City Council Meeting February 5, 2024

MINUTES

City Council

Monday, February 5, 2024 @ 1:00 PM

City Council Chambers, City Hall

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

Johana Bencomo, Councilor Becky Corran, and Councilor Yvonne Flores

ABSENT: Councilor William Mattiace

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

APPRECIATION/PROCLAMATIONS - COUNCILOR MATTIACE. None. 1.3 PETS OF THE WEEK. Amy Defelix, Animial 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 3.1 Donnell Bell, Member of the Public said I am a member of the pickleball community here in Las Cruces. Because of its growing popularity my colleagues and I are here to request of our elected officials more access to courts. In 2023, pickleball was named for the third year in a row the fastest growing sport in America by Sports and Fitness

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Industry Association. Las Cruces is no exception. We appreciate the city and voters’ approval of the new courts of East Mesa. Still these courts are not yet available.

Additionally, we do not want to replace tennis. We just want to share the courts including Young and Lions Park. Many may think pickleball is a game meant for retirees. Just recently however during a school break the courts were filled with teenagers enjoying a game many playing with and demolishing their parents. The courts are often used by medical students from the university or other NMSU or high school students. Not only can pickleball contribute to our community financially as it drives tourism, relocation decisions, and more it benefits physical and mental health.

We recognize our request will take some consideration, but we welcome the opportunity to meet with council to form a feasibility study. Tennis and pickleball are great sports and we can coexist. We also ask you to consider supply and demand.

Cece Hunter, Member of the Public said I am the mother of Aaron Gifford who served with the US Army in the first invasion in Iraq. We went on to serve three more deployments. Aaron came back with PTSD, and it finally became too much for him to bear and he committed suicide January 8th, 2018. I established a 501(3)(c) the Aaron

Gifford Pickleball Benefit shortly after to raise awareness and proceeds for PTSD.

Aaron found pickleball in 2016 and he became passionate about it and met many friends and formed a great community. I truly believe that it extended his life and gave him an outlet for PTSD. We have held an annual pickleball tournament here in Las

Cruces in honor of Aaron and other Veterans who suffer from PTSD. We not only support our local Mesilla Valley Community of Hope Veteran’s Program, but we also support Mission 22. It is a national organization that brings awareness that approximately 22 Veterans commit suicide every day. We have donated approximately $60,000 to date to these organizations through this tournament. We would like to continue to support our local Veterans and Mission 22 with the annual tournament but we just do not have enough pickleball courts to accommodate this growing sport in tournament. This year we expect over 300 players to come across the country. I submitted an application to the Parks and Rec for the use of 6 tennis courts at Lions Park and was approved but I was asked to contact the Tennis

Association to get their approval as well and I was denied. It was stated that since we already have 8 Apodaca courts and 8 more at East Mesa coming up that we should not expect the tennis players to be misplaced. We have approximately 700 pickleball players in Las Crues and it is growing every week. We would just ask for the support to bring more pickleball courts to our community.

Diane Giever, Member of the Public said I am here today to speak on behalf of the

Parkinson’s community. I am joined by Sarah Stegall and John Roberts and they are co-leaders of the Parkinsons Support Group of Southern New Mexico and other members of our local group. Ten years ago I learned that I had Parkinsons a progressive neurological disease for which there is no cure. The Michael J Fox

Foundation has funded more than $1 billion towards research programs and progress has been made but there still is no cure. While medications help with symptoms there is nothing that can slow the progression of this disease except exercise. I discovered pickleball in 2019 and despite physical setbacks I have played regularly ever since. I am grateful there is a sport that I can participate in despite my disabilities but the best benefit for me and those like me is knowing I am proactively doing the best thing that I can do to slow the progression of this debilitating disease. This is why with the help of

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Coach Allevi and many others who donate their time and talents I started Pickleball for Parkinsons. Over the past year those with Parkinsons have played every Thursday afternoon and now we are into our second year. The benefits of this game for improving our symptoms are endless. I believe that I speak for the rest of our group when I say that for a few hours that we play pickleball I forget that I have Parkinsons.

This is why pickleball is so important to me and I will continue to play until I am no longer able. I will also continue to encourage others with or without the disease to join me. It is my hope that someday we will have enough courts to serve the needs of our community.

Yoli Diaz, Member of the Public said I will begin with my ask, there are four. I ask that you put the issues of accessing healthcare at Memorial Medical Center on your next agenda since there is now a new Mayor and new Mayor Pro Tem. Two, I am again requesting a meeting with each council member. Three, since I have continued to receive calls from residents who need access to cancer treatment, a potentially fatal disease, I am asking each of you again to please consider the healthcare fund proposal I provided you on October 2, 2023. Four, create a joint powers agreement with Dona Ana County similar to the Animal Services Center to provide health and human services and/or oversight in healthcare. I believe that Memorial Medical Center

C-suite of LifePoint/Apollo Global Management denying and delaying cancer treatment of chemotherapy and radiation and other needed health care services to residents is atrocious, barbaric, and illegal. According to the lease between the City of

Las Cruces and Dona Ana County and them and according to NMSA 1978 Chapter

27, Article V as a private equity firm of operation they are a profit driven, price gauging business with aggressive collection practices, predatory billing and very high cost ratios known as markups. Why do I say this? This severely disabled resident to the

Dona Ana County health care assistance program that the county’s indigent program that I talked to you on the October 2, 2023, council meeting recently received a bill for $5,966 from a collection agency. I called Memorial Medical Center and told that the bill was not from the hospital services, but it was from the physicians that read diagnostic tests of her breast biopsy done at Memorial Medical Center on August 9th,

2023. So, I then asked what was Memorial Medical Center’s portion of the services?

The answer was $9,696.34 which was covered by 100% discount. This means that the biopsy cost of services for this uninsured indigent resident in the Dona Ana

County Healthcare Systems Program was $16,000. Doesn’t almost everyone agree that almost $16,000 is a lot of money and unaffordable to most. I have requested the

CPT codes of services and have compared them to UNM. It was nowhere near $16,000. I have helped residents at Memorial Medical Center was asking for payments and flat rate service amounts upfront prior to their health care service or there would be no service. Amounts of over $7,000.00, $6,000.00, $3,000.00, $2,300.00. I have helped residents where huge amounts were paid out by insurance. I helped a resident that was not satisfied at Memorial Medical Cancer Center, she left them. We compared her EOBs, explanation of benefits, in the three months that she was at MMC, MMC collected over $110,000. In five months with her new oncologist, they collected over $5,000. At the time we looked it up MMC collected over $440,000 from the insurance of the resident that caused me to look into these issues in the first place.

Yoli Diaz translated for Claudia Muro, Member of the Public. Good afternoon, my

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name is Claudia Muro. I am here to express my sad experience with Memorial

Medical Center. My son and I live in Las Cruces since 1997, almost 27 years. My son has autism, and he went to the Las Cruces Public Schools from the second grade to the twelfth grade. With my work I have been able to sustain my son and myself with our necessities. For many years my son and I have insurance coverage with New

Mexico Medical Insurance Pool. In 2017, they found a cancer, stomach cancer and thanks to the doctor that was able to give me quick attention I am able to be in front of you today to tell you about the absurd and inhumane experience with Memorial

Medical Center. In May 2023, I required a biopsy for my breast since I had a suspicious mammogram and sonogram. She was very concerned because of her

2017 history of her cancer and the breast cancer that runs in her family. My biopsy was scheduled for very early in the morning so that her surgeon would be able to do it at Memorial Medical Center. Within hours before my procedure, I received a call from a lady in the finance department telling me that I needed to pay $6,000 before my procedure. This was something that was absurd and impossible for me, and I am sure for many others. Claudia said to the lady at Memorial that $6,000 within hours before her biopsy, it was impossible for her to bring so the finance person started offering different payment plans. The finance lady then offered me payments of $3,000 before her procedure and within another week to pay the other $3,000. Then she offered her $600 a week and then finally offered her $350 every week. I felt anguish and frustrated with Memorial Medical Center was bargaining or haggling with my life. Then all she could do was cry and then she asked if there was a program that would be able to help her in one way or another. The finance person had answered her that there was no program to be able to help her and she needed to know because of her cancer. The finance person asked her what can you pay? And then she started offering her $200 and then Claudia still said I couldn’t do it and then the finance person said I am sorry that she couldn’t take not even $200. So, she was denied.

When she saw that I was very desperate that is when she gave me a phone number and she had to cancel her procedure.

Barbara Corral, Member of the Public said I have lived here since I was six years old.

