your life.
Good afternoon. Welcome to city council.
Today is Monday, July 6th, 2026. It's
approximately 100 p.m. I am Mayor Eric
Enriquez. Before we start, I want to
mention that we have the ASL, American
Sign Language, up in the front if
anybody needs their services.
If you please rise, we'll 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 Cruus Police
Department, Los Cruis's Fire Department
as they keep our city safe 247 365.
Mayor Pro Tim, if you'll lead us in the
pledge.
To the flag of the United States of
America and to the stands one
indivisible
and justice for all.
So the first thing on the agenda is
presentations of certificate or
proclamations and we have none. So we'll
go into departmental highlights with
economic development.
All
right. Good afternoon, mayor and city
council. My name is Elizabeth Teters,
and I'm the economic development
director here at the city. Uh, last time
I stood up here, I gave a brief update
on the industrial park. So, I thought I
would take the opportunity to focus more
on the programming and policies we've
been working on and how we're the init
um initiatives that we are creating
within the department.
Uh so, first off, the safety improvement
program. This was a program we started
back in November and it provides up to
5,000 for security improvements for
eligible businesses. the it was
originally implemented in El Paso and
South Solano MRA and as of July 1st we
have now expanded that to the West
Picatua Motel Motel Boulevard MRA um
it's only been open less than a week and
we already have four applications so
that's really exciting for um that area
for sure uh why we implemented this
program it's because it is a lowhanging
fruit and um it addresses a clear need
safety has come out of every MRA as a
top priority so it was something we able
able to um implement that had an
immediate impact while we started to
work on larger pol policy initiatives
which leads me to the incentive stacking
that we're going to start doing. The
first program is the metropolitan
revitalization incentive program which
is a property tax abatement for
commercial residential and mixed use
development. The abatement ranges from 7
to 14 years based on the project
qualifications. Um this is a program we
are hoping to bring to council for
approval in August or maybe September at
the latest. Um the process will be that
it goes through the internal MRA
committee to decide on the the
recommended 7 to 14 years and then final
approval comes from council. On top of
that uh we will be doing an update to
our LITA plan. So in order to use LITA
you have to it has to be written into
your plan. We currently have four models
that you can use. Uh preferred model,
basic model, which are your basic um
jobs, investment, priority, um
industries and whatnot. We have a local
model that we added about three years
ago and it is for local businesses which
Jim Magagic is on the agenda today for
first read and it'll be our first local
model project that we will be doing. Um
and then we will be adding an MRA
project model as well. it. This is
authorized under state statute that you
projects specifically in MASS are
eligible for LITA. So when I talk
incentive stacking, while these programs
by themselves might not be beneficial
for certain developers or small
businesses, you start putting them on
top of each other and it really starts
to help businesses and help them move in
the right direction or redevelop a
property that needs it. Maybe it's a
brownfield property, you know, whatever
it may be. it's it's pointing in the
right direction and we're we're trying
to create these programs so we have
multiple options because economic
development isn't cookie cutter.
On top of that, um we will be bringing
an industrial revenue bond policy
forward. So an IRB is a tax exemption
tool for both industrial and qualifying
multi- family housing projects. Um the
purpose of creating a policy is because
it establishes the application process,
project expectations, clawback
provisions and fee structure and it
provides a greater uh consistency and
transparency for future projects. So why
now? Because we have done uh IRBs in the
past. It's because economic development
and neighborhood services are going to
be doing their first housing project IRB
in the near future. So, we wanted to
make sure we had something in place
because the housing IRBs are a lot more
intense than the ones we're used to. So,
we wanted to make sure we had a policy.
This will also be coming August,
September hopefully.
And then finally, just an update on
workforce development. Um, what staff
has been doing is developing a
comprehensive inventory of local
workforce programs and partners. Um, the
list that I know of of workforce
partners is at least 10. And so we're
meeting with them one on- one to figure
out what programs are out there that can
help local businesses whether they're in
an MRA or not. Um once we identify those
gaps based on um and we're going to be
identifying gaps based on employer and
community need. Uh by collaborating with
our partners, we're hoping that we can
develop programming and expand targeted
workforce programming to be able to
better assist these comm um the
community and the businesses in the
community. So there's [snorts] more to
come on this. We're in the very
beginning stages of it, but I'm really
excited to start partnering again with
our workforce development partners. Um,
we've had great projects come out of
ARPA dollars that we did for workforce
development. So, this will hopefully
just continue that hard work that
everybody's been doing.
And that's just a quick update. Any
questions?
That's great. Thank you, Elizabeth.
Council current.
Thank you, Elizabeth. That was great.
It's very exciting. I was wondering the
MRIP I'll call it because I can't
remember what it stands for. Um, is that
just for new development or is that for
exist rehabilitation of existing spaces
too?
Um, mayor councelor Karan, it's for
rehabilitation as well.
Oh, awesome. Thank you. Very cool.
Thanks for the update.
Yeah,
Mayor Pro.
Uh, Mayor, city councilors, Elizabeth,
thank you for putting this together. Um,
could you go over a little bit of the
qualifications? So, um I know we mainly
talk about economic development and
businesses. Do these include like
nonprofits, churches, other entities
like that?
Uh Mayor, mayor PM, are you talking
about for the MRIP RIP?
Yes.
It's a work in progress. Um
uh so this will be specifically for the
way we have it right now is for um
commercial, residential, and um mixed
use and even NAP properties. We don't
specify 501c3 or anything like that.
It's really we're going to leave we have
a scoring matrix which is the last piece
of the puzzle that staff's been working
on that um it'll really be up to the
discretion of the the MRA committee to
bring a recommendation to council. So C
council will have the final say on on
the abatement.
Thank you Elizabeth. Thank you mayor.
Councelor Harris.
Uh thanks mayor and Elizabeth. So, also
on the abatement, just to clarify, we're
only able to abate the city's
mill levy on those taxes, right? They
still will pay county property tax and
the school tax.
Um, mayor, councelor Harris, that's
actually something we're working on.
We're just focused on the city's portion
right now, but along with um the other
tax um for the tax increment we're
working on with the county, we're trying
to figure out what we can and can't do
at this point, but our focus as of now
is just the city.
Okay. Thanks.
All right. Thank you, Elizabeth.
Next on the agenda is pets of the week,
Tanya Conway.
Good afternoon, mayor, counselors, and
staff. My name is Tanya Conway. I am the
management analyst for ASCMV.
I appreciate the opportunity to present
to you today.
We have two pets of the week. This week,
our first up is Katie. She is a
resilient and affectionate dog with a
playful personality who lo who loves
engaging with people and enrichment
activities. She thrives in an active
home and that can offer regular
exercise, mental stimulation, and
structure. She's ready to move on from
shelter life. Katie has all the
qualities to become a devoted and
cherished member of a forever family.
Our second pet is Tina. Tina is a
friendly, affectionate dog who loves
interacting with people and eagerly
seeks out attention from staff and
visitors. She has shown strong social
skills in playgroup, often serving as a
calm greeter and engaging appropriately
with other dogs. With her resilience and
deep desire for human connection, Tina
is an excellent candidate for adoption
and ready for a welldeserved second
chance at a forever home.
We have four long-term residents at our
facility. There is Dober and Francesca,
Ebony, and Playa. And all these four
dogs have been there for over 300 days.
ASCMBB recently participated in the July
3rd um electric parade. Um we will have
an adoption um event on Petco July 11th
and then another one July 18th at
Household Furniture and one at another
one at PetSmart on July 25th.
This month we have our red, white, and
cute adoption special. ASMB is
celebrating summer with our red, white,
and cute adoption special throughout the
month. All dog and cat adoptions are
just $25.
This promotion is a fun way to en
encourage the community to visit the
shelter, meet our amazing adoptable
pets, and help more animals find loving
homes. Every adoption opens a kennel for
another animal in need and gives a
deserving pet a fresh start. So, we
invite everyone to come by ASBMV, meet
their new best friend, and take
advantage of this limited time adoption
special.
And for any other information about
fostering or any other events that ASMB
has, you're welcome to visit our four
social platforms or you could stop by
ASMB.
Thank you, Tanya.
Next 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?
No.
None.
No conflict.
Next is public participation will allow
up to three minutes. No pending
litigation or items on the non-consent
Mayor, Mayor Proam, folks here today,
those watching online, I'm Lyn Moore.
Last meeting, Mayor, you were right that
in this country, we do have freedom of
speech, regardless of a city councelor
and utilities director's attempts to
muzzle discussions about the city's
compliance with the lead and copper
rule. A competent organizer knows any
attempt to stifle public comment simply
causes citizens to expand their
investigations. Mayor, you were wrong
and claiming that I've refused to agree
to a meeting with city staff or the
utilities director. Utilities director
has never reached out to me for a
meeting. Your statement is false.
Handout one is my response to an
assistant city manager who which does
not include refusal to meet. Rather, it
encourages her to study the information
we've put on the record to help her
understand our concerns before seeing
whether further explanation is needed.
