e
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[Music]
you're live
okay you're
live good afternoon everyone welcome to
city council meeting today is Tuesday
January 21st 2025 it's approxim 1 p.m. I
am mayor Eric Enriquez uh before we want
before we start I want to mention that
we have the American Sign Language up in
front if everybody if anyone needs that
interpretation Services uh we'll start
if you can all stand please for a moment
of silence for the brave men and women
of our military services our Public
Safety that protect our city 247 365
councelor Mur VI lead us in the
pledge states
of to the IT
stand indivis liy and Justice all and
or stand next on the agenda is our our
presentations um I'm going to ask
everyone please if uh you can just lower
your voice keep your comments uh this is
a place where we want to have a good
council meeting and not be unring or
disrespectful
well we have a special guest today I'd
like to ask him to come up and join me
our superintendent of Los prus Public
Schools ignasio
re so we have been celebrating the ways
the city employees show
kinho but we know that kinho is more
than a City theme it is part of the
character of Los Cruses we're excited to
launch this partnership with
superintendent Reese and the Los Cruses
Public Schools so we can recognize
students that are showing kinho and
making the learning environment a place
where everyone
thrives with that I'd like to share this
video that launches the Thrive with
kinho program so we can show the video
this year the Los Cruses public school's
Vision Thrive is joining forces with the
city of Los Cruses ginho initiative to
honor and support the Next Generation
together we are all celebrating our
youth as a Thrive with kinho the
partnership between Thrive and the city
came about in conversations with mayor
Eric adriz and and really talking about
our goals as a district on how we wanted
our kids to thrive and as I as I heard
more about the kinho campaign it really
aligned and made perfect sense for an
opportunity for our kids to also show
kinho through thriving within our
district things such as caring
compassion the kids in our community
they're our future and if they learned
early on that to thrive and to do it
with ginho is very valuable as they grow
up whether they're in the classroom in
the playgrounds at home or in the
community the way we will be recognizing
our students is first of all keeping an
eye on some of those great things that
our kids do right I had a story of a
student always walking her siblings to
class making sure that they got there uh
every every single morning before going
to school herself and that to me shows
ginho so we'll be recognizing them with
a t-shirt with a certificate for those
students that are recognized by the
school but will also be recognized by
the city I think it's beneficial for the
students because they realize that
there's more than just attending school
that there is a community Community but
it also adds that love and affection and
caring that we all need to be a thriving
and happy
[Music]
Community now this is going to be a
great partnership and a great thing for
our community and for our youth in this
community as well as the employees and
everyone that works with the
organization of the city of Los Cruses
really looking forward to as we say
adante conino and we can't wait to hear
the stories of the young people making a
difference in their schools and in Los
crues so with that I'll ask the
superintendent if he has any uh words
he'd like to
share thank you mayor Enriquez and I
Echo everything that the mayor just
mentioned and and just appreciative of
the mayor city council city manager all
of the team in in this collaboration and
this partnership just a great
opportunity to recognize our kiddos the
great things that they're doing you know
as as a school district here in lasus
public schools our goal is to ensure
that not only are kiddos uh that they
are well prepared in not only academics
but also in Al those social emotional
pieces that are so important uh to
ensure that we have well-rounded
students and that are active members and
positive members of the community so to
me this is going to be a great
partnership to ensure that we are that
we are doing that that we're supporting
our kids and then recognizing the great
things that are happening so thank you
again everyone appreciate the
opportunity if I could ask Council to
come and join us so we can take a photo
I think you all have your t-shirts there
yes
[Music]
bring did you get yours
is
thank
you very eyes app
next on the agenda we have uh jobs of
the week Sarah
rainy good afternoon mayor and Council
my name is Sarah Rainey I am the onstop
coordinator for the southwest region of
the New Mexico workforce which actually
I also need to announce that we are they
are changing the name to the American
job centers to be a more cohesive unit
with the rest of the nation as well so
more on that will come but we'll we'll
do a presentation on that for you guys
as well for jobs of the week for January
21st 2025 we have a teen Outreach
specialist for the city of Los cruus um
that position starts at 2195 an hour and
the posting closes on the 10th we also
have a meals delivery driver it's a
contract position for the city it starts
at 1502 two an
hour
whoops sorry we have a technical writer
for American systems that one's at White
Sand Missile Range and it starts at $30
an hour we have a campus store manager
at folet higher education Group Inc on
the NMSU campus that one starts at
54,000 a year and the posting closes on
the 12th of February we have several
positions with Alpha and Sierra
Construction they have sheet rocker
positions open as well as some other
positions um starting at 155 to $16 an
hour and the posting closes on the 13th
we have a helper for the railroad for
Sun Coast re resources Incorporated that
starts at $27,000 a year and the posting
closes on the 8th of February sorry I
don't want to say January also just a
quick reminder that the office on Alam
is now only open from 8:00 to 5:00 p.m.
we are open through the lunch hour so
feel free to come in during that 12: to
1 hour as well so from 8:00 to 5:00 p.m.
we're there for all career needs thank
you
all thank you Sarah next is p of the
weeks uh
Carol good afternoon I'm Carol Nelson
with the animal surfaces center of the
missia valley I am the digital content
specialist
just as a reminder our pets of the week
are available at no cost during the week
that they are promoted um if you are
interested in adopting an animal
currently in a foster home please
contact the center for a meet and greet
um before coming to the center and all
longterm residents who have been at the
center for three plus months are
available at a reduced cost for
$25 and so we have pretty good news that
our cat intakes have been so low lately
that we actually don't have a cat of the
week um because we currently have no
adoptable cats so pretty good problem
for us to have um so this week our dog
of the week is baby girl her number is 5
9995 if you want to look her up on our
website I am a sweet and spirited girl
who spends my time at the shelter in two
favorite modes running around happily
with my Handler and enjoying my quiet
time I'm polite and gentle taking treats
with the utmost care while I'm learning
how to share space and interact with
other animals I am all love when it
comes to people I have a calm playful
nature makes me an ideal companion for a
home where I can continue to grow and
build confidence while forming a bond
with my
humans um and to just highlight some of
our longer term residents that we would
love to see get adopted as well and
again $25 adoption fee we have Dora who
has unfortunately been at our Center for
over a year now at 376 days Alice has
been at our Center for 229 days Mabel
225 days and Luna 220 days so so yeah
we' really love to see them leave the
center so they can thrive in a home um
and this coming uh weekend we're going
to be at Petco from 10: to 1 so it's
always a good time to come to those
events because you can get supplies
along with adopt a new friend um
upcoming event we have our drive-through
vaccination clinic which is a good time
to get lowcost and free services uh will
be there February 2nd from 9 to1 at the
Field of Dreams parking
lot um and as always you can look at our
website for more information and also
find us on social media thank
you thank you Carol
Congress next is a conflict of interest
does any member of city council city
manager or member of the city staff have
any known conflict of interest with any
item on the agenda none gramp none M
none next is public participation and
we'll have krina up here in the front uh
ushering you up to the podium you all
have three minutes uh no pending
litigation or items on the non-consent
to be
discussed uh thank you hello my name is
Lucas hearnen I'm a resident of District
2 I have spoken before you many times
but today feels especially hard and dire
our community has always been special
and close a part of what I love about
living here and raising my daughter here
is the sense that no matter where I go
it's likely we'll run into a friend or a
neighbor but the larger existential
threats we face now under the current
federal Administration are based on
dividing this community and thousands of
if not Millions just like it around the
country when the current president took
office in 2017 my daughter then in
elementary school was
uh the day after the inauguration many
students weren't at school those kids
and their families had heard about
potential raids by the militarized
forces of ice and border patrol this
week she brought that up to me and then
just yesterday during the inauguration
she brought up that as a high school
student she was dealing with a potential
loss of a friend whose family is
seriously considering moving because of
the president's threats towards queer
and gender non-conforming people
additionally someone I love is affected
by proposed changes to Federal rules
about names and gender identities un
official documents these actions aren't
about uniting us as a people but rather
driving wedges between us if we are
divided we are easier to control easier
to manipulate I'm here today to ask this
Council to remember your commitment to
community the next few years to a
constitution supposedly derived to
ensure life liberty and happiness to all
without prejudice or proof of birthplace
or name the lost crusis I know is
inclusive not divisive please work for
that
[Applause]
mayor and counselors I'm Elizabeth
Joanne Gutierrez and I live in Las
cruus I think we all know the animosity
that Donald Trump has towards immigrants
and we got to see the start of that
yesterday and um I'm here to ask the
counselors and the mayor what our city
is prepared to do when our friends and
neighbors are getting rounded up when
the people who have built our homes who
cook our food who take care of our
children who take care of our elderly
who clean our homes are at risk and um I
think I want to know as a citizen of Las
Cruses a proud citizen of Las Cruses
I've lived here since
1973 uh and have great faith in our city
government always have and I want to
know what we're prepared to do to
protect people who have lived here
probably as long as I have thank
[Applause]
[Music]
you uh I'm Earl Nissen and I live in Las
Cruzes uh for the past six weeks I've
been uh accompanying a Mrs Randa Diaz to
many appointments to discuss the
turnaway of patients at Memorial
Hospital we this included visits to the
acting director of Memorial the chairman
of the board of directors of the
hospital excuse me I had some medication
from uh and from all these
visits we gained the fact that there's
been a lot of
confusion between employees who are
doing the
admissions of
patients the the prim Prim AR uh group
that's had some problem are the
Indigent so we met with Jamie Michaels
and she's going to
prepare um in service for these
employees so that
uniform uh
qualifications are being looked at for
anybody walking into Memorial
Memorial
um at in one of the meetings Mr Knox who
is the acting
director now said there would be no but
he turned away during his his watch Two
Weeks Later a woman was turned away and
she found Mrs Diaz who helped her get
registered for Cancer Care at
Memorial
so we are still having apparently having
some of problems of turnaways that we
don't know
about
so the the point
being that uh the
leadership of the hospital should be
doing more
with employees about making sure that
everything is done right with the
admissions in all our
researching uh the problems we want to
make it very clear that no nurse or
doctor caused any of these
problems nurses nurses are feeling
really bad about about having their
hospital um number five in the worst
egregious things in the United States I
don't know if any of you saw that
article sir your your your time is up
okay thank thank you
[Applause]
Robert Lee
Butler b u t l e r
luses honorable mayor may I address your
city
council distinguish City Council
board all
right you have my
vot
Mr
Anda he's going to the
Moon you know must has a death
wish all righty I'm going to start with
my introduction and I'm going to have
the body and we end up with a positive
note I
promise now you all are doing the good
good job the best people in Las cou are
at City Hall oh come here but mayor you
made me laugh
he he
week Bill he has a son who know nonsense
he has three president in the in the
over office so did you
IM where
the she very popular but
the all right now I'm going to go the
body the weding will be
at
University Community Church
our will be
the think k for that
please we're going to have 15 plus
people no gifts are
required I love j n y
LZ I'm talking to sandborg today
number
close we have a lot to celebrate in our
city the P you have the P have the
copyright the TR 55 G human wait
weight every for a big b for
trash that's all thank you m
[Applause]
good afternoon um my name is Gloria
Molina and I'm here with msia Valley
public housing authority um I have made
copies for the counselors I just this is
just a notice
um in case any of you don't know or
haven't heard our executive
director is submitted his resignation
and his last day will be February
20th uh so we're in the process right
now of putting out uh a job position for
somebody to be our next leader as all of
you know housing is is a big crisis here
and this is a really big position to
fill um we we are um putting together a
community advisory committee we have
somebody uh one of the County
Commissioners on it we'd like to invite
one of you um to be in on it to help us
with the interviews and then we also
have uh Nicole Martinez from
the community hope and and a couple of
other people as well um I've never done
this before this is a really big
deal getting our next executive
director um to make much needed changes
and uh somebody preferably with
Grassroots so this is just kind of an
information thing that I had sent out to
the the mayor and um just letting you
know my card's there if you have any
questions or you'd like to sit on the
committee with us we would really
welcome a representative from the city
office um
there's a couple of typos I'm sorry if
we could go back to landlines and
typewriters I would gladly do so um a
little bit challenged there um but yeah
so do you have any questions or we have
put out the job description and we've
just
gotten a very very
small response uhuh like less than six
people and half of them are right away
you know so if we could get it out um
we'd like your
help any
questions thank thank you for your
[Applause]
time good afternoon mayor and City
Council Members I'm Amy mccardy I'm the
executive director of the Las Cruses
Public Schools foundation so it's kind
of funny that we're here today as you
Rec recognize the superintendent and the
collaboration with the city um but our
main focus we're a nonprofit
organization led by a group of community
volunteers as a board and our goal is to
support teachers and students of the
district through grants and scholarships
we also have a big fundraiser coming up
um of which we definitely appreciate the
city's uh collaboration mayor Enriquez
was the winner of our golden tortilla
rolling contest last year yeah okay he
will award or crown our new winner um
