[Music]
about
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for
e
can you see the cat of the week oh I'm
sorry Clinton uh we saw it but the it's
not there anymore so all right here we
[Music]
go there you go all right so gabella uh
independent doesn't really like to
cuddle that much however very good with
other cats and will still be a fan of
some gentle pets and scratches so both
are available here at the center we are
open um uh noon to 6 PM Monday through
Friday and Saturday and Sunday noon to
5:00 pm thank you sir okay thank you all
right so now we're going to go to jobs
of the week and I believe um either
Darlene or Cindy Cindy quinland are you
going to be presenting yes good
afternoon Mary this is Cindy quillin and
this the these are our jobs of the week
uh first off we have our Fleet Services
administrator this position is through
the city of L Cruis and closes on June
22nd
2021 next we have an administrative
assistant position open with La Clinica
the Familia this position closes on
7:30 and then we also have a general
laborers positions with sedantes
Enterprises Incorporated they have five
positions available and they close
on uh
July janitor position open with El Calo
soup kitchen this position closes June
24th of
2021 and we also have a facilities
technician with NMSU through the
department of mechanical facility
services this POS closes on August 6
2021 this week uh the events that we
have for this week on Friday we have the
US Census Bureau virtual recruitment uh
event that will be on Friday June 18th
at 2 p.m to register for this event you
can visit us on
employ.com and for a full list of our
jobs and internships and volunteer
opportunities you can also visit us at
employ nm.com or you can visit us at
government jobs. career. L Cruis for our
local
uh New Mexico workforce Connections
Office we are located on 226 South
Alamanda Boulevard and our phone number
is 575 524
6250 thank you everyone uh and have a
wonderful week okay thanks Cindy you
too okay so now we have our covid-19
update and looks like uh facilities
director Eric Martin is going to be
presenting
that
good afternoon mayor and Council I think
it's still me uh assistant city manager
Eric Enriquez said we'll be giving the
covid-19
update oh I'm sorry Eric they had
the okay apologize I paused I didn't
know if Eric Martin had an update well I
I thought it was odd that they they had
him here but okay okay
no probably shocked too so uh sorry that
was my mistake this is Anette sorry
about that no no problem that that's
okay that's okay thank you again mayor
and Council Eric hriz assistant city
manager so uh currently uh donana County
uh fully vaccinated is at
54.6% uh the single dose is at
63.4% equaling
93,9 120 uh single dose vaccinations in
our County the state is currently
offering $100 right now uh from June
14th through June 17th currently it's at
the convention center going on for the
booster or the J&J vaccine so this is
$100 initiative to those to get fully
vaccinated and uh we'll work with our
our team the joint information uh
Communications and Mandy Gus to also
help with getting this message out as
soon as possible possible so we can we
can take advantage of this incentive
that's taking place right now with the
times and locations uh also good news
the the FEMA team for vaccinations is
now in Los Cruses they will be doing a
12-week rotation uh taking place in the
southern part of New Mexico but most of
their efforts will be targeted to the
Los Cruses and donana County area so
they'll be here for about 12 weeks they
started today they were at donana
Community College uh site today and uh
they will continue I think at the
convention center they have about 300
scheduled uh uh appointments for
vaccination on Wednesday already so
that's that's a tremendous help to our
community as well John Johnson vaccine
question okay great thanks thanks ER
yeah there's a couple more oh okay the
farmers market event has been taking
place this past Saturday from 10: to 12
I believe they vaccinated 30 people that
were just walk
with our mobile units um we will also
have that mobile unit at Goa B adrenals
on June 23rd we're speaking to Mr Alba
they see about 200 uh individuals that
show up on Wednesdays that's their big
day so we'll advertise this and get this
schedule for June 23rd as well taking
advantage of that location with a large
amount of people uh the July 4 four the
Fourth of July event taking place the
FEMA team has already been uh made aware
of that and they are really looking to
coordinate that event for us um Santa
Teresa Port of Entry is actually taking
place today uh they they had by 8:30
a.m. they had already had 30 uh truck
drivers that they had vaccinated looking
to probably complete a 100 by noon today
so uh moving well received well and uh
looks like it will continue so it's a
good thing for those dosage that may
expire and we don't want to lose so the
port of entry is is really looking
positive at this point and the Asylum
refugees Remains the Same uh the
capacity and capability at the announ
Annunciation Center is doing well that's
all I have mayor thank
you okay thanks uh
Eric okay so uh we're going to we have
one item it's a large item it's the arpa
funding and also with us we have many
members of our um non-governmental
entities but we also have with us is the
city the county manager Fernando masas
who's joining us as well and uh but we
have to to start this off is Amy Johnson
bassford and EO pil is on uh also on the
call so Amy you want to start this off
yes thank you mayor counselor well good
afternoon my name is Amy Johnson
bassford I'm the grants administrator
today we're going to be talking about
the American Rescue plan act or arpa as
we like to call it funding that the city
has received as a direct allocation this
is called the Corona virus local FIS
fiscal Recovery Fund and in your package
you will notice that you I provided a
summary that has been created by the
treasury Department for the local fiscal
recovery funds uh it covers the
objectives of the funds as well as
general information on the distributions
and allocations that were made through
the act it covers the eligible uses of
the funds as well as samp of eligible
use projects that can be uh considered
please note that the information we're
presenting you today is based on the
interim final rule provided by the
treasury Department in May the final
rule is still in the public comment
period and will be until July 16th of
2021 with the final rule issued in
September I tell you that today because
I want to ensure that you understand we
have time to consider many projects
we are not under the same kind of time
crunch that we were under with the car's
act funding to get the money out on the
street we do have time for um us to move
forward and I guess I should share my
screen with you that might be the most
helpful thing I can do today uh so that
we can all see the the presentation
we've put together so if you will let me
know when you are seeing that
screen uh that would be helpful mayor
okay we're good now all right
okay sorry about that I was I was really
focused on my introduction and didn't
quite get to getting the um document up
so first of all I want to uh let you
know that the city did receive a direct
allocation through the treasury
Department um the arpa funding um
allocated the city a total of 24,
75982 in direct funding the first tranch
of this money was received on May 19th
21 for a total of 12,
379,000 is earlier the current covid
health impacts to date um for the county
of donana is that the number of
individuals Contracting covid is nearing
25,000 the number of deaths is close to
500 the number of recovered individuals
that had covid is 24,000 a little over
24,000 there the number of people that
are vaccinated over the age of 16 with
at least one dose is
63.4%
the number that are fully vac the
percentage that is fully vaccinated in
donana county is
54.6 the
Statewide um amount is
57.9% of New Mexicans that are 16 and
older that have completed all
vaccination process the state does have
a goal of reaching 60% by the end of
this
week to provide more perspective on oop
sorry my my presentation is a little
tough but to provide to provide some
more perspective on the impact seen in
our community directly I've asked
Natalie Green housing and neighborhood
services manager to present this slide
Natalie good afternoon Mr Mayor members
of council Natalie Green for the record
um I wanted to cover some of the
community impacts of covid that our NOS
are experiencing the first is um our
thriving services are seeing an increase
in new encounters so many of our
nonprofits report
uh an increase in clients anywhere from
20 to
50% one of the agencies did report while
they're having additional clients they
also have not seen some of their
previous clients return uh the pandemic
highlighted the need for additional
resiliency services including food uh
housing and income support uh one of the
highest requests we're seeing out of our
community members is for utility
assistance many of our NOS saw a l of
volunteers and also an increase in costs
and services uh for goods supplies and
services and and not to end on on a bad
note so I'm going to give you the Silver
Lining is that our Nos and partners
continue to operate through the pandemic
and and and operate at a very high level
uh we saw a lot of new efficiencies and
processes come out of the pandemic uh
increase collaboration and
participation uh we also saw a lot of
funding invested into the community to
meet the needs of our citizens and I
would also uh like to recognize the
city's and council's response time to
the pandemic so the emergency was
declared on March 11th within the first
30 days Council allocated 1 million $1.8
million and today I'm happy to report
that Council has allocated $1.3 million
in pandemic funding to our community and
that's a mix of both uh telshore funding
General funding and our cdbg Co funding
that we got out of the cares act and
then I will turn it back over to Amy
thank
you you're on mute Amy thank you so
much this is my first day back from
leave so you guys got to help me along a
little bit okay
okay so thank you very much Natalie I
appreciate that um in-depth information
that our NOS were able to provide us
with on their impacts to discuss some of
the economic impacts that the community
experienced uh I've asked Kyle Edgar our
Economist to present the next two slides
and Carl if you'll let me know when
you're ready to move to the next slide
Carl uh thank you so much Amy uh this is
Kyle eager I'm an economist for the city
of Los cruus Economic Development
Department I'll be uh presenting on the
labor market conditions in for the city
of Los
cruus this graph shows total employment
for the years uh 2019 2020 and January
through April of
2021 this data is taken from the Bureau
of Labor Statistics their local area
unemployment statistics data
series The Blue Line represents total
employment among people that re reside
in City
boundaries and the red dotted line is
the forecast of total employment
um the forecast of what we believe would
have been uh total employment if if
covid had not
happened um and again that's the dotted
red line so obviously we we don't know
what for sure what the employment
situation would be if there there was no
covid-19 uh if the pandemic had never
happened so it's it's not like we can
teleport into a parallel universe where
there was no pandemic and see what the
city's employment numbers were um but
you know per kind of forecasting forward
from uh you know from you know March 20
forward be we can get a sense of what
the employment would have been if there
had been no covid-19
shutdowns um so in in April of 2019
total employment was 45,2 29 in April of
2020 it had dropped to
41,382 less than what it was in April uh
2019 however if you compare it to the
forecast of at April of of 2020 that's
that red
dot
um then we're actually it was actually
about 10% less than what uh uh than
where we we should have been at that
time according to the the employment
forecast um moving forward to to April
of
2021 um if you compare April 2021 with
April
2019 employment figures we're about 3%
less than than where we were pre covid
um however comparing it to the forecast
of what uh
of what employment should be it we're
actually more about 5.1% lower than we
should be or about 2,300 jobs uh we we
still need to make up um and so again
these these numbers are house are from
household
surveys so it's the is the estimate of
the number of employed
individuals of people residing in within
the
city um next slide
please who's the one who moves your
SL oh thank you Amy yeah so uh this we
we do have industry specific employment
numbers unfortunately this data comes
out with a considerable lag and the most
recent data is quarter four of of
2020 um so this isn't all Industries
within the city this this list is is
just industries that had lost jobs
comparing uh uh lost jobs between 2019
quarter 4 and 2020 quarter
4 um and and I should also note that
that this is took this this data is from
the Bureau of Labor statistics but it's
from a different survey it's from the
quarterly census of employment and wages
and this is a a uh a business survey so
the numbers won't match the data in the
previous Slide the reason being uh is
that people that don't live in the city
commute into the city to
work um so so these numbers are a bit
higher um but although this this is a
bit dated it can still uh tell us about
kind of the the relative impact of covid
between between Industries and as you
see accommodations and Food
Services uh has been the industry that's
been impacted the most by the covid-19
shutdowns administrative and support
services as well um however as I as I
mentioned last time I
presented um a lot of that decline in
employment for administrative and
support services is due to a loss in uh
in call Center
employment and uh again that's part of a
larger National Trend where since 2007
excuse me 2017 we've seen a decline in
in call Center
employment um so I'll turn the time back
over to
[Music]
Amy thanks
Kyle thank you Kyle appreciate that that
information um and Kyle will remain on
the call if you have questions at the
end of the
presentation so since uh late April the
city staff has been working to develop a
group of propo of projects that meet the
funding objectives presented or
prescribed by arpa and the treasury
guidance there are four primary
objectives for the funding use to
support Urgent covid-19 Response efforts
to continue to decrease the spread of
the virus in bring the pandemic under
control to replace the loss of public
sector Revenue to strengthen support for
Vital public services and to help retain
jobs to support immediate economic
stabilization for households and
businesses and to address systematic
public health and economic challenges
that have contributed to the inequal
impact of the
pandemic based on these objectives arpa
and treasury guidance provided six
allowable uses um six allowable use
categories for the funding um which we
will I'll go over briefly here and then
we go in depth um into each one
following this the use of arpa funding
can first um first of all none of these
are in a in a priority order uh from the
treasury uh so we can use any or all of
them uh as we see fit so the first is to
support the public health response
replace public sector Revenue loss
address negative economic
impacts develop Water and Sewer
infrastructure
improvements complete Broadband
infrastructure improvements and to
provide premium pay for public
employees as I mentioned the city staff
have worked to identify projects for
each of these categories with the
exception of the Broadband
infrastructure improvements this is
because of the efforts of the state and
County to begin addressing this issue as
mayor M um noted uh
County manager msas is on the phone to
discuss this later we also have Scott
Maher Our IT director who is a member of
the donana Broadband committee and Dr
giselda Martinez is also on this
committee the committee is planning a
study to
identify um underserved areas um that
have gaps and as I move into um the rec
who and they can discuss that at the end
of our presentation as I move into the
recommendations um under these specific
categories please remember that there
are multiple funding sources from arpa
that we have previously presented to you
today we are really focusing on the
specifics of the local fiscal recovery
funds and the guidelines provided for
those and the projects that meet those
guidelines that are provided for in the
treasury's interim final
ruling and I do have um the summary of
other funding sources available if we
need to discuss that at a later point
today so the first area that we want to
address is public health response this
is geared towards funding covid-19
mitigation expenses medical expenses
Behavioral Health Care and certain
health and public safety
programs the the project can be used to
um develop programming and Staffing it
can also be used to cover full payroll
and benefits of operating units of
Public Safety that are dedicated
primarily to the covid
response the recommendation is for
Public Safety and programming Staffing
as well as Staffing in the amount of $2
million we are looking to see the mobile
Integrated Health um unit as well as the
mobile crisis intervention um program
that has been proposed to begin in 2021
or fiscal year 22 excuse
me the next area that we are looking for
is to rep replace public sector Revenue
loss this one is a little complicated
but it's meant to use funds to um to
provide government services to the
extent of the reduction in Revenue
experienced by the pandemic there is a
prescribed calculation that was defined
quite in detail in the US Treasury
interm rules for the use of arpa
funding our budget team um completed
this calculation for the city of Los
Cruses and utilizing this funding we
have a wide latitude in what we can use
the money the money for um the amount
was calculated at approximately 6.9
million and the recommendation for
this is um primarily for Capital
infrastructure Pro projects because as
staff looked at the negative economic
impacts that the city experienced due to
covid um because this city was able to
keep all individuals employed um and
provide uh support for for employees we
looked at the other areas that the city
experienced some negative impact and
they were primarily in the construction
area where we have experienced up to a
24% increase in the cost of
construction um due to materials and
labor shortages so that was one of the
reasons that Capital infrastructure Rose
to the top of the list of
recommendations for the use of this
funding and my computer is kind of
freezing up so let me see if I can get
this moved to the next
slide you'll just give me a moment I'm
not sure why it doesn't like me right
now there we go so the capital
infrastructure projects that we focused
on were those primarily in the geobond
uh area as well as a couple other
projects that are currently in progress
these projects are either in the at the
point of Contracting with a vendor to
begin construction or are ready to go to
RFP what we focused on here was the
amount of money that each of them
experienced that covid increase of
24% which over all of the projects uh
totaled approximately $3.4 million and
those items in these projects that had
been what we call valued engineered out
because of the delay in being able to
get these on the street the prices
increased on them and so the first one
is the Aquatic competition pool of
429,000 the second is Animal Services
Center and two dog parks in the amount
of
432,000 the East Mesa Recreational
facility in the amount of 2.1 million
the transit maintenance facility in the
amount of 2.3 million and on this one I
will note that is only the amount of the
covid uh construction impact of
24% the trails was 1.4 million and
Unidad Park is
134,000 that totals approximately $6.9
million for the capital uh for the
revenue loss uh by the
city the next uh area that we want to
talk about
is sorry I think I missed one okay
um is to work on Water and Sewer
infrastructure um this is to make the
necessary improvements to access clean
drinking water and invest in waste water
water and storm water
infrastructure the recommendation here
is for water and sewer infrastructure
projects in the amount of 3.5 million
this will accommodate the complete
reconstruction of C ananto and C Del
Soul um to include utilities flood
control and Street
reconstruction and this project had been
delayed um because of the construction
on Valley Drive by nmdot and now needs
to be addressed to ensure appropriate
utilities and plug control as well as
the Reconstruction of the street
additionally we are looking to fund the
sewer connection incentive program which
provides an incentive to homeowners to
connect to the sewer system that has
been provided in their um area and
remove septic systems from their homes
the rules for uh water and
infrastructure projects aligned with the
epa's Clean Water revolving fund and
drinking water State revolving fund
guidelines this area also has
substantial flexibility so that
communities can identify those water and
sewer infrastructure projects that are
of highest priority for their
communities the next area that we want
to look at is premium pay for essential
workers this is to respond to the
economic harms of workers families small
businesses impacted Industries and and
public sector it calls out specific
Industries such as hospitality and
tourism and the recommendation here is
for visit loss crues for a million
dollars where they will um utilize the
funding for target market Data Tracking
outdoor recreation Market marketing and
public relations expanding fam tours
developing a new w website and
revitalizing events in the community
among other activ activities that they
have proposed to utilize the funding for
then additionally we have the community
and economic development RFP for 10.4
million I'd like to have Natalie discuss
the community-driven initiatives that
will be done through an RFP process
Natalie Natalie Green economic
development for the record uh staff is
proposing a request for proposal process
to address the most critical needs that
are identif ified um for Community
residents who were severely impacted by
covid the RFP criteria will include um
not only whatever priorities are
identified today but they are going to
be community Assistance programs um
either internal or through Partnerships
and this would include uh something like
the Kasa the pigino uh food pantry
facility expansion and any initiatives
that are uh could be proposed by by our
Economic Development partners for
business incentives or incent uh
assistance programs uh the focus is
going to be on dis disproportionately
impacted populations uh projects should
uh comply with already established uh
priorities set by Council through both
the Strategic plan the Consolidated plan
and Elevate loss
crues it will also have uh some
questions or uh scoring criteria around
uh uh the
identified impact to the community and
then we'll also be reviewing for
duplication of benefits so we want to
ensure that the the programs that we're
funding are not already being duplicated
by the state or the county or by another
uh funding source we are proposing a
Review Committee it will be led by the
city manager's office uh it will also
include housing and neighborhood
services staff staff from Community
Development grants but budget and
finance to review all the rfps and make
a formal recommendation to council for
uh approval and then once those projects
are selected uh staff normally executes
a contract and those contracts will also
come to council for approval staff is
proposing that we select larger Grant
Awards uh anywhere from 250,000 to $2
million um that way our our PR projects
can have consistent programming over a
period of time and and again uh have a
measured impact to the overall
community and then I'll pass it back to
Amy thank you very much Natalie we have
one last uh section and I think I uh
missed this earlier and so thank you to
Leanne for letting me know that I did um
which is sorry is the premium pay for
essential workers um this may be used to
provide payroll and benefit expenses for
employees to the extent their services
