e
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[Music]
you're on
good afternoon everyone welcome to city
council meeting today is Monday November
4th 2024 it's approximately 1 pm I am
mayor Eric Enriquez uh before we start I
want to mention that we have
the uh ASL American Sign Language
interpreter available for every regular
council meeting um and we will start
with a moment of silence for the brave
men and women of the United States armed
forces as they protect our interests
around the globe as well as the
courageous men and women of the Los
cruus police and Los cruus fire
department as they keep our city safe
24/7 councelor Graham would you lead us
in the
pledge I pledge Al to the flag of the
United States of America and to the
Republic for which it stands one nation
under God indivisible with liberty and
justice for all
[Music]
sheet next we have our presentations and
certificates of proclamations councelor
Graham will do the proclamation for L
christas day of REM remembrance for Road
trative uh road traffic victims thank
you mayor and Barbara to would you like
to join me and anyone
else I see some other
Avid Road users and cyclists out
here than
you thank you the proclamation reads
whereas the third Sunday of November is
acknowledged internationally as a day of
remembrance for road traffic victims and
whereas violence on our roadways is
rampant killing
4,490 persons in the US in 2023 407 of
them in New Mexico and whereas 29 of
those lives were lost in doniana county
and whereas traffic fatalities and
serious injuries are responsible for
tremendous suffering of victims families
and emergency services and recognizing
that our entire community Bears the
burden and expense of this continuing
epidemic and whereas we affirm the
particular vulnerability of cyclists
pedestrians and other users of active
transportation of all ages we also
recognize that persons who get around
our community by other means than Motor
Vehicles deserve to do so without fear
of death or Serious injury and whereas
we wish to promote and support walking
and cycling as viable and safe mobility
options for recreation and commuting and
whereas Safe Streets and Roads
contribute to the Health Equity and
sustainability of communities and
whereas we recognize that deadly
collisions are largely preventable
therefore any more Than Zero fatalities
is unacceptable now therefore we the
mayor and count City Council of Los
cruus New Mexico do hereby Proclaim
November 17th 2024 as Los cruus day of
remembrance for road traffic victims
signed by our mayor Eric Enriquez and
attested by our city clerk Christine
Rivera mayor and city councilors thank
you so much for your support and your
understanding that this vitally
important topic is not only affecting
other cities it's affecting our
community and very seriously so I
appreciate your recognition of that I do
hope that you'll join us on the 17th As
We Gather we're going to name the names
of those who have lost their lives in
our community and that's important
that's
meaningful but far more meaningful far
more profound way to honor those persons
is to make the kind of choices in our
public policy and those things that we
enforce in our community that guarantee
that the kind of situations in which
they lost their life lives are things of
the past won't you join us in making
that happen please and thank you
[Applause]
thank you councelor Grim uh next we have
jobs of the week uh sari R Sarah
rainy good afternoon thank you mayor
thank you mayor and Council my name is
Sarah rainy I am the One-Stop
coordinator for the southwest region of
the New Mexico workforce for the jobs of
the week we have a food service worker
for the city of Los crues it begins at 8
uh 152 an hour and the posting closes on
the 11th we also have a permit
technician 2 for the city that one
starts at 1807 and then posting closes
on the 18th for White Sands Missile
Range we have a ground support equipment
mechanic that's for sa Tech um the
posting closes on the
20th we have a warehouse associate
forklift associate part-time for Loaves
and Fishes that one is a new posting
started at starting at 12:36 an hour
posting closes on the 27th we have
multiple positions including heavy
equipment mechanic service desk um Tech
in inmate program specialist assistant
HR admin and more at doniana County they
have quite a few postings open if you
need those check those out on our
website as well retail sales supervisor
for Staples that one closes on the
30th as always come check us out at 226
South Alama or on our any of our social
medias we also have the app that I
haven't mentioned in a while but please
download that and you can get all of our
updates on jobs and local events around
the region thank
you okay thank you Sarah
uh pets of the weeks we have none this
week uh next is conflict of interest
does any member of the city council City
man manager or any member of the city
staff have any known conflict of
interest with any item on the agenda
none by Flores none gr
n next we have public
participation um will'll allow up to 3
minutes uh no discussions of pending
litigation or items on the non consent
and we'll have Scott Rogers here he'll
assist you in ushering you up to the
podium good afternoon mayor city council
and chief of
police how is it possible that Las
Cruses is now become a Dumping Ground
for homeless illegals and drug addicts
from all did you state your name for the
record Tim Jenkins might have forgotten
