Economic Development partnership update
and Miss uh Mrs Elizabeth Teeters from a
director of Economic Development we will
be kicking this off
good afternoon mayor and city council
before I turn it over to Mr Lopez from
Evita I just want to let everybody know
that a few weeks ago the governor held
the governor's conference on economic
development here up in Albuquerque and
mavita was awarded the certified
Economic Development award just one of
seven organizations in the state to
receive it so I just want to send that
congratulations
and with that I will turn it over to Mr
Lopez
thank you very much thank you Elizabeth
congratulations Devin I'm not surprised
though you do a great you and your team
do a great job Mary thank you and thank
you for the time today mayor and city
council
um I know we were supposed to do this
presentation I think back in the August
time frame and unfortunately we were in
travel at the time but this is a
year-end review of our fiscal year that
ended June 30th of 2022. I can start off
by saying you know we're going to go
over the metrics over our service
agreement with with you today but many
of you have heard but maybe not all of
you have heard we've been working a lot
on strategic elements of going forward
with economic development it's probably
going to be too long to discuss in this
forum today but I would be happy during
another work session to get into more
details I'll just touch upon it very
quickly while I'm here though but first
and foremost just to let you know a
little bit about Mercia Valley Economic
Development Alliance I don't know if I
stated my name Devin Lopez president CEO
we are a full service 501c3 Economic
Development organization our mission is
to grow wealth and health of donana
County through the creation of
economic-based job opportunities for its
residents
in that we engage in Industry attraction
trying to be very competitive against
communities and States across the
country in terms of bringing economic
based jobs to the area
we also have a pretty aggressive
business retention and expansion program
where we work with existing companies
trying to assist them in their growth
and retaining their business here in Las
Cruces in that capacity we kind of are
the sales agent we hear a lot on the
road from competition we hear a lot on
the road from clients and and what they
like about our products and don'ts so we
feel we are an economic development
advisory service to the city the county
and the state and as I mentioned we've
been doing a lot strategically to build
our capacity so we can be more
competitive with projects going forward
uh our board and team our board of
directors is 24 members it's both public
and private sector as you can see city
of Las Cruces donana County and MSU dacc
Las Cruces Public Schools the chambers
all support our efforts and do sit on
our board excuse me and we have a
diverse private sector uh portion of the
board and amongst our board support and
turn in addition to the city of Las
Cruces and donana County being fiscal
supporters of us we also have about a
hundred private sector companies much
like a chamber that supports our
Economic Development efforts and
strategy for the region you'll see that
that is our team on on the right there
we have over 50 years of direct Economic
Development experience in New Mexico and
we've been restructuring our team this
past year so that we can cover the
different service categories of
marketing and Industry attraction and
business retention and expansion so that
we really are fully aligned with the
services that we are offering the city
let you know a little bit about our
total results for the year because we
are Regional and we represent the entire
doniana County so we do have metrics
that our board requires of us you'll see
that the green line is where we should
be at the end of the year in terms of
our performance uh in almost all
categories we surpass the green line but
really in the big ones in terms of job
creation capital investment and payroll
generated is where we really surpass the
capital investment was our second
largest ever in our history only behind
when Union Pacific came with their
Intermodal facility to the area about
six seven years ago to the left are the
companies that we helped represent to
support the 777 jobs that were created
I'd like to also say
um
we had an annual Target of creating 650
jobs we actually put a benchmark upon
ourselves whereas in the past our
Benchmark was 450 job creation per year
we pushed it by 200 200 plus in our
metrics and we still surpassed that this
past year as well
the next slide represents the actual
metrics towards our service agreement
with the city of Las Cruces it looks
very much the same in terms of marketing
we look at site visits that's where
companies are actually a feet on the
ground kicking dirt looking at
facilities total job creation payroll
generated capital investment and
retention and expansion consultations to
local companies the additional Factor
here that is not on the other dashboard
is job creation at the Las Cruces
Innovation and industrial park that is
very specific metrics to the city of Las
Cruces within the service agreement and
as you can see in every in every area we
did surpass our marks especially within
Las Cruces industrial Innovation and
Industrial Park and the companies to
your left represent how those jobs are
categorized 150 jobs were created with
electronic caregiver who are putting 30
million I'm sorry with Saputo putting 30
million dollars into capital investment
120 jobs with the electronic caregiver
that was that was phase one and I'll
talk about phase two in a second uh of
course you're all very well of article
and their announcement to create 60 jobs
and put 32 million dollars into a cold
storage at the uh at the industrial park
and then yellow bird we assisted them
along with the state in creating 32 jobs
as they're growing forward with their
Market expansion uh and they're
expanding their Market out of the Las
Cruces metro area to provide more
services into Texas and that was part of
their expansion
when we look at the city of Las Cruces
and what it means to our specific
categories of metrics we had 61 percent
of all project responses included sites
that we showed Las Cruces
of all of our site visits 67 were for
locations within Las Cruces in terms of
our retention and expansion
consultations with existing companies uh
71 of those consultations took place
with local companies in Las Cruces of
all the announced jobs 47 of those were
announced for the city of Las Cruces
surprisingly only shortly behind you
might you might think it's Santa Teresa
which is usually you know first or
second when we go back and forth but in
this past year was actually chamberino
with wtec and their announcement of over
300 jobs and I mentioned that
importantly because when you look at
wtec San Marino's proximity to Las
Cruces Las Cruces is going to benefit
quite a bit the residents of Las Cruces
are going to going to be benefiting
quite a bit from that expansion taking
place even though it's outside the city
city limits and then 29 of all capital
Investments that were announced took
place within the city of Las Cruces as
well
when we look at our five-year
comparisons uh I will go back to fiscal
year 18 and 19 when we look at average
wages that's a little bit of an anomaly
and sometimes we do go back and adjust
numbers based on actual performance so
uh but still that will be a high year
but as you can see outside of that year
we have seen consistent growth in terms
of average wages of the jobs that were
trying to bring here to Las Cruces and
grow in Las Cruces overall we saw 362
jobs within the city of Las Cruces
announced this past year it's not the
highest in performance of the last five
years but it is consistent but you'll
see that 73 million dollars in your
capital investment was one of our
highest in terms of the city of Las
Cruces in in really the past 10 years
the past decade of course we look at
capital investment very closely because
that creates almost an immediate tax
base to the city of Las Cruces
uh we run a lot of impact analysis I
think probably in many of you have been
in in past presentations or I've seen
our annual report we try to do impact
analysis to illustrate the direct
indirect and impact and induced impacts
of what these jobs mean to the community
at large So based on those number of
jobs created our impact analysis
estimates that over 87 million dollars
in new household spending will take
place in the community over the next
five years now that's that's based on
past Census Data that's traditionally if
people if residents in Las Cruces spend
in the same manner that they've spent in
the in in the past that 87 million
dollars in new household spending should
take place amongst all of our businesses
in the community
what it means to the to the tax base is
that uh those those jobs would create
over the next five years 2.3 million
dollars in new revenue for the state of
New Mexico 1.2 close to 1.2 revenue for
the city of Las Cruces and additionally
at 871 thousand dollars for the Las
Cruces Public School Systems and dacc
because they are part of the mill rate
calculation
so when I when I showed you the impact
analysis we're looking at this past
Year's results and we're trying to
estimate going forward trying to predict
going forward what the new tax base and
what household spending would look like
we use implant data which is used by
economists all around the country but
what we do after that is when we try to
understand what has been the actual
impact to the city of Las Cruces where
we could where we look backwards now and
we try to adjust numbers so for example
let's say a company announced eight
years ago and they were only in the
marketplace for four years for some
reason they left were they downsized we
try to go back and factor that in so we
try to really understand what our return
on investment well what your return on
investment to us means so this is kind
of just a preface to what that looks
like but you'll see over the last 10
years or 12 years the jobs created per
year and capital investment and what
that means in terms of a cumulative Roi
based on your investment to us over the
last 12 years it's a running return on
investment but we're at a point right
now where based on your investment in
Nevada 1949 percent return came to the
city based on new tax revenue that's
being generated if you include the
impact
to be the tax base of the Las Cruces
public school system and dacc as well if
you if you were to include that in the
factoring it you'd see it be about a 242
percent uh cumulative return on
investment over time I think most of us
given in this Marketplace would be
loving to see that in our own portfolios
so um we're pretty proud about that and
we're pretty proud about being able to
project these results for the uh you
know really for the the taxpayers of the
city
I think many of you known we've we
created about 18 months ago what we call
a closing fund that is to help us with
projects in the city and try to try to
really focus in on projects that are
important to us and we'll complement
these dollars with the state of New
Mexico where where we can in some cases
we're trying to identify projects that
maybe the state is not investing in but
we have this now ability to do so this
closing incentive came about because of
the El Paso Electric merger that took
place where they committed one million
dollars to Economic Development per year
for the next 20 years it was given to
the Community Foundation of southern New
Mexico to determine how to allocate
those dollars they went through a
competitive Grant system we actually
created this it was it was mavita's
Vision to create this closing fund
because we thought we thought this was a
tool that was really desperately needed
for us
so we were a recipient of those funds we
do not receive any dollars for managing
those funds we go through the analysis
due diligence identification of the
companies we go through the uh the
analysis of
post-performance to make sure what they
said they were going to do actually
resulted in doing it and you can see
that within Las Cruces specifically uh
for companies within Las Cruces should I
say we've we've awarded about 430 000 in
these funds to five different projects
uh nearing over a thousand new jobs
creation that is expected as a result
with over a capital investment of over
60 million dollars and the average wages
of over 25.23 at the top you'll see who
those projects were article cold
management we put a hundred thousand
dollars into that electronic caregiver
we had phase one and phase two phase two
happened already on this side of the
fiscal year so phase one was about 190
jobs and phase two was the 700 job
announcement where we participated with
both the city of Las Cruces and the
state of New Mexico in funding that next
next phase of expansion
uh and we're also and more recently
um you we all know about bidwise
Industries we are putting a hundred
thousand dollars into their effort to
grow here and and we've committed those
funds already to grow here in in Las
Cruces we're trying to move a little bit
more aggressively into understanding how
we can utilize These funds to assist
smaller projects smaller companies maybe
more entrepreneurial
um
the challenge we have with that is that
this is a post performance and sometimes
those younger companies they need the