are devoted to mitigating responses to
covid Public Health Emergency it should
be prioritized um according to the
treasury guidelines for lower income
workers it may not exceed
150% of average annual wage for the
occupation and another notation is that
the benefits that can be provided can
not go into the pension fund uh or parah
benefits the recommendation here is to
provide a premium pay um that will be uh
later further dis dis I'm sorry let me
try again that will be further
distinguished um for criteria uh
following this meeting of a million
dollars um there is a broad range of
workers um that were required to be
physically present at their job jobs
during covid that is what this funding
is intended to provide assistance to we
still need to identify which essential
workers those are and um as I mentioned
it can be used for direct pay or for
benefits now let me uh somewhat Jump
Ahead here to our funding
summary um because that was a lot of
information to present to you in a very
short period of time you'll see the
total funding amount of 24.8 million
that will receive over two years the
first tranch is 24 is 12.4 million and
the second tranch is 24 12.4 million I
wish it were 24 million each time but
it's 12.4 million each time uh the check
marks indicate when we uh tentatively
are expecting that the funding will be
used either in the first tranch or
second tranch or a portion in both so
the support to Public Health response
the public safety programs will most
likely be considered for the second T of
funding that we will receive in April of
22 the replacement of public sector
Revenue in the amount of 6.9 million for
capital projects uh will be uh obligated
to those projects in the first
tranch the um ability to address
negative economic impacts for a total of
11.4 million uh will be made available
in both the first and second tranch uh
depending on the rfps received and when
that those funds need to be utilized by
the organizations that respond to
improve the water and sewer
infrastructure for a total of 3.5
million is both tranches depending on
when those projects can get underway and
how much is needed during the first year
and how much would be needed during the
second year that would be allocated over
those two years and then the provide the
premium pay for essential workers that
would be done in the first
tranch um before we move
into the questions I would like to uh
recognize uh County Manager Fernando
msas and ask him and his staff if they
would like to give a quick overview of
how what the county is proposing for the
use of their funds and how they're um
they're moving forward with it uh County
Manager Maas if you'd like to to take
the floor mayor could we have that last
slide shown on the
screen previous
one
okay uh for um manager Maas are you
available mayor I am on the line
participating thank you for the
invitation good afternoon to all of you
um we had shared I just excuse me sorry
but I just need you to state your name
in your position even though I called
you but okay so Fernando masas County
manager so again thank you mayor um we
have shared all of our documents in
terms of our management recommendations
to the County Commission uh they are
extensive it would take me probably more
time than what you have available to go
through each one of them we have done
similar assessments um I think that
they've talked a little bit about the
county taking the lead on uh Broadband
we're looking at enhancing that amount
of uh money that's recommended to our
County Commission I think that uh most
of the members of the council are aware
that the county will be receiving over
$42 million and it's broken down into
two payments of 21 million uh uh that we
have already received and 21 million uh
next May uh we have approximately $4
million worth of support for Broadband
that we're going to be recommending
there are a few areas that there appears
to be a little bit of overlapping that
we certainly will uh discuss with uh
your
management uh in order to ensure that
we're not committing uh funds to the
same uh initiative there are a number of
other initiatives that we believe are
are going to be very beneficial uh for
uh the city of Las Cruses one of them is
the extensive dragonfly flood project on
the East Mesa uh that will address
issues both out in the county and within
uh the city limits of Las Cruses uh
there's a $5 million commitment uh in
that manner there's also um over
$400,000 that's being
applied to opening up um a road that
would uh go behind Red Hawk uh golf
course that would Access Federal lands
but at the same time potentially
provide uh a relief uh to Highway 7D
traffic uh so if those documents are
available to the city council they
certainly have been available to staff
uh we had already made the presentation
to our County Commission and at the next
meeting on the 22nd of this month uh
we're hoping to try to finalize that
list but something that we are trying to
do is set up an amount of money
approximately $10 million out of the 42
million that there isn't a specific
commitment at this time so that we can
see how man uh matters uh progress
related to the uh commit specific
commitments that we are prepared to make
uh and to give our County Commission
more opportunity to assess the ongoing
impacts within the community because one
thing that we really are making the
effort to do is um leverage These funds
with other potential monies that could
become available through the state
federal or even other uh potential
funding opportunities so that we can
enhance the value of the 42 million and
expand the potential impact throughout
Don County uh if there are specific
question questions that you want me to
go into as you're doing an assessment of
where you're uh where you're going to
apply your monies that I'm happy to
respond but I'll leave it uh I'll leave
the Overview at this point until there
are more specific questions thank you
for the opportunity to address you
Fernando I wonder if the federal
government uh thinks that that uh the
220 residents are all in the county I
wonder if that half of that should be
ours you don't think I I know that you
had mentioned that perspective not one
that's shared here at the county I don't
think there there was that confusion but
nevertheless that's why I'm hoping and
so does our County Commission hoping
that we're working in tandem to benefit
all residents within the county okay
good thank you uh County manager msas
and yes M uh the county manager and his
staff have shared uh their Pro progress
through this uh program and I will share
that with um the city manager to to uh
distribute to the council the last
proposal that was made to um County
Commission last week um and so I will
get that out to everybody and now we
will myself as well as many members of
Staff um I believe all directors are on
the call we'll try and answer any
questions you may have mayor okay thanks
uh we've got a couple comments from the
or questions from the council so
councelor Beno and councelor
Vasquez thank you mayor uh yes thank you
very much Amy and to not just you but
the whole staff who've been working
really hard to put this together since
we got word about our um a little more
than $24 million from the federal
government so first of all thank you all
very much for all of that work um you've
done for us to get here um Amy before I
get to my questions I thought I had seen
a slide very briefly flashed that
included two things that I deeply care
about and then you didn't go back to it
it was one that included Casa peros and
then a guaranteed basic income and I saw
it flash briefly in front of my eyes you
are correct councelor Ben comoo thank
you mayor and councelor Beno yes that
flashed through uh it was meant to be
deleted and I believe that um with so
many of us working on this PowerPoint
some things that intended to be deleted
were not um Natalie covered that in her
slide on the community initiatives so
certainly the universal basic income
could be included in that Community
issue uh initiative as well as she did
mention the casaday paragus um food
pantry facility that could be included
in the community um initiatives uh there
are a variety of other initiatives and
we felt like calling out one or two was
probably not appropriate when we have
many um community members on the line so
I apologize for that it was meant to be
deleted but yes those are the kind of um
initiatives that can be considered under
the negative uh ability to address the
negative economic impacts under the 10.4
million that has been set aside for that
so yes ma'am that that is correct and
counselor uh we probably are gonna or we
will be having another work session just
for the NGS and then of course that's
where your proposal be on there so to
have that discussion for Council so
thanks for raising that mayor that's
actually really important because I
think
um yes I understand that we wouldn't
want to name just a couple of things
however those those two particular
things are are things that I had um
spoken with uh city manager eepo about
being incredibly important to be
included in American Rescue fund act
dollars um given that they hit at the
very first um intention of this this
partt of money right that they hit at
specifically um who are marginalized
specifically folks who have been um most
deeply impacted so I asked for two very
specific things um for arpa funds to be
used and those were it and so I
understand that there's a process and
and that we must follow that I just want
to make sure that um they don't get lost
in the conversation because um again you
know they're not things that came out of
nowhere they're very intentionally well
thought out and will impact a large
number of
individuals um absolutely yeah so mayor
when you say that there will be another
work session specifically for that um
$1.4 million to address negative
economic impacts um did you have a date
for that already I don't um I was
looking for my calendar and uh I don't
have it handy but I I don't know if
uh yes in it uh mayor councelor benom um
I believe it uh our next steps would be
that you would would uh give us
Direction on moving forward with some of
these proposals um where we would then
bring a resolution um allocating those
funds towards uh the community
initiatives uh Natalie would then um
work on developing the RFP and the
timelines for that and and present that
back to you um and so then so the work
session would depend on a lot of
variables as to how that moves forward
um right now these are proposals to you
all the next step would be resolutions
that actually put this funding designate
this funding in our city
budget got it thank you Amy um yeah I
mean I think I understand also that
there's not necessarily any rush to
spend down this money as the timeline
from the federal government has been to
20 24 however I do think there are some
things that are Urgent and that do
deserve a rush right which include I'm
ensuring that people who were mostly
impacted by the pandemic which were low
wage workers low-income families um
people who color the elderly that those
are the folks that um that we do have
urgency around getting some of this
money to them right the specific money
around addressing NE negative impacts
negative economic impacts to me that
does feel incredibly urgent um and that
we should move on some of those things
pretty quickly especially again the
things that we know for sure are needed
um and I really appreciate though that
due diligence in terms of ensuring that
we're not doubling up right I know that
there's a lot of rental assistance money
from the state right now and we
certainly don't want to use any of our
24 point that to go towards that if we
already feel like that Gap is being met
by the state yet I don't necessarily
believe that um rental assistance is
meeting all the gaps right that's not
necessarily where people are feeling the
most pain um and it's really Meeting
those everyday needs and so I want to
make sure that we do this as quickly as
possible mayor um uh C
Annette was listening and she sent me
the the list the dates so how about
August
9th
um yeah
sure I I I personally believe that
there's several things that we could
move on a lot quicker than that but I
also want to make sure that you know I'm
not putting any pressure on unnecessary
pressure on staff um I think August 9th
um feels far away because I think I know
how much people are struggling um if we
could do it sooner that's fine if not
mayor I think that's a that's a that's a
workable date yeah that the reason why I
want to do in August is remember we're
that's that should be the full month
that we'll be in in in person plus uh
plus to make sure like I received an
email from the Lions um Lions Club but
something and about you know and so they
need to put it in a different format I
think it probably just lends itself to
make sure that the community knows how
to how to kind of put that forward
instead of just an emails okay August
9th I think is a a fine date mayor thank
you um I have a oh go ahead I just
wanted to um very briefly uh councelor
Beno ask Natalie um how that timeline
works for her plans uh she will be
leading the effort to issue the RFP
Mr Mayor Natalie Green we will make it
work so we we do have a draft template
of the RFP I'm hoping that as Council uh
speaks today you will identify some high
priority programming that will make it
into the RFP and then if needed any um
questions or or topics that you want
specifically answered as part of the RF
process so um like I previously
mentioned we are already identifying the
duplication the dis uh
disproportionately impacted communities
and and the overall Community impact so
um those are items that we have already
identified as priorities to council um
so uh staff is taking notes so we'll
incorporate some of the feedback we get
today into the RFP
process thank you Natalie um so if
you're taking notes I'm just going to
name a couple of the priorities that I
believe have already been put out right
these are not these are these are my
priorities because I've heard their
priorities for community members which
include the casa
Perros um Shel expansion um a guaranteed
basic income pilot project um I
certainly think that we need to discuss
support for domestic violence shelters
that saw the most need I would say and
certainly um shelters with people who
are near experiencing um near
homelessness um to me those are some of
the most urgent needs for sure so thank
you Natalie I appreciate it and I'm glad
you'll be leading this effort for
sure I mayor I have a couple more
questions
um Amy do you have any sense yet from
the state about the 1.7 billion dollars
the state received in narpa funding um
and their intent to allocate it in
whichever different way I think the
reason I bring this up is specifically
around Broadband I want to make sure
that right like that we're not using our
24.4 million to go towards Broadband if
the county is going to be doing that if
the state is going to be supporting that
um so that but anything else that you
may have heard of um mayor councelor Ben
Como yes we have heard some things that
the state is putting out uh as you know
during the legislative session there was
funding allocated for expansion of
broadband through the legislative
process so that is the funding that I
believe is going to be utilized um by uh
the county we are a pilot project for
the county um through that committee or
for the state I'm sorry we're a pilot
project for the state um to expand
Broadband so a good amount of money is
being put towards uh our County by the
state for that as well as what the
county is putting forward um and once
that study is done that identifies gaps
in service areas then you know we can
look at what what role we can play in
helping um move forward the Broadband
Additionally the state is being rather
slow and running out some of their other
programs but one that I heard this week
is that they are going to be offering a
stimulus type project uh for individuals
that are did not receive federal
stimulus money directly and so that
would include individuals that perhaps
are here on green cards or otherwise um
in our community um there is a process
for applying for that um that is through
um one of the state websites
uh I did want to make a notation just to
clarify uh something you said earlier
about rental assistance the state has
rental assistance as well as homeowners
assistance that does include utility
assistance but Additionally the county
received a direct allocation for rental
and utility assistance um that they need
to disperse by I believe the fall um and
there is a link on their County website
for individuals to apply for I believe
up to 12 months of rental and utility
assistance and so I would encourage you
to get that for all of our council
members to get that information out to
your constituents so that the county can
fully utilize those funds um they the
last that I heard and it's been a few
weeks since I spoken to the finance
director at the county but the majority
of the applications were coming from
individuals within the city limit so
that is a benefit um that the county is
administering for our community uh for
individuals throughout donana County so
that is another area that is available
uh that I am kind of monitoring the
state as they come out with uh projects
they are distributing some of the money
um to their departments so the city has
received a
$250,000 Grant specifically to get the
convention center reopened um and so I
think that we will see those uh grants
coming out much like we saw from the
cares act where we're notified that they
have funding available that we can can
get that funding um without having to go
through a competitive process and
utilize that right away into our
community so I think that we'll see a
lot of that coming out of specific
agencies within the state and that you
know that depends on you know when they
get their their ducks in a row to get
get um everything organized to get it
out to us but uh I think that's where
we're going to see a lot of the state
money and then I think they're going to
start doing other initiatives for those
adversely impacted by covid that were
not addressed in other Federal funding
programs I hope that helps yeah thank
you Amy yes it definitely does help I um
and thank you for lifting up that fund
yes during the state legislative session
this year um legislators appropriated an
additional $5 million to go towards a
general assistance program to support um
families who were excluded out of
federal stimulus paychecks so yeah you
are right that could be our immigrant
Community or very low-income Folks at
the IRS and you know about um those were
not that $5 million was not arpa fund
but I certainly hope the state continues
to replenish that fund with oura funds
um but thank you for naming the rest of
the information and then my last
question is just around um small
business support I'm curious about um
where the biggest gaps are right now for
small businesses I'm sure right I think
we know that um the PPP program may or
may not have worked for some people I
think it was incredibly difficult for
some folks I'm curious about anything
else that may have come out through arpa
um and where the city hopes to really
fill in some of the gaps where um you
know small businesses who for small
businesses who are really hurting right
thank you uh mayor councelor benom um I
would defer to uh Dr gelda Martinez in
Economic Development to discuss that
Griselda I believe you're on the on the
line yes good afternoon uh mayor city
council grella Martinez economic
development director thank you councelor
bomo for that question
um I summarizing the opportunities that
we have in the community given the
deficiencies that we have observed um it
is been very evident that creation of
capacities uh and expansion of
capacities among our local and small
businesses is a key priority for us and
and and a gap that um we have recognized
now more than ever um um so
more um technical assistance on uh
business uh practices in general um tied
to um continuous access to finance for
for the traditional underserved
communities in the in the business um
realm as well those are are the top two
priorities that we have seen um we have
a business Service uh support Partners
in the call uh we have uh recurrent
meetings with them and in in most of the
conversations that we have on a biweekly
uh basis that's that's a recurrent um
topic how do we how do we get the
resources that exist and are available
to those businesses that are in most
need for them to enhance their operation
for them to enhance how they do
businesses how they reach new markets um
and a couple of of the programs that we
created and implemented um Target some
of those um deficiencies or or areas of
opportunities um but it's it's a it's a
broad spectrum um it can it can go from
business owners having the uh access to
a computer access to knowing how to to
uh utilize a computer for applications
of the uh of loans of Grants um also um
other other training that is available
that may not be getting to them um but
that would make a big difference and so
um strategic thinking of how we all come
together to create uh programs that
leverage upon each uh each of our
strengths in this uh very diverse um
business support network to reach the
all the different um elements of of
businesses and the different types of
businesses that we have in our community
so um we have the partners on the line
and and um it would also be um useful
for them to speak of what they have seen
through this last year uh very much more
um emphasized than than the the previous
times in in in them serving and working
with businesses
directly I hope that answer your
question councelor Boma yes absolutely
Dr Martinez thank you and I'm very
confident that you are having those
necessary conversations with the
necessary folks so I appreciate that
actually since you're here um one
question are arpa funds will arpa funds
not be used to support the new idea for
the small business incubator or is that
strictly
tid mayor um councelor benom uh the the
direction is spending on on that
specific item uh I have put together a
number of initiatives to be considered
for funding and and we'll be going over
um what will be funded um out of those
uh proposal out of those initiatives
propos you're right but definitely the
business incubator is is one of them I
did not mean to put you on a s like that
you right forgot we had not made any
formal decisions about that so thank you
Dr Martinez um mayor those are all my
questions I just want to say one last
thing before I hand it to my colleagues
that um I really want to thank thank
public work staff for including K and
canto in this um um in these funds there
honestly one of the first meetings that
I had with Public Works was about these
two particular streets when I was
canvasing um my district these when I
was walking these two streets I could
not believe that they were in such
terrible condition and um I mean when we
think about basic quality of life for
our communities to me it definitely
comes down to the condition of our roads
and so um I'm very excited about this
the possibility of keeping this in oura
I hope um the rest of you are supportive
of that because um I know there's a lot
of streets that need them um and if I
were to pick any in District for it
would be these two so um I really want
to thank public work staff for that
thank you mayor yeah thank you before I
get to councelor Vasquez just a couple
things councelor aomo uh okay I think
you're right it's 1.75 billion um from
my understanding the federal government
would is asking the states to replenish
their U funds that they lost for
unemployment so that's about that's
another 250 million so now we're at 1
point one and a half billion but what
I'm what I want to say is it there's a
stalemate going on in Santa Fe right now
because the governor thinks say says
that she should have the control where
that money goes and the legislature says
that they should and you know I would
think that the legislature because
they're the ones who usually come up
with the funding and then she signs it
so I think that's going to be really
important because if that's a stalemate
that could really hold off bringing in
funds and then also I think although we
haven't discussed this um I think it's
