okay
foreign
[Music]
okay well welcome back this is the work
session on Las Cruces City Council today
is Monday April 24th 2023 it's
approximately
205 p.m we've already done our pets of
the week and jobs of the week and we're
going to go right into the three item
agenda first one being 3.1 progress
report on real life Las Cruces and
deputy director David Weir and the
Consultants will be
providing the discussion David good
afternoon mayor and city council as you
said this item is an update to the
realize Las Cruces project and if you
also recall realize Las Cruces is the
project name that we've given the update
of the Land Development codes and so
today to provide that presentation is
freeze Nichols we have Erica Craycraft
and Karen Perez and so I'll turn it over
to Erica
all right good afternoon mayor and
Council again my name is Erica Craycraft
with Frieza Nichols and it's great to be
back here with you all today
again my name is Erica Craycraft and I
am the project manager for the
development code update and joining me
today is Karen Perez and you can see
several of our other key team members
here most of whom you've seen at
previous meetings our assistant project
manager is Dawn Warwick also Fred Lopez
and local attorney Dana Kyle is helping
us out on this effort as well
the agenda for today I'd like to share a
reminder of our overall process and
approach to the code update and share a
status update about where we are and
where we're headed
next I'd like to highlight some items
from the Elevate Las Cruces
comprehensive plan which if you recall
that's a major focus of the development
code update to bring that forward into
implementation so I will highlight some
of those working Section sections also
look at some next steps and then I'd be
happy to take any questions or comments
that you might have
so first starting with the process you
can see the major scope items here just
to give everyone a topic an idea of the
topics that we are looking at through
this process some of the big ones are
the zoning districts and the zoning map
which will be updated as part of this
process also the drainage regulations
signs outdoor lighting Landscaping
roadways is a is a big piece of this
Landscaping Parks Park dedication tree
preservation screening fencing buffering
it's a really wide range of topics
included within this scope but generally
all things Land Development
the overall process is a three-phased
process you may have noticed that we
have extended our timeline on the
overall process initially we had been
looking at a two-year timeline and we're
currently looking at more like a
three-year timeline to get all the way
to completion
a couple reasons for that delay we've
had several rounds of back and forth
revisions working with your city staff
to make sure that the drafts are
incorporating all of their comments and
they are ready for the drafts to move
forward also based on Council Direction
we've been working with the technical
advisory committee or the TAC to their
meeting generally twice a month to
review drafts and provide comments back
to us so we're incorporating their
comments into the review as well so but
that that has added on a little bit of
time to our overall process
backing up to the beginning we started
in phase one that we call a diagnostic
evaluation and at that time we were
reviewing your existing plans like the
Elevate Las Cruces comprehensive plan
and others as well as your existing
codes and talking to people who are
frequent code users also members of City
Council in the Planning and Zoning
commission members of the development
community and others to formulate really
our game plan for moving forward with
the code update so we spent about six
months in the beginning really working
through how are we going to move forward
with the with the process
next in phase two which is where we
currently are approaching the end of
that that's the actual drafting of the
new development code and the new zoning
map
and looking ahead to phase three which
will be the public review and the
refinement and uh potentially the the
future adoption process we are looking
to shift to public review drafts around
the end of this year and aiming for
Target adoption in early 2024.
a look more closely at the phase two
process again the process that we're in
now how we are drafting the code our
team the Consultants put together a
draft section we send it to your city
staff and a group of them review that
content and provide comments back to us
we make revisions based on their
comments and so depending on the
different sections we've had several
rounds of review just making sure again
that we're getting all of their comments
Incorporated so that's our our first set
of steps is incorporating City staff
comments and making sure that it's ready
to move forward
then it moves forward to the technical
advisory committee or the TAC that was
appointed by Council
I mentioned that their meeting about
twice a month they've had 12 or 14
meetings to date where they're reviewing
all of this content and providing
comments back to us as well and also
City staff sometimes has other comments
to add in with those you know based on
some comments or concerns that might
have been raised by the tax so that's
our review process that we work through
in each one of these topic specific
sections so Zoning for example goes
through the process and then the
roadways section goes through the
process so we are doing topic based
reviews
next moving on to some of the the
highlights on how we are incorporating
your existing plans and I'd just like to
really emphasize that these are working
drafts some of the sections that the
attack hasn't seen yet but we've been
working with City staff on them and
wanted to give you a preview so you
could understand what we've been working
on and how we are moving forward
so the Elevate Las Cruces comprehensive
plan really provides a lot of direction
for the development code during that
process you guys had very substantial
public involvement through the
development of that plan and that plan
has a lot of different recommendations
that came out of it there's nearly 500
recommendations I think that came out of
that plan and about 200 of them are
related to the development code there's
also other recommendations like other
Capital Improvements or follow-up
studies that might not be covered really
by the development code but we're
focusing on the ones that are
so there are about I think I mentioned
200 recommendations that we've pulled
forward into our process and our review
so we've been going through all of these
through what what Elevate Las Cruces
calls a policy framework
so we're taking this direction from
Elevate but also from your other plans
as well we're looking at the Active
Transportation plan Parks master plan
other plans like that that are really
informing our process
Elevate also has recommendations related
to the physical framework of the city
here you can see from Elevate the future
development map
and so from this we have been working
with City staff to develop new zoning
districts that are incorporating the
character character areas through
character-based districts and what that
will do and what we've been working on
is developing districts that will have
special calibration for how the building
and site are designed based on which
character area they're in and when I say
character area that's referring to Urban
Suburban or rural that are established
by the Elevate map
so that is how we are incorporating
those that the character areas are
looking at
elements like the density the dwelling
units per acre or the setbacks the
building orientation things like that
that are more about the form of the
development we also have other districts
like the commercial and Retail districts
or industrial that do have a more
traditional approach as well
the Elevate feature development map also
includes what is called Town Center
overlays and mixed-use Corridor overlays
so we are pulling those forward and
implementing those through zoning
overlay districts and the intent right
now where we're working with those those
districts is to use them to increase
density and walkability and vibrancy of
these identified areas
also the neighborhood center concept
those are the smaller areas that you see
in the in the blue circles
we are working toward incorporating them
as a use that's permitted in the use
chart so it wouldn't require a special
rezoning to be able to do it we want to
make it as easy as possible to have
these in the right places so we're
looking at whether we would be able to
do those by right perhaps or whether an
sup might be needed in certain cases but
that is something that we are actively
implementing
Elevate also has guidance on roadway
design and also the adjacent streetscape
so we've been looking at Elevate and
also the active Transportation plan to
come up with some roadway cross sections
that would be included here you can see
a preview of what we've been working on
again these are very much in progress
but we are looking at this example is
showing a minor arterial for example and
how that might look different in the
different character areas so again
looking back to the Elevate guidance for
character and pulling that forward so we
can see different configurations that
Implement bike and pedestrian and
Transit infrastructure
also the top items on here shown as new
construction that would be for the ideal
construction of of New Roads and then
the retrofit Alternatives we're looking
at some options where there is constrain
right-of-way for when a road is being
rebuilt what would that look like
because we've heard a lot about infill
constraints so for each roadway type we
are customizing it really for each
character Zone
other news sections that we have been
working on implementing the plans we'll
have
regulations related to Street trees that
again vary by character area looking at
parking lot Landscaping you can see an
example of one of the graphics that
we're including to try to transition to
a more graphic based plan that's excuse
me code that's going to be
easier for users to understand
including tree removal permits that
would be something that would be done at
the development Review Committee level
right now as we're working through the
draft that's what we've recommended Park
dedication the city is in the process of
updating your Park impact fees so we're
also working with your other consultant
to make sure that those sections are
aligned for Park dedication and also for
trails
infill development we've heard
throughout the the input process that
infill development is going to be an
important consideration
so something that we have been doing
we've focused on the flexible
development standards if you're familiar
with those in the current code and
looking for ways that we may be able to
either update those or expand those but
really focusing on how can we use those
standards to allow Common Sense
modifications at the administrative
level to help facilitate infill and
Redevelopment and some of those
we are looking at two different levels
one would be at the director level and
then one would be at the development
Review Committee level but looking at
both of those
um ideally being administrative changes
we are also incorporating
um some of the existing standards where
you have flexibility for average
setbacks in a current uh developed
neighborhood so if there's one
particular site that's redeveloping
making sure that it's compatible with
the development on either side of it and
also that that may allow more
flexibility for them as well
I mentioned the street design criteria
where we have the the different cross
sections for narrower right-of-way and
how those can be implemented
incorporating the bike and ped
infrastructure
we've also retained the provision that
the city is able to waive application
fees or refund application fees for
infill development at the city's
discretion so that's an existing
provision that that we intend to keep
we're also reviewing the infill
development overlay which is part of
zoning and the Anvil cell division
process which is part of subdivision
we're reviewing those and seeing are are
there Provisions included there that
could be updated or some that even could
potentially be expanded city-wide to
help facilitate and streamline
development city-wide if it's a process
that's already working
a few other items to highlight that are
other major Concepts from Elevate and
the active Transportation plan and
others
I mentioned a little bit earlier about
building form standards particularly in
the character areas where we're really
trying to encourage pedestrian-oriented
development in walkable areas
reporting what's called missing middle
housing variety and that really refers
to duplexes Town Homes quad plexes
accessory dwelling units all the
different types of housing that fall
between a traditional detached
single-family home and a high density
apartment complex all the all the things
in the middle
so incorporating that through zoning
supporting neighborhood service uses
those are referring to
local scale
retail and commercial type uses that are
intended to support the neighborhoods
and those would also be reflected
through the neighborhood center use type
multimodal traffic impact analyzes that
was a
direction that we heard from both your
city staff and the technical advisory
committee so we've been working on
revising that section to make sure that
our traffic impact analysis and studies
are incorporating multimodal approaches
and also connectivity both from a
vehicular and pedestrian standpoint
and our last section that is remaining
that it's it's really under development
at all the other sections that I've
mentioned we have a working draft and
we're going through that cycle of
working with City staff and or the
advisory committee but the last section
that we are working on right now is the
low impact development section and the
reason that it's happening last is
because it relates to so many different
sections of the code so it relates to
drainage roadways Landscaping zoning and
all of the sections really and so now
that we have an initial working draft of
all of those sections now we can start
to look at well what could we
incorporate in low impact development
standards and what can we offer as
incentives to encourage people to do do
these different lid elements and
controls voluntarily
so as an example we have suggested that
if a if an applicant provides additional
landscaping or they reduce their
impervious coverage then in exchange for
that maybe they could have increased
density residential density or increased
Building height in exchange for that we
have also talked about the importance of
maintenance for low impact development
that it does require special maintenance
a lot of the time
indefinitely basically so if they're
getting a permanent incentive that's
going to be something like a density
bonus or increased height there needs to
be a permanent agreement that it will be
maintained in perpetuity so that is
something we are
working on now
looking ahead at our next steps
our first step is to continue working
with City staff and the advisory
committee on developing the draft code
and refining that and getting it to the
complete draft next we would like to
bring that complete draft back to City
Council in the Planning and Zoning
commission and that is likely in the
November December time frame
so once we would have a complete draft
we would bring it to you all for your
feedback and any revisions or questions
any adjustments that we need to make
before it moves forward to the public
because in January
that's when we would like to present it
after the holidays get it out to the
public and share it with with everyone
for their feedback and any questions or
other comments that the community might
have we'd like to host an in-person open
house event it would also have a virtual
alternative but there would be an
in-person event and that effort would
include
first an educational component just so
everyone understands and feels like they
have the background that they need to
participate in the process and provide
their feedback about what is the
development code and what does it mean
for me
um we would like to share at that point
highlights of the draft allow feedback
opportunities from the public
and also allow for one-on-one
discussions with property owners a lot
of times there can be concern from the
public especially with the zoning map
updates about what does this mean for me
and my property
so we would like to consider that as
part of the open house event to be able
to sit down and have more focused
conversations with people
also on the realized Las cruces.com
website there is a virtual open house
that's been live since really the
beginning of the process we're still
getting comments every once in a while
on that page we are still monitoring it
so if anyone has comments that they
would like to share feel free to get on
the website and share comments there
also in January around that same time
frame as the open house
we'd like to revisit with all of the
code users who we met with at the
beginning of the process whenever we
were doing that phase one diagnostic
report
and we'd like to talk with them about
you know did we adequately address your
concerns you know do you have any new
concerns with the with the updated draft
but making sure that we close that
feedback loop and going back to them
again to get their feedback on the draft
and just a reminder of who the different
folks were that we met with at the
beginning and that we'd like to Circle
back with members of council the
Planning and Zoning commission City
staff developers and several other
stakeholders in the community who are
