Work Session Meeting July 28, 2025

MINUTES

Work Session

Monday, July 28, 2025 @ 1:00 PM

City Council Chambers, City Hall

PRESENT: Councilor Johana Bencomo, Councilor Yvonne Flores, Councilor Becki Graham, Councilor

Becky Corran, Mayor Eric Enriquez, and Councilor Cassie McClure

ABSENT: Councilor William Mattiace

1. JOBS OF THE WEEK 1.1 Sarah Raney, Americas Job Centers of New Mexico presented Jobs of the Week.

2. PETS OF THE WEEK 2.1 Carol Nielson, Animal Services Center of the Mesilla Valley presented Pets of the Week.

3. AGENDA ITEM 3.1 COMMERCIAL PROPERTY ASSESSED CLEAN ENERGY (C-PACE)

PROGRAM. Isaac Holguin, Economic Development Project Manager introduced the topic

Eric Christensen, Adelante Consulting gave the overhead presentation.

Councilor Flores asked I’m just curious, how did PACE start? Who funds, does the states that agree to have PACE in their state? Do they contribute to their earnings?

Who founded this? How long ago was it?

Eric Christensen said that’s a great question. I would have to get the exact date. It’s been going for over 10, 15, I think even over 15 years. I think the earlier states were on the East coast that have been utilizing C-PACE in terms of the role of government.

So, the states do pass a statute that allows the program to function, and states vary a

little bit about how that opt-in process looks. In some states municipalities and counties can opt in separately, but the way that it was laid out in New Mexico’s legislation is that both county and municipality would have to allow it to be established. But in terms I think you were maybe also asking about funding. So, government doesn’t provide any funding for C-PACE.

Councilor Flores asked so how does C-PACE exist? I mean you have people all over the country I’m sure working. I’m really curious about that. Who pays you?

Eric Christensen said no, it’s a great question. So, if you’re talking from the perspective of the program administrators, such as ourselves, it’s from closing transaction fees. So, whenever a transaction closes, and again, you’ll have a range.

New Mexico, we have a lower threshold, which we’re capped at 25,000, other states will go higher than that. So, that’s really our source of funding.

Councilor Flores asked so does PACE become a lienholder, one of the lienholders?

Eric Christensen said yeah, so it would be termed as a special improvement assessment that’s on the property. So, it’s seen more closely to property taxes and that’s how it would kind of operate. They don’t have the collateral, for example, if it goes into default of trying to take the property over, the only thing that C-PACE is due is whatever payments are due at that moment on the property and not what is due in the future.

Councilor Flores asked okay, and then the success rate has been 100%?

Eric Christensen said that’s a great question, we have a few national associations, it’s been a very low percentage of defaults. I don’t have the most accurate number. I’d be happy to follow up with our national association and get that number for you.

Obviously, we’re just starting out in New Mexico so, we haven’t run into any difficulties yet, but if it’s helpful I can find what numbers they would have at a national level.

Councilor Flores said I think it’d be great to send to our City Manager and then maybe he can you know look at that. We can look at it individually. How soon do we have to move on this resolution? Is it incumbent on us to every city that participates has to even though the county has already well actually they haven’t signed on yet, right?

Eric Christensen said the county has signed on in November of 2024. We don’t necessarily have a project in Las Cruces that is urgently trying to close. So, we’re flexible on the timeline. Our hope is to opt in as soon as possible so that we can really communicate it to property owners within your jurisdiction. To answer your other question, the city would be required to pass a resolution for it to be utilized within Las

Cruces. So right now, it could be utilized in other parts of Dona Ana County, but not in

Las Cruces.

Councilor Flores asked so, the city really isn’t engaging in any potential loss in this endeavor?

Eric Christensen said right.

Councilor McClure asked what is outreach going to look like specifically to some of the businesses that might partake?

Isaac Holguin said what’s great about this program is as next up we’ll be talking about our MRAs and so, a lot of the people that are going to be redeveloping in those areas might benefit with the Boys and Girls Club if they’re going to be doing a lot of commercial energy efficiency programs. We want to make sure we advocate to all the people that are in MRAs as well as probably put that on our website. That way, not just the large companies know, but maybe some of the smaller ones, once we can start working with those smaller businesses, we can go ahead and make sure that we’re helping them out too. I know right now we want to get this in place for the MRAs to help get the redevelopment going as well as other multifamily developments here in

Las Cruces as well.

