City Council Meeting July 1, 2024 MINUTES City Council Monday, July 1, 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 FLORES. 1.2 PRESENTATION OF CERTIFICATES OF APPRECIATION/PROCLAMATIONS - COUNCILOR FLORES. Mayor Enriquez recognized Guzman Martial Arts National Champions. 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 Center 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 Page 1 of 35 3.1 Rico Gonzales, Member of the Public said I am with El Paso Electric and here to my right is Huey Miles. He is our Supervisor for Distribution in Las Cruces and as you all know we had some pretty significant weather happenings this weekend. I just wanted to give a quick update to you and the staff. Real quickly I will go over four different pieces, the weather that we dealt with, the substations that were out, the areas affected, currently where we are at, mas o menos, the guys are out there right now, so and then a quick thank you from myself to staff. So weather, on Saturday, starting around 2 o’clock we had a huge storm come through that had micro cells and out drafting of winds in three different waves and then on Sunday we had one storm come through around 2 p.m. and then another one around dusk, 6 p.m. on Sunday as well. So, five if you will storms total coming through our area that had really strong winds in each and every one of them and really effected our system. I am going to go over the substations now and talk about the different substations and where they affected the city. Las Cruces Sub 1 and 2 both had an effect around 2 p.m. and that was the first call that we received. Inside of Substation 2 there was a canopy that got into a line and took that out. The line workers were able to clear that out and at Substation 1 it took out one of our transmission lines and it knocked out quite a few feeders. So, the areas affected were from the Convention Center to MVRDA, the County buildings, your wastewater plant, our yard on Compress, and so those areas were out for about two to three hours and then came back on but and downtown as well. The big issue for us I think right now is those winds snapped poles all over. So even if they weren’t affecting substations there is still work out there to be done moving forward. We also had a cell that went over in the Desert Wind Way area which I don’t think all of that is in the city that it was in but it snapped a whole bunch of poles, at least 10 poles that I know of but were all single phase lines that didn’t affect the substation but that area was really devastated and Huey was out there and he said that there was building materials all over. Building materials and lines and so that has taken a while to get that area back on and it even pulled connections from homes. Also, we lost Salopek Transmission line, but you guys didn’t feel that we got that covered before customers felt it. On Sunday we had a cell come through and it effected Jornada 23, Animal Services aera, Highland Elementary, that line is actually the line that took out the substation. That line is still down, and I will explain why here in a minute and a lot of businesses and homes around US 27 and then around 6 p.m. dusk, we had another storm come through somewhere near the Organ Mountain High School area and that then took out Arroyo 20 which is east of the Walmart. So, the substations were back in around 10 o’clock. We still have poles all over. An example is at Burn Lake. That pump there is still out and currently like I said we have a lot of poles that are still out which has some customers out. Highland is out because we had an entire line that had to be rebuilt. And why didn’t we finish that last night? When Jornada 23 went out, the area around the Animal Services building, the substation went in, that was good, we were fixing poles and all of a sudden, the substation was out by the Walmart on Lohman goes out. So, we moved our crews to go fix that. That’s the most customers. When we look at priority areas, our priorities are critical load, safe and health of the community, then we go to what can affect the most customers to get them back into lights and that is where we make that call to move over and then once all the substations are in then if there are individual poles to fix which there were. Those are the three different priority areas moving forward. We have crews in Ruidoso as well helping with that issue up there. God bless all those people and our neighbors there. I Page 2 of 35 wanted Huey to come with me today because Huey represents, he is our supervisor. These guys were out there, Huey was at least from our management team was out 24 hours at one point, went home for about 4 hours, back on and is back here today doing his job. Our crews IBW 960 members, proud of the work they have done as well. A big shout out to Ikani, his team, Steven Lopez and his team communicating back and forth all weekend long to make sure that you guys know what is going on if you had any questions. Thank you Ikani very much for helping out with all that. Mayor Enriquez said thank you for the update and we appreciate all the work El Paso Electric that you were doing during this storm. Donna Stryker, Member of the Public said I want to thank the City Manager for coming to our meeting. You did a great job. I didn’t know as much about GRT as I do now. I probably know more now than I would ever thought I would want to know about GRT. I also want to say thank you to Cassie McClure and to Becki Graham. I really appreciate your presence and thank you. City Clerk, I would like to address this to you. You do an amazing job. If you have not read the minutes, it’s amazing. You do a great job and I just wanted to say thank you. Juan Garcia, Member of the Public said a recent council session saw a councilor label inland Border Patrol Checkpoints as “the scrouge of the community” and “constitution free zones”. I am not really clear as to what that means but suggesting the very presence of Border Patrol agents inflicts great trauma. While concerns about evasive questioning are valid and must be addressed, we cannot paint Border Patrol agents in such a broad derogatory brush. These men and women are not faceless enforcers of the law. They are the frontline heroes, friends, and neighbors who risk their lives daily to save others and protect our community. Let us not forget the horrific human smuggling operation uncovered by Border Patrol in Las Cruces on 24 June where 32 migrants were packed into inhumane conditions, or the dozens of suffocating migrants found in box trailers. This happened on February 21, 2023. These agents are the ones who bring traffickers to justice and give voice to the voiceless. Our outrage and scrutiny should be directed at the true sources of the problem. The Governor’s reckless decision to open the flood gates to marijuana despite its federally illegality has created the problem for marijuana businesses. Such policies not the brave men and women at Border Patrol are the root cause of the trauma and risk received. It is time to redirect your scorn and offer the praise and gratitude our CBP agents deserve. We must see through the thinly veiled disdain of some of the dais have for Border Patrol and ICE while they advocate for their dismissal. Do we truly believe those who show such contempt for the men in green, 50% approximately of them are Hispanic and generally care for the men in blue, LCPD? Their future upcoming votes in August will be telling. Let us stand united in supporting not just the men in green but the safety and security of our entire community. Let us address the real problems rather than attacking those who put their lives on the line for ours. Vic Villalobos, Member of the Public said I want to thank some of the city councilors and city management for coming to our Businesses for a Safer Las Cruces. You guys have also I know been monitoring our Facebook page and it is being noticed. We know that when things are being posted about things in the community where you Page 3 of 35 know we are seeing some bad stuff and maybe some of these homeless camps set up that they have abandoned and there is the shopping carts you all are seeing that and helping us take action and we really appreciate that. It really goes a long way to do that. Thank you, guys, for doing that it is definitely being noticed. Our search and rescue team was recently up in Ruidoso doing operations up there and the Fire Department TR Team was up there with our swift water group and I know we have water coming in everyday and we are seeing it now still going on in Ruidoso and there were a lot of Fire Departments up there but I have to tell you that it really felt good when those guys would come by and check on us to make sure we were okay. Having that hometown TRT team really made a difference to us up there so again appreciate the Fire Department being up there and doing what they are doing up there in Ruidoso and on that note I also noticed that we have got some stuff coming up with some of the parks and things and some improvements we are doing and one of those I saw was La Llorona and I would encourage that as you are looking at what you are doing at La Llorona a lot of people use that as a way to recreate in the water. You saw recently Mr. Barraza died in the river and you know it is about one a year now that we are doing. Our team helped with the extraction of Mr. Barraza in the water. I would encourage you to put up some real signage about not swimming and how dangerous it is. Mr. Mayor, you know being a fire guy, water always wins. That is what they tell me when we are training with the Fire Department, water always wins, and you know Mr. Barraza was in there with his grandchildren and things went bad real fast. The other thing I don’t know if you all are aware of this those kids when they went into the water, it was actually a homeless man that jumped in and saved those kids. They got off their little raft and they were being separated and it was a homeless man that jumped in. It is always different perspectives as you go through things but really think about things are you are doing that park in particular. I think that needs to be addressed as a water issue down there. It is a little dangerous. Jim Hurst, Member of the Public said I am reading by the letter of George Washington to the Hebrew congregation of Newport, Rhode Island. George Washington wrote these words in August 1790, anticipating the ratification of the First Amendment in December of that year. This letter stands as commentary by Washington on the First Amendment and the principle of separation of church and state. “The citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy. A policy worthy of imitation. All posses alike liberty of conscience and immunities for citizenship. It is now no more a toleration that is spoken of as if by the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise to their inherited natural rights. For happily the government of the United States which gives to bigotry no sanction to persecution no assistance requires only that those who live under its protection protection should demean themselves as good citizens and giving it on all occasions their affectual support.” Washington’s 18th century language boils down to this, all citizens have an equal right to religious freedom, including Jews. All citizens deserve protection from religious bigotry, even Jews. Rafeal Cruz, a hero of our local Republican Party says that the First Amendment was written only to protect Christian sects from one another and not to protect other religions in the same way that it protects Christians. It seems that many conservatives of Las Cruces share this opinion. This view is based on either ignorance or indifference to Washington’s opinion of the separation of church and state. Consider the words for happily the government of the United States which gives Page 4 of 35 to bigotry no sanction to persecution no assistance. I assert that these words apply not only to Jews living in the United States of America in our infancy but also to the LGBTQ community in our fair city. It is distressing to me that many in Las Cruces do not consider homophobia as equivalent to religious bigotry. Many of our elected officials appear to be in league with them. Jorge Aguirre, Member of the Public said I am a long-time resident of this community, and I am here to advocate in favor of high density housing and mixed use neighborhood development even though I live in a single family home in a nice neighborhood. We are not a nuclear family society. We built a huge country for nuclear families that we don’t have and that is okay, but we need housing that meets the needs of the families and citizens we do have. If we are serious about reducing the harmful effects of poverty and inequality which is causing all these break ins and all these homeless people who none of us likes we need to dismantle the zoning laws that were based on racist and segregation sentiments that effect all of us in a negative way. Investment will happen if we legalize high density housing, but many are concerned with an increasing car traffic. Fair, that is fair. They oppose contractors being hired to build and remodel and expand existing housing. They don’t dislike the thousands of businesses, jobs and opportunities that new construction will generate. All of the increased sales from furniture, core appliances, insurance, financing nor the increased tax revenue that the city would generate based on existing infrastructure without having to build new public infrastructure. Most don’t hate the people who would move to a small apartment. They don’t hate their neighbors, they do hate cars. Even