City Council Meeting August 19, 2024

MINUTES

City Council

Monday, August 19, 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 GRAHAM. 1.2 PRESENTATION OF CERTIFICATES OF

APPRECIATION/PROCLAMATIONS - COUNCILOR GRAHAM. Councilor Graham presented Alice Carruth, Liz Vega, Richard Pacheco, and Rani

Bush with a proclamation for Las Cruces Space Festival Week.

1.3 JOBS OF THE WEEK. Sarah Raney, New Mexico Workforce Connection presented Jobs of the Week.

1.4 PETS OF THE WEEK. Amy Defelix, Animal Services of the Mesilla Valley 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

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Bob Butler, Member of the Public said I am very supportive of the Police and Fire

Department. I went to New Mexico Family Services off of Telshor on Missouri across from the National Republican Headquarters of Dona Ana County. I met a very nice lady there and she told me that she felt or thought our Chief of Police was immature. I immediately agreed with her. I was surprised and then I assured her she would make a very good United State Senator. To close, Martin Heinrich is in trouble.

Susan Cabello, Member of the Public said I am Executive Director of Downtown Las

Cruces Partnership. I would like to first say that we have some exciting things happening downtown. Smokey Sensations, the bar-b-que place is open right across the street from us. We have two salons opening within this week and Cha-chis says that they are close. So, lots of movement downtown. What I would like to ask your help with today is that we are having a merchants meeting with Film Las Cruces. We are trying to get all of our merchants to sign up on Film Las Cruces vendor list.

Vendor list means that if a film production is in town they try to source things locally. If businesses are on that list, then they are kind of the first go to. So, I have sent everyone the press release and I will be going door to door to our businesses here in the next few days to ask them to join us for that. It is going to be on Thursday,

September 5th from 5:30 to 6:30 with Film Las Cruces. That will also be recorded so we will be able to put it on our website as well if people can’t make that meeting. I have 100 spaces available. Right now, I have 9 people signed up. I would like to get that closer to the 90 something range by September 5th.

Jim Hurst, Member of the Public said reading from the New Mexico Constitution

Article 2, Section 11, “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”. No person shall be required to support any religious sect or denomination. On May 2nd this year an assembly was held in honor of National Day of Prayer. It was not on the City Calendar. It was not approved by City Council. As far as I am able to determine apart from my comments to this City Council there is no record of the event. Mayor’s staff has informed me that it was a private meeting therefore no documentation is required. No Mr. Mayor with all due respect it was not a private meeting. Typically, private meetings are held in places not open to the general public. This assembly was held in front of the City Hall at noon. Typically, private meetings are not open to the general public. This assembly was open to everyone. I was there. Typically, private meetings don’t require city security guards. This one had two. Typically, private meetings don’t use a public address system so the general public can hear what is being said and they don’t have amplified instruments so everybody can sing along, and finally private events are usually not advertised to the general public. This one was. Mr. Mayor, this was not a private meeting. It was a religious service. You participated in it and apparently you authorized it. I think that Police Chief Story will back me on this point, when a suspect lies to you it means they have something to hide. What are you trying to hide Mr.

Mayor? Perhaps you are aware that what you are doing is unconstitutional. Perhaps you decided to do it anyway, Constitution be damned. Mr. Mayor you have no right to authorize City Hall for public religious services. To do so constitutes a burden on the citizens of this community and by implication a requirement that citizens support religion. Consider the words of the Constitution, again no person shall be required to attend any place of worship or support any religious sect or denomination.

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Juan Garcia, Member of the Public said I want to recognize the exceptional work of our city staff. The staff has been instrumental in helping us navigate the often complex issues bringing members of CCIA to a greater understanding and ultimately positive change that benefits our entire community. A recent meeting with Natalie and Jan on housing issues is a perfect example of their excellence. I arrived with preconceived notions, but Natalie’s remarkable expertise and clear explanations gave me a completely new and enlightened prospective. The same goes for Chris, Ms. Delgado and Ms. Bencomo and of course Chief Story. Their willingness to clarify important issues is a testament to the extraordinary caliber of our city staff. I also want to extend special and well-deserved recognition to Catrina. Her consistent support and readiness to assist has been invaluable. Her commitment to the community shines through into everything she does with dedication and passion. The recent developments at MMC have generated substantial local controversy. Community advocate Yoli Diaz has catalytic concerns to the NM AG after reportedly being dismissed by local and county officials. While a complete understanding of the situation requires further investigation here are my comments, allegations suggest that around 2015 MMC discontinued outpatient Oncology and chemo services. It is crucial to comprehend why such a decision. Equally concerning is the potential lack of oversight from city and county representatives attending joint meetings. The public deserves access to minutes, agendas, and reports that could clarify the situation.

Who possess these documents and what actions were taken in response to the decision? The accountable government entity must address these questions. The hospital’s corporate ownership has been criticized for profits in healthcare. We expect experienced medical staff and administrators to manage this complex operations effectively which requires competitive compensation to attract and retain talent yet we demand hospitals like MMC ensure access to care for those unable to afford it. Costs are inedible, someone must absorb them. It is unrealistic to expect both nonprofit operations and have unrestricted access. The situation underscores the need for healthcare models balancing access, quality, and financial sustainability. This controversy with MMC warrants through investigation to determine the facts to access accountability and develop solutions ensuring such situations are prevented in the future.

