Well, good afternoon everyone. Welcome
to the city council meeting. Today is
Monday, July 20th, 2026. It's
approximately 1 p.m. I'm Mayor Eric
Enriquez. Before we start, I want to
mention that we have the ASL, American
Sign Language, up in front if needed.
Uh we will start with a moment of
silence for the brave men and women of
the United States Armed Forces as they
protect our interests around the globe
as well as the courageous men and women
of the Los Cusus Police and Los Cusus
Fire Department that protect our city
24/7 365.
If you join me in the pledge.
Pledge allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the
republic for which it stands. One nation
under God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all.
So next we'll on the agenda we'll have
presentations and proclamations and
presentations.
So the first proclamation is for the Rio
Grand Theater. Is Topeer
Lininger here to accept and and bring
whoever else you want? This is a
historic moment. It's a it's a hundred
years celebration.
So whereas the real Grand Theater opened
on July 29th, 1926,
providing the small but growing Los
Cusus community with an entertainment
venue for movies, plays, and other
spectacles. s with new fangled air
conditioning. And whereas ongoing
operations at the Rio Grand Theater
supported the renewal of the downtown
commercial corridor and neighboring
businesses by boosting foot traffic on
the main street. Whereas the Rio Grand
Theater provides a setting for local
filmmakers and artists to connect
socially and professionally, sharing
their work with one another and the
wider community, encouraging the
development of technical skills in Los
Cusus and retaining valuable workers to
support the Messia Valley movie
industry. And whereas a 100red years
after it was first constructed, the Rio
Grand Theater continues to serve the
city and community with affordable arts,
access, and entertainment, fostering
connections between generations by
offering a variety of programs. Now
therefore, we the mayor and city council
of Los Cusus, New Mexico, do hereby
proclaim the 100th anniversary of the
Rio Grand Theater on July 29th, 2026
as the Rio Grand Theater Day and extend
its gratitude to the volunteers and
staff of the Rio Grand Theater and the
city's economic development department
who work to keep the theater operating
and call upon all citizens to celebrate,
promote promote and support this
irreplaceable historic building.
Congratulations.
[applause]
Say a few words
and then we'll get
Good afternoon, mayor, members of the
council, and city staff. My name is
Toeer Lininger. I'm the current venue
manager of the Rio Grand Theater. uh
before you today representing the
historic rear grand Theater. I've got
two of my technicians as well as
economic development and our historic
department as well who all help maintain
the building as best as possible. I want
to express our deepest gratitude to the
city of Los Cruuses for officially
recognizing the city turning or that not
the city, the theater turning 100. Uh on
July 29th, 1929, the theater opened its
doors as just a movie house. And over
the years, the community has kept it
standing, running, and presenting the
arts to the community. This centennial
celebration is not just a reflection of
the past, but a hope for the future and
a testament to what we can continue to
do. Thank you, mayor and council, for
this wonderful recognition, and we hope
to continue to serve our community.
Next, we have the Fourth of July
presentation by Parks and Recreation. I
believe it's Robert Nunes.
Mayor, city councilors, uh, city
manager, city staff, leadership, uh,
Robert Nunes, deputy director for parks
and recreation. I'd like to give a recap
of our Fourth of July celebration. Um,
once again, the city of Los Cusus
provided a wonderful celebration of our
community for our community and in
observance of America's 250th.
I'd initially like to recognize Miss
Lisa Ker and Mr. Ryan Steinman for their
amazing organization, communication,
planning, and logistics to make this
entire weekend a success.
Again, we promote community pride and
civic engagement, supporting residents,
businesses, and community organizations.
And we're providing a safe community
opportunities and events for residents
of all ages. On Friday, July 3rd, our
electric light parade, stars, stripes,
and city lights along with the electric
5K and onem fun run uh sponsored by Los
Cusus Running Club through Placer AI. We
had 24,600
in attendance throughout the 1.5 mile uh
parade route.
On Saturday, July 4th, our Fourth of
July concert and community picnic at
Patton Lucas Barrow Community Park on
New Mexico State University campus with
live music, food,
food truck corral, kids zone, and
fireworks with a an estimated attendance
at 14,800
to enjoy that event.
I'd like to recognize Los Cusus Police
Department, Transit, Public Works,
traffic and streets, utilities for
assist for assisting in keeping the
parade safe and secure throughout the uh
entire route. Um, again, star stripes
and city lights grand marshal was Master
Sergeant Melissa Gonzalez. Honorary
marshals were Richard and Jessica
Orlando. And leading the parade once
again was our Marine Corps League El
Pero Diablo Detachment number 478. So a
big shout out to that group.
Best overall float this year was
Hernandez Heating, Cooling, and
Plumbing.
In the commercial division, El Paso
Electric and Vado Speedway also placed
in the non-commercial. We had Fancy
Emil and Welcome Home Veterans along
with Todd Garrison for sheriff.
We saw I we believe an increase in
attendance due the due to the 250th and
it takes great pride to see our
community come out enjoy this event uh
the activities that go along with it and
the number of organizations both public
and private uh that put in floats a
number of car clubs uh organizations
businesses throughout our city that were
able to provide something for everyone
to enjoy.
Uh, city department entries, we had
quality of life, transit, visit Los
Cusus, utilities, of course, Los Cusus
Police Department, and Los Cusus Fire
Department.
For the Fourth of July concert and
picnic, we had our headliner 49
Winchester out of Virginia, a local
triple jack band that opened up for him,
11 food vendors and and a beer garden,
kids zone for families, and fireworks.
Family and friends began arriving at the
Lou Pat and Lucas Sparrow Community Park
on NMSU's campus beginning at 4:00.
Music kicked off at 6. The co the crowd
responded enthusiastically to both local
band Triplejack and headliner 49
Winchester. Members of 49 Winchester
shared how much they enjoyed their visit
to Los Cusus and especially the
hospitality they received from the
community. The 11 vendors and beer
garden described the evening as busy and
enjoyed providing their offerings to the
community.
The kids zone was wellreceived by
families and plans are already in the
works to expand the area and activities
for next year. The amazing partnership
with NMSU included Justin Banister,
chief of staff for the president's
office, chief of police Justin Dunovan,
and the university's facilities and
services along with the many other NMSU
staff providing their expertise. Also
this year, Donana County contributed to
the event allowing us to enhance the
entertainment this year.
Families came out and enjoyed an amazing
night of entertainment,
food, community gathering, and a
celebration of our country. Thank you to
all military personnel, past and
present, our community's first
responders, and all businesses that
worked with us, which allowed these
events to be safe, enjoyable, and
successful.
We finished the night with a spectacular
firework display.
We continue to evaluate and will attempt
to continue to provide a level of
service the community can enjoy and be
proud of.
[music]
Oh.
[music]
And lastly, uh, mayor, city councilors,
I would like to recognize, uh, a group
of individuals
who day in and day out
who day in and day out provide
exceptional programs and services. If
you're not aware, July is recognized as
Parks and Recreation Month. This month,
we enjoy communities across the nation
to celebrate the essential role that
parks and recreation spaces play in our
daily lives. These spaces are much more
than just acreage, facility footprints,
or programs. They are the true heart of
our community's infrastructure. Every
day, our parks, trails, recreation
centers, and programs give our residents
an accessible place to improve their
physical health, boost their mental
well-being, and safely connect with
nature and each other. From afterchool
programs, youth sports leagues, life
skills development programs to fitness
classes, our department and staff bridge
generations and build a strong, more
resilient city. None of this happens by
accident. Behind every clean park,
well-maintained trail, and successful
summer program is a team of incredible,
dedicated individuals. I see their hard
work firsthand every single day. I want
to thank our extraordinary ma
maintenance crews, program leaders,
mentors, student interns, and
volunteers. If you'll all please stand.
Your tireless efforts
[applause]
Your tireless efforts keep our community
vibrant, active, and beautiful. We
invite every resident to celebrate with
us this month. Come out to a local park.
Join our upcoming upcoming summer
events. We still have music in the park,
movies in the park, and plenty other
things um programs and activities
happening. And enjoy the incredible
resources right here in your own
backyard. Thank you, council, each and
every one of you for your valued
partnership, your leadership, and your
continued support for our community's
health and happiness. Thank you very
much.
[applause]
Thank you, Robert. It was a great event
and thank you all to the staff and
everyone that puts all the hard work
into it and it's truly appreciated.
Thank you very much.
Next we have a audit entrance conference
presentation by Chris Gardner uh for
FY26.
Uh, good afternoon, mayor, counselors.
I'm Liam Beasley, the accounting manager
here at the finance department, and I'm
pleased to introduce to you today Chris
Gardner, who's the partner at Patio
Brown and Hill. There are external
auditors, and he'll be covering the
entrance conference today.
Thank you, Liam, mayor, and counselors.
What I have here is a few slides with
some required communication and then a
couple other slides um that we'll go
over at the very end. But to start off
with, um my name is Chris Garner. I am I
am the partner in charge of your audit.
I' I think this is our sixth or seventh
year we've done your audit. Um and I've
been in charge all of those years. And
so Heather Lucero is my right-hand
person in the firm. She's also engaged.
She's actually upstairs working with our
team right now getting the planning
phase of your audit done.
So, one of the required things we're
supposed to discuss is audit timing. So,
we are completing the planning phase of
the audit right now and and into August
where we test internal controls. We make
sure that the internal controls are
working as established. And then we also
have some state auditor compliance
testing that they require we do. And
then because the city spends more than
700, actually it's now a million dollars
of federal funds, you're subject to a
compliance audit, what we call a single
audit over those federal grants. And so
we will get with the planning phase of
that right now, too. And then after
we've tested internal controls, we've
done interviews, we will do our risk
assessment, and that's where we will
come up with our audit plan and
determine the audit steps that we will
do. Our fieldwork will happen in
October, November where we will test
your year-end balances and then we
anticipate November having our exit
conference and getting it submitted to
the state auditor. Your audit is due to
the state auditor December 1st so that
it can be submitted to GFOA by the end
of the year.
The next slide talks about
responsibilities and this is one we have
to talk about a lot because there's a
lot of confusion in what an audit
entails. As you can see on the lefth
hand side, what we do when we do an
audit, we express an opinion on your
financial statements to make sure that
the numbers included in your audit
report meet the standards that we have
to follow. If you look on the top right
box, we give what's called reasonable
assurance. We cannot look at every
transaction. There's just way too many
that come through the city. So, we pick
statistical samples. We look at your
intern total controls, but we're
definitely not looking at everything.
And so when your audit report's done,
there could be errors in the numbers,
but those errors are not going to be big
enough to change the opinion of the
readers of the financial statements. And
so example I always give and most of you
have heard this many times is if you
were to give your audit to a banker,
those errors are not going to be big
enough to change the banker's opinion on
the financial status of the city. So
that's what our responsibilities under
auditing standards are. Under auditing
standards, technically when it comes to
internal controls, we only have to test
one transaction from each significant
cycle. Because of that, the state
auditor wants us to do what we call a
yellowbook audit. And that's what this
slide covers. So I talked about
significant cycles. Those are things
like cash dispersements, payroll, cash
receipts. So to meet auditing standards,
we only have to test one transaction.
But when we do a yellowbook audit, we
actually have to pick those samples of
those significant accounting internal
controls and test those transactions. In
addition, the state audit rule expands
that. We have have to test about 20
items that really relate to state
compliance things like budgetary issues.
Um, we have to look at procurement,
travel and predium. So again, in New
Mexico, they expand the type of testing
we have to do to meet the yellowbook
standards. And as you can see on the
right, what we do is we're not testing
internal controls samples big enough to
give an opinion. All we do in that
report is spell out how we're testing
above regular auditing standards. And
then here we have to communicate
significant matters. Well, state auditor
changes that threshold. They basically
take that sign significant matters and
puts it at ground level. So any findings
in the state have to be reported. Reason
is is transparency. The state auditor
wants councils to be able to know what
the issues are, whether they're
significant or not, so that you can
track and how and see how your
management team is dealing with those
issues. And so that is the two standards
in New Mexico that we have to follow.
