Council - Regular Meeting

Welcome everybody. I'd like to call the regular city council meeting of February 18th uh 2026 tour. Mayor David Romero here. Councelor Marvin Martinez present. Councelor Barbara Casey here. Councelor Bonita Pacheco present. Councelor David Ulibi here. Thank you Mr. Mayor. We do have a call. Miss Cassandra, lead us on the pitch. 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.

Councelor Pache will lead us in a moment of silence. Just have a moment of silence for uh all those uh all people in our world. their private intentions. Everyone that's here any other Thank you. Thank you,

Mr. Mayor. Approval of the agenda. Um I have a recommendation to remove presentation um by Pete Rock Alina who was unable to make it this evening. And then we have another recommendation from our city manager. I'll turn it over to him. U Mr. Mayor, members of the council, I requested that we move the executive session where we were going to talk specifically about water. We have some additional um research that we have to do with the state engineers office before I bring that back to you. So I'm requesting we move that item. That was specifically just for that discussion. And again, that was just for the water, right? That's correct.

Executive session. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So, with those uh recommendations, is there any other recommendations? Yes, Mr. Mayor. I'd like to see if we could move um business item number one over to just before the consent agenda along with the other uh the other changes that were requested. Uh with those changes, is that your motion? That's my motion. I second. Motion by councelor Martinez, second by councelor Pekco. May I ask a question? Discussion.

Okay. On the executive session, um that also is the whole thing, not just water rights acquisition. That what you Yeah, Mr. Mayor, Councilwoman Casey, the only thing we were going to discuss was only water. Yeah. No, but it says discussion on property and water right. Oh, correct. So, it's everything that's going to be postponed until we get more information. Correct. Okay. Thank you. I just wanted to clarify.

Councelor Lei, yes. Councelor Martinez, yes. Councelor Pacheco, yes. Councelor Casey, yes. I have a motion by Councelor Martinez, a second by Councelor Pacheco. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Motion carries. Moving on to our next item is public input. We have um one person signed up for public input, Miss Corina Llo Henry speaking on the consent agenda.

Mr. Mayor, counselors, and I want to thank um council for moving the um the public hearing part up in the agenda. I think that makes a lot of sense. I appreciate that. Um, you don't mind that speaking into the mic for

We'll do I um I I came here for the public hearing, but I did notice a couple of things on the consent agenda that I just wanted to um to bring up. And those are items 7, 8, and nine. um on the consent agenda. Those are extensions of contracts um for leases of real property and um the New Mexico Administrative Code um title 1.5.23.10 does require DFA approval for over five years or more. um leases of real property by municipalities and it does require a determination of fair market value. I have nothing against those lees or the terms or anything of that sort but because they do seem to go into the future up to 208 um I don't think we can you can set what fair market value is going to be in 208. Um, looks like those were those original leases were entered into without it coming before the governing body maybe. And um and they they look very perpetual in nature that the city of Las Vegas would have no grounds or no um rights to terminate short of a breach and that it could be perpetually extended. I don't know. I don't know why those we're five years in and we're already extending for a second um extension period on all three of those leases. So, I just had had some questions that I would urge um this body

to um refer back to your city attorney and get your questions answered and see if there's if there's any other things that need to be looked at there. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Moving on to our mayor's appointments, reports, recognitions, and proclamations. Uh, I'll forgo uh I think I gave a a report last week and I just know, you know, based off of time that we have and probably the Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Moving on to our counselor's reports. Counselors have a quick councelor Casey.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh, I just want to give a special thanks to uh, David Marquez and his uh, staff for doing an excellent job in a very difficult job of picking up trash uh, and bins that have been uh, tossed all over creation by the awful winds that we have had. and they did an amazing job uh of picking up extraneous stra that was on the streets and getting everything cleaned up so nicely and I just want to say thank you for the wonderful job that uh you and uh your your team have done and so appreciate it greatly. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you. Uh Councilman Levari.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Manager. Thank you, Mr. manager or the whole west side's looking good. Ward one, w two, w three, w four, it doesn't matter. But ward one, you've been working on some of the areas that are being neglected and there's cars all over. There's still cars all over the place, but your staff is doing a great job picking up well, somebody's picking up trash and stuff that they're doing on the rightway. I just want to thank the staff and you guys for the good work that you guys are doing. and we just got to keep on looking at that little by little and making this beautiful town a little more brighter. Thank you, Councilman Martinez.

Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to mention I went to a meeting last night in reference to the Grand Avenue alignment study and that that study refers to uh from Grand Avenue from like where the Dairy Queen is at on Colombia Street and it goes north and I think that project ends just right kind of close to city hall here and the study what it does is, you know, they want feedback. The state of New Mexico wants feedback in reference to how they can improve those areas. You know, the intersection, of course, uh ADA compliant sidewalks, the uh the egress and and so forth for the uh Grand Avenue piece that they're going to be working on. And it's interesting, but I do have a little bit of information. And I I I don't have a whole lot of it, but for those that are interested, you can maybe I can give this over to Sandra and you can maybe provide any individual with copies or something. But it's for feedback and that's what I'm trying to I I showed up. There was a few people that showed up. So, not too many people go to these things, but what happens is usually after the fact, people are complaining because something didn't come in, you know, doesn't look right. So, I just want to bring it out to the general public that it's a very interesting uh alignment study. So, if you have any concerns of that piece of Grand Avenue, please please do reach out to the state of New Mexico. And I think uh Travis Martinez is the guy that you would want to talk to. So if you have any other questions, you can at least call them. So I do appreciate uh just being there and being able to get that

information for those that are interested. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Councilman Pacheco.

Uh thank you, Mr. Mayor. So, as I mentioned at our our last meeting, I was uh sending out some texts that were going out to residents of Ward two. Uh based off that information, there was three top items that that came back as uh uh the the concerns that had the most consensus. So, one is water. Obviously, I think that's a consensus across the the entire city and we're taking steps to improve that. Uh thank you for the information that's been released to the media and the new water treatment plant. And uh I think that that puts our community at at ease uh knowing that we're moving in the right direction. Uh the second item that that I received feedback on was, believe it or not, speed bumps and roads. Uh and you it's something I've talked about. I' I'd just like to see a bit more consistency with how we do that. uh how we uh uh what the what the dimensions are for those types of things, right? And also take into uh consideration the uh law enforcement and the the time that it takes for them to go over these types of barriers in in emergency situations as well as our public good and the flow of traffic. flow of traffic is was one of the larger concerns and I know we're working at ways uh to try and improve that uh through public safety, our police department and other avenues that the council was exploring. Uh the the third item that came up was graffiti. And again, we we I tend to notice more and more graffiti now that I'm on the council. Probably I just was blind to it in the past. Uh but graffiti is is an ongoing issue not just in Las Vegas but across the country really in

different cities. Uh what's interesting about us is that we do have an ordinance and this is just as a reminder to everyone and it's it's it's not a negative and it's it's it's just something that I've discovered as I've been doing research that identifies what we should be doing as a city to uh combat graffiti. Now, there are many properties within the city that are out of compliance with that ordinance, but I must say that we as a city government and uh city staff are out of compliance with our own ordinance. So, I think step one is we figure out is that the proper ordinance? And if it is, let's make sure that we're following our ordinance as as government and city officials. so we can start combating this problem in a uh constructive way. Um really that's all I have. I think we've we've been up to Santa Fe a couple of times uh portions of the council. We've received recognition in the in the house uh as well as our directors being there. Thank you, Mr. Manager, for organizing that. That was a great event. Um, and uh I appreciate all of our all of our staff, all of our audience here tonight. And uh that's all I have. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you,

Mayor. Moving on to our finance report. We have our finance director, Mr. Morris Madrid. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Before I get into the numbers portion of the finance report, I'd like to give you all an update on uh couple of things. Our midyear uh budget review and then uh the process for our fiscal year 27 budget preparation. Uh for the last couple of weeks I've worked on where we stand, where we stand, where we stood as of December 31st, middle of the year, revenues and expenditures uh for the general fund and some of the enterprise funds. We also have many special revenue funds that are uh dedicated for a particular purpose. for example, uh capital outlay appropriations, our uh street improvement fund, our lodgers tax fund, those types of funds that are individual in nature and for a special purpose. So, uh I prepared all of those today. I had our first meeting with uh with Arnold Lopez, one of our directors, cuz he's got a few several he's got several different funds, just to verify uh what I found and what I projected. So, in in some cases, there may be things that I projected that will not be spent, some that I may have not anticipated. So we'll go through this final round of meeting and adjustment and based upon that uh I'll do an estimate of overall savings and in the general fund there will be savings to the extent I'm not sure yet but from there I'll meet with

our city manager and then we'll come up with uh if it's needed or necessary uh a recommendation to the governing body on a budget adjustment much like we did last here uh the savings will not be as much and that's a good thing for a couple of reasons. One of the reasons is uh this governing body increased compensation for employees across the board in all departments at all levels. That's that's progress. The other thing is the way that the budget was prepared last year. Our budget is coming in closer to our projections, closer to the plans of each department head. Uh for years before that, we were just doing what we did the year before and carrying those numbers forward and we were overbudgeting money and we're getting closer to uh realistic numbers this year. Next year will be the same thing. uh in regard to next year's budget uh and in talking with the city manager, we'd like to align that process so that it is kind of congruent with a with a process of the governing body building its priorities also so that they can be considered and funded. So, uh, that timeline will be determined by our city manager, but the priorities of the council should be included in our budget request prior to you all seeing it. We shouldn't bring you a budget that we've prepared without considering any of your priorities. And that's going to change this year. So, that's how we'll approach it. We're setting the timelines so that we uh give ourselves enough time to uh have the budget prepared and

submitted to DFA by the May 31st deadline. Uh our manager has pre has participated in a new process that we did last year where we sit around the table in the finance department. We put up the proposed budgets on the screen and we go line by line in justifying the budget request so that we're all familiar with the budget request and it needs to pass a reasonable and necessary test and it it doesn't matter what was done the year before. This is what we're going to base our request on and that's what we'll present to you all. So that's the update and on those two things. Uh in regard to the revenue and expenditure report itself, I want to point out a few anomalies uh in our general fund revenues. Uh there's one type of gross receipts tax, a quarter of 1% that is lower than last year. that uh I need to verify is a timing or posting in the general ledger issue, not a drop in revenues cuz uh as you notice everywhere else, our gross receipts are still increasing uh very healthily. On the expenditure side, you'll notice in the general services department how as compared to last year, our actual expenditures are significantly higher. And that's not because they're necessarily higher this year. Last year they were lower because there was two reasons. We didn't have as much activity in the projects within the four wards uh based upon the counselor's priorities and we also had not paid our uh invoice

to the county for ambulance service that came in in a big chunk later in the year. So that is right in line. You'll see that uh even with our prepayment of insurance, we're at 60% uh with 58% of the year gone by. So that is right in line, but that's the reason for the difference. If you go to the enterprise funds, as uh we talked about before, uh natural gas is coming back into line. We had the coal spell, the revenues are starting to rise there. the uh water and wastewater funds are a little bit behind, but they are improving. Um I think I'll need to take a look at in in concert with a new staff that's part of finance now and customer service the timing on billing and payment and and what do those look like uh from our smallest to our largest customer. That type of analysis still needs to be done. And we also need to uh do a review of uh not just billing and and dollars but consumption and all the other factors that that affect our revenues. But in general, we are on track. If there are any uh red flags, they would show up probably around March. But we do have the rest of our cold season to go through and some of our warm season. And I'm referring to gas and water and wastewater. So there's nothing out of the ordinary there. In a recreation department, our uh program and activity revenues are actually up. If you notice in the wellness center, our uh actual revenues are up. in the Yabo program. Uh they're

a little bit lower, but it the program hasn't completed yet. So, there's still a lot more registration and activity to go in there. We expect those to catch up. The thing that kind of uh distorts the picture is the uh amount that we've budgeted for the roof. That hasn't been expended yet. And that's both on the revenue and the expenditure side. in the lodgers tax fund. Uh during late fall, these revenues were lagging. They have caught up again and are exceeding last year's u actuals. The uh you'll notice uh an anomaly in uh the capital outlay line this year compared to last year. a lot tax is contributing a lot to uh I think these are maybe our Christmas decorations or electrical upgrades and that's going to continue later on. We have an item for a budget adjustment in lodgers tax. Uh I'll give you a heads up right now that that is uh based upon second half activities that have been projected and agreed upon by the largest tax board and the staff. The approach that was taken when the budget was prepared last year was we budgeted for everything that we knew was going to happen up through the first half and uh we were expecting to make a a budget adjustment now in the middle of the year. So, I'll explain that a little bit more when we get to that item. In the cannabis fund, we don't have any unusual activity. The revenues and and expenditures are at our expected level. In the on the expense side of the cannabis, as I said before, uh a lot of the equipment that was

authorized by the governing body late last fiscal year came in this fiscal year and was paid for in this fiscal year. So that is exactly the way it should look. Uh we have some good news in the opioid fund. We did get an infusion of u a couple of payments that we hadn't anticipated for about $238,000. So that those resources are budgetable and uh that would be another item for discussion at the retreat with the governing body and the city manager. So we have additional resources available there in our FEMA account. We have uh little or no activity I think since last month and we don't uh expect a lot more uh I think the activity from now on will be uh related to the water plant construction which is being handled by the state. Our last report is our uh cash and investment report and we don't have any changes there really as of the end of January. Um the yield has uh has been dropping a little bit in the LGIP with the state treasurer and it's been coming up with our local banks. So you may see some transfer of funds there in next month's report to uh maximize our earnings and the other advantage is in in our local banks these investments are insured 100%. So those are the highlight of the finance report. I stand for any questions. Uh Mr. Mr. Madre, I just had one uh and

I know this is going to be coming up especially with the uh information that came out to the uh public with the water treatment plant. Uh moving forward, I know you know our intergovernmental agreement specifically states we're build by the New Mexico Environment Department, but maybe in our future reports as we go month by month, uh we could start letting uh in the report how much we paid to the New Mexico Environment Department. Uh so that way we're being transparent with the uh with the community. Would that would that be fair to ask in that report?

We can all get together with our city manager and we'll we'll do a simple format with full information and then we can modify as we go. But yes, that's absolutely possible and maybe even in the interimm I know, you know, uh I've had an opportunity to sit in in a couple meetings, but I think even for the governing body to understand, you know, how much we've paid, where we're at, uh you know, for for their information, uh maybe here within the next week to get them the most updated that we have. That's fair. Yeah. Okay. We can also go over the process that we use between us and Okay. And those mechanics. I think that's important, too. Yeah. Because I think as more progress is happening there, uh, you know, I'm sure we're going to start getting questions, uh, you know, how much have you guys paid, stuff like that. So, just so the counselors have that information with them,

right? Thank you, Councelor Casey. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh, I don't have a question, but I have a request.

