[Music]
You're live.
Good afternoon. Welcome to city council.
Today is Monday, April 21st, 2025,
approximately 1 p.m. I am Mayor Eric
Enriquez. Before we get started, I want
to mention that we have the ASL American
Sign Language up in the front available
at every regular city council meeting um
in case anyone needs them. Thank you. Uh
we'll start with a moment of silence. of
you all please stand for the brave men
and women of the United States Armed
Forces and our Los Cusus Police and Los
Cusus Fire Department for protecting our
city 24/7 365.
Councelor Graham, if you'll lead us in
the
pledgece 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 on the agenda is
presentations of certificates and
proclamation. It'll be councelor Grim.
Good afternoon everyone.
Um, first up, can we please have the
General Federation of Women's Clubs, uh,
Progress Club, Los Cusus Water
Conservation Poster Contest
reps, come on up.
So, as everyone knows here in Los Cusus,
water is one of New Mexico's most vital
and precious resources. GFWC Progress
Club of Los Cusus held their third water
conservation poster contest to bring
awareness to young children. GFWC
Progress Club of Los Cusus asked third
grade students to draw a poster
symbolizing water awareness and the
importance of conserving water in the
community. We have a forest uh first.
Hi. So, our first place uh winner, Emma
Ruiz.
And
you and second place, Aiden
Enriquez. And third place is Darren
Martinez, who I'm guessing is not you,
but give a hand
anyway. And these winners have received
monetary prizes for their hard work as
well as a certificate.
give
you guys.
Absolutely. Okay, great. They are all
silent champions who are not going to
share any further words. So, we're going
to grab a quick photo and then if you
two, well, three wouldn't mind going up
and around the dis to show your posters.
But let's get the photo quickly first.
See patience.
[Applause]
And next up, we have a proclamation for
Parkinson's Awareness Month. If we have
anyone
here ready to Everyone come on down.
And I'm gonna You can tell when the font
size changes because time for the
readers. All right. Okay.
Great. Whereas Parkinson's disease is a
chronic progressive neurological disease
and is the second most common
neurodeenerative condition. It is
estimated that nearly 1 million people
in the United States live with
Parkinson's disease with close to 90,000
new diagnoses each year. In New Mexico,
there are
31,580 people with Parkinson's. And
whereas it is estimated that the
economic burden of Parkinson's disease
to be nearly 52 billion per year in the
United States, medications alone cost an
average of $2,500 a year and therapeutic
surgery can cost up to $100,000 per
person. And whereas research suggests
that the cause of Parkinson's disease is
a combination of genetic and
environmental factors, but the exact
cause and progression of the disease is
still unknown. And whereas the symptoms
of Parkinson's disease varies from
person to person with some of the more
common symptoms including tremors,
slowness of movement and rigidity,
difficulty with balance, swallowing,
chewing, and speaking, cognitive
impairment and dementia, mood disorders
such as anxiety and depression, vision
changes, skin problems and sleep
difficulties. Currently, there is no
cure, therapy, or drug to halt the
progression of Parkinson's disease.
However, regular exercise can help
manage symptoms and has been proven to
slow the progression. And whereas there
is no specific blood or imaging test
that can confirm a Parkinson's
diagnosis, certain tests, such as a
magnetic resonance imaging of the brain,
MRI brain, and a dopamine transporter
scan, DAT scan can help verify a
Parkinson's disease diagnosis or rule
out other diseases that can mimic
Parkinson's symptoms. And whereas
increased education and research is
needed to find more effective treatments
with fewer side effects and ultimately a
cure for Parkinson's disease. And
whereas it is a distinct privilege of
the Los Cusus city mayor and mayor and
city council to bestow proclamations and
all Los Cusus residents are represented
by the counselors and therefore speak
with a unified voice through the actions
and deeds of this council. Now
therefore, we, the mayor and city
council of Las Cusus, New Mexico, do
hereby proclaim April of 2025 as
Parkinson's Awareness
Month. Hi, I'm Sarah Steagel, co-leader
of our local support group. Uh, I will
introduce a few people from our board.
We have Jennifer Via, she is our web
master. Ken Posey, he is our new support
group leader. and Lynn Austin is our
treasurer and John Melius is our board
member and jack of all
trades and thank you mayor and council
for reading our proclamation this month.
I'm just going to go over a few things
we have to offer now. We have grown. We
now have um nonprofit status. So we are
501c3 and with that status we have a new
name Parkinson's Support Group of New
Mexico and we have also
um added line dancing to our list of
exercises. We have park pickle ball for
Parkinson's. We have Carol Wam's class
um exercise for Parkinson's. We have
rock steady boxing and now line dancing.
So we have many many ways in order for
you to get your exercise with our
groups. And it's it's an additional
support group and we have two regular
support groups. One the third Tuesday of
the month, one the fourth Tuesday of the
month. And if anybody needs information,
we have a website and it is still the
Parkinson's Disease Support Group of
Southern New Mexico until we get the new
website set up. But thank you very much.
Do you have anything to say?
I just I'm Ken Posie. I'd just like to
say thank you to the mayor and the city
council members for this and uh we here
to serve the Parkinson's community and
if you know of anybody that has a
movement disorder or has been diagnosed
with Parkinson's we're here to help. So
we we appreciate the recognition. Thank
you.
[Applause]
Okay, just move over.
[Music]
Okay, next up, the proclamation for
donate life
month. Have anyone
here? Thank you so much for being here.
Whereas one hero organ donor can save
the lives of up to eight people and
improve the lives of up to 75 others
with eye and tissue donation. And
whereas more than 100,000 patients
currently wait for life-saving organ
transplants across the nation, including
more than 500 New Mexicans. And whereas
90 New Mexicowned organ donors saved 207
lives in 2024. And whereas three
hospitals in our state had their very
first organ donors, including Three
Crosses Regional Hospital in Los Cusus.
And whereas four hospitals supported a
record number of donor heroes last year,
including Memorial Medical Center in Los
Cusus. And whereas all New Mexicans can
register to be or organ donors
regardless of their age or medical
history. And whereas we truly honor
those who gave the extraordinary gift of
life through living and deceased organ
donation. And whereas we encourage every
New Mexican to register as a donor on
their driver's license or ID card at the
motor vehicle division or online at
donatelifeenm.org and talk to their
family about their decision. Now
therefore, we, the mayor and city
council of Los Cusus, New Mexico, do
hereby proclaim April 2025 as Donate
Life
Month. Thank you so
much. Thank you, mayor and city council,
um, for our
proclamation. And please be organ donors
and because one one life can save nine
lives. So, please consider it. And we do
have a one-year car show for
um organ
donation. Um we have it at Youngs Park
once a year and we have um it'll be
October the 18th. We're trying to raise
money so we can have our memorial
um down at Larora Park. We already have
a plaque out there.
So, please try to visit our car show in
October. And thank you again.
[Applause]
And finally on my list, administrative
professionals
day, Annette
[Applause]
Granado.
Oh, and everyone else she is ordering
down here.
[Applause]
As an aside, before I start reading the
actual proclamation, I had to inform my
husband that I would make a net granado,
the emergency contact, on my passport
because I was like, she could extract me
from any country within 20 minutes. And
I don't think you could do the same. So,
just just a little personal note.
Oh,
cool. Whereas administrative
professionals play a critical role in
the smooth and efficient operation of
businesses, government, educational
institutions, and other organizations.
And whereas administrative professionals
are vital contributors in today's team
oriented work environment, serving as
key frontline public relations
ambassadors for their organizations. And
whereas the work of administrative
professionals requires advanced
knowledge and expertise in
communications, computer software,
office technology, project management,
organization, customer service, and
other vital office management
responsibilities. And whereas
administrative professionals day is
observed annually to recognize the
important contributions of
administrative support staff. Now
therefore, we, the mayor and city
council of Los Cusus, New Mexico, do
hereby proclaim April 23rd, 2025 as
Administrative Professionals Day in Los
Cusus, New Mexico, urging all citizens
to recognize and appreciate the
essential contributions of these
dedicated
professionals. Thank you. I really just
want to recognize all of the
administrative assistants that it takes
to run this city. Um because they really
are the heart of every single
department. Um so if you guys will come
up and um introduce yourselves. I'm
Manette Granado. I'm the executive
assistant to um the city
manager. Hello. I'm Leticia Alaka and
I'm the executive administrative to um
community development. And that would be
um the city director, Chris Faver.
Hi, my name is Monica Vega. I'm the
administrative assistant for the city
manager's office.
Hi, my name is Sylvia Caldera. I'm the
administrative assistant for city
manager's office and city council.
[Applause]
Hello, my name is Renee Medina. I'm
admin assistant assistant to the parks
department, but I oversee the parks, um,
ball fields, and, um, community
forestry.
[Applause]
Hello, my name is Eddie Pedron,
administrative assistant for parks and
rec also, but I oversee the youth
services department.
[Applause]
Nancy Libby, administrative assistant
for community
development. Hi, my name is Lisa Nes and
I'm the admin assistant for the
communications office
[Applause]
department. Good afternoon. I'm Hazel
Nevarez and I'm the senior office
manager for parks and recreation.
And this is a very very small portion of
our administrative assistance here at
city um within the city organization. A
lot of them couldn't get away to come
down here. But thank you
[Applause]
We know where
[Applause]
[Music]
So next will be a presentation. Uh this
next presentation is uh very special to
me. He's a very dear friend and uh
legendary basketball coach for Mayfield
High. I'd like to introduce Coach George
Maya to come up.
[Applause]
Good to see
you. We invite your family and anybody
else for a photo in a minute. When you
say a few
words.
Uh George Ma is a graduate of Gatson
High School and New Mexico State
University. He began his coaching career
in 1983 as a Gatson High School. And in
1995, he started volunteering with the
Mayfield boys basketball program.
He was hired as the first freshman boys
basketball coach and later promoted to
the JV coach upon Jimmy Oliver's
retirement and later then u was the head
coach was Manuel Travisio for Mayfield
High at the time. He spent 10 years with
the Mayfield boys program before being
hired as a head coach of the Mayfield
girls program.
Coach Mile was hired to lead the Lady
Trojans in 1995 and still continues to
do so today. In his 30-year tenure with
the Lady Trojan, he has compiled an
impressive resume with many milestones,
awards, accomplishments, national,
regional, state, and local levels. His
Lady Trojan still remain the only girls
basketball program in the city of Los
Cusus, in the Los Cusus public schools
and the Mayfield High School to bring
home a state championship, not only
once, but three
times. He still has the passion today
that he brought to the court over 40
years ago when he joined the staff at
Mayfield High School. He retired from
teaching career in 2018 after 32 years
while keeping his coaching position. Any
spare time that he can find, he enjoys
spending time with his family, his wife
Anna for married for nearly 39 years,
his two kids Jake and Jennica, and four
grandchildren. One of them even is a
member of the Mayfield High team.
some of his highlighted accomplishments
because there's so many. I mean, we go
on to the next council meeting. Uh the
big one, just recently this year, he
compiled 600 career wins, February 6 of
2025. Number one in all-time wins in New
Mexico in girls basketball. inducted
into the New Mexico School Coaches
Association Hall of Honor
2020, 2018 National Federation of State
High School Association Girls Basketball
Coach of the
Year, and then also some of the others,
numerous accomplishments, but some of
the highlights, of course, state
championship three times, uh, 2011,
2007, 2004, state tournament champion
game appearances,
eight state runnerup, five district
championships, 21 final four at state
tournaments, 10 times New Mexico
Gatorade players of the years, he had
two uh Lady Trojans moving on to play
college ball 27
athletes, 20 plus wins in seasons, 18
times. This man is truly a legend in our
community and the coaching that he does.
I can tell you I remember George when he
was uh playing basketball for Gatston
and the scouting report was don't let
Maya shoot. You know, that kind of
competitiveness and hard work and
determined to win is what he carried on
to the individuals, the boys and the
girls that he coached at Mayfield. Uh
George is truly a godly man, a family
man. He cares about this community. A
lot of people mention all the great
things he's done as far as winning and
the accolades, but I got to tell you, he
cares about the kids in our community.
Whether you're playing basketball,
whether you're playing volleyball,
whether you're playing soccer, if you're
an athlete at Mayfield, you got his
attention and he'll give it to you. And
then he's had the kids camp for many
years that he's touched so many lives in
this community that young girls want to
grow up to be Mayfield lady Trojan
basketball players but other kids are
inspired just to play basketball because
of this man. So George just want to
recognize you. This certificate of
excellence this certificate proudly
represented to George Mile in honor of
his outstanding performance and
recognition for his high standards of
excellence. This certificate is issued
in recognition of civic interest and an
expression of appreciation by the mayor
on behalf of the citizens of Los Cusus
dated this 21st day of April 2025 to
George Mile.
I'd like to invite uh the principal of
Mayfield High. He's also here. His wife,
family, coaches, anybody that wants to
come up. I know one of his coaches is my
brother.
So, you want to come up and get a photo,
but I'll let George say a few words.
[Music]
Yes. First of all, I'd like to thank the
mayor and city council members uh for
this uh award and um you know, it's
something that I that I love to do. Uh
so I don't I don't see it as work. Um,
and I've been blessed uh with my family,
with my wife, my mother, and my
grandkids, and my children. And of
course at work, uh, my principal, my
boss, uh, Mr. Frost. Uh, just an
atmosphere of at Mayfield High School
with Mr. Frost. It's it's it's really a
joy to go to work every day, every
morning. Uh, he's been so so really just
the way he treats kids and the way he
treats his faculty and staff. It's just
u there's no way that I'm I'm ever
thinking of of leaving Mayfield. Uh so
uh he has to put up with me uh for many
many years. But um I again I've been
blessed my kids and my assistant coaches
uh coach Gary Enriquez who's been with
me. Uh Jennica Mononttoya who's been
with me also for quite a while which is
my daughter. Uh but also a little bit
something about about the mayor. I've
known the mayor for many many years and
his family uh his mom and dad and uh
they've been so good to me and and uh
treated me just like a son and
uh you know we've known each other u
through basketball and and talk about
basketball and talk about so many things
about life about kids and how how we
treat kids and how we treat people and I
like to thank him for for being so uh so
caring for for people and for for kids.
I really appreciate it. And again, thank
you very much for this award uh for
something I love to do. Thank you.
[Applause]
Next, if I can have Christine Rietta,
our city clerk, come down.
[Applause]
So Christine has been selected and
awarded as a New Mexico Municipal Clerk
of the Year Award.
