thing that's wonderful
[Music]
foreign
[Music]
good afternoon everyone welcome to the
work session of Las Cruces City Council
today is Monday June 26 2023 it's
approximately 1 pm if you please join me
in the Pledge of Allegiance please
thank you
and I believe Amy the Felix is on Zoom
for our pets of the week
yes hello can you hear me
yes we we can hear you awesome thank you
I'll share my screen
there we go hello everyone my name is
Amy De Felix I am one of the adoption
and rescue coordinators for the Animal
Services Center Elena Valley and every
week I shared events of the week so
let's start off with our cat of the week
for this week
um we have Othello his number is 62155
and he says spend some time with me and
you're sure to want to take me home I'm
a swab charmer who knows how to smooth
my way into any lab I just want to spend
my days living the high life and getting
loved on by my family don't you have
room in your home for a handsome
Endeavor Kitty like me
and then we also have our dog of the
week let me remove my video so you can
see the text a little better
let me see
there we go
um and he says oh his number five two
six five four and he says I'm a gorgeous
or sorry Luna sorry and she says I'm a
gorgeous girl with beautifully uni guys
and a wonderful personality I always get
excited to go out on walks with humans
and I love getting pets and attention
from them too I'm just a happy-go-lucky
girl who can't wait to find the people
or person who will cherish and love me
forever
and regarding adoption events
um we do have one this Saturday a July
1st from 12 P.M to 3 P.M at Lucky Dog
Affiliates it is actually going to be
our red white and cute kickoff and then
we're celebrating
um the Red Wedding cute adoption event
is going to be all July along
um it'll be 50 adoptions which will be
also honored at Lucky Dog Billiards they
will also have some lucky dog shirts for
purchase and you can get your adoptions
at 25 instead of 50 with the purchase of
a shirt
um you can also get a tie-dye shirt for
25 and with every shirt purchase two
dollars of that will go right back to
the ascmv so I hope to see you all out
there and have some fun and maybe find
your next forever friend and take them
home as well
but now definitely being about a week
ahead of the Fourth of July I feel like
it's appropriate to share some
information about like pet safety in
general so I got these bullet points uh
from some suggestions made by both the
avma the American Veterinary Medical
Association and the ASPCA the American
Society of the Prevention of Cruelty for
Animals I believe and you can visit
their websites to read a more in depth
about these bullet points and the others
that didn't quite fit in these little
slides
um but I can start off with definitely
the most important thing you can do
prior to the Fourth of July or any major
holiday where fireworks and emotion is
involved is to prepare in advance so
definitely make sure the microchip
information is up to date and ID tags
have correct contact information this is
a very important first step in the
follow-up and making sure everything's
up to date is also and super crucial
especially here at the ascmv we get a
lot of stray dogs and cats immediately
following the Fourth of July and there
are a certain percentage I can't I don't
know I don't have any numbers off the
top of my head but we've seen every year
some animals that even might maybe
microchipped or have ID tags the
information provided on either one is
not not up to date so we really have no
way to kind of contact the owner and it
kind of delays the reclaim process which
is something we're trying to avoid
entirely
um you can also
all right keep your pet safe by keeping
them indoors in a safe escape proof room
or crate especially during parties and
or fireworks I know some people will
have like nice roomy crates to have them
hang out in in the evening especially
during fireworks and make sure that the
I guess Windows in the room are
like an impact proof or they're not left
open to where like the mesh like
lighting for a window can be like
bursted through just make sure that it's
all safe and secure
um it just prevents your animal from
basically breaking out and escaping and
if they're if your pets are Outdoors
during the day we definitely recommend
providing plenty of shade and accessible
drinking water uh as often as possible
especially when we're going through a
heat wave so and I feel like it's also
going to go over into like the Fourth of
July holiday weekend so we're definitely
provide shade water keep them cool don't
keep them out any longer than they
necessarily have to be can definitely be
aware of signs of overheating if you're
not sure what those are you can always
look it up there are a bunch of
resources online to kind of help you
monitor signs of your pets overheating
or even heat stroke so you can address
it and kind of correct action before it
becomes a serious issue and there's some
others as in we would suggest
reconsidering feeding your pet table
scraps things like onions chocolates
avocados grapes and raisins those are
all known to be toxic to dogs and cats
in certain amounts even small bones like
chicken wings
um it can be a choking or digestion
Hazard uh fatty foods like chicken wings
and fried french fries fried food fatty
stuff like that can also cause
indigestion and no pet owner wants to
deal with the Fallout that happens after
indigestion or even pancreatitis which
is a kind of just a bother to deal with
it's a lot and you have to change the
event it can be expensive so to just
kind of nip that all in the bud just
avoid feeding table scraps give them the
regular food
um they'll be okay
definitely keep glow sticks and glue
jewelry away from preps don't have them
wear them don't have them within I guess
accessibility of your pet because those
can also cause GI irritation like the
liquid inside the glow stick can
irritate their intestinal lining or
their stomach lining the GI tract and
even the plastic can cause potential
blockages and that sometimes needs
surgery to fix it can be expensive it's
dangerous so just avoid that entirely
and also we recommend not applying
sunscreen or insect repellent that isn't
specifically labeled for animal use that
can also cause GI or neurological
problems oh I know dogs and cats and if
you would I don't see this being super
relevant to cats but just in case they
like lick their paws they lick
themselves and they'll end up consuming
these products
um especially like insect repellent that
will have like date in it I know that's
something that like in general uh people
are trying to stay away from but
injection of that can cause neurological
problems and that's super not fun
especially on a holiday and so just keep
all of these things in mind so keep your
pants up for the holiday and make sure
everything like your information is up
to date and just make sure that they're
as safe and secure as possible and as
comfortable as possible Fourth of July
because I know that can be a very a very
rough holiday for the pets in our area
thank you
thank you Amy we appreciate it
okay next is going to be our jobs of the
week and Giselle palomares will be
making that
announcement I don't know no you're on
Zoom as well okay
usually good afternoon Mary Council
um for the jobs of this week
um I have
video Las Cruces is hiring for an adult
basic indication like structure
instructor excuse me and that pays 25 an
hour
um weissen's Missile Range is hiring a
recreation Aid trainee lifeguard and
that pays 15 an hour and that closes on
descent emergency 9 2023
and Genesis is hiring a dad at the entry
Clerk and that pays anywhere between 24
000 and 30 000 depending on experience
and that position closes on September 12
2023.
we have Motel 6 hiring a motel
maintenance and repair worker that pays
12 to 19 an hour depending on experience
and that closes July 14th of 2023 we
have ambercare Amber Care Corporation
and that's had they're hiring a home
care Aid in Las Cruces and that pays 12
to 13.50 an hour depending on experience
and that closes on August 31st 2023
going out of the county is hiring a
veterinarian and that pays anywhere
between 26 dollars an hour to 53 an hour
depending on experience and that closed
on July 16 2023.
and as always to connect to the New
Mexico Workforce Connection office you
can always contact them via telephone at
575-524-6250 or visit them in person at
226 South Alameda Boulevard or you may
also follow like And subscribe to our
social media and download our app thank
you
okay thank you Giselle
okay so now we're going to go ahead and
get with our work session we have three
items first one being 3.1 the alliance
for regional Military Support or
otherwise known as arms a quarterly
update and Mr Richard dayube will be
making that presentation
yes sir mayor good afternoon good
afternoon members of council so so you
do know excuse me you do know that one
of our our own uh former city councilors
now congressman is on the house arms
committee yes sir yeah that's pretty
good I actually mentioned this uh
briefly during our conversation we have
not had the opportunity to meet our new
two new assistant city managers but
hopefully
Maybe not today but on another day we
could come up here specifically to meet
you all and have a conversation with you
but as a result of the fact that we we
have a few new folks to work with we
kind of modified our presentation
slightly today to be fewer slides and a
little more interactive in conversation
and with me people think he's My
Bodyguard or my good-looking son
uh but he's neither this is uh Kevin
Cardoza and Kevin he used to work with
me at the chamber in El Paso years ago
uh he's a Las Cruces and he's up here he
works with us uh with the arms committee
as well and so we we thought we'd we'd
tend him on this today with you and as
soon as somebody gets the presentation
up
we'll go ahead and get started
city manager how are you sir
good
do we control this or does someone else
do it
you should be able to
while Christine's going over there so uh
yukanya and Sonia years ago
when um they had what they call the BRAC
base realignment and consolidation
at one time they were discussing white
SAS Missile Range for Bliss Holloman as
a possible closure and you know that
would devastate our communities and so
we were fortunate that that didn't
happen
and just to make sure that that doesn't
happen turns out El Paso had been using
this organization for a while
to make sure that that those in the
Pentagon knew how important our military
bases are and so we're fortunate to kind
of piggyback off of that and that's kind
of how this has come to play and it's
been it's been great and I know that
this is something here that I would hope
the future the future city councils
consider keeping on because you know
like I said the our military base is not
only help protect our country with the
with White Sands being strategically
located but also the jobs that that they
provide as well so Mr Mayor thank you
that's uh actually we should hire you to
help us because you're a great salesman
for us so I will be looking for a job
after I'm just kidding I couldn't afford
you you know we're a non-profit and none
of us get paid so I just want to be
clear on that but actually to to to your
point if I could piggyback on that
briefly so the 2005 base realignment and
closure process is what the mayor is
referring to I was at the chamber at the
time Gus Rodriguez who's one of our
partners in this that we had a team
working on this and we actually hired
Cyprus International who is a consulting
firm in Washington who helped us to
navigate through the Pentagon helped us
to identify what our weaknesses were
very important and also what our
strengths
are were then and are now
to help us convince the black Commission
that Fort Bliss and White Sands in
particular along with Holloman had a
great value Asset for them that they
should look at more closely
many of them surprisingly in uniform had
never been to Fort Bliss or White Sands
had no idea what we were what we did
until we educated them about it and one
of the big selling points for us was the
fact that the three installations work
so closely together and that we are much
much larger than the National Training
Center that the Army has in Barstow
California and in fact most of the
really significant training and testing
goes on at White Sands not so much at
Barstow at the National Training Center
that coupled with the fact that we We
disabuse Them of the belief that we had
no water because we were in the desert
we had the aquifers we have the
desalination plant which was just coming
online which is a partnership between
the Army and the El Paso water utilities
