[Music]
You're live.
Well, good afternoon everyone. Welcome
to the city council meeting. Today is
Monday, May 19th, 2025. It's
approximately 1 p.m. I'm Mayor Eric
Enriquez. Before we start, I want to
mention that we have a ASL American Sign
Language interpreter up 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 Department and
Fire Department as they keep our city
safe 24/7
365. Councelor Flores, if you'll lead us
in the pledge.
I aliance 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.
Next, we'll go to presentations.
of certificates, appreciation and
proclamations. Uh, mayor prom ko
Beno Ben Ko will that's what you said.
Okay. Hi everyone. Good afternoon. Yeah.
I'm so happy to see you all here today.
Uh, our first proclamation is for the
110th anniversary of Progress Club of
Los Cruus presented to Debbie McCallen
and honestly whoever wants to come up.
Yes, you can.
And you can stand right here.
You're welcome. Are you Debbie? Hi. Nice
to meet you.
All right, I'm going to start reading as
you all make your way up.
Whereas the general federation of of
women's club,
GFWC, Progress Club of Los Cusus, was
federated on April 24th, 1915 as part of
the GFWC New Mexico and the
International General Federation of
Women's Clubs in Washington. And whereas
the GFWC Progress Club of Los Cusus is
celebrating the 110th anniversary in
2025. And whereas the GFWC Progress Club
of Los Cruuses was organized to operate
exclusively for charitable and
educational purposes. And whereas the
GFWC Progress Club of Los Cruus has
provided scholarships and monetary
support to students of New Mexico State
University since 1915. Whereas the GFWC
Progress Club of Los Cusus has worked
diligently to provide leadership skills
for women in the area of advocacy for
children, arts, civic engagement,
domestic violence, education,
environment, scholarship, library
legislation. And whereas the GFWC
Progress Club of Los Cruus is dedicated
to improving the lives of women and the
community of Los Cusus. Now therefore,
we the mayor and city council of las
cruises honor GFWC Progress Club of Las
Cruus for their 110th years of ser
service and encourage every woman with a
desire to help her community to find an
organization that meets her needs to
help grow among the citizens of Los
Cusus. Thank
you. You want to make a couple of rows
and we'll take a picture.
Oh, do you want to say something? I'm so
sorry.
Thank you, mayor. Thank you, counselors.
Well, this is only a few of us. There's
70 of us in our club this day. Uh we
started giving scholarships out to um
New Mexico State University and started
we built the first
library. To this day, we continue to
support the library. New Mexico State,
Donana Community College, and other
several many I can go into a rabbit hole
on how many people we have donated to
and
helped. Just this
year, we've donated
$32,000 to different organizations.
We have
given clocked in
33,000 volunteer hours and
132 not um
in kind. Sorry. Thank you. In kind that
means individually they have given money
and donated time. So I'm so proud and
happy to show you that we have all
dressed up in the different
decades and how long we've been here.
We've gone through two world war world
wars, the
depression,
COVID, and we're still holding strong.
Thank you so much.
[Applause]
I feel so much lesser than you are.
two and three.
[Applause]
Thank you all so
much. Next, we have a proclamation for
National Public Works Week presented to
the public works department. I'm going
to invite all of you to come down as
well. Don't be shy. I already see you
guys looking at each other like, "Should
we go down there?
Yes, there we go.
Yes. So many of you. I'm so glad. I hope
there's no public works emergency while
you're all here.
We can start. We can go this way too if
you want.
That's good, too. Oh my gosh. Did you
hear me, David? I hope there's no public
works emergency while you're all here.
Everything's taken care of. Perfect. I
said, I hope
he said everything's taken care of.
Oh my gosh, this is amazing.
Yes. I love this. More on the back that
aren't coming. There's more in the back.
Oh, she said there's more of you that
aren't coming.
So, okay, I'm going to go ahead and read
this while everyone makes their way
down. If you're standing in the back and
should be down
here.
Yes. Pure pressure.
Okay, I love this so much. Here we go.
Whereas public works professionals focus
on infrastructure, facilities and
services that are vital of our of vital
importance to sustainable and resilient
communities and to public health, high
quality of life and well-being of the
people of the city of Los Cusus. And
whereas these infrastructure facilities
and services could not be provided
without the dedicated efforts of public
works professionals who are engineers,
managers and employees at all levels of
government and the private sector who
are responsible for rebuilding,
improving and protecting our nation's
transportation, water supply, water
treatment and solid waste systems,
public buildings and other structures
and facilities essential to our
citizens. And whereas it it is in the
public interest for the citizens, civil
leaders, and children in the city of Los
Cusus to gain knowledge of and maintain
an ongoing interest and understanding of
the importance of public works and
public works programs in their
respective communities. And whereas the
year 2025 marks the 65 65th annual
national work national public works week
sponsored by the American public works
association and Canadian public works
association. Now therefore, we, the
mayor and city of Los
Cruus and city council of Los Cruus, New
Mexico, do hereby designate the week of
May 18th through 2020 through 24, 2025
as National Public Works Week and urge
all citizens to join with
representatives of the American Public
Works Association and government
agencies in activities, events, and
ceremonies designed to pay tribute to
health, safety, and advancing quality of
life for all. Thank you all so much.
So, first of all, I want to thank mayor
and council for recognizing the
dedication and hard work of all of your
public works professionals. At this
time, can you go ahead and help me give
them another round of applause,
please? So, these individuals show up
day in day out. Rain, shine, dust, wind,
ice, snow, pandemic, you name it.
Because of that, they provide the best
possible
service to our community for a better
quality of
life. That way, all of us in this
community can enjoy safe, reliable,
energyefficient, and accessible
infrastructure. However, we cannot do
this alone.
We are but a part of a
bigger part within our
organization, our community
partners to make our city
thrive. I'm
sorry for that. We understand the role
that we play in every everyone's lives,
the impacts that we have and how
important it is to us individually to do
that to the best of our
ability. So, as you see them out on the
streets patching a pothole, fixing a
street light, inspecting a
project, all of those things, slow down,
wave, say hello,
honk, give a thumbs up.
because we greatly appreciate the
support and gratitude from the public
for what we do every day. So from all of
us in public works, we want to say thank
you as we move forward and providing the
services that we do. Concinho, thank
you. Stand up there.
We'll have everybody kind of just pull
forward in front of the dice. We're not
even going to try it with the bag.
I don't know. Stay right here.
Keep going. Keep going, people. Keep
going. Sorry. Move along. Move along.
Oh, no. You're not supposed to stand in
front of me. I don't want to be ahead.
I'm sorry. I don't want to. He's too
tall.
Right here. Right here.
Oh my god. I'm going to throw up.
Please. Trust me.
Yes. Where is the picture
guy from the ceiling?
Everybody, this is
[Applause]
I got
her quick.
Okay, thank you all so much. Be safe.
That work. Um, give it up for Nathaniel
for being able to pull that
off. Thank you,
Nathaniel. Okay, we have one
more. And we have a proclamation for
mental health awareness month presented
to Luis Vasquez, Joe Provenio, Audrey
Varela, and Jenna Torres Hanway. Are you
all here?
No one.
Okay. Um, councelor Mccclure, do you
want to do yours real quick and then we
can switch?
up here already. All right,
little switcheroo. We're actually going
to do another one, but uh I get to read
it this time. This is going to be for uh
National Historic Preservation
Month. Whereas historic preservation is
an effective tool for managing growth,
revitaliz revitalizing neighborhoods,
fostering local pride, and maintaining
community character while enhancing
economic
sustainability. And whereas the city of
Los Cusus is home to a rich cultural
heritage, including historic
neighborhoods such as the Mosquet
Historic District and the Alama Depot
historic district and landmarks such as
the Alador Hotel, Rio Grand Theater, and
the Donana Courthouse. And whereas
Historic Preservation Month is
celebrated nationwide each May to
recognize the importance of protecting
and promoting historic places that tell
a story of our shared past and shape our
future. And whereas preservation efforts
in Los Cruus contribute to the city's
economic development by attracting
visitors, supporting local businesses,
and encouraging adaptive reuse of
historic b buildings. And whereas the
city of Los Cruus values the role of its
residents, organizations, and
institutions in advocating for and
preserving our historic resources,
including the Amidor Hotel, Mosquite
Historic District, and other significant
sites that embody our community's unique
identity. And whereas May serves as an
opportunity to encourage awareness,
appreciation, and active participation
in historic preservation efforts through
educational events, walking tours, and
community discussions. Now, therefore,
we the mayor and city council of Las
Cusus, New Mexico, do hereby proclaim
May 2025 as historic preservation month
and extends its deepest gratitude to the
members of the historic preservation
committee and the staff of the community
development department for their
commitment to historic preservation and
call upon all citizens to celebrate,
promote, and support the preservation of
our community's irreplaceable historic
assets.
And I'd like to introduce the chair of
our historic preservation committee, Dr.
Jerry Wallace.
All right. Thank you. Um, uh, my name is
Jerry Wallace. I'm also the director of
the public history program at NMSU. So,
thank you, mayor. Thank you, counselors,
for inviting us here today to share some
thoughts. Um, this month is historic
preservation month. Uh it was a it was a
program an initiative initiative
established by the National Trust for
Historic Preservation 20 years ago to
the to the year and it's something that
was an extension of the original um
National Preservation Week that started
over 52 years ago when we started
thinking about preservation of
communities and ideas and what it meant
for identity especially local history.
And this year's theme really focuses on
something called harnessing the power of
place, which sounds really fancy, but it
really means the different meanings that
people have given to a particular place
over time. And so, just to give you an
idea of what I mean by that, my
generation refers to downtown Los Cruus
as the downtown mall. My grandparents
generation referred to it as Main Street
or Los Cruises. And so just those two
those generations alone think about the
same place differently and what that
place has meant for me that the downtown
mall was the whole enchilada fiesta. You
know for my grandparents it was where
they conducted business and and and did
different things. And so that's a really
powerful way of thinking why we need to
preserve certain communities or certain
parts of our of of our own community.
Um, this Wednesday, uh, at our HPC
meeting, I've, uh, we're going to
celebrate Historic Preservation Month,
but we're going to do it a little bit
differently. I've invited the village of
Donana County to come and share what
they're doing out in their community
about historic preservation. We've also
invited somebody to come and speak about
landscape preservation from Tortugas and
thinking about Tortugas Mountain or a
mountain. And then we're going to look
at other ways of preservation this
Wednesday. And what we're going to focus
on is also like not buildings or places,
but things that go on buildings. So,
we're going to look at murals
preservation and what murals mean about
what public art really means about our
community and our identity and how
there's a couple of initiatives that are
going on in the community to preserve
that th those murals digitally. If you
know anything about murals, they're up
and they're gone. They're up and they're
gone. And so we've created a digital
archive over the last 10 years uh
through the public history program at
NMSU about pre uh preserving those
murals and what those murals have meant
to our our community. They're much
different than Albuquerque and and El
Paso and other places. And so public art
says a lot about that. And so preserving
those types of things are also part of
what the committee wants to focus on as
well. Um so again, I want to thank you.
I want to turn my the rest of the time
over to Caitlyn Beasley who is the the
preservation specialist and she can also
share some ideas about uh preservation
month.
Thank you, Dr. Wallace. Um yes, I'm
Caitlyn Beasley. I'm brand new. I've
just arrived this month and it's a
perfect month because it's preservation
month. Um I'm really excited to be here
um working with everybody with the city
council, with community members. um
consider me uh you know ready to listen
to anything that you guys have to say.
Um our buildings, our structures, our
sites around the community um tell a
story. They tell important stories. They
tell the community stories and I'm
really glad that I'm going to get to be
a part of telling those stories and
listening to those stories with you guys
and um continuing to preserve the
historical character of the
community. Thank you.
[Applause]
Okay, back to mental health awareness
month. Uh we will present this to um
Jenna.
Jenna, is anyone else with you? Just
you. Okay, perfect. Perfect. Come on
over. Join me. Okay. Whereas mental
health is essential to the overall
health and well-being of every resident
of Los Cusus. And whereas one in five
adults in the United States experience a
mental health condition each year. And
nearly one in six youth aged six to 17
experience a mental health disorder. And
whereas stigma, discrimination, and lack
of awareness often prevent individuals
from seeking mental health care and the
support they need. And whereas open
dialogue, community support, and access
to mental health resources, help break
down sta barriers, and encourage
individuals to prioritize their
emotional and psychological well-being.
And whereas the city of Los Cusus is
committed to fostering a culture of
compassion, education, and support
through programs offered by human
resources, the employee assistance
program, and thorough part and and
through partnerships with local service
providers in Los Cruus and the
surrounding region. And whereas during
mental health awareness month, we
reaffirm our commitment to promoting
mental wellness and ensuring that
individuals and families in our
community have access to the care and
resources they need to thrive. Now
therefore, we, the mayor and the city
council of Los Cruus, New Mexico, do
hereby proclaim the month of May 2025 as
mental health awareness month in the
city of Los Cruus and encourage all
residents, employers, community
organizations, and health professionals
to increase awareness, foster open
conversations, and promote a culture of
support for those affect affected by
mental health conditions. Thank you. Do
you want to say?
Hi everyone. I'm the benefits
coordinator with the city of Los Cusus.
Um, we were myself, Joe Pvenio, our EAP,
our police wellness coordinator, Luis
Vasquez, and our wellness program
coordinator, uh, Audrey Bella were
really strong about mental health. And
we wanted to make sure that our
employees knew that there was resources
for them if they ever experience a
crisis and they don't feel like they
have someone to turn to that we wanted
them to be aware that they have
resources here within the city of Los
Cruises to help them out. So, thank you.
[Applause]
That's it, Mayor.
All right. Thank
you. Next on the agenda is jobs of the
week. Uh, Miss Palomares.
Good afternoon, mayor and council. My
name is Jazelle Pala Lumarez. I am with
America's Job Center New Mexico. Um, so
for the jobs of this week, um, the city
of Los Cruises is hiring an assistant
management analyst. It is paying $2110
an hour. The job posting closes on June
2nd. Um, City of Las Cruz is also hiring
a human resource specialist that pays
$2110 and that closes on May 26th. And
Pioneer Bank is hiring a teller, pays
anywhere between $16 and $18 an hour and
that closes on June
7th. Franklin Mountain Packaging um is
hiring a general laborer and that um
pays depending on experience and that
closes on June 6th. and Messia Valley
Public Housing Authority um is hiring a
front desk receptionist also depending
on experience um and it closes on June
5th and NMSU is hiring a copywriter that
pays
43,98 a year and that closes on June
7th. Um for events and opportunities
throughout the community here in Donana
County on May the 21st, Community of
Hope is partnering with America's Job
Centers to host the job readiness event
from 2 p.m. to 4:30. And on June 10th,
we have a job court meet and greet at
the American Job Center office in Los
Cusus. On June 17th, we have an
America's Job Center meet and greet. Um,
and that is with um, Messia Valley
Public Housing Authority to be able to
provide services to their tenants. And
um, on the 25th of June, we have
Community of Hope job readiness event as
well. And then on the 26th of June, we
have Lions Club um, free glasses event
from 9:00 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the
America's Job Center office as well. And
as always, if you are wanting to contact
us, you can always call us via telephone
number or scan the QR code for more
information or you can visit us from on
Monday through from Monday through
Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Thank
you.
Thank you. Next is pet of the weeks, uh,
Carol. Good afternoon. I'm Carol Nelson,
the digital content specialist with the
Animal Services Center of the Messia
Valley. Just as a reminder, anytime a
dog or a cat are promoted as pet of the
week, they are available at no cost. Um,
and this week our dog of the week is
Lucky. And fortunately, he has already
been adopted. So, we've been having some
good success lately. So, we're super
excited for Lucky. And also, we were
going to have a cat of the week. The cat
that we selected got adopted before we
could promote her. So, again, good
problems to have. So, we do still want
to draw attention to our long-term
residents who are available uh for
adoption at just $25. Um, these are all
residents who have been at the center
for three or more months. Uh, we just
want to highlight our top. Alice has
been at our center now 349 days. Tony
333 days, Whisper 292, and Peppa 288
days. And just also wanted to highlight
more good news. Bruno was on this list,
but he too was adopted recently. So,
some of our long-term residents have
been finding their home, so we're happy
about that. Uh we wanted to highlight
our upcoming drive-through vaccination
clinic where the community can come out
and get free and lowcost vaccines,
lowcost microchips. So we'll be at the
Field of Dreams on June 1st from 9 to 1.
So definitely come. Uh sometimes the
line can get a little bit long. So make
sure that you come equipped with water
and snacks for the pets. Uh cuz
sometimes they can get a little antsy
and it is first come first serve and
only until supplies last. So, and that
for this upcoming weekend, we will be at
PetSmart and also at the block party
that Farm is holding downtown uh on
Saturday. So, definitely come by and
check out our adoptable
pets. And for more information, feel
free to follow us on social media or
visit our website. Thank you.