You know, we all work with Christine
personally and we know uh what a
tremendous job she does and how she
feels about the city, the organization,
the employees, and the community. And
she goes above and beyond to to take
care of this organization. Uh we're very
excited. We're very pleased. We're very
honored uh
to to not only present her and recognize
her for this award, but to also share
with her because that's the way she
treats us. She shares everything with
us. It's a sharing moment. And I'd like
council and the city manager to come
down so we can get a photo and display
her her newly uh awarded plaque.
But some of the things is because of the
increased transparency and access to
city government. Christine contributes
to the city and its residents as an
example of her leadership and her
unshared in a number of key environments
improvements of the city process.
specifically, she has increased the
transparency, transparency, the
accessibility to the city of Los Cusus
uh and and so many things even with all
the IRA requests and all that she has to
go through and do to be transparent. Uh
she supports the municipal elections,
you know, uh spearheads that um process
for us and for the city.
She's also an advocate for leadership
with other city clerks, always
participating in the municipal league
conference for city clerks and always
trying to learn, improve, get better,
but also share with others on on best
practices. But Christine Ria has worked
side by side with local elected
officials, city loss cruises staff,
clerks across from New Mexico to
identify areas where processes can be
improved. She has identified problem
areas and routine processes and provided
paths to improvement before the problems
impede transparency. Her collaboration
with the New Mexico League has resulted
in mentorship of clerks and other
municipalities, expanding her impacts
across the stra state. We're very proud
of you, Christine. We're all proud. Uh I
believe uh councelor Kuran is the one
who submitted the nomination and I can
speak for myself and the rest of the
council. We second that.
So, so congratulations Christine. Welld
deserved. Did you want to say a few
words?
Um, thank you to city council. Thank you
so much for always supporting me and
having my back. And um to the city
manager, thank you also. I love I enjoy
working with you so much. Brad, you're
just in here for fun, so I'm not
gonna just Thank you. I'm I'm truly
humbled. Um it's it's been a rough year
for us and so this means a lot to me.
So, thank you so much.
[Applause]
Thank you.
[Applause]
All right. Next on the agenda, we have
jobs of the week. Is
Sarah Rainey in the audience?
Thank you, sir. And good afternoon,
everyone. All right. I'm Sarah Rainey.
I'm the onestop coordinator for the
Southwest Region of New Mexico. Sorry,
America's Job Centers. I am We're still
not used to that yet. I know the name
change is rough. All right. So for
America's Job Centers New
Mexico, we have for the city of Los
Cusus, we have a wastewater plant
operator 2. That one starts at 2380 an
hour and closes on the 12th of May. We
also have a fleet service worker for the
city. That one starts at 1676 an hour
and closes on the 28th. So it closes
this week. That we als we have a Petco
for Petco Animal Supplies. We have a
sales associate starting at $14 an hour.
We have a couple of positions at OLAM,
spices and vegetables, a general
laborer, and a midship forklift
operator. That one is from the 12:00
p.m. to 8:00 p.m. um shift. We have an
operations maintenance tech. They
actually have seven positions open at
Zia Natural Gas. So, if you're
interested in those, there's lots of
opportunity there. That one starts at
$19 an hour. And a controller for
financial operations for MVT Holdings.
That one starts at $82,000 a year. For
our upcoming events this week, actually,
we have a couple of different things. We
have our annual our monthly community of
hope job readiness event. That one's
going to be at the um the soup kitchen
rather than the library because we're
still they're still under construction.
So, we're still over in the soup
kitchen. That one's going to be from 2
to 4:30. And then we have a youth health
industry forum at Gadston ISD to help
show those students that are interested
in the health industry how they can
start on their path. So exciting for us
and those students. Thank you.
Thank you Sarah. Thank you sir. Next is
pet pets of the week uh Carol Nielsen.
Good afternoon. I'm Carol Nelson,
digital content specialist for the
Animal Services Center of the Messia
Valley. Um, as a reminder, our dog and
cat of the week are always available at
for at no cost all week that they are
promoted. This week, our dog of the week
is Claire. She says, "I'm a sweet,
curious, wiggly pup with a whole lot of
love to give. My sister Aaron, who was
our dog of the week last week, just
found her forever home. And now I'm
hoping it's my turn. I love exploring
new places and soaking in all the
smells. I'm learning. I'm still learning
how to play and working on my puppy
manners, but I'm eager to please,
especially when treats or cuddles are
involved. If you're looking for a
loving, playful companion, I'd be
thrilled to meet you. And she really is
the sweetest. Uh, and good news, our cat
of the week. We've been low on cats and
so our cats are literally flying off the
shelf. So, Goblin was the sweetest
little cat. So, we're super happy for
him. Um, our long-term residents uh are
available at a reduced cost and so we
would love to see them get into a home.
So, Dora unfortunately is still at the
center 467 days, Alice 321 days. But
good news, you'll notice Luna is off the
list. She got adopted. So, we're super
proud of her. and but Tony has been
there 305 days, Whisper 264 days. So,
the long-term residents make great
companions. So, definitely come spend
some time with them and consider
adopting them. Um, and this weekend
we're going to be pretty busy. We have
our ASCMV sleepover. Um, so if you're
interested in having a short-term
sleepover with some of our animals, feel
free to reach out to our foster
coordinator. Um, we're going to be at
PetSmart for adoptions, uh, 10:00 to 1
this Friday, and we're having our big
on-site event on Sunday from 11 to 1.
So, stop by the center. It should be a
fun time. So, and as always, you can
visit our website uh for more
information and a list of our adoptable
animals and also on social media. Thank
you.
Next is conflict of interest. Does any
member of city council, city manager,
any member of the city staff have any
known conflict of interest with any item
on the agenda? None. None. None. None.
Next is public participation and Katrina
will come down to help usher you. Uh
we'll work on my left. Uh work our way
up. Uh allowed up to three minutes to
speak. No pending litigation or items of
non-consent. Please speak clearly
directly into the mic. State your name
and any comments are to be directed to
mayor and
counsel. Good morning Mr. Mayor or good
afternoon Mr. Mayor and Council, uh, I'd
like to direct everybody's attention to
what's on the monitors right now. Um, I
have a problem with what happened two
weeks ago concerning, um, Sam, Could
you, could you state your name? Lori
English. I'm
sorry. Most of you know me by now.
Anyhow, but anyhow, concerning just for
the record, just concerning Chief
Story's uh
situation,
um it's all been set up there. And there
is also additional um information
concerning behavior at city council
meetings for public input. And I've
noticed over the years more and more of
that has become very relaxed. Uh,
personally, I was very offended at some
of the comments that were made directed
at Chief Story two weeks ago, basically
blaming him for everything that
happened. Now, in my opinion, his
comments were made under duress. They
were made in a very
emotional and tragic situation and that
his comments being made in public at
that time under pressure shouldn't be
held against him. Uh, he's an honorable
man. He does a lot for this community
and I think you all will agree that we
respect him uh with the most profound
respect. But
um comments made by anybody any
counselor made taken out of context to
be used against them later on is is it
should not be allowed. Um with all due
respect, Mr. mayor and honor to you. I
think they that should have been ceased
and desisted at the time. There should
have been a little bit more control over
the input being made against Chief
Story. Uh he's done a wonderful job.
Um and I'm I'm not against freedom of
speech at all. I'm a conservative uh a
constitutional conservative. So I'm a
very big supporter of the First
Amendment. But I do think that uh when
something starts to look like it's going
to be getting out of control, it needs
to be taken into consideration. And yet
last week it even got brought to the
attention that the behavior was
inappropriate of the people that were
making the comments. So, I just like to
call it again to the council's attention
that this is something that's in the
rules for the city council meetings
that's available to everybody out there
and everybody should be handed maybe a
copy of this when they come in the door
for the next couple months until things
get sorted out that this should be
handed to everybody as they come in the
door that this is what's expected of
you. We have to respect you as much as
you respect us. And getting in an
altercation, first of all, you are in a
very tenuous situation where you just
can't respond because you're not allowed
to get into an argument. So, thank you
for your service to the community.
Believe it or not, I do appreciate each
and every one of you and what you do for
us.
[Applause]
Good afternoon, council mayor. My name
is Lucas Hearn and I'm a resident of
district 2. Um certainly glad to know
that there are people here who support
our freedom of speech as long as it
agrees with them.
Um and also I'd like to address speaking
of the council's behavior, there were
comments made after some of us spoke
last time about that you wished that
some of us would stick around after we
spoke. Uh, well, we wish you would hold
these meetings when we weren't at work
and having to take time off so that we
could be here. Most of us have lives and
jobs and we have to do take time off to
be here to participate. So, please
forgive us that we can't stay and listen
to you dribble on. Um, today at just
after 10:00, um, unmarked masked thugs
uh, kidnapped human beings off the
street in Los Cusus, um, at the corner
of Montana and Solano. um under the
opices of a federal administration of
which there were some marked vehicles
and some marked officers amongst them
were also unmarked officers in unmarked
cars with civilian New Mexico plates. I
have pictures and videos. Um we should
all be terrified. This is the behavior
of fascists. It is the behavior of
secret
police. They would not answer our
questions about what was happening to
the people that they were detaining.
They would not address us. They wouldn't
even look us in the
eyes. I don't know what else to say to
that. It's happening all over the
country. You think it's just happening.
You see it on the news. You see it on
social media. I have video. I was there
because there are people in this
community who care and they called and
they showed up when they saw their
neighbors being harassed by masked
unarmed unarmed unmarked men putting
them in handcuffs and putting them in
the back of cars that didn't have any
definable
markings. That happened in district
three.
We may have political differences here,
some of the people that come and speak.
But if you think that's acceptable
behavior, you really need to question
what you think of when you think of
representative
democracy. Because to me, I can't think
of anybody who would vote for that kind
of behavior
from any armed quote unquote
representative of the state if that's
what they were. That's what they claim
to be.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go
because I have to work. Thank
[Applause]
you. Mayor, council, those watching
online, I'm Lynn Moer. EPA's new lead
and copper rule requires water
authorities to manage and carry out
replacement within 10 years of all lead
piping. Property owners are required to
bear the cost of replacement of this
piping on their property. The city is
required to bear the cost for city-owned
piping. Funding from the federal
government is available to help. It's
been three months since we alerted you
to significant deficiencies in the
technique Los Cusus Utilities is using
to determine the nature of pipes. This
deficient technique is also the one the
city is recommending that property
owners use. It's been two months since
we alerted you to huge gaps in the
city's inventory map of piping and an
enormous number of properties, currently
65% that show no service lines at all.
EPA requires that this map be complete
and accurate and for cities of 50,000 or
greater be posted online for citizens to
be able to search, review, and rely upon
regarding their own pipes. Citizens have
recommended that an independent engineer
be brought in to examine these issues to
help Lasus utilities get on track.
Despite these serious deficiencies in
these recommendations, it appears that
nothing has been done to address these
problems. When analyzing why the city
has done nothing to address these
issues, a disturbing thought has
emerged. What appears to be incompetence
may also be intentional efforts to
falsely minimize the true number of lead
pipes. Perhaps this is upon instruction
from upper management so that the city's
cost for replacing lead pipes can be
reduced. Public health be damned.
Possibly by design, the overriding
message of the November 18, 2024 Las
Cusus utilities briefing for the city
council was no lead pipes have been
found. A news report conveyed this
message. A city councelor emphasized
this message both at the meeting and on
a subsequent radio show. I commented to
you soon thereafter that the c city
seemed to be trying to declare victory
on lead pipe removal ridiculously early.
The fact is EPA required a complete
inventory of all piping to be filed by
October 16, 2024. EPA guidance
recognized the nature of some piping
might be unknown. The water authority
should indicate when that was the case
and work expeditiously to replace all
the unknowns with the facts as soon as
possible through competent investigation
and verification. In contrast, EPA did
not indicate it was permissible to omit
altogether half the city's neighborhoods
from the inventory. This is what Lasus
utilities current inventory map appears
to reflect. More than half of the city's
elementary schools and middle schools
have been omitted, for example. It's a
lot easier to boast no lead pipes when
the city is ignoring half the city's
pipes. It's also easier to claim no lead
pipes when you use a deficient technique
to determine whether a pipe is lead or
not. Please engage at least one
independent engineer to comprehensively
evaluate Lasus's utilities work on
implementing the rule and publicize all
recommendations. Thank you for this
opportunity to speak.
[Applause]
Mayor and Council, I'm Liz Rodriguez
Johnson. Over the past four months,
citizens have brought numerous problems
to the city's attention with respect to
compliance with EPA's new lead and
copper rule.
Unfortunately, there is no evidence that
a single one of the problems has been
adequ adequately rectified. Here is a
brief list of some of the issues that
have been brought to your attention
additional to those just
mentioned. Do property owners need to
have their water tested to determine if
we have lead in our water? The city's
notification letter is not clear on that
point.
Where is the map showing all the
city-owned piping? In the map that is
available, piping is frequently
mischaracterized based on date. Pipes
that were installed prior to 1986 lead
ban are characterized as non-LED based
on installation after the lead ban. The
designations of piping as known or
non-LED on the inventory map are not
necessarily true.
The map misleadingly characterizes an
entire line as non-LED with a green dot
when in reality at least one portion
either the system owned or customerowned
is unknown. A property owner who
believes the green dot thinks their line
is non-LED and checks no further could
have a very nasty surprise.
The inventory indicates that some but
very little
verification of its characterizations of
piping has
occurred. Some callers have been falsely
told that no financial help is available
for lead PL pipe
replacement. This is despite the fact
that financial help is available from
the federal government.
The fact is the rule requires that
financial help be available and the
city's notification letter says
financial help is available. Now, even
if the current administration gets rid
of the EPA, this issue is not going to
go
away. Dealing with a potential health
hazard to the city of Alaskus goes
beyond a government
regulation. Protecting the people in
this community is a is a responsibility.
you signed up for when you ran for this
job. The concerns I just reiterated are
clearly documented not just in this
public participation but in numerous
previous others. So it's very clear all
of you are aware of this
issue. All of you are tied to this issue
morally and politically.
You need to have an experienced engineer
with management experience deal with
these potentially life-threatening
issues systematically and
comprehensively. Thank you.
[Applause]
Hello, my name is Britney Gillingham and
I come to you as a community member and
a concerned parent. Um, in October we
were promised that there were going to
be park rangers put over at Young Park.
Um, I haven't heard any update on that.
I know that there's funding available.
Um, that was October. It's now April.
