District 1. And I think transit or transportation for Los Alamos is of great concern, and they're working on that. With the Pueblo de San Ildefonso, we continue to talk about having a council to council meeting, as we've had twice before since I've been here. I believe you had one other sometime in the past. Also, our county manager and their administrator, John Gonzalez, continue to have regular talks, regular meetings about a number of issues, and some conversation about the hexavalent chromium plume is ongoing, and I think that they'll have more meetings with council members in the future about that. I've also reached out to the Pueblo of Pahuaca. They're interested in talking with us about, you know, potential partnerships. They don't need funding for anything. They have a, they're fiscally healthy. And they have some interesting things happening with possibility of childcare that we hope to discuss with them. And then with the City of Española, as you know, they have a new mayor and a new city manager. So we've had some talks with them. We had a very nice lunch with them. And there are always just little questions, requests for advice, requests for resources that we continue to provide to them. And internally, we continue to hold the meetings for the regional roundtable. So I have updated what you've seen before as the regional roundtable or regional activities worksheet. just cleaned it up a little bit and we've gone back to really a discussion format for this meeting to talk about what we're actually doing with our neighbors and also what we'd like to see happen with our neighbors or what's hindering our discussions or impossible partnerships with our neighbors. So if you'll look at Rio Riba, you know, the nursing and rehabilitation center is on there, but housing which we had hoped would move forward with rio riba they really need to do a lot of work on their zoning do a lot of work internally before we can have serious discussions about how that might move forward they along with the city of espanola are involved with the landfill and i just want to give kudos now to ellen felton because she has been outstanding at outreach to our neighbors and to many across the state so She's out there talking about tourism and how to bolster our tourism with all of these partners across the region, including Rio Riba and Santa Fe and other areas. With El Pueblo, we continue to talk to them about, you know, their broadband project is almost complete. And it's a great partnership. It showed that we could work together well. Also doing Rendia Canyon Road and having our public works department really smooth out that road to make it passable as an emergency exit for the county. It's really good partnership work with them. I know DPU continues to talk to them about the possibility of a geothermal energy source. I know DPU signed a letter of support to get funding for them for that, and I really hope that that comes to fruition at some point. I know we all do. And then when we move to Santa Fe, again, housing, they're really concentrated on their own, their own county and what they need within their county. We haven't really moved forward with talks in the Hakona land grant area, but that is still a possibility and we hope that that happens. And we'll continue talking to them as we move forward. And as you see, Ellen has done great things. She's gone out and talked to Sandoval County and Jemez Pueblo about tourism. And I've included District 1, which is the three counties and the pueblos in that area, so Los Alamos, Santa Fe, and Rio Arriba, because we do have issues in common with our District 1 partners. And there's the behavioral health, regional healthcare and access to doctors. We had started a discussion about workforce with DOE. We may continue that. We'll talk to DOE and see how we want to proceed with that conversation soon. Other regional projects are the EOC. Beverly Simpson and her team have done a great job of outreach to our neighbors. We've gotten letters of support and interest in actually using that center as a future training area as well as their own emergency operations center. We had just begun talking with the RDC at North Central New Mexico EDD. Eli and his group talk to them all the time, but I talk to them about legislative issues and trying to see what we can do for the region. Unfortunately, North Central is in a period of having another interim director, so we'll have to wait until we get through that, I think. And on state and federal land issues, just talked to Philo, the Forest Service Land Acquisition. Conversations are ongoing and I. I don't know when those will be completed, but I know that he's very serious about making that happen. So those are the things that we talked about at our latest regional roundtable. We talk about all kinds of issues because different things come up all the time. So hopefully I'll have a bigger, better report for you next quarter. On to my state update. Please ignore the last bullet item. That's really for myself, not for anybody else. But the rest of it, I am monitoring the interim policy issues that are coming up at the interim legislative committees. And then we have MACI campaign solutions. The two members are constantly at meetings for us providing updates. And they'll have a couple of summaries of some important meetings that just went by for all of you. Some of the things that we've monitored as well as talking with staff have brought up different issues that this council may consider for the next state agenda, which is artificial intelligence, housing. We'll actually put it on the agenda perhaps this year. Extended producer responsibility laws. Those are laws like if you make a mattress, you should take the mattress back. And we also put on, you know, we've been talking about the need to really push for funding at DOT for New Mexico State Road 4. They've done some wonderful maintenance, but I know there are a lot of people who've been waiting to see some real major reconstruction actually happen on that road. And then supporting small business and rural economic development. Continue to monitor what's coming through those committees. I've started looking at the National State Legislators Commission. That's the wrong way. It's the Association of State Legislators. They have a little vault of policies that have passed previously or have been in previous legislative sessions across the country. And so I'm looking for ideas and scouring them to see if there are any policy ideas that maybe we can latch onto to help our small businesses. There are two committees that we know that are coming to Los Alamos. We don't know where they're going to have their meetings. The Science Technology and Telecommunications Committee and the Radioactive and Hazardous Waste Committee usually has their meetings at the lab, but they have had their meetings here and at UNMLA. So we're just waiting to hear where exactly they'll have those meetings. On my federal update, big thing for us, and this does not include, you know, relationships with DOE and the county management team are really constantly talking with our partners at the laboratory. So I let them talk about that. On our side, on the federal update, I just want to talk about the possibility of funding for a new water well. we did on the house side not on the senate side get the well into the water resource development act authorization and even if this moved forward the authorization just means that you're on the list for future funding so it's a step we've moved in the right direction we've got some support in house committees for our water well and we'll continue to work on this to make sure that we stay on the list. Again, it's just the possibility for funding, but it is a really good way of getting funding once you're on that list. We've also applied for congressionally directed spending for this project. Senator Lujan submitted this on our behalf, and if there is a federal budget at some point, we may get some money for this project. And... We also had Representative Ledger Fernandez and her team put together some good language in the Water and Energy Appropriations Bill to increase defense cleanup funding for water resources, which means our water well. So hopefully in the next session, we'll be able to move forward with that language and really get some appropriations. A lot depends on what happens during the midterm elections, obviously. And I don't want to promise anything to you because these days at the federal level, it's very difficult to do that. I also wanted to just bring your attention to a couple of things that are going on. One of them passed, which was the 21st Century Road to Housing Act. I don't think that it's going to affect Los Alamos very much either positively or negatively, just because of the nature of our housing in our community. A lot of the changes were for communities that are having a very hard time with any kind of housing. And so you see a lot of different kinds of funding. There are opportunities to help smaller loan originators provide funding to people who are looking at mortgages under $100,000, for instance. But I continue to go through section by section with Dan Osborne and we talk about whether it's really going to affect us or not. The other thing that's come up is the proposed changes by the Office of Management and Budget to CFR, the Uniform Grant Guidance. This is the proposed changes are very unclear on what that might possibly do to us as a county. What we do know is that the proposed language says that they can cancel grants for practically any reason, and most grants would be subject to review by political appointees. And these are the kinds of things that our partners at the National Association of Counties and the National League of Cities feel very concerned about. And they're not the only ones. This proposed new language received close to 500,000 comments, most of which were in opposition to that language. So we continue to watch. We know NACO intends on doing a number of things to try to either slow or kill this language. And their last option would be to join others in litigation against the federal government. So that's my report. If you have any questions or if you have something that I didn't include on here and you have questions, I will try to answer them as best as I can.