The the auditing standards probably
changed about 15 years ago and really
put an emphasis on the city and your
responsibilities over maintaining a
trial balance and numbers that we as
auditors can come in and test. And so
your responsibilities include that
you're performing all management
functions, that you're responsible for
making all financial decision, and that
you're in uh implementing internal
controls to safeguard your assets. So
those in essence are your
responsibilities. We get a trial balance
that meets the standards and we go in
and audit those numbers to make sure
that that they are materially correct.
the scope of the audit and this is
actually the last required communication
is we have the city and then we have
some JPAs and we have a component unit
and then we also have a blended fund
with a downtown TID. So our audits not
just covering the city but also other
areas.
I wanted to bring up the New Mexico
state audit rule. There really was
nothing this year that changed that
significantly affects the procedures
that we have to do. I talked a moment
ago about those additional items that
the state audit rule requires us to test
and there was no changes in any of
those. And so really this year um there
was a little bit of clarification in the
state audit rule regarding how they want
us to present budgetary statements but
honestly because you go after the GFOA
award all the budgetary statements are
going to be included in your final
financial statement. So it's just going
to kind of change where a few of them
are and moving them in where they're
going to be presented in the financial
statement. So not really a big change.
So this year's audit rule changes really
didn't have much of a significance.
As we go throughout the audit process
until that audit is accepted as a final
document that's made public on the state
auditor's website. If you hear of any
updates or get um you know hear some
discussions about what the audit
progress is, we cannot make those
public. We can't talk about them in
public until the audit has been finally
accepted by the state auditor. And so
the auditor does take this serious um
and so make sure that we keep everything
confidential until the final report has
been accepted. The last slide I have
here, this is not the correct forum to
talk about this, but what I'd like to do
is at least bring up some items that
would like for you to think about. Um,
Christine has my contact info. So, if
any of you counselors or management team
want to get a hold of me, my cell phone,
she has that. Please contact me. She
also has my email. So, please let me
know if you have any questions or
concerns or specific transactions you
feel that we need to look at. And just
know if you do contact um myself or any
of my team, it will remain confidential
and it will only be used in developing
the audit plan and the steps that we
will be completing throughout the audit
process. But some of the feedback and
things I would like you to consider is
if there are material material related
party transactions, just because there's
a material related party transaction
does not mean we have an issue, but we
just need to be made aware of them.
there's a potential we might have to
disclose them in the financial
statements, but as long as that
conflict, the person who has that
conflict abstains from any
decision-making and it goes through the
right processes that the city has
established, we don't have issues. But
we just need to be made aware if there
are any. If there's any concerns of
fraud or if you know of any fraud,
please let us know what those concerns
are. if the city has been subject to any
special audits not only by um any state
agency but any federal agency. If you're
aware of that, please let us know. And
then again, as I mentioned a moment ago,
if there's any certain type of
transaction that you feel warrants us
looking at something specially, um we
will take that into consideration and
potentially dei develop audit steps to
look at those type of transactions. So,
please just get a hold of me and we'll
get that information on to our audit
team as we go throughout your audit
process. With that, mayor, I'll turn it
back to you.
All right. Thank you, Chris.
Sounds good. Thanks for the
presentation.
Thank you.
agenda.
Next on the agenda is the pets of the
week. Million Coral.
Good afternoon, Mayor, City Council.
Alrighty. So, pets of the week for July
20th, 2026. We have our first dog of the
week. We have Bonnie. Bonnie is a
gentle, sweet soul who has come a long
way since arriving at the shelter. She's
a little shy, but she enjoys spending
time with other dogs in playgroup. Um,
she loves just being by your side, going
for a lovely walk, and she's a really
loyal companion. So, if you're looking
for just a gentle, sweet dog to go on a
walk with, walking around the
neighborhood, going on a hike with, come
and check out Bonnie. She's our first
pet of the week there. And then we have
Rook. Um, Rook is pretty cool. He has
two different color eyes as you can see
there. So, this funloving adventure
buddy is just so much fun and has so
much energy. He's super sweet, friendly,
and affectionate. And he just loves
attention. He's been in different
socials with families and just enjoys
spending time with other playful dogs
who can match his energetic style. He's
super smart and he will be decently
trained. You know, you got work with
them. All dogs need a little bit of time
to settle into their new home, but he
will definitely thrive with an active
family. So, come by and meet both of
these amazing animals. Their adoption is
free this week. So, come by, do social,
and if you love them, or if you see
another animal you would love to take
home with you, that would be great.
Also,
so our long-term residents, um, and I
apologize that I didn't update the
slide, but I want everybody to know that
Dober went home. He was our longest
resident in the shelter and he went home
on Saturday. He was adopted. So, yay.
Um to a wonderful family and his new
name is Rizzo. So, shout out to Dober
there who went home. So, now our
longestterm resident is Francesca. Um
she is in foster. But just because
they're in foster and available doesn't
mean, you know, you can't visit with
them or you can't socialize with them.
Just give the shelter a call. Um, we can
always sk a social with one of our dogs
in foster care. We can have the foster
bring them down and you guys can get to
know them. So, Francesca is our
longestterm resident and then we also
have Ebony and Playa. So, come down meet
some of our longestterm residents. We
have some events coming up. We will be
at PetSmart July 25th. We will be at
Fashion for Hearts um August 1st and
there's some more information on that.
Petco on August 8th and every Wednesday
in August we will be at the farmers
market. Don't forget the month of July.
Red, white, and cute adoptions are $25
all month long. As you can see, there's
some of our animals. And for more
information, you'll see all of our stuff
here. Ascv.org. You can see all of our
adoptable animals there. So, check out
our website, Facebook, Instagram. Um,
and if you're looking to foster, reach
out to our foster coordinator.
And thank you. Thanks, Amelia.
All right. Next up, as you can see,
we're I I have invited um Naomi Morning
Star Cruz, who is here today with us,
who's organizing an event for the ASCMV.
Naomi is um when she comes up, I'll
share a little bit more about her while
she while she comes on up. Yes, come up.
Her commitment to animals is
extraordinary and her fundraising and
event coordination skills make her an
extraordinary community member. We're so
lucky that you sometimes call Las Cusus
part of your home. Um she's currently
taking classes to support our f future
work moving New Mexico forward
beautifully. I'm proud to to know you
and uh be able to hear about this event
and and go to this event. um her
fundamental kindness for humans and
animals combined with her creativity
provide a kind of synergy that
translates to perennial success. So
please tell tell everyone about the
upcoming event.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Good afternoon Mr. Mayor and council
members. My name is Naomi Morning Star
Cruz. I am the founder of the Furhearts
organization and director of the fashion
for hearts fashion show. I am Churikawa
Apache and was raised very traditionally
within our ways and our stories and I
was taught most of all the connection
and the importance of the connection
between humans and animals in the earth
around us. Uh as part of the city of Los
Cusus, I really appreciated seeing the
work that was already happening here. I
have been a volunteer at animal shelters
for about a little over six years. I've
been a fashion model for about about six
years. Sorry, volunteer for about 10
years.
And having worked at the Cats Meow and
APA and Kalista Animal Hospital, I
really enjoyed my time with the service
with the people and the animals as well.
I wanted to combine what I knew about
fashion shows and modeling with my work
with the animals. So, I began doing
pageantss with my animal wellness
platform to spread the awareness to a
diverse audience. However, I still felt
like I could do more and thus fashion
for hearts fashion show came to be. It
is a fundraiser event sponsoring the
animal services center of the Messia
Valley. They provide adoptable shelter
dogs from their foster program to walk
in the show with the models. Last year,
we did have a dog adopted right off the
runway and we're very hopeful that this
year that trend continues as well.
We also aim to connect the citizens of
Los Cusus and the surrounding New Mexico
areas with educational materials about
what services are available to them as
pet owners and those who care for the
environment and the community. Working
as a receptionist at Kalista Animal
Hospital, I got to interact with so many
people of the public and hear about so
many different services from the spay
spay and neuter action program or um
different companies that support
financially the people in need of
[clears throat] v veterinary care and I
wanted to be able to connect people with
the knowledge of those resources so that
they know what's available to them and
care for their pets as pets care for us.
Um, those of you who have pets in your
home, I'm sure know how important it is
to have your animals near you and
support you emotionally and just be part
of your family or your friends. And
there are service animals that take care
of those with disabilities or our
veterans or in the hospitals to support
those going through hard times. So, as
much as animals serve us, I hope that we
all take care of them as well. And it's
a mutual love relationship between us
and them. So, Fashion for Hearts this
year will be on August 1st. I hope to
see many people there. It will support
the animal shelter with adoptions and
the funds from the tickets and the
silent auction will go towards their
veterinary bills as well.
The
let's see, sorry.
Oh, yes. Thank you. Um, it'll be taking
place this year as well as last year at
the Great Vine Plaza here. Beautiful
ballroom, lovely lighting, amazing
place. And the tickets are for sale
right now on eventbrite.com starting at
$15.
Again, all of the proceeds from the
ticket sales go towards the shelters
bills.
Okay, thank you very much. Thank you.
[applause]
Next on the agenda is a conflict of
interest. Does any member of the city
council, city manager, or any member of
the city staff have any known conflict
of interest with any item on the agenda?
None.
No.
None.
No conflict.
No.
Next is public participation. We'll
allow up to three minutes. No pending
litigation or items on the non-consent.
Uh please if you could speak directly
into the microphone so that that way uh
the people online can also uh hear and
understand better. Thank you.
Good afternoon. My name is Staff
Sergeant Dorine White.
I don't know, you guys make me nervous
up here. But anyway, I presented a book
to the council about how it works. I've
been studying this for 10 years because
I've been violated by the Department of
Public Safety in Missouri.
I became a hot spot. I think you read
about it in the book. And the reason why
I was military, I didn't do drugs. I had
financial
money to support myself.
Every night I'm violated
because I have a gas in me. And if I was
a soldier and I was 10 ft under cement,
those cyber minis can bother me. Okay, I
see the purpose of the science, but I'm
not a robot. I have cameras, chips. I
can show you where they're in my body.
President Clinton said in his civil
liberties thing, four acts, no human
being citizen
without consent can be used as a
laboratory
project.
Um, when I went up against the state of
New Mexico, they said there was no laws.
They not that they didn't break them,
but there was no laws. and my life
matters.
Okay, here's the book, whole book on
human rights. There's a constitution,
10 amendments that protect me by my
rights, privacy acts, and I've been on
this journey for a long time. and the
side effects and consequences other
actions
might stop my heart and they'll get away
with murder. Okay, my journey isn't a
negative encounter.
I don't know when those side effects and
symptoms and consequences of their
actions which is in the mail. It's like
a cult at the bank. I go in there, my
PIN numbers change while they're giving
me a new card.
Okay? And I come to you
as the council
as a different avenue to seek support.
And I don't know how long they could
stop my heart tonight and I won't be
here tomorrow. So at least I got up here
today.
It's on record that I told you so.
And I believe in God and I believe in
the law.
And these people, the 14th Amendment,
they're failing to protect me by my
rights and my laws.
So, anything you can do for me, I'm
grateful. Thank you and have a nice day.
What I see?
[clears throat]
Mayor, mayor prom folks here today,
those watching online, I'm Lynn Moer.
Mayor, you may want to take note. This
is something new. Today, I provide an
update to documented information
supplied at the May 4th meeting about
the data in Los Cusus Utilities
so-called consumer confidence reports
for the past 10 years. As John Adams
noted, facts are stubborn things. The
facts are that Los Cusus Utilities
continues to lie to the public and issue
false information regarding lead levels.
The 2025 report for University Estates
water system, which was just published,
is provably false. The New Mexico
Environment Department agrees. NMEED
just notified me that it agrees with my
assessment that Las Cusus Util's 2025
CCR for university estates is false in
several respects. The CCR says water was
sampled for lead in 2024 and the range
high was 8 parts per billion. In
reality, lab reports show indisputably
that no sampling was done in 2024 for
this water system. Here's the evidence
in black and white. These are the lab
reports. The most recent sampling
occurred in 2023, which is what the CCR
should have reported. Moreover, the lead
levels in 2023 were found at 24 parts
per billion and 18 parts per billion,
both with which exceed the action level
of 15. This also should have been
reported. Councelor Matise, this is in
your district. This is unequivocal
evidence that residents in your district
have been drinking lead in their water
that is considered dangerous. Moreover,
Lasus Utilities hasn't bothered to go
back and resample at the properties
which showed these significant
exceedences. Not in 2024, not in 2025.