money now not later but we're trying to
work under a scenario with them where we
can get dollars out to them a little bit
more quickly maybe in more tranches than
we would some of the other projects so
in that respect we're working with a
company right now called Worthington
Farms we made a commitment of thirty
thousand dollars to them for the
creation of eight jobs for their 632 000
investment and there's another company
we're working with right now called
backyard Farms that would be located at
the Las Cruces Innovation and Industrial
Park and we're just kind of trying to
put the final details on that project
but again the goal is we want to see how
we can distribute these dollars a little
bit more effectively so we can support
more entrepreneurial and smaller
companies as well as long as they fit
the guidelines of what we're trying to
establish
uh I talked a little bit about capacity
building maybe we can share this for
another session but I would like to talk
about we are trying to rate we're trying
to meet industry demands and changing
demands that are taking place post covid
one of them is an advanced manufacturing
with Advanced manual manufacturing is a
requirement of Greater skill sets but
greater wages as well but we're trying
to figure out better ways that we have
information available at hand that we
can illustrate to companies that we
actually have the skill sets in this
region to support their Advanced
manufacturing efforts so we've been
working on an analysis with two
different Consultants on that trying to
bring the bring those that information
to the table we've also been trying to
position the region for advanced
Logistics because of the supply chain
challenges we feel we can leverage our
existing Logistics infrastructure that
we have in place to also to also attract
technology and Renewables to really
become a more efficient location so that
we attract Logistics operations from all
over the country and support the supply
chain challenges that we've had in the
United States and finally I'd like to
say you know
I've been here 14 years now and I have
not felt this amount of collaboration
with the city economic development team
as I do now and I think as a result of
that there are some strong discussions
that are taking place internally and as
some of you are members of the PRC
you've heard some of the things that are
going to be brought out in the near
future and I encourage you to consider
what the what the economic Economic
Development Department will be proposing
because I think what we're trying to do
is now come up with tools creatively
that will make the Las Cruces Innovation
and Industrial Park more competitive
going forward
uh so with that I'll conclude my
presentation and open it up to questions
thank you Devin councilor Florida's
counselor Graham
thank you Mr Mayor
and thank you thank you Mr Lopez for
your presentation and for all your work
that you do on behalf of our communities
here in donana county and especially the
city of Las Cruces and I'm happy to see
that a lot of stuff is not a lot of
stuff a lot of businesses are being
located or we'll be locating in the
Innovative Industrial Park
one of my concerns about that is that I
mean you showed the averages and so far
as the pay and all that but I know when
Saputo presented a couple of years ago
um it was clear that there was room for
I guess upward mobility within the
employer's uh whatever structure but
but the pay wasn't all that great and I
mean and and the reason I say great
relative to the fact that people need
transportation to get out there and um
do you have any discussions with
say our transportation department or
anything like that to provide because we
don't have any bus service out there at
least that's my understanding and and
people need to get there and and
um 15 an hour doesn't really provide I
mean it's not enough to have have a car
even maintaining a car paying for
gasoline so can you answer that question
or no
thank you thank you mayor counselor yeah
I mean it's it's one of those chicken of
the egg kind of questions right
um uh more money is being would be
dedicated to routes if you know the the
demand was evidence at that time
um do we have direct conversations with
the nmdot or something regarding that no
in the past with the regional transit
authority we had we've had conversations
in terms of how their routes get to the
industrial parks
um uh for for job creation and I don't
I'll be honest I don't think we have an
answer we've been given an answer on
that but I think what we're trying to do
is two things number one for those wages
that'll make it more competitive for
people wanting to get to the industrial
park is this whole Advanced
manufacturing study that's that upward
progression that that if we're able to
convince these Advanced manufacturers
that again higher skill sets that are
computerization uh to CAD to automation
robotics they're willing to pay more
money and in many cases in today's
atmosphere they're willing to train
because in the United States today we
are behind in advanced manufacturing and
there's a lot of domestic there's a lot
of demand for domestic production to
come to the United States right now for
various factors so in most of these
cases they're telling us look we'll we
understand the skill sets are not there
I mean we're willing to train the people
we're willing to train them to the wages
that you know they they will they will
receive as a result of those extra skill
sets and I think in many cases if we can
push those up to 25 20 or 30 an hour the
transportation side will take care of
itself
but again I will be honest it's chicken
or the egg but the other aspect of
chicken or the egg is infrastructure
many of these Advanced manufacturing
projects we're seeing because they are
like they're telling their
telecommunication and Broadband needs is
much greater than traditional
Manufacturing in the past because
they're dealing with computerization
there are electrical needs are much
greater in the past their their waste
water needs are much greater in the past
and that is the other challenge we're
dealing with right now but based on the
size of the projects is trying to
address whether we have the
infrastructure in place or can deliver
it in a time frame that they need
well you're actually
looking at the the entire picture I
appreciate that thank you Mr Lopez thank
you Mr Mayor Master thank you I'm
councilor Graham and Council Corrine
thank you so much for the presentation
again congratulations on the designation
from the state
I really appreciate the statistics and
metrics you're providing jobs created
dollars invested return on investment
and I recognize the importance of those
statistics but I was wondering if you
can speak a little bit more to the soft
fuzzy qualitative side of Economic
Development because as as interested as
I and I'm sure my colleagues are in the
dollars and cents of it at the end of
the day this is also these are
initiatives to improve quality of life
for the people who live here and not
just those who may necessarily work with
the businesses but can you speak a
little bit about those abstract matters
of the heart for me
mayor and counselors It's the quality of
life question is always challenging
quality of life is often based in the
eye of the beholder right that's Beauty
right I can't tell you how many times
we'll work with companies that we're
touring around the area and maybe
they're they're from the Midwest or
something and they'll say to us
um there's not a lot of green here
and that becomes the quality of life
issue for them and then we have two
different sets of of clients that we
work with in terms of Industry
attraction we will work with the
decision maker and that decision maker
may be moving with the project or may
not be moving with the project if
they're not moving with the project
their view of quality of life is is
um
Public Safety
education and health care
that that's their vision of quality of
life and we have to rank strongly in
those areas if we're going to be
competitive with other locations that
they're looking at across the country if
it is the person moving with the project
it becomes a completely different
discussion
becomes a completely different type of
sales pitch in a way because now we're
catering to understanding
their family their family needs what
they personally value and and we have to
try to position those conversations and
many many times we can we can talk about
uh you know if they have two kids in
high school you know free college I mean
that's that's very appealing in terms of
making a decision but I think overall
and most important let me back up
there's one other quality of life we've
seen now uh being quoted by more
companies going forward and that is
their ability to tap into Renewables so
I I do want to address that because that
is important and we've been having a lot
of conversations with the county as well
as a city as to how we can be a more
desirable area to companies because we
have a strong portfolio of those
Renewables that they can tap into
um other than other than that that's
what we but but don't get me wrong I
mean one of the reasons I mentioned the
tax base is because one I can now I can
also tell a company that we're
generating tax revenue that is being
reinvested into the quality of life for
the residents of the area and let me
give you an example of that it's maybe a
little bit older news but it's still
relevant I believe in my opinion is for
a long time we didn't have really an
active Main Street
and not having kind of a centralized
area was you know something that
subjectively decision makers would look
at and kind of ask why what's going on
uh then for a while when we had you know
the federal courthouse being billed
being built the uh you know the city
hall was being built simultaneous we had
cranes in the air around mainstream they
were talking about hey this is progress
you see what we'll see what's happening
here and I think now we can actually
point to a Main Street downtown activity
where it's now they see they can first
hand see
um
Community
they can see especially young people and
young people always gets into their mind
of Workforce right so I think those are
where we try to really talk about the
storyline of quality of life and what it
means to them is the Investments you can
make into the future of the residents
here and and of course that that
translates to the growth of their
company as well
perfect thank you so much thanks mayor
the council Council Quran
thank you mayor thank you very much for
the presentation and I really appreciate
hearing the feedback of kind of what we
can be thinking about both in terms of
numbers and and ideas so I really
appreciate councilor Graham asking about
that thank you I did have a question or
just sort of I guess a hope both As you
move forward it sounds like the
initiative with the funding to bridge
into smaller businesses is really that I
feel like that's a great idea and I
think I'm I'm hopeful that you can
figure out ways to make that work I I do
see though that that the average salary
for the small businesses below what we
would consider the bare minimum for our
not not the federally required minimum
but what we would consider the minimum
quote livable although I wouldn't say 15
is livable really for anyone wage so I
hope that both for you going forward in
terms of making those sort of
discernments that that the median salary
of of every sort of initiative that
works out in us as a city as we as we
move forward that when businesses are
sort of I think that we I would ask that
we set the bar sort of high for for them
also and and I I know that that's a hard
ask but I think it's the economic sort
of picture that we're in right now
anyway and and so I hope that can also
always be part of the conversation both
the average salary or the average wage
and then the median salary that might
sort of Encompass the to what counselor
Flores was alluding to the progression
of of potential movement upward on the
salary track so so that we can see that
whole picture and have a good sense of
what of the good paying jobs that we're
bringing in versus jobs that might not
be
enough for people to live on in our
community regardless of
I mean assuming an upward an ongoing
upward trajectory that will just
continue to increase so I would just ask
that that be part of always our
conversations as we as we think about
that so absolutely absolutely mayor and
counselor I I'll say um
I think that has been one of the
pleasant surprises of this closing fund
that we now kind of not control but we
have locally to us if you look at two of
the Investments that we put into it it
was you know electronic caregiver and
bitwise
um the state of New Mexico did not put a
lead off or to bitwise but we chose to
do so specifically because well two
things number one
um they're providing
critical training
in a model that
employees or provides a wage to that
person while they're in training for
coding and programming
a lot of times we lose projects for
those higher degree levels because we're
higher higher skill set levels because
we're a small population to begin with
and so it's very difficult to sometimes
Illustrated we have enough of a certain
skill set that is going to meet the
company's needs and a company who's
going to put 20 30 40 million dollars
into a community they're just not going
to make the investment unless it's