Lucas Herndon, Member of the Public said I am a resident in District 2. I am here to try and be proactive under this new spirit of such concern over public safety as that term has been thrown around for the last few months. In the last two weeks I have been driving around our city and noticing some of the things what I think people are talking about when they think of public safety which is to say people walking around, pedestrians, people moving around. My assumption is the people are making their assumptions about what those people are doing. I don’t know what they are doing just like people don’t know what I am doing when I am driving around but what I have noticed is that this is not a great place for people to walk around. We are not a pedestrian friendly city. In my own neighborhood along Locust there is an entire mile long section of sidewalk that is obstructed with utility poles and unusable to anyone using a walker or wheelchair or pulling a wagon or for kids riding their bikes and yes there are bike lanes on Locust but they are frequently clogged up with trash and trash bins because that is where the apartments are instructed to put their trash bins on trash day. Whether that is up to the resident or the apartment manager or the city

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those are issues in conflict with utilizing those bicycle lanes which means people need to ride on the sidewalks, but they can’t because there are utility poles. Additionally, there are large stretches of roads in our town between intersections that have no protected way to cross. I live near the university, the students are returning this weekend and I have already stopped frequently as people utilize the pedestrian crossing areas that have been installed along University that have flashing lights but are not affiliated with car crossings. It is clear because of that and because of things like school crossings that we do have some level of care for some people to be able to cross the streets safely. So, when we talk about pedestrian safety, I feel there is a lot this city could do to ensure that everybody is safe if they choose to walk or ride a bike or do anything other than drive a car so as we continue to talk about public safety, I greatly encourage this body to look into how they can help.

Eddie Thomas, Member of the Public said the reason I am here is because I want to bring to your attention, there is a situation in my neighborhood, and it happens to be in your district Mayor Pro Tem. There was a recent issue with power outages caused by sheets of metal roofing that flew during a windstorm on to the power lines and knocked out the power three times. Not only did it cause us an inconvenience, the house is in very poor repair. The elderly man that lives there I don’t know if he has any family or what his family situation is but there are gaping holes in his roof right now. They are currently covered by tarp that I think were nailed down by his other neighbor. I call this to your attention Mayor Pro Tem because it is your district, okay something at the very least a safety check, a safety visit should be conducted to see how this man is getting along. To see if he has any family. The other issues I have with that is that the streets, they look like graham crackers that were stepped on.

When are we going to do something about that? I am also the one that sent you, both of you Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem pictures of the flooding situation at my house, the across the street neighbor and my surrounding neighbors because I am at the lowest portion of Calle del Encanto. Every time it rains it ponds there. After a few days, the water stinks, tadpoles form, mosquitoes form, it is not a good situation. It is apparent by your last email communication, Mayor Pro Tem that I don’t know if you have any intention of ever doing anything about it. I know there is some projects in the winds, okay well you can respond to me and let me know what is in the works. I have done some investigation myself but at the very least send a street sweeper so that they can at least clean up the residue, the debris that forms there. Something needs to be done.

Aaron Kaiser, Member of the Public said I have been a resident here since 2020. I am here hoping for some type of commentary from the City Council or the Mayor to the city in clarification on the ordinance for the shopping carts here in the city. There seems to be a lot of confusion of what it is and what it means. How we are going to go forward with it and also does it fully offer the dignity that some of our people here in

Las Cruces should have even though all of their belongings do fit within a shopping cart. I have a lot of concern about how we are going to retrieve property for people that do not live here in Las Cruces. There is people here that are working for companies that are far, far away from us but are my son and daughter going to get asked to put themselves in a position to retrieve something that does not belong to them but to the company they work for and what risk happens whenever they do go out and retrieve that property that possibly the businesses that do send them out to

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retrieve to be a part of the job that they have at a company here in town? I think maybe some amendments might be in order to this ordinance. We do need to make sure we are protecting all citizens here in Las Cruces and doing the best we can for not just the taxpayers of the community but those who the taxpayers support in this community. I am not looking for one way or the other but there is a best way forward for this community and I am not sure that has been properly spoken of. I am new to this kind of arena. Maybe I will be here more. I feel guilty that I do not have more information and I am not a bigger part of this community and so maybe going forward

I am here more, but I would just ask that you consider some type of amendment or some type of campaign to let us know what the ordinance means how we are going to do it going forward. Are we going to be putting employees that are here and residents of the city as well in danger trying to get property? Are we asking them to confront people? What if there is nobody with the cart and they go out and someone says the cart is theirs, what happens in that moment? Are we asking citizens to do things that possibly law enforcement should be doing and are we putting anybody at risk that wasn’t at risk before because of the ordinance? Whether that is better communication than what there is. I know that I spend a great amount of time trying to figure out what the ordinance was. I can’t find the verbiage anywhere outside of just a little bit of the information that you can find through articles that are available online and I am not going to trust Facebook for what the facts are on what is happening. I would ask that there is some type of communication to the community to let us know exactly what it means, what it is for, or how it is going to be fulfilled and possibly if there is a need for some amendments to the ordinance of the city for the shopping cart issue that we have here in the city.

4. READ CLOSED MEETING STATEMENT 4.1 READ AUGUST 5, 2024 CLOSED MEETING STATEMENT INTO THE

RECORD. The Las Cruces City Council met in closed session and only discussed those limited as stated in the posted notice to discuss pending or threatening litigation regarding

Texas v. New Mexico & Colorado, Original No. 141, which is closed pursuant to

NMSA 1978, Section 10-15-1H(7). 4.2 READ AUGUST 12, 2024 CLOSED MEETING STATEMENT INTO THE

RECORD. The Las Cruces City Council met in closed session and only discussed those limited as stated in the posted notice to discuss pending or threatening litigation regarding:

1. To discuss pending litigation regarding Francisco Estrada v. City of Las

Cruces, ET AL., D-307-cv-2021-01309, which is closed pursuant to NMSA

1978, Section 10-15-1H(7).

2. To discuss pending litigation regarding the Estate of Teresa Gomez, ET AL., v.

City of Las Cruces ET AL., 23CV952, which is closed pursuant to NMSA 1978,

Section 10-15-1H(7).

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5. ACCEPTANCE OF AGENDA Councilor Becki Graham moved, seconded by Councilor Becky Corran, to accept the agenda as presented.

RESULT: Carried

MOVER: Councilor Becki Graham

SECONDER: Councilor Becky Corran

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

Councilor Becki Graham, Councilor Johana Bencomo, Councilor Becky

Corran, and Councilor Yvonne Flores

6. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES 6.1 REGULAR CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF JULY 15, 2024. 6.2 WORK SESSION OF JULY 22, 2024.