That's six months. Um, I don't think
that there's enough for the kids to do
here in Los Cusus. Sorry, I'm extremely
nervous. Um, I I noticed that the skate
park is still closed and it's been
nearly a year um that construction has
started on the skate park. Um, while I
haven't seen any progress on the skate
park, I did see a brand new um, fence
that was put up at Marshai uh, rec
center for the volleyball courts just
actually last week. Um, so I'm kind of
confused as to why there's no
progression on the skate park, but
there's progression on other things. Um,
I know that there's a rec center and
aquatic centers. Um, and the city has
tried to keep the cost low for parents
like myself. Um, but I know there's a
lot of parents out there that can't even
afford the $3 or the $4 for themselves
and $3 per child. Uh, for me and my
children to go to the aquatic center, it
comes to $10. And that might not seem
like a lot to a lot of people, but to me
as a single parent on one income, that's
a lot of money. Um, I think that
possibly trying to work in like a SNAP
discount or doing like a discounted
membership to these things would be
absolutely helpful. Um, there's also the
community boxing center off Solano. I
don't know if there's a lot of people
that know about this space. Um, but it's
a great place for kids that have no
outlet and have very hard lives at home.
Um, I think it's a great place for them
to go and and to be able to get out, you
know, certain aggressions and things.
Um, I know that uh I I would love to see
like another skating rink or do skate
meetups like they do up like they do in
El Paso or a free community center. I
know that money has to come from
somewhere. Um, but I know that there's
grants, scholarships, and even
fundraisers available that we could do
to provide these things for children in
our community because our children are
our future. And if we're not looking
into them now, you know, we we have to
look and see that there's going to be
hope. Um, I want to see change in our
community just as much as you do. But it
starts with us, the people, and what can
we do to move forward? What what can we
do to make a change? How can we make Los
Cusus as a whole better to be a happier
community? I reside on Young Park. My
apartment sits on Young Park. Um, and to
be in that neighborhood, it it's very
hard and it's very tragic what happened.
Um, but as a community member and
someone that sits right there, um, I
can't even fathom taking my children
over to that park anymore. So, it's not
anything against the police department
or anybody. I think it's as a community
we all need to work together to make Los
Cusus better. Not only for people but
parents and especially for the children
here. The children. The children. The
children.
Ma'am. Um if you go uh if you turn
around, the gentleman in the the blue
suit with the yellow, he's our parks
director. Okay. He can answer some of
those questions on the skatepark and
anything that's uh left unanswered. Uh
the city manager is happy to answer.
Okay. Thank you. I had so much more, but
obviously, you know, like I said, just
do it for the kids. Come on, we got this
for Los Cusus. Okay. Thank you.
Good afternoon, Mayor.
U my name is Steven Hario. I'm a
lifelong resident here in Los Cusus for
the past 63 years. I'm a retired Air
Force veteran. We live in the inner city
and uh I love Los Cusus. I could never
imagine living anywhere else even though
I've been all over the country, many of
the different cities. And uh the last
five years me and my wife have uh
started bicycling around the city and
using a lot of the city bicycle uh
trails and uh they're very helpful to
keep us out of the uh the inner city and
the streets. But,
uh, one thing that I'm concerned about
is the ebikers that use the same bicycle
trails cuz we use we paddle, we ride our
normal bicycles and we do 25 miles every
other day around the city and uh, we
leave from our home on Kansas and Solano
and then we uh, ride up through Young
Park and go up through the Travis Trail
down Nevada. And uh I told parks and
recreation maybe three or four years ago
in city streets about the problem trying
to cross there at Nevada across uh
Travis into the bicycle trail because
the city has the bicycle trail that dead
ends at Travis. But yet there's no
flashing signals. I've videotaped people
younger kids riding their bicycles
nearly getting hit there at Travis and
uh uh Nevada. Also, there's an area off
Solano where they don't put any
crosswalks off Colorado and Solano, and
a lady got killed there last year uh
because there are not enough crosswalks
on Solano for the inner city people that
live there.
Um, again, I've informed Streets, uh,
they, uh, told me they were going to do
some more work at Yurona Park. And, uh,
the Yurona Park trail is completely
falling apart from like North Bridge all
the way to Mayfield. And I guess maybe
their solution was to spray paint the
the bumps on the entire trail, but I was
told three or four years ago there was
funding to repave it and maybe stripe
it. And that's another issue. I I've
been on bike trails all over the country
and normally they're striped and people
know to ride their bicycles on the left
or right side and if ebikers are passing
at least they know, you know, to warn
the uh people in front. Anyway, then
there at Spruce, there's a crosswalk on
Spruce that uh they did stripe uh a year
or so ago, but it's completely blacked
out. And the same on Missouri and
Travis. you can't see the crosswalks.
So, my concern was uh if they could
maybe look into those areas a little
more. One dangerous area by Mayfield
where we cross our bikes across Valley
Drive, there's no flashing lights or
anything and we've witnessed people
actually get hit there on Valley Drive.
So, my concerns are for the uh bicycle
trails and crosswalks.
So, matter of fact, I sent you an email,
mayor, and I
think I didn't get a response back,
though, so that's why I showed up to the
council meeting. Okay. Thank you. Okay.
Thanks,
Mayor Council One Garcia. The Regional
Aquatic Center staff deserve recognition
for their exceptional service. As a
senior with diabetes, I found exactly
what I needed here. The facility offers
great exercise equipment, different
exercise options, and the staff
maintains it well. They're always
friendly and provide flexible payment
options, including a senior rate of just
$1 per visit with no contract required.
Thank you, Mr. Bingan, Mr. econ for
making fitness accessible and welcoming
and perhaps something can be done to
help the kids for the speaker that just
came before me. Moving on, the facade of
political hypocrisy is crumbled once
again before my eyes during four years
as a community advocate, revealing a
disturbing pattern of selective outrage
and calculated silence. Nothing
illustrates this more than the most
tragic case of Rachel Morren, a mother
of five whose life was brutally stolen
on a summer trail in
Maryland. Her death at the hands of an
illegal immigrant was met with deafening
silence from the very leaders sworn to
protect their constituents. Senator Van
Holland's office buzzed with activity
championing the return of the quote
Maryland father. While Morren's name
never crossed his lips in any official
capacity, that same haunting silence
echoes in New Mexico where
Representative Vasquez found tears for
the quote Maryland father while their
own community safety deteriorates under
his watch and crimes rate climb. How
telling that our local and state
progressive leaders turn a blind eye to
law-abiding citizens, yet rush to cuddle
those who loot and burn their dreams to
ash. hardworking citizens, many of them
women of color, living in poverty, as
only for protection, for basic dignity.
Instead, they watch their lives work
crumble while the very people claiming
to champion social justice cheer on
their destruction. The recent aggravated
assault on a peace officer with a deadly
weapon was just dismissed by Judge
Driggers with no explanation. The
shameful attempt by one of our
counselors to rationalize the Young Park
massacre through excuses about poverty,
race, and age only serve to dishonor the
victims and enable future violence. Such
misguided apologism has no place in our
discourse about this atrocious act. Yet,
it
continues. So, Mr. Mayor, mayor prom
council, when will you finally demand
real
action? The time for empty words is
over. Demand strong deterrence.
Deterrence be reflected in your message
to the governor and state
legislators. And we will continue to
support Chief Story and the LCPD
officers. Thank you.
[Applause]
Good afternoon, city council mayor. My
name is Eddie Thomas.
Uh first of all, I'd like to start by
addressing
uh Chief's story and the way that he was
impuged, his reputation was impuged the
last time we had a a city council
meeting by somebody that got up to
speak.
Uh, I for one support Chief Story and my
money is on him as far as his authority
to carry a pistol in these chambers
makes me feel safer rather than the
person that got up and made those
comments against him.
Next thing I'd like to speak about is
uh myself and my fellow petition
uh uh uh seekers that were were seeking
signatures for on a petition. I'm sure
you all are aware of
uh have been impuged also. We've been uh
labeled as people that are against
lowincome housing. Let me reassure you
all. Nothing could be further from the
truth. We are not against lowincome
people. We are not against lowincome
housing. What we're seeking is a redress
of the way the city code uh treats uh
the established residential areas moving
in commercial entities. That is just not
fair to the people that uh purchased
homes there.
Uh furthermore, I just uh don't think
that the city council has been very
effective
uh with their delegation that uh gets
sent to Santa Fe to advocate on our
behalf this legislative session. The
only about the very few things that were
produced were uh among uh uh a few were
a law that addresses uh the red flaw red
flag uh uh law that takes away arms from
citizens. I would like to see that law
used to take away the arms from the
juvenile gangs that seem to be
predominant here in Los Cusus. hopefully
avoiding another situation like what
happened in Young
Park. So, at the very least, this
delegation was
ineffective and at the very worst, it
was a total failure. I would ask that
you all address this and do something
about the competency law that seems to
have not changed one bit during this
legislative uh legislative session.
Please do something about the safety
factor here in our public parks. Thank
[Applause]
you. Good afternoon, mayor, city council
members. My name is Julia Ruiz. In New
Mexico, it is not known exactly how many
babies are abandoned each year. The safe
the safe haven for in infants law
shields parents from criminal
prosecution when they choose to leave
infants at safe havens instead of a
dumpster or an unknown area to be found
later and many times too late. I would
like to bring to your attention the fact
that we are missing in the city an
invaluable means of safely assisting a
parent in crisis and saving a child. The
safe haven baby box. The Safe Haven Baby
Box is a safe, legal, and compassionate
option for parents in crisis who are
unable to care for their infant. The
Safe Haven Baby Box is used as a means
for the parent to surrender their infant
anonymously. The Safe Haven Baby Box is
fully compliant with state laws. These
boxes are equipped with advanced safety
features to protect the baby and allow
medical personnel to retrieve them
quickly. The boxes provide a safe and
legal way to surrender an infant,
ensuring the well-being of the parent
and the safety of the child. As of
today, Espanola, Hobs, Berlin, and
Carlsbad have installed baby boxes. And
this weekend, Hobbs will have its fourth
with who which has the fourth has a
fourth of the population of Los Cruus
will have its third safe haven baby box.
There have been three babies surrendered
safely in Hobs. Now, I've been working
with chief with Espanola's assistant
chief fire chief wer John Wickersam and
Monica Kelsey, the founder of the safe
haven baby box to bring the one here.
Today, I bring information to the city
council to inform the city of Los Cusus
how important it is to have a baby box
available for parents in crisis.
Ultimately, I would love to have three
within Los Cusus and Inonana County. I
have spoken with several of you on the d
on the dis and have received very
positive feedback and agreed that have
that having a baby box is a critical
tool for helping parents in crisis. I
ask that you consider installing a baby
box as it is better to have one and not
need it than to need one and not have
one. I brought a pamphlet with all the
information of the baby box and I asked
if I may leave it with the city city
clerk as a point of contact. Again, I am
working with Assistant Fire Chief
Wickersam and Miss Kelsey, the founder
of the Baby Box. I am asking that you
work with me to continue towards the
next step in making the Safe Haven Baby
Box a reality in the city of Los Cusus
for parents in
crisis. New Mexico legislators have
allocated 330,000 in support of the
installation of the safe haven baby
boxes throughout the state. I will be
leaving my contact information along
with information packet and please feel
free to contact me with any questions or
concerns you may have. Thank you for
your time and
attention. All right. Thank you. And you
can leave the documents with the clerk.
Thank you.
Good afternoon. My name is Elizabeth
Winter Road and I came today hoping to
be supportive of a proclamation for the
National Day of Prayer. Apparently, it
is not um being honored today, but I
want to thank all of you in advance for
your support on the National Day of
Prayer, which is uh May 1st. There'll be
different events going on around the
city. And I pray to all of
um pray that all of you who are
believers will be a light to this
community and those who are not
believers will see the light. I thank
you in advance for any uh support that
you can give the people that are going
out that day. Thank
[Applause]
you. Thank you, city council and mayor.
I'm Sarah Smith. I extend my condolences
to the vi victims of the Young Park
shooting. Several of you have said you
want to find solutions to the youth
crime and violence problem. For
thousands of years, one of the most
basic tenants of society has been do not
harm others or encroach on their
property. One of the fundamental
purposes of government is to uphold this
law so that the society can function
well. Here in Los Cusus and across New
Mexico, we are seeing what happens when
we do not uphold this principle. Parents
should be teaching their kids from a
young age that they cannot harm others.
take other kids' toys or damage the
property of others. Once the kids go to
school, this principle should be
reinforced over and over again so that
by the the time the kids are adults, it
has been ingrained. Once people are old
enough to be held legally accountable,
there must be consistent and sure
enforcement of this law, no matter
whether they are rich or poor, Hispanic
or white, housed or homeless. This is
literally the overarching principle that
allows society to continue to survive.
There have always been some parents who
don't raise their kids well, but now
schools are perpetuating the same cycle.
I advocate for teachers and parents
across the state, and they have shared
that kids in schools are allowed to harm
others with no real consequences. Kids
are throwing chairs in the classroom,
hitting other kids, throwing temper
tantrums, and the teachers are not
allowed to really stop it. For example,
a Las Cruis mother related that in her
daughter's class, one of the kids has
violent temper tantrums. Instead of
imposing consequences to help this child
learn proper behavior, the teacher takes
the rest of the kids out of the class
and allows the child to trash the
classroom. Year after year, all of these
kids are learning that there are no
consequences to hurting others, and that
no one will stop a kid who chooses to
hurt others, steal, or destroy. By the
time kids reach their teen years, the
behaviors have escalated to fighting,
doing drugs, shoplifting, stealing cars
and guns, and shooting others. With New
Mexico's lack juvenile crime laws and
catch and releaselease policies, these
kids are ripe for getting involved with
organized criminal gangs and cartels who
know that youths can break the law with
very little consequence in New Mexico.
We now have many kids growing up with no
respect for the most basic laws of
society and thus we have high rates of
juvenile crime with tragic consequences
like what happened at Young Park. City
councilors, I appreciate that you want
to find solutions. Recreational
activities for kids are important and I
hope the schools will own their
responsibility to teach kids
self-control and respect for rules. For
you as council, I hope you see that your
paramount role is to ensure we have good
laws, that the laws are applied equally
to everyone, that we have enough police
officers to keep our community safe and
that there are sure consequences for
those who break the law. Our state
legislature refused to tighten up our
juvenile crime laws. So, I hope you will
take action here in Los Cusus instead,
such as imposing a curfew for teens and
holding both the teens and parents
accountable. You can also greatly
increase the salaries of our police
officers in the upcoming union
negotiations so that Chief Story will be
able to better attract and retain
officers. As a body, if you decide you
will no longer tolerate people harming
others, breaking into and destroying our
homes and businesses, you can make a big
difference. Thank you.
[Applause]
Mayor Council Steve Kleti, resident of
Los Cusus. 2024. Wow, what a year. The
year the Amish saved the republic. I'm
not sure the state of your fantastical
democracy, but the republic is alive and
well. I bring this up for a reason, but
I'll get to back to that in a minute.
