City Council Meeting December 2, 2024

MINUTES

City Council

Monday, December 2, 2024 @ 1:00 PM

City Council Chambers, City Hall

PRESENT: Mayor Eric Enriquez, Councilor Cassie McClure, Councilor Becki Graham, Councilor

Johana Bencomo, Councilor Becky Corran, and Councilor Yvonne Flores

ABSENT: Councilor William Mattiace

1. OPENING CEREMONIES 1.1 PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE - COUNCILOR FLORES. 1.2 PRESENTATION OF CERTIFICATES OF

APPRECIATION/PROCLAMATIONS - COUNCILOR FLORES. Mayor Enriquez recognized the Centennial High School Boys Soccer State

Champions

Mayor Enriquez recognized Jordyn Campion for her commitment to athletics and academics.

Councilor Corran presented Kate Nixon with a proclamation for Osteopathic Medicine

Month.

1.3 JOBS OF THE WEEK. Sarah Raney, New Mexico Workforce Connection presented Jobs of the Week. 1.4 PETS OF THE WEEK. Councilor Corran presented Pets of the Week.

2. CONFLICT OF INTEREST INQUIRY BY MAYOR AS REQUIRED BY LCMC

SECTION 2-27 (E)(2) 2.1 None.

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION 3.1 Beverly Hogan, Member of the Public said I just wanted to address two things that I would like to see the city council add when you address our legislature. The most important one I think would be that we look at what Police Chief Story has regarding crime legislation that he would like to see passed. It is the competency restoration for violent felony and repeat offenders. This is needed in order to stop the current situation where repeat offenders are being released over and over again simply to commit more crimes. Also, he wants to see that we allow law enforcement to be petitioners for assisted outpatient treatment. In other words, allowing the LCPD to get more people into the treatment that they need and pretrial detention which would be bail reform for violent crimes and repeat offenses while awaiting trial. The last is

Juvenile Justice Reform to reduce juvenile repeat offenders. The last part is I do have a problem with our city council endorsing Family Paid Medical Leave. This imposes a tax on everyone who is an employee of the state at a time when so many people are already struggling with increased cost of living. It would require businesses to pay into a state managed fund to provide three months of paid leave for any employee. This would place a large financial burden on the business, especially small businesses.

Businesses would then have to allow employees to take several months of leave annually and would not be allowed to hire anyone else to replace those on leave.

Small businesses simply can’t afford to function this way. It would be devastating to our small businesses that are already suffering because of the violent crime here in

Las Cruces. So, I would really appreciate it if you would consider those two items. I have already sent them to Senator Elect Ant Thorton as well as our legislature.

Lynn Moorer, Member of the Public said I am here today to talk briefly about EPA new

Lead and Copper Rule. Some of you know that I practiced environmental law in

Nebraska before relocating to Las Cruces to take care of my parents about ten years ago. It is critical that this important rule be implemented properly and fully with respect, I fear its roll out is being botched. False and misleading statements from city councilors are not helpful no matter how much cheerleading you want to do. Vague, misleading and/or contradictory statements from staff also undercut your efforts. In addition to lacking clarity the letter the city sent was largely written in English. Spanish speakers were merely directed to call a number. The entire letter written clearly inaccurately should have been sent in English and Spanish in order of it having a chance in being read and understood by most affected Las Cruces water users. The presentation at the City Council Meeting on November 18th meeting was inadequate.

There was no opportunity for the public to ask questions and have them answered by knowledgeable persons. The briefing contained inaccurate, incomplete, and misleading information. In reality the rule makes clear that testing your drinking water is not a substitute for replacing your lead pipes. Financial help is supposed to be available for property owners who don’t have the funds to bear the cost of replacing their lead pipes. There seems to be an effort to declare victory ridiculously early simply because four weeks after the notification letter in English was sent out the city has not heard from any property owners saying they found lead pipes. To clarify the rule provides a ten-year period in which to get all the lead out and achieve full compliance. It also appears that there is an effort by city representatives to shutdown

inquiry and dodge providing answers to keep key questions with supporting documentation in a public meeting that is live streamed and recorded. I request an opportunity at a city council meeting for a public briefing by knowledgeable persons where the public has ample opportunity to make comments, ask questions, and receive answers. City councilors need to also have an opportunity to ask all their questions and receive complete answers as well as hearing the concerns and information provided by their constituents. Shoving us off to a Utilities Board meeting will not work. There are more than technical issues to be discussed. There is at least one important policy and legal issue that needs to be put before city councilors, the

City Attorney, and management.

Liz Rodriguez-Johnson, Member of the Public said speaking to you today in regard to my concerns about how the city is handling the new EPA Lead and Copper Rule and also to reiterate some of the comments that Ms. Moorer just made. It was disappointing that the city’s letter was written in English except for two sentences in

Spanish. The Spanish sentences said that the recipient has to call a number to obtain important information. That is more likely to cause a recipient who only speaks and reads Spanish to throw the letter away and then call the number to find out something that might threaten their wellbeing and/or cost them money. Most of the people impacted by this are in the older neighborhoods and are Hispanic. A respectful and confident way to handle this would have been to write the letter in English attached to the same letter in Spanish. Also, we need to know exactly how much lead piping exist in the older parts of our city both city owned and privately owned piping. If staffers don’t know they need to investigate immediately. We don’t want to hear that they think there is no lead piping in the old parts of downtown without presenting clear evidence of that. I therefore request a briefing at the city council meeting which has his a significant opportunity for public comments and questions an ample amount of time.

For example, an hour or so needs to be reserved for public comments after staffers have given a thorough truthful presentation in response to public questions the public and the city councilors then need to receive fully truthful noninvasive answers from knowledgeable people.

Trent Scribner, Member of the Public said I came here to discuss a case that kind of disturbed me about Joann Melon Gaudian who was evicted from her home about a week ago. She was evicted from her home, and she ended up breaking back in, this is a 70-year-old woman to try to get out of the cold. Understandably LCPD came and then she was arrested then. The disturbing part is that later she was released from the Dona Ana County Detention Center just released with no ride into the cold of winter and she has since gone missing and so I am just curious as to what we can do to protect these people because it is going to keep happening to older people keep losing their homes here at record rates and if we have people getting evicted, getting arrested how do we avoid releasing them to where we know they have nowhere to go.

I am just dumbfounded that this is allowed to happen that she was released to the custody of no one. People who know her are saying that she has dementia. So, this woman is out on the streets confused. I just think it is a tragedy and something that the council should seriously think about because it is not going to get better anytime soon.

Vic Villalobos, Member of the Public said it has been a little while since I have come

up here to speak and the last time I came up we were voting on some I thought pretty important things when it came to the ordinances for the cart and for some of the vagrancy type stuff we were looking at and I do think we made some changes. I think we see less shopping carts. I think that some solutions came up where people were given the smaller carts, and we see less of them, and I think that has actually helped.

I think we have seen a lot less of the people out on the streets actually trying to solicit money from people. I think a lot of that was organized crime and when they saw that council took action they moved on to other places and so I think that is a good thing. I know I have not been able to be here like many other people. We are super busy. It is hard to get away. I still follow. I still watch when I can, and I feel like we think that was the solution to everything that suddenly everything was going to change, and I think we were clear in the beginning that those were the baby changes we needed to keep going. I look at the things that the city is wanting to do and the priorities that we are now making, and it saddens me that these priorities don’t include some of these things that Chief Story is asking for going to Santa Fe and doing things. I don’t know how much time you guys actually spend out on the street like where our businesses are, but we are still having issues. We still have these problems and whether you realize it or not I think it is just because some of you choose to follow an agenda that you will not, will not look away from no matter the cost. No matter the cost of the businesses, no matter the cost of the citizens, they are the majority of this city. You will not look at any other alternatives and we keep all of our funding is so focused on places like the Community of Hope which I do think do good things, but we focus so much on that we encourage more and more people to come to our community. These people that we are encountering, that I am encountering, the people that Dr. Kyle are encountering, that my wife is encountering they are not from Las Cruces. They are from other cities. They are coming here because we are making it welcoming for them to come here and we need to have change. You cannot expect a police force to be able to handle the situations. We can barely get the people coming to our academies.

Why would somebody want to come here and be a police officer if they don’t have really the support from this council out there to do things.

Juan Garcia, Member of the Public said for nearly three interminable years I have been a constant haunting presence before this council. A voice of relentless plea echoing through these chambers begging for your action, your support and demanding state legislators, many of your friends and colleagues take the sides of action. Change that which shield the innocent, fortify the vulnerable and strike fear into the hearts of those who would seek to do them harm. I have yearned for a champion among you, a unyielding advocate for the downtrodden, brutalized, the victims left shattered in the wake of the merciless criminal hoard that stalks our streets. For the Patricia Jimenez’s, Little Shop on Main and others in the community who were forced to abandon their life’s work, their dreams, their very livelihoods to the relentless onslaught of the Las Cruces criminal element. Luckily for someone like

Councilor Bencomo who has been a true advocate for the cause that she believes in, agree or disagree with her she stands true to her convictions. For all of those who have been broken by the cruel hand of fate and the callous disregard of the predatory element that lurks in every shadow I have longed for a voice of righteous indignation out of those among our elected representatives who have lost their way who have forgotten their sacred oath they swore to protect and serve the people, the so-called “progressive legislators” who fawn and catered to the criminals who caudle and

enabled them while the victims were left to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives.