Yes, ma'am. Um, I had when I was back on the council uh in 2022, I had requested that uh we receive a copy of the checks that have been paid out for the month and I was getting those, but I'm not getting them anymore. And uh those really help us uh see what's the kind of money that's going out, who it's going out to, and how often uh those people are getting paid. And um I would appreciate getting those again. They were always emailed to me, and um I would request that that be done again every month. What what we do for the finance committee counselor and I think this would fulfill your request is we generate an accounts payable listing of all the checks that have been actually paid, check numbers, vendors, and a description of what uh what they paid for and they're by check number, but it has all the vendor names. You can tell which department spent it, that kind of thing. We'll start with that.

That's what I That's what I was getting before. Okay. So, I would appreciate it if I could get it. already generate that. We'll include you email. Great. Thank you so much, Mr. Mid on that. Also, uh is that also the vendor report list? Because I know we could get individual checks, but the vendor report specifically states how much this vendor for this month. Is that possible? That's a separate report that uh we don't normally generate, but is easy to generate upon request. Okay. So, feel free to contact anyone in the finance department and we can take care of that. if you have any

I guess just adding to what councelor Casey is saying I don't know you know that's a a routine report you know that the governing body would like to see uh you know just uh get with me and then we'll make sure that as as we go me and the city manager will work together on that Mr. Mr. Manager, I don't do you want to say something?

Yeah, I just wanted to add and maybe this can be a topic under the retreat uh discussion, but I'm very familiar with Sunshine portals in uh organizations that I've worked at. Uh so that might be something that we can integrate where we have the information posted on the web relative to the financial transactions of the city. Uh, so I'll defer to you, mayor, and the council, but I'm uh keenly aware and familiar with that type of information and being as transparent as possible for the public.

Mr. Thank you, Mayor. Uh, I I just want to say I agree in uh philosophically with what's being asked. I think it'll allow us to uh have a better grasp of of what's actually being spent because in my short time here, which is I think this is my fourth meeting, feels like I've already been here four years. No, I'm just kidding. uh we've approved a number of contracts and as I feel more comfortable having a way to gauge those contracts as we move through the fiscal year or the calendar year, whatever it is that we that we approve them on uh to to better manage the the to better be aware. I'm not here to manage the finances, but to better be aware of the finances and the state of those finances for the for the city and the community.

A public record? Thank you, sir. Questions for Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Moving on to our next item, our police chief's report. We have our police chief, Mr. Caleb Marcus.

Evening, chief. Good evening, Mayor Council Commander. Get set up real quick and we could begin. So, this is going to be the the report for the month of January. If I can get it. So, our field operations division uh issued 287 traffic citations, two non-traffic citations, 80 parking citations, generated 45 arrests, 76 animal uh control citations were issued. We had two burglaries with the total calls for service for our field operations of 1537 calls for the month. Um if you notice, the animal control citations are up there. We've been running operations in the evening time uh with our animal control officers and CSAs to target certain areas where we have large packs of dogs that are roaming in neighborhoods. and uh it's had a good effect uh so far, good turnaround. Uh so it's something we're going to continue to to work on especially in problem areas. Our communication division answered a total calls for service of 1729 calls, 1537 for police, 207 for fire department, 179 for ambulance, 96 for animal control, uh city services 35, and a total of 697 uh 911 calls. Our beginning shelter count with our animal care center was 41 dogs, 23 cats for a total of 64. We had um our beginning shelter, our intake from the public was 42 dogs, 10 cats for a total of 53. We had seven adoptions of cats, three seven of dogs, three of cats for a total of 10. Outgoing transfers to u outside organizations and coalitions were 16 dogs, six cats for a total of 22. We had uh seven return to their owner for dogs. And then we had cats and dogs euthanized was three dogs that were healthy. Uh no cats un unhealthy and untreatable. One dog, two cats for a

total of three. And our ending shelter count was at 50 dogs, 22 cats for a total of 72. Um our we are at capacity again. I know that we were able last month to move out 53 dogs in a week and we're we're thankful for the help, but you know, we we have an ongoing issue that we're continuing to work on. So we're up there in our numbers again. So we encourage fosters or adoptions, whatever we could get into the community or transfers out. Before we move on specific to this on the intakes from the public, can you uh give us more detail of what specific intake from public means?

So intakes from public could be our animal control actually bringing them in county animal control. Um sometimes puppies end up uh dumped outside the shelter. People come and drop a dog. We've had people tie up dogs and drive off. Uh so those are our intakes from the public. We kind of generalize it so we don't have so many different drop down boxes for that. Our information division um closed out 174 offense incident reports. 22 traffic uh reports were closed out, entered 445 citations, attended to 153 customers, documents scanned as 365 and completed 22 IPAs. Our street crimes division uh had 73 cases assigned, 21 self initiated, made 12 arrests, uh executed six search warrants, closed down 19 cases. Our evidence seized by our investigation division was 4.8 grams of methamphetamine, uh.7 grams of cracked cocaine, seven fentanyl pills, 186 other fentanyl pills, one firearm, 1 gram of heroin, and 3.5 suboxin strips. Evidence entered into our evidence division of 77 cases, 169 total uh items prop of property turned in, released five items of property back to the public which were not narcotics but belongings to them. Um patrol sees two firearms, uh four grams of meth, uh one suboxin strip, 42 fentanyl pills, 20 grams of cracked cocaine, one gram of heroin, one gram of methadone. Uh we also sent 21 cases to the labs. uh completed 13er requests with digital files documented and redacted of 649. So we had someformational travels. Uh we have our our uh travels for the month of of January consisted of windshield repairs. We've had a lot of broken windshields on our units. We're trying to get those all completed. Uh it is a three-court process that we're running through and the cheapest bid is out of Santa Fe. We're having to transport our

units back and forth. Our animal control officers also transported uh uh animals to the veterary hospital several times this month. Our new recruits are attending their mandatory fitness assessment uh last month for uh basic police officer training uh class number 211 and our new uh recruits also began the academy on the 29th and have been attending and traveling back and forth to Santa Fe. They will continue until around May. Uh, Lieutenant David Barella was subpoenaed for that trial in Eagle River, Wisconsin, which he attended January 19th through the 22nd. Um, our office manager, uh, Railen and, uh, administrative aid Chenise attended a procurement uh, code overview. Police officers participated in FBI leader command leadership training in Santa Fe. And we also had um, our our officers attending our SkyO training for our drone program. U, we are pretty close to getting a full launch on that program here soon. Hopefully, we'll have uh five new pilots, six new pilots in the in the police department. We'll have five new drones that we could utilize to to assist with our operations or other city functions. Our active recruitment work still continuing. We have four police officers uh applicants for for police officer, sorry about that. One certified, three uncertified. We have nine applicants um with one part-time for communications. We are actually full at this time besides our part-time positions. Um Morris is going to help me open up another full-time hopefully here soon.

Yes, sir.

Our animal control, we did have three applicants. That's going to be a positive because we just lost one. Uh he joined the military. Uh good luck to him, Mr. Joshua Vill, but he's out at basic training right now. Uh one police officer attempted the physical fitness assessment uh two weeks ago, but was unsuccessful and he's going to reschedule. We had a communication specialist job interview recommended for hire. That's the one I was just speaking about. and majority of the applicants on our current list have ceased communication with the recruiting department and these applications will they will remain active for six months if they are interested. These are our vacancies. Um once again pretty much the same as the last couple months. Um we're numbers are back and forth. We're hiring. We'll lose one we hire. Uh so it's kind of back and forth. So hopefully we're seeing a trend across the city where all the hiring is going back up. Hopefully we get that trend back at the police department. We also attended a DOT meeting last Wednesday with uh DOT engineers as well as uh uh Commissioner um Walter Adams to discuss some of the issues on Grand Avenue for when it comes to speed and crashes. Um DOT is going to be bringing in their own uh independent third party company that's going to be working on a study. They're going to work on certain portions of Grand Avenue to identify what could assist with that. uh whether it's breaking the the long distance travel, some of the commu confusing um exchanges at the intersections and uh see what what we could do to better that area. And we also attended another uh I attended last night as well for the DOT meeting for the new um road work that's going to be done from Dairy Queen to to city hall. So there's a lot of moving parts there. We also um established very good communication and we're going to continue monthly meetings or every other month I believe with Lucas and Arnold. We're going to get everybody in there. I know Captain Attendu attended. So it'll be good moving forward with the DOT and hopefully we get some of these problems figured out and then also just the Santa Fe travel. So and that concludes my report.

Mr. Manager, Chief, uh what are we doing with unwanted vehicles that are parked on the city rideways all over the city? Are we taking care of that or what are we doing with them? Yes, sir. Uh so, so we are working still with code enforcement. Um like you said in the beginning of the meeting, there is a a difference happening. It does take time, but um we are we are getting some of these accomplished. I know we've had certain issues around town and some of these tow companies have really stepped up and helped us and we've gotten some problem vehicles out of areas and um we look forward to keep on moving forward with that process as well.

The thing is that we have an orans that any vehicle that's not running or it's not droven or anything and they park it they park it on the either city rightways or they park it on the on their premises. They're not being moved. They're not doing nothing with it. And I I know that code enforcement is working on it, but I think that's we need to take a look at the whole city. Yes, I think you guys can do that. Thank you.

I have a question. Thank you, Mayor Chief. Thank you for the report. I was just uh uh kind of digesting the numbers here and I see that there were 595 911 calls in the month. That's 20 per day. So, how many units do we have on the on uh the street for any particular shift?

So, it just depends on the shift, especially now that we have guys in the uh recruits in the academy. Um we have four officers, sometimes we'll have three. Once these recruits are back out, some of our crews should be back up to five and four, which is great numbers compared to several years ago and we're down to three. Um, a lot of these calls though doesn't constitute an officer going. Sometimes we'll have, especially in the summer, you'll see those calls skyrocket, but we have kids at home that are playing with cell phones that aren't connected. They think that they could dial 911. They call um we will call back if we could speak to somebody. If not, then we will send an officer for a welfare check. But um it it it is a high number but it does go up especially when school's out of session.

And then so the other the other uh question I had is I see there was 1537 calls to the police department calls for service. Is that in addition to the 595 or is that incorporated in the 595? No. So it's it's included as far as the 1700 calls. So, so total total calls for service was 1729 and then the 1537 is a portion of that that 1729 calls a breakdown. Okay. But that 1537 includes the 911 calls. Yes, sir. Okay. Yes, sir. So, you have about a thousand other calls that are 911 related. Correct. Yes, sir.

Yeah. I I see this as uh again I I I I uh commend the the job that you're doing and the information that you uh provide to us, but it is very concerning that uh that we have so many vacancies and I know that's not your fault either. I know it's a tough market to hire uh people. Uh but if there's anything from your perspective that you think we as a council, we as a community can do to help get some more officers uh figure out some other strategies because obviously at the end of the day, public safety is a big issue here in Las Vegas, New Mexico. You and I have discussed this. Our our crime rate is 40% above the national average. Many people don't realize that, but that is the reality. Uh and uh I I think as as aggressive as uh well as proactive as we can be in in minimizing some of this and properly staffing you uh will help lead to a uh the betterment of the community.

Yes, sir. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Councilman Martinez,

I guess I'd like to add a little bit to that, but uh and what's been mentioned, I guess has been mentioned prior by even the mayor and I know we have some speed control cameras and so forth that I think we were lacking software or something to be able to assist our city police department with traffic citations, espec especially speeding. And that that's still, you know, it's it's it's alarm it's it's alarming to to hear people across our community that, you know, basically say that there's a lot of speeding going on. And there and there is. I mean, we just need to control it better and and do a better job with it. But I I still want to see us get to a point where where we can have that software available to those speed cameras so that we can, you know, and do better enforcement in those areas that we need. Definitely. So, uh because nowadays it seems like everywhere's a drag, you know, it's a drag strip everywhere and we need to control that. So, but anyway, if you could look into that and see what we can how we can better get equipped for that process.

Yes, sir. And to that, um, I was hoping that today we would have the contract ready for those speed cameras. Okay. Um, we did have a few errors uh within the contract that we sent back for corrections. There was other counties and cities mentioned at portions of the contract and there was some wording that was missing. Um, we sent it back. Um, I was hoping to get it back by last Friday to get it on this agenda to uh actually post those cameras in town, but hopefully within this next month's uh council meetings, we will have that contract up for presentation. Thank you, Chief. I appreciate you working on that. Yes, sir.

Thank you, Chief. And if you don't mind, uh I know one of the big concern and I'm just going to say it the way it is. uh drugs within the community and I know you've really worked uh you and the manager have worked on a relationship uh specifically more with the county and with the DA's office and I know there's been some some news on some bigger uh busts I guess we could say uh could you just talk into you know the building of relationships I know me personally I know the region 4 we could you know it's not fully there by all the players that were there at one time I did reach out to Mayor Chatterly of Raton I know they were part of it at region for so working on that but can you talk more to what you're doing within the three partners that we have right now? Yes sir.

So so in the interim what we're doing is we we have a Siguel County drug task force is what we're working um with that each one of us has dedicated full-time manpower to this task force. Um we have been running operations uh doing their undercover buys um utilizing all of our equipment as a joint uh effort with the Shamiguel County Sheriff's Office and District uh Ford uh DA's office with Tom Clayton uh who dedicated agents as well. So, we have operations that are constantly and ongoing. At this time, um we did last council meeting run an operation with them where we successfully uh hit a drug house and were able to charge for drug trafficking out of there. Um we're looking forward to having more bus especially with the money from our opiate uh funds that we received. There's some training, some equipment options, and we've also sorry, excuse me, purchase some equipment to assist us with these. But there's other things that we're going to be moving forward on, especially confidential funds to assist us in in the fight against drugs within our community.

