e
[Music]
you're
on okay good afternoon welcome to the
city council work session meeting uh
today is Monday April 8th 2024 it's
approximately 1 p.m. I mayor Enriquez we
will start with a moment of silence for
the brave men and women of the United
States States and Armed Forces as they
protect our interests around the globe
as well as the courageous men and women
of the Los cruus police department and
fire department as they keep our city
safe
247 if you join us in the pledge I
pledge OB to the flag of the United
States of of America and to the Republic
for which it stands one nation under God
indivisible with liberty and
justice he what did you come
in
yeah we'll get started as soon as our
special guests uh take their seats thank
you
for
okay we'll go ahead and start with jobs
of the week Sarah
Rainey good afternoon
all right good afternoon my name is
Sarah Rainey I am the One-Stop
coordinator for the southwest region of
the workforce Connections Office for
jobs of the week we have for the city of
Las cruus we have a community liaison
the position starts at $47,000 a year
and the posting closes on the 15th we
also have for the City a Parks
maintenance worker um the position
starts at 1557 an hour and the posting
closes on May 6th for wh Sands Missile
Range we have a senior office clerk um
that position is open until filled as
well for the we have a program manager
for the arrowhead Center at NMSU um that
posting is open until the 1st of May
there's an IT Communication System tech
for doniana County that posts starts at
20 25 an hour and um the posting closes
on the 14th of this month we also have a
landscaper position for GNA landscaping
for $13 an hour and the posting closes
on the 1st of
May um as always if you need any help
with any of these jobs or any of the
others that we have available in our
area please contact us at the Alam
office or you can go to employee nm.com
or any one of our social medias and get
more information thank you all
all right thank you Sarah next we have
pets of the week Amy De
Felix hello everyone I'm Amy def Felix
one of the rescue coordinators for the
Animal Services Center of the missio
valley and we'll go ahead and start with
our pets of the week we start off with
our cat and for the second week Madonna
is going to be our cat of the week her
number is
73969 and this week she says my kitten
has since found a forever home so it's
just me now and I'm ready for my turn to
be the baby of the family I absolutely
love getting pets and attention and I
love to be held while while I receive
scritches I'm sure my loving forever
home is out there so please come meet me
and fall in love and then we have our
dog of the week this week who is noly
her number is
6932 and she says I'm a super sweet P
pity mix who just wants to be a laugh
dog I'm friendly with other dogs and I'm
gentle with people I've visited Grace
Village a couple times now and loved
getting treats and giving everyone
kisses I'm hoping my forever home is one
that will spoil me and treat me like a
princess for the rest of my days and
regarding events of course through all
of April we have our Spring Fling
adoption special so all of our adoptions
are only
$50 um we also have offside adoptions
this Saturday April 13th we will be at
PetSmart from 10:00 a.m. to 1
p.m. and then all of our online links
our main website ASC mv.org and then
we're all over social media Facebook
Instagram and Tik Tok we we Facebook and
Instagram WE Post pretty regularly um
Tik Tok we also have some reals andever
pets of the week and also of some uh
highlights of some adoptable dogs and
cats as well and then YouTube and
Spotify and apple podcast is where we
post our our podcast if you guys would
like to listen in and that is all I have
thank
you
okay thank you Amy uh before we start
our agenda items i' just like to
recognize our guest in the audience uh
students from the John Paul Taylor
Academy thank you for being here thank
you for spending your
day and I'd like to ask uh either Miss
Montoya Miss Hernandez if they'd like to
come up and kind of share a little bit
about your Academy and uh how your day
has been
today
thank you thanks for having a a city
council meeting during our field trips
really cool of you to do that my name is
India Hernandez I teach fourth grade at
J Paul Taylor Academy these are our
fourth and fifth graders say hi
everyone we have a few third graders um
with us today too but we are we're out
and about for the eclipse activities we
got a tour of the building a little
while ago which is pretty awesome and
we're just here to sit in on uh a little
bit of your meeting but just a tiny bit
about our school we are a public charter
we're very close we're downtown
um we are Project based uh we wear
uniforms and we have a lot of fun we're
a Kinder through e8th grade school and
um we're not exactly an open campus but
we would welcome anytime if you have
questions or would you'd like to visit
or or come talk to our classes we'd love
that so thank you
again well thank you thanks for being
here so next on the agenda we have the
New Mexico legislative
update and
uh Barbara will
introduce good afternoon May Council
Barbara benom chief administrative
officer for the record uh yes this
afternoon we'll be giving a report about
the 2024 legislative session we'll be
going over uh legislation of Interest
our Capital outlay um award and of
course next steps and with that I'd like
to introduce Larry heran the city's lot
uh lobbyist at the state thanks
Larry thank you Barbara um mayor M
Council always good to be here for the
record Larry heran lobbyist for the city
of Las cruus I appreciate that barbar
gets things set up for me you don't
leave me unsupervised as the podium so
that shows continued good
judgment um it's good to be here before
you uh the 2024 legislative session
ended on February 15th um at noon as a
reminder in every even numbered years
the it's a 30-day legislative session
versus odd number of years of 60-day
legislative session the difference is in
a 30-day legislative session the subject
matter considered by the legislature is
limited to revenue matters
Appropriations or messages from the
governor other areas that the governor
allows for consideration and also bills
that were previously vetoed 60-day
sessions are really open to the field
the legislators can introduce anything
that they want um during a 60-day
session this year uh a total of 658
bills were introduced sounds like a lot
but when you have $3.5 billion in in
excess revenue and and you include bills
that are called dummy bills that are
really placeholders that's really not a
significant number of of legislation or
it's a pretty small number in a in a
robust 30-day session you'll have closer
to probably 12 to 1500 pieces of
legislation so it was very light this
year that includes 119 and then in
addition there's 119 memorials joint
memorials and joint resolutions um as
far as legislation that we were tracking
just for the city of Las crus is a total
of 91 of those 658 we were keeping an
eye on for
you um going into the session the state
had a very positive economic revenue
forecast as we talked about about 3.5
billion in excess or new revenues over
what they were going to they were
projecting for the budget coming in for
the first time in history of the state
we've hit 50 over 50% of the revenues
coming directly from oil and gas it has
started to be about 30% but because of
the robust activity primarily in the
premium Basin it was over 50% this year
and so with a lot of relatively new
legislators the balance is how do you
how do you sock away some of that 3.5
billion have a budget increase that's
responsible with it acknowledging that
with a dependence on oil it's going to
be cyclical so we're going to have
another downturn um in the next
hopefully not for a while but we'll have
another downturn because we've seen it
in the past and so that's really kind of
the struggle that the legislators have
how do we spend it how do we adopt a
responsible budget and um
and how do we keep our members happy to
invest enough in infrastructure and
things like that to address the needs of
the state so I'll go through a lot of
the the policy issues we'll get to
Capital Outlet here in a little bit um
as is normal in a 30-day session they
had an Omnibus tax reform package what
happened in the 60-day legislative
session is the governor vetoed almost
the entire tax package and tax
reductions that they had so what the
legislature did is they came back and
passed a smaller tax package um with
some reductions and we'll get into more
specifics of that here in a little bit
but they passed an an omous tax bill um
passed this year and that included some
changes like increase in corporate
income tax to a flat income tax rate and
then a lot of the pieces of the of the
tax bill that were vetoed last session
um got included in a new tax bill a lot
of what they talked about during the
session was gun control and crime
reduction out of several pieces of gun
control legislation two made it to the
finish line and passed and were signed
into law that included a 7-Day waiting
period um for purchase of a firearms and
prohibiting um Firearms at polling
places Senate Bill 236 was a bill we
actually had to work on proactively for
the city um if you'll recall in the 60
legislative session Senator Hamlin
carried a piece of legislation that we
were push pushing and staff helped to
get passed and that allows for us to use
a gross receipts tax increment to fund
projects in Metropolitan Redevelopment
areas while they were trying trying to
implement the legislation the Taxation
and Revenue Department identified a
couple areas that made it what they said
was impossible for them to implement so
we had to come back and make some
technical changes to that legislation so
we did that in this session it truly was
a technical fix that we worked collabora
collaboratively with tax and rev um to
fix that act the changes did not have
any impact on any timing we will have on
any of our Metropolitan re development
areas so it didn't slow us down so we
were able to do it in such a way way
that'll be able to keep us on our
timeline to help fund improvements in
those Metropolitan Redevelopment areas
Senate Bill
158 this is what this does is cities pay
a 3% administrative fee to tax and rev
to get our gross receipts tax sent to us
I never thought this bill would pass
because what it does is it eliminates