The utilities director doesn't think
it's necessary to follow up and see what
lead levels consumers are drinking in
the years following clear evidence that
they've been drinking lead at levels
that are significantly above EPA's
action level. The 2025 CCR for
University Estate seems to be another
exercise in attempting to gaslight the
public into thinking everything is fine.
This follows a 10-year pattern of
falsification of the CCRs from 2015 to
2024, which was documented in my May 4th
presentation. Publishing knowingly false
information is wrong, especially when
it's about critical things that affect
public health, and it's despicable. It's
impossible to fathom how any of you
could defend this. The utilities
director's incompetence in deliberate
falsification continues. falsification
which leads which seeks to minimize the
lead problem in Las Cusus's drinking
water. The evidence is clear that she's
not fulfilling her responsibilities to
the citizens of the city. The evidence
shows that it's time to bring in a
competent engineer with integrity to
have the utilities department. Thank you
for this opportunity to speak.
[applause]
Mayor, city council, I'm Liz Rodriguez
Johnson. We again asked Losuses
Utilities to prove that it acted in good
faith when it applied for $15 million
from the New Mexico Finance Authority to
replace lead and galvanized water
piping. To obtain that 15 million, the
city promised to prioritize
disadvantaged properties. Evidence shows
that utilities has not been carrying out
that promise. We again ask the utilities
director in the time she has remaining
to demonstrate that rather than
intending to commit fraud that she
assures that these latest lists of truly
disadvantaged properties valued at
200,000 or less are inspected
immediately. Handouts A and B are the
seventh lists like this that we've
provided. We also again asked the
utilities director to comply with the
lead and copper rule with respect to
lead and galvanized piping. As Derek
Pacheco described at the meeting before
last, city inspectors initially just
checked the meter box on his property on
South Mosquite in one of the city's
oldest neighborhoods. They concluded
that his piping was plastic and said
there was nothing else they needed to
do. Derek showed them exposed metal
piping farther up the line, well outside
the meter box. Eventually, the
inspectors came back, looked at the
exposed piping, and concluded that it
was galvanized. We know this because an
NIPER request revealed an inspection
report identifying galvanized piping on
Derek's property. This demonstrated, as
we've told you for 18 months, that
utilities inspection method of just
checking the meter box is completely
inadequate. The inspection occurred on
June 5th, 45 days ago. EPA guidance
requires water systems to notify
property owners within 30 days when
galvanized piping is discovered. We
brought this 30-day notice requirement
to your attention on several occasions.
Yet, Derek has not received any notice
from the city. The utilities department
hasn't had the decency to notify Derek
as required, similar to the failure for
many other properties in the city with
galvanized piping. If these owners were
notified, they could take steps now to
replace the piping if they have
financial resources. If they don't, they
might start saving up for that explan
expense. Plus, they may want to try to
find a way to pay for water filters in
the meantime. As Fred Miller explained
last meeting, galvanized piping keeps
corroding over time. No one should have
to drink water with rust in it or have
their galvanized piping collapse because
it's so corroded. Despite this, the
director has never provided an
explanation as why the utilities
department refuses to comply with a
federal requirement to notify all
property owners with galvanized pipes.
This is cruel and disrespectful to these
owners. You, city council, and you, city
manager, have had 18 months to do the
right thing by these citizens. Their
health is at stake. And what are you
doing about it? Is it it's a mystery,
but it looks like nothing. And that is
even more cruel. Thank you.
[applause]
Good afternoon once again, Mr. Mayor and
council members. Um, I apologize for my
late adding. Um, I had looked into city
ordinance.
Excuse me. No. Can you state your name
again just for the record?
My apologies. Uh, my name is Naomi
Morning Star Cruz. Uh, I wanted to make
sure that I included my address to the
city council regarding regarding
ordinance 3091,
which was passed around June of last
year. The ordinance focuses on the
proper ways to secure an animal in your
yard, what constitutes as neglect, and
proper care of animals under human
supervision.
I
first noticed when it was passed um
during the publications on social media
and on the websites how positively I
would suspect that these changes would
affect the community. And judging by the
statistics page on the animal services
center website, I've noticed that there
has been a trend after the
implementation of that ordinance that
intakes had gone down. Last year's total
intakes were around 9,000 animals at the
animal services center. This year we're
a little bit past halfway through the
year and we're already almost at 5,000.
Following this trend, I suspect that we
will have a lower amount of intakes this
year. And I suspect that it is probably
due to the help from ordinances such as
to promote helpful and healthy care of
the animals in people's possession. So I
wanted to say thank you for everyone's
work on that and thank you for the
continued care that you do for the
community um on all levels that you do
look into and work so hard for. So thank
you again for your time. I apologize for
wanting to add one more thing. I felt
like u my gratitude was important. So,
thank you. Have a great day.
Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor and Council
and all supporting attendees. My name is
Betty White and I'm here with the
question concerning or a request for
your consideration in the
information that was presented and
approved on July 6th for an ordinance
approving a zoning map change amending
the uh plan for the Royal Crossing
development.
Unfortunately, all of us residents
affected by this were not available on
July 6 for that presentation. So, I'm
asking you for a bit of further
consideration, please, concerning that
Royal Crossing development.
This is specifically concerning the
drainage on that property.
I live
in the neighborhood on the east side of
Royal Crossing. I have lived on Desert
Drive
across the street from the described
open space property for over 50 years.
My home is one house away from the cross
point
where water flows down Martha Dorothy
and Margaret Streets through a dedicated
drainage area and from those streets
east of Desert Drive then flows across
Desert into the
0 or 0.41 41
uh acreage
spot on your maps that is um
viewed
that you viewed for your consideration
in your uh July 6th
June 6th
consideration
last summer after a hard rain shower.
Not a big rainstorm,
but a a hard rain shower. For the first
time in 50 years, living at that spot on
Desert Drive, I was out in the street
with another neighbor who lives closest
to where the running water crosses
Desert Drive and collects to help a
motorist caught in the water there.
That street had flooded.
Again, this was not during a prolonged
rainstorm, but was from a fairly short
but hard rain shower.
I find on the maps that you considered
the designation on vacated to future
replat
on the maps that were provided. I cannot
see any designated ponding area on your
maps or any way for water that flows
from your parcel
out to
the remaining ponding areas.
I ask you to consider the fact that
there is a lot of water that is flowing
that has not been accounted for and ask
you to spend more time considering this.
Thank you.
Good afternoon. Council, Mayor, City
Staff, Diane Starbucks. For the record,
I have kind of a public service
announcement.
Um, that this Saturday, the 25th,
Southwest Coalition for Life is having a
gathering at the Akato Sexual and
Reproductive Health Service Center to
pray it away. Why they can't pray it
away from El Paso where they're based, I
don't know.
It will be at the building site which
now has floors and walls up. The address
is 4425 East Lman Avenue. The time is
8:30 to 10:30 a.m. There will be a
peaceful pro-choice rally. At the same
time, we need to send a message that New
Mexicans stand up for women's rights.
There are information papers in the back
on the table for anyone who wants one.
Bodily autonomy and access to
reproductive health care are human
rights.
Without sovereignty over one's own body,
half the population is subject to
systemic inequality and cannot be
considered genuinely free. Thank you.
[applause]
Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor, City Council.
My name is Jim Hurst.
A few months ago,
uh there was a similar protest as to the
one this weekend.
uh people gathered to uh protest to
oppose
the uh Okato Women's Health Care Center.
Uh among them was our mayor who spoke in
favor of an economic boycott. By his
presence in the event, he endorsed an
economic boycott against suppliers and
contractors for the Okato Healthc Care
Center. He has yet to retract that
endorsement of the boycott.
This citizen thinks that the boycott
is not appropriate.
Uh Mr. Mayor, your responsibility is to
the welfare of this community,
of the citizens of Los Cusus.
You don't have to endorse abortion.
You don't have to agree to anything,
but you have to stay out of our way when
it comes to improving the lives of New
Mexicans and in providing for women's
healthcare.
We have that right, Mr. Mayor. And we've
passed laws.
We've instituted courts.
and we voted in ways that indicate
our commitment to pro-choice.
You don't have to share that commitment
with us, but you do have to allow us to
implement
to build health care facilities that
provide for those rights.
So this weekend there will be a U
demonstration of support for the Okato
Women's Healthc Care Center. At the same
time there will be a demonstration
against
the women's healthc care center.
I hope the police
and the mayor's office do not show
favorites between the protesting groups.
I hope all is done within the law.
Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor.
[applause]
Good afternoon.
Lost my place.
My name is Leslie Woods. Good afternoon,
mayor and city council members. My name
is Leslie Woods and I would like to
address the protest against the Elcatil
Sexual and Reproductive Health Center
led by the Southwest Right to Life in El
Paso, Texas, a state that doesn't
support a woman's right to choose. A
right that New Mexico law does support
and women here are have the right to
seek an abortion. We realize that this
is contrary to some religious beliefs
and we have no desire to change your
right to believe what you will, but it
has no place in New Mexico. We do
instead affirm, Mr. Mayor, that your
obligation to your faith, if it
interferes with your obligation to your
constituents,
we would like to express the idea that
Los Cusus has laws that support the
health of Los Cusus women. As far as
your personal beliefs and those of the
people coming from Texas, you're invited
to stay in Texas or stay home and work
on the many things that pertain to
Texas.
Thank you.
Good afternoon, council. My name is
Blaine Bower. I'm here with my husband
Kevin Mau. We would like to put forth a
second request to look at the ordinance
that Betty White just mentioned
regarding the um regarding the open
drainage option for the area located off
of south side of Mercy Street. My home,
our home is directly backs this
particular area and I second Betty
White's position in the sense that we
have some serious flooding down Desert
Drive as it currently stands. we don't
have enough drainage in that area as it
is where so when you're talking about
drainage I just like for you to take a
closer look at this a far more extensive
look as to how it impacts that
neighborhood especially those homes that
are backing that particular open area as
we have there's the everybody knows that
was like the former golf course. So we
kind of it looks like a uh almost like
an entry point into the golf course
almost like a maintenance point to the
side one one house over from us and that
is where there is some serious flooding
that occurs in that particular area and
unfortunately it bottlenecks in that
area so it can't flow down the street on
either side because we're kind of on
that hill on Desert Drive. So just I
would like to just ask you to take a
little bit more consideration when
approving any sort of like drainage area
ex particularly to that space. We are at
2325 Desert Drive for reference if you
want to look at that closer on a map to
see where that uh drainage or where that
uh flooding is occurring. Thank you.
All right. Thank you. And public works
is taking note of this as you speak.
Mayor, Council, Juan Garcia, thanks to
the mayor and council for running a
civil meeting like the circus, clowns
included, at [clears throat] the county
commission where profanity and insults
against some of the commissioners are
routine. [clears throat] Excuse me.
Moving ahead from the Sun OpEd written
by two city councilors and I quote,
"DOJ's model city initiative is a Trojan
horse for Las Cruises."
And the quote I kept reading, sure the
counselors won't try to mislead or
gaslight the community. That
[clears throat] story insists the grant
is all about quote enforcement,
policing, and control rather than any
real collaborative youth leadership and
action. And [clears throat] supposedly
flooding communities with surveillance,
technology, and weapons of war that will
disproportionately harm immigrants and
black folks. because naturally
past [clears throat] waves of funding
led to unjust arrests and incarceration
that we'll still experience today. I
lost the bubble between weapons of war
and black folks consist considering that
blacks in in Lasuses or 1.9% of the
population
excuse [clears throat] me in the wake of
some of the most aggressive and violent
immigration enforcement our country has
seen in decades. This 300 million fund
targets cities with more than a 100,000
residents. End of quote. By this point,
I was ready to barricade myself in my
safe space and wait for democracy to
implode. So I read the DOJ initiative
and I quote, "Through this initiative,
two to four cities will be selected
selected to receive awards supporting
the implementation of comprehensive
and innovative strategies to reduce
crime, restore law and order, and
enhance public safety. Investments will
be made in a variety of areas addressing
public safety, behavioral health, and
related staffing
and services with a goal of leveraging
federal resources to build capacity,
strengthen accountability, and deliver
measurable reductions in crime.