after our event on February 7th and two
additional rollers that we have this
year are Chief story and chief Smith so
thank you all for what you do and thank
you for supporting um our foundation I
left uh brochures to explain a little
more about what our foundation does as
well as invitations to our event so we
hope that you'll consider joining us
this is Eric feifer he's our board
president Brandy aruo is in the audience
she's a board member and I'm not sure if
there's any board members here but thank
you all for what you do yeah
[Applause]
good afternoon Council my name is
Abigail suuk suan and I have been a
constituent in Las cusis ever since my
family and I immigrated to
America from the 17 years I've lived in
this community I have made so many
memories from experiencing the cold for
the first time still not a fan of it um
to watching my mom become a US citizen
at the convention center uh to receiving
my undergraduate at NMSU to now
continuing my education as a counselor I
chose the path of counseling for many
reasons one of which to advocate for the
marginalized and the oppressed to
advocate for those whose voices are
either not being heard um ignored um and
to advocate for those who are not able
to advocate for themselves and I hope to
do that here I Ask of You Council to
please do the same and to protect and
serve everyone in our community to not
abide by the anti-immigrant
racist anti-trans anti-lgb btq plus
anti- Healthcare to all anti family
anti-human rhetoric that's increasingly
heightened in the administration that
would affect me my friends family and
the community I ask that everyone in our
community is able to live the life they
rightfully deserve just as my mom has
just as I have let's focus on what's
actually important in our community
affordable housing Health Care Services
climate Justice
infrastructure Workforce Development
education and so many other programs for
the well-being that New Mexico so
desperately
needs while I'm up here advocating for
those who are not able to I would like
to amplify the voices of Palestinians
who are being murdered by our tax
dollars even after the ceasefire has
taken place I would like to take this
time to read a poem by nor Al de haaj a
Palestinian poet who was killed by an
Israeli um air strike at his
home I am not a number and I do not
consent to my death being passing news
say too that I love life happiness
Freedom children's laughter the sea
coffee writing fuse everything that is
joyful though these things will all
disappear in the space of a moment thank
you for your time Council free Palestine
[Applause]
hello mayor NZ city council uh my name
is yovani Sebastian Hernandez I am uh
the southern New Mexico Base building
manager for the New Mexico Dream Team
the state's largest youth Le immigrant
advocacy organization and I'd like to
share some words with you um I live and
work in Los Cruses New Mexico and I
don't need to restate or overstate the
event that occurred yesterday with the
inauguration of President
Trump instead I'd like to share how
these far-right policies would and will
affect my family and my friends in terms
of immigration my family are immigrants
my friends are immigrants many of them
are undocumented or mixed as families
like mine
when I think of the executive orders
that were signed Yesterday by Donald
Trump encouraging Mass deportations
threatening Sanctuary cities and harming
our communities who live here I
cry in terms of the anti-queer agenda
many of my best friends are queer
nonbinary
transgender and I am proud to call them
my friends and I work every day to make
sure that they feel safe in my presence
and in my community those friendships
and their very lives are at stake under
under this
Administration in terms of the Border I
have family who live on both sides of
the border inz and El Paso up and down
the msia valley in Sunland Park in
Anthony and into Los
Cruses already I hear that the border is
closed in El Paso and the people are
unable to travel How will I see my
cousins How will I see my great uncles
How will I see how will I see my dad's
brother who is currently in the hospital
and is and will die soon I want my city
council to know that I stand against
Mass deportation against queer
discrimination the values of a fascist
Trump Administration are not our values
and they're not the values of the city
or of the city council as I know it to
be I'll tell you mayor and city council
members that this community is activated
we're organized We crave bold action
that is rooted in community defense and
Community Care we ask we are ready to
support a city council that has those
same
values I ask that you develop Creative
Solutions and bravery as our elected
officials to do what you can and what
you must to keep our city values work
with us and we will work with you the
progressive left is organized and ready
to fight back against farri elements in
Los crus New Mexico we are your voice
here in the public and you are voice in
good city government thank you very much
[Applause]
uh hello counselors I'm Hannah herd I am
a constituent of Los
crusis um I'd like to use my time today
to speak about um just the safety of
myself my friends and everybody in Los
Cruses um Everybody in the United States
who are facing large threats currently
and have been um been upscaled um in the
recent years um especially now after the
inauguration um I feel that it's very
important for all of you um to uphold
your uh duties as
um to sorry excuse me um it is your duty
as our um
as our voice to protect us and um
those who do not have a voice to um from
the harmful policies that are going to
be put in place and already have been
put in place it
is extremely scary I have been scared to
get up the last two days um I have many
queer friends many undocumented friends
IM immigrant friends and I am worried
constantly and that is only going to
continue uh I have been very public
about um the protection of uh immigrants
and
Palestinians um Palestinian rights um
and lgbtqi plus rights um and I just
asked that in in these times
that you will continue to uphold and
work with our
community in order to make sure that
these things don't go away that we are
protected um and that we actually try to
we actually create good change in Les
Cruis um yeah thank you
[Applause]
oh yeah my time
are I'm here to lend my support to
people like myself can you state your
name first oh oh sorry sorry uh G Mo
canway I'm here to lend my support
amongst other people who feel that their
own rights and their ability to feel
secure in themselves are at danger we
have been told we're at danger because
of our current our now current president
and we need the assurances that we can
find that safety in this community we
have the tenants to be that Safety and
Security it's just continuing to
maintain it and make sure it can't be
shaken alongside making sure everyone
whether we can hear them or not is able
to
continue being supported and being
secure in being allowed to exist
basically and most certainly that comes
from upholding queer rights helping the
people who are a threat at deportation
alongside not even to mention the trans
people who are having so many rights
taken away from them it was a run Sprint
to trying to get their own identities
recognized before Trump took office
yesterday and now we're in the post of
that and I hope we're not in a place
where in we're in the post of a lot of
things and I hope that us as a community
can maintain that we can make a safe
World a kind world and that's also
through recognizing everyone who has the
ability ability to bring Beauty to this
that includes the people being hurt hurt
in Gaza which de investment into
anything that can go in TW towards that
is one of the major helps but that's
also towards supporting our queer people
and that goes towards also
decriminalizing
homelessness we had it mentioned before
that H housing is a major issue right
now if that by the time we hit the
bottom of that as individuals and we're
left on the street it we can't just be
left as people who cannot support
ourselves or even support our
communities because all of us can do
great things for this wonderful City and
continue to do so thank
[Applause]
you good afternoon mayor council members
my name is Sylvia yansy and I'm a
resident of District 2 in Las
crues around four years ago I moved down
here from Alaska in search of a more
Progressive and safe area to live live
growing up I feared for my rights and my
safety as a gay woman in a very
conservative part of the
country unfortunately I gained many of
these fears at a very young age there
are protections that keep me safe such
as abortion access anti-discrimination
laws and equal
marriage while I have the privilege to
live in a state that offers
these I am scared of what's going to
happen in the New York future I'm scared
of my immigrant friends I'm scared for
my immigrant friends my queer friends my
friends of color and other minority
communities in Las crues and the rest of
the country I hope that I can count on
y'all my elected officials to help keep
these protections that we have in place
and to keep fighting for vulnerable
groups in Los cruises thank you
[Applause]
good afternoon everyone I'm Rio Lopez
and I'm here to support my students as
well as the New Mexico Dream Team
chapter which organizes and support a
lot of our immigrant
students um not only at NMSU but
throughout the city and at different
schools I was also asked to read a
statement on behalf of thaana prto from
the
ACLU we are
thankful for and proud St to stand with
so many incredible partners and elected
Champions who work tirelessly to protect
and Advance the rights of all new
Mexicans including many in this
room the mission of the IU of New Mexico
has always been to protect and Advance
Justice Liberty and Equity as guaranteed
by the Constitutions of New Mexico and
the United
States the ACLU stands with our
immigrant communities the ACLU stands
with our LGBT plus communities with our
indigenous communities and proudly stand
with all new
Mexicans the ACLU is committed to
fighting attacks on autonomy freedom of
speech and any discrimination based on
immigration status economic status
gender identity and sexual
preference the ACLU has a commitment to
f in courts in the legislature and in
our communities to ensure that New
Mexico remains a state where all people
belong and are
respected the ACLU plays a long game
they've been around for one 105 years
have seen 19 presidents come and go and
we'll have activist supporters across
the state making sure that civil rights
and Liberties are respected thank you
[Applause]
hello my name is Rose and I am a
lifelong resident here in Las crusis I'm
here today to emphasize the importance
of coming together as a community to
support our most vulnerable
populations um the unhoused undocumented
lgbtq plus Community I think is
important for our community to have
access to gender affirming care and
medical care for
women's um Health both of which have
been suffered setbacks in other parts of
the
country and instead of punishing people
for their vulnerabilities we must hold
our systems accountable for faing to
provide the necessary protections for
those who needed the most and the only
way forward is by ensuring that we
Everyday People Keep Us Safe and those
of you and power know the that the
people will always fight for our
rights and I would like to take a moment
of silence to the men women children
teachers artists doctors and journalists
who have been killed in ongoing genocide
in
Palestine thank you
[Applause]
good afternoon mayor Enriquez and
Council I'm Lyn moer I formerly
practiced environmental law in Nebraska
at your December 2nd meeting I requested
a briefing at a city council meeting on
epa's new lead and copper rule with
experts allowing ample opportunity for
questions and comments from the public
since you still have not yet scheduled
such a briefing I want to awaken you to
an important technical issue the
centerpiece of the briefing the council
received about the new rule at its
November 18 meeting a briefing that did
not allow opportunity for questions and
comments from the public was a water
meter box it was explained that checking
this box holds the key to knowing what
material any service line is made of
whether lead copper galvanized iron or
steel or some kind of plastic like PVC
EPA says this method may be used if it
is accurate as EPA recommends I checked
with six licensed plumbers in Los Cru
about this technique of merely checking
the water meter box and looking at what
the pipes in the Box appear to be to
determine what the entire service line
is made of not one of these plumbers
thought much of it they consider it a
deficient technique some said it it's
preferable to snake a camera up the pipe
to get a good look at the entire length
from its interior others said they would
dig a trench along the pipe in the
ground to get a look at all of its
exterior some explained that a Setter's
meter might be encountered that can fool
regarding the materials used so it's
necessary to dig down way below grade to
determine what the pipe is moreover EPA
says that some service lines may be lead
lined pipes these pipes appear to be
non-led on the exterior but their
interior have lead lining the point is
just looking inside the meter box isn't
sufficient you need to look farther
based on website information the city's
of El Paso Dallas Leck Houston Amarillo
Oklahoma City and Tucson do not rely
solely upon checking the meter box as
our lcu people recommended Tucson
Houston and Amarillo do test Hing
inspections which involve digging two
small holes near the meter to
investigate the pipes Oklahoma City asks
its customers not to look inside their
water meter box because of the risk of
damage to the equipment and because the
private service line to be identified
begins approximately 18 to 24 in away
from the water meter based on this
evidence it unfortunately appears that
there is strong reason to question the
Judgment of and technique used by the
city thus far in locating pipes that
need replacement none of the six
licensed plumbers I consulted would
agree that any of the properties the
city has checked using just the look
inth meter box technique has has been
proven to be led free as City personnel
have asserted thank you for this
opportunity to
[Applause]
speak mayor City councilors my name is
Liz rodrigus Johnson I have numerous
concerns about the how the city is
implementing the new lead and prop ER
rule when six licensed plumbers in Las
Cruses say that they have no confidence
in the city's decision to just to just
check the meter box to find out what the
service line is made of that is a
serious concern this means that the
city's
characterizations that no lead piping
has been found are
unreliable it also means that the
property owners who just checked the
meter box on their property using the
same technique and Report there's no
lead are probably also
unreliable this is one of the many
reasons we continue to request a
briefing at a city council meeting as
soon as possible that allows significant
opportunity for questions and comments
from the public regarding the city's
implementation of the new
rule plus EPA materials say checking
your water service line can help
determine if you have led but they don't
say it's a definitive way way to find
out EPA says you have to have your water
tested to find out for certain this
suggests that concluding as the city
appears to be doing that there's no let
in a service line based simply upon
checking the pipes regardless of the
technique used is not necessarily true
EPA says water tests have to be
conducted to know for
sure it is critical for all customers
using the city water system to know
whether they need to be testing their
water for lead or any other pollutants
the city statements and materials don't
make this clear this needs to be clear
in English and in Spanish there's still
no evidence that the city has yet issued
a letter in Spanish about the rule and
what Spanish-speaking customers need to
do to protect their health it's been a
month and a half since this issue was
brought to your attention and there's no
evidence yet of a in Spanish or
modification of the city's website to
provide all information in Spanish as
well as in
English I can't understand how you
failed to provide a full letter and
