foreign
thank you
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[Music]
Welcome to our city council meeting
today is Monday April 3rd 2023 it's
approximately 1 p.m before we have our
Pledge of Allegiance I want to ask if
you please rise for a brief moment of
silence as we reflect back on the brave
men and women of the United States armed
forces as they protect our interests
around the globe as well as the
courageous men and women of the Las
Cruces Police Department and the Las
Cruces fire department as they keep our
city safe 24 7 365.
Council Graham if you join me in the
pledge please
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the
Republic for which it stands one nation
under God indivisible with liberty and
justice for all
thank you
so we have Amy De Felix who is joining
us to be a zoom
who's going to introduce our pets of the
week
Amy so
um oh let me show you the screen I'm Amy
I'm one of the rescue coordinators for
the Animal Services Center of the
Messiah Valley
and here are our pets of the week
and you all see the screen that I'm
sharing
can you make it bigger Amy like I think
you when you went over it it had a
little expand button if right a second
ago
right there maybe
oh no oh yeah
PowerPoint presentation being displayed
now
yeah we can see it now good okay
so our cat of the week this week her
name is Sierra she's about four months
old she's really a pretty short-haired
Calico
um her abnormal number is 60544 and she
says I'm a spunky confident girl who
knows what I want and that's pets I'm a
Chinese sweetheart who loves to ask for
pets in the Italian life story so far
I'm an adorable and sweet girl who would
make the best companion for anyone who
wants a playful affectionate cat
and we also have our dog of the week
um her name is Buffy she's about a year
old oh a medium size to mix she's only
36 pounds she's actually she's one of
the smaller dogs of the week that we've
had so far her animal number is 48895
and she says I'm a shy girl who just
wants to be loved while I am teaming
initially I'm still friendly and sweet
and won't give you my attention and love
sometimes having a dog Friend helps
bring me out of my shell a little bit
but I just want a family that will help
shape me into the great dog I want to be
we do have one adoption event over at
Petri Kia this Saturday April 8th we
will be there from 10 a.m to 1 p.m
um so we encourage you all to stop on by
and hopefully find your Forever friend
and for the month of April um the
information that I would like to share
will be based around a TNR
so for the first bit of information I'd
like to share is kind of just like why
we encourage TNR to begin with and
that's mostly just to highlight just how
quickly pets can reproduce um especially
like in the home and also especially out
in the wild when in where in cases where
TNR would be involved
so female pets can get into the heat as
early as four months old it's typically
around five I believe but it can be as
early as four months old and the female
cats can have two to three litters of
kittens per year
each kitten has an average each litter
has an average survival rate of about
2.8 so 2 to 3 kittens
and over the course of a single female
cat's lifetime she can have over 100
kittens herself and I know that's not
considering uh just how much like her
daughters and granddaughters and the
other female cats that come from her can
also be produced so there's this little
chart borrowed from the Solano County
Animal Care and controls Community cap
program website
and just kind of shows
with them one male and female for the
first year I could produce 12 kittens
two years 67 through 76 so that it goes
on and on and on
this little graph
shows as a like a straight consistent
line but it really should be more kind
of sharper because the number gets
exponentially bigger and bigger as the
years goes on so this definitely
highlights why a lot of like shelters
TNR Advocates we all would like to
heavily suggest TNR even from the simple
solution of
sterilizing them will keep them from
producing
multiplying exponentially and then
become a problem which I know a lot of
people
do not like loads and loads of cats
having babies in their yard so PNR
definitely uses the solution to that
that we highly suggested definitely
um
offer as a solution
so thank you
okay thank you Amy and next we're going
to have
from the given us our jobs of the week
is Irene para from our Economic
Development Department
there we go wonderful
okay good afternoon mayor city council
Irene Potter with economic development
we begin with the city of Las Cruces who
is hiring for a Concrete Finisher this
position pays 16.50 an hour and is open
until filled White Sands Missile Range
is hiring for a security guard this
position pays 37 000 a year and closes
on June 30th NMSU Department of
Agriculture is hiring for a facilities
coordinator this position pays between
18 and 27 dollars an hour depending on
experience and closes on April 7th La
Reina Michoacana is hiring for a food
service manager this position pays
between 24 and 38 000 a year and closes
on April 24 23rd deers and Charities is
hired for a part-time resident monitor
this position pays between 29 000 and 41
000 a year depending on experience
encloses on June 21st and families and
youth is hiring for an iys program
support specialist this position pays
between 32 and 52 000 a year depending
on experience and closes on April 28th
and for additional information you can
contact our local Workforce Connection
office at
575-524-6250 or visit them at their
local office at 226 South Alameda
Boulevard or online employ.com thank you
thank you Irene
okay so we have some proclamations and
certificates to give out and I'm going
to ask
okay you all do know that my state of
the city was last week so it has a huge
huge turnout here okay
uh scanning the room I see a few state
senators and the Commissioners so and
the clerk so let me just before we begin
let me just recognize Senator Souls good
to see you
Senator Pope visiting us from up North
good to see you
our County's own Senator Hamlin
see our doniana County Clerk ask Lopez
Askin I always mess that up
and I just saw earlier commissioner
Shannon Reynolds there at White Sands
Missile Range where we're at
are there any other elected officials
here
I just want to make sure okay good
okay so I'm going to ask if Eugene house
Israel Hernandez and Loretta caparubia
are here and if you are if you please
join me here to my right
okay I'm going to read
a few paragraphs here
on Monday evening Monday evening January
30th 2023.
security guard I found a person
unresponsive stiff and dirty breathing
in the public men's restroom at the Road
Runner Transit Messiah Valley Intermodal
Transit terminal
also known as move it
Transit bus operator Eugene house was
helping to answer phones and quickly
went to assist the guard
Mr House noticed that the person was
barely breathing and as Transit customer
service representative Loretta
cavourubia to call 9-1-1 and he quickly
got Transit bus operator Israel
Hernandez to assist
Mr House who had recently taken Narcan
training through another job and Mr
Hernandez suspected a potential overdose
situation Miss cavrubia relay this
information to the 9-1-1 operator the
911 operator upon learning that there
was Narcan available at the Intermodal
terminal for just such an emergency
instructive staff to administer Narcan
to the unresponsive person
Narcan or genetically generically known
as nexoline nexilon is a medication that
can quickly reverse and overdose from
either prescribed painkillers or illicit
forms of opioids such as heroin and
Fentanyl
naloxone is available in multiple forms
including as a nasal spray that was used
in this event
Alexa alone does not affect someone
who does not have opioids in their
system and is not a treatment for opioid
use disorder however for someone
experiencing a critical opioid overdose
quick administration of naloxone saves
lives
persons at risk
of an opioid overdose either through
prescription medications or illicit
drugs and their family members and loved
ones are encouraged to have
naloxone rescue kit readily available
the kits are available often for free
through Community Health Services
organizations such as the National
Coalition against prescription drug
abuse
their website is n c a p d a DOT org
five minute training videos on how to
administer
naloxone
rubia stayed in contact with 9-1-1
operator and gave instructions to Mr
house and Mr Hernandez who together
administered the Narcan a person
regained Consciousness almost
immediately and staff remained with him
until emergency Personnel arrived
a person refused medical transport and
did not provide his name
the teamwork and quick action of these
three Transit employees saved this man's
life
the incident also demonstrated the value
of having Narcan available in places
frequent frequented by the general
public such as the transit Intermodal
Center
and so I have a mayor Citation for
community service
to these three City Transit workers it
reads
city of Las Cruces mayor Citation for
community service
in recognition of your commitment and
dedication helping make Las Cruces A
Better Community they did this third day
of April 2023 signed by myself Ken
miyagashima thank you
foreign
house
ladies and gentlemen these three saved a
person's life and we don't know how much
more to to thank you it's a small token
of our appreciation for your quick
action and knowing what to do so thank
you
[Applause]
thank you
sorry sorry
modest Heroes they don't want to say
anything so I'm going to turn this over
to counselor Graham who's going to
finish the rest of the proclamations
no
thank you mayor
and in addition to a welcome for our
electeds I'd just like to recognize from
NMSU Dr Davis dahli and Regent Dr Davis
Dali so thank you so much for joining us
today
[Applause]
question is for Public Safety
telecommunicators Week is Albert Flores
with us or hi
I wish I had entrance music for you
laughs
thank you so much for being here
the proclamation reads whereas when an
emergency occurs The Prompt response of
police officers firefighters and
paramedics is critical to the protection
of life and preservation of property and
whereas the safety of our police
officers firefighters and emergency
medical personnel is dependent upon the
quality and accuracy of information
obtained from citizens who telephone
Messiah Valley Regional dispatch
Authority communications center and
whereas professional Public Safety
telecommunicators are a vital link
between citizens and victims and are the
first and most critical contact our
citizens have with emergency services
and whereas Public Safety
telecommunicators are the single vital
link for our police officers
firefighters and emergency medical
personnel by monitoring their activities
By Radio providing them information and
ensuring their safety and whereas Public
Safety telecommunicators of the Messiah
Valley Regional dispatch Authority are
the first First Responders who
contributed substantially as part of the
public safety team and whereas each
dispatcher has exhibited compassion
understanding and professionalism during
the performance of their job in the past
year now therefore we the mayor and City
Council of Las Cruces New Mexico do
hereby proclaim the week of April 9-15
2023 as Public Safety telecommunicators
Week in honor of the men and women whose
diligence and professionalism keep our
communities and citizens safe signed by
mayor Ken miyagashima and attested by
city clerk Christine Rivera
thank you
thank you counselor Mr Mayor City
Council city manager from the bottom of
our hearts at dispatch we really thank
you it's it's great to be acknowledged
especially for telecommunicator week
is anybody if anybody's ever been in our
Dispatch Center
they can see those dispatchers work in
long hours some of them are sitting
behind at least 10 screens trying to
figure out
um
how to deal with the situations they're
faced with and lately there's a lot of
them sometimes our dispatchers they're
they're faced with people's bad times
and people are calling when they're
dying they're also dealing with that
issue with our First Responders
um is it if anybody's paid attention to
the news
they've heard what's happened down in
Sunland Park and that's not very that's
not a very good thing for a dispatcher
to be on the other end of the radio when
they're dealing with an officer that has
been injured so
um on the other side of that
um last night in the city one of our
dispatchers actually helped deliver a
baby girl so yeah so you know we're
there when life comes in as well so
again thank you very much we appreciate
it
thank you
our second Proclamation is for
distracted driving awareness month and
Barbara Toth
anyone else you want to bring down with
you
like they would like to watch
oh I'm so happy
the proclamation reads whereas death and
serious injury have become epidemic on
our country's roadways claiming
thousands of lives and enduring hundreds
of thousands more each year in the
United States and whereas motor vehicle
crashes are the number one cause of
preventable death in New Mexico and a
disproportionately high number of
crashes and fatalities related to
distracted driving occur in our state
and whereas distracted driving is an
activity that can divert a person's
attention from the primary task of
driving and can result in serious injury
or death and whereas studies demonstrate
that using mobile electronic devices
involves visual auditory manual and
cognitive distraction and is among the
worst of all driver distractions and
whereas distracted drivers are not only
putting themselves at risk but are a
very real danger to everyone they share
the roadway with and whereas distracted
driving is a choice and completely
preventable all Las Cruces are
encouraged to take personal
responsibility behind the wheel and
always drive distraction free in order
to result in safer roadways across our
community now therefore we the mayor and
City Council of the city of Las Cruces
New Mexico do hereby proclaim the month
of April 2023 as distracted driving
Awareness Month signed by mayor Ken
miyagashima and attested by city clerk
Christine Rivera
[Applause]
I'd like to thank the city council and
our mayor for their consideration in
issuing this Proclamation and
recognizing that distracted driving puts
everyone we share the road with
at risk and so I thank them for this
Proclamation I thank them for their
attention to this important issue if
you'd like to read more about our
organization vulnerable Road users in M
that's a mouthful v r u n m dot org
you can hear a little bit about our work
and the intentions that we have for
creating a safer Community
whenever people drive distracted
everyone they share the roadway with is
at risk
thank you very much
[Applause]
and our final Proclamation for today is
for fair housing month is Andrew Heckard
hi and anyone else you'd like to bring
along
thank you the proclamation reads whereas
fair and equal housing is a right
guaranteed to all Americans and whereas
the principle of fair and equal housing
is a fundamental human entitlement and
whereas the month of April 2023
represents the 55th anniversary of the
signing of the federal fair housing act
by then president Lyndon B Johnson and
whereas all citizens have the right to
live where they choose within their
financial means and whereas people must
not be denied housing because of race
color religion sex national origin
disability sexual orientation gender
identity or marital or family status and
whereas we must as individuals assure
equal access to housing for all in our
communities and whereas New Mexico
acknowledges the importance of assuring
fair and equal treatment to all citizens
now therefore we the mayor and City
Council of Las Cruces New Mexico do
hereby proclaim the month of April 2023
as fair housing month signed by mayor
Ken miyagashima and attested by city
clerk Christine Rivera
thank you so much
it went up I was worried I was gonna
have to duck down low
um thank you very much uh thank you
mayor city manager and city council for
for recognizing fair housing month I was
going to list these but it was already
listed in the proclamation but we the
members of the Las Cruces Association
Realtors as well as all Realtors
throughout the country strongly believe
that no access should be denied for
anyone based on any reason other than
they can't afford it
um we strongly believe everyone has a
right to live where they want to live
and really thank you for recognizing
April's for housing month thank you very
much
thank you
okay thank you counselor
we have now Las Cruces Public School
Superintendent Ralph Ramos I didn't see
him sorry are you
from Roberto Lozano is gonna
speak yes
regarding the Cannabis challenges in
school
right here to this point
whichever you feel comfortable if you
want to speak to the Crowder okay
thank you mayor and distinguished
members of the council so Mr Ramos was
unable to be here this afternoon he
sends his regards but thank you for
allowing us to speak on a very important
topic I believe mayor miyagushima and Mr
Ramos were in communication regarding a
request to try to give notice to our
community about the challenges that we
are facing as a public school system in
regards to the use of cannabis
so I I was just going to say even though
I called you up can you for the state
your name for the record and your
position within that absolutely yes so
uh Dr Roberto Lozano and I'm an
associate superintendent and then here
with me too is my colleague Amy
himmelwright who is our executive
director of Behavioral Health so we'll
both be speaking on the topic
so again mayor thank you for the
invitation
um wanted to just give you a quick
update on providing with some data
regarding the use of cannabis at our
schools so as you know April 1st of 2022
was the first day that
cannabis was legal as a recreational
drug here in New Mexico right now it's
pretty much premature of us to really
say yes it's had a big impact or no it
hasn't in our schools what we can tell
you is that there are we've had students
who unfortunately resort to illicit
drugs to address some of the mental
health issues that they may have at home
or whatever they may be facing at school
so really our focus is as a school
system is to identify those barriers
that they may have that where students
resort to
things like illicit drugs so as a
reminder right our students are not
allowed to go into any dispensary to
legally purchase Canada service however
we do see our students having Vapes that
is a huge huge problem that we're
encountering and that was even before
the legalization of cannabis
unfortunately we have seen an uptick
after covid
after we were 100 remote our data is
showing us that cannabis is a huge issue
the number one substance that we find
within our vaping devices are is
nicotine however there are times where
unfortunately we do see whether it be
cannabis spice other drugs that really
are harming our students with that I
want to allow my colleague Amy to speak
to you about some of the mitigation
strategies that we've implemented and
continue to do I also wanted to thank
our sros at the schools for really
assisting Us in addressing the need
because it is challenging and like I
said one of the biggest goals that we
have is to really get at the root of why
are students resorting to substance
abuse
when we all know research tells us that
it's it's the root of something else
happening at home so really try to get
them to the support that they need with
that I'll turn it over to Amy
um good afternoon Marin and council
members my name is Amy himmel Wright
director of academic counseling and
Behavioral Health for Las Cruces public
schools and so um as the leader of our
Behavioral Health teams in the schools
our role is really three-fold when it
comes to substance misuse
identifying the the risk factors and
trying to mitigate those goes right
along with efforts at prevention and
then of course intervention is is
necessary and I and Dr Lozano didn't
talk about this but with the and I just
want to reiterate so while we haven't
seen a steep increase in in discipline
reports or incident reports of cannabis
use at school we have seen a tremendous
frighteningly steep increase in Vape in
general which is why Dr Lozano
emphasized that it's not just cannabis
we're finding in the in the Vapes I
talked to a principal this morning at a
Comprehensive High School and he said
it's about three to one nicotine to
cannabis in the Vapes so I want to to
bring to your attention that vaping in
general is is a big concern for us for a
lot of reasons health safety educational
distraction all of those things
um so as we look at that when whether
it's nicotine alcohol cannabis whatever
it is we know that adolescents are at
increased use for substance abuse when
they're feeling rejected by their peers
when they develop hostile or controlling
social goals which can lead to peer
rejection when they engage in bullying
Behavior which is interesting right
because you would think I might say when
when they're bullied but actually
engaging in bullying behavior is a huge
risk factor for substance misuse when
they align with peers who use substances
and when they overestimate how many of
their peers use or approve of substance
use
so when I when I think about that I
think about
um Joe Camel and all of the ads in the
90s when I was in high school and how
when I was in high school it was
considered very cool to smoke like the
cool kids did it and unfortunately I
think part of the culture of Youth right
now is is not even necessarily that Vape
is cool but that it's not dangerous
it's safe
and so one of our tasks really as a
whole Community is to shift that
thinking around vaping
cannabis and other products and I also
want to add because I know we're here to
talk about cannabis we're seeing very
little of the plant itself in the
schools that's why I keep going back to
vaping it's all you know it's I would I
would venture to say over 90 percent of
what we're seeing is is through Vape so
um also I can add that most of because
there's this question right of where are
the kids getting the Vape or is it
illicit is it most of the vape pens that
are confiscated actually have that New
Mexico stamp on them if if they have THC
in them so when you buy cannabis
products at the dispensary they're
they're stamped Colorado New Mexico
California you know where they came from
so um so it's not like we're finding
these handmade or or rigged devices
predominantly predominantly the ones the
kids are that getting their hands on
were purchased at local dispensaries so
of course that makes the question for us
then of how how kids are accessing them
and I guess before we stand for
questions I'll just add them that are
kind of plea to the community and the
adults in the community the same as we
ask you to safeguard your prescription
drugs the same as we ask you to
safeguard your firearms for child safety
you you know Safeguard your recreational
Cannabis like don't let it get into the
the hands of our youth I could go on for
hours about all of this so I'm gonna
pause there and just um stand for
questions
if if that if you do that here sorry
well you were advertised on the agenda
so that allows Council to ask you
questions we can't formulate any policy
but is there any questions Council may
have counselor Quran Como Gandara
thank you so much for presenting and
share I
lucky last week to see a bunch of former
students I teach at the community
college public health so a bunch of my
former students are working with the
State Department of Health and the
unified prevention coalition to do
justice work that is messaging around
locking it up they even gave me a little
lock case that I that I took home even
though I don't have anything to put in
it but but I think that they they
definitely are looking to help support
and I think they just did something
right in Leah County that was really
successful with with students in
particular related to sort of
encountering
their families potential substance
problematic substances and so I hope
that you might be able to connect to
them and they were just just last week
they were bending my ears saying please
let us get in to talk to the school so I
hope that that connection can be made
and and support you and sort of creating
that narrative so thank you for being
here today
thank you councilman Cuomo and then
mayor Pro tem thanks mayor I don't have
any questions I just
um wanted to thank both of you Dr Lozano
and Amy I'm sorry I didn't catch her
last name him all right him all right
thank you both for coming here I really
just wanted to appreciate
um that you sort of took a bigger
broader approach to the way you
presented to us today and the way you're
talking about it in terms of what's up
the root cause and often we've talked
about trauma being that
that open door right to seeking more
dangerous behaviors and so I appreciated
the the behavioral health take that you
have on this and you know whatever we
can do to work with the schools and with
cannabis Advocates I know many are here
today for how we talk about safe storage
especially and then you know we have
often have conversations about the black
market and so I think it's really
important that you came here today and
said look this is what we're seeing
because often that's what we're missing
and so as opposed to just the the noise
right and so I just really wanted to
appreciate the way that you presented
here today thank you both
thank you mayor Pro tem thank you mayor
thank you Amy and Dr Lozano for being
here
um I also appreciate the way you've
elevated this I know there's some
serious things happening and looking at
the root causes are are so important to
me I had just a question about how
you're recognizing in The Vape pins
um the use of
cannabis I'm I'm thinking and what has
I've seen over time is the use of
synthetic marijuana and spice and so are
you are they are the are the youth
self-reporting or how are you
identifying that it's cannabis
specifically
okay thank you mayor Pro tem um Mo what
I'm I I checked in with my school
principals right before this meeting and
what they're reporting to me is that the
vast majority of devices that they're
confiscated confiscating are labeled so
it they're labeled with where it came
from what's in it and um and that it was
New Mexico certified gotcha in addition
to that there are cases where a student
may have engaged in vaping behavior and
we don't know what what the substance
was and we may have concern so our
school resource officers have access to
test strips that they can actually test
the liquid in the in the cartridge and
find out what was in it and and as
they're testing that they're reporting
back to you all but do they report it to
a another entity like the department of
health or
the the group that controls the Cannabis
industry that that's a good question I
don't know okay and how is I guess to
Chief Dominguez if that's happening how
do we know that you know what are the
numbers there I think those are
statistics that are important that we
have
mayor mayor Pro tem I don't have those
numbers with me but I can get them for
you okay you have them then though we we
can get them for you perfect thank you
Chief I appreciate that and then lastly
I'll say as you know we have a health
policy Review Committee both um concert
