e
e e
[Music]
thanks yeah either way you're on
hopefully some of those good afternoon
everyone welcome to S city council
meeting today is Monday July 1 uh 2024
it is approximately 1 pm I am mayor Eric
henriquez uh before we start I want to
mention that we have the ASL interpreter
available uh for every regular city
council meeting and she will be at the
front for anyone who requires
interpretation
Services uh we will start with a moment
of silence for the brave men and women
of the United States armed forces and
for the men and women of the Los Cruses
police department and Los Cruses fire
department as they keep our city safe
if you join me in the Pledge of
Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the
flag of the United States of America and
to the Republic for which it stands one
nation under God indivisible with
liberty and justice for all
where's my
c yeah
uh we want to start out with
presentations of
certificates um or presentations and at
this time we will honor uh the guaman
martial arts national champions
[Applause]
right good to see you you too all
right so we wanted to recog iiz that
Guzman martial arts they are four-time
national champions have been invited to
compete in Tokyo Japan at the 2024 ik
kkf World Karate championships
representing the United States they will
be there on August 3rd and August
4th we mayor and Council we are honored
to present our hometown of Las Cruses uh
karate club as they compete uh and they
will be presenting also I'll have uh the
master sensei Eli Guzman come up and um
say a few words and he also wants to do
a presentation to our Los crues Police
Department so if I can have our deputy
chief Eric Gunda come up please and join
me but let's give them a big hand for
their
accomplishments it's awesome here you go
all right uh so yeah this is we're going
we're heading to Tokyo Japan we got
invited um we're a fourth-time national
team and and uh this is the team that
we're taking up there so uh we're so
grateful and thankful and honored to be
able to be a part of this uh uh new um
accomplishment you know going to choco
Japan it's a big big deal um people from
all over are going to be competing and
uh from all from all areas of the world
so we're grateful and thankful that you
know uh hometown Las crus has a karate
team that uh has a a a team that can you
know go up and and compete on that level
so we're truly gr grateful and in April
we actually had a event a tournament
here in Las Cruses and um we want to
donate the proceeds part of our proed to
uh the Jonah Hernandez family and we
want to present present them with a
check also um just you know um one of
the things that we do we do a lot of
community service and we're always
honored to help out as much as we can as
martial artists so um thank you
everybody body for here being here thank
you city council mayor and all you guys
that are here thank you so much and and
uh um this is
Elijah danelo Usman my new newborn he's
seven months old so he's a handful but
future martial artist as well thank you
[Applause]
everybody let's let's do our uh we got
our new our new backdrop all right
awesome you all want to stand over here
so we can get a photo
got it
all again we want to thank you for your
cont contribution to the hernandz family
and all that they do and again let's
give them another round of applause and
wish them luck in their
competition thank you so much
absolutely thank you so
much okay okay next on the agenda we
have jobs of the week Sarah
Rainey good
afternoon all right my name is Sarah
rainy I am the one stop coordinator for
the southwest region of the workforce
connections I am bringing you jobs of
the week for July 1st first we have a
traffic signals technician for the city
of Los crues that position starts at
1951 an hour at this time it is a
continuous posting We have a senior
office assistant for the city the
position starts at 1557 an hour and the
posting closes in December for Whit
Sands Missile Range we have an
administrative specialist three um the
position starts at $47,000 a year and
the posting closes on July
13th for Petco we have an assistant
store manager that positions starts at
31,000 a year and the posting closes on
the 23rd of July we also have for Blue
Cross Blue Shield of New Mexico a
medical management specialist um the
position starts at $446,000 a year and
the posting closes on the
18th we have a bilingual personal banker
um First National Bank of Texas that one
here is here in Los crusis starts at
$335,000 a year and the posting closes
on the 20th of
July as always come visit us down on
Alama um for our Los cruus office we are
all over the southwest region as well
for those that are listening in other
places and need to find Workforce help
with your career or changes in your
career we're there for workshops and
whatnot um you can find us on all the
social medias Facebook Instagram
LinkedIn YouTube and Tik Tok and we also
have our app to download for extra help
thank you very much
thank you Sarah next uh pets of the week
Amy def
Felix hello everyone my name is Amy D
Felix I am one of the rescue
coordinators for the Animal Services
Center of the missia valley I also pick
and promote the pets of the week each
week we'll go ahead and get started with
our cat of the week this week her name
is she's Cleo her number is
77447 and she says my days are spent in
soft purs and gentle stretches I'm a
mellow Soul a gentle companion I won't
demand much just a warm lap and a kind
hand I'll return your kindness with
sweet nuzzles and soothing purs I'm not
one for high energy games but I'll
always be by your side a calming
presence in your life adopt me and I'll
fill your home with tranquility and
affection and then we have our dog of
the week this week she is oania her
number is
64240 and she says I'm a bundle of joy
sweetness and love I love to snuggle and
give kisses and I'm always ready to lend
an ear when you need someone to listen
my favorite thing in the world is being
showered with attention it makes my
tailwag uncontrollably I dream of a
loving home where I can share my love
and warmth every day adopting me means
getting a loyal friend who will love you
unconditionally and then adoption events
this week we we will be at the farmers
and crafts market of Las crusis this
Saturday July 6th we will be there from
10 a.m. to 1 p.m. our booth is usually
situated by organ Mountain Outfitters so
you can find us on that side of the
Farmers Market we'll have some uh
wonderful adoptable dogs for you guys to
meet and then other events going on I
know we just closed out our a bring love
home June event which I if I calculated
it correctly I didn't put it here but
I'd like to celebrate that we achieved
230 adoptions I believe which is awesome
I I don't know how it is compared to uh
last year but the trend was a
significant significant increase so I'm
sure it is that as well and we'll post
that on Facebook we'll do a whole fun
little celebration um but for July July
we have a red white and cute adoption
event so for all of July adoptions are
$50 this has been an annual um promotion
event partnered with doniana County
human society and they are offering to
sponsor the first 40 adoptions as well
so that is amazing we're super grateful
to them and all of our internet links
our general website is ascmv
ororgani you and Spotify and apple
podcast is where we have episodes of our
podcast Tales from the PO
side that is all I have thank
you thank you
Amy next is a conflict of interest does
any member of the city council city
manager and any member of the city staff
have any known conflict of interest with
any item on the
agenda none none none
no okay good
next we'll have the public participation
we'll allow up to 3 minutes uh no
pending litigation or items on nonc
consent and we can start on the first
row on my left side and Katrina will be
there to assist and Usher people and get
them lined up as you want to speak
uh Mr Gonzalez Rico if you wanted to
Rico Mr if you want to speak come on up
okay we'll go ahead and start with
you don't don't yell at me may please
I'm already nervous
enough thought you were used to it by
now good afternoon mayor and Council I'm
Rico Gonzalez with Al Paso Electric and
uh here to my right is uh huie miles
he's our supervisor for
distribution uh in in Los Cruses and as
you all know we had some pretty
significant weather happenings this
weekend so I just wanted to give a quick
update to to uh you and the
staff um real quickly I'll go over um
four different pieces the weather that
we dealt with the substations that were
out um the area
affected um currently where we're at mom
menos I mean the guys are out there
working right now so um and then and
then a quick thank you from from myself
to staff um so weather uh on Saturday
starting around
2:00 we had a huge storm come through
that had micro cells and outra is that
right outra okay I learned that today um
outdrawing of of uh of winds uh in three
different ways um and and then on Sunday
we had one Storm come through around 2
p.m. and then another one around dusk
6:00 p.m. uh on Sunday as well so five
if you will storms uh total uh coming
through our area that had really strong
winds in each and every one of them and
really affected our uh
system um on Sat I'm going to go over to
the substations now talk about the
different substations and where they
affected the city um uh Los cruus sub
one and two both had a had an effect
around 2 p.m. that was the first call
that we that we received inside of
substation 2 there was a canopy that got
into a line and took that out um the the
line workers were able to to clear that
out and at substation
one it uh took out one of our
transmission lines and so it it knocked
out quite a few feeders so the areas
affected were from the convention center
to merda the the county buildings um
your Wastewater Plant um our area on
compress our yard on compress um and and
so those those areas were out for about
2 or 3 hours hwi about two or three
hours and then came back on um but uh
what and downtown as well the big issue
for us I think right now is those winds
snapped poles um all over uh so even if
they weren't affecting substations there
were there's still work out there to be
be done moving forward uh so that was
Saturday and then
yesterday um we had um oh wait I I
forgot one thing uh we also had a cell
that went over in the Desert Wind way
area which I don't think all of that is
in the city that it was in but it
snapped a whole bunch of poles about at
least 10 poles that I know of um but
were all single phase lines and didn't
affect fact a substation um but that
that area was was really devastating
huie was out there he said there was
building materials all over Building
Materials in lines um and and so that's
taken a while to get that area back on
because it it even pulled um connections
from homes and so once the full line is
down you have to rebuild it it has been
a uh a real Hero's work from that
perspective uh also we lost solap
transmission line but you guys didn't
feel that we we got that covered before
customers felt it um on Sunday we had a
Cell come through and it affected Morata
23 uh animal services area uh Highland
Elementary that line is actually the
line that took out the substation that
line is still down and I'll explain why
here in a minute um uh and a lot of
businesses and homes around
us27 and then around 6:00 p.m. dusk we
had another Storm come through up more
near the Oregon Mountain High School uh
area and and that then took out Ayo 20
which is kind of east of the of the
Walmart or over by you guys's water
facility on lman so if you just go back
there um and
so all of those were in about what time
Huey I mean last night yeah I would say
10:00 we had services
and the the so the substations were back
in around 10:00 we still have polls all
over an example is at burn Lake uh
that's that that pump there is still out
um and and um and currently like I said
we have a lot of poles that are still
out which which has uh uh some customers
out I wanted to talk cover real quick um
uh oh and Highland is out because the
entire line had to be rebuilt so and and
why didn't we finish that last night
well when horado 23 went out the area
around the animal services building um
the substation went in that was good we
were fixing poles and then all of a
sudden the substation out by uh the
Walmart on lman goes out so we moved our
crews to fix to go fix that because
that's the most customers when we when
we look at at priority areas our
priorities are uh critical load safe and
health of the of the
community uh then we go to how many what
can affect the most customers to get
them back in to lights um and and that's
where we make that call to to move over
and then once all the substations are in
um if there's individual polls to fix
which there were I mean it was I can
show you guys some pictures uh later but
but um uh that's those are the three
different priority areas um moving
forward um our crews are stretched all
weekend long we have crews in in riodoso
as well helping with that issue um up
there and God bless all those people and
and um in in and our neighbors there but
um so I wanted huie to come with with me
today um because huie represents he's
our supervisor uh these guys were out
there um uh huie was at least our from
our management team was out over 24
hours at one point went home for about 4
hours back on and and um just you know
has been and then is back here today uh
doing doing his job J um and our crews
our ibw 960 members uh proud of the work
that they've done as well um and so um
and then and then a big shout out to
aani his team Steven Lopez and his team
uh communicating back and forth all
weekend long uh to make sure that you
guys know what what's going on if you
had any questions so thank you aani very
much for for helping out with all of
that and other than that um you know not
much else and I don't know if I should
answer any questions or not but no
that's fine thank you for the thank you
for the update and we appreciate and we
appreciate all the work that El Paso
Electric that you were doing during this
uh storm thank you okay
[Applause]
anyone else on that second
row uh third
row oh come on
up my name is Donna Striker thank you I
wanted to thank uh City Manager for
coming to our meeting you did a great
job I didn't know as much about GRT as I
do now probably know more than I ever
thought I would want to know about GRT I
want to say thank you I also want to
wanted to say thank you to Cassie
McClure and to Becky Graham we really
appreciated your presence and thank you
um city clerk I'd like to address this
to you you do an amazing job if you
haven't read the
minutes it's amazing um you do a great
job and I just wanted to say thank you
thanks
Eric thank you
[Applause]
next mayor council Juan Garcia he recent
Council session so a counselor label
Inland Border Patrol checkpoints as
quote the scorge of the community and
quote Constitution free zones not really
clear what that means but suggesting the
very presence of border patrol agents
inflicts great trauma while concerns
about invasive questioning are valid and
must be addressed we cannot paint border
patrol agents with such a broad
derogatory brush these men and women are
not faceless enforcers of the law they
are the Frontline Heroes friends and
neighbors Whois their lives daily to
save others and protect our
community let us not forget the horrific
human smuggling
operation and covered by border patrol
in Las Cruses on 24th June where 32
migrants were packed into inhumane
conditions or the dozens of suffocating
migrants found in box trailers as
happened on February 21
2023 these agents are the ones who bring
traffickers to Justice and give voice to
the voiceless our outrage and and
scrutiny should be directed at the true
sources of the problem the governor's
Reckless decision to open the floodgates
to marijuana despite its federally
illegality has created the problem for
marijuana businesses such policies not
the brave men and women of border patrol
or the root cause of the trauma and risk
we see it's time to redirect your scorn
and offer the praise and gratitude our
CBP agents deserve we must see through
the thinly veiled disdain of some of the
dies have for border patrol and Ice
while they advocate for their
dismissal do we truly believe those who
so show that such contempt for the men
in green 50% approximately of for more
Hispanic generally care for the many
blue
LCPD their future upcoming votes in
August will be telling let us Stand
United in supporting not just the men in
green but the Safety and Security of our
entire Community let us address the real
problems rather than attacking those who
will put their lives on the line for
ours thank you
[Applause]
Vic
vovos good morning afternoon um I just
wanted to do a few Kudos so um I want to
thank the uh some of the the city