Peter Goodman recently conducted an
interview on his radio show with your
Chris
Favor regarding Realize Los Cusus. I
found it interesting Mr. Favor's main
argument for Realize was to improve the
quality of life quote image Los Cusus
has. I'm curious how much this ordinance
does to improve that
image for the amount of effort the city
council is fighting for it. But let's
assume you're right and it does improve
that image. Let's assign it a five on a
scale of 100. Now returning to Lancaster
County, Pennsylvania, where my mother
lives among the Amish, I received a call
from her on that dark Saturday morning
in a
panic where she woke to reports of the
cartel shooting in Young
Park. She called to verify that my
family and I were well. While I was
still on the phone, my mother-in-law
called from Eastern Kansas with the same
question.
Now, before you go off on me about the
cartel reference, remember we're talking
about image. And that is how this is
being perceived, if not reported outside
of New
Mexico. I can assure you neither my
mother-in-law nor my mother have ever
heard of realized Los Cusus, but they're
now more scared of than ever for the
safety of their
grandchildren. Back to that 100 point
scale of image. If realize Los Cusus is
worth five points, how much of a hit did
this tragedy leave? Maybe a negative 500
points. Yet you, our city council,
fighting so hard for realize, have done
little to nothing to address public
safety in Los Cusus except point your
fingers at Santa Fe and say it's their
fault and there's nothing you can do.
When given the opportunity to address
our state delegation with our concerns,
you chose animal welfare as our number
one priority. And I don't recall any
dogs being shot at Young
Park in the Young Park massacre. Is the
Young Park massacre enough for you to
start taking your oaths of office
seriously, or do we need to wait some
till one of your loved ones is hurt for
you to act? Mr. Mayor, your honeymoon
period is over. You own this one. It's
time for you to stop collecting data and
lead this council into action. No one
cares about your tireless work unless it
produces positive results. And this
council, just like many before it, have
little in the way of positive results,
especially when it comes to public
safety. We want
action. It's time to leave your activist
roles and start being the leaders that
you elected to be for the entire Los
Cusus community. Thank you.
[Applause]
Good afternoon, Mayor, City Council. My
name is Jim Hurst.
Um, so I want to inform you of an event,
um, National Day of Reason at Los Cusus
City Hall, Thursday, May 1st, 12 noon.
Join us to celebrate reason and
demonstrate to our lo local government
that there are many citizens who care
about the principle of separation and of
church and state as defined by Thomas
Jefferson. Logic and r rational thinking
are the center of the modern western
democracies. Unfortunately, not all
Americans understand our constitution as
our founders intended.
So we observe this day to reaffirm the
American desire to leave the dark ages
and absolutist governments behind in the
old world. We founded our government
independent of religion and based on
common
sense. The uniqueness of the United
States of America is in its inclusion of
every kind of person, race, culture,
religion, and non-religious beliefs in
this very diverse country. Reason in our
history testifies that a ploribus unum
is not only possible but
desirable. Please join us and consider
with us the blessings of reason, science
and equality in this great land and how
it can be
preserved. This event is not sponsored
by the city and all are
welcome. And I want to say on other
comments, the safest people in this
country are illegal aliens. They are the
least likely to commit crimes because
they want to stay here. And that's
pretty simple. And it's very easy to
vilify a
few, to highlight the actions of a few,
to vilify many.
Certainly, there are illegal aliens who
have committed horrible crimes in
America, but they are far less likely
than an ordinary American to commit a
crime. Thank you very much.
[Applause]
Good afternoon. My name is Lisa Parrot.
I'm a resident of District 6. Um, I
wanted to thank the organ donation
people for their work because because of
cooperation between people in New Mexico
and Colorado. My son's still alive
today. He received two major organs in
one week in February of 2022 and is
doing well. I also want to thank the
emergency workers, all of them in our
city, our our police department, our uh
fire departments, our emergency call
takers. Every time I hear a siren, when
I'm in the house or out in public, I and
I hear a siren, I immediately say a
prayer and hope that people that
are have the siren on will arrive where
they need to be safely and that the
people that they are going to be helped
will be helped. Um, I also want to
highlight the fact that at uh Saturday
from 4 to 8:30 at Young Park will be the
first event of the National Day of
Prayer other than the proclamations. And
I can't think of a better use of that
park than for people of this city to
come together and pray there for this
city. Um, anybody that would like to
know the information, the website is
national dayof prayer.org.
And I also have one Bible verse that I
would like to take the liberty of
reading while I still can because I will
always do that. It's Luke
19:39-41. Some of the Pharisees in the
crowd said to Jesus, "Jesus, excuse me,
teacher, rebuke your disciples. I tell
you," he replied, "If they keep quiet,
the stones will cry out." As he
approached Jerusalem and saw the city,
he wept over it. Thank you and God
bless.
[Applause]
Mayor, members of the council, my name
is Bill McCamley. Uh I live at the
corner of Kaya Swinus and Locus in
District 3. Had that house for over 20
years. Uh was away from Los Cruus for
about 5 years, but recently moved back
to town. And one of the first things
that I got in the mail was this public
notice saying that someone two blocks
away from me wanted to put a house in a
single family yard in the back there.
And then I heard that you all just made
recent changes to land use policy
allowing for more density, more
mother-in-law houses, situations like
these apartments. And I wanted to tell
you exactly how I feel about that. I
feel great.
This is an amazing thing that you all
did to move this community forward. And
there's three main reasons for this. The
first is young people can't get housing
in the United States. This is not a Los
Cruus problem, a New Mexico problem.
It's an America problem. And the more
opportunity young folks have to be able
to get a decent place to live, to buy a
house, the better we all are off because
of it. So, thank you for making this
town more affordable with your actions.
Secondly, you all know because you do
this all the time how much more
efficient it is to put internet, water,
roads, everything to houses when they
are closer together. More density in
responsible ways is better for all of us
because it creates again more
affordability with better services.
Third thing, climate change is real. You
know, when I was a student at Mayfield
back when Coach Ma was just starting off
in the mid '9s, I rode my bike to school
from my folks house up on North Valley.
And I remember three maybe four days out
of the year where with really strong
windstorms where I didn't feel safe on
the bike coming across from the west. We
had three days last week where you
couldn't see more than about 30 40 feet
in front of your face because of the
wind and the dirt. This is real. And one
of the best ways that we all as
communities can contribute to less
greenhouse gases is with more efficient,
denser homes closer together. So I say
to you, yes, in my backyard, please keep
up the great work for those of you that
voted for this. And I want to close by
just saying one thing. back when I was a
county commissioner when council member
Matise was mayor the first time. Um the
only time I lost it was I was chairing a
joint city county zoning commission and
a guy wanted to put in a bunch of condos
on South Main and all the neighbors
showed up and you heard the stories
about um this we're worried about roads,
we're worried about schools, we're
worried about those sorts of things. But
then one person said the quiet part out
loud. She said, "I don't want those
people living next to me." And I got
pretty angry because that was my income
demographic. I'm those people. So, as a
representative of those people, the
teachers, the firefighters, the
janitors, the workers at the grocery
store who want to live affordably near
their jobs, thank you. We appreciate you
and keep up the good work. Thank you all
very
much. Good afternoon, Mayor, City
Council, Chief of Police. Tim Jenkins
here.
I would like to address the elephant in
the room from the comments at the last
city council meeting concerning our
chief of police being on his phone
during time here in council chambers.
For the record, I would like to make it
crystal clear to everyone that while our
chief of police sits here in council
chambers helping support us, he also is
single-handedly managing and running our
entire police department force as well.
and comments and rhetoric from members
on city council and public as well about
our police department needing more
oversight are highly offensive. And
unless you are willing to pick up a
badge and protect and serve and take a
chance at never coming home to your
family, I suggest you stop criticizing
those who do and be thankful for their
service and look for ways to encourage
and support them in every way possible.
As for me and my family, we back the
blue every day, all day. Thank you,
[Applause]
Mayor, City Council. Did you miss me? I
know it's been a while. I haven't
bothered you for a while. Um, I wanted
to congratulate Christine.
Unfortunately, she works with me a lot.
Not as much as you could, but I really
Donna, if you could if you could state
your name. Oh, Donna Striker. I'm so
sorry. Christine, thank you. you're
amazing and your staff is amazing and I
really really appreciate you and
Annette. Annette is I had to call her on
a Sunday from mayor's top teens and her
and a Connie really came through and it
was an amazing Thank you so much. I
really appreciate you. Um I'd like to
thank you Chief Story for your continual
professionalism and your leadership
during the last 16 months which I think
has been very difficult for everybody on
the dis and the city's uh citizens and
the county citizens. It's been a very
difficult time. Um, I watched the
ugliness of April 7th meeting and I was
so sad. Um, it's another commentary on
some of our citizenry and I do believe
in the first amendment, but I don't
think you have to be ugly. I really
appreciate the public participation
statement. Thank you so much for doing
that. I don't think people really
understand that cities are not required
to do public comment. I did a lot of
research on it when I started speaking
and cities are not required to and there
are cities in this state that have done
away with public comment. So I think we
need to appreciate it and say thank you
city council. I appreciate you letting
us speak even though we don't always say
what you'd like us to say. But I for one
really appreciate that you continue to
allow us to have
it. My son-in-law is a LCPD police
officer and he had Easter dinner with us
yesterday. Ben can't always be with us
and I really appreciate his he would be
so mad at me for being here. He's going
to be mad. I'm going to hear about it.
But I he is just the microcosm of the
macrocosm. There isn't very many people
who can take the application, do the
psychological, do the fingerprint
background check, go through everything
it takes to be a police officer, but
there's a lot of people who can poke fun
and poke fingers. And I think it is
really just criminal that they are
allowed to do that because until you
walk a mile in another person's shoes,
you cannot criticize and say what goes
through their mind and the immediiacy of
the decisions that they have to make in
a bad situation. So I want to thank you,
chief. I want to thank you also and
welcome our new chief of the fire
department. Thank you so much for your
selfless service because everybody that
serves our fire department and our
police department are selfless.
I can't thank you guys enough because
Tim said it. Um, not everybody gets to
go home and we saw that last year. Thank
you.
[Applause]
Next is the acceptance of agenda. So
moved by Flutus. Second. Corin.
This is on the motion to accept the
agenda as presented. Councelor Mccclure.
Yes. Councelor Matise.
Yes. Councelor Graham. Yes. Councelor
Cran. Yes. Councelor Flores. Yes.
Councelor Ben Como is absent. And Mayor,
yes.
So, next on the agenda is resolutions,
an ordinance for discussion 7.1,
resolution number 25-120, a resolution
to enter into a contract with root
policy research of Denver, Colorado.
Move to approve, Graham.
Second,
Corin Lisa.
Good afternoon, mayor, councilors, and
city staff. Lisa Patron, purchasing
specialist 2 for the purchasing section
of finance. Before you was a resolution
to authorize a contract for the HUD
5-year consolidated plan and affordable
housing plan.
The city of Los Cusus is a US Department
of Housing and Urban Development
designated entitlement community for the
community development block grant
program and designated participating
jurisdiction for the home investment
partnership
program. The city must submit a
consolidated plan and an analysis of
impediments to fair housing choice every
3 to 5 years.
The request for proposal number
24-25-038 was issued on December 20th,
2024 with the due date of January 16th,
2025. Two proposals were received. The
selection advisory committee evaluated
the proposals on February 12th,
2025. The SAC recommended to award a
contract to Root Policy Research of
Denver, Colorado. The contract term is
through June 30th,
2026. The contract award amount is not
to exceed 131,000 plus applicable taxes
subject to approved budget
appropriations. And with that, here are
your standard council options. And I
stand for questions.
Thank you, Lisa. Any questions?
Seeing none, Christie.
This is on the motion to approve
resolution
25-120. Councelor Mccclure, yes.
Councelor Matise, yes. Councelor Graham,
yes. Councelor Karan, yes. Councelor
Fletus, yes. Councelor Bencoml, yes.
Mayor, yes.
Next is item 7.2, resolution
25-121, a resolution to award contracts
for landscape architectural design
services as needed.
Move to approve corn. Second.
And Lisa again.
Good afternoon, mayor, counselors, and
city staff. Lisa Padron, purchasing
specialist 2 for the purchasing section
of finance. Before you is a resolution
to authorize contracts for landscape
architectural design
services. Parks and recreation is
responsible for providing a vast array
of public services including but not
limited to community and neighborhood
parks, athletic fields, sports courts,
trails, medians, and other rights of way
landscape improvements. park
renovations, aquatic play features,
playgrounds, and irrigation
systems. Parks require services from
landscape architectural firms to
complete the following tasks. They
include, but are not limited to,
planning and design of new and
renovations of existing community and
neighborhood parks. Concept preparation
and presentations with graphics, project
management, and construction
administration.
The request for proposal number
24-25-00003 was issued on August 30th,
2024 with a due date of September 26,
2024. Four proposals were received. The
selection advisory committee evaluated
the proposals on December 18th,
2024. SAC recommended to award contracts
to Molen Corbin and Associates and Stan
Consulting Services, Inc. both of Los
Cusus New Mexico and Sight Southwest of
Los Cusus or sorry, Sight Southwest LLC
of Albuquerque, New Mexico. The contract
term is for five years. The contract
award amount is not to exceed $2 million
per vendor annually subject to budget
appropriations. And with that, here are
your standard council options, and I
stand for questions.
Councelor Flores. Thank you, Mayor, and
thank you so much, Miss Po. Um, so it's
a five-year contract and it's for
different vendors or just Moltzen Corbin
three. Molen Corbin, Sight Southwest,
and Stantech Consulting. Okay. And then
how do they go about assessing what
they're going to do? And um how much is
the five million?
Did you say what is the amount? Two
million per vendor annually. Okay. So,
and how many vendors are there? Three.
Three. So, there's it's six million.
Okay. Um my my concern is that and I
don't there's nothing personal or
anything. I don't mean to mean to malign
uh Moltz and Corbin, but um my concern
is that it's five years and um and then
they're going to do projects. Do they
come back to to you, to your department,
to the city to say we're going to do
this, that, or the other? And I'm just
wondering about how that money is going
to be spent, when it's going to be
spent, and where, and who makes a
decision, the ultimate decision.
Mayor, councelor Flores, I I do I'm
going to defer to the parks and
recreation staff present.
Stephen was here.
He he uh he was here but he went out
with the lady. Yes.
I don't know. I don't feel comfortable
with this at all.
I'm sorry. Be Donnie before let's see if
uh assistant city manager JC B.
Yeah. So
um The way I understand it is
that parks and parks. Okay.
Go ahead, JC.
