City Council Meeting July 6, 2026

MINUTES

City Council

Monday, July 6, 2026 @ 1:00 PM

City Council Chambers, City Hall

PRESENT: Mayor Eric Enriquez, City Councilor Cassie McClure, City Councilor Michael Harris, City

Councilor Johana Bencomo, City Councilor Becky Corran, and Mayor Pro Tem John Munoz

ABSENT: City Councilor William Mattiace

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

APPRECIATION/PROCLAMATIONS - COUNCILOR MUNOZ. None. 1.3 DEPARTMENTAL HIGHLIGHTS. Elizabeth Teeters, Economic Development Director gave the overhead presentation.

Councilor Corran asked the MRIP because I can’t remember what it stands for, is that just for new development or rehabilitation of existing spaces too?

Elizabeth Teeters said it is for rehabilitation as well.

Councilor Munoz asked can you go over a little bit of the qualifications? I know that we mainly talk about economic development in businesses, do these include non- profits, churches, other entities like that?

Elizabeth Teeters asked are you talking about MRIP?

Councilor Munoz said yes.

Elizabeth Teeters said the way we have it right now is for commercial, residential, and mixed use and even NAT properties. We don’t specify 501c3 or anything. We have a

scoring matrix which is the last piece of the puzzle that staff has been working on that it will really be up to the discretion of the MRA Committee to bring a recommendation to council. So, council will have the final say on the abatement.

Councilor Harris said also on the abatement just to clarify. We are only able to abate just the city’s mill levy on those taxes? They still pay county property tax and school tax?

Elizabeth Teeters said that is actually something we are working on. We are just focused on the city’s portion right now. But along with the other tax increments we are working with the county trying to figure out what we can and can’t do at this point. Our focus as of now is just the city. 1.4 PETS OF THE WEEK. Tonya Conway, Animal Services Center of the Mesilla Valley presented Pets of the

Week.

2. CONFLICT OF INTEREST INQUIRY BY MAYOR AS REQUIRED BY LCMC

SECTION 2-27 (E)(2) 2.1 None.

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION 3.1 Lynn Moorer, Member of the Public said last meeting Mayor you were right, that in this country we do have freedom of speech regardless of a city councilor or Utilities

Director attempts to muzzle discussions about the city’s compliance with the Lead and

Copper Rule. A competent organizer knows any attempt to stifle public comment simply causes citizens to expand their investigations. Mayor you were wrong in claiming that I have refused to agree to a meeting with city staff or the Utilities

Director. Utilities Director has never reached out to me for a meeting. Your statement is false. Handout 1 is my response to an Assistant City Manager which does not include refusal to meet rather it encourages her to study the information we put on the record to help her understand our concerns before seeing whether further explanation is needed. If it is needed it won’t be in a private meeting where additional information is shared. It will be in public with an opportunity for all to hear. I am familiar with manipulative attempts to shut up an expert, a whistle blower or a citizen leader because they publicly question the integrity and/or competence of a public entity and lay out any public documents the public entity would prefer to hide. Let’s talk about the galvanized pipes at Fairacres Elementary School. Handout 2 is the inspection report dated July 9, 2025, provided to you April 6th and 20th that clearly records the finding of galvanized piping at Fairacres. The inspector’s comments note how bad the pipes looked and the presence of a lot of rust. This report was provided by the City

Clerk via an IPRA request. If you question its authenticity take it up with her. On April

20th, I alerted you that after 36 properties were found to have galvanized pipes it appears Las Cruces Utilities fabricated new reports for each of the properties a few months later. Now seeing that there are no galvanized pipes. If they did not in fact

fabricate 36 second inspection reports to hide the original findings including at

Fairacres the director needs to explain in detail why these 36 second inspection reports were created. Why is the second inspection report for Fairacres the only one of the 36 that now says the piping is plain steel. Research shows that plain steel with no galvanization virtually never exists in Las Cruces. This fabricated report is apparently the one which Councilor Bencomo imprudently referred to at the last meeting as noted previously a licensed plumber called this report unbelievable and fishy. One cannot argue between the first and second inspection reports galvanized pipes were replaced. Responses to IPRA requests all indicate that no piping has been replaced. This fact was recently confirmed to Derrick Pacheco by two inspectors that inspected his pipes. We will no longer bear the expense of providing handouts to those of you who are clearly not interested in any research regarding the city’s compliance with the rule and other obligations. If any of you wish to continue to receive handouts during our presentations let me know by email.

Liz Rodriguez-Johnson, Member of the Public said Lynn’s and my comments over the last 18 months have focused on two things, pointing out how the Las Cruces Utilities is not complying with the Lead and Copper Rule and ways to comply with the rule and make drinking water safer for the citizens of Las Cruces especially those at the lower socioeconomic level. This information is well documented and very easily accessible, particularly for someone who works for the city. We could not be clearer about the issues and approaches to resolve them. Anyone who claims that they want to discuss our concerns either hasn’t been listening, isn’t interested enough to access the information available or is being very disingenuous about their motive which based on the comments made by the Mayor and Councilor Bencomo recently is to make Lynn and me the villains. Las Cruces is an old city with very old parts of town. When you walk through old neighborhoods and old schools, common sense, basic common sense tells you that highly probable some of these houses and schools have lead or galvanized piping just by virtue of their age. In the case of Fairacres Elementary

School an initial report definitively stated that the school piping was galvanized and corrosive. Five months later a second report said that the issue had disappeared.

Councilor Bencomo erroneously stated that if you don’t trust Las Cruces Utilities you can rely on the second report because it comes from the school. This is false. The second report was not prepared by the school and was in fact prepared by city on a

Las Cruces Utilities form signed by an employee of Las Cruces Utilities. If you are not leaving the poorest parts of Las Cruces off the inventory map show the public because everything on your website says that you are. If you are not recreating reports to show there is no problem where one existed before show the public because IPRA request produced documents that indicate that you are. If you are truthfully reporting lead levels in CCRs show the public because IPRA request reports show that you are not reporting truthfully and that you are actually prioritizing disadvantaged properties as the Utilities Department promised they would to obtain a $15 million grant. Show the public because the IPRA request show that you are not prioritizing disadvantaged properties. You have had 18 months to show the public that we are wrong and you have not done so, which is why we continue to come back. The

Mayor falsely claimed that we citizens want to repeat the same thing. We have not been repeating the same thing over 18 months. Every comment cites several new concerns based upon new findings discovered and researched. The overall theme is that Las Cruces Utilities is not complying with the rule remains the same but every

meeting we have provided new aspects that show even more details of how Las

Cruces citizens are being left unprotected from lead in their drinking water.