councilors and uh City management for
coming to our uh businesses for safe for
L crues and you guys have also I know
been monitoring our Facebook page and
and it's being noticed um we know that
when things are being posted about
things in the community where we're
seeing you know some bad stuff and and
maybe some of these uh homeless camps
set up that they abandon and and there's
the shopping carts you all are seeing
that and you're actually helping us take
action and we really appreciate that it
really goes a long way to do that so
thank you guys for doing that it is
definitely being noticed um I also want
to give kudos I know uh we have
substitute Chief here today with the
fire department but um you know our
search and rescue team recently was up
in RI Doo doing operations up there and
the fire department uh T our team was up
there uh with their Swift water group
and I know we had water coming in every
day and and we're seeing it now still
going on in riodoso and there was a lot
of fire departments up there but I got
to tell you it really felt good when
when when those guys would come by and
check on us to make sure we were okay H
having that hometown trt team really
made a difference to us up there so
again appreciate the fire department
being up there and and doing what
they're doing uh up in Ros so and on
that note um I also noticed that we've
got some stuff coming up with some of
the parks and things some improvements
we're doing and one of those I saw was
Laona and I would encourage that as
you're looking at what you're doing at
Laona um a lot of people use that as a
way to recreate in the water um you saw
recently Mr Braza you know died in the
river and you know it's about one a year
that we're doing now our team helped
with the the um extraction of Mr BR in
the water and um I would encourage you
to put up some real signage about not
swimming and how danger it is um Mr
Mayor you know being a a fire guy water
always wins that's what they always tell
me when we're training with the fire
department water always wins and you
know Mr barazza was in there with his
his grandchildren and things went bad
real fast um the other thing I don't
know if you all are aware of this um
those kids when they went in the water
it was actually a homeless man that
jumped in and saved those kids um they
had got they got off their little raft
and they were being separated and it and
it was a homeless man that jumped in so
you know it's always different
perspectives as you as you go through
things but um you know really think
about that as you guys are doing doing
that that Park in particular I think
that that needs to be addressed as as a
water issue down there that it's a
little dangerous So yeah thank you guys
[Applause]
sir just want to tell you that um that
area of Laona Park yeah is actually uh
under the offices of the uh County the
county oh that's funny cuz they tell us
it's
you I had the same meeting with the
county and they said oh that side of the
road is City and then that side of the
road is County and and it is a trust me
I I we we go through this all the time
with the jurisdictional stuff and um we
had some LC fire guys with us on the
county side of it and the county folks
were quick to let us know that we're on
the county side and not on the city side
of the river so um I I I I was under the
the understanding that the east side is
maintained by the city and and maybe I'm
being given the wrong information but
that is the way we understand it when
we're down there
so thank you all right all right thank
you
good
afternoon uh my name is Jim Hurst I'm
reading from the letter by George
Washington to the Hebrew Congregation of
Newport Rhode Island this is in 1790 sir
we can we can barely you oh I'm sorry
there you go thank you I'll begin again
I'm reading from the letter by George
Washington to the Hebrew
Congregation of Newport Rhode
Island Washington wrote these words in
August 1790 anticipating the
ratification of the first amendment in
December of that year so this letter
stands as commentary by Washington on
the First Amendment and the principle of
separation of church and
state quote the citizens of the United
States States of America have a right to
applaud themselves for having given to
mankind examples of an enlarged and
liberal policy a policy worthy of
imitation all possess alike Liberty of
conscience and immunities of citizenship
it is now no more the Toleration is
spoken of as if by the Indulgence of one
class of people that another enjoyed the
exercise to their inherited natural
rights
for happily the government of the United
States which gives to bigotry no
sanction to persecution no existant
assistance requires only that those who
live under its protection should demean
themselves as good citizens and giving
it and on all occasions their effectual
support end quote Washington's 18th
century language boils down to this all
citizens have an equal right to
Religious Freedom including
Jews all citizens deserve protection
from religious bigotry even Jews Raphael
Cruz a hero of our local Republican
party says that the first amendment was
written only to protect Christian sex
from one another and not to protect
other religions in the same way that it
protects Christians it seems that many
conservatives of Las cruus share this
opinion this view is based on either
ignor or indifference to Washington's
opinion of the separation of church and
state consider the words for happily the
government of the United States which
gives to bigotry no sanction to
persecution no assistance I assert that
these words apply not only to Jews
living in the United States of America
in our infancy but also to the
LBGTQ community in our Fair
City it's distressing to me that many in
Los Cruses do not consider homophobia as
equivalent to religious
bigotry many of our elected officials
appear to be in League with
them thank you very
much thank you
[Applause]
anyone on the left side wishing to
speak okay we'll start on the right side
from the
top yeah I know I see
him you didn't see our Usher she's
ushering and no no you're fine you're
fine but just just for the future she's
she's allowing people to come up you
missed her
sorry good afternoon mayor good
afternoon mayor and City
councilors my name is jir I'm a longtime
resident of this community and I am here
to advocate in favor of house high
density housing and mixed use
neighborhood development even though I
live in a single family home in a nice
neighborhood we are not a nuclear family
Society we built a huge country for
nuclear families that we don't have and
that's okay but we need housing that
needs meets the needs of the families
and citizens we do
have if we are serious about reducing
the harmful effects of poverty and
inequality which is you know all these
breakings and all these homeless people
that no none of us
likes we need to dismantle the zoning
laws that were based on racist and
segregationist
sentiments but that affect all of us in
a negative way aonan of investment will
happen if we legalize high density
housing but many are concerned with an
increasing car traffic um Fair that's
fair they don't oppose contractors being
hired to build and Remodel and expand an
existing housing they don't dislike the
thousands of businesses jobs and
opportunities that new construction will
generate all of the increased sales from
furniture decor appliances Insurance
financing nor the increased tax revenue
that the city will generate based on
existing infrastructure without having
to build new public
infrastructure most don't hate the
people who will Who will move to a small
apartment they don't hate their
neighbors they do hate
cars even the people who love cars hate
spending time in their car even the
people who have lifted trucks and they
love their trucks and they spend a ton
of money on their trucks they hate
spending 15 extra minutes on their truck
because of car
traffic high density doesn't have to
mean more traffic though but we do need
to build different than what we have so
far we have to get rid of this mentality
that everybody needs a car for every
single trip of their
life traffic can be reduced by removing
from our City Coast the assumption that
everyone owns a car and will make a trip
on a car there are some people who want
that and they can keep that cuz we're
not going to get rid of the existing
infrastructure
but we also need alternatives for
everyone else we need alternative
transportation options like protected
bike lanes and safe sidewalks as a
standard not as a you know fancy thing
we do downtown but we also need
highdensity housing and mixed use for it
to be practical and cost effective
Citywide in summary legalize highdensity
housing please remove the hurdles so we
can unleash our investors our Architects
our developers our construction workers
and everyone else that works hard to
keep this community thriving thank
[Applause]
[Music]
you okay yeah we're starting on the
right side now from the top down come on
down
yeah if you're ready you can state your
name and speak directly into the
microphone so we can hear you thank you
my name is Mary
Ames and this is uh I had technical
issues today which would have upset me
more if I thought Pages I'd actually
printed out had an impact so let me just
say
this
oops I can't I wonder if any of you
counselors recognize the name name
an
Dunley
now it's been two years since a loose
neighbor's dog ripped off an arm and a
foot you don't even remember her name
and in two years nobody has made even
the tiniest baby step to actually put
strict guidelines in on loose roaming
pets and enforce them
anybody know how many dogs have attacked
in the two years since now it doesn't
matter because and doesn't matter
because you
know it would be great if somebody
actually cared uh and I'm not seeing it
happening with you people you you
haven't done that you haven't listened
to us the other thing I want to address
is a lack of transparent
communication the latest city manager
hire out of six counselors only one
publicly stated she wanted transparent
communication the rest of you deafening
silence the manager before that was also
hired under pretty opaque
circumstances and he left under opaque
circumstances anybody ever answer
reasonably those questions so I'm not
going to stay for the future testimony
that will impact me the most and the
most negative ly because what I've
learned from attending meetings here and
in Planning and
Zoning you don't care to listen to your
constituents you don't care of the
negative impact what you do or neglect
to do has a negative impact on our lives
every meeting I've attended I see people
give testimony and then leave faces
filled with disgust and frustration and
anger you don't get to see that I do so
you don't get to see my face but believe
me it's
[Applause]
there good afternoon mayor City man
manager counselor staff and public my
name is Yoli
Diaz first it was very disappo
disappointing to watch and listen to
this four SE Suite of Memorial Medical
Center CEO John Harris coo Mary armo CFO
Laura Thomas and CNO David Schmid
recently to not comment or show any
concern for the patients who did not
access Care at Memorial Medical Center
Barbara who's been here a couple of
times was very angry now
who's not a public speaker is quoted as
saying I don't know who's making these
decisions but they're not looking out
for a best interest I spent four months
begging them again I spent four months
begging them meaning MMC but they didn't
seem to care Veronica is quoted as
saying I felt so desperate and I told
the receptionist really if I don't have
insurance you're MMC going to let me die
I'm going to die she MMC receptionist
said yes we're going to let you die and
you're going to die I still remember in
2020 because you have to remember
Veronica was a cancer survivor it
happened before Veronica telling me this
story and I becoming very angry and that
was at the time I was advocating for her
just to have some diagnostic testing
because they were really doing these
aggressive methods of trying to collect
and I talking to MMC I still remember
both Nancy and Barbara in 2022 going
through their experience with Memorial
Medical Center and again I becoming very
angry what is important to know is that
these denials and delays didn't happen
to just 12 or 13 residents the residents
who spoke up are the ones who gave me
permission to give their names to gret
and Morganson the residents that gret
and morgenson wrote about are the G
residents that agreed to Gretch
to report their story and their name to
our
nation there are more residents that
this happened to to include the disabled
Indigent woman that I chose not to
expose since she was in the middle of
treatment with the additional challenges
that I expected she would have I know a
woman who described her suffering with
cancer to me and not being able to
access treatment at Memorial Medical
Center in 2015 she finally got to UNM
Cancer Center I know a woman in 17 who
had cancer and needed tests diagnostic
tests that were scheduled at MMC but
records were updated at MMC and she
wouldn't be getting them because she was
uninsured I have this in black and white
an MMC document there are more residents
I know about and what about the general
public referrals by other doctors how
many more residents that this happened
to and what about the records that
should be kept that the lease and the
statute are requiring what about that
thank you
[Applause]
good afternoon my name is Victor lundis
I'm here to voice some concerns on that
uh proposed apartment complex on 725
McLure Road I'm sirry that's an agenda
item so that will be open for discussion
when we get to that agenda okay this
this is the first time no that's fine
thank you thank you
um hello uh my name is Britney Nickerson
um I'd uh like to express um excuse me
um my uh approval I guess um for the
overhaul of the city's Zing laws um
which would allow for more infill
Construction in the city um and increase
our housing density with um without
resorting to massive apartment complexes
as well as um restoring older
neighborhoods um that that need this um
revamp um this allows a lot more access
for individuals in our community it's a
it's a good fit for um our city as well
um to be able to access better
transportation as was voiced previously
um a lot of our um community members
rely heavily on public transport um
bicycles walking in order to get to work
to appointments um to child's care and
and schooling um and so this would
excuse me increase access uh for those
folks as well
um and uh it would just generally U make
our community more of an equitable place
to live thank you
[Applause]
thank you City councilors and mayor I'm
Sarah Smith I'm concerned about your
plan to increase the grocy seats taxes
in Los cruus although the tax increase
would be relatively small this is a
really bad time for city council to be
raising taxes inflation is devastating
many families right now and for a
council that is ostensibly so concerned
about the poor this seems unjustified
raising the grocy seeds tax would also
discourage businesses from moving to Los
cruus our grossy seats tax is already
quite a bit higher than Albuquerque and
your proposed increase would make the
taxes higher here in Los Cruses than in
Sunland Park Santa Fe riodoso Los lunis
and other cities I understand that part
of the tax increase will be voted on by
Council and the other part will be voted
on by the public in November if you
decide to move forward with this will
you please ensure that the funds are
specifically earmarked for Public Safety
by state statute you can specify what
the increased taxes will be used for 88%
of your survey participants identified
Public Safety as the number one priority
so if you are going to be taking money
from families of Los cruus those funds
need to be directed towards improving
safety from talking with the interim
County Manager I know that the state has
other potential funding options right
now due to a large Surplus budget from
oil and gas production so I am
struggling to understand why you are
planning to take more money from Los
cruus families right now given the high
inflation and high prices for even basic
necessities please rethink this instead
of giving Los cruus one of the highest
tax rates in the state and taking money
from families who are already struggling
to make ends meet thank
[Applause]
you mayor counselors Steve ketti 14-year
resident of Los cruus
today I must point out an extreme irony
for months honest hardworking citizens
businessmen and business owners have
been coming before you to plead for you
to do your jobs and give them some
relief from from rampant crime until a
few except for a few slight gestures of
late these pleas have at best fallen on
deaf ears but we've been accused of
being elitists trying to outlaw
homelessness and to quote the mayor
proem I have little