Anyway, if you don't want to.
Did you hear the question, Steve, or
Sorry, I did not. You did not. Okay. I'm
concerned about um what are we on? Uh
resolution 25120.
And that's the uh five-year contract to
allow uh contractors to
um what is it? Uh architectural work t
Yeah, it's $2 million annually to re
Yeah. architectural. And um I I'm just
concerned that my question is who who
does the oversight? Who do they go to?
How is that money allocated? Uh,
apparently there's two more besides
Moltzen. Uh, other right? Yes. Um,
Councelor Flores, um, Steve Bam, parks
and director. Um, we I asked that our um
team put together an RFP to um get
architectural services so that we could
um speed up the process of being able to
plan parks and recreation
um projects and to put it on call like
we do with
engineers. And um the RFP allows for up
to $2 million in any given year. There
are, I believe, three different
architectural firms that were um
selected and it's based on budget. And
so if there's not funding for this
approved by city council in the budget,
then
um you wouldn't spend it. that this is
just simply an on call. Yeah. And I
understand that part very well. The part
that I'm I'm uh dazed and confused for
lack of a better word is um how exactly
uh is a decision made as to where, when,
how, how much is going to be allocated
to that particular uh who where's the
oversight and where's where's a plan in
terms of how you're going to approach
this.
So the the oversight is that went
through the purchasing process
um that's identified in the city's um
purchasing ordinances and
um we we will select the
um architectural company that best fits
the project. and how are you going to be
reporting to the city to the city
manager to the city council to the
people of the city uh how things are
going and it's just that you know we
we've had people especially parks you
well you are with that one u constituent
and um and I you know and
things you know have been moving slower
than molasses on a cold day in January
and um and I guess I'm feeling anxious
about um expediting things or having you
know uh just start happening. So how is
this going to be approached? Have you
already assessed which areas are going
to be targeted first and is there going
to be reporting to the city manager
about that or to us and the public? So
all of these projects that will be used
for these um architects are ones that
have already been approved on the
capital improvement program. There's
been budget authorized through the
budgeting process and the funding has
been made
available and
um and so these projects are ones that
have already been identified, authorized
and approved. Okay. You know what would
be um what I would ask and I don't want
to overstep uh anybody's um role
here in terms of the mayor and city
manager and the department heads
including you Steve is it would be good
to um have a progressive art u
communication with the public in terms
of just letting the public know because
we heard from diff you know several
people today about the parks and we all
know that parks are instrumental. I
mean, they're every they're, you know,
my kids grew up in Los Angeles and uh
the park systems, they're the system is
wonderful. you know, we have the soccer
fields, we have the swimming pools, we
had all and uh and I'm not saying that,
oh, you know, everybody's happy and all
the kids turned out to be, you know, uh
law-abiding citizens, but I'm just
saying um
that things are just uh there has to be
more uh what's the word? Um you know, uh
transparency in terms of letting the
people know, the re residents know that
this is happening, this is where we're
going with this. and then and then reach
those goals and then enumerate them and
let people know that we're not just uh
you know verbalizing things and doing
nothing you know. Thank you councelor
Flores appreciate the feedback and um we
will um continually update the public
through um our website, social media,
through city council meetings and that
we do have projects that are moving
forward. um we've significantly
increased the amount of money for
projects and the speed at which projects
have been getting done over the last
year. So it would be wonderful if it all
of that was publicized and you know
instead of uh and I'm not saying instead
of but just to get enough publicity when
there's a tragedy as we've had at Young
Park. I mean there's no ending to it you
know. Um so yeah thank you very much
Stephen. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you
mayor.
Thank you, councelor. Anyone
else? Seeing none, Christine.
This is on the motion to approve
resolution 25-121.
Councelor Mccclure, yes. Councelor
Matise, yes. Councelor Graham, yes.
Councelor Cran, yes. Councelor Fletus,
yes. Councelor Beno, yes. And Mayor,
yes.
Next is item 7.3, resolution number
25-122, a resolution approving the
Roadrunner Transit Trienial Trienial
uh title 6 program update.
Move to approve, Graham. Second and
welcome, director. Uh thank you. Yes.
Welcome, Richard, and congratulations on
your new position as director of
transit. And got to love the tie, right?
I brought it. It's from That's from
Mike, right? Yes. Nice.
Mr. Mayor, Council, Richard Hanway,
transit director for the record.
Today, we're going to discuss uh the
Civil Rights Act of 1964. It protects
from discrimination based on race,
color, and national origin for programs
and activities that receive federal
funding, which we do. Um, there are four
different compliance requirements that
Road Runner Transit has to follow.
Besides Title Six, there's the American
with Disabilities Act, Equal Opport
Employment Opportunity, and
Disadvantaged Business
Enterprise. What are the transit agency
requirements? We are required to have a
written plan ensuring that anyone can
access federally funded transit services
without discrimination based on race,
color or national origin. We have to
ensure that anybody can have access to
the transit planning process without
discrimination and the plan needs to be
updated every 3 years. The guidance that
we have with FTA is in circular 40
4702.1b. What has changed in this
update? Um there hasn't been any changes
since the last update in 2022, which is
a good thing. Um there are nine required
elements in the title 6
plan. The first element is a notice to
the public. This is a notice that will
will show how they can contact us. Um
whether it's the EO A ADA coordinator
who does the investigations, their phone
number is listed on here. So is the
transit number. And there's also contact
information to um civil rights
department at Federal Transit
Administration. Um this is also done in
English and in
Spanish. Element number two is the
complaint procedure. Um our plan is
consistent with the city's EEO complaint
procedures. A complaintant has 180 days
to file a discrimination complaint. The
city's EEO ADA coordinator investigates
these complaints. They must acknowledge
to the complaintant within 5 days that
they received the complaint. They they
have to advise the FTA of the complaint
within 10 days. They have 45 days to
investigate and provide a report to a
city attorney. The attorney then has 14
days to review and issue a
determination. And the city manager then
has 5 days to direct action on
determination. Element number three is a
complaint form. Um, we must have a
complaint form in the in the in the in
the policy and the form is in both
English and in Spanish. Element number
four, um, the complaints have to be
updated for the the last three years.
And again, I'm proud to say that there
were no title six complaints since 2022.
There actually was no no complaints in
the previous one from 2019 as
well. The fifth element um is comment
and participation. We have to ensure
that people can access our services. So
we we um have the bus schedules in both
English and Spanish for the community.
We provide Spanish interpretation
services upon request. Um certain staff
positions require bilingual employees.
So our our customer service reps are
bilingual as well as our dispatchers for
um
dialerite. Um, Google Translate is is
also on the city's web page for anybody
that needs translation services to
access our our our u our web page and
planning meetings follow the Messiah
Valley
participation
plan. The sixth element is the limited
English proficiency. We um we have to do
um census data um community survey um
data that we look through for the
urbanized area um here in Los Cusus and
the surrounding area to identify people
that speak different um languages. Um
and what we found um every time we
update the plan is that there's English
speaking and Spanish speaking is who we
need to provide our services
to. So we also have representation on
appointed boards. We have a transit
advisory board of seven members. Um 75%
are considered white non-Latino and 29%
are
Latino. And the demographics for white
in Las Cusus is 34% Latino is
60%. Um element number eight is our
service standards. Um basically this is
saying that we we have to choose
vehicles that are going to be able to
serve the public in the best appropriate
way. So, it it kind of determines the
size of the vehicles that we're going to
be looking for to purchase. Um, our our
current buses now, they're 30 foot
buses, but and they have seating of
about 32 seats in them, but there's also
standing room only. So, we have to equip
them with statins and and for access for
people to be able to stand safely in
there. Um, vehicle headway, u routes 1,
3, 4, 6, 7, and 8 are on a 60-minute
headway. Um, basically that means that
it it departs the terminal. um our
interotal terminal and it'll be back
within an hour. Routes two and five have
30 minute service. Um Aggie one has a
10-minute service and Aggie 2 has a
20-minut service. Our on-time
performance targets are basically we're
we strive to have 90% on time um which
is making sure that we're not leaving
more than 5 minutes late from any stop.
And currently our service availability
is our distance between bus stops is is
approximately a third of a mile in
between each one. So if if you're if
you're traveling in between the bus
stop, you wouldn't walk more than a
sixth of a mile either way to get to a
bus stop if you're in the
middle. And element number nine is
service policies. Um vehicles assigned
to routes based on availability. Now
that we have electric buses, we make
sure that we rotate them on all routes
so all the community has access to the
newer technology and we're not just
putting them on certain routes
and to discriminate against other other
areas of the city. We make sure that we
rotate all the buses so everybody has
access to them. Um sighting of the bus
shelters sites are first prioritized by
the number of boardings. Um, we try to
to use the higher um used stops to try
to put a bus shelter there. Um, but we
do have limitations. Um, I'm sure a lot
of you have seen that we've had
rightaway issues. There's physical
barriers, ADA accessibility. Um, we do
follow the ADA plan that the city's
doing for improvements that they're
doing for ADA accessibility and we're
constantly looking for new areas to put
in shelters
and just um installation for shelters.
The cost of of acquiring them and and
installing them are roughly 17,000 and
and
upwards. and your options for councils
is on the screen. I'll stand for
questions. All right. Thank you,
Richard. Councelor Krin,
thank you. I um don't have a ton of
questions except this is one of the most
powerful and interesting analyses that I
feel like I've ever learned about on
city council. And um I really appreciate
you coming and talking about it in this
in this context. I do want to point out
I serve on the transit advisory board
and the folks who are there are really
committed and caring about about
transit, but it is parallel to many of
our city boards where white folks uh
outnumber folks of color. And I do think
that's notable when we talk about having
any kind of community board. What are
the inputs that we have? And I do think
you you're one of the few this is one of
the few required reports where we
actually consider that as as a very
serious consideration. Um, and so I
appreciate you talking about that, which
I know is probably not easy for anyone
to talk about. And also, I know this is
your first uh presentation to us as a
bunch of meanies um as we are. So don't
don't be nervous. You you did a really
good job. We got you. Thank you for
being here. Um, and thank you for this
presentation. So that's it.
Thank you, Council Roers. Thank Okay,
I'm not going to be mean. I'm not a
meanie. I I mean what I say, but I'm not
being mean about it. Um, so Richard, um,
this is an ADA requirement, so the
funding comes from the federal
government. So this is a FTA
requirement. The Federal Transit
Administration requires us to have,
excuse me, the FDA. Yeah, but that's
federal. Yes, federal. Excuse me.
Compliance with a with a federal uh uh
Yes. Since we receive C councelor
Flores, since we receive federal funds.
Yes, we have to follow the the
compliance rules under civil rights.
Okay.
Um and um I I you know I I think that
um I I have to explain because if my
colleague here thought I was being mean
before just wait till No. Um, seriously,
you know, I I think that um, you know,
there's things happening in Washington
DC that are horrific and a lot of
actions have been um, you know, just
right and left uh, slashing programs and
all that. And so I'm I'm concerned about
um, you know, I'm concerned about all of
that. That's all. And uh but the funding
is federal and I'm just uh well anyway
that's something to keep in mind. You
know
there's kind of a storm coming. Thank
you. Thank you mayor.
All right. Thanks Christine.
This is on the motion to approve
resolution
25-122. Councelor McClure. Yes.
Councelor Matise. Yes. Councelor Graham.
Yes. Councelor Karan. Yes. Councelor
Footus. Yes. Councelor Ben Como. Yes.
And mayor. Yes.
Thank you. Next is item 7.4, resolution
number
25-123, a resolution authorizing the
city of Los Cusus to accept third
quarter budget
adjustments. Move to approve. Graham.
Second.
Good. Go ahead. Good afternoon, mayor,
city council, staff, and public. My name
is Vanessa Perez, one of your budget
analysts, and I am here today to bring
forth 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 key reminders. The
adjustments presented today primarily
focus on updating uh available balances
within our current budget. And the
following slides will only provide a
summary of the requested adjustments,
but for those interested in more
detailed information, you can refer to
your
packets. On screen, you'll see the
general fund highlights for this
quarter. The public works public works
department is requesting about
$22,000 and this is for a pilot program
for traffic calming measures such as
speed cushions at various locations. The
first locations will be in Canyon Point.
The quality of life department is
receiving a total of $22,000 in revenue,
19,000 of which are being collected from
the museum's education program and the
remaining three from senior recreation
programs and activities.
Lastly, we are transferring out
$562,000 from the general fund, and this
is to cover a debt service payment for
the recently acquired $18 million bond.
Based on the adjustments on your screen,
the general fund expenditures total
close to about $585,000.
All three rows of adjustments on your
screen are related to that $18 million
bond that I just mentioned. Um, we are
transferring in
$562,000 from the general fund and this
is to cover the principal and interest
payments for fiscal year 2025. The
$433,000 adjustment on the second row is
the application of that transfer. And
due to differences between our fiscal
year, the lender's fiscal year, and the
provided amortization schedule, those
amounts will not match. In the liability
claims fund, we are requesting a budget
increase of
$254,000. And this is to cover the
issuance cost of that same $18 million
bond. Before you are your council
options and I stand for questions.
Thank you, Vanessa. Any questions? Mayor
Proen. Thank you. Thank you so much. I
have a question for public works for
David. Um, as you make your way down,
David, I just
um if you can just say a little bit more
about this pilot program and then also
given the cost of this expenditure, what
that means for the uh budget for uh
traffic calming measures at this point.
Thank you, Vanessa. Mayor Mayor Prom
Bencomo David Sevilla public works
director for the record to answer your
question this is a pilot program that
we're looking to do on traffic studies
that are real close but don't actually
meet the thresholds for having a
permitted
installation. We get these complaints as
you all are well aware we get them
throughout the years different locations
different neighborhoods. So, as part of
this pilot program, what we're trying to
do is do a temporary installation,
temporary signage with some
rubber or hard rubber items that get
drilled into the asphalt and placed
temporarily. That'll give us an
opportunity to study those anywhere
between 6 months to a year. with that
data. If we see a great
improvement, then we will remove those
and put in a permanent installation.
Even though the initial study didn't
didn't show that, we want to see that
great uh change, if you will, in
behaviors. If not, if those aren't done,
at least we said we've done something
here to try to do something right now.
It doesn't meet. But the good thing
about the temporary installations is now
we can utilize those in other locations
throughout the city. So we're not tied
to just having something and leave it
there for months and months or even
years. We have the ability to study it,
place it somewhere else, see the effects
of those things. If it does help us,
great. We'll do a permanent
installation. If not, we will remove
those and then move on to other
locations.
