The Las Cruces City Council held a work session on Monday, April 13, 2026, at approximately 1:00 PM, chaired by Mayor Eric Enriquez. The meeting included a closed session statement, a presentation from the Municipal Court, a FY26-27 budget review and public hearing, a Capital Improvement Program (CIP) review, and a discussion on natural gas infrastructure. Council also heard public comment on the budget and natural gas items.
Your life. Good afternoon. Welcome to our city council work session. Today is Monday, April 13th, 2026. It's approximately one PM. I'm Mayor Eric Enriquez. We will start with a moment of silence for the brave men and women of the United States Armed Forces. We will start with a moment of silence for the brave men and women of the United States Armed Forces and also for our Las Cruces Police and Las Cruces Fire Department that keep our city safe 24-735. If you please join me in the pledge. Under government. First thing on the agenda is to read the closed meeting statement. The City of Las Cruces Council met in closed session today, April 13th, 2026. A meeting started at 1004 a.m. The following were attendance. Mayor Enriquez, Mayor Pro Tem Munoz, Councillor Bencomo, Councilor Corran, Councillor Harris, City Manager, Iconing Hamopayao, City Attorney Brad Douglas, Henry Becker, Christine Rivetta, our city clerk, Kyle Adren, Joe Richards, Jose Vargas from HR, police lieutenant Cody Austin, Housing Natalie Green. From Parks and Red, Catherine Harris Rogers from Public Works, Jimmy Moreno from Land Management, Bill Hamm, Economic Development, Elizabeth Teters, Jan Larnbuck from Housing as well, from Parks and Rec, Steve Binghaman, and Assistant City Manager David Cedillo. Outside counsel, Chris DeFilippo. We met and we had these items, the discussion bargaining strategy preliminary for the collective bargaining negotiations between the policy making body and the bargaining unit, which is closed pursuant to New Mexico State Satute 1978 section 1015-1H5. We also discuss pending litigation regarding Brandon Barron versus the City of Las Cruces, which is closed pursuant to NMSA 1978 section 1015-1H7. We also discuss items brought by housing, parks and recreation, and public works for the per purchase, acquisition, or disposal of real property or water rights by the public body, which is closed pursuant to NMSA 1978, Section 1015-1H8. We also discuss the pending or threatening litigation regarding 828 Productions, LLC versus City of Las Cruces. Also closed pursuant to NMSA 1978 section 10-15-1H7. We also discussed the City of Las Cruces versus Alameda Land Investment Corporation, which is closed pursuant to NMSA 1978 10-15-1H7. The meeting adjourned at 12 p.m. So now we can begin with the work session. Honorable members of the City Council, Anthony Felosa Municipal Court, Judge One for the Las Cruces Municipal Court. Thank you for the invite to be here. So I appreciate the opportunity to present to council regarding those issues. Excuse me. We're a court of limited jurisdiction in New Mexico. What that means is we could only hear certain types of cases in the municipal in the Las Cruz Municipal Courts. We're limited in that we only hear alleged violations of the Las Cruces Municipal Code. We're governed by the rules. I'm sorry, I didn't uh rules of the New Mexico Supreme Court, uh Rule Set 8, which is the Municipal Court Rules of Procedure. Uh Municipal Court's not a court of record. None of the proceedings are audio recorded. We don't handle jury trials, they're all uh bench trials in all cases. Um, if requested can be appealed to the third judicial district court uh de novo, which means all over again, someone's entitled to a new trial in front of a district court judge. Uh for the most part, we uh handle these types of cases, petty misdemeanors, DWI's traffic, animal control, and codes. Um petty misdemeanors are are uh primarily housed within chapter 19 of the municipal code. Um those are batteries, assaults, resisting, evading, or obstructing an officer, shoplifting, criminal trespass, larceny, harassment, criminal damage to property, all petty misdemeanors uh under your municipal code. Uh we also uh have jurisdiction per uh ordnance to handle uh DWI offenses first, second, and third offenses. Um the petty misdemeanors carry a maximum sentence of up to 90 days of jail and and up to a 500 fine. The DWIs are the only exception to that on second and third offenses, they carry a maximum uh exposure of 179 days in jail. Traffic, uh we handle traffic, those are contained within your municipal code, chapter 27, uh, animal uh control cases, uh, chapter 7, the the updated animal ordinance that you all recently passed, those are our cases that we hear, and we also hear codes cases. Um that's just a little overview of the municipal court. Wanted to touch on the move to City Hall for court operations uh from June 2025 to March of 2026. Um, as you all are aware, we we uh operated or we had substantial issues with the HVAC system, some other issues at the municipal court uh building, and we uh in conjunction with conversations with city management, the decision was made to move um to City Hall, and we did that uh we were here from approximately middle to late June uh to March of 20 uh 26. We just moved back last month. We uh operated several places within City Hall.