Legislators like Senator Cervantes who when confronted with a request for help in addressing crime in this community can only muster a pathetic self-delusional comfort that “at least we are not as bad as Albuquerque”, as if that were a twisted badge of honor, a grotesque metric that to which to emeasure our worth as a community. It is nothing short of breathtaking, the audacity, the sheer moral bankruptcy of such a statement. A stark reminder of just how far we have fallen of just how deeply rut of complacency in our appeasement has infected the halls of power. I held on to hope until I saw the Las Cruces favor among others, animal welfare because clearly the welfare of animals outweighs public safety and wellbeing of hard-working citizens.

This council prioritizes the welfare of animals over small businesses and the citizens.

Just what you would expect from this council I guess, unbelievable.

Jim Hurst, Member of the Public said I want to start by reading the New Mexico

Constitution, Article II, Section 11, every man shall be free to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscious, no person shall be required to attend any place of worship or support any religious sect or denomination nor shall any preference be given by law to any religious denomination or mode of worship. I want to address Lisa

Parrot’s comments from last meeting. I agree with Ms. Parrot on some things. First, everyone is entitled to believe and worship according to the dictates of their conscious. Second, we both have the same impression about the Mayor and his role in the National Day of Prayer service held here at City Hall. It seems that we both have the impression that the Mayor authorizes, sponsors, and participates in the event in his official capacity. It would be nice if the Mayor would go on record and state exactly what his role in the event was. Both Ms. Parrot and I agree with the New

Mexico Constitution that all New Mexicans have religious freedom, and no person is required to participate in any religious service, but Ms. Parrot doesn’t acknowledge is that no one should be required to support any religious service. The National Day of

Prayer service is unauthorized expense to the city and an unauthorized use of public facilities unless of course the mayor has the authority to use City Hall and city personnel however he wishes and does not require the consent of city council to hold religious services here in this building. It also gives the appearance of an endorsement and expressed favoritism by the City of Las Cruces for a particular religious group or religious opinion. While I agree with Lisa on many things I challenge her, the CCIA, Mayor, and the city to do two things. First, define the event. State by what authority it is held and what city personnel and resources are appropriated to its use. Two, justify a public service, public religious service using city resources under the New Mexico Constitution. If you can’t do these two things you must cease holding the event here. It is just that simple.

Lonnie Montgomery, Member of the Public said I am a follower of Jesus Christ, and I have good news for the council and other people in this country. You can stop practicing your Mandarin and the reason is we are going to be the US of A and not the

USS of A. That is according to the Lord. I just have a couple of questions. I come here at 1 o’clock because I can but there are other people that can’t. People that work. So,

I would like to see if we can’t meet maybe at a little later in time. Say right around 6 o’clock, 6:30 some place so that people can get off and come in and get in on the voting and make their opinions known to the council and vice versa. I have another question about I think I saw on TV in one of the stations in El Paso it was called the

15 Minute City and the way its explained and I thought it was passed or it was passed and put on the back burner and I thought that the council had passed but I am not sure because I don’t attend every meeting and they had certain things that could not be in there and the zones could be changed almost at will where if the people wanted to put a motorhome behind my house they could do so or they could by the place next door to me and they could put in their dispensary or the bar and I understood under this plan that you could have a dispensary or a bar in each and every place. It’s called

15 Minutes because you didn’t have to walk out of your particular area, “your city”.

Now I was born and raised in the west and there is a lot of stuff out there and I don’t want to be put in one place and told I cannot go out another. I am sorry for the people in New York that they don’t have all the beautiful spaces we have in New Mexico.

When Councilor Mattiace came to Las Cruces I asked if he could explain it to me and give me a call and I gave him my number and the only call I received is somebody calling me to speak to Mr. Mattiace. So, I would like the convenience, and I just would like more explanation or are the zoning people going to decide what is in each and every of these parts of the city.

Patty Hughes, Member of the Public said I am concerned about how Las Cruces

Utilities is complying with the new federal Lead and Copper Rule. Both English speakers and both Spanish speakers who receive their water from Las Cruces

Utilities need complete factual information from knowledgeable people. This includes people who know what records actually show about where exactly where lead lines are in the city both publicly owned and privately owned. If there are gaps in city records, then we need to know that too. If Las Cruces Utilities is going rely upon a website to inform the public about matters related to the new rule the website needs to be in English and Spanish and needs to be made factually correct, well organized, easy to understand and up to date. We all need to know with documented evidence the extent to which lead is in the city owned water mains, piping or any other type of water conduit. There is little point in private property owners going through the expense of replacing their lead pipes if water comes to them through city owned lead piping. It doesn’t help to hear unsubstantiated characterization whether from city staff or councilors. It was disturbing for me to hear a city councilor state on a radio show last week that if a property was built after the 70’s there is virtually no chance of lead pipes. This is not true. In reality lead pipes used for water lines were not banned by federal law until 1986. In addition, plumbing fixtures containing lead were not banned for sale until 1998. There must be hundreds of houses built in Las Cruces between

1980 and 1998 that use lead pipes and/or lead plumbing fixtures. We need to hear all the facts regarding achieving compliance with the new rule including the facts that city personnel may not want to talk about. It discredits staff and councilors when we are told not to worry, not to ask penetrating questions or just trust the people working on this and also leaves open the possibility that something could be covered up. I would like to hear the facts from people who know them, about what the city thinks the rule requires, what the current situation actually is and what steps are being taken to achieve full compliance with the rule. This needs to happen at a public briefing at a city council meeting where citizens have plenty of time to make comments and ask questions and then have their questions answered by people who know the answers.

If staffers don’t know the answers it would be helpful if they said so and then find the answers and report back as soon as possible again within the context of a council meeting.

4. ACCEPTANCE OF AGENDA Councilor Yvonne Flores moved, seconded by Councilor Becky Corran, to accept the agenda as presented.

RESULT: Carried

MOVER: Councilor Yvonne Flores

SECONDER: Councilor Becky Corran

AYES: Mayor Eric Enriquez, Councilor Cassie McClure, Councilor Becki Graham,

Councilor Johana Bencomo, Councilor Becky Corran, and Councilor Yvonne

Flores

5. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES 5.1 REGULAR CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF NOVEMBER 4, 2024.

6. RESOLUTION(S) AND/OR ORDINANCE(S) FOR CONSENT AGENDA 6.1 RESOLUTION NO. 25-063: A RESOLUTION PROVIDING FOR THE

DETERMINATION OF REASONABLE NOTICE OF MEETINGS OF THE CITY

COUNCIL AND ITS BOARDS, COMMITTEES, AND COMMISSIONS FOR

CALENDAR YEAR 2025. 6.2 RESOLUTION NO. 25-064: A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING AN ANNUAL

NOT-TO-EXCEED AMOUNT OF $1,000,000 INCLUDING NM GROSS

RECEIPTS TAX (GRT) FOR TIRES, TUBES, SUPPLIES & SERVICES,

SUBJECT TO APPROVED BUDGET APPROPRIATIONS (PROCUREMENT

NO. 24-25-029). 6.3 RESOLUTION NO. 25-065: A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING AN ANNUAL

NOT-TO-EXCEED AMOUNT OF $150,000 FOR ADVERTISING WITH

BRAVO MIC COMMUNICATIONS, LLC OF LAS CRUCES, NEW MEXICO,

SUBJECT TO APPROVED BUDGET APPROPRIATIONS. 6.4 RESOLUTION NO. 25-066: A RESOLUTION APPROVING AN AMENDMENT

TO A SERVICE AGREEMENT BETWEEN CITY OF LAS CRUCES AND

DOWNTOWN LAS CRUCES PARTNERSHIP TO INCREASE THE ANNUAL

NOT-TO-EXCEED AMOUNT TO $175,000 INCLUDING APPLICABLE

TAXES, SUBJECT TO APPROVED BUDGET APPROPRIATIONS (PROCUREMENT NO. 23-24-008). 6.5 COUNCIL BILL NO. 25-015; ORDINANCE NO. 3086: AN ORDINANCE

CHANGING THE CONDITIONS OF THE M-1/M-2C (INDUSTRIAL

STANDARD-CONDITIONAL) FOR A PROPERTY ENCOMPASSING

APPROXIMATELY 1.19 ACRES AND LOCATED AT 1013 PARKHILL

DRIVE. THE ZONE CHANGE SEEKS TO REMOVE AN EXISTING

CONDITION ON THE PROPERTY. SUBMITTED BY BORDERLAND

ENGINEERS AND SURVEYORS. 6.6 RESOLUTION NO. 25-067: A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE CITY OF

LAS CRUCES TO ACCEPT A BUDGET ADJUSTMENT ALLOCATING

FUNDS IN THE AMERICAN RESCUE PLAN ACT (ARPA) AND AMENDING

THE CITY'S ADOPTED FISCAL YEAR 2025 BUDGET.

7. RESOLUTION(S) AND/OR ORDINANCE(S) FOR DISCUSSION 7.1 RESOLUTION NO. 25-068: A RESOLUTION APPROVING THE CITY OF

LAS CRUCES' LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES FOR THE 2025 NEW MEXICO

LEGISLATIVE SESSION. Barbara Bencomo, Chief Administrative Officer introduced the topic.