important that we probably focus on the
two big sectors that have lost and
that's the um hotel and the restaurants
they lost probably 7 1% of their of
their employees or business at least
that and then also the entertainment and
Recreation those are another huge loss
so I think those would be couple areas
that we might want to focus on okay uh
councelor
boscus thank you mayor um thank you to
staff and councel B for your
questions um I have a quick question
here about the folks who are in our
meeting um and their Ro moving forward
um I think this is uh regarding the
addressing the negative economic impacts
piece and the community and economic
development
initiatives is it right that U some
folks from our local um nonprofit
Community uh will be applying for that
$10.4 million through the RFP process
that is is in development is that the
way that that's going to work yes thank
you mayor uh councelor Vasquez uh we
invited them here today so that they
could um hear the proposals that we have
put forward as well as to give you input
on how they have been affected by uh the
um covid pandemic and the closures that
we experienced over the last year or so
um all of them are uh probably eligible
to um apply for funding from the
community and economic development
initiatives um and so uh many of them
probably will uh they will probably come
forward during our public uh
participation section of this meeting
after all the counselors have given
their comments um and that that's why
they were invited so that they have the
opportunity to give some
input great thank you Amy I appreciate
that um and then regarding the
categories in our internal um our our
plans for distribution of this 24.8
million um were were these allocated by
staff are these recommendations of
allocations or are these mandated
through the
arpa thank you mayor uh councelor
Vasquez so the five categories that are
listed here on this summary sheet are
the ones that are um listed as eligible
uses by the treasury interim final rule
they are the categories that are
allowable and So within each of those
categories there is a uh a good amount
of documentation provided by the
treasury um what is eligible and what is
not eligible and so uh staff uh through
two committees and a committee that
would look at um internal projects and
one that would look at external projects
went through each of these categories
and identified what they felt were the
largest priorities for the city at this
time um and based on the impact of covid
because remember that the arpa funding
is to releve the um impacts of covid so
much of what we propose is based on
um the effects of covid in our community
which is why we kind of started out with
that first to give you that background
so as we went through those uh criteria
and the um specific eligibility rules
that uh treasury has put out that's how
we came up with the projects that were
identified today to be recommended to
you
all hopefully that
question yes okay so so there's not like
that the federal government asked us to
uh to put together for each of these
categories this was based on on staff's
um uh research and opinion of where
where this could best be used is that
that is correct uh mayor councelor
boscus that's correct um these items are
um these were the six there were six
eligible uses we identified the ones we
felt were most priority to the city and
then within the guidelines for each of
those uses we found which programs would
fit the criteria given to
us okay thank you thank you Amy
um uh regarding the city uh replacing
the public sector Revenue loss category
um you mentioned that there was a tally
or there was a um essentially I think a
formula used to come up with that number
million um is that out of is that all
all out of the telshore fund or is that
out of different funds that we have used
to respond to the pandemic and then um
in in the capital projects piece there
um are we then basically saying we
are not replacing that 6.9 million but
we're reinvesting it via and and taking
the $6.9 million loss or how does that
formula work out okay thank you uh mayor
counseler uh Vasquez uh first to answer
your second question uh yes the decision
was made to take the revenue loss that
was calculated and reinvestment reinvest
it in public projects that would benefit
the community um this will lead to
additional employment for those in the
construction sector um and provide um of
course gross receipts tax coming back
into our community um to to benefit the
overall Community I'm going to jump to a
slide here and ask Matt signs to join us
and discuss the actual calculation Matt
are you on the line
please yes thank you Amy good afternoon
mayor and members of council it's great
to see everyone today mat you signs
interim Chief budget officer with the
budget office so what the loss and
revenue is asking to look at is a
standardized calculation that was
provided by the treasury so we're
looking at a base year which is the full
the last full fiscal year um before
covid so we're looking at fiscal year
2019 we're also taking the base year
year and multiplying it times a growth
rate of 4.1% which is also provided by
the treasury so this is assuming growth
over a period using
4.1% so as you can see there we're
looking at General revenues so General
revenues um as described by the treasury
is for um basically for operations of
the
city so you can see there our base here
we're at 122 million and our actuals are
going to be the same because this is our
our base year so over a month excuse me
so over a time period of 18 months we're
looking at revenues of 130 so this is
our counterfactual Revenue that's the
amount should everything remain the same
before covid so our actuals at that time
were
123 so we do have a difference of 6.8
million so that allows us to take that
6.8 million and apply them back to
General Services as Amy mentioned
earlier this is a broad range of
expenditures um from infrastructure to
health care to uh police fire and Public
Safety support on that I hope that
answers your
question thank you Mr SS and Amy uh yes
so so it's it's basically just
calculated on our Revenue loss through
things like the loss of GRT and other
expected Revenue sources not just the
expenditure of immediate response to
covid related
um budget issues is that
accurate yes that's
correct okay okay thank you
um I mean I think you just went on mute
there again sorry my computer is not a
agreeing with me today so mayor
counselor Vasquez thank you for the
question um yes and I just want to make
a note that this is the only category
that allows us the latitude to um
utilize um the funds for things that are
not prescribed by the treasury in detail
on the other areas and that's another
reason that the um impact that covid had
on our construction projects was also
selected as the top priority because we
had no other way to recover those funds
any through any of the other um
categories thank you Amy um and thank
you again Mr SS um fully supportive of
reinvesting this fund under this
calculation into capital projects um I
think this is where we could really have
some robust
Community um input as to what capital um
uh projects uh might serve the community
in a long-term capacity in addition to
um some some immediate needs that that
communities or uh that the city may have
um things like that uh business
incubator um that Dr Martinez has talked
about um come to the top of my mind in
terms of what can we use this money to
reinvest in a way way that um has a
return on investment longer than just
the recovery period after covid um and
so you know that's my hope but I think
certainly um some there's a lot of smart
people in this city I think that could
give us some really good ideas as to as
to what um a larger economic recovery um
strategy might might look like um
especially for those that were that were
most impacted um and that help create
local wealth in the long term so thank
you
for that um fully supportive of that um
I have a a question here Amy on the
mobile Integrated Health um and the uh
um the mobile crisis center um I think
two million is what we have um budgeted
for that in terms of the public health
response um do you have an idea or of
how long that funding would be for um
would that be to operate those two
programs for a period of a certain
number of years or um is that money just
to get this get both of these started
and then we'd have to replace those
funds
later thank you mayor uh councelor
bosquez so um under the Community uh
supporting the public health response
those are two examples of what might be
utilized um I believe after we received
direction from you all today we'll work
with both fire and police to see which
ones are uh priority we have placed that
in the second tranch of funding um
because we have uh provided funding this
year through our fiscal uh budget and so
we will look at either expanding those
programs or providing uh operating funds
for those programs for a period of time
as I mentioned in the beginning we do
have to utilize the funds by um
2024 and so we want to be sure that
we're not uh inflating a program that we
cannot sustain past that time so we'll
we'll work with uh that Public Safety uh
sector of our um city and see how they
believe the best use of funds is it can
also be provided as I mentioned uh to
utilize for um salaries and benefits uh
for those that are directly responding
to covid such as those who are running
the vaccination clinics although we do
have another funding source for that
right now um depending on how long that
goes or if we have a second wave uh some
of those things may need to be decided
later so um we would we would do more
research on this particular area as to
where it's best
needed thank you Amy um yes for me I
think that's that's a really important
part of of this um of addressing
specifically what what arpa I think is
trying to address so many uh families
individuals um people have suffered
through a lot um and the impacts of
economic loss or other health outcomes
uh manifest themselves in more ways than
just um a direct uh or the immediate
impact of of you know things like losing
a job or losing a loved one and so I
would love to see how we we can use this
money um to innovate in this area that I
think so many other cities are looking
to do in the response uh in particular
to individuals undergoing uh some type
of mental health issue or crisis and so
uh I agree with you there that think
rather than inflating a program that we
have not yet um maybe perhaps uh tested
long enough to know how uh how it will
work in our community uh making the best
you of that money over the next three
years so that when we do find that right
pilot or that right formula or something
that is working for our community uh
that that we that we then are able to
still tweak the budget and use some of
those funds to extend it for a number of
years um as it's possible so um so thank
you for that Amy um and then um question
here related to the the um the water and
sewer infrastructure part of this um
I'm just curious as to Amy do you have
any direction as to why arpa funds are
including this particular category in a
CO response uh package um not that I
don't support it I'm just I'm just
wondering how how how this is related to
C uh thank you mayor uh Council Vasquez
I believe you would uh call that
politics um I think that was uh part of
the uh program to make certain
individuals in Washington happen happy
uh to get some infrastructure money out
to the communities uh and so I believe
it was uh um a part of the the process
just to get the whole thing passed uh
it's certainly welcome and we can
certainly use it so um it's it's good
sometimes that politics works in those
ways but that's why I would that's what
I would guess is what the reason it's
included counc vus you know that there's
six categories that the federal
government said we can Target Target we
didn't do Broadband infrastructure so
this one here is it says Water and Sewer
infrastructure and so that's I wasn't
too sure why you were which one you were
asking about why is it on this list why
is it on the big list so this was it
came from the federal government and on
that's why it's on this
list thank you mayor um and thank you
Amy yes absolutely of this just
wondering um and you're right politics I
mean uh water and sewer infrastructure
certainly put people back to work and
and I see that as economic recovery
piece um but very specific in this area
and so uh I absolutely support um these
projects if Council bomo uh is
advocating for these two projects Anaya
and Kanto in particular
and uh would would be supportive of that
um uh also just want to think about in
addition to the Sewer connection
incentive program um since we are in in
in such a rough
time for water Avail availability and
and probably in one of the worst
droughts that we've been in um I would
just see if there's any op conservation
infrastructure to also you know we can
consider making um that a priority as
well um over the next couple of years to
whatever degree that our utilities
department can um Implement water
infrastructure projects throughout the
city that help us save water um we have
to be thinking about that and using all
the all the dollars that I think we can
get and leverage um for for water
conservation in our community um but but
these uh you know these are important
things as well and so I I definitely
support those I just want to make sure
that water conservation makes it to the
top of our our priority list when we
talk about water infrastructure
um uh and then another quick question
here and this is around the uh the visit
Los
crues around the negative economic
impacts um how did we come to that
number of 1 million uh and is the
thought here that tourism or that visit
Los Cruses would use this funding to
essentially revamp a new tourism type of
campaign that would attract residents to
the city would this be spent on
Advertising staff or um you know or
actual uh you know physical things I
guess um at visit Los cruus um right
thank you mayor uh councelor Vasquez I
believe relle um is on the line from
visit Los crues uh either she or um econ
can speak to the proposal that they put
forward however we do know that um visit
Los crues experienced a large loss in uh
Lodgers tax um which we cannot um
replace with this funding that's not
allowable however we can provide them
with funding to uh restart the
industries and so um if either Michelle
or Eon would like to speak to your
question uh I would defer to
them yes thank you councelor Vasquez uh
great question and to uh to the mayor
and Council uh there there was as we all
know a huge loss in all sectors but
especially uh especially in the tourism
sector we had about 16% decrease in in
the St in the tourism sector and uh what
we saw was about a a year-over year
over-year decrease of 40% in Lodgers tax
so um visit Los cruus came with an
analysis early on um and they had
mentioned that they were requesting
actually $2 million uh to fill in the
Gap and so how we came to $1 million is
um with with everything that they lost
we we were trying to be conservative
knowing that there's other priorities
and so that's that's how we came to a $1
million councilor
Vasquez
also if I can add counselor um on the
visit Los crues monies if you if you
recall that um we can spend those Monies
to advertise for for businesses or or
residents to come to Las crues as long
as it's over a 100 miles away from us so
that means we can put out Billboards
like in um Soro or we can put them in
Albuquerque and and and advocating and
advertising um local events happening
here in Las Cruses to bring people back
into the hotels and and into the
restaurants thank you mayor um yeah
would be terrific to advertise our um
cannabis industry to Texas um I bet you
we'd get make some good use of economic
dollars there um but no that that sounds
see a little as where it says that's not
covered just
kidding I also just want to here for uh
we've talked about this before but uh
some of our local small businesses um
who specialize in marketing and
advertising and public relations um in
terms of expanding the capacity and the
brain power of what and how this money
might be spent uh and and adding more
economic dollars to local businesses um
just want to put a plugin for you know
for an opportunity for local firms here
to participate in that process of
attracting and revitalizing our tourism
industry so that we can have kind of a
onw punch with that uh helping out our
small businesses that work in this uh
area and then also uh um generating more
revenue from from tourism for us so
thank you um and I think uh the last
thing I'll I'll mention here before
passing it on is um I I want to put a
plugin um as well for uh the well both
the housing project that we are working
on on compo U that Miss Natalie Green uh
is leading that also includes a
component of um some commercial and
Retail Development Across the street
that could that I see kind of as as the
perhaps the kickoff to the elpo and
South Solano um
Redevelopment uh plan uh because I think
that's a very tangible way of bringing
some much-needed life to a you know I
think a economic district and
residential district that has definitely
seen better times and so I think when we
talk about addressing the most impacted
and where we can have the most impact I
I really think the Alo and Solano
corridors uh meet that bill or meet that
description and and would love to um uh
you know to see how in the next three
years right that we're not planning this
money um all out to be spent in one year
or two years uh when we do have this El
Redevelopment project ready for
recommendations on policy changes for
the council um and then like I said that
one housing project that we'll be ready
to kick off uh mayor I mean even a
transportation project that I know
you're um that have advocated for from
you know University to um uh to the
downtown through alao you know maybe we
can leverage some of these dollars to
help kick off the elao and South Solano
uh Redevelopment and
so um it just want want us to be
hopefully mindful of you know that might
not be for a few more months and so uh
saving some dollars for for initiative
like that I think would be really
important um but with that those are all
my questions um thank you Amy thank you
staff and look forward to hearing from
the rest of the participants um that are
in
our thanks councelor mayor
proam thank you mayor um thanks to my
fellow counselors um bomo and Vasquez
for your thoughtful questions those were
similar questions that I've had so I'll
um cross those out um in terms of asking
um Amy I I wanted to go back to and ask
a little more about the capital
infrastructure projects and um at a 6.9
million I I believe is that slide 11
where you talked about very specifically
um the pool the Animal Services Center
Trails un that Park Etc
yes so I I understand that because of
covid you know there just been a huge
increase in um
many um well the the the supplies and St
such right um and
so were there considerations aside from
this related to Capital infrastructure
that we may consider especially with
tying in the loss component so I'm I'm
thinking about our long list of capital
outlay projects that would benefit um um
so many people in in the community
um and so I I just want to I wanted to
ask what was that thought process in
terms of picking these out thank you uh
mayor councelor gandra um there was a
long list of um projects that were put
forward to identify the loss um and and
fund that loss I think the total that
was put forward for consideration was
about $12 million in um Capital
infrastructure that could use a boost of
funding um in the next year uh these
items were brought to the top of the
list by public works as being most
critical and I believe that David Sido
is on the line and I will defer to him
on how these were eventually um taken as
the top priorities um I believe most of
them have a significant covid um impact
loss uh so that was one factor but
another Factor was where they were in
the process of beginning construction or
being ready for RFP and what could be um
added back in So if David sadio uh if
you could uh help answer this question
for
us I believe he was on the line earlier
so hopefully he's still there yes I'm
here good afternoon mayor mayor protm
gandra David CIO Public Works
director there you are there we go can
everyone hear and see me now yes yes
excellent yes okay uh thank you mayor
council mayor protm gandra David CIO
Public Works director in case uh that
did not catch earlier yes these projects
were submitted as part of our request
through Public Works that would have
that most impactful to the entire
Community as part of the goond projects
we listed these to make up the
differences from those impacts of covid
uh some of those things for instance the
amount for the dog parks those concerns
about having to cut out bathrooms and
some other infrastructure there as well
too uh this is going to help include
those Services back in to some of those
projects again the transit maintenance
facility that is getting that project to
be able to come to completeness that way
we can move forward with the building of
that as you all know that does serve the
entire Community as part of that project
moving forward and likewise the decision
was made for the other goond projects
that you see before you there and it was
having that ability to have a larger
impact to the community again this is
the proposal moving
forward uh however it is up to Council
on either moving forward with these
proposals or asking for other projects
to come forward thank you David thank
you for that um Amy had mentioned that
there was a long list I think $12
million worth wondered if you could
Supply us with that list so that Council
can look at it in its entirety to then
determine where we think um the
selection um should be I I um you know I
haven't heard um it's been quite a while
since we've heard an update on the
Aquatic um competition pool
um in terms of the value added portion
the things that had to be obviously um
taken out and so without really having
an update on that it's hard to to Really
conceptualize well is this really a good
use of of this money um certainly when I
think of the Animal Services Center and
the two dog parts and quite frankly what
they've had to endure at the center
being closed locked down only having a
certain you know um um um number of
Workforce and unable to car you know
pick up the animals and service the
animals as as we need we're seeing a lot
of animals dump a lot of animals that um
you know so for me I'm thinking about it
would be nice to have a TNR funding for
TNR funding for um um uh uh things that
I think are are really relevant and and
then I think about this and I think how
easy right they
funding that we would allocate this
funding and I I'm simply concerned about
all our nonprofits that have to enter
into to include our business Community
enter into a RFP process um to
um receive the funding right that that
they think um um they need in order to
to provide the the the seamless system
of care so um I I I guess I guess what
I'm saying is is that um there needs to
be maybe a stricter policy or procedure
in line in terms of what the capital
infrastructure and frankly there's a ton
of streets in in my area and all across
the city that really need that really
need some maintenance and um you know
over time we've heard I think all of us
um about pothole about you know maybe
some of the maintenance that should have
been done have couldn't be done because
we were on lockdown status so um I I'm
I'm a bit concerned about these specific
ones in general and like to have a more
loftier list or the list that was
submitted to you um in full so that we
can um you know decide if this is really
where um we need to spend our money and
uh or well it is our money money right
from the federal government so when I
think about 429,000 boy I can think
about a number of Supportive Housing um
um that needs to happen related to
substance abuse addiction um temporary
housing um thing things of that sort
that to me these are all nice and and
and um I realize that our geob bond and
lots of other programs have been hit but
I think about really what's important to
me is making sure that our constituents
have survival and thriving services and
