thank you
[Music]
okay good afternoon everyone Welcome to
our city council meeting today is Monday
March 20th 2023 it's approximately 1 p.m
before we have our Pledge of Allegiance
I'm going to ask you to please rise for
a brief moment of silence as we reflect
back on the brave men and women the
United States armed forces as they keep
our 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.
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
okay so now we're going to have our pet
of the week and Amy De Felix who's going
to join us via Zoom from the animals
Services shelter is going to introduce
one cat and one dog I presume Amy are
you there
hello yes I am
Mission screen
there we go
alrighty so we'll start off with our cat
of the week
um his name is Claude his animal number
is five eight six five seven and he says
I've had to rely on my instincts for
most of my life so far so when people
approach me my first idea is to run and
climb away however when you slowly
introduce your hand to me I'm
immediately rubbing up on it and asking
for more pets human affection is one
thing I truly want but I'm scared to ask
for it first I need a family that
understands that and will give me some
time to Blossom
and now we also have our dog of the week
and his name is kojo his animal number
is 47243
and he says I'm a happy-go-lucky guy
that just wants to spend his time out on
walks with my future family I'm Lively
and vivacious and sure to line up any
room I stood with two I bring so much
joy and excitement to the lives of
anyone I meet but I'm ready to give it
all to my forever hope
we will also be
um alongside the dunyana County
government at the Butterfield Community
Center for their operation Community
sweep where the donana county is
offering some trash removal services and
we will be there to give some free
canine the dhpp and felines the fdrcp
vaccines and we will also offer rabies
vaccines at ten dollars and this is
available at the Butterfield Community
Center for the Butterfield residence
and now to keep on with our theme of
staying neuter and expand your education
I'd like to pose a question which is why
spay and neuter and a lot of people ask
that it's an elective surgery so people
want to know why vet clinics animal
shelters and why we all always push it
well there's a few reasons one of them
being that it does potentially increase
their lifespan there was the University
of Georgia study back in 2013 where they
studied 7 000 I believe canine death
records and they found a trend in which
that the
Alliance the life expectancy of the
state or neutered animals it was 13.8
percent longer for neutered males and
26.3 longer for State females
um this uh might have a
a direct effect because when you stand
neuter you completely eliminate the risk
of certain reproductive cancers like the
uterine or ovarian cancers because
they're removed completely so there's no
cause for no reason no risk of cancer
um as well as the male testicular cancer
that's that risk is completely gone
because the testes are removed it also
greatly reduces the risk of other
reproductive cancers like the mammary uh
cancer risk in females is greatly
lowered it's about like one percent and
prostatic Cancers for males is also
greatly lowered
staying and neutering also decreases
undesirable behaviors like spraying and
marking for males they always want to
mark their territory when they're
neutered especially when they're
neutered early they never develop that
behavior or hardly ever they are less
likely to develop that behavior roaming
as well male dogs escaping the yard
roaming trying to find a female to mate
with when they're neutered that desire
completely goes away
um howling and yelling if you've heard
pests especially that are in heat they
will yell they'll yell they'll be
they'll be very loud but when they're
spayed that behavior is completely gone
it's eliminated same with just general
territorial dominating aggressive
behavior especially in males in mounting
when they are neutered those behaviors
decrease oh if not are completely
eliminated
um and of course
um one of these are all important
reasons but another one that we
definitely press uh expanded or for is
because spaying and neutering just
decreases the overall population every
stray animal that ever comes into any
animal shelter any Vet Clinic they are
there because their parents weren't
spayed or neutered and usually
um part of a usually unwanted
um so we would like to eliminate the
kind of just epidemic basically unwanted
litters by just spaying and neutering
thank you
okay thank you very much Amy we
appreciate that information and
um thanks for the introduction and we'll
see you next week
all right so next is going to be our
jobs of the week and Irene para from the
economic development department will be
announcing those
good afternoon mayor city council Irene
body with economic development
okay we begin with the city of Las
Cruces who is hiring for an active
transportation coordinator this position
pays between 58 000 and the 83 000 a
year and closes on May 5th or excuse me
yeah nope
April sorry
my mind went blank there for a moment uh
why it sounds is looking for a child and
youth program assistant this position
pays 17.39 an hour and closes on
December 28th Nevada research and
Engineering is hiring for a document
specialist and editor this position pays
between 29 000 and 59 000 a year
depending on experience and closes on
June 6th American beverages is hiring
for two warehouse person and loader this
position pays 17.90 an hour depending on
experience and closes on April 25th Kids
Care DDS is hiring for a receptionist
this position pays between 22 000 a year
and a thirty thousand year depending on
experience and closes on April 8th and
bohana Houston is hiring for a
construction Observer this position pays
between forty four thousand and sixty
thousand a year depending on experience
and closes on March 7th
and for more information you can contact
the local Workforce Connection office at
575-524-6250 or visit at their location
at 226 South Alameda or online at employ
nm.com
thank you
thank you thank you for for those uh
descriptions I read and next we're going
to have are some presentations one's
going to be to The Optimist Club which I
see them out there and counselor bate
that will be doing those
and um for The Optimist Club we actually
don't have any of the items
okay let's go ahead and go well let's
let's do the national surveyors week and
then we'll find out what um
thank you then um may we please have
Virginia back and David Acosta
come up
and any of your guests that you would
like
where do we go
thank you we have our Proclamation for
the national surveyors week
whereas National surveyors week was
intentionally proclaimed by President
Ronald Reagan on February 18 1984 and is
dedicated to recognizing and promoting
the importance of surveying profession
in the United States
and whereas former Noble Mayors include
George Washington Thomas Jefferson
Abraham Lincoln Meriwether Lewis William
Clark and Henry David Thoreau among many
others and whereas a surveying has been
an essential element in the development
of the human environment since the
beginning of recorded history and is
required in the planning and execution
of nearly every form of construction
with its most familiar modern uses in
the fields of Transportation building
construction communities mapping and the
definition of legal boundaries for land
ownership and whereas in order to
accomplish their objective surveyors use
elements of engineering physics
mathematics law and history
and whereas the nature of surveying has
changed dramatically over time as it is
no longer limited to the description and
location of land boundaries and whereas
geotetic
surveys determine precise global
positioning for activities such as
aircraft and missile navigation and
whereas
cartographic surveys are used for
mapping and charting as well as photo
grammatory and the science of using
aerial photographs for measurement and
map production and whereas many services
are now provided through the use of
sophisticated surveying equipment and
techniques including satellite-borne
remote sensing devices and automated
positioning measuring recording and
plotting equipment and whereas the city
of Las Cruces recognizes surveyors as a
force of positive change and appreciates
all their contributions to the community
now therefore we the mayor and City
Council of Las Cruces New Mexico do
hereby proclaim the week of March 19th
through March 25th 2023 as National
surveyors week
thank you thank you so much for your
thoughtful Proclamation
I'm accepting this for the professional
surveyors and all New Mexico surveyors
thank you so much appreciate it
foreign
just to let you know how important they
are anyone who's ever purchased a home
if you don't have a survey you're not
buying the house so
if I may just add a couple of more words
you might notice my colors that I'm
wearing today and NMSU is very proud to
be the only educational institution in
our state that offers Advanced degrees
in surveying and geomatics which is the
current title and with that we thank all
of you the members of the community for
your continued support for all hundreds
of years and we look forward to the
future and working with all of you for
development construction and residential
expansion thank you
[Applause]
okay so actually the next item is is the
presentation from the Optimus Club to
the Las Cruces Police Department
specifically the school resource
officers so I'm going to ask if the
Optimus Club want to come forward
so the school resource officers if
you're not aware are the men and women
at Las Cruces Police Department who are
in the middle schools and high schools
and so it's it's a partnership between
the Las Cruces Police Department and Las
Cruces public schools and so the
optimists want to give them something on
behalf of their Club their organization
I apologize for the
for not having that available
are you through sir
okay
okay my name is Lynn Hampton I'm the
president of the local Optimist Club The
Optimist Club of Las Cruces
um
we're here today to honor the school
resource officers and as a mayor was
saying the resource officers are Law
Enforcement Officers with arrest Powers
who work full-time or part-time in the
school setting and they all are armed
and most of them carry other restraint
like handcuffs as well
one of the reasons that we are doing
this it's a program The Optimist Club
has been doing for years
in July 1965 a discussion between past
Optimus International president Carl
Bowen and former FBI director Jay Edgar
Hoover resulted in the birth of the
respect for law program
this is the fourth most popular program
with more than 1500 clubs participating
each year
over a quarter of a million law
enforcement officers have been honored
by thousands of optimist clubs around
the world for over 50 years
the mission of The Optimist Club is
providing hope and positive vision
an optimists bring out the best in youth
our communities and ourselves
the purpose of The Alchemist Club is to
develop optimism as a philosophy of Life
utilizing the tenets of our Optimus
Creed
to promote an act of interest in Good
Government and civic affairs
to inspire respect for the law to
promote patriotism and work for
international court and friendship among
all people
to Aid and encourage the development of
Youth
in the belief that giving of oneself and
the service of others will advance the
well-being of humankind
community life in the world optimists
believe it is important for children to
grow up with a strong belief in abiding
by the law respecting law enforcement
and doing what they can to maintain
peace
and that's part of our program as I said
we are here to honor school resource
officers and what we have we're giving
them a certificate of appreciation
for each of them there are 11 of them
and I'll read you their names as well as
a
desk Creed
and decree this is our Optimist Creed
and I don't know if I have time to read
it so I'll
not read it
and next I will read the names of the
school resource officers that we are
recognizing here today
uh I will try not to butcher it too
badly and I will let's give all right
uh
Octavio Barrera
Christopher Carrell Lowe
Anthony Harrison
Robert hogane
Jose Prado
Jesus canonis
David Ramirez
Gabriel Rodriguez
Gilbert Sanchez
Jason saucedo and their supervisor Manny
Melendez so with that we are recognize
another
thank you
all right
this is theirs
okay
foreign
school resource officers unfortunately
aren't here because they're at the
federal law enforcement training center
receiving additional training in active
threat or active shooter training so
they can continue to keep our kids safe
but then also provide training to school
staff and other people in the school
district system thank you guys so much
appreciate it
thank you very much and that concludes
our presentations and proclamations okay
thank you counselor
okay so now we're going to go to the
conflict of interest statement this is
where I ask if any member of the city
council city manager or any member of
the city staff has any known conflict of
interest on any item on the agenda
nun Graham
none none none none okay see none and
then counselor Flores is out of town so
she's not available here today now we're
going to move on to public participation
this is where members of the public can
speak for a total of seven minutes
told three minutes for public
participation and a total of four
minutes for an item that's on the agenda
all that we ask is if it's on the agenda
if you could wait to that item comes
before the council and then speak your
your concerns or if you have to leave
please let us know and you can talk
about it and then that way their Council
doesn't respond back
also we can't discuss any pending
litigation as well okay I usually start
on my first first row on my left looks
like Dr Nelson can't wait to get out of
that chair and uh
oh
my name is Dr Earl Nissen and I live in
Las Cruces
I behind a paper clip I get there are
three handouts I want to make quick
reference to
the first thing is I want to mention
that the mayor has notified the
oversight committee that there won't be
a work session because as he says I am
sorry but there is not enough support
referring to the city council to hold
the work session on this issue
if we had
I would have brought up the very first
handout which could please oversight in
the United States
this just quickly introduces you to the
National Association
for civilian oversight of law
enforcement
that like the gold standard for
police oversight committees and review
boards across the country
and I want I want to quit since we don't
have much time I want to go to
app the fifth page
of the handout is a website
that the
association has called police oversight
by jurisdiction
if you bring this up on your screen you
can click on any one of these cities
enable it will pop up the
[Music]
citizens review board or oversight board
that they have in that Community there
are 150
here I've learned that there are 50 more
out there in the country
that are not listed with the association
and one of them after the four pages
I've given you Toledo Ohio
they have had a citizen's review board
since 1991.
I think the interesting thing if you
look through some of these you will see
they've been in existence for a long
time
especially
Honolulu they've been in existence with
a police board since 1973.
and and so therefore the
the statement that they don't work
can't be given because of all of these
are very active boards
then the last page well we've gotten
kind of interested in what Anaheim
has for a police review board so I've
given you a pop-up on that and you can
see that they just had a March 16th
meeting thank you Dr Nissen Nissan
Nissan the three minutes have expired
well the council each has copies of them
and I'd be more than they'll be more
than happy to look at them and do it
second around yeah maybe next you can
come back in two weeks you can come back
on April 3rd
but I wanted to describe the claims one
that I gave out at the nacp meeting if I
could just for a second
I'll give you one minute okay okay there
there is a
a third one called claims paid by
doniana county and city of Las Cruces
for police misconduct
I did an inspection of public records
and I came up with this that
the doniana county sheriff's department
which has approximately 160 officers
in four years there were nine claims
against officers for a total
of ten thousand seven hundred and ten
dollars
to the city of Las Cruces has
approximately 170 officers
there were 48 claims filed against
officers resulting in over the four
years claims paid out of 17 million
421 thousand
and in the four years that I looked at
the Indiana Sheriff's Department
did not have a single place shooting
police shooting resulting in death
the largest amount we paid out was to
the Ben the Ben
Venezuela family for 8 million
let's finish your last sentence well
thank you Dr Neeson one thing that I'd
like the public to understand is
the city of Las Cruces is self-insured
so when we pay a claim everything is
registered doniana County Sheriff's
Department although a very professional
police organization is actually insured
by the multi-line insurance Authority
therefore when they have a claim it's
actually paid by a third party and and
that's how that's how those are paid so
you're not going to find through a
information act any of their claims
because it's paid for by a third party
and so what little bit that you're
showing here are probably little small
incidentals that they rather not even
file with their insurance department or
insurance company and that's why that's
why there's such a huge disparity
I'm sorry your time is up I just wanted
to respond to that and we'll see you on
April 3rd
anyone else on the first row
second row
uh yes ma'am and then uh
retired representative Antonio Lujan
oh yes ma'am
hi I'm Diana Salgado Dao I'd like an
extra minute or two because I don't read
that test but anyway I'll go as fast as
I can I'm a professional licensed
counselor here in the the city I've
dealt with elderly and preschool in
private sector and public sector I'd
like to speak to you about the topic of
domestic violence
through my work and living in Las Cruces
I've seen that the victims of domestic
violence get ignored When Calls for help
are made
but not in the way you might think so
we have a responsive and professional
police force and programs which can help
so let me explain domestic violence is
considered conflict in the form of
aggressive or violent Behavior between
two adults most DV calls are not
one-time occurrences
the officers see the same people over
and over not noticing or understanding
the trauma that goes on before the
officer knocks on the door or they
arrive on the scene the officers follow
protocol of de-escalation make arrests
if there's evidence of bodily harm
otherwise they fill out a report and
nothing is done because they cannot do
anything about two adult adults choosing
to fight and the cycle of violence goes
on
Children and Families have told me of
their hiding in the bedroom as someone
drops to the floor they hear the screams
the thud on the floor
police are called by neighbors children
are warned not to say anything in fear
of being taken away and parents don't
tell on each other for the same reason
the entire family
is traumatized by repeated events
people come to the point they can't
take the conflict and either they fight
or they check out with suicide because
they don't know another way
as a therapist as a required reporter of
abuse this is a very sad situation to me
some may have physical marks of the
fight and others have emotional scars
but the cycle continues
in another DV case we found out the
gentleman was raised in foster homes
group homes and hospitals after being
taken from his parents as a child
the traumatized by removal from the home
and later systems of restraint and
Punishment he did the same to his
partner he lacked healing and emotional
regulation skills fighting always
started with verbal assaults her trying
to leave and scratching and biting to
get away from his restraint taking away
your car keys and beating her car up
instead of her because he knew better
she eventually went to jail overnight
for leaving Marx on him then in Hopeless
attempts to escape the violence she
ended up in the hospital two times for
attempted suicide through the experience
of shared homes and separate separate
homes the violence followed all over
town
along with more property damage breaking
and entering in homelessness two
consenting adults labeled as domestic
violence I just have about another
minute could I have another minute we'll
give you one more minute thank you so
much
two consenting adults labeled as
domestic violence with over 50
documented calls for help had no
prosecutions no treatment for the
individuals I pray that they get help
and change the ending of their story
before it is too late I have also seen
the positive effects of mandated
interventions in DWIs therapy for
parents and children of child abuse we
have good programs we want to keep
families together
but I also pose a question to you
for your consideration how can we
connect the services we offer in this
community with the need for intervention
allowing the fighting to go on and not
have consequences of treatment is just
not right the city's individuals have
been involved with or in the database
let's just connect the dots of all these
people and all these events that is
multiplying to get them help and take
down the barriers of those who are
involved in domestic violence and
labeled as such thank you Mr you'll be
happy to hear that this fraternity
Gerald Byers has and the city of Las
Cruces are working together to try to
see how they can assist you know perhaps
maybe even adding someone in the staff
here in the city to assist with the D.A
regarding domestic violence terrific
it's a real need thank you so much for
listening
representative Antonio Lujan
good to see you
thank you Mr Mayor good afternoon and
good afternoon members of the council as
well as SAS support staff representative
even though I called you by name I just
need you to state your name oh my name
is Antonio Lujan and I am here in the
capacity of representing Las esperanzas
a Grassroots organization that has been
in existence for 25 years
our president Martha Rodriguez happens
to be out of town my our vice presidents
on this Stacy Aguirre is currently here
and um
uh I have been traumatized by mainframes
and punch cards so I don't have fancy
technology but I do have a handout Mr
Mayor I'd like to pass out okay can you
give that to the clerk please yes sir
and representative can you talk into the
microphone can you kind of yeah there
you go thank you
thank you and our proposal is
to conduct the study to reduce Lumen and
Amador by one lane a half a lane on each
side
and therefore making room for pedestrian
traffic bicycles and also shade and
Greenery so that they can calm the
traffic as they pass them
and
there are some businesses that are
circulating petitions as well as some
people in the neighborhood that support
this effort and
I would just ask that the city
give ample consideration to this
proposal and you will certainly have the
support of Las esperanzas and I believe
we're in talks with AARP as well
and they will be able to assist us in
the short period of time that we had we
were able to come up with a short sketch
of what we kind of envisioned we didn't
put in any detail about being optimistic
and hoping that the city will react
positively to this then
or I I I'm sure that the city
Roads Department can do a much better
job than we did
thank you Mr Mayor and I really do ask
for your consideration on this issue
it's very important to the quality of
life of those of us that are in the
middle of those two streets especially
in the evening with the
drag racing that goes on
and I want to thank you all for your
service and thank you for your time
thank you representative representative
before you go I just have a quick
question did I hear you say
half a lane on each side or a lane on
east side because this shows two lanes
are you still uh yes Mr Miller that's
taking it to casady point we did is
measure one lane
and the size of that and taking into
account Ada sidewalk requirements then
we kind of I tried to get more or less
an approximation of what it would look
like
so it would be two lanes
and the rest would be reserved for
pedestrian it's with accordance with the
ordinance that the city has adopted on
complete streets okay I thought I heard
you say earlier you said half a lane on
each side yes so because it's four lanes
right now so if we I believe it's
strictly against Mr Mayor
um right now Lowman and Amador are four
lanes
I I hope that I'm mistaken but I believe
it's the village okay and then you want
a lunch bet on that
yeah so okay well let me let me look at
this and then I think it said that you
were
you were thinking from uh
was it Maine to Solano yes so knowing
that from Solano up until
Shore leave it the way it is yes you're
just talking about from Main Street to
well that's an interesting concept
representative if
I'm like 99.99 positive there are four
lanes on both ways so thank you and just
uh note Mr Mayor that uh
after Solano the street Narrows there
also so we're the only ones that get the
really the bulk of the trash gotcha yeah
that might actually solve a problem
there's one business that it's so the
food is so good that it blocks one whole
Lane and uh so yeah okay well let me
take a look at it so thank you very much
I would appreciate it I'll be in touch
thank you very much
it's four yeah I I knew it was yeah
that's all I was trying to get a lunch
from him you messed that up just kidding
okay uh hold on come here hold on
Mayfield is there anyone else on that
second row we're good okay yes yes ma'am
my name's Dolores Archuleta and I am a
member of LA espinances and have been
one for a long time but recently more
sort of paying my dues
and not having the time or good health
to keep on going but whatever you can do
for them it would be appreciated and I
bring with me this book that was written
by the late
Patrick Beckett that he wrote and
published in 2003 and the whole book is
about 1881 and that's when the railroad
came to Las Cruces and he says I was in
the city council at that time and he
says to Dolores the Mesquite District
today looks much the same as it did in
1881.
