in the
street
[Music]
okay good afternoon everyone Welcome to
our city council meeting today is Monday
October 16th 2023 it's approximately 1:
p.m. U before we have our Pledge of
Allegiance I'm going to ask if you
please rise for a brief moment of
silence as we reflect back on the brave
men and women the United States armed
forces as they protect our interests
around the globe as well as the
courageous men and women of Los Cruz's
police department and the Los cr's fire
department as they protect protect our
city 247
365 celor beta if you join me in the
pledge please I pledge allegiance 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 thank
you okay as we always start off our
Council meetings with our pet pets of
the week Amy def Felix I believe is on
Zoom so Amy are you there hello yes I
here can everyone hear
me all right let me go ahead and share
my
screen the PowerPoint slide there we go
um I'll go ahead and sorry about that
Amy yeah we can hear you okay awesome no
problem and I'll turn off my video so it
doesn't cut off any text um as always
I'll start off with the uh cat of the
week our cat of the week this week her
name is Sonia her number is
66540 and she says I've lived most of my
life so far as an outdoor Community cat
but since I've been brought to the acmv
I've been adjusting to the indoor life
pretty good you should approach me
slowly and sweetly so as not to Spook me
but then you'll see that I really love
being petted and even held sometimes I
just need a home indoors to let me come
around on my own time and then we also
have our dog of the week um her name is
Sugar her number is 5 4415 and she says
I'm the longest term resident at the
asmb having lived the past 383 days of
my life in a kennel I'm an independent
spirit so that just means I'll let you
do your business without bothering you
as long as we set at least a little bit
of the day outside for a good walk and
spending some quality time I'm a curious
girl who might do pretty well as a
hiking or walking buddy I want to see
the world with
you and then we have an adoption event
this Saturday we'll be at the Pizza Hut
on North Maine 1492 Main Street we'll be
there from 11: to 2: we'll have some
dogs available for adoption so we
definitely encourage you guys to stop on
by and meet some of our dogs and maybe
fall in love and take one home um we
also have our pause and Clause
spooktober adoption event our adoption
special and that's going to be it all
October long we're wor about halfway
through um and so all of our adoptions
are discounted we're charging um it's
$50 for every animal that's already
altered and any unaltered animals are
going to be $100 but of course they will
definitely be altered before they go
home and we would also just like to
emphasize that senior dogs are free or
senior animals are free and kind of go
along um feeding off of the last kind of
few presentations about dog bite
prevention and kind of preventing
unwanted dog behaviors I like to shift
it a little bit to preventing unwanted
fine behaviors just in general um so
we'll start off with a c like a few like
little key points like if you adopted
your cat as a kitten um definitely keep
them socialized if possible um a lot of
shelters and rescues encourage to adopt
kittens and pairs um they will uh
interact with each other they'll give
every each other like kind of the social
and playful enrichment that they want um
without having to bother without having
to um kind of take it out on you or
especially if you have other older cats
in the home um definitely adopt kittens
and Peis it'll keep them busy with each
other so they don't go around and kind
of bother the older cat that isn't AB
playful you know um it kind of helps
them learn social cues with each other
and it overall kind of really enriches a
kitten's life to make sure that they
have a little buddy to go with them as
well um definitely provide plenty of
scratching posts and other cat furniture
to redirect their kind of scratching and
climbing instincts um if you have a cat
that likees to tear up your couch likes
to get up on like high shelves on your
counters and everything um we definitely
suggest having a bunch of scratching
posts especially in the areas where they
seem they like to scratch like next to
Arms of couches and such like that um
and having tall cat trees especially
with Cubbies and stuff um and eventually
like a
they'll typically tend to
prefer kind of interacting with like the
cat furniture and the cat trees
themselves in general um because their
cats uh living out in the wild as like
outdoor cats they like to you know climb
trees hide in bushes they have a lot of
um exploratory kind of enrichment that
they need to be fulfilled so definitely
cat furniture helps control that in a in
a way that's both beneficial for the cat
and also for you and your household um
we can also suggest providing cat grass
um treat dispensing toys to promote kind
of healthy um chewing and kind of eating
Behavior and definitely remove access to
undesirable items if they like to chew
like me personally I have a couple of
cats that love to like chew on cardboard
they like they like hole punch it um and
they just like like to munch I think
they like the texture so definitely like
in my case I just make sure I don't have
any cardboard boxes lying around so they
can't get to it same with paper just
kind of keep that in mind you have do
have to adjust your own lifestyle a
little bit to um prevent your cat from
getting into stuff um but also providing
cat grass for a cat that likes to be
chewy and um a cat grass as a safe and
healthy alter alternative you can buy
that at like the pet store you can also
buy like live growing catnip at the pet
store as well and cats they go wild they
love it they redirect all their
attention onto that for the most part
and it's a it's a healthy way for them
to get their kind of um I guess they're
chewing kind of stimulation out of there
um we also suggest um when you're
playing with your kitten or your cat
this is definitely important as a kitten
with a new kitten during their kind of
social when they're go getting
socialized and kind of adapting to the
growing up into a cat and adapting to
their behaviors um but it can also um be
relevant to adult cats as well um don't
play with them with your hands directly
but play with them by tossing and
rolling around their toys or using their
little teaser ones I have the stick and
the dly thing at the end um a lot of
people suggest this primarily because if
you play with your cat and like rough
house with them with your hands some
because cats when they play they love to
Rough House they'll bunny kick they'll
lightly pot you and little nibbles um we
want to avoid using your hands for that
um because sometimes if um if you kind
of get into that habit um and if they
want to play and you're not um aware or
even up for playing they might just go
for your hand and start start playing
with your hand basically and and then it
becomes an unwanted behavior um so if
you already start right off the bat um
playing with them through toys kind of
indirect contact with the toys um
that'll um not have them develop the
association between playtime and your
hands um if you are bringing a new cat
in general to a home that already has
cats um slow introductions are key um
there's a lot of resources online we
definitely suggest conf finding your new
cat to a single room in the household um
for at least a few days up to a few
weeks um and slowly introduce them to
the other cat have them have the new cat
and the old cat um eat food from both
sides of the door though there's a
visual barrier but this still a sense
barrier um um there's still a they can
still smell each other but there's a
visual barrier so it kind of helps ease
them into kind of getting used to each
other's like pheromones and scense um
and kind of playing by ear slowly um
maybe having the door open but having
like a screen or like a baby gate or
something like a physical divider but
still able to visually see that will be
the next step um and this is a way to
kind of get your your older cat um more
receptive to having the new cat around
um if you introduce a new cat to an old
cat um very quickly it it usually goes
wrong there's kind of territorial
behaviors and um it ends up um unfund
and can be even kind of sign like like a
lasting impact on their psychology in
the end so definitely avoid that do slow
introductions with cats always um
there's also some some people um some
shops online that offer like pheromone
diffusers either as like a manual spray
or like a plugin um an outlet plug-in
that can help kind of ease anxiety and
tension um it imits the kind of I
believe specifically it could be like
the a pheromone that the mother gives to
their kitten um to kind of make them
feel more relaxed and calm um that'll
also help during this transition of
introducing your new cat to your old cat
to help make everything a lot more easy
going and chill at the ultimate end of
it all um and for if there's anyone that
happens to have any litter box issues
with their cat um or multiple cats um we
just want to remind that the the general
role that a lot of people um anal
welfare and rescue suggests is making
sure you have um one litter box per cat
and then an extra one so if you have
like four cats um you have a total of
like five litter boxes um at least and
then to have litter box access on every
floor if you live in a multifloor
household um this is just um to just
make sure that they all have their own
um safe space you know use the litter
box um litter box incontinence issues
are usually um um anxiety and like um
territorial BAS
so um having extra litter boxes for
multiple cats makes them um feel a
little bit more comfortable they're not
like encroaching on some other they're
not constantly fighting for the
territory if that makes sense when
there's ample amounts of litter boxes I
know that is definitely if you have
multiple cats as many as four or five it
is extra cleaning but it's definitely
worth it to make sure that the rest of
your house also stays clean and neat and
everything is all in order um but that
is all that I have for today so thank
you for letting me
present okay thank you Amy we appreciate
that very much so next we're going to go
to jobs of the
week and Sarah Rainey are you yeah there
you are okay take good afternoon
everyone thank you for having me I'm
Sarah Rainey um the One-Stop coordinator
for the southwest region of the
Workforce Connection so I'm going share
my screen for the jobs of the
week
and try to get these things out of the
way here so you all can see it okay for
the jobs of the week for October 16th
for
2023 we have for the city of Los cruus
an event manager the pay begins at
49,000 and that posting ends on November
1st so it's coming up another one for
the city of Los cruus is the assistant
program supervisor of utilities that
posting um pays the pay begins at 55,000
that posting ends on 10:25 so it ends
this week um for the White Sands Missile
Range we have an HVAC technician one
that position pays 2754 an hour and the
posting closes in December
then for NMSU we have a public Outreach
Public Health Outreach that position is
actually going to be posted at
DAC um the position pays $38,000 a year
depending on experience the posting
actually closes on November 12th um for
American beverages we have a sales
representative that position starts at
17.95 an hour and the posting closes on
1022 for American Red Cross they
actually had several positions open but
we highlighted one for sure um senior
program manager for the disaster
casework that position starts at 79,000
a year and the posting closes on the
22nd of
October as always if anyone has any
questions for jobs or career exploration
or any sort of assistance needed from
resumé writing to getting ready for your
new career come see us at the Workforce
Connection office at 226 South Alam
Boulevard you can always reach us on
employee andm and then at all of our
social media Outlets as well as our app
we have all of our information and all
of our upcoming events thank you so much
for having us okay thank you Sarah
appreciate that very much okay so before
we get well we have some presentations
but uh we have one in particular uh for
all of you if you might remember of
course next month is November but on
November 11th will be Veterans Day and
so this has been a tradition that we had
for several years I'm going to invite
our good friend Bill Hawkins to come up
so basically what we're going to be
doing is every year we've had an
opportunity to go into the schools and
have some of our um school children be
able to put together a poster and then
the winner of these of these great
posters and they're all really
goodlooking uh gets the not only little
little surprise or gift but also is
going to be the post post are used for
the parade so I'm going to turn it over
to Bill and he can chat a little bit
more about that Jr Turner and of course
our own Larry Nichol who is a veteran as
well but uh bill you want to say a
little bit thank
You artist you want to come on
up
thanks
hey do you remember what
order Anna
Manny Bella Anna okay
Isaiah okay mayor miyagishima City
Council Members lasusa Public School
Superintendent Rees ladies and gentlemen
good afternoon I'm Bill Hawkins the
committee chair for the Veterans Day
Parade which will take place on Saturday
November 11th at 11:00
a.m. throughout the years with the
support of the city of Los crus we have
published a poster to announce the date
time and location of the parade after
years of utilizing the art artwork
provided by the Department of Veterans
Affairs we decided to hold a contest
with the middle school students of Los
cresus to produce a more personalized
announcement for our parade as well as
to encourage our local youth to learn
about the role of our local veterans in
the history of our country our first
contest was in
2015 the response was so positive that
we we decided to make this an annual
event this year our theme was honoring
Desert Storm veterans today's
presentation is to announce the top six
local artists and reward them for their
efforts we judged approximately 159
submissions from Mesa Lynn msia Valley
Leadership Academy White Sands and Zia
Middle Schools after careful
consideration the top six artists are in
alphabetical ear order only Anna barel
from Mesa Middle School Manny Castile
from Mesa Middle
School Bella Harris from Lynn Middle
School Isaiah Loya from Lynn Middle
[Applause]
School Isabella osbor from Mason Middle
School and Melanie Cerna from Mesa
Middle School can we give him one more
round round of
applause superintendent Ruiz if you
please join us come down here please
thank yeah are you
ready there are three honorable mention
artists who will receive a $20 prize for
their efforts the first Manny Castillo
from Mesa Middle
School
the second honorable mention is Bella
Harris from
Lynn and the third honorable mention is
Isaiah Loya from
Lyn third place receiving a $30 prize is
Anna Bella from Mesa Middle
School
second place who is receiving a $40
prize is Mesa Middle School's Isabella
osbor
and you
ready and the winner of the 2023
veterans parade poster contest is
Melanie Cerna who is an eighth grader in
Mr valdez's art class from Mesa Middle
[Applause]
School
she is receiving a $50 prize a framed
copy of the veterans parade poster and
she will also have the opportunity to be
in the parade in recognition for her
contribution to the
[Applause]
parade do you want to get in that
picture with him
there we'll we'll take a few more
pictures but we'll let him finish and
then okay
I would like to thank the administrators
and teachers from the middle schools
that participated in this year's contest
dores archila J.R Turner Mike cono
Joseph Flores from
lcps Tim Chapel Larry Nichols Chris
favor and Eric Enriquez who are members
of the veterans parade committee and
mayor miag gashima and the Las CR city
council for allowing us to recognize
these students ladies and gentlemen
thank you for your time and please join
us on November 11th for the 2023
Veterans Day Parade it promises to be a
great event honoring our local veterans
thank
[Applause]
you thanks for
you oh we have another speaker I don't
think
so
for
[Applause]
the kids walk up behind and show their
stuff to the oh yeah yeah so we're going
to have the all the award winners if you
want to join us here in back
and you'll lead them to meet the city
councilors and shake their hands you
follow okay great and while you're doing
that oh sure and uh kind of a special
treat to have the superintendent here so
he's going to say a few words on behalf
of the
schools
yeah okay
yes
all right sounds good
congratulations good
job picture oh sure come on one more you
see how you're famous today
good well thank you mayor and thank you
everyone for uh recognizing the great
work that our KD are doing in our
schools many times you know we uh we
forget right we we just the the great
work that our kids are doing but even
beyond that the great work that our
Educators our teachers thank you to our
teachers for the for the great teaching
and and the great examples our
administrators that are working hard
every day um and just again
congratulations to our students uh for
the and also thank you to the city of
Las Cruses our mayor for the recognition
thank you very
much thank you thank you super endent
Ruiz I have to just say that this is one
of the very enjoyable events but more
importantly it helps our our youth our
our children get a chance to see exactly
how our country started and how we've
been able to sustain the superpower that
we are thanks to our veterans and they
get a chance to see exactly what
sacrifices not only the veterans do but
then also the families as well but more
importantly this gives them a chance to
realize gosh this is why America is so
great because of our veterans we
wouldn't have what we have without them
so it's just it's just really great to
have this and so we appreciate them each
and every one of you in fact veterans
here in the in our chamber uh coun uh
Chambers council chambers please uh rise
so we can least thank
you okay I'm going to turn
it oh great thank you I'm going to turn
it over to councelor Beta who is going
to uh carry on with the rest of
proclamations and superintendent Ruiz
thank you very much for stepping up to
the job to run the second largest school
district in the state and so um you've
got a lot of great Educators and and
staff and they work so hard and they do
such a great job we appreciate it thank
you very much thank
you thank you we do have quite a few
proclamations today the first I'd like
to intoduce and welcome Sandra Day for
the lights on after school or lights on
after school
day
are whereas the people of the city of
Las crus New Mexico stand firmly
committed to Quality after school
programs and opportunities because they
provide safe challenging and engaging
learning experiences that help children
develop social emotional physical and
academic skills support Working Families
by ensuring safe children are safe and
productive when they are not at school
build stronger communities and promote
positive Relationships by involving
students parents Business Leaders and
adult Volunteers in the Liv lives of
young people engage families schools and
Community Partners in advancing youth
welfare and offer young people many
demonstrated positive benefits
particularly in the academic studies
social and emotional health and their
overall physical wellbeing and whereas
Las crusis after school programs have
responded to the co 19 crisis with