all of college or Flores and consecrants
sit on that Health policy Review
Committee and mayor I'm asking that
maybe this is an agenda item that we
have I'm specific to that so that we're
a part of the solution and strategies to
mitigate this I think this is important
and
um and I know that it's important to the
counselors here and that would be what
my recommendation would be moving
forward thank you mayor
okay well thank you very much for that
presentation
give our regards to the superintendent
thank you thank you okay so now we're
going to get to the conflict of interest
statement this is where I'll ask if any
member of the city council City staff or
any member of the Silver City manager
has any known conflict of interest on
any item on the agenda Flores
none Graham
so uh if you would allow me to take a
personal privilege I I want to just
share something so years ago there was a
time during my 31 years in in office
eight months was I was a private citizen
so it was about March of 2021 I came
here I was thinking of running for city
council right and so I came here to talk
to us about something and I noticed that
mayor Smith and the whole Council didn't
say a word
and I just thought they just didn't want
to talk so when I got elected to city
council I found out that the city in
public participation
doesn't unless it's advertised on the
agenda
really don't discuss things I mean I'll
say some things to clarify
so
I just want you to know that I I used to
think that Reuben was just he just
wanted didn't want to talk where mayor
Smith didn't want to talk so I just say
that so there may be some things there
that Council can't really because it's
not a it's not on the agenda but I have
a funny feeling that I mean I've been
around a long enough time to know when
there's this many people there's
something up okay so
um so we can't really discuss a whole
lot of without it being on the agenda so
now before we get to public
participation there's a gentleman here
that I think wants to give some certain
certificates to the to the city so let
me go down there real quick
see my name is Bruce pontes I'm
president of the Vietnam Veterans of
America chapter 431 here in Las Cruces
what I got here is some certificate
appreciation for the city of Las Cruces
the mayor the parts department and the
director for the parts department and
there's anybody here from the Parks
Department
former director assistant she's got a
promotion yeah
okay well this is for a certificate
appreciation for your the city's support
with our 11th annual welcome home
Vietnam Veterans Day which was last
weekend
and
oh yeah well this one's for the city
I also got one for mayor Ken miyagishima
for one of my speakers at kickoff
speaker
Las Cruces Parks and Rec
and one for the director of parks and
rec
they have always supported this welcome
home Vietnam Veterans Day I don't know
if anybody is here last year when I sort
of giving these out I said I wasn't
doing it no more
wrong answer I found out I'm going to be
doing it again because we had a lot of
mess-ups this year it wasn't a city
wasn't the parks there's some of the
people were running they're going to
show up so I am taking it back to
Vietnam veterans is doing it from now on
Cruz thank you very much for this you
know it's always a pleasure and it's
always humbling and I just want to take
a quick moment to thank those that here
in the audience that are veterans if you
are please stand up so we can thank you
for your service past or present
thank you very much
just just like I just like I've always
said at uh you know we on the city
council I know myself I couldn't do the
things that I do without the veterans
because it's allowed me to do whatever I
choose to do whether I choose to go to
school or serve on the council or thank
you very much to our veterans thank you
cool
thanks
now I can't sing but I could probably I
could probably do that so all right
thank you
so I woke up this morning my knee is
just really hurting that's probably one
of the few things
first things that I may want to do when
I uh in 2024 and look at knee surgery
okay so this is public participation so
just to clarify the
of the what we what we discuss here is
you have a total of seven minutes three
minutes for public participation that
you can you know whatever you choose to
say that we ask that it not be regarding
any pending litigation or any item on
the agenda
because we allow four minutes for items
that are on the agenda now if you have
to leave please let us know and you know
that's why you're you're discussing
things on the agenda so only twice
though you can come up to city council
to the podium so if you talk in public
participation and you have two items on
the agenda
you may not want to you have to choose
because you just twice coming up to the
and we can't use the total of seven
minutes
and I'm sorry Mr burunda I can't give
you any extra time not with this crowd
here today perhaps next council meeting
can
I usually start on my left and I usually
start on the first row so I'm going to
start on my right this time and the last
one no I'm just kidding I'm just joking
I'm just joking
please come forward
I just need you to state your name
please
we have to have a little bit of brevity
here you'll be you'll be fourth row I
mean fourth person or assuming these two
gentlemen next to you
my name is Lorelei English I go by Lori
English and I've been here numerous
times over the last 22 and a half years
I'd like to remind the city council of
their mission statement the mission of
the city of Las Cruces is to provide
customer focused Municipal services to
Residents businesses and guests so they
can experience the quality of place to
live work and play
in the last 22 and a half years I am
sorry to say that I have seen
and this has not directed at any one
particular person with all due respect
to the mayor
and the council
I've seen the city go downhill
and the reason that's happened and the
reason I'm here in civilian clothes is
because I could have come here in a
t-shirt representing a military
organization a Civic organization I've
been recognized by the city by the
county by the state and by the federal
government for my actions but I am
ashamed
of the actions of a council that almost
unanimously puts their private interests
ahead of the public good when a city
council comes up and says we're more
involved and more interested in changing
the name of a street
because it offends some people it's been
like that since day one
that compared to fixing a street two
years ago I challenged anybody on the
city council
and anybody having anything to do with
the city of Las Cruces to come out and
drive down
stewards Avenue on the East Mesa between
Mesa Grande and Mesa
you cannot drive down that street
without losing your front end alignment
part of the street isn't even paved and
the rest of the street looks like it's
got leprosy because there's patches on
the patches patches so we need a city
council that's going to be proactive on
our infrastructure not changing the
names of streets not dealing with things
that
We the People
didn't vote you in office to deal with
we voted you in office to take care of
us to look out for our interests and I
would appreciate it if the city council
would reconsidering minor things yes
street names can be offensive it happens
all over the country it happens all over
the world
in fact in Germany there is a street
named Hitler
which if I could change it I would
bottom line is we need an active
Progressive
people-oriented not personal interest
oriented city council and I would
appreciate you're looking more at what's
needed to be done instead of what's
being done thank you
[Applause]
thank you Dr Neeson
even though I called you by your name I
just need you to state your name please
okay
I'm Dr Earl Nissan and I live in Las
Cruces
I have spoken from this lectern many
times for having a civil discourse about
a community issue
recently I have seen this lecture in
solid with malicious and sexist remarks
made to you as counselors coming from
the underbelly of Las Cruces these
remarks even have the attention of the
New Mexico state democratic party
president who on Saturday
denounced such a tax and requested that
the community react to these behaviors
I have known some of you for up to 20
years in other capacities and in other
community meetings I've had
conversations with some of you at coffee
shops or offices
I've always appreciated and respected
our conversations
so all of you counselors have shown due
diligence to the offices for which you
were elected We Stand By You Against The
un-americans using the freedom of speech
to hide their vitriol against you as
counselors
if they are present today I suggest they
desist from any further vicious
outbursts thank you
foreign
counselors my name is Michael Hayes
from 1973 to 2007 when I moved to Las
Cruces I was a Civic activist or writer
in Colorado Springs Colorado McLean
Virginia Cleveland Heights Ohio and
Ashland Oregon
nothing in my background prepared me for
a city with a government scornful of its
citizens and duplicitous in his
professed commitment to transparency and
accountability
item officials have not explained to
even announce the departure of the City
attorney
ironically several counselors have told
me that I am naive for not knowing what
they that they do much of their work out
of public site if so the effects are
also out of public site
so much for transparency and so little
for accountability
despite council's talk about police
reform in the past two or three years
not one council member has publicly
moved a single reform for a vote
despite council's talk about
transparency and accountability not one
council member has publicly asked about
cases of citizens abused or killed by
police officers
not one is asked about the canine
modeling of a citizen after he had
surrendered
not one is asked about officer Jared
Casper's killing of Amelia Baca not one
is asked why police chief Miguel
Dominguez who initially touted himself
as Mr transparency instigated a weak
delayed by spr film instead of issuing a
prompt truthful statement of facts
not one is asked why the LCPD did not
charge Casper not one is asked why the
LCPD displayed a conflict of interest
LED and participated in the Task Force
review of a purportedly independent
investigation of The Killing
not one asked why the case was referred
outside LC PD's jurisdiction not one is
asked why Casper was returned to duty
such questions and their answers would
provide the kind of information which
city and police officials release
elsewhere in major cases
the refusal of Las Cruces officials and
officers to inform the public about
these and other cases shows their
contempt hypocrisy and complicity and
cover-ups it also shows their priority
protect the police not the public
given this council's dereliction of Duty
responsible citizens are proposing a
Citizens police review board to perform
a public service which Council refuses
to perform
given its inaction which tolerates
police abuse and killing I believe the
council will continue to resist the
board which would at least make such
information available to the public so
given this chance to do right I believe
that this Council will persist in doing
wrong thank you
okay
your next
thank you
uh my name is Paul borunda
I was born and raised here in the city
of Las Cruces
on March 24th of 1945
I did not just get here yesterday okay
to clarify that
uh at the age of 18
when I entered the military after
President Kennedy's deaths in Texas
I was assigned Duty in the Aleutian
Islands
on the berian sea during the Cuban
Missile Crisis
the age of 18. wasn't easy but I did it
in 1965 I was sent to Vietnam as part of
Operation Rolling Thunder
where
the military was bombarding the Ho Chi
Minh trail out of Cambodia
into the Gulf of Duncan we
patrolled the entire area from Cambodia
into the Gulf of Duncan
and gave down support to the trips
troops in
on the ground
we were fired upon by snipers but that
was a long time ago and but that set the
wreck set me on a course of finding
Justice
and fighting for justice and it didn't
matter against whom or where
now I have
been coming before the city council way
before
mayor Mia goshiba's tenure which is
almost 20 years but I was here 35 years
ago
fighting for our citizens with a group
of people back then and there's one
person here Jane Ash who can attest to
that
the problem that what I'm having is is
that I've come before the city council
to address many issues
I had high hopes that when we elected an
all-woman City Council
that things would change but they
haven't
each one of these city council women
that sits before us is from representing
a Pacific particular District
mine is district one and I have
contacted councilors
hundreds of times on many issues
I've come before the city council to
address the issue when a police officer
by the name Abdullah
Rosa or de la something de la something
but he was one of the officers who was
shot a while back and was honored by the
city of Las Cruces yet when he committed
perjury in municipal court and before
Council judge Ryan my appealed I'm sorry
but your three minutes are up and I
can't give you an extension we've got
too many people here I apologize you're
welcome to come next next well one last
thing all right please one last thing
please it's not going to take but a
second uh I I don't have enough time to
discuss everything but this is the
matter by which we are treated now I'm
going to ask one thing because the city
council cannot do the job that they are
there to do they rely on the city
manager who is unavailable to the
citizens and there's no transparency and
I'm going to ask to the city manager to
fire the chief of police Mr as of today
or Mr thank you
okay so that's the first row anyone on
the second row
yes ma'am
[Applause]
I'm Lynne Moore a resident of District
One
mayor miyagashima mayor Pro tem Gandara
counselor abeta counselor Graham
counselor Ben Como counselor Quran
counselor Flores
I thank you and salute you for your work
my thanks and salutations also go to our
presiding municipal judge goldbaum and
City staff
I have experience interacting with many
governmental agencies in several States
at the federal state Regional County and
Municipal levels
while I do not always agree with your
final decisions City councilors and
mayor or agree fully with the way you
prioritize issues I unfailingly respect
your work and the deliberative
Democratic process
I know from watching others try it that
poisonous insults condescension sarcasm
scolding and coarse language never
persuade rather they shine a bright
light on the weakness of the insulters
argument they also tend to show the
shallowness of the insulters character
and frequently their small vocabulary
bottom line launching verbal punches at
public officials is counterproductive
and creates deaf ears it is truly
shameful that members of the male gender
have recently been wasting public time
and tarnishing their honor by
denigrating our hard-working City
counselors while displaying deep-seated
misogyny and smallness of mind
I respectfully encourage all of you who
think disparagement and insults are
appropriate behavior to run for office
yourself
and see how many people actually think
your character wits and stamina are
sufficient to represent them adequately
mayor and City councilors I also salute
your patients in allowing a few citizens
to repeatedly vent about concerns that
do not fall within the jurisdiction of
city government and instead should be
directed to their state legislators
Federal legislators or the judicial
system
from my perspective all of you are more
than worthy of your office and make our
city very proud
thank you for your hard work and
never-ending commitment to our city and
to each of its citizens and thank you
for your grace in Rising above
smallness
thank you Mrs Moore if anyone thinks
they can top that you're welcome to come
to the you're welcome to come to the
podium otherwise you might just stay in
your seat
mayor city council my name is Jennifer
cry I'm retired from NMSU can I say
ditto
uh and I actually have a list of a few
things positive things I wanted to say
but then I left my reading glasses in
the car
so I have to go by memory
so I just wanted I was I'm here today uh
because I don't always come to say uh
thankful things and cheerful things but
I always appreciate the work that you do
I appreciate
the uh
the new Fire Station that's going to be
built the work you guys put in to
collect all the information that would
make up the go bond that was passed by
the voters
we also had a new Fire Station built a
couple years ago
Park improvements across the city and I
have to say every time because I drive
by it every day
I am so excited about the Animal
Services Center the dog park is open and
people are there every time I go by
you make me very proud this is why when
I retired I said I was staying in Las
Cruces thank you
actually I think the city council and I
thank you the voters for passing the Geo
bond for fire station number nine is it
number nine or number eight number nine
yeah so thank you we appreciate that I
carry it
good afternoon mayor miyagashima and
City councilors my name is Terry Miller
and I'm it's going to be hard to talk
Miss Moore but I'm speaking today
because of a recent conversation I had
with a man about voting
something he said made me realize how
after I vote in an election I rarely let
my elected officials know how much I
appreciate all the time and effort you
put into helping me and my community
I've lived on the east side the west
side and outside Las Cruces and I've
seen many changes in our beautiful city
since we moved here in 1972 nearly 51
years ago
many of the changes have enriched Our
Lives by creating the city trails system
adding more parks and sports venues for
our youth creating a downtown mall where
families can gather at the Farmers
Market on Saturdays and for celebrations
and activities in the Downtown Plaza
just to name a few
but the city council's work is not just
about providing its citizens with pretty
Parks and walking trails
for our city to function it needs to be
fiscally solvent and thanks to our city
council and mayor it is
for our city to thrive the city council
needs to focus on the health and
well-being of everyone who lives here
and these are the issues our city
council and mayor address every day
thankfully it does
every day every one of you
work on how to provide affordable
housing
how to help our citizens who do not have
a home
how to address our citizens concerns
about our safety
how to keep our public roads and
services maintained
how to set fair business practices just
to name a few
the work of our city councilors and
mayor is endless and when each of you
decided to run for office you pretty
much chose to give up your personal
lives to serve all of US citizens in Las
Cruces
so I'm grateful to every one of you for
all the time effort and dedication you
have put into making Las Cruces such a
great place to live
and if any of you in the audience feel
the same way I do would you please stand
thank you
and I have one more thing to say
thank you mayor miyagashima for your 16
years of commitment for our service and
to our city
I'm grateful for the many many good
changes you have made Through The Years
best wishes to you
okay thank you Terry I appreciate that
anyone else on the second row
I I see a regent davistali good to see
you I'm sorry if you were here when I
was introducing oh and I missed you I
apologize good to see
as well
third row anyone third row okay
good afternoon my name is Linda Huff in
1995 we had the privilege to purchase
the only house in Las Cruces with
lakefront property
living on the edge of burn Lake Park was
so fun being able to watch the families
and the children enjoying the water the
fish and the birds in about 2008 or so
the lake dried up which caused families
to quit using the East End of the park
illicit activities forced the city to
close the section of the park
to vehicle traffic also overnight
camping and open campfires were
prohibited
this basically caused the seven small
shelters that are on the 10 foot by 10
foot concrete bases to be abandoned also
Parks and Rec seems to have quit
maintaining the fence at the East End of
the park next to Golden Corral
once this fence started falling down and
showing signs of neglect people started
cutting holes in it and now vehicles are
driving through these Halls
the homeless started establishing camps
in the bottom of the lake among the salt
Cedars they also dug Terrace's Midway
down the East bank and established
shelters among the salt Cedars
in December of 2020 they set the East
End of the lake
bottom on fire the fire threatened our
home and filled it was smoke this
finally got someone's attention and the
salt Cedars at the bottom of the lake
were removed but not from the sides
three months after the fire officer
Brian Clement with the LCPD organized
the community cleanup of the trash and
and that had accumulated at the park
more than 60 volunteers collected over
2.45 tons of trash
two weeks ago homeless encampments moved
in and have occupied all seven of the
previously abandoned shelters in the
restricted area here at burn Lake
for the last two weeks we have had to
endure the campfire smoke blowing into
our house the smell of human feces and
watched trash blew down the neighborhood
last Saturday for the first time since
we moved in in 1995. not only did I lock
the front door which I usually do but I
also set the house alarm and through the
deadbolts because I was there alone for
several hours
I should not be having to live in fear
because of these illegal homeless camps
outside our bedroom window thank you for
your time
foreign
good afternoon my name is Fred Huff
my wife just talked about the slow Decay
and neglect at the East end of Burn Lake
Park that led up to the illegal
occupation of the seven abandoned
shelters two weeks ago
I want to talk about the nightmare that
we have been living in for the last two
weeks because of these homeless people
leaving outside our bedroom window
once these caps moved in I went over and
politely had conversations with several
of the residents
what I learned was that around March
17th the LCPD evicted the encampments
behind the fire station on Valley Drive
they told me that they then moved from
the fire station to these abandoned
shelters at burn Lake where they are now
on top of the people living there
illegally the vehicle traffic has
increased tenfold as Vehicles come in
and out one particular guy driving a
gray Chevy Trailblazer drives around
here like it's a Grand Prix rally race
creating massive dust clouds I saw
burnout tracks in the dirt yesterday
near one of the tents and I asked the
resident what happened as it would have
thrown dirt right into his tent
he said that he and the Chevy guy had
gotten into an argument and then the
Chevy guy spun out and filled his dirt
his tent with dirt the Chevy guy seems
to be delivering stuff to other
residents one afternoon a resident of
nearby Glendale Gardens confronted the
Chevy guy about his deliveries and they
got into a big verbal argument I called
the police on this one and they sent an
officer out the Chevy guy was long gone
by then though
several times we have witnessed people
totally freak out after visiting with
the Chevy guy remember this is an area
close to vehicles and while I was having
a nice conversation with the resident
yesterday two other guys came up to us
and expressed quite a bit of hostility
towards me
I took Rob wood and the mayor's home
with the mayor's homeless task force for
a tour of the camps on Friday and one of
the residents called us over and
threatened me and my home for taking
photographs
once this mess has cleared out the parks
and recreation department needs to be
directed to rebuild the fences at the
East end of Burn Lake and the end of
Brown Road the abandoned shelters are
the magnet that brought these
encampments to this area and they also
need to be removed my wife and I should
not be having to leave and live in fear
for our home and safety if this was
happening outside your bedroom window
would you be okay with it would any of
you be willing to come and take a tour
of this mess I really think this city
has more pressing needs than worrying
about an offensive street name thank you
[Applause]
yes
good afternoon mayor council members
my name is Floyd Rivera and um
I live at 1805 West Brown Road
my property is adjacent to the burn lake
property
um
I want to give you mayor and council
members
I took page little brochure
and um
if you can give that to the city clerk
that would be great Mr Rivera I want you
to share it but I want it back okay well
we'll be sure to once you give it to the
clerk she'll maybe take a picture of it
or and then we'll send it down
I want it back because I have a folder
about that thick on Burn lake property
development if you will bear with me I
want to give you a brief
history of the burn lake property
development okay like I uh we bought the
property in 1966 built a home there and
uh
I'm going to give you a little history
because I honestly believe that a lot of
people in Las Cruces do not know the
history of burn Lake they don't and I
don't know about the council members but
you're too young
and that's a compliment
or maybe I'm too old but in any case
um
like I said that we we want the property
in 1967 and build a home there
uh the property there at that time was
like about 40 acres
owned by a farmer
and it was a cotton field
the property was uh
was bought by Mr Pierre Burns he's a
noted contractor here in town
uh
Mr Burns sold the property to the
highway contractor the interstate they
one morning without any of us being
notified the bulldozers and the ground
movers moved in and started
pulling dirt out of the burn lake
property to build the interstate from
where it intersects with I-25 after the
hill
anyway
um
when the project was over Mr Burns
try to establish a like an amusement
park
they even set up one of these tiger
swings where kids grab the swing and and
swing into the lake okay Mr Rivera I'm
sorry your three minutes are up but your
picture is here though we've got it yeah
okay I'll be this is
we've got so many people here but let me
tell you something I I got the emails
over the weekend I sent it the ifo I'm
sure him and his team they're going to
get this thing resolved so I'm sorry Mr
Rivera okay no my my message okay is
that
Mr Burns built a fence all around the
property okay that fence is in real bad
shape okay and over the years you know
homeless you know so please uh well and
I'll include your counselor counselor
Ben Cuomo but we're gonna have to move
on to some other speaking okay I
apologize I just want to thank the
manager and you Mr Mayor and Council
counselor Ben Cuomo yes because the city
Crews have in the last two years they
they kept the property clean okay they
have a Helper and the helper Mr Fred
Huff here okay I go I go by the road and
he's out there pulling the weeds oh my
goodness okay so uh please please look
into this this is the problem it is it
is
yes sir thank you thank you
don't forget to give me back my no it's
right here it's right here right here
it's right here Mr Rivera they're
picking Mr Rivera you're oh
thank you for this time my name is
Clarice Francis I'm here and we've been
living here in Las Cruces since 93.
