City Council Meeting December 15, 2025 MINUTES City Council Monday, December 15, 2025 @ 1:00 PM City Council Chambers, City Hall PRESENT: Mayor Eric Enriquez, City Councilor - District 1 Cassie McClure, City Councilor - District 2 William Mattiace, Councilor Becki Graham, City Councilor - District 4 Johana Bencomo, City Councilor - District 5 Becky Corran, and Councilor Yvonne Flores ABSENT: 1. OPENING CEREMONIES 1.1 PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE - COUNCILOR CORRAN. 1.2 PRESENTATION OF CERTIFICATES OF APPRECIATION/PROCLAMATIONS - COUNCILOR CORRAN. None. 1.3 RECOGNITION OF OUTGOING CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS. Mayor Enriquez recognized Councilor Yvonne Flores for her term on city council. Mayor Enriquez recognized Councilor Becki Graham for her term on city council. 1.4 JOBS OF THE WEEK. Sarah Raney, Americas Job Centers of New Mexico presented Jobs of the Week. 1.5 PETS OF THE WEEK. Carol Nielson, 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 Councilor Mattiace said I will have to recuse myself, I believe it is item 7.5, my daughter is employed, Dr. Lauren Mattiace with the Amador Clinics. 3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION 3.1 Lynn Moorer, Member of the Public said in the spirit of doing our civic duty and helping protect public health we citizens have raised issues about the city’s compliance with the Lead and Copper Rule, pointed out deficiencies, always citing EPA guidance or other authority and ask questions. Only one deficiency has been properly corrected that we know of. The inventory map now uses the appropriate symbol when at least one service line is unknown. However no other deficiency or issue has been properly addressed that we are aware of and none of our questions have been answered. Nor has the Utilities Director explained how she thinks we are mistaken on any point. We have asked that answers to our questions be posted on the City’s website. However, not one has been answered either on the website or by any other method. Las Cruces Utilities says it only looks in the meter box to determine the type of piping and uses no other techniques to investigate. By contrast EPA recognizes that some piping may be lead lined, lining which is not evident by just looking at the exterior of the pipe in the meter box. For example, EPA requires that a lead lined galvanized service line be defined as a lead service line which must be replaced, see Handout 1. How can the city comply with this requirement if it doesn’t use any technique capable of determining whether the piping has lining and if so, what it is made of. The six licensed plumbers I have consulted say that there could be lead lined piping that the city is overlooking in its inspection because the only technique they are using is looking at the outside of the piping. It appears that the city’s exclusive use of this inadequate pipe inspection technique is itself noncompliant with the rule and it appears that it is leaving the city to noncompliance with other aspects of EPA’s requirements. These noncompliance’s could mean that lead that is unsafe at any level is being left to lurk throughout the city’s piping and to harm the health of all of us especially our children, our unborn children and our seniors. This is unacceptable. Utilities staffers troubling pattern to failing to get the numbers right that I outlined for you on October 6th and on December 1st, then failing to acknowledge their mistakes honestly appears to follow the City Manager’s example. His use of numerous euphemisms at the last meeting when explaining the City’s failure to get the General Fund numbers right came across as rather mendacious. “We had an overstatement in numbers.” “There was a misalignment that affected our budget reserve.” We are not expecting anyone to wear a hairshirt in penance, but we deserve straight forward honesty that mistakes were made and to hear specifically how they will be corrected. Evasive statements like the City Managers do not denote honesty. Nor do they engender trust. Liz Rodriguez-Johnson, Member of the Public said we citizens have asked numerous questions of the city regarding our water piping city wide and how the city is implementing the Lead and Copper Rule. We have asked that answers to our questions be posted on the city’s Lead and Copper website. That hasn't happened. As I mentioned at a previous meeting EPA does in fact expect water systems to engage meaningfully with the public and provide information about all aspects of their activities, particularly with respect to the rule. I have more questions today that Las Cruces Utilities has a responsibility to answer. To help the Utilities Department get going we have prepared a list of questions we posed previously that need to be answered. Handout A also includes the new ones outlined today. We have also included on this list the five request that we have made over the past year that are likely to improve the Utilities Department’s customer service and its compliance with the rule. We again request that the department step up to its responsibilities and provide factual complete answers to each of these questions and post them on the website. If the department doesn’t know an answer to a question it should just say so or research to find the answer. How far back do city records go in documenting the material used for water lines, both city owned water pipes and customer owned pipes? To what extent are Las Cruces Utilities’ records for water pipes throughout the city digitized? Roughly what percentage of Las Cruces Utilities water pipes records provide no information or unclear information regarding pipe material including connectors? Roughly what percentage of Las Cruces Utilities water pipe records provide no information or unclear information regarding installation date? Roughly how much will replacement of a service line that is lead or galvanized piping at a single family residence cost? What is a reasonable price range? When and how often does Las Cruces Utilities sample drinking water and properties to check for lead and/or copper? Where are these results published? What happens if the action level of ten parts per billion for lead or thirteen hundred parts per billion for copper is exceeded for any sample? Who gets notified and how soon? What actions are taken in response? Dolores Lucero, Member of the Public said as the calendar year is wrapping up I wanted to come and thank Councilor Graham and Councilor Flores for your service to the city of Las Cruces. As one who knows how difficult it is first of all, to put your name on a ballot and then fill your term at this dais it is not at all what it looks like from this side of the room. It takes a lot out of you in and disrupts whatever your normal life is. So, I thank you from me to you as I know how you will feel come January. I was not always the most supportive of all of your projects, but I can honestly say that 9 out of 10 were satisfactory to me of your decisions but I think putting differences aside today I should publicly thank you. On a second note, I would to give praise and support to Chief Story for the outstanding job he and his department are doing to work through the processes and lack of process that has affected our city. I know that there was a disagreement about the presentation that was made by the Chief at the Farm and Ranch and what I saw was a leader wanting the best for the majority and safety of everyone. All of the council was invited, and I heard the Mayor himself give full support of the presentation. Let me ask, have you ever thought of what it must be like to walk into contentious situations several times a week where there are victims of domestic violence, vandalism, rape, stabbing, and who knows what else? I know that these officers arrive at these scenes have to take it home with them and live it in their own lives as if it was happening to them. Just last week I was able to visit with a victim after being stabbed almost to death while minding his own business and now is afraid to be out at all but he told me of the officers who arrived and have cared about him rendering aid and still continued to reach out every day. Remember every incident there will be always family and friends that will be included in their situation. On a third note, as this budget is now six months old and is just now the City Manager announces a “math error” to the tune of millions without a word to the public before hand until the media reported the situation is not acceptable Mr. Manager. Although you have capable staff you are the one who is responsible to know what is happening all around and your obligation to be transparent to the public. The buck literally stops with you. Today I ask the city of Las Cruces residents to join me in a vote of no confidence in your ability to safely and physically lead our city into the future. Juan Garcia, Member of the Public said first of all I would like to thank Councilor Graham and Flores for their service to our community and I wish them the best in their whatever comes next. At the last council meeting the MPT, Mayor Pro Tem was clearly irritated that Chief Story, dared to “share his priorities” with the community. So, borrowing her own words, let’s hash this out in the open. Since that is what we should do. I appreciate the Chief’s willingness to show up. Whether it is this morning’s presentation to the Legislative Taskforce or his regular appearances at CCIA meetings and other public forums. He is just not visible, he is transparent. Giving the community straight answers about the crime problems we are up against. Now it is up to the legislators who have failed in the past to actually respond. Recent headlines in the local news, “Las Cruces sees drop in juvenile arrests rising violent crime severity, however he, DA Macias noted that the legal process is more complex due to the offenders ages requiring a Judge’s determination that are not amendable to juvenile treatment”. Does this really make sense? The reality is that our political and judicial system along with the breakup of the traditional family has failed the community. The real divide isn’t between the council and LCPD, it is between the council, the community and the victims. The victims that are frustrated by the lack of pursuit of real deterrence and consequences. I am glad the issue of juvenile crime and repeat offenders is now considered