website in Spanish in Reliance upon any
state template that says you don't have
to if it's the right thing to do it's
the right thing to do New Mexico
environment Department itself says it
does not have privacy with respect to
enforcing the new new rule it's a
federal government who has the final say
the city's webite website still needs to
be more complete understandable and up
to date it's still confusing and out of
date numerous other cities in the
southwest have more complete and
understandable websites regarding the
rule this needs to be remedied right
away you really need to use methods that
actually inform the people affected
thank you
[Applause]
good afternoon mayor city council and
Los cruus Community my name is Liz
Bennett and I'm a resident of District
4 I'm here to remind the council and the
public of what we stand for as a
community while we experience another
historic rise in authoritarianism
in November of 2021 the Los Cruses city
council passed resolution
2259 which declares Las Cruses as a a
diverse and welcoming community and
friendly City to all
immigrants the resolution goes on to
detail the vast and essential cultural
and economic contribution of the
Immigrant community in our state and
county in December of 2017 this Council
passed passed resolution
1875 reaffirming the city of Las Cruses
commitment to creating a quality place
to live and work through
non-discrimination in all areas of city
government and declaring the city a
welcoming
Community this resolution reminds us all
that LCPD employees are not authorized
to detain or arrest any person solely
based on their nationality or
ethnicity I'd also like to remind us all
about what our state has done to
preserve the rights of women and the
lgbtq plus Community including House
Bill 7 the reproductive and gender
affirming Health Care Freedom Act which
protects access to abortion and
transgender hormone therapy throughout
the state preventing local bodies from
blocking access to these
Services additionally in 2013 the New
Mexico Supreme Court ruled in a
unanimous decision that the state
constitution requires that same-sex
couples be treated equally under the
law while we have worked hard for these
measures some symbolic and some legally
binding there is still much work to be
done to create the safe just and
sustainable community that we all hope
for I'm here to implore all of you and
all of us as a community have the
courage and commitment in the face of
tyranny as we stand in solidarity to
protect black brown and queer lives
as we work to decriminalize poverty and
as we fight for an environmentally
Equitable and sustainable present and
future please join us in this work thank
you
[Applause]
good morning uh mayor and city council
my name is s Guerero I currently live in
district one but I have lived in Las
crusis my entire life um my parents are
immigrants from dorona and um they came
here for the so purpose to give a better
future for me and my
siblings um with the upcoming Trump
Administration I am terrified for the
rights and the livelihoods of my mother
my father and my siblings as well as my
friends and other community members who
have the same identities that I
do um I am also terrified for the queer
community in Los Cruses because I have
grown up and lived here I have lived
from Highway 70 all the way down to
Picacho Avenue I know this city like the
back of my hand and I also know how
loving and caring with K as we say Las
Cruses our community is and so I ask
that you all like
that you
all work to strengthen the already
enacted policies that we have as a city
whether it be at a police level at the
local uh Municipal level like right
now to help ensure that our communities
actively feel safe and that they
continue to be safe and
secure um thank you
[Applause]
hello everyone my name isali Delgado I
am here today in community to ask that
you hold strong against whatever
horrific wave of violent hateful racist
homophobic transphobic misogynistic
bigoted laws and executive orders are
about to be handed down from one of the
richest most corrupt backwards and
criminally convicted administrations in
recent history I'm here to ask you to
stop criminalizing poverty and to stop
abusing folks who are unhoused to stop
pouring money into police policing since
that have have been proven to a colossal
expensive and deadly failure I'm here to
ask that you start taking care of our
environment and enact policies that
reflect climate Justice I'm here to ask
that you uphold human rights I ask that
you hold the line against Mass
deportation I'm here to ask that you
work on divesting from
carcerality carcerality and militarism
and end your attachment to the violence
and prisons and your addiction to
throwing people away I'm here to ask
that you divest from all Corporation
contracts profiting off the occupation
of Palestine and join the international
call for an arm Embargo of the genocidal
state of Israel I'm asking you to invest
in Education Health Care and housing I'm
here to remind you that most of us in
Las Cruses know that Community
well-being is dependent on upholding
human rights immigrant Justice
reproductive Justice climate Justice
queer rights and gender justice living
wages and housing for all thank you for
your time today
[Applause]
good afternoon Mr mayor council uh my
name is Clare Neil Wallace I've been a
resident of Los cruus for about 15 years
now um and I have come before this
Council today because I am afraid
yesterday
a executive order was signed which is
President Trump's way of um defining
biological sex which when you look at it
actually legally defines everybody as
female but aside from that I want to
point out that what I did with most of
my 2024 was work day and night to
reelect our Congressman Gabe Vasquez to
the US House of Representatives so we
could continue to have fair and just
representation for the people of
southern New
Mexico at the end of that campaign when
the results came in many people you know
asked many members of the city council
and you Mr Mayor um what they thought of
the results and something that you said
Mr May that that really struck me was
that IET Herold ran a great campaign I
would like to come and highlight that
IET Herold ran a campaign that was spent
much time demonizing trans people
demonizing immigrants legal or otherwise
and making a very interesting claim that
a lot of the people on that side um have
made that 6 million people have
illegally crossed the border which is a
number that is
unfounded I am afraid when I hear things
like this I don't think any serious
consideration should be given to
politicians who who go up there and
spend the majority of their campaign
spreading hate and
bigotry and I just want to remind
everyone here on this
Council that the people of Los cruus
have a growing number of trans and
generally queer people who are moving to
Los crusis uh we have a great Center
here that was originally the St Luke's
clinic and is now called Amador Health
Center that is the best place for
Healthcare here in Los
Cruses and I want to see and be sure
that that is still supported by our city
council it is an important place an
important part of our
community and it is important to support
this community I hope to see you all
around at many events because I do stay
quite busy um and I hope you all take
care and remember that we have a growing
number of lgbtq plus people who are
moving here and are coming here because
they seek to be
protected thank you
[Applause]
Mom good afternoon my name is Dana
Hopkins I am a resident of Las cruus I
live about a mile from here and I'm here
as a board member of Cafe New Mexico as
a queer woman queer mom queer
grandmother
as a
mentor supporter sometimes shelter of
many many many youth some of whom are
from mixed documentation families many
of whom are queer and many many of whom
are
trans and I
appreciate the shelter and comfort and
safety relative safety that these young
folks have felt here and I hope will
continue to feel here I hosted a large
gathering at my home yesterday because
so many people are
afraid and my house was full of folks
primarily trans folks um who who are
frightened and are frightened about
what's going to happen
next and I also have the great honor and
privilege of taking a lot of phone calls
folks feel comfortable calling me when
they're having a hard time so I can tell
you that the number of calls that I am
getting from trans folks especially
trans young folks who over the past
month are thinking of taking their lives
because they are so terrified has
grown I would certainly hope and I plead
with all of you to continue the work of
keeping our immigrant Community
safe of sticking with the not enforcing
of that agreement that we have with our
police department and of continuing to
make this a safe place for our yes it
may be growing but we've always been
here LGBT community thank you so
[Applause]
much good afternoon mayor and city
council members uh my name is Cecilia
Leonora Vargas I live within the Border
region of donana County I'm here to
advocate for immigrant
rights and I'm speaking as the daughter
of an
immigrant I commend the city of Las
crusis for the commitment to upholding
and protecting the rights of
undocumented community of Las cruus and
New
Mexico I ask that you continue to ensure
these rights are protected and to join
federal and state level efforts for a
pathway to citizenship for undocumented
individuals remember that these valued
New Mexico undocumented immigrants pay
more than $60 7 million in state and
local taxes and generated more than 319
billion in business
income again I ask you to continue to
ensure that immigrant rights are
protected and to join federal and state
level efforts for a pathway to
citizenship for the 60,000 undocumented
New Mexicans thank you
[Applause]
good afternoon everyone everybody I'm a
resident of Earth we're all
one uh I'm here
today um sir can you can you state your
name yeah my name is Robert Williams I'm
a business owner I'm a father uh I'm
here
today to um talk about I mean I can't
say any more than what it's already been
said I S all my brothers and sisters in
solidarity um I do want to say you all
you are all leaders right
right can I Mr story you guys are
leaders right you guys are leading Los
crues I I want you guys to remember that
as all these executive orders are put in
place um and remember that most of you
are um mothers fathers you all have
children do what what right and do
what's Humane do what you would do for
your
kids um a true leader I believe doesn't
just take orders from people they give
orders as
well and remember that especially you Mr
story I'm not trying to single you out I
know your job is hard um and there's no
border patrol agents to speak to but uh
you guys are not you're not the Gestapo
you know what I mean you're not the new
gestapo um I know you try to do what's
right and we appreciate you for that but
please I don't know what's going to
happen I'm not scared I Stay Ready
that's why I'm here to push back a
little bit to speak to you all um I kind
of lost my train of thought but anyways
I'm I'm a father of a son that's on the
autism spectrum he was with me earlier
he was having a meltdown outside just a
minute ago so I'm glad I got to come up
here and speak um we need more
protection for for children like my son
uh I worry a lot I see a lot of things
in the news that are going on where
they're getting murdered because they
don't speak my son is non-verbal we're
working on that
um um and I I would ask you uh there was
a story that popped up about a a
gentleman named Mr Hadley that was
murdered in
masalo New Mexico because he had a BB
gun and I believe he was murdered in
Cold Blood um the police officer was
afraid of a of a BB gun non-threatening
I believe the kid might have had some
kind of intellectual disability I don't
remember the whole thing but if you can
look into that and make sure that that
person that murdered
him you know Mr Hadley gets the Justice
he deserves because um I don't believe
that if somebody's laying on the ground
you should shoot them another 11 11
times you know maybe take if you're
scared take out his leg something like
that you know what I mean it's a kid but
at the same time uh thank you guys for
your time I wish I would have been a
little more prepared but um like I say
do what's right
do what Humane I love everybody uh even
the Trump supporters I don't understand
but I still love you and uh let's all
work together and make this place better
thank
[Applause]
you hi uh good afternoon uh mayor
Enriquez mayor proam bomo um members of
the council and all the public servants
of Las cruus my name is Athena Huckabee
you may be used to hearing from me on
the topic of the opioid crisis I'm here
to talk to you about an even more
devastating Scourge on our communities
which is alcohol today I come before you
to ask you to adopt a resolution urging
the New Mexico legislature to create an
alcohol harms alleviation fund the AHA
fund for short New Mexico faces a true
Public Health crisis when when it comes
to alcohol our state has the highest
rate of alcohol related deaths per
capita in the nation double the national
average every year 2,200 New Mexicans
lose lose their lives due to alcohol
rated causes as compared to about 950
overdose deaths these aren't just
numbers these are families that are
devastated communities that are impacted
and lives that are cut short the
financial toll is equally staggering
excessive alcohol use costs New Mexico
over $2.2
billion annually that's more than $1,000
for every resident in the state and
while these costs fall on all of us they
disproportionately impact our Health
Care Systems our law enforcement and our
local governments essentially New Mexico
taxpayers are subsidizing the alcohol
industry meanwhile the taxes on alcohol
in New Mexico have haven't been raised
in 30 years this is not sustainable by
creating an alcohol harms alleviation
fund we have an opportunity to mitigate
the damage alcohol does to our
communities revenue from increased
alcohol taxes could fund prevention
programs expand treatment options offer
harm reduction services and support
recovery efforts steps that would save
lives and reduce long-term costs for
everyone this resolution of which I
believe you all all have a draft in
front of you is not about Prohibition or
punishing responsible drinkers it's
about accountability and investing in
public health I urge the council to
adopt this resolution and to send a
strong message to the legislature that
the time to act is now thank you
[Applause]
uh good afternoon city council and Mr
Mayor uh my name is Clarissa and I have
lived and worked here in Los Cruses for
over 18 years uh I have concerns about
the systems we have in place to support
uh individuals who need help in low
income situations and food insecurity uh
currently of the programs such as uh
snap or housing and the like are
structured to assist families not that
that's a bad thing but when applying for
certain uh assistance programs uh I have
often been told I do not qual qualify
for them because I have and I quote no
eligible children uh despite uh having
no children I am I'm still a person too
and uh sometimes need help as well
excuse me uh it's unfair that in uh one
situ such situation I was offered a only
uh $17 in order uh uh by snap in order
to assist me with my food costs
especially when I really needed the help
uh I just ask that uh we as a community
uh could strive uh for uh the to uh
could make strives for these Assistance
programs to be beneficial for both
individuals and families and and that's
what I would like to see uh moving
forward that we support our community as
a whole thank you so much
[Applause]
mayor city council my name is Phoenix
petraki I'm here because I'm concerned
about the safety and the human rights of
myself my neighbors and my community in
Las cruus I didn't realize it at the
time but I first earned the right to
marry in 2015 when the Supreme Court
ruled in overa fell when I was dating my
high school sweetheart I transitioned in
2023 nearly 8 years together and despite
being the same person and being engaged
to the same person that relationship is
subject to scrutiny and my right to
marry my safety in public and my
protections from discrimination are
under threat moreover I'm not alone