innovated virtual programming to keep
kids engaged and healthy and they are
facing with the challenge of helping
kids adjust to the return inperson
learning and social interactions that
are crucial to their development and
whereas the city of Los crusis is
honored to be the home of several
Community organizations that provide
leadership in youth health and education
and believe quality Afterschool programs
help our children become successful
adults including the uh P Del Norte
Health Foundation healthy kids
initiative the United Way of El Paso
County and the Boost network and its
members such as the city of Las Cruses
Parks and Recreation Department Boys and
Girls Club of Las Cruses the NMSU stem
Outreach Center and the friends of the
Oregon Mountain Desert Peaks and whereas
studies show that young people who
participate in after school programs
perform better in school develop
leadership skills and are less likely to
engage in Risky behaviors and whereas
lights on after school the national
celebration of after school programs
will be held this year on October 26
2023 to promote the importance of
quality after school programs in the
lives of children families and
communities and whereas the city of Los
cruus is committed to the health and
safety of all young people and to
providing expanded learning
opportunities to help close the
achievement Gap exacerbated by the co 19
pandemic and to better prepare young
people for future success now therefore
we the mayor and City C Council of Las
crusis New Mexico do hereby Proclaim
Thursday October 26 2023 as lights on
after school day and enthusiastically
endorse Innovative after school programs
and activities that ensure their lights
stay on and the doors stay open for all
children after school you thank
you and I have to say as a mother who
has a child in an after school program I
know how beneficial it is for their
overall health so thank you all so much
for everything that you do thank
you thank you so much for having us here
again um I was here last year so thank
you for welcome welcoming us again my
name is s day I work for bad delor
Health foundation and we found Otero
donana and Luna counties here in
Southern New Mexico as well as suat
Chihuahua across the border and of
course the county of op Paso so our
reach expands Beyond borders and that's
exactly what we stand for for healthy
kids in three cities um well Three
Counties um here in New Mexico two in
Texas and ju and hes to really reach
Beyond borders to kids who really need a
safe place a trusted adult and a
positive activity to make sure that
parents feel safe to have their kids do
positive um you know activities with
their friends really work on their
development and make a difference for
our community they are our future and
our new leaders so all the support that
we can give them we're really investing
in our future thank
[Applause]
you
thank you our next Proclamation will be
The Village at northrise presented to
Marcus
roal
greetings
and come on through come right
over thank you how are you good
Goods come on right over here we'll have
you front and
center thank
you thank
Youk
you with our Proclamation we start
whereas The Village at North North rise
has been serving our community with
dedication and compassion since its
establishment in
1998 and whereas The Village at northri
provides uh vital and promotes health
and well-being by keeping residents
active and engaged and whereas The
Village at northride proudly honors our
veterans by displaying their names in
branches of service and by offering
special rates for veterans and their
spouses and whereas The Village at
northrise has been a Beacon of Hope and
support for our seniors offering a range
of services that promote Independence
dignity and a sense of belonging and
whereas The Village at northrise has
contributed to the overall well-being
and vitality of our community creating a
positive impact that extends far beyond
its walls now therefore we the mayor and
City Council of the city of Las crusis
New Mexico do hereby proclaim the week
of October 16th through October 20th
2023 as the village at North R fre
signed by Ken mosima mayor and attested
to by Christine Rivera city clerk
[Applause]
congratulations
no hi everybody my name is Leah kite I
the executive director at Village at
North rise I also would like to honor
Donald Wilson who's out in the audience
today he was the center executive
director for 17 years at The Village at
North R um our wonderful guests and
residents make our village truly a home
so without them you know it would not be
what it is so thank you to the community
for all of your guys' support we welcome
everybody to please attend our 25th year
anniversary party on Friday everybody is
welcome and again I would like to thank
our
[Applause]
guests
10 to
4 on
Friday
thank
you our next Proclamation will be read
Ribbon week so if Jessica Garcia is here
and write her
down whereas Red Ribbon Week is a
national campaign observed annually from
October 23rd to October 31st dedicated
to raising awareness about the
importance of living a drug-free life
and whereas the Red Ribbon campaign
began in 1985 to honor the memory of
Enrique uh Kera a DEA agent who was
killed in the line of duty while
fighting drug trafficking and whereas
the city of Las Cruses is committed to
the well-being and safety of of its
residents and youth and recognizes the
importance of fostering a drug-free
community and whereas re Revan week
encourages communities schools and
organizations to promote drug prevention
education advocacy for healthy choices
and the importance of maintaining a
drug-free environment and whereas we
recognize that
substance abuse continues to pose a
threat to the well-being and the future
of our youth families and communities
and it is crucial to take a stand
against drug abuse in all of its forms
and whereas by joining together as a
community we can Inspire our youth to
make Positive Choices build strong
character and Lead healthy lives free
from the harmful influence of drugs now
therefore we the mayor and City Council
of Las cruus New Mexico do hereby
proclaim the week of October 23rd
through October 31st 2023 as Red Ribbon
Week signed by keny aashima mayor and
attested to by Christine Rivera City
Clerk
[Applause]
congratulations we just want to say
thank you to everybody um that is here
today in you know to support us thank
you mayor and city council um so my name
is Jessica Garcia I'm one of the
coordinators for the unified prevention
Coalition here is also my colleague Eric
small we have been working very
diligently um for the past couple of
years addressing substance use in our
community among Our Youth and just want
to extend that huge thank you to our
many partners of the Coalition as well
one of them being our local National
Guard chapter who couldn't join us today
I did try to get them here today but
they are the ones in the schools during
Red Ribbon Week uh providing education
and information for students and parents
so thank you so much
[Applause]
everybody thank you and our last is
domestic violence Awareness Month
presented to Gloria
[Applause]
Carreras thank you our
Proclamation whereas domestic violence
is a grave violation of human rights
that affects individuals of all
backgrounds regardless of age
socioeconomic status sexual orientation
gender race religion or nationality and
whereas we acknowledge the profound and
far-reaching impacts of domestic
violence as it tears apart families
fractures communities and undermines the
Very fabric of our society its Insidious
nature not only inflects immediate harm
but also perpetuates a cycle of violence
that can span generations and whereas we
recognize the crucial importance of
providing comprehensive services and
support to those affected by domestic
violence
acknowledging that accessible and
compassionate resources including
advocacy shelter and transitional
housing programs play a vital role in
offering safety stability and a pathway
to healing for survivors and their
families whereas laasa Inc and domestic
service provider has consistently served
as a Beacon of Hope by offering crucial
assistance through its programs and
services and whereas Lassa initially
established by a group of dedicated
volunteers has since evolved D into the
largest provider of comprehensive
services in the state of New Mexico
extending support to all individuals
affected by domestic violence and
whereas in the year 2022 alone lacassa
provided an astounding
16,9 162 overnight stays in emergency
and transitional housing uh reflecting
the remarkable growth of the
organization and has achieved since its
establishment in 1981 and whereas we
stand United in our commitment to
eradicating domestic violence and
creating a society where every person
can live free from Fear abuse and
oppression domestic violence Awareness
Month serves as a call to action for our
community to come together support
survivors advocate for Change and work
tirelessly to towards a future where no
one has to endure the horrors of
domestic violence and now therefore we
mayor and City Council of Las cus New
Mexico do hereby proclaim the month of
October 2023 is domestic violence
awareness month and urge all individuals
organizations and communities to join in
US honoring the lives lost due to
domestic violence supporting survivors
promoting prevention efforts and
advocating for the presision of shelter
and Housing Services that offer Solace
security and hope for those in need
together we can create a society where
every person is valued protected and
empowered to live a life free from
violence signed by mayor Ken yashima and
attested to by Christine Rivera city
[Applause]
clerk um my name is Elena Bradley um I
serve on the board of directors for
lacassa Inc so thank you all for the
annual Proclamation for domestic
violence month um we do have our annual
vigil coming up so it's um called the
beginning again vigil and it's going to
be held at NMSU at the Corbett um
outside stage this Thursday at 6 PM if
you're able to join us and otherwise
thank you all so much for the
proclamation he's gonna speak
[Applause]
too thank you and that is all the
proclamations okay thank you counselor
we have a couple of presentations uh
one's going to be via zoom and one's
going to be in person so a few months
back when I was at I guess it was in
June when I was uh at my last Conference
of Mayors meeting you know we hear a lot
of we go there's a lot of vendors out
there and a lot of presentations a lot
of people have discussions and one
caught my attention obviously there's a
we have a lot of quite a few residents
that could use some additional
assistance regarding mental health but
when I heard the presentation from car
solz one thing that that I need said
that really stuck out she says I want to
they will get to the point or they have
a an app where they can the way what
they do is you'll be able to utilize the
services that we have here in the city
much like you would order an Uber and I
thought wow that sounds pretty
interesting so I went over and spoke
with her and see if she would have a
presentation to give to my colleagues
here and the rest of those to the
millions watching around the world
um I think this is really important and
this is really cutting edge so Anita
Ward you're on Zoom can you hear us yes
I am good afternoon mayor good afternoon
council members and all the attendees
worldwide it sounds like you have um
thank you so much for allowing me time
today and I have to admit I sat here
through the the first part of this
meeting just smiling because it seems
that the city is already wrapping its
arms around so much of mental health
everything from the pets and I don't
know how anybody could leave sugar in
that in the shelter for that long but
everything from pets who contribute to
mental health to children and the
superintendent as he talks about the the
needs to engage young people substance
abuse to the Red Ribbon Week to the
veterans whose mental health is so
underserved all of this just really set
me up nicely to have this conversation
with you we are a mental Healthcare
coordination company we're currently in
more than 850 communities around the
country uh cities as large as Denver and
as small as Fort peek Montana and what I
thought I would do is very quickly share
with you and hopefully I can do this so
that you can see it uh there we go uh
share with you a little bit of what we
do answer any questions and I promise to
keep it very brief despite the the
slides I'm going to start with a
personal
story so in 2020 my sister called me her
son was in Los Angeles and he was in the
cast of Hamilton and as all of you know
with 2020 theaters were shut down uh
actors were were Furlow he was young he
was a little bit too old for my sister's
um EAP program but he was having a
crisis and so I was I was in Los Angeles
I went over to wrap arms around him and
I thought I just need to get him into
care and I promise you I called and I
called and I called and I made hundreds
of phone calls in Los Angeles trying to
find a therapist and somebody who could
support my nephew and I my sister came
out and for six weeks we wrapped arms
around this young man making sure that
he didn't harm himself we were in and
out of er we did everything that we knew
how to do trying to get him into care
eventually I was so desperate that I
called a surgeon that I knew at Cedar
Sinai in Los Angeles and said can you
please help me I don't know where to
turn and we're the lucky ones we are
some of the lucky ones because he knew
somebody who knew somebody and you know
within a matter of days my nephew was in
care and there's a wonderful punchline
to this story I just saw my nephew
perform as Hamilton on Broadway so I
know if you can get people into care you
can change lives but more than 14
million people around the country they
give up 80% of the people who need help
stop because there's no way to get it
they have to navigate insurance they
have to know who offers te theapy is it
in person who's taking new patients
do they accept what if I don't have
insurance do they accept cash payments
do they take public insurance will they
navigate sliding scale or who speaks
Spanish or who treats children it is a
quagmire of questions that I personally
had to face and if you look at the data
it's really compelling because nobody
gets care 60% of Youth with mental
illness receive no treatment 55% of
adults with mental illness receive no
treatment
uh we just talked about you know
substance abuse in a drug-free Community
but 15% of adults who had a substance
abuse disorder last year 93% did not
receive treatment and a lot of it has to
do because it's hard to navigate I
didn't know where to turn I didn't know
who to call and honestly um despite what
uh you know the mayor of Los Angeles May
say it never occurred to me that there
were resources I could tap into in in La
I literally just started
searching and car Solace was built on
that premise much like mayor shared with
you we're considered an open table or an
Uber for mental health we connect people
to all of the support that we need and
we do it based upon the values of
dignity inclusion and Trust so in a city
what we become is a hub to all the
mental health supports but also to all
the social health supports so helping
women who are struggling with domestic
violence just getting them into the care
the conversations we had today uh on
your agenda with veterans and young
people we're doing that for about 18
million individuals now across the
country we've already conducted about 13
million uh mental health interactions
and this isn't just into therapy almost
half of the people that we work with
require more intensive Pathways which
means that they need a bed or they need
uh they need Rehabilitation or they need
an intervention so I don't know how many
of you it seems to me most people I
can't see your hands but many of you
have used open table or surely an Uber
but if you're using an Open Table you're
looking for a restaurant maybe you need
an Italian restaurant but maybe you have
a friend who's needs a gluten-free
noodles or a vegetarian option but you
have a party of 12 and you need them at
7 o'clock on Thursday five miles from
your location we have built that for the
mental health world and for social
services so what we have are um
425,000 providers in our system around
the country and I'll show you in a
moment what that means to you but
425,000 providers we know all of their
specializations we know their licensing
and they've been vetted for us we know
their availability we know what
insurance they take what languages they
speak what age groups they support
uh we know everything about them and we
said to ourselves well there are a
number of ways you can access it much
like mayor said we could you can access
it V via the app and go through the
process yourself but we also know that
there are people like me and frankly
about 90% of the people who use us
actually want to talk to somebody they
don't want to navigate a system but they
desperately want to talk to somebody
about the situation so we we put 500
care companions in every that number
grows as we bring on new cities this is
somebody that my sister and I could have
called and within hours have have
received care for my nephew the care
companion will do all of the screening
they'll do all of the matching they'll
find the right provider they'll Even
book the appointment for me and then
they'll do check-in so in many ways they
hold your hand through the entire mental
health process so when you think about
Uber or open table and us we actually
have a way that you can navigate it
through a phone call a QR code or
through the self-service module and you
can access providers and Social Services
anywhere so the way I like to think
about this is you'll see even in Los
cruus I'm sure that there are lots of
services but in most cities they tend to
be
fragmented sometimes they're unknown
they may be difficult to access but
they're everything from your mental
health providers to your your nonprofits
to your um Community Based organizations
even two onone they all offer something
but there's no way that they become
together so what we have done is we put
ourselves as sort of a hub
in responder who sadly has now been
positioned to make mental health
decisions either take somebody to the ER
or in some cases incarcerate them but if
a first responder needs support and they
realize they we have they've
de-escalated the situation but maybe
it's a situation where they recognize
somebody needs mental health care they
can share our phone number they can
share our QR code they can actually do a
referral in our system if they need to
for that indivi individual resident and
get them into care we take over all the
coordination from there and then report
back to the city so you have full
visibility into how we're helping your
residents or it could be somebody from
the court systems or it could be
somebody from the school systems or it
could be somebody from one of your
Social Services could be from the
library it could be a part of your
homeless intervention teams as we're
doing in Denver there are lots of people
who are dealing with your residents lots
of agencies dealing with the residents
lot lots of Social Services and what we
do is we connect them and then aggregate
all of this and get them into care so in
the same way that um that you think of
as open table or Uber you've got an an
agency um who may give a QR code a
referral or a phone number to a resident
the resident can access these one of 500
care companions 247 365 multilingual