Juan Garcia, Member of the Public said every election cycle we watched the same old circus role into town. Big promises and politicians swearing they have come to move

New Mexico forward. In my opinion both political parties pretend to “represent the people”. But clear the smoke and what do you find? A nest of hypocrisy where the real winners are the parasites who cling to power feeding on the system while pretending to serve the people. The Republican Party leaderships spent part of the year bickering over a mess it created. None of it had to happen. The decision was simple. Follow the rules and decide what is best for the people, right? Wrong. They invite drama, make the headlines and set social media ablaze until the court stepped in. Meanwhile the Republican Party of New Mexico distracted, ignored the real work of reaching citizens who desperately want a fix to the mess created by decades of single democratic party rule. New Mexico is trapped at the bottom and there is no sign that is changing anytime soon. Many voters look at the circus and think they figure why bother voting. Democrat slap socialist onto their brand and parade around with delusional slogans like No Kings but in reality, they swap in their chosen queens.

They complain the Safe Act disenfranchises voters but then in a smoke-filled backroom deal Deb Haaland, candidate and De Facto Party leader tosses out 42,000 votes. Harold Pope the first black New Mexico State Senator and 21-year Veteran earned because it suits her. The excuse, both parties allow it. It is in the rules SGR,

Stephanie Garcia Richards bailed on the Lieutenant Governor’s race for family reasons and earned zero votes. Maggie Oliver won the primary then suddenly drops out also “family reasons”. Or maybe she could not stand partnering with Haaland.

Magically SGRs family issues were better just in time for her to step into the spot

Maggie vacated, is this another “rigged back-room deal” or coincidence? That is okay, no one is waving signs or predicting democracy is going to end at midnight tonight by these actions. Anointed queens trashing votes and the political hypocrisy are alive and well in the Democratic Party.

Jim Hoerst, Member of the Public said perhaps you watched some of the events this weekend at the 250th celebration of America’s anniversary. I followed as many events as I could on the national mall. There were many state-sponsored religious events at the national mall. We have an administration in Washington that no longer recognizes the separation of church and state. They have stated explicitly that they think such an idea is a myth and it is not confirmed by the Constitution. I don’t believe that is a valid interpretation of our First Amendment and I believe this council should take very seriously that denial and do the same things that you do to protect immigrant rights from a renegade administration. We need to protect separation of church and state.

The first thing that we need to do is to put everything involving separation of church and state into the sunshine, take it out of the dark. For example, our practice of a moment of silence is not recorded in the minutes. If it is worth doing it is worth recording in the minutes. Second, we have a resolution process, a proclamation process that is entirely in the dark. There was a proclamation proposed for National

Day of Prayer in this city, the commission voted that down. I don’t know what the proclamation was. I don’t know where to find it. I don’t know who voted for what. Stop doing stuff in the dark. That is corruption. Whatever is happening in the dark can be presumed to be corrupt. Bring it into the sunshine. Put it on the minutes, put in in the

on the agenda what proclamations were proposed and who voted how. I deserve to know that. My fellow citizens deserve to know that.

Derrick Pacheco, Member of the Public said I want to thank Chief Story for joining me on the radio this past week. We had some wonderful civil discourse regarding Flock and ALPRs in general. I really respect that someone took some time, genuine time out of a super busy schedule unlike some of my elected officials here that refuse to meet with me. I feel like I am on a list that people just don’t want to talk to me, don’t want to meet with me. Whatever the case may be. I don’t know why I am on a list. But

I definitely am. My father poured the concrete that built I-10 here. My parents both worked at White Sands Missile Range. My cousin is a sitting Judge on the Third

Circuit, my other cousin is retired LCPD, my other cousin retired from the third floor here. The list goes on. I am from Las Cruces. You treat me like I am not part of this community, and I am sick and tired of it. We need to build trust. There is no trust here.

Trust is eroded with you people. The county included. I am going to say this at the county if I am allowed but I don’t even know if I am trespassed or not. It is whacky over there too but regardless the Fentanyl that hit the streets that the Governor and the Mayor and everyone else is saying, oh it was the DEAs fault. You can’t have that situation without having local knowledge. I ran into a situation here where I had a short-term rental invaded by some yucky people. I was pretty certain that they were working as informants after talking to another co-host down the street that I never met before she said the same thing. Her sister is on the street, and she mentioned that the word on the street is that the Fentanyl is being let onto the street to find bigger fish. I had this discussion months ago, maybe 8 months ago now if not longer so I don’t buy this rhetoric. The other rhetoric I don’t buy is our elected officials such as Senator Bill

Soules showing up at the park now on our side, the people’s side. That is disingenuous. His wife graduated from this dais and now is working for the Boys and

Girls Club which got a huge novelty oversized check from Project Jupiter and now Bill

Soules is out there saying oh no, dang these people. We can’t have this. This is horrible behavior, yet in secret meetings that were cancelled on the agenda at the county, but happen anyway with the Boys and Girls Club with this big giant check from Project Jupiter. That does not build trust. I demand we speak about a data center moratorium. We do not need that junk up at the Mesa technology park, the Industrial

Park, whatever you guys call it. The Data Center Park I am sure is what you want to rebrand it as. We need real discussions here. I am sick and tired of being treated like this and so is everyone behind me.

Gage Peter Bernett, Member of the Public said I would like to say that I am here to talk about something very boring which is infrastructure and I am afraid I am going to get emotional. I am going to start by telling a story. I grew up in Bethlehem,

Pennsylvania, it’s a beautiful little city on the eastern side of Pennsylvania and when I was growing up there was this gentleman, Patrick. Patrick rode his bike along with a group of other riders past my house every single afternoon right about when I got home from school. He encouraged me to learn to ride. He encouraged me to learn to ride a unicycle. He would stop at the door and check if I was okay, if I wasn’t out when

I got there and Patrick died in a bicycle crash that was nobody’s fault. The car hit a pothole, he was too close, there was nowhere for him to go and he lost his life. And this past weekend here I was riding down Telshor when I encountered a shredded tire stuck in the middle of the bike lane and I tripped over it because I couldn’t run out into

traffic because there was a car right there and I skidded out on the sidewalk. This was preventable. There is trash all over the bike lanes in Las Cruces, not just trash but there is gravel, there is dirt every time it rains there is a flood and that flood lands in the bicycle lanes. Along Triviz the street sweepers push the trash and the gravel directly onto the bicycle lane making it impossible for riders to go through it. That means that bicyclists are riding on the pedestrian walk along Triviz which is horribly unsafe, which means that there is no way for me to safely get from my home to work on my bicycle which I would love to do for my environment and my own wellbeing.