the fee completely um it was a it was a
robust effort by the municipal taking
taking the lead and I was surprised when
it passed I was been more surprised when
the governor signed it but what it means
for us is over the next several years
that 3% fee is go is going to phase out
and by fiscal year 2029 we won't be
paying any fee to tax and rev um to
collect and provide us with our gross
receipts taxes so looking back at the
numbers from 2019 to 2024 cumulative
that's about $8 million over 5 years for
the city of Los crusis so it's a signif
it will be a significant benefit to the
city once that phase out um reaches we
reaches a total of
0% other issues that are significant um
for Los
cruus uh Senate Bill 151 included
portions of Property and Casualty
premium tax to go to EMS services and
equipment across the state originally
when introduced it was for 10% from that
uh premium tax revenue to go to to the
EMS funding that was paired down to 5%
which comes out to about 11 million a
year to be distributed across the state
that passed so we have now have an
ongoing Revenue source for EMS Services
again I guess this was the session of
things I never thought I would see that
happened they actually passed a return
to work for PE employees it's limited um
as far as who qualifies and for what
positions but they created a a temporary
return to work um under
PE uh they also passed what's called a
new a fund so for all the federal
infrastructure dollars coming in many of
them have match requirements so they
identified a program where they have 75
million set aside for local governments
who need to find local match for some of
those infrastructure dollars to tap
into a big part of or or or high
priority for the city of Las cruus is
dealing with housing and homelessness
issues so there was several initiatives
that we had actually a few meetings with
the governor and her staff um on they
didn't didn't get the full amount of
funding they were looking for for
housing and homelessness homelessness
but there was 125 million to go to the
New Mexico Finance Authority opportunity
Enterprise revolving fund 50 million to
the Housing Trust Fund for the New
Mexico mortgage Finance Authority and
then also just under 20 million for
Statewide homeless initiative so they a
lot of funding went um towards that
priority for
us um House Bill 2 or the the general
fund appropriation for the legislature
um there were several things that that
have an impact for us including 25
million to a grant fund for local fire
and EMS Recruitment um that's a new
that's a new fund and an additional 25
million Grand to local government law
enforcement and Corrections that that
the legislature did last session as well
when we added an additional 25 million U
for this year also 50 million to Water
Project fund 50 million to water trust
fund and then um as you'll recall you're
probably very aware of the issue related
to the employee group benefits plan and
the deficit that exists in that plan
going into the session uh it was about
$120 million that the legislature needed
to backfill to eliminate that deficit
they got about halfway there they didn't
completely fund it and so and and you
probably have been briefed on this
separately after the session the lawsuit
was kind of in a just on hold until the
legislature decided what they were going
to do the judge did Issue a temporary
restraining order saying telling the
state they cannot try and collect for
the this employee group benefits plan
now that they didn't
completely uh deal with the problem so
we're going to have to still be looking
at that problem as we go through this
next
interim so a couple issues that that
came up and policy issues and we'll get
a little more talking about how we may
look at dealing with policy related
issues going forward but that we're of
particular interest or we we were either
asked to weigh in on or are going to be
an issue for us in the future um and it
it coincides with the visits you all
made to Santa Fe that we discussed the
compet criminal competency legislation
what that was was
legislation with an INT an idea of
trying to divert individuals who are
entering our Criminal Justice System but
are have been or will be deemed
incompetent to stand trial trying to
divert them into programs for behavior
for their behavioral health issues
rather than keeping them in the criminal
justice system as a pro it's not a
surprise that's it's a pretty
complicated um issue and you got a lot
of different advocacy groups who wait in
the legislation did not make it out of
committee um there was a couple of
debates on on the bill um but it's going
to be back we know for sure it'll be
back in the 60-day legislation or it
could be sooner um the governor is
talking about calling a special
legislative session to deal with crime
and and competency criminal competency
this would be a topic that she has
identified that she may deal with in a
special session so when we're talking
about special sessions the governor at
any time can issue a proclamation for a
special session and the governor decides
what's on that call this is one of four
topics and the second which also we had
interest in is a panhandling uh statute
or change to panhandling so we don't
know yet whether that's going to happen
now or it's in the 60-day it's in the
governor in the last public statement
said that for her it's about an 80% C
possibility for for calling a special
session
um the legislators I don't think are
probably as inclined to want to go into
special session um the the reason for
that is they're all up for re-election
this year and they're campaigning and
this is a pretty tough issue to tackle
we found out when we're having hearings
on criminal competency there's a lot of
pieces to it that are pretty complicated
so going into a special session what the
idea would be is you would want to have
a deal or an agreement on a bill before
you get called into special session they
are not there yet but they're having
discussions amongst leaders ERS ship and
the governor's office to craft a a new
competency bill um possibly for a
special session so it's it's more of a
stay tuned we've expressed um on behalf
of the city because we took interest in
it during the session that we'd like to
be part of those discussions um haven't
reached the point yet that we've that
they've asked us and that we've been
able to come to the table but um we
provided a lot of good information
during the session and I know we had a
lot of interest on Council so that's one
stay tuned
for Senate Bill 3 paid family medical
leave um I bring this up just to put it
on your radar this is the second session
we've had paid family medical leave
introduced um and essentially the
concept of Paid Family Medical Leave is
providing it depends on on who you talk
to but it's providing paid leave much
like the Federal Medical Leave Act the
FMLA but it's actually paid leave for
employees and the way it would and it's
separate from your other leave benefits
so it would be separate from your sick
and regular vacation leave the way it
was introduced Senate Bill 3 there's two
competing pieces of legislation one
allowed for 12 weeks paid leave and had
had a broader definition of what a
family member was and what leave you
would be eligible for a second effort
was that was backed primarily by
Chambers of Commerce and businesses was
it was lesser it was a six week paid
leave with a more narrow definition of
what a family member was and when you'd
be
eligible the that that bill didn't make
it out of its first committee the
version that I identified Senate Bill 3
that's the 12we paid Med medical leave
that's employer employee contribution
run by the state of New Mexico um and
you would be eligible for that leave as
an employee last year it died by one
vote in a committee this year they had a
floor vote on the house floor and it
died 34 to 36 so two votes it's an issue
for for the city because as a large
employer it will apply to the city
and it will be back this is the kind of
thing we are going to see until
something passes and so I want to flag
it for you at maybe something as we look
into how we're going to deal with policy
issues going forward that we want to
take a deeper dive and a look at and see
what impact it's going to have and then
also do we want to be have a seat at the
table and a voice to to voice um if
there's changes if there's issues with
it if there's things we think we we
could do to make it better it will apply
to us we would not be exempt and so it's
something we're going to be dealing with
um going
forward now to Capital outlay it's your
turn
good thanks very much Larry uh yes once
again Barbara Beno chief administrative
officer for the record so we want to
talk a little bit about our Capital
outlay process the process by which we
identify capital projects for which we
would like State funding the process
really starts when the city council
adopts s the CIP in May as part of our
budgeting process because then we have a
record of what city council priorities
are um in the realm of our capital
projects afterwards we meet with
legislators to find out what their
priorities are since they are the um the
folks who will be providing funding uh
to the community Through capital outlay
and then we go through a an exercise
where we align those legislators
priorities with the council adopted CIP
in order to find where there are over
where there's overlap where there are um
projects that are both priorities for
the city through the adopted CIP and
through the and for the legislators then
we bring those projects to the city
council for review in a work session uh
typically the first uh part of November
and then the council is able to provide
feedback and then ultimately adopt the
priority list of capital projects in the
November uh sorry in the December time
frame um that's by resolution and then
we use that resolution to submit our Pro
the list of our Capital priority
projects to the legislative Council
services in January and that's really
the um initial documentation of those
projects that we're requesting for which
we were re requesting
funding
this year some of the projects that
received funded funding are listed here
for you the largest project is the
Amador Crossing housing project on the
Community of Hope campus I will point
out that out of that total $5.97 five
million the governor did contribute $3