they do all of the screening all of the
matching all of the appointment setting
all of the checking in or the resident
could access our care match app which is
an anonymous self-service Search tool to
do the same thing and that gives them
insight into all of the providers and
all of theal Social Services what we
have found is that many people suffering
with mental health care also require a
wraparound Social Service that could be
housing that could be a food insecurity
uh that could be an additional medical
insecurity that they're having so we
treat them holistically as I said we
have 425,000 it's the largest database
of providers in the country we have more
visibility into providers than anyone
else but just here in the Los crus area
in the county for example we have 2300
providers and you'll hear often that
there's a a provider shortage I contend
that yes there's a a shortage but
there's also a visibility issue you
don't know what you don't see and in
many cases therapists just aren't great
about getting their getting their search
capabilities up or their tens
fragmentation we you can see by category
we the sm5 categories the kinds of uh
therapists the kinds of interventions
the the kinds of solutions that we can
bring to the table we do have one client
um silver Consolidated School
administration this is their homepage
but they have launched with us to help
their students the students families the
teachers the staff uh and I know we
probably don't have time but you let me
know i' love to show you how the process
works it's really quite simple but I can
answer questions
uh in addition we have a care team
that's dedicated to you a client success
team a data team and Communications in
many cities we're doing campaigns where
we put the QR code out get access to
everybody from your website we make it
available to every um every organization
and agency in the city we turn it into a
um a campaign an advertising campaign if
you will back to the residents but we
can place those links in that app
anywhere in the city and connect all of
the pieces together in Los Cruses we
have amazing um amazing
testimonials and these are just a couple
of them but I'm going to share with you
mayor shivi and Reno sent me a text the
other night she was at a council meeting
and a parent stood up and said carala
saved my child's life I choke up a bit
when I I talk about this but the idea
that sometimes parents just can't see
where to take it they just don't know
what to do they don't know what to do
either for themselves or for their child
or a veteran may feel lost or you may
have a teen struggling with substance
abuse that doesn't know where to turn we
make that really easy really accessible
and as as I shared uh at the conference
of Mayors we think finding a mental
health care provider should be just as
easy as ordering an Uber or getting a
reservation at a fancy restaurant in in
any city in the country so that's what
we do I I know I'm trying to be
respectful of your time I'm happy to
walk you through if you'd like to see
how it works um but I want to be
respectful thank you Anita we appreciate
that very much so the silver
Consolidated Schools you're talking
about in Silver City yes okay so that's
that's good in case the city was to move
forward maybe we can reach out to them
and do what they call a piggyback off of
them because that obviously was a bid
that you all w
yes that's correct perfect I don't know
if any of my colleagues have any
questions counselor Flores Anita thank
you so much I'm councelor Flores here in
Las Cruses and you are in California
somewhere Los Angeles presumably um uh
San Diego oh siia close enough at any
rate thank you so much for doing this um
I'd like to share the story about my son
who was a senior in high school and uh
he attempted suicide because he was uh
bullied for being gay um
he
[Music]
um he was
within he it was actually one of our
dogs that's why I love animals are just
so one of our dogs who wouldn't let go
of him after he overdosed on all his
medication and he'd been under
psychiatric care
um and he had the uh he called his
father he called me and I was away from
my desk I missed the call but he did get
his father and his father called the
ambulance we were very fortunate that he
was 17 at the time a senior in high
school and um and we lived near UCLA and
his psychiatrist was there too um and he
was taken to the psychiatric ward for
the juvenile they have a juvenile
psychiatric W there so we were very very
fortunate and he was a two week
inpatient one week out patient and uh
his schoolwork with LA USD was you know
all whatever um however um and so we
were very fortunate because he was 17 so
what I'm getting at or as our mayor
always says what I'm trying to get at is
that um we were very fortunate that my
uh his father's uh insurance covered all
of that and and we uh didn't pay I don't
think we paid a penny um so um his
insurance covered but um so my my
question to you is and this is really a
long shot here but um do you deal with
uh do you work with insurance companies
to extend coverage for their children
because had he been had this happened
two and a half months later um he he
wouldn't have qualified because they tap
out at 18 I know that a lot of insurance
carriers have coverage for their
children for eye you know for glasses or
something till they're
25 um but do you do any of that work
Anita because I think it's crucial for
people to know that there's also the
private sector well not so private but
you know there's hospitalization that
they can seek yes we do so first thank
you for sharing that story um it's um
it's so important that we show
authenticity and I I share mine as well
because I think people need to know that
this is really happening this is truly a
crisis so one thank you for for sharing
that and being so vulnerable um we do
work with them so in we work with
individuals through their EAP program
programs so if a resident were to call
and we know where and they share where
their employment is we work through EAP
programs so we'll maximize their EAP uh
and make sure that they they where they
have insurance coverage that we're we're
working through their model but as
importantly and maybe my heart my heart
tends to sit with those that are most um
most vulnerable parts of our community
we also work with um providers who take
sliding scale so those can't afford it
we never think money should get into in
the in the way of care so we'll navigate
all the insurance on their behalf but we
also have providers who will do pro bono
work and we have providers who will
navigate all of the sliding scale which
means that somebody May pay zero $5 but
I think the maximum there is $35 so we
have we we will never let the the the
financial Park get in the way of saving
a life so we navigate all those pieces
that you're talking about great thank
you so much Anita thank you Mr Mayor
thank you counselor any other
comments okay so Anita I'll um have a
chance to maybe kind of um toss this
idea around here future with our with my
colleagues and um if they decide to kind
of move forward we'll probably have to
have another opportunity now to be a
little bit more formal and you'll be a a
session item to see whether or not we
want to you know kind of delve into this
a little bit more but thank you
for sharing with us not only your
stories but also the great work that
you're doing okay thank you very very
much thanks
everybody byebye now
byebye okay so the next
presentation I know it says Elaine
mckenny but uh quick substitute we're
going to have Allison Smith so for a
number of years well first off we have
two sister cities um one is Laro Mexico
the other is nberg Germany and for those
of you who may or may not be aware of
sister cities it was started by
President Eisenhower in I think 1956
after World War II ended president Isa
Howard Eisenhower wanted to have various
countries kind of both in in the United
States and reach out to a usually City
similar size to kind of get to know them
build that Brotherhood Sisterhood so
that there's no more Wars right and and
by doing so we felt by learning
different cultures would help us just
realize we're just one big huge family
uh just spread out around this huge
globe of ours so that's how sister
cities kind came to to be we have lar
though which we've had many times to
visit or them come here ironically I
I've been U invited two other times
other than this last time but they seem
to be happening during election time
2015 2019 2023
and if uh if you haven't heard the the
rumor around the campfire is I'm not
running again right and so I'm leaving
in about two and a half months and so
when we were given the opportunity to go
to Germany I thought okay let's go and
um it was great and so Allison here is
going to kind of give a a recap not only
to share with you all the the great
things and the neat things that we had a
chance to do but really for the public
to have an opportunity to maybe join us
because I I still plan on being a part
of this and um and be you know a lot
more you know a lot of fun I know
councelor florus wanted to go uh I think
she she allegedly broke her foot but no
I know I know she did break her foot but
um did you get that the gift the PRI the
bag okay good all right so I'm going to
turn it over to Allison she's gonna kind
of share with us the narrative as to
what took place and all the neat things
that we did and did you kind of take
some of the photographs out of my of me
and just totally uh yes sir I believe we
have a PowerPoint but I'm not entirely
sure how who pulls that up for us uh
let's see Christine's going to go down
there Christine our city
clerk she's very talented young lady
ment
oh and her hubby is here mayor protm
Emeritus Greg Smith so good to see you
he you can
clap and Mer Pro Meritus Dolores
Archuleta I'm sorry I yeah she's uh she
was the first uh mer protim Meritus I
believe yeah so thank you and always
there to help our veterans thank you
very much for all that you
do she retired from the city in 2008 I
think apologies we're trying to find the
PowerPoint
I can go ahead and begin I know time is
is of the essence and so I will go go to
the first one go to the very first one
where says that one just click on that
and see if there's something in
there no okay sorry about
that
that's I'll go ahead and and begin and
then we'll catch up with the with the
photos if that's
okay M which that means good afternoon
Mr Mayor and members of the council my
name is Allison Smith and I'm part of
the delegation that that had the
opportunity to go to nberg Germany on
our sister City's uh delegation trip um
as the mayor mentioned that Las Cruses
has been a member of sister cities since
1988 with our first sister city of Leo
Mexico and when President Eisenhower
encouraged the the uh United States to
establish partner cities around the
world we became part of that in 1888 or
sorry 1988 and and uh began a
relationship with nberg Germany in 1993
July
4th there were 20 residents of Los
Cruses that had the opportunity to
travel to nberg 10 members in our
official delegation four members of our
string quartet directed by Jorge Rios
Martinez three members of the urban
exchange project studying water issues
and three family members of the official
group if I could at this moment ask the
other members of our delegation who are
here present to please stand and be
recognized our week was filled with many
official meetings we had a welcome
reception we had an exchange of official
gifts with the city of nberg we had a
tour of the State House in Hanover we
also had had the opportunity to to visit
nber's waste utilization recycling plant
a Documentation Center of a former Nazi
facility and the Arta Glass Factory and
we had the opportunity to see Jagger
Meister bottles being
made at our official welcoming reception
we were welcomed by the bker Meister of
nberg and at that time the opportunity
our own bger Meister um yashima had the
opportunity to give official gifts that
we took to the city of
nberg and if I had a slide so so
Burgermeister for those of you wondering
is German for mayor so kind of a cool
yeah I like hamburgers right and me so
worked out really good I like I always
like that so it turns out that we do
have a jump drive okay and um I think
they're going to load it real quick
and because this you know you have to
show the
pictures
yeah sorry
Tim so how was everyone's
weekend sorry to hear about your
Eagles
counselor she's not looking this
way hi judge fosa good to see
you F5 I think is that what you hit is
that
F5 is there is there I'm a Mac User I
don't know how to use is there
F5 where's Gil sorg F5 there you
go all right now that now technology is
working on our behalf so this here is a
map showing where nberg Germany is
located it is in lower Saxony near the
city of Hanover um so that is the
Northwest part of the city or the the
country of Germany and we were there as
a delegation to celebrate 30 years of
partnership with
nberg so this is the makeup of that
delegation the 10 members of the
official delegation four members of the
string quartet three members of the
urban exchange and family members that
had the opportunity to go with
us and there are smiling faces in front
of the old rat house um which is the
city hall believe that is here we are at
the welcome re can I stop for just a
second yes sir so if you heard her it's
called a rat house so that's like City
Hall I guess that's where all the rats
are in City
Hall this uh photo you see here is our
welcome reception where the mayor of
nberg uh spoke to us and we were able to
do the official presentation of the
gifts and here this is a photo of one of
the gifts that we gave to the city of
nberg the city of nberg has a Los cruus
room where they have all of the gifts
that we have given them over the years
on display for their their members of
their Community to
see this is a photo of the gift that we
will be presenting to you today uh from
the city of
nberg here we are at the State House in
Hanover where we had representative miag
gashima um giving something to the
president of the state miyagishima and
the rest of us onlookers uh had the
opportunity to be there in the their
Parliament
room this is a photo of the recycling
facility and at this recycling facility
it was really incredible to see how much
they recycle in nberg everything from
building materials to small appliances
uh to paper plastic they really do have
a fabulous recycling
opportunity this is a a photograph of
the building materials that they
recycle and one of the other official
places we had the opportunity to visit
was a facility that uh it was is going
to be a Documentation Center on the
grounds of a former Nazi facility so
turning something that was very dark in
Germany's time into something very
positive and this is a memorial to uh to
those um during Nazi Germany um this is
one the memorials on that ground on
those those
grounds and here we have mayor
miyagishima and Elaine McKinny uh making
a presentation to the director of that
Documentation
Center we also had the opportunity to
partake in a Monopoly game that the our
our hosts had us compete against one
another as we toured around the city of
nberg getting to learn more about their
downtown and all of the different
attractions that they have in their
community so it was a fun way to get to
know the the town and um and learn more
about this
community they also took us on a boat
ride on the vesser and allaha rivers
these Rivers have water in them year
round we also had the opportunity to go
to an equestrian event in the
countryside near
nberg what was really amazing is all of
us were hosted by families there in
Germany so we had the opportunity to
experience the culture and gain an
understanding of the German community
and the and their people here is a an
image of the string quartet they are
performing here at the
welcome the welcome
reception the string quartet also
provided a free concert for the
community of nberg
and their theme for the concerts that
they did was bringing music from the
Americas to Europe and so they did that
at this free concert they also held
workshops for school children and
performed at a retirement
center here is the members of our um
Urban Exchange program and this was at
the uh recycling
facility they also had the opportunity
to uh tour a climate protection agency a
wildlife station the waste utilization
and recycling plant and the glass
manufacturing plant they engaged in
discussions on the future of of the
rivers with their German
counterparts future activities on
October 21st at 11:00 a.m. we will be
having a presentation at the branagan
cultural center for the members of the
Los Cruses Community to see more of the
images um will be there actually from 9:
to 11: we will also have a Booth um at
the farmers market that morning letting
more and more people know about this
event beginning at 11 o' we will also
have a panel discussion at that time in
2025 nberg turns a thousand and at that
uh with that we were hoping to send
another delegation to nberg to help them
celebrate and then we look forward to
sometime in 2026 uh between 2026 and
2030 to welcome members of a nberg
delegation to Los cruus to share with
them everything we have to offer
them and with that I would like to
invite the chairman of the nberg
committee hail Huber to come and present
the gift from nberg to mayor
[Applause]
miyagishima
the trip was great but you're not going
to believe this there was no air
conditioning there and I almost died
so I looked and there's no place open on
Sundays so forget about trying to buy a
little fan on Sunday I was I was
surprised to see your arms in some of
those pictures I've never seen them
before I didn't
know
that was a good one wow this is
beautiful this this River as mentioned
does have water and it's it's really
really nice so this is a beautiful
rendition
here and this is our The Godfather who
accompanied us and and really helped
maneuver us throughout everything hail
Huber so ha thank you all that you do
and um yeah I'm hail Huber I'm
co-chair uh chair of the nberg sister
city committee I initially got involved
in it 28 years ago as chair of the
committee for about five six years and
then became president of sister City Las
cruus and then in putting together this
celebration for 30th anniversary I
became the chair again and it was uh
fabulous to have this large delegation
and to have Ken and his wife
Rosie and uh our delegation of 10 people
and the the total group from Las cruus
of uh close to 20 people uh we were
there for approximately 9 10 days and it
was a absolutely fabulous celebration
and connection and having
taken Jorge Martinez Ros and his quartet
from NMSU providing the music from this
area from um
Mexico and South America and Spain uh
and the people of nurg absolutely loved
the music that was presented and so
we're looking forward in two years and
all of you are in invited if you're
interested get in touch with us we hope
to be putting a delegation together and
Jor hopes to take another music group um
along to nberg to
celebrate and I believe Ken and Rosie
would like to join the group in two
years
so yeah thank you for
coming we do have some pins that we
would like to present to um the
counselors as well as so if it would be
appropriate to approach and present
these to the
counselors so two things well several
but two main things for me that I
learned one
remember at the Wier snitchel how I
don't know I thought they were hot dogs
but there is no wiener snitchel so
snitchel is me is for meat so here I
thought okay I knew about weener