and if we thought if he thought that was
a compliment to us
it is wrong it did take a long time to
get the things that we wanted done and
for example we have the Klein Park and
that land was donated to us and it was I
grew up and raised there in the Mesquite
historic district
and the
Klein park by name was given to us
and it was full of bushes mosquitoes
Mesquite bushes rocks so we could never
play there
um
the uh and I lost my my
train of thought here you were talking
about Klein Park and how it was given to
you and you grew up in that area yes
okay then I graduated high school
graduated Training School nurses nurses
school and got married in that order and
Klein Park was still the same
so whatever it is that you can do for
them it would be appreciated now of
interest to the police department
because they've been around for in the
news recently
they were also um
created in 1881 and that was because the
brailroad brought a lot of problems to
them
uh the city and but there was no money
for um money to pay for the for the
police department and you might share
this with sin with Senators uh the chief
of Dominguez what they did was ask
people to donate money
every every um
two months and then they could pay the
salary of the two police officers that
they wanted to um
to help with and they gave them no no
there's no mention of uh training or a
uniform I think they just put a badge on
and a gun and that and that was them and
they started out with maybe two dollars
three dollars twenty five dollars every
two months that they donated towards the
fund to have the police department there
so the police department have come a
long way thank you
thank you good to see you
all right that was the third row anyone
else
I see Julia Brown there good to see you
Julia
fourth row anyone in the fourth row
fifth row
that's
six row is one any one six row
mayor council
today I'd like to talk about political
hypocrisy excuse me Juan I need you to
state your name please Juan Garcia yeah
today I'd like to speak about political
hypocrisy and arrogance from one of our
councils at the sixth March Council
session and I quote we are coming for
you next Bachelor Pete
whether people like it or not the
counselor is going to impose her
Progressive socialist views on the
citizens of Las Cruces whether they like
it or not Progressive or regressive
ideology reinvigorates racial
divisiveness and victimhood key elements
for social justice what is she coming
after next the three crosses Las Tres
Cruces Maybe
another counselor and I quote how dare
we go to a bunch of non-indigenous
people in this world's war was offensive
and so what my question is how dare we
as residents homeowners taxpayers who
have purchased land from you the city
government to weigh in if the street
should be renamed because our council is
on a history cleansing Crusade and I
quote I think we were derailed when
residents on that street took action not
to have the street changed and the quote
darn those puts good residents who won a
voice in the name of the street
the deaths of indigenous women or any
innocent person whether attributed to
words such as or unto the cover of
terms like reproductive health is
horrible where's the call for social
justice to stop the mutilation and
barbaric deaths occur here in Las Cruces
in abortion clinics
that won't happen because termination of
innocent babies is a fight for the
greater Progressive cause there's
already three abortion clinics here in
Las Cruces and so the governor is giving
us one more
to keep the industry of death alive and
well
another counselor was focused on
removing the bias that could arise when
attempting to erase or rewrite history
perhaps we have a history cleansing or
thought crime Department to ensure that
Progressive ideology is followed and
imposed among the unwilling should be
created
Across the Nation progressives now use
the Alinsky tactics on History the
target what the formula was pick a
Target freeze it personalize it and
finally polarize it it is no longer
reserved for living people historical
figures and even episodes in Las Cruces
received the same treatment
history and progress are linked history
tells us the story of progress and
progress is possible by studying history
and in some cases learning from past
mistakes not by erasing
progressives are determined to destroy
not just statues but historical memories
because they know American history is
incompatible with their goals at the
same time since since the last briefing
there's been a 25 percent increase in
crime in Las Cruces
and I like to enter if you want to give
that to the clerk please
okay so that was a sixth row anyone else
on the sixth floor
gentlemen yes
she's gonna need you to state your name
please
yes Mr Mayor my name is Michael Potts
and I've just returned from a month-long
family emergency in Virginia and I come
around at about and find that this
Council has made the most of gregarious
grab for power that I've seen in a long
time
now
if anybody is and I know that you've
tried to at times school this Council
and the proper procedures and pro uh uh
of governments governments and stuff
but let me give you a little uh
I'm sorry let me just start over again
you tried to school this Council as far
as how the government works and stuff
and I'd just like to expound on that
since what you've been uh faced with is
with the deaf ears and stuff and they
haven't listened to you at all as to how
to properly govern Las Cruces now during
that time period while I was gone I seem
to miss the meeting where the city of
Las Cruces gave this Council the ability
to be the moral voice of Las Cruces I
seem to miss the meeting that Las Cruces
gave this Council the ability to be the
centership committee of Las Cruces
you know we face this before and I just
want to say that to this Council that
this is the United States of America and
we're a constitutional republic with a
representative type of government
and if you've had the opportunity to
read the amount the
preamble to our constitution you'll know
it starts with we the people we the
people means everybody in this audience
everybody in this chamber and stuff we
have the power to appoint or elect you
to do what we want you to do you're not
around about there to make your own
personal agenda and decide what you want
to do you're supposed to listen to us to
We the People we're your boss we're the
ones that tell you what to do we elected
you or appointed you to be in that seat
and we can take you out of that seat
come the next election now what I wanted
to talk about is last year we talked
about Mountain Drive and and that
decision was already made and now let's
come back up again seems like and I
wanted to remind this Council that these
are the things that you have caused the
people on that street to have to do the
driver's license and other DMV
registrations have to be changed
Social Security documents have to be
changed bank accounts have to be changed
relatives not to be notified of the
street change electric company has to be
notified loan holders including mortgage
companies have to be notified
professional alumni organizations have
to be notified
you're gonna run me out of time here and
I'm sorry about that Google and Driver
GPS and maps including satellites they
have to be notified also
this is the things that you're putting
the people that you represent through
and you change any other street name
here in Las Cruces they have to do the
same thing
you know as far as I'm concerned you
should be ashamed of the way you're
treating your constituents if I just
think that is entirely I'm sorry your
time is expected I know my time's up
this is important to tell this Council
that they're screwing up
sorry thank you thank you
wow Sarah makes her way down here I just
uh last Saturday I was with the NAACP
and let me just tell you I bragged about
you all I said this is the most educated
city council ever worked with they're
all college graduates two have doctors
degrees four have master's degrees I
said do you think I can tell these
strong these Highly Educated highly
motivated women how to how to do things
absolutely not so you guys do a great
job by the way okay I just want you to
know that okay
okay sir
thank you City councilors and mayor my
name is yeah I'm sorry my name is Sarah
Smith one of the items on your agenda
today is to designate areas around El
Paseo Solano and West Picacho as
Metropolitan Redevelopment areas because
of the fact that these areas are
blighted with problems related to quote
infrastructure condition Public Services
crime housing condition Etc
by designating these areas as
Metropolitan Redevelopment areas the
city would be able to facilitate
improvements to these areas but I'm
concerned that these improvements will
only be superficial and not change the
overall trends
if the current property crime vandalism
drug usage and homeless situation are
not improved these areas are likely to
just decay all over again
downtown Main Street was given as an
example of where the city has
successfully redeveloped an area and I
agree that Main Street does look better
now however numerous business owners
from that area have come to this Council
to report that they are suffering
frequent broken windows robberies public
urination and other issues you may
recall the owner of the yoga studio who
was here a couple of months ago and told
you that one of her teachers had been
attacked with rocks thrown at her car
and threatened quote I am going to rape
and kill you
as you know El Paseo Solano and Picacho
are areas that are undesirable for
businesses and homeowners not just
because they look run down but also
because of high criminal activity drug
usage and homelessness in those areas
when I have asked about whether the city
can address substance abuse as one of
the root causes of these problems I have
been told that the city does not have
the funding to make the strides needed
in substance abuse treatment
yet in today's meeting you are
allocating nearly a million dollars to
the film industry and I've seen many
millions of dollars being allocated to
other projects that are not nearly as
critical to the overall well-being and
safety of our city as substance abuse
treatment
rather than waiting on the state to fix
this issue it seems like perhaps the
city council needs to consider
prioritizing substance abuse treatment
over other projects even if it means
stopping the funding of other projects
in order to save up the money needed for
substance abuse treatment perhaps some
of the coveted relief funds could be
directed towards this since a case could
be made that substance abuse increased
during the pandemic
it seems like the city needs to take a
hard look at other projects to see where
funding can be redirected
Las Cruces could pave the way in this by
making a commitment to stop or reduce
funding to some other areas until
substance abuse is adequately handled
this would be responsible stewardship of
the money that the city council has been
entrusted with for the good of this
community
Las Cruces children families and
businesses are counting on you to make
our community a safe place to live and
work and I urge you to prioritize
substance abuse treatment thank you
[Applause]
okay anyone else on that road
okay seventh row
eighth
a throw Rick oh I'm sorry yes ma'am
mayor council
I am Martha de la Viano Biermann I live
on the one block street called
Mountain Drive this statement is about
race baiting and race margarine as a
woman of 100 percent Mexican heritage I
am absurdly branded by race baiters and
race mongers as a woman of color
even though you can see I am white I am
genetically 32 percent Native American I
have lived on Mountain Drive for
16 years and like my neighbors who
include others of Mexican heritage and
the Cherokee Indian I do not want my
street change most of the residents told
you that last year the Cambridge
Dictionary describes race baiting as
the act of intentionally encouraging
racism or anger about issues relating to
race often to get a political Advantage
the example in the dictionary is in the
sentence they call him a race-baiting
demagogue who tried to Fan racial hatred
Wiki dictionary defines race Monger as
the one who causes or fuels racial or
ethnic tensions or
who want one who often uses racial
arguments or references in context where
there are perceived to be less or not
relevant in the Washington Post reported
on May 19 2016 nine in ten Native
Americans in the survey said they are
not offended by the Washington Redskins
name on August 10 2019 a new Washington
Post survey found that Native Americans
are more likely to be proud than
offended by the name of the Washington
Redskins
nevertheless organized subversive race
baiters and race-mongers succeeded in
intimidating the Redskins owners to
rename the team as the Washington
football team Race baiters and
race-mongers in the Las Cruces Community
especially the city council should know
that we are on to you and that you're
going to be widely exposed for what you
are and now and at election time by the
way some of you cite the name changing
by the Secretary of interior Deb Holland
as justification for what you do do you
know that Holland is 50 percent
Norwegian by her father where does
Holland or the White City councilor get
the right to tell Native Americans and
others that they have to change the
long-standing names because they are
quote racist unquote
thank you
okay so that was seventh row Rick did
you
and the council does have your pictures
that you had sent so come on forward
thank you
hello Mike my name is Richard Renault
and uh now where are the pictures
the council members each one have
happened okay you got them all right
um
there's a picture of
Elizabeth Garrett and apologize
what brought me here is uh well I'm
pulling the same uh
uh thinking as as
what they've been bringing up changing
history changing history here July 15
2019 Las Cruces City council meeting it
really changed my life I wasn't here I
saw it on video
it was so insulting to history I studied
it I talked to people who were on the
committee have you seen
that meeting the July 15
2019 I know Cassandra has uh
Ghana has have you guys seen the meeting
I think you guys really need to see the
video of the July 15
2019 meeting
renaming Motel Boulevard to Pat Garrett
Boulevard
it didn't pass
Packard's wife and so when I was doing
research it was like
how how was that not authentic Las
Cruces history
Pat Garrett's wife Apollo Nadia
Gutierrez Garrett
their daughter Elizabeth Garrett
who wrote the state song
but now
it's like the city council decided
they're not important
they're associated with that big bad
white guy with a big gun
murdered people for a living
even though he was a sheriff when he did
it
and I don't like the characterization
that representative Vasquez and
counselor Flores gave to Messiah
basically they said Messiah was trinket
salesman enough hats whistles and bells
of Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid we
don't need any more
I don't think we need any more
that's a direct quote from Gabe Vasquez
we see what's going on
we saw it at the school board
renaming onyati High School
just ignorance
and in the end they named it organ
Mountain High School
well onyates
Expedition named the organs
so you're back to where you started
Subway thank you
that was the seventh throw anyone else
okay ethro
last row anyone else on my left
okay now I'm gonna turn to the right
first row anyone
second row
third
fourth Randy Randy McMillan
thank you mayor and councilwoman
before I start I just I couldn't help
but notice
the condescension and the arrogance
that I saw in
many of our Council people as people
that you disagree with spoke
it was disgusting
just like that look right there your
smile
it's disgusting
we're people too okay and we have
feelings and the way you sit up there in
arrogance and I want to compliment you
mayor you didn't you listened
and Becky you didn't either and I
appreciate that
I'm sorry
I'm sorry Becky councilor Duran I did
not mean that as disrespect
wow I'm here to talk about another issue
issue of homelessness in our community
but I couldn't help but see that and I
was amazed by it
this is an email I got from a I'm a
commercial real estate broker here in
Las Cruces this is an email I got from a
client this past week
just so you know and see what's going on
we now have in incidents at two
locations in Las Cruces
and it's even worse in Albuquerque I
tried to talk to the owner of our
company
about what's going on and about the
property we were hoping to buy there in
Las Cruces
and he's so fed up with this mess that
he won't even consider it and he said I
don't know why we own anything in New
Mexico
you all asked for a job
you all asked to be elected
you said you had smarts you said you had
ideas you said you had leadership
abilities to fix our problems
you have completely failed on this issue
crime is worse homelessness is far worse
and we have large investors
telling us today they're not going to
come to our Market
I sent this email to the mayor and the
city manager
and I'm not sure which one of you did
something but one of you did and I want
to thank you for that because he sent me
another email that said Randy they did
address the problem but we're still
we're still not willing to come to Las
Cruces at this time
so thank you Mr Mayor or EPO I'm not
sure who who did something but you did
respond and I appreciate it and I know
my email to you was pretty tough
um I've been accused of complaining and
not having any ideas my time is up I
would like for 45 seconds to read eight
ideas about the homelessness please
one by the way I say this in context of
they just released a report today from
California that spends more money than
any state in the Union more money per
capita than any state in the Union
they're spending a hundred thousand per
homeless person
and their problem is worse so the answer
is not money one provide housing for
those who are physically mentally unable
to work
our current housing program which are
costing us between 200 and 300 000 per
unit is not the answer to this problem
it's making a lot of non-profit people
rich but it's not causing it's not
creating the homes that we need do your
math 200 to 300 000 per unit for Cracker
Box Apartments is what we're spending
did you know that
no you didn't because you didn't do the
math
two
require people we require people to work
and provide jobs for those people
doing work for the city that the city
needs and I know some of that's being
done but we need more of that to be done
three pay people a living wage and take
half of that money yes I'm sorry for
interrupting your time's up okay I have
eight very good ideas here
and I hope they don't land on deaf ears
none of these ideas have happened in
California and we've seen what has
happened there
the answer is not throwing more money at
it and it is not looking down on people
you just you think you disagree with
with smugness okay Randy disgusting
okay so that was a that was the fourth
row of anyone else on the fourth row
fifth row
sixth Row in George
foreign
George Pearson I came for an agenda item
but with the presentation from Los
Esperanza I want to speak to that that
idea goes directly to all the things
that we've been talking about about
pedestrian traffic safety
the lomador corridor is way over built
especially between
Solano and Main Street so looking at
that as a project would be a great thing
to do you had checked my own here two
years ago and one of his thoughts the
strong towns idea is listen to the
community for what they want well you
heard it
then go and figure out what you can do
the smallest incremental thing that you
can do
then go do it
and then repeat the process so
addressing this issue
would be a good is a good idea and needs
to be included in the projects that we
work towards thank you
thanks George no I I like the concept I
I can't I can't remember what street
it's on but there's there's a door that
literally if you were to walk out you'd
be right on I guess it's Lowman so I'll
I'll get with the representative and
maybe we'll get a little bit more uh