7. RESOLUTION(S) AND/OR ORDINANCE(S) FOR CONSENT AGENDA 7.1 RESOLUTION NO. 25-017: A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE CITY OF

LAS CRUCES FIRE DEPARTMENT TO PURCHASE EMERGENCY

MEDICAL SERVICE EDUCATION COURSES THROUGH AIR METHODS OF

ENGLEWOOD, COLORADO, IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $199,407. 7.2 RESOLUTION NO. 25-018: A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING A PURCHASE

AGREEMENT FOR MEDICAID AMBULANCE REPORTING WITH PUBLIC

CONSULTING GROUP, LLC OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS IN AN

ANNUAL AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $300,000, SUBJECT TO APPROVED

BUDGET APPROPRIATIONS. 7.3 RESOLUTION NO. 25-019: A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING A CONTRACT

FOR AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT (ADA) ACCESSIBILITY

ASSESSMENT WITH KIMLEY-HORN AND ASSOCIATES, INC., OF FORT

WORTH, TEXAS, IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $105,003, PLUS

APPLICABLE TAXES, SUBJECT TO APPROVED BUDGET

APPROPRIATIONS (PROCUREMENT NO. 23-24-046).

8. RESOLUTION(S) AND/OR ORDINANCE(S) FOR DISCUSSION 8.1 RESOLUTION NO. 25-020: 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. Joe Padilla, Budget Analyst gave the overhead presentation.

Councilor Flores asked awards for various city departments through an amendment to the city’s adopted FY2025 Budget, so there is an amendment that exists already?

Joe Padilla said in regard to 8.1 we are bringing in Grant Awards to the city. The three that were in question WERE the Curb Your Waste Program, the New Mexico HIDTA

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modifications, and the New Mexico HIDTA Grant. So, we are just amending the budget to bring in grant award funding.

Gloria Molina, Member of the Public asked you had kind of stopped on something that the residents were welcome to use, what was it that you were talking about?

Joe Padilla said it is for a Curb Your Waste Food Program. So, what happens is our

Utilities Department is going to start a new program and they will be allowing compost to the residents at no cost. So, they are going to start with the schools. They will start trying to get a lot of the food out of the landfills and turning into compost. Councilor Johana Bencomo moved, seconded by Councilor Becki Graham, to

Approve Resolution No. 25-020.

MOVER: Councilor Johana Bencomo

SECONDER: Councilor Becki Graham

Corran, and Councilor Yvonne Flores 8.2 RESOLUTION NO. 25-021: A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE CITY OF

LAS CRUCES (CITY) TO ACCEPT BUDGET ADJUSTMENTS FOR

VARIOUS CITY DEPARTMENTS THROUGH AN AMENDMENT TO THE

CITY’S ADOPTED FISCAL YEAR (FY) 2024-25 BUDGET, THE FY2025

CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS PROGRAM (CIP), AND THE FY2025 VEHICLE

ACQUISITION FUND (VAF). Vanessa Perez, Budget Analyst gave the overhead presentation.

Cynthia Campo, CIP Analyst continued the presentation.

Councilor Mattiace asked there was a $5 million, it was removed from fund 4613, are you familiar with that?

Vanessa Perez said this was a $5 million revenue in debt services for the Fire

Department. It was incorrectly budgeted. They should not have that budget in there at all. We are just removing it entirely.

Councilor Mattiace asked can someone answer why there is $110 million of carryover projects?

Vanessa Perez asked is there a specific page you are referring to or are you referring to a total?

Councilor Mattiace said it would be all of your carryover in Capital Outlay, $110 million. Page 10, it showed $110 million of carryover projects from the previous fiscal year. I was wondering if it was due to more funds were needed to finish the project, delays in projects, staffing of projects, getting contractors so?

Cynthia Campo said our carry over projects are a mixture of things. We budget so

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early in the year that when we are doing the projections just like we do with budget we are just making an estimate of how much we think we will be carrying over to the next fiscal year for projects that still need to be completed in the next fiscal year and so these amendments that we bring forward are to actually bring the project to the actual beginning balance either because we spent less and now we need to bring that budget over so that we can continue the project and spend all the funds for the project. Most of those carryover projects are due to that.

Councilor Mattiace said on some of the items where you have a separate fund memo where it is coming from. I noticed it said non-departmental/non-subsection. Can you clarify that? There was like $50,000, $300,000, $200,000 and then the memo just had non-department/non-subsection as the others were very descriptive of where it came from and where it went and who it was for.

Vanessa Perez said that is because a lot of the ones that you’re stating the one that say non-department or non-subsection are actually transfers within our budget. We are not pinpointing a certain account, it is just reflecting a transfer. So those non- subsection or non-department are transfers. We are transferring funds from one account to another and the way that our system pulls up those is as non-department or non-subsection. It just signals that there is a transfer within our budget. It is not increasing or decreasing the bottom line of our budget, it is just a transfer, removing money from one pot to another.

Councilor Mattiace said the other memos are more descriptive, but this is a generalization, non-department. Can somebody explain a Discretionary Fund and what amount it starts with every fiscal year? Does the Discretionary Fund start with $1 million, $500,000? I noticed there was $300,000 in there and then $300,000 went to

Utilities and left a balance of $100,000. How is the Discretionary Fund designed? How is it budgeted every year?

Vanessa Perez asked are you referring to the non-subsection lines that you were referring to earlier?

Councilor Mattice said it is actually called a Contingency Fund.

Leeann DeMouche, Finance Director said so within the City Manager’s budget he does have an object code for contingency and so we do budget that for him. He receives every year about $250,000 for contingency and that is for his discretion to spend. There is no particular fund. It is just within his budget. Councilor Becki Graham moved, seconded by Councilor Becky Corran, to

Approve Resolution No. 25-021.