sorry about
that how is it possible that Los cruus
has now become a Dumping Ground for
homeless illegals and drug addicts from
all over the
nation why is it that people are being
dumped here for us to deal with when in
fact we can't even take care of the ones
that are here in our own City who is
getting Kickbacks for all this mess and
who is promoting this and why is this
happening about two months ago our
Police Department our resource officers
codes enforcement and mono mono spent 5
to 6 hours cleaning up the entire dirt
lot across the street from Craig and
tager it was literally clean for less
than 2 days before had tents and trash
all over
again the city owned a Royo next to
bubas that literally took me 3 weeks to
get completely cleaned up is Again full
of tints and trash and all the
trespassing signs that I personally paid
for out of my own pocket have been
ripped down and are
gone and how is it possible that the
Scottdale Police Department is issuing
$50 bus tickets to any drug addicts or
homeless people wandering the streets of
Scottdale to come here straight to Los
crues we keep talking about housing and
housing and housing but it seems to me
that the housing is a very small
fraction of of a much bigger problem
that only seems to be getting worse and
worse every single day what are we
actually doing to solve the bigger
problem here thank you very much have a
good day
mayor council one Garcia when is enough
enough drugs are poisoned in our streets
criminals are emboldened by the lack of
consequences small businesses are dying
leaving behind a landscape that
resembles a hurricane ravaged ghost town
it's time for change insanity is defined
as voting for the same politicians and
expecting different results look at the
time in office of the following
legislators who in my opinion by their
lack of decisive action have empowered
criminals and endangered our families
Hamlin 4 years Cadena four years Ferrari
six Rubio New Mexico house district 35
who many will argue represents ground
zero for crime in Las Cruses six years L
four and small six on the Senate side
Cervantes 22 years of course that
includes House and Senate Souls 10 and
steinborn
16 a plague of violence has consumed our
city since 2019 with his politicians at
his rotten core they all have been in
the New Mexico legislator legislature
for every step of this terrifying rise
they've enabl the chaos that's making
Las crues Trend towards a crimer ridden
nightmare with their protect the
criminal
ideology Public Safety is a human right
but these politicians have trampled it
remember when they tried to disarm
lawful gun owners try to make it illegal
to purchase a large capacity magazine
unless you're over 21 but okay but it's
okay to terminate the life of an unborn
without age restrictions and parental
consent the same elected officials Adena
Ferrari Haram Rubio small cantes h and
souls and steinborn voted to force
School teachers to secretly help
children access transgender surgeries
and abortions with no parental
notification every single one of these
politicians is on the ballot you hear
Savor democracy is the desperate cry
used for fear moning our Progressive
friends shouted but their actions have
brought us to the precipice of collapse
Las crusens our city is is becoming a
war zone our people are enslaved by
drugs they've allowed to flood our
streets our businesses are covered in
plywood our children or their next
victims will you or will we succumb to
their deadly policies or will we rise up
and reclaim what's left of our
city the power is ours let's act with
determination not insanity and vote to
create a city where there is individual
accountability and consequences and not
a legislature who gives in my opinion a
free pass to criminals think before you
vote thank you
hi my name's Lonnie Montgomery Mr Mayor
counil people sir can you speak directly
into the microphone and state your name
my name is Lonnie Montgomery I'm a
follower Jesus Christ and I got
interrupted by that thing last time so
I'm going to start right there but like
I started before I'm going to pray for
you guys so dear Lord God bring wise
decisions from these people that they
may uh do for this uh like the man
before us that we can get our city
straightened out and but uh we ask that
they uh consider everything things very
carefully and take care of the people
that they are serving in Jesus name I
pray okay I stopped because in when I
stopped to God and and a by Man by the
name of waly and myself had agreed that
there's no such thing as a trans
gender God's created a man and a woman
and according to for your his book is
called paper genders and the only place
you can change that is on paper you can
change your your uh license you can
change your birth certificate you can
change that but you can't change your
gender no matter how much you get other
horomones in you and the other ones out
when you die or whatever they can take
your bones and they can figure it out
that you were a male or a female and
uh so that you really can't tell but he
he knows because he's changed from a man
to a woman and back again and he says
that uh the people who uh have gender
dis identity disorder they uh are often
pushed into it by like somebody said the
teachers and in New Mexico you don't
have to inform parents
that this is
happening among other things suicide
changing helping to change your people
and their kids in that area right there