schematics and and let Council see I
bring in the public works and the city
management team so thanks all right so
that was uh fifth row sixth row anyone
good afternoon mayor council Jennifer
Garcia Kozlowski executive director for
Downtown Las Cruces partnership first I
want to say thank you for what you guys
do I know it's not easy especially
hearing us on a regular when we get up
to complain and so I do want to
appreciate that you guys take the time
and effort to listen to what we have to
say however I'm here on a good note I
just want to be able to say that
this partnership in our Las Cruces Arts
and Cultural District is very supportive
of the presentation that Mr Lujan
brought to you we do see that something
helping with the Slowdown of traffic on
Lowman and excuse me Amador would be
advantageous to our downtown district as
well as to the Mesquite historic
district to which you know the arts and
culture District overlays so we think
that is a very important thing that is
all I have to say to you today so thank
you for your time
thank you Jennifer
okay that was the seventh row anyone
else Heathrow last row anyone else on my
right
okay that'll end public participation so
we appreciate that and and next is uh I
have a closed meeting statement to read
so city council met
in closed session at 11 03 a.m March 13
2023 the following members were in
attendance counselors Flores bencomo
Graham Abita Gandara and myself Ken
miyakashima staff present was ikani Tamo
peo assistant city manager Sonia Delgado
assistant city manager Barbara de Leon
chief administrative officer Jocelyn
Garrison interim City attorney Miguel
Dominguez Chief Las Cruces Police
Department he left at 11 30 A.M Haley
our grant outside attorney she came in
at 11 45 a.m the meeting adjourned at 12
51 pm and for the record Las Cruces City
Council made a closed session to discuss
the following litigation regarding to
Francisco Estrella versus City Las
Cruces
ET ald 307 hyphen CV hyphen 2021-01309
which is closed pursuant to nmsa 1978
section
10-15-1h number seven
number two to discuss Penny litigation
related to nmprc case numbers
19-00099 hyphen UT and 19
00348 hyphen UT and
21-0064-ut and
23-00046-ut and potential New Mexico
Supreme Court litigation regarding these
nmprc cases which is closed pursuant to
nmsa 1970 section
10-15-1h number seven
the third one we discussed was Penny
litigation regarding related to Robert
Ramsey Jr versus the city of Las Cruces
D hyphen
307-cv-2022-00406 which is closed
pursuant to nmsa 1978 section
10-15-1h number seven and the last
case was to discuss payment litigation
related to Philip San Felipe versus the
city of Las Cruces
D hyphen
307-cv-2021
hyphen02 305 which is closed pursuant to
nmsa 1978 section
10-15-1h number seven
okay so next is the acceptance
into accept the agenda and I believe
Council wants to remove item
the last
7.3.3 7.3 okay
so I need a motion in a second to
approve the agenda as amended with item
7.3 for discussion so moved Graham
second Aveda okay motion paid by Council
Graham second by councilor beta
Christine
this is an emotion to accept the agenda
as presented with removal of item 7.3
for discussion
counselor beta yes councilor Graham yes
councilor Ben Como yes councilor Korean
yes counselor Flores is absent Council
yes and mayor yes
okay item 7.3 resolution 23-107
need a motion in a second
second by counselor Graham
and was there a specific question mayor
Pro tem or did you want a full
presentation I want a full presentation
yeah
Mr Richard Hanway
good afternoon mayor council Richard
Hadley for the record City or Transit
manager
Council
um Richard Hanway again today we're
going to discuss the Roadrunner Transit
Agency safety Plan update
um the FDA which is where we get our
funding is requiring all Urban systems
of public transit to comply with an
agency safety plan they've required this
since 2020.
the plan is based on a safety management
system which has long been used by the
airline industry most important reasons
in the plant are to elevate importance
of safety programs improve the safety
for Riders and Transit employees
improves confidence within the transit
system and makes good business sense
what is the SMS the SMS is a formal
top-down organization-wide approach to
managing safety risk and ensuring the
effectiveness of a Transit agency's
safety risk mitigation
the safety management system does
include everybody from the city manager
all the way down to front light
employees it is something that we have
been implementing since 2020
um this plan is just an update to that
2020 plan
what it does it brings management and
labor together in the process it detects
and corrects safety problems earlier
shares and analyzes safety data more
effectively measure safety performance
more carefully and systematically
the first version again was approved by
City Council in December of 2020 in 2021
ft added additional requirements to the
plan basically they were requiring
Frontline employees to be more involved
in the plan development which included
the addressing of infectious infectious
diseases of course was driven by covid
um and the updated safety targets to be
updated as needed by the agency or at
least reviewed annually
Roadrunner China staff also clarified
procedures in the plan and FTA requires
city council approval for this update
this is a graph of some of the safety
targets a lot of them
um they probably are not
necessarily uh
they spelled out too much fatalities of
course is is one that stands out
unfortunately fix her out has had a
fatality we have had one in in our
existence since 1986. this is based on
fiscal year 18 to fiscal year 22.
this also includes dialerite fatalities
um it's the vrm is vehicle Revenue miles
is what that stands for so we kind of
measure it on how many miles that we're
putting out in service
so if we have 13 Vehicles 13 buses on 13
different routes we count each mile
and that's how we get or the vehicle
Revolution miles basically we we do
about 500 000 miles a year on fixed
route and about 200 000 on dialerized so
that kind of gives you an idea of where
the the numbers are coming from
so the four required plan elements the
first is Safety Management policy
um that they require us to have a
written policy a policy statement
describe how it's shared and Define key
step roles number two is safety risk
management
identifying safety risks and assessing
risk and risk mitigation safety
assurance is monitoring and measuring
effectiveness of the agency safety plan
and modifying plan as needed and four is
safety promotion which is safety
training and training documentation and
ensuring employee buy-in
and I will stand for questions
okay thank you Richard mayor Pro tem and
then councilor
Graham or Council
hi all right thank you so much for this
um
a couple of questions and forgive me if
I missed it in Reading over the plan I
was most I was most focused on the
the driving training and if you have
annual testing or it looked like that
said that there was a performance
observation requirement can you just
tell me a little bit if there is annual
testing what does that entail
just kind of walk me through a year in
the life of a giant bus driver yeah
mayor councilor Graf first we have a
training coordinator
that is on staff full-time so she does a
lot of right along we do a lot of video
review
we also have annual training with the
city with defensive driving but we also
do an internal training and she's doing
this ongoing so we we look at video to
see if there's anything that could be
corrected or if there's been reports
things like that that um that where we
could improve basically so that's an
ongoing thing and and it is documented
in our safety plan and internally
okay great and FTA is that
is that also an agency that
sanctions training I'm I'm going to look
to you Chief Smith
um as the spouse of somebody who drives
a giant City Vehicle just a different
kind I know National Fire protective
agency
NFPA
um has some standards that we follow for
fire apparatus drivers can you speak to
that a little bit please
sure thank you mayor council Graham fire
chief Jason Smith so we follow guidance
from the National Fire Protection
NFPA yeah
uh 1002 on professional qualifications
for driver app driver
operator and we also have our internal
requirements for being certified to
operate an engine or a truck or even our
Squad so that requires just to get into
the program 10 hours of drive time five
hours of actually operating the pump
followed by an 80 hour course four hours
of certified emergency vehicle operator
training to become certified and then
every year you have to do the sibo
course the emergency vehicle operator of
course as well as an over the road and
an obstacle course you have to have
passing scores on those or else you
enter into remedial training and then
once you have your certification to be
promoted to driver operator it's a
similar test with pumping evaluations
and an obstacle course as well as a
clean driving record
great thank you so much and also I I
reached out as well to utilities
director Whitmer
um I was you know because solid waste
collection trucks also came into mind
when I was thinking about large study
vehicles that spend a lot of time on the
road and she graciously shared with me
some of the annual annual training
requirements so would you say it's
pretty comparable because I'm it's
amazing how many miles are put on the
road for by our buses and Dial A Ride
would you say it's a comparable amount
of training a mayor council Graham um I
would say that every every place is a
little bit different fire of course they
have a lot of regulations we deal with a
lot of people
so we have like wheelchair training we
have sensitivity training we do American
with disabilities training there's
there's a lot of more people focused
that we do and we do it customer service
um those things are first and foremost
but the driving not all drivers do have
a CDL the the Dial-A-Ride drivers
they're not required to have that but
the the large buses they are CDL holders
so yes they have to follow
um the dot rules
um FTA for us is the Federal Transit
Administration which is part of the dot
it's where we get our federal funding
from so they do have a lot of
regulations as you can see with the
safety Transit plan that they require us
to do reporting on to make sure that
we're not only staying in compliance but
we're also reporting to What's called
the national Transit database they
collect all this information from all
agencies all over the United States so
they can
use that information to your policy and
um actually help with funding if there's
certain things there's a lot of things
that are coming up right now driver
assaults and they weren't really
category categorizing them before but
it's become a national issue now so
they're having us do a lot more in-depth
reporting on what type of assaults and
things like that and how they can
mitigate that risk so
great thank you so much that that
provides Clarity and I appreciate the
perspective on yeah it's a it's a
customer service position and you've got
customers right there around you all the
time so thank you thank you mayor thank
you mayor Pro tem thank you thank you
um so much
um Richard I appreciate the presentation
I had I'm looking at it from a litigious
standpoint right and thinking about how
our Peak Performance is connected to
this if the plan is electronic inversion
in
where you're updating and electronically
if when people are making complaints
about safety are those done in writing
where is it follows electronically so
you're keeping track I'm interested in
those in those things and there was some
language in there that I called it
Connie earlier and said I'm a little
concerned about the language what to
report what not to report that kind of
thing how to report and so if you can
just sort of talk to me about those
things yes mayor council mayor Pro tem
Gandara
um
so yes we do have a documented
um we have a SharePoint site that we we
share internally with risk management
who's part of our our safety plan as
well and internal staff we do invite
Frontline staff drivers particularly to
to sit down with these meetings so they
can give feedback to us but yes we
document all of them we rate them on on
the severity of of the incident
but again we don't look at just
accidents we look at them as incidents
because or An Occurrence it might not be
a problem today but it could be in the
future so we have to do risk mitigation
and and and try to measure these things
if if it's going to happen again how can
we deter that from happening is it
something that we can live with give you
a good example of hitting the mirror on
the bus when it stops on the side of the
road it happens a lot it's not a danger
to the driver so much but it's something
that happens but it's also the nature of
the business that we do when we're stuck
in the right lane and and picking up
people at the bus stop and people try to
get around you on the three-lane Lowman
I guess so
but but I know that gave you like
you know a little concern right there
are three travel lanes and then there's
a fourth Lane for the bus which is the
right thing right so yeah but um yes it
is documented and um as far as as the
reporting part of it I I don't have the
the plan in front of me to give you
where it speaks to what not to report
but I could speak about that because
again this is a safety plan and it is
not a it's not a plan that's driven
about service
so we want to we want to focus on what
that safety aspect of it is and there's
nothing that that cannot be reported on
that when it comes to safety it could be
you know a pothole that we might have to
report to a different department if it's
going to affect somebody's ability to
access the bus stop
so those types of things are what we
want to focus on in the safety plan but
this document is not necessarily for us
to change service or add service
somewhere that's that's not what no idea
I understand it was a safety plan
specific for employees to be able to
report the conditions right that they
may think are unsafe
that also includes so I guess I'm
looking for is there a platform in
electronic platform that you're
reporting on that someone is keeping
track of of those and ensuring like you
said if it's going to maybe this one
thing will mitigate the issue but what
it what if it's it takes accumulation of
many things right to really become a
hazardous situation who is keeping track
of that and if you do platform of sorts
what is it is it just SharePoint or and
someone a human person is keeping track
of that
does it even exist like some electronic
app or something does that exist it's
this world it's we have it on a
spreadsheet that we keep as a safety
group we have safety meetings we have
one that's internal and then we have one
that is for all staff but we keep all of
all the records of it all the meetings
are are on record but every incident
that is reported is recorded on that
okay and we are required to to update
the the city manager on a quarterly
basis so he he does get that and we do
have the ability to get that information
to you if if you if you want it sooner I
I'm just wanting to see how the
information is collected and
um sort of reviewed and I I'm thinking
um akani and others other municipalities
might have some electronic sort of
tracking system if you will that could
be more helpful than a spreadsheet right
through SharePoint
um I mean I don't know that by but I'm
assuming some of our larger
municipalities might have something that
like that that we could invest in that
would help you know just sort of just
for tracking purposes and then being
able to communicate with the federal and
like MPL other places that you should be
tracking right because you're they're
asking you to keep track of this and so
I'm wanting to see if maybe the city
could do some research around that I am
concerned that that we're doing it by
Excel spreadsheet I think there's
probably a different mechanism in play
at that that that's out there I mean
we'd have to pay for it but I think this
is important to me because I think it
just helps us manage more effectively
and I think let me let me um
oh and then if if your staff is
reporting things can they do that and
remain anonymous
mayor mayor Pearl Tim gone that I
absolutely we have dropboxes that are
locked that they can put stuff in if
they would like we also have a hotline
with set up with risk management that
they can report as well but we do
encourage them to not only just
participate in the meetings but even
just with their supervisors again we
have we have a really good group of
folks and and we like to keep that open
door policy to to handle things as a
group because if they're bringing stuff
up and they're on the road they want
help now they don't they don't want to
deal with it next week or right so but
there is anonymous ways for them now is
this just for the internal staff or how
are external folks reporting that there
I noticed there's that number that by
the local number if you will there's
that 1 800 if they want to make a
anonymous complaint where is that posted
and how how available is that for folks
to know the right to be aware of that
they can do that mayor Pro Tim Gandara
again we have it on our website we post
it on Facebook okay we also have it
posted at the Intermodal Center where
people go to get information they can
call it in we also have formal
um ways that they can
I guess report things whether it's Ada
concerns or just regular concerns by the
by the um the public
so they we have those forms available
thank you Richard thank you I appreciate
you answering the questions and again it
kind of we can do some of that research
I'm imagining there's more of a a
different way right to capture this
information electronically that because
people leave you have you have book
management that that could be retiring I
mean how are you keeping track of those
things even if the person leaves right I
mean I'm just feeling like we need to
have a different mechanism so thank you
thank you mayor
any other comments Council about members
of the public
okay see none Christine
this is on the motion to approve
resolution
23-107 counselor beta yes councilor
Graham yes councilman Como yes councilor
Korean yes counselor Flores is absent
councilor Gondola yes mayor yes
thank you Richard thank you next item
8.1 resolution 23-108
she made by counselor beta second by
councilor Graham and Jan louderback
will be presenting
no
I think you got can I close it yeah
8.2
no excuse me at 0.1 I thought I
apologize there you go
sorry for the delay
my name is Jan lauterbach um good
afternoon Maryland city council John
lotterbach with the housing and
Neighborhood Services section of the
city manager's office
the resolution before you is for the
approval of a home investment
partnership or home program agreement
between the city and Tierra Del Sol
housing Corporation for affordable
housing
home funds are monies that the city
receives from the Department of Housing
and Urban Development or HUD they must
be used for affordable housing
through our Council approved annual
action plans
Tierra Del Sol was allocated 295
thousand dollars to be used for single
family development
funding will be used to offset Tierra
del Sol's eligible construction expenses
on 10 homes in the Metro Verde planned
unit development
specifically in Metro Park Village phase
four subdivision
the homes will be sold to households
working through Tierra del Sol's home
ownership Center
programmed to become homeowners with
qualified household incomes earning less
than 80 percent of area median income
currently that figure for the city of
Las Cruces for a household size of four
is forty eight thousand four hundred
dollars
the funding will provide an effect for
direct reduction in the sales price to
the homes to the homeowners
which will reduce their mortgage amount
making the home more affordable
and the city will file a lien on each
property with the homeowner that
provides that the home will remain
owner-occupied affordable housing for a
minimum of 10 years
this is a map of the subject property