in the city’s legislative priorities and I continue. Given that this is a public matter, we should discuss. Albuquerque Journal editorial takes issue with trial lawyers lobbying group. “The ABJ editorial raised concerns about a trial lawyers lobbying organization to clarify, there aren’t any allegations of wrongdoing. Still similar articles should call attention to the fact that a current councilor and Mayor Pro Tem Johana Bencomo is serving as the Executive Director of NMSOP”. The piece states, “this being the group that is funded primarily by plaintiff attorneys speaks forcefully against reforming the states medical malpractice laws”. It is not good optics. The distinction between a public official and the head of a lobbying group actively resisting malpractice reform which is a major crisis in New Mexico is extremely gory and frankly concerning. The Mayor Pro Tem should consider resigning from her position as a councilor. Leticia Sanchez-Freeman, Member of the Public said I like many other citizens of this community were very concerned with comments made by Mayor Pro Tem and Councilor Bencomo at the end of last week’s city council meeting. Councilor Bencomo you stated “it felt really concerning that Chief Story had a meeting with citizens groups specifically about his own legislative priorities” and “there appears to be a rift between council and LCPD”, but yet you also go on to say “we need to have these public conversations”. So, what you are saying is that it is okay to have these public conversations in City Council Chambers, but it is not okay for the Chief to speak to a group of concerned business owners and citizens? Last year the Neighborhood Watch Captains Group asked him, the Chief, to address us before Special Legislative Session that occurred in July. He educated us so that we in turn could write or call our legislative representatives and demand change. Obviously, based on your rationale Councilor Bencomo you would seem to have a problem with this. Why would you have a problem with concerned citizens being educated in writing to their legislators and demanding change to address the crime in this community? This makes absolutely no sense other than maybe you want to be the one to control things, to control the conversation. Next thing you know, you won’t allow him to have town halls without you. Which actually isn’t a bad idea given that I have seen other councilors at his town halls but not you. Maybe you should attend and have those public conversation with concerned citizens. After the Neighborhood Watch Captains meeting in April, I sent each member of the council, including the City Manager the briefings by each of the captains about the crime in their area. Did you bother to acknowledge, much less respond and have a conversation with us about our concerns? No, you didn’t. If there is a rift between LCPD and city council, it certainly isn’t because of Chief Story. He has sat through countless council meetings listening to the anti-police group call him out for doing his job and calling him and LCPD murderers on top of that. Chief Story has gone above and beyond to do something positive to address the crime and bring attention to this problem that is destroying this community. You should be grateful instead of calling him out for it. Lonnie Montgomery, Member of the Public said I am a follower of Jesus Christ. I want you to know that God loves and I love you too. And if we hadn’t done away with prayer in here I would like to have one please. Most gracious heavenly Father, we thank you for the council. We ask that you send blessings down on them with wisdom and discernment that they can do their jobs to their best of their ability and to the best for the citizens of Las Cruces, Amen. But today I have a report in the riff raff and it is on US History. The history of the United States did not begin 1619 because that is when some slaves were brought to America. Slavery had been in America long before 1619. The Native Americans fought each other and enslaved each other long before Europeans came in and discovered America and explored it and they came in and they brought religion to the people here from Spain and other areas and intermarried with the Native Americans producing the Chicanos, the students that I taught in Zia in the 1980s and the 1990s. These explores attributed greatly to the history of America, but they did not create the country. The US was established in the eastern part of America on the latter part of the eighteenth century. They did this by writing the Declaration of Independence. Separating the 13 colonies from England and with the help of God getting through the revolution and writing the constitution by which we govern our government. They set up a republic by writing it and the constitution gave us certain rights and today happens to be the anniversary of the addition of the Bill of Rights to the Constitution, December 15, 1791, they gave them these amendments. The number one amendment, Congress, shall not make a law respecting establishments of religion or prohibiting the free exercise of religion or freedom of speech or the press or the right of the people peacefully to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievance. So that gives us a free speech and gets us to we can speak to anyone we want and that includes our Police Chief. He doesn’t have to go before the council and get permission to speak to his constituents about what he wants and needs to help the people here in Las Cruces and I want to thank him for doing that and I want to thank the councilors that have been here and have contributed to the city of Las Cruces and may you have a happy life after that. Thank you, God Bless you, and God bless us, and God bless America. Mark V, Member of the Public said to continue on what he brought up about slavery. We became a nation in 1776. For our independence in 1800, every nation in the world had slavery. So, we didn’t invent it. I am here because I watched a video of a guy that was criticizing Chief Story for doing his job. I don’t know what kind of fool would criticize a government employee for doing his job. If he brought criticism, it should have been that there is a lack of justice being done in this city and a lack of support for Chief Story. Chief Story is a Marine, they are taught to win, they are taught to improvise, adapt and overcome and he has done that. Well played Chief. Lucas Herndon, Member of the Public said I am that fool. I am a resident of District 2, and I am here once again to complain about Chief Story continuing to act in a partisan manner under which by his job as an employee of the City of Las Cruces he is not allowed to. Last time I brought it up under the State Ethics and I will continue to bring it up because I do believe it violates that but I did a little bit more digging and specifically under the City of Las Cruces Employee Work Rules Procedure Section 600, Sub section 603, line 24, “employees shall not engage in unapproved soliciting or any partisan political activity while on the job”. This morning Chief Story testified in front of a partisan panel of Republicans from the New Mexico House Republican Party and New Mexico Senate Republican Party. That is important to know. This was not an official legislative act. The New Mexico Legislature did not convene this meeting. This was a meeting convened by the Republican Party of New Mexico for their house and senate members of their own volition and if you don’t believe me listen to what they saidover and over and over again, I can’t tell you how many times I heard it this morning but they said this might be a partisan panel but gun violence is not a partisan issue. And you know what? I happen to agree with them. I agree with them on that point, on both of those points. It was a partisan panel, and the Chief was there speaking on behalf of our city. So, these people can believe whatever they want. They can think that he is advocating for them. He is not advocating for me or my friends or my family who believe being a Marine and militarizing the police and posting things on Veteran’s Day with all of the military that have taken over our police force is actually something pretty fucking terrifying. Councilor Mattiace said I object to that vulgarity. Mayor Enriquez said it is noted at the beginning on our headlines all the time. Lucas Herdon said noted. The fact of the vulgarity of a word potentially harms certain people’s ears more than the sense of violence enacted by the police towards the citizens of this city that he is supposedly supposed to represent. As I have brought up time and time again that this state is the most violent state for citizens when it comes to police violence being murdered by the police. That’s statistics. You don’t have to agree with me, you can’t disagree with the numbers. If you are a citizen in the state, you are more likely to be killed by the police than if you lived in any other state. That is a fact. It is also a fact that you have as a city rules on the books prohibiting employees from participating in partisan politics while on the job. That happened today. I don’t know what you want to do about it. Do something. Lisa Parrott, Member of the Public said I am a resident of District 6. Thank you, Councilor Flores, for representing our district. I came to talk about the two meetings that were referred to in the Work Session last week. I attended both of those meetings and Chief Story did nothing but present the criminal statistics of this city and areas that he felt could be improved by the state legislature, including competency. I attended this morning part of the Juvenile Justice Reform Taskforce that was so objectional supposedly and I just thought it was interesting that the Governor had her own cabinet secretary, Honorable Jason Bowie who was the cabinet secretary for the New Mexico Department of Public Safety. She allowed him to attend that meeting today so it must not have been too partisan. So, I think you Chief Story for what you and your department are doing. Craig Churnoff, Member of the Public said I want to talk on two issues. One has to do with your rezoning meeting and the change of the ordinances and the decision to increase density. It has more or less taxed the infrastructure of this city to a degree where it’s falling apart. Look at our streets. Look at Sonora, look at Roadrunner, look at Lohman, look at Sonoma. There is traffic