And I just want to add to that is I know counselors, you know, we come to the meetings and sometimes we feel that uh maybe enough isn't being done, but I think it's important that you know, we do say the things that are happening uh you know, the concerns that you're bringing uh the notes are being taken and these individuals are are doing that. Uh Mr. Manager,

um Mr. Mayor, Council Chief, uh I just wanted to note the meeting with uh DOT um that we had recently was directly as a result of mayor and council requests. Um we're setting up structured meetings. We're going to break it up because there's absolute ongoing work that staff does within respective departments, Mr. Lopez, uh chief community development and others. But then we want to have uh quarterly meetings where we have invitations to mayor and counsel to be part of the discussions. Um uh Commissioner Garcia was uh present at the discussion uh uh based on the invitation from Chairman Adams. Um, but we're going to have structured invitations for mayor and council to participate in those quarterly discussions as we talk about roads and other pertinent areas that work directly within MD DOT. So, um, I want to extend an open invitation to mayor and council to also let me know those key priority areas that you have. Uh, a lot of the interest that's come relative to meetings has come from council coming to me expressing specific interest in a specific area and then we're able to make sure that the council's uh invited to those specific areas of interest that each of you may have or want uh to follow up on. So, it's both ways. It's you telling me exactly what specific areas you want interested and then it's us giving you dates and times of other meetings that we're setting up as structured ongoing meetings between DOT and other entities that we work with as a municipality. That's all I wanted to add. Mr. Mayor, if

I could just add to the last portion of that, especially with that road coming, upcoming road project. Um, there is some significant changes that councelor Martinez could probably get more in depth on uh that we saw last night to include a roundabout at Grand and Mills if that that's one of the options. Also, widening the the roadways, uh, taking away the shoulder parking. So there there's significant changes that would be happening to that section of roadway that I think the input from the the citizens and council is going to be huge and important on that especially uh I know we talked about the the roundabout options. There's three options that are going forward in the roundabouts one of them. So it's something that's a significant change to to the community. So thank you chief. Thank you.

Mr. Moving on to our next item is our presentations not to exceed 10 to 15 minutes. Our first presentation is by Nicole Uruchia. She's our interim director of the San Miguel Early Childhood Coalition. She's speaking on their mission and strategic plan and proposed a formal partnership with the coalition. Also speaking on outdoor spaces around the city. We're going to need you to Welcome.

Hi, good evening. Thank you so much for giving me some time to speak tonight. My name is Nicole. I'm the interim coordinator of the San Miguel County Early Childhood Coalition. and I will be talking to you tonight a little bit to introduce myself, to introduce the coalition, our mission, our vision, um to introduce you to some data for data informed futures project and to continue to strengthen our partnership with the city of Las Vegas and then lastly to have a brief discussion on the Gyenas River Park. Uh today, uh my daughter Mina is joining me, my husband Reyes, my parents, and my infant Emma, who had to step out. Um Mina, how old are you?

Four. And when's your birthday? In September.

In September. By that time, 80% of Mina's brain development will be complete. After that, it's just trimming and pruning of neuronal connections until adulthood. Um, this is what makes my passion for early childhood population um, so intense because by the time Mina was conceived to now, her trajectory is set. And that's where the coalition comes in. The coalition has a mission for early childhood. We envision a resilient community that builds on cultural and historical strengths through investment in families and promoting equitable, diverse, healthy, safe, and empowering environments for our children. Our mission is to promote access to highquality, culturally responsive care and education for families of children 0 to 5. We expand and align existing services to enhance early childhood education, infant and toddler mental health, social and emotional well-being, healthy growth and development, family engagement and empowerment, community resources, and supporting early childhood professionals. Some of our work uh you may be familiar with is accompanying the city uh in fi at Friday's alresco our monthly noes familia our monthly leadership and co and general coalition meetings where we highlight local resources and pictured here is one of our car seat clinics where we distribute car seats to community members no question no questions asks asked excuse me um a lot of our work so far has been informed by a community needs assessment that was completed in 2022. But what I'm really looking forward to is our work yet to be done. We have a

$100,000 grant from the New Mexico Early Childhood and Education Department. This department funds our coalition, but they're working really hard on advancing early childhood throughout the entire state. They partnered with the University of California, Los Angeles um to complete a project called data informed futures. And this project is informed by one of these instruments called the early development instrument. Um and I'm sorry, there's a typo. It says index, but it's instrument. This is a tool, a validated tool that is completed by kindergarten teachers and it measures early childhood development and school readiness across five different domains. They observe behaviors of their cl the kids in cl their classroom uh related to physical health and well-being and an example could be like sustaining energy throughout the day. Emotional maturity. An example would be paying attention to directions. social competence such as following rules and instructions, language and cognitive development, which includes attaching sounds to some letters, and communication skills and general knowledge, for example, taking part in imaginative play. There's many behaviors and subcategories to this instrument. Um, kiddos are scored and their performance is plotted on a curve and their performance is compared on percentiles. Those who perform within the 25th to 100th percentile are on track. They're doing well. Those who perform within the 10th to 25th percentile are at risk. They need to be followed really closely in their development. May need some intervention. Those in the 0 to 10

percentile are called vulnerable. They are vulnerable to adverse outcomes now and later in life and we need to intervene now. This map shows the kiddos who performed 0 to 10th percentile. They calculated the percentage of those children who live in each of the neighborhoods in Las Vegas and the county. The darkest green is the areas of the town with the most percentage of children who are vulnerable. So this includes a lot of ward three, ward four a little bit um wards one and two doing a little bit better. So this is the map overall performance and then the map is also um mapped for each domain. So you can see that the same area is vulnerable across each domain except for communication and general knowledge. Good news, San Miguel County doesn't uh and Las Vegas doesn't fare too much worse than the state overall. San Miguel County performs at about 27.6 of the population are vulnerable versus 26.7 of the kiddos in the state. However, that's still pretty alarming. One in four of the Las Vegas children are vulnerable to an adverse outcome later on. Can you please u for time sake uh I won't go too much into race, but data is also collected on race and divided that way as well. So, what's going on? The US census collected some survey data in 20 last in 2020 um on 11 different

indicators. These indicators include um domains such as social, economic, educational and wealth. And these are um data around percentage of disconnected youth meaning they're not in school or working. Families who are living in poverty, families on public assistance, families who are from a single parent household, which we know is a predictor of adverse outcomes. The areas in gray show higher vulnerability. This is a map of the neighborhood uh the national neighborhood equity index overall with all of these combined. Mina is showing you a little bit here of the dark area um which shows at least three indicators are barriers for families. The darkest red is six or more indicators. Um I'm sorry, darker purple. So luckily, Las Vegas doesn't have any families experiencing more than three to four equity barriers, but it's still pretty alarming that a lot of the town uh does experience some some barriers. The EDI and then NNEI are related. We would expect the families with more barriers for their children to perform worse on the EDI. In fact, families with a high number of barriers are 84% more likely to have a vulnerable score on the EDI, especially in language and cognitive development, but it's not all bad news, right? Um, can you change the map, please? When we combine NEI data and EDI data, we can look at patterns for resilience. uh resilience shows areas that are doing

well. So we want to know what areas are doing well, how can we replicate what they are doing in other areas and what areas are not doing well and where do we need to spend our time and our resources to intervene when kiddos who performed as a vulnerable score on the EDI have an expected number of barriers. Um I'm sorry, let me rephrase that. When there are a lot of barriers, we would expect kids to perform low on the EDI. When they perform as expected, that's in gray in the gray area. This could also mean they have a low number of barriers and they perform well. When they have a lot of barriers but perform well or better than expected, we call that positive devian. And those areas are shown in blue. when they have a certain amount of barriers and they perform worse than expected, we call that negative devian. And those areas are shown shown in orange and red. So you can see, please excuse honey. You can see that the same area that's very vulnerable on some of the EDIs is actually has a negative deviance. These kiddos are performing worse than expected. Some a lot of award three, some of ward four. And just for context, this is Mills Mills Avenue. The plaza is about right here, I25, Grand Avenue. So, you can see that this is an area that we really got to focus some time in intervention. Those are the kiddos who are most vulnerable. So, I'm here tonight to say, let's partner up. Let's decrease the number of barriers that families are encountering. Let's support early development and school

readiness and let's build resilience in our community. The coalition very much values the partnership that the city and the department so far have played in the coalition's requests for spaces um and involvement in our efforts. We appreciate the recent efforts for local trails and parks. There's still some barriers though that families are mentioning. Some of these barriers include um a lack of access to toddler and infant equipment in local parks. Um as far as physical activities, we need more child early childhood daycarees, a high quality program, a high quality summer program, affordable housing for families. And um in order to address some of these, we did a survey last year of the Guyenas River Park. And I will transition now to that discussion because it is a very underutilized asset in this community that um we think we could focus some time and effort. So you may or may not have seen this video, but I think it's perfect for highlighting. See, looks like some technical difficulties. It's not playing for us. Um, I'll summarize. The video highlights that the Hermits Peak Watershed Alliance uh along with has coordinated an effort back in 2016 and we have director Leah Netson here with us tonight. Um, hundreds of hours, community voices, local organizations, thousands of dollars were dedicated to some very elaborate plans to revive the river ecosystem and to make the surrounding space around the Guyana

River and the park uh and the trails safe, accessible, and engaging for families. This work was halted in uh in 2020 due to CO 19 and then never progressed because of the fires and the flooding and the watershed damage. However, the coalition, the Hermit Speak Watershed Alliance, and other local organizations like the Sanuelal County Health and Community uh family and community health council, uh Las Vegas First, um the Las Vegas Community Foundation, New Mexico Highlands University, Luna, we're all ready to rally again to see this project forward. The plans still exist. All they need is a little bit of review and a little bit of budgeting um adjustments due to inflation. Uh but we really think that this is an asset that runs through some of these vulnerable areas that families can access. We can put um little free libraries. There's plans for playgrounds that include toddler and infant equipment. um natural classrooms, outdoor classrooms, amphitheaters, lots of really amazing um possibilities for the river trail that families can use to improve literacy and development and to teach kiddos history, culture, and enjoy our environment. Um I just ask that the city consider reconvening the friends of the Guyenas River Park Committee so that we can facilitate this work and see it through. With that, I will end. Um, I realized I didn't give my full introduction. I am a Las Vegas native. I graduated from uh Robertson High School in 2009, moved to Albuquerque to do my schooling. I'll graduate in May with my medical doctorate and masters in public health. It's my dream to return home as a full uh spectrum family medicine physician

and pretty close to doing that. So, uh, here's Mina enjoying the river walk. Last fall, we ate some Olivia's burritos and then went to the river and she created a bark boat, uh, next to this J um, J Hook vein that was installed by the the Watershed Alliance. Um, the boat sank, but hopefully next time we'll make it work. Huh. Thank you so much for your time and I'll take any questions. Thank you. And uh typically, you know, this is presentations, we don't allow comments, but if it's okay with the rest of the council, uh you know, councelor Casey, you wanted to make a comment.

Yeah, I do. Mrs. Surutia, that was an excellent excellent presentation. Thank you so much. and um I represent Ward 3 and I I want you to know and please report to um the early development uh people that uh new playground equipment uh for small children and uh children up to ages I believe 12 is going to be installed and should be ready for use by April. So I'm very happy about that. The other thing that I wanted to say is that um I chaired the San Miguel Family and Community Health Council for 21 years and um after all those years I uh stepped away and um I I regretted a little bit. It was a lot of work and uh I really thought felt like somebody else should step in after me being there for such a long time. But I commend you on what you're doing. I think it's wonderful. Uh Macy, who was your predecessor, was a member of the uh uh North Northern um um literacy council and I was a member of that and she was a member of that and so she would keep us up on what was going on. And so I'm very happy because I didn't know who had taken over and I'm very happy that you're here. My question to the city manager and to the mayor uh is to ask if uh we can incorporate some of this information that Mrs. Zurutia has brought before us because I think it's really essential especially the early development instrument that's used and the astounding numbers of children that are vulnerable. 27% may not seem like a

lot but it really is. you and that kind of scares me. And it scares me even more that the concentration of that is in ward three and ward four. And um I can kind of picture in my own mind where those children are located in those uh two wards. And so I would like to see this information included in the city's um master plan so that it's a five-year master plan. It's reviewed every 5 years. And if we can have this information to put in there so that other people are aware and maybe uh we can start moving in a different direction so that we can make those children less vulnerable and more um you know be school ready and those kinds of things that are necessary to have a successful uh educa start an education life for them. So that's what I would like to see. So um Mr. Mayor, city manager, if you could uh work with the people who are preparing the five-year plan and include this and I'm sure that Mrs. Zutia would be happy to share this information with them also.

Happy to develop a report for that

and and Mr. Manager and I want to you know I'll call Mr. Marcus into this cuz he's the one that's leading that master plan and it's important I think that you know that you all are here and I know there's been conversation not only now but you know previous previous months that the city needs to follow the 2016 uh master plan but we're right in the middle right now of the 2026 master plan. So I don't know about some individuals but I want to you know move forward and not look backwards at what we have right so it's important and I think Mr. Manager and Mr. Marcus know about uh they're they're really involving everybody because I think the last master plan in 2020. Uh I don't know if an enough effort was made to bring in everybody from the whole community. Uh so you know we're really and I don't know Mr. Manager if you want to say something or Mr. Marcus kind of where they're at with the public the community input. You know

I defer to Mr. Marcus. I would like this presentation but I think it's important since they're here and they're probably watching individuals. Go ahead.

First mayor council and Mr. City Manager. Uh so we do we do have a um the master plan uh um people coming down on March 9th I believe Mr. Zunker yes March 9th we'll be having a a big community meeting over at the recreation department. Uh we're going to try to get as many people as we can over there. Uh we will get with uh with our PI uh PIO and get that out to the public here. We just had a couple of of things to just tie up uh to make sure that we're solidified on there. And we definitely we want to have all these groups and uh get their input. We are going to get some uh some surveys together so we can see what the community is wanting best. I I know the big ones that are going to be hitting us are water and and streets and but but we also have other things that we got to look at. This is a this is a major one. I think it's something that we'll do some big consideration and and we'll definitely try to involve uh her in any which way we can.

Thank you, Mr. Mr. Mayor. Mr. manager, uh, Mayor, uh, Councilwoman Casey, and the full council, I I absolutely, uh, will stay active in the communications. I'd like to learn more, uh, spend a lot of time myself, uh, maternal and child health, um, uh, in some of my previous work. So, I look forward to learning more and for sure incorporating it within our master plan and other planning efforts that we do as a city to to integrate your work with our work. Thank you so much. and then we'll move on to the next presentation.