Thank you, Ms. Duran. So, does the Council have any questions or comments?

Have you heard anything about the garbage incinerator at Okeohinge? I think it was Okeohinge.

That is something I I know that they continue to plan for that, but I don't know where they are on their plans in terms of when it will become reality if it does.

Okay. And then in your discussions with city of Espanola, are you anticipating any additional requests this year from them?

They have not talked to me about that, but I'm sure that they will have a request. It just will take them some time. They have this new city manager. And they really have to work through a lot of their priorities. Their priority right now is to get their books in order. They are, you know, very unfortunate to come into a situation where they had a budget loss and they need to find ways of making that up and also increasing their revenues. We do hear good things like there will be a wing stop in Espanola soon. So, you know, What did you say? Wing stop.

Wing stop, okay.

And two more car washes, yeah, and a farm and feed store is what I've heard so far. So they're really working on getting new businesses into the community to increase their revenues.

Okay. Thank you, Mr. Ann, and thanks for your presentation, too.

Thank you. Councilor Cole.

Councilor Ann.

Thank you, Chair. Ms. Duran, I would like to commend you on probably one of the best presentations I've seen you give so far. I thought it was really good. I really like the spreadsheet and all the information that you have on there. There are a number of things that people are working on that I wasn't aware of, and I'm very impressed. I look forward to hearing more about some of those areas where there were blanks. So, yeah, I look forward to seeing how some of those things are developing. And, you know, I just see a lot of progress in this area with our interface with the region. I just want to commend you for all the work that you and other people in the county are doing. So I'll stay tuned. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor.

Thank you, Councillor Han. Any other? Okay. Let's see. I think one thing that has been, Council has been made aware of is Mexico County's statutory changes. So that's something we've been tracking and I think we have, we'll have an item next week about that. And I know you've attended some of the same meetings I have. So, And then I was curious about the Forest Service land on the list. So that was Mr. Shelton was mentioned relative to that. So is there, so which land are we talking about?

My dial-a-friend moment.

Yeah, multi-year project, multi-decade project. Let me pick this up. We did meet with the Forest Service in April and the SHPO office, walked through all the sites. One site we pulled back due to archaeological finds, and we're reducing the footprint. They've asked for a couple final memos, and then they're able to start their tribal consultation. Once that's completed, then they do the appraisal process. Still a couple years away. Okay. So we're specifically?

Or are they multiple locations?

Six locations. Okay. They're a combination of open spaces and utility assets. Okay.

Thank you. Okay. So thank you very much for that answer. Let's see. Let's see if there's any public comment. Not seeing anyone here in chambers. Ms. Masson, can you look online for us?

Yes, Chair. There is a person line. Ms. O'Neill, you should be able to unmute. Please state your full name and limit your comments to three minutes.

um good evening council um chair ready uh this is maura o'neill and um i would like to ask if there's a possibility that um the elements of mr rand's incredible presentation um be available for uh the public in some format i know that when i've asked recently like about mr osborne's presentations The direction was pretty much that all that information is on the website. If Mr. Rand's information is on the website, I don't know where to find it. But this is such valuable information. And when people talk about how The county spends its money and there's criticism. Some of it may originate in the fact that people don't know about a lot of what's happening. And transparency isn't just about transparency. you know, events and putting out news releases about meetings that are coming up. There's so much valuable information that most people are not going to go and dig out on the website. The website has so much information that it's hard for people to narrow it down to certain topics. And this is very valuable work that's being done in the region and for our county on behalf of Ms. Duran. And I think that people, it would be very valuable if people could hear about it. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you, Ms. Neal. Do we have anyone else who wants to make a public comment?

Chair, I'm not seeing any other hands.

Okay. So obviously, everybody heard the comments. So I haven't looked at the dashboard recently on this item. So are we tracking? How are we tracking the regional partnerships there?

Chair Reddy, I do believe we have the financials of the regional fund tracked on our dashboard. I think The separate spreadsheet of some of the other miscellaneous is always a work in progress. It's really just an internal tracking sheet. Our commitment at this point and our goal was to provide quarterly updates to council, which are all publicly available. But if there are ideas of how we can share it differently, we're happy to do so.

Okay. Thank you. So appreciate that. I think we're done with this item. So thank you for being here and all the work you're doing. So I think we're on to the consent agenda. So item number seven is public comment for items on the consent agenda. So do we have anyone present here at the council chambers that wants to make public comment for any items on the consent agenda? OK, not seeing anyone present. Can we look online?

We can, Chair. If you'd like to make a public comment, please raise your hand. Chair, I'm not seeing any hands raised.

Okay, and I believe we have no changes to any items on the consent agenda, so is there a councillor interested in making a motion on the items as presented?

Councillor Cull? I move that council approve the items on the consent agenda as presented and that the motions and the staff reports be included for the record.

Second.

Okay, so motion by Councillor Cull, second by Councillor Neill-Clinton. So I think we do need to do a roll call on this one.

I have some questions for staff about items on the consent agenda. Sure, let's go ahead and do that. But I'm not pulling the item. I just had a question. Just want to ask some clarifying. Okay. It's... Oh, shoot. I lost the page here. Go back one number. So on the consent agenda, there's item... It's the... For the broadband project, it's item E, which is there's some modification we're doing to the contract where the service drops from the street to the houses, which sounds like an awful lot of it, is now dropped off the contract. Is that what I understand?

Chair Reidy and Councillor Rieger, No, that's not dropped off the contract. We're moving it from the design-build contract to the operation of the network contract. So when we originally contracted with Bonfire, we did this under two agreements, two separate contracts. The first one was for design-build and construction. The second one was for the operation of the network and managing the ISPs. Originally, part of the drops were on the second contract. Some were contained in the first contract. However, due to just some logistical issues that the contractor had with being able to provide the performance bonding for them, they asked if we could just move it all to one contract. So essentially, nothing is being changed or added. It's just moving from one contract to another.

So is the total for the two contracts the same? Correct. Okay. Yeah. It's not increasing the total. It's just. No, I missed that point. Okay. Okay. We're not increasing either contract. We're just rearranging the wording because of they're unable to do the timing of the work.

For the bonding. Yeah. So when we do public construction projects, New Mexico state law requires a bond, which essentially is sort of an insurance, if you will, that the contractor will do what they said they can do in the public interest. And so it's related to being able to do that, being able to obtain that bond to build the project.

Yeah, well, the bond for the contract one or something. Exactly. Okay. Yeah. Well, I think, thank you for the answer. I think I don't have another question. Thanks. Okay. Okay. Thank you.

Counselor, do you have a council hand? Did you have a question too?

I did have a question on item F, AGR 1226-26. Could somebody just explain to me, you know, why the numbers are changing the way they are?

Good evening, Chair Reidy, and thank you, Ms. Councilor Hand. Could you please, so you just want to know a little bit more of what it's about?