What it'll do to our budget is we will
still have the studies to do, but again,
this is to help look at a proactive way
to help our citizens in our residential
neighborhoods and look at those issues
that they're seeing on a day-to-day
basis. Thank you, David. Um, and I I
wanted to highlight this specifically
because I think a lot of us do get
questions about. I think we all have
long list of of neighborhoods that wish
they had some sort of traffic calming
measures and studies and um I just think
about as we go into conversations
regarding GRT and and how to think about
um how we invest that in our community.
I really I think this is one of the
biggest places where we need to look. So
thanks David. You're welcome.
Oh, sorry. Council Mccclure. David,
before you leave,
sorry, I had a similar question. Just
curious, how was that street selected?
What was kind of
the the markers for that? So, we I'm
sorry, mayor, councelor McClure. The way
we go about choosing those is recently
we've looked at how many complaints we
get in the area, how many times we've
studied a roadway in the past. Typically
when we study those, we give it a gap in
time until we study it again because
traffic patterns do change. So we've
seen that over a period of time, then
that study isn't valid anymore. So based
on some of those areas that have come up
repeatedly, our staff is taking note of
those and that's how we'll go down
through the list.
Okay. I'd like to petition for Griggs
next. Can I do that? Woo. Okay. Thanks.
No, I want to petition for South Meress.
Oh, do it. Do it. Thank you.
All right. Here you go, Vaness. Think
you're good. All right, Christine.
This is on the motion to approve
resolution
25-123. Councelor McClur, yes. Councelor
Matise, yes. Councelor Graham, yes.
Councelor Karan, yes. Councelor Flores,
yes. Councelor Bencoml, yes. Mayor, yes.
Next is item 7.5, resolution number
25-124, resolution amending the
FY2025 through 2030 capital improvement
program.
Move to approve.
Second by Flutus.
Okay. Good
afternoon, mayor, city council. My name
is Cynthia Almo, CIP manager with
planning and implementation. And today,
we're proposing a few capital
improvement program
amendments. There are going to be three
types in this presentation. First, we
have a couple of grants that were
recently accepted. We have some
amendments to make sure that we are
reflecting the current available funds
for each of the projects. And lastly,
some allocation of
funds. At the last city council meeting
of March 7, there were two grants that
were recently accepted that have a
capital component. So this amendment is
to reflect those recently adopted funds
into the CIP document. One is for Messia
Valley Community of Hope Campus
Extension Amador Crossing and the second
one is for Pioneer Women's Park
Improvement. Then at the department's
request, we have several projects to
make an amendment to their uh projects.
We have three roof projects, Railroad
Museum, Mersite, and Municipal Court.
And the facilities department is
requesting a an amendment because
they're they're currently working on
those projects. And the quotes they
receive for those projects are under the
estimated amount for those projects. So
that is the deduction you see in the in
your slide. The funds that are being
deducted will be reallocated to two
other capital projects that will be
presented in the next slide. On this
slide, there's also a small adjustment
for the transportation system
modernization project as there's an
upcoming expenditure for that project.
At the direction of city management,
there is a proposed amendment of 500,000
to from the complete street pro complete
street projects program to be placed
under the Batan memorial arrinka project
for the procurement or of a traffic
signal. And in the last slide we
mentioned that the remainder of the
three roof projects are being allocated
to two capital projects. These are the
two one of them Batan memorial adonada
and municipal court rehabilitation. So
portion to Batan memorial and the other
portion which is 155 to the municipal
court rehabilitation project. But we
have staff from both departments
facilities and public work to provide
more details on the use of the funds and
the actual scope of work of of the of
the two projects. And I will start with
uh public works.
Thank you,
Cynthia. Mayor Council David Cado,
public works for the record. And I want
to go over today with you where that
signal is going to be installed on Baton
Memorial East and West and at the
intersection of Brinkonada. On your
screen, as you can see, here's an aerial
of the location. This is Main Street or
US70. You have Renonado that goes under
the underpass, Baton Memorial West and
Baton Memorial
East. As part of that signal
installation, we are going to have
signalized intersections on both sides,
north and south. The north side, which
is by the animal services center, is not
going to have any lane configurations.
So, those signals will just be installed
at that intersection. It'll have an a
signal in those. It'll have three
signals for those directions, north,
south, and west. As the frontage road is
a
oneway on the eastbound Baton Memorial
East, you'll have those same signal
installations, but you will also have,
if you look on your screen where the
pointer's at, we will be adding a
dedicated right hand turn lane onto
Brinkonada. With that, it'll include new
ADA
ramps. It'll have to have a new
alignment for the ADA
crosswalks. And also in the northbound
direction, the median will be modified.
As you can see, there's two through
lanes that match up on the other side,
but this dedicated left lane, this
modification here will allow for cars or
vehicles to stack in this and also make
that through the intersection to make a
lefthand turn as you get to the other
intersection. This here is just a cutout
and connects to this portion here. This
down here is northrise. This location
here, you can see a little bit of that
slope from the animal service center.
And you'll have the signals in those
three locations for this
project. This is a project that is on
NMDOT rightway. So once the project is
complete, NMDOT will come forth to
council for the city to have those
mainten maintenance agreements just like
we do at any other signalized
intersections within NMDOT rightway in
city
limits. And now I'll go and turn it over
to Vanessa for the for the next portion.
Good afternoon, mayor and city council.
Vanessa F. King, the facilities
management administrator for the
record. So, we're here today to talk
about the municipal court
rehabilitation. Um, we initially had
three roofing projects. One for the
railroad museum, which is now complete.
the other one for Mirite Recreation
Center which is 60 cent 60% complete and
then the other for municipal court roof
um work started last week. So I just
wanted to give you guys that update. Our
quotes did come in lower than estimated
and therefore we're requesting that some
of the remaining funds of these project
be used for additional work at municipal
court.
Um, these funds will be used to complete
um the assessment, testing, abatement,
and repairs of any environmental
findings and to upgrade and install
security cameras and secure badge access
to the
building. and I will turn it over to uh
Cynthia for um further
Cynthia Liio CIP manager. Thank you,
David and Vanessa. Uh council, with that
we have your options and city staff and
their ACM is here to answer any specific
questions.
All right. Thank you, Cynthia. Councelor
Curry. Um my questions are for David as
as he predicted. Uh thank you. Thanks,
Cynthia. Thanks, Vanessa. Um, I'm also
glad Municipal Court is getting love.
Um, so just really quickly, way to make
two of your most difficult clients happy
with one project in terms of Flores's
district and mine. Um, love to see it. I
do have a quick question. This So, so
this is a a very difficult intersection.
I go through it every every day. Um,
going to work, there are all those
maniacs getting to Dutch Brothers, which
is just up the road a little bit. Um,
Dutch Brothers has created its own
traffic
um, traffic craziness. Um, but I just
really quickly the slide where you're
saying how much this is because as you
may know I'm I also am lobbying for this
to happen at at Roadrunner. Um, which I
think is is something that residents
have really been begging for because
people are really terrible at four-way
or three-way stops.
Um, but this costs can you just give me
a rough I I saw it on there and I didn't
never really realized exactly what the
total for this is. And I would love to
be able to tell
people this is how much this costs. When
you ask for that, it's not just like
someone, you know, David goes out and
sticks a sticks a light in the ground
and we call it a day. This is an
extraordinary effort and and it requires
significant engineering design and and
work on your part. Can you just give me
a rough estimate? I saw on this about
how much it was8 $800,000ish.
Mayor, councelor Korn, great question.
The overall project cost is 1.5 million.
Oh, see that that's good to know. Okay,
roughly twice what I would have been
telling people. But I also want to
people to understand exactly when we ask
for things
like st, you know, traffic lights at an
intersection. That's not something that
we can just lightly say like, oh yes, I
I'm on it. And I just really appreciate
you bringing this forward. Of course,
this is a really um increasingly busy
intersection. and um and I I really
appreciate understanding the full
picture of how much this costs for for
folks and and what it means in terms of
the city's um budget for for different
things. So that's all I just wanted to
know how much it was. I know you're not
saying that Roadrunner would be the
same, but I will tell people it's that
and we'll hope it's hope it's less when
the time comes.
Thank you, Councelor Kin. And I do want
to say it's not me going out there
putting a stake in their ground. It's
all our our public works staff along
with the community and the developers as
well. Thank you.
No one else. Christine,
this is on the motion to approve
resolution
25-124. Councelor Mccclure, yes.
Councelor Matise, yes. Councelor Graham,
yes. Councelor Cran, yes. Councelor
Flores, yes. Councelor Beno, yes. Mayor,
yes.
Next is resolution number
25-125, a resolution adopting the 2024
Los Cusus International Airport Master
Plan. Move to approve.
Graham. Second, Corin.
When you're ready, Andy.
Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor and City
Council. Um, since I gave a rather
extended uh presentation at your work
session last month, I'll keep this
presentation quite short. Um during our
master planning process, uh it extended
we were hoping to keep it for about a
year, but extended o over about a
three-year process. Uh we were very um
we created a very ambitious vision for
our airport. One that not only looked at
creating a thriving gateway to our city
and to our region, but one that really
focused on creating economic opportunity
for our region. So that's our vision
that we have for our community. One
that's that's uh includes our community,
building up infrastructure and building
a strong economic future for our area.
We followed a very rigorous uh planning
process that is outlay by outlined by
the FAA and included uh two aspects that
are that go through FAA approval that
being the forecast of aviation activity
and the airport layout plan. Those two
steps uh really we kind of went
toe-to-toe as I mentioned before in our
presentation with the FAA. Um, and we
really made sure that we got for we
fought for what we wanted for the future
of our airport. Um, one of the things I
don't know that I mentioned this in our
presentation, but for the first time
ever uh in our forecast, we got approved
for an interstate uh passenger air
service in our forecast. It's the first
time that's ever happened for our
airport. So we made sure that we u uh
had that included in our
forecast and ultimately in our master
plan we came out with uh several
infrastructure priorities. Uh we went
over some of those when we had in the
presentation last month. We put forward
that we wanted to become a regional
economic development engine.
We stressed the need to communicate with
our loss cruis innovation and industrial
park. We
uh identified the opportunities to
implement these things through our
combined uh capital improvement programs
and we discussed ways that we would
pursue a variety of uh funding
opportunities. And I'm happy to say that
through the legislative uh process uh we
actually were able to uh secure $2
million for infrastructure improvements
uh in the last legislative session. So
we're going to continue to uh pursue
those opportunities as we move
forward. And with that, Mr. Chair, Mr.
Mayor, um I will uh stand for any
questions. And here are the council um
options uh here before you. Thank you.
Thank you,
Andy. Councelor Flores. Thank you,
Mayor. And thank you so much, Andy.
Thank you for all your work and your
foresight and your u hard work. And uh
Thank you. So, when is the interstate um
travel going to be uh established? And
where is the uh interstate we're going
to? I mean, are we going to go from here
to El
Paso or are we going to go from here to
New York or I mean, yeah, Mr. Mayor,
councelor Flores, um the latest round of
the race funding, the rural air service
enhancement funding has just been
released. Um the application has just
been released by New Mexico DOT. Um our
hope is that we can go to Phoenix. That
is our plan. Um the there was $12
million set aside by the legislature for
funding and we're going to go uh we're
going to pursue it aggressively as uh as
I mentioned uh in in the presentation.
And so that's our plan uh is is the next
stop. Phoenix,
thank you so much. And um and I I just
really want to thank you Andy
um for the for the work that you've
done. Um, I know that uh
uh Main Street, you were in the economic
development department at the time when
Main Street really uh took off and
became what it is today. And you've had
the vision in so far as um how uh the
airport is crucial to economic
development and
um and we just can't minimize that. It's
going to bring a lot of uh hopefully a
lot of industry, especially with our
park there, industrial park. And so I
just want to thank you for your vision,
your hard work, and putting up with the
advisory board. Thank you. Thank you,
Christine.
This is on the motion to approve
resolution
25-125. Councelor Mccclur. Yes.
Councelor Matise, yes. Councelor Graham,
yes. Councelor Karan, yes. Councelor
Flores, yes. Councelor Bencoml, yes.
Mayor, yes.
Thank you.
Next is board appointments. Uh, I'll
need a motion in a second. Uh, the
following, Dr. Julian Gardner for the
new appointment for the animal service
center of the Messia Valley board.
She is so moved. Graham seconded. Corin,
this is on the motion to appoint Dr.
Buling Gardner to the ASMV board.
Councelor McClur, yes. Councelor Matise,
yes. Councelor Graham, yes. Councelor
Karan, yes. Councelor Flores, yes.
Councelor Beno. Yes. Mayor, yes.
Notice of proposed ordinance. None. Next
is city council member board reports and
comments. Uh councelor Mccclure.
Thank you, mayor. Uh just quickly this
time, I wanted to uh do a shout out to
the historic
preservation commission. I'm hoping I'm
not stealing a Conniey's glory by saying
that we might be getting a historic
preservation specialist. So, I'm pretty
excited about that. But I'm also the
commission's doing a really good job.
They've created a watch list of um
different areas in town to kind of make
sure that we keep and recognize the
history of. And some of these are if you
were to college here at a certain time,
going to the club, you'll recognize
that. But also things like the mall and
what that meant for our history. Of
course, the roller rink um but also
municipal court, which we are fixing up
now. So things like that. Um, those are
6 pm meetings. So, there's flexibility
if you want to get involved in the city.
So, all right, that's all I have. Thank
you.
Thank you. Uh, councelor Matis. No
comments, no reports.
Council Grant,
thank you. Um, speaking of the ASCMV
board, uh, just want to share that we
are making good progress in our search
for a new executive director and to
give, um, an ongoing shout out to
Elizabeth Cely who is doing an
incredible job as interim director. Um,
so just wanting to acknowledge that. Um,
the only other thing I'll bring up since
we had a lot of public comment about
public comment, I will renew my what now
feels annual call to take a good look at
how we structure and format public
comment. Um, I spoke with our city
clerk, who I might mention again, the
top city clerk in the state of New
Mexico. Let's not forget. Um and I
believe um mayor you had um requested
that the New Mexico Municipal League do
an analysis of some of our meetings.
That analysis has been completed and I
think that um the most productive and
effective way to structure public
comment is covered in that report. So um
I will just again bring up um my hope
that we can explore that and that's all
I have. Thank you.
Thank you, Councelor Graham. I second
that desire to to revisit that. Not not
that we're proposing any limits on
public comment, just a restructuring of
because sometimes we're here and we
don't have an opportunity to say
anything until now, which is sometimes,
you know, three or four or five or six
hours later. Definitely um not um always
ideal in that context. Um, but other
than supporting councelor Graham's ask,
I don't have any other comments.
Thank you, Councelor Flores. Uh, yes.