and uh then I going to speak to trans
transgender athletes these are guys who
can't make it they just can't make it in
400 and something and Leah who is a the
swimmer of the year no matter what he
does it's just he's still going to be a
man and even Bruce Jenner or whatever he
calls himself now agrees they should not
be playing in this
area with with women we fight so hard
for for Title Nine and then we throw it
away it's gone I'm going to stop now and
tell you right now uh when you go home
be sure to practice your
Mandarin and uh dear
Lord uh please bless the city and the
county and the state and especially the
US us Lord and keep us in your care and
uh thank you very much appreciate
it good morning my name is Jim
Hurst I want to address the comments
made by Lonnie mcgomery
uh at the last
meeting uh I agree with Lonnie on one
thing we need to talk about the role of
religion in our society but I disagree
with Lonnie on many other
ideas no America was not founded on
biblical
principles America uh rejected at least
three biblical principles and we are
most most fortunate for having done so
the first biblical principle America
rejected was monarchy the rule by Divine
Right Romans
13 uh taught that all authority was
derived from God all who held the
authority uh were given it by God and
those who opposed Authority opposed God
the implication of Romans 13 is that
some were born Noble and empowered to
govern and some were born common and
destined to be
subjects America said all are created
equal another biblical principle America
rejected though it took far too long to
fully realize was slavery the Bible
taught slaves to submit to their masters
thus implying that some were created to
be slaves and some were created to be
Masters the Declaration of Independence
asserted that all were created free and
equal misogyny the idea that women were
born to be Servants of men is another
biblical principle America
rejected the Bible commands in the same
way it tells children to obey their
parents wives obey your
husband 1 Corinthians 11:3 declares the
head of the woman is
man it took thousands of years but we
know better than that now American
Americans believe that men and women are
equal if you don't believe that you men
try to convince your wives mother boss
co-workers and
daughters
otherwise of course not everything in
the Bible is wrong but the progress of
America and all Humanity in the last few
centuries has been realized by rejecting
biblical principles determined to be
irrational humanity is far better off
being governed by reason than by holy
books
that's why it's fortunate that our
constitution specifies freedom of
religion and separation between church
and
state thank you
good afternoon Council mayor uh I'm
Jennifer cry and I just thought public
input was going to be way too short I
wanted to get up and say thank you for
all your attention and hard
[Applause]
work okay thank you
next is a Clos meeting statement for
today November 4th uh city of Losa city
council met in Clos session at 11:05
a.m. uh this morning the following
members were in attendance mayor hriz
councelor
McLure councelor
Graham and councelor Florida staff was
Brad Douglas Barbara bomo Chief Jeremy
story Sonia dogado E con Tama Paya JC
Borgo and Christine rivetta we discussed
uh was to discuss pending or threatening
litigations in the matter of
Juliana Rees which is closed pursuant to
New Mexico State Statute 1978 section
105-17 that's all that was discussed and
the meeting adjourned at 1113
a.m. next we'll have EX acceptance of
agenda so move by Flores second
Graham this is not a motion to accept
the agenda as presented councelor
McClair yes councelor matis yes
councelor Graham yes councelor cran is
absent councelor Flores yes councelor
bomo is absent mayor yes thank you
so next we have our resolutions uh
ordinances for discussion 8.1 resolution
25
056 a resolution authorizing the city of
Los Cruses to accept a grant award in
the amount of 175,000 from the New
Mexico Department of
Transportation move to approve Graham
second
mlar mayor counselor I apologize our
grant manager is supposed to be
presenting this and she's not here yet
so I am going to to start this and
hopefully she will be
in I think she's coming in behind you L
is she okay I'll have it up before she
gets
here that the correct one no no
sorry I need to put my glasses on they
run down the
stairs okay that next one
yeah one okay great thank you
ma'am good afternoon mayor counselors
City staff I'm Gabriela pratz the city's
Grant manager and before you is a
resolution had to run down the stairs
sorry to accept a grant award from the
New Mexico Department of Transportation
galinda
program galinda is a new beautification
funding program and its goal is to
increase the number of programs as well
as make existing local beautification
programs more
sustainable the program also supplements
other state funding for beautification
programs such as the New Mexico
tourism's Department uh Department's
clean and beautiful grant program which
we have a grant for in the Parks and
Recreation Department for keep Las crues
beautiful and a New Mex or the New
Mexico environment Department's
Recycling and illegal dumping uh fund or
the raid fund which we also have a grant
from them for the
composting project through Las Cruz's
utilities and NM do requires a
resolution from Council supporting the
Grant
and designating signature Authority for
the
award the grant is being made to the