Triviz is not the only street that is affected. Telshor like I said, is constantly flooded with garbage and trash that I cannot get around if I want to get to work on time and on safely. This is more than just a maintenance problem, throughout Las Cruces, the place that I decided to call home for the past five years and I intend to l call home for as long as I may be here has a bicycle problem and that problem is the bicycle infrastructure is neither well maintained nor well designed. There is nothing on

Missouri Avenue. If I wanted to get to work that way with avoiding the hills, I wouldn’t be able to do so. Solano, the bicycle lane stops abruptly at Amador and Lohman which themselves have no bicycle lanes. There is nothing on Picacho near the intersection with Valley and even where there are bicycle lanes they are not safe to ride on because cars go so fast and so close to bicycle lanes because they have no choice because there is nowhere for them to go to avoid us. I would urge you now to consider expanding efforts to change that, to expand efforts to improve that infrastructure.

Fred Miller, Member of the Public said I am up here at the request of Lynn Moorer. It is just an anecdote about galvanized steel piping that I heard about from someone I lived with. His parents owned a trailer park, and they had to deal with all the plumbing there. There was a property that they had bought that had been vacant for an extended period of time and this was on the edge of the city. This was actually the sewer line coming out rather than the line coming in but they moved in, they turned on the water, everything seemed fine but then a short time there after everything just backed up and when they went out to look for the problem in the yard the whole sewer line had just collapsed and there was like a 2 to 3 inch just trench in their back yard and it was old steel galvanized piping. So, there is the question of where we have galvanized piping in the city? At that time, it was just on the edge of town. Now it is in town. There is a question also about when you check the water lines are you just checking current customers or are you looking at places that are currently empty too because the problem with this waterline is as it was not used for a while it still corroding and when they started running water through it again the whole thing just collapsed. So galvanized piping can be a serious problem.

George Pearson, Member of the Public said I am Vice President of VeloCruces, a local bicycle and pedestrian advocacy organization. As I am sure you are aware we have had a recent tragedy in our community with the death of a vulnerable road user by an accused hit and run vehicle driver. Could this crash and resulting death been prevented? Almost certainly yes. News reports indicate that the accused driver has a history of traffic violations including speed racing of speeds up to 53 miles per hour over the speed limit. News reports indicate that the case was dismissed when the prosecutor failed to appear. So even when tickets are issued there are no consequences and behavior continues until we end up with a crash that results in the

loss of a life. This isn’t an isolated problem. We have an enforcement problem, a prosecution problem or a culture problem where it is okay and mostly expected to exceed the speed limit by 5 miles an hour and no consequences for speeding 20/30 or even 50 miles an hour over the speed limit. I know we are studying safer streets with our Safe Streets for All grant but we do have a serious traffic safety problem that needs swift and systematic solutions. Do we need to wait for Safe Streets for All, or can we also move ahead with Vision Zero solutions? We confiscate DWI vehicles, why can’t we also confiscate super speeder vehicles? We don’t even have to identify the driver. Just identify the problem vehicle and take it off the streets. We are heading towards another record year of bicyclist fatalities in New Mexico. What can we start doing to not match or exceed that grim goal? Thank you for listening and we look forward to actions that will create a safer Las Cruces.

Andrea Holguin, Member of the Public said I am a board member for VeloCruces and

Program Manager for Everybody Rides with Grace. I am also here because we had another citizen, father, loved one die a preventable death here in Las Cruces. I want to say that I greatly appreciate everything that our community is doing to improve the situation and safety for our vulnerable road users. I know that we are doing many things on many different levels. VeloCruces is also doing many things on different levels. There are a number of organizations here and none of us want people to die preventable deaths. It could be very valuable, it could be very powerful if our city could demonstrate that you are resolved to stop these preventable deaths from happening. Resolving our city is committed to having zero deaths would be a step in the right direction. There are other small steps maybe, simple steps that wouldn’t cost a whole lot. Some of you are very active on social media. You could use your platforms to talk about these things that are important to all of us. Talk about this case. I don’t know if it is in litigation if you can talk about it now but educate the public.

Let the public know, we are watching, we are paying attention and it is not just drivers that need to know but cyclists that need to know. We all need to work together to make this happen. These are my children. They ride bikes. We give bikes to kids with disabilities including adults with disabilities and we don’t have places, very many places to safely ride our bikes and we would like to be able to do that. So again, I am just asking for some creative solutions thinking about ways that you personally, you as a city can demonstrate that you are behind this idea of stopping it, you know?

Whether it is a radio broadcast or an article in the newspaper, in the Bulletin, or something. Let us know that you personally care and we want to hear from you.

Tim Jenkins, Member of the Public said as we celebrate the 250th anniversary of our nation I ask that we all take time to reflect on what a remarkable gift America truly is.

Two hundred and fifty years is more than a milestone. It is a reminder that generations before us sacrificed, struggled and believed in something greater than themselves so that the future generations could live in freedom. When our founding fathers gathered to establish this nation and later frame our Constitution, they understood that no government would ever be perfect but they also believed that liberty, justice and the rights of was the people worth protecting. Many of them drew strength and guidance from their faith in God and believed that our freedoms carried with them a responsibility to live with virtue, integrity and respect for one another. The

Constitution that they left us with has endured because it was not built on the idea that one political party should always win. It was built on the belief that free people could

disagree, debate and still remain united as a nation. So many conversations begin these days with are you a Republican or are you a Democrat? When the question really should be are you willing to be an American first? We don’t all have to think alike. We all don’t have to all vote the same, but we should all be fighting for the same purpose and for the same goals, safer communities, opportunities for our children, respect for our neighbor in a country that is stronger tomorrow than it is today. Our greatest strength has never been found in political parties. It has always been found in ordinary Americans who choose to work together despite their differences. Division only weakens us, unity only strengthens us. As we commemorate 250 years of this great nation lets honor those who went before us by recommitting ourselves to the principles that have carried America this far, faith, freedom, personal responsibility, respect and a willingness to put our differences aside and come together for the better of the nation and let our hope be that future generations can look back on us and say that when our nation faced division that we chose unity. When anger was easy, we chose grace and when we had every reason to stand apart to which we chose to stand together as one nation and one people because at the end of the day we are not Democrats and we are not Republicans, we are Americans. May God bless this nation and our city and our police officers.