beyond a shed of doubt they can they can
fill those those positions no decision
maker would want to go back to their
board three years later and say we got a
close shop it's a career killer probably
so what I like about them is their
training and then they're going to then
employ those those individuals as well
they don't have to those those
individuals can take their
apprenticeship and knowledge and go to
the private Market as well but that's
one of the reasons why we put dollars
into them even even if the state do not
because we felt that was vital to the
growth of our community going forward
and we hope to see more of those
projects as well so
thank you
well Devin I think a lot has been good
good things have been said I've known
you since you started what 12 years ago
13 years ago almost 14. 14 hasn't been
that long so you've done a fantastic job
we're very fortunate to have you with
the organization and you know I know
some years counties beneficial some
years the city is but all in all it's
it's good for our whole community and we
appreciate you and your team this is
what a heck of a return of investment
that the city has and and so we can't
thank enough for all the hard work you
do and this just continue to to do what
you do and and let us know if there's
other other things that we could help
out with but I think you're you've got
the pretty good handle on things so just
continue doing what you're doing thank
you mayor and thank you counselors I
appreciate your time today thanks
okay so next item is going to be 3.2 res
legislative update and state funding
priorities
Amy Johnson basford and and
Larry haran will be presenting
and a couple couple guests from DC I
understand
yes good afternoon Council mayor Pro
tems in DC today so
would you guess you're Crossing an
airplane
foreign
good afternoon Council Amy Johnson
bassford grants manager for the city
today we are doing the legislative
update we will have both federal and
state funding updates for you it will be
somewhat of a lengthy conversation but
we hope that we'll keep you all
entertained and so our first speaker is
John O'Donnell who is with our federal
lobbyist firm and he will be going over
what they have been doing for us and
some forward-looking opportunities ahead
of us
thank you Amy mayor members of the
council it's good to be with you in
person and that looking at a computer
screen today and talking with you and
looking at my phone and wondering if I'm
being proper in the way I look on the on
the screen so let me start by just
saying introducing a little bit about
what our firm is excuse me sir I know
they introduced you but can you just for
the record state your name oh sure yes
John O'Donnell I'm the managing partner
of MMO Partners in Washington D.C the
firm
that I work with is we've done
Municipal representation for 40 years in
Washington I'm proud to say that our
original Four City clients are still
clients of ours 43 years later
and I think that's because we've got a
small firm that is able to Pivot track
information that is relevant to local
government and have effective
relationships with both our clients and
federal agencies and Congress we have
had a long history those 43 years I
mentioned we've worked with the New
Mexico Congressional Delegation for that
long
um
the kind of projects that we've worked
on are for small cities large cities
medium-sized cities in transportation
Public Safety Behavioral Health water
and I think that gives us a good
background in in facing working with you
and the challenges that you have in Las
Cruces
the major I want to focus for a moment
on what Congress is dealing with right
now what they have to finish before the
end of this first session of Congress
it's the FY 23 budget which is really
the Appropriations Bill we have a
continuing resolution that takes us
until December 16th and the reason I'm
mentioning Appropriations and this one
that's called ndaa National Defense
authorization Act is these bills often
become vehicles for other legislation
that's important to local government and
other interests the word of Bill is a
water resources development act which
we'll say a little bit more about later
it has some relevance to the city of Las
Cruces and then finally the public lands
package Congress likes to do these
public lands bills but given the makeup
of Congress
the land's bills Recreation open space
these bills many times have to be
attached to one of the two bills I
mentioned first the National Defense
authorization or to the Appropriations
bill because those are must pass
legislative measures
the Las Cruces Federal program we we
started a little after what we normally
call our cycle of preparing for a
federal program this year because we did
not begin working with you until
February and as a counselor Flores heard
this morning in the conversation about
the state program you folks really begin
your efforts at a state program in
October that's what we normally do we
begin now and that's why over the next
few days we're having conversations with
members of the council and the executive
staff of the city to work on the program
for calendar year 2023 but the program
is made up of legislation which is
essentially legislative measures that
are important to the city and the
Appropriations measures which in the
past two years have funded earmark
projects
then there's the Congressional Federal
agency Outreach which is an important
part of the program because
you can't just develop a program have a
resolution have project priorities and
legislative priorities and expect
Congress or federal agencies to be
attracted to them you really have to go
sell them and we did a little bit of
that this year in May when a counselor
abetta and Andy Hume from Aviation were
in town we met with federal agencies and
we met with the Congressional Delegation
to talk about some of the things that
were emerging on Las Cruces Federal
interests
um
and then the grant support and technical
assistance that's a part of the program
where uh as I was speaking to your chief
administrative officer earlier who's
been inundated with emails from us about
Federal programs and opportunities we do
pursue those federal grants identify
them we send those to Amy basford for
distribution and then we follow up and
in some cases what we wind up doing
whether a grant is successful more times
when it's not what we do is engage the
city with the decision makers in that
Federal agency who reviewed those grants
and maybe found things in the grant that
need to be improved in the next round of
competition so that's part of the
service that we also offer
um the major pieces of legislation we
dealt with this year was the American
Rescue plan implementation its passage
the infrastructure investment and jobs
Act and the most recently the uh
inflation reduction act and dimension up
here again the word of Bill
I'll let Mr pagonis my associate talk
about the bipartisan safer Community Sac
passage but what I'd like to say is that
on on this legislation these
pieces as you well know because
everybody wonders how much money are we
going to get from the infrastructure
Bill what is the inflation reduction act
mean for us what a lot of our activity
is focused on right now is looking at
talking with federal agencies about the
implementation and they're getting the
grant notices out the door for these
programs and some of that discussion
does have to do with the criteria the
eligibility criteria that they're
developing so we'll talk with agency
folks about that eligibility criteria to
make sure that
those resources can be focused on Las
Cruces
the
specifics of some of what we do is
what's up here now and that is on the
Appropriations this year
was the second year that Congress did
the earmarking since 2009
last year I think you had submitted
maybe four and I don't think any of
those were funded this year we had eight
that were submitted uh I I consider the
the first four on that list up there the
ones that I we worked very closely with
Ms basford on in terms of getting those
to the delegation the last I guess it's
the bottom two Mesilla Valley Community
of Hope amicia Valley public housing
authority
uh we worked with the Congressional
Delegation staff letting them know that
these were projects that were coming
from those organizations but the city
was in support of those efforts
um the programs and I I would say that
the city had a very robust engagement
with the Congressional Delegation staff
this year on Appropriations this is a
more complex problem or I shouldn't say
problem this is a more complex effort
than it just seems like talking to an
elected official about what you think
the priority is there is a lot of behind
the scenes work that goes on in this and
I won't get into that right now but if
you have questions we can talk about
that further because the Appropriations
we think they're going to continue
we're being optimists about that we hope
they do and I'll say this you have not
seen in the Press anywhere in the
country or in the media any discussion
about
earmarks and them being for foolish
ideas this what Congress did in putting
guidelines together a year ago making it
for state and local governments and
non-profits really substantially reduce
that that risk
so with that I would like to ask Mr
pagonis to add some more information
about this slide thanks John for the
record kiriakos pogona's vice president
with MMO Partners mayor council it's a
pleasure to be with you today
uh what John was talking about the
Appropriations we've and so we've just a
step back a little bit uh We've sort of
broken out the funding into two
categories so the discretionary or
competitive side and then your formula
funding right now we're talking about
sort of competitive funding
Appropriations earmarks are competitive
you are competing in New Mexico and uh
with the rest of the country under this
slide we're talking about uh competitive
funding that the agencies release
through nofas or competitive Grant
applications and I'll just say that you
know coming in working with Las Cruces
has been a real pleasure there's not
oftentimes a system in place your grants
program officer Amy has done an
excellent job your departments have done
an awesome job of going after these
opportunities and I think really
reflects the direction of the council
and mayor have provided so these were
applications submitted this year and and
maybe even last year but have been
awarded this this calendar year so as
you can see FTA your Transit folks have
secured 14 million in competitive
funding the FTA loan no program is a low
emissions program for battery and
electric buses
operations and maintenance facility you
can see that the numbers I won't read
them directly but I will say when we
talk about the infrastructure bill so
that that first one is a direct
program and funding source from the
infrastructure bill that was signed by
the president last year
uh the usdot raise application this is a
program that's been appropriated and
funded by Congress over the past several
years it was reauthorized in the
infrastructure Bill the city did submit
for the first time a 25 million dollar
request it did not get funded but it was
highly recommended and what that really
means is uh you're on a short list uh
that you know dot has said we recognize
the importance of this project we're
going to have another round of funding
probably opening up in the second
quarter of next year and you need to
resubmit this project is basically what
they're saying so while we weren't
successful and I'll say most this
program and we've heard from you know
the secretary all the way down you know
it's it's it's probably harder to get a
raise Grant than it is to get into some
of the ivy league you know schools in
the country so uh you know there's so
many competitive projects that don't get
funded the first go-around but again
being highly recommended you know you
your first time out is a pretty big
pretty big deal the National Park
Service Apodaca Park this project was
funded or selected for award back in
2018 through the outdoor recreational
Legacy partnership program it finally
has come together this year I think
again that's the Testament of your staff
you know finalizing and going through
the process We we played a small role in
reaching out to the agency there but
it's nice to see that this has come
through that program in particular will
be open every year so when we're talking
about new parks to submit there there
will be opportunity to submit additional
Park applications and at a much higher
level actually Congress has really
invested in this program so they'll be
higher funding opportunities at a you
know I think this year the maximum
amount for a project that's 5 million
I will say you have to go through
through the state uh office to to go
through the competitive process for this
program and actually many of the the
federal programs require that but in
this particular case you do have to go
through the state uh to go through their
vetting process and then they submit uh
to the National Park Service for
national competition
uh I'm so now we'll talk a little bit
about the formula funding that you all
uh receive and some of it is reflective
on an annual basis but obviously the
coven relief funding is a major piece of
that almost 25 million that the city
received through the code relief program
uh 12.4 in the first tranche the second
tranche just came through in May 12.4