Parks and Recreation Department through
the New Mexico Department of
Transportation for
$175,000 the funds will be used to
augment the keas cr's beautiful program
f efforts such as H um Contracting a
literal bement program I'm sorry team
schoolwide cleanup days in partnership
with the lusus public schools
education educational anti-litter
campaign
presentations as well as they want to
revive the adopt a spot program as well
as free weekend events at the collection
centers which will include taking tires
which is something the community asks
for often
here are your Council options and I
stand for
questions okay thank you any questions
by
councel seeing
none now it's Christine
Christine this is on the motion to
approve resolution 25- 056 councelor
McClair yes councelor matis yes
councelor Graham yes councelor cran is
absent Council fles yes councelor bomo
is absent and
mayor
yes good next is 8.2 resolution number
25- 057 a resolution amending contract
054 act on uh Los cruus Police
Department cameras with AC on Enterprise
of Scottsdale Arizona to increase the
contract amount by
446000 move to approve Graham second
McLure good afternoon mayor counselors
my name is Virginia barela buyer 2 with
the financial services department and
before you today is a resolution to
approve an amendment to contract uh
20-21 054 um LCPD body warn cameras
the city of Los crusa Police Department
initiated a body War camera project in
2014 supplying a limited number of
officers with body warn cameras at that
time LCPD deployed 140 body cameras in
the field with an additional 10 cameras
in inventory to be utilized as backups
the cameras and data management and
maintenance system used to store video
evidence being utilized were procured
through axon Enterprises in
Incorporated in addition to the body
cameras axon also supplies LCPD with its
taser brand of non-lethal electrical
weapons which interconnect with the
bodyw warn cameras in 2020 LCPD wished
to expand the program increasing the
inventory of body warn cameras to all
officers LCPD wanted to utilize this
expansion as an opportunity to upgrade
the current cameras that they had in
their inventory which were're now out of
date um
and it would also put us in compliance
with New Mexico Senate Bill 8 which went
into effect the same year requiring that
all law enforce enforcement officers who
re routinely interact with the public um
are to wear body warn cameras while on
duty Los cruus Municipal Code
24-7 a does allow the city to award
contract with without competition um
when after a good faith review by the
purchasing manager it is determined that
substantial duplicate costs to the city
that is not expected to be
recovered through competition will occur
on November 16th 2020 the city council
approved procurement 20-21
054 to procure the body cameras with
axon Enterprises of Scottsdale and
Arizona it was for a 5-year term which
would take us through new November 15th
2025 in a not to exceed amount of
1,814
474 and
22 in the first year uh we brought forth
an amendment to council to add a
redaction software to this to and that
increased the uh contract total
$63,750
78,000 $
77422 this did not affect the term of
the contract um with the expiration date
still being in November
2025 so before you today we are asking
to increase this contract um due to the
an increase in the amount of contracts
contracts cameras that we have purchased
uh for new police officers that have
been um put into staff uh that has
required us to purchase more uh more
cameras it has required us to purchase
more software and more licenses for that
software this will increase the contract
amount um by $446,500
okay thank you uh any questions by
Council
uh councilor
McClure okay I I had a quick question um
back in 2020 was when the Senate bill
went in was that did they allocate any
funds for municipalities for the use of
the body cameras mayor counselors I will
have to um divert that question over to
Chief
story good afternoon mayor council
Jeremy story police chief no the that
was an unfunded mandate so when the
requirement came down um there was no
funding attached to the cability however
at that time um officers we already
equipped all of our police officers
commission officers with body cameras so
we were already in compliance
initially thank you that's all I
had councilor
fles thank you for your presentation
um in terms terms of the history you
said that in 2014 body cameras for the
police
department what you can't hear me are
you kidding why why not okay I'm sorry
about that um B body
cameras and oh for T what I understood
was that you got the the you had the uh
the police department had the the uh
tasers and the body and and then the
cameras did they go hand in hand or I
misunderstood that
part counselor or mayor counselors so
the police department did own body
cameras yeah um and they are
interconnected with the tasers that they
own and how are they
interconnected I will also have to defer
to T story for the answer on that one
that was actually my question mayor
councelor Florida so axon which is the
company we're talking about originally
was called taser
and so they're the ones who manufactured
the very first tasers and then all the
different iterations so the company that
makes our body cameras and our tasers is
obviously the same company and so
they're designed so they work together
for instance if your body camera is not
recording and you turn your taser on it