million to that project uh we also had
funding for our um mih building uh for
the fire department and this funding
coupled with some funding that we have
for Sen from Senator Heinrich um $3
million will be able to construct this
project previously we had funded the
design for the mih building um out of
arpa funds so we we really were able to
put together several different funding
sources for this project um and then you
see the other uh projects we do have a
couple um the msia Valley Community of
Hope Distribution Center um this has to
do with the uh soup kitchen redesign and
Cas the pigos project re receive some
funding of course we are the the um
owner of that property and then it's
operated by the nonprofits there on site
same thing for the domestic violence
shelter that's lacasa we own that
property um there's funds that are now
received for some renovation to that
property
um so in total the amount that we
received councelor Karan you're smiling
at this this is the graphic you
suggested last year that we add and I
just continued it on to this year we
have a total of
11.75 million for our community Through
the projects that we outlined one thing
I'll say um the the amount is similar to
what we received last year but it's more
concentrated in fewer projects which in
many ways for from a capital standpoint
is advantageous because it really allows
us to complete these projects and not to
get smaller peac meal funding and then
we have to uh find other sources in in
in order to actually complete the
project so the other part of what we're
doing at the uh legislative session in
addition to the the policy that Larry
mentioned the capital outlay request
that I just spoke about is
reauthorizations of projects that we
have previously received funding for so
sometimes for various reasons we need
more time to spend the the money uh we
have four years initially once a project
has been authorized through Capital
outlay if we need time extensions if we
need to change some of the language of
what the funds can be used for or if we
need to change the scope um for the use
of the funds then that involves a
process where we go back to the
legislature um typically one of the
sponsors that previously allocated funds
to us will then sponsor the
reauthorization uh Larry helps helps to
obtain those signatures um and get them
and get them through the process so I'm
just showing you a list of some of the
projects that were reauthorized during
this session and you'll see that some of
them in most of them involved time but
some involved language and scope changes
as
well with that I'll turn it back over to
Larry uh thank you Barber again Larry
heran lobbyist for the record just as we
as you think about those capital outly
the one thing I'll mention that we
didn't talk about the top two Amador
Crossing and the mental mobile
Integrated Health building we received
um funding from the governor's office
which is the largest partt of money for
those projects but also a lot of the
work that we did in the interim
including meetings with leadership with
with chairman small from the House
Appropriations Committee with the
governor's housing coordinator during
the session when you all came up we had
discussions with the legislators and the
governor's office on those projects and
so it's a really good example of of um
City staff and also use the council and
mayor coming up to talk to our
legislators during the session and
identify it as a priority and then we
see some success it doesn't always work
um but if you don't give it make it the
effort then it for sure won't work so it
was it was a really good example of a
success we had um this session and so we
had a time to take a breath breathing
time's over
um because we're already into April so
now we have to think about the next
legislative session which you think
starts in January but it doesn't it
starts as soon as the Sig signing period
is over for the governor interim
committees will be starting in fact
between the time that we finalize the
PowerPoint and today the first interim
committee actually has been scheduled
legislative finance committee has its
first meeting next week um that
legislative finance committee will start
working on next year's budget
immediately so they always meet first
the other interim committees will start
meeting some of them late may but mainly
June so they'll start having their
committee meetings coming up in the
coming months the ones that we really
focus on or usually our issues will be
in front of as a legislative finance
committee um the revenue stabilization
and tax policy committee that's the
interim tax committee so there's always
lots of issues related um to to local
government financing and courts and
corre courts Corrections and Justice I
bring that up because when we're talking
about things like criminal competency
panhandling criminal justice reform
that's the committee those are going to
those are going to come out of um we
talked a little bit about the special
session don't know yet um whe whether
that's going to happen or when and we
talked a little bit about the the
election having an impact on that all
112 legislators are up for re-election
as soon as their in session or a
proclamation is issued there's a a
Prohibition on fundraising and
campaigning so it stops them and so when
they're wanting to run they're reluctant
to want to go back into session because
of that cuz they're all focused on their
on their elections and also when you're
dealing things like things like
competency and Criminal Justice Reform
those can be some tough votes so in the
middle of a primary election season and
a general election season it's just not
a time that they have a lot of appetite
um to go into special session but it's
beyond their control so it's really a
discussion between leadership and the
governor's office and and going into
this next session there's 42 members and
the Senate 70 members of the House 13
Senators for sure we know are not coming
back so that's almost a 25% turnover
I've never seen that large of a turnover
at one time in the Senate and there's
about nine house members weren't coming
back so you combine the last two house
elections and there's a significant
number so we're going to have a lot of
new legislators we also are going to
have brand new leadership on the
minority side so both the minorities
senate floor leader and the House
minority leader did not f for um they
didn't file their signatures for
re-election so nobody knew about it
until a few days before the signing
period or until they had to declare so
there's a void at leadership which is
creating some chaos at the legislature
um but it leads us into to a discussion
and we had some good this morning we got
to meet with staff and talk about hey
how do we want to attack this interim
because we're coming into a 60-day
session and you have a lot of pretty
heavy um policy issues that you may want
to consider how do we deal with that um
and so I thought what was helpful and
came from our discussion is lots of
times when we think about the
legislature as a local government we're
thinking primarily about capital outlay
and money but really there's two there's
two big areas right there's Capital
outlay money which I think the the
process that Barbara talked about is a
very effective process to try and better
connect us with our legislators and find
out hey what would you like to
fund but the policy side is is different
and it has different timelines and it
has different um it has different ways
that you want to consider dealing with
it so traditionally what we do we meet
with Council we meet with legislators we
come back late in the year you adopt
your Capital La priorities and we and we
let them know um our legislators what
those are when as it relates to policy
it's much more of an ongoing
conversation and a lot of these issues
may be multi-year issues and so the
timing may not work as we get closer to
the session and so we were we had some
discussion on how can we better maximize
participation of the city in some of
those policy issues and the first thing
in order to do that is we staff and also
me I need to know what those are what do
you care about what are those policy
issues that are in your wheelhouse or
you that you think we should be weighing
in on and so I think at least what we've
proposed is we have individual meetings
with with counselors and the mayor early
on like when I say early I say May June
time period the next month or two to
identify potential policy issues because
if you're going to work on a policy
issue you can't wait till the end and
the interim process starts in June those
discussions start in June so if we wait
till too late in the year it's frankly
too late and so what we've talked about
is potentially meeting meeting with
counselors and then having maybe a work
session focusing just solely on
legislative policy issues I've already
identified a couple things I can't tell
you for sure they're going to come up in
this session but if I was a betting
person I would bet very heavily Paid
Family Medical Leave competency Criminal
Justice Reform you know cannabis
tweaking of the Cannabis legislation
those are things we know we're going to
see and so there's some things that we
could talk about that we know that that
you are going that we're going to see
legislation on another thing is and and
this is an opportunity for us and we had
some discussion about this last year is
there was an a change to the
Constitution by resolution for an
exemption to the um anti-d donation
Clause that was to allow for certain
projects to allow spending of public
dollars on private property where would
apply to the city of Los Cruses is we've
been working on the septic problem for
ever since I started which has been a
while and we still have a lot of work to
do and apparent I can't leave until it's
finished so we might want to finish it
at some point but the problem that we've
identified is once you take a sewer line
up to the prop property line of a
homeowner we can't finish it now the way
the resolution passed is if you pass
enabling legislation meaning if we
introduce a bill in the legislature to
allow for spending of public dollars for
that exception we want to adopt a
program for property owners to be able
to apply for funding to extend we can do
that but we have to pass a bill and so
that hasn't been done nobody has nobody