I have been a nurse for almost thirty years, and I ended up getting sick. I ended up having vaginal cancer. I had a hysterectomy. Nobody ever told me that you needed to have a pap smear after that. I had vaginal cancer. I did have insurance through the

Marketplace and I was doing home health nursing. I was doing really well and then I got diagnosed. Vaginal cancer is a very rare form that only effects about 4% of the population. I wasn’t concerned about anything, I had insurance. My doctor called over to Memorial, spoke to the radiation oncologist. Well then, the radiation oncologist called the medical oncologist back and said we don’t take that insurance. We can’t do anything about it. They were unable to make any kind of memorandum agreement to provide care in spite of the insurance being out of network which sometimes they can do. So, there I was 61, a nurse with cancer needing radiation and chemo and I was unable to get treatment in my own hometown. I have been here a long time, so it was important for me to stay here. I was outraged and devastated at the same time. My hospital that I had worked for early in my career would not treat me. The new plan was for me to go to Albuquerque for treatment. I was going to have chemotherapy and radiation. So, I had to quit my job, my husband quit his job. We went to

Albuquerque, so we had to find somewhere to stay, we had to have food, we had to have gas, we had to pay all our bills here in Cruces. We had to get a dog sitter, so we

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went through what money we did have really quickly. We were finally able to get approved for Medicaid and that was the only bright thing through this whole thing is that Medicaid helped us, I am so grateful. We needed more help than that though, with just the medical. So Yoli actually helped me pay some of my bills which was very much appreciated. We finally got done and we came back, and I am a survivor now. I have to tell you that I feel really betrayed by Memorial Medical Center. How could they do that to me? I have taken care of this community for almost 30 years. So, I just feel like we were raised to lend a helping hand. I want to know what happened to that? We need to try and fix this.

Marisol Anderson, Member of the Public said I am from Sunny Acres Mobile Home

Park. We are here with the community of pickleball. We are just here asking to see if you can help us with this problem. We do have our tournament for Aaron Gifford and my friend Cece and Ken Hunter tried to see if we can get Lions Club and it was not possible. So hopefully I remember you telling me that you are going to help us. So, the thing is to me is that we are all taxpayers, and I am sure Sunny Acres pays a lot of money. We see these courts with lights in the night, nobody is playing. So, we are still paying for that. So why don’t you help us to go and do this tournament and help all these people with the Veterans and all of this? Now why are we paying for all of this lights and all this maintenance? Why can’t we help these people with the money we are spending with nothing in there. So, we do have Parkinsons, we do have cancer with people, but we have lights on with nobody playing. Save that money to help these people.

Jeff Anderson, Member of the Public said I am the President of the Organ Mountain

Pickleball Club and I want to tell you that we have been working with the City for years now and even before we had the club we were working with the City, with Ms.

Delgado and Steven who is in Parks and Rec right now. We appreciate the efforts they are making but it is going to take more than Parks and Rec. We have to get the other parts of our city government involved in this too. Like the course up at East

Mesa. Why did we coat those courts with that expensive, wonderful, nice cushion pickleball coating over a year ago and just let it sit out there in the sun and let it burn up when we could be playing on it, but we are still not playing on those courts. I think that is a DPW thing I am not sure or contracting but it seems like a waste. Talking about our tournaments, we have a tournament also and our tournaments we are bringing in so many players we require a lot of pickleball courts. We only have 8 pickleball courts, outdoor pickleball courts in town now. We also have the courts over at Meerscheidt that we can play in indoors, but they are booked and packed all the time too. So, I just want to say I appreciate what you are doing but this is nothing new we have been talking about this for years. Pickleball is still the fastest growing sport.

We have over 800 people on our mailing list under the pickleball club. We have over

400 paying members and we would appreciate maybe helping us to work with the tennis folks a little bit more in the near future so we can maybe get some more pickleball courts in town. Who knows when we are going to get this East Mesa thing figured out and 8 courts ain’t going to be enough. When you open those 8 courts they are going to be packed.

Valerie Fernandez, Member of the Public said I arrived in Las Cruces after experiencing the full Katrina treatment from New Orleans. I love Las Cruces. I have

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started participating in the past two to three years at the Aquatic Center. Now you have built this enormous million-dollar facility, the Nautic Center next door but you can’t maintain the older facility. These people need exercise, but they can’t use the channel at the Aquatic Center. Half this facility is down, and it has been down for months and then if you go into the showering or bathroom facilities fully a third of the plumbing fixtures need repair. You can build a million-dollar nautic center, but you can’t maintain what your already have? You ought to be ashamed. It’s a mess and it’s filthy too. I don’t know what is going on over there, but somebody ought to address the older facility and take care of what is in need of repair.

Julia Ruiz, Member of the Public said my comments are based on the KRWG interview News Makers 1601 Guaranteed Basic Income. Most welfare programs come with different types of conditions for recipients however my understanding is that UBI is distinctive in that recipients have no conditions as to how they are to spend the

American Rescue Plan, ARPA money received which is not their own money as stated in the KRWG interview by Councilor Bencomo. She states this is a guaranteed monthly income to low-income families with no strings attached. Income is defined as money that is received as an exchange for labor or products. What labor or products will be exchanged? The Kellogg Foundation was mentioned in that it will do the research component as well as the NMSU Crimson Research Program. What are the data points? Anecdotal information does not qualify the program as successful, and it is not scientific evidence which can be verified objectively. In addition, Las Cruces is not a laboratory. As far as I know the people of the community of Las Cruces have not signed up to be any part of an experiment. When LCPD asked for 18 officers and 18 new vehicles the purpose was specifically for public safety. Universal Basic Income poses more questions than solutions to poverty. How will the recipients be better prepared to be successful and productive citizens at the end of the program? How many one-time pilot programs will be looked at before the right one is found? The question stands, what happens at the end of the program and how will the recipients be better prepared to be successful and productive citizens at the end of the program? Will they have learned a skill or received training in a skill? Will they be employable? Will community businesses be involved? Will the experts having over a hundred years of experience together I am generally interested in understanding in how they have they have decided that UBI is the best interest of the recipients and the community. Where is the accountability and the self-efficacy?

Juan Garcia, Member of the Public said “HHS defines poverty level on household size and adjusts it every year based on inflation and other factors. Rapidly rising prices and high levels of inflation aren’t good for the economy either as they often out pace wages and make products and services more expensive for consumers”. From the fundamental policy of redistribution. The recent governments cannot simply take money from some people according to how able they are and give it to others based on how needy they are is because people who are aware of that plan would not be foolish enough would not accurately reveal their abilities and needs. Actual taxes and transfer payments distort behavior in ways that undermine economic progress and commonly produce results such as trapping people in poverty out of their opposite of their stated intent. So, in Las Cruces we have taxpayer funding wealth redistribution or Universal Basic Income. KRWG interview, Guaranteed Basic Income provides unconditional and unrestricted payments to help individuals with their basic needs.

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There is nothing exchanged. That is $9,000 of taxpayer funds. That is taxpayer funds to recipients to do as they please. We need accountability. In the same interview with

New Mexico CAFé organizer, “anecdotal evidence show that the program was a success, when you ask the definition of anecdotal, it’s not necessarily true or reliable because based on personal accounts rather than facts or research”. We invested 1.7 million dollars on an experiment. Yoli Diaz back there has been pleading for funds for cancer treatment and other major health issues save lives with documented illnesses.

How much has she received from the city? What happens when UBI funds run out?

Senator Soules has the answer, he has proposed SB164 which is ready to go and evaluate the impacts of UBI on “pregnant people”, I need to understand what that means but okay. That is in the bill and that is $1,500 month per pregnant person after the $80 million is expended. Can you imagine what Yoli could do with a tenth of that and a social financial addiction continues.

Yoli Diaz translated for Lorenza Granados, Member of the Public. Good afternoon my name is Lorenza Granados. She is going to talk about her diagnosis of cancer and her situation at an FQHC, Ben Archer and La Clinica de Familia, both of them. Since

1995 she has been a patient at Ben Archer. It has been two years since she had been very very sick, things happening in her body. That who was attending to her the provider was not doing anything for her because she did not have health insurance.

That she had tried in the past since 1998, I think she said to get health insurance, but she couldn’t get it because she didn’t have a social security number. That she kept trying to get of course diagnostic testing, or whatever test to find out what was wrong with her but they didn’t help her because she didn’t have the health insurance. That they diagnosed her a year and a half ago with cancer, a stage 2. So, she is saying that I helped her get her health insurance which was with the New Mexico Medical

Insurance Pool because people who don’t have a social security number that is the only insurance that they can get and so I helped her back then. She says thank you that I helped her and that she does not want to see other women go through what she went through and how she wasn’t being listened to.. She is saying that if it wasn’t for me and helping her with the insurance, she would not be here to be able to tell you what happened to her.