Corran, and Councilor Yvonne Flores 8.3 RESOLUTION NO. 25-022: A RESOLUTION TO AWARD CONTRACTS FOR

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TEMPORARY EMPLOYMENT SERVICES ON AN AS-NEEDED BASIS TO

22ND CENTURY TECHNOLOGIES, INC.; ATHENA CONSULTING, LLC;

COGENT INFOTECH CORPORATION; COMPUNNEL SOFTWARE GROUP,

INC.; CATHYJON ENTERPRISES, INC. D/B/A HB STAFFING; ITSQUEST,

INC.; MANPOWERGROUP US, INC.; RS EMPLOYMENT SERVICES, LLC

D/B/A REDCAP STAFFING; SPARROW COMPANY, LLC; AND THINK

BEYOND, INC. IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $2,000,000 PER

VENDOR ANNUALLY, FOR A TERM OF FOUR (4) YEARS THROUGH

JUNE 30, 2028, SUBJECT TO APPROVED BUDGET APPROPRIATIONS (PROCUREMENT NO. 23-24-047). Greg Gonzales, Buyer gave the overhead presentation.

Councilor Flores asked how many temp agencies does the city contract with?

Greg Gonzales said currently in the last contract we did have five. The new proposal is carrying a total of 10.

Councilor Flores asked I think it was page 4 or 5, temporary employment services four-year term is for the companies that the city is contracting with?

Greg Gonzales said that is correct.

Councilor Flores asked has there been a study or an assessment as to looking at how it plays out financially for the city to have temps as opposed to permanent employees?

Greg Gonzales said to that effect I do not have that answer for you. We do have the specifics as far as the amount that each department is carrying and so forth but as far as the comparison, I do not have that information, but I can get that for you.

Councilor Flores said my understanding of Manpower and all of those companies is that they are the ones who are responsible for the, say there is an injury on the job like a worker’s comp claim. They are the ones that have to defend it. Is that correct?

Are there benefits to having this? Four years, some people don’t even stay. Just in terms I am not an HR person, but it just seems that you would want to hire employees who are committed to working up to retirement plan, having the benefits of dental and medical and that sort of stuff. Has there been an analysis on that?

Greg Gonzales said as far as the first part of your question, the City’s interview process is quite extensive so some departments would defer if they do have back logs and extensive positions that they need to fill they would go with a temp service. The temp service would do all the background checks, all of the drug screening. Now the departments go in initially hiring a temp service personnel. They look at also possibly also hiring that person into a full-time person onto the city. Now to the effects of your second part of the question where the analysis between those two, I don’t have that information but again I can get that for you at a later date.

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Donny Prosise, Purchasing Supervisor said we do frequently have temps put into positions while we are going through a hiring process for a permanent staff member and like he said we do occasionally attempt to hire because we do know that it will take a while for people to onboarded through the usual HR process. Sometimes we are able to get that person onboarded as a temp with one of the agencies we contract with until the HR process is completed, and we are able to put them on payroll. As far as the time involved ideally there are times when folks end up being in a temporary position for longer than is probably expected but it really kind of depends on what is going on in that department with their hiring process or changes to staffing or programs. We do typically pay a bit higher in an hourly billing rate for temporary staff members because of course the agencies do have their overhead but when you look at the hourly salary of a city employee and then you also add to that the cost of benefits and everything that goes along with it. It may not be that different at the end of the day depending on the position we are talking about, but we would have to do a more rigorous analysis just to give that kind of information.

Councilor Flores said I think a rigorous analysis would be good. I am looking at this as a person who has worked most of their life at this point and I just don’t see how it would really benefit a person to be a temp worker and to work in an environment side by side by someone who is a fulltime worker. I just don’t see the commitment, maybe aspiration to go up the ladder and then draw from the benefits and it also with all due respect I am part of the city as well, but it just seems to with all due respect to temps it is like cheap labor. Is there a cost analysis insofar as to what the city is saving?

Donny Prosise said what I can tell you is that we are really contracting with these firms to have the services available on an as needed basis. So, in order to not have city services grind to a halt because of a vacancy which could be for multiple reasons.

It could be illness, it could be that the person chooses to leave our employment, or they might accept a position elsewhere in the city. So, in order to have everything grind to a halt we are able to quickly bring somebody in that we can have just kind of keep things moving until we are able to more permanently replace those staff members. So, we are not really using them with the intention I would say with having them in those positions for really extended periods of time. It is really just a stop gap until we are able to have a more permanent solution.

Councilor Flores asked what is the percentage of the outside workforce, you know of these companies? Do you have a break down on that?

Donny Prosise said we actually were looking at numbers last week in advance of this presentation and as of last week according to HR data we had 113 temporary staff members in the system. They range anywhere from 1 to 48 people per department at the highest.

Councilor Flores asked has there ever been an inhouse study as to productivity and how temps measure up?

Donny Prosise said I am not sure if any sort of study like that has been done.

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Jo Richards, HR Director said no there has not been a productivity study done with these types of employees as far as how well they are performing and that type of thing. I think part of what we do is report back to the temp agencies. I think the supervisors generally keep in touch with them and let them know how things are going with the employees, and this really gives them the opportunity to have a choice in where they are able to go. These firms charge different rates for different positions and so part of the answer to your question about the cost involved, it really boils down to the position and the fees that they charge compared with what our salary would be and of course if you build benefits into that it does increase the cost.

Councilor Flores asked so temps do get benefits?

Jo Richards said no but if we were to hire them. If we were to hire them into a regular position they would of course as long as it was a full-time position be afforded our benefits. So, then that would be an additional cost.

Councilor Flores asked the temp position is four years? Have you kept comparison as to non-temps and regular employees as to how many stay on?

Jo Richards said I think the goal typically is to have them on a temporary basis. The four-year term is our contract term with these agencies. The individual employees don’t necessarily stay with us for those four years. As Donny and other staff have mentioned it is really a stop gap if you will until they can either hire or get the position through budget. Some of these temp agency employees are being utilized because we don’t have the position in the budget.

Councilor Mattiace asked it used to be five companies previously? Were they guaranteed the $2 million a year?

Jo Richards said yes it was five agencies and I am not sure the amount.