has tried it since the resolu res
olution passed but there's things that
we should start talking about now
because if we're going to do that we
want to make sure we get it drafted you
get to see what it looks like we get to
vet it through inter committees and then
we try and pass a bill during the
session and so that's a lot of of what
we talked about how can we put that in
place um so that we can be more
proactive in dealing with um with some
of those policy type of issues and then
it's always a question of advocacy um
how how best do we utiliz the city to
advocate for issues and you as elected
officials to Advocate um just a couple
of thoughts after this past session we
were more active than we have been in
the past and there's a couple of of
circumstances that I'll I'll point to
specifics um you all came up around Los
cruus days in Santa Fe mayor protim you
were there a little early you had a very
set identified agenda of what you wanted
to talk about who you wanted to talk to
so we went around we made the rounds and
you were you were you were able to to to
advocate for issues and then following
that weekend mayor was there staff was
there we got to meet with the governor's
office we got to talk about Amador
Crossing Mobile Integrated Health got to
hit the legislators on EMS funding all
of those things were we see successes
you had a chance to weigh in on so it
was very effective advoc advocacy
because it was targeted and you came in
at the appropriate time and you had the
ask that you had a very specific ask of
legislators and so um what's our
opportunity to um improve on that to
think about what are there other areas
we want to advocate for and effectively
use you all and staff's time and then
and um city manager asked me he said
what about the people we had up there
was it right and it I thought it was
great because one thing that I noticed
and I'll go to another specific example
we wanted to meet with Senator Hamlin
she was rushing to another meeting they
tried to the gatekeeper tried to say no
we ignored that we got we got into sear
and her office was too small because
there was so many people from the city
of Las Cruses that came just to say
hello that sends a really strong message
to our legislators and other legislators
of you took the time you showed up you
came to advocate for issues that were
important to the city and we had a good
successful session so as we're looking
at advocacy as we're thinking about how
do we I'm always thinking about how do
we do better next session how do we
protect ourselves better from Bad
legislation how do we pass good
legislation how do we get more money and
those are the things we're thinking
about so I think we've we've identified
some good areas to adopt a good
strategic process um to improve on that
in the coming sessions and I think
because I went off slide a little bit
not shocking the next one might be
questions yep so now I I appreciate it
I'm happy to stand for
questions or defir to
Barbara all right thank you Larry um
councilor FR thank you Mr Mayor and
thank you so much Larry thank you so
much also for your presentation and for
your work um I would just like to know
exactly what the Strategic process would
be I think that we uh were very
fortunate to meet with Mr Guan uh chief
of staff for the governor uh he was very
attentive and he asked questions and he
admitted that he didn't know a lot about
um that part of our city at least maybe
all of our city I don't know but
specific to Amador Crossing and um and
he was pleased to to know that we own
the property there and um and it was
just very Su successful I could so I I'm
pleasantly uh I'm very happy that uh we
got that almost $12
million um but in so far as um the
septic tank issue is a very important
one for me um and possibly for counselor
well maybe other counselors too but I
know my district district six um a lot
of them are in septic tanks and you're
absolutely right the problem is that
even when there's money for the removal
of the septic tank or the um the uh
infrastructure for it the hookup is the
problem so I'm happy to hear I I want to
see work on the anti-d donation Clause
so that there can be money going uh to
those homes in fact I just received an
email from um from one of my
constituents well about two weeks ago
and um and our utilities department um
Mr Clark said you've got to ask money
from the legislature for the hookups I
go duh so thank you and I also wanted to
know
exactly um what we should do
um it to have our the interim um session
what are the dates for the session again
or did you
say uh mayor counselor for the interim
the interim committees most of them
start into of May and end of June yeah I
know Joann's been going to and then
they'll go through December so their
last meetings will always be in December
so for about six months they'll be
meting is didn't you say there's going
to be an interim session there could be
a special session uh mayor councelor
Flores but that's up to the governor so
the governor we won't know until the
governor issues a proclamation well
we'll know a little bit before that
there'll be some signals so they'll
indicate it's coming but that is
completely within the purview of the
governor to call a special session at
any time yeah cuz her term uh ends I
believe this year right oh it's next
year two years oh she has two more years
two and a half oh okay I mayor and
Council fro I always count in sessions
she has two more regular sessions she
has a 60-day and a
30-day okay thank you thank you so much
and thank you Barbara thank you very
much thank you Mr
Mayor May pro thank you thank you so
much Larry um yeah similar to for your
work with us and I'm always um I
honestly I always dread going up there
it's like I get lost in this circle and
everyone's so busy and you schedule time
but it never works out and so going with
you is is always such a pleasure because
you just have such great relationships
there and um Natalie Green is back there
and we just made such a good team when
we went so um and it was Nicole Martinez
and three of us and so just want a
little shout out to Jojo over there um
by the way all these kids are falling
asleep Larry don't take that personally
I I think that I think that the pets the
pets presentation was a little bit
better for them but um don't take it
personally Larry
uh um so I just wanted to thank you so
much for you know taking us around when
we come and and for doing all of that
yes I have a bunch of questions for you
um well I'll say on the special session
on competency you said there is a
potential for a a new piece of
legislation not the same one right
because I had heard initially that they
would be coming back for a special
session on the exact same bill which
seemed silly as if I tuned into to that
last committee where it was in and there
was sort of like willingness and sort of
support but it it felt like people
weren't ready to vote on that specific
piece of legislation so if it's a new if
if a governor does call for a special
session you think it would be a
different piece of legislation uh mayor
and Council B Como yes and I'll I'll
take a quick opportunity I appreciate
your opening you're always welcome I'm
always happy when you come up you all
come up and I don't want you to dread it
that's part of why you have us because I
can help you navigate that place and
then it's not it's not such a dreadful
chaotic well it's still a dreadful
chaotic place but at least you at least
you have a navigator to help you and I
knew when I saw him come in that I felt
bad for the the school kids that they
had to hear in my presentation there had
to be something more interesting for
them but um hopefully they stayed awake
somewhat uh but to your question yes we
I think it's going to be a new bill I
don't know what it's going to look like
I had a conversation with representative
Christine chanler who's chair of the
house Judiciary Committee I think that's
probably the hearing you're referring to
cuz that's the one where both Democrats
and Republicans clearly had issues with
the bill she said what what she is
hearing is the governor's office is
working on a new
version but if we're so far All The
Advocates and people are not at the
table yet so in on a when we did the
assisted Outpatient Treatment act um
Senator papen did that that took four 5
years dealing with these issues is
really hard it's really heavy that's why
it's going to be hard to do in a special
session so um we don't know yet we
haven't seen anything yet but I have
indicated that we want to be part of the
conversation in the formation of the
bill not just in the once it's
constructed yes I also wanted to know
gratitude for that um Larry I think
several members of the council and
definitely Chief story um are wanting to
be part of those conversations and the
creation of the legislation so I
appreciate that and mayor and counselor
what I will say Chief story provided at
least from what I saw the only real
solid data we had from a local
government perspective about the arrests
the charges um and it was and it was
presented in such a way that it was easy
for me to make an argument or make a
presentation based on those numbers so
and then also the sensitivity from the
governor's office because of what
happened um in Los cruus they understand
how it's it's a personal issue for
everyone but especially for this
community and they did recognize that so
I think it's really important for us to
be at the table for that conversation
yeah and whenever you can I mean I don't
mean to volunt tell Chief but he's a
data person and I think he's ready to
have those conversations for sure or
continue to if if there's no special
session but there is a piece of
legislation to be ready to be discussed
in the 60-day you said it most lik most
likely be in the ccj interim committee
can you tell us who of our southern New
Mexico legislators are on
there mayor and um counselor I can't
tell you all of them but but Senator
Cervantes as the chair of Senate
Judiciary they rotate chairmanship I
believe he would be Vice chair this year
because represent Chandler is chair um
the others I would I apologize I'd have
to I I can look at the list and let you
know but for sure that's one and it's a
pretty significant one because that bill
will go through Senate Judiciary okay
thank you for that for sure I can look
as well I also want to note that I
always appreciate all the legislative