Larry Horan, Lobbyist gave the overhead presentation.

Barbara Bencomo continued the overhead presentation.

Councilor Flores asked how are the bills subsidized? Is it money that the state government has received from the feds for certain projects like state highway and all that sort of stuff? So, is there a distinction? Is there a difference?

Larry Horan asked are you meaning funding for general fund appropriation for the state budget or there is also capital outlay funding which is project funding and then a third piece would be if the state received federal funds that they use to supplement their budget?

Councilor Flores asked are there any projects here that are federally funded or is there money coming in from the feds for that? Is there anything that we are pursuing that fits that category of appropriations?

Barbara Bencomo said there are projects here for which we have received federal funding. For example, the CIT MIH Building, we did receive $3 million from Senator

Heinrich as an earmark. So those are funds coming from the federal government. So yes, the Real Time Crime Center for example has received funds also from Senator

Heinrich for equipment for that facility. We typically have a mix of funding for our projects. It might be capital outlay, it could be our own funds that we are putting forward along with federal funds. Of course, for some of these larger projects that is very typical for us to look at all options to fund the projects.

Councilor Flores said I think it is important for the public to know that and I don’t know if our newspapers will cover it, but it is good for them to know it is not the state government that is the sole source of revenue in the application.

Councilor Graham said I always try to look and see how many slides are in a presentation when it is brought up, so I know the scope, so it looked like this one had forty-two which means there is like hidden gems of things that you have prepared in case we get specific questions, or did I misread?

Barbara Bencomo said we always like to have backup slides or what we refer to as back pocket slides if there are questions about the particular project and you might recall that in November we brought this forward as a Work Session item and went into detail with each project, the funding sources, the scope, the community impact and

we of course still have those available for you if you have any questions about the specific project.

Councilor Graham asked do we have some of those Larry you cited competency

AOT, a couple of other things, do you we have that on the side deck or if not Chief I am sure you can speak cogently without visual?

Barbara Bencomo said we don’t have those on the slide deck, it’s the capital outlay for the priorities but I am happy to turn it over to Chief Story.

Jeremy Story, Police Chief said there are several priorities that I have. I have been speaking on them really before February 11th, especially the da February 11th when

Officer Hernandez was murdered. As Larry mentioned it is hard though to commit to anything because we don’t have actual bills yet. The overall theme that I am looking for is competency reform or competency statutes I think I would argue are the worst in the country. They give us no options on how we deal with people who especially commit numerous crimes and are not found competent because there is really no options other than dismissing the case. I know that there is going to be legislation that is brought forward. I am competent that anything that passes is going to be better than what we have now. It is really hard to make it worse. So as the bills come forward hopefully, we will be able to look at them and see what is promising and what maybe could be tweaked to make it better. Some of the other items we talked about,

AOT all that stuff I would like to see actually work together. In some states like

Minnesota, you see assisted outpatient treatment laws work with their civil commitment laws with their competency laws so that everything kind of connects to each other. It makes as much sense as it can, it’s complicated but you have different paths for different people based on what is going on in their life. It gives people options that we do not have right now. Some of the other things that are important are pre-trial detention which is one of those topics that are more contentious I think than competency but right now they made some changes this last session which I think are positive but we still have more work to do that is highlighted obviously by that last officer involved shooting where that person was in custody for 12 hours and two minutes for two violent crimes and really that should not happen. That should not be able to happen, there should be time for the District Attorney to petition for a hearing and then ultimately the judge will decide whether that person is released or not. They are not going to be held indefinitely without a judge determining that but there should be a presumption in a violent crime that the defense has to prove that they are not a threat to the community. Right now, the presumption is on the prosecution, and it happens so fast sometimes the prosecution doesn’t have a chance to have that hearing. So, for certain violent crimes I think that is a reasonable tweak. So as an example, there are some things I would like to see. I think New Mexico has too many resources and too many positive things going for them to be number one in crime and so we need to make some changes to hopefully not be that high on the list.

Councilor Graham said I just want to make clear to everyone here and everyone listening and everyone who has been reaching out, this is not the be end, end all. This isn’t even the start. What we are talking about is what is on this resolution is going to be moving through the crazy fluid dance that is the legislative session and what we

advance here today or don’t advance here today is not the end of the line correct?

Larry Horan said that is correct. In fact, what it signals to me is that we are representing the city of Las Cruces and Santa Fe as well. This is what council, and staff identifies as priority and so it creates that I would almost say guard rails but a framework for me to know what to watch for, what to make sure you hear about, what you get an opportunity to weigh in on.

Councilor Graham asked Chief Story that is not the last time you are going to say these things? You will be in Santa Fe advocating and I do want to say that I am supportive of everything that Chief has been sketching out here. Recognizing that we don’t know what is going to happen and some things may get slotted in other ways, but that we have the commitment to carry these messages to work to go with the flow and that you as our smiling leader in all of this are going to be there for us making sure that we are kept up to date.

Larry Horan said that is correct, in fact it has already been happening in the interim because of those conversations we started having last session on these issues

Legislators reached out to us to participate and also make presentations on what legislation has been hearing about it in the past since the last session ended.

Councilor McClure said when we have our capital outlay, we have to have a why, tell a little bit of story at least in the packet we received but these legislative priorities doesn’t have a why attached to some of these things to set those parameters to say this is how far we will go, this is what our needs are for the city. For example, sustainability, are we looking to do more water conservation here, Santa Fe may not be looking at it in the same way we might. I am just curious why we don’t have more detail in this list right now and I guess things like affordable housing that is such a buzz word. I wish there was a little bit more. What is stifling us from building quickly?

What is, I have heard staff say there are regulations, be very specific to give legislators guidance and I feel like that is where we are kind of losing sort of focus and

I understand that there is a lot of stuff happening and there is going to be a lot of work that we are doing in that we are going to support Chief Story but what does that look like to tell people a little bit more about where we are going?

Larry Horan said part of the struggle we have with that, and I will use the affordable housing as an example. The Municipal League hosted a summit with developers to discuss issues as it relates to zoning, local zoning and challenges in building of affordable housing and housing in general, so we know there is movement on the issue. We don’t know yet what that is going to be, so it is hard to commit unless it is a general policy statement like efforts to improve affordable housing or improve zoning regulations to help increase housing access. It is hard to categorize some of those issues until you know what we are actually discussing. Public safety we have a better sense because we know what the conversation has been about. With things specifically like inspection of public records, affordable housing, sustainability, you get a list of the Coalition for Sustainable Communities that gives a laundry list of what they are going to be looking at but we don’t know what the specifics are of those until we see them. That is difficult to go too specific.

Councilor McClure said I think you and I spoke when we had our one to one about competency and unraveled that idea for me but even things like mental health care we know it is a need and I would like to see that on a list. What is that hampering if we don’t have something like that that calls out and says we need help down here. We need help in these specific ways, and I know that is our job when we go up to legislature but to a certain extent setting those parameters again feels like something we can do here.

Councilor Bencomo said I know that when you presented this in November there was like our general request and then there was a request for the Governor’s portal that if in our materials, we can sort of identify and define those and then also whatever materials we, staff, council takes up there that we also have which projects are regional projects. Which projects will impact not just city residents but really county residents and even honestly broader than that. I think it is really important to have those projects noted. Then I want to address some of this other policy pieces and excuse me Larry but I have a terrible memory actually but I genuinely do not remember if we had something like Exhibit B before in other resolutions, I feel like we haven’t. I know that in the almost five years that I have been here that sometimes we will take positions on a specific piece of policy but more than not. We have not because like you said we can support something in the beginning and then by the end of the 60-day session it completely changes, and we perhaps might not want to support the final piece of legislation. I don’t know if it is that extreme, but I feel like it has just been a few times where a specific piece of legislation has been brought to council for us to vote on whether we support it or not. I think generally what also ends up happening is that individual council members will go and advocate for things that we deeply believe in are true. Any specific piece of legislation that doesn’t necessarily have to come to council and I say this because I don’t remember Exhibit B being something we have done in the past and I say that because as an organizer and someone who had lead policy campaigns of the legislature honestly Exhibit B doesn’t feel neither powerful nor strategic in terms of have city councils been asked to provide public support for paid family medical leave. I don’t necessarily think so I don’t think organizers have approached me at least, organizers of that particular bill, right like there is a whole campaign behind that is being run be advocates and non-profits and have directly impacted folks. None of them have necessarily come to us and I think that is because at the end of the day it doesn’t really matter. I am not saying our voices don’t matter because they do. They especially matter when we are talking about capital outlay request, expertise like Chief Story and Chief Smith and Natalie

Green, those kinds of expertise matter a lot and so I don’t necessarily think again, this is powerful or strategic. I know that the animal welfare folks literally came here, those advocates literally came here last month and said we want you to support it, and I feel like those are the things that we should be responsive to. In terms of the public safety pieces of legislation I don’t know the specific organization, I don’t know any of the bills, right? I have Chief Story’s brief here and while he has Juvenile Justice Reform for example as a big topic there isn’t any specific piece of legislation tied behind that, so it is very hard to throw our blind support behind anything. Who knows maybe they will say put them all in jail. I don’t want to support that. We just don’t know and so I think it is important that we are responsive to requests that are made of local elected officials, city councils when our voices are really needed. With pieces of legislation

like IPRA we clearly have City Clerks all over the stat saying this is important, even

Chief of Police are saying this is important with things like, what are the other things that we are supporting? FMLA? I feel like FMLA has not really been something that has come to us and has had people have asked us. I want this city council to be powerful and strategic in our asks at the legislature. I think last year proved what that can look like and how it can be very effective and bring dollars back to our community.

