Work Session Meeting July 22, 2024 MINUTES Work Session Monday, July 22, 2024 @ 1:00 PM City Council Chambers, City Hall PRESENT: Councilor Johana Bencomo, Councilor Yvonne Flores, Councilor Becki Graham, Councilor Becky Corran, Councilor Cassie McClure, and Councilor William Mattiace ABSENT: Mayor Eric Enriquez 1. JOBS OF THE WEEK 1.1 Sarah Raney, New Mexico Workforce Connections presented Jobs of the Week. 2. PETS OF THE WEEK 2.1 Councilor Corran presented Pets of the Week. 3. AGENDA ITEM 3.1 UPDATE FROM SPACEPORT AMERICA. Scott McLaughlin, Spaceport Executive Director gave the overhead presentation. Councilor Flores said what I would like to have seen since the City of Las Cruces and Dona Ana County have contributed, I would have like to have seen a breakdown as to the benefits to our city. You presented a lot of information as to what is to come if we do this. This will happen if we do that. What to date has been the benefit for our people? You showed the employment of whatever it is, 800 but it doesn’t break it down to how many are from Las Cruces, from the New Mexico area. Are they from the El Paso area? My interest is to see how much benefit our city has received, our County has received. You didn’t present that information. That was very disconcerting for me. You had all this other data, it really didn’t pinpoint. You are talking about how Page 1 of 5 many people come in and the youth come in and there are so many beds that are going to be needed and this that and the other, but we don’t have break down of how much money that really brought in. But I think part of your pitch today with all due respect, your presentation is to probably ask the city for more money and so I just want to know what the tit for tat is? Scott McLaughlin said we handed out the full Economic Impact Report and so the statistics for Dona Ana County and Sierra County actually are in there. The way that the Economic Impact Report calculates where those jobs are we think is not as accurate as it could be because the people work in Sierra County so those are counted as Sierra County jobs, but we all know for those of us who work at the Spaceport, most of the people that work at the Spaceport live in the city of Las Cruces. So those numbers are in there. We are going to do a better job of improving the fidelity of those numbers but that table I showed you, this table. There is a similar table in the report for Dona Ana County and for Sierra County and some other statistics about what exactly we are trying to get out and I realize that this is the first really kind of detailed economic impact that has been done by the Spaceport, you know so we are going to do this every year so that your questions and Dr. Pallares heard them and again we are adding fidelity to the 2023 economic impact report and we will make sure those questions are answered in there. Councilor Flores asked you said that there is, we have federal partners? Who are they and how do they play in terms of revenue sharing? Scott McLaughlin said of the spaceports, the commercial spaceports, the traditional federal spaceports are still receiving and have received federal funds for decades and they are continuing. Of the commercial spaceports there are almost no federal money that has gone to any spaceport, any commercial spaceport. So when I am talking about our federal partners I am talking about our delegation, our senators, and our representatives who I am working with and others are working to make sure that we are starting to get infrastructure funds to build out the spaceports so that we can support things like US space launches and also to just to help the United States compete worldwide because the graph I showed you with orbital launches and some of the other things that are happening is not just the United States that included the rest of the world which is also moving very quickly toward space so trying to get our support on the federal side is a big part of what we are working on right now. Councilor Flores asked have you presented to the County Commission? Scott McLaughlin said yes. Councilor Mattiace said it is very difficult your presentation because a lot of it is the future and when we develop the referendum for the spaceport back in 2004 it was quite a hard sell because Richard Branson, the Spaceport but our council I think had that vision and I think a lot of the impact that you are going to have in the Spaceport is futuristic. It is actually where we are going. In other words when you see the spaceports in other cities and how many have developed and realized that space tourism and maybe Chris could put something together that would be very easy to Page 2 of 5 read in the Lodger’s Tax when people staying in hotels and you are looking at 1,000 to 1,500 people staying in our hotels that is quite a benefit to the city of Las Cruces from Lodger’s Tax of what we support our convention center and other things, Visit Las Cruces. I think there are a lot of things that are very good but it’s hard to see because its space. I think you will see the tourism increase quite a lot in fourteen to eighteen months. 