sympathy now we know she was speaking
specifically of Walmart but we have all
felt that lack of sympathy but then
excuse me at your last meeting you had a
string of criminals yes criminals
because cannabis is fully
illegal it does not matter what the
people in Santa Fe have to say about it
drug pushers is pedaling poison in our
community destroying lives and
decimating our already anemic Workforce
to them you have sympathy I believe this
speaks volumes to the lack of character
of this counselor and your this Council
and your extremely misplaced priorities
thank
[Applause]
you Mr Mayor city council my name is
Tony chavz I want to say thank you thank
you for what you do even though I may
not always agree with you so I want to
bring up a little bit about terrorism
and uh discuss a little bit about that I
want to say let's not
forget uh 9/11 this horrific terrorist
attacks that American soy Al Qaeda a
terrorist organization we have lost many
service members fighting the global war
on terrorism because of this attack and
let's not forget the innocent civilians
that also lost their lives on this day
today we still have service members
serving abroad and In Harm's Way let's
keep these Brave women and men in our
prayers and pray that they return them
safely to their families
I'm hopeful that next year we will have
a memorial day service at veterans spark
honoring those who have paid the
ultimate sacrifice in defending our
great nation as the second largest city
in New Mexico I'm surprised as well as
other veterans I've spoken to within the
community that we do not have such a
service and I'm hopeful you will support
one next year and the following
years I brought this issue up uh at the
May veterans rery board if you have not
attended Memorial Day service I would
highly encourage you to attend one it's
very sobering and eye openening
experience especially when the deceased
service member is returned from the
country they are service they are
serving in for
burial additionally thank you
councilwoman
McClure and councilwoman
Flores for your father's service to our
nation there were comments at a city
council meeting regarding the border
patrol and how some of you feel about
them welcome to a border state the
border patrol as well as ice have
explicit missions such as watching up
for sex minor human trafficking and
alien smuggling checking for illegal
drugs and undocumented immigrants
entering the us not to mention
terrorists criminals and gangs that may
have entered and hopefully we will not
have to live through or endure another
911 as you know the US spend 66 billion
dollar a year on undocumented immigrants
you may not like ice in the border
patrol however you should respect them
and I fully support these agencies as
they have a very important mission in
keeping our country and citizens safe
just as our law enforcement First
Responders and I have there
six just try getting onto a military
installation where you must roll down
your windows show your military ID card
so it can be scanned and hopefully
you're not pulled over for a surprise
inspection where you must exit the
vehicle open all doors as well as the
trunk and the glove box also your
registration Insurance are checked and
verified if you do not have a military
ID you will need to be vetted before you
can enter all this occurred because of
9/11 now discussing the GRT
I understand the Mexico has a 15 Bill
$50 billion Surplus yet the city is
advocating for a possible increase in
the to the GRT what is the city doing to
address getting its capital projects
funded by our state representatives I'm
sure you all have a meeting with them at
some point during the budget cycle to
address the city's priorities and I hope
that you will press them to Advocate at
the state level for the required
funding thank you
[Applause]
city council mayor I'm Susan Greenwall
Cabo the executive director of downtown
Los Cruz's partnership I have a very
short message today it is please help us
get out our community survey um we've
done this for the last five years um I
sent it all to you I did not blind copy
you Chris had to save me on that one I
tried to be above board and send it to
you all and he said I was above and
beyond board and he blind copied you so
um what we want to do is make sure that
um our entire Community sees the survey
and can reply to it historically we have
had um most of our respondents be
somehow connected to downtown and senior
citizens um we want both of those
demographics to um please respond but we
also need kind of a broader range um of
lost cruin to give their input we're
aiming to get 100 responses right now we
have about 30 um we did not include a
gift card giveaway this year because we
have been spammed so heavily in the past
when we've done that last year in one
day we had
970 responses from Bots um by the way
very complimentary of downtown um they
love our historic Fortress and the
Beautiful Boy um
yeah I I would love love to kep them in
there because that they really pushed
our numbers up but um all kidding aside
really important that the people of Las
crues participate in this and that way
we get to include your feedback in our
upcoming work plans um also want to give
a shout out to Chris favor and Mandy Gus
they're going to be talking about this
tomorrow in the press release and
getting it out to our community as well
so thank you all
[Applause]
good afternoon mayor council members
distinguished standin for the
Chiefs uh my name is Eddie Thomas uh
first of all I want to begin by giving
kudos to the El Paso Electric Company
for restoring our power after Saturday's
uh high wind event my power was knocked
out uh and um by uh 10:00 that same
evening the El Paso Electric people were
able to restore it so big thanks to them
second thing I want to say is that the
border patrol is our first line of
defense unlike a council member's
comments I beg to differ with I've never
never been traumatized by any member of
the border patrol okay uh the next thing
I want to talk about is the parking
lot uh uh part of the
rezoning uh law that uh the the uh
resolution you all are trying to uh uh
put in place um I'm glad that most of it
has been retracted regarding the uh
uh establishment of of uh putting uh uh
businesses and mixing it up in
residential zones we like our single
family neighborhoods to stay that way
what you do on the outskirts of town
well that's another issue but I wish you
would leave the inside of Los crues
alone the way it is a lot of people like
the neighborhoods just the way they are
right now and for you all to come up
with a rezoning issue that scrambles it
all up and and homogenizes it is just
counter to what we move to uh Los crues
for uh I thought that the parking lot
portion of it it looks like you all want
to become the parking lot
police the portion of that resoning uh
ordinance would be counterintuitive to
promoting
business businesses are not going to be
RIS restricted to just a few parking
spots for them it it it just doesn't
make any sense okay to restrict a
business based on their square footage
to x amount of parking spots it I I
thought we were trying to encourage
business to come here and it just seems
totally counterintuitive the last thing
I want to say before I get off is
that I'm not sure what portion the city
gets with regards to the abortion clinic
that's coming up here at uh Sonoma Ranch
and uh lman but I personally am against
it I think the city should not be
profiting from the blood spill of
innocent children thank you very much
[Applause]
hello mayor and Council my name is
Nathan Silva I'm a first generation
American and I'm happy to say that I'm
living the American dream I'm the
co-founder of myars where a cannabis
manufacturer proudly based here in Los
crus New Mexico at myars we're graduates
of NMSU proud members of the community
and we have absolutely no desire to move
our business elsewhere to avoid the
impact of these Federal policies I would
like to commend theity city council as
well as the state of New Mexico for
allowing Generations past present and
future to allow our expertise and
passion in this industry to help improve
our economy and overall condition of the
state my father is a retired border
patrol agent so I understand the
agency's intentions very well while I
share No disdain for the agency I do
have scorn for the outdated Federal
policies that have led to this
disconnect between state and federal
officials May the people come together
to make reasonable policy changes that
maintain the safety of our country while
impeding on our state's economy I
recently met with the Attorney General
of New Mexico and we do have the support
of State officials as well in updating
these policies and ensuring that we can
do something in tandem with border
patrol to work together and ensure that
our economy operates efficiently this is
a billion- dooll industry the Cannabis
industry there's no reason why um past
generation should be sharing disdain for
our industry We Are Young we're proud to
be able to come out of the shadows and
do what we do proudly and share our
expertise in a professional manner
please allow us to do so thank you again
city council and state for everything
you've done you've shown overwhelming
support and it truly means the world to
us may we continue to work together to
improve the conditions thank you
[Applause]
um good afternoon mayor uh protm and
council members my name is Corina
miramontes I am a dispensary owner um in
in the old historic district on moske
Street um I live in my business I am
really happy to be able to bring plant
medicine um to the people of the
neighborhood I just want to say thank
you very much and I was in shock to hear
I I grew up here in Los crusis but my
but I went away for about 25 years and
to hear some of the testimonies your
story on last meeting about being
terrorized at the board of Patrol for
being Brown is something that was really
shocking to me really shocking to me
being from I mean I I graduated from Los
Cruses high school I went to Hermosa
Heights um I have you know have been
pulled over there new car scratched um I
have been terrorized I feel like as well
um I do have complete respect for what
they do and for the safety of our state
and our country um so that you know
that's not an issue for me but I I just
wanted everyone to kind of put a face to
who is in the Cannabis industry and that
that is me um thank you for your time
and thank you for your work
[Applause]
good afternoon uh my name is Chad Lano
um I'm here to speak in support of the
Cannabis industry and also our city
council because you guys have been
nothing but supportive of us um I live
in the state of New Mexico not a
federally controlled state of New Mexico
so my state government decided that
cannabis should be legal in the state
and it's unfortunate that my federal
government hasn't caught up with those
laws because almost 25 states have gone
this adult use route so it's fortunate
that New Mexico seems to be the only one
dealing with this issue right now with
the border patrol but I do understand
National Security I do understand what
they're doing however we're not doing
anything wrong and we're not the problem
here we're literally trying to do
something for the state we've made a
billion dollars um so far and Counting
um in under two years and we only have a
population of 2.2 million people I mean
that's very impressive not many places
could you know really tout something
like that being this small so for me
it's really alarming to hear so many
people think that our local and our
state government don't matter and I'm
all about keeping bigger government out
of it and keeping smaller government you
know a part of it because smaller
government does affect you more directly
than bigger government unfortunately
sometimes what they do will affect
certain individuals like ourselves here
in the Cannabis industry um I just want
to say that I support you guys and I
hope you guys can continue to support us
but I also do understand National
Security and everything of what their
job is but it's unfortunate that we have
to come down this route and still have
these issues um in 2024 when you know
we're going to a route where cannabis is
going to from schedule one to schedule
three um and we're probably going to be
seeing Federal decriminalization some
point down the future too so instead of
us trying to fight it let's embrace it a
little bit because the real issue that
we have in our community is alcohol and
all we've done is opened access to
alcohol more I can't go to anything
above a high school sport without
alcohol being pushed on me you know I
try to go to the sumble alcohol was
pushed on me the whole time I don't
drink um and so it's it's unfortunate
it's alarming to see how alcohol has
impacted our community and we just keep
opening the access and then we start
pointing the blame to cannabis and I
don't think that's fair because cannabis
has never been the issue the only issue
about cannabis was this legality so
thank you appreciate it
[Applause]
how's everyone doing today my name is
Joshua Vias and uh I just want to say
thank you to the councilman um and women
I like to say Miss Becky Graham on one
of the faces from your area um thank you
for being here I hear nothing but great
support one of the points that I hear is
business protecting it from personal to
other businesses and yeah we get it no
one wants the ostra size or um belittle
any of the jobs is taking that's tough
but at the same time giving these
license was a promise to change and
benefit from and so this is a
double-edged sword that we're trying to
figure out and just like Nate and most
people said uh if we could find some
type of way to coincide or work with it
I mean we're doing legit business I
don't see how the paperwork that we
bring to the Border checks if they find
anything more more extra than that I can
see the crime but what it's doing is
preventing uh people like me from
actually succeeding in New Mexico from
the poorest state to less education this
is something that I excel in and so with
that being said I don't want the chance
being taken away and so everyone here I
get it I the fear the everything just
going around but I'm here to say that
things can change for the better and I
really do appreciate the support from
everyone uh border patrol agents um like
I said it's a tough job and I have
respect but once you get lost in the
situation then what is there left so
with me saying that um again I
appreciate you guys hearing us out and
giving us an actual voice um I like to
tell uh most people that spoke today the
add address that we don't hate or try to
do anything towards situations that are
known we want to try to understand it
and work with it and so I think that's
the different difference in the growth
that we want to try to present and not
be known as a mafia organization on
illegal business from the state so um
with that being said thank you for the
time and may you guys be blessed thank
you
good afternoon mayor councel my name is
Monty rutage I spoke a couple weeks ago
to you I'll speak again uh in 2001 I
joined the US Navy as a Corman that's a
medic for you non Navy type uh I
deployed in6 in support of oif OE
sustained combat injuries physically and
mentally um I returned home from that I
joined the US border patrol wanted to
continue to serve my country uh but I
didn't want to do it with medicine I saw
too much so I went into law enforcement
um enjoyed my time there in the boorder
of Patrol I'm very proud of what I did
in the boorder of Patrol very proud of
border of Patrol and all the men and
women in law enforcement that I've
worked with uh in 2015 I saved the lives
of six individuals uh they weren't from
this country but I saved their lives and
in 2021 I had to retire from the board
of patol because I could no longer live
with the mental and physical impairments
that I had and the border of Patrol
wasn't going to help me um cannabis
helped me I had to leave the board of
Patrol to seek cannabis and cannabis
saved my life I am here today because of
cannabis and all of you or the majority
of you have helped bring cannabis to the
city and to the state so I thank you for
saving my life thank you for keeping me
here and I ask that you continue to move
forward with the efforts that you're
putting forward to um solidify the
industry to help us uh give us relief
where we need it and to continue to
support us so thank you very much I
appreciate it thank
[Applause]
you that's everyone okay thank
you uh thank you all for your
participation uh next will be the read
uh close meeting
statement uh the Los crusa city council
met in Clos session at 11:00 a.m. on
June 24th 2024 the following members
were in attendance mayor hriz councelor
McClure councelor Graham mayor protim
bomo councelor Karan uh from staff was
Barbara bomo Sonia Delgado JC
Bargo Ian Tam Paya Brad Douglas Chief