that is being exercised from Metro Verde where the increase in density is most impactful is destroying things. The East Mesa is deteriorating. That is one of your highest areas of tax and one of the wealthiest other than Picacho, which may be out of the city limits. The second issue, Chief Story. He is the best thing to happen to this city in 15 years. Hands down the man if he had the budget he could have the resources. The police would have raises, we would be a destination for police officers. It would be an improvement. We are the second largest city in New Mexico and yet we act like we are number 300. The poverty level, the interest, give the man what he needs so that he can operate efficiently. He is doing the best that he can with what you give him. Budget wise you have hamstrung him. Support him, don’t fight him. The last Police Chief retired inadvertently. This guy takes an interest. He takes a genuine interest in what is happening, where it is going. He has no control over what our state legislature mandates as far as punishments. The legal system is broken in this state. They slap hands. The penalties are not severe enough to make an impression that sticks with people, that makes them think about it. Crime is down, immense crime is up. The youth of this county is out of control. All we seem to be interested in is new dispensaries, tax money, and irrelevant facts that the citizens really don’t care about. Help us improve this city. Don’t drag it down, improve upon it. Support that man. Give him what he wants. Give him what he needs. Diane Starbuck, Member of the Public said I would like to address two items today. The first one is a thank you to Councilor Graham and Flores for your service. Especially with your support for the revised animal ordinance. We appreciate that. The second item is there has been a lot criticism of the police, usually by the left. I would like to say not everyone on the left is against the police. Every encounter that I have had with the police has been polite, professional, considerate even when I have been protesting. I encourage anyone to sign up for Citizens Police Academy, which I heard there is some advertisement that there is starting a new one where you will learn many things including the many situations that the officers have to deal with and the many changes that Chief Story has made to improve the department. Thank you, Chief Story, for your continued leadership. I beseech the community to tone down the rhetoric at a time when we really need to be working together. George Pearson, Member of the Public said the United States Department of Transportation has announced a notice of funding opportunity for Build Grants with a total of $1.5 billion available. These grants are intended for large projects with awards of up to $25 million for a project. I hope the city will take advantage of this opportunity. An ideal application would look at reconstructing El Paseo. We have already spent over a million dollars in planning efforts in the El Paseo corridor. The MRA process identifies the need for safety improvements for bicyclists and pedestrians. This looks like we are some place where the city can take some action and move towards Vision Zero to make Las Cruces a safer community. The deadline for applying for the Build Grant is February 24th. So, it is something that the city will have to move on quickly. Even if we may not have a successful application going through the process can result in feedback that can make a future grant application successful. Let’s not miss this opportunity like we have missed other opportunities such as the TAP, RTP, TPF. Donald Wilson, Member of the Public said I am the current President of VeloCruces, we are bicycling and pedestrian advocacy organization that was founded ten years ago in Las Cruces. Two years ago in October of 2023, we sent a letter to the former Mayor asking that the City of Las Cruces adopt a Vision Zero Target of the year 2035 and join the Vision Zero network. November that year we made this request official during the public comments’ session similar to this one today. Since then, we have approached the city council during public comment sessions and renewed this request on at least four occasions. I am here today once again to request that the City of Las Cruces join countless other government entities in adopting a Vision Zero Target and join in the Vision Zero network. The City of Las Cruces owns most of the roads within the city limits. These roads should be safe for all road users. Those in vehicles, those on foot, those on bicycles, and also for the many public employees that work on the roads. This is an equity issue for the residents of Las Cruces and communities like ours it is not unlikely, it is likely that 30% of the population does not own or operate a motor vehicle. In order for these residents to get around the community they need access to safe roadways for walking and cycling and expanded public transportation. A Vision Zero Target becomes the framework for driving and improvement in road safety. At VeloCruces we think the goal for the city should be zero road user deaths. The State of New Mexico adopted a Vision Zero Target through their Target Zero initiative for all the roads owned by the State of New Mexico. Please add this to the agenda of a future Work Session and then go on record to roads of Las Cruces should be safe to all users. Thank you for listening and your continued service to the residents of Las Cruces. Jim Hoerst, Member of the Public said this city had a tradition of a National Day of Prayer ceremony here on the City Hall grounds. As far as I have been able to determine there were no permits pulled, there was no procedure, it was simply something we did. I think it was informally sponsored by the city. In any case I have a group, and I meet with a group and last year we had a Day of Reason ceremony on this City Hall grounds. There is no standard procedure for reserving these grounds. As a secular group we should have no more restrictions for getting permission to use these grounds as the religious group did. Unless you want to acknowledge that the tradition of a religious ceremony on these grounds was unconstitutional. If you want to say that their meetings were unconstitutional then you can impose a new order on other groups that want to meet here but unless you want to say that the traditions were unconstitutional then you cannot institute new rules that place more burdens on secular groups for using these grounds. The second issue, Chief Story is a Police Chief, he is a city employee. He is not a Sheriff. He has no political office, and he should have no political influence. He is not elected. If you want to elect a Police Chief, then we have a different situation but as of right now he is not elected. He has no more authority politically than I do. He is simply another citizen, and he is even more restricted because he is an employee. Issue number three, our President has made the word fuck part of our political parlance You may not like it but he has , we have freedom of speech when we come here. We can use common political parlance, it is protected. Dan Romero, Member of the Public said I am a resident of Las Cruces. My concerns are the dialogue that Mayor Pro Tem Bencomo stated during the December 8, 2025, meeting at 2:37 p.m. The statement that Mayor Pro Tem discussed was slanderous to Chief Story. She should be censored for the comments she made about a public employee that she has no governance over. Mayor Pro Tem attempted to call out the actions of Police Chief Story’s meeting with the citizens group. I attended that meeting that was discussed by the Mayor Pro Tem. Chief Story gave out statistics about crime in Las Cruces, spoke of the increase of crime by teenagers 18 years and younger. He never advocated for any policies. He only gave numbers about crime and spoke of the Police Departments working in the community and neighborhoods where burglaries have occurred. When a burglary has occurred within 48 hours, they come back, didn’t know that. Mayor Pro Tem Bencomo has put the city in a possible hostile work environment by her comments. From my understanding not only was the Police Chief Story invited but all council members invited to the event, only the Police Chief attended, and his comments were well received. As a prior elected official there are comments that are not allowed by any council member, especially pro tems and mayors that violate the rules. They should never publicly comment about a public employee. That employee works for the City Manager. All the public employees don’t work for the council. There is only one person in charge of the employees, that is the City Manager of this city. Mayor Pro Tem Bencomo should have sensitivity training due to her comments towards Police Chief Story, and she should make a public apology to Chief Story and the residents of Las Cruces. Your position as council members and the Mayor are non-partisan positions. You didn’t get elected for your national politics. You got elected because you serve the community. Please check your national politics at the front door when you come in this facility, you represent all residents. You should be talking about the budget instead of talking about Chief Story. Daniel B, Member of the Public said as a resident of our city I just wanted to state publicly my support for Chief Story for the great job he is doing. Thank you. 4. ACCEPTANCE OF AGENDA City Councilor - District 5 Becky Corran moved, seconded by City Councilor - District 2 William Mattiace, to accept the agenda as presented. RESULT: Carried MOVER: City Councilor - District 5 Becky Corran SECONDER: City Councilor - District 2 William Mattiace AYES: Mayor Eric Enriquez, City Councilor - District 1 Cassie McClure, City Councilor - District 2 William Mattiace, Councilor Becki Graham, City Councilor - District 4 Johana Bencomo, City Councilor - District 5 Becky Corran, and Councilor Yvonne Flores 5. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES 5.1 WORK SESSION OF NOVEMBER 10, 2025. 5.2 REGULAR CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF NOVEMBER 17, 2025. 6. RESOLUTION(S) AND/OR ORDINANCE(S) FOR CONSENT AGENDA 6.1 RESOLUTION NO. 26-076: A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE CITY OF LAS CRUCES (CITY) TO ACCEPT GRANT AWARDS FOR VARIOUS CITY DEPARTMENTS THROUGH AN AMENDMENT TO THE CITY’S ADOPTED FY2026 BUDGET. 