the people who love cars hate spending time in their cars. High density doesn’t have to mean more traffic though. We do need to build different than what we have so far. We have to get rid of this mentality that everybody needs a car for every single trip of their life. Traffic can be reduced by removing from our city codes the assumption that everyone owns a car and will make a trip in a car. There are some people who want that, and they can keep that because we are not going to get rid of the existing infrastructure, but we also need alternatives for everyone else. We need alternative transportation options like protected bike lanes and safe sidewalks as a standard not as a fancy thing we do downtown, but we also need high density housing and mixed use for it to practical and cost effective city wide. In summary legalize high density housing please and remove the hurdles and we can unleash our investors, our architects, our developers, our construction workers, and everyone else that works hard to keep this community thriving. Mary Aames, Member of the Public said I wonder if any of you councilors recognize the name Anne Dunkley? No, it’s been two years since a loose neighbor’s dog ripped off an arm and a foot. You don’t even remember her name, and in two years nobody has made even the tiniest baby step to actually put strict guidelines in on loose roaming pets and enforce them. Anybody know how many dogs have attacked in the community since? It doesn’t matter because Anne doesn’t matter because it would be great if somebody actually cared, and I am not seeing it happening with you people. You haven’t done that, you haven’t listened to us. The other thing I want to address is the lack of transparent communication. The latest City Manager hire out of six councilors only one publicly stated she wanted transparent communication. The rest of you deafening silence. The manager before that was also hired under pretty opaque circumstances and he left under opaque circumstances. Anybody ever Page 5 of 35 answer reasonably those questions? What I have learned from attending meetings here and in Planning and Zoning, you don’t care to listen to your constituents. You don’t care of the negative impact what you do or neglect to do has a negative impact on our lives. Every meeting I have attended I see people give testimony and then leave, faces filled with disgust and frustration and then anger. You don’t get to see that. I do so you don’t get to see my face but believe me it’s there. Yoli Diaz, Member of the Public said first it was very disappointing to watch and listen to Four C Suite of Memorial Medical, CO John Harris, COO Mary Armijo, CFO Laura Thomas and CNO David Schmidt recently. To not comment or show any concern for the patients who did not access care at Memorial Medical Center. Barbara who has been here a couple of times is very angry. Nancy, who is not a public speaker is quoted as saying, “I don’t know who is making these decisions but they are not looking out for our best interest”. I spent four months begging them, again I spent four months begging them, meaning MMC but they didn’t seem to care. Veronica is quoted as saying, “I felt so desperate and I told the receptionist, really if I don’t have insurance you’re, MMC going to let me die? I am going to die”? She, the MMC receptionist said yes, we are going to let you die and you are going to die. I still remember that in 2020, and you have to remember that Veronica was a cancer survivor, it happened before. Veronica telling me this story and I becoming very angry and that was at the time that I was advocating for her to just have some diagnostic testing because they were really doing these aggressive methods of trying to collect and I talking to MMC. I still remember both Nancy and Barbara in 2022 going through their experience with Memorial Medical Center and again I becoming very angry. What is important to know is that these denials and delays didn’t happen to just 12 or 13 residents, the residents who spoke up are the ones who gave me permission to give their names to Gretchen Morgenson. The residents that Gretchen Morgenson wrote about are the residents that agreed to Gretchen to report their story and their name to our nation. There are more residents that this happened to include the disabled indigent woman that I chose not to expose since she was in the middle of treatment with the additional challenges that I expected she would have. I know a woman who described her suffering with cancer to me and not being able to access treatment at Memorial Medical Center in 2015. She finally got to UNM Cancer Center. I know a woman in 2017 who had cancer and needed tests, diagnostic tests that were scheduled at MMC, but records were updated at MMC, and she would not be getting them because she was uninsured. I have this in black and white, an MMC document. There are more residents that I know about and what about the general public, referrals by other doctors. How many more residents did this happen to and what about the records that should be kept that the lease and statute are requiring? Britanny Nickerson, Member of the Public said I would like to express my approval for the overhaul of the city’s zoning laws which will allow for more infill construction within the city and increase our housing density without resorting to massive apartment complexes as well as restoring older neighborhoods that need this revamp. This allows a lot more access for individuals in our community. It is a good fit for our city as well to access better transportation as was voiced previously. A lot of our community members rely heavily on public transport, bicycles, walking in order to get to work, to appointments, to childcare, and schooling and so this would increase access for those folks as well. It would generally make our community more of an equitable place to Page 6 of 35 live. Sarah Smith, Member of the Public said I am concerned about your plan to increase the gross receipts taxes in Las Cruces. Although the tax increase would be relatively small this is a really bad time for city council to be raising taxes. Inflation is devasting many families right now and for a council this is so concerned about the poor this seems unjustified. Raising the gross receipts tax would also discourage businesses to moving to Las Cruces. Our gross receipts tax is already quite a bit higher than Albuquerque’s and your proposed increase would make the taxes higher here in Las Cruces than in Sunland Park, Santa Fe, Ruidoso, Los Lunas, and other cities. I understand that part of the tax increase will be voted on by council and the other part will be voted on by the public in November. If you decide to move forward with this, will you please ensure that the funds are specifically earmarked for public safety. By state statute you can specify what the increased taxes will be used for, 88% of your survey participants identified public safety as the number one priority. If you are going to be taking money from families of Las Cruces those funds need to be directed to improving safety. From talking with the Interim County Manager. I know that the state has other potential funding options right now due to a large surplus budget from oil and gas production, so I am struggling to understand why you are planning to take more money from Las Cruces’ families right now given the high inflation and high prices for even basic necessities. Please rethink this instead of giving Las Cruces one of the highest tax rates in the state and taking money from families who are already struggling to make ends meet. Steve Colletti, Member of the Public said fourteen-year resident of Las Cruces. Today I must point out an extreme irony. For months, honest hard working citizens, businessmen and business owners have been coming before you to plead for you to do your jobs and give them some relief from rampant crime except for a few slight gestures of light these pleas have at best fallen on deaf ears but we have been accused of being elitist trying to outlaw homelessness and to quote the Mayor Pro Tem, “I have little sympathy”. Now we know she was speaking specifically at Walmart, but we have all felt that lack of sympathy but then at your last meeting you had a string of criminals, yes criminals because cannabis is fully illegal. It does not matter what the people in Santa Fe have to say about it. Drug pushers pedaling poison in our community, destroying lives and decimating our already anemic workforce. To them you have sympathy. I believe this speaks volumes to the lack of character of this council and your extremely misplaced priorities. Tony Chavez, Member of the Public said I want to say thank you for what you do even though I might not always agree with you. I want to bring up a little bit about terrorism and discuss a little bit about that. I want to say let’s not forget 9/11 and this horrific terrorist attacks on American soil of Al Qaeda, a terrorist organization. We have lost many service members fighting in the global war of terrorism because of this attack and let’s not forget the innocent civilians that have also lost their lives on this day. Today let’s not forget service members serving abroad and in harms way, let’s keep these brave men and women in our prayers and pray that they return home safely to their families. I am hopeful that next year we will have a Memorial Day Service at Veteran’s Park honoring those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice in defending our great nation. As the second largest city in New Mexico, I am surprised as well as Page 7 of 35 other Veterans that I have spoken to in the community that we do not have such a service so I am hopeful that you will support one next year and the following years. I brought this issue up at the May Veteran’s Advisory Board. If you have not attended a Memorial Day Service, I would highly encourage you to attend one. It is very sobering and a very eye opening experience especially when the deceased service member is returned from a country they were serving for burial. Additionally, thank you Councilwoman McClure, and Councilwoman Flores for your father’s service to our nation. There were comments at a city council meeting regarding the Border Patrol and how some of you feel about them. Welcome to a border state. The Border Patrol as well as ICE have a explicit mission such as watching out for sex minor human trafficking and alien smuggling, checking for illegal drugs and undocumented immigrants entering the US. Not to mention terrorists, criminals, and gangs that try to enter and hopefully you will not have to live through or endure another 9/11. Did you know the US spends $66 billion year on undocumented immigrants? You might not like ICE and the Border Patrol but you should respect them and I fully support these agencies as they have a very important mission in keeping our country and citizens safe. This is our law enforcement, first responders, and I have their six. Just try getting into a military instillation where you must roll down your windows, show your military ID card so it can be scanned and hopefully you are not pulled over for a surprise inspection where you must exit the vehicle, open all doors, as well as the trunk and glove box. Also, your registration and insurance are checked and verified. If you do not have a military ID, you will need to be vetted before you can enter. All of this occurred because of 9/11. Now discussing the GRT, I understand New Mexico has a $50 billion surplus, yet the city is advocating for a possible increase to the GRT. What is the city doing in addressing getting its capital outlay projects funded by our state representatives? I am sure you all have a meeting with them and at some point, during the budget cycle to address the city’s priorities and I hope that you will press them to advocate at the state level for the required funding. Susan Caballo, Member of the Public said I am the Executive Director of Downtown Las Cruces Partnership. I have a very short message today. It is please help us get out our community survey. We have done this for the last five years. I sent it all to you. I did not blind copy you, Chris had to save me on that one. What we want to do is make sure that our entire community sees the survey and can reply to it. Historically we have had most of our respondents be somehow connected to downtown and senior citizens. We want both of those demographics to please respond but we also need kind of a broader range of Las Crucens to give their input. We are aiming to get 100 responses. We did not include a gift card giveaway this year because I have been spammed so heavily in the past when we had done that. Last year in one day we had 970 responses from bots. By the way very complementary of downtown. They love our historic fortress and the beautiful boy. It is really important that the people of Las Cruces participate in this and that way we get to include your feedback in our upcoming work plans. I also want to give a shoutout to Chris Faivre and Mandy Guss. They are going to be talking about this tomorrow in the press release and getting it out to our community as well. Eddie Thomas, Member of the Public said first of all I want to begin by giving kudos to the El Paso Electric Company for restoring our power after Saturday’s high wind event. My power was knocked out and by 10 o’clock that same evening the El Paso Page 8 of 35 Electric people were able to restore it. Second thing I want to say is that the Border Patrol are our first line of defense. Unlike a council member’s comments, I beg to differ with. I have never been traumatized by any member of the Border Patrol. The