million I you know one of the things
that I think what is important to
remember on this you know this is a
one-time sort of funding we don't expect
Congress to continue to do this uh going
down the road but you know who knows but
it's it's probably safe to say that once
this money is is done that there
probably won't be another round of this
one thing we should keep in mind though
depending on what happens in November uh
there there could be
um you know some efforts to to maybe
claw back funding that is not spent so I
think if you know you're looking at
programs and and you know how to get
this money spent I I think that's
probably a good good way to move forward
because again there may be efforts to
call back any funding that's not not
spent if if if things change
under Housing Community Development so
the first one is your your annual cdbg
allocation uh 1 million and then 536 000
for the home program both programs are
under the HUD housing Urban Development
Department again Congress funds these
programs through the annual
Appropriations process the cdbg program
has has been flat over the past couple
years and in fact I think you know
allocations have come down a little bit
because of earmarking the home program
on the other hand has has seen a little
bit of an increase and I think we'll
continue to press Congress to to you
know bump up those numbers as they
finish up the FY 23 Appropriations
process this year which right now looks
like you know could go into December it
will go at least until December 16th I
think depending on what happens again in
November you know that might get pushed
into next year and then who knows
but that that's something we're
certainly watching and certainly going
to be pressing Congress to fund those
programs at the highest possible levels
FTA your urbanized area formula
allocation is 3.8 million for FY 22. as
you can see because of the
infrastructure bill that's 1.4 million
more than the city received last year
under the old fast act authorization so
those are formula funds you know made
available because of the
infrastructure's passage and I think one
thing to say about the infrastructure
bill I everybody you know there's a
there is a lot of money through the bill
and also through the inflation reduction
act it's going to take time you know a
lot of the competitive and new programs
that were created in those bills are are
new so agencies are really working hard
to not only get their existing programs
and and funding out the door but then
standing up brand new programs so
um you know that that's just something
to think about these are you know
five-year programs in in the case of the
infrastructure Bill the inflation
reduction act funding is over a 10-year
period so just to keep that in mind that
if you know you don't go after something
this year there is time to pursue other
funding opportunities down the road
uh so on the formula side uh so the
surface Transportation uh formula
through the Federal Highway
Administration there are formulas like
for the fhwa surface Transportation
block grant program that program does
sub allocate money to Metro areas in the
past before the infrastructure Bill
areas of 200 000 in population or above
got a direct sub allocation meaning the
state DOT had to you know sub-allocate
funds to those areas the infrastructure
Bill changed that a little bit so they
added categories between 50 000 and 200
000 and then assigned a sub allocation
number for those areas they also did it
for areas from five thousand to fifty so
New Mexico's allocation for the surface
transmission block grant program 450 to
50K to 200k is a little over 10 million
and we were talking to Amy and and your
mpo about approaching New Mexico DOT
about those funds again this is New
Territory every state is now looking at
these new allocations a little
differently so that's something we're
going to be pursuing same with the
carbon reduction allocation so the state
has received a bucket of money through
the infrastructure bill for the carbon
Reduction Program there is a sub
allocation for Las Cruces at about 500
000. it's still unclear how the state
will distribute that funding and and how
does it get to Las Cruces is really the
the key question those are you know
areas we're going to be working with the
city and and state on as we move forward
the Energy Efficiency resiliency
allocation of 178 000 is for a
conservation block grant program that
was first funded during the Obama
Administration under that bill there's
about three billion dollars appropriated
for the program and Las Cruces did
receive a direct allocation similar to
the cdbg program I think your allocation
was about nine hundred thousand so there
was only 550 I say only 500 SDC uh 550
million available for this program so
your allocation again this is not a
quoted number this is an estimated 178
000 that will come from doe directly to
the city to do Energy Efficiency
upgrades weatherization uh there's a
whole list of activities you can do
with that I will turn it back over to
John
thanks kiriakis I'm going to make this
quick and wrapping up because what I
have to talk about in closing is the
part which I mentioned earlier about the
Congressional and federal Outreach and
then about the technical assistance and
Grant support so let me just say this
what we do in Washington
with the information we have from you is
marketing and sales that's what we do
it's marketing and sales with the
Congressional Delegation and federal
agencies
and a bit of that started this year for
Las Cruces when councilor I beta and
Andy humor in town because we went to
see BLM
we talked with the FAA we talked with
Folks at the Department of Agriculture
and we met with the Congressional
Delegation
and that visit was timed
serendipitously
right after our earmarks requests were
in with the Congressional Delegation so
councilor obeta and myself had an
opportunity to talk with the two Senate
offices to talk with the other
Congressional offices we didn't limit
ourselves to cd2
um
but we had good conversations and
federal agency folks understood what we
were trying to do with the airport and
what the interest was in the part of the
city especially on the shooting range
with BLM property or land
so I just want to mention it's that
sales and marketing and you folks are a
part of that this morning a point was
made by Larry Horan about showing up in
Santa Fe and talking to people
you will hear from it I say this
respectfully you will hear from members
of Congress that you don't need to come
to Washington and talk to us we'll see
you in Las Cruces when you show up in
Washington they know how long a trip it
is to go down to El Paso get on an
airplane go through Dallas Fort Worth or
Atlanta to get to Washington and then
come back
so you've already proved one point you
have the stomach for doing that and it's
important that you do show up to the to
the your ability to do that and the same
is with federal agencies when kiriakis
is mentioning these programs that got
funded let me tell you when you walk
into a federal agency and you talk to
him about a program in Las Cruces and
then they see a Grant application
it gives us an opportunity to be a busy
body and call those folks and talk with
them about did you get it and then see
where they go with that you know it's
it's the schmoozing
um but it's important and then finally
I'd say and I think the record that we
have so far with you shows that
we do work on these grants we do work on
these earmarks and we will provide the
technical assistance because that's what
we're paid to do so I want to thank you
for your time and attention
all right we appreciate that Mr
O'Donnell questions from councilor
Flores and councilman Cuomo Council and
counselor beta Council photos thank you
Mr Mayor and thank you Mr O'Donnell and
Mr kiriakis
um as far as
um I'm just curious as far as the FTA
um
there's there was I think it was page
eight but at any rate there was a
reference to arpa 5307 funds
where did that go
to whom was that allocated
thank you mayor councilor Flores so that
um money for the 5307 additional
operating that was an arpa fund and that
went for the operations of Transit it'll
fund I believe that it came to council
at the last meeting or possibly the one
coming up sorry I can't keep them all
straight in my head anymore
and that is going for their operations
it is funding them 100 percent
um so they say they excuse me Amy when
you say they who is there I'm sorry
Roadrunner Transit okay the operations
of Roadrunner Transit it is funded at
100 that should take them through a year
of operations
okay and the reason I was wondering is
because this 5307 fund has come up in
the scrtd and
um but El Paso
gets the money and then deals with the
entities
um El Paso gets a separate allocation we
do get a direct allocation of 5307
annually which is referenced here on
this page the five the three eight one
three that is our annual allocation of
5307 funding so we do get it direct from
FTA annually and the funding that is
handled by the state DOT and New Mexico
DOT is 5339 funding which is a small
amount of funding that can be used for
Capital and Rolling Stock great and that
was my next question how much of this
the money that's allocated to the state
trickles and I say trickles because
that's just been my experience with the
state how much of that trickles to to
the city of Las Cruces and what is the
mechanism by which it comes if it does
come so normally we do receive an annual
allocation from the state for 5339
funding from FTA that is the state
administered portion and like I said
that's used for Capital and or Rolling
Stock we get about
five hundred thousand
yes Leanne is nodding yes we get about
500 000 we have a twenty percent match
for that
so that comes down to us annually what
happens is the state receives their
appropriation information the same time
we receive r5307 then they send out a
letter saying you know do you want this
and we say yes we want this and then we
go through the process at the federal
level to bring that money into the city
thank you so much Miss bassford and
thank you Mr O'Donnell Mr kayakis thank
you mayor thank you councilman Cuomo
thank you mayor thank you so much for
the presentation for coming here today
to
um to give this presentation and of
course to staff for all the work you do
in the background
um to ensure that you know we're being
represented I really appreciate it
um I just have a couple questions with
the elk Trevis
um update we were very sad to hear about
that at our last TSI PRC meeting
um though excited to hear about this
highly recommended piece I'm curious is
there
recommendations changes updates to the
application that would make it stronger
is that I'm you know I see Mr Celia here
if that's for them but I'm just curious
what can what can push us over the edge
next time there's a round of
uh fundings thank you mayor councilor
Ben Como we have had a debris from the
usdot with uh Public Works myself and uh
we also had nmdot on the call as well as
our consultant that dated us with that
application they did give us several
recommendations on areas we can improve
in we were highly recommended they did
provide us with the scores it's either
high medium or low for the different
criteria areas so we are taking those
into consideration we are pursuing
trying to find out how we can see the
level two comments so there's two levels
when you apply for raise your first one
is really qualitative it goes through a
process of being reviewed for you know
the project concept the design that type
of thing level two if it gets highly
rated in level one it goes to level two
which is where they evaluate our benefit
cost analysis that we have to do which
tells them whether or not this project
is a a good Financial project for them
we're hoping to figure out how to get
the level two information back and then
they have indicated that the program
will be released again in late November
so we will be going forward with an
application at that time for the project
uh potentially read somewhat redesigned
to fit into the current project scope
and make take their question their
comments into consideration great this
November Amy yes it's like November next
month okay great well hopefully that
just shows the urgency of and that
cities are ready for this kind of
investment right so I'm so glad thank
you and I'm glad that you are all ready
and prepared for that
um one question you just to clarify you
um in the covid relief funding you
mentioned something about a claw back
I'm that made me very nervous
um given that we just started the
process of uh disseminating half of that
11 million dollars to our non-profit
Community
um can you speak more about that yeah
sorry if I scared you
um
I guess I'm I was looking forward in
terms of whether you know there may be a
change next year with Congressional
makeup and you know one thing that we've
kind of heard depending on what happens
in November is that there could be you
know an effort
um to to try to you know re recapture
funds that have not been spent not just
for this program but for other programs
as well so it's just nothing to get
worried about yet it's just something
that we're sort of we're thinking about
and watching uh and certainly will make
you all aware of anything that comes up
okay requires any additional action okay
so originally I think the date that was
set for this arpa of funds was to spent
by the end of 2024.