Donny Prosise said we actually contracted with four firms during the last RFP but one of those firms, dm Dickason, they sold their franchise back to the company that they had spun off from many years before, so they were succeeded by HireQuest LLC doing business as Snelling and they did not respond to this latest solicitation. So, there were technically only four on the last one but we will be awarding to ten this time.

Councilor Mattiace asked so on that approximately $8 million that was budgeted how much was remaining?

Donny Prosise said initially that set of contracts was brought forward to council with an annual amount not to exceed two and half million but in I believe in the second year of that contract we brought another resolution forward to remove the $2.5 million not to exceed amount in favor of indefinite cost/indefinite quantity award but over the course of that four year term between all of the five agencies we spent a total of $16.3 million across the entire four year period of those agreements so in lieu of requesting indefinite cost/indefinite quantity we are requesting an annual amount not to exceed

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$2 million per contracted firm.

Councilor Mattiace asked times ten?

Donny Prosise said correct.

Councilor Mattiace asked that is $80 million in four years?

Donny Prosise said yes. It is an amount not to exceed $2 million per vendor per year.

So, it will still be based on the amounts that were brought to council for the budget that was approved. The individual departments lines business of program they will all be limited to the amount of budget that they have available for these services.

Mayor Enriquez said we went from technically you said was four to ten and it is for four years, you had a list of local and then you had a list of those who are outside the area. If a local company moves in and is local and is a temporary service, could they be added within the four years or would they have to wait the four years, or can someone be added through a competitive process?

Donny Prosise said once the contracts are awarded, we wouldn’t really be able to add anybody new that didn’t respond to the original RFP. However, I will say that our pricing service agreements are not exclusive so while we encourage all city staff to take advantage of existing price and service agreements because our competitive process usually has been done that has resulted in those contracts, as long as folks are following the thresholds for our small purchases in the procurement code they might be able to seek temporary employment services from a new company as you described. They would just have to make sure that they were following all of our quoting thresholds depending on how much they were going to be spending.

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

Approve Resolution No. 25-022.

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

Councilor Johana Bencomo, Councilor Becky Corran, and Councilor Yvonne

NAYS: Councilor William Mattiace 8.4 RESOLUTION NO. 25-023: A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING A PURCHASE

AGREEMENT FOR AN ENTERPRISE ASSET MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

WITH SHI INTERNATIONAL CORP OF SOMERSET, NEW JERSEY, IN AN

AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $187,595.49, PLUS GROSS RECEIPTS TAX,

FOR THE FIRST SUBSCRIPTION YEAR AND IMPLEMENTATION COSTS,

AND AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $107,846.73, PLUS GROSS

RECEIPTS TAX, FOR FUTURE ANNUAL SOFTWARE RENEWALS,

SUBJECT TO APPROVED BUDGET APPROPRIATIONS (PROCUREMENT

NO 24-25-011).

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Virginia Barela, Buyer gave the overhead presentation.

Councilor McClure asked is there a public portal that say this goes online and they could see where their street might be in terms of maintenance plan?

David Sedillo, Public Works Director said yes, the software does have the ability to have a public facing portal which will help residents or anyone throughout the city to actually take a look and see when maintenance of those streets are coming up.

Councilor Bencomo asked I am wondering if you can just speak to the need for this?

In just like the context that Public Works finds itself regarding pavement management, the challenges, and then what your hopes are?

David Sedillo said the purpose of number one, obtaining the software for this is like

Virginia stated we are currently using four different types of this software to piece together the maintenance of this program. So, by consolidating all of those efforts it is going to make staff more efficient, we will be able to do further analysis within the software itself which can also bring us to be able to provide more information. More information during the budget process, where we are at, updating the PCIs as improvements are being done instead of waiting five years to get a report. So, there are benefits not only to staff in their efficiency but also in us planning to be able to maximize the dollars that we do have through the approved budget.

Councilor Bencomo asked just a clarifying question for the public about what you just said around PCIs and reports every five years?

David Sedillo said we as a department assigned to maintain this asset, we have a company come in and do a survey of every paved roadway within the city limits. Now that is done every five years. Based on that data that is collected that is how the pavement condition index or the PCI is calculated. That is put into the program and that is what we use to actually schedule the maintenance that we have with our funding.

Councilor Flores asked it would be more efficient in terms of keeping our streets functioning as they should? Going out there and accessing what the condition is and then doing the repairs or whatever, is that part of this?

David Sedillo said that is a portion of it. So yes, that would make our staff more efficient because they are spending less time working with multiple pieces of software to get the information into the system. Getting that information sooner and then planning those dollars out. Now again we will do whatever we can based on these results from the software with the money that we actually get approved through budget. So, we are still limited on what we can do based on the amount that is approved through budget.

Councilor Flores said once you have all that information, and you can pretty much project prospective and then when budget comes around you can use those figures.

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David Sedillo said yes, you are correct. Councilor Becky Corran moved, seconded by Councilor Johana Bencomo, to

Approve Resolution No. 25-023.

MOVER: Councilor Becky Corran

SECONDER: Councilor Johana Bencomo

Corran, and Councilor Yvonne Flores 8.5 RESOLUTION NO. 25-024: A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING A CONTRACT

FOR AIRPORT CONSULTANT - PLANNING, ADMINISTRATIVE, AND

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES WITH DUBOIS & KING, INC. OF RANDOLPH,

VERMONT FOR A TERM OF FIVE (5) YEARS, IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO

EXCEED $500,000 ANNUALLY, SUBJECT TO APPROVED BUDGET

APPROPRIATIONS (PROCUREMENT NO. 23-24-055). Lisa Padron, Buyer gave the overhead presentation.

Councilor Bencomo asked the cost of this, is this coming out of the Airport Fund?

Andy Hume, Airport Director said the source of funding would be either airport funds, could be grant funding from New Mexico DOT, could be grant funding from the FAA. It could be a wide variety of sources that we would seek for funding of these projects.

Councilor Bencomo asked for the actual amount of this contract?

Andy Hume said we would seek funding from a variety of sources. We would not just necessarily rely on funding from the airport funds directly.