next thing I want to talk about is the parking lot part of the rezoning law that the resolution you all are trying to put in place. I am glad that most of it has been retracted regarding the establishment of putting businesses and mixing it up in residential zones. We like our single-family neighborhoods to stay that way. What you do on the out skirts of town well that is another issue, but I wish you would leave the inside of Las Cruces alone the way it is. A lot of people like the neighborhoods just the way they are right now and for you all to come up with a rezoning issue that scrambles it all up and homogenizes it is just counter to what we moved to Las Cruces for. I thought that the parking lot portion of it, it looks like you all want to become the parking lot police. The portion of that rezoning ordinance would be counter intuitive to promoting business. Businesses are not going to be restricted to just a few parking spots for them. It just doesn’t make any sense okay to restrict a business based on their square footage to X amount of parking spots. I thought we were trying to encourage business to come here, and it just seems totally counterintuitive. The last thing I want to say before I get off is I am not sure what portion the city gets with regard to the abortion clinic that is coming up here at the Sonoma Ranch and Lohman, but I personally am against it. I think the city should not be profiting from the blood spill of innocent children. Nathan Silva, Member of the Public said I am a first generation American and I am happy to say I am living the American dream. I am the co-founder of Mylars. We are a cannabis manufacturer proudly based here in Las Cruces, New Mexico. At Mylars we are graduates of NMSU, proud members of the community and we have absolutely no desire to move our business elsewhere to avoid the impact of these federal policies. I would like to commend the city council as well as the state of New Mexico for allowing generations past, present and future to allow our expertise and passion in this industry to help us improve our economy and overall condition of the state. My father is a retired Border Patrol Agent, so I understand the agencies intentions very well. While I share no disdain for the agency I do have scorn for the outdated policies that have led to this disconnect between state and federal officials. May the people come together to make reasonable policy changes that maintain the safety of our country while not impeding on our state’s economy. I recently met with the Attorney General of New Mexico, and we do have the support of state officials as well in updating these policies and ensuring that we can do something in tandem with Border Patrol to work together and ensure the economy operates efficiently. This is a billion-dollar industry, the cannabis industry. There is no reason why past generations should share distain for our industry. We are young, we are proud to be able to come out of the shadows and do what we do proudly and share our expertise in a professional manner. You have shown overwhelming support, and it means the world to us, may we continue to work together to improve the conditions. Corina Miramontes, Member of the Public said I am a dispensary owner in the old historic district on Mesquite Street. I live in my business. I am really happy to be able to bring plant medicine to the people of the neighborhood. I just want to say thank you very much and I was in shock to hear. I grew up here in Las Cruces but I went away for about 25 years and to hear some of the testimonies. Your story Yvonne, last Page 9 of 35 meeting about being terrorized at the Border Patrol for being brown is something that was really shocking to me. I graduated from Las Cruces High School. I went to Hermosa Heights. I have been pulled over there, brand new car scratched. I have been terrorized I feel like as well. I do have complete respect for what they do and for the safety of our state and our country so that is not an issue for me but I just kind of wanted everyone to put a face to who is in the cannabis industry and that is me. Chad Lozano, Member of the Public said I am here to speak in support of the cannabis industry. You guys have been nothing but supportive of us. I live in the state of New Mexico, not a federally controlled state of New Mexico so my state government decided that cannabis should be legal in the state. It is unfortunate that my federal government hasn’t caught up with those laws because almost 25 states have gone this adult use route. So, it is unfortunate that New Mexico seems to be the only one dealing with this issue right now and then with the Border Patrol, but I do understand national security. I do understand what they are doing however we are not doing anything wrong, and we are not the problem here. We are literally trying to do something for the state. We have made a billion dollars so far and counting in under two years and we have a population of 2.2 million people. That is very impressive. Not many places can really tout something like that being this small. So, for me it is really alarming to hear so many people think that our local and our state government don’t matter. I am all about keeping bigger government out of it and keeping smaller government a part of it. Smaller government does affect you more directly than bigger government. Unfortunately, sometimes what they do will affect certain individuals like ourselves here in the cannabis industry. I just want to say that I support you guys and I hope you guys continue to support us but I also do understand national security and everything and what their job is but it is unfortunate that we have to come down this route and still have these issues in 2024 when we are going to a route where cannabis is going from Schedule 1 to Schedule 3 and we are probably going to be seeing federal decriminalization some point down the future too. So instead of us trying to fight it lets embrace it a little bit because the real issue that we have in our community is alcohol and all we have done is open access to alcohol more. I can’t go to anything above a high school sport without alcohol being pushed on me. I tried to go to the Sun Bowl, alcohol was pushed on me the whole time. I don’t drink and so it’s unfortunate and it’s alarming to see how alcohol has impacted our community, and we just keep opening the access and then we start pointing the blame to cannabis and I don’t think that is fair because cannabis has never been the issue. The only issue about cannabis was its legality. Joshua Villegas, Member of the Public said I just want to say thank you to the councilmen and women. I would like to say Ms. Becki Graham I am one of the faces of your area. I hear nothing but great support. One of the points that I hear is business, protecting it from personal to other businesses and yeah we get it. No one wants to ostracize or belittle any of the jobs it's taking, it's tough but at the same time giving these license was a promise to change and benefit from and so this is a double edged sword that we are trying to figure out and just like most people said if we can find some type of way to coincide or work with it. We are doing legit business. I don’t see how the paperwork that we bring to the Border Checks that they find anything more extra than that. I can see the crime but what it is doing is preventing people like me from actually succeeding in New Mexico from the poorest state to less education, Page 10 of 35 this is something that I excel in so with that being said I don’t want the chance being taken away and so everyone here I get it. I am here to say that things can change for the better and I really do appreciate the support from everyone. Border Patrol agents, like I said it is a tough job and I have respect but once you get lost in the situation then what is there left? So, with me saying that again I appreciate you guys hearing us out and giving us an actual voice. I would like to tell most people that spoke today that we don’t hate or do anything towards situations that are known we want to try to understand it and work with it and I think that is the difference in the growth that we want to try and present and not be known as a mafia organization on a legal business from the state. Monty Rutledge, Member of the Public said in 2001 I joined the US Navy as a corpsman, that is a medic for you non-Navy type. I deployed in 2006, in support of OIF/OEF. Sustained combat injuries, physically and mentally. I returned home from that, and I joined the US Border Patrol. I wanted to continue to serve my country, but I didn’t want to do it with medicine. I went into law enforcement, I enjoyed my time there in the Border Patrol. I am very proud of Border Patrol and all the men and women that I have worked with. In 2015, I saved the lives of six individuals. They weren’t from this country, but I saved their lives and in 2021 I had to retire from the Border Patrol because I could no longer live with the mental and physical impairments that I had and the Border Patrol wasn’t going to help me. Cannabis helped me. I had to leave the Border Patrol to seek cannabis and cannabis saved my life. I am here today because of cannabis and all of you or the majority of you have helped bring cannabis to this city and into the state. So, I thank you for saving my life. Thank you for keeping me here and I ask that you continue to move forward with the efforts that you are putting forward to solidify the industry. To help us and give us relief where we need it and to continue to support us. 4. READ CLOSED MEETING STATEMENT 4.1 READ JUNE 24, 2024 CLOSED MEETING STATEMENT INTO THE RECORD. The Las Cruces City Council met in Closed Session and only discussed those limited items as stated in the posted notice to discuss pending or threatened litigation regarding City of Las Cruces ADV, Smelser, Case No. PELRB-10423, which is closed pursuant to NMSA 1978, Section 10-15-1H(7). 5. ACCEPTANCE OF AGENDA Councilor Becky Corran moved, seconded by Councilor Yvonne Flores, to accept the agenda as presented with the removal of item 7.1 and 7.2 for discussion. RESULT: Carried MOVER: Councilor Becky Corran SECONDER: Councilor Yvonne Flores AYES: Mayor Eric Enriquez, Councilor Cassie McClure, Councilor William Mattiace, Councilor Becki Graham, Councilor Johana Bencomo, Councilor Becky Corran, and Councilor Yvonne Flores Page 11 of 35 6. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES 6.1 REGULAR CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF JUNE 3, 2024. 6.2 WORK SESSION OF JUNE 10, 2024. 7. RESOLUTION(S) AND/OR ORDINANCE(S) FOR CONSENT AGENDA 7.1 RESOLUTION NO. 25-001: A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE CITY OF LAS CRUCES (CITY) TO ACCEPT TWO (2) GRANT AWARDS FROM THE NEW MEXICO DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION (NMDOT). Crystal Silva, Associate Grant Development and Compliance Specialist gave the overhead presentation. Councilor Mattiace asked when you apply for these grants how frequently does the New Mexico Department of Transportation actually help with grants on an annual basis? Crystal Silva said I would not say an average exactly. These two grant awards are the MAP Award and the LGRF Award, so we are able to apply for those annually and at that point so far we have gotten them and have been awarded the last two times that we have applied since I have been here. I am not too sure and can’t speak to prior to that but with most of the NMDOT grants that we apply for we are usually very successful on getting those awarded. Councilor Becki Graham moved, seconded by Councilor Becky Corran, to Approve Resolution No. 25-001. MOVER: Councilor Becki Graham SECONDER: Councilor Becky Corran Corran, and Councilor Yvonne Flores 7.2 RESOLUTION NO. 25-002: A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE CITY OF LAS CRUCES (CITY) TO ACCEPT GRANT AWARDS FOR VARIOUS CITY DEPARTMENTS AND AN AMENDMENT TO THE CITY’S ADOPTED FY2024 BUDGET AND THE FY2024 CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS PROGRAM (CIP). Charlie Fierro, Budget Analyst gave the overhead presentation. Gaby Prats, Grant Manager continued the presentation. Councilor Flores asked originally it did have to be matched? Gaby Prats said yes. Councilor Flores asked the amount that you anticipated is not the amount that we would have to pay? Page 12 of 35 Councilor Flores asked what is the difference? Gaby Prats said it is a little less than $800,000 different. There is other funding from the state that is matching this particular project. The actual total project cost is $1.85 million and the grant gives us the $500,000 plus we have a $350,000 grant from the Paso Del Norte Health Foundation that is matching this and a state appropriation of $290,000 so the department will have to come up with about $660,000. Councilor Flores asked where would that money come from? Gaby Prats said the balance is proposed from the Park Improvement Fund. Steven Bingham, Parks & Recreation Director said the trail on this will require us to come up with a little more than the $500,000 and it would come from PIF. Councilor Flores asked where do you get that $500,000 since budgets have already been set? I am not saying that money can’t be moved but what fund, what project or how would you allocate that money? Steven Bingham said we are requesting that it will come from park impact fees. Councilor Flores asked is the money there now? Steven Bingham said yes there is. Councilor Flores asked you request from impact fees and then we have another hearing to approve that or is it internal? Charlie Fierro, Budget Analyst said anytime we are amending the