tea you bring us as well I am I always
enjoy that very much
um let's see and then I think your
suggestion
on having a work session on specific
policy items is important I think in the
past we've done sort of some like
sometimes very individual resolutions in
support of a piece of legislation or
against actually I don't know if we've
ever done one against a piece of
legislation but I guess that could
happen um I I guess the only thing is
that so if you met with us individually
or if we continue to meet with
legislators individually to tell us
these are our priorities can you let us
know as well if there are any pieces of
legislation that match these so that we
can be prepared and then pass
resolutions um in favor of any pieces of
legislation but the only thing I would
say though is that those would have to
come to the entire Council right like
not individuals can say I support it but
she's against it right like we'd have to
have a resolution passed by Council
mayor mayor ptim yes that that's the
idea and it came from a good discussion
today with city manager the assistant
city manager I actually think um ACM
Delgado is the one who came up with the
idea for the work session is yeah and
then but the but kind of the bifurcation
or splitting of capital and policy and
yes the one-on ones would be more of can
you give us a sense of where your
priorities are coming from because then
we can match it with what we think is
coming in the interim and then we would
be prepared to come back to a work
session and say we think these are the
following areas that you are interested
in weighing in policy-wise public safety
mental health competency tax re whatever
those are and come in a public meeting
so you can identify and have that
discussion amongst Council and say yes
this is a priority no it isn't and then
from my perspective although we can't
always do it this way knowing what those
are from a more broad policy or
principle level is the most effective
because if you tie a position to a
specific piece of legislation and it
changes we have a problem because you
could have a bill related that let's let
say we they come up with an interim um
committee bill on competency and
diversion and we endorse that bill and
then they amend it and they change it
completely now you're on record
endorsing the bill that you didn't
necessarily endorse but also our hands
are tied because we can't take a
position or do something on it so it's
much more effective if we take a
principal approach like here's the
principle because that gives direction
to staff because if if we're at a point
in the session where there's going to be
an amendment it's coming to the next 15
minutes you clearly cannot have a
meeting and so that's a discussion with
whoever you've identified on staff of
hey here's here's what it is does it fit
and so it gives some flexibility but
then but also captures what you as the
governing body have determined as the
principle that you want us to support if
that makes sense that makes total sense
Larry I think that's an excellent point
and I appreciate you bringing that up
for sure okay um I guess we have a
little bit more Breathing Room in a
60-day right than a 30-day but not very
much it's still just a 30-day times two
so um let's see let me just check my
notes and make sure I asked everything
um I think that's it Larry thank you so
much oh yes one last question are you on
contract with us through the interim as
well so like do you also attend interim
meetings uh mayor mayor P yes well it's
a year round and so that includes the
interim the strategy um identifying
issues in interim committees that will
fit with priorities of the reporting
also the work with M Municipal because
that's the other piece like the tax
administration fee that was a municipal
League effort because it impacts all
cities and so we provide support on
those issues but some of these issues
like competency that's also something we
may want to ask the league we need to
make sure you weigh in on it as well so
it's not just city of Los Cruses and
mayor's on the board now I think we have
a second Municipal league position to
but I can't remember I need to make sure
and find out if it is that it's filled
and if it's not that we fill it but
that's another place that's important is
to participate but things like Paid
Family Medical Leave the association
will not take a position on it because
they have members that are split some
are for and some are against it so we
still have issues we have to do on our
own okay and those interim meetings they
happen all over this state right they of
take turns mayor mayor ptim yes and some
and then part of our discussion is how
do we get them to to a point where we
can highlight the city of Las Cruses
because we can also host them and when
you host them you get an opportunity
yeah for about half of a day's meeting
to show them something and talk to them
so the more we've talked about that
that's part of what our discussion has
been in the past and I would recommend
because we we get them down here and we
show them um they the legislative
finance committee did come down last
year it was hosted at farman Ranch it
was in July maybe not the best time to
have them down because it was 115 the
whole time but maybe we do it in the
fall but it's something we should
consider that's a great idea um a
location that's a great idea iight I
have one last question for sure Barbara
you've done a great job at sending us
all the graphs and all the numbers and
who's who's given what do you have that
breakdown even further specifically who
has given what to what project I think
what you gave us was overall what they
gave and and and then my second question
to that would be how do we um thank
them great question um so yes we
actually have information about all the
Appropriations that each legislator has
made not just to us but to other
entities as well which is very helpful
um so we have quite a bit of of data on
that uh not just for Capital outlay but
also for what we used to call Junior
money now called grow right uh through
the cogs so we have quite a bit of
information about what are some of the
things that our legislators are
interested in supporting um with respect
to your second question about how do we
thank them um I'm grateful that we have
Mandy G Gus who is helping us to develop
this year as she did last year um the
thank yous to our legislators those that
are specific uh to what they have funded
and we're also working to towards
developing quarterly updates for them
for the projects that they funded so
that we can um uh keep them apprised of
the progress and I know today Larry
mentioned that he thought it would be
very powerful to have um also some
handwritten notes for example from the
mayor uh to the legislators as well the
other way that we thank them um I know
that Mandy um has posts on social media
to thank them so that that can propagate
and then certainly for the projects that
they are supporting when we have
groundbreakings ribbon cuttings we
always want to make sure that we're
including the the legislators as well so
that that's part of the plan uh that's
been developed I don't know if you have
anything else to add to
that um no the only thing I would say is
es especially around amator Crossing and
mental uh the Integrated Health building
is that we set up a time and we invite
the governor to see if we can coordinate
when she can come down um for a meeting
because it's good to make sure and thank
her give her the opportunity and then
also it helps us with her staff because
then we get to have some side
conversations when they come down so
that's the other thing that I think once
we can identify a date I'll work on
coordinating that to see if we can get
it to a time where she can come down
okay thank you and then Barbara will you
just when you get a minute like I said
the graphs You' sent are great but
specifically who gave what is that
something you can we send us mayor we
have it this is the this is the
published list it's 146 p
it's a fascinating even if you want to
see legislators outside of the region
it's pretty fascinating to see what they
like to fund totally but I can condense
that a little bit for you thank just so
you know yes we know for example that
seven of our legislators funded the
Amador Crossing project the amounts and
and which ones they were so yes I will
definitely forward that to you all thank
you both so much thanks
mayor thank you that uh councelor
current which first of all I'm just
going to digress into tell a tiny story
when I thank you Larry when I when I
first started teaching uh at the
community college one of my students
said to me oh my gosh Miss um you know
you're just like when you're talking
it's just like Bones from the TV show
and I was all like oh yeah she's
brilliant and pretty and they were like
yeah uh every time she talks everyone
falls asleep and I was like oh okay so
anyway and uh I don't even talk about
taxes so I feel you I feel you um you're
just like bones too um thank
you I thank you for your presentation
and for helping helping us out as we
navigate this I did want to follow up I
know that the modernization of the
legislature is still one of those things
that's up for discussion and I think one
of the things that might be happening is
that legislators are getting
staff I don't know if that's really
happening this is like a thing that I
keep hearing but I didn't know if that
also would have an impact on our ability
to sort of connect to legislators and if
there are ways we can leverage that
possibility or maybe that's not right
now I don't know exactly mayor and
counselor Corin so kind of so they had
money out of the last legislative
session they issued an RFP to do a study
um and that's primarily looking at staff
they did introduce a couple resolutions
that would have changed the length of
the session and also a resolution
related to salaries those didn't get
anywhere but what we are seeing a an
interim step or a baby step so for the
first time in history the finance
committee for instance has a full-time
Chief of Staff he started about a year
and a half ago and the House
Appropriations hired a full-time Chief
of Staff last interim although it's only
two those two positions it's pretty
significant because everything budget
related went through the legislative
finance committee then to the
legislators now we're able to deal