Applications are due by 1 September. So,
let's be real. Does anyone actually
believe this so-called welcoming city
and community where over in my opinion
half the officials hate the current
administration would ever jump at the
chance to apply for this grant? Or is
this just gaslighting and fear-mongering
at its best? Thank you.
Good afternoon, mayor, counselors, and
staff. My name is Yoli Diaz. I will send
each of you an email with a proposal
asking the city of Los Cusus to estab
establish medical health care as an
essential community investment through a
joint powers agreement a JPA with Donana
County. Also, I access case documents of
the lawsuit of city of Los Cusus and
Donana County versus MMC.
If I interpret these correctly, the
judge has dismissed Apollo Global
Management from the lawsuit. Not a
surprise. And I understand that the city
and county have informed the federal
court that the parties are attempting to
resolve the MMC litigation before
engaging in lengthy litigation. Whether
that litigation ultimately ultimately
settles or proceeds through the courts
is of course a legal matter. However, I
believe this moment also presents an
additional opportunity. The city of Los
Cruus will have two avenues to fund
medically necessary health care. One is
the Telshore facility fund that last
week's presentation including the
included the expectation of 1.2 to$ 1.5
million of yearly investment proceeds. I
understand that no funding is earmarked
for medically necessary health care nor
medically necessary diagnostics where
which are essential to the proper
diagnosis of patients that are decided
by medical providers not government
officials. These proceeds can continue
to fund 600,000 to the nonprofit
organizations that have been served
yearly and 500,000 can go to the fund
medically necessary health care. I am
also addressing the anti-donation clause
in my email that allows state, counties,
and municipalities to provide a
provision for the care and maintenance
of sick and indigent persons. Further,
if the litigation results in a financial
recovery for the city, I respectfully
ask you to consider preserving those
proceeds as a permanent investment
similar to the Telure facility fund
written into the settlement. written
into the settlement that will be
dedicated to funding access to medically
necessary care only. This will benefit
the people of our community in
perpetuity by utilizing the proceeds
yearly. It should also be considered
through a JPA with Donana County putting
the monies together if legally possible.
The principle can remain intact while
the annual investment earnings provide a
sustainable source in perpetuity funding
for medical health care through the JPA.
My proposal is not intended to revisit
the past for its own sake. It is offered
in the hope that the lessons of the past
can help guide future decisions. I
believe healthcare deserves to be
recognized as one of the city's
essentual community investments
alongside parks, housing, and economic
development. I also believe the
residents of Los Cruuses deserve to know
where each of their elected
representatives stands on this proposal.
One last thing. I recognize that no
healthcare assistance program can meet
every need. No community organization,
not a food bank, not a homeless shelter,
not a domestic domestic violence program
can honestly promise to help everyone.
Funding is finite. What communities
generally expect is something different.
They will help as many people as they
can with the resources available until
the next funding year. Thank you. And
I've got some documentation for you.
Christine, this is for you and all the
way up to Cassie.
Thank you.
Hello. Uh my name is Rick Renault. Uh I
was a candidate for city council. uh
last district six last November. I do
have one good thing to say about uh rank
choice voting at a later meeting. But
anyway, what I'm here today to talk
about is the model city initiative and
this uh this oped.
It seems to me talking about Trojan
horses,
you know, citizens have been coming here
for the last year, last four years
asking for for safety. Four years ago, a
friend of Mayor Ken's came up here and
said, "Ken,
it's deplorable out here." That was four
years ago. So, I think the city welcomes
this initiative.
All the people have come here to talk
about park safety the last year. There's
one big old guy was talking about
safety. He goes there with his son. He
can't protect his son if his son steps
on a needle or a glass pipe. So anyway,
the point of what I'm what I'm here for
is is the city going to pursue this or
not? Can we find out soon? Perhaps
today. Is the city going to pursue this?
This looks like a poison pill
if the city does pursue it. So anyway,
that that's just what I'm asking. Is
there any way a roll call and and it and
can we find out today is the city going
to pursue this or do we have to come
back and hammer on you guys to maybe
bring some safety to our city? Anyway,
thank you
Derek [clears throat] Pacheco for the
record.
Let's bring some safety to the city.
Let's maybe start with the water.
Oh, hi, Councelor Matise.
Remember five months ago when I told you
that I had no running water inside my
house?
and that maybe we could make my house a
uh star project for the 18monthl long
attention
to the galvanized pipe matter.
And what'd you do?
Nothing. You did nothing for me.
Instead, what you did is you gas lit me.
Same thing with counselor McCclure. She
likes to gaslight people as well.
She doesn't like to show up to
neighborhood meetings.
Sad.
Iconie, I uh saw on your resume that you
brought a data center to your to your
old town of Eagle Rock, Utah.
the same township where your pal Epho
was caught with a uh Cayman Islands bank
account that reconciled overnight that
wasn't disclosed to the state.
There's no reason to trust you people,
which is disgusting.
Council Harris took it upon himself to
squash the flock conversation because
he's the tech guy and he'll take care of
it. Okay. Was
that funny? Do I make you laugh?
The flock rep on the radio interview
with Chief Story and myself said that
flock cameras don't trace people.
However, 404 media just this past week
has a pretty nice expose on how they
track people and the different queries
that are used in the system.
When I was unlawfully sent to jail here
down the street, I noticed that we're a
funnel for ice.
I saw construction workers with cement
on their boots,
fresh pulled in from Santa Teresa.
These cameras are a mass surveillance
system that we didn't ask for, that
we're paying for, and that we have no
idea what they're recording or who has
access to them. We saw in Tucson with
the missing person that uh the Google
Nest camera that was not active with
recording features to the owner of the
camera
suddenly produced footage
that it was not authorized to have.
We need a real discussion about real
problems here, not just this spaceime,
this three minute circus that we get.
Thanks.
Tim Jenkins here. I stand before you
today deeply disappointed once again.
Not because people have different
political opinions, but because I expect
those elected to represent our city and
to put the safety and unity of our
community above ideology.
Recently, two members of this council
publicly criticized federal assistance
being offered to our community. Rather
than viewing it as an opportunity to
improve public safety and the well-being
of our community, they portrayed it as
an attack on our community. They
described federal efforts as programs
rooted in fear and surveillance while
completely dismissing the fact that our
nation's immigration laws exist for a
reason and that those who enter or
remain in this country unlawfully have
violated those laws. No one is above the
law. Compassion and the rule of law are
not opposite. Our nation cannot remain
secure if its laws are only enforced
when they are politically convenient.
What troubles me most is that the
article seems to show more concern for
those who have broken our immigration
laws than for the citizens of Los Cusus
who expect their elected officials to
keep them safe. Our police officers have
never been deputized to spread fear or
target innocent people as you suggest.
They wear the badge to protect this
community, uphold the law, and serve
every resident with honor and
professionalism.
Leadership requires the willingness to
work with others, even with whom you
disagree, when it benefits the people
you were elected to serve. Rejecting
help before it is even considered
because it comes from a federal level
sends the wrong message. It suggests
that your polit policies matter more
than public safety. The welcome city
ordinance has also become a symbol of
division for many in our community.
Instead of reassuring residents that
public safety comes first, it has left
many believing that council is more
interested in protecting those who
violate our immigration laws rather than
addressing the concerns of law-abiding
citizens. The people of Los Cusus
deserve leaders who bring people
together, who respect the rule of law,
and who are willing to elevate every
opportunity to make our city safer for
all. We deserve leaders who unite rather
than divide, who place the interests of
our citizens first and who remember that
the oath they took was to faithfully
serve this entire community, not a
political ideology. I respectfully ask
this council to put aside partisan
narratives and work with one goal in
mind and that is to support our law
enforcement and to work to restore the
confidence of the citizens of this city
who elected you to do that very thing.
Thank you.
Okay. Next is the acceptance of agenda.
Move to accept.
Second.
This is on the motion to accept the
agenda as presented. Councelor Mccclur.
Yes.
Councelor Matise.
Yes. Councelor Harris,
yes.
Councelor Beno,
yes.
Councelor Karan,
yes.
Councelor Munoz,
yes.
Mayor,
yes.
So, next on the agenda is 7.1 resolution
number 27-0116.
And Donnie
move to approve.
Second.
Okay, you can go, Donnie.
Good afternoon, mayor, counselors, and
city staff. My name is Donnie Proise,
purchasing supervisor for the financial
services department, and before you is a
resolution to authorize an increase in
the annual spending limit for electronic
payment services.
A little bit of background. On November
20th, 2023, the city council approved
resolution 24-052
authorizing a contract for electronic
payment services with Payment
Corporation of Charlotte, North Carolina
for a term of 5 years in an amount not
to exceed $600,000 annually, subject to
approved budget appropriations.
services include processing city
customers debit and credit card
payments, interfacing with the city's
billing system through a web service
application programming interface or
API, depositing payments collected each
day into the city's designated bank
account, providing daily electronic
transaction files, and providing a
client portal for city staff to view
transactions and generate reports.
The utilities department has seen
increased use of debit and credit cards
for payments of utility bills as fewer
customers are paying with cash or
checks. Utilities anticipates further
increases in the utilization of
electronic payments and is therefore
requesting authorization to increase the
annual expenditure limit for contract
number 23-24-00003
to an amount not to exceed $1 million
subject to approved budget
appropriations.
before you are your options and I stand
for questions.
All right. Thank you, Donnie. Any
questions? Council, councelor Matis.
Uh, I guess the obvious question is why
the big increase?
Uh, Mayor Councelor Matise, I would
defer to Steven Valdez from the uh,
utilities department who I believe is
here. Yes.
Good afternoon, mayor, city council. Um,
Stephen Valdez, utility billing and
receivables supervisor for the record.
Um to answer your question, counselor,
the number of uh the number of uh
transactions have increased
significantly from the beginning of
FY21, the end of COVID up until FY23,
uh probably about 64%.
Um from FY23 to FY25 is increased about
48%. So with everyone making their
payments through an online portal uh the
utility hawk uh app or by phone this has
increased the number of transactions
that have that process this fee of $2.15
per transaction.
Can can I ask you very satisfied with
their the quality that they've offered?
Mayor counselor uh yes so far yes. um
their increase the increase started in
FY23. So there's only been one increase
since that point. Um and that increase
is just the rate of $1.95 to the $2.15.
But just the number of transactions adds
to that invoice, which is an average
about 52,000 a month.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mayor.
Thank you. Anyone else?
All
right, Christine.
Let's send the motion to approve
resolution 27-016.
Councelor McClur,
yes.
Councelor Matise,
yes.
Councelor Harris,
yes.
Councelor Beno,
yes.
Councelor Karan
is absent. Councelor Munoz,
yes.
Mayor,
yes.
Next is item 7.2, 2 resolution number
27-017.
Move to approve.
Second.
Good afternoon again, mayor, counselor,
city staff. I am still Donnie Proise,
purchasing supervisor for the financial
services department. And before you now
is a resolution authorizing a
professional services agreement for
metropolitan redevelopment area plan
development services.
On March 17th, 2025, the city approved
the designation of four new metropolitan
redevelopment areas or MRAAS, including
the Apadaka and LiftUp area. This
decision followed an extensive
assessment of multiple focus areas
within the infill development overlay
district, which revealed significant
blighted conditions. The city has made
it a priority to address poverty,
revitalize distressed neighborhoods, and
strategically leverage resources to
stimulate economic activity in areas
where growth and development have been
hindered by physical, economic, and
social challenges. The Apadaka and
Liftup area is generally bounded by
North Main Street to the north,
Interstate 25 to the east, Spruce Avenue
to the south, and North Solano Drive to
the west. Current conditions within the
area reflect notable signs of decline.
