City Council Meeting November 18, 2024

MINUTES

City Council

Monday, November 18, 2024 @ 1:00 PM

City Council Chambers, City Hall

PRESENT: Mayor Eric Enriquez, Councilor Cassie McClure, Councilor William Mattiace, Councilor

Becki Graham, Councilor Johana Bencomo, Councilor Becky Corran, and Councilor Yvonne

Flores

ABSENT:

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

APPRECIATION/PROCLAMATIONS - COUNCILOR CORRAN. Councilor Corran recognized the participants of the Know Your City sessions.

Councilor Corran presented Chantelle Yazzie-Martin with a proclamation for Native

American Heritage Month.

Councilor Corran presented Sarah Smith and Walter Stewart with a proclamation for

ASTM Manual 36 Day.

Councilor Corran presented Debbie McAllen with a proclamation for 40 Years of

Progress by the Family Violence Prevention and Services Act.

Councilor Corran presented Gentry Roberts with a proclamation for National

Apprenticeship Week. 1.3 JOBS OF THE WEEK. Sarah Raney, New Mexico Workforce Connection presented Jobs of the Week. 1.4 PETS OF THE WEEK. Carol Nielson, Animal Service Center of the Mesilla Valley presented Pets of the

Week.

1.5 NEW LEAD AND COPPER RULE. Steven Perez, Deputy Director of Regulatory Compliance Las Cruces Utilities gave the overhead presentation.

Councilor Corran said I really appreciate this presentation, and I know you all are doing the good work. It is very cool you should go and check out if you haven’t seen your own. I understand that you are here to give a mandatory required information point. Real quickly for everyone at home maybe give a quick, I don’t know why I feel the need but maybe because this is a public health messaging thing but just a quick summary, one you are required to talk about this and were required to send all of these things to everyone because in places in the country many places have significant amounts of lead pipes which are in fact problematic for the municipal water systems but all of the things that you all have inspected we have no lead probably because the time that Las Cruces as most places were built in Las Cruces, right?

Steve Perez said that is correct.

Councilor Corran said so 15,000 have been proven they don’t have lead so there is not like something to necessarily have a big panic about, I guess would be my thing.

One, this is a mandatory thing that we have to figure out and inspect and communicate about, as I think this is part of that and the last part is most places not universally I am not making some sweeping statement but so far there have been no lead pipes found going into people’s home and 15,000 inspections that you all have already done, correct?

Carl Clark, Assistant Utilities Director said 50,000 is a little high. I think we only have approximately 15,000.

Councilor Corran said I just sort of wanted to bring it back to and folks do not have to do this inspection at home. It is very likely that you don’t have lead pipes and we are going to get around to your house anyway at some point.

Carl Clark said correct.

Councilor Flores asked are you finding certain parts of the city that do have lead pipes?

Steve Perez said none at all.

Councilor Flores asked not even the older homes?

Steve Perez said I already have a priority inspection list in which customers that suspect that they have lead lines I send somebody out to their homes immediately and we have not found any still. Most of the oldest homes that we are seeing like in the 100 and 90 year range we see that their service lines have been replaced with plastic pipe.

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

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

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION 3.1 Susan Cabello, Member of the Public said I am the Executive Director of Downtown

Las Cruces Partnership. I wanted to start off giving a shout out to Councilor Cassie

McClure who did a walk through the district with us and talked to some businesses.

They were very excited about it, and it went very well. I hope you do that again with us. Also, I want to thank Sarah Booth and Elizabeth Puckett from the library here, they did a really great merchants meeting for us. Showing us all the business innovation technology at the library and all the things that they could help with like Excel, like personalized Excel. Anyway, we got library cards. It was really fun, really great meeting. So, thank you guys for letting that happen. Also want to tell you that Small

Business Saturday is coming soon. It is the Saturday after Thanksgiving, so it is going to be the 30th of November this year. We are, by we Downtown Las Cruces

Partnership, the Arts and Cultural District are hosting a red-carpet event on the plaza.