If it is needed, it won't be in a
private meeting where additional
information is shared. It will be in
public with an opportunity for all to
hear. I'm familiar with manipulative
attempts to shut up an expert, a
whistleblower, or citizen leader because
they publicly question the integrity
and/or competence of a public entity and
lay out in the open documents the public
entity would prefer to hide. Let's talk
about the galvanized pipes at Fairacres
Elementary School. Handout two is the
inspection report dated July 9, 2025,
provided to you April 6th and 20th that
clearly records the finding of
galvanized piping at Fairacres. The
inspector's comments note how bad the
pipes looked in the presence of a lot of
rust. This report was provided by the
city clerk via an request. If you
question its authenticity, take it up
with her. On April 20th, I alerted you
that after 36 properties were found to
have galvanized pipes, it appears Las
Cusus Utilities fabricated new reports
for each of the properties a few months
later. Now saying there are no
galvanized pipes, if they did not in
fact fabricate 36 second inspection
reports to hide the original findings,
including at Fair Acres, the director
needs to explain in detail why these 36
inspection reports were created. Why is
the second inspection report for fair
acres the only one of the 36 that now
says the piping is plain steel? Research
shows that plain plain steel with no
galvanization virtually never exists in
Los Cusus. This fabricated report is
apparently the one to which councelor
Ben Koma imprudently referred last
meeting. As noted previously, a licensed
plumber called this report unbelievable
and fishy. One cannot argue that between
the first and second inspection reports,
galvanized pipes were replaced.
Responses to IPA requests all indicate
no piping has been replaced. This fact
was recently confirmed to Derek Pacheco
by two inspectors who inspected his
pipes. We will no longer bear the
expense of providing handouts to those
of you who are clearly not interested in
any research regarding the city's
compliance with the rule and other
obligations. If any of you wish to
continue to receive handouts during our
presentations, let me know by email.
Thank you for this opportunity to speak.
Mayor, city council, I'm Liz Rodriguez
Johnson. Lun and my comments over the
last 18th months have focused on two
things. Pointing out how Lasus's
Utilities is not complying with the lead
and copper rule and ways to comply with
the rule and make drinking water safer
for the citizens of Lasus, especially
those at the lower socioeconomic level.
This information is well documented and
very easily accessible, particularly for
someone who works for the city. We could
not be clearer about the issues and
approaches to resolve them. Anyone who
claims they want to discuss our concerns
either hasn't been listening, isn't
interested enough to access the
information available or is being very
disingenuous about their motive, which
based on the comments made by the mayor
and councelor Beno recently is to make
Lindon the villains. Lasus is an old
city with very old parts of town. When
you walk through old neighborhoods and
old schools, common sense, basic common
sense, tells you that it's highly
probable some of these houses and
schools have letter galvanized pop
piping just by virtue of their age. In
the case of Fairacres Elementary School,
an initial report definitively stated
that the school piping was galvanized
and corrosive. 5 months later, a second
report said the issue had disappeared.
Councelor Beno erroneously stated that
if you don't trust Lase's utilities, you
can rely on the second report because it
comes from the school. This is false.
The second report was not prepared by
the school and was in fact prepared by
the city on a Las Cruz's utilities form
signed by an employee of Lasus's
utilities.
If you're not leaving the poorest parts
of Las Cusus off the inventory map, show
the public because everything on your
website says that you are. If you are
not recreating reports to show there is
no problem and where one existed before,
show the public because requests produce
documents that indicate that you are. If
you're truthfully reporting lead levels
in CCRs, show the public because I
request reports show that you are not
reporting truthfully. And if you are
actually prioritizing disadvantaged
properties as the utilities department
promised they would to obtain a $15
million grant, show the public because
the upper request show that you are not
prioritizing disadvantaged properties.
You've had 18 months to show the public
that we are wrong and you've not done
so. Which is why we continue to come
back. The mayor falsely claimed that we
citizens just want to repeat the same
thing. We have not been repeating the
same thing over 18 months. Every comment
cites several new concerns based upon
new findings discuss discovered in
research. The overall theme that
Lascurus' utilities is not compliant
with the rule remains the same. But
every meeting we have provided new
aspects that show even more details of
how Lascus' citizens are being left
unprotected from letting their drinking
water. Thank you.
Mayor, Council Mont Garcia, every
election cycle, we watch the same old
circus roll into town. Big promises and
politicians swearing they've come to
move New Mexico forward. In my opinion,
both political parties pretend to quote
represent the people. But clear the
smoke and what do you find? a nest of
hypocrisy where the real winners are the
parasites who cling to power feeding on
the system while pretending to serve the
people. The Republican party leadership
spent part of the year bickering over a
mess it created. None of it had to
happen. The decision was simple. Follow
the rules and decide what's best for the
people. Right? Wrong. The infighting and
drama made the headlines and set social
media ablaze until the courts stepped
in. Meanwhile, the Republican party of
New Mexico distracted
ignored the real work of reaching
citizens who desperately want to fix to
the mess created by decades of single
Democratic party rule. New Mexico is
trapped at the bottom and there's no
sign that's changing anytime soon. Many
voters looked at the circus and figured
why bother voting. And I continue. The
Democrats slapped socialists onto their
brand and parade around with delusional
slogans like no kings. But in reality,
they swap in their chosen queens. They
complain the safe act disenfranchises
voters. But then in a smokefilled
backroom deal, Dev Holland, candidate
and de facto party leader, tosses out
the 42,000 votes Harold Pope, the first
black New Mexico state senator and
21-year veteran earned because it suits
her. The excuse both parties allow it.
It's in the rules. SGR Stephanie Garcia
Richards bailed on the lieutenant
governor's race for family reasons and
earned zero votes.
Maggie Oliver won the primary then
suddenly drops out also for quote family
reasons. Or maybe she couldn't stand
partnering with Holland. Who knows?
Magically SGR's family issues are better
just in time for her to step into the
spot. Maggie vacated. Is this another
quote rigged backroom deal or
coincidence? But that's okay. No one is
waving signs or predicting democracy is
going to end at midnight tonight by
these actions. Annoyed queens, trashing
votes, and the political hypocrisy are
alive and well in the Democratic party.
Thank you.
Good morning, Mr. Mayor.
Name is Jim Hurst.
Thanks for the opportunity to speak.
Um
perhaps you watched some of the events
this weekend at the 250th celebration of
America's anniversary.
Uh I followed as many events as I could
on the National Mall. There were many
state sponsored religious events at the
National Mall.
We have an administration in Washington
that no longer recognizes the separation
of church and state. They've stated
explicitly that they think such an idea
is a myth and it's not confirmed by the
constitution.
Um,
I don't believe that's a valid
interpretation of our first amendment.
And I believe this commission, uh, this
council should take very seriously that
denial and do the same things that you
do to protect immigrant rights from a
renegade administration.
We need to protect separation of church
and state.
The first thing we need to do to do that
is put everything involving church and
uh separation of church and state into
the sunshine. Take it out of the dark.
For example, our practice of a moment of
silence is not recorded in the minutes.
If it's worth doing, it's worth
recording in the minutes.
Second, we have a resolution process, a
proclamation process that's entirely in
the dark. There was a res a proclamation
proposed for a national day of prayer in
this city.
The the the uh commission voted that
down. I don't know what the proclamation
was. I don't know where to find it. I
don't know who voted for what.
Stop doing stuff in the dark.
That's corruption. Whatever's happening
in the dark can be presumed to be
corrupt.
Bring it into the sunshine. Put it on
the minutes. Put it in the agenda. What
uh proclamations were proposed and who
voted how. I deserve to know that. My
fellow citizens deserve to know that.
Thank you very much.
Derek Pacheco for the record. I want to
start by thanking Chief Story for
joining me on the radio this past week.
Uh we had some wonderful civil civil
discourse uh regarding flock and uh
alprs in general. Um I really respect
that someone took some time some genuine
time out of a super busy schedule unlike
some of my elected officials here that
refuse to meet with me. I feel like I'm
on a list um that people just don't want
to talk to me, don't want to meet with
me, whatever the case may be. I don't
know why I'm on a list, but I definitely
am. Uh, my father poured the concrete
that built I 10 here. My parents both
worked at White Sands Missile Range. My
cousin is a sitting judge on the Third
Circuit. My other cousin is retired
LCPD. Um, my other cousin retired from
the third floor here. The list goes on.
I am from Lasus.
You treat me like I am not and like I'm
not part of this community and I'm sick
and tired of it. We need to build trust.
There's no trust here. Trust is eroded
with you people. The county included. I
I'm going to say this at the county if
I'm allowed, but I don't even know if
I'm trespassed or not. That's wacky over
there, too. But regardless,
the fentanyl that hit the streets that
the governor and the mayors and everyone
else is saying that, oh, it was the
DEA's fault. You can't have that
situation without having local
knowledge.