Lucas Herndon, Member of the Public said my main point for being here today is to encourage the council later in the process to affirm Council Bill No. 27-004, Ordinance

No. 3120, repealing the Policy Review Committee. No decisions of a public body should be made in private and by those unelected by the citizenry. So, I just want to encourage this body to follow through with that commitment and since it is under a portion of the agenda that states plainly that there will not be public discussion I thought I would mention it now. With the remainder of my time I would like to echo some of the comments made about public safety on our roads for pedestrians and bicyclists and I would add to the list of physical places that have already been mentioned that along, the stretch between University and Missouri, there is a series of apartments and all the apartments have private trashcans or each apartment has their own trashcan, it is not a communal one. So, every Friday people wheel their trashcans onto the curb which in this case is the bike lane. So, every Friday the bike lane is inaccessible. And it is especially bad on grappler days because people put large bags of trash. Sometimes large bags of yard waste, as it is not uncommon, it will sometimes sit there for more than one week if they miss the grappler week. So, I would just like for that to be flagged. I will say finally that the rhetoric around public safety continues to be fully in this seat of those armed agents of the state as the only agents who can provide said public safety and that rhetoric was used at the last city council meeting as a potential excuse of why the library is closed and not as stated by both the library here and by staff members that they had budget cuts and they had to close their hours and my concern is that at least as of a week ago the library was still listed on the city’s website as one of the city’s cooling centers and I checked right before I came and it is still listed as being open on Sundays for those needing cooling services but if they are now closed that means that not only is the library closed and all of its various resources but that is one other location those in Las Cruces who are overheating due to this incredible heat wave do not have access to. So, something else to consider as you look at the rest of the agenda where I see we are giving the cops more money, just something to think about.

4. ACCEPTANCE OF AGENDA City Councilor Becky Corran moved, seconded by Mayor Pro Tem John Munoz, to accept the agenda as presented with the removal to item 6.1 for discussion.

RESULT: Carried

MOVER: City Councilor Becky Corran

SECONDER: Mayor Pro Tem John Munoz

AYES: Mayor Eric Enriquez, City Councilor Cassie McClure, City Councilor Michael

Harris, City Councilor Johana Bencomo, City Councilor Becky Corran, and

Mayor Pro Tem John Munoz

5. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES 5.1 REGULAR MEETING OF JUNE 1, 2026. 5.2 WORK SESSION OF JUNE 8, 2026.

6. RESOLUTION(S) AND/OR ORDINANCE(S) FOR CONSENT AGENDA 6.1 RESOLUTION NO. 27-001: A RESOLUTION TO AUTHORIZE INCREASES

IN THE COMMERCIAL LEASE AGREEMENT FOR STORAGE OF THE LAS

CRUCES MUSEUM SYSTEM'S COLLECTIONS AND EXHIBITS WITH

BINNS ENTERPRISES OF LAS CRUCES, NEW MEXICO TO A MAXIMUM

AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $113,138.16 THROUGH FISCAL YEAR 2029,

SUBJECT TO APPROVED BUDGET APPROPRIATIONS (25-26-111). Donny Prosise, Purchasing Supervisor gave the overhead presentation.

Councilor Harris asked how big is this facility?

Donny Prosise said I do not have the exact square footage.

Whitney Broadaway, Museum Manager said it is 8,000 square feet.

Councilor Harris asked all and all it is not a terrible price given market conditions, but I think the more concerning thing is that we are being asked for approval, but we are being asked for retroactive approval and so I think that deserves some discussion and how do we get to this point? Why were contracts signed? What are we going to do going forward to make that not happen again?

Donny Prosise said the honest answer is that a previous buyer in the purchasing program did not realize when processing paperwork that came through with a request that the fourth extension to the lease had effectively authorized an amount above what the city council had originally approved and new buyer who has joined my team as of this past February actually was handling a new request at that point realized that both the fourth and fifth extensions had put us in this situation and we immediately began working to bring this forward for approval, all be it retroactive.

Councilor Harris asked just to be clear for people in the public who are listening, we messed up in the past and somebody new came on and realized the mistake and so

going forward we are going to try not to do this again and make sure that contracts, what is our typical contract limit that council needs approval on?

Donny Prosise said any expenditure of $100,000 or more in the aggregate or even for a single purchase requires City Council approval under most circumstances. The one notable exception would be anything that you all of approved on the CIP list as part of the budget process. Those purchases don’t need to be brought back for council approval because they have been preapproved through CIP.

Councilor Harris asked you said in the aggregates that is over a period of if a contract lasts from 24 to 27 and it is for $700,000 or something then obviously that would still count but if it was 10 years and each one was less than $100,000 but over the aggregate it was expensive we would need approval to do that?

Donny Prosise said the annual limit is usually the determining factor so if we were spending less than $100,000 annually under that agreement it would not require council approval but in the aggregate we are usually talking about doing like a multi award contract for example and we have two to ten vendors under contract we would look at the total spending limit per contract in the aggregate so we would come to council if everything was going to exceed $100,000 annually. City Councilor Becky Corran moved, seconded by Mayor Pro Tem John Munoz, to Approve Resolution No. 27-001.

ABSENT: City Councilor William Mattiace 6.2 RESOLUTION NO. 27-002: A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING AN ANNUAL

NOT-TO-EXCEED AMOUNT OF $265,000, PLUS APPLICABLE TAXES,

FOR GRAPHIC DESIGN AND DESTINATION MARKETING SERVICES ON

AN AS-NEEDED BASIS WITH AFFLUX MEDIA DBA NMCO STUDIO OF

LAS CRUCES, NM, SUBJECT TO APPROVED BUDGET

APPROPRIATIONS (PROCUREMENT NO. 25-26-050). 6.3 RESOLUTION NO. 27-003: 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

FY2027 BUDGET.

7. RESOLUTION(S) AND/OR ORDINANCE(S) FOR DISCUSSION 7.1 PUBLIC HEARING REQUIRED. RESOLUTION NO. 27-004: A

RESOLUTION APPROVING THE REQUEST FOR A TRANSFER OF

OWNERSHIP OF INTER-LOCAL LIQUOR LICENSE NO. DIS-001067 WITH

ON PREMISE CONSUMPTION TO CATTLE BARON RESTAURANTS, INC.,

D/B/A CATTLE BARON STEAK AND SEAFOOD RESTAURANT, LOCATED

AT 790 S. TELSHOR BOULEVARD, LAS CRUCES, NM 88001.

Public hearing began at 1:55 p.m.

Lisa Kosper, Member of the Public said I am here on behalf Cattle Baron Restaurant

Inc. here for the approval of the liquor license.