All right. Thank you, Carol.
Next is a conflict of interest
statement. Does any member of city
council, city manager, or any member of
the city staff have any known conflict
of interest with any item on the agenda?
None. Flores.
None. None. Grant. None.
Next is public participation. We'll
allow up to three minutes. No pending
litigation or items that are on
non-consent. Katrina will come up and
help usher you to the podium.
Please state your name and speak clearly
into the microphone, please.
Thanks for your
help. Mayor, council, and those watching
online. I'm Lynn Moer. Key problems are
evident regarding the city's
implementation of the new lead and
copper rule. The service line inventory
of piping the city is required to post
online has huge gaps. More than half the
properties have no indication of any
service lines whatsoever. Handout one
documents a sampling of the gaps found
regarding 72 properties. You can also
see it looking on the lawn line map.
Zoom in on the houses west of the
northern part of Travis Drive, for
example, and see the dozens of houses
that show no water hookups at all. For
the properties that are listed, a large
number feature false or misleading
characterizations about the piping or
they characterize piping as non-LED
without any foundation whatsoever.
Handout two spells out examples of these
deficiencies for 81 properties. For
instance, the fourth property listed on
page one records that Los Cusus
Utilities has designated the entire
service line as non-LED, claiming that
the installation date for this
city-owned part was after 1986 lead ban
even though it notes that the piping was
installed in 1968, 18 years before the
lead ban. This is clearly a false
designation. Another deficiency is the
city's habit of asserting that a service
line is non-LED without any basis
whatsoever. Look at the last property on
page two as an example. Another
deficiency is that Los Cusus Utilities
characterizes an entire service line as
non-LED even though a portion of it is
unknown. Look at the first property on
page seven. EPA guidance sets out an
easy to understand chart how a water
system is supposed to characterize a
service line if part of it is unknown.
The link to that EPA guidance is in the
footnote. Service line inventories are
the foundation from which water systems
take action to address lead service
lines. According to EPA, they are key to
getting lead lines replaced and
protecting public health. While the
inventory may be a living document that
will be updated, the rule does not allow
false information to be listed in the
inventory at any time. We're concerned
for all the Las Cusus folks who trying
to do the right thing look up their
property online to see what the
inventory says about their piping. At
least half of them won't even be able to
find their property on the map. Another
quarter or so of them are provided false
or misleading information about their
property. These deficiencies mean that
the city can be found to be out of
compliance with the rule and liable for
li civil penalties. Moreover, it calls
into question the veracity and
competence of Los Cusus utilities
personnel working on this and everything
they've told us related to the city's
pipes. I urge you to study this
wellressearched fact-based information
and consider it thoughtfully. Check the
rule in EPA guidance. Look up at least
two properties from each handout. This
is evidence of a serious problem. You
can't just wave off all these data as
some kind of anomaly. These are some of
the reasons we need an independent
engineer with management experience to
assess the city's compliance with the
new rule. Thank you for this opportunity
to speak.
[Applause]
Hello. Oh, there we go. Hello, city
council and mayor. Uh, my name is
Abigail Suluk Sagan. I have been a
constituent in Las Cusus for about 17
years now, and I have watched this city
rapidly grow. It's a beautiful site to
see. Um, I did want to say that I'll be
speaking on agenda item 8.6, 6, but I
have very limited time today. I'm
needing to leave uh for work. Uh do I
have permission from council and mayor
to move forward with my comment?
No, I'm sorry. We can't. Okay. Thank
you.
Uh, hello city council mayor. My name is
Lucas H. Hearnden. I'm a resident in
district 2.
Um, I wish that I could come and talk to
you about the police not murdering
people in our city. Um, but since the
last time I was here, they have murdered
another person in our city. Um, this
time they are too busy doing parades in
Washington DC to even inform the public
about it. Um, and to quote the police
chief, the timing is just terrible. Due
to the unfortunate timing of this
incident, that incident being the
murder, and with many of our department
members traveling to Washington DC for
National Police Week, we will delay
having a news conference until after our
return.
if a member of the general
public committed
murder and um told the prosecutor or the
judge that it was an inopportune time
for them to go to court because they had
a parade to go to. They had to ship
their motorcycles across the country.
Um, I'm pretty sure that the legal
system in place would um tell them that
was an insufficient reason for them to
not do their due
diligence. So, I would like to know I
would like accountability from this city
why the cops are allowed to murder
somebody and then not tell us about it
for two weeks because they're busy at a
parade. I don't know. Maybe it was
totally justified. Maybe this man, you
know, shot a machine gun at a cop and
tried to murder them. I don't know.
Maybe. But we don't know because the
cops won't tell
us. Given the history of what cops have
done in this city, given the record
payouts that this city council on behalf
of the taxpayers have had to pay out to
the victims of cop
violence, I'm not inclined to believe
that. I'm inclined to believe probably
the
worst. And until somebody tells me
otherwise, you're going to have a hard
time convincing me otherwise.
So, I think there needs to be
accountability on this
one and and future ones and past ones,
but on this one in particular. Thank
you.
[Applause]
Usually it takes them a lot longer to
get to my spot. Uh hello council mayor.
My name is Trent Scribner. Uh I'm here
because today I was lucky to be able to
get off of work. I'm here at 1 p.m. on a
Monday. I'm just happy to see you.
Uh, I understand we're probably going to
be here for quite some time unless you
guys decide to switch the agenda around
a little bit because we we know what
everybody's here for today.
Um, I'm here because I believe that
these public forums are important, man.
Because times are tough and I think that
they're getting more and more important
as we move forward. And I'm not the only
one who feels that way. Clearly,
um, I wrote a big whole thing today.
I'm here because I believe that the
young working people in Los Cusus are
criminally under reppresented here and
in the city and in cities all over the
country. I'm sure that the council is
aware of this. I'm sure that you guys
talk about like youth engagement and
engaging with the city as a whole a
lot. And so what I want to ask you is to
change the times for these meetings.
uh to lie outside of working hours
because I know a lot of people, you just
heard from someone today, who can't stay
for the whole day. I know a lot of
people who I tried to get out here who
can't come because it's at 1:00 p.m. on
a Tuesday and that's like a very small
cohort of people who can show up at that
time.
Um I believe that the young working
people of the city are going to have to
live with the consequences of whatever
happens or doesn't happen here for a
long time, man. going to be around. And
so we have the right to be represented.
We have the right for it to be
accessible to us, as accessible as
possible. Whether they really show up or
not, the option should be available to
them. Um, I understand this is some onus
on the city workers, and I respect the
hell out of you guys for doing it.
Um, I'm asking you to stay a couple
hours late so that we can show up. So
that we can maybe show up.
Um, that's all I got for now. Thank you.
[Applause]
Good afternoon, commissioners or uh
counselors. Uh Mr. Mayor,
um my name is Jim
Hurst, and I'm here to
uh say why separation of church and
state is so
important. Separation of church and
state is important. Because democracy is
important.
There's no democracy without freedom and
there's no freedom without religious
freedom. Our founders recognized that a
democratic republic could not work
without freedom and freedom required the
freedom to think for yourself. Thus, the
freedom of religion.
The founders also knew from experience
of the reformation that governments were
often tempted to exploit religion for
political ends. So they wanted the
American government to be neutral on
religious issues. That's why they forbid
our government from passing any law
establishing religion. Unfortunately,
the US has not always followed that
restriction, such as the addition to
under God and the pledge of our a pledge
of
allegiance was added in
1952. America is different religiously
now that we were at our founding. Our
religions no longer tolerate or promote
slavery as they once
did. For the most part, our religions
recognize the equality of women to men.
Most importantly, belief in God is no
longer you nearly as universal as it was
at our founding. Nuns, that is people
with no religious affiliation are now,
according to Pew Research, 30% of our
population. It appears that Trump is
taking aim at nuns because it pleases
his base of evangelical
Christians. His vow to make America
religious again and to make America pray
again is a direct affront to the
conscience of nuns and their decision to
live without
religion. Telling nuns to be religious
is similar to telling Baptists to be
Catholic. I have no desire to follow the
spiritual div advice of Donald J. Trump
and I don't think it would be beneficial
for our country to do so.
I ask this council to be vigilant in
preserving religious liberty and the
separation of church and state. Thank
[Applause]
you. Good afternoon, city council. My
name is Donna Striker.
There's something called innocent before
proven
guilty. I've been reading the public
participation for a year. The
disrespectful, degrading, threatening,
and slanderous remarks, while strictly
prohibited, are simply ignored if you
don't like it. I guess I mentioned
before and I'll remind us again as the
public, this council is not required
under the state constitution to listen
to public comment. And I personally
really really appreciate Mayor Council,
Mayor Prom, all of you that you contend
continue to allow us to come before you.
I've interacted with almost all of you
and although we don't always agree, I
have to say that the staff that I have
worked with, the city manager, the
mayor, the police chief, the fire chief,
many of the counselors, although we
don't always see eye to eye. I
understand that we all have different
beliefs. But can we just be respectful?
This public comment is important and I
like it and I love it and I hope you
continue it. But I have not had emails
not returned even when we don't agree
and I cannot tell you how much I
appreciate that. We don't have to agree.
Becky Kran reminded of me at that last
meeting and I appreciate again and again
Becky I don't think you know how often I
think about you. I just read all the
minutes from the work session. I hope
you as public count public input behind
me listen and read what the counselors
say. I had I was surprised and
pleasantly surprised when I read many of
the counselor's comments from the last
work session about the budget. I don't
agree with you all the time. I go I know
that and you know that. But I will tell
you I do respect you and I think that
the job you do is extremely difficult
but is extremely difficult as a person
in the public to listen the citizenry be
disrespectful and degrading and
threatening.
That's very difficult for me and I am
terrified and concerned that our council
and our mayor will be forced by a few to
ruin it for all of us and I sure hope
that doesn't happen. Thank you.
[Applause]
Good afternoon, Mayor, City Council,
Police Department. Tim Jenkins here.
Number one, I'd like to apologize for
the rhetoric and the behavior against
our police department. They leave their
families. They leave their wives and
their children at home and fight for us
every single day. We back them and we
fight for them and we pray for them and
we hope the best for them and the whole
entire department.
Number two, I'd like to bring to your
attention. I don't know if you guys are
aware of the fact that
yesterday over
1,250 people from Los Cusus were
deployed out of this country in harm's
way. We had
a uh ceremony on Thursday at Mayfield
for the families and for the wives and
for the children as a send off as a God
bless you and a thank you. And I want to
thank Bill Matise for showing up and for
being there. It meant so much to me and
to my girlfriend and my three best
friends that are gone for 10 months. And
I just want to bring it to you guys'
attention that we keep them in our
thoughts and our prayers as they fight
for us and for our freedom. Thank you
very much.
[Applause]
Thank you Katrina.
Next on the agenda is the to read the
close meeting statement took place
today. Uh the city council met in close
session at 11:02 a.m. on May 19th. The
following were in attendance. Councelor
Graham, Council Mccclure, myself, Mayor
Prom Beno, Councelor Karan, City Manager
[Music]
Econo, City Attorney Brad Douglas,
uh, city clerk Christine
Rietta. Outside council was Chris
Delilipoo. I butchered that one. and um
Chief Story was also in attendance from
11:02 to 11:20 a.m.
Um the meeting adjourned at 11:39 a.m.
We discussed the pending litigation
regarding Anthony Spade versus the city
of Los Cusus and also discussed pending
litigation regarding Darlene Oaks versus
the city of Los Cusus. Again, it
adjourned at 11:39 a.m.
Now we need a acceptance of the agenda.
Move to approve. Second, Graham.
This is on the motion to accept the
agenda as presented. Councelor McClur,
yes. Councelor Matise, yes. Councelor
Graham, yes. Councelor Cran, yes.
Councelor Flores, yes. Councelor
Bencoml, yes. Mayor,
yes. So, we'll start with resolution
number
25-137, a resolution authorizing the
city of Los Cuses to accept various
budget adjustments.
Move to approve. Second, Graham.
Good afternoon, mayors, city council, um
staff, and public. My name is Vanessa
Perez, and I'm one of your budget
analysts. I'm here to I'm here today to
bring a resolution to accept various
internal budget adjustments.
Before we dive into the overview of the
budget adjustments, I'd like to share a
few reminders, um, the adjustments
presented today will primarily focus on
updating available balances within our
budget. And the following slides only
provide a summary of the adjustments
requested, but if you would like further
detail, please refer to your
packets. Fire station 4 located on
Missouri and Telshore has a roof leak.
We are requesting that budget be set
aside in two different funds to cover
this expenditure. We are requesting that
about
$29,000 be reallocated within the
general fund. This would create a net
effect of $0. Additionally, we are
requesting that within fund 2023 SSGT
about
$291,000 be set aside. And again, this
is for the roof leak. The total amount
of funding needed is
$500,000. and this will help cover a
full replacement to the areas above the
dorm, the kitchen, and the apparatus
bay. Lastly, the information technology
department is requesting to allocate
funds for the replacement of a vehicle
which was totaled in an accident. The
insurance payout of $17,000
um has been transferred into the vehicle
acquisition fund and it will now be used
to cover the expense of acquiring the
replacement
vehicle. Before you are your standard
options and I stand for questions.
Thank you. Any questions?
Seeing none. Christine,
this is on the motion to approve
resolution
25-137. Councelor Mccclur. Yes.
Councelor Matise. Yes. Councelor Graham.
Yes. Councelor Cran. Yes. Councelor
Fletus. Yes. Councelor Bencoml. Yes,
mayor. Yes.
Next is item 8.2, resolution number
25-138, resolution amending the FY 2025
through30 capital improvement program.
Move to approve.
Second. Go ahead, Cynthia.
Good afternoon, mayor and city council.
My name is Cynthia Lamo, CIP manager
with planning and implementation. And
today I'm here to present one CIP
amendment. This amendment is for a newly
funded project and also a newly uh a new
project within the
CIP. The amendment is to bring in
500,000 for the fire station for re
roof. And this is part of the same
amendment that was just presented for
budget. Now I would like to see if
there's um DBC that was see will help us
hear more details about this
project. All right. Good afternoon Mayor
Council Dominic Susi. So this is for uh
for the station 4 uh re- roof. Um, as
you guys can see in the pictures, the
roof is in pretty rough shape. Um, we've
got leaks to multiple dorms and multiple
areas of the kitchen. Uh, those leaks
are are displacing firefighters at this
point. So, um, when the when it rains or
sometimes when it snows, we can
guarantee that that roof leak is going
to come through and and follow the duct
work and go into various dorm rooms. Uh,
we've already had to displace
firefighters a few times. It hasn't been
the entire station, but we've had to
move people around to accommodate them
and um just causing a lot of problems
for us and really affecting our
response. So, kind of the issue with the
roof at the station. So, I think when we
have facilities and um and we have roof
problems, it's one thing to be having a
have a leaky roof maybe in an office
building where you can displace people
for a little while, but when we have
roof uh leaks in fire stations, we're
having a displace personnel and that
response district is compromised. So,
this kind of the big issue here is that
if this gets worse or starts to cause
more problems, we'll be moving personnel
and compromising that response
district. So, here in the pictures, you
can see that it's gone into dorms um and
just these guys are using buckets and
moving beds around to kind of stay away
from the leak. But and the the pictures
kind of don't really illustrate how bad
this leak is, but it's definitely going
all the way through and and they haven't
opened up the roof completely, but I'm
sure it's plenty more damage.
Thank you.
Thank you, Cynthia. For the record,
council, this is the only amendment that
we're presenting today. And with that,
here are your council options. You have
a question, Council Flores? I have a
question. Excuse me.
Actually, I have two questions. Okay.
Number one is why um did, and I don't
mean you personally, but why did the
fire department wait so long to address
this issue? The other is mold. Has it
been tested for mold? Because it looks
like there's a lot of damage there.
Um yeah, so to answer your first
question, we we've been putting in work
orders uh for this issue for a while. Uh
I took over facilities for the fire
department about about eight months ago
roughly. So um that's kind of when I got
knowledge of this. Um, so I don't have a
perfect history, but kind of through
the through the grapevine, if you will,
people that have been stationed at these
at this station, we'll talk about the
roof being a problem. Uh, I believe it's
been a problem for multiple years. It's
unressed. Um, so to say why we waited
this long, I don't really know. Uh, but
I think we've over the last eight months
to a year have put a lot more focus on
our own facilities and have moved these
issues to the front of the line,
basically. Yeah, it's really concerning
to me because you did say that some of
the firefighters were displaced or has
interfered with uh your ability to uh
conduct the business you have to. So,
it's really concerning to me and I hope
that uh in the future these sorts of
situations are nipped in the in the bud
as they say stitch in time saves nine.