I ran into a situation here where I had
a short-term rental invaded by some
yucky people. I was pretty certain that
they were working as informants. After
talking to another co-host down the
street that I'd never met before, she
said the same thing. Her sister's on the
street and she mentioned that uh the
word on the street is that the fentanyl
was being let onto the street to find
bigger fish. I had this discussion
months ago, maybe eight months ago now,
if not longer. So, I don't buy this
rhetoric. The other rhetoric I don't buy
is our elected officials such as Senator
Bill Souls showing up at the park all uh
now on our side, the people's side.
That's disingenuous.
His wife graduated from this DAS and now
is working for the Boys and Girls Club,
which got a huge giant novelty oversized
check from Project Jupiter. And now Bill
Souls is out there saying, "Oh no, dang
these people. We we can't have this.
This is horrible behavior. Yet in secret
meetings that were cancelled on the
agenda at the county, but then happened
anyway with the Boys and Girls Club and
this big giant check and Project
Jupiter, that does not build trust. I
demand we speak about a data center
moratorum. We do not need that junk up
at the Mesa Technology Park, the
industrial park, whatever you guys call
it. The data center park, I'm sure, is
what you guys want to rebrand it as. We
need real discussions here. I'm sick and
tired of being treated like this and so
is everyone behind me. Thank you.
Good afternoon everyone. My name is Gage
Peter Bernett. Um and I'd like to say
that I'm here to talk about something
very boring which is infrastructure. But
I'm afraid I'm going to get emotional so
pardon me. Um, I'm going to start by
telling a story. So, I grew up in
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. It's a
beautiful little city on the eastern
side of Pennsylvania. And when I was
growing up, there was this gentleman,
Patrick Mma. And Patrick rode his bike
along with a group of other riders past
my house every single afternoon right
about when I got home from school. He
encouraged me to learn to ride. He
encouraged me to learn to ride a
unicycle. He would stop at the door and
check if I was okay if I wasn't out when
I got there.
And Patrick died in a bicycle crash.
That was nobody's fault. The car hit a
pothole. He was too close. There was
nowhere for him to go and he lost his
life. And this past weekend, here I was
riding down Telshore when I encountered
a shredded tire stuck in the middle of
the bike lane. And I tripped over it
because I couldn't run out into traffic
because there was a car right there. And
I skidded out on the sidewalk.
This was preventable.
Um,
pardon me.
There's trash all over the bike lanes in
Los Cursus. Not just trash, but there is
gravel, there is dirt. Every time it
rains, there is a flood. And that flood
lands in the bicycle lanes. Along
Travis, the sweet street sweepers push
the trash and the gravel directly into
the bicycle lane, making it impossible
for riders to go through it.
That means that bicyclists are riding on
the pedestrian walk along Travis, which
is horribly unsafe. It means that there
is no way for me to safely get from my
home to work on my bicycle, which I
would love to do for the environment and
for my own well-being.
Travis is not the only street that's
affected. Telshore, like I said, is
constantly flooded with garbage and
trash that I cannot get around if I want
to get to work on time and on safely.
This is more than just a maintenance
problem. Throughout Los Cuses, a place
that I have decided to call home for the
past 5 years and intend to call home for
as long as I may be here, has a bicycle
problem. And that problem is that
bicycle infrastructure is neither
wellmaintained nor well-designed.
There is nothing on Missouri Avenue. If
I wanted to get to work that way with
avoiding the hills, I wouldn't be able
to do so. Solano. The bicycle lane stops
abruptly at Amador and Lman which
themselves have no bicycle lanes. There
is nothing on Picacho near the
intersection with Valley. And even where
there are bicycle lanes, they are not
safe to ride on because cars go so fast
and so close to the bicycle lanes
because they have no choice because
there is nowhere for them to go to avoid
us. I would urge you now uh to consider
expanding efforts to change that, to
expand efforts to improve that
infrastructure. Thank you very much.
Uh good afternoon, mayor, city council.
My name is Fred Miller. I'm up here at
the request of Ben Moore. It's just an
anecdote about
galvanized steel piping that I heard
about from someone I lived with who had
whose parents owned a trailer park and
they had to deal with all the plumbing
there. Um there was a property they had
bought that had been vacant for an
extended period of time and this and
when they this was on the edge of the
city. This was actually the sewer line
coming out rather than the line coming
in. But they moved in. They turned on
the water. Everything seemed fine. But
then a short time thereafter,
everything just backed up. And when they
went out to look for the problem in the
yard, the whole sewer line had just
collapsed. And there was like a 2 to
three inch just trench in their backyard
where the and it was like old steel
galvanized piping. Um,
so
just there's the question of where we
have galvanized piping in the city. At
that time it was just on the edge of
town. Now it's in town. Um,
there's a question also about when you
check the water lines, are you just
checking current customers or are you
looking at places that are currently
empty too? Because the problem with this
water line was as it although it was not
used for a while, it was still corroding
and then when they started running water
through it again, the whole thing just
collapsed. So galvanized piping can be a
serious problem. Um, thank you.
Good afternoon, mayor, city council,
city staff. My name is George Pearson,
and I'm vice president of Velocus, the
local bicyclist and pedestrian advocacy
organization. As I'm sure you are aware,
we've had a recent tragedy in our
community with the death of a vulnerable
road user by an accused hit-and-run
vehicle driver. Could this crash have
been and resulting death have been
prevented? Almost certainly, yes. News
reports indicate the accused driver has
a history of traffic violations,
including street racing with speeds of
53 miles per hour over the speed limit.
News reports indicate that the case was
dismissed when the prosecutor failed to
appear. So even when tickets are issued,
there are no consequences and behavior
continues until we end up with a crash
that results in the loss of life. This
isn't an isolated problem. Do we have an
enforcement problem, a prosecution
problem, or a culture problem where it's
okay to exceed,
it's okay and mostly expected to exceed
the speed limit by 5 miles an hour and
no consequences for speeding 20, 30, or
even 50 miles an hour over the speed
limit. I know we are studying safer
streets with our safe streets for all
grant, but we do have a serious traffic
safety problem that needs swift and
systematic solutions. Do we need to wait
for safe streets for all or can't we
also move ahead with vision zero
solutions? We confiscate DWI vehicles.
Why can't we also confiscate
super speeder vehicles? We don't even
have to identify the driver. Just
identify the problem vehicle and take it
off the streets. We're heading towards
another record year of bicyclist
fatalities in New Mexico. What can we
start doing to not match or exceed that
grim goal? Thanks for listening and we
look forward to actions that will create
a safer Los Cruises.
Good afternoon, [clears throat]
mayor, city council members
and staff. My name is Andrea Gene. I am
a board member for Velocus and program
manager for Everybody Writes with Grace.
Um,
I'm also here because we had another,
um, citizen, father, um, loved one die,
preventable death, um, here in Los
Cusus. I want to say that I greatly
appreciate everything that our community
is doing um, to
improve the situation and safety for
vulnerable road users. I know that we
are doing many things on many different
levels. Bellow cus is also doing many
things on different levels. There are a
number of um organizations here and none
of us wants people to die um preventable
deaths. Um it would be
very valuable. I think it could be very
powerful if our city could um
demonstrate that they you are resolved
to um to stop um these preventable
deaths from happening. Um resolving that
um our city is is is committed to having
zero deaths would be a step in the right
direction. Um there are other small
steps, maybe simple steps that are
wouldn't cost a whole lot. Some of you
are very active on social media. Um you
could use your um platforms to um talk
about these things that are important to
all of us. Talk about this case. The
case I don't know it's in litigation if
you can talk about it now, but um
educate the public. Let the public know.
Um we're watching. Um we are paying
attention. And it's not just it's not
just drivers that need to know, but
cyclists that need to know. And we all
need to work together to make this
happen. These are my children. They ride
bikes. Um we give bikes to kids with
disabilities. Um including uh adults
with disabilities and we don't have
places very many places to safely ride
our bikes and we would like to be able
to do that.
So again, I'm just asking for some
creative solutions, thinking about ways
that you you personally can or you as a
uh as a city can can demonstrate you're
behind this idea of stopping it. You
know, whether it's a a a radio broadcast
or a an article in the newspaper, in the
bulletin, uh just something, let us know
that that you personally care. We want
to hear from you. Um, appreciate that.
Thank you.
Tim Jenkins here.
As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of
our nation, I ask that we all take time
to reflect on what a remarkable gift
America truly is. 250 years is more than
a milestone. It's a reminder that
generations before us sacrificed,
struggled, and believed in something
greater than themselves so that the
future generations could live in
freedom. When our founding fathers
gathered to establish this nation and
later frame our constitution, they
understood that no government would ever
be perfect. But they also believed that
liberty, justice, and the rights of the
people were worth protecting. Many of
them drew strength and guidance from
their faith in God and believed that our
freedoms carried with them a
responsibility to live with virtue,
integrity, and respect for one another.
The Constitution that they left us with
has endured because it was not built on
the idea that one political party should
always win. It was built on the belief
that free people could disagree, debate,
and still remain united as a nation. So
many conversations begin these days
with, "Are you a Republican or are you a
Democrat?" When the question really
should be, are you willing to be an
American first? We don't all have to
think alike. We don't all have to vote
the same. But we should all be fighting
for the same purpose and the same goals.