that was really critical and then all of
our infrastructure our roadways and our
ability to force soldiers Airmen and
their families to get back and forth
across the insulations to and from their
homes without a lot of gridlock those
were some of the big selling points for
us so fast forward then years later we
formed
this committee called arms which was
actually a committee at the chamber back
in those days and was so successful then
we decided to
Branch out and begin to work with the
Cypress folks again and it's important
to note they're not able to contract
directly but their company policy is
they do not
partner directly with any municipalities
so they can't work with the city of El
Paso directly or the city of Las Cruces
or the city of Alamogordo and so that's
where we kind of fill in that Gap
and what we try to do and again we can
go through these slides one at a time
excuse me and talk about some of the
things that have been done but I think
it's important really to touch on this
as the centerpiece of our conversation
because
the work that has to be done in each
Community
requires connectivity between the
communities and in this case the
Pentagon or
mentioned our Congressman now that's
important as well obviously to have that
Congressional connection and it's been
very helpful to us and I'll touch on
that in a moment but beyond that it's
who do you talk to when you go to the
Pentagon who how do you get in the
Pentagon and with and who do you meet
with and once you get that meeting what
is it you're going to be talking about
what is it you're asking for what are
the priorities for the community
and so that is background let me go
ahead and just touch on some of these
and as I mentioned in the notes mayor
Pro tem gone that I was with us in DC it
was her first
we'll call it a baptism
maybe a baptism by fire because it was
so intense there's so much going on it's
a great experience but now hopefully
this year if someone is going with us
again in the fall I I spoke with
Jonathan Macias at the county the other
day and we had that same conversation it
was a great first experience but now how
do we fine-tune it how do we refine our
efforts so that we're actually
meeting specifically on certain projects
with a goal in mind and we've been
talking with Elizabeth Teeters as well
about this at the city
so going back through these slides very
briefly our delegation that went to D.C
we I mentioned the attendance that we
went on there
but as a result of some of those
meetings we now have some military
construction projects they're working
with with White Sands with the the
satellite fire station the Las Cruces
substation and the missile Assembly
Building planning and Design
following that some of these recent
accomplishments and I have a a typo
which Kevin pointed out to me
in the middle bullet point that's
supposed to be medcom with NMSU not UNM
just sorry about that that error I know
how competitive we are between
Albuquerque and Las Cruces but working
with the school districts
committed to having four scholarship
opportunities and 23 with the cadet
command program and the Army scholarship
opportunities coordinating a meeting
which we did have with Colonel Venable
who up until just 10 days ago was the
commander at William Beaumont he got
promoted that's what happens with
talented people and he is now in San
Antonio I met his replacement Colonel
Lee Freeman who has already been briefed
by Colonel Venable and we're getting
ready to schedule a series of meets with
him so we can try to keep up the pace in
these relationships and and stay on
point with the priorities that have been
set and discussed through
whether it's an issue of mental health
or just overall health care
we're trying we've had we've had one
meeting with the new director
of the defense health agency
unfortunately her visit was so brief we
couldn't bring all of our Community
Partners together in fact even in El
Paso when she was there she was able to
only meet with one individual at Texas
Tech for briefly an hour so we're trying
to get her back on schedule this year so
we can have a combined meeting of all of
the communities because the defense
health agency now is the parent if you
will parent company overseeing all of
the surgeons in general for each of the
branches of the military
and so we have a lot of issues to deal
with and we have a lot of concerns as
well how will as an example the defense
Health agency's new leadership
affect the services being provided by
Beaumont to both Las Cruces and in some
cases even Alamogordo and we need to get
those questions answered and we're
looking for ways to partner with them so
that we can have
a relationship where we're sharing
services
Physicians surgeons Etc between our
communities both inside and outside the
fence line so that's a critical aspect
of our work together with them
we've worked with the um with the land
commission over encroachment issues and
so far those seem to be going well
whereas some of the work that's been
being done we think they've made
semi-commitments that they will not
cause encroachment issues that will
affect the training ranges
and the testing areas as well because of
all the frequencies that are involved
when we were in DC we had meetings with
GM defense over EV and I spent a good
deal of time talking with Jonathan
Macias last week about this because what
has to happen and I'll go into this in
greater
I didn't run out of time did I Okay no
Okay because we've got a few more things
to cover for you today and I want to
emphasize something the last two times
that we were scheduled to make
presentations By Request of the city
they were presented to you in a written
form
your schedules are so full that it was
the determined you couldn't spare the
time to have us present so all the more
important why we're here today to have
an interaction so please chime in at any
point and ask questions challenge us
make suggestions to us because this
relationship is so important all of the
relationships we have with our various
Community Partners are essential to the
success and future of our region and so
I just wanted to make thank you again
for giving us the opportunity to present
to you in in person
but as we speak about these things
connecting you with as an example GM
defense
that's part of our job
but part of the community's job is to
take that ball and run with it and I
share that same conversation with
Jonathan last week because we are a
non-profit and none of us get paid we're
all work pro bono even our travel
expenses that D.C come out of our
pockets
we are only five people with Kevin
representings in Las Cruces and then Gus
John Lance and myself there's just so
much we can do because we also run our
own businesses so it's so important God
bless you it's so important
that the communities identify
individuals within their organizations
say these are the people that are going
to carry the ball
whether that's Andy Hume at the airport
trying to get what they refer to as
excess intergovernmental Services
agreements with White Sands
or if it's going to meet with GM defense
or with Raytheon or with Lockheed Martin
once we make those introductions it's
really the responsibility of the
community and their individuals
identified as the points of contact
to meet
with those companies and follow up to
see what they need what you can provide
and how can we make these contracts
happen particularly these days now I
keep mentioning GM electric and GM
defense because there's a lot of
interest as you know and frankly
although El Paso is waking up to it now
Las Cruces has been kind of ahead of the
game in terms of their focused areas on
electrification but there's so much more
that goes with that right how do we
support electrification how do we ensure
once we install these facilities that
the provider of the electric grid are
capable of delivering it even when it's
109 degrees outside right those kinds of
things so while I'm on that subject and
spoken Elizabeth briefly about this
I think it's important and happy to come
back up and have special meeting with
you
as the assistant city managers along
with Mr peely to talk about who or which
individuals in the organization should
be
the point person or Point persons in
these initiatives we have monthly
Zoom calls with all of our partners
they're the third Thursday of the month
at 7 30 in the morning and it's
important that Las Cruces
the city Beyond those calls Jonathan is
almost always on those calls
representing doniana County but it's
important whoever those people are or
persons are that you assign that they be
on board with us for those calls and
that we communicate intermittently in
between so you call us you tell it or
you can email to us to say hey this is
where we're focused on these areas we
need your help and your guidance we meet
with Elizabeth offline we usually have a
either a teams resume call with her and
her staff to talk these things through
and identify
where their goals are what they want to
do and particularly as we prepare for
for October in Washington again why are
we going so if if the city of El Paso is
going what are your goals if the El Paso
County if the doniana county folks are
going if the city of Las Cruces are
going we actually had as part of the
conversation last week
a message out to everyone so I'll convey
this to you now over the next three
weeks we want to have an in-person
meeting with both General little of
White Sands and general Eisenhower Fort
Bliss
to hear from them
what their focus areas are where they'd
like us to pay attention from their
perspective and just as importantly
what is it we want from the
installations as a community what do we
need to be working on to help us grow
the economy recruit more companies add
jobs if they're already here
and and then when we get to DC really
focus on the issues of importance to
both our communities inside and outside
defense lines so when we're there the
meetings that we're having are relevant
and they're valuable and hopefully they
reap some rewards back to us
and we'll be getting word out to you all
to identify who those people should be
to join us in those meetings because
it's just so important so we're well
prepared
upcoming activities we talk about
project convergence so I understand now
that the
project convergence that's upcoming will
likely not be October but more like
January February
here for White Sands and we'll be in
touch with you as we get more
information to talk about that
and then organizing our communities to
partner together
I mentioned this third bullet on this
part of the the screen regarding the
potential partners
in the last call we had mavita was on on
board with the call as well but we want
all the Community Partners the Las
Cruces chamber included to everyone to
be sharing their thoughts because you
know that's really where the valued
proposition comes out of bringing all
those brains together to say well have
you thought about this or what about
this or we want to go in a different
direction but most importantly to
to make sure that we're all reading from
the same sheet of music when we go to
meet with whether it's Army leadership
or defense contractors so when we're in
those meetings
the people that are in those meetings
first of all have to be the relevant
individuals key to the community
it's not about bringing together as many
people as we can it's about bringing
together only the right people that need
to be there with us who can speak
intelligently on those subjects they're
the subject matter experts
I won't read through all those but these
are some of the things that were we're
preparing for to do in 2023 that we hope
will help our the community of Las
Cruces
as well Way Forward
staying engaged with certainly with um
with the Army Futures command and then
their counterparts and Air Force works
trying to make sure that we're we're
keeping informed from our end as to what
they're doing and what their needs are
and for us to share with them what it is
we want from them and how can they help
us you know who the points of contact
are but the last side I put on there
includes that but in addition to that
there's some points that both Kevin and
I would like to bring to your attention
yeah um Kevin Cardoza Sue uh Richard
mentioned earlier
um there's a lot of significance in some
of the points that he brought up for
instance in securing approximately a
million dollars worth of scholarships
for minority kids who want to serve the
military that's a big deal especially
for a community that we are quite
diverse so it brings a a very good
opportunity for those kids that want to
serve and want to go to college as the
the department of the army has made
about a million dollars available for