If you could, please, just if you could explain a little bit more than just what we have here on the agenda.

Okay. They're contracted to assist us with inspection of public record requests, and these are assigned for voluminous requests. We've had a big increase, especially with our body work with the police department. And so these are, they take a lot more time. There's been a big increase throughout the county. There's lots of other videos and then voluminous requests they have gotten. They've increased in complexity and they assist us with all of those requests as well so that the RIM staff can continue with meeting the request with the statutory deadlines and our compliance in records. Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you, Councillor Hannon. Thank you for answering the question. So we have other questions? Councillor McClendon?

Actually, I'm going to pull the string on that just a little bit more. Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't we... say that there were going to be more people hired to help with the upper request. Am I correct on that or is that just in my head?

Chair Reddy, Councillor Neill-Clinton, we've not added staff. We did add resources by contract because we are not in control of when we get public records requests. So we can, you know, it can really ebb and flow. And so the contracted services allows us to weather those ebbs and flows. We have added resources in the police department and we are looking to use the Axon agreement and some of their capabilities moving forward to create some efficiencies there. This is just adding, increasing the cap on these contracts that exist. It's not adding budget. We have budgeted adequately in our public records to cover these costs. It's just a contractual amendment to allow us to give us the capacity within that contract.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, thank you, Councillor Neill-Clinton. Okay, so I think, any other questions? So we do have a motion on the floor to approve as presented. So I think we're ready to call the roll.

Councillor Herman? Yes. Councillor Cole? Yes. Councillor Regor?

Yes.

Councillor Neill-Clinton? Yes. Councillor Reddy?

Yes.

Councillor Hunt? Yes. Motion passes 6-0.

We'll let the record show the motion passes unanimously. So I think we're ready to go on to the next item. So we have I think a couple of public hearings tonight. My iPad will cooperate. Okay. I can see enough of this one to read it. Okay. So item 9 is public hearings. 9A is OR 1150-26B. So it's Incorporated County of Los Alamos Code Ordinance number 02-371. It's a code ordinance amendering chapter 16 and also in numerous articles and sections. So I think we have a short presentation on the changes. Yes, Chair.

Good evening, Council. Good evening, Chair. My name is Danielle Valdez. I'm the Planning Manager for Community Development, and we're going to go over Ordinance 02371. This is an amendment to Article 5, the Administration and Enforcement. Next slide, please. Introduction, Chapter 16. Everyone is familiar of the development code. This was adopted in 2023. Since then, staff have recognized errors and omissions, inconsistencies, and just errors. So we've been changing them over the past year. And ordinance number 02371 focuses on Article 5. This is administration and enforcement. And this ordinance corrects issues to improve clarity, consistency, and effectiveness for staff and applicants and the public. Next slide, please. The background, the current version of Chapter 16 was adopted in 2023. In 2024, staff began their phase development cleanup. In September 2025, ordinance number 02-370 completed the first phase of amendments. Um, which focused on article three, the use regulations and article six, the definitions ordinance 0 2 3 7 1 represents our next phase. And this is, um, these are our efforts to the codes, administrative procedural and enforcement provisions. Um, next slide please. Uh, chapter 16 explained article one is our governing provisions, and I'm sorry for being repetitive. We're just going over what we've, what we've already gone over. The purpose, authority, applicability, interpretation, and relationship. We did not make any changes to Article 1. That was also on our schedule with Article 5, but there was no need for changes. Article 2 is our zone districts. This defines our zoning districts, our intent, our permitted, conditional, and prohibited uses, our zoning maps, and our boundaries. Article 3 is our use regulations. This regulates land use, including the use table. Accessory temporary uses, permissible uses by right, standards and specific uses. Article 4 is our development standards. These are lot building standards, our parking, our landscaping, signage, lighting, screening. Basically, this is where our substantive information is. Article 2 and Article 4 will come before you after the comprehensive plan. Article 5, our administrative and enforcement. These are roles and authority. application procedures, review processes, hearings for variances, appeals, and enforcement. This is what we'll be discussing tonight. And then Article 6 we've completed, and this is the definitions and the technical land use. This is technical and land use definitions. Next slide, please. So explanation of format for everyone who is unfamiliar with the formatting of an ordinance. Uh, this is marked up, um, and the strike through represents deletions. These are items that are currently in the code and are being removed by this amendment. And then the underlying text represents additions. These are the new provisions or revised provisions that currently do not exist and are being added through this amendment. Chapter 16 amendment timeline, uh, fall 2025, we completed article three and article five, uh, sorry, article three and article six. In summer, this is now, this is Article 1 and Article 5. This is what we have just completed. And as I mentioned, there was no changes to Article 1. And then final, our final amendments will go through in the winter 26, 27. And this is, we are hoping to start the progress of this now with the draft of the comprehensive plan, but we are hoping to get these done winter 26, 27. And that's Article 2 and Article 4. Next slide, please. The proposed updates. Sorry. The proposed updates. So table 49, the procedures and summary table. This is the subdivision sketch plat, which was removed from the application procedures. We have replaced this, or we have combined this with the preliminary plat, so there's no longer an extra step for applicants to go through a subdivision sketch, a preliminary, and then a final. The declaratory ruling was removed from the application types altogether. This was an unnecessary inclusion in our code, and then the quasi-judicial and legislative decisions labels, we change these so that they are consistent throughout the table. Our legislative decisions, the verbiage was changed. Neighborhood meetings, the applicant is now responsible for noticing, conducting, and documenting the meeting. This is the pre-application meeting, neighborhood meeting. The prior waiver provision removed, non-attendance by neighbors does not waive the requirement. So previously, we allowed for, it was optional. And if you mailed to the neighborhood and no one wanted a meeting, you didn't have to have a meeting, we've now made this a requirement. And then public notice, the notice period was extended from 14 to 15 days for published, posted, and mailed notices. And the reason for this was the language within the code. It said, shall be held 14 days prior to the meeting. We changed it to 15 days before the meeting. That way it was consistent with state language. Next slide, please. This is our procedures continued. The amendments also clarify procedures applicable to public hearings. Quasi-judicial hearing requirements are expressly codified, including sworn testimony and opportunity for cross-examination. The ordinance distinguishes quasi-judicial decisions from legislative and administrative throughout the code. The qualifications and appointments procedures for hearing officers were also clarified. For appeals, the filing period was clarified to 15 calendar days from the date of final decision for both administrative and quasi-judicial matters. The record and briefing scheduled is revised from 14 days for the appellant's brief, 14 days for the appellee's response, and seven days for any reply. Next slide, please. Division Slide 9 discusses Division 3, which is the specific development procedures. Division 3 addresses procedures applicable to the specific development applications. For administrative decisions, the applicant descriptions have been clarified, redundant language was removed, and incorrect cross references have been corrected. For quasi-judicial decisions, the conditional use permit criteria was reduced from 8 to 7. The existing criteria unidentified as subsection D is removed because it duplicated the substance of C. Site plan applicability thresholds and exception categories are clarified and incorrect cross-references were corrected. The subdivision sketch plot was removed as a formal quasi-judicial application and replaced with an informal staff pre-application review, which was consolidated into the preliminary plat application. For legislative decisions, the text amendment criteria remained mainly unchanged. The term policy decisions was replaced with legislative decisions to provide consistent terminology throughout the code. The applicant descriptions and cross references to the applicable zone map amendments and historic district procedures were also corrected. Next slide, please. Slide 10 discusses Divisions 4, 5, and 6. Division 4 addresses nonconformities. The definition and treatment of minor repairs and maintenance are refined, and the ordinance clarifies that the otherwise compliant alteration may modify the footprint of a nonconforming structure. The 180-day discontinuance period for the nonconforming use is retained. The existing 25% gross area floor was retained. Division five addresses construction improvements. The changes in this division concerned county acceptance, monuments, terminology, and general construction standards. Following the Planning and Zoning Commission hearing, dust mitigation provision section 1693I was revised to clarify that it should also include alternate forms of dust mitigation. Division 6 addresses violations, enforcement, and penalties, and the ordinance preserves the provision of each calendar day of a continuing violation and separates as separate offenses and retains the county's authority to pursue injunction relief. Following the Commission's review, Section 1698A was revised to retain a specific reference to Section 1 through 8 to identify that section as the general penalty provision, rather than relying on the broader reference that we had originally changed it to a general provisions of the county code. Next slide, please. Decision criteria. This is the criteria that we need to meet for filing a text amendment. And staff agrees that we have met our criteria. The request substance substantially conforms to the intent and policies of the comprehensive plan and other adopted county policies. By clarifying and fixing the code, we are conforming to our plan and policies. B, the proposed change will not result in land use inconsistent with the purpose of the district or incompatible with the allowed in the underlying zone district. Our amendment is procedural only. It did not alter permitted, conditional, or prohibited uses. Next slide, please. criteria on C the proposed change will clarify existing language remove redundant or inconsistent language or simplify the understanding of an implementation of the code that is what we have done we have met criteria on C and the proposed amendment promotes promotes public health safety and welfare we agree that we have also met this criteria by clarifying procedures extending public notice periods and strengthening neighborhood of meeting accountability Next slide, please. Confirmation of pre-application and public notices. We have met all our public noticing requirements, which included our publishing on May 7th, 2026 for P&Z, Planning and Zoning Commission, and the County Council was published on July 16th. Next slide, please. This was for our planning and zoning, but planning and zoning has reviewed the ordinance and recommended the approval with the proposed text amendment with the four changes that were discussed. And those changes have been incorporated in the version that you have received. With that we ask for your approval and I will stand for questions.