I think with big broad topics like housing, there could be very good bills on housing that I support. There could be very bad bills on housing that I don’t support. Same thing with public safety. Honestly same thing with sustainability, so I just wanted to say that I was surprised to see Exhibit B. It felt like something new and again Barbara and I apologize, you are looking at me like you just forgot. It just didn’t feel powerful or strategic.

Barbara Bencomo said Exhibit B which does layout the prolicy priorities is typically included in the packet that you consider and vote on for the state legislative sessions.

Over the years some of them have been very specific and some of them have been more broad. In the past for example we have had on the list things like support for the establishment of a State Bank. So there have been a number of topics on that list. We typically include them in our materials that we prepare for the legislative session that includes both the capital outlay priorities and any policy initiatives. Typically the list of policy initiatives have been much smaller than the list of our asks for capital outlay but we have included both but again in varying degrees of specificity and maybe that is why this year they are more broad than they have been in the past that is perhaps why it doesn’t feel like we are seeing before in this forum but again what we are bringing before you are the topics for your consideration that would guide what Larry would then bring back for us to review, weigh in on again for support or amendment and of course we stand here and we will take direction if you want those words to be changed but those are the general topics that we glean from previous work sessions but it is certainly up to your discretion as to how that is brought forward.

Councilor Bencomo asked just to clarify Exhibit B isn’t necessarily saying Larry go to

Santa Fe in the 60 day and go to every committee meeting that has an affordable housing bill and say Las Cruces supports it, right? What this list is saying is hey Larry, anytime there is a bill that you feel the city would benefit from or be hurt by and you should all be aware and potentially take a stance you would come to us and say hey, this is happening, correct?

Larry Horan said that is correct because in a 60-day session especially with as much money as there is now that first 30 days we are going to see anywhere between 1,700 to 2,500 pieces of legislation. I literally go through all of those, see if there is anything on the list that may have an impact make sure it gets reported through staff and to council and to the Mayor to weigh in on and then make a decision if we have a position on any particular piece of legislation and what that is and what does that mean going forward. What do we need to do with that legislation? Some of it is just for your information. Some of it is because it is identified as a priority, and we really need to activate and know what you want to do with a piece of legislation.

Councilor Bencomo said for members of the public who are concerned that we aren’t

paying attention to public safety which is not true. I am happy to make an amendment to add a bullet point on here to add public safety, again I don’t think Exhibit B is particularly strategic or powerful or carries a whole ton of weight but if folks want to see that I am happy to make that amendment. I really just want to say that folks have really honed in on, particular folks on the council. Back in February or March after

Chief Story had a public press conference that outlined some of his priorities. I released a statement, and I said Chief and I are very much in alignment with competency legislation and some of these other pieces around bail reform. I stand firmly behind bail reform that wealth should not determine someone’s freedom though

I believe there needs to be some changes. Whoever wants to believe that this is not something I care about I think perhaps stop while you are ahead. It is very clearly public that is something that I very much spoken about publicly and support if it is going to be impactful and positive. Chief and I have had a conversation about the very special short session that happened in the summertime about one of the competency bills and I agreed with some of it, and I didn’t agree with some of the other pieces.

Mostly because I felt that it was a rushed piece of legislature. One of the pieces for example and Chief said it couldn’t be worse, but I don’t know Chief it could potentially could be worse but maybe not. One of the pieces of legislation on competency said and I remember very clearly said if there is no mental health facilities available for someone to go pertaining to competency just put them in jail. Be nice to them but put them in jail. I am summarizing and being cheeky of course but they really had that and him and I talked about this, and I feel like those types of things are very problematic for me to through my full weight and support around a piece of legislation that we haven’t even seen yet. So, I just want to say that for members of the public and then again for council I think for my colleagues. I think it is really important that we sort of move away from either/or thinking or all or nothing thinking which I think Councilor

Graham brilliantly described earlier so.

Councilor Flores said I think the public should know that you are very careful about looking at the legislation that we support and you have also let everybody know that right in the middle as you’re going maybe for the vote you get a quick alert that there has been a change, a horrible change to the proposed legislation that we were supporting or lobbying for. That happened with Senate Bill 16 or 17, the competency one but just to let people know just for reference I was a in the State of California I was an intern for preparing legislation and reviewing it for the ballot and it was horrible. There was something about Mano Lakes and preserving the Mano Lakes on a bill that was titled something totally different. It might have been Proposition 13,

Eliminated Taxes Increased in California on homes but that is how bizarre it has been here in New Mexico as well. So I think people should understand that what we ask for and even though it might go to the legislature to either body it doesn’t really mean that we will support it if they throw in a wrench and they think that and it is usually people who are opposing it and that is why the good stuff doesn’t pass, the good stuff that we propose but I think I just want to share that with the public here about how that works.

It is really intense, and I recommend if any of you have time to go up there go and get roller skates and be prepared to get really skinny as you get through all the people there.

Mayor Enriquez said thank you, this is a very large and broad-brush stroke at this point, but I thank staff, City Manager, and everyone because what we are trying to do,

the end game is receiving legislative funding. That is what we are looking at. Getting projects done in Las Cruces and getting the subject matter experts, directors, and their staff to help us compile that list of what needs to be done and what we could use. We are aiming small, we hope to miss small and get some end game results some funding. So thank you for all the work that you put in and I know it is difficult because it is a moving target and it changes once you are up there but we will do the best and then public safety comes up you know where we will be and you know we all support Chief Story, we will be standing there by his side to make sure that we get these competency laws and mental health issues and things and McClure you mentioned something about the why and more specific. It would be great as I think

Larry mentioned being at a housing meeting three weeks ago is kind of when you look at the state it is more of a catch all one size fits all for every municipality and it is very difficult. So, I know that is one of the things that Municipal League is looking at is trying to hone in on what is specific for municipalities. I hope that in the future it changes that we can be more specific with addressing the needs for Las Cruces instead of a one size fits all or catch all for this state.

Councilor Graham asked I believe Exhibit B pretty much in its entirety is on one of the slides, can we go back? So, this is pretty close and for those who are, and I know not everyone is working with a laptop if you are looking at the packet the resolution as it is written this would appear on page 129, or 129 of 381, depending on what format you are looking at. So, this pretty much is the entirety of Exhibit B, so these are the things specifically mentioned. The only one that is affordable housing, animal welfare, paid family medical leave, sustainability, IPRA, public safety, and the only one that is kind of specific or you specified is that we are pretty much spear heading it. I just want that on the level because even during the meeting I have gotten some emails mentioning that public safety does not appear in the exhibits, and I am not saying that I am happy with the vagueness of the exhibit this is what we are looking at.

Tim Jenkins, Member of the Public said number one, I would like to thank Becki

Graham for your continued support of answering emails and supporting the Chief of

Police. You have been a wonderful asset, thank you very much. My understanding was that the city council members were elected to be a voice for we the people, to represent us the citizens of Las Cruces but yet we have stood before you all year long at every city council meeting and voiced our concerns time and time again about the safety and wellbeing of our city and you refuse to listen. You say you back the blue and you support Chief Story in his efforts to make the city safer for all, but your actions say differently. You shall know them by their fruits and your fruits say you don’t support Chief Story in his efforts. It seems to me that you all sit here in every city council meeting and hear our concerns but yet nothing ever seems to change. You were all at the legislative meeting a few months ago at NMSU when Chief Story spent three to four hours explaining to the legislatots what we needed to make Las Cruces safer for all and we have pleaded all year with you since Officer Hernandez was murdered but somehow there is not one single one of those issues that you are willing to address in the next legislative session. How can that possibly be? On top of all that you all want small businesses to support Family Medical Leave. The small businesses here in Las Cruces are already drowning and barely able to keep their doors open.

We the people are frustrated, we are angry, and we are mad. You do not support us, and you do not support the Chief of Police but yet you say you do. Something must be

done before we lose our city. This is unacceptable in every way, shape, and form. It feels like everything we say to you all goes in one ear and out the other and nothing ever seems to change. We the people demand actions before the next legislative session.

Donna Stryker, Member of the Public said I had to change everything Becki because you educated me and thank you for that and thank you also for Councilor Bencomo and Flores for what appears you really do want the public to understand this process better and I appreciate that, thank you so much but the one thing that I don’t see changing is small business. Small business is the one who collects your GRT. There are free bookkeeping services for the State of New Mexico in the city of Las Cruces.