for scholarships the the other point
that I want to touch on is that the
partnership and the relationship with
the land commissioner is very critical
because it helps keep the ability for
White Sands to to continue doing their
testing and some of their training
exercises because a lot of the folks
that come in and do the testing are the
defense contractors a lot of those
defense contractors that come to the
community they stay in our hotels they
eat in our restaurants so and and trying
to maintain that economic flow in and
out of our community that's that's very
critical and keeping that relationship
with the land commissioner is it helps
us secure that the if you will that cash
flow continues for years for years to
come and and and the third point that I
wanted to touch on is that we are
tracking approximately a little over
24.9 million dollars that that has been
appropriated for for white sense Missile
Range in addition to their operating
budgets that will go to different
projects in the installation so what
does that mean well that means local
employment and it provides the ability
to maintain and perhaps increase the
amount of jobs that come out of White
Sands uh granted their own construction
uh uh positions but one of the
advantages is that when a contractor
gets a uh gets a job and and within the
installation it tends to pay quite a bit
more than than any other uh uh civilian
construction job if you will so so those
are things that that are very important
to our community because it continues to
further enhance the economic development
the tax base and and it keeps the the
white sense in the Forefront for a lot
of this defense issues we'll keep uh
we'll keep working with the white sense
uh leadership to make sure that those
issues are are addressed and and
thankfully we have a a good friend
within our Congressman Vasquez that's
very knowledgeable about the community
and and his staff they understand a lot
of these issues too so trying to make
that that transition from from from
different different
members of Congress to to now they made
it almost uh they made it so easy and
they're so easy to work with and and
because of that it will help us make
sure that some of this funding issues
don't get removed as the as Congress
goes into conference and they begin to
discuss the different budgetary issues
so we'll keep working with them and and
hopefully at the end of the day we'll
come out as wieners and and that's
something that that as arms that's what
we keep Taps on and and we always try to
stay at the Forefront of those issues
if I could just add to that last point
so I mentioned it briefly early in my
presentation last Friday morning
we had a joint teams call
with Congressman Vasquez military
Legislative Assistant and congresswoman
Escobar's MLA as well with arms
preparing for the trip to DC in October
so we're lining up our initiatives and
they're giving us some guidance from
inside you know the halls of Congress as
to where we need to stay focused on
where they need our help in terms of
advocacy when we get there when we meet
with these individuals to have the right
messages to deliver to them so that
we're all on point in our call last
Thursday morning for arms Jonathan
Macias actually raised the question
well why is it that we have any meetings
with
the folks in Oklahoma
who are also Republicans
and are my response to him was because
Fort Sill Oklahoma and White Sands
Missile Range are interconnected and
reliant on one another extremely and
Fort Bliss and so what Gus Rodriguez did
as his in his role as the civilian Aid
of the secretary of the army was to
coordinate that meeting we had and we'll
have one again this fall where the
legislative the military legislative
folks and their Chiefs of Staff for
those senators and congressmen in
Oklahoma are meeting with us and and
because
the electives themselves are not in the
room I know this is a recorded session
but I'm going to say this anyway there's
a little less tension
because the the staffers work well
together and recognize how important it
is that we
I can use the phrase cross-pollinate
in order to benefit both areas together
we're stronger
than we are if we just go in there
fighting for what we want for our area
and not be concerned about your area and
vice versa and it seems to be helping a
lot so I wanted to point that out to you
as well I I'd like to touch on a couple
of other things this actually came from
a conversation I had last week with
Elizabeth Teeters so my curiosity got
peaked after we got off the call and I
reached out to Eric Sanchez at NMSU in
the physical science lab and what I
learned because we had been meeting with
Eric about two and a half years ago
three years ago talking about the the
challenges that White Sands because and
you've heard this story before but
if this were to happen magically today
roughly 50 percent of all the senior
civilian employees
with all the talent that's at White
Sands are eligible to retire
if they were to retire tomorrow we would
be in a real spot
and so we communicated that with Eric of
course he was a former Commander out
there so he knew about this issue and
his growing challenges I have to
actually make a note of this because
some of this was semi-new to me but what
I found out from them is Dr Marcella
Shelby is heading up this program within
the PSL and it's called classified ready
employee Workforce crew is the acronym
that they use for it and it's taken off
tremendously and what that's doing is
it's enabling them for individuals at
NMSU who want to pursue a career in
engineering and Sciences anything that
would relate
excuse me to defense Contracting whether
it's the civilian side or the military
they help them to get their initial
clearances their classified clearances
so they're not at the very top but they
at least get enough of this of a
clearance so that when they graduate
they can go immediately to work with a
defense contractor or at White Sands in
uniform because the problem has been
if you're graduating as an engineer
and you really want to work in in the
defense community at White Sands but you
can't afford after graduating to wait 18
months or longer to get a security
clearance they take these jobs with
Lockheed Martin and go to work in Fort
Worth or Raytheon and go to work in
other places so this is now helping it's
not a complete cure but it's certainly
helping to mitigate the impact and the
losses of these positions so those young
folks who do want to stay here actually
have an option to stay so our next step
now is to grow their presence with
Lockheed to grow the presence with
Raytheon here
so that those jobs those really high
paying jobs are then available to them
so they can stay in Las Cruces so I just
want to touch on that point to you as
well I mentioned our meeting with with
the congressman staff so I think with
that
I can stop as my voice is going away and
the two of us can answer any questions
that you may have
thanks Richard before I get the
counselor of lotus I just want to also
interject something I was taught as I
was mentioning I was talking with
Congressman Vasquez the other day and I
know he's going to be working on this
but the There's an opportunity to
possibly have a facility an extension of
the New Mexico State University's
College of Engineering for those grad
for those that graduate
and want to move to grad school to be
located there at White Sands Missile
Range across across the street from
there where they're they're working on
Research
and it would count towards their their
college credits and they would get slide
right in there with a as a gs9 so that's
that's pretty good and so I think he's
gonna he's fortunate that he's got
Socorro I think is in his his district
and the South Valley of Albuquerque so I
think he's going to try to have a
program basically for the three major
universities in Mexico state New Mexico
mining Tech and UNM
to come up with ways to keep those
Engineers here working at their
respective
cities whether it's Socorro I don't know
I don't think that one can go either way
either or to the labs or New Mexico to
White Sands or but UNM of course with
the Sandia and Los Alamos so I just
wanted to point that out in fact
tomorrow I'm going to probably just give
the members of the LFC Committee just a
little bit of because that would be a
true partnership with the federal
government if the congressman is
successful to get some money and then
the state legislators
and that would be us that would really
solve a lot of the engineers who want to
move away and they can have jobs here in
their own communities so thank you for
sharing that I'm sure I'll reach out to
his MLA to just ask a little bit more
about it and see if there's anything we
can do at Arms to a system in any way
Congress I mean Congress councilor
Congress person say congresswoman
Florence
perish the thought thank you Mr David
and thank you for your presentation so
have you been working with the Border
Plex or mavita you said that you spoke
with Elizabeth Teeters yes ma'am um it'd
be great if you could come to our
committee our Economic Development
policy Review Committee and uh I mean
yeah I'd be happy to do that yeah great
okay well Elizabeth Teeters wherever you
are you're on notice
oh there you are so you'll be an agenda
he's uh it'll be an agenda item I hope
and then and when are those meetings
um I don't know I chair the committee
but I just show up
actually it's like the third no yeah the
third Wednesday of the month okay yeah
the third Wednesday of the month at 9 00
A.M
and uh they're in person I hope yeah
it's Elizabeth and she'll let you know
um uh you know sometimes we have two
presentations maybe three but the two of
you can work out and um and then we have
our you know uh
Our Community Development people there
like mavita the Darren David Lopez and
and then uh the greater Las Cruces
Debbie
Demi Moore Debbie Moore yes I'm sorry
we'd be happy to do that you bet yeah
and it just you know just getting on
board and making sure that and so I do
have a question for you you say that
um some people can be hired on partial
clearance
yes ma'am I don't have the exact details
okay we might get that from from either
from General Sanchez for his team that's
fine because my question is you say it
takes 18 months to process food
clearance is it possible that during
their partial clearance employment that
they would be able to get on the list
for full clearance or does that require
certain training or a certain level of
whatever that's that's a little beyond
my scope but I believe I believe I'm
correct on this they really have to
complete their full clearance process
before they can begin even part-time
working you said that there was partial
clearance
that that there was partial clearance
employment what I what I meant to say
then if I misspoke I apologize is that
there's certain levels of clearance that
you get it's not so much as partial it's
you have to reach a certain clearance
level and then from there you can then
because of the work that you do can help
get your your clearance elevated to a
higher level but there's no partial
clearance so for some reason that's what
I heard so I'll just erase that okay but
um it's just that
um I think we we're all concerned about
our brain drain and how we have a lot of
our youth the very talented people in
New Mexico whether they're from NMSU or
UNM or other universities in our area
who end up leaving you know they go on
to and I think a lot of them go on like
to Silicon Valley and then they come
back because they get homesick but we
should you know have uh definitely that
opportunity here I agree with you and
one thing too add to that is so we've
been working on this and this issue for
for several years now and and as we
begin to to address this issue the uh
one of the commanders uh
created a program if you will that gives
them a direct higher authority for some
of this graduates that sounds great and
all but the problem is that in order for
them to go get employed on those
specific jobs they have to get the
security clearances so it's like it was
a very temporary mandate a Band-Aid that
helps solve some of the lower level
employment issues but as Richard
mentioned with that program uh NMSU will
be able to to get this a little further
out and and and and get this guy's
employee as soon as they graduate
so do you see a lot of enthusiasm at
NMSU and getting on board with getting
our youth educated into the permanent
positions agree thank you very much for
your presentation thank you Mr Speaker
we have counselor Abita and then mayor
Pro Tem
thank you mayor and thank you for the
presentation
um from that you have mentioned a few of
those Partners like mavita the chamber
and I know that they also have a I