Additionally, the area faces challenges
related to lower income levels, limited
access to public services, elevated
crime rates, and broader economic and
real estate constraints impacting both
residential and commercial development.
On October 31st, 2025, the city's
purchasing program advertised request
for proposals number 25-26-023
for MRA Plan Development Services. The
solicitation resulted in the receipt of
six proposals that were evaluated and
scored by the selection advisory
committee or SAC on February 11th, 2026.
The two highest ranked respondents were
invited to participate in interviews on
April 1st, 2026. The SAC is recommending
award to Morrow Rearen Wilkinson Miller
Limited of Albuquerque, New Mexico. The
city's economic development department
is requesting authorization to contract
with Morrow for a term of 18 months in
an amount not to exceed $240,390.80
plus applicable taxes subject to
approved budget appropriations.
Before you are your options and I stand
for questions.
All right. Thank you, Donnie.
Any questions by councel?
Seeing none,
Christine.
This is on the motion to approve
resolution 27-017.
Councelor McClair,
yes.
Councelor Matise,
yes.
Councelor Harris,
yes.
Councelor Bencoml,
yes.
Councelor Karan,
yes.
Councelor Munoz,
yes.
Mayor,
yes. Thank you.
Next is item 7.3 resolution number
27-018.
Move to approve.
Second.
Good afternoon, mayor, city council. My
name is Cynthia Ramo. I'm the capital
improvements program manager and today
we're here to discuss the next GO bond
which will be 2026.
I'm going to start by talking as to what
is a go bond. So a go bond are border
approved financial tools that allow the
city to fund large capital projects. The
bond is secured by property tax capacity
already in place and voters approve the
the project not the tax increase and
that is as we are paying out the debt of
the past bond cycles we are creating
capacity or freeing up capacity. So that
freeing up of capacity allows us to
introduce a new bond cycle. And lastly,
each project is presented as a separate
ballot question.
To talk a little bit about about our
past accomplishments, the first cycle
was in 2018 and we got approved 3.56
million and all of these four projects
were approved approved and completed. We
have those park and sport fields
improvement where we have multiple
projects at Macfield, Rangala. We had
different uh park courts including Lions
Park and Young Park. We also were able
to complete the new animal shelter, fire
station 3 by the Picacho area and
several trail improvements.
Our second cycle was in 2022
and we got approved 23 million by the
borders. at the past council uh work
sessions that presented an update on
this four projects
but we have that fire station 9 is 95%
completion.
This is probably going to be uh
completed by next month.
Several park improvements were
identified too and those has been
completed. Uh the emphasis was on the
Yorona Park for a new restroom and
playground and they're only waiting on
finalizing a couple of the permits. And
then the continuation of the East Mesa
complex and several housing projects
have been completed.
We now have the opportunity for a new
infrastructure project that will help
our community. This is for the 2026
school bond. It has been determined that
the bond capacity is 26 million. We also
had identified discuss a framework to
identify potential projects for this
next cycle. The framework included that
projects had to be identified in the top
priorities raised by community members
during the GRT community meetings.
The project is high impact is a high
impact investment that serves residents
across all age groups and neighborhoods.
And lastly, the project should be com
positioned for completion within the
bond cycle which is four years.
Using this premise as a framework at May
uh we had a work session with council
where we heard the direction of council
to use the library renovation and
expansion project as our next goon
project.
Today we're seeking council approval for
the actual gon ballot question that will
be in the upcoming elections in
November.
The project will go to borders as a
ballot question in November and if
approved we will have the funds
available in spring of 2027. Therefore,
construction can start from that point.
Since these are four-year cycles in
2029, we will start discussing and
planning for the next cycle.
The project the library renovation and
expansion. The library was built in
1979,
so it's over 45 years old.
The project will be including phase one
and phase two. Phase one, majority of
the improvements are renovations to the
first floor. And phase two will be an
actual expansion of the library that
will create a larger space for the
children's and we'll have a another
community meeting room.
During that time of construction will be
any anywhere between 18 and 24 months.
The library will continue to provide
services. They're in the process of
identifying a place to relocate during
the construction time, but they will
continue to serve our community.
The library staff under the quality of
life department has done their due
diligence to be ready with a scope out
project in 2022. They started with their
master plan. They brought it to council
in 24 for adoption. And that master plan
identified how the facility needed
improvements and it was basically a need
assessment of facilities.
Then they continue with construction
projects using funds from the TED 2025
and 26 capital outlay and library state
funds. Those construction documents are
the first step in order to finalize all
of the the schematics design and be
ready for construction.
The goal bond of 26 million will be also
leveraging along's 2020 exist capital
alley appropriation and the 2 million
that was allocated from the GRT.
This will be a twominut quick video to
show you a glimpse of how the library
will be looking once complete.
[music]
Heat. Heat. N.
[music]
With that, our question that we're
proposing is, shall the city of Las
Cruises be authorized to issue general
obligation bonds payable from property
taxes in amount up to 26 million to
acquire, plan, design, develop,
construct, improve, renovate, modernize,
automate, furnish, and equip the Thomas
Brangan Memorial Library. With that, our
next steps. If you approve this bond
question, I will be working with the
city clerk to ensure that we meet the
August 25th deadline with the county. We
will then be working directly with our
communications team to ensure that we
provide the appropriate education for
the voters about the measure. We will
then be uh hoping for the best on
November 3rd on election day. on
election day. Uh the county during the
night usually releases preliminary
results, but we will have to wait a few
weeks for the formal results before um
when they um they are certified by the
state.
So with that, you have your council
options and we have staff from the
appropriate department. So you have
specific questions, we also have Kathern
McKini, our bond counsel.
Thank you, Cynthia. Any
questions, comments from council?
Council,
thank you. I thank you for the
presentation. Honestly, I just wanted to
take a little bit of time to thank the
folks who've been working on this for
many, many years. I think it's been a
long time coming and um getting us to a
place where we're actually voting on
this today and obviously opening it up
to the public um for the general
election. Um, I didn't really want to
pass up time to thank all of you. So,
thank you,
Mayor Pro.
Thank you, Mayor Counselors. I'm
enthused by the
move forward um as we do move forward
again consideration
as we um begin construction
on keeping services going. So how to
stage that at a different location or
locations will be vitally important. So
just a comment but um thank you for
putting this together. We appreciate
you. Thank you mayor.
No thank you. And yes I agree. Long
overdue. Uh there are members of the
public that wanted to say something.
I'll give you two minutes.
Derek Pacheco for the record. I just
want to make sure that this project
along with all projects gets the due
diligence it deserves. Our budget is way
out of whack. The last two things that
you all voted um on as far as uh budget
related have been way over inflated. The
$2.15 per transaction, I mean, that's
crazy. Um we can't even keep hours at
the library. you literally cut the hours
because we have such a bad management
pro problem here. So, we're doing things
a little bit backwards here. And if the
bottom line is to provide an educational
resource and a cooling center resource
for the people of Los Cruus, throwing
millions of dollars at a project with
willy-nilly oversight,
I don't support it. Thanks,
Mayor, counselors, city staff, and other
attendees. I am for the record, Linda
Sinclair. I am the president of the
Friends of Thomas Branding Memorial
Library. And I wanted to begin by
addressing the comment that was just
made, which is the um there are two
different budgets and the cuts that have
been made to the operating budget are
not um particularly relevant to the
capital budget and I think that's
important to recognize. Also the design
plans have incorporated ideas around um
economic efficiency in terms of staffing
because of the design of the building.
Also um solar power and things. So there
are a lot of things in the design of the
building that are actually intended to
reduce the operating cost which was not
what I planned to say but I felt I
needed to address it. Um, the friends of
the library would like to thank everyone
at the city who's invested time and
effort to getting this decision to and
supporting the full funding of the
renovation and expansion project. So
much of your work in identifying
options, reviewing alternatives, and
evaluating trade-offs is invisible to
the public. So, I wanted to recognize
publicly how much you all have done in
determining the best way to support our
community. and the friends will be
working to get the word out about this
being on the budget and educating people
about what the um implications of it are
if the is um is if it's passed or if it
is not passed. Um I also want to
emphasize that while those of us who are
able to show up at the council meetings
in our purple shirts are very devoted,
we are only a small fraction of the
people who use and benefit from the
resources of library. So, somewhat at
the last minute, we collected um
information from some of the people who
were at the library on Saturday on why
they love the library. Responses are in
English and in Spanish. Some are
comments about books and resources, a
lot about the wonderful staff. We even
have a few that are um sort of uh uh
amazing little exuberant displays by
some of our younger patrons who were
couldn't necessarily write the words
that they said, but you could see the
joy in what they were putting down as
they had a chance to fill this out. We
do have some other ones. We're hoping to
get them hung up in the library, but
thank you very much.
Sorry, can I can I just ask
council current?
Sorry. First of all, I'm too old and I
cannot read any of those. So, which is
kind of a bummer. Um,
thank you.
Thank you. That would that would be
great. And I was just going to say I
think those would be a great part of a
marketing thing. So, expand beyond the
library where you could send them. But,
but certainly I I would like to actually
be able to read them and I really can't
at all right now. So, thank you.
Mayor, I just wanted to say one more
thing. I hope I do hope our PIO team
uses these. Um, and I just want to say
that you all always brought the bre best
props, Jennifer, especially you. And so
I will never forget the props you've
brought to public comment. So, thank you
all.
We know you want entertainment.
Thank you.
See no others. Christine,
this is on the motion to approve
resolution 27-018.
Councelor McClur,
yes.
Councelor Matise,
yes.
Councelor Harris,
yes.
Councelor Bencoml,
yes.
Councelor Karan,
yes.
Councelor Munoz,
yes.
Mayor,
yes.
Next is item 7.4, council bill number
26-024,
ordinance number 3116.
Move to approve.
Second
Good afternoon, Mayor, City Council,
staff, uh, Adora Cardinos, and Treasury.
The or the ordinance before you is to
authorize the execution and delivery of
the loan agreement with the New Mexico
Finance Authority for the financing of
the all flaw control projects.
New Mexico Finance Authority offers uh
lower cost financing.
Uh the the lower cost is due to the
city's uh credit rating.
This is part of the debt cycling program
and the program provides consistent
funding for the projects and it is
designed to have uh level debt payments.
In other words, um
this the payments the debt payment the
annual debt payment will be consistent
in year after year.
The anticipated closing date will be uh
August 28, 2026.
The pledged revenue sources will be the
fifth one quarter increment of the
municiple gross receipt tax.
Um I want to make a note right here that
general fund will not pay this loan. The
flood operating fund will be the
repayment source for this loan.
The last cycling the last time the city
obtained a a a loan for the for flood
control was in 2023.
The amount will not exceed 3,65,000
and it will have a maturity no later
than June 1st, 2038.
Interest rate uh will be less than 12%.
Again, another note right here. Even
though I'm saying it will be less than
12%, do not think it's going to be like
11.9%. Um,
if we if the city gets to issue this
loan today, uh, I'm anticipating,
personally, I'm anticipating the
interest rate will be more like 4%.
And the MFA fee will be less than, uh,
1% of the loan principle.
And these are your council options and I
stand for question.
All right. Thank you, Adolf. Any
questions by council?
Councelor Harris.
Um, thank you, mayor. And, um, my
question is, you mentioned that the
general fund doesn't pay for this. The
flood control fund pays for that. Where
does the money from the flood control
fund come from?
Mayor, councelor Harris, when the GRT is
yet distributed,
one portion of that it's assigned to the
flow flow control.
Thanks.
Okay, see no other comments. Christine,
this is on the motion to approve
ordinance 3116.
Council mcclur. Yes.
Councelor Matise.
Yes.
Councelor Harris.
Yes.
Councelor Bencomo.
Yes.
Councelor Karan.
Yes.
Councelor Munoz.
Yes.
Mayor.
Yes.
Next is item 7.5. Council bill number
27-001
ordinance number 3117.
Move to approve.
Second.
JJ.
Good afternoon, mayor, members of
council. Jan Lauderbach with Housing and
Neighborhood Services.