6.2 RESOLUTION NO. 26-077: A RESOLUTION APPROVING RECOMMENDED POLICY ITEMS FOR THE 2026 NEW MEXICO LEGISLATIVE SESSION. 7. RESOLUTION(S) AND/OR ORDINANCE(S) FOR DISCUSSION 7.1 RESOLUTION NO. 26-078: A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING A REAL ESTATE PURCHASE AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE CITY OF LAS CRUCES AND LITTLE TUMBLEWEED RENTALS, LLC FOR THE SALE OF APPROXIMATELY 6,478 SQUARE FEET OF MUNICIPALLY-OWNED LAND FOR THE PURCHASE PRICE OF $23,000.00, IN ACCORDANCE WITH LCMC 1997, SECTION 2-1312. Bill Hamm, Real Estate Administrator gave the overhead presentation. Councilor Flores asked would you please explain the relationship between the Little Tumble Weed Rental and the current or potential purchaser? Bill Hamm said Little Tumble Weeds Rentals, LLC is where title is held to the facility, the daycare facility, that is just what is on their deed and that is their LLC that is the actual owner of the property but it is the operator of the daycare. Councilor Flores asked there is a daycare center there? Bill Hamm said yes. Councilor Flores asked what is the potential use of that land if sold? Bill Hamm said my understanding is they are looking at expanding parking and putting ponding, onsite ponding. Councilor Flores asked so it is not to expand the daycare center? Just to expand the parking for the daycare center? Bill Hamm said that is my understanding. Councilor Flores asked when someone buys a parcel of land are they held to the representation of what the purpose is of land use? Bill Hamm said once the buyer obtains the property they are allowed to do whatever with it that complies with the zoning laws. Councilor Flores said as long as it falls into the parameters of that zoning. Councilor Corran said I love us selling off every empty lot that we have to people who will use it so I generally always want to say to be thinking about ways that we can do that. But the specific question is when we purchase a property, we have to have two appraisals but when we sell it, we only have to have one? And I am curious if you can talk a little bit about what the difference is or why that exists? I am not questioning this transaction specifically I guess I am just questioning I think it might be useful for us to always have a secondary appraisal from my perspective when we sell properties or if you can talk about why that is? Bill Hamm said the Municipal Code I believe it is Section 2-1313 calls for, it has tiers of priority values of what our appraisals are required. Anything that we obtain or sell in excess of $150,000 requires the two appraisals. Less than $150,000 you are looking at the one and actually I think, I am certain below $10,000 no formal appraisal is required. Councilor Becki Graham moved, seconded by City Councilor - District 5 Becky Corran, to Approve Resolution No. 26-078. MOVER: Councilor Becki Graham SECONDER: City Councilor - District 5 Becky Corran Yvonne Flores 7.2 RESOLUTION NO. 26-079: A RESOLUTION DEDICATING CITY-OWNED PROPERTY LOCATED AT 1701 E. NEVADA AVENUE TO THE AFFORDABLE HOUSING LAND BANK FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF AFFORDABLE HOUSING. Kevin Wilson, Neighborhood and Housing Development Specialist gave the overhead presentation. Councilor Flores asked what is the feasibility? Is there a tentative plan for the development of affordable housing? Kevin Wilson said at this time we have researched a number of different options. We just know that it would be housing related. We would like to put single family residences there if approved. We don’t have any specific designs or plans at this time. Councilor Flores said with Ms. Natalie sitting here I would venture to say that there are probably some possibilities. Kevin Wilson said we do have possibilities, yes. Natalie Green, Neighborhood and Housing Revitalization Administrator said we are working with Community Development on a potential conceptual plan for this property. Our goal is to do a pilot project of entry level housing where it is small style or small format homes. Not quite tiny homes but still sort of meeting that threshold where families can purchase it, build equity, build wealth and thentransition or add onto the house. We are using Strong Towns model. It is a planning concept firm that does best practices in housing development and community development. Councilor Flores asked what surrounds that piece of land? Natalie Green said it is surrounded on all sides by single family residential housing. Councilor McClure asked was there any community engagement for this process right here? Natalie Green said for the specific transfer of the property to the Land Bank there was no community engagement. Very similar to the action that the council took before with the utility land tank. It doesn’t require community engagement. Councilor McClure said I am disappointed by this process. I am curious of any residents made it out to this meeting because I am sure a lot of them made it out to the Planning & Zoning where this just did not pass. This was actually brought up and I am a big fan of housing, but I am a better fan of sticking to what we promised residents to do which was in that resolution which you voted on Councilor Flores. I think it was one of your first meetings and it was reaching out to the community and asked them what they wanted to see there and they had came and brought that up. And we didn’t do that and that is why Planning and Zoning agreed and knocked it down. The idea that we are bringing this up without having any community engagement. I think there are plenty of different ideas that we can do, and I would very much like to see community engagement on this one specifically. Natalie Green said I did reach out to some of the staff that worked on this when the initial acquisition took place and so there was some community engagement around that time. I was told that there was even a winter block party, but I wasn’t able to find documentation of that. My understanding from the former staff that worked on this and some of the community members that worked on this was that the Nevada Cool Corridor Project in its entirety was contentious and so they started the community engagement process and decided to not do anything with the property. Councilor McClure said I think there was some engagement with Dona Ana Communities United. I went back and looked at the minutes for that day and we had some really outspoken members. There was a quote from one of our artist, Meg Freyermuth who said an empty lot does not really ensure pride in our neighborhood, how does that actually work? There was no engagement, so we are trying to do this, and I am just a little irritated that it is being sold to us as an idea to do something with it that the community had a plan for and past council had a plan for and we are just disregarding that. Councilor Bencomo asked I am wondering if you can speak a little bit more to, I generally had questions about the Land Bank and Trust Fund, can you tell us the status on both of those? Natalie Green said the Land Bank has been in existence since 2009. Don’t quote me on this but I think there is 6 or 7 parcels in that Land Bank. Some of the more notable ones would be Sierra Summary Property next to Sierra Middle School that we transferred to Tierra Del Sol for development. We also took the property that was originally intended for centralized kitchen for Senior Programs and turned that into Paseos Verdes and then there is some NAT properties that we acquired when the Neighborhood Action liened and demoed and foreclosed on those liens those came into the Land Bank and then there was one that was part of next door to Angel Care that became the driveway for the Sister’s Apartment Complex. So that was actually used not directly for the housing on that property, it helped facilitate the development for the housing. Councilor Bencomo asked the Trust Fund does have some funds in it? Natalie Green said the fund is currently sitting at $730,000 in unrestricted funding and there is about 4.7 left over from the General Obligation Bond but that has already been committed to projects. Councilor Bencomo asked I know that there is some immediately single family but there are like in this general area has some mixed? Like there is some apartment complexes and things like that in the surrounding area? Kevin Wilson said there are. I am familiar with the area. While the direct adjacent property and streets are all single-family housing there is some multi-family housing and rental housing specifically rental housing adjacent to the park and as we get closer to Solano Drive but within actual neighborhood there I am not aware of any. Councilor Flores asked Councilor McClure, what exactly is your objection to this? Councilor McClure said that it was specifically given a resolution and a council mandate to have community benefit for this and we can do a couple of different options. We can do through the AARP, you know how we have those exercise stations. Those options weren’t discussed with the community, but it was told to us to do this as a resolution. You voted on that. Councilor Flores asked when did I vote on that? Councilor McClure said it was on January 22, 2019. Councilor Flores said wow, I can’t remember what I had for breakfast. Councilor McClure said it is in the minutes. Councilor Flores said it sounds to me that there is something that would impede any action based on what Councilor McClure has said. It seems like it would preclude us from moving forward on this. Natalie Green said the resolution only called for the property to be purchased. There are this language, the background language in the whereas’, it called for some temporary tactical urbanism projects or small scaled temporary community spaces as part of the Nevada Cool Corridor. Like I mentioned they had some sort of Winter Block Party and they were holding neighborhood meetings all as part of the Nevada Cool Corridor and so there was initial discussions about what the potential uses would be and similarly staff also reviewed the minutes and there was discussion about trees and barbeque grills, former Mayor said no basketball courts because the balls make noise. We did reach out to our parks team to do an assessment on this site and they are also in the audience. They determined that this site was not a viable candidate for inclusion. Councilor Flores asked it is not a