I've mentioned some um now or or or
earlier well thank you mayor proam and
we'll make sure that we get that list
over not only to you but the rest of
council as well I appreciate that David
um mayor mayor Pro can I jump in real
quick so I mean I I hear what you're
saying but I would rather take that from
the trails we've been that that pool has
been around since 2001 and we are that
close to getting it done and um you know
I I'd be willing to to to because we've
got three 5.5 miles of
Trails um I would I would you know if
worst case scenario rather take it from
there because I I think we really need
to get that pulled up I mean this we're
want to do solar to it we want to do a
few other things to it you know and but
I understand where you're coming from
but I mean just uh just arbitrarily just
move it if we're going to move it I
would take it I would prefer take get
something from maybe the trails as
opposed to the pool I'm not asking to
arbitrarily move things out mayor I'm
asking to to be given at least an
opportunity to see the entire list so
that then Council can look at that and
determine what is the best use of this
funding where it will affect people in
totality um I understand I've been I
know that aquatic competition pool has
been um you know in the in the
in the queue for some time at least as
long as I've been a city counselor
probably even
more um so much um for prior years um
while you've been a mayor um I'm I'm not
I'm not saying arbitrarily I'm just
saying that I think the system or the
way the process by which things have
been put in a on a list and what have
been taken out in comparison to what all
our Nos and other um community partners
are going to have to there's no RFP
process for any of this the others are
going to have to go through an RFP
process which I think in some ways it h
in some ways it has to happen that way
but they're all very competitive and we
all understand when the funding comes up
from the talshire fund it's only a
select number of NOS that that get that
funding any new um NOS that that try to
um actually qualify or get on that
funding this it makes it very difficult
so I there's some things in there that
I'm not um completely sure that this is
the way to go and I'm willing to hear
from staff and and understand um I mean
we all have heard very specifically um
um the issues um facing Co why things
have increased in terms of of supplies
and such but I just want to make sure
that it is a Fair process and I I don't
know how fair it was and and I don't
mean any criticism against um our staff
they've done a a fine job an excellent
job I'm sure that this was a lot to put
together but I just want to make sure
that it's a fair process across the
board when we are selecting services and
projects um mayor um mayor proam gandra
if I can make one comment that I think I
forgot when we were uh discussing the
uses because this is federal funding all
federal regulations now apply to this
money um so every project that is funded
becomes a federal project therefore we
have to follow our procurement process
um very closely um to ensure that it
meets all fed Federal requirements and
has all federal disclosures Etc so any
Outside Agency that is looking for
funding um must go through the RFP
process in order to meet that
requirement that is why
um you know that seems like a little
more burdensome of a process for those
NOS to put forward their projects but
that's what we have to do to meet
Federal requirements um those projects
within the city that are under City
control do not have to go through that
same process so I just wanted to to
remind all the council as well as those
listening that um our F Federal
Regulations um apply to all of this
funding and that that is something that
we have to very closely monitor as we
utilize the funds thank you
okay I think Eric has something inrig
yeah yes
thanks yes thank you mayor and Council
um as uh Eric henriquez assistant city
manager I was able to CH chair the um
the committee on the internal projects
and I just want to share the thoughts
and and why we came up with with these
items as a recommendation the thought
process was that of the goo Bond
obligation those projects that uh we
need additional funds to complete these
projects that our community our our
residents voted on and we feel obligated
to complete these projects so these
these came to the Forefront because of
the obligation that we have to meet and
that was kind of the basis behind our
thought process on these projects but as
Mr Sido alluded there were a lot of
items on that list and we can get that
list to Mayor and Council so that they
can review as well but just wanted to
share our thought process on that and it
was based on the Geo Bond um Our
obligation to have those committed and
completed so that the next round of
geobond uh it would look favorably that
we could assure and instill the
confidence in our community that we got
these projects completed that was our
thought process thank
you thanks Eric I appreciate that um and
that helps
considerably um also my next question is
around um the connection incentive
program the $1.3
million um can you tell me how
many um homes that that might
specifically um address um I know at
different times Adrian has given us um
you know sort of a map and and we we
have we have a a visual in terms of the
number of homes but would that take care
of the um the homes that um are in need
of the switch or or only specific and
how was that um amount uh how did you
come up with that amount uh mayor uh
mayor proem gandra I believe that Delila
Walsh is on the line and I will defer
that question to
her thank you mayor proem counselors Mr
Mayor um to answer that question we're
estimating we have about with the new
hasienda Acres project coming up for
which we have Capital outlay to install
the actual sewer infrastructure we're
estimating we'll have about 350 to
400 eligible citizens and residents
throughout the city to come into that
sewer hookup system so essentially it's
dependent upon the number of dollars
that we get and how much we can
incentivize that those septic systems to
be taken out so we used an estimate of
about 350 individuals and households
that would benefit from this money
Delila but that doesn't include you know
just the total number of homes that is
in that's necessary to switch over
correct that would be the the uh number
of homes for which we already have a
sewer line
available okay okay but then there's
some additional ones that need to
probably come into the fold and what is
that total um I gosh I don't have that
number with me right now counselor but
I'll get it for you um I do want to say
what we did is we just estimated $3 to
$4,000 incentivizing the customer right
and that's where we came up with that
number naturally the more we want to
incentivize them the higher that number
would be but we we estimated 3 to 4,000
would be a safe um a number to cause
that incentive so Delila your thought
process in regards to just picking that
and the area for example that you gave
um um it it I guess I'm asking what
would it
cost um to help incentivize to get
people switched over in
total um let's see I think
we let me look at my Cal 2.1
million I actually had that calculated
there you go I know that was quick I
appreciate that okay and is that what
you submitt in through I guess um the
powers that be you've you've you've
landed at the 1.3 million or how did
that work we did so basically because we
knew the 3.5 million was based on the
Water and Sewer infrastructure that was
the amount for which we were eligible
and we understood from public works at
the Canto and
Kay um they needed they actually
probably need the whole 3.5 million for
those two projects combined and so it
was really just a discussion with staff
of how much could we we move over to
this sewer connection incentive program
and it it was more of a compromise
because I'm sure David could use the
whole 3.5 million and in staff
discussions we agreed because he can
phase his project the 1.3 million would
be more reasonable got it got it thank
you Delila I appreciate that really do
um it's helpful to hear sort of the
thoughts and the the the conversations
moving forward so I get a a better idea
as we're as you know we're not involved
in those Sation whatsoever so it's
helpful thank you Delila um just going
through my notes
um yeah um I I I did have a question
about Economic Development um and the
process that was that you went through
um Amy and Dr Martinez in terms of of of
picking out
um I I didn't hear a lot of detail in
terms of specifics but what I did gather
was technical a lot of money um given
for technical assistance projects or
some that are related to bis Sprint um
can you talk anym um in in regards to a
little more detail in terms of what
you're thinking um related to those um
incentives or initiatives if you
will uh thank you mayor uh sorry I was
going to defer to Griselle Dr Martinez
so go ahead Dr
Martinez I'm sorry Amy mayor PM um mayor
and City Council Members mayor PRM um
the initiatives that we have compiled
include a variety of of options um um
all of them I I would recommend to be
connected in some way to uh increase
capacities among our um community and
that's why technical assistance was was
a big highlight of what I mentioned
before um two of them uh cover the the
programs that we already have in
existence with the partnership through
aead Center at NMSU um those are the the
business accelerator and the social
media um I am also recommending uh a
program for access to finance in the
form of uh revolving long fund
um that that ties to access to finance
to underserve communities in the way of
microl lending for really small amounts
um I am recommending some type of um
capacity increase for a potential
partner to do additional micr lending
but for even smaller amounts that's from
uh $2 200 to
$5,000 um access to to finance um
we are also considering some specific uh
strategies that combines revitalization
and business support for ELA sales Orana
Corridor um Workforce reintegration uh
you've you've heard the the work that we
have uh been uh putting together in
terms of Workforce that um includes High
School equivalents and also industry
certifications um targeting lwi income
population in in our community and and
that is also part of the the items that
um we are um proposing financial
literacy uh also to enhance the capacity
of our community and and our lwi income
um population
um uh we are also
including
um being creative in in terms of these
funds not being
um restricted by the anti donation
because of the purpose of the funds uh
to do some type of grant program um in a
way similar to what we did before but
attaching some type of um technical
assistance and business support as a as
a way to increase capacities um as
businesses um get access to funding and
so have the funding as an incentive for
participation but the the technical
assistance to to en enhance their
operations and to enhance their their
ability to thrive um uh that's another
one the business incubator is is another
initiative that we're
proposing another one is something we're
calling uh retail and restaurant shutter
um program and that would be targeting
uh bu
businesses that had been in appliations
and and during this crisis were forced
to close so how do we support them for
some type of reopening if that's the the
possibility um another one is to
supplement wage plus and and expand on
on the type of businesses that may be
eligible for some type of um incentive
by creation of business uh jobs or jobs
through their business EXP exension um
and then the ultimate the the last one
is how do we work with businesses that
have the possibility to expand and for
us to support them by um bringing
expertise for them to be supported in
this uh expansion and also um with
financial access through the creation of
jobs so we have been um very thoughtful
in what type of programs would have the
most impact um and again as I mentioned
before this will be building from the
already working collaboration uh efforts
that we have put in place um before Co
but certainly increased during this last
year so um we we're prepared for further
exploration of each one of these
programs at this point uh is still being
evaluated of of um amount of funding and
the specific specific um initiatives
that that will be
funded thank you Dr Martinez for that
extensive list I I really appreciate
it's very helpful um yeah really excited
about about a number of these items I
think they they will be important as
people are coming back into the
workforce um specifically women right
that have had been hardest hit um
because having to sit stay back and you
know make that tough decision to stay
home but a a valuable one in that um
they had to educate their children right
um um during covid and so um all these I
think are are really important um so Dr
Martinez talk to me about who you've
talked to you've mentioned some
collaboration and coordination with
people or I'm thinking entities um that
you've established relationship with can
you name who they are and can you talk
to me about what will take place moving
forward in regards to right really
evaluating which programs alongside
because a lot of the I'm thinking like
West Gore the chambers those those um
mavita um our our downtown partnership
th those um people that or entities that
um I know that you that are out there
right doing um a lot of the same things
how are we going so tell me what the
process looks like and then how are we
not going to duplicate the efforts and
work
together yes mayor um mayor PRM the the
the shortest to your question mayor PM
is we haven't defined a process because
we're following the overall see whyde
process for what initiatives will be
implemented so we propos this in iives
as um opportunities that we saw and um
the specific initiatives to be funded um
are to be determined and so for for
instance on the on the business grant
that that we proposed um it depends on
whether or not that's funded and if if
it's funded how much money uh but for
instance when we did the the $5.4
million uh it was a very intense process
and so we could do that intake but we
would definitely need all of the uh
Partners to help us with the technical
assistance and so the partners um
include all of the ones that you've
listed in um you mentioned and and the
the more um support through
collaboration the more impactful these
programs will
be
mayor PM I believe your mic is
muted than so thank you um thank you Dr
Martinez um much appreciated I I just
want to make sure that as the city city
staff that you're coordinating
collaborating with all those entities um
that I that I've mentioned and any
others that I haven't I think it's
important that we ask those questions um
in terms of their thoughts um moving
forward I mean they're all in the
business of of um you know um trying to
to help um you know entrepreneurs or or
um the way and councelor vasus said it
very nicely you know we all agree I
think on Council or a lot of us on
building individual wealth and what does
that look like and we've had numerous um
um presentations um around that and and
so I just want to make sure that we're
all inclused that we're coordinating and
collaborating I think because at the end
of the day um our constituency deserves
us deserves right that that we're
coordinating collaborating that whatever
um issues and concerns we might have um
about one another that we put those
aside because at the end there's people
who are really struggling right to get
back into the workforce um and and so I
I I just want to I want to say that and
I especially want to say that I think
what's really important and what I have
seen overall
[Music]
is um um and I don't see this is is when
you talk about technical assistance I
think the importance of capacity
building there's a there's a lot of
training that's out there that I think
we could um you know bring to our
community that helps build um build that
better really and um I I I you know I I
think we all agree that that we
that we need and I don't see that
component anywhere in terms of training
people up mentoring case management I
think there it's one thing to provide a
computer right to to folks Andor but
it's another thing to apply for these
loans grants about the the what it takes
to capture all the paperwork and make
sure you have everything in hand it's
something that I hear honestly most
about that businesses struggle or they
won't even try because it's just too
hard when you're running a business you
don't have time for a lot of that stuff
and I think if we can hire a bunch of
case managers to really assist in that
process I think we'll be better better
for it so Dr Martinez I I really
appreciate this um and all the work and
I do look forward to hearing from our
partners our business partners I know
many of them are on the line currently
and then um lastly you know I I have
some priorities they're very similar to
council bomo councilor
um
Vasquez um and and and for sure my
number one priority is around Supportive
Housing I think we
are you know you hear um addiction rates
um so many folks with their mental um
Health mental illness that have that
have had to um um be admitted into the
hospital and and get stabilized only to
come out homeless with no real um you
know place to go and and I every day I
get um countless um emails and phone
calls um we've solved some of those
problems in our housing sector um that I
know Natalie Green sits on um through
resilience leaders and so I I definitely
would like to see some of this funding
go to Supportive Housing to very
specifically address and I know mayor
will read off some public comment but
Los
Amigos um sutera home um um
um housing at the roll Crossing um I
think those are so so important and and
again um housing that really
specifically addresses our disabled
population and our elderly I haven't
heard very much about our elderly or
senior services and I I just want to
make sure that that they're they're at
the have a seat at the table that our
seniors are being addressed very
specifically not sure that that that
I I haven't I guess I haven't heard very
specifically I want to make sure that
our seniors aren't forgotten um because
they're probably one of the harder hits
especially our lower income especially
those that fall within the um the
bracket of you know I make too much
money to be able to um partake in some
of these um services but not enough that
you know I'm not even in the in the
middle range uh um um and so the other
is broadband I haven't heard any
anything I think this is really
important um and of course not to
duplicate um but there's plenty of
places uh very specifically with maps
that I've seen where Broadband is just
atrocious or or are very limited and so
I feel like we really need to spend the
time and I'm happy to hear that um you
know um that Scott Mar is on this County
um group and and maybe is a time to talk
about what Scott's um plans are very
specifically related to broadband and
not only the way we're going to use the
state funding because it sounds like
those counties that are more
organized um and ready to go are going
to receive that funding first if you
will but I I think there's uh U um so
many other um areas in our community
that really could use the the the
lifting up right of the of the funding
um to lift up those services and make
them more SE with so Scott I don't know
if you're on the line and you if you
want to take an opportunity to talk very
specifically about
that sure uh good afternoon uh mayor um
and Council uh Mayor protim Scott Maher
Information Technology director uh I've
been privileged last few months to sit
on the donana county Broadband committee
as a member of that committee uh it's
organized with a series of stakeholders
which uh in obviously includes the
county which is uh chairing that that uh
particular function um myself uh
Griselda was mentioned earlier Economic
Development uh we have several members
from the state uh from the office of uh
of I do it and their new uh office of
broadband that they're launching uh we
also have uh Melanie Goodman from uh
Senator LAN office on there some folks
from uh Public Schools as well as NMSU
the El Paso
borderx um and an internet service
provider sacred winds that also sits on
that committee so right now the
committee is mainly focused on uh
establishing a Broadband feasibility
study countywide I want to make sure
that the city participates in that study
because the first thing you need to do
uh is uh execute a survey to
determine uh availability of internet uh
within uh the area the affordability of
that internet and then a major component
is education and and and where are the
educational gaps associated with knowing
how to use broadband and and Computing
technology in general so that is uh that
particular part of the project is being
spearheaded or assisted I should I guess
Say by uh some funding that the county
got from the Dallas fed uh they have
brought in um a group called mellin
advisors which is providing a project
plan and project management to help move
this survey along because this is really
the critical critical component and then
uh my understanding is that the county
is also working with do it on uh a
future project for Grant funded fiber
between Los cruus and Anthony because
again the main focus is on unserved
initially and then underserved areas uh
looking at uh doit Broad band map uh for
uh services within Los cruus which is uh
Rel you know it has some accuracy issues
and again that's why we want to do this
survey to get more accurate information
uh Los cruus may have a few pockets of
of lacking connectivity but in general
we're in much better uh situation than
other parts of the county and so we even
have some reasonable at least according
to the documentation some reasonable
fiber availability in town now um but as
this study moves forward then will be
able to assess where are the problems
specifically and then see um we'll also
be identifying Broadband assets or
assets that can be used to help
facilitate Broadband both in the county
and the city um and then move forward
with uh uh that Ser that feasibility
City will move forward with uh
suggestions and solutions for addressing
the
shortcomings thanks so much Scott that
was really helpful so when you talk
about a time frame in terms of this
survey and getting right the data that
you need to um basically take other
steps what what are we looking at um I
don't have a timeline right now I know
this is in development uh and uh I
haven't seen a timeline for when the
survey will go out I know we have a
draft survey that uh I actually also
provided some input on that in terms of
some information that we got from our
consultant a few years back when we were
uh looking into this issue um so at the
moment I know we have a draft but I'm
not quite sure where it is in terms of
execution uh obviously one of the
challenges associated with that survey
is it can't just be online right because
it's kind of a chicken in the egg
problem so uh you know I want to have
discussions uh as that moves forward
about how the city can uh also make make
that available uh through mail uh postal
mail and so forth uh maybe in a utility
bill or whatever but uh the survey has
to be uh finalize before that part will
move forward yeah
um I I appreciate that and you you know
mentioning the the mapping or the
surveying that do it has has completed
and some of the
inaccuracies important to know but Scott
in in relation to to that um what you
typically hear is when you have a number
of folks on in their home right trying
to service right that that often um you
they're getting kicked off um um and and
um is does that survey address those
kinds of thing load and you know that I
don't know all the the terminology but
um you know when you have a number of
people and the number of people all
around our neighborhoods use accessing
right the the Broadband the wi-fi at one
time um in terms of speed and and and
those things is is that what this survey
is is going to address as well mayor
proam um matter I don't know yeah no
that's a good question uh I believe
there are reliability questions
associated with the survey um the other
thing that uh also needs to be
understood is Wi-Fi as a service does
have limitations as you pointed out and
so that's where we want to make sure