So, we are going to have a red carpet. We are going to have a step and repeat like you guys have. We are going to have some paparazzi, which are just volunteers screaming your name and we are going to take some pictures. It is going to be a really cool photo op for our superstars of the event which are our shoppers who are downtown. I am hoping that our businesses downtown use that promotion to kind of double down on what they are doing. It is not to augment what is already going on not to overshadow anything. Anyway, to try and get people to the plaza but to our brick and mortar locations downtown as well as the Farmer’s Market, right? On Saturday downtown is always Small Business Saturday regardless of what we are calling it.

Small Business Saturday is also a tax holiday for small businesses. So, a great opportunity for you take you family, whoever is left over from Thanksgiving, maybe you just need a few hours outside with them. Walk downtown, go to the Farmer’s

Market and enjoy the holiday with us. Lastly, I want to remind you that Chile Drop is coming. It is sooner than you think. It is always December 31st.

Juan Garcia, Member of the Public said the recent Work Session covered the subject of spaying and neutering companion animals. A shortage of veterinarians capable of performing this critical procedure is troubling but it is only part of the larger crisis. For over four years we have seen a horrifying spike in crime that threatens the very fabric of our neighborhoods. I met with Dr. Debra of Pet Doctor 911 on Sunday, yesterday which is located on North Main, and her words echo in my mind. She posted this on

Facebook, “we have had so many wonderful people in our community that have written on Facebook about the break ins so I will post here what I know. I was told that the guys we have on tape and the one I caught in our side yard were a gang group called Scorpions. They work for the Gulf and Sinaloa Cartels pushing Fentanyl. Las

Cruces better get a handle on this, or we are in trouble. I am told it will not go away.

At night they come out like roaches from that arroyo seco. They have no fear or remorse of course. As you know I opened Pet Doctor 911 on October 5,, 2024, to be

able to help you Las Cruces with your pet urgent emergency care needs on weekends, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. We are deeply saddened that on the morning of October

26th we had a break in and thieves stealing our safe which contained all paperwork and receipts, medicines, laptop, and more and trashing parts of the clinic. It will take a long time for insurance to help, and it is not likely that it will cover losses. We would like to stay up and running for the sake of you and your pets. To that end we decided to start a Go Fund Me page. We would appreciate any help.” The theft of a safe is too massive for any individual to move hinting that organized criminal involvement underscores the escalating danger. The perpetrator was caught on camera brazenly using the stolen laptop plugged into an outdoor outlet. Less crime than Albuquerque as Senator Cervantes reminds us is a hallow comfort. Our council seems more concerned with sparing “poor people” from fines for illegal activity they commit than protecting those “poor people” who strive to serve to uplift our community despite the growing threats of lawlessness. Thousands of dollars paid by business owners for protection is the price of doing business in Las Cruces due to the failure of this city to protect its citizens. You have to pay to serve the community. Let that sink in.

Jim Hurst, Member of the Public said on May 2nd of this year the Mayor and the CCIA held a religious service at the main entrance of our City Hall in honor of National Day of Prayer. There are no public records of the event. It was not recorded on the city calendar. The city council did not approve it and was unaware of it. After several inquiries to the Mayor’s office a staffer informed me that what I thought was a public religious service was a private meeting held by the Mayor. I think the Mayor’s office was less than candid and the National Day of Prayer service held here was anything but a private meeting. In truth it was a public religious service authorized by the

Mayor. My questions for the Mayor are, does your office grant you the authority to use city government facilities for religious purposes without city council approval? Why didn’t you give the people through their elected officials a say in this matter? Will you ever tell the full truth about this meeting? To the city council, a request that you hold the Mayor accountable to the New Mexico Constitution. Ask yourself if a religious service at the main entrance of this building on a weekday at noon and officiated in part by the Mayor and the Police Chief conforms to the letter in spirit of our State

Constitution, Amendment II, Section 11, “no person shall be required to attend any place of worship or support any religious sect or denomination”. By using city facilities for religious purposes in holding religious services at City Hall you are requiring all the good people of Las Cruces to support a meeting of a religious sect. This is forbidden by the constitution. The National Day of Prayer service held at City Hall violates the

New Mexico Constitution in both letter and spirit and must cease. To the Mayor, please cease using city facilities to exercise and promote your religion. For the city council please pass a resolution forbidding use of City Hall for religious meetings.