Thank you, Nicole. Uh, we got a master plan for Rodriguez Park and Rodriguez Park is one of the biggest items that I seen that we're working with once we finish that park there. There's going to be a lot of recreation for our kids. A lot. who might have some problems getting the people to take care of it or to not take care of it to get any baseball while we have baseball teams. Yeah. We got football in there. You know, we got soccer in there. this master plan for Rodriguez is going to be one of the biggest things for the city of Las Vegas and and and our council and our city managers and whoever's involved with it is we're planning on that because you know we that's what we need for a small town and it's people like you and that shows us what we need what we need to do and and and Rodriguez is one of the biggest it's it's one of the prettiest places that we can do that now and it's going to take some time and and uh we'll just work on to really get it done. Thank you.

Thank you so much. We very much appreciate that time and that work. Dina has some presence for you. Thank you. And to give everybody an opportunity, I know Council Martinez, Councilman, I just want to say thank you. I appreciate the information. It's wellreceived and I uh commend you on on putting this all together. Thank you. Of course. Thank you so much and thank you for your time.

I I will just add this. the majority of this council, including even our attorney and we have one of our members of our finance committee out there, including their city manager and of course, you know, Dr. Barbara Casey. A lot of us have were wholeheartedly involved in in schools at one point in our life and we see that need that needs to make progress more moving forward in our community. So, it's something that we we will hold dear to our, you know, and any decision making moving forward. Definitely.

Thank you so much. The children of our community need you and and look forward to that. Thank you so much. You want to go get some? Let's go. I know there

you can give them to your department. Thank you ma'am. Thank you for doing that work. Thank you. Awesome. Thank you. I think we'll have to go through the sizes cuz I know I'm in a fitness challenge, but I don't know if I'll fit into this. This was my size. Have you tried a large? Okay. Uh, meanwhile, I know we have our next presentation. I don't know if we have them online yet. Hey, mayor. Hold on. So, Miss Cassandra,

Mr. Premier, our final presentation is by, I believe, Martha Vera with Sister Cities International. And we also have Peter.

And I'll go ahead and uh start this off. I know this is something I've been working with Peter probably about a year and a half. Uh and I know in order for the sister cities, in order for it to be successful, you have to get support of Highlands University. I' spoken I know counselor Casey a while here, probably about a year ago. And then finally, we got Highlands on board. And then we have a uh gentleman now that uh you know works for Highlands and we have the full support from Highlands. So I wanted to you know bring this to the governing body. Uh Mr. Peter if you don't mind uh you know kind of briefing what Sister Cities is and uh I know that uh you know internally there's a uh basically a fee that we be paying to enter into Sister Cities which it's minimal. I spoke with finance and the city manager and it's uh you know something that we didn't have to come before council but I wanted I thought it was important that the community knows what we're trying to do here and uh so go ahead Mr. uh Peter and uh

thank you. Thank you guys.

Thank you again mayor. Um and thank you again council. Um I know these these meetings can can go on long so we'll keep them brief. Um my name again is Peter Schwarzbine. I'm the former mayor promporia of El Paso, Texas and a two-term city councilman uh down the river there in El Paso. So, um very wonderful to uh to see you guys doing this. I have a small presentation. I'm the former national chairman of Sister Cities International, having served on the national board from 2016 um and then as national chairman from 2022 to 2024. So, um Sister Cities is a really great organization. Um, I'm going to uh share over here. Let me just know if y'all can see this. Can y'all see the presentation real quick?

Yes, sir.

Okay, great. So, Sister Cities International is one of the oldest and largest citizen diplomacy nonprofits in the world. It was founded by Dwight Eisenhower in 1956. Um, in the middle of the Cold War, um, Eisenhower was looking for a way to avoid World War II. And at a time where countries weren't talking to each other, he felt that, um, city-to-city relationship, people-to-people exchanges would be a way to encourage global peace and prosperity. And so, Sister Cities International was created on September 11th, 1956, originally with a handful of US and German and Japanese sister cities. Um again the mission of sister cities is to promote pe pe pe pe pe pe pe pe pe pe pe pe pe pe pe pe pe pe pe pe pe pe pe pe pe pe pe pe pe pe pe pe pe pe pe pe pe pe pe pe peace through mutual respect understanding and one cooperation one individual and one community at a time and what started as a handful of German and Japanese and US cities has now bloomed and blossomed to over 1200 cities across 120 countries across the world with over 400 member cities um in our sister cities international network and so what is a sister city organization you can think of this as grassroots diplomacy is subnational diplomacy, city-tocity exchanges. Um, at times where we have we can see the challenges in our world, this is again a way an opportunity for two cities to be able to connect through a very v variety of different ways. Um, the ways that those cities connect are ultimately up to themselves, but we have generally seen um sister city groupings around a couple different ways. through arts and cultural exchange, through youth and educational exchange, through trade and economic development, and through municipal and technical exchanges. Um, how do these partnerships begin? There's a variety of a different ways. Um, some of them are marrow relationships, other areas communities. For example, San Jose, California has a

sister city relationship with Dublin, Ireland. Why is that? because there was a couple of um Irishameans who felt very strongly about celebrating their heritage as both Irish and Americans and created a sister city relationship. Um other cities have used organizational partners for example um universities um I know for example with um there is a strong partnership with the University of New Mexico um and uh sister city in Israel and that was created through uh a variety of community and technical exchanges there historical connections Santa Fe me Santa Fe New Mexico has a sister city with Santa Fe Spain um and we've seen a lot of cities within the southwest um utilize their historic uh relationships with Spain to create sister city relationships. Also, we've seen cities uh look at targeting um based upon um uh uh based upon um economic supply chains. Uh another example is Chihuahua City and Albuquerque uh relating to the aerospace industry. Also with um El Paso, we've signed a sister city agreement with Paris uh Quaila in Mexico. Uh because Paras is one of is the largest um and oldest it's the oldest um oldest uh gosh um oldest wine distillery um in the Americas and a lot of their um bottling a lot of their product is going through Auades and El Paso. So we shared and and strengthened that relationship through a sister city agreement. How do partnerships begin? Um it often starts with a formal with a general uh a general inquiry. Um oftent times membership with sister cities international gives additional tools for

cities to explore other sister cities. We keep a a database and Martha Ver will talk about this a little later in the presentation about cities that are looking for other sister cities in different countries and also in different parts of the America in uh the United States as well. Ultimately, a sister city agreement is formalized between two mayors or the highest appointed elected officials. And those agreements, sister cities international, if requested, can help come up with templates, but often times those are created by both of the cities. And they can be as formal and specific or as general as the two cities want. Who can be part of a sister cities program? Anyone. This is not um sister city programs at its heart are volunteer-driven. This is really grassroots diplomacy. So our best sister city programs are a mix between city support with a strong volunteer and community base. Right? So thinking about professors, universities, other religious groups, um artists and musicians, high schools, you name it. Those are the things that make these history relationships run. Um, the mayor was spot on in in having Highland University as a strong partner because those kind of institutions are the kind of bedrock that keeps these sister city programs flowing uh year after year regardless of who might be mayor or city council at the time. Um, as a general cost the mayor talked about it for a city like uh the size of Las Vegas, you're looking at about a $440 annual fee for a city between 10,000 to 25,000. And with that we again help to uh help with a number of different ways. Again helping them with governance and policy making sure that you know our sister city program we have a number of volunteer networks. We have volunteer state representatives, state representatives as well as country representatives who have seen it all when it comes towards citizen diplomacy

and oftent times are there as a resource for a city when they're coming on board to be able to help them in developing out and thinking about how to create their sister city program. Um Martha, I don't know if you'd like to talk a little bit more at this point.

Hi there. Um hello everyone. I'm Martha Vera, honorary council of Spain and a country representative for Spain um for sister cities international and I wanted to let you know that membership has many benefits. Uh first of all uh there are a number of services and resources that you can use discounts for the members um for our summits um as well as you know having a network of cities that can actually help you make your city even better.

And just to to point this out, some of the cities that we have, we have an active um database of international cities that are looking for American cities to join with. Um and with that, that is our presentation that we have here. Um we want to thank again the mayor for for giving us the opportunity for presenting here. And you know, again, um, at a time where we see, uh, cities and countries, uh, engaged and involved in a variety of different ways, a sister city program is a really great way to celebrate the ways that our differences bring us together. It's a really great opportunity for the youth of a country to show that no matter how small their city is, we can we can think globally and act locally. And anytime we give an opportunity uh for the next generation to see the value in their own selves, in their own communities, and see how we're all connected in this world, uh the better off we all are by having that kind of global perspective about our own local uh opportunities and uniqueness.

Thank you, Peter. And we also do have the uh president of our Luna Community College here in the audience. Uh, I know I hadn't had an opportunity to talk to her, but I'm I'm I'm sure that, you know, they're in the same uh uh they agree, you know, I think this would be a benefit. Uh, I mean, the way I saw it, you know, when when presented to me, and again, I know I met you, uh, and, uh, Mayor Alex Dum, the mayor of North Miami, Florida, and you, he was advocating, you know, I know his communities, uh, has many sister cities, not only, you know, in the US, but, uh, you know, around the whole world, and it just s, you know, the opportunities that they were able to do, uh, economic, you know, with economic development, student exchanges makes it a little a lot a lot simpler. I mean, to me, it was like a no-brainer. Uh, so, uh, I don't know if the council had any questions, uh, you know, if you guys had anything or any, uh, to ask Peter or or Martha,

Mr. Pacheco, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh, Peter, Martha, thank you so much for the for the information. Uh, I just want to say I fully support this program. I think we have some great opportunities uh, uh, ahead of us. uh we've put some of this leg work in and and I believe that uh we can have a a a strong partnership with uh with individuals that are coming into Las Vegas and living here uh and still have ties to their uh home uh area. So I think there's there's some good possibilities uh for us moving forward. Mr. Mayor, excellent.

I I just wanted to mention does a sister city the size of Las Vegas have has to be does it have to be tied to a city that would be of the same size and so forth?

No. No, not at No, not at all. um you know what what what we see is is cities increasingly are looking at these sister city programs as an opportunity for looking at at um investment and economic development in terms of supply chains and workforce development. So um a lot of cities are looking at it less about are we the similar size of the city more so in we're trying to develop this kind of industry or we have this kind of program in our university what kind of exchange could we do to sort of strengthen that and I think that Las Vegas in particular you guys are are fortunate in that you have a very strong statewide program uh you have a former chairperson uh uh Carol Robertson Lopez who's based in Santa Fe our current treasurer and board member Peter Ives is the former mayor prom of Santa Fe, New Mexico and he sits on our board as well and you have a very engaged and active Albuquerque program in addition to other cities there as well. So you have a lot of resources to lean in on there especially northern New Mexico um to sort of help in terms of really building out your program and thinking about who would make sense to to join as a sister city with Las Vegas. So the information that was on this packet uh those other cities that are involved in this packet, you've got several cities in the of course the US and then international cities as well.

Yeah. Are these cities have applied for sister uh to be a sister city and we would normally pick from these or

it it these are we have like a sort of membership database. So these are cities that have reached out to us and say we're interested in a in a US city that's focused on say agriculture that is 100,000 population. It doesn't mean you have to join that. It really comes up to both of the cities themselves making that decision. If you yourself or the mayor were interested in exploring say a sister city in Jamaica, that would be something that you know we could help to identify. But it's also something that the city itself could could could reach in on. We as a national as a national organization do not tell um local cities who they should be sister cities with. If we hear of something, we can share that and we're also there as a resource. So if if for example, Lasus said they want Las Vegas wanted to join look at a Spanish city, um Martha might be able to help as the Spanish uh country representative. um she could reach out to the to the embassy to see if they've heard of anything or she might know of something. Um we as a national organization can help with templates for creating what that sister city agreement could look like or reaching out to other cities that might already have something that would fit with y'all. Thank you very much. Big benefit to I believe both cities and you know whomever they might be and I think it would be something good to work on you know with you guys in the future. Definitely.

We're here to help. So, if you need anything, um you're not alone. And there are also country reps for every other country out there. So, and as you know, Peter um is the country rep for Israel as well. So, you can be sister cities with anyone you want. Thank you, Peter. And thank you, Martha. Thank you. I'm glad I was finally able to get you on here and uh you'll you'll be in contact probably with the manager or or somebody from the staff to to get this this going.

Absolutely. I want to thank I want to thank all of y'all for your service to your community. It's it's it's truly a thankless job. Um but the work that y'all are doing is absolutely important. So, thank you again for your service to to your community.

Thank you. Thank you. Byebye. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Moving on to our next item is going to be our uh business item number one. Conduct a public hearing and adopt ordinance number 259 to amend the municipal code of the city of Las Vegas chapter 450 thereof entitled zoning to add a new section entitled treatment facilities, halfway houses, community residential program facilities to provide for zoning regulations and exemptions. At this time, I'll entertain a motion to enter public hearing. I make a motion to enter public hearing. A motion by Councilman Pacheco. Do I have a second?

Second. Second by Councilman Martinez. Roll call. Councelor Lei. Yes. Councelor Pacheco. Yes. Councelor Casey. Yes. Councelor Martinez. Yes. I have a motion by councelor PCO. A second by councelor Martinez. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Motion carries. If I can have any of those that'll be speaking on this issue to please stand, raise your right hand so you can be sworn in under the penalties of perjury. Do you swear that your testimony tonight whole truth and nothing but the truth? I do. Thank you. Cassandra, did you have a list of how to Okay. Thank you.