Councilor Bencomo asked these monies are not confirmed yet?

Any Hume said that is correct.

Councilor Bencomo said I ask because I do have just some light concerns about the health of the airport, and I would love us if we discussed that in a Work Session soon and I am just curious about long term where we are going and how it is all working for all of us. Especially as we find ourselves in a conversation around tight budgets and I do just want us to be very responsible when it comes to the airport so maybe that is a question for you both here, our City Manager and Mayor but I think that is something I would really like to see in the near future.

Councilor Mattiace asked the strategic plan, when was it initiated? Do you have a 20- year, 15 year, 10 and can I get a copy?

Andy Hume said right now our airport master plan is under final review by the FAA.

So, we are anticipating them having their final approval here pretty much any day and based on that we are beginning a new strategic update for the airport.

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Councilor Mattiace asked on the master plan does it go out how many years?

Andy Hume said master planning for the airport goes out 20 years.

Councilor Flores asked can you share with us what DuBois & King have done or has done for the airport?

Andy Hume said we have had a relationship with DuBois & King since 2019. They have provided services such as the Passenger Air Service Study, the original

Passenger Air Service Study. They have also worked on projects like the current

Airport Master Plan, the Airport Security Plan, currently they are working on the design for the reconstruction of Runway 523, they are working on a sewer extension plan. Some of the projects that we will be working on this contract is the update to our

DBE, our Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program. We need to do an update to our Wildlife Hazard Management Program. Much like the Public Works project before us we are going to be doing an update to our Pavement Management Program. So, it is a wide variety of services that they have done for us and will be doing for us.

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

Approve Resolution No. 25-024.

Corran, and Councilor Yvonne Flores 8.6 COUNCIL BILL NO. 25-010; ORDINANCE NO. 3081: AN ORDINANCE

APPROVING A ZONE CHANGE FROM A-2 (RURAL AGRICULTURAL, 1981

ZONING CODE) TO C-3 (COMMERCIAL HIGH INTENSITY). THE SUBJECT

PROPERTIES ENCOMPASSING 1.89 ± ACRES IS LOCATED AT 3098 E

UNIVERSITY AVENUE. THE ZONE CHANGE REQUEST SEEKS TO BRING

A PORTION OF THE PROPOSED TRACT OF LAND INTO COMPLIANCE

WITH THE 2001 ZONING CODE, AS AMENDED. Adam Ochoa, Senior Urban Planner gave the overhead presentation.

Councilor Bencomo asked are we doing this a little bit backwards or was the gas station allowed over the previous zoning code?

Adam Ochoa said no it was not under the previous zoning designation all you could do was farm and maybe have a house, raise horses. The thing is this is NMSU property so they did their thing first if you will, now we are trying to bring it into compliance with our current codes.

Councilor Bencomo asked can anybody do that?

Adam Ochoa said there is some weird things there because it is one entity telling another entity what to do if you will. We have limited powers of what we can tell

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NMSU because it being state land. The reason this is here now is the gas station itself contacted staff and was asking for all these documentations including statement of zoning, to sign off on their business registration and they weren’t following our rules unfortunately so the Maverik themselves they actually initiated the zone change I believe.

Councilor Bencomo said I will obviously vote yes at this point. What do we do? I just have some serious concerns about the way this was done by the entity that owns this.

So, on any of the land that is considered Aggie Uptown, is NMSU just able to develop it and then come back and ask for a zoning designation?

Adam Ochoa said the majority of what is Aggie Uptown is not in the city limits. If I direct you back to, if you see that red line there that is actually the city limits right there. This is really one of maybe a couple of parcels of land that are in the city.

Councilor Bencomo asked I don’t know if you are in contact with the person at NMSU that is in charge of this project but perhaps there is an education piece that needs to happen here given that you said that there are maybe a couple other parcels. I just have some serious concerns with this. Listen, I am totally about ask for forgiveness and permission later in some parts of my life but I feel like this is not one of those and so I think there should be some education. I am hoping you are able to engage in some of those conversations.

Adam Ochoa said we actually do have a pretty decent relationship with them. This one just kind of slipped through the rocks but typically the Pan Am Plaza and other property they own along University they have come before us not only for construction. You are part of the University Citizens Design Committee for approval of things like that.

Councilor Mattiace said before I had the City Council position there was something that came up last year about annexation from a request from the university. Was this any part of this land or was it a different part of this land that was brought up by the real estate? I think it was a real estate person with NMSU.

Adam Ochoa said this is not part of it. This is directly east of it of that red line that I showed you what is considered Aggie Uptown and the redevelopment, the golf course and stuff like that. A much larger area but this is not part of it. It is already in the city though.

Councilor Mattiace asked the area in question is how many acres have they proposed?

Adam Ochoa said I do not know the exact size of what they are looking to annex into the city. It was rather large though.

Councilor Mattiace said if there is any information in the past that you could share with me, I appreciate it.

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Approve Ordinance No. 3081.

9. BOARD APPOINTMENTS 9.1 BRIAN MORROW Councilor Becky Corran moved, seconded by Councilor Johana Bencomo, to appoint Brian Morrow to the Veterans Advisory Board.

Corran, and Councilor Yvonne Flores 9.2 VICTOR ERES Councilor Becki Graham moved, seconded by Councilor Johana Bencomo, to reappoint Victor Eres to the Veterans Advisory Board.

10. 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). 10.1 COUNCIL BILL NO. 25-011; ORDINANCE NO. 3082: AN ORDINANCE

AUTHORIZING REPAYMENT TO THE NEW MEXICO ECONOMIC

DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT (NMEDD) FOR THE LOCAL ECONOMIC

DEVELOPMENT ACT (LEDA) PROJECT TO ARTICO COLD STORAGE

NEW MEXICO LLC, IN THE AMOUNT OF $600,000.00 FOR THE

TERMINATION OF THE PROJECT PARTICIPATION AGREEMENT AND

MATCH REQUIREMENT OF $281,400.00 IN THE FORM OF A LEDA

FORGIVABLE LIEN. Council agreed to bring it forward.