So, thank you very much for your
presentation. Thank you. And to address
the mold issue, the mold question, the
second part to your question. Um, I'm
sorry. So, as far as the roof goes, we
haven't tested the areas of the roof for
mold. Um, but we recently had a bathroom
construction project that we had a water
leak and there was mold found in that
bathroom of station number four and they
have abaded that mold. So, that's been
it was tested. uh an abatement company
came out, pretty much took out the
entire bathroom, men's and women's, and
because there was mold found, they
retested it recently. It's been good.
So, now we're working on basically a
complete bathroom remodel. Uh currently,
the membership at Station 4 is using an
exterior trailer for showers and
bathrooms. Yeah. And um I hope that the
uh testing for mold is is continuing
because it's insidious. So I hope it's
detected. It gets there. Thank you.
Thank you.
Is there any more questions? Councelor
K. I I have more of I guess a comment
more than a question which everyone
always loves. I know. Um, I just first
of all want to thank you for thinking
about this, but I do I don't know if the
public really necessarily thinks about
the ways that city facilities exist, but
um, fire stations, people are sleeping
in them and living in them and and
carrying on with their dairy function,
daily functions. And I don't know if um
folks necessarily realize sort of how we
prioritize things within the facility
system, but but
um certainly where people are living
dayto-day, I think should should be of a
high priority for us. And so I'm glad
we're working on this. I hope we can
continue to elevate issues especially
related to dorms for the fire
department. Um but but they're really
the only it's a very different
functional space than much of the city
inventory. And I think it's important
for the public to realize, you know, um
that we have city buildings that folks
are sleeping in as part of their job.
So, in case you didn't notice, know that
um that's why fire stations are a little
bit different in this conversation. So,
I just want to remind folks and say we
appreciate you all for for doing that.
And um I I would like us to definitely
prioritize those facilities as much as
we possibly can for that reason
specifically.
Thank you, Councelor Matise. I I was
going to ask you why work orders were
ignored, but you don't have to answer
that. Um, but I I think do you have a
schedule now to where when you have a
roof, let's let's say this roof is going
to be guaranteed should last what 20
years, 10 years. Yeah, about that. And
then do you have a a work order
maintenance scheduling so that these
fire stations and other facilities get
upgraded and the money is you know the
work orders are not ignored because it
just cost you more money uh when you go
a longer period of time fixing stuff. Um
we've been working on some processes to
kind of ensure that we pay closer
attention to these roofs on our end. Um,
we've hired more people and uh some
logistics specialists that are helping
us out. And then uh I just had a meeting
with facilities and talked about
um let's say every two-month inspection
of the roof um kind of on our side um
and also putting a work order for them
to go up and take a look at the roof for
the next year. So right now we don't
really have any process in place for
them to even go take a look at the roof.
I think this is what caused that problem
in the first place is neglect. Um, and
then we get to the point where it's
leaking and that leak just gets worse
and worse. Um, with these flat roofs, we
want to make sure that the debris and
and things don't collect up there, which
is probably the the culprit for most of
these things. So, we're working on a
system to um get our logistics
specialist to put in a work order every
two months, first of the month, every
two months of that two-month period um
for the for the next year to get kind of
an idea of what our roofs look like. Um,
and then going forward, we'll maybe
adjust the interval as necessary. So,
um, that's kind of the plan going
forward. Uh, but outside of that,
hopefully that works out. No, that
that's good news. Thank you.
Anyone else?
Thank you. Thank you, Christine.
This is on the motion to approve
resolution
25-138. Councelor McClure, yes.
Councelor Matise, yes. Councelor Graham.
Yes. Councelor Cran, yes. Councelor
Fletus, yes. Councelor Bencom, yes.
Mayor, yes.
Next is 8.3 resolution number
25-139, a resolution adopting the
municipal adopted budget for fiscal year
2526.
Move to approve. Second
gram. Good afternoon, mayor, council,
city staff, and public. My name is
Jacqueline Rubalgava, budget and grant
administrator with the finance
department, and I'm bringing forth this
resolution to um adopt the proposed
budget for
FY26. Here's a cover of the new budget
book for FY26. And following the city
manager's direction with Atlante
Coninho, we wanted to highlight the way
that the community celebrates um Cinho
through local events. So, this budget
book will be showcasing the city's
spirit and engagement throughout the
year. The cover photo was selected
because of the return of the Messia
Valley Balloon Rally. We wanted to
highlight that
event. We'll start off with all funds
expenditures. These are all the funds in
the city broken down by fund type. On
the first column, we have the FY25
adopted. What that means is this is the
amount that you'll see that was adopted
in last year's budget. And this is if
you refer back to the FY25 budget book.
These are the adopted amounts that you
will show. The FY25 RBI column is next.
What we mean by FY2 by revised is it's
the current budget in FY25. So this is
constantly changing. Anytime, as we saw
previously, we had a resolution for
budget adjustments. Anything that's
brought to council and is adopted will
change the revised budget. So even from
the work session to now there is a
change to the revised budget based off
of the quarterly budget that was
adopted. The FY26 proposed column is
next and this is the amount that we are
proposing for FY26 budget and this is
what you will um be considering for
adoption
today. So for the general fund the FY25
adopted was at
165.6 FY25 revised at 169.4 4 and the
FY26 proposed was 100 is
175.3. This is an increase of 5.9
million or
3.5%. The city for the citywide total
for FY25 adopted it was
597.1 million. FY25 revised is currently
at
665.5 and we're proposing 6 the proposed
is $612.2 $2 million or a decrease
overall of
53.3 million or approximately
8%. Breaking that down a little bit
more, we wanted to highlight the top
three ones that had decreased. So,
special revenue funds, this was mostly
due to changes in grants. Um, when we
bring in the proposed budget, there are
with the lives of the grants, there are
different procedures that need to be
followed. And so some of these grants
are ending in the fiscal year and we
won't receive agreements until later on
in um FY26. So we'll bring those to
council and that's why you usually see
an increase with grants over the fiscal
year. Um and then for capital project
funds, again this is capital projects
that are ending or coming to close
through the end of the fiscal year. This
also includes some grants. And then for
enterprise funds, there were some
changes um in Talshore, I mean I'm
sorry, in transit. So there was um with
the transit building coming to a close
in FY25, the construction for the new
facility, there were higher expenditures
in 25 than we'll see in the proposed for
26. Um there has also been a decrease in
um utility spending. And so you that's
what you'll see housed in the enterp
enterprise fund from the work session to
now the revised and proposed. You'll see
that there was a decrease in the revised
um this was due to again changes that we
brought to the quarterly. So any changes
that we brought on the April April 28th
um quarterly meeting to council. You
will see those changes reflected as well
as there was a system issue that has
since been resolved and it was just
affecting the revised column. it had it
um did not affect the proposed
column. The FY26 proposed city budget,
we wanted to break it down to show the
$612.2 million expenditures that we
previously saw in the table. And so
you'll see that Enterprise Funds makes
up about 31% of those expenditures with
the general fund at about
29%.
Here is just for the general fund
expenditures. And so we're wanting to
show again the revised budget of 169.4
million and then the proposed of 175.3
or a 3.5%
increase. A summary of just the general
fund again with the same columns that we
saw previously. This is just breakdown
for the general fund. So for the
proposed budget we see a beginning
balance of 76.1 million revenues of
166.5 expenditures of
175.3 transfers net transfers of 34.6
million give us giving us an ending
balance of approximately 32.7 million.
And then we see the required 212th
reserve. This is a requirement just for
the general fund and um it is a state
requirement to have 112th and then it's
a city to have the other 112th and to
calculate the the required 212 reserve
is just based off of expenditures. So
it's 212th of
expenditures and so that's about 29.2
million giving us an unreserved balance
of 3.5 million for the FY26 proposed
budget.
We wanted to further break down the
general fund increases and we we chose
these categories personnel operating in
capital to break down the changes from
FY25. And so for personnel there was an
increase of about 10.7 million operating
a decrease of 1.5 million and capital a
decrease of 3.3 million giving us a
total general fund change from FY25 of
5.9 million. And this is from the and
then we wanted to show the difference
what this is the difference between
revised and the proposed
budget. These are some considerations
that are in the budget. So for FY26 the
salary and benefit projections there is
a 5% general wage increase represented
in bargain contracts are incorporated.
Longevity is incorporated.
Most vacant positions are budgeted at
50% and at first
quartile. Health insurance is at
employee and spouse rate. Par increase
at
0.5% and insurance premium increase of
12%. So these are all incorporated into
the figures that you saw for the
proposed FY26
budget. Where your money comes from.
This is just for the general fund and we
wanted to show the breakdown of revenue
sources. So for the general fund, most
of the revenue source comes from gross
receipts tax which makes up about
79% or 130,711,900.
We did break down um the rest of the
revenue sources which total the revenue
at
166,520,697 where your money goes.
Again, this is just for the general
fund. The largest category for
expenditures in the general fund is
personnel. That's about 69% and that's
usually what we see year after year
followed by operating at
31% and um capital is about 0% at only
523,000. So giving us a total
expenditures of
175,339787. This is just a breakdown for
the general fund um expenditures. And so
we wanted to break this down again by
the same categories, personnel,
operating, capital. So this just gives
you a visual. Um it's broken down by
various departments to get us the
general fund expenditures of 175.3
million. So the pink is categorized by
personnel, the dark blue and operating
and the yellow is capital.
Um to break down the enterprise fund
expenditures, you'll see utilities at
the top. Um again broken down the same
categories, personnel operating in
capital. The enterprise funds
expenditures total 187.9 million. You do
see a small portion for public works.
While their personnel is largely housed
in in general fund, there are some
allocations for some of the employees
which is why you see that 1.7 in this
table. These are the transfers from the
general fund. So for the vehicle
acquisition, we have
1,261,000 and then it breaks it down.
This is just for the general fund and
these are already incorporated transfers
in the FY26
budget. The following slide continues
with the general fund transfers to give
a net transfer total of
34,631,452. We wanted to break down the
new positions. We'll start first with
the general fund. This table will show
the breakdown of new positions in the
FY26 budget by department. Um the
position name and then the FTE
equivalency. So for parks and wreck, we
have one recreation services supervisor,
a landscape a senior landscape
architect, irrigation worker, and six
youth program specialists.
for police, a codes enforcement officer,
an animal control officer, and then for
finance, a buyer one. Any of the
positions that have an asterisk are
identified um to be budgeted at 50%.
Anything that does not have that will be
budgeted at
100%. And then if it has a little one
next to it, it was related to a council
request either through the budget
retreat or work session.
This is a continuation of FY26 new
positions still with the general fund.
City
managers is a Messia Valley Community of
Hope facilities maintenance worker.
Quality of
life 2 collection development and a food
service
worker. Community development plan
review
engineer. And then for fire, eight
firefighters. Those are all budgeted at
100%.
three drivers and three lieutenants and
those are budgeted at 25% and this is
for staffing um a fire station 9. This
gives us a total new position count for
the general fund being 30 new
positions and here are the FY26 new
positions for non-general funds. So for
visit las cruises we have an office
office office assistant senior and an
intern for public works a utility
locator one and two light equipment
operators and for utilities MIS
administrative assistant and a GIS
technician
one continuing with non-general fund and
continuing with utilities we have a
SCADA network specialist one billing and
receivables
representative water quality lab senior
office assistant and a solid wave
service worker. So for non-general funu
positions the total count is
11. Here is a breakdown of the fire and
police academy. So for fire um for fire
academy there is an expected start date
of February 2026 with a graduation date
of June 2026. And this academy will
support the staffing needs of the new
fire station and it'll also help fill um
vacancies throughout the
department. For police, the academy is
there's an anticipated start I'm sorry
the the start date was April 2025 for
the 55th academy with an expected
graduation date of September 2025. So,
this one does cross fiscal years and is
included in the budget right now, as
well as a 56 police academy, which is
anticipated for January to July 2026.
Um, and this will help support
recruitment and maintain staffing levels
in line with operational needs. So, both
of these um bothies for fire and police
are currently in the
budget. Here are some council
highlights. Some of these requests are
requests that the departments were able
to align with council requests either
made through the budget retreat or the
various work
sessions. So for the starting off with
the department we have police the NYN
lease and this will improve our ability
to solve firearm related crimes through
rapid ballistic evidence comparisons
boosting efficiency and supporting
national forensic efforts to enhance
community safety. that's budgeted at
40,000. Parks and wreck pal boxing is
budgeted at 100,000 and that is a free
program that teaches um boxing and is a
support for at risk and low-income youth
and it's open to all kids and young
adults and this is through parks and
wreck. And then the for public works a
neighborhood traffic calming program and
this is a pilot program aimed to reduce
vehicle speeds and improve safety on
residential streets and this is
currently budgeted at 140,000 for
communications a closed captioning
Spanish translation which uses AI to
automatically translate English into
Spanish for closed captioning during
live government
events. And this one is budgeted at
$4,320. Economic development, an MRA
project start jumpstart budgeted at
$100,000. And this offers financial
incentives to businesses and property
owners within the metropolitan
redevelopment area.
and city manager's office. A the SNAP or
spay and neuter action program is funded
at
$880,000 and this helps prevent pet
overpopulation and improve animal health
in Diana County and the city by offering
lowcost or free spayneuter
surgeries for fire overtime for licensed
master social work budgeted at
38,922. This would allow off-duty social
workers to be hired on overtime to cover
any vacancies or light um program
services
needed. And then from the for city
manager's office and public schools, we
did add in the case workers to five days
a week at
$150,000. And this was per the mayor's
request at the work session. This is to
provide funding for the Los Cusus public
schools to have additional availability
for school
counselors. And then the city manager's
public public health coordinator. This
is grant funded. The grant is currently
with DFA um to and then we'll get the
agreement back. And this would be a
grant um of $350,000 over two years from
which the public health coordinator will
be paid out of.
for all other funds. Starting with
economic development, we have the
downtown security cameras for TID and
this is part of a partnership aimed at
enhancing public safety in the area and
this is budgeted at 175,000. economic
development of Rio Grand Theater
interior painting also for TID budgeted
at
$52,000 and it aligns with the city's
mission to beautify downtown and
maintain the area's historic
charm. And then last for economic
development, a downtown planter safety
improvement again in TID budgeted at
$80,000 and it's part of a partnership
aimed at enhancing urban
safety. And then for public works, a
sidewalk condition assessment budgeted
at
440,000. And it involves inspecting
sidewalks for issues like cracks, uneven
surfaces, and haz hazards to ensure
pedestrian safety. And then last on this
slide is housing neighborhood services,
the storefront repair initiative. This
is a carryover um budgeted at
271,866. And this is the funding amount
has increased from 2,500 to 5,000 per
occurrence. And this is to provide
funding to local businesses impacted by
graffiti or vandalism to help restore
and maintain their
storefronts. I will hand it over to
Mercedes from fleet and she'll go over
the VAF list for FY26.
Good afternoon, Mayor, City Council,
Mercedes Tobago for Fleet Services. Um
this is for the FY 2026 VAF vehicle
list. We've approved um two vehicles for
fire. um a Ford F-150 and a Ford
Maverick Hybrid totaling 91000. These
are both for operational support. We
have three vehicles approved for parks
and recreation. All three are Ford
F-150s
um totaling
165,000. Um two are for sports fields
and one is for park
maintenance. And then um for the police
department, we have eight Ford
interceptor hybrids approved and one
Ford F-150 for animal control
um totaling 7
772,800. For public works, we have one
Ford F-150 approved for construction
management totaling 55,000.
and quality of life. Two Ford F-150 hot
and cold bodies totaling
177,200 for
um
uh meals on wheels. Sorry. Um and then
all these vehicles are replacements with
the exception of the Ford F-150 for
animal control. That is the only new
vehicle.
Thank you,
Jacqueline Balcava. For the record,
we'll continue with the fiscal agent
contributions. These this is broken down
by the different type the different
agencies. So for animal services, the
FY25 city of Los Cru's contribution was
about 2.2 2 million with the FY26
proposed contribution at 2.3 million or
an increase of
5.18%. For MVDA, we have 2.8 million for
the FY25 city of Los Cru's contribution
with an increase of about 7.7% to three
about 3 million for FY26 proposed. And
for
Metro, the amount will stay the same at
325,543. So for the proposed city of Los
Cru's contribution portion, this is just
for the this table just shows a portion
for the city of Los Cruus only, the
total would be five about 5.7 million
for all three, which is an increase of
about 5.86 from last year's budget,
5.86%. Here is a breakdown of the Tshore
fund. We wanted to give you an update
and this this um table shows you what
was budgeted in FY25 out of the Tshore
and then we have the FY26 carryover
estimate. This is currently just an
estimate because um this was the
department's best estimate at the time
that we created this table um to what
they would be spending this year. This
is subject to change. And so if there is
zero on this table, that shows that they
will be they're anticipating to spend
the full budget in FY25 and there will
be nothing carried
over. This is a continuation of the
Tshore fund updates.