Sarah Smith, Member of the Public said I am with the New Mexico Freedoms

Alliance. I am concerned about your continued focus on housing first as a solution to homelessness in Las Cruces including your recent $7 million request from the legislature. We have already seen what the Desert Hope Homeless Housing Project on the corner of Pecos and Foster that housing first can harm our overall community.

According to the San Antonio Haven for Hope, which serves 7,000 homeless people yearly, housing first only works for 15% of people, 85% of people need different kinds of stability before they move into housing. Here in Las Cruces residents at Desert

Hope have reported that there is chaos and fighting there all day and night. These people are trying to turn their lives around, trying to break free from addiction and they have people coming back to them over and over again offering them drugs. Several drug dealers have even been housed there. We can look around and see that what is being done in Las Cruces is not working. The city is looking at the number of people being housed as the measure of success, but this is not enough. It is not compassionate to enable people to continue to destroy their lives and their health with drugs. We need to look at whether the people that we are supposedly helping we are

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actually reforming their lives, becoming free of their drug addiction and moving towards independence. Will you invest in other approaches instead of just putting all of our resources towards housing first. One example is the work first model being used at Boulder Bridge House in Colorado. I want to tell you some more details about this program. It has the following three pillars, number one they provide job readiness training and paid work. Number two, they utilize a drug and alcohol-free dormitory style shelter. Number three, they have ongoing supportive of services including money management training and long term after care. According to Dustin from this program who was formally homeless and addicted to drugs ready to work “teaches you how to be responsible and accountable for your behavior”. The work first part builds self-efficacy, actually doing something for yourself that is what works. In that program people start by working with an outdoor crew similar to our Mano y Mano

Program here. But that is just a steppingstone to learning the skills needed to work in a community table kitchen. The people also pay rent up to 1/3 of their income for their supportive housing. After one year people graduate from this Ready to Work

Program. Ready for employment and permanent housing. This program has a 74% success rate in having people maintain employment and independence. We should be aiming for improved rehabilitative lives for the homeless people so that they can become responsible members of our community. Will you please take a more balanced approach instead of investing only in housing first?

Stanley Engle, Member of the Public said I am here actually to congratulate the former City Council body for making our transit system zero fare. I would say I am probably a typical middle-aged guy with middle income, access to cars, access to bicycles when I ride my bike to work and because of the zero fare I have been enjoying using the bus. It has actually been quite pleasant. I have gone to see friends at Bosque using the bus. I have gone to work at NMSU using the bus. I have taken my six-year-old son, then to Apodaca Park, to Young Park, to his swim lessons at

Gym Magic and during that whole time I have seen a mini culture on the bus of riders who I recognize over and over now and who recognize each other, and they are very friendly and it is quite a good experience. I am just glad for that opportunity to be able to pay my taxes and get a service in return and even if I didn’t use it, I am very glad to pay my taxes so others may use that service. Since I am talking about buses, I would just like to acknowledge that Rosa Parks birthday was yesterday.

Israel Chavez, Member of the Public said I am an attorney here in Southern New

Mexico but arguably more important I am an advocate for public transit. I want to thank council for continuing the zero fares program. As you have heard from your own department zero fares is wildly successful. It would not be cost effective to collect fares again. I just want to advocate that the program continue because it makes a huge difference in the lives of so many. I understand that a lot of people like pickleball, but the buses really get folks to work, to health care appointments, and so it is one of the unique areas where council can and does effect daily change. As my friend said just a minute ago Sunday it was the birthday of Rosa Parks. It also marks

Transit Equity Day. Buses are literally about movements. They have moved people, the Freedom Riders through the south to do protests, they have moved bracero workers through this community. Today we often punish folks who ride the bus. We make it difficult. We make it uncomfortable, we don’t put shades. Despite the fact that and I do personal injury cases so this is kind of against my practice, but they are

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safer. They cause less car crashes. They are safer for pedestrians. There is an environmental element that can keep our communities cleaner. If we truly believe in our bus system like we have shown in recent history, we should reduce the parking requirements for businesses. Promote busing, it will reduce DWIs. It would be my hope and wish that council would promote buses to such a level that would put me entirely out of business. Maybe it will do something entirely different. Business is quite good, and I would hope that council would take that and heed that into an inspiration to invest further in public transit because what we have seen based on the recent investment, what we have seen across the state and across the country is that when you invest in buses you are investing in people. You are investing in people’s ability to get where they need to go and often that is related to health, that is related to employment, that is related to advocacy. It is related to everything that council says they care about in the resolutions that often don’t do much, and so this is an area where council and the Mayor and the administration can really make an incredible difference in people’s lives. I thank you for having that program and I encourage its continued support.

Jorge Aguirre, Member of the Public said I am a small business owner and employer and I come here today because I would like to request increased funding for public transportation. Over the last several decades we have developed the city with a car centered mentality of the previous century which is to build everything for cars and assume a car for every situation. This has made our roads wide and our sidewalks tiny, symbolic even resulting in a city that is alarmingly difficult to navigate without a car. Even the most menial tasks like buying groceries, a trip to the doctor, or to the bank may take more hours than necessary without a vehicle. The city paves and maintains roads to anyone who drives a car even if they don’t live here at no additional cost to them. We would like that same benefit for people who don’t drive.

Like those who navigate the city in a wheelchair or by foot, pushing a stroller or riding an electric scooter or bicycles or the myriad of other personal transportation devices that in combination with buses that thank you, are fare free, that this council approved that could provide true practical transportation for our citizens at a very low cost to our people. This is important because cars are expensive. Twelve thousand dollars is what it cost last year to own a new car and the unfortunate case of the matter is that they are also expensive for the city to fuel and maintain those. In the unfortunate case of the matter is that a car centered development does not generate enough tax revenue to pay for itself. In fact, cars are the most expensive way not to solve the problem. They are dangerous to our elders, expensive for our young and very often lethal for pedestrians of all ages. I encourage you to find ways to increase bus frequency and add bus service on Sundays even if it means reducing the budget from traditional car centered infrastructure or reducing space for cars to add dedicated bus lanes. I encourage you to find ways to install bollards on all of our streets to protect pedestrians and riders on our bike lanes, especially near bus stops. Yes, cars may be damaged but it makes more sense to risk potential repairable damage to property then expose the fragile, irreplaceable human bodies of our citizens being mauled by a vehicle just to run their daily errands. We can fully fund our public transportation to unburden our citizens from having to buy a vehicle to navigate life in our city. Lastly, I am also a business owner. I sell insurance and it is very expensive increasingly so and people of every income bracket have to have to buy insurance. It is insanely expensive and to have to demand of our citizens to have to have a car just to exist.

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William Gilman, Member of the Public said I also am a Las Cruces resident and small business owner and a recent father. I am also going to comment on the need for improved transit access in the city and the comment counter argument is well it’s so expensive, but we also need to think about the cost of the lack of that action. The cost of lack of investment. The opportunity cost that we are losing out on by only investing in a single mode of transportation. You know for the last few decades, really a hundred years we as a nation of localities have invested in car centered infrastructure and once a road a build a city is on the hook for the maintenance of that perpetually, forever. It is an endless expense and in addition the city has to fund expensive emergency services to respond to crashes. So, I am going to talk about the cost of just the crashes that happen on our roads. The National Highway Traffic Safety

Administration release report in 2019 that in one year motor accidents caused $340 billion of expenses to the American people. That is about $1,000 per person and for perspective according to the Dona Ana County Website if you own a piece of property that is valued at $100,000 you could expect to pay about $850 in taxes. This is comparable to the tax payments that we pay. It is basically an invisible tax and so with a population of Las Cruces of about 115,000 our share of that national cost is about $119 million a year. This figure also includes medical costs. legal and court fees, emergency services, and other things and so it is not all directly coming from the city but it is all being paid by us the American people. Crashes due to speeding account for 14% of that. We built huge roads of wide lanes that encourage people to drive 50 miles an hour down Roadrunner Parkway even though the speed limit is 35 miles.

Twenty percent is from alcohol use and 30% is from distracted driving which is a new epidemic that we have, and all of these things could be mitigated by public transit.

You can spend all your time on your phone or reading a book without being a danger to the public on a bus and buses are a permanent designated driver on nights out and holidays. So, I think it is about time to get real with our accounting what the actual cost of lack of investment and transit is for all of our people. I was run off the road

November 2022, my car was totaled, and I was going to have that long story of how much I love that truck and how much work I put into it myself and the sweat and blah blah blah, long story short we had to buy a new car. That is money that we could have put for a down payment on house which is a real asset that actually accrues value over time instead we had to buy a car which is a liability and always takes more money and depreciates like crazy.