The ordinance before you approves an
annual disposition of parcels to our
nonprofit housing partners, Msia Valley
Habitat for Humanity
and Tiara Dulo Housing Corporation.
for the construction of single family
owner occupied homes. The limited
availability of land and the increasing
cost of construction have made it
challenging for incomerestricted
households to purchase a home. Many of
the homes on the market right now are
not affordable to these households.
Through resolution 26-022,
city council approved the purchase of a
52 lot subdivision in the Metro Arcadia
phase 4. It's actually the Metro Arcadia
phase 4 subdivision for single family
home development.
The disposition of land for affordable
housing is allowed under the state of
New Mexico's affordable housing act or
the act and also under the city's excuse
me affordable housing general oversight
ordinance. Two qualified grantee
agencies. Both Chiara del Soul and
Messia Valley Habitat are certified as
qualified grantee agencies
and this action supports objectives of
several city plans.
Leans will be filed against the
properties to ensure that the housing
remains affordable.
The Metro Arcadia are for our partnering
agency's capacity purposes. The
ordinance would allow for disposition of
a limited number of parcels on an annual
basis without having to return to
council each year for approval. The
proposal would provide for allocations
of 10 lots to tiara deloul and five lots
to habitat for completion each year. And
if either agencies warrant an
adjustment, if their capacity warrants
an adjustment to the number of lots
given or allocated each year, the annual
disposition totals may be modified
administratively without requiring
further council approval.
Here's an aerial map of the subdivision.
Um on the left hand side, just getting
started and on the right hand side we
have the infrastructure put in with
houses ready to build on it.
With that, I have your standard council
options and I stand for questions.
Mayor stepped away. I'll open up for
discussion. Councelor Matise.
Thank Thank you, Mayor Prom. Um, in your
comment where you're assuring uh the
house stays affordable,
what's the scenario like
someone comes in and they they purchase
this home. It's affordable to them.
and then they live in it for five years,
10 years, 15 years. Um, do you have like
an index of of how much it can increase
so that they make some profit from it?
Are are they allowed? And in other
words, it's their equity, correct?
Yes, Mayor and Councelor Matis are
correct in that.
Yeah. So how how do you you know like if
they do really great improvements
will it come out of the affordability
range or how do you assure that
I know I just I was just thinking
mayor and councelor Matis the
affordability period will be a certain
set period say 15 20 years and then the
amount if if they're making any
improvements in that property they of
course have to document it the but the
amount of any subsidy they will get out
of it will also be incomebased. Um
because in this if we're not using any
federal funds for construction, they can
go up to 120% AMI. So we're looking at
higher incomes. In that case, we
wouldn't allow them to get the subsidy
as much as lower income folks, but any
capital improvements, if they went to
sell that property after the
affordability period, they could get a
portion of those capital improvements at
the sale.
So they they share uh in a portion of
Okay, thank you. Sure,
councelor Harris.
Um thanks. So kind of a follow on to
that question. Um
I guess maybe a more general description
of how that affordability restriction
like actually looks in practice. So
obviously the point is we want these
homes to be affordable for certain
percentage of AMI. Um and we don't want
somebody to come in and get it and then
turn around and sell it, you know, in
five years when they want to move and
them sell it to somebody who's going to
now rent it out for, you know, $3,000 a
month or something. Um so I don't know.
Do you have a a better description of
how that those restrictions look? Um
yes, Mayor and Councelor Harris, we we
do that affordability period now with
our homes at through that are for sale
through Tierel Soul and Habitat. We do
have the um purchase services of the
home sign an agreement um saying that
they will occupy the home as their
primary residence and those occupancy
checks are done on an annual basis. So,
we're checking utility records. We're
having them provide a statement saying
that they own or occupy the homes um for
a certain period of time. So, we're
monitoring that affordability and making
sure that they're not out there renting
it to someone else.
And then that So, if I read in the
packet correctly, that owner occupied
limit that that's really the primary
limit is for 15 years. These are
supposed to be owner occupied and um
we're giving some sort of income based
subsidy.
Mayor and Councelor Mati uh Harris,
excuse me. That is correct.
Okay. Thanks.
Okay, seeing no other comments, Chrissy,
this one, the motion to approve
ordinance 3117.
Councelor Mccclure,
yes.
Councelor Matise,
yes.
Councelor Harris,
yes.
Councelor Bencoml,
yes.
Councelor Karan,
yes.
Councelor Munoz,
yes.
Mayor,
yes.
Next is item 7.6, Six. Council bill
number 27-003,
Ordinance number 3119.
Move to approve.
Move. Second.
Okay. Good afternoon, mayor and city
council. Uh my name is Elizabeth Teters
and I'm here to talk to you about Alita
for a um gym magic's child development
center which is will be an expansion of
their current operations.
So just to start a Lita means the local
economic development act. Its purpose is
it assists expanding or relocating
businesses that stimulate economic
growth uh have significant community
impact and support increases wages and
provides job creation.
promote significant new private
investment.
Um, some use of the LETA funds is for
purchase, lease, construct, improve or
acquire land, buildings or
infrastructure. Lita funds can also be
used for public works improvements
essential to the location or expansion
of any kind of um project and it's
always on a reimbursement basis.
Uh, some background information. Um, so
we you have to have a Lita plan adopted
in order to implement LITA. Uh we
updated ours back in 2023 and added what
we call a local mo model category. Um so
what's required with this is a capital
investment of at least $250,000.
Uh investment in the form of inind
services, jobs, expanded tax base,
property and or other things or services
of value for the expansion of the
economy. And in these kind of projects,
it does not necessarily need to include
the economic the state economic
development department, which is
recently rebranded to economic
development New Mexico. Um, and so we
haven't had the opportunity to use our
local leader yet. Uh, but then Nancy
Bates from Gym Magic came to us um like
four or five months ago and she had the
perfect project. We felt was the perfect
project uh with the adoption of
universal uh child care. One of the
biggest needs in our community right now
is additional child care. And so she
came to the table with everything
planned out. And she was the lady was
very understanding. She was our guinea
pig with our application process and our
new PPA that we created um just to do
leads at the local level. So I am very
thankful for her partnership and support
to get us to this point today. Um so
just Jim Magic's child development
centers the way they currently operate.
So there's Ashley's Garden um which has
offered childcare services since 2004
and has two classrooms. There's the V
villages at Gym Magic. Um it opened in
2020 and offers preK and early preK.
Uh the new proposed project will be 10
new classrooms that will care for 120
children when it has full enrollment and
will be located off of Del Rey. So um
just north of Highway 70 off Venus
Street. The expected capital investment
is $4.3 million with 37 full-time jobs
added. Uh the wages are $19 an hour for
beginning untrained teachers, but um the
starting wage for a BA degree is $55,000
a year.
And so the lead offer uh we would like
to make for Gym Magic for this expansion
um is to employ at least 35 full-time
persons by December 31st of 2032. and
it'll be a $50,000 lita on a
reimbursement based on performance
milestones. And we set up the milestones
as follows. So, it's $20,000 with the
certificate of occupancy and ha have at
least eight employees, uh $10,000
additional for maintaining 12 employees
for six consecutive months. And then the
last $20,000 will be maintaining 30
employees for six consecutive months.
Nancy is here in the audience. if there
are any questions for her. Um, and with
that, I stand for your questions.
Thank you, Elizabeth. Council K.
Thank you so much, Elizabeth. This is
really exciting. This is like literally
my neighborhood. I'll be walking by. So,
I just want to say I'm really grateful
that you have thought about this and
worked with the folks to do it. And I
hope I can't wait to come visit when
it's happening. And uh very very close
to my house. I walk there every day. So,
um, I really appreciate you leveraging
these funds in this way to support a
really cool business in our community
and meet a need. So, thank you. And if
if the if folks want to talk, I would
love to hear a little bit more about the
model, but no pressure. That might be
too stressful for you. But, um, I'm
excited that you all will be in the
neighborhood. So, thank you,
Council MO.
Thanks, Mayor. Thank you so much,
Elizabeth. This is really exciting. I
just the expansion of Lita for something
like this felt so powerful and like it
had such big potential. So I'm excited
to see the first project come through
the door. Um so thank you to the folks.
Sorry I imagine it's you ladies right
here. It's you're sort of the only uh
folks left. So [laughter]
thank you very much. I don't want to put
the horse before the cart. What is it?
You know what I meant? But I do wonder
if this can be turned into some sort of
marketing model, right? For I I remind
me, did you say the folks at Jim Magagic
came to you with this proposal? And so
what is that right?
Um Mayor Councelor Bencom, it was
actually SBDC got in touch with us. We
have a great partnership with them.
Can you remind me what that is? SPDC.
Um the small business development
center. Yes. um she actually got in
touch with staff and introduced us to
Nancy and we all sat down. So,
and the reason I say that is because I'm
wondering if there is a potential to go
out and propo like make some proposals
to some small business owners. I'm
particularly thinking about some local
grocery store owners that we could take
to food deserts and you know even in
newer parts of the city. But I just this
is I think opening a really important
door. So, thank you for being the very
important guinea pigs. Um, and obviously
we want to make sure we pay attention to
this and we watch it um carefully and we
support it so that it can be everything
it is. And I just feel like given that
it's the first, it could really serve as
a model for other small business owners
to potentially tap into this kind of
project. So, thank you. You're welcome.
Council Matis,
can you uh tell how is that fund the
your Lita fund is uh well funded? Is it
uh Mayor Councelor Matise? We actually
do not have a designated LITA fund. Um
the economic development department has
a fund that has been um kind of
gathering money over years through land
sales and like litas that fell through
and whatnot. Um, so we have some funds
in there to offer LITAS in this case.
So, uh, I I was reading some of the
history of the your funds used to come I
think you used to get 50% from the land
sales. Do you still get that?
Um, mayor councelor Matise. Yes. Well,
the 50% goes to the the affordable
housing trust fund and then 50% isn't
designated to a spec specific location.
Generally, if we sell land at the
industrial park, the other 50% will go
into the economic development fund, but
it really depends on the land that's
being sold.
Okay. So, so that could feed into the
lead of funds.
Okay. Thank you,
Councelor Harris.
Um, thanks, Mayor and Elizabeth. And I
just wanted to echo everyone else's
excitement. Um, this seems like a really
great bang for the buck uh as far as
economic development goes and it'd be
very interesting to see how it works out
and how we can expand it to other uh
businesses in in town. Thanks.
Okay. Did anyone want to share anything
from the audience?
Um, uh, mayor and counselors. Oh, thank
you. We started in gymnastics. We're
short people. Um, I wanted to
specifically thank, uh, Jennifer.
You can state your name.
Oh, uh, Nancy Bates. B- A Ts Bates. Um
Jennifer was um really working with us
when we opened the village in 2020 for
prek and early prek. So when we started
looking into the universal child care
and opening up a new a new facility
specifically for infants and one and
two-year-olds because that appears to be
where the greatest need is. Jennifer
came to our side and and I was unaware
of the Lita project and she brought it
forward. So, I want to really thank her
and the small business development
center from Donana uh Community Branch
and Elizabeth. You can tell how much
work she put into this project, putting
it all together. So, um thank you very
much and uh we look forward to um I
think they're getting ready to submit
the permit this week and uh the land
appears ready to go and oh, now better
have babies, people. We need to have
more babies. Thank you.
All right. Thank you, Elizabeth. Chris
Terry,
this is on a motion to approve ordinance
03119.
Councelor Mccclure.
Yes.
Councelor Matise,
yes. For more babies. [laughter]
Councelor Harris,
yes.
Councelor Beno,
yes. Councelor Karan,
yes.
Councelor Munoz,
yes.
Mayor,
yes.
Thank you. Motion carries.
Next is item 7.7, council bill number
27-004,
ordinance number 3120.
Move to approve.
Second.
Okay. Christine,
mayor, city council, Christine Rivera,
your city clerk. The ordinance before
you today is to repeal the select and
policy review committees out of the
municipal code.
So, the select committees were adopted
via ordinance 2908 in January 2020. And
the code stated that the select
committees may be established by the
mayor or city council to provide the
mayor and city council with information
and advice on the goals and objectives
stated in the city charter or the city's
strategic plan. And at the time there
were two of them. There was the public
safety select committee and the finance
select committee.