in it's located in again in the Metro
Verde PUD in Metro Park Village phase
four east of Sonoma Ranch Road near
Monte Vista Elementary and the nearby
Mesa Middle School and also close to the
Metro Verde splash pads the properties
here in red located on bolero and Vega
roads
and with that I have your standard
Council options and I stand for
questioning and I also have Rose Garcia
the executive director of chair Del Sol
here in the audience if there's any
additional questions
thanks Jen
councilman Como mayor I don't have any
questions I just again want to say how
proud I am of this project I think it's
really exciting I think it like I said a
couple of weeks ago will help build
wealth for so many folks who right now
are not in a position too
um I mean I I would love to hear from
Rose just any additional thoughts
honestly on on this project and what
what it could mean moving forward
thank you
yes Mr Mayor and city council women and
the staff of Community Development thank
you very much for placing us on the
excuse me excuse me I need you to state
your name Rose I know I'm sorry it's
Rose Garcia with the Arab and so on
housing Corporation we're a non-profit
organization that's been around for 50
years so we've been building a lot of
housing into the City and the county and
so but I thank you for considering this
money to be moved into this subdivision
as you know in the last three or four
years it's been very very challenging
for affordable housing and in your plans
you have thousands of families that need
homes and these are all the Working
Families primarily that have variety of
jobs you know and and their at least
half of them are single parent and uh
it's a struggle to try to get a home at
the price that they can afford and so
this additional money can offset some of
the cost and there are some that are a
little bit higher income but up to the
000 that Jan says is still still makes
it very difficult with the end we've had
three or four interest rate increases
with the banks and so every day there's
a challenge to housing for homeownership
the families will be doing some of the
self-help a little bit of Labor and so
they will be Building Wealth after a
30-year mortgage and we have no defaults
for many years we've been building
through this program and so families
think nothing their young families many
of them or those that that have family
members contribute their labor but I
think that we really appreciate that the
city has worked with us your Community
Development and Engineering so that we
can design a house that's modest as well
as being able to be affordable so this
is something that
this is just one more project that we're
bringing you we have two others and the
others will have some parks in them some
thank you Miss Garcia I just thought
felt important to hear from the folks on
the front lines of affordable housing
and and you've been doing it for such a
long time and you do it well so I wanted
to just thank you thank you very much
and for the committee that you you
invite us regularly for affordable
housing so we were able to solve some of
our issues and so I really encourage you
to work not only with us but other
developers to try to find Solutions
because the city has such a need for not
only home ownership but rental housing
as well as housing rehabs so
very very good thank you for that
information
councilor Koran I I just want to say
thank you for for bringing this forward
in my district I'm so excited to have uh
to be able to see these families at the
at the splash pad in the summer so
um thank you again for for bringing this
forward and and we're really lucky to
have Partners like you I hope we can
expand that thing about you thank you
and we're very fortunate with Mr Moscato
who was the major developer of the
subdivision and so through the city we
were able to negotiate through you all
and so we were able to put a an enclave
of affordable units because most of the
homes around if you walk around that
subdivision it's pretty high-end so and
but that's not the typical subdivision
that we build in but this is a good
opportunity to include the affordable
families
very good thank you any comments from
members of the public
Archuleta and then Randy McMillan
we have up to four minutes
and if you could just state your name
please mayor Dolores Archuleta I'm
speaking as a mayor protein Emeritus and
I highly highly approve of Rosa when I
was in the city council I would love to
see the maps of where she built Quality
quality products so highly highly
approve that thank you
my name again is Randy McMillan and I
sat on the board for low-income housing
nmfa for five years
and I watched project after project come
across our desk
um and I I was asked by our current
governor to step down because I've shown
the light of day on what we were
spending per unit on those projects one
of the one of which was Pecos Street
that we did here I don't know if you
know it but we spent 190 thousand
dollars a unit there for a 300 square
foot
efficiency apartment
and it wasn't a new build it was a rehab
a remodel
for
what 190
000 per unit almost 400 a square foot I
was angry about that I'm a commercial
real estate broker I build things like
this I know what they cost they don't
cost anywhere near that I looked at what
the developer was making I looked at
what the contractor was making I looked
at what the so-called non-profit was
making and it was unbelievable
I have stayed here because I want to
support this project this project
I saw
project after project come across our
desk up there and Rose's project were
continually reasonable
she was building three-bedroom homes
with two-car garages that people would
own for less than we spent on the Pecos
Street
efficiency apartments that is a fact
check me out and that's why I'm no
longer on that board I was asked to step
down by our current governor because
they didn't want people knowing that
fact
Rose does an amazing job she's building
50 houses in burrino right now
all of the people that own those homes
will spend about a thousand hours
developing and building their house
and some of those homes are 10 and 12
years old that they did before this
current subdivision and if you drive
those streets you could eat off of them
their Landscaping is nice
everything is nice and you know why it's
because we didn't give it to them
they worked for it every one of those
homeowners spent time and effort in
those homes and they care about them
they cost
two-thirds of what we're spending for
apartments
and they after 10 years they're in great
shape so Rose thank you I've watched you
over the years and what you've done in
our community and on that board and you
truly do care and she truly is a
non-profit that cares so thank you
thank you Randy anybody else
okay all right if there's no other
further comments Christine
this is on the motion to improve
resolution
23-108 councilor beta yes councilor
Graham yes councilor Ben Como yes
councilor Korean yes Council Flores is
absent Council Gondola yes mayor yes
okay item 8.2 is a public hearing let me
just say I will be I'm gonna I'll run
this portion of the of the
you know this this part here but I would
be abstaining because of Solano being
included in there okay
so public uh let's see it's 240 so the
public hearing is now on is there anyone
in the audience who wishes to make any
public comments regarding the findings
and determinations regarding the
Metropolitan Redevelopment
code and designating the El Paseo and
South Solano and West Picacho
Metropolitan Redevelopment areas
okay seeing none so it's 241 the public
hearing is now closed and so entertain a
motion to adopt a resolution 23-109
move to approve
second okay motion made by counselor
abatea Second Bank counselor bincomo
Chris Faber who will be making the
presentation
good afternoon mayor city council I'll
be introducing our Consultants from
groundworks who will making be making
the presentation and I'll be available
for questions after
um real quick everyone knows we've been
working on MRI designations in the
infill for the last several months the
resolution here today is to approve two
areas that the Consultants are
recommending I will turn it over to Amy
Bell and
Marin neldam and I just wanted to
mention that you should have a packet of
maps and some other charts that are in
the presentation but they're a little
hard to see on the screen so when you
come to one of those you can follow
along in your packet thank you
thanks Chris
my name is Amy Bell I'm a principal
landscape architect with groundwork
Studio good afternoon mayor council
thank you so much for having us here
today to present on this proposed
Metropolitan Redevelopment area
designation
today we're going to be giving an
overview of the MRA assessment and
designation process to provide relevant
and required information for the
adoption of the resolution to designate
two Metropolitan Redevelopment areas the
El Paseo and South Solano MRA and the
West Picacho MRA
our presentation will cover the benefits
of Metropolitan Redevelopment areas
public Outreach conducted as part of the
assessment of the MRE assessment process
boundaries for the proposed mras as well
as the justification and rationale for
designation
so the designation of an MRA and the
subsequent MRA plan gives the local
municipality increased flexibility to
support private Redevelopment projects
without violating the state's
anti-donation clause
designation demonstrates the commitment
of the city to invest within the
proposed areas and take steps towards
the implementation of aspects of the
future development program outlined in
the Elevate Las Cruces comprehensive
plan
the MRA assessment and data analysis
public Outreach and MRA designation
report have been completed the
designation report which is attached to
the resolution provides the
justification for MRA designation
required by New Mexico statute
today we're recommending the adoption of
the El Paseo and South Solano MRA and
the West Picacho MRA designation
during the assessment process we hosted
two hybrid information sessions one in
the morning of and one in the evening of
January 5th at the info sessions we
provided an overview of Metropolitan
Redevelopment areas and very preliminary
data analysis there were approximately
50 attendees
on January 23rd we presented designation
recommendations for the El Paseo and
South Solano MRA at the regular Council
work session which led to the addition
of the proposed West Picacho MRA
these recommendations were presented at
two open houses and feedback from these
open houses was integrated into the
designation report
we're now going to provide an overview
of the MRA assessment process
the city's infill development overlay
District was used as a general study
area for the assessment of MRA
conditions adjacent areas that exhibited
key designation criteria were also
considered
preliminary analysis revealed that the
majority of the study area does meet
criteria for MRA designation
foreign
to adequately Focus Redevelopment
incentives it's important to focus on
smaller sub areas within the Ido for
designation an extensive analysis of
City Planning documents zoning and land
use and social and economic data was
conducted to identify sub areas within
the Ido for further assessment these
areas included neighborhood planning
areas which are places with defined
boundaries and adoptive plans such as
the El Paseo neighborhood planning area
and additional Focus areas were
identified through the assessment
process as exhibiting higher levels of
the designation criteria
areas assessed are listed here
MRA designation is based on findings of
quote-unquote blight we don't love that
word but it's what's in the statute
conditions as defined by the
Metropolitan Redevelopment code the
criteria set by the code for quote
unquote blight designation includes some
of the following physical and
socioeconomic conditions substantial
number of deteriorated or deteriorating
structures
uh defective or inadequate Street layout
unsanitary or unsafe conditions lack of
adequate housing low levels of
commercial or industrial activity these
conditions can pose a threat to health
safety and Welfare of the public
we utilized standard socioeconomic and
physical indicators used by cities and
researchers to assess the presence of
and Community impacts of blight
conditions
the physical conditions assessed
included areas with high levels of
vacant property concentrations of
unoccupied commercial properties
abandoned buildings deteriorating
buildings deteriorating infrastructure
and other indicators listed here
areas that suffer from these types of
physical indicators tend to
disproportionately affect low-income
communities and vulnerable populations
so in MRA assessment it is standard to
also look at Social and economic
indicators such as low medium household
income high levels of households below
poverty level high unemployment rates
High rental population aging housing
stock low medium home value and various
other socioeconomic conditions
based on the requirements of the New
Mexico Metropolitan Redevelopment
statute the whole infill development
overlay area could be designated as an
MRA the El Paseo and South Solano area
has the greatest number of key
indicators and West Picacho exhibited
most of those key indicators as well
and I'm going to hand it over to Marin
to talk a little bit about the
designation recommendations
thank you hi hi thank you Council thank
you mayor Pro Tem
I'm Marion neldam with groundwork Studio
let's talk directly into the mic
appreciate it you can move it down if
you'd like yeah adjust it to you there
you go can you hear me okay all right
so two areas are being proposed for MRI
designation by adoption of the
resolution today
both the proposed El Paseo and South
Solano MRA and the proposed West Picacho
MRA exhibit a combination of factors
that justify MRA designation the areas
demonstrate low levels of commercial
activity or Redevelopment higher levels
of vacant and underutilized properties
deteriorating buildings missing or
deteriorating public infrastructure
unsafe and unhealthy conditions high
unemployment and low income levels and
lack of adequate housing
this map shows the location of the two
two proposed mras in relation to the Ido
study area El Paseo and South Solano is
shown in blue and West Picacho is shown
in Orange
you can reference the full-size maps in
the packet provided
the proposed El Paseo and South South
Solano MRA is approximately 1.78 square
miles and expands the El Paseo
neighborhood planning area boundary to
include the South Solano Drive Corridor
to the east the area is bound by Street
facing Parcels along East Loman Ave to
the north South Main Street to the West
approximately one block off East
University Ave to the South and
approximately one block off South Solano
drive to the east to incorporate
commercial and multi-family residential
Parcels along the mixed-use corridor
the El Paseo and South Solano MRA has
three north-south corridors South Main
Street El Paseo Road and South Solano
Drive which connects the downtown MRA
with New Mexico State University the
area provides opportunity for infill
redevelopment of commercial industrial
and higher density Parcels along these
mixed-use corridors
MRA designation can help address the
issue of vacant underutilized and
deteriorating properties through
incentives to private investors for for
commercial revitalization and affordable
housing Redevelopment the area has an
extensive Community planning history and
designation aligns with the goals of the
Elevate Las Cruces a comprehensive plan
the proposed West Picacho MRA is
approximately 1.17 square miles and is
anchored by West Picacho Ave the area
extends to one parcel South of West
Hadley Ave between North Motel Boulevard
and North Valley Drive this includes
vacant commercial and Industrial
properties along the corridor on West
Hadley Ave between North Valley Drive
and the rail line the boundary meets the
northern boundary of the Amador proximo
neighborhood planning area which is an
adopted planning boundary the boundary
extends to tishiro drive at the North to
contain large vacant properties in the
Northeast it extends to McClure to
include a large city property in need of
revitalization
the proposed West Picacho MRA is
anchored by the West Picacho Ave
Regional commercial Corridor which is an
important gateway to Las Cruces from the
East the area provides a unique
opportunity for affordable housing
creation through the retrofitting of
oral Redevelopment of numerous declining
Motel properties there has been
extensive community outreach with
residents and business owners along West
Picacho Ave and this
recommendation the inclusion of West
Picacho uh came out of the council work
session on January 23rd
importantly this MRE designation
followed by the MRA planning process
will support alignment with future
development program the future
development program outlined in the
Elevate Las Cruces comprehensive plan it
will also help ensure that future growth
in both of these mras follows the city's
intended intensity character and mix of
land uses in the area
the proposed El Paseo and South Solano
MRA is classified as an urban
neighborhood it contains three
north-south mixed-use corridors which
connect the downtown to NMSU it also has
three neighborhood centers a key
intersections the MRI plan can assist
the city in achieving the goals of
increasing density in developing
walkable mixed-use activity centers that
provide local employment shopping and
entertainment opportunities and provide
a diverse mix of residential living
options
the proposed West Picacho MRA contains a
mix of place types including a regional
commercial area along the west Picacho
mixed-use Corridor Suburban neighborhood
and business park and Industrial the MRI
plan can assist the city in achieving
its goals in this area of expanding
Regional commercial activity as well as
employment opportunities and
diversification
diversifying housing options
so once the MRA boundaries and
designation report have been adopted the
city will be able to pursue a planning
process which will outline Community
Vision for revitalization and identify
specific Redevelopment strategies
projects and programs that are
appropriate to each area
to access the tools available in an MRA
the city will need to adopt the MRI
plans for each area by resolution
thank you for your time today that
concludes our presentation
thank you so much for the presentation
counselor
a beta and Council ground
thank you so much for the presentation
I'm of course very excited to see this
types of progress one of the first items
that myself and counselor Ben Como were
assigned to was the El Paseo ad hoc
committee which looked at the need for
that re development and revitalization
when we first made those boundaries way
way back almost four years ago one of
the things that I know that I was really
pushing forward to be included was the
boundary to go all the way up to
University
right on our our side of the line and so
when I look at this and I see the
boundary for the El Paseo area and there
is a bit of a gap between that and
University I'm just curious to see where
um that is going to fit in and come to
play because it was also an area that
needed to see that revitalization
yeah so the uh proposed boundary for
Alpha thank you councilor Abita the
proposed please state your name again
for the record
um this is marineldom yeah so the
proposed El Paseo and salano Boundary
was based on the existing neighborhood
planning area boundary and so the
southern boundary extended that to just
just east of South Solano Drive
well thank you um and I think maybe this
is just for us to to kind of look at and
think of in the future I just want to
make sure that we don't have those gaps
because those neighborhoods right in
between that line of the university and
Alba so still are seeing the very same
problems as right across the street you
know and so as we move forward that's
just something that I want to make sure
but I'm very excited to see this area
and these next steps that we can work on
for the development thank you Mary