candidate for what? Natalie Green said inclusion in their park inventory. Based on their current master plans it doesn’t meet their minimum park sizes, so the recommended park size is at least three acres. This is three quarters of an acre. That is fairly small and there is already a neighborhood park nearby, but I am happy to bring parks up if that will help. Councilor Flores asked maybe Legal can address the concern that Councilor McClure has brought up? Councilor McClure said let me add one more thing. In this it says once purchased City staff will develop a one-year contract facilitated planning services to engage residents in a series of small-scale projects to create temporary community spaces to allow residents to ideas for various uses and refine plans. So, if we continue doing this as it is they are not going to have that and we promised them that. That is how you erode trust. Natalie Green said my understanding is that staff did do some of that work. I had trouble contacting that staff. Lisa is very much enjoying her retirement, so I was not able to get a hold of her. I was able to get a hold of the former Director of Dona Ana Community United and got some historical perspective from her. Again the sentiment or what she shared with me was the project as a whole, all of Nevada Cool Corridor became too contentious and the staff at that time decided to proceed no further with development and to remind the rest of the council at that time Sustainability lived within Economic Development and that was two or three directors ago and two or three City Managers ago. So, we had trouble piecing together all of this information because our retention schedule is well past. We identified this project in September in our conversations with Mr. Remelly and Gary Uwing who is also in the audience today. They had initially designed some town home concepts for another property but that property is already being used for Paseos Verdes and so we started looking at city owned land for potential development, and I identified this one. So, we asked our land management to reach out to the various departments to see if there was a use or intended use for this parcel and those departments responded that it wasn’t within any of their development plans and they weren’t interested in moving forward with any development so we identified it as a potential. Councilor Flores asked all the steps you have taken are consistent with meeting the mandate or conditions that Councilor McClure has raised or identified? Natalie Green said staff believes so. Councilor McClure asked do community members, do they believe that? At Planning & Zoning it didn’t seem so. Councilor Flores said given that there appears to be a conflict in so far as the steps that have to be taken before there is any further action on that property, perhaps Legal can visit this and then we can bring it back. Brad Douglas, City Attorney said in looking at the prior resolution just real briefly I don’t see this parcel as being encumbered or restricted at this time based on the language of the prior resolution. Councilor Flores asked what exactly is your opinion on this? Councilor McClure said my vote is going to be no, I guess that is my opinion. My opinion is I wish we would in reading the minutes that was an engagement process that we wanted to do, we being the council in the past. So, following the spirit of the idea that we wanted to work with the community residents. Councilor Flores said this is not a due process issue. I am really conflicted because I think that if it wasn’t brought forward as Councilor McClure has pointed out, we would at least need a legal opinion to move forward to say that it was okay or not okay to do so and you just said that it wasn’t. Councilor Becki Graham moved, seconded by City Councilor - District 5 Becky Corran, to Approve Resolution No. 26-079. AYES: Mayor Eric Enriquez, Councilor Becki Graham, City Councilor - District 4 Johana Bencomo, City Councilor - District 5 Becky Corran, and Councilor NAYS: City Councilor - District 1 Cassie McClure and City Councilor - District 2 William Mattiace 7.3 COUNCIL BILL NO. 26-011; ORDINANCE NO. 3103: AN ORDINANCE ADDING CHAPTER 16, ARTICLE XII - SHORT TERM RENTALS TO THE LAS CRUCES MUNICIPAL CODE. Chris Faivre, Community Development Director gave the overhead presentation. Councilor Corran said I have to be honest when I was campaigning the first time around when I ran for city council people were asking for this particular ordinance so thank you for getting it done. I do have a question or sort of request. I think the biggest thing is I think people just want their Airbnb’s to be good neighbors and this like fundamentally systematizing that in a meaningful way but we kind of tried to do this before, right? Sort of in a version of trying to get people to register and that didn’t seem to work. We kind of heard about some logistical challenges and I think last time when we talk about this at the Work Session, I guess what I am hoping is one, that we have made this as easy as we possibly can for folks to get on the right side of this, right? Kind of like a lot of the folks who are currently getting permits for their carports after Realize. So I hope we can enable folks as much as possible to get on the right side of this and do a quick inventory at some point in the next six months I am hoping and I don’t know who all is going to be involved in this work but to see is this working or not, right? That is about 400 folks that need kind of intense probably connection to get them on the registration side. I am hoping that we can just follow back up and look and see where are we in that process to make sure that we are on track because I don’t want it to be a matter of people hear information from different channels and I am sure Airbnb host get tons of random request and demands and all of those things so I just want to make sure that we communicating effectively and really just are giving people the opportunity to comply in the best way possible so I am hoping we can have a little check in and if it doesn’t seem like it is going that we can postpone the enforcement component if required because we might be struggling through that communication part I guess would be my kind of gentle ask not an amendment. Chris Faivre said we can certainly do that. We can schedule sort of a Work Session check-in in maybe June. We will work closely with Visit Las Cruces to pull the data for the current properties. Do that outreach similar way we do for other business registrations here in town. We have a staff that works directly with them to get everybody registered. They will register through Visit Las Cruces on their process which looks like it hasn’t been working from the numbers but registering with that process the staff is there to help them with that. I think that is just more of an advocacy and letting people know what is required and that will be on staff and working with the Communications Department to get that messaging out and make sure that we keep it out there over a period of time so that it is just not out there when this ordinance passes and people kind of just forget about it. It will be up to staff to keep that at the top of mind. Councilor Flores said this is something we discussed in one of our Work Sessions some time ago, so I am happy to see that there is some resolution, not a resolution but that we have come to this point. My concern has always been enforcement, and I think that there are some property owners who fly under the radar, and I was just wondering if there is any way of identifying all property owners that do use their homes, their property for short stays? Chris Faivre said yes we can pull that data through the systems that Visit Las Cruces has access to get that address information, get that owner information, reach out directly to them about the new requirements and that will sort of be the starting point and I think there were over 483 that have registered or used the system so we do have quite a number of property owners to start working with and then from that point forward it will just be continually monitoring those to make sure that they are staying in compliance and continuing communication and outreach and anybody new interested in a short term rental will know that there is process that they have to adhere to if they want to sign up. Councilor Flores said I think that in my district there were complaints of wild parties going on and the neighbors finding out that it wasn’t the owners it was the tenants, and I don’t think there was any registration that it was a business. So, I think that is my concern insofar as really identifying who is doing what. But you think all of that is covered? Chris Faivre said I do think that having the requirement for the business registration will allow us to identify those problematic owners if there are such and the requirements for having that contact information on staff will make it easier for us to reach out to them or PD if it is in the middle of the night or codes if it is some other issue. So, this process I think will make it easier for staff to communicate with those property owners about any issues that we are seeing. Councilor Flores asked so that when you have neighbors complaining and the city goes in to talk to the complainant, they will ascertain at that point whether they are registered or not because I am sure a lot of them fly under the radar? Chris Faivre said that is correct. I mean someone could file a complaint and put us on to a property we didn’t know and then at that point in time we would work with that property owner to get them in compliance so yes it could help for both those who are registered and for identifying potentially some that aren’t in compliance. Councilor Bencomo said the last time we had a Work Session about this there was some concerns raised with some Airbnb managers I guess about the system, and it was difficult for them to navigate it and I know that staff sort of stayed back and had that discussion with those folks. I just felt like what they were saying was very real and valid and I am just curious if you all have addressed some of those and what was the miscommunication, I am just curious? Chris Faivre said I believe some of that actually was issues with compliance with the third party specifically you know working with Airbnb to pay some of those taxes and we were trying to work through ways