bottom line of a fund throughout the year then it would need to be brought to council. So, in this case if they have to budget TIDD funds or if they have to come to a budget to fund balance we would need a resolution for that to increase the budget. Councilor Flores asked that is what we are doing today? Charlie Fierro said correct. Charlie Fierro continued the presentation. Cynthia Campo, CIP Analyst continued the presentation. Councilor Mattiace asked if you to pages 1 to 11, and it is under the City of Las Cruces Capital Improvement Program FY 2024 to 2029 and you have some explanations on the funding sources and I notice that on several funding sources I understand grants, I understand taxes, I understand TIDD, bonds, loans, but many of Page 13 of 35 them you just have the word other? Can you maybe explain other? Cynthia Campo said the other is in reference to fees. So, we have different types of fees and of the CIP document it actually does have a section where we say what each one of those funding sources are for. Councilor Mattiace said I just saw that in very tiny print. I see other includes fees, state entitlements, leases, development contributions, and donations and while you are answering some clarification. Can you explain the grand total of $204,000,694 and what that represents and then I noticed in FY 25 you have $245,127,000, just a brief description of all those totals? Cynthia Campo said the $204 million I believe, it is in the green column is the funded portion. Anything that is funded in FY 24 is in that column and then the CIP is a six year plan so the 25, 26, 27, 28, 29 are all unfunded years and anytime that we have funding for any of these projects we can move them over to the current fiscal year and that will be part of that total. Councilor Becky Corran moved, seconded by Councilor Johana Bencomo, to amend Resolution No. 25-002 to add a that statement that states that city council grant a waiver of the 1 to 1 cash match ratio required per the grants administration program policy for this grant. SECONDER: Councilor Johana Bencomo Corran, and Councilor Yvonne Flores Councilor Johana Bencomo moved, seconded by Councilor Becki Graham, to Approve Resolution No. 25-002 as amended. MOVER: Councilor Johana Bencomo SECONDER: Councilor Becki Graham 8. RESOLUTION(S) AND/OR ORDINANCE(S) FOR DISCUSSION 8.1 RESOLUTION NO. 25-003: A RESOLUTION REVERSING A DENIAL DECISION OF THE PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION REGARDING AN INFILL DEVELOPMENT PROPOSAL SEEKING APPROVAL OF A FIFTEEN (15) UNIT APARTMENT COMPLEX AND ASSOCIATED DEVELOPMENT STANDARD WAIVERS ON PROPERTY ZONED R-1A (SINGLE-FAMILY MEDIUM DENSITY). Christine Rivera, City Clerk asked Adam, do you swear and affirm that the testimony that you are about to give is the truth and nothing but the truth under penalty of law? Adam Ochoa, Senior Urban Planner said I do. Page 14 of 35 Christine Rivera said thank you. Adam Ochoa said Adam Ochoa, Community Development Department for the record. Before you I have an appeal to a proposed infill development proposal for a property located at 725 McClure Road. Subject property is currently zoned R-1A single family medium density. It is vacant, undeveloped property. It was part of what was called the October Sky Subdivision which was approved in 2021 which created two lots which essentially the subject property itself which was roughly about 1.12 acres in size additionally .08 acres were designated for right-of-way improvements, future right-of- way improvements. City also purchased 2 1/2, roughly about 2 ½ acres for drainage improvements in the area. It is located within what Community Development staff refer to as the infill development boundary. So basically, this partial qualifies for the infill process. Again, current conditions, the neighborhood is primarily single-family R- 1A zoning. There are a couple or a few properties within that area that are still zoned R-1A but are non-conforming, that because they have a duplex on the property or a quadplex and also a mobile home park that is zoned R-1A that is inappropriately zoned as well. Subject property is witin what is called the suburban neighborhood place type. It is characterized with low to moderate densities of residential and intermixed with commercial. Land uses include as called out by Elevate Las Cruces single family uses, multi family, retail, office, institutional and public uses as well. McClure road is currently designated as a major collector roadway. That basically means that it collects and distributes traffic from local roadways to adjacent arterial roadways which are larger. McClure Road reflects the following traffic counts. This is their annual average or weekly trips or AAWDT’s. For the most recent counts by our Mesilla Valley Metropolitan Planning Organization, they provided us these traffic counts just to give an idea of what the traffic is around on McClure. So, in 2019, between Valley and Carlyle there was roughly about 3,700 traffic counts. That increased in 2024 to about 6,800 traffic counts. Between Carlyle and Highland that actually dropped from 4,500 to 3,700. From Highland to Alameda that also dropped within 3,800 to 3,400 from that five to six-year time span. Staff we also took a look at this, we worked with some of the engineers to look at what is called the level of service for McClure Road. Level of service is kind of a measuring device to help to describe operational conditions of a roadway or segment of a roadway. That takes into account speed and travel, traffic movements, interruptions, comfort and convenience while traveling the roadway. Staff estimates that the level of service for McClure roughly is about C or C-. So, we are barley passing for McClure. Looking here, just quick table kind of explaining what each one means. A/B kind of shows wide open roads, large bicycle areas, large areas for pedestrians walking. C/D is a little more constrained. Constrained by bicycles, smaller sidewalks, maybe even no sidewalks and E and F, it’s just basically a completely difficult roadway to travel when they get that type of a grade. Shown here is the zoning map of the property. Again, as you can see it is just a sea of nothing but R-1A in this area. There is one R-2 up here to the north. Again, subject property is shown, single family all around there. A lot of more rural uses. There is that city property. That will be used for drainage in the future. Essentially what the applicant is proposing is a 15-unit apartment complex with two points of ingress and Page 15 of 35 egress directly off of McClure. They are proposing three 5 units apartment buildings two stories tall with each unit being about 884 square feet in size. They are proposing 29 auto parking stalls and 8 bicycle parking stalls which more than meets the minimum requirements of our codes. They are also proposing a dog park, open space and landscaping in the front of the property. Just to kind of to provide a screen or a buffer between not only the apartments from the street but also the apartments from the street and the neighbors to the north to kind of give a little relief there. The deviations that were proposed with this infill proposal is one, the rear yard setback in the r-1A zoning district there is a minimal rear yard setback requirement. They are proposing a 7-foot setback. This is typical, 7-foot setback is typical for all of our multifamily zoning in the city of Las Cruces. Another deviation is the density itself. The requirements are maximum permitted by the R-1A is 8 dwelling units per acre, they are proposing 13.4 dwelling units per acre. On top of that also is also the actual number of dwelling units. Again, R-1A is for single family only so you only are allowed one house on this property. They are proposing 15 max with the entire development. If you turn here this is a rough draft of what they would look like. Here are those three buildings all the way to the back, landscaping around the entire perimeter, with the dog park, landscaping along the front to provide that buffer to the street. This is kind of a rough floor plan of what that property will look like, the two-story buildings, the elevations of the two-story buildings. So, when staff took their analysis, we took this into the analysis stage. We saw that the proposal was not substantially out of character with the surrounding area. Staff again worked with engineering. They did a quick little estimate peak hour trips for us and they estimated about roughly about 25 trips are generated. A trip generation count will actually be required when they submit for permitting for the development. it will likely not trigger a full traffic impact analysis because we feel it won’t hit the bar of it being a minimum of more than or equal to 100 peak hour trips per day. Reviews by all staff did see no significant health, safety, and welfare issue associated with the proposal. Considerable support for the infill development proposal via Elevate Las Cruces does exist and was part of the staff report for Planning and Zoning Commission. The proposed density on top of that under Elevate Las Cruces, it calls out a density for single family, for this is the suburban place type, four to twelve dwelling units per acre for single family and fifteen to thirty dwelling units for multifamily. This proposal is doing 13.4 dwelling units per acre. Definitely below what Elevate Las Cruces is guiding us to. Public notice was sent out for the proposal. Early notification and when the case came in for review with staff to go before the Planning and Zoning Commission. Staff received numerous emails and a few phone calls in opposition to this case. The opposition cited traffic concerns, road design deficiencies, proposed high density development, increased crime, neighborhood incompatibility, McClure Road speeding that is occurring out there and just a potential area development. Staff did receive two additional phone calls against. We also received about six phone calls supporting the proposed infill development proposal. This is what staff recommended to the Planning and Zoning Commission when it went before them. We did recommend a conditional approval based on findings. Conditions that the applicant shall work with the city in the installation of pro rat a share of roadway improvements adjacent to the property and that the property shall comply with all of the development standards for the R-1A zoning district essentially. Findings were one, that the development of the vacant property to productive use is consistent Page 16 of 35 with the infill development plan itself and the overlay. Property is eligible for the infill processes. Proposal is supported by various goals, policies and actions of Elevate Las Cruces. Support speaks to, the place type speaks to densities promoting growth in older areas of the city. Promotion of functional infill development, encouraging a variety of housing types, promoting diversity and residential building types, lot sizes, architecture, and so on and so forth like that. As well as the proposed number of units have very little impact on McClure traffic patterns. McClure Road is classified as a major arterial roadway where these types of developments are encouraged. Excuse me. Previous proposals deemed excessive and problematic for the area was a proposal for infill for twenty units previously. At that time P&Z had denied the appeal to city council, the decision of denial was also upheld as well. Reduction of five units from the original proposal for this site is intended to address many concerns generated from the original request with the number of units and the amount of traffic. We feel that this will take care of that and of course the proposed IDP meets the intent of Elevate Las Cruces and meets the intent and purpose of Section 38-2 of the 2001 Zoning Code as well as is compliant with the criteria for decisions of the conditions out of the Municipal of the Las Cruces Codes Section 2-238, 382 there we go. Dyslexia, sorry about that. On February 27th, 2024, Planning and Zoning Commission did review this. Much discussion took place between the Planning and Zoning Commission and the applicant, and a large amount of public input did occur as well, after a lengthy discussion the vote went before the Planning and Zoning Commission and they voted 3 to 3 with one commissioner vacancy, essentially the motion failed. In other words, it was denied. So, your options today, I don’t want to confuse anybody so I will read these exact so we are all on the same page. Is one to vote yes, this will reverse the denial decision of the Planning and Zoning Commission and will improve the infill development proposal with 15 dwelling units. Two to vote no, this will uphold the denial decision made by the Planning and Zoning Commission. The applicant will either have to abide by the R-1A regulations or submit an alternant proposal. Three to amend, this will allow city council to modify the resolution by voting yes and adding conditions to the proposal or four to table and postpone and direct staff and the applicant accordingly. That is the conclusion of my presentation and I stand for questions. Mayor Enriquez said thank you Adam. Before we get to council I am going to go ahead and there are a couple of appellants that want to speak so I will call them up, first they need to be sworn in by the Clerk. It’s James Vacarro and Lucinda Rivas. You need to be sworn in and Ill go ahead ana give you each three minutes. Christine Rivera said okay, do you both swear or affirm that the testimony that you are about to give is the truth and nothing but the truth under penalty of law? Lucinda Rivas, Appellant