Public hearing ended at 1:56 p.m.

Adam Ochoa, Senior Urban Planner gave the overhead presentation.

Councilor Corran asked I feel like this is the first time we have ever had this type of application that a place that is in its place applying for it again? Did something change in the law or is this just maybe I didn’t realize this was happening before or people have to do this reapplication process, like I don’t think we have done this type of same location same thing approval, maybe I just missed it, they don’t happen that often?

Adam Ochoa said this has happened before, for instance when all the Brewer gas stations in the city turned into Shell gas stations, they changed from one corporation to another. This one is still the same corporation, Cattle Baron, I forget the full name of the LLC, but it is just changing the name of the actual owner, the physical person who maintains ownership of it. So, it is one person to another.

Councilor Corran said I just wanted to clarify, like it seemed new to me or different and I didn’t want it to be like suddenly we have to be doing this all the time which would kind of be a bummer. Mayor Pro Tem John Munoz moved, seconded by City Councilor Becky Corran, to Approve Resolution No. 27-004.

MOVER: Mayor Pro Tem John Munoz

SECONDER: City Councilor Becky Corran

ABSENT: City Councilor William Mattiace 7.2 PUBLIC HEARING REQUIRED. RESOLUTION NO. 27-005: A

OWNERSHIP OF INTER-LOCAL LIQUOR LICENSE NO. DIS-001141 WITH

D/B/A FARLEY’S FOOD FUN AND PUB, LOCATED AT 3499 FOOTHILLS

ROAD, LAS CRUCES, NM 88001. Public hearing began at 1:59 p.m.

Lisa Kosper, Member of the Public said I am here on behalf of Cattle Baron

Restaurants Inc. doing business as Farley’s.

Public hearing ended at 1:59 p.m.

Mayor Pro Tem John Munoz moved, seconded by City Councilor Becky Corran, to Approve Resolution No. 27-005.

ABSENT: City Councilor William Mattiace 7.3 RESOLUTION NO. 27-006: A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE CITY OF

LAS CRUCES (CITY) TO ACCEPT A GRANT AWARD FOR THE POLICE

DEPARTMENT AND TO AMEND THE CITY’S ADOPTED FY2026 BUDGET. Gaby Prats, Grants Manager gave the overhead presentation. Mayor Pro Tem John Munoz moved, seconded by City Councilor Becky Corran, to Approve Resolution No. 27-006.

ABSENT: City Councilor William Mattiace 7.4 RESOLUTION NO. 27-007: A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE CITY OF

LAS CRUCES (CITY) TO ACCEPT VARIOUS BUDGET ADJUSTMENTS

FOR VARIOUS CITY DEPARTMENTS THROUGH AN AMENDMENT TO

THE CITY’S ADOPTED FISCAL YEAR (FY) 2026-27 BUDGET. Vanessa Perez, Budget Analyst gave the overhead presentation.

Councilor Munoz said maybe just expand on it. Some of it was timing, any other factors that delayed our executing on these grants? Was it staffing, processing, anything else that could have been changed or was it just a matter of when these grants came in and were funded?

Vanessa Perez said all but one of these requests are due just to timing. The budget team has to place a stop date on when we can enter information into the fiscal year in

2027 budget because it takes a lot of time for us to process reports for like council

Work Sessions and for council adoption or budget adoption. The only request that is not due to timing would be that Senior Nutrition kitchen remodel which is on your screen right now Mayor Pro Tem John Munoz moved, seconded by City Councilor Becky Corran, to Approve Resolution No. 27-007.

ABSENT: City Councilor William Mattiace 7.5 RESOLUTION NO. 27-008: AA RESOLUTION TO REALLOCATE

AMERICAN RESCUE PLAN ACT (ARPA) FUNDING FROM THE CASA

LINDA ACRES RECONSTRUCTION PROJECT TO THE CORTEZ DRIVE

IMPROVEMENTS PROJECT. Liam Beasley, Accounting Manager gave the overhead presentation.

Councilor Bencomo said obviously you know I am pretty disappointed in the way that the Casa Linda Project has sort of gone. I think this situation raises and perhaps someone can update us on that so that I am not talking out of context for my colleagues, but I think this raises questions for me about accountability for outside contractors and those kinds of things that frankly led to this. This was such a huge investment in District 4. Arguably one of the districts with the worst index in road conditions and so it is pretty disappointing for me to see this kind of investment moved out of District 4, obviously for another important part of the city but I think it would be doing a disservice to the constituents who live in this neighborhood if I didn’t raise this question and I have received so many emails in the last few months about how frustrating this has been and so one I would love to hear an update on that but two I also want to understand then how we will be investing, how we will be finishing this project then at Casa Linda if we are moving out the current funds that were identified to be for this specific project. That is actually my number one concern at this point.

Kyle Arend, Interim Public Works Director said a couple of different answers there, a couple of different questions. To start, yes, we are very disappointed with the way

Casa Linda proceeded as well with that contractor. That contractor obviously has been terminated at this point. We are in a lull period right now where we are waiting to see what the contractor’s bonding company is going to do for us with regard to their obligations to finish that project. Their response is due to us on the 10th of July so we are looking forward to see what that response is but there will continue to be some discussions I am sure as we will try to get that project back online and completed with the funds. We were fortunate working with Finance on another project which met all of the ARPA conditions and was done within the same time frame so switching those funds over to the Cortez Drive projects allows us to complete the ARPA project and the funds that used for Cortez Drive can now be applied to Casa Linda so it is not that the Casa Linda money is completely evaporating but it does allow us to buy some time for us to work out getting a new contractor on board without the strict timeframe for the ARPA contract.

Councilor Bencomo asked so there had been funds identified for Cortez Drive and now those will now move for the Casa Linda Project?

Kyle Arend said that is correct. Those funds that were identified for Casa Linda we are moving to Cortez and likewise the funds that were used for Cortez will be available to help for the finishing of Casa Linda.

Councilor Bencomo said just for everyone to note the Casa Linda Project is Calle Del

Encanto and Calle Del Sol neighborhood you know, I think again I know and maybe I

will repeat this in council comments but I think and I am glad this is coming up today because I wonder how we are vetting contractors before we hire them. This one has felt like complaints of many kinds right. One obviously that it is not getting done and now that the timeline has been pushed but two that property has been damaged or like really just careless kind of work and so I am really curious about moving forward how we will do internally just better vetting of contractors so that they don’t just end up leaving us in this situation. I know that is longer term question Kyle and I don’t mean to put you on the spot to answer it right now, but I do just want to raise that for everyone. Will city council see this similar kind of resolution to make sure that Cortez funds get transferred to Casa Linda in the future?