2024 but then you have total 26 I
believe too you don't think that might
be honored
I don't know
terrifying
thank you thank you okay I just wanted
to make sure and got it I wanted to add
something to uh the comments that uh Amy
made about the project the raise project
one of the things that we heard in the
debrief and we've heard this before is
and I think Las Cruces did this you were
engaged with the New Mexico DOT as you
were putting this application together
one of the things that this next round
uh we intend to do is have some of those
those same conversations with some of
the people at Federal highways in
Washington because one of the things
that we're told uh in these deep
briefings is and I'm not saying this was
true for the last Christmas Proposal but
if you make assertions about something
that this project is going to do this or
have this result and you don't back that
up with some facts and not just
something that you put down there but
something that you can cite that there's
a study or there's more information
the people who were viewing simply do
not they don't they're not paid to do
that research for you so they don't do
it and that's what can lead to a lower
score so I think back to again something
we heard this morning uh in the
discussion is you should also make the
make sure that the Congressional
Delegation their staff here locally and
when you can get a member
that they understand exactly as much as
you can get into the details and give
them how this project is going to
benefit what it's going to do about jobs
or Mobility or climate address climate
issues those things need to be addressed
when you're talking to them and do it
with their staffs
I'll say this we've heard this from
several Federal agency people you think
that we get bored hearing the same story
over and over no because what you're
doing is convincing us that you know
what you're doing
so I would just leave that thought I
imagine that Amy and David they all know
this right you're paying attention David
okay just kidding they're they're on it
I know they are that's really great
um though equally frustrating because I
think they also did not want to fund an
incredible big research project that we
had for uh major intersections in the
city so
um but we did communicate that to our
staff our Senator Heinrich staff around
the frustration around like shower ready
projects or
um when we have ideas for other really
big important
um projects as well counselor you hit an
important point
sometimes when Mr Donald can you talk
into the mic please sure sometimes when
we think about these uh projects being
presented to the Congressional
Delegation
they have other people presenting from
New Mexico to them also so that
competition is not just nationally for
for local governments it's local
and this go around I think maybe was
this go run on the one before I think
the Facebook project in I believe it's
Los Lunas did well
high tech
so there are so many factors that you
know you almost have to have one of
these um I forget what they call it in
the military but you almost have to have
this session where you just say to
yourselves where are we the weakest and
how do we strengthen ourselves
thank you that's great feedback my last
question on page nine
um you talked about I was unclear I was
hoping you could clarify some of the
transportation money you said that you
spoke with mpo and you're going to be
talking to dot about some of these funds
so some of these funds
worry about specifically Las Cruces is
getting a set of funds
but we still have to go Advocate at the
state level to receive them or it's a
good question so the first program there
the fhwa surface Transportation block
crib program has been funded over the
past decade prior to this infrastructure
Bill areas of 200 000 in population and
over got a direct sub allocation so from
fhwa to the state and then based on
population to that local area
this bill the infrastructure investment
and jobs act said okay we're keeping
that but then we're adding these other
three categories so five thousand fifty
fifty to two hundred
Etc So based on that
um New Mexico got a allocation of about
a little over 10 million for those areas
of 50 000 in population to 200 000.
as it's new uh the state is now working
through its process and that we talking
to Amy and and the mpo about reaching
out to New Mexico DOT to be part of that
process because you know they do have
this allocation and you have to work
with them to to make sure that you know
this area is represented when that
funding gets gets distributed okay and
is it similar well I'll let Amy I think
she has something to add in Alaska thank
you mayor councilor Ben Como so we have
been in conversations with MBO and and
MDOT and some of these things are brand
new to them so they're struggling to
figure out how to distribute it the
funding is not specific to the city of
Las Cruces it's for the Las Cruces
metropolitan area which does include
areas outside the Sandy limits so it's
possible that Messiah the county and the
city would all be putting in
applications to dot for that money for
that 500 000 correct Okay so
um the way that we think that they will
do it is much like the project we
brought forward where we went and we
wanted to have the study of The
Pedestrian mitigation so they're going
to put out calls for projects we'll
submit our project along with the other
entities that are in the metropolitan
area and then it will get evaluated by
dot now because they have an allocation
that they're required to give money to
the Las Cruces area we have a better
chance of getting funding than for like
the one we did which was a Statewide
call and and was the entire State
Distributing money so we're not sure
exactly how New Mexico DOT will run out
each of these programs and that's why
we're working with mpo most likely it'll
come through the mpo okay okay and one
last question Amy um for this do you
think they also are going to be looking
for shovel ready projects or is this an
opportunity for the study we can do they
usually break it up between study and
capital okay so they'll have a certain
amount that they'll put towards study or
feasibility studies engineering studies
design work that's kind of one broad
category and then the other will be
Capital the capital is looking for
shovel ready and usually New Mexico DOT
gives us about two to four years to
implement any project they give us so
even our you know our tap funds or our
map funds those are all under like a
two-year deadline that we have so it all
it still has to be really shovel ready
even if we're going to do a study we
have to be ready to go out for it know
our scope of that type of thing okay
thank you so much one thing I'm going to
add on the planning side a lot of these
competitive funding so like the raise
grant program had planning carved out
right so a lot of these new Pro programs
also fund planning so and it's something
we've talked to Amy about and are
certainly watching so there's certainly
opportunity on the planning side as well
to get competitive funding
thank you councilor Abita thank you
mayor and thank you Mr O'Donnell and Mr
pogonias not only for coming today but
for your hospitality while Andy and I
were in DC earlier this year I do want
to say that it was very helpful I know I
was going originally to be part of
another group and so we decided to
maximize our time while we were up there
and so scheduling those meetings was
very helpful and you had Andy and I
running back and forth a lot of places
so I really appreciate that and the work
that you've done I only have one
question and it's for Amy
um
so as we are increasing not only your
regularly scheduled grants but looking
at these new opportunities how are we
doing capacity wise internally to be
able to put out strong applications
that's a great question mayor councilor
beta there are two parts of capacity I
want to talk about first is the capacity
of the grants office to produce these
grants we are increasing our staff
adding on an additional person as well
as being the
section that that handles the contract
person for arpa that person will also
work on some of our other grant
opportunities as Allowed by arpa final
rule guidelines so we are going to
actually have two additional staff
members we do have a couple of
Consultants on call as well that helps
us get these things out many of the
Departments I'm happy to say are now
much more Grant savvy than they have
been in the past so they are much more
willing to jump in and help with various
areas of the grant development process
and that is very helpful capacity wise
in the other sense is what can the
Departments do what is their capacity
level for handling new projects and
that's an internal discussion that
really needs to be had with the city
manager's office there are some areas
that they are at a capacity with getting
new projects but we continue to go for
Grants because we know the end benefit
is is a greater benefit to our community
to the citizens of our our city and so
those are kind of discussions that
departments need to have with their
admin their
acms and the city manager's office to
ensure that they have the capacity to
implement not only these Federal monies
but the state monies that we are getting
because we are seeing a lot more
opportunities at the state level as well
and they have a load that is pretty
phenomenal in just doing grant work plus
the work that the city asks them to do
regularly so I would I would defer to
those department heads and their
conversations with the city manager's
office on that answer okay thank you so
much that's very insightful and
something to think about as we're going
for some of these large projects and
with a lot of them with timelines and
deadlines I want us to be cautious so
thank you and thank you mayor
okay thank you and thank you for that
presentation welcome aboard and I think
we'll be able to do a lot of great
things for our community some things
we aren't going away we can ask him more
questions at the end if you would like
but we're going to now shift to our
state funding
and I will have
um Larry haran our city lobbyists come
up first and discuss the upcoming
session and some Trends and some other
information and then I will go into our
projects that we've identified for this
coming legislative session
uh thanks Amy mayor members of the
council Larry haran lobbyist State
lobbyist for the city of Las Cruces and
not to terrify you councilor Ben Como
but I can tell you with certainty if we
hit an economic downturn in the state
will claw back money because they've
done it to us in the past although I
think we've been pretty successful
because the city of Las Cruces makes
sure that you spend your money well but
that definitely is a threat at the state
level because what we do know is as we
go into the 60-day session which will
start on third Tuesday in January we're
going to have a whole bunch of new
members of the House of Representatives
depending on what happens we could have
a new executive because of the
governor's race although the recent
polling in the and the latest polling
indicates that Governor Michelle Luan
Grisham is still leading um going into
the election the last poll will be
released the Brian Sanders Albuquerque
Journal poll will be released on October
30th that typically is the the closest
to the actual numbers but early voting
starts soon so that's really what's on
the mind of the legislators and also the
executive right now
but going into this session we don't