Safer communities, opportunities for our
children, respect for our neighbor, and
a country that is stronger tomorrow than
it is today. Our greatest strength has
never been found in political parties.
It has always been found in ordinary
Americans who choose to work together
despite their differences. Division only
weakens us. Unity only strengthens us.
As we commemorate 250 years of this
great nation, let's honor those who went
before us by recommitting ourselves to
the principles that have carried America
this far. Faith, freedom, personal
responsibility,
respect, and a willingness to put our
differences aside and come together for
the better of the nation. And let our
hope be that future generations can look
back on us and say that when our nation
faced division that we chose unity. When
anger was easy, we chose grace. And when
we had every reason to stand apart, that
we chose to stand together as one nation
and one people. Because at the end of
the day, we are not Democrats and we are
not Republicans. We are Americans. May
God bless this nation and our city and
our police officers. Thank you.
Good afternoon, city council. My name is
Lucas Hearnen for the record. Um my main
point for being here today is to um
encourage the council uh later in the
process to affirm council bill number
27004,
ordinance number 3120
um repealing the policy review
committee. Um no decisions uh of a
public body should be made in private
and by those unelected by the citizenry.
So I just want to encourage this body to
follow through with that commitment. Um,
[clears throat] and since it's under a
portion of the agenda that states
plainly there will not be public
discussion, I thought I'd mention it
now. Um, with the remainder of my time,
I'd like to echo some of the comments
made about public safety on our roads
um, for pedestrians and bicyclists. Um,
and I would add to the list of physical
places that have already been mentioned
that um on along Solano, I'm sorry, but
on um
[laughter]
uh
not Solano, um
I've gone blank. the stretch between
University and Missouri um that uh runs
by um
there's a series of apartments and all
the apartments have private trash can or
each apartment has their own trash can,
right? It's not a communal one. So every
Friday people wheel their trash their
trash cans onto the curb which in this
case is the bike lane. So every Friday
the bike lane is inaccessible. Um, and
it's especially bad on um, grappler days
because people put large bags of trash,
sometimes large bags of um, yard waste,
and if um, as is not uncommon, it will
sometimes sit there for more than one
week if they miss the grappler week. So,
I would just like for that to be
flagged. Um, also, I appreciate that the
clock did just start. I will wrap things
up. I promise. Thank you for the extra
time, though. I'm sure nobody wants to
hear me talk. Um, I will say finally
that um
the rhetoric um around public safety
continues to be um
fully in the seat of those armed agents
of the state as the only agents who can
provide said public safety. And that
rhetoric was used at the last city
council meeting um as an as a a
potential excuse as to why the library
was closed and not as has been stated by
both the library here and by staff
members that they had budget cuts and
they had to close their hours. And my
concern is that um at least as of a week
ago, the library was still listed on the
city's website as one of the city's
cooling centers. And I checked right
before I came, it is still listed as
being open on Sundays for those needing
cooling services. But if they are now
closed, that means not only is the
library closed and all of its various
resources, but that is one another
location that um those in Los Cusus who
are overheating due to this incredible
uh heat wave do not have access to. So
something else to consider um as you
look at the rest of the agenda where I
see we are giving the cops more money.
Just something to think about.
Next is the acceptance of agenda.
Move to approve.
Second.
Um, mayor. Um, can I request that we
remove an item from the consent agenda?
Sure. Um
request to remove items 6.1 from consent
agenda so that we can discuss.
This is on the motion to accept the
agenda as presented with removal of item
6.1 for discussion. Councelor Mccclur,
yes. [clears throat]
Councelor Matise is absent. Councelor
Harris,
yes.
Councelor Bencomo,
yes.
Councelor Craran,
yes.
Councelor Munoz,
yes.
Mayor,
yes.
So, we'll start out with item 6.1,
resolution number 27-001.
Move to approve. Second.
Okay. Good afternoon, mayor, counselors,
and city staff. My name is Donnie
Proise, purchasing supervisor for the
financial services department. And
before you today is a resolution
authorizing an increase for the museum
systems storage facility lease.
A little bit of background. On October
28th, 2021, the city signed a lease with
Bins Enterprises of Los Cusus, New
Mexico for the rental of a storage
facility to house the museum systems
permanent collection. The rental of this
facility provided more square footage
than the two separate facilities being
leased previously. The original lease
was $8,000 per month or $96,000 annually
for an initial term from November 1st,
2021 through June 30th, 2022 as approved
in resolution 23-078.
The lease will continue on a
month-to-month basis while renewals are
reviewed, amended, and approved.
During the fourth lease extension, the
property owner requested an increase to
$8,755
per month or $15,060
annually. During the fifth lease
extension, the property owner requested
annual increases of 2.5% for fiscal
years 2027 through 2029, ultimately
resulting in monthly rent of $9,42818
or $113,13816
annually. The quality of life department
is therefore requesting authorization to
increase the spending limit for this
lease to an amount not to exceed
113,13816
through fiscal year 2029.
Before you are your options and I stand
for questions.
Okay. Thanks Donnie. Councelor Harris.
Um thanks and obviously I asked to
discuss this so I have several
questions. Um, first is how big is this
facility? Just out of curiosity.
Mayor, uh, councelor Harris, I do not
have the exact square footage, um,
available, but somebody from the museum
systems might be able to answer that
question.
Hello, Whitney Broadway from the museum
system. It is 8,000 square feet.
8,000. Okay. Um,
so I mean all in all I think that's not
a terrible price given market
conditions. Um,
but I think the more concerning thing is
that we're being asked for approval, but
we're actually being asked for
retroactive approval. Um, and so I think
that that deserves some discussion. And
how do we get to this point? Why were
contracts signed?
What are we going to do going forward to
make that not happen again?
Uh, Mayor Councelor Harris, um, that is
a great question. Um, the honest answer
is that a previous buyer in the
purchasing program did not realize when
processing paperwork uh that came
through with a request that the fourth
extension to the lease had effectively
authorized an amount above what the city
council had originally approved.
And um a newer buyer who uh has joined
my team um as of this past February
actually was handling a new request and
at that point realized that both the
fourth and fifth extensions had put us
in this situation and we immediately uh
began working to uh bring this forward
for approval albeit uh retroactive.
Okay. So, I guess just to be clear for
people in the public who are listening,
we messed up in the past and somebody
new came on and realized the mistake.
And so, going forward, you know, we're
going to try and not not do this again
and make sure that contracts what what
is our typical contract limit that
council needs approval on? Mayor,
Councelor Harris, um any expenditure of
$100,000 or more uh in the aggregate or
even for a single purchase uh requires
city council approval uh under most
circumstances. The one notable exception
would be anything that you all have
approved on the um CIP list as part of
the budget process. Those purchases
don't need to be brought back um for
council approval because they've been
preapproved through CIP.
Okay. And that's and you set in the
aggregate. So that's over a period of
you know if a contract lasts from 24 to
27 and it's for $700,000 or something
then
you know well obviously that would still
count. But if it was 10 years and each
one was less than $100,000
but over the aggregate it's expensive.
We'd need approval to do that.
Mayor Councelor Harris the annual limit
is usually the determining factor. So if
we were spending less than a h 100,000
annually
um under that agreement, it would not
require council approval. But in the
aggregate, we're usually talking about
if we're doing like a multi-awward
contract, for example, and we have, you
know, two to 10 uh vendors under
contract, we would look at the total
spending limit per contract in the
aggregate. Um, so we would come to
council if if everything was going to
exceed 100,000 annually.
Okay. Um, yeah, that's that's what I
wanted to know. So, thank you very much
for presenting that. Sure.
Any other questions?
Seeing none, Christine.
This is on the motion to approve
resolution 27-001.
Councelor McClur,
yes.
Councelor Matis is absent. Councelor
Harris,
yes.
Councelor Bencoml,
yes.
Councelor Craran,
yes.
Councelor Munoz,
yes.
Mayor,
yes. Thank you.
Next is item 7.1. A public hearing is
required for resolution number 27-004.
So, the public hearing is now open at
this time
at 1:55 p.m. Is there anyone here for or
against the issuance of the liquor
license?
Good afternoon. This is Lisa Cosper.
Sorry. Good afternoon. This is Lisa
Cosper on behalf of Cattle Baron
Restaurants, Inc. here for approval of
the liquor license.
Okay. Thank you.
So, the public hearing is now closed.
It's 1:56 p.m.
Move to approve.
Second.
All righty. Adam, community development.
For the record, uh before you we have a
proposed liquor license for the Kettle
Baron steak, uh and seafood restaurant
located at 790 South Telshore. Uh this
is the application for a transfer of
ownership only of the interlocal
dispensary liquor license. Uh it's
liquor license number dis67
with on premise consumption. uh the
alcoholic uh beverage control division
of the state did provide preliminary
approval to the city in May 19th of this
year. An extension was required in order
to get that before you all today uh
because of the holiday uh weekend that
we had. We we needed for that extension
for that uh which is why we're here
before you today. All reviewing staff
saw no issues with the proposed
application
showing the city map here. As you can
know, it's right next to the mall Telure
Boulevard Mall drive. Just give you an
idea where we're at. So that way options
today, councils want to vote yes and uh
approve the the uh liquor license are to
vote no and deny. Uh the ABC will uh be
notified of the vote. I will continue
the application process for the
applicants. Uh that is the conclusion of
my presentation. I stand for questions.