Jeremy story and Christine Riva outside
Council was Brad Springer the meeting
adjourned at
11:38 a.m. statement for the record the
Las crusa city council met in close
session and only discussed those limited
items as stated in the posted notice the
purpose of the closed meeting was to
discuss pending litigation regarding the
city of Los
Cruses from uh smelzer case number P lrb
10 423 which is closed pursuant to nmsa
1978 section 10-15-17
next we'll move to the ob acceptance of
agenda item 7.2 will need to be removed
from consent to
amend mayor if I can have 7.1 removed as
well just for some
clarification move to approve with those
two with both items removed from the
consent agenda and put to new
discussion as as recommended by
councilor
matis
second this is on the motion to approve
the agenda as presented with removal of
items 7.1 and 7.2 for discussion
councelor McClair yes councelor matis
yes councelor Graham yes councelor cran
yes councelor fletus yes councelor
bomo yes and mayor
yes so we go with 7.1 okay so we'll
start with 7.1 uh resolution author
authorizing the city of Los Cruses uh to
accept two Grant awards from the New
Mexico Department of
Transportation move to approve Graham
second
cor go ahead Crystal Silva to present
good
okay good afternoon mayor city council
staff and public my name is Crystal
Silva with the grants Administration
program and today I am bringing forth a
resolution to accept two Grant awards
from the New Mexico Department of
Transportation the city of Los cruus was
granted the following award in the
amount of 399,00
829 from the New Mexico Department of
Transportation for pavement maintenance
on West Amador Avenue the city is
required to match 25% of the awarded
Grant
amount I have provided a map of the
project area that will begin immediately
east of the intersection of Pioneer
Place and West Amador and will end
immediately west of the intersection of
South Archuleta Road and West Amador
Avenue
the city of Las cruus was granted the
following award in the amount of
$400,000 from the New Mexico Department
of Transportation for improvements to
the intersection of East lman and South
Walnut Street the city is required to
match 25% of the awarded Grant
amount I have provided a map of the
project area these improvements are a
continuation of City initiatives to
increase safety improve efficiency and
travel times along the East lman Avenue
Corridor connecting Interstate 25 to
Valley Drive and Interstate 10 access to
Mel Boulevard nmdot requires a
resolution of acceptance by the city
before the agreement is fully
executed before you are your Council
options and I stand for
questions thank you go ahead Council
mtis I I just had a question on the when
you apply for these grants how
frequently does the New Mexico
Department of Transportation actually
help with with grants on an annual basis
is there an
average um I mayor councelor matis um
I wouldn't say an average exactly um
this these two Grant awards are the uh
map award and the lgf award so we're
able to apply for those annually um and
at that point so far we have got gotten
them um and been awarded um the last two
times that we've applied since I've been
here um I'm not too sure and I can't
speak for prior to that but um with most
of the nmdot grants that we apply for we
are usually very successful in getting
those
awarded thank you I just saw the safety
concern for for both of these uh grants
and and I think that's probably where
you
succeed both inter both of them were
unsafe so thank you for applying and
thank you for getting them yes thank
you any other questions by
councel seeing
none this is on the motion to approve
resolution
25-1 councelor McClair yes councelor
matis yes councelor Graham yes councelor
cran yes councilor fles yes counc Como
yes mayor
yes mayor counsel my name's Lan de I'm
your Finance director before um Charlie
pharoh starts his PowerPoint I wanted to
introduce our grant manager because
she's going to be helping with this
presentation she has never addressed
Council before so I wanted to do a
formal introduction to Gabby Pratt uh
who is now been with the city since
January 2nd so she's in her six months
right yes so um I'm going to turn it
over to Charlie thank you so much all
right welcome
Gabby yeah yes
on yes on
7.2 move to approve second
Graham okay go ahead Char good afternoon
Mr Mayor City Council City management
and staff my name is Charlie FOH budget
analyst with the city of Los Cruses
Financial Services
Department today for you I'm presenting
a resolution that's going to establish
the budget for Grant
Awards my first project today which is
the one that Gabby will be helping me
out with is called Trails
plus this is for parks and wreck and the
granter in this case is the New Mexico
Department of Economic Development ment
the grant amount the award amount is for
500,000 and this is the part where gab
is going to help clear it up the match
originally it was budgeted for 500,000
however that's been revised to 1.3
million a little bit over and the
purpose of this award is to design and
construct a recreation Trail connecting
several Las Cruses Metro destinations so
with that I'll go ahead and hand it over
to miss Gabby pretz
good afternoon for the record griel La
pretz Grant manager in the finance
department we're asking to amend the res
uh resolution
25-2 to request a waiver from the 1:1
Grant match requirement that is
currently in the grant policy section A
1.3 that was passed in May of 2018 as
resolution 18-120
the funer um is expecting the city to
match the total of the balance of the
project cost originally the grant
solicitation listed a requirement of the
dollar to-dollar match a one toone match
but on Wednesday June the 29th after a
conversation with the program officer he
laid that bomb on us the request that
we're making is because obviously the
1.3 million
is more than two times the um Grant
match
ratio so we requ we're requesting to
amend the resolution so that Council
grants a waiver of that Ono one match
requirement in the grants Administration
program policy and if you have any
questions thank you any questions
councilor Flores thank you mayor and and
thank you again Abby you're welcome Miss
prz um so I don't uh understand the um
originally it was it didn't have oh it
did have to be matched yes and the
amount you
anticipated is not the amount that we
would have to pay yes so what's the
difference it's about 800 it's a little
less than
$800,000 differ there is other um uh
funding from the state that is matching
this particular project it the actual
total project cost is 1.85
million and um the grant gives us the
500,000 plus we have a
$350,000 Grant from the Pas nor the
health Foundation that is matching this
and a state appropriation of 290,000 so
the department will have to come up with
about
660,000
okay and then um where where
how what fund or what uh where would
that money come from or would it be yeah
from where you the allocation would be
supplied by the the the balance is uh
proposed from the park Improvement fund
is that correct
Steve and I guess my question is oh I
think Steve's here if you have questions
for
him yeah councelor Flores city council
Steven Bam um the trail on this will
require us to come up with a little more
in the
$500,000 and it would come from pif okay
so my question is where do you get that
$500 500,000 since uh budgets have
already been set I mean I mean I I'm not
saying that money can't be moved but
what fund or what project or how
would you allocate that money we're
requesting that it will come from Park
impact fees oh impact fees and um but is
the money there now yes there is oh I
see so then uh you request from Impact
Fe and then we have another hearing to
approve that or is it
internal I believe it coms again right
departmentally oh it's everybody's
pointing the
I can answer Charlie can answer that
yeah Mr mayor council Flores anytime
we're amending the bottom line of a of a
fund throughout the year then it would
be need to be brought to council so in
this case if they have to budget um TI
funds if they have to kind of do a
budget of fund balance and we would need
a resolution for that to increase the
budget okay and that's what we're doing
today correct
okay thank you I'm not confused anymore
thank you very
much okay I'm back up now I'm go ahead
and continue my presentation with the
other rewards thank you Gabby thank you
Steve my next project is the fy22 go
Bond Library support project this is for
quality of life the granter in this case
is the Department of cultural Affairs
Library Division the amount of the award
is 4
66,000
896 and the purpose of these funds is to
purchase equipment Furniture fixtures
and other electronic resources so I know
the library is pretty excited about this
project my next project is Latino poetry
this is for quality of life as well the
granter in this case is library of
America the amount of the award is
1,200 and this is to support Latino
Heritage Month celebration hosted by
public
libraries my next project is seniors New
Mexico grown again with quality of life
this is coming to us from New Mexico
aging and long-term services division
the amount of the award here is
126,000 and this will be used to
purchase local and Regional Farm Fresh
Produce as well as New Mexico grown beef
for the preparation ation of meals for
seniors I believe this is my final
project here this is the youth
leadership academy the department for
this project is police the granter is
the board of regions New Mexico State
University in the amount of
$8,000 and this is to uh provide youth
leadership academy to continue a lasting
relationship between the police
department and MSU and our districts and
our youth
I'll go ahead and hand it over to
Cynthia
Campo good
afternoon mayor counselor Cynthia Campo
CIP analyst um I am bringing forth two
um CIP amendments that um with the
acceptance of these two gr of the grants
brought to you today
the first one is the trails
plus um for the 500,000 and I will also
have to change the um the grant match
portion to to that um and then the other
one is the Picacho Avenue Hawk system
and that's just a grant
extension um of
$339,000 um to be able to expend it
until June of
2025 any
questions any questions by
Council U councelor mati Charlie I I I
just have some questions on if you go to
page I think you have 11 of them Pages 1
through
11 and it's um under the city of Los
cruus Capital Improvements program FY
2024 to 2029
okay and then um you have some
explanations on the the the funding
sources but I notice on several funding
sources uh I understand grants I
understand taxes I understand
tid um bonds loans but many of them you
just have the word
other could you maybe explain other and
then I'm I'm satisfied Mr mayor council
matis you are you are referring to the
uh Capital Improvements program document
that you have there I'll go ahead and
refer to Cynthia
compo mayor councilor Marti the other is
actually um in in reference to fees so
we have different types of fees and at
the very uh end of the CIP document it
actually does have um a section where we
say what each one of those
um funding sources are for thank you I
just saw that in a very tiny print yeah
I see where you have other includes fees
State entitlements leases development
contributions and donations and while
you're uh answering some clarification
for me I noticed the grand total is
could you explain the grand total of 204
million 694 and what that represents and
then I notice in FY 25 you have 245
milon1 127,000 just a brief description
of yes of course of those totals um if
the the 204 million I believe is um for
it's in the green column so that is the
funded portion
of anything that is funded in
fy4 is in that column um and then we
it's the the CIP is a six-year plan so
25 26 27 28 29 are all
unfunded years um and anytime that we
have funding for any of these projects
we can move them over to the current
fiscal year and that will be part of
that total no thank you you know I
wasn't here for the first half of
2024 so this was real good data to get
thank you very much you're welcome
any other
questions councilor correct no I was
going to say we need to verbally amend
it
correct or is the amendment already part
of the
package the mayor has the wording for
the
amendment I I propose we amend it with
the wording that is already
written yes say motion to amend
resolution
25-2 to add the city
Council that city council Grant a waiver
to the 1:1 cash match ratio required per
the grant Administration program policy
for this grant so
moved
second this is on the motion to amend
resolution
25-2 to add a that statement that states
that city council grants a waiver of the
1:1 cash match ratio required for the
grants Administration program policy for
this grant councelor McClair yes
councelor matis yes councelor Graham yes
councelor cran yes councelor flutes yes
councelor benl yes mayor
yes and then we need a final
vote this is on the motion to approve
resolution
25-2 as amended councelor McClair yes
councelor matis yes councelor Graham yes
councelor Karan yes councelor flutes yes
councelor boml yes and mayor
[Music]
yes okay thank you next next is 8.1
resolution number
25-3 a resolution reversing a denial
decision of the Planning and Zoning
commission regarding an infield
development proposal seeking approval of
15 unit apartment complex and
Associate development standard waivers
on property Zone r1a single family
medium
density move to approve Graham second
Corin Adam do you swear or affirm that
the testimony you about to give is the
truth and nothing but the truth under
penalty of law I do thank you thank you
Community Development Department for the
record uh before you have a appeal to a
proposed infield development proposal
for a property located at 725 mcer
Road uh subject property is currently
Zone r1a single F medium density it is
vacant undeveloped property uh it was
part of what was called the October Sky
subdivision which was approved in 2021
which created two lots essentially the
sub property itself which was uh roughly
about 1.12 acres in size uh addition 08
Acres were dedicated for RightWay
improvements future RightWay
improvements uh City also purchased two
and a half uh rough about 2 and a half
acres for drainage improvements in the
area it is located within what we uh
Community Development staff referred to
as the infill development boundary uh so
basically this partial qualifies for the
infill
process uh again current conditions
neighborhood is primarily single family
r1a zoning there are a couple or a few
uh properties within that area that are
still Zone r1a but are non- conforming
that because they have a duplex on the
property a quadplex and also a mobile
home park that is Zone r1a that is
inappropriately zoned as well uh subject
property is within what is called the
Suburban Neighborhood Place type uh it's
characterized with low to moderate uh
densities of residential inter mix with
commercial land uses include as call
like by Elevate L cruises single family
uses multif family retail office
institutional and public uses as well
well uh McClair road is currently uh
designated as a major collector roadway
uh that basically means that collects
and distributes traffic from local
roadways to adjacent uh arterial
roadways which are larger um a Clear RO
reflects the the following traffic
counts these are annual average weekly
trips or a a wdts uh for the most recent
counts buer msia Valley uh Metropolitan
planning organization they provided us
as these traffic counts just to kind of
give an idea of what the traffic is
around on McClure uh so in 2019 between
Valley and and carile there were rough
roughly about 3,700 uh uh traffic counts
uh that increased in 2024 to about 6,800
traffic counts between Carlile and
Highland it actually dropped from about
4500 to about 3,700 uh from Highland to
Alam that also dropped from about 3,800
to 3,400 within the that about five six
year uh time span
um staff we also took a look at this we
worked with some of our Engineers to
look at what is called the level of
service for uh uh mlar Road uh level of
service is kind of a measuring device to
help to describe operational conditions
of a roadway or segment of a roadway uh
that takes into account speed and travel
uh traffic movements and interruptions
uh comfort and convenience while uh
traveling the roadway uh staff estimates
at the level service for McClair roughly
is about a SE or C minus so we're barely
passing for McClure um looking here just
quick table kind of uh uh explaining
what each one means AB kind of shows
like wide open roads large bicycle areas
large areas for pedestrian walking CD is
a little more constrainted constraint
bicycle uh smaller sidewalks maybe even
no sidewalks and then enf are is just
it's it's just basically a completely uh
uh difficult roadway to travel it when