Lisa Parrot, Member of the Public said I want to thank you for having the National Day of Prayer service here. This is paid for by the people, the taxpayers of this country, this city. No one is required to come. If someone chooses not come, that is totally with their prerogative but someone who thinks that they can stop other people from worshiping freely is a problem.

Jorge Aguirre, Member of the Public said I also oppose the National Day of Prayer.

Churches don’t pay taxes they can do it somewhere else other than a public facility. I

am here because times are tough, and we seem to have even more difficult times ahead of us. If steep tariffs on imports are imposed as national plans seems to suggest all matter of cost would increase dramatically for everybody. When things go up in price, poverty expands, homelessness and desperations grows and with that crime also expands and when crime grows people lose their empathy and their patience. I am all for doing something about it but the problem about the macho tough approach against the vulnerable is that it doesn’t work. It is very expensive, and it doesn’t solve the problem. New vulnerable people keep falling in the same trap. I am all in for doing something about crime and homelessness and I do like investments that make us feel better about crime, but I do prefer investments that help us solve the actual problem which is what we need to do to get rid of the actual poverty trap. Our problem is poverty. People are falling into addiction and desperation because they are unable to afford the basic stuff. Many of the reasons for people to fall into poverty and stay trapped are out of or control. That is a national problem after all, but we are at least partially responsible for some of the poverty created by the high cost of the local housing and transportation services. Removing parking requirements from our city code will improve our local construction companies’ ability to build low cost, higher density housing at a profit which would increase supply, reduce housing inflation, create jobs, and improve our local economy but we also need transportation solutions that don’t make us poorer. Every aspect of car ownership is a drain on wealth and when we continue to invest most of our city resources on car centric infrastructure, we are giving our citizens no choice but to impoverish themselves to have a vehicle. Cars are a bottomless pit of expenses for citizens and governments alike. They produce noise, pollution, traffic, make us sicker, sedentary and more divided but above all they make us poor. Instead of that lets invest in infrastructure that allows citizens to safely travel the city without having to buy a car. The use of personal transportation devices is on the rise worldwide. They are cost effective. More efficient than cars and provide all the freedoms of bicycles promise without many of the drawbacks and unlike bicycles they are small enough that they can be carried in a public transportation bus for a comfortable trip from origin to destination. To conclude we must be willing to give up our comfort with cars and with the way that we do things in the past so that we can chart a new path that brings prosperity shared for all members of our community.

Fred Miller, Member of the Public said I just wanted to agree with Jim Hurst that religious ceremonies, etcetera don’t belong on city property. Saying that you can’t do it here is not saying that you can’t do it at all interfering with someone else’s freedom to do it. Say you can do it somewhere else. I agree with that sentiment.

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

RESULT: Carried

MOVER: Councilor Becky Corran

SECONDER: Councilor Johana Bencomo

AYES: Mayor Eric Enriquez, Councilor Cassie McClure, Councilor William Mattiace,

Councilor Becki Graham, Councilor Johana Bencomo, Councilor Becky

Corran, and Councilor Yvonne Flores

5. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES 5.1 REGULAR CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF OCTOBER 21, 2024. 5.2 WORK SESSION OF OCTOBER 15, 2024 AND OCTOBER 28, 2024.

6. RESOLUTION(S) AND/OR ORDINANCE(S) FOR CONSENT AGENDA 6.1 RESOLUTION NO. 25-059: A RESOLUTION APPROVING AN AMENDMENT

TO PROFESSIONAL SERVICES AGREEMENTS WITH MILLER

ENGINEERS, INC. DBA SOUDER, MILLER & ASSOCIATES; TERRACON

CONSULTANTS, INC.; ZIA ENGINEERING & ENVIRONMENTAL

CONSULTANTS, LLC ALL OF LAS CRUCES, NM, AND GEOLOGIC

ASSOCIATES, INC. DBA DANIEL B. STEPHENS & ASSOCIATES AND

PARKHILL, SMITH & COOPER, INC. DBA PARKHILL BOTH OF

ALBUQUERQUE, NM, TO INCREASE THE ANNUAL NOT-TO-EXCEED

AMOUNT TO $2,000,000 PLUS APPLICABLE TAXES PER VENDOR,

SUBJECT TO APPROVED BUDGET APPROPRIATIONS (22-23-036

ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING SERVICES).