All right. Thank you, Adam. Any
questions? Councelor Curry.
Thank you. I and this is this goes for
this and the next thing. This is the I
feel like this is the first time we've
ever had this type of application that's
like a place that's in its place
applying for it again. Did something
change in the law or is there is this
just something I haven't I maybe I
didn't realize that this was happening
before or like that people have to do
this reapplication process like because
I don't think we've I don't know if
we've done this type of same location
same thing approval but maybe I just
missed it or they don't happen that
often. Um, Mayor Council Grant, this has
happened before. For instance, when all
the brewers uh brewer uh gas stations in
the city turned into Shell gas stations,
they changed from one corporation to
another. This one, it's still the same
corporation, Cattlebearon, uh, forget
the name, full name of the LLC, but it's
just changing the name of the actual
owner, the physical person who who
maintains ownership of it. It's going
from one person to another.
I got you. Thank you. that I just wanted
to clarify like it seemed new to me or
different and I I didn't want it to be
like oh suddenly we have to be doing
this all the time which would kind of be
a bummer. So thank you.
Yes ma'am.
No other questions. Chrissy
this is on the motion to approve
resolution 27-004.
Councelor McClur.
Yes.
Councelor Matis is absent. Councelor
Harris
yes.
Councelor Bencoml.
Yes.
Councelor Karan. Yes,
councelor Munoz.
Yes,
Mayor.
Yes.
Next is item 7.2. Also, public hearing
required for resolution number 27-005.
So, the public hearing is now open. It
is 1:59 p.m.
Is there anyone here for or against the
issuance of this liquor license?
Does she want to come forward and state?
She can come again if you'd like, sir.
Yes,
if she'd like.
Sorry. My apologies. This is Lisa
Cosbury again on behalf of Cattle Bear
and Restaurants, Inc. doing business as
Farley's.
Thank you.
Okay. The public hearing is now closed.
1:59 p.m.
Move to approve.
Second.
Okay. Uh, next liquor license we have
you before you is for the restaurant
known as Farley's Food Fund and Pub. Uh,
this is located at 3499 Foothills Road.
Uh this is again another uh transfer uh
application for transfer of ownership of
the interlocal dispensary license number
dis-1141
with on premise consumption only. Uh ABC
did provide preliminary approval to the
city on May 16th u May 19th of 2026 same
time as the previous one. Uh request for
extension was requested by staff to the
state to get it before y'all today for
your consideration. That was approved.
All reviewing parties, uh, all reviewing
staff really that took a look at this
really saw no issues with the proposed
application since it is an existing
location.
I believe we all know where Farley's is
located right here, Nacho Road, uh,
Foothills right across the street from
Hotel Aanto. Just give you an idea of
where we're at.
So, with that, uh, ladies and gentlemen,
your options. One, to vote yes and
approve the proposed liquor license, or
two, to deny to vote no and deny the
proposed liquor license. The ABC will be
notified of the vote and will continue
the application process with the
applicant. Uh that is the conclusion of
my presentation. I stand for questions.
See no questions. Chrissy.
This is on the motion to approve
resolution 27-005.
Councelor Mccclur.
Yes.
Councelor Matis is absent. Councelor
Harris.
Yes.
Councelor Bencomo.
Yes.
Councelor Kan.
Yes. Councelor Munoz.
Yes.
Mayor,
yes.
Next is item 7.3, resolution number
27-066,
uh, resolution authorizing the city of
Los Cuses to accept a grant award.
Move to approve.
Second.
Good afternoon, mayor, counselors, city
staff, community members. My name is
Gabriel La Pratz. I'm the city's
[snorts] grant manager in the finance
department. Today, I bring you a
resolution to approve a grant I'm sorry,
to approve a budget adjustment for
fiscal year 2026
for a grant award made to the police
department.
I'm sorry, I lost my train of thought
there for a second. Um, the award was
made to the police department by the New
Mexico Department of Finance and
Administration
in the amount of $44,432
or $33. And the purpose was to reimburse
the city for the cost of hiring new
officers. They reimburse for um specific
or certain law enforcement equipment
that ensures not only the safety of the
police officers or cadetses and also the
public. For example, they reimburse us
for the cost of uniforms
uh gear such as trauma kits and
ballistic vests.
And here are your council options. And I
stand for questions.
Are there any questions by council?
Seeing none, Christine,
this is on the motion to approve
resolution 27-006.
Councelor McClur,
yes.
Councelor Matise is absent. Councelor
Harris,
yes.
Councelor Beno,
yes.
Councelor Karan,
yes. Councelor Munoz.
Yes.
Mayor,
yes.
Next is item 7.4, resolution number
27-007,
a resolution authorizing the city of Los
Cusus to accept various budget
adjustments.
Move to approve.
Second.
Good afternoon, mayor, city council,
staff, and public. My name is Vanessa
Perez, and I am one of your budget
analysts. Before you today is a
resolution to accept various budget
adjustments for fiscal year 2027.
Before we start, I just want to mention
that most of the adjustments presented
today are tied to some grants. Um, we
are requesting to carry over several
grants that were awarded and accepted
during the budget cycle for fiscal year
2027. Due to timing, we couldn't build
these grants into the fiscal year 27
budget. So, we're just asking to roll
over grants that were already accepted
in previous sessions. And as usual, the
information presented today is a summary
of the requests. But if you would like
detailed information, please refer to
your packets.
On screen, we have a required match
needed for a fire department grant in
the amount of $35,380.
Uh quality of life is requesting $48,000
and this is for a senior nutrition
kitchen remodel. The total amount coming
out of the general fund will be $83,720.
On screen, you will see a lot of public
safety grants that are being carried
over within the special revenue
reimbursements grants fund.
Quality of life needs a grant carryover
in the special revenue reimbursements
grant fund and public works has four
capital grants that need to be carried
over into fiscal year 2027.
Information
technology department, housing,
utilities and transit also have grants
that need to be carried over through
various funds
before you are your council options and
I stand for any questions.
Thanks Vanessa. Any questions by
council?
Mayor Pro.
Sure, Vanessa. Thank you. Thank you,
mayor, city councilors. Um, so
again, just maybe just expand a little
bit on it. Some of it was was timing.
Any other factors that delayed um our
executing on these grants? Was it
staffing process? Anything else that
could have been changed or it was just a
matter of of when these grants came in
and were funded?
Mayor, Mayor Prom, um, all but one of
these requests are just due to timing.
um the budget team has to place a stop
date on when we can enter information
into the fiscical year 27 budget because
it takes a lot of time for us to process
um reports for like council work
sessions um and for uh council adoption
or budget adoption. Uh the only request
that is not due to timing would be that
senior nutrition kitchen remodel which
is on your screen right now and Carol is
here um if you should have any questions
on that.
Thank you Vanessa. No, I think that
covers it. Thank you, mayor.
Thank you, Christine.
This is on the motion to approve
resolution 27-007.
Councelor Mccclur,
yes.
Councelor Matise is absent. Councelor
Harris,
yes.
Councelor Bencoml,
yes.
Councelor Karan,
yes.
Councelor Munoz,
yes.
Mayor,
yes.
Next is item 7.5, resolution number
27-008,
a resolution to reallocate ARPA funding
from the Casolinda Acres.
Move to approve.
Second.
All right. Good afternoon, mayor, uh,
members of city council. Humbly Beasley
the accounting manager and I'll be
talking about the resolution to
reallocate some ARPA funds from the
Kasal Linda Acres reconstruction project
to the Cortez Drive improvements
project.
A little bit of a background and
refresher on ARPA. Uh ARPA is the
American Rescue Plan Act that was signed
into law in March of 2021. It was a $
1.9 trillion federal stimulus package
and out of that amount 350 billion went
directly to state, local, and tribal
governments to help them deal with the
negative impacts from the pandemic.
The city received two tranches of 12.4
million each for 24.8 million. And as
part of the ARPA rules, the funds needed
to have been obligated by December 31st,
2024, which the city did hit that
deadline. And all the funds need to be
spent by December 31st, 2026. And any
funds not spent by that date need to be
paid back to the US Treasury.
When the second trunch was accepted via
resolution 23-032,
$2.2 million was allocated and budgeted
for the Kasalinda acres project. This is
part of the water and sewer
infrastructure category within ARPA.
Eventually, a construction contract was
executed in October of 2024,
and the contract was terminated prior to
the completion in April of 2026. And to
date, there's been a total of $92,000
that's been spent from ARPA, leaving an
unspent balance of 1.3 million.