directly with staff so when we met on
Amador Crossing with chairman small from
House Appropriations his chief of staff
was there she heard him say it's a
priority for me housing is a priority
and so they're getting there I we don't
know what the stud's going to say I'm
inclined to think or what I'm hearing is
it will probably be more staff related
to specific subject matters versus
individual staff for all legislators but
they're still talking about Regional
Offices but even the legislators who are
for modernization aren't sure how how
that is because what why would they want
to have why would they want to come in
to Los cruus from hatch to talk to
somebody from hatch about an so there's
some Logistics but they're still having
discussions about it and we're going to
see a study come out sometime this inter
good no thank you I think that's just
another opportunity that we might have
to to sort of keep talking so thank you
for that update and thank you for
everything thank
you yes councelor
mcll I want to say Larry I had a really
good time in Santa Fe actually I thought
it was kind of energizing so um I'm
happy to go up there again I I had a
question more about sort of nonprofits
and organizations that are working with
the city how do what's the process with
them sort of interacting or what's the
best way for them to is there like a
point person Barbara is that you bar
Barbara standing up but while she walks
here I'll tell you what we have done and
what we're planning on doing so so
Senator Hamlin had we have done two
inter presentations to nonprofits here
in city council chambers with staff
myself legislators to talk about the
process as it relates to Capital outlay
we're doing a third this interim I think
we just identified the date of July June
25th where we bring them in we run
through the timelines and all the
requirements to help navigate that
system so we've been proactive although
kind of as we do every session right
there's there's ways we can improve so
we're going to make some tweaks to it
but they're coming again so they can
figure out that navigation and then now
kick it to party is that something we
can join in
too and and just point of privilege by
evalan
one of my kiddos is in there goodbye
thank you for being here
bye so um yes absolutely um we typically
invite the city council and this year we
will make sure that we invite all of our
legislators as Larry mentioned Senator
Hamlin has been very active and
participating in the training and we
certainly appreciate her being here for
that but we do want all of our
legislators to have the opportunity to
come and interact with the nonprofits we
go over the basics of capital outlay um
how the nonprofits need to um submit
different um information to different
entities what they need to do if they
are interested in having the city be a
Fiscal Agent for them we go over what
used to be the junior money uh SLG grow
this year we're going to bring the Cog
here to handle that part of the
presentation since they are
administering that process um so it's
it's been about a two-hour session we
follow that up we we have it out here in
council chambers not only because of the
attendance which we've gotten very good
attendance but also because we can
record the session and so afterwards we
do send the recording out to the
nonprofits along with the presentation
and any notes that we've taken uh
related to questions that we get during
the
session thank you thank
you anyone
else well Larry thank you thank you for
your presentation thank you for
representing us and being here always
good to see you thank you mayor
appreciate
it next on the agenda we have the office
of emergency management update on budget
in agreement with donana
County well good afternoon mayor members
of city council fire chief Jason Smith
for the record I'm uh saddened that my
backup team left they had to go to a
respond to another emergency so I won't
have uh John PA John Paul Taylor helping
me out today uh so we're going to be
presenting the uh update on the office
of emergency management uh as well as
some of our recommendations on pursuing
updating
aou so to to cover some of our strategic
results uh these are four of our results
within the Los cruus fire department uh
in our admin administrative line of
business under Emergency Management
program uh to prep prepare and present
and train City Council in incident
command by annually make sure we plan
and coordinate necessary training to
better prepare establish Emergency
Management guidelines and responses and
also to uh make sure that we uh
regularly update any Emergency
Management plan that we may have today
you're going to be hearing from our
emergency manager Steven Lopez uh he's
with the office of emergency management
also here is his Deputy emergency
manager Amanda Bowen
and doing the most of the heavy lifting
for the fire department will be deputy
chief Mike
Daniels and with this I'd like to turn
it over to Steven
Lopez thank you Chief and uh good
afternoon Mr Mayor counselors my name is
Steven Lopez as mentioned I'm the
emergency manager for donana County and
the city of Los crues where we've been
operating since 2001 under a Cooperative
agreement and appreciate this time to
kind of give you a sense of where we've
been over the last year but I want to
start off by thanking all of the city
departments that have worked with us
over the past year on a variety of
projects uh both the city manager's
office and all of the staff there as
well as the city flood plane
administrators Public Works utilities
the airport facilities uh City risk City
it and of course the Lost crues police
department and Los cruus fire department
uh and just goes to show you the breadth
of the partnership that we have with the
city of Los crues and uh in my opinion
it's going really well and get stronger
every year which is exactly what we want
to
see over this past year we have offered
a number of incident command classes
both Amanda Bowen and myself are
instructors for FEMA in incident command
and we've also added on a few other
things we are adding on some courses
in really kind of the bigger incident
command beyond the ones that we teach
our firefighters and police officers at
the basic level and we are really
excited that we may be standing up a
regional what's called a type three
Incident Management team and we've had
really good commitments from Los cruus
fire department Los cruus Police
Department to help us fill some of those
critical positions and uh just a 30
seconds of what that means a type three
Incident Management team is when the
really big things happen and our local
agencies are overwhelmed and we need to
work together and by having a joint team
that is prev vetted and is trained
together and has also been checked to
make sure not only they've attended the
training and somehow passed with a 75 or
better on a test but more importantly
they've been actually monitored by an
expert in that area who has signed off
and said yes they are actually able to
do it in a dis faster and uh we will
have the first team in the state of New
Mexico and uh that is really a big
accomplishment for the part of the state
that is often forgotten by Santa Fe uh
so it's going to be nice that that we're
able to continue moving that forward
we've also had a coordinated Regional
Hazmat exercise in January that followed
along one that we did back in October uh
with the 64th civil support team from
the New Mexico National Guard uh we had
a lot of different agencies participate
in January's exercise including Los
Cruz's fire department and we have
started I I've mentioned that type three
all hazards Incident Management team
we've started now the position specific
training for that we have completed two
of the courses the leaon officer course
and the planning section chief course
and we will be holding kind of the the
basic fundamentals course which is
called
0305 Nims IC type3 all hazards Incident
Management team uh training course here
at the Las Gus's Convention Center in
well next month now in May and uh it
really that's an expensive course that
the state has actually committed to
helping us put on the state's paying
$25,000 uh of the expense for it and
we're paying the other
15,000 we've made good progress on
starting the updates for many of our
disaster plans most of which are 2011 or
20 2012 vintage uh so we are well past
their use by date we have received
funding for the all hazards Emergency
Operations plan to be updated and hiring
a contractor the contract has been
signed the purchase order is going
through the process right now that is a
company called Title Basin uh they were
selected based on a competitive uh
request for proposals and chief Smith
was one of the people who participated
uh
in helping select that vendor and it was
unanimous by the committee that this is
a vendor who gets the way we do things
here uh which is different than places
that have things like earthquakes or
hurricanes um they they get the the the
different flavor and so we're really
looking forward to having a good product
by the end of this year we also have
received a commitment from the county
flood commission to fund an update to
the all Hazard mitigation plan this is
one of our plans that has been updated
regularly it
is on a mandatory no more than 5e cycle
if we don't keep it up to date then we
lose the ability to obtain Federal
funding so it's really critical that we
keep this going last time around we
secured a grant for the funding and the
flood commission agreed to manage that
Grant it was so painful that they
decided they're just going to outright
fund it this time if OEM will manage the
grant for them and we said we're happy
to do that because the paperwork on some
of these grants is not fun for anybody
so we'll be starting that work we we're
actually intentionally waiting on that
until July 1 so that we don't have to
worry about Crossing fiscal years with
those funds we'll just get started right
off fresh with a new fiscal
year on emergency Sheltering uh some of
you have heard us talk in the past we've
never had a dedicated Sheltering
capability until recently that is now up
and running we have the ability to do at
least 500 people out of the county
fairgrounds the county fairgrounds was
selected as the permanent site for one
simple reason it's not close to anything
else so if we've got people who are
having to be evacuated from an area we