believe a trip to DC in the Pentagon
this fall too how are we working in
maybe coordination with that especially
I know that's one of the areas I've gone
to the past to Advocate at the Pentagon
it seems to me that it would be very
strategic for us to utilize that time
wisely if we're already going to be up
there great question I'll offer this as
a challenge that we faced over which we
have no control and that is the
association of the United States Army
has its annual conference in Washington
every year on the same week that
Congress is in recess
and so we focus all of our efforts with
the legislative staff staffers for those
Congress men and women because they're
not there and with our green suitors the
military leadership themselves who were
all at the ausa conference when I ran
the El Paso chamber we did very similar
to what Debbie does with the Las Cruces
chamber when we would take a delegation
on very specific issues that we want to
meet about but we would have a planned
agenda that met with our legislators
themselves that's not a luxury we have
so there's a significant difference
between what each of the chambers do
when they go on those trips compared to
what we are focused on which is very
directly related to the defense industry
and trying to get them interested in our
communities from that though
after the other event I don't know when
the Las Cruces chamber is going but I
think it's going to be around the week
of the September 11th I'm sorry the week
of September is after after years after
yeah yes and one of the benefits or
differences uh
that I would like to point out is that
during the ausa conference you have
every uh defense contractor that exists
within the uh within the American
continent and overseas concentrated in
one single place so that makes it a lot
easier for the attendees to go meet
directly with some of these contractors
that may have uh their head they may be
headquartered out of uh Huntsville
Alabama or or or any other parts of the
of the country they're all going to be
there and that allows us to not only
talk to the military leadership but as
well to the uh to the corporate
leadership as it pertains to White Sands
is there any is there any questions or
things that we could do if you had
people attending the event before and is
there anything like I said questions
actions that need to happen or could
happen that could help facilitate
um more information or conversations
before you go into your meeting well I
think I think I know where you're going
with this and the answer the short
answer is yes so as we get ready to have
this meeting with Elizabeth and her team
and the committee and and we get ready
to have the meetings with General
Eisenhower and general little I think
the best value we could get would be as
as Debbie and her team from the chamber
are planning for your September trip to
see what some of their priorities are
and see if any of those align with what
we're doing or any of the things we're
doing align with your reasons for going
and then just as importantly any
potential feedback we could get from
your team after you get back from
Washington maybe
informative for us as we go up in
October our dates are the ninth through
the 11th of October that were there
we're actually there a little longer but
the meetings are that Monday through
Wednesday so did that answer your
question yeah and that's kind of to the
point of making sure that we're chatting
with each other and not creating any
silos because I think that would be
helpful for both entities if we're going
to be up there just making sure that
we're looking at that kind of as a team
approach I'm so glad you used that word
silo
and I'm going to try to be very
diplomatic on this but one of the
reasons arms was formed
was because none of the three
communities
we're communicating with one another on
anything related to Military and defense
except our desperation and so this has
helped us it's taken a while I might add
but that's okay because we all have to
adjust but it really has taken us a
couple of years to get where we are
today where all of the Community
Partners see the value in working
together on this and actually if I may
marry I just want to touch on something
that I was going to say for the very end
but with your your comments it kind of
helped me segue
our agreement with the city of Las
Cruces expires in October of this year
and we very much like and it'll be your
decision as to how you do it and when
you do it to bring back to council and a
an agenda item for discussion and
hopefully action maybe in August
to consider a renewal of that agreement
with us I'm sorry for interrupting about
we probably can't be discussing that
because it hasn't been on the agenda but
okay I'll get your point okay I
appreciate it and just work with me and
and uh so I apologize but yeah no no
that's okay I want to make sure we're
following the rules so thank you both
very much thank you thank you
thank you mayor Pro Tem
thank you mayor thank you Richard and
Kevin appreciate your your work and
expertise and in presentation I think
it's essential that we work together
especially on behalf of
the military installations I think
there's a number of of things we can
cross-pollinate on and as mentioned
before
um
I had the opportunity to go with and it
was enlightening I've really enjoyed it
and learned so much there's a number of
companies out there there you get to
hear from the company's standpoint right
what it is that they're looking for and
I sort of reached over to Mayor as you
were talking and said you know this is
so essential to me in terms of
of
mitigating the brain drain and I'll give
you an example and if you're not
communicating with them it's probably
something we should I was asked to do a
kind of graduation speech for a trio
which is if you're not familiar with
Trio through the university
a first generation program right a kind
of mentoring program for folks all I
mean such bright students graduating and
what was interesting to me is each of
them had done internships outside of our
area out of state and they were
graduating with big degrees engineering
biology chemistry and none of them were
staying here they were many of them
going to the place that they'd done
internships before or apprenticeship
programs so we still have a lot of work
to do in terms of especially the
university there's so many you know
programs that are well intended doing
extra plant work but we seem to continue
to have a disconnect around that area
and what was enlightening to me is
meeting with GE
defense and GE electric
and and those smaller sort of out of the
country organizations that would really
like to connect from the expertise but
also those students so how do we do that
and in a meaningful way
and that's a question to you how do we
do that in a meaningful way at where the
city plays a huge part a huge role
because there's all these meetings
happening and we seem to forget all the
players right or a few players so I want
to push us to really try to coordinate
the efforts because I think if when we
do that we just like you said we're in
it together right so okay I'm glad you
asked us the real simple easy question
to close out the the afternoon but with
with all due respect you raised some
really good points
this last trip I mean it really was
baptism by fire and Jonathan that was
his first tripping yeah I think
folks walk out of the building after
that first day or so sort of stunned
because they had no idea just how
gigantic this whole thing is it's
overwhelming and so that's one of the
reasons why we're trying to coordinate
these meetings in advance of going up
this October as an example one of the
communities had
six people on the trip in addition to
that being a lot of money being spent
because as we all know there's nothing
inexpensive in Washington the hotels are
not inexpensive none of the meals
certainly not the airline tickets but
then it's also wasted time if they're
not if you're taking individuals just
for them to come along versus being key
people as mayor Pro Tem
it's essential that someone in
leadership at the city of Las Cruces in
my view is with us because that elevates
the the level of the meeting that we're
having with whomever we're meeting
because they recognize it's an elected
official that's in a position to
influence decisions who's on the trip
with us beyond that then a key person
whoever that might be whether that's the
city manager the assistant city manager
economic development director
they're important to be on the trip so
mortar Plex went with us as you know
they sent to their really top talented
people they had subsequent meetings
after we came back from Washington I
think the way for us to get there is to
identify first of all what are our
focuses going to be what are our
priorities who do we want to meet with
because of that and then determine who
should be on the trip from each
community so that when we go and just
for the audience who have not been
and some of the meetings that we have
they have a very limited space and so
there if we're taking an army with us no
pun intended it's really hard to not
only get everybody in the room but it's
also just as difficult to have any
meaningful conversations because you
have just too many people in the room
but if we have the right people going
from each Community then we can have a
meeting scheduled specific for Las
Cruces and doniana
that's separate from a meeting that's
being held related to
for Bliss or the city of El Paso and
that also enables us to then have more
strategic conversations with those
entities and the people that they that
represent them and I think that's how
it'll help us so this is critically
important thank you Richard I know that
we've had I've had a conversation with
Chris Faber and Elizabeth about are you
going and if so we'd like to send
somebody with and so I I will you know
drill down those dates and and make sure
that I can be available or someone that
would be great from a leadership
position and then lastly I'd like to
invite you again our Suicide Prevention
task board if you can get that message
out to our partners at White Sands and
Fort Bliss we're having our recovery
Night Celebration a forum it's usually a
conference where we bring
big names over at con you know to have
the con training if you will on suicide
prevention on September 7th 8th and 9th
the location to be determined but I know
you can you have my information and we
can plug in folks that it's always a
priority for me to ensure that we
represent our veterans and Military in
some way and so I love to to pick your
brain about how we do that for this
particular event so with that mayor
thank you the only thing I'd like to
offer to that last comment is the sooner
you give us the details then the better
off for us so we can communicate those
messages to the right people within the
mental health community and and the
hospitals Etc so that we can have
hopefully a good representation
absolutely thank you thank you
okay I think that kind of concludes the
comments and and closing I've been
thinking about next year so I I probably
will help volunteer but not you know not
on a regular basis but maybe on an
occasional basis okay so I can promise
you we will accept great time thank you
thank you
appreciate your time thank you
okay so next item is the item 3.2
sustainability quarterly update Lisa
LaRock will be presenting
problems
good afternoon mayor council City
management and audience my name is Lisa
Lorac I'm the sustainability officer for
the city of Las Cruces I'm here today
with a quarterly report
and I
scheduled it well in advance but
fortuitously or unfortuitously if that's
a word it is about heat
so
heat is a health and safety risk and
we in the southwest don't recognize the
changes in our weather patterns we know
that it's variable it goes up and down
it's hot less hot but in actuality it is
sloping up and so that we are continuing
to get hotter and hotter weather it is
both chronic because of urban heat and
it's acute when we have these extreme
heat events and we are continuing to
treat heat events as they occur instead
of trying to prevent them and I'm here
today to suggest ways that we can
hopefully prevent them
so Urban heat just to uh help us with
our vocabulary happens when concrete and
asphalt absorb and radiate heat day and
night and machines and a lack of
vegetation make it worse so on the right
hand side you see what is an infrared
photo it's the heat that is being
radiated out from different sources
you can see that the
Street the asphalt street is radiating
out a temperature of 140 degrees the
tailpipes with those little white spots
are also radiating out even more about
150.