automatically starts recording your body
camera and everybody within a certain
radius so there's there's uh kind of a
checks and balance between the two
products so does that mean that if the
camera is turned down the TA the taser
is uh functioning or does it that way
too no it doesn't work in the
reverse all right that was my first
question thank you uh Chief and thank
you let me have one more
question um what does reaction software
mean uh councel mayor uh I will also
have to defer to Chief story on
that mayor councelor Flor so the we have
received an increasing amount of ipper
requests or public records requests I
think today year today we're at 1,849
just for the police department so the
redaction software is a tool that our IA
staff uses to go through the body camera
footage and then apply a redaction to
things that are allowed by law to redact
or to
exempt uh thank you Chief and and thank
you Miss thank you so much thank you
mayor okay thank you
Christine this is on the motion to
approve resolution 25
5-57 councelor McClure yes councelor
matis yes councelor Graham yes councelor
cran is absent councelor
fles yes councelor bomo is absent and
mayor
yes next is 8.3 resolution number 25058
a resolution authorizing the city of Los
Cruses to accept a budget adjustment
allocating funds in the American Rescue
plan Act
move to approve Graham second
McLure good afternoon mayor council fli
the record my name is lean deos and I am
your Finance director this is a very
small budget adjustment for the American
Rescue plan act uh we're moving some
funds from one Department to another
department which is part of our chter
says that if you move between uh
departments organizational units you
have to bring that Council but we're
also changing the purpose of these funds
which through the arpa needs to be
addressed through Council as well so
just a little bit of background as you
know the city received two tranches of
12.4 million each uh this was for direct
relief to Aid governments in response
and recovery from the covid-19 pandemic
funding is used to support various Focus
areas to maximize the impact in Los
crues and the funds must be obligated by
December 31st of 2024 which while you
know is almost about a month and a half
away and spent by December 31st of
2026 so back in September we brought to
you an update what we're doing here is
uh one of the updates that we brought to
you was the septage the Su Water and
Sewer projects uh which was the septage
tank elimination
uh they had about 1.3 million in funding
uh their expected completion date was
September 30th uh it's a little bit over
that because they have a couple of bills
that they need to finish paying and
guess what they ran out of their arpa
funding and so um they've converted all
these households and they still have a
couple of invoices that they need to pay
we have um additional funding in
administration that we are willing to
transfer from the finance department
into the utilities to pay up the that is
the
$6,400 to finish paying for the septage
tank elimination project and it will be
finalized it will be done and so with
that these are your Council
options okay thank you lean any
questions uh Council Flores thank you
Leanne I thought you were gone no ma'am
this is my last week this is my last
Council and my last Council presentation
to all of you oh well I'm certainly
going to miss you I'm sure I appreciate
that very much thank you counselor
you're welcome um in terms of what area
what part of the town or what district
are these septic tanks uh being
installed that is a really great
question counselor which we went over
back in September let me see if there's
somebody from public works oh yeah
Carl's Carl
can I through it yeah go ahead if you
want to just keep on going down there
you
go thank you uh mayor counselors uh Carl
Clark assistant utilities director so
there's a map there that's uh showing
some of the areas and the council
districts where we did the improvements
the green are the the ones that we
completed the yellow actually are
completed now so everything that you see
in color there are highlighted has been
completed so that's Council District 2
Sol sub
division there's District Four you can
see we did uh four in that area and then
we have a bunch over in Henda Acres that
we completed as well that's Council
District Six I believe that's the last
of them yep that's the last of them so
that's all the council districts that we
covered yeah I'm wondering there are
still some homes in District Six that
I'm aware of um that still haven't been
uh the septic tanks haven't been
replaced by sewage so um is there
anything in the works for that no pun
intended mayor councilor Flores we're uh
we will be applying for some State
Legislative money but uh after spending
all the arpa money that uh we we don't
have any more money available to help
connect people at this time but so would
we uh be asking next uh legislature this
next go round this next round okay thank
you so much you're welcome
and thank you
lean
thanks councilor Ma I was just going to
ask Mr Clark question thank you sorry
lean and we'll miss
you you you're always quick to the
microphone if I could uh could you bring
up District Two the slide again when and
when you say it's uh completed what's
actually completed uh mayor uh councelor
m
it's the highlighted uh lots that you
see on that map those have been tied
into the system totally the ones that
don't have any highlights on those