often involved in the development
process
we'd like to bring that input that we
hear in January through those the open
house and the code user feedback
meetings and bring that back to you all
with some proposed revisions So based on
what we heard from the community we
think that the following revisions might
be appropriate to the draft and see what
what your direction would be
once we have that input incorporated
then we would be ready to move forward
to the formal public hearing so we like
to have an opportunity to invite the
public for informal feedback through the
open house so we don't wait until the
the very end of the formal public
hearing so the the open house is
intended to be more of an informal
exchange and Q a and there's still time
to to make revisions and things like
that so
um that is our general timeline and a
quick overview of the process and with
that I would be happy to take any
questions thank you thank you Erica
Graham
no I'm sorry
thank you Mr Mayor and thank you Karen
for your presentation
um I I like your plans I like it all but
I do have a lot of questions
um
in the final plan that we are presented
with is there going to be any area that
you're going to focus on for example a
new development or infill or is this
just a guideline for that sort of work
um thank you for the question it would
be it would be not guidelines it would
be enforceable regulations and it would
apply to all new development and for say
you had an existing structure that was
going to expand a certain percentage
they were going to expand 20 or
something like that there would be
different triggers for
what regulations might apply to that
development so do you have a specific
projects that the City Community
Development Department would be working
with specifically I mean I mean have you
looked at the you did look at infill but
say there's a building on that infill
property
our code's going to be designed
to meet the goal of that development
given what's already there
so any any development that is existing
or that has already started the
development process they are allowed to
keep doing exactly what they're doing
there's no changes that anyone would
have to make to their property if they
if they just
continued whatever their use was or
whatever their building was there's no
changes that are required until if they
if they wanted to redevelop the site or
a large Edition at that time the new the
new rules would apply okay so if there's
some infill going on now they're not
going to be bound by these correct Okay
so
they're not you know
that closest so um
and you're not looking at a specific
part of the city
to design a development correct correct
we are not we are not
establishing the design for any one site
of the city it's more about the general
form for the regulations are Citywide
but the different zoning districts of
course apply differently to wherever
they are on the map but there's not
anything that is parcel specific to a
particular development right so what
about the missing middle in terms of
housing how
would that look like in terms of the
codification or the whatever the the
rules
what would that look like hypothetically
I mean
you've I mean this is what you do so uh
how how would that be written
the missing middle
great question and and then there are
are there parts of the city where
I don't know if this question is for you
but
um would there be parts of the city that
would be designated as uh the missing
middle housing
so missing middle housing we would
address or we are addressing through
zoning and the zoning chapter will have
a permitted use chart and so it's just a
matrix that lists all the districts
across the top and all the uses
down the down the side and so examples
of the uses would be those housing types
so a duplex a Triplex quadplex Cottage
Court accessory dwelling unit so we can
use that Matrix to say these housing
types are allowed by right in these
districts and so our upcoming effort
working through the mapping part of that
will be that the map that I'm showing on
the screen here is from Elevate so ours
will be more more detailed than this but
we are looking at this so we would say
for example that
the orange on here just again as an
example the I think it's Urban
neighborhood is the category there so in
this example all of those missing middle
types could be allowed by right in that
geographic area
so they would be throughout the city
in wherever there's space
that would lend itself to development
um I I don't know that we would allow
them by ride everywhere or if it's going
to be more
more detailed about whether it's it's
more appropriate in the urban areas
because it's more walkable to more
amenities and services if we have
missing middle in more of the rural
areas that gets a little bit harder with
providing services to the areas as far
as infrastructure or also being able to
walk to different
amenities
mayor and councilor Flores just if I can
add to that I agree with everything that
Eric has stated what we're trying to do
but the other thing that we're doing if
you see the first bullet when it talks
about
um within each of the character areas
the urban suburban and residential will
have a residential zoning districts
these neighborhood zoning districts and
the mixed use and so like in the
residential areas we are going to
respect or we propose to respect some of
the single-family neighborhoods but we
anticipate adding more ability to do the
accessory dwelling units and then in the
neighborhood is ones where you see kind
of a mix of uses and so there would be
that would be a key area to put some of
those missing middle components in so
like if you're in a rural area it'd be
more likely that it would be residential
in nature but we would also have where
there would be some services and some
shopping opportunities at a at a very
reasonable reasonable scale and then
your mixed use would be your area where
you would have all those uses from
residential to Commercial and
multi-family so that's what we're we're
working with the Consultants to
incorporate and that's one of the key
components of elevate Los Cruces is to
provide those additional housing
opportunities
so Mr we're you say you're working with
Consultants is it freeze and Nichols or
yes I'm sorry I should I should say Eric
and Karen and Don Eric I don't care but
I know that we have a proposed
development in the in
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um
the Lowman uh East London there's a plan
there but it's another company I think
it's Southwest I think something
but um so this this seems to be an
overview of making realized Las Cruces
realizing realize Las Cruces
mayor and councilor Flores that's
correct this will become the development
standard Citywide and so this is the
tool that the city's able to do to
implement we use the term implement but
basically
the vision and guidelines that have been
put forward in Elevate Las Cruces when
someone comes into a project we're
adopting standards so that they will
build to that and and meet those
contribute to meeting that Vision that
the Elevate Las Cruces sets out okay and
then I have another
that is definitely a policy issue or
just I'm just wondering in terms of the
missing middle housing
is there is going to be any are there
going to be any incentives for
Developers for Builders because we're
not developers well maybe developers but
Builders to assure that we have that
because that's that's really uh you know
we talk about homelessness but it
doesn't just you know and then we think
of someone you know
someone who's walking down the street
you know with a packed backpack but
there are a lot of people who
excuse me who are
also homeless and so far as looking for
a home they can buy so are we going to
be is the city going to be working with
developers in that regard
mayor and councilor Flores that's their
I think are many fronts that the city is
exploring in that manner were through
the zoning code and Land Development
codes we're providing opportunities for
that type of housing to be developed
some of the other tools that you're
utilizing you you recently identified
two areas for mras you can collect funds
and reinvest in those areas and so
that's an incentive that can take place
the other thing is when the city does
Capital Improvements if there's a
certain area of town that you're
reinvesting in you're making that
commitment to the area so those are two
other prongs that the city can use but
the Land Development code basically is
what takes place in the property so it's
one allowing the missing middle products
to be in the various zoning districts
and then there were as was in your
presentation talking about the infill
area are there other incentives where
they may if they provide these certain
components they can do more units or
more dwellings and and that's an
incentive of itself so
we're trying to do through the land use
regulations what we can to incentivize
providing those missing metal but we
also know that we need to complement
those other efforts of the city great
thank you so much Mr weird and thank you
so much Eric
thank you Mr Mayor I'm going to kind of
correct this and go to Mayor Pro tem and
then counselor binko
Mr
okay councilor Koran
thank you for your presentation and
thank you for the expanded sort of thing
which answered some of my questions I I
I wasn't on Council when you all did the
initial conversations and I appreciate
hearing how much you've been thinking
about and integrating all of the things
that are in Elevate but I would also say
I hope
um I feel like some things even in the
last year have changed in terms of
public rhetoric and and understanding
how zoning can affect housing and
Security in particular but but a number
of other things so I hope it sounds like
a lot of things like promoting adus and
and reducing administrative burden that
comes to certain types of development
which I know adus are really interesting
study and like zoning and setbacks and
all of the things that we've constructed
to prevent them
um I think
historically so
I'm curious I hope that we can continue
to sort of push the edges of that and it
sounds like you all are doing that and I
appreciate it
um with a particular emphasis on
facilitating
increased density and and all of the
things that you allude to I hope also in
the incentives or even in the in the
zoning code in particular related to
commercial zoning but also mixed-use
developments that we can look at some of
the ways that people are innovating
parking conversations you sort of
alluded to this a little bit but I think
um
we've historically allowed for a lot of
sort of parking development or required
a lot of parking development and I hope
that we can change that dynamic as well
as we go to it and then I also
appreciate you identifying some of the
ways that we're reducing
um
the administrative tax that we put on
people who want to make changes in
particular going to the drcs versus
going to department heads and I I just
want us to date that I hope that
that that is one of the values that's
maintained throughout and it sounds like
that's something that you're really
thinking about which is
fewer things have to be reviewed across
the board by both pnz and the city
council so that we can facilitate change
in in all of the ways so I just really
um look forward to hearing those things
in the future conversations in
particular how we might facilitate and
increase density reduce parking and and
reduce administrative burden those are
things that you alluded to and I know
that they're all in development but I
just hope that in the future we can hear
more about that so I guess I don't even
have a question there you go it's more
of a comment sorry about that but thank
you Erica David Karen thank you thank
you for the for the comment one um quick
follow-up on that the the parking
reductions I didn't really mention it in
the presentation but we do have some buy
right parking reductions proposed for
the infill areas and then also looking
at the idea of introducing a parking
maximum so you can't exceed the minimum
by a certain percentage or if you do it
has to be permeable pavement for example
so again very much a work in progress
but something that we are looking at
thank you
thank you counselor Ben Cuomo thanks
mayor and thanks again for coming to
give us an update on this I had some
similar questions and David you touched
on some of them but I kind of want to
dig in a little bit deeper I appreciated
the frame you gave around Common Sense
modifications to you know help
development especially in the infill
areas you know uh just a couple weeks
ago we had a meeting with Senator Martin
Heinrich and the Home Builders
Association who were there who brought
up
waiving fees in the infill versus
refunding
fees and how burdensome that can still
be right they still have to pay a ton of
the of that of those fees up front and
then waiting to get reimbursed I'm
wondering if you've had a discussion
around which works better and how we can
make
um the just waiving fees up front go a
lot faster I know that Natalie Green in
her Department are are working on you
know having those funds to to make those
departments whole but I am curious about
those two options David
um
mayor and councilor Ben Cuomo We have
dealt with that some with Park
development and some of the incentives
but the actual waiving of fees is
something that's really outside of this
scope but I think there may be
opportunities with the again the mras
just the way that the impact fees are
updated and dealt with
but what we the code will allow is it
will have to match those and call out
those opportunities as they go forward
but it's something that probably won't
specifically addressed in the Land
Development code but it but it will
definitely make Provisions
we won't tie the council's hands got it
thank you and also we also spoke
recently with our colleagues in
Albuquerque the housing forward
Department there and we talked about
some great ideas where that they're
implementing to increase affordable
housing especially in just unit like
affordable housing units giving that we
are in a huge housing crisis and
shortage and a couple of the things they
mentioned were parking requirements and
eliminating some of those which I think
that you are looking at especially in
the infill and then the other one which
you did briefly mention was around
height restrictions and one of the
things that they had noted in
Albuquerque was that they are they are
giving incentives in terms of height
restrictions for people for developers
who commit to making let's say at least
20 percent of the units affordable
housing units and they're giving them an
extra floor or two floors or whatever
right and so I'm wondering if again I
don't know if that fits in in this scope
or not but I I think the height
restrictions are
I think they're a good way moving
forward and eliminating some of those
for people who are wanting to build
especially in the infill and MRA areas
okay thank you um thank you for that
comment um we don't currently have
anything in the draft that provides an
incentive for affordable housing our
approach has been more like you
mentioned the parking reductions
allowing more types of Housing and more
places but I think that is something
that we could certainly look at
providing incentives in exchange for
affordable housing that's not all cities
are necessarily interested in it because
it's something that you have to monitor
over time but that does seem to be a
strong priority for Las Cruces so we can
certainly look at that great thank you
for that thank you and then the other
piece that had come up with that
conversation with the folks from
Albuquerque were around and again I
don't know if this fits here and you'll
tell me if it doesn't and David as well
because I know there's building codes
right that then sort of overlay
everything but there's a lot of
conversation around rehab for motels or
hotels to become more permanent housing
and the sort of maybe zoning changes
that need to happen around like kitchen
requirements and sort of not eliminating
them right by reducing the barriers for
Motel rehab
um especially when it comes to like
countertop and induction burners kinds
of things is that within this scope or
am I I know it's a little bit in the
weeds but I just wondered if it was
pertinent to this conversation
um I I think that's a great point and
it's Loosely in the scope of this a lot
of what we refer to as back to the
building code which regulates a lot of
that but we do have some Provisions that
relate to what what's considered a
dwelling unit does it have a kitchen
things like that so we can review that
for compatibility and also check with
the building code
mayor mayor and counselor I've been coma
just wanted to reiterate typically we've
dealt with those issues in the building
code particular kitchen but there are
Provisions that allow us as Erica said
we could provide some attention to that
we also have the existing building code
that Mr Nichols could help with it
allows us some latitude and structures
that are in the historic areas
but
the department also works with the
construction industry Department with
the state and I know there was a lot of
discussion about maybe modifying those
codes on a state level and I know that
we would incorporate them at a city
level
okay that's a big place thank you and if
there's ever space to continue having
this conversation as it relates to the
intersection of affordable housing and
infill
Zone we'd love to have it at the housing
policy Review Committee especially you
know as we're moving along through this
and if you wanted to come present to
there I'll work with Natalie Green I
think I saw her somewhere and David for
the opportunity to be able to do that