shortly after I moved here I did work
which took me all over Los cruus when
you look like me many people feel safer
telling you who they are everywhere I
met I'm sorry everywhere I went I met
people who felt afraid and betrayed in
precisely the same way I did they were
not just queer people and trans people
yes but also Jewish people Muslims
African-Americans immigrants and
children of immigrants women all of whom
were terrified not only by the loss of
their rights but by the hate and the
harassment promulgated by select few in
our city these are your constituents and
they are losing faith in their future
this mistrust erodes the very fabric of
Los cruus when we go in public we are
afraid of attack by our neighbors we
have fear that the city will do nothing
or worse that it will enable this
Behavior the apartment next to me was
robbed and I was afraid to speak to the
police because I didn't know if it was
safe for a trans person to be known to
be living in a certain spot by the
police in8 days I have a court date to
finalize my legal name change and I'm
not certain that the judge will rule
according to the laws of New Mexico we
are members of this city and we want to
provide for those we love and gig back
to the community just like anybody else
why then are we in a position where we
must fear whether it's laws and law
enforcement will protect our rights Los
cruus needs public supports for its
Community Economic Policy which protects
our poorest and social policy which
protects our most vulnerable and most of
all we need public servants
in every sector who put their Oaths
above a vitriolic and hateful few I urge
you to remember your Oaths in the coming
years and to those of you who have
already had that courage thank you
[Applause]
hello
Council sorry I sitting there for a
while hello Council hello mayor uh my
name is Trent Scribner uh I live in
District 1 right now I've lived here my
whole life my family is been here since
before it was New
Mexico uh I've been working in healthc
care here for about two years home
health and in the hospitals and during
my time during my time doing that I've
worked with a lot of undocumented people
who are among my most treasured
colleagues these people are taking care
of your mothers and grandmothers they're
out there you know saving lives and
making lives easier for
people
um and they shouldn't be scared to come
to work and do that for us and Beyond
being my colleagues there's some of my
most treasured
friends
um some of the people I care for most in
this world are undocumented or or
or queer transgender or anything and
there's no reason that these people
should have to walk around and be scared
and think that their City doesn't have
their
back
um beyond the fear we're strong together
our community is strong together and is
ready to push back against whatever the
next four years brings but I have faith
in the council I have faith in you Mr
Mayor that you'll do what's best for the
most people in Los
crues thank
[Applause]
you uh good afternoon mayor and councel
my name is David Lan Mooney resident of
Las Cruses here to express my fear as
well as the fear of many of my peers who
cannot attend today this fear is for the
coming years that our environment
institutions bodily autonomy and basic
human rights will be under attack in
these years please remember that this
Council needs to represent all members
of this community regardless of their
citizenship race ability gender sexual
orientation or housing status thank you
GL
[Applause]
hi good afternoon um mayor city council
my uh Los crusa siblings my name is
Robert sunkle and uh I have been a
resident of Los crusis since
2009 um I am a bit unprepared as I just
heard of this uh late last night but um
I just wanted to be another voice
standing in solidarity with uh so many
of the people that have already spoken
today um and I don't feel that uh this
is business as usual and it's uh the new
um Administration is uh presenting a not
so slow uh implementation of fascist
ideals and uh the dissemination of
actual fact is filtered through an
increasingly privileged and homogenized
voice coming from an Administration and
its billionaire fuelers and um so if I
hadn't ask I guess
um it is to urge this Council to uh
maintain the dialogues and the
relationships that they have with
organizations that are not only
supporting the marginalized
populations but are also able to
disseminate a more accurate view of what
is actually happening and who it affects
uh to main accountability and to not
lose touch as a a louder better funded
voice of hate uh takes over um I'm ill
equipped to provide actual accurate
facts of policy implementations at this
time but I know enough to know that the
standard flow of info is uh changing and
we need to stay in conversation with
groups like uh Cafe Axion and uh the New
Mexico dream
team and uh any uh of these
organizations that are helping uh to uh
keep us uh together and as a uh
functioning and uh caring City uh my
daughter turns four today and I'm
thinking of the friends and the family
that are going to be there to celebrate
her and to support her and help raise
her and most of them are under attack by
the new Administration and I think I
have just realized uh recently just how
large those numbers are and also just
how present they've always been and um
the new policies that are going to be uh
put into effect just um make it easier
to be a criminal and um it just uh
requires more uh money or privilege or
more hiding uh by the endangered
populations um and I want to be on the
same page as the rest of the world stage
and I think time will show that and so I
I urge you all to please uh seeast the
noise and uh listen to the people that
are actually trying to uh bring the
community together thank you
[Applause]
oh
boy welcome Council hello my name is be
canones I wanted to be short but brief
um because I saw my sisters and my
brothers here sorry ma'am we didn't get
your name could you state your name it
was B konz yes I just wanted to show
solidarity with my family with my sister
and my brothers of Los crusis I also
wanted to speak on how here we are one
of the least educated states in the
country we are also in poverty and all
of us who are looking at each other
right now have worked together to get
you in power to give you a voice to ask
for our voice to be heard I am not only
a queer individual here I'm a drag
artist I am also a disabled person lots
of individuals who come here seek
medical treatment whether they are
coming from Florida or California
because of arthritis the environment
just being better for their overall
health and with that I want us to also
protect the individuals who are here
which includes homeless uh homeless
people who include people who can be
homeless at any moment due to income
being so hard to find I just do want to
urge all of us that in the next four
years with the uncertainty of what's
about to
happen that we forget
niceties we forget
pleasantries because with the
uncertainty of not only the political
climate we have no idea about power we
have no idea about
supplies with hurricanes and
fires what we need is kindness because
our community needs to build stability
within every individual who lives here
whether they are someone like me someone
like
you so I do urge us please to build a
community within because the economy the
way that we are wanting it will not grow
we cannot hide individuals with criminal
charges we cannot hide individuals by
giving them labels that do nothing but
put us in boxes and further us away from
community so thank you very
[Applause]
much good afternoon uh my name is George
Pearson and I'm vice president of vusus
a bike P pedestrian advocacy
organization not long after the start of
the new year we had the sad news that a
bicyclist was killed in a crash there
are not many details available but the
bicyclist was in a buffered bike lane
just looking at the crash site the
vehicle driver may have been distracted
humans are error prone but an error
should not result in the loss of a life
as in most cases there's probably no one
single cause for this deadly crash what
we cannot do is just throw our hands in
the air and say there's nothing else
that can be done some of you are
familiar with strong towns
organization founded by Chuck Marone
Chuck presented to council via a zoom
work session in January 2021 as part of
your budget Retreat strong towns has
been performing a crash analysis Studio
the point is to investigate a crash
without trying to assign blame but to
see if physical changes to the crash
site might have prevented the
fatality my ask is that for this and for
any further fatalities the crash
analysis studio type report be made this
could include recommendations for
changes to prevent a similar crash in
the future in this case there is already
a buffered bike lane would a protected
bike lane have prevented this death
might a life be worth2 or $3,000 spent
on Flex posts maybe better lighting is
needed at the intersection without an
analysis these questions cannot be
answered we've had about a half dozen
bicyclist fatalities in the past two or
three years and and a much larger number
of pedestrian vehicle fatalities don't
we owe the families of these victims
some answers and don't we need to learn
what we can to do better to prevent
future fatalities nmdot sets goals to
reduce traffic fatalities and is up to
Los cruus to do what it can to meet a
vision zero goal of no traffic deaths
thank you
[Applause]
mayor council my name is Jim Wilcox I
serve on the bicycle pedestrian advisory
committee and I bring to you today a
traffic uh report it's actually a death
notice this is the notice of Roy par who
was killed on our roads as as Mr pieron
had just pointed
out so we're also talking as many other
people here about protecting the safety
of our
residents now I can't I'm not going to
talk about the other committee members
on the bicycle pedestrian advisory
committee but I'm going to talk about my
experience we have been asking for a
bicycle an active transportation
coordinator for years the city has quit
advertising that position now I can't
say that having that position filled
would have prevented this death but we
do know that that position is char
charged with working for a safer cycling
infrastructure for more safety for
pedestrians it's been two years since we
had the last one out of the last four
years we've had one person for one year
I don't know what's happened with that
position somebody's not following up
we've saved a lot of money not paying
somebody when that's been budgeted so
what is happening with that position I
also want to point out that bpac we have
asked for these reports so that we could
look at the reports and evaluate what
could we do better in this community to
make it safer for pedestrians and
cyclists the res response we got was
inter agency
challenges it's difficult to work across
the board with other agencies so we've
had none and yet I have one right here
now we had another person who had been
here today and he's a person who relies
on cycling to get around unfortunately
he doesn't have the
internal confidence to come and speak to
you today and I want to remind a lot of
remind you people that there's many
people in our community whose voices
aren't heard because they're afraid to
come here they don't have the skill set
to speak we saw many people struggle the
only reason I know some of my skills is
I faced high school kids the worst or
the most difficult audience in the world
so I'm able to do that and come here and
talk to you but I want remind you
there's many people out there whose
voices aren't heard and I'm going to
take this last few seconds the rest of
my time in symbolic speech and silence
to remember those pedestrians cyclists
who may have been here in our community
but who are no longer here because we
haven't done enough
thank
you not
why good afternoon to all I'm Yoli Diaz
since 2021 I have alerted the city of
Los cruus Council and since June 5th
2023 I've come to your meetings 15 times
and I've alerted you to the fact that
Memorial Medical Center has been
wrongfully Turning Away cancer patients
and not just cancer patients or
effectively turning them away by
illegally demanding payments upfront you
shouldn't need to be reminded this is a
matter of life and death for many
patients as co-owner with doniana county
of the land in which the hospital sits
the city of Los crus says has from the
get-go had the power to stop the breach
of mmc's non-compliance with its lease
everyone within the the city can do
something about stopping this atrocity
counselors mayor city manager and City
attorney it's been about 3 and a half
years three and a half years that I've
been coming to you ignoring explicit
calls for help and warnings of
non-compliance for any length of time is
Der reliction of Duty but the city's
prolonged dereliction of Duty has been
appalling inexcusable and extremely
troubling to countless residents both
the city and MMC are supposed to be
serving all the residents of L cruus
with respect telling us your feelings
about the situation really doesn't cut
it it doesn't solve anything much less
achieve compliance as I notified all of
you when it happened again in December
2024 four months after the city sent the
notice of breach MMC turned away a
49-year-old woman diagnosed with breast
cancer in the middle of the Department
of Justice
investigation like all mmc's previous 12
or 13 denials of care to cancer patients
that NBC reported and the countless
number of unreported this never should
have happened and although the advocacy
of both Dr Earl niss and I changed the
course for this resident what about the
residents without knowledge or
advocacy as I recall at a press
conference last July one counselor said
she had been having conversations for
six months about levers available under
the lease to force MMC to comply talk is
cheap we'd like to know now 6 months
after the press conference what levers
have you identified has the city
actually pressed any levers besides
sending the notice of breach that lever
certainly hasn't achieved compliance by
MMC the hospital has asked for more time
so the city is holding little private
meetings with them again talk is cheap
while the city is doing that MMC is
turning away more cancer patients it
should be welcoming with open arms and
treating in their time of need
regardless of their ability to pay what
the new deadline the city has set for
MMC when will the city step up to the
plate and actually use the power it
possesses to enforce the lease and force
MMC to provide cancer treatment to all
patients as required I urge you to do
more than talk and at last long last get
moving and take action thank
you
year you're welcome
when start this my name is marel salmon
and I just wanted to introduce myself as
the new um Family engagement associate
for scans save the children Action
Network I'll be working in the community
I'm assigned to the donana county and uh
we're going to go to the state
legislature on the 27th so if anybody
wants to to join me or sign up to help
us out um I will be staying till the end
of the meeting if anybody wants more
information I have flyers and all of
that we're advocating for children and
specifically this time around we're
going to go ahead and uh push for the
career and wage L ladder for our early
childhood
education um workers so we really want
to make a uh Rec give recognition to all
those people that help raise our
children so any if anybody has any
questions about it I will be in the back
uh hi so my name is Chris Center I am
part of District 3 I believe um so I
kind of came unprepared for this um but
uh I just want to speak about what has
been on my mind since since this past
weekend because we went to the people's
march on Saturday and we were um able to
enjoy participate in that and one of the
reasons why we participated in that was
because of the fact that we uh that my
job was being threatened because of the
ridiculous um Tik Tok band that was uh
being being enabled by our legislator by
our like President any anyone everyone
was not upholding that and so like my
livelihood was threatened by that and so
one of the reasons why we did
participate is because that was taken
away from us and then given back which
is absolutely crazy um but I also feel