that folks have the ability to sign up
for cable or DSL service directly and
then um that Wi-Fi would just be within
their household um and there are a lot
of programs out there now for low-income
families uh Comcast has uh Internet
Essentials for example which is as low
as $10 a month which I think is pretty
exciting um I believe the city manager
has also previously mentioned the
emergency Broadband funding that's
available now admittedly that's for a
limited period period of time until the
funding runs out but that can also help
low-income families bring that broadband
service directly into their home which
is a big boost for uh internet reliab
ability I appreciate that so are you
um going to be offering once this study
comes up what might be the amounts that
you will need and to ensure that that
there's the the reliability and
consistency related to broadband um
across the city of Las Cruses or how is
that working so the the feasibility
study should identify potential plans
and cost associated with that but again
since we are tied
to anti-d donation um mostly most likely
and I don't know for sure because
obviously we have to go through the
process but it' be my assumption that
this study will come up with ideas for
providing what's called middle mile
fiber in other
words uh part part of the struggle for
internet service providers coming into
the community is the infrastructure
required to meet um for them to connect
and and then the infrastructure to
connect to their customers and so in
between those two is what they call
middle mile fiber and that's something
where what we're seeing with the funding
that's coming out from the federal
government over the last several years
and of course uh moving forward with
more more focus on this in the future um
most municipalities will will be working
on trying to provide that middle mile
segment uh and then lease that make it
available uh for a fair market value to
internet service providers who would
then um in order to use that
infrastructure would commit to providing
services within uh a given uh
neighborhood or community so I think
that's yeah so once you get that serve
the survey results will you be offering
up uh what this might cost to the city
and start looking at places that we will
need to update our
fiber use this money for that around the
capital outlay infrastructure component
uh I will certainly make that
information available I don't know if
it's going to have costs associated with
it um it may um at this point I really
don't know what's going to be in the uh
feasibility study I've seen draft
proposals before but every Community is
unique uh and and like I mentioned you
know we're under the opes of anti
donation which also makes it a bit more
unique um so some you know I've seen
feasibility studies where for example
the the
municipality uh also owned uh the
electric utility right so they were able
to leverage that as an asset to bring in
fiber which we don't have um so uh it'll
be interesting to see what is actually
in the feasibility study once it comes
out at this point I I can't say because
I don't know thank you Scott mayor uh
mayor proam uh County manager msas would
like to make a few comments on the study
and the the programs they're doing mayor
uh City man I'm sorry County manager
msas if you'd like to
comment um thank you again mayor and
city council Fernando maras County
Manager just to alert you that the
feasibility study at least the the uh
parameters and the outline of it uh
we're anticipating should be ready by
mid July and we're anticipating that the
assessment itself would be approximately
a 4month period of time I would just
appeal uh to everyone to be just a
little bit patient there's a lot of
stakeholders involved uh there's uh a
lot of discussion that is occurring now
but I'm anticipating that at least the
parameters of the assessment uh are
going to be agreed to by mid July and
then the assessment going forward and it
should provide um a lot of the answers
to which uh uh councelor gandera is H
asking about and I think they're all
great questions and we'll make sure that
that that perspective in terms of need
and cost to achieve the need and the
mechanisms that can be used to
effectively address some of the concerns
that are being
discussed according to the initial
information and there is a press release
that will be going out uh today to the
media related to this joint effort it
suggests that the underutilization
within the city is approximately at
about
22% uh but in the southern part of the
county it's approximately
44% and north of Las cruus it's about
44% um under served
populations um and I believe that this
joint effort will be giving our local
government's uh mechanisms and costs
associated with being able to to provide
uh enhanced Services uh to individuals
throughout the county thank you thanks
judge I really appreciate um that
information and look forward to hearing
more about about this as as you um put
this together um and then I you know for
for me lastly um again I I think it's
important that this funding really
specifically addresses the survival you
know Services which I'm which are you
know five um PL housing
Transportation um Medical Dental Care um
Behavioral Care um I I think it's it's
really important that we focus our time
and attention and which leads me into
the universal um um pay or income I
think those are all very important as we
move forward trying to get our folks
back into the workforce um and trusting
that they can get back to the Workforce
feeling like there it's a safe you know
there's um safety in there but so many
are struggling and I hear every day um
you know how difficult it's been for
their for their family um and then and
then lastly um I I I think it important
that we consider funding um community in
the schools um so we have four now one
will be coming on board um which is Alam
Elementary but I I think there are
others that would like to to um
participate but there isn't any funding
very specifically and I know mayor will
be reading a public comment specifically
addressing that from a couple of of um
folks related to um a constituent and
some the coordinator for a community in
the schools um and as you know um you
know they do an excellent job job of uh
following the continuous quality
improvement process they're assessing
and the schools and really trying to um
integrate those survival and thriving
services that are so important um in
building healthy communities and and so
I I would plead with my fellow
counselors um to in hopes that we could
um provide um further funding um to add
more community in the schools and with
that mayor those are all my comments
thank you before we get to councelor
floridus I have two questions I need to
ask Amy so Amy um I Heard Scott
mentioned something about the anti-d
donation Clause is that your opinion
that this money also has to abide by the
anti-d donation Clause uh mayor uh no it
does not this is federal funding and do
that anti- donation does not apply now
if we merge it with State money um or
local money then yes the anti-d donation
um would apply just as if we put Federal
money with one of our state or local
funding sources it becomes Federal money
so um we have to be careful of that but
this money specifically is not um anti-d
donation um restricted
I would defer to Jennifer to confirm
that but as far as I've understood it is
not I I would concur with you the second
question me too mayor since the second
question is um are all Theos that that
you feel uh were going to want to apply
all on the call
today uh mayor I I am not sure of that
that list was generated by uh community
velopment and economic development and
so um I am sure like any other RFP
process it will be put out to the public
so that any um one that is eligible
could apply for it and I believe that
there's a couple categories of
individuals uh or not individuals but
organizations that can apply and I would
defer to um Natalie to look at at the
one the draft she's already started of
the RFP to to give you that
information okay so these NOS are going
to have to apply for the funding right
right it is an RFP process yeah and and
so I guess what I'm trying to get at
mayor PM is um I I wasn't planning on
taking public comment because I think
that gives an Fair advantage to those
that that haven't applied yet I I you
know I just think that we need to have
that work session so that we can discuss
who you know the the various proposals I
would think I I don't know how I guess
what I'm trying to say is I need to get
a little bit more um understanding on
how this process is to work because I
don't want to if if we're going to if
they're going to go out to apply for
this funding um you know I think all of
them have to talk than just a few so
that that's what I'm trying to get at so
that I already sent um something to net
so we can try to get this thing resolved
the next time because this uh I know
there's some that are on here some that
aren't on here and I don't think that's
fair to to sure I understand I just
didn't know how you wanted to for cons
constituents right to give input about
how this arpa funding is going to be
used and and I I was just telling people
send your their comments to you and
Christine Rivera to be read at public
comment be necessarily nonprofits but
it's a combination probably of several
different people if it's generic and
something that doesn't point to one
particular organization okay that's fine
but um okay so I wondered how these were
coming in these emails so you told them
okay good thank you
may we were also not sure how this would
progress today so we wanted to make sure
that anybody who might have an interest
in it would would be have the
opportunity to be available so we were
also not really clear on how this would
progress through the day so uh thank you
for your direction sure uh councelor
FLOTUS uh thank you Mr Mayor uh have
a
okay okay so um I um have a lot of uh
comments uh maybe some
questions um Amy um when you went
through uh what you were saying that
uh that there are C that there are
premium negative economic income um
entities uh you said in Hospitality one
was visit Las Cruses and the other one
was something else and that one receives
$10.4
million yes ma'am mayor uh councelor
Flores so under addressing the negative
economic impacts that particular
category covers a number of things
including providing assistance to
individuals and businesses um providing
um for uh
public sector to uh rehire and build
capacity um for providing assistance to
those who are most um
disproportionately affected by the covid
crisis and so who would these people be
so that's one of the things uh reasons
why we ended up deciding to go with an
RFP process because we're not
specialists in that area and we also uh
don't have the capacity to directly
administer these assistance programs uh
we have a variety of I'm sorry go ahead
yeah I'm sorry for interrupting but I
just don't want to get off uh my my
question is focused on um number one
that 10.4 how you know and there's just
I have a lot of questions about the
process and thank you so much Amy and
staff uh for you know getting all this
together for us and I appreciate the
fact fact that all of you have worked
very hard it's very obvious it's very
apparent that you've worked very hard me
on the other hand this is the first time
I've seen it so because of that I'm not
I don't have that advantage that you all
have had and I don't have the expertise
that you all have had so um I I totally
uh believe I totally totally believe I
entirely believe that uh we can't push
this too fast only because uh a lot of
us had a have had a lot of comments
there's still I think a counselor or two
uh who hasn't been able to uh speak or
ask questions or comment so um so this
community and economic development
initiatives
10.4 um you you you the city an attorney
especially an attorney can say that it
means a certain thing
but we don't know
exactly what areas we can focus on to
access that 10.4 because that's
community and economic development
initiatives that to me is very vague and
that may be very specific to your world
or the world of Dr Martinez and and Dr
Battis or the world of you know uh City
Administration but I think this is all
new to all of us because we've never had
an arpa before in our lives anybody not
in my lifetime and so I think that and
I'm not saying that you are but I'm
certainly grappling in the dark and so I
don't think that we can and yes there
are a lot of urgent measures that we
should take but um you know Rome wasn't
built in a day and I don't think that we
have sufficient information we need at
least two more uh work sessions and as
someone else has pointed out we don't
have the entire community that would be
accessing or attempting to access these
funds so
um okay so that would be the economic
development initiative so what I would
ask for another work session on this I
would like a clear definition of uh
those
uh uh you know of what that really means
and and um and all the exception excuse
me all the areas um I I would I mean and
I think it was a council Basquez who
said well you know how did you look at
these or how did you approach these or
how did you decide on these certain
areas to focus on to distribute funds
and so in order for me to make an
intelligent decision as to approving
what you submit to us I need to have um
a clear very
clear um I mean you've done a beautiful
job this is your
recommendation but um I I just need a
clear uh
explanation as to what this really
really means and the
allowable the allowable uh
distributions
um okay and then
um yeah it just very and then in your
first in the beginning in the all
allowable allowable
use um so I don't know what slide that
was uh but in allowable uses one was
public health support response number
two was
replace something else yes ma'am so this
is the slide
mayor what does public
sector uh Revenue loss mean is that
government yes ma'am so that is for
municipalities States um and other
governments that receive this funding to
calculate the loss that they incurred
during covid and it is calculated
through a very specific um calculation
provided by the US Treasury in the
interim rule that looks at General
revenues by that municipality over a
period of time um with your base year
being the full fiscal year prior to the
start of covid um and so and that's what
that's what uh Kyle presented that's
what uh Matt signs presented um in
response to a question um uh by I
believe uh Council bosquez and so once
we calculate that loss the interim final
guidance by the
treasury says that it believes that that
amount of loss was incurred due to co
it makes that assumption for us in the
guidance so they can say whatever you
calculate that is due to covid and
therefore you can use it for a l a large
uh variety of uses that are otherwise
not prescribed in arpa so it allows us
to use it for things like public
infrastructure that is not otherwise
provided in the guidance so for example
the only infrastructure allowed in the
guidance um that is capital in nature is
water and sewer
infrastructure when we put it under the
public sector Revenue laws it's
allowable as an expense because we have
direct negative impact economic impact
to the city because of covid on our
Capital infrastructure so we're allowed
to use it under that
category Amy is it a stretch to say that
a negative impact on the city would be a
loss of revenues for the ma'am okay so
um so when we're do looking at this
we're also looking at the benefits of
job
creation exactly mayor councelor Flores
exactly so when we looked at what we
could utilize that funds for we also
looked at how can we assist the entire
community in moving forward economically
by putting people back to work by
providing receipts tax um by having more
funding available to be spent in our
community correct I mean thank you um I
was thinking along those lines thank you
and then um and then in so far as some
of the services that the city provides I
believe we sometimes contract out to
private
businesses correct about yeah so so
because I'm I'm looking at the whole
picture here and um and I want to make
sure that uh what we're doing and it
would help
well what we're doing here is where
basically the the the city council is
going to give you uh the city
Administration the power to administer
be the Fiscal Agent in the distribution
of these
funds um but we we have that um uh we
have
that uh
uh we have to make sure that all of it
is balanced so that one part of the
community like businesses for example
not just a small business owner which
has to be included but it's but not to
the exclusion of the bigger business
owners and I'm not you know going to
Define but um I just want to make sure
that this isn't just addressing the
needs of a certain population is a
certain population
needier
absolutely is it fair to exclude other
populations business owners businesses
that have suffered so much um from from
from this pandemic excuse me from this
yeah pandemic from covid so I just you
and and so I have to see exactly I I
would really like an next
explanation of um what the
administration City Administration city
employees staff and and directors um
have done in really addressing all
businesses all our populations in the
city to bring everybody up because even
the big local uh business owners um I
can't name any of them I won't um I
won't but they've suffered a lot too
even though we think oh yeah they're
like maybe one of the richest people in
the state of New Mexico or whatever but
um whatever someone's subjective
relative
circumstances um is something that we
have to be cautious I say cautious uh to
not appear to be um just looking at
different things so um and then one of
the one of the allowable
allocations is um um a premium pay for
essential workers um and they are
outlined as public health lower income
worker and then there's a guideline that
it may not exceed or you said may not
exceed 100% average annual wage occup uh
occupation and occupation of occupation
is the language May or shall because May
is allowable to exceed that but but sh
mandatory thank you mayor uh mayor
counselor Flores I will have my staff
check on what exactly the where whether
it's May or should um but it's 150 of
the annual wage per that occupation it
is for Public Employee Public Service
employees so it is is geared towards the
city employees Municipal
Employees um and it's to the extent that
their services are devoted to mitigating
the responses to covid or that they were
identified as essential workers that had
to physically be at their jobs during
covid um and it in and they emphasize
that it should prioritize lower income
workers and uh I will get back to you on
whether it it's May or should on the uh
150% average again this is um something
that has been requested by City
management um I I would defer to um city
manager EOP to discuss a further um on
what his intentions are for this funding
to to help
you city
manager thank you
Amy well maybe Mr EO isn't available
right
now hi May Council can you hear me yes I
can hear you can't see you very well
because of the light but it's okay okay
sorry yeah thank you so again as we
mentioned earlier this was this is one
of the six categories and we noticed
that I mean this is something that um as
we're going through all the categories
we noticed this one that we wanted to
address um like it was mentioned earlier
we haven't gone through to identify what
those essential workers are I know that
the this was a priority earlier on
before I came to the city uh for the
council to to have this uh essential pay
um again before I before I got here and
so this is something that I wanted to
include as we we separated into
categories we will have
more um more of this identified or more
of the process identified or the
essential workers identified as we as we
move forward if this is something that
we wanted to address um I I'll say
something real quick as I as I have the
floor here um this goes for all the
categories that we're presenting right
now um as you mentioned this this is the
first time I think most of us have have
received uh arpa funds I mean so so
we're just trying to follow the
guidelines uh those those those six uh
We've chosen five because of broadband's
being taken care of from from and other
means but what we wanted to do is look
at these categories and figure out a way
to divy out these
funds um in a way that addresses all
these and allows us to accomplish the
the goals that we we have um I I house
some maybe some comments later but um
regarding some of the other categories
but this one this one in particular was
just one that we put and
included uh to be honest because we
could because this is one that was uh it
was an eligible C
category okay now I definitely
definitely not question councelor um do
you mind if Barbara she has her hand up
maybe she can add a little bit more to
this conversation well of course not
thank you Mr Mayor thank you
Barbara thank you mayor um and Council
councelor flotes I just wanted to
clarify with respect to the statement
about may not exceed
150% um you you are correct in that that
is permissive and the guidance from the
um treasury does indicate that um that
threshold can be exceeded but it would
require specific
justification uh for uh for going above
that level so I just wanted to clarify
that aspect um of the information that
we're providing to you thank you okay
thank you very much coun councelor
florus if I may can I ask U Amy just
another quick question because I this I
may have to I may want to just suggest
something here real quick so Amy
um earlier you made a comment and I
would tend to agree with you you wanted
to kind of just get an idea of where we
were uh going with this but did I hear
you at one time think that the the best
um what you were thinking is much like
organizations NOS apply to the Health
and Human Services
committee you you think this might be
the best way to do something like this
since we already have that that uh in
place or something similar to it I mean
obviously it wouldn't be the HH so mayor
um mayor councelor Flores um thank you
uh one of the reasons that we move
towards the RFP as an option for
addressing some of the critical needs of
those individuals in our community is
because we're not the experts on that
and we don't have the capacity to
administer that kind of assistance our
Nos and our community are the experts
they do have the capacity to administer
it much like when you all were giving
funding from the telshore fund to uh
various NOS to get immediate Services
out to individuals that were in need in
our community so the the most Fair Way
um for us and to follow federal
regulations for us to provide that
direct assistance to our community
members is to do it through an RFP
process where nonprofits that can serve
the those po various populations come to
us and identify why that's a critical
population and why they are the best
people to provide that service and how
much they feel they need to provide that
service um and that they have the
capacity to do do it so it it really is
a fair way for us to evaluate um who in
the community needs the funds and who in
the community is best to provide that
assistance to those
individuals okay I appreciate that and
so um the other question I was going to
ask you is um can you go back to earlier
there's one of these slides where it had
it broken down to certain P amounts of
money to the different categories please
yes so that's the
summary yeah but this is a summary of
what staff is at this time recommending
to council um and then needing direction
for where we should go next okay and I
haven't forgotten you councelor Flores
and councelor B sty I know Council bomo
has another comment but let me just I I
need to say something here um I want to
take full responsibility for this what
happened this email was sent to me on
the 10th and I must I must I didn't
realize that all these NOS were invited
and other organizations I count almost
30 of them there's literally the best I
can suggest is this I I I agree with uh
Amy on on I think that's it's it's
worked before I think it would work now
so let me just give you an example here
if we take the 12.7 million and just
take these 30 organizations that comes
out to about 423,000 each okay so I'm