And so the main purpose of this
resolution is to request uh taking that
1.3 million and then reallocating it to
a different project which is the Cortez
drive improvements project so that we
don't lose this money and have to pay it
back. Uh the United States Treasury in
the few years that the program has been
active
um has issued guidance that allows uh
entities to reclassify their funds to
different projects. Um the caveat is
that the replacement project needs to
meet all the requirements of the ARPA
program. And so for Cortez Drive, the
original contract was executed in
November of 2024. So it met that
obligation deadline. And it also meets
all the other requirements that are
specific to the water and sewer category
within ARPA.
And if approved, how it'll work is that
the original accounts that paid for the
Cortez drive project will be reimbursed
with ARPA funds, which is primarily uh
bond funds. Um, but that'll allow us to
spend us that 1 point uh spend the one
remaining 1.3 million uh before the
deadline at the end of this year.
And here are your council options. And I
can stand for any questions.
Thank you, Lee. Uh, councelor Beno.
Thank you, Mayor. Thank you so much for
presenting on this and I acknowledge
that the questions I may ask may not be
for you, maybe for public works, but um
obviously, you know, um I'm pretty
disappointed with the way that the
Casalinda project has sort of gone. Um,
I think it this situation raises Oh, and
perhaps someone can update us on that.
So, I'm not talking out of context for
my colleagues, but I think this raises
questions for me about like
accountability for outside contractors
and those kinds of things that frankly
led to this. This was such a huge
investment in district 4, arguably one
of the districts with the worst
um index in road conditions. And so it's
pretty disappointing for me to see this
kind of investment be moved out of
district 4, obviously for another
important part of the city. Um, but I I
think you know it would I would be doing
a disservice to the constituents who
live in this neighborhood if I didn't
raise this question and I've received so
many emails in the last few months about
how frustrating this has been. So um one
would love to hear an update on that but
two I also want to understand then how
how we will be investing how we will be
finishing this project then um at
Casalinda if we are moving out the
current funds that have been that were
identified to be for this specific
project. That's obviously actually my
number one concern at this point.
Yes. Mayor, Councelor Beno, Kyle Orange,
your interim public works director.
Couple different answers there, a couple
different questions. Um, to start, um,
yes, we're very disappointed with the
the way Kasinda proceeded as well and
with that contractor. That contractor
obviously has been terminated at this
point and we're in a low period right
now where we're waiting to see what the
uh contractor's bonding company is going
to do for us with regards to uh their
obligations to finish that project. um
their response is due to us the 10th of
July. So, we're uh looking forward to
see what that response is, but um there
will continue to be some uh some
discussions, I'm sure, as we try to get
that project back online and and
completed with the funds. Um we were
fortunate uh in working with finance to
find another project which met all the
ARPA conditions um and was done within
the same time frame. So, uh, switching
those funds over to the Cortez Drive
projects allows us to, um, complete the
ARPA project. Um, and the funds that
were used for Cortez Drive can now be
applied to Kasa Linda. So, it's not that
the Kasal Linda money, um, is completely
um, evaporating, but it does allow us to
buy some time for us to work out uh,
getting a new contractor on board uh,
without the strict time frame of the ARP
contract.
Thank you for that. That's helpful. So
there there had been funds identified
for Cortez Drive and those will now move
for the Casalinda project.
That's correct. Those mon those funds
that were identified for Cortez I mean
for Casinda were moving to Cortez and
likewise the funds that were used on
Cortez will be made available to help
with the finishing of Casalinda.
Okay. And just for everyone to know the
Casalinda project, it's Cayento and Kay
del Sol neighborhood. Um, and you know,
I I think again, I know that maybe I'll
repeat this maybe in counselor comments,
but I think I'm glad this is coming up
today because I just I wonder how we are
vetting contractors before we hire them.
I just this one has felt
like, you know, complaints of many
kinds, right? One, obviously, that it's
not getting done and now that timeline
has been pushed, but two, that property
has been damaged, right? Like really
just careless kind of work. And so I'm
really curious about moving forward how
we will do internally just better
vetting of contractors so that they
don't end up you know leaving us in this
situation. And I know that's a longer
term uh question Kyle I don't want I
don't expect you to put you on the spot
to answer it right now but I do just
wanted to raise that for everyone.
Thank you. And will we will city council
see this similar kind of resolution to
move to make sure that core test funds
get transferred to Casalinda in the
future?
Uh that would be a finance question
honestly.
Okay.
Thank you.
Uh yes councelor Beno mayor uh members
members of city council. Yes we can uh
give a pre presentation in the future to
um confirm that this swap has taken
place.
Okay. Thank you so much.
You're welcome.
No other questions of Christine.
This is on the motion to approve
resolution 27-008.
Councelor Mccclure,
yes.
Councelor Matise is absent. Councelor
Harris,
yes.
Councelor Bencoml,
yes.
Councelor Karan,
yes.
Councelor Munoz,
yes. Mayor.
Yes.
Next is item 7.6, resolution number
27-009,
resolution authorizing the write- off of
uncollectible utilities, general
building, and library accounts.
Move to approve.
Second.
Good afternoon, mayor, city council, and
city staff. Um, Adolf Cardinas and
Treasury.
Before you is a resolution for you to
approve the accounts receivable write
offs.
New Mexico State Statute 3-37-7
grants the city council the authority to
write off the receivables that have been
uncollected for more than four years.
It does not affect revenues or expenses.
This action is being taken for
accounting and reporting purposes in
accordance with generally accepted
accounting principles or GAP. It is
considered a best practice to remove
uncollectible accounts from accounts
receivable balance to present a more
accurate uh financial position.
It is important to mention that the
writing the writing of this accounts uh
does not extinguish the debt. the city
can continue to pursue the collection
and recover any amount uh that is
written off.
The accounts receivable the two write
off are as follows. Utilities 178,97
general billing 11,346
library 24,739
for a total amount of 215,082.
This is a 5-year history write off for
utilities. The proposed utility write
off uh represents uh 040% of the
utilities uh annual billing.
The average rate out percentage over the
past five years is uh 31%.
And here's the five-year history for the
general building. The proposed general
building write off represents 05%
of the annual billings.
The average general building write off
percentage over the five years it's 07.
This graphs um this graph illustrates
the percentage of write offs by account
type within the general billing.
The library write off table provides a
summary of the value of charges being
written off,
the number of patrons affected, and the
total amount of all charges
before you are your council options. And
I I stand for question.
Councelor Herbs.
Uh, thank you. Just one quick question
on your nuisance abatement. Yes.
Um,
what what do we charge for a nuisance
abatement?
Like if we have to go pull weeds on
someone's property, do we bill them for
that?
Yes. Um, it was one property the
customer failed to respond to multiple
violations. So the city hire a a company
to do some maintenance of the property
uh and the property does not have a lean
but again we can continue to pursue
collection of that.
Okay. And going forward in the future
are we putting leans on property for
that or is that just like we hired
someone for a few hundred bucks. It's
not worth going through the process.
Uh, mayor cons councelor Harris. Yes, I
right now we Treasury has a a plan and
we should be in constant communication
in this case with legal department. So I
believe it should have a a lean.
Okay. Thanks. That's all.
Councelor Rick.
Thanks mayor. Thank you so much for this
information. Staying on this same slide.
Actually, I I would actually love to see
a breakdown of the actual number dollars
um that go to these. If you can maybe
send us that through the city clerk in
the future because I I I had a very
similar questions about nuisance
abatement and whether that was like
weeds or like a property that was
demolished, right? And so I just I would
love to see the like actual dollar signs
for all of these. Um and then on
for the library fees,
you know, for all of these fees. I think
arguably obviously like utilities, I
think there's a person who follows up
with PE, right, is like calling people
trying to figure out how to like if they
have overdue bills that there's
assistance, those kinds of things. I
would love to hear from at least the
library folks on what this would mean to
not just write off these, but to cancel
these. Um, and again, I think for me,
we would start with the library to be
feels like the most the place where we
could most do that that has maybe the
least impact but I don't want to speak
for the library if if it does have a big
impact I want to know and I'm curious
what you all think about that and I want
to know who these 11 people are that owe
$200 plus dollars not to shame or
anything I just she's most curious
good afternoon Sarah Booth library
deputy director thank you councelor
Bencomo for that question and council Um
the some of these charges, well, we have
charges that have been for out there for
a while and we have recently updated our
policy. So if someone owes um less than
$25, they can still check out an item.
So the larger totals are for items like
audiobooks because those are very
expensive. If you have seven discs,
eight discs, and an audio book, that's
going to be $400.
So, we try and offer payment plans. We
want people to come and check out and
use the library. So, yeah, I hope that
answers your question.
Yes.
Going further though, what would it mean
for the library if we went an additional
step and cancelled people's late fees?
You know, definitely like for I think
under $100
it would be okay. We don't see any of
this money. This all goes to the general
fund. It goes to the general fund. And
when people like when people lose
things, we don't charge fines now. We
But when people lose an item or damage
an item, um there our first choice is
that they can bring us a replacement
copy so we can add it back into the
collection. But um so we don't we don't
see any of this. So I think that would
be up to you all.