like it's necessary to talk about what
everyone had talked about earlier is
that it's so important for the community
to be involved into to be like actually
like care for one another and put
policies in forth so that way we don't
have to live in fear because I am I'm
scared like I'm scared for my life I'm
scared for my family's life I'm scared
for the friends around me because this
is threatening this is threatening to
democracy this this thing is not good
and I just have a bad feeling about it
and I think it's important that we all
recognize that this is not good um and
yeah so keep fighting for lgbtq rights
keep fighting for um the unhoused keep
fighting for any marginalized group that
live in Las crus because we need it and
it's just so important right now so
thank you
Jeffrey field Los cruus
resident that gentleman was right Elon
Musk has a Death
Wish twice
did number two before I get sir if we
can get you to speak directly into the
microphone Oh I thought it was loud
enough I'm sorry number
two I appeared before Council four times
asking for a ceasefire resolution in
Gaza one of the council members here
opined that it's really not our not our
it's not it's not our Province to weigh
in on this those weren't the exact words
it's close enough we're going to find
out out of what I'm about to tell you is
your
Province I'm here to express my deep
concern over Donald Trump's executive
order pardoning over
1,500 individuals convicted of
participating in the violent attack on
the United States capital on January 6
2021 this act of violence was a direct
assault on our democracy and the values
we hold dear As Americans the
individuals who who stormed the capital
that day sought to overturn the will of
the people and undermine the very
Foundation of our
Republic their actions resulted in the
loss of life widespread destruction and
a lasting scar on the soul of our
nation we cannot and we must not forget
the images we saw that
day Windows shattered police officers
attacked and our elected representatives
fleeing for their
lives that is why I urge this Council to
draft a resolution condemning this
pardon one which seeks to erase the
accountability and consequences for
those who engage in this heinous
AXS passage of such resolution will send
a clear message to our community and our
state
and our nation that we as a city Stand
United in the defense of our
democracy and reject any attempt to
undermine it thank you
good afternoon um mayor council members
my name is Valerie Baron and I'm a
resident of District
3 and while many problems have been
brought here today um
I I'm sorry I didn't come again exactly
prepared I would like to show my support
for said problems and said fears um I am
the daughter of both an African-American
and an undocumented
immigrant and to say that every day I
live in the constant fear that something
will happen to my mother or my father um
is a clear
understatement um especially with set
executive orders given
today all of you you have families all
of you have either children siblings
parents and with my mom being
undocumented the act of her deportation
was extremely traumatic to me as a child
to have to go home from school and hear
that hey you're no longer going to see
your mom ever
again from one of my older
siblings truly it shattered something in
me and I know that for years to come
it's going to shatter many children if
we do
not expand on the protections that we
have if we do not reinforce the ones
that we have and expand on set
protections I live as a queer person I
live every day with a fear that someone
is going
to is going to disagree or even go so
far as to hate my partner of for not
presenting as feminine or masculine as I
should uh quote unquote um and that one
day I will hear that something violent
had happened to my
partner we
uh there are many more problems in the
city than the than the not problems that
were addressed in the executive orders
immigrants are not the problem neither
are queer people neither are
Palestinians neither are the
sick neither are the um the unhoused the
problem is
houselessness the fact that we have to
pay uh we have to make three times the
rent in order to even qualify for a
one-bedroom
apartment um is absolutely ludicrous
seeing as both me and my partner our
combined income is about at 2,200 $100
we still do not qualify for a three for
a one-bedroom house here in Las Cruses
due to the fact that we have to make
more than three times the rent and the
average rent for a house like that is
$1,200 we still do and I would like to
thank you for all that you've done thank
you very much count
bio good afternoon uh my name's Jim
Hurst and uh I want to recognize the uh
Council for listening today
all did you notice how young the crowd
was um ordinarily I'm an advocate for
separation of church and
state
um but today I want to talk about
something
different I also want to point out I'm a
member of the huddled masses yearning to
breathe free who have found a home in
America and in Los
cruus and my home is under
threat thank you it all I also want to
to say that I watched the uh January
13th
[Music]
meeting
uh it kind of seemed like a
trial except the uh judge and jury was
the city uh
attorney and he also acted as the
mayor's uh
counsel I saw a lot of witness
testimony that was not under oath
that was not challenged by an
adversarial um
cross-examination how it can be part of
a legal proceeding or a legal remedy for
a crime I do not know it seems
that uh the Attorney General ought to
require sworn
depositions given under uh an
adversarial
environment the mayor can say anything
he
wants about anything he wants if he's
not
challenged with a
cross-examination
also there has been no uh statement
explicitly saying who did what when
where why and
how the mayor's office has not issued
such a statement why
not is there something to
hide it seems to me the mayor has has a
conflict he's been accused of a of a
illegal
act he will either disclose the facts or
not he has if the facts are not
favorable to him he has a conflict of
interest he will either say things that
implicate him in an illegal act or he
won't I don't know how the mayor can go
on protecting his uh right not to
incriminate himself and disclosing
information that seems like a direct
conflict so I'm trying to figure out how
the city intends to repair its
reputation for an honest open
government thank you very much
hello mayor city council my name is Fred
Miller and I watched the inauguration
speech yesterday there were two things
that came up so Miller can you just
speak a little bit louder a little bit
okay is that better it's a little bit
higher okay there were two things that
came up in the new president's
inauguration speech yesterday that
bothered me and they kind of tie into
each other one a lot of people have
already addressed this policy of there's
only two genders or two Sexes that's not
based in reality it's not based on
biology or psychology or sociology it
seems to come from a specific concept of
God which was also brought up in his
inauguration speech he wants to bring
God into our
government it's that it's an absurd God
that doesn't have a place in a natural
world and I hope that we won't go along
with that I hope in the future we'll
here in Los cruus we'll keep our
government separate from our God so
please no prayer meetings in City Hall
stuff like that thank
[Music]
you okay thank you all for your public
participation next is the accept
acceptance of
agenda move to approve Graham second
Corin so the first item is 7.1
resolution I need to call a vote first
sorry sorry sorry go no worries this is
on the motion to approve the agenda as
accepted councilor McClure yes councelor
matis yes councelor Graham yes councelor
Cran
yes councel flutes is absent councel
bomo yes and mayor
yes so the first item is 7.1 resolution
number 25- 085 a resolution to accept
the city of Los cr's annual
comprehensive financial report for the
fiscal year ending June 30th 24th move
to approve Corin
second
Graham okay Josie y sir good afternoon
my name is Josie trino I'm the
controller for the city of L crues and
today we'll be going over the FY 24
fiscal year 24 annual comprehensive
financial report and with us is our
external auditor Chris Garner but before
we go into the presentation I would like
to acknowledge the accounting team that
uh prepared this 300 Page report and um
if I could just get them to stand up
[Applause]
please so this is the team that works
for about five months to get us to this
uh report which is what Chris Gardner is
going to be presenting
today thank you mayor and
councel what I have here is some of the
highlights a lot of you were actually
were at the at the exit conference we
had in uh I believe it was late November
early de December um and I've just got
some highlights from that presentation
going over the overall results of the
audit
process the first slide is talking about
the results of our audit we issued what
we call an unmodified or clean opinion
this is exactly the type of report that
the city wants to receive our statements
or our opinion states that your
financial statements are fairly
presented in accordance with the
standards that we as your auditor have
to follow so again this is a good thing
in your audit report there are two other
reports that are ours the report on the
left is more commonly referred to as a
yellow book report the New Mexico state
auditor requires all audits in our state
to follow these standards the reason is
is they want us to look at internal
controls and actually pick samples
regular auditing standards only require
we test one transaction from each
significant cycle so things like cash
dispersements payroll to meet those
auditing standards all we do is have to
test one well yellow book standards say
no we want you to pick samples from all
significant cycles and test those
internal controls in addition the state
auditor also requires us to test 21
additional items things like travel and
pum procurement um so there's a lot more
testing we do in our state as a result
of that testing the yellow book has a
standard what they call significant
matters which is kind of up here State
audit rule basically takes that level
down to the ground and says any
exceptions we don't care if it meets
that threshold or not in our state have
to be reported so bottom line is in New
Mexico when we follow the elic audit we
have more transactions to test than we
do just going down south to Texas and we
have more findings because they want us
to be transparent they want us to talk
about what's going on as far as internal
controls we as you can see here based
upon that expanded testing we did not
have any exceptions and we did not have
any findings as we went through that
process
the one on the right uniform guidance is
what we call a single audit and what it
is is it's auditing your grants your
federal expenditures and making sure
that the city is following the
provisions that are spelled out in your
individual grants as you can see here we
did not have any findings but we do
issue an opinion in this report and
again we issued an unmodified or a clean
opinion so both opinions that were
issued in our audit report are exactly
what the city wants to receive
the next required communication is going
over a few things difficulties
encountered in performing the audit and
the whole reason auditing standards want
us to talk about that is to let the
council know how are your financial
records being maintained and as you can
see here we did not have any issues what
that tells council is that when we ask
questions as Auditors we're given good
support we're given into timely manner
and it's completed accurately and it has
the proper um authorizations Etc so as
we went throughout the audit process we
did not have any difficulties so again
that lets you know your financial
records are being well maintained the
next two bullet points are relating to
audit adjustments because auditing
standards want us to talk about if we as
Auditors have to make lots of
adjustments and the fact is we did not
have a single adjustment as we went
throughout the audit process so during
the audit we did not note any changes to
any numbers that needed to be recorded
again the importance of this
communication is to let the council know
how is your infrastructure how is your
accounting records being maintained so
that the council can feel confident when
you get those financial reports and the
answer is yes you can feel confident we
did not have any changes we did not have
any adjustments to your
records the next thing is Josie talked
about the financial statement I think
each of you have a copy of the AER that
AER includes a lot of report and a lot
of information that technically is not
required by the state of New Mexico and
is not required by governmental auditing
standards that we have to follow as your
Auditors the city goes above and beyond
the requirements and they have a lot of
additional information there's a lot of
statistical information there's a lot of
good data for your readers of the
financial statements your citizens to
get information that they could normally
wouldn't get in most audits in our state
as you can see here the the city takes
that financial statement your Acer
submits it to this National Organization
and you actually receive an award
meeting their higher standards than
above what regular auditing standards
and regular governmental standards
require the city has received that award
for 20 years um you're only one of 19
governments in
2023 that actually received that award
and there's over 700 governments in the
state of New Mexico so it's not
something that everybody stands up and
does and takes the extra time and it's
something that the city should be proud
of you go above and beyond which are
required you're one of only four
municipalities to receive this award and
the state of New Mexico the next slide
is a continuation that particular
organization again it's a national
organization that has two other types of
awards that they give out the city
receives all three Awards and you are
one of only three in the state of New
Mexico in 2023 to receive that so again
it's going above and beyond your your
budgetary process is receiving award
your audits receiving award and then you
issue what we call a paer which is a a
small smaller set of financial
statements it's supposed to be easier
for your citizens to read to get an
understanding of how the city is doing
and so again you are not required to do
any of these and the city goes above and
beyond you're only one of three in the
entire state that gets this Triple Crown
award and again it is very prestigious
and something that you should be proud
of this year when we went through the
audit process again I mentioned how we
have to follow those other the yellow
book standards we did not have any
findings um they went back through the
records because the state auditor does
not have all your audits but they do
have them for the last 15 years and it
was determined in the last 15 years this
is the first time that the city had gone
through the audit process and not had a
single finding so you're going to have
findings from year to year and that's
fine what you want to see as a council
is how are we responding to those
findings are we learning and getting
better that's really the whole purpose
in an audit and as you can see here you
had two findings last year both were
resolved and I think findings since I've
been your auditor have not stayed around
for a long time they get resolved and
they've been addressed this year when we
went through the process again I think
the city should be pretty proud the fact
that you did not have any um any
findings at all when we do a single
audit when we do that that yellow book
audit we actually have to look at a lot
of transactions both of those standards
require that we pick a lot of samples so
we looked at a lot of different um
transactions in completing the City's
audit and we did not have any exceptions
as we went through the audit process
only the last few slides are just going
to be some highlights some graphs over
the financial statements this first set
of um graphs relate to what we call
government-wide statements there's only
four pages in your audit report that are
on this methodology of accounting this
is mostly for profit businesses that you