Burton
thank you so to be clear let me just
point of
is it included or not in the map and
couldn't we include it
is that what you're proposing well if we
if we could yes because we're counseling
that we could do that I would say pull
it right up to the edge of University
like we had um during our
uh boundaries for the El Paseo ad hoc
committee
Chris
mayor Pro tem counselor Bay this is
Chris Faber with economic development so
there's a couple ways you could go with
this process
you could
not vote for this right now and then we
have to come back and do it again or
through the MRA planning process if it's
recommended through the public
engagement to extend those boundaries
you could always amend those boundaries
at that time thank you and I would
rather amend I don't want to delay any
sort of progress so I would rather just
amend for that
thank you I'm Chris and counselor beta
councilor Graham
thank you mayor Pro tem thank you so
much for not just the presentation today
but for the excellent work on this and I
say this to All City staff and everyone
involved
um I the point that councilor abatea
made is so important you know when we we
look at these lines on a map
um you know obviously recognizing that
that which is outside the line isn't
necessarily fine and that we need to
continue our commitment this is not the
last step this is the first step and I
appreciate counselor that reminder
I don't really have any questions I'm
just excited so I was just going to talk
a little bit and the designation report
was so interesting to me because it made
me drive around the part or drive around
this area and see it through such new
eyes and I think some of it
some of it felt very familiar when I was
hearing it but I'd never thought about
how the size of parking lots affects
something as something as fundamental as
walkability and you know yeah man there
are giant parking lots out there and I
just hadn't even paid attention and then
I think I've reached an age where as
soon as something is gone I completely
forget that it ever existed I always
made fun of my parents for that because
they'd call stores by names that the
stores were like 50 years ago and I'm
like oh okay Boomer
um that's me now and recognizing how
many gas stations used to be in this
area and how important it is to commit
to commit to the Environmental Studies
for possible Brownfield designation
because there were I moved here in 2000
and yeah there were a ton of gas
stations that aren't there anymore but
that doesn't mean that they are erased
from our environment so all that to say
um I'm old and thank you for an
absolutely wonderful report much
appreciated thank you mayor Pro Tem
thank you councilor Graham you're not
old moving right along
thank you and thank you for being here
again
um with us for this presentation
um I also don't really have a lot of
questions because I think we've really
hashed this out us through a couple work
sessions at this point I think but I
just I wanted to say how proud I am of
that we're here today and that I
um I'm a big old sap and so while I was
reading this I was like almost crying
which is just so silly because you're
like an MRA what is so emotional about
that but I think it's the reality that
um I'm looking at these pictures and and
these communities just need
love and investment more importantly and
to me you know I pushed for West Picacho
to be included so much because of all of
the engagement we had done already
because I had built all these
relationships with people who have you
know put their Like Blood Sweat and
Tears into this area and they don't want
to leave right they don't want to go
somewhere else fancy or new or they want
to stay they want to see it revitalized
as it once was and so I'm I'm very
excited about the engagement that we've
done to get here
um and similarly to councilor beta just
thinking about when we first started
talking about this several years ago and
now being here
feels really really exciting and I'm
excited to for the next steps especially
I also you know I did notice that on the
Brownfield issue that there wasn't that
study for the West Picacho area and I'm
certain as the report said that there
are probably some of those areas so I
maybe that is my question I am curious
if that comes next if that is a
necessity that we have to do or is that
something that we do once somebody is
looking at a property like Brewers oil
for example like it's outside of this
but I knew that that was an area that
was potentially a Brownfield
um so I am curious in terms of how we go
about that yeah thank you councilor Ben
Como um the MRA designation and planning
process does not require any Brownfield
or environmental assessment but there
are some really great tools that are
available through the state through nmed
that pair really nicely with the tools
enabled by MRI designation yeah
absolutely I'm I just can't say it
enough how excited I am that we're here
and what this could really mean for both
of these areas one of which part of El
Paseo South Solano will no longer be in
District 4 after next year so
um but but right now it is so I think
it's I'm excited to be a leading both of
these moving forward and then I think
it's important and relevant that right
now I'm really hoping that either Chris
or Elizabeth speak on the MRE
legislation that was put forth this year
at the state legislature that is on the
governor's desks currently and just how
much of a win like how big of a win that
is and I think to allow us to celebrate
those really huge moments
mayor Pro tem counselor Ben Comal I'm
happy to speak on it but since we have
an expert witness here with us I think
I'll let Miss Teeters speak on this one
good afternoon
mayor Pro temon city council uh yeah so
um will you state your name for the
record I'm not used to being up here
um I'm Elizabeth teeter's economic
development director for the for the
record
um so yeah I was fortunate enough to be
the expert witness throughout the entire
process for the MRA designate the MRA
State Statute changes
and as of last week it passed on the
house floor and what it will do is it
creates a tax increment district for
each the potential of a tax increment
district for each
MRA designation within the state and
you'll have to go through a separate
process but it's potentially both at the
local and the state level so that just
needs Governor's signature thank you I
just want to do a huge platform
City staff and Elizabeth for leading
them at it on the issue for being an
expert on that issue for really taking
it on and and seeing it for what it is
incredibly valuable for blighted areas
in our community so I am incredibly
excited to jump into the next step after
today so thank you
thank you cancer benkomo
um and I'll just say lastly I've
appreciated Chris and our Consultants
coming in and Elizabeth for all the work
shortly after we had that first meeting
a regular council meeting I had a group
of people from the mosquito start
District many of who you heard from
today very concerned about
not involving the Mesquite historic
district as part of the MRA
especially because of how difficult the
maps were in terms of reading them but
there is a portion little sliver there
of the South mosquito Stark District
that is included in that and they were
really happy about it but I'm I would
like to Advocate and I say this publicly
because I said that I would and I
believe that they've been working on
this kind of designation for some for
decades and I'd like to have this third
in line for the MRA next
is the Mesquite historic district and at
least I have it on record that I said
that Chris and to the Consultants I
think it's it it just benefits that area
especially considering they're an Arts
and Cultural District and just all the
wonderful things that are happening in
the area I think it would really lift
that area up so appreciate the time okay
Christine I think we're we're ready
oh I'm sorry any is there any
um public comment
as we're waiting for Miss Moore to come
down don't rush no rush yeah I wouldn't
want that
hi Debbie
Debbie Moore president CEO of the girls
cruises Chamber of Commerce
um mayor poor Tim and counselors it was
my privilege and an honor to be behind
our expert witness for several the
hearings up there we actually made it
through the house and the Senate I think
with just one no and it was pretty
incredible I'm very proud to say from a
Statewide if you look at the sponsors of
the bill they represented three
communities which I had the privilege
and opportunity of serving as director
or president which would be uh Hobbs Rio
Rancho and most importantly Las Cruces
so to say the chamber is not supporting
this we are totally behind this another
tool in our toolbox not only for Las
Cruces but for our state this is
incredible news for all of us and I'm
very proud to have been a part of it the
thank you Miss Moore anybody else
on casing and Christine for the vote
yeah thank you this is on the motion to
approve resolution
23-109 councilor beta yes
councilor Graham yes
councilor Ben Como yes councilor Koran
yes
counselor Flores is absent mayor Pro tem
yes and the mayor has abstained
okay thank you next up is
let me get myself an order here
resolution number 23-110 resolution
approving a pre-development agreement
between the city of Las Cruces and
Sierra Norte land holders I need a
motion to approve move to approve
second motion made by counselor beta
second by concert Quran
Tony
good afternoon mayor Pro tem city
council Tony Trevino the assistant
director for Public Works
um
the mayor uh
Germany get started or do I
I feel a little discombobulated but yes
please no worries again Tony Trevino for
the record so here today to um go over a
presentation that we gave to city
council last year this is a May second
on the Drive Extension this is just for
a pre-development agreement
um as I mentioned back in May of 9th of
uh Sierra Notte as along with their uh
consultant the Goodman group who
presented to the city the kind of the
framework they approach the city with
for for the approach of the planning
design and the pursuit of funding uh
Federal funding for the allocation of a
local match and the allocation of the
local match what I mean to say there is
uh they came to the city and uh
are willing to provide all the
pre-delivery design the planning the
right-of-way research and all the
legwork to apply for the federal funding
and if we do get it they're also going
to put up the local match for the city
to acquire these grants
so this is just for the development and
preliminary design of the Mesa Grande
Drive
as you can see here the project limits
it goes from Highway 70 on the North
side down south to Lowman Avenue which
is a four lane between Solano and me
sorry
um so this is that extension as well as
that extension which is I'll get into it
further where it lies in the Elevate Las
Cruces they're also going to tie the
East-West roads which is northrise drive
up on top right here by the 27 section
kaijitas which is another collector
within the storm Ranch area Sedona Hills
and Sonora Springs Avenue we're going to
be that complete those Majors collectors
minor arterials to Mesa Grande on the
east side as well as the extension of
Lowman Avenue right now Lowman ends at
the Walmart right there on on Lowman and
it's going to extend that to the east to
tie into this roadway
next slide
sorry
so here is where Mesa Grande Falls
within the Elevate Las Cruces a
comprehensive plan it is a minor
arterial it is then included in the map
1.4 the future thoroughfold map for the
city of Las Cruces as you can see here
on the right it's this kind of purple
bluish dotted line and it extends from
Highway 70 down following the same
alignment to Loman on the south
has also uh in discussions with the
developer
to meet and and be in alignment with
Elevate Las Cruces as you can see here
the table 1.9 for major thoroughfare
correct characteristics includes the
medians bikeways Transit roadside
um
all the amenities that are required by
Elevate it's going to be The Pedestrian
the bicyclist uh separated Lanes by
medians that are landscaper trees so as
you can see here on the left we have the
cross section which is 124 right away
and I think we can all have a little
game we played um with during the budge
Retreat for the cips this is kind of
um
kind of the project that we were dealt
with we had businesses or houses right
along the right away they wanted
separated bike Lanes as well as walkways
two lanes in each Direction so this is
kind of shows how we can modify to meet
the traffic
requirements as well the company all
modes of transportation
and this will be throughout the entire
project so this won't be um
piece nailed the Landscaping will be
done at the full time so be a full
development from the beginning to the
end
uh it's also in the long range Transit
plan as you can see here uh kind of I
try to do a little Diamond polygon shape
whatever you want to call it but
in the intersection with Mesa Grande as
canister high frequency local bus I'm
also a transfer Point located at Mesa
Grande in Kai he does for this
intersection this is part of their
future Transit plans
corridors
um like I mentioned before this is just
for a pre-development agreement so this
agreement right now is just for three
years from the date of execution this
allows us to kind of allows a developer
to do the planning preliminary design to
actually prepare all the documentation
for us to
apply for these federal grants if
nothing's done within three years we can
we have the opportunity to either extend
it if we hear more grants coming on for
more opportunities or terminate it based
on progress and Status our everything is
going to start the three year mark we
can come back and either terminate or
extend this agreement
um also if Federal funding is obtained
by this grant the city in the developer
will further Define roles and
responsibilities in a development
agreement so this is going to Define
okay the full design the construction
management the local share match the uh
project Administration Clips will be
Federal funding and the additional
auditing and so forth for that kind of
project will be defined at that point
uh the developer these are just some key
responsibilities
they're going to be at their sole
expense the planning preliminary design
engineering and other project related
activities that are required for them to
submit an application to the feds or to
the federal government or whoever is
going to administer these grants they'll
also be working with the state and BLM
to secure the rights ways in this area
uh for the city just some of the
responsibilities we have it's just that
we're going to be the applicant for the
Federal Grant and we will put a Mesa on
the drive as one of our priority
projects moving forward for Grant
applications
so there's no monetary values nothing
that's on the city Side for any UH
responsibilities other than the two that
are listed here
so the next steps if this is approved
the approval of the pre-development
agreement the developer will then begin
to seek Federal funding as the applicant
once we receive the grants uh positive
thinking positive we will get it we will
prepare a development agreement and then
move on to the design and construction
of the project
these are the options for Council but I
am here to stand for any questions I'm
sure there is some
okay it comes through Graham
councilor beta councilman Como
oh just here I'll just start from the
Star I'll just start from my right then
counselor thank you
I get to go first that's unusual I'm
just kidding
um thank you so much Journey for this
presentation uh two quick questions the
first one is on that priority
prioritization
um
later on
um that I'm assuming Falls in alignment
with
um of course Elevate Las Cruces and all
other projects that we kind of have on
those lists when we're looking at
Federal funding
correct mayor beta so for these Grant
these are the larger grants like the
raised Grant or some of the larger
fiddle grants we can apply for which
that's when we were trying to discuss
the truvis Alex in North Main there is
like the 50 70 million dollar project so
for this projects that we have in that
amount of funding so yes this would be
one of the priorities for the next three
years moving forward okay thank you and
then
second question was how much do you
think that it was gonna
be that we would have to be seeking out
later on
So based on the analysis so the
developer has already provided a
cost-benefit analysis a traffic demand
impact analysis as well as some
Community benefits
um the overall construction kind of
forecasting out to 25 2025 2027 is about
60.5 million this includes all of the
utilities all the major oil Crossings
there's three major
overall questions out of there as well
as all the amenities the landscaping and
everything to move forth for that
roadway okay okay which is which is over
by 5.626 Miles
thank you very much and thank you mayor
thank you councilor Graham
thank you mayor thank you Tony
um two questions one not weird one weird
I'll go not weird first
um one of the responsibilities of the
city was to waive construction related
permit fees is that like are we looking
at a substantial
amount of money there and I know I'm
asking you to guess but I'm asking you
to guess no mayor councilor Graham we
have done similar processes with this
like the Voluntary Assessment District
in the special assessment District where
there's City projects City driven
projects the funding comes to the city
so we all that's going to happen is the
developer is going to pay for the
consultant to design the project
by our standards our recommendation our
direction we're going to go with so
there's really for CIP projects we don't
have
uh permit processes permanent payments
nothing so that's not so it's called out
just for the future clarification but
for CIP projects we don't have permit
please okay great and then on the kind
of more abstract side so this is the
first time that I'm seeing a
pre-development agreement like this have
we done them before
mayor constant Graham the only
agreements I've done similar to this are
the Voluntary Assessment District where
the funding is seeked where the fund was
put up by the city and then paid back by
developer or a special assessment
District but this is the first where a
public-private partnership has been
approached to this by the city or to the
City by a developer with the risk wave
and that's the whole process with the
public private partnership so this is my
first one and that's why this agreement
was limited just to the award of the
grant once that Grant's awarded then we
get further Define those rows those
those rules and responsibilities more
discreetly and more effectively moving
forward okay well then just kind of
turning to anyone who might know
um
you know maybe we've done these one of
these before maybe we haven't but when
we get to the end of the three years and
can we can we really if we're not if
we're not stoked on what's Happening can
we really
like can you really get out of this or I
I I'm not sure how to I'm just imagining
going through this three-year process
and optimistically everything goes great
but if it doesn't I mean how weird would
that be
so for
mayor Costa Graham we have this Clause
over three years from now we can either
terminate or extend this project but
when we do get into that development
agreement we're going to have similar
Clauses where we get with legal to kind
of determine how effectively these are
going if the design is not going as we
wish and moving forward as long as
there's no detriment to the city we will
make sure there's Clauses on that to
keep everybody
um
up to the responsibilities okay that
good deal thank you so much thank you
mayor thank you before the councilman
Cuomo Tony isn't this the
is this the road where the the developer
is going to come up with 10 of the of
the money and 90 hopefully will be
uh grants so mayor the way that the city
was approached is the developer is going
to provide all local matches that's
required whether it's ten percent
there's some that are 14 some other 25.