Thank you. That's really helpful.
Okay. Thank you.
Um
mayor, city manager's office, I would
love to explore something like that for
folks in the library. I think as you
said, especially under $100, I I would
hate for that to be a barrier for people
to come back because they're embarrassed
because whatever. And so I think that to
me feels
like something very doable. So I really
appreciate it. Um yeah, thank you both.
Mayor Pro.
Um thank you, Mayor. Uh Mayor, city
councilors page six, I think it was. So
events um what what's that are those
like the events that that um public has
on in parks and in shared spaces or
mayor u mayor prot um it was just one
customer
okay
it was for the country music fest
okay
and um it is my understanding that the
business is no longer in
yeah it's it's kind of aged a little bit
okay
so again I'm going to mention again, but
we can we can continue to pursue
collection on this.
Okay. So, some of it this is clean up.
Okay, that's good. I was just concerned
that um maybe some of the organizations
or nonprofits in the community didn't
understand the process or um weren't
able to pay, but it sounds like it's a
one off that's driving most of that
number. Okay. Thank you, mayor. Thank
you, Dulo. Thanks for the
Thanks, Aldulo. Uh you mentioned you can
continue to pursue collection with a lot
of these uh or some of them. Anyway, who
who does that? Who's pursuing the
collection? Uh mayor,
right now utilities is the only
department that has a collection team.
However, uh treasury the finance
department's already in discussion with
with them with utilities about using the
services of their collection team. So we
are we have very high hopes that this
will work and
if we use the services of their team
then they they can collect.
Okay sounds good. Thank you. See no
other questions Christine.
This is on the motion to approve
resolution 27-009.
Councelor Mccclur
yes.
Councelor Matise is absent. Councelor
Harris
yes.
Councelor Beno
yes. Councelor Karan. Yes. Councelor
Munoz.
Yes.
Mayor,
yes.
Okay. So, it was brought to my attention
that item 7.3 there was maybe uh an
error in in the packet versus what was
presented. And I'd like to see if we
could bring that back up for discussion
so that we can get that clarified and
then uh revote on that.
Oh, we don't need to vote. Okay. Well,
do we need a motion to discuss?
So, it's a minor very minor.
Just a mulligan.
Okay. Go ahead, Gabrielle.
Um Christine. Oh, there it is.
Uh again, Gabby Prattz, grants manager
in the finance department, mayor,
counselors,
um city staff, and our community.
Somehow the wrong presentation ended up
on
on here.
The actual grant that was received in
FY26 for the police department was
awarded by New Mexico State University
for $5,000
and that was to support the department's
youth leaders leadership program which
they carry out over June and July with
uh actually during June um in
partnership with NMSU.
No need for any questions.
Pro.
So, point of clarification, do we need
to then withdraw the previous motion and
then revote on this with the correct
information?
Um, no actually you don't because what
you approved was the correct
information. You just weren't presented
the correct information. So, what you
approved was in the packet correctly,
right? The packet showed that's we
noticed that later. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you, mayor. Thank you, Christine.
Okay, so we'll move on to board
appointments. There are none. Notice of
proposed ordinances. There are four.
The first one is council bill number
27-001,
ordinance number 3117.
Bring it forward,
please.
The second one is item 9.2. 2 council
bill number 27-002
ordinance number 3118
bring forward.
Next one is item 9.3 council bill number
27-003
ordinance number 3119
bring forward
and item 9.4 Four, council bill number
27-004,
ordinance number 3120.
Bring forward.
Okay, we'll go to city council board
member board reports and comments.
Council ML.
Thank you, mayor. Just real quickly, hot
off the presses, we are having our first
uh evening work session September 14th.
Um, one of the things is going to be the
youth council. So, we're going to try to
pepper it everywhere that you can find
youths everywhere. We'll we'll figure it
out. Um, I trust that we can get that
information out, but it's going to be
September 14th at 6 PM. Looking forward
to having this place packed perhaps with
pizzas as I suggested before because
bringing food is half of community
building to a large degree. So, I'm
looking forward to that and hope we can
kind of get some people out to give us
feedback, especially young people in Los
Cusus. Thank you,
Council Harris.
Um, thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to
um note that I do personally care quite
a bit about traffic deaths and bicycle
safety and pedestrian safety and driver
safety. Um, so,
I don't know, I just wanted to make that
make that heard. Um, we've been talking
I've been talking with public works and
PD and fire and and a lot behind the
scenes. So, I appreciate the the
advocacy from the community. Um, and and
we're definitely trying to find some
solutions. Thank you,
Councilman Ko.
Thanks, Mayor. Um,
yeah, I was originally only going to
talk about
uh one thing today, but the
what I would say a challenge by
community members um came up today that
I think does feel important to talk
about and address, which is the traffic
safety concerns. And I think I
understand why people would come here
and say, "Please show us that you care."
um because it doesn't feel like you know
uh perhaps there is a level of urgency
around some of the um policy solutions
or implementations
um that there what I mean is that
there's no there's perhaps a lack of
urgency around it and and perhaps not I
think there are conversations happening
behind the scenes um that we should
continue to have not behind the scenes
um and I think
continue to engage with advocates on
this because this is a really important
issue um for I think most of us and
um I think the recent very tragic um
death that was very publicized and
politicized for I think even the wrong
reasons.
um but really highlighted for me
the level of um the desire of community
members for us to talk about these kinds
of issues. And often with this traffic
safety issue, I often feel like we're
trying to legislate,
you know, making our residents be kind
to each other or aware of each other or
just like acknowledge each other's
existence as we move through the world,
which feels like an impossible thing to
legislate, but it's I think traffic
safety is not an impossible thing to
legislate. I think if even if bicyclists
or pedestrians are making quote quote
unquote risky decisions, they're doing
so because there's a flaw in the design
ultimately. And today we heard it very
bravely from someone who I'm assuming
the injury they had was because of their
accident. And you know, I think folks
have talked about things that could be
preventable like better maintenance of
our safe of our bike lanes. Um I think
you know there are um issues of like
inaccessibility of bike lanes. I think
those things we can start to be more
acutely aware of. You know things like
speeding, distracted driving, design. Um
I even read an article recently that
traffic pedestrian deaths are increasing
because our cars are getting bigger and
faster. And so there are some things
that I think are ultimately out of our
control, but there are some things that
are not. and for the ones that are sort
of in the middle, you know, would like
us to see move things a little bit
faster. Um,
you know, when it comes to some of those
one of those pieces. So, I I also just
want to make sure community members know
that I often think about this and that I
appreciate the challenge they pose to us
when coming here to ask us about um what
else we're doing.
And then the last thing, the other thing
I wanted to talk about was that a couple
of weeks ago I attended the first
um meeting for and I am now forgetting
the name of it. Uh it is the affordable
housing playbook for New Mexico local
government leaders and I believe Natalie
Green sent out an invitation to the
entire council and perhaps other staff
to attend this. I think it's six a six
session series where um the department
of workforce solutions has brought
together some experts to talk about
specifically the state of housing in New
Mexico through many layers and really I
think help educate New Mexico leaders,
people who are making decisions around
housing. Um and so perhaps if you maybe
there's still time to jump on to these
conversations, reach out to Natalie. Um
but if not I think obviously the folks
who are there you know can be there and
for the folks who can't I would like
like to at least point out some of the
things after every session because I
think it's information that everyone
should know and hear about. Um some of
the key takeaways I had from this last
meeting um were around population
growth. Actually Donana County
experienced the largest population
growth in the state. though in counties
with the largest housing unit growth, we
were at number two with 5, um22 units
between 2020 in 2024.
Um the total number that New Mexico is
lacking in um rental units is 34,000.
Um and obviously growing is um actually
our state is seeing population increase.
I'm guessing it's all those El Paso
people coming here. They're experiencing
population decline. Um,
let me see a couple other things that I
thought were really interesting to come
out of this. Lowercost rental units
remain more difficult to find than
higher price rental units. Um, the
median household, the median home price
from 2018 to 2024 in New Mexico overall
jumped from 205,000 to 335,000 in Donana
County alone. From that same time
period, it went from 185,000 to 315
um,000. Again, that's the median home
price.
Um, there it is. Anyway, this uh I just
have to really give huge props to the
Department of Workforce Solutions for
hosting um this series and and bringing
on experts to talk about a ton of data,
a ton of the like real work that's
happening, the stuff that needs to
happen and bringing um community leaders
from all over the the state to talk
about these conversations. And um I
would urge you to try to jump on some of
these if you can. And if not, um
hopefully we can advocate for them to
continue to have this series because um
it feels very very important in the
current time that we are in. Thank you,
Council Current.
Thank you. Um yes, I second that. Those
are they're great sessions and I really
appreciated being able to join. Um I
also want to talk a little bit about
thinking about pedestrian and cyclist
safety and road safety generally. I
think the folks who have mentioned it
already sort of have a sense of this and
I guess the idea of like legislating
kindness is a recurring theme that I
after fireworks weekend um and the uh
torment of many of our neighbors who
have pets or or don't appreciate
neighborhood fireworks or um are really
mad about that. I I think about this
idea of how to be a better neighbor and
how to be a better human being. And I I
feel like so much of what we're asked to
do every day is is intervene in those
types of situations. Many people at
every level of the city are asked to
intervene in those types of situations.