My husband and I have owned small businesses for most of our adult lives but there is something that I think is really missing except for Councilor Mattiace and I apologize if I do not know all of your personal histories, but have you ever been self- employed? Have you ever owned a small business? We do not have paid vacations, we do not have state, or company or employer paid insurance. We pay our own. We do not have a specific number of sick days. My oldest son who owns Stryker Shooting

World who is very, very ill last week but he still had to go to work, he had to cut checks to the staff, he had to pay the vendors and the GRT needed to be paid. He never misses a month. You collect a check, you have your insurance, and you have no idea, the stress, the responsibility, the energy, the sleepless nights of owning and running a business much less one in Las Cruces where it is apparent that some of our policies and procedures don’t support us. Paid Family Medical Leave is a huge, huge burden to a small business owner. We are struggling with insurance cost, cost of goods, broken windows, canceled insurance, theft, vandalism, and last year Better

Together New Mexico fought the Paid Family Leave Act and they are going to fight it again this year and I am going to fight it again this year because unless you are a small business owner you really don’t understand the burden that it puts on us. We struggle, all of us struggle. Buying groceries, paying for gas, all of us are struggling in this community. I just want to make sure that you understand from the small businesses we run America, and we run this community. Small business will continue to the best of our ability, but you have to listen to us. We need your support on this and thank you again for the education on some of the things that I did not understand about the legislature, about how you are going to support the changes that come up and I did hear that from almost every one of you.

Vic Villalobos, Member of the Public said Councilor Graham absolutely, thank you for bringing that up and I think there was a big misconception of what the council was willing to support and not support and things like that so I think that is a great example on what we see cannot always be what we get and so I think it is important that in the future that I get it, we don’t know what we are getting into when we get up there but one bullet point can make a huge difference right in the perception of what we see coming in this thing. Unlike Donna I don’t feel as confident about some of these things. When this all started back in the day with the officer being killed, I heard from everybody how I support Chief Story. I back him 100%, there is nothing, we talk all the time we are together on this but you what when it came push to shove and we saw the votes we saw who supported Chief Story. We saw who the true people who were listening to the people of this city. So, it is real easy for me to go I support Chief Story if this happens. I support Chief Story if it doesn’t conflict with something I want to do. I

can support Chief Story if this and that. These are rules that need to be changed and I think some of our councilors have seen that and I think if you are going to support him and you support him and you don’t put a little asterisk on everything we do because that is what some of you do for the community, but wait let me put my little asterisk because it needs to fit in my agenda. I want to do the best for the businesses of this city but we are going to put a little asterisk about what we need to do about that so we will see. I go with Donna, we will see what happens when push comes to shove, and we will really see who supports not only the things with Chief Story but other things this community needs, and I have a feeling that history will repeat itself I have come to see that. Hopefully you will bravely prove me wrong. I would love for you to prove me wrong, and I would come up here and eat crow all day long. So, I hope you can do that, but I will remain optimistic.

Steve Coletti, Member of the Public said I am a resident of District 5, proud member of the Populist or like we like to call ourselves, We the People. I have also had some education today and I kind of rewrote some things so hopefully this makes sense. I am here today to address the absolutely inappropriate list of priorities this council is preparing to send to Santa Fe. This set of priorities is in no way representative of the needs of this community. It is merely a list of the pet projects of a few activist members of this body. I implore those who more reasonable mind please do not allow yourselves to be bullied by the more vocal members of this body and reject this absurd list of legislative priorities and rework the list to meet the needs of our community. One that is strategic and forceful. The Community of Hope needs to be held accountable for the current monies they have before we give them more. Animal welfare is not something that the state needs to get involved in. That is a local matter, and we do not want to be forced into another tax with the Paid Family Medical Leave.

My business for one will seriously look to moving to El Paso if this passes and it is just not to avoid it because we already provide as an employee benefit short term disability which is almost identical to it but cost us about $10 a month. Not the absurd cost it is going to cost the state when you add all the bureaucratic cost. You are risking wasting an opportunity to make real improvements in our community. Please don’t miss this opportunity.

Sarah Smith, Member of the Public said I also appreciate the discussion today and I knew that the list of legislative priorities is something that you don’t want to get locked into much to but at the same time if we don’t stand for something we are standing for nothing and right now it is really vague. The public safety that means nothing. There is no point in even having it on there in the way it is written like that. I don’t think it means anything to our community in terms of what we really need and those of us who have been talking to our legislators for years about these issues and basically being ignored. What we are hoping is that you guys will talk to them because they don’t listen to us. I don’t know why but they won’t. Senator Cervantes holds the key to the kingdom in the Senate Judiciary Committee and he won’t let these bills move but maybe he will listen to you if you tell him we urgently need this will you at least let your committee hear it. We know that across the city we are seeing signs that more needs to be done to stop the crime. Businesses and homes are being vandalized, windows are being broken, people’s property is being taken, vehicles are being stolen, homeless people are camping out at businesses and homes, approaching people and asking people for money, scaring children, threatening people, leaving

trash and feces all around, drugged out people are wandering the streets, harassing people, leaving dangerous needles lying around where children can find them, my kids are witnessing drug deals happening in the downtown mall in the middle of the day, they are witnessing people on the bus here on Fentanyl, they are witnessing people doing all sorts of things that my kids should not be witnessing in the middle of the day In Las Cruces. People are being harmed while trying to live peacefully and responsibly such as Rosa Ortega who was brutally attacked by a homeless person in broad daylight while trying to walk to the grocery store and of course you know about the tragic end of Officer Jonah Hernandez. You have the opportunity to send a powerful message to our legislators that we don’t have. We don’t have that opportunity, but you do because they might listen to you. Your voices mean a lot more than ours do. So please consider adding some of these specific items even if you then have to talk to them later and say we don’t like the way this legislation is going. We want the competency different. Great talk to them about it. Tell them what needs to be different but if we don’t put anything real on paper here this means nothing. The other thing is the Family Medical Leave which people have already talked about. I don’t know how much you guys know about it. The fiscal impact report from last year’s version of this bill showed that this was going to result in a tax increase $1.35 billion from 2026 to 2029, billion. We cannot afford this. The businesses can’t afford it. It is going to take money out of every single employees’ pocket in this state as well as the businesses. It is going to be the largest tax increase in the state’s history. For you to come up here and say you support it on behalf of Las Cruces makes no sense.

Please do not do that. Please take that off of your list.

Rico Gonzalez, Member of the Public said I work with El Paso Electric, but I am not here for El Paso Electric today. I just wanted to make sure that I gave a little a plug and this may not be exactly the appropriate time but a plug for the Chamber of

Commerce and the City of Las Cruces has Las Cruces Days in Santa Fe during the legislative session that goes from February 1 to 3. We would love to see all of you there and the public as well. If you have any interest, just go to Las Cruces Chamber of Commerce website and you can see that there and then lastly a shameless plug for

Larry Horan. You guys have a great guy here and you should be really happy to have him watching your backs.

Leticia Sanchez-Freeman, Member of the Public said I am a concerned citizen, and I am also captain of my neighborhood watch and I am one of the leaders of a group of

Las Cruces neighborhood watches. I don’t understand how your list of crime related legislative policy priorities simply state “public safety statutes” in Exhibit B. You have over half a page right here, you have half a page over to give public safety statutes it’s own bullets and specifically list some of the legislative priorities that Chief Story has brought forward. Legislation to address competency restoration for violent felonies and repeat offenders, pre-trial detention, bail reform for violent crimes and repeat offenses while awaiting trial, juvenile justice reform to reduce juvenile repeat offenders, instituting a minimum mandatory sentence for felons in possession, allowing law enforcement to be a petitioner for assisted outpatient treatment. Why not list them? It would only take a few lines and exactly 52 words of what I just read to you, and you would still have room on this page. Why not make it known to the state legislators what your city, our city, what this state needs instead of waiting to see what bills are passed or introduced. How is simply listing it as a public safety statute being

proactive? How is that being a leader in serving and advocating for this community?

Yet the Community of Hope has a whole page and Exhibit C all to themselves. I understand that they do their own legislative lobbying, and you are including it in this resolution as a matter of being a good neighbor, which is great but yet you won’t even include any details from your own Police Chief in this resolution. I don’t understand.

The Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee and Vice Chair of the Courts Correction and Justice Committee, Senator Cervantes basically stated, hey at least we are not as bad as Albuquerque, right? How can you be satisfied with that answer? Why are you not fighting harder for legislative priorities. Councilor Bencomo, you stated that

Exhibit B is not strategic or powerful. Then let’s make it strategic and powerful, why not? So, I ask you to vote to amend this resolution and make it clear to our legislators what your citizens and Police Department want from you.

Sharon Sorenson, Member of the Public said I tend to believe what is written as opposed to what is said so sorry I have to rewrite this as I go. I have a list of at least

18 repeat violent offenders on my list here. I am not going to name them all, but I do see that competency restoration and bail reform violent felonies, especially for repeat offenders is not one of the top priorities. In fact, it is not even on the list. Violent individuals should not be allowed back in the street before their trial and there should be mandatory pre-trial detention in place. With the increase of illicit drug use in our community, why is it not a priority to allow law enforcement to petition for individuals to participate in outpatient drug treatment. This would provide real help and real drug treatment instead of a safe place to use illegal drugs. Basically, I am in support of not agreeing with the Paid Family Medical Leave Act. It would just cause more small businesses in Las Cruces to close down and that of course would reduce the tax base of Las Cruces.