said I do. James Vacarro, Appellant said I do. Page 17 of 35 Lucinda Rivas said I wasn’t going to speak but I am going to now. So, I am sorry that I don’t have anything in front of me, but my name is Lucinda and I have come before you before. I really believe in this project as I had mentioned before the owner’s mom lives on Golden Drive. She walks all the time and the reason the family bought this home for her was because she was one of the ones that doesn’t drive. So, she was using the busing right down by the Benavidez Center. She also utilizes the Benavidez Center. Many of her friends at the Benevidez Center would like our complex. I think even before one of the person’s representing the Benavidez Center spoke up on our behalf and said that they would like and they had many people interested that they want to live close to town. They don’t drive anymore, or they don’t drive at all and this is what we want to give back to the community. I am a Mayfield graduate, my grandmother was also on Golden Drive for twenty some years. We love this community. I know the opposers are afraid of change but the crime that comes with it, that doesn’t exist. We are up here, we are not going to be low-income housing. We are going for the low/medium which is what the community is and that is kind of what I just wanted to say. James Vacarro said good afternoon, everybody. Not to go into too much detail but first and foremost I just want to thank Community Development staff for that presentation. It was really well put together and frankly supportive. Moving on though I guess more importantly what I want to discuss is actually the trip count. So, all the opposition for this project is specific to the road infrastructure itself. It is not to this building. It’s not to anything that we are bringing with this building, it’s the road. The trip count that the City Manager, the Traffic Manager rather estimated was 25 per day based off that in the data earlier. That is less than a percentage of the commuted traffic on that road. When I did my own calculations based of the bureau statistic of a ten per household that is 150 per day. That is 15 units, ten per day. That is worst case scenario and that is assuming they were going the length of McClure which they are not because we are in the center of it. That is less than 4%. So, when we are talking about 1% to 4% of the traffic is going to be caused by us if we build this building that is pretty minuet. That is actually is almost not even noticeable. I encourage somebody to notice that. In addition to that in the past conversations with P&Z and might even had been at a previous City Council meetings, don’t really recall, the city actually informed us that they reached out to the neighbors and wanted to develop that infrastructure and in doing so they need to purchase the land from the owners on that street and a lot of them denied selling that land to improve the roadway. So, we are a little confused now. Do they want to build on to the property in infrastructure to become more safe whether that would be widening the road, building a sidewalk. I am not quite sure what we can do to satisfy the area, but I can make sure that what we do with this building in our lot is the best that we can offer and obviously work with IDP and everything else and the standards so that is really all I wanted to say. I really don’t have anything further than that I think actually the traffic which I think is the biggest opposition. It’s very minor. It’s almost not even noticeable. Thank you. Mayor Enriquez said okay, thank you. Any questions by council? Councilor Flores. Councilor Flores said thank you Mayor and thank you for being here today. So how Page 18 of 35 many units are there going to be? Lucinda Rivas said there is going to be 15. Three buildings and 15 townhomes. Councilor Flores asked okay and what, Mr. Ochoa you said that a TIA wasn’t necessary because of the number? And that is one thing, that it is, I mean. Adam Ochoa said Mayor, Councilor Flores our staff just did our, utilized our current codes to do a quick count as to what that would be. They estimate that it is about 25. So, because of that. In order to. Councilor Flores asked increment, 25? Adam Ochoa said a total of 25 per day. Per day for the entire development. That being said they still will have to do some type of traffic generation count for us to make sure that our numbers align with theirs. The only time an actual traffic impact analysis is required is when it is either 100 or more traffic count per day. So, staff feels that more than likely a full traffic impact analysis will not be required, ma’am. Councilor Flores asked okay, but there is going to be a? Adam Ochoa said a trip generation count. Councilor Flores said and then so what happens if it is higher than what you anticipated on what you presented today? Adam Ochoa said Mr. Mayor, Councilor Flores we will then have to do a full long term traffic impact analysis. Councilor Flores said okay, so construction will not begin until all of that is resolved? Adam Ochoa said correct. Councilor Flores said great, thank you. And so, the part that you know, nevermind. I won’t voice it. You indicated that it is going to be affordable housing or not affordable housing? I wasn’t too sure what you meant by your statement. Lucinda Rivas said it is not affordable housing, meaning low income. It will be generated to where the neighborhood sits at. Like a middle income. Councilor Flores said okay, but so you are saying that you also mentioned that the Benavidez Center is down the road and that some people who go there are interested in maybe being tenants in that building? Lucinda Rivas said that is what I was told. Councilor Flores asked okay, and I don’t know about anybody else but most retirees, Page 19 of 35 well how much do you think they are going to be rented for? Lucinda Rivas said approximately $900 a month. Councilor Flores said yeah okay, so those seniors should probably be told that they probably can’t afford that. I mean social security doesn’t pay out that much for a lot of seniors, but I guess my concern is that and free enterprise, you know, God bless America for that. On the other hand, I was hoping that the housing would be more affordable and also with all due respect, no I won’t say it. Thank you, thank you Mayor. Mayor Enriquez said thank you anyone else? Mayor Pro Tem. Councilor Bencomo said thanks, thank you for your presentation. For you as well Mr. Ochoa. I just want to appreciate the new information and the map on here as well. Did I count 26 parking lots, or will you have 30 spots? Sorry. Adam Ochoa said I believe the number is 29 auto parking stalls in total. Councilor Bencomo said okay, thank you and then I do just have a couple of things I want to say about the road ahead of the vote but I just quick thought as well I think it is just important that I correct some myths that sometimes just have negative connotations with affordable housing. I know this is not what it is and all housing impacts, housing crisis, all housing is good housing for the housing shortage that we are experiencing regardless of whether yours will be affordable housing or not but affordable housing or housing that is for low-income families it is just a wide myth that it brings crime. That is just not true. That is just a harmful narrative to perpetuate, that I think we should just not continue to do that. Lucinda Rivas said I also just speaking about traffic, we have another complex unit and I would say 90% of our tenants are single people. There is not even though there are two bedrooms there is only one person there. There is a fireman, there is a teacher, they have different hours. They don’t leave all necessarily from 8 to 5. So, I just want to make that in there that there is probably not all going to be two cars per unit. Councilor Bencomo said correct, thank you. Just additionally, this isn’t for you specifically this is just as a whole for staff and the community here that lives in this area. The traffic issues that exist on McClure and Hoagland are long standing. They have been there for a really long time. They need to be seriously addressed and I have been talking about these things for a really long time. I don’t believe that adding 15 additional units here will have a severe impact on that. I think the impact is already there. In advance for this conversation, I spoke with Senator Carrie Hamblen whose neighborhood this is as well and Representative Nathan Small regarding a partnership for potential state funding that could come to relieve some of the issues we are seeing on both of these streets which are very similar. Mayfield High School is right there and so I don’t want to be dismissive of the serious traffic concerns that exist here in this neighborhood, right they are very real. You showed these numbers Page 20 of 35 and I don’t believe you are being dismissive of that, but I just want to reiterate that those concerns are very very real. These roads get backed up significantly at high peak times especially when school is in session ad those things are very real. I just don’t believe that 15 units is going to necessarily make this ginormous impact so I will tell you all that this morning I got commitment from both Senator Hamblen and Senator Small to pursue state funding for traffic calming efforts on both of these streets, on both Hoagland and McClure because they are vitally important. I have talked to staff already about applying to possible places like oh gosh the name of the program escapes me but, Nathan, Representative Small sort of mentioned this earlier to me and I have forwarded this to staff, and I will be advocating for us to apply to the Municipal Arterial Program so that again we can get actual relief for these streets. These issues have just been long standing and we should address them whatever that might look like. So, I just wanted to note that because putting up barriers for additional housing is not going to solve our traffic problem on McClure and Hoagland. Bringing in funding and measures that are actually going to impact traffic that is what is going to help us. You have my commitment that I will continue to advocate for that and for both of these streets. I just wanted to say that before the vote. Lucinda Rivas said may I also, I just also want to mention that we have given up we will be putting in a sidewalk and we also have given up an easement for a walking path that is planned in the future and of course we still will for the flood that is a big problem because as I mentioned his mother lives in the neighborhood and we do want to better it. I don’t know if, I know everybody is concerned but are they willing to give up their little piece to put in a good sidewalk for everybody. Mayor Enriquez said okay, thank you. Is there any other questions by council? At this time I am going to go ahead and open it up to public comment. If you all want to have a seat. I will go ahead and give you three minutes. Go ahead. Pra Sanna Pai, Member of the Public said my name is Pra Sanna Pai. Mayor Enriquez asked can you speak a little louder and directly into the microphone? Thank you. Pra Sanna Pai said I am a bit soft spoken person but again I want to, thank you Mayor and council persons and also Chiefs. I am a resident of Las Cruces for 23 years. I have participated in the health care industry here as well as development. Mr. Ochoa if you could bring the map, thank you. So, the green portion which is seen there, that is my home, that is not rural. That is my home and that is where I have been living. The entire green area so I have been here for 23 years. My kids were born and brought up here. Now there is nothing wrong with having more housing. There is nothing wrong with building more housing because we do need that however after four rejections there has to be some compromise between what the community wants and not disregard them and what the housing crisis wants, the solution of housing crisis wants. So, it is not like we don’t want something built there but have some reasonable density. Give him an increased density, of single-family homes, fine but 15 there is just a bit too much. Now what is going to happen as you can see is a narrow road which goes between that and my property in the future since it’s an entrance this Page 21 of 35 has to be built you are going to negate 10 acres of property which can have housing. So, for 15 you are going to sacrifice almost 300 units. Also, there is traffic coming from the new units that are built on Three Crosses which there is no exit to Mayfield High. They have to go through Hoagland or McClure so it’s going to increase. Finally, the drawing which has been shown, the dog park is right next to my gate. It is not on McClure and as Mr. Story, I am sorry Chief Story knows I have asked several times to rescue me from dog attacks and coming right at my gate. If you bring the drawing it is not on McClure it is right next to my gate. McClure is on the top, the dog park is on this side which is the gate. So, I think the drawing that you are shown is flipped in this case and so anyway the point is that we want something done here. Let’s have a compromise to what the housing crisis needs and what the community needs because it is the fourth attempt and at some point you have to listen to the community too. Thank you. Mayor Enriquez said okay, thank you. Go ahead and come on up. James Vaccaro said sorry, I will be real quick. I don’t want to interrupt on everybody elses opportunity to speak. I just want to clarify one thing. Mayor Enriquez said go ahead and state your name for the record. James Vaccaro said James Vaccaro for the