Uh, thank you. Um I first want to um and
I hope uh we get more uh more publicity
on this is to encourage people to um
become a donor and go to the um uh motor
vehicles department to um show that on
your driver's license just in case
you're in an accident. Heaven forbid,
but it does happen. And um so anyway,
councelor Kuran and I have it on our
driver's licenses and I'm sure more
people do too.
Um so I I
I want to also comment on the pope's uh
passing and um I happened to be watching
him uh when he was uh blessing the
people uh there in Vatican City and when
he was uh you know just sitting and
waving at people and he passed away this
morning. And um I was raised Catholic
and then the family found out that we're
actually Jewish, but I'm not a
practicing Jew and I'm not a practicing
Catholic anymore. I'm just a human being
um who believes in, you know, humanity
and doing good. At any rate,
um the beauty of uh the pope was that u
he was so humane. He's the first
non-European
uh pope uh from Argentina. So, my family
in Argentina is, you know, dancing in
the streets. I mean, we're dancing in
the streets, excuse me, now they're
mourning.
Um, but um anyway, I just uh wanted to
acknowledge the fact that he actually uh
either spoke to uh the president or the
vice president about um some of the
inhumity that they're imposing on u our
country and the world. And um so he was
a man of uh a person of
uh he had a global view of of the world
and you know I'll miss him. Um I also
want to uh give a shout out. I had a a
a terrifying experience this past
weekend where um I was coming home from
El Paso and a rock hit uh the c my car
and another car and uh so it wiped out
my you know it it just shredded one of
my tires and I was stranded there and
Tripoli never showed up. So, I'm sitting
there and the other driver uh changed
his tire and then he said, "I'll change
yours." I said, "Okay." But I had called
TripleA already and this was a little
after seven. So, it was dusky. At
anyway,
um they you know, never anyway, I didn't
have an I didn't in my Hyundai, I didn't
have a spare. So, those of you who drive
a Hyundai, be sure you have a spare. I
never had used to look. No. No. Yeah.
So, it was kind of scary. But anyway, so
um so then the young man who offered uh
was very very tired, but he was, you
know, he was wonderful. He said, "I'll
stay here until someone comes." And then
I'm sitting there and all of a sudden I
thought, I'm going to call
Econie
Econi, my employee, and I'm going to um
and I I think I was already crying, but
um I was like scared scared. any middle
of the desert and I had just crossed
into Anthony, New Mexico. I mean, you
know, it's a the bad thing was that, you
know, it happened. The good thing was
that I was actually in New Mexico and um
so Econi um called uh Chief Story and uh
then Chief Story called the state
police, the New Mexico State Police, and
they stayed there with me. Um, and
finally it was almost 11:00 and Triple A
kept calling saying, "Where exactly are
you?" And I said, "You're the third or
fourth person I've spoken to. What the
ha, you know, don't you have a map? I
mean, what? How many times you have to
hear it?" Anyway, I'm canceling TripleA
and not read whatever. But anyway, um, I
just want to give a shout out to um,
Sergeant Ariano and Officer Baragan or
Baron, Chief Story. What's his name?
Barwan or Baragan? He probably doesn't
know. Yeah, you know,
council. I think it's Bon, but I'm not
positive there. Yeah, because Yeah, it
wasn't Bon, it was Baron. Yeah. At any
rate, I just want to share that with
you. And I know that um you know uh we
get a lot of rotten tomatoes uh thrown
at us. Uh, and it, you know, just an
example of how a community comes
together. And I'm just so grateful
because it was scary out there. And the
young man who wanted to stay there was
like falling asleep because he'd driven
from back east and was on his way home
to Yeah. He was on I 10 and he and the
both of us, you know, but he had a, you
know, whatever. Anyway, so uh again,
thank you uh Iani Tamopeeo and uh Chief
Story and the state police Ariano and
Baron.
Um so and the other thing um well not
the other thing but in so far as um our
community uh we had several people from
um uh commenting on how we need uh more
recreation for our children and I just
uh hope that you know it happens uh
sooner than later. I think we really
have to focus on our youth. Um, I
started last week or last meeting
commenting on the the little girls who
um, uh, La Seenora Maria Flores was on
the school board and she visited all the
schools and asked one little girl why
she goes to school. She didn't say and
uh, finally she said, "I come to eat."
The other little girl that finally had a
paper bag that she always carried, she
finally let her see that. Um, and all
she had in the she didn't have any food
in there. She just said, "Oh, I have my
lunch." But then turns out she only had
a rock and she just made it look like it
was her food. And what I was trying to
get at, but I digress so much because I
um because I've got so much on my mind.
No, I I I I'm a digresser, but um is
that um a lot of people say we can't
blame
poverty,
but we can we can look at it analytic
analytically. And if we live in a
society where we are s sending our
children to school on an empty stomach,
what do we expect? Think about how you
feel when you're hungry. you get
irritable, you get, you know, you don't,
you know, it's a horrible thing to be
hungry and then not know where your next
meal meal is coming from. And the other
thing is that um yes, even though New
Mexico is largely Latino or Spanish or
Mexican-American or whatever,
um the same the same trauma that affects
every uh minority group um is prevalent
here in spite of that. So uh people
become marginalized. You know, people
feel that they they just don't belong.
So then they start forming their own
groups and um and this is something that
we studied a lot back in the 60s and 70s
in terms of um demonstrations and all
that sort of stuff. But um anyway, I
just uh you know I just hope that
uh I hope that our community uh and I I
know our city does, but I just hope that
we invest more in our children,
everything and anything we can do,
especially our parks and all that. Um
and of course the safe streets is very
important. And I want to say that
um uh when I was a a delegate to the uh
international I can't even remember the
name. It was like so many years ago. I
was a representative to the uh world um
green conference or something. I can't
even remember what it was. But there was
a hu huge exposition. It was in Germany.
It was a huge huge huge exposition and
um one and all the countries in the
world had their little thing and there
was one country Bhutan who boasted that
it was the happiest place on earth. So I
asked the lady who was sitting in her
booth it huge I mean everything was like
huge not just the little booth but huge
and beautiful. I said so people are
happy you mean they people talk to each
other and they're happy. She said no
it's not that kind of happiness. She
said, "It's not like, oh, hello, how are
you?" No, people have their bad days,
and you know, people can get mean
sometimes, but happy in so far as people
who live there get everything they need
to be a human being. And um and that was
and that that was the year that I was
asked to run for city council. And
that's and I had just gotten back from
that. Or was it about a year later? No,
that was the same year. and I decided I
would run for city council to make it
better. I won't be running again. So, if
there's anybody in district six um who
wants to have, you know, tomatoes thrown
at you, please uh think about it. Um
but, um because it's it's a long time
coming. It's a not a long time coming,
but everything is um a slow process.
Um anyway, and I recommend um to the
readership uh to the public uh who is
listening um I'd recommend two books.
One of them is called The Grapes of
Wrath by John Steinbeck. The other one
is called is titled Wretched of the
Earth by
France FR A Z Fo F A N O N. he's a f
French ancestry or from Algeria uh who
studied in France or something. At any
rate, um I've been talking a lot. Thank
you so much. Thank you, Mayor.
Thank you, Mayor Pro Tim. Thank you.
Um yes, I wanted to ditto counselor
Graham's
um idea. I think additionally I just
want to speak to the criticism that I
hear often about the time of our
meetings and that they're inaccessible.
I do want to say that um first this
governing body of all the governing
bodies in Diana County I think is the
most accessible. I think we have the
most meetings out of everyone including
Diana County Commission, the school
board and us that we meet nearly every
Monday with you know a few exceptions.
Um, I will also say that schoolboard
does have their meetings in the
evenings. Um, and folks don't stay for
that either. So, um, and sometimes staff
staff and schoolboard members are having
meetings till 10:30 p.m. Um, and that's
we're public servants, but I think
there's limits to um, certainly the what
we should require of people. I'm not
sure I could get any business done um,
that late anyway. So, it is diffic it's
difficult because I think no one has
really figured out what the best time
is. Um, but I do just wanted to note
that and always appreciate that folks
are able to come here. There was a
couple of people who came here today and
when I think about public comment like
gosh that's really it, right? It's it's
not the disinformation and not the
tomato throwing. It's this it's
residents coming to speak up about
problems in their neighborhood or in the
city and and bringing solutions or
wanting to have answers. And so I
appreciate both Stephen and David for
running out and catching the folks that
had questions specific to their
departments and um thank you for
answering those. Though I would love a
better sort of way to be able to answer
people's questions as they're happening
because those individuals want the
answer, but I think many more people in
our community want the answer to those
questions without us ever having to
engage in
debate. That is the absolutely the last
thing um that we need. Um I will say
that
um in I'm looking forward to our work
session for the recap of the legislative
session which um to many folks opinions
it was uh nothing effective happened. I
wholeheartedly disagree. I think even if
you just look at SB1 and three, a huge
mental health like the largest
investment in our behavioral health
system in decades happened and that's
pretty incredible and powerful. Um, I
also uh want to note that we had a very
effective year in capital outlay uh
appropriations uh a little bit over 13
million and we would have had 23 million
uh with a $10 million um $10 million
appropriation that we that a couple of
us uh lobbyed for and got in the budget
that was unfortunately line item vetoed
um that would have gone for housing.
That being said, I'm happy to report
that today uh myself, mayor, our city
manager, and a couple other folks from
housing uh did meet with the secretary
of workforce solutions, secretary Serita
N, who is now overseeing housing. Um we
met with her today here in Los Cruus. We
tooured some of our current projects,
housing projects, and we're still
advocating for those $10 million to come
to a community for the projects that are
literally currently being built as we
speak. And they could start housing
people um in as short as a year and a
half or two years. And um those are
incredible investments for for us to
continue um lobbying for and we we will
continue doing so alongside um Chairman
Nathan Small. And then I also wanted to
um just speak a little bit on Pope
Francis passing. Uh I I was a a young
community organizer doing faith-based
work when um he came up and he had made
a tremendous impact on my journey as a
community organizer and um I don't know
if you've ever uh any of you have gotten
a chance to read his encyclical uh
Laudatu C which focused on climate
change and inequity and it was the first
time that a Catholic pope had ever
talked about climate change um and what
it means to to care for mother earth and
and the people on it. And in this
encyclical, he also talked about um that
we must reject the culture, the
throwaway culture that uh often exists
so much in our economies, especially in
our economies. And um he was quoted once
by saying that in the end it is not
simply a matter of having more but being
more a fundamental renewal of hearts and
minds so that the human person may
always be placed at the center of
social, cultural and economic life. And
um just wanted to speak to that a little
bit because it was definitely sad news
this morning. Thank you, Mayor.
Thank you, Mayor Pro Tim.
Yeah, a few things uh that I want to
mention also is uh we can definitely
revisit the public comments and look at
that. The whole objective, the whole
goal of city council is to run a
meeting, a government meeting, and so
we'll definitely look at how we can do
that. Uh, Miss Striker mentioned it
herself. Uh, public comments, public
participation is is not really a
requirement in in city council meetings,
but we'll definitely look at it. I I
think it's twofold. It's not only
individuals coming here, but it's also
us going out there. Last Saturday, I met
with the neighborhood watch captains to
go over a lot of the issues and concern.
Yes, Councelor McClure was there with me
and uh we met to hear their concerns,
their issues from public safety, public
works, uh uh things things that are
going on in their neighborhood, code
enforcement. So, we get that list to the
city manager and see how we can make a
difference in the in the community. So,
we're out there also listening more than
just three minutes that are allowed. Uh
the other one is the safer business. I I
was there as their guest speaker last
Monday and answering questions, you
know, and I appreciate these
neighborhoods, watch teams, captains,
uh, safer business that want to get
involved and make Los Cruises better.
So, we support that and we go out there
and we work with them as well. Um,
looking to the future, uh, our our youth
in this community is precious to me. Uh,
we had the mayor's top team. they just
had their annual banquet and just the
ambition, the drive, the goals that they
want and make their lives better to
improve. So, it's a great thing to see.
And also, I've mentioned before, I walk
with the kids from Hermosa,
um, Hermosa Heights Elementary every
Thursday morning, and it's not just a
matter of showing that leadership cares
for them, but they also feed me. And,
and it's it's a good feeling. My uh
chief story is not here right now, but I
already shared with him. There was a
second grader and I'll just call him
Jay. And I asked Jay, "Jay, what do you
want to be when you grow up?" And he
said, "I want to be an officer." I said,
"What kind of officer?" He said, "I want
to be a police officer." So, it gives me
hope. It's It's great that there's still
kids in our community that want to be in
public safety. And uh it's a it's a good
feeling. And and with that, I'm glad
Mayor Promchi mentioned the housing. We
did meet with the cabinet secretary from
workforce and uh thank Natalie Green and
her staff for having projects ready,
available, permit ready, shovel ready so
that we can move forward and take
advantage of some of that funding. Um
with that, also this coming weekend, uh
we have the third annual meet Los Cusus.
So, uh kudos to Visit Los Cusus for
putting this on. It'll be Saturday,
April 26 at 2:00 p.m. 9:30 p.m. on the
downtown plaza. Uh free familyfriendly
event performances per performances
throughout the day. Uh our city
manager's favorite, the luchador
matches. Um you know, there'll be
mariachi's ballet flororico. I stole his
notes. And um you know, just a lot of uh
entertainment for the community. And
that that's what I've said from the
get-go. It's I I would rather that we
gather than scatter. So, this is a way
that we bring our our community
together. So, please come out and and
join us at the plaza and celebrate.
Again, thank you visit Los Cruises for
all you do. And this is the third annual
meet of Los Cusus. And with that, I'll
turn it over to our city manager.
Thank you, Mayor Enriquez, Mayor
Probeman, city council, Econopia, city
manager. and uh just have a a few
updates. I would ask um the employees
that we'll be introducing just to come
up to the front. I'll I'll share my
announcements and then I'll have our our
our our new uh directors that have been
in their seats uh some for a few weeks,
some for a month or so. Um that I've
failed to recognize at this uh council
meeting, which typically uh I try to do,
but I forgot.
um talking about um gathering uh and not
scattering.
So, we right before this meeting, the
reason why is a a few minutes late
because um staff from the city manager's
office um and LCPS, DAC, we were
huddling together because summer
internship programs are coming up and um
some of uh you may already be tracking,
but the governor has allocated $10
million throughout the state for summer
internship program. Um, and last year
she allocated about half of that to DAC,
so 5 million. Um, this has uh typically
been on Donana County uh to do. And so
this year we've come together to see
what we can do to help out. And so I
just want to give thanks to LCPS,
Agnosio, Superintendent, Rachel,
Chief, Chief HR Director, Dr. Wendy, HR
Director, and uh Cindy, career
specialist from LCPS DAC. We have uh
Scott, C CEO, assistant county CEO, Deb
Weir, Meg, HR director and deputy
director of DAC assisting, as well as on
our staff, Jose, deputy director of HR.