need to worry about clawbacks unless we
have another pandemic because we have
record Revenue levels forecasted the
state right now is at about between 30
and 40 percent of reserves for the
current fiscal year they had an
additional 100 million in new money at
the last Revenue projection which was in
August for this current fiscal year
they're projecting 2.5 billion in new
recurring revenues for the next fiscal
year which starts next July 1st and
that's 2.5 billion out of a budget
that's about 10. so it's a significant
increase in Revenue so what they will be
focusing a lot on
um I'm hearing lots of different things
but they're going to be focused on how
to spend that money where to socket away
and how to spend it in a way that you're
not jeopardizing future recurring
revenue streams because oil is
responsible for 40 or even a little more
Oriole natural gas of the state's budget
as we know it's cyclical if it we have a
downturn that's when they'll come and
they'll they'll be looking for for
either ways to claw back or they'll sock
away money in in rainy day funds or
Reserve funds so that they can use it
for operational expenses
as far as legislation to watch
the one that always makes me nervous is
anytime they talk about tax reform and
they are they are having significant
discussions on tax reform
um going into this session the reason
they want to do it now
is because with these kind of Revenue
levels the state can absorb revenue
losses that typically come from tax
reform but whenever we talk about tax
reform that also means they're going to
be looking at gross receipt Stacks which
means there'll be discussions on food
tax or hold harmless payments
there also could be some discussion and
changes as far as what's destination
sourcing for gross receipts tax
destination sourcing is the change to
the tax code that they passed in order
to capture internet sales gross receipts
tax
some unanticipated problems have Arisen
because of passage of that that piece of
legislation there haven't been any
negative impacts that I'm aware of at
the city of Las Cruces but some of the
the municipalities particularly in the
oil patch lost Revenue because they have
service providers who are performing
work in the county while their offices
are within a city and so that they they
had a significant Revenue impact for
some cities Carlsbad and Hobbs in
particular again there will be some
discussion on law enforcement reform as
we go into this session there was
significant I think we've talked for the
past couple years about different pieces
of of law enforcement reform and some
pass in in this previous session but
we'll see some of that again coming in
the 60-day session and I appreciate Mr
O'Donnell and when he's quoting this
morning this morning is when we had our
meeting with non-profits and Community
groups to talk to them about capital
outlay and have discussions about
advocacy both at the city and the state
level and the role of counselors and
staff after in suggestion when you show
up it matters
it matters now when you're meeting with
your legislators but when you go see
them in Santa Fe even if you only get to
see them for a few minutes it matters
that you've made that effort and it
helps
it helps staff and it helps me make the
pitch for all of the projects that we're
working on
so this year we did things a little bit
differently you'll recall we we started
individual
meetings with myself
um city manager Amy and Council to to
find out what your priorities are and
what you feel like it is important for
us to fund
but we did a little bit differently is
we tried to incorporate lift up Las
Cruces in our Capital outlay requests
with legislators what lift up
provides is an opportunity to tell a
story and have a very laser-like focus
on a particular area in the community
that we can pitch to legislators to try
and get support for Capital outlay
funding so we wanted to identify capital
outlay projects that
carried the message and carried the
projects of lift up Las Cruces and the
other thing we wanted to do and we're
always trying to streamline and also
improve our process with capital outlay
is we took your input
and then we went to the legislators and
said why don't you tell us what you
would like to fund
instead of us giving them a list and
saying here's our projects and make an
argument tell us what you liked what
types of things you like to fund and
what would you like to see come before
you
as you can imagine with a variety of
individuals we got a variety of
different responses
but they appreciated being asked
and so when you see the list what it did
what we've tried to do this year rather
than just taking what the was the
priority of of the city or staff it
smelled what your priorities are as a
council with the input we received from
legislators to try and come up with a
better list because it is competitive
even though they're anticipating up to a
billion dollars in funding from Capital
outlay if you have a billion dollars in
funding you're going to have 10 billion
in requests if you have a million
funding you're gonna have 10 million in
requests so no matter what you're still
competing against other communities and
others throughout the state
so we tried to have be more focused on
legislators priorities as we came up
with our Capital outlay list and those
discussions continue to be ongoing
because it evolves as we get closer to
the session and we start to have a
better outlook on how much money is
going to be available that can change
and so we have a list that's pretty
pretty broad a lot of basic
infrastructure needs
specifics for lift up Las Cruces for
projects and also specific projects
asked for by the legislators and so
as we get closer to the session if you
have the opportunity please come to
Santa Fe and whenever you do we can
connect and we'll connect you with the
legislators because it may seem simple
you find the capital you can find them
they can be pretty slippery so I have we
have tricks to help you connect with
them so whenever you're there
please reach out and we'll help you make
connection and that's not just for for
Capital priorities that's also for
policy issues so if we have policy
issues that we need help on I'll work
through the city manager's office to
identify if Council and staff can be
helpful because there's it's also very
important as other elected officials but
people who are elected hear from each
other it has a different impact than the
hear from staff or people like me during
the session
thank you Larry okay I think I go
through these slides every single year
for you on Project selection and this
year we did our strategic planning a
little differently on how we selected it
so that's what you'll see in the
projects but the considerations for the
selection of the projects are exactly
the same as they've always been we need
to look at first of all is it on the
state approved icip and this morning we
had a community Works shop for Community
groups individual organizations looking
to have us be their Fiscal Agent that
will be online on our website by the end
of this week I'd encourage you if you
have time to to watch it it's about it's
about two hours long with the questions
but really about an hour for the total
presentation
um and we really stressed if it is not
on the icip it doesn't get funded and if
we don't submit it as a project priority
it won't get funded so there's some
they're they're making it a little more
streamlined as far as the random ass
during this legislative session it also
does kind of restrict us a little bit to
being really flexible during the session
on what projects we want to have funded
so good and bad both both sides of the
the coin there so first of all we it's
on the state icip as you know we have a
CIP manager now we have a CIP analyst
those folks are going to start working
on the CIP for the 24. let's just Lear
fiscal year here in a few weeks so be
aware of that our process of selecting
projects for the State Legislative
Capital outlay kind of coincides with it
so it does get a little confusing but
hopefully we we've separated it by a few
weeks at least
so then we look at project Readiness is
it ready to go shovel ready as you would
say whether that's a planning for
equipment or for major Capital
there are requirements since most of it
is paid for through Severance tax Bond
sales
there are requirements that we have to
obligate five percent of that award
within six months of that Bond sale and
as you've noticed in the last couple
work sessions I've brought a bunch of
the legislative appropriation Grant
agreements from 22 just in the last
month I think we'll do the final ones
maybe on Monday next Monday we'll do the
final ones or maybe even into November
so the sale of the bonds are done in
June so we have a very short window of
time to get that funding obligated once
we get the agreements and you all accept
it into the budget so it has to be a
project that's ready to go
um we're looking at what is the amount
of funding required to complete the
project are we completing a project are
we starting a new project what funding
have we put into it what funding is the
city willing to put into it because the
legislators do look at that as well they
don't want to fund 100 of any project I
think and that's true of almost every
funder we have federal state even local
foundations they don't want to be
funding 100 they want to see what we
have put in
can the project be phased Larry asked me
this 20 times during the legislative
session if not every single day of the
legislative session what can they if he
goes to a lobbyist or a legislator and
we're asking for 500 000 they're going
to ask well if I give you 150 what can
you get done with it
um if I give you 500 000 what can you do
with that of a two million dollar
project so we need to look at how it can
be faced then does it align with the
city's strategic plan which of course is
Elevate we want to always make sure it
aligns with that
um most of the things that we're
presenting today do almost all of our
long-term projects align with Elevate
because they are basic needs of the city
streets sewers utilities all of those
are the basic needs of the city that the
city is required to provide to the
community so those are always going to
align with our our strategic plans and
then of course it must be a capital
improvement with a life of at least 10
years with the exception of Public
Safety Equipment Public Safety is the
only area where we can ask for equipment
and vehicles
with a limited amount of exception for
senior programs but they they have a
whole different process of of getting
Capital outlay that's that's a whole
different ball of Wax
okay so I want to get into some of the
the projects so airport improvements uh
Larry didn't talk much about this but
you can certainly ask him questions
about this the municipal league is
looking to do an appropriation or
appropriation Bill an appropriation Bill
uh sorry I said allocation bill but open
appropriation Bill to provide 170
million dollars to the state for
municipal airports and that is to do
Capital Improvements at the airport so
we're looking to do a request through
that process of about 15.2 million
dollars and that will get us ready to go
with
um for Interstate
uh travel okay so that gets us some of
the critical things we need at the
airport including the Retro 15 fitting
of the existing buildings for passenger
service a parking lot expansion which
includes some solar
to help provide uh
energy to the to the airport a new
maintenance facility with a fuel Farm