record, representing Mesilla Valley Properties. The gentleman prior to this indicated that we would be building essentially on top of the road. The road is still going to exist to his property line and furthermore to talk about the dog park we can put it wherever the city actually indicates us to place it but nonetheless we want that as an amenity for the residents housing area and then lastly it is a gated community. There is fencing six foot high all around the entire thing, so the dogs are contained not only in a dog park but in the entire property. So, I don’t feel like there is a threat to the neighbor. Thank you. Mayor Enriquez said okay, thank you. Anyone else want to? Gary Visage, Member of the Public said Mayor, councilmen, City Manager first of all I want to thank you guys for cleaning up Lakeside Drive and 17th Street when I sent you the emails to requesting it done, the city mess we had down there. Ms. Bencomo took most of my wind out of me with her announcement about the road. Mayor Enriquez asked sir, can we get your name for the record. Gary Visage said I am sorry, I am Gary Visage. I have lived in that Highland area for a little over 30 years now. I see it declining every year. I have several code violations in my area. I have spoke to you before about it and we need to do something about that but that is a different subject. With this subject here because that has always been an eye sore on McClure there and there is no bike passage, there is no pedestrian right- of-ways through there, from Benavidez on to Valley the new projects it is but from Benavidez which is Second Street all the way through to the other way it isn’t. So there is no sidewalks, there is no bike paths, there is no turn lanes, in fact there is no division lines to determine the center of the road and when it rains it floods all the way Page 22 of 35 across that road. Several times during the winter I had to actually stop so pedestrians could walk out around the water, the kids going to school just to get by the traffic without us drowning them with our cars. One other thing that the point I want to make is the $900 a month for apartments. Ms. Flores made a statement that senior citizens don’t make that much on social security, well I’m 81 years old and we don’t all live necessarily just on social security so let’s make that a point too. In other words, we need to do something about the street before we add anything more there. I am not opposed to what is going on with the apartments there. I think it is a good idea. it is a good place for it. It is a good fill besides of course it is close to the railroad tracks and you are not going to get a lot of other construction in that area but let’s please work on the road. Let’s get the road done first and then let’s put something in there viable. Mayor Enriquez said thank you. David Wheeler, Member of the Public said hello, David Wheeler and Mayor and council. I just couldn’t help when I got up to come up here I was thinking of trying to make it from the apartments to the Benavidez Center across that railroad track, it’s interesting to think about. Anyways, Pra Sanna was right this was the fourth time. It has always been voted down. There is a reason for that. We don’t have nothing against change. We like change. We are not against, we are not pro-drug. I don’t know why I said that but us the whole concept. Things are just fine. No, they are not, we understand that and traffic is bad and the only way to do it is to not make it a little worse so that we can build this property here. I think if we had two or three nice single-family homes in that area built by the same people to try to make their money off of it. Let them do that. I have no problem with that. I don’t have problems with any of that. It is the fact that it is too many cars right there by the track. Incidentally I live right next door to them. I am right there in front of Pra Sanna Pai and we see it all the time where cars will be late, kids are going to school or whatever and they try to get, they see the railroad tracks and they just fly down that street to try and get across the track before the train comes and it happens like every day, every single day, twice a day, there are two trains but you know I just. He is right enough times of trying to talk ourselves into doing this. Why don’t we do something that can change that we can agree with that won’t endanger people because having cars going in and out right next to the tracks, it’s right next to the tracks and its two of them. They aren’t even 60 feet from the track or something like that. There is so much traffic. People trying to go in and out of there on a rush hour. Whether you live there and work at night or not. The cars go up and down on rush hour its crazy. In the morning it is also crazy. So yes, let’s do something else. Build something else. Put something in there that, we are not against housing. I am not against affordable housing. I know there should be. It is just too much. It’s too much. We are not going to make it any better by building a bunch of houses, a bunch of apartments that are going to make the traffic just a little bit worse and make people endanger trying to go across that road. There are no sidewalks or anything. You can build them, but you know what I am saying. So please let’s just do something different, like three houses and we’ll be done. Victor Hernandez, Member of the Public said good afternoon, my name is Victor Hernandez. I have been living on Mingly Road which is just off of McClure Road, my house the backyard faces the Benavidez Center. I have been there for about 20 Page 23 of 35 years. I have heard all this talk about improving going forward. I am all for it, going forward. The biggest think on McClure is one word, safety. McClure is not a safety road. Again, you have heard it already. No sidewalks, at dawn, at dusk people are walking. Sometimes you don’t even see them. You have to go around them. If you visit somebody on a house off of McClure and park on the street there is no way, you have to wait for oncoming traffic to pass before you can go forward. That is how small and narrow that road is. There is no flood control. There is not enough lighting, its dark. I think that you all should consider at first improving McClure Road before having any kind of more development there. There is enough traffic and I use that road every day, so I know, and I have seen it. I see it firsthand, and it has gotten worse in the 20 years that I have been there. Thank you very much. Don Lapinga, Member of the Public said good afternoon, Mayor and council, thank you for having me again. It is my fourth time up here on this issue. I feel kind of at home up here now. I am a Block Captain on McClure. I live at 320 McClure across from what we affectionately call McClure Ruins, that is 315, 317, and 319 McClure which is three lots. Mayor Enriquez asked could you give us your name sir? Don Lapinga said yes, I know, Don Lapinga. Sorry about that. I was going to talk about traffic but that has been kind of talked about already and we can do all the traffic studies we want. We live there and we have trucks coming from the new development, from the school district, from Tashiro, we have trucks from the metal fabricating company down on second. So, we have trucks there, we have school buses, we have semi-trucks coming through. It is not a feeder street it is a throughfare right now because of all the development out west. I ride my bike to the river, half of that is new home development. Hundreds of houses out there. Where is this traffic going? It is going to McClure and to Hoagland to get to North Main because they want to stay off Picacho. My main issue here is this is opening the flood gates for some other properties on McClure specifically across from me. That gentleman has been trying to sell that for seven years. I just talked to a developer who was working for a potential buyer of that property who indicates that he probably wants to put multifamily housing there so it would be another multifamily housing on McClure. There is another property two houses down that has been vacant and unoccupied for about since I have been there for eight years and so we are opening a flood gate here for this small community neighborhood. Friday, I walked around the whole neighborhood and gave out these to get people to come to our meeting and I gave some on Carlyle. All the way up there is two cul-de-sacs there. As I was walking all these homes are individuals who put their heart and soul into there properties and as I was walking back to McClure, and I had a vision of the apartments there. They do not fit in with the character, the nature of historical value of that neighborhood and we are all for affordable housing, we are all for the expanding effort, but this is not a place to be building apartments. Thank you very much. Jorge Aguirre, Member of the Public said good afternoon council my name is Jorge Aguirre, and I am here to speak in favor of this project. This project only includes 15 houses and what I have heard from the concerns of the neighbors is the worst that Page 24 of 35 can happen is that they increase two minutes their commute home. Right, oh my God, somebody that owns a car with car conditioner is going to have to spend two more minutes on their vehicle, what a tragedy. We have a 5,000-house deficit in the city. We have a population of homeless people that is growing. We have poverty spread throughout the city. We have an immigrant crisis at our doorstep. We have a lot of problems in our community caused by poverty and inequality and lack of housing, but we are very concerned about the traffic time. Oh my God, if it takes me a little bit more to get to my house. Absolutely, I don’t like to be in my car either. We all hate our cars, but it is not by development. It is not by doing everything else first. We need housing first before sidewalks, before everything else. We need to have densified city so we can build public transportation and sidewalks that people prefer to use over vehicles, and I understand the concern because all we know is car centered development. Our largest city is El Paso. The nicest place you can go to is a strip mall because everything is built single family homes and strip malls. It looks ugly everywhere. So now in order to build, in order to alleviate traffic like we all want, what we really need is infrastructure that is citizen centered for pedestrians, for bicycles, and lastly what I want to say is retail businesses do better with pedestrian centered infrastructure. It isn’t cars that buy things. It isn’t cars that incentivizes the economy that build our professionals, it is people. It is people that walk by that see a shop and then enter just to see. Maybe they find something, that is the nature of business. It isn’t driving by and seeing a business. You never stop, that is not true. So anyway. I just want to speak in support of this development. Of course it isn’t perfect. There is things I would improve but it is the housing that we need so we have 4,995 more to approve. Thank you. Rosie Carrillo, Member of the Public said my name is Rosie Carrillo. I am going to read off of my notes because I spent most of the night thinking and pondering over this, so I am not going to sway from it. Most of it may be repeated but I will just read to you from my notes. I am not opposing development or improvement or homes. Definitely needed. It is our hope that our voices reference issues of extreme concerns are considered and not just heard as we have been here before with considerable concerns of on-going safety issues. Dangerous situations are only increasing. It is disbelief that we have to continue repeating the same process of imploring that our concerns be heard. The comprehension of what is presented with concerns is imperative as we hold our children accountable to understand that what is no is no. We hold a great respect to large corporations when they respect the community’s decision. As Walmart endeavored situating a proposal on Valley some years back the community declined and that is why this large entity respected and situated where traffic was much more feasible. It is hard to understand why the developers seem oblivious to the concerns of the McClure community and the surrounding community disregarding unsafe issues pointed out to them. In a remark the developer wasn’t the only one to do something nice for these people. We would think that they would advocate our concerns of safety. That be so ponder these questions, why would something nice be situated where it would be impacting more dangerous issues? Why are lives not considered in the viewpoint? Why propose a high-density endeavor to expose us and families to an impacted unsafe area? Plans on paper, proposals on paper can look good but may lack a sense of reality and a cause of domino effect of issues or dangers are current and need to be addressed. Mr. Kaiser of the Planning Commission, had stated that he believed that the development might be a catalyst to Page 25 of 35 street improvement. Again, another contradictory view of the present matter at hand. The reason for my view is that several subdivisions surrounding McClure from over 40 years to present have been built and to years much later and present our street remains neglected and only unsafe situations have increased. We have never opposed improvements. There has never been any measure attempt presentation to us who live there. My husband had been a resident and born and raised 74 years. Since marriage I have lived there for 47 years. It is a generational property and will continue to be passed on to our