Okay, thank you, Ms. Valdez. So we're going to see if there's any technical or clarifying questions from councillors. Councillor Hamm.

Thank you, Chair. I'd just like to say that You know, tonight has been the best night for all these presentations, because I'm just so impressed by all the things that are going on tonight. And the thing that impresses me about your presentation is that after this development code was approved by Council, You know, I had noticed some inconsistencies and some little errors here and there. And I, you know, talked to county manager's office about it. And I'm just really impressed that the county took the initiative to go through and look at this document with, you know, finer tooth comb and try to – correct inconsistencies and you know you know minor errors and bring it back to Council the fact that um you know you're able to really look at that even though Council had approved it uh you know I I think that really says a lot to the public about you know the county's willingness to go the extra mile and, you know, increase the confidence, you know, because there are other people who may be reading that development code and they may not understand things either. It may not make sense. And so, you know, there was a lot of effort put into this to really improve the document. And so, you know, it makes us all look better. And so I really appreciate the time that you know, all of the people, you know, in the county have done to try to make this a better document. So thank you very much. I don't have any nitpicks on any of the sections. I just wanted to say that, you know, overall, the overall intent, I think, is where I think the public would like to see things go and how I certainly want to see things go and that we're able to see things that may not have been perfect and fix them. That's the best thing I can ask for. So thank you. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you, Councillor Hann. Do we have any questions?

Councillor Cohn? Thanks for your presentation. And did we receive any public comment on the changes or any input that resulted in any of the changes?

Uh, chair, righty, uh, counselor call. We received a few comments during our public hearing. Um, and those were noted. However, they did not make sense to add them into our, um, add them into the ordinance, uh, planning and zoning commission agreed that they did not want to add them in. So we did not, we did not make any revisions with public comment. Um, The specific comment was regarding an engineering report, the applicant's opportunity to appeal to Planning and Zoning to not submit engineering reports as required by the county engineer. We disagreed if our county engineer requires a traffic impact analysis or a soils report. That's for a reason, and we should not have the opportunity to appeal that to a governing body. That was, that was the comment.

Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you, chair. So the comprehensive plan update that's happening right now as well, will any possible changes from that impact this, uh, chair, righty councillor Herman?

Uh, yes, ma'am. Um, we will, um, hopefully not have too many. They will greatly affect. I would, I don't want to say greatly because we're unsure. But they will have effects on Article 2 and Article 4, and that's the only reason that we're not bringing those two articles before you sooner, is because those will affect our zoning and our standards for development.

Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Councillor Herman. Okay, I don't see any other questions. So I did have a couple questions. So... So I take it then from the answer to Councilor Cull's question was that most of the changes came from staff reviewing. Did you get some public comment on some parts, basically requesting some of the things that you added in particular?

Chair Reidy, thank you. Yes. The year and a half that I've been here, we have received multiple comments and multiple applicants or constituents, members of the public who have noticed and noted issues throughout the entire code. Those have all been noted as we have been going through and redlining and keeping our notes. We are things that were unclear or needed more clarification or just needed a better general understanding of what the code said. We tried to make as clear as possible. Where there are sections that you'll see that have been just modified the sentence, it was based off of those types of comments where it made it easier for the general public and for applicants to understand.

Okay. So that was the other question I had was, so some of the changes will help facilitate people understanding what the requirements are and what they'd be expecting to have to provide.

Yes, sir.

Then, I guess, so the four items, I mean, two of which were changing to 60 days, which I guess the previous number of days maybe didn't make sense because, like, how would you finalize something within 10 or 14 days?

Correct. And we actually do a lot faster turnaround than 60 days. 60 days was a just in case we ever needed to get it to, you know, there were issues with it or our chair or vice chair were out to sign those final orders. it was really just a precautionary 60 days. It, it didn't, we turned them around much, much faster. Our legal department turns them around much faster.

So I thought that some people might look at that as like we're, we're dragging out projects, but you're trying to actually make sure that, cause there's an approval. And if the, if you didn't meet those days before, I mean, it would be void, right. Or potentially void. Um, so thanks for, for having people look at that. Um, And then, so I did have, so I think that there were different people in the county added. So in terms of those studies, like you mentioned, like the soils or the traffic study. So there were, and I just wondered, because that was one of the things that was not explained, but you added, I believe, public works director and county engineer, if I'm not mistaken, but there were, there was like one, maybe it was the county manager was allowed to Ask for things and then you added additional roles to be able to ask for particular kinds of studies. And then the studies are listed. And I guess I was just curious about, like, the process for, like, it was interesting that there was a comment about that. Like, we want to be able to appeal this. We don't want to prepare this study. But it makes sense that there's, like, you have these people with these roles and they're saying, well, this kind of project requires a traffic study. Because that's one of the things that has come up, I think, with development frequently is like, when does it require a traffic study? When doesn't it? So is that fairly clear? Because I remember that was one of the discussion points we had back, I guess, four years ago with this was like, what kinds of studies are required? And do those hold up development at all? But they're obviously needed. So can you address that to some extent?