And then on this slide is also a
continuation but this also um has FY24
carryovers indentified with two
asterisk. These are the FY26 Tshore
request highlights. So these are items
that are budgeted in FY26
um out of the Tshore. And so for housing
and neighborhood services, first up we
have Mano Emano. You'll notice that from
the work session the amount did increase
to
800,000. Safety opportunity support or
SOS is budgeted at
199,913. Health public services is
budgeted at 600,000. Homeless outreach
program budgeted at
164,000. So the the total here is about
1.7 million out of the Talshore fund for
FY26.
Here are your council options and I'll
stand for questions.
All right. Thank you,
Jacqueline. Mayor Prom. Thanks, Mayor.
Again, thank you all so much for getting
us to this point. Um, you all have a
great budget team and um, you know, we
started back in December and so it's
nice to to be here in May. Thank you
very much. Um, I have a question and
maybe a very small amendment. I don't
want you to freak out. I do just want to
um, it was brought to my attention and
it wasn't in the proposed budget
necessarily, but it was brought to my
attention that um, Mvita did receive an
increase in their budget. Um,
I just honestly on principle I I want to
make an amendment that we reduce that
back to their budget from last year. Um,
honestly, mostly because a couple of
things. One, I don't remember I know I
didn't miss any budget conversations and
I don't remember having a public
conversation about that increase. And
two, you know, um, the city manager
asked every department to go back to
zerobased budgeting and get tight on
their budgets. Um, and many were asked
to make cuts on their budgets. And so I
just on matter of principle, I think um,
I want to see that. Do you have those
numbers in front of you? I think there
was a $25,000 increase. Yes, it was
increased at 20 by $25,000 to $275,000.
So, from 250. Yes. Okay. So, I want to
make that amendment today and then
request that we have a work session um
with this. We used to have work sessions
with uh Mvita Film Los Cruus, which I
think uh they had also requested an
increase. I'm not sure. Did that happen?
I don't have that one off my head. I'd
have to get back to you on that. And
then the third one
was downtown Los Cru's partnership. Um
those were the three that have usually
come to work session together. I just
you know we put some nonprofits through
the ringer when it comes to getting
increases and um I just right now for at
this moment I'm not comfortable moving
forward with that increase in the
budget. So um before I do um can I make
an amendment now city manager? Okay.
Yeah. So, I'd like to um amend the
budget to have Mvita uh back down to
250,000.
Second.
You want to go ahead, Chrissy?
This is on the motion to amend the MVITA
funding back to
250,000. Councelor Mccclur, yes.
Councelor Matise, no. Councelor Graham,
yes. Councelor Cran, yes. Councelor
Flootus, yes. Councelor Bencoml, yes.
Mayor, no. Motion passes.
Thank you, Mayor.
May I ask a question? Oh, are you done,
Mayor? Yes, I'm done. Oh, okay. Council
Florida. Yes. Thank you. Um, thank you
for your presentation, Miss Wava. You
really impressed me uh with your numbers
and all that. Um so um when when you get
a request say from Mida
uh for an increase, h how does that
travel through this uh maze of
government? Does it go to the city
manager? Does it always come to city
council?
So um a request like this um mayor uh
councelor Flores to answer your question
um a request like this would have come
through the department and then it would
have been verified by budget and the
department would be in Mvidia's case uh
I believe economic development submitted
this request um and it's based off of
different factors. So we'll look at for
this year's budget because we did go
into the base budgeting method. It did
require to look at contracts to look at
the historical of that to see if what
the actuals are actually reflecting what
they'll need in the budget. Um so it was
analyzed by one of my analyst here in
budget and then it would have continued
through the budget approval process to
go up to the city manager. Okay. And the
reason I'm asking is because uh when
there's a contract there has to be
performance
If you don't have performance from the
party that says that it's going to do
something, there's been a
breach. And unless I missed
something in the eight years almost that
I've been on city
council, I haven't seen anything come
from
Avita.
And so I just want to know
how does any
department because these are just
numbers that you were given by a given
department. Right. Correct. We're given
the numbers um and then we're giving any
contract information or historicals that
we see in our in our So when you get the
historical or you get the contract
information, what is it you're looking
for? Are you looking for performance by
that party? We don't look at performance
and budget. We look at the contract
amount. So if there's a contract in
place for a certain amount or um if
there are actuals that back that up or
depending on the department requests, we
don't make final approval, it'll head up
to the the city manager. So there are
different um considerations taken when
looking at budget. Okay. And I'll defer
over to Elizabeth Teters um from econom
economic development. She'd like to to
speak.
Good afternoon, mayor and city council.
My name is Elizabeth Teters, economic
development director. Um, I just wanted
to talk in reference to how we come up
with um or how we allow our partners
to pro um propose more funds. Um so
first off, we do have our partner
updates every year after the fiscal
year. So that's happening in August for
both all of our partners during our work
session. Um, in addition, so we have had
we had MVITA, Film Los Cusus and DLCP,
Downtown Los Cusus Partnership, all come
to us this year and asked for additional
funds. But and we try to hold all of our
partner partners at the same level and
both film Los Cusus and DLCP came to us
just a few months ago and by then the
budget process was almost over. So we
told them, let's talk about it. Let's
try again in the fall and then we could
propose again. Now, with Mvita, they
came to us in the fall this past year
and so we started talking about it. Um,
they wanted an additional
$100,000. Um, so we talked to them, we
put it into the budget, and then as it
got through the process, 25,000 came out
of it and their proposed reason for the
the additional funds is to because of
the inflationary pressures and the cost
increases. Um, and they put together a
sheet. You know, trade show costs are
going up 7%, car rentals are 20 and 30%,
lodging and air is 25%. That's how much
the costs have come up, but the money
hasn't there hasn't been additional
funds. Um, and then in addition, they've
added four new programs in the past few
years. So that is what the justification
for the the increased funds were. But
just so you know, um you know, we do try
to work with all of our partners, but
when it comes that close to budget like
being approved, you know, we just we try
to just tell them, let's try next year.
It's not that we don't want to. It's
just adding in extra funds at the last
minute just we didn't think was fair to
the budget team. Well, I don't think
it's fair to the city to be giving
increases uh where they're not merited.
And my humble opinion in this is that
it's not merited. So my question to you,
Miss Teters, with all due respect, is
what is it that you look at in terms of
uh is it meritorious increases? Is it I
feel sorry for you? Um are they
incentive uh increases? What is the
increase based on? With all due respect,
um Mayor Councelor Flores, as I was
saying, it's it's the cost of inflation
mostly. Um, Mvita travels a lot on
behalf of the city of Los Cusus and the
county and so them their travel costs
are going up significantly, but the they
are expected to do this the level of
work at the same amount. That was their
justification to us. Well, that's their
justification, Miss Teters. But if I
were looking at this, I would look at
how much of that travel was attributed
to work that they were doing for us. And
um and I've shared this before, the last
meeting I went to for MVID, I used to go
monthly to the monthly meetings um and I
stopped going uh a little bit over a
year ago
um maybe well more like 17 months ago
when um the Mvita uh person uh said that
uh he had been to Taiwan with the
governor and yada yada blah blah. So I
asked from the floor, well what is it
you brought to Laserus since the monthly
meetings uh were being held? I haven't
been to any so uh since then uh here in
Lasus and the qu the answer was well
yada yada blah blah in other words
nothing. So I I just want to communicate
that to you as a concern and
um and uh you know in your assessment
your department um to see what it is
that we're getting in you know uh we
have to you know contracts are you give
and you take we haven't taken anything
in in many years. So if we could keep an
eye on that I'd really appreciate it.
And uh this is not a directive to you.
I'm not your boss, but I can tell my
boss over here, Mr. Mr. Connie. Yeah.
Yeah. Excuse me. I'm his boss. But um
but in all seriousness, and this is not
directed at you personally by any
stretch. Um but I just those are
questions that um I just have to ask and
maybe one day we'll have an answer. But
thank you very much, Miss Teters. Thank
you.
Thank you, Mayor Enriquez. Uh councelor
Floresto. Just want to share uh
appreciation to economic development and
uh finance for um facilitating that. Uh
Mvita did come in to meet with us and as
as Elizabeth shared there was
discussions happening um and it is a
recommendation that I made that should
have been presented to you in the work
session. Um but that was missed in the
PowerPoint. Um so I apologize on that.
That is something that we try to um that
I strive to be transparent on that. That
wasn't in the PowerPoint. Um, so I never
want you guessing on on what's
happening, but I hear you loud and
clear. Um, this this is the discussion
that we're hoping for for guidance and
direction. Um, but I I try to get it
right on the recommendations and I
apologize this one I missed. Um, so um,
lesson learned. U, we'll we'll we'll
definitely communicate in the future and
do as best as we can to be transparent.
So, thank you. Thank you.
Council Mat. Yes. Can I ask you to bring
up page nine? I think it was nine. Page
9, 10,
11. Okay. And then and then there were
actually specific
amounts from I think again for the from
the Telshore fund and I try to add them
up but not that you move fast it's just
that I am slow but when I was adding it
it was approximately anywhere from 15 to
17 million and I just want to say on
public record I was really happy to hear
uh Miss Green in the bulletin and that
that money will be repaid. In other
words, the Telshore fund will be made
whole from those funds. And did I read
that correct in the Los Cru's bulletin?
Maybe city manager could add to that.
Why would it be made whole?
Yeah, if is Natalie Green in the in the
room. Okay, here here we go. Councelor
Matis, I would recommend
um Natalie if she wants to share what
she said. Thank you.
Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor, members of
council. Natalie Green for the record.
Um so most of these that were funded
last year are loans. Um Peach Tree
Canyon phase one and phase
two and three sisters and padrina are
loans. So those will have a repayment
with interest back to the city. And so
our goal is to make the Telure whole.
Not all of these are are loans. For
example, the Monommano program is a
reoccurring expense. There is no uh
return on invest. Well, there's always a
return on investment, but not a
financial return on investment. Um and
then the Amodore crossing in that case,
uh there's a possibility for repayment.
Obviously, that's city funding for a
city project. Um, and there is no debt
service on that project. So, it will uh
generate revenues, but how much
revenues, we won't know until it
actually starts operating. We have those
projections. Um, and then there's the
possibility for repayment. In the case
of Padrino, uh, we did not expend any of
the $2 million because we got a state
grant that covered the entirety of
city's of the city's contribution to
that project. So, while we still have a
loan and we will get interest on that
loan back, we didn't actually have to
put out any of our dollars, um we use
the state's funding. And so, in some
other cases, we're trying to to do that
as well. Um we we'll let the state pay
um instead of the city and then make
money off of it.
No, thank you, Natalie. That's good to
uh to clarify that. That's good that
that money is paid back to the
Southshore fund. Appreciate that. Thank
you.
Thanks. Anyone else? All right,
Christine.
This is on a motion to approve
resolution
25-139 as amended. Councelor McClur,
yes. Councelor Matise, yes. Councelor
Graham, yes. Councelor Cran, yes.
Councelor Fletus, yes. Councelor
Bencoml, yes. Mayor, yes.
Next is item 8.4, resolution number
25-140, a resolution approving the
capital improvement programs for fiscal
year 2026 through fiscal year 2031.
Move to approve grant. Second
Okay, good afternoon, mayor, city
council. My name is Cynthia Lamo, CIP
manager with planning and
implementation, and I'm here to uh
present the
FY26231 capital improvements program
document. So, I first want to start
talking about what are capital
improvements, what is actually in the
CIP program. So capital projects are
long-term investment which includes and
it's not limited to when we do an
acquisition of land for a public purpose
such as buying property for park
construction or rehabilitation of
infrastructure. Construction of a new
facility or a major addition to a
facility similar to what we just
presented with the fire station 4 roof.
rehabilitation of or major repairs to a
facility and its grounds and expenses
related to the design and plan of a
capital improvement. This is especially
applicable for those multi-year projects
that first start with the design and uh
the planning of the project in itself.
The CIP is required by city charter and
it prioritizes capital needs and
identifies potential funding sources. It
also informs the selection of
legislative priorities. As you know,
every year city councils identify
legislative priorities that are then
submitted to the state to be considered
for capital outlay. It also informs the
public of the city infrastructure
investments and of our future needs.
The capital improvements program
produces the CIP document which is a
six-year plan for capital projects. One
year is funded meaning that it has funds
in this coming fiscal year and the five
years are unfunded. It's guided by the
comprehensive plan and other city
council adopted plans such as the
climate action plan and it includes
several funding sources including
grants, capital outlays, bonds and
loans. The CIP document is adopted uh by
city council and all of its amendments
as well.
This is a different perspective on the
CIP document. As we noted, it is guided
by the city's comprehensive plan which
states how the city would like to be in
20 years. We have year one which will be
fiscal year 2026 that will start July
1st that is funded. But then the outer
years will be fiscal year 27 to 31 are
unfunded. But all of this is with the
intent that all of our capital
investment have the consistent as
um the consistency of attaining
sustainable growth with our
community. This is a snapshot of the
actual document and as you can see we
have made some minor uh template
revisions to the documents. Hopefully
they will facilitate reading the
document. It's categorized. It's
categorized by the CIP categories. We
include the department and the green
column is our funded column. Our outer
years are are unfunded and this is how
we communicate to the community the
needs of our city for infrastructure
projects. The last column are our
funding sources. Those embolded are the
sources that are currently being um that
are associated with the project and
those unbolded are the potential funding
sources. Now I want to uh take a pause
to thank the planning and implementation
team for the time and effort in
supporting the CIP. For the last couple
of months, the CIP program has been a
program of one. So I really value their
support in getting us to this point as
the CIP document is a one-year process.
So we started last year with CIP
planning and working with project
projects and with departments in
identifying any new capital projects or
refining existing projects. In the
summer, we had what we call the CIP
kickoff and that's an internal meeting
where we meet with all departments and
we set um how the new process will go
and we'll give them as much guidance as
possible and how to fill in our forms to
ensure we have complete
information. In September, that's a
deadline for department to submit all of
the projects. And we also collaborate
with nonprofits to ensure that they go
through the CIP
process. In November, we start the pro
the review process. Here's where we have
a lot of back and forth with
departments. We have four key
departments, public works,
sustainability, facilities, and
utilities. Well, they help us review key
aspects of each project such as the
scope of work and cost estimates as we
want to ensure that our information is
as accurate as possible. We then
evaluate those projects against set
criteria that is in that includes the
community benefits, operational benefits
and their alignment with the plans. In
March of this year, we had the CIP
retreat. We had our first work session
and publication of the CAP document. In
April, we had our second work session
and public hearing. And today we're here
presenting our CIP document for
adoption. Our next steps after um this
adop adoption is that we will continue
to collaborate with departments to
review projects as the currency uh
fiscal year is still happening. Once it
ends, we'll touch base with departments
to see if they have any other projects
that were completed or they if they need
any adjustments to the associated
funding. This is a quick overview of the
cap. So the funded project, the proposed
FY26 is 187 million and this is a
significant change from last year. But I
do want to point out that through the
current fiscal year, there were several
projects that received grants and
funding. So that amount has been carried
over to the next year and that's why one
of the reasons you see an increase the
unfunded needs. We also have a change of
28%. And one of the reasons of this
increase is that as we're placing more
structure into the CIP process, we're
collaborating with departments in uh
scoping our projects so we can add them
into the CIP and that will allow us to
plan our
investments. This is the location of all
of our CIP projects. As for CIP, not
only the numbers is significant, we also
uh double check the location of our
projects. The dots that you will see are
projects that have specific location
such as a building remodel and the lines
are are trails or street projects. So
that's why they're in a linear
format. Another CAP overview. So the CAP
has four type of projects. The first
type is a carryover project and those
are projects that had or currently have
funding and we're carrying over their
project for next year. Annual projects
are projects and programs that receive
funding every year such as the re- roof
programs. So there's a schedule of lists
of projects so that we move we rotate
those projects. Future projects are all
of those that don't have funding. And
this fiscal year, we have one project
that's newly funded. But I do want to
point that uh with the year as we
receive new grants and new funding, the
number of newly funded projects usually
increases. Then for funding, we have the
carryover amount of 171 million and the
newly funded the single project of
$181,000.
The CIP includes multiple funding
sources. As you can see, one of the
biggest funding source are the grants.
The grants also includes uh the capital
outlay that we have received for the
last couple couple of years. We have
bonds and loans and the other which is a
combination of gas and capital
improvements, gift and memorials, public
works capital improvements and waste
water and water capital improvement
funds.
This is a summary by department and as
you can see those operational project
programs like parks and recreation,
public works and utilities are the
departments that have um the highest CIP
uh funding and I'm sorry highest
projects.