I just want to make a comment about the
people on the streets with holding up
signs
um I was going to I was crossing over to
Hobby Lobby the other day and there were
like 12 people holding up signs and one
even crossed catacorner where I was
turning to the right and I almost hit
him
and he was making rude gestures and
waving and tossing rocks at my car
and the people on the other corner there
was a woman with a child about 12 years
old she was crossing over to come over
to Walmart or Arby's
and they were harassing her they were
picking out the little girl's clothes
they were shoving her a little bit not
hard but gently and I just sat there and
watched that while this guy was standing
here waving and making rude gestures
with his friend of his body
and finally he went on a cross and then
I turned and I didn't do anything later
on I was coming up to Marshalls and the
same thing was happening up on Telshor
and Lowman there was about six people on
the corner there's people on every
corner
on that whole area and they're still
starting to spread out and at that point
I did call the police department and I
said because it was a danger to them and
us
and the guy was not very
supportive
he was almost condescending and he says
yeah we'll we'll try and check on that
and that's the response I got
so this is just the beginning and I
thought a few years ago this was illegal
I thought we weren't supposed to have
these people on the corner there's so
many agencies that I have been involved
in at different times to help these
people get off the street
and they do have agencies but they
choose not to because it's easier to do
this
and I'd like you guys to do something
about that thank you
thank you
[Applause]
good afternoon Mr Mayor members of city
council my name is Lori Martinez I live
in Council of horns district and I'm
also the executive director of Engage
New Mexico a non-profit focused on
transforming education outcomes in
donana County
I'm here today to express my thanks to
our city council because I am encouraged
encouraged and hopeful about the state
of our city in a way that I haven't been
since I moved here over 20 years ago
I'd like to point out some things many
people may not realize
as we learned last week unemployment in
the city of Las Cruces was 3.1 percent
in December a degree a decrease of over
one and a half percent from recent years
multiple years
just a few weeks ago our city council
approved a designation of two areas as
Metropolitan Redevelopment areas this
decision will draw resources and
revitalization to parts of the city that
desperately need it and the mras are a
strategy which many of us view as key to
Economic Development and prosperity
the city council I have appreciated has
also been addressing affordable housing
Public Safety poverty and mental health
in meaningful ways
looking at root causes and Holistic
Solutions and not simply ignoring poor
families or engaging in solutions that
only Shuffle human beings who are
struggling out of the way
the work we do at engage in New Mexico
is in education where we work to align
education systems in Oneonta County from
Early Childhood all the way to the
workforce
in a way that works for all of our
people
you simply can't do this kind of work in
any kind of meaningful way without
looking at things like poverty lack of
safe affordable housing
mental health and Public Safety it is
beyond encouraging to me therefore and
refreshing to have a city council that
doesn't run from tough topics like
generational poverty racism sexism the
challenges our small businesses are
facing and many more
these things have been done during and
in the immediate aftermath of a global
pandemic that upended all of our lives
under our credit not only to the city
staff but the city council who have
worked to partner with entities all over
the city and state to ensure residents
of Las Cruces get what they need
a city councilor to be a city councilor
means you understand
the conflict and disagreements will come
that our city has real challenges to
work through and you work through them
I've been grateful to see our Council
model strength in this way
despite frequent disrespect and blatant
attempts to police the body language in
the words they use these women have
repeatedly asked who is not represented
here
and then gone out to their Community to
learn about what concerns all of us not
just the people who agree with them
in all my time living in Las Cruces I've
seen a more visible and accessible I've
never seen a more visible and accessible
city council than in the last few years
as a resident of Las Cruces I'm here to
ask you the same question I've heard you
all ask over and over
how can I help
and is the director of a non-profit
committed to our community's well-being
and prosperity I'm here to tell you that
we are proud to stand with you and
greatly looking forward to the work we
can continue to do together
thank you
while you're the next speaker makes
their way down let me just leave you my
email address and my cell phone what
better way to respond to that is a mayor
at Las hyphen cruises that
dot o r g I know we're changing the gov
but it doesn't seem to work so just use
the org for now and then my cell phone
is 575.
571-2440 I know I'm only in office for
eight more months but I'll make sure
that your counselor will get these
emails and text messages but um really
we we do want to hear from you and
there's times that we can't and and
sometimes we we can and so please let us
know how we can help so yes I'm sorry
for it good afternoon mayor and
counselors uh first and foremost mayor
thank you so much for your years of
service to our community my name is
Abraham Sanchez I am born and raised
here in Las Cruces New Mexico I live in
District Two I love our beautiful city
and I try to keep up with our city
government and Council meetings I wish I
could say that I always agree with the
statements and decisions that our
Council makes but I don't
sometimes I get frustrated and I often
think our city government moves too slow
to truly meet the needs of our community
with that said I also want to thank our
mayor and counselor for this time and
this space to share concerns and
grievances I realize this opportunity
doesn't exist everywhere in the world
and it's vital to our democracy
especially at the local level that we
have this space to talk to our elected
leaders about the city we want to live
in
growing up in Las Cruces I was taught
strong values of respect and democracy
unfortunately over the last few weeks
I've continued to see residents approach
this council with disrespect and
baseless accusations I've seen residents
who seem to think that insulting
language and temper tantrums are
appropriate substitutes for real policy
discussions and recent arguments I've
seen councilwomen berated in ways that
I've never seen happen to male
counselors and recently I was extremely
disappointed to see our mayor allow one
of these community members to go well
over their input time to continue to
berate counselors
I don't know where these ideas and
behaviors came from but I'm here to tell
you the people doing this do not
represent the Las Cruces values I've
been taught my whole life my commitment
to this council is to live these values
every day and to teach them to younger
members of our community just a couple
of weeks ago I was blessed to be able to
spend the day with my nine-year-old
nephew I took a moment that day to show
him the video of a recent city council
meeting I taught him that in this world
people will often Grant special
privileges to men to disrespect women
especially women leaders and that this
is wrong he was upset to think that
people could treat women leaders I'm
sorry he was upset to think that he
could treat that people could treat his
mom and grandmother and women in our
community this way he was also excited
however when I told him that we all have
the power to change this and the
disrespectful people in our community
don't get to decide our values we
decided that we will continue building a
city that allows us to voice our
concerns over local government while
also respecting our elected leaders who
have chosen to serve our community these
are the Las Cruces values I'm proud to
pass on to my nephew and I'm excited to
keep working for respect and democracy
in Las Cruces thank you
anyone else on the third row
okay we're going to the fourth row now
fourth row
good afternoon mayor and council members
my name is Reverend Carroll and Wilkins
and I wasn't sure I was going to speak
today
but
somebody had another idea in mind and it
was those who come before and those I've
heard who have made disparaging remarks
I believe in the separation of church
and state as Things are Written but I
want to bring to your attention that
this is a week of multiple holidays
we're celebrating lent and Easter
Ramadan
and Passover will start soon
all of those holidays are a time of
reflection forgiveness
elevation of love
and in some it's to reach out to the
community in how they can serve
so I bring that up because
as a clergy leader myself
I have fought in countless situations
for justice and equality for many
decades
I've only been in Las Cruces for four
years but I've been pretty active while
I've been here getting to know the city
and love the city
and I totally appreciate the leadership
that has been shown
by the female all-female all-powerful
council members that I stand before
and I think you should be honored mayor
to sit with this group of women
so in my time I just want to say that
the verbal assault on this all-female
council is disturbing it's insulting
it's disrespectful and it's
disheartening
I don't hold that opinion
my message is one
of standing in solidarity
for the strong intelligent and powerful
woman that have been elected for this
city
thank you for your service thank you for
your intelligence thank you for being
prepared for this job and thank you for
being a model for the young women that
come behind you
before uh count Kirk
Lopez asking if you want to come forward
the clerk the Dona Ana County Clerk has
something she's been meaning to say and
she's going to leave so I asked if she
would just come come forward so thank
you mayor and Council good after
Dr Amanda Lopez Askin proud to serve as
your doniana county clerk and I debated
whether I was going to speak today but
after hearing some of the comments and
looking at some of the Expressions on my
fellow elected officials faces I thought
I should come here and tell you in
solidarity that I understand
unfortunately I have the experience of
being in your shoes a lot this last
three to four years and
I have had insults to my appearance my
intelligence my moral compass I've been
accused of things that would
um
you know just it's very difficult but I
will tell you probably the worst was uh
when I was in with my six-year-old
daughter in a parking lot and was being
screamed at that I was a liar
um I was also you all may know likely
that there was the leaders in the
northern part of our state that their
homes were shot at including Senator
Linda Lopez's home which has her
ten-year-old daughter in which she found
plaster in her bed the next morning and
said Mom what is this right that same
person who is accused of that I also had
to report to the FBI because they
threatened me hang her till she's dead
so when I'm here I come to you saying I
know it's disturbing I see you
I know that you're up at night worrying
I know you hear the criticisms and it
feels personal
I know that your family has suffered
your friends have suffered people who
support you have suffered because of
your innate
desire to lead and to help our community
I want you to know that I see you I
appreciate the work
and that I'm here in solidarity
basically to support you I know that
you're on the side of right and so when
I've been asked many times how do you do
it there's something so difficult it's
so you're this the social media I say I
sleep fine because I'm on the side of
right and I have that daughter of mine
that will be looking at me and hoping
that I spoke out and spoke up in the
sight of right and that's where you're
sitting right here so I want to thank
you for that I also want to tell you
that you represent New Mexico values
inclusivity compassion and seeing people
as people and wanting that quality of
life that's in your mission statement
for everybody so thank you for your
service and I look forward to working
with you moving forward thank you
Clerk
thank you for your Indulgence man
um
thank you
Council council members and Mr Mayor
thank you so much for your service to
our community I too wasn't sure if I was
going to speak my name is Rochelle
arayano and I'm not sure what district I
live in but I do vote
and I did want to thank uh thanks to
several friends of mine who I've been
following the politics
um not only the national but also the
state and local politics and so the
discourse has been very divisive as we
all know
um as Citizens but I did want to take
this moment to say that despite the fact
that we have much progress and we can
celebrate a lot of progress progress is
not static progress is progress and so
our the work that you do as council
members as mayor and everybody who
serves with you
this is a work in progress our
communities are Works in progress I
arrived here four years ago as as a as a
resident even though I've been in and
out of New Mexico for the last almost 40
years I am proud to call myself a new
Mexican transplant from California and I
was the wife of an elected official in
California so I do understand
the pressure that you're under and the
the discourse that many of you are the
targets of and your families of and I do
appreciate the fact that you and your
family sometimes stay up at night
worrying about whether you'll be safe to
sit up here in these seats and so I do
want to invite anyone who feels that
they can do the job to get on the ballot
and uh to get out there and start to put
their ideas in action if they want to
see change just as you have done but I
did want to come here and say thank you
again for your service for your
continuing service and I also want to
thank the citizens of Las Cruces who
have given me such a warm and wonderful
community in which to live thank you so
much
thank you okay we're still on the fourth
row anyone fourth row okay fifth row
thank you
sure no problem
thank you good afternoon everyone
my name is Noreen dresser I am a
folklorist retired University professor
and the author of an award-winning LA
Times column and book by the same name
called Multicultural manners
both the book and the column attempt to
demystify the cultural differences of
people who are unlike themselves the
goal is to create respect so that we may
communicate with one another without
offense to build Bridges between
communities
of course I am aware that there is a
disagreement as to the original meaning
of the word that we all know
for example between the Algonquin and
the Iroquois tribes and there are those
who even claim that it is not a Native
American word at all however I accept
the meaning proffered by Secretary of
interior interior Deb Holland she says
that historically the word has been used
as an offensive ethnic racial and sexist
slur
no I'm sure that those who named that
street had no name no clue as to its
derogatory meaning
alas now that we know how degrading not
just to Native American women to all
women
therefore I am here to support those who
desire to change the name of that street
however I would question what procedures
would be in place so that people living
there are not unnecessarily
inconvenienced especially those who
depend on regular mail deliveries for
medications checks benefits and other
necessities thank you
[Applause]
sorry okay so we're still on the fifth
row I I'm I was sitting next to her so
yes
um my name is Miriam chaiken I'm in Ivan
Flores District I just want to support
the council and the mayor for all you're
doing for the city I lived overseas for
more than a decade of my life I lived
under martial law in the Philippines I
lived in Kenya where there was a
one-party system and presidents for life
and no elected officials were elected
legitimately
I got up at three o'clock in the morning
to watch Nelson Mandela walk out of
Robin Island prison where he had been a
political prisoner for 27 years
I know that the Ark of justice is long
but it tips to the right to quote Dr
King and I want to support you all for
what you're doing to try and make this
community better and to make our
interactions with each other more civil
more respectful more inclusive and I I
thank you for your work
thank you
we're going to tap dance out here
good afternoon Mr Mayor Bobby green
president on Anna County NAACP Vice
chair of the New Mexico Law Enforcement
Academy
mayor miyagashima
manager peely
and city council women I I stand in
solidarity with you today I want you to
know that but I also have a request we
are working on a Citizens review board
and I'd like to give you a little bit of
an overview of what happens when the
NAACP receives a complaint we have a
website where we can receive complaints
from citizens and lately we have
received quite a few I've been very busy
and what happens is when I receive a
complaint regarding excessive use of
force I go and I do an ipra request I
get the body cam footage and the police
reports redacted but you know there's
enough information there that I can see
what is going on and once I get those
documents and videos I usually if there
is contradictions between what's in the
report and what's on the camera then I
eye contact attorneys and I've had to do
that quite a few times here recently and
so I am here to request that we have a
work session so we can establish a
communication a dialogue so we can hear
I've met with several of you you've come
to our City Council meetings I want to
say thank you for that the time you've
given most of you have been to the City
Council meetings including the mayor and
I appreciate that so what we're looking
for is a a work session and
consideration placement on the agenda of
a resolution that has been developed by
lawyers by members of the NAACP members
of the Las Cruces school board members
of the ACLU we have worked on a
resolution we would like that resolution
to be placed on the agenda we would like
to be part of the solution we want to
work with you this is a matter of public
safety it is a matter of Financial
liability to the taxpayers and so what
we're trying to accomplish is to get
something in place that is a solution
that's a win-win for the members of the
city council the LCPD the community and
all of us that is the goal and so I
thank you for your time and I would
appreciate it if you would consider a
work session and putting our resolution
on the agenda thank you so much for your
time
thank you
my name is Liz Rodriguez Johnson and I'm
the first vice president of the NAACP
though Nana County
mayor miyagashima city council members
in the interest of time I will be brief
but I just want to reiterate what Dr
Green just said
that we are concerned
about the
obvious excessive use of force within
the police department and unfortunately
that it's used disproportionately on
people of color and as a person of color
that really really concerns me so I
would like to repeat what Dr Green just
said which is that we're looking for a
work session where we can discuss this
you know the community with the council
members and we can come to some sort of
a resolution where we can have more
preventative measures put in place so we
minimize
this kind of uh
I call it atrocity thank you
thank you we're still on the fifth row I
believe
good afternoon everybody good afternoon
city council my name is zika Rodriguez I
am the political liaison for the CCAA
the Coalition of conservatives in action
and a big part of my job is to be
involved with the local city governments
Public School Systems I ran for office
and I actually have strong
Communications with administrators with
the public school system and for those
who don't know that Las Cruces public
school system is the worst public school
system in all of New Mexico and given
that New Mexico is the worst educated
state in the entire country we can not
proudly say that Las Cruces is the worst
educated public school system in the
entire country that means that our kids
are starved we're also worst ranked in
child well-being so our kids are starved
they're physically abused they're
sexually abused and they are uneducated
at a level that is unprecedented around
the country so
obviously the school the public school
department is beholden to Public public
education department okay the schools
they got to go through them so they
can't do anything it's at the state they
always push you to the state so I'm here
asking the city council and and how I
saw councilor Ben coma extend her Olive
Branch to work with uh you know the city
school system to work with the Cannabis
usage so I would hope
that you would extend that same Olive
Branch with the public school system
particularly with what I learned
recently that there was a vandalism at a
particular Middle School I can leave it
up to you all to figure out what it is
I'm sure you'll find out really quick
and during that vandalism these children
that were vandalizing the school with
pornography and calling out teachers
spray painting their name with teachers
and threats they had guns on them as
well at this particular Middle School
so I would hope that
you can have that same kind of
cross-jurisdictional influence with with
having the police department have a
proper response because there's no
training I learned that there's no
training for the administrators if there
was a school shooting there is no
training there is no way for them to
deal with it so our children are the
most abused the most starved the most
uneducated they get out of high school
at a sixth grade reading level I believe
it is and now they are vulnerable to a
they're going to get a free-for-all the
mass shooter comes into one of our
school systems I have a daughter in
school
how long is it going to take for them to
respond I would suggest that you look at
a school that I mean the last school
shooting that we just had they responded
within 12 minutes very effective I would
hope that you were looking to see what
their response protocols were and extend
that here to Las Cruces because I am
fearful that we're gonna have a school
shooting here
and it's just going to be terrible
so please consider what I'm saying here
today for the sake of the children and
for those of you who don't try to pursue
that we're going to see what kind of
government official you are and
furthermore what kind of a human being
you are because this is all politics
aside everyone's so proud of our city
government I mean we have the most
abused children in the country I think