Liam Beasley said we can give a presentation in the future to confirm that this swap is taking place. City Councilor Becky Corran moved, seconded by City Councilor Michael

Harris, to Approve Resolution No. 27-008.

SECONDER: City Councilor Michael Harris

ABSENT: City Councilor William Mattiace 7.6 RESOLUTION NO. 27-009: A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE WRITE-

OFF OF UNCOLLECTABLE UTILITY, GENERAL BILLING, AND LIBRARY

ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE FROM THE FISCAL YEAR 2020 IN THE

AMOUNT OF $215,081.93. Adolfo Cardenas, Treasurer gave the overhead presentation.

Councilor Harris asked on your nuisance abatement, what do we charge for nuisance abatement? Like if we have to go pull weeds on someone’s property do we bill them for that?

Adolfo Cardenas said yes there was one property, the customer failed to respond to multiple violations, so the City hired a company to do some maintenance of the property, and the property does not have a lien. But again, we can continue to pursue collection of that.

Councilor Harris asked going forward in the future are we putting liens on properties for that or is that we just hired someone for a few hundred bucks it is not worth going through the process?

Adolfo Cardenas said yes, right now Treasury has a plan, and we should be in constant communication in this case with Legal Department and so I believe it should have a lien.

Councilor Bencomo said staying on this same slide actually. I would actually love to see a breakdown of the actual dollars that go to these if you can maybe send us that

through the City Clerk in the future because I had very similar questions about nuisance abatement and whether that was like weeds or like a property that was demolished, right? It was like I would love to see actual dollar signs for all of these and then for the library fees. You know for all of these fees I think arguably obviously like Utilities I think there is a person who follows up with calling people trying to figure out like if they have overdue bills that there is assistance, those kinds of things. I would love to hear from at least the Library folks on what this would mean to not just write off these but cancel these and again I think for me we would start with the

Library to me feels like the most, the place where we could most do that has maybe the least impact but I don’t want to want to speak for the Library if it does have a big impact I want to know and I am curious what you all think about that? And I want to know who these 11 people are who owe 200 plus dollars, not to shame or anything, I am just chismosa, curious.

Sarah Booth, Library Deputy Director said we have charges that have been out there for a while and we have recently updated our policy so if someone owes less than $25, they can still check out an item. So, the larger totals are for items like audio books because those are very expensive if you have seven discs, eight discs in an audio book that is going to be $400. So, we try and offer payment plans. We want people to come and check out and use the library.

Councilor Bencomo asked going further though what would it mean for the library if we went an additional step and canceled people’s late fees?

Sarah Booth said definitely like for under $100 it would be okay. We don’t see any of this money. It all goes to the general fund and when like people lose things we don’t charge fines now but when people lose an item or damage an item our first choice is that they can bring us a replacement copy so that we can add it back into the collection so we don’t see any of this. So, I think that would be up to you all.

Councilor Bencomo said I would love to explore something like that for folks in

Library. I think that especially under $100. I would hate for that to be a barrier for people to come back because they are embarrassed. To me that seems like something very doable, so I really appreciate it.

Councilor Munoz asked page 6 I think it was, so events what is that? Are those the events that public has in parks and shared spaces?

Adolfo Cardenas said it was just one customer. It was for the Country Music Fest. It is my understanding that the business no longer and again I am going to mention again we can continue to pursue collection on this.

Councilor Munoz said so some of this is clean up. I was just concerned that maybe some of the organizations or nonprofits in the community didn’t understand the process or weren’t able to pay but it sounds like it is a one off that is driving most of that number.

Mayor Enriquez said you mentioned that you could continue to pursue collection with

a lot of these or some of them. Who does that, who is pursuing the collection?

Adolfo Cardenas said right now Utilities is the only department that has a collection team. However, Treasury, the Finance Department is already in discussion with them, with Utilities about using the services of their collection team so we have very high hopes that this will work and if we use the services of their team they can collect.

Mayor Enriquez said it was brought to my attention that item 7.3, there was maybe an error in the packet versus what was presented and I would like to see if we can bring that back up for discussion so we could get that clarified and then revote on that. We don’t need to vote.

Gaby Prats, Grants Manager said somehow the wrong presentation ended up on here. The actual grant that was received in FY26 for the Police Department was awarded by New Mexico State University for $5,000 and that was to support the department’s Youth Leadership Program which they carry out in June with partnership with NMSU.

Councilor Munoz asked do we need to then withdraw the previous motion and then revote on this with the correct information?

Christine Rivera, City Clerk said no actually you don’t because what you approved was the correct information you just weren’t presented the correct information. So, what you approved was in the packet correctly. Mayor Pro Tem John Munoz moved, seconded by City Councilor Becky Corran, to Approve Resolution No. 27-009.

8. BOARD APPOINTMENTS 8.1 None.

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 COUNCIL BILL NO. 27-001; ORDINANCE NO. 3117: AN ORDINANCE

AUTHORIZING THE ANNUAL DISPOSITION OF CITY OWNED LAND

PARCELS IN THE METRO VERDE ARCADIA PHASE 4 SUBDIVISION TO

TIERRA DEL SOL HOUSING CORPORATION AND MESILLA VALLEY

HABITAT FOR HUMANITY FOR AFFORDABLE HOUSING DEVELOPMENT.

Council agreed to bring it forward. 9.2 COUNCIL BILL NO. 27-002; ORDINANCE NO. 3118: AN ORDINANCE

APPROVING A ZONING MAP AMENDMENT FOR AN UNSUBDIVIDED

PARCEL WITHIN THE ROYAL CROSSING DEVELOPMENT. THE

PROPERTY IS LOCATED SOUTH OF MERCY DRIVE, ENCOMPASSES

APPROXIMATELY 22.08 ACRES, IS ZONED NH-2U (NEIGHBORHOOD 2

URBAN), NH-3U (NEIGHBORHOOD 3 URBAN), AND OS-1U (OPEN SPACE

RECREATIONAL URBAN). PROPOSED ZONING IS NH-1U (NEIGHBORHOOD 1 URBAN), NH-3U (NEIGHBORHOOD 3 URBAN), OS-1U (OPEN SPACE RECREATIONAL URBAN), AND OS-2U (OPEN SPACE

DRAINAGE URBAN). NO CHANGES TO THE TOWN CENTER OVERLAY.