Diane Starbuck, Member of the Public said with Animal Advocates for Change. Did you know that February is spay and neuter month? Well, if you were here last year you should know that because I believe I came up here and said the same thing last year but what has really changed in that year? Well, the new Animal Service Center did open. That is something positive, but we need to follow up on that with a new animal welfare ordinance. The old one is outdated. Attitudes about animals have changed, we need a new animal welfare ordinance. Animal Advocates for Change, we are waiting for a reply from the Mayor to see what happened to an animal welfare ordinance that was discussed last October and was supposed to be a compromise between all stakeholders. But something else that has happened in the last year for

2023 there was 2,740 animals put down. I hope it just doesn’t become a number to people and we need a fully funded mandated spay and neuter law with exceptions and I am requesting that the City Council, the Mayor, and the City Manager please

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think very seriously about the budget this time with money for animals and the Animal

Service Center so that they can hire people at a reasonable salary. We saw the study of the last board meeting that the salaries were way below what they should be. The

County has given money to SNAP. They have hired a vet. I hear they are revamping their mobile unit. I think the city really needs to step up.

Fred Huff, Member of the Public said what I want to talk about today is the big homeless camp that was right behind Caliches over here on Valley Drive. Last

Saturday I was at my house, I live right on the edge of Burn Lake, and I looked over towards Caliches and saw a massive amount of smoke coming up. Being a camera guy, I grabbed my camera and headed over there as quick as I could and by then the

Fire Department had the fire out. It looked like a pile of clothing. Probably as big as this podium if not bigger that had been burned. I walked around and saw all the just absolute junk. Finally, I decided I am going to walk through this camp and take pictures and I am sure most of you may realize that when you see something in real life and then go back and look at picture your eyes miss a lot of stuff. I was snapping those pictures, but I decided if anybody was hostile or threatening to me, I would make my way over towards the firemen that were still there. I got about three quarters of the way through the camp, and a guy about 100 feet away to the north came out at me and he was quite bit bigger than me and he was shouting at me. Every other word was a cuss word. I ignored him until basically he got right in my face and at these moments, I had migrated over towards the Fire Department guys. They intervened and basically saved my rear end and allowed and me to make a safe exit. Today the police are cleaning out that camp. By the time I get out with the city council that should be all cleaned up. I do want to express a heartfelt deep gratitude to our firefighters and our police force for the job that they do. My question is where do these people go? We need some sort of solution, and I would sure like to work with the city on that.

Rochelle Puce-Wafford, Member of the Public said I am a native Las Crucen. I was born on Alameda Street sixty years ago tomorrow. Saturday afternoon about 3 o’clock in the afternoon a young man was shot in the street across the street from my home.

A home I bought as a single mom by myself on my own income. I am very proud of that home, and I am very proud of my neighborhood but across the street from me are some apartments where a well-known drug dealer conducts business every single day and on Saturday I believe, I don’t know all the details, but I believe it was a drug deal gone bad. A young man lost his life in front on my home. The neighborhood and some of my neighbors are with me today, we have been complaining about the situation across the street from my house for years and nothing has happened. The police have arrested people over there, the next day they are back out and I know you guys are not judges and you are not the District Attorney, but something has to be done about the catch and release program, it’s not working. The crime statistics on your website, they look great but when you are not arresting people and you are not charging people and there is no convictions the crime statistics look really good but the reality is really bad so I am going to ask respectfully, the Mayor and the City

Council and the Police Chief to increase the patrols in the Alameda neighborhood, specifically on Armijo Street. Yesterday afternoon after the smoke had cleared, all of the police had left the neighborhood once again it was business as usual for the drug dealer across the street from my home. So, I would ask that we increase the patrols in

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the neighborhood and clean up the mess that is across the street with the drug dealer.

He owns the apartments where he is conducting his business. That is one of the things that I would like to ask that is done. Also, in that neighborhood just a couple of blocks down the street is the Alma De Arte Charter High School and the J Paul Taylor

Charter Elementary School. So, this is a neighborhood where there is school kids, walking in the neighborhood, elderly people, me, and I would like to be able to sit on my front porch in the afternoon and not fear being shot by a stray bullet by a drug dealer.

Jennifer Kreie, Member of the Public said I am a tennis player, so I just have to get up and speak at how excited I was when I interviewed for my job at NMSU. So, when I came and interviewed and I saw Lions Park, 12 courts, I said yes, this is my kind of community. I am a member of the Las Cruces Tennis Association. I am not a spokesman for them, but those 12 courts are critical to the activities that we have when we have community scrambles. When we have summer programs for children to learn how to play tennis. We are involved in the community, so we don’t want to give up any courts to pickleball. Pickleball is great I am sure, but we are tennis players as my Councilor Corran will know because I sent her emails. Just protect what we have because we are a great organization, and it is an important community activity.

Donald Wilson, Member of the Public said since the last time I came before the council I have now become the President of Velo Cruces but I wanted to assure you that George Pearson is still around he is just freed up from some of the administrative duties of the organization. At the last time I came to the council the Mayor, the outgoing Mayor encouraged us to come back when the new council was seated and bring up some of the issues we had brought up before because since the election is over now maybe we can get to the business of governing the city. I just wanted to reiterate the two requests from Velo Cruces. The first is to expedite and prioritize the hiring an Active Transportation Coordinator for the city so that we can work together with the city and the county and improve the pedestrian bicycle facilities and the second request is for the City Council to adopt a Vision Zero commitment. It is a long- term commitment to eliminate road user deaths of all kinds. That is not just bicyclist, it’s pedestrians and motorcyclists and the baby carriage pushers. We had some people here talking about the importance of making the road safe and equitable for all users. So those requests are out there. Velo Cruces is standing ready to assist the city in this effort. We will make sure to immobilize the groups to staff the various committees so that we can take a safe systems approach to improving traffic safety and road use safety in Las Cruces.

Eden Lachey, Member of the Public said I am referring to the same incident that

Rochelle did. On Saturday, February 3rd at approximately 3:16 p.m. I witnessed a man being shot dead with a shotgun on the Armijo side of 335 Van Patten. This property is located exactly 200 yards from the J Paul Taylor School where I am a contract school nurse. I have also been at Alma since 2018. There are 200 yards between the corner of their lot and the blood pile that is still left from Saturday. I was on the phone, and I was working on my computer and I looked to the right and the shooter was there. The gentleman was there. He shot him with a shot gun. The victim stood for a minute and then he dropped, and it was confirmed yesterday that he is deceased. I reported that there was a white and slight gold tint on the bottom of either

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Explorer or an Expedition. The other gentleman driving that car with short white sleeves got out of his car and spoke with the shooter. They both kind of used their feet to touch and see if he was alive and then the guy with the white shirt got back in his car and then the guy with the shotgun ran back into the property. This has happened so many times. This exact same scenario happened August 17, 2023. We were out of town but our tenant that lives at 701 Armijo called and said there is a shooting at 335 Van Patten. What happens at 335 Van Patten is a 24/7 drug dealing issue. They have been raided by the DEA, LCPD, State Police. We have called and called, and the problem is the response has become less and less and less. Saturday, the only reason that the response was so quick, which I appreciate was because there was a dead person in front of my house.

4. READ CLOSED MEETING STATEMENT 4.1 READ JANUARY 22, 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 litigation regarding:

1. to discuss pending litigation regarding Mark Anthony Montoya v.

Alfonso L. Vasquez, Jr., et al. D-307-CV-2021-00306, which is closed pursuant to NMSA 1978, Section 10-15-1H(7).

2. to discuss pending litigation regarding Yazmin Gutierrez, et al. v. City of Las Cruces, et al. D-307-CV-2017-01409, which is closed pursuant to NMSA 1978, Section 10-15-1H(7).

3. to discuss pending litigation regarding Brandon Barron, et al. v. City of

Las Cruces, et al., D-307-CV-2023-02217, which is closed pursuant to

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

4. to discuss pending litigation regarding the Estate of Teresa Gomez v.

City of Las Cruces, Case No. 2:23-CV-00952 GBW/JHR, which is closed pursuant to NMSA 1978, Section 10-15-1H(7).

5. to discuss pending litigation regarding Robert Lewis Ramzy v. City of

Las Cruces, et al. D-307-CV-2023-00231, which is closed pursuant to

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

RESULT: Carried

MOVER: Councilor Yvonne Flores

SECONDER: Councilor Becki Graham

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

Councilor Johana Bencomo, Councilor Becky Corran, and Councilor Yvonne

Flores

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6. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES 6.1 REGULAR CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF JANUARY 2, 2024.