that if you are say a property management company and you are trying to pay taxes for multiple properties is there a way to do that through those systems all in one time. It is not the city system again, it is working with some of those third-party vendors and I know that the staff at Visit Las Cruces was trying to work through some of those issues with them. I am sure it is not the first time those things have come up so I know there is a couple or at least one property management company that we were discussing some of these issues with again because it is not our system I don’t know if all those issues were resolved or not with those third party vendors but we do try to open up those conversations and see if we can resolve them. Councilor Bencomo said I think that is just really important to continue to have that open communication with folks who have that kind of feedback. George Pearson, Member of the Public said as President of the Alameda Depot Neighborhood Association we have heard of issues where properties are being converted to short term rentals and especially in the historic neighborhood it is an issue of density so it would be good to collect once this data is collected to revisit this and six month or a year as was discussed and look at what the density issues are and if we’re getting too many Airbnb’s too close together and then maybe we need to distinguish between owner occupied places that have casitas that they are renting out because if they are still owner occupied that gives a different flavor to the neighborhood then if it is just completely a rental. So, I am looking forward to this being implemented. Councilor Becki Graham moved, seconded by City Councilor - District 5 Becky Corran, to Approve Ordinance No. 3103. AYES: Mayor Eric Enriquez, City Councilor - District 1 Cassie McClure, Councilor Becki Graham, City Councilor - District 4 Johana Bencomo, City Councilor - District 5 Becky Corran, and Councilor Yvonne Flores ABSENT: City Councilor - District 2 William Mattiace 7.4 COUNCIL BILL NO. 26-012; ORDINANCE NO. 3104: AN ORDINANCE AMENDING CHAPTER 16, ARTICLE XI OF THE LAS CRUCES MUNICIPAL CODE-LIMITING THE USE OF PLASTIC SINGLE-USE CARRYOUT BAGS IN CERTAIN RETAIL OPERATIONS. Jenny Hernandez, Sustainability Officer gave the overhead presentation. Councilor Flores said I grew up with no plastic bags. If you bought some celery, you just threw it into a paper bag or just put it to your shopping cart and then it got thrown into paper bag that you carried out. It seems to me that we really don’t need any kind of plastic bag. You go to the store, and you are going to buy something that you are going to the market, I am talking about produce and some of that produce like cilantro and parsley, some of that just gets chopped and put into a glass and then it is okay. So I think maybe there can be some education as to how we really don’t need plastic bags because you get home with your little paper bag and you take your celery and whatever and put it in the refrigerator, wrap it in a paper towel to keep it from getting other stuff wet y se acabo. I think some education on how to avoid using plastic bags. I think that one area too is that the hefty bags for garbage. Again, I grew up with paper bags serving as the trash can and I don’t know unless there was some studies that showed that was detrimental, but it seems to me that it would be good like some of those banana peelings and all that sort of stuff could actually be good for soil. City Councilor - District 4 Johana Bencomo moved, seconded by City Councilor - District 5 Becky Corran, to Approve Ordinance No. 3104. MOVER: City Councilor - District 4 Johana Bencomo ABSENT: City Councilor - District 2 William Mattiace 7.5 COUNCIL BILL NO. 26-013; ORDINANCE NO. 3105: AN ORDINANCE APPROVING A FIVE-YEAR LEASE AGREEMENT (WITH OPTIONS TO RENEW FOR UP TO FOUR ADDITIONAL FIVE-YEAR TERMS) BETWEEN THE CITY OF LAS CRUCES (CITY) AND THE MESILLA VALLEY COMMUNITY OF HOPE (MVCH) FOR THE OPERATION AND MANAGEMENT OF THE CITY-OWNED COMMUNITY OF HOPE CAMPUS LOCATED AT 999 WEST AMADOR AVENUE. Natalie Green, Housing & Neighborhood Revitalization Administrator gave the overhead presentation. Councilor Graham said I am encouraged to see that hopefully pending this vote obviously but we will continue to support you to do this vital work in the future, and I won’t miss this part of it but we will see each other under better circumstances. Councilor Flores said I too want to thank you Natalie and I see some people in the audience who head up some of the providers for the wonderful work you provide for people in our community. I think the work that a lot of people focus on at Community of Hope is destigmatizing people who are without a roof over their head and not making it okay not to and not objectifying people under those conditions but I do want to thank you for your work and I hope that you continue to be, well we as a city continue to be successful in that endeavor. Councilor Bencomo said I know that there has been lots of internal conversations about maintenance and upkeep of the assets if you will. I really think it is important that we come to a place that works for everybody for, the non-profits on the campus for the city and I know that has been sort of an issue so I know that we now have that one FTE that is assigned to the campus but I am curious if you can just speak to this particular issue Natalie and/or City Manager and if we feel like it has come to a good agreement for everybody? Natalie Green said that was quite the negotiating point both with city staff and with the agencies and so we were able to come to a good place, I think. I will let the agencies speak for themselves but definitely the FTE helps mitigate. Again, like I mentioned, it is 56,000 square feet made up of five different buildings, and it is very heavily used and that the campus sees over 1,000 people a day and so all of the facilities get heavily used whether it is bathrooms, showers, laundry facility, food in the soup kitchen. The city a couple of years ago did master plan for that growth so that also was solidified within the lease and so that will help outline some of the issues and then the agencies themselves have been really proactive about going after capital outlay or other funding sources. Community of Hope just assisted the city in putting in a grant for a reroof of their facility, so they take an active role in helping ensure that the campus is maintained and improved over the years. And then of course we have seen the news things like the food pantry, which was a very significant investment that this council made to help serve the public. And then as part of the legislative priorities you also adopted the Kitchens, which will be a new soup kitchen but all the facilities again the earliest one was built in 1995, some of them were built in 2000 so they are all 20 plus years old. Councilor Bencomo said I say this because I want the city to be good landlords if you will. I want us to be good caretakers of this asset that is the city’s ultimately and just want us to be good partners in that way. Just my general statements. I am obviously glad we are doing this and recommitting to being in partnership with these organizations that provide an incredible service and a necessary service to the community. I think now more than ever, unfortunately, I think it is important that we are good partners and that we remain in good partnership in support of partnership. The current national administration is about to make some pretty serious damaging changes to housing policy and it is going to impact a lot of people. It is going to impact a lot of funding and so I think now more than ever honestly Councilor Graham spoke to this in the beginning how important it is for local government to step up and support in areas where it is going to be a lot more difficult. I just wanted to reiterate that and hopefully everyone on this dais and on our side can recommit to that partnership and that support. City Councilor - District 5 Becky Corran moved, seconded by Councilor Becki Graham, to Approve Ordinance No. 3105. SECONDER: Councilor Becki Graham ABSENT: City Councilor - District 2 William Mattiace 8. BOARD APPOINTMENTS 8.1 COUNCILOR MCCLURE APPOINTED DR. STEPHANIE HOFACKET TO SERVE ON THE PARKS & REC ADVISORY BOARD. 8.2 DENIECE SANCHEZ Councilor Yvonne Flores moved, seconded by City Councilor - District 4 Johana Bencomo, to appoint Deniece Sanchez to the Capital Improvement Advisory Committee. MOVER: Councilor Yvonne Flores SECONDER: City Councilor - District 4 Johana Bencomo ABSENT: City Councilor - District 2 William Mattiace 8.3 LARRY GOODWIN City Councilor - District 5 Becky Corran moved, seconded by City Councilor - District 4 Johana Bencomo, to appoint Larry Goodwin to the Lodger's Tax Advisory Board. 9. NOTICE OF PROPOSED ORDINANCE(S) 1) There will be no public discussion. 2) A Councilor may ask staff for clarification on the proposed ordinance(s). 9.1 None. 10. CITY COUNCIL MEMBER BOARD REPORTS AND COMMENT 10.1 COUNCILOR MCCLURE I have a couple of things to talk about, one being if you are interested in me being a contrarian. Check out the MPO from last week. I was a little bit having a hard time with one of the more routine things that we do where it was to have to say that we have, target goal is to just have 445 deaths across the state this year. That is a hard one to say yes to. That is the target that we are going for. I agree that we have not done much on Vision Zero and I would like to change that specifically because the roads should be safe for all users. We do want to work with the state. This was a state request or target. They actually came to ask if we wanted to do a Vision Zero initiative and they had a whole plan for us. We would get a rut from transportation from Public Works, a rut from Economic Development, a rut for Health and Human Services, from Community Main Street, from law enforcement, from emergency response, from schools and an elected official to champion the work and I can arm wrestle the Mayor for that if he wants but we also agreed on the MPO that we wanted to see that change and so I am hoping that we can work forward on that in the new year and what that would look like. I will send that email out again to staff to actually push that forward. The next thing I wanted to talk a little bit about was the budget and I think it is valuable that we talk about it in a little bit more transparent way. I am hoping that we talk about it more in the budget retreat which is open to the public. Usually, it is the media there kind of skirting on the side lines and drinking bad coffee with us. You all can come too, and I think you should. I have had Friends of the Library reach out to me and say what about the book mobile we are worried about it? Valid but then I could say that we have encumbered that money, that already means it is fixed. Yeah, they were understandably worried so let’s talk about it a little bit more. I would also like to think that we as council should be asked a little bit more about what our priorities were. Mayor Pro Tem at one point had said our budget reflects our values. For example, we are still missing an Active Transportation Planner. I don’t want that to get swept up by a hiring freeze. So, I would like to see what that would look like too. I have known Becki Graham for a long time. She was my Philosophy 101 teaching assistant. She has continued to teach me in many ways. She taught me to ride horses, strangely enough. More importantly you taught me to lead and not to be swallowed by the fear and you taught me to draw on our inner strength because this job is incredibly hard and I am going to miss you. Thank you for being here for me specifically. 