I'll go ahead and um I don't know if you want to speak to it first or Okay. The first person is um Mr. Mark size and as you come just for the record uh just uh make sure that the mic is red and then just state your name. I know she's calling you but just to

handheld before you start the clock. Uh the presentation software must have changed. They're doing a great job with that presentation software. used to be pretty edgy, but I think that they've done a great job the way that it looks now. So, now you can start the clock. I'm here to talk about uh proposed ordinance 259 because I am looking at this from strictly a ministerial and an experiential type of uh attitude that I've had over the years. Um, we have been involved off and on for in my ministry and the ministry I come from in Espanola for well over 35 years, maybe closer to 40 years in the um rehab. The way that it's written there, there's other names that have been put in. Every time that I look at this ordinance, I've been looking at this ordinance since the beginning. This is probably the fourth or the fifth time that I've been here in a public setting talking about ordinance 259. And every time that I look at it, every time that I read it, every time that I print it, every time that I talk with anybody about it, all I see is no, no, no. I do not have any future plans right now of opening up a rehab center. But I look at it from strictly a ministerial and from my experience. I believe that the Christian, the gospel is uh closer to the full circle of bringing a person out of whatever their addiction is, whatever their uh big situation is that needs to be done because I've seen it done and I've even seen it in my own life over the years. So, I'm here to say is is that I continue to read this and I say, "Okay, well, they say yes, but then no, and then we'll do you a conditional use

permit and then a conditional use permit is so restrictive." And I do not see uh maybe on the business side, I don't see anybody trying to come into town to set up any type of uh rehab centers or anything like that. But as churches and I've talked to other pastors, talked to other leaders in town about this and I cannot see why we're even we we're trying to in my estimation we are trying to solve a problem that we don't have. We don't have a lot of rehab centers. How many rehab centers do we have? How many people are trying to get in? How many problems have we had with rehab centers? I don't see any. Maybe I don't know enough about it, but I think that what we're trying to do is we're trying to solve a problem that we don't have in Las Vegas. And I would love to see uh further talk about this before that you would enact it because I would hate to see my city have to go through legal ramifications and maybe even to the point of us losing money as a city over it. Uh, in closing, uh, I think that we need to think about this, we need to, uh, we've talked about it a little bit and I hope that when we do it is that we do it thinking of not only just maybe on the big scope, but from the religious because once again, it's the gospel

that I believe in collaboration with other situations that can close the circle. And I'm all about the gospel and I'm about helping. In my experience, it's never been about money. It we we funded our own situation and we continue to do so. So, thank you for your time. Thank you. Did you one more thing? Uh my form of rehab and Mr. Luhan that's sitting next to me is the golf course. So, thank you very much for helping out with the golf course, okay? Because I I need that every once in a while. doing a good job bringing that picture with it. I can buy my ball. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, sir.

You You might You might find a few of mine in there. All right. Next, Mr. Mayor. Next, we have Rebecca Maldonado. Moore. I know a few people I need to put.

That's okay. We don't need that one. I'm recovering from a cold and my voice is kind of crackly. Okay. Thank you so much for allowing me this time, chairman and counselors and um I am here to speak about city ordinance 259 as well. I'm the chair of the Samaritan House Board. I'm an ally of Crossroads and their integrative health and recovery solutions. And I'm a professor of social work at New Mexico Highlands University. I've taught substance abuse courses, human behavior, crisis intervention courses, and macro practice. And I believe we are all our brother's keepers. I'm here to tonight with respect to the zoning regulations because of its impact on future treatment facilities, halfway houses, the uh residential care programs and shelters. And my primary concerns about restricting these nonprofit businesses are centered on the individual, the family, and the larger community that currently currently utilize all of these services. It's really about the clients, the guests, and the patients accessing these services who are generally individuals with substance use disorders, mental and behavioral health disorders, co-occurring disorders, and more likely to be homeless. The services include from the shelter homes perspective food and clothing distribution, showers, laundry, um screening and referrals, literacy classes, um shelters of course, and referrals to existing treatment programs in the area. Samaritan House has a very strong relationship with Crossroads who provides um exceptional evidence-based

client- centered holistic community services. They address all of those areas I've previously mentioned. They especially address women's transitional housing and treatment and they're the only program or facility in the immediate county areas. Our combined services impact hundreds of individuals and families on a monthly basis. My understanding of this proposed ordinance is that it will restrict services and operations for shelters and the other organizations that may not meet the requirements. Many of these are um organizations are indeed nonprofits with limited or restricted funding sources and these restrictions will increase the visibility of individuals who are homeless or in need of mental health and behavioral health services. Part of this very complex situation should address the quality of life of all citizens as well as those who are already stigmatized in our larger community. Please reconsider the needs of the most marginalized people of Las Vegas and this or how this ordinance will impact them. All of these individuals and organizations are our brothers and sisters. that they are our neighbors who depend on the range of the services that we provide and that the um

minutes Mr. Mayor and that I just want to close by saying thank you for listening to me. Thank you. And I do have some information for distribution. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Moving on to our next person is Miss Corina Llo Henry. I'm not accustomed to there being a time limitation and public hearings. I guess maybe is that a new thing,

Mr. Mayor? It's at the discretion of the chair, especially if there was going to be multiple individuals speaking. Certainly, is that your discretion? We've always had public input and I guess we never really Yeah. I was just about to state over the at least over my time with the city there's been a time limitation for testimony.

Okay. So I'll get I mean if you had any miss more if you had anything else to say I'll go ahead and allow that. Uh I'm used to the public the reg the regular public input but if you needed more to more time to say anything I could give you some more time if you I don't know if you wanted more time or you're good. Okay. Same thing with Pastor Cy. Did you want to say anything else or how much time do you have? Yeah. Uh yeah, I think just you know for the sake of business I mean I mean we want to you know make sure that you guys say what you have to say. I said over the time that I've been in here is pretty much

Okay. Thank you.

Well, thank you Karina Llo Henry. Um, and just to be uh clear, I'm here as a constituent, as a resident, uh, taxpayer property owner. I try to be a good neighbor. Um, and I aspire to love my neighbors. And, um, I want my neighbors to get the treatment that they need in the most convenient manner that they can. And I too am worried that this um that this ordinance 259 is um discriminatory and um stigmatizing. So, because I guess the time is limited, I will just state that April 12th of last year, I was walking my dogs in my neighborhood and I came upon a um cease and desist order citing um chapter 160-7 license required um on the side of one of my neighbors homes. I thought um that um tended to be a stigmatizing thing. So I would like to move that into the record. That's a photograph that I took. Um, also taped to the same residence was resolution 24-38, a moratorium prohibiting the approving of placement and licensing of any drug rehab and/or training centers, residential re-entry centers, homes, halfway houses, boarding houses, group homes, communal homes, assisted living, and community adult residences to ensure the city's sustainable and efficient group growth. And um it has a couple of purposes for which the the moratorum was originally enacted. Um and including um a directive to city staff and attorney to consider how any health safety issues that could be addressed. any traffic volume, routing of traffic, parking issues, issues with police, fire protection, overall density in areas of

the city, setback related issues between single family, residential properties and commercial properties, etc. So, I would also like to have that and that again was taped to my neighbor's doors. I'd like to have that entered into the record in this case. Um, and I would like for um the council to inquire of any of your other witnesses if any of those things were done and what kinds of findings on those issues like traffic etc. because I like the other speaker um feel like this is um looking for it's not clear what the problem is that is meant to be addressed. Um I would like to move that in as well. Um because the original moratorum adjusted a business lensure requirement. Um and yet the the the residence that I saw that on was quite clearly a residence. And in fact one person who was like yeah what are you looking at? Yeah that thing said yeah I live here. So um so to me I think that there's there's a little bit of a of a broad aim. The other issues here that I see is that I think that this um ordinance itself um as a zoning ordinance which is what it has turned out to be from originally regulating businesses. And I will say that um uh January 8th, 2025 was when that moratorum was originally brought in. And it sounded like the discussion from my reading of the minutes from that meeting, the discussion was around um boarding home regulations that have been adopted in um by the state of New Mexico, by the health department. And I think that's a great idea to coordinate um

registration or lensure requirements that are in chapter 160 in our code with keeping tabs. Where are these places? Are they overly dense in one area? Um are they complying with state regulations or um are they exempt from those state regulations? Um but that's not what this does. And in fact, this is very muddy and this is where it comes in. Like I said, I'm not here in a representative capacity, but I am a licensed attorney and I would be absolutely at a loss. Some prospective hypothetical client comes to me, whether they are a group of people living together in a home or whether they are a health care provider or whether they are a small business owner with a particular or a church, I would have a very difficult time trying to advise them, here's how you can be in compliance here. Um and that's because of what I see to be conflicting and circular definitions in the first section 157. Um things like excluding standard and typical the word typical and typically appears like three or four times throughout this and I don't know what that means because what is it's it's too gray of a standard. It's too malleable and it leaves too much discretion. One of the ways to get stuck in an arbitrary and capriccious action is to have mushy ordinances that give staff too much too much discretion or you know not enough guidance. Um, I did, uh, through a, um, neighbor of mine request some background on the ordinances from other jurisdictions that were looked at because that has come up in a couple of

things and I noticed um that there were that Rio Rancho is um, regulating it as a business. It's not part of their zoning zoning laws. We seem to have taken some of the definitions in from the Rio Rancho ordinance. Um, and that has caused some grammatical errors. At the bottom of page one and into the red portion, you um the community residential programs do not include and it's discussing nursing care, skilled nursing care or persons currently in the custody of. So you're jumping from defining the facilities to defining the persons who might be using those facilities. Um and then by the end of that sentence it goes back to such services. So um a lot of illustrative languages typically such as etc in their um full-time programmatic supervision. I think that's would be up for debate what that means. Um, and again in the 158 section it says due to the potential for incompatibility with the primary residential character and density and you're calling that a prohibited use. So primarily these at least the halfway houses by the definitions in the community residential program facilities are residential uses and so they should be compatible in residential zones. um if there was any incompatibility found again I'd ask you to please ask any witnesses that you have here today what were those findings um and so it is generally prohibited but a conditional use permit can be applied for basically that tells me that we are going to institutionalize this discriminatory

stig stigmatization of of people's treatment choices um or other aspect ects of their um where they reside where they choose to reside. Uh um I'll just skip forward to um section of the subsection 158 section 4 operational plan operational standards. I very much doubt that the city has um currently the staffing expertise to make those determinations um and should rely on the department of health. Um, oddly then, you are allowing those residential uses um with this ordinance in the commercial zones, which again would seem incompatible. I think you're trying to casting your net way too broad with the LA with the broad treatment facilities. if it was a narrower

community um residential program type place um that would make a lot more sense to me. Um I would like to just the um again offer into evidence um the Rio Rancho because I know that that was looked at. The Rio Rancho ordinance again regulates businesses. It seems to dovetail even though it was written before the 2019 um regulation amendments in the healthc care facilities and supervision of boarding homes which I do need a comprehensive we do need regulation for. Um but it very very significantly um um allows for um reasonable accommodations. It has a process within it to comply with the Fair Housing Act. Um, as well, it's a very clear checklist. And if you check off that list, it leaves no discretion to city staff. And it it's permissive. It says you may do this in residential areas. So, it doesn't put you through the club. So, I would like to enter that into residence. Um the other the other um ordinance that was part of that IRA um received by Mr. Leeer was um in Albuquerque ordinance 14-16-3-12 and that is community residential program regulations. that is a 1987 um it was

I think the ordinance number 41-1987 it was codified what I just told you but it has been repealed for a very long time so that was drafted before the fair housing act that is currently in effect and it has um some problems but again even it did not prohibit these places in residential zones. Um the current Albuquerque ordinance has um does define community residential facilities. Has two sizes of them, large ones and small ones. Those are um the small ones are permitted across residential and mixed use areas. The large ones are permitted across multifamily housing and um mixed use. those. Um the definition of community residential facilities um includes um a facility that is designated to provide a residence and services for persons who need personal assistance services, personal care andor protective care and who meet the definition of handicapped person or are protected against housing discrimination under the federal fair fair housing act amendment. of 1998 and court decisions interpreting that act. Um, and then it has it excludes nursing care and those kinds of other facilities and breaks down what is a small one and what is a large one, but it very specifically references that that people who fit that definition that creates a a community residential facility. Group homes on the other hand, it it specifically excludes persons who are um who meet the definition of

handicapped persons. And so I would like to have both the excerpts from the Albuquerque ordinances that are in effect today, the excerpt from the one that was provided by the city with our IRA which has been repealed to comply with anti-discrimination protections as well as the Rio Rancho chapter 120 um in place because I think that it I think that you need to go back to the drawing board with this. Um, I will state that the Fair Housing Act requires a municipality to make a reasonable accommodation in rules, policies, practices, or services when such accommodation may be necessary to afford a person with disabilities equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling. And that's 42 USC 364F3B. Um, numerous numerous decisions based on that. So you're giving a lot of work for your planning and zoning department if every one of these is going to first require a conditional use permit and also is going to be subject to that reasonable accommodation process. I will note because I I think that that the history of this moratorum shows beyond institution bias but possible animus possibly towards certain disabilities that people can have. Um CMDS residential LLC versus mayor and city council of Baltimore um held that individuals with substance use disorders are disabled under the FHA. Same with Caldera LLC versus City of Claremont, New Hampshire and Pacific Shores Property LLC versus City of Newport Beach. Um, that's under the Fair Housing

Act, not under all law. very recent case 2023 from El Paso County, Courage to Change Ranches. Courage to Change Ranches holding company versus El Paso County. Um also um upheld reasonable accommodations requiring municipalities to provide reasonable accommodations and make exceptions to zoning rules to afford people with disabilities the same access to housing as those who are without disabilities. We have a housing problem underway. You know, potentially our zoning our zoning code, as far as I can tell, doesn't even designate multifamily housing. I don't know the extent the zoning map is really followed. I've seen a lot a lot of zoning changes on on very little purposes. This is doing something else. And I don't think it's something that anybody of of you folks really wanted to or intended to do. So, I really urge you to um to vote no on this. I also will point out that the item on the agenda is public hearing and adoption and that obviates the purpose of a public hearing if it's already um the action taken is already pre-ordained on the on the agenda. Thank you.

This is the public hearing right now that we're conducting right now is the public hearing. Yeah. No. And I just did notice that the business is conduct a public hearing and adopt rather than and consider for adopt pass or not pass. It's a so thank you mayor. So this first uh this first one is we have the public hearing and then we're going in the next item would be when we get out of public hearing for consideration of adoption. I mean just to be clear. So after we go into this, then we'll go into the actual item uh for consideration of adoption of this ordinance.

Thank you. Thank you for that clarification and thank you for for taking the time to hear me out. I know it was quite a bit longer than maybe the three minutes and Mr. PCO, did you have a question? No. No. You clarified, sir. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, ma'am. Mr. Mayor, our next person is Fabola Sanchez. Good evening, Miss Sanchez.