they get that type of a of a a
grade showing here the zoning map of the
property as again as you can see it's
just a c of nothing but r1a in this area
there's one R2 up here to the
north let's see uh again subject
property here is shown single family all
around there a lot of more rural uses
there's that city property that'll be
used for drainage in the
future so the essentially what the
applicant is proposing is a 15 unit AP
apartment complex with two points of
Ingress and egress directly Alpha
McClure uh they are proposing three five
unit apartment buildings two stories
tall each uh with each unit being about
884 Square ft in size they're proposing
29 uh Auto parking stalls and eight
bicycle Park installs which more than
meets the minimum requirements of our
codes they also proposing a dog park
open space and Landscape in the front of
the sub of the property this is just
kind of to provide a screen or a buffer
between not only the apartments from the
street but also the apartments from the
street and the neighbors to the north if
you will kind of give a little bit of a
relief
there uh the deviations we're prop
they're proposing with this infield
proposal is uh one uh the reard setback
in the r1a zoning district there is a
minimum 20 foot rear yard setback
requirement they are proposing a 7 foot
setback this is typical uh 7 foot set
back is typical for all our multif
family zoning in the city of Las crues
uh another deviation is the density
itself uh they are the requirements are
maximum permitted by the r1a is 8
dwelling units per acre they are
proposing 13.4 dwelling units per acre
on top of that also is the actual number
of dwelling units again r1a is for
single family only so only only allowed
one house on this property they are
proposing 15 Max for the for entire
development Jo here kind of just a rough
draft of what they would look like here
are those three buildings set all the
way to the back uh landscaping around
the entire perimeter uh with the dog
park Landscaping uh along the front to
get provide that buffer to the street
it's kind of like a rough floor plan of
what that properer looked like with the
two-story buildings those elevations of
the two-story
buildings so when staff took their
analysis we took this into into their
into the analysis stage of we saw that
the proposal
um not substantially out of character
with the surrounding area uh staff again
worked with engineering uh they did a
quick little estimate peak hour trips
for us and they estimated about roughly
25 trips uh or generated um a trip
generation count will actually be
required when they submit for permitting
for the development uh it will likely
not trigger uh traffic and a full traff
traffic impact analysis because uh we
feel it it won't hit the the the bar of
it being a minimum of more than or equal
to 100 uh peak hour trips per day uh
reviews uh by all staff did see no
significant uh health safety and Welfare
issues associated with the proposal uh
considerable support for the infi
development proposal via elev Las Cruis
does exist and was part of the the staff
report uh for for planning zoning
commission uh proposed density on top of
that uh of their Elevate last crues it
calls out uh a density for single family
uh for this is the Suburban Place Type 4
to 12 dwelling units breaker for single
family and 15 to 30 dwelling units for
multif family this proposal is doing
13.4 dwelling units per acre so
definitely below what Elevate Los crues
is is guiding us
to public notice was sent out for the
proposal uh early notification and uh
when the case came in for review with
staff and go to go before the planning
zoning commission uh staff received
numerous emails and uh few phone calls
an opposition to this case uh opposition
cited uh traffic concerns uh Road design
deficiencies uh propos high density
development increased crime uh NE
neighborhood incompatibility McClair
Road speeding that's occurring out there
and just a potential area development uh
we staff did receive though uh two
additional phone calls against but we
also received about six phone calls
supporting the proposed infant
development proposal
well this is what staff recommended to
uh the planning zoning commission when
it before them we did recommend a
conditional approval based on findings
uh conditions that the applicant shall
work with the city uh in the
installation of patare roadway
improvements adjacent to the property
and that the property shall comply with
all other development standards of the
r1a zonian district essentially the
findings were one the development of the
vacant property uh to a productive use
is consistent with the infl development
plan itself and the overlay uh um
property is eligible for the infill
process proposal is supported by various
goals policies and actions of elevate
lust crues uh support speaks to uh uh uh
the place type speaks to uh densities uh
promoting growth in older areas of the
city um promotion of uh functional of
infill development encouraging variety
of housing types promoting diversity in
residential building types lot sizes
architecture and so on and so forth like
that as well as the proposed number
units have little impact on McClair
traffic uh patterns uh McClair road is
classified as a major arterial roadway
where these types of developments are
encouraged excuse me uh previous
proposals deemed uh excessive and
problematic for the area was a a
proposal for infall about for 20 units
previously at that time pz did deny it
and uh the appeal to city council the
decision of denial was also upheld as
well uh reduction of five units from the
original proposal uh for this site uh
May
uh is intended to address many concerns
generated for the original request of
the number of units and the amount of
traffic but we feel that this would uh
take care of that and of course uh the
proposed IDP meets the intent of elevate
Las Cru elev Las crues and meets the
intent and purpose of section 38-2 of
the 2001 zoning code as well as it's
compliant with the criteria uh for
decisions uh out of out of the lasus
municipal code section 2- 238
382 there we go SE sorry about that uh
on February 27th uh 2024 planning zoning
commission did review this uh much
discussion took place between the
planning zoning commission and the
applicant and a large amount of public
input did occur as well after a lengthy
discussion uh the vote went uh before
the plan zoning commission they voted
three to three with one commissioner
vacancy essentially the uh the motion
failed in other words it it was
denied so your options today I don't
want to confuse anybody all read these
exact we're all on the same page is uh
one to vote Yes uh this will reverse the
denial decision of the Planning and
Zoning commission and will approve the
infi development Proposal with 15
dwelling units two to vote no this will
uphold the denial decision uh made by
the plan one commission uh the applicant
will have to either abide by the r1a
regulations or submit an alternate uh
proposal uh three to amend this could
allow Council to modify the resolution
by voting yes and adding uh conditions
to the proposal or for table postpone
and direct staff and the applicant
accordingly uh that is the conclusion of
my presentation I stand for
questions all right thank you Adam uh
before we get to council I'm going to go
ahead there's a couple of appellants
that want to speak so I'll call them up
first they need to be sworn in by the
clerk it's uh James
vakaro and lucenda Rivas
yes you need to be sworn in and then uh
go ahead and give you each three
minutes okay do you both swear or affirm
that the testimony you're about to give
is the truth and nothing but the truth
under penalty of law thank you I do
thank
you yes
um I wasn't going to speak but I am
going to now so I'm sorry that it's not
I don't have anything in front of me but
my name is lucenda I've come before you
before um I really believe in this
project as I had mentioned before the
owner's mom lives on Golden Drive she
walks all the time and the reason um the
family bought this home for her is
because she's one of the ones that
doesn't dve drive so she was using um
the busing right down um by the benv
center she also utilizes the benef
center many of her friends at the benef
center are would like our complex I
think even before um one of the
um persons representing the benus Benita
centers spoke up on our behalf and said
that they would like they had many
people interested that you know they
want to live close to town they don't
have um they don't drive anymore or they
don't drive at all and this is what we
want to give back to the community I may
feel graduate I my grandmother was also
on Golden Drive for 20 some years we
love this community I know the con the
opposers are afraid of
change but the you know
the the crime that comes with it that
that doesn't exist you know we're PE
we're not going to be a low income
housing we're going for the low medium
um which is what the community is and um
that's kind of what I just wanted to
say uh good afternoon everybody um not
to go into too much detail but first and
foremost I just want to thank uh
Community Development staff for that
presentation it was really well put
together and frankly supportive um
moving on though I guess more
importantly what I want to discuss is
actually the trip count so uh all the
opposition for this project is specific
to the road infrastructure itself it's
not to this building it's not to
anything that we're bringing with this
building it's the road um the trip count
that the city manager or the traffic
manager rather um estimated was 25 per
day based off that and the data earlier
um that's less than a percentage of the
community traffic on that road um when I
did my own calculations just based off
the bureau statistic of a 10 per
household that's 150 per day that's 15
units 10 per day at worst case scenario
and that's assuming they're going the
length of mlar which they're not because
we're in the center of it um that's less
than 4% so when we're talking about 1 to
4% of the traffic is going to be caused
by us if we build this building that's
pretty minute um that's actually almost
not even noticeable i' encourage
somebody to notice that um in addition
to that in the past conversations with
pnz um and it might even been with
previous City Council meetings don't
really recall um the city actually
informed us that they reached out to the
neighbors and actually wanted to develop
that infrastructure in doing so they
need to purchase the land from the
owners on that street and a lot of them
denied selling that land to improve the
roadway so we're a little confused now
do they want to build on to the property
in in infrastructure become more safe um
whether that be widen the road building
the sidewalk I'm not quite sure what we
can do to satisfy the area but I can
make sure that what we do with this
building in our lot is the best that we
can offer and obviously we work with the
IDP and everything else and the
standards so um that's really all I
wanted to say I don't really have
anything further than that but I think
actually the traffic which is the
biggest opposition um it's it's very
minor it's almost not even
noticeable thank
you okay thank you any questions by
counc
Council frest thank you mayor and thank
you um for being here today um
so how many units are there going to
be there's going to be 15 three
buildings and 15 Town Homes okay and
um but um Mr ooy you said that a uh Tia
wasn't necessary because of the
number and that's one thing
that I mean it's a mayor council FLOTUS
uh our staff just did our utilized our
current coach to do a quick count as to
what that that would be they estimated
it's about 25 so because of that uh in
order to increment 25 total of 25 per
day per day for for the for the entire
development uh that being said uh they
still will have to do some type of uh
traffic generation count for us to make
sure that our numbers lying with theirs
uh but the only time an actual traffic
impact analysis is required is when it's
either 100 or more uh traffic count per
day so staff feels that more than likely
a full traffic impact analys will not be
required ma' okay but there is going to
be um a trip generation count and then
so what happens if it's higher than what
you anticipated what you presented
today and uh Mr Mayor councel Flor and
they'll have to do a full on TR traffic
impact analysis
okay so uh construction will not begin
until all of that is uh resolved correct
me great thank you and um so you know
the part
that you know the never mind I won't
voice it uh you indicated that um the uh
it's going to
be for affordable housing or not
affordable housing I wasn't too sure
what you meant by your statement it's
it's not affordable housing meaning low
income it'll be generated to where the
neighborhood sits at like a middle
income Okay but
well so um you're saying that you also
mentioned that the benava center is down
the road and that's um some people who
go there are interested in maybe uh
being tenants in that building that is
what I was told okay and um I don't know
about anybody else but most retirees
well how much do you think they're going
to be rented
for approximately $900 a month yeah
um okay so those seniors should probably
be told that they probably can't afford
that I mean Social Security doesn't pay
out that much for a lot of seniors but I
guess my my concern is that
um and and I mean free enterprise you
know God Bless America for that on the
other hand um I I was hoping that the
housing would be more
affordable um and and and also with all
due respect
um well no I won't say it um thank you
thank you mayor can say
one thank you anyone else mayor Pro
thanks um thank you for your
presentation um for you as well Mr Oro I
appreciate the uh new information and
the map on here as well did I count 26
parking lots or do you or will you have
30 spots
sorry mayor Mar Pro I believe the magic
is 29 Auto parking stalls in total okay
thank you and then um I do just have a
couple things I want to say about the
road um ahead of the vote but I just
quick thought as well I think it's just
important that I correct some um myths
that sometimes just like have negative
connotations with affordable housing
that I know this is not what it is and
all housing impacts our housing crisis
all housing is is good housing for um
the housing shortage that we are
experiencing regardless of whether your
yours will be affordable housing or not
but affordable housing or hous that's
for low-income families it is just a
wide myth that that brings crime that is
just not true um and it's just a a
harmful narrative to perpetuate that I
think we should just not continue to do
that I also just speaking about traffic
um we have another complex unit and I
would say 90% of our tenants are single
people there's not even though they're
two bedroom there's only one person
there is a fireman there's a teacher
they have different hours they don't
leave all necessarily from 8: to 5: so I
just want to make that in there that
there's there's probably not all going
to be two cars per correct right right
right thank you um and then just
additionally and this isn't for you
specifically this is just as a whole for
staff and for the community here um that
lives in this area I the traffic issues
that exist on McClure and hogland are
longstanding they they've been there for
a really long time they need to be
seriously addressed and I've been
talking about these things for a really
long time um I don't believe that adding
15 additional units here will have a
severe impact on that I think the impact
is already there I in advance for this
conversation I spoke with Senator Carrie
Hamlin whose neighborhood this is as
well um and representative Nathan small
regarding a partnership
um for potential State funding that can
come to
um um relief some of the issues that
we're seeing on both of these streets
which are very similar um a field high
school is right there and so I don't
want to be dismissive of the serious
traffic concerns that exist here in this
neighborhood right they're very real um
and I you know you showed these numbers
and I don't believe you're being
dismissive of that I just I want to just
reiterate that those concerns are very
very real this these roads get backed up
significantly at High um peak times
especially when the school is in session
those things are very real um I just
don't believe that 15 units is going to
necessarily make um this ginormous
impact so I I will tell you all that
this morning I got commitment from both
Senator Hamlin and Senator small to to
pursue State funding for traffic calming
efforts on both of these streets on both
hogland and McClure um because they're
um just vitally important I've talked to
staff already about um applying to
possible places like um oh gosh the name
of the program escapes me um but Nathan