children. This area has been in the Johnson and Carrillo family for over 100 years. Negative rumors and opinions will not change people’s minds unless you improve the integrity to consider the problems and concerns pointed out by the citizens who employ you to regard of safety first as a priority increased traffic from many various areas that utilize McClure and I thank you. Karen Pruitt, Member of the Public said my name is Karen Pruitt. Tom Pruitt, Member of the Public said and I am Tom Pruitt. Karen Pruitt said We live on Carlye. We bought out house in 1981 and we have seen a lot of changes in the area. To me mostly good except for the traffic. Hoagland and McClure as you have heard has been the same since we have been there. There are basically no sidewalks on McClure. There is no bike path and no room to put one or the sidewalk. There is a ditch there that comes out to the street so to get around the ditch you have to walk into the street. When our daughter was born and she was going to go to Alameda Elementary that is the path that she would have had to take. There is no way that I would have ever let her walk that street. I was in a position where I took her and that is what I did. We weren’t on the bus, we weren’t that far out. She could not ride a bus. She had a, and the same daughter was t-boned coming out of our street on Carlyle turning left on McClure by a hit and run. She was not hurt. There is limited visibility to be at that corner. Cars come barreling down on both sides and I was told that two minutes wasn’t a big deal but if you are having a heart attack, or your house is on fire, or if an ambulance is trying to get there, or a fire truck, it’s a big deal. One time I had to go and I was from Alameda which has no turn lane to Raymond which is quite a ways down the traffic was backed up that entire way. It took me a lot longer than two minutes. This is something I am sure is a problem but, in Las Cruces, as far as I can tell. There is quite a bit of land. You are trying to develop Picacho and El Paseo, those have four lane roads. Put your apartment there. Develop that. Don’t put it in a neighborhood that has been there as a residential neighborhood for this whole time and ruin our properties and increase a problem that, let’s deal with the problem first before we increase even worse before we increase even one car on it to help it. Tom Pruitt said I appreciate Councilor Bencomo for enlightening us that there are going to be some investigations I guess into improvements out there but like my wife said it has been 43 years there and no changes from the railroad tracks all the way to Alameda, just none. The last thing that I would like to comment on was on the previous presentation there was a comment about not being substantially out of Page 26 of 35 character for the area, but it is out of character. Thank you. Pia English, Member of the Public said good afternoon. My name is Pia English and I have lived on McClure Road for half my life. That is 30 years and I do want to say that there has been a lot of change since I have been there. Unfortunately for the worse and I hate to keep saying the S word but its safety and because we are variable use sidewalks, some houses have sidewalks, some don’t. I wouldn’t walk a dog on that street. I wouldn’t walk myself on that street. I wouldn’t walk the street when I bought the house. I was a lot braver then and I just want to say that this is the fourth time that this will come before any of you, all of you and the only change is that one building has been deleted from the plan. As far as the traffic goes and the traffic study was last done in 2019 and I realize the city can’t do a 3 year check on traffic but the traffic has increased and those that voted in favor of this proposal I was at several hours of yesterday evening, last night and I think to make a decision you need to base your decision on evidence not feelings and more than once in the document staff members said they feel that they voted based on feelings that we would not be negatively impacted traffic wise but you need to base that on evidence and not feelings. Everyone has feelings but what can you prove and the last thing I want to say is that I would not want to live a stone’s throw from the railroad road crossing and in a flood zone. Those are things that need to be taken into consideration and there are also as of this morning there are 200 vacant lots that can be purchased and developed by the city to make affordable housing a reality for those who need it. Thank you so much. Linda Mattox, Member of the Public said Mayor and council my name is Linda Mattox, M-a-t-t-o-x. I live on Golden Drive. It is a dead-end street that comes out to Carlyle and my only way of exiting to go and do what I need to do is to either go down Hoagland or go down McClure and I have been choosing McClure more often because Hoagland is usually even more highly trafficked. I have seen the area west of the railroad tracks developed over many years. That used to be fields. I have seen an increase in traffic all during the day. I do not feel safe to walk on McClure, ride my bike on McClure. I only drive on McClure because I have to and the part of McClure in my eyes that is most dangerous is between the railroad tracks and the ditch because it gets narrowed down to exactly two cars and there is no edge of anything and I am concerned about emergency access if we need help, a fire, whatever. I am concerned about the two power poles at the residence 606 are on each side of the road property lines for people, the road is right up against their property line. There is no grace, there is no space and that also visibility changes throughout the day as the sun rises and falls. Yes, we do need more housing in our city and the proposed design of the two story complexes don’t suit our character of our neighborhood so maybe 5 or 6 single story duplexes and I believe that safety needs to be addressed first so if there is some kind of a relationship that can be between the city and the developer to get these roads safe either with a light. Yes, we have gone through many things throughout the years. I have lived there trying to slow down the traffic so it can become safer so there has been attempts and it has been managed north of the railroad tracks but this area has not been dealt with in a joint effort between the developer and the city to fix the safety issues first and then go into the development issues because we need both and at the previous meeting they said the apartments were going to rent for $1,200 to 1,400 so this is the first that I have heard of $900. So, I don’t think that it really provides access for everybody. Thank you. Page 27 of 35 Mayor Enriquez said okay, thank you. Council, any other questions or comments? Okay I think we all aware that the shortage of, okay you can come up I will give you two minutes because we need to wrap up. Kyler Rivas, Member of the Public said hello my name is Kyler Rivas and I am in favor of this proposal. Right now, we have a obviously a housing crisis and we just don’t need affordable housing we need all types of housing and right here is a solution in my opinion because even though we also need affordable housing we also need every other type of housing and right here we have 15 units, close to the city center. Where people obviously there is a safety concern with the road and the condition of the road, the lighting of the road, and the lack of bike lanes but this proposal can also come at the same time. They could be together. Two things can be true at once. You know, that is all I had to say. Mayor Enriquez said okay. Thank you, that is pretty much what I was going to say was that it is obvious that we have a shortage of housing, and it is a safety issue. McClure has been like that for years. I think there has already been a compromise from going from twenty units to fifteen units so we do have to work hand in hand in safety, but we will see how we vote on this. So, Christine. Christine Rivera asked Adam can you pull up the vote yes, vote no? You guys got it? Adam Ochoa asked point of order, would you like me to clarify those yes’s and no’s? Mayor Enriquez said yes go ahead and say it again. Adam Ochoa said okay. I know I would that's for sure. So, your options tonight/today council are one to vote yes. This will reverse the denial decision made by the Planning & Zoning Commission and will approve the infill development proposal with the 15 units as proposed. Two to vote no. This will uphold the denial decision made by the P&Z and the applicant will have to abide by the R-1A regulations as written and submit an alternate request for consideration. Three to vote to amend, this will allow city council to modify the resolution by voting yes and adding conditions as deemed appropriate or four table to postpone and direct staff and the applicant accordingly. Thank you. Councilor Becki Graham moved, seconded by Councilor Becky Corran, to Approve Resolution No. 25-003. AYES: Mayor Eric Enriquez, Councilor Cassie McClure, Councilor Becki Graham, Councilor Johana Bencomo, Councilor Becky Corran, and Councilor Yvonne NAYS: Councilor William Mattiace 8.2 COUNCIL BILL NO. 24-028; ORDINANCE NO. 3070: AN ORDINANCE AMENDING ORDINANCE 2698, FOR THE DEDICATION OF A MUNICIPAL HOLD HARMLESS GROSS RECEIPTS TAX. Page 28 of 35 Leeann DeMouche, Finance Director gave the overhead presentation. Councilor Becki Graham moved, seconded by Councilor Becky Corran, to Approve Ordinance No. 3070. Corran, and Councilor Yvonne Flores 8.3 COUNCIL BILL NO. 24-029; ORDINANCE NO. 3071: AN ORDINANCE APPROVING A ZONE CHANGE FROM C-2 (COMMERCIAL MEDIUM INTENSITY) TO C-3 (COMMERCIAL HIGH INTENSITY) FOR A PROPERTY ENCOMPASSING 2.567 + ACRES AND LOCATED AT 2605 BATAAN MEMORIAL WEST. SUBMITTED BY KARY BULSTERBAUM, REPRESENTATIVE. (24ZO0500035). Adam Ochoa, Senior Urban Planner said the applicant has actually requested staff to postpone the zone change to our next city council meeting which is on the 15th I believe. They ran into a problem with the zone change and they are trying to hammer it out before they come before you. So, there might be a slight change as to what they are proposing at the next meeting on the 15th. Councilor Becky Corran moved, seconded by Councilor Becki Graham, to table Ordinance No. 3071 to July 15th. 9. BOARD APPOINTMENTS 9.1 None. 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. 25-001; ORDINANCE NO. 3072: AN ORDINANCE ADOPTING A MUNICIPAL GROSS RECEIPTS TAX. Councilor Flores asked I would like clarification on 10.1? Mayor Enriquez said that is the GRT. It is the first read. Councilor Flores said I would like to know procedurally maybe it would be Christine who could shed some light or edify me for edification. It is a question of getting gross receipt tax issue on the agenda at a future time? Page 29 of 35 Christine Rivera, City Clerk said we need to bring this forward with the GRT ballot question and that is why it is on a first read for July 1st. It will be brought forward along with a resolution on July 15th, you will be hearing them together. Councilor Flores said my understanding when we discussed this at a previous meeting was that it was a decision that the public would make, yes and so now it looks like we are going to be making that decision. Christine Rivera said this ordinance is actually for the public vote. We have to approve this ordinance so that if the ballot question is approved, we can send the ordinance to the state. So, this ordinance that is coming before you is not for your portion, it is for the ballot question portion. Just something we have to preemptively do. Councilor Flores asked for the state? Christine Rivera said correct. Council agreed to bring it forward. 10.2 COUNCIL BILL NO. 25-002; ORDINANCE NO. 3073: AN ORDINANCE INTENSITY) TO C-3 (COMMERCIAL HIGH INTENSITY). THE SUBJECT PROPERTIES ENCOMPASSING 1.4 ± ACRES IS LOCATED AT 3200 W PICACHO AVENUE. THE ZONE CHANGE IS TO ALLOW FOR THE FUTURE REDEVELOPMENT OF A COMMERICAL BUSINESS ON THE SUBJECT PROPERTY AND BRING THE LOTS INTO COMPLIANCE WITH THE 2001 ZONING CODE, AS AMENDED. Council agreed to bring it forward. 10.3 COUNCIL BILL NO. 25-003; ORDINANCE NO. 3074: AN ORDINANCE APPROVING A ZONE CHANGE FROM R-1A (SINGLE-FAMILY MEDIUM DENSITY) TO C-3C (COMMERCIAL HIGH INTENSITY-CONDITIONAL) FOR APPROXIMATELY 5.00 ACRES AND TO OS-R (OPEN SPACE- RECREATION) FOR THE REMAINING APPROXIMATELY 43.75 ACRES OF A PROPERTY LOCATED AT 2040, 2045, 2060, AND 2065 E. MADRID AVENUE. SUBMITTED BY SOUDER MILLER AND ASSOCIATES, REPRESENTATIVE. (23ZO0500027). Council agreed to bring it forward. 11. CITY COUNCIL MEMBER BOARD REPORTS AND COMMENT 11.1 COUNCILOR MCCLURE Last week I went to the Fire Department graduation, and I just wanted to give a kudos to how much hope I walked away from going to that. That there are people willing to give their entire careers to a city that may change, may look different in the future and that is kind of a discussion we are grappling with. This idea of what our city will look like. It will look different. It looked different when I was 20 years ago when I came here for the first time. So, I think that balance is going to be hard to achieve if people can’t Page 30 of 35 have a vision for what they could look like and I think it is hopeful to see still people willing to give their entire careers to that idea. I am interested to about the cannabis companies, partially because it is interesting to me because it feels like a stifling innovation here in Southern New Mexico and I think that is a consideration if we want to actually have that discussion about what that might look like for us to have that because it sounds like Albuquerque can sell their product here and it is harder for us. So I wouldn’t want to stifle our economic opportunities and lastly I wanted to give a shout out to MVRDA who was keeping us informed, the dispatch center with all of the storms, letting us know how they were doing that and it is always interesting to me when we think about first responders, of course we think about Fire Department and Police but also our dispatchers and our utilities who are out there in the storms making sure that we still have power and wastewater flowing. Not super interesting but very valued if it’s not there. 