← All checked meetingsRedline · January 13, 2025
Las Cruces Council Special Meeting - January 13, 2025
The city’s minutes for this meeting were compared, sentence by sentence, against the transcript of the recording. Of 69 statements the minutes attribute to a named person, 69 were found in the recording.
Tracks the recording closely. The comparison is mechanical and has no opinion about why two documents differ. A gap can be honest summarising; a mismatch can be the caption software mishearing. Both texts are shown so you can decide, and the correction form at the bottom is there for when the machine is wrong.
Watch the recording · Read the minutes as text · The city’s original PDF · checked 8/14/2026
Bencomo: figure differs from the recording: minutes say 2020, recording says 20120
Says something differentBoth records carry the same sentence, but they disagree on a number or on whether it was negative. Both records carry the same sentence, but not the same number. The minutes read “…so in 2020 the last time council hired…” and state 2020; the recording states 20120.
What the minutes say
Councilor Bencomo said so in 2020, the last time council hired a City Manager, I came in when the consultants, the decision had already been made by the previous council to do a national external search. That council I remember had decided to wait till the new year started given that there had just been a recent election and they wanted the two new councilors then to be part of that final decision given that this is our only employee and I guess this is an assumption of course that I am making but I assume that every council when faced with the decision to hire their only employee gets to decide how they want to go about it. Obviously the mistake we made and I feel like this whole thing is taking responsibility for whoever said that we weren’t taking responsibility, this whole thing is taking responsibility that we made a mistake and so I think every council when faced with a decision to hire a new City Manager has to decide that for themselves as to how they want to go about it and I also want to note that in the name of transparency which everyone is here for to make sure that we are very clear about misinformation. I pulled it up. There is one news source on March
What the recording says
um just to that point I think I so in 20120 the last time uh Council hired a city manager I came in when the Consultants the decision had already been made by the previous Council to do a national external search um that Council I remember had to decided to wait till the new year started given that there had just been a recent election and they wanted the two new councilors then to be part of that final decision given that this is our only employee um and so I don't I I guess this is an assumption of course that I'm making but I assume that every Council when faced with a decision to hire their only employee gets to decide how they want to go about it obvious viously the mistake we made and
“settlement” is said 1× on the recording and never appears in the minutes
Word never written downA word with legal, financial or health weight was said aloud and never written down. A word that carries legal, financial or health weight was spoken during the meeting but is absent from the written record of it.
What the minutes say
Nothing — this passage is absent from the minutes.
What the recording says
the case uh and I might be going too far in the weeds but the Weinstein case is the case that basically stated that uh settlement agreements can be approved and decided in closed meetings uh but the court went a step further and and let governing bodies know what to do basically if there
~390 words of the recording have no counterpart in the minutes
Missing from the minutesThis part of the meeting left no trace in the written record. This stretch of the meeting is not reflected anywhere in the written record. Some gaps are legitimate — recesses, or a presentation summarised in one line. Others are discussion that simply did not make it in. It contains: “deportation”.
What the minutes say
Nothing — this passage is absent from the minutes.
What the recording says
uh this body approved in an open meeting an employment contract with E con tomoo to serve as its next city manager uh prior to that uh there were executive sessions or closed meetings as we sometimes call them with regard to the hiring process for the city manager position uh taking place honor about March 18th and March 20th uh respectively uh during those closed meetings uh what occurred was this body decided to limit the scope of uh its search for a city manager to internal
~520 words of the recording have no counterpart in the minutes
Missing from the minutesThis part of the meeting left no trace in the written record. This stretch of the meeting is not reflected anywhere in the written record. Some gaps are legitimate — recesses, or a presentation summarised in one line. Others are discussion that simply did not make it in. It contains: “settlement”, “violation”, “investigation”, “deportation”, “closed session”.
What the minutes say
Nothing — this passage is absent from the minutes.
What the recording says
city of Las crus has violated the open meetings Act the AG's office made what I consider to be three major findings and then one additional finding um the first finding uh was that the city of Las crus has failed to decide the scope of its search in an open meeting and that it appears to have engaged in a rolling Quorum uh the next finding was that the March 18th 2024 closed session to narrow the candidate field violated om and that it's the AG's opinion that
“Patty Hartman Um” introduces themselves on the recording and is not named in the minutes
Speaker not namedSomeone gave their name on the recording and is nowhere in the minutes. Someone identified themselves by name during the meeting — usually a member of the public taking the microphone — but that name appears nowhere in the written record. Caption spellings of names are unreliable, so confirm against the recording before relying on this.
What the minutes say
Nothing — this passage is absent from the minutes.
What the recording says
um I just ask that you vote no for this resolution thank you very much good morning my name is Patty Hartman um I didn't have anything planned because this 9:00 meeting kind of surprised me I don't know why it's called a special meeting or why it was moved since it was going to be on today's city
~260 words of the recording have no counterpart in the minutes
Missing from the minutesThis part of the meeting left no trace in the written record. This stretch of the meeting is not reflected anywhere in the written record. Some gaps are legitimate — recesses, or a presentation summarised in one line. Others are discussion that simply did not make it in. It contains: “contamination”, “condemnation”, “deportation”.
What the minutes say
Nothing — this passage is absent from the minutes.
What the recording says
his compensation package we need to know why you think that this person is deserving of this thank you is there anyone else wishing to come up okay right thank you mayor so with that said Council options with regard to this resolution uh would be vote Yes this would improve the selection of internal candidates only um vote no this will not approve the selection of internal candidates uh vote to amend this would obviously require further discussion from the Das and typically we have a vote to table
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