7. RESOLUTION(S) AND/OR ORDINANCE(S) FOR DISCUSSION 7.1 RESOLUTION NO. 25-060: A RESOLUTION AMENDING THE FY2025-2030

CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS PROGRAM. Cynthia Campo, CIP Analyst gave the overhead presentation.

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

Approve Resolution No. 25-060.

SECONDER: Councilor Becki Graham

Corran, and Councilor Yvonne Flores 7.2 RESOLUTION NO. 25-061: A RESOLUTION APPROVING THE AMENDED

AND RESTATED MESILLA VALLEY METROPOLITAN PLANNING

ORGANIZATION (MPO) JOINT POWERS AGREEMENT FOR THE

GOVERNANCE OF THE MESILLA VALLEY METROPOLITAN PLANNING

ORGANIZATION. Andrew Wray, Regional Transportation Manager gave the overhead presentation.

Councilor Mattiace asked can you be specific on the governing board again, the representatives?

Andrew Wray said there are three Las Cruces city councilors, three Dona Ana County commissioners and three Town of Mesilla trustees from the political units and then the

NMDOT District 1 engineer is also a voting member of our board. For this year the city’s delegation is Mayor Enriquez, Councilor Corran is serving as the Chair this year and Councilor McClure is our third member here from the city.

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

Approve Resolution No. 25-061.

MOVER: Councilor Becki Graham

SECONDER: Councilor Becky Corran

Corran, and Councilor Yvonne Flores 7.3 RESOLUTION NO. 25-062: A RESOLUTION APPROVING A

MEMORANDUM OF AGREEMENT DEFINING THE ROLES AND

RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE CITY OF LAS CRUCES AND THE MESILLA

VALLEY METROPOLITAN PLANNING ORGANIZATION. Andrew Wray, Regional Transportation Manager gave the overhead presentation.

Councilor Corran said I want to take a moment to first thank Ms. Bencomo in particular for really helping throughout this process. Thank you so much for your support and for Andrew for persisting in the face of a lot of logistical challenges throughout and still ongoing but we will say most of them are past by now, but it really represents a lot of work and so thank you for doing that and making this process happen. I really quickly want to highlight the MPO. I know that it is necessarily not something we think about. Last week we had super interesting presentations. So if this peaks your interest at all, last year $70 million about went through the MPO to infrastructure projects in our community and so it definitely is notable in terms of the federal government views money going into literally our roads, primarily sidewalks, roads, trails, etcetera and so I think that was really interesting and then also something if you are interested for what the MPO contributes, the new safety report to which last week we heard a really interesting and compelling presentation about all of the traffic fatalities from the year 2022 in the MPO district. It was very compelling.

That data is included in the MPO annual safety report that is coming out right now. So just in terms of everyone here if you not necessarily if this is the only time that you interface with the MPO it is meaningful to the community and I just really want to appreciate both the role the MPO plays in our city sort of the way we keep things moving on infrastructure projects but also thank you to Andrew in particular for leading this charge and making this happen. I know it hasn’t been easy, and so I know I just really want to extend that gratitude to you in this moment.

Approve Resolution No. 25-062.

8. BOARD APPOINTMENTS 8.1 BILL KINSELLA JR

Councilor Becki Graham moved, seconded by Councilor Johana Bencomo, to appoint Bill Kinsella Jr to the Oversight Committee.

Corran, and Councilor Yvonne Flores 8.2 ADOLF ZUBIA Councilor Becki Graham moved, seconded by Councilor Johana Bencomo, to appoint Adolf Zubia to the Oversight Committee.

Corran, and Councilor Yvonne Flores 8.3 MICHAEL COCHRAN Councilor Johana Bencomo moved, seconded by Councilor Becky Corran, to appoint Michael Cochran to the Oversight Committee.

MOVER: Councilor Johana Bencomo

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 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. Council agreed to bring it forward. 9.2 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. Council agreed to bring it forward. 9.3 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. Council agreed to bring it forward.