Chair Reidy, coming from a development background, a developer anticipates all of these studies being needed, not just one or the other. We are actually very lenient in the studies that our technical experts require. And we have a criteria in which they follow and why they're requiring them. It's not because we just want them. We want to ensure that our soils are safe. We want to ensure there's no, you know, anything left over from any lab experiments. We want to ensure that our traffic is safe and our pedestrians are safe. So there is, um, our technical experts, the County engineer, um, the utilities manager are looking at these, um, projects prior to any type of application and during pre-application and requiring those studies during our pre-application phase. So, um, we are very communicative with our, with our developers when they're coming in for their due diligence. And all of these are anticipated we we are much more lenient.

Okay. So I was tempted to ask why 120 square feet were listed in one section for accessory structures. But so I don't know if there was it was very specific. So why is there a specific charity?

It is very specific because that is the trigger for needing a building permit from the IBC.

Okay, that's okay. Thank you. So Thank you for answering all those questions. So I think now we need to see if there's any public comment. Is there anyone present in the council chambers that wants to make public comment? I'm not seeing anyone. Ms. Madison, can you look online?

I can, Chair. If you'd like to make public comment, raise your hand. Chair, I'm not seeing any hands raised.

OK. Thank you, Ms. Madison. Is there a counselor that would like to make a motion?

I move that council adopt Incorporated County of Los Alamos Code Ordinance number 02-371, a code ordinance amending Chapter 16 Development Code, Article 5, Administration and Enforcement, Division 1, Review and Decision-Making Bodies, section 16-68, 16-69, 16-70. Division two procedures, section 16-71, 16-72. Division three specific development procedures, section 16-73, 16-74, 16-75. Division four nonconformities, section 16-79, 16-81, 16-83. Division five construction improvements section 16 dash 8416 dash 9116 dash 9216 dash 93 and divisions six violations enforcement and penalties section 16 dash 98. Thank you, Councilor Cole. Is there a second second?

Okay, so we have motion by school second by Councillor Neil Clinton. Do we have any discussion? Okay, I don't see any discussion. So thank you for all the work on this. In particular, I thought the neighborhood meeting being required was a really good change and obviously a lot of other needed changes in here. So thank you for working all that. So let's, can the clerk please call the roll?

Councillor Hand? Yes. Councillor Herman?

Yes.

Councillor Neill-Clinton?

Yes.

Councillor Reidy?

Yes.

Councillor Rigor?

Yes.

Councillor Cole?

Yes.

Motion passes 6-0.

Okay, I'll let the record show the motion passes unanimously. So I think that we should at least let the next item go ahead. I think it will take too many minutes, but we'll see. So 9BRE0699-26. So it's Incorporated County Los Alamos resolution number 26-16. So it's a resolution of Incorporated County Los Alamos approving temporary relocation of the Voter Convenience Center. So this has to do with the Betty E. Hart Senior Center. So we have our clerk, Mr. Redondo.

Chair, councillors, this, as you may know, the Betty E. Hart Senior Center, which is one of our voting convenience centers, is scheduled for renovations that will likely impact our ability to use the space as a voting center. We propose to temporarily move it for the general election upcoming in November to the Mesa Public Library, which is next door. which will hopefully reduce any potential confusion the change will cause. The space that we intend to use is the upstairs meeting rooms in the Mesa Public Library. This space is ADA accessible, and it also is sufficient to our needs. I request that you approve the resolution so that we may move the voting center for this upcoming election. Thank you. And I stand for any questions.

Okay.

Does Council have any technical or clarifying questions about this resolution?

This is probably a question for Manager Laurent. Will the parking lot be open by then?

I'm looking at public works and I'm getting a yes.

Okay. Thank you for that. So I think this is voting day, correct?

Yeah. So that particular So the senior center is only open on election day. The only early voting sites we have are here in the municipal building and the town hall in White Rock. So we will take over that space. We have to move voting machines in three days prior to the election, so we'll take over that space the Friday prior to the election, which I believe is the 30th of October. The election is the 3rd of November, and then we will – clean out of the space on the following day, on the 4th of November.

Okay. I was just curious, because I don't know, the senior center people, I think people go there like for meals, right? But they are voting whenever, during your regular hours, you know. So I was just kind of curious about, do you know if many of the people that vote there actually like get a ride to And that's legitimate, right? So people get a ride for lunch and then they're able to vote. But they would be noticed in advance. They would know, well, you could get a ride here and vote because they get lunches at the Fuller Lodge. Isn't that the interim? I was just curious about the logistics of that. But it's all close, I guess, relatively speaking.

Yes, that is part of the reason why we wanted a site that was adjacent to the senior center. Yeah. Having it in that site. Actually, I think a surprising number of the people who vote at the senior center live in the surrounding neighborhood, particularly Oppenheimer Place. Right. And walk.

Yeah.

And so having that close enough that you can just walk next door is part of the reasoning.

Okay. So no more questions, I don't think. So is there any public comment on this item? And here in chambers, I'm not seeing anyone coming up. Ms. Madison can check on line fours.

I can. Chair, I'm not seeing any hands raised for

Okay, so does our councillor would like to, Councillor Herman?

Thank you, Chair. I move that council adopt resolution number 26-16, a resolution of the Council of the Incorporated County of Los Alamos approving the temporary relocation of the Voter Convenience Center for the consolidated precinct consisting of precincts 17 through 23 for the November 3rd, 2026 general election subject to district court approval.

Do we have a second? Second.

Okay, so we have a motion by Councilor Herman, second by Councilor Neal-Clinton. I'm not seeing any discussion. Can you please call the roll?

Councilor Reidy?

Yes.

Councilor Rigor?

Yes.

Councilor Hand? Yes. Councilor Cole? Yes. Councilor Neal-Clinton?

Yes.

Councilor Herman? Yes. Motion passes 6-0.

I'll let the record show the motion passes unanimously, so thank you for being here. So I think we have more than just a few minutes left, I think, of items, so maybe we should take a 10-minute break, and that means we'll come back at about 17 after. So we're on to item 10, business. 10A is AGR 1-227-26. It's going to be discussion and possible approval of amendment number one to services agreement number AGR 25-922 with leisure pools incorporated in the amount of $1,179,113.46 plus the political gross refuse tax. and it's for Olympic pool mechanical system improvements. So let's see, Mr. Martinez.

Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of council. So this amendment before you tonight for your approval is a culmination of several years of getting funding in place, performing assessments and coming up with the design that will meet the needs of the Aquatic Center's Olympic pool. And I want to thank Miguel Jimenez, our project manager, Manny Martinez, procurement staff, our county attorney's office for getting us to a point to where the timing lines up just perfectly so that we can perform this project and get it installed, get the mechanical equipment that's the subject of this item installed during the current closure of the resurfacing project, and that way we don't have multiple closures of the pool going forward. So kudos to them for pulling this together, getting the timing right, and appreciate their hard work on this. Mr. Jimenez is here, and he's going to go over a few slides with you give you a little more information about the project and we'll also be available for any questions so thank you, Mister chair.

Chair cancer counselors good evening. I will go keep a brief overview of what this project is going to be and we'll talk about scare but scope budget and schedule. If it needs next likely. So, the pumps at the Olympic pool have been in service for 38 years and they are approaching the end of their life, their serviceable, their lifetime. So, we have worked through design, retrocommissioning and design to come up with a plan to replace these pumps. What it comes to is that the scope of this replacement is not only the pumps, but we need to perform some upgrades to the filtration system at the pool. This consists of not only the new pumps, but filters with bigger flow capacity. And the need for this is because we need to reconfigure the plumbing up of this filtration system to gain complete redundancy in our pool. That is, if one of the pool pumps and filters were to fail, we have the other as a standby so we can continue pool operations while that defaulty or the pump or filter gets replaced. Also included in the scope of work is the resealing of the entire surge tank. That's the tank that receives all the water that recirculates back from the pump and into the filters. And of course we have all the system startup and handover of operations to staff. And before moving to the next slide, I want to point out a similarity there is between the name of the contractor, Leisure Pools Inc., and the name of our other pool, the Leisure Lagoon. It's just a coincidence, but just wanted to point that out. Next slide, please. So the budget for this project is a combination of MFM funds and savings from CIP projects. This amounts for $3.3 million, and it also includes the work that we are currently doing to re-plaster the Olympic pool. This budget sheet presents the overall budget for these two projects combined. The expenses to date amount for $1.86 million, and that includes the Olympic pool resurfacing, of course, the retro-commissioning and design and commissioning that we have engaged for these pool pumps and upgrades, filtration system upgrades, and also a payment for long lead long lead time equipment that is equipment that takes 8 weeks to be delivered after it's been ordered. So we have made a down payment so we can shorten our waiting time for those equipment. Of course, the construction costs that we are presented here tonight is for one point for $4 million, and that includes labor, materials, and equipment, and also the project contingency in the case of we face any unforeseen conditions on the project. Next slide, please. So the project schedule is as follows. On July 2026, we ordered, we made a down payment trigger the ordering of this all long lead mechanical equipment. If upon approval of this amendment to the agreement, the contractor will receive a notice to proceed and they will initiate their permitting process. And August, which is, of course, and this week, of course, we will have the project kickoff and demolition and construction work. This will, construction work will last until September 2026. And then during the month of October, we will have the system start up, the completion of the pool replastering, refilling the pool and allowing the plaster to cure. And November 2026 we will hand over operations to the aquatic center staff and of course the pool will resume operations. Next slide please. And with this I stand by for any questions that you might have.

Okay, thank you, Mr. Jimenez. Do we have any technical or clarifying questions from Council Rieger?

Thank you, Chair. Well, this looks like a great idea to get two filters and two pumps. That's correct. Before, I saw one filter there. I didn't see anything more than that.

The existing system has two pumps and two filters, but it requires both to be operating simultaneously. to meet the water exchange rate needed to keep the pool in operation.

So now you're going to have it set up so you can turn one or the other on, and you can keep the pool running even if one of them's out? That's correct. Yeah, OK. That sounds great.

That's right. The new pump and filter will be individually sized to maintain the flow. that we require to keep it.

And the equipment is an extra $1.2 or $3 million, is that right? Could you repeat the question, please? How much was the – I'm a little confused about the budget addition because it's only asking for $300,000 more. Oh. But I think the equipment was a lot more than that. It's like $1.3 million. So is it – did we already put that in the budget last year is what you're saying?

We did budget for this in our MFM and last year for design and the current year for construction. But we are also probably the 300,000 that you are referring to maybe is the budget revision that we see. So the project was slightly underfunded. So that comes from savings in the CIP, in other CIP projects.

Well, it's transfer from other CIP. Yes. So there's no budget increase here other than what we did in FY 26 and 27. There's no budget increase at all then. It's all part of our existing budget. Is that what you're saying?

Mr. Chair and Councillor Rieger. Simply answered yes. We're basically using existing funds that were programmed that are savings from completed CIP projects and utilizing and transferring those to this project.

So something else came in under budget. Exactly. All right. Okay. Thank you very much.

Okay. Thank you, Councillor Rieger. Do we have any other questions?

Did you have a question? Thank you, Chair. Quick question about the timeline. I think previously I had just seen this would be done in October. Is that correct?

The construction will be completed by October.

Okay.

Yes. The contractor will start work immediately upon notice to proceed.

Okay. Do you think we'll have swimmers in there in October or November?

By November, yes.

Okay. Okay. There's a lot of swimmers who are very excited about this. Okay.

Yes. And the schedule for completion for this project is within the schedule for the replastering of the pool. So we are accommodating this in the SCHEDULE THAT WE HAVE PRESENTED FOR THE REPLASTING.

NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU, COUNCILOR HERMAN. ANY OTHER?

NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU, CHAIR. SO THE OTHER PUMP LASTED 38 YEARS. but we also know that back then when things were made, they were made to last, not so much today. So for the two that you're ordering today, do you have a backup for that, for those or at least one of those just in case they don't last 38 years?

That is a very good question. So the first measure that this project is incorporating to extend the life or get as much life possible of these pumps is to have this redundant system. We can have the pumps run in an alternate manner for months. I will have to ask that to the pool staff. We can cycle between those two pump and filter systems so that way the pumps are not One single pump is not working for extended periods of time with all the load. So we can give them rest and exercise the other pump. As for the durability of the pumps, pumps, pool staff and facility staff conduct periodic maintenance to the filtration system. So that also helps get as much as we can out of as much life as we can out of the system. But in principle, they should last us a long time.

They should. But that's why I'm asking, just for the redundancy, if you were to have a backup to the backup, how much would that increase the project?

Oh, having an extra pump? We can ask for that to our contractors to see if we can increase that cost. At this moment, I could not. I don't have a fee here.

I only ask because I know how that pool is utilized literally worldwide. And the fact that the previous pumps lasted for 38 years is amazing. And being proactive

just thinking ahead that just in case it did break at least you'd have again a backup to the backup thank you both miss rhonda i think had something information on that charity counselor neil clinton um council did add um i think in last year's budget maybe it was two cycles ago additional monies into the major facility maintenance fund The reason they did that is because they did facility condition assessments. And the idea is you sort of average replacement costs of systems and by averaging their expected life. Of course, it never works out exactly. Some things last longer. A lot of things don't last as long as you had hoped. But that's where we would pay for a pump in the future. And I think the idea is is that, at least in this scenario, we could run one of the pumps while we're fixing or replacing the other. But then it is a good question for items that are long lead, it is always a good practice to try to have one in inventory, as long as it's not something that. like the seals and everything else, won't weather storage well. So those are the kind of things we would have to consider. But in general, that's how we factor in increasing the annual allotments for the major facility maintenance funds.

