The City Council convened for its 34th meeting of the 26th Council on Monday, June 16, 2025, at 5:00 PM in the Vincent E. Griego Chambers. All nine councilors were present. The meeting included presentations, a consent agenda, financial instruments, public comments, appointments, and line-item veto overrides. The meeting adjourned at 9:27 PM.
Note: The meeting minutes and transcript are consistent on all votes and key decisions. No discrepancies were identified.
Good evening, everyone. DC. It is June 16th, 2025. This 34th meeting of the 26th Council will come to order. All counselors will be present this evening. A couple counselors are running late due to some traffic issues. We're going to start this evening by a moment of silence, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance in English and in Spanish. Civic Plaza parking passes are provided for members of the public. You can obtain your parking pass from council staff at a table near the chamber's entrance. Members of the public, city staff, and the media have the ability to view this meeting in person and on live streams through four different platforms GovTV on Comcast Channel 16, the Gov TV website, YouTube, and Zoom webinar. The live streams can be accessed from most smartphones, tablets, or computers. Also, this meeting is closed captioned, and you may enable you may enable the closed captioning services on your device or television at this time. The video recording of this and all past council meetings will remain available for viewing at any time on the city council's website. Council staff is available via telephone if members of the public need assistance finding the videos online. Please call 505 768 3100 for assistance during business hours Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The council will take a break at approximately 7 p.m. this evening if needed. With regard to decorum in the chambers, we want tonight's proceedings to be as civil and respectful as possible. Please do not make any personal attacks and please no applause, snapping, or other outbursts during the meeting. This meeting will go a lot smoother if we all respect one another. We're going to begin tonight with proclamations and presentations. We do not have any proclamations this evening, but we will begin with a presentation from Dr. Shell Sanchez, Director of Arts and Culture, who will provide a quarterly update on the Route 66th Centennial. Good evening, Director. Good evening, thank you, Counselor. All right. Okay, super. Okay, three minutes, three slides. Let's see. Here we go. Route 66 Centennial, just in case nobody's been paying attention. It's six months away. Starts uh 2026. Um so right now our department is focused on what we're calling an art fueled road trip. This is 20 stops along Route 66, starting um singing arrow open space all the way to the very top of 9 Mile Hill. That includes the visitor center, the Route 66 Visitor Center, but the last stop is just beyond that at the very top of the hill. Um we can't fit everything actually on two slides, but just to give you a sense of this. This is um 18 miles, the first nine miles or so on the east side of town. And um, we're gonna make a link available for everyone. But you see that we're really trying to focus on having things all along the route. So the Google map has our augmented reality stops, those are yellow, the revamped signs that we've invested in, those are purple. Um, mural installations and artworks that are new, those are blue, and then the green is infrastructure and capital. Um, so we've uh this map is not actually, some of it's cut off on this particular uh oops. Sorry. Where are we going? There we go. Um, some of it is cut off, but as you can see, it kind of goes all the way along. Um I will just read you some of the stops. So augmented reality, we've got at Singing Arrow Community Center, Tallin Market, the Guild Cinema, 66 Diners, Special Collections Library, Fourth and Central Intersection, the ABQ Biopark Botanic Garden, Route 66 Visit Visitor Center, and then the very top of Nine Mile Hill at West Central.