The policy review committees were
adopted by two separate ordinances 2910
and 2913 in January and March of 2020.
And again, the code stated, "The purpose
of the PRC is to formulate
recommendations to the city council on
specific issues or subject areas that
have direct communitywide impact on the
health, safety, living conditions, and
general quality of life for people in
the city." And we had several more of
those. We had economic development,
health, housing, quality, quality of
life, and TSI, which was the
transportation, sustainability, and
infrastructure committee.
And so these are options. We're asking
to repeal them entirely from the code.
Thank you, Christine. Any questions or
comments?
Council,
I I sorry to keep commenting. I don't
want to keep us here forever. I know
everyone's like, "Oh, record time." Um,
but I just want to thank you for I I
want to thank Christine and Brad and uh
Mayor Enriquez for bringing this
forward. Um, some of us very a small
number of us were on the city council
when these committees existed and I
think we were we especially the safety
select committee, public safety select
committee and the finance committee
which we didn't actually hear very much
about but the these committees were not
things that we necessarily were um
enthusiastic about their their secrecy
and I think that pe folks heard a lot of
protest and recently then the foundation
for open government sent a letter to
prior city councilors. No one no one on
this council today was among the folks
that were the subject of the letter that
came from the Foundation for Open
Government. And kudos to Mayor Enriquez
for making sure that as soon as he came
in, we um addressed this historic sort
of the existence of these committees.
And um I'm really I really appreciate
that proactive sort of making it clear
that together we're not going to be
doing this. And I think also it's a test
the PRC's which we some of us have
served on at different times. I think we
have found that we can work as a
committee of the whole and I think as
Santa Fe is also redoing their charter
and they're trying to figure out if
their committees work. It's a very
interesting conversation. I think we're
really again providing a model for
having conversations in public at at
work sessions and doing things more
proactively. So, just to give some
context um to all of these things and
what it means going forward, that means
we're going to do things like we've been
doing them now, emphasizing public
conversations and work sessions. And um
I just really appreciate everyone who
worked on getting addressing the issues
brought up by by the Foundation for Open
Government and really addressing these
in the very initial stage. Um, Mayor
Enriquez, I I really appreciate you
being proactive in that and and thank
you for for moving the council forward.
And also, just so you know, none of us
were actually actually participated in
the um in the objected to committees.
So, not that I'm trying to absolve us, I
just want to tell you, we're voting on
something that wasn't really our our um
initiation. So, just to be clear. So,
thank you again. Council
Bring.
Thank you. I wasn't initially going to
say anything um but given your comments,
I think it's important that I do. Thank
you Christine and mayor for bringing
this forward. Um for a matter of
transparency and accountability, I was
on the council when these uh committees
were enacted. If it wasn't my very first
meeting in 2020, it was certainly in the
first month that I was on the council in
January 2020. Not that that's an excuse,
but it is context to provide to folks. I
was part of the finance committee and um
part of what I always thought about the
finance select committee that everything
we discussed in the select committee for
finance always came to council
eventually. So those weren't
conversations that were kept private.
Those were conversations that always
came to council. Um which is almost why
I never understood why they existed
anyway. And I there is um
historical
evidence, if you will, of my um
criticism for this public select
committee um that often shut out uh
fellow counselors and members of the
public. Um, and so I I am glad we're
having this, but I just wanted to make
sure that I was fully transparent with
folks about um
my position since I um I am the most
veteran person on the council. That was
part of that. So, thank you and I'm
happy to support this.
Council Matis,
you know, Christine, I I just want to
comment. I was very pleased. I I asked
for an email on all the meetings that
they had uh the agenda and you were very
quick to respond, very transparent. You
know, I was looking through I was
interested in who attended these. You
know, I guess it was Gabe Vosquez,
Magosima, and as uh I I really
appreciate councelor Karan bringing that
up. Um because it, you know, when I
received it that it actually said
violations
and so, you know, it kind of triggered
me to to what violations were they? Then
I later found out, I believe the
Department of Justice
said these committee meetings were okay
to have. But I just want to again uh
thank the mayor, Mayor Enriquez, Eric, I
thank you for bringing this forward and
repealing what had some kind of um you
know, wasn't totally transparent and
totally the right thing to do. So really
proud of the sitting on this city
council and thank you for your your
honesty.
Of course.
Appreciate it.
Mayor Protown.
Thank you, Mayor uh city councilors. Um
just want to echo just a little bit
differently. I I appreciate the mayor
and the uh my colleagues on the day is
here. This was an active ordinance. um
and you know whether um some people
particular or didn't um your leadership
and you chose uh not to participate in
something like this. So I appreciate you
and I appreciate the mayor for their
leadership um in um even though again
this was an active ordinance ordinance I
think you had a sense of what was right
and what was wrong and you chose um the
higher path. Thank you.
Thank you, mayor.
All right. Well, thank you, Christine.
And
yeah, thank you all for the comments,
but it was something that we all agreed
on from the beginning. When I took
office, I said one of the things to
Christine was we're not doing the PRC's
anymore. And we all agreed that let's
use the work session as a tool that we
can be open and discuss the items that
we need to to move forward. So, thank
you all for being supportive and the
select committees was something we just
weren't going to get into as well. Um,
if I say anything that we lagged on was
getting it off the books as an
ordinance. So, that's what we're doing
today. But our actions were that we were
not going to participate in those and
bring it to work sessions for more uh
context and more transparency so that we
can we can move forward on the things we
really need to discuss. So thank you all
for for supporting it as well.
And with that, Derek,
this is on a motion to approve ordinance
03120.
Councelor McClure,
yes.
Councelor Matise,
yes.
Councelor Harris,
yes.
Councelor Beno,
yes.
Councelor Karan,
yes.
Councelor Munoz,
yes.
Mayor,
yes.
Thank you. Motion carries.
Thank you.
Next on the agenda is board appointments
and we have one so I'll need a motion in
a second. It's for
Tob Turpin new appointment to planning
and zoning commission.
So move
second. Also I would just like to say
Tobyy's a great human being. Just as a
note, he gives a lot of money to animal
causes and I'm so excited to say yes,
even though this is an extremely mundane
thing. Sorry.
This is on a motion to appoint Toby
Topin Turpin to the planning and zoning
commission.
Councelor Mccclur,
yes.
Councelor Matise,
yes. Councelor Harris,
yes.
Councelor Bencomo,
yes.
Councelor Karan,
yes.
Councelor Munoz,
yes.
Mayor,
yes.
There are no proposed ordinances and
we'll move to city council member board
reports and comments. Uh, Council
Mccclure.
Nothing today. Thank you.
Councelor Matise.
Mayor, I have a few things. I I I would
like some type of uh consensus if it's
if it's allowable. Um I was looking at
the public meetings. This is the uh city
is updating a strategic plan and we have
some meetings. I I notice I need to know
if there'll be more meetings or if this
is it with six meetings, but I I don't
see how we're going to get a lot of the
working people at these meetings when
they're held from 3:30 to 5:00. It held
3:30 to 5:00 at the Papen Center, 3:30
to 5 at the Branakin Library, 3:30 to 5
at Lyn Middle School, 3:30 to 5 at East
Mesa Public Safety Complex, 3:30 to 5 at
Sage Cafe, and then we have a later one
at the WIA building from 6:00 to 7:30. I
I I really think we need
additional meetings. Uh that and if I
could just get some kind of consensus, I
think we need additional meetings from
from 6 to 7:30, 8:00. I think we need
more of the the business owners and and
the working voter to to have an
opportunity to attend the meetings.
I'll tell you, Council Matise, from what
I understand is this is the first phase
and then there'll be some specific
stakeholder meetings as well, but I'll
let the city manager uh address some of
those.
Okay.
Maybe I was looking on the fly that it
would say, you know, more more meetings
to come.
Yeah, I I think there are more meetings.
Did you want to add anything to that,
city manager?
Thank you, Mayor Enriquez. Uh, councelor
Matise, thank you. Uh, we I I
there there's um there's been some
sentiment amongst um other counselors as
well on this. So, um working with Mandy
and then we'll come back and and give
you an an update to to the point that
you've brought up if that's okay.
Okay. Thank you, Mayor. I have a few
more items. Um, yeah, go ahead.
You know, I I've received some emails
about our our public comments and and
and what happens is some someone gets up
and and they insinuate or they imply
that, for example, like the the lead and
copper or maybe Mr. Aani or maybe we
could respond
at the same meeting. You know what
happens is they say something. We don't
know. Uh I know Ben Como has an
excellent idea, you know, factchecking
things and maybe maybe we could say
something that there is not lead in
district two. You know that that people
are not drinking
uh water with lead in it in district
two. Maybe Miss Whidmer can get up and
and and say that in the in the same
meeting, you know, because the the same
people are watching the meeting on
website or or streaming it. They they
need to see a reply right away or or
else we're just going to get more people
um commenting knowing that uh there's no
answer to anything that they say, you
know. So, I'd like to see an immediate
response if that's possible.
Yeah, we we can always look at that. The
thing is that it's public participation.
It's their three minutes. It's not for
open discussion because we we could
continue going back and forth. We try to
address address those issues at our
comments and and we have I know several
times the city manager, assistant city
manager and utilities director have
reached out. We've done presentations.
We've done a lot of things. I I I think
the next thing is to get our our public
health coordinator to come up and
address the issues of health issues. Uh
but every time we combat that, they come
back with with more and more, but I know
nobody has been hospitalized in the last
18 months. Nobody has died in the last
18 months. And and those are some of the
things that we can look at, but it's
that individual that keeps coming and
keeps coming. And yeah, there are times
when somebody brings an issue and one of
the ACMs will get their name and number
and follow up with it. And that's been
the normal practice. I don't want to get
into open discussions, but we've tried
with certain individuals and it just
seems to just
um entice them to come more.
Thank you, Mayor. Maybe uh Director
Whitmer, maybe you could contact me and
reassure me that there's a
that the water quality in District 2 is
excellent [snorts] for everyone drinking
it. Thank you.
Thank you, Council Matis. And we'll have
Anthony uh as well let you know on the
data on health issues with the drinking
of water in all of Los Cruus.
Councelor Harris.
Uh, thanks, Mayor. I have a couple
things. Um, I guess we have one fewer
board vacancy now. Um, but we do have
several board board vacancies that I
just wanted to point out in case people
are wanting to get involved. Um,
transit, health and human services. I
think there's a district 3 specific one
for there. A district 3 spot is open in
parks and wreck and senior programs. Um,
and ADA also has a, uh, I think citywide
um, vacancy. So, if you're interested in
getting involved, uh, contact me,
contact Christine, um, or your
counselor. There are some other district
specific seats and hopefully we can get
those filled. Um, next thing is I just
wanted to give a kudos to community
development. I went and uh had a very
brief meeting with a new business that
just moved to town and um I asked, you
know, how was how was their experience
and they said that it was pretty smooth.
They came in, they had a bunch of back
and forth on getting their permits and
things and, you know, it took a little
while cuz they were coming in from out
of state, but overall they were pretty
satisfied. And so I think that's a
pretty good endorsement of the direction
that the department is heading. and um
how how we're actually able to maybe
start moving some projects forward and
being a a more not necessarily more
business friendly but you know
eliminating some of the friction that
used to be there and caused a lot of
frustration. So very happy to see that
business here. They said lots of great
things about the community and um hope
we can continue that economic
development. Thanks mayor.