it's very sad I think it's a very sad
state that we're in to cheer on our city
government when our children are being
molested at the highest level in the
country
thank you
[Applause]
you know I don't normally uh brag about
my my children but I'm going to brag
about one of them or all of them but one
in particular
she went to
um yeah you can do that with you she
went to Desert Hills Camino Real
back then it was um on yate but it's
Oregon New Mexico State University
she's been she'll graduate in less than
a year as as a medical doctor and a PhD
from Yale medical school so and she used
this was from our Las Cruces Public
School System
um
our schools are really good I'm sorry
but I just needed to say that to defend
our schools because our teachers are
hard working they are
and and and I will say that Las Cruces
City the Las Cruces public schools have
the highest graduation rate than any
school in the state so anyways I just
wanted I just needed to say that
yeah and and mayor Pro tems daughter who
went through public education is also
okay yeah Marshall okay thank you mayor
I'm very proud of both my kids and my
daughter went to one of the poorest
schools in this in this District Booker
T Washington then to Sierra Middle
School in Las Cruces High and she's now
a medical doctor
at her last
residency at the University of Colorado
where in July she will be moving to a
Northwestern to attend her last
Fellowship there to be a pathologist so
I think we turn out
many many that
excellent students that go on and do
tremendous things not only in this
community but all over the nation so and
I think Zeke if you're still here which
I see you back there I'd have no problem
having a conversation with you I spent
27 and a half years in child welfare
specifically in this County so we can
talk all day long if you would like
about the the system and and what we've
done to correct many of these things and
you should be part of the solution as
well in many other I don't think we have
a lot of starving kids but we have kids
we should be posing that question why
why in an agriculturally Rich Community
we have kids that go home hungry and not
to mention the wonderful things that our
state legislature did to offer meals to
Children
um
no matter socioeconomic status so
there's a tremendous amount of work
that's happening at all levels and again
I extend the Olive Branch to you to have
those conversations thank you mayor
thank you
I think both mayor Pro tem and I we we
recognize we have great schools both
private but also public and that's why
we want to share our the successes of
our children and through our great
public schools and I think councilor
obey that I would like to say something
thank you with three kids in the public
school system including two that are
going to a community school I know that
our teachers work hard every day and
whether it is them doing a lockdown
drill that they have to do whether it's
them teaching math or working with
interpersonal relations for middle
schoolers which is no easy task
they work hard every day for our
children and I see that as a parent and
an Engaged parent how hard that these
teachers are working for our children I
see how our students are trying to
thrive in environments that sometimes
are full of support and sometimes are
very challenging
I see a student that I drive home with
my own child that goes to band that
walks to and from his house to the
university so that he can make it to All
City band and he did that without any
parent support but he was trying to
thrive in the environment that he is in
we have good students we have great kids
and we have fantastic teachers thank you
okay so that was fifth row anyone else
on the fifth row
sixth row
mayor councilor my name is Juan Garcia
but first of all I want to state that in
no way shape or form do I support any
disrespect towards anyone by anyone I'm
talking about anyone
our differences our own policies and
issue and I do thank you for your
engagement
today I'm here to talk about the
Forgotten victims of the Las Cruces
criminal element the victims who have
become a statistic a report member and
quickly forgotten victims like the
Chinese restaurant rising star on El
Paseo who was attacked for the third
time about three thousand dollars for
the damage or So Glam Boutique on
Missouri whose owner Gabe and his wife
were woken up at four o'clock in the
morning to the news at their lovely shop
had been vandalized destroyed glass
theft about five to ten thousand simple
story you've heard it before just a
different day in a different location
and then they're quickly forgotten
look at the report obtained to the
airport dated 20 March 2023 and
comparing stats year to date 2022
against 2023 the total property crime
has gone up 14 percent this is the first
quarter of the year of which commercial
burglary itself has gone up 54 it's only
the first quarter
when statistics are presented we often
hear quote not as bad as last year crime
is going down or remain steady this news
may be good for politicians
but not for the victims last year one of
our state senators proclaimed here in
this Chambers affordable housing is a
right
okay good so why isn't the Safety and
Security of our citizens a right why
isn't it a right to walk outside your
home and find your vehicle park where
you left it or a right to come to work
and find your small business in the same
condition as you left it when you closed
up
why haven't our elected officials and
I'm talking about the state I'm not
necessarily talking about the council
enacted strong legislation with
consequences to deter or prevent crime
some of the legislators are here maybe
they can't explain why they didn't do it
victims calling the police after a crime
is committed against them is too late I
recommend to the council that you add
two slides to your presentations
a presentation that states the name of
each small business victim of crime let
us identify by name not number so those
names were called out at each meeting
and not forgotten the second slide with
arrests and convictions since 2018 the
violent cry trend has increased
and this goes to all our elected
officials if you don't have the will or
your ideology prevents you from taking
decisive action to protect your citizens
all your citizens not just those you
align with please step aside and allow
someone that can to take your place okay
thank you
okay anyone else on the sixth row
good afternoon Mr Mayor and council
members my name is William Norris I'm a
Catholic evangelist and part of a lay
religious order called Mary's little
Remnant that resides in Truth or
Consequences we preach the dog with that
there's no salvation outside the
Catholic church and that we're living in
the final days I see true Catholic
because we're not affiliated with the
so-called church that resides in Rome we
don't believe that Francis is a true
Pope and we do not attend the church in
our local Parish we hold of the Catholic
faith in the first thousand years with
that being said the reason I am here
today is to voice my protest against a
10 million abortion clinic that is
coming to Las Cruces first let me say
that my faith is my primary motivation
in protesting abortion unlike almost all
the people in the pro-life movement I
don't believe these aborted babies go to
heaven as a true Catholic we believe
that all aborted unbaptized babies go to
the fires of Hell due to the guilt of
original sin on their soul with this
being the case you can see why I'm more
than enough have more than enough
incentive to try and stop abortion as
far as a secular reasons go I take a
page out of Carla sontag's book Carla is
the president and founder of the New
Mexico business Coalition and asks a
very simple question why are taxpayer
funds being used to fund a for-profit
business this is unfair to taxpayers and
every other New Mexican business that is
not being funded when I call the
governor's office to get an answer to
this question I got passed around from a
receptionist to a staff member who
didn't pick up their phone I ended up
leaving a voicemail and never received a
call back then there is the question of
why is this Clinic coming to Dona Ana
instead of Bernalillo according to an
article from Ms alua current the
abortion clinics in Bernalillo County
are strained due to an over capacity of
patients Bernalillo County has a
population of just over 647 000 people
and five abortion clinics Donia Anya is
has a population of just over 221 000
and they have four abortion clinics
despite having more clinics per capita
than Bernalillo Kayla Herring director
of the public affairs for Planned
Parenthood of Rocky Mountains had this
to say about the new abortion clinic
quote the southern part of New Mexico
has lacked access to the full spectrum
of reproductive health care for
Generations directing money to help our
southern New Mexico families is critical
for patient care recently Planned
Parenthood of Las Cruces closed down on
December 20 27 2022 and isn't expected
to reopen until April 27th this shows
that the demand for abortion is not
great here in Southern New Mexico and
according to the New Mexico selected
health statistics abortions overall were
trending downward from 2014 to 2018. so
this is not a matter of the governor
trying to quote help New Mexicans
Bernalillo County is clearly more
Central to the state with a larger
population however the clinic is being
built in Las Cruces because we are
closest to the Texas border the bottom
line is that the governor is attempting
to fund Texas abortions with New Mexico
taxpayer dollars we as New Mexicans
should be outraged that we are funding
yet another abortion clinic but one that
caters to the quote needs of another
state for your only hope of salvation
please visit
www.johnthebaptist.us thank you and have
a good day
okay that's still the sixth row anyone
else on the sixth row
okay seventh row anyone
they throw
okay
okay if you don't want to make your way
down that would be great
hi my name is Patricia I have a small
business here in town and I'm a little
shooken up excuse me Patricia I need
your last name please Jimenez
the lot the little shop on Main on Main
Street and I'm here to represent if not
all of the business for downtown
I actually started my company down the
street in 2020 and I was there for two
years relocated to Taos for one year and
thanks to the downtown Las Cruces
partnership and Cassandra I came back to
town because a lot of my the community
wanted me back
last week I was
terrorized by a known person in the
community named Noah Jimenez he's got a
big rap sheet and he's actually been
taken down by the SWAT team tries to
come in my store I run to my store I
lock the doors call 9-1-1 call my
security company they come to my my
rescue and stand by me and I never felt
victimized by the police ever in my life
I felt that they were questioning why I
was calling they refused to do a report
they questioned who I knew on the
council because I had mentioned I knew
Cassandra and I was going to report this
to the mayor's office in Cassandra and
they asked me out who else I knew they
asked me for my ID they didn't ask the
ID for the perpetrator and their excuse
was well the perpetrator said that your
business hours were nine to six and
that's why he wanted to come into your
store
I cited my my rights as a citizen and as
a business owner saying I refuse to uh
any service to somebody especially
someone who is a known
um offender and someone who is very
dangerous to the community from now on I
carry pepper spray I carry pepper spray
just to come to this meeting because the
crime the homelessness has risen
dramatically since I've been here I've
called the police more than 10 times
they've refused to file reports it's
been investigated by Internal Affairs
actively it's also being investigated by
the mayor's office it's being
investigated by the Attorney General
my my request to you as a business owner
I'm a single woman it's very scary I'm
not a big woman I don't have that
presence and that luxury in my store to
protect myself I ask that you allocate
funds to protect the businesses not only
after but before what can we do to
increase security what can we do to
increase the public safety around our
businesses when we have families walking
down the street and there's a known
offender as Noah Jimenez going into not
my store but five other stores that same
day
including the boys and girls
um the the little Center down the street
what can we do to prevent that and take
these people off the streets are there
any uh
curfews put in place active security
what can we do to protect ourselves
self-defense courses business safety for
the community and also the business
owners because I'm terrified as a
business I have a successful business
and I feel like it's not only paralyzing
me but it's paralyzing the community
thank you
[Applause]
Patricia I'm going to invite you to
either watch the video at the end of
this meeting during the council comments
or contact mayorprotem there is
something that we're that the city
manager has we're going to be doing for
the downtown area because of the tid
it's a very specialized funding source
so please stay tuned thank you
okay we're a throw 81 8th row now we're
gonna go to the ninth row
ninth row
one two four six
thank you
a little short
hello everybody my name is Giselle Nance
this is my first council meeting and I
want to thank everybody I'm here because
of Johanna Ben Como saw your posting
yesterday on the one who messaged you in
support of women too because of what
what's going on but I'm also here to
thank you all for of course your great
job but as a mother too because I'm
volunteering now as a community leader
and I wanted to make sure what's going
on in schools as a parent
I have grown children which I'm just
heard a parent out there saying about
our schools I'm very sorry what he
thinks about our school's districts I've
been here only for 23 years I have grown
children that they did go to somewhat
you know impoverished schools but they
all graduated from NMSU I have a son
that is in intelligence and one that
just graduated and he has autism with
his PhD well is about with his PhD in
history and in linguistics and he's with
a current program to try to get a job
with DVR so there is things out there
for our children I don't come from a you
know I'm a middle class mom and I
believe it or not I was a novice and
then I became a mom so I know that there
is programs for our children now my
reason that I'm here is I know that we
come from divided in different political
views and I don't think we should maybe
come together as a community I know we
have a lot of issues going in our
community but we have a lot of hate
going on maybe we come together and
instead of attacking our Council maybe
let's work together in the community
instead of bashing each other what's
wrong what's this I welcome to come into
Cafe New Mexico organized and maybe
become leaders and we can fix the
communities together you're talking to
them I mean you know come together in
the community and I welcome you to come
into New Mexico Cafe and we can work
together we're bipartisan
we can do things together in the
community because I do it voluntarily
and I get out there and do things it
does you don't have to like I say
bipartisan instead of complaining let's
do something about it together
thank you that was all
okay anyone else on Eighth row
ninth row
anyone else on my left oh yes please if
if you we still have a few more speakers
on my left please
find your way
to the front please
okay
hello my name is Linda Sanchez and I
just bought some property on mesquite
screen and
I would love to see
the historical Mesquite District blossom
a few of us
attended the MRA meetings we haven't
heard much more about it
and so
would it be possible that we could raise
our Mesquite District that has they're
calling as an art and Cultural District
just as the main street
um was raised there was incentives put
out for artists and it's it's a
beautiful venue a Plaza
and I I would like incentives for
artists uh in the Mesquite District
um
Cassandra gandera
talked about a possible
um
historical renovation on property I
guess the city owns
and that could be turned into an
artist's residency or artists homes or
you know where art could flourish
and beautify the Mesquite District we
have Klein Park
but you can drive along Mesquite Street
and you see that there there you know
some of the residencies and and art
galleries we need help we really do so
I'm just asking you do not forget the
historic Mesquite District I think we've
been passed by
so I think it's our turn to to get some
help
thank you
okay this gentleman yes right
hello I am wasinke I'm a star Kaizen
beminde
and okay I'm here excuse me sir forgive
me but can you spell your first name
please
w-a-w-a-c-i-n-c-i-n-q-u-e-q-u-e that's
pretty cool yeah can you spell your last
name b-e-b-e-m-e-n-m-e-n-d-e-d-e
it sounds like it was like really long
like mine but okay good thank you
absolutely I'm here to share
some good news
the city council has an initiative to
increase Community prosperity
NMSU just opened a financial Innovation
lab
in my company I am a retired military
and a new entrepreneur
so my company is a part of the first
cohort
and we have
created Financial leads or lead which
stands for leadership in economic
empowerment design
we have two products
these products have been evaluated by
the National Labs in a program called
nmsba or New Mexico small business
assistance where we had on our team
economists and scientists
this financial Innovation lab is open to
community members of not only Las Cruces
but El Paso and Juarez so that makes
this initiative an international
initiative and the reason why that's
important is the United Nations has as
its number one sustainable developmental
goal
to end generational poverty
our design can can facilitate that
process
what's also important is timing 60 60
years ago this year a book was written
the other America and an article The
Invisible poor that inspired
President Kennedy to launch what we now
know as the war on poverty since the Las
Cruces City Council already has a
initiative in place and I especially
love a goal number 10 which is to create
an office of wealth building
so we're offering our skills knowledge
and insight to help
the Las Cruces City Council
but also we're focusing on from
Lordsburg to Van Horn in terms of we we
will launch a pilot
and includes Van Horn to Lordsburg
thank you thank you very much
congratulations as well
okay so that's it on my left so now I'm
going to go to my right and start with
the first row anyone
okay please
hello mayor and city council my name is
Nicole Jordan and I am the brand
advocate for high horse cannabis company
and as part of the Cannabis industry I
would like to say to the community and
that we reside with the concerns of
cannabis use and the youth
we
believe that responsible dispensaries
set the standard such as us by following
a seat to sale program known as biotrack
many dispensaries use this program and
it's a way of tracking from the moment
it leaves a farm to the moment it hits
the shelves and leaves into the hands of
our customers
with that comes a proper
checking of IDs and things like this
medical cards and we believe that
responsible dispensaries
are not actually the ones causing the
problem of giving youth cannabis 200 age
this is why we believe that working with
the community and giving educational
workshops to not only
our customers but also parents on how
they can approach the topic of cannabis
use within the youth or if they have
some questions on they saw this product
maybe what is this they want to educate
themselves on what it looks like it's
important to also educate the parents so
they can pass along the proper
information to their children
we have also built the reputation of
working with Community like I said which
we believe brings safety we have opened
up a location in South Valley which has
a population of the unhoused which
can sometimes be misconstrued if you're
not familiar with the area we work in
the area and we have brought safety to
the neighbors we have talked to them and
they're happy that there's lights and
motion going on in those neighborhoods
where usually it was dark and there was
drug use going on so that's one way that
we have brought safety into the
neighborhood another way has been by
walking the neighborhoods in future
locations such as Maine and there we
talk to every single resident in that
neighborhood that will open up in and we
received positive feedback on us opening
because it'll be so close to them
and there we also saw a house that has
been seemingly abandoned and we plan on
becoming involved with the community and
fixing up things that we can so like we
said we can bring safety to not only the
community but the youth
and lastly to close off I would like to
say thank you to city council and mayor
for always listening and taking the time
to meet with the community and as
somebody who attended an all-girl school
I would like to say that I admire the
fierce example of leadership that the
women in this Council have provided
because it's because of you that I feel
inspired to be able to come up and talk
about the things that I'm passionate
about thank you
[Applause]
super quiet my name is Chad Lozano I've
spoken here many times uh mayor I'm
sorry again what was your name Chad
Lozano yeah
I got a lot of crap for the first name
um especially in the Cannabis industry
um thank you all for uh being here again
and uh mayor thank you for your long
service to the city and the state you
know it's you know it's been amazing
women of the city council thank you
again you know for doing the amazing job
that you all have been and it's not an
easy job you know I'm hearing today you
know just some of the stuff that you
guys go through on a daily basis and I
can't thank you enough anyway I'm here
today to talk about cannabis in schools
I've been a part of New Mexico's
cannabis industry since 2013. I've been
an advocate I've been a part of leading
the way in the State trying to get you
know legalization I run a podcast called
ask Chad grassy logic I really Embrace
that Chat thing and
um I really drive on education and
trying to get the community involved and
trying to ensure that we kill this
stigma on cannabis and kids getting
cannabis inside of the schools is
something that I touch on you know quite
a bit and also parents needed to speak
to their kids about cannabis I even had
my father on fairly recently and he was
a teacher in Alamogordo for over 20
years and um we discussed this all the
time and you know his 20-something years
as a teacher he only encountered it
about 15 times kids bring in a you know
cannabis to school or getting caught
with cannabis and even I remember having
cannabis in school or that being an
issue but for him you know the issue for