11.2 COUNCILOR MATTIACE I just want to mention Mayor that I would like to thank the staff. I had a town hall meeting, a District 2 meeting at Las Cruces High. There were six presenters, Chris was one of them. It was really good information, we had almost 80 people that attended that Las Cruces High District meeting. I want to thank Barbara Bencomo and our Deputy Chief, in fact all six representatives, Scott, Catrina, everyone stayed after to even 7:30 and fielded questions from almost 80 people. So, I just want to put that on record. We have a really super staff, and they really are concerned about what the citizens need in our city. 11.3 COUNCILOR GRAHAM None. 11.4 COUNCILOR CORRAN I want to echo Councilor McClure’s hopefulness of the LCFD’s graduation. It was great to see the new class and hear their tales and welcome them to the city’s staff. So, thank you for the invitation and for those who signed up to join your impressive ranks. I also want to thank staff who helped me put on the Check the Chip events that were really successful. We talked to a lot of folks, the staff, Catrina in particular, the animal control officers, and the ASCMV staff who worked together to talk to a lot of the folks who had no idea about what their animal’s chips said or had adopted from the ASCMV and really just wanted to show off their animals after having adopted them. A couple of things came to light in those conversations. One of them was that a lot of people don’t know what their microchips say and I urge you all to follow up with your vet and find out what your microchip number is and then when you call the chip company that owns your chip they might tell you that you have to pay money but just so that you know your microchip last forever and they have to keep your information up to date and the Animal Services Center keeps a separate database so they can also help you if your animals are picked up by ACOs and so don’t pay the chip companies any money. You don’t have to do that but please do check to make sure that your microchips are up to date because of the folks that we saw, I don’t know we probably scanned 25 to 30 people and I think about two thirds of those folks have Page 31 of 35 incorrect information within their files for their animals and their chips so it was a really good and powerful lesson for me and I really appreciate the staff that helped do that. On another note, with ASCMV we have received a bunch of applicants for the community positions. We are in the process of evaluating those and anticipate having those folks for appointment on July 15th at the next board meeting so we will be appointing the city representatives to the Animal Services Board then. 11.5 COUNCILOR FLORES I have a question for my colleague, Mr. Mattiace. After all these years, you were Mayor, you were Councilor before being a councilor today, right? Were the questions any different, the issues that were brought up at your community meeting different than the ones that you were dealing with what was it, twenty years ago? Councilor Mattiace said similar questions. Basically, roadway improvements, of course I think the Mayor will agree that the crime questions are very prevalent today. It is happening in different neighborhoods that was much higher. Everything else was very similar. The city has grown, and I think we have had a lot of comments on the growth, but I think everybody has been pleased with the quality of life achievements that we have done in the last 75 years but I think everything is pretty much the same. 11.6 COUNCILOR BENCOMO My heart was full to see the amount of support that our community here in Las Cruces is offering to our neighbors in Ruidoso and Mescalero Tribes. I think at one point I saw that some folks in Ruidoso were saying stop sending stuff. If you can provide monetary donations, we are literally running out of space to keep all of these things and so that is just really beautiful. That is the Las Cruces I know in 2019, is really similar when we started receiving asylum seekers, I mean there was volunteers. There were things donated. That is the Las Cruces that I know, that we have each other’s back in a moment of crisis and just desperately seeking that as our own Las Crucens experience their own moment of crisis and they are finding themselves unsheltered and unhoused desperately seeking that same feeling here and I think that leads me to touch base on the Grants Pass decision that the Supreme Court made a couple of days ago where they said that municipal governments can criminalize sleeping outside and I think this is a cruel decision and I think this is an inhumane decision made by an ultra-right wing extremist supreme court and I really, really hope with all of my being that no one on this dais is hoping to follow suit as not be reflective of the values of this community and I am just truly I would say shocked but I am not. The Supreme Court claims to be prolife until that life finds themselves unhoused and then it stops. So, I do not believe those are our values and I certainly hope that we can continue to fight for policies and programs that work to actually truly address our homeless issues here so I will certainly continue to do that and continue to fight for that. One of the things we are doing actually very much tomorrow that I am very much looking forward to is Chief Story, LCPD, Paul Ford with the Fire Department, the MIH Program and other community partners like Community of Hope and FYI, invite any of you to join us. It is going to be at 2 p.m. in the middle of the day but we are going to Page 32 of 35 do street outreach down Picacho and just walk the street and do outreach for folks on the street for businesses, whoever, MIH and community advocates with LCPD did this about a year ago I think downtown and it was very successful and so we are going to try it again on West Picacho and that would be tomorrow at 2 p.m. and we are meeting at Tractor Supply right there on the corner of Valley and Picacho. I think this is going to the people is really important to understand how we address some of the issues that we are facing. So that is tomorrow, and we will be excited to report back in two weeks on how that went. I also wanted to ask for what it would take to do a codes project, City Manager? I put it in an email already and I wanted to include it in my comments. There is a neighborhood in District 4 in the Branding Iron Circle area. It is a mobile home park and I have been in contact with some residents who are having some issues with their neighbors and Codes have tried to address it, MIH is working to address it and all of these resources but you know when I canvassed there in the fall I also noticed a similar thing and even since then I thought and was wondering what we could do in terms of a Codes project, whether it is a letter first. I know that I could gather members of that community to canvass, to volunteer and do some of that outreach how you dispose of big items like your old mattresses or old chairs, having your numbers on a, hardly anybody has any of their home numbers that are visible, and I know that is a huge public safety concern. So just some of those kinds of codes projects I would love to do. I know that capacity and funding could be an issue but would love to know what it takes to do that. Just lastly, I would love to know how many projects we submitted to MAP the Municipal Arterial Program in the last couple of years. I would love to know how we have utilized that MAP and if there is room to submit some proposals for potentially like McClure. I talked to David about what that would take but I think there is a couple of requests for traffic calming that are out in the ether, and I am just wondering if this could be utilized, and I am curious of how we have utilized it in the past. 11.7 MAYOR ENRIQUEZ Again, a huge thank you to El Paso Electric during the storm and the bad weather we had the last couple of days getting the boots on the ground and helping us restore our power. No different as our hearts go out to those in Ruidoso and as Mayor Pro Tem said you know we had our fire crews going out there but we had a lot of members in this community just giving and continuing to give and it goes in line with our theme is here in the City of Las Cruces and that is Adelante con Cariño and it really speaks volumes about our community and our city and speaking of Adelante, moving forward. This past week I was able to be the keynote speaker for CBA, Central Business Association in El Paso and trying to bring economic development to our Southern New Mexico with the partnerships of El Paso and Juarez. So that was one thing that took place, and it was great to start building the bridges for economic development in our area, our borderplex region and then also tomorrow, I think Mayor Pro Tem you said Chief Story will be here, but he won’t. The Police Department will represent, Chief Story and I will be in Albuquerque tomorrow as the Governor has invited us. She was going to have the Public Safety Roundhouse to discuss some of the issues that are going to take place at the special session coming up. So again, moving forward with ideas of mental behavioral and how to address crime. So, it will be at that public safety roundhouse meeting in Albuquerque from 1 to 4. Page 33 of 35 Fourth of July is coming upon us, and I was going to request of the City Manager that maybe the lights could display some patriotic colors for our City Hall and just wishing everybody a happy and safe 4th of July. Please attend all of the festivities that are planned, the entertainment, the food, the music, and the firework display. 12. CITY MANAGER REPORT 12.1 IKANI TAUMOEPEAU Again, echoing everyone’s kudos for EPE this past weekend. Additionally, I want to give kudos to our staff who were dealing with the impacts, non-power related but getting our facilities back up. Clearing the streets and roadways. Thank you, Police and Public Safety as always, Public Works, Traffic, Parks and Rec staff, Joint Utilities, Facilities, and every other department that falls in between and outside. Thank you so much for all the staff working this weekend. Kudos as well to the Communication. Rico gave me kudos but really I get all the communication from my City Manager Office team so I appreciate Sonya, I appreciate JC, I appreciate Barbara and I appreciate David Sedillo for filling in as well for Sonya who have been keeping me apprised with their teams and everything that they can find out and so thank you to the CMO team as well for keeping me apprised with everything which then allows me to pass it on to City Council. The HAWK Pedestrian Signal has been installed and operational at Picacho Avenue and Fourth Street. For those who don’t know the HAWK stands for High Intensity Activated Cross Walk, is a pedestrian activated beacon to increase pedestrian safety at mid-block cross walks, minor street intersections, and in school zones. And as everyone is aware we have festivities coming for July 3rd and July 4th. On Wednesday, July 3rd as it was announced last week City of Las Cruces 4th of July celebration will kick off with Electric 5k and Fun Run, followed by the Annual Electric Light Parade. Parade route begins at Apodaca and ends at Meerscheidt. Road closures will begin on Wednesday the 3rd at 5:30 p.m. so don’t be caught in that. Running event begins at 7:30 with the parade starting at 9 p.m. On the 4th the city’s annual 4th of July celebration concert and fireworks display will be at NMSU. We have Black Jacket Symphony to make their Las Cruces debut, performing iconic albums of Saturday Night Fever. After School Program lottery registration begins today and Friday, July 12th. If interested call 575-541-2550 for program locations and additional information. Also Keep Las Cruces Beautiful Dumpster Day is on Saturday, July 20th from 8 a.m. to 12 noon. Just responding to Mayor Pro Tem Bencomo, you had mentioned a Codes project. We can definitely stay in touch. Just some ideas coming to mind, if there is a spokesperson for the group or you are in touch with somebody have them reach out to myself and we can get the appropriate people in the room and we can start with a meeting and see what the needs are and definitely have codes and whoever else and if you would like to be in that meeting to. That is just what comes to mind quickly. We can stay in touch if there is anything else you would like to do, let me know. And lastly, I know that you are working with David Sedillo on the projects for the arterial programs and so if there is anything else we can keep you Page 34 of 35 apprised on that and how it is being utilized. Also on July 4th, Mayor we will work with Facilities, work with David Sedillo and Facility staff to get that with the appropriate lights and if you like we can keep it on for the whole month or are you thinking just the day? Okay we will keep it up for the whole month if you would like 13. ADJOURNMENT 13.1 Councilor Becky Corran moved, seconded by Councilor Yvonne Flores, to adjourn at 3:59 p.m. Mayor City Clerk Page 35 of 35