10.2 COUNCIL BILL NO. 25-012; ORDINANCE NO. 3083: AN ORDINANCE

APPROVING A ZONE CHANGE FROM C-2 (COMMERCIAL MEDIUM

INTENSITY) TO R-1AM (SINGLE-FAMILY MEDIUM DENSITY MOBILE) FOR

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A PROPERTY ENCOMPASSING APPROXIMATELY 0.99 ACRES AND

LOCATED AT 6175 LEMO ROAD. SUBMITTED BY SUPREME

INVESTMENTS, LLC., REPRESENTATIVE. (24ZO0500053). Council agreed to bring it forward.

10.3 COUNCIL BILL NO. 25-013; ORDINANCE NO. 3084: AN ORDINANCE

REPEALING AND REPLACING CHAPTER 2, ARTICLE III., DIVISION 6.

ACCOUNTABILITY I-N GOVERNMENT OF THE LAS CRUCES MUNICIPAL

CODE (LCMC), 1997 AS AMENDED. Council agreed to bring it forward.

11. CITY COUNCIL MEMBER BOARD REPORTS AND COMMENT 11.1 COUNCILOR MCCLURE All I wanted to say is last Friday I went on a ride along with Meals on Wheels and I just wanted to express my appreciation for letting me tag along and getting to see how other departments that we don’t usually associate with care taking in our city reaches out to some of our more vulnerable populations and just how glad they were to see

Valerie that day and getting a sense of what that service means to our public was just really heartwarming and I really appreciated it.

11.2 COUNCILOR MATTIACE I just want to thank the departments, Chief Story and things that are happening. I am getting a lot of positive comments. There have been tents removed from a park where children were afraid to go into the park. It looks like it has been cleaned out. There has been needles picked up on Oak Street and again I don’t know who is responsible for getting it done but it looks like that area has been cleaned up. The neighbors called me and said thank you. I would also like to if Larry is not here if we could follow up on the blight on 1710 Espina. I see where the building has been repurchased and I would like to know when that would be removed. It is a condemned burnt down building.

I would just like to read a letter into the record. “Mr. Mattiace, I was homeless many, many years ago in Arizona. They are a diverse group. There are some who can’t be helped, just want to panhandle and won’t go to the shelters and won’t take the aid because there are rules there. Some people with a cardboard sign are scammers, not homeless. People with shopping carts usually have mental illnesses need to be helped. People with dogs don’t like to follow the rules in the shelters and they are also unstable. Some like me just had no job, lost my job and ran out of money. People who want and need help, need a place to live and help finding work, counseling, etcetera until they can afford an apartment may have some money to be independent. The public should be advised not to donate to panhandlers. They should be told about other aid available and relay it to the homeless. They have a good communication network. There should be ads on TV and radio with information about what is available in the city of Las Cruces for the homeless or unhoused. Also, in watching your volume is too low at your meetings when I use my computer. Thank you, Ben.”

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11.3 COUNCILOR GRAHAM Just a quick shoutout to County Animal Control Officer Duran, got to interact when I found a couple of dogs while on a bike ride and she really went above and beyond to find her way out to me because the first question to me was what’s the nearest intersection? About four miles away. So, we talked each other through various county roads and trails, and she showed up. Luckily both dogs were chipped so shoutout to keep getting those dogs chipped, keep those chips updated. I just really wanted to acknowledge her really going above and beyond to find her way out to me in the middle of the desert. 11.4 COUNCILOR CORRAN I wanted to give a few quick shoutouts to the staff and Department of Workforce

Solutions that showed up to the GenGreen event last week. There was a number of staff folks there Lisa from Sustainability, Cathy who does all of our landscape architecture as well as a bunch of folks from Workforce Solutions to hear about the sort of climate change in our future and Workforce Solutions was working with all the young people that showed up to that event which were many. It was standing room only at NMSU and we heard a lot about the incentives available for electrification and ways that the state and the city are and NMSU are supporting the sort of shift to non- fossil fuel future. So that was a really cool event so thanks to the organizers and staff that participated and engaged in the partners that also showed up to that.

I also wanted to give a quick shoutout to the Office of the Superintendent of

Insurance. They came to town and gave an open forum for folks to share about healthcare. The situation of healthcare that is in New Mexico including the influence of private equity funded institutions which we have a number of. Something like 17% of all healthcare institutions in New Mexico are private equity backed and we have a few here in Las Cruces. We are looking at state legislative priorities in terms of making sure the communities don’t get left behind as profit driven healthcare is coming in and our community and sort of how to influence that through state level regulations. So, thanks to Senator Duhigg and Representative Szczepanski who joined us also during the day for a meeting to hear from some of the providers from the community and their continued work and we can look for that in the upcoming legislative session. So that is something that effects things that come up here a lot in our community, so I wanted to give a shout out to the OSI for including us and giving us some food for thought I think as a city.

11.5 COUNCILOR FLORES None. 11.6 COUNCILOR BENCOMO I did want to address the Calle del Encanto neighborhood situation. I actually pulled up an email from 2021, between myself, David Sedillo, and back then ACM Eric

Enriquez actually because I have been advocating for these two streets to be invested in. Calle del Sol and Calle del Encanto absolutely need full reconstruction and are on the CIP list. They were also awarded some ARPA Funding, some of those roads were reconstructed fully but they do absolutely need storm drains. So, it is not a matter of

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caring, we care very deeply actually it is a matter of money and then just recently

David Sedillo with Public Works let me know that they are looking for funding. You know they had three bids for some of this work and, the lowest bid that came in was still over budget by $1.3 million and so these are the conversations that are worth exploring when we are talking about the GRT. These aren’t someone said pandora’s box items. These are basic government services and public safety services that we need to be investing in that our community obviously is in a huge need of. I did just want to note that these projects are definitely on the top of mine for myself, for Mayor, for our city staff.