the home builders sit on that committee
and obviously the three of us on the
council and a bunch of other
stakeholders that work in affordable
housing I think would be really
interested in having that conversation
and then lastly I know that I raised
this
I don't know what two years ago at this
point I don't know the first time you
were here I feel like I was way over
there we were still separated because of
covid
um but I had done some research around
cities and states well one city one
state that had moved to eliminate a
single family
um zoning and which you know is I think
maybe a trend starting to pick up right
I think given the kind of sprawl that we
have seen in Las Cruces especially with
single family subdivisions I think
that as many incentives that we can
provide to to create middle missing
middle housing affordable housing
multi-family units that were not
um centralizing those to any one
particular location of the city and I
know that we you know want to work with
with Partners in good faith to to move
that forward but I am curious about your
thoughts on on those kinds of policies
and if they would be beneficial here
thank you for the question that's
something we could certainly look at
more as I mentioned in response to an
earlier question that different levels
of density tend to be appropriate in
different locations as far as
infrastructure planning needs and things
like that that said as we work through
developing the code if we do want to
make some adjustments that would allow
say small scale density in all of the
districts that would be an easy
adjustment to make as we're working
through the process but it's not
currently set up that way but it's it
could be okay
um and I'm not saying it needs to happen
now I mean I don't know when again we'll
redo the entire zoning
um situation but I really feel like
again it's fairly new right I mean it's
only like Minnesota Minneapolis and then
the state of Oregon have really done it
but I really feel like just in the brief
reading are I've done around eliminating
single-family zoning
um that it could be one piece of the
puzzle to ensure that we're increasing
housing opportunities for a variety of
different kinds of people and Families
and then I did appreciate David I just
wanted to note that I had also on here
um written accessory dwellings and so
just
um working whatever needs to be done to
make sure that we're making
neighborhoods more diverse I think is
important and that we do it now again
because who knows when we'll be talking
about this conversation again I just
feel like if
um if we don't do something in code now
to make sure that neighborhoods are more
diverse that there is more development
that is encouraged for multi-family for
missing middle those kinds of things
duplexes that is just never going to
happen and so I just think we're in a
critical moment that we can you know
move some of these things forward thank
you
Instagram
thank you thank you so much presenters
um
is our RR recently adopted MRA
designations a part of this conversation
are they being considered when we're
thinking about other overlays just in a
way that if we can address some of the
potential codes
obstacles now
that would be great
mayor and councilor Graham they're not
specifically called out in this but with
the discussion and the new zoning
districts it would definitely complement
um
the uses that and the the use of an MRA
so there's nothing that would be a
hurdle as Erica noted and Council of
Koran there's a concerted effort to make
everything as administrative or by right
that's not if there's an opportunity
they don't have to go to the plane Zone
commission or to the city council that
it that it'd be handled at that staff or
administrative level and so um I think
the compliment from an MRA is if they
developed plans for adaptive reuse or
whatever that the zoning's in place that
allows them to utilize that tool to
reinvest in those properties and that
there's less barriers like potentially
less parking less Landscaping
that that the two tools complement each
other and that's the intent is we've
we've developed both well I can say more
knowledgeably about the zoning code but
I would anticipate the MRA in the same
way great thank you thank you mayor
mayor pretend
thank you mayor thank you for your
presentation I when you come I always
get overwhelmed because I feel like
there's just so much and when I think
about when you're going to bring this at
the end
it feels overwhelming to me so these 10
topics I don't know do you have an idea
of how you're going to bring this back
to council is it going to be in one big
plan is it going to be you know a couple
or three topics that we can look at
because the last thing I would like to
see happen
when you come when
you're in the thick of it you're having
14 15 meetings with attack
I don't I'm not in this every day and I
want a significant amount of time to
review this and be ready for it over
time when I meet with developers and
different folks of that sort they bring
up things that I'm now starting to keep
a list right and but it feels just
daunting to me so can you give me an
idea of how you plan on presenting this
to us in a way that's going to be
beneficial for all sure yes thank you
for the question
um once you receive the draft for your
review We would like to share it with
you in its entirety because there's so
much of it that is interconnected so
whenever you have the draft if you're
looking at it online you can click on a
term and it'll take you to the
definition or it can take you to the
reference section and it's just a lot
easier to navigate and understand the
document when you have all the pieces
there rather than looking at it one
section at a time as a city staff can
attest to as that's how they're
reviewing it but for for your review we
do Envision that you would have the the
complete draft with plenty of time ahead
of time to to review it maybe that's
something that we talk about further
whether there are some topic specific
work sessions or something to so you'll
have time to review it and then you know
one day we talk only about zoning or
something like that rather than just
having you know all of your comments
ready to go in one meeting that might
look a little bit different but we do
Envision getting you the entire document
in advance substantially of that meeting
yeah I can I appreciate that and I think
that will be helpful but if you can do
it topical as well like you know a few
topics at a time to get us to that point
um you know when we met a couple of
years ago
you asked well you had these questions
for us right and I'm like well these are
sort of some of the things that might
come up
um and so I I continue to be concerned
about how it's going to when you say
we're going to give you enough time I
want to make sure that it's plenty of
plenty of time what are you looking at
in terms of a time frame when you say
we're going to give you plenty of time a
week two weeks
um
I would Envision at least two weeks
yeah I think it needs to be more
this is like five to nine hundred page
document I'm assuming
um mayor and and mayor Pro Tim if you
recall when Erica went through the next
steps the draft the anticipation is for
the draft to be done in November and
December and then there's not an
expectation that it would be ready for
recommendation from p and z or adoption
by city council till March so there's
that three-month time span that there
are certain uh points in time that the
the freeze nickels can make
presentations staff will gear up so that
we will be available and have those open
houses that we always do when we adopt
and this this is a major project and
then I I want to use this as an
opportunity to also say that since the
council did a form approve attack and
you have both technical members and then
also interested parties from
neighborhoods we're hoping that they'll
be champions for this project and be
able to explain the process that took
place our intent is before we even say
this is a complete draft have the tack
review it one time also kind of do that
sweep and see if there's any issues that
they have and so um there's intent that
it just Builds on itself and and give
those opportunities for people to
understand and then our hope is that
through the attack through the initial
review uh that those points where
there's something this needs to be
explained better and then we can focus
meetings on that as we go forward I I
really appreciate that I think if you
can can do that I think it'll be it go
much smoother for us rather than
you know do it all in one time and have
a couple of weeks I've just not found
that to be sure beneficial to us because
we're all very busy and we want to give
it right the most attention that it
really that it deserves because you've
worked three years on it now right or
will be at that point so I I just want
to be respectful of your time and the
work but I also ask that you be
respectful of our time as well because
we're busy doing a lot of different
things and so next you know my my
colleagues here have had a few questions
on things like missing middle
um you know reduction of administrative
burden those things things I think
councilor Bank almost spoke to which I
had written down already and thanks for
asking councilman gomo the single home
right kind of the trend in in pushing to
not have that more specifically to have
more multi-family the the duplex Triplex
those things
I I get concerned that some of those
things some of those areas or topics
aren't things that are being discussed
and I don't know how to present those
things you know I want this to be robust
a creative in a native way of doing
business it's not sort of doing business
as usual and so how do these how would
you have these kinds of conversations
amongst yourself to include the attack
or how do you want us to
um I just I'm feeling like we're just
looking at the document
and maybe there's no or very little
thought about some of these other things
that might be difficult to bring forward
right because
you might get a lot of pressure or just
the nature of sort of the topic if you
will and so I just want to make sure
that we're thinking
um
broadly and differently about about
these things and and how am I rest
assured that that's happening
um
mayor excuse me mayor mayor Proctor I'll
give you some of my initial thoughts and
then Erica can add um how they perceive
I think one of the keys is
um
one of the slides had the the web page
and it all what we're doing is we get
through attack review we're putting
those sections of the code up so that's
always a a resource that the council
could use to provide to individuals all
the tax meetings themselves they're
generally the the first and third
Wednesdays of the month at three in the
afternoon they're open to the public
that you can if you had an interested
party they could could easily attend the
topic generally can be provided at the
plan and Zoning commission their
meetings are usually the fourth Tuesday
of the month we also generally schedule
work sessions with them the second
Tuesday of the month as needed so we
could always do an Outreach for that
also at the point of time we get the
draft done again we'll have those open
houses and reaches and and staff can be
flexible and provide additional Outreach
and engagement at that time
we can use some of the less we learned
with Elevate and some of the Outreach
that we did
the city did a lot of Outreach to the
schools and opportunities that other
public engagements that have taken place
so I just off the top of my head those
are things that I know that we we do on
a regular basis I appreciate that thank
you thank you mayor
mayor Pro tem what we could do is have a
special work session on just this issue
only so we don't have any the other and
we can just focus on that but I just
want to talk a little bit about the the
single family doing to eliminating that
I would really be very extremely
cautious
counselors on that you want to put a
stop to growth in Las Cruces you take
away single-family zoning and I mean the
biggest thing that we can look
is possible annexation of certain lands
and then we can try to help
reduce the costs so that developers can
provide those those more affordable
homes but I think it's fair to say and
I'm just gonna without putting Larry on
the spot too much I would think that the
majority of his permits for new
construction on residential are
single-family houses and I'd just like
to clarify because I think you may be
misunderstanding eliminate a single use
subdivisions it's not eliminating them
it's ensuring that they're not the only
thing that exists so that subdivisions
only made a single family houses are no
longer created and that it's single
family houses and duplexes and apartment
complexes so that they're not only
single family okay well I apologize
counselor but that's what PUD is we
usually have a little bit of we have a
lot of single family some multi-family
some commercial some that's what we're
kind of moving in I just wanted to
correct you that it's not eliminating
family houses at all that's not what
that's not what I meant by that okay
good well that takes care of that I
actually do have another question though
oh sure go ahead thank you and this
again maybe in the weeds a little bit
and again please let me know if it
doesn't fit here but I I'd wondered if
um you were having conversations about
zoning restrictions and short-term
rentals within this scope yes
oh that's an easy answer okay you are
having those conversations can you tell
us more about what those look like yes
um we have some initial standards
drafted I don't recall what they are
right off the top of my head but um as I
mentioned in the uh the zoning Matrix
that would say what's allowed where and
it has a set of conditional standards
that may go with certain uses short-term
rentals are are one of those uses that
would be specifically addressed okay and
I just want to say that in the context
of this conversation for me it's
important because I think short-term
rentals
create
displacement of a lot of communities I
think it creates affordability issues
for a lot of local residents nothing we
shouldn't have them I'm just I think
it's important to have zoning
restrictions and strong regulations
regarding short-term rentals so that
more again the housing issue is a huge
priority for this Council and so I just
want to make sure that if when those
conversations are being had are in the
context of how do we ensure people are
not being displaced and that home prices
are not being driven up because of
short-term rentals
uh thank you that's a great comment um
what some cities are doing in response
to that is requiring that the owner live
on site so you can't have just empty
houses being taken up waiting for an
Airbnb occupant to come in it's somebody
who's renting out their extra bedroom or
their accessory dwelling unit to help
them afford their own mortgage so from
from that standpoint it can help with
affordability but from other standpoints
it can definitely hurt so that's a great
consideration thank you for saying that
I've just recently started doing some
research of my own once I have something
more formalized I'll certainly bring it
to our housing PRC for a conversation
but just want to make sure it was being
had here thank you
okay any other comments from Council
is there more Erica
well that is all I had for today thank
you okay
okay appreciate that thank you very much
thank you very much for that
presentation thank you
next we're going to go ahead and go to
the fiscal year 23 24 budget review
Leanne demoosh will be
presenting
looks like you brought your
award-winning team with you
I did mayor
actually mayor uh Council I'm going to
be starting off for the for this
presentation my name's Leanne demish I'm
your Finance director almost forgot
Christine
for the record uh this is the city
manager's
2023-24 proposed budget I would like to
present to you our budget team I'm very
proud of them we started off on a slow
pace because we had some people that had
left the city so but we've picked it up
and I think we caught up and hopefully
are a little bit ahead
but I'd like to present our budget and
Grant administrator Jacqueline rubakova
who you've already met and then over
here we have Rocio Gamboa and shirelle
De La Cruz I would also like to thank
during this presentation we have a
couple of people coming up and
presenting so this is like a tag team
today so we're going to have a lot of
fun but in this Tech Team we'll also
have the CIP which we have Miss Cynthia
Campo and sherjana baznet that will be
presenting and then we also have our
Fleet administrator Luis Vela will be
presenting on the vehicle acquisition
and then we also have
great help this year from our HR team
which is Joe Richards she's behind me
and JC Barilla who are with our director
and deputy director for HR and I
couldn't go without their management
analyst which is Mel
she's not here or maybe she's out in the
audience but she was a lot of help to
the budget and all the HRS so I just
wanted to give that little Kudos out to
everyone because we couldn't do it
without them and then of course we
couldn't do it without our city manager
and we met with him multiple times and
we greatly appreciate Mr peely and his
input and his Direction during this gave
us a lot of Direction and it really
helped the budget team and then of
course Sonia and Barbara and ikani who's
not here today
so in all our department directors so
with that tag teaming I'd also like to
present to you and I left her because
she's the most magnificent and that is
Monica Torres our Economist because
economists rule the world and I'd like
to turn it over to her for our economic
outlook for 24.