them was alcohol and really not cannabis
and he only retired a couple of years
ago and that's one thing that we really
need to look back to is you know these
kids not just get cannabis they get
other things too and it is alarming that
you know they are getting cannabis but
as Nicole said you know through legal
means isn't really where they're getting
it from and my father even said this
himself a lot of the times majority of
the time about 99 of the time they get
it from a family member either it's
giving it to them or if there was no
permission given just the same thing
same way with alcohol and I think there
just needs to be an initiative when it
comes to parents and I'll leave you on
this it's 420 do you know where your
kids are thank you
thank you
anyone else on the first oh that's at
the first row second row
good afternoon my name is Henry young
I've been here before but today ignore
my shirt I'm not here to speak about the
mission
but I want to address you about
something different thank you mayor city
manager and city council especially my
council person Becky Graham
um
I'm here to talk to you about Senior
Olympics and I've seen several seniors
in the audience today some have left
but I have
an issue that I want to
bring to your attention
in Las Cruces we are the only senior
citizen group in the entire state that
is self-supporting
Dona Ana County Senior Olympics has been
doing this for years the mayor knows
because his father was part of Senior
Olympics many years ago
we are the only one who is a non-profit
that is not supported in the state
either by a city entity County entity or
a tribal group
and we are running out of money
we probably can only
continue self-supporting
for this year and maybe part of next
year
so what I'm doing is asking the council
will take up the mantle and we can talk
I'll be able to to give you a proposal I
also want to go to the county
there are no joint entities also in the
state where the city and the county
jointly support Senior Olympics
but I would be willing to do that also
we would have a very modest budget
for an entire year of approximately
twenty thousand dollars
because we do have
when we produce the games everyone
everyone pays a fee
we don't have to maintain an office year
round although I would like to because
we go through a group called few sport
to even sign up for the Olympic games
that we do locally
this year I went out and garnered some
support
from Independent Insurance Agents and
United Healthcare
but I think I would want the city to
back us
and provide some of this
therefore if we can work together I'd be
glad to come to a work session present a
proposal whatever you need but that is
what I really want to do
thank you
thank you thank you Henry
anyone else on the second row
yes ma'am
good afternoon
[Music]
good afternoon my name is Roberta Graham
hey Roberta hi
hello to all of you
um I wanted just to give
I left here three years ago
uh on the infamous day of July 29 2019
and I started looking for Real Estate
the minute I sold my house to come back
to New Mexico
because I missed Las Cruces and New
Mexico and my friends here
so very much
uh I am back
at the good grace of my friends who
welcomed me into their homes
and I'm looking for Real Estate
I want to come back to Las Cruces
biggest mistake I made was to leave Las
Cruces
and so my purpose in coming up to you
today is to say thank you
I was here from 2004 until the end of
July 2019
and I loved every minute of it I became
very involved in the community I served
on the Planning and Zoning commission
I volunteered I'd engage
and a number of other organizations
and so I want to thank you for all of
your hard work I've known quite a number
of you both in the council and with the
Planning and Zoning commission and I've
never once met someone on either of
these panels who was self-serving
you work extremely hard you're extremely
dedicated and I love you all and I love
the city of Las Cruces thank you
Roberta it's good to see you back I'm
glad that you uh you know came home
you know you look familiar when I was
looking at you but I just couldn't place
it so that's great I said you look
familiar but I couldn't place it and
then when you yeah oh okay I got you
good good to see you anyone else on that
second row
just checking
good afternoon mayor city council my
name is Jennifer Garcia Kozlowski I am
the executive director for the downtown
Las Cruces partnership and we actually
do have an Arts and Cultural District
that we oversee as well so I would like
you guys to go to our website to check
that out but that's another part of this
conversation I did want to come here
today to talk to you all about how
grateful we are for our partnership with
the city council and let you know that
dlcp has been working with LCPD as well
as mayor Pro tem Gandara in regards to
creating a proactive downtown business
watch group
we stood this up a couple months ago
it's not very big yet but we've had a
few business owners that wanted to be
proactive in the matter of the situation
of home the unhoused mental illness and
other issues that we may see in downtown
and understanding that these are not all
one thing we have set up a Discord
account and with the help of Scott
Johnson of rad he's graciously offered
to help put this group together so if
there's any businesses within the
downtown in the Arts and Cultural
District that are interested in being a
part of this group please reach out to
me at director
dlcp.org the idea of this group is to
help protect each other to help build up
our community of businesses our downtown
is getting bigger and better but is
still in a fragile place so every day we
want to make sure that we're helping our
Merchants the big thing that we are
trying to do in this is educate our
Merchants to use the light program and
LC cares and one last thing I would like
to say as it comes as it's easy to come
to these Chambers and create division
it's important to leave our anger behind
and to have a meaningful conversation
about all of the issues before us if we
have we the people at one end we
definitely need we the people at the
other so I thank you again city council
for your partnership and all the work
that you do to keep us going thank you
thank you
[Applause]
hi my name is Lucas Hernan I live in
District Two
um jumped up a little bit I have to go
get my daughter from school
she's a middle schooler here in town and
she's had a great education just like
her old man who also is a product of Las
Cruces Public Schools so I just want to
say that
um I mostly came here today to say thank
you to this amazing body who has
continued to make Las Cruces an amazing
place to live and raise my family and do
my business and
um just wanted a flag that my uncles
just moved here after spending their
whole lives in California they
love love it here and they wanted to
move here and they sold their home and
said goodbye to all their friends and
they moved here to Las Cruces because
that's how much this place means to
their family which is me
um and that's mostly all I wanted to say
but some of the things that I've heard
that do have some potential practical
Solutions uh brought up by folks that
maybe aren't as supportive or are
unhappy with this body
um I attended the Las Cruces uh
Neighborhood Academy later neighborhood
Leadership Academy in 2017 and it was
great we spent 15 weeks learning about
every Department in the city we went and
visited those departments specifically
somebody earlier was talking about the
roads and it is very easy to be
frustrated about Road situations not
only here but in any municipality
anywhere in the world because asphalt is
a terrible material that we use to pave
our roads because we're a car Centric
Society
um
the the metrics though that the that the
roads Department here in the city uses
is Top Notch it's very scientific you
all have a very expensive machine that
measures these things and uh takes data
about how which road isn't under what
condition and there's a whole graph
about if a road should be repaved or
redone and I found that all fascinating
I didn't know all that stuff and I think
a lot of people don't right um because
we all have lives to live and we're very
busy so um I would encourage the city to
look at reintroducing the neighborhood
Leadership Academy and especially for
folks who don't understand how sometimes
these things work
um it was great it was a really really
cool opportunity to learn how these
decisions are made
um not at this level because you all are
an elected uh body who do business like
this and not the workers who make these
decisions on the ground day in day out
getting to meet those people and and the
supervisors and the engineers who make
those decisions I think that helps clear
up a lot of the issues that we have so
thank you for the time thank you for all
the work you do please keep it up we all
support you thanks
thank you okay that was second row third
row anyone
well is there still some oh okay uh
excuse I'm sorry sir nervous I apologize
no I apologize
[Music]
hello Council my name is Susan Cabello I
am the director of the Las Cruces Arts
and Cultural District
um Jennifer Kozlowski and I are fresh
back from Boston we were invited to
speak at the National Conference this
year a few highlights of our
presentation it started as a question
and maybe a riddle we did our community
survey we expected that safety was going
to be the biggest concern that people
had about not wanting to return downtown
more we found that that wasn't true that
people when considering coming downtown
more wanted more dining wanted more
retail and more entertainment
we are not minimizing the problem of
safety downtown
we started this last April kind of This
research project in September I had an
incident that many of you know about
because I've talked about it several
times where my backpack was stolen at
the library by an unhoused person I
chased that person down I did everything
that we are not we tell people not to do
and it was a really traumatizing
experience and not to be flippant but I
still think I have a little bit of
Library PTSD every time I go over there
so
um we were when talking about this when
thinking about it we really came to the
conclusion that narrative matters
um that we are the stories that we tell
and for us we really want to be sure
that we highlight
um the stories of our businesses of our
people of our arts and culture of
everything that makes Las Cruces
wonderful because I feel like that is
all downtown not that it's not in other
parts of the city but I feel like we are
a tub so
um our research project kind of
concluded that although these incidents
of crime and vandalism and these other
situations are extremely traumatic and
we live them over and over in our minds
and they have a real intensity when we
speak about them
that we don't want that to become a
self-fulfilling prophecy for downtown we
don't want to speak that into existence
that downtown is a place that is
dangerous or unsafe
also that we feel that that all of this
discussion about safety although it is
very important also kind of distracts us
from the barriers we know that
businesses have which is access to
Capital access to the workforce access
the physical space and access to
education
thank you
okay anyone else on the second row all
right thank you sir I appreciate it oh
Mr Goodman
he wouldn't have called me so yeah but I
called you sir
well I confess I am Peter Goodman uh and
I guess I go back a long ways too
because I started as a reporter covering
the city council in February of 1974
uh whenever that was but I've heard a
lot of wonderful things today I thought
Lynn Moore or Abraham Sanchez
Earl Nissan
said great things I was going to be here
anyway
um
because I wanted to urge you again as
Bobby green did earlier and Liz and Earl
to set a work session to really look at
the issue of a citizen's police
oversight committee and police
accountability and really taking honest
look so I do hope you do that then I
heard some things about the last meeting
I watched the video I talked to one of
the conservative gentlemen
[Music]
um
and I wanted to be here both to express
my support of U.S people and as
Commissioners even though we obviously
disagree at times I mean I don't even
agree with myself all the time but
um also wanted to hear what would go on
uh heard a couple of stupid things such
as the idea that you guys follow your
private interests the whole Squaw
Mountain Drive renaming whether you like
it or not that's not you guys lining
your pockets or following your private
interests that's differing opinions
about a public issue and the idea that
only the people live there should say
that should have a say in it is idiotic
I mean if it were inward Avenue
nobody would say that oh well so it
offends other people I live there I get
to decide I don't think so
um
I I like hearing what I heard of the
possibility that you Ms gondura
councilor ganderer may meet with some of
the conservatives who've been critical I
had been thinking I wanted to invite
some of you and some of them onto our
radio show for a nice collegial
discussion and I'm not going to ask you
right now but keep it in mind I was
really sorry to hear hear William Norris
sorry he's so full of hatred in the name
of Jesus of all things
his faith resembles that of the Taliban
and Osama Bin Laden and if he thinks we
should be ashamed of helping Texas so
victims of Texas's
laws well then I guess we can't help
people in the Ukraine who get victimized
by by
Putin either but uh
I'm in favor of it and I'm in favor of
you guys I just hope you do have that
work session soon thank you Peter
third row anyone
foreign
good afternoon counselors mayor and city
manager my name is Rob wood wow I'm
really impressed for a little while
there because I thought this was a
meeting of the progressive voter
Alliance and judging by where Senator
Souls is sitting he's going to make the
closing argument but that's not why I'm
here
a little over a year ago I wrote the
mayor offering criticism as well as
suggestions regarding our homeless
situation he wrote back inviting me to
join a community homeless task force to
investigate the situation seeing this is
a great opportunity to learn more from a
more in-depth perspective I yearly
volunteered
the committee never had more than a
handful of participants of which it
appears I am the only one still actively
pursuing the community involvement
it appears that the others abandoned the
group once their personal issues were
corrected or felt a futility in it I did
not abandon it because issues issue goes
far beyond what is just behind our yards
I want to take this opportunity to thank
Mr Mayor and city manager pili for
addressing the negative situation
brought to light by two of our
participants evolving in the eBid ditch
road that runs behind their homes
between Brown Road and Avenue day
Messiah the exact remedial projects
agreed upon which the mayor with the
mayor were completed and I hope it
alleviated their problem
the next comment I wish to make is an
addition to Fred Huff's story that he
regarding at burn Lake
I was present at that threatening
confrontation he had with the burned
Lake homeless or unhoused or just plain
simply vagrants we encountered I did not
mention this to him at the time but as
he and his home were being threatened
standing behind the tent was another
person brandishing a pitchfork I didn't
say anything at the time because I did
not want to create a more worry more
worry regarding he and his wife's safety
but now feel that the public should be
aware that there are people living on
our streets willing to do them harm
thank you I hope you're listening
wanted just to also add that Council
Urban Como who was very supportive of
Defense on the eBid and we now it's her
district and we appreciate her support
as well
okay so third that's still a third row
anyone else yes
hello council members my name is Amanda
Varela and I have met a wonderful couple
of you and would like to present today
the trichome alliance we are a cannabis
uh non-profit that has just been formed
to Branch together the Cannabis
businesses along with Community leaders
and the community themselves to educate
as we have spoken about today about the
education of our children and how we can
better instill what they are needing
rather than what we are finding is a
reaction to issues and problems we do
recognize that there is a lot of
Education that needs to happen along
with the development of programs to
acknowledge when there are issues coming
up with children in school and what I'd
like to present today is the opportunity
for any of you who would like to speak
with us in the trichome alliance to
further educate yourselves along with
the opportunity to get together with any
of the board members of the school
districts to speak along with the
businesses in the Cannabis industry so
that we can achieve the goals to make
sure that the kids and in the in the
community are not having access to
cannabis in a way that is detrimental to
their futures
thank you for your time
thank you
that sounded like a golfer's clap
my name is Daniel Varela thank you for
having me before you mayor city manager
council members and the administration
as well as the protective offices
I am here to essentially represent
botanics which is a class for cannabis
manufacturing company
it is our precedence essentially to give
you a little bit of History I'm a CEO of
the company I am also an engineer and a
biochemist so it is no longer the the
hippies that you're used to out there
you know creating these products and so
forth we are a science driven and
science based company unlike a lot of
the other manufacturers that are out
there
we strive on a daily basis to provide a
cleaner process to use cannabis products
that is where you get concentrates your
vaporized products and so forth we
remove impurities that can cause
carcinogen problems in your lungs and
and other you know Health detriment
problems we remove the pesticides
poisons and other things that were found
in the product on a production level and
that have not been educated to be
removed from these products we find that
it is an important thing that we also
educate from a production level all the
way through to an end user level so that
we can make these products safer for the
human consumption and remove the ability
to um you know intoxicate ourselves with
poisonous chemicals and and things that
are not found that the Cannabis product
can be useful essentially there are
things that have been found to be useful
for Humanity in the Cannabis product and
that's what we have come to to create
and to
um concentrate so that we can have these
products more readily available smoking
flour should be the least option that is
used and it is still the number one
option that is used for consuming these
products the less that we can get people
to smoke anything whether it be tobacco
or cannabis the better Human Society
will be
botanics as a company as a female owned
company that's owner or the president is
a biologist so it's not just a bottom
line
and I follow that leader to with
integrity
we will strive to bring the community
the best products that are out there we
will label them the best way that we can
so that we can keep them preventatively
away from children and the company also
stands behind the trichome alliance and
we will fund this Alliance so that we
can better educate the entire community
on the best practices to use cannabis
and to keep it out of the hands of our
children thank you
okay it sounds that was the third row
anyone else fourth row now
yes
good afternoon I shouldn't take this off
good afternoon my name is Nia Rucker I'm
the policy Council and regional manager
of the American civil liberties Union
I'm sorry can you state your name one
more time please Mia
and as a Nancy IA Rucker r-u-c-k-e-r
okay thank you uh with the American
civil liberties Union of New Mexico the
mission of the ACLU of New Mexico is to
protect and Advance Justice Liberty and
equality as guaranteed by the
Constitutions of New Mexico and the
United States
as an organization we are disturbed by
the hateful attacks on the Las Cruces
City council members
to be clear disagreement with policy
proposals and decisions the council
makes is an important part of our
Democratic process and something the
ACLU encourages and supports
however threats and personal attacks
against our city council members do not
fit our New Mexico values of treating
people with kindness and respect and
only erode the foundation of our
community and our democracy
we can and we should disagree with our
elected officials when we feel strongly
we can also vote against them we can run
against them that is the beauty of our
process
the solutions to our City's problems
will not come from hostility but from
respectful collaboration and discussions
with our elected leaders
the ACLU is grateful for the work of
each of our counselors here today not
because we agreed on everything but
because we know that our strength as a
community exists because you are here
participating in a process that is vital
to our continued success progress thank
you
anyone else on the fourth row
fifth row
Senator Hamblin okay
I'll still need you to state your name
even though I called you okay
fine with that
honorable mayor and Council my name is
Carrie Hamblin and I'm humbled to serve
as a state senator for district 38.
as the first out lesbian to represent
District 38 in Southern New Mexico in
the Senate I am reminded every day about
the importance of representation in
public office
so today is we've heard some uninformed
rhetoric from petite Richards I would
like to remind you of the many women
before you in our history as a democracy
who have weathered the same treatment
and yet continue to lead with dedication
and passion for the betterment of our
communities and their communities
women of color have always been at the
Forefront of social movements throughout
history I'm not saying anything that you
all don't understand and know but I
would like it for the record we've
witnessed racial Injustice to economic
inequality to reproductive health and
often dealing with the condescending
explanation of something to us that even
though we've already understand the
issue and most likely lived it
experienced it and fought against it
think of Rosa Parks who in 1955 became a
powerful symbol for the American Civil
Rights Movement when she refused to give
a Pursuit on the bus to a white
passenger
take Ruby nail Bridges Hall
we may be more familiar with her as we
either witnessed her or saw that
incredible photo of her in our history
books not all history books but some as
the first African-American child to
desegregate the all-white William Franz
Elementary School in Louisiana during
the New Orleans School desegregation
crisis in November of 1960.