10. CITY COUNCIL MEMBER BOARD REPORTS AND COMMENT 10.1 COUNCILOR MCCLURE I wanted to give a shoutout to Utilities for coming in and giving the presentation. I am alittle worried about the ARTs if I am going to be honest, but it is going to be fine. I appreciate them sort of giving a demonstration of what this could look like for people who might have been a little scared about lead.

10.2 COUNCILOR MATTIACE None. 10.3 COUNCILOR GRAHAM To dove tail on Councilor McClure’s comment, I am 100% not capable of doing this myself so I am glad that I have the option to call on the experts if needed.

I just wanted to quickly share from our recent Community Schools Partnership Board.

The schools shared out some of what they did with funding that they received from the City of Las Cruces. I think it is a really cool list because it shows how different the seven schools are and that is part of the power of community schools to be able to tailor their programing to whatever the kids and the families and the staff need. So, this helped fund washer and dryer installations and a fall break reading camp, sports teams and equipment, some family events, shade canopies, a mural project in one of the schools, field trip insurance and fees, science experiment supplies, and a school

TV news station resources and that one really hit home for me because I am a former school TV news anchor. As always, I think our community schools are bright spots in the city and just always want to acknowledge and admire them when I have the chance.

10.4 COUNCILOR CORRAN Tomorrow the Mayor and I are both presenting at the NMSU Outreach Conference.

So, I just want to sort of go to the idea of us partnering very heavily with NMSU as we move forward, and I really appreciate the efforts that have been made. In fact, this isn’t exactly partnering with NMSU but I do think that they are engaged with the upcoming public meeting on the widening of University which is a planned roadway development this evening at 5:30 at the Zia Middle School cafeteria there will be a

public meeting on that project. This is about widening University from Avenida de

Mesilla to South Main, so it is one of those transportation projects that we alluded to when we were talking about the MPO. Just wanted to give a quick heads up that is happening tonight.

Also, again I appreciate city administrations ongoing efforts to maintain our relationship with Memorial Medical. On Wednesday night at 5:30 there will be a public board meeting so that folks can come in and hear and exchange ideas with MMC and

I don’t think this has happened in quite some time, so I do want to express my gratitude to everyone who has been advocating for changing relationships and increased accountability and transparency in that relationship so thank you for that effort and Wednesday at 5:30 if folks care to join for that event.

10.5 COUNCILOR FLORES I just want to report on the City Art Board at the meeting that was held last week. They are now planning for a lot of things. They are adding however they are adding one new member Chadi, wants to introduce the performing arts. At this point the City Art

Board is getting ready for the Chalk Walk Public Art Month 2025 and the city owned property for public art and so there is a lot going on. One of our members is Dr. Adam

Amador and he is the principal at Alma d’Arte and they will be having an event and the City Art Board was invited. Those are the highlights of the committee, and all of the members are very hard working. I want to thank them publicly for that and as well as the Quality of Life Department, Carol Brey attends these meetings which is really refreshing because past directors of the Quality of Life didn’t attend and so she is very engaged as is Rebecca Slaughter. I want to thank them for their participation and attending our meetings.

10.6 COUNCILOR BENCOMO I really have just one thing even though election day feels like a million years ago from today. I wanted to take the opportunity to thank the members of our community for approving the GRT increase and really think a lot of folks were able to see that this is an investment in themselves and their families and in our future and so I really just wanted to take the opportunity to thank them and to let you all know that I am really excited to engage in a community driven process to better understand what projects our community are in need of right now and I think it is incredibly exciting opportunity to participate in some participatory budgeting processes and I just wanted to say that and thank you again for the community investing in yourselves in this way. 10.7 MAYOR ENRIQUEZ I just wanted to come back and say thank you to our voters for the increase in the

GRT. It is what we classified as public safety and critical infrastructure, but it is also opportunities for an investment of a long-term financial stability for our community for our city and we thank you.

Last week I attended the NLC National League of Cities. They were celebrating their

100 years of being an organization and the City of Las Cruces has been a member of the NLC for 50 years, so I was honored and privileged to receive this plaque for 50

years of being a member of the NLC. It was a great place to network, connect best practices. Irene Parra from Economic Development was also in attendance and next year it is in Salt Lake City, Utah and I encourage council if you would be interested in going to the National League of Cities and other staff it would be a great opportunity and it is close by, and we have a friend there already. It is something to be proud of for Las Cruces and being a member and it is not only that it is a leadership of the past and it is something to look forward to in the future that we continue this.