don't want to evacuate them into another
area that they may have to be evacuated
from again so we needed a place that was
separate we also needed a location where
we could handle the number one reason
that people do not evacuate in any
disaster which is their pets and when we
say pets um it is a very loose term
because some people have chickens thanks
to covid times and those are pets and
cows and horses and the fairgrounds just
started making a lot of sense as we
tried to figure out where we were going
to put these we did have some very brief
discussions with Los cruus Public
Schools about using gymnasiums but for
some reason they do not want horses and
cows on gym
floors so we've got that set up we also
do have a mobile Sheltering capability
with two large army tints that are fully
insulated and have Heating and Cooling
capabilities so we can go to a small
isolated area and provide local
Sheltering if
necessary and uh again the animal
Sheltering is is really a key part of
that and as we started looking at the
animal Sheltering uh we started talking
with the Animal Services Center and we
are are set to meet next Monday with the
Animal Services Center to talk about a
disaster plan both for them as well as a
disaster plan for animals that may be
stray may have gotten loose in a
disaster need to be picked up evaluated
by a vet cleaned up and taken to a
reunification Center so uh very exciting
things happening on our animal
Sheltering side and then on our threats
and Hazards identification and risk
assessment commonly called a thyro plan
it is a three-year plan
that in some federal documents they
insist uh FEMA looks at these and that's
what drives National policy um I'm still
skeptical about FEMA actually reading
hours but it is a really good plan to
have anyway for us it looks at what are
the common hazards in our area and are
we okay with those which we should be
because they're common and those are the
things we're regularly dealing with and
more importantly what are the things
that really cause us to to worry at
night those things that we really need
to be prepared for that are not common
and that that's a three-year cycle we
are at the end of this year uh hitting
the end of a three-year cycle we are
actually ahead of schedule on that and
uh we've had really good participation
from our Public Safety agencies in
particular this past year so we are
already starting the new three-year
cycle early we started at this month
with our First Responders advisory
committee meeting here in a week and a
half and uh that that kicks off the new
threeyear cycle if any of you have those
big things that you are worried about
you can either let the police chief or
the fire chief know these are things we
want to see uh considered for the thyra
update or you can directly reach out to
the office of emergency management and
let us
know uh something that is a little
different on our thyra than in years
past uh this last threeyear cycle we
made it a regional thyra so it covers
not just the donana County area it also
is covering Otero County Luna County
hialgo County Grant County Sierra County
kaan County and sakuro County um reason
being they may have the exact same
threats but much less on the resource
side and when they need help their
option may be to declare a disaster and
ask the state for assistance but we have
learned since the 2021 wildfires the
state then turns around and calls the
largest area nearby and asks for help so
it made a lot more sense for us to
actually start looking at a regional
plan and recognize that we can help each
other better as a region than waiting
for the state to play a game of
telephone and get right back to the same
people anyway so it's been a very
successful approach other parts of the
state are actually now looking at trying
to regionalize as well and uh as we work
through this process it does give us the
ability to say here are the capability
gaps that we've identified based on the
hazards and threats identified and that
helps us drive how we go about looking
for funding how we can close those gaps
through additional training through
additional equipment through additional
Personnel or whatever it may
be uh do want to uh proudly announce
that the funding for the new Emergency
Operations Center facility which
includes our administrative offices for
OEM has been approved by the board of
County Commissioners we received $1.5
million in congressionally directed
spending uh that flows through a FEMA
brick program we received another
$960,000
for of funding through the State's icip
through last year and this year's
legislative requests and then the county
came up with over $10 million to wrap up
the funding um it is going to be located
we've already got the lease executed on
property uh just south of the NMSU golf
course it is a win-win in our opinion
because NMSU is going to utilize the
facility also for their large event
management from the public safety side
that helps get our Public Safety
agencies that support an MSU into the
facility and using it regularly so that
if we do have that large disaster
they're already familiar with it and
they're able to come in and immediately
start working it also includes a
something that our area has been lacking
for a long time which is a backup
Dispatch Center for msia Valley Regional
dispatch Authority uh so it will be able
to handle at least 10 dispatcher
workstations and again those will be
utilized during those large incident MSU
so that the dispatch equipment is
continually updated and tested uh so so
that works out uh for
everybody and uh it's going to include
not just an EOC but a real training
classroom so we can have training
classes and the EOC will be able to
handle at least a 100 people which is
much better than the 18 we have right
now um and much more realistic of where
a community of our size should be and
it's going to have a warehouse and a
warehouse is something that we knew we
needed in our community way back when U
Back in 2008 2009 when we were working
on
H1N1 uh pandemic planning and we had to
utilize some warehouse space at NMSU and
fortunately that warehouse space was
still in use with the same n95 masks and
gloves when the covid-19 pandemic
happened and we were able to utilize
those but uh it was just by happen
stance that NMSU hadn't needed that
space and and that cash had been removed
so this is going to give us that
dedicated warehouse and with the water
utility disruption at crua down in suen
park back in December um it really
validated the need to be able to have
things like 20 pallets of bottled water
so that when a large population loses
domestic water it's no longer safe we
can quick respond and take care of needs
for both people and pets uh without
having to wait until we can get access
to a commercial Supply and uh I will
tell you when you do go to Sam's Club
and say that you want 20 pallets of
bottled water um you're clearing out
their entire Supply uh which is actually
that's what fills a semi um and we did
that a couple times during that December
1st through December 4th uh response
on budget uh we are in that joint
Cooperative agreement that I mentioned
earlier uh has an interesting split in
it we have a split of operational
expenses which are never defined uh
between the city of Las Cruses and
donana County but that's after grants
are covered we actually get a good chunk
almost 50% of our salary and benefits
for our Emergency Management staff
covered by grants the Emergency
Management performance Grant um so that
really reduces down uh significantly how
much the city and the county have to
cover and uh lately we we've discovered
you know it's really hard the way that
the joint Powers agreement is written to
do things like we want to do an effort
specifically for the city or we want to
do a effort specifically for out in the
uh areas outside of all municipalities
so we really do need that updated uh
agreement and we'll be talking more
about that here in a minute uh real
quickly overall our budget in most
categories is flat we made some
reductions in some areas as we increased
in others we are
expecting that there may be increased
Personnel costs we don't know what those
are going to look like because we don't
know if there is going to be a
recommendation at the county side for
increases in salaries and we are
expecting there probably will be an
increase inre in contributions at least
on
Healthcare uh
we for some reason have never budgeted
for computer
Replacements so our computers are now 7
years old and older um which is amazing
that we're able to keep them still
functioning but our bigger challenge is
come the end of October Windows 10 will
no longer be supported by Microsoft and
none of these computers are able to be
upgraded so we are actually going to
start a fiveyear budget process we've
identified some newer computers that we
can keep going for a little while um the
county it has agreed to uh throw some
money in to get us a little bit further
along but we're going to actually start
a 5-year rotation on our it equipment so
that we don't find ourselves in this
position in a few more years down the
road so we will actually have every
piece of equipment will be on a 5-year
replacement cycle unless it's uh
something rated for longer than that
and we are also looking at a slight
increase for web EOC uh and that is for
special programming to allow us to
integrate with the state and with wh
Sand's Missile Range uh and tie our
systems together uh for better data
exchange um on the uh budget strategy uh
I kind of touched on that we are looking
at how right now until we get that
updated joint Powers agreement or
intergovernmental agreement or whatever
it ends up being um Trum trying to keep
things off of being an oem budgeted item
and running it in in other directions so
that there isn't that question of you
know why is the city paying for this why
isn't the city paying for that um so
that it's it's at least clean on the
books so with that I'm going to turn it
over to Deputy Chief and talk about next
steps of how we work
together
good afternoon mayor councel I
appreciate the opportunity to come up uh
thank you Stephen for the kind words
about our um I also would like to Echo
what
Stephen said in our about our
relationship I think over the last few
years our relationship has continued to
get stronger and stronger and our
coordination um is probably what I would