good day my name is thank you Mr Mayor
and members of city council my name is
Monica Torres Economist with economic
development and I'm gonna give you a
brief overview on the latest numbers on
unemployment and ERT
unemployment continues very low the
preliminary data for February
unemployment rate dropped one percentage
Point as compared to pre-pandemic levels
in February 2019
to reach 3.7 percent
there is about
1796 persons actively looking for a job
that's doing
21 less than pre-pandemic levels and 13
less as compared to same month previous
year
um a measure of economic activity
activity is a match taxable gross
receipts during the collection process
uh taxable gross receipts are much to
tax payments
in this case during the third quarter of
fiscal year 23 there was a 9.7 increase
as compared to
a previous year same period
the sectors that contribute the most to
the match taxable gross receipts for the
city are retail trade health care and
social assistance accommodation and Food
Services constructions construction and
other services all the sectors together
make seven
the 6.8 percent of the total Industries
much taxable gross receipts that's uh
2.3 Point increase as compared to
previous year
and with that I'm gonna pass it over to
the next presenter thank you
good afternoon Jacqueline rubalcava
budgeting Grant administrator
so I'm going to present the FY 2324
proposed budget
this year we went with the theme Carino
this was a theme that came from Mr peely
and Carino Loosely translates to care
and affection so our budget book with
the theme counting you is to Foster an
environment where people have garino for
the things they do
and this year you'll see that there's
the budget book does feature many local
art pieces throughout
and it's so it also you know helps us
carry that theme getting you know you
know the different art pieces are local
so we're very excited for you all to see
that
so these are the proposed budget
summaries this is a conservative budget
which means that it airs on the side of
caution so it's we're aiming to present
a balanced budget
this year there are no City GRT or
property tax rate increases
and then throughout the budgeting
process we are
aiming to meet the needs of the
community so this is done at every step
each of the directors Department
directors work with their team to
formulate a plan that is going to
benefit the community and that carries
all the way up to through City
management decision making and here
presenting to council
and then we do adhere to the Strategic
plan initiative so we take into
consideration Elevate Las Cruces and the
council strategic plan and all our
decision making
so some fy24 budget considerations
in in salary and benefits there are
General wage increases negotiated
contracts health insurance at 80 and 20
percent there is a slight increase
the open positions are budgeted at first
quartile for 50 percent of the fiscal
year
and the parent increases 0.5 percent
employer and employee
and for fy24 there the city is
requesting 59.1 new ftes which means
full-time equivalent
does the all-fund expenditures
you'll notice that we have the the
different funds and the FY 23 revised
and then we list our fy24 proposed for
the general fund there is an increase of
10.3 percent
and then for a city-wide total there's a
decrease of 8.5 percent
the larger increaser decreases you'll
see at debt fund services and that was
due to paying down Bonds in a few weeks
there will be new bonds so that debt
fund services will will change as well
as capital fund fund Capital project
funds there was a 20.1 percent decrease
and that was due to
closing out of projects large projects
such as the go the go bonds and the
community pool
which the gold bonds are about 13
million and the community pool was about
18 million
the fy24 proposed City budget
the expenditures are about
510.3 million
and you'll see that most of it is 30 out
of the general fund 32 percent out of
Enterprises and then it goes to capital
projects at about 16 percent
here we'll see that the general fund
expenditures again they increased about
10.3 percent from FY 23 to fy24 so
that's one point 133.7 million to about
147.5 million
and here's a general fund summary again
with FY 23 revised and then showing the
fy24 proposed
so you'll notice in the beginning
balance an increase of 23.4 percent
Revenue stayed about the same
and then the expenditures did slightly
increase
at 10.3 percent
and we have the transfer is 47 change
and the ending balance
16.6 with the 212s required gives us an
unreserved balance of 11.5 for the
proposed budget and this is a 45.2
percent change
for hhgrt fund summary again here's a
general fund fy23 revised and fy24
proposed
the beginning balances respectively 7.3
and 10.5 and the ending and available
balances at 7.34 revised and there was
an increase to 8.9 proposed
and here's a breakdown of the general
fund increase these are changes from FY
so for personnel there was an increase
of about 13 million in operating an
increase of about 3.4 million and in
capital a decrease of approximately 2.6
million so that's a 13.8 million
difference from the revised fy23 to the
proposed fy24 budget
the decreasing Capital was mostly due to
the Lowman properties the landfill
cleanup
and then from the previous slide which
was the Personnel at 13 million we broke
down the 13 million to explain a little
more the increase which was the largest
at 13 million
so here's the breakdown of how that
increased for fy24 the new positions out
of the 59.1 new positions new ftes
requested
52.85 are in the general fund which
totaled about 4.7 million
there was an increase due to the
vacancies and this was from FY 23 to
fy24 proposed
at 23 they were budgeted at entry level
as previously mentioned at 20 at 50 and
in 24 they were budgeted at first
quartile at 50 percent
so that was a 2.9 Million difference
and then 1.8 for the class in comp and
this was implemented during FY 23 but
was not budgeted that year and then a
1.1 percent new positions and reclasses
during the fiscal year and these are new
positions and reclasses that are
requested throughout the new throughout
fiscal year 23.
and then there's a projected 2.5 million
for General wage increases so that
totals to our 13 million
so where your money comes from
again largely it's due to grocery
taxes we see that 79 percent of where
our Revenue sources come from
and Then followed by property tax
cannabis excise tax franchise fees and
fees and charges so here we have
138.7 million
and where your money goes
so our budget is largely
um the largest largest expenditure is
Personnel at 69 percent her operating is
at 28 and capital at three percent so
the total of that is about
147.5 million
and here's a breakdown for Department
budgets for fy24
and so the total general fund
expenditures are approximately 147.5
million and then you'll see a breakdown
of what each department budget is going
to look like
and here's our Fiscal Agent support
we listed Metro merbda and animal
services and we listed their fy23
support and the projected fy24
so you notice that Metro stayed the same
marvda did increase
from 2.2 million to about 2.4 and animal
services
increased from about 1.7 million to
about a little over 2 million
here are the list of general fund
transfers
so you'll see that the largest here was
debt at about 10.4 million followed by
the GRT Street Maintenance
and the GRT maintenance is a the council
did make a commitment at the 6.5 million
and that remained projected for fy24 as
well 6.5 million
we're continuing here showing the
general fund transfers and here's a
total transfers of 34.3 million
so there is a larger transfer to Transit
this year it's three about almost 4
million dollars and that is due to last
two years they did have receive money
from arpa and so we will need to have a
higher transfer this year that they
won't
these are the proposed new positions for
fy24 again I mentioned it was 59.1
so by department the city manager's
office these are the positions requested
CIP manager airport operation and
maintenance technician custodians is two
a lead planner a transport plan project
manager Administrative Assistant
planning manager and performance manager
out of these the only ones that required
a vehicle were the two custodians
for Community Development a senior
planner Economic Development a case
manager and Real Estate Services
specialist
and for finance a buyer
part-time so you'll see the 0.5
for fire a staffing specialist an admin
assistant Logistics specialist fire
inspector EMS training specialist
and none of these required Vehicles so
we'll move on another the last of the
fire proposed positions is an EMS
compliance officer
for human resources it's a compliance it
should say specialist it's compliance
specialist not officer
and for legal to senior assistant City
attorneys
to senior legal assistants a safety
Specialists Parks and Recreation project
manager market and marketing and event
coordinator and a youth service
administrator no vehicles required for
any of these
and then we have the parks and rec which
they are getting a another Park a
recreation service coordinator
police
they're going to be 18 new police
officers with 18 Vehicles required
I would like to mention that this will
be funded through the retention fund
received by the governor
and the community Advocates they'll get
two for Public Works two light equipment
operators and one street maintenance
worker quality of life Recreation
services coordinator they requested too
quality of life we have one museum
curator a case manager which requires a
vehicle volunteer assistant library
assistant to museum assistants
office assistance Museum managers where
you see it might say like 0.25.60 those
may be due to reclasses so if they're
reclass from part-time to full-time or
part-time to a higher part-time then
that would be just a percentage of the
when
so that's a total of 59.1 and a total
vehicle is required with these new
positions would be 22.
at this time I'd like to now introduce
Luis Bella Fleet administrator and he's
going to talk about the vehicle
acquisitions
Ima
may approach members of the council I
hope you're having a beautiful day for
the record I am Luis Vella your city
fleet manager and I'm here to brief on
the fiscal year 2024 vehicle acquisition
fund
so uh
our goal by resolution would be 50 of
eligible Vehicles need to be electric by
2030.
so as you can see fiscal year 23 we
purchased 43 Vehicles there was nine
vehicles that were eligible to be
electric and we purchased eight
for fiscal year 2024 we have a huge
order of 80 vehicles to be purchased
there is 18 eligible to be electric and
I have proposed seven so that puts us
right at about 48 for fiscal year 2024.
uh hybrids for 2023 or 19.
and for 2024 I have 48 on the vehicle
acquisition fund as far as hybrids uh
hybrids are a little bit more easier to
find to buy so that's why we're going
uh with some hybrids
other than that is there any questions
about the electric vehicles or anything
like that
so as you can see I know this is
important to everybody so we are putting
a lot of Carino
into this project and we're all working
very hard to get everything that we need
for these vehicles I just want to say
ask your questions thank you so much I
know you know how important this is to
us
um
in terms of transitioning your Workforce
into being able to write to um
maintain these vehicles how has that
gone I know we had some conversations
early on about it being difficult right
to contract with individuals that could
train up but where are you at with that
particular area
we are working with a company out of
Arizona called automatic automotive
training group and they uh they have
sent two trainers ready I believe it was
in October we did a safety and
familiarization initial like okay this
is this is you know the dangers and and
Hazards of it so it was a two-day class
uh they will come down and train on
anything that we have available so as
soon as we start as soon as these EVS
start funneling in there will be
training on that particular because they
can't bring Vehicles down here should
they just bring you know all their
equipment and things like that and they
they do the training here on site okay
very very so we're moving along on that
one very good now with
Drake
um Chargers um
or you're going is some of this
funding that you're requesting going to
be a part of purchasing the Chargers
sufficient to manage this type this the
number of Fleet that you have here uh I
am going to refer to our facilities
manager on that one I'm working the
vehicle side of the house and Facilities
managers working the utilities and
charger side of the house so we're kind
of working together keeping each other
up to date on everything okay however
I'll let her speak on that if that's
okay oh of course thank you
come making our way down okay other than
that thank you for your time thank you
keep having a beautiful day thank you
you too thank you
hello Vanessa King for facilities
management
um yes so we are wait there's six
locations where our EB Chargers will be
located throughout the city
um we are
each location will have one dual Port so
there'll be one port and you'll be able
to charge two vehicles on there
um we are
um
sorry just give me a minute
I let my nurse get the best of me right
now no it's okay take your time you're
doing good
um we are
um yeah that would be okay we're gonna
pull up a map just to show you guys oh
sure sure
laughs
there you are perfect okay thank you
okay so here is the map of the electric
vehicle plan locations
um
there will be one at the
fire station across the street
there will also be another one at LCPD
there'll be one here at City Hall
and then there will be one over at the
um
uh at the Hadley complex at the
Castaneda
um building okay and then there will be
another one at the East Mesa Public
Safety
um
facility
and another one at the airport okay and
these locations were picked based off of
um
current
um
where the Via where the vehicles would
be
um located yes okay all right
very good thank you for that those are
all my questions mayor
thank you
mayor would like to say Vanessa's been
in this job a week and a half
great job thanks Vanessa
[Applause]
we put her on the spot
some mayor mayor Pro timely and demish
Finance director it is now my turn this
is going to be on the Telstra fund just
to give you an update as you know per
resolution we bring to Council on an
annual basis the
the telshore fund and how it's going and
as you can see I wanted to sort of go
back
um
Erica Hawkins our treasured monitors
over this along with myself
we have the state investment Council
which currently back in June as you can
see that's June of 22 we had about 30.1
million now we have about 30 million
regular Investments back then we're
about 4 million now we're at 5.8 as Mr
peely can attest we've been getting some
really good Investments lately so we've
been trying to do some regular
Investments
giving a leaving a little bit of cash in
there just in case if we need to use
that we have about a million right there
and then so we have a total balance
right now about
36.8 million and that is as of March 31.
for the budget for fy24 just a summary
coming out of Housing and Neighborhood
Services the continuation of the manui
mono program about 543 thousand dollars
uh the homeless outreach program is
about 75 000 the three sisters project
is budgeted at 2.4 million most of these
are carryovers of course not the monoi
mono but some of these are carryovers
from last year
and then also for Transit the electric
bus Grant that's also a match and that's
a carryover from the current year that
we're in as well right now so some of
these are just carryovers because maybe
the uh like for instance the electric
buses just haven't come in yet so we're
just carrying them over to the next
fiscal year but we're budgeting and
instead of bringing a carryover in the
beginning of the new year
um this is the other side of the Telstra
fund which we call the health care
services this is where the housing and
Neighborhood Services has their
non-profits remember every year Miss
green brings to your resolution Council
approved to
um to budget about six hundred thousand
dollars every year so these are the
non-profits that she monitors or she
takes care of so that's 600 000 there we
do have this is also a carryover casa de
peregrinos for the 2.8 and then we did
have some funding in there that was not
used in fy23 it was approved and they've
asked for a carryover and that is for
quality of life their senior Recreation
this is for
senior satisfaction and mental health
survey
and that was from this current year that
we're in but it looks like they're not
going to have it spent so they are
asking to carry it over for 24.