3.2 CITY STRATEGIC PLAN ENVISIO PUBLIC DASHBOARD. Srijana Basnyat, Innovation and Strategy Administrator gave the overhead presentation. Mark Miller, Interim Lead Planner continued the overhead presentation. Councilor Mattiace asked do you plans to coordinate with the educational systems, with elementary schools, junior high and high schools? To actually make this available and educate them on this plan. The reason I say that is that I may not spend as much time only because the older group doesn’t have a lot of time that they want to spend on computers but I think this would be an exciting feature to educate in all the schools because I think my grandson would just love to go through this and the transparency, you know the planning, the analytics, the artificial intelligence, what you could put into this plan would be fantastic and I don’t know if you plan that but I think it would be a great thing to bring to the principles of the education department and make it part of their curriculum. It’s a great plan, thank you. Mark Miller said that is not something I have thought about but that is a really great idea, and we will have to give that some thought. Councilor Corran asked I know that staff put in and I was reading some of the preliminary things that folks put in sort of about the progress and their assessments, I am hoping that when and again I know this would be a whole other level of integration but I am hoping that if we have information related to the budget for each of these items that it could be potentially part of the drilled down information that’s included, that is if we were to fully implement this it would cost this? I know that this is a lot of information and we don’t have that information in a lot of cases but if that could be a part of it I think that would also be helpful for us when we consider saying, oh I think we should do this or I think we should do that and if there is a place where we can say oh, that would cost X amount of dollars. It would be really helpful I think for our conversations about how we move things forward, like what does this mean in dollars, and I know that is not always known this often and unknown quantity, but I think that would be a helpful data point if there is any way to integrate it. I realize that would be a huge separate project, but I just think it is helpful where that information existed it would be great if it could be included in those narrative parts. This part is not related to the dashboards necessarily, but it is related to planning, and I am just doing this because we don’t have councilor comments on Work Session days, but I do want to point out regional plans, there is a regional water planning session here on Wednesday from 3 to 7 on the second floor, not related to any of these things. I am just giving a quick public reminder it is happening here and there will be a planned documents someday created related to water and the city is collaborating with Interstate Stream Commission to help create that. Just to note if you care about that, Page 3 of 5 this Wednesday from 3 to 7 on the second floor. Mayor Pro Tem Bencomo askws what you showed us today, that is all, that is what is going to be shown to the public, right? That is what is going to accessible to the public? Mark Miller said it is currently accessible to the public. It is on the public website. The only thing I will add is that we didn’t not, we wanted to make sure everything was working correctly, and we were totally ready. We did a soft launch, so it was on the public website for anyone who is on there already on the Transparency/Accountability page. We didn’t do a hard press release, social media, we are beginning that now. I think the press release, I don’t think it has gone out quite yet. I think it will go out maybe today and then that will be followed by social media and this unveiling to city council, but it is currently available to the public. Mayor Pro Tem Bencomo said I think that is very exciting. I am also mostly excited to see items like our energy transition plan at the Utilities. Those kinds of items are included in there? Mark Miller said I think some staff have made reference to other plans but currently the only plan actually in the platform in live would be the City’s Strategic Plan. Mayor Pro Tem Bencomo asked I think this was part of the strategic plan so if it was it would be included? Mark Miller said there is associated goals but that plan itself would be separate though. Mayor Pro Tem Bencomo asked for the August Work Session will you send us with good enough time any materials that we can come prepared for? Mark Miller said I am not quite ready to say exactly how much we are sending out prior to you. The intent is to provide information prior but just not sure how much at this point. Barbara Bencomo, Chief Administrative Officer said I just wanted to go back to the comment that Councilor Mattiace with respect to involving and educating the youth and understanding a wonderful platform like this one. In the fall we will be having the Developing Youth Leader Program that is associated with our Neighborhood Leadership Academy, but it is targeted to high schoolers primarily and middle schoolers, but I think that understanding this tool and how we use it and clicking through it would be a great addition to the curriculums. I know that Catrina will be putting that curriculum together and that is for the two week fall break. I appreciate the suggestion, that could be one way that we incorporate that idea. Sonya Delgado, Assistant City Manager said I just want to say thank you to the P&I team for doing an exceptional job. I know that you spent a lot of time and effort and many, many hours. So, this is great and we really looking forward to it. I would also Page 4 of 5 like to send a shout out to all the directors and their teams who assisted in getting all that information on a timely manner to make this happen so thanks again. 4. ADJOURNMENT 4.1 Councilor Yvonne Flores moved, seconded by Councilor Becky Corran, to adjourn at 2:37 p.m. RESULT: Carried MOVER: Councilor Yvonne Flores SECONDER: Councilor Becky Corran AYES: Councilor Johana Bencomo, Councilor Yvonne Flores, Councilor Becki Graham, Councilor Becky Corran, Councilor Cassie McClure, and Councilor William Mattiace Mayor City Clerk Page 5 of 5