Fred Huff, Member of the Public said in looking at this list of legislative priorities presented here today and being voted on I had to ask myself, who came up with these? Is it some out of town staff that has never driven around Las Cruces and seeing the homeless encampments lining the sidewalks or all of the boarded-up windows that have been broken during break ins and just out right vandalism or the burned-out buildings that were set on fire by the homeless trespassers smoking the

Fentanyl. These are not the priorities that I have heard brought before you by citizens and business owners during this year. What I have heard that is stop the crime. Stop the catch and release by requiring bail reform so that these criminals are at least kept locked up longer than it takes the officers to fill out their paperwork than the arrest.

The competency issue for catch and release is nothing but an excuse for lawlessness.

If they are truly incompetent in committing crimes, they need to be placed in a situation where they can be helped or at least where they are no longer harming themselves or society through assisted outpatient treatment or other effective means.

Now let’s look at your specific priorities, affordable housing. If this was a business friendly city with less crime and lower taxes there would be more business and more opportunities for jobs and then people could afford housing. My big question is why is the city involved in real estate and the housing market? In my opinion it is not the governments job in using my tax dollars. Animal welfare, give us a break. I see more feral humans blocking the sidewalks, trespassing in the city parks with their encampments, damaging and destroying properties then I see other feral animals.

Paid Family Medical Leave, yes this is a great idea. Let’s do more to destroy small

businesses in our state. Thanks to the tyrannical Covid mandates by our Governor the last few years New Mexico has already lost 60% of the small mom and pop businesses, let’s do our best to destroy the rest of them with Paid Family Medical

Leave. Great idea to create more joblessness and homelessness. Sustainability, I have no idea what this is. However, in my opinion a city with high crime and low job opportunity sounds unsustainable to me. So much for campaign promises of making

Las Cruces a safe city with opportunities for employment and growth. Job well done for not representing the interest and needs of the citizens of Las Cruces.

Dan Parrot, Member of the Public said I am addressing each of you today to formally address my concerns regarding Resolution 25-068 in request that it not be approved for not including all of Chief Story’s request for funding and support of Las Cruces

Police Department to address the city issues for the 2025 legislative session in Santa

Fe. It is also imperative to address the question in which the responsibility when it comes to providing low-cost housing. Why should the city and its residents shoulder this burden while the majority of citizens are already managing their mortgage, their payments, insurance, taxes, and other essential expenses. This situation raises significant concern about fairness and sustainability. Furthermore, I strongly opposed to the Paid Family Leave section of the resolution. Small business owners who are already navigating challenging economic conditions cannot afford the additional financial burdens that this mandate would impose. The added bureaucracy could potentially drive many of these businesses into closure resulting in the vacant properties, job losses for their employees and an overall detriment to our community and its economy. I emailed a summary of the above items to each of the councilors and the Mayor. I would ask you that you read it carefully if you haven’t already and reconsider the implications of this resolution and its effect on our city’s small businesses and residences. It is my recommendation that Resolution 25-068 not be approved as written based on the above considerations. Thank you for attention to this critical matter and stated reasoning.

Lisa Parrot, Member of the Public said I am a resident of District 6, and I am active in

CCIA as you can tell and also Businesses for a Safer Las Cruces. I have two questions by with your actions today will show your intent. At this point I hope I am wrong. Why do you feel it is necessary to force New Mexico businesses, the bulk of which small family-owned businesses into losing so much money that they will not be able to keep their doors open, their lights on, and employ many of New Mexico’s families. Do you feel you can run their businesses better than they can? If these same

New Mexico businesses somehow manage to survive the Paid Family Leave Act which as Sarah said will be the largest single tax hike in the history of our state why then do you want to have a second go at shuttering them doing nothing meaningful or specific with regard to competency laws, bail reform and police officer recruitment which will give Chief Story and his department the tools necessary to maintain law and order so that your residents, your constituents can once again feel safe to venture out into the streets of Las Cruces. I can only surmise if Resolution 25-068 passes today that you will not stop until each and every resident of this city and state is standing in a bread line but with no jobs, no economy, no tax base, who will buy the bread. Please vote no on Resolution 25-068 as it is written today. If Chief Story’s initiatives are not included how will anything productive happen?

Jennifer Kreie, Member of the Public said I support the resolution. It is a list of items that we want to support and promote at the legislature. I am here really to say what you already know, there are a hand full of us wearing purple today to show our support for the library and I can’t think of anything, I am telling you what you already know, and I believe you support. I don’t think there is any other service in this city that has such a widespread impact on our community.

Ann Sanchez, Member of the Public said I am with Mesilla Valley Community of

Hope. I would just like to thank you all for your careful consideration of the needs of our community. We appreciate you very much.

Linda St. Clair, Member of Public said I am the President of the Friends of the

Thomas Branigan Memorial Library, and I am here specifically to thank you for the support that you have shown for Las Cruces public libraries by approving the master plan in October and committing preliminary funding from the TIDD for the initial design phase. You have demonstrated your commitment to a long-term vision for strengthening and expanding services that the library provides to the Las Cruces community and we deeply appreciate your support for that vision. Today by including funding of $5.6 million for design and construction cost related to the renovation and expansion of Branigan Library in the city’s legislative capital outlay priorities. You have taken another critical step in making that vision a reality. We know that there are many competing projects seeking funding and we thank you for prioritizing the library in that process. Going forward we hope that you will continue to build on this initial momentum and will work to find effective and efficient ways to fund the remaining cost to fulfil a vision of the Las Cruces Library’s master plan. Strong libraries do really make strong communities, and we thank you for investing in our library and for strengthening the Las Cruces community that way.

Lucas Herndon, Member of the Public said I am a resident in District 2, and I am also here because I am deeply concerned by some of the things listed on our priorities. I very much support affordable housing, animal welfare, paid family medical leave, and sustainability but it may surprise you that I too am worried about public safety. It is a major concern of mine because we live in the most dangerous state in the country. If you pay attention to who kills people here and that is cops. This is the most dangerous state that you can live in when it comes to cops murdering citizens and so when I see things like public safety, and I hear people say that it is too vague. I actually agree because according to the city budget 44%, the largest single amount on the pie graph goes to “public safety” and I am curious how much of that goes to the $20 million that the city just agreed to pay out to the family of Teresa Gomez who was murdered by cops or the $6.5 million that was awarded to Aaron Valenzuela’s family who was murdered by cops or the $2.7 million awarded to Emilia Baca’s family who was murdered by cops or even just for fun the $225,000 awarded to the cop who murdered Aaron Valenzuela after the city violated his agreement with the Cop Union.

So, yea, lets maybe dial in a little bit by what we mean by public safety because to me as a member of the public I am not worried about any of this stuff that people are talking about. I am worried about what I see on paper. I am worried about what I see in international journals including the Independent reporting last Wednesday, $20 million settlement highlights nation leading police violence problem in New Mexico.

From that article, while police prosecutions are rare in New Mexico and everywhere

else in America officer involved shootings are not. For years New Mexico has been one of the places with the highest per capita rate of police shooting people in 2024, the state had been the single most deadliest place in the country for fatal police shootings according the Mapping Police Violence Data Base. The violence disproportionately came down to people of color with black people 3.4 more times more likely to get killed by police than white people and Hispanic 1.5 times more likely according to that data base. What do we mean by public safety? Who are we giving money to? Why are we giving people money who are here killing us? Every year and then we have to pay them out. Somebody explain it?

Councilor Becky Corran moved, seconded by Councilor Johana Bencomo, to

Approve Resolution No. 25-068.

MOVER: Councilor Becky Corran

SECONDER: Councilor Johana Bencomo

ABSENT: Councilor William Mattiace 7.2 RESOLUTION NO. 25-069: A RESOLUTION APPROVING A

PRECOMMITMENT OF CITY FUNDING FOR A FEDERAL LOW-INCOME

HOUSING TAX CREDIT PROJECT FOR AN AFFORDABLE MULTI-FAMILY

HOUSING DEVELOPMENT, SUBJECT TO AWARD OF SAID TAX CREDITS

BY THE NEW MEXICO MORTGAGE FINANCE AUTHORITY AS PART OF

THEIR 2024/2025 4% LOW-INCOME HOUSING TAX CREDIT PROCESS. Natalie Green, Housing and Neighborhood Revitalization Administrator gave the overhead presentation.

Councilor Bencomo asked can you just talk a little bit more about really what this means in terms of are these projects in turn in competition with each other? Have we done a resolution for Paseos Verdes for this yet?

Natalie Green said we have not brought a resolution for Paseos Verdes or Royal

Crossing. We would ask for some direction if that is something the council would like to see. We did adopt Paseos Verdes as part of the legislative priorities so I am fairly confident that we can cover the $1.3 million through that process. We would have to identify funding sources for the 4% and the 9%. The 4% the residences is not competing with Paseos Verdes or Royal Crossing in the application process but obviously it is competing here locally for city resources and then so the 9% will compete against each other and the rest of the applications at the state level. So, it is very likely that only one of those would be successful in the application process. So, the 9% I would anticipate one will knock the other out. Unless we are really lucky in which Las Cruces is very competitive which we are, and it is possible that all of them could be funded but we would really defer to council is direction on what projects to fund and how you want to fund them.

Councilor Bencomo said that is super unfortunate that we are kind of fighting for this little, tiny piece of the pie. It is a tiny piece of the pie and that is really unfortunate

because they are so important. Can you talk about why Paseos Verdes by the committee was marked as a number one priority?