snitchel but that's a fallacy and then
the beer they only make it with four
ingredients and they all taste pretty
good and it's not hot it's not the room
temperature it they had some cold beer
so I'm told and uh it was uh apparently
pretty good so anyways thank you very
much thank you for that presentation yes
may
prot Pro um my husband and I my husband
was in the Army and spent four years in
Germany when we got married he said one
of these days I'm going to we didn't get
it we couldn't afford the honeymoon he
said one of these days we're I'm going
to take you back to Germany to the area
where I was 40 years later with sister
cities that's when we went it was
absolutely fabulous what happened there
with him is that he didn't recognize any
of the buildings that were that he left
and that's because they were all
restored when he was there they were bed
of I highly highly recommend to all of
you who can please attend this one it is
fabulous thank you thank
you so let me just do a quick math here
see Los cruus was
1849 so the city of Los Cru is 174 years
old and nanberg is going to turn a
thousand 2025
so pretty good all right thank you very
much that ends our Proclamation and
presentations thank you again for an
enjoyable um down memory lane with that
so okay now I'm going to get to the
conflict of interest statement this is
our where I'll ask if any member of the
city council city manager or any member
of the city staff has any known conflict
of interest on any item on the
agenda gr
see now we're going to go to public
participation this is where members of
the public can speak to council for a
total of seven minutes 3 minutes on any
item that you wish four minutes for an
item that's on the agenda we ask that if
it is an item on the agenda if you could
wait until that particular item appears
and uh and discuss it then if you can't
just let us know because the council
can't respond to you regarding the three
minutes and speaking anything before
Council uh we ask that it not be
pertaining to any pending litigation
okay um I know this is election time if
there are any candidates out there
please refrain from uh stating that
you're a candidate for office because
there is no campaigning in city hall or
any city building for that matter all
right so I usually start on my left and
the first second and third rows are all
empty and looks like the fourth row is
staff so fifth row
Sarah
just need to state your name please
thank you City councilors and mayor my
name is Sarah Smith I was glad to hear
your Proclamation for Red Ribbon Week
for a drug-free Community I hope you
will do more as a mother of two children
I am concerned about the increased drug
abuse issues in our community as well as
the crime and homelessness that often
come along with drug abuse the city
council has dedicated a lot of attention
and money towards redeveloping the
downtown mall on Main Street in order to
revitalize this area yet numerous
business owners from that area have come
to this Council to report that they are
suffering repeated broken windows
robberies harassment public urination
and other issues my kids are 13 and 16
years old and they attend a class in the
downtown mall a few times a week it is a
mixed ages class with children down to 9
years old the week before last two
homeless men were sitting outside the
window of their class exchanging pills
and cigarettes smoking marijuana and
taking hard alcohol shots this was in
the middle of the afternoon and they
were in full View of the children in the
class then last week when my children
were trying to go to class there was a
drugged out man in front of the door to
the building screaming and just ulating
my kids had to find another way to get
into the building safely they were able
to make it inside and there was a young
employee in the building armed with a
broom stick in case the drugged out man
tried to enter and cause a problem I've
heard other mothers expressing concern
about safety of their children in the
downtown mall as well and saying that
they no longer use the splash pad
because it does not feel safe what will
you do to fix this situ situation I know
you are planning to invest more money in
redeveloping Elo and Picacho like you
did for Main Street but that will all
fail if the crime vandalism drug abuse
and homelessness are not remedied first
giving housing to the homeless with no
requirements for sobriety is not the
answer either as evidenced by the
problems with the desert hope homeless
housing project that has ended up
housing drug dealers we know that mental
health and drug addiction are among the
main causes of the problems that we are
seeing instead of waiting on the state
to fix this issue will you please
prioritize mental health and substance
abuse treatment over other projects even
if it means stopping funding other
projects in order to save up the money
that we need to do this for our
community this seems to be the most
urgent need that we are facing right now
if your own roof was leaking water into
your house you would stop buying new
clothes or cars or going on vacation in
order to get your house fixed first we
need to do the same thing with the city
budget and prioritize the safety and
health of the whole community over other
projects the city of Los Cruses could
pave the way by making a commitment to
stop or reduce funding to some other
areas in order to focus on this urgent
need this would be responsible
stewardship of the money that the city
council is entrusted with for the good
of our community Los crisis's children
families and businesses are counting on
you to make our community a safe place
to live and work thank you thank you
Sarah so one of the things that I was
just mentioning with mayor proem and uh
city manager I know that that we use
certain funding from our our tid our tax
increment development District to hire
security but it looks like we may want
to to be 247 because in the past it was
just kind of in the evening time you
know like from I don't know 11 o'clock
at night till 5 or so in the morning but
I think they're going to expand the hour
so that so that uh that can be addressed
so thank you very much for for your
comments and also um May PM suggested if
for those of you listening if you hear
anything or see anything just call 911
the the the light project that will kick
in and U they let them know to send the
um the members of of our fire Response
Team our fire department okay so that
was the fifth row anyone on the sixth
row
ju mayor Council my name is Juan Garcia
it was sad to hear a 14-year-old boy was
killed by a 15-year-old Saturday and the
shooting on Sunday by little Cesar in
the Alberton shopping center we
frequently shop there the streets of Las
cuses are becoming less safe I was asked
to read the following letter during
public comment the owner of the small
business can't afford to close and come
speak the business is in city council
District 5 my name is Kenneth owami and
I'm originally from Nigeria I have been
practicing Pharmacy in Las Cruses for 18
years I was a pharmacist at Kmart from
2005 to 2017 I made a decision to open
Del Ray when Kmart operations stopped
Wednesday October 18 will Mark the sixth
year of the Del Ray Pharmacy that has
been serving the
community since DRP Inception burglary
and vandalisms have really picked up in
our community in the past two years with
employees vehicle windshields getting
smashed on May 22nd 2023 DRP glass front
was smashed in and the pharmacy was
ransacked and burglarized one week later
on May 30th 2023 DRP glass front door
was again cracked in a burglar attempt
no arrest have been made to date I would
like to point out that even though the
motion detector and the alarm were
triggered the video footage footage
showed that the burglar was in no hurry
and took took his time to ransack the
place causing thousands thousands of
dollars in Damages and losses I believe
that increase in police Manpower and
other
resources will favorably impact and
deter this current and very rampant
Burgan
vandalisms as you can see in this photo
with a storefront is covered by bars it
looks like a prison except that the
victims are inside the building not
outside our like officials saw the rise
in crime over the last four years during
your terms in office and well here we
are what can we expect in the next four
years now we have a quote epidemic of
fenel ABC7 learned that in 2019 3,200
pills were seized in 21 that went up to
22,000 and so far in 23 more than 50,000
pills have been seized legislative
session in 2023 had numerous bills that
could have been passed and possibly
impact the rising crime all diing
committee with with the continued rise
in crime in this city every citizen in
this community who qualifies to obtain a
concealed carry license should obtain
one before the governor continues her
attacks on lawful gun ERS in donana
county and prohibit it thank
you thank you one so that was a sixth
row anyone else on the sixth
row seventh
row
Lori my name is Lori English honorable
mayor and counselors two weeks ago I
stood in this very same spot and I
challenged you to take up the B mantle
and the banner to fight crime in the
city of Los cruus
since then two lives have been lost
numerous businesses have additionally
been attacked vandalized and it's
vandalism it's not robbery it's not to
gain anything it's to just cause
damage
um then to watch a a forum of
candidates sponsored by Channel 14 Fox
News and have a candidate sit there and
say I don't think there's any crime in
Los crew
I think that's
absurd for months I've been coming to
this Council I've been speaking about
veterans and about the issues and
absolutely nothing has been done you
have been hearing from literally
hundreds of people both at Council
meetings and in other venues about the
crime problem in Los Cruses so first of
all i' like to tell you if you don't
already know we do have a crime problem
in Los cre Cruis and I
challenge the council to please act as
counselors and again not as
politicians and do not do not support
political parties when you should be
supporting the people and the citizens
of Los cruus their lives and their
properties I'm going to give up 30
minutes at least an minute of my time
and hopefully somebody will take
advantage of that time time to take that
minute or m 8 minute and 10 seconds and
think about what I've said people are
dying and it's time it's got to stop
thank
you thank you Lori just a couple of
clarifications I think violent crime is
down a little bit but the other other
crimes I know are are are up a bit so I
just wanted to clarify that but I also
say I want the public to know this that
if it if the crime whether it's
trespassing or breaking of Windows and
such is under $1,000 that's a
misdemeanor that's something there that
the the uh district attorney doesn't
doesn't prosecute it's it's only when
they become a felony so what I'm trying
to get at is the city council has
nothing to do with the
misdemeanors I think a few months back
several months ago I introduced to you a
name of a municipal judge that is no
longer running for re-election so I
think things are going to get hopefully
a little bit better starting next year
so uh just I and I know that it's a lot
of challenges right now but this council
is working diligently to do everything
the best that they can so thank you for
your comments your patience on that were
you going to say something
okay okay councelor Beno did you want to
translate okay okay
um hi my name is Carla Martinez uh my
presence here is because I'm a little
bit confused I was here a few months ago
three months ago and when my business
was
vandalized
um
I'm confused about the time being given
to us here today to uh name our
complaints about the things happening in
the city
[Music]
see
if we're only here to be listened to how
do I see the responses of uh what we are
bringing here Monday to
Monday
um
I um I see every month here uh that you
all just listen but I don't know where
to see your responses I see that the
mayor has briefly spoken about a
response
um and just trying to understand how the
City
Works
and I would I would as a small business
owner me and my daughter would like to
get involved uh we'd like to understand
how we can create uh change in the
community towards the vandalism
happening
[Music]
and we'd like to be part of something
positive I I think we're all tired of
seeing just the negative of happening in
the
[Music]
city
[Music]
um
I I thank you for all you do thank you
for all that is coming in the future and
um our kids don't deserve the lost crues
that we have
today thank you I apologize for not
saying it in English but it's easier for
me to say it in Spanish so so if you
moment so counselor if you would uh
respond so a couple
things when when members of the public
come before us Council can't all of us
talk about it because there's a state
law prohibits us from discussing
anything that wasn't on the agenda now
that now for one person you know namely
me I usually try to give some response
so
that's
okay and then so how we would like it to
work is if she could leave her name and
phone number and address with the city
clerk City cler then we'll determine who
your city representative is so they will
get a copy and and as will I and how I
typically like to handle it is let your
repres resentative listen first I just
like to clarify that I have spoken with
her directly okay and and then if
something doesn't you know if there's
something else I can do to help and then
if it's something there that's going to
require spending of
money not not sure what you're saying
sorry okay and then if it's something
that requires spending money uh then we
can take it to the agend put it on the
agenda and discuss
it
if it doesn't require that then usually
the counselor can work with the city
manager and have staff take care of
whatever it is if it doesn't require a
whole lot of
money city
manager
okay
she's asking if she can only have
contact with me or anybody
else prably the representative and then
I I will act as a second
representative to ask someone from
outside the district because they're
already their hands are full with their
residents that's why they're elected in
districts but I'm elected at large and
I'll be more than
happy
good
okay uh let's see that was um seventh
row no one in the eighth
row judge were you here to say something
or you just observe okay so in no one on
my left all right I'll switch to my to
my right first row staff second row
staff third row look staff fourth row
anyone fifth
row
yeah
the bike bicycle
gang you know I thought that was you
Donald I wasn't too sure with that it's
kind of hard not notice that
florescent shirt of yours so and it was
really nice they had the 25th
anniversary for the Village today I'll
just need you to state your name please
thank you um mayor May gima counselors
city manager assistant city manager um
my name is Donald Wilson I'm here today
to speak on behalf of El cruus I just
would like to take a point to
um since I did work at the Village of
North Riz you're recognizing them um one
of the things we did while I was there
that I was very pleased to do was to
take a small amount of time out of our
year every year and thank those of you
who have chosen to uh
dedicate many many hours of your time to
the citizens of Los cruus and we enjoyed
having the mayor and and many of the
city councilors come up and we would
have a brief lunch and we always made
the promise we're not here to ask you
for anything we just want to thank you
for your service to the city and uh I'm
sure you don't hear that enough but I'll
start with that you also provided us
with jumbo I mean this is big jumbo
shrimp EO you would love it were they
were I was a percipient witness to that
and you were the only one who got the
the J shrimp I don't think so we got the
food was I'm not complaining about the
food but you're misrepresenting the
facts okay anyways EO EO would really
enjoy it I don't know if that's on the
agend always wanteded to take care of
the mayor but you hear of jumbo shrimp
and they're like inch inch and a half no
these were like three inchers four
inchers
big thank you uh mayor and and
counselors I have a letter here I'll
deliver copies to the city clerk to
distribute each of you I'm going to read
the one I've that is addressed to the
the mayor New Mexico ranks 46 in
population density but it is ranked as
the deadli estate for pedestrian
facalities per capita by the Governor's
Highway Safety Association for the sixth
year in a
row principles of Ethics should lead us
to conclude that it is unacceptable for
people to be killed or seriously injured
while moving within the road transport
system when evidence shows us that road
deaths and injuries are
preventable veloc cruus is seeking
partnership with Community stakeholders
to adopt Vision Zero vision zero is a
strategy to eliminate traffic fatalities
and severe injuries among all Road users
and to ensure safe healthy Equitable
Mobility for All Vision zero is grounded
in the ethical belief that everyone has
the right to move safely in their
communities furthermore the
responsibility for transportation safety
is shared by both Transportation safe
system designers and Road users we're
asking to partner with you to create a
vision zero coalition to reach a vision
zero goal together we will join
Albuquerque Denver Tempe Austin and over
50 other communities in the United
States and communities around the world
in setting a vision zero goal to achieve
zero traffic fatalities among all Road
users as a first step in this process we
are asking Don County the city of Las
Cruses and the town of msia to join the
vision zero network no later than
January 1st
20124 along with this first step we are
asking that each government entity
commit to the following three
goals within 90 days of joining the
vision zero Network we expect the
formation of a multi-disciplinary vision
zero task force which is a collaboration
among relevant government agencies and
Community stakeholders to establish a
framework of shared goals goals focused
on coordination and
accountability within 9 months of
convenient division zero task force the
taskforce will produce the first Vision
zero action plan this will be a written
comprehensive plan committed to an
equitable approach to Vision zero
through an inclusive and representative
process with measurable Equitable
outcomes and benchmarks the end goal is
to provide Safe Transportation options
for all Road users in all parts of the
the city county and
Township if we take the steps outlined
above we could be celebrating the first
year without any traffic fatalities or
SE severe injuries in the M Valley on
January 1st
2035 additional information about Vision
zero can be found at the website we
provide in the letter please uh reply to
V cruus to let us know if you're
interested and the letter signed by our
President George Pearson who is also in
the audience today thank you thank you
Don um we can't I I didn't realize what
uh you were going to do today so the
council can't act on it we can just
listen to it and you're welcome to send
this to me and then I can get it to the
city manager and and and such and if
that's something there that Council uh
wants to move forward on I mean I can
bring it up to discuss and then and then
we can kind of have a little bit more
formal meeting to discuss uh this this
and but it sounds good right no I did
not expect your response today perfect
thank
you so George I just let I let Don have
a little bit more than three minutes
because it was more of a
presentation but um three minutes for
you okay I'll try to read fast all right