see full acral accounting and so in that
those financial statements we seeing
long-term assets things like buildings
show up as assets um you have long-term
liabilities your loans notes those are
um all included in those four pages in
your governmental activities you have um
the general fund you have 31 special
Revenue funds you have one Debt Service
fund and 21 Capital project funds so
there's a lot of funds that get pushed
into one column in this particular set
of financial statements at the end of
the year the city ended up with 1
million I'm sorry 1 b325 million in
assets you had 622 million of
liabilities and you have 703 million of
net position or Equity um on this
particular basis of accounting you know
the amounts were fairly consistent
throughout the years there was a little
bit of increase in assets and
liabilities but also your net position
or your equity on this level of
accounting did increase by about 40
million the next set of statements that
we're going to go over are typically
what you see governmental reports or
governmental um financial statements on
modify AC cruel accounting what this is
I I like to call it like checkbook
accounting if I'm going to get the money
close enough after you're in into my
checkbook and I can spend it we're going
to show it as an asset things like
property taxes that are collected within
60 days GRT taxes that are collected
with within 60 days those are shown as
Assets in these particular financial
statements we don't show long-term debt
we don't show the amount of debt the
notes that you have as liabilities in
these sets of financial statements what
happens is we make those debt payments
we show as an expense because that's how
you budget for it and so in these
statements those type of transactions
are showed up as expenses so a little
bit different accounting than what we
just we just went
through at the end of the year and the
reason I do the general fund is because
really this is the operational fund of
the city um you ended up with 87 million
compared to 90 million in the prior year
you had 12 million in liabilities and 75
million in that Equity or what we call
fund balance in this particular
financial statement so fairly consistent
between the two years the your general
fund assets are mostly comprised of cash
and
Investments um there's 52 million there
receivables you know the property tax
um your GRT taxes those type of things
um grants that you have not been
reimbursed for uh that's 31 million and
those are a lion share of the Assets in
the general fund your liabilities in the
general fund are um about $12 million
with accounts payables so you incurred a
service before year end but it wasn't
paid until after year end so again it's
coming out of your checkbook close
enough to year end that we show it as a
liability we have acred liabilities
things like um compensated absences your
vacation time payroll that goes from one
year to the next those type of things
was 3.6 million and then we have
deferred leases which was 1.7 million
that is a new standard that we had to do
two years ago um we do have assets but
then it's reflected here with a
liability and pretty much those kind of
offset each other but it is an
accounting standard that had to be
implemented two years ago
the general fund as far as the revenue
you'll see um we had a little bit of a
flip this year we had revenues of about
$174 million we had expenses of
179 million that 179 also includes
transfers and the transfers did increase
this year by I think it was like about
$18 million and that's really the re the
reason for the increase in expenses so
we have to match grants so we transfer
money from the the general fund to the F
the funds that those Grant funds are
going through those are type of of
transactions that we see those transfers
going from the general fund to other
funds the last few slides are relating
to your Enterprise funds where you have
all of your business type activities
your utilities I think it's most
commonly referred to at the city all
seven of those are put together again
this is on Full acrel where we do show
long-term assets and we do show
long-term liability in these particular
set of financial
statements you can see here the
Enterprise funds ended up the year with
$422 million in assets $158 million of
liabilities and 264 million of net
position again that's the equity that is
in that particular fund um you know your
your fund stayed fairly consistent
between the two years um and there were
no really significant changes when it
comes to the Enterprise funds um the
revenues were down there was a big
increase last year and if I remember
correctly I think that was from um you
know the the price in gas that happened
in
2023 um it went significantly up so the
revenues that we charged also went up it
came back down last year to be kind of
consistent with how it how it had been
in the past um your expenses did
decrease again for the cost of gas
mostly um that occurred in 2023 with
those high prices they came back down
and so again your expenses kind of came
down to what they had been in the
past as far as um the presentation
that's all I have and I will open up
mayor to any questions that anybody
might
have all right well thank you um any
questions from Council
over no Mr Mr Butler
please no I I think we're good
um oh did you Council M uh not really a
question I just wanted to say
congratulations to the staff thank you
for the trifecta quite an achievement I
believe you said three in the state of
New Mexico correct thank you yes
thank you councelor and I also want to
say congratulations to the accounting
team Josie everybody for all the work
you do thank you
Christine this is on the motion to
approve resolution 25- 085 councelor
McClure yes councelor matis yes
councelor Graham yes councelor cran yes
councel flutes is absent counc bomo yes
and mayor
yes next is item 7. .2 resolution number
25- 086 a resolution to awarded
professional service agreement for
hydrant maintenance and inspection
services move to approve Graham second
Corin good afternoon mayor counselors my
name is Virginia Billa and before you
today is a resolution to award a
professional service agreement for M
hydrant maintenance and
inspection the city of Las Cruses fire
department requires annual maintenance
and Inspection Services of hydrants that
are in compliance with the American
Water Works Association guidelines
regulatory maintenance and inspection of
fire hydrants is needed to ensure that
hydrant are functioning correctly to
ensure the protection of property and
safeguarding of
lives an annual inspection program for
hydrants will award the Los Cruz's fire
department points towards its Insurance
Service Office rating which measures how
well a community's fire department can
protect it from fire it is also used to
help set insurance rates for
homeowners and additionally it helps
fire department's plan and budget for
equipment training and facilities and it
helps the community understand the risk
associated with
properties request for for proposals
were initiated on September 23rd 2024
one bid was received by hydromax USA LLC
of Flower Mound Texas the bid was
reviewed and evaluated and hydromax LLC
demonstrates their ability to meet the
city's needs for hydrant maintenance and
inspection Los Cruz's fire department is
requesting authorization to contract
with hydrx USA LLC for hydrant
maintenance and inspection in an amount
not to exceed
25,2 $50 plus applicable taxes for a
term of 5 years subject to approved
budget
Appropriations before you are your
options and I stand for any
questions thank you virgin any questions
from
Council none um well at this time I I do
I would like to um I know the importance
of the iso and I also know that this is
Chief Smith Chief Smith's last city
council prior to his retirement and uh
like him to come
up and uh say a few words and also share
with us the the information of the iso
rating and the importance to our
community it's my last time raising this
Podium up
well good afternoon mayor members of
city council fire chief Jason Smith for
the record uh first just want to start
off by thanking our staff um deputy
chief Shan heck as well as our Fire
Marshall who's sited behind me Michael
landavazo and of course our uh water
utility assistant director deputy
director uh Ron for working on this
contract it took a couple of years for
us to to go through and get the funding
and get out to RFP and actually go
through negoti ation which uh really got
to credit the team for because the
original price that was responded to was
something that was outside of our
financial ability to award so they
worked hard on getting this contract is
something we could bring forward to you
on talking about fire hydrants I think
it's important to kind of talk a little
bit about the history in the fire
service uh we've got a nice nickname for
hydrants they're called plugs right so
back in the old days when it was just a
water line you'd actually have a plug
that was in the water line that you'd
have to remove and that's where you sick
your Dalmation to make sure nobody else
touches your your water source and uh so
they're called plugs unfortunately over
the last few years we've had uh plugs
that have gone dry or have not been
maintained in the city that impact our
fire operations uh during those times uh
our fire engines carry 500 gallons of
water and when we flow an a tack line
that's about 3 minutes worth of water uh
so if your plug is is dry that's not a
good thing you want your water hydrant
your water system uh to be secured to
have a good Supply so you can get that
nobody wants a plug that's ugly when you
when you get on scene um when talking
about the insurance services office in
our public protection classification we
are an ISO 1X which means we're class
one it's the highest rating you can
receive the X means that anywhere
outside of a th000 ft our rating or our
ability to fight fires is impacted
negatively that's the 1X and there are
parts of the city that are outside of
that th foot range uh for a fire hydrant
the iso rating is 50% based on your fire
department that's our staffing levels uh
having four person Crews completing all
of our training annually making sure
that we uh respond timely that we put an
effective force uh on the fire ground
within a certain amount of time it's
also uh 40% on our water utility and I
will say that our water utility for most
of our evaluations scores almost
perfectly this is the one area where
we've been lacking the last um
inspection there's four total points
roughly four that you can get on an ISO
inspection all related to the
maintenance and the inspection of your
fire hydrants so this RFP and awarding
this contract will address it and we do
expect an ISO evaluation uh probably
within the next
year so outside of that that's kind of
bringing you guys up to speed on our
fire hydrants um I don't want to go too
far off base because Christine will uh
probably yell at me for not sticking to
the agenda but I'm fine okay I do want
to say that it's been a an honor to
serve our city as fire chief and uh I'm
not going to look at mayor
protm uh so this way we neither one of
us gets Tey um but thank you thank you
for your yes you too gr now I can't look
anywhere I'll just look at
Brad Brad thank you sorry for
disappointing you about my my mustache I
I did give it a good try twice um I
failed but that's okay because failure
doesn't make you someone who fails all
the time right just someone who can't
grow mustache but honestly thank you uh
thanks to our Personnel our firefighters
uh the rest of City staff um it is it's
truly been an honor for 22 years to
serve our city so thank you
[Applause]
thank you Chief
Smith thank you very
much uh
Christine this is on the motion to
approve resolution 25- 086 councelor
McClure yes councelor matis yes
councelor Graham yes councelor cran yes
councelor fletes is absent councelor
bomo yes and mayor yes
yes next is item 7.3 resolution number
25- 087 a resolution amending the FY
2025 to 2030 Capital Improvements
program move to approve
Graham second
Corin okay Cynthia yes
okay good afternoon mayor city council
my name is cythia Lao CIP manager with
planning and and implementation I'm here
to show a CIP
Amendment the last cruises airport
received a grant for 262,000
to support infrastructure and utilities
improvements at the January 6 council
meeting Council approv the acceptance of
the Grant and this amendment is to
reflect the recently accepted Grant in
the Capital Improvements program
document so this is how uh we are
amending the CIP document and with that
I do have your Council
options thank you CIA any question
questions
Council uh
Christine this is on the motion to
approve resolution 25- 087 councelor
McClure yes councelor matis is absent
councelor Graham yes councelor cran yes
councelor flotes is absent councelor
bomo yes and mayor yes
next is uh item 7.4 resolution number
25- 088 a resolution approving the lauo
Park public art
project move to approve Graham second
Corin for
good
afternoon um hello mayor and council
members my name is cessie
vasconcelos and I am presenting the City
Art board's recommendation for public
art in La buav the park this
afternoon put this here so buen the park
is located at 3000 buen the circle if
you're driving east on University from
Talore you would turn on the first left
to reach the park the park features
walking trails um in a natural desert
environment it attracts birds and
butterflies and other Wildlife the green
marker on this
overhead map is a covered picnic area
and the proposed art would go in this
spot here and this is the street view
there the Bueno the Park public art call
for artists was limited to local and
Regional artists who live within a 150 M
radius of Las Cruses we wanted this to
be an opportunity for artists in the
southwest region of the
state the call was posted in October and
once it closed seven artists were
invited to present in person to the
selection committee six artists accepted
one declined due to being out of town
the presentations were held in City Hall
in a public meeting form
selection committee members were
landscape architect from the parks and
rec Recreation Department Kathy Matthews
City Art board members Shantel yazzy
Martin Dr Adam Amador and shatty elur
and Community member Karen heiner shat
El cury was unable to attend due to
other
commitments staff and members of the
public were also present to give input
and the presentations are always open to
the public the dates were posted in
print media by news release and social
media the project criteria for the park
is one artwork is s specific to lab one
of e the park two creates a work that is
large enough in scale and scope to
provide a focal point for the area three
reflects the environment Andor purpose
of the park and four adds visual
interest and
Beauty we were presented with six very
different proposals and they were all
very excellent in their own way but the
selection committee felt the design by
Cayla Blundell fit the Criterion
location best her design is called
desert
kinship it is inspired by the natural
beauty of the Chihuahuan Desert the
native flora and Haven for wildlife and
life in harmony with nature Kayla um
lives in Los crues and uh she is
actually here today
right here and um she is currently A
Fine Arts student at NMSU and graduating
in May and she served on the City Art
board for about a year this will be one
of her first projects of this scale and
the City Art board is proud to support
an emerging artist from Los crues as we
are this is the artist rendering of the
design as it might look in the park the
four piece sculpture is set at this
angle
so if you're going into the park you
will approach it by on this
side so
um so the viewer sees a stylized cactus
from the street side and the male and
female shape show the scale of the
pieces in this rendering the viewer sees
the other side of the sculpture
which is a styli uh flock of quail the
largest piece measures 6 feet in height
and 5.2 ft in width the smallest is 2.25
ft tall and 2 and 1/2 ft
wide this overhead shot of the site
shows how the sculpture will be placed
this is the picnic area here and Street
of course is here and the Trail is back
going back on this backside so this area
here shows you how the sculptures will