Councilor Bencomo said education and outreach was one of my questions as well, so

I’m glad to hear that. I think this is really great. I think it’s important. I think it’s yet another economic development tool in our toolbox, especially for the MRAs. I think these are the very meeting the moment kind of options that we should be taking advantage of. So, I appreciate staff bringing this and I absolutely support a resolution.

I think one of the only pieces that really caught my eye around this was that you all haven’t worked with small to midsize projects yet. So, what I obviously to me that feels like an important emphasis. I don’t think Las Cruces is going to have a Bishop’s

Lodge type of project. I mean maybe, hopefully, never say never, but you know I think in the sort of shorter term, I want to be realistic about how we can really leverage this and how folks and entrepreneurs in the city can leverage this. How can you speak to that?

Eric Christensen said yeah, so we’re really trying to draw on experience from states like Minnesota and Colorado who’ve had a lot of success supporting small to midsize projects and they’ve brought a lot of local banks and especially credit unions on board to support. So those conversations are ongoing. We’ve partnered with an organization called Electrify, and what they do is they really try to originate transactions, particularly smaller transactions and they’ll bring them almost ready to go to those credit unions and so we’re really hopeful that our collaboration with them will generate some leads and bring projects. I think as we close transactions and Credit unions see that it’s feasible, that it works well, then they’ll be more likely to continue doing that.

But for the time being, I think our most active partnership is with the Climate

Investment Center. I know that they’re just getting started, they’re not at their full amount of funds that they’re hoping to be able to loan in the future. We’re actually working with them and looking at a project in a different part of the state. In the end one of the property owners decided not to go with C-PACE, but the benefit of the

Climate Investment Center is that they don’t just offer C-PACE loans, they’ll offer different types of loans and I think they were able to support their project to come to fruition. So, I think you know if C-PACE is not the answer, we’ll do our best to try and connect them also to other organizations that can offer other mechanisms and the

Climate Investment Center has been a great partner for that.

Councilor Bencomo said I think if there could be language in our resolution that specifically talks about prioritizing small to midsize projects, I think that’s really important. My next question may be a bit naïve, so excuse me if it comes off that way.

I’m curious if there’s already a project, and this hypothetical I’m not talking about anyone in specific, there’s already some sort of project moving in Las Cruces and perhaps they’ve already taken on some debt doing some of these adjustments. Is there an opportunity for that project to still go back and apply for C-PACE once the resolution is passed?

Eric Christensen said yeah, I think if I’m understanding correctly, it would be possible as long as it meets the requirements of the program. So, either there’s going to be improvements that will be made or there were improvements that were recently made within three years. I know this is like a completely different category of building, but for

Bishop’s Lodge, because it was such a significant amount, they were actually able to remove a current lienholder on the property because of that amount. They were able to just transition to more favorable financing terms. That could still apply for a smaller transaction. For example, if there was enough improvements that were eligible that covered a certain amount of cost, it might help them in terms of opening up where they had debt previously.

Mayor Enriquez said this seems to be a great opportunity for saving and everything else. I just had the question on it says contracted by New Mexico Economic

Development and as far as like construction industry division and everything else that takes place. What is the regulation? Who regulates this is in the event that something may go south and they contact the city? I mean, who’s overseeing, who regulates?

Eric Christensen said what type of regulation would this be? If it were to go to default, is that the concern or?

Mayor Enriquez said yeah, either default or a customer has a question or concern maybe not receiving the savings that they thought they were entitled to and have questions on that. Where is that investigated or regulated?

Eric Christensen said yeah, so if there’s any concerns with the contractual agreement,

I would say come to us as the program administrator and the state economic development department and we can help look into that and then see if we need to draw in local government for any consultation there. Obviously early on we’d have a conversation with the lender as well and try to resolve any disputes. Then in terms of default that would be the responsibility of the lender, and they would typically work with the county and follow the laws of the land but some of the documentation they sign off on gives them the rights to pursue based on the laws of the land what they’re entitled to throughout those proceedings. 3.2 PLAN PRIORITIZATION FOR METROPOLITAN REDEVELOPMENT AREAS. Blairre Flores, Economic Development Coordinator gave the overhead presentation.

Councilor McClure said I was just going to say I like the sound of that, but I have

District 1 bias here, sorry, but I think that Mesquite specifically needs a lot of care, so I think that’s a great plan.

Councilor Corran said this is a very complicated multivariate analysis that I think I’m very interested in but also know that I could not possibly comprehend the number of things that you guys are considering as a part of this. I do have one question; sort of the order begs in my mind. So, when we designate MRAs right now we’re starting with $100,000 which is like all of the work that’s going into all of these analyses and everything that we’re trying to figure out, but when we designate the MRAs specifically, does the revenue that comes back go into a specific pool of money for that MRA or is it all MRA? Like all the MRA money goes into a big pool to be redistributed through the MRAs generally.