thank you my name is George Pearson I'm
president of vusus the bicycle
pedestrian advocacy organization uh you
recently held the work session looking
at implementing speed cameras I had
heard some discussion about Equity but
Equity needs to be considered in
creating any camera enforcement system
uh fin should not be the only penalty
but a public service component similar
to mano imano program should be
available uh speed is a significant
problem and causes more significant
injury
crashes uh including fatalities however
enforcement cannot solve the problem and
is only a tool staff is has told you
that tools are education enforcement and
Engineering however engineering has
already failed and we need to look at
re-engineering we need a vision zero
task force to start implementing Vision
zero ideas so we can solve the epidemic
problem of serious traffic injuries and
fatalities we've been talking about
improving Traffic Safety but seems that
there's been little actual action we
please authorize the vision zero task
force to implement safety improvements
so we can have a fatality free loss
cruises thank
you thank
you hello my name is Jim Wilcox and I
want to thank the council and the mayor
and city manager for allowing me this
time um I am on the I'm with Vel cruus
and helping them out and and I'm also on
the mo bicycle pedestrian advisory
committee but I'm not here uh to
represent that group I'm here to
represent a group that couldn't be here
today and that is the
Dead the people who were killed in our
highways who could not be here
today they would support an effort
towards Vision
zero and I don't like to come and give
ideas and things that uh you know
complain about something and then not
offer ideas so one of the things that uh
I think could be
improved bicycle pedestrian advisory
committee has asked for the police
reports for the
fatalities and we've been blocked we do
not get the information about what
caused a fatality and yet our charge is
safety and protecting lives
I know this is not the no but you're a
member of it and there are people who
can Lobby and help us with that and the
other thing that I wanted to offer is an
idea for solution or at least address
the problem I understand that there's
only two police officers assigned to
traffic enforcement and while
engineering is is really a priority
making our roads designed better there's
not enough people on the roads in for
ing speed limits
racing dangerous driving so I would
recommend that we increase the number of
people remember an8 hour shift just
covers part of the day and there's a
formula that the police work with on
what the total amount of coverage they
have per
FTE police officers so my recommendation
is at least
five uh
FTE uh for the police officers to
enforce our traffic and when they're out
there they have a
presence they're seeing people who they
pull over they can also notice
suspicious activity such as guns and
drugs thank you for your
time thank you Mr wi Cox you know I
thought a few years back that the city
police department put on their website
opportunity to download or access police
reports via
online I I see it here I haven't tried
it but what I'm trying to say is you are
are eligible to get whatever information
is there to the public now there may be
some supplemental
reports that might come along with that
or not and if there are some that you
probably didn't get it could be
pertaining because there's still an
investigation open but I just want to
let you know yeah and and I can address
it if you mind me taking a couple more
seconds there was a uh there was was a
cyclist killed on
Idaho and I followed up with that I got
the police report and I also got the
police report from a pedestrian that was
K about The Pedestrian killed on Picacho
but we are not given that on the on the
bpack and I'm and I'm and I'm I'm I feel
uncomfortable trying to distribute that
when it hasn't been endorsed by those
who are managing the
bpack so my recommendation is that when
there is a
fatality bicycle pedestrian advisory
committee gets that report information
is you can't operate in a vacuum
information provides us with what we
need to know yeah Mr WX I'm I welcome
you to email me with your specific
questions or concerns uh I'll address it
with management and see exactly what is
can be shared and what isn't and ex and
try to and I appreciate that I know that
there may be legal issues but I would
hope that uh those can be put in cont
context of the benefits of providing
more information absolutely thank you
and George should have my email address
and probably so does Dawn
okay all right so that was uh sixth row
anyone next row okay
good good morning thanks for the
opportunity to speak oh excuse me good
afternoon and it's cold in here
anyway
um a couple weeks ago someone uh spoke
about whether the United States was a
republic or democracy oh I'm sorry I
didn't get your name my name is Jim
Hurst h o r s
t um few weeks ago somebody spoke about
whether the United States was a
democracy or Republic and I want to
answer that I'll do the best I can in
three minutes um Thomas Payne answered
this question in Rights of Man what's a
republic of Republic is a government
that divides its power among persons
Rome was a republic the Senate selected
the Caesar and authorized taxes and Rome
was not a democracy because the Senate
Was Not Elected by the people but chosen
by the autocracy Rome was an autocratic
Republic the few governed the many
Britain was neither a republic nor a
democracy it was a monarchy and all the
power was dispensed at the pleasure of
the king the king's successor was chosen
by birth or God depending on on your
point of view our Founders rejected the
model of Britain and chose the model for
the USA after Rome and
Athens we would be a republic like Rome
and that we would divide power poers
divided between the federal and state
governments the federal government also
divides power between the three branches
we would be a democracy like Athens in
that the authority to govern would be
derived by the consent of the Govern we
the people as stated in the Declaration
of of Independence Rome was an Aristo
aristocratic Republic and the United
States would be a Democratic Republic we
would be a democratic in that the people
would elect the president even if
indirectly and the people would elect
their National and state legislators the
demo the democracy was flawed for
certain at the start unfortunately it
took several Cent or took two centuries
to correct most of the problems but we
have nearly achieved our goal of
universal eligibility to vote why would
some of us want the USA to be called a
republic rather than a
democracy uh first of all they're
redefining the word Republic instead of
defining Republic as a government with
divided Authority they are defining it
as democracy
light they mean A system that is
intentionally flawed and allows for a
minority to assume authority over the
minor the
majority those who deny our democracy
would have us believe that our
forefathers did not intend for us to be
a democracy at all and that our Founders
actually meant for a minority to
overrule the majority through devices
like the Antiquated Electoral College a
senate that over represents
conservatives and Jerry Mander
legislators the Democracy deniers think
these are features not
bugs Lincoln declared that the United
States government is a government by for
and of the people that's a Democratic
Republic thank you Mr Hur it can be
nothing else thank you so what's
interesting yes sir is um when you were
talking about Republic or
democracy uh our director of Public
Works Mr sadil recognized that the
majority said it was too cold in here
even though I don't think it is and so
he turned it down he turned it up so we
are a democracy because the majority
rules so there you go kind of kind of
interesting when I don't think it was
timed I don't think you told Dave to do
that but anyways thank you very much for
your comments thank
you all right that was the sixth row
anyone on the seventh row eighth row no
one else on my right okay we'll go ahead
and get started with the meeting so that
was a fun exercise and
uh all right so let's get
to the agenda here
oh I have a closed meeting statement to
read bus cre city council met in close
session at
1112 a.m. on October 10th
2023 follow following members were in
attendance councilors florus Karan benom
Graham ABA and Mar PM
gandera staff pres was interim Chief
story Linda samples City attorney EOP
Brad Douglas Ean tamop assistant city
manager Mr robas contract attorney
Barbara theno Chief of Staff Sonia
Delgado assistant city
manager and um Bonnie dwit supervisor
paralal and then at
1240 two people came in Brad Springer
contract attorney and Haley Grant and
those two left at 12:40
p.m. and they came in at
12:40 and then the meeting adjourned at
12:56 p.m. and for the record the Las
city council met in close session to
discuss Penny litigation regarding Aaron
Spalding versus Johnny
Estrada etal case number
2-23
cv- 391 which is closed Pursuit to nmsa
1978 section 10-15 d1h number 7 number
two to discuss Penny litigation
regarding Robert Ramsey Jr in the city
of Los cruus case number
d307
cv-22
2-46 which is closed pursuant to nmsa
1978 section 101 15-1 number 7 and to
discuss a meeting that is subject to
attorney client privilege pertaining to
a threat or pening litigation which the
public body is or may become a
participant which is close pursuant to
nmsa 1978 section
10-5-1 H number
7 okay thank you and now we're going to
go
to acceptance of the
agenda need a motion second move to
accept Graham second motion made by
councelor Graham second by councelor
bomo to accept the agenda as presented
Christine this is on the motion to
accept the agenda as presented councelor
AA yes councelor Graham yes councelor
bomo yes councelor cran yes councelor
FLOTUS yes councelor Ganda yes mayor
yes okay so we're going to go to item
8.1 resolution
24-40 move to approve second Graham
motion made by councelor Beta second by
councelor Graham and Siri Molina will be
presenting good afternoon mayor
counselors uh Donnie proze purchasing
supervisor for the record I just wanted
to take a moment to introduce sir Molina
she's one of our buyers that joined our
team uh earlier this year and this is
actually going to be her first
presentation to council um y'all will
have to forgive me and help me out with
what folder the presentations are
in I think it's Council meetings and
work sessions thank you you would think
that would be
obvious
you good afternoon mayor councelor
excuse me Siri can you bring that
microphone down there you go thank you
can you hear me
my name is Siri Molina and I'm a buyer
in the purchasing section today I'm
presenting a resolution to approve an
electronic fuel card service
contract lasu's Municipal Co code
chapter 24 States the city can use
contracts from other government entities
as authorized exemptions using this
contract is the most practical way for
staff to procure supplies and services
for the city's operational require
requirements fleet's line of business
seeks to
authorize the electronic Fleet C service
contract provided by Wax Bank this will
be done through the New Mexico State
purchasing division price agreement the
purpose of this action is to account for
the unpredictable nature of fuel prices
public safety requirements and the
increasing Fleet size of the city the
staff has requested an annual contract
cost of
350,000 and they agree ment will remain
valid until December 31st
2025 Fleet Service section managed fuel
sites at heli and Avenue complex and the
utilities building on molel Boulevard
Fleet is decommissioning one of its fuel
tanks and the only Transit fuel pump
will remain active at that location
affecting fleet's ability to stock
enough fuel for the city's operational
requirements Fire Station 1 2 and three
are the three fire stations within
reasonable distance to utilize the fuel
sites all other fuel stations I'm sorry
all other fire stations would have to
travel outside the district to Fu out
the available locations negatively
affecting response time and Public
Safety Las Cruses
police utilizes high performance
Vehicles requiring a high octane level
which is unavailable at any City's fuel
site here are your options and I stand
for questions
very good thank you Siri
questions members of the
public can see none
Christine this is on the motion to
approve resolution
24-40 councel beta yes councelor Graham
yes councelor bomo yes councelor cran
yes councelor flutes yes councelor gond
yes mayor yes so Siri to be able to do
presentation and I get a question from
Council FLOTUS pretty good so you did a
you did a I I didn't want to say that
until after we voted because then she'd
ask you a question butk you good job
okay all right so next item 8.2
resolution 24- 041 move to app move to
approve second Graham motion by
councelor AA second by councelor Graham
Rosio Rosio Gamboa will be
presenting hello mayor council members
gamb senior budget analyst today I have
a resolution to accept our first quarter
adjustment with our fourth first quarter
adjustments our adjustments are
adjustments are routine budgetary
business and the data presented is
summarized so please uh refer to your
packet for detailed
information our first adjustment is for
in the 2017 facility project fund for
public works and increase in expenses of
31,000 for the regional recreational
aquatic center phase 2 and this is to
pay um some final invoices to the con
for construction of the pool our second
adjustment is um in the public park
Development Fund for parks and rs for
1.5 million 515,000 will go towards
Chandler tank Park and the 1 million for
Highland Park construction and this is
to bring the budget up to Engineers cost
estimate and to complete in one
phase next adjustment is for our G Bond
project 2019 fund for Public Works an
increase in expenses of 29,000 and this
is to pay off some remaining invoices
for our pieces at the Animal Service
Center and at Fire Station
3 here we have the utilities adjustments
broken down by utility the data
presented is showing the net change in
each
utility for shared services we have a
net adjustment of
117,000 in increased net
revenue the gas utility has a net
adjustment of
water uh that includes for is for
operational needs and a carryover and
baf the water utility has a net
adjustment of
212,000 waste water has a net adjustment
of
83,000 solid waste 430,000 and all three
of those are for operational and capital
needs I will turn it over to Cynthia
Campo to go over Capital
Improvement good afternoon councilors
and mayor
um all of the CIP amendments um are
actually related to the adjustments that
you just uh that were just presented by
jio the projects that are being amended
um in the CIP include the Chandler tank
Park project Highland Park project the
regional and Aquatic
Center um the median landscape is the
only one that was not included in these
uh budget adjustments this is a CIP
correction um we had I had amended
the the
CIP early last round and then there was
a change in the actual budget adjustment
so I'm correcting it in the CIP this
time um and then there's the the new
animal shelter facility and the fire
station and these are all of the utility
projects that um are being amended
with the adjustments that were
presented any
questions doesn't look
like I have a question oh you had a
question well I I had to look at um
slide seven I'm sorry what oh
everybody's teasing me so
um the um budget
adjustments um there isn't a
number given as to what it was so did I
miss some yeah I think I missed
something so there's a budget
adjustment but there's no specified
dollar
amount not on this presentation was
there one that you wanted
to I don't know I mean I just in
specific it was on the previous one oh
I'm
sorry Page Six oh that one okay thank
you very much thank you thank
you any anything
else members of the
public is that it
U okay all right
Christine this is on the motion to
approve resolution 24- 041 councel beta
yes councelor Graham yes councelor bomo
yes councelor cran yes counc FLOTUS yes
councelor Ganda yes mayor
yes mayor
yes all right next item 8.3 resolution
24-42 move to approve second Grant
motion made by councelor AA second by
councelor Graham Jan lauderbach will be
discussing may may wanted to suspend oh
I'm sorry that's right I was asked to
suspend the rules for item 8.3 and item
8.4 together so they can be discussed
concurrently so if I could have another
Motion in a second to suspend the rules
so move by florides second ABA motion
made by councelor Florida second by
councelor AA to suspend the rules to
discuss resolution
24-42 and resolution 24- 043
concurrently so on the motion to suspend
the rules Christine this is under the
motion to suspend the rules to listen to
resolution
24-42 and
24043 concurrently councelor ABA yes
councelor Graham yes councelor boml yes
councelor cran yes councelor flutes yes
councelor Ganda yes mayor
yes okay sorry Jen go ahead please thank
you good afternoon mayor and city
council Jan lauderbach with housing and
neighborhood
revitalization and as mentioned the
presentation covers there's two
resolutions before you number
24042 and
24043 both
resolutions authorize loan agreements
for the padrina senior
apartments it's a low income housing tax
credit project and the agreements
reference different funding sources
under different
resolutions the padrina apartment
complex will be located near the
intersection of el pasel and Farney road
specifically in the
northeast corner of the intersection
will contain
80 one I'm sorry 80 units 44 of those
units will be one bedroom and 36 will be
two bedroom units they'll be serving
senior households at up to 60% of area
median
income two previous Council resolutions
committed funds to the project subject
to the award of tax credits resolution
23077 committed 3 million ion in local
city funding for the project that was
approved in December of 22 and then
resolution
23122 approved in May of this year
pre-committed HUD home investment
partnership or home funds and Community
Development block grant or cdbg funds to
the
project as the project gets closer to
the start of construction we are here
today to approve the loan agreements
allowing for the financing to be in
place permits to be pulled and
construction to begin shortly we're
anticipating at construction beginning
in
January the city funds loan is a
residual receipts loan at 3% interest
over a 20-year affordability period this
funding is proposed to come from the
telshore facility
fund and home funds of 200,000 and cdbg
funds of 100,000 will be loaned to
project development with full payback
due at the end of the affordability
period sorry go back one before I show
you that cool Slide the City will file
leans on the property securing the
financials interest in the development
ensuring the property maintains its
future
affordability and with this slide we'd
like to share you our funding sandwich
or hamburger if you'll call it that and
I apologize if it's a little hard to
read but it shows the complex mix of
different types of funding necessary
when working with affordable housing
development and low-income housing tax
credits the total development costs will
a little over
2,400,000 and contains a mix of 14
layers of funding including our city
funding other sources include tax credit
Equity State home funds National Housing
trust funds New Mexico housing trust
funds solar and energy credits and other
sources of
funding a mix of different federal state
local and private funds make these deals