and then I think of Sylvia Rivera and
Marsha P Johnson who were
self-identified drag performers in
Greenwich Village and instrumental
leaders in the 1969 Stonewall uprisings
the beginning of the gay rights movement
and in the 1970s Native Americans were
engaged in a series of protests against
the American government over broken
treaties and colonial policies that
affect native communities even to this
day and it was during this time that
Mary braverd a sikangu Lakota teenager
through her protests that included the
Wounded Knee occupation that increased
awareness about the plight of Native
Americans
as leaders in the community you stand on
the shoulders of these and countless
other women who have dealt with personal
attacks threats and questioning of their
integrity and yet because of them our
world has begun to move past the status
quo and towards a more representative
society and are we there yet no
but I know I can feel a little more
protected a little more heard and a
little more effective in getting us
toward a more just and Equitable city
and state and I have you to thank for it
so keep it up
you have more support than you do
opposition and I ask you to remind
yourselves of our four mothers who have
given us the strength the resiliency and
The Sisterhood to withstand anything
thank you
thank you senator
anyone else on the fifth row
hello Mr Mayor members of the council my
name is Naomi Valdez
um I am the director of public policy
for the American civil liberties Union
of New Mexico but today I'm here to
speak purely in my personal capacity
because I am very proud to be from Las
Cruces
um yeah
uh I am I am a mother of two queer
children in the public school system I
am a homeowner I am a taxpayer and I
have had the privilege of doing policy
work all around the state and even
nationally to some extent and here's
what I can say the work that is done in
this room requires Nuance it requires
commitment to do and say hard things in
moments where people feel scared and
want to resort to what we've done and
guess what if what we had done had
worked we wouldn't be dealing with these
problems now so criminalizing the
unhoused further criminalizing poverty
um you know more police when what we
need is investment is not going to solve
our issue so I want to thank you for
being my city council and being willing
to do the hard things it's not always
easy but we deeply appreciate it and we
do see it thank you
thank you
of course good afternoon Mr mayor
council uh my name is Israel Chavez I
was born and raised here in Las Cruces
area my great great grandfather actually
was born in the house behind Branigan
right there and was raised by a single
mother in this community and I just want
to express my heartfelt uh gratitude for
this Council for leading on issues like
zero fares for understanding that
um
families come in all shapes and sizes
and and for enduring a very small but
vocal group who has plenty of opinions
but frankly doesn't represent uh the
folks who can who have been here for
Generations longer than that even for
other for some families and I want to
encourage the council to look at issues
of collaboration because I know a lot of
these challenges that folks are
describing don't rest solely on the
shoulders of the city but we do see an
immense struggle among agencies like the
Messiah Valley public housing authority
the county and other agencies that seem
less willing and frankly less uh well
LED as the city and and I want to thank
you for the work you do to lead on
issues and to really work to bring those
agencies who are less willing along with
you a great a stark example is you know
we have zero Affairs now and it's been
an incredible boost for families but
lcps doesn't and the bus schedules don't
work together so there are youth in this
community who take the city bus because
they cannot be forced to move uh when
they're when they're experiencing
homelessness but they can't get to
school on time because the buses and the
schools uh start times aren't the same
and so the more that we can see that
intergovernmental collaboration I think
is going to be incredibly important I
would also encourage the city to uh
start to see that we're growing Beyond I
think the model that we may have
employed for many years looking at
larger cities like Albuquerque who have
an office of neighborhood coordination
that is designed to support neighborhood
associations and then also I know you
all are working hard and you need staff
the the experiment of government is that
the legislative branch and the executive
branch should be
co-equal but separate branches and and
and I think it works best when the when
the city moves to that model as it grows
and I don't I don't think it's fair that
you all have to spend so much of your
personal time trying to answer some of
the some of the frankly uh erroneous
questions that that get uh put your way
and so I want to encourage you to
consider staff for Council because I do
think that'll help with constituent
access and it'll also help keep the
executive accountable not that it isn't
but you know it's it's a long-term
sustainable process so thank you for
your work
thank you Israel okay that was fifth row
sixth row
Senator Souls I understand you're the
end of the speech
I said my friends not but
good afternoon mayor counselor manager
I'm Bill Soules state senator I
represent the East Mesa side of Las
Cruces and more I would came to talk
about the good things that happened up
in Santa Fe we've been back about two
weeks and I've pretty much fully
recovered it's nice to be back here
where the weather is warm the culture
and people are warm and things seem much
more normal than the craziness that we
have up at the legislative session first
the legislators the local legislators
have brought back millions of dollars to
the city of Las Cruces in capital outlay
there's money at the airport there's
money for roads there's money for parks
and other communities lots and lots of
good things that happened during this
legislative session that directly affect
the city also very proud of other things
that we accomplished up there including
support for our Public Schools support
for Behavioral and mental health for
voting rights for Women's Health and
other types of issues that matter to
everyone in these communities
mostly I would also like to talk about
how appreciative I am of you mayor and
this city council that is looking up and
out to what Las Cruces can be in the
future and making those things happen
and really trying to improve the quality
of life for all people within this
community recognizing that what we do
for the least Among Us helps all of us
live a better life and so thank you for
what you do for sitting through hours
and hours of public testimony today and
for all the support that you have and I
hope that it continues I'm very proud
and in Santa Fe regularly we got to hear
about comments that what are you all
doing down there in Las Cruces there's
so many good things happening down there
how do we get our communities to start
doing some of those same things so thank
you again for everything that you do and
again I think it'll play out but the
legislative session was very good and
effective for the city of Los thank you
okay so anyone else on the sixth row
seventh eighth ninth row 10th no I'm
just kidding so we're at the Salmon
throw no one on Seventh rows at 8th row
mayor Pro tem Emeritus Thomas
did you just get here or you sat through
the whole thing
I know I saw you back there I was just
checking to see if they were paying
attention
since I was a city councilor once I
don't know about these meetings and how
long they are so
so yes I'm Sharon Thomas
during the past couple weeks there have
been a discussion on a local
neighborhood let's serve about the
behavior of our city councilors he
started under this topic the arrogance
and disrespect shown by our city
councilors at yesterday's meeting was
appalling according to most of the
people on this particular Topic City
councilors are social Warriors they're
bringing disasters to our community
their work needs to be stopped they
should be immediately removed and on and
on what are these people so upset about
they didn't like the removal of a term
that was part of the name of a street
and we've all heard what it means I'll
just refer again to secretary Debbie
Halen that the term squash historically
been used as an offensive ethnic racial
and sexist slur currently there are 228
480 populations in New Mexico 10 percent
of our population that use of that term
is offensive to a significant number of
people it's so offensive it's been
removed from scores of towns roads Parks
mountains across the country so it's not
about whether or not you person
personally find the word offensive a
whole lot of people find it offensive
it's like the n-word and as Peter talked
about a whole lot of people find that
word offensive so we mostly don't use it
and we certainly don't use it to name
streets the same is true of the word
Squaw a lot of people find it offensive
a whole lot so let's not be using it
let's be respectful of those people and
let's not offend them with the cruel
offensive ethnic racial and sexist slur
our counselors did the right thing and
then there's the constant referring
connecting Progressive with socialists
against all of you I'm extremely
offended by that there are two fully
socialist companies in the world Russia
and China I don't think any of our
counselors are pushing our to become
that five years a daughter you go my
daughter and her wife yes she's a
lesbian and their children yes they're
multiracial move to Costa Rica over the
past five years they've watched with
escalating fear the cunt what the
conservatives are doing to this country
the anti-gay movement legislation
against AIDS since so far in 2003 more
than 650
anti-lgbtq bills have been introduced in
46 States talk about social Warriors and
you know what now my daughter and her
family they're never coming back
please hear what I have to say due to
the the conservative movement in this
country and their hateful rhetoric
against Case and and my daughter and her
family are never coming back
I'm tired of don't say gay I'm tired of
to prevent people from color from of
color from voting I'm tired of
replacement ideology and I'm tired of
unwarranted attacks on my city council
I'm tired I'm tired I'm tired and my
daughter and her family are never coming
back
thank you
so that was a seventh row anyone else on
some throw
I ate last row anyone else on the right
okay well well yes Lisa
come on down
I apologize in advance for my scratchy
throat
dear Mary Council my name is Lisa
Parrott and I'm here to talk about
priorities
my husband and I live in Council
District Six and have been residents of
Las Cruces since early August 1997. due
to a defense industry layoff in Bristol
Tennessee our family had to relocate
three times to three states in four and
a half years when we arrived here
in all these relocations we spent a lot
of time researching the city's purchased
our homes and then proceeded to sell all
but the current one we're living in now
had we not done our due diligence going
in we could not have done this in such a
short time
street names were an integral part of
our decision-making process when we
purchased our homes our home in Las
Cruces was built on possibly another
objectionable Street Cherokee Circle
Cherokee Circle adjoins possibly another
from Jacksonville Street Cheyenne Drive
we did not purchase a home on a street
when we were looking in all those cities
on A Street Houston we did not care for
and then demand that the city and the
residents who are already living there
change their existing street main name
to suit us we simply kept looking until
we found a home we thought was a good
investment and fit for our family's
needs on a street name that we liked and
then we bought it
have you
thought about the Practical aspects that
changing someone's street name will have
an impact on their life how many
entities will they have to contact for
this one decision there's 9-1-1 city
services voter registrations driver's
licenses car titles the IRS the New
Mexico Department of Taxation their
house of worship the Postal Service
banks other financial institutions
Social Security Administration Veterans
Administration CYFD their children's
schools and colleges medical providers
credit card companies insurance
companies utility companies online
Merchants local businesses family
members and friends even Google
navigation services on your cell phone
won't be correct then
what gives you the right to say that
because someone might possibly object to
the name of the street that we City
residents your constituents who choose
to invest our lives and our family's
fortunes who support this city who pay
real estate taxes on our properties why
do we have to upend our lives because
someone somewhere else doesn't like the
name of the street we chose to live on
the last time I looked no one is being
forced to live on Squaw Mountain Drive
Cherokee Circle Cheyenne Drive or any
other potentially objectionable Street
in the city against their will in my
humble opinion you should instead be
seriously concerned with the crime and
drug-ridden plywood covered closed
businesses cart shopping cart Strone
organized panhandling on every corner
human trafficking trash covered sorry
thank you sir and appreciate your time
okay all right well this concludes our
public participation I have to say it
was very Lively and Unforgettable so
that's good
top 10 in my 16 years as mayor
top ten okay so now we're gonna go to
motion to accept agenda
so moved Graham second Aveda motion made
by Council Graham second by counselor
beta Christine
this is an emotion to accept the agenda
as presented councilor beta yes
councilor Graham yes cancer Ben Comal
yes councilor Koran yes councilor Flores
yes councilor Gandara yes mayor yes
okay first item 7.1 resolution 23-111
move to approve Graham second
I made my Council Graham second by
councilor beta
so as you know we have a vacancy in
Municipal Court number two and a
gentleman by the name of Anthony F
philosa who I see here in the audience
did you if you're welcome to come
forward here Mr felosa
I I have to tell you for you to sit
through this for three hours it says a
lot about you so that either you don't
have a job or no I'm just kidding no can
you tell us a little bit about yourself
I know you work for the public defenders
and you have a very varied background
and I think I saw you stand up as a
veteran as well so thank you for your
service thank you uh Mr Mayor honorable
members of the city council I'm Anthony
filosa
from the area grew up in in Truth or
Consequences
a product of the Truth or Consequences
public education system went to
New Mexico State University
while at New Mexico State University I
participated in the New Mexico Army ROTC
program
upon graduation received a commission
into the United States Army as a second
Lieutenant went into the Texas National
Guard my civilian job took me into Texas
very shortly thereafter after completing
some necessary army training I deployed
to Iraq in 2010 I was there for the
majority of 2010
Upon returning to
New Mexico I applied for and was
accepted into law school at the
University of New Mexico School of Law
graduated in 2013
while attending law school I was still
part of the New Mexico National Guard
um went to law school to help people
represent people advocate for people
um
my desire was to join the public
defender's office
which in New Mexico we're very fortunate
that we have a Statewide Public
Defender's Office
my desire was to be here in Las Cruces
this was home to me this is close to
family
however a lot of people wanted to be
here and there was no opening so I went
into the eastern part of the state the
ninth Judicial District in in curry and
Roosevelt counties cut my teeth as an
attorney there as a defense attorney
worked there for about two and a half
years as soon as
an opening
was was when there was an opening here
in Las Cruces public defender's office I
immediately applied was fortunate enough
to get the opportunity and so I've been
back in Las Cruces
at the public defender's office now
known as the New Mexico Law Office of
the public defender since 2017 I just
reached six years here in Dona Ana
County
um
I've the last three years I've been a
managing attorney at the public
defender's office
and I've handled cases stemming from
traffic tickets up to first degree
felonies I've conducted jury trials I've
learned a lot from the phenomenal judges
that we have not only in the donana
County Magistrate Court but the state
district court and I've and I've
appeared routinely in front of them and
handled hundreds of cases
I'm greatly honored to even be in
consideration for this position
I believe the Municipal Court serves a
important role in this community
I believe I would
if if approved would be able to accept
that challenge I know
my experiences I have seen great judges
operate in
magistrate court and district court and
I believe
that that I would I would be able to to
accept that challenge
um
my wife who couldn't be here today
because she's taking care of our
beautiful two-year-old daughter we love
this community we love Las Cruces she's
a life long resident
I'm almost a lifelong resident I was
born at Memorial Medical Center but but
grew up in Truth or Consequences so uh
I'm elated just to be in consideration
of this position I would
be very grateful for the opportunity to
continue my service to the citizens of
the city of Las Cruces in the capacity
of municipal judge two
and I pledged that I would work hard
every day and show up and and treat
people with fairness and dignity that is
required by by a judge and and handle
cases in a fair and just Manner and
thank you for your consideration
thank you Mr felosa I think you come
from a long line of attorneys your
father attorney your grandfather also an
attorney again my condolences I
understand he passed away
um
you saw this was what you you've what
you heard today and we didn't plan it
this way okay this is what you would be
dealing with if the council chooses to
appoint you you're good with that
I would be good with that yes yeah I
have to I have to tell you something
I've never I judge goldbaum has never
texted me before and she says please let
me know when Mr flosa's start date is
and to let him know that the mandatory
Municipal Court training is May 3rd
through the 5th and you need to register
for it in Albuquerque thank you so I'm
not saying that that's an endorsement
but she's never texted me before so
that's pretty cool
so if you have any questions to ask of
Mr felosa I I just I don't have a
question I just want to say thank you
for being here I really appreciate you
coming in and showing interest and
caring about being in this position and
I also want to thank you mayor for for
bringing Mr felosa here and putting
thought into this and including the
things I know have been critical of this
process in the past so I really
appreciate you bringing Mr philosophy
here thank you for being here thank you
thank you
thank you is that right Mr filosa yes
okay thank you I wasn't sure
um I just wanted to say thank you as
well for being interested and let you
know that you had very credible folks
from the community contact me with their
full endorsement of you so
um that that means a lot to to me that
folks were reaching out to let me know
that you would be good fit thank you
mayor councilor vincomo thank you for
that oh that's good sounds good sounds
pretty good so far any members of the
public wish to
have any questions or comments
oh this guy's trouble here I'm just
kidding I am uh and I'm still Peter
Goodman and I just want to quickly say
that I have heard good things about this
gentleman I think that judge goldbaum
will work well with him I think it's you
know I think he's had a good background
for the position
and I'll get time off
he's a he's an alternate judge when when
judge Obama lead goes out of town or
there's no municipal judge too so they
call on on alternative judges such as Mr
Goodman
anyone else
okay if there's no further I just wanted
to say oh
I just wanted to welcome you I think
that you'll bring a lot of
I think you'll bring you you bring a lot
to the bench given your background and
your presentation today is Taylor thank
you very much thank you mayor thank you
I don't know if you know the counselor
Flores is uh was an attorney retired
attorney so pretty tough pretty tough
cookie out here back in California
everywhere
oh it's still tough okay
all right if there's nothing further
Christine
this is an emotion to approve resolution
23-111 counselor beta yes
councilor Graham yes counselor Ben Comal
yes councilor Koran yes councilor Flores
yes councilor Gandara yes mayor yes
well congratulations Judge felosa you'll
get with HR and let them know when your
start date is and
see you on the bench well hopefully I
don't see you on the bench but mayor
council members thank you so much I I
really appreciate it now
like I've indicated I'll pledge to work
hard for the citizens of Las Cruces
thank you yes sir thank you
all right next time 7.2 resolution
23-112.
I need a motion a second
by plush made by councilor Graham second
by counselor Koran and De La Cruz will
be presenting
foreign
so today I have a resolution for you
which is to accept one state operating
Grant and two Foundation grants
so quality of life has been awarded two
Foundation grants the first is Mission
to Mars National site agreement
for seven thousand dollars
These funds will provide funding to
support the Museum of Nature and Science
and and its community-based partner
organizations to deliver Mission to Mars
programming around NASA's Artemis
mission to families and youth in grades
4th through eighth with emphasis on
marginalized populations in stem
the second award is for the FY 20
through 23 GSK science in the summer
program this is for nineteen thousand
five hundred dollars and the Museum of
Nature and Science staff will attend the
National Conference webinars and hire
trainers to present the GSK
science in the summer programming
between May and August of 23 to 800
youth within our community
and the last one we have here is for the
police department it is the law
enforcement retention fund for a hundred
thousand dollars and a hundred thousand
eight hundred and ninety six dollars and
the purpose of these funds are to
provide law enforcement retention
differential disbursements including
FICA and Medicare to Las Cruces public
I'm sorry Las Cruces Police Department
for qualifying officers
this did come from New Mexico Department
of Public Health I'm sorry New Mexico
Department of Public Safety and the
reversion date for this award is June
30th of 23.
and that's all I have for you this month
uh stand for questions along with staff
thank you the Departments thank you
questions
Mr Flores I'm sorry right this line
aside I couldn't see it really I'm
serious there you go
thank you so much
on
uh you did say that it was
the revenue and expenses and FICA and
that it was something from the state can
you please elaborate on exactly how
those funds are going to be implemented
councilor Florida's um I do know that
the funds will be used for some of the
benefits
so to subsidize the general fund but
perhaps truth Dominguez has a little
more insight on that
mayor concerts the the funds that we're
receiving are part of a house bill 68
they are intended to pay out to officers
with 5 10 15 and 20 years of service
they get five percent of their base pay
as the household States and the the
funding that we're that's that's
represented here is for that
thank you Chief and thank you thank you
counselor Flores thank you mayor anyone
else members of the public
okay see you none Christine
this is on the motion tip of resolution
23-112 counselor beta yes councilor
Graham yes councilor Ben Como yes
councilor Koran yes counselor Flores
yes councilor gandada yes mayor yes
thank you sure all right next item 7.3
resolution
23-113 move to approve Graham second
okay motion made by Council Graham
second by counselor beta and Leanne
Demus will be discussing
good afternoon mayor and counselors
Leanne Demers Finance director for the
record before you is the final product
for our general obligation bonds we're
bringing before you the budget
adjustment and the CIP so that way the
Departments can hit the road and start
working on these projects
a little bit of history on these 2023 go
bonds there was an issue amount of about
17 million dollars this is for the new
Fire Station facility the East Mesa
Public Recreation recreation facility
the park improvements the bonds were
sold in a competitive sale on February
28th they did go to the best bitter my
highest I should say but the best bitter
and the interest rate that we received
was 3.294 and afterwards we gave a big
weapon Yahoo that's we were very excited
about that interest rate
so this is your budget adjustment 30 uh
3510 is where we have our debt service
stored where we make our principal and
interest payment we do have to put a
little bit of percentage in there to
show that we have those funds available
when we need to make a principal and
interest payment for that Debt Service
the 4231 is where the capital funds will
be so that way the department can start
spending towards the fire facility the
park improvements in the East Mesa so as
you can see for the 17 million for the
bond proceeds they're divided up with
9.8 for the fire station
1.96 million for Park improvements 4.9
million for East Mesa Rec there is a two
percent for public art that was adopted
by Council through an ordinance about a
I want to say maybe a year and a half
ago I apologize I didn't go and research
that but that two pers two percent
equals about three hundred and forty
thousand dollars and then of course we
need some expense for our debt issuance
this is our go Bond CIP amendment I went
ahead and told Cynthia since I was
already up here I'd just go ahead and do
it for as you can see we're putting in
the go bond for the fire station these
amounts equal exactly what I just gave
to you on the previous slide for the
parks improvements the East Mesa Rec
facility and then the public art as well
and with that these are your Council
options
before I get the council members I just
want to thank the members of the public
both here with us today and watching for
their support to pass the Geo bonds that
was big yeah okay Council pin Como
Council Flores thank you mayor thanks
Leanne what was that a yahoo yahoo
thank you I'm assuming it's because I
was a good interest that was a good
interest rate okay actually my question
is really about that I
um I hope that when we receive updates
on the go bonds that we continue to
include the housing go Bond because I
think there has been a lot of
miscommunication around the reason we're
waiting so two questions for you because
you do this so well Leanne can you just
talk one more time about why we're
waiting and then two if you have an
update on what that's looking like in
terms of the market and all of that for
the housing
um so mayor and councilor Ben Como I do
have Erica hakas here who is our
Treasurer I'll ask her to maybe come up
here just in case
there's something I may live at leave
out but yes we are going to be going
after this we've been advised from our
financial advisor to wait a little bit
because these are taxable bonds and they
are going to be at a much higher rate
however I would like to assure that if
there is any funding needed for the
affordable housing we have the
mechanisms in place here that we can go
ahead and start those Pro those projects
so I don't want anybody to think that we
don't have that mechanism to do that and
so with that and then I apologize I may
have missed one of your questions if you
have thank you for that if you have any
sense of just the timeline how things
are shaking up for the do we have in
anything from Eric you want to talk to
dressa
Erica Hawke's treasure we're just
waiting on the market to stabilize so we
don't have to pay that high of an
interest rate but as Leanne mentioned
earlier we can do a reimbursement
resolution and reimburse ourselves for
those expenses incurred prior to the
issuance of the bonds one thing to keep