SUBMITTED BY SOUDER MILLER AND ASSOCIATES ON BEHALF OF LC

LAND LLC., PROPERTY OWNER. (26ZO0500015) Council agreed to bring it forward. 9.3 COUNCIL BILL NO. 27-003; ORDINANCE NO. 3119: AN ORDINANCE

SUPPORTING INVESTMENT OF $50,000 IN AN ECONOMIC

DEVELOPMENT PROJECT IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CITY OF LAS

CRUCES LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PLAN, AUTHORIZING AN

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PROJECT PARTICIPATION AGREEMENT

BETWEEN THE CITY AND GYM MAGIC CHILD DEVELOPMENT CENTER,

LLC. Council agreed to bring it forward. 9.4 COUNCIL BILL NO. 27-004; ORDINANCE NO. 3120: AN ORDINANCE

REPEALING CHAPTER 2, ARTICLE IV, DIVISION 7. SELECT

COMMITTEES AND DIVISION 9. POLICY REVIEW COMMITTEE (PRC) OF

THE LAS CRUCES MUNICIPAL CODE IN THEIR ENTIRETY. Council agreed to bring it forward.

10. CITY COUNCIL MEMBER BOARD REPORTS AND COMMENT 10.1 COUNCILOR MCCLURE Hot off the presses we are having our first evening Work Session, September 14th.

One of the things is going to be the Youth Council. So, we are going to try to pepper it everywhere that you can find youths. Everywhere, we will figure it out. I trust that we can get that information out, but it is going to be September 14th at 6 p.m. Looking forward to having this place packed perhaps with pizzas as I suggested before because bringing food is half the community building to a large degree. Looking forward to that and hope we can get some people out to give us feedback especially young people in Las Cruces. 10.2 COUNCILOR HARRIS I just wanted to note that I do personally care quite a bit about traffic deaths and bicycle safety and pedestrian safety and driver safety. I just wanted to make that heard. I have been talking with Public Works and PD and Fire and a lot behind the scenes. I appreciate the advocacy from the community, and we are definitely trying to find some solutions. 10.3 COUNCILOR BENCOMO

I was originally only going to talk about one thing today but I would say a challenge by community members came up today that I think does feel important to talk about and address which is a traffic safety concerns and I think I understand why people would come here and say please show us that you care because it doesn’t feel like you know perhaps there is a level of urgency around some of the policy solutions or implementations. What I mean is that there is a lack of urgency around it and perhaps not there are conversations around it happening behind the scenes that we should continue to have not behind the scenes and I think continue to engage with advocates on this because this is a real important issue for I think most of us and I think the recent very tragic death that was very publicized and politicized for even I think the wrong reasons but really highlighted for me the level of the desire of community members for us to talk about these kinds of issues and often with this traffic safety issue often I feel like we are trying to legislate making our residents be kind to each other or aware of each other or just acknowledge each other’s existence as we move through the world which feels like an impossible thing to legislate but it is. I think traffic safety is not an impossible thing to legislate. I think even if bicyclists or pedestrians are making “risky decisions” they are doing so because there is a flaw in the design ultimately and today we heard it very bravely from someone who I am assuming the injury they had was because of their accident and you know folks have talked about things that could be preventable like better maintenance of our bike lanes. I think you know there are issues of inaccessibility of bike lanes. I think those things we can start to be more acutely aware of things like speeding, distracted driving, design. I even read an article recently that traffic pedestrian deaths are increasing because our cars are getting bigger and faster and so there are some things that are ultimately out of our control but there are some things that are not and for the ones that are sort of in the middle you know would like us to move things a little bit faster when it comes to one of those pieces. I also just want to make sure that community members know that

I often think about this and that I appreciate the challenge they pose to us when coming here to ask us about what else we are doing.

The other thing I wanted to talk about was a couple of weeks ago I attended the first meeting for the Affordable Housing Playbook for New Mexico Local Government

Leaders, and I believe Natalie Green sent out an invitation to the entire council and perhaps other staff to attend this. I think it is a 6 session series where the Department of Workforce Solutions has brought together some experts to talk about specifically the state of housing in New Mexico through many layers and really help educate New

Mexico leaders, people who are making decisions around housing and so perhaps maybe either still time to jump on to these conversations, reach out to Natalie but if not I think obviously the folks who are there you know can be there and for the folks who can’t I would like to at least point out some of the things after every session because I think it is information that everyone should know and hear about. Some of the key takeaways I had from this last meeting were around population growth.

Actually, Dona Ana County experienced the largest population growth in the state though in counties with the largest housing unit growth we were at number two with

5,022 units between 2020 and 2024. The total number that New Mexico is lacking in rental units is 34,000 and obviously growing as our state is seeing population increase. I am thinking it is all those El Paso people coming here because they are experiencing a population decline. Lower cost rental units remain more difficult to find than higher price rental units. The median household, the median home price from

2018 to 2024 in New Mexico overall jumped from 205,000 to 335,000 in Dona Ana

County alone from that same time period it went from 185,000 to 315,000. Again, that is the median home price. I just have to give really huge props to the Department of

Workforce Solutions for hosting this series and bringing on experts to talk about a ton of data, a ton of real work that is happening. This stuff that needs to happen and bringing community leaders from all over the state to talk about these conversations and I would urge you to try to jump on some of these if you can and if not hopefully, we can advocate for them to continue to have these series because it feels very very important at the current time we are in. 10.4 COUNCILOR CORRAN Yes, I second that, they are great sessions and I really appreciated being able to join.

I also want to talk a little bit about thinking about pedestrian and cyclist safety and road safety generally. I think the folks who have mentioned it already sort of have a sense of this and I guess the idea of legislating kindness is a recurring theme that after fireworks weekend and the torment of many of our neighbors who have pets or don’t appreciate neighborhood fireworks are really mad about that. I think about this idea of how to be a better neighbor and how to be a better human being and I feel like so much of what we are asked to do every day is intervene in those types of situations. Many people at every level of the city are asked to intervene in those types of situations. It is an interesting place, but when it comes to road safety at least we can make some difference, and I think about how we design roads moving forward.

Right, like we are making sure that we are thinking about pedestrian and cyclist safety as we do those things and I hope that we will continue to do that and thinking about enforcement while also thinking about addressing the existing roads that we have that are in various states of condition both in terms of the ways that we keep them clean and safe and how they were originally built needing a lot of help and that all ties into our bigger $300 million capital improvement budget that I think we are always having those conversations about. So, thank you George and Everyone Rides with Grace for coming out and bringing this and always keeping it in our forefront of our thinking so not just when there is a tragedy but also exceptionally when there is a tragedy like the one from last week.