For the time, mayor and councel, I really appreciate that you gave us more than the two or three minutes that were normally given. uh I wouldn't be able to have um followed up this lady that just made her presentation. But um the first thing I have two points to make that the first thing is that um we are here now because after input you will vote to adopt or not to adopt this ordinance. And um we have been here for months and months and months on this and all we've been given is public input which we have been given two or three minutes to give our input. I have requested that we have public input where we can have a discussion between all the interested parties and the city so that we can actually discuss it. not just say we're against it and then you take that for whatever it's worth. I think that this this is a very important topic that should be discussed and not just um me get tell you what I I don't like about it. But in order to adequ adequately care for the our residents that are in need of these services, our city must make it easier to facilitate these programs, these um treatment centers, counseling centers rather than um to make it so difficult and over regulation. So that way they're going to other cities where they welcome them in rather than try to keep them out. There is no way that anyone in this room can think that we have enough facilities now for our people that need help. We um my sister lives close to Central. She's on but she's close to Central. And if you if you've ever

driven down Central, you'll see that Central is dying because the homeless and the drugaddicted are hanging out in the businesses. They all had to put chain link fences and locks on their doors. If anybody wants to go in, they have to unlock the door to let you in so they make sure that it's not somebody that that is homeless that they don't want in their business. And to me is that wouldn't you rather have these people that need help in centers where they're getting help rather than them being in the street to to hurt themselves or hurt our our our residents. I think we need the help and I really think that it would it would benefit us to have more centers like this. And um what the lady before me said, you know, as far as um having these places in residential areas, I realize that people don't want these kind of places in in their neighborhoods, but we do have to care for each other, you know, and I have a nursing home when there where there's about 20 men that live there that live right across the street from me. So, I have to be careful. I live alone, but I'm careful. But they're there. They're walking up and down the street all day long. You you you can't just be so cold to say, "We don't want any of this. Let's just not have it." What you're going to do is you're just going to have them in the streets then.

And I just I just would ask you to reconsider, not adopt this resolution, this ordinance, and take it back to the table and have discussions. bring people from the community that are interested. There's been several people that have come to every one of these meetings every time it's brought up and it's I mean this this started since I think June. We've been having these meetings and and the the solution really is for us to sit down and discuss it that the city would find out what we have against it and see how we can fix it rather than just change a couple of sentences and bring it up and hope we can pass it without anybody noticing it. I really ask for our community for the betterment of our community and our citizens. These people need help and I I thank God that there there are some agencies that are already here, but I know the pregnancy center is there and that building that they're in, they're they're selling that building. So, they're going to have to find a new building. They're going to come up with this ordinance and to have to be approved through that ordinance. It's going to be hard for them. This is a nonprofit that doesn't have money. We should make it easier for these organ organizations to be out here helping people that need it, not make it harder. So I I beg you all to reconsider and not approve this ordinance. Thank you for the time. Mayor, the final person signed up is Miss Starford. Welcome. Um, so I'm Star Ford. I I serve on the zoning board, but I'm here um speaking

only for myself right now. I've I've read through this and the basic structure of it being in conditional use seems pretty acceptable to me. And and the other main aspect of the ordinance is that this dividing between the small and the large facilities and the small ones can be in residential neighborhoods residential neighborhoods and the large ones cannot. That also seems fairly reasonable. However, there's a lot of duplicative things in here. There's enforcement problems and there's part of it that's just really mean-spirited. Um, the one thing that jumped out at me, I'll just read it. Outdoor areas. Any outdoor waiting or recreational areas must be appropriately screened and located to minimize disturbance to adjacent properties. Now, when I read that, I read we don't want to see them. That's what that says, right? So, I feel like that runs a foul of civil liberties and it may be unconstitutional along with some of these other things. If someone wants to go out at night, if I'm allowed to go out at night, anyone should be allowed to go out at night. If I'm allowed to sit on my front porch, anyone should be allowed to sit on their front porch. And then the other main problem is the the duplicative nature of it. um parking and noise ordinances and different things. It it will say the facilities have to have to follow the rules for these various things like parking. But there's already a rule for parking. So making another rule that

says you have to follow this other rule is just adding confusion. So we we really need to eliminate all the things that are already rules. and it just feels like you really need an attorney to go through this and and really clean it up. It's kind of a mess right now. So, that's basic. Thank you. So, at this time, I'd like to call uh or or just uh Mr. Marcus, uh, Scott, and also Chime in our our legal representative, uh, that has had an opportunity to review this. Uh, so governing body, I don't know if you guys have questions, you know, based off of the testimony that was given here. Uh, okay. If you guys have questions of our city staff, including our our legal representation,

councilors, mayor, council, if if it's possible, there were a couple of things that were entered into record, and since they were entered into record, I'd like to go on record as to why those uh items were placed there. Um the place that that uh that uh Miss Lazlo Henry is talking about is used for a place of business. We do have proof of that as as courts were mandating sentences to people to be sentenced there. They're not getting sentenced there for free. So, they're paying something. And now, in our city ordinance 160-77, licensing uh uh required, it does state anybody within the city of Las Vegas that that's doing business in the city of Las Vegas must have a business license. That place was opened without a business license. That's why that plaque stuff was placed there. I want to make sure I go on record on that and let you know that that's why we did that. So, she makes a compelling point for for it being residential areas. Again, this isn't a residential area. This is being used for business. Um, and then to give anybody like they had the right to come up here and say why they don't want this ordinance to be done. It didn't give anybody a right in that neighborhood to say I want this business here or I don't. So, that that's not this. This ordinance is simply going to allow the community members to have their say because there is a lot of of vocal people out there that don't want to come to to the meetings, but they'll definitely show up if this type of business is going to be affecting their neighborhood. Now, I'll I'll digress a little bit there. in our housing regul in our R3s, R2s, R1's, um there are allowed home occupations, but at the end of that, it does state that at the end of every business day, you must have everything about your business within it the the realms of your house. Nothing can be showing. So that means you can't have neon lights, you can't have uh car parts outside, you can't have things

like that. So that that's why that's what this this ordinance simply does. It gives the community a chance to have a voice and it also puts the pressure on these businesses coming into town that they have to be forthcoming and come to us and say we're here to do business on an upright fashion, not just pop up and say here we are. And I just want to make sure I go and let you guys know that mayor and councel and Mr. City Manager.

Thank you. And I just uh and maybe you could answer this question. I know we've had a few community meetings. Uh you did uh involve some uh individual members uh that uh a separate meeting. Uh I think we've had I know last last month that we tried to publish this there was some errors. So there was uh I guess how many meetings community and public would this right now this is a public meeting. Uh, how many? Five, six, five. We had a total of two um town halls. So, we had town hall town halls plus when it first came up. We tabled it. Yeah. And then four or five,

I'd say about four or five, mayor. So, we're we're on our fifth one now, I assume, right now. Uh, uh, we've had some good conversations about this. Uh, you know, and and we we get typically the same people here. So, so with that counselors, do you guys have any questions uh specifically? And I and I want to just make sure that uh you know that legal has uh reviewed it. I know some comments were made that somebody legally. So, I just want to give you the opportunity to say something.

Well, I I didn't write down all the comments, Mr. Mayor, because I don't want to get into uh maybe I should have wrote a brief prior to, but look, like I mentioned to you before, and councelor Pacheco mentioned to it to you now. This is not perfect. Okay, we can't cover every little thing and and I can't define every word in this ordinance. If that were the case, I'd have 30 pages of definitions. Um, we're going to reference to other ordinances. That's throughout our whole ordinance body. You're going to see references to nuisances. You're going to see reference to old cars. You're going to see reference to we we have to be able to reference that as a reference point. So, you're going to see that throughout it. Uh, I think there's a very clear process in the ordinance. This is how you apply. this is what's required. If it's turned in, you get it granted. I don't believe that's vague at all in this ordinance. It's very straightforward. We've done our best to comply with the Fair Housing Act. I believe we have. Um there there's tons of case law out there, not just the four or five cases cited there. Um I I believe we we provide reasonable accommodations. Um I think we've even gone as far as making sure we're compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Right. So to sit here and tell you this is a perfect ordinance, I would be remiss. I no attorney should tell you that. Um there may come a time in the future where we need to amend it. We need to uh change with the time. Um there may come a time there obviously may be a legal challenge from here that may amend it. I I can't tell you that's might not be the case. What I can tell you is that we've worked diligently. We've allowed community input. We've researched the issue as best we could and came up with an ordinance that we felt uh encompasses what the city wants to do, protects the city of Las Vegas. Right now, you might have these types of businesses. We don't know how many people are living in these homes. We don't know what type of services are being offered. We don't know what type of um individuals are in these homes right next to daycarees. We

don't know if they've had a fire inspection. We don't know that. That's concerning to the city of Las Vegas. Um, we want to make sure that we protect everybody. I think this does that. It starts that conversation. It starts it and if we need to amend it, that can be amended 100%. Um, again, I'm not going to say your entire perfect. It's probably not perfect. Um, was a little disheartened to say that attorney should look at that because attorney drafted it. But, um, I, you know, it's a start and I think, uh, it covers our basis for now and it may change in the future, it may not. Um, but we've done the best we could working with Scott and Lucas um to to put together something that we feel could be adopted today and and proceed forward that way.

Thank you, counselors. Council, one more one more thing. I do want to make sure I state I tip my hat to Crossroads. They've come here and they've done some good things and and they're continue to doing some good things and I want to make sure that they continue doing what they're supposed to be doing. Um, I'm I'm just like I like uh our city attorney said, we have concerns that we want to make sure that are addressed. Fire fire being one of them, safety being the other. Uh, we want to make sure that everybody's in compliance. Crossroads has done a great job. Thank you, Councelor Martinez. Did you have something? Yeah.

Thank you, Mayor. Uh, I just want to point out that ordinance 259 and all ordinance of the city are all working documents. And just like our city attorney mentioned, these these documents could be changed, altered, they might even be challenged in in some form or fashion. And because that working document is allowable, you know, we we're all people of our community and we want the best for our community, but we also have to listen to those individuals in residential areas that are impacted by those services whether the services are being provided or not. So based that that it is a working document I know it cannot be perfect and I and and I'll agree to that. So

thank you mayor.

Thank you. And I think I had councelor Casey. Did you have comments questions? I have read this ordinance I don't know how many times and the only thing I can say for sure is that it gives me a headache or a stomach ache every time that I read it because uh it I I understand what it wants to do but when I read it and read it again and read it again to me Um, I'm not really clear on on what exactly there's just so much in it that I'm not really sure what it's actually doing. And I I get the main gist of it, but there are so many standards. There's, you know, traffic impact stuff. There's, you know, location, parking, overnight stays, uh, all kinds of things into one big ordinance that has what, five parts or something like that? Six parts. So, it I think that um you know I think the majority of the information that's in there makes sense, but when it's all lumped together into one ordinance that I think uh convolutes the the whole package. Let me just put it that way. So, um I don't know if you know you have enforcement in 161 and then you have a penalty and then you have another enforcement also. Uh well, I think it's

a I think they're we got two of the same page in our packet. And so it it needs to be clearer. And I don't know if we can uh and this is for Mr. Ambrosio Castiano here is can this be broken down into different um parts? For example, you could do, you know, residential zoning part, you know, one part of the ordinance separate from the commercial zoning u districts so that it's you don't read it all together and then it gets kind of convoluted when you're reading it.

Yeah. Um Mr. Mayor, counselor, I believe that the way that is the way it is broken down. No, but it's all together into one. The whole thing is called uh ordinance number 259. Correct.

So, can it be divided up into 259, 2510, 2511 so that each part is uh clearer as to what it doing? Uh, I mean, I don't want to, you know, I know that you've worked on this so many times and we've had the same people coming to the same meetings and stating the same thing every time that they come and we still have that same issue. So, I'm I'm not I don't know what's happening here, Mayor Council. Um, Marcus,

so it's an addition to our 450 zoning. Uh, so that's that that's just the way the ordinance is going to be 25509, but all these other ones will continue on the 450-57 just as a continuation from from our zoning ordinance. So 450- 157, 158 all the way through will just be an addition. So um we wouldn't uh have to put it to different ordinances. Okay. Yeah, I think you Yeah, they're all different. They're all its own section. Each one will be its own section. Okay. Well, okay. Thank you. Thank you, uh, Councilman Pacheco.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you for those in attendance and your comments. I appreciate the information and the perspective. Thank you, uh, Mr. Marquez and staff, Mr. Casiano, for your feedback. I'll say this, I've been at a city council meeting. And I was at a city council meeting last year, not as a city counselor, just here. And I wasn't here for this reason, but it just happened that this was on the agenda. And I'll have to be honest, at that time I was considering a run for city council. And I said, "Man, this is a tough nut to crack. I hope it uh the resolution happens before I get elected." But that's not the case. Here I am. Welcome councilman.

So I will say this that from my perspective uh as a governing body as a as a municipality we've been inactive in attempting to improve these services. Right? So, uh, uh, no decision is a decision and there's been no decision made on this matter for a number of years now. I support wholeheartedly rehabilitation centers, treatment centers, individuals with with disabilities. But without regulation, we are not providing a compassionate and uh appropriate service. In many cases, we are creating the most vulnerable in our society. We're allowing them to be even more vulnerable. Uh, you know, that's part of my perspective on it. So, I'm torn with all the testimony that I've heard today. But uh I it's a a a a challenging matter but I look at what would be the best for all parties involved and I would say that making sure that we impro improve and provide the best service to the least of our people, right? uh uh would be kind of where what I'm going to base my decision on. So, thank you all. And again, I'll say this, there's been a lot of feedback. I appreciate it all. Uh uh I have an open mind. I love discussion. And I and I say this knowing that

nothing we do, no action we take, no action I take is going to be perfect. No document that that I have before me. this isn't the first time is is is perfect. There are growing pains with everything, but there are continued pains if we don't take uh a step to remedy the situation or improve the situation. Thank you. Thank you. No comment, councelor Casey. And then we'll uh I know we're still in public hearing, then we'll go into the regular. Go ahead, counselor.

Okay. Just um for my own edification, do we have a list of like the the entities that have conditional use permits or general commercial permit? Um do we have any you know what's a treat do we have a list of treatment facilities and um so that we would have a better idea as to who is going to be affected who isn't following the rules how will these uh new how will this new language affect those uh that are already in operation and those that might be new uh facilities.

Uh, mayor and councilwoman. Mayor, mayor and councilwoman, I'll go ahead and, uh, defer over to my city planner. Uh, but I do know that at the, uh, at the on one of the parts of the of the ordinance, it does state that existing businesses are are okay. Yeah,

thank you, Mayor and Council. So, um, in answer to your, uh, question about conditional use permits, we have a a, uh, list that, um, I could go out to two conxes and pull files. So, we do we categorize and we have that list always running that we have access to on our computers. Um, so it it will have file numbers and I can go pull that file for a conditional use or a special use. Um, so once those have been approved and uh we file the document into a folder, um, I'd have to do a a sort and search to tell you how many, but we do have them listed. Um, you know, as I I will give an example that we did have a conditional use permit that you had a hearing on that got approved. Um, they did not move forward on it. So, we sent them notice that since they did not um act on their conditional use permit, it was now void um because they have to to follow through. Uh so, it's not an open-ended ended situation. But if I may, I would like to say that what we're trying to do, it was mentioned that if we don't have a problem, don't don't solve it. But we want to be proactive and we don't want to be reactive. And so we need to find solutions to problems that are going to come our way. Um we know they are because we know they have happened in other cities. And and that's what's prompted a lot of this. And I think that we have to look at what we're talking about. We're not talking about four individuals renting a property in a neighborhood who have a disability of whatever it is. We're talking about properties that have a house manager or

somebody who comes in and administers the drugs. Um, we're talking about properties that we want to know what's going on there to protect the people in that house and the people outside that house. We need to know that they are licensed by the state and that they are following the guidelines. So, there was an issue about parking. Well, I can tell you, councelor Casey, in your district, we get a ton of calls about parking on the streets and people saying, "My neighbors have six cars and they park in front of my house. When I have guests, nobody can come."