say better than what I've experienced in
in in in my career with the
organization so just some background is
uh currently our agreement was
established in
2001 uh I think mayor Smith signed it
um and it's a Cooperative agreement that
really just outlines the basic
relationship that we
have um uh donana county is the Fiscal
Agent and they
are uh the city in the agreement is
responsible for 50% % of the cost but it
just says 50% in the agreement which
really doesn't outline the way the
budget with OEM is
today so uh o I've already said OEM is a
department within the county updated in
2001 uh both the city and the county
established resolutions in the late 60s
uh for the office of emergency
management so our recommendation is that
it's updated uh that we get a in the
form of a either a joint Powers
agreement similar to mvda or an inter
intergovernmental agreement with which
really just updates the current
form some items that we've identified
that we think should be addressed in
this agreement would be oversight
influence from all the
stakeholders clearly defined what those
roles are and what it looks like the OEM
budget that the city is going to provide
the county so it's really clear and it's
something that we can actually plan for
um over time the terms and length of the
agreement establish clear guidelines on
when it's expected to be updated when we
should bring it
back disaster management what each of
our roles is in disaster management
whether the disaster occurs in the city
or it occurs in the county or it's a
countywide impact uh one of the things I
I I would like to look back to for for
many of the members of the community is
in 2019 when we had the migrant surge um
and were a there was a lot of ambiguity
in how we were going to handle that as a
as a as a community um thankfully I
think we were able to put it together
but it required a lot of extra effort
during a time of emergency versus having
a clear established plan for how we're
going to handle it so and then the
administration of the agreement how what
that framework is going to look
like so the the really the the two
options we've looked at are joint Powers
agreement or an intergovernmental
agreement the benefits of a jpa is it
establishes oversight and clear
involvement uh clear and closer
involvement from all the stakeholders in
the community um and it provides the
highest level of transparency because
there you have a director who reports to
a
board uh the challenges sometimes with
jpas it's
not doesn't move as easy it's not Nimble
it it can't adjust and sometimes the
Emergency Management world you want to
be able to adjust quickly to to ongoing
threats or things that are going on you
don't want to get tied up in in in
bureaucracy so it's sometimes it's like
moving a ship and not a boat that's my
Navy uh analogy um and then an
intergovernmental
agreement it's pretty straightforward
it's pretty much what we have today with
just some slight updates to the
structure um it continues to maximize
the economies of scale and we already
have a framework for it uh the challenge
is it may not receive funding from all
stakeholders it it it but that's
something that I think we work on on the
front
end and then lastly uh we're seeking a
recommendation from Council on on how
you'd like to proceed uh one establish a
joint Powers agreement which we
recommend because we it does provide a
very clear framework or we can uh which
would be a simpler process executed a
little quicker uh create an updated
intergovernmental agreement and and hit
some of those key points that we talked
about and that's really it for
me y'all ready for questions and
comments at this time yes thank you
Council correct um just thank you for
your presentation three extremely
diplomatic dudes I just want to make
sure that I completely understand
through your diplomacy you are actually
asking us to give input on something so
thanks for being extremely delicate and
gentle in that ask I appreciate all
three of you for that um first of all I
having been through the process and I
don't want to speak I will speak for
Barbara Beno who has been an
extraordinary resource in terms of
developing jpas for two organizations
that I've been witnessed and I think um
I feel like that process is really
useful also just in the conversations of
developing it and so I I'm here for that
I I do and and I have no qualifications
for that except sorry Barbara and also
thank you for for uh leading this as you
have the the thing that I can't quite
get a sense of is is is are some of us
like not paying our bills in this in
these transactions and is that part of
why this has to happen or is are we are
are we cool with money and this is just
for alizing that okay I just want to be
honest about where we are in that in
that deal so mayor council cran yes
we're we're good we every we're paying
our bills we're paying our end of it we
are it's just to establish some clarity
and and and and really uh allow for
planning and and and be very clear about
what that relationship looks like okay
and and I think that it's very helpful
to have jpa to have a clear like
designation for those things so that's I
just wanted to make sure that you
saying like oh then this will this will
cost a whole bunch more money or
something and I didn't want to say yes
to that so willy-nilly as it seems
that's all thank
you anyone else oh I'm sorry councilor
fles we'll have
toing session thank you Mr Mayor and
thank you so much um I think that the
jpa are you seeking our recommend a or
our comments or our opinions because
we're a very opinionated group
so um my my experience with um
intergovernmental
uh
uh well Powers the the best way to go is
a Jo a joint Powers agreement and um I
know again uh Barbara bomo has been um a
very um essential person in this process
um
and um but I will tell you that even
with the jpa sometimes um you know the
other agrees to the agreement uh have to
be nudged a little bit to pay up um but
it does come through and I think with uh
our current city
manager
uh uh will'll be able to do that but I
strongly recommend a jpa that'll have to
go through the Department of Finance uh
and that does take a while to get um
certified and returned but um I think it
has the most uh safekeeping um it's it's
it's it's just more um enforcable and
doable thank you thank you Mr
Mayor thank you mayor proon thank you
thank you PC um the jpa would be I mean
I think if also if it's the staff
recommendation you all know best what
would function better for this what
appears to be very good working
relationship and obviously the agreement
is now older than all of your computers
so it definitely needs some sort of
looking at right and so I think that's
important um the jpa would be be between
the three
entities City the county and the
OEM mayor May mayor proem uh our goal
would be to engage the rest of our
Community Partners as well in donana
County okay to try to get to try to get
more stakeholder engagement okay I think
I feel like every time Mr Lopez comes I
raise this little bit of a flag for me
because I think it's really important to
note that in an emergency situation
anytime the border patrol is included
and they are like out and obvious that
they're that will limit also a lot of
people's ability to ask for help um a
lot of our IND
siblings and Neighbors in this community
I think um that is just a really
important thing for me to flag as we
move forward with this kind of planning
and planning around emergency uh
services that are being provided um that
I think it's something that we really
have to be intentional and careful
with um and then the last thing I was
going to ask you all is if you have um
training and experience in sink holes
because there was recently an experience
very short to hear and um is one of my
worst nightmares so I just for my own um
piece at night are you trained in sink
holes okay great that's all I needed to
know everybody he is shaking his head
yes thank
you Council
mes thank you mayor I definitely will
endorse the GPA the um I worry concerned
that you mentioned about the the time
frame that is a more difficult agreement
to reach what is the time frame what are
the challenges and is there any way we
can
help mayor councelor matis um we it just
takes longer because of the process side
of it it's more getting everybody
together engaging finding out the
framework for what it's going to look
like and then then getting everybody to
agree getting it to the state where
where an IG is just a little simpler
it's not that it's not we're not able to
accomplish it it's just that it takes
time um but we are 23 years into this
current agreement I think we can have it
done in a reasonable amount of time I
just wanted to prepare Council for the
fact that it's just going to take a
little longer as for the specific
timeline I've never written one or or or
led the development of one so I I'm I'm
not entirely sure but um but um I'm I'm
sure miss Pomo will will gladly help us
with that yeah knowing Barbara she will
thanks okay that's everyone else okay
now again I just want to say thank you
for the presentation thank you for the
update uh Mr Lopez it's great to see all
the new things especially the new
building uh how so many things have been
outdated and you still accomplish a lot
of things and so it's a it's a great uh
uh tribute to all the public safety and
the work with OEM that has taken place
throughout the years so I definitely
support the jpa and uh support you all
thank you thank you mayor thank you
Council mayor if I may oh yes Mr
Lopez U when I was campaigning I've had
some people in the shadow run and Tiger
Woods concerned can I bring that up at
the risk assessment program about the
possible flooding there's a a dam that's
need some work on would you mayor
Enriquez and councilor matis absolutely
uh or or you want to stick around for a
few minutes after this you can just let
me know what their concerns are I am
guessing I I met some of those same
people during some public meetings we
had earlier so we'll just compare notes
thank you thank you thank you sir thank
you
mayor okay thank you again thanks for
the the presentation and
update seek an adjournment motion to
adjourn second by
Flores this is on the motion to adjourn
the work session councelor
McClair yes councelor matis yes
councelor Graham yes councelor cran yes
councelor
flutes yes councelor bomo yes and mayor
yes
e