Blairre Flores said so each area will collect its own GRT and then that money will be reinvested into that specific MRA.

Councilor Corran said okay, that specific one. Okay, that helps me understand more the context of how the potential revenue would be distributed or concentrated. I really appreciate y’all’s analysis and critical thinking about how this can work and how we can maximize everyone’s efforts.

Councilor Bencomo said I have lots of feelings about this. I know there’s often criticism about not making decisions based off emotion, but quite frankly, reading this report I felt a lot of emotions. I think the deep sadness I feel for some of these areas comes from the realization of the systemic neglect of some of these communities and the correlation between high poverty rates, unsafe conditions, all of that just should tell all of us that the safest communities are the communities with the most resources and not the ones with the most enforcement. These communities probably is vice versa, probably has high enforcement and low resources. I think we should take a serious sit on that seriously because it’s what’s created, I think some of these conditions. It’s sort of like this perpetual cycle and to me these MRAs are an intervention. It’s why I’m so supportive of these mechanisms for economic development and revitalization because this is really what we need. So, I’m glad that we’re here thinking about adopting these. Again, even if we just adopted all of them and started working on them in the sort of prioritization that you’ve proposed, I agree with that. Albuquerque has all of these like 20 or whatever designated. I don’t see why we can’t just do that ourselves. Then obviously, understanding staff capacity and all of those things that we start working on them staggered, I’m very supportive of going in that route. The other thing I wanted to note is that in this report most of these areas, if not all of them, had high vacant and abandoned properties. So here is my pitch once again for an ordinance that holds folks accountable and if it’s not about accountability and punishment, it’s about supporting owners who may not have access to capital try to do something with their properties. So, I will not lay off that horse. I will continue to pound the pavement on that issue. I’m looking forward to voting on this in the future.

Mayor Enriquez said great, that’s exactly what we need is to help to redevelop and take care of the places that have been neglected before. I also with Mayor Pro Tem, I agree. This is a great opportunity for vacant and abandoned buildings. I know that

Legal and Community Development is working on the NAT Program and to get that, but this is an opportunity to do some incentives that we can partake with Mayor and

Council. We meet people halfway. We can get roll offs. We can do other things. We can get Mano y Mano, we can get a contractor to go in there and clean up these areas because I know there’s a lot of individuals that live out of town and are the owners of a lot of these properties and they’re hard to reach and get a hold of and they don’t drive by it every day. So, it’s up to us to do that and this is a perfect opportunity with the MRAs to clean up our city and to enhance it. So, definitely support it. 3.3 GO BOND QUARTERLY UPDATE. David Sedillo, Interim Assistant City Manager introduced the topic.

Jimmy Moreno, Interim Assistant Director for Public Works gave the overhead presentation.

Natalie Green, Housing and Neighborhood Revitalization Administrator continued the overhead presentation.

Mayor Enriquez asked remind me, Skylark, where’s the location?

Natalie Green said Skylark is on Central and Skylark Lane. So, it’s on the East Mesa, it’s about half a mile from Mesa Grande. So, it’s by Mesa and Central and it’s a small single family 32-unit subdivision.

Mayor Enriquez asked and the Peachtree, six buildings, how many units total?

Natalie Green said Phase One is 144. All together with Phase Two will be 288 units.

Mayor Enriquez asked La Llorona Park, there was a picture there of a damaged bench, what causes that?

Jimmy Moreno said hopefully nobody got injured with that hit. I don’t know what would cause that. Usually it’s vandalism, somebody running into something, that sort of thing.

Mayor Enriquez asked and the pouring of Station Nine, you were in uniform there that early, correct?

Jimmy Moreno said I was not. That was placed actually before the heat, so it was about 5 in the morning, but we did have Public Works inspectors out there.

4. ADJOURNMENT 4.1 Councilor Johana Bencomo moved, seconded by Councilor Yvonne Flores, to adjourn at 2:10 p.m.

RESULT: Carried

MOVER: Councilor Johana Bencomo

SECONDER: Councilor Yvonne Flores

AYES: Councilor Johana Bencomo, Councilor Yvonne Flores, Councilor Becki

Graham, Councilor Becky Corran, Mayor Eric Enriquez, and Councilor Cassie

McClure

Mayor

City Clerk