thinking and this is what concerns me is
if we're going to have them go out to
bid then I don't know we need to have
them talking at another work session
I think at this work session the council
today can decide if you want to keep
this this monies here the same or move
it around that's option one and then two
um we the first round this
12.7 will these these organizations that
receive this email um submit their their
requests or we back out how much I know
various council members wanted to to do
some things that we subtract that out
there then divide the remainder and then
that's how much they're going to get and
it's a flat amount everyone gets the
same much like we do the health and
human services so like for example if if
councelor benom and mayor PM have their
products are 4 million then we back that
off either we back that off this 12.7 or
we do that on the second round and then
they get that fully funded I you know
you know what I'm saying so that we go
to these uh 30 or so organizations Amy
when is this money supposed to arrive
you know um mayor counselor Flores uh
other counselors the first trunch of
12.4 million arrived on the 19th of May
and that has been uh shortterm invested
by our Treasury Department so so it's
already here any time going forward okay
so that would be my suggestion if we
take this trunch this first part do we
go and and and and take that amount
divided by the this first round and then
the second round we can fund the
counselor's uh uh um projects as well as
those that are going to say hey I didn't
know you guys had this can't I apply for
it as well that would be for the second
round I don't know that to me would be
the fairest and and I think the the way
we have it already set up right now
similar to the committee now whether or
not how you want who you want on the
committee well that's up to the council
if you want to use the same HHS
committee or another committee if you
guys want to be in the committee I don't
know
but I think that's what we should we
should be doing here today um look at
this amount here do you want to keep it
or change it uh do do we want to do this
tranch and and give it out and and and
have a certain time for them to to bid
or you know you know kind of just the
things that that that would be my
suggestion and how we can do that a
little bit more easier and fair in a way
to do that so anyways I just wanted to
point that out and and give that as an
option so councelor flus the floor and
apologize and thank you for mayor uh if
I may just real quickly uh thank you for
that um uh option for us I just want to
reiterate that because this is federal
funding um even under Council uh direct
you know uh projects that they might
have if it is going to an outside agency
of any kind we would have to go through
an RFP process to meet our purchasing
guidelines um because this is federal
funding um they can't designate a a uh
Council cannot designate an organization
to receive it um
directly I gotcha okay
okay thank you for that um comment okay
councilor Flores I again thank you for
letting me interrupt you and U oh no
that's quite it's C right May and thank
you Amy so much for your explanation so
I don't know if I already asked this
question
um so the the the discussion the
question just answered about the uh
going through the
RFP do I understand it correctly to mean
that the um all NOS or nonprofits coming
to the city for these funds will have to
go through an RFP process yes ma'am oh
wow that means our not only our federal
regulations but also allows for a fair
playing field for all organizations to
have the opportunity to participate
great okay that's that's a good
clarification thank you and I don't know
if I already asked this
um so in the
um in
the uh the capital infrastructure
allocations list uh the 429,000 for the
pool the Animal Service Center um
432,000 the E East Mesa recreational
fields 2 million um and that of course
is due to uh money that um has to be
made
available or or was this money is as a
result of the um higher contract costs
that went out in the building
establishing of these um of these uh
facilities is that so mayor uh councelor
Flor Flores there are two things that
are impacting all of our construction
projects at this time one is that um so
many businesses were closed during covid
and that delayed some of those projects
getting ready to go out to RFP causing
for higher cost obviously every year
that we delay putting out a project um
the costs go up but then there was an
additional um approximately 24% increase
on all projects across the board due to
labor and material shortages that um
will continue to escal at as time goes
on and that is why these are proposed in
the first tranch and as assistant city
manager uh Enriquez mentioned the
reasons that some of these were selected
is because the majority of them were on
the geobond um election item and so
therefore have already been uh vetted by
our our constituents our our residents
as items that they feel are critical to
um our community and uh so that's why
the the particular ones with that under
geobond were selected as the highest
priority thank you so much because I U
feel very strongly about everything that
we've already uh we've already voted on
these things and this is what our our
public is expecting this is what the
people are expecting the people who
voted for this the
taxpayers um so um I so thank you for
that explanation um a uh Mr Mayor I'm uh
receiving um I'm receiving texts uh from
constituents and um or residents in the
city and
constituents and they uh they're
clamoring for public inputs can you make
an announcement as to when you will
allow public input on this issue or
public
input I think we do uh for a regular
Council meetings irrespective of what's
on the agenda correct well yeah normally
count
counc public input is for reserved for
City Council meetings not necessarily
work sessions unless there's specific
right uh item and and I'm a little
hesitant if these public comments are
about a particular organization or such
because now again we're we're now if
it's just in generic saying like um hey
you know be sure to spend this on stuff
for the public or something you know
something generic okay but I I would
prefer if it's you know again if it's uh
something there that's going to go out
to community and all depends on what
council wants to do here because I think
the way uh and and again I I take full
responsibility for this because this is
just very I'll be it's just I
think it could have been structured a
little bit different and and and I think
um we can we can decide if this is the
right here if that's the about if that's
the amount of money you want to allocate
to those areas okay and then what do we
do with the 30 or so organizations that
received an email to be on today's call
you know I I think that and and I think
we need to come up with a certain amount
that we do the first trunch and and it's
it's a level amount nobody gets more
nobody gets less and and just like we do
on the HHS committee and then on the
second one then we could you know after
we get the first one done now we could
start working on the second one so that
you know because there's a lot of good
uh um suggestions out there but that
that's just me I I just I'm just trying
to expedite this but also be fair to
those that receed the email but Mr Mr
Mayor um this is a work session we don't
vote on anything at V work well no we're
not voting I'm just saying you know the
consensus would be is this the amount of
money you want to do this uh how how
much do you want to allocate and then um
staff will come up with whatever it is
that they need to do to to make sure
that that's done if that has to be done
in a resolution then they'll bring one
forward
you know and then also but see right now
there as you as you correctly uh
mentioned we've or or Amy we've never
had this type of funding before so how
are we going to do that are we going to
follow the same procedure that we do uh
with the health and human services
committee which I think is a good is a
good process that we know the process we
know how it works a lot of these NG NOS
know how it works um is this is just
like a a an additional round for for
them so to speak you know what I'm
saying so they know how how it works and
and the process so why reinvent
something and maybe go that way but you
know Natalie just jumped on can can we
hear from her real quick uh Mr Mayor
before Natalie I just have to say are
you saying then that we are to give um
staff a directive today City
Administration a direct yeah exactly
that's that that's my understanding
after after uh seeing this amount here
it's and not set in stone you you know
you brought up a question about the paid
to essential workers do you want to
reduce that do you want to make it
higher yeah I mean this is just uh this
is just a a starting point so to speak
well yeah the directive from my point of
view uh would be that we need an
explanation as to how this would break
down I mean just to have a 10.4
Community Economic Development
initiatives doesn't there's no meat
there I mean it's a nice description and
I'm sure that they you know did a lot of
brain brain storming or a lot of
thinking but um and then I think again
councelor vasus asked about the visit
last cruus tourism and Hospitality you
know why a million dollars so and it
isn't so much why a million why 10.4
why. 6.9 why 2 you know Zer million it
it's really understand I need to
understand
exactly how those sums those amounts
came uh about and I and so maybe a clear
explanation would suffice can I send you
the the Beginning video of of the of
David or or
Tony okay good no I'm just kidding now
can can we hear from naty real
quick thank you Mr Mayor Natalie Green
for the record Amy can you just go back
one slide to the
[Music]
RFP so this is the slide that outlines
the initial thoughts around the RFP
process Mr Mayor you are correct that it
does model our Public Service
programming this one in particular is
modeled after our cdbg program uh that
one is specific to Federal funding uh in
this case it will include not only our
NOS for direct Public Assistance uh for
low to moderate income uh individuals or
or disproportionately impacted
individuals it will also be an RFP for
our Economic Development Department and
our ecomic development Partners so as a
whole the committee um will be made up
uh by uh staff who uh does not have a
conflict so again that's going to be the
city manager's office the housing staff
Community Development grants budget and
finance we could incorporate if it's
council's will uh the chair of some of
the Committees uh like you identified
the the uh Health and Human Services
advisory committee uh we will will be
ready to bring that RFP for initial
review at the August 9th work session if
that's council's desire and at that time
we can outline some of the specific uh
programming that the RFP would would
address and if it's council's desire we
can uh model the public input process
similar to our cdbg program when we
allocate our cdbg dollars we do an
initial public input process for
community members to identify prior
areas for just the $10.4 million so uh
the community can identify programs um
in those general terms such as housing
food in security income support uh small
business assistance and then when we
write the RFP will include those um
adopted priorities and those will have a
higher weighted system uh then uh as
part of the scoring Matrix but but again
we're open to to council's Direction on
those
items okay so Council Florida I don't
know if you um okay so like for example
on the Health and Human
Services how many uh and that help me
out on this or Amy so how many usually
gets awarded like 10 10
organizations five Mr Mayor uh this year
it was 16 and that for $400,000
okay and how many
applied 16 so 16 all applied and 16 got
it okay but in the past in the past
years it used to be a lesser amount even
though we had more applying correct
we've had anywhere from 10 to 20 apply
and then anywhere from 10 to 15 get
funded okay so councelor florus what I'm
trying to get at is if we look at if we
look at the email that was sent out on
the 10th there was about 30
organizations and so do we do all 30 and
if we do then we do we just divide it
equally about from this amount or do we
put a number at 20 and then the then the
amounts going to be higher so really I
think these are the things that we're
trying to that the staff needs to know
so when they come back to to bring us
their their you know based on today's
input that's what we're trying to get at
today and again I apologize that I
wasn't this was not clear and so that's
what I'm trying to rectify right now
here and this is what is the way to do
it really I mean because we're we won't
have get anything done if we don't do
something if we don't Target these two
or three items right now because right
here we'll just be talking about all
these great programs that are out there
but we don't have any specific idea how
much money we're going to W it's not
fair that one gets um or you know but
that's council's Pro prerogative one
gets 700,000 and one gets 200,000 you
know do we make it all a a Level Playing
Field for round one and then on on maybe
the second trunch those might be ones
that we have we pick up those that
didn't apply or didn't know about it and
then we we have that extra money to to
give out you know those are that would
be in my opinion the most Fair uh if you
want to have everyone covered or do you
just reduce the number to you know 20 or
25 leaving out five of these or so does
that does that kind of make sense what
I'm trying to say
what to me yes oh I thought you're
talking to everybody it kind of sort of
makes more sense
[Music]
um anyway well um I I I think that
um I it makes more sense but it really
doesn't really address what I was
Raising but it's okay I mean I don't
think that
um you know everybody's uh questions uh
are always complete or I should say I
don't think one should expect to always
have questions answered uh in a
satisfactory manner um mayor councelor
floras if I may uh this is Amy Johnson
bassford grants administrator again I
haven't said that in a while so I'll say
that now what staff attempted to do
councelor Flores was really address as
many of the priority areas possible and
still a lot a good amount of funding for
the community um issues where we are
addressing the impact on covid but each
of these addressed the impact on covid
um but we were trying to um disperse the
money in a wide range of op of options
for Council to consider and so some of
the uh amounts are placeholders that you
uh we are looking for you to give us
Direction back others like the capital
projects that is limited at the
6.9 um because that's directly related
to the calculation on Revenue loss um so
we are looking for a direction back from
Council and as I said we we were trying
to just fairly disperse the money um
across a wide variety of
areas if that helps at all um actually I
I think it doesn't uh Amy and it it has
to do with the fact that um I'm um I I
just need more
details but I guess I'm the only one I
think everybody's ready to move forward
no be in the minority I don't I don't
think coun flus I think there's a lot of
um other questions so let me do this let
me talk let me get counselor beta sty
then that's gone through and I know
councel Beno and and and councel Gander
and Vasquez want to say something but I
would prefer to hear from councel BET
and then go back Circle back and then
and then let me try to rectify this so
councelor beta stui you've got the
floor thank you mayor um obviously we've
had a very in-depth discussion today and
everything so I'm going to try to be
concise with my message here and
realizing that it's been adapted a bit
based on our discussion today um overall
I do actually like the funding structure
that is pre uh that is presented today
especially when it comes to some of the
items such as our sewer connection um uh
trying to reclaim some of the losses
from the go bonds those are all items
that we've been seeing and trying to
fund um with different mechanisms um and
I like to see completion of projects
as well um because once we can do that
we can move on to other new things um
and so we're giving creating a service
or giving something to our constituents
and the community that is necessary and
then we're able to look in um at you
know bold new items and so I really
appreciate uh the items on here that
kind of address those different
issues um I did have a question um if we
were to do any sort of Grant um funding
for um businesses um and looking at that
uh with the reclaiming of the loss I
know that um we've given money to other
entities during this time of covid
there's different um criteria and I was
going to see if we were going to um have
anything in writing that addresses um
that some entities have gotten um
additional funding and then prioritizing
those that haven't received any sort of
help during this
pandemic uh mayor counselor I would
defer that to Natalie um it sounds like
that's something we could include in the
RFB but I'll let Natalie speak to that
uh Mr Mayor counselor sty staff's
thought behind the RFP process is that
allows the city to be strategic about
picking the best programming for the
best Community impact so I do want to
say that
um I would not feel that it is strategic
to fund many or a lot of organizations
um and I recognize that the the RFP
process will be competitive
but this is uh very strategic and
funding and it should be effective to
the community at large and to those
disportionate disproportionately imp
impacted um communities and businesses
so uh again that's going to be my piece
to share with
Council thank you iate we will take
council's uh scoring considerations into
the development of RFP and I do want to
emphasize that Council will be seeing
that RFP on August 9th and then um again
if we manage this very similar to our
cdbg programming that RFP will come to
you for final approval the projects
selected will also come for you to final
approval and then when we execute those
contracts with uh whatever NOS or
partners that we select uh those
performance-based contracts will also
come to you for approval so at every
step Council will have the ultimate
control about the programming uh the
funding and the
agencies okay thank you um with the RFP
well is it possible to have a section
that includes if a an
organization um currently has been you
know going after any other legislative
funding or uses um the city as a
mechanism to transfer their funding um
if it notes that because in my thought
um all these areas they keep going we
are all going after basically the same
pots of money all the time and it's all
with these projects so getting some of
those off the table and completing those
allows us to kind of open up the pathway
um for other organizations and we've
completed other projects too and so I'm
not sure if that's something that we can
look at um to try to you know think big
on some of these and um get them out of
the way I mean we're going to have our
sewer connection programs on there for
quite a while but wouldn't it be nice if
we could you know and I'm just pulling
out that one um since I have it on my
screen but you know as we see these
different types of fundings we know that
people people are going to come back to
us for for monies and so I think it
might be interesting to see what we can
look at by thinking um long term with
that and how we can proceed forward with
new projects while also delivering
Services um with that in mind I think
that is I'm just going over my notes but
that's most of my my comments for today
I think obviously um the sections that
we have here I'm fine with we probably
need to tweak and obviously
um get to learn a little bit more of
what certain initiatives are I'm sure it
sounds like um not only for myself but
for maybe other council members it might
be helpful to really um have a line item
of what does you know tourism and
Hospitality look like you know and see
where it's going to go and what it will
do to improve um that's something that
might be able to help us make um
decisions along the way that um will be
a little bit
better
and mayor I think I'll just turn it back
to you okay okay councelor before I do
can I just ask you a question Qui okay
so let's just say that 30 of these
organizations receive this email to be
on today's
call um how do you feel that we should
um divvy up the first trunch should we
just take the 12.4 divide that by 30 and
that's a set amount that each one gets
so that when they go into apply for
their funding or or or what well I would
like to know what types of projects it's
going to be used for if they got that
money would it fully fund and complete a
project or would it be the start of
something well and that'll that's what
they'll include in their in their in
their U Grant proposal but so I
would I would give priority to projects
that were completed that this money
would be completion and I
honestly would rather go with a smaller
amount and complete than spread
everything so thin that nobody can
actually get what they truly want done
if that makes a little bit of sense okay
so are you saying that you're okay that
some proposals could be theoretically
Higher by two 300,000 more than
others yes and it depends I think part
of the RFP proposal is how many is it
going to serve what is it going to do um
what uh what are the outcomes of it okay
all right thank you uh let's see who's
next councelor Beno I guess you have
another question I do mayor I have a
question and some comments I think I'm
gonna go with my comments for just
because they're top of my heart um
I this $24 million is unexpected money
this is not money that we thought we
were going to get so why would we
allocate this money in a business as
usual approach why wouldn't we allocate
this money in a bold strategic way that
actually impacts that has a huge impact
on our
community that we are thinking about the
way we're spending this money creatively
that we're not scared about the way
we're making this money and the kind of
impact that we want to make with this
kind of money knowing that the telshore
fund is still there to support NOS that
want to continue supporting our
community members I mean taking this
money and then thinning it up and
cutting it up into pieces it's actually
the this is the perfect lesson between
equality and Equity if we do it equally
I think it doesn't leverage these
dollars as much as I think they should
if we do it equitably I think it'll get
at what council the stbi was just saying
in terms of outcomes and impact and for
me I'm obviously not yes I'm going to
continue pushing a guaranteed basic
income though I think there's a ton of
support on this Council for this because
I think it is bold I think it is um
creative and I think it is important
that we address the root causes of
poverty at the root cause and a
guaranteed basic income program funded
at $250,000 will not go as far as one
that is funded at $2 million to actually
get a a large number of people in our
communities and actually make a giant
impact in the way that we begin
addressing poverty and legislating
around poverty as a city and as a state
frankly additionally I think if we get a
project started like casad peregrinos
who makes an enormous impact on our
community and all NOS do absolutely
every single NGO in this community plays
a huge part in ensuring that um people's
needs are met but when I think about the
impact that Casados has on our community
is it is tremendous and for us to have
gotten something started with him in
this expansion and then um not be able
to back it up with this these kinds of
funds I think would be a tragedy I think
it would be um a disservice to our
community to not provide casa OS with an
additional $2 million to ensure that the
project gets finished in a timely
fashion um and to the fullest of its
potential so that's what I'll say now I
really believe that we should approach
this boldly strategically and with
equity in mind not just
equality and then I do want to come back
to oh sure go ahead because I was just
gonna say uh I was going to ask you so
on this layout here these amounts this
distribution this you know the 2 million
6.9 11.4 3.5 and one how do you feel
about that are you okay with those