Melanie um HR um uh HRIS manager and
Valerie career development uh
coordinator and uh Joe our HR director
and CMO staff um along with um um along
with other staff supporting staff. Um
this this year we are uh working
together all organizations to see what
we can do to get this off the ground
successfully. And so I just wanted to
share that we had a successful meeting
before this meeting and staff will
continue uh to do everything we can to
get this going. The internship program
will be posted within the upcoming days.
So there is a race uh to get this
posted. Uh and as you know there's just
so much um operations and logistics to
to be done within that time before uh
kids are are are out for summer. And so
there's just so much to do before that.
But I just want to appreciate all the
staff and um Lesie as well, our finance
director, um bringing things um uh it
it's going to be magical, but it's going
to happen. So I just wanted to share
that. Rest assured for for those who are
following and thanks again to LCPS, DDAC
and U city staff. Uh I I appreciate
councelor Mccclure sharing u information
about our historic preservation
specialists starts uh May 4th. So we are
excited for that. Um when when they
start and just a few more updates and
then I will let our um our staff who's
standing sorry you can sit down. You you
can sit down and then uh we'll we'll
start with Chris though, but feel free
to sit. Um sorry about that. I didn't
mean for you to stand attention. Just
just need you close to the front. That's
all. Thank you. Um, quality of life
collaboration with Donana County for
library service. Quality of life
director Carol Bray and deputy director
of library library Sarah Booth attended
a meeting with Donan County officials on
Monday to discuss progress towards
opening the library in Chaparal as well
as theou between the city and county for
library services. Um, in addition, we're
excited because a bookmobile has been
awarded uh by state legislators uh as
well. So, this is a bookmobile that uh
quality of life uh um has uh connected
with SEMO staff. Sonia um they all
discussed about coming up with a
bookmobile that could uh be run by the
city but but can serve uh the region and
county. So, we're excited about that.
Additionally, Senior Programs is
planning the abuse and later life
awareness health fair. We plan to have
between 20 to 30 vendors this year and
are looking at hosting this health fair
at the MSON Center on either June 13th
or June 20th. Volunteer Income Tax
Assistant Program, VITA, a success
story. Monday was the last day of tax
season for our VA tax assistant
volunteers at the Brandan Library.
During the 10-week pro program, they
prepared over 500 state and federal tax
returns for the community. So, kudos uh
to those who supported that and the
volunteers making that happen. Lasus
Museum's first annual STEM festival was
held on Saturday, April 12th at the
Railroad Museum and nearly 200
attendees. A great crowd for the first
attempt. This annual event provides
opportunities for all ages to learn
about science, technology, engineering,
math, STEM activities in a fun
environment. Parks and rack. Just two
announcements. Our our annual Mother's
Day concert will be held at the downtown
Las Cusus Plaza on May 11th from 5:00
p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Come here, Darren
Cordova and E Calor and celebrate all
the mothers in our community.
Last but not least, join us in keeping
our community beautiful and
participating in this year's Great
American Cleanup. This Saturday, April
26, from 8 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Volunteers
can select a location or clean
uh or have one assigned by Kelcb
coordinator. Trash collection supplies
can be picked up from 7:30 a.m. to 9:30
a.m. at the Walmart on Walton Drive.
Also, Walmart will be providing a free
breakfast to all volunteers. All right.
So, last um I'd like to end with
introductions. So, if Chris Favor could
please uh stand up, we'll we'll start
with you. Chris Favor is our community
development director and um he's been in
this position um since March 9th. And
again, I failed to uh recognize him at
this meeting, but you all know Chris. Uh
he goes by many aliases, but um he's
he's been in this city for a while. But
with no further ado, Chris, just wanted
to do introduction not only for council
who may already know you, but for the
public who are watching online um and
for those in the audience. Sure. Thank
you for that
introduction. Mayor, city council Chris
Favor, community development director
for the record. Um yes, I have been on
the job here um in community development
for about a month and a half. Um, but I
have been serving as a interim role,
deputy role, uh, since last summer, uh,
helping, uh, move realize to the finish
line and and helping streamline a few
processes in the planning department.
Um, but I have been with the city for 24
years. I started out doing marketing for
Visit Los Cusus when it was called the
convention and visitors bureau. Um, from
there I moved over and was uh ran the
Rio Grand Theater when the city took
that over in 2017. And then from there I
did downtown development and then my
last position before moving over to
community development was deputy
director in uh economic development
working with Elizabeth Teter. So uh I'm
very excited for this new opportunity.
Um my background is in economic
development and marketing and I'm hoping
to bring a different approach to
community development, one that kind of
streamlines the process. Uh makes things
a little bit more user friendly and a
little bit more businessfriendly
approach to things. So working closely
with other departments like public works
and utilities and parks and the local
developer community to try and make us a
more userfriendly um and efficient
department. So I'm very excited. I thank
city manager for this opportunity. And
to council Kurr's point about um
historic preservation, yes, we do have a
historic preservation specialist coming
on board. Her name is Caitlyn Beasley.
She was the top candidate back in
December, but she actually took another
job working at Joshua Tree. Uh however,
when there were federal layoffs, I
reached out to her to see if she was
still interested and I talked her into
coming to Los Cusus. So, she quit her
job there and she's moving to Los Cusus
and we're very excited to have her. She
is I think she's the perfect person for
this job. She has a real passion for um
historic preservation, but specifically
working with communities on the ground.
So, I think she'll be a great fit. Um
and I'll be sure to bring her by city
council at some point in the future for
everyone to meet her. So, thank you for
the opportunity to introduce myself.
[Applause]
All right. Um, next up we'll have uh
Jenny Hernandez uh sustain
sustainability officer. I've had the
opportunity to work with uh Jenny when I
u work closely with Lisa and um when we
heard um on the download that Lisa was
retiring we were wondering who would be
the next one up and the first name that
came to mind and when I came in this
position I didn't work closely with
them. I said the only one who could do
it is the one in front of us.
Um, and at the time they said that she
went out to greener pastures and so I
was saddened to hear that she wasn't
here, but then you came back and here
you are. Um, and so she came back uh
while Lisa was still here. So it all
worked out and I'm proud to say that um
I appointed her. We didn't go through
the interview process because I know
that she can do this job. Um, Lisa was
great and she's um great as well. And so
we have great we have u great people in
these positions. But with no further
ado, um Jenny,
thank you, Econi. Um mayor, council,
it's good to see all of you again.
Jenny, sustainability officer. I'm still
getting used to that title. Um for the
record, Econi and um Sonia, thank you so
much for the opportunity. It was uh I'm
really grateful and excited for the
opportunity and looking forward to the
very big challenge that I have ahead of
me. But um if any of the counselors ever
need anything, please let me know and
happy to help and I'm sure that I will
be talking to you all very soon again.
Um, a little bit of background like
Econi said, I've been I worked here at
the city for almost three years and then
took a I say a little sbatical cuz I
wanted to see what else was out there.
So, I went uh I did environmental work
at the federal level for a nonprofit
called Green Latinos. Um, but I really
missed
uh place-based work that was national
and it was not as fun. Um, and so I
wanted to come back and and Lisa was
grateful enough and and gracious enough
to um, yeah, have a position open. So I
came back and then she said, "Well, I'm
ready to leave then." And so, yeah, I
appreciate it. Um, before this, I was at
the city of El Paso in the same capac
capacity at their sustainability and
resilience office for a little while and
then hopped over to community
development. Um, and so yeah, I've only
ever worked one year out of municipal
government and so glad to be back again.
Thank you, Econ and Sonia, for the
opportunity and and looking forward to
it.
Thank you,
Jenny. And I'd like to um correct what I
said. We um talked with Sonia um when I
appointed, of course, I don't move until
I talk with my ACMs. So, thank you Sonia
um for bringing that to me because these
are things that um Jenny is a great
employee. So, um we we we appointed you.
So, want to say it wasn't just me, but
um you're you're a fan favorite here.
So, appreciate you. Next up, we have um
Richard Hanoway. Again, this is
consulting with um JC as well. This is a
a very specific unique position. Um
known Richard as well uh working uh
closely with Mike as assistant city
manager. Um Richard has has several
years with the city in in capacity when
it comes to transit. Uh he knows how to
get under the hood. Um as well he worked
in logistics for for trucking companies
which gave him the experience and
expertise to do what he does. But I
won't ste steal his thunder. But again,
um I'm proud that uh CMO staff, we
recognize um great individuals and again
just another appointment that we were
able to uh move quickly because we have
great staff already on hand. But
Richard, no further ado, go ahead,
please. Thank you, Connie and council.
Mayor, um as you know, I've I've worked
with the mayor also when he was the ACM.
He he oversaw transit. Um little
background about myself. Um my my family
is from Tollarosa. My mom and dad were
high school sweethearts. And um my dad
joined the military. So I was born in
Fort Bragg, North Carolina. I actually
started school in Germany um when I was
in in elementary school and came back to
the States. My dad ended up retiring out
of Fort Bliss. That's how we ended up
back in the area. Um we started a
trucking company together, my father and
I, and we we ran it from 92 till 2008
when the economy kind of took a dive.
And um it was at that time that I
started looking for local job and I I
came on to the city as a bus operator in
2010. I worked my way up to a fixed
route supervisor and then to transit
manager and I've had that position since
2015. So I I was lucky enough to work
with Mike who whom I'm sure you all know
who just retired. But I got 11 solid
years with him to pick his brain and and
he taught me well. So, I'm very proud to
for the opportunity. Um, I don't know if
everybody knows this, but my wife works
in HR. She's the benefits coordinator.
Her name's Jenna Thor Senway. And we're
we're city folks. You know, we we like
where we're at
and hope to continue the opportunity.
Thank you, Richard. Appreciate you. Next
up, we have and last but not least, we
have uh Fire Chief Daniels. Please. Um I
I do want to give kudos to um our DC uh
deputy chief, fire chief Sean Hec. He
was interim um during the hiring of and
the posting and and the interviewing
process of of our new fire chief. Um it
was a very competitive selection
process. Uh one that went national as
well. Uh but in the end um it it it we
have the person in front of us um who
who was um who scored the highest. Um
and so I I want to
um share appreciation for DC Shan Hec um
as he continues as deputy chief. Uh
there's a lot of work that he continues
to do in supporting our fire chief uh
Mike Daniels. Um and so uh I I
appreciate uh Chief Daniels. He's been
um on u serving us since uh March 23rd,
but um in this official capacity, but
he's been with the city, I think, uh
when when mayor was fire chief. He he
has stories that he shares uh with me a
few times um as well. Good stories of
good stories of Chief Daniels. But I
just want to say in in these uh months
that I've been able to work closely uh
when I was working with uh his um the
the former fire chief, I've I've uh
worked closely with the deputies. Um it
it was a a pleasure, but it's always a
different capacity when you're wearing
the chief's hat. And so we've had a few
um urgent matters that we had to discuss
and and um figure out. And so he's been
there um every step of the way. um and
he's already had the hearts and minds of
the department. So, I just want to say
thank you, Chief Daniels, for stepping
into the position. Again, all great
candidates of all those um staff
stepping in positions so that we can
have seamless transitions, but Chief
Daniels, thank you so much. Um and so
with no further ado, I'll let you share
words.
Mayor, Council, uh, city staff, and and
for the public that's present and
watching and watching online. I just
want to say thank you. I consider myself
very privileged to to be in this
position and selected to continue to
serve in this position on alongside the
members of of our department. U I've
been serving the city since 2006 after
getting out of the military. Uh, the
mayor was actually my academy
coordinator. So, um, I've been very
appreciative of the relationship and the
opportunity to to serve alongside the
mayor in the in this position. I think
our department's one of the best in the
nation and and it's one of the the
reasons I'm extremely proud. I've had
the privilege of being able to travel
and serve on many boards nationally and
and we're at the forefront of everything
the fires is doing um
innovatively from MIH from our light
program to the way we deploy our
apparatus to our ability to adjust and
pivot uh for for transport. Um we we've
just been one of the best and are truly
a great example. Many of the things we
do today that have been supported by our
previous chiefs, they're what fire
departments are trying to get to in the
form of how fire departments run. So,
I'm looking forward to the challenge of
continuing to bring public value. Uh
continuing to serve the members of our
public who are the most important to us,
and it's who we take an oath every day
to protect and and to the city. And as a
fire chief, I I hope to be present and
available uh when when anybody needs
anything. and I encourage members of our
public, our elected body and city staff
to reach out so we can continue to be
good partners and stewards of the city's
resources. Thank you.
Thank you, Chief Daniels. Uh he's he's
we we have uh had a few discussions and
he's asked what was um one of the goals
that I had um as he's stepping into the
position. Um, and I told him there's
departments that we want to u deviate
from course and we need to do uh a a tra
an immediate transition and we need to
go in a different direction. This is not
one of those departments. Um he's been
part of the culture. Um mayor has been
part of the culture building um to MIH
program which is a great program to
everything that's been happening. So,
every chief uh before you has been um
and you've been part of that as deputy
chief bringing in uh the culture. Um,
and it's it's what I told them is, uh,
we're not changing, but we're refining
what we continue to do. And, um, we have
a a spouse of a firefighter on on the
day. And so, um, you just continue doing
what you're doing. And if there's
anything uh that we can do, and that
goes for transit, that goes for
sustainability, um, and that also goes
for community development and any other
departments, just let us know what we
can do to support you all. But thank
you. Appreciate it.
Now, if we can get you to gather up here
so we can get a photo of you all with
with the city manager.
Leslie, come jump in the photo
as our new finance director.
Okay. Wait.
Um move to adjurnn. Yeah, we're going to
we're going to wait uh for the city
manager, but we're going to adjourn the
meeting. But before we adjourn, I just
want to say um I know we mentioned the
ASL. You know, you you start the
meeting, you end the meetings, and I
just want to say thank you. It's
mentioning is one thing, but thanking
you for for what you do, it's much
appreciated. Thank you. And so now, show
us how you do motion to adjurnn.
Oh, that's so cool. So moved.
A second.
I am I apologize. I retract my initial
urgent motion.
So this is some the motion to adjurnn
the meeting. Councelor Mccclure.
Yes. Councelor Matise.
Oh, it's uh
Yes. Councelor Graham. Yes. Councelor
Karan. Yes. Councelor Fletes. Yes.
Councelor Beno. Yes. Mayor. Yes.
JC Sonia