and even though that's not the ambient
temperature the temperature we feel if
you were to be bold enough to lie down
on that asphalt you would know what I'm
talking about
so we also did a study with the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
or NOAA where we had
different groups concurrently driving
around at different points of time at
six in the morning at three in the
afternoon and at seven at night and
we were able to gather data about the
ambient temperature about the
temperatures that you feel
and we have a comparison here of Sonoma
Ranch area the intersection is by Sonoma
Ranch and Sonoma Springs
and on the top they're all exactly the
same map and then on the lower part we
have El Paseo in the center intersected
by Wyatt and
um
Idaho of course I know that so the thing
I want to show you is that this is the
same day it is the same time but it is
two different places in the city and
over the course of the day you can see
that there's a difference between
uh Sonoma Ranch area the upper
desert area from the center city and
those temperature changes go from five
degrees to 6 degrees to up to 10 degrees
at night so people who
um so when we think the temperature may
be a hundred in or 102 even in the city
in other areas people are experiencing
temperatures much hotter and it takes a
lot longer for these impervious surfaces
to radiate and give off that heat and so
people
at seven and eight in the evening in El
Paseo are still experiencing a hundred
through and three degree temperatures
and it takes a long time before you can
actually have a cool enough evening
which is very dangerous to try to sleep
through especially if you have don't
have proper air conditioning
so now to switch
they're besides that chronic event that
we see through the summer with Urban
heat there's also climate change that is
when carbon in the atmosphere traps
reflected heat throughout the planet and
this magnifies whether extreme weather
events like heat or precipitation
patterns or winds and Wildflower wild
fires and it's a global phenomena and it
plays out differently depending on jet
streams and other geographic features
that influence it but it makes your
weather more extreme and we had a study
done for specifically for Las Cruces
that looked at how our temperature
maximum temperatures are going to change
over the year and right now we're
already predicting or can say that we
have at least three weeks of
temperatures that are over 100 degrees
and one of those weeks will invariably
be
over 105 or more and that by mid-century
we can expect to see over a month five
weeks of over a hundred and two weeks of
over 105 and by the end of the century
we will have
11 almost 11 weeks or almost three
months of temperatures over a hundred
and at least a month or five weeks that
are over
105. and as I said these temperatures
are similar to Phoenix Arizona
and
there was a study that was just done
really and that was released on May 2023
that said if there is a heat wave and a
blackout
that occurred for two consecutive days
with intermittent Services it would send
half of Phoenix to the ER
and
um and about approximately 13 000 of
those people
would were predicted to die and so
that's that's serious and I don't you
know I don't know how to
say it any other way but I want to bring
it to your attention
and we are already
experiencing right now A an excessive
heat watch today and and the whole area
of Juarez and rather of El Paso when the
border is is has an excessive heat
warning and so these sorts of
predictions are becoming more and more
frequent and elevating in in their
severity
so when I talk about heat management or
reacting to the situation the folks that
I'm most concerned about are children
athletes older adults pregnant people
emergency responders outdoor and indoor
workers and pets
and
what the situation is that has caused
people to go to the need to go to the ER
is when you have a heat stroke when
you're confused have a throbbing
headache or even
become unconscious and those are all all
really important things to plan for and
to consider to be aware of how you
respond to those things but the other
strategy that is Upstream is to look
more at how we can prevent it
so what are some of the indicators that
we have of areas that we should be
concerned about in with low or or not
areas per se but populations is that 50
percent of the low and moderate income
homes have only have evaporative coolers
or fans and when the temperatures are a
hundred and eight you can drop if if
there's no humidity you can drop your
temperatures by
um
up to 15 degrees but that 93 is not
really comfortable
and if you
um
don't have an effective system it's less
if it's during the monsoon season with
with more humidity the the evaporative
cooler doesn't even function uh well at
all it doesn't it drops at about 10
degrees so there's 62 percent of the LMI
Community is energy burdened and 25
percent of the community of the LMI
Community is house burden that means
that they spend that these residents
spend more than six percent of their
money on
utility
and six percent of their income rather
on utilities and they spend over 30
percent on mortgage or rent and what
we're finding is that a lot of people
voluntarily choose
not voluntarily but need to choose to
reduce their use of utilities just to be
able to make it affordable to them so
they put themselves In Harm's Way by not
having an ambient temperature that's
safe for them
32 percent of the household LMI
households are seniors
56 percent of births
um uh in 2021 were from women in poverty
in Las Cruces so that is another
indication of
of
of a risk population and 5.1 percent are
linguistically isolated
and that is the threshold for needing to
do multilingual Outreach and there are
some areas that are up to 12 percent and
the average residential building age is
about 46 years old so that means that
people many people have end-of-life
equipment that makes it even less
efficient to be able to use
so all of these
conditions are predictors of future
problems and so trying to remove some of
those factors to make it more
hospitable for our area all the time
means that we need to be mitigating or
lowering the the amount of heat that is
around the area and that's how we build
resilience
so I have some suggestions about ways
that we can do it one of them is to
commit to significantly increasing the
tree canopy and to use green
infrastructure in that process to make
sure that the trees are are able to be
able to transpire and give those cooling
functions that they can do
and to otherwise incorporate shade
structures to reduce heat exposure
in the report that just came out in May
it said that if cities planted enough
trees to shade half of their streets
dust would drop in the case of Phoenix
by 27 percent
the other thing that we can do is we can
require cool reflective sealants on bike
lanes and roads with high Urban heat
indicator Urban heat impact values so
that means for people who do cross the
street even though they're not going to
lie down on Walton and Loman they will
experience a much cooler environment so
to allow for those who use other forms
of Mobility to be able to have a safe
and comfortable
environment
and to also require highly reflective
cool roofs on every building that's
something that's required in LA and they
have the same climate zone that we do
and what was found that as if if they if
Phoenix had or if a city installs highly
reflective cool roofs on every building
deaths would drop by 66 percent in
Phoenix so the idea of of having a well
insulated envelope or at a minimum the
roof has an extreme impact on the
cooling effects within a house
lastly
I'd recommend increasing weatherization
invulnerable neighborhoods because their
houses are the ones that heat up the
most and particularly to transition to
efficient heat pumps that provide both
air conditioning and heating
so those are my suggestions for this hot
day I
um I know there'll be more of them and I
wanted to
clearly state that being proactive in
this is to benefit to the whole city
thank you
thanks Lisa we have councilor beta
counselor Flores I'm sorry councilor
Abita counselor Ben Cuomo Council Flores
just as a question I am looking at the
the issues with the cool roofs do we
have any sort of requirements at least
for City buildings at this time
um mayor councilor beta we
will be bringing forward a new code and
in that code
we have both a mandatory code for
both commercial and residential and then
we have what's a stretch code that's
voluntary for residential and commercial
but is continues to be mandatory for us
and in that code yes cool roofs will be
required okay great and then I'm just
thinking of like the opportunities with
a lot of the stuff that we have with
improvements with roads and you know
even with you know we've had go bonds
and more building more structures just
seeing what we can incorporate as some
of these perhaps items to put on anytime
that we're doing any sort of these
improvements that we're just starting to
take this into consideration and put
these factors into place
thank you and thank you mayor
thank you councilor Ben Cuomo thanks
Lisa so much for your presentation today
um the slide that you have Cinema Ranch
and El Paseo was just incredibly Stark
in terms of
just the inequities that we will see
with climate change that we already know
exists but are just so
like in your face when you put them in a
graphic like this so I appreciate that I
was also thinking that I think just
gently remind you that honestly as you
were listing the populations of concern
I immediately was thinking can you
imagine being an unhoused person on El
Paseo at six seven PM in the evening
today yesterday yeah and what that means
for
um people who are experiencing
homelessness I think that's why you know
I'm glad that City turned on cooling
stations and I think in the future I
really
think we should start a little bit
earlier with that kind of strategy and
providing cooling stations giving that
it could be 80 degrees at 7 A.M but 100
degree 103 degrees at 8 pm
um and what that cause what that can do
to somebody's
mental health frankly heat stroke and so
I kept thinking about that Lisa and to
make sure you add that population in the
areas of concern because I think that's
just such a big gap right I
mayor counselor Ben Cuomo I I certainly
felt for that I was difficult to find
the statistics but I should have just
mentioned it because I agree with you
thank you Lisa and then just you know I
we've talked about
um
lack of public transit infrastructure
like shade structures at bus stops
um and again like for people who use the
bus for people who use public transit
all of my communities
I know that there is a study already on
how many bus stops are missing
and this is on on me as well to put more
urgency behind this and I'll be talking
to city manager about it but I really
would like to
um talk if it's in TSI PRC like how we
bring forth an actual plan with numbers
with a cost analysis for how much it
would cost to make sure that we have
shade structures at every single bus
station
particularly on the area like I think El
Paseo I mean there's one area in El
Paseo that I'm thinking which is the
Walgreens and Albertsons there is no
shade structure there and there's a
giant and it's also it happens to be on
a giant parking lot so I would really
like to think about that ifo and the TSI
PRC I guess as to how we can bring a
proposal forward and my other question
Lisa was around the cool reflective
salience
sealants do you have a cross analysis
for that and like what you know if we
think about priority roadways like what
is what could what potentially would be
the cost of bringing that kind of
material
mayor councilor Ben Como there have been
several studies that have been done in
Arizona that are germane to this area as
well one of the selling features is that
when you uh it it does increase the cost
by
um
I'm not sure about the unit of measure I
I think it's well I'm not going to say
because I'm not confident but I can get
that data to you but the but the other
um it's it's like a it's not a large
percentage but the other factor is that
having the reflective surface on there
the cooling surface on it it also
increases the the durability of the the
asphalt coat because it it isn't doesn't
have that intense Heat going to it and
so not only do you it costs more but
then you also can have those you don't
have to replace or or put sealant on
again for a longer period of time but
the studies show that it it is um very
cost effective and
um
we have recommended that
using this data from the from the heat
study that if the if the surface
temperature is over 90 degrees and
average amongst those three times that
that we should add the sealant to those
areas Lisa maybe help me understand too
what a sealant looks like because I'm
thinking it's like oh it's like the
green paint yeah is that yes okay great
so then is the ideal moment to bring
this during the Reconstruction it can be
done whenever and right like I'm
thinking about speaking of silos
how we work better together as utilities
Public Works to say okay well like
Madrid I'm thinking about Madrid right
now having this giant
like they're doing reconstruction
they're doing sidewalks like this would
be a perfect time to bring something to
what I imagine would be very high on
this scale this neighborhood so like how
do we make sure we add this to like a
checklist for when
mayor counselor Ben Como the proposal to
have that requirement of putting sealant
on high Urban heat areas is now in real
life but right it's still under uh
review so hopefully it will stay
under review by the committee by well
it's still under public comment it's
still under the oh the whole thing yes
yes yes yes okay I'm glad you noted that
I will make sure to remember that next
time they come to council and then you
know I would oh wait I'm sorry Lisa the
Salient can it be done on just any road
right now we can get a bunch of it next
month it can just be put on a road or
does it have to be at a certain during a
reconstruction May mayor uh councilor
Ben Cuomo uh it is best when the surface
is is smoothest because you'll have less
little holes in it so you need less
material but and it doesn't have to be
green either it can be gray it can be
black it can be
um I think gray makes more sense I know
that there's a love of asphalt Blackness
so but either any any color it's
available in any color
okay so it but it's best if it's on a
smoother surface because uh
because you protected the asphalt
underneath for a longer period of time
and it's uh it's smoother so you don't
waste as much going down in the cracks
okay if I'd be interested to know what
this would mean for like the pavement
management index to add like an
additional
checklist there right in terms of and
again I and this could just be my bias
as well on where the smoother roads are
that could continue to add to even more
inequity in a heat map but to think
about like where these areas are if it's
LMI communities and to you know add that
as part of the
process for the pavement ended
index management did I get that right
yes and then just my last question on
the tree canopy is the same thing do you
have like it would cost this much for us
to
get to the desired goal on the tree
canopy
mayor councilor Ben Cuomo I have a
favorite I have a statistic that is the
favorite of counselor Gandara and that
is that in order for us to increase the
tree canopy by five percent we would
need 72 000 trees which sounds like a
lot but there's only there's 40 000
households so that's two trees a
household we are starting a new program
called Neighbor Woods
that will provide one or two trees they
came to council right is this what I'm
thinking okay great and they
um Albuquerque has a program that allows
the trees to be put on private property
because of the public good of providing
shade
and uh that is something that we might
be able to adopt here as well and that
the people are responsible for
maintaining these trees and that is why
I suggested that we also allow for green
infrastructure by either having swales
like holes that will collect the water
more readily and curb cuts that you can
bring the water storm water that's just
running down the street into those areas
to be able to augment that trees that
have green infrastructure used growth 30
percent more than trees without so that
that seems like a no-brainer but uh
that program green or
neighborhoods right now is at a trial
basis and is only planting 50 trees but
it's a start that's right well I would
love to see some of these conversations
come to more fruition
through what we're you know what we have
available to it which is the prcs and I
think the TA sip orc would be a great
place to have some of these
conversations and get them more
formalized into ordinance format Lisa
thank you mayor
thank you counselor Flores thank you Mr
Mayor and thank you Lisa Lorac
um so uh when I was first elected to
City Council in 2017
.