work and I may add that there's many
attorneys investors and bankers looking
at all the documents to make sure the
financial the project is financially
feasible we are working with our new to
the city development Partners Thomas
development company out of Boise Idaho
Thomas matre is president and CEO and he
and his staff person are here to answer
any questions you may have Thomas
development company has completed many
projects and communities in and around
New Mexico but this is the first one
here in L Cruis and we look forward to
working with them on this
project Northwest Integrity housing also
out of Boise is a nonprofit agency
partnering with Thomas in the
development
here's a vicinity map of the project
you'll see in the top left corner is
actually Las Cruses high school then we
have the subject property outlined in
Orange and directly east of the subject
property is the fringer Park area excuse
me the entrance to the complex will
actually be on Farney
road also with the city funding
resolution is a necessary budget
adjustment to commit funds from the
telor facility fund and it's noted that
these funds may be reclassified to the
affordable housing trust fund at a later
date and that concludes our presentation
for both resolutions 24042 and
24043 for the city funds and then the
home and the cdbg funds agreements and
with that we have your standard Council
options and I stand for questions
okay thanks Jan mayor pm thank thank you
Jan appreciate the um presentation I
especially like the slide four was that
the hamburger one yes I thought that was
really a good way of describing the
variety right the numbers of funding um
so thank you good visual thanks Koda
Natalie for that one yeah Natalie good
job good job I noticed um on the slide
um the last slide before the council
options that you said that um that this
would be coming from the telshore fund
but that it may at a later date and I
caught that um to be taken from the
trust fund and is that because we
haven't sold the the um the bonds yet
for the G the six Mill
um I'm sorry mayor mayor protim Gand
it's not due to the bonds on this one
it's just that the way they're running
the telshore facility fund wanted to
keep the money in there instead of so
many dispersements from what I
understand please correct me if I'm
wrong um but it may be moved to the
affordable housing trust fund for ease
of of watching it may or it will that's
what I'm tied up I'm I'm I'm concerned
about the the language and when we would
do that and who decides that which I
thought council did uh Mr Mayor mayor
proem Natalie Green for the record if uh
go bonss
our if the committee decides to allocate
a portion of the go bonds to this
project then those expenses specifically
would get moved to the affordable
housing trust fund um but the the
advisory committee has not made that
decision and neither uh has staff so we
just wanted to keep the option open in
the event uh the bonds are sold and we
choose well I say we but the council
chooses to allocate some of that funding
to um replace some of this this tell
short funding okay yeah
I
um yeah I would I would really recommend
and I'm not sure how that that goes it
um that the committee make the
recommendation for it to be pulled from
the GE that's why we have it right and I
think it's something that we want to
continue to build for sure but also um
concerned that we've taken this that
we'll be taking this money up and we
just took out um something similar um
for the Community of Hope um project
there and I obviously I voted yes for
that because I know there's a need there
but I want to make sure after we had a
presentation at our as you know you
participated in the um Health policy
Review Committee we had a presentation
specifically um on the telshire funding
and that would be my recommendation
thank you
mayor thank you councelor
AA thank you mayor and thank you for for
the presentation I really just have a
comment um this project is going to be
located in my district and I know a lot
of individuals I was just with some
community members the other day and they
were having they were asking questions
about it and what what it would look
like um some were even inquiring uh what
was the age that they had to be to be
considered a senior for it so I know
that there are a lot of people that are
really excited to see uh this type of
housing go up in the area and so I just
wanted to say thank you for that thank
you mayor
Council Flores uh thank you Mr Mayor I I
would like to hear from
um uh Miss de in so far as the question
that uh mayor protm
posed mayor counselor for the record Le
de Finance director um Council Ganda and
um counselors what we're doing with the
telshore is is the budget adjustment
that Jan is bringing today is actually
setting those funds away but what we're
doing is is we're setting them as
expenses within the telshore fund we're
not transferring them out of the
telshire fund into this fund and one of
the reasons for that is because in the
past we when we were doing the Asylum
Seekers when we were doing the
pandemic we were having issues with
trying to reconcile the telshore fund
and see exactly you know what was left
in the telshore fund what's going in
what's going out what grants are coming
in and so in order to make sure that we
know what that um Copus is what the is
we decided that it would be more
advantageous and we talked to Mr peely
and also with Miss bomo and we brought
to uh came to the conclusion that why
don't we just expense expenses within
the telshore and that way we know what
is actually being spent and we know
exactly we're not co-mingling any funds
so that way we know exactly what is in
there and what is being spent and what
it's being spent on it helps us to keep
up with what the numbers are and not
putting it into other funds and not
keeping up with it so that's the only
reason and that's why if if and when
soon we are going to be bringing to
council the fund for the I mean for the
bond for the affordable housing if
Council sees that some of the bond
should be paid using this then what Jan
said is we'll just move the expense to
that because those funds will go
directly into that trust fund that was
actually set by ordinance or by uh when
Council when we brought that to you so
that's the only reason for that is that
we're just not trans transferring what
she's doing is she's bringing the in the
expense but we're leaving it in the
telshore fund and she'll just use the
telshore fund for those expenses
hopefully that answers your question
councelor Gand thank you okay thank you
Mr M thank you Mr
M any other
questions Jan I do I just a couple can
you had how many two bedrooms and how
many one bedrooms are there going to be
yes ma'am
there's 44 one-bedrooms and 36
two-bedrooms 36 two bedrooms 441 okay
and
um and what is the
age what is the age Merit will be 62 and
above 62 and
above and are they allow to kind of
right now roughly what the prices would
be for the one bedroom in the two
bedroom yes Mr Mayor current prices um
depending it's prices are dependent upon
your income level so there'll be two
different ones um we have some as low as
363 for a one-bedroom that's a if you're
at 30% of area meeting income um that
would be 436 for a two-bedroom and then
if you go up to the 60% of VAR median
income you're looking at 727 for a one
and 82 I'm sorry 873 for a two
so I found out recently but I don't
think there are 62 and a half but I
found out that the state has uh is
looking for a lot of one-bedroom
for people that are they're
self-sufficient but they're only allowed
I think it's um 500 I don't know like
five or $600 but it but there's um a lot
of them are not 62 they're a little bit
younger and there's like no places in
the city that they feel comfortable even
at $500 for a one bedroom so I was just
curious what the prices are so I'm sure
this is going to be very welcomed
especially for the seniors that that
that need this because um there is hard
it's all locked up so this is a very
welcome
project yeah okay uh any members of the
did you have anything you wanted to say
Sir or
no yeah I was going well I was going to
you're the applicant I guess or you're
but if you have anything else you wanted
to
say Mr Mayor members of the council Tom
manre uh Boise Idaho with me is Angie
Ferguson the Executive Vice President of
Thomas development and she still once in
a while lets me talk at City Council
meetings and so I'm really enjoying this
today Parker shankin is our bond
attorney and he's also here uh today is
the start of hopefully the last lap
around the track for this development
which has been uh if I could sing I
would sing the old Beatles song it's a
long unwinding road because that's the
way these affordable developments have
been and it's not just in Los Cruses we
have one in Idaho that took almost three
years to get started one in Albuquerque
that's about the same time period it's
just really really complicated um you
may not remember but we've been before
you a couple of times this property
needed to be rezoned uh we had a teeny
tiny density variance because the survey
was 3.99 acres and not 4.0 and then we
asked for a small height VAR
all of which planning and zoning and all
of which city council approved for which
we thank you a great deal I want to
clarify two things uh first a comment
from miss lauderbach the age uh
requirement is age 55 not 62 and so
mayor if there's a group of people that
would be in that price range or that age
range excuse me then they would be they
would Age qualify for the property we
also even though our rents the the the
lowest of the one-bedroom rents kind of
fit that $500 threshold we gladly accept
Section 8 rental vouchers so if a person
is uh the under the HUD guidelines if
they can only pay $200 in rent then the
voucher makes up the difference and we
have lots and lots of vouchers and we
really welcome that program particularly
in our seniors because um it's it's far
too often that our resident profile is a
single person generally a woman who's
living on Survivor Social Security
benefits and that ain't very much so we
have lots of seniors who
are getting assistance from HUD with
their their rental
assistance um and the second
clarification which was what
Angie you just had the
age okay must Tom what was the total
price that you were going to spend
including the land if you don't mind ask
Mr Mayor members of the council
uh until the Construction contract is
sign I can't give you an exact answer
we're carrying a budget right now of
about
$2,400,000
um I would say that the city has been uh
you know where are we and are we shovel
ready the architecture and engineering
plans have been submitted to the city we
had at least two meetings with those who
review plans and approve them prior to
submitt uh there's a city requirement
the the first set of plans that go in
for permit review be 95% complete those
were submitted uh at the very end of
August City staff was lightning fast in
getting back to the architect and
Engineers on their comments uh their
comments were Fair they were supported
by provisions of the applic applicable
codes so um we've been doing this a long
time and you can pretty quickly tell
when a city has competent staff and
whether they really want what you're
bringing to town to be there and I would
say A+ incompetent staff and the demand
for affordable housing particularly
senior affordable housing is is
prodigous uh we are using uh HB
construction uh Albuquerque Los Cruses
El Paso based general contractor we met
with one of their guys on site earlier
today bidding is going well I asked the
question which I always do when we'll
keep City informed on this is how many
of the dollars are being spent in this
local trade area and it look like the
vast majority will be one of the things
that we do with our generals is we
require them to give us a list of subs
and suppliers the amount of the contract
and also where they they call home for
their business and consistently whether
it's but Montana or Caldwell Idaho or
Albuquerque and I think also Los crues
about 80 to 85 cents on the construction
dollar will be spent with local subs and
suppliers and we're very proud of that
um
timing we are um as I said we've got the
city of Los cruus today the State Board
of Finance tomorrow and then we finish
up the short week with New Mexico MFA we
should have all of the capital sources
approved which would be great because
all the docks are done and ready to sign
anyway so I hope we get approval um we
should have building permits uh I would
say within the next two to three weeks
uh HB construction closed Financial
Resources probably the end of November 1
of December is a testament to hb's
Integrity uh when we were talking about
Staffing this job and getting started
they said they told hanie and I well we
can start the first of December but the
subcon the superintendent the on-site
person that really makes things happen
and the project manager are finishing a
job they need some time off we would
rather start the latter part of January
with the team that we think will best
fit your needs and provide the best EX
execution for this development how can
you not like that so um I think well I
don't think I know we'll have the at uh
even though I'd like to start tomorrow
because I'm a developer um we're happy
to wait till January and uh one of the
people in our office who sort of handles
our property management stuff is already
getting calls from people asking when
they can move in um oh my other question
was uh counselor we had probably four or
five neighborhood meetings during the
course of the planning and all of those
sorts of things I'm going to give my
business card to the city clerk and if
you have constituents who have specific
questions about who we are and what's
going on if you can just refer them to
me I'll give it to Angie and she'll and
she'll answer the questions so thank you
for your time happy to stand for any
questions one thing I also and that's
great news about the different subs and
different contractors using uh also just
for the heck of it I'm sure you already
have these numbers based on 25 million
you're bringing in
220,000 in in um property taxes of which
the city gets about 37,400 a year so
thank you for that too actually Mr Mayor
I hate to uh to disagree with you but
there's an axo statute that affordable
housing if if the ownership of the
transaction is structured properly we
are exempt from property
tax oh wow I didn't know that structur
properly okay I got to check that out
yeah New Mexico legislature passed that
Parker how many years ago and that's
probably good that's how you help help
offset the be able to offer a little bit
lower rates so I mean I'm good with I
mean our our business is is you know you
you've all read stories about rents
going through the ceiling in Dallas and
Phoenix and everywhere else in the
country affordable housing rents have
not but guess what our construction
costs have gone up at the same level as
do market rate construction costs
because but for some little bit Nic
finishes inside the units and maybe a
little nicer outside amenity package the
rest of our construction costs are
identical to an apartment complex in Las
crus who would rent for twice as much as
we're ready for are you exempt from
having to pay grocery seats tax on the
construction I wish we were okay well
good that's a big number it's about $10
a square foot oh that's a lot it's good
yeah the best thing best thing that the
governor could do to help affordable
housing would be to exempt that no I
like that actually it's not a question
I'm going to ask I think that's good
because that helps again defray the cost
and keeps your operating cost lower so
that you in turn can can do this for
those that that need exactly thank you
very much that's great any other
questions okay great thank you all for
your time I'll give my C okay so this
this vote will be on the first
resolution
24-42 which I believe was motioned by
councelor AA second by councelor
Flores
Christine oh Graham no I'm sorry
councelor Graham I was just checking to
see if you were paying
attention you were so did you say I was
just joking see if you were going to
correct
it this is on the motion to approve
resolution
24-42 councelor beta yes councelor
Graham yes councelor Beno yes councelor
cran yes councelor fles yes councelor
Ganda yes mayor yes and although we
suspended rules we need a motion and a
second now for item 8.4 resolution 24
043 move to approve second Corin motion
B by councelor Beta second by coun
councelor Corin Christine this is on the
motion to approve resolution 24- 043
councelor ABA yes councelor Graham yes
councelor bomo yes councelor cran yes
councelor flutes yes councelor Ganda
Excuse me yes
mayor yes
okay so next we item 8.5 resolution
24-44 move to approve Graham second AA
motion made by councelor Graham second
by councelor AA and leand de mush will
be presenting your
M well good afternoon again mayor and
Council for the record lean Deo your
Finance director this is a joint effort
this is a resolution for fee structure
for municipal court for Indigent defense
Services mun Court does not have access
to our eye
compass and I um am helping them with
this I'm going to give the presentation
and then I have the good folks of
Municipal Court behind me that's why
he's here today mayor I made sure the
judge was here to help me so moving
forward just give you you a little bit
of
background June 3rd of
1990 there was a resolution pass
90-8 that authorized for Indigent care
services $150 per case and that's what
they've been doing all this time on
February of 16th of
23 our internal audit um Viola did a
internal audit report um there's the
audit report number if you're interested
in seeing this it's on our transparent
uh site on the city and it made a
recommendation and one of the
recommendations was that Municipal Court
adopt a fee structure similar to the New
Mexico statute State statutes of 31-16
d8 and that is what we're bringing to
you
today so in your exhibit a and excuse me
I have a little bit of
tickle uh exhibit a is uh the rate
structure that we're bringing forward to
you
there's four different rights that we
have on there and I do Christine is this
the time that I say this there is I am
requesting also an amendment I apologize
but I made a little bit of a
typo even though I had five other people
look at it but on number one um where it
says proceedings that are terminated
prior to a trial a sum fixed by the
court not I left out the word not so
that's all we're doing is adding the
word not less than
$1 so that's so on number one if the if
you have a term if you're the court case
the proceedings are terminated prior to
a trial then the uh trial sum affixed by
the court not less than
$1 nor more than
$300 well number two if it goes go to
trial where it's appropriate and there's
a filing of a notice of appeal a sum
fixed by the court at not less than $1
nor more than
$400 if the services in post conviction
remedy proceedings in the Municipal
Court a sum fixed by the court at not
less than $1 nor more than
$150 and number four is for services and
uh Prosecuting any appeal or review in
the district court court of appeals or
the Supreme Court a sum fixed by the
court at not less than a dollar nor more
than
$500 these rates will go into effect
starting January 1 of
2024 and with that these are your
Council
options thanks thean councelor Gran
councelor pan just a quick clarification
did I understand the packet correctly
that these haven't been updated since
1990 that is uh mayor coun gram that is
correct okay so let the record reflect I