Thanks Ben. Thank you, mayor. Um, yes, I
agree about the strategic planning
meetings and that they need to be um
more accessible times. Um, so hopefully
we can see either more added or some of
those changed. Um, but thank you staff
for uh and our consultants for acting on
those so quickly. I just wanted to share
a couple things um that I learned in
Baltimore. I was there last week um at a
local progress conference with almost
500 municipally elected officials from
across the country just learning from
each other challenges and successes. And
one of the reasons we were in Baltimore
because is because of the incredible and
powerful story that Baltimore has right
now around reducing um gun violence in
their city. Baltimore historically was
plagued by gun violence and had
extremely high rates of homicide. In the
last several years, Baltimore cut its
homicide rate by 60% from 2021 to 2025
largely through public health approach
to gun violence. And this is from one of
the articles I got to read um while I
was there. Um the city and its partners
started treating gun violence as a
public health issue that can bring
greatly reduced um that can be greatly
reduced by stable housing, quality
employment, access to transportation,
and other opportunities for kids
specifically. And they were all
connected through Baltimore's group
violence reduction strategy. Baltimore's
first comprehensive violence prevention
plan takes public safety beyond police,
prosecution, and prison by working
closely with community groups to focus
on prevention and support for those most
affected by the violence. I heard often
from city councilors from Baltimore that
there used to be a palpable culture of
violence in their city and that that has
just drastically changed that people
feel like there's opportunity and hope
and potential. And one of the great
quotes um that I read was was the same
way that violence is a contagion, peace
can also be contagious. And it just
Baltimore is just such an example and a
reminder for me that these kinds of
strategies to community safety are real.
They're effective. They're successful
and we should always be attend
attempting to use them. So while there
are folks here who believe that that is
not my hope, it is absolutely
um my hope in how I approach these
conversations and I think taking a
public health approach to hear from our
public health professor um but to gun
violence and to violence in general is
successful. And one of the other pieces
that I wanted to share from Baltimore
because I just left so deeply inspired
was that of and you know look it up if
you um so desire if you want to feel a
little bit of inspiration as well. It's
called the Edmonson Village Shopping
Center in West Baltimore. This shopping
center was at one point um a great
economic driver for this part of the
city and through years of violence and
deterioration and divestment it really
became um a really um a dangerous place.
It was plagued by decades of decline,
neglect and and crime even having been
the site of a mass shooting in 2023
where um five youth were injured and one
um sadly passed away. So this shopping
center was really this this
area where the community saw as um once
a place of hope and now this like tragic
place. Um but through committed there
was a committed developer, a uh city
councelor and mayor with political
imagination and political will. There
was nonprofit support. There was funding
from 200 community investors who put in
maybe $2,000 into this project and
really turned this tragic place back
into a place of of hope. And there was
in in combination with a multif family
complex that was being built nearby that
provided home ownership opportunities
and affordable housing opportunities,
this neighborhood really has come alive
and felt like they have been seen and
respected. So if you want to feel some
inspiration and I already shared this
with our community development staff and
our economic development staff because I
just was so deeply inspired and a
reminder to all of us that while our
we've been so keenly focused on
redevelopment in Los Cusus with our MRA
areas um with our MASS I that while the
work is slow it is important and we have
to continue paying attention to it
because what you pay attention to grows
And um the work of redevelopment is
community safety and it is important and
we must continue investing in it. And um
we have a great example here of why and
how those kinds of projects are
successful and important for
communities. So um if you want to look
into a little bit of hope and
inspiration, look into Baltimore and the
Edmonson Village Shopping Center. Thank
you, Mayor.
Thank you, Councelor Curry.
Thank you. And I also went to local
progress where we visited another part
of the city, the the middle branch um of
several rivers that I don't remember
that was historically an an industrial
area that was basically a dumping ground
for a lot of industrial waste and
industries that were incredibly
polluting. And we found um a number of
sort of sustainability efforts that were
that they were pioneering there. And
then also they built the largest rec
center um in all of Baltimore City that
has some of the most extraordinary
programs and and ability abilities
integrations. They it's actually the
main gym that the uh Baltimore police
and and fire work out at. So they
they've worked out a a connection there
and they built um with that in mind to
be a tool for for public safety to be
integrated with with within community.
And so it was a really interesting place
to visit. Um, and some sustainability
items that I think made me think of our
uh, landfill that's out for former
landfill, not a landfill anymore, out
for community development right now,
which is um, across from Mountain View.
I think that they're seeking a developer
right now. I'm not sure if that call is
still open, but it made me think a lot
about how we can um take spaces that
have historically been neglected or or
experienced tragedy or um polluted in
some way or another as we as the city
has with the Griggs Walnut super fun
site um which is now our Hadley Sports
Complex and Drinkable Water site. Um
so I it just gave me a lot of optimism
about transformations that we have we we
have the potential to do here in Los
Cusus as well. So it was among other um
powerful lessons. So it was very hopeful
and [clears throat]
I do want to point to one quick thing
coming up. Councelor Harris mentioned
committees. I think that we are also
looking for uh animal at least one
animal services center board member. So,
um, when folks are thinking about how
they fit in, that might be another place
to fit in. And I will take I will point
out that we have, uh, an animal services
board me board meeting coming up on
Thursday morning. It's important because
um, in addition to doing all the usual
board meeting things, um, they'll the
new leadership at the at the animal
services center has come up with a new
mission and they're they're really
hoping to move us into a new chapter of
conversation around animal um, care in
our community. So, and I think that
folks can see and feel that happening.
So, I hope that if people are interested
in animal welfare in particular, you can
come and participate in the animal
services board meeting here at 9 on
Thursday morning. So, that's the last of
my announcements.
Thank you, Mayor Bro.
Thank you, mayor, counselors. Um, I just
want to say uh thank you to to my
colleagues who have gone out and
gathered some best practices and bring
them back to the city. uh and to our
staff. It's always good to see what's
working across our our country and um
bring it back home. And so speaking of
that, I had an experience at the store
uh and it gives me great hope for our
future. I I I know that there's so many
challenges, so many things going on. But
um as I was [snorts] in line, ready to
pay, there was this young lady in front
of me struggling to pay and something
was was going on. Um,
you know, I actually didn't know, but
she was struggling for a while. So, I
was about to take out my uh my Visa
card, uh which is so 90s, I know. The uh
the young another young lady behind me,
[snorts] very unpretentiously, very just
a huge heart, oh, I can pay with my app.
Um and she wanted to pay, she cut kind
of cut in front of me, wanted to pay for
that young lady that was struggling. She
says, "No, no, it's my app that's
actually not working right." Um anyway,
bottom line was somehow um somehow she
figured it out. But you know, this is
again unpretentious, just just a very
kindhearted young lady who was fast in
the draw, wanted to skip in line, just
said excuse me to me and um wanted to
pay. And so there there is there is hope
for a better tomorrow. Um, with that I
want to recognize also our community
Chris and community development team um
for helping out a birthing center
[snorts] um recently. It's it's a
beautiful facility um and it's kind of
takes comforts of home and modernization
and it kind of merges them together to
to give the baby and the birthing mother
a great experience. um all those the
permits and whatever they were approved
and two days later the uh facility sent
me a video of the first baby crying as
he or she or the baby was was born. So
um right in the nick of time. Thank you
Chris. Um and there's 16 more babies on
the way. So the the work that you all do
is is very important.
Um
yes, exactly. another another at least
16 I think. So yes. Wow. So uh that's
encouraging. Um though I'm beyond that.
So um the other thing is I do want to
also agree with um
councelor McMo, councelor Matise. Uh I I
would encourage as much as we can to
have um a variety of of strategy
listening district sessions throughout
the city and throughout various parts of
you know during the day whether it's
during the day during the evening. I
know that that puts a a burden but it
does increase our availability and
access to residents out there. So, if we
can have other meetings um city [snorts]
manager um
that would be fantastic.
And I also wanted to um recognize and
appreciate the invitation. Um [snorts]
Chief Jeremy Story was recognized uh
nationally as a hometown hero.
Congratulations, Chief. Uh appreciate um
the work that you do.
And lastly, I also uh want to appreciate
and say thank you to the parks and recck
team and every partner and every other
city staff [snorts] that was involved in
the 4th of July. Just heard excellent
feedback. It's a wonderful, wonderful
event. I know there were many hours
early during the [snorts] day and late
into the evening. So, thank you. Thank
you, Mayor.
Thank you, Mayor Bam. And also I just
want to say congratulations to Chief
Story on his National Hometown Hero
Award. Well earned, welld deserved.
Thank you for your service. Um I want to
also um say thank you and uh to Boa
Houston who is an engineer firm here in
Los Cusus for 12 13 years but now built
a beautiful building on Northrise. had
their ribbon cutting a couple weeks ago
and really laid down roots and say they
want to invest and help Los Cusus with
the infrastructure and engineering
surveying and and just become a part of
Los Cusus. So want to welcome them and
thank you for the beautiful building
that they put up on North Rice. And also
uh yesterday uh for the first time in 13
years uh a group got together and
brought back the city golf championship.
It was in hiatus for 13 years and they
had the the rounds this weekend uh with
NMSU golf course and also with uh with
Red Hawk and had other multiple sponsors
come out to make this activity uh come
to the city again and recognize some
city champions as as golfers. So it was
good to see uh reminds me the the Gus
Macker had been gone for years and has
come back to Los Cusus. So these
activities, these events bring uh
tourism, bring in other people from our
city and help our our city to grow and
develop. And with that, I'll let you
know that uh October of 2027, we will be
bringing back the whole enchilada
fiesta. We'll partner with NMSU and just
what we saw glimpses of the 4th of July
uh we'll do that in October partnering
with NMSU and bring back the whole
enchilada.
No, the the the volctoila
that's going to bring them it's going to
bring a lot more now. But we're looking
to to bring that gathering, bring the
community together. This is still a
great place to live. This is this is a
great place and we just need to
continue. We'll have the strategic
plans. We'll have other things coming up
and and and we'll put it all together.
Uh it's very exciting and looking
forward to it. And with that, I'll turn
it over to our city manager for his
report.
Thank you, Mayor Enriquez and city
council
do city manager. I appreciate your input
uh council to you all. I've heard from
various um council members and and also
uh today um at the das. Thank you Matis
and Becomo for bringing this up as well
um as well as councelor Mccclure. But
the and and mayor PM Munoz but the
meetings uh community input uh we'll
pivot uh I I'll get with staff and see
what that pivot looks like and then
we'll uh present that to you if that
sounds okay. uh coming up and then uh I
just have two more announcements and
then I'll be on my way. So for fire on
Saturday, July 25th, Lieutenant Robert
Patterson is retiring after 20 years of
service to the city council um from from
the city of Las Cusus. Robert has held
many roles in his tenure since
graduating from the academy academy 24
in July 2006. promoting through the
ranks. He led our small engine
maintenance program, ensuring the
essential equipment was maintained and
ready to use. We wish him the best in
the next chapter. So, thank you to our
LT, Robert Patterson. We can get a round
of applause for LT,
of course, our mayor, Nelson.
And uh just just more of a FYI, it it's
been mentioned a few times in um
um there there was a comment made about
payment which is the software that we
use to to um pay for the point of sale
transaction that occurs on on our
utilities uh for for residents. Um I do
want to mention just uh a point uh that
city council had um made an uh approach
and the reason why it is a burden on on
the budget is because council years ago
um
did not want that transaction to be on
the backs of residents. And so when
there is a 2.5%
uh charge on the on the credit card
transaction or debit card transaction in
addition to a flat fee of $2.15
um council didn't want that put on the
backs of of residents and normally in
other cities um that that is put on the
backs of residents to charge. So um that
is something that has happened and so I
just wanted to share last year uh it's
been trending at 566,000
and so the reason why that came again
just a reminder to the audience and to
those who are who are watching is um
even though the threshold contractually
was at 600,000 last year was at 566,000
we are asking for a bump in the
contractual agreement to go up to a
million uh but that we we may not even
hit a million. It depends if anyone
wants to
um wants to uh be a new transaction that
that wants to take automatic payments.
So, it's not necessarily something that
happens um next fiscal year that I I
don't foresee that happening um until,
you know, more than five years down the
road where we start hitting that. But
that's based on any transaction that
turns over to automatic. So, I just
wanted to mention that. Um and that's it
for me, Mayor Council. Thank you. All
right. Thank you, city manager. With
that, I'll look for a motion to adjurnn.
Move to adjurnn. Second.
This is a motion to adjourn the meeting.
Councelor Mccclair,
yes.
Councelor Matise,
yes.
Councelor Harris,
yes.
Councelor Benl,
yes.
Councelor Karan,
yes.
Councelor Munoz,
yes.
And mayor,
yes.