7. RESOLUTION(S) AND/OR ORDINANCE(S) FOR CONSENT AGENDA 7.1 RESOLUTION NO. 24-078: A RESOLUTION APPROVING A HOME

INVESTMENT PARTNERSHIPS (HOME) PROGRAM AGREEMENT

BETWEEN THE CITY AND MESILLA VALLEY HABITAT FOR HUMANITY

FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF THREE SINGLE-FAMILY AFFORDABLE

HOUSING UNITS IN THE METRO CENTRAL PHASE 1 SUBDIVISION. 7.2 RESOLUTION NO. 24-079: A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING AN ANNUAL

NOT-TO-EXCEED AMOUNT OF $150,000.00 FOR GILLIG BUS PARTS

WITH GILLIG, LLC OF LIVERMORE, CALIFORNIA, SUBJECT TO

APPROVED BUDGET APPROPRIATIONS. 7.3 COUNCIL BILL NO. 24-017; ORDINANCE NO. 3059: AN ORDINANCE

APPROVING ZONE CHANGES FOR LAND WITHIN THE HEATHER HILLS

MASTER PLAN BOUNDARY LOCATED AT 5150 STERN DRIVE.

SUBMITTED BY ZACHARY LIBBIN, LIBBIN UNDERWOOD ENGINEERING

AND SURVEYING. 7.4 COUNCIL BILL NO. 24-018; ORDINANCE NO. 3060: AN ORDINANCE

REPEALING SECS. 7.8-110—7.8-199, ARTICLE III. - WAGE PLUS AND

SECS. 7.8-200—7.8-299 ARTICLE IV. - FILM, FROM CHAPTER 7.8 OF THE

LAS CRUCES MUNICIPAL CODE 1997, AS AMENDED.

8. OLD BUSINESS 8.1 RESOLUTION NO. 24-050: A RESOLUTION APPROVING A NUISANCE,

SUBSTANDARD STRUCTURE IN NEED OF ABATEMENT AT 643 EAST

PICHACO AVENUE WITHIN THE CITY LIMITS OF LAS CRUCES, NEW

MEXICO, SO RUINED, DAMAGED, AND DILAPIDATED, AS TO BE A

MENACE TO THE PUBLIC COMFORT, HEALTH, PEACE, OR SAFETY AND

THAT IS REQUIRED TO BE DEMOLISHED AND AMEND THE CITY'S

ADOPTED FY2023-24 BUDGET THROUGH A BUDGET ADJUSTMENT OF $28,000. Councilor Becki Graham moved, seconded by Councilor Becky Corran, to remove Resolution No. 24-050 from the table for discussion.

MOVER: Councilor Becki Graham

SECONDER: Councilor Becky Corran

ABSENT: Councilor William Mattiace Councilor Johana Bencomo moved, seconded by Councilor Becki Graham, to table Resolution No. 24-050 indefinitely.

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MOVER: Councilor Johana Bencomo

9. RESOLUTION(S) AND/OR ORDINANCE(S) FOR DISCUSSION 9.1 RESOLUTION NO. 24-080: A RESOLUTION ADOPTING THE NORTHRISE

BLUEPRINT PLAN. David Weir, Deputy Director Community Development gave the overhead presentation.

Councilor Graham said I want to agree with the Planning and Zoning Commission comments on how nice this blueprint plan looks. I found this very palatable, easy to read. Based on that blueprint and making sure this is part of the suburban neighborhood place type which does allow for both low and moderate density housing and I just want to ensure that we are going to uphold our commitment to housing density, to multifamily housing. If you could give just a little idea of how this might look in this particular area?

David Weir said in regard to the area, there is an area inside the plan that is already zoned R-4 and so that has the multifamily component. The suburban neighborhood is called out in Elevate Las Cruces as that mixed use. It has that full range of houses. It has appropriate commercial development in it. Because of the couple of zoning categories that are on here are ones that we asked that they rezone and is going forward and so that any person that would come forward to develop it would have to rezone those portions and then staff would make recommendations as they follow

Elevate Las Cruces. The other thing that will take place as a part of the Realize Las

Cruces adoption there is a whole rezoning of the city’s map and at that point in time we would recommend that the suburban neighborhood designation be placed on this property again. If would have those list of land uses including multifamily and other housing types.

Councilor Flores asked looking at just page 10, did you say that the development would be above the upside horseshoe, so adjacent to the arroyo, is that correct?

David Weir said yes, the arroyo is adjacent to this. You see the light lines?

Councilor Flores said yes.

David Weir said those are individual parcels. So, what the green reflects is a way for all of them to have a roadway so that they could be accessed. Development in flood plains is very limited and so they either couldn’t develop that area or they would have to come up with a way to engineer change the flood plain area and go forward. The properties that have been purchased has had those designations on it for quite some time.

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Councilor Flores said my concern is I think there is a development just south of that and that is where there has been some flooding due to the arroyo. I don’t know the years it was before I sat on city council but became aware of it going to community meetings when Ceil Levantino was our councilor in that district and there was an outcry by residents who lived there who had experienced flooding and everybody seems to think that these floods they only happen once in a blue moon but if that blue moon happens to be me, I am going to care about it. It’s going to affect a woman, an elderly couple who I think was Mr. and Mrs. White. I think Mr. White passed away from a heart condition that was attributed to the stress of having paid a number of $10,000/$20,000 to prevent flooding to happen and I think it happened a couple of times. My concern always is for the wellbeing of people and safety. Have there been any studies and of the proximity and development of homes that would be built there to the arroyo and I know that no one can predict when that arroyo would run but I know that right now it’s just like a huge dry gulch. So, has the city taken all necessary steps to ensure that in the event there is any deluge that the homes there, the roads would be safe?

David Weir said I think what you are is expressing is one of the reasons we wanted to be sure and go forward with this blueprint plan. There is no development proposed for this property at all right now. The plan just calls out that the city recognizes the future development, those things would be looked at so in the development process that if any flood area or any development would take place it would have to be reviewed and the desire is the plan could be utilized to not only make sure that there is quality development here but we would advance or we would learn from other past developments. I think the area you are talking about is the arroyo on this side.

Councilor Flores asked is this near Los Amigos?

David Weir said no, this is the Walmart, Eastside Walmart.

Councilor Flores asked but the arroyo still abuts with that side so?

David Weir said correct but those more detailed flood analysis take place when there is actual a subdivision or a building permit for a property in that area and at that time they would have to address the way that they would either stay out of that flood area or take measures to make sure that there wouldn’t be additional damage.

Councilor Flores said it seems to me that a lay person such as myself who isn’t familiar with this, yes it’s wonderful that it is consistent with Realize Las Cruces but it is still very close to the arroyo there, the road. You said that the green lines are proposed or potential roadways. That is still very close.

David Weir said again I think that is the reason we wanted to do these blueprints for those types of issues come up before development is even proposed to you and they are aware of what they are going to have to deal with. It puts not only the property owner, makes them aware of that but also city staff. We have a public meeting here where you have expressed your concern if the develop that to stay out of the arroyo

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or take every measure possible to ensure there is no damage to properties as to where future development would take place. To me that is the essence as to why we do these plans.

Councilor Flores asked how much weight does my word carry? I am here for just a short period of time. That particular event has been etched in my brain, my heart and this is troublesome to me Mr. Weir to see that. I understand what you just said very clearly that in the event, upon the event that there is development there that all measures will be taken to assure that the flooding doesn’t in any way reach the homes but as we all know we don’t control water. We don’t control an outburst and that is why on the other side that happened to several people, but it was the ones that

I had met that particular day and it had a horrible impact on them and they had put their life’s savings into something that was recommended and it still didn’t work and their house flooded not once but twice. So, this sort of stuff is just problematic to me. I don’t know exactly, with all due respect to the department and to the Planning and

Zoning Commission, I don’t know if they are aware of the history of that arroyo. I think that we take it for granted that, but we think it’s just dry there will never be a deluge. I just hope that when the time comes for development the city does keep an eye on that the safety concern. Councilor Becki Graham moved, seconded by Councilor Johana Bencomo, to

Approve Resolution No. 24-080.

SECONDER: Councilor Johana Bencomo

Councilor Johana Bencomo, and Councilor Becky Corran

NAYS: Councilor Yvonne Flores

ABSENT: Councilor William Mattiace 9.2 RESOLUTION NO. 24-081: A RESOLUTION APPROVING AN AMENDMENT

TO PROFESSIONAL SERVICE AGREEMENT 19-20-077A POLICE

AUDITOR SERVICES, WITH MICHAEL J. GENNACO DBA OIR GROUP,

LLC, OF PLAYA DEL REY, CALIFORNIA, ADDING UP TO FOUR (4)

COMMUNITY OUTREACH MEETINGS PER FISCAL YEAR (PROCUREMENT NO. 19-20-077A). Virginia Barela, Buyer gave the overhead presentation.