so they're they're um on the hook for
all the local matches yeah okay and
councilor um
Graham years ago in probably about gosh
20 years ago that's how we built
northrise the developer came to the city
you know because they couldn't get have
the full amount to do this and so the
city got the money and charged the
developer a small fee you know it
covered the cost and then a small fee
and that's how we were able to do build
that road so this one's a little bit
different because they're coming up with
uh really I don't think the city has a
whole lot on here because if between the
grants and they're coming up with the
with the basically the match gosh we're
sitting here with a million you know 10
20 million dollar roads so I think
pretty good
counselor Bingham thank you
um but cancergram I totally understand
your line of questioning I feel like I
had a similar one and I think I had
raised similar concerns at the pier we
BR you brought this to PRC a while ago
right Tony mayor come to become yes the
developers we all did uh present to the
PRC and I think there's just some like
like cautious optimism right like it
sometimes it just feels too good to be
true and so but to be honest with you if
this was a project in District Four I'd
also take it in a heartbeat so
um but I I do hear you on some of this
and then obviously after it's completed
then it becomes a city road right that
then the city must maintain I am curious
if there has been or if there will be
need for public engagement for the folks
who live in the area
so this would be a typical as any other
CIP project where we have to do a public
input meeting then a public
informational meeting where the public
can go and provide input and then for
the first one and the second one we kind
of show what's going to be built and who
is going to be impacted so this will
fall our typical CIP process for public
meetings how long are we from those
meetings
I
I would say probably not till we get
some grant funding
um established but just based off of
this what's provided here we can provide
some cost estimates just some benefits
to the community for traffic impact some
the multimodal and some other stuff and
future development in that area of what
it can bring so at that point we can do
during the preliminary design but once
you get to that usually at 30 that's as
far as this goes that 30 percent is when
we go to the public to begin their input
and kind of direct that design criteria
is that a little bit risky like
providing a plan a proposal to the
federal government for a grant and then
saying and then going to the community
and saying do you like this and then do
you know what I mean right so
so these Scopes are kind of written kind
of um broadly not very broadly do
include just the design construction of
a multimodal roadway so it's going to be
we're going to have some conceptual
designs you know we'll call them
conceptual they're not final they're not
the layout but as long as those
major key points that are in that scope
of work for the grant agreement I hit we
should be fine and then in constant
contacts that's what we do for a lot of
our nmdot grants we just applied with
the broad scope and then we modify them
as great Eden okay great
um and then my last question really Tony
is around I re I don't remember
specifically and I might get this wrong
but I remember there being concerns last
time of
protecting the natural environment in
that area some of the Royals and those
kinds of things have you looked have you
given any more thought to
to that concern that was raised
yes mayor Congressman Gomez so
that kind of hits two different parts
with the right away the roadway were
required when we cross these Arroyos to
carry over 150 percent of the actual
rainfall the amount of runoff in case of
clogging occurs in these structures and
so forth we're required to do a certain
amount of design and over design in case
any kind of clogging debris fills in so
that's set in stone and that's kind of
driven by FEMA in the city design
standards of what that has to be along
those uh special flood Hazard areas
beyond the right-of-way I know the
developer Mr Moscato has been um in
communication and contact we're leaving
the buffer so I think that's still a
topic the Master Guard hasn't been set
but I know based on his community
benefits that he did provide to the city
that is one of the items that he will
he's moving forward with it's just the
buffer in the open space in that
development great thanks Tony thanks
mayor
thank you Council correct thank you
thank you Tony and yes I remember our
PRC conversation so thank you for
bringing up the the environmental
components um as well as that and I just
want to just to our detractors who I
know aren't really here as much anymore
I would just like to point out the
connectedness of these things that we're
talking about we're talking about infill
we're talking about a Housing
Development which if those folks lived
there they would be driving on this road
to get to
other parts of the city so just as a
note that the lower income housing that
we identified would would benefit from
the access of this I would also just
like to point out that my district which
this isn't in again but many of the
folks who live there would benefit from
different travel Dynamics especially
multimodal transportation across the the
eastern part of the city but I would I
would like to point out that I live off
of Roadrunner which Tony has heard me
complain about
incessantly that is kids walking to
school have to like bump out into the
street because there's no sidewalk there
are significant gaps related to that and
it makes me really sad to to drive on a
road that isn't built in a friendly way
and was peace Beyond so that's why to me
this is very appealing
um
so I would just like to point out one to
our detractors that we can walk into gum
at the same time and I would argue that
this is chewing gum and we complement
each other pretty well I think in
talking about infill but also
development I do want to sort of speak
to the idea of development and growth of
the city I know that you alluded to the
Elevate plans
I think if you could just speak a little
bit more I I work at the community
college which is off kaijitas which just
ends abruptly as as it is now but I'm
wondering if you can talk a little bit
more about the benefits and really in
Elevate how does this connect to the
plans for sort of
sprawl in the ways that we think of it
in negative ways but also in the ways
that we think of it as potentially
um smart growth and and opportunities
for sort of Transit that is different
from what it is today
so mayor concert
I would be happy to attempt this one but
we do have an expert here Mr Moscato on
the developers I would like to kind of
ask him for his opinion on this since
he's on the development side he sees the
forecast and kind of can probably
provide better Insight on this
he wasn't aware I'd call him up
good afternoon uh Mr Mayor councilman
Quran John Moscato Sierra Norte land
Holdings
uh
so is
as Tony had indicated earlier
the Elevate Las Cruces comprehensive
plan includes a variety of Housing and
Commercial development in this what I
call the Mesa Grande Corridor there's a
an urban center called for at Mesa
Grande Drive and Highway 70 and as you
go south from there you have different
levels of neighborhood development you
have a typical neighborhood development
along the Mesa Grande Drive card
especially west of there then as you go
east it's more rural neighborhood so
larger Lots
we've proposed in connection with land
that we have under leased with the state
land office we're proposed an affordable
housing and
plan commercial development plan
were were not permitted to present those
to the city yet until they are approved
by the land office but we're in that
process right now
we're also in the process of discussions
with the land office regarding some
additional
least land which would be east of Mesa
Grande drive to tie in development both
west of Mesa Grande Drive and east of
Mesa Grande Drive making sense to tie it
all together
also as Tony indicated it's a Transit
Corridor the roadway would include
Transit stops there's also the
possibility of a vehicle charging
stations along the corridor
I'm not sure if those are the answers
you were looking for if there's more
detail you would like no I think I I
appreciate you giving that context I
realize that it's sort of a vague idea
in our mind coming from Elevate and it's
has to be translated somehow into Opera
and operational reality so I think
that's really helpful that description
that you gave so okay that's it thank
you
so I think
um I know that the planning part has a
lot of potential input too related to
especially as you mentioned the
environmental impacts and and making
sure that we're considering open space
as as a part of that and so I look
forward to that to that process I did
have one last sort of question about
priorities I you alluded to the Elks
Travis raise Grant which I keep pulling
for and hoping for and that's in my
district and I I hope that we'll keep
submitting for that does approving this
today affect the prioritization of those
in terms of submission or this is
further in the future and that one is
more proximate to to the next few years
I wouldn't want to bump something that
I'm also really hoping that we can get
for the record again
um we are still having discussions with
nmdot on several projects they actually
have a project that's coming forth right
now on I-25
or they actually wanted to hear our
plans for the Madrid Crossing or the
angler on and off ramps so we are in
discussion they are planning so we are
having some other opportunities to team
up with them to
accomplish some of these larger projects
that require the more 40 million dollar
Grant types from the federal government
or so forth unfortunately the Travis and
Elks
that was going to require additional on
and off ramps on nmdot property for to
make this whole thing work that would
have been outside our jurisdiction and
onto theirs so that had excelled in cost
more than um we anticipated so
unfortunately
so I guess more to the question of how
do like these are all things that are
going to be on rcip right how do we
prioritize them in terms of effort
putting into effort into submitting
these grants the Madrid thing is like
new but also old but also we never
thought it would happen so how do we how
do we parse out what grants
we're going for or what we're investing
in or how we're investing the the labor
of of the folks who have to sort of work
on these plans
so mayor council of Quran I know the
grant department the grants program has
revamping they got some new employees
from new uh managers and so forth so I
know they're working with shizan also of
how we're going to prioritize these
grants in the future um one step process
once these groups get um set and
Associated then we'll have kind of a
step to move forward in what direction
we want to go I know that's been in
discussion I don't think it started yet
but that is the way we want to start to
apply for these grants okay thank you I
appreciate it
can you hear the mayor Pro tem thank you
thank you Tony
um appreciate the presentation
um
hearing Mr Moscato say they're in
conversations with the land office are
you in those conversations as well I
mean he he alluded to not able to show
the design but I'm concerned that there
isn't a city representative because it's
only you know land that the land office
owns if you will I I feel like someone
in Santa Fe is making a decision about
the city without City representation are
you there and present or how do we get
actively involved in that in that
dialogue
if we're not
mayor Pro tem let me just say this the
previous land commissioner Ray Powell
and the city and and I we signed an
agreement that that they would work with
the city before they do any type of
developments that you're talking about
okay and commissioner Richards uh
although we haven't signed it in
principle she's as supportive as as that
we just haven't gotten around to doing
any type of ceremony so I mean just
thought I'd let you know about that we
should probably get on that quickly
because this is happening and I feel
like we need to be a part of those
conversations so mayor mayor potem so
what Mr Moscato referred to was the
development side not the right-of-way
side his for his whole lease something
that's outside of the city that's
privately owned so that's something the
development that what is kept from us
because that's their own negotiation
over there okay the right-of-way is
already set for much of this area
there's already utilities that have been
installed okay so the writer that we see
here is already set the width so um
there might be a few adjustments for a
royal Crossings or so forth but that is
already set with state land office to
BLM so that's not going to go anywhere
that right away I appreciate them thank
you
the other thing is okay if we do get
this money and this is becomes hours to
maintain what is the price tag on that
and how
um how quickly would we have to maintain
that like considering for Budget
budgetary purposes and ftes and those
things may or may approach him how did I
know you're going to ask that
so here is our estimated maintenance
costs okay we got with Parks and Rec
since we know this is going to be a
fully landscaped right away in the
medians and the size with some trees I'm
talking to Franco who is the
administrator of operations there is 44
000 a year for parks and rec to fully
maintain a fully landscaped developed
roadway which is kind of
putting forth what we're spending now on
new maintenance new Landscaping costs on
existing roadways well exceeds that
amount
as in terms of the roadway again we do
our pavement maintenance which has our
go back to the analogy of our vehicle
one of our cars our oil changes so in
about five years for a 70 million dollar
project we'll go about 900 000 in five
years for one of our achievements
um
at um 15 to 18 years to do probably one
of our million overlays one of our other
treatments there will be about 3.6
but overall based on our kind of our set
kind of um practices now of what we're
thinking over 40 years of this roadway
which is older than a lot of the roads
that are already here will be about 4.5
million dollars with the city will have
to spend on maintenance of the of the
roadway which is a faction of the 70
million dollar price tag that the grant
is going to go for for the Full
Construction so
um that compares it's less than one
percent of a total cost
hope this helped it does very much so I
appreciate that and then the ft is just
the final
kind of thinking what would that look
like in terms of nfts several FTS are
you Contracting this stuff give me an
idea of what that might look like so
parks and Rick I think they're going to
have like two but they're going to need
two anyways uh they're talking to Franco
there was a another
landscaped irrigation worker and an
actual maintenance worker that will be
added to it okay
but as well for on the engineering side
on our side um it's our Engineers we
don't do this in-house we just hire
Consultants to do it in contractors so
in the engineering public worksite
there's no new FTS okay all right thank
you Tony thank you mayor
so Tony can you put the map up again the
conceptual uh
yeah that one would be good
yes sir so one of the other things also
it's going to go all the way to Lowman
so one of the other things that um that
this would be great if you were to look
at the city's mpo and and where they
project
I know we were talking about the other
extension on the other side but would be
another East-West Road and so down the
road if we if the city can get this
through through the help of this
partnership
I think the the mpo calls for uh
University to eventually connect with
this University and um and Missouri
and so that way there it provides yet
another East-West road because that's
why we're on Madrid I was thinking about
that's why we were looking at Madrid and
obviously it's going to with this this
is a huge Head Start you know it's still
probably take 10 more years before we
get to that but this is would be great
especially for a future planning of the
city and as far as the revenue that's
going to be generated from all the
different housing that's out there are
the city's gross receipts tax is going
to really increase and it's going to
stay pretty healthy throughout
okay are there any members of the public
who wish to speak about this
George
my name is George Pearson uh you just
approved the mras for the West Picacho
and El Paseo Solano corridors this was
based on more than 10 years of planning
and Community involvement the Mesa
Grande extension has been had some
limited planning it is an Elevate but
please remember that elevate is a
long-range plan with Mesa Grande
extension more appropriate in the 20 to
30 year out time frame
Mesa Grande project that has started now
would be in direct competition with the
mras
the project is said to be quote free
unquote
but would be funded by grants that are
needed to implement the El Paseo and
West Picacho mras the raise Grant in
particular I can just imagine Alps sale
being reconstructed with a raise Grant
um
at your January 2021 budget Retreat you
heard from Charles Baron from strong
towns one of his points was that growth
growth creates the illusion of wealth
and gave the example of a Suburban
development project versus an urban
development project where the urban
project gives over two million value
over the Suburban project
please consider your priorities as the
Mesa Grande project needed yes
but not for another 20 or so years
perhaps
let's work on the mras and give back and
come back to the Mesa Grande extension
in maybe five years or so
this would still be 10 years earlier
than what's in the Elevate plan thank
you
anybody else
okay
there's no other further questions
Christine
this is how the motion to approve
resolution 23-110 councilor beta yes
councilor Graham yes councilor Ben Como
yes councilor kram yes counselor Flores
is absent councilor Gandara no and mayor
yes
okay so we go to item 8.4 Council bill
number
23-022 move to approve second motion
made by counselor beta second by
councilor Graham and Elizabeth Peters
director of Economic Development will be
presenting
yes
good afternoon again mayor and city
council my name is Elizabeth Teeters for
the record I'm really excited to be
standing here today to talk about the
leader that we are proposing for eight
to eight Productions this has been
almost two years in the making and I
know for some people in this room
they've been waiting a lot a lot longer
for a film studio so um with that I'll
just walk you through the lead
objectives and then go through the
project itself so Lita is the Local
Economic Development act it is a state
and local incentive its objectives it
exists it assists expanding or reload
relocating businesses that stimulate
economic growth have significant
Community impact and support increase
wages and provide job creation promote
significant new private capital
investment
the use of Lita funds leader funds can
be used to purchase lease construct
improve or acquire land buildings or
infrastructure
Public Works improvements essential to
the location or expansion and it is on a
reimbursement basis
a little bit of background about 828 it
is a film finance and lending company
that was established in 2019 since then
they have financed 15 films with a
budget spend of over 50 million dollars
the project itself is to construct a
movie studio the first phase will
include some quite a few items including
four sound stages office space a Mill
and other items it'll they'll manage
production of films and finance
independent films they're going to be
creating 10 full-time jobs which
includes film financing production
accounting Production Services and
post-production services and the
estimated investment is 75 million
dollars
the lead agreement itself the New Mexico
Economic Development Department will be
contributing three million dollars the
city will contribute 897 596 dollars we
will serve as a Fiscal Agent for this
project again they will being asked to
create a hundred full-time jobs by the
end of 2029 on top of that the 75
million dollars in investment by 2031
and then 350 million in production spend
investment by 2032.
so that the breakdown on the jobs is a
little different because they have
multiple aspects so I'm just going to go
through it separately so studio jobs is
going to be about 45 jobs with an
average salary of 58 000.
that the production jobs themselves is
going to be 28 jobs with almost 89 000
average salary
virtual effects facility will be 11 jobs
with an average salary of 101 000 yeah
101 thousand dollars
and then the post-production jobs will
be 16 at 81 000.
so if you put all those together all 100
jobs average salary for this project is
seventy five thousand dollars
when you break it down to the different
salaries over 60 of the jobs will be
sixty thousand dollars or more the Forty
thousand dollar jobs a 27 jobs is
security guards and assistance
so this project is a little different
than normal
for film leaders we do 10 years instead
of five because we want to get our
investment back
plus the reimbursement that we that
we're using capital capital outlay funds
for this project thanks to Senator
steinborn and um so what we had to do is
we had to figure out cinematic
infrastructure reimbursement
reimbursement for the project so we've
been working really close with eight to
eight staff so that we could see their
timeline on construction and
improvements and try to match it up with
how we could possibly reimburse them so
we're planning into doing it in six
tranches
and hopefully in the next year
and this is just a conceptual map of the
property
and with that we have representatives
from 828 and Senator steinborn is here
if there are any questions
thanks Elizabeth
councilman Como thank you sorry about
that thank you so much Elizabeth for the
presentation and for the two way folks
for staying for being here throughout
the meeting I was very impressed by the
salary chart for sure I wondered if you
could tell me I was looking at it now I
can't find it
none of these jobs are filled yeah right
or are they
mayor councilor Ben come out I'm going
to turn it over to Robert Dean who's
here representing 808.