So I'm also thinking about the purchase down the road. Again, it may be even more expensive than it is now. So just something to think about.

Okay, thank you, Councillor Newclan.

Oh, Councillor Cole? Just a quick question. Are we planning to keep the pool in White Rock open through October?

We'll phone a friend on this one.

Chair and Councillor, currently we're planning to keep it open until October 3rd, but that is weather dependent.

Well, I mean, given the state of the weather recently, I think you can probably keep it open through December, but, um, okay. Um, so we may be a month without, um, swimming opportunities, which will make people even more anxious about getting this done. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Council call.

Okay. Um, so I did want to follow up on the, I guess the sequence of events. So I think in the staff report, there was like, I call it third party evaluation of the need, right? So there was the need identified for doing this work. And then when I'm looking at the amendment number one, one of the whereases indicates that Leisure Pools has a price agreement. I guess it's a contract with the city of Albuquerque. So that was the mechanism for getting asking them for a price on this additional work that was not in the original scope, correct?

Correct.

Okay.

Okay.

Just wanted to clarify that.

And then the original work did not have other bidders. Is that correct? Did we have other bidders for the original work that they rewarded to leisure pools? Did we ask for quotes before?

No, because this was the only contractor in the region that will do that kind of work.

I don't think anyone can hear you.

I'm sorry. Chair Reidy, no, we did not get quotes from other contractors because the contractor had a piggyback mechanism, which is that contract that you're referring to with the city of Albuquerque, and also It's the only pool contractor in the region that could do this specialized work.

Okay. Okay. So I just wanted to clarify that, I guess, for everyone concerned. Okay. I'm not seeing any other questions. Is there any public comment on this item? I'm not seeing anyone come forward here in the council chambers. Is there anyone online?

If you'd like to make a public comment, please raise your hand. Chair, I'm not seeing any hands raised.

Okay, thank you. Is there a Councillor Herman?

Thank you, Chair. I just wanted to say great job on this. I move that Council approve Amendment 1 to Services Agreement Number AGR25-922 with Leisure Pools, Inc. in the amount of $1,179,113.46 plus applicable gross receipts tax for Olympic Pool mechanical systems improvements, establish a revised project budget in the amount of $3,300,000, and approve related budget revision 2027-04. Do we have a second? Second.

So we have a motion by Councillor Herman, second by Councillor Hand. Do we have any discussion? Okay. I mean, I will just note, you may know about the company's name, but that was one of the, I guess some people thought an interesting discussion, a long discussion to actually come up with the name Leisure Lagoon when that was done a few years ago. So thank you for all the work on this. And can you please call the roll?

Councilor Uyghur?

Yes.

Councilor Cole? Yes. Councilor Herman? Yes. Councilor Riley?

Yes.

Councillor Neill-Clinton?

Yes.

Councillor Hunt? Yes. Motion passes 6-0.

Okay, let the record show the motion passes unanimously. So we're on to Item 11, Council Business 11A, General Council Business 1 is 21993-26, consideration on sending a letter from the Incorporated County of Los Alamos to the Secretary of the Department of Interior, proposing the revocation or reduction of public land number 7923 that protects Chaco Culture National Historical Park. So this was another item that came up that the Santa Fe County sent a letter. This was something that was noted. Ms. Norianne let me know that this was coming out for comment and it turned out that the MEETING TONIGHT IS JUST IN TIME TO SEND AN OFFICIAL LETTER IF WE WOULD LIKE TO DO SO. SO I ASKED TO HAVE THIS ADDED TO THE AGENDA AND BASICALLY THE DEPARTMENT OF INTERIOR PROPOSED I GUESS BASICALLY LEAVING THE BUFFER AS IT IS AT 10 MILES, CHANGING IT, REDUCING IT TO 5 MILES OR REDUCING IT ALL TOGETHER. THOSE ARE THE THREE OPTIONS. So I think that was pretty straightforward whether or not. I guess council would like to send a letter regarding the Chaco. And I guess when you think about geographically, it is very close. I remember going one time to Chaco, and they were able to determine that some of the pieces of wood in the structures actually came from the Jemez Mountains. So it's just the other side of the Jemez Mountains, took wood over to Chaco. So I think the climate in Chaco wasn't much more amenable to growing large trees than it is currently when they were building these structures. So anyways, there is a direct relationship to us kind of more locally with the Jemez Mountains, so glad I mentioned that too. So I guess with that, if there's any technical or clarifying questions about the topic,

I just want to clarify, this does not revoke Chaco. It's just the area outside of it. Right. It's the buffer area. Right. And they're revoking the mineral rights, which were all the Native American oil and gas work. That's what you're revoking, right? It's the money for the tribes. It's Hopi and Navajo land. Isn't it? I think it's various. It's not just tribal land. Is that in the checkerboard where it's every square mile of somebody else?

Yeah, I think it's not just all tribal land, is my understanding. Because I don't think that, yeah, so otherwise I don't think the Department of Interior would be weighing in on this.

Well, there were some members of the Navajo Nation that were very upset when this was put in place because that's income the tribe relies on. But that's an old news story, but I'm sure it's two years old.

So are there any other questions about potential action? I'm not seeing any. We do have public comment. Why don't you come forward and just state your name for the record.

My name is Chris Lucchini. So I actually have looked into this, and I'm not supporting or opposing sending this letter. But just as point of information, the oil and gas development, mineral development in the 10-mile to 5-mile buffer zone, the potential as determined by the Interior Department is zero over the next 20 years. Nobody's going to do anything there because there's nothing that can be exploited there. This buffer zone only applies to federally controlled lands and does not apply to private lands that are already there. They can already go ahead and do whatever kind of exploitation they want to. So this applies to BLM national foresters, et cetera. There's relatively little of that land there. Before you send this letter, I would strongly encourage you guys to actually research how much effect this would actually have. I believe this rescission is basically performative. It doesn't actually affect anything on the ground. It's being done for publicity. And in some sense, you might be taking the bait by sending this letter. There are issues with Indian trust lands about the government, the federal government, There's some lands that are in a difficult state because the Indians get the revenue from it, but they're actually federally controlled lands. So this would, in theory, allow that exploration and hence the royalties to go to the tribe. It's very unclear to me. It's definitely clear that none of that is in that 10 to 5-mile zone. I don't know how much of that is in the 5 to 0-mile zone. There's approximately 30 wells that are supposed to be potentially drillable over the next 15 years in that area. I'm not sure how much of that is actually on these Indian trust lands. So I've spent a total of about an hour and a half on this. If you're going to send this letter, have somebody actually look at it. That's my only real comment.

Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Lucini. Do we have any other public comments? Ms. Masson, can you look online for us?

I can. If you'd like to make public comment, please raise your hand. Chair, I'm not seeing any hands raised.

OK, thank you. So is there a counselor interested in making a motion?

Can I ask a clarifying question before we? So the options are, what are the options again?

So the options that are presented, you want to put them up? I think we can put them up so that we can read them.