and with that I'd like to turn it over
to sherjana for the capital Improvement
program
thank you Leanne Mr Mayor city council
srijana basna City Innovation strategy
manager
so I'm going to provide you all with
just a quick brief overview of the CIP
process as you all are mostly familiar
already we've had a sort of a hybrid
process this year
the CIP has gone through a few
fundamental changes we kept the current
process intact as far as timelines go
however some of the the elements that
did change were intended to
Elevate the CIP process pun intended
so we did start with maybe about a
little over six months ago having our
actual CIP analyst start assessing the
CIP
database getting the icip which would be
the legislative process to try and sync
a little bit better with our Capital
Improvement planning process we did have
a community workshop last year for the
fy24 cap and FY 23 Capital Improvement
Capital outlay process which
it was in partnership with the Grants
Department
and then we did uh sort of kick off the
new process in November of 2022 I had
quite a few project submissions this
year
then we had a slightly different
strategy on going after legislative um
Appropriations
we of course brought before the city
council the bond acceptance for the
ssjrt in February and that is where you
all saw a little bit of a different
strategy for how we were going to start
using that Bond money the CIP Retreat
introduced a little bit more of the
changes that we are proposing to make
and with Council support we are moving
on and we will have some of the actual
projects discussed today
so I did want to maybe just do a quick
recap of the the strategy change for
ssjrt this Bond cycle we were focusing
on three sort of broad project
categories if you will a quality life
projects maintenance projects and then
active Transportation
these projects are intended to be
reflective of policies that we have in
place that our city council adopted and
also refocusing as you may recall
through the CIP Retreat conversation
um
refocusing or focusing a little bit more
on what we have as opposed to building
new just all the time and so you'll see
here three sort of broad categories or
or project types if you will quality of
life that would be the East Mesa
recreational complex where a certain
portion 2 million is going to be
dedicated or allocated in order to
complete out what was previously
referred as phase one of the go bond for
East Mesa Rec complex and in terms of
kind of maintaining that equitable
distribution
I was going to say of wealth but you
know what I mean Mirchi Recreation
Center is our
Central and only major Rec complex in
the city and so a remodel expansion
um to to the same amount of 2 million
would also be
proposed to be funded through this
year's CIP we have active Transportation
projects identified so this goes back to
kind of understanding that the CIP is
not only just an allocation of funding
it's also our major planning tool for
planning for the next five years of
unfunded projects and so we've begun to
identify complete streets projects kind
of going along with City council's
Direction in adopting that ordinance
itself and then of course maintenance
projects where we've in discussion with
facilities and and several of our city
departments there are certain
roof Replacements that are are overdue
and so the roof replacement program
within facilities management is going to
also get funded this year and the reason
why they're listed as such is because we
do have other roofs that required
funding but just earlier on you all
witnessed that through tid and so there
are other revenues that are coming in
through legislative appropriation as
well that we're anticipating and and
that's why these ones kind of going down
the list of priorities were the ones
that we could fund through SS charity
and you have seen this document before
and I will just very quickly go over how
we read this CIP document we have our
list of projects with the project titles
currently they are still listed in order
of
departments for the most part however
I'll briefly introduce a few of the
incremental changes we've done this year
the First Column is going to be the
funded amounts you see for fy24 the
proposed funding
and then we have five years of unfunded
infrastructure Capital
um
projects
we do have a funding source column
identified as required by the city
Charter and our financial procedures
code the only thing I'll mention here is
the bolded text is what is actually
funding the project whereas everything
else identified is a potential funding
source
and then just to note that because we
are pending the actual Appropriations
from the state legislator
um we do show that in column in the
second column fy25 of unfunded
once we receive the Appropriations we
would move it over to the funded call
and bring it back to city council for um
adoption
so these are a few of the incremental
but I would say significant changes this
year to the CIP document and so as we're
moving uh towards more of the unsiloing
of projects and looking at
umbrella buckets if you will that
further the city council's vision and
the communities adopted comprehensive
plan we
identified a few of these uh uh project
buckets so complete streets is going to
be a a project type in in the CIP this
year under which we have some streets
identified
that per recent conversations and and
policies this Council has adopted and
also past planning especially our
comprehensive plan which we are required
per City Charter to demonstrate a
relationship too with the CIP
we've listed out a few of these projects
the way that this bucket will
function is like for example an annual
project bucket under Public Works where
we have annual projects identified
but they're not necessarily all funded
or all carried out within that
particular fiscal year so it's just a
ongoing projects
active transportation is also a bucket
that was created this year and the
intent behind it is to demonstrate and
directly fund bicycle and pedestrian
safety improvements
that we do have a couple of line items
already in our current CIP document that
are identified Ada and sidewalk gaps are
two of those line items that are going
to get moved into pedestrian safety
improvements and that way we are trying
to enhance kind of the project
prioritization as well as tracking in
the future we are also introducing a new
bucket resiliency and so this will
contain sustainability and storm water
slash green infrastructure type projects
in some cases we experience sort of lack
of funding to enhance some of our street
projects or other facilities that we are
funding or constructing and so this line
item will help identify that funding as
well as give us a story to tell when we
go after other funding through grants or
State funds
and with that I will hand over to
Cynthia Campo our CIP analyst who will
run through some of the financials for
you
good afternoon mayor counselors Cynthia
Campo CIP analyst
our proposed CIP budget for fy24 is
157.6 million
of that
35 percent of it comes from bonds
29 of it is from Grants 28 from taxes 5
from other and three percent from fees
and those are the actual dollar amounts
and this is our FY 23 versus fy24 funded
amounts per category that was one of the
things that we introduced this year in
the CIP process the categories and
and
um so the funded actually includes the
carryovers the annuals projects and
newly funded
so you can kind of see the trend and the
comparison between the two years of what
will be funded
for fy24
this one is actual count of projects we
have seven newly funded projects and
those are the bright pink on top the
um
the lavender is annual and carryovers
and then the darker purple is unfunded
and we had a total of
um
[Music]
look
282 projects that were submitted and of
that 139 are funded
this is one of our newly funded projects
and I believe what you've we've heard of
this one earlier today this is the
downtown video surveillance cameras
for a hundred thousand
and then this is a
combination of the tid funded roof
Replacements and the ssgrt
a funded roof replacements
and we had also discussed in the ssgrt
discussion the mirror scheide Recreation
Center the two million dollars funded by
SSG or I'm sorry
and complete streets
the museum Systems Technology
Improvement is also
funded by Ted
for 210 thousand dollars
we have the fire station alerting system
funded through taxes for the fire
departments
fire training Tower of 200 and the total
amount needed is the 219
000 of that 99 000 has been identified
as funded
we also have Wastewater
um
I don't know if you pronounce it
oh you do okay so there we go
um for
um
this is actually backwards so the amount
needed is the 496 000 and we have
um 96 000
approved and then water development 163
000 has been approved and 1.6 million is
needed
Jacqueline repella again um so before we
continue some of the other jpas were
able to present on the first work
session first budget work session
um so animal services does have a
presentation so I'd like to introduce
Barbara de Leon chief administrative
officer and she'll be presenting the
animal services proposed fy24 budget
good afternoon
Barbara DeLeon chief administrative
officer for the record and I'm here to
present the proposed Animal Service
Center FY 24 budget because Clint is out
of town or attending to a family
emergency so I'm here in his place I'm a
fairly new board member ex-officio board
member and also the chair of the Animal
Service Center finance committee so what
I'll do is go over the budget that was
recommended by the board of the Animal
Services Center if there are any
questions that I can't feel because
they're more operational nature I'm
going to just make note of them so that
we can Circle back with you after I've
had a chance to visit with that with
Animal Services Center staff
so some of the considerations in
developing the Animal Service Center
budget included any wage increases
the board gave guidance to the Animal
Service Center to ensure that all of
their positions were at a level of at
least fifteen dollars an hour so we did
make some changes to some positions for
that purpose we the Animal Service
Center used used guidance from the city
about any increases in the health and
dental benefits and of course utilized
appropriate calculations for FICA para
Etc the Animal Services Center did have
some
increases that were related to some of
their insurance premiums and then
finally the Animal Service Center was
given Direction by the board to include
funding for the community cat program
and we'll go over that in particular and
what that looks like within the budget
um in FY 24 you'll see in the in the
yellow column the the proposed budget
that the Animal Service Center brought
forward compared to the FY 23 budget
there is an increase of um over 600 000
to the budget primarily due to salaries
and wages as well as some some benefits
and the community cat program there were
some decreases in expenditures related
to some capital projects
I mentioned the community cat program
that's expenditures that are currently
in the fy24 proposed budget that
includes some Outreach surgeries a
crisis fund there were pre there was
previously one resource allocated to the
community cat program that position was
already budgeted and filled by the
Animal Service Center so that's not
included here these are the incremental
expenditures that were included with the
fy24 proposed budget
um there are a lot of numbers on this
slide there there's some Anal um some
line items for some of the services that
the Animal Service Center charges for
um notably you'll see the pet licenses
were removed um as as their Animal
Service Center no longer charging for
that other shelter services and fees
collected for this shelter include
impound fees boarding fees microchip
fees adoption fees and those are those
are reflected here I'm going to draw
your attention if I can get this little
pointer going here to the city and
county
contributions to the Animal Service
Center in FY 23 each entity was
contributing 1.75 million dollars in FY
24 the request and the recommendation
from the from the board is that the the
both contributions from the city and the
county increased almost 18 percent to a
new level 2.060 million so that the
total contribution from City of county
is now the the just over four million
dollars for the budget
um
and I believe that concludes the
presentation on the proposed budget for
the Animal Service Center you saw the
amount on the previous slide for the
city's contribution reflected in the
city's proposed FY 24 budget so we have
already included that as a line item and
of course we it's not approved until the
council uh this comes before Council on
May 15th but just wanted to let you know
that we'd already taken into account of
course any other guidance is welcome but
with that all stand for any questions
that I may be able to answer or log for
the Animal Service Center staff
that was a great job Barbara very
versatile
questions
general question and it may be two
specific that's okay the community
program which is something that our
Council has heard a lot about and I
think hence the inclusion in in the
budget presentation I appreciate that
and I know that there's already someone
I think on board you mentioned who's
doing this coordination
um
sorry I I'm just curious the amount
that's allocated uh
part of this big conversation is about
spay and neuter surgery and spay and
neuter capacity
um I think that the amount that's
allocated I think that was slide three I
think
um
perhaps four yeah sorry thank you um
is this assuming an increase in capacity
related to increased vet services is
this assuming Community projects is what
what are the assumptions that go into
this and I ask it because this is a
specific example of this but I also
wonder
I think we are committed to both the
community cap program but collectively
committed to increasing capacity in any
ways that we can for Community Access to
spaying and neutering
to ultimately
put the animal shelter out of business
ideally but
um
until then can you comment on that do
you know what those assumptions are if
you might be able to follow up with
Clinton find out exactly what that is
that would be very helpful thank you and
I'm not saying we shouldn't fund it I'm
just saying I'm curious if it means
we've really struggled to hire a vet and
that's
a challenge that I think I would be
curious to know how that's what the
assumptions are guiding that in there
thank you
thank you mayor and Council Quran yes I
will definitely make note of this so I
can find out if there's what the
underlying assumptions are I know that
with respect to the the dollars for the
vacant positions we have assumed that we
will be able to to fill those vacant
positions but I don't have the
volumetric data with respect to the
number of surgeries we're expecting and
how that how that compares to current
levels Etc so I will get that for the
mayor and Council and forward that back
to you all
thank you my Pro Town yeah thank you
councilor Karen around the Easter
holiday Clint made mention that there is
a
um
a veterinarian that has come forward
and it's in the queue somewhere
and they have high hopes for this
individual so if that takes if that
happens that will definitely increase
the number of surgeries that will be
done and and what we've always
envisioned would happen as the new
center came on
and moving into the old center with
surgeries specifically so I'm I'm
hopeful I've talked to Mr peely about
looking just keeping track of it through
HR and and trying to move that
expeditiously through because it really
is going to make a difference for us in
our community I hope that was helpful
anybody else
councilor Flores so um
Barbara thank you Miss DeLeon thank you
so much for Pinch hitting for uh for uh
Clinton
um but just I I think this is something
that you could possibly answer
um so the proposed cost for spay neuter
surgeries are almost a hundred thousand
and is there any projection as to what
the cost would be once we do have the uh
old building use
exclusively for uh spay neuter is there
any
ballpark number that you are aware of I
wouldn't expect it since
a new member and all that but that's all
right mayor and counselor footas thank
you very much are you asking for the
costs once we start utilizing the
facility of spay and neuter Services yes
or the cost of operating that facilities
of medical
well both I guess and I guess this is
only for the surgeries and not
necessarily for the cost of the
operating the building is that a
different category I believe that would
be a different category so I will make
note for both the operating costs for
the old facility as it converts to the
purpose of being a medical facility as
well as any impact on the cost for the
spay and neuter surgeries and in review
of the proposed budget did did we cover
this does do you know whether we covered
that at the last board meeting
the one on Good Friday
when I was praying praying for more
money
um okay our Council Flores we did not
specifically specifically talk about the
cost of that new medical facility or the
spay and neuter surgeries so is there
okay so we'll talk about allocations and
all that and revisions thank you so much
Miss Delia thank you Mr chair Mr Mayor
anybody else
who is that your presentation yes thank
you thank you thank you all very much
thank you
hi again jacquel Andrew balcava so we'll
talk about the next steps so um we will
be finalizing the budget this is a
working budget it's a live budget that's
changing
um so before the public hearing and
before the adoption we will still be
making some slight changes as needs are
are seen and evaluated
we do have a public hearing on May 4th
and then the City Council budget
adoption on May 15th
and then the budget does need to be