um I'm really so excited because you
were here and that we had a
that we had a such a department or
actually it wasn't that you were still
in Economic Development and now I don't
know but at any rate
um but you know Lisa it's been we've
gone through four city managers you've
had excellent ideas
and for implementation not just you know
willy-nilly ideas but plans and I'm just
wondering what I know the Nevada
Corridor was that what it was the Nevada
Corridor that was like a streamlined
project and I think that we've had
success or you the city has had success
in that and then but a lot of the things
that you speak of today it's just like
climate change conferences throughout
the world same old same old and and I
don't mean you know you're repeating
yourself I mean we have made very little
strides in terms of moving on stuff and
I'm happy that the neighborhoods are
doing in the 50 trees
so I so
so the tree planting generally in the
city Lisa is coming from our friends our
neighborhoods friends or is a city is a
city undertaking anything and you maybe
this is a question for Larry Nichols and
maybe a directive to Mr peely to make
sure that homes that are being built
have trees I don't know can we impose
that I don't know if it'd be a violation
of anybody's civil rights to insist that
homes be built and there be trees I know
I have three or four or five trees in my
backyard and I step out and it's just as
cool as it is inside well for a little
while and then it just gets feels really
hot but so have you Lisa personally can
you maybe
just maybe nothing
statistical but or proven data but or
maybe there is proven data that there
have been changes these last six years
in the city besides city managers
thank you sorry
um mayor councilor Flores
I believe that overall there's been a
lot of progress I think for the reasons
that I explained earlier on that in the
beginning is that we don't think of heat
as a problem and so we just you know go
inside this time of day and and talk
about our blue skies and and those sorts
of things and and re and respond when
there's heat so
I think that the situation is is
escalating and that area and it it
hasn't
we're trying to integrate it into the
realized goals because that
institutionalizes the changes as opposed
to little pilot projects that are
nice but not repeated so
that's a new strategy that we're trying
to employ is by institutionalizing these
or or codifying these sorts of changes
and hoping that they'll be more
influential I think there's a lot of
other areas that we've made progress in
terms with energy but uh
the the outside is big
and and we're actually working
very
um
intently on addressing retrofits for low
and moderate
um income households to make sure that
they are resilient that they are
affordable have affordable energy and
have Heating and Cooling that are uh and
weatherization that are appropriate for
the conditions that we have in the city
so I think there is some tangible work
but
these are these are practices that peop
that other departments need to
incorporate and we all need to work
together to be able to express those and
having the council's endorsement of them
is a strong motivator for us so
So Lisa in terms of you know there's
like a zillion homes that have gone up
in the East Mesa since I moved here or
bought a house here
and do those are those are those homes
uh is is there an ordinance or maybe
Larry can speak to this later or
something but
um in terms of having the roof
I do we have anything like that in our
ordinances or is that required or
mandated in any way can it be mayor of
councilor Flores it is not currently
required okay because I think that
realize Las Cruces is so wonderful just
absolutely great and it took years to to
to finally have it finalized but I'm
wondering how we're going to implement
it do we do we have to pass an ordinance
every time you know we need something
done like you know the cool roofs and
getting more trees up and maybe making
the developers Mr Nichols not making
them but having it somewhat Incorporated
with building new homes and and then and
then and then you know of course that
will be passed on to the buyer so we
won't have any buyers anymore because
the missing middle is missing but but
then we can use our our funds our city
funds for the lift Las Cruces and just
for other areas that are definitely
lower income areas
yeah so I just I just want to say that
Mr peely and and Mr
Tamo peo and and
you know I just I I think that we have
to really do something because a lot
hasn't changed in the city
these last six years have they Lisa
yeah I mean is that a rhetorical
question yes it's a rhetorical question
so I do hope and sometimes we get kind
of and I'm glad that you are where you
are because I know that we up here deal
with uh this we deal with so many issues
so it's really good to have people in
their respective departments who are so
focused on that
um
to see where we are sadly it doesn't
seem like we've accomplished a lot in
the last six years in terms of meeting
the demands of climate change and you
know the warming yeah
so Mr peely I hope that we focus on on
uh climate change issues in terms of our
codes I think we need codes for that is
that correct Mr Nichols
to make sure that the new homes that are
going up will have all of that I know
that the electrification is an issue or
I think incorporated into the new home
so hopefully that will happen
do we need to start working on it Mr
Nichols and we'll have it in a year or
two
yes is it okay if Mr Nichols answers
that question
uh
of course certainly but I mayor and
councilor Flores Jenny Hernandez is
going to be bringing representing codes
building codes that we have modified for
new construction and so we so you don't
even have to wait a couple years we we
are going to be presenting it in a
couple months okay because I'll be gone
in two and a half years I mean adios
amigos
you'll be able to put this in your
legacy I'll be able to put it in my
little dear diary
when I'm in my little retirement home
I thank you so much Lisa and I think
Larry is going to
address okay
good afternoon mayor city council Larry
Nichols community development director
many of the things that were presented
today we have faced for a number of
years to answer some of your questions
about what can we do about the types of
materials that are used to help Energy
Efficiency and what have we done up to
this point especially the last two years
or so we did adopt the International
Energy Efficiency code
and that goes a long ways to helping
some of the things that Lisa talked
about today she mentioned weatherization
one of the things that has to do with
that is air change like air leakage that
we see and we have those codified now
where we test for that and they have to
present an affidavit through a test that
they've addressed that problem we've
increased the resistance in terms of
insulation requirements for homes
the um we will be bringing to the city
council
building code updates
the state of New Mexico construction and
industries division
has adopted the 2021 building codes
residential and Commercial codes they
have mandated that we do the same and we
will be bringing those code changes to
you later this this fall
for your uh
information and adoption we do this
every six years and the reason that we
do that is to address some of the things
that Lisa mentioned where we have new
technology new materials that can be
incorporated to help us address some of
the issues that we spoke about today
the item of cool roof we do not have
that but we do have in our our coach now
that are required of Builders our use of
certain types of materials
one of the main things to produce a cool
roof is the the color of the materials
the lighter colors have reflectivity
and the heat is generated by three
different components conduction
convection and radiation
and so if you can address some of those
in your material selection you will
produce a cooler type of roof
but more to come wasn't our codes are
brought to you with this update and
Adoption of the 2021 codes which is some
of the most current technology to
address problems that we're talking
about today thank you Larry and Mr
Nichols and what about the roof the cool
roof
that's not going to be an ordinance I
mean that would be absolutely wonderful
and they'd be great if we had an
ordinance you know to or somehow
maybe have a program to help lower
income people
you know to be have the ability to have
those cool roofs but do you see an
ordinance camping for new new structures
mayor and counselor florist I I see that
there we're constantly adopting new
technology new material utilization and
so there's a very strong possibility
that that could be incorporated under
the new code adoption
we have several of those in place right
now
but it is uh comes down to what you
mentioned earlier
uh you know uh utilizing those materials
in many cases have a cost involved
and we're trying to produce affordable
and attainable housing and we have to
kind of balance that with what we would
codify for a mandatory
requirement for for materials
yeah it's a delicate balance there yes
thank you so much Mr Nichols and thank
you Miss Little Rock
you rock Lisa Rock
okay anybody else
okay well thank you Lisa for your
presentation we appreciate the update
every quarter and
just keep rocking on Jesus
okay so next item is 3.3 Las Cruces City
artboard update
Ceci vas Consuelos
and while I'm here I I didn't know if he
was going to make a presentation or not
but former counselor Greg Smith is in
the audience good to see you counselor
hi Greg
Christine how do I start the slideshow
oh yeah bye
ah there we go thank you
good afternoon my name is Ceci
vasconcellos
and I'm the public art coordinator with
the quality of life Department under the
quality of life wait I said that under
the quality of life department and we're
here to give you an update on the Las
Cruces public art program
public art program supported by the
quality of life Department overseas and
manages all public art projects budgets
for operations maintenance art
commissions and artist contracts and
basically everything having to do with
public art
we collaborate with the city art board
to meet the goals a set of the public
art master plan
and I'd like to introduce the City Art
board members who are with us today
first Katrina Chandler who is the chair
of the city artboard and Melanie Brown
she's the secretary of the artboard
um and you mentioned Mr Greg Smith
he's also as a member and those who
could not make it today are Chantelle
Yazzie Martin
Jag Crabtree and Caleb Blundell
and thank you for taking the time to be
here and also I'd like to thank the the
entire board for volunteering to be on
this board
oh gosh I'm sorry and Adam Amador
but I had him
um
at this time I'd like to turn it over to
Katrina Chandler to go through the rest
of the presentation
so I got to figure this out if I just
press the spacebar does it do it
thank you good afternoon Marin city
council names Katrina Chandler and I'm
the chair of the City Art board so
um we haven't presented you guys in a
while so what I'm going to do today is
kind of tell you what we've been doing
and what we plan to continue to do so
we'll get started
um we're going to start with the
accomplishments of the City Art board
um one huge accomplishment is uh the Geo
Bond two percent public art funding
ordinance um the City Art board was
pretty instrumental in helping to get
the Geo bond to percent funding um
because because this ordinance is now in
place
funding was approved this past election
for Fire Station Number Nine and the
East Mesa Public Recreation Complex just
to note additionally
.05 percent of that funding will go
towards maintenance of public art around
the city which means that it can go into
a pool that we can pull from in order to
maintain
um
all of the public art that's within the
city
and the adoption of this ordinance is
what will help sustain City Art in Las
Cruces and continue to offer
opportunities for local and National
artists who make a career through public
art which is a big a big part of what
we're trying to do
um
next we have some of the public art
projects that we were able to accomplish
over the last three years first of all I
think you're probably all familiar with
the city hall Lobby art endless passage
by Deb B Dickinson and then we have the
Animal Service Center of Messiah Valley
Metal sculpture by Vito de Bari which
was just recently constructed and the
fire station number three sculpture by
Arturo Garcia which was also just
recently constructed those last two
having been completed their install just
this past month this or this month
um the endless passage was the first
installation using CIP funding while the
fire station and ascmv both use Geo Bond