One other thing I wanted to mention, I am a big sports fan and so I just had to share this with you, Aggie Women’s Basketball. Since you all are going to be attending the

NMSU Outreach, I had the opportunity before I went to Tampa to attend one of the

Women Aggie basketball games and last year and part of this year an individual at the

WNBA in college Caitlin Clark, she took WNBA, women’s basketball to a whole other level, and I have to share this. There is an Aggie Basketball player by the name Molly

Kaiser that plays with New Mexico State University, and she is exciting to watch. The game I went to she put up 35 points. We need to go and support and see her play and

I wanted to say this publicly because they don’t get the recognition, they don’t get the attention. The attendance is very low but let’s see what we can do to support them because we do have a superstar in the making there at NMSU.

11. CITY MANAGER REPORT 11.1 IKANI TAUMOEPEAU

I did have GRT on the list, but I appreciate those who have brought it up already. It is something that we and as staff is preparing to come bring to your options on how to assess and move forward with the projects that were highlighted to the voters on that end and taking your priorities and goals to have and putting them all together.

Working through Budget Retreat on that and looking to months in the new year we will have something prepared, and I will use our meetings and public meetings to see what we can do to involve the public and involve you all on a process that makes sense.

In addition, I wanted to give a heads up on December 17th, the Budget Retreat has been set up. We are looking for vision goals and priorities from city council. That will be held at the Fulton Center. That will be in the morning and early afternoon and that is something that we wanted to do Budget Retreat to do our best to get staff and council outside of the norm and to get the creative juices flowing we take them outside of this room and so that is why I am announcing it here. Last year we went to the

Convention Center and so this year we plan on going somewhere different, the Fulton

Center there and we may change the location for the CIP as well so things to look forward to, to get the creative juices flowing but we look forward to hearing from you all council and the razzle dazzle that you will bring to hear from your goals and vision for this upcoming year and we intentionally moved it to December so that we could put it earlier for our budget process so that our department heads and our deputies can hear from you all of what your goals and visions are and to see what we can do to implement it in our budget this year.

Additionally we have Memorial Medical Center, there is a board disposition that I am in and the City Manager has a seat on that board and they are bringing back the public board meeting which pre-Covid is what I am told was the last time they did a public meeting and so it has been a few years but they are holding it on this

Wednesday, 5:30 to 6:30. It will be held on the first floor on the Annex Building, first floor conference room of the MMC building. The MMC board plans to update the community and there will be Q&A. So, anyone who is interested we ask that you attend, especially councilors, Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem. Any of you all who would like to be there you are more than welcome to be there, it is for everyone.

I just spoke to Viola through text. I wanted to give kudos to her, to Brad, our City

Attorney, Viola is our City Auditor for those chiming in at home and then also I want to give kudos to our City IG, Charles as well for your help in getting the Oversight

Committee and the parameters and the structure updated. So, thank you, it has been a few months, but it is going to be worth it for the clarity that it brings. So, I just wanted to thank them and Viola shares just to give everyone an update that the first because of your approval today the first meeting should be sometime in November or

December is what she is anticipating for the Oversight Committee. So, I just want to give you all a heads up on that.

Parks and Recreation will offer Thanksgiving break a three-day camp for kids kindergarten through fifth grade at Meerscheidt Rec Center beginning November

25th. Camp hours will be from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Monday through Wednesday.

The fee is $20 per child due at registration. Call 575-541-2610 if interested.

Food/meals will be provided.

From Community Development this is a shout out to those who attended the

Veteran’s Day Parade commemorating Veteran’s Day. It was a highly successful event with spectators lining Main and Water Street. This year the city had five grand marshals who were first responders from various city departments including Fire,

Police, and Fleet. There was 67 parade floats and entries and thank you to Mayor

Enriquez and General Turner, Commander of White Sands Missile Range who officiated the Veteran’s Day Parade.

12. ADJOURNMENT 12.1 Councilor Johana Bencomo moved, seconded by Councilor Yvonne Flores, to adjourn at 2:52 p.m.

SECONDER: Councilor Yvonne Flores

Mayor

City Clerk