So um it's an interesting place, but
when it comes to road safety, at least
we can make some difference. And I think
about how we design roads moving
forward, right? like we are making
um making sure that we're thinking about
pedestrian and cyclist safety as we do
those things and I I hope that we will
continue to do that and thinking about
enforcement and while also thinking
about addressing the existing roads that
we have that are in various states of
condition both in terms of the ways that
we keep them clean and safe and how they
were originally built needing a lot of
help and that all ties into our bigger
300 $300 million capital improvement
budget that I think we're always having
those conversations about. So, thank you
George and and everyone rides with grace
for coming out and bringing this and
always keeping it in our at the
forefront of our thinking. So, um
not just when there's a tragedy, but
also exceptionally when there's a
tragedy like the one from last week. Um,
so other than that, I would like to
thank everyone who helped do our
microchipping event, which we had here
at city hall. Uh, the ASCMV folks did
it, came out and held held dogs. We had
we only had a few
incidents of liberation of dogs, very
brief, and they were contained. But
otherwise, um, we got to hold a lot of
very cute puppies, dogs, and and give
them microchips. The ASMV did that. The
county's vet also, Dr. McKenzie, also
joined because it's required by state
law, which hopefully we can change that
a veterinarian be observing every single
chip that happens. So, surprise. Um,
it's more complicated than than we
initially had thought and then it is in
every other state. I would make note of
in every other state, they're just
giving out the microchips um
under the light supervision of a vet,
but here we have to have a veterinarian
on premises. So, thanks to Dr. from
McKenzie who came out and joined us.
Also, animal control came and had little
giveaways. They also were educating
folks about what to do when your pet
gets lost. So, and then uh Katrina from
the city manager's office and the
facilities folks and security who were
also here to help uh that event go off
without a hitch. So, thank you to that
team effort. Uh it was our first time,
but I hope that we can do it again in
the future. We learned a lot. Um, so
thanks to everyone who participated in
that and that's it.
Thank you, Mayor Protown.
Thank you, Mayor. Um,
I'm uh I'm appreciative of the
counselors and city staff who uh are
supporting the U evening session and I
hope that we have public comment to be
able to hear from from residents who may
not be able to attend these day sessions
because they're working. Um, I
especially want to thank the the staff
because I know it's after a long day,
you were here early and you'll be with
us late night. I will bring my espresso
machine and u we can hang out. Yes, I I
will bring I will bring that. Um, and
we'd have a good good discussion and a
good listening session, I think. and and
eventually I think as these work out um
it'd be nice to have them um more
frequently and we can test them out and
as a pilot and maybe also look at at
holding them in different locations
again more futuristically speaking but u
very excited about that. Uh we talked
about utility write-offs. Uh just a
reminder that um u landlords and
property owners should look at um having
their cooling units already fired up
already. Uh it is very hot and we are
expecting another couple months of very
hot weather. So uh important that we
keep people safe indoors as well. Um
the
um again we we talked about the um
unfortunate
um loss of life. Um I feel for the
families uh for the victim's family um
and friends friends. One thing I would
say uh in addition to what's been said
by by my colleagues is um maybe we don't
wait until we have a tragedy like this
or an accident like this. Maybe we can't
fix everything all at once, but perhaps
there are certain sections or certain
pieces that we could fix now or we could
address now um that would make um help
keep our our residents safer. So, um I
would encourage uh the city staff, our
city manager and assistant city managers
to to look at this and help us um look
for solutions as to what we can do
sooner rather than later.
the
uh also very happy we um the mayor and I
spent some time had a chance to spend
some time with Barbara Hubard who
recently celebrated I believe her 98th
or 99th birthday somewhere on after
after 90 we stopped counting um and the
uh uh the groundbreaking of the
amphitheater near the fairgrounds um
that's very exciting for our community
and for our shared spaces economic
development and for education So so many
good things that will come with that.
The the final piece I would say um is
uh happy anniversary to these United
States. I know it's been called the uh
experiment, the greatest experiment in
world history. Um we are an imperfect
union, always trying to get better. I I
don't think it's unpatriotic to always
look at ways that we could do better and
do differently. Um I do think that
discussion is important in respect of of
different opinions is also important.
And I love the example that uh Derek
shared. Derek and our um police chief uh
Chief Story actually sat at the same
table and had a a a good adult
discussion. Um and and I think
discussions like that and forums like
that are important that we listen to
each other. There might be some areas
where we have consensus and others we
just understand that we think
differently and view things differently.
But I think that is u very helpful and
if we are to progress as a community as
in a society we should listen to each
other. Thank you mayor.
Thank you. I'll just follow up on a few
things that were were mentioned is yeah
also looking forward to the evening
council. Uh we'll try it out. Uh we'll
have them more often if they're
successful. Uh the challenge always on
other locations is the live streaming.
That that's a big challenge that we have
going offsite, but that's something we
can always look at. [snorts] Um with the
traffic safety, it's uh we do have a
work session coming. It's something that
we've talked about for traffic calming
and it will also include automated
enforcement. That will be the
presentation at an upcoming work session
that we can also talk about safety.
Barbara Hubard will turn 99 July 12th
and she's a legend in our community.
Anyone that has been here and seen all
the superstars that she brought to the
Pan-American Center and she still has
the energy and the drive to continue.
She mentioned she has three major major
shows still coming up this year. So her
her words to me were hang on for the
ride because we're going to keep moving
forward. It's an inspiration to have
somebody at that age still moving
forward. I just want to say thank you to
[snorts] the city and thank you for the
county and NMSU all partnering together
for our Fourth of July uh celebration.
the electric parade and the event at
NMSU was well attended. Spectacular
firework display, a great turnout for
the parade. So, a special thank you to
parks and wreck, police, fire, uh, visit
Los Cruises, and everyone else that
joined in on that. It was it was a great
event and a great time and well
attended.
So, with that, I'll turn it over to the
city manager's report.
Thank you, Mayor. David Sio, interim
assistant city manager. For the record,
as the mayor said, the special thanks to
a lot of folks for the Fourth of July
festivities that happened over the
weekend. There were a lot of people in
the background that made this happen for
our community. Like the mayor said, very
well attended,
very uneventful with any issues. So,
great event for our community. Just
wanted to share some of the float
results
for the parade. Best overall went to
Hernandez Heating, Cooling, and
Plumbing. For commercial floats, the top
three, number one again, Hernandez
Heating and Cooling, and Plumbing,
coming in number two, El Paso Electric,
and number three, Vados Speedway. For
our non-commercial floats, the top three
were number one, Francancy Emil, number
two, Welcome Home Veterans, and number
three, Todd Garrison for sheriff. There
were over 200 vehicles in the parade,
and that was between floats and car
clubs. So again, thank you very, very
much to all those who attended and
participated.
The next item I'd like to recognize and
highlight, one of our own. You may have
already seen this go through in a
posting, but I wanted to make sure that
the public was aware as well. So, I'm
happy to share that the Government
Finance Officers Association or GFOA
selected our finance director Leslie
Doyle as one of their 2026 recipients of
the recognition for outstanding public
service. And I'll read a little bit of
the nomination.
said Leslie came to the role after a
career shift moving from a school
district into municipal government and
she has met that challenge in front with
confidence in her first year. Her
approach has been defined by open
communication and proactive problem
solving qualities that have helped
strengthen relationships across the
organization. She has also worked to
create a positive environment within her
own department, one where employees feel
valued and supported. So, if you do
happen to see Leslie Doyle, please
congratulate her. Thank you, council.
Can I just say something really quick
about Leslie Doyle and why I'm really
appreciative of her?
Absolutely.
Giving this award. Sorry. I I in case
people don't know I think city
councilors might be the bane of most
staff's existence generously if if I can
say sometimes not but a lot of the time
we are and so I know that I personally
have heranged Leslie in an an extremely
kind and gentle way when I was being
dumb as a box of rocks. She somehow got
me from box of rocks to understanding
really complicated um things related to
the budget that you know I don't I don't
know that city council necessarily comes
to this. I think we're all perhaps I
mean maybe not a little box of Roxy uh
up here, but she really has personally I
I am deeply grateful for the work that
she's done in terms of talking me
through things and really supporting my
deeper understanding of how finance
works and everything that's in it. And
so I just want to give a shout out to to
and and an acknowledgement that um
Leslie really does walk the walk and and
invest in us understanding what's going
on. And so I just wanted to elevate that
appreciation very much.
Okay, I'll look for a motion to adjurnn.
Move to adjourn.
Second.
This is on the motion to adjourn the
meeting. Councelor McClur,
yes.
Councelor Matise is absent. Councelor
Harris,
yes.
Councelor Bencoml,
yes. Councelor Karan,
yes.
Councelor Munoz,
yes.
And mayor,
yes.