Councilor Flores asked the first dotted amendment, up to four community outreach meetings per fiscal year, where would those community outreach meetings be held?

Chief Jeremy Story, Police Department said the language is fairly open so that we can be flexible, but they will be held in Las Cruces. It may be in Council Chambers or at another location around the city.

Councilor Flores asked it could be in different districts, council districts and who would make that decision?

Chief Jeremy Story said per the contract they can be anywhere in the City of Las

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Cruces. I will defer to City Manager.

Ifo Pili, City Manager said we wanted to be in an area that would be accessible to have a set up like this. Preference would be council chambers but of course we haven’t talked about where around the city if we can. If there is an area within the city where we can get more participation, we will certainly go there. At this point we have contemplated council chambers. There are four, two of them coordinate with the time they come here and visit and give their reports.

Councilor Flores said there would be four in addition to the two when they present to council.

Ifo Pili said yes.

Councilor Bencomo said just reading on the packet on exhibit B there is a list of the kind of meetings that will be held. I imagine this came from the contractor or did this come from OIR?

Virginia Barela said yes, the original list was part of the original contract of the type of meetings.

Councilor Bencomo said where it says meetings, it says City Leadership Police Chief, and command staff, community leaders, and other stakeholders. Goal is to gain perspective on status of Police Department and identify its specific concerns and then gather input from the department. These four meetings could be community meetings.

They could be meetings with staff, with the department. That is what these four meetings, up to four meetings would include?

Ifo Pili said this is in response to the community wanting an opportunity to address this group with transparency and being able to have the communication directly with the OIR group.

Councilor McClure asked would these be recorded?

Ifo Pili said we haven’t even talked about that if we are going to record them or not.

Councilor Bencomo said I think if it’s a public meeting then it should be recorded.

Chief Jeremy Story said we did discuss it. Of course, there is pros and cons for everything. One thing that did come up if we record the meetings, it might discourage certain residents from coming and voicing their concerns. If they felt that there was a recorded record it is just something to consider. I am neutral either way because there are pros and cons.

Councilor Corran said I just want to thank you for reupping this and revisiting it and readding the transparency component. I just sort of want to speak back to the idea of why we are working with OIR and what it has meant. I think as far as community

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engagement goes I think that you all have seen the LCPD has been doing extraordinary work on this front and I think that I am really optimistic about the ways that Chief Story and his leadership have been working on thinking of community engagement and proactive understanding of how policing happens in our community and so I just want to appreciate you all and the way that you have worked with OIR to make changes has been something really interesting and powerful and I thank you for being reflective in that way and the way that you all are leading. I think this is a productive relationship that we have, and I appreciate the Chief’s willingness to continue on and expand that in this way. Councilor Becki Graham moved, seconded by Councilor Becky Corran, to

Approve Resolution No. 24-081.

ABSENT: Councilor William Mattiace 9.3 RESOLUTION NO. 24-082: A RESOLUTION TO AWARD A

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE AGREEMENT FOR METROPOLITAN

REDEVELOPMENT AREA PLAN DEVELOPMENT SERVICES TO PLACES

SOUTHWEST INC. DBA SITES SOUTHWEST LTC CO., OF

ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $220,482.00, PLUS GROSS RECEIPTS TAX AS APPLICABLE (PROCUREMENT NO. 22-23-015). Virginia Barela, Buyer gave the overhead presentation.

Councilor Bencomo said I have a couple of questions on the process and really it’s just not to place blame on anybody or anything or specific person but I do just want to name from my end just my concerns about how long it took just for us to get here and

I know that revitalization, I know we have a new council, I do know that it has been a big priority for the city because I think we all know that what happens on El Paseo,

South Solano, West Picacho, what happens or what doesn’t happens impacts the rest of the city. And often I am like it’s not our money we have to do our due diligence as we move through these processes because it’s not my money to spend. We have to be careful and sometimes I do get frustrated about some of these pieces and how slow they are moving. Especially even last year during the Legislative session we had a huge win on the MRA and how we can make an even bigger impact. I still want to reiterate that at least this revitalization is key priority for me. Now that being said I know that this is just for the El Paseo/South Solano corridor. Can you talk about West

Picacho? I don’t want to be leaving at the end of my term and just then West Picacho is coming up to an RFP. I know that when we last approved both of these areas, we said we would stager them. one with that given all the data that it was presented form the MRA, the initial assessment we said El Paseo/South Solano would be a priority. I wanted to ask city publicly if you had any ideas around when the West Picacho RFP would be moving forward.

Chris Faivre, Deputy Director Economic Development said today we are approving

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the contract for El Paseo/South Solano. On the 7th we are actually going to SAC to start the procurement process for the West Picacho MRA. My hope is that we can go through the process through the springtime and by the summertime we will be back here with another contract with consultants to begin that process sometime later in the summer or early in the fall.

Councilor Bencomo said I appreciate it even especially and I know you have mentioned this before in a public meeting around the cannabis dollars and there is just such a big opportunity there to really get these going before, they start making their own money essentially and I think the staggered process works well. I also wanted to ask around or maybe our City Manager if there are dedicated staff that are sort of leading the MRA projects forward and if there is not I would like to add advocacy for that right now.

Ifo Pili, City Manager said I know Chris and his team have been essentially leading the way. I don’t know if we have anybody, say an MRA staff member that has been designated as the MRA person and I don’t know if there is anybody else within your

Economic Development Department that have been helpful or assigned specifically but as of now, we don’t have an MRA designated person.

Councilor Bencomo said I just ask because I don’t know why for me it took this long to get here on this but I don’t want to it to fall through the cracks and so I really do hope that we can designate some folks to lead the project.

Chris Faivre said I do have with me Blairre Flores, she is our newest member of our

Economic Development Department. She is an Economic Development Coordinator who will be working specifically within the MRAs. So, while it will be a coordinated effort among staff, she will be the point person between business development, the consultants, the community and ultimately back to city council. So right now, she is in the process of going out, meeting with all the businesses, establishing that database and those connections so that when the public input does begin early in the process and continues throughout, she will be a good point person to liaison between the consultants and the community and get the businesses engaged. It’s not an official title as MRA, she is an Economic Development Coordinator, but she will be leading those efforts and then as we move from one MRA to another she will also move around and reprioritize the areas in which she is working with. Councilor Becky Corran moved, seconded by Councilor Yvonne Flores, to

Approve Resolution No. 24-082.

MOVER: Councilor Becky Corran

SECONDER: Councilor Yvonne Flores

ABSENT: Councilor William Mattiace 9.4 COUNCIL BILL NO. 24-019; ORDINANCE NO. 3061: AN ORDINANCE

AMENDING CHAPTER 27, TRAFFIC, ARTICLE I AND ARTICLE VI OF THE

LAS CRUCES MUNICIPAL CODE (LCMC) 1997 BY ADDING NEW

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DEFINITIONS AND REGULATION OF ELECTRIC VEHICLE CHARGING

PARKING SPACES Lisa LaRocque, Sustainability Officer gave the overhead presentation.

Councilor Graham asked if you are in good faith charging your electric vehicle but then you are like I am just going to stay parked here, is that what this standing part refers to? So, what happens if you are an EV and you have faithfully charged your EV but then you are just not coming back and technically you are not icing the spot you are EVing the spot, is that what the standing part refers to?

Lisa LaRocque said not in this case. It would just mean that you were idling, is what standing is but I feel your pain and there is something that we do as a city and since this is a recorded I hope others learn from this but the common practice is that if you are still plugged in which you would be because you have not returned you get a parking charge. So, let’s say it cost you $2 in electricity for each hour that you are there while you are charging you will still pay another $2. So, they are not getting a free ride they are paying for a parking. I agree with you though that it is inappropriate because they are not leaving it open for other EV folks, but the other thing is that most apps that you use will tell you, hey your charge is up and there is a fine or there is an additional fee. There is a lot of times that you can even reserve an upcoming spot, so the nasty grams are even more encouraging to move.

Councilor Corran said first of all $56 seems like a great number. I just got a $35 ticket at NMSU, and I am 100% going to park illegally again there I am sure, I take my chances. Bring it, $35 is not enough to change my behavior but $56 sounds like something I should rethink but I did want to sort of just talk about this just to make sure folks understand the context while we are happy that many of these businesses have EV charging stations can folks call codes on like at Chick-fil-A, this is really for our city parking spots, right? The private businesses we are happy for them, but they are going to have to regulate this on their own. I might recommend $100 tickets for them but that is correct, right?

Lisa LaRocque sad I believe so, yes.