property Parcels uh they either selected
that they weren't going to do it or they
weren't part of the priority levels that
we initiated originally okay if I
remember correctly it was over 300 and
so how many have you completed mayor
council there's over 400 that need to be
done 400 yeah and we only completed 71
with the the money that we received
okay and then we're making a pitch to
the uh the state for for more funds
we'll be making a pitch to the state for
for that type of money to connect
customers okay can we kind of prioritize
that to do all the ones in District two
before we go to six and
four uh mayor counselor that'll be up to
you all lat on I'll kidy thank you thank
you I I do have a question for Mr Clark
I may oh go ahead counc thank thank you
uh so Carl um so only some of
the by way of example District Two and
then the district four I think it was so
um does that mean that the aim of the
city or the goal the city has is to
replace um all of it all of the sewage
tanks with uh appropriate uh sewage with
with the municipal okay so mayor ccer
Flores the goal is actually part of our
uh septic replacement project update uh
in 2008 so there was a study done by CDM
Smith uh back in 2008 where they looked
at everybody that was on septics within
the city limits and they identifi the
priorities so we have a top high middle
and low priority and what what what what
qualifies as top middle top is within
1,000 ft next to city water well oh I
see because we don't want to be drawing
any that septic into our water wells so
are all of those taken care of is that
no there's still there's still out some
out there mayor council Flor so we've
done a lot of improvements or put in
Municipal sewer in different areas of
the
city and the ones that have top priority
um have been somewhat addressed in
regards to having Municipal sewer close
proximity to the houses but they may not
have connected those were some of those
that we reached out with the Matrix that
we put together when we got received the
arpa funding we listed all the top areas
and those were the first ones we hit it
had to do with being in the top area and
load moderate income and so in our
Matrix it it brought everything to the
top and then we reached out to those
residents and unfortunately we couldn't
force them onto it so they had to choose
to be on it or to be a part of the arpa
money some turned it down some said no
we don't want it some didn't respond we
knocked on the doors and and they still
didn't want it but some didn't respond
and we knocked in doors and they did
want it so we we worked with everybody
out in those areas okay so even though
it was fully funded there were some
residents who did not want it but isn't
it a health and safety issue don't you
think that we should have uh you know
because there's there's seepage
happening all the time with those you
know sewers so or the septic tanks so is
there anything that the city can do and
so far as uh besides asking for money I
think asking the legislature is
of course it's our taxes anyway but um
it seems to me that if we uh present U
some efforts to educate our
community um we would probably have some
data to present to the appropriate
legislators yeah mayor council Flor so
this is the first time we've ever been
offered money to to be able to do that
for the customer side but is something
that U actually went over very well we
uh and it was received very well it is
very expensive in that aspect whenever
we we do that work I mean we end up
paying more just because we are the
municipality and there's certain things
they have to do to provide us with a
cost um I wholeheartedly would love to
get additional legislative funding there
is an ordinance in place that requires
people to tie in within a year of the
sewer M being installed however there's
no funding available for them and there
is no teeth in that ordinance that says
you'll be fined X so so it's just leaves
it open
huh well so that was when that Ordnance
came about a couple years ago three or
maybe three or four Adrien Whitmer uh
the director of utilities brought that
forward to council and that was the
decision made by Council was not to put
any penalties for those that don't die
yeah well it's adding insult to injury
in that place but it'd be good if we
could get some uh money from the feds
perhaps I don't know I mean I think
there's resources there's money from the
federal government for this sort of
stuff isn't there um mayor councilor
first I would assume there possibly is
uh and we we do request that and we are
going to request it more heavily now so
we can start getting these people
transferred over but it's out of my
hands all I could do is request and then
hope that it comes in great well thank
you for your work I appreciate it Mr
Clark you're welcome thank you
mayor no thank you councelor fles anyone
else
uh Leanne um just want to say thank you
it's been a pleasure working with you
you're going to be missed but I can say
that I've had the pleasure of working
hand inand with you for a number of
years and just want to say thank you for
your service thank you for all you've
done for this city and for the finance
department uh Fleet utilities and so
forth and so on thank you thank you
mayor council I really appreciate
it if you're ever in
uh traveling down Route 66 and going
through Missouri you're going to go
through St James Missouri that's where
I'm going to be um please look me up so