numbers you want to I am I am okay with
this numbers as long as the numbers on
this $1.4 million gets approached the
way we approach the capital projects
right biggest impact most bold and most
strategic it I don't think it should be
cut up into 200 $200,000 grants because
I don't actually think we'll be
leveraging or using these funds to the
fullest of their
potential hear you loud and clear thank
you mayor I do have a question for Amy
though um Amy I I'm curious actually
speaking of these capital projects and I
totally I know that you've already
reiterated this like 10 times and I hear
you I think I just want to come back to
this particularly because kasad Perros I
believe is a capital project and so I'm
just curious about having them go
through an RFP process when the
expansion of their building is very the
city already has a stake in it right
that land belongs to the city I'm just
curious about having them go and I I get
like the gbi projects a little bit more
nebulous it's not a capital project but
I do think this expansion of this um
shelter to to get at you know food
insecurity in our community the city
already has a stake in it I'm curious
why it can't be part of that capital
projects given that um you know they're
they're sort of stuck right now similar
as these projects because they were
unexpected costs right that Rose in the
construction so I I'll stop there and
I'm just curious about your thoughts on
that thank you uh mayor councelor Ben
Como um the caday paragus project was
discussed as a separate project um that
could be included in the capital
projects also as a separate project that
could be pulled out um ident in the
negative economic impacts um originally
the reason that the 6.9 million is
geared towards City uh project is
because there are no alternative funding
sources for that such as the telshore
fund uh so we really wanted to focus on
those items in the geobond and the
transit facility that is in process to
get those projects finished because they
have been around for uh a period of time
and uh the community is expecting them
to be completed um within a certain
period of time as well so that's why the
the casad paragus was not included in
the 6.9 that is the only area where we
can do General um General funding of
City projects um and and that's why that
Focus went there um it was looked at as
a separate project under the negative
economic impacts due to the kinds of
services that cost aay parag greenus
provides um and it was felt like there
were so many initiatives coming to us
um uh much like each of you are
receiving a a multitude of initiatives
that we felt like we needed to be fair
to everyone and put them all in one pot
and allow them to come up with the
proposals at the amount they need and
for us to evaluate them strategically
under the same criteria for everybody uh
and that's why it kind of got moved to
finally being under the 10.4 million um
I think most of us have looked at it
with the perspective of we want to give
organizations amounts that they need to
get the projects done that they propose
um and so uh we know that this will not
go as far as as everybody would like it
to go uh it's amazing how quickly 12 or
$4.8 million goes um and the amount of
initiatives that we received from all
departments from people in the community
uh was just overwhelming to really get
it whittel down to this list for you all
U but that's why it kind of didn't get
called out separately um we recognize
there are there is another funding
source for that if necessary okay that's
very helpful Amy I guess my only not
push back gentle gentle push back is
that I
feel that we are talking about other
projects the these two projects
guaranteed basic income and the casa
Pinos are specific we've been talking
about them we know about them and so I
really I really do appreciate the
diligence towards fairness and to ensure
that this is as inclusive as possible
yet these two projects I feel like could
make will make such a we already know it
will they will make a tremendous impact
on our community why wouldn't we think
about um right off the gate funding them
when we know I don't know who's G I
don't know who would fight us I'm not
funding Kaz peros right like I don't
who's gonna come tell us we shouldn't do
that and I feel like um to me it just
feels really important that that um like
I said we're using this boldly and I
think those two projects are bold and I
think they'll make a huge
impact uh mayor council bomo is
certainly the council's prerogative to
direct us to fund those um outside you
know take something away from this list
and fund those um for the cost of day
pair agreen um understand that that
could also be funded through the
telshore fund because of the kind of
services they provide that is up to
council to decide that as well
um we are here for your direction and
we'll we'll move forward based on the
direction you all give
us okay that is helpful thank you so
much Amy um seea push back we're just
brainstorming out loud um mayor I guess
I would I would like to suggest that we
set
aside to go to rfp2 million $2.5 million
for guaranteed basic income project and
potentially not $2 million for Casa
Perino maybe half of that since the rest
could come out of the telshore fund but
I do want to make sure that um we are
funding uh C pigos to an amount that
will go the
furthest and again we'll have to hear
from them specifically and it doesn't
have to happen right now but that is a
suggestion I would like to make okay
okay counselor thank you thank you mayor
mayor counselor can you I um councelor
bomo can you identify where we'll uh
take that funding from is it from the
$10.4 million
yes okay thank
you thank
you okay so mayor PM mayor um I I'd like
to yield to my fellow counselor Sor who
hasn't said anything at this point and
then I'll go afterwards if that's okay
with you sure yeah no
problem councelor sword thank you Mr
Mayor and thank you mayor proam and as
well as all of the counselors and all of
your
suggestions uh this is good like counil
Ben says a lot of brainstorming here
going on
[Music]
um I I just have a a question and then I
have a comment um the question is
dealing with the funding uh uh is it
appropriate for this funding to be in
support of of affordable housing
Amy um councelor uh mayor councelor Sor
thank you for that question yes
affordable house could be done with this
the reason we did not um do that is
because of the direct allocation that um
M uh Natalie's department has received
for specifically that project uh through
other areas of arpa funding and I can
have Natalie speak to that so that was
because we had another source of funding
um that was not put into this um troncha
this grouping of uh funding options uh
and and just um I know a couple other
counselors have made comments on that if
we found that there was another source
of funding such as for senior programs
um that had a significant increase
through arpa into their programming we
felt we did not include it here these
are really areas where we don't have
another source of funding um to provide
uh for these projects so um Natalie if
you'd like to speak to um your plans for
the HUD funding you
received Mr Mayor counselor sorg uh yes
so housing and Neighborhood Services did
receive just under under 1.8 million in
home funding home funding can be used
specifically for the development of
affordable housing or it could be used
for um tenant based rental assistance so
that funding will be allocated in
accordance with our Consolidated plan
that involves a public process we'll get
uh public input for priorities using
home funds there'll be a again a request
for proposal process Council will see
that amendment to our action plan so
we're just waiting for some additional
guidance from our HUD field office um
I'm happy to say that they are uh
reviewing our Consolidated plan so we
can actually get the funding until
they've uh approved our Consolidated
plan which we anticipate in the next uh
few weeks uh but we do have a plan for
affordable housing uh many of those
items are on next week's agenda so uh I
told uh most people that the June 21st
is the affordable housing uh council
meeting so you'll get a full view of
some of the projects that we're planning
so um yeah uh thank you Natalie I I'm
pretty much aware of of all the home and
all things uh the key word in my
question was in support uh in support of
Home Affordable housing some other
infrastructure or some other uh part of
housing that um could go to uh support
affordable housing so it could be built
and maybe built faster and so forth okay
that's what I was wondering
and sorry mayor there are very strict
limits on Capital
infrastructure um through the program uh
so um other items that might be in
support of it um that are not under like
say the water and utilities or water and
sewer infrastructure uh may not be
covered by this funding okay okay all
right but uh yeah I I just want to
comment on the seore connection
incentive program um yeah in principle I
I think that's a good idea because it's
so difficult for people to do this um I
just have a funny feeling or
uncomfortable feeling about all those
people that have already connected up to
the sewers and paid their thousands of
dollars and now we come along as said
well the rest of you can have it done
free um that's a little rubsy wrong way
but I I think if we form this program or
build this program so it targets our
lowincome people only uh that's one
thing I would go for um on this if and
and there's a lot of low-income people
that uh have sewer out in front of their
house and are not connected up so that's
all I have to say mayor okay before you
go counselor um do how do you feel about
this U distribution here are you okay
with it
yeah I can I can um yeah for the most
part you can tweak it but um if it
targets uh um equity in our people uh in
our in the people in the city here yes
absolutely I don't like being equal
across the board like uh you were
talking about no no I'm talking about
this this right here this 20 this this
distribution the 2 million the 6.9
million 11.4 3.5 are you okay with this
for the most part yes yeah right I'll
take that as a yes and you you already
told me about the no funding limit okay
it's fine I'm good I'm good there one
suggestion on what you wanted to uh to
do on the uh sewer connection perhaps
for those that that would theoretically
qualify um at what 80% below the the the
um income level Medi they can it free
and then those that
don't Amy could we theoretically turn
that into like a Loan Fund and so
they're actually paying it and we can
stretch it out over a long period of
time so that and we don't have to charge
any interest just so that so that um
kind of what a the what what councelor
Sor was talking about those who paid for
it already don't feel like hey if I'd
waited a little bit longer could have
got it free so then this these this way
here people who who you know you can
stretch it out to the point where they
can make it pretty affordable and and no
interest and they just pay the city back
is that something that we could um
better uh I believe there's already that
program existing for utilities um what I
would recommend uh since there are a lot
of questions on the specifics is that
perhaps we come back at a work if most
people are are okay with this
distribution that we come back at a
meeting in July a work session in July
um and have each section um describe in
detail what the funding would be used
for uh so that Council has the
opportunity to see that because really
we only provided that under the capital
projects um that that might might help
many of the councilors understand where
we were and and if uh the council is
agreeable to the suggestions that
councelor bomo gave we could include
those and be have each um each area of
the city that would be responsible for
that those projects go in depth on what
how the funding would be you
specifically yes yes thank you Amy uh
details right I was looking forward to
details too thank
you okay so now we've got um mayor
proam thanks mayor um yeah I I think for
me what's important here is to
understand the process in a rubric and
it sounds like I keep hearing Amy say
well you know there's federal guidelines
and that seems like top of the rubric if
you will in terms of what is to be you
know programs or projects that are going
to be determined but also
um there isn't any other funding source
right and and so the rubric is important
to me if you're using like a rubric when
you've put out an RFP and you delineate
right all the things I want to know what
that looks like for this money so mayor
when you ask me okay are you okay with
this 12.4 million million dollars I
still don't in some ways I don't
understand what's the rubric and we
don't I like Amy's suggestion about
coming back in July knowing right what
are what has been submitted and why
right and what is this rubric it it that
would be super helpful um um for me uh
moving moving forward um and as far as
the RFP on both the economic um
development and um for these um social
programs if you will I think it's really
important that I I believe that there is
a lot of very deserving NOS out there
but for me most important is that there
it's data driven that that for it what
is important and what we should be
reminded of um over and over is that
while during covid there are certain um
cohorts of people people very much um
affected by this be it if you're an
essential worker if you're someone who
is lwi income um someone who is
struggling with AB you know um domestic
violence because I think there's a lot
of data out there to support and I think
that's how we base um whether we you
know fund people or not but I think that
to me is really important that there's a
rubric that it's evidence-based that
you're just not funding programs because
it's a great idea there's a lot of
evidence-based programming out there
that that um
that um is is making quite an impact in
communities and and and again I I think
those are important now to um councel
Bal councel bet st's points um and I
said this before I am com
um being able to fund gasos is very
important to me they're one of those
survival services but I also want to
know why our people and this has been
going on even preco why do we have so
many people in our community food
insecure we're an aggre culturally Rich
Community why do we have that I mean I'm
I'm I I want to press upon us that we
need to get to what those root causes
are is it poverty is it there are a lot
of people that you know go hungry that
go home homeless that go without
um the necessary resources be it
medical um Behavioral Health and so
there's a lot of projects and Collective
impact models out there that are that
are providing a ton of data um to
support um why certain things are
happening so I although I I think um
C provides a
um gosh a a real needed and necessary
program we need to start thinking very
um thoughtfully about why are people
going
hungry we shouldn't have that in this
community at all and um again Amy to
your comments about Capital
infrastructure are you telling me did I
hear this correctly that housing may not
be part of this
program uh mayor counselor gandra or
mayor proam gondra uh no
affordable housing is a part of this
program um supplemental infrastructure
to uh accommodate affordable housing may
not for example we may not be able to
build a street in front of the
affordable housing because that would be
a separate project and we are restricted
on what capital projects we can do with
this
funding um we could build the uh so I'm
trying to think how what other um types
of infrastructure we might need but
affordable housing is one of the
projects that can be done um I have not
researched that in depth on what we can
and cannot do as far as that but there
is very strict limits on capital
projects um outside of water and
sewer got it got it so again mayor I I
just think that you know one point
whatever the amount was for HUD um
funding isn't a lot of money we're in
the 7,000 Plus maybe 8,000 plus and I
mentioned earlier very specific
programming housing um Supportive
Housing transitional housing that will
address people with addiction um
seriously mentally ill our disabled
population and our elderly those are
things that we should really be thinking
about um utilizing this funding so
funding so again I'm I'm interested in
in a creative process I think I think um
the city needs to really look at Ways by
which we go out and and inform the
public that this funding is available
but also what priorities do our our
community members have and think big and
boldly like Council Beno I couldn't say
it any any better um and I I appreciate
um her heart and her her her words um I
think um again um mayor and as
I I was letting people know that there
this is an opportunity are and people
agencies um many people on resilience
leaders and any kind of other um groups
that I sit on this is an opportunity to
really make a dent and on the needs that
this community has the gaps and barriers
again I I think it's an opportunity we
need to be very
strategic pardon me and and really ask
the community where should this funding
go and and and I think there are a lot
of Community Partners out there that
that
um that have processes in place to get a
lot of information that we could use
moving forward so again um th those are
I just had those comments and those
questions I again think that we should
really um um
I just want to understand what the
rubric is that process and that we use
that across the board so people are
clear but that also our public the
public is aware and that they make
decisions about how to use this funding
and and I'm
still I'm I still have a problem with
those ca outlay or those that listing I
don't know if it was SL 10 or 11 where
it on the geobond and the pool I I just
I'm not sure that this is um the right
way to go but I think the public
deserves to make those decisions
alongside us so thanks all right well
thank you mayor proen but either I
didn't write it down wrong or I don't
remember asking you so now I'm GNA ask
you so are you okay with this
distribution here this 2.0 6.9 11.4 3.5
and 1.0 funding here in each of those
categories mayor right um not
necessarily no I think again I felt like
I needed more information in terms of
the process and a rubric and I'm not
clear about what that is and I love
Amy's suggestion about coming back in
July and providing all that information
more detail I think counselor
um Flores has has said it pretty loud
and Claire she needs more detail and and
and and I would agree with that sure why
not um but I'm not necessarily am I in
agreement with with what has been
outlined here okay so what I having that
information yeah what I was trying to do
was get a majority consensus to move
forward okay okay so so you've got
councelor beta sty councelor Beno
councelor Sor and myself I'm okay with
this funding outlay here so what I was
envisioning is this amount now we're
going to go to say the July 12th work
session they're going to come back and
this is where where these um programs
that they had where they came up with
this amount and they're going to now uh
disclose how they came up with the these
certain amounts on these numbers here
okay that's what I was hoping to do so
you're okay with that and then I'm also
okay I'm also okay with the no funding
limit I just wanted to try to get an
example of how the HHS committee does it
and whether or not Council wanted to go
that route or the no funding limit and
that's fine too so I think we've got
enough to have staff saying okay this
Mount here is good no no funding limit
so that means that even though there's
30 uh NGO or 30 organizations that
received an email depending on since
there's no limit it's very possible that
only 10 might might might get funding
and the other 20 not so we're aware
we're aware of that okay because there's
no funding limit that's why I wanted
Council to know is there a certain limit
that each one gets or or it's it's based
on the Merit okay that's fine too I go
either way just like counselor then com
said hey this is money that we weren't
counting on all of a sudden you know
we're very fortunate that our
city um there let's put it this way
there's a lot of cities out there that
really need this to they're they're
barely making it and and maybe that that
doesn't that label doesn't apply to us
so the way I'm looking at it is this is
money that okay you want to give it to
us sure we'll take it and this is how
we're going to use it so that's what I'm
I'm just trying to get uh uh so that
count uh so that staff knows where we
we're going and so on so let's let's
July 12 work session I I think that's an
important uh caveat is coming back in
July 12th with some of this additional
information I'm not sure if I'm okay
with um you know no funding limit if you
will um because I think there's some
other detail that needs to be considered
in my mind related to that and again I'm
still um un sure
um I I think it's important to get the
public involved in this process very
similarly to the way we did it at the
geobond um you know when when Council
excuse me staff brought right from
having committees and whatnot similar to
this but also the thing that I feel
that's missing is public comment right
people here's a list this is what we'd
like to do what are your opinion on the
matter um it's is especially um now um I
think that's a very important aspect to
consider as part of this process and I
agree with you mayor Pro and so why
don't we do this then this first
trunch because I think the majority
wants to go no limit and this set up and
then the second trunch then put a
limit you know in fact that would be
helpful because what if on the first
tranch they certain organizations didn't
make it maybe they asked for too much
they can come back the second time and
maybe do it this way if if if that's
what council wants to do put a limit I'm
okay either way you know so but I'm I
just I'm thinking okay let's just do
this I I heard enough compelling reasons
move forward and we're good but I really
think that that way there you're now
you're catching both sides those who
want no limit and those who can get by
with with a limit and especially those
that didn't get didn't hear about the
funding they can do it on the second
trunch I hear you Marin I'm okay with
that councelor florus just give me a
thumbs up or thumbs
down no I'm gonna never mind
um I already know what you're
thinking yeah but we won't go there um
so um I I think the way um Amy and Cass
um Miss bassford and mayor protm Gandara
have uh discussed I I agree with that
um but we uh still have to be
sure
well yeah we just have to be sure that
uh that everyone is able to um have a
say and I don't know I it would be I
agree totally with mayor proem Ganda
that we have to approach this um with
everybody uh making comments I the
comments that I've received are from
people who um have a overall good view
of where we are as a city and what the
needs for the city um are and I would it
be possible Mr Mayor to have
um to have uh that sort of a
presentation and or maybe the July 12th
meeting since um it I think it's going
to be uh in person is that still the uh
date no I think the in person is going
to be the
19th okay um we need to have okay we
need to have h a forum we need to have
uh a place where at City Hall I know a
lot of people uh when we were having our
goban meetings we had them throughout
the city and um
dacc uh and City Hall were probably the
ones that had the most people I mean
those are I think um good for us to have
uh people um speak uh to be heard I
agree with counselor uh I totally agree
with with uh counselor gandera I think
that's that's a part I was addressing
one I said we have to make um not an
equal distribution but a distribution
that's made upon after everyone who
wants to speak has been heard a and
that's that's what I'm um that's why I'm
saying we just can't rush into this and
know by a certain date we're going to
have all this money um I'm not I'm not
necessarily opposed to that slide 17
that we're looking at
um but it really needs to be fleshed out
there's you know it's still but um would
it be possible Mr Mayor to thank you for
that councelor FL let me ask let me ask
Amy something here so Amy uh or or Nat
so if we during our natural since you
said this was going to be a bid