Councilor Corran said while it is good to know where those are at the businesses, but this ordinance does not go into that domain. Please don’t call the police on an electric car at Chick-fil-A.

Lisa LaRocque said yes, private property is just that.

Councilor Flores asked can you go back to page 3? So, the fee is $56 for being there beyond the time of charging, is that correct?

Lisa LaRocque said yes. If you are not actively charging.

Councilor Flores asked so you can leave your car there if it takes a couple of hours you can go to the Saturday Market or whatever if it is downtown? How would you

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determine or the enforcement person what would they look at?

Lisa LaRocque said you are right. That is what you can see, the charging.

Councilor Flores said I think this is great. I think it is a fair thing to do but the only thing

I would ask for is that the word really gets out because you are absolutely correct.

There are people who are parked in those and especially that little grid between

Griggs and that little alley like between Griggs and Main Street. People are parked there and it’s not even an EV. So, I think this would be good since this is a new ordinance. So when would it go into effect? So, say it passes today, when does it become law?

Lisa LaRocque said one thing I was going to do was to get signage that identifies that this will be a fee if you do park illegally. You will be fined if you park incorrectly, and we will send a press release out for that. I don’t know if there should be a time lag for this. It is a pretty common-sense practice.

Councilor Flores said I think proposed ordinances or local laws do have a date.

Mayor Enriquez said it is in the packet here, it says April 1, it goes into effect.

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

Approve Ordinance No. 3061.

10. BOARD APPOINTMENTS 10.1 BEVERLY DRUM Councilor Becky Corran moved, seconded by Councilor Cassie McClure, to

Appoint Beverly Drum to the Veterans Advisory Board.

SECONDER: Councilor Cassie McClure

11. 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).

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11.1 COUNCIL BILL NO. 24-020; ORDINANCE NO. 3062: AN ORDINANCE

AUTHORIZING THE ISSUANCE AND SALE OF CITY OF LAS CRUCES,

NEW MEXICO, TAXABLE GENERAL OBLIGATION IMPROVEMENT

BONDS, SERIES 2024, IN THE PRINCIPAL AMOUNT OF $6,000,000,

PAYABLE FROM AD VALOREM TAXES LEVIED ON ALL TAXABLE

PROPERTY WITHIN THE CITY, LEVIED WITHOUT LIMIT AS TO RATE OR

AMOUNT; PROVIDING FOR THE FORM, CERTAIN TERMS AND

CONDITIONS OF THE BONDS, THE MANNER OF THEIR EXECUTION,

AND THE METHOD OF AND SECURITY FOR PAYMENT THEREOF;

PROVIDING FOR THE METHOD OF SALE OF THE BONDS PURSUANT TO

A PUBLIC COMPETITIVE SALE; PROVIDING FOR THE MATURITY DATES

AND AMOUNTS, INTEREST RATES, PRICES, REDEMPTION FEATURES

AND OTHER FINAL TERMS OF THE BONDS TO BE ESTABLISHED IN AN

AWARD CERTIFICATE; DELEGATING AUTHORITY TO THE CITY

MANAGER AND CITY FINANCIAL SERVICES DIRECTOR TO AWARD THE

BONDS TO THE PURCHASER; AND PROVIDING FOR OTHER DETAILS

CONCERNING THE BONDS. Council agreed to bring it forward.

12. CITY COUNCIL MEMBER BOARD REPORTS AND COMMENT 12.1 COUNCILOR MCCLURE I really feel for the need that people really need to advocate for different issues and I feel like if the United States had a Universal Health Care a lot of these issues, frankly heart-breaking issues would get resolved and helped.

12.2 COUNCILOR GRAHAM I would like to thank amazing community advocate Athena Huckabee. We are having some really great meetings about some really hard problems that we are all facing as a community, and it is refreshing to see people working so hard and also hard solutions. I am not a pickleball expert but I have been at pickleball meetings and one thing that was kind of revelatory to me, from what I understand the dealing with pickleball versus tennis is the line configuration on the courts. So, they have different areas and that would acquire different lines and obviously painting a lot of different lines is kind of a no go because it gets really confusing, taping different lines is problematic. I am looking toward Sonya because I think you told me this. When you take the tape up and then all the sticky gunk is left over then dirt collects on said sticky gunk and makes a cleaning problem. However, there are I am going to say vinyl, I don’t know if it is actually vinyl, there are plastic overlays that you can bring to any area, put down and you have this insta pickleball court. I know this is probably not up to Pickleball Olympic standards or whatever, but it is a nice temporary solution where we could dedicate a different sporting court to say a pickleball tournament.

Again, I’m sure there are problems with the vinyl overlay but that is something that I feel was presented to me an hour into a pickleball meeting that I am like wow bury the lead there that was a pretty easy solution. So anyways, look into these things with pickleball.

Finally, just a shoutout and a plug, I am sure a lot of people who follow local boxing

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and fighting that Austin Trout our former WBA Champion who started his career at the

Las Cruces PAL Boxing Gym, come out any night, I am there volunteering and I am happy to throw punches with you, for you, at you. Austin got his start there and he won a belt over the weekend in Bareknuckle Fighting Championship Welterweight

Class which is just an incredible move up in a new form of fighting for him and I was delighted to see him still repping Las Cruces even though he is not living here full time anymore. Shoutout Austin No Doubt Trout, still our champ and just wanted to acknowledge that and see where you can go when you start off in Las Cruces PAL

Boxing. 12.3 COUNCILOR CORRAN I will third that Universal Health Care, so we are on our way to making it happen.

Tomorrow, we don’t have a TSI PRC and I know our PRC members are really excited and some folks who are hear today and often come to our TSI PRC so I just want to say that we are on a hiatus with a planned future to be determined but we don’t have a meeting tomorrow morning at 8:30 so I didn’t want folks to show up who often do.

The other thing that I wanted to highlight is I wanted to thank Letty and Deb who are two folks organizing a neighborhood watch in Metro Verde and in my district and they have been working with Officer Velasco who has sort of set that up and it is really sweet to see folks carrying about their neighborhood to see how well LCPD can support them and just watch this magic happen because it is also just really interesting. My district is different from other folks’ districts in that the average age might be a bit older than other places but for me one of the more exciting things is that to see people of different generations coming together to look out for their neighborhood in different ways. I think it is really cool to see that neighborhood watch coming along so I really just wanted to show gratitude to LCPD for helping that happen and giving that space and to the community organizers that are really thinking about how to support their neighborhood and support their neighbors and build community. 12.4 COUNCILOR FLORES Following up with what Councilor Graham said about Universal Health Care, I totally agree with that. I don’t understand why we don’t have Universal Health Care. You would think that it would be a moral duty to provide especially since we tout ourselves as being one of the most advanced nations in the world and when I hear that I think well I pity the rest of the world because when it comes to healthcare it’s terrible, it’s dismal and think Yoli has made it very clear to us and I really want to applaud her for not letting up and for those of you who don’t know she started up CARE, I don’t know what the acronym is but its cancer related in helping people and actually it comes out of her own pocket. We encouraged her to get a non-profit status so that she can get some money. I think she might have done that. Nonetheless, for Mr. Pili our City

Manager I know that you sit on the board at Memorial Medical and I think some of the concerns that she has brought up have been, it’s not the first time we hear that and since you sit on the board, I think it is advisory though, right? It’s not a board of directors but its advisory but they got set up because of the Telshor Fund or that was part of the deal and I don’t know if Yoli if she had a proposal or she mentioned a JPA with the County because the County also has an advisory seat on that board but I think that is something we can look into Mr. Pili because it is just pitiful to hear and it

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was interesting that I believe it was all women who came up to talk about their plights and it is interesting that they shared that they work, they have kids, they have this, they have that. And also getting inadequate medical care because I think there were one to two woman who came up and said that they actually had a different kind of cancer or something but at any rate I think that the City of Las Cruces has been in the forefront of caring for its residents, its people and I think this is another way that we can make sure that these people who live in the area and the county can at least get a modicum of medical care.

The other event is I think most of us were up in Sante Fe trying to get money for the things that we want to have improve here in our city and in my humble opinion our meeting with the Governor’s Office Tuesday but that was a very good meeting then it was scheduled with the Governor, but we didn’t meet with her. It was one of her top aides Jesse Guillen who was very accepting and was very receptive to what we were asking for. He asked a lot of questions because when we are asking for money, they want to know what have you done? What are you doing and how can we augment that? Because they don’t want these pie in the sky proposals that don’t have any track record. So, I think all of us contributed to because we are asking for the Amador

Crossing money and we all spoke to the existing facilities there and I think he was genuinely impressed with the fact that we have Jardin de Los Ninos, we have the clinic there. I forgot to mention the soup kitchen but at any rate he didn’t know what part of the city it was in and so he asked a lot of questions. I am hoping that we do get our money. The money that we have asked for from the Governor’s Office and it wasn’t that cold in Santa Fe and it snowed like a week or so ago and so we were spared and in fact it became warm in our warm jackets but I will have to say that it was really a pleasure being up there with our troop and the members there.