I appreciate all of your support during
my 13 and a half years with the city
thank you so
much I say something yes go ahead lean I
would like to thank you I remember
meeting you I I had just been elected
and uh met with you I didn't know you
know from anything and um
and you said what would you like to see
in your district and I said
what what would I like to see and you
said yes what would you like to see and
I thought it's that easy why don't we
already have it well Minor Detail oh we
need money for those projects but anyway
I want to thank you for always being
there and being very resourceful and
helpful and making our city better and
the city will miss you I certainly will
thank you thank you so much counselor I
appreciate
it
CHR this is on the motion to approve
resolution 25- 058 councelor
mlar yes councelor matis yes councelor
Graham yes councelor cran is absent
councelor flood is yes councelor bomo is
absent and mayor yes
next is board appointments um so it's a
new appointment to Capital Improvements
advisory committee so I'll need a motion
in a second to appoint Cynthia
hriz so moved Graham second
McLure this is on the motion to appoint
Cynthia Enriquez to the
C councelor McClair yes councelor matis
yes councelor Graham yes councelor cran
is absent Council flotes yes councelor
Beno is absent and mayor yes and for the
record no relation
correct next we have uh city council
member board reports and comments we'll
start with Cassie
McClure none thank you
n just real
quick yes go no just um you know I'm
sure no one needs a reminder but
tomorrow is election day last day to
make your voice heard and despite all of
the anxiety and angst and all of the
other a an words that you might be
feeling about the election I hope that
you like me also see is a celebration I
love election day um voting is a
privilege and an honor and it's
something that uh my grandmother made
election days into a holiday when I was
a little kid and that's back when you
would actually go in and pull a curtain
and P pull a lever so um I like to think
that her spirit and her civic duty um is
a lot of the reason why I'm here right
now and uh yeah it just makes me think
about it and please find a moment to
smile on Election Day and think about
the the beauty the beauty of making your
voice heard even if you're otherwise
have a big old knot in your stomach like
me thank
you
mayor yes Council m i I just want to
share something I saw a sign this
morning and it was at CW Wards building
and it said politicians a temporary but
wuang is
forever councelor FLOTUS uh thank you
well um thank you uh councelor grant for
sharing that uh voting for for me um is
a very similar experience my parents
were Ardent um uh voters and uh my
father was a naturalized citizen my
mother was uh Born in the USA um but I
always felt proud when um we walked and
the voting took place at our elementary
school the auditorium and it was just
such a big deal to walk into the
auditorium when you're not supposed to
be there or you know at night whatever
um so yeah that that was highly
ingrained in in our family and so uh
we're very fortunate to live in a
country that um you know the people
speak and then we get our
leaders so um the other um so thank you
for your for your comments it really
does bring back happy memories but the
next thing I'm going to talk about is
not so happy um it's uh just the these
past two weeks in my district or maybe
in the last week there have been um
there have been there has been one
incident of um Lou a loud party going on
and a you know quiet community and a
culde Act in fact um and I believe uh
there was some shootings I don't know if
anybody died I haven't followed up on
that um and then today this morning I
learned that there was another uh thing
and that was
uh the one that happened over the this
past weekend is near my home um the one
that I learned about this morning
happened on the north side of highway 70
uh it's a new area for me a new uh after
our um you know after we did our
redistricting um and these are all very
um quiet areas and but apparently uh
people are beginning to feel that they
can meet in in masses and and and make a
lot of noise till 2 3 4 o'clock in the
morning so I just uh want to uh say that
I think I find that very uh very
saddening and uh I want to thank our
Police Department for uh being out there
and putting themselves you know at uh
Peril in the line of duty and for no
good reason I mean it's not like it's
you know anyway I I don't understand why
it's happening well maybe I could but we
won't go into that it'd be a whole
semester thank
you okay I just wanted to mention a
couple of things uh Adrien wmer
utilities thank you and your staff
Friday we were invited to the utilities
they had a rodeo day a lot of fun
entertainment food uh but where they got
an opportunity to show off their skills
through various competitions from back
holes to meters to um the skid unit and
councelor mclair was there and she
participated and did a tremendous job on
that skid I think she placed she got
some Hardware okay I mean made that part
up but she did she did extremely well it
was like an obstacle course and she did
she did well but thanks for
participating our city manager was there
as well but it was a great day a great
event and thanks for the invite thanks
for all you do at
utilities that also um again a reminder
that the veterans parade will be this
Saturday at uh downtown at 11:00 a.m.