was then a freshman in high school and
now I'm a mere eight years away for
being able to live in padr
apartments just just to put it into
context
neighbors thank you
mayor Thank You Leon thank you counselor
Corin um my question I will not be able
to visit you guys for some time sorry uh
my
question is actually more um related to
the idea that the Municipal Court
structures are and money collected is
outside of the city's sort of financial
reporting infrastructure that's is that
correct that mayor council KH that is
not the revenue that they receive does
come into the city oh okay they are
while they're not a city department they
are structured if you look at the
organizational chart they're off over
here but they they have a budget that we
budget for them and any Revenue that
they receive we budget that revenue and
we show it in actuals as well now a lot
of the revenue just putting a little
caveat on that some of it comes in and
then immediately goes to the state you
know there's like different kinds of
like I think DWI is one of them right
and it it goes straight to the state we
don't keep any of that Revenue we
collect it but we move it on okay thank
you that's that's really good
clarification I just misunderstood
something you said at the beginning so
that's my bad that was the only question
that I had okay
thanks counc Momo thank you thank you
Leanne and thank you judge for coming
and sitting through the whole meeting
for the his very last part so I
appreciate it I guess my question is yes
I'm glad we we're doing this but it's
more even about the process so for court
assigned councel do we do you have like
a pool of local attorneys who have
said yeah I'm gonna pass it on to the
judge
yeah good afternoon mayor members of the
city council Anthony fosa Municipal
Court Judge to lasu's Municipal Court uh
councelor Beno currently there's four
attorneys that we use on a rotational
basis that are in private practice um
and that provide appointed Council
service to uh Indigent defendants or
defendants deemed Indigent um in the
court and so one of the other
recommendations in the audit is that we
need to have more of a formal process
with those attorneys so uh that's
another piece of the the audit that has
a recommendation that we welcome and
that we're going to work with Miss de on
in the future is that is for enough or
what is the recruitment like for this
and do you think this will help
uh it's not as far as four I think at
this particular point we keep them
pretty busy from my estimation um not
every single case in charged in the
municipal court is eligible for
appointed Council uh they have to be
facing a possible term of incarceration
so you're looking at any offense charged
in uh chapter 19 criminal offenses of
the municipal code some uh in 201 7
which uh has more it's the driving
traffic code where dwi's uh the DWI
ordinances and other driving on
suspended revoke some of those fences so
I I don't know if I have the information
at this time to say that we need more
attorneys but we do keep them pretty
well um engaged okay that's helpful just
to even understand the process I
appreciate it thank
you okay anybody else
members of the public oh oh sorry
Council I'm sorry I didn't see the it's
okay thank you Mr Mayor and I have a
question for the
attorney excuse me for well he's also an
attorney thank you thank you uh judge um
so um the Indigent it's Indigent Court
are those court appointed pro bono
attorneys or do they submit a
bill corre so this Fe structure that
we're um asking or ask is before the
council essentially would determine
their their uh fees that they would
invoice um to the municipal court and I
believe they submit an
invoice once a month the four attorneys
submit an invoice to this uh Municipal
Court once a month so they're not
providing pro bono uh service they are
getting compensated this particular
resolution would kind of update how they
would be compensated so we don't have
the specifics as to how they would be
comped are uh per hour hourly fees case
fee I mean what is it h how how how do
you do that now and what are you
anticipating So currently the resolution
that I believe was last this issue was
last before the council in 1990 is $150
flat rate per case so it's
$150 um doesn't matter if they go to Dr
doesn't matter if the matter is appealed
to the district court and they the
defendant is entitled to a day noo trial
all over again in the district court
it's just
$150 what the fee structure that uh Miss
dush has presented is essentially sets
goalposts uh that the
court can set policy pursuant to the
municipal code of setting a um a fee per
case so uh for example a DWI case which
has and the Municipal Court carries
jurisdiction to handle a dwi3 case which
carries a mandatory 60 days in jail up
to 179 days right now the attorney is
just getting $150 for that case uh
instead of which those particular cases
uh are complex there's Discovery
review the attorney might have to
interview Witnesses there would be trial
preparation and it but it's just a flat
rate compared to a shoplifting case for
example that might not have those
complexities where it's on video the
defendant may make a confession under
Miranda or something like that where it
might be more easy to resolve uh with
the city with the sighting officer than
one of these DWI cases what this does is
if um the proposed resolution ution
would allow the council would be setting
goalpost for the court to operate within
but it'd be from $1 to $300 if the case
is terminated prior to trial so it's
resolved dismissed otherwise disposed of
and then if there is a trial $1 to
$400 and then if there is additional
postconviction remedies one 100 to or $1
to 150 and then if again municipal
courts a courtt of limited jurisdiction
we don't have we're not on the record
the defendants are entitled to a day noo
appeal where they are entitled to a
brand new trial in front of the district
court they're entitled to Counsel on uh
in that trial in the district court the
city constitutionally has an obligation
to provide that Council and so they
would be entitled to an additional fee
um in the district court but this would
just set goalpost uh for the court to
operate on uh with council's guidance
so the attorneys um the pro bono
attorneys they presumably come from um
wellestablished law firms I I don't
imagine they're from the U PD's office
is that or how does that work correct
they're all in private practice for my
so they're in private practice they
provide this service to the city um
currently at $150 a case yeah well
aren't most attorneys required to do
some pro bono work correct they some
some there is I I don't know I haven't
looked at the rules of professional
conduct related to that in a while but I
think it might be aspirational but they
are
uh encouraged attorneys are encouraged
to provide pro bono uh service to the
community this doesn't they they are
getting compensated for this so this but
um I I think that uh when there's a
private firm I think it's probably a
write off for them right I mean you know
they're giving free services and I mean
I don't know what the tax code looks
like but you know I'm just wondering
about that because I don't understand I
it's hard for me to comprehend an
attorney spending that much time and
only receiving those nominal amounts uh
so I'm just wondering what uh has kept
the program going or have you how long
have you been with Munich Port I was
appointed I believe April 3rd of this
year and started May the 1st right right
so this is all kind of learning this
this is all new to you but in terms of
um in terms of the uh number of
attorneys that are used the law firms
that are used and stuff like that I'm
just trying to see if uh we're not going
to dig ourselves into a hole and um you
know in terms of I mean I believe that
every Indigent person should uh I mean
right to counil especially in the DWI
but anyway so these are
just un understood I I
don't the four attorneys
that we commonly see in the municipal
court I know that they may have other uh
contracts um with providing uh panel
representation in federal court I
believe a couple of them do another one
uh provides uh
representation um to other municipal
courts within doniana County so I know
that they kind of this isn't the only
thing that they're doing right and has
there been a shortage of uh attorneys
who are able to represent uh the
Indigent there hasn't been a shortage I
apologize I'm just referring to court
manager Don Schultz here uh but I don't
believe that's why I was looking at her
because the court managers usually know
more than the judges right absolutely um
I don't believe we've had a a shortage I
don't know how long the the four
attorneys that we use have uh been at it
has it been and I'll refer that to miss
Schultz I don Schultz Court
manager
um mayor
counselors the attorneys I've been with
the court
since uh September of 2020 and we've had
the same attorneys on our Indigent panel
so there has not been a shortage in any
way um we
we did recently bring on another
attorney and then he changed his mind
that was Mr Lan so oh so we're we're
staffed we have plenty of
attorneys okay thank you so much sure so
then my question is if it ain't broke
why fix it and I'm not saying that
attorneys don't deserve uh what they
work for but I'm just saying just asking
why I mean based on all the
information is there just sure an equity
thing or a something I mean 1990 just I
don't know
inflation correct well the the first
thing I think that's kind of spurred
this uh Aon counselor FLOTUS is that uh
judge do you mind moving the microphone
I
apologize was that the internal audit
recommended that this uh come before the
council and be updated um and there is
this tracks a state statute that is
currently on the books that is in uh New
Mexico statutes
annotated
31-16 d8 so uh the recommendation in the
audit was F let's get in line with the
the state statute and so um that's kind
of why we're here um I I do think it
isn't a bad idea to kind of not just
give a flat rate um and allow the court
to uh put in place some policy where
we're going to there might be a higher
rate for more complex cases than just a
pretty non complex simple case and do
you think that'll um encourage more
attorneys to um to volunteer or to
participate in defending
indigence I don't know I would hope so I
hope obviously we've got a problem if we
can't provide a Indigent uh Council
constitutional right as I know the
council's aware so uh hopefully we don't
run into a situation where we can't
provide Council or no one wants to do
this type of work because then we've
we've got a huge problem a
constitutional problem so thank you so
much your honor thank you thank you Mr
Moosh thank you Mr Mayor any other
comments from council members of the
public say none
Christine mayor we need an amendment
sorry that's right we need an amendment
um I need a motion a second to do an
amendment please so moved Graham well I
actually I need you to State the
amendment so moved to add the not Graham
to add the not less than second by FL
okay motion made by councelor Graham
second by councelor Flores and Christine
did you get that on the you're good
enough for the explanation by the soon
to be senior citizen or what was it
okay all
right so uh there's no questions on the
amendment well you brought it
up this is on the motion to amend
resolution
24-44 to add the word not and less than
councelor beta yes councelor Graham yes
councel bomo yes councelor cran yes
councelor flutes yes coun
Ganda yes mayor yes now we're back on
the main motion so if there's no further
questions for anyone
Christine this is on the motion to
approve resolution
24-44 as amended councilor AA yes
councelor Graham yes councelor bomo yes
councelor Karan yes councelor flotes yes
councelor Ganda yes mayor yes okay thank
you number nine board appointments there
are none number 10 notice proposed
ordinances there will be no public
discussion councelor may ask staff for
clarification on the proposed ordinances
so that's number 10.1 Council bill
number
24-6 ordinance number
3048 Bring It Forward Bring It
Forward okay next the city council
member board reports and comments I
actually have a
few shocker so earlier a few a couple
months ago a few months ago I was
telling you that I was slowly moving
stuff out of my
office and in
2009 then Congressman Harry
Teague gave me a flag that was flowing
over the capital and um as well as a
nice letter and some pictures of
President Obama and president B Vice
President Biden at that time and so the
city paid to have it uh framed but I
wanted to take it so I was uh I thought
I'd mentioned that that a few you know
I'm sure probably back in
2009 the city paid a nice little sum for
that so I was hoping to give the city
$250 for that Framing and then take it
so I've have several questions no I'm
just kidding I'm just like what's the
rate of inflation from the presentation
of the flag to
present yeah so I thought it' be two I
thought it'd be 200 but OS was hard on
those negotiations for $ 250 and so he
made $50 for the city obviously just
kidding you you take your flag mayor
okay thank you so I have a
question surprise I have a question no
I'm not surprised well EPO I have a
question for you so um what um I mean is
there an anti-d donation Clause that uh
and that's what you're going to pay is
that the current market value that's a
whole purpose $250 and how long ago was
it Biden was still vice president and
young I just make it out to the city law
crues it would be miscellaneous it goes
to the to the clerk I mean to the
treasurer and it's just a miscellaneous
no I've done this many times
believe sometimes when when we have a
believe it or not when we have a dinner
or something and if I bring my wife I
mean the city's not supposed to pay for
her so I'll pay it and and for the
record you know I paid for her to go to
Germany so I mean yeah so I mean I don't
know but wait does the city pay for you
to eat but then you have to pay for your
wife to eat and if so do you order
accordingly and like make her order I do
it's funny so we'll go ahead and so when
we go out of town I'll one is for the
city and then the other she's got a
credit card for so you like restrictor
to grilled cheese or something for your
trip to Germany that was out of pocket
anyway that was all I mean I lost money
on it because of my reservations and
stuff like that my insurance didn't get
any money back you I give you
300 just
kidding auction for the FL yeah I I
think no seriously you know I I think it
would be a beautiful picture uh to have
uh in our um what is it the second floor
we have all those nice pictures of stuff
but somehow you think it'll look good in
your next office 301 you can have that
75 lb chunk of marble I don't know where
that one's going to go I mean I don't
you would need a a metal reinforced wall
to hold that thing up that's the one
that's just hanging against my building
my office I mean that's just really
heavy that is heavy I'm not talking
about what you want to get rid of I'm
just saying okay so the next thing I
want to talk about is
um is uh the work session so there is
going to be a special work session on
next Monday from 10: to 12 it's
regarding a non-binding mou with New
Mexico
state and then the third thing is as I
mentioned the November 11th Veterans Day
Parade it's at 11 o'clock in the
downtown
area okay with that mayor
ptin thank you mayor
um I along with um a few of us got to um
participate in the first Pride annual
first annual pride parade and it was
just such an amazing opportunity and I
want to thank the community for coming
to together and really showing um
support for our members um in the
community um it was lovely and lovely to
see staff there t-shirts and the flyer
that I that I
um received on the real new me Mexico is
for everyone visit Los Cruses thank you
for that um I want to um also um report
back that I met with Eric Sanchez from
the physical science labor at
PSL um and EPO we talked about a program
that he wants the city to um help um
sponsor and it's the youth IMPACT
Program um and I have some information
here that I said I would give to you and
I found the flyer so I want to share
that with you excuse me there now um I
think it's a great opportunity a former
um colleague and football player um put
together this IMPACT program and would
like to have that facilitated by the
city and the schools and I think a great
opportunity um NMSU coach kill and
others are really excited about it and I
think they need some startup funding um
and and so I'll leave it to you to reach
out to Eric Mr Sanchez to to do that I
know he has spoken to you in the past um
I want to report our health policy
Review Committee met um on October 4th
it was a great great um meeting um it's
a continuation of our healthy Las Cruses
sort of the status of healthc care in
Las Cruses we had a couple of Area
Hospital present Mountain View and three
crosses we learned a considerable amount
about what specialty um docs are lacking
here in community we we saw very clearly
that there a considerable amount of
leakage I appreciate Dr dores um coming
and presenting um and really having a a
good understanding
about you know where um particularly in
the health care field we should um focus
our attention or at least that's what I
got um we had Eric Erica thank you for
participating and um I'm presenting on
the telshire fund um we
there is a lot of conversation I think
specifically about how to use that
telshire funding particularly around I
think the Indigent population um and we
are wanting to just continue the
conversation we did a a bit of a a small
SWAT analysis SWAT analysis so special
thanks to my student Alex Espinosa for
putting that together and we just want
to continue with that conversation
um and
and I know Chris faor was there thank
you Chris for being there and really
looking at what kind of opportunities
The Economic Development Department can
um really capitalize on recruiting and
retaining um specialists around orthog
gii um Cardiology and how we can work
together with a neighboring um with with
our specific hospitals
um then lastly I'd like to just announce
that La Clin the Familia Behavioral
Health Wellness Center is having their
grand opening Tuesday at 3: at 760 Motel
Boulevard um I know a number of folks
came today to speak specifically about
mental health and um substance abuse and
addiction and I can assure you that we
are working on councel um about trying
to find a better a way to address this
um and EO I just wanted to as I talked
to you at my oneon-one about our hygiene
stations and also um where we are at
about um starting that specific program
with the Los Amigos project um I know
there have been some hiccups around that
and and maybe not so much hiccups just
trying to really understand what is the
best use of our our money and how can we
lift right that particular um program up
um to address substance abuse and
addiction and I'd just like a status
report on that if I could and with that
mayor I'll turn it back over oh and
special thanks to the winners of the the
poster presentation it's always nice to
see um our youth here um and I'm
wondering if we could and maybe this
happened last time where there was a
nice laminated poster board and we put
it up on the four the foyer and I I
think that's probably what will happen
but I wanted us to make sure that we get
that um accomplished to highlight the
the winners thank you mayor thank you
councelor Flores thank you Mr Mayor um I
want to um report on our um Animal
Service Center and um we we've um years
ago and it was definitely before Becky