representative small sort of mentioned
this earlier to me and and I've
forwarded this to staff and I'll be
advocating for us to apply to the
municipal arterial program so that again
we can get actual relief for these
streets that these issues have just been
longstanding um and we should address
them whatever that might look like so I
just wanted to note that um because um
building putting up barriers for
additional housing isn't actually going
to solve our traffic problem on McLaren
in hokland um bringing in funding and
measures that are actually going to
impact traffic that's what's going to
help us and I will you have my
commitment that I'll continue to
advocate for that um for for both of
these streets so I just wanted to say
that before the
vote uh may I also I just also want to
mention that we have given up we will be
putting in a sidewalk and we also have
given up um an easement for a walking
path that is planned in the future and
we of course we sold for um the flood
that is a big problem because as I
mentioned his mother lives in the
neighborhood and we do want to bet
vate so I just I don't know if I know
everybody's concerned but are they
willing to give up their little piece to
put in a good sidewalk for
everybody okay thank you is there any
other questions by council at this time
I'm going to go ahead and open it up to
uh public comments if youall want to
have a seat thank you
I'll go ahead and give you three minutes
go
ahead um
mayor no not not for public
comment well my name is Pana P can you
speak a little louder and directly into
the microphone I am I'm a bit softspoken
person but um again I want to do the uh
thank you mayor
council person and also
Chiefs um I'm a resident of Las cres for
23 years um I have um have participated
in the healthc care industry here as
well as
development um if uh
Mr your name Mr OA if you could bring
that uh
map thank you so the green portion which
is seen there uh that's my home that's
not rural that's my
home and uh that's where I've been
living the entire green area so um I've
been here for 23 years my kids were born
and brought up here now there's nothing
wrong with having more housing there's
nothing wrong with building more housing
because we do need that however after
four
rejections there has to be some
compromise between what the community
wants and not disregard them and what an
housing crisis uh wants you know a
solution of housing crisis once so it's
not like we don't want something bu
there build there but have some
reasonable U density have multi give him
an increased density of single family
homes fine but 15 there is just a bit
too much now what's going to happen is
if you see there's a narrow road which
uh which uh goes between that and my
property in future if since this is
Center and this has to be built you are
going to negate 10 acres of property
which can have housing so for 15 you're
going to sacrifice
almost 300 units also there is traffic
coming from the new units which are
built on three crosses which there's no
exit to Mayfield High they have to
either go through and or mure so it's
going to increase finally the the
drawing which been shown the dog park is
right next to my gate it's not on McLure
and as Mr story uh sorry Chief story
knows I have asked several times to
rescue me from dog attacks and that's
coming right at my gate if you bring the
um the drawing it's not on McLure it's
right next to my
gate yeah see flors on the top the dog
pot is on this side which is the
gate so it's I think the drawing which
you shown is is flipped in this case so
anyway the point is that we want
something done
here let's have a compromise between
what the housing crisis needs and what
the community needs because it's four
it's the fourth attempt and at some
point we will listen to the community
too anyway thank you
good thank
[Applause]
you go ahead come on
up sorry I'll be real quick I don't want
to interrupt on everybody else's
opportunity to speak I just want to
clarify one thing go go ahead and state
your name again the J James M for the
record represent Missy Valley Properties
um the Gent prior to this uh indicated
that we'd be building and essentially
building on top of the road the road is
still going to exist to his property
line um and then furthermore to talk
about the dog park we can put it
wherever the city actually indicates us
to place it but nonetheless we want that
as an amenity for the residents in this
housing area um and then lastly it's a
gated community there's fencing 6ot High
all around the entire thing so um the
dogs are contained not only in a dog
park but also within the entire property
so uh I don't feel like there's a threat
to the
neighbor thank you okay thank you anyone
else want to
mayor councilman city manager first of
all I want to thank you guys for what
you for cleaning up the uh Lake View
Lakeside Drive in 17th Street when I
sent you the emails to to requesting it
done with the the city mess we had down
there uh Miss bomo took most of my wind
out of me with with with her her
announcement about the road sir can we
get your name for I'm sorry I'm Gary
Visage uh I've lived in in that Highland
area for a little for 30 years now uh
it's I see it declining every year uh I
have several code violations in my area
which I spoke to you before about and
and that we need to uh do something
about that but that's a different
subject uh with this subject here is
that's always been an ey sore on McLure
there and there are there's no bike
paths there there's no pedestrian
rideways through there from Benitas
onto Valley the new projects it is but
but from
Benitas uh which is Second Street all
the way through the other way it isn't
so there's no sidewalks there's no bike
pass there's no turn Lanes in fact
there's no division lines in to
determine the city the center of the
road and when it rains it floods all the
way across that road uh several times uh
during the winter I we have to actually
stop so pedestrians can walk out around
the water to the kids going to school uh
to just to get by uh the traffic without
us drowning them with our cars uh the
one other thing I want a point I want to
make is the $900 a month for apartments
uh Mrs Flores made made the statement
that that you don't live on the senior
citizens don't make that much on on
Social Security well I made one year old
and we don't all live necessarily just
on social security so let's let's make
that a point too in other words we need
to do something about the street before
we add anything more there I'm not
opposed to what's going on with the
apartments I think it's a good idea it's
a good place for it it's a good fill
close besides it's close to the railroad
tracks and and you're not going to get a
lot of other Construction in that area
but let's please work on the road let's
get the road done first and then let's
put something in and they viable thank
you thank
[Applause]
you hello David wheeler and uh mayor and
counsel I couldn't help when I got up to
come up here and thinking W wouldn't I
be something trying to make it from the
apartments to the Ben Center across that
railroad trke it's interesting to think
about anyway U for was right this is the
fourth time it's always been voted down
there's a reason for that you know we
don't not um against change we like
change and we're not
against we're not pro drug or I not say
they said that but you know just the
whole concept of things are just fine no
they're not just fine we understand that
and the traffic is bad and uh and the
only way to do is to not make it just a
little worse so that we can build this
this uh property
here I think if we had two or
three nice single family homes in that
area built by the same
people to try to make their money off of
it let them do that I've got no problem
with that I've got no problem with any
of that it's the the fact that that
that's too many cars right there by the
track incidentally I live right next
door to them them I'm right in front of
uh person pie and uh we see it all the
time where cars will be late kids will
go to school whatever and they try to
get they see the railroad track starting
and they just fly down that street to
try to get across the track before um
before the train comes and it happens
like every day every single day uh twice
a day
on forgot that it two train on one of
the days but um you know I just I just
he's right enough times of try to like
talk ourselves into doing this why don't
we do something that can change that we
can agree with that won't endanger
people because having cars going out in
and out right next to the tracks and say
right next to the
tracks and there two of them like didn't
like not even like 60 ft from the tracks
you know something like that I don't
can't read it but there's so much
traffic people trying to go in and out
of there um on a on a on a TR Rush Hour
whether you live there and and work at
night or not the car is going up and
down there on rush hours crazy and in
the morning it's also crazy so yeah
let's do something else build something
else you know put something in there
that that we're not against housing I'm
not against affordable housing I know
there should be um it's just too much
it's too much we're not going to make it
any better by building a bunch of houses
or a bunch of apartments that are going
to make the traffic just a little bit
worse and make and and make people in
Danger trying to go across that road and
no sidewalks or anything you can build
one but whatever you know what I'm
saying so please let's just do something
different like three houses and we'd be
done
[Applause]
good afternoon my name is Victor
nandes I have been living on Neely Road
which is just um off of McLure Road my
house the backyard faces the benava
center I've been there for about 20
years I've heard all this talk about you
know improving going forward I'm all for
it going forward the biggest thing on
McLure is one word
safety McLure is not a safety
road
again you've heard it already no
sidewalks at dawn at dusk people are
walking sometimes you don't even see
them you have to go around them if you
visit somebody on a house off of McLure
and park on the street the there's no
way you got to wait for uncoming traffic
to pass before you can go forward that's
how small that narrow that road is
there's no flood control there's not
enough
lighting it's
dark I think that you all should
consider first improving McLure road
before having any kind of more
development there there is enough
traffic and I use that road every day
so I know and I've seen
it I see it firsthand and it has gotten
worse in the 20 years that I have been
there thank you very
[Applause]
much good afternoon mayor and Council
thanks for having me again it's my
fourth time up here on this issue feel
kind of at home up here
now um I'm a block captain on McLure I
live at 320 McLure across from we
affectionately call McLure ruins uh
that's 315
3 17 and 319 McClure which is three lots
I was going to talk about traffic could
you give us your name sir yes I'm Don
lapa sorry about that um I was going to
talk about traff traffic but that's been
kind of talked about already and we can
do all the traffic studies we want we
live there and we've got trucks coming
from the new development from uh with
the school district on toiro we've got
trucks from the metal Fabric and Company
down on second so we have trucks there
we have school buses we have semi trucks
coming through it's it's not a feeder
Street it's a thorough right now because
of all the uh development West I ride my
bike to the river half of that is new
home development hundreds of houses out
there where are there's traffic going
it's going to McLure and to hogland to
get to North Maine because they want to
stay off Picacho my main issue here is
this is opening the floodgates for some
other properties on McLure specifically
across from me um that gentleman's been
trying to sell that for seven years I
just talked to a developer who is
working for a potential buyer of that
property who indicates that uh he
probably wants to put multif family
housing there so that would be another
multifam housing on McLure there's
another property two houses down that's
been vacant and unoccupied for about
since I've been there for8 years and so
we have we have a we're opening a
Floodgate here for this small community
neighborhood um Friday I walked around
the whole neighborhood gave out these to
get people uh to come to our meeting and
I I gave some on on Carl out all the way
up there's uh two cvas saacs there I was
as I was walking all these homes are
individual people give their heart and
soul into their properties and I was
walking back to McLure and I had a
vision of Apartments there they do not
fit in with the character nature
historical value of that neighborhood
and uh we're all for affordable housing
we're all for expanding that but this is
not the place to be building apartments
thank you very
[Applause]
much good afternoon Council my name is
jge agir and I am here to speak in favor
of this project this project only
includes 15 houses and what I've heard
from the concerns of the neighbors is
that the worst that can happen is that
they increase 2 minutes their commute
home right oh my God somebody who owns a
car with car conditioner is going to
have to spend two more minutes on their
vehicle what a
tragedy we have a 5,000 house deficit in
the city we have a population of
homeless people that is growing we have
poverty spread throughout the city and
we have an immigrant crisis at our
doorstep we have a lot of problems in
our community caused by poverty and
inequality and lack of housing but we're
very concerned
about the traffic time oh my God if it
takes me a little bit more to get to my
house absolutely I don't like to be in
my car either we all hate our cars but
it is not by developing it is not by
doing everything else first we need
housing first before sidewalks before
everything else we need to have dens
densified city so we can build public
transportation and sidewalks that people
prefer to use over vehicles
and I understand the concern because all
we know is Car Center development all we
have even our our largest city is El
Paso the nicest place you can go to is a
strip mall because everything is built
single family homes and strip malls it
looks ugly
everywhere so now um in order to build
in order to alleviate traffic like we
all want what we really need is
infrastructure that is citizen Centered
for pedestrians for bicycles and ultim
and and lastly I want to say is
um retail businesses do better with
pedestrian centered infrastructure it
isn't cars that buy things it isn't cars
that incentivize the economy that build
that our professionals it is people it
is people who walk by and see a a shop
and then enter just to see maybe they
find something that's the nature of
business it isn't driving by and seeing
a business and you never stop that's not
true so anyway I just want to speak in
support of this uh development of course
it isn't perfect there's things I would
improve but it's the housing that we
need so we have
4,985 more to approve thank
[Applause]
you good afternoon my name is Rosie Caro
I'm going to read off of my notes
because I spent most of the night
thinking and pondering over this so I'm
not going to sway from it most of it may
be repeated but I will just read to
you from my
notes we're not
opposing development or Improvement or
homes definitely needed it is our hope
that our voices reference issues of
extreme concerns are considered and not
just heard as we have been here for with
considerable concerns of ongoing safety
issues dangerous situations are only
increasing it is disbelief that we have
to continue repeating the same process
of imploring that our concerns be heard
and that the comprehension of what is
presented with concerns as
repetitive as we hold our children
accountable to understand that what is
no is no we hold a great respect to
large corporations when they respect the
community's decision
as Walmart endeavored situating their
proposal all Valley some years back the
community declined and so this large
entity respected and situated where
traffic was much more
feasible it is hard to understand why
the developers seem oblivious to the
concerns of McLure community and
surrounding Community disregarding
unsafe issues pointed out to
them when a remark by the developer was
that they only want to do something nice
for these people we would think they
would Advocate our concerns of
safety that be so Ponder these questions
why would something nice be situated
where it would be impacting more
dangerous
issues why our lives not considered in
the Viewpoint why propose a high density
Endeavor to expose us and add families
to an impacted sa unsafe area plans on
paper proposals on paper can look good
but may lack a sense of reality and a
cause of for a domino effect of issues