10.2 COUNCILOR GRAHAM Luckily, I got to say it all at the start. I do want to point out this was the F-bomb heaviest meeting I have ever attended. F-bombs were up 6,000% over previous meetings and I am glad I got to be here for that in person. A lot of you are going to be hearing from me by thank you card and stuff. I just can’t do this here now but thank you. 10.3 COUNCILOR CORRAN Thank you to Becki Graham who really led the Animal Services Center Executive Director search which has been lengthy and thank you to all the folks who stepped up and had been covering there at the Animal Services Center but as of this morning the candidate Stephanie Lewis agreed to take on the position and I think that I give that example both because I am happy and we are really excited to have someone come in and also to speak directly to Councilor Graham’s specific strengths that I have so appreciated and been so lucky to work with. What we do up here is a tiny fraction, one tenth of all of the things we can do as city councilors, and I will tell you that the other 90% is a logistical nightmare of getting people together, talking to people, hearing feedback, giving people answers they don’t want to hear. Making things happen as much as you possibly can and then quietly or loudly advocating but in both cases you see our outside advocacy but you don’t necessarily see our other advocacy and other avenues and then Councilor Graham has done this with consistency and aplomb and really made sure that we are all thinking extremely critically about what we are all doing and she always come with a reference sheet but also the extraordinary heart that it takes to make things happen. Like the boxing gym which was closed when we started or not city funded when we started on council and now is a thriving extraordinary place that is serving community needs in ways that are accreditable to you. And also welcome to our new ED at the ASCMV again. Graham shepherded this process which has been lengthy and complicated and as she does was wildly successful at it. Councilor Flores, thank you for shepherding me onto council like you did. I think you were one of the first councilors who met with me and onboarded me and helped me feel confident here and also for your advocacy for people in your district. You were affected by their experiences, and you brought that all the time to council and I think that is really meaningful and important in what we all hope for in our public leaders so thank you for that. I am a little nervous because you kept me from being the worst driver on council and now you are leaving so I am worried. Thank you for your leadership and for showing us how to do this. 10.4 COUNCILOR FLORES This is a place that everybody should experience. It is easy to be out there and say what is this councilor talking about or who do these councilors think they are? We are faced every day with decisions that we are well aware of that will impact people’s lives. That is what we do. I have been really impressed and honored to serve on this board with every single person, even the one who is always absent, whatever his name is. Cassie, I have known for a few years and I met the two Becky’s, Becki-I and Becky-Y here on council and I have known Johana for at least a decade, I think. Mayor Enriquez will always have a very special place in my heart. When my mother passed away on January 19th, one of my dear friends Shannon Reynolds and his wife who has since deceased, Maggie, we drove back from Santa Fe after spending a day in Santa Fe lobbying our representatives for our needs and low and behold when I arrived at home I found that my mother had died and it was probably the most traumatic experience that I had ever had in my life. The most difficult event I have ever had to live with. My friend Shannon is a good friend of our Mayors and called Chief Eric at the time and he stood in front of the house from about 9 p.m. to about 2 a.m. or maybe 3 a.m. to keep people from coming into the house and that included relatives that wanted to come in. Mayor Enriquez stayed there the whole time, and it is something that I will always be grateful for as did Shannon and Maggie, may she rest in peace, they stayed there too. I grew up in Los Angeles pretty much and then lived in the city of LA. It’s busy and you hardly know your neighbors but Las Cruces just has such a feel for community and everybody I have met I have been blessed to see that he, she, they really care about the city and that extends to everyone here who works at the city, the people in our community such as our audience who comes in and may say things that might hurt us but it is like water off my back. You go through life for several decades and teenage boys that grow into men and all that sort of stuff, but I feel that it is a community and people who do come and complain maybe not very nicely sometimes do point out where we can improve. There are just so many other things that I can say but I feel an infinity and a closeness to each and every one of you. The staff here, the directors of the departments, are beyond words, quite talented, quite skilled. It has been a pleasure and an honor to have served with my fellow elected officials up here and I have to say that Ikani our City Manager, and by the way we are his boss so if you need to complain about anything don’t call me anymore. We have been blessed with our City Attorney, our City Clerk who is number one in the nation and in New Mexico and then our Attorney is number one in our hearts. Each and every one of you, I am going to miss George especially and I will be in Las Cruces for maybe another six months, and I will be moving on to Europe where my sons live. But it has been definitely an honor to have served on the city council with my colleagues and for the city and for you, thank you. 10.5 COUNCILOR BENCOMO I went to the staff luncheon last week and I was really impressed by your cooking skills. The food was delicious, the City Manager, Assistant City Managers behind the grill, they just looked like there were in the zone and everyone in the City Manager’s Office from our Executive Assistants that were helping and it was just really beautiful so I know that things aren’t always perfect and difficult and that was just a nice little glimpse and I was very, very surprised by your cooking skills. I also wanted to address some of the feedback that was received here today. Last week when I said what I said I debated saying it because I knew this would happen. I said it anyway because it felt important to me to voice the very real concerns that I have. It is not just me that has them. I know that sometimes that when we are here this very much is an echo chamber and so you hear it here and it must be the truth all over the city and that’s not necessarily true. Like I have conversations outside of this, this isn’t really a conversation, right? I have conversations outside of this chamber all the time and I have to tell you that a lot of people have voiced these concerns to me as well and I think particularly the concerns that were voiced to me by many folks after the video of our Chief with the US Attorney that a lot of people felt really concerned about and I think it is important that we talk about those things and that I voiced those concerns and I know that what I am about to say will create even more ripples of controversy but again it is important because that was a big topic of conversation today. Chief Story I think he has been chosen to act in a very public role and kind of a political role and with that does come feedback, criticism. Like we experience it and I think it is okay for people to voice it. I understand it is uncomfortable. I understand the tension is uncomfortable. I will continue to build and cultivate a relationship with all of our staff, with City Manager, especially when there is tension and concern. My biggest fear is that these kinds of things continue to feed this story of misinformation that says this council in particular me is not supportive of the Police Department when you can go back six years and look at my track record of voting and you can say very much no, that is not true and if you look at our budget as a whole the majority of our revenue coming to the city a giant majority of those go to the Police Department. I think that we can all agree here that the Police Department is well funded and when we continue to have these kinds of like they have priorities and these priorities are different it feeds into that narrative that frankly isn’t true. Also, I just want to say that somebody here said that you feel safe with the police. There are people in our community who don’t. There are young people who look more like me that protested over the summer at an immigrant rights rally protest where they saw what felt like snipers on a roof. They don’t feel safe and it is okay to acknowledge that, it is important to acknowledge those stories too. Just today I had an elderly woman who wanted to share with me some concerns that she is having in her neighborhood in a very unsafe interaction she had with a neighbor, and