in mind that it takes us about three
months from the start date to the time
we do get those proceeds so our
financial advisor is he's an expert in
the market so I'm sure that when he
thinks we can start the process to get a
good rate and this will help us complete
those projects on a timely manner then
we will go ahead and come to council
with those options thank you I would
just ask that you keep us up to date in
the public up to date right that given
that's who voted for this project so
that we can continue to provide that
information for them yes counselor Ben
Cuomo mayor as soon as I hear something
from our financial advisor I'll make
sure that that information is pushed out
I know we do have a update
a portion in our in our city web page so
I'll make sure to get with Mandy and
keep those updates there for any
information I get thank you very much
appreciate it
before you get to council Flores uh ifo
wanted to jump in real quick and kind of
add to the discussion thank you mayor
and Council just to clarify for the and
I appreciate the explanation I was given
but just to make the point uh clear
for the public like if I just wanted to
to point out that if we had the project
ready to go and we had expenses ready to
roll it wouldn't matter what the rate
was we would issue that debt and so
because we're in that process of getting
that project together we want to time it
because we can afford to wait right now
and we have the mechanism as was
mentioned by by our finance director and
Treasurer and so I just want to make
that clear there's we're not waiting on
the rate we're not putting projects uh
on the back burner because of the rate
it's because we're working through the
project we can afford to wait till the
rate comes down or to some future
because it may not come down but
depending on where we are we will issue
that Bond immediately
if needed if and when we we need to just
want to make that clear for the for the
public thank you no thank you Miss thank
you very much city manager peely
and let me throw my two cents in there
as well it's almost like if you're going
to build a house and you you don't want
to take out a building loan or a
construction loan if you don't have the
project yet and then you have to work
fast to get that and every month that
interest just accumulates and you're
paying on something that you're not
utilizing yet so when they said the
reimbursement I believe this is what
they meant is if there is a project that
we can do right away we can actually we
have that flexibility to take the money
from the telshore fund to fix to do the
project and then reimburse it through
this through this money here so that's
why from a financial standpoint it's
probably not best to to do that until we
have a project going so is that kind of
yeah okay good counselor Flores
I just want to reiterate exactly what Mr
peely has reported and I don't want the
public to believe that city council or
city management is looking at the
interest rate only
I mean it is a factor without a doubt
it's as the mayor said you're not going
to buy a house you know put your money
down on a high interest loan and the
house isn't ready to be built in the
meantime you have to be paying for it so
it's just the question of economics and
reality of what it is but I think that
we have to emphasize that the projects
will be or should be ready to roll
relatively soon
I just wanted to clarify that for the
public and hopefully
Mandy will get the word out correctly to
the media to avoid any misunderstanding
as to what the city is doing
with the bond money allocated for
housing thank you very much Miss thank
you very much Mister thank you Leanne
thank Erica thank you Mr Mayor thank you
councilor any other questions any
comments from members of the public yes
Joe
it's
I just need your state your name please
Joe Galvan Nash District Six and I'm a
member of the affordable housing
subcommittee of the League of Women
Voters so the comments now I'm more
confused and I appreciate you wanting to
make this clear to the public a couple
of questions I have though is who is it
that is going to pull the pull the you
know the yes when it the interest rates
get to a certain point who is that
person and what will the interest rate
at a maximum or minimum are you looking
for and third what projects are
basically ready to go I don't I didn't
realize that they've already been vetted
and discussed in terms of affordable
housing so those are my questions thank
you
everyone can jump in but I'll let that
city manager you know thank you mayor
and Council I'll go first and then in
the end and uh our treasure can can jump
in as well so that is the point it's
that we are going through the process of
betting looking through the projects of
course there's a committee that needs to
be designated there's a fund that we the
monies need to be designated for uh and
so
it's not that we're waiting for the
right interest rate because nobody can
can predict the market it's just that
currently
it's not a favorable Market
and so rather than as the mayor
mentioned in this example rather than
issue Bond and let it issue a bond or
issue debt let it sit in an account that
just collecting
or we're having to pay interest on
we would make sure that we have a
project that's the timeline is there we
can get that set up to where we issue it
in a timely manner and as our finance
director mentioned
if we had that project today fully
vetted chosen ready to ready to roll as
I mentioned ready to to for expenses to
be made on that project we have a
mechanism today that can start spending
money as we wait for the bond process to
go through so we can afford to wait
because we have the mechanism and
because we were in the process right now
vetting
we will have more to come on that our
housing manager will will make a
presentation on on these projects that
are in the queue
and then we'll we'll talk about how we
time that a little bit better
do you have anything else to add
mayor council member I just want to
clarify if we are ready we can go ahead
and each and issue these what I just
wanted to emphasize is our financial
advisor is a professional that
this is his job to advise us when it's
best for us to to go out for financing
to get a better rate so he's been
tracking the market
constantly he presented during the the
budget Retreat and because these are
taxable bonds usually they're about one
maybe one and a half percent higher than
the non-taxable bonds and also we have
that flexibility of reimbursing the city
for any expenses related to that for
maybe up to a year so we do have that
flexibility if there's projects too that
are ready to go we can go ahead and
allocate some funds and then reimburse
once we get those bonds
thank you
and just to clarify for either members
of the council or members of the public
and uh Erica when you say Tax Board
non-taxable so typically City bonds or
municipal bonds are non-taxable people
like to buy them because they don't have
to pay taxes on them but because these
are different uh then these these aren't
as attractive as the other non-taxable
bonds so the interest rate may be a
little bit higher is that what you're
referring to as far as taxable and
non-taxable
mayor that's correct
just wanted to make sure the members of
the public were aware of that okay good
any other questions
members of the public
hi
CNN Christine
this is on the mission to approve
resolution
23-113 counselor beta yes councilor
Graham yes councilor Ben Cuomo yes
councilor Koran yes counselor Flores yes
councilor Gandara yes mayor yes
okay next item 7.4 Council Bill
23-023 ordinance number 3029 move to
approve second Graham okay motion made
by councilor beta second by Council
Graham and Natalie Green will be
presenting uh good afternoon Mr Mayor
members of council Natalie Green your
housing manager with the city manager's
office the item before you is uh
an ordinance change more specifically
the ordinance for the affordable housing
Land Bank and Trust Fund advisory
committee I think they used to pay by
the word back then so that's why it's so
long
and it would amend chapter 2 Division 3
subdivision two of the Las Cruces
municipal code
just a little background it was created
in 2010 and it outlines not only the
membership but the responsibility of
this board which they are to act as an
advisory committee to city council they
would adopt rules and procedures and
review standards they review project
applications for affordable housing and
they make those recommendations to City
Council in accordance with chapter 13 of
the Las Cruces municipal code
you have a legislative version in your
packet but this is just a summary of
some of the changes that we are making
the first is that we are shortening the
name it'll now be known as the
affordable housing advisory committee we
are reducing the membership size it in
its original
formation had nine members and then we
were also required to appoint eight
alternate members so 17
appointees to a single board was quite
difficult so now it'll have five members
who are at Large
uh as part of that composition when it
was originally formed it had very
specific standards for where those
members should come from so from the
various Chambers from other boards and
committees and then from the home
building home builders and from the
Realty Association and so now they will
be at large and they will be desirable
but not required either experience or or
industries that includes both community
service Social Services it could be
Finance Realty but it again it's just a
recommendation it's not a requirement Mr
Mayor and Council can appoint as
necessary because it is a non-standard
board it does allow us to get a
membership from both the city and the
county so we've added that in and then
when it was originally formed because it
required a member from the health and
human services or pnz or the Messiah
Valley public housing authority board
there was an exception that allowed a
member to serve on two boards which is
normally not allowed so we've removed
that exception since we're no longer
requiring membership from those boards
uh just some next steps if Council
approves this ordinance change today is
we'll start working on those
appointments to the board there's two
members that are currently appointed so
we'll be asking them if they'd like to
be reappointed and then we'll work with
uh staff and city clerk's office to
appoint new members and mayor and
Council then we'll start convening some
of those meetings we'd like the board
that's appointed just to review the
existing chapter 13 ordinance and some
of our policies and procedures that are
already adopted by Council just to see
if they need some updates or changes we
also are working on an implementation
strategy we have an RFQ out for our
consultant right now that's going to
assist in some of the leg work with that
we'll be incorporating the changes that
either they identify or the committee
identifies and then we'll go out for
those projects and qualifying grantees
we have a number of developments in the
pipeline that have the ability to apply
for this funding and then that committee
we will make some project
recommendations and staff will do the
actual underwriting just to make sure
the project selected are are viable for
financing
and then those projects would come to
you as a council for adoption
so similar to what was echoed in the
last presentation we are honoring this
public process and and there's some lead
up time before we actually need the
funding so we want to make sure the
timing aligns with the actual
implementation
will stand for your Council options
no Natalie
councilor Ben Cuomo councilor Flores
thank you mayor um thanks Natalie and
Jan for working on this resolution so
this did come to the housing PRC and we
did have a lengthy discussion around
the necessary updates for for this
committee to work well and one of them
was a discussion around how many members
to have whether we wanted seven or five
um I really was supportive of five
members given that I just pulled up our
city clerk's email around current board
vacancies and we currently have nine
border committees that have vacancies
and so
um recognizing that it's incredibly hard
to go and ask people to volunteer their
time right there lots of time during the
day and a lot of people can't
unfortunately serve in these committees
and so five members seems like the right
number right now especially given that
um there's not a there's not necessarily
a ton of urgency around this but it is
this this community really is critical
in terms of how we move projects forward
how we select projects for go bonds and
so
um I think for me I'm I'm comfortable
moving forward with five
um though that is I guess a discussion
the city council can have but for me it
was just really important given
um that we currently have nine uh
committees or boards that have vacancies
some of them even more than one vacancy
so
um I'm I'm looking forward to this being
um to this moving forward and looking
forward to submitting some names that I
think would be really great and I think
you know I'm glad that you sort of took
out the explicit requirement for some of
those Industries
um though I think it's really important
that we go to folks that absolutely know
the understand how complicated this
Natalie can tell us right how
complicated this whole affordable
housing conversation can be with federal
law with state law and so we want folks
who are knowledgeable but I also no but
and I also want folks who have
um an understanding of what it's like to
to live in affordable housing what it's
like to need affordable housing and so I
think it's important that those folks
sort of meet some of those requirements
as well thanks mayor
thank you counselor Flores yes I'd also
like to address uh the the number of
members and and those who would be a
part of that and also the process as to
how it would
um how it would run
how it would flow in terms of before it
coming to uh the full Council for a vote
and um and I think that as was explained
at our
PRC policy Review Committee
somehow the nine members but eight
alternates didn't work out because of
this reason or another
and the reasons for the five included
the fact that we have a lot of boards
right now that are lacking the necessary
number however this one is quite
different I don't think we've ever had
anything like this and I think that we
should have members from the public we
have highly intelligent people who've
been following and tracking this issue
and and I think that they would serve
the public well they would serve the
purpose well and they would be very
helpful to City councilors who do sit on
the housing committee the PRC
so for that maybe maybe keep it at five
but I I think that the the boards right
now that have those vacancies
they're just not attractive this this is
a hot issue this is a very important
issue for our community for our people
for people in the city for The Human
Condition and I think we need people
from the public to participate
um
so my recommendation would be to
assure that one of those seats at least
one of those seats or increase the
number of seats to have one or two
persons from the public
a good example of
backing up what I'm saying is that the
League of Women Voters has been
what's the word quite in I don't want to
say influential but definitely
crucial to the process we've had in our
PRC and two of our members of The League
of Women Voters are here and they've
been following this and Beth Bardwell
who's an attorney
would serve well and she's a retired
attorney formerly the head of the
Audubon Society of New Mexico so I think
that I think we should either increase
it or assure that we have a Community
member because I will bet my bottom
dollar that the people who apply are
going to be the ones who belong to the
current committee there's nothing wrong
with that however it doesn't represent
the interests of the entire community
and that's why I think those changes
have to be made thank you
okay thank you any other comments
members of the public
seeing none Christine
this is an emotion to approve ordinance
3029 counselor beta yes councilor Graham
yes councilor Ben Como yes councilor
cran yes councilor Flores no counselor
Gandara yes mayor yes
okay so next is uh our board
appointments
uh first one is to the capital
Improvement advisory committee Mr Edward
how Hayworth it's a new appointment I'll
need a motion in a second please
so moved Graham second by Flores emotion
made by councilor Graham second by
counselor Flores
Christine
this is on the motion to appoint Edward
Hayworth to the caac counselor beta yes
Council Graham yes councilman Como
yes
counselor Koran yes counselor Flores
yes councilor Gandara yes mayor yes next
is to the City Art board Mr Jack
Crabtree need a motion second
so second motion made by councilor
Florida second by councilor Ben Como
Christine
Jack Crabtree to the City Art board
counselor beta yes councilor Graham yes
councilor Ben komal yes councilor Koran
yes counselor Flores yes councilor
gandetta yes mayor yes
next is Nicholas Pierce to the
convention and visitors bureau Advisory
Board
function made by Council Graham seconded
by councilor beta Christine this is an
emotion to appoint Nicholas Pierce to
the Convention of visitors bureau
Advisory Board counselor abeda yes
counselor Graham yes councilor Ben komal
yes councilor Koran yes counselor Flores
yes councilor Gandara yes mayor yes
next is the historic preservation board
Dr Jerry Wallace
so moved to Grant second by Flores Okay
my councilor Graham second by counselor
Flores Christine this is on the mission
to appoint Dr Jerry Wallace to the
historic preservation commission
councilor beta yes councilor Graham yes
councilor Ben Cuomo yes councilor Korean
yes counselor Flores yes councilor
Gandara yes mayor yes
okay next is notice of proposed
ordinances which there are none so next
is a city council member board reports
and comment
I actually have something to say so I
was talking with IPO and he um he'll
quote kind of mentioned about
earlier you heard some of the discussion
of as far as some security downtown and
I think you mayor Pro tem and nifo and
have been working on this so we're gonna
have a tid meeting next next week so do
you want to talk just a little bit about
that
it's a it's going to be presented that
as an option for security
down there and really we found out that
there there's an opportunity to use tid
money for security that never that
wasn't
the thought before that we never
guess the thought that as we couldn't
that it can only be for infrastructure
but I know our Kanye and our Ed team
found out that there may be option to
use tip money for security and so that's
going to be presented
next next tip meaning as a item on
agenda
thanks evil and let's see here oh so as
far as just something to think about
years ago
the city used to be in partnership with
the town of hatch regarding our gas it's
called the Rio Grande Natural Gas
Association
we never had problems filling that board
and let me tell you why and and this is
just a suggestion or just a
because they used to get paid
yeah and so just just something to think
about the board members
got paid 500 a month
the chair got paid 750. this was uh this
was let me tell you something this was a
a there were lines to get on this board
so I'm not saying when you do that but
if you if the council wanted to down the
road because they are working uh yeah it
could be something small 100 150 you
know because you know people are
they're doing things that they need to
to maybe some of them were they want to
participate but maybe they do have some
other Financial Obligations that they're
trying to make uh you know ends meet and
this might be an opportunity to match
the two together you know just something
about
okay all right now and now I'll turn it
over to you
oh yeah I had regarding the citizens
review board I had mentioned to Dr
Neeson that uh if he gives me the
information then I'll take a look at it
and then from there if I want to move it
forward I'll take it to the Public
Safety Committee and then if the Public
Safety Committee gives a thumbs up then
comes to city council meeting
for work session so
okay
thank you mayor
um you know I appreciated the numerous
people that came today for public
comment I felt the support and the love
I'm I'm glad that we had a number of of
folks here there have been some
solutions and strategies I thought that
brought up that I thought were great
ideas and some that we've had and have
sort of fallen off given the vacancies a
difference of
leaders leaving our staff and leaving
the city and one is the leadership
academy I I thought it was
um Jamie rickman's baby it was something
that we were very passionate about as
counselors back then
and in a way that would build up
our our leadership in community but also
to help recruit for these numerous
committees and Boards
um and and city council um and so I'm
asking that ifo um that be looked at
again to reinstate the leadership
academy and and frankly it was an
ambassador program for the city of Las
Cruces it assisted
um
it provided not assisted but provided a
way by which
um you know everyday people can learn
about their city and municipality and
the various departments and then they
would go out and and and speak about
um you know the numerous departments and
and and as you've heard from Lucas
Herndon this afternoon
just being able to have those
conversations and add to the mitigate
some of the issues that we're hearing um
specifically today
I wanted to make reference to the
Forgotten victims which according to Mr
Garcia our business Community quite
frankly when I get
there are
numerous things that are happening in
our community that I I never hear from
the business Community about if they if
I happen to cruise Facebook I'm seeing
some of those and if I have an
opportunity I'm reaching out
with a private message I don't know how
to really and I don't have time to go
through all the numerous platforms to
look at the various things that are
happening but I'm I'm sorry that folks
feel but we all have a shared
responsibility in this community
and people I'm always astonished that a
number of folks don't know who their
city council members are and I don't
know mayor and ifo if it's if Mandy or
Pio could help
um
sort of provide
um
the community with the information so
that
you know if you're a victim of a crime
of course we we're probably we're very
compassionate and concerned about that
but I don't know if that's happening or
not so
um I think one of the ways that um well
that we're
um that it would be helpful and I know
that we've had Chris Faber and I
specifically with our Las Cruces cares
Advocates and you've heard from them
Grace and David
um and they asked at our Retreat for two
more Las Cruces Care Advocates I think
there's something there that we really
can build as as a way to reach out not
only to our business Community but
residents who fall victim to a crime and
the victim Advocates that our
association associated with LCPD so I
don't want to give the sense that we're
forgetting anybody you're a victim be it
a resident or a business person but
again those that information doesn't get
to me
um regularly and so I I it feels like
um the weight of counsel like we need to
know who they are and and and of course
I want to know that but maybe it's
providing more Community
some sort of mechanism that council is
aware that this is the number of things
that are occurring in our in our
district and so I'm hoping that maybe we
can talk about that at our Public Safety
select committee meeting
um and that or at least that's what my
recommendation is I did let Gail know
that I would let Community know and our
counsel that on Saturday April 22nd
there will be
um an Earth Day event with a hike and
picnic to the organ Mouse and desert
Peaks National Monument there it's a
really exciting event because they're
going to offer
um
uh
[Music]
um food and a you just have to bring
your own beverage
um and there'll be and it's on the
website and so for more information
please contact Gail that's
g-a-y-l-e dot s dot e a d s gmail.com
for for further information
um
this weekend I was alarmed to hear the
numerous complaints and concerns
regarding our Detention Center
related to
um
I'm really actually very concerned about
this
the administration there has removed
books
from from the Detention Center to
include
books have been removed completely there
is a lack of of
quality shall I say quality access to
care timely care for our detainees I
think that I'm asking Mr peely to look
into this
I am deeply concerned that our our
detainees are not getting the access to
books and
um and this person who was talking about
this with me is quite concerned she's a
social worker and I I thought if we are
providing funding to the Detention
Center that we need to be accountable to
look into or investigate what's going on
in in our Detention Facility
uh let's see this week we'll have our
Public Safety select a meeting on
Wednesday in our health policy Committee
in the afternoon I'm looking forward to
that and then I wanted to reach out
um
to ifo
Casa de Perez Lorenzo Alba reached out
to me they would like to do pop-ups in
our lift up Las Cruces
um area the pop-ups would consist of
fresh produce which I'm really excited
about which and if we've we've known
that district one is a food desert and
access to good healthy nutrition and and
more specifically fruit and so I didn't
know who to refer him to but I'm
thinking Natalie and maybe Parks and Rec
would help in that process of standing
up those a couple of pop-up events there
and I'll I am for a stipend I think
that's an excellent idea for our our
committee members our board members and
I am encouraging
um
to
Earl Dr Neeson to get the information
over to Mayor if that hasn't happened
yet so that we can hear that at Public
Safety so that can now be pushing for
the work session I agree that a work
session needs to happen specifically to
the citizen review board thank you mayor
can you remember them before we get to
counselor Flores I forgot to mention Dr
Neeson I know you tried you wanted to
have a meeting with EVO it is true that
ifo is a city manager and oversees all
employees including the chief but he
can't unilaterally just put a put a a
Citizens review board together that's a
policy issue and that comes before
Council so so Evo he does run the city
but he also gets the direction from what
the council provides and that's probably
why it's very difficult you know to just
meet with him one-on-one because he
can't do that unilaterally so I just I
left that off when I was uh when I was
discussing with the process okay Council
Flores
thank you Mr Mayor the first thing is
it's of Paramount importance to me to
look into or establish an oversight
committee
consistent with the model that was
presented by Dr Nissen and
and I this is really an issue of
transparency and I think I have publicly
stated and if I haven't I will now that
the public safety and the other
oversight committee
um
they're they're not getting whatever
happens there it doesn't even get to the
rest of the city council so I mean if it
doesn't come to the rest of the city
council
I mean I don't even know which
counselors really are in which committee
I think the mayor and Tessa are in one
and then the other I have no idea so we
need transparency
um I I look through the materials that
the Anaheim Anaheim California
oversight
has and the board and all that I would
like to see Mr Mayor if possible and Mr
peely whether there can be any
communication with the city council of
that City to see how they work you know
how they you know align things and all
that sort of stuff so
um but I I do believe that
we need to do that and
and if we can move on that as as swiftly
as possible it would be really
appreciated by me and by members of our
community the other is the street name
change
um so exactly a month ago today Mr
Nichols and Mr peely on March 3rd that
resolution was passed to change or to
actually didn't change the existing 1980
resolution because that was a completely
different resolution had nothing to do
with the one that was created that we
voted on and passed on March 3rd Mr Weir
made it clear that it takes 30 days for