So, we need to know that if we're going to have this home that there is adequate parking. So those are those are issues and those are why things are in that ordinance is because they have to be followed. Um you know I could go on and on with with other things because I know some of you know what I go through in my personal life with my son but um these are these are just we have to be proactive. So,

mayor, council, you know, at the end of the day, the city does have a due diligence to make sure that we're bringing in reputable businesses into the community and we want to make sure that that's happening. But at at the at the very least, we got to make sure that we afford the right to the citizens to make sure that they have a chance to say, "I'm okay with this business being here." Not just with this business, but any business in particular. I mean, if we're going to open up a new restaurant, a new bar, we do the same thing. We go with the 100 foot radius and we we ask them the same question. If we could keep the comments in the in the audience, you know, just so we make sure that we get the testimony here from the city.

We go through the same issue with any with any regular business to make sure that it's going to be suited within the neighborhood is trying to develop. Again, we're we're simply trying to make sure that we're getting businesses in here to get their business license and do it correctly. We don't want to water down our zoning ordinances. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? Oh, sorry. You talked. So, at this time, uh, entertain a motion to return to the regular session. Mr. Motion to return. Yeah. Go to regular session. I'll second that. I have a motion by We're closing. Have a motion by Councilman Pacheco. Motion to return to regular session. Councilman Martinez. Roco.

Councelor Pacheco. Yes. Councelor Levi. Yes. Councelor Martinez. Yes. Councelor Casey. Yes. I have a motion by councelor PCO, a second by councelor Martinez. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Motion carries. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Councilman Martinez. I move to adopt ordinance 25509 to amend municipal code of the city of Las Vegas chapter 450 thereof title zoning to add a new section entitled treatment facilities halfway houses community residential pro program facilities to provide for zoning regulation regulations and exemptions. Have

a motion by councelor Martinez. Do I have a second? Second. Second by councilman Levari. Discussion. Seeing none, roll call. Councelor Pacheco. Yes. Councelor Martinez. Yes. Councelor Levari. Yes. Councelor Casey.

I'm going to vote yes under duress. I have a motion by councelor Martinez, a second by councelor Lei. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor Council. Mr. Mayor, moving back to our consent agenda. I may read those items to the

Before we start, I just had one question. And I know some uh public input was made on the consent agenda. And I know uh historically, you know, usually with the consent agenda, we remove items from consent agenda before the agenda's approved. Uh I did just a little bit quick research as we were moving forward here. I know there was some questions. I just want to make sure if the council does, what's your opinion? Uh Mr. Attorney, if I know technically once you approve it, uh the consent agenda, it's one motion, but is it possible? Right now, since we're before that that motion, can we remove an item from here and move it into business? Yeah, Mr. Mayor, just briefly, um,

normally standard practice is the agenda has already been approved. However, Robert's rules don't specifically prohibit a removal item from the consent agenda prior to hearing that first motion. And so, you would be able to remove it. Um, I if the item you all are possibly removing was the comments about the contracts for the airport hanger, I can provide you all with a quick I I Oh, I think councelor Laza Henry might have left, but uh I did look up the statute she was talking about. So, I do have a very brief and very straight to the point legal opinion on those three items if those were the ones you were all considering removing prior to the motion. So,

that that was my concern. You know, she made those comments. And so if you want if if mayor will give me the time to give you a quick brief uh legal opinion on that. Um councelor llo Henry during public comment is very correct in 152310 of the administrative code requiring board approval from DFA for leases. Um I will read you just briefly 1.5.23.10a 10A board of pri approval is required whenever certain public bodies wish to lease or subleasase properties they own or are leasing if the term of the lease is uh for a period of more than 5 years or the consideration of the lease term is more than 25,000. Um if we stopped the analysis there this item would not be able to be considered right. However, if you go to the definitions of the same section, and that's actually 1.5.23.7, and I'll point you directly to 1.5.23.7g, as in George, the definition of public bodies means all political subdivisions, but not including municipalities, which is what the city of Las Vegas is. So, um, if we would have stopped at the definition provided by councelor Henry, um, we would not have been able to proceed with these leases. However, the city of Las Vegas being a municipality, home home rule municipality does not fall within the requirements um, under the administrative code 15237 and therefore the city would be able to proceed um, with um, consideration of the three leases.

Okay. So with that analysis or that opinion, what's the pleasure of the governing body? Mr. Mayor, I move that we approve the consent agenda items one through uh through however many there are nine and that they be read into the record proper by our city clerk. Motion by councelor Casey. Uh have a second or do I have a second? I'll second. Second by councilman Martinez. discussion, councelor Pacheco, and then we'll and then after we have that, then I'll have you read it to the record.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh just as part of my discussion, I I want to just clarify again that uh I agree some of these are just process, right? But there's documents before us that quite frankly I can't uh uh make a fully informed decision on. Uh so I I'm just going to put it out there for all the directors because eventually I'm I'm just I'm just going to vote the way that that I think I should in terms of some of these. But if we're asking for an extension, well, I want to know on that extension, what was a what was the original contract amount for? You're asking you're asking us to approve an extension of a contract that we have no knowledge of what the total contract was the year before. What was expended in that contract? Did we did we expend the full amount? Did we go over that amount? So, I'm relying on my counselors that have been here in the past that may have some of that historical information, but moving forward, I I am not going to uh consider anything that does not have all the full information cuz there there's there's some there's things in that packet right now that don't have that information. Is that it coun?

Yes sir. Thank you Mr. Mayor. Thank you m Mr. Mayor. So okay discussion still.

Yeah please. Yeah for discussion. Um the a couple of parts to this to this uh consent agenda would be that I did I did request uh from our finance director Morris Madrid to to get some kind of background on expenditures for some of those contracts. In other words, I think we've got BTU, Oianda, and Pat Romero feeds along with I think Hayes Plumbing, and I think those are provided to you a little a little prior. And if if you if you could uh Morris, if you could speak to some of this information that we have in front of us so that we can better get better have clarification on where the dollars go. I guess I should say it like that and and I just I would I would prefer that it come from finance. You know, counselor, I do have some uh numbers for you in regard to uh the businesses BTU Hienda and Pat Romero uh supply in the prior year ending June 30th of 2025. Total dollars spent by the city all departments uh at BTU was $40,669 at Aienda was $19,78 at Pat Romero's $37,279. Year to date, in the current fiscal year, we've spent $15,41 at BTU, $6,731 at Oianda, and 18,843

at Pat Romero. Those are the numbers for those three businesses. So these numbers are driven basically by availability. I would suppose um maybe convenience. I I I guess that's what it would be, right? Well, there's there's so many different departments and there is a lot of variables. Uh some businesses have more plumbing supplies than others. Some have more stock in lumber. uh for example uh BTU and Pat Romero are not open on Sundays if we have an emergency asenda is. So there's a lot of variables that each director has to to deal with. I really can't tell you what they are. I can uh just tell you what we process.

Okay. Ru

I I'm done with that question. And I I do have one other question, uh, mayor, and it and it, uh, it goes to the three items that were mentioned for the, uh, the rental space. And I guess one of the factors that I look at, you know, moving forward as we're going to continue to create infrastructure in those areas, uh, if we were to incorporate just a flat rate, which we have basically already in place, that's fine. But if we do any improvements to those areas like utilities, water, and other infrastructure that we can add to those areas, I'm thinking ahead. If we just keep it at a flat rate and we have a 20-year plan with these individuals, I'm just throwing that number out there. We're kind of probably short. We're shorting ourselves, the city of Las Vegas. If we maybe that language should be put in there so that if we do have if we do have infrastructure in the area that requires the dollars to be higher because those services are more available for them. That's what I'm getting at.

Thank you, Councelor. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Go ahead, Mr. Madrid.

The one of the questions that I have is that uh on addendum number two of contract 4068-224 which was originally awarded in 315 of 24 uh it's referencing an exhibit that we don't see. So, in this new document that's going to be dated today's date potentially, uh the last paragraph on that first sheet indicates that uh shall not exceed the amount in the original contract exhibit. that exhibit's not part of our our packet. So I and I just am pointing that out because how do we make that that's not the dollar amount? How do we make that how do we make a fully informed decision without knowing what the contract was originally at? I'm assuming it's a large contract because I see the amount that was spent up to now is 613546. But are we under contract there? Are we over contract? The contracted amount and and I don't know if he has this one. So, uh, Councelor Pacheco before the meeting did ask uh and I didn't I didn't know that Councilman Martinez had asked you also for, you know, numbers as far as the three of them. I did ask for haste plumbing, but I'm looking at the haste plumbing uh contract, and there's one item assisted with snow removal, which I know that's not part of the contract. So, I think the information they gave me uh doesn't wasn't specific to this uh contract for m building materials.

That's correct. Mayor Hayes Plumbing does business for the city in different ways. They used to be one of our major contractors for actual utility installation and even uh to include covering the uh infrastructure and paving and everything. I think they did the major project there on Bridge Street. So that does it is not limited to the type of supplies that this contract is attempting to address. Well, the their contract is different than all the other suppliers in here, and it's the only one that hasn't exhibit with a total contract amount, which isn't in the packet, right? I I understand. That's a good point, counselor. But, uh,

so if it's for the same services, why it's a different cont why is it a different contract? Well, because in regard to Haze Plumbing specifically, they were awarded work based on bids, based on requests for proposals. This number is a is a total of everything not just uh supplies to be provided.

So is this contract that we're looking at right here this proposed uh extension which reads different than all the other extensions and has a exhibit that has a a budgeted amount. Is this for supplies or is this for actual service? I believe it's for supplies. I uh I'm not intimately familiar with the details. And if so, why does this one have a dollar amount total and the others don't? I can't answer that counselor. I'd have to refer it.

I could probably add some information to that. I know they used haze plumbing for purchasing like Horses and backfield materials and talking to the microphone. Sorry about that.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. So, the information that I have related to that question is I know that other departments and and ourselves when we needed certain materials, whether it be gravel base course, um backfield material, whatever. We utilized haze plumbing for those type of materials for for road materials on occasion as needed. also. No, and I appreciate that, but it's it's it is worded the same building materials and related supplies like if it is like it does from Hiender BTU. So, Mr. Costiano, I do have a a question of you. If these are all for the same products and the contracts differ, is there any uh potential ramifications to us as a as a governing body? I I mean u Mayor Councelor Pacheco ideally we would want to have uniform contracts. Um I w I wasn't the one that drafted these ones. I I don't believe I was and maybe I was but uh you you know ideally we want uniform contracts throughout. Um and there there could be maybe certain provisions that the contractor wanted that was was valid for them. Maybe they wanted u some kind of clause, but I can't say for sure.

Thank you, sir. And then I think uh I think kind of what's happened here and maybe that's what you're going to say here, Travis. So, a lot of these items, if I correct, were RFPD and that's why we're getting to these amendments uh annually. Is that correct? Okay, that's my my first part. And then just I mean and maybe I added some of this confusion by getting some of these numbers where uh for instance Hayes also does work at the water treatment plant etc. So the numbers that when I asked I mean I didn't when I asked I asked for this for the numbers you know pertaining to the contract but then when it was printed it was like the that number isn't accurate right so I think they just gave us a complete I mean a complete breakdown of what we spent in the fiscal year and not specific to that one contract I think is that fair in saying Mr. Madrid.

That's correct.

And so so what I'm I guess what I'm gathering here and I I understand where Mr. Pacheco is coming from is as we go through these amendments or these addendums uh and and maybe it's going to take us a while you know to get to the point to where he's comfortable uh you know on some of these but I think as these are coming up let's say a renewal of an RFP an annual review I think what what you've I know in discussion counselor is give us what we spent specific to that contract so he better understands how much it cost us the previous year is that fair and saying counselor Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I think I think that's fair. I think if we're if we're going to consider an extension, well, what did we spend on the contract the year before? The other thing I I would say is fair is if you're if the if the agenda if the proposed extension is referencing exhibits, have the exhibits in the document because none of these proposed uh extensions have the exhibits within the packet that they are referencing. So there in my mind it's an incomplete packet because we don't have all the information

and I think to add to that I'll make sure I know you know when we meet on the agenda I think uh you know we go over some of that information and maybe take it for granted like you said you know some of us have been here for for a while so uh Miss Cassandra and Mr. Manager and Mr. Madrid as we move forward maybe we'll make sure that backup documentation especially you know here in the next uh you know 6 8 months till we catch up you know till Mr. Pacheco finally uh you know maybe goes through a you know one-year renewal a better understanding of what each con each contract what we've done in the past and kind of give him some more background background history. So I think I I'll make sure that you know we do a better part as we go through the agenda is that backup documentation is provided to everyone and and I know sometimes we've been here a long time too and we kind of question I don't remember that that contract either. So I think it's it'll help so we'll we'll make sure that we provide more of that documentation and backup and Mr. manager than Nefonita.

Yeah, I I just wanted to make this comment. Um, we're continually making improvements to provide more information upfront, not less information. And I just wanted to make a comment relative to the consent agenda. The consent agenda is set up not to pass things quickly and um override any determinations or or careful evaluation. So, it's important that we provide a clear, concise summary with all the appropriate documentation and address those. And I would just add that if the council, I know there's already a motion on the floor on this particular item, but if the council chooses to move it to an item on future agendas and then move to table, we're not against in any way, shape, or form assuring there's clarity and clear information. And so I just want to say that uh we appreciate the consent agenda where we've provided all the information necessary to advance contracts that are renewals, but that doesn't take anything away, Mayor, Councilman Pacheco, of making sure we have and I and I mentioned at the last meeting is I envision us not only having that summary and background information, but some additional FIR information for all agreements moving forward. So that's not only clear for yourselves, most importantly as our governing board, but for the public as they review and read these packets. And so I take all these perspectives constructively and we will continue to work to uh provide additional upfront information and clarity financially.