This is the number of projects by
categories. And again, we see the same
three utility, street improvements, and
public facilities. Want to point out
that public facilities are are public
facilities that are open to the public
for activities like the library and our
senior
centers. This is a summary uh for the
funding sources. And we continue to see
our three main categories. public
facilities, street improvements, which
includes all of our street
reconstructions and utilities as the
ones with the highest
funding. As we mentioned, the CIP is
also um a process that's used to
identify the capital outlay or the
priorities are submitted. And this year
we have received uh several uh funding
for capital projects.
We do have to wait until the city
receives the actual agreement, but we do
want to point that as as funding that
has been tentatively approved. So the
projects that have received capital
outlay are East Mesa Recreation Complex,
Branigan Library, which also includes a
bookmobile, inductive charging, museum
of nature and science redesign, active
transportation.
The next slide is also for capital
outlay which includes pels veres and
amador crossing which are our two
housing projects ADA compliance
wastewater and septic systems street and
park lighting.
The last set of capital outlay projects
are police regional response vehicles,
police realtime crane center and the CIT
mobile integrated healthcare building
and the Mesa Valley community of hope
master plan implementation. So those are
the projects have received capital
outlay and and with that here are the
council options for the FY26 CIP
document adoption.
Okay, thank you Cynthia. Anyone have any
questions? Seeing none, Christine.
Christine Teresa, I'm sorry. Thank you.
Changed on me. This is on a motion to
approve resolution
25-140. Councelor McClair, yes.
Councelor Matise, yes. Councelor Graham,
yes. Councelor Karan, yes. Councelor
Flores, yes. Councelor Beno. Yes. Mayor,
yes. Thank you.
Next is item 8.5, resolution number
25-141, a resolution approving the
deacession of two public artworks.
Move to approve. Graham. Second. Corin.
Go ahead when you're
ready. Good afternoon. My name is Cesy
Basconel.
Um I should say mayor and council
members. My name is Cesy Basconel and I
am here um to present the city art
board's recommendation for de
accessioning two public art pieces. And
I promise those are the only numbers
you're going to be hearing in my
presentation.
Um, this is the first time we have felt
the need to come to council to DXession
any of our public art. DXessioning is an
important decision that must be
determined by the city art board after
careful review. According to the public
art master plan, deexessioning is a
procedure to formally and permanently
remove an artwork from the city of Los
Cru's public art collection by selling,
donating, or destroying it. Murals don't
necessarily fall under this
um this procedure, but because it is on
the on a historic building, we thought
it'd be best to bring it forward.
In this case, we are asking that a mural
and a wooden sculpture be removed and
destroyed. There are certain steps that
the master plan suggests following,
which include city artboard review of
condition, that it meets criteria such
as it's in bad shape or is unsafe. We
make a good faith effort to notify the
artist, and then bring the
recommendation to DXession to council.
The steps we have followed are one we
have a condition assessment done that we
we had a condition assessment done by an
independent consultant of 65 artworks in
the public art collection last year. We
reviewed the consultant's recommendation
for all the artwork including the two we
will be talking about today. Second, we
notified the mural artist in April that
we were considering de accession and we
did not have contact information for the
sculpture artist.
Unfortunately, the city art board
approved the recommendation to deession
at their May 8th
meeting. First is a mural uh on the Rio
Grand Theater in 2014. The Court Youth
Center, which is now Ahmed de Art
Charter High School, commissioned a
local artist, Sebastian Vellesquez
Vellesquez, to paint a mural on the west
wall of the Rio Grand Theater with
permission from the city. The center
paid for all expenses. According to
Irene Oliver Lewis, who was then
director of the center, they knew the
mural was going to be exposed to the
desert sun and elements and gave it
about a 5year lifespan. So, we're way
beyond
that. Miss Oliver Lewis reached out to
the artist who no longer lives in New
Mexico. I also reached out to him on
Instagram, and the artist very recently
contacted us. He understands something
needs to be done with it, and he
expressed an interest in patching up the
mural at a cost until we decide what
will replace it. And Miss Irene Oliver
Lewis wish he could be here, but she
definitely supports the DXession.
As you can see in these photos, the
paint is faded and large sections of it
are peeling away. The consultant's
recommendation was to remove all the old
paint. This can be done, which by the
way, we would need to do anyway to
prepare it for a new mural. The decision
of what to put there, if anything, can
be made
later. Next is the Missouri Row eagle.
So you can see here um inside the little
circle, the red circle is the sculpture
and this is Missouri Avenue and Salana
is over here somewhere but it's over
there hidden behind that
tree. The Wooden Eagle sculpture is
located on Missouri Avenue near Solano
Drive. The artist's name is Richard
Gonzalez as far as we know. The only
information I was able to find on this
sculpture was that it was possibly part
of the Missouri Bouts Realignment
Project. A carving on the eagle says
08-05 number 157, as you can see there,
with his
initials. If that's a date, it doesn't
align with the Missouri project, which
was done in the '90s, but I have heard
from people say they remember seeing it
earlier than 2005.
The eagle looks as if it was carved into
a dead tree in that location or they
might have sunk it into the ground. It's
hard to
tell. Here you can see in more detail.
The assessment we did found the
condition is extremely poor. The core is
rotted. The beak is broken off and the
eagle is in danger of falling over at
any time. It cannot be repaired or
restored. The consultant was concerned
that it could be a safety hazard and
strongly encouraged us to remove it. We
would like to do that and destroy
it. And I I did go there in person the
other day because after all these winds,
I wanted to know if it was still there
and it is, but I just barely pushed
against it. And yes, it wobbles a lot.
So, here are your options and I will
stand for questions.
Thanks, Essie. Anyone have any
questions?
No. Seeing none, Teresa.
This is on a motion to approve
resolution
25-141. Councelor Mccclure, yes.
Councelor Matise, yes. Councelor Graham,
yes. Councelor Karan, yes. Counselor
Flores, yes. Councelor Ben Como. Yes.
Mayor, yes. Thank you.
Next is item 8.6, resolution number
25-142, resolution determining the
sufficiency of the petition regarding
ordinance number 3090, also known as
realized loss cruises. Move to approve.
Second.
Christine.
Hello, Mayor and City Council. I'm
Christine Rivera. I'm your city clerk.
The resolution before you today is the
petition regarding ordinance 3090, or as
we like to call it, realize Las
Cruises. So, a little background.
Ordinance 3090 was adopted by you on
February 18th, 2025. The city charter
does state that anyone can have a
ordinance reconsidered if they file a
petition within 30 days of
adoption. So the charter also states
that initiative and referendum petitions
must have a total of 15% of the last two
elections cast for city council. So for
this petition that came out to 3,240
valid signatures. And the other thing
that the charter states is that the
council will have the final o
determination and approval regarding the
sufficiency of a
petition. So the timeline for this
petition, the original petition was
filed on March 19,
2025. I then had 25 business days to
validate
signatures. This was done by April 2nd,
2025 and a letter of insufficiency was
mailed to the petitioner.
We had a total of 1950 valid signatures
from that
round. The petitioner then had 15 days
to 15 days to file a supplementary
petition. She notified me of her intent
to do that on April 17th, 2025. She then
had 15 days to obtain additional
signatures on a supplementary form in
compliance with the charter.
So the supplementary or amended petition
was filed in my office on May 2nd,
2025. I then had five business days to
validate those signatures and a letter
of insufficiency was mailed on May 6,
2025 when with an additional 597 valid
signatures added. So the grand total of
valid signatures was
2547, which was less than the 3,240
required.
So today you only have two options
related to the petition. The first one
is if you vote yes, you will approve the
sufficiency of the petition and that it
complied with the city charter or you
will vote no and that means that you
deny the sufficiency of the petition
that and that it did not comply with the
city charter. And so I will stand for
any questions.
All right. Thank you, Christine. Any
questions from council?
Just to clarify, Christine, um, thank
you for the presentation. So, in voting,
no, that would mean realize
becomes the law. Mayor, councelor Vanco,
that would mean that realize would go
back into effect. Yes. Okay. Thank you.
And just to clarify one more time, the
required number of signatures necessary
uh to move forward with either uh
repealing realize or putting it on the
ballot was
3,240 and at no point was that met. U
mayor councelor Beno that is correct.
Thank you Christine.
Okay, seeing no other questions by
council, I know there were some members
of the public that wanted to to speak.
Just know that on the city charter on an
item that's being discussed, we can do a
minimum of two minutes. So, anybody that
wants to speak on this, I'll allow two
minutes. I know I have received an email
from Sarah and Sarah, I will allow you
the three minutes to speak if you want
to come
up. And and again I just want to state
stick to the regulations, the law, the
city charter that we have followed. It's
not the personnel, it's not the staff.
Thank you,
mayor. As discussed by email, I need
seven minutes in order to adequately
explain the petition to council before
you
vote. I will wait while you reset the
timer. Now, we'll we'll we'll give you
the three minutes like I had informed
you. Okay. So, both Beth and Paty are
prepared to donate their time to me
today. No, we're we're not relinquishing
any minutes or substituting. By charter,
I can give up to two minutes. I'm
allowing you three.
City Council and Mayor, I'm Sarah Smith.
What you are voting on today is whether
the city will uphold the people's
fundamental right to petition government
as enshrined in our state and federal
constitutions. I am here today to
present to you the petition to put
realize Los Cusus, the ordinance which
you recently enacted on the ballot in
the next election. The petition was
signed by
4,671 Los Cusus residents. From the
beginning, the city has made the
petition process as difficult as
possible. We were not allowed to collect
signatures electronically. We were not
allowed to use an electronic copy of the
400page ordinance. So instead, all
volunteers were required to carry bulky
printed copies of the ordinance, which
was over 30,000 pages to be printed at a
cost of over $1,000. We were required to
collect 3,240 signatures. We collected
over 4,600, yet about 1,200 of those
signatures have now been thrown out
without due process. Let me explain. The
city charter gives a 30-day deadline for
the initial round of signature
collection. The city burned up a week of
this time because it took four days for
me to receive the petition from the
clerk. And then there was another 3-day
delay because the city attorneys
provided false information about who was
allowed to collect signatures. I was not
able to train volunteers until I knew
who was allowed to collect signatures.
Attorney Becker finally acknowledged the
error and said in an email to me that I
should quote, "Please pardon the error
for which the city attorney's office
bears responsibility." In fairness, I
requested that we be given that week of
time back for collecting signatures, but
the city attorneys refused, even though
the city was at complete fault for
delaying the petition and giving false
information simply because it did not
know its own process. Nearly 800 of the
signatures that are being thrown out
were collected during that extra week
that we should have been given in the
first place. With regards to at least
400 other signatures that are being
thrown out without due process, we tried
to follow your rules, but the city would
not give clear instructions. The city
charter allows for an amendment process
so that additional signatures may be
submitted. The charter does not specify
that signature collection must cease
once the first batch of petitions is
turned in. Furthermore, the instructions
provided to me by the city clerk did not
specify that we were not allowed to
continue collecting signatures. For
clarity, we asked the city attorneys,
but they refused to answer this question
even though they knew we were continuing
to collect signatures. Instead, they let
us continue to collect signatures only
later to throw them out because of a
reinterpretation of the charter. So, we
collected another 400 signatures during
that time, which the city clerk has now
thrown out based solely on the dates
those signatures were collected. Of the
remaining 3,400 signatures, the city
clerk has chosen to unjustly validate
hundreds of signatures of registered
voters. For instance, some people had a
hard time writing due to being elderly
or having shaky hands. In those
instances, they signed the petition and
then the volunteers filled in their
address and printed name. All of these
were thrown out as it has been decided
that people who have palsy are not
allowed to sign a petition. In some
instances, it was assumed that
handwriting was that of a volunteer
instead of the petition signer when
there was no evidence of that. Again,
those signatures were thrown out. Beth
is going to continue my comment.
[Applause]
You have two minutes. Senator two. Three
minutes. Two minutes.
Council Beth Bus Bus Q T is the spelling
of the remaining 3,400 signatures the
city clerk has chosen to unjustly
invalidate hundreds of signatures of
registered voters. For instance, some
people had a hard time writing due to
being elderly or having shaky hands. In
those instances, they signed the
petition and then the volunteers filled
in their address and printed name. These
were all thrown out as the clerk has
decided that people have had a hard time
writing are not allowed to sign
petitions. In some instances, she
assumed the right handwriting was that
of a volunteer and not the petition
signer, even though there is no evidence
to support these assumptions. Again,
those signatures were all thrown out.
The clerk also threw out many signatures
when people signed with their nickname,
even though the petition did not clearly
state that the name had to match the
voter registration exactly. For example,
she threw out signatures when people
wrote Tim instead of Timothy, Bill
instead of William, Gilbert instead of
Gilberto. In each case, the voter could
still clearly be identified in the voter
role by the remaining information
provided, but the clerk still
invalidated those signatures and
disenfranchised those voters. It is not
clear why many of the other signatures
were disqualified either, and no
information from the city clerk's office
was provided about why they were
disqualified. Overall, we're talking
about 1,500 people who are clearly
listed on voter roles. Yet, the clerk
has invalidated their signatures. They
would be allowed to vote at the polls,
yet their signatures were not counted as
valid on the petition. These
determinations are arbitrary and
capriccious, and the council should
overturn the clerk's decision, issue
clear instructions for validation of
signatures, and require reertification,
including all of the signatures
discussed today. If the city officials
had known their own process, it's quite
possible we could have met the signature
goal in the city's eyes. But because it
deployed a process that was unknown to
both its staff and the public, we have
now landed in different places with
regard to which signatures signatures
should be
counted. Despite each of the roadblocks,
we still collected well over the
required number of signatures. Your time
is up. Thank you.
[Applause]
Okay, I'll continue. Overall, the city
staff have not been able to provide
basic information. Can you state your
name, please? Dan Parrot. Overall, the
city staff have not been able to provide
basic information about the petition
process, have been unduly burdensome on
petitioners, and have not been
consistent with constitutional due
process principles by unreasonably
restricting the signatures that were
counted as valid.
Despite each of the roadblocks, we still
collected well over the required number
of signatures from residents of Los
Crosus through tireless effort by
volunteers who sacrificed her time,
finances, weekends, family time, and
more in order to collect enough
signatures. The city's actions to
constantly change the rules on us during
the process amounts to the city having
not acted in good faith to uphold our
right to petition. I understand that it
has been a decade since the last
referendum petition. So, this was a new
process for the city clerk and the
attorneys. What I would ask for myself
is that this go forward and allow the
citizens decide realize Los Cruis. Thank
you.
Okay, seeing no other uh Terresa I have.
Yeah, if you could state your name and
you have two minutes. Sure.
My name is Joe
Blust and I would like to mention this
again as I did when I first spoke that I
am not a
classist. I carry this ordinance and
explain to each person who wanted to
sign the petition that 400page plus
ordinance was already passed in February
18th by the city council 6 to1. The
majority of people wanted to know why
such a sweeping zoning change wasn't
brought to a city-wide vote. I couldn't
answer that and I still can't answer
that. One resident got very angry with
me and called me a liar for five
minutes and said that the council would
not do such a thing.
I had to just turn away and walk away
because he just would not accept
this. Another resident was shocked to
hear his name had been rejected. This
resident was the retired fire chief. He
said that just two days prior to me
coming to his house to reclaim his
signature, he had spoken to a member of
the council and expressed deep concerns
as to how this zoning change had been
handled. He told me that something of
this magnitude should have been taken to
a citywide vote.
Everyone that
signed thanked me for taking the time
out of my life to collect signatures so
that this zoning ordinance could be
taken to a citywide
vote. There were people who wanted to
sign twice if I ran across somebody who
had already signed. I told them they
could not do that. People that were
outside the city limits were also
telling friends and family to sign. I
implore the council to allow this zoning
ordinance to be taken to a citywide
vote. Thank
you. Yeah, if you want to come up. I'll
just go. Well, go ahead. Come on up,
Fred. And then from here on, who on this
side on my left wants to speak? Okay,
I'll go rowbyrow
next. Come on up, Fred. State your name.
You have two minutes.
My name is Fred Huff. Two elections ago,
I volunteered to observe the counting
counting of the mail-in ballots at the
county building on Lakeside Drive. In
observing the counting of the mail-in
ballots, I was shocked that there was no
vetting of the signatures on these
ballots. if it had as much as an X on
the signature line, it was to be
accepted. This told me that the county
clerk had no concerns about the
integrity of our elections by letting
these ballots be accepted without being
verified, without verifying each
signature and making sure that the
ballot was legitimate. I felt this
violated my rights as a voter. Fast
forward to the realized Los Cusus
petition process where the city clerk
worked overtime to find any reason to
reject signatures. This appears to be
discrimination to me by throwing out the
ones as Miss Smith mentioned about the
people of the elderly or the other
people that had to be helped get their
signature signed. The pattern I am
seeing is that our local clerks
establish rules to get the outcomes that
they want. And I don't think that this
is what we want as
Americans. Thank you.