it to go into effect today is exactly 30
days today is April 3rd 2023 and I
believe that we should move swiftly and
expeditiously Mr Nichols I don't know
and the other thing I want to share with
the public in the world is that I've
been on city council this is my
sixth year yeah this is my sixth year
um
and it's still a mystery to me as to how
things really get done and how it goes
here and then it kicks back and then it
sits somewhere
is it a back burner I don't know does it
go anywhere else I don't know and
fortunately our
um our policy analyst uh Sergio Ruiz has
been dynamite and getting things done
and channeling them and then they get
you know and then after a while he finds
out that oops that wasn't the way to do
it so to make it clear I don't know how
it's done so but we have to get we have
to get that that issue in motion on the
street name change pursuant to the
resolution that we passed exactly a
month ago and whatever steps have to be
taken Mr peely and Ms city city clerk I
don't know if you were discussing this
but I just want to make sure that that
gets on the you know just gets on the
road and and gets done is expeditiously
as possible and one comment was made by
in public participation
that um that people on that street I
think there are 20 households and those
20 households will have to change all
sorts of information and the 9-1-1 issue
is very very important so
um I mean the other stuff is how many
times I mean like when I was in college
law school whatever moving from Los
Angeles three different major cities in
California and then moving to Las Cruces
as my permanent residence
yeah it's a hassle to change your stuff
but the one thing that doesn't change is
your social security number and your um
and your
what's it called yeah your date of birth
social security but the other one what
is it uh I'm so sorry
um
I'd like to blame it on covid but I
think it's my age
um
you know just your email address your
email address and your identity other
identity things don't change so yes it
is an inconvenience but how many times
have we lost a credit card and it has to
be replaced then it takes a phone call
and things get done so if we could start
moving that process I'd really
appreciate it Mr peely and I I don't
know if it's in your hands Mr Nichols or
Ms Barbara de Leon might know but I'm
appealing to all of you thank you thank
you very much Mr Mayor
thank you councilor correct thank you
um I appreciate your comments counselor
Flores and just as a note I think the
idea of inconvenience is is a pretty
appalling thing to see on the other side
of a scale of justice that includes
things like forced sterilizations in
residential schools so I really am
particularly offended when people
suggest that there's a parallel between
those two things
um
but on none of those notes related to
um
public comment I do want to start with a
few things last week counselor abeta and
I had the privilege to travel to DC and
meet with the national league of cities
and hear a lot of things there as well
as both of our Senators and there's and
or their staff and Gabe who sends love
to everyone here and in the city
and we had a really positive
conversation with all of them and I
think they're really excited about what
we're doing in Las Cruces and they were
grateful to hear of all the things that
they could invest in in our community so
I'm really excited about the
possibilities one interesting thing to a
public comment that someone made was
that something
the that we might follow up on is going
to visit specific agencies later and one
of the agencies that was mentioned was
the National Endowment for the Arts and
so I think just to the question of the
idea of Arts and Cultural districts and
leveraging our resources I'm curious if
we might be able to find a niche to
support some of those things in our
community that would be really cool and
dynamic and different from our from
maybe what we've always thought of
um
other notes tomorrow morning here
upstairs so the TSI PRC will be meeting
to discuss primarily Energy rebates
including from El Paso Electric but also
the ways that the city is working to
make these more accessible and and
more usable for for people in Las Cruces
that's at 8 30 tomorrow morning so if
you'd like to join us and hear about
that please come by I walked through the
new animal services building which is
nearly complete there are just if they
took the animals over now there would be
no cages so it would just be a chaotic
melee which I would love personally but
apparently is is not it is not
acceptable but it's going to be amazing
it has
um
a number of things built in that I think
we all hoped for and so I really want to
thank the voters of Las Cruces for
investing in the ascmv I think you will
be really happy when you when you go to
find your animals
um there and and you'll really feel like
we're There's an opportunity for us to
make a difference
and so
um perhaps you can volunteer or Foster
as well they need it um so I can't wait
for the grand opening of that also the
Rinconada dog park thank you to the
project managers and Parks and Rec for
getting that up and running
um I know that there are still some
outstanding things to happen but people
are visiting and it's really popular
already I know that they're a dog
friendships being made as we speak
um
I also just another thing Jermaine to
Rinconada Boulevard and the district
there are two resurfacing projects
happening on Rinconada Boulevard from
settlers pass
to Via Del Valle approximately and on
Mercury Lane
um
from Evil Lane to North Point
approximately that will be happening on
Wednesday so just as a note those roads
will be closed but there will be plenty
of signage and you'll have other
opportunities to go around it should
take about one working day
I last week I had the opportunity to
participate in a dacc student
documentary project about water and so I
just want to thank
Adrian Whitmer for providing a bunch of
information as well as ACM dogato and
and Robert Nunez who
sometimes runs away he was here earlier
but he also provided a bunch of great
information
for that and so we'll let you know when
the documentary is done so that you can
see but I think the city of Las Cruces
can be proud of our of our contributions
to water conservation in the region
um
and then my last thing is really I just
want to elevate the discussion of police
reform and lend my voice to the to the
importance of having a work session I
hope that that work session can include
both the idea of a community oversight
board as well as a number of other
potential policy changes that could be
in order and so I'm it sounds like there
will be four counselors ready to support
this so I I would argue We Should Skip
an another conversation and call it
right to the work session I'd be happy
to help organize it and bring folks who
are experts on these issues as well as
the folks who have been doing the
research that that has already been done
including Dr Neeson and and
Peter Bobby green the team of folks who
have been working on that so I hope that
we can just prioritize that and put the
work session on the calendar now so
that's all my comments for the day
thank you counselor Ben Como thank you
so much
um but councilor Graham keeps getting
scared because I keep adding stuff to my
list so I'll try to move as quickly as
possible I'll start here actually thank
you for that I agree and I I would also
like work session mayor so I think
um that does make for folks who have
said that I think the one thing I do
want to know is that when I talk to
community members who are talking about
this oversight committee and even though
we might not see I die on everything
what I hear is there is a huge lack of
transparency and access to information
and your suggestion is to take the
decision to a committee that meets
privately so I feel like that only adds
to the confusion about why these
decisions are are being made privately
behind closed doors when we should be
having a community-wide discussion
around what is best for our community
particularly for me is around use of
force use of force data and I think
that's where we start right we start on
how do we collect use of force data and
then how do we share use of force data
at the end of the day this is about
better policing and I I deeply believe
that that's all what we're all looking
for so
um full transparency councilor Corin and
I have been working on on Research
around what would best fit our city and
we would love to if you gave us some
time present on some of that and bring
experts like the ACLU who can help
facilitate some of these conversations
um
I wanted to put efo a little bit on the
spot because his daughter Ava I hope I'm
saying that right was this powerlifting
state champion and she's a senior in
high school and I just
I I just have such profound respect for
these young ladies like gen Z girls
scare the crap out of me in the best of
ways and she's just so strong and
powerful and owns it and I just I I was
very happy to see that evil so tell her
congrats on her behalf
there was a very unfortunate mistake on
the mailer that went out regarding my
District 4 council meeting so I deeply
apologize to people the address for
MacArthur Elementary is
um wrong on there MacArthur Elementary
is 655 North 4th Street so I hope that
folks are listening I'm going to do as
much social media and
um and we're going to try to work with
Pio to
rectify that but the address is way
wrong so I really hope people don't put
the address that's on the Mailer on
their GPS because they will end up
nowhere near MacArthur Elementary so I
just deeply apologize dries to folks and
hope that that information gets out to
them
we will not have a housing PRC meeting
this month because we are having a
Roundtable discussion with Senator
Martin Heinrich around the importance of
affordable housing and a lot of the
issues going on with her and I'm so I'm
really excited to get not only my
colleagues on in front of him but also
members of our community who have a lot
of expertise around this so I'm very
excited about that happening next week
I met with the owners of Seymour Save
Mart grocery store they're incredible
people they're such good people and
they're experiencing some difficult
things and so for this idea that we
don't listen all of that that's just
completely wrong I met with these folks
and really what I found is that we are
not putting information out there as
much as we should be people don't quite
yet know
how project lights is going to work
right that they're still going to use
the 911 system people don't know about
the Manu imano program and the hot spot
truck and how they can access it I love
telling people about ask-class cruises
app and people know very little about it
and so I just want to make sure that ifo
were working with Pio to do as much cool
stuff as possible whether it's Earth
media TV newspaper social media to get
the word out about all of the good
things that we're doing in the short
term while we're obviously working on
longer term solutions for the challenges
we're currently facing
um
let me just Mark some of these things
off see I'm almost done
um and then I just lastly want to really
thank folks who came today and had such
kind
and beautiful words to say people don't
have to do that you know I we sort of
chose this job and people can disagree
with us and criticize their decisions
all they want that's what democracy is I
think for me
what felt important today was that
we're pushing back against
this desire to be
hateful and
um you know I I was reading some of the
next door app comments myself and some
of the things that were being said were
really unkind and awful and so I just
want to appreciate the counter narrative
that came here today and tell people
um thank you for showing up for your
city and for showing up for democracy
okay so councilor than Como
um first off I'm not I can't just put a
blanket work session on on this you know
assistant review board I'd like to see
what a proposal it sounds like you want
me to just circumvent what we've done in
the past two years and that is you know
from Council to PR PRC committee and
that's the best we can do as far as the
public safety is to vet it to go through
and share with us that our other members
on the Public Safety Committee and then
from there
to city council so I mean to go just
just you know I guess what I'm trying to
say is I'm I think it's important that
we stay consistent and I think that
that's that's been the process in the
past I I would strongly suggest that
continue to be that process because now
once we do that then you're gonna show
precedence you're just gonna well let's
see well maybe we'll do it this way on
this issue and another way we'll just go
through the regular other way so if I
may or if I just would like to point out
that well I was going to say it's not
written in stone but she might be
proving me wrong around how to bring
policies forth I also want to point out
that Public Safety is not a PRC it's not
a policy Review Committee and so I feel
like that's the biggest difference of
the the prcs versus the public select
committees of which I sit on one as well
the finance committee and everything we
talk about that comes to city council
and so I just want to make sure that for
the sake of transparency and because
that's what I hear people say the
information is not transparent and
public enough and I feel like by doing
this it only makes that worse
and the reason also is it allows our
city attorney's office to be able to
digest and see exactly what this what is
being proposed and what is what could be
possibly legal and something that could
be not that couldn't be done it gives
them a chance to have that ironed out
before we go and you know have a have a
work session and and a lot of this stuff
might not be able to be allowed I don't
know that's why I think it's important
that that it run through the process
that I that we've established in the
past but uh councilor Abita you wanted
to say something yes thank you and
transparency
for that is in full transparency I'm not
one of the four that is agreeing to this
but with that being said
in our city Charter in section 2.08
procedure in meetings it does say that
special meetings may be held at the call
of the mayor or for four or more members
which in this case that would seem like
what is being issued here and is allowed
in the charter
and when practical upon no less than 12
hours notice to each remember all
meetings shall be subject to the state
statute regarding open meetings so with
that in mind it looks like if there was
an issue with legal that we could
schedule it you know in a few weeks time
but like obviously maybe not next week
would be most actual but in a couple
weeks to give staff enough time to do
that but you know according to the
Charter I do believe if there's four
more members they can call for that
special meeting
counselor counselor Graham
thank you mayor
um just a couple of things that have
come up here in the last couple of
minutes I'm also in favor of a stipend
for board participation a couple of
other thumbs up I think that's a great
idea and a way to ease the barriers that
can really
that can really shut out true
participation from everyone in the city
along those lines too I'm really
intrigued as well with the neighborhood
Leadership Academy
I was just when Mr Herndon was speaking
it sounded like you said it was 15 15 or
16 weeks if I heard that correctly and I
would just
I would just suggest that maybe we look
at ways to be thorough but perhaps not
so daunting
um again in terms of an access access
and barriers not everyone has the time
to commit to a 16-week Academy
so if there are ways that we can think
about making that as accessible as
possible to I would appreciate that
um
other than that I'm just yeah I'm just
riffing a little it turns out that I
hold up way better when people are
yelling than when they're being nice
because like when people are yelling I'm
like yeah I'm here for this when people
are being nice then I get all like
wobbly chinned uh and and like I don't
know I taste tears but I also want to
say thanks
um to everyone who comes out to
participate but it was really heartening
to see so many folks come out and again
not in
not in uh
opposition to opposition that's why
we're here that is in fact democracy but
in opposition to disrespect to words and
rhetoric and narratives that are not
intended to make real change they're
intended to be performative to be as I
found out cut into Clips to be posted to
YouTube
to be spread through social media and
that is another thing that I wanted to
mention briefly I've had a lot of what I
would have thought were productive
conversations with people very opposed
to what I was doing to what the larger
Council was doing
and I've seen the social media presence
of some of those folks and I would just
ask them to consider the words they're
putting out
maybe you personally would never try to
incite violence against someone maybe
the people you know in real life would
not try would not be moved to that but
you cannot and do not know
the scope of the words that you put out
on social media and on the internet and
it just it's not that hard to trigger an
unhinged person even if you are not that
unhinged person I would
I would ask folks to think carefully
about what they're putting out in the
ethers of the internet
um and finally
this is a weird like sorry not sorry
because I am not sorry
for the people I serve with and I am
proud of what we're doing even when it
kind of brings down the house but I do
want to acknowledge to staff
to the people who share the Dias with
the council those who are out waiting
for all of this to be done those who I
know are listening
um in your offices I recognize that the
decisions we make affect your lives too
and that sometimes I worry
um
we make a lot of waves and I know that
that can make staffs lives a little more
difficult you handle it with Grace Poise
expertise
um far beyond what I'm capable of but I
just wanted to acknowledge and thank you
for um
I know you don't have much of a choice
but for taking this ride with us so
that's all thanks
thank you councilor I beta
thank you
um
I don't have anything to report for
oversight committees since we haven't
met since the last time but I do want to
just know
um a special thank you to our city clerk
Christine Rivera who has made new
reporting documents I know there's been
a critique of that but I've been using
the new reporting system on
everything that's been shared I really
do appreciate it it's quite robust and
I'm sure Christine if you'd love to send
that out to the other counselors if
they'd like to use that as there's many
chairs for other
organizations including councilor Flores
for economic development which you serve
on if you'd like to use that type of
system to report out to council it's
been quite effective
um counselor Quran did mention that we
went to the National League of cities I
went in dual capacities here as a
counselor and with the municipal League
itself and from that we heard a few
narratives and common problems within
the Western Municipal Group which kind
of expands from Washington Nebraska
California Arizona ourselves it's quite
large and robust but we're seeing
similar problems in all of these areas
and they're red States there's blue
States there's mixed States
rural and urban there's issues with
housing and housing crises in Montana
they had a boom of individuals come over
because of shows like Yellowstone
apparently and we had billionaires
pricing out millionaires that priced out
Workforce and now they have whole towns
that have no available housing for a
work Workforce and can no longer serve a
bunch of people we are seeing housing in
urban areas too that is a problem so I'm
very happy to see that we're addressing
housing in different ways that we are
working with the Govan I think we're on
the right track to look at that and look
at that housing first model which seems
to be doing a little bit better than
obviously nothing at all but with those
that have tried criminalization hasn't
been working either and so housing first
seems to be the best way to see
the second portion on message that we
got was that about arpa and how our city
is using that fund and that's one of the
ways I know that our delegation has been
very curious about all the ways that
that's going what that progress looks
like and how can we share how this has
helped our in our community and looking
at that transparency
and the third item that we talked about
was that of the federal budget and of
course they're expecting a robust
conversations about the budget and it is
expected that there will be no final
decisions until almost the end of the
entire session so there are a lot of
people that are confident that they're
going to reach
a solution about it but it is going to
be at the end of the line at the wire so
uh those were some of the big things my
second item is I will be having a
district 2 meeting tomorrow from 6 to 7
30 at the pavement Center we will be
going over Public Safety our fine budget
process we're going to be giving
information about those uh issues for
businesses and different ways that we
can help those that have experienced
things like vandalism we'll be having a
public work update because we have a few
projects including the university water
line and over meal replacement that are
going on as well so thank you
all right thank you okay Evo your last
thank you mayor council
thank you councilman Cromwell I'll let
my daughter know she was mentioned in
council meeting today
just first foremost I need to
I need to read this as uh as a
requirement of our bond ordinance
this is the final requirement to report
back to you the details of our pricing
certificate and award certificate
so for our state shared gross receipts
tax Improvement Revenue bond series 2023
Bonds were sold by competitive bid on
March 7 2023 Morgan Stanley provided the
lowest interest costs to the city
the sell amount 12 million 12 million
dollars as directed with the premium of
919 481 and 10 cents
that effective interest rate of 3.383
Which is less than the 10 percent within
the parameters Bond closed on April 11
the city receives the bond proceeds
final payment on bonds specified as of
June as June 1st 2035 which beats the
ordinance parameters as well
for the general obligation bond series
2023 as mentioned by our finance
director our bonds were sold by
competitive bid on February 28 2023
Fifth Third Securities provided the
lowest interest costs to the city the
sell amount was at par of 17 million
dollars as directed with the premium of
1.371678 million dollars and 70 cents
that effective interest rate of 3.46
again less than the 10 percent as
outlined in the parameters
bonds closed on March 30th 2023
and final payment on bonds specified as
August 1st 2036 which also meets
ordinance parameters
also just a couple of things
a couple of updates one from Parks and
Rec
I know there's just someone just made a
comment about the Senior Olympics so
this is a this is something from Parks
and Rec recently the parks and rec
hosted Park and Recreation Department
host of the Senior Olympics qualifiers
for pickleball free throw basketball
shooting Horseshoes and softball
winners will participate in the 42nd
annual New Mexico Senior Olympics held
in Las Cruces later this summer
June 7th through 11th 2023.
and then also from visit Las Cruces
visit Las Cruces Associated official
mural unveiling at 3 30 PM Thursday
April 13th at 336 South Main Street
which is the visit Las Cruces building
and local artists
anahi
or uh
Nunes Nunez winning artwork was chosen
following a national search in addition
to her artwork Nunes Nunez is also known
for her face and body art and as a
tattoo artist the mural named cornnamor
captures some of the community's most
well-known features and is a vibrant
display
of the
the city's
okay that's it that's all I have
it accidentally called 911 I'm sorry
that's all I admire thank you okay
before we go I I I needed to bring
something up so excuse me so the city of
Las Cruces logo to my knowledge I
thought was a registered trademark and
for the longest time we've always
protected that because what if someone
was to use that on their business and
say you know it can give the appearance
that the city is supportive behind it I
don't know if all but I don't know it's
probably done very innocently but on the
city of Las Cruces Facebook on March
14th it says right here and it doesn't
say anything about businesses but it
does this is where it gets close about
artwork it says do you have a special
connection to the city of Las Cruces
we'd love to see how you've Incorporated
the Las Cruces logo into your life
whether you use it on your artwork
tattooed it on your body or displayed it
probably on your car share a photo with
us send it to Communications Las
cruces.gov so if they want to put on
there but I think it because we've
actually threatened certain people
businesses years ago who've used this
without the city's permission and I I
guess I don't recall US changing that
that policy if there was one we've
always protected it I've never verified
it but I know years ago
Communications office different director
and legal they were you know they let
some businesses know hey you can't use
this logo on your business business you
know and there are people who put this
on their logo when they even run for
office and it gives you appearance that
they're the incumbent so I I you know I
really think that unless I unless it's
changed and one of the times I've been
out of town which I don't think it has
um I think we might want to look into
that okay I appreciate you bringing that
up mayor you know our thought is is that
we we really want to use our logo as
that
sort of the the unifying symbol of our
city and so we we certainly need to be
I'm glad you made me aware of that we
can check with legal and maybe have it
for discussion we're actually coming to
the city council for discussion on the
logo and you know checking in the fonts
and making it more
um more able to to be used in many
different places and so I'm glad you
brought that up and like I said this is
something like I said our whole thought
was
we really want to plaster this logo all
over the city we want to plaster even
with the different departments what
we're doing is we're looking at
there's so many different logos with the
different departments and what we're
trying to do is bring it all back and so
it's just kind of this big push
to really use that logo as a city you
know as a symbol of Pride for our city
but I wasn't aware of the issues that
happened in the past we could certainly
look into that if that's a
if that's a an issue
this is certainly the time to bring it
up
I thought it was yeah
yeah so okay and well it can be used
with permission and that I'm just
worried about the businesses that that
make it you know that you know like
there was one the that that was uh you
know was at the at the house and and I
wasn't there but I had that you know
that ring and I said hey uh you know he
wouldn't he was trying to solicit
something and I just asked I said hey do
you at least have a a permit to do this
he goes well no I didn't know we need to
have one so you know imagine them
putting this on something to give the
impression and I think if they do people
because that that would be I I think we
just need to have a little bit tighter
on certain things that's all maybe a
four but I think yeah I think so a
licensing basically hey you don't have
to charge them we just need to know what
they're using it on and you know so it's
acceptable thank you
uh
I'll move to adjourn go ahead second
nope
oh no she made by councilor beta second
by counselor Ben combo that we adjourned
I'm sorry
um Christine oh
this is an emotion too during the
regular meeting counselor beta yes
councilor Graham yes councilor Ben komal
yes councilor Korean
yes counselor Flores
I'm abstaining from that okay
are are you voting yes
to adjourn
oh I know what it's for
but I didn't know I don't know whether
we're adjourning right now so that's why
I said okay
yes mayor yes
okay we are adjourned it is five
25 pm thank you
enjoy the rest of your evening I can't
make a comment