Natalie Green said Paseos Verdes has been an ongoing project. You will see a full presentation on that later in today’s council meeting. It is in the MRA area. It is located as part of the El Paso MRA and so staff has been working on that for quite a bit of time. It is a redevelopment project so it would replace some older public housing and it would upsize that total development. So, it is currently 38 units, and it would redevelop to tentatively 200 units, give or take a couple and then it would work well with the redevelopment efforts that are occurring with the Boys and Girls Club. Some of the work we are doing at Valley View Park, Lift Up Las Cruces and then FYI also has some adjacent properties that they are looking to develop in conjunction with this.

Councilor Bencomo said Paseos Verdes truly is an incredible opportunity for our community, especially for it being in the infill and MRA. So, I don’t necessarily know how this works Natalie, but I would like to see staff take steps towards bringing that to council. I hope my colleagues agree given the highly competitive nature of these types of applications. I would love to make sure this gets in there and then Royal

Crossing, you said that is a private venture? That is private application? And not one and two are sort of public?

Natalie Green said they are all public/private partnerships. Royal Crossing is an application with Tierra Del Sol and Enrichment Communities. That is also intended to be a two-phase project. Council may remember that as part of the Apodaca Blueprint we adopted some priorities for affordable housing in that overall development. That one is located just north of Apodaca Park, adjacent to Three Crosses Hospital and some of the other development and they initially looked at a senior application but currently family is scoring more competitively so it will likely lean towards families.

Especially given the adjacency to the park, grocery stores, banks, and those other things.

Councilor Bencomo said I would love to have staff bring that Paseos Verdes next as well.

Councilor Corran said I also just want to add. Thank you for clarifying the 4% and 9% so that they are really separate kind of things and said pies but we like burgers here actually in this housing conversation and so in this case the 4% burger I think is really interesting to see the way that it sort of breaks down. So, these are the same developers who are doing Peachtree who were the first 4% project, I think? These are the same folks, slightly different area but I would kind of like to hear from them just because investing in this area is really part of a vision and I really appreciate your work bringing this up as 4% and I understand that there is kind of a time related sort of issue with the 4% qualification and so I think that is why it jumped in this priority list to predate Paseos Verdes before we have that conversation. If it is okay if I misstated anything Natalie, please tell me right now.

Natalie Green said our first 4% project was just to complicate the picture was Thomas

Development Company, Pedrina but Thomas Development Group is helping with both

Peachtree Phase One and Peachtree Phase Two and I will let them speak to the deadline and the basis boost if they want to but this area is a difficult to develop census tract and so it has that designation and then it is set to expire and so once that goes away it sort of changes the amount of tax credit equity that you can get for the hamburger.

Councilor Corran asked December 31st, right is when it is set to expire?

Thomas Andrews, Thomas Development Group said I have been actively developing multifamily in the Las Cruces/Dona Ana County area for over 20 years. Metro Verde is in a census tract that is identified by Housing and Urban Development as a difficulted development area and that is a calculation of construction cost, income limits and they come out once a year to identify these census tracts that qualify in this DDA and then that travels over to the Internal Revenue Service which has pretty much put the

Federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program into play over 30 years ago and with the tax credits that allows us to attract private equity investment into these projects which lowers the amount of debt that the project carries which brings the rent down. And what is significant about the Metro Verde zip code is for 2024 it has remained to be in a DDA, but it falls out in 2025, and we just heard about this in late

September, early October. So, we are kind scrambling, and we are scrambling because the significance is if we get an application into MFA for the residents by the end of the year that DDA qualification stands for phase one which gives us a 30% boost in tax credits which I hope my kind of simple calculation kind of explains. That

30% in tax credits brings another $3+ million into our sources for the project without that 30% tax boost our project becomes not feasible and the other significance of getting an application before the end of this year is the IRS has a clause that allows us to grandfather in a subsequent phase of the same project which is directly adjacent to the first project. So, we can come back a year from now and also get that 30% boost and we would also have the benefit of that extra $3 million in our development budget. So that is the significance of where we are today in kind of a short thumb sketch of what a DDA and 30% boost is. We are very excited about the location of the project. Metro Verde is an excellent area for this type of 55+ community. We think we have an outstanding development team we have carried over from the Peachtree project.

Councilor Corran said I just want to thank you again for you commitment and I know you being in Las Cruces every time I see you I feel really grateful that you are here investing with us and thank you Natalie for the work that this represents because I know that it is easier to make hamburger out of hamburger meat than it is to make it out of this crazy public funding.

Thomas Andrews said one other tidbit and that is the competitive versus the noncompetitive, I have developed twenty plus 9% projects in New Mexico and it is very competitive. It is usually 3 to 1. They can get 16 and 19, 20 applications and will pick five or six. We have chosen to go to the 4% round because it is noncompetitive.

We have already met with New Mexico MFA. They know we are coming with this, and we know there is room to support this project in 2024 and beyond and 2025 and beyond and we just feel we can put more units on the ground quicker with pretty much

the compare of subsidy per unit.

Councilor Flores asked do you own the property in that area?

Thomas Andrews said the owner of Metro Verde is Sierra Norte Development. We have an option on the nine-acre site at this point and that is typical of these kind of transactions. We option the property until we have all of our financing put together and then we would purchase the property at construction start.

Beth Bardwell, Member of the Public said I truly appreciate the city’s commitment and ongoing commitment to affordable housing. It is tremendous and I really appreciate your hard work to make that happen. The city council created an advisory affordable housing committee to advise council on how best to fill the city’s affordable housing gap whether by serving different populations, work for senior multi family or multiple areas within the city looking at parity of investment across the districts. I understand the committee has met recently to consider this project and at least two other projects and rank them and I appreciate that the council considered as you are considering the commitment of these funds that you consider those rankings and any other relevant housing data available to you. I am here today to ask that the city also consider making a pre-commitment of funds to those two other additional projects. Those two other affordable housing development projects by Tierra Del Sol and Mesilla Valley

Housing Authority. That would serve workforce housing and multifamily populations benefiting El Paseo Corridor and Royal Crossing neighborhoods near Apodaca. Both of these projects, Paseos Verdes and Royal Crossing are competing for that 9% federal tax credit and a city pre-commitment of funds is needed to make them competitive and if the city doesn’t provide matching funds to them, they will not be competitive in the statewide application for those tax credits. I believe the deadline for making a pre-commitment for those projects is January 21st so there is an opportunity for the city to address that in a separate resolution.

Councilor Becki Graham moved, seconded by Councilor Becky Corran, to

Approve Resolution No. 25-069.

MOVER: Councilor Becki Graham

ABSENT: Councilor William Mattiace 7.3 RESOLUTION NO. 25-070: A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE CITY OF

LAS CRUCES (CITY) TO ACCEPT GRANT AWARDS FOR VARIOUS CITY

DEPARTMENTS THROUGH AN AMENDMENT TO THE CITY’S ADOPTED

FY2025 BUDGET AND THE FY2025 CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS

PROGRAM. Joe Padilla, Budget Analyst gave the overhead presentation.

Cynthia Campo, CIP Analyst continued the overhead presentation.

Approve Resolution No. 25-070.

ABSENT: Councilor William Mattiace 7.4 COUNCIL BILL NO. 25-016; ORDINANCE NO. 3087: AN ORDINANCE

AUTHORIZING A REAL ESTATE PURCHASE AGREEMENT BETWEEN

THE CITY OF LAS CRUCES AND CH INDUSTRIAL ACQUISITIONS, LLC

FOR THE SALE OF APPROXIMATELY 22.40 ACRES OF MUNICIPALLY

OWNED LAND WITHIN THE LAS CRUCES INNOVATION AND

INDUSTRIAL PARK FOR THE PURCHASE PRICE OF SEVEN HUNDRED

NINETY-FIVE THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS ($795,200) IN

ACCORDANCE WITH PROVISIONS OF LCMC 1997, SECTION 2-1312. Sara Gonzales, Economic Development Project Manager gave the overhead presentation.

Councilor Flores asked where exactly is the location?

Sara Gonzales said the location is within the Industrial Park. It is going to be on the south side so if you were to come down and travel through the Loves area or you can actually access it through Robert Larson which would be your frontage road. This is going to be Crawford, and you could access it through the south side, or you can actually come off of Robert Larson and access it through here. So, it is all going to be on the south side within our industrial manufacturing zones.

Councilor Flores asked have you done a projection as to how many jobs it would develop or how many jobs it would create?

Sara Gonzales said I would defer to the purchasers. They are currently working to see if they can go ahead and bring in tenants and see if they can go ahead and be able to provide you additional information and based on the actual development of jobs within this kind of land use.

Davin Lopez, President and CEO of Mesilla Valley Economic Development Alliance and of course I am here to show our support for this project. A couple of things I want to mention is number one is what this company will bring to the area is first of all we have non-revenue generating land over there. The new tax base that would be created from an investment like this, $60 million in phase one and potentially $60 million in phase two. Talk about significant construction and GRT coming back to the city of Las Cruces and also long-term property tax when none is being received today.