where dangers are current and need to be
addressed
Mr Kaiser of the Planning Commission had
stated that that he believed that the
development might be a catalyst to
Street Improvement again another
contradictory view of the present matter
at hand reason for my view is that
several subdivisions surrounding McLure
from over 40 years to present have been
built and two years much later at
present our street remains neglected and
only unsafe situations have increased we
have never opposed Improvement as there
has never been any measure to attempt
presented to us who live there my
husband has been a resident born and
raised 74
years since marriage I've lived there 47
years it is a generational property and
will continue to be passed on to our
children this area has been of our
Johnson and Kio family for over 100
years negative rumors and opinions will
not change people's minds unless you
prove the Integrity to consider the
problem concerns pointed out by the
citizens who emplore you to have regard
of safety first as a priority increased
traffic from many various are areas
utilize
McLure and I thank
you thank
[Applause]
you hello my name is Karen puit and I'm
Tom prit we live on Carlile we've bought
our house in 1981
and we've seen a lot of changes in the
area to me mostly good except for the
traffic hogland and McLure as you have
heard has been the same since we have
been there there are no basically no
sidewalks on the clure there is no bike
path and no room to put one or the
sidewalks there is a ditch there that
comes out to the street so to get around
the ditch you have to walk into the
street when our daughter was born and
she was going to go to Alam
Elementary that is the path that she
would have had to take there is no way
that I would have ever let her walk that
street I was in a position where I took
her and that's what I did she we weren't
in the bus we weren't that far out she
couldn't ride a bus she had a and the
same daughter was T-boned coming out of
our street on Carlile turning left on
McClure by a hit and run she was not
hurt there is limited visibility at that
corner cars come barreling down on both
sides and I was told that two minutes
wasn't a big deal well if you're having
a heart attack or your house is on fire
and an ambulance is trying to get there
or a firet truck it's a big
deal one time I was in a I had to go and
I was and from Alam which has no ter
Lane to Raymond which is quite a ways
down the traffic was backed up that
entire way it took me a lot longer than
minutes this is something I'm sure is a
problem but in the in Los Cruses as far
as I can tell there's quite a bit of
land you're trying to develop Picacho
and ELO those have four lane roads put
your apartment there develop that don't
put it in a neighborhood
that has been there as a residential
neighborhood for this whole time and
ruin our properties and increase a
problem that let's deal with the problem
first before we increase even one car on
it if we can help
it I appreciate uh Council benom for
enlightening us on that there are going
to be some investigations I guess into
improvements out there but uh uh like
like my wife said it's it's been 43
years there and no changes from the
railroad tracks all the way to Alam just
none
um the last thing I'd like to comment on
was in the previous presentation there
was a comment about uh not being
substantially out of character for the
area but it is out of character NE thank
you
um good afternoon um my name is Pia
English and I've lived on McClure Road
for half my life um that's 30 years um
and I do want want to say that um
there's been a lot of change um since
I've been there but unfortunately for
the worst and I hate to keep saying the
s word but it's safety and um because we
are a
variable um
use sidewalk some some houses have
sidewalks some don't um I wouldn't walk
a dog on that street I would would walk
myself on that street I wouldn't walk
the street um when I bought the house um
and I was a lot braver then um and I
just want to say that um this is the
fourth time that this will come before
um any of you all of you and the only
change is that one building has been uh
deleted from the plan um as far as the
traffic goes the traffic study was last
done in
2019 um I realized the city can't do a
three-year check on traffic but the
traffic has increased and um those that
voted in favor of this proposal um um I
was up several hours yesterday yesterday
evening last night and um
I think that to make a decision you need
um to base your decision on evidence not
feelings and more than once in the in
the
um um
document um staff members said they feel
that they voted based on feelings that
we would not be negatively impacted uh
traffic-wise
but um you need to base that on evidence
not feelings everyone has feelings but
um what can you
prove um the and the last thing I want
to say is that um I wouldn't want to
live a stone throw from the railroad
crossing um and in a flood zone um those
those are things that need to be taken
into
consideration um and there are also
um as of this morning there's 200 vacant
lots that can be purchased and developed
by the city um to make affordable
housing um a reality for those who need
it um thank you so much
[Applause]
mayor and Council my name is Linda
Maddox
matx I live on um Golden
Drive it um is a dead end street that
comes out to M um to Carlile and my only
way of exiting to go do what I need to
do is to either go down hogland or go
down
McClure and um I have been choosing um
McClure more often because hogland is
usually even um more highly trafficked
I've seen the area west of the railroad
tracks developed over many years that
used to be
Fields um I have seen an increase in
traffic um all during the day
um it I do not feel safe to walk on
McClure ride my bike on McLure
um I only drive on McClure because I
have to and the part of McClure that in
my eyes it's most dangerous is between
the railroad tracks and um the ditch
because it gets narrowed down to exactly
two cars and there's no edge of anything
and
um I'm concerned about um you know
emergency access if we need um help fire
or whatever um I am concerned about um
the two power poles at the residence 606
are on each side of the road property
lines for people are right the road is
right up against their property line
there's no Grace there's no space and
that also um visibility changes
throughout the day as the sun rises and
Falls um yes we do need more housing in
our city and um the proposed um design
of the
two-story uh complexes don't suit our
character of our neighborhood so maybe
five or six single story
duplexes and I believe that safety needs
to be addressed first so if there's some
kind of a relationship that can be
between the city and the developer to
get these roads safe either with a light
um yes we have gone through many um
things throughout the years I've lived
there trying to slow down the traffic um
so it can become safer so there has been
attempts and it's been managed north of
the railroad tracks but this area has
not been dealt with in a jointed effort
between the developer and the city to
fix the safety issues first and then go
into the development issu isues because
we need both and at the previous meeting
they said the apartments are going to
rent for 1,200 to 1,400 so this is the
first that I've heard of 900 so I don't
think that it really provides whoops um
access for everybody thank
you okay thank you Council any other
questions or
comments okay I think we're all aware
that the shortage of
okay if you can come up I'll give you
two minutes because we need to we need
to wrap
up uh hello my name is Tyler revas and I
am uh in favor of this proposal uh right
now we have a obviously a housing crisis
and we just don't need affordable
housing we need all types of Housing and
right here is a solution in my opinion
because even though we also need
affordable housing we also need every
other type of housing and right here we
have 15 units close to the city center
where people obviously there's a safety
concern with the road and the condition
of the road and the lighting of the road
and the lack of bike Lanes but this
proposal can also come at the same time
it can't they could be together uh two
things could be true at once you know
that's all I had to say thank you
okay okay thank you and yeah that's
pretty much what I was going to say was
that uh that uh it's it's obvious that
we we have a shortage of Housing and it
is a safety issue in mclen it's been
like that for years I think there's
already been a compromise from going
from 20 units to 15 units so we do have
to work hand in hand in safety but we'll
see how we how we vote on this so uh
see Adam can you pull up
the vote Yes vote no okay you guys got
it um point of order would you like me
to clarify those yeses and NOS go ahead
and say it
again
okay then I would that's for sure so
your options tonight uh today council is
one to vote Yes this will reverse Den
decision made by the Planning and Zoning
commission and will approve the nfield
development Proposal with the 15 units
as proposed two to vote no this will
uphold the denial decision made by the
pnz and the applicant will uh will have
to abide by the r& regulations as
written and submit an alternate request
for consideration uh three to vote to
men this could allow city council to
modify the resolution by voting yes and
adding uh conditions as deemed
appropriate or for table postpone and
direct staff in the applicant
accordingly
thank
you so this is on the motion to approve
resolution
25-3 councelor McClure yes councelor
matis no councelor Graham yes councelor
cran yes councelor flutes yes councelor
bomo yes mayor yes motion passes
okay next is item
8.2
uh ordinance number 3070 and ordinance
amending ordinance 2698 for the
dedication of a municipal hold harmless
gross receipt
tax move to approve Graham
second
Corin good afternoon mayor council for
the record my name's lean DEH I'm your
Finance director and as you know today
is July 1 of 24 this is the first day of
our brand new fiscal year so happy new
fiscal
year so uh before you let me put this in
okay before you is some changes uh some
cleanup that I am suggesting our finance
department is suggesting just to give
you a little bit of background back in
21 um legislative passed House Bill 479
and I think some of the counselors that
had been on at the time when I brought
this forward I I know uh the mayor was
uh here as the fire chief and I think
councelor bomo and councel Flores was on
when I brought up House Bill 479 and at
that time uh taxation in rev was um this
this 479 what it did was it removed any
dedicated restrictions to any GRT that
had been accepted by a council body or
you know by a commission or whatever and
they uh anything that was approved by
Council I brought an ordinance to
council changing what the dedication was
to make it very
unrestricted that's what the taxation
that's what this legislation did and
that's what tax and rev had wanted us to
do so I brought two ordinance uh one it
was for the street impr uh Improvement
ordinance and the other one was for our
environmental
GT um I did not bring at that time the
hold harmless GRT which was ordinance
2698 that was not part of the
unrestricted ordinances because at that
time there was a possible potential of
clawback because hard hold harmless was
still very active at that time uh that
is no longer the case and we don't have
any of of um feel anything about any
claw back from the state or anything on
the hold harmless um the state does
report our GRT as a all unrestricted is
just a lump some that we received from
them uh currently uh ordinance
2698 this is what the dedication reads
it says revenue from the municipal hold
harmless JT will be used for any
specific purpose or area of municipal
government services including but not
limited to police protection fire
protection public transportation or
Street repair and maintenance what we
are proposing as we did the other two
ordinances for it the dedication to just
read that the revenue from the municipal
hold harmless JY will be
unrestricted and we were going as always
you know that we're always going through
doing fund maintenance as you know we
have hundreds and hundreds of funds and
we're always trying to clean up our
funds and that was one of the reasons
why this you're wondering why did this
pop up all of a suddenly and well it's
sort of out of sight out of mind but it
popped up on me again uh when we were
doing some cleanup U looking at gfoa and
GAP maintenance we're always looking at
the language and that so it popped up on
my radar again and it's just sound
financial practices as well and that's
why I brought it forward to you today
and with that these are your Council
options and I stand for any questions
all right thank you Leanne uh any
questions from
Council okay I just want to say just
continue to be deeply grateful for you
yeah thank you so much
counselor go ahead
Chrissy this is on the motion to approve
ordinance
3070 councelor McClure yes councelor
matis yes councelor Graham yes councelor
cran yes councelor flotes yes councelor
benl yes and mayor yes
next is 8.3 Council bill number 24- 029
ordinance number
3071 an ordinance approving a zone
change from C2 to
C3 uh for property encompassing
2.56 plus acres and located at 2605
baton Memorial
West move to approve second gram
and
Adam mayor uh Adam with Community
Development for the record again uh the
applicant has actually requested staff
to postpone this proposed zone change uh
to our next city council meeting which
was on the 15th I believe so we could uh
there they ran into a a problem with the
zone change and they're trying to hammer
it out before they come before you so uh
uh there may be a slight change to uh
what they're proposing uh at the next
meeting on the 15th
I I just want to say I'm really bummed
because this is like one of the few vone
changes that's in my neighborhood and I
was so ready for for everything today so
I'm kind of bummed sorry Adam this is in
my neighborhood in my backyard I can't
wait to see it in two
weeks okay so you want to make a motion
to table it for two weeks I just sorry
before we do that Christine is that
workable for the agenda for two weeks um
yes I would just table it specifically
to July 15th okay thank
you that was my movement that was my
motion I can't wait to see it on July
15th because I moved to table till July
15th second
Graham so this is on the motion to table
ordinance 3071 to July 15th Council
McClure yes councelor matis yes
councelor Graham yes councelor cran yes
councel
flutes yes councelor benl yes and mayor
yes thank
you next is board appointments and we
have none uh next is a notice of
proposed ordinance there are three to be
brought forward Council number
25- 001 ordinance 3072 an ordinance
adopting a municipal grossery seat
tax and then me
Council Flores you had a question yes um
I'd like clarification on
10.1 that's a
GRT it's the first read yeah well what's
your question a councelor may ask for
clarification I would like to know um
procedurally maybe um it would be
Christine who could uh sh some lighter
edify uh me for
edification what happens if we well
first of all we
um it is it's a question of getting
gross receipt tax issue on the um agenda
at a future at a future time no council
fles we need to bring this forward with
the GRT ballot question and that's why
it's on a first read for July 1st it
will be brought forward along with a
resolution on July 15th you'll be
hearing them together okay then um my
understanding when we uh discussed this
uh at a previous meeting was that
um that it wouldn't go to the public I
mean excuse me that it would not it was
it was a decision that the public would
make yes and so now now it looks like
we're going to be making that
decision um I just want a clarification
yeah this this ordinance is actually for
the public vote we have to approve this
ordinance so that if the ballot question
is approved we can send the ordinance to
the state so this ordinance that's
coming before you is not for your
portion it's for the ballot question
portion it's just something we have to
preemptively do for the state correct
not for us correct and yeah so that's
clear now correct thank you very much
thank you councelor FR Bring It
Forward the next one is 10.2 Council
bill number 20- 002 ordinance number 373
an ordinance approving a zone change
from C2 to C3 Bring It
Forward 10.3 Council number
25-3 ordinance number 3074 an ordinance
approving a zone change from r1a single
family medium density to c3c commercial
high density Bring It
Forward okay next we have city council
board member reports and comments I'll
start uh councilor
McLure thank you mayor um last week I
went to the fire department graduation
and I just wanted to give a kudos to how
much hope I walked away from going to
that I mean also bag pipes also very