money that Public Works generously
donated for public art
um one percent of that of the
construction funding that they got was
used to create both of these projects
and I just wanted you guys to know where
that funding came from
um
just to be aware of like what our
funding sources are and how we were able
to accomplish these goals but again like
we said we have the two percent
ordinance that we will now be able to
use in order to fund projects similar to
these
um which also gives us a little bit more
money to work with to create more
Dynamic and larger pieces hopefully
or more
um okay
so the next step we have
this so the City Art board was also able
to launch a QR code project with a
supportive CeCe our liaison we had nine
public art pieces that were chosen the
City Art board collectively decided the
nine that we were going to begin with we
researched and wrote about those pieces
and then those writings were recorded
but with the help of Catal public radio
station then signs were put up at all
nine locations featuring QR codes that
when you scan them would lead to a
website to read the story of the piece
or to listen to an audio recording
um to kick off the QR code project we
held a scavenger hunt that led
participants to all nine locations
um and then we had weekly winners of the
scavenger hunt with the grand prize
winner at the end
um that's who's pictured here is Morgan
Tierney and she won a basket of gift
cards and art pieces donated by the cab
members the first nine pieces currently
used in the QR code project are just
part of the pilot program and we have
plans to continue to add the story so
the rest of the public art pieces around
Las Cruces with continued support from
Catal
and I don't know I keep looking up there
I'm just like right here but uh
but I do
um so every year the doniana Arts
Council hosts their annual art awards
ceremony and last year the City Art
board received the art in public places
Arts award which began which was the
piece that began the partnership with
daac so cab is now going to be the
sponsor of this award and assist in
promoting the category
and seeking nomination nominations of
public artists in the community
so we are currently in the process of
doing this cab is developing a rubric
and choosing and which will help choose
the winner for this category so the
nominations are currently going on right
now for that category and we're looking
forward to being able to honor a local
public art artist at the awards ceremony
in October held by daac
um
okay
next we have the community outreach that
we've been kind of we've been getting
out there meeting people
um so it's been something we've been
focusing on the past few years
so our goal in this is public engagement
awareness of cab and developing
opportunities for artists
um part of the success of the city
artboard is being known by the community
as a resource for artists wanting to
make a career in public art or a support
for getting artists in touch with the
resources that they do need we have been
tabling at the farmers market and the
Fine Art flea market quarterly and been
getting the names information of
community members who are either
interested in the board or the resources
the board may be able to provide for
them it's been an interesting
opportunity talking to people about what
public art means throughout Las Cruces
and also just the awareness that they
have now that there are possibilities
for them to apply to these public art
programs or these public art calls and
deposit I think it's kind of eye-opening
seeing that them realize that there's an
opportunity for them to make a living
doing public art which is a beast all in
itself aside from just being
an artist
um so
yeah also cab collaborated with visit
Las Cruces in April for Mira Las Cruces
and we held the first annual chocolate
plaza event featuring 10 local artists
who artists who talked an area in the
Downtown Plaza
um our former chair Christina ballew was
instrumental in putting this together
she had been a part of a lot of chalk
the plaza events or chalking events in
the past and saw the value of bringing
something like this back for artists
here in our community
um so she presented this to our board
and we were very excited to be able to
do it and felt like Mira was a really
great opportunity to begin that
collaboration
so attendees of the event were
encouraged to vote for their favorite
artist and we had around 800 votes and
it was estimated that about 3 000 people
walked through that area just the
chocolate Plaza area itself
we got that information from visit Las
Cruces cab tabled at the event and gave
out cab merch and information on the
public art on public art and what the
city artboard does
this event also provided those 10
artists with an experience to
participate in a public art event have
their work seen and win a public Choice
Award and a grand prize
um cab recently voted in the last
meeting to continue the chocolate plaza
event in conjunction with Mira so that
is something that we kind of we really
saw the benefit of
um we did a SWOT analysis on everything
we kind of mitigated how we can improve
it in years to come but we really saw it
as a huge benefit to what we were doing
and really met a lot of the goals that
we have outlined in our master plan
so next we have
education so education is a huge factor
in the sex in the success of public
artists so cab facilitated three
workshops open to community members that
were geared towards helping artists
develop their professional practice
um one thing that we noticed about local
artists was that they weren't aware of
even though we have a great Art
institution through NMSU and we have art
programs through dacc they're artists
coming out of there don't know how they
can make
a professional living doing their
artwork because they need to be taught
how to develop a portfolio how to
photograph their work how to write a CV
or a resume for themselves how to apply
for public work where to apply for
Public Work public artwork so that's
what these workshops were geared towards
what they were developed on so we were
able to collaborate with other artists
and professionals to teach these
workshops we had a professor from NMSU
we had
a the University art museum curator and
we had a local artist Isador Stowe who
all put on workshops teaching the the
attendees and we had about 10 to 15
attendees per Workshop it was all
through Zoom because it was kind of like
during coveted times
that where these artists were then we
had specific ones about portfolio
building photographing CV writing artist
statement writing and how to apply for
Public Work public artwork
um so we felt like that was pretty
successful we had a lot of great
feedback from the attendees
um and we have future plans to bring
something
more robust in the future to help with
that and that I'll talk about in a
little bit
so also this past year the interim NMSU
sculpture Professor who I believe was
just hired as a full-time sculpture
Professor but
I'm on record but don't quote me
um her name is Carissa Samaniego so she
reached out to cab to discuss the
possibility of getting her students
involved in what public art is and
seeking she came in seeking support from
the board
Sam Diego's class was able to survey
public art around Las Cruces and give a
breakdown of the conditions of these
pieces and what history they could find
the class then gave their presentation
at the NMSU art Department building
where cab was able to attend and we also
gave helped give some insight into some
of the works and connect with students
who are interested in public art or
conservation of public art
um so that was pretty that was a very
successful kind of Union and we're
hoping
that something more can come of that if
we can partner with Chris a little bit
more but she had also even spoke to us
about presenting in her classroom just
to give
anything to help these students
sculpture students were specifically I
think they're more geared I think that
Medium is a little bit more geared
towards public art I mean anything could
be public art but specifically she was
teaching sculpture and she has a robust
public art background as well and so she
was interested in us coming in and
speaking to these students and telling
them how to apply for through their call
for entry website that we use and giving
them some insight into what the history
of public art is in Las Cruces so we
hopefully we can continue that
relationship as well
um
Okay cool so next we're going to talk
about what we're fixing to do
um
so because of the Geo Bond ordinance we
have funding for our work on Fire
Station Number Nine and for the East
Mesa Public Recreation Complex and we've
already started our conversations with
stakeholders
um just for like a little
a short little like brief on how we
handle that is once we have the input
from the stakeholders we'll develop a
pre-committee to develop a call for art
based on what everybody kind of felt
like was needed for that area once the
call is placed we'll develop a selection
committee consisting of board members
stakeholders and community members
and then the selection committee will
present their recommendation for the
public art and the City Art board will
vote so that's basically like a very
simplified version of how that works um
but we're currently for those two
projects we are in the stakeholder phase
where we're just discussing
um with stakeholders what they want in
that area
um another project that we're working on
is the Klein Park art project so it's
been something cab has been discussing
for several years and has recently voted
to move forward with a mural project by
a local indigenous artist Diego Medina
the goal is to get the project started
by the end of July and funding for this
project is coming through CIP funds so I
just want to let you guys know that
um this is kind of a huge deal for that
area as we've been looking to put
something in that space by an indigenous
artist and it's great Diego's from that
area his family is our part of the
founders of that area and he's going to
be doing a a patterned mural around the
entire wall of the Klein Park area which
um he also plans to have as a community
mural which means that he'll have
community members come out and help him
paint that
um cab is also
collaborated with transportation to
develop a rotating arts program that
will feature local artists on bus stop
terminals around the city cabs worked on
developing a plan for a call for local
artists and how to feature a device a
diverse group of artists So the plan is
to continually update the artwork on a
yearly basis and funding for this
project is coming from our cab General
funds so we've worked with
Transportation on
the bus terminals and getting
um
what are those like little frame things
installed on those terminals so that we
can print artwork and the goal is that
we're focusing on local artists and we
have different criteria for
um like we want to feature specifically
students or we want to feature
specifically indigenous or we want a
feature specifically minority or any
things like that those different types
of categories and those will be changed
out yearly featuring The Single artist
throughout the year so in those
different busts
terminals so we're looking forward to
getting that started or it's been
approved we've agreed we've all voted on
it it's just now implementing putting
out the call for art and implementing
implementing that
funding for the Earth and Cosmos Mosaic
repair was approved
and that project's going to begin this
year this is going to be a long process
the artist actually came to the City Art
board and kind of described
the labor that goes into doing this
which is removing all of the tiles one
by one cleaning the tiles and
reinstalling all of those tiles
um so it's it's going to be a long but
well worth project that's also going to
be documented for future use so that
there will be
um documentation on how this repair
needs to happen and for future repairs
and for reference
um cab also has plans to add artwork to
Buena Vida Park using CIP funding and
this is just currently in our early
stages of discussion and planning phase
we know that something needs to go in
District Two we felt like Buena Vida
Park was a great place to put something
and so we like I said we're just in
early conversations about that but plan
to have something coming in there
okay
okay next we have
um
Cab's going to be moving forward with
profession with a professional
conservation assessment in order to gain
some perspective on where the public art
throughout the city stands and what
needs to be done in order to restore
conserve or protect the art that is
throughout the city and help maintain
the city investment in public art this
is also going to be beneficial for the