12.5 COUNCILOR BENCOMO Also ditto on Universal Health Care. What does that mean, there is consensus? I also wanted to speak to that because I think these stories are incredibly heartbreaking and a lot more common than we realize. I am currently reading a book called Poverty by

America by Matthew Desmond that I highly recommend. A lot of it is not anything new. Things that we already knew about this country and our welfare system and how deeply broken but it is but it is a really stark revelation how in this country it is incredibly difficult to escape poverty. Yet we have made it incredibly easy to remain very wealthy and I really resent some folks attempt to pit poor folks against each other in this room around not having health care, providing GBI. Like there is this attempt to pit poor folks against each other when the reality is that the systems that keep people in poverty are the same systems that keep people uninsured or having to go bankrupt because they are not insured and the for-profit health care system frankly doesn’t care about anybody actually whether you are wealthy or not and I especially resent that. Pitting poor folks against each other because just this morning the Senate passed a giant bill that including $60 billion to military aid to Ukraine, $14 billion to

Israel, and $20 billion to border security so the fact that we have money to take care of people and it depends on where you want to use it. I always say that budgets are moral documents and I hope we can keep this in mind while we go to our very own budget retreat next week and that budgets are moral documents, and they should represent what you care about in your community.

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I also really wanted to thank Mayor Enriquez, Milissa who is our Court Manager at

Municipal Court and our new Municipal Judge Anthony Filosa who I am just really impressed by both of them. They have incredible ideas on how to streamline the court system for how to make it more effective for everyone involved. For people who are facing the justice system, our officers, attorneys, everybody involved, and I am really excited for the things that we discussed on Friday and to bring those ideas forward to the council. I hope we get an opportunity to talk about them at the Budget Retreat because I think they are definitely a priority, it’s a piece of the puzzle for solving some of the issues our people have brought here today. Gun violence is very scary in our neighborhoods and so not that that would even go to Municipal Court, but I do think it is an important place to intervene early with many folks.

I did want to thank Chief Story and his staff for the townhall event that they had a couple of weeks ago. I was not present personally, but I watched online and I just really wanted to convey my gratitude for that kind of event and looking forward to more now that we amended this OIR contract.

I went to the LCU banquet with Councilor McClure and the rest of the LCU commission last Wednesday we celebrated people who have been in the department for five years, ten years, fifteen years, twenty, twenty-five years, and it was really beautiful to even see some of the folks that had recently retired from the department, so I think that that is just really beautiful.

I also just wanted to give a quick shoutout to our Legislators for their incredible hard work in this 30 day session but I especially and I have told him many times I just want to commend Larry our lobbyist because without him I would literally be walking around lost in a circle and so last Friday I was there and he took Natalie Green and I around and Nicole Martinez and we talked to so many Legislators and it really only because of him and the relationships that he has and so I think. He is a good choice for us and is very hard working.

My last request is that we soon put the PRC discussion on a Work Session so that we can begin talking about how we move forward with PRCs and all of that so I would just request that we put that in a Work Session pretty soon.

12.6 MAYOR ENRIQUEZ I just want to state we do value the public input. A lot of these things, the issues that are brought up we do value. I think we need to really look at how we structure public participation and we will continue to work on that but the feedback that we get is no different from, I will echo as Councilor Flores and Mayor Pro Tem said we were all in

Santa Fe last week for the Las Cruces Days and a lot of the issues that we are advocating for are a lot of these issues. Whether it is real time crime lab, whether its mobile integrated in the mental crisis treatment, all of these issues that they bring forward, affordable housing, the East Mesa Sports Complex, we are advocating for these for our Legislators to get that external funding so that we can help finish these projects for all these issues that are brought up and I want to thank staff and the City

Manager, those who went out there also and the Chiefs that were out there

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advocating and lobbying for our community to get the things that we need that we hear from the public that we want to address so thank you and a shoutout to Mandy

Guss and her Communications Department as we delivered those they did a video of all the requests and it was well done. It was really good that when the schools and

NMSU, the Las Cruces Public Schools Superintendent went up there and said we need to step up our game. So, Mandy, thank you for making us look good and setting the bar.

I also want to say kudos to an Officer from the Las Cruces Police Department, De la

Garza for coordinating the run yesterday. They had a run. They had a large participation for the fallen officer, New Mexico State Police Jarrod so it was well done.

I hope that I can attend next year if the make it an annual function. It was in his honor and the De la Garza was there and even got wounded during that scene and said how it had changed his life and I appreciate him stepping up and showing the commitment and to this community and showing that we really do care for our police officers that are out there really fighting the crime so thank you for that.

13. CITY MANAGER REPORT 13.1 IFO PILI Just a couple of things, I have been doing this a lot lately just some things with my reports that I can address quickly from earlier comments by council or the public. I want to talk about the Active Transportation Planner because I also want to advertise that as well as we are publicly looking for this position to be filled. I know we had an individual earlier on when I first got here, and it has been a hard position to fill. Two individuals were offered and rejected the offer, and so we are going back. I know it was suggested that we go and use a firm to go out and actually recruit and use some of the other positions that we had. I think it was Councilor McClure that had that idea and I think if we do that, we may have a little bit more success. I do want the public to know that we are looking but also to let you know if there is interest out there. It seems that we have a lot of advocates maybe we could hire some of them or one of them. So, I wanted to mention that we are still in process, and I know there had been conversation on the Aquatic Center and I know last time I mentioned that we are hoping that we get the part in by the 22nd of January. Latest update is that it has not come in yet and we are still waiting on that.

I know Mrs. Diaz has come several times with concerns regarding Memorial. We have talked to Memorial and talked to John, Mr. Harris to come to City Council and have

Work Session to report and be able to address these issues himself. So, he has agreed to do that. So, when they have a board meeting coming up soon and we will get a date to where he can come to the council. It is an advisory board which we sit on. It really doesn’t mean a whole lot but certainly we can have those conversations and address the issues.

This was hot off the press, I was reminded when Councilor Graham talked about our hometown hero Mr. Trout. This wasn’t even sent as an update it was just an FYI that they are looking to Las Cruces to be his first match to defend his title. They are looking to bring it to Las Cruces. That is not anything solid yet but they are looking

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somewhere in August and so I think he will be defending his title in Las Cruces. We can throw a big parade for him if that happens here.

Visit Las Cruces has launched its annual Scenic Southern Social Media Photo

Contest. The campaign runs from February 1st to 29th and encourages visitors and locals to take photos of their outdoor experience and post with #scenicsouthernnm2024 for a chance to win prizes. More information can be found at visitlascruces.com. Also save the date for MIRA Las Cruces Fest 2024. This is our second year to be held April 27 at the Plaza de Las Cruces and downtown areas. This year’s headline is Grupo Control, a nationally recognized norteno group with roots in the borderland. More details to come on visitlascruces.com.

From our Parks and Rec, Youth Basketball registration opens online February 8th from 9 to 4 p.m. Youth Cheer registration opens February 22nd noon to 8 p.m. The annual Father/Daughter dance will take place on February 9th, a Night for a Princess at the Frank O’Brien Papen Community Center.

As you know Larry Horan sends reports. I just wanted to share some highlights from his last report. I appreciate the opportunity to go as well, and I think we will see how productive our visits were. I appreciate everybody that went up as well. The Session has passed its halfway point and so January 31st was the last day of bill introductions so there was a total of 658 bills and 97 memorials and resolutions. The budget has passed the house and is now in the Senate where it will be changed. All the

Legislators have funded their capital outlay or port project and now they will begin hearing bills in earnest and the House considered some gun bills and clean fuel on

Saturday night, apparently, they didn’t adjourn until 3:20 a.m. A couple of items we asked him to watch as well, Paid Family Medical Leave passed at second committee yesterday in the Senate and now heads to the Senate floor for a vote. Senate Bill 16

Criminal Competency in the house version were both heard in committee. The house version moved on with a no recommendation and the Senate Bill received a due pass out of committee. However, there was a lot of discussion. They are saying there seems to be technical drafting issues with the bills to be an uphill climb to pass this year apparently and additionally Senate Bill 236 a fix to the MRA statute passed. It’s in first committee and likely have a second hearing on Thursday.

14. ADJOURNMENT 14.1 Councilor Johana Bencomo moved, seconded by Councilor Yvonne Flores, to adjourn at 3:39 p.m.

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Mayor

City Clerk

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