I'm Mary Joe Burch and I knocked on 800
doors and I can tell you that most
people had no idea about realized Los
Cruises. Absolutely no idea. Especially
the elderly. They didn't know they
apparently the your method of
communication was through social media.
I don't get on social media and I I am
elderly too. So that in itself was
really unfair. The second thing is I did
find people who were in favor of this
but and they wanted a little grocery
store in their neighborhood. So I could
see a large grocery store that was less
than a half a mile from where they live.
I said, "Why don't you just walk to that
grocery store?" And they said, "It is no
longer safe to walk in Los Cruus."
Uh the density is another issue that
people have a really hard time with. We
do not have the infrastructure basically
to support all the traffic that will
come from some of these projects. A lot
of my voters that were disenfranchised
were the Chris's who who put Chris
instead of Christopher. Oswald who
failed who failed to put the O on the
end of his name. Rosa who signed who put
her name as Rosa when it should have
been Rosittita. The
democracy is not here. I mean really it
needs to be voted upon. And in addition,
why don't we innovate? Why don't we
build an affordable house out of what we
have out in the desert now? We have tons
of rocks, tons of sand, and put the
juvenile delinquents out there with
their parents. They can get to know each
other better while they're working on
building an affordable house. Plant
bamboo. We don't need wood and we can
build the base out of rock. Thank you.
Anyone? Yes. In the blue shirt.
Uh my name is Jim Hearnst. Uh this
matter belongs before a court. I have no
idea uh what representations are being
made and no way to judge their veracity.
They are not made under oath. They are
not sworn. Uh they're not
cross-examined. So it's hard to accept
any of this as evidence. Uh most of
these people are good citizens and their
if their arguments are valid, they
should hold up in court. Thank you very
much.
[Applause]
Good afternoon, mayors, city councilors.
My name is Paula Groves. I signed the
petition and participated in the
circulation of the petition. I'd like to
um bring your attention to the Los Cusus
Municipal Code Part One, Article 8,
Section 8.048, 048 where we outline the
procedure after filing this petition.
However,
this municipal code does not outline a
basis for determining validity of
signatures on one of these petitions.
So, the municipal code is lacking here.
Um however the city clerk used a process
to invalidate signatures. That process
is not made public in in the municip
municipal code anywhere. So how can we
know as citizens that the validation
process was correct? Allowing
invalidation of signatures based on
whatever reasoning um is not included in
article 8. The petition provided by the
city clerk did not state that the name
needed to match the voter registration
exactly. It stated printed name and
signature and it required that signers
be a qualified voter of the city of Los
Cusus, New Mexico. So I implore you to
reconsider the validation of these
signatures. Thank you so much.
[Applause]
Yeah. The fourth or fifth row on my
left.
Yeah. Uh, hi, my name is Sylvia Yansy.
I'm from District 2. And I'll make this
short. I want to emphasize the fact that
even with the ample time to gather
signatures to oppose realized loss
cruises that it is clear that there were
not enough valid signatures provided and
that the public majority has shown
support for this ordinance. Providing
the opportunity to have local
neighborhood markets, parks, and cafes
and single family home areas will foster
more community among neighbors. This
will also be a great step towards moving
away from a car centric society,
something that we desperately need. And
I want to quote something that one of my
friends wanted to say, but they had to
go back to work. She says, "I ask that
this council vote no on resolution
number
25-142. I'm in full support of realized
Los Cruises, just as a majority of this
city council has been since February.
Those opposed were given more than
enough time to collect enough signatures
than what the statute allowed for, and
we ought to just move forward and allow
this city to grow. Thank you so much.
[Applause]
Hi, my name is Lucas Hearn and um
resident district 2. Um yeah, and uh I I
too am in support of realized lice
cruises as I was in February, as I was
during the planning process last year.
Um, and so I would encourage the city
council to vote no and um, uphold what
is clearly not enough valid signatures.
Um, I am also a voter registration agent
for the county. I'm also a county
officient, so if anybody's looking to
get married, hit me up. Um, and you have
to write your name, right? It's just a
thing, you know. Um, and the and the the
thing that I have to just be amused by
slightly is the um hypocrisy of of a
number of people here who in other times
in other places have called for stricter
controls about who can vote, how you
have to vote, what you might have to
show when you show up to vote, um where
you can vote, um what country you were
born in originally to if you can vote.
um all of a sudden want a lot of leeway
uh when it comes to um who gets to sign
their petitions. So that's just kind of
funny. Um but uh yeah um they were given
ample time. Um they were given an
extension of that time. They were
communicated with um and they didn't
reach the number and um you know it
happens. So um you know please verify
that by voting no.
Thanks.
Anyone else on that same row? If not,
the
following next
row. Um, hello mayor and counselors. Uh,
my name is Guerrero. I live in district
1. Um, I hope that you all vote no. Um,
like it was previously mentioned, um,
you should be putting your government
name when you sign on petitions,
um, you know, not shortened names, not
only your middle names or what you go
by, your name. Um, and I I really hope
that
um, you guys vote no on this cuz I heard
someone say that it's a half mile to the
nearest supermarket. Sure, it's it's a
half mile to the nearest supermarket,
but without sidewalks, without maybe
bike lanes, because maybe this person
might not drive or without
um uncracked roads, uncracked sidewalks
or whatever, how can you get there
safely and how can you get there back
safely? Um, and I think realize Los
Cusus will kind of help with that
problem um, in a way that people aren't
realizing because they are so used to
um, their cars. And like I wish I could
afford a car, but that's a different
conversation, right? But um I really
hope that you all vote no because I
really really think that this will be
really good for the city because it will
allow children to go outside and maybe
go to a park, maybe get a little bit
closer to their friends and go hang out
at a cafe. Maybe they can go buy sodas
at the little supermarket down the
street and then go back to their house
and watch movies. I don't know. But
that's all I had to say. Thank you for
listening.
[Applause]
Good
afternoon uh both mayor, city councelor,
um city manager. My name is Albert and I
am a resident of Las Cruus. In February
18th, this council voted in favor of
Realized Lasrus development code. This
initiative seeks to implement a series
of changes of zoning and building
ordinances that help modernize the city
the city's development code for the
first time in nearly 25 years. I wasn't
able to make it in person because of
work, but I do consider the discourse
that takes place here very important.
I'm happy to be able to join you all
today to personally state my support for
this initiative. This new code
facilitates the development of divi
diverse housing types, allowing the city
to provide more affordable and
accessible housing options for residents
by promoting mixeduse developments and
revitalizing underutilized areas. I
believe this new code supports economic
growth and the creation of vibrant,
walkable
neighborhoods. I fully believe this
ordinance will be beneficial to the
development of our city as a whole.
Additionally, I think the members of our
community who will benefit the most
don't usually have the privilege to have
their voices represented in these
meetings. I am aware that a lot of food
service workers, medical staff, mothers,
teachers, students, people who are
disabled or people who are unhoused or
simply too caught up in a cycle of
living paycheck to paycheck do not get
the opportunity that we have here to
engage directly with our local
government.
This city council's approval of realized
Las Cruus' development code on February
18th, 2025 marked a significant step
towards modernizing the city zoning and
building
ordinances. Reconsidering this vote
would undermine the extensive planning,
community engagement, and strategic v
vision that informed its development. I
believe maintaining the current course
will ensure that Las Cruises continues
to evolve in a manner that benefits all
residents and not just a few that can
make it to a city council meeting at
1:00 p.m. on a Monday. Thank you guys
for your time.
[Applause]
Greeting council. My name is Jay Chot.
I'm a resident of district five. And um
I don't know if anyone's ever actually
had to like go and register to vote or
to like fill out government documents,
but typically they don't let you do
shorthand. Typically, you have to fill
out the documents accurately and have
accurate information. Um, I'd also I
guess like to note generally with
realize itself, if we look at larger
cities that have a lot of these older
codes that heavily incentivize R1 zoning
or just single family housing, zoning
being the primary method of housing
people, if you look at some of these
cities that have kept them for decades
and decades and they sprawl out and get
these become these large metropolitan
areas, they end up in a debt trap
because they don't have enough revenue
to really maintain their infrastructure,
which means you have to raise the costs
on the people that live in the So either
you raise taxes or you start going into
debt because you didn't profit out 20
years from now all of our infrastructure
is going to need to be fixed again. And
so they have to work with that. And at
the end of the day, every city has to
deal with that. I also just generally
believe it's better to make it so our
communities have more walkable
environments, have it safer for younger
kids, teenagers, even uh people well
into into their 30s and 40s and
adulthood. just engaging in the
community and actually showing up to
places like cafes, like smaller
supermarkets, engaging with each other
instead of all being piled into homes
and then go into their car, go off to
work because it's 20 minutes away, then
go back home and then go back in their
house or they get have to be forced to
engage with each other in either
academic environments, religious
environments. They're forced to go into
an environment to engage with people for
a certain reason instead of just being
there to relax. And with our current
zoning system before realized that was
incentivizing that. So it's realized if
we can diversify how people can engage
with each other, make it so they have
access to more affordable housing and
make it so it's more renewable and
sustainable for the city and long term,
I think ultimately we should support
that initiative. So I hope you would
vote no on this. Thank you.
[Applause]
Hello. Uh, my name is David Lamman
Mooney, a resident of Los Cusus, and I
am currently missing work and pay to be
here to comment. The worst thing about
this city is that it's designed for cars
instead of humans. When realized Los
Cusus was passed in February, it gave me
a rare slice of real hope for the
future.
I respect the small but very vocal
group's efforts to oppose this. Um I
have worked on petitions before and I
will just say expecting a 100%
validation rate is absolutely ridic
ridiculous. What's obvious from the lack
of valid signatures is that the vast
majority of us in this community want
human beings prioritized in our urban
design. Thank you.
[Applause]
Mayor, counselors, Steve
Kleti. Many of you have expressed
concerns in the past about the state of
our democracy. We're here today to
exercise one of those elements, the
redress of grievances. Per city code, we
launched our petition drive to have
realized Los Cusus's ordinance placed on
the ballot. We were able to collect over
4600 signatures in that effort. For
comparison, I'd like to throw out
another number.
6,322. That is the grand total of all
votes to put the six counselors on this
dasis to get you elected in your last
election. Six different organized
campaigns were only able to collect
6,322 votes. But our ragtag grassroots
effort with very limited and regulated
time was able to collect 4,600
signatures. That should speak volumes to
the opposition of this ordinance. Mayor,
if you didn't allow snap finger snapping
last time that I encourage you to not
allow that kind of clapping this time.
Let's just be respectful right now. If
you could please just hold your applause
till he's done. So your decision, the
decision before you today is simple. Are
you truly a supporter of the democratic
process or is that just a talking point
when it hits your purpose? Are you
willing to support the process and honor
the spirit of the law law or thwart that
process by rigidly applying the letter
of the law and the administrative
hurdles the city has placed today. The
ball is in your court. I hope you will
listen to the citizens of Los Cusus and
hold this ordinance up to the light of
day on the ballot. One last note. While
today is not a debate to the contents of
of realize, my hope is that through this
process, we will end up with most of the
ordinance. It is almost a good
ordinance. It just needs a few tweaks so
that it can serve all of Los Cruus.
Thank you.
Good afternoon, mayor, city councelor,
and staff. My name is Beth Bardwell. Um,
and I'm speaking today on my own behalf.
I would ask you to vote no and support
the city's wellthoughtout reforms to the
city's development and zoning codes and
for following the rule of law governing
petitions for referendums. I believe the
city charter language is clear and
following the rule of laws a foundation
of democracy and protects against
arbitrariness in government action. I
think these development and zoning code
reforms are even more important given
that the federal government is on track
to pass a highly regressive budget with
major cuts in programs that benefit
lower income Americans.
And while the federal government is
turning a blind eye to lower inome
Americans, I believe these reforms will
help us build a city that is more
compassionate and leave the city in a
better place for all residents. Thank
you so
[Applause]
much, mayor, counselors. Um, I want to
bring attention to those previous young
nos that uh are that spoke before me. My
name is Ruth Jarry. Sorry about that.
Um, they're articulate. They're our
future and they they're correct. This
city needs to be a walking city. It it
realized Los Cruus will bring us to the
next generation and they are speaking
that realize Los Cruus went through
vetting. It has been in the making for
four years. I've attended public
meetings. I've attended TE TAE technical
advisory committee meetings. I've
attended your meetings. I've read
articles in the newspaper. Why come to
this party so late and and demand
democracy? I encourage you to vote no.
No, no. Thank
[Applause]
you. Counselors, good afternoon. My name
is Mary Wson. Um, in answer to her
question, why to come to the party so
late? Uh, as one of the previous
speakers mentioned, um, most residents
as we, uh, collected signatures had
absolutely no idea about what had just
happened after this got passed. Um, so
today I would just ask you to uh
consider
um whether or not uh you endorse this um
as you consider
um the standards by which you judge. Uh
the standards for voting are much easier
than just signing a petition.
uh signing this petition was very
strict. Uh many people rejected uh were
rejected by the county clerk or city
clerk. Um I my neighbor across the
street Jim L. Willis living at 4,400 uh
Lassenega was rejected because his voter
card said uh Jimmy L on Lassenega. It
was a reasonable match. He should have
been accepted. Um, my friend Christine
was rejected because she is recovering
from a stroke. Could not sign for
herself. Well, she signed her own
signature. Uh, she needed help with the
print. She was rejected.
Um, again, the standards are not
um they were stricter than just
uh trying to obtain a ballot. Uh if you
look on the voter registration card,
there is a block 10 that allows a person
to have assistance to specify who
assisted. So I would just ask you today
to consider seriously, did you really
are you really allowing all people to
voice their opinion? Thank you.
[Applause]
Afternoon, mayor, council. Uh, my name
is Michael Harris, resident business
owner in the city. Um, from a from a
policy perspective, to me, this sounds
relatively cut and dry as far as the
city's concerned. Um, vote no. The
signatures were not collected. They were
invalid. I think maybe maybe there's
some technicalities and if those
technicalities have merit and are worked
out by the courts later, so be it. But,
you know, as as for now, it seems fairly
cut and dry. Um, and then I would also
add to to remind you all of this and
also everyone in the audience that
there's plenty of ways to change this
ordinance in the future. Uh, the
ordinance itself has a one-year review
period. I noticed that in it which was
quite clear. So in a year, you know,
y'all are supposed to come back to it
and review it every year and make
changes and that's the opportunity for
the democratic process to proceed.
Everyone here who has problems with it,
myself included, um can come back and
and talk to you all in the in the
intervening time and at that time and
make some changes.
Um and uh also if there really are 4,600
that many people and they decide in
November that they don't like what this
council did, they can move you out. Um
and that's that's democracy, right? So
you we voted you in, you made a choice.
I think we should stick with it. Um, as
part of the as for the actual contents
of the ordinance, I've been talking to
many people, myself, friends, family,
business colleagues, fellow business
owners, and uh, the more that I look at
it, it's fine. Um, as it is, it's
actually pretty good. There's a phased
in implementation period. I believe for
the next 11 months or so, both zoning
rules are kind of in play. Um, and and
like I said, there's there's potential
for redress. And it does also address a
lot of the sky is falling, you know,
narratives. It specifically is against
that.
Thanks. Is there anyone else on my left
side? Okay, we'll move over to the right
on the first row. Anyone? Second
row. Good afternoon, city council. Tim
Jenkins here. The answer is that we did
not come late and demand democracy.
Democracy, it is of the people, by the
people, and for the people. That is the
Constitution of the United States of
America. And we tried in every way
possible to follow every single rule.
And the fact that you guys did not have
your things together. And between the
first signatures and the second
signatures, we sent emails, we called,
we sent texts, and we asked and said,
"We are still gathering signatures. Is
that okay? We cannot answer that
question." That was the answer that we
got. So, we continued to collect
signatures because you guys couldn't
answer the
question. And then come to find out that
after all that, every single one of
those signatures got thrown out because
you guys couldn't do your job and you
guys couldn't give us the right answer.
We are not fighting for anything except
for the people to have this vote. The
people of Los Cusus. That's all we're
asking. Why are you guys so scared to
have the people vote? Is it because we
wasted over a million dollars on this? I
mean, like, what is it? Why is it so
hard that the people can't vote on this?
That's all we're asking. I don't
understand. We did collect the right
amount of signatures and they were
thrown out because of your mistake.
Let's make that
[Applause]
clear. Anyone on the fourth row? Fifth.
Anyone else on the right side?