she said as an older woman I don’t feel comfortable calling police. Those things exist in our community. I understand that we don’t want to acknowledge them, and I understand it is uncomfortable when I do but it is important to have those conversations. I just wanted to say to Councilor Flores that I am just so grateful to know you. I have known you since I was a little baby community organizer when I was on this other side. Maybe it is some karmic retribution but I have known you much longer when I was back there and working with you to actually build the very first welcoming city resolution back in 2017 and people like you and Olga Pedroza may she rest in peace, I think are trailblazers in our community and I just want you to know that I hold you in that kind of esteem as well. Councilor Graham and I have known each other for a very long time. We were on a very terrible soccer team many years ago together and we had a lot of fun but honestly there is a lot of parallels because we had a 1/11 record. We won one game, but we had so much fun and it kind of felt like that the last four years where our record was losing all the time. I just felt like there was no winning, but I want to reframe that for you today before you leave because there was a lot of winning in the last four years and you have made a very big impact. You have been part of historic all women city council, you helped make historic investments in housing, you helped create Realize and I hope that one of your proudest achievements is helping the entire council understand the importance of PAL and I want you to know that will continue to be something that at I least champion and I know other people on this council will champion because you showed us the power that it has and why it should be preserved and protected. Thank you both very much. Councilor Corran welcome back. 10.6 MAYOR ENRIQUEZ Again, to Councilor Graham and Councilor Flores, thank you for all that you have done. Truly going to be missed. I will miss you both. Thank you for all of your work and your support. There is a few things that I want to mention. When I look back, we had our tree lighting on December 6th, and I just want to thank Parks and Rec and all of the city staff that were out there and put it together. There was over 5,000 people there. It was a great event. It was a great turnout. A great way to gather and start the holiday celebration. Yesterday there was a Hanukah celebration as well it was well, attended. With things going on throughout the world they felt like this a place where you can be safe and celebrate your faith and beliefs and so that was a good event as well. On Friday I was invited to the awards ceremony for the 4H Club and they have over 360 students that are participants in the 4H Club. I know that we are always looking and thinking and being creative with our Parks and Rec and how to do things to better our community and get our youth involved and do those types of things. The 4H stands for the head, the heart, the hands, and health and they do so many different activities and I know from farm animals to leathering, to sewing to artwork to crafts but keeping these kids involved and helping them learn leadership and critical thinking is of such value in our community. So, I mention this because I want our Parks and Rec to take note that when we are looking at activities, we don’t have to reinvent the wheel. There is already a process, there is already a system and there is so many volunteers in our community that are willing to give back and share with the community. So, I look forward to doing things like that for our community. Last week we had our first strategic coalition meeting. We had two meetings. One was internal and one external with stakeholders. This is the grant money that the Governor gave us for the coalition to build on homelessness, mental health and substance abuse. So, it was very productive. We had about 30 individuals show up to that meeting, and we will continue to move forward. I think the next step is NMSU is going to put three of their departments together and see which one can help with the survey. We will go out in the streets and come back and start putting a strategic plan on how we are going to combat this. That is something that I look at and something that I advocated for with our Governor to get this kind of funding and grants so that we can really address the situation that is hindering our community. I disagree somewhat with Mayor Pro Tem when we talk about public safety, I was a firefighter, I took an oath, I went through a police academy, I took an oath to protect and to serve and I know that Chief Story and his department feel the same way. When Chief Story gets criticized for what I believe is doing his job I have to take a stance as well and say thank you for protecting and serving our community and if it is an issue of being an employee or an elected official I will say it right now for the record, I will be that elected official what will speak on behalf of public safety. 11. CITY MANAGER REPORT 11.1 IKANI TAUMEOPEAU I just wanted to share a quick update on Velo. I appreciate Velo coming in to show their support for Target Vision Zero. For those who may not be following what that is, it is essentially a commitment and a plan for municipalities to buy into which is eliminating any traffic fatalities or serious injuries and I just want to share from staff perspective and from council it is a very important goal to have where we are as staff is we have asked and we are talking with council and asking them what we don’t want to do is have an unfunded mandate because what this means to a lot to eliminate zero fatality although it is our desire and our goals to have it always. There is infrastructure that needs to happen, and we need to make sure the infrastructure needs are there first which we are making steps to get there, and we will present that to council before we do. We appreciate staff, there was a goal of setting out towards a grant which was funded about half a million for a Safe Streets for All Plan. This is the first step for us before we come to council to see your appetite for Vision Zero. We just went to RFP that was concluded just a few weeks ago and now we are looking to wrap that up so that we can complete the safe streets for all. So first we will do the Safe Streets for All grant which we will. Update for Utilities, congratulations to our Utilities Department as the awards committee of the New Mexico Water and Wastewater Association has selected the East Mesa Water Reclamation Facility to receive a distinguishing award. The Good Housekeeping Award for Activated Sludge Wastewater Treatment Plant for 20 years and under. This has been the award for them so there will be a banquet at Hotel Encanto, Wednesday, January 28th at 7 p.m. Parks and Rec, registration is currently on going for the City’s Winter Break Camp open to students K through 5th grade. Scheduled to coincide with the upcoming school break, the camp will run from December 22nd thought January 2nd, operating 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Program sites include Jornada Elementary and East Mesa Rec Center. Participants will enjoy a variety of activities and social events with breakfast and lunch provided and this only cost $20. So, if you are interested please jump on our website or call our Meerscheidt Rec Center and we can get you all that information. So, thank you to our Parks and Rec team for running that. The city is also excited to announce that the start of public input process for the future of the bike park to be located at the East Mesa Recreation Complex is upcoming. This new facility is currently slated to feature a skills course, pump track, and mountain biking course, among other elements to kick off this process city representatives will be present at the Farmer’s Market on Saturday, December 20th. We invite all residents to attend and provide valued feedback in providing the design and utilization of this exciting project. All recreation facilities will close at 5 p.m. on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve and remain closed on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day and will reopen on Friday, December 26th and will resume operating hours at the Regional Aquatic Center and Natatorium and Meerscheidt. We encourage all residents to check the website and social media. Economic Development, Safety Improvement Program kicked off in the beginning of November as the first pilot program created specifically for the Metropolitan MRA area. This program allows for a grant of up to $5,000 for security upgrades and is focused on El Paseo/Solano MRA. In just over a month we have received 14 eligible applications which will approximately be about 70% of the fund set aside for the fiscal year. In Communications one of the priorities, exciting news has been to include our Spanish speakers so we are happy to announce that residents can now watch city council meetings with live Spanish closed captioning as an option. The Communications team tested some software earlier this year and have now installed this feature permanently. Residents can turn on live Spanish closed captioning on Comcast or watch Spanish captions on YouTube after a meeting has ended. A quick how-to video was released on social media at the end of last week to share with residents how to turn this feature on. Last, I would like to turn my attention to Councilor Graham and Councilor Flores. As the audience and the public and elected officials can understand it is very difficult to have seven bosses and you Councilor Graham and Councilor Flores have made it very easy and so I am going to miss your guidance and your relentless zeal to represent your districts and to all those who live in their districts I can attest that they were always doing everything they could to support residents throughout the city and also in the districts and I can confirm that through emails and phone calls and texts that they have reached out to me. We are going to miss your support from the dais, and I am going to personally miss your support as well. I will continue to be here in town if you need us and if you move abroad internationally stay in touch as well. Thank you so much. 12. ADJOURNMENT 12.1 Councilor Becki Graham moved, seconded by Councilor Yvonne Flores, to adjourn at 3:54 p.m. SECONDER: Councilor Yvonne Flores Mayor City Clerk