Most importantly I think many of you know we have been trying to attract cold storage to the region for quite a while now. Reasons why is number one, because it is critical infrastructure to support our agricultural community but also creates phases for food processing value added Ag to grow with it because we are now able to store

commodities in this area. It is part of a growing change in terms of food security across the US ad given our position on the US/Mexico Border we know that there is demand for not only not only our existing agricultural base but a lot of the produce and commodity that are coming across the border right now to the US consumers so we hope you will find support for this project as well when we successfully bring this company to Las Cruces.

Councilor Johana Bencomo moved, seconded by Councilor Becki Graham, to

Approve Ordinance No. 3087.

MOVER: Councilor Johana Bencomo

SECONDER: Councilor Becki Graham

ABSENT: Councilor William Mattiace 7.5 COUNCIL BILL NO. 25-017; ORDINANCE NO. 3088: AN ORDINANCE TO

AUTHORIZE THE CONVEYANCE OF A CITY-OWNED VACANT PARCEL

KNOWN AS PARCEL NUMBER 4-007-135-366-477 (AKA 905 S CAMPO

ST.), TO MESILLA VALLEY PUBLIC HOUSING AUTHORITY FOR THE

DEVELOPMENT OF AFFORDABLE HOUSING AS AUTHORIZED UNDER

THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO'S AFFORDABLE HOUSING ACT (THE ACT)

NMSA 1978 CHAPTER 104, IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE CITY'S

AFFORDABLE HOUSING GENERAL OVERSIGHT ORDINANCE. Isaac Holguin, Housing Development Specialist gave the overhead presentation. Councilor Johana Bencomo moved, seconded by Councilor Becky Corran, to

Approve Ordinance No. 3088.

8. BOARD APPOINTMENTS 8.1 JOHN NORMAN Councilor Becki Graham moved, seconded by Councilor Becky Corran, to appoint John Norman to the Historic Preservation Commission.

9. NOTICE OF PROPOSED ORDINANCE(S)

1) There will be no public discussion.

2) A Councilor may ask staff for clarification on the proposed ordinance(s). 9.1 None.

10. CITY COUNCIL MEMBER BOARD REPORTS AND COMMENT 10.1 COUNCILOR MCCLURE None. 10.2 COUNCILOR GRAHAM On Friday, day after Thanksgiving Las Cruces Utilities had a really busy day with a water main break. So, there are already out in force, Las Cruces Fire Department well done on structure fire at Solano and Kansas. Amazing work but you turned all of our water super brown from your use of the fire hydrant which you are forgiven because that is your purpose in life. Back to you Utilities, despite water main break and other madness really great service in getting someone out which is essentially a city holiday to flush out the hydrant and allowing me to wash light colored clothes later in the day.

Just to say with humor but great appreciation, thank you, LCFD, thank you Las

Cruces Utilities. 10.3 COUNCILOR CORRAN I also want to give a brief shoutout to Fire and PD dealing with an oil spill that happened last week, also by Graham’s house. There were a lot of holiday shoppers and people rushing around and panicked and you all did an extraordinarily good job of both addressing the issue in the short term and then clearing it but also directing traffic and I just want to thank everyone who sprung into that action which honestly, I didn’t have oil spill on things I have to worry about on council. So, thank you for your prompt and really great follow up on that and helping on a major, major thoroughfare on a big day where people were traveling around and being a little bit crazy driving, it was extraordinary so thank you.

I have one update related to the Animal Services Center. We have learned that the

Animal Services Center Executive Director will be getting another job and so we will be initiating conversations about interim appointments and the search and all of those things. Next Friday morning we will have public meetings and those will be announced shortly but to tell folks that is on our radar and in progress. You will be hearing soon about more details coming up but I do think I want to take a minute to thank Director

Thacker for all the work that he has done if we don’t have another chance. I think we will at least at the next ASCMV meeting but really for moving the ASCMV into a new era of work with community, thinking about our animal populations in a different way so I just really want to thank Director Thacker and let the public know that we are working on a plan and there will be ample public input as that conversation goes on. 10.4 COUNCILOR FLORES Thank you, Councilor Corran, for sharing that information, I wish Clint happy trails. I enjoyed working with him, being on the board for about 7 years and I just wish him well.

We just celebrated Thanksgiving, and we think about all the things we are thankful for and in spite of people coming up here and criticizing everything probably from the color of our clothes to the color of our eyes, I mean everything. It makes it sound as if the city of Las Cruces is not anything but the place for the downtrodden and frankly with all due respect to those who have come to say that I think, therefore the grace of

God go I. I just don’t see any solution to people, I just don’t see any benefit in people coming up and hearing the same thing over and over and over and the economic conditions haven’t changed. The population hasn’t changed except for people who are looking for maybe a warmer place to be and I just want to make that comment, and we should be happy and do whatever we can, happy for what we have and do whatever we can to help those who have not. 10.5 COUNCILOR BENCOMO I just want to quickly apologize for being late. I was at NMSU where the Latin

American Programs were hosting their Latinx graduation for Latino students. There was about 40 students who received their stoles and they invited me to be their keynote and I was very honored to be with my community today and had given the keynote speech and part of what I said there today was that it is really weird to ask to do keynote speech when sometimes I feel like I just graduated like last year. I got my bachelor’s fourteen years ago and my master’s ten years ago, what do you mean keynote? I was just very honored to be with students and families and it just serves as a really good reminder that a lot of the students there today and their families are also constituents and their families also live in our districts and they also live in our city and what happens here for one hour at public comment isn’t end all be all there many other people in our community watching and listening and paying attention. I was very honored and excited to be with them during this celebration which is why I was late.

I do want to note that the Oversight Committee is officially starting this week. We have our first meeting this Wednesday, I will be there as Mayor’s appointee, and I think

Councilor Mattiace will be there as well. Of course, we are non-voting members but that is this Wednesday.

I did want to speak a little bit about the either/or thinking that often we hear today but especially hear in general but especially today. You know there is a lot of limitation to either/or thinking, right? Either you are for Chief Story, or you are against Chief Story.

Either if you support animal welfare then you don’t support public safety. If everything isn’t on the list it must not matter, right? This either/or thinking has a lot of limitations and I want to push, gently challenge us as leaders not bully, just gently challenge us as leaders of this city not fall into that trap. I know that I have, right? I know that I have fallen into that before, if you support shopping cart ban then you must not support homeless programs. I have fallen into that trap as well and so either/or thinking has a lot of limitations and as leaders I think it is important that it is not something that we fall into especially as we head into something as important as the legislative session where we are fighting again for a little bit of a piece of the pie to bring to our communities.

Lastly I have never used a point of privilege but I want to just in a personal matter that

I have this platform and my grandfather was laid to rest on Sunday and I just wanted

to say his name here today because I am sure that when he was a bracero many years ago he would have never imagined having a granddaughter in this position, his name is Raul Figueroa Armenta and I just wanted to memorialize that here today and to take a little bit of privilege to do so. 10.6 MAYOR ENRIQUEZ I just want to say thank you to all of the staff for all that they do day in and day out.

Last Monday, Casa de Peregrinos was handing out turkeys right before Thanksgiving and I just want to say thank you to all the city departments that were there volunteering. We had Public Works, Housing, Police Department, I forget who else, but they were all there and I appreciate them and all the city employees for all that you do and of course Police and Fire, Public Safety but I just want to let the public know it is not just about the responders when we talk about public safety. We are talking about streets, our roads, our sidewalks, our lighting, our drinking water, our animals, everything that involves our community, our public safe spaces. We want to make Las Cruces safe and that’s what public safety is all about and when we talk about public safety that is the main thing it is not just about Police and Fire as responders but in general that is what we are working towards. Those are our legislative priorities. Those are the things that we are going to seek our next budget retreat on is how do we make Las Cruces safe as a community and we will continue to work on that.

11. CITY MANAGER REPORT 11.1 IKANI TAUMOEPEAU Internal Audit, Oversight Committee is reconvening their meetings and will resume this Wednesday, December 4th. A reoccurring Oversight Committee meeting has been scheduled for the first Wednesday of each month beginning with this December and moving forward.

Regarding Quality of Life announcements, we have Frost Fair will take place on

Saturday, December 14th from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. at the Thomas Branigan Memorial

Library. This is an interactive experience with multiple organizations highlighting activities from libraries, museums, partnered organizations. There will also be signups for the winter reading program.

Additionally, Holiday at the Depot will take place at the Railroad Museum on Friday,

December 13th from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. It will be decked out in lights for a special holiday celebration in a historic building.

For Parks & Rec, the annual tree lighting event, come one come all. Will be held

Saturday, December 7th from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Downtown Plaza. There will be music, photo opportunities, refreshments, giveaways, and much, much more. The tree will be lit at officially 7 p.m. and we will have a special speech by Mayor Enriquez there as well. The Park & Rec Department, Keep Las Cruces Beautiful program,

KLCB will hold a Neighborhood Dumpster Day from 8 a.m. to noon on this Saturday,

December 7th. KLCB will provide open top trash containers for the community to dump yard waste, household trash, and other permittable items for free. Open top container locations will be held at three spots, Tony Gomez Park on Espina Street,

Henry Benavidez Community Center on McClure Road, and last but not least Las

Cruces Skate Park on Walnut Street.

12. ADJOURNMENT 12.1 Councilor Johana Bencomo moved, seconded by Councilor Becki Graham, To

Adjourn at 3:59 p.m.

Mayor

City Clerk