Yeah. Mayor, city council. My name is
Dominic Bell. Um, I mostly came to watch
as I was looking for see what the
answers are going to be on this realized
Los Cusus um, event. Uh, I myself am a
21-year resident of Los Cusus. I'm also
directly related in the real estate
business. I also have children growing
up in this community. I am in full
support of Realize Los Cusus. I don't
think everybody understands what's
involved with planning, zoning, and
development, nor the things that are
involved with the funds and where they
come from, the way people and businesses
decide where they're going to go and how
they're going to develop. Um, I think
it's very important that this city make
some positive progress into the
future. That's it. Thank you.
[Applause]
Can we help him with a handheld or
something? Whatever.
Hello, my name is William Morland. I am
part of uh District 7. And I'd like to
say even though I was one of those
people that didn't quite know what
realize Los Cusus was until somewhat
recently, I am in
full support of uh voting no today
because Los Cusus by and all is one of
the best cities I've lived in in terms
of accessibility, but there are some
issues and if uh realize Los Cruus is
going to help fix those issues, I'm all
for it.
So, uh, thank you for trying to help
modernize Los
Cruus. That's fine. We're good. Thank
you. Anyone else on the my right side?
Um, is there somebody
Yeah, you were hiding. Yeah, come on up.
Okay. Hello again, council. My name is
Trent Scribner. Uh I was here to speak
uh on Realize when you guys voted on it
initially. Uh to the people for whom
this came as a surprise, I I kind of
want to say I remember being asked about
this. The city sent out like a thing
asking people like, "Hey, we're going to
be doing some zoning changes. What do
you want to see from that?" That was
either a couple months or a year before
it went up to vote here on the council.
I remember. Uh, so it's not a shock.
It's just people don't follow zoning
laws. I get it. It's boring. I talk uh I
talk to people about it on a regular
basis now and all my friends are bored
with me. Um, but everyone who I talk to
about it, everybody who I know, who I've
spoken to about it personally,
uh, is cool with it. Everybody's really
excited about it, man. Uh, it's the
landed element in the town who's worried
that it may lower their property values
or that they may there may be like poor
people in their neighborhood. God
forbid.
Um, and that's not going to be a
problem, man. Because if you want to
stop poverty, if you don't care to look
at the poor people, which I know a lot
of you fellas don't, then we need
cheaper housing. And eliminating single
family zoning lowers housing costs when
used in conjunction with a bunch of
other things. We realize Los Cusus is an
important first step. That's what it is.
It's a first step. We just need to be
allowed to take it. We don't have time.
There's a wave of poverty coming to Los
Cruus fast, fast, fast. We got to do
something now. We have to start building
the houses yesterday, man. And also,
it'd be nice coffee shop in the
neighborhood and all that. Um, don't be
scared. And you didn't get the
signatures, man. I'm out.
Hello, mayor, city council. My name is
Fred Miller, and just on the question of
these petition signatures, I would
certainly not have signed this petition
myself. In the past, any petition I've
signed for anything to go on a ballot.
I've always been told the name on the
petition needs to match the name on my
voter registration. That just stands to
reason. So, the biggest complaint about
the invalidation of the signatures seems
to be that the names don't match the
voter registration names. That sounds
appropriate to me. Thank you.
[Applause]
Uh, mayor, council, my name is Larry
Sado. I do not live in the city of Las
Cruises. I live in the county, but I've
been helping the people that want to
make a change. And I'm going to tell you
the truth today. You need to listen of
of what we're trying to tell you. And
everybody here has a right to speak
their own mind, no matter what it is.
And they that's why we live in America.
You have a right to make decisions. I
believe in God. He he puts me first in
everything I do. And I I go through his
his guides. So all of us have here the
same interest to improve Las Cruises.
Not to make Cru's bad or whatever else.
If you're not putting one side to
against the other, then you're not being
positive. You're not thinking about
everybody. This is for everybody. The
reason, one of the reasons that we want
to stay the same. So, we do want to make
changes. I I I I hit a lot of houses. A
lot of people told me they never told me
about
this. Social media is good, but it
doesn't reach everyone. We have to
change the way we have to contact
people. That has to change. The other
thing too is if you put an apartment
complex in front of where you bought
your house because you decided to live
in Sonoma or wherever and you can't see
the mountains no more, it changes who
you are. Everybody here decided to live
in a certain place in this town. If
something happens there that changes
your view of what you really appreciate,
why you live in that house in that
suburb or whatever, it's going to affect
your life. That's what we're talking
about. We're talking about decision to
live where you want to live. if you
want. In the past, these contractors
could have built a lot of these places.
You're talking about a little store or
whatever. They didn't do it. They had
the opportunity to do it. Now, you're
wanting to make a change for yourself.
Is this did this come from you or from
somebody from the east coast or the West
Coast? Who made you decide that this is
the best for Las Cruus? We need to
investigate every aspect of it before we
make a final decision. Let the people of
Lasus decide. If they want it, they'll
vote for it. If they don't want it, they
won't vote for it. But you really need
to consider everyone. That's the key to
our survival. Your your time's up, sir.
Thank
[Applause]
you. Yeah. Come on up.
Hello, my name is Lisa Parrot. I'm a
resident of District 6. Um, I had
different things to say, but by the time
I got here, I think I need to change it
a little bit. What we're considering
today, you all have already passed
realize Los Cruus. That's not what's
being discussed today. What's being
discussed today is did we do a good job
on getting petition signatures to you
correctly and did we follow the process
that we were given. I have been doing
petitions since 2000. I co-chared the
successful Los Cru's public school
recall. So, we got a lot of signatures.
I have never seen a petition that did
not say printed name as registered. The
first time I laid eyes on this one, I
noticed that and I thought, "Okay, is
this an oversight or what?" It left you
confused as to what you needed to do.
Um, talking to people, if you're on
their front porch and you say, "Well, I
need to look up your address to make
sure it matches the voter roles," they
think you're crazy. I would ask them
anyway, but but you know, hey, you're on
their front porch. They they live there.
It should have been very clear that this
is you were required to have your
printed name as registered. Then there
would been cut out a lot of this uh
process. I collected from Santa Fe. I
was in Santa Fe until March the 22nd
working my 10th legislative session.
Even the Sunday before your voted on the
18th of February, I sent you all an
email asking you to consider some of the
buildings that could be rehabbed into
conver affordable housing downtown. Um
when I got back and unpacked from two
weeks, two months of being gone, I
collected 23 signatures before the 17th
of April and 66 after. And this was up
until the very deadline. I was still out
knocking doors the last day that we were
doing this. These people didn't know
about this. They have a right to know
about this. We made a good faith effort
to do what we needed to do and we would
like you to vote to have the clerk
continue to authorize these signatures
and be checked out. Thank you.
[Applause]
Is there anyone else?
Okay. I have some comments I'd like to
make. Mayor
Oh, councelor Karante.
Yes. Go ahead, Mayor Pro.
Thanks. Wow. Where do I start?
Um, after the big lie of 2020, I am not
shocked by what I'm hearing here today.
the I lost so the process must have been
unfair.
And I
just want to first and foremost thank
Christine and the uh attorney's office
for uh your integrity in upholding this
process for reviewing every single
signature even though it was clear even
the first in the first round that they
did not have enough
signatures. And I'm just not surprised
by the kind of narrative that you are
trying to create now regarding the lack
of integrity
when the petitioners when you
lied, you broke the
rules, you didn't carry the petition
around with you, you manipulated people,
and you exploited people's worst fears
about their neighbors.
And so for you to come here and talk
about the integrity of the clerk's
process is
wild.
And I'm not even going to rehash the
importance of realize and that it was
over four-year process.
And if as a resident you get invited to
participate, whether it's through mail
or social media, and you look at it and
you throw it away,
uh not to be corny, but politics is not
a spectator
sport. You also have to take some
responsibility around how you engage. If
you want to take close-up pictures of
me, I'll meet you afterwards so you can
get my good side if you want. Okay.
Um it is not a spectator sport. You have
to do some engagement in your community
as well. And the incredible thing about
realize was not east coast or west coast
people. The number of people who gave
their time over four years, developers,
uh folks in uh advocacy
organizations, just residents in general
gave their time to volunteer committees
to uh give their expertise as
developers, their expertise as realtors
in this
process. And I know now you are trying
to make frame it as if as if we were
didn't do our due diligence. That is not
true. That is inherently a
lie. And then you went out into the
community and you lied some more. And
you know, I I have this flyer in front
in front of me where you talked about
these are the bad things of realized
apartment complexes. So you can't tell
me you're you can't say you're not
against affordable housing and multif
family housing when you literally are.
That is literally the the core of this
petition. This flyer then says gas
stations will be allowed in
neighborhoods with a special use permit.
That is a lie. SUPs Yeah. SUPs for gas
stations only on collector and higher
usage roadways, not on local
streets. And then you said housing costs
will be increase because housing
developers will be required to pay full
cost to build parks and neighborhoods.
I know I mean unless you had developers
who were helping you collect petitions
but the developers were not against
realize they were at the table every
step of the way and in fact we just had
a work session about park impact
fees and ultimately that is so out of
cont like that is so manipulative. It is
so out of context to say guess what
house prices are already high and they
have nothing to do with park impact fees
or realize for many other reasons. I now
live in an NH13. I'm um sad someone just
left. I know that uh Mr. Jenkins put
everybody's address on the internet and
said that we all lived in single family
homes uh neighborhoods. I actually live
now in an NH3 neighborhood. Up the block
from me is a gas station. Literally up
the block from me is a gas station.
Across the street from that gas station
is a mobile home park. up the block from
that mobile home park, a multif family
uh housing development is being built.
The house right next to me just went on
sale for
$240,000. I bought my house in 2019 for
$140,000. Realize is not making houses
expensive. What Realize will
do is help create a greater diversity of
housing that we so desperately need. And
if you are against that and you sign
this petition because you are inherently
against multif family housing and a
diverse of housing uh being going up in
good neighborhoods with good parks, then
I would ask you to reflect on where your
segregationist tendencies come from.
That was fire and covered a lot of the
things that I was thinking more clearly
um than I can than I can highlight. But
I I can attest to the number of folks
who were calling me and saying someone
came to my door and told me things that
I aren't I know aren't true. They
menaced me um by suggesting that that my
neighborhood would become devalued
and with potentially diverse people. I I
know folks were folks were put off by by
um much of what they heard at the door
uh including a a series of lies. So um I
would say you know I I appreciate the
process that that we've laid out and
also that you know it is possible to do
a petition campaign. I think in the time
frame that is outlined I was actually
surprised that there were a bunch of
extra weeks added on that seemed really
benefit of the dowity to me. Um I I know
the last successful petition campaign
definitely finished uh in the first the
first set of petition signatures. So um
that sort of gave me a strong picture of
what was happening and all the folks who
called me and said, you know, I signed
up because someone told me something
that wasn't true to get me to sign. Um
or people who were saying, you know,
this the I didn't sign, but wow, I I
heard a lot of things that were really
alarming to me. Um, so I I figured, you
know, all of those folks once we sort of
look at the calculus of the number of
folks who had regrets for signing would
also be pretty a pretty big dent in the
number and the total, but we don't have
to have to go there for that. I I'll
tell you about one of my residents who
wanted to build a carport. He was really
excited. Um, he gave inputs um in
several versions of realize over two
years. He added his inputs. He also um
does a lot of residential remodeling. Uh
he wanted to build a card and an ADU and
he was just waiting for Realize to pass.
Um and when it did, he was ready to
submit his his permits to community
development and he heard that there was
a petition campaign and that he would
have to wait. And in that time about 60
days um that he had to wait for this
streamlined process that allows people
to do what they want with their own
personal property. Um the cost of the
materials due to political factors that
he was going to use increased by
something like
64%. In the days that this petition was
being collected.
Um, so I I just want to sort of say to
the folks who are out there collecting
petitions, know that there's there was a
cost, right? There was a cost because
folks don't like to be lied to and there
was a cost to all the folks who are
counting on realize to to really enable
them to do what they choose with their
with their property. And so, um, we hear
from those folks, too. So, so just so
you know, what what appears on a
petition isn't the only input that we
that we've had along this process. Um,
and so I just want to sort of give
another gratitude to to Mayor Prom for
really talking about um what's at stake
here. And and I do want to just sort of
say
um the idea
that city council should send everything
to a vote. That's known as direct
democracy. Um
and I I think it's fascinating that
folks are demanding direct democ
democracy on a 400page
um zoning reform. Not and
um somehow we we passed the budget
without a single public comment. I don't
I don't know if any of you I I thought
that's what everyone was here for today.
Um because there's something else at
stake. There are things that we make
decisions about that we are trusted to
make decisions about as city council and
we're expected to do the homework and
we're expected to get public
participation and we're expected to have
integrity of our words and our actions
and our money and sending everything to
the vote would be I I have no doubt that
realize would pass um easily if if we
did send it to a vote. But that's not
how we do things. We have a job to do
and it is making policy, deciding the
budget and making realize happen today.
So I call the question.
I uncall the question.
You're calling it. She uncalled the
question. Oh, uncalled. Okay. Ivon made
a sad face.
Councelor Fes, go ahead. Well, I think
Graham had her light on before I did.
Okay, Council Graham, if you want to go.
Yeah, I'll I'll keep it quick. Um, I'm
just going to have one comment on
realize specifically and one on the
process. Um, but first, thank you
Christine um for your integrity, your
expertise, your grace on this. I know
that you put in a lot of extra work and
I appreciate that. also to our attorneys
and those in the legal office who were
supporting throughout
um on realize
specifically this as I mentioned at the
February vote is one of the few things
that I have kind of seen throughout my
tenure as a counselor um took this seat
in January of 22 realized was already
happening so it was already well into it
then you know we ended up with about a
four-year process and
I saw, you know, quarterly updates. We
had work sessions. Um, all of which are
advertised far beyond social media. Not
to mention 30 plus public meetings.
Again, not merely carried out on social
media, but realize it's what got me
interested in zoning in the first place.
And one of the things that I have found
myself doing the most as a city
councelor when I look at how big the
challenges are for our community, for
our country, what can I as a local
elected really do to have an impact? And
as I got into zoning, what I saw over
and over is that by making more
inclusive zoning, I as a local elected
can affect so many important community
challenges. Having more inclusive zoning
and moving away from an exclusionary
zoning code is one of the few things
where I feel like I can have a
tremendous impact. And that goes to the
second point and I'm kind of echoing
councelor Corin here. Um, this is the
essence of representative government.
You voted us in and you, as Mr. Harris
pointed out, you will have the
opportunity, well, you're not going to
have the opportunity to vote me out
because I'm, you'll be done with me at
the end of the year anyway because I'm
not running again. But this
is representative government and I can
speak for myself and several of my
colleagues up here. The uh we did the
homework, we did the reading, most of us
did reading way beyond the reading that
you would see in the packet. And to say
that we are somehow overstepping our
bounds to make this
decision, I disagree wholeheartedly.
Thank you,
Florus. Thank you.
Um, first of all, I'd like to say that
realize just didn't happen when it went
to a vote or when people became aware of
it. I, as I've said before, this is my
eighth year on city council, but prior
to being on city council, I was active
uh with the League of Women
Voters and uh and after um you know,
after Well, anyway, all of that being
said, uh we were very well aware,
especially Sharon Thomas, who sat in dis
was district 6 uh counselor before I
was, uh who worked very hard at uh
developing a city that was Um that was
very uh that was well planned in terms
of being inclusive in terms of having
the right roads you know bike lanes uh
you know uh the way the the the entire
design and my first year on council I
was uh privileged to have been a
delegate self-appointed no or less
because it came out of my own pocket um
to uh go to Savannah Georgia along with
then counselor uh Gil Sorg and former
counselor Sharon
Thomas and uh what I saw there was
amazing and it was a it was it's I can't
remember the name of the organization
but it's an organization that focuses on
how you develop a city to make it
liveable, enjoyable,
inclusive, fun. Uh it it was just
amazing and it was I think a three or
four day uh uh stay there and um and it
was amazing um how it opened my eyes and
then before that too I know that there
was a elevate laserus that was in
process and I remember that as as a as a
as a resident I was aware of it and
there were meetings all over the city
and then once I was on council I
remember and and everyone who showed up
had the had the privilege or the were
whatever the word is um to put a postit
on what they wanted to see in their
city. And I just want to tell all of you
here that I don't remember seeing any of
you there. Maybe Lucas because he's
everywhere. But um other than Lucas, I
you know and oh and Fred Fred Miller,
right? Um, so people were very much
engaged and very aware of uh what the
options were and you could put your
little postit wherever you wanted and
and there were several several and then
after I was elected those continued and
um and and I would like to say also that
in my trip to uh Savannah, Georgia back
in 20 I think it was 2018 I I was just
uh amazed. Uh I I was in awe of our
community development department and the
work that they do and the dedication
they have to making this a better world
for those of us who live here in Lasus.
So I just want you know I Yeah. Do do I
want uh do I want a gas station built
across the street from my house?