So, other than that I would like to thank everyone who helped do our microchipping event which we had here at City Hall. The ASCMV folks did it and came and held dogs we only had a few incidents of liberation of dogs, very brief and they were contained but otherwise we got to hold a lot of very cute puppies, dogs, and give them microchips, the ASCMV did that. The County’s vet also Dr. McKenzie also joined because it is required by state law which hopefully we can change that a veterinarian be observing every single chip that happens so surprise it is more complicated than we initially had thought and it is in every other state that I would make note of and every other state they are just giving out the microchips under the light supervision of a vet but here we have to have a veterinarian on premises. So, thanks to Dr.

McKenzie who came out and joined us. Also Animal Control came and had little giveaways. They also were educating folks about what to do when your pet gets lost so and then Catrina from the City Manager’s Office and Facilities folks and security who were also here to help that event go off without a hitch so thank you to that team effort. It was our first time so I hope that we can do it again in the future. We learned a lot so thanks to everyone who participated in that.

10.5 COUNCILOR MUNOZ I am appreciative to the councilors and city staff who are supporting the evening session, and I hope that we have public comments to be able to hear from residents who may not be able to attend these day sessions because they are working. I especially want to thank the staff because I know after a long day you are here early and you will be with us late night. I will bring my espresso machine and we can hang out. We will have a good discussion and a good listening session I think and eventually I think as these work out it would be nice to have them more frequently and we can test them out as a pilot and also look at holding them at different locations.

Again, more futuristically speaking but very excited about that. We talked about utility write offs. Just a reminder that landlords and property owners should look at having their cooling units already fired up already. It is very hot and we are expecting another couple of months of very hot weather, so it is important that we keep people safe indoors as well.

We talked about the unfortunate loss of life. I feel for the victim’s family and friends.

One thing I would say in addition to what has been said by my colleagues is that maybe we don’t wait until we have a tragedy like this or an accident like this. Maybe we can’t fix everything all at once, perhaps there are certain sections and certain pieces that we could fix now or we could address now that would make, help keep our residents safer. So, I would encourage the city staff or City Manager and Assistant

City Managers to look at this and help us look for solutions as to what we can do sooner rather than later.

Also very happy, Mayor and I spent some time and had a chance to spend some time with Barbara Hubbard who recently celebrated I believe her 98th/99th birthday, somewhere around there, after 90 we stop counting and the groundbreaking of the amphitheater at the fairgrounds. That is very exciting for our community and our shared spaces, economic development and education. So many good things that will come with that.

The final piece I would say is happy anniversary to these United States. I know it has been called the greatest experiment in world history. We are an imperfect union.

Always trying to get better. I don’t think it is unpatriotic to always look at ways we can do better and do differently. I do think that discussion is important in respect of different opinions is also important and I love the example that Derrick shared and our

Police Chief, Chief Story actually sat at the same table and had a good adult discussion and I think discussions like that in forums like that are important and we listen to each other. There might be some areas where we have consensus, and others we just understand that we think differently and view things differently, but I think that is very helpful and if we are to progress as a community in a society, we should listen to each other. 10.6 MAYOR ENRIQUEZ Also looking forward to the evening council. We will try it out. We will have them more often if they are successful. The challenge always on other locations is the live streaming. That is a big challenge that we have going off site. With the traffic safety we do have a Work Session coming and it is something that we talked about for traffic

calming and it will also include automated enforcement. That will be the presentation at an upcoming Work Session that we are also talk about safety. Barbara Hubbard will turn 99, July 12th and she is a legend in our community. Anyone that has been here and seen all of the superstars that she brought to the Pan American Center and she still has the energy and the drive to continue. She mentioned she has three major shows still coming up this year. Her words to me were hang on for the ride because we are going to keep moving forward. It is an inspiration to have somebody at that age still moving forward.

I just want to say thank you to the city and thank you for the county, and NMSU all partnering together for our Fourth of July celebration, the electric parade, and the event at NMSU was well attended. Spectacular fireworks display, a great turnout for the parade so a special thank you for the Parks & Rec, Police, Fire, Visit Las Cruces and everyone else that joined in on that. It was a great event and a great time and well attended.

11. CITY MANAGER REPORT 11.1 DAVID SEDILLO, ASSISTANT CITY MANAGER As the Mayor said, special thanks to a lot of folks for the Fourth of July festivities that happened over the weekend. There were a lot of people in the background that made this happen for our community. Like the Mayor said very well attended. Very uneventful with any issues so great event for our community. I just wanted to share some of the float results for the parade. Best overall went to Hernandez Heating,

Cooling and Plumbing, for commercial floats the top three, number one again,

Hernandez Heating, Cooling and Plumbing, coming in at number two, El Paso

Electric, and number three, Vado Speedway. For our non-commercial float the top three for number one Francie Emmelade, number two Welcome Home Veterans, and three was Todd Garrison for Sherrif. There were over 200 vehicles in the parade and that was between floats and car clubs. So again, thank you very very much to all of those who attended and participated.

The next item I just want to highlight and recognize one of our own. You may have already seen this go through in a posting, but I wanted to make sure that the public was aware as well. I am happy to share that theGovernment Finance Officers

Association, GFOA, selected our Finance Director Lesley Doyle as one of their 2026 recipients of the recognition for Outstanding Public Service and I will read a little bit of the nomination. Lesley came to the role after a career shift moving from a school district into municipal government and she has met that challenge in front with confidence in her first year. Her approach has been defined by open communication and proactive problem-solving qualities that have helped strengthen relationships across the organization. She also worked to create a positive environment within her own department. One where employees feel valued and supported. So, if you do happen to see Lesley Doyle, please congratulate her.

Councilor Corran said I think city councilors might be the bane of most staff’s existence generously if I can say. Sometimes not but a lot of the time we are and so I know Ipersonally have harangued Lesley in an extremely kind and gentle way. When I was being dumb as a box of rocks she somehow got me from a box of rocks to

understanding really complicated things related to the budget that I don’t know that city council necessarily comes to this but I think we are all perhaps maybe not a little box of rocksie up here but she really has personally I am deeply grateful for the work that she has done in terms of talking me through things and really supporting my deeper understanding of how finance works and everything and so I just want to give a shoutout and in acknowledgement that Lesley really does walk the walk and invest in us understanding what is going on and I just wanted to elevate that appreciation very much.

12. ADJOURNMENT 12.1 City Councilor Michael Harris moved, seconded by Mayor Pro Tem John Munoz, to adjourn at 2:52 p.m.

MOVER: City Councilor Michael Harris

Mayor

City Clerk