I want to let you all know that this week a new intern is starting with us from the

NMSU School of Social Work. Andres Uribe, he is a senior at the School of Social

Work and will be interning with us here. He is also my constituent, that is really cool, but he is working with Catrina. Thank you very much for helping onboard him. We are doing something a little bit different this year. He will really be under Catrina with some of my supervision given that I am an MSW, but he is also available to work with any of you if you need any support with constituent services or any additional support for research from Sergio. He just really wants to learn the function of government and how it impacts people’s lives and so we are really excited to have him on board.

I did want to note that in the last two weeks since the ordinances regarding shopping carts and others were approved, I worked with Councilor Corran and Community of

Hope given the incident that happened the day after to engage our community in some fundraising efforts and meet the burden that was placed on Community of Hope much sooner than what we would have hoped. In two weeks, I do want to report that we raised about $4,000. About 20 wagons were donated and delivered to Community of Hope and quite a few of you donated a ton of your used luggage and so for that I just want to say thank you. I think community care is real policy work and community care is something that we should be investing in even more.

The last thing I want to add which I wasn’t sure I was going to but given that I have received multiple emails on and I have been told that there has been multiple official complaints made about me to the Inspector General and to the City Attorney, I did just want to address this today and then we will no longer be addressing it but to the folks especially the men that are asking the Mayor, the City Manager, the Inspector

General, and our City Attorney, four men to dress code me, a woman of color is weird behavior and I just wanted to say that. I think it is weird and that’s where I will leave it. 11.7 MAYOR ENRIQUEZ I just wanted to mention that last week we were in Clovis. We attended the New

Mexico Municipal League Conference. Myself, Councilor McClure, City Manager,

Assistant City Managers Sonya, and JC, also Chris Faivre, Christine was there, and

Steve from Utilities. It is good to get together to attend the conference. We looked at some resolutions. We looked at some policies, IPRA requests. You get together with your cohorts in the state who are all facing the same things and we are trying to come up with solutions whether it is homelessness, whether it is mental illness, panhandling, all those issues are coming up. I am happy that we were there to represent Las Cruces well, show a good representation and Ruidoso will have it next year and then the following year we will be here in Las Cruces. So, we hope to really

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be gracious hosts and out do them. Clovis did a tremendous job. It was a great welcoming.

12. CITY MANAGER REPORT 12.1 IKANI TAUMOEPEAU We are very competitive, and we look forward to the opportunity to show Las Cruces very well and how we do things here in two years.

We have Economic Development, mark your calendars the El Paseo/South Solano

MRA has a community workshop kick off on Monday, September 9th and community open house on September 11th. More details to come.

For Transit, City of Las Cruces Transit will introduce its first five fully battery electric buses into regular service tomorrow on August 20th, 9:30 Intermodal will have the ribbon cutting and have Mayor, Councilor Corran speaking along with the company

BYD from California who manufactured the EV buses so it should be a fun little turn out tomorrow morning.

Parks & Recreation, the Summer Community Concert will be held at 6 p.m. on

Saturday, August 24th at Plaza de Las Cruces in Downtown. The concert is a free family event featuring Cuarenta y Cinco, one of New Mexico’s top groups since 1991, which will be featuring along with Angelica Padilla and Illusion Band.

From Tourism, Baila Las Cruces free dance lessons this Thursday at the Plaza starting at 7 p.m. There will be food trucks and family games and we appreciate Visit

Las Cruces, Rochelle and her team doing a fantastic job with that.

From Communication we have NOTOA Government Programing Awards. Finalist is the Communications team, for five categories and three honorable mentions. Kudos to the communications team, to additionally Parks, LCPD, Quality of Life for the content featured. Additionally, Communication Staff let us know that the promotional video was developed for Quality of Life’s Treasure Hunt Campaign is a finalist in the

2024 Savy Awards Competition and are candidate for one of three awards, Savy,

Silver Circle, and Award of Excellence. The awards are announced on September 5th so stay tuned. This was a fun campaign for Quality of Life developed with assistance along with Communications and a contract with a local advertising company Wilson

Binkley.

For the Fire Department members from LCFD just returned from the F2024 Fire

Rescue International Conference. This is one of the largest conferences for Chief

Officers and is hosted by International Association of Fire Chiefs. Last but not least for fire, LCFD begins public input on the development of the department’s master plan.

Staff from the Fire Department will be developing a master plan this fiscal year and have invited the public to participate through in person meetings and online survey.

City Council will be asked to add their voices to the plan through Work Session later this fall. Public will have multiple opportunities this month to participate August 8 at 3 p.m. and August 21st at the Branigan Library.

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This is from Housing, in conjunction with Office Comptroller of Currency the Federal

Deposit Insurance Corporation and the US Department of Housing and Urban

Development the City of Las Cruces will co-host an inter-agency forum supporting affordable housing in El Paso, Las Cruces, and the surrounding areas on September

18, 2024, in El Paso at the Center of Civic Engagement Blue Flame Building. It is open to local governments, area housing authorities, bankers, community organizations and developers. The event aims to provide an overview of affordable housing needs and challenges and offer insights into how effectively to use resources in collaboration strategies and improve access to develop home ownership and rental housing development. There is no fee to participate but registration is required.

Last announcement that I wanted to share, this is something that was posted on the

LCPD Facebook page. On August 6, 2024, for your awareness the Las Cruces Police

Department was informed that a community member’s belongings that were allegedly left on the ground when a local business reclaimed the shopping cart. This incident was shared to social media and received considerable attention. A lot of inaccurate information was shared about this incident on social media which again can be found on LCPD Facebook page if you are interested. We have learned more and for transparency’s sake have shared security footage of that event on the LCPD

Facebook page with full details. We would like to remind everyone to not reclaim carts that are being used by others without first contacting police. Information about this ordinance is posted on our city website. It includes specific ordinance language and also required permits for businesses.

13. ADJOURNMENT 13.1 Councilor Johana Bencomo moved, seconded by Councilor Yvonne Flores, to adjourn at 3:00 p.m.

SECONDER: Councilor Yvonne Flores

Mayor

City Clerk

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