cool
but that there are people willing to
give their entire careers to a city that
may change may look different in the
future um and I think that's that's kind
of a discussion we're grappling with
this idea of what our city will look
like it will look different it looked
different when I was 20 years ago came
here for the first time um so I think
that balance is going to be hard to
achieve if people can't have a vision
for what they could look like and I
think it is hopeful to see still people
willing to give their entire careers to
that idea um I am interested too about
the um cannabis companies partially
because it's so interesting to me that
it feels like it's stifling Innovation
here in Southern New Mexico and I think
that's a consideration if we want to
actually have that discussion about what
that might look like for us to have that
because sounds like Albuquerque can sell
their product here and harder for us so
I I wouldn't want to stifle our um
economic opportunities and lastly I
wanted to give shout out to mvda who was
keeping us in informed The Dispatch
Center with um all of the storms letting
us know how they were doing that and
it's it's always interesting to me when
we think about First Responders of
course we think about fire department
and police but also our dispatchers and
our utilities who are out there in the
storms making sure that we still have
power and waste water flowing so not
super interesting but very valued if
it's not there so thank you guys for
what you do and I just want to pass it
off thank
you thank you Council MC councelor matis
I just want to mention mayor and I'd
like to thank the staff I had a town
hall meeting District 2 meeting at Los
cruus high and we had six presenters
Chris you were one of them it was it was
really good it was good information we
had almost 80 people that attended the
Las Cru High district meeting I also
want to thank Barbara Pomo and our uh uh
deputy chief he uh in fact all six all
six uh
Representatives uh Scott Katrina
everyone stayed after even 7:30 and
fielded questions from almost 80 people
so I just want to put that on record we
have a really super staff and they
really are concerned about the what the
Citizens need in our city thank you
thank you
mayor thank you Council M Council Grant
no thank you thank you Council K thank
you I want to um echo councelor mclure's
hopefulness of the of the lcfd
graduation it was great to to see the
new class and hear their tales and um
welcome them to the city staff so thank
you for the invitation and for those who
signed up to to join your impressive
ranks um I won't recommend that you all
have a bag pipe uh regiment I guess
because I think councelor Graham lives
with a firefighter and she would that
would be horrible to have from if Mike
were learning the bag pipes I'm sure
that would be a lot of spouses would be
really angry if if we were suddenly
having folks learn bag pipes um I think
it's a pretty steep learning curve
actually uh on that particular
instrument but thank you again for for
the invitation I also want to thank the
staff who helped me put on the check the
chip events that were really successful
we talked to a lot of folks who uh the
staff um Katrina in particular the
Animal Control Officers and the ascmv
staff who worked together to talk to a
lot of folks who had no idea about what
their animals chips said or had uh
adopted from the ascmv and really just
wanted to show off their animals after
having adopted them I did want to a
couple things came to light in those
conversations one of them was um that a
lot of people don't know what their
microchips say and I urge you all to uh
follow up with your vet and and find out
what your microchip number is and then
when you call the chip company that owns
your chip they might tell you you have
to pay money but just so you know your
microchip lasts forever um and you are
they have to keep your information up to
date and the Animal Services Center
keeps a separate database so that they
can also help help you um if your
animals are picked up by acos on July
4th so don't pay the chip companies any
money you you don't have to do that um
but please do check to make sure that
your microchips are up to date because
of the folks that we saw I don't know we
probably scanned 25 or 30 people and I
think about 2third of those folks had
incorrect information in within their
files for their animals and their chips
so it was a really good and
powerful uh lesson for me and and I
really appreciate the staff that helped
do that uh on another note with ascmv we
have received a bunch of applicants for
the community positions uh we're in the
process of evaluating those and
anticipate having those folks for
appointment on July 15th at the next
board meeting so we'll be appointing the
city representatives to the Animal
Services Board then um so that's
forthcoming uh in the near future so
that's I think all that I have uh this
week let me just make sure that I
haven't missed anything uh yep that's
all thank
you thank you councelor councelor florus
oh thank you I have a question for uh my
colleague Mr matis
I have a question so it's a good one
it's going to be a good one okay okay
after all these years of being you were
mayor you were counselor before being a
counselor today right and you live in
the same district right yes ma'am okay
so what were were the questions any
different the issues that uh that were
brought up at your community meeting
different than the ones that you were
dealing with uh was it 20 years ago or
how many years ago was it uh 75 no no a
bunch a bunch of years know similar
questions basically uh roadway uh
improvements uh of course I I think the
mayor will agree that the the crime
questions are very prevalent today
what's happening in their in their in
different neighborhoods uh that was much
higher U but but everything else was uh
I I think very similar I mean cities
grow and I think uh we've had a lot of
comments on on on the growth but I think
everybody's been pleased with the
quality of
life achievements that we have done in
the last uh 75 years uh but I think
everything was pretty much the same
thank you Dr
Flores you're welcome um I really don't
have a well I do have a lot to say but
I'm really retired I'll pass thank
you thank you councilor Flores um mayor
Pro Temp thanks um I have a just a
couple things um few things I was really
just you know um my heart was full to
see the amount of support that our
community here in Las Cruses is offering
to our neighbors and Roso and Mescal
tribes um I think at one point I saw
that some folks in Roso were saying stop
sending stuff you know if you can
provide monetary donations we're
literally running out of space to keep
all of these things and so that's just
really beautiful if that's the last
crues I know in 2019 was really similar
when we started receiving Asylum Seekers
I mean there was volunteers there was
things donated like that's the last
crues that I know that we have each
other's back in a moment of Crisis um
and just Desperately Seeking that as our
own lost cruin experience their own
moment of Crisis um and they're finding
themselves unsheltered or unhoused
um Desperately Seeking that same um
feeling here I think that leads me to
just you know touch base on the Grants
Pass uh decision that the Supreme Court
made a couple of days ago where they
said that Municipal go governments can
literally now criminalize sleeping
outside and I think this is a cruel
decision I think this is an inhumane
decision made by an ultra right-wing
extremist Supreme Court and I really
really hope with all of my being that no
one on this Das is hoping to follow
suit um as that would not be reflective
of the values of this
community um and I'm just
truly I I would say shocked but I'm I'm
not the Supreme Court um is claims to be
pro-life until that life find them F
finds thems unhoused and then it stops
so I do not believe those are our values
and I certainly hope that we continue to
fight for policies and programs that um
work to actually truly address um our
homeless issues here so um I will
certainly continue to do that and
continue to fight for
that I one of the things we're doing
actually very much tomorrow that I'm
very much looking forward to is um Chief
story LCPD um Paul Ford with um the fire
department um the mih program and other
community uh Partners like Community
Pope and FYI um and invite any of you to
join us we're it's going to be at 2 pm
in the middle of the day but we're going
to do a a street Outreach um down
Picacho and just walk the street and um
just do Outreach for folks on the street
for businesses whoever um mih and
Community Advocates from LC PD did this
about I don't know a year ago I think
down downtown and it was very successful
and so we're going to try it again on
West Picacho and um that will be
tomorrow at 2m and we're meeting at um
Tractor Supply right there on the corner
um of Valley and Picacho and um I'm just
really looking forward to it I think
this is going to the people is really
important to understand how we address
some of the issues that we're facing so
um that is tomorrow and um we'll be
excited to report back in two weeks on
how that that went I also wanted to ask
for
um what it would take to do a codes
project um city manager I've uh put it
in an email already but wanted it to
include it in my comments um there is a
neighborhood in District 4 um in the Bri
Branding Iron circle area it's a mobile
home park um and I've been in contact
with some residents who are having some
issues with their neighbors and codes
has tried to address it and mih is
working to address it and all of these
resources um but you know when I
canvased there in uh last in the fall I
also noticed those similar things and
even since then I thought um wondering
what we could do in terms of a codes
project whether it's a letter first I
know that I could gather um members of
that Community to Canvas to volunteer
and do some of the Outreach around how
how you dispose of big items like your
old mattresses or old chairs
um having your numbers on the hardly
anybody has any of their home numbers
that are visible and I know that's a
huge Public Safety concern so just some
of those kinds of codes projects I would
love to do I know that capacity and
funding could be an issue but um would
love to know what it takes to do that um
and then just lastly I would love to
know um how many projects we've
submitted to map the
municipal atrial what is it or Arial
wow wow arterial U program just in the
last couple years I'd I'd love to know
how how we've utilized that map um and
if there is room to submit some
proposals for potentially like Mur and I
I talked to David about what that would
take but um I think there's a couple of
requests for traffic calming that are
out in The Ether and um just wondering
if this could be utilized and I'm I'm
curious about how we've utilized it in
the past so that's it mayor thank
you thank you mayor BR down and again a
huge thank you to El Paso Electric uh
during the storm and the bad weather
that we had the last couple of days and
getting the boots on the ground and
helping us restore our power uh no
different than our hearts go out to
those in in rioso and and as mayor Pro
Tim said you know we had our fire our
fire Crews going out there but we had a
lot of members of this community just
giving continue to give and it goes in
line with what our theme is here in the
city of Los Cruses and that's Adelante
conino and it really speaks volumes of
our community and our city and speaking
of Adelante moving forward uh this past
week I was able to be the keynote
speaker for the CBA Central Business
Association in El Paso and trying to
bring Economic Development to uh to our
southern New Mexico with the
Partnerships of El Paso and pis so that
was one thing that took place and it was
great to start building the bridges uh
for economic development in our in our
area or border Plex
region and then also tomorrow um I think
mayor protm you said Chief story will be
here but he won't uh but the police
department will will represent but Chief
story and I will be in Albuquerque
tomorrow as the governor has invited us
she is going to have a public safety
roundhouse to discuss some of the issues
that's going to take place with a
special session coming up so that's
again moving forward with ideas on
mental behavioral and uh how to address
crime so we'll be at that Public Safety
roundhouse meeting tomorrow in
Albuquerque from 1: to
4: um 4th of July is coming upon us and
I was going to request of the city
manager maybe the lights could display
some patriotic colors for our city hall
and then just want to end it with
wishing everybody a happy and say 4th of
July uh please attend all the
festivities that are planned the
entertainment the food uh the music and
the firework display thank you and with
that uh city
manager thank you mayor Enriquez mayor
PM Bena and City councilors Eon tamop
city manager and I just have a few
updates for for you again echoing
everyone's kudos for epe this past
weekend additionally I want to to give
kudos to our staff who are dealing with
the impacts uh non- power related but
getting facilities back up clearing the
streets and roadways thank you uh to
Public Safety fire and police as always
Public Works traffic parks and wreck
staff uh joint utilities facilities and
every other department that falls in
between uh between and outside thank you
so much for your uh for for all the
staff working this weekend Kudos uh as
well to the communication Rico gave me
Kudos uh but but really I I get I get
all the communication uh from my city
manager uh office team so I appreciate
Sonia I appreciate JC I appreciate
Barbara and I appreciate Davis Ado who's
filling in as well for Sonia who've been
keeping me apprised uh through with
their teams and everything that they can
find out so thank you to uh the CMO team
as well for keeping me a prize with with
everything uh which then allows me to
pass it on to uh city
council an update the the Hawk
pedestrian signal has been installed and
operational at Picacho Avenue in Fourth
Street for those who don't know the hawk
is stands for high-intensity activated
crosswalk is a pedestrian activated
Beacon to increase pedest pedestrian
safety at midblock crosswalks minor
Street inter intersections and in school
zones and as everyone has uh is aware we
have festivities coming for July 3rd and
July 4th on Wednesday July 3rd as a
announced last week City Las cusis 4th
of July celebration will kick off with
electric 5K and Fun Run followed by the
annual electric light parade the parade
route begins at abadaka ends at Mite
road closures will begin on Wednesday
the 3rd at 5:30 so don't be caught in
that uh running event begins at 7:30
with the Parade starting at 9:00 p.m. on
the 4th the city annual 4th of July
celebration concert and fireworks
display will be at NMSU we have
uh black jacket Symphony will make their
Los cruus debut performing iconic album
Saturday Night Fever black jacket
Symphony has performed over 40 classic
rock albums bringing an incredible night
of
entertainment uh after school program
Lottery registration begins today
through Friday July 12th if interested
call 575 541 2550 for Program locations
and additional information
um also keep Los Cruz's beautiful
dumpster day is on Saturday July 20th
from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00
noon just responding to uh councelor uh
I'm sorry mayor pretend B comoo you
mentioned the codes project we can stay
definitely stay in touch just some ideas
coming to mind uh if there's a
spokesperson for the group or if you're
in touch with somebody um have them
reach out to uh to myself and we can get
the appropriate people in a room we can
start with the meeting uh and see what
the need needs are and definitely have
codes and whoever else and if you'd like
to be in that meeting too that just uh
what comes to mind quickly but uh we can
stay in touch if there's anything else
you'd like to do let me
know and also I know you're working with
David cido on the on the projects for
the arterial programs and so if there's
anything else we'll we'll keep you prize
on that and how it's being utilized also
July 4th uh mayor will uh we will'll
work with facilities work with Davis AO
and facility staff to get that with the
um with the appropriate lights and if
you'd like we can keep it on for the for
the whole month or are you thinking it's
the
day okay we'll we'll keep it up for the
whole month if you'd like and that's it
for me mayor mayor pm and city council
thank
you thank you city
manager with that I'll look for a motion
to adjourn move to adjourn Corin second
by
Flores this is on the motion to adjourn
the meeting councelor McClure yes
councelor matis yes councelor Graham yes
councelor
cran yes councelor fles yes councelor
benl yes and mayor
yes for