submitted to an mdfa on by June 1st
well thank you we will now open to any
questions or discussion
Council Ben Coleman thank you mayor
thank you all so much I just have very
few questions and I think that's really
a testament to you all and the process
that has gotten us here with the retreat
and the subsequent work sessions I
really appreciate all of the work that
you all have done I think this process
really works
um just a couple questions on Staffing I
wasn't sure what a safety specialty
specialist with legal was and I'm hoping
you can provide more details
safety specialist so I will defer to if
anyone's in the audience for or wants to
answer for legal
um I will defer that question
Council and councilman Como the safety
Specialists work in Risk Management
and basically work to mitigate risk
throughout the city so following up with
any complaints
from anything going on in parks for
example like if there's a pothole or if
there's a wire that's loose any kind of
safety issue wow okay awesome thank you
and then I think it may have been on
page 28 and 29 but I did note that I
know housing staff had asked for
additional staff or at least more
funding to
you know for the staff that gets paid
through federal grants
um
now we can describe that better however
I wasn't sure if I saw that person
and then I thought maybe 28 29 because
you did include some new staff under the
city manager's office
some mayor mayor Pro tem counselor Ben
Como
um what since the housing is actually
moving out of Economic Development into
the city manager's office there is I
think an MA that's moving over and also
the new position for the administrative
assistant will be helping out in that
program as well okay so this case
manager under Economic Development
that's that is a totally different that
was actually a position in economic
development that I think Mr peely had
asked for I don't think it's related
with housing
if Mr appealing yeah
this is the the position that we put in
sort of as a placeholder to discuss we
talked about someone that can help us
with our social sort of social work
we didn't we didn't name it social
worker we use a case manager we're still
in discussion of how this position is
going to be formed but we wanted it okay
plug it in there but that does come
under
under housing Neighborhood Services okay
I just want to make sure that housing
got the staff request that they were
wanting
and then on page 29
I was going to wait to bring this up at
the next council meeting during my
Council comments but I think it fits
well here I just spoke with ifo on
Friday and with Natalie and with
Community of Hope about a possible
expansion to the manoimano program for
outreach and doing it in the model of
Manuel Mano that Community of Hope with
this additional funding would higher and
pay their clients Community of Hope
clients so it would be a peer-to-peer
program to do
Outreach for people experiencing
homelessness and I've been talking to
Nicole about this for a really long time
since mayor Pro tem and I were talking
about the faith community but it just it
volunteers would prove too difficult and
just last week I mentioned to Nicole
that I wondered what it would look like
to do a similar manoimano program
except for outreach and pay people and
she was very open to that idea I think
ifo was open to that idea of course I
want to speak for him but I I think
enhancing the money Mano program to do
Outreach peer-to-peer I think would be
really beneficial for us right now and
so I don't have a specific number in
mind obviously I know that we pay Folks
at least the minimum wage for Manuel
Mano which I think is 12 an hour and so
just I think working with I would really
like to see it included in this fiscal
year round as a pilot program and of
course I think the folks that would know
that number better best would be Nicole
and Natalie but I that is something I
wanted to raise now that I think feels
like appropriate to do so here
some
um mayor and councilor Ben Cuomo what
we'll do is
um we have a couple of we have a week or
a little bit more to finalize the total
budget so we'll work with Mr peely to
come up with the number for that pilot
program and Natalie as well thank you
and I understand there's also Amendment
processes that can happen right if it
doesn't work within the timeline I
understand that's a really big-ass Clan
and it's very in the weeds type of
programming and so I understand if it
doesn't happen immediately but I just
did want to make sure and raise it today
but that is something I wanted to
advocate for and mayor and councilor
Bing Como please always remember that at
any time if needed Mr pilinosis and so
does the city management we can always
bring a resolution for particular
programs like this and if it has a
budget associated with it we can bring
that forward anytime yeah yeah so I
don't want to I know this has this is
like by law has to be turned in by a
certain date which is coming up pretty
soon so I do understand if it doesn't
happen but I wanted to make sure to put
it on your reader yes ma'am we will put
it on our radar and then my last
question was around the CIP projects
that I know this year our city manager
got called up to the state legislature
to really ask about hey there's all this
money that has gone unused I'm just
wondering how we're continuing to
approach
cap funds from the legislature that and
I know it's not City projects it's
generally mostly our partners but really
wondering if there's a plan on
you know how to push them to
use that money
Mr Mayor councilman Coleman I actually
don't have an answer for you today but
this is this would be part of what we're
partnering with the Grants Department
and kind of overviewing and helping
assist with but I would defer to Leanne
and maybe grants on how they're going to
go about the capital outlay um process
thank you
councilman mayor council become what he
ends getting ready just clarification on
the question uh customer could you ask
that again if I know that there's there
that the city has some
legislative dollars that have not been
used and I know it's not City projects
that it was mostly our partners right
that you got called up to the
legislature to sort of testify on I'm
just wondering what the plan is for
ensuring those dollars get used for what
they were intended for
yeah so
one thing that we
we did this year and like you know
Barbara and her team and Leanna done a
great job of actually identifying and
making that response so right now we
have
we have a list of those that need to be
spent
we've talked about having a committee I
know Sonia brought this up about having
a committee that they meet just like
when you meet with
uh when we look at capital projects
relative to our bonds we can have a
committee that would meet often to look
through those
I think really just keeping track
keeping an eye on it a little more
closer than we have in the past but Liam
did you have something to to add or
Barbara do you have something to add to
that yeah
yes thank you very much
um Barbara DeLeon for the record and and
I'll defer to Sonia as well because
Sonia and I have actually been
discussing how to track and report on
all of our projects that have some sort
of time constraint associated with them
with respect to funding and then keeping
track of allowable uses as well it's not
just grants it's also bonds that we have
um funds with a certain amount of time
period in order to spend them as well as
as capital outlay so that spans quite a
few capital projects and we've talked
about actually sure John and her team
having the lead to help us track and
review those at least quarterly so that
we can ensure that we are allocating the
resources needed to keep those projects
going and keep them on track and so that
is in the works
thank you I appreciate
appreciate you any other comments
thanks Leanne
thank you we greatly appreciate your
time
so that takes care of the uh
where am I in the financial part
so now we're going to go to the
resilience
resiliency strategies for the franchise
free fee agreement Lisa LaRock
good afternoon mayor council City
management and anyone else who's out
there my name is Lisa LaRock I'm the
sustainability officer for the city of
Las Cruces
and I'm here today to talk about a
proposed idea I have from the
sustainability office
so in December of 2022 the finance
department shared an update to the
Council on renewing the El Paso Electric
franchise free fee agreement from two
percent to three percent and the mayor
has mentioned using this additional
funding to weatherize low and moderate
income housing so today I would like to
share a program idea of this nature to
see what it would look like from a
sustainable and climate lens and to be
clear this franchise-free agreement is a
separate action that's between El Paso
Electric and the city and this
presentation is about how we use the
funds internally and it's not part of
the agreement at all
so let me move forward
so this work has been described as
climate resilience
and part of that work has to do with
mitigation or reducing greenhouse gas
emissions
into the atmosphere with clean and
efficient Technologies
the other step is to include
adapting to the impacts of climate
change
with systems that can withstand extreme
weather events like heat wind drought or
floods
um it said that we prepare for these
events and that we can bounce back more
easily but this approach is missing a
step because it ignores
uh distinctive the distinctive needs of
the front line communities those low and
moderate income communities that are
impacted first and most
so the approach that I'm proposing is
that we refer to our program as
Community climate resilience where in
addition to mitigation and adaptation
that I just just described is that we
include deep democracy where the
community is included and empowered to
co-create the strategies needed for
resiliency and in this scenario
the community defines how the community
can bounce forward as we Implement
needed strategies and our goal is to
eliminate inequities in addition to
unsustainable resource uses
so there are four critical areas that we
propose to work in and we need to work
concurrently to put the Frontline
communities front and center
and these areas include construction
retrofits organization and Outreach
finance and Workforce Development
and we have collected best practices in
all these areas to guide and Inspire
co-creation with the community
so to begin with I'd like to describe
some of the inequities that our
neighborhoods are facing and our initial
steps
to learn more older areas are not
benefiting from current practices in
building or infrastructure I think we've
heard that several times today
78 percent of the low and moderate
income residents that live in houses
that were built before 1980 are have a
high energy burden meaning that they pay
over six percent of their income on
energy bills alone
with turnover of residents one survey
determined that only 29 percent of
people knew more than two of their
neighbors
who they could call for help or
conversely 71 of the neighborhood didn't
only knew one or no people
that they could rely on
the amount of concrete and asphalt
increases Urban heat in these in the low
and moderate income neighborhoods by
more than 10 degrees Fahrenheit making
evaporative coolers
systems less effective and our tree
canopy throughout the city is only four
percent
and doesn't support many of the
neighborhoods in the infill area
so we have worked on creating a mapping
tool to examine the scale and the inner
relationships of these issues that our
communities face and many of the
statistics that you will hear today in
the presentation are are from them
so to address the structural inequities
we hope to develop a scalable model for
making Elena the low and moderate income
houses more resilient to heat stranded
assets and energy burdens and we're
proposing to increase thermal Comfort
throughout the year with high efficiency
heat pumps that provide Heating and
Cooling shift to more electric systems
and reduce energy burdens
um before I continue I really want to
um
uh say publicly to uh to recognize that
there's many programs that are already
doing amazing work such as the city's
housing program Tierra Del Sol Mesilla
Valley Housing Authority Habitat for
Humanity mortgage Finance authority
authority and El Paso Electric however I
think everyone realizes that there are
limited resources to address root issues
and scalability
for example with the um the LIHEAP
program the low income housing energy
assistance program we get 100 1.5
million dollars for from the FED federal
government and epe in the city throw in
another half million but if we were to
but that only addresses 40 percent of
the low and moderate income people that
are energy burdened and that we would
need an additional three million to be
able to address those needs and it's a
short-term band-aid and not really what
we're looking for
there's also issues with paperwork
requirements that can make it really
onerous for applicants to some programs
and there's outdated State Energy
Efficiency acts and stakeholder
obligations that dampen the motivation
to do more
the sustainabilities
entry into this work is driven by
concerns for the community's climate
resilience needs and the availability of
federal funds and our interest in
co-creating programs that bounce
residents forward in this unprecedented
time when urgency and resources align so
we feel that this is a special
opportunity where we are following all
of the Energy Efficiency rebates that
are coming out in tax credits
and trying to
do this in a way that will mitigate some
of the problems that we've seen in this
housing
so
in this Collective effort we want to
help shift power to build trust and look
at dismantling systems that have
perpetuated these inequities
it's not sustainability's aspiration to
become another organization that will
retrofit houses by itself it's looking
instead to work in Partnership we want
to work with the community to remove
barriers and increase benefits with them
as drivers of this initiative we are
already working with 25 people in a
Planning Group to help guide this
in the absence of low and moderate
income energy rates that would pay a
more of a proportionate amount and
larger programs and resources to date we
find that there's a lot of problems one
of them is that there's
9500 people residents households that
pay over 8.9 percent of their income on
energy bills right now and of these
energy burdened individuals two-thirds
of them
average at least 37 percent of their
income on mortgage or rent and in some
neighborhoods it can reach over 50
percent
and as a first step sustainability
has taken a deep dive
[Music]
um
researching available rebates and tax
credits several of you have already
heard presentations that we've done and
we have also analyzed Technologies and
life cycle costs to ensure affordability
to help determine uh the most viable
options
all of these residents in these
neighborhoods that I've described today
are eligible for the largest allocations
of the inflation reduction act rebates
and tax credits and all of these can be
bundled with current state and local
programs
but they don't cover everything so our
Collective challenge is keeping
Community climate resilience as our
Target and find Financial models that
address the unmet financial needs
because of the compounding factors of
older housing limited services and
financial burdens
we maintain we have maintained a cycle
of poverty and we want we become forced
to react to several of the problems as
opposed to preventing them and when
residents are the recipients of services
not the drivers we risk missing
important elements
this is where
this is where we see Community climate
resiliency as an opportunity to examine
Workforce readiness and different models
that could support
its development to better position
s in the energy transition
by partnering and and supporting
Workforce developments
we efforts we hope to break the poverty
of cycle poverty cycle to provide more
disposable income
it's kind of an ironic choice of words
and to increase equity in homes because
of the improvements that we made
and what we're suggesting is four
different elements if we were able to
Garner some of the funds that come from
this new uh new Revenue Source we would
like to add an additional staff person
that would be represented about 11 of
the monies coming in and that those
monies are changing all the time but
it's about seven or eight hundred
thousand dollars
we would also like to train Community
Advocates to support residents with
navigating Technical Services and
rebates sounds like Council Brent Como
and I are on the same vein with that and
in a in a different capacity but still
and then third we want to coordinate
with the construction managers to
implement a scalable low and moderate
income Pro retrofit program that
concentrates on thermal uh comfort and
on reducing energy burdens and moving
towards electrification
and lastly we'd like to develop
Partnerships that Advance energy
Workforce opportunities
and as I described earlier these all
represent the a percentage of the epe
franchise fee agreement and again these
would be separate decisions that would
be made internally and not as a part of
the agreement
so the outcomes we're looking at is
we're looking at greater access to
inflation reduction act dollars higher
equity in the houses lower utility bills
Workforce opportunities we want thermal
comfort with weatherization and heat
pumps and we want to reduce greenhouse
gases with electric plantses and pairing
it with Community solar
so that is the uh idea that we would
like to put forward and as the as we get
to that position when the franchise fee
is agreed upon it is there in your head
to think about
so much
so at least I'm going to go first this