and I encourage everyone to get out and
vote as well and uh next week I'll be
out at the National League of cities
um where uh the city of losas will be
receiving a lifetime award for being a
member of national league of cities for
50 years so I'll be attending that and
receiving that for the city of Los
Cruses she was going to ask for yeah
that's for the city uh Tampa
Florida know rough
thank you councelor protus with that uh
I'll turn it over to the city manager
for his
comments thank you mayor Enriquez city
council con Tomia city
manager and I just wanted to keep this
short and simple tomorrow is is voting
day as we all know and um from this seat
and from staff uh we we uh stick to the
facts here so I'll share uh what what
the facts are
uh we have a GRT on the ballot this
would be the first increase in about 10
years if it um if it passes this would
produce about 11 uh $1 million uh for us
on average a year for public safety for
Road Park improvements and critical
infrastructure GRT is paid by everyone
who purchases goods and services in Las
Cruses from city council uh from City
County residents and tourists and
visitors not just residents the increase
amounts to about 32 cents for every $100
GRT is not collected on groceries and
not collected on medicine in New
Mexico if it passes the change will go
into effect July
2025 as mentioned key projects uh could
include a new downtown public safety
facility indoor Recreational facility
needed improvements to streets Parks
Etc I have had the opportunity in this
past week to meet with our construction
team which includes Public Works
includes end user departments such as
parks and
wreck uh City manager's office quality
of life museums libraries and uh our uh
and our uh planning and Innovation
team in this meeting uh we were
presented a list of capital projects
amounts that amounts up to $787 Million
worth of projects
that that U are the total amount of
funds that are needed to complete these
projects and we don't have these
funds this is a picture of uh and this
is a fact it's a fact that that is uh
the total amount and what the costs of
infrastructure and construction
increasing 40 on average about 40 uh 40%
um panum it's been uh challenging for us
as a city to figure out how to make the
ends meet um one of the options that's
why what you see on the ballot is a GRT
um it's been 10 years since there's been
an increase and so this is this has been
our uh approach Council approved this
and this is where we'll leave it in the
hands of the voters I just wanted to
share that um bring that to light as as
this is what we're we're dealing with
many projects many demands and at the
end of the day uh we we reach out to the
state and they say the state has a lot
of money but for the last uh and and
they do their best uh Representatives
legislators don't uh they they are
allocated
funds Governor they're allocated funds
but there's only so much that they can
do so here's the facts in recent years
they've only given
and um which has been very gracious for
them but they've given us an average of
$1 million um for varing
projects $1 million which goes a long
way um to Knocking the $787 million U
amount of projects now um they we are
grateful there's many uh many reps and
legislators who are tracking we've met
with them uh um those who have been able
to meet thank you so much for making
that time um but this is this is what
we're sharing uh these this is the
situation so I just wanted to share that
to those um as you go out those who
didn't vote tomorrow's uh voting day and
just wanted to put that out there as as
a consideration to those who still have
to make a decision so thank you all
thank you city council mayor for your
time thank you Connie
uh Christine we're looking for a yeah
motion uh to adjourn so move by Floris
second
Graham this is on the motion to adjourn
the meeting councelor McClair yes
councelor matis yes councelor Graham yes
councelor cran is absent councelor
flutes yes councelor bomo is absent and
mayor yes all right thank you
all
for
e for