the relocation of the existing fuel farm
and an expansion of it to assist with
those service passenger service and
Commercial service and a water tank
Rehabilitation and replacement this
benefits both the airport and the
industrial park that tank is probably
one of the oldest that we have and is in
desperate need of Rehabilitation could
once they look at it it could need total
replacement so we're putting in some
funding for that to ensure we have a
good water source out in the West Mesa
sewer and utilities projects this is our
ongoing septic tank replacement project
this is where we're running sewer lines
into neighborhoods where they don't have
access to sewer and are on septic tanks
these are established based on
priorities established by the utilities
department in 2008 much of that has been
directed through state law regarding
replacement of septic tanks and whether
they allow it or not and so that is of
course that partly how they determined
what were the priority areas the funding
we're asking for this year will help
provide sewer to Brittany Estates and
estado Serranos
said that right but I apologize
our
these are some of these are our
standards that we've we see year after
year the East Mesa roads and drainage
improvements continued improvements of
those roadways and drainage out there on
the East Mesa the Telstra Spruce
intersection this is the funding we need
to fight finish that project we received
partial funding last year we're going to
be asking for the remaining funding
needed this year and then University
Avenue this was at the crest of one of
our legislators to evaluate the um the
the street between Espina and El Paseo
for additional pedestrian mitigations
and safety measures so this is a very
small ask for a study of that area as
you know when we put in some kind of
pedestrian safety we do have to do
studies to ensure that it's warranted
based on the addition other measures
that are available on that roadway
for lift up Las Cruces we are the lift
up current lift up location
is as you know a section of the
community
bordered by Spruce Solano Madrid and
kind of cuts through the neighborhood
there to the east
not a lot of city-owned facilities in
that particular neighborhood so we focus
primarily on roadway improvements this
year we're doing a street lighting
Improvement that will help provide
lighting throughout the lift up area and
then we have two potential opportunities
for roadway improvements one is a
sidewalk Ada improvements project and
the other is partial reconstruction of
Sacramento Street
and then under Public Safety our
legislators do always fund our Public
Safety uh requests and so we wanted to
make sure we included those on the list
we have police equipment this is the
replacement of existing body cameras as
I said earlier this is one of the
exceptions where they will fund small
equipment for Public Safety and then we
account for fire stations we have
improvements to multiple fire stations
for things that have not been
um updated in a while these are existing
stations number four and five for
fencing and security gates number four
for a restroom remodel I think one of
you indicated you'd been in that
restroom and it's uh it's desperate need
of remodel
um station two needs a remodel of their
Bay Area for their apparatus station six
has some significant stucco issues and
needs to have exterior stucco repair
that will help ensure Energy Efficiency
at that particular station and station
five needs a new bay entrance aprons and
parking lot those apparatus given the
weight of them do kind of tear apart the
aprons and entrances to the Bay Area so
that's something that needs to be re
redone on a regular basis
and then for Park improvements
these are not only things that you all
have talked about but that the
legislators talked about as well Gomez
Park we you all were presented with the
master plan for Gomez park I think late
August and so this is to begin the
process of working on Gomez Park this is
a parking lot we'll be include complete
design and construction of the parking
area making it ADA Compliant for the
park
and then Pioneer Park
is to complete the renovation of the
historic gazebo and provide additional
infrastructure around the Gazebo and the
new Plaza area
all right and that is the end of our
projects I will stand for questions I
have representatives from each of the
Departments that can also answer
questions
okay thank you
counselor beta yes thank you mayor and
thank you Amy if we could go back to
slide 20 please thank you
um I did want to ask a couple questions
about Gomez Park I know I talked
extensively about it and um phase a
um in total was going to be right under
two million dollars the portion that you
have pulled out here for the parking lot
do you have an estimate of what this uh
would cost yes thank you mayor a
councilor beta I have gotten with public
works and we have revised the estimate
for the parking lot it will be four
hundred thousand dollars for the parking
area alone
okay and one of the first items that was
on this phase a was for
um
was to do some takedown of stuff and
redesign the parking lot very much
needed and
necessary
I'm curious how much additional would we
need for Pioneer parks at gazebo because
I do recall we did just ask for another
amount for that as well so what would be
the cost that we're asking again for the
Gazebo so yes Pioneer Park I'm sorry
mayor councilor beta Pioneer Park has
had significant amount of funding put
forward it is a very large project to
renovate it to the master plan that was
provided right now we have funding to
begin the utility works there and some
of the base infrastructure that needs to
be done to do the rest of the
improvements we are going for a grant
for
um
five hundred thousand
um
I'm looking at Kathy because I can't
remember if it's 500 000 total or if
it's five hundred and five I believe
it's going to be a total of a million
dollars the project would receive that
is to do the hardscapes
um at the park
and then we are asking for an additional
660 000 to finish the historic gazebo
the trellises that will be on each side
of the Gazebo to create walkways and
then the seating and additional
infrastructure right around the plaza
area so they can have events and seating
and that type of thing
no no
okay so
um that that would get us through the
design of the Gazebo and finish phase
one and get us a couple projects into
phase two if we receive this amount of
funding
okay thank you
um and just as a
I think I say this every time when I
talk about Tony Gomez Park in Frontier
Park when we look at Equity when we look
at the different districts I have to say
District 2 has not had
projects come up and this is an area
that needs significant assistance I just
got done with my public safety meeting
the areas of most concern and that have
had the most problems are right around
this area it's a critical need for
revitalization this is the start of that
and so I would I'm going to be heavily
advocating for lots of phases for this
park and I I'm very glad to see it on
this list but and the parking lot is a
great start but I mean the playground is
already out of exploration and things
like that so I know that I think it's
going to take just a significant amount
so that's just one area on that I am
happy to see items for the airport
improvements roadways I am curious about
the university
roadway Improvement for the I'm very
happy to see a studying plan for
pedestrian and safety measures was there
something specific that the individual
was wanting to see on that
yes thank you mayor councilor abeda this
particular legislator brought up that
they would like to see an additional
Hawk system on University Avenue in the
section between Espina and El Paseo the
first step in a hawk system or any kind
of pedestrian mitigation is to conduct a
study to see if the mitigation that
we're thinking of would be warranted and
where in that block it would be
warranted that one's a little bit
challenging as I talked to our streets
administrator because there are
entrances to parking lots along there
and we want to be careful of you know
putting it in a place where it won't be
used and that they're still jaywalking
we want to put it in a place where
people are going to actually use it so
that's the first step this is a very
small request of only fifty thousand
dollars to get that study and initial
design work done if it's warranted and
if it's warranted then we might go back
and ask for additional funding to
actually put in the hawk system which
costs about three to four hundred
thousand but if it's not warranted we
aren't holding on to money that we can't
spend
thank you very much and thank you mayor
mayor councilor beta one other thing we
are doing some additional improvements
at Gomez Park through the lighting that
we have from the parks a couple of years
ago from our Parks Improvement so there
will be some lighting work done in the
next six to eight months out at Gomez
Park and then we will begin to look for
funding opportunities for additional
improvements there beyond the parking
area we can also look for to increase
the amount of our request if you would
like us to thank you and thank you for
mentioning about the lighting I know
that's been something that's been on the
list so for a while so there hasn't been
any kind of new projects within that
yeah no new projects within the the park
so I I obviously would love to advocate
for more to be requested for that area
but thank you
thank you counselor Flores thank you Mr
Aaron thank you again Amy so I'm looking
at
um fortunately it's on page 17. East
Mesa roads and drainage improvements and
septic and all that what's the what's
the status on that it sounded last year
or when was it yeah about well going on
a year now as if that was almost
finished
does Adrian know I would defer to either
David or Tony and she's pointing at
somebody else and Carl can discuss the
subject systems yeah I I would like to
know uh exactly what the status is it
looks like there's still I I look like a
done deal I mean it looked like it was
going to be done but based on this it
looks like we still need uh allocations
correct so good afternoon mayor
constantly photos of public works for
the record
um you are correct we have been working
on the East Mesa Cortez Avenue is the
section segment that we're working on
it's currently being surveyed and we'll
be hiring a consultant to get this
design done here in the next couple
months
um this was the large portion of a
roadway it's going to be choir it's a
which collector it's one of the wider
streets out there that is a major
function for a drainage so this is a
little more expensive than some of the
smaller streets but it's under design
and this will help finish the
construction of it
so when I hear the word design it sounds
to me that there's nothing happening
except somebody drawing something about
how it's going to get done so when does
it get out of that quote design stage
and why does it take so long mayor
Flores I'm an engineer so I do design so
that is kind of how I get paid but
um it is probably about a six to eight
month process the survey has been taken
quite quite some time again this was
additional legislative funding that came
above our regular CIP projects so we had
to hire a consultant to kind of keep
this going in addition with all of our
other projects so nothing falls behind
so we're hoping uh the designs done here
probably by the spring of this year and
not for construction by the summer of
2023.