time I'm going to ask you some questions
please okay so can you go back to where
you went with the different uh
breakdowns please sure oh the right
right there so what amount are you are
you thinking the total amount is this
one percent would raise
approximately about 700
000 to 800 000 it varies every year okay
so I want to focus on number three
67 so that's roughly
I don't know just say 450
000 dollars
and let me just let me just Begin by
saying I don't like franchise fees I
don't like charging them
but it's a necessity right now it's two
percent
and and I really had a hard time but I I
felt that if we could use would I be
wanting to go one more percent to me to
support it to allow those in the lower
income brackets to save on
weatherstripping just just general basic
things that that would keep the the hot
weather I mean the hot air going out or
cold air going out in various different
seasons
and I thought okay if it's going to cost
the repairs an extra four or five
dollars a month but it could save them
in their houses uh 30 40 a month I was
okay with that so what would you be what
would you spend that 450 000 on
it's very vague I appreciate the the
presentation but I don't know what
exactly
because when when
the rates go up
and and Council and myself start
Fielding questions
so why did you raise my rates I mean
things are going up as it is and what
exactly am I gonna how am I going to
benefit from it that's what they're
going to ask and
what are we what are we going to say
what is that 450 000 is going to be
spent on
the retrofit programs yes
thank you mayor the um
there what we're trying to do is to
address
a
a larger issue that is facing the low
and moderate income communities
one is that they have an extreme energy
board burden that is disproportionate to
the amount that the rest of us pay the
average for the rest of the city is
about three percent and the what uh low
and moderate income residents pay is any
is about seven or eight percent and what
energy burden people pay is 10 to 11
percent of their their income so our our
goal is to bring down energy the energy
burden to a reasonable amount below six
percent and that can't be done by just
weather stripping or simple actions like
that and then the other thing that we're
addressing that would require more
insulation
it perhaps window replacement because
they have single pane windows and the
the other thing that is necessary is
dealing with thermal comfort and when I
talk about thermal Comfort what I mean
is that there is about
70 percent of the low and moderate
income people have you rely on
evaporative cooling and when you rely on
evaporative cooling and have a poorly
sealed house you're really not effective
and you put
um
uh you do it during the hottest time of
the summer during the monsoon season
with the humidity you can only drop your
temperatures by 10 and if you're lucky
15 degrees and because the urban because
the inside of the the infill area in
particular is 10 degrees hotter it's 110
degrees during the hottest part of the
summer so we're talking about reducing
people's cooling to 95 day and night and
that is a safety risk so our goal is not
modest our goal is to provide a safe
home for for low and moderate income and
a affordable bill to be able to to uh
spend
their inter their time on
and and resources on other things
so okay Lisa I guess just to be more
candid here so a heat pump I thought I
heard you talk about a heat pump and a
AC heat pump on the average cost three
thousand dollars the small ones to
install than another couple Grand if
we're lucky so you're talking five
thousand dollars to install a heat pump
and AC pump you take the 450 000 divided
by five that's like 90 heat pumps
and to do it the state city-wide to
increase our fees to you know I
understand about an additional staff
person and I know I talked about this
and I have other ways of where we can
save the money to make sure you're
staffed and I'll talk with evil about it
later because I don't want to say it
right now and it's not on the agenda but
um
if that's what you were talking about
heat pumps and AC pumps you know to
but you know that's um
that's not a whole lot of
of people there's there's you know
that's
you know what I was envisioning was uh
and and I know that
didn't El Paso Electric
um come to didn't they provide some
information a few weeks ago to
I forgot what which one was
transportation and housing yeah and I
some of this
I don't know if we can partner with them
on
but
I I wanted to kind of focus in exactly
what that that money would be used for I
mean I hear what you're saying but
I didn't hear anything specific
mayor the the heat pump is is more
expensive than three thousand dollars a
heat pump provides both cooling and
heating
the rebate I mean it's can be
uh twelve thousand dollars but it is a
very efficient system that is a quarter
of the cost of running an air
conditioning or a heating unit so in the
end the cost to
to the homeowner in the terms of their
utility bill is also reduced so what
we're trying to do is
to
create a radical change in the and the
quality of life in the homes
for these community members who
have can be exposed to health risks
during extreme heat events and are
paying a disproportionate amount of
their income
so
I
I I feel like the approach that I'm
describing is is more ambitious than
what you were anticipating
but I I hope that under this
unprecedented time when we have so much
funding available from the IRA and can
tap into the construction industry or
develop new construction industry
uh Workforce that this will be an
opportunity
to
have this community as I've described
bounce forward and benefit greatly from
this and not always having to be to
catch up or to make tough decisions so
um the approach that we're using is is
very comprehensive and ambitious
okay okay I'm just a little bit confused
here but let's start off with what
exactly is your wording for FFA
I'm sorry ffe
it's the franchise fee agreement Okay so
when you said about
you were referring to other monies that
are available are you were you going to
commingle this with this other these
other well mayor you you described that
El Paso Electric helps I believe that
they provide 300 for a rebate for a
franchise for it
for a a heat pump so that's a small dip
into the needed money
okay so are are you saying then number
three is primarily heat pumps and not
weather stripping mayor
um I I'm talking about weatherization
for sure that is the fundamental
step that needs to be taken in housing
especially with the insulation in the
homes caulking to two pane windows are
minimum for what for what is needed but
in addition to that there's a need for a
reliable heating and cooling system
through what is advocated for in
um
as the best method is is heat pumps
do you know approximately what
percentage of people
the the that you're referring to the low
to moderate income what the numbers are
in Las Cruces that would qualify
for the inflation reduction act funds or
for having their heat pump replaced well
the ones that you were referring to
earlier when you were starting off the
mayor there's
um
uh 13 500 people that are low and
moderate income and there are nine
thousand five hundred people households
that are highly energy have high energy
burdens
so we we would basically be serving one
percent if it's 9 500 households and we
were able to do 90
heat pump night and put on 90 heat pumps
for the 450 000.
I'm sorry mayor I'm confused okay so
there's roughly 9 500 households who
told me that yes would qualify
and if the money that we're looking to
do would only be for around 90 heat
pumps give or take how many heat bumps
do you think 450
000 would purchase
um I'm sorry I'm sorry mayor I'm I'm
trying to catch up I mean I'm asking me
the question again okay yeah sorry no so
so if if we're using 67 of the of the
franchise agreement money which earlier
we think that the whole amount is 700
000 so 67 percent of that I just guess
is 450 I I didn't put the okay but the
uh the calculations
of the 450 000 how many heat pumps on
residences do you think that would cover
000.
I think it would cover about
450 000 would probably cover about 10 to
15 000 homes
I'm not sure you know mayor I'm sorry
I'm not doing this well in my head part
of the mayor part of the reason that I
haven't come forward with a specific
budget is because I'm trying to honor
the idea that this is being co-created
with the community so whether we
do a
intense job with a few houses or we do a
modest job with more houses is up to the
community to decide whether we hire a
contractor or whether we train those
community members themselves is
something that the that the community
will have input in so I haven't done a
a budget I can tell you that there is
it costs about thirty thousand dollars
to do a complete retrofit to a house
that includes the heat pump and all
electric appliances and weatherization
now I don't know if all of those houses
will need that but that um
but but that is that is the total figure
for those houses and this was meant to
be a revolving fund that we could use to
to be able to continue reaching out to
more and more houses
okay so what I did I hear you I know
it's late in the day and sometimes okay
so I took I just used a very very
minimal amount of five thousand dollars
for a heat pump
and I divided that in the 450 000 and I
came up with 90.
90 divided by 9 500 households is less
than one percent
one percent of all the houses of the low
to medium income people one percent one
out of 100 is going to get this and
that's that's where I'm gonna have a
hard time saying whichever one of the
hundred gets it
so I
I you know I think we're making a little
Headway that we want to try to reduce
and help our our lower income residents
save money but I don't know if if using
all of this on just one percent of the
of the residents so
okay I'm with you now
this okay I have a different number of
the number of households but one of the
things is is that this money is not I'm
not buying the total
we're not using this money to buy the
total costs we're using this money in
conjunction with the inflation reduction
act so to go back to that example of
that it costs 25 up to Thirty one
thousand dollars to retrofit a house the
only thing that we would need to
retrofit a total house would be six
thousand dollars the Delta because the
IRA the inflation reduction act rebates
and tax credits and other sources of
money from El Paso Electric from the
state
and from MFA can contribute to that
money so we're not doing one percent
we're using this money to bridge the
financial
needs of the people so we feel that the
money that exists from all of those
different tax credits and rebates and
other programs and other Partnerships
can provide the Lion's Share of this
that money is just to cover
the Delta the amount that is still
missing
okay
and I think I heard you say six thousand
give or take yeah that's if we go the
whole way well I thought you said that
the full was like thirty thousand and
then with the IRA money or would be
another 25 and so that no Okay so
this is it would cost about thirty one
thousand dollars to do
no one has decided that they're going to
do every piece of the retrofit like a
new heat pump water heater or a
heat pump dryer or or those sorts of
extra amenities but certainly a heat
pump uh heater and cooler would be in
there as wood weatherization as a
minimum that was in there but if you did
it all it would be about thirty thousand
dollars and with the rebates
you would still owe you would still need
about six thousand dollars more to
finish the job oh okay right I got you
and so that's but I used five thousand
okay so I took the five thousand into
the four hundred and fifty thousand and
that left me with 90.
90.
90 units
90 widgets whatever and
mayor this this is not something I'm
asking for for one year this is
something I'm asking for for several
years until a program is established and
runs on its own from from non-profit
centers or other entities that have
adopted this this model
okay and I hear you but if we're doing
one percent a year 10 Years it'll be ten
percent
well because we're going back to the
households that you told me
you said 9 500 households if we rounded
it down to nine thousand households
which sounds about right
and we're doing 90. but
that's one percent ninety of nine
thousand and if we were to do it every
year that basically means in 10 years we
would have done 10 of the houses it
theoretically would take 100 years to do
all of them
I don't know I don't know that that I
don't know if that's the uh
you know again I I just wanted to
clarify this and you and you did help me
clarify it and so um
that's all the questions I had thank you
mayor
uh
Thank you Lisa I'm like should I ask
these questions
um Lisa thank you I don't think there's
any debate that this is would be great
this this is excellent I
this is not what I'm debating but I go
back to your
piece where
um the number of people is at the 9000
9500 right how many of those people are
living in a single family dwelling
multi-family housing
who renters versus owners
it
um
I have those figures available I mean I
can get those figures for you I don't
have them available
um
but but I would say that there is at
least 50 to 60 percent that are renters
and that I would say that there's
probably a
and and another division would be that
there is
about
um
60 to 70 percent of people that own
their homes
single homes as opposed to
um single occupancy homes but the
majority of homes that we have are the
of the majority of Home types that we
have are single homes single yeah single
single family dwelling single family
dwellings okay okay that's helpful and
so do you have would you have a pro
okay A bit a program an overarching
program but different for the
multi-family because these are these are
owners that own that right or how would
you do that I know I'm getting in the No
No but okay that's fine mayor um uh
mayor Pro Tem gandra
the
this this is really a huge a huge
challenge as we all know and the and
part of it is
how do we get
I'm going to answer your question how do
we get
in the front of the line to get the
money that is out there for the
inflation reduction act and it's not
just a matter of
um
you know
getting the equipment and putting it in
it's like being able to assess your
house to know what equipment that you
need in your house to be able to be
educated and and have your hand held
through for all the rebates
that you're entitled to and
um and then to have the opportunity to
possibly be a Workforce for it we're
focusing on the single family housing
right now because it is the cleanest
beginning for doing this as a model
because the problems that we have or the
lack of
clear guidance that we have or decisions
that we have for landlords and renters
is really difficult because who Ben if
if we were doing a program that bended
benefited that was for landlords and
renters then we have a whole different
legal
[Music]
and so our idea is to focus on that
subset of the population because there
are other entities that are working on
multi-uh multi-unit homes such as our
housing units so that is why we've like
taken this slice of the pie
okay thank you Lisa and so these
Community Advocates that you're
proposing would
I would say you would have this
marketing program that you would say
were looking for these types of people
or whatever or types of homes you would
have to be willing to have someone come
into your home and do uh assessment if
you will just trying to in my head
understand this and then they would do
an assessment and say at the minimum
this is what you need at the max this is
what you need and then it will go to
this group that would determine or
you're saying yeah if you need it you
need a whole 100 retrofit you would
approve that
a mayor mayor procham Gandara
I
uh having an assessment is an important
first step and
um and having someone with in the
construction industry giving you that
breakdown
is another important step and deciding
what is economically feasible
is the part of the determining Factor as
to what can be done
but the um the community Advocates would
be a trusted member of the community
that can explain
these are this is what the program is
these are the possible rebates you get
these are the possible
um this is how we're going to organize
it this is when you can check in to the
program and then and in coordination
with a construct with someone in the
construction industry so
I can't say at this juncture you know
like how much is going to be done
because we're still at the infancy of it
I mean I I'm not I I don't I haven't
planned this whole thing out because I
don't know if I have the resources to be
able to do it but I have enough
information to be able to assess the
viability of heat pumps and
weatherization and Technologies and
Workforce Development and all those
other sorts of things so I have all the
pieces of the puzzle I haven't built the
whole puzzle because it's I don't want
to build it myself
I want to build it with the community I
want to be able to listen to what the
community is saying in order to be able
to figure out how this puzzle should
look I appreciate that Lisa coming from
really a social work perspective I
completely understand working with
promoters and community health workers I
also understand and I believe in that
philosophy I think it would be really
helpful I guess I'm just trying to
understand what you're asking us
so I'm hearing a number of things but
and it's going to be in partnership with
community and I love that
and El Paso Electric right and there's
all these rebates and stuff that are out
there if you will
but there's going to be limited amount
of money and we have I'm thinking okay
you have to you're saying Council we
need to get in front of this there's