mayor city council thank you Robert Dean
with 828 to answer your question we've
already
employed multiple people within these
positions and so as as of right now
we've got two employees here with us
right now we've got six in total at
eight to eight Productions and as we
begin to build out the infrastructure
obviously that's kind of where the bulk
of of the hiring comes from great thank
you for that that's that's great to hear
that and then back to Elizabeth I'm so
the 10 versus five years that's state
statute mayor councilor Ben Cuomo so the
state has done a few leaders the Netflix
facility is an example up in Albuquerque
and they kind of set the Benchmark that
10 years instead because generally film
studios have such a high investment so
you the expectation to get all the work
done in five years I don't know is if
it's realistic so you give them 10 years
and then that also gives more for build
out and gives them time to get you know
everything together thank you and I
don't have any more questions I just was
going to say a couple of things give
even the very much intersectionality the
intersectionality of today's agenda
between all of these pieces and the MRA
this being right outside of the West
Picacho MRA and the incredible
investment that you'll be making in our
community in an area that very much
needs it and to the detractors as
councilor Corin said
for people who say no one wants to come
here
I disagree and I think this investment
wholeheartedly disagrees with that and
so I just wanted to say you know that
I'm grateful to staff for the work that
they've been doing on this and and for
you all for for this investment in in
our community
thank you councilor Graham Airport
thank you mayor
um
since we have an expert here speaking of
intersectionality I was wondering uh Raj
if you could talk to us a little bit
about how this project can help
strengthen
our relationship with the university
community I know obviously this is
something counselor beta very interested
in as the university is in her District
um but or just anything you want to say
because
like listening to talk well thank you
mayor council uh Council Graham
I'm very excited to be about it I'm
sorry to interrupt I need you to state
your name please my name is Rajiv
dermalakandan
um I'm a faculty member at NMSU of the
last 16 years and you know this city has
been my home for a long time I grew up
here and I'm proud to call Las Cruces my
home but one of the things that it
missed was an opportunity for all the
film students from the Creative Media
Institute from the Creative Media
technology program is the opportunity to
get employment upon graduation so we've
seen hundreds of talented students leave
when they graduate and now because of
eight to eight they have the opportunity
to stay here in their Community with
their families close to home and work as
part of the film industry
and not only is it going to benefit the
students but it's going to give people a
transferable skills you know Artisans
Crafts People construction people all
these folks the opportunity to transfer
those skills into
film industry right they can get higher
paid jobs they can all of a sudden
change their profession and now they're
in the movie business and Veterans as
well who have skills so this is going to
really
um benefit economically in many ways
it's going to give all these people up
new opportunities that never existed and
when film Productions come in they're
like a big circus that comes into town
so they're going to be utilizing our
businesses service Industries
restaurants buying stuff getting
haircuts buying clothes so it's going to
have a far-reaching ripple effect within
our local economy plus tourism right
when movies start getting made people
are going to see the Oregon mountains
now they're like where is this place
where is this magical mystical mountain
range they're going to want to come here
so it's going to have a far-reaching
um impact and I've been here almost 30
years off and on and this is probably
the most exciting thing I've seen happen
to our town you know there's been um
almost a billion dollars spent in the
state but it we haven't really had a
chance to get a piece of that pie and
now because of 808 we can get a piece of
that pie and with the tax incentives
it's going to get even higher and higher
so we're going to be able to give our
local communities uh opportunities to
work it's going to benefit the
businesses and just overall I'm so
excited to see how the landscape of Las
Cruces is going to change within the
next year or two thank you
I knew you wouldn't disappoint thank you
thank you I know right
um and I I love the point you make
speaking of talented and MSE film
students
what's up Andrew
we had had a conversation exactly about
what you were talking about when film
Crews come they are a part of our
community for several weeks and Andrew
pointed out to me how many small
businesses they were looking like hey
where can we do yoga and set up a quick
you know just like a quick little
temporary contract or or gyms or you
know beyond just the the obvious but
important things like food service and
other personal services it's such a boon
to the entire small business community
so yeah thank you so much Raj thank you
if I could add one more thing absolutely
um you know Robert and I are from this
part of the state we've grown up here
our families are here and Todd who is
our CEO loves Las Cruces and so together
we're all really invested in building up
Las Cruces in the local community this
is not just some in and out operation
this is a long-term relationship and we
are excited to build something big here
thank you
thanks Raj okay next the mayor Pro tem
and then councilor beta thank you mayor
thank you Elizabeth a week waited so
long for this I'm excited about the
opportunity but could you change this
light to slide six
and talk a little bit about the city's
contribution the 897 596.
where does that come from mayor Pro tem
mayor so that comes from that's capital
outlay funds that Senator steinborn
provided
seven years ago something like that so
we've the city's been holding on to
those funds because he hadn't he had a
dream for this community and so uh we're
really happy that we finally get to use
them thank you and then the the question
around the 100 full-time employees by
2029 those employees will be specific to
Las Cruces residents
how will we how is that being divvied up
in the contract mayor mayor Pro tem yes
that is the expectation is to be hiring
local
okay and you have that listed on a
contract or yes okay and
um
with that how many are union non-union
folks do you know that
mayor mayor Pro tem there there's
nothing in the actual agreement itself I
don't know if you can speak to it Robert
city council mayor I think that to
answer that question properly the idea
is the crew base are those are our union
workers and so
for us to really Drive production and
infrastructure here it's going to be
reliant on us building a local crew base
a union crew base and so that's going to
be a part of our effort that we're
talking about and what Raj is saying
with the universities the academy the
upcoming Academy that we have the local
citizens here in the community we need
to build our crew base and it's going to
be that's that's part of our job is to
drive the workflow so that we can build
that crew base so yes the the the idea
is most of those will be Union crew
members I was really hoping you to say
that coming from a union family I'm I'm
very proud of Union so
um supporter
um yeah I I appreciate you being here
and and and you know learning about
eight to eight I was able to welcome
Todd and you all and when they made the
announcement at the Rio Grande and and
it was just so exciting to to be a part
of that and and and to hear his vision
there's a lot of passion and he spoke of
the Majestic mountains and you know
we're starting to see those and some of
the different films that have been
um here right and developed here and so
that's really exciting to me
um
and I I just I want folks to understand
how beautiful this city is and what
council has been trying to do at least
in the last eight years is trying to
really deter that brain drain what has
been so important at least to me and I
know we've we've changed over a couple
of three times now Council but it's
those those collaborations with the
university and dacc and those folks that
are are building you know that Workforce
that you were really wanting and I'm I'm
very excited to be a part of this and
and again to welcome you and I look
forward to to seeing more films that you
all will
will do here and so welcome and thank
you thank you all thank you mayor Pro
Temp and if I can I'll just it's gonna
be hard to follow what Raj said but to
kind of touch on what what you were just
saying yeah I'm from New Mexico
native New Mexico and about a quarter of
that I've spent here in New Mexico in
Las Cruces I went to NMSU in the film
program and then I left so that I could
travel around all over the the country
making films ultimately I came back here
because I love this place I love New
Mexico my family's here and I've always
believed that for long-term sustainable
growth we need
to plant roots here we got to build the
industry From the Inside Out we've been
a backdrop New Mexico is an incredible
backdrop and we've
most my favorite westerns have all been
shot here in the state but we need
people to make long-term commitment for
to keep that the economics here and not
take them back out of state and like Raj
said there was almost a billion dollars
that was injected into the state last
year by film so it's it's proven to be a
very powerful economic driver and
the support that you guys have given us
the community
Jeff I mean so many people have really
advocated and put their effort into
bringing a studio here and so we are so
grateful for that support but it's that
it's that kind of support that allows us
to plant those roots here and to
continue to Foster and give
opportunities to the Next Generation
because that's that's ultimate growth
that's where we're ultimately going to
sustain this is by working with the
universities working with the film
schools there's a pipeline to be created
right there so that people don't have to
leave and we can keep them right here
and we can train them work hand in hand
with them from day one and that's what's
incredible about this community is it's
not just the amazing backdrops that we
have but the magic is is really in the
people and the community that we've got
here paired with that and so we're just
thrilled to be a part of it and to to do
our part and contribute back into
injecting
the support of the community that's been
reciprocated to us and we are here to
work hand in hand with you guys through
all those processes and we are just
super excited so thank you guys thank
you really appreciate you saying that
our people may
don't understand but we haven't
really I'm really happy that you made
mention that there's a lot of Beauty in
our heart and passion for what we do so
thank you for that and then just lastly
do you anticipate an influx of people
that have left we'll be coming back
given that you all are here and do you
have maybe a number of folks that have
probably reached out to you with
interest it
mayor Pro Temp it's interesting you say
that we we see a lot of people that
we've worked with throughout the years
who have moved off to LA or maybe even
Albuquerque or Santa Fe with the idea of
the mention of us you know bringing in
the studio
a lot of their families are here still
and they would love to come back here to
their family so it's hard for me to put
an exact number on it but I think
when there's work and you have workflow
that's the job creation then you've got
you've got the reason to be able to stay
it's hard to leave home I know whenever
I left it was kills you to leave the
place that you know more like you wanted
to work here so I think we're going to
see a lot of those people come back here
and I think too we're going to keep a
lot of the the students and kids that we
have here from having to leave and then
let's have them start families and and
build homes here and can and start new
businesses and continue to kind of just
Elevate this community together
and then I'll just put a book in your
ear I met a young man a sixth grader a
couple of weeks ago who's phenomenal and
what has a dream of
um starting being a director and I met
him through
um Girls and Boys Club and
um it it would be lovely given that
you're in the area and they hopefully
will be moving to a new site kind of
similar to geographically where you all
are at that there would be
um you know some coronation and
collaboration with programming for kids
that have an interest in the film and so
just a little bit of a bug in your ear
absolutely thank you part of our plan
thank you so much I'm glad to hear that
thank you mayor
councilor beta
thank you mayor and thank you all again
um I'm really excited to hear about
um the work that you're doing with
Workforce Development pipelines I think
that's going to be so important about 15
years ago my brother was making the
choice whether to stay in film here or
to move off to LA and unfortunately he
moved away he's been fairly successful
he's working in Atlanta too going back
and forth but like so many people once
they leave sometimes it's hard to get
them back so I'm really excited to see
how we can train and have jobs that are
paying people enough to want to stay as
well because it's not just about bare
minimums it's about making sure that
they see that opportunity for
advancement and when we compare that
with quality of life costs here Las
Cruces looks a whole lot better than La
I have to say so I'm very excited to see
this
and I'm just grateful for the
collaboration and thank mayor
anybody else
well I think a lot has been said and
we're really happy and fortunate that
this is moving forward and a big thanks
to senator steinborn for you know your
dream I mean every time we've we've
talked about this I mean you I always
told told you that if um any real
fortune a big Fortune 500 company knows
that you're around they would hire you
to get their projects done because
you're like a bulldog you won't let go
until it's done and so we appreciate
that tenacity uh you you always always
come through for the city and we
appreciate that very much and this is
obviously the money that's going to be
used to to get this going and this is
really incredible to have this this type
of opportunity
yeah I know a lot of times our friends
up north Albuquerque and Santa Fe and
get a little envious and this is yet
another another reason to be even more
envious so thanks again for everyone
okay any any public comments
Senator signed the starboard sure
are you all going to name this building
after senators
the Jeff steinborn I refuse if nominated
I will not serve
um that was a
course reference don't name anything
after me but mayor council great to be
with you of course I'd be remiss if I
didn't stand up and support here today
I'm Jeff steinborn one of your state
senators the president of film Las
Cruces just got back 24 hours ago I'm a
little bit wiped out so forgive but uh
but of course I wouldn't have missed
today so great to see 828 here
um great to be here for this moment
where we helped launch this project 828
since the deal was announced has been
working to get this agreement in place
before they really launched in
construction because that's where
they're required to do in order to get
you know their expenses covered yada
yada so of course since I saw you all
last some big things have happened Las
Cruces was named one of the top
destinations in America by Movie Maker
magazine to live and work as a Movie
Maker we're listed number seven that's a
huge accomplishment very prestigious
list in the film industry first city
outside of Albuquerque and Santa Fe to
make that list so kudos to us another
big piece of news I'll drop on you guys
today in case you didn't hear Elizabeth
of course knows this I've been working
since before the session
um for the first time we were invited to
be part of a The Heavy Hitters in the
film industry in New Mexico on revising
New Mexico's film incentives and uh and
I sat at the table with Netflix and the
Motion Picture Association and NBC and I
said I support you guys we support film
in Las Cruces but film has to work for
the whole state and that's what I'm here
advocating for so I advocated that we
increased the Royal film incentive which
gives Productions an extra five percent
if they film 60 miles outside of Berlin
Santa Fe county and I can tell you that
we were successful Governor hasn't
signed the bill yet we're successful in
doubling that to 10 percent
so this will be a major tool so that'll
mean Productions can get up to a 40
rebate for filming in Las Cruces in
donana county and actually all the
emerging film communities around the
state so this is a huge win for not just
Las Cruces but Gallup Farmington towns
across the state that are trying to grow
film
and uh yeah you know the great thing
about this project today Council and
mayor is that you know it's all outside
money it's a million dollars the state
capital outlay money and by the way that
was about a dozen legislators over two
sessions who thanks to our Film
Community here going up there you know
working the Halls contributed towards
the stream and so I want to thank them
many of them aren't in office anymore
but but we've been saving it for the
right opportunity making sure we didn't
squander taxpayer money on something
that wasn't the right deal
and uh and then of course the three
million in state leader money
um that really that was the whole
strategy all along there was to get some
money and then leverage and attract
other funds and then of course the
biggest investor now is is 828 bringing
in their funding leveraging what we put
to the table so you know it's uh we're
excited and and ready to work hard and
mayor Pro tem all just closed by saying
film loss curses you know we we work
with the Las Cruces public schools and
Las Cruces Public Schools we have a
board member from Las Cruces public
schools on our board
they're launching a film competition
this year for film students K through
12. so I'd love to connect with that
student you talked about and get them
involved in this film competition and
that's definitely a big part of our work
and our vision is that pipeline is that
Continuum it's all about training it's
all about making dreams come true and
keeping kids here I mean that's the
founding vision of this group so
thank you mayor thank you Council
senator
okay anyone else
okay
seeing none
this is on the motion to approve
ordinance 3028 counselor beta yes
Council Graham yes councilor Ben Cuomo
yes councilor Korean yes counselor
Flores is absent councilor Gondola yes
mayor yes
okay so let's let the movies begin
all right thank you everyone we
appreciate it
we go to board appointments
I'll have have one here Melanie Brown to
the City Art board I would need a motion
in a second please
second by Council Graham Christine
this is on the motion to reappoint
Melanie Brown to the city artboard
counselor beta yes Council Graham yes
councilman Como yes councilor cran yes
counselor Flores is absent Council
Gandara yes mayor yes
okay next is notice of proposed
ordinances there'll be no public
discussion Council memory has staff for
clarification on the proposed ordinance
so that is item 10.1 Council bill number
23-023 ordinance number 3029 Bring It
Forward can you bring It Forward
okay next we go to city council member
board reports and comments I just have
one I had to change the date of the my
state of the city address originally was
going to be March 30th I changed it to
March 28th which is Tuesday at 1 30 here
so hopefully you all will attend
and that's all I have in airport time
here you come so quickly I'm still
trying to get myself organized here
um thank you mayor um yes I wanted to
talk specifically about the possibility
a strong recommendation to reinstate the
NAT program many years ago we started
that neighborhood action team and this
was to identify the those on unoccupied
residential commercial buildings keeping
lists having the direct contact with
the the property owners and such to
maintain right the safety and well-being
of the area and the reason I bring it up
in the last few weeks I've received
numerous complaints about unoccupied
dwellings that are posing a hazard to
the neighborhood one in particular on
McClure Road that's on my side of the
district and and I know that councilor
big Goma had been working on some
there in that area so when you have
three or four or five in the same area
it poses such a risk to the community
and I I sent an email ikani to last week
to Community Development codes
Lieutenant whittleah specifically about
the issues I mean some of the things
that are happening are you know where
puppies are left there with no food no
water I know I think I emailed and I'm
looking at Chief Smith I think because
I'd spoken to Annette and she said yeah
there's that program that they're trying
to get moving or have been doing and so
you know when you hear those things and
you hear the neighbors frustrated and
and concerned about what has happened in
the area it just makes for a really bad
situation which leads me now to
um asking when our uniform housing code
that we worked on and the housing PRC
when that's going to come forward trying
to figure out where it's at if it's at
with legal
or with
Natalie's group and Neighborhood
Services I wasn't sure but one of the
things that I think would be helpful is
including a yearly fee that's
substantial for unoccupied dwellings
that I think would be necessary to get
people sort of deciding is this
something that I need to do something
about like sell it or whatnot because
for for instance in the lived up area
when we sent a couple of times now
correspondence hundreds of emails excuse
me letters are coming back that say
unoccupied unoccupied with
very little
um
um oversight by anybody if you will and
I think again it just lends to blight
and the issues of Mayor and I sat in a
call or had a call a zoom meeting last
week with
um
border patrol meat and around stash
houses and seeing hearing from them the
number of unoccupied minors in this home
that were being picked up illegally
before they could do the necessary
paperwork to come over to the states
as as migrants right and and so I'm
getting increasingly concerned about
about that and I I just feel like codes
and others need to work together right
to address those issues
um
let's see what else
what else I am
the lady that spoke around domestic