basically um when when we had when when
the city goes out to Bid And if people
were to email ccil members saying hey I
you know I think we should get this this
money here doesn't that theoretically
disqualify
them um mayor counselor um I'm sorry
mayor you were the one who asked the
question I apologize I believe that once
the purchasing process begins and an RFP
is on the street neither staff nor
Council can um answer questions
regarding that purchasing process only
the purchasing department can reply to
uh purchasing questions um I'm not sure
if alfredo or Alex are on that they can
maybe speak to that um specifically I
don't know if it disqualifies that an
individual what I was wanting to do
councel Florida is instead of um coming
to the council having those emails sent
to the city manager off office and they
can direct it to to the respective
committee I mean to the to the committee
that's going to evaluate them because
they may be able to give that I I guess
earlier I heard that you know this
process needs to be fair and and arent
and if we start getting emails from
organizations that want
it that that means everyone should
should probably do it right I mean I'm
just I'm just pointing that out that's
why I think if we don't know about it
and and I hear what you're saying but if
it goes to staff City manager's office
then they direct it respectively okay
hey we got three of them here for uh
families and youth let's okay here there
are your three you know what I mean I
don't know that I I just don't want to
um I don't you know I'm just trying to
keep the process similar to what we do
when we go on yeah I I agree with the
expeditious nature of that probably more
uh time efficient or effective as as
well um so yeah let there would have to
be a newspaper article there would have
massive uh you know social media public
media you know to um make sure that
message gets across to at so that we
can't uh be accused of not being
transparent or not hearing everybody and
that's what I want to stay away from
Barbara delion you have a question or
comment yes thank you mayor Barbara
delion uh chief administrative officer
for the record and I I just wanted to
jump into to to reiterate that with
respect to the RFP process once the RFP
is out on the street has been released
um at that that point as Amy indicated
then all communication is to flow
through the Purchasing Office we um do
occasionally get emails from uh the
public on procurements that are out
there to be uh proposed and they get
directed to the Purchasing Office they
compile those emails and then um issue
answers to questions to all uh in the
public for Forum so that um again any
information that's going out with
respect to a procurement process is
available to anyone who might be
considering uh submitting a proposal but
really that that um the control um
starts once the proposal is out on the
street prior to that of course there can
be discussions with respect to the
amount of funding the structure the um
RFP as Natalie talked about uh coming to
council all of that discussion can take
place just once that proposal is
released then uh we will make sure that
we are compliant with the procurement
code with respect to all communication
thank you thank you Barbara so okay so
then on July 12th is is staff's going to
come back per council's request each one
of these uh sections these five they're
going to come back in kind of more in
detail as to what was being proposed if
Council agrees with that then it goes
out to bid and then these ganizations
that received the email um and I think I
heard this on the first trunch applies
for that then on the second trunch um if
the first ones weren't successful but I
think I don't know we'll we'll worry
about this later but on the second
trunch it sounds like you want to go
with a limit on that one first one
unlimited the second one limit that's
what I thought I
heard okay well you guys I don't see a
bunch of hands popping up real fast so
it must be must must be okay
okay all right good I think I think
that's it is that it uh Amy uh mayor I
believe that EO had wanted to make some
comments at the end uh that he indicated
earlier so um otherwise yes that is it
if he has no comments to make EO you you
have um you have the
floor thank you mayor council you know I
think some of the comments have been
been answered by our questions been
answered by uh Amy as we've had this
discussions but um just as we prepare to
come back um I just want to want to
clarify a few things uh particularly on
these uh these
categories because I I do feel like we
we did get input we had internal
external committees but you know the
rubric or the the criteria really
isn't complex we didn't really uh it
wasn't really complicated and and I can
go through real quick and and of course
anything else any as much detail as you
need we could bring back but uh you know
going starting with the 6.9 million you
know the 6.9 as was mentioned earlier
that was that was an amount derived from
a formula that that uh that's that's
allowable for us to uh allocate towards
Revenue loss so that's specific that's a
specific amount that 6.9 million
according to the formula as far as
coming up with those specific capital
projects the reason we came up with
those is because we feel that the the
residents have spoken with the the gold
bonds and and uh we're going to have to
fund those
projects with or without this money so
if we choose not to use this for that
we're going to have to in order to
complete the geob bond projects that
were voted on already we're gonna have
to find that money from somewhere and so
that's really it so for that 6.9 there's
really not much more information or or
criteria that we use besides that
although we did get input this is what
we settled on and then uh you know we
have the 10.4 those they're actually
internally Economic Development projects
that was submitted by Economic
Development Department uh those that
number came was uh was a total of some
of that and some uh including the
guaranteed guaranteed paid uh uh
guaranteed income as well as CAD
depetros was also calculated as
potential projects in that 10.4 so that
those that number came from tolling that
up and then I don't know if we mentioned
this earlier about visit Las Cruses you
know that's specifically called out
tourism is specifically called out as
one of the the you allowable uses and we
have a Debt Service that the loggers tax
pay for the convention center and so
that 1 million will cover that as
opposed to the general fund so so those
projects will be funded with or without
this money it was just using these
allowable uses to cover what we what we
need and and the the original use for
for these funds is you know to defr some
of the negative impacts economic impacts
and so the rest um like I mentioned I
mean it was mentioned earlier the
capital uh capital projects for water
and sewer infrastructure those were
amounts calculated and given to us um by
by U utilities and then going to the pre
premium pay for Central workers we sort
of took uh what we anticipated from last
time um and just kind of rounded it out
rounded it off uh but uh we looked at
what the city approved last time for
this and again the reason why we
included is because we could because
that was an allowable use uh to for uh
premium pay to essential workers and so
we'll provide as much detail as you you
want us to but I I will just just to
clarify that there really isn't much
complexity besides what I've just
mentioned uh there we wanted to keep it
simple
uh where the complexity will come is in
that 10.4 so um of course we take out
the C pigos take out the guaranteed
income and then I I think that gets us
down to to 7 million or or somewhere
around there that's where I believe we
we have you know this discussion this
RFP discussion and um of course we will
you know this comes to council
ultimately for your approval and so
while we have a committee um we
certainly will take direction from from
the council and and your constituents as
well and and how you you determine you
receive input from from the constituents
but I I just wanted to clarify that
mayor and Council um I don't know as far
as uh anything else in addition to the
criteria I just mentioned that that
you're looking for that we bring forward
uh in any of these and I can I can
answer
any questions on what I just
said EO I think what counselor or few of
the counselors wanted and it's not a bad
idea is earlier David I believe David
was given a a a little kind of a example
of of how certain monies came out as far
as
um let's say the I can't remember who
gave the one specially on the revenue
loss yeah they they talked about this is
how much was was we were expecting this
is how much came in or less and this is
how much the I think the government gave
us a factor of um a certain factor and
then that's how this amount came up I
think that's what council wants to see
on on each of these um that um and and I
know Delilah guessed on one of them and
she guessed right I suppose on the
connection program so I think they
wanted to have a little bit more meat on
there as to how these these uh actually
came about you know what what was the
thinking when when they were put
together so that's what I'm envisioning
on the July 12th work session um but I
have to let Council know I know I was
using the 24.8 as an example but I want
to Circle back to what eepo was saying
it's 10.4 and if we do the first tranch
and the second trunch then that's 5.2
okay so the first tranch is 5.2 million
and the second tranch is 5.2 million so
do we on that on that 5.2 million if
what you're saying
EO um what was asked by Council or
couple of council members is uh 60% is
already spoken for so um do or do is
that way to the second end so that's I
think is still something that needs to
be discussed at that July 12 work
session for sure Mary that would be
great to get direction from the Council
on that all right councel FLOTUS you had
your hand up yes sir yes I do yes I do
uh thank thank you EO um and thank you
mayor um so along the lines of um the
distrib the very point you raised right
now uh Mr Mayor about um so uh we do a
certain allocation to certain entities
of the first 12 uh of the first half
12.4 million and then the second half
well what do we do there do we deduct
are they off the list can they not you
know go for an RFP so so
necessarily going to discuss that on the
12th no well oh you can discuss it on
the 12th or whenever but that's not my
question oh um I'm just giving you uh my
thought processes um I do have them
believe it or not so um my my thought
was this um and and this is the part
that I I was stating my objection to
rushing through all of this because not
because I don't believe even the
distribution in an equitable manner or
anything like that it has to do with the
fact that we're still trying to
coordinate with the county I mean Mr
masas is or was on this meeting uh for
quite some time uh he made a comment and
they're definitely not in a position to
address how this money is going to be
dispersed distributed
allocated um in which manner with
amounts Etc and then the state is
holding on to a fair share of the money
that's going to the state and it looks
like State's going to hold on to it so
is that going to give our local um
organizations to um to then apply for
funds from the state and the county and
it will there be is there any way is
there a mechanism or is there a way of
in any way and that's why I thought we
would work with the county at least I
thought that's what why Mr MCAS was here
uh is or was
um to see if there could be a
coordinated effort in so far as a
distribution of these monies so that's
that's one thought I that's one sort of
bar not barrier but an issue and I don't
know if it's for us to discuss or to
assess and uh in terms of their you know
I don't know if that could be equitable
distribution could be distributed
between three entities you know Fernando
look appears to be on the call still on
the webinar are still um at least his
name am okay so Fernando did you hear
the question by councelor Flores well I
I believe I did in terms of that that is
the whole purpose that we shared as
early as we could our listing of
projects so that the city staff could
look at them carefully to see if there
is one any kind of overlapping but to
see if there were uh priorities that the
county management is identifying and
recommending so that there could be this
joint effort and I think that we had the
discussions earlier about Broadband um
mayor I know that I hope it doesn't
sound presumptuous on my part to make
this comment but this isn't money that
is just available for any
priority there are guidelines that tell
you whether or not these projects can
fit into uh the restrictions on the
funding it isn't just completely
open-ended I really want to encourage
you to look very carefully that it isn't
what we normally are accustomed to in
the legislative process in terms of P
pursuing funding for priorities that
have already been established when I
talk about the um
the the uh flood project on the East
Mesa dragonfly the Bram
project specifically in the guidelines
in the treasury guidelines it says that
money can be used to address storm water
related issues so yes clearly it falls
there so I just hope that you are also
having a certain expectation that these
projects clearly are allowable
because I've seen I've been here all
afternoon I've been listening to the
presentation and I would have some
questions as to whether some of these
items clearly fall within the the the
the ability to use the monies for these
purposes and also in terms of
transparency to the public uh I mean
please be candid with the public you
can't use this money for any priority
you're they need to know where the
restrictions are as well in terms of how
to apply the money I do want to on
behalf of the County Commission say that
they're always very open-minded to see
where there is commonality to work not
just with the city of Las Cruses but all
of the other Municipal governments in
the in the community but this this is
not unrestricted money and you need to
be careful in terms of how you say well
this is a priority and we can use it or
have the public tell you how to put this
money to use especially if they don't
know already the restrictions on the on
on the
funding exactly Fernando will you back
up again you were talking about the a
water project I believe or yes there's a
flood project it's the dragonfly it's
going to impact the majority of the East
Mesa and potentially even some of the
city within the within the city's um uh
boundaries so but we can recommend that
to our commission because it very
specifically in the interim final uh
guidelines or regulations that the
treasury Department issued it basically
says you can use this kind of money to
abate uh storm water related issues and
so yes it clearly Falls within the
definition but as you go through all of
these projects I mean part of the
obligation is to say you know can we
truly fund these projects with the
restrictions that the treasury
Department has placed on them so it does
require a degree of scrutiny to because
I think it was councelor Ganda that was
raised in what I consider to be
extremely legitimate questions I mean do
all of these projects fall within our
ability to utilize These funds to
accomplish those priorities and in
reality you know some of it may not and
there could be issues that come up
related to the the the utilization of
the money we've been very careful to
make sure that we can represent to the
County Commission that we clearly can
identify where with in these
regulations uh that gives us the
permission to use these funds to
accomplish a certain task and yes you're
going to have a great opportunity to
accomplish uh a number of priorities
that the city has you just have to make
sure that the money can be utilized for
everything that is being recommended and
it can't be just you know this is our
priority and it would be a great value
to the community absolutely I don't I
don't see anything that wouldn't be a
great value to the community the
question is can you use these funds to
accomplish that goal because these are
still covid
related um uh
prioritization absolutely no and I
appreciate that Fernando but what what
I'm trying to get at is I was I was
trying to to pinpoint where what you
were reading versus what what we have
now um I see where it says underw and
Wastewater infrastructure it says that
it could be used to for storm water
infrastructure but you may you may have
a little bit and I'm sure our staff does
too but you may have a little bit more
deeper dive and you know that's
something there that you know that's
that's why we have the staff to do is to
figure that out you know and come back
and give us that but I appreciate that
um I think what the whole the whole
purpose of having you here is to
determine you know like for example what
if we hadn't heard from you and you had
the Monies to do Broadband for everyone
and and Council wanted to do broadband
that's what we were hoping to to make
sure that we're not duplicating so I
guess what I'm trying to get at is
excuse me is is to um on our July 12th
work session we'll come back with these
various uh items and make sure that you
have that list and if you see something
in there that you were going to do then
that frees up some some potential monies
um but in the mean in the inter term I
think what you you know what you made
comment or reference to obviously is is
very
important um mayor uh this is Mayor this
is Johnson basford grants administrator
um I do want to uh appreciate uh County
Manager ms's comments because I think
they are valid very valid they're very
important to remember um there are 150
pages of guidance for for these uh use
of funds and on July 12th we can come
back um with these categories and
pinpoint wherein the the uh
documentation uh what it specifically
allows us to do with the funding at this
point what we've presented today we feel
comfortable our available our available
uses allowable uses as per the
guidelines uh we can bring back more
information on that as well we can bring
back information on those projects where
we can uh collaborate with the county
such on the public safety programs we
discussed um those are areas we can
collaborate on because they have uh
Crisis Intervention um programs that
they're proposing where we could uh
coordinate with them as well as a couple
other areas we'll bring that back as
well as Council and see those
collaborative areas that we um have
worked already with the county on on
potentially
collaborating for the council to no and
those are very good points Amy so
Fernando yes I guess basically that's
where if there was one area that we
could work together or make sure we
don't have duplication would probably be
in the Public Health
Arena right and mayor let me just again
I know it's a little bit unsolicited but
I would appeal to you to uh keep a
reserve of this money without committing
it all upfront because as you know
Congress is working supposedly on an
infrastructure related uh legislation if
that were to pass that could open up
monies that you're you're planning to
commit part of what we're going to
recommend to the County Commission is to
keep monies in reserve as some of these
other uh Community Support initiatives
come forward uh you may need money to do
some matches you may be able to move
some of the monies off of your priority
list onto other priorities I think
you're doing a great job in terms of uh
coming up with the initial uh list of
priorities and having this very
extensive discussion but I would reserve
some monies in case there's some new
opportunities that present themselves in
the next 120 days oh very good point
Fernando that that's what I was hoping
and I'm glad that we'll have a second
trunch and that will be the kind of the
the backup whatever didn't get funded
maybe the first time and then uh decide
exactly you know we may want to do that
so I appreciate
that thank you
mayor uh councelor FLOTUS did you have
anything
else I just want to ask Mr msas whether
um the there's going to be any
coordination and you Mr Mayor or Mr
Excuse me Mr peely our city manager and
the county manager is there going to be
or is a commission going to be working
with the council are we going to do any
kind of a synchronization of allocation
of
funds um again uh I want to encourage
the city council mayor to uh look at the
documents that we had already shared
with uh City management uh we have been
in communication with your team that is
working on these priorities to share all
of the information that the county has
available and has already um at least
from a management perspective given uh a
lot of thought and
prioritization because we are on the
22nd of June again going to have uh more
discussion with with the board so I want
to assure the city council that has been
extensive discussion and coordination
between our two teams related to the
projects that are being identified and
certainly I'm sure that the County
Commission is always open to working in
coordination with the with the city
related to priorities that would be of
mutual benefit and again some of them
fall in the mental health or Behavioral
Health area but let me encourage the
counselors to take a little bit of time
to just go through the documents that
the county provided to City
management okay Fernando thank you so
you gave that to City management did you
send that to
council
no uh mayor mayor this is uh Amy Johnson
bford again um that we do have that
documentation from the last meeting and
we'll share that with EPO to share with
each of you okay we'll get that to him
today very
good councelor florus is that in your
comments yes sir they do thank you very
much okay so I'm just going to kind of
circle back on what I think we've agreed
to a consensus is um is uh we're going
to have a work session on July 12th so
we may not necessarily need that one in
in August but July 12th will be we're
going to FasTrack that up here July 12th
um we're going to stick with this this
funding source is 24.8 million probably
G to divide it in half though so so um
the community econ development
initiative is going to be 5.2 first trch
5.2 the second trunch and um there is no
limit on the funding on the first tranch
most likely on the second but again that
can be changed at the 12 at the at the
July 12th meeting and
um oh EO can you make sure that
uh your Communications office advertises
and lets all NOS that are on our bid
list know and the general public as a
whole uh what we're doing so that in
case they want to provide comments to um
probably to the uh probably not to the
council I don't know if you want to give
it to the clerk or or um a particular
area there in in in within your within
the city so that if they want to comment
they can
comment but we're trying to keep the
process pretty similar to what we do
with an RFP and not not get
tainted yes sir y good okay okay so
we're
good think
so anything
else everything is good Amy Natalie EO
all right great just thank you all for
your time today and your comments and we
look forward to coming back
soon okay thanks and uh I need a motion
in a second to adjourn move to adjourn
Mrs sorg second by
Floris a motion made by councelor Sor
second by councelor FLOTUS Christine
will you call the vote
please this is on the motion to adjourn
the work session consor B sty
yes
counc
Vasquez
yes councelor bomo
yes councelor Sor
yes councelor flotes
yes councelor
Ganda
yes mayor yes okay we're adjourned it's
5:03 p.m. and Christine I'll stick round
for the agenda setting when you're ready
thanks again Amy thanks
everyone okay mayor I'm ready when you
are okay so this is the agenda setting
meeting for the June 21st 2021 city
council meeting number one consent one
consent two non-consent two non-consent
three consent three consent four
non-consent four non-consent five
consent five consent six consent six
consent seven consent seven
consent eight non-consent eight
non-consent nine non-consent nine
non-consent 10 consent 10 consent 11
consent 11 consent 12 consent 12 consent
13 consent
13 consent 14 consent 14 consent 15
nonconsent 15 non-consent 16 non-consent
16 non-consent and 17 non-consent 17
non- consent great thank you have a good
night you too
bye
for