this money out there and you're
presenting to or maybe in a the form of
a proposal this is what we want want to
see happen am I am I on track yes okay I
think we should do that a for sure let's
get ready for that but if the figures as
mayor presented are correct I am too
concerned one percent of this total
grew this total group gives me some
pause so I'm feeling like at the minimum
we have to have some minimum you've got
to have weatherization we got to have a
heat pump you just had that
worked on that would you be able to
serve more people
mayor mayor
um
yes
okay
I think we want to serve more people
don't we yes we do and
yes
so what are you asking us Lisa today
you're presenting this and I understand
and I love it I love new programs this
is a great idea mayor mayor Pro tem
Gandara what I'm suggesting is that we
have a unique opportunity with so much
rebate and tax credit that is out there
and it is an opportunity to reshape the
way we do our programs so that we have
an opportunity to develop more Workforce
that we have community members that are
taking the lead to drive this program as
opposed to just be recipients of it and
to to address very serious problems with
resiliency both resiliency in terms of
thermal comfort as well as the
sustainability of your or your income so
I'm asking you to
to
trust us to invest to use this money
wisely with Community co-creating this
to be able to take
a new look at how we go about making
change in the community I'm with you I
think it's an excellent program we
should we should really do what we can
to assist others especially those that
are right in the in the low to Modern
moderate income I think it's an
important thing it's there's so much
there that makes it very difficult
especially for our low-income folks
um
and I would be appreciative of seeing
those numbers Lisa absolutely low and
the moderate and you know that would be
helpful to me
um I think maybe just
um
sifting out a little more giving us what
might you be presenting as a formal
proposal to the government on this would
be helpful too so I know you don't know
that and
you wanted the government well don't you
aren't you going there's all this money
out there correct oh I see right yes and
you're going to make a proposal I'm
assuming to them
mayor mayor Pro tem Gandara we don't
have to make a proposal to them any low
and moderate any low-income person is is
eligible for eight thousand dollar
rebate just for the heat pump they're um
they get three thousand two hundred
dollars a year for weatherization it is
just a matter of them being able to
submit a request for it how about the
wherewithal to do it yes and that's
where the community Advocates come okay
that's it I'm I'm good in my head I
understand thank you I appreciate the
questions thank you
did you want to say something before the
council
one of the things I was just uh you know
we're talking to the mayor about is one
of
the things that's interesting about this
proposal as opposed to the other the
previous proposal is that it's taking
that sort of fitted amount of money
which is seven hundred to eight hundred
thousand dollars in in leveraging it
to go out and leverage it for all that's
out there and we we don't know what's
out there but we know that there's a lot
of money out there and to be able to use
that seven to eight hundred thousand
dollars
you can only no matter what you do you
can only help
so many people with seven to eight
hundred thousand dollars but having a
person having somebody
that can direct people to these programs
um having the programs themselves Supply
and ongoing Perpetual
support to the program
then we can we can have more
you know structural change in our in our
city and I think that's the gist of the
just the presentation I think that's
right now we don't really know how much
we're going to be able to get but
I think that's where Lisa and I went
back and forth we met with Sonja about
what we should be bringing forward
I was a little concerned about having a
staff person
I I know there are more but I think the
whole concept behind that is
is using that individual to be able to
direct so that it's not just seven
hundred thousand it's
you know whatever with this this new act
with what's out there with epe with
other organizations
and then come back with an opportunity I
know at least I had a a spreadsheet that
you might we could share maybe some
other I mean sent to the council about
potential if we did have those rebates
what it could look like and I know it
probably wasn't shared because it's
these are estimates right now but that's
the that's the gist I just wanted to not
take any not to take anything away from
the presentation but just
just the gist of what was being
presented thank you for your
clarification I appreciate that and if I
may one more thing and and I've been
thinking uh Lisa and I
I I I can understand where we want the
staff person and I think this is all
good good information but let me just
ask you this so if you think it's going
to 700 000 that means that we're getting
um
1.4 million right now from the other two
percent
and it's my knowledge it's it's it's
probably just put into the general fund
okay so if we really want to make a
change I'm supportive of this and I
don't know we can't
approve it today or if again staff's
gonna I haven't even told efo this
so why don't we do this why don't we
look at
dedicating the full three percent
that means moving that one point
four million into the into this program
use that extra money to buy because
you're telling me that we're getting
five to one
for every dollar we spend we're gonna
get five oh that's right right okay so
we're gonna spend six thousand dollars
we'll get the resident we'll get six
thirty thousand dollars worth of of
package
so
if if there's a consensus for at least
to send this back to staff and take a
look at it that way now you're talking a
lot you're talking 270 even more 300
houses now um now you're getting now the
number's going up and I'm feeling a lot
better
do you see what I'm saying but I don't
know where they're going to get the
where they're going to pull that extra
1.4 million we just went over a bunch of
stuff so I have an idea but I like it
yeah mayor if I may yeah I just wanted
to say that so that um okay now I'm done
I just
I think we're about as clear as mud at
this point so before
to the weeds anymore I would make a
suggestion that given that we don't know
yet these are totally estimates this is
a little bit premature I think though
appreciated
that if this could come back to a PRC I
would suggest a housing PRC given that
there's some there's a lot of
conversations about
um
housing especially low moderate income
housing but TSI could work as well I
just I feel like we are
um I'm very unclear about what's
happening right now even though to be
honest with you I feel like
um philosophically I I'm there with you
and I get it and I understand and I
think this Council does I just
um I think we're getting really in the
Weeds on something that isn't totally
fleshed out and we have time to flush it
out
counselor Flores and did someone else
turn did you turn your light on Council
Graham no okay counselor Flores thank
you Mr bear and thank you so much Lisa
I really love this idea it's a great
idea
but I think you've heard from three or
four of us now that it is an idea now
insofar as adding the one additional
sustainability staff person and removing
that 11 of fa FFA I mean that to me what
the
El Paso Electric franchise free
agreement
I think you were trying to
figure that whatever that percentage is
um that's that equates to the hiring of
a once that person I don't know about
that
um
but
I think that
um
I think that we would be better served
if you would you would let us know who
those Community Advocates would be
um
and then who is the construction manager
to implement a scalable LMI retrofit
program
and then develop Partnerships that
Advance energy Workforce opportunities
it seems to me that all those all of
everything you've listed is absolutely
fabulous
I think that you have to have
conversations with two three and four
and and in terms of working
or
um
in terms of it seems to me I I think the
sustainability staff person
would
um it's it's almost like what comes
first you know the chicken or the egg
do do you
do you hire someone would you hire
someone that's really out there in the
community and really knows
um
how to work with
you know how to work on getting this
done the other thing about the IRA
it sounds like the
Irish whatever Army but the the
inflation reduction Act
it seems to me that's a federal program
and it would probably be good to speak
with someone from Senator heinrich's
office or from Ben Ray Han's office
in terms of
wonder you know just in terms of working
with other
agencies throughout the U.S I mean in
the United States
um so
so what would that one additional staff
person do would that person be
developing this resiliency program and
then and then advise us uh the council
and city manager
as to points two three and four or is
there already a community group out
there
mayor councilor Flores
I think the throne you guys for a Looper
and that this is I'm TR I'm trying to
have this be
developed by the community but I want to
be able to tell the community that we
have a small Nest Egg to be able to work
from so there is an ability to be able
to navigate the scale I realize that I
have presented this in a way that is
near and dear to my heart as a
sustainability person about worrying
about climate change and
um and and Equity issues I I do have as
as city manager said I do have a budget
I I have best practices of of the best
ways to do Workforce Development of
partnering and with community members
and and doing the construction
management I I know different ways that
we could have Advocates work on this
because I have a contractor who has
interviewed everybody in the country
about what are Best Practices Lessons
Learned for them and I have that
information as a resource for the
community and I want to present it to
them and say what's a good fit for you
you know what what is it that you want
do you want is energy burden the most
important thing for you or is getting
your kid a job the most important thing
for you because we'll be able to Pivot
to be able to respond to those needs and
and and Define it in terms of what the
community is asking for where they feel
most burdened so I am in a bind right
now to be able to answer your questions
as specifically as you want
I guess I was hoping that you would
trust me but I'm not there yet and and
the I just know that there is a lot of
money out there and that that I feel
it's very important if we're true to
um
putting the Frontline Community front
and center then they need to be at the
table and all
I there's we we already have 25 people
that we brought together and one of the
counselors was there as well so we are
studying that process it's a 10 month
process where we're diving into each one
of these areas and defining it with them
so that is where I'm headed I don't have
the answers for you at this point well
you have answered uh you have answered
Lisa because you're telling us you
already have 25 people in the community
and it's not a question of trust I know
I think I know you and you know me well
enough to know that
your heart and your brain and it's very
near and dear to you and I think
everybody up here shares that sentiment
I you know I I speak for myself and
perhaps where my colleagues here but
whenever we make a decision to
distribute money that isn't mine
personally
um
we have to be very careful about how
that's done and because you know we're
just uh
you know we just have to be we have to
take that it's a responsibility in terms
of you know issuing uh to authorize to
vote on something like this and then
have the funds that follow
um so if you have 25 people in the
community
and those would help with all these uh
numbers the elements one through four
well two to two through four
well that would be and that would have
been really helpful in terms of
what um the these 25 people have
actually uh you know how what the
information they have to move forward uh
should this be implemented and um and
I'm and I'm just wondering have you
spoken to Renee Romo or
um
Senator heinrich's office
vote mayor councilor Flores both um
Sylvia uyoa and Renee Romo attend those
meetings oh well
see that's we I I don't know if the rest
of the counselors or Mr peely everybody
up here I I didn't know that
um knowing that that they're behind it
and they're well aware of how the IRA
functions and how it it's distributed
and everything and all these other
programs
that that changes everything for me
um
and you know you you said that you know
someone in the construction industry who
would be able to
implement the retrofit the
retrofit program
um
have you developed or do you have a
people in the energy Workforce that you
potentially can develop Partnerships
with
uh mayor councilor Flores there are
several different options that are
available depending on what the
community wants we could have
apprenticeships internships we could
have
um we could create a co-op of small
businesses that would share engineers
and Auditors to be able to do the
program and it it all depends we we
haven't gotten into the workforce
decision yet but those are all those are
all options like I I know all the
options that are on the table I don't
know which one the community wants to do
whether they feel like
there are so many small businesses that
have a hard time navigating because they
don't have a license some you know
electrician on on board or they don't
have but they could share one amongst it
so a co-op is one model that we have
there's other models where we could have
uh
internships from the high school
construction company or we could have
dacc use it as an internship these are
all ways that we're exploring it but we
want to make sure that every piece of
this Taps into something that benefits
the community right
right and then the the uh one more staff
person would be focused entirely on this
this uh project
mayor councilor Flores yes and that
person what kind of uh requirements uh
job requirements of that personal kind
of expertise or experience would you
need for that person
mayor councilor Flores most probably to
be someone in the that is in the
building sector uh that would
building performance sector I see
thank you so much Lisa I really I I love
the concept and and I support you thank
you thank you
so counselor the Senator's office just
texted me they said that the chicken
came first
since you support everything that they
say yeah yeah right
so that ends that story any other
comments
so I guess maybe you come back with a
little bit more specificity and get it
and
maybe come back with two percent or all
three I don't know but I I don't know if
I can support just at one percent
because I I want to make a real
difference
and I think 90 houses is good but it's
not
because they're gonna they're gonna face
the phone calls they're gonna get the
text messages why did you raise my rates
and um but if we have a program that
that's significant to 300 a year okay
that'll that'll get closer I'm gonna get
closer so I appreciate this work and you
put into it I would like to see a little
bit more
a little bit more money going to actual
purchasing to because if we're gonna get
six to one Ratio or five to one five to
one ratio
that's that's like uh I give you a
dollar you give me five dollars back I
can't find as many dollars to give you
all right you give me five dollars back
and why my voice is so
it's been this way for a while maybe
it's an allergy or something
but I'm I'm thinking chips that you're
eating right now
Lisa I'm thinking that and I have a
headache I'm thinking so much now I'm I
mean I I I
my heart is really with you and my mind
is with you too and just trying to think
of how to implement this and and be
effective I'm thinking that there might
be programs out there for people who
aren't in that lower level uh income
that might there might be programs at
work and then more people would be able
to benefit it seems to me that the what
the uh the IRA is focusing on people who
are in a or who are paying and
um an exorbitant amount percentage-wise
of their income for utilities is that
true or did I misunderstand that mayor
councilor Flores the the rebates and the
tax credits
differ between what uh income level you
are so LMI that low income low and
moderate income get the Lion's Share but
they're uh
but the lowest amount is uh
any any of us could get 30 percent tax
credit but what the benefit is for the
low income is they get rebates so they
don't have to have a tax liability to be
able to benefit from the program and we
are doing other Outreach efforts we are
hoping to have a program similar to
election lean this fall to step people
through we just presented not
surprisingly on Earth Day at several
different locations and things like that
we did the power up program so
um you know we are trying to get the
word out there but I think that uh that
the Frontline communities are the ones
that that I'm most concerned about great
thank you Mr
okay
is that anything more yeah it's good
all right thank you
okay well that's it then thank you for
the presentation and we'll entertain a
motion to adjourn move move to adjourn
Graham motion made by councilman Cuomo
second by councilor Graham that we
adjourn Christine
this is on the motion to it during the
work session counselor obeda is absent
counselor Graham
councilor Ben komal yes councilor cran
yes counselor Flores yes councilor
gandada
yes mayor yes
okay we're adjourned it's 5 10 p.m
thanks enjoy the rest of the evening
[Laughter]
thank you
okay this is the agenda setting meeting
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