violence she had sat and she called a
meeting with me and
spoke to me very very concerned about
the the rise in domestic violence I've
mentioned that in our our
Public Safety select committee and we're
working towards again lifting the
moratorium to address domestic violence
cases in the city and Municipal Court
mayor from having the interview with the
individual a possibility of having
another individual become a judge he
gave me a lot of insight about what is
happening with these cases where there's
mental illness and or dual diagnose
folks that
also have issues possibly with domestic
violence and deemed incompetent right
they have to
seek an assessment and evaluation if you
will and when they do that those cases
are being dismissed completely
and that there's something I'm not sure
if there's something that we need to do
in re-examining the law working with our
legislators to change that law but to to
assess folks and deem them incompetent
to stand trial and then just put them
out in community without resources or
Services right in place for these folks
just seems to be asking for trouble and
a disservice to the community so I think
we should you know work on
um
providing Services of some sort
um and and you know to Miss Smith's
point about the mras and I mean kudos to
this Council for the number of of
resolutions that we passed today that is
really going to help people
um not only work for pipeline
housing affordable housing these are all
things that we've been working on for
several years now that are going to help
folks that find themselves
in these Dire Straits and frankly the
number eight
points that Mr McMillan brought to my
attention or to all of council are are
really
um unviable this is just not something
that I'm going to support I've I've
tried to have conversation with him and
his Partners about what they're seeing
and in the business community and I'm
still available to have these
communications but asking people
to actually drug test everyone in public
housing and homeless camps and after the
second time be kicked out of the system
well what do you think is preventing or
exasperating the homeless situation I
mean
people have to really have an
understanding about addiction and what
happens to the brain and to the body
when these sorts of things are being
left right without medical attention to
Art the point in and I'll stop on my
soapbox about our health policy Review
Committee special thanks to Chief Smith
and Council Quran for putting together
what we hope is a resolution to come to
council about our philosophy and how we
deal specifically with fentanyl and
addiction and that is through our mat
programming
and mayor we hope that you'll support
bringing that resolution because it's I
think important that when we provide
funding to say for example the detention
center
lcbd fire and addressing these these
issue it's important that our officers
and our safety personnel are caring
Narcan that when folks come into
Detention Center
that they're being addressed in the most
trauma-informed way that they that we
can and that's with providing the math
services
and so
um I think it's going to be an exciting
a a resolution that's really going to
help people and I'm looking forward to
um whatever is next as it relates to the
opioid settlement I know we talked about
having work sessions about how we're
going to utilize this funding and I
think it's an opportunity to really for
this Council to really get to the root
causes of some of these issues with some
of this programming mayor and then
lastly I am having gosh I
I wanted to say I'm having a district
meeting specific at the and I'm looking
at
our folks down in the audience to help
me with the dates
um the 29th
my district meeting sorry maybe we
should go on and then I'll I'll mayor
put him yeah sorry save me Barbara thank
you golly I have my card sitting out but
I that's right it's actually going to be
Thursday the 30th thank you here in
Council Thursday the 30th council
chambers inviting district one folks to
come and hear about economic prosperity
and all the various programming that the
city is doing in relation to that
um and and so I invite district one and
so with that mayor I'll turn it back
over to you thank you thank you mayor
Pro Tem
Council Quran
thank you
I will keep it short this week I no no
I'd say that
um because I feel like today's Council
session is Weighing on me a little bit
first off I want to say
um how extraordinarily proud I am to
serve with the women of the Las Cruces
City Council and mayor thank you for for
your attempts at reigning us and I
appreciate that you
that you don't actually try to do that
so thanks for that
um
but I do want to just say uh how how
lucky we are to get to serve and make
decisions that move our city forward and
I'm really proud that we keep doing that
and and I look forward to doing it with
you all
into the future
that said next week I will be missing as
well counselor beta will be in DC
for the national league of cities
conference I'm really looking forward to
hearing from a lot of other cities and
also meeting with our federal
Congressional Delegation to talk about
our funding priorities and hopes for the
next year so we'll be absent for the
work session next week but I look
forward to the updates we'll share our
updates I'm sure
when we return so
otherwise that's it for today
okay thank you councilor bencom thanks
mayor thanks everyone a couple
um announcements myself and then I also
have just a couple things to say
um I did want to shout out Chief Smith
because he sent me this really great
um
piece of information regarding
um the connection between poverty and
fires
um and it's just it's really good and so
I just want to read what he said to me I
hope you don't mind Chief the National
Fire Protection Association has written
has white paper has written a white
paper on the connection of Home Fires
fire injury and fire deaths which
correlates poverty and home Fighters and
sure poverty leads to more fires more
injuries and more negative outcomes from
Home Fires efforts to combat poverty is
a fire prevention strategy
um I just think it's a an important
aspect to include to RMI MRA
conversations thank you chief
um I am also hosting a district for
community meeting on
on April 6th Thursday April 6th at 6 pm
at MacArthur Elementary and I hope that
folks come we'll be discussing issues
around Public Safety the MRA go bonds
and other exciting things happening in
the city I just want to thank Katrina
our new constituent Services interim
person for her support and for her help
I really appreciate it I think that
might be it on my announcements I did
want to note though that
um certainly want to apologize to my
colleagues if if I ever don't have a
poker face which is often
and the reality though is that people
come here often almost every other
Monday to disagree with something that I
am doing or that we are doing and we
that composure remains I you know we
cannot engage during public comment that
is the Public's time at our time this is
our time
but I would just like to point out that
what happened today was not disagreement
people didn't come here to disagree with
us today people came here specifically
to demean us not our work us our
character and I would just want to call
out that there was very clear dog
whistles here today that come here
people come here and say mayor the man
of the council make sure you get all
those Rowdy women in place
put them in their place they were being
too loud they're being too rowdy so
mayor I appreciate what you've said
about us today and and that you
acknowledge that some of that may be
happening but that is what happened here
today and if you're going to come here
and you're gonna
um
mischaracterize our words if you are
going to come here and defend a word
that is so clearly disgusting and awful
you're telling on yourself
if you're going to come and do that and
expect me not to have a face I don't
know I'm I don't know what to tell you I
I people disagree with me all of the
time but that was not what happened here
today and it's Rich to me that a very
wealthy person would come here and tell
us these things about people struggling
with poverty pay people willing to work
a living wage and withhold half of their
pay so that they can accumulate rent
that is called wage theft
yeah
I don't
there to me this is very
um unfortunately and even though we are
in a non-partisan body to me this is
very clearly a
political issue it is no some of these
some of these suggestions are no longer
about actually helping our community
move forward about addressing root
causes it is now about we don't like
your philosophy
and
yeah you know what I'm not going to see
here and be nice and meek when you are
directly engaging in derogatory Behavior
towards towards myself and my colleagues
so I just wanted to say that because I
couldn't walk away here today without
saying that
um and that is it please come to my
district meeting on April 6th
okay thank you again counselor Graham
wow
to quote Great American Stone Cold Steve
Austin can I get a hell yeah
hell yeah thank you Mr Pearson
um
no thank you thank you so much for that
counselor
um you spoke my heart and you make my
faces so I appreciate sitting here next
to you and and with all of you
no announcements or updates
um again just kind of a kind of a little
bit of a comment
um
it takes forever to get good work done
the MRA
I'm you know despite some of the Vibes
in chamber today I'm just absolutely
glowing about the MRA and I wanted to
take an opportunity to shout out
Congressman Gabe Vasquez who also put in
so much of the leg work on this I'm the
one who got to pick up that you know to
pick up that narrative and got to do the
final vote but
um so many people put in so much work
before we get to be the yes or no votes
on that and I just think that's really
important to acknowledge and I just want
to thank everyone everyone here and
everyone before who has done that vital
work to make our community better
and then also so I finally I settled the
bet with myself if you guys remember the
day that I was so so smart because it
turned out I had coveted and I felt
super sick and I was like Ugh I wonder
what will happen first the shade
structure or an MRA turns out it was an
MRA so go shade structure but no that's
all I got thanks
can you counterbate that
thank you so much a few quick
announcements
um just because I think we all liked
making staff work all in the same week
I'm going to have a district meeting
April 4th on Tuesday so thank you to
constituent Services of course and
um but it's going to be from 6 to 7 30
p.m at the papin center so we will be
talking about Public Works Public Safety
and hopefully give a few little updates
about just what's happening in the
district and the legislative session
um with that in mind I do want to say
thank you again to Elizabeth for all
your advocacy being an expert witness
and helping get that Across the
Threshold and I think that's one of the
great things about here I think people
feel to realize that we have over a
thousand staff members and so we're
going to be working on more than one
thing at a time so while we might have
one or two topics that get noticed by a
media Outlet or feel that are directly
connected to one individual we're
working on multiple items all at the
same time and that's when it all comes
together like we saw today between the
MRA between looking at Economic
Development opportunities that creates a
better City moving forward and we have
to do all those things together and so I
want to do what I can as a counselor to
help distribute that information about
the good work that we do because there's
a lot that have been done and it's
because of the hard work of staff and by
my counselors with imagination as well
and work I'm really pleased to see it
all has to kind of come together right
we all have our places and our pieces
and so I just want to name that and name
that those that do have concerns I think
we've all been really Mindful and I know
I try to be about listening because you
know I changed my opinion based on
information and if you bring me
information that is legitimate that can
be backed by actual statistics or
science or even lived experiences then I
can proceed forward and make a
reasonable decision
what we got here today was not for us
because the very first line of it says
below are my ideas that I have shared
with you in our politicians
and with you so this wasn't for us to
begin with this was a narrative used for
other purposes and that's really
unfortunate I think for our community
that gets to hear that and it doesn't
have legitimate I would say Solutions
but I think we're all here at a table
wanting Solutions wanting to help in
different ways and we have staff that
are very smart that are looking at
different solutions too because they
want to see our community move forward
and so I am very proud of the work that
staff has done that my colleagues have
done and I'm can
going to make sure that I continue to
educate myself every day about these
items so that we can come up with new
Solutions and help the city so thank you
mayor
mayor man I'm sorry I forgot I I am
we had the economic development PRC and
it was a really important one we had
discussion about the industrial revenue
bond with our Council which was really
impactual thank you for having it I
learned so much and this was in on the
hills of the IRB speculative development
that's probably going to come in the
next month or two I'm looking at
Elizabeth
um and and it just another tool in our
toolbox right to help sort of the West
Mesa development and whatnot mayor
there's a lot of work happening in there
and I just wanted to bring that up as a
as a point and just to let people know
that we're that we're working working
really hard and then we had Julia Brown
do a presentation she is the new New
Mexico Economic Development Department
um
Regional I guess representative and it's
lovely to see her she has this beautiful
voice this calming voice and but super
smart about the area of Economic
Development and I really appreciated her
taking the time and coming out and
visiting and speaking more specifically
to Lita and so um Justin Julia Brown is
our new representative aha that was here
and so just wanted to update folks on
the economic development PRC I promise
I'm trying to get better about giving
you guys updates
thank you thank you thank you all right
Connie City manager's report
thank you mayor miyagashima and city
council
um
acting city manager if anyone following
at home if you look at the seat and it
looks like evil peely got smaller you're
right hopefully did get smaller he's
following his last week of mandatory
annual leave and so he'll be back next
week but I appreciate all staff we have
fantastic staff making life easy for
whoever comes in the seat so thank you
very much
I have a real quick report and then
we're going to change things up a bit uh
here but I don't want to ruin the
surprise so mayor hope this is okay with
you
um
we got Public Works doing a great job
about 3.5 million dollars worth of
pavement replacement projects that are
happening currently right now so if you
need any clarification
I'm just going to name off streets that
it's taking place
but again behind all these streets our
awesome staff making it happen so we we
appreciate Public Works and their staff
but
um there there are certain sections on
these streets so feel free uh Council
and mayor if you have any questions for
clarifications just let me know and I
can clarify where it is on these streets
but we have uh
repavement projects happening on the
south
Al almendra Street Espanola Street South
Esperanza Street Homestead Circle Laredo
Avenue Martha Drive Mercury Mercury Lane
Mulberry Avenue fir Avenue South Nevada
Street Malden Drive Birch Drive
California Avenue Gaia Sosa Cummings
Court Elder Street Susan Avenue Wesley
Drive North Willow Street and Arrowhead
Road
okay so 3.5 million happening right now
so we appreciate Tony and Davido and all
the team making that happen
um last update for me quality of life
had a superb and fantastic and amazing
event on Saturday Saturday March 11th
the museum sponsored a very successful
chalk The Walk For the First Time with a
total of two 2036 people passing through
the courtyard between Branigan cultural
center and the Museum of Art to check
out the work of local chalk artists
deputy director of Museum's Garland
courts
reported that the event was a team
effort for a marketing and social media
posted by staff which through such a
large crowd and the staff and volunteers
who worked at the event
or kept the museums open the museum
intends for this to be an annual event
so thank you to all the team at quality
of life and to the museums especially
fantastic report and here is the
presentation of the day we have Barbara
de Leon she we like to call her is our
legislative Whisperer and there are
millions of dollars coming to the city
of Las Cruces and our partners and we
got more money than last year and I can
only
tie it to because Barbara is our
legislative Whisperer working on it this
year so so there there's a a brief
presentation just five PowerPoint slides
but couldn't be done over the microphone
so that's why we had Barbara just
present it quickly to you won't take
long but I'll turn over the time to
Barbara thank you thank you so much
akani and thanks to you all my name is
Barbara DeLeon as a Connie said chief
administrative officer and before I go
over the overview with you about our
legislative funding from this session I
do want to send a shout out to our staff
that really helps make this happen we
have had some transition in the grants
section and our new grants manager Susan
Gonzalez and our Deputy Finance director
of Alfredo Pacheco really helped to keep
us organized with all the different
dates that we had for deadline for
submittal all the different forms that
we needed to submit letters of support
Etc and organizing discussions with
other staff members and
srijana Bosnian and David sedillo Tony
Trevino in public works just a number of
people that it takes to to come together
and make sure that we get all the
information
submitted to the state so that we can
get the good funding that will really
help our community Thrive so I really
appreciate their efforts
um I put together just a summary of the
capital outlay projects that are
currently in the Bill of course the
governor has until April 7th to sign
veto or fail to sign the bills that have
been passed but as it stands we have
quite a bit of funding era set aside for
our community and projects across the so
many so many lines of business from
quality of life senior centers museums
our fire station improvements and our
Las Cruces International Airport many
parks and you'll see a few more that
I've got a few pages of of line items
for spending our lift up Las Cruces area
for Street and lighting
improvements we had requested a million
dollars but we got 560 thousand dollars
we're also making requests from our
federal delegation as well for this very
same project so that we can really make
an impact here I'm going to move to the
next page we have funding for our
Mesquite historical district again I
mentioned senior centers museums Parks
Trail improvements Veteran Memorial Park
Mesquite more Mesquite oh sorry that is
a i duplicated this Mystique historical
district in Munson Senior Center I
apologize that's a duplication so not an
additional 2.6 million dollars there
we have some Street improvements and
then for our facilities at Mesilla
Valley Community of Hope quite a bit of
funding there for the facilities and the
programs that support our community
through that through those entities so
over 11 million dollars in capital
outlay so Capital outlay we have several
years to spend the funds so these are
recurring funds uh funding sources we
also have the junior bill this is a
non-recurring funding source for us the
funds that are set aside for specific
projects or facilities must be spent
within one year we typically have a
little bit less than that by the time we
get the money from the state so these
projects are a bit smaller in nature
but no less impactful to our community
so you'll see some of the some of the
projects that are set aside for museums
funding for small businesses through our
Lida projects some body cameras for the
police department we have Trail
improvements and improvements to Veteran
Memorial Park those those two items were
set aside from representative Willie
Madrid in particular and then we have
some
um
funding for the dental suite for mental
health services for refrigerated
vehicles to collect food for the
homeless and for Supportive Housing so
over a million dollars in junior funding
from the state legislature so again some
some excellent support and funding for
our programs for our facilities for our
community from the legislature so the
next step as I mentioned is to for these
bills to be signed hopefully by the
governor as they are and then staff will
work with our state
um
Finance entities to make sure that we
get the funding as soon as possible so
that we can start
spending it on these on these great
projects that involves the state bonding
for these funds and then as us bringing
it in and we'll be bringing budget
adjustments to you so that we can start
the expenditures for these projects so
if there are no questions then I can
provide the correct summary to you if
you like the Powerpoints we'll send it
out to you after the council meeting
it's a and thank you akani
thanks thanks Barbara
[Applause]
very good I I don't oh sorry I don't
have a question but I do have I grew up
watching Price is Right so I have a
special request that and next time can
you give us an ending slide with like a
big reveal grand total I would just
really in the Price Is Right In Me would
really appreciate to see like a giant
number that is incomprehensible to us at
the end of every very good we'll do that
okay it's just over 11 million dollars
for Capital outmate outlaying 1.1
million dollar for junior builds awesome
over 12 million dollars for the
community yeah oh yeah novelty check
yeah that would be okay thank you thank
you very much and thank you for your
advocacy thank you
okay yeah is that it okay thanks Connie
thanks Barbara okay we'll entertain a
motion to adjourn then move to adjourn
second
who made the motion
counselor beta second by councilor then
Como okay Christine
this is on the motion to adjourn the
meeting counselor beta yes councilor
Graham yes counselor Ben Como yes
counselor Korean yes counselor Flores
says absent councilor Gandara
mayor yes okay thank you we are
adjourned it's 4 40 P.M have a good
evening