Graham was born so it was many decades
ago
wow wow that was a year I graduated from
law school um but at any rate
um uh where was I going with that before
Becky interrupted me okay so um I gosh
tour you went on the tour what tour did
I go on the Animal Service oh yeah the
Animal Service Center no I went on the
tour I'm sorry um so sorry uh went on
the tour last week and um Katrina uh was
there good Denis and so was mayor um and
I don't recognize
anyway Miss Boma was there uh the other
miss
benom ohon the two benos were there I'm
so sorry um but at any rate um it was
the facility is absolutely beautiful and
uh and there have been some uh setbacks
or in terms of you know the time the
goal to open it um and and Clint very
well all explained exactly what the
problems were um one thing the um the C
the cat cages have been a big issue
because they they were designed a
certain way but then they were
manufactured a different way so that's a
big that's a big setback um but it was
absolutely wonderful to be there and to
see how uh much thought went into how
the um animals will be cared for and how
they will be uh housed it isn't just a
question of you know and I think um I
think there will be less uh euthanasia
you know less uh putting down animals
for lack of space because that has been
an issue um and that was wonderful and
also on the animal uh Services um um you
know uh other activity going on is that
we've been working on changing the uh
yeah
changing the joint Powers agreement with
the county and um and Miss Delo Miss
bomo Barbara bomo um has done a
wonderful wonderful job of um laying
everything out and um so the jpa is
being um uh the it's memorandum of
understanding is being uh worked on and
we're also revising the ordinance again
we did the or we revised the ordinance
back in 2020 I think and now we're doing
it again so there's been a lot of work
on that front um very
enjoyable um the other uh announcement
is the economic uh development PRC will
not be meeting until the end of uh
November is that correct Chris is that
what we agreed upon that we wouldn't Ed
PRC um for a variety of reasons but um
but the but the economic development
department uh I really you know just
really kudos to to that
department um and as you all saw last
week uh when um when Irene Barra
presented it was amazing how how much uh
Talent we have in in that department so
thank you Chris and thank you Miss
teters and I hope she's doing well um as
far as um the South Central well we
didn't have have a meeting last month
because there weren't any agenda items
so there was no meeting um but that's
all I have to report at this point Thank
you Mr Mayor thank you councelor
councelor
Corin thank you mayor um I have a few
I'll try to go as quickly as possible uh
I also want to Echo The Pride
Celebration gratitude for visit Las
cruus LCPD who worked to really um make
that a great celebration that we a lot
of folks enjoyed um so thank thank you
to those folks who went above and beyond
as well as um City Communications staff
who did a great job of sort of sharing
the information um I a few things in
District Five mineral bonding for a lot
of streets this is also some of these
are in District Four as well so just as
a heads up but in District Five some of
these are intersecting with Peach Tree
Hills the what I would describe as
Monopoly Streets um if if you live on a
monopoly Street you know which street I
mean
um and a few uh on Metro Verde Park Park
Lane specifically like those are the
general areas but social media and also
um the city's Pio has have released
information on the specific roads that
starts this Wednesday um and we'll go I
think for about a week and there are
some specific things related to the
mineral bond that that that uh those
information if you look look it up it
will give you some specific info about
that um also just as a quick note along
70 New Mexico Department of
Transportation will be doing pavement
management pavement improvements um
from I think about rinonada to NASA is
uh they'll be doing pavement management
and litter control at various nights um
coming up pretty soon they've heard from
a lot of folks especially related to the
litter there um and we're always
reminding them that that's not a city
street um and so the Department of
Transportation is doing something to to
address that um in particular future
construction there will be there is this
won't be as soon as possible but very
excitingly the Department of
Transportation will be funding um
construction along 70 from Three Crosses
to Elks that will it's out to bid I
understand um right now that will
include uh new pedestrian infrastructure
it's not as ambitious as the the flyover
that was proposed in our raise Grant but
it will improve that section of um
Highway 70m North Main for us um and
that section near Al is probably one of
the most hated intersections in the city
with pictures of potholes there all the
time um so that will be a positive um
when it when it begins but it will also
call cause a lot of traffic Havoc but
I'll keep you posted uh also Thursday uh
Tiara Del will be having a grand opening
for their affordable housing
project in District 5 that's very
exciting um for firsttime home buyers
who earn 80% of the meran median income
um you can purchase a home and build
long-term equity for your family the
ground baking will be from 11: to 2 at
4703 Bolero Road on Thursday and I do
hope that folks will come out and join
us it's a really exciting project um I
think affordable housing across the city
is is diely needed and critically
important and I'm very excited for that
um Grand Opening and if folks are
interested and might sort of meet the
income requirements uh TI delil housing
and will um sort of field some questions
and and be talking about how to apply
for those Homes at that time as well I
my Parks and Recreation board member um
who has served for quite some time is is
resigning from the from the parks and W
board and so I will be looking for new
folks to consider to add to the parks
and wck board and I'm actually going to
go to some parks and weirdly stock
people there and ask them if they want
to be on the Parks Board because that
seems like the most legit way to find
parks and wreck board members so if you
see me mingering at a park just know
that I might ask you to consider serving
on the parks and wreck
board I have a lot of parks so I can
drop in any any to anyone any time you
have a lot of I have a lot of parks
10,000 parks in District 5
[Music]
um also just really quickly the TSI PRC
meeting will be November 7th election
day in upstairs and we'll have a special
guest speaker representative Rubio who
has worked with the state a lot on um
equity in transportation equity and
outdoor recreation so um she'll be
giving a preview of some of the
priorities of the budget in the upcoming
legislative session especially related
to um Equitable
transportation and um really Equity as a
foundation for Transit and
sustainability which is what the TSI PRC
is about so that will be that should be
really exciting and fun um the usual
folks I'm sure we'll show but in case
anyone else wants to come and hear that
presentation it will be at 8:30 on
Tuesday November 7th and the second
floor um so I hope that you'll consider
joining us that's it for me at this time
thank you coun Servo thank you um thank
you uh let's see where do I
start yes I also went on the tour of our
new Animal Service Center and as you can
imagine I cried as I was walking through
because it just was um it's just a
really special building and I'm honestly
so excited for them to get to get moved
in there I think not only for the public
obviously and for the animals but for
the staff too like it's really really
staff friendly um and they do tough jobs
and so I I'm excited for for that and
really thankful for the voters for
approving that
um I um Karen Woods was kind enough to
invite me to an event that I attended
this morning um hosted by the United
military women of the Southwest they
were sponsoring a veteran health and
Welfare event um at the American Legion
Post number 10 and I just stopped by
there today and visited with some of the
folks that were um tabling some of the
resources and it it was really a great
event and I hope they continue to have
these but I wanted to bring up one
specific um a couple of specific folks
that I talk to because I think it goes
into this um Outreach court that I have
been telling you all about Outreach or
homelessness court that I've been
talking about and and I think I mean all
of you might know just how incredibly
successful specialty courts are and one
of those here in Las crusis is the
Veterans treatment Court um and I really
loved that they talk about uh Veterans
as just an Justice involved veterans I
think language really matters and um
they're they're just doing really
incredible work I have a couple of
things that I'll be talking to EPO about
um regarding uh veterans court in
municipal court and um just like better
collaboration between the two so that
more veterans who find themselves in the
justice system can
access um their resources offered by
veteran treatment court but again I just
think it's such an important model to
look at as we think about hopefully
creating our own Outreach and
homelessness Court out of Municipal
Court because um I've said Court too
many times now um but it's clear to me
that these kind of specialty courts are
um um tremendously helpful for for
people who keep finding themselves in
this
position um that's really the only other
thing I have I guess maybe my last thing
is I would request that we have maybe
through Pio a translator an interpreter
I while I don't mind I am not the best
interpreter even though Spanish is my
first language doesn't mean you can be a
good interpreter also you never know one
day I might not have a very kind thing
about myself to translate on and I don't
if I want to do that so I would just say
for language accessibility here in
Chambers what we can do to to have
someone um readily available maybe
through um the city clerk's office I
don't know that can that can be
available to provide you know
non-biased interpretations for um
Spanish speakers but in potentially
other languages as well so that's really
the last thing selfishly that I wanted
to say thank you thank you counselor and
in the past they would at least someone
would say can we have an interpreter for
the I had no idea that Miss Martinez I
don't know was going to show and you
know so I hear I hear you but again
until maybe there should I don't know
how we'll just let EO figure it
out yeah but but see that what what I
guess what the question is do you have
them here for the entire council meeting
or maybe just here for the for the
public participation will know by then
if they if we're going to need the
Spanish interpret I mean yeah I think if
there's there if there was a staff
person who spoke Spanish who wanted to
become certified and then and then make
more money EO I think that would I think
you would have to guarantee that that
staff person would get a little bit of a
raise bump um I think that would be
ideal right so it's not one specific
staff just for that but if there's
already a staff that wants to get
certified I think that would be a
goodidea I think that's good I think
that's a good
idea okay counselor
Graham thank you uh just a big welcome
to Grace tez um so happy to have you
we've all benefited from Grace's
excellent work with LCPD cares but now
we'll get to um spend a little more time
with her um joining our community
engagement team um if you haven't had
the chance to work with Grace personally
I just want to say what an incredible
asset she is to the city um she was a
highlight at the district uh District 3
Community chat um and I'm just
absolutely delighted to have you on
board although you know I'm sure it's
LCPD Care's loss our gain but great to
have you thank you so much for joining
us that's
all and did you see that 2009 that
picture sure was it yeah councelor
beta thank you mayor I want to say thank
you you and welcome to Grace as well oh
my time is up done make it fast um you
know I'm announcing uh the Juvenile
Justice Continuum board is going to be
meeting this Wednesday at 12: PM where
we've been able to have Grace's
wonderful talents over there too so
happy to have you closer to us so thank
you um for Council there in your inbox
should be the Mita annual report um it
was sent Anette send it all to your
inboxes uh if you'd like to take a look
and then I will be on
November
1 3D sorry on November 3D I will be back
in Santa Fe um to chair a joint meeting
between uh the counties and the cities
as we look at our legislative um agenda
items and how it Compares for both of us
uh and the last part is is uh mayor
already mentioned about the tid special
work meeting but I did get a chance to
join him and members from NMSU to ask
some questions so I appreciate uh the
mayor calling for a work session so we
can get some of those uh questions
answered and that's all I have thank you
thank you counselor all right EO City
manager's
report thank you mayor and Council just
want to respond to some of the things
that were were brought up earlier uh
mayor proam I know um
we've been going at it with this the
hygiene stations for a long time
unfortunately I don't I really don't
have
um have much progress since the last
time I've I've talked to you I know we
The Entity that we were working with uh
we're still going back and forth on
terms and so that's kind of where we are
we're just kind of kind of figure that
one out we have looked at some other
options uh Natalie and her staff are
working on that and and maybe we'll
present some alternative op options to
the council as well well but uh that's
that's kind of where we are we're at but
um I'll get you more more info uh as
that progresses and then um you know we
we have talked about the
translator um I think Christine
mentioned in the last year she's we've
had more this last year than her whole
career I I think um is that correct or
my or as ready and so this is and I
think we're just going to we're going to
need to to really look at it
um we've been talked to Communications
and and HR we had some conversation we
just need to pull the trigger on
something that idea of of having one of
our our staff members at our bilingual
have something extra so that they can be
available it's probably the best idea I
think I've heard as we've all discussed
too about this so um we we'll have
something in place may I add councelor
um there's a big difference between
interpreter and
translator translator is someone who who
um interprets the U written word
interpreter is the one who does the oral
the um the spoken word um and the two
are very very uh different uh talents I
mean it's it's amazing um how different
um it is and there's very few people
that can really handle interpretation I
mean you really have to be certified and
since they're basically coming up here
to um and I don't know if the city wants
to have a translator too for having
things go out in Spanish I know some
stuff goes out in Spanish but I don't
know who does that and I don't know how
technical or I don't think anything goes
out that's legal or has legal
implications but here I think someone
coming here there could be legal
implications based on what they say so
just I just wanted to uh clarify that my
brother one of my brothers was a an
interpreter and I couldn't keep up with
him I mean I I can't I mean I'm fluent
with my first language I agree with with
um councelor bomo it's my first language
I didn't speak English till I was I
think in second or no it was more like
third or fourth grade um so there
there's definitely an art and a talent
for it so thank you I just wanted to
make that clear thank thank you
councelor Flores thanks for making that
that distinction because I think we
actually have translator Services uh on
contract so we do have that but we don't
have interpreters so you're you're
correct thank
you um just a
couple so just a couple
other other things to address just uh
let the council know our maternity
paternity leave is up where the city now
offers that to our Wonder
um
so yep I know we've we've discussed that
and we've just been kind of going
through the just give you a little
background why we've hesitated um it
started off with with maternity leave um
that's what was proposed and then it was
brought up that why not we have why
don't we have paternity to leave and I
and my first response is will because uh
men don't have babies and uh but they
make them but they're very ready to make
them but the response back from our HR
um talked about you know we have other
family we have two two dads two two moms
we have different families and so um
different situations and so this is
probably the most inclusive we have um
our policy right now
Mr may I ask in fact I think that's what
it's called well may I ask a question I
jump with with joy at that uh thinking
that it's paid parental leave uh and and
um I don't want to put anybody on the
spot but um you know I don't want to
make ask you the question here but um if
we don't have paid parental leave I I
would very much as a matter of policy
extend uh would ask Administration to
really look at that because um I would I
would hate to lose our our talent to um
you know for for it to be a
consideration
uh in terms of being employed by the
city of Las Cruses and that's definitely
something that's not in our capacity to
make that but it is it does border on
policy in so far as how well a city has
run um so and and you having that
continuity and having that Humanity yes
counselor and that's exactly what this
is it's paid oh it is paid oh well then
I will jump for y thank you so much Mr
Mr city manager Mr Mayor thank you
councelor and then
um this is just something sorry in
response earlier um Chris made me aware
that he had he has the the cost for
Around the Clock
um security downtown because of the tid
tid funds and we're going to be moving
forward forward on
that and then just uh I know that we've
had a a tragic weekend
um it's really
U yeah I'll just leave it at that but I
want to let you know we do have a press
conference uh involving the recent uh
first invol shooting tomorrow at 2:30
that's not going to talk about the
events this past weekend but we're we're
going to be discussing uh the recent uh
officer involved shooting so again
that's going to be at 2:30 tomorrow here
in the council
chambers and then just just to let you
know give you an FYI I mean we'll
I'm uh surprised we're back at
this back at this again but our meetings
with our legislators have commenced
again we're back back at it and um we're
excited to to see what our priorities
are I think we had a good year last year
and so we'll we'll give you more
information we may go back as we get
into the legislative season uh I know
Barbara's been our our point of contact
there and she's sort of been running
lead with that maybe we will probably
have more uh more updates as we get get
into it but just let you know those have
we've started uh already with a couple
of our
legislators uh I believe that's all I
have mayor thank
you okay great if there's nothing
further entertain a motion to adjourn so
moved second motion made by councel Pomo
second by councelor AA
Christine this on the motion to adjourn
the meeting councelor AA yes councelor
Graham is absent councelor bomo yes
councelor cran yes councel fles yes
Council Ganda yes mayor yes okay it's uh
we are adjourned it's 4:24
p.m.
so
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