greet people as they come into the park
on this
side anything else no the sculpture is
made of mild steel sheets with a dark
patina I have samples up here if you'd
like to see them um the sculpture is
very low maintenance basically power
washing as needed the selection
committee only had one modification
suggestion they would like to see some
color incorporated into the sculpture if
possible that is my presentation and
these are your options I will uh stand
for
questions thank you s any question uh
counselor Grant thanks uh not a question
just a congratulations um this is really
beautiful work I'd invite you to come up
and say a few words if you'd like but I
also know that that can sometimes feel
like a sent
so feel free either yes please oh and I
apologize I I uh neglected to um
introduce our co-chair of the City Art
board Melanie
Brown um I just want to say thank you to
the selection committee and the City Art
board um for approving me to be the
artist for this and I want to thank you
for your consideration for this project
I'm looking forward to creating it and
enhancing the space in that Park thank
you yeah I just wanted to note so I
looked at rendering one and rendering
two and didn't realize we got both and I
was I was like oh I really love the
cactus but I also loved the quail and
I'm like oh we get both so um but yeah
and great to have a repres a
representative of NMSU art my husband
has a BFA in Ceramics he's now a
firefighter but you know that that's
what happens so it's true so thank you
so much and thank you for sharing your
gift with the
city thank you councelor Karen thank you
I I similarly just wanted to share my
gratitude for this and uh thank you for
sharing your gift it's it's delightful
and I really wanted the quail too so I
was like worried that they weren't going
to make the cut and now I see that
they're there and the babies it's
awesome thank you I clearly yeah I
didn't get it either from the writing um
I also just want to speak to the
durability factor which I know um comes
up often in these yes there it is um
whole flock of babies um I know that
that like the color versus durability I
I was really enlightened by the long
conversation that we had about what
kinds of paint can survive our desert
climate and how incredibly difficult it
is actually to maintain a lot of the
public art spaces so I just want to
speak to to the ongoing conversation and
struggle that we have as um I would
argue you know climate is changing in
ways that makes this even harder uh and
so I I I just want to name that tension
and also really appreciate that You'
found a way to create a beautiful
sculpture that that is also really
durable and represents baby quail so
thank you so much for being here and for
submitting and to the committee for
deliberating thank you all right thank
you all and yes go ahead and if I may
say um before I leave um thank you so
much Chief Smith for always supporting
public art at the fire stations and I
hope you will come back to see the final
result of all these projects that we've
been working on so thank
you thank you s
Christine this is on the motion to
approve resolution 25- 088 councelor
McClure yes councelor matis is absent
councelor Graham yes councelor cran yes
councelor FLOTUS is absent councelor
bomo yes and mayor
yes next is item 7.5 re res start again
resolution number 25- 089 resolution
approving a vacation plant known as the
Peach Tree Hills Road move to
approve second
gram
Adam good afternoon mayor councel Adam
wo Community Development for the record
uh before you have a vacation plant that
is entitled uh peach tree Hills Road
RightWay vacation plant uh this is
basically vacating a portions Waters of
the existing peachree Hills Road and an
unnamed Road and various easements in
the area uh of the city of Las crues
this is located way up North up there in
the metro area uh essentially east of
what is the lasusa city limits and west
of uh uh the Ranch Boulevard area uh it
is within the Metro the peudi area um
really close to what is the golf course
area uh that that is up there the total
vacation plant itself encompasses 1.93
eight acres in size and it is currently
made up of just vacant undeveloped
portions of several tracks of land that
were dedicated to the city uh in the
past with a the previous subdivision
which was Isaac subdivision back in 2002
so just a couple years
ago here is that aerial map is as you
can see kind of an old man's land right
now but it is definitely master plan and
there is a plan unit development to be
developed out there runs from north to
south here right on the actual City
Limited line itself and it runs e East
here uh with which is where that unnamed
road is into what would be Peach Treet
Hills Peach Treet Hills now kind of does
one of this it kind of Loops up into
that area here is that actual vacation
plat itself again mimicking kind of what
I showed coming from North down to the
South right on the city limit is
something you really don't want because
a roadway right out on the city limits
that kind of becomes a maintenance issue
sometimes as well when a road right next
to the county and the city uh just
making sure that uh it's better aligned
not only with what our needs are but
what the actual development is going to
happen in the future as
well so on staff did their analysis we
did see no life safety welfare issues uh
identified with this uh vacation process
is required uh by the sub Vision code
and recommended requires approval by
city council via resolution before the
mayor can sign the the actual mile a
themselves uh this will align the road
network with the Metro the PED uh
especially that North South Road uh
it'll actually be skewed to the west to
allow for more development against the
actual City Limits uh it will follow the
approved roadway width design of the
meter of the Pud as well uh this will
also benefit the City by eliminating uh
all maintenance and liability issues uh
related with an unimproved just land
that we owned out there in that RightWay
area so re were sent out to all relevant
agencies within the city all there to
support the proposed vacation PL uh
notice was also uh sent out to all
surrounding Property Owners per the city
of lasus subdivision code uh there is an
update on that staff did actually
receive three phone calls from adjacent
Property Owners just asking what is this
about uh left them voicemails nobody
call me back so I'm guessing they got
their answer their questions
answered uh this vacation PL was
required to go before the development
Review Committee uh the DRC review
subdivisions from an infrastructure
utilities and Improvement standpoint on
November 6th 2024 meeting did occur and
after some minor discussion DRC
unanimously voted to recommend approval
for the proposed vacation PL without
your options uh one to vote Yes and
approve the the proposed vacation plat
two to vote no and deny it uh three to
amend or four table postpone to direct
staff accordingly uh that is the
conclusion of my presentation I stand
for
questions thank you Adam any questions
corent thank you thank you Adam this was
my first vacation plat in my time on
city council and reading the notes so I
was excited to learn something new that
finding out that it wasn't my vacation
at all um so I I appreciate the
information that you all provided but I
do think I suspect what the I and I
haven't heard from any residents this is
my district about this specific thing
but I suspect what folks are wondering
is does this mean that a road is
imminently being built in this area I
suspect is sort of what folks wonder
what this means in that context and I'm
wondering if you can talk a little bit
about what this means in terms of that I
know that it's on the plan um but I but
I'm curious if it means a next step in a
development process or if they're
totally unrelated by
time mayor councelor Karan that that's
essentially it this is this the first
step if you will to clean up that area
for future development we currently we
recently just took a final site plan
kind of takes this area into account
when it comes to development of the
roadways uh Voyager Street out there
eventually we'll be coming through this
area so this RightWay is kind of getting
in its way if you will so this will
clean it up to allow for a voyager to
come through another road that'll go
east to west that'll intersect with
Peach Street Hills and it'll eliminate
that area that was designated as Peach
Street Hills because Peach Street Hills
has been realigned so it's really the
first step of cleanup and that's how
kind of explained it to to people out
there additionally on top of that uh
typical city rideway is 50 ft in width
um in the metro area they actually have
different different changing widths and
design uh so since this roadway which is
local roadway will be narrower uh it's
it's they don't need all that R away so
that could be that can be taken into the
adjacent tracks for future development
as
well' thank thank you that helps provide
a lot of context so thank you very much
I appreciate all your help all the time
Adam any other questions or comments
saying none
Christine this is on the motion to
approve resolution 25- 089 councelor
McClair yes councelor matis is absent
councelor Graham yes councelor cran yes
councelor flutes is absent councelor
bomo yes and mayor
yes thank you folks thank you Adam next
um board appointments there are none
notice of proposed
ordinances none we'll move to city
council member board reports and
comments I'll start with council member
m cler thank you mayor um I want to
thank everybody again uh for coming out
and speaking um there are a lot of empty
chairs here today but I'm hoping that
they watch later and know that um their
voices are being heard I wanted to say
um what a day yesterday I heard and saw
things that Disturbed me but
unfortunately didn't surprise me um even
with my privilege we had hard
conversations at my house and I know
that those conversations are happening
here in Las crues and throughout the
country right now um we're going to have
hard conversations here at city council
too and um I just want to let you know
that going forward for to those who are
afraid I see you you I hear you and um
I'm with you um our kinho here isn't
just empty it means something and it
means that everyone is welcome here and
it's our job to hold a line against hate
so and taking a hard detour into another
conversation so last week I was lucky
enough to meet with the governor and
that was a kind of a wild C culmination
of a bunch of just um trying to talk to
legislators and having
the time to kind of hash out what our
priorities were as a city seeing where
they were going um interestingly enough
some of them got a little philosophical
thank you Nathan small and Sarah Silva
for getting a little philosophical with
me um and Jeff steinborn and Joan
Ferrari had some new conversations about
what Public Safety might look like as
well um I caught Joseph vones at a um
Corner Breaky and I thanked him too for
hopefully considering what we might need
down here as well um with the governor
it was kind of a surreal moment
everybody in the room stood and kept
standing I was there with Council Graham
and it was weird and we're like okay I
guess we're not sitting so this is going
to be really quick so my ask was what we
already have on our legislative
priorities was the library please
consider what that looks like here and
thankfully she was really stoked about
that which whoa yeah me too um as you
guys have heard on the Das a couple
times from me that that is kind of my
jam as well and she talked about how not
only is a safe space and I think we need
safe spaces now it's a place for
Workforce Development and she also
strangely talked about the Dal Lama and
how the way to experience the world is
through books and I would say also the
way to experience the world is to hear
what people have to say and I'm glad for
people coming today so I'm hoping that
there's ways for us to support Public
Safety in the ways that she expressed
briefly in our meeting and if we can
also support things like alcohol harm I
think that's a great idea as well I
heard that earlier I do ask that we do
get an update on our actor
Transportation I saw that we it's no
longer published I didn't know that
either that would be good to know and
MMC as well I think that is you know we
are trying to actively follow it and I
can't without getting a bit of a report
on that that's probably the longest I've
ever spoken so I will just going to hand
that off to people who are going to say
this in a much nicer way so thank you
thank you Council m Council Grant thank
you mayor yeah that that was a record
word count for you oh I'm
proud um I primarily want to focus on
saying um happy opening day to the New
Mexico legislature um to thank our
Representatives Personnel staff now that
they actually get to have some and
everyone up there who is representing us
and supporting us and um I'm not going
to as eloquent as I feel like you set me
up to be
but the message that feels the most
important to me in a philosophical sense
right now and I say this not as an
elected official but as a
constituent is to please try to find
spaces for compromise for balance for
talking to folks that you maybe wouldn't
have considered talking to before
because I think if you look at the range
of issues and challenges
and opportunities that our states our
state is facing if there were only one
answer everybody would already be doing
it and I think the most again what I
beseech you as a constituent
Representatives is please be willing to
consider multiple paths multiple voices
and to just find some space around the
table to perhaps not agree with one
another another but to understand one
another thank
you thank you councel councelor Kent
thanks I have a couple of quick
follow-ups and then as you said a hard
detour that's how these go I guess um
first I'm just going to start with
something it's not directly related to
city council but it is related to
something that's come up we the
Physicians that have been organizing
around um Healthcare and loss Cruis
legislative asks other conditions Rel to
healthcare and Los cruus um we'll be
having a town hall here in city council
chambers at 10: a.m. on Saturday so uh
folks who are particularly interested in
that this I think is focused on I
haven't gotten the flyer yet but I think
this is focused on providers and
supporting providers in the community
because it's organized by by providers
um so that will be happening this
Saturday at 10: a.m. and then the other
announcement that I have we heard about
the msia valley public housing authority
executive director
position um
but uh there's also space for a board
member and if you go through the city's
board and commission's website you can
actually apply to be a potential board
member at mvpa the city has a designated
um board member space so which is open
now so that's seeking applicants um
through the city's board and commission
website which you can find lots of um
opportunities for contributing on that
website um so those are two specific
sort of announcements that I just wanted
to highlight um and then going back to
the sort of philosophical question of
where where we are and what we're doing
um I think it was really powerful to
attend a lot of MLK events this weekend
to hear
folks um thinking about what
operationalizing those those ideas means
and and what does that look like and so
I I um take that very seriously to heart
and and did a significant amount of
reading this weekend to to learn more
about how I can live the sort of ethos
of MLK who you know a lot of it's been
really interesting to see conversations
about how
um he about 60% of people in the United
States when he was doing his activism
absolutely hated him and so that
was sort of a reassuring uh feeling um
to think about how how we perceive
things and what where people are willing
to come from to talk talk about Justice
um so today is really heavy I think
we're all feeling it and feeling what's
happening at a federal level uh what the
legislature opening up you know is it
feels dissonant because it's like all of
this work is happening in one space all
of this other work is happening in
another where can we be constructive
where can we lend our support to that um