so by then I'll be at least a year older
so um I mean and and I don't mean to in
any way
um say oh you know what's going on what
do you what are you not doing why hasn't
it get done oh why hasn't it gotten done
or been completed
um so then uh tied to that is also the
septic issue
um
and has it have the septic tanks been
removed and have the water lines been
installed and or you can't do it until
yeah you can do that now and then you
can put the roads in right
yes
mayor council Flores Tony Trevino again
uh those are two different areas the
Cortez section that we're doing is just
a new Main and we're going to be tying
into some areas that utilities and Carl
Clarks projects have already done and
we're going to go and tie into those and
make those a complete sewer system
okay so they're two different projects
yeah I know that okay
um
I knew that I know there's two different
steps but there's actually different
projects and Cortez is one street and
what's the other Mr Clark
some mayor counselor
um Carl Clark deputy director of
environmental technical support with Las
Cruces utilities those projects the
Hacienda projects have already completed
the funding that we received for that I
haven't either Del Sol Kaya Ranchero
those just got completed there's still
some remaining streets to the east of
that we don't have funding to move
forward with the design aspect on it but
we have talked to Public Works in
regards to the remaining sewer lines
that we need there we did receive
additional funding but that's going to
bring the Estates estado serenos area
so Mr Clark do you see
um
like maybe within our respective
lifetimes
that those septic tanks will be removed
and replaced with uh
water lines
with sewer Mains
yes I think that as long as we continue
to keep getting funding to the level
we've been getting it from the state
we'll continue down the road with that
okay so
um so when I talked to when I speak with
Larry I should still be asking for money
for the East Mesa yeah and that's a big
concern it's been my concern since I
before I was elected when I was
campaigning out there I was
unpleasantly surprised to see that that
was an issue
um you know and the roads out there so
it's really
um when we're talking about Capital
outlay we're still asking for roads and
I mentioned earlier maybe this morning I
I can't remember but
um
that I was on Mulberry Street and oh the
things you'll see on Mulberry Street
according to Dr Seuss well thank
goodness Dr Seuss wasn't on that street
because it is in horrible horrible
horrible disrepair and the Machine That
was supposed to fix it broke down
and um and there's and there are a lot
of elderly people on that street and it
isn't as if they can and then for safety
reasons they can't park their car away
they can't really access their driveways
and it's appalling I mean that's
district one and it really doesn't
matter what district we live in it's all
of our constituents it's all of our
people so what happened and the Machine
one lady told me that that that machine
that broke down that tears up everything
and all you get is rocks and you know
blocks of pavement kind of like Runway
422 up out in the airport
and and my concern
my concern is the of course the safety
first and foremost the safety of the
people that live there and I think about
children riding their bikes and that
thing you know getting on their tires
and then kicking up and maybe hitting
the back of their heads or something
and then the second part is liability I
mean we have to do something Mr peely
about that and I don't know it looks
like money has been allocated for that
repair
but I saw where it had been repaired and
with the rains we've had it's already
coming apart
so
David you don't want to talk to me
you're hurting my feelings you're
running away from me don't do that but
seriously
um you know I I you know I think all of
us worry about safety more than anything
in the world but to be creating a hazard
you know I don't understand that part
and um and so what do you have to you
know and and and
you know I told the lady that I would be
speaking up I didn't realize I'd be
speaking up up here at this point but
it's it's very timely
um so it seems like we're always asking
for
CIP money for roads and then our roads
are you know in horrible horrible
horrible shape and I invite you to you
know anybody who on on staff to go look
at Mulberry Street where
um they're they're replacing the road
but honestly
with the rains that have come down
the the even the parts that have already
been redone have ruts you know they're
not as horrible and falling apart but
how long anyway
it's a good afternoon mayor councilor
Flores David sedillo Public Works
director and yes we did respond to miss
Hernandez's concern that came through
the mayor over to us over the weekend
you're correct the contractor did have a
piece of equipment that did
become inoperable based on some items
that broke on the machine they have been
working to get those up they have two
machines both of them broke down they
did repair one of them they should be
out there today
so as part of what is the contractor
what are we doing as part of those so
with the rains that happen on Friday
evening
the contractor went back out and placed
material so that people can actually
access onto their driveways and into
their properties
were they supposed to do that Mr said
you when
so the contractor did that after the
rains on Friday evening so they went
back out there in the evening and placed
millings we have some photographs based
on what is that happened out in the
field and so you don't believe me when I
tell you that I was there yesterday
and I mean I don't know how she gets her
car into her driveway she doesn't have
an option she has to she's going to ruin
her car probably
so sorry for interrupting no not a
problem uh we can definitely have staff
go back out and take a look at that
there were several driveways that were
addressed again this is over the weekend
so if with the people driving in and out
if that is being pushed to the side we
can have staff go back out there and
reevaluate that and we do understand
this is a
pavement replacement projects so they do
replace or they do remove the entire
asphalt section of it
yes it is unfortunate that their
machines broke during their operations
some of these things the contractor can
avoid sometimes they can't
so what we try to do is make sure that
the contractor addresses those things as
best possible with the situations that
we have again we will have staff go back
out there evaluate all of those
driveways and have those Communications
with each of those residents they do get
a notice and it does have not only the
contractor's information but should have
our project managers information on it
so they do have points of contact to
reach out to at any point in time
throughout weekends evenings there's a
contact number that is supplied to them
as part of those Communications if not
then I would like to know to ensure that
staff is making sure that the
contractors are providing those but
staff is is very good about ensuring
that those Communications are sent out
yeah I'm sure and I think that this lady
or this other lady I talked I spoke with
um
contacted the mayor
and maybe mayor Pro tem because that's
her District
but um
you're correct but councilor Florida
said I believe that was a Miss Hernandez
no it was actually another lady too but
I don't have I wrote down her name it's
in my car
um so
why are those machines still sitting
there after two weeks
I mean the the the they broke down over
two weeks ago now
so are they going to be repaired do you
have any time estimate can you contact
the contractor and allay the concerns of
the residents there because it's a big
it's a long stretch there on Mulberry
councilor Flores yes the contractor did
let us know that one of them was
repaired and is mobilizing back today to
continue the work and I believe that was
in my correspondence back Timothy oh
okay great well thank you so much Mr
Savio and I'm sorry I'm always
complaining and belly aching but I
really feel for constituents so ma'am
you're welcome thank you you're welcome
thank you
councilman Cuomo thank you mayor thank
you so much Amy um and Larry of course
um this this list feels even different
than prior list right it doesn't feel so
like we need to arm wrestle each other
for what we want on our top five or
whatever
um it feels like you know maybe you know
like things projects will get done and
the community will see see those get
done
which will you tell us which legislators
you were able to speak with
uh yes I will defer to Larry um to give
you the list because he probably has it
on the top of his head
uh thank you mayor councilor Ben Cuomo
I will I'll have to go back so
representative ruia we were unable to
meet with
um because she had been out of town so
she's still on the list to follow up
with Senator steinborn is on that we
need to follow up with him and Senator
Cervantes
other than that we have Senator soles
Senator Hamlin representative Ferrari
representative small
uh representative Cadena
I think that's it okay and you oh
what are you waiting for I'm just
looking I look for everybody else who's
in the meeting just to confirm because
okay good I think that's right so we
still have a few that we need to follow
up with okay okay so then we will do
that Madrid how about Willie Willie
Madrid no that's they're only meeting
with lots of people who represent Las
Cruces yeah Louis Madrid represents Las
Cruces oh
uh mayor and Council for us know we have
not met with representative Madrid and
then some of the others like you have
Senator Diamond who has a very small
piece and I'm not sure she even does in
redistricting so some of those we don't
typically get funding for from them okay
okay so you do have plans still to
continue to follow up with the ones that
you have not spoken with mayor and
councilman come up that's correct yes
great thank you Larry
I was glad to see I was absolutely very
glad to see Gomez Park on here
um I'm curious if and I know we briefly
spoke about this in our meeting Amy and
I will you remind myself and the public
given that during a work session here
several months ago we talked about three
Parks Gomez Park Branigan and franger
park and I'm curious about where the
other two stand if they're not on this
list how we're gonna uh how we're going
to try to get funding for those phases
thank you mayor councilor Ben Como so I
have on Branigan Park we have submitted
a request to the New Mexico Department
of Finance and administration for a
grant opportunity they put out for
recreational areas we are asking for 3.2
million dollars to do the bulk of the
projects through phase one and phase two
phase three where we have a recreational
facility planned may not happen due to
the purchase of most of the land that we
were looking at so phase three may not
happen on that particular Park but we're
looking at the integral parts of phase
one and two with that funding and
hopefully we will receive a positive
response soon from DFA about that
particular Park Friendship Park and
Gomez Park are things that we do have to
work on we need to get them onto the
icip as opposed to just the CIP so
that's a process that we will go through
this session this CIP process that will
start in a couple weeks and making sure
they're on the icip so we can go for
Capital funding we did have to add Gomez
Park to it as a special request to the
state and get permission from them to
add Gomez Park on for just the parking
area for this year we can look at
funding additional requesting additional
funds for Gomez Park to potentially do
some of the design work that needs to be
done based on the master plan we don't
know that we know that the parking area
we have full confidence that the parking
area will be funded by one of the
legislators we are we do not have a
commitment that the rest of it will be
funded by any legislator so again we're
looking at what legislators came back to
us and said we'll fund some of these are
smaller projects but we you know we
still have our large projects in there
so we're looking to kind of tailor them
for what the legislators said they were
interested in funding fringer Park and
Gomez Park both have
some priorities with the parks
department and we will look at
additional opportunities for funding
Federal through Federal programs which
is the land and water conservation fund
both of those parks are currently though
retainage ponding areas so we do have to
work with public works on how that can
become whether or not that can actually
be committed for land and water
conservation there are some issues with
that because once you commit to land and
water conservation you're committing in
perpetuity that that will always be a
recreation area if for some reason we
get some issues that are happening in
that area and Public Works has to take
it back as only a retainage pond and not
have a dual purpose of also a park we we
would run into issues with that thunder
so our best funding source is the state
for those two particular Parks so that
we can keep it available to to provide
both purposes for the city residents so
those are things that we will look for
State funding for over the next year
somebody asked about our capacity issues
I think Parks is probably one of those
departments that are experiencing some
capacity issues for their projects and
so we have to be caught cognizant of
what each of those departments can get
done in the time period given for
funding
thank you so much Amy
um
the last question I had was around
the Community of Hope campus I you know
we they were just here and gave us a
presentation on the incredible projects
they're having I'm curious how we
approach that as a body I certainly will
do what I can to help them advocate for
funding for for the necessary
improvements to the campus but I'm
curious right like it's not on this list
specifically but how we approach all of
that Amy thank you mayor councilor Ben
Como that's a great question I actually
had a meeting with Natalie's Department
Neighborhood Services last week with the
agents the five agencies at mesia Valley
Community of Hope their projects are on
the icip list and the process that we
use with them is that once they have met
together as a as a group they have an
alliance they meet they decide which
agency will go forward for funding this
this uh this session when they do they
come back to me I get a synopsis of
their project and how much they're
asking for I will bring a resolution to
council probably in December for you all
to affirm that you want to continue to
be their Fiscal Agent and that you are
in support of their projects
that I provide that to legislative
Council service along with their lease
agreement as required by legislative
Council service and then they submit
their request and do their advocacy for
their projects during the session and so
while that is a city-owned property and
we will continue to own that property
those agencies themselves are the ones
who really carry that legis that
lobbying effort forward to the
legislators okay so we have started that
process okay great thank you so much Amy
those are all my questions
okay well thanks thanks for that great
presentation and and a lot of a lot of
stuff going on so it's been really good
so we appreciate everybody and uh good
luck in the legislature upcoming
legislature and um gentlemen nice to
meet you and I could look to you as well
so just bring back a lot of money
so if there's nothing further entertain
a motion to adjourn so move by Flores
second Abita motion Bay by Council
Florida second by councilor beta
Christine
this is on the motion to adjourn the
work session counselor beta yes
councilor Graham yes councilor Ben Comal
yes councilor Koran yes counselor Flores
yes counselor Gandara is absent and
mayor yes
okay we are adjourned it's 2 59 PM we do
have an agenda setting meeting here in
just a few minutes thanks
[Music]
thank you
um
yes I know I'm sorry okay this is the
agenda study meeting for October 17
2022 city council meeting number one
non-consent one non-consent two
non-consent two non-consent three
consent three consent for non-consent
for non-consent five consent five
consents six non-consent six non-consent
seven non-consent seven non-consent
thank you