board to know what art needs immediate
attention and give insight into what
types of artwork and materials last in
our extreme climates which in turn can
improve the types of calls for the art
that the artboard puts out so this is a
huge
it's it's a huge task which
um we have a lot of how many City our
pieces do we have
do you remember
sassy vessels
for the record uh at this time we have
about I want to say about 60 pieces that
we've actually inventoried I think there
may be more but at this point that's
where our list is thank you sorry
thank you okay so going through 60 or
more pieces of artwork throughout the
city and having a professional
conservationist come through and detail
what needs to be done what needs to be
repaired what state that these pieces
are in
um and giving us some insight into one
that point zero five percent of the Geo
geobond funding that we're getting how
that needs to be allocated as well as if
we need to try to procure in any way
additional funding to address immediate
needs for artwork that's in the city
right now
but I think also more beneficially well
not more beneficially but beneficially
for future calls to know like actually
this structure really lasted very well
like in our in our climate we could
specify this in future calls so that we
know that this is something that's good
um that's that's wearing well or this
deteriorated way too quickly we need to
figure out why it did that and see if we
can adjust a call
um to mitigate those
um in addition a collection inventory
will also be developed providing the
city and the community with knowledge on
the history of certain pieces as well as
the title and the artist which is just
crucial I mean that's just respectful to
just know what the title and the artists
are
um but this is going to also help us in
identifying where public art should go
um and will be a resource for the
community members and visitors to take
public art tours throughout the city
um it's just good information it's good
historical information for us
and to continue to what I talked about
before with the education aspect to
continue providing educational artists
who are wanting to develop a
professional practice cab is partnering
with economic development to bring a
workshop to Las Cruces called making it
public the workshop curriculum as stated
on their website quotes serves artists
who are interested in exploring or
expanding a public art making practice
as well as Arts administrators who are
interested in strengthening local
practices to support create and promote
public art opportunities So currently
the public Arts coordinator cessie and
economic development are working on
funding streams for the twelve thousand
five hundred dollar fee to have the
workshop in Las Cruces so this is kind
of like what cab was trying to
facilitate on their own but there's
already a program that does this and
what they ask of us is to just
um Market it to get attendees to come
and they will come to our city they will
gather local artists they will gather
um key speakers and they will bring them
for that presentation and the artist can
come and learn what they all that they
need to know
or most of what they need to know
hopefully
um on how to become a public artist
public arts artist
okay
um okay I also I wanted to take a minute
to thank you all for the increase in
funding for maintenance and repairs that
we recently received so through or not
cab but through our general funds we are
covering our rotating art project the
chalk the Plaza
project marketing materials and the
maintenance and repair of the city art
pieces so that's all having to come out
of our general funds already so any
additional amount that we can get just
for maintenance and repairs is great so
our program is continuing to grow and is
going to keep growing thanks to the Geo
Bond ordinance and so any funding toward
General funds is greatly appreciated so
now I guess I'm open for questions
yeah
I'm sorry beta
thank you mayor thank you so much for
this really wonderful presentation and
really all the work that you and the
board are doing
um not only
um just with the city stuff but the
community engagement looking how to
incorporate conversations with NMSU and
students I I think it's absolutely
wonderful and I just wanted to say a
special thank you for looking at
District 2.
I know I've said it a couple times so I
really do want to say thank you I really
appreciate it I know our district has
had they do have some pieces so I don't
want to say they don't right but a lot
of them you know like the water tower
it's very hidden it's not really truly
out there invisible so benavida has a
lot of people that walk around it it's
like a seniors area stuff like that so I
think it'd be wonderful to have
something so I just wanted to say thank
you we see a lot of boards come through
here and I I just want to comment about
the the work that you're doing and how
you're engaging I think is really
beneficial to the community
I think I like that question that's good
thank you so much and actually I'm sorry
if I miss this do you all have a
breakdown of what pieces are in what
districts
um yes we do have something will you
send that to me to us I don't know I'd
love to see that
um cecially best can tell us for the
record mayor and Council yes we do have
that breakdown and I can send that
that'd be wonderful I don't I want to
make sure I don't miss any uh pieces
that are in my district
um I thank you so much for everything
you all do I mean we've been talking a
lot about how we you know
um
have stronger better committees because
we know it takes a lot and you all are
just knocking it out of the park doing
festivals and all kinds of things so
just thank you for I just really wanting
to express my gratitude to all of you
for serving on this board please send
that to the rest of your colleagues I
did have a question about I'm wondering
if the City Art board has discussed
um
the more like culturally problematic
pieces that currently exist in the city
and how to go about
um addressing those
yeah yeah sure
um thank you mayor counselor pin Como
um we have actually discussed that and
I'm going to say
um it's been a conversation that we've
had in the past and
um I will say that we don't have any
definitive like ideas of how to handle
that we have discussed this idea of
um
what's it like archiving some pieces
um and or and or
um developing messaging or narratives
like plaques to kind of go in
accompaniment with those pieces
discussing
um culturally why this is a problem or
the history of that piece and so there
have been discussions about that
um
definitively there haven't been any
things that we've said like this is what
we're fixing to do not as a board
um so I don't know if says he has
something yeah
obsessive and tell us for the record
um mayor and Council to add to that I
attended a webinar
um a few months ago and it was put on by
indigenous speakers and at the end of
the webinar I actually asked them that
question and they said yeah we're not
from New Mexico so we can't answer it
specifically but they suggested not only
the things that Katrina talked about but
also asking the people that live here
what would you do what do you want to do
about this so I think that was a really
good suggestion and we should probably
try that
um
given my experience given the experience
that we've had in trying to change
derogatory street name
I think that asking
the like someone will undoubtedly say
well that doesn't offend me when that's
really not the point the point that that
it is derogatory and offensive to a
group of people and we shouldn't be
um
platforming them right giving them a
space and so I am and I understand
you're doing so many things and it's
incredible and I want to uplift that
this bus stop I love that
um and I am just curious about how we
sort of roll back like problematic
pieces of art that currently exist in
our community so I appreciate the
conversation I hope you continue having
it and if you ever have ideas and a
proposal that you want to bring to
council please you know please let us
know please any of the counselor the
mayor know that that you're ready to
have that conversation I think it's an
important conversation and we should
definitely be having it absolutely as a
community for sure I just sometimes I
don't think it's like the argument
shouldn't be whether it's offensive or
not the argument is whether we should
have an offensive thing or not right
right so thank you so much I appreciate
it
Comfort counts their Graham and then
counselor Flores
thank you mayor
thank you so much this presentation and
this board speaks directly to my heart
because my kitchen doubles as my
husband's ceramic Studio or usually it
feels like my husband's ceramic Studio
doubles as my kitchen so
um I I feel like uh I feel like I really
Groove with this one I appreciated the
portion of your presentation focusing on
um
enabling and empowering artists to
continue as a you know with art as a
career and I'll absolutely connect you I
know of some smaller scale
entrepreneurial
initiatives going on at NMSU
um you know specifically for fine
artists and creatives I think we've been
trying to look a lot harder at that so
I'll definitely connect you with some
people with whom I'm working you know
from the workshop the workshop level
straight on up to some bigger hopefully
some creative art specific accelerators
so I'll definitely be in contact with
you about that and thank you so much
thank you councilor Florida thank you Mr
Mayor and thank you Caitlin and Ceci for
all you do and Melanie and Greg and um
who's missing oh well Tina's no longer a
member but it feels like she's still a
member but Dr Amador is he the fifth
member and Owen Chantel
um but I just uh you know I said this to
you at our last meeting
that I think Greg was already gone when
I said this but
um he had another commitment Mr okupado
um
that it's really in the I guess what is
it four years that I've been the liaison
it's really the best I think I've gone
through three uh quality of life people
and CeCe you're the best
and um but the commitment that comes
from there and the thoughtfulness that
comes out of every in every respect and
uh and everybody on that board is so
talented and so focused and so
um what's the word aware so aware of uh
sensitivities and issues that
deals
but uh seriously um I just want to thank
you for that and I just want the people
you know every people in the city
anybody who's listening to this right
now that you all have long long meetings
I mean your meetings go like two and a
half hours right that's why Greg has to
leave for dinner every time that
for them before the meeting adjourns but
it's because you really really look at
everything you weigh everything and
um and I'm really glad that Community
people have attended and especially
Diego
who comes in and and of course he'll be
doing that project and and then Dan
Rubin came in from she identified
herself as being associated with k-tel
but it's really it was really it was
really Nan's idea about having the QR
codes on that um you know the whatever
the public art but um yeah thank you and
I'm glad that the university is in on
this and we're very fortunate also to
have Rebecca Slaughter and uh Carol Bray
uh I think there's going to be a real
shift of focus on on this city artboard
um on this uh community meeting board
thank you thank you Mr Mayor
anybody else
okay okay so um before I go
um sese Gonzalez for the record mayor
and Council you may have noticed some
little rubber duck squishies in front of
you
um I invite you to go to our website and
sign up for the rubber ducks blog which
is the Las Cruces public art program
blog and uh
yes
that's it thank you
I was just going to say thank you for
the presentation and I have to tell you
that sometimes when I travel throughout
southern New Mexico
the only city other than Las Cruces that
really has a lot of nice public art is
Artesia you know if you figure it's not
a huge City well okay I guess if you
call the Martians are in in Roswell but
I'm talking about it's really looks
really nice and I'm really proud of all
the hard work that many of you have done
on this committee and and have really
expanded my eyes to see how important
public art is so I just want to tell you
thanks
all right so if there's nothing further
I think that's it
entertain a motion to adjourn
foreign
Christine
found a motion to adjourn their work
session councilor obeyton yes Council
Graham yes councilor Ben Comal yes
councilor Korean yes counselor Flores
yes councilor Gandara yes mayor yes
okay we're adjourned it's 3 10 P.M
thanks
yeah
sure
okay
this is the agenda setting meeting for
our July 3rd 2023 city council meeting
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