and I just want to say you know I'm
committing to this and I know my
colleagues are committed to um really
thinking about Los cruus being a safe
and thriving place for all so at a at a
local level what can we do we will be
advocating for infrastructure that
serves our city including cyclists and
pro pedestrians and I think there's an
exciting announcement I think will come
in a little bit related to some of that
effort supporting Innovations in housing
and homelessness support funding
Partnerships everything we can do to
address our housing shortage as we've as
City staff have been really leaders in
for a long time advocating for healthc
care and Community safety both here and
at The Roundhouse however those things
shape up um and I would add to this sort
of the conversation about alcohol harms
we are getting all kinds of sort of
requests to support certain types of
legislation and I think um as we
consider those you know I think we're
all here to lend our support wherever we
can to the things that are going into
the legislature that are really
important so um so I think talking about
alcohol harms is one of those domains um
and thinking about our own environmental
health impacts including uh
electrification and clean water and so
one item that I just wanted to share uh
I'm I serve on the transit Advisory
Board and last last week we heard a
really cool report um and I I already I
did the math but I have lost the math um
since then so I'll just give a quick
update about what electrification has
meant to the city not only in terms of
our environmental impact but just to
give you a quick summary and these
numbers are uh I heard at a meeting so I
just want to
cont contextualize them as such but
um oh wait sorry it's taking me a minute
to find where I wrote them
down I'm going to go for a new record of
lengthy comments sorry in advance to
everyone um okay so just as a quick note
uh in Las cruus we currently have five
electric buses and 13 diesel buses um
for just the month of December our bill
for fuel was 20,9 $900 and the bill for
repairs was about
$35,000 on those um 13 diesel buses for
the electric buses it was the total fuel
charge is which is um through Al Paso
Electric was
$1,700 and the total repair and
maintenance charges were
$135 um so I just want to again speak to
the city's commitment that we have had
for a long time to things like
environmental health clean water um even
if the federal government is is not
interested in pursuing those things our
city is really committed and has been
doing really good work on those areas
but I also really want to speak uh at
this moment to articulate the values
that I will be striving for in addition
and in particular trans folks um I just
want to speak to the solidarity I I of
knowing and loving you trans folks in
our community um and we lost Your
Existence and identity um as well as
your extraordinary contributions to the
city which I know um are ongoing will be
respected and valued uh as will your
identity um and then immigrants Refugee
refugees ases families of each of those
folks who are now affected New Mexico
just joined in the federal lawsuit to
address um the challenges to the 14th
Amendment to the Constitution we're one
of 18 states that's challenging that um
proposed executive order
um you are our siblings we and we don't
have to have a family member or a loved
one or a person who we see as as working
for us uh at that is an immigrant or a
refugee or an asy or a family member of
them it is a basic human quality that we
care about you um and it's part of what
we do here at the city and we owe you a
fight for your rights and belonging um
you contribute enormously to our
community in an extraordinarily large
number of ways and your existence Among
Us is worth fighting for on every front
and I'm committing to joining my
colleagues and doing that um in every
way that we possibly can so that's
it thank you councelor mayor poent
thanks mayor uh thank you everyone I
just first want to say to Chief Smith
thank you um you're just as much as a
chion as I am in my opinion and I see
you and I love that about you and um you
will be deep we missed and so thank you
for all of your work for the city and
for um for your friendship and for being
such a kind and graceful colleague thank
you um uh mayor I don't know I want to
take a the take up the request that the
msia valley public housing authority
placed here today about participating in
those interviews I would love to
volunteer for that I don't know what
kind of process we need to do for that
but having worked with the uh um with
the housing authority and some of the
challenges I I would really love to
participate in those interviews unless
you want to then you can do that but if
not I want to
volunteer um and then I don't have many
other updates but I did just want to
speak to some of what was said here
today um first I want to thank then uh
an aacp for the honor of of speaking at
their um events this weekend
I during on Sunday I spoke a little bit
about the I shared a little bit about my
my story and the Sinister the Sinister
choice that was in front of my parents
after NAFTA passed uh whether they were
going to stay in Mexico and work for an
American company uh Pennies on the
dollar or come to the United States as
immigrants and what I wish I would have
added what I wish I would have said also
is that um it is not lost on me that
there are people in crues our neighbors
our constituents who today fa every day
face sin just as Sinister choices in
their daily lives about how to pay for
rent how to pay for food how to pay for
child care how to keep their businesses
open whatever it might be our people are
facing Sinister choices every single day
and that that should be our mission uh
moving forward eradicating those
Sinister choices for our people and
replacing them with opportunity and a
chance to live in abundance and en joy
that is our mission we should not get
distracted by hateful rhetoric and
attempts to pin us against one
another uh in Las crues we we should
fight
to to live out our vision for our
community because
frankly um attempting to live in the
imagin than the imagination of those who
want to blame vulnerable communities for
political gain feels exhausting
uh living in the imagination of people
who want to esape go immigrants feels
exhausting living in the imagination of
people who want to systemically harass
trans and gay
people who want to police our bodies and
deny climate change and cater to the
ultra wealthy that to me feels
miserable hate deny erase that is a
miserable imagination and I do not want
to live into it in Las Cruses and in New
Mexico we get to choose
our own fate still we still get to have
choices we still get to be the
architects of our own vision for our own
community so I let's fight to keep our
community a welcoming Community I will
do that trust that I will not be shamed
or scared into
submission and honestly I hope to my
colleagues that you aren't either I also
hope that you choose um to love our
people even harder in the face of of
what is to come the next few years
um because I know very well that working
to push people further into the margins
does nothing to better my own life and I
will not I will resist to live in that
kind of
imagination um and
lastly I want to make something very
clear Las Cruses is a welcoming resol
City by
resolution the city of Las Cruses
reaffirms and continues to abide by its
inclusive and non-discrimination
policies towards residents irrespective
of immigration status and
citizenship there is no plan to change
this and if there is I will fight back
against it and if anything I will work
to strengthen this welcoming City
resolution I just want to say this in
Spanish um
thank
you thank you mayor proam and Council um
the first thing I just want to address
what we have before us is a reso coming
with a resolution with alcohol harms and
and what we would like at this time is
to see if there's a consensus to to move
it
forward yes I think so Christine so that
answers that and then um just to add
that we'll now with legislation starting
today um we will see more resolutions
coming forward whether it's in public
safety and those things that that we'll
we'll address here in Council and and
others that come up with it maybe for
immigration and support of Asylum
refugees and relationships with Mexico
and things of that nature we started out
this meeting today with a great
presentation I believe on on building a
partnership with our Los Cruses public
schools in Thrive with
ginho and we believe that we are a city
of kinho we are a welcoming city so we
will continue to work with whatever we
need to do and whatever resolutions we
need to to to continue the support and
and means to help those individuals here
and work for our residents here in Los
Cruses for
everyone um some good news I wanted to
share is uh Congressman Gabe bosquez uh
through his office awarded us 61 million
for road infrastructure the high Mesa
Grande highway to come from Mesa Grande
to connect with lman this creates a lot
of opportunity for housing for
development for culture for growth in
our community and uh we want to thank
Congressman bosquez for that award and
we look forward to all the opportunities
that it brings forward another good news
is we had the Balloon Rally back in Los
Cruses this past weekend and uh just
want to thank visit Los cruus for their
work and bringing that back and creating
events here in Los cruus uh during that
that time um and then finally to Chief
Smith I just want to say congratulations
to your retirement it was an honor it
was a a privilege to serve with you I
know when you first came into the
department um even going through your
Academy we all looked at you and said
that's going to be the future chief of
Los Cruses so you fulfilled your oath
and you fulfilled all our expectations
we're very proud of you thank you uh our
conversations that we had working
together was um we not only move the
nozzle forward we move the department
forward thank you for continuing to do
that throughout your career and uh may
God bless you wish you all the
best with that I'll turn it over to city
manager thank you mayor Enriquez mayor B
city council Ian tamop city manager and
uh just wanted to start off uh
responding to public comments I
appreciate Yoli uh Diaz coming in and
speaking on on MMC I do appreciate the
patience of council and uh appreciate
the patience of public uh on this MMC
and I appreciate Yoli keeping us
accountable in the uh in reference to uh
this this weekend with MLK and Martin
Luther King Jr um in observation of his
U of of his birthday we uh do appreciate
uh one quote that comes to mind is love
your enemies but keep them accountable
and I do appreciate that uh so I just
wanted to to to let everyone know
um there are things that uh City
attorney and myself have been working
with uh the county on and we've been in
discussions um there's things that we
haven't uh quite uh kept council with a
prized as we're still working on but
these are things that uh we plan to have
uh better updates in 2025 to you all as
as Council so I appreciate your patients
but again as as as we know uh
accountability is huge uh for us and uh
I plan to have updates to you soon but
there are some updates that I would love
to update uh everybody at this time the
city of Las cusis uh has retained its
own consultant in addition to uh our
legal counsel uh in addition to to Brad
so Brad isn't the only attorney working
on MMC we have legal counsel in addition
to legal counsel we we have uh retained
uh our own consultant in regards to
ongoing matters with MMC this consultant
is experienced in the areas of Medicaid
Medicare and the Affordable Care Act and
the safety net pole requirements this
consultant has extensive experience
through the New Mexico Department of
Health and we'll be assisting the city
throughout the process of working
through both the lease agreement and the
asset purchase agreement again just
wanted to share we plan to have updates
uh to you in the upcoming months and uh
we we hope to uh again uh be responsive
to the accountability that is needed uh
in all our positions and especially with
the lease and that's such P purchase
agreement which was made in the early
2000s so uh please know
that second public comment regarding
lease and pipe uh pipe updates
appreciate Lynn uh in the public comment
I I do want to make something clear so
I'll just share some response to this uh
staff in joint staff in joint utilities
is working with Community engagement
staff to schedule a community meeting
that will be recorded there has been a
request to hold another council meeting
on the work session which we will not
there will be a time when we will hold a
work session uh but we will move forward
with the community meeting and that date
is uh has not been determined yet but
when it is we will make the announcement
uh we did offer this idea um but I I
I at at this time it will be uh a
community
Forum we will host uh a council meeting
when utility finishes the review of our
current system and whether or not we
have lead pipes then we will come back
to council to provide an update the
update will also include any steps
needed to mitigate any lead pipes uh I
do want to apologize to the community
for not sending out the Spanish version
that is one thing that uh I'll I'll step
in front of and and I apologize for not
doing uh the letter the information for
lead and copper is on our website uh it
can be uh translated to uh various
languages uh and so that is something
that is not being sent out but if the
letter if there are questions about the
letter and for it to be translated it is
on our website and there is a button
that can translate that uh to Spanish so
I just wanted to make that aware uh of
everybody
listening there's also additional
information as well uh on the website if
you Google City Las crusis Le and copper
uh you can find additional information
uh in the meeting that we have coming up
on a date to be determined uh for the
community Forum we will have all experts
to answer all questions at that time so
thank you for your uh your opportunity
and listening in on that third and last
public comment regarding active
transportation coordinator uh biking
Community we appreciate you bringing
this up at public comment it is very
important and I'm sure there are
concerns on why it was taken out the
reason why it was taken out is uh we are
reviewing the job description this
posting into the biking community
um and and to staff understands that
this has been posted for a while but we
have not had viable candidates that have
applied we have reached out to the
biking Community to see if they had any
contacts uh that could qualify um and
what we have heard is uh we have heard
that they did not know anybody
interested in the position uh as well uh
they said no uh we have been trying this
has been posted uh for I believe over a
year year and a half if not two years
this has been posted for a while but we
did take it off again reviewing with our
consultant helping us uh helping us to
find uh if we're missing something
whether it's in salaries or a titer job
description that speaks uh to this
position so I just wanted to uh share an
update on that uh once we have an update
I'll share this to you councel and I'll
uh we'll we'll reach out to the biking
Community as well and I'll share an
update here in public comments
uh last but not least uh Chief story we
appreciate you it's been a pleasure oh
Chief Smith I I apologize um thank you
uh Chief
Smith um Chief Smith you had big shoes
to fill um I was on your interview panel
uh at the end and I can say um I stand
behind that you you did great feel
fulfilling the the shoes uh that you did
and appreciate you um in everything that
you your your executive team did moving
forward so uh we we have posted uh
position and um and whoever the new
Chief is they're going to have really
big shoes to fill as well so thanks to
you appreciate you Chief Smith thank you
so much and that is all mayor thank
you thank you city manager Tomo P um I
think that's it looking for a motion to
journ so moved
second this is on the motion to adjourn
the meeting councelor McClure yes
councelor matis is absent councelor
Graham yes councelor cran yes councelor
flotes is absent councelor bomo yes and
mayor yes
e