Well, um, probably not, but that's not
but that's not going to happen. I mean,
it's kind of like, you know, the it's
like Chicken Little saying, "The sky is
falling. The sky is falling." And guess
what? The sky isn't falling. And um and
I think there's been a lot of
fear-mongering which is generated,
please forgive me, but because I am a
woman and because I am I am a minority
and I went to a segregated school in the
first grade in El Paso, Texas. Um you
know, I can see one when I see, you
know, I can I can call one when I see
one. And I think a lot of you have a,
you know, there's something about, oh,
you don't want to be too close to people
who aren't like me, you know, uh, who
who aren't going to be able to, you
know, uh, who who may socialize with my
my children or oh, heaven forbid it's
like the boogeyman. So, you know, and
that is my perspective and that's what I
have received from a lot of you and and
all of you who came up without
you know, different levels, uh,
displayed a lot of dislike for your
fellow person. And I'll bet a lot of you
are fear-mongering, uh, church attending
or, uh, whatever, you know, but no,
seriously, you might be, but, a lot of
you Thank you. Thank you. Um, but that's
how you come across, you know, you're a
bunch of chicken littles. And I also
want to thank Christine. And I want you
to know that Christine is our city clerk
and I will say that she knows a lot more
than all of you put together. She was at
one point the number one city clerk in
the United
States. None of you can claim that. And
right now she's number one in New
Mexico. So for all of you who have
bashed her, for all of you who have
bashed the system, you know, go and beat
your heads against the sky. And that's
all I have to say.
[Applause]
You done, Councelor Flores? Oh, yes, I'm
done. Well, no. Do you want me to go on?
I'd love to. No, thank you. Uh,
councelor Matise. Hi. And Matise wants
to say something as well. Um, I just
want to say thank you to the
petitioners. I know it was hard work and
I have always been a people an elected
official that would like the people to
vote on it. I did it with gross receipts
tax. I did it with the spaceport when I
was mayor. And this decision, this
change is so significant, this code
change that it's not just something that
we should vote
on. It should have been given to the
voter because what we have here is two
diverse populations. We have people that
have homes in the older
districts and we have those that are in
the new development. And that was an
offer. They offered that maybe we could
do the new development codes on the new
developments and leave the older
districts alone. And then we had a young
man that came up and I really
appreciated his comments about tweaking
it and amending it. We have a period
that we can do that. But right now we
have 45 4700
voters that were not happy with the
decision we made. And of course we
worked on it for four years and we had
again stakeholders come out and I
remember someone saying that was about
seven or 800 people that contributed. We
had mailers go out and a lot of the
public knew that this was coming. But
it's still evident. It still happened.
And that's what I'm concerned with is
that we had 4,000 over 4,500
people that didn't know about it and
that that affects them. My position is
it should have gone to the voter like
the city of El
Paso. The people are very important and
your voice is important to me and that's
why I stand with my decisions. Thank
you,
mayor. I just I want to say that some of
the signatures were doubled so I wasn't
over 400.
Okay. Um Brett, you wanted to say
something? Yes, mayor. If I if I may. Uh
just to just to wrap up the staff
portion of the presentation. Uh, and
after listening to some of the citizen
concerns, I had some things that I
wanted to present to all of you that
will hopefully be helpful to you in
determining how how you'll vote in just
a few moments. Uh, but with regard to
the actual final tally, there were
4,671 total. That does not take into
account whether they were validated or
invalidated.
Uh the total number of validated
signatures as determined by the city
clerk, as is her duty pursuant to our
city charter, uh was
2,547 valid signatures. Uh as you'll all
recall, the required number of valid
signatures was
3,240. So, uh with that said, uh I'm
going to go down a list of of notes that
I just made. Uh earlier during this
item, uh one of our residents mentioned
that uh there are things that were being
said by quote unquote both sides and who
knows what's true and what's not true.
Everything that I'm about to read to you
uh is undoubtedly true. So with regard
to procedural due process, I heard that
come up. Uh, I do want to
communicate with no strings attached to
this statement that the city clerk did
communicate reasons for invalidated
signatures to the petitioner. I've heard
a few times claims made that that did
not happen. That absolutely happened and
that could be proven in a court of law.
For example,
uh with regard to the signatures that
were gathered in the interim period,
what I'll call the interim period, so
between the original petition and the
supplementary petition, uh the
petitioner actually acknowledged that
the petition and the supplementary
petition were separate legal
instruments. That happened. Okay.
um the last referendum petition was
referenced and that was about 10 years
ago. And so what I did was I go back I
went back and I looked at those orders
and what I will tell you is that the
third judicial district court found that
the city clerk should receive a high
level of difference with regard to
validating or invalidating
signatures. I'm almost done. Uh my next
point is that the city clerk did in fact
notify the petitioner that valid
signatures would be required to match
voter registration roles that did
occur. And lastly,
uh the petitioners were informed that
interim signatures would not be counted
unless they were cured. And one of my
attorneys was mentioned here by name
today. uh he actually did inform
petitioners that those signatures could
be cured and even how to do it. And so
it's my position here. I'm taking no
position whatsoever with regard to the
merit of the petition or not. But with
regard to due process, due process has
issued. Thank
you. Thank you, Brad.
Did you have anything else, Christine?
No, I was just going to bring up your
options once again.
Okay, we're ready for a vote. Go ahead,
Teresa.
This is on a motion to approve
resolution number
25-142. Councelor Mccclure, no.
Councelor Matise, yes. Councelor Graham,
no. Councelor Karan, no. Councelor
Flores, no. Councelor Bencomo, no.
Mayor, no. Thank you.
Okay. Next on the agenda is board
appointments and there are none. Uh
notice of pro proposed ordinances. None.
So, we'll go to city council member
board reports and comments. Councilman
Cler, none today. Thank you, Councelor
Matise. No. Councelor Grant, none.
Sorry, I realize we're vibing with none,
but I'm not, as you can imagine.
Councelor Karen, none. I realize
everyone's saying no, but I I have a
couple of comments. Sorry. Sorry, guys.
I'll make them quick. Um, I want to give
a very quick shout out to Naomi Morning
Star Cruz, who is Miss Las Cruus 2025,
who had an event. Probably the coolest
event I've ever been to in the city of
Los Cusus, Fashion for Hearts. I firmly
believed that it was a fashion show
where dogs would be wearing outfits, but
actually it was human models and there
was like a runway and they each had dogs
from the animal services center to get
adopted. And so it was a fundraiser for
the ASCMV. And I I just want to give um
Naomi a real real shout out for
organizing that on behalf of the animals
in at the ASMV and also really um just
see ways that we can support her in
doing similar things in the future
because it was a really cool event and
and um I know that I'll just give a
little story again. I know everyone's
like packing up.
Uh there were models
that there were models that um that took
the dogs down the runway and there were
you know spectators on the side as there
are at runway shows and one of the dogs
Jessica just ran up to this gentleman
unruly unruly not not staying on the
runway she just ran off the runway and
that guy ended up adopting her. So
literally um she ran to her new future.
So anyway, I just want to give Naomi a
real shout out and appreciation for a
the coolest event I've ever attended in
Los Cusus, hands down. Um, so thank you,
Naomi. The one other item I wanted to
add was um the Highland Park
neighborhood park opening 10 a.m. on
Friday, which will have which is on
Emerald Street in District 5. uh
there'll be stuff to do, things to play
on um this Friday at 10 a.m. So, I hope
that folks will join me there for that.
Those are the two main things that I
have.
Thank you, Councelor Flores. I just want
to uh thank those of you who um stay
through the meetings and and see exactly
what happens. And um I'd also uh if
there's anybody in district six um who
uh would like to uh sit here, uh please
feel free to fill out a petition and and
and run for city council and no petition
necessary. You mean anybody can run? Oh
god. You mean the one I got was phony?
Okay. But anyway, I just w want to let
you know that uh if you have any
friends, neighbors, relatives, uh dogs,
cats who would love to sit up here,
they're more than welcome to run. Um and
I, you know, I again um you know, it's
good that we have these um forums. I
call them forums. They're meetings, but
um you know um there there's nothing in
the books that says that there has to be
public comment. There's just nothing.
and most municipalities don't allow it
just a just a it's not a you know it's a
nonsequittor I guess but um so I I
really want to la the city for its
practice of allowing people to speak up
and be heard and um and heard we heard a
lot today thank you mayor
thank you mayor prom thanks I just have
two quick things um one I think the the
presentation today around the cap
amendment on the status of the fire
station. Um that's just deeply
concerning to me. I think um obviously
we've made a great plan to you know
obviously district 4 has benefited from
GO bonds for a new fire station because
the quality of the old fire station was
really pretty badly bad. We've made
plans for new fire stations. Uh we I
think we just have to pay more attention
to our the current fire stations that
don't have necessarily a plan to be
completely renovated. Um, as councelor
Kin said, these aren't just buildings
people come to 8 to 5. You know, people
live there half half the week. Um, I
know that, you know, obviously the GRT
increase, people voted on it because
they wanted uh for a big reason was
public safety, and that is public
safety. Um, and so I want to I want to
make sure that we keep that at the very
top of the list. Um, because that was
deeply concerning to me. Um, and then
just lastly, I have been getting some I
did get some uh questions regarding the
uh delayed press conference around the
officer involved shooting. And um I
while I have expressed this to the
assist the acting city manager and we'll
talk with uh city manager now that he's
back about it as well. I do just have
some concerns regarding um the lack of
for better word succession planning
around um when the chief of police has
gone and who can do that in a timely
manner not only for respect of the
situation but we know that
misinformation and disinformation runs
rampant when people don't have facts. Um
and so for for that I think it's
important that we have a much better
plan in place for when um you know uh
whether it's the fire chief, the police
chief, whoever is gone. Um that those
kinds of things be handled in a more uh
immediate fashion. Thank you.
Thank you, Mayor
Prom. Um just a couple of things that I
want to mention. Um well I'll match that
uh great event that took place with the
Gus Macker. So the Gus Macker did come
back in town this weekend and it was a
great event 206. So shout out to
Mayfield football team that brought it
back uh for this weekend. So that was a
great event for our community also. Um I
just have to share maybe on the council
and board member reports maybe not
reporting as much but I do have to say
that um that with with with Mvita and
some of the things that we're doing. I
know we see a lot of things in Santa
Teresa but but it is there is some
carryover now. We have a coal storage
unit that's going to open up that
finally got a permit on the industrial
park. We have some other developers
coming looking at warehouses there.
We've got um a delegation coming in
actually tomorrow night to visit with
Los Cusus that Mvita brought in. So
there are some things there. So I know I
leave that with economic development and
their budget and and and what they do.
But I do have to share as being on the
board of Mvita. We're starting to see
some action. We're starting some see see
some things there. Um the other thing I
just want to mention like you know being
a resident from Los Cusus the majority
of my life it's like what we want is
better for Los Cusus. I think we're all
here on the dis with the same agenda to
to better Los Cruus to do for the people
and I I believe realize is going to do
that is going to be a change for the
better and if not we can amend it and
the thing that we have to hold up here
is the honesty and integrity and I
believe the process was valid and we
followed our charter and we followed the
state statute. So, honesty and integrity
and the betterment for Los Cuses. I
believe that's what we're all here for.
And I do have to say there is one thing
that, you know, try to remain calm and
uh
and not get angry, but there was a
comment today that I do take offense to,
and that's accusing all our law
officers, our peace officers, our police
officers of committing murder. I have
been through a police
academy myself and we are trained to
stop the action and that's the bottom
line. We stop the action. And with that,
I'll turn it over to our city
manager. Thank you, Mayor Enriquez,
Mayor Prom Beno and city councelor
Sikani Tamopia, city
manager and um Mayor Enriquez, I
appreciate you bringing up the
Gusmacker. Did you want to bring up the
three-pointers that you were shooting as
well and how that went? Not at this
time. Okay. No comment. No comment. Uh,
but it was great. Mayor Enriquez, if you
weren't there, he had the opportunity to
open up and there is the the shot to
open up the games and it took him about
20 shots, but no comment on that to make
it. But but uh but we're we're grateful
for the football team. U Mayfield
bringing back the Gus Macker. There's
there's about 200 plus teams. Uh
obviously I've I've I've heard great
things about the Gusmacker before my
time. Uh apparently we've had one of the
biggest uh Gusmacker tournaments out
here years and years ago. So to bring
that tradition back is great. There was
a lot of kids there and I believe um
assistant city manager JC uh son um for
their uh age uh group got second place.
So congratulations to them. But just
bringing a lot of people, a lot of food,
uh a lot of vendors out is great. And so
kudos to the football team taking the
risk. Um it is something that um is
risky to to make a profit. So them
coming back with the support um
hopefully they made the profit. We
appreciate public safety being there
present fire and PD um representing as
well. But again um thank you to the
football team at Mayfield. This is a
three-year contract, my understanding.
So this is one of uh one of three years.
So um our hope is that it'll continue to
grow uh with support from the community.
So, thank you so much. Next up, um I'd
like to acknowledge that uh our fire
chief, as as we know, Chief Daniels
vacated the uh deputy chief position as
he um as he is now our fire chief. So,
we had an interim uh role. T-Bore Kosis
has been our interim uh since that time
and they went through a very competitive
selection process and uh T-Bore is
officially the deputy chief of fire. So
I just wanted to make that announcement.
Um council is is aware but just make
sure public is aware of that as well.
He's 17 years with Las Cruus Fire
Department and he's been battalion chief
since 2021. So, we're very excited for
T-Bore Parks and Recreation. Thank you
for councelor Karan announcing uh the
the grand opening ribbon cutting of
Highland Park if if you all can make it.
As she mentioned, 10:00 a.m. on Friday,
May 23rd at 4651 Emerald Street. U and
there will be games, activities, and fun
stuff.
Additionally, get ready for a night of
smooth grooves and downtown vibes. Uh,
Mayor's Jazzfest is back and it's
bringing the rhythm to the plaza. Delas
Cusus. Whether you're a longtime jazz
lover or just looking for a fun night
out, this free concert is a perfect way
to kick off the summer. This year's
lineup will feature Los Cusus High
School Jazz Orchestra, local student
talent bringing big sound, Hillary Smith
and Chill House, the powerhouse vocals
in high energy jazz, soul and funk. Grab
your lawn
chairs, bring your friends, family, and
enjoy live music under the stars on
Sunday, May 25th at 700 p.m. Food trucks
and vendors will be there. Quality of
life border regional library association
board voted to hold this year's fall
conference in Las Cusus something that
hasn't happened for several years. This
relatively small association represents
librarians in El Paso, Lasus and Wades
and the surrounding area. We expect
about 100 to 150 to attend the
conference on November 14th to 15th.
There has been meetings with library
staff and visit las cusus to see what
what staff can do and the team can do to
uh support this event. Very grateful for
Carol Bray, Sarah Booth and library
staff and visit Las Cusus for making
that happen. Congratulations to Las
Cusus Public Libraries and especially
library program manager Shulie Serrano
and her team for winning the GECU Vita
2025 site of the year. This is no
surprise given the record-breaking
number of tax returns that were
completed by volunteers at a
record-breaking 500 at the Branigan
Library. So kudos to the
team. Maintenance and repair public art
piece tree of knowledge is complete.
Artist
Andrew was that what was done earlier
today? But artist Andrew Neum cleaned
and repainted the sculpture. He also
replaced the apple and went missing that
went missing recently. The apple was
provided by Jeffy Brewer, the artist who
made the sculpture. Jeffy saw the photo
we posted showing the restored sculpture
and sent an email saying, "Thank you for
facilitating the refresh. It looks
amazing. Please pass along my thanks to
the artist that did the great work.
Great job."
And then as mentioned by councelor
Flores giving uh recognition to our our
city clerk who was um number one in the
universe and also number one in the
state um in our hearts. Christine Rivera
if you did not know has been recognized
as part of the 2025 municipal clerk's
honor role joining a distinguished group
of over 300 honore nationwide. So wanted
to recognize her. That is it. Thank
you. Oh yes. Um and last but not least,
wanted to uh recognize uh promotion of
one of our employees. Her name is uh
Selena Morales. She has been officially
selected and we can officially announce
her as a deputy director of economic
development. Is she in the audience?
Here she is. So we appreciate her. Um
she's doing a lot of great stuff, but
she's in the back if you want to talk
with her after the meeting. But thank
you, Selena, and congratulations on
that.
All right. Thank you, Econ. And with
that, uh, motion to adjurnn.
Second.
Yeah, I moved. Ben Ko second.
That's not funny. This is on the motion
to adjourn the meeting. Councelor
Mccclure. Yes. Councelor Matise. Yes.
Councelor Graham. Yes. Councelor Karan.
Yes. Councelor Fletes. No. I want to
keep complaining.
Yes. Councelor Beno. Yes. And mayor.
Yes.