Chair, these are the three options. Okay, thank you for bringing that up. So I have a healthy level of skepticism when anything involving Native American land wants to be changed and the current administration wants to change that. So

thank you for providing that that gives me a lot of information thank you okay thank you so um so yeah so that question is do we want to is there a counselor interested in making a motion um counselor call

move that council support sending a letter opposing the revocation or reduction of public land number 7923 and authorize the chair to sign and send the letter on behalf of the county council as part of the public comment process second okay so we have a motion by councillor cole second by councillor neil clinton do we have any discussion on the motion so the

So you're trying to preserve the full withdrawal. That's what the letter is going to be. So that's definitely not what I had in mind. So I'll vote against that. Okay. Thank you.

Councilor, Councilor, I think it would be helpful to see what we're actually going to draft as a, as the letter before we approve the letter. or is this going to come back or we're just going to approve that we're sending a letter and we don't get to see what the letter says?

Given the timing of comments are due tomorrow. Okay. So we, there's no opportunity to. Okay. Thank you. So just look at this again. So any other questions or comments about the motion?

Okay. Yeah. I mean, I, there's a, county or a Santa Fe County letter that was provided, that I think would be similar to something that we would probably want to send. You know, and I and you know, I did hear the public comment that there may be a variety of reasons for this revocation. But it does say in the BLM press release that, you know, it would open the area to mining and other um uses for 20 years and uh i you know the fact that um this is being proposed and the the timeline for comments was shortened to me means that um the more letters um the better so i'll be supporting it thank you okay thank you council call okay so um can please take the role counselor hand

No.

Councilor Righty?

Yes.

Councilor Cole?

Yes.

Councilor Neal-Clinton?

Yes.

Councilor Rigor?

No.

Councilor Herman? Yes. Motion passes 4-2.

Okay, let the record show the motion passes 4-2 with Councilor Rigor in hand in opposition. So, uh, Thank you for the discussion on that. So now we're on to item 11A, appointments. We actually had an appointment under the consent agenda today for health council. 11C, board and commission vacancy report. We don't have a report attached for this meeting. Then 11D is board and commission reports. Do we have any councilor reports on boards they're liaising to tonight? Seeing none, okay. We're on to 11E, which is the county manager's board, and we do have a manager's report attached. So Ms. Laurent, did you want to highlight a few items in there?

Yes, Chair. Thank you. A couple, I mean, just a lot of busyness, I guess, is what I want to highlight is that the agendas were packed, a lot of things happening. So it's a good read. I wanted to highlight that the 19th Hole Restaurant has been offering some lunch foods, and I'm getting good reports about the experience. There was a consent item amending the contract that will hopefully address them finalizing getting the use of the lease of the county's liquor license, and I anticipate that they'll be doing more advertising after that step is in place. And I also wanted to point out that the fire marshal, um, announced in a press release today that they're lowering the restrictions back to stage one. That's also being done at the state level. Um, it seems a little odd because, um, not all of the moisture that is circling around has been hitting the ground, but, um, actually this weekend we did have a tree fire and there had, because of the increased humidity and the modeling, it shows that, um, the spread, the threat of spread because of the moisture content in the ground grasses and things should be good for the next, um, month or two. And so that's why everybody's very confident that, um, in reducing the fire restrictions. And my initial comment was why, why not leave them high? Um, but it is really the, the experts in the science behind it are all agreeing that it's, um, it's okay to, it should be reduced. So, um, and then I just wanted to mention that, um, Ms. Madison wanted me to mention that the Inclusivity Board will be was created will be created as of August 2, because it was an ordinance that had the waiting period. And so we'll start the recruitment next week of a seven member board. And the goal right now, if we get good responses is to have appointments on the September 8 Council agenda. But with that, I'm happy to stand for any questions.

Okay, do councillors have any questions for Zorin on that or her report? Okay, not seeing anything tonight, so thank you for that. So Love and Memphis Council Chair report, so there have been a number of meetings We did have our monthly meeting with the Congressional Delegation on July 8th. There was a person that wanted to come in and talk to us about an energy development project that they've been working on in the region. Then the Mexican Environment Department's been having these biweekly meetings on the hexalynchromium plume. So there was one on the 14th, and the one for today actually got canceled. Some people weren't available. Then I guess it's maybe not the right time, but I'll just mention the National Association of Counties meeting. Also, Councilor Rieger and Councilor Neal Clinton also went. And I'll be working on my report from what I attended for that. We're having that available here pretty soon. We had on July 22nd a finance-related item. Every year there's an audit of the county's finances, and so there was a kickoff meeting on July 22nd for that. I was one of the counselors at the farmer's market on the 23rd, and we heard from people about a few different topics. I recall hearing some questions about utility increases and, I guess, development projects in town. the ones that were available at the time. So obviously didn't hear about the one, the guest house, but mentioned different projects were coming up. And we tried to let people know that there was the dashboard was available. And we had a whole binder full of information sheets on various projects, which I said, well, we shouldn't have to refer to that to have any answers, but they're available if people had some additional questions. We had the schools meeting on the 23rd also and talked about a variety of things. The North Mesa project that's potentially on school land, school gymnastics building, talked about the Community Health Action Center and mentioned whether or not maybe we should have a council working group with some school board members to talk about basically property use in the future. And yeah, yesterday we got a briefing from the police department on the license plate reader technology, got a little demonstration of how it's currently working with the Motorola fixed cameras. So that was interesting and looking forward to having the, the town hall so and then getting a report back to council a later date so yeah go ahead chair ready thanks for mentioning that i do believe we've solidified august 27th so that press release will go out for the town hall so okay so that's good um and i think uh that was it for that uh so 11 G is approval of counselor expenses. Do we have any counselor expenses to approve? Not seeing any. So 11H is preview of agenda, upcoming agenda items. And there's attachment 11H121097-26, the tickler. So counselors have anything that they want to highlight or make sure we have on an upcoming meeting. I'll just note that there are, so plastic bag ban is going to be coming back next week for discussion and possible action. And we've heard about another ELITA project. Of course, it's also MRA. Those are on the schedule. And we're going to attempt to have them spaced out a little bit so we don't have like multiple ones on the same evening. Gas and water rates are coming. And then we did have, we've been trying to get the medical center CEO to be available. So I think that's all that I had. So we had then item 12 was counselor comments. Do we have any counselor comments tonight?

I do. I attended the NACO in New Orleans with Chair Reidy and Councilman Rieger, and I had a blast. I came away so inspired and motivated. I have three meetings tomorrow based on New Orleans. So I really came away understanding how important it is to be in an environment where others are doing the same things you're doing, but they actually have executed some of the things that you're thinking about. And I'm a big proponent of not reinventing the wheel. I'm a bigger proponent of here's a template that works, we can tweak it and make it work for us. So I am like NACO bound in my head. I just think it's really smart. So I just wanted to share that.

Thank you, Councillor Nielsen. Any other comments? Then, for some reason, item 13 is working groups and external entities report. Just after comments, but it's okay. It all works. So I'm not sure if anybody's got any other comments about anything. Okay. Okay, so item 14 is adjournment. If there are no objections, we are adjourned.