And I I know you came to to say a few words, but I don't know if you added Go ahead, Mr. Martinez of kind of what I was I was just

I was just going to say uh for these contracts, they're based on material rates. So if we're going to give you guys the material rates, we're going to give you guys their full book that they give to us for every single piece of equipment, piece of tool, lumber, everything that they're going to give us at the rate. So, I believe last time I gave it to Cassandra, we had a stack like that of everything that goes along with this. So, it's just material rates that that they give us. As far as haze plumbing goes, those are special item needs. BTU and all them, they don't carry the gravel, they don't carry the base course, stuff like that that Arnold needs. There's other times where water distribution, we need something on the fly to where it could be a yolk, it could be a piece of pipe, something that B2 and all them don't carry. So they sell them, we get them from them. That's something that these contracts are for to help us instead of the three quote process. Our guys will be able to go to Hassenda, BTU, whatever, whatever they need, pick up what they get and then move forward. But if you guys do want the rates, the building rates, we can get you guys the cataloges that they give us. It's going to be a stack, but

we can we can give those to you as far as that's what the RFP was for. Councilman, just to clarify, Mr. Martinez, thank you. I I I'm not interested in the rates. What I'm interested in is is when a contract says it has a total amount and it has it's an exhibit referenced in the document, that should be part of the packet as it's part of the BTU contract because that's what it states in that uh the proposed extension. It's referencing the original contract and the exhibit in the original contract. We don't have that information. Like I said, we can get that to you. It's their entire catalog. So,

it it says it's an amount. Mr. Mayor, this says there's a dollar amount. Um I just got a quick point of order potentially. I I I I think you're going to need to call the question and only because um generally under the rules you all adopted consent agenda specific items are not um you cannot discuss them unless they're removed from the consent agenda because it's all made for one motion. I I think the discussion was very robust and I think everyone but I think you probably need to call the question that way um you know we're in line with what the the council has adopted in terms of the consent agenda. Thank you. and I and I was just allowing a little more just because of the situation. So So with that uh call of the question, Mr. Mayor, shall I read those into the record?

Yes, please.

Item number one, request approval of addendum number two to contract 406124 with Asienda Home Center for Building Materials and Related Services. Item two, request approval of addendum number two to contract 406224 with BTU do it best for building materials and related services. Item three, requests approval of addendum number two to contract 46324 with Pat Romero Feeding Supply Incorporated for building materials and related services. Item number four, requests approval of addendum number two to contract 406824 with Haze Plumbing and Heating Incorporated for building materials and related services. Item number five, request approval of resolution number 2609 to apply for and assuring matching funds in the amount of 169,82946 for the 2027 fiscal year transportation project fund. Item number six, request approval of resolution number 2610 to apply for and assuring matching funds in the amount of 227,618 for the 2027 fiscal year transportation project fund. Item number seven, request approval of amendment number one to contract 384422 for a 10-year extension with Rod Billingsley for airport hangaro rental space. Item number eight, request approval of amendment number one to contract 389422 for a 5-year extension with Bill Brainer for airport hangar rental space. And item number nine, request approval of amendment one to contract 385222 for a 5-year extension with Kerry Lane for airport hangar rental space.

Roll call. Councelor Levi. Yes. Councelor Martinez. Yes. Councelor Pacheco. Councelor Casey. Yes. I have a motion by councelor Casey, a second by councelor Martinez. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Motion carries. Moving um on to our business items. Item number two, conduct a public hearing and approval on a variance at 140210th Street, Las Vegas, New Mexico 87701. We have our community development director, Lucas Marcus. If we can go into a public hearing, please. At this time, I'll entertain a motion to enter a public hearing.

Motion to enter public hearing. A motion by Councilman Pacheco. Do I have a second? Second by Councilman Martinez. Roll call. Councelor Casey. Yes. Councelor Martinez. Yes. Councelor Levi. Yes. Councelor Pacheco. Yes. I have a motion by Councilor BCO. A second by Councelor Martinez. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Motion carries. At this time, anyone speaking on this item, you'll please raise your right hand so I can swear you in. Under the penalties of perjury, do you swear to tell the truth during your testimony this evening? I do. Thank you. Mr. Marcus, Mr. Alone, welcome. Mayor Council, thank you, Mr. Mayor.

I know Mr. Alone. He's the owner of the property that in question. Just a little bit of history on the property. It is in the subdivision of the Heralds and Reynolds district um uh addition. Uh so, uh it does fall underneath um prior to our ordinances, it was already a lot. Uh so it's they're they're non-conforming lots in this in this area. Uh it was prior to the 1970s, so the area does fall. Um the lots are a little bit smaller than what they usually are in any other typical lot. Um Mr. Alone has purchased the property and his intentions are to put a 14x60 uh mobile home on it. Uh it is zoned for this. Uh um so we do have some issues uh that are going on. The front and back door will be facing south and uh north and the sides of the trailer will be facing east and west. Um the front part of the of the trailer of course is going to be facing Reynolds and they're supposed to be a 15 ft um setback. Uh with again with these lots being non-conforming, he's not going to have the 15t uh variance, but he is buying the the property is new to him. So, he does have to have to come into compliance with our new ordinances. Uh, he did go through planning and zoning and board of adjustments for a variance. Uh, and it was unanimously uh recommended for approval for a 10-ft uh e um variance for the front and the back, but he makes up for it with a multitude of feet to the front and the to the sides uh which is the alley and 10th street. Um but to the sides he does have 5.5 ft to each side. Uh so he is asking for 10ft variance on each side and I'll stand for questions. Mr. Mayor,

uh I guess one question that I would have is we're not infringing or violating any historical district um ordinances and so forth. No sir. As a matter of fact, uh, with him doing this, he'll be coming into compliance with our new ordinances. Again, like I said, it was a a block that was pre-existing our ordinances. So, every more than 50% of that block is non-compliance. Uh, so non-conforming, I'm sorry, not non-compliance, but non-conforming. Uh, so he'd be just coming into the block just like anybody else.

Do the the other question I guess I would have would be Do the neighboring properties have any issue with a mobile home being placed in that location? Mayor and council uh council Martinez. No, there there's actually already quite a few mobile homes in the in the area and where where Mr. Alcorn will be um he'll be distant from his neighbor. That's just his property lines that we're concerned with. Okay. Thank you. I'm sure.

Thank you. Uh the uh packet was well prepared. Thank you for the information. What's the long-term plan with the uh mobile home, Mr. Alcoin?

Uh with with all due respect, uh first of all, thank you for for allowing me to come here. Um this was my wife's project and I am the one that is reaping the the work on it. Um, initially, um, as you all know, most of you know, I'm a land surveyor, and we were hired to do some work on this specific lot, and my wife ended up purchasing it. Um, the original purchaser uh, did not want to do this. I believe the gentleman was from out of town and we looked at it as as something that, you know, would be positive for the community. Um, one thing we do know is, you know, the housing in this area is limited. Um, we do have a rental down the street off of 8th Street and this would be something that I look at um, for um, individuals that would like to attend Highlands. Um, we really like the location because everything's there. you have the banks, obviously the school, you have um uh places to eat. So, it it's tailored more toward and our vision is probably toward um kids that are going to attend the school. Um and it's right there. It you know, investment opportunity and um you know, Kelly's all about helping the kids and that was her her first thought on this. So, I you know, that's that that's our goal as of right now.

Thank you, sir. More questions. All right. See no more questions. Uh motion to return to regular session. Motion to approve to regular session. Motion by Councilman Pacheco. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Councilman Martinez. Roll call. Councelor Levani. Yes. Councelor Casey. Yes. Councelor Bacho. Yes. Councelor Martinez. Yes. I have a motion by councelor BCO. A second by councelor Martinez. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Motion carries. Motion of the governing body.

Mr. Mayor, I move that we approve the uh 10-ft front and rear yard variance for the premises at 140210th Street and to place a mobile home on the property. Second, a motion by councelor Casey. A second by councilman Leari Roco. Councelor Pacheco. Yes. Councelor Martinez. Yes. Councelor Casey. Yes. Councelor Lei. Yes. I have a motion by councelor Casey. A second by councelor Lei. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Motion carries. Thank you, mayor and council. Appreciate you guys. Thank you, mayor and council. Appreciate it. It's a great question for what you want to do. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Right next to the football,

mayor. Moving on to our next item. As we proceed, I just want to make sure I know it's going to take us a while to get back online uh just to stay in compliance. We are recording this the the remainder of this meeting. Yes, sir. Okay. Just just in case they were to be asked. Thank you.

Oh, we're good. Oh, okay. Moving on to business item number three. Request approval for out of state travel for Travis Martinez, Dominic Mes, Joshua Skongan, and members of the governing body to attend the Plum Creek Water Purification Tour in Castle Rock, Colorado. Mr. Mayor,

Mr. Mayor, uh, I appreciate that Mr. Martinez put this item on, but uh this item originated from our visit that we had at the um Castle Rock Plum Creek facility. Um Councilman Ula, Councilman Martinez, Jimmy SC, Mr. Martinez. Um I think it's a valuable asset to have the staff go. Uh there was concurrence from all of us that were there that it's a good idea to have them go back and have a more in-depth review and um training if you will of kind of what happens within the management of that particular site. So uh I'll turn it over to Mr. Martinez, but I stand in full support of of this and uh I would defer to Councilman Martinez and Councilman Ulabar if they wanted to add anything because they were there. But uh thank you Mr. Martinez for putting it on the agenda.

Martinez Travis,

mayor, council. This uh this one is going to be a little bit more in depth than the the last one that we went with. And the reason that it's going to be more in depth is because now us as the operators are going to get in tune and see exactly how the equipment works and how it's going to be modified and stuff like that for us. So as far as this goes, I stand for any questions. I guess probably the only question I have is well these individuals I know we don't we're don't have many operators and you know besides these individuals so how would the plant stay in operation we still have a level four up there

will so I guess will the contractor have the support in case something were to happen I guess that's what we're working on okay where we'll have the plants up and operation as it still is okay that's the only thing I had counselors Mr. Mayor Councilman Levari

thank you Mr. manager. We did tour that plant out there and several several one of my councilmans, the directors, and it's amazing. We the city has been talking about water for a lot of years, a lot of years. And we're getting to a point that we're almost there. And with Travis sending these people out there and looking at what we they have and what we can do, it's a minus to us. So, I'm thanking all of you guys for having these people go out there and take a look at what we need to change or do or what we have to do. Thank you,

Mr. Mayor. Thank you. Um, as mentioned, we did tour this facility and I think what the perspective that it brings to operators that are considering going back and and and reassuring that that and how this plant operates uh is important because you don't you don't you can't grasp the entire thing by just taking a look at it from the outside. It's it's a it's a it's a huge it's a huge facility and it has so many different angles to it. But I I kind of feel and have felt that by you attending this uh Travis was uh was important so that we can find out what the new and most modern techniques are to restoring, cleaning, and having available drinking water for our community, quality water that that we do need. And the operating portion of it is really important because then you get kind of a hands-on look at some of the issues that they have. They're operators just like you guys are and and I think that's important. One thing I do want to want to mention is that I think that this this out of state travel does in it can include any other counselors that want to attend. uh I believe is that correct? Am I in saying that?

So, you know, I would I don't have no reason to go back to go visit the site. It it was very good andformational for me and and and uh myself as a councilman being able to see what's out there, but I would definitely encourage any others if they wish to go. Thank you, mayor. Thank you. So with that being said, what's the pleasure of the council? Make a motion to approve trouble. Motion by councelor Pacheco. Do I have a second? Second. Second by councilman Martinez. Roll call. Councelor Casey. Yes. Councelor Martinez. Yes. Councelor Pacheco. Yes. Councelor Levi. Yes.

I have a motion by councelor PCO. A second by councelor Martinez. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Motion carries. Thank you, Mayor Councel. Moving on to our last item. request approval of resolution number 2611, a budget adjustment for the 2025 2026 fiscal year. We have our finance director, Mr. Morris Madrid.

Good evening again, mayor and councel. Uh, this resolution is to appropriate additional funds in different areas. I'll just read them off of the record. First one is an appropriation of funds from proceeds of a New Mexico Department of Tourism grant for litter control and beautifification the amount of $8,000. A capital appropriation from the state of New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration to plan, design, construct the plaza revitalization project in the amount of $2,480,000. an appropriation of funds from proceeds of a Carnegie Corporation gift for the benefit of the Carnegie Library and community in the amount of $10,000. This is uh I think on their 100 or 150th anniversary. The next one is an increase in lodgers tax fund for additional initiatives in publication, advertising, and special events in the amount of $454,000. The way that the budget for the largest tax fund was formulated for the current year was the budget was uh formulated knowing the events July through December not knowing the events from January through June with the understanding that there would be this adjustment in the middle of the year. Additionally, this does not include any consideration that that may come about for infrastructure improvements uh particularly in coordination with that plaza revitalization project. So, you may see us come back with another budget adjustment for this. Uh, the last one is an appropriation of funds from the proceeds of a Federal Aviation Administration Airport Improvement Program grant for the installation of a high game fence at the municipal at the Las Vegas Municipal Airport in the amount of 1,60,699.

Some of these will be familiar to you because you've accepted them uh as a governing body. They are before you tonight because your approval is required for us to appropriate the money and submit to Department of Finance Administration. Mr. Mayor, I move approval of resolution 2611 budget adjustment uh for the 2526 fiscal year. A motion by councelor Casey. I have a second by councilman Levari. Discussion. Okay, see none. Roll call. Councelor Levari. Yes. Councelor Bacho. Yes. Councelor Casey. Yes. Councelor Martinez. Yes.

I have a motion by councelor Casey. A second by councelor Levi. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Motion carries. And Mr. Madrid, I just want to note, I know we've discussed it uh you know, when we have our our uh our our work group for the agendas, you know, as some of these grant agreements come in, and I know you and the manager are working with the directors, but that we take care of the grant agreement and the bars right away instead of uh bringing them separately. Is is that fair and seen, Mr. Manager?

That is our that is our goal. In a couple of cases, while we had the grant agreements in place, we didn't have the budgets defined. In other cases, for example, this uh donation from the Carnegie Corporation that came out of the blue and is completely unrestricted. So yes, that is absolutely our goal in the future and and in the past too to present the acceptance of money and appropriate at the same time. Thank you. Thank you. With that a motion to adjurnn. Motion by councelor Casey. Do I have a second? Second.

Second by councilman Pacco. Meetings adjourned. You sounded very eager with that one. Relax action.